Chocolate Coconut "Larabars"

Chocolate Coconut "Larabars"

Put these items in a food processor and mix until they form a ball.  Set the ball aside in a bowl.

1 cup pitted dates, chopped

1 cup dried fruit (figs, raisins, etc.)*

1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch salt

Now put these items in the food processor and mix until the consistency is like coarse flour.  Add the ball back in by pinching pieces of it off and adding them into the food processor bowl.  Then add the coconut oil and water by drizzling over the bowl evenly.  Process until the dough becomes a ball again, or close to it.

1 1/3 cups soaked and dehydrated nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, etc.)**

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/4 cocoa powder

2 tablespoons coconut oil (to desired consistency)

2 tablespoons filtered water (to desired consistency)

Press into a 8x8 glass pan, then cut into bars and serve immediately.  You can also store them in an airtight container at room temperature.

*I used dried figs

**I used equal parts hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet, and Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  (And Fat Tuesdays at Real Food Forager!)

Herbed Chicken Salad

Herbed Chicken Salad

3-4 cups of cooked chicken, cut up into cubes
1/2 cup mayonnaise (preferably homemade)
1/3 cup sour cream
two handfuls of parsley, finely chopped
handful of tarragon, finely chopped
handful of thyme, finely chopped
several sage leaves, finely chopped
2 pickles, finely chopped OR dill pickle relish
1 tsp dried dill
1 cup of grapes, sliced in half (optional)
1 cup of pecans and/or walnuts (preferably soaked and dehydrated) (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.

Use to make sandwiches on sprouted bread, or if you are on GAPS, like me, eat wrapped up in a lettuce leaf.  Yum!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (w/ Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Orange options)

Basic Chocolate Buttercream
1 cup softened grass-fed butter
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. vanilla

Mint Chocolate Variation:
add 1 tsp. mint extract


Orange Chocolate Variation:
add 1 tsp. orange extract

Bone Broth Challenge (not so hard when you're on GAPS)

CHEESESLAVE is doing a Bone Broth Challenge for the month of July.  Since I am about halfway through my third month on GAPS, I decided to join in and raise awareness on bone broth and all it's benefits.

First things first, how do you make bone broth?  Well, I use the Broth is Beautiful recipe here.  You will find recipes for basic chicken, beef, and fish stock there.  Or I make my delicious basic Homemade Chicken Soup, without dumplings for now while I complete GAPS.

Lately I have been just throwing bones, water, carrots, celery, and a little apple cider vinegar into my slow cooker for one hour at room temperature (the vinegar draws the minerals out of the bones).  Then I move the slow cooker outside on a chair and cook it on high overnight.  That's the easiest way to make stock I have found.

I have had some truly amazing healing take place for me as I have drunk three cups of broth every day for the last 3.5 months.  You don't need to commit to GAPS or cups of stock every day to feel better though.  If you do the Bone Broth Challenge, you are only committing to one cup every day.  See how you feel after this month.

Benefits of bone broths include:

1. Healing your gut lining: stock is alkalizing, which balances and soothes leaky gut syndrome (which most of us have from growing up eating the Standard American Diet (SAD)).
2. Collagen: this can help reverse wrinkles and cellulite.  For me this is a possible added bonus while I do GAPS!
3. Calcium and other minerals: this can revitalize your teeth and bones, hair and fingernails.  I have even heard some people swear they have remineralized teeth that have been hit by decay.

From Eat Fat, Lose Fat to GAPS Intro Diet

As you all know, I committed to lose weight using the Eat Fat, Lose Fat regimen last October.  What I found out through the process of taking coconut oil in hot water with a squeeze of lemon three times a day for fivemonths is this: healing comes before weight loss.

In the process of taking all that coconut oil, I did lose about 5-10 pounds.  But instead of slimming down beyond that, I found that my weight stabilized and held as other health issues improved.  I had more energy.  I was sleeping regularly.  I actually wanted to work out and be active by going outside, walking, riding my bike, doing yoga and pilates.  I felt at ease, content, levelheaded.  I started to wonder if it was simply okay that I hadn't lost weight yet.  My body was healing!

