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8 Easy Breakfast Ideas for Kids (and Grown-ups too!)

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eggs for breakfastIf my kids had their way, they’d live on either oatmeal or  toast for breakfast.  They are still in denial about my refusal to buy breakfast cereal. I am still working on transitioning their diet to a more Primal one, so I’ve been making oatmeal from scratch most mornings as a workaround. I really don’t like sending them to school full of carbs – starting the day with some protein is better for about a million reasons.  I need to be ahead of the game and prepared with some lower carb choices for them.

I’ve  compiled a list of 8 easy breakfast ideas below.  Some of them can be put together as you pack lunches and get ready, others need to prepared in advance but are easily warmed up or can be eaten straight from the fridge. I don’t own a microwave but have found that 8-10 minutes in a warm oven is perfect to re-heat most foods.

All of these recipes are also nut-free and seed-free due to allergies, so I have probably left out a few ideas that others may consider staples.

Here’s the list:

Eggs, of course. Scrambled, over easy, whichever way you like them… I personally have scrambled eggs almost every weekday – but my kids are convinced that eggs MUST be served with bacon.   They say it as one word: baconandeggs. That makes them a little harder to sell as a solo breakfast item at my house, but not impossible.

Full-fat plain yogurt or cottage cheese with berries. Definitely full-fat, so much better for you and more satisfying. I have to make a trip to Whole Foods to find it – I don’t understand why all the yogurt at the regular grocery store is low-or-zero fat. Ugh.  One of these days I’ll start making my own.

Leftover coconut flour pancakes. This one might be challenging, because I have yet to have leftovers when I make these. But in theory, this should work.

Hard boiled eggs with fruit.  Unlike scrambled eggs, you can make these a day or two ahead of time and grab as needed. I will throw half a dozen in my Electric Egg Cooker while cooking dinner the night before – super easy.  You can also prep the fruit the night before.  I also love a hardboiled egg mashed up with avocado.

Coconut flour pumpkin or banana bread.  Equally good served cold or warm with butter. (recipe to be posted soon)

Egg muffins – make these ahead and keep them in the fridge to warm up in the morning. (recipe to be posted soon)

Coconut flour muffins.  You can do the honey muffins as posted here, or if you want to avoid the sweetness so early in the morning, switch out the honey for a pinch of cheese and a little onion or garlic powder.  Either way, one or two would be very filling and they taste fine cold.

Leftover sausage.  If you have leftovers from another meal, or have time to pre-cook it the night before, there tons of options.  Eat the sausage alone with fruit on the side, or with any coconut flour bread.  I think sausage patties would be amazing on savory coconut flour muffins or biscuits.

I was going to include leftover bacon as an idea but realized that I don’t understand what that is.  It’s as confusing as the idea of “leftover wine”.

What other ideas do you have for a lower-carb breakfast?

 

 

Breakfast, Meal Planning

12

Jan

2014

Super easy pork chop recipe

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easy pork chopsFor some reason I struggle with cooking pork chops.  I think they are a great meal option – the kids love them (because I told them that pork chops are the same thing as bacon), they *should* be easy to cook, they make great leftovers… but for some reason they kept turning out too dry and not so awesome.

I have been pan-frying them in my cast iron skillet with a little butter, but just not loving the outcome.

Then I had this idea, possibly loosely inspired by some complicated pork roast recipe I saw somewhere (I go blank if I see a zillion ingredients in a recipe).

It’s so easy, and so yummy and I don’t even need to add a recipe plugin for this one.

Get a package of boneless pork chops – I get the packs of 6, about 1/4 inch thick.  I think trying to use anything thinner is hard to manage.  Preheat your griddle to about 300 degrees, or a skillet a little below medium.  Melt some coconut oil on the surface – you need to be ready to throw the chops on quickly because that coconut oil will melt in about 12 nanoseconds.  I am usually flexible about which fat to use, but here it has to be coconut oil, as that is part of the insanely good flavor combination.

