Chocolate Cloud Pie

Chocolate Cloud Pie

Printable Recipe

I will admit, I'm not a big fan of pie but I like to give diversity here so I thought I'd try and make a pie just for you. Don't you feel special now? Well, you should because when you make this, you'll thank me!

WARNING: This pie is made with dark chocolate chips and marshmellows. This is a very decadent pie!

Okay, now that I have your attention, let me tell you that it's a very simple recipe to do and only takes about 10 minutes to make. There is waiting time for it to cool down in between steps but overall it takes no time at all.

Ready?

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust (or you can buy the kind in the freezer section)

2cups mini marshmellows or 20 large marshmellows

1/2cup milk

2cups dark chocolate chips (or a 12oz. package)

1cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400degrees and poke holes in the bottom of the pie crust for ventilation. Bake the pie crust at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Please follow the directions on your pie crust if it's store bought. Cool on the counter for 20 minutes.

In a microwave-safe bowl, add the milk and marshmellows and cook approximately 5 minutes at 50% stirring every 30 seconds until melted.

Pour in the chocolate chips and stir until melted, which takes about 30-45 seconds. If they don't melt, pop back in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time.
Pour 1cup of the melted mixture into the cooled pie crust and spread out evenly then store in the fridge. Cool the remaining melted mixture on the counter to room temperature.

In a cooled mixing bowl, add 1cup heavy whipping cream and beat until peaks appear and it becomes light and fluffy.

Gradually mix in the remaining melted mixture until combined.

Pour on top of the chocolate layer in the pie crust and cover.

Refrigerate 4-6 hours or until well chilled.

Eat slowly and enjoy!

Ru's Paleo Muffins

Ru's Paleo Muffins

Printable Recipe

What's a "Ru", you ask? It's me! My middle name is Ruth and my sister hated calling me Angela so she tried "Angie" and mom hated that so she started calling me "Ruthie." Yah, I was that girl. That girl was super skinny, wore braces and had stringy dirty-blonde hair. "Ruthie" wasn't a good image for me and I'm thankful it was changed to "Ru" when we started playing softball for our church leage .. back in 'Nam. Now only my closest friends call me Ru and it's very strange hearing "Angela" because it's hardly used.. unless you're a telemarketer!

Anywho, I made the muffins on a whim the other day praying they'd turn out and they did! After a year or so of following recipes someone else has created, I've also been creative and made several of my own. Cooking is an art, and once you have the basics, you can go anywhere with food! I hope you try these Ru Muffins; and if you do, please let me know!

*These are grain free, dairy free and egg free!

Ingredients:

Makes 6 muffins

1/2cup almond meal/flour

1/4cup almond butter

pinch of salt

1/8tsp baking powder

1/2tsp vanilla

1/4cup chocolate chips

1Tbsp pure maple syrup

1Tbsp coconut milk, or water (aka H2O)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, add the almond meal and pulse. If you have almond flour, skip this step. Add everything in except the chocolate chips and pulse until combined. Add in the chocolate chips and fold in by hand.
Spray a muffin tin and add batter about 1/3 of the way, making sure there's enough left to make 6 muffins, or go crazy and fill 'er up. You're eating these, so do what you want with them :)
Bake approximately 10-13 minutes or until cooked through.

Cook about 2 minutes in the pan then make sure you cool on a cooling rack or the bottoms/sides will get mushy.

If you're going to store these, do so in an airtight container and refrigerate. These are best eaten on the day they're made but if you need to, refrigerate and pop them in the microwave for 5 seconds to reheat when ready to eat.

Eat and enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Printable Recipe

I was craving something sweet without it being unhealthy for me so I was google-ing my hands off trying to find a good cookie recipe. There are a ton of paleo cookies out there, but the pictures don't even look appetizing, so I click some more only to find crumbly looking pieces of "food" until I found one at Elana's Pantry. I do admit, hers still didn't look like a typical cookie, but when you remove wheat flour and add almond flour, it tends to be a different look and texture altogether.

I made two batches and found that if you pulse your almond meal (Because I buy Bob's Red Mill "meal/flour"), it becomes more fine in texture and it's less crumbly. If you don't have anywhere local to buy fine almond flour, just pulse it in the food processor or blender and you'll be set to have a good 'wanna-be' cookie.

My second batch, by far, was the best paleo cookie I've ever attempted and although I tweaked Elana's recipe to what I have on hand, it was paleo and pretty good and I didn't feel like a fatty for eating 5 at a time.

These have a tendency of melting in your mouth, so enjoy with a cup of coffee and a loved one and dive into a healthier version of chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients:

Serves 10-15 teaspoonful cookies

2cups almond flour, finely ground if you have almond meal

1/4tsp sea salt

1/2tsp baking soda

1/4cup coconut oil, do not melt it. Keep it in its hardened stage.

