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Healthy Ranch Chicken Salad :: An Easy Gluten & Dairy Free Meal Prep for the Week!

July 14, 2023

This easy to make Ranch Chicken Salad will be a healthy grab-and-go lunch to prep for your week!

Healthy Ranch Chicken Salad :: An Easy Gluten & Dairy Free Meal Prep for the Week!

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Sweet Summer!

Oh sweet summer! We just about live for our beautiful Lake Michigan beaches, and our sweet little Lake Michigan beach town! If you have been around here very long, you know that I tend to take a bit of a break from writing in the summer to enjoy the girls being home from school, and also to soak in all the sun and beach sand here! I just had to pop in to share a recipe we have had on repeat during these warmer and *busier* months of summer, though, and I can’t wait to hear about how you use it in your home!

Wait…summer, busier?!

Well just a different kind of busy! Long gone are the days of littles that enjoyed the beach in the early morning only to crash for afternoon naps or a little afternoon downtime. These tweens and teens – boy, oh boy! They love their friend hang out time, and they also tend to be involved in more activities. We even have one that has a little babysitting job this summer! That means mom is in the car playing chauffer (or, I guess since we are in 2023 we can call me an Uber driver?!). And with mom in the car driving the people all over the place, that means sometimes there is less time in the kitchen. When that happens, I have found just a little bit of planning ahead will keep real food that actually counts still on the table without me having to stay up all night preparing food.

Chicken salad with a twist!

Chicken salad has been on repeat all summer this year, and for good reason! Not only is a cold meal that doesn’t heat up the house, and a great protein source, it also is easy to make big batches up if you do it the right way! I like to use my Instant Pot to make a whole chicken for the meat. This saves me money since whole chickens are less per pound than cuts of chicken, and it makes a lot so we have enough to scoop from for multiple days. I’ll get to the chicken cooking method in a minute, but lets talk about that “twist!” A couple of months ago, a friend of mine told me that she used my DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix from my Sheet Pan Ranch Chicken Dinner recipe for chicken salad, and THAT, my friends has become a summer favorite in our house too over the last couple weeks!

Let’s start with the chicken…

To get started, you’ll need to choose a method for getting your cooked chicken. Whether that be leftovers from grill night, or you make a whole chicken, you’ll want a good 3-4 cups in order to make enough chicken salad for a few days. I like to use my Instant Pot to make a whole chicken in the summer so I’m not heating up the whole house, but a slow cooker will achieve the same outcome without turning the oven on. If you are in the cooler months of the year, and don’t mind turning the oven on, my Mayo Roasted Chicken makes the most incredibly flavorful, juicy chicken in less time than you think!

Now for the easy part!

Once your chicken is ready, the rest is done in minutes! Pile in all of the ingredients for the chicken salad into your food processor and pulse away. You can see how coarsely chopped the stuff is here – I don’t fuss with making it perfect. If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop it up and mix in the mayo and seasoning by hand. You can customize your Ranch Chicken Salad to your tastes too! I always use onion and pepper, and, depending on the season, I use fresh fruit too. Usually I add apple or grapes to chicken salad, but since we are in the middle of summer, I used peaches this week, and it was incredible! Blueberries are another summer fruit that works good. Change up the veggies to what is in season too! You can add spinach to bump up the veggies without changing the flavor, or broccoli works well too.

Let’s talk about the chicken salad consistency

If you like a chunkier chicken salad, pulse or chop the components less. You can also take it to a full puree to make a super spread-able chicken salad for pinwheels and wraps. This method goes over well with toddlers, and makes a great way to get some meat on their plate! I always fall somewhere in the middle of chunky and smooth as you can see in the image below. To achieve this, I pulsed a few times, scraped the sides down, and then repeated that 3-4 times. It works great for sandwiches as well as making it a fun scoop-able chicken salad for veggies or crackers.

Ranch Chicken Salad serving ideas!

The sky is the limit here! I’d also love to hear if you serve it in a new way – use the comments below to tell us how you serve chicken salad!

Use the chicken salad how you would use any dip or spread with veggie sticks, crackers, or even potato wedges or chips as the vehicles.
One of my girls prefers chicken salad straight out of the bowl with spoon, and there is nothing wrong with that!
There is always the classic sandwich too, and if you don’t tolerate grains, you can make a lettuce wrap, or mix the chicken salad into a big salad.

