Healthy Fudge Brownies

Lots of baking has been going on in my house lately. I've been on the Anti-Candida Diet for about two months, and it's bred quite a bit of creativity in my desserts! Just this month, I started reintroducing small amounts of fruit into my diet as my first taste of sugar after the Anti-Candida Diet cleanse.

I've never used dates in baking before, but I'm loving them now. They don't have a weird after-taste, and they add a nice texture and subtle sweetness. And the best part? In this recipe, the entire batch of brownies has 7 grams of sugar.

The brownies also boast high-protein from the beans and cashew butter, healthy fats from the coconut oil and cashew butter, and are grain, dairy, and refined-sugar free.

Each brownie comes in at about 125 calories, less than 1g sugar, and 5g protein. Not bad, right? As opposed to a typical boxed brownie, which is full of wheat, refined sugar, unhealthy oils and fats, and will cost you upwards of 250 calories each. There is less sugar in the entire batch of these than you will get in one regular brownie. Not even exaggerating. If that's not motivating, I don't know what is.

I had several taste testers for this recipe (because I loved them so much, and I never fully trust my taste now, as my threshold for sweetness has dipped so low) and they were approved by multiple picky-eaters and sugar-lovers. That's a win in my book.

I think these are best straight from the oven, but they were tasty after being chilled, too!

Healthy Fudge Brownies
(makes one pan, or around 15 brownies)

1 1/4 cup cashew butter (cashews should be the only ingredient; I make my own.)
4 dates
up to 5  Tbsp water
2 1/2 cups white beans, drained and rinsed well  (I used navy)
2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder 
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 packets Stevia
4 Tbsp pure Xylitol
1 tsp celtic sea salt
1/4 cup sugar-free/dairy-free chocolate chips (I make my own with 100% chocolate bars melted down, mixed with stevia and made into chocolate chips)

Before starting, soak the dates in a cup of water until they are soft and start to disintegrate into the water. Depending on what kind of dates you use, this will probably take around 10-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Grind the cashew butter and dates on high in a food processor until smooth. Add the beans and process until a very smooth dough forms. Add in the coconut oil and baking powder and process well. Next, add in the cocoa powder and process again. When the cocoa is fully incorporated, add in the vanilla, Stevia, Xylitol, and salt, and process again. 

The dough will be cookie dough like in texture. One tablespoon at a time, add the date water, and pulse. Keep adding the water until the batter thins out. It should be thick, but spreadable- a bit thicker than regular brownie batter, but thinner than cookie dough.

(At this point, I ate a good portion of the batter. If you have more self control than I, proceed to the next step. If not, eat up, friend.)

Grease a 9x13 baking pan with coconut oil. Spread the batter evenly in the pan, then drop the chocolate chips over the top. Mix them in a little, but not too much- the batter will be warm, so be careful not to melt them! Sprinkle a few more on top. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top looks dry. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting. Eat warm!

The Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Maybe that's a bold statement. The healthiest?
I don't know.

But the healthiest I've ever personally come across, for what it's worth.

Like I mentioned in my last recipe, I've been on the anti-candida diet lately. And as I also mentioned, I've been really needing some desserts around the house.

I came across this recipe a while back, and used to make it often, back in the days when I could have peanuts (which I can't have because of my diet, and also because my nursing babe has a peanut allergy), garbanzo beans (which are a close relative of peanuts, and therefore my girl is also allergic to them), and honey (which...you know. sugar.).

It struck me yesterday, though, that I could make some substitutions, and with a little adjusting, come up with a completely sugar-free, peanut-allergy-friendly version.

So these cookies have no flour, no butter, no sugar, no dairy, no eggs, no garbanzo beans, and no peanuts. Making them vegan, anti-candida diet friendly, and gluten-free, to name a few.

But equally as important, they're really, really good. Not to mention you're getting 4 grams of protein, healthy fats from the cashews and coconut oil, and antioxidants from the cocoa nibs in every cookie- and 0 grams of sugar in the entire recipe!

I don't count calories when eating clean, but if you're into that, each cookie comes in at about 125-135 calories (depending on the size of your cookies).

