Red Velvet Paleo Brownies

Hi there!

Because we eat so many vegetables at home, I often buy them in bulk at Costco.  During one of my last trips to Costco, I decided to buy beets in bulk.  Now, there's not much I had done with beets except juicing because they are awesome for recovery after intense runs.  So, beet juice is part of my pre-race ritual.  Anyway, so now that I found myself with way too many beets, what was I going to do with them.  I made salads, smoothies, ate them just as a side cooked with spices, made a paleoified version of Ukranian borscht.  So, the only thing I hadn't done, was make brownies!!!!My husband said, no way!  I don't like anything sweet with beets, I won't eat it!  Well, guess what, he's eaten half the batch of brownies and I just made them last night!  He also made sure there was no more batter left in the food processor container - scraped off every bit he could!  These really are fantastic! So here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 bag of Lily's stevia sweetened chocolate chips
(you can also use Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Chips or Chunks)
about 1/2 cup of coconut oil or butter (100g - I weighed it)
about 4-5 small cooked beets (Total 1 2/3 cup)
3 eggs
1/2 cups of coconut sugar
1 1/2 cup of almond flour
2 TBS cocoa powder
1 TBS vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts for garnish on the top

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) Prepare a 9 x 9 square baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper and spray with coconut oil.
3) Heat the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a pan over low heat until it melts.
4) Place beets in food processor and process to a puree.
5) Add the melted chocolate and coconut oil, vanilla, eggs, and blend again.
6) Add the sugar and almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, chili powder and process again until you have a smooth batter.
7) Pour into the prepared baking pan, sprinkle the walnuts on top, and bake for about 30 minutes.  I then turned the oven down to 325 and baked for another 15 minutes.  The middle took longer to bake and I didn't want to burn the edges. When you test to see if they are done, you will get a little bounciness when you touch the top like you might expect, but when you put something in the middle to test, it will come out a little gooey.  Don't worry, when it cools, it will become firm, but these are sooo moist!

Now these are just estimates at this point because I didn't measure exactly and it was the first time I made these. However, because several people requested the recipe, I am posting it here even though it's still experimental.  I will make them again this weekend and update the recipe if needed.

These made an excellent pre and post workout snack! 

Enjoy!!!

Review of The Paleo Approach Cookbook by Sarah Balantyne, PhD

I purchased the Paleo Approach a little over a year ago at Costco. It was one of the many Paleo cookbooks they have availalbe.  Dr. Ballantyne received her PhD in Medical Biohysics when she was 26 years old.  She was "morbidly obese and extremely unhealthy" by her own description in the preface.  She suffered from metabolic syndrome as well as various immune and autoimmune disorders.  She decided to heal her body through healthful food choices.

Despite purchasing the book over a year ago, I hadn't touched it except for reading the first 100 pages.  The recipes don't begin until page 102.  Part 1 of the book (those 100 pages) provides a very good background to the grain free diet, details about different types of grain free diets that address various issues, and the research base for those decisions.  Part 1 also includes tips on stocking the pantry, meal planning, eating this way on a budget, and many other topics.  This is a wealth of very good information about getting started on a Paleo diet.  However, that's where the wonderful-ness of this book stopped.  The very first recipe that a reader turns to in the breakfast section is homemade sausage.  Really? Who has time for that.  You need special equipment and where in the world am I going to get pork casings to make the sausage?  I'm curious and tempted, but not with the schedule I have now.  I actually did attempt to ask around and see if I could find casings at a local butcher shop.  It wasn't easy.  So, if some of the most challenging recipes in the book are in the front, no wonder I put it back on the shelf!

 I also found the pages overwhelming.  They are filled with information, but is it too much?  On the right, she includes nutrition facts.  The rest of the page has the instructions for the recipe.  Even if the recipe was simple, (there are some easy recipes in the book), they all look intimidating because the page is just covered in little words and letters.  Many recipes include ingredients I don't have in my kitchen (and I have been a Paleo/grain free cook for about seven years).

Okay, I made three dishes: the Breakfast Muffins, Shrimp Balls, Portabello Mushroom Cap Burgers, and the Lamb Biryani.  So, I have proved that the book is usable and there are some "do-able" recipes in the book. 

