Gluten-free, Primal, Grain-free, Refined Sugar-free Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I got this recipe from Nourished and Nurtured, which, by the way, has some really great Primal/Paleo recipes.

I, of course, made this recipe my own for a couple reasons:

1. Until yesterday, we were operating under the knowledge that my older son had an egg allergy. Apparently he has grown out of it...at least according to the allergist's skin prick testing. (We're still introducing it slowly, regardless of what their testing says).
2. Eating raw eggs skeeves me.

Beware...this is a large volume of ingredients, so make sure your ice cream maker can handle it all.

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
makes 14 4oz servings (so about 7 cups)
*This recipe is refined sugar-free if you use chocolate chips without refined sugar in them*

3 cups of cold cream (the kind I use is from a local farm and has no carbs, sugars or protein)
1 cup cold whole milk (I use organic whole milk)
3/4 cup of forested raw honey (I have also used 1/2 honey, 1/2 organic maple sugar to cut down a bit on carbs)
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla; if you use organic, consider lessening the amount as I find it to be much stronger than non-organic)
1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips (I throw my Ghirardelli Double Chocolate chips in the food processor and they turn out perfectly for this recipe)
 The original recipe calls for 4 raw eggs yolks as well as 1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt. I explained the egg thing above; I leave out the salt b/c the one time I put it in that's all I could taste.

1. Chop up the chocolate chips in your food processor, making sure to stop before they dissolve into powder. 
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl, but not the chocolate chips.
3. According to the directions of your ice cream maker, add the mixture to your ice cream maker. I always add the chocolate chips at this point, but you can wait until the mixture has attained a more ice-cream like texture.

Enjoy your ice cream! 

Nutritional Info (assumes 1/2c forested raw organic honey and 1/4c organic maple sugar, as well as Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Chips):

Whole Batch:
Calories: 3550.5
Fat: 289.2g
Sat fat: 171.9g
Carbs: 265.4g
Sugars: 239.1g 
Protein: 17.2g


Per Serving:
Calories: 253.6
Fat: 20.7g
Sat fat: 12.3g
Carbs: 19g
Sugars: 17.1g
Protein: 1.2g

Primal Sugar Free Iced Chai Tea

I made this on a whim, and I'm glad I did! Chai tea has its own delicious spiciness, but pair it with cinnamon flavored stevia and all those flavors are taken to a whole new level.

Here's the recipe:
10 cups water
6 bags of Stash Decaf Chai
8 droppersful of SweetLeaf Cinnamon Liquid Stevia

1. Boil 10 cups of water.
2. When the water starts boiling, put all 6 bags of tea into the water and remove the pot from the burner. 
3. Let steep for 20 - 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, fill a gallon pitcher with ice.
5. Put in the liquid stevia.
6. When the tea bags are finished steeping, remove them from water and dispose of them; pour the hot tea into the pitcher.
7. Drink and enjoy!

Today has been...

stressful. And my eating shows it.

It has become painfully clear to me that when I get stressed I have very little will power, especially when there are chocolate chip cookies and cheese in the house.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I will strive to eat the things that I know will help me on my fat loss journey. What's so frustrating is that I'm getting in my own way. I know what to do, what to eat, how to exercise; and I was doing it very well. Somehow I've gotten a bit off track, and now I need to find my way back.

I know I can do it. I want to do it. I want to lose 15 pounds before my 40th birthday, which is in less than 2 months. I'd like to lose more, but I think 15 is reasonable.

I've stated my challenge to myself. Now to do it!

Primal Gluten Free, Cane Sugar Free, Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are DELICIOUS, once they cool. They are inspired by a recipe I found on a blog called Elana's Pantry.

Here is my recipe:

 
Primal, Gluten Free, Cane Sugar Free, Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 42 1 teaspoon cookies
 
2 cups almond flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup melted organic butter
2 tablespoons honey, raw or runny (I use raw organic honey)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I'm fond of Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli Double Chocolate chips)

Preheat 350 degree oven.

You can make this recipe in your food processor or in a bowl...either way works just fine.

Throw all ingredients in a bowl (or your food processor - except chips if using processor) and mix until dough forms. (If you use a food processor, once the dough forms, hand mix your chocolate chips in).

