Paleo Banana Blueberry Muffins

I am a huge "pastry" fan. I dont eat them much anymore, simply because I could just eat pasty all day long and gain 5,000 lbs easy. When I was a kid I ate a lot of baked goods for breakfast... My mom would even make me my own confetti cake (no frosting) and I would have it for a weeks worth of breakfasts and snacks. I could house pop tarts, muffins, toaster strudels for days. I gave it all up, for the most part... when I changed my life a few years ago. Its still one of my hardest hurdles when someone brings something to work to share or we have a meeting and they are on the conference table.

We like to have a real breakfast, together, as a family on Sunday mornings. Its the only day that we are all together. Often times I make waffles or pancakes and Hubs makes eggs and bacon. I have a great paleo waffle recipe (really simple) and I look for new things to try all the time. I try to make them healthy and as clean as possible. This is for Z's benefit too!

This weekend we had breakfast with #2 and her family! I wanted to bring along a baked good... because thats what I do... and decided since I love blueberry muffins... that I would give them a shot! This recipe is great. They were "moist" and delicious! Give them a shot!

Recipe: Paleo Banana Blueberry Muffins

Website: bakerita.com/paleo-banana-blueberry-muffins

Ingredients:

4 Bananas

4 Eggs

1/2 C Almond Butter

4 Tbsp Coconut Oil (melted)

1/2 C Coconut Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Vanilla

1/4 Tsp Salt

1 Container of Blueberries (approximately 1-1/2 C)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 and line muffin tins with liners. This recipe made 31 muffins for me.

Mash the bananas with a hand mixer. Add eggs, coconut oil, vanilla and nut butter. Mix well. Add the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix again. Fold in blueberries with a spatula.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then remove from the pan and let cool on a rack completely.

I would refrigerate these if you don’t eat them all right away. I find blueberry muffins don’t keep for a very long time. 

Cheesy Baked Cauliflower Tots

Now that Z is eating all finger foods... damn time is flying... I have been looking for ways to make veggies more fun. Not that he dosent eat his veggies normally... Kid love him some zucchini and carrots... but this is something I can send to daycare that is not just plain old veggies. Hubs and I tried them too and they are pretty good!!

Recipe: Cheesy Baked Cauliflower Tots

Website: kalynskitchen.com/2014/03/cheesy-baked-cauliflower-tots

Ingredients:

1 Small Head of Cauliflower (or half of  large head)

1/3 C Shredded Sharp Cheddar

1/4 C Grated Parmesan

2 tbsp Almond Flour (I substituted with GF Al Purpose Flour for Z @ School, no nut products)

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

Directions:

Chop up the Cauliflower into big chunks and place in a microwave safe bowl with plastic wrap over the top. Microwave for 2 minutes to get it soft (if you don’t have a micro, boil it for a few minutes, you just want it tender enough to be able to puree it in the food processor easily). If there is any water, drain it. Otherwise put it in the food processor and chop it all up… not to much so it is not puree.

In a bowl, mix the cauliflower, cheddar, parmesan, flour and salt. Once it is all combined add the egg.

Use a tablespoon to scoop the mixture into mini muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes @ 400 degrees. Take them out, flip each one of them over in the tins and bake for another 15 minutes.

The website says that they don’t reheat well, I disagree. I made 24 of these (one batch) and put them in the fridge and served them 3 at a time to Z. He loved them and they were perfectly fine reheated. 

Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I was looking for a good pancake recipe to feed the Little Monster. This one fit the bill and what better way to start a Sunday than with Chocolate Chip Pancakes!! It was his first... of probubly many... experiences with chocolate chip pancakes! Mama (me) loved them growing up and still loves them to this day!! 

Enjoy!!

Recipe: Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Website: againstallgrain.com/2012/04/05/grain-free-pancakes

Ingredients:

3 Eggs

1/4 C Coconut Milk (you can use almond)

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Agave (recipe calls for honey but I used agave because I fed them to Z)

2 tbsp Coconut Flour

1/3 C Almond Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1 Banana

Directions:

Her directions on the website are a little more extensive than mine… I just tossed everything above into my Ninja with the paddle attachment and gave it a whirl. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes to get a little thicker and you are ready to go.

I used my tabletop griddle and made all 6 pancakes at once. I suppose I could have made them a bit smaller and a few more of them. Once the edges got bubbly I added some chocolate chips and flipped. You can also add banana slices at that time too.

They were a little messy flipping and I thought they burned because they got a little dark, but they tasted amazing and the Little Man certainly approved!!

Lemon Blueberry Scones (Nut Free & Paleo)

The fifth and final week of the Open 2014…

Recipe made 56 scones (tripled the original recipe found HERE). I  am not sure if it is because I tripled it that they came out really soft, but when I think of a scone, I think of them being a little drier. This boggled my mind because of the amount of coconut flour in them which I find always dries things out. Oh well, lesson learned I will bake them a little longer next time… and I don’t think there was one complaint about them at the gym…

I did also have to pry them out of Hubs’ hands to take them there… he was happy to have the first taste fresh out of the oven!

