Dirty Chocolate Cupcakes

Here's another of my favorite "dessert for breakfast" recipes! These chocolate muffins/cupcakes are filled with fiber-ful beets. Along with a bonus serving of veggies, you'll get compliments on the rich, moist flavor of these little guys!

Wet ingredients
2c boiled/roasted beets, rubbed of their skins and very soft (about 2 beets)
2 eggs
1/2c raw sugar
1t vanilla
1/4c coconut oil or butter
Mix very well with a hand mixer or in the food processor until light and fluffy

Add Dry stuff
2/3c each sorghum flour, rice flour, and tapioca flour (or 2c premixed GF baking mix or 1c wheat flour)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (skip if using baking mix or wheat flour)
1/3c cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2t salt
Mix together and add to beets, then add
1/2c chocolate chips
1 T to 1/2c water/almond milk to make the batter the consistency like cake mix.

Spoon into lined a cupcake pan (I like the little tiny bite-sized muffin pans). Fill cups generously (makes 12 normal sized cupcakes or 24 tiny ones)
Bake at 350 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Don't overbake.

To make them cupcakes, top with a cocoa cream cheese frosting.  Note:  the red from the beets will bleed into the frosting if you make a normal white cream cheese frosting.  Just so you know - you might not care!

Autumn = apple pie (or gluten-free apple hemp breakfast tart!)

Dessert for breakfast - my favorite! My sweet tooth is always strongest first thing in the morning.  It could be the low blood sugar after a long night's fast, a lag in my circadian rhythm while tryptophan metabolism switches to preferentially producing serotonin (or feel-good chemical) instead of melatonin (our sleep-deep chemical), or maybe I just like dessert and when I eat it in the morning, I know I can balance out the sugar and calories with more activity throughout the day.

This is surprisingly easy to make if you put your Cuisinart to use!

Nutritional kudos:  vegan, rich in good fats and protein (from the nuts & coconut oil), provides a serving of high-fiber, low glycemic-index fruit, omega-3s from the hemp seeds.



Make a crust
In the bowl of the food processor, put about 1 cup of almonds, cashews, macadamias or a mix.  Chop for 30 seconds.  Add 2 spoonfuls of coconut oil, 1 spoonful sweetener (maple syrup, honey, non-GMO, fair trade raw sugar are our favorite choices), and a smaller spoonful of vanilla extract.  Pulse the mixer to make it dough-like. Add more nuts or more liquids as needed.  Pat it into a greased pan with a removable bottom.

Make the filling
Without bothering to clean out the food processor, switch the blade to the thin slicer.  Core the apples and push them through the slicer into the bowl with the crust residue.  Add another spoonful of oil & sweetener, maybe a smaller spoonful of cinnamon.  Pack the apple slices firmly into the crust, filling the tart pan to the very top.  Sprinkle generously with hemp seeds (or save a bit fo the nut crust and sprinkle that on top).

Bake at 375 or more if you are in a hurry (cover with foil so you don't burn the top if you are using higher temperatures).  Cook until it smells delicious and the apples are to the texture you like (I like them really soft - about 45 minutes).

Serve by itself or in a bowl with vanilla hemp milk or with Coconut Bliss "ice cream."  Easily keeps in the refrigerator for a few days, providing breakfast for dessert all week!

Low cost, quick, and healthy - what more could you want for your (or your kids) lunchbox?

Here comes fall! Time to head back to school and back to routine.  It's a great time to re-commit to some systems to help you and your family stay on track for eating well.  A favorite way for us to do this is to make a big batch of something that is easily frozen in serving-size quantities, or that can be re-arranged into different meals over the week. The Environmental Working Group published their Back-to-School guide for low cost healthy ideas.  It's a great resource.  I love their modular recipes. Check it out!

Bread & Butter Pickles - and the health benefits of acetic acid

 I love pickles, especially the hard-to-find bread and butter ones. I once received a jar of handmade bread & butter pickles in a CSA box, over a decade ago and I've been thinking of them ever since!

Pickles are a good snack option, although their high salt content can be problematic for some people with high blood pressure or edema. And, some of the brands are filled with high fructose corn syrup. For most people, however, they are an excellent functional food. A tasty and healthy way to get a few more vegetables into you diet, plus, the health benefits of vinegar.

Vinegar is acetic acid, and acetic acid slows gastric emptying. That is, it helps your feel full faster and longer - which helps you eat less.  One great way to include vinegar is to eat salad at the beginning of your meal with a simple dressing of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Any vinegar will be beneficial, it doesn't just have to be apple cider vinegar. Balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar all do it.  Pickles, of course, are another great way to get acetic acid.

