RECIPE: Yummy Hot Chocolate!

We were going hiking today at Echo Lake. There was rumor of cold weather and possibly snow. We all think "PB&J" when we hike, but today I also thought hot chocolate! My version of PB&J is almond butter and sugar free jam on low carb bread, by the way!
So, I bought a thermos yesterday in hopes of using it today for either hot chocolate or soup ... Hot chocolate won out. Here's how I made it ...

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup half & half
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 heaping tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa powder
Your choice of sweetener to taste. (I used about a tablespoon of Splenda.)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a light boil on the stove OR microwave for approximately 5 minutes, depending on the power of your microwave. 

This was simply trial and error, without the error. It's a huge hit, in my opinion, and I will be making it a lot more often. It made about 2.5 cups, so it's enough to share. Here's the nutritional data according to My Fitness Pal ... 

Enjoy!

NOT PALEO: Quick Chocolate Cake Treats

I am enjoying living the Paleo/Primal lifestyle so much more than I ever dreamed, and I am getting to the point where I feel guilty if I post a recipe that's not Paleo, but sometimes ya just have to cheat ... just a little. This recipe is NOT Paleo, but at least it's not as bad as just chowing down on a big cupcake or doughnut from your local bakery. This is a quick and easy recipe and stores easily for "emergency splurges". We have a 16 year old young man who is with us every other weekend. I always make healthy Paleo meals when he is here, but he doesn't follow the Paleo lifestyle at his mother's house, so I do what I can. I figured coming up with ideas like this will keep from having a whole cake sitting around ... Staring at me ... Tempting me ...
QUICK CHOCOLATE CAKE TREATS

INGREDIENTS:
1 box Angel Food Cake
1 box Triple Chocolate Cake Mix (or whatever flavor you choose)
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
(Please don't cringe ... I'm going to try to find better solutions and would GREATLY appreciate your input and suggestions!)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix both cake mixes together and store in an airtight container.
2. Put 3 tablespoons dry mixture in a coffee cup.
3. Add 2 tablespoons water.
4. Mix well and microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds.
5. Turn out onto a plate and garnish with chocolate sauce, fruit, mint ... whatever you desire. 

RECIPE: NOT PALEO Birthday Cake

WARNING !!!

There is NOTHING Paleo about this birthday cake!!! I made it for Conrad's son's 16th birthday. He's a "carboholic" and a "chocoholic" ... I'm working on him ... He's often an official taster for my recipes!

I'm not really going to post a recipe because you can use whatever flavors of cake  and icing you want. The Kit Kats and M&Ms cover it all up anyway! Here's a photo progression of how I made and decorated the cake.

The new birthday cake platter ...

 Layer #1 of oooey-goooey chocolate cake ...

 What I'll use to decorate the cake ...

 Layer #1 is iced.

 Layer #2 is miraculously in place ... Don't ask! lol

 Cake is iced.

 Kit Kats are in place. (This is a 9" cake and it took 5 1/2 large [double] sized bars to go all the way around.)

 Tied the ribbon to hold it all together.

 I was even able to find this small "Happy Birthday" ribbon, so I glued it on.

 M&Ms are in place ...

 "Happy Birthday" is in place ...

 The 1 and 6 are in place ...

 Pokeys, Pokeys everywhere!

 Yeah, he looks pretty darned happy!

 He could NOT stop thanking me for this cake!

 I used two layers of triple chocolate lava cake, so you can see why I say it's oooey-goooey!

 All in all, I think he had a very good birthday!

PS - I did eat a small piece of this cake and to be honest I felt like CRAP afterwards! Eating good, Paleo recipes for the entire month of January! I'll be working on a suitable PALEO substitute for a chocolate cake before I have to bake another one!

RECIPE: "Almond Joy" Smoothie

Sometimes I just miss the "treats" of childhood, and Almond Joy candy bars were always a favorite. We just got back from a wonderful walk in the Northern California sunshine, and out of the blue I started craving an Almond Joy! I thought for a minute and decided I could made something that would satisfy that craving ad still make it Paleo ... An Almond Joy smoothie!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup coconut milk
1 banana
1 tablespoon almond butter
2 tablespoons raw almonds
2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons carob chips
6-8 ice cubes

DIRECTIONS:
1. Pour milk into a blender, then add bananas, ice, and remaining ingredients.

2. Blend until smooth and creamy.

3. Pour. Serve. Enjoy!

RECIPE: Paleo Chocolate Pudding

Chocolate pudding? Seriously? Yes! Seriously, and seriously GOOD! I actually found a recipe for chocolate pudding on cfscceat.blogspot.com (adapted from Natural Noshing.com) today and I had all the ingredients, so I HAD to try it. The ingredients intrigued me a bit ... cocoa powder, almond milk, vanilla, honey, even cinnamon I can imagine, but not avocados! Funny thing is, I did not taste the avocado one bit, and neither did Conrad! Heck, I didn't even tell him what the ingredients were and he didn't ask! He has a discerning palate, so I figured he'd say something if he detected anything unusual.

INGREDIENTS:
2 avocados
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 banana (not too ripe or it will overpower the chocolate)
1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
4 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch sea salt (I used fine crystals instead of the coarse salt the photo shows below. I caught that before I made that mistake!!)
Cocoa nibs as a garnish (walnuts would be good, too!)

Be sure to use fine crystals rather than coarse salt as seen below:

DIRECTIONS:

Put all ingredients except cocoa nibs in a blender or food processor. Blend well for about a minute. The mixture should be well blended, smooth and creamy. Mine was a little too thick, so I added a little more almond milk.

Spoon into serving dishes.

Garnish with cocoa nibs, and refrigerate for 15 - 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Cool Whip Cookies ... So NOT Paleo!!

Okay, so it's the Christmas Eve eve and I thought I'd share a recipe that's NOT Paleo ... In the least! As I mentioned before, it's just not possible to be 100% 24/7/365, so here's a splurge. I made these in multiple flavors for gifts to my friends this year and everyone seems to love them.
They are called Cool Whip Cookies. They are light and fluffy and down right delicious! I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com. Here's the link: Cool Whip Cookies
Try them for yourself!
INGREDIENTS:
1 - 8 ounce container of Cool Whip topping
2 large eggs
1 box cake mix (I chose Spice Cake)
1 cup powdered confectioners sugar
3 tsp ground ginger (separated)
DIRECTIONS:
Break eggs into a medium to large sized mixing bowl and beat well. 
Add Cool Whip topping and beat again. 
Add 1/2 cake mix and 2 tsp ground ginger, blending well. Then add remaining cake mix and blend well. Batter will be quite sticky and that is normal. 
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put powdered sugar in a bowl and mix in 1+ tsp ground ginger to taste. (Only for ginger cookies, not other flavors!)
Lightly grease cookie sheet.
Drop batter by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of powdered sugar and roll to coat.
Place cookies on the greased cookie sheet and bake for 9 - 11 minutes. 
Cool cookies on racks.
I usually get 5 dozen cookies from one batch.

Mixing Cool Whip and eggs

 Adding cake mix and extra ginger

 Adding ginger to powdered sugar

 The batter and sugar

 Ready to go into the oven

 9 minutes later

Here are some photos of different batches I've made. From upper left: Ginger, Triple Chocolate Fudge, Lemon, Red Velvet

Lemon

 Triple Chocolate Fudge

Ginger 

  Red Velvet (I added a little extra Hershey's cocoa powder to add more chocolate flavor!)