New Tradition: Healthy Meals with Friends - Part 2

My friends and I held our second healthy dinner on Sunday. We all seemed to be on the same page when it came to veggies because we ended up with two dishes of each veggie: broccoli, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. There was steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts, roasted broccoli and carrots, sweet and spicy roasted carrot fries, and a shredded Brussels sprouts salad. So it was three veggies, two-ways, and it was delicious.

The meat entrée was Chicken Coconut Curry based on Tyler Florence’s recipe, and dessert consisted of fresh fruit with whipped coconut cream. Here's how you can make the whipped cream...

Whipped (Coconut) Cream

1 can coconut milk – chill for a few hours first and DO NOT SHAKE THE CAN

1.5 tsp vanilla
1 Tbls raw honey

Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

1. Open the unshaken can of coconut milk and scoop out the top solidified portion of the coconut cream. If you shake the can, you won’t have the thick coconut cream that you’re looking for. Or if you want to be super crafty, open the can from the bottom and pour the liquid into a storage container, then scrape out the cream. The liquid/milk can be used for smoothies.
2. Combine the vanilla, honey, cinnamon, and coconut cream in a stand mixer or bowl. Mix/whisk well (3-5 minutes), until you get the fluffy whipped cream consistency. This may take longer, especially if you’re hand-whisking.

I was a little off my game this past week due to the ridiculous BBQ cold/flu I came down with at the Rodeo Cook-off. Quite a few people on my team came down with something. I ended up staying home and in bed (or on the couch when I couldn't stand my bed anymore) for most of the week. It was a very pathetic week.

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

I was desperately craving some blueberry muffins the other day. So what's a girl to do, but start baking?

I am a self-proclaimed baker, not a cook. Don't get me wrong, I can whip up some decent meals, but baking is by far my strong suit - it's intuitive. I know what the various batters are supposed to look like and I just mix in my Paleo ingredients until it looks right. So here's one recipe for Paleo blueberry muffins. I did use maple syrup, but you can easily exclude it if you're on a Whole 30. Yes, blueberry muffins are considered SWYPO (Sex With Your Pants On), but if you've got a craving, I think it's better to let yourself indulge in that craving instead of eating everything else you can get your hands on and then still being dissatisfied. Go ahead... you know you want to!

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup almond butter

1 cup almond meal

3 Tbls tapioca flour

3 Tbls arrowroot powder

1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

a couple shakes of sea salt

2 eggs

2 Tbls maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly mixed, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
3. Distribute into 10 muffin tins - you can either coat each section with coconut oil, or you can use a muffin tin liner - silicone is easier to separate from the muffin, but paper works well too.
4. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
5. Let cool for a little bit, then devour as if you were cookie monster and these blueberry muffins were cookies. But try to get all of these muffins in your mouth instead of letting them fly all over the place, it'd be a shame to waste such deliciousness.

What happened to me?

My family's delicious dinner this past Christmas. This about sums up my eating habits recently: potato sausage, potato bread (can you get more carbs than that?), Swedish meatballs. But I didn't go completely wrong - there's still salmon and broccoli!

What happened to me? That's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately. For the past 8 months I've thrown Paleo out the window. I said goodbye to Paleo and welcomed back bread, cheese, and baked goodies with open arms. I became re-addicted to bread and grains. I grew up as a bread, starch, and cheese sort of gal. If you had asked me as a kid what my favorite food was, I probably would have said either bread or mashed potatoes. Even now, I can tell you my favorite types of bread, because of course I've ranked them - naan, pita, ciabatta, and sourdough are the top four, but I could got on…

These past 8 months have brought that love/addiction/obsession back to the surface. A majority of meals consisted of pita bread or naan with cheese. I have favorite types of cheeses, too, in case you were wondering: gjetost (Norwegian brown goat cheese), brie, white cheddar, havarti, and gouda are just the top five. Part of the reason why I started eating non-Paleo again was because of some health-related issues that started at the beginning of last summer. I was exhausted all of the time and could barely scrape up the energy to cook Paleo meals. When I did cook, I was never in the mood for it - I've wasted a LOT of Paleo-friendly meals over the last few months. So I turned to pre-made meals from Whole Foods or easy-to-snack-on items, like bread and cheese, or vast quantities of chocolate.