They're more like a cookie dough bite, like the original recipe from which it was adapted. The texture, when the cookie is chilled, is very dough-like, which I, personally, prefer. 

The Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

makes: about 2 dozen mini cookies

1 1/4 cup cashew butter (cashews should be the only ingredient; I make my own.)
2 1/2 cups white beans, drained and rinsed well  (I used navy)
2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder 
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 packets Stevia 
4 Tbsp pure Xylitol
1 tsp celtic sea salt
1/4 cup - 1/2 cup cocoa nibs (or mini chocolate chips of your choice)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grind the cashew butter and beans on high in the food processor until a very smooth dough forms. Add in the coconut oil and baking powder and process well. Add in the remaining ingredients, except cocoa nibs, and process well again. Stir in cocoa nibs, and drop on a cookie sheet (I use an ice cream scoop to do this). Bake at 350˚F for about 12 minutes, or until the bottoms turn golden and the cookies look dry. They will not spread or rise like normal cookies. 
Eat warm, or chill in the refrigerator or freezer. I like them best cold (and they hold together better that way, too), but they are also delicious straight out of the oven.

Enjoy!

Snickerdoodle Cashew Butter

My diet has been reasonably restrictive lately. I've been on the first stage of the anti-candida diet (yeast-free diet), which means I can't have sugar (fruit, artificial sweeteners and natural sugar included), dairy, gluten, peanuts, and a whole mess of other things.
I also can't have almonds, because my sweet girl is allergic, and we are still breastfeeding! And, because she also has a peanut allergy, I can't have garbanzo beans...because, as it turns out, they are closely related, and she reacts to them, too.

So, as you can imagine, desserts have been a struggle lately.
The restrictions on my diet rule out most everything I have routinely made for desserts- both healthy and not- in the past. Ice cream and real cookies are out. Almond butter cookies? Out. Garbanzo bean cookies? Out. Fruit pan fried in coconut oil? Out. And most baking recipes call for some sort of sweetener that works as a binder. But, of course, even raw honey (my paleo go-to sweetener) is O-U-T.

And it was out of this little conundrum that this recipe was born. The texture is almost identical to peanut butter when warm, and closer to cookie dough when cold, and the taste is similar to snickerdoodles.
It curbs the sugar cravings like nothing else, and it's guilt-free. Win-win.
Now, is it guilt-free when I go through a whole batch of this in a matter of days? I don't know. I'm not asking questions.

Snickerdoodle Cashew Butter

5 cups whole roasted unsalted cashews
1 tsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp celtic sea salt
2 Tbs pure xylitol
4 packets stevia (with no additives- I use Sweet Leaf)
1 tsp vanilla

Grind the whole cashews on high in a food processor for several minutes, until smooth and creamy. The cashews will go through several stages before becoming creamy- first it will be crumbly, then stiff, then thick, and eventually it will start warming up and getting creamy. Give it time and scrape down the sides when needed.
Once the cashews have formed a butter, add the coconut oil and process well. Then add the rest of the ingredients, process until thoroughly combined, and taste. Add more salt, cinnamon or sweetener to taste.
Store in a container in the fridge.

Spread on toast (or a coconut meat tortilla, if you're eating like me right now), use as a fruit dip, or just eat by the spoonful.

Enjoy!

When Your Hands Are Full, Remember This.

Life gets overwhelming as a mom, sometimes. Sometimes, getting through the day isn’t as easy as it used to be. Sometimes, the house looks like a hurricane blew through it, and the babies are leeches on my legs, and the only thing I want to do is sit down and eat a bite of that food I made for myself thirty minutes ago. I don’t know about you, fellow mamas, but sometimes, I need a little perspective.

Often times, for me, that perspective comes in the form of this note I wrote to myself several years back. I go back to it from time to time, when I need the reminder. 

At the time that I wrote it, I was twenty years old. I had been married for seven months. For each one of those seven months, we had been trying, and failing, to get pregnant. Every month, I had thrown away multiple negative tests. Every month, I began to lose hope. Every month, I got a little more worried that maybe something was wrong. That maybe it wasn’t going to happen for us.

