So today I'm going to share with you one of my very favorite lunches EVER! AIP, Paleo, or normal-ish eating habits. This is one of my favorites, hands down, across the board! There are days when it’s a good day only because you didn’t throw up. There are days when it takes all the strength you can muster to stay on your feet. And if you’re stupid like me, you’ll add a thousand things on top of that. I apologize for my prolonged absence. It happens when you have a chronic illness. I’ve been a lot worse ever since coming from YCCLC, and had friends visiting and a summer arts festival. So there has been a lot keeping me away from here! Most days I can stay on my feet, thankfully, but I’ve had some pretty terrible days, while being in town every day for at least three weeks straight. I had to eliminate every food I was eating, and add a few things back in a little at a time. Unfortunately, some days all I can eat without being sick is the worst food ever invented, bone broth. But on days I feel okay, I can still have my all-time favorite food, these AIP gyro sliders! Besides the bone broth, lamb is the only protein that I can have. But that’s fine, because I LOVE lamb. Growing up on Israeli food, I got to eat it quite often. These sliders are on a sweet potato bun with an AIP guac and lettuce. They are full of Mediterranean flavor, and they are my absolute favorite lunch! Someone asked me the other day if I was tired of these yet, because I have them so often, but no. I still can eat this almost every day! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! Directions:
Heat the oven to 425*. Slice the sweet potato into ¼ inch slices and bake until soft. Let cool. Mix the lamb and the first list of spices. Divide the lamb into sixteen patties. Freeze twelve. Cook four of the patties. While they cook, mix the avocado and the second list of spices. Place patties on sweet potato slices. Top with guac and lettuce. Finish with another sweet potato slice.
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I had a different post I was planning to publish this week, but a couple of days ago, my sister mentioned Pi Day was coming up. Nerd me went, “Oh, yeah, how’d I forget that?” Of course, the answer is easy – I forget everything. But I digress. In 2017, we only picked about a gallon of wild blueberries. It was a very sad year of blueberry harvest. We have picked up to seventeen gallons in a couple of days. So these are very special blueberries, and we had saved them for a very special treat. This recipe is based off of one that we’ve used for a long time – one that converted me to liking goat milk, in fact. One of my favorite variations included a meringue on top and roasted macadamia nuts nuts underneath the crème layer. This was one of the very first recipes that I began working on converting when I began my limited diet. In other words, it’s good. Funny things, holidays. We almost never do stuff for holidays besides the Big Four. Like, when did we start celebrating Pi Day? And then we have St. Patrick’s Day coming up. How did that even become a thing? Much less a national holiday? My siblings have already been running around the house singing the Irish National Anthem. No doubt The High Kings will be added to the mix soon. I think it's Allergy Girl #2 who has initiated the unfamiliar holiday mania... Anyways, blueberry crème pie. The crème layer is best when made with a sweeter, milder dairy-free milk like coconut or almond. If you use flax or cashew like I did (the only milks the allergy duo in our house can both have), I strongly recommend adding the stevia to the crème. It will help cover up the slightly stronger flavor. It definitely has a light, spring-y, happy flavor – but the warm temperatures have once again disappeared, and the snow is falling again. We are at 72 inches and counting! I love the snow – it’s so beautiful, and it blows my mind that the fact that every. Single. Snowflake. Is different! All of that six feet of snow out the back window, spreading across thousands of square miles, and every snowflake is unique! What an amazing Creator I serve! Back to the pie: it is paleo, refined sugar free, dairy free, and easy! Have fun! BlueBerry Crème Pie Serves 8 Oven @ 325* F
DIRECTIONS:
Crust: 1. Mix gelatin and water, let sit for five minutes 2. Place dry ingredients in dry carafe of blender or food processor. Grind into a smooth paste, then transfer to a medium bowl. 3. Add coconut sugar to gelatin egg, and then add the mixture to your nut paste. Thoroughly mix. 4. Press into pie plate. Poke the crust with a fork, then bake for 15 minutes. This is the only use of the oven, so you can turn it off. Let cool to room temperature. Crème layer: 1. In a small pot, whisk milk, arrowroot, and coconut sugar constantly over low heat until it begins to thicken. Turn off heat and continue to whisk until it becomes custard-y. 2. Once thickened, add vanilla and stevia, if desired. Cool to room temperature. Blueberry layer: 1. Mix all ingredients in medium pot. Simmer while stirring until thickened. Let cool to room temperature. Assembly: 1. Spread crème evenly in pie shell. Sprinkle with tapioca or arrowroot starch. This helps the layers stay distinct. 