Whole Celebrations

Confession. I’ve gone a little wild since I finished the Whole 30 — mostly in the category of sweets. To my utter amazement by the end of the thirty days, I was not craving the taste of desserts but rather the habit. It’s the joy that comes with a pastry at your favorite coffee shop on a blasé Wednesday or the decadence of dark chocolate with a glass of red wine at the end of a long day. I understand that the joy I feel in these moments is a direct result of my not yet beaten sugar addiction. So, in the three weeks following my whole 30, I slowly introduced certain foods like grains and dairy and frantically perused the internet for lower sugar, more natural versions of my favorite desserts and pastries. When I said going wild, I meant replacing the sugar in my baked goods with maple syrup and raw honey and spending a few too many extra bucks on 90 percent dark chocolate bars every time I go to the grocery. One of the best habits I’m building through this attempt at a less processed lifestyle is awareness and discipline. While before my splurges were coffee shop pastries or homemade sugar packed baked goods, I’m much more aware of the sugar and my definition of splurging is much more whole. I’ll continue to banish (or at least minimize) my sugar monsters but in the meantime, life is happening! There are so many things I want to celebrate, and I think we can find more whole ways to celebrate through food. Below is the recipe that emerged from looking at multiple dark chocolate and grain free cake recipes. I made it for a dear friend’s birthday and felt much personal satisfaction when she said, “I love how natural it tastes and it’s not so sugary like most cakes!”

Success!
– mc

Grain-free dark chocolate cake

• 2 dark chocolate bars (90 percent cacao with >5g sugar)
• 1 stick of unsalted butter or 8 tablespoons of ghee
• 6 eggs
• 2/3 cup pure maple syrup or raw honey
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla
• 2 teaspoons coconut flour (lucky to find this at our Kroger! WOO!)
• 4 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup (SPECIAL DARK!) cocoa powder (I could only find Hershey’s in town)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon baking powder

*Some baking powder contains grain but I wasn’t able to determine if the brand available at my grocery store has any grain.  Perhaps this is a topic for a future blog post 🙂

Whipped chocolate buttercream frosting

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (Can use Earth Balance “whipped butter” for dairy free but I’m finding my body reacts to soy products)
• 2 tablespoons organic whipping cream (Leave out for DF)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup or 4 oz dark chocolate melted (90 percent cacao with >5g sugar)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or raw honey
• 1 cup powdered sugar (Leave out if you prefer but add more honey or maple syrup to taste)
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder (May need extra cocoa for fluffy texture if you leave out powdered sugar)

Steps for the cake

Preheat oven to 350 and grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Grease with coconut oil or olive oil. Melt the chocolate and butter on the stove stirring frequently to ensure chocolate doesn’t burn. Use a double  boiler if you can but if not just watch carefully! Let the mixture cool for 10-15 minutes before using. While chocolate cools, mix all dry ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, whip eggs and maple syrup vigorously (or use electric stand mixer) until the mixture is fluffy and light yellow – about 6-7 minutes. Add in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Gently fold in dry ingredients to chocolate mixture.

Divide batter into the prepared pans. Bake cakes for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool  for 15 minutes and then remove from pans to cool completely. If you need them to cool over night, leave them in the pans covered with saran wrap to seal moisture. Run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen and remove.

Steps for the whipped buttercream

Melt the chocolate and let it cool for 10 minutes. Whip the butter in a stand mixer or by hand for 5-6 minutes. Add the whipping cream and mix until light and fluffy. Keep mixing and add in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add maple syrup, sugar and cocoa powder and mix until fluffy. Frost your cake when it is cool or cold! Put frosting in between the two layers, then on top and last do the edges. If you run out of frosting, it looks just as lovely to simply frost middle and top. Decorate with anything you’ve got!

grain free dark chocolate cake

Sunday Meal Planning: Crock Pot Fajita Chicken

Marisa here!

It’s Sunday afternoon, which in my world means it is time to make sure my fridge is packed with easy to grab breakfasts and lunches for the week. I’m constantly on the look out for ways to make eating whole a whole lot easier, and I thought I’d share a few of my current favorite go-to meals.

Breakfasts:

If I am being honest, my weekday breakfasts often consist of hard boiled eggs (I make a bunch on Sundays, peel them using this life altering hack and keep them in a container in the fridge), hot sauce (we are Louisiana hot sauce fans in this house), and a bag of veggies (often carrots, but sometimes I feel fancy and throw in peppers instead). I live a glamorous life, I know.

You want the big bottle of this stuff. Promise.

This week, though, I decided to make Marissa’s breakfast casserole, made with spiralized sweet potato (or shredded sweet potato, if you are like me and have a wimpy spiralizer), breakfast sausage, onions, and eggs. This casserole is life changing, and it keeps really well in the fridge, making easy breakfasts all week. Full recipe coming soon!

