Christina Najjar

Coconut Popsicles (paleo, vegan)

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One of my dear friends recently moved a few hours away. We talk food a lot, and she gives me all kinds of recipe suggestions and requests to post on here. Her list of dietary restrictions is worse than mine, but includes most of my dietary restrictions.  Her latest request was for popsicles. She’s a big fan of coconut, so I went for straight-up coconut popsicles this time. If you’re wondering what I mean by “straight-up coconut”, check out this recipe for raspberry cream popsicles I posted last year. It’s a coconut based recipe, but the popsicles aren’t coconut flavoured.

Homemade coconut popsicles

Last week, I mentioned that it was finally warming up in Canada. I know it’s technically still only Spring, but one never knows how long to expect the nice weather to last. We didn’t really get much of a summer last year, and then Winter was exceptionally long. For this reason, I’m jumping right into Summer-mode, lest Summer be over in the blink of an eye.

So, Nic, this one’s for you. And for anyone who enjoys coconut, summer, popsicles, or any combination of those.

Coconut Popsicles

Ingredients
1 can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut shreds

Directions
Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it upside down and open it. That way, the thicker part of the coconut milk will be at the bottom and the liquid qill be at the top. Drain the liquid, or save it for something else (try adding it to smoothies).

Scoop out the fatty part of the coconut milk into a bowl. Mix all ingredients well and pour into popsicle moulds. Freeze for at least 4-6 hours (depending on your freezer).

Makes about 3 popsicles (depending on the moulds you use) so multiply as needed.

Chocolate Pudding (vegan, paleo, sugar free)

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Well, friends, it is finally starting to look like spring in Canada. It sure took Mother Nature long enough! It’s just about popsicle season! Speaking of popsicles, last year, I was planning to post a chocolate popsicle recipe. There was a little problem with my freezer at the time, though. The popsicles I made kept the consistency of pudding. So, I ate some very cold chocolate pudding. I did end up figuring out how to adjust the settings on my freezer so that it froze properly, and made raspberry cream popsicles a few weeks later.

Homemade chocolate Pudding

Avocado-based chocolate pudding is nothing new in the vegan and food sensitivities world. However, I find that most recipes complicate things by adding ingredients that don’t need to be in the pudding. For example, milk (cow’s or non-dairy) will do nothing but water down the perfect creaminess of the avocado. I also find that adding vanilla extract takes away from the richness of the cocoa, rather than complementing it. So, I like to keep my chocolate pudding recipe nice and simple. Let’s say it becomes a “dark chocolate pudding”.

P.S. If you want to make this into popsicles, all you need to do is place the mixture into popsicle moulds. It works well, provided that your freezer is actually functional.

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients
1 large ripe avocado
1 tbsp cocoa powder or raw cacao
Maple syrup to taste (a couple tablespoons should do)

Directions
With a large spoon, scoop the avocado out of its skin. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Put it into function until you have pudding. Eat the pudding. That was complicated, wasn’t it?

If you want to turn it into chocolate mint pudding, add a splash of peppermint extract.

Makes only 1 serving, so multiply as needed.

Comfort Food Chicken and Veggies (paleo)

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This comfort food chicken meal is the kind of dish I make when I don’t feel like making anything fancy. Those who have tried it rave about how good it is, though.  What’s great about it is that it’s a one pot meal. You can leave it on the stove and come back and check on it every 10-15 minutes to make sure it hasn’t caught fire.

Comfort food chicken and veggies

In other news, I finished my exams for the semester today. This means that I have two consecutive compressed courses left, and then I will have completed my undergrad. It’s taken me extra long to complete this degree, so it definitely feels like a relief to be getting to the end of it, finally.

