Gluten Free Dairy Free Egg Free Peanut Butter Pie Chocolate Cupcakes

My husband is basically a big kid at heart. When there were rumblings about him wanting a peanut buttery dessert, I thought, who am I to stand in the way of birthday boy's desires? Peanut butter shows up rarely at our house - I usually go with sunbutter instead (a fabulous stand-in, by the way, tastes very, very similar to peanut butter).

Though I frequently use Primal Palate's dark chocolate coconut cake in our celebrations, this is also a gluten free recipe that works really well for cupcakes - we did the same cupcake recipe for my oldest's birthday party earlier this spring. I've noticed that for my oldest daughter, often the big draw of grocery store creations is the bright colors and characters. Though I no longer use the artificially colored frostings that show up on these kinds of birthday cakes and cupcakes, that doesn't stop me from using colorful decorations to punch up the visual excitement factor on an otherwise neutral hued peanut butter chocolate cupcake.

In no way would I consider these cupcakes paleo or especially nutritious - just a very rare gluten free dairy free egg free treat that our whole family (extended nonpaleo family included) thoroughly enjoyed. I originally got the cake recipe from an egg free gluten free mama friend after tasting it at her daughter's party! (This one is my adaptation of the original, shared here with her permission - thanks mucho, A!)

You could make this version below that much more allergen friendly by switching around to another nutbutter or seed butter of your choice, depending on your guests' food allergies or sensitivities.

Wacky Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar (you can play with refined sugar substitutes here, too)
• 1  ½ cups Arrowhead Mills all purpose gluten free flour - this is available at Whole Foods and Wegmans, as well as other grocery stores
  (You can also use King Arthur all purpose gluten free flour, if you also add 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum)
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (I've used apple cider vinegar and rice vinegar in the past)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/2 bag semisweet allergen-appropriate dark chocolate chips of your choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put all dry ingredients in mixing bowl and blend them well, then add oil, vinegar, vanilla and water.

Beat well with mixer until smooth.

Stir in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

• For 8" round cake: Pour batter into 8" greased pan (square or round).
  Bake 35-40 minutes.
  (You can double the recipe to make an 8" round layer cake.)
  
• For a bundt pan: double recipe and bake 45-60 min.
  
• For cupcakes: Makes one dozen, depending how full they are. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. If desired, you can fill your cupcake cups halfway, add  ½ tsp. of your peanut butter, and then top with the other half of your batter. That leaves a little peanut buttery bite in the middle.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Can sub sunbutter or nut butter of choice


Ingredients:

1 ½ cups smooth peanut butter, room temperature (if you can, try this with trans fat free natural/organic peanut butter)
½ palm shortening, room temperature
1/4 cup coconut nectar
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Blend all ingredients thoroughly.

Peanut Butter Pie Bonus Decoration: I picked up a 2 pack of Justin's dairy free gluten free organic dark chocolate peanut butter cups and sliced each of the two cups into six little pie-shaped pieces to use as decorative "peanut butter pie" toppers.

What are birthday cakes looking like at your house lately? How are you tinkering with recipes to make them allergen friendly?


~


This post participates in the Life As Mom Creative Birthday Cake Round-Up. Head over there to check out more fun decorating ideas, like the DIY Angry Birds cake! This post is also participating in the Daily Dietribe's Gluten Free Birthday Cake Roundup.

Planning Way Ahead for Fun Paleo, Primal, and Crossfit Christmas Gift Ideas

I know; you're thinking, C'mon, Family Grok, it's not even the end of August. Well, in the 4.5 years since I've become a parent, I've found that planning ahead for Christmas is critical if I'm to make it through the holiday season with my sanity (mostly) intact.

Also, even though my extended family isn't primal, I still enjoy creating nourishing treats for them - or giving them gifts oriented toward an active naturally-grounded lifestyle. The paleo-leaning gifts that I'd usually like to give often require either a significant chunk of time to create, or a significant amount of money to buy a quality product - so planning ahead is even more crucial.