And I remember the sting when other women would get pregnant on accident. I remember the wave of envy that washed over me when women would half-heartedly complain about the woes of pregnancy- the stretch marks, the aches and pains, the fatigue. I remember swearing to myself that, if I ever got pregnant, I would never forget how valuable each painful moment would be. I sat down at my computer that day, threw my thoughts on the page and titled it, “Remember This.”

Remember this.

When I look at my body now,
a little imperfect,
but young and in shape,
I try to imagine what it would look like with a bump instead.
When I look at my hips and stomach,
my skin is smooth.
I’d replace it with a thousand stretch marks for you.
When I look at the number when I set on the scale,
it reads a few pounds heavier than I wish.
But I’d add thirty pounds
if it meant you were on your way.
Don’t wish for your pre-pregnancy body back.

When I want to eat,
I can eat what I want.
When I want to drink,
I drink what I want.
I can have caffeine, feta cheese, any kind of fish, and alcohol.
I’d throw that all away if it meant I could be with you.
Don’t wish to have your pre-pregnancy diet back.

When I wake up in the morning,
I’m not sick.
I can eat what I want,
and go on with my day.
I’d have morning sickness every day of my pregnancy
if it meant I was pregnant with you.
Don’t wish for your pre-pregnancy health back.

When I’m not working,
my day is my own.
I can sleep in as late as I want,
go out whenever I want,
and hang out with my husband
whenever I want.
And I’d give it all up for a moment with you.
Don’t wish for your time to yourself back.

When I clean the house
it stays clean.
I wish there were little hands messing all of it up.
When I go grocery shopping,
I can spend money on little things for me.
I wish I was spending that money on diapers instead.
Don’t wish for a clean house back.

I would rather be trying to work off the pregnancy pounds every day for the rest of my life
than to be spending it without you.
I would rather be covered in stretch marks
than look the way I do now without you.
I would rather be stuck eating on a strict diet for you
than to eat whatever I want without you.
I would rather be bed-ridden with morning sickness
than to be fine and healthy without you.
I would rather be scheduling every moment of my time around your schedule
than to live the rest of my life without you.
I would rather be cleaning up toys and food and who knows what else
off the floors and walls and everywhere else
than to have a perfectly clean home without you.

Don’t forget.

Friends, if you’re in over your head with your kids these days, I hope you can find a little bit of perspective for yourself, too. I hope you can remember what your life was like before the craziness, before the sleeplessness, before the endless piles of laundry. I hope you can remember what that hole in your heart felt like, and what it feels like to have that hole filled.
It doesn’t minimize the stress. It certainly doesn’t make it go away. But it does give you that much-needed reminder that it’s worth it- every single moment.

A Winnie The Pooh Birthday Party

If you know anything about my two year old right now, it's that she loves Winnie the Pooh. I mean, this kid is obsessed. She has a stuffed Pooh that sleeps with her and comes with us wherever we go. He's her pseudo-baby doll. She has baby dolls, but Pooh beat them out. He even gets to ride in her "baby wrap" (a scarf tied like a sling wrap).

It seemed only right that we threw a Winnie the Pooh themed party for her second birthday this year, complete with a smackerel of honey and plenty of bees. 

 

The Invitation

Honey Bees and Beehives

Honey Bees and Beehives

 

I was happy with how it turned out, but even happier when we got to watch her run around saying, "I'm happy! I'm so excited!" for the duration of the two hour party. And she was happy. I mean, after all, she did get to go to the Hundred Acre Wood. What more could a Pooh-Bear-Obsessed-Two-Year-Old ask for? 

My husband's parents graciously hosted the party at their house, and even set up a  "Hundred Acre Wood" play area downstairs, which is where the kids spent the majority of the party. 

Here are some pictures of various elements of the party...

A Pasta bar with Tigger Tails and Rabbit's Garden Veggies

(pinspiration)

Pooh's Honey Pots and Honey Bee Cake Pops
(pinspiration)

Piglet's Punch
(pinspiration)

Honey and Dipper Favors

We are so thankful for the friends and family who came and shared this special day with us. It was a perfect party for our Winnie-the-Pooh Girl!

Double Chocolate Fudge Truffles

Going on a Paleo diet (or mostly Paleo... I mean, it's the holiday season...who am I kidding?) sparks some creativity into my food choices. Mostly out of necessity, because I can't just have no desserts. 

