Chicken Fajitas (SCD, GAPS)

Before SCD, one of my all time favorite styles of cooking would have probably been Mexican, I could devour tacos, burritos, fajitas, you name it - and we literally never missed a "Taco Tuesday".. I'd have to say that Mexican has probably been one of the things that I miss the most, so when Tom requested to have fajitas as his "last meal" before heading out to sea for 3 weeks, I was so on board.

Chicken Fajita Bowls

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
2 small red peppers
2 small orange peppers
2 small red onions
2 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp onion powder (sub if you do not have a legal source)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Directions:
1. Cut your chicken in to small strips, chop your garlic and julienne your onions and peppers - set aside.

2. Heat skillet on low with 1 Tbsp  of the olive oil
 
3. Throw your chicken into a bowl with the rest of the olive oil, half of the garlic, 1 Tbsp of the paprika and the rest of your spices - mix until thoroughly covered and then add to your skillet.

4. After about 2 minutes, flip the chicken then continue to watch, stirring often. Once the chicken starts to cook a little, add the rest of your garlic and let sautee until fragrant, then mix in the rest of your veg.

5. At this point, you can add the rest of your paprika, and a little more s&p (to taste)

6. Cook until peppers are soften and chicken seems done.

7. Serve up in a bowl with a little aged cheddar, yoghurt, and avocado.

Staple SCD Omelette (SCD, Gaps)

Today was my first day back volunteering at the GI department since my most recent flare, I'm so happy that I'm feeling better these days, I have more energy, I'm not so afraid to leave my house in the morning anymore, I'm working longer hours- it feels great.

I was in such a rush to leave this morning that I basically just showered and ran out the door, therefore I didn't have time to grab anything for breakfast. I volunteer from 9-11 at the GI department on Tuesdays, I was kind of nervous going in because mornings are when I am normally my sickest, something about colitis and mornings, everything seems a little more "active". Thankfully, it wasn't too bad, today went really well and I feel comfortable having to dip away, everyone knows me both as a volunteer there and as a patient, so everyone is very understanding anyway. It was a great day back.

By the end of my shift, I was starving though. I knew I needed to run to the grocery store and grab a few things before I headed home - so I got all the fixings to make an omelette, which I had been craving all morning. While I was there I also picked up some things to make some dry spice bbq wings for on the grill this evening, Tom leaves for a 3 week work trip on Thursday, so a nice dinner on the deck will be a good sending away.. I'll be making a beet coleslaw and grilled zucchini to go with. I hope to add that recipe as well!

Since omelettes are seriously my staple SCD breakfast, along with smoothies, yoghurt and fruit or just plain ol' boiled eggs I figured I'd share my fav, super simple omelette recipe.

Staple SCD Omelette

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2-3 Tbsp diced red onion
2 cremilini mushrooms, sliced
handful of spinach/kale chopped
3 Tbsp 1 year aged cheddar, shredded
1/4 avocado, sliced
s&p to taste


Directions:

1. Something that has totally become a game changer for me is to first sautee the mushrooms and red onion in a little butter, until soft and fragrant, and then set aside.

2. Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add butter into your skillet, once melted throw in your eggs. Let the eggs cook for a few seconds until you can see the edges beginning to cook before adding your sautee'd mushrooms and onions, along with the spinach on top of the eggs.

3. Sprinkle your cheese over top and let cook for about 1 minute , then add your sliced avocado before folding your omelette. Cook about another 30 seconds, add salt and pepper and then flip the omelette to cook on the other side for a few seconds - then you're done!

Sometimes I actually leave the avocado out and just lay the slices over top the finished omelette, I also love to have this with salsa on the side, for a little added kick.

Today, I felt like my body needed some extra probiotics, as I am just finishing up a round of antibiotics so I served it up with some homemade SCD yoghurt and banana!


Enjoy!

Beef Tagine (SCD, Paleo, GAPS)

I am obsessed with this rich, warm tagine dish. It's incredibly easy to throw most everything in the crock pot at the beginning of the day and just finish it up when you get home from work, and it leaves your house smelling amazing.


The first time I had this, we were at a family dinner at Hailey's and Dave's, as I've mentioned before, Hailey is the person who introduced me to SCD, so it's always a treat having dinner at their house .. as soon as I had one bite of this, I was obsessed. I literally had thirds. It's unreal good and you'd honestly have a hard time believing it was SCD unless somebody told you. I serve it up with some homemade yoghurt on a bed of cauliflower rice. If you have it, cilantro would be a nice addition, I rarely have cilantro around the house though.

Beef Tagine

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbsp ghee, butter or olive oil
1 lb Stewing beef
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1-2 tsp coriander
1 cm or thumb sized piece of fresh ginger (chopped)
2-3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
1/8 tsp each salt & pepper (or to taste)
12-15 dried pitted dates (soaked)
8 dried apricots (soaked)
1 Tbsp orange rind
2 Tbsp honey
2 red onions
2 Tbsp blanched almonds


Directions: 

Soak dates and apricots for one hour.

In a crockpot add ghee, garlic, ginger cinnamon, coriander, s&p along with your beef and set to high for 4 hours, or low for 5-6.


Once beef is tender, in a tagine or pot sautee the red onion and almonds in remaining ghee for about 1-2 minutes or until almonds are golden, transfer contents of crock pot, along with the dates, apricots, and orange rind into the tagine and add just enough water to cover. Place lid on tagine and simmer 15-20 minutes. Stir in the honey, season with additional salt and pepper (to taste) and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Make sure there is enough liquid in the pot, you want the sauce to be syrupy and carmelized but not too dry, add more water if needed.

