Paleo moussaka with squash and coconut sauce (dairy, gluten, sugar free)

Making moussaka without sour cream is quite challenging because the point of this casserole dish is to get a very creamy, milky taste to the potatoes. I used to make this for my dairy allergic child with bechamel sauce.  This sauce worked fine because at the time we still ate gluten. But when that too went out the window I had to try other things to make this work.
What I came up with was the mighty squash. We have a lot of  Hokkaido squash this fall in our garden and they are extra starchy and when baked and blended they can give a nice creamy texture. So to make a sauce that would bake well I mixed this squash puree with some coconut milk and garlic (of course) and the sauce was great.

You can bake a larger amount of squash, puree it and store it in the fridge for multiple use in a course of a couple of days. It will keep.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 kg of ground meat (pork/chicken/etc.)
• 1/2 small Hokkaido squash (baked and pureed)
• 1 medium size onion
• 5-6 large potatoes
• 10 dkg sliced bacon
• 1 dcl tomato paste
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• oregano, basil leaves
• lard

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Heat one spoon of lard in a skillet and add in the sliced onions and meat. Gently fry for 15 mintues, sttiring.
• Wash thoroughly whole potatoes, with skin and place in water and boil until cooked.
• In a small skillet put in the tomato paste, add 1 dcl of water, squashed basil and oregano leaves and squashed garlic. Salt and pepper to taste and let simmer for 5 minutes.
• In a small skillet put 1 dcl of coconut milk and add in the squash puree. Mix well and add in the garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
• Stack the moussaka in the order: potato slices in the first layer, then the meat and cover with half of tomato sauce. Then again the potato, meat, tomato and finish with potatos.
• Cover the casserole with squash sauce and put some bacon on top.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180 C.

As one end remark this can be made (and was made) with sweet potatoes also. In that case you don't need to precook the sweet potatoes just slice and stack.

Paleo cheesecake (dairy, soy, gluten free)

First I have to emphasize that making a non dairy cheesecake is somewhat extravagant and not at all vitally important but it is DELICIOUS! 

It's nice to know you can make this faux cheesecake for a child that never tasted cheesecake because of dairy allergy and everybody is always talking about it. As a matter of fact I don't think I know anybody that doesn't love cheesecake. There are a lot of recipes on the web for making this dessert and the base is always ground cashews. This recipe is a variation of cheesecake because of a wonderful gooey toffee that comes on top and I decided to use and remodel this recipe just because of this toffee layer.

Hope you'll try it. It is definitely not a light cake as you end up using half a jar of honey and a small jar of coconut oil with one can of coconut milk but the ingredients are healthy and tasty at the same time.


INGREDIENTS:Crust:

• 1 cup almonds
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt

Cheesecake Layer:

• 2 cups cashews (boiled for 20 minutes)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ¼ cup honey

Toffee:

• 1 can  coconut milk
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• ½ tsp vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:
 
Crust:

•  Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a pan with parchment paper.
•  Combine all crust ingredients together in medium sized bowl and mix until well combined. Press into   the bottom of the pan.
•  Bake for 15 minutes. 
•  Remove and cool.

Banana Cheesecake layer:

• Add all of the ingredients into a blender, mix until very smooth (about 5 minutes).
• Pour the cheesecake layer on top of the crust and place in the freezer.

Toffee:

• Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Allow to boil lightly for about 60-70 minutes, stirr occasionally.
• As the mixture starts to darken, stir frequently to prevent burning. 
• Once the mixture thickens and has reached an amber color, remove from heat and pour on top of the banana cheesecake layer. Return the pan to the freezer and allow to set for about 1 hour.

Pizza (gluten and dairy free)

I am a huge pizza lover but I always hated how I felt after eating it. Usually it included a heavy stomach and a day of abdominal pain due to intestinal distress. The reason for this would definitely be wheat from the flour and the commercial sour cream.
When we went paleo last year the program that we were on (Whole 30) didn't allow for the period of 30 days paleo desserts and/or paleo junk food including pizza. The reason is that you have to loosen the psychological grip  that this kind of food holds on you. But when unconditioned you can make occasional paleo "junk food", meaning paleo pizza, paleo sandwiches, paleo burgers, etc.
We didn't venture into such foods for a long time because a paleo pizza crust from cauliflower or like didn't seem to me worth the bother.
But when I found the whole manioca/tapioca/coconut flour doughs then a paleo pizza that would be as the real deal became a real possibility.
This pizza doesn't have paleo in the title because I can't guarantee that the sausage we bought had no additives in it, the chances are it had at least some.
It is made form our local meat producer that owns a small farm but still it is not without additives.
 

