Date Nut Bars

Date Nut Bars

How many of you have tried a Lara Bar? These are great bars to eat for a snack- they contain fruit and nuts.  None of that artificial stuff! My favorite is the Apple Pie one!

I just recently made my own version of a Lara Bar and man were they good!! It is really good with coffee!! It's also SUPER EASY to make!!!!! Check out the recipe at the bottom.

Dates have a lot of nutritional value.  Dates have a lot of vitamins (Vitamin A, C, E, K, B6, Thamin, Niacin and Riboflavin), essential minerals (iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium), strengthen muscles, improves stamina and assists in digestion.  Be careful of the sugar content though! You don't want to eat too many!

Here's the recipe!  It is from the Civilized Caveman's Thanksgiving ebook.  He has some good recipes!

1 1/2 cups packed Dates

6 TBSP Raw Almonds

1/2 TSP Organic Vanilla Extract

1/2 TSP Ground Ginger

1/2 TSP Ground Cinnamon

1/4 TSP Nutmeg

1 TBSP Coconut Oil, melted

Pinch of Sea Salt

Basically, throw everything into a food processor and then flatted it onto a piece of parchment paper.  That's it!!!

Paleo Friendly Cookies!!

Paleo Friendly Cookies!!

I love, love, love my cookies!!! Before committing to the Paleo Lifestyle, cookies was the first Paleofied dessert that I just had to make!! I was skeptical at first, but they were DELISH! 

Here's the recipe!

Kale Stuffed Chicken wrapped in Bacon

Kale Stuffed Chicken wrapped in Bacon

I've been enjoying bacon lately!! I saw this recipe from Paleomg.com and had to make this! The recipe calls for spinach instead of kale, but I had a bunch of kale to use up.  I also added red pepper flakes to the kale mixture so it had a little bit of a kick.  Plus, instead of chopping the bacon and stuffing it with the kale, I wrapped the chicken with bacon.

It was so good!!! :) Here's the recipe!

Paleo Apple Fritters- OMG so Yummy!

Paleo Apple Fritters- OMG so Yummy!!!!

My man has been in the mood for apple fritters so I looked up how to make Paleo friendly apple fritters.  

My FAVE paleo website (www.paleomg.com) had a recipe for them and I simply HAD to make them!!

Doesn't this look yummy?!?!

I went ahead and prepped all the ingredients and put them in different bowls before cooking the apples since this was my first time making this.  

Ground Cashews

Dates, honey, applesauce and coconut oil; Eggs and vanilla extract; Coconut flour, baking soda & powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Add each bowl and puree then add the next bowl and etc.

All pureed!

Cooked two apples in coconut oil and covered it until soft.

While the apples were cooking, I combined coconut milk, almond butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a bit of salt

Mixed the apples with the cinnamon sauce.  This is so DELISH!! My favorite part!

Next, I put the batter halfway up and then put a couple TBSP of apple topping on top of the batter.

Fresh out of the oven!

Added more of the apple cinnamon mixture on top! I would recommend making a double batch of the apple mixture!

This is a must! :)  My man ended up eating 3 1/2 in one sitting!!! That's how yummy it is! :-D

Vanilla Chia Coconut Pudding

Vanilla Chia Coconut Pudding

I was flipping through my Women's Health magazine and there was a section that covered coconut recipes! I saw this and decided to make it.  To my surprise, it was delish! Very light! You could add cinnamon if you wanted to.  I had this with blueberries and raspberries.  It takes less than five minutes to make it, BUT it needs to be in the fridge for at least a couple hours.

I did a blog posting about Chia Seeds if you want to read about the health benefits.  Here is the recipe that was posted in the Women's Health magazine.

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup

I made delicious soup the other day!  I got the recipe from Women's Health magazine.  It is really good!

Here's the recipe!

1 TBSP Coconut Oil
1 pound carrots, chopped
1 Sweet potato, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 TBSP chopped ginger
3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2 cups coconut water
2 TBSP lime juice
1-2 TSP curry powder
1/4 TSP cardamom

1.  Heat oil in a pot, add carrots, onion and sweet potato.  Cover and cook- stirring occasionally until they brown slightly which is after about 10 minutes.  Add ginger and cook for another minute before adding the broth.  Bring it to a boil and partially cover the pot.  Cook for another 10 minutes.
2.  Puree the soup and add coconut water then put it back in the pot.  Add lime juice and spices.  Heat it throughout and serve!

Sausage Spaghetti Squash Bake

Sausage Spaghetti Squash Bake

Last night, I made a yummy dinner! I made a sausage spaghetti squash casserole dish.  It was delish!! 

Wasn't that hard to make- you could make this ahead of time and just put it in the oven.  I had it with asparagus.

Here's the recipe!  It is from one of my favorite Paleo websites: www.paleomg.com.

