Category: Recipes

A fun way to cut the grains out of my diet, and still make delicious food for dinner that literally takes 20 minutes to prep and make.

I’m on another experiment with my diet to try eliminating grains again. It’s only been a couple days, but I can already feel a difference – less pain, less bloat, more energy and my brain fog is clearing up.

Grains are difficult to cut out – they are in SO many foods. It’s tough to do – I completely understand, but if I get a little creative and spend some time on meal prep on the weekends, I get some great alternatives to curb those cravings.

These portobello pizzas were delicious, and the house actually smelled like pizza – I swear! You can top them with whatever your heart desires – lots of veggies is always my vote! These have onions, olives and plain tomato sauce (also called passata at the grocery store). I may even top them with some fresh avocado tomorrow for my lunch!

I used goats mozzarella cheese on my pizzas because I can’t tolerate cow’s milk. But feel free to use what you like for cheese, just don’t use a ton – you don’t need much. Here’s the recipe, my lovelies! Enjoy!

1. Preheat oven to 400F and line a pan with aluminum foil
2. Clean and de-stem four portobello mushrooms
3. Coat portobellos with olive oil spray lightly and put on baking tray with stems up
4. Bake for five minutes, and while they are cooking, grate cheese, chop veggies and olives
5. Take out of the oven and top each with passata (a couple tbsp each), a sprinkling of grated cheese and your choice of veggies
6. Return to oven and bake for another 15 minutes
7. Take out of the oven, let cool for a couple minutes
8. Add some avocado, basil leafs, a little hot sauce, and make it to your liking!

I’ve been on a muffin kick this past week or so, and well, why not continue the fun, right?!

I’ve been eliminating grain and cow’s milk dairy products from my diet (confession: I caved and added goat’s milk back in after a small trial without). I’ve also been trying to avoid any sugar or overly processed sweeteners, so these muffins were perfect – sweetened only with banana and apple.

I modified the recipe so that it would be dairy-free, and I thought I’d share it with you to give it a try. These are sure to be a hit with the whole family! Not too sweet, but quite light, fluffy and tasty! You could add some walnuts or dark-chocolate bites if you were feeling fancy, but for the sake of no sugar and being a bit simplistic in my cooking this week, I’ve left them out.

Here’s the recipe for you:

Pre-heat the oven to 350F and place 12 muffin liners into a muffin pan.

Combine the following in a large bowl:

• 2 eggs
• 2 medium ripe bananas (mashed)
• 1.5tbsp coconut oil (melted)

Combine the following in a separate bowl:

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/4tsp salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined. Then fold into that mixture a finely chopped apple (I peeled it first and chopped into 1/4 inches cubes).

Poor mixture into the muffin liners (about 3/4 full in each), and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Voila!

A healthy and delicious after dinner treat or morning breakfast snack!

I whipped up a batch of veggie muffins this weekend, and they were delicious! But I’ve since tweaked them to add a little more natural sweetness to the mix with a handful of raisins, and some (optional) chopped walnuts.

These mild yet flavourful muffins are a fantastic way to replaced refined sugar with applesauce and dates, wheat with almond flour, and chocolate chips with raisins and walnuts. Oh yeah, and they also sneak more veggies into your diet.

As I continue to delve into my grain-free experiment this week, I’m excited to share a recipe that I modified from the Against All Grain series of cookbooks, which are super amazing and I’d highly recommend!

For those of you wanting to try a little grain free baking with me, here’s the recipe:

First things first, place 3/4 cup of pitted dates into a bowl of warm water to soften them, then grate 3/4 cup of zucchini and 1/2 cup carrots, simply using the small holes on a box grater. You can place the grated veggies on paper towel to absorb some of the moisture.

Place two eggs, 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce and the dates (drained) into a food processor and mix until well combined.

Add to the food processor the following and process in: 2 cups almond flour, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp of salt.

Fold in the veggies, after they’ve been wrung out a bit in the paper towel. Then add in 1/4 cup of raisins or chopped walnuts (to your taste).

Spoon batter into muffin liners in muffin tin – filling each about 3/4 full and baking at 350F for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then place on wire rack to cool completely.

These were so easy to make this weekend, and they are chock-full of healthy fats – nut butter and coconut oil. I’ve been trying to incorporate a lot more healthy fats into my diet because I’ve realized that I feel quite good when my diet contains more healthy fat. Hence my bulletproof coffee, avocado-loaded salads, homemade trail mix and these wonderful fat bombs!

I wanted to share this recipe with you because I tweaked it a little bit myself and it turned out to be such a decadent delicious dessert that also gets you some healthy fats into your diet.

Step One: Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners (mini or regular size)

Step Two: Melt the following together in a small saucepan on low heat in this order, whisking ingredients together:

• 3tbsp coconut oil (melt completely)
• 2tbsp almond hazelnut butter (natural – no sugar added)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened raw cacao powder
• 2tbsp maple syrup
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8tsp sea salt

Spoon this mixture evenly into the 12 muffin lines, and shake the tin a little to even out the chocolate layer, then freeze for 10 minutes.

Step Three: Melt the following ingredients together for the top later of the fat bombs, again whisking in order:

• 2tbsp coconut oil (melted)
• 7tbsp almond hazelnut butter
• 1tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Spoon this mixture evenly on top of the chocolate layer that is now frozen, and the top with a couple raw cacao nibs and some sea salt.

Freeze these for an hour before they are set and ready to serve! You can store these for a few weeks in an airtight container.

Guten appetit!

I thought I would share one of my favourite dinner recipes with you. Seeing as how I spoke about it in today’s vlog, it only seems fair. This is a simple recipe, full of flavour. I love meals that are nourishing, healthy, quick to make and still taste amazing. So the key to this recipe is to use fresh garlic, through a press, and amazing herbs and spices on the salmon.

For the salmon – rinse and pat dry and then put on baking sheet lined with foil. Season with garlic powder, onion salt and pepper (or your favourite spice mix – I was out of mine, to be honest, so I improvised). Bake at 400F for 20 mins. If you have a convection oven, use that setting, because it gives the salmon an amazing crispiness to the top layer.

I make white rice for two reasons – I like the taste better, and I’m lazy and it’s the best thing to cook in a rice maker. It was one of the best kitchen appliance investments I made.  As a gluten free girl, rice has always been my go to grain. So, I put in the rice (rinsed a couple times first) and then water, and let the cooker do its thing.

The balsamic roasted veggies are super easy to make. Wash and cut peppers, and be sure to take the last inch or so off the asparagus spears. Place the veggies on a foiled lined baking sheet. Mix four cloves of pressed garlic with 2tbsp of balsamic vinegar (try to find one with NO sulphites) and 1tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Then baste that on the veggies. I did that mixture on the asparagus, and just a little balsamic vinegar on the peppers. Then cook at 400F for 10 minutes.

I love lemon on my rice but put your fave on it – gluten free tamari (soy), lime, lemon, Frank’s red hot, you name it!

Guten appetit!