No reason to miss out on healthy carb treats for your kids. Treats don’t have to be sugary junk. This is a moist and festive quick bread, great for packing into lunches or after school snack. Remember, kids need carbs to grow and gain as much as they need protein and fats. Turn this satisfying and nourishing treat up a notch to extra special mode (and add a protein boost too), when you bake as muffins and spread with my Paleo Honey Butter Cream Frosting.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan (or muffin tins) and dust with your flour of choice. Lining the loaf pan with baking parchment, if available, or your muffin tins with paper cups, makes for easier removal after baking but isn't crucial.
Blend flour mix, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon, stevia, and spices, baking powder and set aside.
In a mixer, cream butter until pale or nearly white.
Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, then add eggs one at a time and blend evenly. If the mixture looks cracked, add 1 or 2 Tablespoons of your dry ingredient blend to the bowl, and stir til smooth.
Stir in pumpkin puree, then add dry ingredients and alternate with milk substitute until all are blended together smoothly.
Stir in your choice of chopped nuts, chocolate chips or raisins. Bake the loaf for 1 hour. Small loaves may be done in 25 minutes, or muffins in 15-10 minutes.
Recipe Notes
For muffins, grease a muffin or cupcake tin and dust with your choice of GF or Paleo flour. Reduce baking time to 18-25 minutes, longer for larger muffins and less for smaller ones. Test for doneness with toothpick, which should come out clean. Cool on baking rack and frost with Paleo Honey Buttercream Frosting. If nuts of any type can't be added to the batter, try Lily's GF CF stevia sweetened chocolate chips, raisins, or Enjoy Life GF CF chocolate chips.
There’s no reason why kids – any kids – can’t eat good, real food. Adapted from a New York Times recipe, this recipe is modified for allergy by omitting all bovine dairy and all gluten sources. Manchego (sheep’s) cheese is the substitute for stronger Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses. The spice is dropped for kids’ palates here too, by omitting Tabasco and using the milder (and less allergenic) Manchego. The result is a pleasing, easy to eat, nourishing meal that kids with feeding or texture issues can enjoy.
Tuna Manchego Souffle
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Your kids can feel fancy and enjoy a truly nourishing, restorative food in this dish. Use straight-sided ramekins for baking; use four 1.5 cup capacity ramekins for four adult servings, or six 1 cup capacity for six toddler size servings. I find that Manchego cheese from Spain is routinely available at my local Costco.
Your kids can feel fancy and enjoy a truly nourishing, restorative food in this dish. Use straight-sided ramekins for baking; use four 1.5 cup capacity ramekins for four adult servings, or six 1 cup capacity for six toddler size servings. I find that Manchego cheese from Spain is routinely available at my local Costco.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using wax paper or paper towel, grease bottoms and sides of your ramekins with ghee. Place them in the refrigerator to chill before baking.
Melt a tablespoon of the ghee in a saucepan, and add onion. Cook on medium heat til softened, 2-3 minutes. Add finely minced tuna and stir til warmed through. Remove it from heat and set aside on a plate or cutting board. Don't let the tuna onion mixture dry out by overheating.
In a 1 quart sauce pan, bring almond and coconut milks to barely a simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside.
Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan and add GF flour blend. Stir rapidly with a wire whisk to smooth, blended texture. Then add warm milk, and whisk rapidly until the mixture is thick and smooth.
Blend the starch (tapioca, potato, or arrowroot) with the water to an even smooth blend in a small cup. Add it to the simmering mixture. Whisk in the mustard, Worcestershire, cayenne, salt and pepper. The mixture should be thick and smooth but not sticky. If it is too thin, remove a half cup of mixture to a small dish and add a half teaspoon more starch. Blend to thicken, then add this back to the pot, and stir steadily on medium high heat until it thickens.
Add egg yolks and continue briskly whisking the mixture for a few seconds, then remove it from heat.
In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Stir grated cheese into the warm mixture, then add about a third of the beaten egg whites. Stir quickly until well blended. Then add the rest of the egg whites and fold them in gently with a rubber spatula.
Fill chilled souffle dishes to about 3/4 full. Arrange dishes on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake 20 minutes, until well puffed and golden brown on top. Serve immediately.
Can’t eat cane sugar, coconut sugar, or any granulated sugar? Or gluten? Or dairy? Need a chocolate cake? Try this recipe, sweetened with honey and applesauce. The result is a moist, dense, chocolatey intersection between brownies and cake.
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 9" baking pan on bottom and sides with coconut oil, and dust lightly with cocoa powder.
In a small bowl, blend flour and xanthan gum and set aside.
In a mixer, beat 2 eggs, honey, and salt until thick and uniform.
Add coconut oil (preferably soft but not liquid), vanilla, applesauce, and stevia to the honey mixture and blend well.
Add cocoa powder and stir until evenly blended, then stir in GF flour blend.
Separate whites from 3 eggs. Blend the whites to soft peaks in a separate bowl. You don't need the yolks for this recipe. Store them in refrigerator for another purpose, and use with 48 hours.
Fold egg whites gently into the rest of the batter until evenly mixed; stir as little as possible to blend these in.
Bake at 350 x 35 minutes or until knife in center comes out clean. Serve warm with coconut whipped cream, fresh raspberries, or cherry-raspberry sauce. No frosting needed!
Recipe Notes
This recipe emphasizes the flavor of dark cocoa over the sweet. Adjust it to your taste by increasing stevia; for a sweeter version, try 1/4 teaspoon of SweetLeaf Organic Stevia Powder if you prefer. For serving with coconut whipped cream, try this recipe - though I like it with much less stevia (5 drops instead of 25 drops). This Cherry-Raspberry sauce is also delightful with Honey Brownie Cake. For a Paleo-friendly version of this recipe, substitute 1/2 cup coconut flour and 1/2 cup almond flour for the GF flour blend.
