1 lonely Pancake done Paleo.

There's hundreds of blogs out there with fantastic recipes for pancakes, gluten free pancakes and even grain free pancakes, paleo pancakes; most are fabulous and most make enough for 2-6 servings. I wanted to figure out a good recipe, one serving, or lonely pancake for me. I generally eat breakfast alone, and paleo can get extremely boring if all you have are eggs and meats for breakfast. I do make my own almond meal and I don't  blanch for the extra fibre, but you can use blanched almond flour. Although this recipe does have an egg, it is for one cake, a lonely little pancake .... It's so I personally don't over eat, or have a stale pancake for the next day...nobody wants to eat the stale pancake! 

So, the list of ingredients is short, if you already eat paleo, you should have all the ingredients in your cupboard. 

2 tablespoons almond meal/flour. 

1 tablespoon coconut flour

1 teaspoon tapioca flour (optional)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

1 med egg (you can use large and omit the water)

1-2 tablespoons water (if batter is too thick) 

1 teaspoon butter 

Heat butter in a ceramic pan at just past med heat, until bubbly melted. In a small bowl mix all ingredients well until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Add butter to batter mix well and drop all batter onto hot pan spread evenly. At this point you can add blueberries, bacon, currants, banana slices or whatever you want to the pancake.  Let it cook at med heat until top start to set and pancake has risen a bit you, flip and continue cooking. These cook slower than regular an cakes, button out light and fluffy. Enjoy with maple syrup or homemade paleo blueberry spread....or plain. This makes a perfect one pancake serving, keeps calories down and reduces food waster (chucking out the stale pancake) .... I hate wasting food! And I'm thrifty...those who read my blog already know!! 

Cheers, 

Viviana.

P.S. I would post a picture, but you all already know what a pancake looks like and....well, I sort of like to eat my food hot, so I have ended up eating the lonely pancake before he gets his portrait taken. 

Paleo Gravy Done Right!

I recently made a smashing good seafood chowder, it was thick and favour full, and you'd think 96246 calories, but not with my altered version. Thanks to the fabulous cauliflower, I now have successfully created a creamy thick base for soups and gravies, and I'm in love with food all over again. Hmmm, when was I not in love with it?? Oh yeah, back to carbs and grains....

So, the base recipe is simple.... I cauliflower, cut into chunks, 3 cups of water or stock, I yellow onion cut into chunks too, and one veggie stock cube if using water. Boil it all together, with a lid, until cauliflower is mushy. Run through the blender, in portions, until smooth and creamy. Now, this makes a lot, so you can freeze it in several containers for later use. 

As for the gravy.... Take the drippings, your cauliflower cream, and the herbs and spices you would normally add to your gravy and cook together until warmed through or the consistency you're looking for. This gravy doesn't get thicker or gluey when it stands for a while , and it doesn't get goopy and it doesn't breakdown and lose it's thickness. It's Gluten Free!!!  I used it for sausage and gravy over paleo biscuits, my son couldn't tell it was not regular flour gravy, he hated the biscuits though ( you can't win them all )... That says a lot. I used it for roast, and added a couple drops of Browning to darken it slightly. I plant to use it for turkey gravy for our Thanks Giving on Monday. Oh, and mushroom soup, which my son has requested again....I love requests from him! 

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving! 

Viviana

Sliders?? The perfect size burger for me!

Ok, it seems to me everywhere you turn everyone is BBQ'ing right now....and slider burgers (those mini ones, for the history click here) seem to be all the rage. So when they were on special at M&M meats, I got 2 boxes (12 in each for 4.99!!), I figured even if I don't like them, my son will. He is not obsessed with food like me, he eats it for living, he doesn't live to eat. He also doesn't ever finish a regular sized burger, so these are the perfect size.
I decided to try them out for me to, I chose to also alter a recipe I saw in the "O" magazine, which has an fried egg on top of the beef, and it is an open faced burger. For the recipe, click here.
This is my version.

If you look closely, I did not use a bun...in my journey to try and stay away from as much gluten as possible, I have started using grilled eggplant as my "bun" ...if you slice it about 3/4" thick and grill it (I salt the slices and let the bitter drip out for a couple hours ahead of time) it dries out slightly (don't let it get charred or the bitter will be right back, not speaking from experience or anything!!!) and makes a great bun!

It looks pretty and tasted prettier!!

I did not fry the egg, but used my handy poacher (I was thinking there was enough saturated fat in the beef and egg, why add butter to the mix?) and although you cannot see it, there is a dab of grainy mustard in there to add some punch....the whole things tasted soooo good and I did not miss the bun at all. So you do one slice of grilled eggpant with a dab of mustard, one slice of tomato, then the patty, then the egg, then fresh lettuce from the garden (we have a really nice community garden here) and a sprig of parsley also fresh from the garden. I served it with a side of caesar salad (which my son approves of greatly) and put it on a fairly small plate so it looked like a huge meal....that trick does work because I seem to eat less and still feel full! My son had his on a slider burger bun, and to my surprise, he ate 2 burgers and his side of salad, so it made me very happy!!
Next, I will try a Mahi Mahi burger on eggplant, that should really be good.

Cheers,
Viviana

PS, sorry my blogging is sparse to say the least, but summers are so short here in Calgary, so most of my tine is spent outside while there is no snow or rain....hopefully I'll post something new by Sundy, but don't hold your breath!