B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Banana Bread

The best thing about getting bananas is that if you happen to not be able to eat them in time before the are over ripe, you can stick them in the freezer until you want to make some banana bread! I eat bananas and almond butter for breakfast quite often, so whenever my banana purchase doesn't get eaten quick enough, that's exactly what I do. This week, that happened, and so banana bread happened! I actually took the bread to a paleo potluck dinner and it was devoured instantly, so this one's a big hit!

Ingredients:

• 4 overripe bananas
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 4 tbsp grassfed butter
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

Process:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Combine bananas, eggs, almond butter, and butter in blender.
• Add coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla to blender and blend.
• Pour batter in greased bread pan (or use a silicone mold like I did).
• Bake for 60 minutes.
• Let cool slightly in pan then flip it out onto a cooling rack to cool before slicing.
• Enjoy!

Rhubarb!!!!

Chocolate Brownies with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

I may (but definitely do) have a severe obsession with rhubarb. I grew up with it growing in our yard and there was always an abundance of it. I was devastated when I no longer had it immediately at my finger tips at all times. I also had a really hard time actually buying it at the store when I knew it was so easy to grow for free!! A couple of years ago we bought our first house...with a yard...rhubarb was the very first thing that was planted! My mom totally smuggled a few plants in her suitcase when she flew out to visit! I just harvested my first batch of rhubarb for the year and was excited to try it out with a paleo recipe! Since rhubarb is so tart, it paired perfectly with these super rich paleo brownies! 

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces dark chocolate (melted)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp vanilla

• 4 Tbsp grassfed butter
• 4 Tbsp honey
• 3 cups chopped rhubarb (half inch pieces)
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

Process:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Combine melted dark chocolate, coconut oil, maple syrup, and eggs.
• Add cocoa powder slowly while stirring. Mix together completely.
• Add vanilla and combine.
• Pour into greased 9x9 brownie pan, or be really cool like me and pour into greased cupcake tin to make individual servings.
• Bake 30 minutes.

• Melt butter and honey in a a sauce pan over medium heat. 
• Add rhubarb and simmer for about 10 minutes to soften rhubarb.
• Add strawberries and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
• Pour sauce over brownies and enjoy!

Make These Immediately!

Chocolate Date Cupcakes

This weekend was cinco de mayo, which sounded like a good excuse to have a few people over for some beverages. My husband's birthday is also coming up, however we'll be out of town for it. So I pretended this was a mini birthday party for him too. In an attempt to counteract the margaritas I tried to keep the food paleo. This sounded a little tough when you're trying to celebrate, but I came across a few recipes for delicious cupcakes that sounded worth a shot! This turned out AMAZING! They tasted like normal cupcakes!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp almond butter

• 25 dates pitted and soaked in water for at least an hour
• coarse sea salt

Process:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Mix all ingredients (minus the dates and sea salt)
• Pour batter into lined muffin tins. I made about 14 cupcakes.
• Bake for 20 min.

• For the frosting, put soaked and pitted dates into a food processor and blend well.
• Frost cupcakes with pureed dates and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Little Potato Nuggets

Paleo Yam Gnocchi

I'm not really that into pasta, so not eating it in a paleo lifestyle was not that difficult. I am however a big fan of gnocchi, and I'm also a big fan of figuring out fun new ways to eat yams since they have become such a big part of my diet and eating it the same way every time gets a little tiring. So here's a version of paleo gnocchi!

Ingredients:

• 1 large yam
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 cups almond meal
• 1/4 tapioca starch
• 1/4 coconut flour

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Cook yams to make them soft (I cut them in cubes, sprinkled with water and microwaved them for about 8 min).
3. Blend soft yams in food processor.
4. When yams have cooled enough, add egg, nutmeg, paprika, and salt and blend.
5. Add almond meal, tapioca starch, and coconut flour. Mix until it becomes a moldable dough. Add extra almond meal if needed.
6. Take a fist sized amount of dough and roll it with your hands to make a long snake of dough.
7. Cut line of dough into 1 in pieces.
8. Place on cookie sheet lined with tin foil. Press each piece with a fork to make indentation.
9. Bake for 10 min.
10. Enjoy! I drizzled mine with basil infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

Late Night Cravings

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I think I have officially influenced my husband into having a sweet tooth. It is not uncommon for me to have a little late night craving for sweets, but it's just been recently that Ryan has been jumping on that bandwagon and being the one requesting late night cookies! Maybe it's because I've started making a lot of great paleo baked goods that make us feel like it's not such a bad craving to have. They're paleo, so they're good for us, right?!? So I tend to just dig around the kitchen and see what I can come up with based on what I have and looking at a few different recipes and combining those all into a little sweet treat! These turned out great, and totally hit the spot!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup ground cashews (cashews blended in food processor)
• 1 cup unsweetened coconuts shredded 
• 4 tbs softened grass fed butter (kerrygold)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Combine dry ingredients (almond flour, ground cashews, unsweetened coconut)
3. In separate bowl combine wet ingredients (softened butter, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla)
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing on high.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop cookie dough on sheet. I made about 25 cookies.
7. Bake for 17 min.
8. Enjoy!