Sunbutter and Jelly Muffins

So we have been trying to head towards a more primal way of eating. This works fine for the hubs and myself (especially since I started eating meat again after 16 years of vegetarianism) however for the kidlettes this is not so easy!!!!

When we really started cleaning up our diet the kids were starving all the time. No matter how much protein, veg, and fruit I gave them, I just couldn't keep them full. I am sure some kids do just fine eating paleo but my kids were miserable. And besides our oldest child's peanut allergy they seem to be unaffected by foods...with the exception if sugar! Sugar is avoided in the house.

So this weekend the kiddos and I made some yummy muffins for snacks this week. New that school is back in session, a morning snack is a must for our ever growing family.

I just threw these together but I am pretty sure of the measurements. I would not however recommend using grape jelly for this, as you will see in the pictures it did not hold up so well.

I think in the future I will use chia jelly, it is nice and thick and has zero sugar! (I will post that recipe next)

Any who... here are the ingredients
1/2c coconut oil
4 very ripe bananas
5 eggs
1/2c Sunbutter (or sub nut butter of your choice)
Blend these with the paddle attachment until nice and creamy

1 1/2c bleached white flour (sub as you wish with whole wheat, coconut or almond meal just make sure you add more eggs for coconut. I suggest looking up a blog in substitutions )
1/2t baking powder
1t baking soda
Pinch of salt

Mix wet and dry separately then slowly combine. I also added about 3T of chocolate chips. We use the enjoy life brand. They are nut, gluten, dairy and soy free! Love that company .

Scoop into greased muffins tins. I used coconut oil. Once all the spaces are filled use the back of a spoon or icecream scoop to make a well in the top of the batter. Then put a small spoon full of jelly/jam in them.

Bake at 375° for 25-30mins

I am refrigerating mine. Not sure how they would hold up at room temp with the jelly. Also Sunbutter turns a slight greenish color when baked so don't be alarmed.

Fresh & Local

Just wanted to share some pics of our local farm where we get our veggies. The farmers are friends of ours who are an inspiration to eat fresh and local!

Collard Wraps

I have made cabbage wraps a few times and I wanted to switch it up a bit, especially after I saw these beauties!

Collards from our favorite farm! They had a variety but these looked like the easiest to work with for wrapping.

Super easy to make and they were delish.

I cut the stem out of the leaves and placed a handful of the meat mixture in one half of the leaves, rolled and place into a baking dish.

Then I made a super simple sauce to put over the top.

Bake at 375° for 30-35 mins

Meat mixture...
I used 1lb ground chicken and 1lb ground beef
Coriander
Salt
Pepper
Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs

Sauce....
1 pint cherry tomatoes
4 large garlic cloves
1 red bell pepper
Olive oil (1/2 cup)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

After the meat is all mixed, place into one half of the collard leaves, wrap and place into baking dish. (I am terrible at measuring so season how you like it...if you really enjoy seasoned food add a 2-3 tsp of each seasoning, if you prefer mild seasoned food, start with just one tsp added to the meat mixture.)

For the sauce I just put everything in a jar and used an immersion blender, use what you have...blender, food processor or immersion blender. Then just pour over all the rolls.

Cover dish with foil and bake.

If you want you could serve this with some rice or mashed  potatoes...we ate it as is and it was amazing!

Hope you hit up your local farmers market or veggie stand while they are still open!

Grapeseed Oil Mayonnaise

So since we are venturing into a more cleaned up lifestyle I will be making our mayo. I have done this in the past but have slacked for some time in the totally homemade department.

This mayo is super light in flavor and is full of good stuff!

2 whole eggs
2 1/2c Grapeseed oil (olive oil would work great as well, but no EVOO)
1t salt
2t dry mustard
1t black pepper
1t Apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg)
1 t balsamic vinegar

Put the eggs, all the other ingredients and 1/4 cup of the oil in a blender or a container that an immersion blender will fit into. Let the eggs come to room temp...approx 30 mins.

Mix all the ingredients until creamy, then slowly, oh so slowly add in the oil. Make it a very thin stream. The egg mixture and the oil will homogenize and make you a delish mayo. This  will take approx 5-7mins.

Put into a jar and refrigerate for 2 weeks.

I used about 1/2 cup of the mayo added a tiny bit of  grass milk (cows fed only grass) and some fresh tarragon and blended to make a dip. This is the jar on the right.

Enjoy :)

Wow, have I been out of it for a while! I will be posting again soon I swear. Summer is almost upon us so there will be less running from place to place and more relaxing with yummy food. New adventures are bound to take place and new recipes to invent. Our family is trying to gradually work into a Paleolithic diet, so much of the new posts will be based on the "caveman diet". Yummy stuff to come...

