From Meh to AMAZING

Hey friends!

I've been super off-track with my daily specific meals. I haven't made a LOT of new recipes so I didn't have a whole lot to update on. Sorry y'all!

To start things off, a few random things I want to get out there into the food-world.

First of all, my new favorite "lazy morning" breakfast. When I've got time in the morning and feel like having more than a smoothie!

Fried eggs, turkey sausage patties, and coffee with Simply Bliss natural creamer!

Emily has better skillets than I do.

YUMMY.

Second, in the HyVee Health Market, there are some chocolate bars. I bought this when I was first shopping with Delilah and forgot I had it. Now just because you can find it in the Health Market doesn't make it "HEALTHY!" Still a good amount of calories per serving, but a few tiny pieces was a nice little "cheat" snack one evening when I was craving some chocolate!

Orange + Choclate = omggggg *drool

Third, I am now obsessed with making fillet in the skillet. When I wrote about this last time, I forgot to mention the following: When you've got about two minutes left for the steak to cook, throw in about a tablespoon of butter (Organic Valley Pasture Butter, that is). It gives the steak that je ne sais quoi to help make it perfect. 

*kisses tips of fingers like a badass french chef*

Moving on!!

I did try 3 new recipes last week! Two were awesome, one didn't turn out at all like I was hoping. Boo!

Ready? Here we go!

Let's start with the worst, go to the one that was delicious and wielded a weeks worth of leftovers, and end with the most delicious and amazing desert ever. Sound good? Great.

DISCLAIMER: These are some expensive-ass recipes. I say that because they involve large amounts of healthy ingredients, and health food (as we all know) is much more expensive than regular food. I'm talking about using coconut oil, *real* maple syrup, almond butter, almond flour... this stuff isn't cheap. Especially the desert - this is probably the most expensive recipe to date I've made. But I'm telling you, it is so, SO worth it.

Okay.

These first two recipes are both from a book my friend and co-worker Erin loaned me called Paleo Slow Cooking: Gluten Free Recipes Made Simple by Chrissy Gower. Like, could there be a more perfect book?? Paleo, Gluten-Free, and I can throw shit into a bowl and it cooks itself?! YES PLEASE. 

First recipe: SLOW COOKER BANANA BREAD. 

Now, I say it turned out bad, and I don't know why. I'm not giving up on this recipe, because banana bread is basically the best invention ever known and I miss it. Let's get to it:

Ingredients:

• 4 small, ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons coconut milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, mash the four bananas with fork.

I tried doing that with a fork, and it sucked. So I got out my potato masher and it was way more fun, and it looked hilarious.

hehehe

these bananas shall be mine and i shall call them my squishy.

• Add the melted coconut oil to the bowl.

If you've never used coconut oil before, you should be aware that it's not a liquid like olive oil. It's thick, but melts quickly. Measure it out into a small bowl and microwave for like 15 seconds. 

• Stir in the honey, vanilla, coconut milk, and eggs. Mix well.

Support local brands!

Eggs, Milk, Honey, Vanilla

• Add the flour and baking soda. The mixture will be thin, like pancake batter.

I'm sorry. I forgot to take a picture of the batter. Because at this point, I had everything stirred together, except for baking soda. Because I realized that I didn't have any baking soda. ANYWHERE IN MY APARTMENT. I was distraught. Everything else was mixed together. I thought, "Can I get by without it?" I know what you're thinking: "Well damn, Laura, you said the recipe sucked, did you make it without baking soda? That's probably why." Well guess what, cynical reader, NO! I left my mixing bowl on the counter and ran to HyVee. It sat for maybe 1/2 hour, 40 minutes tops. So anyway, I came home, threw in the teaspoon of baking soda, and continued on. So let's continue on!

• Line your slow cooker with parchment paper. 
• Pour the banana mixture into the slow cooker, and cook on low for 2 hours.
• When the bread is done, you can remove it by lifting the parchment paper out and cutting on a cutting board, or leave it in the slow cooker on a warm setting and enjoy it directly from the slow cooker.

Now, here's what happened to me.

After 2 hours I checked the bread. It was cooked well around the outer edges, but basically a watery mush on the inside. 

It's difficult to tell from the picture, but it genuinely wasn't cooked even a little bit on the inside. So, I left it in the cooker for another hour and a half. Checked it again, same thing. Still a mushy mess. But the outsides were almost burnt, so I took it out. 

see how gushy? is gushy a word?

I was very disappointed. The crust parts tasted okay, but the inside was just so gross looking. So, I placed it all in a baking pan and threw it in the oven for about 20 minutes to see if that would help. It didn't. 

I ended up cutting off the crust parts and throwing away the insides. I kept the crust parts in tupperware but was so disconcerned about how un-cooked the insides were, knowing there were eggs in the mix, that I ended up only eating a few bites of the whole thing. Sad!

So, what went wrong? I'm genuinely asking your opinion here. Was it that I left the mixture sitting while I had to go to the store? Because otherwise I followed the recipe to a T. Help!

