Flipping Marvellous

Our school’s PTA always puts on a lovely Pancake Day breakfast event and the parents are invited to join. The kids love it and I make sure I bring with GAPS approved pancakes, cut fruit and honey, so they feel fulfilled and happy.

GAPS pancakes with cultured cream, coconut chips and frozen blueberries

Here are some pancake recipe ideas:

Basic Pancaks:
These will be quite flat, like the traditional ones.
A note about nuts: If you are taking them to school, use the nut-free option.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 Ripe Banana*
1 heaped tablespoon Cashew Butter**
1/4 tsp baking soda
optional: 1 tbsp melted ghee
Fat like ghee, butter or coconut oil for frying
* If you don’t have a ripe banana, replace it with 2-3tbsp 24hr yogurt or cream
** For an allergy safe, nut free version, use a flat tbsp of coconut flour

Method:
1. Place all the pancake ingredients in a blender and process to a loose batter.
2. Heat some of your chosen fat in a frying pan and pour some batter into the hot pan. Wait until the top of the pancake is covered in bubbles and the batter has set, then flip over and fry for another minute. Remove from the pan and repeat with the rest of the batter.
3. Serve with lemon and honey.

American Style pancakes
These are smaller and fluffier pancakes.
Ingredients:
6 Eggs
1 tbsp honey
1/4tsp vanilla powder
2tbsp 24hr yogurt, cream or coconut milk
1.5-2 cups ground almonds
1/2tsp baking soda
Ghee, Butter or coconut oil for frying

Method:
1. Place all the pancake ingredients in a blender and process to a thick batter.
2. Heat some of your fat of choice in a frying pan and pour blobs of batter into the hot pan. Wait until the top of the pancakes are covered in bubbles and the batter has set, then flip over and fry for another minute. Remove from the pan and repeat with the rest of the batter.
3. Serve with your favourite toppings, such as: GAPS cream, Ghee/Butter, blueberries, honey, toasted coconut flakes…

Happy pancake day!

Nutrient Dense seasoning No2.

So after trying liver and kidney, I had a pack of chicken hearts in my freezer and decided to make some seasoning out of it. I also had lots of dehydrated cherry tomatoes leftover from summer and decided they will go well together. That set my next organ seasoning mix in the Mediterranean or Italian direction.

As mentioned in my previous post , the fat and sinew on the meat ads a wonderful umami flavour to the mix, so I kept it on the hearts for the dehydration process.

Nutrient Dense Italian Spice mix

Ingredients:
120g dehydrated organ meat (I used chicken hearts)
60g well dehydrated/sundried tomatoes
30g salt (Maldon or Atlantic)
20g mixed herbs such as oregano, thyme, marjoram and rosemary
10g Garlic Powder

Method:
1. Dehydrate your organ meat until it is dry enough to snap in to small pieces. I find that slicing the organ meat thinly makes everything easier.
2. Once the meat is ready, break it into small shards and place it with all the herbs and spices into a strong blender bowl that is made for grinding dry ingredients (I use a Vitamix). Add the rest of the spices and herbs.
3. Gradually and carefully blend the ingredients, while stopping every 20-30 seconds and using a thin utensil (like a chopstick) to mix the powder around and ensure an even blend. Make sure to not overheat the powder in the process.
4. Once the mix has blended into an even, cores powder, leave it to cool completely from the heat created during the grinding process and then store it in a spice shaker and the rest in an airtight container.

Uses for this spice mix:
I used it to season burgers and as a seasoning when serving food, instead of using salt and pepper.

Chocolate Cake for Chocolate Lovers

Did you know that today was chocolate cake day?

My kid is obsessed with chocolate and though it’s not a GAPS food, I started adding it in small quantities after the first year on the protocol. Before I added cocoa in, I used cocoa butter, which gives a lovely chocolaty flavour.

So, for chocolate cake day I’m sharing with you my recipe for a moist, rich and extremely chocolaty cake.

Chocolate Cake

Grain Free, Sugar Free, Starch Free and very chocolaty

Ingredients:
300g apple sauce or yogurt or a mixture of both and other leftover fruit
5 eggs
150g butter or ghee
100g coconut oil
14 Madgul dates
3 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
200g ground almonds
2tbsp coconut flour
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
Pinch of salt

For the frosting:
1 can coconut cream (Biona)
100g almond butter
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp best quality cocoa powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 170c and prepare 2 loaf tins or 1 loaf pan and 1 cupcake tin. Make sure the baking pans are lined with parchment (or cupcake cases). Boil some water in the kettle.
2. Take the stones out of the dates and leave them to soak in the boiled water. Measure the butter and coconut oil into an= heatproof bowl and place it in the heating oven to melt.
3. Place the fruit/yogurt in your food processor bowl and add the eggs and cocoa powder and process to a smooth batter. Add the soaked dates and process them through, then add the melted fats and process.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and process to a consistent, smooth batter.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking trays and place in the oven. The loaf will need 35-40min baking and the cupcakes will need 25-30min.
6. remove from the oven and cool completely before spreading the icing

Make the Frosting:
1. Open the can of coconut cream and scoop out only the set part into a mixing bowl. Keep the ‘watery’ bit for other uses. Soften the cream a little with an electronic mixer.
2. Add the almond butter and beat some more, then add the honey and cocoa powder and beat until the frosting is creamy, smooth and fluffy.
3. Spread on the cold cake and serve.

Keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Nutrient Dense seasoning No1.

So here is what I know:
> Organ Meat is full of readily available nutrients.
> It’s hard to get my kids to eat organ meat

One way I sneak liver into my kids meals is grinding it with beef to make burgers, meatballs and sausages. Then, I came across a company in the US called ‘Pluck‘. They make and sell dehydrated organ meat seasoning. At the same time, it seems like a new trend of spice mixes is emerging into the world of Instagram, with some new and interesting flavour combinations.
Well…
I have a food dehydrator.
I have lots of herbs and spices I want to use.
Why not have a go?!

Things I’ve learnt along the way:
1. Kidney has a very strong and prominent offal flavour and small. Use it sparingly.
2. Make sure your meat is completely dehydrated before grinding.
3. Fat left on the organs gives a fantastic umami flavour
4. The grinding process takes time. Be patient, stop, mix and start again, until you get and even grind.

I’ve made two spice mixes so far. Here is recipe No.1:

Peppery and Nutrient Dense Spice mix

Ingredients:
150g dehydrated, preferably grass fed, organ meat (I used a mix of liver and kidney)
50g Maldon salt
20g Himalayan salt
10g black pepper
7g coriander seed
10g oregano
3tsp mustard powder

Method:
1. Dehydrate your organ meat until it is dry enough to snap in to small pieces. I find that slicing the organ meat thinly makes everything easier.
2. Once the meat is ready, break it into small shards and place it with all the herbs and spices into a strong blender bowl that is made for grinding dry ingredients (I use a Vitamix). Add the rest of the herbs and spices.
3. Gradually and carefully blend the ingredients, while stopping every 20-30 seconds and using a thin utensil (like a chopstick) to mix the powder around and ensure an even blend. Make sure to not overheat the powder in the process.
4. Once the mix has blended into an even, cores powder, leave it to cool completely from the heat created during the grinding process and then store it in a spice shaker and the rest in an airtight container.