I love banana bread. Of course it’s tough making “bread” without wheat or some other kind of flour, but this recipe will satisfy that desire for a yummy sweet bread, just without the “bread” and a bunch of sugar! Next time I make this I’m going to make a couple changes, I’m going to add some chopped nuts, and I’m going to leave the chocolate chips whole instead of melting them on top (but both are optional). Continue reading
One thing that is hard about making big changes in your diet is eliminating some or many of the things you’ve grown to love. One of those loves in my life have been sugar, namely chocolate. I love desserts, I love to read about them, see pictures of them, and even more, I love to plan and bake and yes, I love to EAT them. So that has been a bit of a downer about taking on the paleo lifestyle. Sugar is a bit of a no-no. Part of me has felt a little deflated, until this past week when I discovered a paleo recipe blog called Health-Bent. A husband and wife team who love cooking, and she was formerly a pastry chef, yeah! They’ve got a ton of great recipes, and what I was even more excited about, they’ve got quite a few delicious paleo friendly real dessert recipes! I’ve already tried two of their recipes and I’m impressed, even the kids loved them, although maybe that’s not such a good thing? ;) Here we go… Continue reading
Posted in Desserts, Grain Free, Healthy Snacks, Low Sugar, Paleo
Tagged chocolate, paleo, paleo desserts, paleo treats, primal, primal desserts
I don’t think I’ve ever been quite as excited about a new recipe as I am about this one. I am smiling inside and I can’t wait to share this one with my friends. I don’t know about you but I’ve started our family out with lots of things I’m trying to “un-do” like, lots of bread, toast, sugar, processed Mac ‘n’ Cheese, and the list goes on. And guess what, my kids like all those things. The hardest part about this journey of becoming more healthy has been finding recipes that my kids get excited about, and that is why I LOVE this recipe!
Every time I have made pancakes, my kids love them, they are homemade and tasty, full of butter and pure maple syrup, but eventually these ingredients will catch up with my kids. I really desire to help my kids form good habits, healthy habits. So that it’s not so hard to eat healthy when they are adults living on their own. I’m not talking about completely removing all forms of grain, carbs, sweets, and processed foods from their diet. But I want them to be the exception and not daily consumption. Continue reading
Posted in Breakfast, Grain Free, Low Sugar, Meatless, Paleo, Uncategorized, Whole Foods
So, most of my kids prefer plain old “potato fries”. Actually, if you gave them the choice, I’m almost positive they would pass right by mama’s homemade fries for the enemy fries, greasy McDonald. Isn’t that just wrong? Anyway, today while the kids were watching me slave away chopping all of the sweet potatoes meticulously by hand, Eamon pointed out, “that must be hard!” Then someone asked, I think it was Guenna, “are you ever going to make REAL fries mommy?” Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that. Probably not ;) But you never know, I just might if you ask me really nice.
In the meantime, lets work up an appetite for these tasty little homemade, “not quite real fries”, shall we? Okay, we are all a work process, including me. Even though some of the kids are still getting used to the idea of sweet potatoes over regular potatoes, there weren’t really any of these tasty buggers left when dinner was cleared off the table, so not so bad after all! I’m still working on tweaking the recipe to tantalize their taste buds, I got the inspiration from my Everyday Paleo book, you should buy it if you’re a mom and you’re interested in the Paleo Diet! Continue reading
Posted in Cooking with kids, Dinner, Low Sugar, Paleo, Side Dishes, Whole Foods
A few weeks ago I rummaged around online looking for a Breakfast Cookie recipe. I usually add a link to where I found the original recipe that I end up tweaking but the one I found was hard to understand so I’m not going to leave a link :)
The past few months I’ve been trying out (here and there) a diabetic diet. Trying my best to not gain too much weight during this pregnancy. In an effort to be more successful at this diet I wanted to have a few healthy quick snacks that I can grab between diaper changes and preparing meals for my ever-growing children! I’ve heard many doctors and other smart people say that it’s best to eat 5-6 small meals a day instead of 3 larger ones. But that can be a challenge for a mom with six kids (one still inutero!)
