Currently we are in New Orleans. When we travel we like to eat what the locals eat. We avoid chain restaurants and try to find the off the beaten path places to grab some food. A couple places we checked out while we've been here are Blue Line Sandwich Co. We did breakfast here last week and it was really good. Definitely was a local hangout. Cochon was another place we checked out which I believe is in the Uptown area. This place was great, we shared some oysters and their traditional dish and namesake, the Cochon. Both were great!
We also checked out John Besh's restaurant Lüke for breakfast yesterday. A little bit on the spendy side but the food was fantastic. I had the southern breakfast and instead of the grits they gave me some roasted potatoes that were just awesome! Laura had the egg white frittata which was also delicious! We also made a stop at Cafe Du Monde and had some coffee and Laura and Eli had some beignets.
As you can see a big piece of what we like to experience when we travel is FOOD!!! Both of us would rather spend $100 on an awesome dinner, then go to a concert or a show. We don't mind those things but we just love food and experiencing the different preparations and flavors is so fun. This has definitely helped me in the kitchen too. I get to see how dishes are made and assembled. I get to taste different combinations of that I would never have thought of on my own. In the traditional version of gumbo, you make a roux from wheat flour, so I had to modify that a bit and I think it worked pretty well.
My goal with a lot of the food we come across is to find great local ingredients, do a little bit of research on what the base of a dish is, then make it your own! For those of you that follow us on Facebook you might have actually seen me make this entire dish on a Live Broadcast. If you want to watch that you can click HERE, then go the videos section. We've also had a lot of people ask about how they can Live Subscribe and get notified when do our live videos. I finally figured it out! If you click on the image below, it will take you to our page, from their click on the videos section, then then in the upper right hand corner click the arrow then choose Turn On Live Notifications. This works if you are on your desktop. From a phone, go to our page, The Cook and the Coach, the select to Follow Us, not just Like our page, then scroll down a few posts and find our last live broadcast and in the upper right hand corner you should see an option to Live Subscribe. From a ComputerFrom a Phone or Tablet
So finally the recipe! If you are like me, you probably just skipped to this section! Hope you enjoy this recipe. If you want, you could certainly modify it to your taste, by adding things like shrimp or crawfish. You can also tailor the spice level to what you like and how spicy your andouille is that you buy.
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We have started making an effort to clean out our cupboards and freezer as we prepare to move out of our house and into a 300 sq ft motorhome. That means we will likely be making a lot more soups. I had a coworker/chef once tell me about the concept of "Mustgo Soup." When he was making soup for the day he would look in the cooler and see what was about to go bad and that must go in the soup. I love that about soups in that they can be so versatile and there really aren't that many rules. Just throw it all together with a delicious broth and there you go.
This miso soup was super tasty and a ton of flavor. I will say that I scaled back the amount of miso from what we used, it was a little much in my version. In case you've never used miso it is a fermented soybean paste that you can find at most grocery stores in the refrigerator section. I like to shop at our local Asian grocery store, so they have an entire section of it, super easy to find! This is the kind we bought, Miso Paste. I definitely recommend splurging for organic when it come miso since it comes from soy. It ensures you aren't consuming GMO soy which is what you find in any non-organic soy products for the most part. Another miso trick is because it is a fermented food, meaning it contains live probiotics which are super healthy for your gut, you don't want to add miso to boiling soup otherwise it will kill those probiotics. I've also found it easier to separate out some of your broth and add to the miso paste to make a slurry before adding it back to the soup. It will mix in that much better. Hope you enjoy this soup.
I've heard it called a few different things, Monkey Bread or Pull Apart Bread. Not sure if that is a regional thing??? In Minnesota it goes my Monkey Bread, not exactly sure why but if you are interested I'm sure Dr. Google would let you know. No matter where you are from and what you call it Monkey Bread is straight up delicious. The warm bread! Some of it crusty. Some of it soft! The cinnamon. The caramel. It's a perfect combo.
