A staple in our house. One of my favorite dishes to make because it’s incredibly simple and there is virtually no cleanup.

Pretty simple and open for your own interpretation really, just a few things to consider:

1) Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants) – I.E. all the yummy veggies that are delish but REALLY bad for chronic illnesses/inflammation. They are super inflammatory foods, so limit them or avoid all together in your stir fry

2) Cooking Oils – Remember my cholesterol post? A lot of times the reason we get oxidized fats and free radicals into our system is because we try to heat up otherwise very healthy oils at temperatures they are not meant to withstand. The ONLY oils you should be cooking with at high heat is Coconut Oil or Palm Oil (also make sure they are cold-pressed and unrefined so they have all the intended nutrients. Refined may be just as bad as heating Olive Oil on high)  The cheapest cold pressed and unrefined I’ve ever seen is this one at Trader Joes.

3) Soy Sauce. Soy in general is bad for most women, as it mimics estrogen in the body. Most women are estrogen dominant (meaning their progesterone levels aren’t as high as they are supposed to be) so it’s not good for the body to add in foods that escalate that.  Also, soy sauce contains gluten, a no no for any migrainer. Substitute coconut aminos for soy sauce. – I’ll be totally honest, I friggin love soy sauce, so since I have my headaches under control I do half coconut aminos and half gluten free soy sauce in my dish 🙂

4) GMOs – Glyphosate will definitely perpetuate your migraines forever

Ingredients:

• Organic Brown Unrefined Brown Rice – for best nutritional value and digestion soak them in warm purified water with 1tsp apple cider vinegar per 1/4 of cup on kitchen counter overnight. Strain and rinse in the morning.
• Water chestnuts
• Organic Broccoli
• Organic Baby Corn
• Organic Snow peas
• Organic Zucchini
• Organic Carrots
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 baby onion
• Any other veggie you love – again watch the nightshades and GMOs 🙂

Directions:

1. In a large pot, boil water for rice.
2. Once boiling, cook rice covered as instructed, usually 35-40 minutes
3. When there is about 15 minutes left on the rice timer, heat 3-4 tablespoons of Coconut Oil in a wok or large skillet.
4. Place the veggies that take longer to cook (i.e. Broccoli, baby corn, carrots) in first and saute
5. After 3-5 minutes, place rest of your veggies in
6. Place 2-4 tablespoons to taste of Coconut Aminos (not as salty as Soy Sauce, so you may want to grind some Himalayan sea salt in for good measure)
7. Cover with foil or lid if a skillet and saute until all veggies are tender, stirring every 3-4 minutes.

I have still yet to 100% master this recipe, but every time I make it, it’s so damn good I keep trying.

The good news? It’s 2 ingredients: Mangos and Strawberries so it can’t taste bad.

The bad news? It’s nearly impossible to spread the mixture evenly in the pan to cook evenly throughout. Any tips you find along the way when you try at home please leave in the comments!

The edges for me are always perfection and awesome and the insides are still a soup, so I try to peel off the edges and continue cooking but it never works 🙂

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup strawberries (stems removed)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175F. That’s right and not a typo. Low temps
2. Line a cookie sheet with some parchment paper. (make sure the paper is cut perfectly into the cookie sheet so it doesn’t overlap onto the mixture – that will prevent it from cooking evenly)
3. Place all ingredients into food processor until mixture is fully pureed.
4. Pour onto cookie sheet and spread mixture evenly out with spatula (good luck)
5. Place in the oven and bake for 3-4 hours until the fruit leathers are dry to the touch and not sticky (again watch this – my outsides are always done at 3 hours but my insides need another hour)
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool down
7. Once cooled – if you aren’t consumed by the unrelenting desire to eat it all instantly, transfer onto a cutting board and cut into strips (keep it on the paper)
8. You can use extra parchment paper to roll these up so they don’t stick together

Voila! homemade, non high fructose corn syrup fruit leather!

So this isn’t so much of a recipe but a way to make traditional tacos healthier and migraine-friendly!

As I’ll discuss in upcoming posts about vitamin K, it’s super important to have grass-fed meat whenever possible. It’s always possible to find grass-fed beef at all major grocery stores – grass fed chicken or turkey is nearly IMpossible unless you go to a local co-op

Shell:

• Use gluten-free organic* corn tortillas. Heat up on skillet to soften

*Check the ingredients and make sure there are  no additives, chemicals, unnecessary goo. Just corn and maybe some sea salt or lime and filtered water. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean the companies don’t sometimes throw stupid stuff in.

*Also, make sure it’s ORGANIC non-gmo corn, so you aren’t stuffing yourself with cancer-causing glyphosate

Goodies:

• 1 lb of grass fed ground beef  –  make sure no hormones or antibiotics added
• Homemade taco seasoning – BE CAREFUL with McCormicks or other pre-packaged brands. Even though it’s gluten free, there are lots of gross additives – and McCormicks adds dairy (which I can’t have) and natural flavors – which we’ll get into later. Make your own! It’s fun and cheap and you are guaranteed to know what’s in it
• Organic tomatoes – limit consumption if on an auto-immune related diet
• Dairy free cheese – SAY WHAT? it’s hilarious – even the packaging says “it melts and stretches” because they know it’s weird. Heres the thing:
  1. Don’t eat a lot of it – it still has way too many ingredients that aren’t the best like Xantham Gum, Citric Acid, and Natural Flavors
  2. It doesn’t taste that good -but if you are still a fat kid inside like me and want the thrill, it’s worth a few shreds once a week
• Shredded swiss chard. Healthier than lettuce, a HUGE source of vitamin K, A, and C, and loaded with tons of antioxidants.
• If you want to be a little unhealthy, I put Herdez green salsa on top to satisfy my spicy crave. Just limit again if you are on any autoimmune watch as it’s loaded with all nightshades

Enjoy a healthy version of tacos!

