Hurray for Pizza!!!!

I am thrilled to announce that Pizza has been officially added back into our diet!!! 

The kids are all ecstatic!!  Mike is even MORE ecstatic!!  If you know Mike, you know he lives and breathes pizza.  These past few months his pizza intake has gone from 4-5 times a week to 4 times a month...maybe less??  He'll never tell.  ;)

When I told the kids we were having pizza tonight, I pretty sure the neighbors heard them squeal.  It was a joyous occasion, with much celebration!

Finding a pizza crust that is paleo friendly, and not gross, is not an easy feat.  A lot of recipes resort to odd bases that aren't really dough.  Cauliflower is a big one out there.  I'm just not ready to venture into the world of cauliflower as a substitute for anything "normal" in my life.  Maybe someday, but that day is NOT today.  I found recipes for meat based crusts.  Ehhhh...that's a bit overwhelming and I'm looking for real pizza here.  I also found a few non-crust recipes.  Again, I want REAL PIZZA!!!

After quite a search, I finally found one that looked very promising!  I read on her blog that she had adapted a dinner roll recipe into pizza dough, I thought, "Winner, winner! Pizza dinner!"  Pizza dough and dinner rolls, yep, that's fitting right in with my need for bread-like crust.  I will be trying her dinner roll recipe soon!

First off, make sure all your ingredients are paleo kosher.  We do eat full fat dairy in moderation, so our pizzas do include cheese.  If you don't eat dairy, feel free to leave off the cheese.  As mentioned many times, I'm a crazy-nutso label reader.  If you are not making your own sauce from scratch, READ YOUR LABELS!!  Many have added sugar and other yuck.  This is one of two brands that I have found reasonable and tasty!!

You can find the pizza dough recipe from Paleo Spirit.  I was really getting the hang of the dough by the 2nd batch and they both turned out really well!!  It was easier than I expected it to be.  The kneading was simple and rolling it out was easy too.  I loved cooking it directly on the parchment paper.  No moving from paper to pan.  We did take the crusts off the paper for finally cooking, which I think I will not do next time.  Less clean up of melted cheese on the pan!

Look how pretty the crust was!!!!!!

I also think I will bake the crusts a bit longer.  My oven, even though it is only 4 years old, really cooks slow.  I have to cook everything about 5 minutes longer than suggested.  This recipe said 12 -15 minutes.  I baked mine at least 15 minutes, but it didn't look crispy like hers.  I thought it would be fine, but once the toppings were on it and re-baked, I found it could have been baked a bit more.  Definitely NOT gooey, but could be crispier.  

We did several toppings.  One pizza was sausage, uncured pepperoni and fresh mushrooms.  The 2nd had the same toppings plus chopped red onion and black olives.  You can change up your toppings, but I'd remember to stay heavy on the meat side: sausage, ham, bacon, pepperoni, ground beef.  You need the protein!!  Don't use canned mushrooms, use fresh.  You could do tomato, fresh pineapple, a paleo friendly BBQ sauce and chicken.  The toppings are endless!!

This will be a staple again in our family.  Everyone is thrilled!!!  I will have to make 3 pizzas next time for sure, maybe FOUR!!  I also found that I could make one crust, then while that one was pre-baking, make the next one.  Then we just baked in shifts.  The kids topped one while I baked the next crust, etc.  It was great to have helpers in the kitchen and they could add their own toppings.  I may try dividing the dough and letting them make individual pizzas sometime.  Not until I'm more adept at the dough, which shouldn't take long.

Everyone is going to bed fat and happy!!

Pancakes...Round 3! We have a winner!!!!

In my attempt to make sure the kids have some "comfort foods" in their lives, I have tried three versions of Paleo pancakes.  Let's face it, grains are what makes pancakes, pancakes!!  It is very hard to match that consistency, crispy outside, fluffy inside, golden yumminess.  I knew I wasn't going to match Aunt Jemima in any way, but I tried.

The first one I tried, I found the recipe in a Paleo cookbook I have.  I don't remember which one because nobody like them, so I didn't mark it a "keeper".  They were a banana base, really thin and runny.  Wouldn't flip well and nobody like them.  Oh I said that, well it's worth saying again, nobody liked them.

The next one I tried was the recipe on www.thepaleomom.com.  Hers have a plantain base which I thought would make a stiff pancake, easier to flip, not so banana-y, etc.  I thought they were ok, the kids hated them.  This loathing of the pancake was actually a turnaround in many of our food conversion issues.  It created a major fight with one of the kids, which meant a lot of words being flung around.  Never a good thing, except when one child, who desperately needed this diet change comes to you and says, "Thank you mom, I really appreciate all you are doing for us and ME.  I'm sorry I don't say it enough.  I'm happy for the change, I feel better."  And the offending child, also coming back with a new heart and willingness to "try harder". THANK YOU LORD!!

So today were were going to celebrate Koltin's birthday over breakfast.  I said I would make pancakes.  Everyone kind of groaned.  These have not been super successful and I was altering the recipe itself so anything could happen.  I kept it in the back of my mind that if everything was a flop, I'd just take them to IHOP and regret it later.

The recipe came from Against All Grain.  I used the nut-free version with sunflower flour.  This did take a bit longer because I had to MAKE the sunflower flour!!  Thankfully, Justin has been eager to help in the kitchen during recent weeks.  After I ground the sunflower seeds in the food processor, he stood with the flour sifter and made sure we had a fine flour, adding the larger pieces back into the food processor as needed.  He also sliced up the bananas and helped me add them to the pancakes, along with the chocolate chips.  I made some modifications to her recipe, I did add a teaspoon more of honey, per the nut-free directions.  I also added a few drops of lemon juice to counteract the chemical reaction between the sunflower seeds and baking soda.  We did have a few green spots in the pancakes but not many, so this must have worked!

