Category: Breakfast

Gluten-Free French Toast

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I love breakfast. Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation perfectly described my feelings on the matter by stating, “why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?”

Truly, breakfast is the best meal of the day that sadly not all of us eat. I know I’ve personally made up for this fact by making pancakes at midnight or whipping up an egg scramble for dinner. But one of the things I’ve deprived myself of is French Toast. This mostly stems from my sheer laziness in making a paleo-friendly bread. However, my dad recently came to visit me and took me grocery shopping where he insisted I pick-up some gluten-free bread. I try and stay away from grains in general, but I couldn’t say no to having a loaf of (gluten-free) bread in my apartment.

And with gluten-free bread in my apartment comes one of the things I love the most: French Toast. So #treatyoself to some French Toast this week for breakfast/lunch/dinner and bask in its glory.

*I’m really not adding any measurements here since how much batter you make is going to depend on how many slices of French Toast you’re going to make. I made two slices of French Toast for myself, so I just used 2 eggs and a splash of milk until it got to a good consistency, so use your best judgment

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Gluten-Free French Toast

Ingredients
– Gluten-free bread
– Milk of choice such as almond, cashew, or cow’s milk
– Eggs
– Vanilla extract
– Cinnamon
– Butter
– Maple syrup, for topping

Method
– Make your batter: In a large bowl, add the eggs and the milk. Mix these together and add a touch of vanilla and some cinnamon. This is what is should look like (with some bread in there)

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– Heat the pan and add the butter. Start soaking your bread in the mixture.
– Once the pan is hot, add your bread slice and sprinkle and bit more cinnamon on the top part of your bread and start soaking another slice in the batter. Flip the slice to cook the other side and allow each side to brown. Place the French Toast slice on a plate and repeat the process. If you’d like, warm your oven and put the cooked slices on a plate in the oven as you’re cooking the rest of your French Toast (that way they stay nice and warm).

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– Plate your French toast and top with maple syrup and more cinnamon if you’d like
– Enjoy!

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If you can’t tell, I really like my maple syrup. I’ve found that adding the vanilla and cinnamon in the batter really gives my French Toast a wonderful flavor. Hope you try it out! If you really feel like getting crazy, you could create a stuffed French Toast by putting a cream cheese filling between two French Toast slices – but I’ll let you be the judge of how crazy you get. 😉

xoxo,
Paige

Grain Free Pancakes

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It’s a cloudy day here in Austin, which always makes me want to curl up in bed and eat pancakes. Does anyone else feel this way? If anything, pancakes are always a little treat for me every Sunday. I resist the urge for chocolate chip pancakes and settle for some of the blueberry variety. Raspberry pancakes aren’t too shabby either.

I also wanted to post a recipe utilizing the homemade almond flour. Enjoy with a side of bacon and a generous amount of REAL maple syrup (don’t use that fake, corn syrup stuff) and grass-fed butter. Or coconut oil – that would be tasty.

*The recipe I’m posting will make 6 pancakes. Depending on how hungry you are, that can be split between you and someone else. Or just enjoy all 6 on your own. That’s what I did, no shame. But, you can easily double this recipe.

Grain Free Pancakes
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Ingredients
– 3/4 c almond flour
– 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
– 1 tsp of coconut flour
– pinch of salt
– 1/4 tsp baking soda
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 c almond milk or your favorite non-dairy milk
– 1 tbsp Grade B maple syrup or honey
– 1/4 tsp vanilla
– 1 tbsp melted butter, ghee, or coconut oil + more for greasing the pan
* For a more savory pancake, omit the maple syrup
* If you’re into cinnamon, that would be a great addition to this recipe
* If using fruit or chocolate chips, fold them into the batter once it’s all mixed

Method
– In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (almond flour, arrowroot powder, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda)
– In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, melted butter/ghee/coconut oil)
– Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
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– If you feel like the batter is too thick, add just a splash more of almond milk. Too thin? Add just a little more almond flour.
– Using a 1/4 measuring cup, dip that into the batter and pour onto a heated, greased pan. Use the back of the measuring cup to spread out the batter.
– Flip pancakes once the batter bubbles.
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– Keep cooked pancakes in a warmed oven until all are ready (I usually heat mine to 200 degrees). Serve with butter/coconut oil/ ghee, maple syrup, and bacon.

Enjoy! These pancakes are super delicious and I like sweetening with maple syrup to add a bit of a maple flavor already, so you require less maple syrup.

Let me know how it goes!
xoxo,
Paige

Smoothie Packs

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I have a confession – I don’t actually like eating fruit. I think this comes from not eating much as a kid, but also that I don’t really care for things that are very sweet. Even now if I have to sweeten anything, I only like a certain kind of sweetness. I’m a very picky sweets eater.

Since most fruits are pretty sweet, I avoid them. I’m more of a vegetable girl – I’d rather eat a plate full of broccoli than one filled with strawberries. With that being said, it is important to have some fruit in your diet so you can get the nutrients you need. This is where the almighty smoothie comes in.

I started making smoothie packs when I realized that:
A) Adding a lot of fruit to a blender produces way more than one serving of smoothie
B) I was wasting a lot of good food
C) I am not good at making decisions on what flavor of smoothie I want, so I would add a little of everything (which wasn’t very good)

These nifty little packs just go in your freezer and are ready for you to use whenever you have a smoothie craving. Just add your liquids of choice – for me it’s plain unsweetened whole milk kefir, homemade nut milk, and green tea – and any nutrient boosters – I add chia seeds for a little boost and texture – and blend. It’s thoughtless, simple, and incredibly easy.

*Depending on how many of these you make is going to determine how much time it takes you to pack these.
*You’re going to need Ziploc bags. I used quart storage bags, but sandwich would work just as well.

Smoothie Packs
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Ingredients
– Any frozen or fresh fruit of your choice. I typically stick to frozen berries, but it’s up to you. Get creative! Mango, melon, pineapple, banana – they would all be good choices!
– Leafy greens, such as spinach and/or kale. You’ll see in the pictures I also use some zucchini. Actually a very good smoothie addition if you’ve never tried it.

Method
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^^^This was my assembly line before cutting the zucchini.
– Prepare your fruits and vegetables. If you have fresh fruits and vegetables, wash and cut them accordingly. For bigger fruits and veggies, I’d try and cut them into pretty small pieces. This is what my zucchini looked like after cutting.
– Lay out all your ingredients like in the above picture.
– Assemble your bags. It’s fun to mix it up a little. One bag with strawberry and blueberry, the next with raspberry and blackberry. Just be sure to always add a leafy green or vegetable. Or both, because you love nutrition.
– Zip up the bag, label it, and place it in the freezer.
– Repeat all steps until you’re out of ingredients.

That’s it! It’s super simple! This is also a great way to meal prep. I ended up making about 24 of these smoothie packs from buying 2 bags of each frozen fruit, the large tubs of spinach and kale, and the small zucchinis. This will last me for awhile and is something I don’t have to do often – which is great. This is what my freezer looks like after placing all the packs in there.
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Hope this helps some of y’all out! I know being a busy college student this has helped me out tremendously!

Keep it healthy!
xoxo,
Paige

Cashew Hot Chocolate

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Good morning! As my first recipe, I wanted to share something I’ve discovered that I absolutely love. I call it Cashew Hot Chocolate, but really you can use any type of nut milk that you like. To keep it fresh, I usually switch between homemade cashew milk and homemade almond milk – which I am happy to post recipes for! If you’ve never tried cashew milk, you’re really missing out.

This drink was inspired by buttered coffee. Personally, I love coffee, but sometimes it can make my stomach feel a little off. I try to limit my coffee intake to just two mornings a week (but coffee is really good for you, so don’t feel like you can’t have it all the time). So on the other five mornings of the week, what am I supposed to drink?! Cashew Hot Chocolate – seriously, you’ll love it. With the energy boosting power of MCT, healthy fats from grass-fed butter and coconut oil, and trace minerals from Grade B maple syrup, this is sure to become one of your favorite morning drinks. Hope you enjoy!

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Cashew Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
– Cashew milk or your favorite nut milk
– 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
– MCT oil (as much as you can tolerate, this is different for everyone. If you have never used MCT before, stick to 1 teaspoon)
– 1 tablespoon coconut oil
– 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of unsalted grass-fed butter (I like Kerrygold)
– 1 to 2 teaspoons of Grade B Maple Syrup (add more or less depending on how sweet you like things)
– 1 1/2 tablespoons of cacao powder
– scoop of collagen powder if you have it

Method
– In a mug, pour the cashew milk into it leaving a bit of space. If using cashew milk, add a bit of water to thin it out, unless you’re a fan of the creaminess.
– Heat in the microwave for 2 min. Alternatively, you can heat this on the stove, but it’s in the morning and I don’t have the time for that.
– Remove mug from microwave and pour the hot cashew milk into either a blender or a larger cup, I use the measuring beaker (apparently that’s the name for it) that came with my immersion blender. You just want something bigger than the mug.
– Add all of the remaining ingredients into the cashew milk.
– Blend the ingredients until well incorporated, about 30 seconds.
– Pour back into the mug and enjoy!

This process takes less than 5 min and is a perfect replacement for coffee! Let me know how you like it! Feel free to play with the flavors – this would be wonderful with a dash of cinnamon or a little bit of peppermint extract.