Recipes are tricky things.  I try to cover all the bases when I write up a recipe so that your results are the same as mine, but I know from watching others follow a recipe, that no two people will follow it exactly the same way, even if they mean to.  Please, if one of these recipes does not turn out for you, please e-mail me or leave a comment.  I’d like to see where my wording was off, help you with an ingredient tweak, or troubleshoot cooking temperatures.  Many of my recipes tolerate substitutions well, and I have tried many substitutions myself–so don’t be afraid to ask if honey will work in place of maple syrup, etc.  Also, people, in general, just have different expectations for a certain dish (for example, green bean casserole); I will do my best to explain to you what to expect of my recipe if you ask.  And if you make a change, I’d love to hear it so I could try it too!

BREAKFAST:

Waffles: Delicious!  “Mom, it tastes like dairy.”  Sad, but the standard of delicious in our home is based on wheat and dairy.  They can be frozen between layers of waxed paper and then popped in the toaster, slathered with almond butter, and taken out the door in a pinch!  Who needs Eggos?

Grain-Free Breakfast Ideas:  Thirty-one breakfast ideas pooled from across the web and my own kitchn.  The granola, oven pancake, and waffles are super.  Try them.

Petulant Pancakes:  Fast and easy to cook up.  The kids like them a lot!  Freeze between layers of parchment paper for later.

Tiger Nut “Cereal”: A unique starch to use over fruit to make an easy, different breakfast.

FAST AND/OR EASY MAIN DISH IDEAS:

Kid-Friendly Fast Meals:  Fourteen fast meals that please my kids.

Easy Boston Butt Pork Roast: This is super easy to prep and bakes low and slow in the oven while you run around doing other things.  My whole family, my parents and sister included, love this recipe.  It is a recipe, in my opinion, that can scale up or down in “class.”  (Meaning, it can be as fancy as you want or as casual.)  The cut of pork is usually quite economical.  Just be careful, if you buy a smaller roast, that you roast it for less time.

Easy Roast Chicken:  A delicious and easy chicken that really makes you look like you know how to cook.  And the kids eat it great!

Meat “Pizza”:  Use ground beef as a crust and top like your family’s favorite pizza.  A hit every single, doggone time at my house!  Without the carb crash an hour later!

Turkey Take Two:  A popular casserole recipe with my kids.  I like it because it’s so easy, savory, and comforting.  A friend of mine thinks this is a great recipe and used it to take to a new mom.  This can also be made with chicken.  (I used boiled breasts or a rotisserie chicken.)

Curried Chicken Salad:  The kids love this served on “lettuce” boats.  I like it on zucchini.  The main thing is, we ALL like it!

Honey-Lime Salmon with Mango Salsa:  A super way to get vitamin D and omega-3s into kids.  This dish just feels so “fresh” and bright.  Salmon is a fish all my kids eat.

The Best Ever Liver (for non liver lovers):  I call it “Mexican liver.”  It is surprisingly great for a liver recipe!  I got two of my kids to eat it this way!  That’s impressive to me!

Paprika Chicken:  Easy, delicious, and fast.  Kid-approved.  An easy “go-to.”

Simple Baked Cod:  An easy and nutritious preparation of fish that my kids will eat.

VEGETABLES:

Quick Dulse:  Dulse is a seaweed.  It is a good source of iodine because plain sea salt does not have enough for our needs.  This is a quick, no-frills way to make it.  It’s crunchy and salty.  My kids don’t eat it, but I think adventurous children might.

Balsamic Glazed Beets/Beet Salad:  My husband and I, it’s our favorite salad.  Kids don’t savor it much, but we love it, especially with salted almonds and raisins.

The Best Zucchini Ever:  Like a zucchini antipasti; recipe borrowed from my Romanian friend who arrived to America via Italy.  Zucchini is first grilled and then marinated.  Again, a bit mature maybe for young kids, but my husband and I think it’s awesome.

Multiple Ways to Use Zucchini:  Use it as a “cracker” for chicken salad.  Grill it.  And more.  Six zucchini ideas; check it out!

Grilled Vegetables:  A simple marinade and the grill will get you a great side dish.