I don't know what this is, to be honest. Cookie dough? Fudge? Some mix between the two, maybe? 

It's delicious, though, and pretty healthy, considering how good it is. My one complaint is that I always run out too fast. Because it's that good. 

So here it is. Merry Christmas, ladies and gentlemen.

Double Chocolate Fudge Truffles 

(Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, refined-sugar free)

1 1/2 cups cashew pieces

3 Tbs extra virgin coconut oil

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 cups almond butter 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/8 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup coconut sugar 

1/4 cup chocolate chips (paleo- I make my own)

Add cashews and coconut oil to your food processor and pulse until very smooth- it should almost be a liquid. Add cocoa powder and blend well. 

Add almond butter if your processor can handle it (mine can't). Otherwise, hand mix it in until completely blended. 

In a bowl, Stir in remaining ingredients in order. Adjust sweetness to taste. 

Scoop with a melon baller or ice cream scoop and store in the fridge. Eat ungodly amounts and feel no guilt. 

I Can't Fight All Your Battles For You

It’s often late at night, it seems, when God whispers the most important things to me.

Tonight, I found myself laying wide-eyed in the darkness again, my mind wandering. It wandered to my children, as it usually does. I began to introspect on how defensive I find myself being of them. How I feel like a mama bear sometimes, wanting to fiercely warn others to keep their distance of my babies. How I want to jump to my girls’ defense at the first sight of their discomfort. How I want to silence every negative tone and every less-than-kind word thrown their way.

It's not uncharacteristic of me, particularly. I'm loyal to a fault, and always have been. I would go to war for "my people." I swear loyalty to people that takes drastic measures to undo. I give people second and third and fourth chances. I have trouble putting my foot down and setting healthy boundaries, and tend to let people take advantage of my loyalty. The good comes with the bad, as it does with any trait, and I certainly have both.
But with motherhood came an entirely new level of commitment within me that I didn't know I had. My children are a part of me, now. They each reside in a part of my soul that no one else can fill. I would fight to the death for these girls. I would risk everything I have to protect them.

“Above all else,” I mused, “I want my girls to know that I will always be in their corner.”

I saw myself in a parted crowd, facing down some kind of enemy, behind my oldest daughter’s back, whispering, “You tell me when, and I’ll come in swinging.”

But, as He does from time to time, God gently interjected.

“You can’t always fight their battles,” He told me, “or they will never grow.”

He was right.

And of course, He’s right. How could my kids learn a thing in life if I never let them? What kind of adults would I be raising them into if they never learned how to set their own boundaries? Or if they never learned how to resolve conflict? Or if they never learned how to stand up for themselves? I would be an enabler, not a protector. I would be damaging and crippling the very lives I’m aiming to defend.

And then, God drew the connection for me.
“I can’t always fight your battles for you, either.”

The idea silenced my always-moving mind for a split second.

He doesn’t. And so often, I beg Him to. I sometimes mistakenly interpret His lack of intervention as a lack of support. I want Him to fix it, always and immediately. I want Him to silence the people that speak untrue words about me. I want Him to intervene in disagreements and put an end to any conflict that arises. I want Him to make others stop pushing my boundaries so I don't have to speak up. I want Him to shield me from discomfort and pain.

But He is a wiser parent than I. He knows that there are times when it would only cripple me to be sheltered. It would only hinder my growth to disallow me to make my own choices and fight my own battles.

It's not a lack of love or a lack of loyalty that keeps Him at bay. It is just the opposite, in fact. It's because of His love that He holds back and lets me grow.

He loves me infinitely more than I love my own children. And if I feel so fiercely loyal to these tiny little lives, and yet still must give them space to grow, how much more must God love me as He does the same?

There will be times, and there have been times already, where my girls will need me to fight for them. Times when they are too young, too small or too weak to protect themselves. And at those times, I have been there. At those times, I will always be there for them.

And in those times, when I am too young, too small or too weak, God steps in for me. That’s when He steps in front of me. That’s when He comes in swinging.

But when He does not, I know that He is lovingly, loyally and wisely letting me grow.