Through that process I realized that when I give my body what it needs, it will heal from the roots up.  I am guessing that my weight gain and fatigue and hormone fluctuations are a result of nutritional deficiency.  As I heal from that deficiency, my problems disappear in order starting from the underlying issues all the way up to things like weight gain.  

So that brings me to the GAPS healing diet that I started on March 19th.  It was only natural that after healing with coconut oil alone, an intense healing diet was the next step.  I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I was having success healing, yes, but it was slow.  I was less tired, but I wasn't energetic all day.  I was more active, but I wasn't running and biking and yogaing everyday.  Those are the kinds of things I really want.  I want to feel excited and happy about life!  I want to run and bike and feel energized, not the need for a nap.

On March 19th I started the GAPS Intro Diet.  I made it through the six stages in about 6-7 weeks.  I am about to move to the Full GAPS Diet which includes more variety than any of the Intro Diet stages.  What I had experienced with the Eat Fat, Lose Fat diet was only a small part of the way I have been feeling for the last month and a half on GAPS.  Yes, the die-off was intense at first (the first week or two), but oh the energy! and oh the happy body I have!  GAPS is intense, yes, but it is worth it!

(I'll be writing more in depth on GAPS issues over the next several months.  I committed to do GAPS from March 19th until September 19th of this year.  I might even do a GAPS challenge for my readers in a week or two.  Don't worry, you'll only be committing to a week of GAPS!)

Things M Says (part 38)

critiquing me, like a judge on Top Chef


M: "This is a really nice smoothie, probably the best one you've made so far.  It's got a good flavor from the kefir and berries, and it's really cold.  Overall, very delicious Mom."
me: "Um, thanks."

Parmesan-Crusted Grilled Cheese Sammies

We all know how to make a basic grilled cheese sandwich, bread plus cheese plus butter grilled in a pan.  But wow are these fancified grilled sammies yummy!  Hat tip to my sister, who makes the best crispy parmesan creations ever :)

Parmesan-Crusted Grilled Cheese Sammies

from T-Nee, my sister

2 slices of sprouted whole grain bread, like at Trader Joe's (they have several kinds--I buy the organic kind with no soy on the ingredient list)

slices of raw cheddar cheese

grass-fed butter, like Kerrygold

parmesan cheese, grated with a microplane

garlic powder

dried oregano

dried basil

1. Heat an empty cast iron skillet on medium heat while you get your sandwich ready.

2. Butter a thick layer on to each piece of bread (remember that you need the fats to digest the grains!).  Sprinkle with parmesan and press to make it stick well.  Sprinkle with a little garlic powder, oregano and basil.  Then build the sandwich carefully in the pan with the cheddar in the middle.  

3. Lower the heat to low, and cover pan with a lid.  Grill until the parmesan is browned and crispy, and the cheddar is melting.  Then flip and grill the other side to match.  Serve with tomato soup, or in my case tonight: roasted red-pepper and tomato soup from, you guessed it, Trader Joe's!

Local Eggs and Produce

I get my eggs every other Saturday at the Phoenix Public Market downtown.  I also always get my produce there, gathering items that cover a wide spectrum.  It's good for our bodies to have variety.  I love some of the heirloom varieties you can find at the different booths.

Jimmie and Celia at Chile Acres are now my friends since I started buying from them over a year ago.  They treat me right, and they treat their chickens right too.  Their birds (they have ducks, too) live outside on pasture, eating bugs, foraging, having garden scraps from the farm.  They do have feed, but it doesn't contain any soy.  When I break the eggs open, the yolks are a very dark orange.  Orange means nutrition.  We love these eggs!

The place I go for produce first every time at the Market is Maya's Farm.  I love all their varying onions and garlics, wonderful herbs, melons, tomatoes, lettuces and the meyer lemons, oh! the meyer lemons!  I also like to know that my produce is fresher and grown in mineral-rich soil, yielding more trace minerals in my foods.  That's part of the reason I try to garden as much as possible too.  I may even start vermicomposting after talking with my friend last night about house-hunting yesterday.  We found a small three-bedroom with a pretty kickass backyard.  Yay!

