Paleo/Primal Christmas Morning Cinnamon "Rolls"

For breakfast on Christmas morning Hubby makes his traditional cinnamon rolls. They are so good, but I'm sure the level of sweetness will just be too much for me this year and I may not feel great after eating all of that wheat-based pastry. So while he was  making his recipe for him and the kids, I made a version of a cinnamon "roll" muffin that will be perfect for me and anyone else who wants to share with me. Not that it needs it, but I made a coconut cream frosting to go on top as well. I think they turned out very cinnamon-y and will be a good substitute for the traditional Christmas morning Cinnamon Roll. Give them a try and see what you think.

Christmas Morning Cinnamon "Rolls" with Maple Coconut Frosting
Muffins:
1/2 C coconut flour
1 C almond meal
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
3 T cinnamon (yes, that's Tablespoons!)
3/4 C Pumpkin puree or Apple sauce  (I used pumpkin this time)
3/4 C Maple Syrup
4 Eggs
1/2 C coconut oil - melted
1 T vanilla

Frosting:
14 oz can coconut milk
2 T maple syrup

Bring all ingredients to room temperature! Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and all wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Then mix wet with dry. Fill lined muffin tins with batter and bake for about 20 minutes or until muffins are firm on top.

For frosting, beat coconut cream from a can of coconut milk and maple syrup until it thickens a bit. Spoon frosting over cooled "rolls".

Paleo/Primal Squash Soup

My veggie box this week came with a butternut squash and a recipe for butternut squash soup. That sounded pretty good; so I decided to give it a try with a few changes to make it Paleo/Primal. I also had some mini pumpkins that had been sitting around as decorations since Thanksgiving and some rutabaga I'd cubed and frozen during the summer. I decided to throw all of that in to bulk up the soup a bit. The result was really good! I can see this being a great starter for a nice dinner or dinner all by itself!

Paleo/Primal Squash Soup
1 butternut squash (or other squash of choice)
1 smallish pumpkin or several mini pumpkins  (or other squash of choice)
2-3 C peeled and cubed rutabaga
4 C chicken stock
1 large onion chopped
2 T butter or coconut oil
1/2 t Thyme
1/2 t chili powder
1 t turmeric
1/2 t garlic powder
2 t salt or to taste
black pepper to taste
14 oz can coconut milk

Cut pumpkin and squash in half and remove seeds and strings with a spoon. Place cut side down on cookie sheet and roast at 350F for about 30 minutes or until knife easily pierces the skin. Remove all flesh from skin with a spoon and set aside.

In a dutch oven brown onion in butter or oil until tender. Add cubed rutabaga, spices and chicken stock. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes or until rutabaga is tender. Add pumpkin and squash flesh to dutch oven, add coconut milk as well. With a stick blender (immersion blender) blend soup until it is smooth. (Alternatively, you can put small batches of the soup into a blender to puree, but be sure to hold the top on as hot soup will push the lid off and make a big mess of your kitchen.). Add black pepper to taste and garnish. Enjoy!

A Paleo Thanksgiving

For the last several years my family has hosted a pot luck Thanksgiving. We provide the turkey, dressing, cranberries and pies and everyone else brings an appetizer, side or dessert to share. This has to be one of my favorite days of the year. I love getting together with all of my friends and their families, hanging out all evening and eating great food. My hope is that this year will be no different, except for the food. Most of the friends who are planning to attend the festivities this year are now eating Paleo; so we'll be having a Paleo/Primal Feast!

So far the menu consists of Roasted Turkey, Paleo/Primal Mulled Cranberry sauce, Paleo/Primal Pumpkin Pie and Paleo/Primal Pecan Pie. I haven't yet decided whether to attempt a Paleo dressing or to just omit it in favor of other veggie side dishes that the guests will likely bring. I could make an almond bread then use the regular recipe full of celery, onions, mushrooms, eggs and chicken broth...but I'm not sure if I'll bother. And we'll probably have Roasted Pumpkin seeds to snack on while we sit around the table after dinner.

Although we are altering virtually every dish, I think we'll still feel like we've had a traditional Thanksgiving Feast. Bring on the Friends, Food and Fun!

Update: I did decide to make a Paleo/Primal Thanksgiving Dressing. It turned out amazing, and I'm anxious to see what the rest of our guests think! This one will definitely be a staple in our house going forward.

Making Pumpkin Puree and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

When you get that huge pumpkin from the pumpkin patch for Halloween or get one to decorate for Thanksgiving, you don't let it sit around until it gets all moldy then throw it away do you? Tell me you don't! Tell me you cut that pumpkin up and make it into pumpkin puree for making pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin muffins then toast the seeds for snacking. Or at least if you haven't before, you should now! Processing a pumpkin is very simple, but somewhat messy. (note: if you've carved your pumpkin you shouldn't process it for puree as the inside has now begun to go bad. Make puree from uncarved pumpkins.)