As soon as you have the pork chops on the griddle, sprinkle them generously with cinnamon. Feel free to throw some salt and pepper on too if you like, but definitely don’t be shy with the cinnamon.

I flip sides every few minutes and feel like the chops are done when both sides have some nice brown, crispy spots but aren’t completely browned.  If you like to check temps to be sure food is done (I am kind of weird about needing to do that), remember that the safe temperature for pork is 145 degrees.  Once you remove it from heat, let it rest for about 3 minutes to finish cooking.

The flavor is unbelievable – I kind of felt like I was eating cinnamon rolls with bacon.  It wasn’t too sweet, the cinnamon has just a hint of sweetness that is perfect.  I think any side that you want will be suitable – we had green veggies, but I can see carrots or sweet potatoes complementing this nicely.

As far as leftovers – yes, please.  I’m going to confess that I slipped into the kitchen and ate a piece straight out of the fridge.  It was that yummy.  Try one diced on a salad (cold), or warmed up with some eggs for breakfast.  If you reheat in the oven, be gentle – lower heat, and check often to make sure you don’t lose the juiciness.  I don’t own a microwave, but if I did, would still not recommend using one for this – I think the chops would end up too tough.

Finally – forgive the picture.  Pork chops are insanely tough to photograph.  One of these days I’m going to get some pretty plates and take a few food photography tutorials. Meanwhile, I promise the food is still tasty!  And don’t be jealous of my glamorous Formica counters.

 

Dinner, Good for any meal, Recipes

06

Jan

2014

I am loving these easy coconut flour pancakes

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Coconut flour has become one of my favorite things to cook with since going gluten-free. At first I was nervous about using it, because I’m not a fan of super-coconut-y tasting things, but good coconut flour is a lot like good coconut oil. It has a hint of coconut taste, but blends well with the other ingredients and isn’t obvious or overwhelming.

I’ve experimented like crazy – I wanted to get a good go-to recipe that is fairly easy and turns out well. It’s taken some practice to get good at pancakes, because you need to leave them on long enough to flip easily, but not so long that they get burned. They have to be the right amount of thickness to cook through nicely, too. If the batter is too thick or thin it can be a huge headache.

So – these pancakes are made without sugar so if you are doing the 21 Day Sugar Detox they should be OK for that, assuming you don’t add maple syrup. I think they taste fine without sweetener. You can add a teaspoon or two of sugar or honey to the batter if you want to, though.

As far as the easy factor – I personally would not do these on a weeknight, they take around 30 minutes hands-on start to finish which is too long for me. For me, this is more of a Saturday night item. I am assuming they freeze well, but we eat every crumb right away so I am not certain. 😀 I need to make a double batch to be sure because I think they would make a great leftover item for lunchboxes or quick dinner to warm up.

A couple more notes: I use an Electric Griddle that I got for Christmas last year. I like it for pancakes, bacon, hamburgers and anything else of that nature. Anything that I can throw in the dishwasher is a win in my book.

My favorite coconut flour by far is Nutiva Organic Coconut Flour. It’s a bit more affordable that some others and a great deal for the price. 3 pounds goes a long way because so little flour is need for a typical recipe. I like the taste better, and it cooks up nice and fluffy.

On to the recipe!

Easy Coconut Flour Pancakes

Print recipe
Easy Coconut Flour Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 4 Eggs
  • 1/4 cup Oil of your choice (Melted butter, coconut oil or light tasting olive oil)
  • 1/4 cup Whole milk (or coconut milk)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1/4 cup Coconut Flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Directions

