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Gluten Free…Is It For Me? Or Maybe Even Grain Free?

I’m starting to realize it’s just not worth it. The momentary pleasure of eating something made with wheat is just not worth the pain and suffereing that comes after. Over the last couple months I’ve been making big steps towards becoming “mostly” grain free. But this month I started out a little more strict. And I think it was what I needed to shed some light on the next steps in my journey towards healing my gut. I had 2 days in a row of eating completely grain free. And I was feeling quite good. Then Wednesday I had sourdough muffins in the morning and burritos on whole wheat tortillas in the evening. This was a great experiment and told me a lot. I know my body well enough by now to know that foods usually impact me about 24 hours after I eat them (give or take). So if I’m not feeling well I can usually have a pretty good idea of at least what meal the offender came from. Yesterday was a great example. I felt great in the morning. Which means the sourdough muffins didn’t seem to cause much harm (they were made only with sourdough and sprouted wheat flour). But in the afternoon…it hit. The intestinal distress. And I knew right away it was the whole wheat tortillas (boughten) I had eaten the evening before. And it was like a light went on. I’ve gone back and forth for a long time about trying to eat completley gluten free or grain free. But I never go all in. But yesterday it just clicked. I saw how good I could feel. And how bad I could feel just from one meal with wheat. And I thought it’s just not worth it.

The crazy thing is that as usual I see God’s perfect timing. I am 9 weeks away from having baby #2. And it weighs heavy on my mind often about how I am going to handle 2 kids while not feeling well so often. But I had a glimpse of how I could feel earlier in the week. And it just seemed like God was clearning things up this week about what direction to take…just in time.

I don’t know for sure how far I’ll need to take this. But I am thankful to at least have a starting point and some direction. So I’m going to do a montly goal update now instead of waiting until April. My plan for this month is to start with only eating wheat that is soaked, sprouted or sourdough. And aside from that eat gluten free (and oat and potato free). I know it won’t be easy, but I’m anxious to see how much it helps. I’m sure I will have slip ups, but hopefully not many. I will make one exception to have a piece of my birthday cake 🙂  Depending on how I do I may go totally gluten free next month. And depending on how that goes I may try totally grain free at some point. And down the road I think I want to go even farther and do GAPS. But for now this is where I’m starting. I hope it will be a big help. I feel very good about this decision and am excited to see how I feel. God has given me a sense of peace about this path. All in his perfect time 🙂

I’ll have to make more of an effort this month to make sprouted flour. And I’ll have to start experimenting with recipes using sprouted flour. See how I handle it. One step at a time. Odd to say, but I was actually quite thankful for a bad day yesterday since it made things seem so clear. But hopefully the bad days will be fewer and fewer 🙂  I just wish the recovery period from eating wheat didn’t last so long. As I said before, it’s just not worth it. A few bites of food for a couple days of misery. No thanks.

Crispy Brazil Nuts

I’ve been on a nut frenzy lately 😛  I’ve been trying all different kinds of nuts. Right now we have crispy walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, brazil nuts, hazel nuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts and sunflower seeds in our house. I love having a big variety to snack on and use in recipes. And it’s fun to try new kinds. I figured I’d update my cirspy nut recipes with the ones I’ve made recently. Same method as usual.

Crispy Brazil Nuts

4 cups raw brazil nuts
1 Tbsp. unrefined sea salt
filtered water

Soak nuts in salted water for at least 7 hours. Drain. Dry in dehydrator or oven set to 150 for 12 – 24 hours. I found that the brazil nuts took longer than 24 hours because they are so big/thick.

Almond Crusted Tilapia

I’m still trying to eat fish once a week and come up with new ways to prepare it. I saw a recipe on Angela’s blog (Healing My Body Through My Tummy) for almond crusted tilapia. It sounded easy, healthy and good! So I made a version of it last night. I used Angela’s recipe more for the concept than the full recipe. I used ground crispy almonds and sunflower seeds. And I used homemade mayo instead of olive oil. Turned out great!!! Justin and I loved it. Rebecca…you just never know. Some nights she devours fish, some nights she won’t touch it. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t like the recipe. This was so easy to make. And a very healthy dinner. I will defintely make it again and play around with what kinds of nuts/seeds I use. I’ll post the recipe the way I made it. Check out Angela’s blog for the original version.

