Paleo Chicken and Waffles

Straight out of Harlem.

For some reason, people think chicken and waffles is a southern thing. Being from the south, I thought maybe I just wasn't paying attention when I was a kid, because I had never once seen anyone eat chicken and waffles together. In fact, I don't think I'd even heard of the idea until I moved north from South Carolina to Virginia. It turns out that my powers of perception weren't completely turned off in this case. The idea of combining fried chicken and waffles actually comes from Harlem, and originated during the Jazz Age at a restaurant called Wells'. The confusion about it being southern food is understandable, given the metric tonnage of fried chicken that I've eaten in my lifetime, just never with waffles.

Paleo fried chicken isn't really that hard to figure out. You just replace the thick, grain-based breading with a very light dredging of arrowroot powder and fry the chicken in a decent kind of oil. I don't personally have any lard (yet), but if you have some, this is a good time to get it out. You can also use coconut oil or any other neutral oil. Just don't fry with something that's loaded with trans fats, and everything will be OK. (Protip: the secret word signalling trans fats is "hydrogenated." Look on the nutrition label.)

Waffles are a trickier proposition. They're a bread product, so you're going to have to get out some serious paleo substitution voodoo to make them happen without grains. Thankfully, the Internet knows everything, so I was able to find a good paleo waffle recipe at a site called My Primal Kitchen. They're primal over there, not paleo, but there's a lot of overlap. This recipe is both. Also, I used their ingredient list, but changed up the technique, because the original steps require you to dirty more bowls than strictly necessary, and I like to avoid that.

I start to worry that a recipe is over-complicated if the ingredients don't fit on my cutting board.
I guess this one just made it.

Ingredients

For the waffles
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
large pinch of cinnamon
6 eggs
2 tsp honey
2 tbsp coconut oil (plus a little for the waffle iron)
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the chicken
4 chicken breasts
arrowroot powder (enough to lightly coat the chicken. 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
salt
pepper
smoked paprika (optional)
oil for frying


Equipment

Large Bowl
Whisk
Waffle Iron
Pan
Draining Rig

Start with the waffles. In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk them together to combine the ingredients, and try to whisk out as many clumps as you can.

My coconut flour always has little clumps in it. You can see some of them in the picture.
Try to get most of those out, but you'll probably have a few small ones no matter what.
They'll get taken care of when you add the wet ingredients.

Add the eggs to the bowl and mix them into the dry ingredients.

Stupid broken yolk, ruining my picture...

Put the coconut oil and honey into a microwave safe dish and heat them for about 30 seconds, until the coconut oil is liquid.

This stuff mixes in much easier when it's liquid.

Add the coconut oil, honey, and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix everything well. Let the batter sit for a few minutes while you turn on your waffle iron and let it get hot. When the waffle iron is ready (mine has a little light that comes on) pour about about half of the batter (about 1 cup) onto the center of the waffle iron and close the lid.

The batter won't go all the way to the edges. That's good, because the lid squishes everything outward when you close it. If you load up the iron completely, you're probably just going to throw away your waffle iron and buy a new one rather than clean up the disgusting mess that results.

Cook the waffles until the waffle iron indicates that they're done (mine uses the little light). Remove the waffles from the iron and set them aside. Cook the second half of the batter just like the first.

The chicken only has a few steps. First, season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. If you've got it, also shake on some smoked paprika. You don't have to use the paprika, but it's really good.

I forgot to take a picture of the seasoned chicken until it was about to be breaded.
I think you still get the point.

Put your arrowroot powder on a plate. Put the chicken on top of the arrowroot powder, and turn it over to cover both sides of the meat. Shake off any excess, so that you have a very light coating. Do this for all of the chicken breasts.

You only want a light dusting to stick to the chicken. Otherwise the breading will mix with the oil and make disgusting oil-and-arrowroot dumplings all over your chicken.

Add enough oil to a pan to come about halfway up the side of a chicken breast. Heat your oil up over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the oil and let it cook for about 3 minutes. Then, flip the chicken over and let it cook for another 3 minutes on the second side.

That's the color you want to see.

Remove the chicken from the pan and place it on your draining rig.

Paper towels also work.

Plate each piece of chicken with two of the waffles.

Feel free to serve this with the side item of your choice, but it was a hearty meal all by itself.

