Paleo Banana Muffins

Another recipe from Everyday Paleo, tweaked a bit. I have to admit, these muffins don't quite have the texture or satisfaction as one made with milk, sugar, and AP flour, but their a pretty good substitute.

After a week of only egg dishes for breakfast, I was starting to crave something else, something in the baked goods category. Fresh pineapple and a handful of coconut flakes gave the muffins some texture and sweetness.

I am loving how these protein-packed breakfasts really fill me up and last for hours. This morning I had a small piece of frittata, a sausage link, and one of these muffins and I wasn't hungry until 12:30pm. Usually, I'd be starving by 10 and need a snack.

UPDATE: I tried these with a cup of diced apple instead of pineapple and liked it much more! I also added about 6 walnuts chopped for a banana bread-like texture.

RECIPE:
1 ripe banana, mashed
4 eggs
1/3 cup water
1 cup pineapple, chopped
2 1/4 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg
handful unsweetened coconut flakes
1/8 cup coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix banana pineapple, eggs, and water in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted coconut oil and whisk together. In another large bowl, mix almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and coconut flakes and mix well. Grease muffin tin with coconut oil or use cupcake liners. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full, it should make 16 muffins. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Paleo Roasted Red Pepper Dip

This recipe is from the book, Everyday Paleo, that my friend lent me. I brought this dip to a BBQ and it disappeared quickly! It has the consistency and similar taste to hummus, and is very filling. I roasted the red peppers instead of using the jarred ones. Soaking the nuts overnight is very important to make it easier to blend.

RECIPE:
2 cups walnuts, soaked overnight
2 fresh red bell peppers or 12 oz jarred red peppers
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
juice of half a lemon
1/2 tsp salt

If roasting the red peppers, turn oven onto high broil setting. Drizzle olive oil over the peppers, set in a glass dish, and place under the broiler. Broil for 10 minutes, then turn peppers over and broil for another 10 minutes. Continue until peppers are blackened and blistered on the outside. Take out of oven and allow to cool. Scrape blackened skin off of the peppers, remove seeds, and cut into strips.

Place walnuts, cumin and salt in  a food processor or blender. Process until walnuts are finely ground. Add pepper strips, garlic, parsley, lemon juice and process until well blended. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the dip as the food processor is on. Add more salt to taste if needed. Chill for at least half an hour before serving. Serve with lots of fresh veggies!

30 Days of Paleo Starts Now

I'm taking the plunge into Paleo! My diet now is very healthy and mostly low-carb, but I was looking for something that would give me fast results.  I have a friend who started Crossfit and the Paleo diet

My Challenge: Adhere to a Paleo diet as strictly as I can for 30 days.

Goal:  Slim down and lose winter's extra padding in time for a ladies trip to Las Vegas, which will include skin-revealing LBDs and pool parties! Bonus benefits - I'm hoping to sleep better at night and have more energy during the day.

Guide:  A friend loaned me this book; it's the guide I'm using to get started plus the numerous cooking blogs and websites out there.

Getting Started: Some Paleo "get started" guides recommend cleaning out your fridge and pantry of anything non-Paleo. I think this is a great idea for people who tend to give into temptation when they have goodies in the house. I opted not to throw good food away (at least donate it to a friend or local foodbank!), because I may not stick with this diet longer than 30 days! So far I have been able to resist, although my mind does often wander to those Thin Mints in the freezer. Why do I always agree to buy those then regret it later?! Glutton for punishment, I tell ya.

Prep Work: In order to be successful at the Paleo diet, I had to purchase some unusual ingredients right up front. These included clarified butter, almond flour, almond butter, and coconut oil, lots of nuts. All of these I purchased online at Vitacost.com for half the price at my local grocery store. Raw nuts I purchased at Nuts.com. Meal planning takes a bit more time and effort. Luckily, my hubby has decided to try Paleo as well so we don't have to worry about two versions of the same meal. The nights before he does a morning run he may end up having a cup of rice to give him fuel to last overnight. We're still experimenting to see what will work.

Now on to the recipes! Wish me luck!