Paleo Cut Out (Sugar) Cookies

As promised I am sharing my new Paleo cookie recipe I have been working on. It took a few practice batches for me to get the cookies the right texture and taste. They are not as sweet as regular sugar cookies. The almond flour gives these cookies a semi sweet nutty taste.

Paleo Cut Out Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Cups Almond Meal Flour

1/4 Cup Coconut Oil

1/8 Cup Raw Honey or Maple Syrup

1/8 Cup Coconut Sugar ( or other sweetener such as honey or mayple syrup)

1 Egg

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp Sea Salt

1/4 Tsp Vanilla

Arrowroot Flour as needed.

Preheat oven to 350F. Warm honey and coconut oil in a double boiler. In a medium bowl add the melted honey, coconut oil, egg, and vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl mix together almond flour, baking soda and sea salt  Combine the dry and wet ingredients together mixing well. If the dough is very wet add a little arrowroot flour until the dough forms a wet ball. The dough will be wet and a little sticky. This is the character of almond meal. It does not absorb moister as well as wheat flour. Wrap the dough in cling wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 min. Once the dough has become firm it will roll easily. Roll the dough between two sheets of cling wrap or parchment paper. Then cut with desired cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 10 min. until edges are lightly browned.  I used small cookie cutters and got 20 cookies. 

This is a batch I made in my crock pot. You can read about Crock Pot Cookies here. Have you whipped up any special or healthy recipes lately?

Facez by Scrubz

I have been so excited to review this new facial sugar scrub. With winter right around the corner I know my face will start to get dry. I have very sensitive skin and heat tends to dry my skin. I get these patches of dead skin building up on my forehead. I have to be careful of the products I use on my face. I can easily get an allergic reaction that can be long lasting.
When I read about the product Facez I knew this might be the answer to my dry skin problems. Facez is an all natural unscented facial scrub. It is made with natural sucrose, canola oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, aloe vera oil, coconut-supreme oil, soybean oil, and vitamin e oil.

The package says it cleans, exfoliates, smooths and moisturizes. I was a little worried that with all the oils in the scrub it would leave my face with a greasy feel. Well, I have good news. Facez leaves my skin feeling fresh, soft and clean with no greasy feeling. I really like how it cleans deeply and leaves my skin feeling like a just had a facial at the salon.
Scrubz has an entire line of natural skin care products. A few of their products are Scrubz natural sugar scrub, Handz hand scrub, Scrubblez kids scrub, and Oilz massage & moisturizing oil.
Scrubz is also known for its great charity donations. Their scents program donates a percentage of select scents to popular charities. You can read more about their charity work here.
 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

No More Diet Coke For Me!

I have been working on getting my family healthier for a long while now. It all started back about five or six years ago. My daughter in law and I joined Weight Watchers while her husband(my son) was deployed in Iraq. We both stopped drinking regular sodas and started drinking diet coke. We also stopped eating out. Our families benefited for having more fresh home cooked meals. We both did very well on our diets. I lost well over 40 lbs. and I know my daughter in law came near loosing 40 lbs. Thinking back I would have done one thing different. I would have stopped the soda and never started drinking the diet soda.
Just recently I started removing refined sugars from our home. I want my grandchildren to be healthy. With all the processed foods in the market it is so easy to just grab a package of something and cook up a meal in minutes. I started looking at all the packaged foods we have in our pantry. I saw lots of corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors. Not to mentions lots of other ingredients I can not even pronounce.
So we are now slowly cleaning up our diet and looking for ways to become healthier. The first step for myself was to stop drinking diet coke. I have tried to cut back slowly multiple times. This has never worked for me. After several tries at cutting back I decided to just stop completely.
Now I have not had a diet coke in four days! Yes it has only been four days. You might not see that as a big deal. But for me this is a big leap in the right direction. I can not begin to describe what the last four days have been like. I expected to get a headache the first day. When evening came I thought wow no headache I can not believe how easy this was. Wrong, oh so wrong. Four am day two I woke with nausea and a headache I have never felt before. I was sick, sick, and more sick. I got to the point I thought I would just throw in the towel and have a diet coke. I have to give credit to an awesome and loving husband who helped me stay strong and keep moving in the right direction. I actually still have half a case of diet coke in the pantry. Any suggestions on what to do with that left over diet coke would be welcome. I sure don't want to waste it or give it to my family. Now I am at day four. I am feeling a little better. I still have a lingering headache but my nausea has passed. I am thirsty as ever even though I have been drinking 6 to 7 bottles of water a day. I am also drinking a little juice and tea. I have an appointment to get a blood test in a few days. I wanted to make sure I am moving in the right direction and keeping my blood sugar levels in good order.
Once we have removed all the obvious sugars in our diet we will start working on hidden sugars and carbohydrates. I think my family has a long path ahead but we will be working on this as a family so we are bound to succeed.  Are you doing anything to improve your health or family diet?
 

Sweet & Sour Chicken With Out Sugar

I started out today planning to cook up some homemade ketchup. As I was collecting the fixings I realised I had the fixings to make a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe I had been thinking about.

My tray of ketchup fixings.

I actually think the word ketchup is what made me decide on Sweet and Sour Chicken. For the past few weeks I have come across a couple recipes for Sweet and Sour Chicken while browsing online. Each time I saw the ingredients lists I thought how simple the recipe could be if a little thought was put into the breakdown of the ingredients. Most of the recipes called for a type of vinegar. You can use white vinegar, apple cider vinegar of wine vinegar. Each recipe called for sugar. With my new pledge to reduce our sugar intake I figure any sweetener can be substituted. Each recipe called for different seasonings. I used what I had and liked.  I also added a couple extra ingredients to suit my families taste. I hope you are inspired to try this recipe. 

First off I want to talk about the sweetener I used in my recipe. I replaced refined white sugar with PreSweet Tagatose from NuNaturals. PreSweet Tagatose is a naturally occurring sweetener found in milk, fruits and vegetables. It is lactose free, gluten free and will not raise blood sugar levels.

1 Tsp serving of PreSweet Tagatose = 1 Tsp of sugar. 

Recipe: Sweet & Sour Chicken 

Ingredients:

3 large boneless chicken breasts (I deboned my own)

½ cup cornstarch

2 beaten eggs

olive oil

Salt, pepper, garlic powder or other seasoning

1 green or red bell pepper

1 yellow onion

½ cup apple cider vinegar

5 Tbsp ketchup   

1 fresh squeezed lemon

½ cup PreSweet Tagatose

1 tsp garlic powder

 

Chop onions and green peppers and sauté in a small amount of olive oil. Then set aside. Cut chicken breasts into small cubes. Bite sized pieces are best. Add oil to heated skillet. Season the chicken pieces to your taste. Toss chicken pieces in cornstarch and dip in egg. Fry coated chicken in the skillet until golden brown.

Combine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, garlic powder and sweetener in a medium bowl blend well. While making the sauce you should carefully add the ingredients to your taste. If you would like a more sour taste use more vinegar or lemon. For a sweeter taste use less vinegar and a little more sweetener.

Place the chicken back into the skillet. Then add the sautéed onions and peppers. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover and simmer on very low until the chicken is done and the sauce is thickened and bubbly. Serve over white rice.

 I hope you enjoy this recipe. If you recreate this recipe I would love to hear how it turns out. 

Disclaimer: I received the above mentioned product from NuNaturals. The product was used to facilitate the creation of a sugar free recipe. No monetary compensation was received.