Chocolate breakfast oat cake!

 Mmmmm... I invented this one all by myself! No inspiration other than my appetite and my microwave. This makes a great dessert or breakfast option since it's packed with oats, egg protein, fruit, and healthy fats. And with only a tablespoon of optional maple syrup, I would call this one diabetically friendly as well.  It can also be made gluten free if you have the right oats for the job. 

Yup! This little pile of health all in one bowl! 

Start with a microwave safe bowl that is smaller than a soup bowl, but not too small. One of those Corningware bowls I used for my paleo pumpkin pies would do the trick too. You can use a soup bowl if you have nothing else. Your cake will just be wide and flat. 

So mash up your half a banana well and mix it with an egg and a splash of vanilla. 

Stir in your oats. Use whatever oats you like other than steel cut (those need mugh longer to cook). I used porridge oats by Quaker which comes with some extra fiber and flax. Stir your oats into the liquids so they can start to soften. 

Next add your cacao (raw cocoa: much healthier than cocoa powder), cinnamon, baking powder and pinch of salt. 

When you stir it all up it will start to look like a cake batter. Mmmmm... 

Lastly, add 2 tbsp of health. I choose 1 tbsp raw coconut and 1 tbsp raw walnut bits. Stir this all together and pop the bowl right into the microwave for 2:45-3:00 minutes. 

In the meantime, combine your tbsp coconut milk and tbsp maple syrup (or honey, or water with stevia...)

It tastes like a yummy caramelly sauce! Don't mind the lumps, they will melt when you pour it over your cake. 

This is what it should look like when you pull it out of the microwave. It's quite a spongy fluffy cake and absorbs the extra liquid well. 

Pop it out into a plate and drizzle with your caramel sauce or....

Break it apart and drizzle with the sauce. This is what I prefer! It's not for company anyway!!

And there you have it! A delicious nutritious snack!

Chocolate breakfast oat cake:

- 1/2 a banana mashed

- 1 egg (free range is best)

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/4 cup oats

- 1/2 Tbsp raw cacao

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

- 1 pinch salt (very small pinch)

- 1 Tbsp raw coconut

- 1 Tbsp raw chopped nuts (walnut)

Combine banana egg and vanilla, stir in oats first so they can begin to soften. Then add remaining ingredients. Microwave on high in a small microwave safe bowl for 2:45-3:00 minutes. 

Combine:

1 Tbsp coconut milk (from a can)

1 Tbsp maple syrup 

Stir together and pour over cake. Eat warm!

Chocolate breakfast oat cake!

 Mmmmm... I invented this one all by myself! No inspiration other than my appetite and my microwave. This makes a great dessert or breakfast option since it's packed with oats, egg protein, fruit, and healthy fats. And with only a tablespoon of optional maple syrup, I would call this one diabetically friendly as well.  It can also be made gluten free if you have the right oats for the job. 

Yup! This little pile of health all in one bowl! 

Start with a microwave safe bowl that is smaller than a soup bowl, but not too small. One of those Corningware bowls I used for my paleo pumpkin pies would do the trick too. You can use a soup bowl if you have nothing else. Your cake will just be wide and flat. 

So mash up your half a banana well and mix it with an egg and a splash of vanilla. 

Stir in your oats. Use whatever oats you like other than steel cut (those need mugh longer to cook). I used porridge oats by Quaker which comes with some extra fiber and flax. Stir your oats into the liquids so they can start to soften. 

Next add your cacao (raw cocoa: much healthier than cocoa powder), cinnamon, baking powder and pinch of salt. 

When you stir it all up it will start to look like a cake batter. Mmmmm... 

Lastly, add 2 tbsp of health. I choose 1 tbsp raw coconut and 1 tbsp raw walnut bits. Stir this all together and pop the bowl right into the microwave for 2:45-3:00 minutes. 

In the meantime, combine your tbsp coconut milk and tbsp maple syrup (or honey, or water with stevia...)

It tastes like a yummy caramelly sauce! Don't mind the lumps, they will melt when you pour it over your cake. 

