Cheddar Bacon Biscuits

Cheddar Bacon Biscuits

Hello everybody welcome back! I have recently had a request for some healthy desert recipes which I will be working on in the future here. However for now I present to you my Cheddar Bacon Biscuit recipe.

These delicious biscuits are packed with protein and loaded with so many healthy goodies they can even be a meal in themselves (they are very filling). I like to serve them for breakfast with a smoothie or for dinner as the entree with a side salad and fruit. I found this recipe in a magazine and I gave it an over haul from just a traditional cheddar biscuit recipe... now they do not contain gluten, cows milk, sugars or preservatives. I added bacon (because everybody loves bacon right???) for added protein plus I eliminated scallions and replaced them with green onions.

I love to take every day recipes and change out all of the ingredients I do not eat and replace them with ingredients I do eat, this is where the food experimentation comes in, usually it takes a couple of tries of a recipe to get it just right but this one came out perfect the first time around!

Prep time is 15 min.
Cook time is 30 min.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in the middle.

Ingredients:

1 stick cold butter plus a little extra to grease the pan with (cut into pieces)
2 cups rice flour
2 cups almond flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
3 green onions sliced and chopped thin
1 Tbsp dried dill
2 1/4 cup rice milk
4 Tbsp raw shelled pumpkin seeds
2 eggs
5 pieces of bacon (the bacon I use is from New Seasons Market and is nitrate free and is cured with honey instead of sugar)

Directions:

1. Grease 10 cups of a large muffin tin
2. Cook the bacon
3. Mix the two flours together and work butter into the flours with your fingers; the consistency should be grainy, with some large lumps of butter
4. Add the cooked bacon, cheddar cheese, green onion, dried dill, rice milk and eggs, mix well. (Dough will feel a little sticky or wet and that is okay). Divide batter among muffin cups, evenly distribute the pumpkin seeds on the top of each biscuit.
5. Bake until biscuits are golden and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
6. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Slow Cooked Maple Bacon Beans

Slow Cooked Maple Bacon Beans

·        These beans do not contain refined sugars, I have substituted the refined sugars with 100 % pure maple syrup and coconut palm sugar (palm sugar has a similar texture and look as brown sugar and is low glycemic), there is no gluten, preservatives or dairy in this dish. These beans make a great main dish with a gluten free bread, roll or muffin etc...or as a side dish. Also please note I use nitrate free bacon that is cured with honey as apposed to refined sugars (I buy it at New Seasons Market).

     Cook time: 8 hours

·         Yield: Serves 5-6 as a main dish or 10-12 as a side.

INGREDIENTS

·         1 pound (2 to 2 1/4 cups) dry white beans such as Navy beans or Great Northern beans (can also use kidney beans)

·         1/3 cup pure maple syrup

·         1/3 cup coconut palm sugar

·         3-4 Tbsp Dijon mustard

·         1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

·         3 cups hot water

·         1/2 pound bacon cut into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces

·         1 medium onion, (1 1/2 cups) chopped

METHOD

1 Place beans in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Soak overnight and drain. Alternatively, bring a pot with the beans covered with 2 inches of water to a boil, remove from heat and let soak for an hour, then drain.

2 Mix the pure maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, mustard, and ground cloves with 3 cups of hot water.

3 Line the bottom of a crock pot (or a Dutch oven if you are cooking in the oven) with half of the bacon (pick the fattiest pieces). Layer over with half of the drained beans. Add all of the onions in a layer, next top with another layer of beans and the remaining bacon. Pour the maple water mixture over the beans to just cover the beans.

4 Cover and cook in a crock pot on the low setting for 8 hours (or in a 250°F oven), until the beans are tender. Check the water level a few hours in, and if the beans need more water, add some. Add additional salt to taste if needed. Note that fresher beans will cook faster than older beans. Your beans may be ready in less than 8 hours, or they may take longer. The beans are even better the next day and can also be frozen in individual serving sizes too.

Nut Butter Balls Recipe



Nut Butter Balls

I had this recipe over on my vintage blog but I thought I would put it over here on my cooking blog to add to my recipe collection.

These Nut Butter Balls are one of my favorite things to eat and they are fun to make. I originally found this recipe online but I have greatly changed it and adapted it to my tastes. These nut butter balls are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, free of preservatives and they are vegetarian (with a slight change of sweetener of raw honey to pure maple syrup they could be made vegan).

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried coconut
(feel free to experiment with the ingredients above, switch out the seeds with nuts if you would like, you can use raw or roasted. Tailor them to your needs and your tastes, you can add chocolate chips or dried fruit cut up into small pieces, the sky is the limit to how these can be adapted).
1 T melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup honey
1 cup of nut butter of your choice, almond is always good, at home I have a nut butter maker and I like to take mixed roasted nuts (a no peanut blend) and I make home made nut butter. Also if you like your nut butter balls to have a more coconut flavor to them you can use a 1/2 cup of nut butter of your choice and a half of a cup of coconut butter.

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large bowl, mix all ingredients really well with your hands then roll mixture into balls and place onto a cookie sheet, refrigerate till firm.

When firm store in a container with lid in the refrigerator for up to a week.