Onto the recipes!

Let’s start with the Ranch Seasoning Mix! It is posted in my Ranch Chicken dinner, but for your convenience, I added it here too. This mix is so nice to keep in the spice cabinet for Ranch potatoes, or making dips and dressings, as well as adding to this chicken salad. Ranch season packets could work, but flavors vary from brand to brand so play around with the amount (and watch those sneaky ingredients!). I like this Ranch season packet with clean ingredients if I’m using a packet.

Print Recipe

DIY Ranch Seasoning Mix

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

2 tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp organic cane sugar, turbinado sugar, or coconut sugar
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

Whisk everything together in a jar or container that has a lid. Store at room temp in an airtight container.

Notes

To make Ranch dressing with your Ranch seasoning mix, whisk about 3-4 teaspoons of the Ranch seasoning mix with 1 cup of sour cream, Greek yogurt, mayo, or coconut yogurt and add splashes of raw milk or coconut milk to thin it out to the consistency you like. You can keep it thick like a dip, or drippier for dressing.

Ranch Chicken Salad recipe

And here’s how to make the Ranch chicken salad! This is going to be a lifesaver on a busy night or use it for packing those lunchboxes!

Print Recipe

Healthy Ranch Chicken Salad :: An Easy Gluten & Dairy Free Meal Prep for the Week!

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

3-4 cups cooked chicken I use my Instant Pot to make an easy whole chicken to save money, but any cooked/leftover chicken works!
1/2 cup mayo of choice Start with this amount, & add more if you like it creamier.
1 tbsp Ranch Seasoning from the recipe above
1/2 bell pepper sliced into strips
1 small red onion (or 1/2 large) quartered, and then halved
1 cup fresh fruit of choice use what is in season! I used peaches here because it is the middle of summer, but apples and grapes are our favorite! Blueberries are good in the summer as well.

Instructions

Put all of the ingredients into your food processor, and pulse until desired consistency. You truly could process until smooth if your kids prefer more of a spread-able texture that can be rolled up into a tortilla for pinwheels! Or, leave it chunkier by pulsing less. If you like it super chunky, hand chopping will give you the best result. For the texture you see in this post, you'll pulse a few times, then scrape the sides down, then pulse again a few times, and scrape down. I did this a total of 4 times I'd say.

Notes

I get the Primal Kitchen Mayo in the picture above from Costco. There are a few different healthy oil based mayos in the store now using avocado oil! OR you can make your own mayo in minutes. My classic mayo recipe is in my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook.
Ranch season packets could work, but flavors vary from brand to brand so play around with the amount (and watch those sneaky ingredients!). I like this Ranch season packet with clean ingredients.
Change up the veggies/fruit to what is in season! You can add spinach to bump up the veggies without changing the flavor, or broccoli works well too.

More real food recipes you might like!

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Lunchbox Packing Tips for Back to School

July 13, 2022

Start your child off on the right foot for eating lunch at school with these easy to follow, practical tips for lunchbox packing!

Lunchbox Packing Tips for Back to School

Back to school lists

Pencils, paper, glue, scissors, markers…it’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?! Honestly I don’t remember supply lists being this intense as a kid, but I probably wasn’t paying much attention to it either! We love our teachers though, and really want them to have all the tools they need to help our kids be at their best for school, and I think sometimes the school lunch thing gets a little over looked.

It really does matter

And I say this with all the love that I have for you dear momma. Because I know there is a lot on your plate, and I know what it is like to be an overwhelmed mom. But even more important than the brand of pencil that the teachers want your kid to have for the school year, is having a child that is well fed for a full school day. It’s that whole hierarchy of needs thing, ya know? If a child is hungry, they can’t focus for squat, and that fancy paper or folder you bought for them isn’t going to matter if they can’t make it through their afternoon. Those school days are long for any school aged kid, and we want to set them up for success with full bellies and fed brains so they can make it through.

Sustainable lunch packing rhythms

What goes into their lunch does matter, but, especially for any moms reading this that are newer to having school aged children, I want to help you be successful at lunchbox packing for the whole school year – not just the first week. So let’s dive into some practical thoughts I have for you, now that I have 2 middle schoolers and my last little one in elementary school!