Scoop dough either 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon at a time onto a non-stick cookie sheet. I favor the 1 teaspoon method as you get more and smaller cookies.

Bake 6-8 minutes. These cookies shouldn't darken much from baking. If they do, you've probably cooked them for too long. In fact, the ones in the photo above were baked too long! ;)

IMPORTANT: these cookies really do need to cool on the cookie sheet for about 15 minutes before you move them. Also, I've found that they taste best after they've cooled.

Enjoy!

Nutritional breakdown per cookie* (this recipe makes about 42):
calories: 37.74
fat: 3.12g
sat fat: 1.21g
carbs: 2.69g
sugar: 1.93g
protein: .71g

*your nutritional breakdown may be different, depending on the ingredients you choose to use in your recipe; please use mine as a guideline

The Best (Gluten-free, cane sugar-free) Primal Banana Nut Muffins. EVAH.

These muffins are soooooo good!

Recipe makes about 18 regular sized muffins):
3c almond flour (I make my own by buying blanched, slivered almonds from Whole Foods, then grind them in my coffee bean grinder)
1 1/2c smooshed bananas (I find that 4 bananas work well)
2t baking powder
2t baking soda
3 eggs
6T full fat sour cream
1/3c organic maple sugar (I get mine from Trader Joe's)
1/3c xylitol
2t pure vanilla extract (slightly less if using organic, as it tends to be strong)
1/4t salt
1c chopped/ground walnuts (I threw them in the grinder too)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease regular sized muffin pans with coconut oil.

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Put 1/4c of batter into each muffin cup. Cook 20-25 minutes until the muffin is brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutritional info:

For the whole batch:
Calories: 4673 
Fat: 345g
Sat Fat: 87g
Carbs: 326g
Sugar: 138g
Protein: 128g

Per muffin:
Calories: 259.6
Fat: 19.2g
Sat Fat: 4.8g
Carbs: 18.1g
Sugar: 7.7g
Protein: 7.1g 

Primal Sugar Free Sweetened Peach Iced Tea

10 cups of boiling water

4 family size tea bags (I use Tetley tea bags. I tried Lipton, but they tasted bitter to me)

2 fruit flavored tea bags (I love Celestial Seasoning’s raspberry zinger and peach tea)

1.5 – 2 teaspoons liquid stevia (I use Whole Foods brand)

Boil the water. Once it boils, put all 6 teabags in the water and remove from heat. Let the family size teabags steep for 3 minutes, then remove. Leave the fruit flavored teabags in the water for an additional 2 minutes, then remove.

Fill a gallon pitcher with ice and pour the tea from the pot into the pitcher. Add 1.5 – 2 teaspoons of liquid stevia. Mix.

Cane sugar-free Primal Ice Cream

I've been wanting to make some chocolate ice cream ever since I made the strawberry ice cream last week...and tonight I got my chance.

I based my ice cream loosely on this recipe from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. Their version is dairy-free...mine is not.

Here's mine:
1 cup cold coconut milk (the kind in the can with all the good fat and hardly any carbs)
1 1/2 cups cold cream (like heavy whipping cream type stuff)
3T Hershey's Cocoa
1.5t Vanilla Extract
1/4c Xylitol (I use XyloSweet)
handful of slivered almonds
a few drops of unflavored liquid stevia (I'm currently using the Whole Foods brand)

Mix all the ingredients except almonds in a bowl. Make the ice cream according to your ice cream maker's directions. At least with my ice cream maker, you wait to put stuff like almonds in at the end. You really have to watch the ice cream maker because it "ice creams up" very quickly. It took less than 15 minutes for this batch.

Makes about 6 4oz servings.

The ice cream is not super sweet, but it's sweet enough to tickle your taste buds and make them happy. :D

I store my homemade ice cream in 4oz glass canning jars with plastic lids in the freezer.

Nutritional breakdown based on my calculations:
 Whole batch: 
Calories: 2021
Fat: 196.5g
Sat fat: 114g
Carbs: 77g
Sugar: 6g
Protein: 12g

1 ~4oz serving:
Calories: 337
Fat: 33g
Sat fat: 19g
Carbs: 13g
Sugar: 1g
Protein: 2g