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Holiday Snickerdoodles – Grain Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free

Holiday Snickerdoodles – Grain Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free

Dec 23, 2021 | Uncategorized

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.

Holiday Snickerdoodles - Grain Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free
Print Recipe
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!
Servings Prep Time
20 cookies 15 minutes
Passive Time
8-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
20 cookies 15 minutes
Passive Time
8-12 minutes
Holiday Snickerdoodles - Grain Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free
Print Recipe
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!
Servings Prep Time
20 cookies 15 minutes
Passive Time
8-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
20 cookies 15 minutes
Passive Time
8-12 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two medium or one large baking sheets, line with parchment paper, and set aside.
  2. Combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.
  3. 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.
  4. Mix wet ingredients into the dry and stir thoroughly to evenly combine. The dough will be very sticky.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!

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Oatmeal Tigernut Cookies – GF CF AIP

Oatmeal Tigernut Cookies – GF CF AIP

May 16, 2021 | Uncategorized

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
Print Recipe
Soft, chewy, oat-y cookies that work with all kinds of elimination diets. See amazon links above for hard to find ingredients.
Servings Prep Time
12-15 cookies 20 minutes
Passive Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12-15 cookies 20 minutes
Passive Time
20 minutes
Oatmeal Tigernut Flour Cookies
Print Recipe
Soft, chewy, oat-y cookies that work with all kinds of elimination diets. See amazon links above for hard to find ingredients.
Servings Prep Time
12-15 cookies 20 minutes
Passive Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
12-15 cookies 20 minutes
Passive Time
20 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. In a medium size bowl, mix together dry ingredients: Tigernut flour, oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Blend til evenly combined.
  5. 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.
  6. Stir wet ingredients into dry, and combine all till evenly mixed. If you are adding chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins, stir these in now.
  7. 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!

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Cool Vanilla Weight Gain Pudding – Paleo and SCD

Cool Vanilla Weight Gain Pudding – Paleo and SCD

Feb 10, 2021 | Uncategorized

Weight gain is something many kids I meet need to work on. But so often, strategies include allergens or other problematic foods that they can’t have: Milk protein (casein), eggs, ice cream, full fat yogurt, cream, Pediasure (that’s milk protein), cane sugar…. What to do?

Shakes, puddings and liquid boost drinks are a great way to do it. Use this hypoallergenic short cut pudding that is full of protein, healthy fats, and some SCD legal carbs and proteins too. Don’t skip the crushed ice in the bottom of your mixing container, it gives a refreshing coolness to the whole recipe!

Cool Vanilla Weight Gain Pudding - Paleo and SCD
Print Recipe
Cool and soothing, not to mention a big hit of easy to digest calories that help rather than hurt healthy gut bacteria. This will yield as much as 500 calories per serving (recipe makes two generous servings) depending on the size of avocado you are using.
Servings Prep Time
2 ~5-6 oz servings 8 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 ~5-6 oz servings 8 minutes
Cool Vanilla Weight Gain Pudding - Paleo and SCD
Print Recipe
Cool and soothing, not to mention a big hit of easy to digest calories that help rather than hurt healthy gut bacteria. This will yield as much as 500 calories per serving (recipe makes two generous servings) depending on the size of avocado you are using.
Servings Prep Time
2 ~5-6 oz servings 8 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 ~5-6 oz servings 8 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: ~5-6 oz servings
Instructions
  1. Place crushed ice in the bottom of blender or tall quart mixing jar or container (in which case you'll need an immersion blender). Add remaining ingredients on top. Blend all together until smooth and evenly blended into pudding texture.
  2. Spoon into single serving Pyrex cups or bowls. Sprinkle nutmeg on top for garnish and flavor.
  3. If a drinkable version is ideal, add water until thinned to desired degree. This will reduce calories per serving.
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SCD Apple Banana Cake

SCD Apple Banana Cake

Feb 10, 2021 | Uncategorized

SCD eaters have a hard time finding carbs that are comfortable and safe to eat – especially the ones I know, who are little – but this SCD legal Apple Banana Cake is a problem solver!

The problem with SCD for kids is that it can stunt growth. Those are fightin’ words I know! But, when children eat a high protein, high fat, low carb diet (as was true for the infamous Atkins diet of the ’80s), they will not only not gain weight very well, they may not grow well either – even when they eat ample daily total calories.

Why is this? Because little humans need carbohydrates for growth. Carbs protect protein for other tasks during growth. They also help build a healthy gut biome, when the right carbs are eaten. When kids go keto, they are using protein and ketones for energy. Protein is a lousy fuel source. Relying on it day after day will overburden kidney. Ketones (as you probably know) are a great fuel source. While this works great for adults and anyone who does not need to lose weight, it doesn’t work so well for children who need to gain weight and correct a growth pattern that has flattened. Ketones can also suppress appetite, making it even harder to eat the amounts of food children need to repair growth patterns

Once you get past Intro, Stage 1 and Stage 2 of SCD, try this recipe. I took extra care to cook apples before baking them in to the cake (a tool like this, if you don’t already have one, makes the core/cut/peel part of the task fast and easy). If you’re further along in the Stages of SCD, you may be fine putting cut raw apples into the bake. If you don’t have time to cook the apples, use SCD legal applesauce (2 cups).

I also took extra caution with the orange juice, and fresh-squeezed my own for the recipe (with one of these – makes this job a snap too, and many versions abound. I’ve had mine for over 30 years and it’s still going strong). Or, you can use any store bought SCD legal OJ instead (Whole Foods 365 fresh squeezed for example) to save time.

