Paleo Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

We are in the midst of a school break this month and my kids are excited to learn new things!  Kitchen time is where they explore new foods, recipes and cooking techniques.  My daughter especially loves to bake!  I had momentarily lost my personal cookbook after rearranging our school room, but finally managed to find one of our favorite recipes we used this year!  Looking for a dairy free, gluten free, egg free, paleo treat?  This has been well received at many functions this school year and will be at many more to come!  Enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

These are the real super heroes!

Yummy!

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Blueberry and Sage Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Ground
• 1 C of chopped leeks
• 1/2 C of frozen blueberries
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh sage
• 2 TBSP coconut oil
• sea salt to taste

Directions:

Chop leeks and fresh sage and set aside. Melt coconut oil, add leeks, sage, blueberries and salmon.  Add sea salt and let cook on medium heat for about 5- 10 minutes until the salmon is cooked and the leeks are tender.  Serve on rice, cauliflower rice or with scrambled eggs.  

 

 

Wild Alaskan Salmon Patties

Wow, what a treat!  Fresh Wild Alaskan Salmon Patties directly from Alaska.  If you are looking for a tasty breakfast sausage or a yummy dinner, this has been a huge hit in our family.  Literally all the kids asked for more!  Salmon Patties

Yucca Poblano Chowder

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I’m always cooking and creating new things.  Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes it isn’t.  My kids have learned to be cautious and ask what I’ve created first!  But they are truly adventurous eaters and are a blessing to feed.  It is rewarding to feed my children healthy wholesome meals that keep us a healthy and happy family.  It hasn’t always been that way and I’m grateful for our health now.  If you are looking for new recipes, please ask me how you can join our Thyme to Live Well Challenge group.  I share our favorites and spare you the failures.  My kids are the guinea pigs.

I used to be able to buy a dairy and gluten free Poblano Chowder at HEB, but it isn’t sold there anymore. I experimented last week and created my own!  This was a treat for me.  I hope you enjoy too!

Poblano Yucca Chowder

Wild Alaskan Salmon Vs Farm Raised

You might have heard to eat Wild Alaskan Salmon.  You might still wonder why Farm raised is so much cheaper.  This article goes into great detail of the differences.  I recently have found a source of buying Wild Alaskan Salmon as a buying club at wholesale prices.  If you are in Austin and want some Wild Alaskan Salmon for $13 per lb, let me know!  Otherwise you can join as a buyers club yourself.

http://www.wildalaskansalmonandseafood.com

http://www.thehealthyeatingguide.com/farm-raised-salmon-vs-wild-caught-salmon/

Paleo Brownie Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 C Cashew Cream*
• 1 TBSP Vanilla
• 1/2 C Unsweetened Cocoa
• 1/2 C Maple Syrup
• Frozen Cherries
• Top with Favorite Icing*

Directions: Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Mix *cashew cream, vanilla, cocoa, and maple syrup.  Fill mini muffin pan 3/4 full and add one frozen cherry in each or leave plain. Bake for 15-20 minutes until firm.  Cool and refrigerate.  Top with favorite icing.  Cashew cream and icing recipes are below.

Cashew Cream

• 4 C Raw Cashews
• 3 C Water
• 2 tsp Salt

Directions: Blend cashews, water and salt in blender until creamy.

This little cowboy, Travis Hayes, is celebrating his 6th Birthday today and loves his sweets!  He has been asking about his birthday for months.  He is all boy and is one of the toughest little boys I know.  He has a big heart and a big temper, but always gives the best hugs!  These browning bites came back to our home for his celebration!

Coffee Icing:

• 1/3 C Coconut Oil
• 1/2 C Raw Sugar Ground (Use Coffee Grinder)
• 1 Coffee Beans (I used leftover coffee grounds from morning coffee)

Directions: Mix in mixer until creamy.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cocoa Icing:

• 1/3 C Raw Sugar Ground
• 1 C Cashew Cream*
• 1/2 C Unsweetened Baking Cocoa

Directions: Mix in mixer until creamy.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

PB Icing:

• 1/2 C Coconut Oil
• 1/2 C Peanut Butter
• 1/4 C Raw Sugar Ground

Directions: Mix in mixer until creamy.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Some of my helpers and tasting crew!:Colt 9 years and Dillon 3 years.  

Cody 2 years:

Paleo Creamy Potato Soup

Who doesn’t love a warm hearty soup on a cold winter day?  I’m only missing the snow and a fireplace in Texas, but really my kids love soups and I do too!  Sorry honey, no meat tonight.  We made this soup last night without the chicken and it was so rich and full of flavors.  I used chopped carrots and celery as chunky vegetables with fresh thyme from my garden!  It was amazing and definitely one to repeat!  You should give it a try or join our Transform 30 challenge and get 30 days of recipes, this one is on the calendar!

