This vanilla pudding is easy to make. It’s also auto-immune paleo friendly – no dairy, no refined sugars, no eggs – so it’s a good helper for anyone with Top 8 food allergies, FPIES, or eating carefully due to IBS/IBD. And though it technically contains a nut in the coconut ingredient, I’ve found in my pediatric nutrition practice that coconut is often tolerable for kids who are allergic to other nuts. This is a good helper for kids with food allergies who are looking for a treat but need to avoid junky ingredients.
So simple, just six ingredients, and simple to make. It has more of a custard feel and is sure to please. Enjoy this warm with a softer texture from the stove (perfect for older infants and young toddlers), or chill for an hour or two for classic firm pudding texture and a cooling treat. It’s also a serious calorie boost at about 360 calories per serving – a plus for picky eaters or kids with weak appetites who need a shortcut to daily intake goals for growth and gain.
Use coconut cream for pudding that will thicken faster, although canned whole full fat coconut milk works well too – just stir a little longer and if necessary add an extra teaspoon of arrowroot starch. Have fun with toppings: Organic roasted flax meal (this brand is my favorite, found some at Costco), crushed nuts, berries, or even chocolate chips (use this brand if you want a gluten, dairy and sugar free chocolate chip). If you haven’t used arrowroot starch before as a thickener, this brand has worked well for me and is in many supermarkets, but there are also organic options available. To keep it strictly casein and dairy free, and for optimum texture and taste, use ghee instead of butter. Lastly if you are avoiding Top 8 allergens be sure your vanilla flavoring is gluten free.
AIP Friendly Delicious Vanilla Pudding
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Ultimate delicious vanilla pudding. Or is it custard? Coconut cream is my preference for easy thickening and best flavor, but whole plain canned coconut milk works well too.
Ultimate delicious vanilla pudding. Or is it custard? Coconut cream is my preference for easy thickening and best flavor, but whole plain canned coconut milk works well too.
In a sauce pan over low-medium heat, combine the honey, arrowroot starch and salt. Stir continuously to combine evenly, about 3 minutes.
Add coconut milk and turn up to medium high heat. Stir continuously until thick and smooth, 5-8 minutes. Do not boil, and don't let the bottom burn.
Once thickened, reduce heat to low. Continue stirring while adding the vanilla and the ghee. Stir until all are combined evenly throughout.
Pour into individual serving cups. Add any desired toppings, allow cooling for a few minutes. Then cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge til firm. Option to enjoy the pudding warm from stove and less firm, if desired.
Cookies like Ginger Snaps or Snickerdoodles are a holiday tradition! This version lets anyone enjoy and participate with replacements for gluten, dairy products, and processed sugar. Choose soft and chewy with a shorter bake time, or make these more like a crisp ginger snap with a longer bake time.
I chose a flour blend in this case for a young client who was moving out of a food sensitivity for almond. We were slowly reintroducing almond sources while restoring gut biome and health. The blend of grain free flours with some almond flour helped make it a success, and the texture was perfect! You can also make this recipe using only almond flour for the full amount as shown here, if you want strict SCD, GAPS or Paleo compliance. And if almond butter doesn’t work, try sunflower butter or any other safe nut or seed butter. Sunflower butter is quite bitter when unsweetened, so consider adding a dash of stevia (either in glycerite drops or powder) if you would like to improve the flavor without affecting texture.
A perfectly spiced holiday cookie that works for most any elimination diet or food sensitivity. For SCD, GAPS or Paleo compliance, use only almond flour for the full 1 and 1/4 cups. Option to add colorful sprinkles to cookies just prior to bake, or stir in chocolate chips or chopped nuts too!
A perfectly spiced holiday cookie that works for most any elimination diet or food sensitivity. For SCD, GAPS or Paleo compliance, use only almond flour for the full 1 and 1/4 cups. Option to add colorful sprinkles to cookies just prior to bake, or stir in chocolate chips or chopped nuts too!
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two medium or one large baking sheets, line with parchment paper, and set aside.
Combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.
In a smaller bowl, use a sturdy wooden spoon to stir almond butter, honey, and vanilla extract. It will be stiff. Add almond milk as needed to make this whip smoothly into an even, thick liquid texture.
Mix wet ingredients into the dry and stir thoroughly to evenly combine. The dough will be very sticky.