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

(Quick) Tomato Basil Soup with Parmesan Curls

I love tomato soup. Of course, I grew up getting mine out of a can. Canned soup generally contains monosodium glutamate (MSG), vegetable oils like cottonseed, soybean, canola, safflower or sunflower (which are usually cheap, rancid byproducts of Big Ag), high fructose corn syrup, citric acid (another kind of MSG), autolyzed yeast (yet another kind of MSG), cheap iodized salt, wheat flour (which is white flour, probably "enriched" which really means "devoid of nutritional value"). But now that I know about the ingredients in canned soup, I am happy to make my own.  Since I am in the habit of making my own stocks, I can usually throw a soup together in a few minutes.

I usually follow a basic Tomato Cream Soup recipe from Kim Knoch at The Nourishing Cook. She says you can throw it all together in 3 minutes, and she's right.  I usually double her recipe since I have the large cans of diced tomatoes.

I DO use canned tomatoes, which are not ideal due to BPA in the linings of most canned foods.  Eden Organic is the only canned food manufacturer in the States using BPA-free cans, but even they are unable to use those BPA-free cans for tomatoes.  The FDA won't allow it, due to their acidity.

But until I learn how to can, and how to find the time to do it, I am calling compromise on this one.  Maybe once tomatoes are in season here, I will dice them up for fresh tomato soup.

Tomato Cream Soup

28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, or tomato sauce

4 cups homemade chicken stock

1/2 cup tomato paste

1 cup cream

1 cup whole milk

sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Add all ingredients to a soup pot, blending with a stick blender to desired consistency (if you used diced tomatoes).  Heat through and serve.

After I had made this basic recipe a few times, which is perfect for a cold day or for dipping grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, I wanted to make something a little different.

Tomato Basil Cream Soup with Parmesan Curls

14 ounce can of diced tomatoes

14 ounce can tomato sauce

1/2 cup tomato paste

1 cup cream

1 cup whole milk

sea salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

2-3 tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of chopped fresh basil)

parmesan cheese curls, cut with a knife or cheese slicer

1. Combine all ingredients except cheese curls into a large soup pot.  Heat through, blending with a stick blender to your desired consistency.  Serve in bowls with cheese curls floating on top, and with sourdough toasts and grass-fed butter or homemade crackers.

(This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop)

Real Food Nutrition and Health E-Course

Food Renegade is one of my oft-checked real food blogs.  I am getting more involved with Real Food Media and blogging here at k-land about real food, nourishing practices, and my family's health.  As I build up momentum, I am inspired by the work some of these bloggers do.  It's not just the beautiful websites and the wholesome recipes, it's the feeling of solidarity to have people with me in the real food arena.  A lot of people doubt the veracity of Nourishing Tradition's claims, or that saturated fat really is good for you, or that our ancestors ate raw dairy, sprouted and sourdoughed grains, pastured meats and eggs.

Starting on February 4th and ending April 8th, Food Renegade's Kristen is starting an e-class, complete with e-book!, that teaches you all the basics to traditional foods.  I love how Kristen puts it:

"Nutrition fascinates me. It's a blend of biology, history, chemistry. It's the story of traditional peoples and what they ate, the story of convenience foods and food manufacturing. It's the story of modern Industrial agriculture, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic engineering, and diminishing top soil while also being the story of humane animal husbandry, biodynamic farming, and a respect for life. It's the story of modern diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Yet it also teaches about true health and aging with stamina."

I feel the exact same way.  I love the intersection of learning about my ancestors and what they ate, wading through current science on nutrition, and then actually incorporating those practices into my kitchen and family menu.  I already have downloaded the ebook, and I am looking forward to the course coming up in a few weeks!

Real Food Nutrition and Health E-Course

And here is a short video to introduce you to what the e-course is all about.  It sounds a lot like Kristen has managed to cover all the basics.  This is great way to jump in to real, whole, traditional food.  Or if you already have committed, it can sharpen your understand of why we all need real food so much.  Enjoy!