*Superhero modification*

If you want to be super healthy and help your gut out, hide some cooked liver in with the ground beef to get your fat soluble vitamins. I’m not there yet, so I won’t judge if you don’t – but Liver is PACKED with vitamins and minerals. Has more in 1 serving than any other food out there. Richest source of Folate if you are or are trying to get pregnant, loaded with Iron, and has all B vitamins and A,D,E, and K if grass-fed.

If you are any bit alive, it’s nearly impossible to resist the pumpkin craze, which is why I was ECSTATIC when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and even MORE ECSTATIC when they didn’t suck.  In fact, I ate 10 of them in less than 48 hours, so I’d say they were pretty damn good.

I couldn’t find a donut form so I made muffins and they were just as good. I’m also allergic to almonds so I used Coconut flour, which just doesn’t rise the way you need it to. They still tasted delish but use Almond Flour if you can or be prepared that they will look weird.

Ingredients for donuts:

• 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil (always used cold pressed and unrefined – we’ll get into that later)
• 1/2 cup of pure maple syrup (1 ingredient pure stuff, not that Butterworth fake shit)
• 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tbs gluten free flour

Ingredients for yummy glaze:

• 1 cup of organic confectioner’s sugar
• 1 Tbs almond milk (i used coconut milk)
• 12 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray mini donut pan (or muffin tins) with baking spray and set aside.
3. In mixer, add all donut ingredients except GF flour and blend until just incorporated.
4. Then add in flour. Avoid over-mixing.
5. Spoon dough into each well.
6. I pat it down with my fingertips as best as you can and level off the bottom (this was especially important for the crappy flour substitute)
7. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Once cooled, remove and place on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet so you can dip or drizzle the glaze.
8. While the donuts are baking, whisk all of the glaze ingredients together and set aside. If too dry, add a splash more of the almond or coconut milk to thin it out.
9. When the donuts are cool to the touch either drizzle over each donut using a spoon or dip the tops into the glaze and place on the rack to dry.
10. Try not to eat 10 in 48 hours

Why am I eating Gluten and Dairy free? Read more about my new journey to being migraine-free and skinny!

Source: http://kneadtocook.com/baked-pumpkin-mini-donuts-vegan-gluten-free/ (thank you Jesus)

This was so good that I had to watch 4 episodes of Project Runway in a row while I digested enough to stand up 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 4 cups chopped spinach
• Coconut Oil
• Sea Salt and Pepper to Taste
• For Meatballs:
  • 1/2 pound grass fed beef
  • 1 tbsp coconut flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon each dried thyme, basil, and oregano
  • 1.5 Tbs coconut milk
  • pinch of sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Prepare spaghetti squash by cutting it in half lengthwise, removing the seeds, rubbing the inside of each half with a drizzle of melted coconut oil, then seasoning with salt and pepper. Place face down on a lined baking tray and place in the oven – cook for about 45 minutes or until soft. While the squash is baking, prepare the meatballs
3. In a medial sized bowl, dump all of the above meatball ingredients and mix thoroughly with hands
4. Scoop small balls of the mixture in hands and roll.  This will make 15 mini meatballs or 9 medium
5. Line up on a parchment lined sheet pan, and cook for about 12-15 minutes, or until cooked through
6. While squash and meatballs are cooking, saute spinach in skilled with 1 tbsp coconut oil and a pinch of sea salt until tender (once you are allowed to re-introduce tomatoes from the diet we’ll discuss, chopped tomatoes would also be an amazing thing to add in)
7. Remove squash from oven when it is cooked through. Using a fork, scrape out the insides, which will pull away from the shell in strands, like spaghetti (careful it will be very hot!) Place the strands in a bowl and toss in spinach and meatballs.
8. Serve and enjoy 🙂

Recipe modified from mynewroots.org

Just made this today, and my house smells like Christmas. Watch the last 2 steps because they were right! I substituted walnuts for almonds because I’m allergic to almonds and didn’t want to die, and it started to burn after only 1:15 in the oven. So yummy though! Wish I could enjoy it with some MILK or YOGURT!

Yield: 7 Cups – A metric fuckton of granola

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cubed fresh pineapple (approximately 1-inch cubes)
• 5 large Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
• 2 Tbs of 100% orange juice (NOT from concentrate)
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract (no sugar/corn syrup)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3 cups raw almonds (combination of roughly chopped, slivered, and sliced)
• 3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (or sub pepitas)
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Before you get your hands dirty, preheat the oven to 250 degrees with 2 racks evenly spaced. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a food processor or high-speed blender, add pineapple, chopped dates, orange juice, vanilla, and cinnamon. Process until everything is liquified. Now pour the melted coconut in and blend until smooth.
3. In a large bowl, combine almonds, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, and sea salt. Mix well. Spoon wet ingredients on top and mix well.
4. Divide the granola onto 2 lined baking sheets and spread into a single thin layer. Place the trays in the oven to cook for approximately 2 hours. Toss the granola about every 20 minutes and rotate the trays at the one hour mark. (*pay attention here. Mine started to burn after only 1 hour* Watch the granola like a hawk in the last half hour – it can go from golden brown to burnt in the blink of an eye. In the meantime, your house will smell awesome. You’ll want to eat the furniture.)
5. When the granola is golden-brown and hopefully you didn’t burn it, take the trays out of the oven and cool to room temperature
6. Pack your homemade granola in a sealed container. It will last for a couple of weeks (assuming you don’t demolish it first)

Recipe Source: http://www.http://nomnompaleo.com/