Easter Goodies

I hope everyone had a very happy and blessed Easter!


My kids seemed quite happy with their Primal(ish) Easter baskets. Although, the natural cherry licorice was not received well. They didn't even ask why and when the Easter Bunny went Primal. I guess this means they have now accepted our new way of eating as normal. That's pretty cool!

We went to 11 o'clock Mass, and then headed to Tom's mother's house for lunch. We kept it primal with turkey, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes, olives, and cookies and cake for dessert.

 
The kids had a great time hunting for eggs. Grandma has been very supportive of our new lifestyle change, filled the eggs with objects the kids could trade in for dollar bills. No candy. Thank you! 

We then headed to our friends' house for dinner. I had thought I'd cheat for Easter, but I ended up staying fairly true to GP. I had ham, chicken, asparagus, brussel sprouts and about 1/4 cup of green bean casserole.  My friend Cathy made an almond crust, strawberry cream pie (what was it called, Cathy?) She said it did have some sugar, but was Primal-friendly in all other aspects, so I had some of this and it was awesome. I wish I had thought to take a photo, because it was just as pretty as it was delicious.


Oh, I also had half glass of red wine. 

Overall, not too bad, I don't think. 

Now, I made a chocolate cake and it looked (and smelled) fabulous until I transferred it to a cake stand, where it promptly cracked in ten different directions. I made a quick cream, but whipping heavy cream and vanilla, and served it with the cake. The cake was so dense, it needed something light and cool to balance it. 

(I was going to include the recipe here, but given that it is from a cookbook, I don't know if this would take away sales from the author or what, so if you really think this cake is for you, go to Amazon and buy Paleo Comfort Foods.) My thoughts on it?  It is way too rich. I love dark chocolate, but this was really something else. This recipe includes cayenne pepper.I hate spicy-hot things, so I only added about 1/2 tsp of the cayenne. It gave the cake a really nice warm flavor but without making it spicy. However, you can't properly enjoy it because you're reaching for your water to wash down the sticky, dense cake taste. I suppose if you are desperate for dessert and you would die for chocolate, this cake might be worth a try. 

I also made the Coconut Cookies which seemed to be worthy of a potluck event. I've even made them for the kids when they have school functions, and while my kids feel funny about it, other people eat them and come back for me. So this might be a good thing to bake 'n' take to family/friends gatherings. Maybe?

Then, just to be safe, I made brownies. I just can't seem to get it right. Either the middle is under baked or it's fine and the outer edges are burned... argh.  

I used:

1 cup Cashew butter
1/4 cup raw honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 egg

Mix well. Pour in a 8x8 glass cake pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees (or so say the directions)   I sprinkled with dark chocolate chips since I believe brownies should include chocolate somehow. 

 Oh, I also made Tom a berry tart (simmered and reduced berries with 1tbls honey, poured onto a baked almond crust, and put in fridge to set for an hour). I topped with whipped cream.  It didn't turn out so well. The berries were still pretty bitter/tart despite the honey I used to sweeten them. Maybe maple syrup would work better?

So a very busy weekend, but lots of fun. Now that Lent is over, I can go back to experimenting with baked goods. I'm hoping to have time for baking coconut bread tomorrow. I really want a ham sandwich.

Happy Easter!

Baking for Easter

Wow, today was a doozie! (by the way, recipes of baked goods mentioned today will be posted within the next few days)


I went to the mall today to find a smaller sized dress (yahoo!), but I had to take Elizabeth with me, and that made my mission an impossible one. She was in one of her defiant, you can't do anything to me to make me do what you want, kind of moods, which means we walked at a snails' pace and meandered around a lot. I guess it was okay though because the Mall had NOTHING. It was either "Hi, I'm a hooker" or "I'm too old to go shopping" types of dresses. And the one stylish dress I did find, it was all black and dark purple, which is not very Easter-y. Bummer.


I did manage to find a t-shirt on sale, and just for kicks I tried on a size: Medium. No way it would fit, I thought, but it would give me a good gauge on how far I need to go in order to buy smaller sizes (I was an XL before GP) ---and to my surprise, it did fit. I was shocked. And happy.  Unfortunately, I think all the weight from my middle fell to my hips, so this is not true of skirts or pants. Well, that's okay, I'll take what I can get at this point. 


Anyway... Regina (8) had a very sick hamster and after visiting the vet it was decided the hamster had to be put down since he had developed a tumor. So in the midst of all the other Easter preparations, we had to have a burial. 


I made a pan of brownies. This time I used cashew butter instead of the sunflower butter. The cashew butter made a heartier brownie. It didn't crumble as much. And I think it will be more satisfying. I just ate a bite to test it out... we'll see tomorrow!

I had wanted to make the Coconut Cowboy Cookies for the kids (for tomorrow morning), but they ate all the bananas. Again.  Then I thought I'd make a cheesecake instead, but then decided I didn't feel like going through the 15 different steps for it. So I settled on a decadent chocolate cake. 