This is what it should look like when you pull it out of the microwave. It's quite a spongy fluffy cake and absorbs the extra liquid well. 

Pop it out into a plate and drizzle with your caramel sauce or....

Break it apart and drizzle with the sauce. This is what I prefer! It's not for company anyway!!

And there you have it! A delicious nutritious snack!

Chocolate breakfast oat cake:

- 1/2 a banana mashed

- 1 egg (free range is best)

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/4 cup oats

- 1/2 Tbsp raw cacao

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

- 1 pinch salt (very small pinch)

- 1 Tbsp raw coconut

- 1 Tbsp raw chopped nuts (walnut)

Combine banana egg and vanilla, stir in oats first so they can begin to soften. Then add remaining ingredients. Microwave on high in a small microwave safe bowl for 2:45-3:00 minutes. 

Combine:

1 Tbsp coconut milk (from a can)

1 Tbsp maple syrup 

Stir together and pour over cake. Eat warm!

Crunchy kale chips

This is my first time attempting to make kale chips. Don't judge me :-) ha ha!

The first thing you'll need is some kale. I happen to be leaving from my mother's fridge (thank you mom) and found two nice large leaves.

Next you will want to cut the inner stems off of the leaves, because they are very tough, and do not make good chip like material.

Now you have to decide how large you would like your chips, and you begin to cut/tear the leaves into the appropriate sizes. Try to make sure each piece has a bit of the curly end of the leaves, because this helps to lift the leaf off the pan, creating a fluffier crispier chip.

I made mine roughly the size, and a little bit bigger.

Put a drizzle of grapeseed oil into your hand, roughly half a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of oil. You could also use olive oil here, or for a flavor change, coconut oil or sesame oil. Yum! Sesame oil with a little garlic and ginger powder sprinkled on? I think this will have to be tried!

Use your hand to brush this oil well onto all of your leaves. I use the same motion as though I were mixing hamburger patties with my hands. You want to make sure all areas of the leaves have a light coating of the oil.

Be careful not to use too much oil though, or they will not get crispy in time. It will just weigh them down.

Line a pan with foil, for ease of cleaning, and to ensure your chips don't stick. I lightly oiled mine, but I do not think I would next time. This ended up being a little bit too much grease that way. Spread your leaves out so that they are not touching each other. If you are doing more than two leaves you may need a larger pan or you may need to use two pans. If the leaves are touching each other, they will just wilt and not get crispy. The moisture from The other leaf somehow prevents the leaves from drying out properly on the areas they are overlapped.

I just sprinkled mine with a little bit of sea salt since this was my first time. Then you turn your oven on broil, and put them in for about a minute and a half. You need to watch them very closely. Mine actually burned a little bit, because they were too close to the broiler.

Those burnt areas did not taste very good… anyway, flip the leaves over using tongs or your fingers (because they cool off quickly) and put it back in the oven on broil for another minute and a half to two minutes. Watch it the entire time. It's not very long, you can do it!

And voilà! There you have it! Kale chips.Yum!

Oh wait… They are gone.

Kale chips:

- 2 large leaves of kale, washed and well dried

- 1 tsp grape seed oil

-sea salt

De-stem your kale leaves, and cut into chip-sized pieces. toss with oil and arrange in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. (9X13)

Broil for 2 minutes, flip and broil another two minutes, watching the entire time to ensure your chips do not burn. 

Cool and enjoy!

Paleo gluten-free PB& honey cookies

I am preparing for a pretty intense workout program that has a limiting diet accompanying it. Therefore I am doing a bunch of baking for things I am able to eat during this diet! There's nothing special about this diet, it's just eating healthy natural foods instead of highly refined carbs and sugars and high unhealthy fatty foods etc.... A theory that has worked for me in the past is to provide myself with cheating snacks that stay within the guidelines of my diet. Otherwise I will cheat with foods that are way off course, get deflated, and likely just stop the food plan. 

