Paleo Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

It's hard to believe that this is like, our seventh valentine's day together or something, and that we'll be celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary this summer.  I still remember our wedding so vividly.  One thing I do remember particularly well was our super yummy but definitely NOT GFG acceptable carrot cake wedding cake.  So what better treat to make on Vday than some yummy paleo carrot cake cupcakes?!

As far as gluten/grain/sugar free baking goes, I am totally blown away by how these turned out.  Scratch that, as far as baking goes in general, I'm totally thrilled by these.  I don't think anyone would know that these are gluten, grain, and sugar free.  They turned out awesome and don't have that really dense, puck-like consistency that so many paleo treats do.


Paleo Carrot Cake Cupcakes
1 cup almond flour
2 tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3 room temp eggs
1/4 cup of your preferred liquid sweetener*
1 tbsp filtered water or nutmilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrot (4 medium carrots should do it)
2 tbsp oil, like melted coconut, or walnut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat your oven to 325 and line 12 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  In a large mixing bowl combine your flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Stir well with a fork and make sure to get all the clumps out!  Or whisk it, even better.  In a separate bowl, mix your eggs, vanilla, liquid sweetener, and oil together.  Then add in your raisins, carrots, and walnuts.  Pour wet into dry and incorporate.  Depending on your coconut flour, you may need to add a tbsp of water or nutmilk to this mixture.  Using a tbsp scoop, scoop 2 tbsp of the batter into each cupcake liner.  I got exactly 12 cupcakes.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

*Liquid Sweetener Options:
1/4 cup unrefined honey
or 1/4 cup maple syrup
or 1/4 cup coconut nectar
For SF:
1/4 Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup (which is what I used)
or 1/4 cup unsweetened nutmilk with 3 or 4 packets of stevia or equivalent amount of erythritol or stevia in the raw
or about 40-45 drops vanilla creme liquid stevia mixed with 1/4 cup nutmilk

Now IMO, no carrot cake is complete without cream cheese frosting.  Cream cheese is certainly NOT a paleo food but there are many many good paleo cream cheese frosting approximations out there.  The easiest and best option for a yummy frosting would be to simply open a can of full-fat coconut milk, leave it in the fridge overnight, and the whip it with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sweetener.  If that doesn't do the trick, there are all kinds of cashew cream cheese frosting recipes to choose from.  For me personally, I wanted the real thing.

Sugar-Free Cream Cheese Icing
3 oz neufchatel or whatever you got
2 tbsp organic pastured unsalted butter
3 1/2 tsp erythritol (I use ZSweet brand)
splash of (nut)milk

Whisk everything together (I used an electric whisk) until it fluffs up a little, and spread over cooled cupcakes. 

These cupcakes are divine.  I shit you not.  They are really really good.  I think I underbaked mine a tad, I'd leave mine in for a few extra minutes next time, but they are still phenom.  They certainly made for a fun Vday treat, and while not chocolate, they definitely get the job done.  Happy baking and happy eating- XoXoGFG

Happy Valentine's Day GFG's!

Vday was never really my thing.   To me, it's right up there with Secretary's Day (or worse, Bosses Day) or Groundhog Day or something.  But since having a family and a little dolly who is my Valentine 365 days of the year, I have come around a little bit.

Valentine's Day used to mean plenty of chocolates, followed by a stomach-ache.  And I loooooooooove chocolate.  There has got to be a way to still have some chocolate candy on Vday, right?

Right.  Ok now maybe these candies don't look quite as pretty as the kind that come in a red heart-shaped box (ok so they look like ass) but who cares?  They're homemade.  And I suppose if I took more than three-seconds to form they'd look halfway decent.  Whatever.  They are chocolate, and they are candy, and I'm stoked!  Here's what you do-  first, make this.  That gives you sugar free chocolate, which can be made into bars, bites, or even chocolate chips.  Rather than use agave or stevia drops, I used my trusty sugar free vanilla syrup.  Ok- got your chocolate all ready?  If it's not melted already, re-melt it.  Then, you'll another tablespoon of coconut oil, and another tablespoon of SF vanilla syrup.  Quickly, dump in some shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and cut up dried fruit- like cherries, or apricots, or whatever.  Mix everything together, then form into little shapes on a piece of wax paper.  Let cool a few hours et voila!  Chocolate candy.

