I get asked a lot how we handle the holidays being gluten-free. Let’s face it, most holiday memories include big fat crescent rolls, sugar cookies, casseroles, pies and many more gluten filled items.
My new motto: simplicity.
I simply do not try to recreate all those items…I find that all that does is stress me out, leaves me in carb and sugar shock and a lot of the items will never compare to their gluten- filled counter parts. So instead, my husband and I came up with a simple holiday menu that included items that we could prep the night before.
I thought I would share what our Christmas day menu looked like. It was fresh and not over-loaded with carbs, but yet included items like a paleo date-pecan cinnamon roll that my three boys absolutely loved. We ate a late breakfast and an early dinner, cutting our meals down to two instead of three. And I ran out Christmas Eve afternoon to our local Earth Fare to get any remaining fresh ingredient. We has ordered their holiday deal that featured a beautiful cut of fresh standing rib roast, so we had to run in already to pick that up.
Breakfast was fully prepped on Christmas Eve and included a breakfast casserole and paleo cinnamon rolls.
Potato-Egg Breakfast Casserole:
The breakfast casserole was made with shredded potatoes, instead of bread. I first boiled the potatoes, chilled them and ran them through my food processor with the shredder blade. I layered the potatoes on the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan and topped with 12 whisked eggs, 1 cup of almond milk, 2 cups of shredded cheese, bacon pieces and chopped green onions. All I had to do Christmas morning was pop it into the oven at 350 for about 45-50 minutes.
this is what my youngest son, thought of the cinnamon rolls!
Paleo Date-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls:
*Recipe below.
We also made these the night before and had them on a baking sheet in the fridge ready to pop into the oven.
Dinner Menu:
Standing Rib Roast
Grilled Zucchini and Asparagus
Roasted potato wedges with Italian herbs
Sparkling cider just for fun
We have made it a tradition to buy a nice cut of meat; either steaks or prime rib and either grill veggies or roast them (depending on Indiana weather). It makes dinner, simple, yet full of flavor.
One of my favorite things about fall baking/cooking is fresh pumpkin. I roast quite a few pumpkins each year and use some right away for baking and then freeze the rest to use throughout the winter. Yesterday, I roasted 3 sugar pumpkins and have yummy mason jars full of pumpkin puree just begging to be used. Our local Earthfare had sugar pumpkins on sale + I got three from one of our local apple orchards/pumpkin patches (tuttles). So tonight I set out to create a pumpkin scone (which quickly turned into drop scones because the batter was way to soft). One of the things I was attempting, was to create a grain free scone that wasn’t full of cups and cups of almond flour. Recipes I have used in the past have used 3-4 cups of almond flour and I have been trying to balance my families consumption of nuts. I also wanted to include more pumpkin then most recipes called for. While, I really liked the extra pumpkin, it definitely made the batter only scoopable.
The batter is combination of eggs, coconut flour, almond flour, tapioca starch, pumpkin and spices. I used a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and fresh ground ginger for my pumpkin spice flavor. Ginger is actually a spice that I tend to overlook. but I happened to have a big, fresh container sitting out on my counter. I had just stocked up on some bulk spices & herbs at Earthfare, the night before when I made my first batch of herbal cough syrup for my husband (I will share my experiences with those recipes later). I am glad I added the ginger because it gave a nice kick to the spice combination.
For the glaze on the pumpkin drop scones … I don’t really have a recipe to share. I honestly just started adding ingredients to a bowl and kept adjusting along the way. I used approximately 2 Tbsp of almond butter, 2 Tbsp of almond milk, 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, a little cinnamon and a little vanilla all mixed and just spooned on top while the pumpkin scones were warm.
This will definitely be a recipe that I will add into our fall rotation!
last week, i didn’t have a single pumpkin to cook with…and then suddenly this week i was given five. i love this time of year and pumpkin baked goods, but i am not quite sure what to do with all my pumpkin i acquired. typically, i would can the extra, but since we move (again) in less than 2 weeks, i am busy prepping freezer meals for the move week and just don’t have time to can it. i am thinking about freezing it…Anybody have any good experiences with frozen pumpkin puree?
last night i roasted 2 of the pumpkins and from that, i got over 2 cups of roasted pumpkin seeds (my kids love them…see what we do below) and a half-gallon of fresh pumpkin puree. so today, i have been busy baking with some of my fresh puree. i tried 2 recipes that my friend lindsey at enjoying healthy foods created recently. {here are the 2 recipes for her pumpkin chocolate chip & pumpkin banana cookies} both of the cookie variations are gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free (depending if you use chocolate chips or not). i did make a little variation to both cookies. for the first ones, i only used 1/4 cup maple syrup (instead of a 1/2)…not because i thought they would be too sweet, but because literally, i used the last maple syrup i had in the house. i also, added 2 Tbsp. of ground flax seeds to the cookies. i have gotten into the habit of adding flax to all my egg-free baking and am typically happy with the results. oh, and i also didn’t have pumpkin pie spice, so i just used a little cinnamon and fresh nutmeg.
