Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake

Clearly I'm on a bit of a sweets kick. Part of it comes down to the fact that I'm trying to use up the food/cooking supplies that I have at my apartment so that I don't have to move the food.

Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake

3 Tbls almond flour

2 Tbls cocoa powder

1 1/2 Tbls honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

Mix the ingredients together in a microwave-safe mug.

Cook in microwave for 2 minutes. And... you're done. Three minutes of work and you get a cake out of the deal. What's better than that?

Paleo Peach Cobbler

Paleo Peach Cobbler

2 small peaches
1/3 cup water
2.5 Tbls honey
1 Tbls + 1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cup almond flour
1 egg
2.5 Tbls coconut oil
pinch of sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prep a baking dish by greasing the dish with melted ghee or coconut oil.
2. Peel and dice the peaches. Mix in pan with water, honey, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until you hit your desired thickness.

3. Transfer peach mixture to your baking dish(es).

4. In a separate bowl, mix the almond flour, 1 Tbls cinnamon, egg, coconut oil, and sea salt. Scoop over the peach mixture.

5. Bake for 30 minutes.

6. Let cool for a couple minutes. Then serve. I topped mine with coconut cream (milk).

Thrive Brussels Sprouts

Last month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article about Atlanta restaurant Thrive's Brussels sprouts. While I was in Atlanta two weekends ago, I tried out their recipe, and decided it was good. Yesterday, I decided to make it Paleo by changing the unsalted butter to ghee and using olive oil instead of canola oil (ewww). Oh, I also cooked more Brussels sprouts. See the original recipe here.

3 Tbls EVOO for sauteing

2 cup Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, cut in half

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup chicken stock (I used chicken broth because I didn't have any stock at home)

1 tablespoon ghee

1/2 tablespoon honey

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

Heat the EVOO in a skillet over medium heat. Place sprouts cut side down in a single layer. Sear sprouts until they are golden brown, then turn, searing the other side. (I cooked mine a little too long on the first side because I got distracted. It should be about 3 minutes per side.)

Season with a few shakes of salt and pepper. Add vinegar and cook until vinegar has reduced by half. Add chicken broth, ghee, honey and pepper flakes and continue to cook until sauce has reduced to a glaze, about 5 minutes.

Paleo Pumpkin Pudding

I found this recipe on Stella Cooks. So it's not an original. Anyways, here it is:

Pumpkin Pudding
15 oz pumpkin puree
2 Tbls coconut milk
2 Tbls almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp honey
1 Tbls maple syrup (I added this)

Mix together and chill in the fridge.

I realized while I was making the pudding that I really don't like the taste or smell of coconut milk by itself. I like it in Thai dishes and in this pudding. I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise to me. As a child I always refused to eat anything with coconut flakes in it. I hated the taste. So it's an improvement that I've managed to start to incorporate coconut into my dishes. I'll slowly work my way up to it. I didn't like almond butter when I first started eating Paleo, and now I love it and can't stand peanut butter. Go figure!

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

Bear with me and my recent pumpkin obsession. Yes, I think it's appropriate to call it an obsession now. Feel free to argue with me on the "recent" term though. I keep thinking of more and more ways to cook pumpkin. And I seem to want something pumpkin everyday. Don't worry, I'm kind of restraining myself. I don't want to get tired of pumpkin before Thanksgiving. Heaven forbid that would happen. I'm already craving the pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin bread that I intend to bake. Oh, excuse me while I wipe this drool off of my chin.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup almond flour

2 tsp pumpkin spice (Add an extra 1 tsp cinnamon if you wish. Trust me, I wish!)

1 Tbls honey

1 pinch sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Whisk the egg, then mix in the pumpkin puree.

Heat 1 tsp coconut oil over medium-low heat (3 out of 9). Spoon 1 large tablespoon of the pumpkin mixture onto the pan, using the spoon to spread the mixture into a circle. The mixture is very thick, so this step is necessary to get flat pancakes. After ~3 minutes, flip to the other side. Be very careful with this step. You need to work your spatula under the pancake slowly, otherwise, the pancake might fall apart. Repeat until you've used all of your batter. It will make about 6 pancakes.

Serve with maple syrup. Yummmmm!

Apple Butter

Because I was bad and didn't post for a while, here's a sweet and easy treat for you... Forgive me?

Apple butter is a pretty basic recipe, and it epitomizes autumn! I might have mentioned once or twice that I've been longing for fall. Just maybe. One of my co-workers told me today that I looked like fall. I politely thanked him, but in my head I was dancing around and cheering. Mission accomplished!

Apple Butter

9 apples (of a 5-lb bag of Gala apples, I used all but two, mainly because I got tired of peeling and chopping apples)

1/4 cup honey

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

Peel and then chop your apples into small slices (I stopped at Wal-mart on the way home from work yesterday to buy an apple slicer specifically for this purpose - only $3.97).

