Gluten Free Zucchini Brownies

G and I have been having Thursday mornings to ourselves since J started going to gym school by himself. He loves the extroverted time in the class room and playing during gym time. G and I get a homeschool reading lesson in and play a fun game. Then we've been doing some delish baking. Most recently we made some zucchini brownies, utilizing the gluten free flour mix I made a few weeks ago. I got it from A Little Insanity and ordered my ingredients from vitacost (I have a $10 off coupon code for you here)

Gluten Free Zucchini Brownies (super rich and moist)

about 16, about an hour total time

2/3 cup cooking oil (I used gmo free canola oil, but grapeseed, coconut, or other would work too)
2 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp salt

2 cups gluten free flour blend

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup cacoa powder
2.5 cups grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, oil/spray a 9 x 9 pan. In a large bowl mix everything but zucchini. Add the zucchini, and mix until well combined. It will take a while, unless you are using a mixer, but I recommed doing it by hand and just stirring for like 4 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Paleo ABBC muffins

Have you heard of ABC bread (or muffins?)
I first saw a recipe for it from my bradley birth instructor 4.5 years ago when she was giving us suggestions on how to increase protein content (including through whole grains). I don't think I ever made that recipe but during our clean eating years I was a big fan of veggie muffins (see recipe on this blog and also this one on another blog that I cleaned up for us). Now that we are pretty paleo (like 90%), my favorite muffin had been one made with coconut flour, a ton of eggs, bananas, and dark chocolate chips.
Craving muffins this morning, but only having one banana.... I revisited this ABC bread idea. But added blueberries in as well for some sweetness and also because  had G was asking to make 'wheat berry muffins' as seen in a library book this week, Little Red Riding Hood - A Newfangled Prairie Tale by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

Paleo ABBC Muffins

makes 12, takes about 30 minutes total

• 1 ripe banana
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• dash vanilla
• .25 tsp baking soda
• .5 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/3 coconut oil, in between soft and melted (feel free to try another fat of your choice)
• dash salt
• 1 large carrot (or 2 smaller ones), grated
• 1 apple, grated (I cored mine but left the peel on)
• 3/4 - 1 cup frozen blueberries
• I did not use any added sweetners, but you're welcome to add some honey or maple or etc if you want them sweeter and don't mind adding them

Place ingredients EXCEPT the blueberries (I added the carrot and apple to mince them even smaller, but you can choose to add them in afterwards with the blueberries) in a mixing bowl and use immersion blender to mix ingredients well. Gently stir in blueberries. Divide between muffins cups (I use silicon ones and they didn't need any extra greasing). Bake at 400 degree for about 20 minutes, keep an eye on them in your own oven though.

They were a big hit over here, so enjoy and feel free to sub in and out ingredients as you like.

note; if you don't have an immersion blender. I recomend using a blender to get the base batter mixed and then you can stir in apple, carrots, and blueberries seperately.

Chocolate zucchini cake, eat clean

Yes. I am a fan of all things containing chocolate and zucchini. Here's another clean eating recipe containing them both!

My in laws were in town last night and we were having an awesome clean grilled dinner, and I had a zucchini that was getting pretty old. I figured it wouldn't be that good grilled, so I decided to whip up a dessert with it. Enter this thrown together from several online ideas...

Triple Chocolate zucchini cake

Clean eating

1/2 cup softened butter, grassfed preferred

1/2 - 1 cup honey or agave (vary it depending on your sweetness preference, and I used a combination of the two), local preferred for honey

3 eggs

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, organic preferred

Dash vanilla if you want

2 cups whole wheat flour (I used half white whole wheat and red whole wheat)

1/2 tsp baking powder, aluminum free

1/2 tsp baking soda

Several dashes of salt

1/4 cup Dutch Cocoa

1/4 cup cocoa powder

A few dashes of ginger

1 medium zucchini, grated

1/3 - 1/2 cup milk depending on how dry the batter looks, grassfed preferred or almond/coconut milk

10 oz dark chocolate chips or enjoy life chips

Combine butter and honey with mixer. Add applesauce, vanilla and eggs; mix well. In another bowl preferably, mix dry ingredients together then add to wet and combine. Add zucchini and whip with mixer, this helps the batter be more wet from the moisture being pressed out of zucchini from fast mixing (my kitchen aid is a champ!) and cake batter like. Add the milk to get adequate moisture. I used 1/3 cup, but you'll just have to see what yours is like because the zucchini you have may be more or less moist than mine was. You want the batter to resemble a mix between regular and Greek yogurt-like consistency. Kind of firm but kind of runny. Definitely not soupy and definitely not bread battery.