Almond Crusted Tilapia

2 tilapia filets
1/4 cup homemade mayo
1/4 cup ground crispy almonds and sunflower seeds (or whatever kind of nut/seed you like)
salt to taste

Heat oven to 425. Grind/pulse nuts/seeds in food processor until they resemble bread crumbs. Place a small amount of mayo in glass baking dish. Rub it on the bottom to grease. Place tilapia filets in pan. Spread remaining mayo on filets. Season with salt. Press nut/seed crumbs into mayo. Bake for 15 – 20 min.

Avocado Cheddar Omelet

Last night I made our usual Friday night breakfast for dinner. I made something new and simple. I’ve wanted to try it for a few weeks, but it just didn’t fit into our menu. I saw a recipe similar to this on a blog a while back, which gave me the idea, but I don’t remember where now 😛  So I didn’t actually use a recipe. And it’s not really much of a recipe. But I still thought I’d share since we thought it was good. Eggs and avocado always go well in my opinion. If you can make an omelet, you can make this. It wasn’t my best execution of an omelet ever (as the picture shows), but it still tasted great 🙂  That’s what counts.

Avocado Cheddar Omelet

3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 avocado, diced
salt and pepper to taste
butter for cooking

Whisk eggs, milk and seasoning. Heat small skillet over low heat. Melt butter in pan. Add egg mixture. Let cook until mostly set. Add cheese and avocado to half of the eggs. Fold omelet in half. Let cook a few more minutes, until fully set.

Homemade Fish Sticks

In my quest to eat fish every week I’m having to come up with new ways to cook it. This week I decided to try fish sticks. I haven’t had them in years. And I don’t ever intend to eat them out of a box again (shudder…have you ever read the ingredient list in those?). I didn’t really have a recipe. And I debated about a couple ways to make them. I decided to just do a typical breading/frying method. And they turned out awesome!!! Far better than any fish sticks I’ve ever had. And so healthy. We all liked them. And some homemade tartar sauce (using homemade mayo) to dip them in made them that much better. I just used flour and egg for the breading. And palm shortening for frying. So simple and so good. Can’t wait for leftovers today 🙂  I used cod. I’m sure just about any kind of basic white fish would do. And yet another food that would work well to make a huge batch and freeze a bunch to have on hand. May have to do that before May 🙂  Love it.

Grain free version

Edited 3/15/11 – I made a batch last night using almond flour instead of wheat flour to make them grain/gluten free. Still taste awesome!!! A combo of almond flour and coconut flour is about the best…the coconut flour really gets a good coating. And I used a basic white fish. Worked just as well as the cod.


Homemade Fish Sticks

Cod filets (or any other mild white fish)
Whole wheat flour or almond flour/coconut flour (gluten/grain free if using almond flour and/or coconut flour)
Seasoning to taste (I just used sea salt)
Palm shortening (or another healthy oil for frying – coconut, EVOO, lard)
Egg

Place flour and seasoning in one bowl and beaten egg(s) in another. Cut fish into chunks or strips. Dip fish in flour, then egg, then again in flour. Place on plate.

When all of the fish is breaded heat oil in large skillet (I used my cast iron skillet). Heat over medium heat. Cook fish sticks in oil about 7 min. on each side.

Tater Tots

I also made tater tots for dinner last night. It’s a recipe I saw recently on Heavenly Homemakers. I grew up eating tater tots a lot. But I haven’t had one in many many years. And this sounded like a fun finger food to go with our chicken nuggets. These are pretty simple to make. And they turned out quite well. We all liked them (I tried to be good and only had 2…since I’m avoiding potatoes…but I at least had to taste them). This was the first time I used palm shortening for frying. That worked really well! Gives a great flavor. I’ll have to do that more often. My potatoes didn’t really shred in the food processor. It was mostly mush. But it still worked just fine. Next time I’ll try to cook the potatoes sooner so that I can refrigerate them for a while before shredding. I made a pretty big batch. We ate some with dinner, and I froze the rest. I’ll be serving some for dinner tonight. I’ll see how it goes to bake them in the oven after being frozen. Overall a great recipe. And yet another healthy convenience food to have on hand. I love that my daughter has never had a chicken nugget or tater tot out of a box. She doesn’t even know they exist 🙂  If it comes from the freezer…it’s still homemade. And you can serve them with fermented ketchup to make them even healthier!

 

Homemade Tater Tots

3-4 medium russett potatoes (I used our red skin potatoes from our garden)
Oil of choice (Palm Shortening or Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil)
Sea Salt

First, scrub and bake your potatoes. Allow the potatoes to cool. Peel the potatoes.

