Chocolate Coconut Cookies...Gluten Free and Paleo!

I've been trying out a few gluten free cookie recipes and while my absolute favorite is Peanut Butter cookies, those don't work for my middle son with peanut allergies. He's been demanding his own cookie recipe and when we found this one in Practical Paleo he insisted we make it. We've made it for dessert and for breakfast and we REALLY like this one.

Chocolate Coconut Cookies
from Practical Paleo
makes 12 cookies

• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pinch baking soda
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds or 1/2 cup fresh raspberries (optional)
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Whisk together the eggs, melted butter, vanilla & maple syrup. Stir in the cocoa powder, baking soda and shredded coconut until it's all combined. Fold in the optional almonds and/or chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out 12 cookie balls onto the cookie sheet and flatten them with a fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly firm to the touch.
If you want raspberries on top you can add one to each cookie after baking and before eating.

The chocolate chips made these much better in my opinion. These cookies are a bit chewier than I like but 2 out of 3 of my boys found the taste and texture just right and gobbled them up. I ate a few more than I should have myself.

This post was shared at: Clever Chicks, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, This Gal Cooks, A Round Tuit, Homestead Barn Hop, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
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Book Review: The Briarpatch Gospel

I've been reading a lot lately. I mean more than usual and way beyond my 2013 reading list. This year I discovered that some book publishers will give free copies of new books to bloggers in exchange for an honest review. After much research I began requesting some exciting books. The Briarpatch Gospel by Shayne Wheeler is my second non-fiction book to review and I found it a fascinating read.

"Hasn’t Jesus called us into the thorns and thistles with Him to love what we find there? What if we had the courage to follow him into the briarpatch and discover life as we were always meant to live it?"

 In The Briarpatch Gospel, dynamic pastor Shayne Wheeler presents a radical message of grace that calls all Christ followers to travel through the thorny thickets of the Briarpatch and love people where they are. He shares his own journey and his church’s experience of creating a community in which people walk through many difficult issues together.

I loved so much about this book. First and most basic, it was organized well and broken into 4 sections with 2-4 chapters in each section. The book spent the first 3 chapters by exploring the Problem of the Briarpatch and looking at what people may be afraid of. In chapter 1 Shayne states "...I don't want you to think you have to be a Christian superhero in order to walk through the briarpatch. All you need is the courage to be yourself..." 

Other sections are about examining the Briarpatch Within ourselves and then moving Into the Briarpatch. Shayne shared many fascinating stories from his experience as a pastor and also as a neighbor, father and friend. The final section is on Transforming the Briarpatch and living for Jesus beyond the walls of your church or home and striving to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth in how we live here and now.

Shayne tackles today's big issues and looks first to the life of Jesus and the Bible. For example chapter 10 is entitled Looking For The Rainbow: Does God Really Hate Gays? This chapter is perhaps the most controversial and most intriguing to me. I won't reveal all that Shayne says on the topic but I loved how he confesses he doesn't have all the answers. Instead he & his church lean into this difficult topic with the heart of Jesus and love people as they are.

This book didn't take me long to read but it did delve into some deep, important issues in the church. I read about a chapter a day to give me time to process each one. I recommend this book to anyone who is a follower of Jesus or even people who aren't Christians but are interested in knowing more about a pastor's take on the messy issues of life and faith.

I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House.
This post was shared at: Teach Me Tuesday

Detox Update

My 7 day detox plan is over and it was a success! I have never eaten so healthy in my life. For 7 days I stay disciplined enough to only eat the allowed natural foods such as fruit, veggies, salmon, chicken breast etc. The only sort of processed food I had was a bit of garlic hummus, almond milk in my morning smoothie & some roasted almonds.

My main reason for doing this detox was to reset my body after my sugar excesses of March. Darn you delicious Easter candy with your Cadbury mini-eggs & Lindt chocolate bunnies. I gained a few pounds with my mini-egg addiction and I wasn't feeling great.

The first two days of my detox I felt achy and tired. By the third day I felt very good. I did fine making a healthy smoothie every morning and it was so filling I didn't feel hungry before lunch. I didn't suffer any hunger during my detox week. If I was ever hungry between meals I usually snacked on nuts or made a berry smoothie.

One of my least favorite aspects of the UltraSimple Diet was drinking 3-4 cups vegetable broth every day. I think the first day was the only day I drank 3 cups. Toward the end I was lucky to down 1 cup a day. It just didn't taste good and it felt very odd to drink a veggie broth out of my tea mug.

My daily cup of green tea

I did struggle with craving dark chocolate and red wine toward the end of the week. I rarely have much yearning for alcohol in any form so it was an odd craving for me. While shopping I went ahead and bought a bottle of my favorite red wine for when the detox week was over but the craving has since passed and the bottle sits unopened.

Overall I was surprised at the end of the week when I weighed in. I lost exactly 5 pounds and 1 inch off my hips and 2 inches off my waist. My clothes fit better, I felt great and I loved the results!

salmon & broccoli- a typical dinner during the detox

So what's next? Well so far I'm pretty much back to my regular mostly healthy eating habits with sweet treats included. In the book he recommends transitioning slowly to reintroduce the possible allergy foods one at a time but I was too impatient to do that. I wanted dairy and eggs & peanut butter too much.

He also suggests trying a 7 day detox every three months and I think that's what I'll do.

I'm calling this detox week a success and I highly recommend it!

