Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes Recipe

Even though the kids had pancakes this past weekend at the Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast, they still wanted to have pancakes for dinner one day this week.  When I asked both of my children why they wanted  to have pancakes again, they said because their daddy makes the best pancakes.  I have to agree with that, but there is a caveat.  My husband puts chocolate chips in the batter and he makes the pancakes into fun shapes.  He has made bunny faces, teddy bears, and even a lightsaber.

After I found out that I was pregnant, my husband and I talked about some important traditions that we wanted to continue with our family.  One of them was that my husband wanted to be able to make chocolate pancakes, and he wanted to eventually do it with our children.  He remembered how it was his job to give a "chip alert" when the pancakes seemed low on chocolate chips.  So, he practiced.  My husband's parents even bought us a brand new griddle, so he could perfect his pancake making skills.  Fast forward almost 7 years, and my husband has perfected making a variety of pancakes.  He has made regular pancakes, high fiber pancakes, and even gluten free pancakes.   Now we decided to try almond flour pancakes.  I based my recipe from The Nourishing Home blog.  Since this was our first try, my husband did not make this batter into shapes.  We will have to try again when we are more familiar with this type of batter.  Here is our recipe.  

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk or 1/4 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon lemon juice*
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the griddle to medium heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, and salt.  Then set it aside.

Next, you will need to separate all 3 eggs.  Place the egg whites in a medium sized mixing bowl and set it aside.  Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl.  Add the melted butter to the egg yolks and mix together using a mixer.  It is really important to make sure that the butter is cool to the touch, because you don't want any of the egg yolk to get cooked.  As you are mixing, add the buttermilk, maple syrup, and vanilla to the yolk mixture.  Once everything is mixed well, mix in the dry ingredients that have been set aside.  Make sure that there are no lumps in the batter, and then set aside.

Attach the medium bowl with egg whites to the mixer and clean whisk attachment.  Whisk the egg whites rapidly until they are a foamy consistently.  It should take about 1-2 minutes.  Then add the foamy egg whites to the batter and mix together slowly and carefully with the whisk.  You do not want to beat them too much, because they can lose the air that you added to the egg white to help the fluffiness of the pancakes.

Once the batter has been combined well, add some chocolate chips to the batter.  You can decide how chocolaty you want the pancakes.  Plus you can always add more chocolate chips are you are making the pancakes.            

Grease the griddle with canola oil or coconut oil.  Once the griddle is hot, ladle spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle.  The pancakes should be about the size of a silver dollar.  (My husband uses 1/4 cup measure and fills it halfway with pancake batter.)  Cook the pancakes for a couple of minutes until the edges dry out a little.  The batter should begin to bubble a little bit when it is ready to flip.  Carefully flip the pancake and cook for a few more minutes.  Both sides should be browned, but not over-cooked.  (Once you have successfully cooked one pancake, it is important for the official tasters of your house to taste the pancakes.  Then you know if you are doing it correctly.)  

Serve the pancakes hot off with griddle with pure maple syrup.  You can make sausage or bacon as a side dish, but it is not necessary.

*Cook's Notes:  I used 1/4 cup milk plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice, because I do not regularly keep buttermilk in the house.

After you make these pancakes, I hope your loved ones will tell you, like our's did, that this is the best meal ever.  Enjoy!

<3 Cassidy  

Gluten Free Coconut Chicken Recipe

Gluten Free Coconut Chicken

2 lbs chicken tenders, slightly pounded
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1 cup shredded coconut
Canola oil
Apricot jam

Since you are handling raw chicken, it is important to set up all of our supplies before you handle any of the food.  You will need 2 shallow dishes and a plate.  Place the almond flour and coconut in one dish and mix it together.  Beat the eggs in another bowl.  Set out a large skillet and canola oil as well.  


Take one chicken tender and coat it in the egg.  Then coat it in the almond flour/coconut mixture.  Place the coated chicken tender on a plate and then repeat until all of the tenders have been coated.  