I've been on a gluten free diet for a little over 6 months now, not by choice unfortunately. I'm always looking at making substitutions to recreate some of my old favorites. I've had a lot of successes and some failures. Beer has been a failure, seriously disappointing. Otherwise, I've found a bread recipe, some pancake recipes, some muffin recipes that are really good. With this creation I wasn't even trying to recreate Monkey Bread. After having it though, it was as good as I remember the real thing. If you can't tell by the picture the key difference is that it is made from plantains. The only tricky part about making these is having patience to allow your plantains to ripen to the point that they get semi-sweet. The plantains pictured below are still mabye even a little under ripe for how I would prefer them. You want to start seeing some black spots covering the peel of the plantain. That's when you know they are ready to go. If you buy them green in the store, it will likely take almost a week to get to that point.
I'm going to forego the fancy ingredients and directions because honestly this is so easy to make I can just tell you. A serving size for me is 1 plantain. Even our 16 month old son can take down an entire plantain himself. However, if you are watching your carbs a bit you might want to split a plantain with someone else. If you are cooking for more, just scale the recipe up.
To make these I will cut the plantains into 1/2" half moon shaped pieces. Then in a medium-hot skillet I add a couple teaspoons of bacon grease. If you don't save your bacon fat, start doing it, it makes for a great cooking fat. Sautee your plantains for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they start getting a little carmelized and brown/black. I usually season with a pinch of salt while they are cooking. Once they are cooked, there is the option to add about 1 tbsp of butter to really kick up the flavor. I just add that to the pan and toss the plantains until the butter is melted and coated the plantains. Depending on how ripe your plantains are they may or may not need the butter. When they are more ripe I will likely not add the butter but if they are still a little firmer texture they tend to soak up the fat and they need a little extra shot at the end. Either way they will be delicious! I like to then put the cooked, buttered delicious plantains in a separate bowl and add roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. I don't measure I just shake enough out of the spice jar until it looks like they will be adequately coated. I like to do this in a separate bowl versus a skillet because I find you have to add about twice as much cinnamon because a lot gets absorbed by the leftover fat in the pan and it doesn't make it onto the plantains. That's it!!! Hope you enjoy and let us know if you try these.
If I could eat pizza for every meal I'm pretty sure I would. It's just straight delicious. Now that I can no longer indulge in your standard gluten containing pizza crust I need to get creative in order to get my pizza consumption. I've tried cauliflower crust. I used to make my own dough with standard whole wheat flour and have since found a GF flour that works with that same recipe. I even just bought the domain, www.healthierpizza.com knowing that someday I will dedicate an entire site to pizza. So yeah I love it.
The problem with pizza and a being healthy is they don't exactly go hand in hand. It's usually pretty fatty and pretty carb heavy which is a bad combo if your goal is stay or get trim. This "version" of pizza was a random throw together that I did the other night and it turned out pretty good. I will say with the protein and fiber from the lentils this dish fares on the healthier side too. In the dish I used a homemade pizza sauce. I have to apologize in that I have no idea what I added to it. I think I just googled "homemade pizza sauce" and semi followed a recipe. It's super simple especially if you start with a tomato sauce and not whole tomatoes. If you want to get really ambitious go for the whole tomatoes it will be worth it. Also the longer you can let it simmer the better but in a pinch 10 minutes will do. Just try to avoid adding sugar, there's no need! I should also mention that I did this in our new Fagor pressure cooker. We love this addition to our kitchen and use it all the time for all sorts of dishes and foods. This could easily be done in a saucepan or deep skillet. I was able to saute in this then just add the lid and set the timer and walk away. Pretty slick!
One of the beauties of pizza is that you can pretty much make it however you want. My favorite combo is pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms so I got as close to that as I could with the ingredients I had on hand, minus the mushrooms. Feel free to add whatever you like on your pizza to make this your own. Hope you enjoy!!!
Carrot cake is straight up my jam! Hands down, best cake! I love the sweet and spice! I would eat it all the time if it was available.