Pecan Chocolate Candies
melted SF chocolate, recipe here
1 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tbsp SF vanilla syrup
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped dried fruit

If you wanted to make them really special- you could dust them in some cocoa powder, or shape them into little hearts.  Or make a chocolate ganache to drizzle over.  Super yummy, no cooking involved.  Happy Vday, XoXoGFG

Sugar Free Tart Peach Frozen Yogurt

As you can see, this pic is not of sugar free tart peach frozen yogurt, though equally delicious if I may say so myself.  Isn't it funny that by 10AM you've already had a pretty full day, in toddler time?  We took a trip downtown to a cute little kiddo exhibit, and little miss hippopotamus had a grand old time.  So far it's been a pretty nice weekend, which kicked off with a relaxing shabbat dinner Friday evening.  A shabbat dinner of... bacon wrapped hot dogs!  Hmmmm, probably not the best thing to make for shabbat dinner, but whatever.

Have you ever had a bacon wrapped hot dog?  In my former life on the CW diet, I would never in a million years have dared to eat such a thing- but now- I don't bat an eye.  A little heavy on the nitrates but what the hell.  So easy.  Take a strip of bacon and wrap it around your dog- place on a cooling rack  over a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 400 for 20-ish minutes or until your bacon starts to crisp up.  Pretty yummy folks!  For a veg we had:

Nothing crazy.  Peppers, onions, and grape tomatoes with a little sea salt and cumin and paprika.

What was crazy, crazy good that is, was my latest experiment with the ice cream maker.  OMG!!!!  I am really psyched about it, and the best part is how much it makes (and for a fraction of the cost of going to the yogurt shop.)

Get to the g-store and get yourself some plain 0% Greek Yogurt now!

Sugar Free Tart Peach Frozen Yogurt
-3 cups plain greek yogurt, I used 0%
-4-6 containers of peach baby food (I used 4 but would use 5 or 6 next time.  Or go crazy and do 3 peach and 3 banana, berry, whatever!)
-4 tablespoons or your preferred sweetener (I used Z-Sweet which is a mixture of erythritol and stevia which is amazing- from WF)
-juice of one lemon

In a large mixing  bowl, combine yogurt with baby food, sweetener, and lemon juice.  If you want to bump up the tartness, use the zest as well.  Combine well and refrigerate for 3-4 hours so it's nice and chilled.  Prepare the yogurt according to your ice cream maker's instructions and in 20min you'll have awesomely peachy frozen yogurt, or pop it in the freezer for 2 more hours and it'll be a bit harder.  Just note that the next day, it'll be rock hard straight out of the freezer.  You'll need to let it sit out on the counter for a bit first.

I loved this yogurt because it's packed full of protein, and has less carbs than other yogurt because greek yogurt has less lactose and carbs as the whey has been removed (right?) and it has a great tart flavor and a hint of sweet.  Plus, no gross chemicals or weird ingredients like when you buy the stuff at pinkberry or wherever.  You know exactly what's in there and it is GOOD stuff!  And it tastes incredible.  Not like some sad diabetic imitation but like the real thing- if not better!  And we have tons left over.  Yum!

Do you have an ice cream maker?  I'd like to try plain old vanilla too.  Just some erythritol and vanilla extract.  What's your favorite way to make ice cream or frozen yogurt?