In a large skillet, heat a thin layer of canola oil on a medium heat.  Fry in batches until deep golden in color, 3-4 minutes on each side.  I serve the coconut chicken with some apricot jam.  It is super tasty, and it is really simple.


This is one of my family's favorite recipes.  It is inspired from a Rachael Ray recipe, but I adapted it so that it is gluten free.  I have also made this recipe with Fiber One cereal crumbs.  No matter how I make it, it is so good!  I hope you and your family like it too.


~Cassidy

Gluten Free Mock Kisir Recipe

Tonight some of my friend's came over for a belated birthday celebration.  I decided to have a Middle Eastern theme, so we had baba ganoush, hummus, olives, and kebobs (beef, red peppers, pineapple, peppers, mushrooms and grape tomatoes).  We marinated the stew meat in Italian dressing for a couple of hours.  The Italian dressing tenderized the meat, so that it was less chewy and very delicious.

I wanted to make a Turkish dish called kisir.  Kisir is a traditional sidedish made with bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, parsley, mint lots of lemon juice, and lots of olive oil.  A tomato paste is used to help give it the beautiful reddish color.  Unfortunately, I could not use bulgur, because it is not gluten free.  So, I chose to substitute quinoa.  Even though this is not really kisir, it has some of the same flavors.  It is a good substitution for someone who likes the same flavors that kisir provides, but it is gluten free.  Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Mock Kisir 

2 cups of quinoa

2 cups of water or broth
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup olive oil
6 green onions- finely chopped
2 small onions- finely chopped
2 cucumbers- finely chopped
2 green peppers- finely chopped
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp cumin
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped mint
1 teaspoon dried dill
salt to taste
2 tomatoes, finely chopped

Put the quinoa in a medium saucepan and cover it with water or broth.  (I used vegetable broth, because we had a vegetarian join us for the dinner party.  You can use chicken broth as well.)  Add the tomato paste and mix together well.  Bring the quinoa mixture to a simmer, and then cook until it is soft.  It should take about about 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the onions, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, mint, and dill.  Add the lemon juice, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt.  Mix well and let the veggie mixture sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve and the flavors to blend.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.  Pour the cooked quinoa into the veggie mixture, mix well, and serve.

My friend at See Mommy Do It made a wonderful dessert to end our evening.  She used her amazing almond cake as layers topped with whip cream and strawberries.  It was absolutely delicious.  Thank you Krista for ending our evening so sweetly!

This quinoa was an excellent substitution to this dish.  The mock kisir still had a lemony taste, but all of the fresh vegetables kept it light delicious.  It balanced our kebobs nicely.  You could also eat this as a main dish.    It is great to take with you as a lunch to work or school.  Enjoy!

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Tapas Night

Last weekend we went to a friend's house for our monthly family get-together.  This month our host decided to have a Spanish theme, meaning that we would have tapas and other traditional Spanish dishes.  Our host made some amazing paella and served a variety of Spanish cheeses with crackers.  My contributions to the festivities were a spinach with chickpeas tapas and sangria.  

The spinach with chickpeas is a vegetable rich tapas that is served with bread or crackers, but it can also be eaten alongside a main dish.  My recipe was inspired from Eating Well.    

Spinach and Chickpeas

2lbs spinach

Extra virgin olive oil

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

1-19 oz can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth*

Rinse the spinach in a colander and let it drain.  Then place half the spinach in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Using tongs, toss the spinach as it begins to wilt.  Continue adding remaining spinach until it is all added and wilted.  It should take about 6-8 minutes.  Pour spinach back into the colander and drain again.  Let it cool slightly, and run a knife roughly through the wilted spinach.

