Chocolate Covered Nuts with Sea Salt

October 30, 2011

Yinh Desserts, Side dishes, Snacks 1 Comment

Happy Halloween to my favorite cavemen!  Recently, my husband was craving something sweet and specifically – chocolate.  I didn’t have much time (or ingredients) but whipped up this really tasty paleo candy to satisfy his cravings.  It’s one of the most simple recipes ever! I’ll probably make a better batch and be more creative this winter once the weather gets worse, but this was a fun experiment that turned out really well.  I wouldn’t necessarily give this to the neighborhood kids on Halloween night, but it’s good for the primal trick or treaters!

Ingredients
3.5 oz Unsweetened Dark Chocolate
1 cup orange juice
2/3 cup honey
Course Sea Salt
5oz Nuts of your choice

Directions
In a small sauce pan, heat the orange juice on medium heat. As it starts to simmer, reduce heat to low and add the chocolate. It should take a few minutes for the chocolate to completely melt, but once it has, slowly pour in the honey while stirring the melted chocolate.

Once the honey, chocolate and orange juice are mixed thoroughly, give it a taste. (My husband has been paleo for a year and a half so I knew this combination would be good for him because he hasn’t had sweet things outside of fruit in a really long time! For others, it may still be too bitter and you can add more honey or orange juice here.)  Now the fun part!

Take the nuts of your choice (I used pecans and cashews because that’s all we had at home but next time will add macadamia nuts and almonds) and drop them in the chocolate.  Mix the nuts around until they are fully coated and then scoop each one out with a fork and place on parchment paper.  Sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on each nut – trust me it’s worth it. The salt is the best thing about this recipe and adds a surprising and savory aspect to make it feel like you’re eating real (paleo) candy!

Put in the refrigerator and let cool. Once the chocolate has hardened a bit in the refrigerator – gobble them up! Hope you enjoy this treat for Halloween.

 

 

 

Pear Coconut Cobbler with Walnuts

June 20, 2011

Yinh Desserts, Snacks 2 Comments

This dish is very simple to make but great for that sweet tooth fix that my husband craves. Feel free to add raisins or apples or anything else to it. Most likely I’ll make several versions of this to see what works best but for now – I’ll keep it simple!

Ingredients
Makes 3-4 servings
3 pears, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, mix your sliced pears, coconut flour, shredded coconut, cinnamon and almond extract together. Then, in a separate small bowl, mix the honey and chopped walnuts together. 

In a medium sized baking dish, spray the bottom of the dish with your favorite cooking spray (sometimes I brush with a bit of walnut oil instead).  Add the pears to the dish and sprinkle the walnut honey mixture on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  You can serve hot or cold! Enjoy!

Mango Kiwi Fruit Salad

May 31, 2011

Yinh Desserts, Side dishes, Snacks 2 Comments

Happy One Year Anniversary to Cavemen Gourmet! Thank you for all of the support and positive comments. Hopefully I can make more time this year to post more delicious paleo recipes!

I recently came back from London on a work trip and was inspired to make this dish. After a heavy meal I had at a work dinner, I decided to get something light for dessert and opted for a mango kiwi tart. I was amazed that it was just a bowl of the fruits mixed up and surprised that the simplicity of the two could be so delicious.  Although it’s technically just fruit salad, this dish is an amazing combination of flavors and textures.  You can easily make this dish by sloppily chopping up kiwi and mango in 2 seconds. But something about dicing it ever so finely into tiny squares and the combination of sweet and sour makes this a perfect dessert ‘pudding’. The marriage of kiwi and mango flavors is surprisingly balanced and also provides a pudding-like texture after you mix the two thoroughly. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do!

 

Ingredients
Makes 3-4 servings
6 kiwis
2 mangoes

Directions
Peel both fruit with a sharp paring knife.  Cut each fruit into small cubes (think the size of tomatoes in salsa). Mix thoroughly and put in refrigerator before serving. Best served chilled….enjoy the taste of summer!

Note: this is also delicious if you add some coconut flakes or chips.  Reminds me of a tropical vacation!