The other week, we got a box of "field cucs" and a fistful of whole dill from the farm stand and decided to make some homemade pickles.  They are delicious - in fact, I'm eating one right now! I'm posting the recipe below for making approximately a single quart jar of pickles. Classic dill pickles are excellent too.

Assembling the ingredients

Sterilized hot jars, ready for filling

Once the jars are filled, the boiling brine mixture is poured over the cucumbers.  Then hot sterile lids are put on...

And you've got pickles!

Recipe

Bread & Butter Pickles (here's the original from Saveur)

4 persian or kirby or other small cucumbers, thickly sliced

1 shallot, chopped

1/4 red pepper, julienned

1 clove garlic

2-3 whole cloves

1 grape leaf (optional but it makes the pickles more crunchy)

1 T salt

1 cup hot water

2/3c. cider vinegar

3/4c. sugar

1 tsp mustard seed 

1/4 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp turmeric

Make brine: In a pan, bring the salt, vinegar, water and spices to a full boil.

Pack the first 5(6) ingredients into a sterile, hot quart jar (dip the jar in boiling water) leaving 1/2 at the top.

Pour the brine over the cucumbers, covering everything but leaving an air space.

Cover with a new canning lid and gently tighten a ring to secure it.

Leave the jar sitting on the counter to cool - you'll hear a ping/pop when it cools enough to seal the jar.  If it doesn't seal, keep it in the refrigerator. 

Let it pickle for 2-3 days before eating.

Yummy lunch

Spinach, strawberry, goat cheese, almonds.  Dressed with EVOO, white wine vinegar, salt & pepper.

Pasta primavera

"Pasta primavera" with kale, shrimp, shallot, garlic, green beans, and GF pasta. Side of grilled sweet potatoes.

Leftovers never looks so good - or healthy

Dinner in 4 minutes: greens, rotisserie chicken, figs, leftover corn on the cob, and feta. Dressed with balsamic, EVOO, salt & pepper.

One of the most challenging things about creating new habits...is breaking out of the old habits.  What do you make for dinner when all the old standbys are, well, old.  Eating well can be fast, delicious, and easy.  Tagged as "what we eat" are some of our favorites that we hope will inspire you!

Caesar with salmon and gluten-free bread-heel croutons. Fresh figs and cucumber-rice vinegar salad on the side.

Protein-packed quacamole

The long lag since the past post is because we've been moving...and now we've moved! 

San Diego is our new home and we're loving discovering healthy foods in a Mediterranean climate!  The Farmer's markets are great! Some favorites from our Sunday market in La Jolla:  bags of oranges for juicing, half a dozen varieties of avocado, loquats, persimmon, red walnuts...

So, here's recipes for healthy eating that excite me these days:

Guacamole with Peas

2 avocados, preferably Fuerte
1c thawed frozen peas
1-2 limes
Fistful of chopped cilantro
Heavy sprinkle of Caribbean mixed herb salt
Blend it all up with a fork or pestel

Try sliced jicama discs instead of chips!

Eating well on the road

Labor Day weekend and we've taken advantage of these last days of summer to enjoy the ocean on the Oregon coast.  This is our favorite way to restore our own health: trading views of computer screens and office walls for the expansive horizon and endless rolling waves.  Getting our vitamin D from the sun, not a supplement.  Working our muscles through hiking, paddling & exploring rather than programming the elliptical with the "hills tour." Yet, eating well on a road trip is a challenge.

We've come prepared.  A cooler in the car and a rental with a kitchen.  We've brought already-chopped carrots, celery, radish, cucumber and jicama and a tub of our favorite hummus.  Greens, tortillas, nut butter & a nutty trail mix, fresh & dried fruit, smoked salmon, dark chocolate, parmesan and our "spice kit" comprise the staples we've brought along to ensure "the healthy choice is the easy choice. Yet somehow, after a day in the sun and surf, we find ourselves in front of the pizza parlor instead of heading back to our lodging to make our own dinner.  Sound familiar?

So what do you do when faced with 1) hunger, 2) desire for festive ambiance, 3) a pizza parlor 1.5 blocks off the beach, and 4) a desire to stay committed to eating well?  Well, you go on in and ask for a table for 2!

Here's what we did.  Started with a large green salad to share - dressing on the side. We asked the waitress "Please, don't bring that tempting bread basket." Next, we ordered a 10" thin crust, veggie dense pizza, light on the cheese.  We skipped the tiramisu and opted for a post-dinner walk on the beach.  In all - healthy, delicious, and we left dinner feeling both indulgent in our vacation-mode and physically good for having resisted too much bread and cheese. Bon appetit!