Blueberry and Banana Muffins!

I just made these delish Blueberry and Banana Muffins! Nice for a treat and for those transitioning from a CW way of eating.

• 2 mashed bananas
• 6 eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries

Mash the bananas and mix with the eggs. Add in melted coconut oil or butter and the vanilla, combine with the dry ingredients.
Fold in frozen blueberries.

Fanbake for 15 minutes on 200C
Makes 12

Grain-Free Basic Bread (Coconut Flour Flax Bread)

I cannot take the credit for this recipe as I found it at Joyful Abode which is an awesome blog by the way!! I thought I would give it a try and happy to report it's pretty damn awesome grain free bread, high in fat and low in carbs with super ingredients.

You could eat this everyday if you wanted but if you think it might start a craving for "real bread" then maybe keep it as a treat. The taste has way more flavour than plain bread, great with almond butter which is how I had mine, I had two slices with butter then almond butter when it first came out of the oven and wow it was super filling, it's all I ate for the day that's how filling it is. I reckon it would be awesome for french toast, then the obvious just toasted and used under poached eggs or creamy mushrooms or for croutons, it was really fresh the day after and you could easily use it for a sandwich. Here's the recipe and I've done the nutritional breakdown for it also.

Grain-Free Basic Bread (Coconut Flour Flax Bread) Recipe
• 1 cup coconut flour, sifted
• 1 cup flax seeds, ground and sifted (I discarded the hulls that wouldn’t sift through)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 10 eggs (yeah, here’s the high-protein part)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup plain full-fat yogurt
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees celsius).
Mix together flour, flax, salt, and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut oil, yogurt, and vinegar.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition (I did about 3-4 “rounds” of adding dry ingredients).
Pour into a greased loaf pan, and bake 50 minutes. (Probably longer if you are using a smaller loaf pan so your bread is “deeper”) I baked the one above for 70 minutes since it's in a deeper pan which only makes 18pcs not 22.
Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a cutting board. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

If your interested in net carbs it's only 2.12 grams of net carbs per piece

The link to the Joyful abode site is http://www.joyfulabode.com/2010/12/01/grainfree-basic-bread-coconut-flour-flax-bread/

Feta and Sundried Tomato stuffed Chicken with White Wine Reduction

Feta and Sundried Tomato stuffed Chicken with White Wine Reduction

This is my husband’s favourite dish and one of my many favourites. I used 3 small-med chicken breasts that I butterflied, lay all flat on cooking paper, top with 125gms Creamy Feta and 6 or so chopped sundried tomatoes, roll it up in the cooking paper and roll again in some more cooking paper long ways and twist at end kind of like a lolly. Bake at 360F for 1 hour. Take out of oven remove baking paper and sear in a little butter in a hot pan then let rest for 10mins. Serve with White wine reduction which is approx 1 part white wine to 3 parts cream and boiled to reduction.

Primal Power Bars

As requested by Jaxz the recipe for Primal Power Bars.....

These are awesome! I found the recipe on the new MDA Forum http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/topic/primal-power-bars and they really are great. The recipe originated at Elana’s Pantry http://www.elanaspantry.com/power-bars/. Here’s my little adjustment of course :)

Gluten and Dairy Free Power Bars

1 cup almond flour/ground almonds
1 cup chopped walnuts - fresh

½ cup flax meal

½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

½ cup salted roasted almond butter

½ cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon dark cane sugar or Raw honey (depending on taste)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Combine almond flour, flax meal, coconut, sugar.
2. In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat,
3. Remove coconut oil from stove, stir in almond butter and vanilla
4. Add coconut oil mixture to dry ingredients which will form a coarse paste
5. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish
6. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens

Topping: Dark Chocolate Ganache

113 Dark Chocolate (I used 85%)

90mls Coconut Cream

1-2 tablespoons Coconut Oil

1. In a small saucepan, heat coconut cream and coconut oil, take off heat and add chocolate stiring continuously until smooth.
2. Spread melted chocolate gnache over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate firms. It won’t harden completely but it’s very yummy. You can just use melted down chocolate for topping.
3. Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve

Sushi 'low carb style'

I make some pretty good sushi, obviously in my old higher carb days rice was used, however it seems when we transition to a low carb/primal/paleo lifestyle the one missing more than bread is sushi.  This post is my most searched blog post, it remains to be extremely popular.  I hope this satisfies and gives you a sense of relief that you can enjoy a form of sushi without blowing your good eating plan!

Above are two different versions of low carb sushi, the one on the left is made with egg and the one on the right is made with cauliflower rice and mayo! The perfect lunch!

The photo to the left I used Nori which is the toasted seaweed, you can use raw seaweed but I prefer the toasted one, it's darker in color. Then I fried 2 eggs into a flat omelette, layered with avocado then crab meat mixed with homemade mayo, to the mayo add ginger juice (the juice that comes from grated fresh ginger, discard the ginger meat), lime juice and ofcourse wasabi YUM!!! Then to top it off with Tamari or Kikkoman do a Gluten free Soy Sauce.

I just made it the same as you do with rice, it's a little harder to roll because the rice makes it easier, but as you can see from the photo it came out pretty darn good if you ask me. Even my family who love traditional rice sushi even liked this. After experimenting with cauliflower rice I have decided I prefer the sushi made with cauli rice than the egg, however the egg is still awesome, just personal taste really!
The photo on the right...Cook the cauliflower rice, mix in your mayo, s&p and vinegar. Spread out the cauliflower as you would the rice, lay your smoked salmon atop of the cauli rice, then layer avocado, carrot, zucchini and cream cheese, roll up and then eat immediately or let sit for 15 mins, do not leave this to sit in fridge for longer than an hour, it will be gross!

Ingredients:
1 Cup (approx) Cooked Cauliflower Rice
Salt and Pepper
1 tsp Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsps Japanesse Mayo (any mayo will work)
Toasted or Raw Nori Sheet
A few strips of Smoked Salmon
1/2 Avocado
Slices of Carrot and Zucchini
1-2 Tbsps Cream Cheese

Nutritional Stats for whole recipe: (this is for the cauliflower rice sushi)
Calories: 494
Fat: 39
Protein: 9
Carbs: 11
Net Carbs: 7

Per one sushi piece (divided into 7 pieces)
Calories: 70.5
Fat: 5.6
Protein: 1.29
Carbs:1.6
Net Carbs: 1