Real Food Resolutions

It's that time of year where almost everyone makes a new year's resolution, and I am no different.  I just wrote a post this morning about meditation and cleaning, two paths that I am endeavoring to take this year on 2011.

In the meantime, I have noticed that one of my favorite bloggers, Kimi over at The Nourishing Gourmet, is hosting a Nourishing Resolutions 2011 carnival today.  So here I am, making my real food resolution list.

Real Food Resolutions:

1. For vitamin K2: Make liver once a week, or serve natto. (Either way we will be having hard cheese and Kerrygold butter almost daily.)
2. For B vitamins: Make a Coconut Smoothie with nutritional yeast added to it at least once a week.  
3. For maintenance: Keep going and maintaining my current nourishing practices by making water kefir, making beet kvass, sprouting wheat for flour, soaking grains, soaking and dehydrating nuts, taking daily cod liver oil and butter oil, daily vitamin C and B complex, maca root, oregano oil, iodine from kelp, and a multivitamin.
4. Participate: Join in a real food carnival once a month.
5. Continue with my weight loss goal: Operation Lose Baby Weight.  (Based on Eat Fat, Lose Fat.)

This post is part of Nourishing Resolutions 2011 Carnival at The Nourishing Gourmet.

Cheese and Vegetable Chowder

This soup is so lovely.  The vegetables are the star, but the nutrition is boosted by all the homemade stock, cream and cheese in the background.  This is perfect for our family, since we are fighting off the sniffles.  My E and M slurped their bowls up with gusto tonight before going to bed a little earlier than usual.  I hope they heal a little as they sleep.  

Read about how the healing properties of homemade bone broth here.  I had a lot of stock on hand from Thanksgiving when I made turkey stock.  After making a double recipe of this soup, I still have two large containers of stock left in my fridge!  

(I will probably make tomato cream soup later this week, and I will post the recipe when I do.  Plus, I have another turkey I need to roast soon, so I'll have even more stock to make nourishing soups with.  This is very important at this time of year when our immune systems can take a beating, and we don't get as many vitamins from the sun.) 

Cheese and Vegetable Chowder

4-6 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large leek, split lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

6 T. sprouted whole grain flour

5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

3 carrots, finely diced

2 stalks celery, finely diced

1 turnip, peeled and finely diced

several large broccoli florets, chopped

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1/8 tsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1½ cups raw cream or half-and-half

10½ oz. mature raw Cheddar cheese, grated

fresh chopped parsley, to sprinkle on top

salt and pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large heavy-based saucepan or stockpot over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and leek. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables start to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes, taking care it doesn't burn.
2. Stir the flour into the vegetables and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add a little of the stock and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pan to mix in the flour. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and slowly stir in the rest of the stock.
3. Add the carrots, celery, turnip, broccoli, thyme and bay leaf. Reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme branches.
4. Add the cheese a few handfuls at a time, stirring constantly for about a minute after each addition, to make sure it is completely melted. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning, adding salt if needed, and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream until warmed through.  Ladle immediately into warm bowls, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and serve.  

Candy-Making and Cookie-Baking Extravaganza 2010

So I've been making quite a bit of progress on my Candy-Making and Cookie-Baking Extravaganza 2010!  I've also taken a lot of my favorite recipes and morphed them into my favorite versions.  Now they can truly be called k's.  So far I have made these items:
Peanut Butter Cups
Almond Joy cups
Coconut Citrus Fudge
Homemade Eggnog (in a blender)
Maple Shortbread and Classic Shortbread

And I've made these:
Cinnamon and Vanilla Nuts (I used pecans and cashews, gonna try walnuts and almonds later today or tomorrow)
Lemon Curd Bars (we have SO MANY lemons from Ryan's parents' house)

And of course we will be having some lovely breakfasts, like:
Baked Oatmeal with Dried Fruit, Yogurt and Maple Syrup
Crepes with Berries and Cream
Blueberry Buckle (recipe coming soon!)