Blueberry muffins

March 20, 2011

Yinh Breakfast, Desserts, Snacks 10 Comments

I used to love fruit pre-paleo. It was there and nice in theory but I would always go for some candy or junk food snacks when grocery shopping to fix any sweet cravings I had. Now with a paleo household, I feel that fruit is the foundation for delicious desserts.  I buy more fruits and vegetables than ever before and am amazed at how much they change a dish instantly.  This recipe was inspired by my sister during a recent road trip to Lake Placid  (hat tip Lauren).  When my husband craves a dessert and/or snack, this is one of the easiest recipes that I whip up to give him.  It’s delicious even for non-paleo diners!! Just be careful not to eat too many, else you start looking like a blueberry…

Ingredients
Makes 36 mini muffins
1 cup coconut flour
12 eggs
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup grapeseed oil
2 cups frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together with  a whisk – do not add the blueberries until you have a smooth batter. Once your mixture is creamy smooth without any lumps, add in your blueberries and slowly mix.

Pour the batter into muffin tins (I only have mini-muffin pans but use whatever you want!). Bake in the oven for 25 minutes (my husband likes them a bit on the moist side so I take them out of the oven a little beforehand).

These are great for breakfast, dessert or just a snack. Serve and enjoy!

Chia Pudding

July 20, 2010

Yinh Desserts 7 Comments

I’m sure you’ve heard of chia seeds from the famous chia pet ads many many years ago.  Ch-ch-ch-chia! But did you know that chia seeds are a superfood?!  They are an excellent source of Omega 3s, Omega 6s, fiber, and calcium. One tablespoon of chia seeds is similar to taking a fish oil supplement!

For those who have never used chia seeds before, they are smaller than sesame seeds.  Similar to flax seeds, they are extremely good for you but be careful – when eaten raw they act slightly as a laxative given how high in fiber they are.  You can sprinkle some raw seeds over your yogurt or salads to add some good fats.  But the best thing about them (other than being super nutritious and very good for you) is that they can soak up more than 10x their weight in water!!  The longer you allow the seed to soak up water, the more gelatinous they become.

So what does that mean? Paleo pudding!!  I’ve included 3 recipes below to show how versatile chia seeds are.  The texture and consistency will be similar to tapioca or rice pudding if you put less water (like the chocolate and vanilla pudding below). The more water you put, the less thick it will be (and soup-y like my Chia Fruit Fresca on the left in the picture).  Chia is generally flavorless so it will absorb any liquid’s flavor for the most part. Try out any other flavors you want for our favorite pudding!  My husband’s favorite is the paleo chocolate pudding. The great thing is that the ‘cooking’ part of this recipe is ridiculously easy and just involves mixing, so try it with your kids. They’ll love this recipe as a science experiment!


INGREDIENTS

Chia Chocolate Pudding
Makes 2 servings
1/4 cup chia seeds
3/4 cup almond milk (you can use water or regular milk as well)
2 tablespoons of  cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of honey (optional)

Chia Vanilla Pudding
Makes 2 servings
1/2  cup chia seeds
2 cups almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 dashes of cinnamon (to taste)

Chia Fruit Fresca
Makes 6 servings
1/2 cup of chia seeds
4 cups of water
1 cup of pineapple slices
1 cup of lychee fruit
 

Directions
Combine ingredients in a bowl.  Stir very well for about 5 minutes until all of the chia seeds are covered and coated in your ingredients. Cover and set in refrigerator for 20 minutes.  (You can leave in the fridge for as long as you want. The pudding will just get thicker as the time goes by).  Serve and enjoy!

Key Lime Pie

July 11, 2010

Yinh Desserts 5 Comments

My husband’s birthday is coming up and I needed to have something round to put a candle in to celebrate his escape from the womb so many years ago. Since I’ve been getting more dessert recipe requests, I figured I would try to make some pies for his birthday.  This paleo key lime pie recipe is rich, creamy and refreshing.  I didn’t bother using key limes because I was lazy and just bought normal limes at the store. But nobody would like the sound of Normal Lime Pie so I threw in the clutch ‘Key’ word. Don’t be mad at me.  The birthday boy gave it a big thumbs up so I’m happy. I’ll work on more but in the meantime – enjoy!
Ingredients
Crust
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cups marcona almond flour
1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
5 pitted dates
Filling
1.5 avocados
3 eggs
2/3 cup lime juice (it took me 8 small limes to do this)
1/2 tablespoon lime zest (this was one lime for me)
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2.5 tablespoons honey (to taste)
Directions
Preheat oven 350 degrees

