Healthy Battered and Fried Chicken Strips (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • gaps)

Who says fried chicken strips can't be healthy?

Cut up boneless Chicken Breasts into strips.  Season with Salt & Pepper.

Scramble up a few eggs.

Mix together 2 parts almond flour with 1 part coconut flour.
Add lots of herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Heat up some coconut oil in a pan.

Dredge your chicken strips in the flour mix, then in the eggs, 
then coat them again with the flour mix.
Fry them up to a crispy golden brown color.

Mmmmmmm.

Serve with homemade honey mustard sauce and some green beans 
(or whatever yummy veggie you would like).

Honey mustard is made with equal parts organic extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard and raw honey.

The kids go crazy for these.  Enjoy!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet, the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania and the Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.

Homemade Ranch Dressing (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

I use ranch dressing for alot of different things. Salads, veggie dip, on sandwiches and wraps. I am not, however, as much of a freak about it as my husband. It was a proud day when I finally came up with a ranch dressing recipe that he really liked and that could take the place of his beloved Hidden Valley. Since removing soy completely from my diet, Hiddan Valley Ranch (along with most every other bottle of commercial ranch) was not an option, as soybean oil is the #1 ingredient. Making your own isn't very difficult, and definitely worth the effort.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 cup homemade mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon dried chives
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes before serving. It's better if chilled overnight.

Steak Butter (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • gaps)

I love me some steak butter! The first time I ever had it, it was at one of our favorite steak restaurants served on top of filets. Then I used to always buy it at the meat market when we would would pick up steaks. After I realized I can make my own even better, I usually do. I make up a big batch and keep it in the fridge. Here's my quick, basic recipe.

Steak Butter

• 1/2 C (1 stick) Butter, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 tsp Minced Onion
• 1/4 tsp Paprika
• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
• 1/4 tsp Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl.

Move to a smaller dish with a lid and store in fridge for several hours before using.

Easy Peasy.

Cook up your steak and serve topped with the steak butter. Yum!
You could also use it to rub all over your steak before cooking it.
It's also delicious on bread.
Or licked right off of a spoon. Just kidding (sort of).

Anyone else make their own steak butter? Any recipe suggestions?

Also, if anyone is interested in learning more about fats and oils and what you should be cooking with and why, here is a really great article I found that really summed things up in an easy to understand way with references for more information.

The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils - What to Cook With (or not), What to Avoid and Why.

This is part of the Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter

Homemade Mayonnaise and Homemade Whey (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • gaps)

I wish I had figured out how to make homemade mayonnaise a long time ago. I started fooling around with it a couple of months ago after I finally gave up and realized that you just can’t buy commercial ranch dressing or mayo without it having soybean oil as the number one ingredient in most of them!! The ones I did find, had some other ingredients I didn’t want either. Now that I know how easy it is, I will never go back!

I tried a few recipes I found online, but wasn’t too impressed with the results. Then after I received my copy of the book Nourishing Traditions, I tried out the recipe in there. It was perfect for me as is, and I have had great results every time. I make a double batch at a time and use it as a base for other things as well, like ranch dressing and tarter sauce which have turned out really good too using this mayo. You can make all kinds of things with it. I also make whey, so the mayo will keep for several months. If you don’t use whey, it will last for about 2 weeks. I’ll tell you how to make whey at the end, it’s really easy too!

I gather all my ingredients, leaving out the oil, and put them in my Ninja. You should be able to use any food processor, but the ninja works really good. I may or may not rave about the ninja alot... but I seriously use it almost every day for all sorts of things. It has replaced a few other kitchen gadgets and works great for all kinds of things. It’s my favorite kitchen appliance by far. You can whip up guac in minutes or lots of other dips. I make smoothies, sauces.... I could go on and on.... oh how I love my ninja...

Also, alot of people put their ingredients in a smaller container and use an immersion blender, which supposedly works really well too. I’ve never tried it though, because I like making a double batch so I need more room to mix it up.