Bake in preheated 350 oven about 20-25 minutes until set. At that point put the chocolate chips on top and put back into turned off oven for a few minutes until they melt. Remove and carefully spread chocolate evenly. It's nice to serve about 10 minutes later because then it's kind of like a lava cake but you can let the chocolate harden and serve it later on. Refrigerate leftovers. Can also mix in chocolate chips into to batter for an over the top treat!

Mom's Brunch Recipes, Clean Eating Chocolate Zucchini Muffins,Strawberry Shortbread Trifle, Egg Sausage Strata

I had a few moms over for a brunch today and wanted to share the recipes I made!

Eat Clean Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

3 eggs, set out of fridge when you begin
3/4 cup grassfed butter (regular is fine, but not as clean), softened a bit
1.75 cups white whole wheat flour (still a whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour is made from white wheat, versus red wheat the traditional whole wheat flour is made from)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use half dutch cocoa and half regular, the dutch results in a richer color and better flavor)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1.25 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon aluminium free baking powder (regular will do, but not 'clean')
2/3 to 3/4 cup (depending on preferred sweetness) honey or agave nectar
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium zucchini, grated (I used the shredder disk & my food processor)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60 % dark chocolate are the best! but you can also use semi sweet)

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, salt, soda, and powder. In a large bowl (stand mixer preferred), blend the softened butter and honey until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add the zucchini and whip away (I let mine go for quite a while to, as I like to call it, pulverize the zucchini so it doesn't stick out as noticeably in the baked muffin.) Add the dry ingredient mixture and combine until everything is moist. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into greased muffin tins, or use baking cups of some sort. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Will make ~24

Nearly Clean Strawberry Shortbread Trifle

So this takes some work because I make everything from scratch, but it's totally worth it! You can also sub in a store bought angel food or pound cake and store bought whip cream for ease, but the homemade way allows you to control ingredients and tastes better :-) But I understand being pressed for time or not that handy in the kitchen.

First I make the shortbread biscuits. 

2 cups white whole wheat flour plus extra for dusting/patting
1 tablespoon aluminum free baking powder
several dashes of salt
1/2 cup grassfed butter (or regular will do)
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
3/4 cup grassfed milk or almond milk

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and then use a pastry cutter to cut in 1 stick of butter. Continue cutting until the butter is well distributed and finely incorporated, will take several minutes of cutting (you can also do this in a food processor and pulse, it's easier that way but I hate cleaning my food processor and I have a pastry cutter so I use it)
Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and put the egg, honey, and milk. Whisk the wet ingredients within that well and then incorporate the flour mixture with the wet until a ball comes together. You will have to add some more flour, probably, so that the dough isn't too wet. You want it to be tacky but not too sticky. You can roll the dough out and cut if you want, but since these biscuits will be getting torn up for the trifle, I don't care if they look sloppy, so I just roll them in to balls and pat down into 2.5" (ish) circles. Bake at 450 degree for about 9-10 minutes or until done. Let cool before trying to break into bite size pieces for the trifle. The biscuits and the strawberries can be done the day before you want to assemble your trifle.

You will also need to clean two pounds of strawberries and cut off the tops. 

Cut them into bite size pieces and let sit, covered, in the fridge for a while to naturally "juice".

Right before assembling the trifle, I make some whipped cream. 

I use grassfed cream and *gasp* unclean powdered sugar. It's processed, but it's better than the crap you buy in the store, so deal with it or try to make whipped cream with maple syrup?

To assemble the trifle, layer the cut up biscuits on the bottom, then strawberries, and then whip cream, I repeated this twice. I topped it with three whole strawberries for presentation :-)

Clean Eating Egg Sausage Strata

This is basically a Taste of Home Recipe but I make it clean by making the bread from scratch and hand shredding my cheese...in addition to choosing better for you sausage and bacon and free range eggs. When I make this strata, I make a whole loaf of bread (typically whole wheat in my bread machine--tip, add vital wheat gluten to keep whole wheat bread from being a brick!) and then make two stratas because each strata takes half of a 2 lb bread machine loaf, and this recipe is really easy to double even if you're using store bought bread. You can prepare the stratas and then freeze one for later and let one refrigerate overnight to eat the next morning. This is an amazing brunch recipe and awesome for crowds. It's very easy to make, if you don't do it clean. Because making it clean takes longer, I usually make the bread the day before I want to prepare the stratas, which is a day before you want to eat it because it has to set overnight. You can also add mushrooms, spinach, etc... very customizable!
Recipe is found here; http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cheese-sausage-strata

Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's not like I want to have a house full of sweets.... I just get sucked into baking from outside commitments! Bringing a mom from a church group who just had a baby is the latest "reason" to bake some desserts.

I just hate breaking the clean eating thing for some treats, so I generally try to 'clean' everything up, so if we have some left around the house, I don't feel completely terrible after throwing a few back. But, they are a treat, they are sweet, and they aren't really healthy. Everyone need a chocolate fix now and again, though. Sue me!