Turns out, I was deficient in Vitamin B12. This vitamin is necessary for normal functioning of your nervous system and cell metabolism. It can cause tiredness, weakness, dizziness, numbness or tingling in your fingers and toes, nerve damage (sometimes permanent), GI issues, mood changes, irritability, memory loss, and disorientation. Vitamin B12 deficiency is usually the result of an absorptivity issue. Other causes include insufficient consumption of B12 (such as if you're a vegetarian or a vegan), intestinal conditions (Crohn's disease, celiac, or parasites), or immune disorders (Graves' disease or lupus). You obtain vitamin B12 through your diet - it is not something that your body produces on it's own. Sources of B12 include: meat, poultry, shellfish, eggs, and dairy products.

Not only was I deficient in Vitamin B12 at that time, but also I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid is under-active. Some of the symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, muscle weakness, joint pain/stiffness, depression, impaired memory, dry skin, increased sensitivity to cold, hoarseness, and peripheral neuropathy (numbness and tingling in your fingers and toes), among others.

I was diagnosed with both of these issues after going to a neurologist complaining of numbness and tingling in my fingers. The numbness was particularly bad when I was working out, and sometimes made me a little worried about lifting weights, because I had a hard time maintaining my grip. While this was going on, I was also struggling with waking up exhausted (despite 9 hours of sleep) and had to resort to chugging down caffeine to attempt to stay awake at work. The caffeine just made me simultaneously hyper and tired, and I still couldn't focus. I felt like I was in a constant fog, just struggling to make it through the day. Some days just fighting through work for the first 30 minutes of the day seemed like more than I could bear. I stopped being active because I was tired and I compensated feeling tired with eating more. I stopped cooking for myself because it took more effort than I had to give.

My doctor decided to run some blood tests… and that led to the addition of a few more pills to my daily regimen in order to get my thyroid and B12 levels back in check. I started feeling more energetic again, but couldn't quite get back into Paleo. In a way, I felt betrayed by the Paleo diet. For me, the biggest benefit of going Paleo, was NOT being sick and NOT having to go to the doctor all of the time. And that benefit was slipping away. Here I was, uncommonly tired, gaining weight, and back to visiting the doctor every month. Despite eating meat or animal protein at practically every meal, I was deficient in B12. Despite following the Paleo lifestyle of getting enough sleep, eating clean, lifting heavy things, and moving around more, my body was failing me.

Fortunately, the supplements started to help. After a couple weeks, I started feeling energetic again, but by this time, I was re-addicted to grains and sugar, and though I would tell myself I really needed to get back to eating healthy, I didn't want to give up my addictions. The motivation to eat clean just fell away. I continued to give Paleo the finger.

I was feeling pretty good for a little while, but things started to hurt again. Being the overachiever that I am, I ignored the pain and continued to push myself at the gym and at soccer. I started wearing a knee brace again and ibuprofen became a frequent companion. Then something happened that I've never experienced while working out... my muscles wouldn't completely respond. I tried to use a medium box for step ups at the gym, and I couldn't get my foot up high enough. My quad muscles had obviously started to fire, but seemed to stop half-way. It felt like my body wasn't listening to me. From there, I continued to fall apart. My lifts got harder, and my body began hurting more and more. Around the same time, I started having severe neck pain, which led to physical therapy for my neck, and my exercise was reduced to walking. My migraines came back, and my constant daily headaches returned.

Suffice it to say, I've been falling apart for a while now. And it's time that I try to take charge of my life again.

To start, I'm working my way back to Paleo. I'm beginning with gluten-free, and moving on from there. I'm going to try to break my re-addiction to sugar and grains. And I’m trying to be more active again, which at this point includes swimming, biking, physical therapy (on my knee this time), and walking. And every little bit helps, right?

As I mentioned, I was still cooking some Paleo dishes. And here's one of the desserts I made.

