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Recipe Lemony Broccoli paleo network-min

Recipe: Lemony Broccoli

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If you're trying to get more greens into your diet (and you should be!) you might as well make sure they taste amazing. I have a lot of broccoli and find it can get a bit samey, so I came up with this recipe to give it a bit of a kick. You can give it an even bigger kick by increasing the amount of chilli you add!

Recipe Lemony Broccoli paleo network-min

Recipe: Lemony Broccoli
 
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Recipe type: Sides
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This is a great side dish to make an ingredient that's often not popular, the star of the show!
Ingredients
  • A clove of garlic
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 1½ tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoons freshly diced chilli (increase for more of a kick!)
  • 1 lemon, juice & zest
  • 150ml (5 floz) hot water
  • 1 handful fresh broccoli
  • Pinch flaked almonds
Instructions
  1. Peel & grind up the garlic and salt using a food processor (or pestle & mortar). Add in a dash of the olive oil and stir the mixture.
  2. Transfer the mixture to a pan and add in the rest of the olive oil and the chilli. Heat over a medium heat and stir until it starts to simmer. Add in the lemon juice and water as necessary to stop it sticking to the pan. Keep the mixture warm over a medium heat.
  3. Steam the broccoli for three minutes until tender.
  4. Dry fry the almonds in a pan until they turn golden.
  5. Combine the broccoli, sauce & lemon zest and top with the almonds.
  6. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe paleo chocolate cookies biscuits dehydrator-min

Recipe: Paleo Chocolate Cookies

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Let's get one thing clear – these are a treat – not a daily indulgence (whenever I post sweet recipes I get comments about how cavemen wouldn't eat dessert, yet they're also the most popular recipes I post!).

Recipe Strawberry Date Almond Cashew Cookies Paleo Network-min

As the weather's been a bit cooler, it's been the perfect time to get my dehydrator out. This recipe was a case of making do with what I had and seeing what I could come up with, but very pleased with the results.

If you don't have a dehydrator, you can use your oven I believe, but do some research first. If you're keen to try a dehydrator (and I highly recommend them), you can go really cheap like this one, or go all out on an Excalibur like this.

Recipe: Paleo Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
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These cookies are a sweet treat straight from the dehydrator. Just six ingredients is all it takes to make these delicious treats!
Ingredients
  • 20 small medjool dates
  • 1 cup almonds
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 10 strawberries
  • 2 tablespoons cacao powder
  • Few drops vanilla essence
Instructions
  1. Pit the dates and leave them to soak for a few minutes in a cup of water
  2. I was too mean to buy expensive almond meal, so I put the almonds and cashews in a paper bag on a heavy chopping board, and bashed with a rolling pin until they were almond completely ground down. If you have almond meal - you're done!
  3. Put the date mixture into a blender and pulse until the mixture is consistent, then add in the ground nuts and strawberries. Add in the vanilla and cacao and blend until it's thoroughly mixed and smooth.
  4. Spoon onto a dehydrator sheet and flatten with the back of the spoon to make the cookie shapes.
  5. Recipe Strawberry Date Almond Cashew Cookies Paleo Network Making
  6. I dehydrated at 145 degrees for about 20 hours, but keep checking as you may prefer a different texture.

 

Recipe paleo Perfect Almond Butter peanut butter nut-min

Recipe: Perfect Almond Butter

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Not only is almond butter absolutely delicious on its own, its great to use in loads of different Paleo desert recipes. It’s a store cupboard staple in my house, and this recipe is perfect every time.

Almond Butter Ingredients:

  • 250g organic almonds
  • Pinch of sea salt

Almond Butter How To:

1)     Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4. Cover an ovenproof tray with some baking parchment and lay out the almonds, making sure they are spread out next to, and not on top of, one another.

2)     Roast for 6 minutes, then shake, then roast for another 6. Remove from the oven, then leave to cool for 10 minutes.

3)     Pop the almonds into a food processor with a pinch of salt. On the highest setting, blitz for around 10 minutes. At first, the ground nuts will stick to the side of the food processor – just push them back in to the barrel with a spatula. You may have to do this 4 – 5 times depending on your food processor!

4)     You should watch the nuts turn from solid, into a ball, into a thick liquid. At this point, YOU ARE NOT FINISHED! Keep processing until a thin layer of oil begins to rise to the top. Here, the nuts have released their natural oils, and at the optimum for taste, texture and digestion. Pour into an empty jar, then keep in the fridge. What’s the best thing about making your own almond butter? Scraping the remains off the side of the food processor!

Have you tried making your own nut butter yet?

Recipe paleo Perfect Almond Butter peanut butter nut-min

Recipe paleo ginger bread men gingerbread man no flour grain free gluten free-min

Recipe: Paleo Gingerbread Men

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Whilst I generally avoid anything sweet, sometimes it's good to have a recipe for a more natural version of a sweet treat up your sleeve – and it doesn't get much better than ginger biscuits.

Adapted from a gluten free recipe I found online, I've replaced rice flour with a mixture of arrowroot and ground almonds to make these wonderfully moreish cookies. I've also cut out the sugar and replaced with unrefined molasses. The butter is optional – if you don’t do dairy, you can replace it with coconut oil.

Ingredients:

  • 50g butter
  • 55g arrowroot
  • 55g ground almonds
  • 2 tbsp molasses
  • 1 tbsp raw honey
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 1 teaspoon ginger

How To Make Ginger Biscuits:

1)     Preheat an oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

2)     In a saucepan, melt the butter with the molasses and honey.