Notes

• My waffle iron makes four normal waffles at a time. If you've got a waffle iron that makes huge Belgian waffles, you're going to have to adjust how much batter you put into it, and you're going to get a different number of waffles. I trust you to remain calm and make the necessary adjustments.
• Depending on the size of your pan, you may be able to cook more than one chicken breast at a time. Just make sure that they aren't touching each other in the pan, or the crust won't form correctly. The pan I used can only handle one at a time.
• If your pieces of chicken are very large or very thick, they may take longer to cook. Each of mine were about 8oz, and 3 minutes per side was just right.
• Nutritionally, this dish is high protein and medium fat. The carbs per serving are negligible - maybe 5g for each serving.
• Traditionally, you'd put maple syrup on the waffles, and a little hot sauce on the chicken. A bunch of maple syrup would defeat the purpose of the dish, but you can make an excellent sauce for this that's only a mild indulgence. For each serving, combine 1 tbsp of hot sauce with 1/2 tsp of honey. Heat them in the microwave for a few seconds to thin-out the honey, and mix them together. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken. You're only adding about 3g of carbs if you do this.
• In case it's not clear, these are just like normal waffles. You could eat them for breakfast next to some bacon and eggs and they'd be great. Also, since they're so low carb, you can top them with a little fruit without even sending them into indulgence land.

Mint and Watermelon Salad

See how I put that sprig of mint right on top, there? Classy.

I learned this recipe from some friends of ours who are in the choir with Miriam and me. It's really simple, and it makes a great summertime dish, because it requires no cooking. It is a good idea to make it ahead of time, though, because the mint needs to sit with the watermelon for a while to really get its flavor out there.

This dish works as a good dessert. Watermelon is sweet, and the mint changes it up enough that you won't feel like it's something you've had a million times. You could also bring it to the neighborhood barbecue, because a whole watermelon is a lot of food. Nutritionally, you have to watch out for the sugar in watermelon, but it also has such a high water content that it's hard to eat too much. You also get a healthy dose of vitamins in the melon, so if you're looking for a sweet finish to your dinner, this is a pretty good way to go.

Also, this recipe is dead simple. You mix watermelon and mint together. Since that would be a dull post, I thought I'd take the opportunity to show how I cut up a whole watermelon, since that's the hardest part, and a fruit that size can be intimidating.

That mint was growing wild in my yard. It doesn't get much more paleo than that.

Ingredients

1 watermelon (I recommend a seedless watermelon)
Approximately 15 large mint leaves

Equipment

Large Knife
Large Bowl (A bowl with a lid is recommended)


Start cutting up the watermelon by using a large knife to cut a circle from each end of the melon. Try not to cut off any more of the red part of the melon than absolutely necessary.

This step will keep the melon from rolling all over the place while you try to cut it.

Stand the melon upright so that it is resting on one of the cut ends. Begin cutting slices of rind off of the melon by cutting from the edge of the top circle down toward the middle of the melon.

If the melon were a globe, you'd be cutting from the arctic circle to the equator.

Continue cutting slices of the rind off all the way around the melon. Remove as little of the red part of the melon as possible. When you're done, the rind should be completely removed from the top half of the melon.

You can also trim off any little bits of white.

Cut a slice horizontally at the top of the melon. For this dish, your slices should be about an inch thick.

A big knife helps when working with something as large as a watermelon.

Cut the slice into bite-sized chunks.

The slices on the very ends of the melon got cut into nine pieces. All the others I cut into 16.

Continue cutting slices until you have finished cutting up the top half of the melon.

You can see lines from where I cut the last slice into pieces without taking it off the top of the melon.

Now, remove the second half of the rind using the same technique that you used for the top half. This time, cut from the middle of the melon toward the bottom.

As always, remove as little of the red part as possible.

Place all of your watermelon chunks into a large bowl.

It's easiest if you add them to the bowl as you cut them.
Otherwise you have to deal with a mountain of chunks all at once.

Now it's time to chop the mint. It's easiest if you stack all of your leaves together and kind of roll them up. Then you can slice the leaves all at once.

Stacking them all up makes things go a lot faster.

The mint shouldn't be too finely chopped. If I had to describe it, I'd call it a "coarse chiffonade," but unless you're a food nerd, that phrase might not mean anything, so look at the picture:

See? "Coarse chiffonade." Right there.