Here's why I start the Christmas ideas so early on my mental back burner:

• I can brainstorm - collect a whole host of different projects and products on my growing Pinterest board, and from there I can figure out which ones work for any particular recipient in terms of their preferences, my budget, and my available time.
  
  
• I can map out my resources time-wise. One project this year that will be part of my Christmas gifts - see AndreAnna's homemade vanilla tutorial on the board - may take up to 8 weeks to steep - 8 weeks before Christmas is October 30 - so I basically have a couple of months now to track down all of my supplies.
  
  
• I can map out resources money-wise. If I have some ideas about what I'd like to get or create for folks, then I can be on the lookout over the next few months in terms of savings. One example is for barefoot shoes - they are normally very pricey at retail, but odds are good that if I keep an eye out I could manage to snag a discount of 20% or more off of barefoot shoes before Christmas is here.
  
  Or say that I'd like to make a homemade plyo box for boxjumps; I could be on the lookout for some free or deeply discounted materials for that box on Craigslist, or I could find a home improvement store coupon in the interrim.
  
  Additionally, keeping my Pinterest gift idea board populated with a wide range of gifts that have varying costs (down to pennies for, say, some homemade fruit leather) means that I have the flexibility to scale gifts according to budget and what I've managed to save coupon-wise or freebie-wise, as well.
  
  
• I can get most of my gifts finished and wrapped before December is here, leaving time for other important things. Taking the long road to Christmas gift prep now means that I have more time in December to focus on other things: spending time with my family and friends, trying some new special occasion recipes for holiday gatherings, and focusing on why we as a family celebrate the birth of Christ.

Have you started to percolate some Christmas 2011 gift ideas? What possibilities are you dreaming up? Have you started a Pinterest board or other resource to keep track of them? Link up your ideas!

Crunchy Pecan Bleu Burger

When you're grillin' it up this weekend, try this simple combo to make your bunless burger a little more celebratory:

• Throw a handful of chopped pecans into a pan on medium-high heat (you could do this step even a day or two before). Once they're toasty but not burned, take them off and allow them to cool.
  
• Sandwich these toasted pecans with some crumbled bleu cheese (could sub your cheese of choice) between a couple of burger patties hot off the grill.
  
• Accessorize with some fresh veggies and lacto-fermented Sauerkraut (this step also optional, but tasty!)

Celebrating Special Occasions While Sticking To Your Low-Carb Weight Loss Goals

Though special occasions are often reserved as perfect times to let loose and indulge a little, it would appear that I have a dilemma - a good kind of dilemma. Special occasions come too frequently!

Using a fairly loose definition, see how many special occasions fit into a year for our family:

• Celebrating local relatives' birthdays, including my own family's birthdays: 10 parties/year
  
• Celebrating the birthday parties of my daughters' friends, and local family friends: 10 parties/year (at least!)
  
• Celebrating New Year's, the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day: 12 parties/year
  
• Anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day: 6 get-togethers/year
  

I could go on and on tallying up the ways that we could celebrate, but guess what? The above alone adds up to 38 parties or get-togethers in a year. If I were to take each of these special events as license to exercise my 80/20 rule...well...I'd be doing so approximately 3 out of every month's 4 weeks throughout the year!

Here I want to emphasize that without a doubt it is a wonderful thing - an enormous blessing - to be able to rejoice in so many milestones and special occasions. The excuse to gather and celebrate with friends and family is priceless.

However...none of these celebrations come without lots. and. lots. of. FOOD. Deary me - the cakes, the cookies, the sweets! Of course many do also come with delicious primal / paleo-friendly party fare like steaks (grilled in the summer, yum!), nuts, veggie trays, and so on.

But here's the reality for me (and I'm betting for many of you!): My body reacts to sugar like a recreational drug user suddenly encountering another high. Simply put: I cannot eat such a significant amount of cake and ice cream (or pie, or crumble, or...well...you get the idea) on average three times per month. What's the big deal? some might rightly ask; It's such a small proportion of your overall food intake, and you can be disciplined the rest of the time.