3)     Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the mix from the saucepan a little bit at a time, stirring well.

4)     Roll the mixture into biscuits, or use a gingerbread man cookie cutter (or whatever shape you prefer). Cover a baking tray with parchment, and lay the biscuits out side by side.

5)     Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until golden brown

6)     You can use nuts or seeds to decorate your gingerbread men.

Do you often do “Paleo Baking”, or is it something you avoid all together? And if you do bake, what do you make?

Recipe paleo ginger bread men gingerbread man no flour grain free gluten free-min

Paleo cherry ripe recipe bar chocolate treat homemade-min

Paleo Cherry Ripes

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Cherry Ripes are the oldest chocolate bar in Australia – and hugely popular.

My problem with Cherry Ripes is the ingredients: –

Sugar, Coconut, Glace cherries (cherries, sugar, flavour, colour (129)), Wheat Glucose syrup, Cocoa mass, Sweetened condensed milk (milk concentrate, sugar, lactose), Vegetable fat, Milk solids, Cocoa butter, Cocoa powder, Invert sugar, Gelatine, Emulsifiers (soy lecithin, 476), Flavours, Colours (102, 123), Mineral salt (500). May contain traces of Nuts. Dark Chocolate contains Cocoa Solids 43%.

So whilst they do contain cherries, they aren't fresh cherries, and they come along with sugar, artificial flavours and colours, wheat, “vegetable” fat and soy lecithin; no thanks!

I saw cherries for the first time in the supermarket this morning (summer is well and truly on it's way!), so thought it was about time I made a paleo approved version of Cherry Ripes.

Paleo Cherry Ripes
Recipe type: Desserts
Cuisine: Australian
Prep time: 
Total time: 
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Why buy Cherry Ripes when you can make your own, healthy, paleo version?!
Ingredients
  • 150g raw almonds
  • 70g raw pecans
  • 12 medjool dates
  • 175g fresh cherries (weighed with stones)
  • 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • a pinch of salt
  • 30g shredded coconut
  • paleo cherry ripe ingredients-min
Instructions
  1. I put the nuts in my blender with the salt and blended until most of the big pieces had ground down.
  2. I set the nuts aside and then removed the stones from the cherries and dates.
  3. I then blended the cherries, dates and oil before adding this paste to the ground nuts, along with the shredded coconut.
  4. I then mixed everything together thoroughly into a ball and rolled it out between two pieces of grease proof paper.
  5. I put the rolled out mixture in the fridge for half an hour, before cutting it into cherry ripe length strips.
  6. paleo cherry ripes-min

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Whilst dates are natural “sugar bombs”, my paleo cherry ripes have no added sweeteners.  As an occasional treat these are a much better alternative – and I happen to think far tastier!

I'd love to hear what you think!

Paleo cherry ripe recipe bar chocolate treat homemade-min

Diabetic sweets fruit slim sugar free paleo diet

Diabetic Sweets

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I picked up the November issue of “Diabetic Living” magazine yesterday.  The piece below tells diabetic readers how good Fruit Slim sweets are, “sugar-free, fat-free, fibre filled”, which will “halt food cravings in their tracks”.  It then goes on to say that there is more fibre in five of these sweets, than there is in two-cups of spinach or 15 raw almonds!  This makes me slightly want to cry!

Guilt-Free-Sweets-diabetic diabetes

So, the ingredients of “Fruit Slims” are: Gum Acacia, Maltitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol, Acidifier (330), Fruit Juice Concentrate, Flavour, Vegetable Oil, Sweetener (955), Natural Colour ( Paprika), Coating Agent (901).

Sweetener (955) is sucralose.  This sweetener has been linked with liver and kidney damage.  There is also a lot of uncertainty with artificial sweeteners and some evidence to suggest that they may cause an insulin response; clearly not desirable in diabetics!  Maltitol, Sorbitol and Xylitol are all sugar alcohols, which might be classed as “sugar-free”, but are carbohydrates and do have an effect on blood sugar levels.  Fruit juice is also sugar, which clearly impacts blood sugar levels.  “Flavour” could mean anything and as for the “vegetable” oil; well, that’s certainly not Paleo!  The ingredients of these “crazy good” sweets look more like a chemistry experiment; there are no real foods in sight.

I think it’s really irresponsible to promote these as a good product to anyone, never mind diabetics.  To imply they are a better choice than almonds or spinach seems reckless.  They might have more fibre, but when eating a Paleo diet rich in vegetables, fibre won’t be an issue.  Besides, for diabetics, blood sugar is a far more pressing issue than fibre?

I've not found anything to back up the claim that these sweets will “halt food cravings in their tracks”.  In fact from what I've read, artificial sweeteners appear to have the opposite effect, increasing cravings for carbohydrates.

Compare the chemical composition of “Fruit Slims” to the “alternatives” of almonds and spinach.

Almonds provide high natural amounts of many nutrients, including manganese, vitamin E, magnesium, tryptophan, copper, vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and phosphorus.

Spinach is a fantastic source of vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), calcium, potassium, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), tryptophan, vitamin E, copper, vitamin B1 (thiamine), phosphorus, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin B3 (niacin) and selenium – and many other nutrients.

Am I missing the benefits of this swap?

Diabetic sweets fruit slim sugar free paleo diet