Give your child time to practice using their lunch gear

Multiple years of being room mom in early elementary classrooms has taught me many things – and one of them is this tip! If you are reading this post and it is summertime, purchase your child’s lunchbox now so that you can pack it up for your summer outings (or even just lunchtime at home!) to practice how to use it! Latches, zippers, pouches, buttons, lids – those take time for little hands to figure out, and it will save them time when at school. Also be sure they know how to properly close their water bottles so you don’t end up with a soggy backpack on the way home! If you need lunch gear suggestions, take a peek through my Lunch Gear Resource Guide! It’s free!

Consider lunch gear & foods that don’t involve a lot of separate containers to open & close

Speaking of practicing lunch gear! One thing I have noticed in these classrooms, is that kids with lunches packed in multiple food containers, or lunches packed in containers with multiple compartments that need to be opened and closed, took longer to eat. If you are in the market for lunch gear, and have little ones, this is a good thought to consider before buying. If you need some lunch gear recs, here is my Lunch Gear Resource Guide with multiple suggestions to help you decide!

Pack familiar food

If you have been around here for a while, you know that I am all about helping your children become adventurous eaters! However, the first week of school is not the time to try out new foods. Think about your little one’s first days of school – even the entire first year or so. There are so many new things going on, rules to remember, friends to meet – it is SO. MUCH. Their little brains can only regulate so much at once! You throw a new food on top of all that and they may think “Hmm, I just can’t do one more new thing right now, and this feels scary, so I’m just not going to eat it.” And it really could be something they would like if they weren’t so overwhelmed! Just try new stuff out at home first. Serve it for dinner, and the talk about how you would like for them to help you pack it in their lunchbox some time.

Understand your child’s school snack and lunch schedule

This is a big one because everyone’s school schedule varies. Does your child have a morning snack time? When is snack time in relation to lunch time? This will all determine what and how much you pack for lunch. You know your child best. If the kids have a snack at 10 and eat lunch at 11:30, then perhaps you need to make the snack small so they are still hungry to eat their lunch at 11:30. Or maybe you split the lunch up into 2 smaller meals so they get part of their lunch at snack time and the other part at lunch. They may have lunch closer to 1pm, so you might want their morning snack to be a mini meal so they can make it to 1pm. Also find out how much time your child will have to eat that lunch. This will help you pack accordingly. Regardless of how we feel about a 10-15 minute lunch time (I think we would all agree that is pretty rough for a little kid!), if that is how it is at your school, you’ll want to be sure to pack easy to eat foods that pack a filling punch so your child is ready to focus for the rest of the school day.

The 2-minute lunchbox tour

Before packing that lunchbox into their backpack, open it up and show your child. Ask them what they think are the foods in there that will help them feel good for the afternoon and focus for school. Help them learn where the protein is, and important bites that will help them so they can start there. That way, if they don’t have time to finish, they will have at least gotten something filling in. This 2-minute lunchbox tour can happen the night before while you are packing the lunchbox together, or it can happen in the morning before you pack it up in their backpack! Before you know it, they’ll have so much more body awareness and independently know what kind of foods help them feel their best.

Macro balance

And speaking of foods to help them feel their best! Every child has different macro ratio needs – but all the macros matter for growing kids. So just take a quick scan of the lunchbox each day and be sure it’s all in there – fats, protein, and carbs. It all matters! If you need some great balanced lunchbox inspiration to see some examples, you can check out my cookbook, The Little Lunchbox Cookbook! Inside there are 60 different lunchbox examples, all balanced with what your child needs to get through their day.

My child is coming home with a lot of leftover food consistently – what should I do?

Kids’ appetites can ebb and flow depending on growth spurts, illness, life changes, sleep, etc. Noticing some food coming home every once and a while is normal, but if they are bringing food home day in and day out, here are some things to think about:

Re-evaluate your child’s snack and lunch time schedule, and portions. Is your child eating a big morning snack only to have lunch an hour later? Are the portions you are sending realistic for your child? How long are they allowed for eating? Re-visit the above section called “Understand your child’s school lunch and snack schedule,” where you will find more information on addressing each of these.
Help them realize their hunger after school. If they are crabby or emotional in the car on the way home, seem sleepy, or tell you they are “starving,” and you notice they didn’t each much of their lunch, help them make that connection! Kids aren’t always body aware enough to realize that not eating lunch is why they feel so crummy. Present it nicely – no shame. But remind them they will feel so much better when they focus on their food at lunch time.
Ask them why! “Hey, I noticed that there is a lot of lunch left in your lunchbox – did something happen at lunch time?” Don’t make them feel badly for not eating – just ask them. There may be a good reason!
Chatty Kathy’s or Ken’s! Sometimes that reason is that you might have a “Chatty Kathy” or “Chatty Ken!” Ask them who they sat with at lunch. This age does not understand the time management of lunch at school yet. Help them understand that with time, they will learn how to manage talking with their friends AND eating at the same time! Sometimes just making them aware is all you need to do.
Reconsider hard to eat foods for little ones. As a health food leaning blogger, you know that I value getting veggies into kids. But there are so many ways to do it in an easy to eat way, OR maybe save larger veggie portions for at home when they have more time. Your goal in a school lunchbox is to get the most nutrient dense food into your little one in the amount of time that they have to eat. It is easier to eat cooked veggies versus raw, so my kindergarteners were rarely bringing raw veg and dip or salads. They were bringing blended soup purees to slurp with a straw, or leftover roasted veggies from dinner. Or frozen veggies that thaw. It is faster, and easier to eat, which leaves them less stressed.
Help them prioritize with the 2-minute lunchbox tour. Leftover food is going to happen sometimes, but I’d rather them leave the strawberries than leave the sandwich – you know what I mean? That is the reason for the 2-minute lunchbox tour! See the above section about the 2-minute lunchbox tour and learn how to help your child learn what part of their lunch will help them feel their best for the afternoon so they start with eating that first.
Some foods are just “at home foods.” Listen, my kids adore sardines and liver pate – but I’m not going to do that to them! Unfortunately, to most children, those are just really weird foods to pack, and it might make your child uncomfortable if they are constantly getting questions about unfamiliar foods. I’m definitely not saying pack junk food every day! But I am saying, if there is a food that is consistently coming home, check with your child and see if they are not comfortable with bringing it to school. I think I ask my girls yearly if they really do want me to pack tuna salad for lunch – one of their favorites, but clearly doesn’t smell the best! Every year they surprise me by saying they want it, but I am perfectly fine with making certain food “at home food.”

Tips for navigating lunchbox questions at school

It’s inevitable, that if you focus more on whole foods in your child’s lunchbox, you are bound to get a few wandering eyes and curious kids asking your child questions about their lunch. Here is how we have approached that at our house.

Remember that kids are genuinely curious. Especially for younger children that truly aren’t at the “peer pressure” age yet, they might just truly wonder what it is! This age group is so blunt, aren’t they?! If they have never seen something before, they have no filter, and they are going to ask! Remind your preschooler through 2nd grader this, and help them understand that some kids might not have had the chance to try that food yet! In fact, I have found that the kids asking these questions are the ones coming to school with the same thing for lunch everyday…perhaps they are even wishing that they could have a variety of lunch like that.
Ask them how they feel about the food. I always ask this question when one of the girls says “so and so asked what this was.” Nine times out of 10, when I ask them how they feel about “that green soup” or a pinwheel roll up, or even olives, my girls have answered, “well I love it” about that food. So we talk about that! Just because other kids might not like something, or don’t know what it is, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it! Positively start teaching them about gently standing up for themselves by eating foods they enjoy, even if others think it’s strange.
“At home foods” are ok! In the section above, I described some examples of “at home foods” that we have labeled in our house. Leaving some of the “less popular” healthy foods for at home, is totally fine. We want our children to be confident in their food choices, but we don’t have to cross the line!

Questions?

I’m all ears! If I didn’t hit on a lunchbox issue that you are having, please ask! And if there is something not listed here that you have found helpful with lunchbox packing, please share! Teachers, we want to hear from you too!

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Simple Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

March 28, 2022

This simple, no fuss, fool-proof Instant Pot hard boiled egg method is sure to become a part of your weekly prep day to set you up for easy grab and go meal add-in’s!

Prep day staples to make meals run smoother

Just about every time I post one of our breakfast bar mornings to my Instagram, I’ll get a private message or 2, and some comments asking how I do the hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot. I never really gave thought to posting this, since it seems so simple, but truly, these are the kitchen tasks that make the meal plans we do during the week flow so much faster – in other words…this is how we do real food for real life families!

