Tag Archives: Apples

Kale Waldorf Salad

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This is a fantastic kale salad! You can make it in a few minutes with the right tools – I use a food processor and run the veggies through the slicer blade. And yes – you eat the kale raw and it is delicious! 🙂

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Salad ingredients

  • 1 large bunch curly green kale, rinsed
  • 1-2 apples
  • 2-3 stalks celery
  • 1/2 cup nuts or pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup raisins, dried appricots, figs, dates or cranberries, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup red grapes, halved (or whole, to save time!)

Dressing

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • Juice from a small lemon
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • Salt/pepper to taste

Directions

  • Run the kale, apples and celery through the food processor on the slicer blade
  • Toss with nuts or seeds, raisins or grapes
  • Mix the dressing ingredients and toss with salad
  • Keeps very well covered in refrigerator for several days

Excellent with poached or fried eggs – paleo breakfast for champions!

dit-elle-Esther

Paleo Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake

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This is a variation of the Paleo Cinnamon Coffee Cake I posted a few weeks ago! I added some almond essence and sliced apples to make this Paleo Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake!

Blog paleo cinnamon apple cake-1

Ingredients

Cake

  • 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
  • ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • ½ cup honey or maple syrup
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp almond essence (optional)
  • 2 apples, thinly sliced (I prefer a tart apple like Granny Smith which is also great for baking)

Topping

  • ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
  • ¼ cup coconut sugar (or maple syrup also works great)
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • ½ cup sliced almonds (optional)
  • To make topping, combine coconut oil, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and sliced almonds in a bowl

Directions

  1. Grease a 9-inch round baking dish with coconut oil and dust with almond flour
  2. In a food processor, combine almond flour, salt, and baking soda
  3. Pulse in coconut oil, honey, eggs and almond essence
  4. Spread the batter into prepared baking dish
  5. Place sliced apples into the batter
  6. Brush topping over cake batter
  7. Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes
  8. Cool and serve

dit-elle-Esther

Baked Apples with Vanilla Sauce

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Totally delicious melding of flavors: the tartness of baked apples, cinnamon, raisins and toasted almonds.. topped with a sweet and creamy vanilla sauce.. It’s a classic Scandinavian dessert. Comfort food for winter is what I call it! 🙂

Blog baked apples vanilla cream (3) Blog baked apples vanilla cream (2) Blog baked apples vanilla cream (1)

Baked apples

  • 4 apples (Granny Smith work great) – cored
  • 1/3 cup roughly chopped almonds
  • 1/3 cup raisins or dried currants
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • water

Directions

  • Core your apples carefully with a pairing knife
  • Toss raisins, almonds and cinnamon
  • Place apples upright in glass baking dish and fill each center with nut/raisin mixture
  • Any leftover nut/raisin mixture can be tossed into the bottom of the baking dish
  • Pour a little water into the baking dish
  • Cover with foil and bake @350 for 45 minutes or until knife inserts easily into apple

Vanilla Sauce

  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla or 1 vanilla pod
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 2 Tbsp agave syrup or other sweetener
  • 1 Tbsp tapioca or other starch (whisked with some water)

Directions

  • Put all ingredients (including vanilla pod if you are using that, but excluding vanilla essence) in a pot and bring to light boil while stirring to avoid clumps
  • Remove from heat and add vanilla essence (if you are using that)
  • Cool a bit and ladle on to baked apples
  • Delicious hot or cold! 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

Apples & Toffee Caramel Dip

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Go Seahawks!!!!!!!!!! I’m reposting this as an awesome super bowl game day snack. Totally unhealthy, totally delicious. Super easy to make. Enjoy!

This dip pairs especially well with Honeycrisp (or a tarter) apple!

Blog apples caramel dip

Ingredients

  • 1 brick cream cheese
  • 1/4 c. brown sugar
  • 1/4 c. white sugar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 bag toffee chips (like Heath toffee bits)

Mix first four ingredients well and fold in chips. Let chill for at least an hour. This makes very well a day in advance.

Honeycrisp apples are amazing with this dip!

dit-elle-Esther

Paleo Apple Crisp

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I was inspired by Lauren’s recent Apple Pie post and wanted to make a gluten free and paleo version!

This is a delicious paleo version of a classic apple crisp. Instead of flour and oats, you use almond meal which pairs beautifully with the apples. So yummy topped with some cold coconut milk.

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups blanched almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup coconut oil or butter (melted)
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 6 large apples, peeled and diced (I like Granny Smith apples)

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cinnamon and nutmeg
  • In a smaller bowl, combine oil, honey and vanilla
  • Stir wet ingredients into dry
  • Place apples in a glass baking dish
  • Crumble topping over the apples
  • Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350° for 50 minutes on low rack
  • When apples are soft and their juices bubble, remove cover and bake 10 more minutes to turn golden brown
  • Serve warm with coconut milk

Inspired and modified: http://cavemanstrong.com/2010/09/apple-crisp/

dit-elle-Esther

Coconut Apple Pancakes

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Coconut Flour Pancakes with Apples – yum! Even the little tummies in this house were fans! Perfect grain-free and paleo breakfast for a cold winter morning and great way to start off the new year. Happy New Year everyone! 🙂

Blog paleo apple pancakes (2) Blog paleo apple pancakes (1)

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tablespoon honey or agave
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 apple, sliced in very thin boats
  • coconut oil or butter for frying

Directions

  1. In a small bowl beat eggs until frothy, about two minutes (I used a food processor for this – works great!). Mix in milk, vanilla, and honey or agave.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Stir wet mixture into dry until coconut flour is incorporated.
  3. Grease pan with butter or coconut oil. Ladle a few tablespoons of batter into pan for each pancake. Spread out slightly with the back of a spoon. The pancakes should be 2-3 inches in diameter and fairly thick. Lay sliced apples on pancakes.
  4. Cook on low to medium heat for a few minutes on each side, until they start to turn golden brown.
  5. Serve hot with butter, coconut oil, honey, syrup, or fruit.

