Chocolate Chip Cookies (clean!)

Here it is, springtime in CO. That means snow...and lots of it. Sooo, while we were stuck inside last Saturday while it was blizzard-ing outside (the rest of the week is supposed to be in the 60's ha!), I decided to make cookies! I was a little nervous while making these because I didn't use any sort of recipe as a backbone, I just went with it....and it turned out awesome! Here it is :

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Ingredients:
1 cup Almond Flour
3 TBSP Oat Flour*
1 cup Applesauce
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1 TBSP (maybe a little less) Cinnamon
1 Egg
1 cup Almond Milk
1 TBSP Cornstarch
3 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Almond Butter
2 tsp Vanilla
-feel free to add a little honey if you'd like!

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix all dry ingredients (except the choc. chips) in one bowl and all wet ingredients in the other. *For the oat flour, just blend up 3 TBSP's of oats to make the flour... no need to go out and buy it!
     **Whisk all the wet ingredients together and let sit to room temperature while you microwave your butter (10-15 sec at a time-you don't want to burn it!), then slowly whisk the butter in
3. Whisk the two bowls together slowly so you avoid chunks of dry ingredients
4. Gently fold in chocolate chips
5. Line baking pan with parchment paper and spoon cookie dough onto pan in however big of cookies you want. These will not spread much, so you can put them pretty close together
6. Bake at 350 for 20-22 min or until edges are a nice golden brown.

These come out so yummy for a clean cookie! No added sugars, not nearly as much butter as normal choc chip cookies call for AND no flour...Can you say Gluten Free? *Cornstarch is key! Do not forget this ingredient!!!!

Cilantro Lime Sauce

Cilantro Lime Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of Cilantro
2 Limes
1 small can of diced Green Chiles
1/4-1/3 cup of plain Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup of olive oil

Directions:
1. Chop cilantro and add into food processor
2. Add the juice of your two limes
3. Toss in the rest of your ingredients and blend untill desired consistency!

This sauce is FANTASTIC with a serving of the Mexican Stew and half an avocado! The following picture doesn't do it justice-I was to excited to eat it that I forgot to take a picture of it when it still looked pretty!

Mexican Stew

Mexican Stew

Ingredients:
Top Sirloin (or whatever cut you have on hand)
2 Yellow Onions
2 Sweet Potatoes
2 Cans of Beef Broth
4 Cloves of Garlic
Cumin
Paprika
Black Pepper

Directions:
1. Dice your meat into bite-sized pieces and brown on medium heat. You do not have to cook the meat all the way through (it will finish cooking in the soup), just brown on both sides for a few minutes
2. While meat is browning, chop up your sweet potatoes and onions into whatever size you'd like. I chopped mine into bigger pieces so the stew was a bit more chunky
3. Mince garlic
4. Grab a large soup pot and put both cans of beef broth in. Then add in the browned meat, chopped sweet potatoes/onions, and minced garlic. This is where you'll add in your spices. I didn't put a specific amount of each spice because it's going to depend on how you want it to taste. I like things spicy, so I put quite a bit in of each...
5. Mix everything in and bring to a boil. Let boil for about 5 minutes, then turn down the heat, cover and let simmer for 2-2.5 hours. EASY PEEZY!
**HINT: eat with the following post ----->Cilantro Lime Sauce!!!!

Vindaloo

2 months. I'm so sorry! 2 months of no recipes!!!!!
The last 2 months have been absolutely nuts for me. There was Christmas and New Years, my husband was home for 10 days, AND I started a new job. I barely had time to cook for myself! But, now there's no time for excuses. Eating must get back on track!
This recipe was actually inspired by a chicken salad I had for lunch yesterday from King Sooper's deli (just had to clean it up a bit).

Vindaloo

Ingredients:

5-6 C of any Asian vegetable blend (I found mine in the frozen food section at Costco. There is a giant bag consisting of snap peas, mushrooms, broccoli, red peppers, carrots, and water chestnuts for $7!
4-5 small chicken breasts
1 C greek yogurt
1-2 heaping Tbsp of Vindaloo spice
Almonds (amt. -your choice)
Raisins (amt.-your choice)

Directions:

1.Season with a little black pepper and salt.
2.Bake chicken breasts at 375F for about an hour (if the juices run clear when you poke the chicken, it's done).
3. Heat veggies up in a large saute pan. While veggies are heating up, chop baked chicken into bite size pieces. When chopping is done, dump into veggie mix. Turn mixture to low-medium heat.
4. Add in the cup of greek yogurt and the tablespoons of Vindaloo spice. Mix thoroughly.
5. Add almonds and raisins to the mix. Add however much of each that you feel is right.... I probably add around a half cup of each
6. Bon Apetite!