Roasted Vegetables:  Don’t forget about this simple way to prepare vegetables.  They are delicious this way!  If I use kale and fresh parsley, my kids will stand by my plate (because heaven forbid they put cooked vegetables on their own plates) and pick out the crispy parsley and kale bits!  Same with whole basil leaves!

1-2-3 Collard Greens:  Delicious collard green recipe that isn’t soggy and salty.  My husband and I really like them a lot, especially knowing their nutrient density.  One of my three daughters likes them a lot too.  The others not so much.  I’ll keep trying and see if the others warm up to them after five or six times.

Brussel Sprouts Two Ways:  Roasted and with sausage.  We like them both very much.

Roasted Kale (Kale Chips):  Absolutely, positively a favorite of our whole family.  I really think if you make them several times, most everybody will come to like them A LOT.

Super Easy Fresh Swiss Chard:  My mom, dad, sister, and my youngest child really liked these greens a lot!  My youngest gets in on the action, by washing, drying, cutting, sprinkling, and oiling up the greens.  They are simple and fast to make.  They go well under a piece of grilled fish or steak.

Wilted Swiss Chard:  Like the wilted spinach salad with bacon dressing your mom, grandma, or favorite restaurant made.

Tomato Chips:  Dehydrated tomatoes turn out really great and crispy!  Think “chip” here!

Rutabaga Mash:  Kind of like mashed cauliflower.  Good substitute for mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes.  It’s easier on stomachs affected by FODMAP issues (leave out the garlic).

Steamed Artichokes:  Fun to eat together as a family.  I usually make them more as a snack or to go along with a light dinner.  They’re fun to eat but are quite a hands-on affair!  All of my kids like these a lot.  So do my husband and I.

Kohlrabi:  Assorted ways to serve up kohlrabi, a vegetable in the cabbage family.  Like a non-spicy radish.  Our whole family likes them eaten raw, but there are some great ways to cook it!

Green Bean Casserole:  This is a more work-intensive than many of my recipes and uses Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour.  But my family really likes it a lot.  The French fried onions on top are just about to-die-for.  I think the main difference between this recipe and the “standard” canned recipe is the green bean mixture doesn’t thicken as well as with wheat flour.

FRUITS:

Jicama, Pineapple, Lime, and Mint Salad:  Refreshing and light.  Fussy eaters may be hit or miss on this one.

Making Applesauce:  What’s safer than applesauce to a kid’s palate?

Dried Pears:  A great snack!

Cranberry Gelatin Salad:  Just like the one Grandma makes–without the red food dye that comes in Jell-O!

SNACKS:

Hemp Bars:  These are great little bars and a fun introduction to hemp.  I find them most tasty when refrigerated.

Preschool Snacks:  I made the snacks daily for my daughter’s Montessori preschool (2012-2013).  I took a whole foods approach and tried to minimize grains.  I firmly believe that nearly all kids get enough grain products outside of school.  I minimized refined sugar, dairy, artificial colors, and preservatives.  However, nothing was absolute, and if a parent brought in Nutella as their choice of “nutbutter”–then the kids would have Nutella on their celery that month.  I am full-GAPS, but my kids are GAPS with some treats.  For now.  As I make observations on their health and behaviour.

A-Z Snacks:  Snacking through the alphabet for the Montessori School!  For you GAPsters/SCDers who are on intro stages, I’m so sorry that many of these are out of reach right now.  We had Hindi and Jewish students in the Montessori class, so I tried not to do meat products (the finger Jello was an exception).  I’m sorry this site isn’t much help for intro snacks for those special diets.

See below under “SWEETS” also.

SOUPS:

Broth  It’s not hard!  And worth the flavor and health benefits.  A GAPS diet MUST.
Carrot Soup  A warming soup with ginger that my whole family eats well.  I like it because of the health benefits of the ginger, coriander, garlic, turmeric, and cinnamon.
Pease Porridge (Pea Soup)  We really like pea soup a lot at our house.  This is  a creamy soup, yet the peas provide a texture to it that is very nice.
White Chicken Chili  Great soup!  Very yummy, even if you leave out the beans.
One Pot Chili  Easy to throw together.  Tastes good!
Chunky Squash Chicken Soup  A safe soup.
Plain Broccoli Soup  Yummy if you like broccoli.  And we do!
Comforting Tomato Soup  The goal was a soup like Campbell’s that the kids would enjoy.  The kids all ate this very well.
Zuppa Toscana  A family favorite.  If you’ve ever eaten this soup at Olive Garden, you’ll know it’s good!

