9News Segment Recipes Are Here!

Good evening to 9News viewers and new followers of The Paleo Network!

This morning's live news segment on Denver's local NBC affiliate, 9News, was a lot of fun! A huge thank you to Corey Rose for putting together such an incredible video! There is one thing I wanted to add that I neglected to mention in the story. Our triathlon coach, Sonni Dyer, is the person who suggested this lifestyle. He has coached my husband through 3 Ironman races and myself through 2. He's an incredible athlete himself. Please like Studio 7 Multisport on Facebook and check out their website. Sonni will coach you virtually from anywhere in the country. Tell Coach Sonni you were referred by me.

During today's segment, I made baked egg casserole, banana bread French toast sticks and chocolate doughnuts dipped in coconut sugar.

Banana Bread French Toast Sticks
Courtesy of Civilized Caveman (please go like him on Facebook and subscribe to his blog as well)

I followed his bread recipe closely, but had a couple minor tweaks. My only changes: baking soda + cream of tartar in place of the baking powder and I added vanilla extract in the egg batter (about 1 teaspoon). Instead of French toast, I cut my bread into sticks. They're great for dipping into 100% pure maple syrup.

BREAD

• 4 bananas, ripe
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of sea salt 

      Instructions:

      Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I blended the bananas, eggs, almond butter and coconut oil in my Vitamix blender (could also use a food processor or hand mixer, but it will take extra time). I then added my dry ingredients and vanilla to the blender and blended until smooth. I greased a metal loaf pan with palm shortening (could use coconut oil as well). I baked the bread for about 40 minutes. It cooled for 10 minutes before I took it out of the pan. To make the french toast sticks, I sliced the bread into slices and then cut the slices into long strips. 

    

EGG BATTER

• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt
• oil of your choice for your pan, I used coconut oil
• ¼ cup canned coconut milk

Instructions: 

Mix together all egg batter ingredients in a pie pan or shallow dish, with the exception of the oil. The oil will go into your frying pan for cooking the French toast sticks. 

To cook your French toast sticks, heat coconut oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Dip the French toast sticks into the egg batter flipping them so all sides get coated. Add to the hot pan, turning every couple minutes so all sides get cooked (tongs work best). Serve with 100% pure maple syrup. 

Next up: Chocolate Doughnuts

The doughnuts are actually Chocolate Almond Butter Banana Doughnuts dipped in Coconut Sugar, but that's a mouthful, right? So let's just call them Chocolate Doughnuts. I found this recipe from another amazing Paleo blogger, PaleOMG. Juli makes some incredible desserts, so go on over and like her Facebook page and subscribe to her blog as well. I made some minor changes from her recipe: baking soda + cream of tartar instead of baking powder, added a handful of mini Enjoy Life chocolate chips and dipped the doughnuts in plain coconut sugar (no date sugar).

Chocolate Doughnuts
Ingredients:

• 1 banana, ripe is best
• 10 Deglet dates, pitted (if you use Mejdool dates, you may not need as many)
• ½ cup almond butter
• 5 eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 heaping tablespoons coconut flour, sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 heaping tablespoon coconut oil (softened or melted will work)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup of Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

For the topping:

• 4 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon raw, local honey

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a doughnut pan with coconut oil or palm shortening. Puree the banana, dates, almond butter and honey in your food processor (or blender). Add in eggs, vanilla extract and coconut oil. Process until smooth. In another bowl, sift together coconut flour and cocoa powder. Add baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon and salt. Mix with a whisk or spatula. Add the wet ingredients from food processor into the dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake for about 18 minutes. Let cool in the doughnut pan for about 10 minutes. At that point, they'll be easy to take out of the pan. To make the topping, melt the honey and coconut oil together in a small bowl (I just microwaved it for 30 minutes). Put the coconut sugar in another bowl. Dip the cooled doughnuts in the honey-coconut oil mixture and then into the coconut sugar. Enjoy! 

Next: Baked Egg Casserole

I came up with this combination based on what I had left in my refrigerator. Egg casseroles can be made with a variety of veggies or meats. Here's my take on baked egg casserole.

Sausage & Veggie Egg Casserole
Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow squash, diced
• 1 orange bell pepper, diced
• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 18 eggs
• 1 ½ pounds sugar-free pork sausage 
• Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your baking dish with coconut oil or palm shortening. Cook the sausage in a frying pan or skillet over medium to medium-high eat until fully cooked, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Remove the sausage from the pan. Cook the vegetables in the sausage grease until tender (5-7 minutes). Cool in a bowl before mixing with the eggs. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the sausage and cooled veggies to the eggs. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 45-50 minutes or until set. 

Note: This makes a large dish of casserole. You could definitely cut it in half to make a smaller amount. My husband and I can usually eat the entire pan in a week if we eat it for breakfast daily. 

I saved the best for last... my version of Paleo granola! You may have noticed the granola in a few clips of the story and when Gary Shapiro and Kyle Dyer were previewing the story. 

Basic Paleo Granola

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

1 cup almonds, roughly chopped

1 cup shredded coconut

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1/3 cup almond meal

½ cup creamy almond butter

¼ - ½ cup raw, local honey

1 ½ t. cinnamon

2 t. vanilla extract

Dash of sea salt

Note: I buy my nuts, seeds and almond meal from the bulk bins at Sprouts. It's one of the most cost-effective way of purchasing nuts and seeds. 

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Add nuts to food processor and pulse a few times to roughly chop them. You don’t want to process them too much, or else you’ll end up with a flour consistency. You may have to do this in batches, depending on how large your food processor is.

Pour nuts into a large mixing bowl. Add shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, pepitas, almond meal, cinnamon and sea salt. Mix everything together.

Lastly, add almond butter, honey and vanilla extract. Stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to combine it all together. It will be a sticky mixture. Spread onto a large baking sheet and try to separate it so it’s not one big clump.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes, stirring a few times so it doesn't burn. Let it cool on a baking rack (keeping it on the baking sheet) for 15 minutes. The mixture will harden up a bit as it cools, making it more like traditional granola. Enjoy with almond or coconut milk and berries. You could also just eat it plain. I prefer mine with assorted berries and canned coconut milk. 

Please share The Paleo Network with your friends and family. I would also love if you would pin the granola and egg casserole recipes on Pinterest. There is a 'Pin It' button at the bottom of this post. I will also be pinning these to my pinboard 'The Paleo Network Recipes.' 

Please let me know if you have any foods you'd like me to Paleoize. I would be more than happy to take a stab at turning your favorite comfort food dish into a Paleo version. I look forward to sharing delicious Paleo foods and recipes with you on a regular basis.