Okay! Next recipe:

SLOW COOKER TORTILLA-LESS CHICKEN SOUP

This is another recipe from the Paleo slow-cooker recipe book. This one is fantastic!! Makes a ton of food, so it's great for parties, or if you're single and lame like me, great for lots of leftovers!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalepeno pepper, diced (I left this out as I am a wuss when it comes to spicy foods)
• 16 ounces chicken broth
• (1) 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes w/ green chiles (I could only find 10 oz cans so I used 1 1/2 cans)
• (1) 28-ounce can enchilada sauce (I used mild, but use whatever you like for your spiciness preference!)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions:

• In a medium-size pan, saute the onion, celery, and carrots in the olive oil until onions are translucent (3-5 minutes over medium heat)
• Place sauteed veggies in the slow cooker
• Rinse & trim the chicken breast (if necessary) and add to the slow cooker.
• Add remaining ingredients, stir, cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

It's that easy!!! I LOVE SLOW COOKER RECIPES!!

A few of my notes: I forgot to buy full carrots. Luckily I had some baby carrots, so I just cut up a handful of those. Yay!

I always forget how easily cooked meat will fall apart after cooking all day in a slow cooker. So if you're like me and you think that putting full chicken breasts into a slow cooker is stupid, just don't worry. It's fine. They will shred so easily and beautifully and deliciously. 

Mine cooked for 9 hours. I turned on the slow cooker at 9:30am right before I left for work, and turned it off about 6:30 after I got home. And p.s. my apartment smelled delicious when I got home!! I took the lid off the slow cooker, used a large wooden fork to hold the chicken breasts in place, and then shredded them with a regular fork. Once the meat was shredded, I stirred everything up. So delicious.

Hi, I'm here to make your belly happy.

Lastly, once I had a serving in a bowl and was enjoying it, I found it was still just a tiny spicy for my liking (I seriously am a wuss). So I decided to throw in a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese, and that just made everything pretty perfect all around. 

This recipe was great. Once the dish has cooled enough, you can put it into tupperware and keep in the fridge for leftovers. Yay!! I also found that crunching up some HyVee brand Black Bean & Quinoa tortilla chips gave it a little extra yumminess. 

Okay everyone.

It's time.

Are you ready for the greatest dessert recipe ever?

I mean, it's really freaking good.

Even Olivia is licking her lips.

BROWNIES I WANT THEM

Here we go.

Cinnamon Salted Caramel Brownies

YUP. Oh, and BTW? THEY'RE VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE. 

SHUT UP SHUT UP I KNOW.

Okay. I feel like I hit the jackpot when I was just scrolling through Buzzfeed (one of my favorite websites ever) and I found an article that had like almost 50 gluten-free and vegan BAKING recipes that were catered towards fall-themes. So lots of pumpkin and apple type deliciousness. YEAH. Now, not all of them were paleo, but SO MANY OF THEM were awesome and I saved a ton of them. So be ready to see a lot of great recipes coming in the next few months.

This one came from a website called BakerBettie. God Bless this recipe.

Ingredients:

for the salted caramel sauce:

• 1 cup almond butter
• 1 1/4 cup pure ("real") maple syrup
• 3/4 cup solid coconut oil
• 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

for the brownies

• 1 1/2 cups of salted caramel sauce (from above)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (i bought regular cocoa powder and it was fine)
• 2 cups sifted almond flour

Organic Maple Syrup, Justin's brand Almond butter, Red Mill Almond Flour,
Vanilla Extract, Organic Coconut Oil, Cinnamon, Salt, Cocoa Powder.
Everything you need for your impending tastebud explosion.

Directions (PREPARE TO GET STICKY):

• In a large mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder and almond flour.

chocolate and vanilla, swirl, swirl
(anyone get that netflix original series reference? please?)

• Put all ingredients for the salted caramel sauce into a food processor or high-speed blender.

don't be scared.

• Blend on high for two minutes, scraping the sides down periodically. *DON'T SKIP ON BLENDING FOR THIS LONG.* Blending for this long will create the sticky caramel-like sauce!

omg its caramel. i made caramel. I MADE CARAMEL. I AM CARAMEL GODDESS.

• Pour 1 1/2 cups of the salted caramel sauce into the flour/cocoa mixture and stir until well combined.

omg omg omg omg it's gonna be so good i can tell omg

• Spread the mixture evenly into a lightly oiled parchment paper-lined 8x8 pan.

My pan is 9x9. I'm a rebel.

• Bake at 360 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

I think I ended up baking it for about 20 minutes total. Whatever. Like I said: Rebel.

• Drizzle warm salted caramel sauce over the top of the brownies. 

Earlier, I poured any remaining sauce from the food processor to a measuring cup. I now put the cup into the microwave for about 15 seconds to warm it up enough to pour. It smelled like heaven.

• Allow to cool in the pan.
• Enjoy!

MAGIC.
DELICIOUS HEAVENLY TASTEBUD-EXPLODING MAGIC.

And, with that, my friends, YOU ARE WELCOME. Seriously. Make this.

I'm making these brownies again a week from today for a Halloween party I'm going to and I can't wait. I love sharing these awesome recipes with my friends. It's so fun to get to share the excitement!!!

I've been writing this post while watching today's Husker game. We're up 44-7 with like a minute to go in the game. My pup is in her Husker jersey snuggled up by my side, and I've got some fun shopping planned for later. So far, it's been a pretty great Saturday. :) I hope you're having as good of a day as I am.

Also, I've added the basic recipes for the Slow Cooker Tortilla-Less Chicken Soup and the Cinnamon Salted Caramel Brownies to the link list over to the left, for easier reading and printing! I'm not going to add the banana bread recipe there yet until I have a chance to try it again. But that's it for today! 

Love!