Family New Years Celebration + Very Vanilla (Squash) Cupcakes, Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free

Our family New Years celebration was a hit!  I decided to use my china and make the table look pretty for once.  I have not one but three sets of china.  Crazy.  And none of them are from my wedding!  I was just lucky to inherit quite a lot of china.  I also have four sets of dessert place settings.  Cray cray.  I loooove  dishes though so I am not complaining!  Here is my "tablescape" if you will:

Steamed lobster tails couldn't be easier.  To prepare that is.  I put 4 tails in my steamer and covered them for exactly 7 minutes.  They were perfectly cooked.  Pain in arse to get out of their shells though.  Geez.  Worth it though!  They were delish.  With steamed cauli doused with  sea salt and truffle oil and a simple herb salad, dinner was done in relatively short order.  Dessert for MKG and S were Very Vanilla Cupcakes, grain/gluten/sugar free and made with an entire can of pumpkin puree for good measure and extra vitamin A.

Very Vanilla (Squash) Cupcakes- Free of grains, gluten, and sugar
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 cup milk of choice, coconut, almond, etc
1 tbsp vanilla extract
5 droppers SweetLeaf English Toffee Liquid Stevia

Whisk your dry ingredients together well, breaking up any clumps.  Combine your wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and then add wet to dry.  This will be a very wet batter and may take a bit longer than usual to cook.  However, as you can see, it is super clean and super healthy.  Feel free to eat these for breakfast!  Bake at 350 in paper lined muffin tin until the tops are golden brown.  The frosting is simply coconut cream whipped with a few drops of stevia and some cinnamon.  Easy peasy folks!  This made 12 cupcakes.  I left a few unfrosted for S's breakfast.  Although who could argue with eating one of these cupcakes for breakfast! I mean really!

Once again, happy 2013!!  Here's to a lobster and cupcake filled year for us all!
XoXoGFG

Welcome to 2013!

I know every blogger worth their salt is doing a 2013 dedicated post.  Goal setting, resolutions, etc etc.  This is all well and good and I've really enjoyed reading them.  I don't have goals or resolutions so much as projects, hopes, ideals, that maybe 2013 will bring.  I am also just getting back into the swing of normal life after a very fun (and long) vacation in Chicago.  My cousin got married on December 29 so S and I spent the week prior in Chi-town with family celebrating the holidays and getting ready for the big day.  The week was full of fun, laughter, some aggravation, lots of family time, lots of pampering (including S who got her first manicure! She picked hot pink WITH an extra coat of sparkles!!  LOVE HER!), trying out an excellent new barre studio called FitGirl Studio (with locations in Evanston and Lincoln Park) and best of all, not much cooking or cleaning!  It was a great week, and I was sad it was over.  Here a few pics from my week away:

We had a beautiful white christmas.

Bridesmaids!  And bride!

I got my eyes done at the MAC counter for the rehearsal dinner. 

S in her going out outfit Friday night at Hub51- skinny jeans, hot pink lace top, and silver sparkly Toms!

As you can see I went for a dramatic look.  We all wore mismatched black dresses.   Mine was a simple sleeveless peplum, with a chignon and lots of makeup! 

The bride and grooms Ketubah- a traditional Jewish marriage contract.  

We had such a lovely time.  I'm grateful for the super fun and special memories, and even more thankful for the sweet, happy, and uneventful end to the year.  2012 was a doozy.  Honestly, looking back, I am thrilled just to have made it to the end.  I can honestly say 2012 was the most difficult, challenging, and hard years of my life.  So many struggles, so many tests of faith and will, so many obstacles and hurdles.  But I made it through, stronger and sooooo much wiser.  The knowledge I have gained this year is more than the last several combined.  I feel empowered, liberated, and lighter, now on the other side of it.  I don't know what 2013 will bring.  Hopefully more laughter and light, fun and happiness, and probably a few more lessons along the way.  I can only hope and cross my fingers that it will be gentler and kinder, but you just never know.

What I do know is that I am a changed person.  I can't go back to who I was a year ago.  This is a good thing.  I have spent so long wanting wanting wanting, wanting more, wanting to "catch up," wanting better, but when you live like that you are never ever just content with what you have.  I'll never get anywhere if I don't appreciate what is here and now.  I have to be content with my life as is.  I have to be grateful for my life as is.  No more if onlys and somedays.  This is what you got, today, this moment.    We don't know what tomorrow brings.  It might be great, it might be bad.  So love your life today.  Super cliche I know, but I guess something in me just finally clicked.  I HAVE to just love life, the way it is, in this exact moment.  I can't sit and dream about tomorrow and some idea in my head of the way things are supposed to be.  That day may never come, and it's a waste of time.  Time you could spending appreciating your life, in the present.