I chose this recipe because it didn’t call for sugar, just a bit of dark chocolate, and what I’ve read (from some more of those smart people) is that a bit of good organic dark chocolate, low in sugar, is great for our bodies! So, by all means, throw in a handful of chocolate and enjoy it! God made the cocoa fruit and we should enjoy it from time to time!
So I’ve decided, while I will dabble in this diabetic diet here and there (I’m not a diabetic by the way but my midwife thought it was a good healthy way to eat while expecting), I’m also going to strive to live a balanced life and not worry too much about how fast I lose the “baby weight.” And if my kids want me to make them a chocolate cake for their birthday, then you bet, let’s have some cake!! :) Okay, back to this healthy breakfast cookie recipe. I thought they turned out pretty good for how healthy they are, and a filling snack for a mom on the go, I hope you enjoy tweaking this recipe to your liking as well! Add some currants, or pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or cranberries. Have fun with it!
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Posted in Breads, Breakfast, Healthy Snacks, Low Sugar, Sweet Things, Whole Grain
This ice cream or sorbet was perfect! The kids had a blast making it with our new juicer and it was so fast and easy. The best part about it is that it’s so healthy, you could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. Nothing added, just frozen fruit. Half the fruit I froze myself and the others, I bought at Costco. It really is a simple and quick dessert, the whole thing (without kids) could be made and cleaned up in about 15 minutes! All the kids loved it and they always love to help me in the kitchen so that was an added bonus!
Posted in Breakfast, Cooking with kids, Desserts, Healthy Snacks, Juicing, Low Sugar, Raw, Sweet Things, Whole Foods
For those of you who know about juicing, this juicer is amazing! The pulp is totally dry when it comes out and I’m getting a lot more juice for how many vegetables I am juicing. Tonight we made ice cream from frozen fruit, it was absolutely amazing! We are going to get years of use out of this machine and will probably use it daily if not multiple times a day! I can make juice, nut butters, ice cream, soup, and if I had the other attachments I could make pasta and bread sticks (among many other things). Anyway, this tool is going to be a great benefit to the health of our family, thanks for letting me get it hon!
Green Lemonade Just wait until you see the ice cream we made tonight, simply from frozen fruit, that’s it! It was delicious, although I think it gave the kids a bit of a fruit sugar high, they were really wired before bed time! :) You gotta live a little right?!
My mother made this recipe and for all the healthy stuff in this cake, it was delicious! This cake is very moist, and the neat thing about this recipe is that you can really adjust it to your own preferences. I will definitely be making this cake, one day!
Posted in Desserts, Frosting, Healthy Snacks, Low Sugar, Sweet Things, Whole Grain
My friend Rana makes this dressing often. I was at her house the other day and she put it on my salad, I loved it!! It tastes kind of like a red French dressing (which I love but is not very good for you), this is a great alternative!
2 sweet red bell peppers
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup purified water
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 Tablespoon raw honey
6 dates
1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder (2 cloves fresh)
1 teaspoon taragon
1 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce
5 teaspoons flax meal (if you don’t have flax meal you can blend flax seed in your coffee grinder to make the meal)
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Makes about 3 cups, you can half it if this is too much for you, store in the refrigerator. Keeps around 2+ weeks.
This is a variation of a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com, I made these tonight with the boys, they helped with a few of the ingredients and then mostly helped by scooping the contents onto the foil. These turned out really well and I was surprised at how much they tasted like the “real” ones! Will definitely make these again, makes a great after-dinner snack, a great replacement for a bowl of chocolate icecream! :)
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil (or other shortening of choice)
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan over medium heat combine the maple syrup, oil, cocoa and cinnamon. Boil for three minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, rolled oats and vanilla until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto waxed paper (I used foil and sprayed it so they wouldn’t stick) and chill to set, about 30 minutes. Keep refridgerated.
Posted in Healthy Snacks, Low Sugar, Sweet Things, Whole Foods, Whole Grain
Welcome to my blog! My name is Jenni Burns, I'm on a journey of discovering the many joys found in being a homemaker. I started this blog as a place to help me keep my many recipes, and it's kind of transformed into a blog about what we are eating right now :) Currently our family is on a journey to become more healthy, AND I'm expecting our seventh child in June! We are doing the Paleo/Hunter Gatherer Diet, and making big changes in how we eat! I hope you find something to encourage you in your journey!
