Finally, winter is coming to an end finally here in Indiana! We are looking forward to garden fresh veggies and lots of grilling, but since we keep having cold weather spells randomly, soups are still in our regular recipe lineup. Potato soup is one of our family’s favorite. We have gone through periods in time when some of our household is dairy free and overall we keep our dairy intake pretty low. So I make my entire soup dairy free, and then people can choose whether or not they want to add cheese. It’s a simple alternative to the traditional dairy based potato soup, that is both hearty and filling and since organic potatoes have been on sale at our Earth Fare for less that $0.70/lb, it is pretty budget friendly.
I typically use my own homemade bone broth as my main base, but when I am out, I use Pacific brand (which is gluten free).
browned bacon, shredded cheese and chopped green onions as garnish
Instructions
Dice potatoes into little square chunks and boil until tender, but not mushy (I add a generous amount of celtic sea salt to water to help season the potatoes)
While potatoes are boiling, dice up celery and onion into little pieces and sautee in olive oil until tender.
When celery and onions are tender, pour chicken broth and water into the pot and bring to a simmer
Ladle out a few cups of celery/onion/broth and puree in a high speed blender to help thicken.
Return to pot and pour in drained potatoes and 2-3 cups of flax milk and heat for a few more minutes, while adding salt and pepper to taste.
Don’t over cook/boil or the potatoes will get mushy
Serve! and top with bacon, chopped green onions and shredded cheese if you want
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.
What a “gluten-free” holiday looks like in our house + paleo date-pecan cinnamon rolls
Recipe Type: Dessert/Pastry
Author: The Sprouted Life
Serves: 12
Ingredients
Dough:
2 cups of almond flour
¼ cup + 2 Tbsp. coconut flour
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch of sea salt
Filling:
6-8 large Dates, Soaked in hot water for 30 minutes
½ cup finely chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
Instructions
Soak your dates in hot water for about 30 minutes.
Add hydrated dates a few teaspoons of date water and cinnamon to a mini food processor and puree. Set aside.
Whisk together the wet ingredients (egg, coconut oil & vanilla) in a medium bowl.
Add the combined dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt) and stir well to combine.
Roll out the dough on parchment paper and create a long rectangle.
Spread the date and cinnamon mixture evenly across the rolled out dough and sprinkle with finely chopped pecan pieces.
Using the parchment paper to help, carefully roll up the dough into a log.
Using a sharp knife cut 1-inch thick rolls.
Preheat oven to 325
Place sliced cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
Bake for about 15-18 minutes until begin to lightly brown*
Remove from oven and drizzle with glaze and more finely chopped pecans. (For the gaze, I just whisked a little almond milk with coconut sugar).
Best served warm!
*Our rolls took a little longer to bake, because I refrigerated them over-night and put them into the oven still cold.
**These will not rise and puff up like a traditional cinnamon roll.
I have never really been someone who runs out and buys cranberries for Thanksgiving. I don’t mind them, but I don’t have many recipes that I typically use them in. The last few weeks, every time I have walked into our local Earth Fare, I am greeted by a big tub of “scoop your own” cranberries. They are bright, fresh and just look cheerful, so I bought a bag (which ended up being a lot), because my almost 4-year old helped scoop them.
I was then left trying to find creative uses for fresh cranberries, so I decided to test out a smoothie. The only sweetener in it, is from the bananas and the orange juice, so it makes a crisp tart tasting smoothie that became a family hit and is perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday. Seriously, my 17 month old, downed his smoothie faster than any smoothie I have ever made for him.
I used full fat coconut milk (Native Forest is our favorite) and added chia seeds to give it a boost of fats and make it super filling. I love the addition of vanilla to this smoothie, as it give the cranberries and orange an extra pop. Definitely will become a regular in our favorite smoothie recipes!
Holiday Smoothie – Cranberry Vanilla Orange Chia
Author: The Sprouted Life
Ingredients
1 heaping cup of fresh cranberries (frozen work also)
1 cup of full fat coconut milk
2 bananas
3/4 cup orange juice
1-2 tsp vanilla
2 T. chia seeds
1 cup of ice
Instructions
Throw all your ingredients in your high-powered blender and blend until smooth.
If smoothie is to tart, you can always adjust by adding a little honey.
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!