Well, yes, and no. Objectively, it is a relatively small amount, having a carb spike once per week or so. But there are reverberations from that one sugary indulgence. For one, I personally cannot indulge in much of something so sweet and not immediately develop immense sugar cravings that will last for days afterward. Also, horking down a bunch of sugar can compromise my immune system for more than 24 hours. And, folks? I have a four-year-old in preschool, who also accompanies her one-year-old sister to the church nursery every Sunday. In other words, our household has regular and persistent pathogen exposure. I need every bit of immune strength I can muster, because if there's anything worse than a household of sick kids, it's a household with sick kids and a sick mom, amirite?

So here's how I tend to handle celebratory occasions:

• Skip it. Simple - enjoy other foods present (and if you're low-carbing, go for cheese, nuts, coffee with half & half, etc.), or fast altogether.
  
  
• Enjoy a very small amount. If you consider this an occasion worth the cheat, eat one or two bites, very slowly, and then back away from the cake. I probably personally wouldn't do this with a gluten-based cake (wouldn't want to risk the digestive reaction) unless social circumstances all but dictated it, but I did it this way at my daughter's 4th birthday party -- she had a gluten-free marshmallow cake that we had special-ordered.
  
  
• Offer to make or buy a treat to bring. You could dig into any of the myriad paleo / primal friendly dessert recipes on the blogosphere. Most of them may not be low-carb, but you know what the ingredients are and can indulge knowing that you won't suffer as huge of a blood sugar surge that a trans-fat-iced Costco cake would give you. Even better? Bring some very dark chocolate, or a bowl of fresh berries and some unsweetened (or stevia-sweetened) whipped cream - all delicious and fairly low-carb!
  

How do you deal with your frequent special occasions while keeping on track for your weight loss goals?

Primal / Paleo Oktoberfest / "Mocktoberfest" - Gluten-Free Schnitzel with German Potato Salad



Come to Mama.


At last, I tackled "Mocktoberfest". Being partly of German extraction - and having lived in Germany for a time, sometimes I just need a good Schnitzel. Schnitten is the German verb for to cut, so you can bread and fry cutlets of just about any meat. Popular choices are beef (especially veal), chicken, and pork. The problem? Breaded Schnitzeln are ... uh ... breaded. Hence my adaptation for those living primally who need to hearken back to the Mutterland every so often.

Today we cuddled ours up next to some German Potato Salad (recipe below) and some canned red Sauerkraut. (If you are looking for a homemade red Sauerkraut recipe, check out AndreAnna's crockpot red cabbage recipe - looks delish!)

German Potato Salad

Ingredients
3 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
1/2 cup mayonnaise (you can make your own if you're up for it)
1/2 c. crumbled bacon or bacon pieces
1/2 c. finely diced white onion (this is optional; I left it out today since my husband and his side of the family can't tolerate them)
1/2 c. melted butter (I used Kerrygold)
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
To a boiling pot of salted water, add the cubed potato. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and use a slotted spoon to spoon the potato cubes into a medium bowl. Whisk together remaining ingredients into a dressing, then pour over warm potato cubes. Allow potato salad to sit for about an hour so that flavors can meld before serving.

Chicken Schnitzel with Creamy White Wine Reduction

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts, pounded very thin (1/2" or less)
Salt and pepper
1 cup sifted coconut flour
1 cup sifted coconut flour mixed with 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 eggs
4 tablespoons fresh parsley
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 tablespoons milk or cream
1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 lb. Kerrygold butter

Directions:
Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, then dip in sifted coconut flour evenly to coat. Mix eggs, parsley, cheese, nutmeg, milk, and mustard thoroughly in a medium-sized bowl, then add 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt and mix again. In a large shallow bowl spread out the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix. Dip each floured chicken breast into the egg mix and then dip both sides to coat in the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix.

In a large pan, melt 4 tbsp. butter on medium heat. Add breaded chicken breasts to the pan, turning after 3 or 4 minutes. Continue turning breasts every few minutes until all sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through. (In my case, this was side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes, side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes.) Keep adding butter to the pan a little at a time while cooking in order to prevent burning; the chicken breasts will soak up a lot of the butter while in the pan.