So let’s talk about what a Prep Day is in my house

For me, Prep Day is hardly a “day,” so let’s just get that out there! I know there are people that truly spend an entire day prepping food for the week or month, and I think that is great. Do what works for you. For me, I’ll pick a 2 hour spurt during the week (typically on Sunday’s, but this changes depending on the time of the year). During that 2 hour spurt of the week there are a few tasks that I *always* do (like these hard boiled eggs), and a task or 2 that will be specific just to that week, or maybe dedicated to replenishing a monthly pantry item like granola bars.

What in the world do you do with a dozen hard boiled eggs in 5 days?!

In my family of 5, this dozen eggs sometimes doesn’t even make it to the 3rd day, but let me give you some ideas! If you have a bigger family, by all means batch this up more!

Easy breakfast addition or breakfast bar item to go with muffins or breakfast cookies
Quick lunchbox add-in to go with everything from a soup or salad to leftover pancakes from the weekend to make a “breakfast for lunch” lunchbox
Fast morning or afternoon snacks
Egg salad for lunch or dinner
Crumbled onto a salad at dinner for extra protein for growing kids
Deviled eggs for a fun and easy addition to a charcuterie board lunch or dinner

So now that you know how to use them, let’s talk about what kind of eggs to use!

I’ll keep this as short as I can, because truthfully, I want you to use whatever are the best eggs that you can afford. However, I was reminded this week that some people may not understand the difference between cage free, free range, pastured, organic, etc when it comes to eggs, and I want to be sure you know! Because when you know better, you can do better, right? No beating yourself up – just work on fitting into your budget what you can. Obviously the best bet is going to be a local, pastured egg from chickens on pasture around where you live. Whether that be a friend down the street or a local farmer, these eggs will be the best nutrition for your family. Eggs with bright orange yolks are indicative of nutrients in the grasses and bugs that the chickens were eating. You’ll notice that conventional store bought eggs have a pale yellow yolk, and those eggs just don’t have the levels of nutrients that a pastured egg does. Unfortunately many may be tricked by the verbiage “cage free” because it sounds like the chickens are treated pretty great as they are not in a “cage.” Tricky, tricky wording because technically cage free chickens still can be kept inside with a certain about of space per chicken, and may not even get to feed on grasses or bugs at all. Chickens were meant to be on grass eating from the ground, giving their eggs the most optimal levels of nutrients. My recommendation would be to look for at the very least “free range,” and at the very best “pastured.” If you have further questions on this, please as in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer! I would also encourage you to visit your local farmer’s market to ask your local chicken farmers questions about how their chickens live and about their eggs – 9 times out of 10, farmers just love to talk about their chickens – especially if they are raising them right!

How to make Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

***First, you’ll fill your Instant Pot with a cup of water and place a steamer basket or the trivet your IP came with into the bottom of the pot. I love the steamer basket because at the end, I just pull the whole basket of eggs out and dunk them into the water

***Second, you’ll put the IP lid on and close the valve. Press “Manual” on the IP and bring the time down to 5 minutes. The Instant Pot will beep, and then take a few minutes to come to pressure before counting down the 5 minutes.

***Next, after the Instant Pot pressure cooks the eggs, you’ll release the valve right away, and pull the steamer basket out of the IP to dunk into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. If you are using the trivet, you’ll have to use a tongs to individually take the eggs out, which is totally fine. I just use a large mixing bowl in the sink to fill with cold water.

***Finally, after the eggs cool off for a few minutes, you can crack and peel them. I have left the eggs in the cold water up to an hour and that is fine too, although I have found they peel the best right away. Peel your eggs and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Get the kids involved in prep day!

Making the weekly hard boiled eggs is actually a fantastic way to get the kids in the kitchen. If you have little ones, have them help you peel the eggs – they will love this task! If you have older children, put this kitchen task on their plate entirely from start to finish. It is great life skills for when they are older, and they will feel proud contributing to the family. I’d even let them make some deviled eggs to get fancy if they love those!