Paleo Valentine's Day Dessert- Strawberry Cream Pie

Valentine's Day Dessert

I made a yummy Paleo friendly dessert for Valentine's Day! I made Strawberry Cream Pie. It was so easy! It didn't take longer than 15 minutes and it doesn't require the use of an oven! I only used a food processor! :)

I melted some chocolate and drizzled over it which made it even yummier! I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow! :)

Here's the recipe! 

Paleo Donuts!

Sunday Morning Paleo Donuts!!

I made yummy Paleo donuts!! :) Check out my videos below and the recipe at the end.

Video 1- Putting Together the Donuts

Video 2- Maple Frosting

Video 3- Results

The one on the left is with chocolate and the one on the right is with the maple frosting.

Thumbs Up!!

Here's the recipe.  Let me know if you have any other Paleo friendly donut recipes that you like!

Sweet Potato Waffles with Apple Butter (Whole30 Friendly)

Yummy Waffles without Sugar or Flour!! 

I'm on Day 21 of the Whole 30 detox program! I'm feeling great! :) It sure has been fun looking for healthy and different things to cook that fit with this program- a bit of a challenge that's for sure!

This morning, I made Sweet Potato Waffles with Apple Butter.  It sure was good!  I did double the spice for the waffles, but next time I will triple it! I like cinnamon. ;-)

When you open the waffle maker it looks kind of weird, but if you flip over the waffles it actually does look like a waffle! :)  My roomies wolfed them down! 

Instead of using just plain applesauce, I used apple butter which fit PERFECT with this recipe!  I made the apple butter a couple days ago and thought it would go well with this and it did!

I'm thinking about adding blueberries to the waffles next time! If you do something different, please let me know! :)

Waffles

Yummy Apple Butter! 

    

Throw out your pasta!!!!!

Spaghetti Squash

I remember last year someone telling me that they made spaghetti squash for dinner instead of pasta. At the time, I was like ew! I can't imagine eating that instead of my beloved pasta!!

Well, since I've jumped on the Paleo bandwagon, I can't eat pasta anymore.  I LOVE spaghetti and meatballs! I've been seeing a lot of recipes lately for spaghetti squash during my hunt for yummy paleo friendly recipes.

Last night, I decided to muster up the courage to make it.  To my surprise, it was DELISH! I'm now fine with throwing out my pasta and eating my now beloved spaghetti squash! It's EASY to make!

Basically, chop the squash in half (length wise).  Put both facedown in a pyrex dish and add water halfway to the top.  Bake it on 350 for about an hour.  Dump the water out and flip the squash over to let it cool for 5-10 minutes.  Take a fork and shred it from the sides.  Voila! You got "pasta"! :) 

Share some of your squash pasta recipes!! :) 

Avocado- Healthy Fat

Eat healthy fat!

As I'm diving in the Paleo world, I'm eating more healthy fats.  I LOVE avocado and I used to limit my avocados because of the fat content.  Now that I'm doing the Paleo diet, I'm enjoying my daily avocado intake! With Paleo, your energy comes from fat.  Basically, I'm eating a diet of meat, veggies, fruit and healthy fat.  Avocado is a good source of fat. 

Here are some nutritional benefits of avocados:

Now, if you don't like avocados or can't eat them, here are other sources of good fats: coconut oil, animal fats, butter/ghee, olive oil, nuts and olives.  Click here for more information on good fats and bad fats.

Sweet Potato Lasagna (Paleo)

Hey all!

It's day two of my Whole30 regimen.  So far I'm doing great! Last night, I cooked a sweet potato lasagna.  It was delicious! I follow MyHealthyDish on Instagram and got her recipe.  See pictures below.  One thing though, I would roast the sweet potatoes in the oven while making the sauce to cook the potatoes halfway since the potatoes weren't completely cooked.

Let me know if you make adjustments to the recipe or if you have any paleo recipes to share! :)

Paleo

Hello all-

I know it's been AGES since I've written a blog posting!! I've been busy with life- you know how that goes! New job, family stuff, moving, holidays, etc!

I've been dealing with some allergies lately and I've been following a couple people on Instagram that do the paleo diet.  The past few weeks, I've been looking into it.   A lot of people that follow this have not been taking any allergy meds at all.  That really perked my interest so I've been taking baby steps the past couple weeks to wean myself off of processed foods and etc.

Starting on Tuesday, I'm gunna commit to the Whole30 program.  This means no added sugars, grains, dairy, and legumes.  This is quite a challenge for someone that's accustomed to oatmeal, greek yogurt, black beans, etc.  :(  Basically, I will be eating what cavemen ate back then before agriculture started.

I'm curious as to how my body will react to this.  I've heard stories that the first two weeks are the hardest, but the end result is worth it.  Stay tuned!!!!