It’s Guest Blogger Wednesday! Today we would like to introduce you to Hollie from simplywholefoods.com . Hollie is a Toronto based Paleo Blogger and today she shares with you some personal tips for eating a healthy, Paleo diet, as well as a recipe for her own fluffy Paleo Pancakes using her own homemade almond flour. We already have a wonderful, well tested and reviewed recipe for our Easy Peasy Pancakes on our website, but who can resist more recipes for pancakes? We also like that this recipe features Hollie’s method for making her own almond flour, and we suspect that homemade almond flour will work great in our own recipe as well. Enjoy!
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At most grocery stores you will find an entire isle dedicated to an un-healthy breakfast. Candy cereals, breakfast bars, sugary granolas and sometimes frighteningly unhealthy processed food.
Most of these items have no business being part of a healthy breakfast even though they are often advertised as such. The food industry is certainly adept at promoting the healthy benefits of their offerings and they learn new tricks every year. Did you know that Choco Coated Sugar Bombs contain 3 essential vitamins and minerals? Can we afford NOT to buy them?
Sarcasm aside, for a large percentage of the population, today’s breakfast will be made mostly with processed white flour, preservatives, additives and ingredients we can’t pronounce.
When I shop, I try my best to stick to the outer perimeters of the store where you will normally find the good stuff like fresh greens, fresh fruit, nuts, seeds and naturally raised meats and organic eggs. I want the food that I provide my family to nourish, energize and benefit their bodies and minds as well as my own. I strive for fresh whole foods that are closest to their natural state as possible.
I’ll concede that you do sacrifice some convenience for a whole foods diet. Admittedly, you will need to spend a bit more time in preparation. However, this tax on your time can be alleviated with good prioritizing and organizational techniques. Good recipes will also help a ton! Aren’t we all lucky to have great resources at our fingertips like PaleoParents.com?
It’s up to us as individuals, friends, spouses and parents to educate ourselves about nutrition and healthy choices.
Here are a few simple suggestions that you can’t go wrong with!
- Stick to whole foods that are as close to their natural state as possible.
- Fill your cart with items that contain less than 5 ingredients. Oh and make sure they are ingredients you can pronounce!
- Sweeten with natural sweeteners. Skip on the refined sugar.
- Fill your plate up with vegetables and fresh greens. Lots and lots of greens. No need to exercise portion control here.
- Embrace fresh fruit! There should be plenty of room in your diet for this natural sugar when you cut out refined sugar.
For breakfast, my favourite options includes organic eggs, humanely-raised natural bacon and fresh fruit. My children love this breakfast! While they do watch some TV, the nice thing about services today like Netflix is that they are advertisement free and my little ones aren’t constantly bombarded by their favourite characters urging them to gorge on an unhealthy breakfast of highly processed marshmallows.
On weekends I will often try to make something fun for them like homemade pancakes. Who doesn’t love pancakes? Fluffy, dough-like bites served with a small drizzle of pure maple syrup and fresh fruit. Pancakes are a divine thing.
The typical pancake can be pretty unhealthy. I’m reminded of a very funny comedian Jim Gaffigan who made this joke on one of his comedy specials:
“You can’t have cake for breakfast. Unless it’s a pancake. How’d that slide through? Young man, you’re not having cake for breakfast, you’re having fried cake with syrup for breakfast. Now load up on that and try not to nap. “
Love that one! My pancakes don’t include white flour though, and instead are made with almonds which are rich in protein, and my pancakes are super charged with healthy, whole food ingredients like nuts, eggs and coconut oil!
Try my pancake recipe this weekend and introduce yourself or your family to a different take on the pancake that excludes white flour and focuses on nutrient dense ingredients. Your kids (or anyone else near by to get a whiff of them cooking up!) will be begging you to make them again and I’m sure you won’t mind doing it either!
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour (here’s 4 steps to making your own almond flour!)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp potato starch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup milk alternative of choice
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
Instructions
- Place all of the dry ingredients into a large sized mixing bowl and mix to combine.
- Place the remaining wet ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl and mix until combined.
- Slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into dry, mixing until smooth.
- Preheat a non-stick frying pan or griddle over medium heat.
- Melt 1 teaspoon coconut oil to coat the pan.
- Using a ¼ cup measuring scoop, gently scoop batter and empty into the pan. Take care not to crowd the pan.
- You may need to reduce the heat to medium-low to cook the pancakes depending on how hot your elements become.
- Cook undisturbed for 2 minutes and then carefully flip the pancake.
- Cook for 1 minute longer or until pancake is cooked throughout.
- Transfer cooked pancake to a drying rack or plate.
- Repeat above steps until all pancakes are cooked adding more coconut oil to pan if so desired. I find the pancakes brown better and have a slightly crispier outside by adding a touch of coconut oil to the pan prior to cooking each pancake!
- Serving suggestions include: fresh fruit, additional pure maple syrup, coconut oil or coconut cream.
Connect with Hollie!
Blog
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://paleoparents.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Hollie-Square.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hollie shares step-by-step articles, mouthwatering recipes and healthy eating inspiration with thousands of loyal readers through her popular blog SimplyWholeFoods.com. Her focus is on soy free, gluten free and paleo friendly recipes that are perfectly suited for those with allergies and intolerances or those who just want to make healthy choices for themselves and their family.
Hollie lives near Toronto, Canada with her beloved husband of 11 years and her two precious children.[/author_info] [/author]