Pumpkin Drop Scones (gluten free, dairy free, grain free)
Recipe Type: dessert, baked goods
Author: the sprouted life
Ingredients
3/4 cup of fresh pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1/3 c. coconut sugar
2 T. coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. almond flour
1/2 c. coconut flour (sifted)
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1 tsp. baking soda
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1/4-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
pinch of sea salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 and line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
Add the pumpkin puree, eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil and vanilla into a mixing bowl and cream together until well combined.
In another bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients and slowly mix into the wet ingredients.
Using a 1/3 of a cup scoop, scoop out batter and flatten a little on the baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, until firm to the touch.
Remove from oven and let cool a little before topping with your glaze of choice.
We are in full swing of a new schedule this year, as my oldest started kindergarten in August. I am not the most scheduled person and am learning to adapt to a set daily schedule, while trying to balance a 3 year old (who misses his big brother), a super active 1 year old and my freelance design work, yet still make sure that I am feeding my family well. I am also now having to think ahead about packing lunches five days a week (lunch in our house is almost always dinner leftovers). Hearty, filling dishes that I can prep in my pockets of free time are now the main items on our dinner menu. I thought I would share a family favorite today. Their is nothing wildly original about this recipe (I learned it from my mother-in-law). It is simple and straight forward, yet delicious and filling and I can pack it the next day in my son’s goodbyn for lunch.
It is so simplistic that the ingredients are usually just ground beef, rice and sauerkraut. Our local EarthFare has been having their grass-fed ground beef on sale fairly often, making this dish even more affordable. Because their grass-fed ground beef is so lean, I have been adding a pound of ground pork to the recipe. My favorite sauerkraut for this recipe is Eden Organic. I have been making this dish up in the morning, and then just pulling it out of the fridge and popping it on the stove an hour before dinner.
Sauerkraut and Meatballs – A Gluten Free Family Favorite
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Author: The Sprouted Life
Ingredients
2 lbs of grass-fed ground beed
1 lb ground pork
1 jar of sauerkraut
1 cup of white rice (we prefer Lundberg Organic Basmati)
1/2-1 cup of water or beef broth
Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Combine ground beef, ground pork, one cup of rice and a pinch of salt and pepper
Layer bottom of a heavy dutch oven with sauerkraut
Roll handful size meatballs and layer the bottom of the pan, then add another Layer of sauerkraut and add in remaining meatballs
Top with remaining sauerkraut.
Pour about a cup of water or beef broth in the pan (this varies a little with how much liquid was in the jar of sauerkraut)
Cover and cook on stove at medium/medium high heat for about an hour. It will be simmering pretty good and I always check it halfway through to make sure there is enough liquid in the pan for the rice to absorb.
During the summer we keep our freezer stocked full of chicken breasts ready for grilling (we stock up when Earth Fare runs their $2.99 chicken breast special) and make a lot of simple grilled chicken meals. One of our summer favorites is a fresh chunky chicken salad, loaded with grilled chicken, toasted pecans & almonds, celery and green onions. It’s a simple meal, but it’s also quick (which is perfect for our busy summers) and packed full of flavor.
Our favorite way to serve it is over fresh salad greens and tomatoes, but a lot of times I make sandwiches for the kids, with toasted Udi’s gluten free bread or in a Food for Life Brown Rice Wrap. On days that we are super busy, I will grab a rotisserie chicken from Earth Fare and just chop that up (they are currently, featuring their chickens for $5 on Fridays).
chunky chicken salad – a summer favorite
Recipe Type: lunch or dinner
Author: the sprouted life
Ingredients
4 large chicken breasts drizzled with olive oil and Simply Organic Lemon Pepper or Penzey’s Bicentennial Rub. (or 6 cups chopped rotisserie chicken)
1 cup pecans
1 cup almonds
1 heaping tsp. coconut oil
2 cups chopped celery
2 green onions, chopped
3/4-1 cup organic mayo (I use Spectrum organic)
salt & pepper to taste
salad greens
roma tomatoes
Instructions
Toss chicken breast in olive oil and seasoning of choice (our favorites are Simply Organic Lemon Pepper or Penzey’s Bicentennial Rub).
grill chicken, set aside to cool.
Toast pecans and almonds over low heat in coconut oil and lightly salt.
In a large bowl combine chopped green onion, celery, almonds, pecans and diced chicken. Then stir in mayo, I use about 3/4 a cup, but adjust depending to how creamy you like your chicken salad.
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Serve over fresh salad greens and chopped tomatoes
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
