A Walk in the Park

I took my new camera for a spin at a local park with the kids the other day. The colors on the trees were unreal and I caught a few pretty shots of the woods near the creek. The kids had fun riding their bikes through the crunchy leaves and enjoying the crisp air. I'll say it again and again...I love fall!

Paleo/Primal Cut-out Cookies

The Girl came to me today and said "I feel like making cookies. Let's use the cookie cutters!". That sounded like fun, and we hadn't made cut-out cookies since last Christmas. At that time we made regular cookies with flour and sugar and other "usual" ingredients. This time I was looking to make something a little more in line with my new way of eating. I saw this Not Sugar Cookie recipe on Paleo Parents a week or so ago and used that as my base in creating my own Paleo/Primal version of the Sugar Cut-out cookie. These cookies are a bit drier than a regular sugar cookie as you would expect when using coconut flour, but not extremely so. The kids decorated ours with sprinkles and mini-M&Ms, which defeated the purpose of omitting the gluten and refined sugar, but I guess since we started with something a little healthier, the end product was better than it could have been. I thought they were quite tasty and the whole family enjoyed them.

Paleo/Primal Cut-out Cookies

1/3 C Coconut oil

1/3 C Butter or Palm Shortening
1/2 C Honey

4 Eggs

1 T vanilla

1 C+ coconut flour

Mix all wet ingredients with electric mixer. Slowly add in the coconut flour until you form a soft dough. I found this dough to be very wet and had to add in more coconut flour as I rolled and cut the cookies. Flour a Silpat or parchment paper then turn out dough onto it and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick with more coconut flour on the rolling pin. Cut out cookies close together on the paper and remove the bits of dough in between leaving the cut outs on the paper. You can then move the parchment directly to a cookie sheet without having to lift the cut out cookies from it. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees until cookies are beginning to turn golden.

The ones above are the ones I decorated...

The ones below are the ones the kids decorated.

They were a hit with the ninja crowd.

Paleo/Primal Apple Cinnamon Porridge

My friends, Kate and Debbie, have recently jumped on the Paleo bandwagon with me and have either been missing their morning porridge or "cheating" and eating oatmeal for breakfast anyway. When I saw a hot cereal recipe on the Paleo Parents blog I knew it was going to be a hit. Today for lunch my daughter requested "something like oatmeal" so I took that recipe, gave it my own twist and came up with the recipe below. I loved it and will make it again for sure. I like that it keeps well for several days; I can make a big batch on the weekend and just heat and serve for breakfast during the week. We added several mix-ins like dried blueberries, cranberries, chocolate chips (for the kids), extra cinnamon, shredded coconut, and extra diced apple. The combinations are endless. (We had already eaten lunch and put the extra away when I remembered to take a picture, so this is a picture in the storage container.)

Paleo/Primal Apple Cinnamon Porridge
2 C Walnuts
1 C Almonds
1 C dried plums (prunes)

2 C diced apple
1 T coconut oil
2 t cinnamon

3 C milk (can be almond, coconut or regular depending on what you eat)

Peel and core apples and set peels aside for next step. Dice apples then in a saucepan saute in coconut oil until soft and browned. Stir in cinnamon.

While apples are cooking, in a food processor pulse nuts, plums and apple peels until you form a sticky mass. After apples are cooked add nut mixture and milk to saucepan with apples. Stir to break up any lumps then simmer on low heat stirring often until mixture is bubbly. Serve immediately with any mix-ins you like. Save leftovers for several days in the fridge.

Pumpkin Smoothie/Latte

I've had a hankering for a warm pumpkin drink lately. So today, I decided to mix some likely ingredients together to see if they made something resembling a pumpkin latte minus the coffee. The results were very good and The Boy has already requested it again as his drink to go with dinner. It's thicker than a pumpkin latte, but you could thin it out with more milk or coffee or tea if that's what you like. Otherwise it's pretty good thick. Win!

Pumpkin Smoothie/Latte

1 C pumpkin puree

2 C almond, coconut or regular milk

1/4 C honey

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients together in a blender. Serve cold if you're making a smoothie, warm up on stove top or in microwave if you're looking for a latte-like warm drink. Top with cinnamon or whipped cream or whatever you like on top.

Images from Around the Yard

I recently bought my first DSLR camera; I got a Nikon D3100 and love it! I had planned to take some pictures of the gorgeous colors on trees in some local office parks, but got there without a battery in my camera. So I came back home and walked around my own yard taking pictures of other beautiful things.