Zucchini and sun-dried tomato muffins

With a toddler going to daycare once a week, I'm trying to find recipes of good snacks to put in his lunch box for the day. I found this really nice recipe from Eatdrinkpaleo of savory muffins.

Ingredients

makes 6

1½ cup (360 ml) grated zucchini (about 2 small ones)

6 sun-dried tomatoes (not the ones in oil)

1 medium garlic clove

½ cup (120 ml) pumpkin seeds

2 eggs

2 heaped tbsp linseed meal

1/4 cup (60 ml) tapioca flour

½ tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 175 °C and grease a muffin tray with a little coconut oil.

By using your hands try to squeeze the grated zucchini to remove as much of the juice as possible. Add it to a mixing bowl.

Put the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and pumpkin seeds to a food processor. Process until ground and incorporated. Transfer to the bowl with the grated zucchini.

Add eggs, linseed meal, tapioca, onion powder, salt and baking powder to the mix and combine together very well.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin casings and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool completely before removing from the tray. 

Paleo naan bread

Simple and delicious naan bread from myheartbeets.com to serve with your favourite Indian dishes.

Ingredients
makes 2
120 ml almond flour
120 ml tapioca flour
240 ml coconut milk, full fat
salt
ghee, to fry in

Mix all the ingredients together.
Heat a 24 cm nonstick pan over medium heat and grease with some ghee. Pour half the batter in the pan.
Once the batter fluffs up and looks firm/mostly cooked, flip it over to cook the other side; this can take some time so be patient.

Gluten free pizza

We tried this recipe for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was really good. It's from the geniuses at Under Vårt Tak. These guys have so many good recipes. I want to make their pizza buns as well and when we come to picnic season again I'll definitely give them a go. You can make the pizza more Paleo by using coconut milk instead of regular cream and obviously skip the cheese as a topping. We made four times the recipe and got 2 almost regular sized pizzas.

Ingredients

makes 1 small pizza

1 egg

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp cream (or coconut milk)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1½ tbsp psyllium husk

your choice of toppings

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Whisk egg and cream together with the olive oil and a bit of salt.

Season with the garlic powder, basil and oregano. 

Add psyllium husk and whisk together until combined. 

Let the mixture sit and thicken for a few minutes. 

Spread the dough on an oven tray lined with baking paper.

Add your toppings of choice and cook in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes or until base seems cooked.

We topped our pizzas with tomato paste, bacon, cooked chicken, onion, capsicum, garlic and some mozzarella cheese.

Roasted broccoli florets

We had a barbecue last night even though it was raining and a bit windy. Luckily it wasn't too bad when the meat was actually on the barbecue. I was trying to think of what we could have with the garlic and herb lamb and realized we had quite a bit of broccoli in the fridge. Instead of just boiling or steaming it like usual I decided to roast it in the oven. With some salt, pepper and various spices; it turned out to be a perfect side dish for the lamb.

Ingredients

serves 2-3

1 large broccoli head

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp paprika powder

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Cut the broccoli into smaller florets and place them on a large baking tray.

Mix together the oil, the spices and salt. Pour this over the broccoli and mix around. 

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it's soft and a little bit browned.

Paleo focaccia

So I've been craving bread for a couple of days now and I finally decided to make some bread without flour and found a recipe on undervarttak.blogspot.se. The result was much better than I expected actually, I didn't think it was going to be so fluffy which is definitely a good thing. Definitely something I'll make again when I'm craving bread of some sort.

Ingredients
makes 1 large flat bread
400 ml almond flour
50 ml coconut flour
100 ml psyllium husk
1 tbsp baking powder
1½ tsp salt
6 eggs
300 ml water
50 ml olive oil + extra for decoration
Sea salt
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk together the eggs, water and 50 ml olive oil in another bowl. Once mixed completely, pour this over the dry ingredients and mix together until it's a soft dough. Let it sit for about 5 minutes so it gets a bit thicker.
Grease an oven tray with olive oil (I used one sized 25 x 30 cm).
Add the dough to the tray and flatten it evenly. Press with your finger to make small holes in the bread. Drizzle some olive oil over, then sprinkle the fresh rosemary and sea salt over the top as well.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it has a golden colour and the test needle comes out clean. Enjoy!

