Category Archives: Gluten Free

Salmon with Dill Cream

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One of our weekly staples is baked salmon as the kids still like and eat it (yay! :)). Salmon and dill are a Scandinavian specialty (think Lox and dill), and the flavors work very well together. Here’s a quick and easy salmon dressing!

Blog dill cream salmon

Ingredients

  • 1/4-1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
  • 2-3 Tbsp Fresh lemon juice or till you reach desired consistency
  • 1-2 lb slab of salmon

Directions

  • Whisk together dressing ingredients
  • Lather on slab of salmon
  • Bake for 25-28 minutes
  • Garnish with fresh dill and lemon wedges

dit-elle-Esther

Yellow Squash Guacamole // Paleo // Whole30

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My father in law has a big garden.  I loooove that we get to go over for a visit, and then he sends us home with a bag fool of yummy home grown veggies!!  I’ll be honest.  I made this and took these pictures a month ago, and am just getting around to blogging the recipe-whoops!  Hopefully, you can still get your hands on some kind of squash that is ok to eat raw, because this was amazing and a great way to sneak in some veggies/aka totally healthy!Blog Paleo Squash Guacomole-1 Blog Paleo Squash Guacomole-2 Ingredients

You can totally play with these measurements of ingredients.  I honestly don’t even remember how much of what I used-sorry!!  I sometimes just throw a bunch of ingredients in the Cuisinart, hope for the best, and then add a little more of this or that as needed.  This time it worked! 🙂

  • One medium to large yellow squash
  • 2 Avocados
  • 10 Cherry tomatoes
  • 2 Baby onions, or about 1/3 cup diced
  • 1/4 Teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 4-5 fresh basil leaves (you could use the typical cilantro as well, but I love my Trader Joe’s $2.99 Basil plant!  Mainly, because it’s still ALIVE! haha :))
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Juice from half of a lime (not necessary, but an added bonus)

Directions

  • Cut off the ends of the yellow squash, cut into 1 inch slices and toss in the Cuisinart.  I keep the skin on…
  • Throw everything else in there and pulse a few times.  The squash is the main thing that needs to be shredded first, everything else pulses up pretty quickly.
  • Serve on top of any kind of grilled fish/meat, with chips, pitas, sweet potato or plantain chips.  Really, you can do whatever you want with this!

Tips

This is best served right away.  The liquid from the squash tends to leak out the longer it sits, which might not be so appealing to some if you make it too much ahead of time 🙂  I still ate leftovers the next day, but I really hate seeing food go to waste, and it still tasted yummy!  You could probably use a lot of different veggies in this.  Carrots, zucchini, eggplant (?? Not a big fan, but to each his own :)).  The main goal is to slip some extra vitamin enriched goodness into something that everyone loves-guacamole!dit-elle-Lauren

Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Frosting // Paleo

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I love making pumpkin desserts for Maya’s birthday.  I mean, it’s October, so…duh?  🙂  I have tried something new every year, and this year was no different.  These are in truth a muffin, but I call them muffin cakes to make Maya happy 😉Blog Paleo Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes with Paleo Pumpkin Frosting-1

I adapted the Grain Free Coconut Flour Pumpkin Muffins from leelaLicious, (basically I used some dates to sweeten it and omitted the nuts) and then added an adapted version of Paleo Fondue’s Pumpkin Pie Frosting.  I didn’t have Arrowroot starch nor did I want to use sugar, so I added some dates and Pure Maple Syrup thinking that would thicken/sweeten it up.  Plus, it was what I used to sweeten the muffins, so I thought it would meld well for the recipe as a whole 🙂  The only reason I didn’t use her recipe for the muffins is that I didn’t have some of the ingredients haha.  Do you ever do that?  Google a recipe and insert what ingredients you actually have?  Maybe that’s just me being lazy and not wanting to go to the store.  But really, running to the store for one or two things is RARELY an option with a toddler.  You deal with what you have! 🙂  And that is how I found leelaLicious.  She made a muffin with almost exactly what I had on hand, and it looked delicious-WIN!