Comfort Food Chicken and Veggies (paleo)

Ingredients
4-6 bone-in, skin on chicken legs/backs/thighs/breasts (choose your favourite)
2 large carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cups butternut squash cubes
1/2-1 cup green beans
1 cup button mushrooms
1 small or medium onion, cut in half and sliced
1/4-1/3 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp oil

Directions
In a large “cooker” (like a deeper frying pan with a lid), heat the oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken. Place skin down into the cooker and brown for about 5 minutes, then flip it over and brown for another few minutes. Add in the butternut squash, carrots, broth and about half of the rosemary. Salt and pepper some more. Lower heat to medium high and cover for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. You can add a bit more salt and pepper. Make sure that there is still a bit of broth in the cooker. If not, add just a bit more. It will make the chicken nice and tender, and will give you a nice gravy-like sauce at the end. Cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Apple Crumble (vegan, paleo, white sugar free)

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A while back, I posted this recipe for apple crumble. It was a bit of an experiment that gave me some interesting results. It’s a good breakfast crumble, but it’s not something I would make for dessert on a regular basis.

When I make apple crumble for others, I make a different recipe. After making this recipe for some dinners and being asked for the recipe a few times, I decided to share the recipe here. The crumble portion is a little less crunchy than in most recipes. This one has a blend of different textures.

Apple crumble (paleo)

As with most things I cook or bake, I have a tendency to simply add ingredients until the mix looks right, rather than measuring them. This time, I made the effort to measure them so that I could share the recipe. I recommend making this for guests when you’re unsure about what to make for dessert. It’s easy and allergy friendly (aside from nuts), and accommodates all kinds of different dietary choices.

Apple Crumble (vegan, paleo, refined sugar free)

Ingredients
2 apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp almond meal
2 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, split into 1/2 teaspoons

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Place the chopped apples in an even layer in a baking pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon over the apples and toss around until the apples are evenly coated.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl. Try to spread the mix evenly over the apples and bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 2 servings, so multiply as needed.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries With Curry Sauce

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I’ve always disliked anything sweet potato. I felt that they were a cross between carrots and potatoes, and that they couldn’t make up their mind about what they wanted to be. The only sweet potatoes I enjoyed were my stepsister’s husband’s curry mashed sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato fries with dip

Then, recently, I started making my own sweet potato fries. For a few weeks, I was making them almost everyday. They’re a pain in the butt to cut, but hey, they’re tasty. The trick is to make them a bit spicy. Not so much that your mouth burns, but just enough to add a bit of a kick. For that reason, my measurements for the spices for the fries will be vague. Add the seasoning as you like it.

As a side note, this morning, I was having a conversation about remembering things I’m grateful for. I am grateful for many things, though I did want to mention one thing. I am grateful for you folks. Everyone who reads, shares, and/or comments on my posts. You all keep me going!

Sweet potato fries with dip

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries With Curry Dipping Sauce (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients

For the fries:
1 sweet potato
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Black pepper to taste – go generous

For the dipping sauce:
2 tbsp full fat coconut milk, refrigerated
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp each: cumin, minced fresh ginger, ground cardamom, garlic salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut the potatoes into fries and season them. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or adjust time if you cut your fries a different size from the picture. Take them out halfway through to flip/toss them.

In the meantime, prepare the curry sauce. Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it over and open it from the bottom. The thick stuff will be sitting right at the top that way. Scoop up the needed amount and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Curry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (vegan, paleo)

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If you need to know anything about my cooking, it’s that I like to curry everything. I especially love to curry things that you wouldn’t expect to see curried. It’s my chance to be creative and make something “new”. Since I’ve never had curried pumpkin seeds, I thought this would be an awesome thing to experiment with.

Curry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I’ve been so busy lately that Halloween snuck up on me. Every year, I get really excited about Halloween, I plan my costume way ahead of time, and I make sure to have a pumpkin carving date with my friend Sylvie. On Sunday last week, I realised that it was the week before Halloween and that I hadn’t planned anything Halloween-y. So, my friend came over on the Tuesday for pumpkin carving. She turned hers into an alien.

