Blueberry Lemon Scones

As always: gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free and OH-SO-GOOD.  Perfect for Mother's Day brunch.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup pulverized Xylitol (whiz it up in a blender or spice grinder to get a finer consistency)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 2 free-range organic eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• the zest of one lemon
• 1 cup (or more if you love 'em as much as I do) organic blueberries

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In large bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
• In a small bowl, wisk together wet ingredients.
• Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients and add lemon zest and blueberries.
• Form scones with about 1/4 cup of the mixture and place on baking sheet at least one inch apart.
• Bake for 12-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

This one's for Nova!  We are both chocolate chip cookie lovers, so it was necessary to find us a suitable recipe for times when afternoon treats are required.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup granular xylitol
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• A pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup organic butter (or coconut oil), melted
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, chopped are good too
• 1 cup 73%+ organic dark chocolate chips or cacao nibs

Method

• Combine all dry ingredients (except chocolate chips and almonds) in a bowl and form a well in the middle.
• In separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.
• Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well until combined, the mixture will be a bit crumbly. 
• Fold in chocolate chips and almonds.
• Form 1 inch balls of batter, place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and gently press down into small discs.  Keep in mind that the shape you form is the shape they will bake as.  These cookies don't puff up or melt down, so try to make them a little bit pretty!
• Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
• Cool (they're very delicate when they are warm) and enjoy with a cold glass of almond milk. 

Cheesy Garlic Quick Bread

Cheesy Garlic Quick Bread

Ok, this is SO good.  Like SOOOO good.  Grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, guilt-free GOODNESS.

This is perfect for one of those nights where all you want to do is eat something bad (like me tonight), because it's so good that you almost think it's bad.  That didn't make tons of sense, but you get my point. :) Like the Lemon Pound Cake, this bread uses coconut flour, which doesn't rise as much as all-purpose wheat flour.  It may not make the best sandwhich bread, but it definitely makes a delicious cheesy treat to accompany any soup, salad, or stirfry.  Next time, I'm going to pour the batter into little muffin tins and make dinner rolls.

My only concern with this bread:  I could probably eat an entire loaf to myself.  There's 6 eggs in it.  Not a good idea, Stephanie, not a good idea.  


Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (this is optional, you can definitely make the bread without)
• 11/2 tsp. baking powder
• 11/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 3/4 - 1 cup grated cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, monterey jack, whatever your heart desires)
• A small handful of chopped chives or green onion

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a small bread pan.
• In a food processor, combine all ingredients except cheese and chives until combined (not too long!)  If you don't have a food processor, you can do this by hand with a whisk until there are no lumps in the mixture.
• Stir in cheese and chives.
• Pour the mixture into the bread pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Coconut Flour Pancakes

Coconut Flour Pancakes

I made these on the weekend, and was reminded again how much I love them.  The recipe can be found in the Maximized Living Nutrition Plans Book.  They're SO good with blueberries in the batter, and with coconut butter (not oil - the butter is sweet and delicious) slathered all over them!  Serve with some grass-fed organic beef breakfast sausage, your favourite mug of tea, and you have the makings of a perfect rainy Sunday morning. 

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
• 3 tbsp. coconut milk or whole milk
• 1/2 tsp. stevia or xylitol
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla
• 3 tbsp. coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Method

• Using a wire whisk, mix together eggs, coconut butter, coconut milk, stevia, sea salt, and vanilla.
• Continue to whisk, add baking powder and coconut flour until thoroughly mixed.
• Heat 1 tbsp. coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat and spoon 2-3 tbsp. batter onto skillet making pancakes about  4 inches in diameter.Sprinkle with blueberries if desired. 

Makes about 6 pancakes.

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake

This is sort of a summery dessert recipe, but it's one of my favourites, so I decided to make it this afternoon and share it with all of you!  Coconut flour is a great grain-free alternative to wheat flour.  When used in baking, it doesn't rise as much as regular all-purpose flour, so don't be alarmed when your pound cake only rises to 2 inches!  The yogurt in this recipes makes it moist and delicious, and all of the lemony goodness really masks that stevia flavour.  Top it with organic strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries and stevia sweetened whipped cream or Cashew Cream.  And oh yeah, it's Advanced Plan friendly too! 

Ingredients

• 5 large organic eggs
• 1 tsp. liquid stevia (again, sweeten to your taste)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup organic plain, unsweetened whole milk yogurt
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 5 lemons, depending on their juicyness)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, melted
• 2 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt
• 1 cup organic coconut flour, sifted (make sure to sift - the texture of coconut flour is a bit lumpier than wheat flour)

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with coconut oil, and flour with coconut flour.
• In a large bowl beat the eggs with an electric mixer.
• Next add the stevia, vanilla, yogurt, lemon juice and zest. Mix until combined. Taste, and adjust sweetness by adding more stevia if you prefer.
• Add the melted butter in a constant stream, mixing continuously.
• Sift together all of the dry ingredients.
• Using a spoon or spatula fold in the dry ingredients to the wet. The mixture will thicken up instantly once you have added the coconut flour and other dry ingredients.
• Bake for about one hour (time will vary slightly depending on your oven), until a toothpick inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.
• Let cake cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan. Invert on a cooling rack and let cool completely.