I stopped a very healthy eating pattern when we had to move out of our home for renovations. we are practicing community living with both of our parents while they graciously provide us with a home. This means I do not have complete control over what I am being served for dinner. Although the food has been nutritious, I just found it less stressful not following an eating plan during the first few months, since my son was still quite a handful. Now that our life has settled down, and we have a bit more of a routine, this seems a bit more realistic. ... Plus I gained some weight, and need to get rid of that!

These cookies are agreeable to a number of different diets including: the Paleo diet, the gluten-free diet, ovo-vegetarian diet, and a natural eating plan. In fact, with full can of chickpeas and over a cup of natural almond butter, I would classify these cookies as protein and healthy carbs rather than a junk food. They do you have honey in them, so dont just think you can eat the whole batch with no consequences! Plus Honey, almond butter, and chickpeas are all quite calorie dense. It is important to watch that as well.

Anyway, here we go!

Yep! That is it! Vanilla, chickpeas, honey, almond butter, eggs, and you're healthy add-in choices. (you do not need to use natural almond butter if you do not have.  You can use whatever you have on hand. These cookies taste delicious with plain old sweetened peanut butter.) you can choose to use plain unsweetened peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or tahini. Macadamia butter is a bit too liquidy for these cookies. Sweetened nut butter will add a bit more sweetness to these cookies. That is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you plan to serve them to company. These cookies are just sweet enough for me without a sweetened nut butter. 

When I work with natural nut butters, I always make it fresh or buy it from bulk barn because it is fresh and not separated. If there's one thing I truly hate, it is trying to stir up natural almond butter that has separated. It is like trying to mix oil into a rock. All of the hard bits settle to the bottom and the oil also it's on top. And as I try to stir, the oil just splashes everywhere making a mess. I also sometimes make my own nut butters and keep them in the fridge. This seems to help prevent separation, and helps them last longer. The fridge will also help prevent nut butters that you buy fresh from the bulk store from separating. 

This recipe will require a blender. As pictured above in a clockwise motion, start by putting your eggs, vanilla, and honey in the blender bottom. Next put your chickpeas in, followed by your nut butter. After blending it should resemble the fourth picture. 

Put the mixture into a bowl, and add your healthy add-ins. I always do at least half a cup of coconut, and half a cup of slivered almonds. For the other half cup, use whatever you like! For this batch I chose to use sunflower and pumpkin seeds. You could go even healthier and use Chia seeds ground flax seed brands or anything else you like. You could also add something a bit sweeter, such as cranberries or dark chocolate chips.

Stir it all up, and spoon it onto parchment lined cookie sheets by heaping teaspoonfuls. Bake at 350° for 14 to 15 minutes.

Voilà! Delicious nutritious snacks! I made about 66 cookies from this. Of course that's only 60 after I do my taste testing.  I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Paleo Gluten-Free PB & Honey cookies

1 can chickpeas (19 oz, drained and rinsed)

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups nut butter (any variety, natural or sweetened)

1/2 cup honey

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup slivered almonds (or chopped nuts that match your nut butter)

1/2 cup healthy add-ins (seeds, fibers, dried fruit, dark chocolate etc...) I used pumpkin and sunflower seeds. 

Mix into blender in this order: eggs, vanilla, liquid honey, chickpeas, baking powder, and nut butter. Blend until smooth. Scrape into a mixing bowl and add coconut, almonds and healthy add-ins. Stir well. 

Spoon by heaping teaspoons full into parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350° For 14-15 minutes. Cool and enjoy. These freeze well. 

Paleo cinnamon muffins

I have fallen in love with a new blog called Elana's pantry. It is a paleo blog with awesome recipes that use simple ingredients. 

http://www.elanaspantry.com/cinnamon-bun-muffins/

I have tweaked this recipe in a few areas, however the original recipe is absolutely fantastic as well, and I highly reccomend the blog!

 

These are gluten-free Paleo cinnamon muffins. 