I logged it as written below into my fitness pal and got the following facts: 58 Calories, 1g Carb, 2g Fat, 1g Protein

What You Need:

9 Eggs

Zest from 3 Lemons

3/4 C Lemon Juice (I squeezed the lemons I zested and than one more)

3/4 C Coconut Milk

1 1/2  Tsp Vanilla

3/4 C Raw Honey

1 1/2 C Coconut Flour

1 1/2 C Arrow Root Powder

3/4 Tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2 Tsp Cream of Tartar

3/4  Tsp Salt

18 oz Fresh Blueberries

What You Do:

- Preheat Oven to 350

- Mix eggs and wet ingredients in large bowl

- Add dry ingredients (I put it all through the sifter and added it slowly to the wet batter)

- The batter should be pretty thick, if its not, let it stand for a few minutes and let it thicken a bit

- Fold in blueberries

- Spoon (with heaping tablespoon) scones onto parchment lined sheets

- Bake for about 15-18 minutes

- Remove from cookie sheet and cool

Double Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut Cookies

Week four of the Open 2014… these came out pretty good. They were liked at the gym, but I though they were a little dry. Not sure what the fix would be, maybe leaving out the melted chocolate? Not sure. Either way, CFW didnt leave a crumb for me to take home!!

Recipe made 36 cookies (doubled from original recipe HERE). I logged it as written below into my fitness pal and got the following facts: 71 Calories, 3g Carb, 8g Fat, 1g Protein

What You Need:

2 C. Almond Flour

2 Tbsp Coconut Flour

1/2  C. Cacoa Powder

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/2  Tsp Baking Soda

2 Eggs

10 Tbsp Coconut Oil Melted

6 Tbsp Raw Honey

2 Tsp Vanilla

1/2 C. Dark Chocolate Chips, melted

2/3 C. Chopped Macadamia Nuts

1/2 C. Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

What You Do:

- Preheat Oven to 350

- Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl

- Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl

- Slowly mix dry into wet

- Fold in nuts and chocolate chip

- Spoon (with tablespoon) cookies onto parchment lined sheets

- Bake for about 15 minutes

- Remove from cookie sheet and cool

Paleo Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

If these tasted as good as they smelled when they where baking I knew I was going to have a big hit on my hands! Always looking for a yummy bite size snack that is delish and not filled with sugar.

I made these for week number three of the Open 2014 for CrossFit Wachusett. Cant wait to see how much everyone likes them.

The original recipe is HERE. They made 9 large muffins with the recipe. I wanted to make mini muffins to share with the gym peeps... plus I think its more fun to have bite size goodies!! The recipe mad 48 mini muffins.

I put the recipe into My Fitness Pal and this is the result of one mini muffin:  Cal. 63, Carb 8g, Fat 4g, Protein 2g.

What You Need:

3 Bananas

3 Eggs

1/4 C Maple Syrup

1 Tsp Vanilla

1/2 C Almond Butter (I used salted)

1/4 C Coconut Flour

1/4 Tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

Chopped Walnuts (however much you want)

Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips (however much you want)

What You Do:

- Preheat Oven to 350

- Mash bananas with a fork so they are still slightly chunky

- Add eggs, syrup, almond butter and vanilla and  mix with hand mixer

- Sift coconut flour into mix than add cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder and hand mix together

- Add chocolate chips and walnuts, I grinded my walnuts in the food processor to make them really small

- Use mini muffin cups or coat the inside of a mini muffin tray with coconut oil (really really well)

- Fill cups/tin with a tablespoon each of batter

- Bake for 10 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean), leave in pan to cool to touch and than flip out of pan onto cooling rack.

 

Paleo Coconut Brownie Bites

Week two of the Open 2014 I decided to bring this treat with me to share...

The original recipe is from HERE. I am really excited to explore the website for some more paleo deliciousness...

What You Need:

1 1/3 C Walnuts

2/3 C Cacao Powder

40 Pitted Dates

2 Tbsp Vanilla

4 Tbsp Coconut Milk

1/2 C Unsweetened Coconut Flakes

What You Do:

- Process coconut in food processor and set aside in a small bowl. This is for rolling the balls in at the end.

- Process cacao powder and walnuts (this makes that wonderful powdery mess so be careful when you open it, also don’t over process or your walnuts will be too fine)

- Add dates and vanilla to processor (you might want to soak the dates in water for a few minutes before adding them to soften them a bit)

- Add coconut milk and vanilla and process until a dough is formed in the processor. This is where I thought the dough was going to kill my precious food processor, stop before it starts to wine at you, it gets pretty thick.

- Put dough in a bowl and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours, or overnight… or I put it in the freezer for about an hour… it just has to be cold.

- I chose to make 1/2 inch balls… more to share and more bite size. I rolled the balls than rolled them in coconut.

- Keep them cold until you serve!

Again, I doubled the recipe that is listed on the website link because I was making them for a large group. I rolled 1/2 inch balls and the recipe made about 80 of them. I put the recipe into My Fitness Pal and this is the result of one serving:  Cal. 53, Carb 10g, Fat 2g, Protein 1g.