Bacon-wrapped Dates

2 strips bacon

8 dates

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the strips of bacon into quarters, and wrap each piece around a date. Stick with a toothpick to keep the bacon wrapped around the date.
3. Place on a baking sheet and transfer to the hot oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Against All Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

While I was in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, my parents and I hosted a drinks and desserts event at our home. I threw Paleo out of the window and made my pumpkin trifle and pumpkin chocolate chip bars, to go with the giant tray of chocolate that my mom tossed together and the blueberry-lime cake and fruit tarts that our friends brought. I wasn't intending on partaking in any sweets (I tried, but it's hard sometimes), but because I knew that my best friend's boyfriend is Paleo as well, I did make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, Because I was feeling a tad lazy and didn't want to come up with my own recipe at the last minute, I use the Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Against All Grain.

It turned out well. Honestly, the people who came over said that if I hadn't have told them about the whole non-grain aspect of the cookies, they wouldn't have known. Instead of grain, the recipe called for almond flour and coconut flour. Personally, they were a little dry/fluffy for my taste (I'm a chewy cookie sort of gal), but they did taste pretty good. I only got the chance to eat one, because everyone else ate the rest, but I do recommend it.

Some things to note about this recipe...

1. The recipe does include dairy - grass-fed butter and dark chocolate. (The recipe uses both Enjoy Life chocolate chips and dark chocolate.

2. The resulting mixture ended up very sticky. I recommend using two spoons to kind of scoop up the mixture, get it roughly golf-ball sized, and then get it onto the parchment paper-lined tray. I'm not sure how to describe the process that I used, but it was kind of like scooping the mixture from one spoon to the other repeatedly until it formed the shape I was looking for. Yeah, that's a terribly explanation, but that's the best I got without a video. Something to work on?

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Recipe Round-up

Thanksgiving is almost here! So what does that mean? To me, it means pumpkin! As I'm sure you're well aware, I love pumpkin! Really and truly. Fall kicks in and I go pumpkin-crazy. (I have 5 cans of pumpkin puree in my pantry right now). Sigh, autumn is wonderful! So here are my pumpkin treats just in time for Thanksgiving:

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Paleo Pumpkin Brownies

Paleo Pumpkin Mug Cake

Pumpkin Blackberry Pancakes

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

Paleo Pumpkin Brownie Swirl

Paleo Pumpkin Pudding

Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Paleo Pumpkin Brownies

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Vegan Cookie Mix Review

Review: Purely Elizabeth - Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

gluten-free, vegan, free of refined sugar

Should you buy this mix? Probably not.

I recommend a pass on this one. If you stick to a strict Paleo diet, definitely skip this one. To make these cookies, you have to add in oil (olive or coconut), applesauce, and vanilla extract. I went with melted coconut oil and organic, sugar-free applesauce. The resulting cookie was incredibly crumbly, to the point that I ended up eating the cookies with a spoon. The oatmeal flavor is a bit overwhelming for me, so eating more than one cookie at a time wasn't gonna happen (that's one way of eating cookies in moderation).

Now to the Paleo discussion. This cookie mix doesn't comply with Paleo, but it's one of the most Paleo-friendly cookie mixes that I've found yet. Yes it contains oats, millet flour, and garbanzo fava bean flour, which definitely makes this cookie mix fall out of the range of Paleo. However... instead of using regular sugar, this mix is made with coconut palm sugar which is rather well known in the Paleo realm. Additionally, part of the flour portion of the mix contains almond flour. Again, another popular Paleo ingredient. This was a cheat meal buy for me. Compared to the other gluten-free mixes out there, which are made with a mix of corn or rice flour, potato starch, and soy, this is a better choice for Paleo... in theory at least. In execution, it lacked a certain flair... or... well... cookie consistency. Maybe I did something wrong. It's quite possible. Maybe I um, accidentally added too much coconut oil? I don't know. Maybe my oven operates differently from others. Anyways, I'm sure this cookie worked for someone else. But not for me. So I vote no. It's got potential, but I think I'll stick with making my own cookies.