Given my new gluten free life, I have had to make some sacrifices and cake is one of them. Just this past weekend at my nephews birthday party I was forced to pass on the delicious Mickey Mouse cake. As hard as that was I was just glad I didn't have to say no to carrot cake. That would have just been tough. Avoidance has been my main course of action. Recently though I just had a craving for carrot cake. Maybe it was the fall weather but something made me think of it and that led to a google search... "Gluten free carrot cake recipe" Low and behold I found a really good one and we had all the ingredients so I decided to do some baking. I usually don't bake, that is more Laura's area of expertise! Measuring is tough! I did it though and this muffins turned out awesome! The recipe that I found and tweaked was on a website, Primarily Inspired. Hats off to Kelly for the inspiration for this recipe! We just did the muffin/cupcake recipe but she has an icing that goes along with these too if you want it to be even more desserty, that's a word right??? The following morning Laura was scrolling her IG feed and stumbled across a pic from a local coffee shop and how they do a Orange, Maple Latte. She tried hard to convince me to drive 30 minutes to go get a coffee. I fought hard and told her I would just make her one instead. Since we don't really do dairy either we opted for a "keto coffee." Although given the maple syrup in it, we probably can't call it a "keto" coffee but oh well you get the idea, it has butter in it and other delicious things. This was super simple and super tasty. I have no idea how it compares the the coffee shop latte but we will do this again. It paired perfectly with the carrot muffins too. Pure breakfast bliss!
I usually try to avoid telling people what not to do and what not to eat. I've learned that we all still have an inner teenager inside of us, so when you say don't do "X" that is exactly what they tend to do. With that in mind... how about I say "I strongly encourage you to avoid a few things to live at an optimal level of health and vitality." Sounds a little less painful, right? So what are these things?
Sugar, Wheat, and Dairy. Or as someone smarter than me coined the term, The 3 White Devils. If I were to tell you that tomorrow you can't eat any of those things, what's your initial response? Would you have cravings, bouts of moodiness, bad temper, poor focus, a feeling of being depressed and empty, frustration, anger, bitterness and resentment? Did you answer yes to any of those? If so, thanks for being honest! But now the bad news...you might have a food addiction, because that list of symptoms were copied and pasted from a website (1) on chemical dependency and the symptoms that someone faces when going through that. Rather than checking into rehab tomorrow we hope to have a better solution for you, but first I want to break down how these things could be harming you. Sugar
Out of the three foods mentioned this is the no brainer to most people. If you don't know yet that sugar is bad for you, I'm glad we could be the ones to let you know this groundbreaking news. Every once in awhile I do come across some blog post that claims sugar is a good thing and we need it to function. I would agree with that to some degree although there is some growing science to suggest organs like our brain can actually be fueled by ketones from fat rather than glucose from carbohydrates. I'll let the experts figure that one out.
The major issue with sugar is it's ABUNDANT use in nearly all processed foods. Food manufacturers have tried to sneak this little devil past us by calling it a whole host of things besides simply sugar. In fact, if I ever do buy something that is processed and contains sugar, I actually prefer the label to just say "sugar." Here is a simple list of other names of sugar that you will find on food labels. I am really excited for the new nutrition label to come out where they actually have to tell us how many grams of added sugar are in the items we are purchasing. I'm sure they will figure out a way around it but it's a step in the right direction. Basically that was the long way for me to tell you it is everywhere. Now why is it bad that it is everywhere? There are numerous things and some of them are well above my knowledge level. I'll stick to a few basics. The first one: blood sugar disregulation. When we consume lots of sugar, especially in the absence of protein and fiber, our blood sugar will spike. This leads to a spike in insulin, a hormone secreted by our pancreas. Insulin basically acts as an usher. Glucose, the form of sugar in our blood, is like the drunk fan stumbling up and down the stairs looking for his seat at a sporting event. If he stays in the blood (stairs) he will certainly cause harm. Insulin kindly tells glucose to have a seat. Glucose has a few different options on where it can sit, thankfully. The majority of glucose will be stored in either the liver, muscles, or fat tissue. You may have heard of fatty liver before? That is basically when your liver becomes engulfed in too much sugar and packs on some pounds. Some sugar storage in the liver is necessary but we've taken it way too far. Next up, muscles...this actually is one good spot for sugar to hang out. When stored in muscle tissue it gets converted to glycogen which is fuel for our muscles. These seats don't open up all that often though, unless you are doing a lot of high intensity exercise or heavy lifting. Lastly, fat tissue is the place where sugar tends to get shipped off to. These are the cheap seats, there's always more room here. You can maybe make the connection, if we don't exercise and deplete our muscle glycogen, yet consume high amounts of sugar and carbohydrate bad things happen. We damage our livers. We increase the size of our fat cells. We slowly build up a tolerance to insulin which leads to Type 2 diabetes and obesity...Bad news!!! On top of all of that sugar, it has also been shown to be highly addictive, pro-inflammatory, and the source of the worst kind of cholesterol, VLDL. I'm glad we are all on the same page now... Sugar is BAD!!! Wheat
When we talk about wheat we really mean flour since nobody eats just straight wheat, it gets processed into different flours, maybe enriched, then turned into so many food times at the grocery store. Once flour gets into the body it actually acts very similar to sugar. We are talking about both white and whole wheat too. Yes, whole wheat is a better option because of the higher fiber content but both have similar side effects on your blood sugar and gut issues. Here is a crazy stat for you: the glycemic index of a piece of white or whole wheat bread is actually higher than 2 teaspoons of straight table sugar. Glycemic index is the measure of how fast a certain food will raise your blood sugar. That just blows my mind that bread will actually be soaked up into our blood faster than actual sugar. NOT good!
