Rhubarb has made its grand entrance at my local farmers’ market. I brought home a small bundle and set about making them into something delicious. When I was a kid, we used to have a bunch growing in our backyard. … Continue reading
About 3 weeks ago we celebrated my husband Mikey’s 32nd birthday! The way I grew up, birthdays are not confined to a solitary party or a nice cake and presents. Rather, a birthday is an event stretching anywhere from 24-72 hours in which the sole focus of everyone’s attention is celebrating the awesomeness that is you. My mom even made all of us girls separate tablecloths, used only on our birthdays. Mine was a spangely magenta masterpiece, while my younger sister favored a light pink velour table runner. Nice work Mom.
Anyway, I was determined that Mikey was going to have the best birthday EVER despite my raging flu, his three hour night class, and all day meetings. The morning of, I got up early and drove to get his all-time favorite breakfast: donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. I pulled through the drive through and leaned out my window into the frigid mid-western morning and said “Hi, I’m grabbing donuts for my husband’s birthday. Do you have one double chocolate and one peanut cluster?” “Sure do”, came the automatic reply. “Will that be all? Or can I get you one as well?”
Yes. Yes I will have a light, fluffy, yeasty chocolate donut with Bavarian cream. Or a thick, dense powdered sugar donut that leaves my lips frosted with a delectable white ring. Or a few coy, round donut holes, the bane of the dieters existence but ever dear to my own heart.
“No.” I replied regretfully. “That’s all.”
Mike’s birthday passed but I haven’t been able to get the vision of those donuts out of my head! Finally I decided to get serious, and get a darn donut! This is my favorite variation of different recipes I have tried to get the perfect double chocolate, paleo friendly donut.
Ingredients: (Donut)
Instructions:
Ingredients: (Frosting)
Instructions:
Dunkin’ Donuts ain’t got nothin’ on me!
There is something magic about opening up your home for entertaining. Whether it’s the cleaning up the “lived-in” qualities of your rooms, planning the menu, considering the food restrictions of the guests, buying flowers for the vases or just anticipating the arrival of the guests, it’s magical! It fills my thoughts for days before and drives me to spend way more time than I have preparing food.
This past fall, my younger sister Anna moved to my town! I wish I could say it was to be with her cool older sister, but really it was so should could get an awesome education, explore Chicago and make great new friends. Check, check and check! For her birthday this year, I decided to throw her a brunch! Because I am a selfish cook that wants to eat all of the food that I make (and because I fear cross-contamination) I made all foods either SCD legal or Paleo.
A is for Anna!
I wanted to serve a variety of foods so after weighing my options, I settled on this menu:
Grain-free granola with coconut milk and topping options
When we were growing up, we would celebrate our birthdays at our Grandma Beth’s house and she would inevitably make us her famous Banana Chocolate Cake for our birthday cake! Sweet, almost to the point of being too sweet, it was sheer birthday indulgence and we always look forward to it. Since being diagnosed with Crohn’s, I haven’t been able to tolerate sweets as well and since beginning SCD, there has been no Banana Chocolate Cake for me. I decided to try and re-create one of our childhood favorites in Paleo form. I experimented with several different versions of this recipe before settling on this one.
They are light and moist with a lovely fruit driven sweetness. Topped with rich Paleo chocolate, they brought a rush of nostalgic childhood memories for me and smiles for us all!
The original Anna Banana and her darling friends!
Anna Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients: 
Icing:
For the frosting, I launched from this recipe of Elana‘s at Elana’s Pantry. However, I made some alterations. First of all, I halved the recipe. I used 1/2 of the Ghiradelli 100% Unsweetened Pure Cocoa Baking Bar (about 1/2 cup). Second of all, I added 1/3 cup of raw honey and kept the 1/3 cup of coconut oil. I decreased the vanilla to 1 tsp. I followed all other instructions.
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 300. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients until well mixed.
3. Blend eggs, honey and bananas in an electric mixer until smooth with no large chucks of banana.
4. Fold in dry ingredients.
5. Fill the tin about 3/4 of the way with batter. They won’t rise a lot but aren’t too dense. (I use an ice cream scoop to fill mine).
6. Cook at 300 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
7. Top with Elana’s icing after letting the cupcakes completely cool.
Me posing with empty plates and feeling soooo smug. 🙂
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