2. Spread blueberries over top, gently. Viola! You have made a blueberry crème pie! Store in the fridge, preferably uncovered to avoid condensation. For the record, the circumference of my pie is approximately 24 inches. Hi everyone, I’m back! I would apologize profusely for my absence, but as it was caused by myriads of auditions and other school deadlines, I feel slightly justified. But it has been stressful! And for this girl who is not supposed to be stressed (hahahaha) it hasn’t helped with my health at all. Physical or mental. You know what always helps in stressful situations? C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E. Except… when you’re worried that you’re spending too much of your family’s precious resources on something just to make you feel better… I can’t just buy chocolate. If it’s something I can actually have, it’s going to be expensive. And I mean EXPENSIVE. Like over $5 for a 2-oz. bar. It’s ridiculous. I messed around with making chocolate with cacao butter, since often coconut oil chocolate will make me feel kind of sick. But cacao butter is expensive. And at the rate that I was consuming chocolate the last couple of weeks, that just wasn’t fair when I wasn’t the one actually buying the butter. And if I was, I wouldn't be making it. So it was back to the coconut oil. I spent a couple of tries on it, but finally figured out a recipe that 1. doesn’t taste much like coconut and more just like normal chocolate (if you’re really sensitive to coconut flavor, don’t quote me on this one) 2. doesn’t make me feel sick! and 3. has no artificial sweetener. Winning all around on this one! Oh, the espresso? Growing up in a family where gourmet desserts are the norm, I learned early on that coffee in small amounts brings out the chocolate flavor without adding any of its own! I figured that would probably help my flavor problem out – and it did. This, sadly, is NOT AIP. Which is bad, because we’re talking about putting me on AIP. So I’ll start messing with that next. Always love a challenge! Well, when I feel up to it. Melt coconut oil. Whisk in cocoa and carob powders until smooth. Add vanilla and espresso powder. Pour into mold (I used a silicone muffin tin). Let cool. I just leave mine outside, since it's well below freezing. You could just put it in the fridge, if you have one!
And then go sit down somewhere and take a moment to breathe and enjoy it. A good book always helps with that! I love India. I love the people, I love the food. The loud music, not quite so much. But I’ve spent many years learning the lingo of Indian cooking, and usually turn out a couple of curries a week. It’s a good thing my family likes curry! About two years ago, I was making goat cheese by the gallon, and when I was given a Really Amazing Cheese Book, one of the first recipes I tried was paneer, an Indian cheese. Fortuitously, within a couple of days of making that cheese, a recipe landed in my inbox – Palak Paneer. Hm, what’s palak? Since I had the cheese to use, I decided to give it a shot. Turns out, it’s my favorite comfort food. This dish has a milk base, with cooked greens (usually spinach) and tomatoes, ground together and seasoned lightly. Okay, my dad was skeptical when I proudly served the pot of thick green-and-white liquid with spices floating on top. But my whole family approved of it! I think the best part is the toasted cumin/butter that goes on top. I froze a bunch of leftover garden greens this year – outer cabbage leaves, lots of kale, broccoli leaves – to make palak… and then got put off of dairy. And stuff like that just doesn’t taste the same with coconut milk, y’know? About a week ago, Mom picked up some flax milk. I was really nervous when I tasted it, because I dislike flax. But it was wonderful! In fact, so far, it’s the most accurate imitation of milk that I’ve tasted. So, not being a sweet or strong-flavored milk, it was perfect for the base of a palak. But we had stewed moose that needed to be used, and palak is typically a vegetarian dish. I decided to simply make a curry that had similar elements and flavors to a palak. It turned out delicious! I used kale stalks that we had in the freezer for my green component, but you could use any ‘green-tasting’ vegetable, and it would work fine. (Sorryyyyy... I promise to make a real palak recipe soon!) This is so easy to make – you can literally whip it up in 15 minutes, barring rice cooking time. Or you could just skip the rice and eat it as a soup! I love eating this on a snowy or rainy day. It’s so warm and comforting, and, I don’t know, the flavors are just perfect for that sort of day. And you can use a meat other than moose. I won’t judge, really. We can’t all be so fortunate. :) Ingredients: 1 ½ lb. stewed moose meat (or beef) 2 lb. fresh or frozen green vegetables 28 oz. can diced tomatoes 2 c. flax milk ½1/2 t. cumin ½1/2 t. chili powder ½1/2 t. dried cilantro 2 cloves garlic, chopped Salt to taste Lightly sauté vegetables until thawed and softened. Add all other ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve over rice or as a soup. You can serve this with all sorts of decorations. I added pickles, you could put cheese or chopped cilantro on top! |
Dani M
I grew up eating my Mom's amazing gourmet cooking. And then something happened. Three years ago, I became very sick. After lots of testing, the types of food I could eat became very, very limited. My mission now is to live a non-toxic lifestyle and try to make good, affordable, easy, allergy-friendly food! Most of my recipes will be paleo, Whole30, and/or keto friendly. Disclaimer
I am not (yet!) a certified nutritionist of any sort. Anything I say about health or nutrition is simply from my own research, and I would advise you to research before taking any of my advice.
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