Super Grain & Nut Free Tortillas

There is a universal truth about giving up grain: It's DAMN hard. Whether you are paleo, low carb, keto or primal, a common thread is no grain. You may start out all cavalier and cocky thinking you won't miss grain, but a few days or weeks in and suddenly you remember bread, pasta, tortillas and you would claw your own eyes out for a piece of toast. I'm not kidding. That is why it's so important to have some great subs on hand. These tortillas totally will quell your cravings and work amazing as a flour tortilla sub. I've even had success with my totally grain eating hubby and kid eating and enjoying these.  They are fabulous right out of the cast iron skillet and freeze very well. When reheating, I always recommend using a skillet, as that gives the best taste, but in a pinch, the microwave will work, or you can just eat them at room temperature. Up to you. My recipe is adapted from Maria Emmerich's tortilla recipe. She uses almond flour or coconut flour in hers, however I wanted to reduce the fat and try and go nut free. I find coconut flour too sweet for my taste, so didn't want to use that either. Most people on these types of diets don't get too fussed about fat and calories, but for me, although I do not gain weight on a keto or low carb diet, I don't lose any either. So, for me, calories matter! You can follow Maria's recipe using almond flour or you can follow mine using my new favorite faux flour:

This is reduced fat sesame flour. It's high in protein, gluten free, nut free and much lower in fat and calories compared to almond flour. I'm not sure if the company is Norwegian, but I have seen their products on Amazon UK--not sure how popular it is in America yet. But I have found it works great in these types of recipes.

Grain & Nut Free Tortillas (adapted from Maria Emmerich)
11/4 cup reduced fat sesame flour
5 TBL ground psyllium husk
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 cup boiling water

Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl (note, there is NO substitute for the psyllium husk), add the two eggs and mix until combined. Pour in the water and mix until thoroughly combined. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes to firm up. The original recipe yields 10 tortillas. I tend to get 18-20 out of mine, but I roll them very thin. Do it however you want.

I always start by dividing the dough into ping pong sized balls and then flatten them out in my hand:



Then, between two sheets of parchment paper, using a rolling pin, roll it out in as close to a circle as you can get it & as thin as you can get it. Don't worry, it always looks wonky:



I always use a knife to cut around the edges to give it a cleaner shape and then save the scraps to make another tortilla at the end:



Throw it in a cast iron skillet and cook until slight bubbles appear, then flip:



Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat- About 15-20 times. When you are finished you will have a stack of lovely tortillas that even a grain lover would have no complaint about:



These really are great and I eat a ton of them. I use them for all kinds of tacos: carnitas, breakfast, beef, chicken etc. I fill them with tuna or chicken salad. I carry them in purse to have in a pinch when out in about (yes, I took a hamburger off of the bun and threw it in one of these bad boys just yesterday!). They are super versatile and will make your grain free pursuit a happier and calmer one!
Carnitas:

 

Breakfast tacos:

All dolled up and ready to eat!



Go make these! I promise you will thank me!

Dreamy and oh so creamy! Dairy free, Paleo coffee creamer

I've been meaning to blog about this creamer for quite some time, but now that I am embarking on a new sugar detox tomorrow, the timing is perfect! I don't remember where I got the recipe, as it was a long time ago, but probably off of Mark Daily's Apple or some other Paleo discussion forum. For me, my morning coffee is a really important part of my day, and dang it I wish I liked it black, but alas, bleh. I like it creamy with a slight coffee taste. This is super easy and makes the transition to being dairy free much easier. It only has 4 ingredients, one of which is optional:

 

Coconut milk, a pastured egg, coconut oil and vanilla

Buy full fat coconut milk and one with the highest amount of coconut milk actually in it. This one has 91% and only 9% water! You'd be shocked at how many have less than 70%, so read the label! I like to add the vanilla, I use Bourbon Vanilla powder. Tiny little vanilla beans in a jar. Delish.

Yes, there is a RAW egg in this recipe. I don't worry about salmonella. I get my eggs from the farm next door and this one came out of the chickens butt about 5 hours ago. So, if you trust your source, just use the raw egg. It helps keep the creamer creamy, so is kind of necessary to the recipe.