The other issue with flour is that buzzword...Gluten. This is a huge topic right now in the health world. The science is still really new on this topic so it is hard to trust all of it. Here's what I've learned and what I believe most would accept as fact: wheat that is harvested today is a lot different than wheat that was harvested 50-60 years ago. This mainly has happened because of hybridization of wheat and has thus increased the size of the gluten protein in wheat. More fertilizers are also used on wheat today than in the past. More products containing wheat are on our grocery store shelves. Here is where the science gets a little murky. Gluten, according to some research, has been shown to cause issues in ALL individuals. Basically what this research has shown is that the gluten protein essentially punches a hole through your intestinal wall and gets into your bloodstream. Your body's immune system then has to neutralize these proteins that shouldn't be in our body and that is what leads to inflammation throughout our bodies and autoimmune diseases. Some people's guts heal quickly and they can continue to consume wheat products while more and more people are having adverse reactions. If you want to read about how I suddenly become gluten intolerant, I recently wrote about that and you can read that article, Gluten, I Used to Love It! Now I'm Allergic! Here's my take on wheat! It provides very little nutritional value yet substantial carbohydrates and calories. Let's be honest, wheat isn't going to make you healthier and based on the trending science it will likely make you more sick. In case you are wondering about the fiber in whole wheat products, that can be easily taken care of by eating more vegetables. Calorie for calorie veggies win in the fiber contest! People today have wheat-centric diets. Everything needs to be on a bun, bread, or noodle...and I think we need to reassess why that is! To me even if you don't have any sensitivities to gluten, I believe any wheat based products should be consumed very sparingly due to their poor nutritional value. Dairy
Oh man, I know I'm going to rub some people the wrong way with this section. Let me try to guess what you are thinking... "I can't give up my cheese!" Was I close? Did you know that cheese actually has similar addictive effects on the body as opiate drugs like Vicodin and Oxycotin. (2) That's just crazy, but I get it! I'm still addicted to it. I know my body doesn't do well with dairy yet the only thing I indulge in from time to time is cheese. It is just so good! Can you relate?
So other than the drug like effect on ourselves, why else is dairy potentially harmful? The main thing is a majority of people can't digest one of the main proteins in dairy, lactose. The % of people varies quite a bit depending on your ethnicity but when you average them all out, 60%+ are intolerant to lactose. (3) Nearly 2/3 of the world population can't process dairy, yet many still do. Talk about digestive distress! Let's dumb down the human species to that of an animal for a second, for some it's not that far of a stretch. All baby mammals consume the milk from their mother. Fact! All mammals other than humans stop drinking milk after a weaning phase. Fact! Why do humans think we have some super mammal properties that we can do something that the entire animal kingdom has learned doesn't work for their species? So not only do humans continue to drink milk past infancy, they drink milk from a completely different mammal!!! Sounds kind of weird when you lay it out that way, doesn't it? Outside of the intolerance issue, another aspect of dairy that is troublesome is the quality of the dairy most people consume. You've probably all heard the line, "You are what you eat!" When it comes to animal products like dairy you have to take that a step further, "You are what you eat ate!" In the case of cow's milk dairy, whatever that cow consumed, you are consuming. That can be things like genetically modified corn and soy. These things are given to fatten cows up faster and increase milk supply, essentially making them metabollically sick. Another thing dairy cows are often given is a substance called rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) or sometimes called rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin). This is a synthetic hormone that increases the milk supply of cows. Once again you are what you eat ate! These hormones have been linked to a host of health issues in both cows and humans. (4) My challenge for you would be to test your tolerance for dairy by doing an elimination diet. Take it out for 1 week, maybe 2 then reintroduce it. Do you feel any digestive distress? Gas? Bloating? I believe there is a huge population out there going through life eating foods that cause issues, but they have no idea what they should feel like so they just accept their current health as the status quo. Don't be that person! What Can I Eat Then???