Creamy White Wine Reduction

After chicken breasts are all cooked, add 1/2 c. cream or milk to the pan, with 2 tbsp. butter and 2 tbsp. white wine of choice. Use a spatula to scrape brown leftover schnitzel bits off of the bottom of the pan and keep stirring to combine while sauce reduces. Once desired thickness is reached, drizzle over plated Schnitzel.



Optional but fun addition: gluten-free beer. :)



Menu Plan, Christmas to New Years Week Edition

We had a blessedly full marathon week. Fun with family, open presents, eat delicous food, repeat as necessary. And oh, did we repeat. Giftwise, I made out well in the kitchen appliances department - besides the aforementioned gift of a new toaster oven, I also received an ice cream maker and an immersion blender! I foresee a good deal of minimally-sweetened ice cream and creamy blended veggie soups in my future, once I get over the learning curve of using these.

Also a delightful surprise on Christmas, from my sister-in-law: A Vosges (= la-tee-dah French chocolate, pronounced vohzh) bar with itty bitty bits of bacon throughout. Unspeakably delicious.

The Sears oven repairman should be here tomorrow to install the new part that he ordered, so after three weeks without a functioning full size oven, I will be so grateful to be (hopefully!) roasting and baking again.

Having already practically maxed our food budget for the month, I look forward to eating as many leftovers and eggs as possible before I find myself in the position of having to grocery shop. Might even make it all the way to New Year's Day if we apply ourselves.

Monday:
Breakfast - Toasted leftover Grain-Free Savory Country Biscuits via Life As A Plate, to mop up the runny yolks from some fried eggs. Very much recommend this biscuit recipe if you're looking for a savory bun/biscuit with a lot of flavor! (Thanks, AndreAnna!!)
Lunch - Leftover beef roast from my mother-in-law's Christmas dinner, soft-cooked carrots, leftover mashed potatoes from my mom
Dinner - Leftover slow-cooked chicken from Christmas Eve, in chicken salad form. Steamed artichokes with salted Kerrygold butter to dip. Clementines for dessert.

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Mashed boiled eggs with Kerrygold butter
Lunch - Sauteed kale with bacon
Dinner - Cheesy spinach bacon dip (leftover from Christmas Day), rewarmed in a functioning oven, served with flax crackers.

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Warm banana pudding
Lunch - Chicken soup with shallots and ginger
Dinner - Bacon and fried eggs

Thursday:
Breakfast - Omelette made with leftover cheese plate cheese and leftover veggie plate fresh cut peppers
Lunch - Any remaining leftovers, whatever form they may take
Dinner - Spaghetti squash with meaty marinara

Friday:
Breakfast - Fried eggs and hash browns
Lunch - Creamy curried pumpkin soup, coconut bread for dipping
Dinner - Thawed/warmed cheesy chicken potato soup, leftover and subsequently frozen from Christmas Eve, plus more coconut bread for dipping

A Primal / Paleo Grain-Free Gluten-Free Birthday Party Menu (That Even NonPrimal NonPaleo Company Enjoyed!)



See notes on this cake and The Food Lovers' Primal Palate recipe link here.

We recently hosted a first birthday party for my youngest daughter. Definitely wasn't a low-carb party, but it was still grain-free and there were plenty of low-carb options. We even had a guest from out of town who also eats to manage insulin, and she and I commiserated a bit about our long-term dynamics with avoiding wheat and sugar because of how they affect us physiologically and psychologically - refreshing for me because sometimes, a face-to-face chat with another living breathing human who attests to similar experiences gives me renewed resolve. We even talked almond butter and I sent her home with a single serving packet of Justin's Classic Almond Butter.

Here's the scoop on what was on the menu when we celebrated:

Caprese Skewers: I dreamt these up (though I'm sure they've been "done" in multiple iterations before). They are terrific eye-candy on a spread for company because of the multicolor/multitexture appeal. Take one cherry tomato (I had both red and yellow cherry tomatoes), skewer on a toothpick, top with a thumbprint-sized piece of fresh basil and a chunk of fresh mozzarella.