Once the wilted spinach is out of the saucepan, heat about 1 tablespoon, or one turn of the pan, of olive oil at medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is tender and lightly browned.  Keep stirring the onions, so they will not stick to the bottom of the saucepan.  This should take about 8-10 minutes.  Add the garbanzo beans, thyme, oregano, cumin, salt, and paprika and stir all together to combine.  Then use a potato masher to roughly mash the chickpeas.  Stir all of this together again and cook for 3 more minutes.  Add the raisins and broth and mix it together.  Return the chopped spinach to the saucepan and gently combine.  Remove the pot from the heat and let it stand about 10 minutes.  

Drizzle the spinach with chickpeas with olive oil, about 2 tablespoons, before serving.  Then put it in a serving bowl and serve alongside crackers or toasted bread.  You can also serve this with a main dish such as paella.  It went nicely being served as an appetizer or side dish.  My husband really liked eating it with crackers, and my friends were asking for the recipe.  I am very happy about the results.

* Cook's notes:  I chose to use vegetable broth, because some of the members of our group are vegetarians.  It is really important to remember to remember to use vegetable broth if you are making this for vegetarians.  Unfortunately, it is very easy for us carnivores to automatically use chicken broth in a recipe.  I had to consciously remind myself to buy vegetable broth at the store.  I know that our friends appreciated us remembering to make something that they could enjoy too.  

I also made sangria.  I chose to make an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version of the sangria.  The impetus for the non-alcoholic sangria was my friend who is expecting a new bundle of joy at the end of the year.  She loves sangria, but she is unable to have the alcohol at the moment.  She did not want me to go through the hassle for just her, so I said it was for the children too.  Thankfully, she really liked the recipe.  The kids did not like the fruit floating in the juice, but they did like the taste of it.  I based my recipe after reading a blog from the Sweet Pea Chef.

Non-Alcoholic Sangria

3 cups grape juice

3/4 cup apple juice

1/2 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 lemon

1 lime

1 orange, thinly sliced

1 apple

3 cups ginger ale

Thinly slice 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 orange.  Core 1 apple and chop it into 1/2 inch cubes.  You do not need to peel any of the fruit.  The peel adds beautiful, bright colors in the glass.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.  (You can leave it in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to combine.)  Prior to serving, add the ginger ale and stir together.  Since we brought the sangria to a friend's house, we added a little ice to keep it cool.  I would recommend filling some ice cube trays with some of the sangria, and putting them in the freezer.  Once they are completely frozen, you can use this to keep it cold so that it does not taste watered down.

Lastly, I made a traditional sangria.  I looked at a variety of recipes from The Food Network website, and this is my recipe.

Traditional Sangria 

2 bottles chilled, dry red wine, like Rioja

1 cup brandy

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 oranges

2 lemons

3 limes

2 apples

2 cups ginger ale

In a large bowl, combine the wine, brandy, orange juice, and sugar.  Stir until the sugar completely dissolved.  Thinly slice 2 oranges, 2 lemons, and 3 limes.  Core 2 apples and chop them into 1/2 inch cubes.  You do not need to peel any of the fruit.  The peel adds beautiful, bright colors in the glass.  Add all of the fruit into the large bowl and refrigerate for a couple of hours.  Once it is well chilled, take it out of the refrigerator and add the ginger ale.  Serve in glasses over ice.

The traditional sangria was sweet and refreshing.  We drank it as we watched the children play in the backyard.  It was such a relaxing evening.  I hope that you will try these recipes with the ones you love.  Enjoy!

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Rainbow Cupcakes Recipe

This past weekend, we attended a picnic to celebrate the end of the Religious School year.  The Parents' Club supplied the usual picnic supplies of hot dogs, veggie burgers, rolls, and condiments.  Everyone else brought side dishes to share.  We made a cabbage slaw with apples and walnuts recipe from Whole Foods that was so simple and refreshing.  I will share my version of this recipe in another post.