Kale chips

This is one of our new favourites. Really easy to make and tastes delicious. Once again I've got the recipe from eatdrinkpaleo.com.au

Ingredients
serves 2
10 kale leaves (on a stalk)
1½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp ground coriander seeds
2/3 tsp ground cumin powder

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
Tear the leaves away from the stalks and cut into 2-3 cm pieces with scissors or tear with your hands.
Wash and pat dry with some paper towel.
Toss kale leaves with olive oil, spices & sea salt. Scatter in a large oven tray and bake for 15 minutes tossing them around every 5 minutes to prevent burning and to make sure they dry out and roast evenly on all sides.

Paleo quiche

I got this recipe from eatdrinkpaleo.com.au. She has a really good 1 week Paleo meal plan where this recipe was included. I added some parma ham to our quiche, I think bacon would've been good as well.

Ingredients
serves 2-3
1 medium sweet potato, diced
1 brown onion, sliced
1 red capsicum, sliced
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch of sea salt
6 eggs
¼ cup full fat cream
zest of 1/2 lemon
sea salt and pepper for seasoning
1-2 tbsp of pine nuts
butter for cooking

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a flat baking tray with coconut oil and scatter diced sweet potato. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove and turn the oven down to 180°C.

In a medium frying pan, sauté onion and capsicum in butter on medium heat for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes of cooking, add fresh thyme, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt.

Whisk the eggs with cream and combine with the zest of lemon, a pinch of black pepper and a generous pinch of sea salt. Grease the bottom of a deep baking tray with coconut oil and line with baking paper, making sure the sides are covered. Assemble sweet potatoes and onion and red peppers mix evenly on the bottom. Pour whisked egg mix on top. Bake for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with pine nuts and some extra fresh thyme and bake for a further 10 minutes. Stand aside to cool and settle for 5 minutes before serving. Lift the sides of baking paper to remove the quiche to a cutting board.

Carrot bread

Ok, I must admit that I do miss bread and although I do have the real thing occasionally I've been searching for a relatively easy Paleo recipe so that I can have it a bit more often. So when I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/ I was really happy. I was a bit scared when making it since the previous times I've tried to make Paleo versiouns of bread they've turned out really dense and not great tasting. I made this and not only was it really simple to make, it was also really tasty. Wish I could've taken a better photo for you but I'm afraid I'm not the best photographer.

Ingredients
makes about 12 pieces
400 ml almond meal
50 ml coconut flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk
50 ml crushed linseeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp 'bread herbs' (I crushed some caraway seeds, fennel seeds and cumin together)
200 ml finely shredded carrot (approximately 2 small carrots)
6 eggs
200 ml water
olive or coconut oil to grease the pan

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Peel and shred the carrots finely. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, add the eggs and water and whip them together. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix together until it forms a dough. Lightly squeeze the liquid out of the carrots and mix these into the dough. Let the dough sit and expand for about 5 minutes.
Grease and ovenproof pan (approximately 20x30 cm big) with one of the oil.
Add the dough to the pan and push it down with your hand until it's evenly flat.
By using a fork make a dotted pattern in the bread.
Cook the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes and has got a nice light brown colour and your test stick comes out clean. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool slightly.
Cut the bread into squares, break apart and let it cool completely on a rack.

Cauliflower fried rice

Who doesn't like a good fried rice? I certainly do, so I found this recipe on http://www.familyfreshmeals.com and it was super easy and really delicious. One of our new favourites. It's not quite Paleo but sometimes we do decide to "cheat".

