Category: Paleo

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Grain-Free Granola Recipe

A favorite breakfast of mine, growing up, was cereal and milk.  Through my stomach healing journey, I gave up all of my favorite cereals and granolas.  I tried granola recipes made with nuts and coconut flakes.  My body didn’t tolerate them very well.

I decided I can’t tolerate honey or maple syrup.  I can tolerate date syrup.  I created a granola recipe using date syrup instead of honey and maple syrup.

My favorite date syrup is Date Lady date syrup.

The kitchen smells so good, when the granola is cooling, my family has been known to eat it from the baking sheet.  You will want to bag this up as soon as you can.

Grain-Free Granola Recipe

  • 3 cups coconut chips
  • 2 cups nuts (walnuts, macadamias, pine nuts, cashews, pecans)
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 3/8 cup date syrup (Date Lady Date Syrup)
  • 1 ½ t vanilla
  • 1 ½ t cinnamon
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large mixing bowl add the coconut chips and nuts 
  3. Place parchment paper on large baking sheet
  4. Stir together until mixed
  5. In a small saucepan, over low medium heat, melt the coconut oil.
  6. Stir in the date syrup.
  7. Continue stirring until it boils.
  8. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.
  9. Pour over the coconut and nuts mixture.
  10. Stir until the nut mixture is coated with caramel mixture.
  11. Pour the mixture on to the baking sheet.
  12. Press it down into one layer on the baking sheet.
  13. Put in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Stir halfway through.
  14. Take out of the oven and stir again.  Let the granola cool.
  15. Use a spatula to break the granola into bite size parts.  
  16. Put the granola in a large baggie.
  17. Keep in the refrigerator.
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Grain-Free Garlic Bread

I loved garlic bread.  Well actually, all things garlic.  I loved the texture and crunch of the french bread.  During my quest to heal my stomach, not only did I identify I can’t tolerate grains but I also can’t tolerate garlic.  After I went grain-free, I missed garlic french bread. 

I found that garlic infused oil has great garlic flavor, but doesn’t contain the part of the garlic that I am sensitive to.  My favorite oil is Garlic Gold Oil. I use it as a substitute for garlic. I put it in all recipes that use garlic. I substitute 1 T of Garlic Gold Oil for 1 clove of garlic.  I usually put it in the dish right before I serve it or when I stir fry vegetables, I include 1 T of the Garlic Gold Oil.   

After we found the garlic infused oil was so tasty, my husband experimented with frying grain-free bread in garlic infused oil and ghee to eat with hamburgers.  My family loved them.   

Grain-Free Garlic Bread

  • Grain-free bread slices
  • Ghee
  • Garlic infused olive oil (Garlic Golden Oil)

Brush the ghee/oil mixture on the griddle. Place the bread slices on the mixture. Flip and cook until browned.

They are great as a hamburger bun or crunchy sandwich bread.

For crunchy bread sticks, slice the bread slices into strips, fry them and serve them with guacamole, and other dips.

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Whole 30 Journey

My next goal on this journey was to increase my energy level.  My kids were driving themselves now and didn’t need me home as much. I decided it was time to increase my work hours to full time.  The problem with this was I didn’t know if I could sustain a 40 hour work week with my current energy level. In my research, the Whole 30 diet seemed to address energy.  The Whole 30 Diet was my next project.

For my first Whole 30, I followed the Whole 30 diet plan that Michelle Tam of Nomnom Paleo created on her website Nomnompaleo.com.  We enjoyed her recipes while we followed the Specific Carb Diet. It seemed a good transition for family. The recipes were very flavorful. My family never felt like they were deprived of good food during the 30 days.

Like all of the whole food diets I followed, the Whole 30 Diet would require a lot of work and planning.  Especially, since I love to snack. If I am tired, I can easily convince myself to go out or prepare an easy processed frozen or boxed dinner.  I had to take all of those options away from myself. This had to be so easy, I didn’t need to think about it, I just came home from work and did it.

At the begining of each week, I printed out the recipes.  I prepared a weekly calendar, a shopping/preparation list.  The calendar I created for the family was for dinners. I planned to eat leftovers for lunch.  For my breakfast each week, I cooked the breakfast recipes and froze them. Then I heated them up during the week.  

Sunday, was shopping day.  After shopping, my family chopped vegetables and stored them in containers for the refrigerator.  We prepared sauces, dressings, and seasonings for the week. We baked the week’s breakfasts and snacks. 

The calendar, shopping and preparation lists for the Nomnom Paleo Whole 30 I created are available if you email me.

Some Whole 30 tips and tricks I learned from the Paleo/Whole 30 bloggers I follow which helped me be successful during my Whole 30:

  1. Choffy brewed chocolate and a tablespoon of Nutpod to replace lattes,
  2. Tessamae salad dressings,
  3. Primal Kitchen Mayonaises, Ketchup,
  4. LaCroix sparkling waters,
  5. Hint waters,

During my Whole 30 the first and last weeks were the hardest, mentally.  In the middle of the 30 days I felt really good. My energy increased and continued to increase during the 30 days.  I was able to get out of bed with my alarm every morning. I hadn’t been able to do that in quite a while. It was amazing.  I have done 5 Whole 30s since my first one. Each Whole 30 I do, I find a new food I don’t tolerate exposing new layers in my journey to heal myself.