Gluten Free Coconut Pancakes

Fluffy Gluten Free Pancakes! 

Some people crave sweets, such as chocolate, candies, or salty foods like chips and fried foods. My personal weakness is pancakes. Fluffy, melt in your mouth pancakes. The kind that you just want to savor and enjoy. My family will tell you that I have been on this quest for a while. We used to eat strictly  paleo, and the one thing that I missed was pancakes. 

We still eat very healthy and avoid processed foods, cooking everything from scratch. I really don't define myself by any diet at the moment. My hashimoto's has kept me gluten free, dairy free, and nut free for sometime.  One thing I never gave up on was finding a pancake recipe that would be a staple Saturday recipe. 

Finally, I made one really worth sharing!! Best of all it is fairly simple, and easy to make. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/3 cup potato flour
• 2 tbls and 2 tps of tapioca flour
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut un-sweetened.
• 1/4 tsp of Xanthan gum i
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of lite canned coconut.
• 3 tablespoons of butter melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoon of maple syrup

Directions: 

Mix first seven dry ingredients in a large bowl. Slowly add coconut milk, 1 egg, melted butter, extract and maple syrup. Stir until all mixed. Scoop 1/3 of a cup of the batter onto a hot skillet. It would be fine to use either coconut oil or butter to grease the skillet. 

Makes around 15 pancakes. 

 Here are some shots from my camera phone, we added banana's in the skillet when we were done, and browned them for a minute and then topped our pancakes with them. It tasted amazing! 

Coconut Avocado Smoothie

This last year I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's a thyroid autoimmune disease, that leaves me exhausted all the time. Although, I had been on a Paleo diet, I was not diligent with staying away from gluten, and was doing a lot of my baking with almond flour and other kinds of nut flours. Slowly, while doing paleo type diet 95% of the time, I gained weight. I also began to lose all of my energy, to where it  was hard for me to even get out of bed. Literally, I felt like I was slowly dying.

After a trip to the doctor, the blood labs came back with an elevated TPO antibodies. It has always been my goal not to take any medications, even advil.  My doctor agreed with me, in not taking the medication for the time being, and I am giving my body a couple of months before I go into an endocrinologist to get more test done.

In my decision to not take medication, I have felt tired and wiped out. Around 3:00 p.m., is when I feel most tapped out and ready to go take a nap. Feeling groggy, with no energy, unable to even form a thought. I have been fighting through it, the best I know how.

There has been a lot of changes that I have made to my diet. Adapting to my body. Now, gluten is not even an option. It activates my antibodies to attack my thyroid for weeks to months, putting me at a higher risk of thyroid cancer. Soy, is another poison that I dare not touch. Strawberries have been eliminated and the list can go on.

Where I used to eat bacon, eggs, and coffee for breakfast, and still find myself hungry an hour later, I now have been drinking a smoothie, that fills me up for hours and gives me a boost of energy that last several hours too. This energy is incredible, and I feel amazing instantaneously. My husband (who used to hate everything that would make up this drink) has been drinking it as well, and is trading in his morning breakfast for this smoothie too.

Although, my new diet habits are evolving, I no longer consider myself paleo, but still do eat very close to that. Diets have never worked for me, but eating as healthy as I can, without depriving myself, has always been key. Our goal is to have another baby, and I know that my health is upmost important. Crash dieting will not solve my health problems, but listening to my body, to how food makes me feel, how exercising make me feel, will. I may not be at the weight have been at in my past, but I am happy now, and will honor and cherish this body. When I drink this shake, I feel like I am doing exactly that. Cherishing my body.

Here is my morning shake, (from Living Without)

• 1  ripe Avocado
• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1 cup of coconut milk ( in a carton, not a can)
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 1/2 a lime juiced
• 2 tablespoons of fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon of local honey
• Dash of  Kosher salt

Throw it all into the blender and mix on high until smooth.

Chocolate Magic hard shell ice cream topping

I am a sucker for hard shell ice cream. Before I realized that I was lactose intolerant Dairy Queen's dipped ice cream cones was my favorite treat in the world. A weakness of mine during pregnancy. My husband would take me to get one almost everyday when I was expecting my daughter Emma. 


It was kind of sad when we gave up chocolate syrups, and hard shell dipped ice creams. I had a sigh of relief when coconut ice cream showed up to my local grocery store. Perhaps, I even sang some hallelujah's out loud in the grocery store isle in my head!


This month in my bon appetite magazine I found a recipe for BombeBasticks. They looked so good I had to make them, and best of all they fit into our allowed non gluten/ non dairy cheats.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. ( I used a bag of dark chocolate chips)
• 1/3 cup of coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Directions:


Combine dark chocolate and coconut oil in a medium metal bowl, and set over a medium saucepan with boiling water. Stir Chocolate until melted. Remove from hear and add cinnamon and lemon zest. Let slightly cool and pour on top with a spoon on your ice cream. Garnish with pistachios, or almonds!

Note: The recipe called for 8 sugar cones and 2 pints of ice cream. In which she coated the scoops of ice cream. We did not do this. With the excess, I made little chocolates. Pouring the melted chocolate in molds, and then we froze the molds to let the chocolate set! 

Fried egg on sweet potato hash

Seeing that it has been a while since my last post, I thought thought that I should post something up really quickly. 

This recipe is one that we made several weeks ago. The inspiration came from a food magazine, of coarse in my quest to make it healthier, the mayonnaise is homemade, and the salsa is a fresh organic brand from whole foods.

This dish is a perfect Saturday, or Sunday brunch, and would the perfect crowd pleaser!