Ingredients
serves 2-3
720 ml grated raw cauliflower (about ½ large head)
120 ml frozen peas
120 ml carrots, thinly sliced (1 large carrot)
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, diced
½ tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, scrambled
3 tbsp soy sauce

In a large pan, saute garlic and onions in olive oil on a medium/high heat, until onions become soft and transparent, about 2-3 minutes. Next add in peas, carrots and cook until carrots begin to soften and peas are heated through, about 3-4 minutes. Next stir in scrambled eggs, cauliflower and soy sauce. Cook stirring frequently for about 5-7 more minutes.

Fennel gratin with garlic and parsley

I like fennel and sometimes they have it on special in the supermarket and I buy one just because it's nice but I never really have a clue how to cook it. I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se and I decided to give it a go. It turned out to be quite tasty. We had ours with some roasted pork fillet and steamed broccoli.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g fennel
200 g leek
10 sundried tomatoes (not in oil)
2 garlic cloves
fresh parsley
salt and pepper
300 ml coconut milk
coconut oil to fry in

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Rinse and cut the leek into approximately 1 cm big pieces. Put some coconut oil in a pot and fry the leek slightly. Slice the fennel and the sundried tomatoes. Add the fennel and sundried tomatoes to the pot with the leek and mix around. Crush the garlic clove into the mixture. Add salt, pepper and parsley to taste. Mix around and let it fry for a couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk and simmer slowly for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture in an ovenproof dish and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Creamy carrot soup

My spouse is not a huge fan of soups so I took the opportunity to make one when he wasn't home for dinner. It turned out pretty good even though I didn't follow the recipe fully. I got the recipe from undervarttak.blogspot.se and the original had 600-700 ml coconut milk but I thought that was a bit too much so I modified it a bit.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
7 carrots
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
½ red chili
400 ml coconut milk
100 ml beef stock
400 ml water
parsley
thyme
salt and pepper

Peel and chop the carrots and onion into small pieces. Peel the garlic cloves and crush them with a knife. Split and take the seeds out of the chili.
Pour the stock and water in a pot and add the carrots, onion, garlic and chili. Bring it to a boil and let it boil until the carrots are soft (time for this depends on how big you've cut the carrots).
Take off the heat and mix with a hand blender until it's a smooth puré. Add the coconut milk and mix a little bit more. Put back on the heat and add parsley, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to a boil so that it heats up. Serve with some crispy fried bacon on top.

Here served with crispy fried serrano ham and spring onion

Cold Paleo porridge

I'm a person who gets bored quite easily with dishes. I try to come up with new things to have so that I don't have to eat the same thing everyday. Breakfast is one of the more difficult one to come up with and the thing with breakfast is that it can't take too long to make during weekdays. So I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se once again.

Ingredients
serves 2
100 ml almonds
100 ml dessicated coconut
1 tbsp linsseed meal
200 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
1 tsp vanilla powder
100 ml blueberries

Put the almonds in a food processor and chop coarsely. Mix the coconut milk and water in a bowl. Pour in the chopped almonds, coconut, linsseed, vanilla powder and stir.
Pour the mixture in a jar with a lid and put the blue berries on top. Put the lid on and keep in the fridge over night to let it thicken a bit.

Paleo pesto

I'm usually not a big fan of pesto because of the Parmesan but I found this very simple recipe in the Paleo Recipe Book without cheese.

Ingredients
makes approximately 250 ml
500 ml packed fresh basil leaves
120 ml good quality extra-virgin olive oil
80 ml pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the basil, garlic and nuts in a food processor and pulse until everything is chopped. Then add the olive oil and pulse again until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

As simple as that!

Pumpkin and sweet potato soup

Delicious creamy soup. Recipe from fastpaleo.com

Ingredients
serves 3-4
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
700 g pumpkin flesh, diced
1 chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp butter
1 l chicken stock
250 ml coconut milk
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
4 rashes of bacon (optional)


Heat a large pot, melt cooking fat and fry onion until soft. Add garlic and fry for another minute. Add chopped pumpkin and sweet potatoes and fry off for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock, season with cayenne, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 25 min until potato and pumpkin are tender. Stir in coconut milk and use blender make a smooth soup. Fry the bacon until crispy then cut in small pieces. Serve the soup in bowls with the bacon pieces sprinkled on top.