the results, we loved the first recipe…and even with only half of the maple syrup in the first batch, i thought that they were plenty sweet. i am glad i added to flax seed as i feel like it helped bind the cookies better. the second version with the banana were good, i undercooked them a little, but i have to say i liked the purer pumpkin flavor of the first recipe better. my little boys helped make both batches and while i was getting one batch out of the oven, my 3.5 year old started feeding my 2 year old huge spoonfuls of the batter. definitely recipes worth trying.
i thought would share what we do when we roast pumpkin seeds. it is super easy, nothing fancy.
this is how the conversation with my 3 year old went at breakfast the other day:
brady: “mommy, there are bugs in my scone.”
me: “oh, those are just chia seeds.”
(with a look on his face, that showed he clearly didn’t believe me)
brady: it’s okay mommy, i like bugs.”
breakfast is one of the hardest meals for me to find inspiration for. ever since my youngest son had violent reactions to eggs, our home has been pretty much egg free. i miss eggs. i miss how easy they were for breakfast. so until they return to our house (which i am hopeful that they will) i keep trying new ideas to keep breakfast interesting. these yummy creations were inspired by a recipe from one of my paleo cookbooks {Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen}. i love paleo recipes, but many of them are pretty “egg” heavy, so i try alterations to make them work. i first made these as a dessert and then altered them again by adding more fiber for a perfectly filling, slightly sweet breakfast treat.
Author: inspired & adapted from "paleo comfort foods" by julia & charles mayfield
Recipe type: breakfast, dessert
honey sweetened shortcakes. makes a perfect breakfast or a wonderful summer dessert.
Ingredients
2 c. strawberries
2 c. blackberries
2 tsps. raw honey
2 c. blanched almond flour
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
pinch of celtic sea salt
3 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 flax seed eggs* (or 2 large free range eggs)
2 Tbsp. raw honey
Instructions
wash, hull & slice strawberries and mix in a bowl with the blackberries and 2 tsps. of honey
set aside
preheat oven to 350
in a bowl, combine the blanched almond flour, chia seeds, cinnamon, sea salt, baking soda & baking powder
in a saucepan make 2 flax seed eggs (heat 6 Tbsp. water & wisk in 2 Tsbp. ground flax seed until mixture becomes gel like)
combine coconut oil, honey, vanilla & flax egg mixture and pour over dry ingredients
mix gently until ingredients are well incorporated
using a ⅓c. measuring cup, scoop out ½ circle dough balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet
this recipe makes six ⅓ c. shortcakes.
bake for 18-20 minutes, until light golden brown
serve warm, topped with honey sweetened strawberry-blackberry mixture
Notes
*if you are making these using eggs, you can omit the baking powder. I have found that using a small amount in egg-free baked items helps them rise.
**for baked goods I typically use blanched almond flour, it just cooks better. I have tried almond meal in this recipe and it works well also, the shortcake will just be a little denser.
marked clearly on my calendar with a big red circle, is the day. january 6, 2009. it was the day that i went gluten free. only for a trial period, right? or so i thought.
i was 4 weeks postpartum with my first son and suddenly all my tummy troubles were back. my sister had been diagnosed with early signs of celiac damage earlier that year and was already well into her gluten free journey. i made the decision, i was done. so what did i do? well naturally i bought a cookbook {1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes (1,000 Recipes)} it had 1,000 gluten free recipes…this couldn’t be that hard, right?
as soon as my cookbook arrived, i chose a few recipes to try and headed off to whole foods. and there i stood. i think i was there for over 2 hours, just reading labels. never fear, i had my trusty list in hand with all the words that could mean “gluten”. a few hundred dollars later, i came home with all sorts of gluten free items. i had sorghum flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xantham gum…and on and on, armed and ready to bake.
i have to admit that the first thing we ever baked gluten free was actually a huge success. though we now eat a very limited amount of gluten free starches and grains, i still thought this recipe should be shared. these little cookies, offered me the encouragement i needed as we dove into changing everything about the way we knew how to cook.
Hi, I am Jennifer and I am a Functional Medicine Health Coach that is passionate about helping busy moms simplify their family & athletes’ health through clean eating & meal prep