Apple Pie Cookies

I was at work the other day, day-dreaming of not being at work and came up with these beauties. Does everyone else's work get crazy-busy during the holidays?! I guess people really have to medicate themselves to be around family. You wouldn't believe how much busier the pharmacy has gotten since Thanksgiving! At least it makes the days go by fast....

I sent my husband a little care package the other day, that included my granola and some cookies (including these....SPOILER ALERT Grady!). Isn't he a lucky guy?!

*These are pretty close to being fully paleo, the only "non-paleo" ingredient in these are the oats.

Apple Pie Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 C Applesauce (no-sugar added)
1/3-1/2 C Almond Butter
1 TBSP Cinnamon
1 Egg
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Granny Smith Apples
1/3-1/2 C chopped pecans
1/3 C Almond Flour
1/2 C Oats
8-10 Dates

Directions:

1. Soak dates in a bowl of water
2. Dice apples (skin on) into pretty small pieces and sautee over medium heat
3. Chop pecans and add to apple mix. Sprinkle about half your tbsp of Cinnamon over mix and cover. Sautee until apples are softened and pecans are fragant. 
4. While mixture is sautee-ing, mix all wet ingredients. Place all dry ingredients in seperate bowl and mix both bowls together until smooth. Keep in mind, these will not be completely "smooth" due to the oats, but just mix until you see fit.
5. Take soaked dates out of water and place them in food processor. Blend until the dates make a paste. Mix this into the apple/pecan mixture and take off heat.
6. Gently fold this into the cookie batter you've created
7. Place desired size of cookie onto lined baking sheet and bake at 350F for 14-17 minutes. These do not spread very much, so you can place them close together.
8. Apple Pie Cookies!!!

**These measurements are not exact, I bake with whatever I feel it needs at the time. The measurements I listed are pretty close to what I used. Use more or less of whatever you want!

Crockpot Chicken

I'm so so sorry for the lack of recipes! In between Thanksgiving, the gym and insanely busy times at work, I've barely had time to cook for myself!

I will make this post short and sweet, and the next post will be a bit more interesting!

Making your chicken in the crockpot is super easy, delicious, and a HUGE time saver. Who doesn't love cooking while you sleep?!

Ingredients:

1 can of chicken stock
1 package of chicken
water

Directions:

1. Turn Crockpot on the low setting. I adjust the timer for 8-9 hours.
2. Trim the fat and gross pieces off your chicken.
3. Pour can of chicken stock and equal part water into crockpot
4. Place chicken in and cover. 
5. Wake up to yummy, juicy chicken!

I do not season the chicken before only so I can make multiple dishes with this chicken. This chicken comes out super juicy and the recipe is pretty fool-proof. Gotta love it!

Paleo...Sandwich?

I am at a loss of what to call this one. You tell me the name and I'll change the title... Sound like a good deal?

This past weekend was ah-maaazzzz-ing! I got to go to San Angelo, Tx to visit my husband at Goodfellow AFB!!!! I haven't seen him since mid August and let me tell you, it was such a perfect weekend! It felt good to just be "us" again. We didn't do anything special, we just had a normal weekend together. We even hung out in the grocery store! HA! But, for those of you that know us, that's what we do and I couldn't dream of being anything else but "us." To Grady- I love you so much, thank you for being an amazing husband and being in the military. I never thought I would be a "military wife," but I love every bit of it! Everyone at home absolutely cannot wait for you to get your butt back here for Christmas!!!

I got home late Monday night and really didn't feel like going to the store, so I made another "kitchen sink" type of meal. Those can either be really awesome, or a major major fail. Lucky for you guys, this one ended up being really awesome!

Paleo....Sandwich? (<---- again, please help me rename this!)

Ingredients:
1lb ground meat (I had ground beef)
1 tomato
1 small can of tomato sauce (no sugar or salt added)
Lg. Handful of Spinach Leaves
2 Garlic Cloves (yes, April, FRESH garlic...aren't you proud?!)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp Coconut Flour
1/2 avocado

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Put meat and tomato sauce into mixing bowl
3. Chop up your spinach and mince that garlic... do a little dance while you're at it, then add to the ground beef
4. Mix above thoroughly, then add in 1 egg and your tbsp of Coconut Flour. These two will act as binding ingredients
5. Place mixture into meatloaf pan and bake in oven for roughly 40 min or until meat is cooked through. (Meatloaf should be between 160-165F when done)
6. Take meatloaf out of oven, let cool a bit and slice into desired sizes
7. Slice tomato and place two tomato slices (not stacked) onto plate. 
8. Add a meatloaf slice on top of the tomatoes
9. Place some spinach leaves on top of the meatloaf slice (optional, the picture doesn't have the extra spinach on it...oops!)
10. Fry your 2nd egg! I like mine to be a little runny still, but this part is up to you... Once your egg is done, place it on top of the spinach leaves
11. Last but not least, add your avocado and there you have it! Paleo Sandwich!