Paleo Granola

I have missed having cereal.  My kids really miss having cereal for breakfast.  I don't just miss cereal, I miss having something to munch on every now and then.  I've got fruit I can grab, which is great, but I want something crunchy to munch on.  I think I found the recipe.

This homemade granola was super easy to make.  Almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, honey, vanilla, and almond oil.  The original recipe from Paleo Cupboard called for coconut oil and coconut flakes, but of course, I adapted.

Unfortunately, I adapted poorly this first time.  I added the same amount of almond oil rather than reducing the amount due to the lack of coconut flakes and the difference in consistency between the almond oil and coconut oil. Don't get me wrong, this recipe wasn't bad.  Just the opposite, it was super delicious!  It was just rather sticky and didn't make for hard granola pieces that we could eat.  It was a sticky mess, but such a good tasting sticky mess!

When it was done cooling off it took no time at all for me to grab a bowl and have some cereal.  Who cared that it was 9:30 at night, I was eating some cereal!  My hubby had a spoonful of the dry granola and his face literally lit up and he said it was really, really good!  I ate my bowl of granola with some almond milk and it was amazing.

Verdict: This was super easy and super delicious!  The granola was gone before I could even finish typing this blog post.  I'm going to make another batch this afternoon but I'll cut the honey and almond oil down in hopes that it won't be as sticky.  Either way, this is a tasty snack/breakfast/treat!

**UPDATE
I made this again and used 3 TBSP almond oil and 1/3 cup honey.  While it wasn't as sweet as the first time I made it, it held together perfectly, just as granola should.  Next time I'll play with it again, possibly adding the honey back in and lowering the almond oil down in order to keep the sweet flavor.

PALEO GRANOLA

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup raw almonds

1 cup raw cashews

¼ cup raw pepitas/pumpkin seeds

¼ cup raw sunflower seeds (no shells)

¼ cup almond oil **I WILL BE USING LESS NEXT TIME, LOOK FOR MY UPDATE**

½ cup raw honey **I WILL BE USING LESS NEXT TIME, LOOK FOR MY UPDATE**

1 tsp gluten free vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup raisins (or your favorite dried fruit)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Place the almonds and cashews in a food processor or blender and pulse a few times to break into smaller chunks.

2. Microwave the almond oil, raw honey, and vanilla extract together in a medium sized mixing bowl for about 30 seconds.  Add the seeds and nuts and stir to coat.

3. Spread the granola mixture evenly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Stir it once or twice.

4. Remove from heat and add the raisins and sprinkle with sea salt, pressing the mixture together to form a flat surface.

5. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes or until hardened, and then break into chunks.

Paleo Pancakes Take Two

Today I had another go at the Paleo Pancakes that I made last week.  Knowing how thin they turned out, I decided to reduce the amount of liquid that I added to the batter to try to make them more like pancakes rather than flapjacks.

I added 1/2 cup of almond milk in 1/4 cup increments to the batter.  I decided that 1/2 cup was enough then started cooking.

These were not liquidy at all.  But be warned, these pancakes kept whatever shape I put them into the pan.  No spreading at all.  See that one down on the bottom that has that little piece hanging off on the side, yeah, it stayed there.  If there was a thin spot in the middle, it stayed thin.  I think I could have used just a touch more almond milk, but not the 2/3 cup like I used before.  Kind of tricky.

Verdict: While these came out nice and fluffy like regular pancakes, my family was divided.  The girls in the house liked them while the guys preferred the thin flapjacks.  And while I say I liked them, I will clarify that I liked them more than I liked the flapjacks. These still had the gritty texture from the almond meal because I haven't bought fine textured almond flour yet.  I really need to get on that.

PALEO PANCAKES

Makes 9 Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups almond flour

2 eggs

½ cup almond milk

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat pan on medium heat.

2. Grease pan with EVOO or grease of choice.

3. Mix all ingredients.

4. Put into pan in circular shapes.

5. Cook on each side till golden brown, flipping once.

6. Serve with topping of choice.

Paleo Pancakes - Take One

Did you miss me?  It's been almost two weeks since I've blogged.  Not because I didn't want to, but the resort we were staying at didn't have free WiFi.  Can you believe that?  Yes, I did say resort.  The hubby and I planned a surprise trip to Walt Disney World for our youngest two kids.  It was a welcome home vacation for him.  (The oldest doesn't live with us anymore, and she is working two jobs and going to school, so there was no way she could go with us for 8 days.)

We planned the trip back in April, booked the resort through the Armed Forces Vacation Club, got the 4-day Park Hopper Water Park and More tickets through the Armed Forces Salute package that is offered, and free tickets to Sea World for one day through their Waves of Honor program.  

It was a great vacation!  Despite a little rain in the mornings, most of the afternoons were absolutely beautiful!  And since we went during the last week of September, most people were back in school and the parks were empty.  We waited an average of 5-10 minutes per ride and only a few rides were 30 minutes or more.  Those we usually got a Fast Pass for and came back.  

In the spirit of eating Paleo, we ate our egg scramblers for breakfast each morning and prior to heading to Florida, I froze several meals to cook for dinner in our full kitchen.  I planned on photographing these meals and blogging about them, but as I said above, we didn't have WiFi!  It was $5 a day per device to connect to the internet so we connected my hubby's laptop to check the bank account a couple of days, but other than that we just checked email and facebook on our phones.  Which wasn't fun for me because my phone screen broke on the way down to Florida.  DON'T buy the Grip Go cell phone holder!!!  So no blogging for me.  Honestly, it was nice to be somewhat disconnected for a while.