I actually made these as mini muffin cakes for Maya’s birthday celebration at preschool.  They were such a hit at home with the teenage boys, that I decided to make them as their full size version for Maya’s actual birthday.  Anyway, enough dialogue… Here’s a few pictures of the finished product 🙂Blog Paleo Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes with Paleo Pumpkin Frosting-2 Blog Paleo Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes with Paleo Pumpkin Frosting-3 Blog Paleo Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes with Paleo Pumpkin Frosting-4

Ingredients for Muffins (Makes 12)

  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • Could also use pumpkin pie spice instead of all the above 🙂
  • pinch of salt
  • 4 eggs (room temperature)
  • 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons Organic Pure Maple Syrup
  • 4 Medjul Dates

Directions for Muffins

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease or line a muffin pan.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together coconut flour, baking powder and soda and spices. In a large bowl whisk together remaining (wet) ingredients
  3. Add the flour mix to the wet mixture and stir until all lumps are gone.
  4. (Time Saving Tip) I actually just dumped everything into a food processor and that worked too 😉  The batter will be pretty thick-almost like a cookie dough.  Don’t think it should be like your typical muffin batter.
  5. Pour batter into muffin pan and bake for 23 – 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Ingredients for Frosting

  • 1 cup Coconut Oil (I didn’t have liquid coconut oil as the original recipe called for, but as long as your pumpkin puree is room temperature it worked!  I attempted to melt the coconut oil on my first try and then my cold pumpkin puree made it all clumpy.  Redid it with room temp pumpkin and voila!)
  • 4 Medjul Dates
  • 1½ cup of Pumpkin Puree
  • 4 Tablespoons Pure Organic Maple Syrup
  • ½ teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
  • ¼ teaspoon of Cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon of Nutmeg
  • Pinch of Salt

Directions for Frosting

  • Make sure everything is room temperature.  If your pumpkin puree is cold it will make the coconut oil hard and clumpy.
  • Dump everything into a food processor and blend until creamy and smooth.
  • Scoop into pastry bag or you can use a ziploc bag with the tip cut off.  Squeeze onto muffins.  The frosting is a little liquidy.  Either eat them right away or refrigerate to harden it up.  Both times that I made these, I made them the day before and refrigerated them over night.  The frosting gets pretty solid, but if you let them sit out for an hour they are perfect!

ENJOY!dit-elle-Lauren

Tiramisu

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A few days ago, I posted a Paleo Lady Finger Cookies recipe for this fabulous Tiramisu! Light crunchy Lady Finger cookies are soaked in coffee and rum and then layered with whipped cream, rich golden custard, and dusted with cocoa powder. Yum! There are a few steps involved here, but they are pretty straight forward. It’s worth it! And this dessert refrigerates well so you can enjoy it for breakfast and (lunch and..) dessert for several days! 🙂

Blog tiramisu (1)

blog tiramisu (2)

Ingredients

  • 6 egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pound mascarpone cheese
  • 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons rum
  • 2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfinger cookies (or see my Paleo Lady Finger recipe here)
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

  1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.
  3. In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise and drizzle with coffee mixture.
  4. Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a 7×11 inch dish. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set.

blog tiramisu (3)

Thanks Allrecipes.com for the tips!

 

dit-elle-Esther

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Does anything say comfort food like Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (or Raisin) Cookies? It’s fall, the days are cooler, and warm cookies make the house smell amazing, not to mention tummies feeling happy! Here’s a classic recipe for this staple cookie! 🙂 Not paleo – but yes, I included the gluten free option below.