Fancy Crab Dip

Super Bowl shmooper bowl.  Honestly, who cares.  The one and only reason I was looking forward to Sunday was because I wanted to try this crab dip recipe.  Someone pinned a Paula Deen crab dip recipe- upon further inspection it was about a gallon of mayo and a brick of cheese.  Eh, no thanks.  So I improvised and came up with something much more my style.  This dip was very easy to throw together- I did not use a mixer and it took only a few minutes, not counting bake time.  Totally delish and a fabulous app for a party.  Next time you need a quick dip recipe and don't feel like making guac, give this a try.  You'll be glad you did!

Fancy Chive Crab Dip
1 16 oz. can crab meat
8 ounces (at least, I used about 9) softened cream cheese, or neufchatel
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup chopped chives
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp (give or take) Old Bay seasoning

Grease a small baking dish.  Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Serve with crudite and you've got a dip touchdown!  Sorry.

Banana Vanilla Protein Pancakes

I've had some vanilla protein powder in the pantry for quite awhile.  I had first purchased Jay Robb vanilla, which I really liked a lot- but then got this brand as it was wayyyyyyyyy cheaper.  There are only a couple completely sugar free whey protein isolate powders out there, with the minimal additives I was looking for, and this was one of them.  It's ok, but not great.  I really prefer Jay Robb- but I am not going to waste this stuff!  But it's tough to get motivated to make an "ok" shake when I know that is basically my meal, so I hardly ever use it.  Not today!  These Banana Vanilla Protein Pancakes were awesome, and I felt even better about serving them to my family than usual because of the added protein punch. 

Banana Vanilla Protein Pancakes
1 overripe banana
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 scoop protein powder
3-4 tbsp milk, or water

Mash your banana then add in your eggs and vanilla and incorporate.  Then add your dry ingredients.  Pour a little water or milk into your pancakes until it has the nice pourable consistency you want.  This made 10 small to medium sized pancakes.  Yum!

A No Recipe Recipe- Chickpea Poppers

I'm sure everyone has already made these, I've made them a dozen times, and they keep getting better.  This doesn't really qualify as a recipe, it's just too darn easy.

Rinse and drain three cans of chickpeas and spread them out on a baking sheet.  Pour 2 tbsp of EVOO over and then another 2 tbsp of sea salt, plus whatever seasonings you like.  For instance, a sprinkle of cayenne, chili powder, cumin, or go herby and use some oregano and rosemary.  Toss everything so that all the little duded are well coated.

400 for about 25 min should do it.  I like mine crisp and crunchy, but if you want them a bit softer reduce your baking time.  These make a great snack and can help you reduce your nut intake, if you're so inclined.  What's your favorite way to make chickpea poppers??

Tangy Grilled Flank Steak

I make a lot of flank steak, and top round.  They are lean, and cheap, and for whatever reason I prefer the chewier cuts than a more tender filet for example.  But they do need a nice long marinade, that's for sure.  Usually I go asian with marinades but that can get redundant.  This was an awesome marinade that went great with my spicy chickpea poppers.  Try it out next time you need a quick marinade!  And also- if you don't have a nice heavy cast-iron grill pan, get one!  I must use this thing 4 times a week.  It is awesome!  Little smokey though.

Tangy Grilled Flank Steak
1 large flank steak
4 tbsp lime juice (i actually only had bottled which worked out great)
2 tbsp meyer lemon EVOO
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine juice, oil, and seasonings in a bowl and mix well.  Place your steak in a ziploc bag and pour over.   Don't worry that it doesn't look like very much marinade, you don't need a whole lot.  Seal bag and leave it in the fridge for 3-7 hours.  Grill steak 5 minutes per side and you're done!

What's new with everyone?  I bet there are some awesome super bowl recipes floating around out there!  I have a crab dip recipe I'm going to try.  I haven't been posting too many recipes lately.  One- I've been making a lot of the usual standby recipes, and two- I haven't been making any treats lately.  I don't really miss them or feel like making them, although I know M wishes otherwise.  If I want a treat I'll have some dried cherries, or a piece of dried mango, or some SF chocolate from TJ's.  So, my pinterest board is kind of sad right now as a result.  Oh well.

Have a great Super Bowl weekend everyone!