I also wanted to make sure that there was a dessert for the people who were gluten free.   So, I decided to make some gluten free cupcakes.  I asked my children if they would prefer rainbow cupcakes or confetti cupcakes.  The children chose rainbow cupcakes.  I had seen a lot of rainbow cake recipes on Pinterest, but I had never tried it before.  I made rainbow cupcakes based on a vanilla cupcake recipe from Elana's Pantry book, "The Gluten Free Almond Cookbook."  Here is my recipe.

Gluten Free Rainbow Cupcakes

Cupcake:
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they are pale yellow.  Then whisk in the grapeseed oil, honey, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.  Set aside.

In a cold medium bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are in stiff peaks.  Gently fold the eggs whites into the egg yolk mixture.  Set aside.

In an another medium bowl, combine the almond flour, salt, and baking soda.  Then gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.

Divide the batter into 6 different small bowls.  In the first bowl, add 18 drops of red food coloring and mix together.  In the second bowl, add 15 drops of yellow food coloring and mix together.  In the third bowl, add 15 drops of blue food coloring and mix together.  In the fourth bowl, add 15 drops of green food coloring and mix together.  In the fifth bowl, add 10 red and 6 blue drops of food coloring to make purple and mix together.  In the sixth bowl, add 12 drops of yellow and 5 drops of red to make orange and mix together.

The next step is to evenly distribute each color into all of the muffin cups.  I started with the red colored batter.  Using a regular sized spoon, I scooped a spoonful of the batter into as many muffin cups as I could.*  When I finished the red bowl, I moved onto the yellow bowl and did the same thing.  I repeated this until all of the batter had been added to the muffin cups.

Then I baked the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until the tops were lightly browned or a metal knitting needle inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Let the cupcakes cool in the muffin pan for 30 minutes.

Frosting:
2 oz softened butter
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Using a stand mixer, whisk the softened butter until it is creamy.  Add in the rest of the ingredients, and mix them together at a low speed for 1 minute.  Then increase the speed to medium for about 6 minutes or until it is light and fluffy.

Once the cupcakes are cool, spread the vanilla frosting over each cupcake.  Then dip the tops of the cupcake into a tub of rainbow sprinkles.  The cupcakes are then ready to serve.  Enjoy!


*Cooks notes:  I tried to divide the batter evenly before adding the food coloring, but I was not perfect.  Some colors seemed to fill more cups than others.  I did not care if all of the cupcakes were identical, but you can choose to be more meticulous with dividing the batter and spreading out each color.  

I am really happy about how these cupcakes turned out.  Many people were surprised to know that they were gluten free.  Even though the frosting was really sweet, the cupcake was not overly sweet.  It balanced out the sweetness factor nicely.  Adults and children both really liked them.  Next time you need something to brighten up the festivities, these cupcakes will hit the spot.  Enjoy!

~Cassidy

Mother's Day

I had an amazing Mother's Day!  My husband and children spoiled me with homemade surprises, an afternoon of letterboxing, and amazing food.  First, my children gave me the presents they made.  They were so proud of their crafts.  Then my husband made an omelet with feta and spinach.  My husband did not use a specific recipe.  He heated a little olive oil in the bottom of a medium skillet and then added some garlic.  He cooked the garlic until it was slightly brown, and then added the spinach.  He cooked the spinach until it was slightly wilted.  Then he added 4 beaten eggs and a little milk to the skillet pan.  He cooked the eggs until they were mostly set.  Then he added some feta cheese and cooked for another minute or two.  Then my husband folded over the omelet and cooked it for a minute or two on each side.  The omelet was so delicious.  The feta added a little bit of saltiness to the omelet, and the spinach was delicious.  My husband served this alongside with bacon and coffee.  

Once all of our bellies were full, we went letterboxing at a local State Park.  Letterboxing is like a treasure hunt, and we love doing it as a family.  Since we planned to arrive at the park around lunchtime, we decided to pack a picnic lunch.  We had hard salami, cheese, hazelnut crackers, strawberries, pineapple, and sweet peppers.  The weather was beautiful, and the lunch was delicious.