Add the mint to the watermelon, and gently mix the two together to distribute the mint evenly. Be gentle, so that you don't crush the watermelon too badly.

I used a big spoon to mix everything. Choose your own favorite implement.

For best results, let the salad sit, covered, in the refrigerator overnight. The flavors will come together as it sits.


Notes

• This recipe makes a lot of food. If you're not making it for a large group, it will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.
• I wouldn't put this in the indulgences category, even though watermelon has sugar in it. That said, I wouldn't eat a ton of it at every meal. Luckily, it's hard to eat a ton of watermelon at once, so you'll probably naturally limit yourself to a reasonable portion.
• I definitely suggest using a seedless watermelon for this dish. Obviously, they don't have seeds, so it's easier to eat them in polite company. Also, they tend to be a little smaller than regular watermelons, so they're easier to handle, and you end up with a more reasonable amount of food.
• I don't know if it's just me, but mint grows all over my yard whether I want it to or not. If you don't have the same "problem," you can almost always find fresh mint in the grocery store. I've never tried this with dried mint. It might work, but I'd definitely let it sit a while to rehydrate the mint.
• If you do use "yard mint," make sure you wash it. You should probably also avoid using any mint from that corner of the yard where the dog likes to hang out.

Pineapple Chicken

Way better than that "Chinese" place that delivers to your house.

When I was little, we always got the sweet and sour chicken when we ordered Chinese food. I loved it, even though it was essentially fried bread dipped in sugar. (Come to think of it, that's probably pretty much WHY I liked it.) These days, I normally don't like sweet and sour chicken, but I do like its equally inauthentic cousins - orange chicken, pineapple chicken, lemon chicken, etc.

Of course, the heavy breading and super-sugary sauces are about as far from paleo as it's possible to be. So, I decided to make a paleo version that bypassed those problems by using pineapple juice in the sauce and arrowroot powder to very lightly coat the chicken so it could be fried in a little coconut oil. The result is a version of pineapple chicken that you can have without worrying that you'll feel like crap in a few hours.

The soy sauce is wheat-free. You could also substitute coconut aminos.

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon ginger
1 red bell pepper
1 20oz. can of pineapple slices in pineapple juice
2 tbsp soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
salt to taste
About 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (to coat the chicken)
About 1/4 cup coconut oil (for frying)

Equipment

Pan
Draining Rig (I use a rack over a plate. You could also use paper towels)
Small Pot

Start by cutting everything up. You should mince the garlic and the ginger very fine. I use fresh ginger, which doesn't come in convenient teaspoon measurements. I just cut a piece off of the hand that looks about the right size and mince that.

These are going in the sauce, so the finer you can mince them, the better.

Remove the stem and seeds from the bell pepper, and cut it into strips.

These have such a nice color. Without them, the dish would be pretty much brown.

Cut the chicken into approximately 1.5 inch cubes.

Don't get out a ruler or anything. Instead, just go for "nugget-sized."

Drain the juice from the pineapple and save it for the sauce. Cut the slices into large chunks.

Now that everything is cut up, you should add some coconut oil to a pan and start heating it up over medium-high heat. While that's getting hot, dredge the chicken in the arrowroot powder.

You want a very light coating. You might need to shake the pieces a little to remove any excess.

Fry the chicken in the coconut oil. You may have to do it in multiple batches. Make sure to leave space between the pieces, or they'll stew instead of frying. Give them about a minute on the first side, and if the first side has browned, turn the pieces to a second side. Repeat the turns a few more times until the pieces are browned all over.

This is about the color you want to see.

Remove the chicken from the pan, and allow the pieces to drain. Remove the pan from the heat, and drain off any excess coconut oil.

I like using a rack over a plate. Paper towels also work.

Now is when you should start making the sauce. It's really pretty simple. Pour the pineapple juice from the can, the ginger, the garlic, the soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder to a small pot. Use a whisk to combine everything.

It will pretty much look like a weird gravy. Thankfully, it tastes nothing like that.

Heat the sauce over medium low heat, stirring constantly with the whisk. After a few minutes, the sauce will thicken a lot, and it will turn more translucent. When that happens, turn the heat off. If the sauce gets too hot, the arrowroot powder will disintegrate completely, and the sauce will "break." That's bad.

This is what the sauce looks like when it's ready.

Once the sauce is ready, turn the heat back on to medium-high under the pan. Add the pepper strips to the pan, and let them cook for about a minute.

