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Thursday 21 April 2016

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

Hello,


Today I bring a recipe for those who aren't on carb restriction like me, children in general (like David), nutritious and healthy snack lovers in general:

Pumpkin Apple Muffins!
 

Ingredients:

2 cups oat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 avocado, peeled and pitted, mashed

1 banana, mashed

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 apple, peeled and chopped
Crushed nuts

Baking...

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Put 16 cupcake wrappers in muffin tins or wherever you will use to bake;
2. In a big bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt;
3. In a separate medium-sized bowl add and mix: avocado, banana, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla;

4. When the "liquid" ingredients are smooth, add sugar and mix until almost all grains are dissolved;
5. Add the "liquid" mixture on the bowl with dry ingredients, stir until smooth then add the chopped apples folding them gently until are completely covered by the dough;
6. Fill muffin tins or silicon (what you are using) evenly possible, sprinkle with crushed nuts and bake it until when you put a toothpick and it get out clean. (here were 25 minutes, but my oven isn't a good one).

Take a look in those muffins when ready! Hmmmm

Muffin's inside vision: fluffy and very tasty!

And now, the PAY ATTENTION section:

* This is my version of this recipe here, Australian site called PopSugar;
* In the original recipe, she uses whole wheat flour, I switched to oat flour, to "decorate" I used pecans, I make a "crumbly" of various nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, etc.) and flaxseed. I switched and encourage you to feel free to use what you have at home!
* Still speaking of the "official" version, the recipe also have cinnamon (1 teaspoon), cloves (1/8 teaspoon) and nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon). I didn't use because David and I are allergic to cinnamon and we do not enjoyed very much the other ingredients (but again, feel free to use it!);
* You can use any kind of Pumpkin or a mix of what you have at home to make the puree, I used some parts of buttercup and butternut that I had at home. The result couldn't be better: veeeeeeeeeery tasty!
* Sugar, in principle, can be any kind, but if the purpose is to do something healthy and nutritious especially if children will be consuming, I do not recommend using white / refined versions. Substitutes such as organic raw sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, honey or molasses are more suitable;
* Talking about sugar, because of it, this recipe is recommended for ages 12 months and older. But if you don't add sugar and nuts that are allergenic, this muffin can be offered for children up to 9 months and older;
* The vanilla extract that I use is not that one that contains dyes, alcohol and nothing of vanilla actually. If there are concerns beyond the flavor, like the nutrients that are added, I really suggest you to try to switch for a more natural option available in your city.

And that's it for today! I hope you enjoyed this recipe, it takes some work to prepare the ingredients (for "do it" properly is super simple, you have to admit it...) but the result worth it!

Go ahead and do it, send me an email (danicorrado@gmail.com) and share your experience!

If you liked this post, please, click on like button right below in this post, leave a comment, share on your facebook, twitter and other social media you want. This interaction, this feedback is super important to me, makes all the difference in my work and how I can get better more and more!!!

Thursday 14 April 2016

Nutritional Education and Chocolate Cake to eat with no guilt!

Hello!

Today I came to share with you some changes that are happening in my life (my husband's life as well) and the follow recipe is a reflection of this:

Chocolate Cake to eat with no guilt!


The apparition of this cake here on the blog and in my life comes from a long situation... has life goals involved in this story... but the short version is that I never gave importance to these aesthetic things as weight, height, fat people, skinny people, tall, short... for me what really counts in this world, including myself, is what we have within us, our essence, our heart.

But happened a few things this year, specifically, that made me to look a little for myself, for my body to be exact. And my health didn't like much about what it saw. I think it's easy to see that I'm overweight, it would be naive of me to say that I never noticed. Of course I realized, I just didn't care. But now things are different... we are planning our second baby!!! Yay!!!

