These pancakes have been popular. They’re easy. They’re delicious. They’re paleo! And they only have a couple ingredients. So they should probably be your go-to breakfast. Originally posted in 2013 by Ellen, I think everyone needs a reminder on how good this recipe is.

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I make this on a regular basis, and made them with Jennie this week to show her just how easy these are – they really have a consistency of pancakes, flip easily, and are a good way to get protein! I got the original recipe for this dish from a paleo instagram user, @kristenatcop, and I’ve kept on making these delicious snacks/breakfasts ever since!

Ingredients:

2 bananas
2 eggs
About 1/2 cup sliced fruit. I used blackberries and strawberries.

Start by mashing up about ¾ of a banana in a bowl and try to use softened bananas (easier to mash up).

Add in 1 egg and blend together.

Add desired amount of fruit to bowl. Mix.

Then, spray down a pan with olive oil or coconut oil. Pour in batter and heat on medium. Watch your pancake! The key with paleo pancakes is patience. If you cook them on too high a setting, they will burn!

Once golden on one side, flip, and cook until both sides are cooked through.

Top with almond slices, your left over fruit, and honey…and you’re done! You have easy, protein-packed pancakes, yum!

Warning: The park opens this week.

And we, here at Garlic, My Soul are already planning our trip to Isla Nublar. There is a fantastic and thorough map of the park up at Jurassic World’s website. You can peruse the attractions, exhibits and dining choices.

But what are our snack options between Margaritaville and the Hilton Isla Nublar? What will serve as that much needed blood-sugar-boost while we ride the monorail between Triceratops Territory and T. Rex Kingdom?

We know what we’d have available: Gluten Free Buckwheat soft pretzels. Like the Indominus Rex, it’s a hybrid creation. We took the technique and principal of Alton Brown’s Soft Pretzel recipe and tweaked it for our own nefarious purposes, namely, some of us can’t eat gluten.

We also put to use King Arthur Flour’s indubitable Gluten-Free Bread and Pizza Mix. With the yeast packet already in the box and those notoriously complicated gluten free flour blends already mixed up, this is a keyboard shortcut in a box.

The idea of making soft pretzels has long been thrown around the GMS kitchen. The process can be a bit tricky (like all experiments, it comes with the inherent risk of poor tasting, rock hard dough nuggets or the inevitable destruction of a foolhardy but undeniably alluring theme park).

So when we made this batch recently in the hopes of catching Jurassic World Food and Beverage administrators’ attention, and decided to make them gluten free, we lowered our expectations accordingly. And shot for the Nublarian stars.

Boy, did it ever pay off. These hearty, fiber-heavy pretzels exceeded all of our wildest hopes. They’re rich-tasting and buttery with that traditional, yeasty soft pretzel flavor.

It’s a complex recipe that really pays off for the adventurous soul. We had pretzels for days that we were eating in between meals and with meals like soup and sandwiches (or even as meals themselves).

So, listen up, Jurassic World. Garlic, My Soul is ready to board the ferry and set up shop on the island (please refer to our business plan, attached). Let us in those doors and we’ll serve pretzels until closing time, come what may.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
2 teas kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
2 ¾ cups King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Bread and Pizza Mix
1 ¼ cup buckwheat
3 oz melted butter (2 for dough, 1 for brushing after baking)
2 tbsp vegetable oil (for brushing trays and oiling dough before rising)
6 cups water
¼ cup baking soda
1 egg

Directions:

1. Place warm water, sugar, kosher salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.
2. Give it one quick stir and then let it sit until the yeast bubbles to life.
3. Add the King Arthur Flour and melted butter.
4. Attach dough hook (or use a fork) and mix until well combined.
5. Add remaining buckwheat flour and mix on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Rub the dough ball with oil, place a piece of plastic wrap over it (directly onto the dough not just across the top of the bowl) and let sit for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
8. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper, brush lightly with oil and set aside.
9. Crack egg into a small bowl, mix with 2 tablespoons water and set aside as well.
10. Place the 6 cups of water and baking soda in a large stock pot over medium heat.
11. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, turn out the dough onto a lightly oiled surface.
12. Knead slightly and form a dough ball.
13. Pull off a roughly tennis-ball sized (maybe a smidge smaller) chunk of dough. Cover the rest with plastic wrap while you work.
14. Roll small dough mound into a long rope.
15. To make the pretzel shape, begin to form a circle from the bottom, then cross at the top and fold the ends back to the bottom, center of the rope. It took us a while to get them even remotely pretzel shaped so don’t be afraid to try, try again.
16. Place finished pretzels on your oiled tray.
17. Using a flat metal strainer or spatula, lower the pretzels into the boiling water and allow to cook for approximately 30 seconds each.
18. Remove from water and place back on tray.
19. When you’ve boiled your tray-full of pretzels, brush with your egg wash, sprinkle with salt and slide those suckers into the oven for 12-14 minutes.
20. Remove and drench with butter. Enjoy at your leisure. Or on the run from terrifying hybrid dinosaurs, as the case may be.

Hey y’all! Happy Monday. Today, I wanted to share a book review with you. I recently read through this amazing half-history, half-cookbook, and I think you might like it, too.

I’ll be honest, the first 100 pages of so, aka the “book” section, confused me at times when I couldn’t tell what was fact and myth (aka, does garlic lower cholesterol? Studies are unclear still, which I get, but it’s good for your heart in other ways, so just keep eating it!) and at times, it was dry, which happens with books of history.

However, in other places, this book had me hooked in other places “Garlic also kills bacteria directly by invading their cells and causing them to explode” in explains on page 31; “Scientists today believe that eating garlic can reduce the risk of several cancers, especially those of the gastrointestinal tract…” it goes on further, on page 37. Garlic is so good for you in so many ways, and this book is basically a credo that’s telling us to eat.more.garlic. Which I obviously can get behind.

I love to hear all the benefits of garlic (after all, we are Garlic, My Soul) and I love knowing that garlic has been in recipes since the beginning (recipes date back to 1700 B.C.E.) There is a whole section about how to grow your own garlic (which I hopefully will be doing once we move and can have a garden!) Seeing how many varieties there are of garlic really makes me think that I need to do some shopping…

The second half of the book is recipes, and I plan to try many of them soon, so I’ll let you know how it goes. I love history, and obviously I love cooking, so I love a book that combine the two for me! I look forward to trying the recipes soon and seeing what new dishes I can add to our wheelhouse – I am hoping garlic soup, Chicken Ghiveci, and Roasted Garlic Soufflé is a good place to start!

If you love garlic, or reading about the history of cooking, I suggest you pick this up and give it a try – I have a copy if you want to borrow it, in fact!

What is your favorite cook book? Do you ever read about cooking and the history thereof? Share with me your favorite books – I am always looking for suggestions!

Happy Friday, chickens! I’m headed into my last weekend out of town for a while (in the past 10 weeks, I’ve been out of town for 8 of them) but I’m headed to see my family in Chicago, half work and half play, so I can’t be too cranky about it.

This past week was Jeff’s birthday, and my birthday is next week. Our birthdays are exactly one week apart, which is pretty fun I must admit, to have a stacked celebration for the first couple of weeks of June (plus, our friend Mary’s birthday is May 26, so that’s three birthdays a week apart – party city!)

To celebrate our birthdays, I thought you might like a round up of birthday treats that we consider our favorite over at GMS. If you’ve got a birthday coming up, or a party to go to that needs dessert (read: all parties) then why not make one of these treats?

Last year, we attempted to make homemade Star Crunch for Jeff’s birthday. It was a lot of work, but we were happy with the results – and so was Jeff!

This year, Jeff asked for triple-chip cookies, which have chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and white chocolate chips. These are easy to whip up and I was appreciative for something fast that he’d still love. Plus, now we have a full cookie jar!