With the exception of the coconut oil, add everything to a blender or a container for your stick blender:

 

Aren't those vanilla beans lovely?

I used an immersion blender. Just stick it in and blend on high for about one minute. I use the same technique I use when making mayonnaise. Just hold the blender over the egg, pressed to the bottom of the container and blend until the eggy yellow spreads up to the top. Once your creamer is a lovely shade of lemon yellow, drizzle in your coconut oil and blend for another 30 seconds or so. That's it. Easy peasy.
Pour it into a jar for storage and put it in the fridge! After a few hours you'll be able to spoon it out. I've also used this as a frosting before. So, it's versatile.

Thick and creamy. Yum.

So, that's it! Easy dairy free coffee creamer. This will help ease the transition if you're detoxing or moving into a stricter Paleo lifestyle and it's really good for you. It should keep for at least 2 weeks in the fridge, but I can't promise that as it never lasts that long here. Try it out!!!

Dairy free, creamy goodness

Low Carb, Paleo Sushi- and No, I'm not kidding.

When one makes the decision to embrace a grain free diet, one often fails to consider that one of the carby delights in life, sushi, will no longer be a regular staple of the diet. I like sushi, but I am not a purist, I'm a roll kind of gal. Which in some sets, is the trash of sushi. I like things with rice, tempura-ed shellfish, cream cheese, things with the word 'rainbow' in the name, avocado, things with the word 'California' in the name. I think you get the gist. So while I could have proper sushi, nigiri, on a paleo diet, I have ZERO interest in eating raw fish by itself. I love the soy sauce, the wasabi that makes my nose burn and eyes water, the pickled ginger. I do not like the seaweed. I have tried, but the smell, THE SMELL. So, when I went out and ordered sushi, I would order it made with soy paper, which is amazing. However, my weekly sushi habit went to carb heaven many moons ago, but man, there are times when I still intensely crave the stuff! I've thought a few times about how I could 'paleo-fy' it, but really, how do you do a sushi roll with no rice?? Stop being ridiculous! But, I've been craving sushi something fierce lately, so on my hour long commute to work, I've been putting this together in my head over the last week or so. I got the idea when I made a recipe for bacon, zucchini, feta rolls found here. When I made them, I took them to a weekend lake trip and made an appetizer plate and as I cut them I thought, huh, I wonder if I could do a sushi type roll using zucchini? It's been marinating ever since, so tonight I thought I would give it a try, and quite honestly, I wasn't convinced it would work, but the worst that could happen was that I would end up with a bowl full of ingredients and call it a 'sushi salad'. So here we go!!

 

First you have to resolve the rice issue. The only sensible solution is the low carb staple, cauli-rice:

magical cauli-rice
 

To make the rice, just grate the cauliflower with a box grater and microwave it for 2-3 minutes on high. I added a splash of rice vinegar, a splash of sesame oil and sea salt.

Next, I had to decide what to wrap it in since the seaweed wasn't an option and this is where the zucchini comes in. So, I took a vegetable peeler and made long, flat zucchini strips:

zucchini ribbons
 

I had decided to make a California roll for this experiment, so assemble the cast of characters:

King Crab- no fake stuff here!!!
 

 

cucumber cut in matchsticks
 

avocado
 

My first approach was to lay 4 zucchini ribbons slightly overlapping, to recreate the size of a sheet of seaweed:



 

Next, I spread a thin layer of the cauli rice on the zucchini like you would do with sushi rice:




 

Add the cucumber, a bit thickly, because you need some volume to make up for the lack of rice:



top with the matchstick cucumbers

Now, the king crab! Try and splurge on real crab. The imitation stuff is scary with the stuff they add! And the real thing tastes exponentially better!



King Crab

Finally I added the avocado and I was ready to roll!


avocado

The first few rotations turned out fine and I was feeling like maybe I was gonna pull this off!


rolling

However, by the end, so much filling had pushed out and it was not sturdy at all:


So, I scraped out all the filling and decided to use a single zucchini ribbon for each roll:

single ribbon technique

And to make them even more secure, I used a piece of spring onion to tie it and from there on it was smooth sailing!

finished Paleo sushi!!