Tips for introducing eating hard boiled eggs to little ones

Hard boiled eggs were one of my girls’ favorite finger foods as toddlers. They were an easy, compact protein for on the go little people, and I have a few ideas to make the introduction even more fun! Little kids *love* to be in charge. It all starts with letting them help you make the eggs, and for little ones this will mean gently placing the eggs in the IP, and maybe even helping you press a button or 2. Little ones also love peeling eggs – let them help you! Get a little egg cutter to make the prep a little safer (the egg cutter pictured below is one that I have had over a decade and I couldn’t find it, but there are so many in the stores, and if you like the Prime stuff, here are some to choose from there!), and let them cut the egg how they like – their choice. Let them sprinkle a little sea salt on the egg too!

Print Recipe

Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 cup water
12 uncooked eggs

Instructions

Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of your Instant Pot stainless steel pot, and place a steamer basket, or the trivet in the bottom of the pot.
Put up to 12 eggs into the steamer basket or on the trivet, close the lid of the IP, and seal the valve so it is closed.
Turn the IP on, press "Manual," and bring the time down to 5 minutes. The IP will beep, and then take a few minutes to come to pressure before counting down the 5 minutes.
Once the 5 minutes of pressure cooking is done, open the valve so the pressure releases, open the lid of the IP, take the steamer basket out, and place the steamer basket with the eggs into large bowl of cold water. I just fill a large mixing bowl with cold water in my sink. If you are using the trivet, you'll have to use tongs to pull out each egg and drop them into the bowl of cold water.
Let the eggs sit in the cold water at least a few minutes, though sometimes I forget about them for up to an hour. The eggs will peel the best after just a few minutes, but it still works if you have left them longer.
Once the eggs have cooled in the cold water for a few minutes, you can peel them. Store your hard boiled eggs in an air tight container up to 5 days in the fridge.

More real food recipes you might like! ::

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Batch Up Meals Breakfast Ideas Healthy Kids and Teens Lunch Ideas Real Food 101 Real Food Tips school lunches Snack Ideas

Easy Paleo Granola Bars :: Oat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free

March 9, 2022

These yummy oat free Paleo granola bars are a snap to prep in the blender, quick to bake, and even easier to eat!

Easy Paleo Granola Bars :: Oat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free

Moving week…and snack short-cuts!

It’s *finally* here! Moving week! It’s been a long year as we awaited our house to finish, and I’m getting ready to get these boxes we have been surrounded by into their final destination! Which means…I won’t have a whole lot of time in the kitchen, or be able to find much of anything until we get unpacked. I decided to get a few things stashed in the pantry that we can grab easily while we are moving, and I even got a new kitchen find to make the granola bar making process even faster!

Meet my new $13 kitchen friend!

Seriously, this is the best 13 dollars I’ve spent in a long while! I would even say life changing status that compares to the Instant Pot. If you have ever made granola bars before, you know that in a pan, the edges tend to get slightly more cooked than the middle, and sometimes the cutting process can lead to some crumbs. These little silicone granola bar pans literally solve all of those problems, and truly the end result is perfectly shaped, perfectly cooked bars every. single. time….and I’m so here for that!

Let’s talk about the ingredients!

While we aren’t a “paleo” exclusive house, I do like to keep ingredients on a rotation so we aren’t just eating the same ingredients all the time. Most granola bars have an oat base, and since we do oats in other places throughout the week from baked oatmeal to breakfast cookies, I wanted to make this staple, easy to make bar without oats to change the nutrient profile up a little bit. You can swap the nuts for whatever nuts that you have on hand – and I do think that if you are nut free you can use all seeds. The combination power packed nuts, seeds, and coconut, makes for a balanced fuel for everyone in the house!

The Method :: Mix the Dry Ingredients

No hand chopping here! This whole granola bar mixture can be done right in your food processor! Put all of the dry ingredients into the food processor, and pulse about 4 long pulses, just to mix everything up and give a coarse “chop.” The pieces should look about like this ::

The Method :: Mix the Wet Ingredients

Next, you’ll want to melt the honey, coconut oil, and almond butter in a sauce pan, and pour into the food processor. The wet ingredients are what gives the “stick” to the granola bar to bind the pieces together, so you really shouldn’t try to adjust the amounts of these, or you’ll end up with a crumbly mess if you use less, or a gooey mess if you use more. Pulse the food processor to combine the dry pieces with the wet ingredients. You can pulse until the pieces are still on the visible side, or until they are very small and unrecognizable. I like to go somewhere in between – I do have “coconut chip” detective that will refuse the bar if she can “see” the coconut chips – but she has no idea they are there in this form (and she is the biggest fan out of everyone of these bars btw!)! The mixture should look like this ::

