The Ever Elusive "Paleo Raspberry Crepe"

Funny thing... as i'm sitting here just spoiling myself on these paleo raspberry crepes, watching the snow fall outside, it occurs to me that we've entered into a kind of symbiotic relationship ;-) You all tune in now and then for PZ recipes and I eat like a king (umm... i meant caveman) in my effort to post recipes that are worthy - thank you. This blog turned into more than i thought it ever would. Well anyway, my daughter really enjoys crepes and we've been trying for some time to re-invent them using paleo ingredients - we nearly gave up. They were always kinda crumbly thanks to almond flour that i kept adding. Then i saw a recipe at www.freecoconutrecipes.com. I had to nix the whipped cream (darnit) and I made some other minor tweaks but dang if these aren't some darn good crepes! I can't tell them from the "real" thing. I hadn't heard of coconut flour until a few months ago - it's weird. Don't think you're just gonna substitute it for regular flour and be on your merry way - I think you could patch concrete with this stuff. But, use just a little, and it works magic. Here's that recipe. Fancy breakfast lovers shalt suffer no more....




Paleo Crepes (enough for 3 crepes)

2 eggs 10F 14P
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil - melted - 28F
1 Tsp Agave 5C (kinda optional)
2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour - sifted - 12C 2F (can get at Whole Foods)
3 Tablespoons Coconut Milk - 7F 3C
2 Tablespoons Water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1 Cup raspberries 15C (filling)
1.5 Tablespoons Agave 22C (topping)

Beat the eggs and the rest of the ingredients together. I don't have a sifter so i just put the coconut flour in a little wire gizmo ...... little embarrassed that i even have one of those ;-)
Melt the coconut oil in a nice non-stick pan and, after it's just melted, add it to the ingredients and mix well.
Pour 1/3 Cup of the batter into the hot pan and tilt the pan around so you get about a 6" diameter crepe. Now the hard part - flipping it. Honestly, i stopped trying to use a spatula. I shake the pan around a bit and just wrist flip it. This is very convenient if you're on a 2X or 3X fat plan cuz you get to eat your mistakes ;-) Wrap up 1/3 C of raspberries, sprinkle some coconut flour on top (this is for "looks"), and drizzle with 1/2 Tablespoon agave. Prepare to be impressed! ;-)

This is not quite balanced of course. For me, shooting for a 5 block breakfast, I added 4 oz banana and 9 egg whites to ONE of the crepes above. Believe it or not, this meal is 30:40:30 balanced (I know, hard to believe U can say that and "crepes" in the same breath!)

... now a little off-topic jibberish....on the importance of weighing your food. Recently I noticed i was feeling hungry a lot during the day and was having a hard time waiting for my meals (I try to eat one lunch at 10:00 and one at 2:00. Then i took a close look at my lunch and, SOB!, I was short-changing myself! Traditionally, I've kinda focused on protein and seldom short change myself there. Fats and carbs though, well they're bad right? ;-) I was getting skimpy on both. I got out the scale and started weighing again - now I feel better and can put the scale back for a bit. So, even if you went through the 2 weeks or 4 weeks of measuring your food, break out that scale now and then to make sure your eyeball hasn't gotten a little tweaked. Cuz, if you're doing straight PZ, relative to most people, you're on a low fat, low carb eating plan. Any lower, is not optimum, IMHO.

Eat Well! Steve "Paleo"