I recently took the King Arthur Flour white whole wheat cookie recipe and swapped out the sugars, among other alterations seen below.

Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 tbsp butter (grass fed preferred)
1/3 c agave nectar
1/4 c dark molasses
1.5 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 egg (cage free organic)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
1.5 c white whole wheat flour
8 oz dark chocolate chip (greater than 60% preferred)

Beat the butter, agave, molasses, honey, vanilla, and salt together until smooth (no, really, don't short cut it, beat until smooth). Beat in vinegar, egg, soda, and powder. Blend in the flour until combined and then stir in the chocolate chips. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mat (or grease the pans directly). Drop by tablespoons or teaspoons for mini cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-11 minutes depending on size. Don't over cook, these will be soft on the inside.

I got 2 dozen average size cookies, including some sneaky dough tastes.

Green Pancakes DYE FREE! Recipe

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!!!
This is my favorite holiday, so I try to do it up big.

This year we had fun science experiments with our church friends, then a wife of my husband's co-worker had some wives/kids over for playing and fun green lunch.

Oh, and I started us off right with some GREEN PANCAKES :-)
of course they were clean eating, which means no dye, because who wants that ruining their festive eating? not us!

Here's the recipe my friends!

Green Pancakes - clean eating & dye-free

2 cups whole wheat flour (or white whole wheat works great too...I actually used a combo)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2.25 cups almond or grass-fed dairy milk
2 cups (or "handfuls") baby spinach
2 eggs
4 tbsp melted grass fed butter (or coconut oil)
1 tbsp agave nectar (or honey)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a blender combine the milk and spinach until pureed. Add eggs, melted butter, and agave--blend away. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Pour onto hot griddle in desired size (silver dollar pancakes are perfect for SPD) and flip once they start to bubble. Serve with pure syrup, agave, or honey and fruit. ENJOY!!

Chickpea Bake Fest

I had a bag of chickpeas (other wise known as garbanzo beans...it's kind of complicated, apparently) sitting in the pantry last week. I also happened to be crazing snack foods, so I figured I could roast some up and boom, snacky craving satisfied. Except to take dry beans to roasted snack food takes a while. It's not like you just tear into a bag of chips, awesome as that may sound.
That's the thing about truly eating clean...it is a labor of love sometimes. Sure, there are ways to make things less time consuming, and I'm all for that. But when you put a lot of time and effort into preparing healthy foods, you A) burn more calories through all the work and B) you appreciate your food more and then C) over eat less.
So back to the story. I soaked the beans overnight sometime last week, then cooked them the next day, ran out of time and just threw them in the fridge once they cooled.
Then my kids got sick. I had a lot of work events. #Lifehappens
So last night I got tired of looking at them in the fridge and put "roast chick peas" on my to-do list, because that's how things actually get done around here. Except dusting...dusting takes an Act of God.

So I set about to roast my chick peas and realized I didn't want/need to roast the whole lot of them. So I googled around and found a few recipes I wanted to clean up/personalize and voila! They are below.

Roasted Chickpea Snack bites

2 splashes olive oil
heap of cumin powder (about a tablespoon)
heap of garlic powder (or if you don't like garlic flavor, less)
a few shakes of chili powder (About .5 tsp)
a few shakes of sea salt
dash of ground pepper
dash of red pepper flakes
2 cups of prepared chickpeas

In a small mixing bowl, combine oil and spices. Toss in chickpeas and stir to coat. Place onto parchment paper covered (or just greased) cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Chocolate Chickpea Bread (or cake, whatever)

2 cups prepared chickpeas
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder (dutch or special dark preferred)
1 tsp baking powder
several dashes sea salt
2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour (need a bit more if using agave vs. sugar)
.25 cup brown sugar (or agave)
.25 cup honey
4 eggs
.5 tbsp vanilla
1 tablespoon melted (grassfed) butter
.33 cup dark chocolate chips (about a handful)

In a smallish bowl, combine melted butter, vanilla, honey, eggs, and agave if using. In medium mixing bowl blend baking powder, cocoa, salt, flour, and sugar if using instead of agave. Combine the wet mixture into the dry mix bowl. Using sturdy food processor, grind the chickpeas until they are ground into a flour like substance. Blend into batter. Stir in chocolate chips. Line a bread pan with parchment paper and pour batter in. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes until set and toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Chickpea Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I just used remaining chickpeas from that bag I had prepared, I think it should equal about 1.5 c or a bit less
2 tsp vanilla
.5 cup pure almond butter
.25 cup honey (I also squeezed in a dollop of agave just for flavor balancing, so if you have it, do it)
1 tsp baking powder
a few dashes of salt
.33 cup dark chocolate chips (about a handful)

Process the chickpeas until finely ground. Dump in the rest of the ingredients (except chocolate), process for about 2 minutes or until a lump starts to form and make its way around the bowl, kind of creating a ball of dough. Take out the blade and mix in chocolate chips. Place 12 mounds onto a lined or greased cookie sheet. Flatten down a bit. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 (with about 5 minutes left, I reached in a smashed them down into cookie form, since they don't really do that on their own).