Pizza before baking with toppings on

The biggest difference in making the paleo pizza is that the dough is baked empty and you add the toppings when the dough is almost baked fully. So the toppings can't be raw.

This was by the way the best tasting pizza I ever had so even if you are not paleo, or gluten/dairy free you should try making it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 3 tbsp ground flax seed (I bought flax in dm and ground it in a coffee grinder)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup lard
• app 1/3 cup warm water
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 onion
• 20 dkg sausage
• 20 dkg salami (we bought the one with least additives and from a local farmer)
• 2 medium sized pickles
• 1 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• fresh basil and oregano leaves (can be dry also)
• pepper
• salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

• In a bowl combine tapioca, coconut and flax seed flour with baking powder and salt. Stir.
• Add in one mashed garlic clove and warm water and mix well.
• Add in the egg and the lard and knead.
• Line a baking sheet with baking paper and spread the dough on it (layer about 1/3 inch thin).
• Bake until it becomes crispy (about 15-20 minutes).
• Slice the onion and glaze it in a pan for about 5 minutes.
• In a 1/2 cup water dissolve the tomato paste and let boil, then add in olive oil, one mashed garlic clove, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Let boil for 1-2 minutes.
• Place the onions and all of the desired toppings on the dough and pour your tomato sauce over everything and bake for 10 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Paleo flatbread-great for paleo sandwiches and paleo pizza (dairy, soy, grain and sugar free)

We have never been big bread eaters so not eating grain is not something that came hard on us. But having some bread here and now is nice.

Paleo breads are usually made from nut flours or coconut flour and have good portion of eggs in them so they are very moist (zuchinni-bread-coconut-flour). These are nice but discovering paleo flatbread was close to a miracle. This is something you can eat with lunch or make a sandwich with. And everybody that are on paleo know how hard it is to make a paleo sandwich. Usually you use some kind of mushrooms or paleo pancakes. But having flat bread makes it easier, faster and more like ordinary sandwich. This also makes a way for a nice paleo pizza because this flatbread is great as pizza dough.

The one I make is garlic bread because we adore garlic. Recipes on the web for flatbread usually ask for a pizza stone, but as we don't have one we don't use one. I really consider this unnecessary because simple baking pan placed at the bottom of the stove works well enough.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup tapioca powder

• 1/2 cup coconut flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp fresh oregano leaves

• 3 fresh basil leaves
  

• 1/2 cup olive oil
  

• 1/4 cup water

• 2 whole eggs

• 3 garlic cloves

  INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

• Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

• Add warmed water, olive oil (1/4 cup) and slightly whisked eggs. 

• Crush the herbs well and add them to the mixture.

• Mix thoroughly, adding additional coconut flour as needed. It should end up being a very sticky dough that can be flattened with a spatula.

• Let sit a few minutes to let coconut flour absorb water.

• Pour onto parchment paper and spread with spatula to 1/4 inch thick.

• Place parchment paper on a baking tray and bake until golden.

• Mix olive oil (1/4 cup) with mashed garlic.

• Remove and add coat with olive oil and mashed garlic mixture.

Stuffed bell peppers (gluten, dairy, soy, sugar free; paleo)

Bell peppers stuffed with minced meat stuffing make a complete meal by itself but the meal can be well enhanced with potato/sweet potato mash.

In the original classic version of the stuffed bell peppers the minced meat is mixed with rice to make it more compact and add the carbohydrates. I also add carbohydrates but the good ones that our body can use, shredded sweet potato.

I have to point out that I use home grown bell peppers and minced pork meat from our home grown pigs. Growing your own vegetables as well as breeding your own animals or buying both of these locally from small farms is one of the most important things you can do to enhance the health of your family as well as the health of the society.

As you can notice from the picture fat is welcome in our family meals and the fat in this meal is from olive oil and the very meat that has been cooking and is really indispensable.

INGREDIENTS: 

• 12 medium to large bell peppers
• 1/2 kg minced pork
• 1 small shredded sweet potato
• 1 egg
• 2 dcl tomato puree
• 2 dcl chicken stock or water
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• turmeric

INSTRUCTIONS:

• In a large bowl combine together minced meat with the shredded sweet potato, one egg, salt, pepper and turmeric. Knead this well.
• Wash the bell peppers and remove the seeds. 
• In a large skillet: put the olive oil and add the minced garlic let simmer for couple of minutes and then add the tomato puree, salt and stock/water.
• Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture and gently put into the sauce in the skillet.
• Let simmer for 40-45 minutes.