Paleo English Muffins

I miss bread. Not the wonder white, tip top, full of bleach variety you buy at woollies. I mean good bread. Organic sourdough. Irish soda bread. Vegemite and avocado on toast. Bread was such a staple in my diet, every morning for breakfast I had toast purely because it was quick and easy (I’m not a morning person whatsoever). One of my work buddies looooooooves bread. I’m talkin all kinds of bread. Slathered with peanut butter. She’s all up in breads grill, yo (in my head she is also a mad gangsta). I try to make her feel bad by telling her that every time she eats bread, Ryan Gosling cries. His tears taste like bread. Sweet, sweet, tasty bread. It doesn’t work. Cause then I’m thinking of Ryan while she’s eating bread and it makes me twice as sad cause I don’t have either of those things in my life. Meh.

Here’s what I have instead of bread. Let’s face it – it’ll never be bread. Nothing will. But until the day that Ryan Gosling walks through my door, I will eat these paleo English muffins instead.

(Disclaimer: these are actually quite tasty. Don’t let my crazy bread ranting put you off them. Ryan will thank you for it).

Paleo English Muffins (adapted from Carrots N Cake)

Ingredients

1/4 Cup almond meal

1/2 Tbsp melted coconut oil

1 egg

pinch of baking powder

Place all ingredients in a small, microwave proof bowl and whisk well with a fork until all combined. Microwave on high for 90 seconds (note: microwave strength may vary, play around with it until you get it right). Remove from bowl and allow to cool to the touch before cutting in half.

These toast up under the really well, but are also great fresh from the microwave!

Paleo banana and coconut cookies

Bye Summer! I'm sick of this crappy weather already and it's only been 18 hours! Here's hoping we might have a few more balmy Autumn days ahead of us. If not, just make a batch of these and eat them all. Guilt free. They'll totally take you mind off the crappy Sydney weather. Eat with a big glass o' ice cold chocolate almond milk. Errrrmahgawd. 

Ingredients

2 brown medium sized bananas

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 coconut flour

2 eggs

Tsp cinnamon

Tsp nutmeg

Tsp ground ginger

Tsp baking powder

Unsweetened shredded coconut

Pre heat oven to 200 degrees fan forced. Place all your ingredients, excluding the shredded coconut in a food processor and blend. Or if you're not lazy like me, place in a bowl and mix the old fashioned way until well combined.

Take heaped teaspoons of the mixture and roll into balls, roll in the shredded coconut, then place on trays lined with baking paper and flatten.

Baking for 20 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Makes approx 18-20 cookies.

Paleo Chicken Nuggets

You know those days where you just want to come home, sit in front of the TV and eat comfort food? Nuggets are my comfort food. They remind me of being a kid, having play dates with my primary school friends during the school holidays and mum letting us eat nuggets and oven-bake chips.

I've never been the type of person who can just give up particular foods because they're 'bad', so when I made the switch to a paleo lifestyle I was determined not to give up the comfort foods that I love, but make paleo variations instead. When I made these nuggets for the first time I was sure they were better than regular nuggets. Perhaps my many months as a caveman had brainwashed me, or I had just forgotten what processed food tastes like?! But last night, after a particularly full on week at work resulting in a desperate need for comfort food, I made them again and my boyfriend declared 'These are seriously good. Like, the best nuggets ever'. I'm pretty sure I could serve these to people and they wouldn't even realise they were paleo!

Paleo Chicken Nuggets (serves 4)

Ingredients
4 chicken thighs (or breast meat)
1 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons mixed Italian herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, etc etc..)
Salt & pepper
1 egg, lightly whisked
Olive oil

1. Remove fat from chicken and dice into nugget size pieces
2. On a large, flat plate combine your dry ingredients (almond meal, herbs, salt & pepper)
3. Dip your chicken pieces into egg, then coat with the almond mix until well covered. Lay out chicken nuggets on a plate covered with baking paper and pop in the fridge for 1/2 hour before baking.
4. While chicken is in the fridge, cover your baking tray with enough oil to grease the entire tray. Pop the tray in the oven and pre heat to 200 degrees fan forced.
5. Pop your nuggets on the pre heated tray (this helps the almond coating from sticking) and baking for 30 minutes (turing once) or until golden brown on both sides.

  

Paleo Banana Ice Cream

I'm a sucker for ice cream. When I was in New York last year I pretty much ate the entire city clean of Ben and Jerry's. It wasn't pretty. I'm not sure where I stumbled upon this fake ice cream trick, but I know it's not only the paleo community who enjoy it, mothers are also suckers for this sugar free, kid friendly treat. It is super quick and super easy! I'm planning to experiment with adding some more flavours to the mix, but for the meantime my boyfriend and I enjoy a bowl with strawberries and a little bit of nutella.

Ingredients.

1 ripe banana

Chop your banana up into bit size pieces and lay on a plate covered with baking paper. Whack in the freezer for an hour.

Grab your food processor and throw your frozen banana chunks in. Whiz on low until all the banana is whipped up and creamy. You'll probably need to scrap down the sides as your go, but shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

If you don't have a food processor or blender, you can pre mash the bananas before you freeze them, the texture will be a little less creamy, though.