carrot | The Paleo Mom

Paleo Cinnamon Buns

When I was a teenager, my Uncle Bill taught me how to make real cinnamon buns. You know, the kind with yeast-based bread? It was a revelation and became one of my favorite treats to make. One batch would make a whole delicious pan, full of thousands of gluten-filled calories. And last about an hour.
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Grug’s Barbecued Stuffed Bananas—A Recipe Inspired by The Croods

Who is Grug? He is the overprotective yet loving dad (voiced by Nicolas Cage) in the new DreamWorks Animation film, The Croods. The Croods is about a family of cavemen forced to embrace change. This movie looks like a whole lot of fun and I can’t wait to take my girls to see it (you
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Puerto Rican Plantain Lasagna (Pastelon)

Plantain lasagna? Really? Yes! And what a delicious and comforting meal! Perfect for this time of year! This is another recipe modified from one that Gloria sent me (thank you Gloria!). I made this for my mother-in-law’s birthday while she was visiting and it was a hit! My mother-in-law was amazed—mostly at how you don’t
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Perfect Paleo Pancakes

These hotcake-style pancakes were a serendipitous accident. I was working on a crepe recipe (which I will be posting soon!) and my first attempt was not crepe-like at all, but a light fluffy and delicious, if maybe a little too thin, pancake. Once my crepe recipe was perfected, my next priority became to take a
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Carrot Cake Bites

These are the carrot cake version of brownie bites, with a similar cakey and slightly chewy texture. I don’t honestly know where the inspiration came from (maybe I was tired of working on nut-free, egg-free recipes for the book). But, these cake bites have the benefit of being portable, containing vegetables and of being sweetened with dates. They are about the size of 2-bite brownie bites, but you could make them smaller if you want. Picnic with the kids, anyone?

If you like chopped nuts or raisins in your carrot cake, I think that would be a great addition to these. Probably about 1/2 a cup folded in to the dough at the end would be about right.

Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup grated carrot
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates (5-7 Medjool dates)
1 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
2 Tbsp coconut flour
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter or palm shortening
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves

Preheat oven to 350F.
Pulse dates and walnuts in a food processor to form a paste.
Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to combine or mix by hand.
Roll dough into 1″ balls and place on your cookie sheet. Use your hand (or a spatula or the bottom of a glass) to flatten to 1/2″ thick.
Bake for 14 minutes. Enjoy!

Zukay Live Beet Kvass GIVEAWAY!

February 13, 2013 in Giveaways

When Zac e-mailed me a while ago to ask if I’d like to try Zukay Live Beet Kvass, this was his sales pitch:

“[Paleo] is our chance to get back to that ancestral vibrancy we were all meant to have. That’s why our founder, Scott, made Zukay Live Foods – to combat the modern diet and all it stands for. If you haven’t heard of our fabulous kvass beverages, allow me a quick second, because they’re pretty impressive. You see, all we do is naturally ferment raw organic veggies (a la sauerkraut), and then juice them. That’s it. No sugar, no heat, no additives, no anything. They’re completely and naturally probiotic – no cultures from any lab anywhere. Just our juice from raw vegetables fermented in the same way your ancestors did for millennia. Pretty cool stuff.”

You had me at “naturally probiotic“.

So, I picked a few flavors and enjoyed the opportunity to try Zukay Live beet kvass (and beet ginger and carrot ginger kvass). They are surprisingly good and I can honestly say that I’ve never tasted anything similar. They have very unique flavors (my guess is that you either love them or hate them). My favorite is beet ginger, but I also really like plain beet and I didn’t care much for the carrot ginger. There are actually 7 different flavors (I stuck with the 3 flavors that were also autoimmune protocol friendly) to choose from!

Zukay Live is family-owned. Scott and Cathy Grzybek (along with their two boys) are located in the Eastern Pennsylvania countryside (so they could have access to chlorine-free, floride-free well water to ferment their veggies in), where they make their kvass (and salad dressing too) on site. They are passionate about ancestral health and raw, organic, probiotic superfoods!

So, what better way to follow-up a teaser excerpt from my book on probiotics than with a giveaway for a quality fermented beverage? Yes, Zukay Live has donated a box (5 bottles) of their kvass (you choose the flavors!) to one lucky winner!