breakfast Archives • Page 2 of 2 • Ant & Anise

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 8

Okay, I’m ready to try eggs for breakfast again. I thought I’d try the eggs in ham cups from Paleo Comfort Foods because they looked so good in the photo, and the chunk of ham I bought a few days ago keeps staring at me in the fridge. It also reminds me that I really should give Janet and Jenny their cookbooks back soon. (Both Make It Paleo and Paleo Comfort Foods are good resources for recipes so far. Both have simple recipes and appealing photographs, although I find the index in Paleo Comfort Foods to be very poor. How does that happen in a cookbook?)

It feels like the last few days have been tough in some regards, but I must admit that embarking on this challenge has brought a certain zing into my culinary life. While it has closed some doors for a while — notably on the bread front, which I’ve whined about probably more than I should — it has opened others.

Discovering coconut flour has been worthwhile, and not something I would have known existed otherwise. I haven’t used it in a big way, not yet, but when I opened up the package and took a whiff, it smelled so pure and well, coconutty, that I felt instantly transported to a tropical beach, cool drink in hand and sand between my toes. Realizing that almond meal is a pretty decent stand-in for all purpose flour, at least in something with a heavier texture like muffins, is pretty cool as well. Thank goodness I’m not allergic to nuts, or Paleo-friendly baked goods would be that much more challenging.

Eve, your squash pancakes with smoked salmon and cream cheese schmear were such a treat tonight. A squeeze of lemon, some capers and chives on top…very tasty. I should come over to your place for dinner more often, especially if you’re serving bubbly.

Eggs in Ham Cups

Serving Size: 2-3

From Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie & Charles Mayfield.

Ingredients

6 large eggs
6 slices of ham (preferably a quality, nitrate free source)
1-2 teaspoons coconut oil
1/2 cup mushroom finely chopped (optional)
1/2 cup shallots finely chopped (optional)
fresh chopped chives for garnish (optional)
olive oil or coconut oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with olive oil or coconut oil.
In a small frying pan, heat 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil over medium heat. Saute the mushroom and shallots for 3-4 minutes, or until shallots have softened and mushrooms have cooked down.
Place one slice of ham in each cup. Put a few tablespoons of the mushroom-shallot mixture in the bottom of each. Crack an egg into each ham cup.
Cook for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on how you like your egg). Garnish with fresh chives, if using.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 4

And just like that, 4 days in, it’s happened. The good-vibes-it’s-exciting-to-try-this-la-la-la phase has officially ended, and the first few things I find annoying are rising to the surface. The first one, by far, is the shopping. I feel like I’m constantly going to the store, or thinking about ingredients I need to get. One or two trips every day, mostly to ensure I’ve got enough protein in the house. It’s not like I’m eating a completely new way, but somehow there’s this added pressure to get that protein, at every meal. Or else.

Keeping a good supply of fresh vegetables and fruit is completely different, somehow. I don’t get annoyed at picking up fresh produce every day or two, since that’s what I’m used to doing anyway. So perhaps it’s just a settling in thing, this buying seafood and meat every few days.

Number two on the annoying list is figuring out what to do about breakfast. Eggs are okay, and sometimes I really enjoy them, but I don’t want to have them every day, or even more than maybe twice a week. A bowl of fruit isn’t always that satisfying for me, especially if the weather is cool out. I guess I could start to make extra meat or fish at night and just reheat that but geez, that seems a little too much of a leap from where I’m at right now.

It’s not too hard to figure out that, underneath it all, I’m still craving a warm bread-y, toast-y kind of start to my day.

What on earth can I do to bring some bread-like goodness into this Paleo challenge? I spent a good couple hours over the past few days scouring the internet for Paleo bread recipes. Not an easy fix apparently, if the posted pictures are any indication. To me they all look um, well, pretty, awful for the most part.

Not to be completely defeated, I turned to finding a good recipe for a quick bread, like banana breads or carrot muffins. Here there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. This recipe for carrot-apple-raisin muffins caught my eye, and now I’m determined to make these so I can get my bread-like fix.

Oh good, that means another trip to the store to get some almond flour. This better be worth it.

Paleo Morning Glory Muffins

From Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie and Charles Mayfield. These turned out to be extremely tasty. I made mine in mini muffin tins (of course!). If you go with the mini size, they’ll take about 15 minutes to bake.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and grated
1 large apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup raisins
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey (optional)
1/2 cup coconut or olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a standard-sized muffin pan (or use muffin liners).
Combine almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add carrot, apple, coconut and raisins and combine well.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, honey, oil and vanilla extract together.
Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and mix very well. The batter will be very thick.
Spoon the batter out into muffin pan and place on upper or middle rack of your oven for 40-50 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the top of a muffin comes out clean, the muffins are done.
Cool muffins in the pan for 8-10 minutes and then remove to a rack to finish cooling.

Notes

For some variety, substitute currants or chopped dates for the raisins. You can also add a little orange zest to give the muffins some citrus flavor.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:

Why I’m doing it in the first place

My plan for the 30 days

Image courtesy of HealthAliciousNess via Flickr.

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 2

My first thought when I woke up was that I wasn’t very hungry at all. This is unusual. We did eat a little late last night, so maybe that’s part of it.

It could be that I’m just anxious about this challenge too. My breakfast routine has been pretty basic and, now that I write about it, downright boring for the past several months: Peanut butter on multigrain toast. That’s it, along with a coffee. Now that both of those are out of the question, I peeked into the fridge for some inspiration. What could I eat? Unfortunately the fridge was looking a little bare. I decided to go ahead and have my coffee, and flip through those borrowed cookbooks for some inspiration.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the breakfast choice quickly became clear: Eggs. Both books (that is, Make It Paleo and Paleo Comfort Foods) have an abundance of egg recipes, from scrambled to fried to atop beef hash to baked in muffin cups. Eggs in ways I hadn’t thought about, before now. The few ingredients I did have, in the fridge and the herb garden, were enough to turn out a Mediterranean inspired, very Paleo-friendly breakfast. And you know? I liked it. Maybe not as much as peanut butter toast, but it would do just fine.

I turned my attention to the Paleo cookbooks again. Turns out there are some interesting ways to avoid bread, potatoes and all grains. Raw cauliflower, pulsed in a food processor and sauteed with some onions, becomes “rice”. Almond meal subs in for all purpose flour in muffins. And what’s this? Coconut flour. Wow. And here I thought I had to give up all my beloved baked goods. All of a sudden I felt a new energy come over me and I started dreaming about bread. If I can bake, I can definitely make it through the challenge.

Mediterranean Eggs Paleo

Serving Size: 1

Adapted from Make It Paleo by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason

Ingredients

1 tomato, sliced in 1/4 inch thick slices
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar or glaze
2 free range eggs
5 Kalamata olives, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped fine
salt and fresh cracked pepper

Instructions

Preheat the broiler on high. Place the slices of tomato on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, the balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Broil for 2-3 minutes, or until the tomatoes are heated through.
While the tomatoes are broiling, heat the other 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Break the eggs into the pan and cook until the whites set up. Flip the eggs over and continue cooking until they’re done to your desired likeness. I like my eggs pretty well done.
Place the tomato slices on your plate. Sprinkle the olives over the tomatoes. Stack the 2 fried eggs over the tomatoes and sprinkle the oregano over the plate.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30-day challenge