The store didn’t have any smaller pumpkins, and I wasn’t going to dig a knife through pumpkin flesh two inches thick, so I decided to etch my design. Little problem… I don’t have the tools for it. In the end, I used a flat screwdriver. I had to figure out a way to get creative, right? This is how it turned out:

Carved pumpkin (roast the seeds with curry for a healthy snack!)

I was really tired by the end of decorating my pumpkin. This doesn’t look very difficult to do, but without the right tools, it’s exhausting. Anyway, I got two pumpkins’ worth of seeds, so I roasted them and coated them with curry spice.

Curry Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients
2 larger pumpkins’ worth of seeds*
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp each: garlic salt, cumin powder, turmeric
1/4 tsp each: onion powder, ground coriander

*If you use one pumpkin, the flavour will be stronger but just as good – or you can cut the recipe by half.

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F.

Rinse the seeds really well. There should be no pumpkin strands left on the seeds. Drain them and dry them off a bit. They don’t need to be completely dry. The oven will take care of that for you. Blend the spices in a little bowl and then add to the pumpkin seeds. I did this directly on the baking sheet and mixed it all with my hands.

Then, lay the seeds out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 20 minutes, give or take a couple of minutes. Watch them near the end to make sure they don’t burn. Remove them when they’re done to your liking.

Coconut Butter/Topping (vegan, paleo, sugar free)

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After reading the title of this post, you may be wondering what exactly coconut topping is. The answer is simple: it’s homemade coconut butter made in a place where summer doesn’t exist. I’m being a tad dramatic. We did get summer here, but it was very short-lived. And now, while it’s still summer on the calendar, you can expect to freeze your buns off.

Anyway, weather rant aside, the cold has reduced the temperatures inside our homes to below the melting point of coconut oil. When I first made coconut butter, it was summer and it was a lot more spreadable. So, if you live in a nice warm climate and you have no A/C, your coconut “topping” may look different from mine.

You don’t absolutely need a high-powered blender to make this. I used my low quality blender, but it takes a lot longer because you have to take breaks to not burn the motor out. However, to make up for the complicated equipment situation, the recipe only contains 2 ingredients.

Coconut butter is a fantastic supplement of healthy fats. Many hormonal conditions, like PMS, PCOS, adrenal fatigue, and thyroid issues benefit from increasing healthy fat consumption.

Coconut Butter/topping

Coconut Butter/Topping (vegan, paleo, sugar free)

Ingredients
6 cup small coconut shavings (unsweetened)
About 2 tbsp melted coconut oil.

Directions
In the blender, add 1/2 cup of coconut shavings at a time and blend until you start to see some oil. If your blender gets stuck, try stopping it and stirring the coconut shavings. They can get compacted under the blade. Whenever that’s not enough to get the blender moving again, add a drop of coconut oil to help it move. Continue that way until you’ve cleared all six cup of coconut shavings and they’ve been blended to your liking.

Store the coconut butter in an airtight container in a cool dark place.

Improvised Zucchini Con Aglio et Olio (vegan, paleo)

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Interesting vegetables: zucchini con aglio et olio

What do you do if you have a craving for something, but you’re missing pretty much all the ingredients? You improvise! Okay, maybe I improvise. Other people who are feeling less lazy may take a trip to the store. It’s not that the grocery store is so far. There are three grocery stores within a ten minute walk from here. I’m working an evening shift tonight and I want to sit on my bum until it’s time to go.

So I was craving spaghetti con aglio et olio today. That’s pasta with garlic and oil. It’s typically made by browning the garlic and a bit of crushed red pepper, then adding some cooked pasta with EVOO, and topping it all off with some fresh parsley. Out of all of these ingredients, what I did have on hand was the garlic and the EVOO, so I took matters into my own hands.

In an attempt to lower my carb consumption, I haven’t been buying much pasta. Since I’m not on a paleo diet, I do eat whole grains, but I can’t help but feel suspicious about brown rice that cooks in eight minutes. That’s not to say that I would refuse to eat brown rice pasta in an event that calls for actual noodles, but if I can opt for something more natural, I’ll do just that. Luckily, I had organic zucchini on hand. I used cayenne pepper instead of crushed red pepper, and dehydrated parsley flakes instead of the fresh alternative.