1Tbsp honey or pure maple syrup

1tsp vanilla extract

1 handful of chocolate chip mini's or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If you have almond meal, pulse it to make the texture more fine and then add everything else into the food processor combine thoroughly; adding the chocolate chips by hand. On a parchment-lined cookie sheet, add 1teaspoon-full sized cookie balls and lightly press down. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes and cool on the cookie sheet at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack or else the cookies will fall apart and crumble. These won't last too long, but if they do, store in an airtight container up to 3 days.

If you want to bake these another day, make your individual portions and place on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet (covered with tin foil or plastic wrap) and refrigerate up to 2 days or freeze, uncovered for 1 hour then transfer to an airtight freezer bag. When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator for 15 minutes then bake as suggested above. When ready to bake, remove from freezer and wait 1 hour to thaw and bake as suggested above.

These are so great because you can freely share these with your friends and family and not have one ounce of guilt!

Serve and enjoy! 

Vegetarian Lasagna, Primal or Paleo

Vegetarian Lasagna

Printable Recipe

My mother recently gave me two of her eggplants she was growing in her garden and I was really excited to try it. I am not the eggplant type but I told myself that I was going to make something good from this free gift! And guess what? It took 5 minutes to prepare, 20 minutes to bake and 1.5 meals to devour. I have no clue what goes into a typical vegetarian lasagna so if this isn't what you're expecting, you'll need to find another recipe. If this is something you think you'd like, give it a try. Truly easy to make and very delicious!

Don't these beauties look like squids? So cute!

*Note: If you are paleo, omit the cheese in this recipe. If you are primal and can tolerate cheese, add as much as you'd like. The quantity can be adjusted to what you'd like to make. I made a small pan of it so double for an 8x8 pan or triple the recipe for a 9x13.

Ingredients:

1cup sliced eggplant

1cup squash or zucchini

1/3cup shredded cheese

1/2-2/3cup spaghetti sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375degrees.

Grease a baking dish with butter or oil and place 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce on the bottom and spread to cover. Next, place one layer of eggplant and then one layer of squash and then 1/2 of the shredded cheese.

Repeat with spaghetti sauce, veggies, and cheese. In between each layer, add salt and pepper to taste.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and veggies have softened. Broil on low for 5 minutes if you'd like the cheese to brown up. Be careful not to burn the top layer.

Serve when cool enough.

Who says eating healthy has to be tasteless and boring? Not me!! All of this tasted amazing!

Eat and enjoy!



Simple Iced Coffee

Simple Iced Coffee

Printable Recipe

I don't know about you, but I'm guilty of going to the coffee shop and spending $2.00 on iced coffee. I could kick myself for not knowing how simple it is to make my own at home. I save tons of money doing it this way and it's always available to me, as long as I prepare the night before. A $7.00 bag of coffee grounds at the store will produce about 4 gallons of coffee. Not too shabby!

So, are you ready for these simple instructions? These are the recipes I love doing because I don't spend a ton of time doing anything!!!

Ingredients:

1cup ground coffee, whatever brand or flavor or strength. You choose

1 gallon of water

Directions:
Fill a 1 gallon jug with water and pour in 1 cup of coffee grounds. Stir. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight, or at least 8 hours. The next morning, or after 8 hours, simply strain the coffee grounds (and save for your compost heap) and pour into another gallon container. If you're strainer isn't fine enough, place a paper towel into the strainer and strain once more. This will catch all the fine grounds that passed through the first time.
This will last several weeks in the refrigerator. The "ingredients" can be tweaked to your liking so if you like a strong cup of joe, add 1.5cups coffee to your 1 gallon of water or if you like a weak version, add 3/4cup coffee grounds to 1 gallon of water. Make it yours!
You can also spruce it up by adding some honey, caramel sauce, or chocolate sauce when you serve a glass of it.

Serve with a ton of ice and heavy cream (or not) and enjoy!

Drink, slurp, sip, enjoy!

Easy Paleo Mousse

Easy Paleo Mousse

Printable Recipe

I've made one version of chocolate pudding but it wasn't nearly as yummy as this recipe is. I figured I'd give it a shot, try it out and if it didn't taste good then Oh well, I'd try something else.

This paleo mousse is delicious!

Very simple.

Two ingredients!

Ingredients:

1 can full fat coconut milk, using the cream only

1/4cup dark chocolate, melted

Directions:

Place unopened can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hours. The reason to do this is so the coconut cream rises to the top and the coconut water sinks to the bottom. In this recipe, we use the cream.

Once refrigerated, open the can and scoop out the cream into a bowl. Typically, the cream is 2/3 of the can. I save the water for smoothies so make sure you don't throw that away! Using a hand mixer, beat the coconut cream 3-5 minutes or until fluffy. Add 1/4cup melted chocolate and fold in to the cream mixture.

This is what happens when curious children come around photo time.

Refrigerate up to 5 days unless otherwise consumed! You can eat this by itself or you can put it on a muffin or dip fruit in it. It's delicious!

Eat and enjoy!