Inspired and modified from the Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes on NourishingDays.com.

dit-elle-Esther

Apple Tartlets

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It’s definitely apple season! Pick a favorite cooking apple (Granny Smith apples are wonderful), make this easy crust, and voila – easy paleo dessert. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for some totally-non-paleo goodness! 🙂

The recipe calls for apple juice – this is the only sweetener. I thought the apples might be too tart – but they are perfect. Even without the ice cream, this is a yummy dessert!

These Upside Down Apple Tartlets are inspired from Elana’s Pantry (with some minor modifications).

Blog apple tartlett (3) Blog apple tartlett (1)

Crust

  • 2 cups blanched almond flour
  • dash sea salt
  • ¼ cup coconut oil, at room temperature
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling

  • 6 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced, and cut into ¼-inch slices (I like Granny Smith Apples for baking)
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (What’s arrowroot? That’s what I said! It’s a natural thickener – a starch extracted from arrowroot. Read more on Wikipedia.)
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° and place eight 1-cup wide mouth Mason jars on a large baking sheet (you could also make one large pie/tart if you prefer – just use an ~8″ round or square baking dish and crumble or lay the crust on top)
  2. To make the crust, pulse together almond flour and salt in a food processor, then add coconut oil and vanilla and pulse until the mixture forms a ball
  3. Transfer dough to a piece of parchment paper and place in freezer for 20 minutes
  4. To make filling, toss apples, apple juice, lemon juice, arrowroot powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl to combine
  5. Transfer apples to Mason jars so that each one is overfull and divide remaining juice from the bottom of the bowl between the jars
  6. Remove dough from freezer, place between 2 pieces of parchment paper generously dusted with almond flour and roll out to about ¼-inch thick and remove top sheet of parchment
  7. Use top of a wide-mouth Mason jar to cut out 8 circles of dough
  8. Place one on top of each apple-filled Mason jar
  9. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the juices are bubbling and the crust is golden brown
  10. Serve the tartlets hot out of the oven with coconut whipped cream or ice cream 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

Paleo Chicken with Sauteed Apples and Onions

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I got this recipe from my Real Simple magazine back in 2008 (LOVE IT!), and you can check out the original recipe here.  It’s one of those go to recipes that is not only simple, but healthy and delicious.  Or as I like to call it…the trifecta 😉  I really haven’t messed with the recipe much, because it is so good as is.  My notes are in italics 🙂Blog Chicken Sauteed with Apples and Onions-1

Serves 4 Hands-On Time: 25m Total Time: 25m

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken-breast halves
     (I frequently use 5 or 6 chicken breasts and then use 2 apples/a really big onion and use the same of everything else if I have more people to feed)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 firm apple, such as Braeburn, cored, halved, and cut into 1/4-inch slices (original recipe calls for 1/2 inch slices, but I think those are too thick)
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced (I cheat and use 1 tsp from the jar of crushed garlic :))
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Directions

  1. Place each chicken-breast half between 2 sheets of wax paper and pound with a meat mallet until about 3/4 inch thick (Ok, I tried to use parchment paper and the chicken breasts went flying, so now I put them in a large zip lock for containment 🙂  And…I can never get them to 3/4 inch thick, so I’m happy with 1 inch.  I just cook it a little longer)
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and saute the chicken until golden, about 3 minutes per side (I do 4 minutes per side since my chicken breasts are usually bigger).  Add the apple slices, apple juice, onion, garlic, thyme, and salt. Cover and simmer 6 to 8 minutes or until the chicken is fork-tender.  Again, since my breasts are usually bigger, I don’t necessarily simmer.  I just cover and keep on medium heet for the 6-8 minutes.  Because they are cooking in liquid, the chicken breasts don’t get dried out.
  3. Remove the chicken, apple slices, and onion to a serving platter and keep warm.
  4. Bring the sauce to a boil for about 5 minutes or until slightly reduced. Whisk in the mustard. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve

It’s Paleo if you stop right here, but I usually serve it with bread or quinoa to make it more filling.  Tonight I used quinoa, which I LOVE!  It’s so easy, good for you, and yummy.  I cook it in my rice cooker, but you can cook it in a sauce pan too.

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup quinoa
  • 2 Cups Water
  • 7-8 slices of apple diced
  • Tsp of garlic (or a clove minced if you have the time :))
  •  Few grinds of sea salt or sprinkle of regular salt
  • 1/4 C of diced onions
  • 1 Tblsp of olive oil

Directions

  1. Put all this into the rice cooker and hit cook-DONE!  Or….combine all in a sauce pan, bring water to boil for 5 min or so til most of the water evaporates.  Then let it simmer til it’s fluffy.

dit-elle-Lauren