Let cool for about 5 minutes and serve on a bed of cauliflower rice, topped with homemade yoghurt, cilantro and additional slivered almonds!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Banana Muffins (SCD, GAPS, Paleo)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be doing a small series with recipes of the food I've been preparing and will be taking to Osheaga. Tonight, I'm sharing an original with you. I am a big fan of banana bread and banana muffin, usually the king with ooey gooey chocolate chips inside, but alas on SCD chocolate isn't allowed. These muffins certainly don't bring you down though, the blueberries really step up in place of the chocolate chips. These are honestly so amazing it's hard to believe that they are naturally sweetened with just ¼ cup of honey and grain free.

Blueberry Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
¼ cup apple sauce
¼ cup honey
2 Tb coconut oil melted
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 cup almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
¼ cup frozen blueberries

Directions:
-  Heat oven to 350
1. Blend bananas with apple sauce, vanilla, eggs and and to stand mixer. Mix in honey and coconut oil
2. In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients
3. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, while stirring
4. Fold in blueberries
5. Grease 12 tin muffin pan with coconut oil, and fill tins 2/3 full
6. Bake 18-20 min

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Road trip food prep + Muffin recipe

I'm going on a week long vacation that involves a 12 hour drive (both ways) , a 3 day music festival that will run roughly 14 hrs/day (and likely have 0 food options for me) and then 3 more days just relaxing. Being on SCD, this is going to pose some serious problems, so what do I do? PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE! I woke up at 7 am and got right to work in the kitchen.

I made;
1 dozen zucchini/carrot muffins (SCD)
1 dozen banana/blueberry muffins (SCD)
2 dozen almond rosemary crackers (SCD)
2 dozen breakfast cookies (SCD)
Roasted 2 chickens
Started 2 pots of bone broth
And this evening I’m getting started with a batch of SCD yogurt, and some kale chips!
The muffins are adapted from Against All Grain

 Hidden Veggie Muffins

Ingredients:
¾ cup shredded zucchini
½ cup shredded carrot
½ cup apple sauce
3 eggs
¾ cup pitted dates soaked 10 min
2 cups almond flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp nutmeg
1tsp vanilla
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
1.Wrap zuchinni and carrot in a towel or paper towel and let drain
2. In a blender or food processor, combine dates, apple sauce, vanilla and eggs
3. Slowly mix in almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon nutmeg and salt
4. Squeeze excess liquid out of zuchinni and carrot and fold into batter
5. Divide into 12 tin muffin pan, greased with coconut oil or lined with paper liners! Filling only 2/3 of the way.

I went the route of greasing the pan, and they were fairly hard to remove. I lost half of my bottoms, if I were to attempt these again the only thing I would change is to use muffin liners!

Over the next couple of days I’m going to share recipes of the foods I’m preparing for the trip, as well as a final review/guide for what to pack and prepare for travel! Let’s hope I can avoid any flare and enjoy this trip!

Homemade Reese Cups (Paleo, Grain-Free)

I made these bad boys a few years ago, at the time I made them they were full of artificial sweeteners, and chemically laden low calorie products such as PB2. Skip ahead 3 years and a lot has changed for me. While I'd say I'm pretty much fully recovered from my eating disorder, which my previous blog was entirely centered around, I'm now struggling with severe IBS , a disorder I've had since high school but has hit new peaks within the last year, with the possibility of having undiagnosed IBD.

In light of these recent health issues, I've been trying to find the best ways to manage my pain and other symptoms as holistically as possible. This means seeing naturopaths, taking supplements, meditation, light exercise and most importantly, following a diet designed to heal the gut. This diet is called the specific carbohydrate diet, as outlined in the book , Breaking The Vicious Cycle. This diet is mainly no grains, no starches, no refined sugars, and mostly no dairy. With the help of my naturopath and specific food testing, I am mostly going to be dairy free as well. And while you won't see me stray from SCD very often, I have decided that once in a blue moon some organic cocoa powder is not going to kill me. Cocoa is illegal on SCD for its own reasons, but not because it feeds the bad bacteria in the gut. It is outlined as being illegal because it has "addictive" components, which  in all truth I find outdated. If there's one thing I'll stray on, it's this one. Some die hard SCD'ers would kill me for saying that. So if you're SCD and you aren't with me on this one, just don't make these peanut butter cups.

Eventually I will do a step by step tutorial with these ones , pictures and all, but right now I'm just doing a quick post transfer from my old blog, with a few ingredient updates and ouila! Here we have the first recipe post on this blog, and it took literally no labour. Look at me go.

These Reese's inspired cups are refined sugar free, dairy free, grain free, paleo and vegan! While they're not exactly legal SCD, I assure you they're about as good as it gets in the world of sugar free. I was inspired by this recipe from The Coconut Momma of healthy 'caramel' cups, I am not a huge fan of caramel so I thought I'd put my own spin on it!

Reese's Cups

made with homemade dark chocolate and nut butter

Ingredients:
1/3 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3T honey
1tsp  vanilla extract

1/4 cup nut butter of your choice (I used almond butter)

Directions:
for the chocolate
1.Melt the coconut oil in a small sauce pan, remove from heat.
2.Stir in cocoa powder and whisk lightly until no lumps remain
3.Add the agave nectar and vanilla extract

for the nut butter cups
1. Line a muffin pan with liners, pour about 1T of the chocolate into the bottom of each liner (make sure the bottom of each liner is covered) and stick in the freezer for 5-10 minutes
2. Evenly distribute your nut butter among the 12 cups ~ leave room around the edges for the chocolate to cover!