Here I go starting to post all those recipes I've been Instagraming for ever. Better late than never, right?
So today, for all of you that are coming to my "garage sale" I made you Lemon Blueberry Paleo Muffins :)
Here is the link to the original recipe, lemon poppyseed muffins, they are wonderful just as they are!
My recipe is altered a little, I upped the lemon zest, added applesauce (which helps add moisture and texture to coconut flour) and reduced the oil and honey by a bit. It is also a bigger batch. This recipe is the 'base' for lemon poppyseed or lemon blueberry or lemon "fill-in-the-blank" so the calorie content for whatever you are adding is left out of the calculation and is for the base recipe only.
Enjoy!
PALEO LEMON MUFFIN BASE
Makes 2-3 doz regular size cupcakes, around 140 calories each.
Heat oven to 350, 325 if using convection
INGREDIENTS:
-1 1/4 cup coconut flour -15 organic pastured eggs,
-zest or peel of 8 or more organic lemons
-3/4 cup raw honey
-1/4 tsp sweetleaf stevia or to taste
-1 cup organic applesauce
-3/4 cup organic unprocessed coconut oil
-1 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp baking soda
and for my batch this morning - 2-3 cups frozen blueberries - though dehydrated blueberries would be my preference.
In your mixer bowl sift your coconut flour, baking soda and salt.
Grab your blender and add all your eggs, honey and lemon peel (i just peel the lemon using a veggie peeler instead of zesting, make sure you don't get much pith (the white part) and let the blender do the work for you.) Blend until you can't see any chunks of lemon peel.
Turn your mixer on and slowly add your wet ingredients from your blender, then add applesauce and stevia if using....come to think of it, some vanilla would be great too.
Once it is mixed into a smooth consistency, add poppy seeds, blueberries, cranberries...whatever and scoop into muffin liners. I use my "big" cookie scoop, about 1/3 of a cup. These won't rise too much, and if they overflow they will just run out and over their liner, so don't overfill the muffin cups.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Refrigerate if keeping out more than a day - the are very moist so I am sure they would mould easily. They also freeze brilliantly!
I guess I'm ok with Falls unofficial arrival, the end of summer (or lack thereof for me this year) and the start of something new. I love the crisp cold morning air and the thought of all the sweaters I bought at thrift shops.
This summer brought its share of adventure with the launch of TheJarGirl.com (yay!!) some pacific northwest gardening successes and failures, a 3 week road trip (aka jar buying trip) that took us from our front door to a few miles from the Ontario border, more hours of thrift shopping than I care to admit, a case of pneumonia :( and a family wedding at Green Lake where I am currently sitting.
We are leaving tomorrow, I am trying to rest to make sure I fully recuperate from this cough (easier said than done) but this morning I was inspired to start a little mini project I have had in the back of my head for a while now, and I thought it could use an introduction.
Jesse and I have decided to homeschool when we get to that point in our lives (working on the kids part - impatiently.) One of the subjects we are both excited about is food education. It's like math and health put together! Our diet changes over the past several months have spurred some research on where to best spend our food (health) dollars and I have come to wonder, if others just had more information, would they make different choices?
Well, I will give it a shot. A daily picture guide to better food education. Maybe I should give it a catchy name... I don't see "A.D.P.G.T.B.F.E." catching on very quickly.
Here's the link to day one (A for Apple) I can't get the picture uploaded from my phone.
For years I have avoided baking anytime but Christmas because ... I have willpower problems. I know myself and know that if I have baking in the house I will find a way to eat it. However, in our quest to eat healthier, cutting out STARCH and SUGAR has led me to some fantastic food blogs and a great baking adventure.
A couple of weeks ago, during a visit to my parents house, I decided to kill two birds with one stone: introduce this no-starch baking concept to my family AND try some new recipes.
I did modify the recipe slightly the first time, and then a bit more the second time I made them, here are my changes.
-First off, I used cream, not coconut milk - that was what I had on hand.
-Second, I subbed in 1/4 cup xylitol for the honey since we are currently trying to avoid all sugar.
-Third, the recipe just seemed too dry, so I added in another 1/3 cup of cream, and this worked though the batter is still very firm, and not at all runny.
With these two changes the muffins were VERY tasty, looked PERFECT but were a little too fluffy (if that is possible) they fell apart quite easily. This was still fantastic in my mind because typically coconut flour is quite dense.
It is the applesauce that makes all the difference in density so, for the second batch I just added 2 more tablespoons of coconut flour to bring the density up just a hair. The texture of this batch was perfect, however, the blueberries I used at home (Trader Joes Organic Frozen Blueberries) were not anywhere as sweet as the frozen berries I had picked up from the local grocer in Colorado, and I would add a bit more xylitol to compensate for that if I use that brand again.
I find that if you are cooking with xylitol it will lengthen the baking time, and if you have a convection oven you will want to turn the temperature down 25 degrees to avoid the outside cooking too fast and getting too brown.
Here is the recipe with my changes:
Makes about 18 muffins
For the batter: (I use organic ingredients wherever possible)
6 large eggs
2/3 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1/4 cup xylitol (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon canilla
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (if you only have salted butter on hand that is ok, just omit the added salt)
1 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1/2 cup applesauce (one single serving "cup" is perfect)
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (no need to thaw them)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375ºF or 350ºF if for convection ovens and adjust the rack to the middle position.
Line muffin pan with muffin liners.