Our goal here isn't to scare you into becoming orthorexic and fear all food. We know that for a majority or people out there life can't go on without pizza, cookies and cheese and that's ok. We hope that if you read this post, you'll take a look at the percentage of your food that is coming from these 3 food items and scale them back. Most people would benefit from limiting these foods and be healthier, happier and probably skinnier.
If you still need more convincing on why these things are problematic we are hosting an online support/educational group on this topic. If you are interested in learning about finding alternatives to these items we will also be touching on that in our free free 5 Day Group. The group starts on Monday, September 28th. It will be setup on Facebook, so you will need an account. In this group we will provide information about healthy swaps, recipes, see if you are sensitive to any of these things and share a little more science on why you should limit these foods. If you are interested in joining us just follow this link and fill out the form.
1) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/addiction/signs-of-addiction.php
2) http://greatist.com/health/cheese-addictive 3) http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-08-30-lactose-intolerance_N.htm 4) https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/what-research-shows/
So I know I've alluded to it in a few posts and told some close friends but I wanted share with you all something that I've had to deal with this past year. I share it because I'm sure there is someone out there that is going through the same thing and I hope this message gets to you to help you relieve your suffering.
The thing that I've been dealing with is I am now gluten intolerant and most likely have celiac disease. I really don't want to start eating gluten again to get the formal diagnosis. I explain later how I came to this conclusion. I share this picture because just last September I wrote up a the post on our Facebook page talking about the hype behind giving up gluten. You can see that post here. At this point my knowledge of gluten was decent. However I knew very little about gluten sensitivities and celiac disease just straight manifesting out of thin air. That's basically what happened to me!!! The fully story... In late December I started noticing a rash on my underarms and down my upper arms. Given the location I thought it was maybe an interaction with my deodorant, so switched that up, nothing changed. I then thought maybe it was a soap or detergent, so switched those up, nothing happened. I then took out some foods, gluten, dairy, and soy. I did that for about a week and nothing happened at the end of a week. So I went back to eating the way I had. I should say that I wasn't eating a lot of gluten at this point, a little bread maybe once or twice a week, and I would have a beer maybe 4-5 times a week. After I did all of that trial and error I basically went back to "normal" stuff. That is when things got really bad. The rash spread to my face, back, chest and even into my legs. At that point I was extremely uncomfortable so I went to the dermatologist. They took a biopsy of the rash and prescribed some steroid cream to help calm down the rash. The biopsy didn't show anything, which was both good and bad. Good that I didn't have cancer or some other serious disease but bad in that I still didn't know what was causing the rash. I then did an environmental allergy test with the dermatologist. When I went in to get the patches removed, there was only one thing that I was allergic to and that didn't make any sense that that would be the cause. This was roughly mid February and I was still eating my normal diet. At this appointment the dermatologist wanted to prescribe me an oral steroid to help with the rash but I told her that I didn't want to take it. I didn't want to kill the rash, I wanted to figure out what was causing it. She was a little shocked that I would turn down drugs that would help with my symptoms. At this point she told me that only 10% of people ever figure what causes rashes like this! Wow!!! I could tell I pushed a button of hers, oh well! I left the office that day and was pretty upset! I was mad at the dermatologist that her main intent was to treat my symptoms. I was upset that 90% of people that have rashes like me go through life not knowing what causes it and likely take prescription medicine to manage symptoms. It made me all the more determined to figure it out. At this point I started having conversations with Laura's sister who was also struggling with similar issues as me. She was a little further along in the process of figuring out what was causing her symptoms and she was pretty certain that she had what is called dermatitis herpetaformis or DH. Simply put, celiac disease but a version that shows up through the skin and not the gut. It was right around April 1st that bit the bullet and cut out all gluten, including beer. I remained free and clear of gluten until the end of May. During that time my rash completely disappeared. That is when I reintroduced it! Of course I chose to use beer as my gluten source! Essentially what I had done was an elimination provocation diet. The results were a little confusing to me. I got together with some of my beer drinking buddies on a Saturday night. Sunday came and went and nothing happened. Same