Grease your palms with a small amount of coconut oil. Scoop spoonfuls of batter into your palms to make ~1" size balls. Place these about 2" apart on the cookie sheet. The coconut oil on your palms makes this task go more smoothly and gives the cookies a nice texture, add more to your palms as needed.
Bake time varies. For a soft chewy cookie, try an 8-10 minute bake time. For a crisp snap cookie, bake 12-15 minutes. Either way, bake until cookies begin to firm up on the outside.
Allow to cool for a few minutes on baking sheet before moving to a wire rack or serving plate. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
For SCD, GAPS or Paleo compliance, use only almond flour for the full 1 and 1/4 cups. Option to add colorful sprinkles to cookies just prior to bake, or stir in chocolate chips or chopped nuts too!
Chocolate? What’s not to love? This Chocolate Chia Pudding is so easy and so good. Unsweetened plain cocoa powder is one of my favorite foods to recommend for kids. Here’s why you should let your kids enjoy it:
It has a good mineral profile, providing zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and copper.
It is rich in polyphenols, which lend antioxidant power.
It might even help you boost good cholesterol – that is, the high density lipoprotein (HDL) that helps cholesterol work healthfully in the body.
It has an array of all macronutrients too, including protein, carbs, fiber, and fats.
Plain cocoa powder is unsweetened and has no cane sugar – which means you can get its health benefits when you use it in all sorts of recipes.
This Chocolate Chia Pudding recipe brings together a bunch of all-good ingredients, giving you a fast easy option to store bought sugary pudding cups. Besides cocoa powder, the recipe’s chia brings the pudding texture to life while delivering its own complement of minerals (potassium, calcium, Â phosphorus), omega 3 fats, protein, and fiber. Full fat canned coconut milk – another go to in many of my nutrition care plans – gives high calorie, easy to digest fats that work well for a fast-access energy boost, without sugar. These fats, called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), have an array of health benefits for heart health, weight loss, and even immune support. And good local organic honey – raw if your children are over a year old – will give antioxidants, more traces of minerals, and all the sweet you need.
For Paleo Chocolate Chia Pudding, just blend ingredients and chill – it will set in 1-3 hours. I’ve had some batches set quickly, while others take longer – in that case, I’ll add an extra spoonful of chia and give it another hour or more to set.
Paleo Chocolate Chia Pudding
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Rich and creamy, deep cocoa flavor, with soft texture of gelled chia seed. Enjoy!
In a blender, food processor, or with hand mixer, combine all ingredients but the chia seeds. Process until texture is smooth and all ingredients are evenly blended.
Fold in chia seeds, so that they are evenly distributed throughout the pudding mixture. Cover and place in refrigerator until firm.
If pudding hasn't set after two hours, stir in 1 more tablespoon chia seeds and allow another hour for it to set.
Oatmeal, tigernut flour, and chia are great foods for getting different types of fiber into our diets. Fiber is what helps build diversity in our gut microbiomes – and there is growing evidence that this is pivotal for preventing food allergy. It’s possible that microbiome therapies may help correct and treat food allergy too, along with many other conditions. But how do you get picky eaters to go there?
Cookies! Here’s an easy recipe to use all three of those foods in one. Tigernut flour is easy to work with and gives baked goods a warm earthy flavor and texture. Combined with oats ground in to flour, it makes an easy texture for a nice twist on the usual oatmeal cookie that anyone can enjoy. Even kids with conditions like Crohn’s disease, food allergy, celiac, or other inflammatory bowel conditions where sweets, eggs, dairy or gluten can wreak havoc will enjoy these cookies.
Everyone needs a cookie now and then! Pack these in your kids’ lunches or enjoy as snacks. No cane sugar, no eggs, lots of fiber and minerals. If your gang can roll with (GF CF no sugar) chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or raisins, add those too. Option to leave oats whole for coarse texture, or grind oats into a fine flour in a food processor for easier digestion in tender or toddler tummies. I have a mini-size food processor in my kitchen to make this task simple and fast. Lastly, see below for why stevia is included – here’s the one I recommend. It is pure organic plant extract, no fillers, in glycerite (not alcohol).