Ingredients: organic millet flour, organic coconut palm sugar, organic almond flour, certified gluten-free oats, chocolate chips (evaporated cane juice, chocolate liquor, non-dairy cocoa butter), dried cherries, garbanzo fava bean flour, organic chia seeds, baking soda, sea salt.

Paleo Nutella

You know when you really want nutella, and then you realize that it contains a bunch of non-Paleo ingredients: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk) lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor (What is vanillin by the way?) Well here's the solution... No it doesn't fit into the Virgin Diet because of the maple syrup, but that's okay, because I didn't actually eat it today. It was yummy in my tummy.

Paleo Hazelnut Spread

1/3 cup ground hazelnuts/almond butter

1 Tbls maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbls cocoa powder

Mix the ingredients together and you're ready to eat. Enjoy on apples, Paleo crackers, or by itself if you're like me.

Pumpkin Blackberry Pancakes

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been doing much cooking (at least nothing new). Somehow, I managed to wake myself up this morning, and whip this together though. I'm pretty impressed with myself, because I rarely take the time to make breakfast. I normally just eat leftovers.

Pumpkin Blackberry Pancakes

1 Tbls coconut oil

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup almond flour

1/8 cup coconut flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup blackberries, cut into quarters

1. Heat 1 Tbls coconut oil over medium-low heat in a large pan.

2. Mix wet ingredients together, then mix in the dry ingredients.

3. Fold in the blackberries.

4. Transfer to hot pan by the heaping tablespoon full. (If you make each pancake too large, they'll just fall apart when you try to flip them.)

5. Cook for about 3 minutes per side. The pancakes are ready to flip when the edges of the pancake have turned a darker brown. Serve with maple syrup.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

I gave it a try. I attempted another recipe of Paleo pumpkin chocolate chip bars. The results? It's a bit closer to the consistency (but it's not quite there) and the pumpkin flavor got a bit overwhelmed by the coconut sugar. I've never used coconut sugar before, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. So here's the recipe I created today. Again, it tastes good, but it's not exactly what I was aiming for.

Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars (#2)

1/2 cup walnut chunks

4 Medjool dates, pitted

1/4 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 Tbls pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup melted ghee

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup almond butter

pinch of salt

3/4 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Use coconut oil to grease a 8"x8" pan.

2. Put walnuts and Medjool dates into a food processor for a couple minutes (or until they almost form a paste)

3. Mix the almond flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt into the walnuts and dates.

4. In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to mix the coconut sugar and melted ghee.

5. Once the sugar and ghee are combined, add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the pumpkin puree and almond butter.

6. Now mix the "dry" ingredients (everything from the food processor) into the "wet" ingredients.

7. Fold in the chocolate chips.

8. Transfer the mixture into the baking pan, and place in the oven.

9. Cook for 35-40 minutes. The sides of the pumpkin bars should pull away from the edges of the pan, and a toothpick entered into the center of the pan should come out clean. Let cool before slicing.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip bars last night. The non-Paleo kind. So tempting! My goal for this week(end) is to tweak my Paleo-ified version of it. I brought the pan into work, and it was cleaned out by noonish. Any some of my co-workers didn't even get any. Fortunately I have enough ingredients to make another batch. You're welcome, co-workers!

I really need to get back into good sleep habits. This morning, I either slept through a series of alarms or I partially woke up, turned off four alarms, and immediately fell back asleep.  My alarms are set at 5:00, 5:30, and 6:00, and sounds every 5 minutes if you don't turn it off. The first alarm to go off would be my sleep cycle alarm in the 4:30-5:00 range. The remaining alarms are on my phone. I finally woke up at 6:05 If I happened to sleep through all of the alarms (plus 5 minute reminder alarms), that would mean that my phone sounded 14 times this morning before I managed to rolled myself out of bed. I shuffled a few feet closer to the bathroom, and then dropped into 50 squats.

I'm doing a 30-day, 6000 squat challenge, meaning 200 squats per day. (Feel free to join in! Though you would need to catch up for a couple days.) Today was day two, and I'm 450 squats in. Unfortunately, I'm also already icing my knee. Though technically I started doing that yesterday evening. Maybe it's time to invest in a knee brace again. Each time I do a squat I can hear my knees creaking. It's a bit disconcerting. Anyways, to the good stuff...

