Ultimate Walnut Pie Crust with Pumpkin Filling | Mark's Daily Apple

I stumbled upon this recipe at Mark's Daily Apple and with Thanksgiving in a few days, thought I'd share this with everyone.
I have not made this pie yet... Think I'll give it a try today or Monday... reviews to follow!

Ultimate Walnut Pie Crust with Pumpkin Filling Mark's Daily Apple

Mocha Chocolate Frosting... Yum!

So the kitchen experiments have begun and so far so good! At least Jaydin likes the Chocolate Mocha Frosting!!
Here is the recipe, as promised for Mocha Chocolate Cupcakes and Frosting, Compliments of  Make It Paleo cookbook

MOCHA CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
6 eggs
1/2 Cup Pure Maple Syrup
1/2  Tbsp. organic Vanilly Extract
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder

1. Pre-heat oven to 350* F.
2. In a large bowl, Blend All ingredients with a hand mixer
3. Place muffin/cupcake papers into the muffin/cupcake pan
4. Bake at 350* F for 35 minutes
5. Let cool and top with Avocado Mocha Frosting (see below)

NOTE: I made "MINI" cupcakes. (Perfect bite sized treat)  When using MINI cupcake pan, you'll likely need to adjust bake time to 20-25min. at 350*F.



AVOCADO MOCHA FROSTING
Ingredients:
3 Avocados
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Organic Vanilla
1/2 Cup Pure Maple Syrup
1.25 Tbsp. Ground decaffeinated coffee

1. Cut Avo's in half, remove pits
2. Remove flesh and place in food processor or high speed blender
3. Add all other ingredients
4. Blend until smooth

Consistency should be fairly light "airy".
 Note: Avo's darken when exposed to the air, Stir before "icing" the cupcakes.
I kept my "icing" in the fridge and frosted the cupcakes as we ate them...

ENJOY!!!

Make it Paleo...

I recently purchased a new Paleo recipe book: Make it Paleo, by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason.
There are several really good and SIMPLE recipes!  I highly reccomend this book! Well worth the $23 from Amazon. Make it Paleo at Amazon
Check it out!  Laura and I are thinking of having a "recipe" night and having several people make and share different Paleo recipes.  Let's get ourselves prepared to succeed in the upcoming nutritional challenge in January!

Chocolate Mocha Cupcake!!!

Hello Again My Paleo Friends...

Hello Again My Paleo Friends! After quite the hiatus, I am back. Let's see, to get you all caught up on where I've been and what's been happening I'll start with:
1. I haven't gone anywhere...
2. Got lazy
3. Picked up some poor eating habits over the summer
4. Had a revelation..... I need to get my butt back to "real" Paleo
5. Got back in the gym regularly
6. Am back to the Paleo world
7. Feeling much better...
8. Getting stronger
9. Winning..........(really??)
10. Fighting my 2 yr. old granddaughter for my chucks!

Paleo Kitchen experiments have resumed.......... Cookbooks have been purchased and blogs have been resurrected... we are on our way!

NEW RECIPES COMING SOON!!!!

Lemon Curd Bars

Lemon Curd Bars
Nuts are best when soaked and dehydrated, but I’ve used both raw and soaked nuts with good success in this recipe.
Makes 16
1 recipe of tangy lemon curd (Save extra zest for the the cookie base).

1 cup of raw almonds
1 cup of raw cashews
1/4 cup honey (These are very lightly sweetened. If you want the bars sweeter, you could up this amount)
1/2 cup of melted virgin coconut oil
2-4 teaspoons lemon zest
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sea salt
1-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and make the lemon curd. Place the curd in the refrigerator to cool.

2- Place the almonds and the cashews in a food processor. Grind them into a medium fine “flour”. You don’t want to turn it into a nut paste, so don’t over do it. There will still be little chunks here and there.

3-Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined.

4-Evenly spread the nut batter into a greased 8 by 8 pan. Place in the middle of the hot oven. It will take between 15 to 18 minutes to cook. It may puff up as it cooks, but don’t worry, it won’t stay that way once you take it out of the oven. When the top is lightly brown, and a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the middle, it’s done.

4-Cool completely, then spread one recipes of lemon curd on top. Let set in the refrigerator for at least several hours. The curd will continue to set, and we liked it even better the next day. When ready to serve, take them out and cut into squares (16 bars worked well for us), and serve.

Recipe found on: Nourishing Gourmet Website, by Kim Harris

Banana Nut Bread.......

Hey look, someone found Cousin It from the Adams Family!!
Kellie, here is the long overdue Banana Nut Recipe you've been wanting! Now, I know you won't bake it yourself, so I should probably apologize to Kyra for posting this beacause she is the one who will become the kitchen slave for you!

Ingredients:
2 Cups Almond Meal
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda (I use the aluminum free stuff)
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
(I've actually made this w/o the baking powder, just didn't rise as much)
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
2 Large Eggs (cage free, of course!)
2 Medium ripe Bananas
1/4 Cup of Honey (melted, raw)
1 tsp. Organic Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup of Walnuts (I've use Pecans also, very good!)
1/2 tsp. Cocnut oil (or whatever you use to grease the pan)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Using Coconut oil, grease bread pan
In a mixing bowl, smash Bananas until no longer lumpy.
Add in all other ingredients, except nuts, mix well by hand
Add nuts, stir well
Pour into Bread pan and bake 45 -60 minutes, checking at 45 minutes with a toothpick insterted in the middle of the bread, if toothpick comes out clean, it's done.
Allow to cool before removing from the pan.

Definitely satisfies any cravings for baked goods!! Yum!!

No Bake Cocoa Macaroons..........

So, this last 30 day Nutrition Challenge hasn't gone all that great for me! I have to say that I have NOT been 100% dedicated to Paleo! 80 to 90% is more realistic!
Not that I have had cravings for anything "bad" because I haven't, however, I have made some poor choices. Popcorn last weekend at the movies was the worst choice! Man I felt like doo doo that night!
So, in an attmept to make myself feel better, I have spent this last week experimenting with a few new recipes.......this one is pretty simple, but I have to admit, I am not really a coconut flake fan, but nonetheless, these babies aren't too bad!!

No Bake (Mostly Raw) Cocoa Macaroons Makes 15-18, 1/2 inch balls

1/2 cup of Artisana coconut butter (or raw coconut spread)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (raw, organic of course!)
1/2 cup of coconut flakes
2 heaping teaspoons raw honey
2 tablespoons coconut oil, gently melted
In a food processor, blend the coconut butter, cocoa, honey and gently melted coconut oil. Blend until well combined. Add the coconut flakes and blend until just combined.

Drop spoonfuls (about 1/2 inch diameter) onto a parchment paper lined plate. Place in the freezer ten minutes to firm up and serve. Keep in the refrigerator.