CONDIMENTS:

Egg-free Mayonnaise:  Avocado is used.  I used this successfully in broccoli salad and my curried chicken salad.  Also to top hamburgers.  The avocado does a great job standing up to EVOO, unlike eggs.  So I appreciated being able to use my EVOO for “mayonnaise.”  I could see also see jazzing this up for a dip or using it in a pea salad.  The avocado will darken a bit as it sits, so keep that in mind.

BBQ Sauce:  This is a good one.  It’s a sweetish, sticky sauce.  The recipe was handed down to me from my mom.  Make pulled pork in the crock pot with this and you can’t go wrong!

SWEETS:

Maple Pecan Pie:  The only sugar used is pure maple syrup.  I love the way the maple flavor enhances the pecans.

Super Easy Pinch Pie Crust:  This is at the bottom of the Maple Pecan Pie post.

Sweet Potato Casserole:  After my husband eats half the dish, there’s not much left for the rest of us!  This is sweet potato casserole, and nobody will miss the butter, milk, and bit of flour.  It is really delicious!

Carmel Apples  Using ghee and honey.  A fun recipe to make with the kids.  The apples can be dipped in carmel or the carmel can be put in a bowl for dipping.  Obviously it has a honey taste, but my kids really enjoyed them a lot.

Peanut Butter Treats  Here in this post we made them into “Ghosties” for Halloween.  But you could roll the dough out and make them into angels at Christmas or snowballs.  Or dip them into chocolate instead or coconut.

Apple-Stuffed, Baked Pumpkin:  My whole family really liked this fun-to-make dessert.  It is a pumpkin cut in half and stuffed.  A variation is to cut a hole in the top, hollow out, and stuff–to be baked as a whole pumpkin.  Regardless, it feels so decorative, and it is simply delicious.  If you can, a dallop of whip cream or ice cream would create Fall Bliss.  We will be making this again, probably a few more times this fall!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:  I can find no need to say more.  Grab the coffee and come on.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream:  With banana split toppings, it’s the real deal.  I make a heated chocolate sauce out of cocoa powder, honey, and a touch of coconut milk.  The ice cream is best when first made, as it gets a bit “icy” in the deep freeze.  It must be left out to thaw about 15 minutes (maybe more) if it has been frozen in the freezer.

Grilled Pineapple:  A sweet, easy treat to serve along side the grilled meats.  Our whole family loves it.

Whipped Chocolate Frosting Made With Lard (Dairy-Free, “Sugar”-Free, Egg-White Free): My husband liked this frosting a lot.  A good friend also liked it.  I just feel a bit guilty serving lard!

Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, “Sugar”-Free): These are absolutely the best.  I love this recipe!  Use it as cupcakes or cake!  If allowed to sit overnight, the cake/cupcakes will be so moist.  Absolutely delicious.  I really think you will like this recipe.  Recipe for a double-layer cake follows here below.

Chocolate Cake With a Honey Meringue Frosting and Chocolate Icing Between the Layers and Iced with Chocolate Frosting (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, GAPS legal)  I guess it has been awhile since I’ve had a wheat-flour cake, but this cake is so moist, thick, rich, and takes care of any dietary longings.  It is the only cake I want now.

Lemon Bars (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, GAPS legal) My kids ate about half the 9X13 pan for breakfast one morning.  I know.  Atypical.  Really.  Gotta’ believe me.  Usually it’s eggs and toast.  Kidding.  No toast.  These are yummy.  Sweet-tart.

Pumpkin Good-Enough (Gluten-Free, Dairy Free, Nut-Free, Egg-White Free): A simple, yet fulfilling, pumpkin dessert.  Will not win awards, but if you are on an elimination diet, GAPS, or SCD, it will serve a purpose.  I like it fine.

Drinks

Kombucha:  I used a store -bought  bottle for a starter.