Blog classic oatmeal cookies (2) Blog classic oatmeal cookies (1)

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour), or 1 cup almond meal)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • dash of salt
  • 3 cups rolled oats
  • 1/2-1 cup raisins or chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, broken up in pieces (optional)

Directions

  • Cream butter and sugar
  • Beat in eggs and vanilla
  • Add coconut flour/baking soda/cinnamon/salt and mix well
  • Then add oats and raisins or chocolate chips
  • Place spoonfuls of batter on baking sheet
  • Bake @ 350 for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown

Super Mom Tip: a fun cooking project for tots – they can measure and help mix! 🙂 Also these cookies freeze really well in a sealed bag or container.. if you can part with them! (Oh and they are excellent to eat frozen!)

dit-elle-Esther

Rice Crispy Treats

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Happy Friday! My Great Grandmother used to make us Rice Crispy Treats every summer when we visited her. She cut them in perfect squares, wrapped them in wax paper, and placed them in small white boxes for us. And what a treat it was – to open a box and find these gooey, chewy, yummy, delicious, sweet – rice crispy treats! This is the classic recipe (from the back of the Marshmallow bag). These are extremely easy to make, and extremely easy to eat – beware! 🙂 (I might or might not have eaten these for breakfast this week!)

Blog classic rice crispy treats

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 40 marshmallows
  • 6 cups Rice Crispies

Directions

  • Melt butter in large microwave safe bowl
  • Toss butter with marshmallows to coat, and put back in microwave for another ~1 minute or until melted
  • Mix well and add Rice Crispies immediately
  • Pat into large dish (8×11 or 8×13) and let cool
  • Cut into squares and store in an airtight container with wax paper to separate the pieces

Super Mom Tip: Even though this recipe requires dealing with very hot liquid marshmallow and butter – there are definitely some steps that your tots can help with. Ava helped me by counting marshmallows and sampling some 🙂 and by pouring in the rice cereal.

dit-elle-Esther

 

Bouillabaisse

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We were in lovely Walla Walla this summer and thanks to the Grandparents, Adam and I got a rare night out while on a trip! We had dinner at Brasserie Four, a fabulous little French restaurant on main street.. Everything on the menu looked excellent and everything we sampled was excellent! I had Bouillabaisse for dinner – fresh seafood in golden saffron, orange, fennel and wine broth – amazing! After some searching and testing I found a recipe from Steamy Kitchen that was a close match. And here it is! Enjoy! 🙂

Blog bouillabaisse (1) Blog bouillabaisse (2)

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 leek, white part only, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • peel of 1 orange, orange part only (use vegetable peeler)
  • 3 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/3 cup chopped fennel fronds
  • fresh herbs (in any combination): thyme, parsley, oregano (I used 1 tsp each of dry herbs, as I did not have fresh ones at hand)
  • 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
  • 3-4 pounds of fish trimmings (heads, bones, tail), shrimp shells (I skipped this as did not have – worked out fine, but the broth was probably less ‘seafoody’ than it could have been)
  • 10 cups water
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • sea salt to taste
  • 3 pounds of assorted fish and shellfish (clams and mussels should be scrubbed clean)

Directions

  • In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil on medium heat. When hot, add in the leek, onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes until softened but not brown.
  • Add in the orange peel, tomatoes, fennel, fresh herbs, saffron, fish trimmings, water, wine, salt turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Then turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the soup into another large pot.
  • Bring the strained soup to a boil over medium high heat. Taste and adjust with additional salt if needed. The soup should be slightly salty (remember we still have unseasoned seafood to add into the soup). Now we’ll cook the seafood, adding in the items that require the most cooking time first. If you have whole lobster tails or large crab claws, add them in first and give them a 2-minute head start. Clams next, then the mussels and extra-large shrimp, lastly the fish, scallops and any smaller shrimp. You want to be careful not to overcook the seafood, so 4-5 minutes max then turn off the heat.
  • Ladle bouillabaisse into each bowl with the seafood and garnish with fresh fennel fronds.

Thanks Steamy Kitchen!

dit-elle-Esther

Papusas

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My sister was in Peru recently and brought back this fabulous recipe – Salvadoran Papusas. So easy, so fun! Basically mix finely ground corn meal (called masa harina or masa de maiz) with water, add whatever toppings/stuffings you want (like cheese, herbs, cooked meat, veggies) and fry in a dry pan (no oil). I topped with Cilantro Lime Crema and these were delicious!

Blog papusas (2) Blog papusas (1)

Ingredients

  • Finely ground corn meal
  • Water
  • Toppings/stuffings: cheese, spices, veggies, cooked meat. I did these simply with some cheddar jalapeno cheese.