Almond milk

Almond milk seems to be the new thing and I was curious to see how it is to make it yourself since it seems like the ones you buy in the store have a lot of unnecessary ingredients in them. So I found a recipe on paleoaustralia.com and it was really easy to make.

Ingredients
250 g natural almonds
1 l cold water
2 pitted dates
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix until it becomes creamy. Strain through a sieve and transfer to an airtight bottle or container so that it'll keep in the fridge. Lasts for about 4 days.










After straining it you get left with some wet almond meal so I decided to make a smoothie with this and banana, a shot of coffee, some of the almond milk and ice. I just put it all in the blender until mixed thoroughly. Decorate with some cocoa powder and almonds.

Cauliflower mash

Something I've heard of lately but I've never tried was mash made from cauliflower. Yesterday we tried it and had it together with a nice steak and a few greens beans. It was really, really nice and super easy to make.

Boil the florets of a cauliflower head until soft; about 10-15 minutes.
Drain the water.
Add a big nob of butter (or however much you want) then mash using a hand mixer until smooth.
Add in some cream (I only used about 2 tbsp since I thought the mash was already quite soft).
Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Very easy, very tasty and a perfect alternative in order to have a low carb meal.

Parsnip chips

We had a parsnip over from last week and I wasn't really sure what to do with it. Since I got home from work earlier than normal today I decided to make some parsnip chips. I had a go at making sweet potato chips a couple of weeks ago but they didn't end up that good. This time it went slightly better but I still need to work on how to get them crunchy without burning them.

Ingredients
1 large parsnip
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
paprika powder
cayenne pepper
garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Peel the parsnip and cut it into thin slices. Try to cut them as thin as possible. Mix together the olive oil and the spices in a bowl, add the parsnip and mix together so that the parsnips get an even coating. Put the parsnip pieces separately on an ungreased baking tray. Make sure they don't overlap. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients
2 eggplants
3 garlic cloves
1½ tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Prick the skin of the eggplant with a fork and roast for about 35 minutes in the oven. Peel off the skin of the eggplants. Place the roasted eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin and cayenne pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper to taste.

Vegetable fritters

Ok, I know I've gone a bit crazy with fritters lately but they are so simple and delicious. Today I made some that are quite high in vegetable content. I served mine with some leftover chicken from last night but you can also eat them as they are. However, they are not very full of protein so some kind of meat is recommended.

Ingredients
(makes 12 small ones)
1 carrot, grated
1 red onion, chopped finely
½ eggplant, chopped finely
1 spring onion, chopped finely
½ red capsicum, chopped finely
60 ml flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Mix all the vegetables together and add the flour and eggs. Heat some butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add 1 heaped tablespoon vegetable mixture. Using a spatula, flatten slightly. Cook for 2 minutes each side or until golden and cooked through.

Gratin with root vegetables

We found some turkey fillets in the supermarket that we tried last year and were really nice. They are prepared already with marinade and sauce so you just need to put them in the oven. I was trying to figure out what to have with it and I thought of potato gratin which we haven't had in a long time. I made my own version of it though and put some other root vegetables in it as well.

Ingredients
(serves 2-3)
2 large potatoes
3 small parsnips
2 carrots
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
150-200 ml cream
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Melt the butter. Peel and slice all the vegetables into thin slices. Put them all in an oven proof dish. Take the skin off the garlic and crush it over the other vegetables. Add some salt and pepper and mix it all together. Mix the butter and the cream and add some more salt and pepper. Pour it over the vegetables and put in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. Serve together with a delicious steak or like us with some oven cooked turkey fillets.