Once they were all rolled and secured, it really was a great sushi experience! A big part of the sushi ritual for me is the taste of the soy sauce and wasabi, so for me, to dip it into that and have that burn and taste, it was amazing!


Ready to start eating!



They were sturdy enough to use chopsticks with and truly satisfied my sushi craving!


You can use chopsticks!

This was an amazing recipe and was a milestone for me in my low carb journey. To actually think outside of the box and recreate something that really is a tough one to recreate in a grain free way, but everything is possible! You just have to suspend your expectations! Did this taste like 'normal' sushi? Of course not, but did it taste like a California roll? YES, it did! Try it!

Beautiful sushi!

Finally a homemade mayonnaise worth writing about! MCT mayo!

I have a love-hate relationship with homemade mayonnaise. I have known about the horrors of conventional mayo, (rancid soybean oil anyone?), not to mention the sugar and poor quality eggs used to make it. I knew I could do better than Hellman's.

 

Until I couldn't do better.

 

I love my Hellman's, (cue 'bring out the Hellman's and bring out the best!), and each time I made homemade mayo it just tasted bad in comparison. Smart me knew that what I had made was greatly superior to the store bought stuff, but man, it was not palatable. Mayo debacle after mayo debacle came in rapid succession. All olive oil? too bitter. Avocado oil? Nope. Too green and weird tasting. Bacon grease mixed with coconut oil? Really yummy, but the coconut oil made it hard, and that was just weird. I was wasting a lot of expensive ingredients. But then today I was driving home from work and I thought to myself 'I wonder if I can make mayo from MCT oil??'. So I googled it and I was not the first to have this grand idea! Never heard of MCT oil? It's like coconut oil on crack! Let me enlighten you!

From Hilgartner Health: MCT is a very healthy fat, which bypasses the normal process of digestion and fat break down. Instead it gets absorbed directly into your liver where it is metabolized and acts more like a carbohydrate, providing instant and sustained energy for your body."
MCT oil can help in losing weight and in maintaining your optimal weight by boosting your metabolism and helping to optimize the production of thyroid hormones. It has been shown to help treat seizures due to its ability to increase Ketone production. It is also beneficial in helping diabetics maintain blood sugar levels. Many athletes find that it is a great supplement to take prior to training or competitions since it seems to provide hours of sustained energy and helps maintain muscle strength and stamina.
MCT oil has also been shown to help people with digestive issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome, Chrones Disease, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer’s. People who are fighting fungal infections find that MCT oil accelerates their healing.

Sounds like a miracle oil, no?? So, in a nutshell, it's super good for you and has no flavor, so that means no weird taste in the final result. Let's whip this up!!
I based this mayonnaise on the recipe I found on the Intoxicated on Life blog. I halved the recipe, because I wanted to make sure I like it before I used so much of my MCT stock. She uses all MCT oil, but MCT is pricey here in Norway, so I used about 3/4 of a cup of MCT and 1/2 cup of olive oil. I also did not add the cayenne pepper or the stevia she calls for. One different thing about this mayo is that it uses mustard powder and white vinegar. The other recipes I have used so far use lemon juice and Dijon. Did it make a difference? Not sure, but the results were outstanding!
So, first, put all of your ingredients into a bowl except the oil. Beat everything until it's well incorporated and frothy:

Next, get your hand mixer, stand mixer or good ole whisk and start beating and slowly drizzling in  the oil drop by drop. You're going for an emulsion here, so be patient at the beginning. I can't take photos of the whole actual MAKING of the mayo process due to both of my hands being used, so just use your imagination. The whole process should take about 5 minutes and when it looks like this, you have awesome, healthy mayonnaise!!!

That's it! slap it into a container and get to dipping!

 

I'm dipping my eggplant 'French fries' in it and feeling quite proud! So good to finally find a mayonnaise I can replace the Hellman's with and also have all the benefits of MCT! Do you use MCT? If so, how?

 

Paleo breakfast bowl! Tex mex grits topped with egg, bacon and avocado!