So I guess that is kind of a resolution.  I want to live in the present, and appreciate today.  I don't want to spend my life hoping and dreaming.  You'll never get what you want if you can't be happy in the here and now.  The endless hopes and aspirations are such a burden to me, and so much self-imposed pressure.  Always stressing and worrying and spending anxious nights wondering what is going to happen, so many things dangling above my head that are totally beyond my control.  ENOUGH!

As for more tangible goals, sorry, I've just never been one of those people.  I don't really have any fitness/body goals.  I am grateful I've found a form of exercise I love (barre classes) and thanks to a (mostly) clean and low-carb, low-glycemic, grain/gluten/sugar/starch/alcohol free diet, I don't feel my eating habits need to be overhauled or called in to question.  Did I overdo it over the wedding weekend?  Yup, sure did.  I ate poorly and paid for it, am still paying for it.  Yikes my tummy just cannot handle SAD crap anymore.  But I am back home, making bone broth for the first time and enjoying being in my own kitchen, where there are no gluten bombs, sugary treats, or other off-limit items to tempt me.

Some small things I'd like to accomplish this year would be getting out of the country to visit a new place, continuing to get a handle on my health issues, hopefully getting better control of my blood sugar, maybe a little bump in energy due to better thyroid management, making bone broth a REGULAR and ROUTINE part of my diet/day, relaxing a little bit when it comes to cleaning the house, and enjoying and appreciating my upcoming 30th birthday and 5 year wedding anniversary this summer!  That's it really.  Live in the moment.  Love today.  Make bone broth.  Stay fit, get fitter.  Potty train S.  Help MKG go gluten free for good (he is GF at home, of course.)

As for a Whole30 recap, I am going to do one eventually, but I am reluctant to for a few reasons.  The primary reason being I really did not follow it as closely as I would have liked.  Sure, all processed foods, with carageenan etc were off limits.  I had no cheese (but did have cream/butter) or legumes or peanuts at all.  I did however occasionally have some dried fruit towards the end, and once I got to the wedding weekend, all bets were off.  So really, I don't know if calling it a Whole30 is appropriate.  It was what it was.  I successfully weaned myself off artificial sweeteners, peanuts, legumes, and cheese, but have a ways to go when it comes to dried fruit.  My biggest triumph remains the unsweetened coffee.  I am still shocked I managed to swing that one.  But now the thought of putting sweetener in my coffee is repulsive.  A little cinnamon and some organic cream and I'm good to go.

Please excuse the length of this post, if you're still with me that is.  I decided that due to our travel schedule, that we'd celebrate New Years tonight (January 2nd) as a family.  I bought lobster tails and made vanilla pumpkin cupcakes, so stay tuned for recipes this week.

I hope 2013 is a kind year to you and yours.  I hope if you had troubles, in 2012 or in years past, you can leave them behind and start fresh.  I hope its a bright and light year, this year and all the years to come.  And I hope you stay grain-free with me!  XoXoGFG

Paleo Tart Jumbleberry Jam, with Chia

As promised, today's post is a homemade jam recipe, perfect for DIY holiday gifts.  Jam sounds kind of blah and hillbillyish, i know, but I swear once they are comfortably ensconced in their absolutely f*ing adorable little 4 ounce bar jars and some cute little clear cellophane bags, they will be perfectly holiday appropriate.

See? What could be cuter???  So adorable.  And I'm almost embarrassed to admit how ridiculously easy it was to make.  I did make quite a large quantity, but nonetheless, this was EZPZ peeps.

Paleo Tart Jumbleberry Jam, with Chia
-7 16 oz. bags frozen berries, mixed varieties (I used a combo of blueberries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries (!!!!), and strawberries.  DO NOT OMIT CRANBERRIES!!)
-40 drop vanilla creme stevia (optional, depending on who you are gifting)
-1/2 cup chia seeds

This yielded roughly 70 ounces of jam when all was said and done.  Because the fruit was frozen, you start out with tons of juice in the pot.  That's ok, do not pour it off, you'll simply reduce it down.  Thaw your frozen fruit and transfer to a very large pot.  Turn the heat up and bring to a boil.  Add your stevia, if using, and then turn the heat down a tad and simmer until it has reduced considerably and the juice has cooked off.  At this point, with the back of your spoon start mashing the fruit, making sure all the cranberries have burst.  Add your chia seeds, and then continue to simmer until the jam has reached your preferred consistency.  Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes or so, and the jam will continue to thicken.  Spoon into your sanitized jars and you are done done done!  Can you believe there are basically just two ingredients??  I don't know why people think you need to add sugar.  You sure do not!  Although sugar does act as a preservative, so be advised that this jam will not last long as the store bought variety.  I believe you can freeze this jam in freezer safe containers.

