Paleo Cranberry Pecan muffins

These crazy delicious muffins were eaten up in a flash by mom, baby, and friends! Totally the best Paleo muffins I've made to date!

Recipe:

recipe slightly altered from SweetiePie find great GF/DF ideas on her blog2 cups of flour (1 cup almond and 1 cup Bob's red mill multipurpose gluten free flour) This is what I like to do when baking to get a less corse texture but still get the protein rich almond flour goodness!
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/4 cup oil ( I also mixed 1 part olive oil and 1 part cinnamon flax oil for extra DHA)
3 eggs or 1/4 cup applesauce per egg
1/2 cup sugar or agave nectar
zest and juice of one lemon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 12 cup muffin pan.
Combine the eggs, sugar, oil, lemon zest and juice and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients and stir, then fold in the cranberries.  If you are using frozen cranberries, defrost them by rinsing in hot water.  The batter will be very wet and look different from most of the muffin batters you may be used to.  Fear not.  Divide into the muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  A toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin should come out clean when they are done.  These muffins will not puff up and be as light and airy as others, but they will be super moist and very tasty.

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Prepped baby food jars

These prepped fruit/veggie jars would obviously work for smoothies in addition to baby food or if you're doing a juice cleanse. After we shop things get chopped up and put in jars to throw into the blender to make fresh squeeze pouches for baby Aislynn who is now 15 months old and still loves her squeezy's. Posted in the photo is a strawberry, carrot, mango and parsley jar and a mango, banana, parsley and peas jar. Both batches are topped off with lime juice and refrigerated for 24 hours or frozen until you're ready to blend a yummy nutrient packed puree.

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Quinoa Granola - Gluten Free

We made a version of Gwyneth Paltrow's quinoa granola with a few changes. It was so yummy we had it for breakfast and lunch with nectarines, lime juice, and agave nectar on top.

Here's her recipe with my edits. If you haven't checked out her book It's All Good you totally should. My sister in law got it for me as a gift and It's been so helpful in our gluten dairy free journey!

Quinoa Granola - remix

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup good-qulity maple syrup

3 cups quinoa flakes (we substituted one cup of flake for a cup of almond meal)

Coarse sea salt

1 1/4 cups roughly chopped nuts (we used pecans)

1and1/4 cups raw pumpkin seeds (we skipped this but only because I didn't have them on hand

3/4 cup roughly chopped dried fruit (we chose dried cherries)

(we also added the following)...

 1tsp organic vanilla extract 

1tsp organic cinnamon 

a handful of raw organic gluten free oats

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit 

Whisk together olive oil and syrup in large mixing bowl and add quinoa flakes (and almond meal) stirring to combine thoroughly. Stir in vanilla and cinnamon. Evenly spread mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with pinch of sea salt (we added a little extra). Roast, stirring now and then until dried and crunchy and a lovely golden brown, about 25 minutes (make sure to watch in though because that time goes quick. Let the mixture cool completely before adding the remaining ingredients. Store in a glass jar for up to 2 weeks.

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Best first baby food purée

I can't say enough about making my own baby food for Aislynn. Since the very beginning she has suffered from allergies and food sensitivities of all kinds so early on I learned to make sure I knew exactly what was going into her system. 

Here's the recipe for the first puree we tried with her and to this day she still loved it in a squeeze pouch with her shredded chicken or as a to go snack.

Apple Carrot Puree- Blend 1-2 apples with 3 carrots that have been steamed. For a quick steaming method, you can place the chopped and peeled fruits and veggies in a microwave-safe glass bowl with a little water, or use the steamer basket. We use this electric steamer contraption, which makes everything easy to steam at once in layers. Add enough water to thin it out. Apples and pears can also be boiled for 7-9 minutes until tender. Fill squeeze pouches and freeze or refrigerate.

I love using the infantino squeeze station system the best but there are plenty of pouch options out there. 

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Baby food tips

I love making baby food from fresh, yummy, and healthy ingredients. I also spend much less making baby food instead of buying it, especially the packaged organic stuff! Here's a few of my tips on making your own baby food purees at home!

Tip#1

Always start with the best ingredients. If you are using frozen or canned ingredients makes sure the packaging is BPA free and contains no added sugar or chemicals. Buying organic is also pretty important for babies just starting out on foods. I'm only religiously organic with the following foods...Apples, grapes, and especially bananas (see below) others fruits and vegetables are based on my budget. 

Organics

Apples and imported grapes (most of the grapes I can get in winter are from Chile) are two fruits that should be bought organically because the conventional ones are heavily contaminated with pesticides. They are #2 and #9 respectively on the Environmental Working Groups Dirty Dozen Foods.

Bananas fall way down at #37 on their list. Because they have a thick skin, the fruit inside is fairly protected from the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that are sprayed on banana trees. Some get through, but compared to some other fruits, they are less contaminated.

I used to buy conventional bananas because I wasn’t too worried about the fruit and used my money to buy other foods organically. But then I read something that made me willing to spend the extra money on organic bananas. The fruit inside the bananas may be protected from many of the chemicals that are sprayed onto banana trees, but the time frame in which non-organic bananas are picked compared to organic bananas makes a huge difference. Bananas have a natural latex chemical that is present while ripening, this chemical naturally disappears once the banana is ripe (still green but ripe inside). Non-organic bananas are picked far earlier and this process does not have a chance to happen naturally thus the latex chemical remains and is then ingested by you and your children causing cramping and agitation to intestines. If you cut open an organic banana you'll notice it's yellow and looks like it has a peace sign on it. Non-organic bananas look very white when cut open because of the latex chemical still in them. So next time you go shopping be sure to add organic bananas to your list! The price difference is worth it to me especially with my daughters food sensitivities.

Tip #2

Sugar is not your enemy. I used to be crazy about making sure to not give my child sugar and while I agree high fructose syrups and processed white sugar are not ideal to spoon feed your child, I'm a big fan of using natural fruit sugar as a sweetener for purees with things like kale, broccoli or spinach in them. I'm happy if my child gets these super foods in her system even if it takes being a little tricky. You're little one needs natural sugar and so do you! 

Tip #3

Make purees in bulk and freeze. Tuesdays are usually preparation day for us. I spend morning nap time bulk blending purees like the ones on the Kids and Baby purees page. The mix below is just two servings so obviously you would double or triple the amount of ingredients based on your freezer and blender size :).

This is a carrot zucchini puree sweetened with organic applesauce. I always add spinach or kale as well as a good probiotic (at least 5 Billion CFU) to all of my baby purees. 

The carrots and zucchini are steamed so they blend well and if your consistency isn't quite right just add 1 tsp purified water until its the texture you're looking for...not too runny, not too thick.

I used the "Fresh Squeezed" by infantino system. The pouches come in packs of 50 and you can either use the stand to fill multiple pouches or attach the filler to a single pouch at a time (like if you need one right now because you forgot to freeze the last batch ;/).

Most kids love squeeze pouches and they help teach coordination skills.

Happy puree-ing to ya'll!!

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