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?

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.

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!

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

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 pint strawberries

1 banana (can use a frozen banana)

1/4 cup coconut butter

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour/shredded flakes

2 eggs, whisked

1 Tbls coconut oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Rinse the strawberries and cut off the tops. Dump into a food processor/blender and process until smooth (you can leave a few chunks if you like).
3. Remove 1/4 cup of the strawberries and set aside.
4. Chop up your banana and add to the food processor until fully combined with the strawberries.
5. Add in your coconut butter. Once combined, followed with the almond flour and coconut flour. (You'll probably need to grab a spatula and push the mixture down from the sides of the processor.)
6. Mix in one egg at a time.
7. Transfer to your greased loaf pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the center is firm.
8. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.
9. While cooling, heat 1 Tbls coconut oil on the stove. Once hot, add the 1/4 cup of strawberry puree that you had set aside in step 3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn a deeper red and start to clump together.
10. Slice up a piece and top with the warm strawberry mixture.

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...