Another one of Jeff’s favorites in Outrageous Brownies, which my mom made for him once that he ended up addicted to. I need to make them again soon and put them here for you, because they’re too good not to share with the world.

We made this ombre cake for Mary’s birthday a few year’s back, and it’s still one of our faves. Just so pretty, and jam between every layer is certainly a hit!

This Chocolate Bread Pudding a couple years ago that Cor and I made was phenomenal, and everyone should have it for their birthday. Perfect balance of savory, chocolately, and sweet.

Last year, I asked for a Sour Cream Coffee Cake for my birthday, and Corelyn didn’t disappoint: this monster was AMAZING and I want one every time I look at it. PLUS it’s coffee cake, and so that’s basically breakfast, yeah?

If you’re baking for someone who’s paleo, try these Paleo Cupcakes. They were delicious and double chocolate, which always makes me happy.

Need something gluten free? We love this Gluten Free Sprinkle Cake if you’re working with a gluten free birthday boy/girl, or this Strawberry Gluten Free Cake.

We have many more cakes about the site, so if you need something different be sure to search around if you need birthday-inspiration. As for me, I am going to go see if there are any cookies left in the cookie jar…

I have been dying to make this no-knead bread forever. Have you ever done that thing where you really have intentions to do something and then five years later you realize you never did it? Sometimes I remember that I was supposed to tell someone something in college only to realize it no longer matters, like a paper I was supposed to complete for extra credit or a RA write-up that I never added everyone’s ID numbers to.  I don’t know what that says about the inner workings of my brain, but it’s usually a relief, whatever it is, to know that something that once mattered no longer is on my plate. (Guys, I am the weirdest I think.)

Anyways, so Katie posted this five years ago. Literally five years ago. I had every intention of making it at the time, but I just kept not getting around to it, and finally a few weeks ago I put my foot down and just effing MADE it.

Now, I followed the recipe exactly, and when I got to the folding step (aka step 2) I knew something was wrong. Actually, I knew something was wrong when I put the dough in to rise, because I have made other dough before, but I just was letting the recipe do the work. What if this was my first bread, I reasoned, and I didn’t know what to look for? Why aren’t their step by step photos??

I had let it rise about 16 hours, and it was just too wet to do anything with. So I turned it out onto a non-stick pad, I added flour until the consistency was one I was more familiar with, and I put it back to rise for another 4 hours or so. At this point, it seemed to be what it should be for step 3, so I folded it and put it in a towel and let it rise for 2 more hours.

At this point, I also made a dough for some cookies that didn’t turn out, and I was starting to think that maybe I was not fit to be a food blogger and I should just pack it up and make crescents rolls from a tube. But then I remembered how scary those tubes are and how I cannot be the one to open them because it stresses me out too much not to know when the sound is coming, so I steeled myself and headed back into the kitchen.

The dough looked about right about an hour and a half in, so I turned on the oven and stuck in my Dutch oven. Then, when the time was right, I yelled like a banshee that EVERYTHING ON THE STOVE IS REALLY EFFING HOT (because by this time, I was also making dinner and Jeff was about as was Cooper the dog and I was scared one of us was going to pick up the 450 degree Dutch oven limb and lose some fingers) and I flipped my dough in and did a little pray-dance.

It came out delicious. I will be making this again despite the time commitment. It’s kind of nice to have that grounding force in your house. “Sorry, I’d love to stay out but I have dough to attend to” is a great excuse. Knowing you need to take care of something in 16 hours gives you a sense of responsibility. And slows you down – all good things take time.

The point is, make this bread, and if it looks weird, add a little flour until it doesn’t. Either way, it’ll be alright, and you’ll have a great bread (and even better toast) that really, all things considered, is pretty low maintenance.

K, thanks for bringing this into my life circa 2010. I won’t ever wait to make your other recipe suggestions for that long again.