And back to the treats again.  There are so many other recipes I want to try this week, like:
Almond Roca
Traditional Fudge
Caramel Corn
Bûche de Noël
Sugar Plums
Buckwheat Sourdoughnuts
Molasses & Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls
Sprouted Grain Doughnuts with Coconut Vanilla Glaze
Maple Sugar Candied Nuts

Homemade Eggnog

As a child, I never liked eggnog.  We would buy eggnog in a carton from the grocery store, but it was too thick and sweet for my liking.  Now I know, from reading eggnog labels the last couple of years, that I probably didn't like the flavors of high fructose corn syrup and thickeners in store-bought eggnog.  

A few years ago I tried Silknog, an eggnog-flavored soy milk.  It's thinner but still has that nice holiday flavor.  We drank it for a couple of years during the holidays, but in the last year I have learned about many problems surrounding soy.  Soy has a very high phytic acid content, and should only be consumed in moderation and properly fermented.  Good sources of fermented soy include natto, naturally fermented soy sauce, and fermented miso.

This year I have been missing my thinner, eggnog drink.  So I started looking around for a real food version of eggnog using raw milk and cream, raw egg yolks (but no raw egg whites, they have enzyme inhibitors!), wholesome sweeteners like maple syrup and raw honey, and as my friend likes to call them "Christmas spices".  Using this recipe as inspiration, I upped the cream and yolks and made delicious eggnog in my blender!  How easy was it? VERY.

You place all the ingredients in a blender, blend them up, and then pour and serve.  If you have seen the way classic eggnog is made, then you'll be impressed with this method.  In the original recipes you are supposed to separate eggs, whip the whites, whip the cream, fold them in at different times, and so on.  I don't have time to mess with that!  And I don't want to eat the raw white anyway.

So enjoy this quick recipe.  It makes delicious, healthy, homemade eggnog that has that not-too-thick texture.  Even R liked it!  And as R would say: "You can really taste the nog."

Homemade Eggnog

1 cup whole milk (preferably raw and grass-fed)
3/4 cup cream (preferably raw and grass-fed)
4 egg yolks (preferably pastured)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of cloves
pinch of allspice
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup or raw honey (I used syrup)
dash sea salt
Bourbon, rum, cognac, to taste (optional)

1. Place everything in a blender and blend for a minute or so.  Pour into glasses and garnish with another grating of nutmeg, or a stirring stick of cinnamon.

Coconut Citrus Fudge

Coconut Citrus Fudge

1 cup coconut butter

2-3 tablespoons raw honey

2 tablespoons coconut oil, gently melted

1 tablespoon orange, lemon, grapefruit or other citrus zest

1 teaspoon orange, lemon, grapefruit or other citrus extract (if using oil, use a few drops)

1. In a food processor pulse coconut butter and honey until combined.  Then with the processor running, add the coconut oil in a steady stream.  Add zest and extract or oil, and mix until combined.

2. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper, spoon mixture and form into a rectangle.  Press with your hands to make the thickness even, about 1/4 inch thick.  Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

3. Remove from the fridge, and lift parchment or wax paper off the cookie sheet and transfer to a cutting board.  Cut into little squares or whatever bites you like.  

4. You can store these in the fridge, or even on the counter in an airtight container.  The coconut butter keeps it shape well, even at room temperature.  And this time of year our houses are on the cooler side.  Enjoy!

(Inspired by a review of Cooking to Heal by Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet, I have made this "fudge" a few times.  It is very light, very nourishing, and kid-friendly.  My kids love it.  I have changed it a little, mostly to incorporate more coconut oil and achieve a smoother feel.)

Joyous Almond Cups

Whenever I make these peanut butter cups I always end up making these Almond Joy-esque cups as well.  I use the same mini cupcake pan, the same spot in the freezer to freeze the two layers, and we end up with two flavors of cups to choose from for a sweet, but nourishing treat.  This recipe is my version after being inspired, as usual, by a recipe from Kimi over at The Nourishing Gourmet.