Whisk eggs, cream, xylitol, vanilla and butter in your stand mixer bowl if using.
Sift coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate mixing bowl.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk until no lumps remain.
Fold in applesauce and then fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter into muffin cups (I use a large cookie scoop)
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until perfectly brown on top and a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze for later.
Stay tuned for Part Two : The Great Brownie Trial!
Here is a recipe I created for a little treat that will give you lots of energy without spiking your blood sugar. The hubby and I have just started the maintenance phase of our second round of the HCG diet and after 40 days of no treats we were looking to make a sweet little treat that had no starch and no sugar...not an easy task. He chose to make some artisan dark chocolates and I chose to make something a little less chocolatey because I'm not a fan of dark chocolate (gasp! I know, right).
Doing the HGC diet, overseen by our amazing Doctor of Natural Medicine, has certainly been interesting. I have lost over thirty pounds since October and it really makes me think about what I am putting into my body and how my body feels about it!
This recipe IS high in fat, particularly saturated fat because there is quite a bit of butter, however, our thinking about fat is changing too, thanks to the documentary "Fat Head" and the website deliciouslyorganic.net. Read what Carrie has to say about fat in our diets here and here. She also lists several other resources on this particular issue.
If you choose to watch "Fat Head" and I recommend it, commit to watching the whole (2 hour) movie...stick through the first half...I know it sounds like the guy is making a case for fast food...but that's not what it's about, even though it seems to take a while to get to the point. Here is a sneak peak...
and...
The Recipe:
Chocolate Almond Coconut Bites
Created By: Marie Bregg @makingmarie
Scroll to the bottom for the recipe and nutrition info.
First off, you might need to go shopping. I know I did, here's what I bought:
Coconut Flour, UNsweetened Coconut Flakes, 100% cacao chocolate, and SweetLeaf Brand Stevia or your sweetener of choice.
SweetLeaf is the brand of Stevia I use, you can buy it in a 100g or so jar. Not all Stevias are created equal, some are much more pure and therefore incredibly potent, and some have been chemically processed beyond recognition. I like this brand, but if you can't find it then I would just start with a small amount and taste the recipe as you go. I might be trying coconut sugar when we are off HCG maintenance because it has a GI rating of (only) 35.
Gather your coconut flour, almonds, coconut flakes/shreds and stevia and throw them into a food processor or blender and give them a few quick pulses, not too much.
Stevia can get clumpy, so I find that mixing the stevia at this point is easiest.
However, if you have to add it later, or you want to add more, be careful and sprinkle it evenly over your recipe before you stir it in :)
Now you need to melt your butter and your chocolate.
If you have a double boiler, then this is the job it was made for. If you don't have a double boiler you can easily make one. You need a smallish pan of water put on the stove on low, and a glass or metal bowl that will set on top of the pan without touching the water below.
Add your chocolate, butter and vanilla to the bowl and patiently wait for it to melt. Stir every few minutes until it is all melted and blended together.
I added my butter and chocolate separately as you can see in the pictures because the hubby and I were sharing a pot of melted chocolate for two different recipes. It doesn't matter which way you do it, but measuring out the chocolate while it is solid and melting them together is the easiest (and creates fewer dishes). :)
Now mix your dry ingredients and your melted ingredients together. Again, if I were doing this again, I would add my dry ingredients to the bowl that held the melty stuff and have one less dish to wash.
This photo was taken with the butter and vanilla added but not the chocolate....
Now that all of the ingredients are mixed together, I like to pause to taste the dough and add a pinch of sea salt for flavor. Also, if you LOOOVE dark chocolate, this is the time you might want to consider melting and adding a bit more. Both these steps are completely up to you and your tastebuds.
I have a 1 tbsp. cookie scoop that works perfectly for this treat, if you don't you will have to work a little bit harder to get dough balls. With my cookie scoop, I grab some dough then pack the dough in a little bit with my thumb...the dough is crumbly so this packing process helps it stick together. If you don't have a scoop then squeeze about a tablespoon of dough inside your palm and then gently roll it into shape.
Once all your dough is used, place the treats into the fridge for 30 minutes or more to set. You can use this time to clean up your little mess...
Don't forget to scrape the bowl! nom nom!
Happy snacking!
Makes about 18 "bites" maybe 19 depending on how much of the dough you eat while you are cooking ;)
Calorie content is for one 'bite'
Ingredients:
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes or shreds
1/3 cup raw whole almonds
30 grams (or more to taste) 100% cacao baking chocolate
7.5 T. salted butter
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 1/4 t. Sweet Leaf Stevia powder
1 t. pure vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a food processor, pulsing until chunky, not super fine.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, careful not to overheat and burn.
3. When chocolate mixture is melted add vanilla, stir.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until combined (will be somewhat crumbly)
5. Add a dash of salt to taste if desired.
6. Scoop or roll 1 T. at a time onto plate or dish.
7. Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
8. Eat and enjoy!
Nutritional Facts*
Calories: 85.4
Total Fat: 7.6 g
Saturated 4.3 g
Polyunsaturated 0.2 g
Monounsaturated 0.6 g
Trans 0 g
Cholesterol 12.5 mg
Sodium 38.0 mg
Potassium 20.4 mg
Total Carbs 3.3 g
Dietary Fiber 1.8 g
Sugars 0.3 g
Protein 1.2 g
*this info is meant to be a guide, not exact. It is based on my calculations of the recipe through myfitnesspal.com and does not include and added salt or extra chocolate.
