Lemony Blueberry Muffins

My cousin found a recipe for AIP/Paleo Lemon Blueberry Muffins.
I have reintroduced a few foods so was able to modify these a bit to suit what I'm eating these days.

Here is my modified version ...

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

2 eggs

zest and juice (about 1/4 cup juice) of 1 lemon

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract ... I use my homemade stuff
2/3 cup coconut flower

1/4 cup arrowroot flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

a pinch or two of salt
1 cup fresh blueberries (I have also used frozen)

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).  Line muffin tins with preferred liner.

Combine wet ingredients using a whisk.  Reserving blueberries til the end, combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add dry ingredients a little at a time to the wet ingredients, whisk each time until the batter is no longer lumpy.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon batter equally into 12 muffin cups.

Bake 20 minutes, rotate, bake another 10 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

PS.  I sprinkled some cacao nibs on top of a few of these to see if they would be a yummy addition.  I didn't love them.  BUT ... next time I am going to stir the cacao nibs through a few of them and see if it's better that way ...

Sweet Potato French Toast

My husband wanted to have a Good Friday bunch after church.  He wanted bacon, eggs and french toast.  Often, when we have something like that, I'd just eat what I can and not worry about the rest but this time I decided I wanted to try and make some french toast that I can eat.  It was a nice surprise!  I want to play around a bit and see if I can get the egg mixture to stick to the sweet potato a bit better but for now, this was good.

If you are eating AIP, you need to know that this isn't compliant as it has eggs and almond milk.  But once you successfully re-introduce those things, this is something you can try! 

All I did was slice the sweet potato and toast it in the toaster.  I found that the thinner slice was better than the thicker slice.  I toasted it two or three times ... til it was browned.  

Then I made the 'batter" just like normal french toast.  I used an egg, some almond milk, homemade vanilla extract, and a bit of cinnamon.  Dip the toasted sweet potato slices into the batter and then cook in an already heated fry pan.

I topped the toast with a bit of pure maple syrup and fresh raspberries.

And we had scrambled eggs (I just do eggs with nothing added) and some AIP compliant bacon.

A delicious Good Friday brunch! 

Minty Melon, Fig and Prosciutto Salad

Hello!  I've been AWOL from The Beans Blog for some time.  Well, I use it all the time for recipes but I've haven't been posting as I've been busy trying to figure out what foods I can eat and trying a whole bunch of new recipes. I may share more details of my story later but for now I'll just mention that I've been eating according to the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) since April of 2017 and I have seen incredible improvements in my health.  AIP is an elimination diet (and lifestyle) where you focus on eating very nutrient dense foods while eliminating foods that have been found to trigger auto immune disease.  Once your specific symptoms subside, you start to re-introduce foods and watch for symptoms to return. I have done a few re-introductions but have decided to go back to the beginning (well, almost ... I'm keeping eggs!) for another month or two ... or three ... and then I'll start re-introductions again but much slower and much more documented.  In the meantime, I feel like I've got enough of a handle on what I'm eating that I can begin sharing some recipes. 

I got the inspiration for this recipe from Heather Christo's blog.  I changed it up just a little bit though to suit my family's tastes and to make it AIP compliant. 

I didn't worry too much about measurements ... I just kinda threw everything together.  You can use more or less of any of the ingredients listed. 

Ingredients:

Prosciutto (make sure the ingredients are just pork and salt if you are strict AIP) I use this one

Rockmelon - I used half of one, cut into thin wedges

Figs - I used three, chopped

Fresh mint leaves, chopped

Fresh basil leaves, chopped

Spring onions - I used four, chopped

Balsamic Vinegar (for AIP, I use Coconut Balsamic Vinegar ... this is the one I use)

Method:

Fry Prosciutto til crispy and set aside.  In same fry pan, add a bit of olive oil to prosciutto fat (if needed) and fry til starting to brown.  Set aside. 

Arrange fruit  on a platter or in a large bowl.  Top with spring onions and fresh herbs.  

Chop crispy prosciutto and add to fruit and herb arrangement.  Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar.

Delicious!

I served this last night with eye fillet steaks that my husband grilled on the BBQ, sautéed zucchini slices sprinkled with garlic powder, sautéed mushrooms covered in fresh thyme and garlic chives, and onions ... again sautéed. We are big fans of the humble sauté. :) 

Paleo Cinnamon Buns

The other day I made cinnamon buns for a friend's birthday.  A mutual friend, who happened to be coming over for dinner last night, heard about it and sent me a text asking if I could make paleo cinnamon buns for dessert.  It was a total joke.  I laughed about it but then I thought ... hmm ... I wonder.  And so I googled and shopped and made something that was actually quite delicious.  They weren't fluffy like regular cinnamon buns, but the flavor was good and quite reminiscent of ... well, cinnamon buns!  I used the dough in this recipe  but had a strange experience with the tapioca flour so had to change the method a bit.  I used the filling ingredients from this recipe but again I changed the method ... mainly because I didn't read the recipe right.  I made up the glaze.