Even more so than the peanut butter cups, these joyous almond cups have a lot of coconut oil incorporated into the recipe.  Coconut oil has many benefits.  Coconut oil has a lot saturated fat.  But don't fear.  This saturated fat is good for you.  Yes you read that right.  The saturated fat in coconut oil is comprised of medium chain fatty acids, 50% of which are the fatty acid lauric acid.  Medium chain fatty acids are more easily digested, reducing strain on the liver, pancreas, and digestive system.  Coconut oil benefits a sluggish thyroid by this same logic: it takes less energy to digest coconut oil, freeing up your thyroid to heal and function better.  Coconut oil helps with energy levels and weight loss.  Coconut oil heals you from the inside out.

So when you wonder why I go through all the trouble of researching coconut oil, finding different kinds of coconut oil, and then incorporating it into my diet despite my lack of love for it's flavor, this is why.  I feel better when I have it in my daily diet.  I know the science behind it and am more than happy to have it's help healing my body.

Now let's get back to the treat part.  I make these either with or without chopped almonds.  Sort in the vein of sometimes feeling like a nut...But when I do add the nuts I make sure they are from my soaked and dehydrated stash.  Soaking nuts overnight in salt water helps neutralize the naturally-occuring enzyme inhibitors present in most nuts.  Then dehydrating them returns them back to their crispy state.  The almonds I used in this recipe were soaked, dehydrated, and then toasted for 20 minutes at 300 degrees just to bring out their flavor a little before I chopped them and added them in.

Joyous Almond Cups

coconut base:

1/2 cup gently melted coconut oil

1/4 cup gently melted raw honey

1 1/4 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 cup chopped almonds, preferably soaked and dehydrated, then toasted for 20 min. at 300 degrees

chocolate topping:

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 tablespoons raw honey

3/4 cup coconut oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon coffee liqueur

1. Make coconut base: Combine melted coconut oil and raw honey.  Whisk well to combine.  Add shredded coconut and almond extract.  

2. Using a small ice cream scoop, divide among 24 mini cupcake molds.  Sprinkle each one with a little of the chopped almonds, dividing evenly.  Place in the freezer on a level surface for 30 minutes to harden.  

3. In the meantime, make chocolate topping: combine cocoa powder, honey, and coconut oil in a glass bowl set over simmering water.  Whisk until coconut oil is almost completely smooth.  Remove from heat and continue whisking, adding vanilla and coffee liqueur.

4. Remove frozen coconut bases, and spoon a little of the chocolate topping on each cup.  Place back in the freezer for another 30 minutes until frozen and set.  

5. To remove, pop out with a spoon or butter knife immediately after removing from the freezer.  Store in the freezer, or else they will melt.  To eat, I like to remove from the freezer and let sit for a few minutes to soften.  Enjoy with cold, whole raw milk, yum!

Peanut Butter Cups

I love these peanut butter cups.  I made them last February for R for Valentine's Day.  I wrote the other day about looking for candy for Christmas at the store, but coming up empty.  Even in my compromising mindset I couldn't find anything that would work.  So I am making a few different candies and confections to help satisfy M's and E's sweet teeth on that magical morning.

But back to the peanut butter cups.  I have tweaked the recipe just a bit.  I watch Ina Garten on the Food Network quite a bit, and on her show Barefoot Contessa she occasionally shows how she tests recipes.  Ever since she explained how chocolate is enhanced by a little bit of coffee I have been paying attention to how she pairs them in different recipes.  She says that you do not end up tasting the coffee, but the chocolate tastes better.

Sometimes she uses leftover brewed coffee, sometimes it's instant coffee or espresso granules, and sometimes it's coffee liqueur.  I have Kahlua, so I have used that recently in any chocolate recipe I make.  I just eyeball between a teaspoon and a tablespoon.  I don't know enough about how they make instant coffee crystals to use them confidently, and I don't brew coffee at home.  (The caffeine affects my adrenals and such.)

Oh, and one last thing: after I use up the natural peanut butter in the jars in my fridge I want to make my own peanut butter.  It's very handy to have peanut butter around, so I think it's worth the trouble to soak peanuts in salt water, dehydrate them and then put them through the food processor.  The point of doing all of that is to avoid the enzyme inhibitors present in peanuts and nuts in general.  The soaking process neutralizes the enzyme inhibitors, helping you to not only digest them better but absorb more nutrients from the nuts.