Crustless Quiches: Pick your "elements". Could be sauteed onions and/or peppers, sausage, bacon, shredded or raw cheeses. (I did sausage, bacon, and cheese.) Grease 12 paper cupcake liners with spray olive oil. Place 1-2 tablespoons of elements in the bottom of cupcake liners. Mix 1 cup of dairy (my choice is heavy cream) with 6 eggs and seasonings of choice (I used 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning mix). Pour egg/cream mix over elements in the cupcake liners. Bake for ~35 minutes at 350 F. Can be served chilled or at room temp.

Veggie Tray: Bought at Sam's. Carrots, cauliflower, baby peppers, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, ranch dip. Took out of container and put into fancier dishes. 'Nuff said.

Pistachios: Yum.

Almond-stuffed Dates: Exactly what they sound like. A quickly-assembled crowd-pleaser.

Individually-Wrapped Ghirardelli Chocolates, including Dark: Ditto to almond-stuffed dates.

A Dark Chocolate Fountain: Fuelled with Ghirardelli bittersweet and Enjoy Life semisweet (allergen-free) chips, pastured butter, and Nutiva coconut oil all melted together. For dipping:

• Clementines
• Honeydew Melon
• Strawberries
• Blackberries

Brussels Sprout Pops: Recipe here. Love these 'cause they're not heavily time-dependent because of slow-roasting in the oven. They are ready when you are!

Spiral-sliced Ham: Brought by my parents. Thanks, Mom & Dad! :)

And of course, the above pictured coconut flour based chocolate cake, courtesy of The Food Lovers' Primal Palate, along with some vanilla ice-cream. This cake garnered many compliments! (Thanks, Hayley and Bill!) I think many folks never even suspected that it didn't involve wheat. I made two of this recipe's double-layer cakes to feed our crowd of 23, but ended up with about three quarters of one cake left over. It is so rich and satisfying - even a small slice really hits the spot!

But, ack: We had forgotten about the shrimp cocktail tray that we had left to stay cool in the fridge! Oh, well. :)

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

A First Birthday Cake Test Run

I have fallen deeply in love with a primal cake recipe. I've been scouting one for my daughter's first birthday party in a few weeks, and The Food Lovers' Primal Palate recently published a coconut-flour-based chocolate cake recipe that is not only way more than "acceptable" as an analogue to traditional cake, but truly very delicious in its own right, with a delightfully smooth, moist consistency that takes to a thin layer of Joyful Abode's dark chocolate ganache very well. I made it this weekend while visiting with (nonprimal) family a few hours away, and my guinea pigs agreed that it was terrific. The main substitution that I made to the cake recipe was melted coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil, which is probably how I'll always make the recipe since I loved it so much. So thanks, Primal Palate and Joyful Abode, for the inspiration!

Note: I also test-ran this in a muffin tin to give it a go as cupcakes, but the texture was a little chewier and more muffin-y, so I will likely stick with the 8" round double-layer cake format for the birthday party to keep its texture cakey.

Son of Grok's Strawberry Cheesecake with Joyful Abode's Chocolate Ganache

Happy Birthday to my mom! We celebrated over Son of Grok's strawberry cheesecake with Joyful Abode's chocolate ganache spread on top. To me, the cheesecake was just sweet enough; my nonprimal relatives proclaimed it "tart" - but in a good, European dessert kind of way - and they said that the sweet, dark chocolate ganache was the perfect balance. It might have been just a bit prettier had there been a springform pan on hand.

The only substitutions I had to make to the cheesecake mix were these: I had only one 8 oz. block of organic cream cheese, so I used 8 oz. of organic cottage cheese for the second cream cheese block called for by the recipe. The result was firm, creamy, very lightly sweet, and tart. I would happily eat by itself, but with the ganache it is a little more "intro to primal/paleo" friendly. I also added just a few of the semisweet chocolate chips to the melted butter/almond meal crust and mixed to melt/combine.