I am also making a batch of chia pudding as a mid-morning snack, because chia pudding is delish and full of all sorts of healthy fats and anti-oxidants. Check out my Ode to Chia Pudding for recipes!

Lunches:

Lunches often consist of leftovers from the night before – I always try to make extra of whatever protein I am cooking each night. Right now, I have leftover lemon-garlic chicken just waiting for my Monday lunch box as an easy salad topping.

To avoid surviving solely on left-overs and hard boiled eggs, I always try to make at least one or two dishes each weekend that I can eat throughout the week. This week, I decided to break out my trusty old crock pot (I inherited mine from my mom when I moved to Mississippi – it is pretty ugly and is missing a handle but it works like a charm!) for fajita chicken, which I’ll use in wraps and on salads all week. This recipe could not be any easier or delicious, so I’m sharing it with you!

Frozen veggies aren’t cute but they are cheap and they cut down on prep work!

• 1 lb chicken breast, cubed
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 1 bag frozen peppers and onions (or just 2 cups of fresh chopped bell peppers)
• 1-3 c frozen kale or other veggies if you want to sneak extra veg. into your diet
• 1-2 c organic, sugar free chicken stock
• 1 tbs garlic salt (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp red pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp cumin (more or less to taste)

Brown the chicken and the onions in a frying pan (or skip this step, you’ll lose a bit of flavor, but you’ll save on time and dishes. #priorities).

At this stage, if you are like me, you’ll be tempted to just eat the chicken and the onions because they look so deliciously caramelized. Hold out, though, my friend, because greatness is coming your way.

Next, pile on all the veggies, add your spices, cover with a little bit of chicken stock, give it a stir and let everything cook away in the crock pot on high for a good 4 hours. You’ll know things are ready when the chicken shreds easily with a fork.

LOOKS. SO. GOOD.

When everything has become all wonderfully entangled, serve this mixture over salads, in lettuce wraps, or as a stew. You could also dip plantain or sweet potato chips in this if you are feeling fancy, or make some of Against All Grain’s grain-free wraps for a burrito. #nom

Whatever you make, top it with avocado, fresh cilantro, hot sauce or salsa, lime juice, and possibly some salt or pepper and enjoy!

An Ode to Chia Pudding

MM here! As I was preparing meals for the week, I was really missing my old breakfast standby of overnight oats, so I decided to make some chia pudding for breakfast tomorrow.

What are chia seeds?

Chia seeds are tiny edible seeds that come from a plant in the mint family that is traditionally grown in Mexico. Chia seeds have gained a lot of popularity in recent years because they are so full of Omega-3 fatty acids, protein, fiber and anti-oxidants (you can read more about chia seeds from the experts over at WebMD). Chia seeds are not something I eat everyday, but I definitely enjoy a great chia pudding with breakfast now and again!

In the Mississippi Delta (and other such places), where do you get chia seeds?

When I first started buying chia seeds, I really had to hunt to find them and when I did find them somewhere, I would stock up. I had the best luck in the exotic foods aisle of TJ Maxx, and barring that I would buy from Amazon or sneak off to Whole Foods when my work trips would bring me to a big city. In the past six months, though, our local Kroger has beefed up their natural foods aisle and has started carrying chia seeds, which is wonderful (though sometimes I still buy my chia seeds at the TJ Maxx just out of loyalty).

Why would I want to eat this?

If you are new to chia seed pudding, don’t freak out and stay with me! Chia pudding has a texture sort of like tapioca and takes on the flavor of whatever you put in it. I usually make mine with vanilla extract, coconut milk and mango, which is pretty magical. Eating chia pudding is a fairly similar experience to eating one of those vanilla pudding cups that used to come in your school lunches in elementary school, but with zero chemicals and all the healthy sources of energy.

So, how do you make this magical pudding?

There are lots of recipes out there for chia pudding and if you are like me, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed as you try to sift through them all to find one that will be simple, Whole 30 compliant and still delicious. After some reading and some experimenting, I have learned that all chia puddings follow the same basic formula:

2 cups of liquid + 1/4 cup of chia seeds + flavor + time = magic

You can double that recipe, or halve it, but you have to keep the 4 parts liquid to 1 parts chia seed ratio right or you end up with not magic. VERY not magic.

A note on time: All of these recipes require at least an hour in the fridge for the magic to happen. I like to make mine on Sunday evenings and then it is ready to rumble the next morning when I have a case of the Mondays and am in need of a pick me up.

My favorite combinations:

I pretty much always make the same base:

2 c. coconut milk + 1/4 c chia seeds + 1 tsp vanilla extract

And then I mix in whatever sounds most appealing the next day: frozen mango; banana; sliced apples and cinnamon; pecans; shredded coconut; almond butter; coconut manna. THERE ARE SO MANY CHOICES. You really can’t go wrong, as long as you get that ratio right!

Doesn’t that look delish??