Bacon came out of the oven and I started dishing up pancakes...

I had to quickly mix up a 2nd batch because Ethan and Dawson ate FOUR a piece!!!!  Everyone loved them!!  Except Matthew.  Matthew has decided that all pancakes are gross except Aunt Jemima, so he took one, ate one small bite, dug the bananas out and ate them and said they were gross.  *insert eye roll here*  The child HAS no idea what he missed out on!!

You don't need syrup, but I did add a bit of pure maple syrup to mine.

The bananas definitely add that magic touch.  I would slice them thinner next time.  Several mentioned they'd like to try them with blueberries, so we may try that.  When I do, I will increase the honey by another teaspoonful.

Thanks to my friend Kirstin, who introduced this recipe to me!  We have a winner!!!!!

Baking Day ... How I prevent REVOLT!!

One of the ways I keep my "boys" happy is to make paleolithic baked goods.  I really file this in the realm of "cheat".  You can package it differently, but overall health and well-being is not going to come from baked goods.  Bummer.  I know.  That first picture down there...yeah, I could eat the whole pan.

We are talking about a "lifestyle" here.  What is going to keep you going for the long term?  Will you be more apt to stay on track if you have some of those "favorites" every once in awhile?  Nobody wants to live life without chocolate chip cookies!!!  I make special treats for us at least once a week.  I don't always eat them, but the kids and Mike do.  Their favorite is Chunky Monkey Muffins, but I didn't make those today.  ;)

Today I made Blueberry Scones and Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Christian and Justin cannot eat the scones.  They are made from cashew meal.  Justin is known anaphylactic to cashews, it's a definite NO for him.  Christian has other tree nuts that he reacts to, cashews hasn't been tested, but he avoids all tree nuts. I try to make something they can eat when I make something out of almond or cashew.

Baking paleo is very different than traditional baking!  It's definitely a learning curve, and I'm still learning!!  The kids are gracious and give me lots of affirmation.  Actually, no, they are very vocal about how horrible something tastes.  I still haven't told them that the brownies they had a few weeks ago had spinach in them. I may try those again sometime.  I loved the look on their faces when they ate them.  ;)

I have had several successes with my new way of baking, and this is two of them.  The Blueberry Scone recipe is from Fed & Fit.  I haven't explored their site beyond this recipe that I was linked to from someone else.

The Chocolate Chip Cookies is adapted from the cookbook Primal Cravings.  They are not 100% Paleo, they do contain butter and baking powder.  If you absolutely cannot have dairy, you can sub the butter for palm shortening.  Baking powder can be subbed as follows:  

1 tsp baking powder=1/4 tsp baking soda + ½ tsp cream of tartar

Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ c. butter, softened

¾ c. coconut sugar

1 egg

¼ tsp. salt

1 c. tapioca flour

¼ c. coconut flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°

Whisk together salt, tapioca flour, coconut flour and baking powder.  **Note: always run coconut flour through a sifter.  I put all these ingredients into the sifter and sift them together.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer for approx. two minutes, until fluffy.  Make sure you do this!  Add the egg and beat until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Turn your mixer on low and slowly add the dry ingredients.  Once mixed, fold in your chocolate chips.  I use Enjoy Life brand.  You could sub another type of chip or chunks or whatever.

Use a cookie scoop to drop your cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake 12 - 15 minutes, then allow to cool for about 5 minutes and move to a cooling rack.

IF you prefer crispier cookies (I don't) you can omit the egg.  Add the dry ingredients after beating the butter and sugar, then add 3 TBS water.  Then fold in your chips.  I have not made those and it would certainly be personal preference to want a thinner, crispier cookie.  :)

Enjoy!!

Cheating and Reacting

I do believe we have seen our first major reaction post-paleo.

I know my body pretty well and last week when I had some popcorn at the movie theater I had a headache within a few hours.  The next morning, I had lots of intestinal issues.  Now, it could have been the popcorn itself (grain) or the highly processed vegetable oils they cook it in (yuck).  Either way, I reacted.  But that's me...when it comes to my kids, totally a different story.

None of them are 100% paleo.  They have treats and goodies, especially from school parties, etc.  They are pretty good at home, but pretty not-so-good when they are visiting their fathers.  It is unfortunate that there isn't more attention paid to the chronic health conditions of children.  Even after asking to please respect this decision and offer alternatives for the kids so they are not on overload, it is ignored.  Well Justin is our first casualty of that ignorance.  Yesterday he spent most of the afternoon in his bed.  He then moved to the couch to attempt to be a part of the family, and slept.  He had what I would deem a migraine.  His head hurt so bad he could hardly move.  He felt awful, just wanted to sleep.  It was sad to see.  I treated with ibuprofen, hydration and tried to get some healthy food into his system.  He was finally feeling better by bedtime, but what a crappy way to spend your last day of spring break.

I do believe, that for some people, not all, they can handle small amounts of "cheating".   I don't really like the term "cheating" because this is not a fad diet, this is a lifestyle, but like most others in the paleo community, there just isn't another word that fits.  Even the gurus like Dr. Cordain and Robb Wolf put "cheats" into their programs to help people get started.  But ONE meal in a week is totally different that SIX in two days.  I do hope that this ends up being an exception and not the rule.  :(