Pink Slime???

This post is just a rant of sorts...Who the heck decided our food should be so depleted of all natural ingredients?  "Pink Slime" (abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/is-pink-slime-in-the-beef-at-your-grocery-store/) are you kidding me!  It is so sad to me that people can't just walk into their local store and find foods that are one local, but two actually what they are supposed to be...unaltered, grown in nature, non-GMO (nongmoproject.org), and what is says on the label.  I mean even food that says "natural" can also include chicken that has been grown only indoors without ever seeing the light of day, that has then been injected with salt water or "natural juices" as they call it.  I just really can't believe some human being said let's take all the left over parts from the cows that aren't even considered meat and wash it with ammonia and then grind it all up and mix it with ground beef and feed it to people who have NO IDEA...what a great idea!  Who does stuff like that?  Who thinks it's ok to label food as "ground beef" when it is really nothing of the sort.  What I really want to know is, do the people who come up with that sort of awful idea actually eat the food?  Do Monsanto (see non gmo info above) employees actually buy their corn and use it at summer bbq's, or do they grow their own organic corn so someday they won't grow a 6th toe?  Do the people who came up with the wonderful idea of "pink slime" feed their kids beef/ammonia/ligament "hamburgers" for dinner?

I just wish food could be like in "the olden days" when food was just that, real, organic, raised in a pasture, pure and simple food.  Don't get me wrong, I buy pre-made pasta, and rice, and grains that have been ground for me.  I also occasionally use food coloring and I love dairy products.  But can't they just all be grown and made humanely and ethically, so they actually benefit the people that eat them, not potentially harm them?

Soft and Chewy Granola Bars

Don't you want a bite!

I have tried a few granola bar recipes over the last year or so, and I have never quite been pleased with them.  They are either too dry, too hard or didn't have enough flavor.  So I thought I'd give it a shot and try my own mix of good stuff.  One of our kids has nut allergies, so I needed to find some good seeds that were not processed with nuts (this is hard to do) and I finally did...there is this raw food section at Fred Meyer and they have pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and all kids of other goodies that are allergy friendly.

First I put all the dry ingredients into one bowl and mixed it all around, in a separate bowl I put all the wet ingredients...make sure to let the butter cool just a bit before you add it to the eggs so it doesn't partially cook them. On a side note, I cracked into an egg while making these the other day and it was bloody!  It was awful, I thought I may vomit and cry all at the same time, but the kids were helping so I just quickly discarded the entire bowl of ingredients and started over.  Note to self, always crack eggs into a separate container!

Give a little stir here just to incorporate all the ingredients so there isn't a big clump of anything.

This picture is just to show what steel cut oats look like, I was a little surprised when I opened the container for the first time.  They are mild flavored like rolled oats, but they have a much chewier texture, I think they are a great addition to a granola bar.

When you add the wet ingredients the mixture should be pretty wet, almost like a no bake cookie batter.

Use a spatula or your hand to spread the mixture onto a parchment lined cookie sheet...this mixture will cover about 3/4 of a jell roll pan, or if you like a thicker bar, use an 11x13 baking dish.

These are nice and chewy, but dense enough to fill you up.  I have tried a few different variations, and this is my favorite.  I also make a protein bar for my hubby and I'll add those extra ingredient on to the end of the recipe if anyone is interested.  Of course try to use as much organic ingredients as you can find I don't want to write organic on every ingredient list if you read the intro to the blog you get it...happy baking!

Dry mix

3/4c steel cut oats

2c rolled oats

2/3c ground flax meal

2/3c whole grain flour of your choice

1/3c pumpkin seeds

1/3c sunflower seeds

1/4c flax seeds

1/4c chia seeds

1/4c dried fruit (cranberries or raisins)

2/3c unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2t ground ginger

1/4t ground nutmeg

1/2t cinnamon

1/4c sucanat (see pic at bottom of page)

2t salt

*for protein bar add 3 scoops of whey protein powder of your choice

Wet mix

3 eggs

1/3c light agave nectar

1/4c light flavored oil (I use evoo)

1/2c raw honey

2T melted butter

1/3c sunbutter (or any nut butter you like)

*for protein bar add an extra egg or extra nut butter

Bake at 325* for 25mins in a jelly roll pan, if you use a baking dish they will bake for 30-35mins.

 

Here's the sucanat pic, it has a nice light sweetness.

This is my favorite sunbutter because it is made in a designated nut free facility.