Don't cook the peppers too much.

Add the chicken and pineapple chunks to the pan and top everything with the sauce. Mix everything in together so that the sauce coats everything evenly. Keep everything over medium-low heat for a minute or two to warm the pineapple chunks. You should also add a few pinches of salt.

Don't leave this over the heat for too long. You just want to make sure that everything is warmed up.

Notes

• My can of pineapple had almost exactly 3/4 cup of juice in it. If your can has less juice for some reason, you may need to reduce the arrowroot powder in the sauce a little bit to compensate.
• The sauce will be really thick. It's OK. It needs to be thick to properly coat the chicken. It also thins out a little bit as the pineapple chunks release some of their juice when everything is mixed together.
• I liked the way this tasted, but both Miriam and I thought it would probably be even better with a shot of lemon juice added right at the end.
• This paired really well with some of the fried cauliflower rice.
• I wouldn't call this an indulgence, but between the pineapple and the pineapple juice, it isn't super low-carb. I'd avoid serving it with a higher-carb side item.

Paleo Burger and Fries

Buns? We don't need no stinkin' buns!

I really like hamburgers. They're basically paleo, except for the bun. Then again, I can't remember the last time I was eating a hamburger and I thought to myself "Dang, this is an awesome bun!" So, let's just leave it out and do a "hamburger steak." They do it all the time in diners, so why not?

I also tried an experiment with this meal. I've been thinking lately that turnips are superior to potatoes in every way, so why not try to make some turnip french fries? They subbed very well as hash browns in the breakfast casserole, so fries seemed like a good idea. I did them as oven fries, and the results were as good as any oven fries I've ever made with potatoes. Unfortunately, I've never made really excellent oven fries, so the bar is a little low. I'll definitely try the turnip fries again, but I think I'll pan-fry them. I'll be sure to post how it goes. In the mean time, I'm including the oven fries here in case you want to give them a whirl.

Ingredients

Feel free to change up those spices to suit your tastes.

For the hamburgers:
2 lbs hamburger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried onion flakes (or onion powder)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

You only need enough turnips to fill a cookie sheet. I used two.

For the turnip fries:
2 turnips
olive oil (to coat)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
garlic powder (to taste)

Equipment

For the hamburgers:
Grill (or grill pan)
Large bowl

For the turnip fries:
Cookie Sheet
Parchment Paper (recommended)


If you're making both of these at the same time, you should start with the fries. You'll have enough time to make the burgers while the fries are in the oven.

Speaking of ovens, preheat yours to 400.

Peel the turnips with a vegetable peeler, and use a knife to cut them into strips. I cut mine pretty thin - if you aim for about the size of a McDonald's french fry, you'll be about right. The most important thing is to make all of the fries as close to the same thickness as you can. If they're all different sizes, they won't all cook the same amount.

Coat the fries with the oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. You can either do this in a big bowl, or you can lay the fries out on the cookie sheet first, drizzle the oil over them, and sprinkle the spices on top. I didn't measure the spices, I just used a little of each one. (If you forced me to guess, I'd say 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of each)

I actually used a basting brush to paint on the olive oil after I'd spread the fries on the cookie sheet.
Then I sprinkled on the spices.

However you get the seasonings on there, you want to end up with a single layer of the seasoned fries on your cookie sheet. As always, I like to use parchment paper to help with the cleanup.

Bake your fries at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn them over as best you can, so that they cook evenly on all sides. They'll come out something like this:



Some fries will be browner than others. Is "browner" a word? Spellcheck says, "yes."


Once the fries go in the oven, you can start on the burgers.

First, put the meat in a large bowl with the salt, garlic powder, onion flakes, liquid smoke, and pepper. Use your hands to mix everything together. Don't mush the hamburger too much, but try to get all of the spices evenly distributed.

Ah yes. The very advanced "mush everything together in a bowl" technique.

Divide the hamburger into fourths. I usually just cut two lines across the whole mass and lift out each fourth.

Try and make the hamburgers the same size so they'll cook the same amount.
Noticing a theme yet?

Make four hamburger patties and set them aside to rest for just a few minutes. While they're resting, get your grill or grill pan really hot.

Letting them rest allows the onion flakes to absorb a little moisture.

Grill the hamburgers for 5 minutes on the first side, and 4 minutes on the second side.