This post was shared at: Your Green Resource, Clever Chicks, Homestead Barn Hop, Mama Moments, Small Footprint Fridays, Natural Living Monday, Teach Me Tuesday

spring gardening & companion plants

I wrote last month about starting my seedlings in newspaper pots. I've been so ancy to get my garden going and start growing my veggies. Sadly I killed my first round of seedlings. Just more proof that even though I've been gardening over 10 years I've got plenty to learn. 

I killed the seedlings by leaving them out over night- not on purpose. It was an accident that I'll attribute to "mommy brain". My younger boys loud & exciting return from a week at Grandma's thoroughly distracted me from bringing in the 2 seedling trays I was trying to harden off.

Since then I've planted lots more seedlings and they are growing well. I've got my laundry room full once again of lovely growing plants and I'm so excited to move them into the garden in the next few weeks.

We've had some lovely spring weather in Illinois so I even got out and planted one of my 3 beds. I planted 3 varieties of lettuce that like cool weather, Bloomsdale spinach and Romanesco broccoli. I've got 3-4 weeks until we'll be frost free so I only planted veggies that do well in the early spring.

So what should we be planting in the early spring? What plants compliment and help each other? I've been reading up on the topic and below is some of the great information I found. 

P. Allen Smith has a great post on spring vegetables to start early detailed here.

Below is some info I found from Organic Authority on when to plant certain spring vegetables.

Plant hardy vegetables about four to six weeks prior to the date of your last spring frost, including brassicas such as broccoli, cabbage and collards. Lettuce, spinach and other salad greens; plus peas, radishes, onions and potatoes can also be planted at this time.

In early spring, approximately two weeks prior to the last average frost date in your area, it’s safe to plant lettuce, beets, carrots, radishes, dill, cilantro, cabbage, broccoli, celery, kale and potatoes outdoors. Both lettuce and celery seeds need light to germinate. Be careful to only cover these varieties of seeds lightly with soil during the planting process. Directly sow carrot, radish, dill and cilantro seeds. Transplanting is not recommended for these types of vegetables and herbs. 

Do not directly sow peppers, tomatoes or eggplant into your garden. Start peppers indoor approximately eight weeks before transplanting them outdoors. Remove any buds that appear on your pepper seedlings before transplanting them to ensure that the root system has grown large enough to support a pepper crop. 

Start tomatoes indoors about six to seven weeks prior to moving them into your garden. Start cucumbers and melons indoors in cooler regions for a better yield, but transplant them gently because their roots do not like to be disturbed. Melons are heat loving plants. If you garden in a northern region, you may need to use plastic mulch or row covers to provide enough warmth to produce melons. 

After the Last Frost

After the last average frost date, it is safe to plant beans, corn, melons, cucumbers, squash (summer and winter), tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, eggplant and basil. Remember to check the predicted low temperatures in your local extended forecast before planting your frost susceptible plants outside. The local last average frost date is based on the average last predicted frost and is not an absolute date. 

Below are some combinations of plants that complement each other. I compiled this list from Organic Gardening.

• Cabbage and dill: "Dill is a great companion for cabbage family plants, such as broccoli and brussels sprouts," Cunningham says. "The cabbages support the floppy dill," while the dill attracts the tiny beneficial wasps that control imported cabbageworms and other cabbage pests.
• Corn and beans: The beans attract beneficial insects that prey on corn pests such as leafhoppers, fall armyworms and leaf beetles. And bean vines climb up the corn stalks.
• Lettuce and tall flowers: Nicotiana (flowering tobacco) and cleome (spider flower) give lettuce the light shade it grows best in.
• Radishes and spinach: Planting radishes among yor spinach will draw leafminers away from the spinach. The damage the leafminers do to radish leaves doesn't prevent the radishes from growing nicely underground.
• Potatoes and sweet alyssum: The sweet alyssum has tiny flowers that attract delicate beneficial insects, such as predatory wasps. Plant sweet alyssum alongside bushy crops like potatoes, or let it spread to form a living ground cover under arching plants like broccoli. Bonus: The alyssum's sweet fragrance will scent your garden all summer.
• Cauliflower and dwarf zinnias: The nectar from the dwarf zinnias lures ladybugs and otherpredators that help protect cauliflower.
• Collards and catnip: Studies have found that planting catnip alongside collards reduces flea-beetle damage on the collards.
• Strawberries and love-in-a-mist: Tall, blue-flowered "love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) looks wonderful planted in the center of a wide row of strawberries," Cunningham says.
• Marigolds and Melons. Certain marigold varieties control nematodes in the roots of melon as effectively as chemical treatments.
• Tomatoes and cabbage: Tomatoes are repellent to diamondback moth larvae, which are caterpillars that chew large holes in cabbage leaves.
• Cucumbers and nasturtiums: The nasturtium's vining stems make them a great companion rambling among your growing cucumbers and squash plants, suggests Sally Jean Cunningham, master gardener and author of Great Garden Companions. Nasturtiums "are reputed to repel cucumber beetles, but I depend on them more as habitat for predatory insects," such as spiders and ground beetles.

Other compatible combinations include tomatoes, basil, and onions; leaf lettuce and peas or brassicas; carrots, onions, and radishes; and beets and celery.

Are you excited to start your spring planting?

This post was shared at: Wildcrafting Wednesday, Healthy 2day, Your Green Resource, Domestically Divine Tuesdays