Peanut Butter Cups

peanut butter base:

3/4 cup natural peanut butter, preferably from soaked and dehydrated peanuts

1/4 cup gently melted coconut oil*

2 tablespoons raw honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup chopped nuts, preferably soaked/dehydrated/roasted at a low temperature (300), optional**

chocolate topping:

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons raw honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon coffee liqueur

1. Mix peanut butter and coconut oil together until smooth, using a rubber spatula.  Add honey and vanilla and stir until smooth.  Using a small ice cream scoop, divide among the 24 mini cupcake molds in a mini cupcake pan.  Put into the freezer for 20 minutes or so while you make the chocolate topping.

2. In a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stir chocolate, honey, vanilla and coffee liqueur with a wooden spoon until almost smooth.  Remove from the pot and set onto a hot pot holder while you continue to stir until completely smooth.

3. Remove mini cupcake pan from freezer and spoon chocolate mixture onto each peanut butter cup, smoothing a little with the back of a spoon.  Place back into the freezer until solid, about 20 minutes or more.

4. Remove with a spoon or butter knife.  They should pop out with a little elbow grease, as long as they are completely solid.  If they mush together at all, put them back into the freezer for a few minutes and try again.  Store in the freezer until you want to eat them.

5. To eat, I like to take a few out and let them rest on a plate for a few minutes to soften.  And, of course, my favorite way to eat them is with a cold glass of whole, raw milk.  Enjoy.

*You can use virgin coconut oil (which will taste like coconut), or expeller-pressed coconut oil (which will have neutral taste).  I prefer the expeller-pressed, but I have tried it both ways and the coconut flavor does work in this recipe.

**(I didn't add these, E can't chew them very well; he choked on a swiped cashew yesterday when I wasn't looking, scary!)

I've lost...

...8 pounds since starting my Eat Fat, Lose Fat goal.  When I started this goal in September, I think I was eating too much food for my body to shed extra pounds.  So I have shaved each meal down a little, paying closer attention to when I am full.  The reduced calories allow me to feel hungry between meals, something I am learning to even enjoy.  By the time I am hungry, boil water to melt my 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, take the coconut oil "tea", and then wait 20 minutes to eat my meal, I am already slowing down more than I used to to really think about what I am going to eat, and how much.

This mindfulness has come hand in hand with increased meditation and self-awareness.  Savoring the textures and flavors of my meal is more pleasant now that I am not rushing through it.  When you have little boys you are watching over at home, it's easy to get caught in the hurry hurry hurry of keeping them on time to school, fed, dressed, and happy.  I am finding more quiet moments with them, where I am not off to the next thing, but simply being with them.

I don't finish my food if I am not hungry.  I save it for the next meal, which helps me feel good about myself, frugal, and not wasteful.  I am more in touch with how my body is feeling, what I really need.  I have to believe that this will also affect my adrenals and thyroid.

My body has gotten to a point after three pregnancies, two births, 2 full years of breastfeeding, reaching 30, dealing with PTSD from my abusive childhood, and stress where my adrenals and thyroid are barely hanging on.  My hormone levels are all wacky, I am tired all the time, I cannot lose weight with normal eating, and I do not feel like myself.  However, after nearly one year of real food, I think I am finally starting to heal.

It was last December that I was going to wean E, because the thought of pumping my breastmilk and feeding him bottles beyond his first birthday was simply more than I could emotionally handle.  I had read Nourishing Traditions, and I knew what our food should be like; but it's difficult to change all your habits at once.  Knowing that real food commitment would help the health of the whole family (but especially E with his health problems) was the push I needed.

