Banana ice cream with almond butter

Once again I've got this delicious recipe from undervarttak.blogspot.se

Ingredients
serves 4
8 ripe bananas
4 tbsp coconut milk
3 tbsp almond butter

Prepare the bananas one day in advance by cutting them in pieces and putting them in the freezer.
Put the frozen banana pieces in your food processor and using the knife blades crush the bananas into small pieces. Add the coconut milk and blend together until it starts looking like ice cream. You might have to stop and push down the mixture from the sides. Add the almond butter and blend a bit more. Top with some roughly chopped almonds.

Chocolate mud balls

I am one of those weird people who is not a massive fan of chocolate. I do like it but put a fruity dessert and chocolate one and I will most likely choose the fruity one. That said, these chocolate mud balls are delicious. Found the recipe on fastpaleo.com

Ingredients

makes about 12

80 ml coconut flour

60 ml tapioca flour

80 ml unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt, fine

5 eggs

80 ml honey

60 ml coconut oil, melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

300 g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius and grease a 20x20 cm square baking pan with coconut oil.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine coconut flour, tapioca flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sea salt, blend together well. 

Add eggs, honey, vanilla and coconut oil to flour mixture and using an electric hand mixer blend until smooth. Pour the batter into the baking pan and place on the center rack in oven. Bake 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Using a small circular cookie cutter or an ice cream scoop, scoop out cake pieces and place on baking paper. Put a bowl over a pot of boiling water, add the chocolate and melt it, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until smooth. Dip the cake pieces into the chocolate using a fork. Make sure it's covered all over and place back on the baking paper. Cool in the refrigerator and allow to harden.

 

Easy salmon and potato bake

Found this recipe on a Swedish website called http://www.alltommat.se and thought it would be a perfect dinner for Friday night and it turned out to be extra perfect because with the massive cold I've caught I was really not feeling like standing over the stove or chopping lots of different things. This was super easy and didn't require too much preparation.

Ingredients
serves 2-3
500 g salmon fillets (without skin and bones)
600 g potatoes
1 onion
6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil
2 tbsp of the oil from the tomatoes
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 garlic clove

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
Peel and cut the potatoes and onion in chunks. Put them on a big oven tray. Pour over 1 tbsp of the oil and mix around. Cook in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes.
Cut the salmon into big pieces and once the potatoes are done. Take them out and add the salmon to the tray. Season with salt and pepper and cook everything for another 10 minutes.
Roughly chop the sun-dried tomato and mix it with the other 1 tbsp of oil and the garlic clove.
Pour the tomato mix over the salmon and potatoes once done.
We served ours with some steamed broccoli and homemade aioli.

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

Boeuf Bourguignon pie

We're huge fans of boeuf bourguignon so when I found this recipe on taste.com.au I was excited. It's not that much of a difference to just having potato mash and the stew together but the mash tastes better when it's been in the oven and got a bit a crunchy top. This is not a Paleo recipe but it's very tasty anyway.

Ingredients
serves 4
2 tbsp butter
800 g stewing beef, trimmed, cut into 2-3cm pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
½ tbsp dried thyme
4 slices flat pancetta, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250 g mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
250 ml red wine
250 ml beef stock
2-3 bay leaves
1 kg mashing potatoes, chopped
30 g unsalted butter, melted
125 ml pure cream, heated
Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Heat 1 tbsp butter in a flameproof casserole over medium-high heat. In batches, add beef and cook, turning, for 3-4 minutes until browned. Remove and set aside.
Add remaining 1 tbsp butter to the pan, then add onion, thyme, pancetta and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion has softened. Add mushroom and cook for 2-3 minutes, then stir in flour and cook for another minute. Add tomato paste and cook for a further 1 minute. Return beef to the pan with wine, stock and bay leaves. Season and bring to the boil, then remove from heat. Cover and cook in the oven for 1-1½ hour or until the meat is tender. Remove the lid and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Transfer beef mixture to a 1½ liter baking dish and let it cool.
Meanwhile, place potato in a saucepan of cold, salted water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until tender. Drain and pass through a ricer or mash until smooth. Stir through butter and cream and season.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Spread the mashed potato over the meat and use a fork to make a light indentation in the surface. Grill for 5 minutes or until golden. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Banana ice cream with crunchy almonds