Copycat cleaned up Panera Sonoma Chicken Stew recipe (with cheesebiscuit)

Two years ago Panera came out with the greatest soup they've ever had, in my humble opinion anyways.

Sonoma Chicken Stew may not be that great for some online reviews, but I think it is amazing. There is a cheesy biscuit in the middle of a creamy mixture of chicken and vegetables and it screams comfy sweaters, annoying but oh-so-warm furry boots, fireplaces, dreary days, and rain on the window. You know, Autumn at it's finest. Or winter, whatever season you want it to be, just gimme some o' that soup.

Panera, or the St. Louis Bread Co (re; "Bread Co") in the part of the world I'm from, is fast food, but tastier and less greasy than your typical joint. There's tons of calories, sodium, and carbs that leach onto your body just for walking in the place. Is it still one of my cravings? You bet your bippy. I ate it the day J was born because it's the only thing that sounded good, and my first full meal after I was on the road to recovery? Panera. When I was in high school I would get the chicken noodle soup in a bread bowl, with bread for a side. That's like 1300 calories......eeeeek. And I'm eternally grateful that my husband shared the greatest sandwich of all; the bacon turkey bravo. My.mouth.is.watering. I try to make better choices these days, and it's a rare occasion to eat there (twice a year maybe). I search them out if we are on the road and need to stop for fast food. I love you Panera, non-eat-clean meals and all.

But when I googled for a recipe like the sonoma chicken stew....no where to be found! If you too have googled this amazingly warm and satisfying comfort dish, look no more.

Although I must warn you, mine is cleaned up a bit and not as thick, though I have a solution for you on that front.

For me, the cheese biscuit makes the dish, and so that's included here.

Panera on top, this recipe on bottom

Copycat Sonoma Chicken Stew with Cheese Biscuit Recipe

1 quart chicken broth, homemade preferred
4-5 cups water depending on how far you want to stretch it
1 cup cream or half and half, grassfed preferred
as much celery, carrots, peas, green beans as you want
(I eyeballed it, you can say 3 stalks celery, chopped. 1 lb of carrots sliced, 1 cup of frozen peas, 1 cup of frozen, cut green beans)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp cold water and your thickening agent of choice (about 4 tbsp)
1-2 lbs chicken breasts, boiled or pan fried in grassfed butter, chopped up into bite size pieces after cooking
**To make it thicker and more of a copycat recipe, add 1.5 cups worth of chopped potatoes. This will add to the creamy texture and Panera's version has potatoes. I didn't have any on hand, so I left them out**
cheese biscuit recipe follows

Boil the broth in a large stock pot, add in water and bring to boil again. Add in celery and carrots (and potatoes if you have them), simmer until they are starting to soften then add in peas and green beans. Blend in cream and salt and pepper to taste, simmer. In a small bowl, combine flour or corn starch with cold water. In a steady stream, pour into soup and stir constantly while you do. If you'd still like yours to be thicker, repeat the process. I did so about 3 times. Simmer.
While the soup had been simmering, I pan fried some chicken breasts in grassfed butter, which is like my favorite thing to do because it tastes so dang good. A little fat doesn't make you fat, sugar does. Don't worry if it gets a little crispy on the outside, the soup will soften it up some too. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and add it into the soup. Let the soup stew while you make the biscuits. Once the biscuits are done, place one in a large soup bowl and ladle stew over it. Salt and pepper may be added for taste once again, but remember to watch your sodium intake if trying to eat clean.

'eat clean' Cheese Biscuits

2 cups white whole wheat flour
4 tsp (aluminum free baking) powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (grassfed) butter
1 (cage free) egg
2/3 (unsweetened original almond) milk
1 tbsp honey
4-6 oz freshly grated Colby Jack or cheddar cheese

Combine the dry ingredients and then cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or two knives or a food processor. Make a well in the center of the mixture and put in the egg, honey, and milk. Whisk the wet ingredients within the well and then start to incorporate the dry ingredients. Once combined, toss in the cheese and gentle blend. Knead the dough briefly to make sure cheese is well distributed avoid over-handling though. Pat out to 3/4 inch thick rectangle on a well floured surface or silicone pastry mat. You want these to look artisan, so I used a knife to create chunky triangles or square shapes. Bake at 435 degrees on silpat lined sheet (or grease your sheets if no silpat) for about 9 minutes or until golden.