This recipe I will never make again.  This is, I think, one of the most difficult recipes in the book.  If I make it, I will make it my own way, with my own shortcuts.  For these muffins, the recipe required making your own pumpkin or sweet potato flour.  This meant, baking the pumpkin or sweet potato, dehydrating it for about 24 hours, then using the food processor to turn it into flour.  I gave up at the last stage.  It was taking FOREVER.  There I was for half an hour and all I had was about 1 TBS of flour.  No patience for that.  So I just stopped at the stage that I had food processed it to the point that it was in tiny pieces, but not flour.  That's what I will continue to do if I ever make this again.  The muffins were good and filling.  The other thing I wasn't too crazy about with these muffins, is that they were not as protein packed as other muffins I make with the almond flour.  But they were good, nonetheless. 

The next few recipes were the "easy" recipes.  I was not going to do a repeat of the muffins! I needed to give it a fair try, but that was enough.  Next, search the book for things that don't require lots of prep and cook fast.  These were fabulous!!  I do love Chinese dim sum and thought that I might not be able to eat "Paleo" and eat dim sum.  This recipe requires uncooked shrimp and 5 other easy to get ingredients.  It all goes in the food processor, and you make little balls, put them on your cookie sheet on parchment paper and you are done! You have these fantastic little shrimp balls to add to your lunch, top a salad, use as an appetizer, etc.  Yes, yes yes!

Here's the list of ingredients and a photo of the page in the recipe book.  Not bad. I also made the guacamole burgers.  I added the carrot fries of course.  This was also just your basic burger (no I didn't grind my own meat!).  The idea was great, I had thought of this before, but had never tried it.  This is something simple that can be incorporated into any Paleo diet.  The Portabello mushrooms made great "buns" for the burger.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but borrowed the idea.  I roasted the Portabello mushrooms in the oven rather than grilling them.  The recipe for the burger was pretty basic, I think I added some additional spices - and well the guac, yeah, no recipe needed for that!

Finally, I made the lamb biryani.  I am a huge fan of Indian food.  This was fairly "easy" if you consider your typical Mexican guisado and rice.  It required prepping cauliflower rice in the food processor, cutting onion, ginger, and garlic (I use all fresh), I already had shredded carrots in the fridge from the muffins I posted about above.  I had all the Indian spices in my pantry already - curry, turmeric, coconut cream (I didn't make my own - purchased at whole foods).  The meat is sauteed like when you make guisado, but with Indian spices.  It was quite delicious.  The rice is sauteed as well with the Indian spices.  The only thing I had to purchase that I didn't already have or had not used before was the red palm oil.

So what do I think about this book?  I don't know.  It's really not a good book for a beginner.  I can see someone trying a Paleo diet, purchasing this book and then saying, "Forget it! This is too hard!"  However, there are some really good ideas and recipes in here if you can get past the very intimidating appearance and way too much information on the page with the recipe.  Maybe this isn't a purchase and keep book, rather a check out at the library, borrow ideas and return sort of book. I appreciate Ballantyne's attempt to give lots and lots of nutritional information, but I don't know that the layout was the best - also it probably wasn't a good idea to place two of the most difficult recipes first.  I would recommend the book for someone who has some serious health issues who needs a very restricted Paleo diet.  She discusses FODMAPS and has lots of detail in the recipes about those kinds of restrictions and warnings if it's not a low FODMAP recipe.  If that is you, then this is a great book to purchase because I'm sure cooking is a little more complicated than for those of us who can follow a generally Paleo diet without thinking too much about excluding typical Paleo foods.  The book does say in the subtitle, "A Detailed Guide..." and it certainly lived up to that promise!

This book is available at a discounted price at Costco.  It's also available on Amazon for $20-27. 