with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I thought I was in clear! Then Thursday evening I broke out. I thought it was a little strange from a timing standpoint so I chose to test it again. This time I waited 3 weeks to "clear out" my system then did it again. Unfortunately I had the same outbreak with the same timing. I had my answer! I went from someone that had no symptoms of any gluten sensitivity to being allergic basically overnight. Strange, right? Now that I've started learning more about gluten and how it interacts with our bodies, it isn't so strange. Gluten is a harmful substance to everybody. Yeah you read that right, everybody. Some people can process it and not be "harmed" while others hit a breaking point and there body just says enough is enough. You might think that is pretty extreme to say that gluten is harmful to everyone. You might think it doesn't affect me. We consume toxins everyday in our foods and through things in our environment like our cleaning supplies and the air we breath. Our bodies do an incredibly good job of processing these toxins and eliminating them from our bodies. Eliminating these toxins creates stress in our body. If you start piling on too much stress at some point your body will be overwhelmed and break down. Doing my research about what causes DH, they often say it comes in 30+ year olds usually after a stressful situation in their lives. I'm blaming Eli our son, love you buddy but you've definitely increased the stress level in the house. As I stated earlier, my goal is for a light bulb to go off in someone's head and make the connection between the food you eat and chronic symptoms that you might be fighting. For some that may be rashes, headaches, achy joints, digestion issues, brain fog, fatigue and the list could go on. I would encourage you to think about the foods that you are eating. Pay attention to when symptoms get bad and what foods you ate recently. Don't discount the power of the things you put into your body! People don't think twice about medicine that they ingest affecting how they feel. I would argue food is just as powerful to both heal and hurt you. If you want to chat more about how to structure an elimination diet I would love to talk with you. You can email me here. Or if you just want to take it upon yourself I highly recommend the book, The Elimination Diet by Tom Maltere.
Who else loves Thai food??? Yeah I could pretty much eat it everyday. I love the flavor profiles of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy...it's just so good! The noodle dishes are probably my favorite when we go out to Thai restaurants. My go to's are Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, or Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles). Given my new intolerance of gluten, I am a lot more cautious when it comes to ordering food at restaurants. I know most asian noodles are made from rice flour, but I guess I just have trust issues, especially when you add the sauce in on top of that. For example I had no idea soy sauce had wheat flour in it, prior to becoming allergic to it...and most Asian kitchens use soy in everything...so it just makes me a little nervous!
With all of that, I decided to try to recreate a Drunken Noodle dish to ensure that it is 100% gluten free. It's not a perfect representation of the authentic dish but it was pretty tasty.
Download Recipe Card for Drunken Zoodles
If you are a man's man and the only way you would ever eat salad is if it was grilled and has red meat, this is the salad for you. No man would or should ever be ashamed of eating a salad like this.
The idea for this salad totally belongs to a former coworker of mine, Eric Simpson. He is the executive chef and at the golf club I used to work at and was always coming up with super tasty food. Recently I was back out there with some family and someone ordered his version of this salad and it just looked tasty. I actually never tasted it but just got a look at it so I'm not sure if the flavors are similar but the main ingredients are close, I think. This salad would totally be an awesome everyday dinner salad throughout the summer. The smokey char from the romaine pairs perfectly with freshness of the avocado and tomato. The blue cheese rounds it and will help it earn it's spot in your weekly meal rotation. Hope you enjoy this salad.
So this week was an experiment for me on our quest to make a new meal for a Monday post. We've tried cauliflower crust pizzas in the past and really haven't had any luck with flavor or texture. We love the idea of pizza that we can eat without any guilt so we wanted to give it another try.
So this time I thought it would be fun and tasty to add sweet potato to the cauliflower. This would give it a bit of that sweet flavor that you get from regular dough when you add honey or sugar. I was also hoping it would help crisp up the crust a bit more. If you can't tell by words like "experiment" and "hoping" this didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped. Although tasty it didn't quite have the texture that I was hoping. The outside got crispy but the interior stayed a little on the soft side. It was definitely a fork kind of pizza. Feel free to make some suggestions if there are any bakers out there that know a way to add more of crunch and firmer texture. I'm thinking maybe a little more tapioca starch and a higher heat when I bake it next time.