The third thing I was careful to do was grind the pumpkin seeds into meal before adding to the recipe. Again, SCDers who are stable, past early phases, and not trying to resolve active symptoms may be able to skip that step and just place the seeds in the batter.

Ok enough tips – bake and enjoy. This is moist and yummy, almost like a kugel, minus the grains and sugar!

SCD Apple Banana Cake
Print Recipe
Moist, rich, delicious...like a kugel or bread pudding - but Paleo and SCD legal!
Servings Prep Time
9 3 inch pieces 90 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
9 3 inch pieces 90 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
SCD Apple Banana Cake
Print Recipe
Moist, rich, delicious...like a kugel or bread pudding - but Paleo and SCD legal!
Servings Prep Time
9 3 inch pieces 90 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
9 3 inch pieces 90 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: 3 inch pieces
Instructions
  1. Grease a 9 inch square baking pan with coconut oil or ghee, and line with parchment baking paper. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Place pumpkin seeds in a food processor. Grind to fine meal. Add this to a medium size bowl and combine with dry ingredients: Almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda, raw maca powder.
  3. In a separate bowl or in a stand mixer bowl, combine eggs, honey, vanilla. Beat til smooth and evenly mixed.
  4. Core and peel apples (a coring tool makes this easy). Slice thin and then chop into smaller pieces. Sauté these in ghee in coconut oil, and add orange juice. Cover and simmer til bubbling soft, about 15 minutes.
  5. Mash banana to gloppy liquid in another bowl. Add the cooked apples (or applesauce) to the banana mash, and stir both to mix together evenly.
  6. Add the banana/apple mixture to the wet ingredients, and stir to evenly combine everything.
  7. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, stir til evenly mixed. Batter will be thick and wet. Spoon into baking pan. Bake for one hour, til top is browned and cake has begun pulling from edges of pan. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes

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Creamy Dairy Free Paleo Vanilla Pudding

Creamy Dairy Free Paleo Vanilla Pudding

Aug 25, 2017 | Uncategorized

If nobody ever made made scratch pudding for you when you were a kid, you’re in for a treat. This is so deliciously yummy and it’s completely dairy, gluten, and sugar free. Ghee in this recipe is important, even though there are plenty of other fats; ghee is okay for most kids in my practice with dairy allergy (I say “most” because I can’t find any I’ve worked with who couldn’t have ghee due to dairy IgE, but check with your allergist if you’re not sure in your own child’s case). This is also a great option for yogurt, sugar, and smooth-food junkies who need some more nourishing options besides sugary low fat dairy products. But most of all, it is just Really. Good. Pudding.

This recipe isn’t mine. It comes from Our Paleo Life (where you should poke around for even more recipes) – I’ve made it several times. I get perplexing results because sometimes it doesn’t set well, even though I follow the same exact steps. I’ve modified the recipe to enhance  odds for setting better. I’ve also added some stevia to even out the sweetness and removed steps to strain lumps from the pudding. I’ve had no lumps at all each time I’ve made this recipe without straining, so have left that part out. See the variations for other flavors at the recipe’s source link too – chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter pudding!

Creamy Dairy Free Paleo Vanilla Pudding
Print Recipe
Really. Good. Pudding. Worth the time it takes to cook and set. Enjoy.
Servings Prep Time
4-6 people 3-4 hours
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3-3.5 hours
Servings Prep Time
4-6 people 3-4 hours
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3-3.5 hours
Creamy Dairy Free Paleo Vanilla Pudding
Print Recipe
Really. Good. Pudding. Worth the time it takes to cook and set. Enjoy.
Servings Prep Time
4-6 people 3-4 hours
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3-3.5 hours
Servings Prep Time
4-6 people 3-4 hours
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3-3.5 hours
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. In a sauce pan, combine the tapioca starch and salt, without heat - do not turn on the stove yet. Blend these dry ingredients with a whisk til evenly mixed.
  2. Slowly add the coconut milk over low heat, and whisk in to dissolve the dry ingredients. This will take 5-10 minutes of steady whisking. Do not boil.
  3. Once the coconut milk is evenly mixed in with no lumps, whisk in the egg yolks evenly, then the honey and vanilla. Continue on medium high heat til bubbles begin to form around the edges, about 5-10 minutes, whisking constantly.
  4. Once bubbling gently, reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking and whisking. Let the pudding become thick enough to plop back into the pot when you lift the whisk, instead of being drippy or runny. This may take 10-15 minutes.
  5. Higher heat may speed this up but you will also need to whisk more quickly to keep the pudding from burning, sticking to bottom of pot, or boiling.
  6. Stir in stevia drops, ghee, and vanilla. Continue whisking til evenly mixed and pudding is thickened.
  7. Pour into individual heatproof glass or ceramic serving dishes. To prevent a skin from forming on the pudding, place plastic wrap directly on the pudding in each dish and seal. I don't mind the skin and prefer to leave the plastic wrap off. Refrigerate for about 3 hours or overnight. Or, eat right away, warm and a little less set - also delicious!
Recipe Notes

You may use arrowroot starch instead of tapioca, but I have not tried this yet; potato starch may work too. For salt, I use Himalayan salt because it has a wider mineral profile than ordinary table salt and because sea salt is now (sadly) under scrutiny for having plastic in it. If the pudding hasn't thickened enough after lengthy heating and stirring, remove 1/4 cup of pudding from the pot into a small Pyrex or ceramic bowl or cup. Stir in 1 Tablespoon of starch and blend til smooth and thick. Add this back to the pot and continue stirring with whisk til smooth and thickened.

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