Whisk the wet ingredients (egg, oil, milk, vanilla) until well blended
Sift in the coconut flour and other dry ingredients. If you don't have a sifter, a mesh strainer should help. Coconut flour can be clumpy so I like to sift a little, mix, sift a little, mix until done.
Start preheating a griddle to about 300, and start your bacon or sausage now if you want some (wait a little longer if you're doing a double batch).
Melt some butter or coconut oil on the griddle. Use no more than a tablespoon for each pancake - it should be a smaller amount than you think you need. I can fit 6-8 pancakes on my griddle. Remember that coconut flour is a lot more dense than wheat and a smaller pancake size will still be nice and filling.
Let them cook for a few minutes on the first side. They should be somewhat browned and very easy to flip. If they aren't clearly ready to flip, give them another minute or two. It should take less than 5 minutes.
Cook for the same amount of time on the second side - again, you should see that they are browning nicely. Because of the smaller amount of batter they should cook through fairly quickly.
Serve with butter, with or without maple syrup... some bacon or sausage goes nicely with them, too. What doesn't bacon go with, for that matter?
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Freeze for later, Good for any meal, Recipes

01

Jan

2014

What do I consider a quick meal idea?

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meat on grillNow that I’m recovering from being completely derailed by the holidays, I am turning my attention to putting together some meal ideas for the new year. Tax season is coming, the boys will be back in school soon, and I’m ready to take primal eating to the next level. I also want to start transitioning my kids in that direction.

One of my biggest stumbling blocks is of course figuring out how to do this in an easy, affordable way. Most weekdays we don’t get home until nearly 6 and there is homework to supervise, chores to do and all the other evening routines to deal with on top of fixing dinner. The nights that the kids have activities are even more difficult, since we get home later and still have to accomplish all of the above.

Many nights I’ve found myself grabbing fast food out of sheer desperation. I believe this is mostly because I don’t have anything ready to heat up or easy to throw together at the house. I’ll cover the meal planning aspect in other posts but I need to get an idea of what is actually easy for me.

I see a lot of “easy” recipes on line and though they fit my requirements from an ingredient standpoint, they either have 20 ingredients (including spices I don’t want to go out and buy), too many steps, or too much cooking time for a weeknight.

What do I consider a quick and easy recipe?

  • Obvious bullet point first – fast preparation and quick hands-off cooking time.  If I can throw something together and then start on cleaning or kids’ homework while it cooks, then it’s all good.
  • For super busy and/or late evenings – either something cold from the fridge (that’s not a sandwich) or something that heats up in a few minutes in the oven.
  • Slow cooker food, of course.
  • If a recipe is a bit more complicated, it needs to be freezable so I can prepare it on the weekend and re-heat during the week.

These are the main recipes categories I will focus on here – if it’s a bit complicated I will warn you so  you know not to jump into at 7 pm on Thursday night. For example – I love coconut flour pancakes but they take way too long for a weeknight, in my opinion.

I’m also going to look for ways to streamline preparation, look for spice blends to replace the need for multiple ingredients, and uncover any shortcut I can.

Oh – and don’t even get me started on lunches for school!  My kids would live on sandwiches and applesauce if I let them.  Add that to my post to-do list!

Meal Planning

28

Dec

2013

Paleo Christmas Treats

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Figuring out how to do the holiday in a paleo way is a huge learning process!  Until I was living grain-free, I didn’t notice how completely gluten-full the holidays are.  Last year, I was still eating SAD and made more sugar and wheat-laden goodies than we could eat. I felt gross and bloated, and gained 6 or 7 pounds at least. This year, my goodie list is much shorter, and I feel a lot better about what I’m eating.

I found this free kindle ebook – grab it while it’s still free!  Check the price before ordering, and remember you don’t have to own a kindle to read these books. I read mine on my phone, or you can download a program for your computer.

Christmas Paleo Recipes: Paleo Holiday Recipes For A Wonderful, Stress-Free Christmas. (Simple Christmas Series)

Happy Holiday Eating!

Great Deals

23

Dec

2013

What about primal with nut allergies?

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1380930_87686931First – I was all set to post a yummy coconut flour pancake recipe today. However, my beloved camera died and I have not learned how to use my new one yet. That means the pictures of said yummy pancakes were awful.  Awful beyond embarrassing. So I will be forced to make them again (poor me) just so I can take pics for you.