To make the crust, put the nut flours, coconut oil and pitted dates in a blender. After a couple of minutes, the mixture should look like the texture of a graham cracker crust.  Take a 9 inch pie tin and line it with the crust mixture.  It should be sticky enough to work with and will mold in the pie tin very easily.  Put in the oven for 10 minutes and then take out to cool.

To make the filling, mix everything together in a blender. (It took me awhile to juice the limes but was a great arm and hand workout because I don’t have a juicer.)  After a few minutes in the blender, the mixture should be a thick, smooth gravy consistency.  Taste the blended mixture to see if you like the flavor. I’m sure some of you will like it more sweet but my husband doesn’t like too much honey so I refrained.  Pour the batter into your pie crust.  Set in the oven for 15 minutes and then take out to cool.  Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Best serve chilled.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Muffins

June 25, 2010

Yinh Breakfast, Desserts, Side dishes 4 Comments

When life gives you zucchini, you make zucchini-ade! Ok fine – bad joke. 

This week, my local CSA gave me zucchini and I didn’t have time to cook it for a meal but wanted to use it before it spoiled.  So I figured – when in doubt – make muffins.  With this recipe, you can use green zucchini or yellow summer squash, as the two have similar tastes and textures.  

While I’m still reading about honey and agave sweeteners, I chose not to use either of them for this recipe.  Although some argue that honey and agave nectar fall under the paleo-approved category, the jury is still out in my mind. A few articles I’ve read say that agave is really just high frustose syrup in disguise and not truly paleo because of how highly refined it must be before we consume it.  And others argue that honey is acceptable in small doses. While I continue to do more reading, I wanted to make muffins that my anti-honey/anti-agave husband would eat so I used dates as a sweetener instead.  These muffins turned out great (and tastes like moist bran muffins - so don’t expect something very sweet).  I’ll experiment with other key ingredients but figured to maximize what’s in my fridge.  This recipe would also be great with pureed pumpkin when they’re in season to add that nice natural sweet taste. Stay tuned!

Ingredients
Makes 30 mini-muffins
6 eggs
2 cups zucchini (shredded)
2/3 cups pitted dates (approximately 9 dates)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon apple butter
3 cups almond flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Separate egg whites and yolks and set aside. Take your raw zucchini and shred them. For 2 cups worth – I used 4 small/medium sized zucchini.  Put shredded zucchini in a strainer and press or squeeze with hands to get excess liquid out. (Alternatively you can use paper towels but I find there’s so much liquid that you’re using too many paper towels and it’s a bit wasteful.) 

Blend the dates until you get a finely chopped mixture.  In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, dates, cinnamon and apple butter. Once those are evenly mixed, add the zucchini and almond flour and hand mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Take your room temperature egg whites and put in a VERY dry bowl. I’m not kidding – not a drop of liquid or oil or yolk because it will interfere with the process of creating air bubbles in the egg whites.  The egg whites will expand better at room temperature so you will get bigger volume from them.

With a mixer, whisk on high until a soft peak forms and the egg whites are not liquidy.  (I tried using a hand whisk but this took forever and I felt it was a harder workout then Fight Gone Bad so to make it easier and faster – use a mixer.) Once you have a Cool Whip type of texture, fold the egg whites into the zucchini/flour batter.  I do this slowly – one cup at a time so that the egg foam air bubbles are incorporated throughout the batter.

When you are done folding all of the egg whites and batter together, spoon the mixture into mini muffin pans. Bake for 30 minutes (you can always do the toothpick test to see if it comes out clean when you poke it in the center). Serve warm or at room temperature.