And these are the ingredients. Coconut flour, almond flour, ground flax, salt, eggs, baking soda, vanilla, coconut oil, and agave syrup or honey. A little tip, almond flour is also known as ground almonds. And you can buy it in the baking or spice aisle at superstore. If you plan on making this recipe legitimately gluten-free, you may choose not to do that. Then I would suggest buying products that are certified gluten-free. Especially spices and bulk baking products such as ground almonds carry a high likelihood of cross-contamination with other flours or spices that may contain gluten. I don't have celiac disease, so for my situation I am able to get the cheap stuff!

Anyway, start by combating your dry ingredients. I packed my almond flour slightly, and my coconut flour. Add your baking soda salt and flax meal to this. I did find the end results tasted a bit of baking  soda, however I do not know how baking powder would do in this recipe. I am not too well-versed in gluten-free flours to know if an adjustment like this would affect the leavening of these muffins. With regular flour it would not be an issue.

Next melt your coconut oil in a one cup measure, and add to it your agave nectar or honey. I chose to use agave nectar, because it has less of a flavor, and I have a huge bottle of it that I need to use up. Honey is actually quite a bit sweeter than agave nectar as well. I did find this recipe was not very sweet, so replacing agave with honey will not spoil the recipe. Personally, I enjoyed that these muffins are not terribly sweet, since I am generally a salty food person anyway. Don't worry these muffins are not salty, they are just not overly sweet. In fact they are quite healthy. They could actually count as a serving of protein rather than carbs considering the number of eggs and almonds inside of them.

Add your remaining wet ingredients to your coconut oil and sweetener, and mix well. Then add this wet mixture to your dry ingredients. You should have something that resembles cake batter.

Divide the mix into nine muffin cups. I lined mine with a parchment muffin cups from sobeys, however they really did not stick at all and I think any paper liners would do.

Next we will make the cinnamon sauce for topping the muffins. In the original recipe, she makes her syrup ahead of time. However I changed the oil to coconut oil to make it a bit healthier. When this sauce cools off, it becomes very sludge like from the coconut oil. Even when reheating it it maintained this consistency. When made fresh and warm the sauce was liquidy. So to save you the hardship of trying to split-up gooey booger sauce, make this sauce at the end not the beginning!

Measure out your coconut oil, agave nectar, cinnamon, and vanilla into a microwave safe bowl.

Heat until the coconut oil is melted, and mix thoroughly.

You can see how my sauce stayed in big gooey lumps because I waited until the sauce had cooled off to pour it over my muffins. Spoon this over your muffins while it is warm.

You may choose to take a toothpick to swirl the sauce into your muffins, however my gooey booger sauce would not mix very well. I just left it on top.

Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until they look like this. They should also pass the clean toothpick test. 

And that is it! Doesn't this look delicious? I ate three as soon as they came out of the oven ha ha! At least it was lunchtime, and they are actually quite healthy. Anyways, enjoy!

Paleo gluten-free cinnamon muffins

1 cup slightly packed almond flour

2 tbsp slightly packed coconut flour

2 tbsp flax meal

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey)

1/4 cup coconut oil melted

1 tbsp vanilla

3 eggs

Glaze:

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp agave nectar (or honey)

1 tbsp coconut oil melted

Combine dry ingredients. Melt coconut oil and mix with wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients and divide into 9 lined muffin tins. 

Melt second measure of coconut oil with cinnamon, vanilla, and agave. stir well and divide glaze equally onto nine muffins. If you desire, use a tooth pick to swirl the cinnamon through your muffins, however they will turn out fine if you leave the glaze on top as well. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. 

Mary did you know?

I realize this post is not food related, but I feel it is important, especially when planning for your future, to think about God. This time of year is no exception. This season, although it started as a pagan tradition, is a Christian holiday in North America. I am a Christian and I am not afraid to share my beliefs with the world. I wish you all a Merry Christmas instead of a happy holidays. If I wanted to wish you a happy Hanukkah I would have done so last month!

So with that being said, I would like to share a little lesson I learned at our Christmas eve service this year. Unfortunately this lesson really had nothing to do with what was spoken about in the service, but had everything to do with what God has been doing in my heart lately.