The Method :: Assemble and Bake

Again, I think the $13 investment in the silicone granola bar pans is so worth it – I am kicking myself for not getting one sooner! I think I would even pay double that for this convenience. Simply spoon the mixture into each well, and press it down firmly with the pack of your spoon. If you are making the bars in an 8×8 pan or a 9×9 pan, line the pan with parchment paper first, and then pour the mixture in. You’ll want to press the mixture down as firmly as you can before baking.

Snack ideas and storage

Once the bars cool completely, they pop out of the silicone liner so easy, and you can store them in an airtight container in the pantry up to 3 months. Use your paleo granola bars for easy lunchbox add-ins or a quick snack with a side of fruit or veggies and dip! And for those of you with little ones at home, the *best* part about making your own granola bars is that you control the size. You can easily cut these bars into “bites” which is how I often still pack them for my 8 year old’s lunchbox. A full bar makes a good snack for her, but she doesn’t need all of that with other things in a full lunchbox too. My older girls do, though, so we keep the full size in the pantry, and I cut them to the size I need!

Print Recipe

Easy Paleo Granola Bars :: Oat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free

Author: Renee Kohley – Raising Generation Nourished

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts
1 cup cashews
2 cups coconut chips coconut chips are the bigger flakes – not tiny shredded coconut for this recipe
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup flax seed meal
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1/3 cup raw honey
¼ cup coconut oil
2 tbsp almond butter

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees and place your silicone granola bar liners on a baking sheet. If you don’t have granola bar pans, you can use an 8×8 or 9×9 pan and cut them, just line the pan with parchment paper.
Put the walnuts, cashews, coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, flax seed meal, cinnamon, sea salt, and coconut sugar into your food processor, and do a long pulse about 4 times to mix the pieces and break them up a bit. You can see what this should look like in the image above labeled “Mix the Dry Ingredients.”
Put the honey, coconut oil, and almond butter in a small sauce pan and melt over medium heat, stirring along the way.
Once the liquid ingredients are melted, pour them into the food processor with the dry ingredients, and pulse the ingredients to your desired consistency, making sure the wet ingredients have fully incorporated. If you want bigger pieces, pulse less times. If you want to make the pieces smaller so you can’t “see” them as much, pulse a bit longer. You can see what this looks like in the image above labeled “Mix the Wet Ingredients.”
Spoon the granola bar mixture into your silicone granola bar pan rectangles. Press the mixture down to pack it in tight using the back of your spoon. If you are using a square baking pan, pour the mixture into the parchment paper lined pan, and press firmly into the pan.
Bake the granola bars for 20 minutes, until lightly golden, for a slightly crunchy/slightly chewy granola bar, or 23-25 minutes, until darker golden brown, for a crunchy granola bar (similar to the texture of a Nature Valley Crunchy Honey Oat bar). I happen to love them crunchy, but both ways are fantastic! Let the bars cool completely before taking them out of the pan so they have time to harden. If you take them out while warm, they will fall apart.

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Pizza Muffins :: Perfect For “Pizza Day” At School!

September 8, 2014

Portable, handheld little pizza muffins make the best lunchbox item for little hands, a fun snack after school, or a soft yummy side to a bowl of soup!

Pizza Muffins :: Perfect For "Pizza Day" At School!

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Ahhh…school lunch pizza day.

Brings back memories, doesn’t it?! That school pizza could look a hundred years old, but I would always still go for it because, well, it’s pizza! I wrote this post back in 2014 when my oldest was off to kindergarten. It’s been a number of years (that little one below is in high school now!), and I’m updating some older recipes and pictures. These pizza muffins are *still* a staple in our home for my younger 2, so I just had to update this one! During that first year of kindergarten, I found out that they had a pizza day fundraiser *every week*…I probably would have been fine with a one time deal, but I couldn’t get behind this being an every week event with the pizza restaurant they were buying from. I decided I’d send her with leftover pizza if we had the chance to make homemade, but I knew I’d have to have a plan for most weeks that involved something less fussy. At the time, I was not only working through my first year of having a kindergartener, I also had a 3 year old and 1 year old at home!