When making your own mayo, you HAVE to use good quality pastured eggs. These are going in your mayo raw and you will be eating it raw. It’s not safe to consume otherwise. If you can find a local farmer, then great (I can’t get any more till March), but there is one brand around my house, Vital Farms, that they sell at Whole Foods that is real pastured eggs. Plus I just love this company. They have taken good old fashioned egg producing to a large scale level without compromising their hens or food safety and making really good eggs available to more people in less rural areas. I think that’s awesome! Plus you can see and taste the difference. The yolks are so deep colored and vibrant. I only use these eggs for making mayonnaise or anything where they will be eaten raw, and for breakfast. I use regular organic, cage free eggs that I buy from costco for all of my other baking and cooking. I go through way too many eggs. The pastured eggs are more expensive and I am on a budget!



I blend all of the ingredients (aside from the oil) in the ninja till really well mixed up. Then, while the ninja is running, I flip open the little spout lid and I SLOWLY add in my sunflower oil with a dropper. The recipe calls for olive oil or sunflower or a combination of both. I actually used 3/4 C sunflower oil and 1/4 C olive oil. I have tried it with straight olive oil and the taste was way too strong for me. Joe wouldn’t even eat it. He was then upset there wasn’t any Hidden Valley in the house and said I ruined his salads! He has been much happier since I started using more of the sunflower oil. You have to add it really really slowly or it won’t stay together when you are done. I start out one drip at a time, then can start adding it faster as I go. This is what it looks like when I am all done.




Here’s the original recipe from Nourishing Traditions

Homemade Mayonnaise

• 1 whole egg, at room temperature
• 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon Dijon-type mustard (click her for GAPS friendly recipe)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon whey, optional
• 3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller pressed sunflower oil or a combination (I use 3/4 C sunflower oil and 1/4 C olive oil)
• generous pinch Sea Salt

Homemade mayonnaise imparts valuable enzymes, particularly lipase, to sandwiches, tuna salad, chicken salads and many other dishes and is very easy to make in a food processor. The addition of whey will help your mayonnaise last longer, adds enzymes and increases nutrient content. Use sunflower oil if you find that olive oil gives too strong a taste. Homemade mayonnaise will be slightly more liquid than sore-bought versions.

In your food processor, place egg, egg yolk, mustard, salt, honey and lemon juice and optional whey. Process until well blended, about 30 seconds. Using the attachment that allows you to add liquids drop by drop, add olive oil and/or sunflower oil with the motor running. Taste and check seasoning. You may want to add more salt and lemon juice. If you have added whey, let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With whey added, mayonnaise will keep several months and will become firmer with time. Without whey, mayonnaise will keep for about 2 weeks.

So there ya have it!!

And what do you do with those leftover egg whites? I put them individually in ice trays in the freezer and use them for other recipes that call for egg whites.

Homemade Whey

There are a few different ways to make whey. I have only made mine one way, so I will share that with you. I start with some really good whole milk yogurt. Look at the ingredients, try to find one with nothing in it except milk and cream. Even if it's organic, they still sometimes put some funky stuff in there. I use the Kalona Super Natural Brand whole milk yogurt (5%!). Its so good in smoothies too!

Speaking of the Kalona Super Natural Brand, if you can get your hands on their whole milk cottage cheese... wow! I was never a freak about cottage cheese until I had this stuff.

I bought some cheese cloth from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I dumped my yogurt into the cheese cloth and hung it above a bowl. I tie it to my wine glass rack under my kitchen cabinet. You could tie it to the handle of your kitchen cabinet door too. Mine don’t have any handles. It hangs there for about 24 hrs while all of the whey drips out of it into the bowl. Then I store the whey in a mason jar in the fridge for several months. I use it in my mayo, but I also add it to smoothies and other foods to add more nutritional value. You can also use it to make lots of other condiments to not only preserve their shelf life, but add nutrition. What’s left in the cheesecloth is cream cheese! You can use it however you want. I recently made an amazing cheese ball with it and took it to a party for an appetizer.