Who knew dairy and gluften free soups could be so tasty?  Paleo Creamy Potato Soup

Thyme to Live Well Challenge

Who needs a restart?  Some how I end up roping myself into these tasks and wonder how in the world did I come up with this idea. I’ve been looking for away to file my recipes for years and 2017 is the year to do it!  I’ve signed up for a 30 day trial with http://www.plantoeat.com.  I’ve created my first 30 day meal plan and am sharing it with those who are willing to take the challenge with me.

The meal calendar is a compilation of my teams yummy gluten, dairy, and soy free recipes.  I’ve added a couple of meals with eggs, but other than that the recipes use egg substitutes.  I encourage you to take the challenge!  Try Juice Plus just for 30 days, if you haven’t already tried it and eat real food for 30 days.  I would love to hear how you feel at the end and if you have seen any physical, mental or emotional changes.  This is a spiritual journey and will be praying with you as you tackle the demons in food!  Food has a powerful addiction over us, but you can create new habits that will transform your health!  Let me know and I will add you to a closed group, send you my meal calendar and enter you in for a free healthy living raffle at the end of the month!  I will also be sharing 4 weeks of nutritional tips and advice that came from our dinner event topics (Immunity, Gut Health, Hormones and Sleep Behaviors, and Healthy Happy Kids).  This information will be shared in the closed group and will have bonus points for those who comment and share their favorite tips!

We will also be encouraging each other to step it up a notch in your activity level.  Whether you are exercising at boot camp or taking your kids for a jog, we are sisters encouraging one another to strive for Happy Healthy Families!  Take the challenge!  What do you have to lose?

This is what is on our menu tonight?  How about you?

 

Happy New Year!!

Let the New Year Resolutions Begin!  Many of you might have new years resolutions.  As I reflect on 2016, I hope that my new year resolution is more about the growth of my spiritual walk than some list that I want to attain.  I listened to a sermon this morning about a firefighter sharing his personal mission story right here in Austin.  I often wondered if I have the guts to be a missionary and make the sacrifice missionaries make daily giving up conveniences of living close to family or living in a nice home, rather living for the sake of others.  While I might lay awake fantasizing what life would be like as a missionary, the firefighter said this is a mission field right here.  There are definite degrees of sacrifice, but I feel my life is a sacrifice here and staying home with five wild monkeys trying to teach them how to love each other and others and cooking foods that are healthy for us.

So what brings me to making cookies, you might ask?  Part of my daily struggle, is choosing to make food for my family rather than simply choosing convenience.  Every year cooking and creating meals for my family becomes more natural, but there are still so many things to learn in the kitchen and baking is one of them!  I don’t often create recipes to bake and it seems 99 percent of the time I fail.  I get frustrated trying recipes that call for eggs, milk or gluten and trying to replace them with alternatives only to taste like cardboard.  My family can testify that not all my creations have been worth the effort.  At any rate, here is to a Happy New Year with a cookie that I actually enjoyed!  I was craving salty and sweet.  Here is something that is gluten, dairy and egg free and uses Honey instead of refined sugar.  I hope you enjoy it too!  Peanut Butter Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Christmas Time

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year.  I reflect deeply this time of year, but this year I have found myself wondering how this can not be the best Holiday for everyone.  Granted, I realize that if you don’t believe in Christmas being the birthday of Jesus Christ, than Christmas becomes just one more Holiday.   This holiday brings quite a big of magic, but possibly stress if you lose the real meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is a time for me to be reminded of the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and to share precious moments with my family.  I’m truly thankful that we are able to be home with our children and enjoy these memories.  What I don’t want is to get lost in the crazy of the season and ungrateful spirits.  Presents are so hard for me as a parent hoping that my children will be so excited, but at the same time reminding them to look outward to others that have so much less.

This year brings us to yet another season with more challenges then the year before with food.  Like always, food is the center of family gatherings and is a challenge for those who can’t participate in all the food choices.  It is hard for me to avoid certain temptations, but since my body violently detest certain foods it isn’t that hard to avoid.  What is very challenging for me, however, is the broken spirit or the crying protests from my children when they feel deprived.  It is a lesson they will have to learn, which I keep reminding myself.  I try to teach them that there are so many wonderful flavors and foods that God created for our bodies to enjoy and for the pleasure of building memories!  We are limited in our choices, but so much healthier when we avoid them.  If we can remember to be thankful for all the amazing foods, varieties, tastes, aromas that foods bring, maybe we can stay grateful and not dwell in a pity party!

I’m know I’m speaking about myself, but if you relate you understand the struggle food has on many of us (or should I say all of us?).  Food is powerful and empowers us to be strong, healthy and fulfilled or can make us feel defeated by the power of gluttony!  Please pray for us as we always need prayer in our attitudes toward foods and that mommy doesn’t fail at my attempts.  Nothing aggravates me more, when I attempt to bake a treat and it turns into a disaster!

If you are looking for some sweet treats or amazing Christmas Breakfasts, I highly recommend the Overnight Waffles that my hubby found and adapted.  They are amazing a and will be served here on Christmas Eve morning. Or check out the Yummy Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies, Hulk Muffins, or Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Merry Christmas,

 

The Hayes Family

Thyme to Live Well