Confessions of a Xicana Writing About Paleo Eating

I have to confess that I have felt uneasy the last few weeks about sharing food and cooking on my Facebook and blog.  I feel uneasy about it because I am a social worker and a professor.  I write about and have worked on very serious issues such as the marginalization of Latino boys, promoting equity in schools, concern about the mental health effects of increased standardized tests in schools, state violence, trauma as a result of war, human rights violations, genocide, extreme poverty, etc. etc.  I was reminded of Lorna Dee Cervantes poem, "Poem For the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, An Intelligent Well Read Person, Could Believe in the War Between Races."  In this poem Cervantes describes her desire to be a poet and write about love on rooftops, but she cannot because the bullets of racism are aiming at her children.  Near the end of the poem, she says:

I am a poet
who yearns to dance on rooftops,
to whisper delicate lines about joy
and the blessings of human understanding.
I try. I go to my land, my tower of words and
bolt the door, but the typewriter doesn't fade out
the sounds of blasting and muffled outrage.
My own days bring me slaps on the face.
Every day I am deluged with reminders
that this is not
my land

and this is my land.

I do not believe in the war between races

but in this country
there is war.

This is my reality, and the reality of so many others I know. So, why then, do I bother to write about something that seems so trivial like food and recipes? Today, I attended a panel presentation where one of my colleagues courageously came out about having mental illness.   She stated that she wanted to add to the narratives on mental illness, that often make Asians, Latinxs, African Americans, invisible.  Later, we had a discussion at a table about disability studies and advocacy work, noting that it is primarily a white movement.  Yes, it is, as so many other social movements have been in the past (i.e. the early feminist movement, early LGBTQI movements such as ACT UP, etc.).  So, too, when I look at the Paleo, raw vegan, clean eating, etc. is overwhelmingly and completely white and upper middle class, maybe just middle class, but never immigrant, Latinx, working class, etc.

When I read through my Paleo magazine, which I love, or other food blogs, they are only representations of white folks.  In my current issue of Paleo, there is not one person of color in that magazine.  Yet, I know so many folks - other Latina friends, who have had tremendous success and improved health eating some version of "Paleo" diets, other sisters of all races who have made it a priority to eat well, whether it be a plant based diet or Paleo.  My own father, a Mexican, working class immigrant, loved the Paleo diet and had the best quality of life possible given his health conditions partly because of this diet.  My friend and chiropractor, Mario Gonzalez, promotes a Paleo way of eating with his clients, many of whom are Latinx. Dr. Gonzelez even has a spot on a well followed Spanish radio program where he gives advice around the many health issues facing the Latinx community, promoting changes in what we eat.

There are many of us out there attempting to improve our health for our families, for our communities; so that we can continue la lucha.  I learned the "hard way" the importance of caring for my body, for my health - both mental and physical health.  Burn out and vicarious trauma is very real.  The daily microaggressions in our workplaces take a toll threatening our physical and emotional well being, not to mention all the work we do with others to challenge social injustices in the many ways they are manifested.  I am feeling the need to write about the many things I listed above, and I will, because that satisfies a different drive and hunger.  Meanwhile, I will continue to provide my body and soul and those of my loved ones with the good food that nourishes us and keeps us healthy.  That is my way of loving myself and loving others in a small, tangible, attainable way. 

Peach Crisp

This is my effort to post some of the easiest recipes and/or some good substitutions for people who miss certain foods or are transitioning to a grain free diet.  

This is super easy!  I made this in stages because it was late at night and baking it last night would have meant staying up way past midnight.  So one of my time saving strategies to get wholesome, home made foods in our lunches and other meals is to bake things in the morning while I get ready.  Typically, it takes me 30 minutes to an hour to get ready depending on what I'm doing, where I'm going, and who else is getting ready!  So this is just enough time to put something in the oven and let bake.  How efficient!  Anyway, I cut up the peaches and made the topping last night and left it in the baking dish ready to go into the oven.  I put it in the oven this morning.  By the time I was ready to have my coffee, magically it was ready!  If you have the time all at once, of course, you can bake it right away. 

Use a 9 x 9 baking dish.  

I used about 3 large peaches, so that the baking dish was nice and full with peaches, but still had room for the topping. 

