Eatingforbalance.com — Update your Blog Readers!!

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

I spent most of my weekend setting up a new self-hosted blog and being quite frustrated. While I still haven’t figured everything out, I have got enough set up to link to my new site: Eatingforbalance.com

Overall the pages are still the same, it’s just the interface (widgets, plugins, commenting system, subscriptions, etc.) that need to be worked out.

I will be setting up a redirect soon so that when you type in eating4balance.wordpress.com you will bea uotmaticlaly taken to my new blog. Yuo will still need to update the web address that you have in your Bloglovin, WordPress readers, e-mail subscriptions, blogrolls, etc. This is all new to me so I will update you as I go with what I learn.

Happy Sunday!

Madison

Food for the… #4

It’s so weird, but a craving for a peanut butter sandwich just hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t even looking at food photos (like I usually am), and all of the sudden I just wanted to bite into the simple crust of the bread and taste the thick but smooth peanut butter on my tongue.

Does that ever happen to anyone else? Out of nowhere you know exactly what you want to eat?

It occurs off and on with. Once, just randomly, the idea of a cold glass of almond milk popped into my head. And another time all I wanted was a strawberry Nutri-Grain bar.

I think most would call that intuitive eating signals? Unfortunately for me I crave food that I can’t eat, so they often go unsatisfied. Why can’t I crave fish and zucchini? That would nice, thanks.

So, what do I do instead? I pin, I read, I create (recipes and blog posts). I take a bite of chicken or squash, hoping to squelch the peanut butter sandwich from my mind. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But at the end of the day, I have a nice list of wonderful links from throughout the week.

Then come Fridays, I get to share them with all of you!

FOOD FOR THE MIND

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FOOD FOR THE BELLY

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FOOD FOR THE EYES

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FOOD FOR THE SOUL

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FOOD FOR THE BODY

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Now, I must get ready for bed as I am absolutely exhausted! This morning I volunteered to help with registration at a DECA event my college was sponsoring. I had to get up about an hour and a half earlier than usual and I can definitely tell. I just had zero energy throughout the entire day.

I am going to try my best to get a lot of rest this weekend, and you should do the same!

P.S. Don’t forget to join in on the Happy Herbivore giveaway before it ends Sunday night.

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Happy Friday. 🙂

What is your weekly Food for the… Mind, Belly, Eyes, and Soul?

Let’s Get it Pinning in Here

Let’s Get It Pinning in here…

And the base keep pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and
pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and pinnin’ pinnin’, and…

Are you ready to get started with The Lean Green Bean’s next Pin It Party? Yah!!!!!

Are you now currently humming along to the Black Eyed Peas song? Yaaaahhhhh….. No.

Get your head out of the music and refocus, because right now it’s all about Pinterest. There’s no time for Fergie today.

Pin It Party

Everyone is welcome to participate and the rules are simple:

  • Round up 5 blog posts you’ve written that you would like to see on Pinterest.
  • Make sure there is a nice, pinnable image or photo included in each post.
  • Write a short post featuring the posts you chose- ie, put 5 nice images & links to the posts all in one place, along with a short description of each post.
  • On Thursday, publish your post, then visit The Bean and add your post to the linkup!

Below I have gathered my 5 posts that I would love to be pinned, and to further excite things, I have also included some more items of Pinterest “interest” (ha! 😉 ) towards the end that I think my fellow pinners may love as well.

Grain-Free Banana Scones

Grain-Free Banana Scones – This is my most recent recipe here on Eating 4 Balance. The scones are naturally sweetened with honey and bananas, and topped with a deliciously simple almond butter glaze (nut-free and vegan substitutions listed).

Basic Paleo Pancakes

Basic Paleo Pancakes– These are my fluffiest grain-free pancakes to date. Like most of my recipes, they are very allergy-friendly, and being made from neutral flours they would be wonderful with a variety of toppings.

Microwave Cinnamon Rolls (Paleo and Vegan)

Microwave Cinnamon Rolls– In case you are new to my blog, you should know that the only thing that rivals my passion for pancake recipes is my love for cinnamon rolls. This cinnamon roll recipe in particular is great because it can be made in just a few short minutes and has a serving size of two. It’s perfect for a quick morning breakfast.


Easy Apple Pancakes (Gluten-Free)

Easy Apple Cinnamon Pancakes – Like I said, I love pancakes. With a combination of apples, nut flour, yogurt and eggs these are a are a great hearty (and healthy) way to start your day.

Catching Fire: Recipe Round-Up

Catching Fire Recipe Round-Up – This may be one of my most time intensive posts ever (except for my 12 Days of Allergy-Friendly Christmases). In honor of the release of Catching Fire I went through the book, found all mentions of food, and then proceeded to match up a majority of them with recipes that I have found around the blog world. If you are a Hunger Games fan, you don’t want to miss this post. It would be a great resource for a party when Catching Fire is released on DVD!

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Of course, a pinner is nothing without the amazing pinners that she/he follows. Below are just a couple of my favorite boards on Pinterest. They range from style to funnies to Disney stuff to gorgeous scenery… and then of course there are the food boards. Most recipe boards I follow are just for “pinspiration” but there are a few allergy-friendly ones in there as well.