This old-timey dessert is one I modified from my dog-eared 1979 edition of Joy of Cooking, given to me when I was an undergraduate in nutrition at the University of Vermont. There were no cookbooks then specific to particular diets – except Diet For A Small Planet, and a few other vegetarian titles (yep, had those too). But this encyclopedic tome has served me across the decades to dig up amazing and obscure recipes, some to modify, and others fabulous just as they were back then.
When my son had wisdom teeth removed, I had to find ways to give a high calorie, high nourishment, pureed or soft diet. No sucking on straws allowed, no chewing, nothing too hot or cold. And nothing with gluten, casein, whey, tree nuts (except almond), peanut, soy, legumes (except lentils), cane sugar, coconut sugar, or maple sugar – all foods that trigger reactions in his case. Here is one that became a home run.
Paleo Lemon Sponge Custard
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Happy balance of bright lemon and sweet honey. Use oven proof glass or ceramic ramekins for baking the custard. Use 1.5 cup capacity ramekins for four servings or 1 cup capacity for six servings. You can also use a single 7" oven proof dish and fill to ~2" depth. Grease these with butter, ghee or coconut oil ahead of time and place in refrigerator, so they are chilled when you fill them for baking.
Happy balance of bright lemon and sweet honey. Use oven proof glass or ceramic ramekins for baking the custard. Use 1.5 cup capacity ramekins for four servings or 1 cup capacity for six servings. You can also use a single 7" oven proof dish and fill to ~2" depth. Grease these with butter, ghee or coconut oil ahead of time and place in refrigerator, so they are chilled when you fill them for baking.
Preheat oven to 350. Grease ramekins on bottoms and sides. Place in refrigerator until ready to fill.
Cream honey, butter (or ghee or coconut oil) and lemon rind to smooth consistency.
Separate the eggs, and set whites aside in small mixing bowl with tall sides. Add yolks and stevia to the honey mixture and beat well.
Stir in GF flour, and blend well; then stir in lemon juice, blend again; then add coconut milk and stir to evenly mixed.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in the bowl you've set aside. Fold them gently into the honey mixture until blended but still puffy.
Pour the custard mixture into ramekins, to 2/3 full. Place all in a large baking pan or dish. Add ~1/2 to 1" hot tap water to the baking pan (not in the custard ramekins) and bake x 40-45 minutes.
When done, custards will be browned slightly more at edges than centers. Enjoy warm or cold. Delicious with cherry-raspberry sauce, link below.
Chicken Pot Pie is so 1964. 1954? Whatever it is, I had a craving for it recently with our bout of cold weather. I’m not sure if I’ve ever made it before, and I didn’t dig up a recipe. I figured, who cares? I knew I had some good left over roast chicken, extra broth from that chicken, plus the vegetables I thought might work well. If you have the time, try this warm, hearty home cooked treat. Gluten free for my family, of course.
You’ll need to make or buy your pie crust. I don’t mind making a pie crust. I keep my flour canister full of Bette Hagman blend for baking, and substitute it cup for cup for wheat flour. Making my own crust takes extra time, and it doesn’t always turn out perfectly. But (again), who cares? It always tastes delicious and the love that goes into it feels good to me. I made this chicken pot pie with a crust on bottom and top, in a regular pie dish. I pre-baked my bottom crust for about 10 minutes. You can also make chicken pot pie by using a deep casserole dish in which you place the filling directly, and lay your pie dough on top. This is how I’ve written the recipe below. My go-to pie crust recipe comes from Rebecca Reilly’s Gluten Free Baking, page 183. If you’re using a store bought crust, let it thaw to room temperature and lay it over your pot pie before baking, with some holes pierced in it for steam to escape.
Prepare your pie dough first. Mix the gluten free flour blend, sweet rice flour, and dash of salt in a big bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and drop them in to the dry mix. Use 2 forks, or your fingers, or a mixer to work the butter into the dry ingredients until it forms a coarse meal. In the center, make a well. Break the egg into the well. Add the vinegar. Stir the egg and vinegar from the center and gradually work it into all the dough, until it is soft. Place in fridge while you prepare your pie filling.
Melt the ghee or coconut oil in a big skillet. Place the mushrooms in with a dash of salt. Saute until these cook down, about 10 minutes. Add onion, garlic, carrots, and chicken broth. Cook on medium high heat until nearly soft. Remove about 1/4 cup of the broth and mushroom liquid into a small bowl, and whisk in the GF flour or tapioca starch, to form a thick smooth paste. Once it is smooth, add it back to the skillet. Continue stirring to thicken the entire mixture. Add the chicken, frozen peas, nutmeg, pepper, and more salt to taste. Turn off heat, and stir to mix all ingredients thoroughly. Cover and set aside.
Roll out your dough on a GF floured surface or on GF floured wax paper, to 1/4" thickness. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture into a deep casserole dish oiled with olive oil. Lay pie crust over the mixture, crimp edges, and poke a few holes in with a fork to allow steam to escape.
Place in a 350 oven for 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. You may want to place a cookie sheet on rack under the pot pie, to capture any sizzling drippings that bubble over as it bakes.
No reason to miss out on healthy carb treats for your kids. Treats don’t have to be sugary junk. This is a moist and festive quick bread, great for packing into lunches or after school snack. Remember, kids need carbs to grow and gain as much as they need protein and fats. Turn this satisfying and nourishing treat up a notch to extra special mode (and add a protein boost too), when you bake as muffins and spread with my Paleo Honey Butter Cream Frosting.