Instead, I will get the nut issue out of the way.  Right after my older son turned 6, he was at my Dad’s house and ate a cashew. I wasn’t really a nut person, other than peanut butter sandwiches, so I never offered mixed nuts or anything for snacks.  This was his first cashew – and within minutes, his throat started itching and hurting.  His face turned bright red and started developing hives. He started to panic (as did I, I thought he was choking). My stepmother is a nurse, and recognized the symptoms immediately. She took his pulse and found that it was near 200. She got some benadryl into him, and we called 911.  He threw up the benadryl (and the nuts) and she immediately got another dose into him.  By the time the paramedics arrived the crisis had passed but I had a lot of unanswered questions.

A year of allergy testing

My first step was to discuss the incident with my pediatrician, who I love and respect.  He did blood testing which came back with fairly vague, inconclusive results.  What I know now is that blood testing is the least accurate method for several reasons.  What’s really weird is that cashews were not flagged on the results at all.

I kept feeding Alexander as normal but avoiding cashews (easy, because I don’t eat them anyways).  He had another minor incident, again at my Dad’s – a little dab of benadryl fixed him right up.  They were not sure what food triggered it, but at that point I went ahead and scheduled an appointment with a popular allergist in town.

The allergist took several weeks to get in to see, and he had a nurse do the actual testing. Once she had tabulated the results he reviewed them with me. He confirmed various tree nut allergies, noted multiple seasonal allergies and told me that my son is allergic to peanuts.

What??  He had PB&J for lunch yesterday, no problem!

The doctor was adamant that I stop all peanuts ASAP.  He suggested sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) as an alternative.  Alexander hated the stuff and refused to touch it.

When we went for the follow up I decided not to go back, after the doctor walked out of the room while I was still asking questions. Nice.  I found another doctor who wanted to re-test. I was impressed because she measured and quantified the welts.  She confirmed all the allergies plus an allergy to sunflower seeds – no wonder he hated the sunbutter!  He also has severe allergies to most pollens. But I now have a firm answer as to what the problems are. We carry Epi-pens, and read labels closely.

Where do we go from here?

Alexander’s allergy diagnoses were a large part of how I started moving to real food and then to Primal.  When you have to read every single label, you start wondering what all those strange chemicals are.  My investigations led me to wonder how much of the SAD (standard American diet) and additives might have contributed to his allergies.  Maybe he would have been allergic anyways, maybe some additive made him more susceptible.  What I do know is that preparing as much of our food from scratch as possible helps ensure that what he eats is safe.

I have a hard time finding good recipes because so many paleo/primal recipes that might be appealing to kids seem to call for almond meal, or almond butter, or something else we can’t have.  I struggle with him having picky-kid syndrome anyways, so the foods I cook need to be fairly kid-friendly.  One more fun side effect from his pollen allergies:  some foods cross-react in a strange way – for example, someone who is allergic to birch tree pollen might feel itchy after eating apples, pears, celery or some other raw foods.    This limits my options with fresh foods a bit as some make him feel pretty uncomfortable, especially in pollen season.

This is a learning process for me – I have more to consider than just avoiding grains when I look at how to move us to a Primal way of eating.  I believe they will benefit greatly from this in the long run, once I get their palates adapted to our new way of life.

 

Allergies

17

Dec

2013

It’s all about planning your weekly menu. Or is it?

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sausagesI’ve made some observations as I continue to work toward a healthier, Primal way of eating for my family.

It’s all about the menus. No, it’s all about having what you need for your planned meals and at LEAST 2-3 backup meals outlined with ingredients ready to go at all times.

If you don’t have good things to send for lunch, your kids will eat in the cafeteria and you will be grabbing carryout.

If you don’t have Plan A and Plan B for dinner, you’ll order pizza (because they totally have gluten-free now, which doesn’t make it OK but it kind of does) or give everyone oatmeal.

I’m going to share this week so far with you as an example.  Granted, it’s the holidays, which makes everything extra complicated, and I had a sick kid and crazy week at work but… isn’t every week sort of like that?  Crazy is the norm, not the exception.