For the dough:

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

2 TBLS honey

1 egg

For the filling:

1/2 cup dates

1/2 cup pecans

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1.5 TBLS butter, melted

1.5 TBLS coconut oil, melted

For the glaze:

4 TBLS coconut sweet spread

2 TBLS tapioca flour

2 tsp pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pint of salt

Before we start ... I have to tell you about this coconut sweet spread.  It is a new discovery and it is a good one.  This stuff is so tasty! It tastes like caramel and it is ALL COCONUT.  The ingredients are coconut, coconut oil and coconut nectar.

To make the dough:

Put the coconut water, oil, sea salt, and honey into a little pot and bring to the boil.  Take off the heat and add the tapioca flour.  The original recipe said to mix.  I did ... but it was a sticky-bouncy mess, and there was a bunch of coconut oil left in the bottom that wouldn't mix in!At this stage I didn't have high hopes for the dough!  But don't worry if that happens to you, I'm fixing to tell you how to make it work.   Let the mess in  he pan cool for a few minutes and then throw it in the food processor.  Add the coconut flour and egg.  Whizz that around in the food processor for a bit.  It will look a bit like breadcrumbs.  Grab that out and knead it for a minute or two.  At this point, it all came together into a dough like consistency.  An oily dough, to be sure, but I had hope again!  Roll the dough out on a piece of baking paper.  I did mine into a large rectangle shape.

To make the filling:
Add all four ingredients to the food processor and whizz it up.  Spread on top of the dough.

Roll the dough up like you are making regular cinnamon buns ... or sushi.  I actually used the baking paper to assist in this process ...

Slice the  log into 8 pieces.  I cut and discarded the very ends.

Bake in a preheated 350C oven for 20 minutes uncovered. Cover with tin foil and bake for another 10/15 minutes or until done. I just tasted a little bit of the outside dough to see if they were done ...  Here's what they looked like straight out of the oven.

For the glaze: Mix all ingredients. Spread on top of rolls.

Raw Key Lime Pies

 

These little things are delicious!

I found the recipe here and just had to try it. I changed it just a little bit after reading through some of the suggestions in the comments.  And next time I will double the crust because I had WAY too much filling. (I'm not putting the double crust recipe here though as you may not find that necessary ... maybe I have smaller cupcake molds?) The original recipe was for eight cupcakes or one pie.

Crust: (like I said ... this is the single recipe but I'll double it next time)
1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1 cup  walnuts
a pinch of sea salt
10 dates (pitted)

Filling:
1&1/2 cups mashed avocado (this was three avocados!!)
3/4 cups fresh squeezed lime juice (I ran out of fresh so I used a bit of the bottled stuff to top it up)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
zest from one lime

Method:

Put crust ingredients in your food processor.  Whizz that up until it's crumbled and moist.  Push that together in the bottom of your cupcake molds.  I went and bought some silicone ones.  You'll want to too or else you'll never get them out!!

Put filling ingredients into food processor.  Whizz that up until it's smooth.  Taste it.  Try not to eat it all right now!  You can adjust the taste by adding more honey or lime juice.  I did neither.  It was so tasty!!

Spoon that filling into your cupcakes molds on top of the crust.

Freeze until set.  

**I took these to a party the first night I made them and since there were lots of us, we just cut them up and shared.  I reckon that is the way to do it.   We have a couple in the freezer and we've been taking one out a night, cutting it into four and sharing.  It's sorta like one perfect bite!!  Yum!!

Perfect Little Apple Cinnamon "not one bad for you thing in them" Paleo Muffins

 

These are so delicious.

I saw this recipe as I was surfing the web last night and I got straight up out of my chair and made them!  I am so glad I did.  I followed her recipe exactly except that I used my sugar free, crockpot apple butter instead of applesauce.  I think that gave it a heap of extra flavor, but I'm sure that using unsweetened applesauce would be fine too.  Just don't use the sugar laden stuff!

Oh, I also made these into mini muffins ... not big ones.

Here's how you make these little beauties.

3 eggs, beaten together
2 cups almond meal
1 cup sugar free, crockpot apple butter (or unsweetened applesauce)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (don't use imitation maple syrup!)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Mix all ingredients, adding eggs to mixture last.  Spoon into muffin wrappers. (a dozen big ones or a whole bunch of mini ones) 

Bake 15-20 minutes. 

That's it.

Yep. 

So simple.

So delicious.

So healthy.