Hello everyone! This paleo business takes a lot to get your head around, especially removing food that has long been considered, and is still very much suggested, to be wholesome and healthy food. I am talking about grains. They have sure been around awhile but apparently those hunter/gatherer folk from way back when didn’t eat them like we do and if they did eat grains, they were likely to just come across small numbers of plants scattered across the mountains and plains. Farming did start a very long time ago but more recently, the 20th century bought all kinds of helpful resources to get farms really feeding the nations.
Grains, including gluten free grains such as corn, rice and oats are not considered paleo because the paleolithic era is before all the farming en masse began, tens of thousands of years ago. I won’t go into the ancient history of agriculture but rather consider the more recent and current farming techniques in terms of growing grains. Chemical sprays, soil treatment and genetic modification are common terms that pop up when learning about growing grains, then there is the processing in the factory.
Sorry for the Food Farming 101 chat, but it really is as basic as that, if Mr or Mrs Cave-dweller didn’t put it in their goat hide handbag, then it’s not considered paleo. Fine. What about organic grains? Or ancient grains? Or the type you can sprout/soak? Nope. Still grains, not paleo. Sad face. I do miss grains but I don’t miss my sore tummy! And I do like my weight loss… If you are interested, there is a lot of research about how we digest grains and how babies under 24 months digest them. Please leave a comment or contact Freddie’s Food for links.
So what do you EAT then for crying out loud?! Good question that I get asked a LOT and this is what I ask myself every day at breakfast and lunchtime for the kids. In my last post I talked about how feeding the adults was easy as we aren’t fussy and we love all kinds of meat, fruit and veg. But the kids are very challenging to cook for at the best of times, I still haven’t tried making paleo ‘bread’ (a loaf shaped nut and seed thing) so trying to limit their grain intake is hard. One dish I have made the kids for breakfast several times with great success is pancakes. Grain, dairy, sugar free delicious pancakes. This recipe is so easy and you can do it all in one bowl with a fork! It evolved from experimenting with eggs beaten into mashed banana that my husband and I called a fruittata, aka the banana omelette …
Paleo Pancakes
Makes: 12 pancakes
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10-15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana (the riper the banana, the sweeter the pancakes)
1 egg (preferably from a chook that has roamed free and grazed on grass/organic paleo friendly feed!)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I actually put quite a lot more in for cinnamony goodness)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (pure extract, no alcohol or sugar added, vanilla paste would work fine, just 1/4 teaspoon instead)
3/4 cup blanched almond meal
3/4 tsp baking powder (I use a gluten free one but it still has rice flour… working on that!)
A generous knob of grass-fed butter or coconut oil for cooking.
Method:
Mash the banana until it is as smooth and liquid as you can get it.
Add the egg and whisk really well until the banana and egg are very well mixed. You should have a lovely light yellow liquid-looking mixture.
Add the cinnamon and vanilla, mix gently.
Add the almond meal slowly to allow for any lumps to break up and add the baking powder while you stir the almond meal through. If it is looking too dry or gluggy, add a splash of milk or almond milk.
Cook in a large frying pan with the butter or oil as you would with other pancake recipes, but be sure to cook on a low heat and flip when they are almost cooked through. Serve with fruit, a trickle of maple syrup (100% pure maple syrup that is, read the ingredients list on the bottle) and if you eat dairy products, a big helping of yogurt!
You should get around 12 pancakes perfect for little hands if you pour small amounts of mixture. The recipe is very easy to double and if you have really ripe bananas, adding another half of a banana would be enough but double everything else.
As with other pancake recipes it is easy to add blueberries, sultanas etc into the mixture. I have used cardamon instead of cinnamon once and that was lovely.
Try it out and let me know how it goes. See you next time for a chocolate treat. Make sure you follow Freddie’s Food so you don’t miss out!
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Written by Anneke Newing mum to two beautiful children.