Chop the peeled and cooled potatoes and throw them in a food processor to shred finely. I’d recommend using the “pulse” setting if you have one.

Next, heat some oil in a skillet (medium heat). You just need enough oil to barely cover the bottom of the skillet.

Use a small cookie scoop and pack in the shredded potatoes to make a nice firm ball. (If you don’t really pack it in, the potatoes will just fall apart when you place the ball in the skillet.) Gently set the ball into the skillet. Allow it to cook thoroughly on one side before carefully turning it over. Press the ball down slightly when you turn it. Each side takes about 3-4 minutes to cook.

Remove tater tots once they look nice and crispy and golden brown. Sprinkle with desired amount of sea salt.

Serve right away or cool and freeze on baking pan.

Crispy Hazel Nuts

In addition to macadamia nuts I soaked/dried some hazel nuts. I’m not sure I’ve ever even had a hazel nut. But I wanted to try it. Same process. And another yummy snack 🙂  I’m having fun experimenting with different nuts (since I LOVE nuts). Maybe next I’ll try Brazil. I hear those are quite healthy too.

Crispy Hazel Nuts

4 cups of raw nuts
1 Tbsp. unrefined sea salt
filtered water

Mix nuts with salt and water and leave in a warm place for at least 7 hours or overnight (I generally soak them for 24 hours.). Drain. Spread nuts on baking pan. Place in oven on lowest setting (150 degrees) for 12 to 24 hours (or in a dehydrator), stirring once in a while, until completely dry and crisp. Store in an airtight container. The nuts will keep longer in the refrigerator or freezer.

Crispy Macadamia Nuts

This week I tried soaking a couple new kinds of nuts. One was macadamia. After doing my post on nuts and reading about how healthy they are I wanted to try some right away. I don’t think I’ve eaten one in years. Boy are they good! I only did a small batch to try them out. I’ll have to stock up on more for sure. Same process as most nuts. Soak with water and salt. Dry.

Crispy Macadamia Nuts

4 cups raw macadamia nuts
1 Tbsp. unrefined sea salt
filtered water

Mix nuts with salt and water and leave in a warm place for at least 7 hours or overnight (I generally soak them for 24 hours.). Drain. Spread nuts on baking pan. Place in oven on lowest setting (150 degrees) for 12 to 24 hours (or in a dehydrator), stirring once in a while, until completely dry and crisp. The macadamia nuts absorb a lot of water. It took over 24 hours to get mine completely dry. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer. Macadamia nuts don’t last long at room temp.

Grain Free Muesli

I recently made muesli for the first time. And it was really good! But my tummy doesn’t handle oats very well. So I can’t eat that. Then I came across this recipe on Gluten Free Diva for a grain free version of muesli. I tried it this morning. Awesome!! It’s basically the same ingredients I use for my grain free granola, except you don’t add fat/sugar and bake it. So it’s super easy to make. Only takes a few minutes. Plus this uses fresh fruit. You can add whatever you like to this recipe…as long as it’s not grains 🙂  And you can make a big batch to have on hand and just add fresh fruit when you eat it. It will freeze very well. This is a great option for quick breakfasts, summer breakfasts (when you don’t want anything hot) or if you’re a long time cereal lover (like me:) but don’t want to eat that junk anymore. This was the closest thing I’ve had to a bowl of cereal in a LONG time (I think I might be going on a year now!). What a treat! And I don’t have to worry about it killing my stomach. Love it. I didn’t actually measure anything. I just added what looked good. Adjust to your taste. I’ll post the original recipe (for 1 serving) with some of my adjustments in ().

Grain Free Muesli

3 strips of dried banana AND/OR 3 – 6 chopped dates (I used prunes)
one small handful dark raisins (I used golden raisins)
7 raw almonds, chopped (I used a combo of crispy almonds, crispy pecans and crispy walnuts)
7 raw pecan halves, chopped
handful raw sunflower seeds (not roasted or salted) (I used crispy pumpkin seeds)
1 – 2 tablespoons grated unsweeted coconut
one chopped apple (I gave Justin some apple chunks in his. I left them out of mine.)
about 6 – 8 blackberries or the berry of your choice (I used strawberries. Blueberries would be very good…great option in the summer.)

Mix all ingredients (except fresh fruit). Store in a closed container (freeze for long term storage or keep at room temp for shorter term). When ready to serve mix in fresh fruit. Top with milk or stir into yogurt.