Making Pumpkin Puree

1. Wash the outside of your pumpkin.
2. Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out all of the guts (save the seeds for roasting). Compost guts minus seeds or give to your backyard chickens!
3. On a cookie sheet, place pumpkins cut side down and roast at 400 degrees for 30+ minutes. test occasionally with a knife. If knife pierces skin easily then pumpkin is cooked.
4. Remove pumpkin flesh from skin and compost the skin.
5. Put pumpkin flesh into a food processor and process until you get a puree consistency.
6. I then store my puree in old 32 oz yogurt containers in the fridge or freezer. In the freezer it will last for 6 months to a year.

Roasting pumpkin or squash seeds

1. remove seeds from pumpkin or squash then rinse most of the squash guts off of them.
2. sprinkle with salt or any other spice you like.
3. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes checking often. If seeds start to get too brown or burn remove from oven immediately.
4. Occasionally scrape seeds off of pan with a spatula then rearrange them back into a single layer if all seeds aren't crispy.

Pumpkin Smoothie/Latte

I've had a hankering for a warm pumpkin drink lately. So today, I decided to mix some likely ingredients together to see if they made something resembling a pumpkin latte minus the coffee. The results were very good and The Boy has already requested it again as his drink to go with dinner. It's thicker than a pumpkin latte, but you could thin it out with more milk or coffee or tea if that's what you like. Otherwise it's pretty good thick. Win!

Pumpkin Smoothie/Latte

1 C pumpkin puree

2 C almond, coconut or regular milk

1/4 C honey

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients together in a blender. Serve cold if you're making a smoothie, warm up on stove top or in microwave if you're looking for a latte-like warm drink. Top with cinnamon or whipped cream or whatever you like on top.

Camp Korey's Fall Festival

My family always visits a pumpkin patch or corn maze in the fall. We're suckers for the crisp air, apple cider and s'mores. This year I found a Living Social Deal for Camp Korey, which is just down the road in Carnation, WA.

Camp Korey serves children with serious and life-threatening medical conditions and their families at no cost. We provide year-round recreation programs specially designed to support the medical needs of campers while letting them just be kids and have fun.

I knew when I bought the deal it would support a great organization, but I really didn't know what we were getting. Turns out Camp Corey's Fall festival has it all! We got a yummy lunch of tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwich and hot chocolate, found our way through the corn maze to the fire pit where we roasted s'mores, went on the hay ride, did pumpkin bowling, got our face painted and even petted some baby rabbits and a wallaby!  I grow my own pumpkins in my garden, so we didn't buy any from them, but if I had wanted pumpkins they had a great selection.

When I added it all up, even without the Living Social deal, Camp Korey is very affordably priced and proceeds go to help kids who deserve to have some fun. So, if you haven't gone to visit a fall festival this year, or want to go again, consider Camp Korey!

Paleo/Primal Pumpkin Pie

I love fall! I love Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love the colors of fall and the smells of the food that you seem to get only this time of year. One of my favorite things about fall is Pumpkin Pie. Every Thanksgiving I make Pumpkin and Pecan pie for the pot luck dinner we host for our friends. This year will be a little different as I'm not really eating the same foods I've eaten in the past. So I've been thinking about to do with my traditional foods and my non-traditional eating style. The more I thought about Pumpkin Pie the more I realized that it is very easily adaptable to Paleo eating. I've seen some recipes floating around lately with some interesting ingredients used to make pumpkin pie, but I think Pumpkin Pie is easier than that.

For the crust, I used almond flour, coconut oil and shredded coconut. For the filling I used pumpkin puree, coconut milk, pumpkin pie spice, eggs, honey and vanilla. That's it. The crust is the main difference between this version and traditional, but it's really a lot like a graham cracker crust. The filling is virtually identical to the original with only the coconut milk substituted for regular milk and honey substituted for sugar. Simple, easy and tasty. The kids didn't even know I'd changed the recipe when they had their dessert tonight. So I'd say that's a success!

Paleo/Primal Pumpkin Pie
Crust
1 1/2 C Almond meal
1 C unsweetened shredded coconut
1 C Coconut oil, melted

Filling
2 C Pumpkin Puree
14oz Can of full fat coconut milk
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 C honey or maple syrup

Mix all crust ingredients then press into a pie pan forming the crust of the pie. Bake empty at 350 for about 10 minutes. Mix all filling ingredients then pour into baked pie crust. Bake at  350 for about an hour until the middle doesn't jiggle when you gently shake the pan.

Update:
Turns out that the crust is very coconut-y with the shredded coconut. It's more like a pumpkin coconut pie, which is good, but not like traditional pumpkin pie. So I'm going to work on another one with all almond meal or maybe almond meal plus coconut flour.