A Paleo Valentine's Day

I know that I'm almost a month late in posting this, but better late than never, right?  So, Valentine's Day.  A holiday built around treats.  Not quite like Halloween, but treats are still a big part of the picture.  We knew that Jack would get all kind of junk at his class party, which turned out to be an understatement.  If memory serves me correctly (I helped at the party), each kid got a cupcake, two different kinds of cookies, four pieces of licorice, a handful of goldfish, fruit snacks, a fun size candy bar and a fruit rollup.  This is in addition to the candy that their classmates gave them as part of their valentines.  Yikes!  Lucky for us, Jack forgets about candy the minute it's out of sight (in fact, he probably ate about 3 or 4 pieces of Halloween candy total), so we just dumped it in the trash the night and I never heard another word about it!

Since we did not want to contribute to the rise in childhood diabetes in America, I gave Jack the option of a couple of different none food valentines to give to his classmates.  And here is what he chose:

I found the free printable online and we grabbed some bugs (which were actually plastic cockroaches.  Nothing says "love" like a cockroach!) and bags at the dollar store.  The girls in the class weren't super jazzed about them, but they were a big hit with the boys.

For my loves, I made some homemade treats.  For B, I made these AMAZING chocolate covered caramel dates.  Seriously, so good.  And no sugar.  Well, there are natural sugars in the dates and honey technically.  We even had enough caramel left over to make a caramel apple.  Delicious!

For my little loves, I made our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and filled up some little mailboxes that I snagged for a buck each at Target.  (Sorry for the dark pictures of the treats.  I had to take them under the cover of darkness the night before...)  Now, this might not be a popular choice among parents, but I let our boys eat their cookies for breakfast that day.  When you think about what some kids are eating for breakfast though - donuts, pop tarts, Lucky Charms - a few paleo chocolate chip cookies are definitely a better choice.  The best choice out there? No.  But I'm perfectly fine with having a little fun once in a while.

Paleo Banana Bread

If you're looking for a great paleo banana bread recipe, check out this one from Elana's Pantry.  I've made a this particular recipe a couple of times now (with a couple of modifications) and it leaves other recipes in the dust.  I used coconut oil instead of shortening and almond meal instead of almond flour.  And we've even taken it to a gathering with friends and they managed to choke it down without any complaints.

I actually just pulled a batch of this out of the oven and can't wait to spread a little butter on a piece and sit down on the couch under a warm blanket and watch some TV with my hubby.  Feels like fall.  And I just noticed that there is a new recipe for Paleo Pumpkin Bread up on her site today...might have to check that out next!

Chocolate Coffee Lara Bars

A while back, Brandon and I discovered these bad boys...

They are delicious.  And, of course, we decided to make our own!  Since they have some strong coffee in them, we waited until we would have a group of adults to serve them to instead of letting Jack chow down on all of them.  And last week, we had that opportunity when some of Brandon's coworkers (who make up half of the 10 readers of this blog -- hi guys!) over for a barbecue.  I even managed to not eat all of the treats before everyone arrived. :)

Chocolate Coffee Lara Bars

20 Medjool dates (I only note this because they are bigger than other dates. If you use other dates, you'll need more.)
1/3 cup raisins
3 cups nuts
1/4 cup strong coffee
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus a little more for coating)
1 oz square of unsweetened chocolate, melted

In food processor, combine nuts and cocoa powder until coarse.  Pour into bowl and set aside.  Again in the food processor, combine dates, raisins, coffee and melted chocolate.  Be careful here, things might splatter a bit at first....or a lot.  I just threw a towel over the top of the food processor until it worked it's way together.  Once the date mixture/paste is well mixed, add it to the nut mixture and work it together.  Roll into balls and coat with unsweetened cocoa powder.

Paleo Granola

Granola is a staple in our house.  It can serve as a meal, a snack or even a dessert.  And it is definitely a must if you have kiddos around.   Jack (5yo) would eat this everyday if he could.  We've just recently given it to Sam (18mo) and he couldn't even be bothered to try to use a spoon to eat it with -- he just started using his sticky little fingers.  Most often, we serve it on top of home canned applesauce, peaches, or pears.  It could also be eaten with just a little almond milk or coconut milk.  Or maybe make some kind of smoothie and top it with this.  We also love it with fried apples and coconut ice cream.  Basically, it's good on top of anything.  It's versatile enough that you could switch up the spices (nutmeg? cloves?), nuts (walnuts? pecans?) and even add some dried fruit too.  Have fun experimenting!

Paleo Granola

10 cups nuts (we use sliced and slivered almonds most of the time)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together in large bowl.  Spread onto parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheet or baking dish with edges.  Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Fruit & Basil Salad

My husband and I are currently doing a Whole30, which basically means that, for 30 days, we are being very strict about what we eat. While it's not that much different than how we normally eat, we're skipping our weekly date night indulgence. And dark chocolate. Which means that sometimes we are craving some kind of sweet treat. Here's what we came up with the other night to have after our garage gym workout.

Fruit & Basil Salad

1 peach, pitted and chopped
1 cup blueberries
1 Tbsp chopped basil (mint would be great too, we just had some basil in our CSA basket)
1/3 cup coconut milk
handful of sliced almonds

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl and enjoy!

A Paleo Father's Day

It seems quite fitting that our inaugural blog post happens to land on Father's Day since we owe so much of our Paleo journey, and ultimately our health, to my dear husband. Without him, we never would have started down this road and I am eternally grateful for his leadership and trailblazing in the area of our family's health.

Okay, enough of the mushy stuff...and on to our Father's Day menu!

For breakfast, we started off with a little Paleo biscuits and gravy. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the gravy. Although it called for an entire can of coconut milk, it didn't have a coconut flavor, which is what I was afraid of. The biscuits definitely had a coconut flavor, but I didn't notice it when the sausage and gravy were with it.

For lunch, we enjoyed fajitas (sans tortillas) at our favorite little Mexican restaurant.

For dinner, we had Carraway Chicken from the Everyday Paleo cookbook, but we substituted cabbage for the Belgian endive. The chicken was incredibly tender and tasty. And, since it was a crockpot meal, it only took about 5 minutes to put together!

And for dessert, we had strawberries with Honey Vanilla Cream. It. was. delicious. This is something that we'll definitely make again for special occasions. It ended up being pretty sweet, but great.

So, there you have it. Not a typical day necessarily with the baked goods and sweet treats, but we managed to indulge a bit without using ingredients that we don't typically use.

Happy Father's Day!