I bet the word 'grits' in the title got a few of you fired up, but don't worry, it's not real grits! It's cauliflower rice that got too much love from the Vitamix and turned into tiny grains more like cornmeal than rice. The good thing about cauliflower is that it tends to absorb the flavors of what you're cooking it in. In this case it's TexMex richness in the form of ancho chili powder and cumin. I love a good burrito bowl and despite my skepticism, this one delivered in a big way. The fine cauliflower had a mouth feel like grits, making it easier to suspend reality for a bit. And the flavor? Out of this world! If you like TexMex, spice and great flavor, this is for you! You won't miss the corn or dairy!

Ingredients:

1 medium tomato

1/4 green bell pepper

1/4 red bell pepper

1/2 fresh jalapeño 

1 garlic clove

1/2 small onion

Large handful of spinach

Few TBL ancho chili powder

1TBL cumin

11/2-2 cups riced cauliflower 

1/4 of an avocado

Crumbled bacon

1-2 eggs

Cilantro

Method

Chop all your veggies:

Don't be scared of the jalapeño, it adds a great flavor:

Put the onion, peppers and garlic in a pan to sauté with a little coconut oil: 

After a few minutes add the tomato and spinach. After it's all incorporated add your spice! Good spices are super important. I love Penzey's and order everything from them. Their ancho chili powder is so rich and full of flavor:

Add the chili powder and cumin and a bit of water to make it saucy. If you don't have ancho, any chili will do. I like ancho because there is no heat. So keep that in mind when subbing. 

Next, add your cauliflower 'grits':

Combine with the sauce and let it simmer for about 5-10 min. Now it all comes together quickly. Fry an egg in some grassfed butter. Chop your avocado and cilantro. Grab a bowl and layer everything! Cauligrits on the bottom. Top with the egg, bacon, avocado and cilantro:

Isn't it gorgeous?? Now get a fork and dig in!!! It really was delicious! TexMex takes me to my happy place, so I was smiling. 

I even had my very non paleo, super carb eater husband try it. He begrudgingly admitted he liked it but that it needed 'alot' of sour cream. Ha. I'd say that is a pretty good review from carbohydrate Christopher.

Seriously, this is very good and worthy of a place as a staple in my paleo rotation! Love! Try it out and let me know what you think!

Almond flour, flax meal pancakes

This morning Christopher and Zoe wanted pancakes. My first thought was 'Damn. He knows I can't eat pancakes!' The flour shoots my blood sugar through the roof, the calories are totally empty and they put you in a food coma within an hour. So, I decided to make them the regular ones and make me some protein laden, low carb, grain free beauties. Cooking with almond flour is actually very easy when it comes to baked goods, you just sub out flour equally and off you go.
For this recipe I used:

• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup golden flax meal
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of milk (to make these paleo or for dairy intolerance use coconut milk, almond milk, ect)
• a dash of baking powder
• a few drops of vanilla stevia

Mix it all together in bowl and heat your pan. I make them a little larger than silver dollar pancakes. To this batch I added fresh blueberries and banana slices:

And then drizzled raw, local honey on them:

These are great! Very filling. I got about 7 good size pancakes out of it, but what is really great is what I didn't get. High blood sugar, low nutritional value and an epic crash an hour later.
This is really a breakfast you can feel good about! Go make them, you'll love them, your kids will love them, it'll be a big 'ol love fest! Just don't forget the bacon!!!

Spaghetti Bolognese, kind of...

As a non insulin taking diabetic, pasta is one of those things I have a love/hate relationship with. As someone who tries to eat mostly primal/Paleo, pasta is almost like a cuss word. I manage the cravings well for the most part, but every now and then...every now and then...I break down and eat pasta. My blood sugar rockets through the roof and I feel awful. Swearing I won't eat it again, but knowing I will. Oh the life of the wishfully pious.
The times I am a Paleo rock star, I eat meat sauce with zucchini pasta. Yes, zucchini pasta. It tastes just like real pasta, said nobody ever, but it does the trick and I always feel quite smug when I make the good choice to have it instead of the wheat kind!

It's super easy. Grab a zucchini, and using a veggie peeler, peel that bad boy until you get down to the seeds. It'll look something like this:

I drizzle a little olive oil, add some garlic, sea salt and cracked pepper.

 

Top it with your meat sauce and a teeny tiny bit of Parmesan and you're ready to twirl!

Because really, isn't the twirling half the fun of pasta???