Eat Clean Whole Wheat Pancakes - optional bananas - recipe

I love breakfast foods. Like, a lot. And almost all of them.
Load me up on some cinnamon rolls, biscuits, pancakes, french toast, quiche, scrambled eggs, strata, and especially waffles...and I am one happy but carb-loaded girl!

When we transitioned to eating clean, it really wasn't that hard to make clean breakfast foods. I've been baking for years, and from-scratch breakfast isn't hard at all.

I really need to do an update on our eating clean, because it's still going pretty well. I'd say about 90/10 is the ratio we typically hit, and we incorporate some paleo ideas but for the record we will NEVER be paleo.

When my parents were here around Halloween, I found this recipe for whole wheat pancakes that I thought my dad would like. I have since adapted it in various ways and today I'm sharing my eat clean version with bananas added in and strawberry "syrup" on top.

Eat Clean Pancakes

adapted from Fifteen Spatulas

1.33 cup (Kalona) buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp melted (grassfed) butter
1.25 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp (aluminum free) baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 mashed banana

In a small bowl, blend the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Incorporate the wet mixture into the dry and then add the mashed banana. If the mixture looks too dry, add buttermilk or regular milk until it's a bit runnier than brownie batter (but not watery or overly runny). Pour about a third of a cup of the batter onto a hot griddle (as long as it's "non-stick" no greasing is needed. Flip once bubbles pop up.

For the strawberry syrup I put some home-frozen (you can use store bought) frozen strawberry slices into a sauce pan with agave nectar and heated over medium. Then I blended some organic corn starch with some cold water and mixed into the strawberry 'syrup' to thicken it up some. Served with chicken sausages.

Eat Clean Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

We had a lot of left over homemade rolls from our Christmas celebration with my in laws this past weekend. We don't eat much bread these days, so I looked around to see what we had that I could use them with.....we had a lot of sweet potatoes. I found a bread pudding recipe that incorporated sweet potatoes because that seemed like a delicious combo. It happened to be from the delicious Paula Deen. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, it wasn't really clean.
So I cleaned it up and am sharing it with you all because it is so delicious!! It grew better with every bite until I decided it was pretty much like pumpkin pie. If you want the sugar and butter loaded one, which I'm sure is as amazing, give Paula's recipe a whirl....but the one below is way less calories and way better for you.
Try using Kalona Supernatural dairy; we recently discovered it via their cream and it's the best grass fed dairy we've had. We also use their Farmers Hen House eggs. Check them out at a store near you, I use Hy-Vee. I really can't say enough good things about them....grass fed, batch pasteurized, not homogenized (their view is the very premise of eat clean; "...we believe in doing less—not more—when it comes to our food.")
Another note to make; the straining process took a LONG time for me because I think my custard was so thick due to using proportionally more sweet potatoes, just keeping smooshing the mixture through the strainer using a wooden spoon, add more liquid while cooking if it seems to dense. Mine was a thick custard but turned out wonderfully moist, springy, and smooth (so if you skip the straining, I'm sure the consistency would be affected).

Eat Clean Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

adapted from the queen of butter Mrs. Deen

chill at least 8 hours before you want to bake it

prep takes about 1 hour

baking takes 40 minutes

grass fed butter for dish
a handful of sliced almonds for topping
1 cup of grass fed cream
3/4 cup of grass fed milk
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 large (but not HUGE) sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cage free egg yolks
~7 cups of whatever homemade whole grain bread you have on hand, torn into bite size pieces, it should be enough to have 2 layers in an 8 x 8 x 2 baking dish

In a medium sauce pan, boil the sweet potatoes to soften. While that happens, melt a bit of butter in an 8 x 8 dish, use a napkin or paper towel to spread it around (greasing the dish). Combine the dairy, agave, vanilla, spices in a bowl. Once the potatoes are soft, drain and mash. Put the dairy mixture and mashed sweet potatoes into the sauce pan. Bring to just a boil. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Put a bit of the sweet potato mixture into the eggs while whisking constantly (this is to warm the egg yolks up so they don't cook immediately when you dump them into the sauce pan), add another bit of sweet potato mixture into the eggs again while whisking constantly. Pour egg mixture into the sauce pan. Over medium-high heat, stir mixture constantly until it's thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Strain the custard and reserve.

Put one layer of bread pieces in the greased dish, pour half of the custard over the bread. Put the rest of the pieces on top of that and cover with remaining custard. Jiggle dish to settle. Chill covered for 8 hours or overnight.

Top with sliced almonds, bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until set.

Super Food Muffin {eat clean recipe with kale, pumpkin, carrot,cranberry and apple}

I love baking treats, but when we started eating clean....I had to, by necessity, cut way back. Sometimes, if I think about it, I get a little sad, but not really when I button my pre-two-pregnancies-pants. Even now, when I eat unclean ice cream, sure it tastes good, but it's not nearly as delicious as I thought it was before I wasn't addicted to sugar. Man that stuff is a drug.