Fortunately, I was one year ago when I was ready to fully embrace real food-dom.  We started buying raw milk, switched to only grass-fed and pastured meats, dairy, cheese, butter and eggs, took cod liver oil every day, soaked our grains, and even started eating organ meats (liver, yum!).  We kept eating our local, organic produce, remaining supportive of our AZ farmers and sustainably-minded.  It hasn't been that hard, I promise :)

So now I am looking at this December, knowing so much more about what is going on inside my body than I ever have before.  I hope to continue slowly dropping pounds as my adrenals and thyroid heal.  I am reading a book about how to heal adrenal fatigue and thyroid problems called The Mood Cure.  I was already doing a lot of things right, but with the help of the book I have been able to pinpoint what specific symptoms I have.  For example, by taking 5-HTP this week my mood has improved and my energy levels are up.

As I read it seems that a lot of my questions are finding answers.  More on that to come as I blog more this week about adrenal fatigue and thyroid function.  For today simply celebrate my 8-pound-loss victory with me!

Real Jumbleberry Pie

I made my sprouted flour pie crusts last week, the recipe is here.  I pulled some out of the freezer this morning, rolled them out and made my favorite pie: jumbleberry.  Enjoy!

Jumbleberry Pie Filling

Mix together:
5 cups of berries--I eyeballed equal amounts of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries
3/4 cup rapadura (or Sucanat, maple sugar, palm sugar)
1/3 cup sprouted wheat flour
2 tsp. lemon zest (optional) (I forgot this)


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When ready to roll out, pull ONE flattened ball out of fridge and roll on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. Have your pie dish ready so you can properly estimate how large to roll your dough. When dough round is the right size, use your rolling pin to move it by rolling your dough around the rolling pin like a scroll and gently transferring it to unroll over the dish. Ease it into the dish and press down flush.
2. Pour filling into pie. Set aside.
3. Take out remaining ball of pie dough from fridge. Roll out on a floured surface, not as big as the last round since it only needs to be on top of the pie. Transfer over to filled pie. Press edges together with fingers. Cut excess off of edges of pie with a sharp knife. Press edges again with a fork, dipped in a little flour if sticking to pie dough edge. Poke decorative holes into top of pie with sharp knife. Brush entire top of pie with whole milk. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (I used a little turbinado sugar I am trying to get rid of; you could use rapadura, but it would look darker). Cover edges with foil to prevent over-browning.
4. Bake for 25-50 minutes, longer for frozen berries. Then remove foil and let bake completely uncovered for another 20-30 minutes or so until the pie looks perfectly brown. Cool on a wire rack.
(Serve with real whipped cream sweetened with rapadura, or homemade vanilla ice cream made with raw milk and raw cream. Yum!!!)

Pie Crust

It's that time of year to make pie!  Complete with rapadura instead of sugar and sprouted wheat flour instead of white flour, this pie crust is a hit among the my family, even those not avoiding sugar or white flour. 

I say this is a nourishing pie because if you buy grass-fed butter (like Kerrygold) it is full of vitamin K2. You can google vitamin K2 and get a lot of information about it, but I like these two links here (basic K2 info) and here (list of vitamin K2-rich foods).

The rapadura is full of nutrients because it is the only form of sugar processed without ever being separated from the molasses. It is considered a whole food.

Sprouted flour is neutralized of it's phytic acid, so you can absorb all the good trace elements in the grain like calcium, magnesium, etc. You can buy sprouted flour or make your own.

Double Pie Crust

3 cups sprouted wheat flour
3 and 1/4 sticks (26 Tablespoons) of grass-fed butter, cut into small pieces, very cold, preferably straight from the fridge
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons rapadura (or Sucanat, maple sugar, palm sugar)
3/4 cup ice water

1. Make pie dough: Mix flour, salt and sugar with a whisk in a bowl to sift.
2. Take butter out of the fridge and sprinkle small pieces over flour mixture. Using a combination of a pastry cutter and your hands (or just your hands), cut in the butter until the crumbs are between the size of peas and olives. You can also use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or a food processor.  Add ice water a little at a time, blending with your hands, until the dough comes together.
3. Lay out two pieces of plastic wrap and put half of your pie dough on each. Using your hands and the plastic wrap, form each pile into a ball, then flatten into a disk and wrap up tightly. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Or, store in the freezer up to a month.  To use, transfer to the refrigerator a few hours before you want to roll it out and use it.