Oatmeal Tigernut Flour Cookies
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Soft, chewy, oat-y cookies that work with all kinds of elimination diets. See amazon links above for hard to find ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking sheet with coconut oil. Lay a piece of baking parchment on top. Set aside to soak for at least five minutes, or til other ingredients are ready.
Place the chia seeds in a cup or small bowl. Add the water, so that chia seeds are covered. Press any that stick to sides of cup or bowl down into the water with a spoon or spatula, so they can soak. Set aside.
Measure 1/4 gluten free oats and place in a food processor. Process into a fine flour. Use this in your dry ingredient mixture. Make sure it measures 1/4 cup when ground.
In a medium size bowl, mix together dry ingredients: Tigernut flour, oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Blend til evenly combined.
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients: Melted coconut oil, vanilla, honey, and stevia drops (why stevia? See note below!). Mix with electric mixer or whisk with a fork or whisk until these are evenly blended. Then add the soaked chia seeds. Stir until all are evenly blended.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, and combine all till evenly mixed. If you are adding chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins, stir these in now.
Place on baking sheet, bake x 15-20 minutes, til slightly browned on bottoms and tops. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
White chia seeds have a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids than black chia seeds - which have more protein than the white ones. The omega-3 fatty acids can have a bitter taste, hence the extra help from stevia in this recipe. If you want to go for the slightly bigger protein boost, use black chia seeds instead - they will look like poppy seeds in your final product, which some picky eaters may object to ("what are THOSE? I don't like 'bits'"). They white ones will disappear!
Tigernut flour is something I had heard of often, but never used, until I needed an option without almond flour, gluten, any grain flours, or nut flours. I also had to omit eggs in this case, which are substituted here with “chia eggs” – and it worked! This is a dense, moist bread, almost crumb cake like. If your kids are missing muffins on an elimination diet, give this a try in small muffin tins. I’ve baked it here as a sweet bread.
This tigernut flour recipe is easy on the gut – it’s compatible with auto-immune Paleo (AIP) and modified Specific Carbohydrate Diets (some SCD users can comfortably enjoy this flour).It’s low FODMAPS too – which means it may work for toddlers emerging from FPIES restricted diets. Of course, always check with your care team before going forward.
Tigernut flour is not from nuts at all, but from a root vegetable which is roasted then ground into a fine powder. Tigernuts were a food source for humans thousands of years ago! The flour yields a nutty earthy taste and texture. It’s a great source of gut-helping prebiotic fiber as well as minerals like iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium – plus some protein too.
This flour can be a little hard to find, but it can be had on line. In my region in Boulder, Colorado, I found it at my favorite Natural Grocers. It’s also always available on amazon and Organic Gemini Tiger Nut Flour is the brand I have tested in this recipe. If it just isn’t available, the recipe works well by using 2/3 cup potato starch flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, and 1/3 cup coconut flour instead (omit the oat flour).
Tigernut Blueberry Peach Breakfast Bread
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A moist, sweet, dense treat for breakfast or snacking. Bake in a bread pan or in small paper lined muffin tins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a bread loaf baking pan with coconut oil. Line with parchment paper.
Combine chia seed with water in a small bowl and set aside. Allow chia seeds to gel for at least five minutes while you prepare other ingredients.
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, mix to blend evenly.
In another bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, vanilla, almond milk, and honey. Then stir in the chopped peaches and softened blueberries, followed by the soaked chia seeds. Make sure fruit is room temperature or warm, otherwise it will cause melted coconut oil to harden and it won't blend well.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix til evenly combined.
Scoop batter into prepared baking pan. It will be sticky. Press to smooth to an even surface in the pan. Dust cinnamon lightly on top. Option to drizzle thin strand of pure maple syrup on top also, and spread into thin layer.
Bake x 30 minutes for bread, and 20 minutes for muffins. Top and edges should be browned and toothpick will come out clean except for fruit. Bread will have hollow sound when tapped and top will be firm.
Recipe Notes
For peaches, you can use canned as long as organic and thoroughly rinsed of all packing juices. You can use frozen thawed fruit as well if preferred.
Substitutions: If avoiding all grains and you would like to omit oatmeal, option to substitute oat flour with 1/4 potato starch flour and 1/4 cup tapioca flour; or, sub oat flour with 1/3 coconut flour instead for SCD compliance.