I used all 12 little 4 oz. ball jars, and still had enough left over to fill an entire 16 oz. jar, plus another 3 or 4 ounces or so to spread on some random things.  It would make a fantastic filling for thumbprint cookies or a spread for a cake.  With the dark, tart flavors, it's really the perfect gift for the holidays.  I hope you try it!

Not a whole lot else to report.  I am dutifully Whole30ing this week- as evidenced by this yummy crab salad from last night.

Ok folks, have a wonderful day, and enjoy the last few nights of Chanukah if you are participating! XoXoGFG

This week's Paleo/Sugar Detox Eats

I am plugging along with my detox.  Unsweetened coffee, treatless evenings, and no tasting the baked goods I make.  Meh.  It's not that big a deal.  I have some peanut butter after dinner instead of a GFG cookie or whatevs (only until Dec. 1 when I start Whole30- then no PB! eek!!!)

I am the tiniest bit bummed that I will not be able to eat the pumpkin pie bars I am so excited to make next week, but that just encourages me all the more so to make sure the foods I make that I CAN eat are  super delicioso.

That's the interesting thing about this detox that I have figured out.  Because I can't rely on treats, I am spending more time and thought on my actual meals.  Before I would just scarf down some raw veggies and deli meat because what I really wanted was my paleo dessert, but now I am putting a bit more effort into what I eat, to make sure it's nutritious and super yummy.  It's kind of neat!  It's an unexpected effect of this detox, and I'm really digging it.

For instance, here are two recent detox meals:

These are not elaborate meals by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, the top meal was a total last minute, just got back into town and have no fresh food spur of the moment thing.  Everything you see pictured was frozen.  Well, not everything.  The fish, green beans, and cauliflower were frozen.  Then I had some sad looking baby carrots that I knew we wouldn't eat, so I decided to puree them too for some lovely orange mashed cauli.  Below are some romaine hearts with smoked oyster salad.  YUM.  If you are like me and can't get too excited about tuna salad, try an oyster salad.  Open a tin of smoked oyster, mush it up with a hard boiled egg, some sliced green onion, salt, pepper, and top with grape tomatoes and you're done.  In the past, I probably would not have taken the extra time to make a little salad to eat on a cute little romaine taco, but given the fact that there was no dessert to be had later, I had to get creative and make dinner more fun!

So that's been a great lesson in all this.  Maybe if I spend more time and energy on healthy meals, I won't care so much about the sweet snacks for after the meal.  I am going to concentrate on this and see where it takes me.

Another fun detox takeaway so far?  This one is also a very welcome side-affect.  In the past, any deviation from my normal routine would cause a fair amount of anxiety on my part.  Holidays, travel, family gatherings, etc.  How would I adapt?  How would I avoid the incessant comments and remarks from well-meaning but obnoxious friends and family?  How would I would summon the will power NOT to eat forbidden foods and so on.  Well, after traveling home last week at the last minute for a funeral followed by days of being surrounded by crappy SAD food, I can say that this detox is incredibly helpful in navigating the minefield that family gatherings can present.  Not only should I not eat that stuff, because you know, I'm diabetic, I follow a more ancestral, unprocessed, gluten/grain/sugar/starch free diet, all the usual stuff, but I CAN'T eat that stuff.  I am doing a detox!  It's not allowed!  That is the whole point of this detox!  It's not just, oh gee, I shouldn't.  It IS the whole god damned point.  And if I slip up, that erases the weeks of detoxing I've already done!  This works for me.  It may be counterintuitive to others, but for me, this really works.  I have a very real and tangible reason to say NO.  It's like that part of my brain that says to just have a bite, a taste, is turned off.  I wouldn't recommend doing a 2-phase, 8 week detox over the holidays to anyone, but if you are the kind of person that appreciates structure and rules and doesn't have emotional attachments to food, this might be a good way for you to avoid a lot of the frustrating aspects about the holidays.  And it's also a great way to ensure excellent blood sugar control and weight control over the holidays.  Rather than freak out about getting into shape after the new year, losing those couple pounds you put on, why not just buckle down a bit and prevent the entire situation to begin with?

So, those are my findings so far.  As for the cravings, I still miss treats.  I miss a little sweetness in my coffee.  I'm not sure if those things can be overcome.  Ask me on January 1st.  But I am enjoying the extra care I am putting into my meals and I am finding that I get more excited about meals than I used to, which is cool.  I don't know if I can live my whole life like this, if for no other reason than I truly enjoy baking and experimenting with different ingredients, but a little palate-reset now and then certainly can't be bad.

Until next time GFGs! Xoxo