Anyways, I get my baking fix these days through muffins. I've always loved to make muffins (my specialty used to be Banana Blueberry Muffins), but now they just have a super healthy punch. I recently came up with a very healthy Fall recipe. Seriously, you can't feel bad about eating these things (unless you're Paleo or GF, in which case, I feel bad for you). There's Vitamin A, B, C, D, K, Iron, Calcium, Protein...the WORKS. Plus other stuff I don't even know, like minerals--Magnesium, Selenium...does that sound right? Just google Kale. It's a super food. And these muffins taste awesome!

...okay. If you are used to sugar treats and pastries, you're not gonna love these the first time you try them. But if you are trying to work in more veggies, give them a shot. If you already eat clean, then you will DEFINITELY love these and your eat-clean kiddos will gobble them up! My daughter is too smart for me to hide kale in even her eat-clean-style mac and cheese...but hidden in muffins works like a charm. And for the record, she ate like 6 pieces of lettuce tonight, woot!

Eat Clean Pumpkin Carrot Kale Cranberry Muffins

makes 24, takes about 1 hour including prep

Dry Ingredients;
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
(or you can use 3 cups of all of one kind and subtract the other)
.25 tsp salt
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vital wheat gluten (I used for added protein here, but you don't need this ingredient)
1 tbsp baking powder
Wet Ingredients;
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs, beaten
.5 to .75 cup agave nectar (based on your sweetness preference) (you could use honey instead)
.75 cup all natural unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla (pure)
about half a bunch of kale (leaves only), should be around 2 cups
about .8 pound of carrots (I used almost a whole bag of baby carrots)
-- grind up the kale and carrots in the food processor at the same time, to tiny pieces but not pureed, before mixing with other wet ingredients--
Folded in at the end
1 to 1.5 cup of washed fresh/frozen cranberries (can use raisins if needed)

Preheat oven to 365, just to be fun. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl; in a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Blend the two together, but avoid over mixing. If batter is too dry, add some Greek yogurt extra pumpkin puree, or almond milk, but this batter is supposed to be fairly stiff. Fold in the cranberries. You're welcome to try these topped with chopped nuts of your choice, or even fold them in too. Prepare muffin tins with either liners or grease of your choice. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 18-24 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean, turning half way through.

 Enjoy :-)

Eat Clean Pumpkin Cut Out Cookies Recipe

EDIT as of 11/17, I changed the recipe some to add healthy flax seed into the mix! 

One of my most favorites about Fall is pumpkin, specifically pumpkin cookies! My mom has a great recipe that I haven't seen elsewhere (though I haven't looked too hard), it's for roll out pumpkin cookies. I love it because the taste is not too sweet, with a great pumpkin taste. Oh, and if you don't feel like rolling them out, just make little balls :-)

Pumpkin!

Here, I've cleaned it up for you!

Clean Eating Pumpkin Cut Out Cookies

1 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup softened butter
1/4 ground flax seeds (use a coffee grinder to freshly grind whole flax)
1 cup agave nectar (or honey)
2 tbsp molasses (not necessary, but gives it a good flavor)
1 egg
4-4.5 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp Pumpkin Spice
extra cinnamon to taste
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Cream the butter, flax, and honey/agave. Add pumpkin, mix well. Add egg. In a separate bowl, combine 4 cups of white whole wheat flour, salt, soda. Gradually mix into the wet ingredients. Add more flour if needed to stiffen the dough (I usually close 4.75 cups). Let it chill in the fridge for about 2-3 hours. Dust counter with flour as needed to roll dough out to 1/3" to 3/8" thickness. Cut out shapes. Bake on ungreased sheets for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

It's Halloween! Why not have pumpkin cookies for breakfast?

Clean Eating Progress and recipe links

We've been eating 90%+ clean for around 2 months now. It's going great, and I no longer really equate food with comfort. So that's an awesome feeling. I've lost weight, not where I want to really be in my clothes, yet, but it's a definite start. My husband has lost weight too. Overall, I just feel really proud and happy with what is going into our bodies. Our bodies will find their own happy weight on their own, since we are giving them the right fuel. G has adjusted pretty well, and J eats lots of our table food, since it's all clean anyways! Sometimes when G was his age, I'd make special foods for her because what we were eating wasn't what I'd want to feed her so young...which is saying something. Even though I thought we were eating pretty well.

If it's not something you want to feed your infant, why do you want to feed it to yourself? Baring alcohol and the occasional treats...and honey.... you know what I'm getting at.

Sometimes things I make take up a lot of time, and I hate that, but it certainly makes me appreciate our food a lot more. My husband respects the effort I put into feeding us well. I haven't bought bread products since the end of July. Yah. Mind blown.

