Hello there! What a lovely weekend we had here in North Carolina. My boys were camping and for once they didn’t have to battle torrential downpours. Miracles do happen!

I have one super delicious and refreshing recipe of you this week.

We served this as a side dish, but I can’t wait to make it again and add some grilled chicken. I think it will make a super quick and easy, and still yummy, light dinner. If you’re following Whole 30, just toast the nuts without the maple syrup glaze and leave out the cheese. It will still be amazing!

This isn’t a new recipe, but it’s a new twist on an old one. I’m always looking for ways to enjoy a burger or sandwich with paleo appropriate ingredients. I love a good piece of gluten free bread every now and then like everyone else, but I try to keep 100% paleo because that keeps me feeling better. Well, one slightly over-ripe plantain in the fridge + burgers for dinner = plantain chip burger buns.

Follow this recipe and make this modification: after the first pass through the coconut oil, smash the plantains as you normally would, then overlap two or three or four (depending on the size) and mash the edges with a fork or your fingers to get them to stick together to form one big patty. Re-fry as usual. I was surprised these were sturdy enough to allow me to pick up my burger, but it did work and it was really, really good.

Coming up later this week is a recipe for cauliflower crust pizza. You’ve probably seen recipes for this before, but all that I’ve seen and tried have a lot of cheese in the crust. I wanted to see if it would work without. I even found one recipe that suggested the crust could be sturdy enough to pick up and eat with your hands. Well, lo and behold, it worked! My daughter thought this was the best gluten free pizza ever. You can see from the picture below that it’s a little floppy in my hand, but it was HOT right out of the oven. I had to keep putting it down and picking it up again to try to get a picture because it was so hot. Once I calmed down and allowed it to cool, like a normal person would, it was very sturdy. We had a little leftover and it was not nearly as good. Do you know why? It started to taste like cauliflower. When it was fresh, there was no cauliflower taste! So make this one with a big appetite and eat it all up.

Look what came from the UPS man today:

I have just finished a crash course in international business with these little labels. Thankfully, my first experience dealing with a manufacturer in China went very well. It wasn’t pain free, but the end result was great.

And just look at that tempting little cookie! I’m super close to having these ready for market. So excited at what the Lord has done in this regard. First the idea for the blog in the first place, then the idea for selling these cookies. I love to cook, I love to write and I love to help people learn to make better food choices. This is such an exciting opportunity. Just praying for guidance every step along the way. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a really expensive hobby.

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I am a little over a week out from finishing my Whole 30 and I’ve had a few significant thoughts/revelations that I thought would be beneficial to share.

1. It took a few days to realize I didn’t have to document every single thing I ate. A nice relief!
2. I felt very restricted for a few days. At first, I didn’t want anything that had been off limits on the Whole 30, then I got my appetite back and started craving more sweets. Bummer, but also good to actually feel like eating.
3. During the Whole 30 I didn’t recognize the magnitude of the guilt I felt if I ate a bite of something that was off limits. The guilty feelings were very oppressive. I feel so free now to eat however I choose and it’s refreshing. I am, of course, still choosing paleo with a little dairy thrown in. But I am no longer force feeding myself sweet potatoes instead of rice or only green apples. And those sugar cookies above: you bet I’ve had a few of those bad boys. Guilt free.

 

That’s it from around these parts. Please let me know if you’re trying my recipes and if they work or don’t work. I would hate to have recipes posted that don’t turn out for you. I may need to tweak my instructions a bit.

Oh yes, and I’m still working on that enchilada re-make. I made the nomato sauce yesterday and I had forgotten how yummy it is. For those of you following the AIP, don’t hesitate to make this sauce. It will scratch those itches for Italian food for sure!