First side. Don't go poking at them.

Second side. If you squish the burgers down with a spatula, I will cut you.

Take the burgers off of the grill and place them either on a plate or (even better) a cooling rack over a plate. Let them rest for 5 minutes before you eat them.

Letting the burgers rest now will make them much juicier on your plate.

Notes

• The hamburgers should be about an inch thick. If you make them too thin, they'll overcook, and they'll be undercooked if you make them too thick.
• I made 8oz hamburgers, which I think are just right. Then again, I'm more "pappa bear" sized; if you're more like "baby bear," you might want to make smaller burgers. If you divide the whole batch into 6 patties, you'll have roughly 5oz burgers. You should cook those for about one minute less on each side. (because they'll be a little thinner)
• If you want to make those cool cross-hatch grill marks on your burgers, just rotate them ninety degrees (without flipping them) halfway through cooking each side.
• The problem I always have with oven fries is that they're never very crispy. The turnip version was no exception. They tasted awesome, but they were a little floppy.
• I served the burgers like a steak. If you wanted, you could put your favorite burger toppings on there, or you could try wrapping them in lettuce. I think butter lettuce works pretty well for wrapping burgers.
• You won't be able to flip every single one of the fries when you turn them halfway through cooking. just try to get most of them and it will work out OK.

Kale Chips?

Green and leafy

Over Easter weekend, Miriam visited some friends of ours in Florida, and they made kale chips one night. Miriam thought they were great and immediately started bugging me to make them. I honestly wasn't super interested. Then, my mom sent me a recipe that she cut out of the newspaper - for kale chips. Apparently they're the new hot thing in the healthy eating circles. I still wasn't really interested. However, weeks of persistence on Miriam's part have finally paid off, because I buckled and made kale chips on Sunday.

Thanks to a combination of a dead car battery, other recipes going at the same time, and the fact that kale chips only take like three steps to make anyway, I didn't take many pictures for this post. Sorry about that.


Ingredients
Kale
Olive Oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 or 3 pinches of salt

Equipment
Large Bowl
Cookie Sheet
Parchment Paper (recommended)

Preheat your oven to 350

Rinse and thoroughly dry the kale. You can use a salad spinner to dry it, or you can go at it with paper towels. Just get the water off.

Now, rip the leaves of the kale into chip-sized pieces. You have to rip them in a way that gets rid of the large central stem of each leaf, because it's fibrous and will make your chips horrible. It's not complicated or anything, you just hold the leaf by the stem and rip pieces off.

Put the leaf pieces into a large bowl and drizzle some olive oil over them. You don't have to measure it, but if I was pressed, I'd guess about 1-2 tablespoons is plenty for a large bowl of leaves. Add the juice of 1 lemon to the bowl as well, along with a few pinches of salt. Toss the leaves to coat them evenly.

Lay the leaves out in a single layer on a cookie sheet that you've covered with parchment paper. They have to be in a single layer to crisp properly. If you have a lot of kale, you'll either need to use two cookie sheets or bake them in two batches.

It was either this picture or a video of me tearing leaves for twenty minutes.

Bake the leaves for 10-15 minutes. They're done when they're crisp.

Notes

• This is a really loose recipe. If you add a little too much olive oil, lemon juice, or salt, it's probably not a big deal, because only so much will stick to the leaves when you toss them.
• You could substitute other spices for the lemon juice and salt. Chili powder would probably work pretty well.
• Some of the leaves will probably be done before others. I handled this by checking the leaves every few minutes after the 10 minute mark, removing any that were done, and spreading the others out a little more before putting them back into the oven. The whole batch was done after 15 minutes.

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel like I should let you know that I have mixed feelings about this recipe. The kale chips definitely tasted good. They were salty and crunchy like a good snack food ought to be. Miriam thought they were excellent as well. My reservations have nothing to do with the result, they have to do with the process. This recipe is a lot of work to make a modest amount of chips.

There are two problem areas. First, tearing the leaves into chips takes forever. I don't think I have enough patience to make more than one cookie sheet's worth of this recipe.

Second, because the chips finish at different times, I literally had to touch every single chip to see if it was done. There is no visual difference between a kale chip that is done, and one that is still half-soggy. So, I had to spend several minutes sorting through the leaves by touch, which was less than fun.