We visited my sister-in-law and she had Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook 'It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great'. In there we found a recipe for banana ice cream which we never got a chance to make when we were up there. So we looked up the recipe and made it last night. The result was really good. We put in some coconut sugar when we toasted the almonds in order to get that extra crunch and it was really tasty.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
4 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
60 ml almonds, finely chopped
1 tsp coconut sugar
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp maple syrup, divided
½ tsp sea salt
120 ml unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place banana slices in a single layer on a plate or tray lined with baking paper; put in the freezer for at least 3 hours. Put the almonds in a frying pan and toast by themselves for a little bit. Add the sugar and mix around until it's melted. Put the almonds in a bowl, add 2 tsp maple syrup and the salt.
In a food processor, pulse frozen banana slices, almond milk, vanilla and the remaining 2 tbsp syrup, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the mixture is the texture of soft-serve ice cream. Spoon into bowls; sprinkle with the crunchy almond mixture.

Mint cookies

For the people who know me, they would most likely know that I'm a huge, huge fan of everything with mint. So when I browsed through http://fastpaleo.com on Friday picking out what I was going to make over the weekend, I was very excited when I found the recipe for these mint cookies. Sure they're not mint slices but then again these are not packed with processed sugar.

Ingredients
makes about 12
240 ml walnuts
240 ml pitted dates
240 ml shredded coconut
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 tbsp maple syrup
100 g 70% dark chocolate

Put the walnuts in a food processor and chop until a fine meal is made. Add the dates to the food processor until they are all chopped finely.Add the remaining ingredients and mix until it's all combined.

Roll in to balls and flatten into biscuits. Place on a lined baking tray and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes, melt the chocolate in a small but deep bowl. Using a fork dip the biscuits into the chocolate and put back on the tray. Put back in the freezer until the chocolate is set. Store in the fridge.

Carrot, spinach and bacon breakfast hash

Sometimes I feel like our breakfasts don't have enough veggies so I found this recipe on http://taylormadeitpaleo.com and thought it could be nice to make on a Saturday morning with some avocado on the side for some healthy fat. I swapped the sweet potato for carrot since that's what I had at home.

Ingredients

serves 2

4 slices of bacon, diced

2 small carrots, grated

2 big handfuls of spinach

½ onion, finely chopped

4 eggs

salt & pepper to taste

Add bacon to a frying pan greased with coconut oil over medium heat.

After the bacon has cooked for a minute or two, add carrots, spinach, onion, salt, and pepper mixing frequently. When the bacon is almost cooked through, add your eggs and cook to your preference.

Chocolate balls

So I've made similar things previously, well at least they look the same. I got the recipe for these of http://undervarttak.blogspot.se. The original recipe says it makes 30-35 balls but I must have made really big ones or something because I only got 20 balls. I guess it doesn't really matter. They're prefect to have in the freezer for those moments when you just feel like something sweet.

Ingredients
makes 20 medium sixed balls
200 g dates
100 ml walnuts
100 ml almonds
100 ml pecans
100 ml pumpkin seeds
100 ml desiccated coconut (+ a bit extra to roll the balls in)
4 tbsp raw cocoa
1 tbsp cinnamon
80 ml coconut oil
1 tbsp coffee

Chop the nuts and pumpkin seeds in a food processor. Put them away.
Mix the the dates and the shredded coconut in the food processor.
Add in the nut mix to the food processor together with the cocoa and cinnamon.
Add the coconut oil and the coffee until you have a smooth mixture.
Make little balls and roll them in desiccated coconut.

