This may be an unusual blogpost for a jazz pianist, but sometimes one needs to be creative in other areas too. My family has very special dietary needs so when I find something that works well I tweet about it and share links to recipes so other people with similar needs…or not, can enjoy them also. Recently I tweeted about making nutritious breakfast ice-cream and who doesn't love ice-cream? So of course someone asked if I would post the recipe on my blog.

The deal is, when our second daughter was a few months old it was discovered that she had multiple food allergies. It took several months to figure it all out but the list, which is getting shorter, now includes peanuts, treenuts, dairy, eggs, wheat, fish, all meat but turkey, sesame seeds (there goes tahini), potatoes, and….. oh I think that's it. So obviously we had to discover new foods the whole family could enjoy together.

The breakfast ice-cream is not just great for breakfast, but also as a snack or dessert. The original recipe calls for almonds but because of the nut allergies I use sunflower-seeds, pumpkin-seeds and/or flax seeds.

The recipe is:

1/3 cup seeds (don't skip 'cause these are high in minerals, vitamins and add protein)
1/3 cup frozen berries
1/2 avocado
1 Tbsp coconut oil (gently warmed to liquefy)
add coconut water, or rice milk to get the desired consistency
you can even add a spoon of green powder (super greens or, if in Iceland, get the Green Bomb at JurtaApotek)

Grind the seeds finely in a blender, add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Enjoy!

Now since you got me started I must share another recipe with you. I had to take my girls to a pizza party the other day. It's not much fun when you can't eat pizza. But last summer I was turned on to corn grits while in the US and a twitter buddy of mine, Greg Harness (@gharness), recommended I tried corn grits pizza or polenta pizza. So thanks to Greg I knew what to do. You see, I had to take out wheat and diary when I was breastfeeding my child and I discovered that I had wheat and dairy intolerance. I must say I wasn't looking forward to eating pizza with no cheese but this recipe turned out so great that we just made it again tonight and it will be a frequent item on our menu.

First, put on a CD by your favorite Icelandic jazz artist. This takes about an hour and half to make. Of course there is waiting time which you can use to thoroughly immerse yourself in the music. Make polenta according to instructions on the package, and spread out on a pizza pan and let cool. Use a wet spatula to spread it evenly. I mix pasta sauce with some tofu in the blender to get protein in it for my baby. I bake it for 30 minutes at 180C (350 or so Fahrenheit). That's how she eats it and loves it…. with a little added sea salt and fresh veggies on the side. Now here comes the topping for you grown-ups.

1 onion, sliced thinly
3 or more cloves crushed/minced garlic
handful of sunflower-seeds
2 large handfuls of spinach leaves or other greens
handful of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Maldon Sea Salt
Olive oil

Caramelize the onion and garlic on a pan with a little oil. Add sunflower seeds and sun-dried tomatoes. When ready to serve add the greens and the salt to the pan, warm slightly but take of the heat when it starts to turn bright green. Throw topping on pizza, drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and dig in.

Please let me know how it goes if you try either of these.