Tomorrow the kids can have the brownies. I'll have the cake. But that leaves Tom without anything... so I found a berry tart I could make him, but I'll do that tomorrow sometime. 


In the meantime, I had to make dinner, but all I had was ground beef. So I made the kids burgers. Now, the grocery store did not have any organic ground beef, so I bought the range-free, organic Bison meat. Blah, I thought. Anyway, the kids ate it without complaint... they didn't even notice a difference! I pilfered a piece from Elizabeth's portion and thought it tasted a bit bland, but it really wasn't that bad, surprisingly. 

Elizabeth gives her bison burger a "thumbs up"

 Then we dyed eggs, which did not hold the dye so well for some reason. 

Stuffed mini-bell peppers:

Buried Muffin. 

Stuffed Easter baskets.

Now it's 10:30 and I've realized I have only eaten once (chicken) today. Seriously, this is getting annoying.

Primal Easter Baskets

So we're nearing Easter, the end of Lent, and a time of major celebration in the Church. We typically celebrate by attending Mass, the Easter Bunny leaves a basket, and later in the day, the kids hunt eggs. (Tom and his mother do this weird tapping eggs thing... I don't know why.) And the girls wear brightly colored dresses. 


Mass, I've got a handle on.
Dyed eggs? Check.
Pretty dresses... almost. 

But Easter baskets? ACK!  How do I build a Primal-friendly Easter basket?!  


Now some people may say "Oh come on, they're kids, they can have a "normal" Easter!"  And I would partly agree with these people. 

My goal in life is NOT to be the perfect Primalist. One of my goals as a mother is to teach my kids to make better choices when it comes to eating. I think we (Tom and I) started this early on in their lives. And I have no doubt they'll grow up to understand food and lifestyle and how it makes a difference in one's quality of life. (Now that's not to say that they will decide to keep Primal once they are on their own, or driving and can do whatever they want food-wise, but I can rest easy knowing I've done all that I can to give them a good grounding in food.) So I'm okay with them having an occasional cupcake, or ice-cream, or even jelly beans.


Having said that... it still makes me slightly uncomfortable (okay, more than slightly) with the idea that they'll have a huge basket of candies that are not only filled with sugar, corn syrup, and grains, but also all the different dyes. I think putting all of that together makes for a nightmare. 


I've watched the kids carefully after they've eaten a cheat food (which is not often), and I've noticed that Regina tends to have intestinal issues. Veronica has emotional issues. I don't notice anything with the baby. And Amy seems to handle it very well. So my hesitating to give them the traditional Easter treats really has to do with the ill-effects they suffer, and how it seems to take a few days for them to fully recover, which leaves me looking for more healthy/primal options. 

We have the obvious: more toy like items, books, religious items, etc.... But I do want them to have something fun to snack on.
So I thought I could make the easy Primal Brownies (recipe below), make into 1x1 inch squares, and fill some eggs that way. 
Dark chocolate (the good stuff).
Chocolate covered goji berries.

.... what else?  

Of course for Easter I'll be doing some baking (without coconut flour) and making cookies and bread. I may even make a Primal Cheesecake. 

Anybody have any other ideas for basket fillers?

I did find this one blog with a bacon basket. Totally awesome. 


Brownie Recipe:

 1 cup Nut Butter  (I wanted to use cashew butter, but I didn't have enough, so I went with Sunbutter)
1/2 Cup Honey  (you could use less, I think)
1/4 Cup Coconut oil 
1 Egg


Mix all ingredients together.


Pour into an 8x8 dish. 


Bake* at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  


*I sprinkled a few dark chocolate chips on top before baking.

Brownies

I ran across a brownie recipe (I think maybe a FB posted it?), and I thought it looked interesting. 


As a baker I was decent, cupcakes were my expertise, but brownies, ugh! I loved brownies, but they hated me... I never could get them to bake up the right way. It was really annoying. 


So now I'm skeptical of brownie recipes, but given that we are desperate, and the recipe is ridiculously easy, I thought we'd try it. 


Brownie recipe:


1 cup Nut Butter  (I wanted to use cashew butter, but I didn't have enough, so I went with Sunbutter)
1/2 Cup Honey  (you could use less, I think)
1/4 Cup Coconut oil 
1 Egg


Mix all ingredients together.


Pour into an 8x8 dish. 


Bake* at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  


*I sprinkled a few dark chocolate chips on top before baking.


Mine burnt a bit, so I'm not posting a photo (next time!)


Anyway, they looked like brownies... even if they were a little flat, but hey, it was a brownie! And it was soooooo yummy. Nutty, yet sweet, and a hint of chocolate.


Most of us always have the ingredients around anyway, so it's a great pick-me-up if you need it. 


Try it! 


Happy St. Joseph's feast day too :)