Fruit indulgences

The hardest thing for me to give up on Paleo is fruit. As far as I am concerned, world peace has got nothing compared to a steady supply of grapes.  I am currently on a mission to make Paleo easier and more comfortable for me.  Here is how I have integrated fruit.

1. Grape fruit - the red kind - turns out to be absolutely delicious!
2. On apples, I stick to Granny Smith as a low-sugar option. They've always been my favorite anyway.
3. Berries berries berries. Pricey, but well worth it.
4. The most important discovery: fruit is always better with a good doze of fat & protein:
• Apples & nut butter. I make a sandwich of two thin slices of apples with nut butter inside. Yum!
• Whipped cream. Not enough sugar to count and it turns a sin into a win.  :-)
• How about both? Yesterday, it was pear + peanut butter (I didn't have any other kind, *sniff*) + whipped cream. What a delight!
• Yogurt. Everyone knows, it works well with berries, but oh my god peaches!!! Then sprinkle roast coconut on top.  You could almost call that a meal. Or, if dinner fails - a backup option.
• Heavy cream. When I was a little girl, I used to love eating berries in a bowl of milk, as a cereal. It's even better - and way more filling with cream.

So, I've relaxed and I am enjoying it. If I had a good meal, I won't turn my sweet fruit tooth down. A few days ago, a friend sent over a fruit basket filled with all my favorites, including a pineapple! Have you ever had pineapple with whipped cream? "... you should. For this is fun and fun is good!" just as the doctor [Seuss] ordered.

Healthy fruity yogurt

Have you ever looked at the sugar content of any flavored yogurt?  What about kids' yogurt?  And the winner of all - gogurt!  Knowing that parents will be all about the "healthy" association with anything that has yogurt in it - food companies create little sugar addicts by making the health food a nutritionally inferior option to jelly sandwiches.

We have invented our own kid-friendly yogurt!

Ingredients:

High-fat unsweetened yogurt (I buy Greek or Creamline Village brand at Trader Joe's)

Palm sugar (with its low glycemic index and facintating texture, it's a big win)

Sliced peaches or berries

Shredded coconut, sweetened & roasted

This wins high awards as breakfast, snack or desert. It has sufficient calories and nutritional content to be a small meal and it's sweetened to taste, which, not surprisingly requires so much less!

Nutty banana nut muffins

I wrote a few days ago about good-looking paleo muffins I wanted to try. I was extremely nervous, as always, experimenting with substitution recipes. Will anyone like them? 

The muffins turned out unbelievably delicious.  I enjoy muffins - but these were the next level. They stayed fresher than their flour counterparts and my whole family admitted, they were a wonderful treat.  They are now a permanent part of our family recipe collection.

Here is the recipe I wound up with:

1 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup bananas pureed with a fork
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Blend eggs separately, breaking the yolk.  Mix together all the ingredients (including the blended eggs) except for the walnuts until smooth. Fold in the nuts.

Spoon batter into 6-12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (I used muffin paper cups and filled each 1/3 of the way, making 12 perfect muffins). Cook 20-25 minutes at 350 F until the top is golden-brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are very soft and cakey muffins. I think that cutting them in half and toasting them is very nice since it gives it little crisp edges.

They were very sweet for my palate - but I have dramatically reduced sugar intake.  Everything tastes sweet to me.  Next time, I'd like to try reducing maple syrup to 1/4 cup and sprinkling palm sugar on top.

My mother-in-law, my 2- and 4- year-olds thought they were delicious, even my husband!  I made half without the nuts for texture-sensitive palates, but in the end, all muffins were gone, nuts and all!

I was surprised that there was no grittiness associated with almond flour. Muffins were soft, fluffy and acted like they were what mother-nature intended.  :-)

We are going to try the pumpkin variation at Halloween time.

Icing, skip the cake

It always surprises me how kids can eat that sickly-sweet icing that comes on birthday cake. Mine take it to a whole new level: they eat the icing and hand me back the cake. When I came up with a paleo-licious way of enjoying desert, I told them,

"That's it, guys, desert: Icing, no cake!"  Needless to say, it was a win.

Ingredients:

• Berries of any kind. My kids' favorite: strawberries.
• Whipped cream

You get the idea. Who said, desert is out with Paleo?

The amazing thing about whipped cream is, it's a nearly-unlimited-sinfully-delicious-feel-good-about-it food.  It requires so little sugar to taste sweet that you will usually see "Sugar: 0g" on the label.  Do shop around as most whipped cream these days is low-fat. The costco version is amazingly tasty, full fat and very lightly sweetened.