Contrary to popular belief, I'm still on the planet! A couple new recipes to entice you...

Forgive me my friends, I had NO IDEA it has been so long since I last posted! Clearly I fell into some time-space vortex, et voila it has been 4 months. WOW.

So what has been happening.... A LOT! I received not one but TWO promotions in a short time and thus work has been crazy busy and a whirlwind. I am working hard to earn my next promotion and to perform my duties with the excellence and diligence that I strive to achieve every day.

I began running and have been doing great! However, it has been getting very HOT here and thus I have taken my workouts back indoors and am doing my cardio kickboxing as well as weightlifting again. If I could convince myself to wake up at 4am again I would get out and run, so we'll see what will happen!

I've also been thinking about taking this blog up a notch and really getting into the food blogging side of things. You know me well enough to know how much I LOVE to EAT! I love to cook, and I enjoy creating simple foods like taste good and make you feel good too. I know that sounds chowdery but hey - underneath this tough exterior is a big squishy interior!

Anyways, in light of my new venture, I'll start off with something that one of my fave food bloggers showed me. I adore fries, I admit it. I haven't met a fry I didn't like! Since going paleo, I typically get sweet potato fries or just bake them myself. Then I happened upon The Urban Poser. On Sunday nights, she and her family have a tradition of making grassfed burgers with avocado and a side of fries. But she takes her fries to the next level and makes them out of.... PARSNIPS.

I love parsnips! They are definitely one of the most underutilized root vegetables, and when you coat them with coconut oil, garlic, pepper, and sea salt, then bake them till they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, they are transformed into something magical.

All sliced and ready to bake

You can use your mandolin to shoestring them, but I just cut them by hand cuz hey - I'm crazy like that! And it was entertaining =) A mandolin would take less time though, and you could get a thinner cut.

Fresh out of the oven

I use an organic refined coconut oil (Tropical Traditions expeller pressed) that has no coconut flavour and is safe for high heat cooking. You could also use ghee (like the amazing ghee from OMGhee )! Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, stirring them around half way through to ensure evenness.

Dinner is served

 I paired them with some sesame pork ribs and cauli-rice! Sauce for the pork was sesame oil, coconut oil, local honey, lots of fresh garlic, coconut aminos, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. I'd like to put the same sauce on chicken! (I'm not a big pork fan) because it was tasty!

Finished it up with dessert, chocolate coconut flour cupcakes with homemade whipped cream (unsweetened)!

These bad boys look dangerous... dangerously TASTY!

These were made with the following:
6 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 c local honey (or raw honey)
3/4 c coconut flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Trader Joe's)
1 tsp baking soda
dash sea salt

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry and mix well, then allow batter to sit a few minutes so that the coconut flour can fully absorb the liquids Spoon into muffin cups and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Try not to eat them all in one sitting

I used heavy whipping cream, a dash of pure vanilla extract, and then just used a hand mixer to make it nice a fluffy. This is not a paleo topping! However, you can make paleo frosting using palm shortening or something similar. I have not yet branched out into that, but it is on my To-Do list!

I love these cupcakes because they are SO EASY to make and they turn out really tasty! Easy to dress them up with some dried cherries baked in, and add some Enjoy Life chocolate chips for real decadence. A sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg to spice them up will change the flavour dramatically. Candied ginger for a fun twist! No limits to what you can make!

Can't wait to share more recipes, so until next time!