My favourite caveman (sorry husband)

Here is my next recipe recommendation, though I’m cheating a little cause I didn’t just discover this.  But I did find it and have made it and wanted to review it.

You can find the recipe here, on the Civilised Caveman website.  Its the baby of George, my favourite caveman, even if he is sporting a horrible beard right now (beards are NOT sexy, fellas… not EVER).   George has so many amazing recipes and his food photography certainly does get the saliva glands going.  Whenever I am looking for a ‘paleo version’ of anything, I head for George’s site first.  He’s pretty rock-solid in terms of providing easy, tasty, realistic Paleo recipes. Speaking of…

This recipe is such a ‘go to’ in our household.  I loved Banana Cake pre-Paleo and so when I found myself with a few very ripe banana’s I went looking for a Paleo version.

I’ve tried a couple of different ones, I’ll be honest there is another one that’s almost as good, but this one is definitely my favourite.  Its a perfect snack food and can become a dessert also, if you’re so inclined (which we frequently are.)

 

So making this bread is super, super simple.  Its essentially two steps – blend your ‘wet’ ingredients, add your dry ingredients.  Even I can manage two steps!  Then bake.

The bread that you end up with is moist, flavoursome and sturdy.  The loaf is compact (about 23 x 7 x 5 cm’s) but that helps me with portion control!  The other brilliant thing about it is that with a simple addition (cocoa) you can have chocolate banana bread.  Another variation we often do is that instead of the loaf tin, I spoon the batter into a muffin tray and it gives me 12 perfectly sized, yummy muffins.  Perfect for snacks, lunches or dessert.

OK, so they aren’t the giant, puffy topped muffins you’ll get at McCafe… BUT they are guilt free.  Even when we go one step further and add Paleo chocolate ganache. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…!

So do yourself a favour, head over to George’s website and and check out this recipe and his many, many other brilliant recipes.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day out there – thanks for reading!

 

x S

Mmmm a Paleo Bread?

So, I’ve realised that I can’t really chronicle my journey from non-Paleo to Paleo on this blog anymore because in my mind, I’m there. I am Paleo and I have no plans to go back.

That said – I still have loads to learn and the biggest thing is still new foods.  The biggest threat to my new, healthier diet is the foods I used to eat. Like bread and pasta and cereal.  Those foods that made eating easy.

That said, there are soooo many Paleo alternatives out there for me to try. So, I figure I can try foods and keep blogging AND help out others all in one go!

I am NOT a gourmet cook.  I am not even a very good cook.  I’m an average cook. I know more than boiling water but I don’t have any more than a totally average skill level.  So I figure, I’ll find recipes on the net, cook them and then review the experience on here for y’all!  Obviously, full credit to the recipe creator (I’ll ensure I post links, I won’t be posting the actual recipes on here), but also not going to pull my punches. If I think its good I’ll say. If I think its something only Matt Moran could successfully produce I’ll definitely say.  This way I can start to build up a store of reliable recipes. And maybe you guys can benefit from my experiences!

So – my first recipe: Paleo Herb Bread by multiply delicious.

Recipe is here:

http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/03/paleo-herb-bread/

Ok so I wanted a savoury bread that I could use to go with meals, or make a sandwich with, just like in the non-paleo days.  I’ve tried many, many recipes and they have come out waaaay too sweet, waaay too flat or rock hard and dry.  I got a positive feeling from this recipe because it was herb bread – rosemary – one of my favourite herbs! So I thought I’d give it a go today.

On the negative side – the amount of mixture that the recipe makes resulted in a ‘loaf’ that is about 25cm long, 10cm wide and 6-7cm high.  So I’d want to double the mixture to get a real “loaf size” loaf.  Unfortunately that would equate to 10 eggs. Yowsers.

However, on the plus side:

Taste is good! The herbs are nice and light (I used a little less than recommended) but still have a positive impact.  Taste is neutral enough that it can be eaten just with (grassfed) butter, or with honey, or with more ingredients (eg: a salad sandwich).

Texture is solid enough. Its still more crumbly than gluten laden bread but it is definitely solid enough that it holds together.

Time – only took me one dish (food processor) and about 10 mins to get the batter together. Perfect!  Then straight into the loaf tin and into the oven, so less than 20 mins from go > woah.  With practice I could knock that down to 10-15 minutes.  I really like that in a recipe. Like, REALLY, really like it.

Simple – the recipe had more than 5 ingredients BUT there were literally 2 steps. Dry ingredients in, wet ingredients in. That’s it. I love it.

All in all I’m a big fan of this recipe. Its still Paleo bread but its the best savoury version I’ve found so far. And you can leave the herbs out, or use different herbs to change it up. Next I’ll try garlic bread I think. Yum!

Overall – I think 8/10 (and that’s a good score, from me).

Thx for reading 🙂

S.