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise~

• 1/2 cup of mayonnaise (homemade if you like)
• 3 tablespoons of salsa
• 1 teaspoon of lemon

Hash~

• 3 small to medium sweet potatoes
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, or coconut oil
• 1 cup of onion (diced)
• 2 Anaheim Chilis, cored, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup of red bell pepper (diced)
• 2 tablespoons of minced fresh garlic
• 1 jalapeños
• 2 tablespoons of cilantro
• 2 teaspoons of oregano
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 6 eggs

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix all ingredients for the mayonnaise.
2. Peel sweet potatoes and dice them. Cook in boiling water until firm/tender. About 3 to 5 minutes. Dreain and set aside and in a large nonstick skillet heat 3 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. Cook onion, red pepper, and diced chiles. Stir frequently on medium heat for 15 minutes. Add in garlic and jalapeños. Cook for about 2 more minutes and then transfer to a plate.
3. Increase the heat to medium high, and add the rest of the oil. Add in potatoes and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes until brown. Return onion and pepper to mix, stir in cilantro, oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Remove from heat, and mix in mayonnaise mixture. Stir in transfer to a plate. 
4. Fry 6 eggs, that will top servings of hash. 

Serve and enjoy!!

Spaghetti Zucchini Squash Limone Parmeggiano.

I am completely obsessed with zucchini and squash, the God sent replacement to pasta. Everything italian has recently been making the rounds at our house, thanks to this super vegetable that subs as a great pasta. Best part about it is that the kids actually love the taste and ask for more. So no complaints here, except that it does not nearly make enough to go around for seconds.

The recipe that I made tonight is an adaptation from Gwyneth Paltrow's "my father's daughter"  cookbook. For me it is fun to adapt recipes to fit my gluten free life style. Recently, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's so eating healthy has become not just important to our family, but vital for the health and happiness of my family. This diet is strict, no iodine salt, no gluten, no sugar, no coffee, no caffeine, and the list goes on. My choices have been greatly limited, but it has been nice to finally have an answer to so many health problems that I have had over the years. (no ranting here, seriously it is fun to give up coffee)

Spaghetti Zucchini Squash Limone Parmeggiano.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of fresh leaf spinach
• 4 zucchini
• 2 squash
• 1 juice of a lemon
• a dash of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup of fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher Salt
• 1 1/2 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese (optional) Paleo friends just substitute chicken or shrimp :-)

Directions:

Wash zucchini, squash, and spinach. Slice off the end of the zucchini, and then use your vegetable peeler to peel length wise on the zucchini and squash. While you are peeling, sauté spinach in a large skillet, with the olive oil. Add noodles, juice of the lemon, salt, pepper, and cook for 8 minutes on medium. Add basil, and remove from heat. Transfer into a serving dish, then add Parmesan cheese, and toss until the cheese has melted. 


Serve and enjoy!

Chicken Deviled Egg Salad

Who doesn't love Chicken Salad and Egg Salad!!! There are foods that I have craved after giving up gluten and chicken salad was one of those! Although, this version is served in eggs, it was a great lunch and the our kids loved to snack on them through the week. Chicken salad is a great source of protein, and full of omega 3's and 6's, which are essential fatty acids building blocks that the body needs. This recipe is great for lunch dinner, or a snack! Just make sure to double up this recipe, it is sure to disappear fast!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups diced poached chicken,
• 1 teaspoons of fresh dill
• 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
• Dash pepper
• 1 tablespoon of honey Dijon mustard, plus one teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
• 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, plus one tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup thinly diced celery
• 2 green onions diced
• Dash paprika
• 7 eggs

Directions:

• Fill a sauce pan with water and add 7 eggs. Boil eggs for 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Run under cool water and peel shells, and slice length wise. In a small bowl spoon egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, paprika and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Mix thoroughly, as you would deviled eggs. 
• 
  
• Dice chicken, celery, green onions and dill. Toss in a medium sized bowl, and add Mayonnaise, Dijon, lemon, salt and pepper. Stir in egg mixture, and spoon into the hard boiled eggs. 

Serve and enjoy!

Rainbow Carrots

 Several weeks ago, I was surfing the internet as I usually do, looking at photos of food blogs that are a joy to look at, primarily for the gorgeous photos of yummy food that makes you crave it that second! Primarily I go, just to look at the photos of course. All the love and skilled creativity that goes into food blogs. The staging of the meal, the lighting, and how some dishes seem to pop out and say Make Me Now and then Eat Me!


While looking for our Easter Dinner, (I had decided that carrots would be the best themed menu for this year), I found the most amazing photos of Rainbow Carrots at Family Fresh Cooking. And yes these carrots screamed Eat Me, ASAP.


So off to the market I went to buy my own batch of Rainbow Carrots, and to my surprise my trustee whole foods market did not have them in stock. Sadly, realizing that rainbow carrots would not possible happen for Easter Dinner, I headed to my corner grocery market for some last minute items, and there they were. Flashing the brilliant colors of purple, red, orange, and yellow. In my head I was singing hallelujah.


Yes, I know it may seem funny, or even trivial, that I get this excited about food, and carrots for that matter. But I do. And it was fun taking the photos. The colors were gorgeous, and they tasted amazing. With just a touch of garlic to the melted Kerrygold Butter, and then slow roasted to perfection.

Ingredients:

• 1Batch of Rainbow Carrots
• 2 Tablespoons of melted Kerrygold Butter
• 2 teaspoons of Garlic Seasoning
• Fresh Thyme (optional)

Directions:

Set to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter and add in spices. Wash/ dry, and cut off the tops of the carrots. Place carrots on parchment paper, and with a rubber brush, start to brush on butter mixture on to the carrots. Make sure to turn the carrots while brushing. I roasted mine for about 45 minutes, but times may vary. 


Serve and Enjoy!