I guess in the end, I'd say go ahead and give this recipe a try, but I wouldn't try it when you're rushed and trying to do several other things in the kitchen at the same time. The chips taste really good, but you're going to have to dedicate a solid half-hour to them if you want to try them out.

Paleo Crepes

Maybe Miriam was right.
Maybe blueberry preserves don't photograph very well.
Live and learn, I guess. The crepes are still delicious.

If the cheese-eating surrender-monkeys got one thing right, it's probably crepes. They're essentially a wrap for other things, and depending on what you wrap them around, they can be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert. Regular crepes are already close to paleo, because their primary ingredient is eggs. Unfortunately, crepes also normally have wheat flour in them, which is pretty much item number one on the things-that-aren't paleo list.

I tried several times to substitute something else for the flour. Coconut flour and almond flour were both particularly dismal failures. Then, a pair of ladies from Catalyst Meals turned me onto the idea of using arrowroot powder. It works like a charm. I'm not a crepe expert or anything, but I can't tell any difference between these crepes and regular crepes.

Without any filling, these crepes are pretty darn paleo. If you're the kind of person who wants to eat crepes with no filling, though, then I don't know if we can be friends. Let's just assume that you're going to fill them. If you decide to fill these with something that's paleo, then you can eat them whenever you want. You could also decide to lean a little toward the indulgences category by filling them with fruit preserves or something else a little sweeter.

You'll also need some oil to grease the pan, and some water.

Ingredients

6 eggs
4 tbsp arrowroot powder
3 tbsp water
coconut oil


Equipment

Blender
Non-stick Pan
Thin Spatula

Add the eggs, arrowroot powder, and water to the blender. Blend the ingredients for about 15 seconds, until everything is completely blended together into a very loose batter. Set the batter aside for a few minutes to let it settle.

That, my friends, is the carafe from a Magic Bullet blender.
If you don't own one, you should ask yourself, "why not?"

Put your pan over medium heat and add about a teaspoon of coconut oil to it. As the oil melts, move the pan around so that the entire surface of the pan is coated in oil. It's very important to grease the pan evenly so that the crepes won't stick. Allow a minute or two for the pan to completely heat up.

You don't have to use coconut oil. Any oil will work.
(Well, olive oil may make your crepes taste like olives, but if you do a savory filling, that might be OK)

Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the pan. Tilt the pan in a circular motion so that the batter spreads out into a circle. Put the pan back onto the heat and let the crepe cook on its first side until it is almost cooked all the way through. You should jiggle the pan a little as the crepe cooks to help keep it from sticking.

Here's a very short video of me doing a poor job of making the first crepe. It's a decent illustration of the tilting motion you should try to use, though.

Carefully use the spatula to flip the crepe onto its second side. Let this side cook for about a minute. Again, jiggle the pan a little as the crepe cooks to help keep it from sticking.

Carefully transfer the crepe to a plate. You may be able to slide the crepe out of the pan onto the plate, or you may have to use the spatula to move it. Be careful not to tear the crepe.

This is what your crepes should look like. If they are more brown than this, then your pan is too hot.

Cook the rest of the crepes using the same method as the first. Before you add the batter for each new crepe, you have to re-grease the pan with another teaspoon of coconut oil and give it about 30 seconds over the heat to get back up to the right temperature.

As you make each crepe, you can stack them by putting a square of wax paper between on top of each crepe as you make the stack. If you stack the crepes directly on top of each other, they may stick together.

Now that you have a stack of crepes, fill them with your choice of filling. Here are some suggestions:

• Chicken salad
• Deli meats
• Fruit preserves
• Almond butter
• Apple butter

Notes

• Crepes are tricky. They're thin, so it's easy to tear them when flipping them. To help avoid destroying your crepes, use a Teflon coated pan, and then make sure that the whole surface is greased with the coconut oil. A spatula made of very thin material also helps when you flip them.
• The amount of batter you need for each crepe depends largely on the size of the pan you're using. My only non-stick pan is actually a little large for this recipe, which makes it a little difficult to get the crepes into a nice round shape. Ideally, I'd use a pan in the 8-10 inch range (mine is more like 12).
• Your crepes shouldn't brown very much when cooking. If they do, you've probably got the heat too high.
• The batter for this recipe should be pretty thin. When you add it to the pan, it should flow freely while you tilt the pan to expand the crepe. If it doesn't, you need to add a little more water.