Topping:

2 1/2 cups of almond flour

1/4 tsp of sea salt

3 TBS palm shortening

2-3 TBS of maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.  Make sure the palm shortening and wet ingredients are nicely distributed and mixed in with the almond flour.  Spread this on top of your peaches! Disclaimer: I actually didn't measure the ingredients exactly - this is kind of a ball park figure on this.  I like my peach crisp to have lots of topping so I always add more almond flour than typical recipes ask recommend.  Elana's Pantry for example, call for 1 1/4 cup of almond flour.  The beauty of a crisp is that it is so easy and you can adapt it to your particular tastes.  It's really hard to mess up. 

Also this is the vegan version - but using softened butter tastes delicious.  You can use butter (softened) instead of the palm shortening - and you can play with the sweetener (using more or less), and use agave or honey, depending on what you prefer. 

Bake for about 40 minutes.  

Paleo Pizza Crust

It has been months since I last posted a recipe.  It really has been a crazy last few months between travels, family illness, and the death of my father.  I am slowly finding a new routine and as of yesterday, renewed my commitment to get back to my cooking and enjoying of good food.  When my mom died a year ago, I was very diligent about making sure I was eating well because I desperately needed that to preserve my emotional and physical well being.  Since my dad died this last month, I have been having a hard time getting back to my cooking and baking.  I made things with so much joy and love for him and he loved my cooking and baking.  My menu planning was with him in mind (and of course lunches for Atzin).  Well, yesterday I went to see my chiropractor friend, Dr. Mario Gonzalez.  He didn't directly tell me, but definitely a light bulb went off, something energetic, that told me that I needed to be serious about how I ate if I was going to help my body recover from the grief as well as the wheat and corn I ate on my recent travels to Guatemala and Argentina.  I'm still feeling the inflammation and effects of the corn - of course, impacting my mood and my running because of the pain in my ankles.  My digestive system was thrown off by the wheat I ate in Argentina - how could I say no to my colleagues' offers of Argentinian pizza, beer, empanadas, and alfajores.

Inspired by my visit to Dr. Mario, Atzin (my soon to be college student son) and I made grain free pizza.  I can't say it was Paleo because it was loaded with cheese.  This is my favorite grain free pizza crust - it works every time! Atzin made a homemade basil pesto with pine nuts, basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.  We used goat cheese and spinach as well on that pizza.  The other pizza had the traditional tomato sauce, bell peppers, mushrooms, and Atzin's favorite, pepperoni.

So here is the recipe for the crust:

This makes 4 pizza crusts.  I usually freeze them once they are baked and then have easy meals later.  Last night we just made all four given the size of Atzin's appetite with his workouts.

Yeast Mixture:
1/2 cup of warm water
1 1/2 TBSP of honey
1 1/2 TBSP of active dry yeast

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups of almond flour
1/3 cup of coconut flour
1 1/2 cup of arrowroot starch
1 tsp sea salt

Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. If you have a convection oven - you can preheat to 350 - if you have a regular oven, do 375.
2. In a small bowl combine the yeast mixture.  Let it sit for five minutes or so while you combine the dry ingredients.
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients.  
4. Add the yeast mixture and then the wet ingredients to the dry mixture. Use a hand mixer and mix well.
5.  Cover your hands with olive oil - you can dip or use an olive oil spray on your hands  Divide the dough into about 4 equal parts.  Place each of the balls of dough on parchment paper and pat them into circles with your hands.  Make sure they are well oiled or it will stick!  I also use a bit of olive oil spray on the parchment paper to keep it from sticking to the parchment paper while you pat the dough.  I tend to use my fingers more than palms for the patting down of the dough into circles.  You will get the hang of it, it should be quick movements.
6. Bake for about 12 minutes if it's one crust or you have multiple crusts in a convection oven.  If you have a regular oven and more than one crust in the oven, take out and turn after about 6-8 minutes and then bake for another 4-5 minutes.

After baking, your crust is ready for your creativity as you add your desired toppings.  Once you have your toppings on the crust, you bake for another 10-12 minutes.  It's great - you can see, if you make and freeze them, how you could have a dinner in a very short amount of time - and of course, you can make the pizzas paleo or vegan by omitting the cheese.  Atzin said that he could eat the crust with the pesto topping alone because that combination was delicious.  He said the crust and the pesto really complemented each other.  He was right!  You don't even need any other topping!

What is Paleo?