Once I master this crust I will post the recipe cards that you guys can download. Until then I would appreciate any feedback on how I could improve this recipe and process.
Make it a Great Monday! Does anyone else use the app Timehop? Yep...I do and it's so much fun. I love to see what I was posting about 1 year ago, 2 years ago or even 6 years ago on Facebook or Instagram. |
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On top of this dish I just included a couple of delicious poached eggs and an easy hollandaise sauce. If you have never made a poached egg, it is a lot easier than you might think! All you need to do is bring 4 inches of water to a low boil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 tbsp of vinegar to acidulate the water: this keeps the egg whites together so that it doesn't turn into egg drop soup. You will want to crack your egg in a small bowl to make sure your yolk stays together and that you can easily drop it into the water. If you are doing multiple eggs you will want to drop them into the water separately. Before you drop the eggs, the last thing you will want to do is swirl the water in your pot with a spoon, this will also help keep your eggs together. Once you drop them in the water, start the timer and cook for 3-4 minutes depending on the consistency of the yolk that you prefer.
Making a hollaindaise sauce does require a little bit of technique, the key is to have all of your ingredients ready, because once you start thickening your yolks, things will move fast. I just used this recipe and added 1 tbsp of stone ground mustard the same time that this recipe calls for adding the salt and cayenne. Hollandaise Sauce Recipe
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Another reason I don't order or eat this dish a lot is that your traditional dish isn't exactly the healthiest thing out there. Biscuits loaded with butter, white flour and probably sugar and sausage gravy that is loaded with more butter and flour. Nothing against butter, but when combined with flour, doesn't make for the healthiest combo. I've traditionally made my own version of this dish the same unhealthy way. So with this version I decided to make some substitutions and take this traditional dish and make it a little bit healthier.
A little bit of an aside, but my parents stopped by the morning I was making this dish. My dad's first comment when I told him what I was making, "Oh, shit on a shingle." The story behind that is when he was in the army, this was a normal dish that they were served. By the nickname though, they must not have been a quality biscuit or gravy. I guarantee that this recipe will not taste or look like shit on a shingle.
Since I'm not a baker and for sure not a Paleo baker I do need to give credit for this biscuit recipe to Jules at www.paleocomfortfoods.com. After quickly browsing his site, I for sure will be going back for other recipes.
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With this particular salad, I dressed the greens, topped it with the tuna salad, added some chopped yellow bell peppers, and then finished with a sprinkle of paprika. Feel free to add any of your favorite veggies to it.
Avocado Tuna Salad
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Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
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Directions
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So if you are anywhere on the gluten sensitivity spectrum this would be a great substitution for you. Feel free to tweak as needed to suit your tastes. If you don't like as much spice cut back on the chili flakes. Laura doesn't like olives so I just added those as a garnish at the end but you are olive eaters I would recommend mixing it directly into the sauce. Hope you enjoy this one, we sure did!
Ingredients - Sauce For the Sauce
For the Ricotta mixture
Additional Ingredients
| Directions
6. Repeat another layer of eggplant, sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella. On the final layer, add the eggplant, sauce and parmesean. 7. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until cheese on top is slightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting. Then garnish with fresh parsley. ENJOY! |
The rest of the dish was pretty simple beef taco meat using the homemade taco seasoning mix that we made a few months ago. The salsa was a roasted corn, black bean salsa. We topped it with a little guacamole and some cilantro and it made for a delicious taco. On side we made some Spanish rice with a little sauteed red onion and chili powder.
Ingredients 4 Large Portabello Mushrooms 2 eggs, beaten and used for an egg wash 1 cup Almond Flour 2 tbsp olive oil | Directions
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So we technically made up this dessert for our #weirdvegwednesday but there isn’t really any veggies in it. I’m going to modify and call it weird produce Wednesday because of the avocados in the frosting. If you try this recipe out on unknowing subjects we would love to hear what their response was when you told them what was actually in these. The pan I made was a double batch, so the ingredients listed below are for just a single batch. So don’t follow my directions below and put them in a 9″ x 13″ like my pic otherwise you will be a brownie flatbread. Ooh I might be on to something with that…
Brownie Ingredients
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Brownie Directions
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Frosting Ingredients
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Frosting Directions
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