 I have started reading through the Bible. I have been reading since the end of October and I am already in the book of Job. It is very interesting to read through the Bible and read all of the Old Testament books with laws and demands from God upon his people. To be completely honest, I was actually angry at God when I first started reading all of the laws he expected the Jewish people to maintain on a regular basis in order to be with Him. I know it is a blasphemous thought, but I was actually thinking "God who do you think you are to demand all of this from these people?"  ...crazy right? But this is the world we live in. We think we are better than God. Well we are not. And once I wrapped my mind around this, my perspective of God and the Bible began to change. As I am reading through the Bible,I am feeling this sense of longing and yearning for Christ to come. I can feel God's impatience with his children as he gives them chance after chance to repent and come near to him.  It has really impacted my view of this Christmas season. In a sense I have viewed this season from a Judeo-Christian perspective.

 I also have a friend who comes from a Christian background who is married to a man of Jewish faith. I have had the privilege to wrestle with some of my questions about the Old Testament with her. All in all, it has been a very rewarding experience so far and I can't wait until I have reached the New Testament and everything starts to fall into place. Then, and only then, will I really get answers to my questions about the Old Testament. 

So that is part one of this story. The next part has to do with when Josiah was born and the crazy stuff we went through around that time. I won't go into too much detail, because it's on my personal blog "estranged normality" but basically my son came four weeks early after I spent 3 weeks on bed rest, and in and out of hospital for pre-eclampsia. Then we spent a week in hospital after his birth for various nicu issues. It was not fun. We lost out on 7 weeks of pregnancy. The time most people use to get themselves ready for a baby. We had no crib, no baby room, no car seat, no diapers or clothes... No blankets... Nothing. (Thank goodness for my sister in law and good friend!). We weren't prepared. And when Josiah did come (emergency c-section after 3 days of inductions) it took a good 24-48 hours for us to even really realize we had a child. Tired, exhausted and emotionally spent.... When we got home from the hospital I just cried and cried. Everyone else was more excited about our baby than I was. I was an over-tired, pre-epilepticaly high blood pressured, c-section recovering, Valium-taking wreck. I was not happy to be a parent. Not even a little bit. 

Well, as I sat in our Christmas Eve service, the band started playing a peppy randition of hark the herald angels sing. And I suddenly realized I wasn't ready. Spiritually, I mean I am only on the book of Job! It's not time for Christmas yet! And then I thought about mother Mary... Oh my goodness... This is the first year I have ever identified with her for real. She lost out on several nesting weeks because of a stupid census. She had to ride on a donkey while 8-9 months pregnant (we assume). She delivered in hay and crap with no medical staff, no doctor, no monitors, no one to check her baby's vitals.... No diapers or wipes or heated bed for baby... No pain killers....

And after that after the agony and humiliation of having her fiancé (who has never seen her naked) deliver her child (who is not his) in a culture where men were never in the room for baby deliveries... After holding God, trying to clean up baby God's tar-poop without diapers or wipes, no sleep, surrounded by filth, her own internal blood and water... Some shepherds come to say hello. ... The bible says she "pondered these things in her heart". I think that's code for "Mary kept her mouth shut because she wanted to say "go away you stupid shepherds! Can't you see I am in the worst place I have ever been!?!?"

"... Hark the herald angels sing.... Glory to the newborn king... The heavens rejoiced... And I bet Mary was crying... Joseph was probably as depressed as a young man could be, having not been able to prevent the current situation and humiliation on his fiancé. 

A merry Christmas indeed. Mary had no idea what it would all mean. She didnt know what would happen when she got pregnant. Her birth plans definitely didn't materialize how she expected. She never got to experience newlywed bliss with Joseph... Mary had no idea what "save us from our sins" would mean when she raised her sweet little boy.  

But one thing she did know: God is to be trusted and obeyed. And this she did well. And I think we all owe her a "thank you" whether you think "mother Mary" deserves a place in the church or not.