Easy prep and freezable!

That was literally the name of my game back then (still is most of the time now too!). With 3 kids under the age of 6, I needed to be able to pack her lunches quickly, and not be cooking everyday. These pizza muffins were the answer to our pizza day dilemma, and to this day, my youngest who is in 4th grade now definitely still asks for pizza muffins on those pizza days. My middle schooler and high schooler still love them too, but tend to need to pack more alongside – we’ll get to those ideas in a minute!

Lunchbox perfect!

Less mess, less fuss, and still so delicious! Pizza muffins have become one of those lunchbox staples that I rely on in a pinch. Always prepped in my freezer ready to go! I take them out frozen right into the lunchbox and they thaw by lunchtime. You could also take them out the night before to thaw. When the girls were little, I usually packed pizza muffins with an easy to sip veggie soup puree like broccoli soup, tomato soup, butternut squash soup, or zucchini soup. I’d put a little protein on the side like a hard boiled egg or meat stick along with a little piece of fruit too. As the girls have gotten bigger, I tend to pack Caesar salads, but they still really love the soup days – especially in the winter. We still do a lot of the same protein and fruit sides as well.

The Method :: The Veggies

In my original recipe, I chopped the peppers and onions, but over the years I ended up tossing the entire batter into a food processor. It was more to make the batter faster and easier, rather than hiding the veggies, although I know so many of you will have kids that appreciate not “seeing” the veggies inside! Simply toss your veggies in to pulse, and you’ll see in the next step that the batter follows right in after. I recommend not skipping the veggie step – the sweet and savory flavor that comes from these veggies really help with that pizza flavor!

The Method :: The batter

Once you have your veggies pulsed down, you’ll add in the rest of the batter ingredients, blend until smooth, and then fold in the pepperoni and cheese! If you’re dairy free, you can use the Viola Life dairy free coconut based “cheese” or just leave the cheese out. I have also found adding a good few tablespoons of nutritional yeast makes a cheese free pizza muffin have a cheese like flavor.

The Method :: Baking the muffins

You can make your pizza muffins regular sized or mini! The both freeze fantastic. You’ll find that as your kids get older, they will want the bigger ones, so if you have little ones at home, enjoy the minis if you have one of those pans at home. My 4th grader still enjoys a mini muffin for sure!

What’s the texture like?

These pizza muffins are super soft and easy to eat! The texture stays the same even frozen. In the past I have sent along pizza sauce or pesto to dip, and the pesto is a big hit here. In my original recipe, I used 4 separate gluten free flours. This was before gluten free flour blends were more readily available and more affordable! For a number of years I have been making pizza muffins with gluten free flour blends like Namaste, and it makes the texture even softer, as well as making the muffins faster to prep!

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Pizza Muffins :: Perfect For “Pizza Day” At School!

Prep Time10

Cook Time25

Total Time35

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: gluten-free pizza muffin recipe, gluten-free pizza muffins, individual pizza muffins

Servings: muffins

Author: Renee – www.raisinggenerationnourished.com

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion quartered
1/2 bell pepper quartered
1 small/medium carrot quartered
1 1/2 cups Namaste Gluten Free Flour Blend
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1-2 TB organic pure cane sugar or coconut sugar
3/4 cup organic pizza sauce
1/4 cup coconut milk or raw milk
1/4 cup olive oil or avocado oil melted butter or coconut oil works too
3 eggs
1 TB Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup chopped pepperoni Could do cooked sausage or ham too!
3/4 cup shredded raw/organic cheese of choice See Tips section if you are dairy free

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. You'll need either a silicone muffin pan, or a muffin pan lined with paper cups or silicone cups. Both regular sized muffin pans and mini muffin pans work.
Put the onion, pepper, & carrot into your food processor, and pulse until the veggies are in little pieces, about the size of rice.
Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the pepperoni and cheese. Blend into a smooth batter.
Fold the pepperoni and cheese into the batter, and scoop the batter into your prepared muffin pan.
Bake regular sized pizza muffins at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or mini muffins for about 20 minutes.

Notes

If you’re dairy free, you can use the Viola Life dairy free coconut based “cheese” or just leave the cheese out. I have also found adding a good few tablespoons of nutritional yeast makes a cheese free pizza muffin have a cheese like flavor.

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