Monday:  Kid1 had stomach flu the night before.  Kid2 got cafeteria food for lunch because I was too tired to mess with packing a lunchbox.

Tuesday:  I never made it to the store Monday so everyone bought lunch and I got a yummy bunless hamburger for carryout.

Wednesday: I got busy at work and  still didn’t make it to the store.  So… the kids bought, I bought carryout pizza, and now I’m not prepared for tomorrow either.

Thursday: Annnnnd… sick kid again. Ugh.  I decided sausages with veggies would be a nice easy dinner, but I grabbed them on a whim at Whole Foods and spent WAY too much. Bright side?  I have leftovers to send for lunch tomorrow!

Friday: Sent yummy leftovers for lunch, but still spent way too much because I grabbed individual yogurt cups.  Sheesh. Dinner was an unplanned disaster – I had a  headache and didn’t even have the strength to heat up leftovers.

So why am I whining?

I’m not really – well, kind of – but the point I am making is that to make ANY way of life work you need to be one step ahead of issues. It’s the same as house cleaning and organizing – if you’re ahead before the whole house gets the flu, you’re going to get through the crisis a lot better.

This is how the week should have played out:

Monday:  Kid1 had stomach flu the night before.  Kid2 had a good lunch to bring because I had packed the lunchbox the night before and just had to throw in a protein and ice pack.

Tuesday:  I never made it to the store Monday so I thawed something yummy from the freezer to send for lunch.

Wednesday: I got busy at work and  still didn’t make it to the store.  So… I threw a few snacky things together for a good lunch, and then thawed some meat from the freezer to toss into the oven when I got home.

Thursday: Annnnnd… sick kid again. Ugh.  I decided sausages with veggies would be a nice easy dinner, thankfully I had bought some on sale and they were ready to go. Even better?  I have leftovers to send for lunch tomorrow!

Friday: Sent yummy leftovers for lunch, including some fruit mixed in with yogurt.  Glad I had the big tub of full fat greek yogurt on hand. Dinner was unplanned- I had a  headache but did have some fruit and cheese for the kids to grab.

Huge difference!!!  I have got to tackle this planning ahead thing!

Meal Planning

14

Dec

2013

Cinnamon-Honey Coconut Flour Muffins

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Honey-Cinnamon Coconut Flour Muffins

These little things are one of my favorite treats now. They aren’t too sweet, so they are a great school snack for kids.  You can make a batch ahead of time and store them in the fridge so that you have snacks ready for a few days.  Coconut flour is very filling and satisfying, so a small muffin is all you usually need.

They are actually the first recipe I made with coconut flour, and I just keep coming back to them. Actually, I have to make them a lot because my children eat them all if I’m not looking.

You can try some different variations, too – throw in a handful of berries or dark chocolate chips.  You could use maple syrup instead of the honey – I haven’t tried that yet, but I think I’m going to now!

The recipe was adapted from my absolute favorite Coconut Flour cookbook: Cooking with Coconut Flour

Cinnamon-Honey Coconut Flour Muffins

Print recipe
Cinnamon-Honey Coconut Flour Muffins
Serves 12
Cook time 15 minutes
Allergy Egg, Milk
Dietary Gluten Free
Meal type Dessert, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
I absolutely love these coconut muffins - my kids love them too. They are easy to make, gluten free, lower carb and great for snacks.

Ingredients

  • 6 Eggs
  • 1/4 cup Light Tasting Olive Oil (or butter/coconut oil)
  • 1/4 cup Whole Milk (or coconut milk)
  • 3oz Honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 and grease 12 muffin cups with coconut oil.
Blend the first 5 (liquid) ingredients together in a mixing bowl with a whisk. Make sure you get the honey mixed in well.
Slowly sift the dry ingredients into the mixture. As coconut flour tends to clump, it is best to mix in a little at a time. Your batter should be well blended but a little runny.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. They will be about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Start checking around the 14 minute mark so that they do not overcook.
Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy. They taste great cold and will keep in the refrigerator for at least a few days.
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Recipes, Snacks

09

Dec

2013