Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Top Five MamaEatsClean Blog Posts



Hey Folks, I'm about to reach a huge milestone on my blog. My little blog that could. My blog is just a fun project I started when I was on maternity leave to document recipes for my new clean way of eating. It kind of turned into a recipe book/journal. There were times when it was really fun and therapeutic and then sometimes it felt like a burden and was embarrassed about all the personal information I had posted. I've actually considered shutting it down at times just to take "something off my plate"....no pun intended. But a bigger lesson for me has been to just leave it alone if it doesn't fit in with my life at the moment. If I have no time, if I have nothing important to say, if I haven't experimented with a new recipe for a while. Because one of the biggest lessons I've learned in the past 3 years as I've tried to regain my health is to let go of my self-imposed expectations, try not to worry about what other people think of me, and just "keep my head where my feet are". 

Plus, ultimately people still love lots of the recipes, and I do use them regularly myself. Its kind of confusing as I've changed the list of ingredients I include/exclude in my diet over the last 3 years several times. As I've figured out what works/doesn't work for my body some of my most popular recipes aren't even ones I can enjoy anymore. But that doesn't mean others can't enjoy them.

So to mark a big upcoming milestone (I'll keep ya posted), I've decided to re-share my top 5 blog posts. Maybe you can enjoy some of the recipes, even if we can't:


#1 - Cauliflower Shepherd's Pie, we still LOVE this recipe but I am now dairy-free and try to avoid mushrooms so I make a few adjustments. This recipe has had almost 300K hits.......................crazy!

#2 - Twiced Baked Mashed Cauliflower - I now try to eat a low fod-map diet so I limit the amount of cauliflower that I eat, plus I don't eat dairy anymore. But from what I remember this was a darn good recipe..............


#3 Blow you Mind Black Bean Brownies - I haven't made these for quite a while, forgot about them plus I try and limit my bean intake now (I found legumes/beans were flaring up my IBS)

#4 My Cedar Fence, Kind of funny that this is one of my top posts since it has nothing to do with anything I usually write about. But a good reminder of the power of the images. Who doesn't love a good before and after photo.
#5 Coconut Flour Chocolate Zucchini Cake This is actually something I could still eat. Might need to go make this later..............

Friday, January 15, 2016

Mama's Buckwheat Pancakes.......Yes Please!


Hey Folks, 
Its a new year and I'm actually feeling pretty good. Not going to lie........health-wise 2015 kinda sucked. But I worked my arse off for the second half of the year and my efforts have been worth it. I almost hate to put it in writing as it's a constant roller coaster and I never know if it's going to stick...........but I'm feeling pretty darn good this week. Not perfect. But good. Yay!  

And I'm pretty determined to keep it that way. So I have been doing a fair amount of cooking, baking and creating to try and keep my belly satisfied with clean foods so I don't start eating things I know that make me sick. I know that sounds simple for the average person but the list of foods I don't tolerate is very long so time constraints, availability and frankly hunger can make it hard to do.

I'm not going to lie, I have been eating a lot of sweets. I find it very hard to stay away from them (mainly chocolate and home-made Nanaimo bars) during the holidays and once I fire up that sweet tooth it takes a lot of work to get back on track. Instead of going cold turkey I'm trying to wean myself off............its really difficult. But I'm working on it. And by Lent I will be really to go cold turkey.

I have also been working on incorporating some buckwheat into my diet. Its actually not a grain and not related to wheat. They call it a pseudo-grain. And so far I seem to be tolerating it. Quinoa is also a pseudo-grain but I DO NOT tolerate it. No sir. Its all a matter of experimenting and paying attention.

I need some variety in my breakfasts. I love eggs..............but you can only eat so many. And I drink a ton of smoothies.........but they don't keep me full like "real food" does.

So I played with making some buckwheat pancakes and I was pretty happy with the result. Something to throw in the rotation to keep things interesting. I've been topping them with fruit and a tiny, tiny bit of maple syrup. Yum.

Here's to a very healthy and happy 2016! Happy New Year (I'm not that late - Ukrainian New Year was just yesterday).......................

Buckwheat Pancakes

by MamaChanty
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: fry breakfast dairy free grain free almond flour buckwheat flour coconut flour egg
Ingredients (16 pancakes)
    Dry Ingredients
    • 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
    • 1/4 cup coconut flour
    • 1/4 cup almond flour
    • 1 Tbsp arrowroot starch
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp baking soda
    Wet Ingredients
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
    • 2 Tbsp grape seed oil or melted coconut oil
    • 1 Tbsp sweetener of choice
    • 1 tsp vanilla
    Instructions
    Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then mix together. I fry them over medium heat in grape seed oil. Ensure they are bubbling through before turning over.
    I cool and then freeze my extra's. I reheat them in the toaster and they taste almost as good as fresh.
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