Now that we are back home, I'm going full force into Paleo.  Not only that, but I have decided to go Whole30 and completely unprocessed for the month of October.  I'm doing this in conjunction with Eating Rules but I am doing this on my terms.  I'm sticking to my hubby's 6 day Paleo - 1 cheat day week.  We've agreed to scale cheat day back even further.  We're going to have our morning Starbucks during Sunday school, and one meal on Sunday will be a cheat meal, but the other two will be Paleo friendly.  All Paleo meals are Whole30, in fact, they are more strict than Whole30.  Day 2 is just about over for me and I'm craving a bit of sugar.  I cut it out completely, even from my hot tea!  Tea certainly tastes different with almond milk and honey, but it's not terrible.  Coffee on the other hand -- that was just gross with almond milk and honey.  I couldn't put sugar in and my creamer's second ingredient was sugar.  I'll have to rethink coffee during the week, or start to drink it black, or just go without this month.  Whatever I choose, I just need to be strong this month and then I can bring things back to see how my body reacts to the foods I reintroduce.  

Now, on to today's Paleo Adventure!  My boy is seriously sick of eggs for breakfast, I kind of am, too.  So I decided to make some pancakes today and I found a recipe that didn't call for coconut flour so I decided to try it.  I adapted this recipe from It's Time To Burn and yes, I still had to adapt it slightly.  The recipe called for coconut milk so I used almond milk instead.  Unfortunately, I forgot that coconut milk is much thicker than almond milk and I should have used less instead of using the exact amount.  I did throw in some arrowroot starch/flour and it did somewhat thicken it up, but not near enough. 

Verdict: These pancakes looked like thin little flapjacks. I doubled the original recipe and it made 16 pancakes which was plenty for all of us.  The almond flour I used is almond flour/meal and so these turned out with a more gritty texture.  It wasn't a heavy texture, I would just prefer to get some good quality almond flour in the future.  But for that, I'll need to order some online as I haven't found any in my local stores yet.  They tasted good, but just a bit gritty for me.  HOWEVER -- my family absolutely loved them!  They said the pancakes tasted like they had nuts in them.  Hubby said they tasted just like his favorite pancakes at IHOP - the Harvest Grain and Nut pancakes.  He ate half of one of mine just to try it, then went back and got two more!  That was quite a compliment to me since my hubby doesn't even like pancakes.  The kids loved them, they went back for more.  All the pancakes were gone after breakfast.  I'm looking forward to trying this recipe again and tweaking it a bit.  Below is the recipe as I made it this morning for the thin pancakes.

Paleo Flapjacks

Makes 16

2 cups Almond flour/meal – I used Bob’s Red Mill

2 Free Range Eggs

1 1/4 cups Almond Milk

¼ cup Arrowroot Starch/Flour

1. Heat skillet over medium heat.

2. Mix all ingredients in medium bowl.

3. Lightly grease skillet with Ghee Butter or EVOO (I spritzed mine with my Pampered Chef Kitchen Spritzer filled with EVOO.)

4. Cook pancakes just till each side is golden.

5. Serve with fruit, pure maple syrup, cinnamon, almond butter, or your topping of choice.  Enjoy!

Egg Scrambler

With grains and milk being out for Paleo eating, cereal is no longer an option for our breakfasts.  Eggs are a good, healthy alternative and can be made in a variety of ways.  The Pampered Chef has a stoneware pan that allows you to quickly microwave eggs for a healthy breakfast.  I'll post links to the pan below and let you know who my consultant is.  First, my breakfast...

I melted just a little tiny bit of butter in each well of the Microwave Egg Cooker.  You can use oil if you'd like, and eventually we will start using Ghee butter, but I have to use up the rest of my regular butter before I can be fully Paleo friendly.  (I just can't justify throwing out money by throwing out food.)  I diced up a slice of tomato, 2 mushroom slices, and 2 pieces of cooked bacon.  I mixed a little bit of almond milk into 2 eggs that I scrambled in a bowl, then added all of the toppings.

I evenly poured the egg mixture into the two wells then microwaved for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  The eggs come out tasting just like an omelet.  The cool thing about this egg cooker is you can do fried eggs, scrambled, poached, or these scramblers.  My hubby likes 3 eggs where I just prefer 2.  The other day I cooked eggs on one side and pancakes on the other.  Yesterday my hubby found a recipe for Paleo pancakes so we'll be trying those out soon.

You can see the eggs come easily and completely out of the Microwave Egg Cooker.  (They are also just about the right size for a breakfast sandwich on toast or a bagel!  But this Paleo person didn't tell you that, the Pampered Chef lover in me did.)  I'm also going to shamelessly plug how I cooked the bacon - I used the Pampered Chef Small Ridged Baker.  4 slices of bacon cooked in just over 5 minutes.  7-9 minutes will cook 6 slices of bacon nice and crispy.  If you don't have a Pampered Chef consultant, may I suggest mine? Eunice Alexander is amazing! You can get her phone number and book a show through her website by clicking on her name.  You can also order directly from her by clicking on the links to the products above. Bonus in September only, all stoneware is 20% off - so go buy these pans!  Ok, enough about Pampered Chef or Eunice is going to come after me to start selling it!  :-)

Verdict:  These eggs do not taste like microwaved rubber eggs.  They taste good.  I've personally had plain scrambled, the scramblers above (with various toppings), and fried, and all were fantastic.  Making breakfast takes a matter of minutes per person and it's easy enough that almost everyone can make their own, I do help the youngest.  To put it in perspective - before switching to Paleo, I would cook eggs in this and be done before my toast was finished cooking.  This breakfast is a fast and easy winner.  It will be a repeat breakfast for everyone.