And can tell you, it makes all the difference! Now I need to improve, I need to be ready to receive, generate and gestate this gorgeous baby who we already love so much in our hearts. As I said, I never paid attention or "I've lost my time" with these "things of physical appearance", so of course never dieted in my life, nor I intend to start now. What I decided to do and I am following is a nutritional education to have a better life, that must be good, tasty and affordable to succeed with it for a long time.

How I am 30 kilos overweight it should have, I am in a "diet" called "ketogenic", where consumption of calories is very, very, very low in the early stages - around 800 calories per day. Remembering that I studied a lot to start this process, I talked with my GP, did tests, I went in a naturopath and soon I want to intensify the physical activities that I do (I walk something about 6 km per day Monday to Friday).

If you want to know more about the diet, I'll follow a really cool video, making it clear that not everyone can go through this process and it has to be done with monitoring, right?
I can say that this beginning although difficult, tiring ... is very effective in weight loss. It's not a "fight" against scales, but a way of using the way that the body works for be more healthier! I started this process seven days ago and with these changes 5 kg are gone. When this initial phases has passed, that loses about 80% of the weight, I'll stay on "paleo" diet.

Of course "ketogenic" and "paleo" are just names to identify the type of diet with low carbs intake, but has much more to do with nutrition than with nomenclature. Who wants to know more about it, I'll leave the Dr. Eric Westman talks more, one of the good videos that explains a lot about the subject:
And now ... to show you in this new beginning and  new learning times, that it is possible to eat well without harming health ... our recipe!

Chocolate cake less than 1g of calories per serving!

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tsp. stevia powder
2 tsp. cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. almond flour
2 Tbsp. coconut flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg

Baking...

1. Melt the butter in a small pan or in the microwave;
2. When is completely melted, add and stir the stevia and cocoa powder until smooth and without lumps;
3. Add flours, baking powder and vanilla extract, stir well until there are no lumps;
4. Place the egg, stir well and it's ready!!!!
5. Bake in a medium-high oven temperature (200 ° C) for 15 minutes or until put on a toothpick and when get out be clean!
I used mini muffin pan + 2 silicon and yielded 14 units.
Hmmmm
Nutritional table according to the website that published this recipe is:
That gives us less than 1g of calorie each little cake!!!
So delightful!!!!

Usually when it talk about "alternative flours" it is common have doubts about texture, flavor and consistency. But in this case you can do with no fear! Look how fluffy texture was inside:

PAY ATTENTION:

* The original recipe is from Ruled.me site specializing in keto recipes or recipes for the ketogenic diet. It is made in the microwave (I avoid using), and other ingredients that I replaced but no significant change in the composition;

* I do not put the step-by-step photos as usual because it is really very simple, just put all the ingredients together, stir and bake it. But if you want, the original recipe has very detailed photos, just click the link here and check;

* Because it is a recipe with very low calories, I do not recommend for children, only adults who actually are in weight loss and calorie reduction process.

And that is all folks!

xoxo

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Tuesday 5 April 2016

Weekly menu and David's progress

Hello!

Today I bring you our meals scheduled this week here at home, our menu!

I've given up the idea to explain the reasons for not having posted anything since last year, give up for blame myself for the delays and... what to do about it? I'm doing things as fast as I can. And keep going...

David is 3 years and almost 11 months, recently he started to eat alone (yay!!!), we are now "in full swing" in toilet training!!! I am also more than happy and proud to share that for more than a week David is sleeping alone in his own bedroom, since when we talk about the changes, we organized the little room the way he liked ... did not wake up no one time during the night, not called us or came to our bed, no one crying moments... I'm sharing this progress with you cause it's one thing before affect  David, we had to change in ourselves first, that we've done choosing positive discipline (respecting David's time before our desires, statistics... etc). Of course it's not easy, there are bad days, it takes a great willpower to not repeat the examples we have in memory, in our history ... but the result is worth the effort. Really does.
Take a look how our kid is! This photo we took a couple weeks ago in our trip to Wellington/NZ.

And of course... this is the menu of this week:


And that's it!

Love,

Dani

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