Remember my Creamy French Toast Pancakes recipe from a  few weeks back? Well, my husband is in love with it. He makes them 4-5 times a week, maybe more. Most days he follows the recipe as I wrote it but some days he gets all wild and crazy and creates new variations. Hence the reason he is a better cook. I stick with the safe bet and he likes to kick it up a notch, ala Emeril. If he got to set something on fire while cooking these they would probably be all he ever made.

Anyway, this week he came up with two kick ass, new versions of these paleo/primal pancakes. Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe them. Essentially he added some coconut flour to make the pancakes more dense and bread-like and he added either pickled ginger or orange zest to give the recipe a whole new flavor. We eat pickled ginger by the bucket load around here but I never ever would have thought to add it to pancakes.

Coconut Ginger Primal Pancakes

4 pastured eggs
8 ounces (one package) organic full fat cream cheese
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 tablespoon pickled ginger
1 cap full pure vanilla
Coconut oil for cooking (we use Tropical Traditions coconut oil)
Pure maple syrup

Mix up in a good blender (I am partial to the Vita-Mix) and pour on to your cast iron skillet or griddle, aiming for pancakes about six inches in diameter. Use cooking oil to grease your pan/griddle if need be. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side. They will be a glorious golden brown. Top with grass fed butter and pure maple syrup.

To make the orange zest version just remove the pickled ginger and substitute the orange zest. Enjoy!

I make this meal quite often for breakfast or as an after CrossFit “power” meal. This serves one and it is sooooo delicious! I also like that it gives me the opportunity to use leeks because they are a favorite of mine and since potatoes (their favorite playmate) and I are not on such good terms these days, I don’t cook with leeks so much anymore. I also love mushrooms and usually go for baby bellas with this recipe but went with plain white buttons on this day. Often times I will chop enough of the veggies and ham to make two frittatas and then store the unused half in the fridge for a super quickie meal the next day.

Enjoy!

Nourishing Mushroom Leek Frittata

1/2 cup chopped leeks (light and white parts only). Use the dark parts for this soup!
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped, precooked ham
3 pastured eggs
2 Tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Saute leeks, mushrooms, and ham on a cast iron skillet until the veggies are soft. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while cooking them. Beat the eggs together with the Parmesan cheese and pour over the cooked veggies and ham. Tilt the skillet so that the egg coats the pan evenly and then put it in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove and eat!

The weather warmed up pretty fast here in Central Ohio of late. I went from having the heat on to having to open windows and put box fans in them so we wouldn’t have to resort to using the A/C, all in the span of one week. My kids reminded me that this was popsicle season and to avoid all the plastic wrappers and popsicle sticks that ALWAYS make their way to the carpeted areas of the house, we generally make our own. Here is our latest recipe. I have been making the popsicles for the kids and I drink the remaining as a smoothie. Delish and easy peasy!

Coconut Berry Smoothies and/or Popsicles

2 cups vanilla flavored coconut milk
1 half of a ripe banana
1 cup mixed frozen berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
1-2 tablespoons Kids Calm Multivitamin Liquid- Fruity Splash flavor (optional)

Blend well and pour into popsicle molds or smoothie glasses. Enjoy!

The Natural Vitality Multivitamin I use in this recipe is a great product with vitamins sourced from whole foods. That is important to me. It is really tart so it is best to add it to water or put it in a sweet smoothie. We tried adding it to juice but since the juice was tart it made for a drink that was just to sour for my kids. They love these popsicles and smoothies though and supplementation for them is important to me with the nutrient depleted food and soil conditions today. It also has lots of magnesium, which is very important for them to get enough of. We have tried their other magnesium products like the Natural Calm but they like Calm Multi better.

Features:

24 Fruits & Veggies
Omega 3 DHA and EPA (fish oil)
Vitamins and Minerals
Natural Calm Magnesium
Calcium
Amino Acids

This is good stuff and we plan to use it all summer. Enjoy!

I made paleo tacos for dinner tonight and boy were they ever good!! I don’t miss tortillas or taco shells at all when I eat these! Plus, they are a snap to make.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast
Uncured Bacon
Tomato
Onion
Cilantro
Butter or Boston lettuce
Taco Spices
Salsa (optional)

You simply start out by marinating or seasoning your chicken in taco spices. Taco spices include chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper, and cumin. You could also get pre-made taco seasoning from the store, just be sure to check the ingredients to make sure there is no nasty stuff added to it. After seasoning I cooked the chicken under my broiler, flipping halfway through, until cooked and crispy. Then I chopped it up into bite size chunks.

While the chicken was cooking I also cooked up 5 slices of bacon (I was feeding 3 people) on a cast iron griddle and chopped up some onion, tomato, and cilantro. All these items went on top of butter lettuce “shells”. You simply pick them up and fold them closed like a taco shell and eat. If you don’t get them too full they have no problem holding your taco filling which is why everyone got several small tacos.

I was going to add cheese on top but found I only had honey flavored goat cheese on hand so that was not going to work. I didn’t even miss the cheese though and neither did the kids. The bacon gave it a perfect smokey flavor and they were a hit all around.

Enjoy!

This cookbook sat on my Amazon wishlist for quite awhile. I kept resisting the urge to buy because it was nearly $20. That isn’t expensive really just in that area where you almost have free shipping and yet anything else worth ordering will put you over the required $25 and then you feel guilty for ordering stuff you may not need. For some reason my city library system does not carry it either. So, Make It Paleo sat lonely on my wishlist while I scoured the Internet for paleo recipes. Then I ran across it in Barnes and Noble where it had apparently been selling out so fast they had to reorder it constantly. I fell in love after a quick glance and bought it at almost double the Amazon price. It is worth that price and then some but if you can get it at the Amazon price, go that route and save yourself some pennies.

The cookbook is oversized, almost like a phone book, and it is full of high quality color pictures and amazing recipes. I am so impressed with it that I think all other paleo cookbooks (or any cookbook for that matter) are going to suffer under comparison.

The beginning section covers how the authors (a couple) met and fell in love with each other and paleo. It also covers what paleo is and what you need to get started. Then it digs in with one amazing recipe after another. I don’t know how anyone could ever feel restricted with the paleo diet but if you do, you only need to take a gander at this book and it will smack some sense into you.

Some of the winning recipes include:

Seared Ahi Tuna with Wasabi Mayo (one of my personal all time fave dishes)
French Omelet
Mint “Lamburgers”
Rosemary Roasted Turkey
Chicken and Vegetable “Lo Mein”
Duck Confit
Tropical Fruit Gazpacho
Mutton Stew
Cauliflower Rice
Carrot Cake

Everything is amazing!

This week my husband (who also adores this cookbook) made the Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese. It was heaven on earth and I am not much of a date fan because they are generally too sweet for me. I have to eat them mixed up in something like raw cookies. These were incredible though and the almond meal that you dust them with just added the perfect touch.

This cookbook has now taken the top spot in our kitchen. We are looking forward to a very delicious spring and summer in this house with Make It Paleo.