Directions

  • Put corn meal in a bowl and add water stirring until a soft dough forms
  • Shape and stuff with toppings
  • Fry 1-2 minutes per side or until golden

More info on these delightful papusas or ‘stuffed pockets’ http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/pupusas-recipe or on Wikipedia.

Super Mom Tip: fun recipe for kids to help make. Have them do the stirring and shaping and you do the cooking! 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

40 Clove Garlic Lemon Chicken // Paleo and Whole30

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I’ve seen this recipe in various forms, and have been so intrigued by all the garlic!  40 cloves sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t!  I might add more next time I make it.  When it bakes, it gets golden on the outside and buttery smooth on the inside.  It’s not overpowering at all and so delicious!!  I added some onion and lemon to give it a little more flavor, and I think next time I will throw in some grape tomatoes!Blog Paleo Whole30 40 Clove Garlic Lemon Chicken-1Ingredients

  • 4 chicken breasts  (I used boneless and skinless, although you could use bone in!)
  • 40 garlic cloves, peeled (I bought pre-peeled cloves from Costco, and yes, I counted them :))
  • One large yellow onion cut into 1 inch pieces.
  • 2 lemons cut into 1/4 inch slices and quartered.
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste (I did about 20 grinds for the pepper and 10 for the sea salt)
  • Garnish with fresh basil (mainly because I have a basil plant that I’ve managed to keep alive! :))

 

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Put chicken breasts, garlic, and lemons in a big bowl.  Pour olive oil over the entire mixture, salt and pepper to taste and toss until everything is evenly coated.
  • Pour into 9×13 pan and cover pan with aluminum foil.
  • Bake for covered for 30 minutes.
  • Uncover and cook for 15 minutes uncovered or until chicken is cooked all the way through.
    (I used really large chicken breasts and did them for an extra 10 minutes.)
  • I served it over quinoa, but it would be fine all by itself with a salad or with some crusty artisan bread that you could smear the garlic on YUM!!!  (Not Paleo or Whole 30 if you do this :))
  • Blog Paleo Whole30 40 Clove Garlic Lemon Chicken-2 Blog Paleo Whole30 40 Clove Garlic Lemon Chicken-3 Blog Paleo Whole30 40 Clove Garlic Lemon Chicken-4Enjoy!!dit-elle-Lauren

Grilled Chicken, Onions, and Peaches with Avocado Tomato Salsa // Paleo and Whole30

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I love when one ingredient is the basis for a meal.  In this case it was some peaches that I bought that weren’t quite ripe, but I was itching to eat them.  So…I BBQ’d them!  I swear everything tastes better when you put it on the grill!  Although, I may still be still flushed with my new found grilling ability 🙂Blog Paleo Whole30 BBQ Chicken Onions Peaches with Avocado Tomato Salsa-1 Blog Paleo Whole30 BBQ Chicken Onions Peaches with Avocado Tomato Salsa-2 Blog Paleo Whole30 BBQ Chicken Onions Peaches with Avocado Tomato Salsa-3Ingredients (to serve 4)

  • 2 peaches (I used ones that were almost ripe, but still a little on the firm side)
  • 4 boneless chicken breasts
  • 1 large sweet onion
  • 1 avocado
  • 10 cherry tomatos
  • 3 large leaves of basil
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil (amount not measured, but will describe in instructions :))
  • Sea Salt and Pepper

Directions

  • Light your grill and set it to a medium heat.
  • Cut your onion into 1/2 inch slices
  • Season the chicken breasts and onion with olive oil, sea salt and pepper.
  • Set both on the grill for 8-10 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken breasts)
  • Cut peaches in half and lightly coat with olive oil and a little bit of sea salt.
  • At the 8-10 minute mark, flip both the chicken and onion and add the peaches to the grill.
  • Cook everything for another 8-10 minutes until chicken cooked all the way through.
  • During the cooking, cut avocado and tomatoes into 1/2 inch squares.  Dice up the basil and toss all together in a bowl.
  • Layer everything together and ENJOY!!! 🙂dit-elle-Lauren