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?

Chemo - Part 12 - Day 11

Today I had an interesting conversation with my co-workers. We started with the question of when Google was created. I guessed it was late 1990s, but had to google "Google" to find that it was founded on Sep 4, 1998. We then progressed to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, the latter of which reminded me of a process department meeting where my manager's manager said that our HR department will know if you update your resume on LinkedIn and start looking at other jobs. Yikes. "Private eyes... they're watching you" (Thank you Hall and Oates). So of course we moved to the topic of job searches and making sure you don't post your college party photos on Facebook, which led to a conversation about fraternity parties and a discussion about Greek Tug and back to fraternity parties. Because GT fraternity parties often had police officers checking ID at the door, we then started discussing the drinking age versus the age you'd need to be to buy a gun. The result of this conversation... Lawmakers don't want you to be drunk when you have a gun. Sounds pretty solid to me. So, summary of the day: Founding of google leads to "don't drink and shoot."

Now for the chemo update: The rash that I mentioned yesterday has spread, enough so that my parents called the oncologist and were told to come in to get it checked out. So it seems unlikely that it's just a heat rash. So add steroid, benadryl, pepcid, and a topical cream to the list of drugs that need to be taken daily. I believe that brings the grand total of daily pills (excluding vitamins) to 9. And for someone who hates taking pills because of how it affects the mind, it's not good news at all. I have a not so pleased parent.

Also, the current blood chemistries have dropped further than what it was before chemo. Here's the current levels with the normal levels in parentheses:
white blood cells: 1.8 (3.8-10.8)
platelets: 62 (153-379) -- [this was at 96 before chemo]
red blood cells: 2.34 (3.75-5)

And for more disappointing news, the doctor today said that because there was bone pain as a result of this first round of chemo, there will be more bone pain with the next round of chemo.

Here's the results of a recipe I found via pinterest at 3.2.1.Paleo, that I tweaked a bit.

Paleo Pumpkin Brownie Swirl

Brownie Batter
8 oz chopped walnuts
1 cup creamy almond butter (no added salt)
1 egg
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 Tbls vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Pumpkin Batter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbls cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup almond flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Dump the walnuts into a food processor and run until the walnuts become creamy, like almond butter.
3. Mix all of the brownie batter ingredients into one bowl, and mix the pumpkin batter ingredients into another.

It even looks like non-Paleo brownie batter.

4. Spread the brownie batter into a coconut-oil greased 13"x9" pan. Put spoonfuls of pumpkin batter across the top of the brownie batter. Grab a knife and drag the knife through the pan to mix up the batters and create your swirl.

5. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool before slicing.
After it bakes:

And here's what happens after it cools.

Chemo - Part 6 - Day 5

It was our last day of cladribine! Thankfully we've survived the first 5 days of chemo without any major issues. Overall the side effects have been tiredness, nausea, and a fogginess in the head, but we've attributed that last one to the anti-nausea meds. When I was talking about the fogginess with a few friends last night, we discussed how one of my friends thinks that the anti-nausea medications generally just makes you tired so you sleep through the nausea and wake up after it passes. I can see that being true. It's kind of the same way with migraine medications, though I'm not sure if it's the medication or the migraine that actually makes me pass out and sleep through the worst part of the migraine. I'd say that I'd experiment with it, but when I have a migraine, testing to see if I can stay awake through it is the last thing on my mind.

Some bone-deep leg pain has also kicked in. I think that's the hardest thing we've dealt with so far. We've tried ice packs, but I don't think there's anything to do for bone pain, besides maybe pain killers? Suggestions, anyone?

Anyways, I appreciate all of the well wishes we've received. It makes me relieved to know that my family has a good support system here in Atlanta. I won't worry as much when I head back to Texas. Our next-door neighbor called earlier today to see when he could bring some grilled goodies for us. And some other family friends have already offered to help out with the transportation to the future chemo treatments.

Last night, I went to Leon's Full Service in downtown Decatur. I ordered the Chicken Sausage, with charred scallion, ginger, baby bok choy, green curry, and fried shallot pickles. It was really yummy. And I had the Bitter in a Bottle cocktail. Go there and try it.

Though I think my friend LF got the best option: Bacon in a Glass, with a side of peanut butter.

Here's another banana-based dessert that I baked last night. It has a very strong banana taste, so if you're like my dad and don't like bananas, then don't make this. I know, it's a really complicated concept... Don't make something you don't like? Go figure.

Two-Way Banana Bread

5 frozen bananas, peeled

6 pitted dates

4 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Put the dates into the food processor and run until the dates have been broken up into little chunks.

3. Cut up the frozen bananas into a separate bowl. Mash the bananas with a fork (you could also put these into the food processor and use that instead of the manual effort needed to mash the bananas with a fork).

4. Mix with the dates.

5. Whisk the eggs, then stir into the banana/date mixture. Add in the rest of the ingredients in order, stirring after each one is added.

6. Transfer to two coconut-oil greased loaf pans.

7. In one pan, stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips. In the other pan, mix in dried or fresh fruit. I used dried blueberries and dried cherries.

8. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the loaves cool completely before trying to remove from the pans.

Cherry/Blueberry

Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

I think I've maybe finally grown up. Just over a month ago I started listening to NPR instead of pop or country music stations. I now almost exclusively listen to NPR. I never used to follow the news; I hated (and still kind of do hate) listening to politics. My source of the news used to be my mom who would call me to inform me of recent goings-on and my ex who was much more into news and international affairs than me. Now, I actually know what's going on around the world. WHO AM I? I'm still not sure what happened a month ago that caused me to start listening to the news. I went to Portland... Can a city cause someone to start following the news? Unlikely. So that's why I'm thinking that I've finally become a grownup. Seriously, I called my mom and told her that I'm growing up. (Clearly I define being a grownup as listening to NPR.) Oh well, this is a baffling change in habits... I wonder how long it will last.

Now back to the good stuff... My pumpkin kick is still going strong. Very strong. I spend my free time thinking of what new pumpkin recipes to make. Okay, not ALL of my free time, but a lot of it.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to bake a Paleo version of the pumpkin chocolate chip bars that I love so much. It's hard to duplicate, and this is the closest that I've come so far. The more I ate, the more I liked it.

Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
2 Tbls pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbls maple syrup
1.5 Tbls honey
2 Tbls sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)
1 package Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, casein-free, vegan, and kosher)

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease your baking pan with some coconut oil. Whip the egg with the pumpkin puree, then add the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix the almond flour, coconut flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt together. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and then stir in the maple syrup, honey, and sunbutter. Last step is to fold in the chocolate chips. The mixture will be pretty sticky, but mainly just sticks to itself. This is what it looks like:

Transfer to your oiled baking dish,

  ... and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

This is what the non-Paleo version looks like: