bundt cake!

We survived the plague. I made more than three huge batches of chicken soup and bone broth, forced tons of fluids on the boys, and used lots of lavender and peppermint essential oils. But they're both better!

...and now I'm getting sick. *sighs*

It strikes me as amusing, how masochistic I must be. I take on assignments and odd jobs and projects with no problem, and then panic when I realize how little time I have to accomplish it all. I have two sewing projects to accomplish sooner rather than later, an event that my hubby and I are in charge of some of the activities and we need to plan for, and we're working on slowly remodeling/organizing our garage and laundry room. (laundry room being the fancy term for the guest bathroom that has a washer and dryer behind the broken door) And with all these projects going on, our little one has learned how to crawl and pull himself up to standing.

Somehow I feel like I have no time in the world to get everything done. And that's silly, as I have a full 24 hours EACH DAY to get stuff done! I have horrendous self control these days. And then I complain that I haven't got enough time to get everything done. Today at church we had a guest speaker who was talking about time and how we use it or don't use it. It definitely struck a cord in me. How often do I complain to my hubby that I haven't got enough time-but I got halfway through the book I was reading, had time to peruse Target with my Mom, and aimlessly play with the baby? I could've used that time so much better! Get some laundry started, play with the baby while it's running, work on sewing while he's napping, get dinner started (woot woot for crock pots!), run the dishwasher while running errands... Ugh. Now you now what you can pray for me about!

we took time to really play with our little guy before his bedtime. love that smile!

Yesterday was a busy day. TG had band practice in the morning, we had a wedding reception right after, and then when we got home I had a bunch of cooking and baking to do for today's All Church Lunch. I made a bunch of meatballs and made the most amazing bundt cake. The normals were getting a rare treat of baklava for dessert today, and I wanted cake, so I made cake for us specials. And I've got to share the recipe. It's delicious! (and if I don't share it, I'll likely lose it, and that'd be positively depressing!)

Chocolate chip bundt cake of YUM

• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 3/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup coconut milk (buttermilk style)
• 1 package dairy free mini chocolate chips

How to make this YUM:
1.) Preheat oven to 325° and spray bundt pan with non-stick spray
2.) Sift all the dry ingredients together
3.) Pour the cup of milk into a bowl, and add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to it. Set aside.
4.) Blend remaining wet ingredients together. (eggs, vanilla and oil- and yes, if the coconut oil is room temperature, the wet ingredients AND batter will be slightly lumpy. No worries)
5.) Slowly start adding the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the (buttermilk-esque) coconut milk. Blend thoroughly.
6.) Add the entire package of chocolate chips. Yes, the whole package. Stir in gently.
7.) Pour the batter into the pre-sprayed bundt cake pan, and slid into the oven to bake for 50ish minutes.
8.) Once the toothpick test declares it's done, pull that baby out of the oven and let her cool for a few minutes before flipping onto whatever tray or cake carrier you have.
9.) Cool the cake for awhile longer, and then lightly dust it with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

My hubby confessed to eating more than 3 slices today. ...I had more, so I can't really be too perturbed. This is a recipe that if you want to make it chocolatey, it wouldn't be too hard to reduce some of the flours and use cocoa powder to make it chocolatey. Or, if you want it lemony, grate some lemon rind into the batter, and use a bit of lemon juice straight into the batter as well. (and top with a lemon glaze!) This is a yummy cake that is rather simple-and has so many possibilities! If you want a rainbow funfetti type cake, sub out the chocolate chips with a tube of sprinkles. Play with it. Own it. Eat it and don't weigh yourself on your bathroom scale then following morning.

Any creative ideas out there on what else can be done to this cake?

Sickness and peanut butter

It's finally happened.

Our little one has gotten sick.

He almost made it 10 months without any illness! Alas, for my hubby caught a cold or something from his employee, and that made it's way to That Boy. We've been mostly battling just a fever. But still, a fever of 102.8 is still quite a new thing to battle! He's been handling it ok-ish. As long as I'm constantly holding him. And as long as he has his paci. Or is nursing. ...it's been a long few days.

Mama's little sickie

But my hubby is doing a bit better! His fever has been fluctuating a LOT, and all our Tylenol expired ages ago. (we use it sooo often. Our bottle expired in 2009 and we haven't used it since then to even notice!) Thankfully I've been doing more homeopathic stuff, and we've discovered that for sleeping purposes, a damp washcloth with lavender and peppermint essential oils dabbed on it help to reduce the fever and relax him. Huzzah for that!

So what's a Mama gonna do, with two sickies in her house to take care of? How is she supposed to keep functioning?

Well, I've discovered Pinterest. Finally. And I found the most amazing recipe EVER. Averie of loveveggiesandyoga has this amazing, amazing recipe for peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. And they're naturally gluten free! No flour! I want to share them with my neighbor, but her daughter is allergic to eggs. I'm stubborn, these cookies are amazing, and they MUST be shared! So I altered the recipe.

Behold, the tweaked recipe for egg free scrumptiousness!

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 TBSP vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
4 tsp coconut flour
4 oz dark chocolate bar

1.) Preheat oven to 350
2.) Mix all but the chocolate together well.
3.) Chop chocolate in chunks.
4.) Mix into batter. Pour into a container and fridge it for a minimum of 2 hours. (you can fridge it up to 5 days)
5.) Roll dough into balls and drop onto a cookie sheet that's covered with a parchment paper.
6.) Bake in preheated oven for 13ish minutes.
7.) Cool for 5 minutes.
7.) ENJOY



And here's the original recipe, so you can peruse her blog of yummies! Go make these cookies. Now.
http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/01/peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html

Coconut!

So...I'm supposed to be on a cleanse diet.

No grains, no sugar, no eggs, no dairy...

Lots of veggies, fruits and meats...

...I feel like I'm dying without my chocolate and carby goodnesses!!!

What's a Mommy gonna do? I've started getting desperate, and been looking up coconut recipes. (for the record, coconut shavings are the most horrible food thing ever. I have texture issues, I know.) Well, dislike for coconut shavings aside, I'm desperate. I've got no problem with coconut flour. Or coconut oil. Or coconut butter. But shavings? Yeah, no thank you.

...so I bought coconut shavings today...and used them...and dude, have I got a recipe for you!

I was originally going to make coconut butter from scratch. But I got impatient and decided I'd just find something to do with coconut meal instead. (10 cups of coconut shavings in a food processor for about 10 minutes will yield some very fine coconut meal, for the unofficial record) I was curious. I was desperate. I made brownies!

Behold, coconut meal!

Similar to zucchini brownies, moist, decadent, and you've no idea that the yum in your mouth is healthy! I made them (with fervent prayers during the mixing, baking and taste testing) and served them to my hubby. He thought they were amazing! He's been doing the same as I all evening-snitching little bites here and there. Thankfully we'll have enough to share in our fellowship group at church tomorrow. Which is good, because that's the only reason I'm really able to make these while on a cleanse! (they have egg, which is a no-no for the cleanse diet, BUT everything else is acceptable!) I ended up making 3 batches of these brownies for tomorrow, and boy, are they good!

Shall I give this recipe? Or shall I hold ya'all in suspense? (for, like, the two of you who still follow a blogger who blogs every month, lol)

Here's the yum!

2.5 oz of dark chocolate (or all but 2 squares of a bar of chocolate)
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 cup coconut sugar (also known as palm sugar. You can use regular cane sugar if you'd like)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup fresh coconut meal (not flour, not shavings. Meal.)
2 TBSP coconut flour

• Pre-heat oven to 350. If not using seasoned stoneware, spray non-stick in a 8x8 pan.
• Melt dark chocolate and oil on stove top in small pan. Stir together, and then remove from heat.
• Once cool, blend eggs, sugar, vanila and chocolate together.
• Add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix well. 
• Pour into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Gah, so good! I'm kinda glad our little one can't eat brownies yet. I wouldn't want to share! But he IS starting solid foods...so the time is coming quickly. Thankfully he's content thus far with zucchini and carrots and whatnot. Assuming Mommy gets her act together in the morning and makes it, he'll be trying out spinach tomorrow! But Mommy needs to make that first...

Well, I posted the recipe, huzzah! Time to crash, as there's a very good chance a certain little one will be waking in a few hours for a snack, and Mommy wants to get some sleep before then! Being a 6 month old boy, he's sure growing fast! *sniff, sniff* My little baby is growing too fast! Wah!

Look! He's even got two teeth growing in! Ayiee!