It's not any more costly, either. I'm spending right around the same amount as I was before. I was hoping it'd be less, but produce and meat still make up most of our budget. Processed goods just got replaced with baking ingredients or healthier snacks.

I definitely think being a lover of all things kitchen, and a small appliance dork, have helped me succeed so far. If you don't like to bake or cook, your eat clean journey might be a little tougher. Definitely do-able, though, but a love of baking and cooking will certainly increase your chance of survival.

When we do eat junk now, we can tell, and to be honest (never thought I'd type the following)...it's not as good as I thought it was, and I don't crave it like I used to. Sure, there are days when all I want is a little bit of ice cream/custard. Ok, I'm human. And I have it. But a lot of times, I'm like; "Man, it's weird...I want to be craving ice cream, but really, I'm not. So strange." I literally think that to myself. Now, dark chocolate chips and plain Greek yogurt, I could eat that all day. WHO AM I??
We recently went to a picnic at a local cider mill put on my husband's work. We ate the BBQ provided, because, it's free, and good; but definitely not clean. I ate the white bun, but it was seriously hindering the meat's flavor. I almost took the meat off, but the portions were small, and we had just run 6 miles, and I was honestly famished so I kind of needed any calories I could get, sadly. I ate about half a snack-bag size of plain potato chips. Yes, they were pretty good, but old-Kaylene would have eaten the whole thing. I had an apple cider doughnut (ok, 2?) and it was the awesome...overly sugary, but yeah, it was good. These few and far between treats get me through. Oh, and then there's G....  can totally tell when she's hopped up on sugar, since she doesn't really have it often. Half of the doughnut and she was doing circles.

Ok, back to the point. We are doing great with eating clean, but do so within our means and take advantage of little treats now and again.

Here are some of my favorite recipes;

Clean Wheat Tortillas
Clean Pizza Dough
Zucchini Brownies - I combo these two recipes A and B

Honey 100% Wheat Sandwich Bread

Clean Hamburger Buns

100% Whole Wheat Rolls

Clean Crackers. This was a super chore. I've made them once. I'd really just suggest forgoing crackers all together, or stocking up on Annie's Homegrown like me ;-)

Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

Stuffed Red Peppers

Eat Clean Potatoes with Lemon


I stock Daisy Cottage Cheese, Chobani Plain (some flavored cups for easy lunch-packing and G's snacks), deli cheese, low sodium no nitrate lunch meat, clean peanut butter (PS no stir style "natural PB" isn't clean), homemade jam, healthy cereal, eggs, Annie's Homegrown snacks, almonds, and of course fresh fruits and veggies.

We eat a lot of salads, a lot of Mexican style dishes because I bought a 5 lb bag of Masa (to make corn tortillas), meats and veggie meals...I make a lot of veggie muffins and quiche using personal recipes. I also make up a lot of my own meat recipes, including a secret clean chicken and dumpling recipe that I want to enter into a contest ;-)

For anyone out there questioning if they should "go clean" or not...the answer is DUH, Yes!! Just know it takes some planning, some sweat, and some serious motivation. Commit and don't look back, because you already know it's better for you. :-)

Cinderella Cake with G

I love baking. That is pretty obvious. I also enjoy letting G help me bake. We've grown together, in our method. I've never really shied away from letting her measure, dump, stir, mix, and occasionally make a mess. There have been a few times when I've gotten frustrated with her, due to time constraints, expensive ingredients, or sensitive nature (yeast, specifically) but generally, we have a grand time. She has her own apron, hat, mitt, etc. I imagine she'll be a big baker when she is older too. Her favorite thing to do, aside from TASTE, is mix. The other day, though, I learned she does NOT like the hand mixer. It is too loud for her. She much prefers the Kitchen Aid stand mixer....classy expensive taste :-)

From "Kitchen Fun - a cookbook for Children" by Bell & Smith (1932)

G has her own little cook book, and anytime I get my recipes out, she wants to have her own book down too. It's quite adorbs. We haven't ever made anything out of it, though there are plenty of fun recipes in it.

Then over the weekend (Memorial Day, specifically) I decided it was high time she got to actually make something from her cook book. We picked out just the perfect thing. Cinderella Cake with Jam Frosting!

I have no clue why it's called Cinderella Cake, but I'm guessing it's because it's pretty plain, but still yummy. Like Cinderella was really plain, but still caught the Prince's eye? Idk.
I let G do everything, with some help, aside from cracking the eggs. And, she didn't want to hold the mixer (see above). But we used the Kitchen Aid for the frosting, and she's great at turning that on and off, and helping to tap-tap-tap the sides.

mixing in the vanilla by hand, with tear stained cheeks from hating the hand mixer

After I put J to bed, we finished the frosting and all sat down to enjoy our Cinderella Cake :-) It was a lovely end to our lovely weekend.