There seems to be some confusion about what I eat and what it means to be on a grain free diet.  I understand the confusion because I use the words "gluten free" in my blog.  The reason I do this is because my absolute non-negotiable, never eat food is wheat.  Wheat has the worst effects on my body and I choose to eliminate it completely. I eat mostly grain free, but not exclusively. Occasionally I eat rice and other grains like Amaranth, and some legumes. However, this is about 5% or less of the time.  So it is fairly unusual.

Most of my diet is Paleo-ish.  The main thing I incorporate into my own diet that strays from Paleo is cheese and yogurt.  For my dad, I keep him on a more strict diet than my own - he has a sensitivity to dairy while I do not.  He has multiple conditions that are impacted by his diet.  For my dad I never give him legumes, dairy, or any grains.  So, to eliminate any confusion, I am going to try to explain what my dad's diet is like and my own, for the most part:

What do you eat on a Paleo diet?

• Eat meat -- ideally high quality meat (poultry, beef, shellfish, bison, other game meats).  
• Eat plenty of vegetables and some fruit.   
• My plate is usually a source of good protein and a plate full of vegetables. 
• Use quality fats for cooking and dressing your food.   
• I tend to use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and occasionally I use butter and ghee
• Use the best quality ingredients you can.  
• Organic food and grass fed beef, etc. is fairly expensive.  I don't always use this level of high quality ingredients because I can't afford it, but when I can, I do.   Do the best you can given your budget. 
• Eat as much variety as possible.    
• Eat little to no processed food.    
• This point is key and always a point of confusion. DO NOT be fooled by the "gluten free" label and think that is good for you.  Read the labels carefully.  Most things that are labeled gluten free still have grains such as corn, are packed with sugar, and have so many artificial ingredients and preservatives that it is just plain scary.  If you do buy pre-packaged foods, read the labels carefully. 

What should you AVOID on a Paleo diet? 

• Packaged foods that say "gluten free" - most will have sugar, other grains, and just a lot of stuff you don't want in your body.  For example, I just looked up Betty Crocker's Gluten free brownie mix and these are the ingredients: Sugar, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, Xanthan Gum, Salt. Scary right? It still has grains, and corn starch, sugar, soy and other things that are important to avoid on a Paleo diet.  
• Grains like corn and rice
• Gluten
• Legumes
• Dairy
• Refined and processed sugars and oils

Why does a Paleo diet help people with autoimmune disorders (including Alzheimer's, Asthma, Celiac, Chronic Fatigue, Eczema, Hashimoto's, Lupus, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis) and diabetes? 

• A leaky gut is necessary for autoimmune conditions to develop and a leaky gut is caused by: the proteins in grains including gluten, agglutinins; digestive enzyme inhibitors in grains, legumes, and dairy products (for a full discussion on this you can read Sarah Ballantyne's book or Cordain's book). 
• A high carbohydrate diet causes insulin resistance and leptin resistance.
• Regulating blood glucose levels and insulin release by eating low to moderate glycemic load foods is important for regulating insulin. 
• Gluten can be a trigger in all autoimmune disorders.  

There is so much more you really want more information in detail on the nutrition and science behind the diet, I recommend that you read The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain.  Dr. Cordain has an excellent list of references if you would like to take the additional step of reading the studies yourself. 

Almond Pistachio Scones

These are the best paleo scones.  I've tried different combination of flours for scones and this is the best.  It travels well, and the almond extract in this recipe just adds a wonderful flavor.  Atzin is not big on breakfast, but he eats these up.  I put them in one of his bento boxes and eats it once he gets to school. 

Ingredients:
1 cup shelled pistachios
3/4 cup almond flour
3 TBS coconut flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 TBS coconut oil, melted
1 cup of dried cherries

1. Preheat oven for 350 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Combine dry ingredients (pistachios, almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot, and sea salt).
4. Add the eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and almond extract. 
5. Slowly add coconut oil.
6. Stir in the dried cherries.
7. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
8. Dust your hands with arrowroot powder and shape the dough into a 2 inch thick disc.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. Cut the disc into 8 wedges, gently sliding them apart and bake for another 8-10 minutes.