Improvised Zucchini Con Aglio et Olio (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients
2 zucchinis
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dehydrated parsley flakes
A bit of oil for frying

Directions
Using a mandoline or a ton of patience, julienne the zucchinis into strips no thinner than 1/8 inch.

Heat a bit of oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic. Toss around until it becomes nice and brown. Add in cayenne pepper and toss for another 30 seconds. Throw in the julienned zucchini and the olive oil. Cook for another minute or two, just enough to soften the zucchini a bit without making it turn mushy. Add in the parlsey flakes and toss to spread evenly. Turn off the heat and serve.

Makes 1 serving

Chai Spice Cookies – updated (vegan, paleo, sugar free)

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UPDATE – 10/13/15 – After a few people commented that these chai spice cookies flattened out completely for them and after experiencing that myself, I edited the recipe. I also decided to include a starch free version using xylitol.

I started making these fantastic little chai spice cookies a year or two before posting the original version of this recipe on my food blog. Then, when I found out that I was going to be working in a wellness clinic where many people with Lyme disease come through, I decided to make a Lyme-friendly version of this recipe.

Chai spice cookies

Chai Spice Cookies – updated (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients
2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup tapioca starch (or arrowroot starch)
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup coconut oil (in solid form)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in the oil, maple syrup, and vanilla until completely blended.

Drop the cookie dough on a cookie sheet. These cookies won’t flatten a whole lot when baking, so make sure to press down the top a bit.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. These cookies will not look golden when they’re done. Makes two dozens.

Chai Spice Cookies (vegan, low carb, sugar free)

Ingredients
2 cups almond meal
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup xylitol
1/4 cup coconut oil (in solid form)
1 1/2 tbsp dairy free milk alternative
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in the oil, dairy free milk, and vanilla until completely blended.

Drop the cookie dough on a cookie sheet. These cookies won’t flatten a whole lot when baking, so make sure to press down the top a bit.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. These cookies will not look golden when they’re done. Makes about 20 cookies.

Note: xylitol can cause bowel sensitivity. If you don’t regularly consume xylitol, eat sparingly to avoid being glued to the toilet or having unpleasant bloating.

Make Your Own Coconut Milk (paleo, vegan, sugar free)

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If, like me, you go through tons of coconut milk, it may be advantageous for you to start making your own. First of all, it’s more economical. I can make it for $1 (or less) using coconut shavings, or I can buy it for $3.29 in Ottawa. Additionally, making your own is healthier. You get to control what goes into your milk; no weird binding agents or preservatives.

I’ve also been trying to be more conscious of reducing my waste. I could easily go through 2 tetra packs of coconut milk per week. That waste accumulates really quickly! I would much rather use and reuse my mason jars.

Coconut milk you can make at home

Make Your Own Coconut Milk (paleo, vegan, sugar free)

What you need
1 cup shredded coconut
3 cups boiling water
Blender
4 cup (1L) mason jar
Funnel
Fine mesh strainer or nut milk bag

What you do
Combine the boiling water and the shredded coconut in the blender. LET IT COOL DOWN. I didn’t wait, and I ended up burning myself. Because of the higher temperature, more pressure is required on the blender lid to stop it from overflowing. Avoid accidents by letting it cool down.

Once cooled down, blend for a few minutes. You won’t be able to get rid of all the coconut pieces so blend it until it’s to your desired thickness. Then, if you’re using a strainer, place your funnel in the jar mouth and the strainer on top of the funnel, and pour the coconut milk. If you’re using the nut milk bag, place it in a bowl and pour the coconut through the bag.

You can add a bit of vanilla and a liquid sweetener for taste, but it’s not necessary, if you want to skip that step.

Refrigerate for up to 5 days. A solid block of fat will form at the top. This can be blended in smoothies or heated to melt.

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Christina Najjar - Natural Nutrition

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