Memorial Day Cheesecake {or 4th of July}

This past weekend I made a Red, White, and Blue Cheesecake to honor those who died while serving our country. Annndddd because my husband and I love a good cheesecake. G, we found out, scoffs at the very sight of cheesecake--too bad for her.

My life with Giada, 5 dishes I've made recently

Giada at Home is pretty much my favorite Food Network show right now. I used to love anything Bobby Flay...but I've been away from cable for 2 years, so my tastes have changed. While I still hold a special place for him in my heart (he's so cute!), I find myself drawn to Giada's recipes. Here are a few I've made lately.

Penne in Almond Sauce
Both my husband and I LOVED this dish. We really enjoyed the flavors in the sauce and the surprisingly fun almond crunch. While the sauce itself is smooth, the almonds may definitely turn some people off because it's a whole different texture level for pasta.
The dish is relatively easy to make, I'd say a 3.5 out of 10. I had a small incident because I don't have a blender. I used a food processor instead, and it ended up making a huge mess. I made homemade rotisserie (style) chicken, rather than using store bought as the recipe directs. I also used mini-penne, and that was a great upgrade because the sauce was able to find its way into even more little crevices! I did not have any fresh basil available, so I omitted that without noticing a big difference. I also may have gone a bit overboard with the lemon zest, so the dish tasted very California-y :-)
The Penne in Almond Sauce is wonderful leftover too! My husband enjoyed eating it cold for lunch a few days, though I preferred it reheated. G ate a bit of the dish. I think the next time I'll make it, she'll like it even more because she's really become a big fan of pastas.

We had SO much leftover!

 Peach and Strawberry Crumble

We love fruit around this house, and peaches & strawberries are two of our favorites. When I saw this dish on Giada's show, I knew I had to try it. I altered the recipe by adding a bit more fruit, using a 9x9" pan, using salted butter, and subbing cornstarch for arrowroot (I looked for it, but never found it at Safeway).  This was such an easy recipe, but it does involve a food processor, so I'll give it a 2 out of 10.
The topping is really light and delicious, but for me, it's the juices of the fruit that make this dish so special. It tastes so summery; I could almost feel the peach juice dripping down my chin when we ate the crumble. The lemon juice and cornstarch really bring out the sweetness from the peaches and strawberries. I served it alongside vanilla bean ice cream, but I know homemade ice cream would be the perfect compliment for a summer time favorite.

Menu Plan Monday

The highlight of this week (Monday) comes from a great episode of Giada at Home that I saw last week. Man, I missed Food Network! We don't have too many more channels than we did in Kansas (locals only there), but Food Network is included in the Digital Economy package we have & I am so excited! If only HGTV was too...

Seven Quick Takes 15

--- 1 ---

We move into our new home tomorrow. Our flight is at 7 am local time and we get to SFO at 9 Pacific time (I've never lived outside of central time, so this will be weird!). I'm very excited but also nervous / sad to leave the Midwestern life I've always known. This week has been really chaotic, but I've really surprised myself (and husband) by being patient & calm about the whole thing.

--- 2 ---

Example one of how this week is crazy:
The moving company sent ONE guy to pack and move our apartment. I guess when they heard 2 bedroom apartment, they didn't think it'd have that much stuff. HA. The guy is great and a really hard worker, but even he admitted we "filled it well" and that it was way underestimated. He had hoped to be done by 4 pm, and then 6 pm, but ended up needing until 10 PM to get everything packed and loaded. We didn't stay that late, because we had a 3.5 hour drive to get to my in-laws (our in-between location). That's a lot of trust to put in someone else...nearly everything we own is not in our possession. For a control freak like myself, it's totally a God thing that I'm not having a panic attack right now.

My {easy} Cut-Out Cookie Recipe & Cookie Icing {that hardens}

Cut-Out Cookies

Time: ~ 2 hours total

 Prep work (20), Chilling (60), Baking (8-10 per baking batch)

350 degrees

Menu Plan Monday

Last week went pretty well, although my husband came back from "a quick run" to the grocery store with more than I told him to get....so we had some impromptu meals and went over our budget. At least it wasn't my fault ;-)

Monday: Baked Homemade Pork Egg Rolls, veggies, rice
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: eat anything in the house that will go bad while we are gone
Thursday: dinner at my parents after driving all morning/afternoon (kettle beef)
Friday: (second annual holiday) taco night with my parents and family friends
Saturday: Christmas Eve dinner (probably pizza)
Sunday: Christmas dinner: Ribs (weird, but it's my mom's plan)

For holiday dessert I am going to make an amazing Brownie, Cookie, Oreo Layer dessert that I saw on Katie @ NFP & Me (which she found on Pinterest). I'm going to be following the recipe I found on BrownEyedBaker.

Source: Brown Eyed Baker

Thanks for stopping in on Menu Plan Monday, which is linked up at OrgJunkie.com