You might be wondering why separate the egg whites and yolks in the first place. When baking, especially for paleo recipes, you’ll need a leavening agent since baking soda and baking powder are not truly paleo. Beaten egg whites substitute as your leavening agent to make the dough rise slightly. If you didn’t do this, that’s fine too but the muffins will be a bit more dense and less ‘fluffy’. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Bread

June 12, 2010

Yinh Appetizers, Desserts 1 Comment

Paleo and Banana Nut Bread – together as one? I know what you’re saying.  Surely you can’t be serious.

I am serious and don’t call me Shirley.  BOOM!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
3 tablespoons apple butter
2 eggs
2 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mash 2 ripe bananas with a fork and set aside.  Mix together almond flour, coconut flour and chopped walnuts.  Add apple butter, water, eggs and bananas and mix thoroughly.  (Apple butter is great – no sugar added – just natural apples! I love it as a great natural sweetener.) Pour the batter into a 1.5 quart loaf dish.  Place in oven for one hour.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Dipped Cherries

June 10, 2010

Yinh Appetizers, Desserts Leave a comment

Raw cocoa is an amazing superfood with some of the highest antioxidants of all the natural foods in the world.  Does that mean you can go out eating all of the chocolate you want? Negative ghost rider – the pattern is full. 

Commercial chocolate has several additives including sugar, soy lecithin, corn syrup, and more sugar.  Unfortunately, things that are definitely not paleo. If you’ve ever tried eating an unsweetened cacao bar, you can see why chocolatiers do not use cacao in it’s rarest form – it’s as bitter as a housewife from Orange County. 

After experimenting with some recipes, I found that infusing cacao with some natural sweeteners, compliments of Mother Nature, you can get a great chocolate taste that is paleo friendly.  In this recipe, I infused the cacao with cherry juice and a pitted date to create a sweet and delicious chocolate dipped cherry.

They’re not exactly the bon bons that Peggy Bundy would be popping while watching Oprah, but this is the closest thing to a paleo cherry cordial as you might get.   It’s one of my favorite snacks to kick that sweet tooth.  Now You Got Your Cherry Bomb!

Ingredients
Makes approximately 45 pieces
4 cups of cherries
3 oz chocolate  (100% cacao unsweetened bar)
1 date (pitted)

Directions
Using a cherry pitter, take out all of the pits of your cherries.  In a blender, add the pitted date and 1 cup of pitted cherries and blend until you have a liquid juice.  Set aside.

Place the cacao bar in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly until the chocolate is fully melted.  (The chocolate will melt faster if broken up into smaller pieces.)  Once the chocolate is smooth, pour in the cherry juice mixture and stir on low heat.

Take your pitted cherries and dip them in the chocolate mixture, fully coating each cherry.  (I like to eat cherries without worrying about the stems and seeds. But for ease of dipping, feel free to use cherries with the pits and stems attached.) Place on a parchment paper lined tray and put in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Jelly Cups

June 6, 2010

Yinh Desserts 5 Comments

It’s peanut butter jelly time! Where ya at? Where ya at? Where ya at? Where ya at?

So as you may already know (which I didn’t until 2010), peanuts are not actually nuts. They’re legumes. And we all know what paleo eaters think about legumes. (As Borat would say – nish nish.)  This is my version of a primal peanut butter and jelly bite sized snack.  Although there is no baseball bat, I think Borat would definitely give this a paleo approved Ach-Ya!


Ingredients
Makes 12 mini-cups
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup walnut flour
4 dates (pitted)
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries
3 tablespoons dried mulberries
1 egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To make the crust, put the almond flour, walnut flour and 2 pitted dates in a blender. After a minute, the mixture should look like the texture of a graham cracker crust.  Get a 12 cup nonstick mini-muffin pan and line each with the crust about 1/8 inch thick.  Make sure to line each cup and leave the center hollow to make room for the ‘jelly’.  Place in oven for 5 minutes and then take out to let cool.

To make the jelly, blend the strawberries, blueberries, 2 pitted dates, dried mulberries and egg in a blender. (I prefer this fruit mixture but feel free to experiment with more strawberries, less blueberries, etc.  Heck – you can even go crazy and add a different fruit if you want to get a little wild.)  Once all of the ingredients are fully mixed, spoon the mixture into the cooled crusts.  Bake for 10 minutes and then remove from oven and let the cups cool.  Serve at room temperature.

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