We worked up an appetite walking around the park, so my husband cooked a  tri-tip steak on the grill.  We served that alongside corn on the cob.  This is one of my family's favorite summertime meals, and it was so nice to have it on Mother's Day.  Then we finished it with carrot cake inspired by Elana's Pantry.  Everyone helped a little in making this cake, which always makes it seem so much better.  This is our recipe.

Gluten Free Carrot Cake

3 cups almond flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1/4 cup honey

5 large eggs

8 large carrots, grated

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Then grease 2 9 inch cake pans with grapeseed oil and dust with almond flour.*

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set this aside.  In a medium bowl, whisk the grapessed oil, honey, and eggs together.  Add the wet ingredients to the almond flour mixture, and then combine thoroughly.  Then fold in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts.  

Spoon the cake batter into the prepared cake pans.  Bake for 30 minutes or until a knitting needle or toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  Let the cakes cool in the pans for one hour.  Remove them from the pans and frost, then serve. 

When the cakes first came out of the oven, there were a lot of lumps.  The batter did not smooth out as it cooked, because there were a lot of carrots in this recipe.  We were concerned that the cake would not taste as good because of this.  Thankfully, we were wrong.  The carrot cake was moist and not too sweet  There were just the right amount of raisins and walnuts that balanced well with the carrots.  We used cream cheese frosting, which complements the carrot cake well.  This carrot cake provided a wonderful ending for a wonderful day.   

*Cooks notes- It is really important to coat the cakes pans with a good amount of grapeseed oil, because almond flour tends to stick when baked.  

I hope you enjoy sharing this carrot cake with someone you love!

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Mediterranean Chicken Recipe

I have trouble finding chicken breast recipes that I enjoy.  I prefer eating dark meat, which I have always found to be more moist.  Therefore, I am pretty picky when it comes to cooking chicken breasts.  I have tried many methods of cooking chicken, and this is one of my favorite recipes.  I got it a couple of years ago from You've Got Supper.  It is simple, but the Mediterranean ingredients make it a little more interesting.  We make it for ourselves frequently, but I think it is unique enough to serve it to guests.  The chicken remains moist during the cooking process, and the Mediterranean flavors liven up a plain meal.  I especially like that my family can cook this recipe together.  Here is my adaptation.
Mediterranean Chicken

1 lb chicken tenders
14oz diced tomatoes, drained
14oz can quartered artichoke hearts
8 large kalamata olives, pitted and halved
2 oz feta cheese
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons dried oregano

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine drained diced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, and feta in a medium sized bowl.  Add the olive oil and oregano and mix well.  Set aside.

Cut a 12 inch square piece of aluminum foil.  You can also use parchment paper for this.  I chose to use aluminum foil, because my children were helping me make dinner.  My son was able to rip the aluminum foil off the roll for me, while my hands were dirty from handling the chicken.

Place 2 chicken tenders in the center of a piece of aluminum foil, and spoon some of the tomato mixture on top of the chicken. Then move it onto a rimmed baking sheet.  You will need to seal the aluminum foil before you cook, but I recommend that that step should not be completed until the end.  This allows me the ability to move the toppings around if they have not been placed evenly, especially since my special little helpers enjoy spooning the tomato mixture on top of the chicken.  Repeat until all of the chicken tenders and tomato mixture are gone.

Fold the aluminum foil around the chicken and tomato mixture to form a packet.  Bake the chicken in the oven for 22 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, I usually make pasta to go with it.  Since I do not eat many grains, I do not make a starch to go with this recipe for me.  I just eat a salad along with it.  However, I make traditional pasta to serve along side this for my husband and kids.  They like it better, and they do not have trouble with gluten.  I do think that the gluten free pasta would go very well with this recipe.

Sorry that there are no pictures.  My husband ate the leftovers before I had a chance to take a picture.  This is such a yummy chicken recipe that even the leftovers do not last long in my house!  I hope you and your family enjoy making this together just like we did.  Enjoy!

~Cassidy