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup cranberries
2 eggs
1/2 cup almond flour
1 Tbls pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbls maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Mix together wet ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup).
3. Then stir in remaining ingredients. And spoon into coconut-oil greased muffin tin.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes,  until toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

Yum! Pumpkin Hot Chocolate. How can you have Paleo hot chocolate? you ask. Well, I'm happy to help you there. And to incorporate one of my favorite foods: pumpkin. Here goes...

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

1/2 cup + 2 Tbls coconut milk

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp pumpkin spice

2-3 Tbls cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbls maple syrup

1 pinch of salt

1. Combine the coconut milk and pumpkin puree in a small saucepan over medium heat.

2. Once the milk and puree are completely combined and warm, stir in the remaining ingredients.

3. Serve immediately. It's really thick.

If you don't drink it all immediately, then you can put the rest in the fridge and use it as pudding.  Yeah, that's what I did.

Paleo Pineapple Layer Popsicle

Paleo Pineapple Layer Popsicle

1/4 cup pineapple chunks with ~2 Tbls juice

4 Tbls grapefruit juice (1 Tbls for each popsicle)

1/4 cup blueberries

1. Place the pineapple and pineapple juice in the blender and puree until smooth.

2. Transfer to popsicle tray and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

3. Pull out the popsicle tray and pour in 1 Tbls of grapefruit juice into each popsicle mold. Freeze for 15 minutes.

4. Place the blueberries in the blender and puree until smooth.

5. Remove the popsicle tray from the freezer and pour in the blueberry puree until each mold is full.

6. Freeze for 2 hours. Then remove tray, dunk the bottom portion in warm water to loosen the popsicles, and enjoy!

Happy Twenty-Sexy!

Today was my 26th birthday, a.k.a. the twenty-sexy birthday. To celebrate, a few of the ladies and I went to a wine bar for dinner. And since it's my birthday, we got free champagne. Awesome!

 

Here's what I ate...

Duck Confit Eggrolls: cured confit duck, napa cabbage, daikon, carrot, mango mustard - I ate out the insides of the eggroll, but didn't take a picture of the mess

Braised Short Rib: boneless short rib, red wine braising reduction, whipped potatoes, honey pesto glazed baby carrots

Gluten Free Flourless Red Velvet: chocolate cookie crust, moist and light red velvet cake, red velvet pudding, cream cheese icing, dusted with powdered sugar

Yeah, I ate some... yum!

Paleo Pumpkin Mug Cake

I know you were all waiting in anticipation of what I would do with the excess pumpkin pie mixture that I didn't bake in the oven. Easy... just mix yesterday's Paleo Pumpkin Pie leftovers with a couple tablespoons of coconut flour (or almond flour), and microwave for 2.5 minutes.

If you don't have leftovers, this is what you can use to make a Paleo Pumpkin Mug Cake

Paleo Pumpkin Mug Cake

3 Tbls pumpkin puree

3 Tbls coconut flour

1 egg

1/2 Tbls maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

pinch of salt

1. Mix together.

2. Microwave for 3 minutes... CAKE!!! Nom nom nom!

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

I told you I'm on a dessert kick...

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

2 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup + 1 Tbls cup maple syrup

2 Tbls pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In a large bowl, blend ingredients together.

3. Fill six small (roughly 4") ramekins to 3/4 full. You may have some left over... I'll get to that in a tick (or in tomorrow's post - link to be provided soon). Alternatively, you can use a larger baking pan, but it won't look as adorable, and you'll have to adjust baking times.

4. Bake in the oven for 25-40 minutes. Check after 25 minutes to determine if it's done. When done, a toothpick will come out clean when inserted into the center. If not, check in 5 minute intervals until the dessert is done.

5. Let cool for a few minutes, then serve. It can be served with some coconut milk on top, or just plain. Yum.

After cooling and carting to work for a mid-afternoon snack

And OMG, this is good. I think my pumpkin cravings have returned. At least I'm prepared for Thanksgiving this year. Yes, my family has already started making plans... only four months in advance!