Of course, you'll have to cut the pieces smaller after the slicer does its job. Transfer all of the apple chunks to your trusty Crock-pot. Spread the seasonings and honey over the top of your apples.

After 2 hours of cooking.

I waited until after cooking for two hours once there was a bit more liquid to mix everything up. However, if you're just going to let the slow-cooker do its thing and not touch it, i.e., overnight or during your work day, go ahead and mix everything now.

Cover and set the slow-cooker on low heat for 8 hours. If your slow-cooker isn't programmable, you can do what my buddy BA does. Get a plug-in timer, set the timer so that the electricity will be supplied for 8 hours, and plug your slow-cooker into that. Genius! This saves you electricity costs, too. And you can use it when you go out of town so it looks like you're still there. Or if you come home after dark and want a light on in your house so you don't trip over things as you make your way to the light switch.

After 8 hours, your apples should look like this:

Use your food processor or blender to blend the soft cinnamon-y apples until smooth. Transfer to jars/storage containers. You're done. The apple butter can cool in the jars and you can spread it on Paleo crackers (recipe to come), or on pork, or even it it by itself. Crazy! If you eat bread, you could have an apple butter sandwich, just replace the almond butter with apple butter, or use both. However, if you're like me and will normally eat apples with a bit of almond butter, I don't recommend exchanging apple butter for almond butter: apple slices with apple butter might be a bit too much apple. You'd be consuming a lot of natural sugars (way more than Paleo-recommended levels)!


Next step: Pumpkin butter! Mmmmm... pumpkin!

Zucchini-Carrot Cookies

I call these cookies because they're cookie sized. However, the consistency is a bit more like miniature zucchini bread cakes. When I described them to friends over the weekend, I called them Zucchini-Carrot-Banana-Orange-Coconut Cookies. Doesn't sound terribly appealing ("too many veggies"), but if you like zucchini bread, you'll love these.

Zucchini-Carrot Cookies

1 cup zucchini, shredded

1/2 cup carrot, shredded

1 banana, frozen

2 Tbls orange juice, fresh-squeezed if possible

2 Tbls cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 Tbls honey

1 Tbls maple syrup

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 + 1 Tbls cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 325F. Now set out the frozen banana to let it thaw. Use a shredding attachment on your handy-dandy food processor, shred one zucchini. Remove the excess water from the shredded zucchini. Place zucchini on a paper towel and pat with another paper towel. Do the same with the carrot. Place the zucchini, carrot, and banana into a bowl and use a hand-mixer to break down the banana. Beat in the orange juice and eggs, and then mix in all of the remaining ingredients. Using a large spoon, place the batter on a coconut oil-greased baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Hiatus - Paleo Pumpkin Brownies

Ingredients
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbls sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) or any nut butter
3 eggs, whisked
2 Tbls maple syrup
1 Tbls honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 Tbls cocoa powder
1 Tbls pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbls cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate-Chips (Dairy-free, Soy-free, and Gluten-free)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all of the wet ingredients together with a hand mixer. Start with the pumpkin puree and the sunbutter, adding each wet ingredient one at a time. Mix in the flours, cocoa powder, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and baking soda. Now, fold in your chocolate chips. Spread in a greased (with coconut oil) 8"x8" baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick entered in the center comes out clean

It even looks good before baking!

So Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate-Chips are made in a dedicated gluten-free and nut-free environment, so you wind up with vegan, kosher, gluten-free, casein-free, dairy-free, soy-free chocolate chips. Intense, huh? Definitely makes you wonder what's left. And since you're wondering, I'll let you know: evaporated cane juice, chocolate liquor, non-dairy cocoa butter.

Nom nom nom...

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Pumpkin Spice Muffins


Bowl 1
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cloves
Bowl 2
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
2 tbls coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla


Streusel
1/2 cup choppen pecans
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbls coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Sift the ingredients of Bowl 1 together. Set aside. Put pumpkin puree into a bowl and mix in eggs, one at a time. Add honey, coconut oil, and vanilla, stirring well. Add in the dry ingredients, beating until no large lumps remain. Fill muffin tin 2/3 of the way and top with a spoonful of the Streusel mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

YUMMMM!!!

Dijon-Pecan Chicken Breast

Dijon-Pecan Chicken Breast

2 large chicken breasts, sliced open (butterfly-style)
1/2 cup hot Dijon mustard
2 Tbls honey
1 cup pecans, ground
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking pan with tinfoil for easy clean-up.

Use a blender or food processor to grind the pecans, but don't grind to the point of making pecan butter or flour - texture is good. Mix the mustard, honey, and pecans together.

Before the oven

Spread resulting paste over both sides of the chicken breasts. Sprinkle with sea salt. Place chicken breasts on baking pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the juices run clear.

The first picture shows the chicken plated on a bed of baby spinach and cucumber tossed in a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a couple shakes each of oregano, parsley, and cumin. It may not look terribly appealing, but it's really good, especially with the hot Dijon mustard.