Rhubarb crumble

So this rhubarb crumble turned out pretty well. It was maybe a bit too sour but with the cream it was definitely very tasty. I found the recipe for the crumble mixture on http://recipes.sparkpeople.com

Ingredients
serves 3-4
500 g rhubarb
2 tsp honey
1 tsp arrowroot powder

2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 large egg
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
475 ml almond flour



Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Take the skin off the rhubarb and cut into 2 cm big pieces. Put them in a bowl and add the honey and arrowroot powder. Let sit for a few minutes.
Mix together the egg, coconut oil, cinnamon and almond flour.
Put the rhubarb on the bottom of an oven proof dish and add the crumble on top. Drizzle some honey on top of the crumble and cook in the oven for about 35 minutes.

Serve with some whipped cream with vanilla

Un-lazy Sunday

Today I've been cooking up a storm. Making porridge for next weeks mornings, making crisp bread just because it's so good and nice to have around when you feel like a savory snack. And I've also made chocolate balls, perfect to have in the freezer when you feel like something sweet. And I also made a rhubarb crumble because I love rhubarb and it was on special at the supermarket this week. Now I'm just waiting for the beef that's roasting in the oven and some nice roasted beets with that. Lots of yumminess today...

Raw sticky chocolate cake

Recipe from http://undervarttak.blogspot.se
Am really happy with the result of this. We served ours with some whipped coconut cream. The original recipe has hazelnuts in it but I didn't have any at home so I used a mix of pecans and walnuts instead.

Ingredients
250 ml hazelnuts
150 ml almond flour
5 large pitted dates
100 ml brewed cold coffee
50 ml raw cocoa
1 tsp vanilla powder
1 pinch of salt
shredded coconut for the dish and a bit to put on top

Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor until its a creamy mixture.
Put a bit of shredded coconut on the bottom of your dish. Add in the mixture and spread out to an even cake. Let the cake sit in the fridge for a few hours. Serve with your favourite toppings.

Salmon and brussel sprout gratin

Once again I've got this recipe from http://undervarttak.blogspot.se. I think I'll be making quite a few other recipes from this website/blog this weekend. They have so many good ones.

Ingredients
serves 2-3
500 g salmon fillets
500 g fresh brussel sprouts
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon
50 ml chopped parsley
100 ml coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
Clean, half and pre-boil the brussel sprouts for about 4 minutes.
Pour out the water and pour a little bit of olive oil on them. Crush the garlic over the sprouts and mix around. Add in the parsley, salt and pepper and mix.
Get the skin of the salmon fillets and cut into cubes. Add the salmon to the brussel sprouts and carefully mix around. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
Pout everything into an ovenproof dish and pour over the coconut milk.
Cook in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Chicken and chorizo hotpot

This recipe comes from taste.com.au and I thought it seemed good so I decided to try it. Unfortunately I think I made a bit of a mistake when using tomato passata instead of chopped tomatoes and I feel the consistency of the sauce would've been slightly different. It still tasted really good though and it was quite simple to make. Well worth a try.

Ingredients
serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
1 chorizo sausage, thinly sliced
750 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3cm pieces
1 brown onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 x 400 g can chopped tomatoes
125 ml water
60 g green olives
Fresh continental parsley
Mixed salad leaves, to serve

Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, turning occasionally, for 2 minutes or until crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan. Add half the chicken and cook for 2 minutes or until browned. Transfer to the plate. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Add the onion and capsicum to the pan and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and paprika and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add the chorizo, chicken, tomato, water and olives. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in half the parsley. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with a mixed salad.

Paleo tortilla chips

I really love http://undervarttak.blogspot.se. They have so many good recipes. Today I decided to make their tortilla chips and they turned out to be really good.

Ingredients
500 ml almond flour
2 egg whites
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cummin powder
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp paprika powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
Put the almond flour in a bowl, add the egg whites and the all the spices. Mix with a hand mixer until the mixture turns doughy then use your hands to form a ball. Split the ball in half and roll out one half thinly between two sheets of baking paper. Peel off the top layer of baking paper and cut out the pattern of the tortilla chips so that they're easy to break apart when done. Bake in the top of the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until they're golden brown. Take out of the oven, break apart and let them cool on a wire rack. Then do the same with the next half.