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I hope you’ve found some delicious recipes to pin and interesting new boards to follow! My pinterest account is here if you’d like an awesome daily slew of puppy chow recipes, obsessive Harry Potter memes, and a constant influx of allergy-friendly recipes.

If you have a Pinterest board that you think I’d like to follow (it can be yours of course!) let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for someone new. Pinterest is one addiction I’m not sure I will ever break 😉

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NEVER!!!

Grain-Free Banana Scones

Are you looking for something delicious to make on Super Bowl Sunday? Too bad. You will find no such recipe here today.

In the past I’ve pretended to like watching football because that seemed to be the best way to stay in someone’s favor. Then I realized that if someone thinks you like football, they actually expect you to know something about football! Who would have thought?

So needless to say, football is not going to be a featured topic on the blog anytime soon.

But wait! I still come bearing food so don’t leave yet!

Grain-Free Banana Scones

These scones were made because I wanted to photograph something non-circular in shape. No joke. Most of my recipes are round (*cough cough* pancakes *cough cough*), which are a ton of fun to take pictures of… But, sometimes you just want to mix it up and explore other geometric figure possibilities.

That left me with squares, rectangles, or triangles. I guess I could have gone for figures with 5 or 6 sides, but that would just be ridiculous. Who wants to deal with cutting all of those edges?

Better yet, who even cares whether their food is round or triangular? Um, that would be me. 😯

And guess what I just realized?! These are both round (before cutting) AND triangular (after cutting) so they’re twice as good. They’re doing a double team! (Yes, I did have to look up that football reference. Like I said, NO football knowledge here 😉 ).

Oh, and in case you were curious, these triangles are entirely grain-free, sweetened naturally with honey and banana, and have one of the easiest “icings” in the world made from just three ingredients. They do contain eggs, nuts and starch (from baking powder and tapioca), but if you can’t have any (or all) of those ingredients, I have formed one of my longest substitution lists to date. Having limited food choices myself, I hate thinking that someone would have to miss out on these scones  just because of one measly ingredient.

Let’s dive in…

Grain-Free Banana Scones

Grain/Gluten/Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut/Starch/Sugar-Free Options, Paleo-Friendly, GAPS Option

Makes 8 scones

Grain-Free Banana Scones

Scone ingredients:

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Icing ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp almond butter (I used salted)
  • 2 tbsp softened coconut oil
  • 2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. To make this quick and easy, add the wet ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Then add the dry ingredients and mix until they are fully incorporated. Another alternative would be to mash the wet ingredients together in a bowl and then add the dry ingredients until completely mixed.
  3. Whatever method you choose, let it sit for a few minutes to let the coconut flour soak up in the dough. It should be thick but still somewhat wet.
  4. Next take the dough and roughly form it into a ball, placing it in the center of the parchment paper (Now, it’s going to be somewhat sticky but it’s all in the name of delicious food, right?!). Wet your hands with water and form the dough into a circle about 8-10 inches in diameter.
  5. Bake for 10 minutes and then score into eight slices (normally you would do this before baking, but the dough is too wet). Put the baking sheet back into the oven again and bake for another 8-12 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
  6. Remove the scones and let them cool for five minutes. Meanwhile combine all of the icing ingredients and once the scones are cool use a spoon to drizzle. If needed use a knife to further separate the scones and then enjoy!

*Substitution notes:

  • To make these nut-free replace the almond flour/butter with a seed alternative like sunflower or pumpkin.
  • To make these vegan you can use maple syrup instead of the honey, and a flax egg would probably work in place of the egg, although I cannot guarantee the results.
  • If you absolutely cannot get a hold/eat coconut flour, my suggestion would be to replace it with 1 cup of almond flour, and remove one of the bananas (and possibly even the egg- check the batter first for consistency and see how it holds together).
  • To make this sugar-free, replace the honey with 4 tablespoons of date puree or mashed banana, and add stevia to taste if desired.
  • If you cannot handle starch you can replace the tapioca flour with a few additional tablespoons of coconut flour and use 1 teaspoon of baking soda instead of the baking powder (this will result in a less fluffy scone though).

Grain-Free Banana Scones

Just in case you really do desperately need a dish for game day, I do happen to have one very scrumptious gluten-free and dairy-free recipe for Chili, Chips, and Cheeze. If those three words don’t scream sports food I must know even less about the sport than I had previously thought.

My opinion is that you should make up a plate of the Chili, Chips and Cheeze for dinner. Then make these scones and go to town. No one would be the wiser that either are healthy and you could easily sit down to large plates of both not feeling deprived in the slightest. So go, make haste to the grocery store and pick up everything you need to make these two marvelous dishes!

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I’m linking this post up with Jenn at Peas and Crayons today. Make sure to check it out for even more WIAW posts!

P.S. Don’t forget about the giveaway going on now!

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Questions for you:

  • Do you like watching football? Who do you want to win?
  • What is your favorite thing to make on game day?
  • Think back to some of your most recent posts… What is the shape of most of your recipes?