May Whole30 from It Starts With Food :)

What is the Whole30 you say? Well first, do yourself a favor and go out and pick yourself up a copy of It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. This book has really helped me in so many ways, and not in the cheesy infomercial "THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" product advertisement kind of way. Allow me to tell you a story.

Once upon a time in Happy Valley, Oregon, my father and I lived in a small apartment overlooking the Clackamas Town Center. The move out there was such a struggle let me tell you. My father had been living in a house out in Gresham, and I in SE Portland. The amount of things that him and I had collectively was ridiculous and certainly would not fit in such a small area so we had to invest in a storage unit. Potentially the larger struggle was attempting to remain organized moving with a father suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The first few days after the move were the hardest. I still had my regular work schedule to uphold, as well as organize the entire apartment in a simple manner that left all of the items my father regularly uses in an easy to access place. I figured I would sift through all of our stuff and thin out the amount of unneeded items once we were settled. Luckily as time went on the apartment became organized and less crowded with items, unfortunately for my father however this caused such a great deal of stress that around these few months his disease took a sharp decline. We would argue senselessly over where the tupperware without lids went, or why I got rid of plates with large cracks and chunks missing. We would argue about food as I tried to help him eat as healthy as I was. The thing for people with Alzheimer's is that they may understand that something is different or missing, but may not understand why even if it makes perfect sense to the rest of us. During this time in my life, it was like I was slowly drowning in quiet chaos. No life preserver or land in sight. I needed something to keep me from completely going under which is when I found my new gym.

I have always been into sports and athletics, so when my boss told me about a gym that is directly across from the mall that my apartment overlooked I was pumped. I came in one day and checked it out and immediately signed up. It had a pool and plenty of free weights, just what I needed to escape for a little while. I would walk over from my apartment almost every day even if it was raining. I started to truly love and appreciate that time with myself and for myself. A little while into my membership there a position as a swim coordinator opened up and they asked me to come in and apply for the position. I met with the manager and soon accepted the position :) I was nervous about having two jobs but excited for this new opportunity. As I began working I met some really lovely people and their children, and I was really loving my job. I soon began coaching the swim team as well and that is when this job turned into so much more than a job. All of the kids that I coached made me feel more like myself again, and that I could really survive this hardship in my life and make the best of it. That's when I met Timmy and his family. I filled in for a beginner swimming class and taught a small group of three year old's water safety skills and had some fun to get them acclimated to the water. Little Timmy was one of the students in this class and after the weeks were over his mother approached me asking about private lessons. I immediately agreed and we began having lessons each week. Timmy was such an amazing student, tentative and shy at first, but always smiling and willing to try the task at hand. After our lessons I would  chat with Leslie his mother, and the rest of their family. Eventually we developed this close relationship where I was excited to see and teach Timmy as well as spend a little time with his mother. We discovered that her and I had each had major stress in our life that had led us to eating healthier food in the search for some relief. She talked about how her husband had bought her this book about how foods effect your digestive system, and that they explain it in a science-y way and a simplistic way. It had really helped her and forever changed her diet and she really felt like it would help me. The next time I saw her she had actually bought the book for me and before I had even read it, it held so much sentimental value for me.

It took me less than a week to read the book and I was convinced it was my turn to do the Whole30. I made sure that I understood all of the aspects really well and began my first one on September 1st 2013. The lows sucked, but then the feeling after about two and a half weeks was like nothing I had ever felt. I just felt so fresh and shiny and new! My insides felt like they were doing their job properly for the first time that I could even remember. The Whole30 is something that will stick around in my life for a long time. The first time it totally changed my relationship with food and my view on my own digestive health. I have Leslie and her family to thank for that, as well as Dallas and Melissa for writing such a fantastic book. And to all my favorite swim families at East Side who have helped me mentally through the tough times as well :)

Alright sappy moment over. So I am going to write about my second experience with the Whole30 this time on my blog because, health. Follow me along on my journey with some fantastic food and recipes and a written account of my experience. I'll try to write each day but, we will see how well that works out haha.

OH! also added bonus, my work has decided to have an office May Whole30! Go Team!

  

I thoroughly recommend that you check out the websites associated with It Starts With Food, and poke around for yourself what its all about. You won't regret it :)

This link will take you to the Whole 9 page, the 9 factors for health

This link will take you to the Whole30 page

Orange Muffins with Dark Berry Pecan Crumbs :)

Still working through this big box of oranges from my work, and experimenting with different flavor combos so get used to seeing a few more orange related recipes :) On Sunday I did an orange poppy seed, yesterday I decided to do orange berry, based off the popular lemon blueberry bars or muffins.

I really like to take a simple recipe as a base for more complex creations. I actually have a book where I write down "ratios" essentially. Each type of dessert has different ratios for flour to fat to sugar to egg and such. Cakes and cupcakes need a batter that is higher in liquids than cookies for example in order to rise and be light and fluffy. Cookies need less liquid and more flour in order to hold their round shape while baking. Now I am grossly over simplifying this, so i'll expand more on this later in a separate post, but you get the idea :) ANYWAYS so on to my point, I used my basic "white cake" recipe and added some ingredients and free handed the crumb topping and they turned out quite well. Every once in a while these experiments don't turn out as well as I would hope, so if you are feeling adventurous and your endeavor doesn't turn out that well, I hope you can find comfort in the fact that I've had baking fails as well :)

Check out that fresh squeezed orange juice on the right. Have you ever had fresh squeezed orange juice in the mornings with your breakfast? Cause let me tell you that it is such a lovely simple pleasure. Or orange carrot juice which is my favorite and I highly recommend it if you have a juicer. Or orange carrot pineapple...

On the left is the orange juice with coconut milk, the real stuff! From a can! (it would come directly from a coconut if I had access to that) Don't use coconut milk from a carton. Just please don't do it. I mean I guess if you are in a pinch go ahead and use it. But no one needs all of the added sugars and artificial sweeteners and "nutrients". Coconut is sweet naturally, the less sugar you eat the more you can taste that. So go for canned coconut  milk. It is only 99 cents where I live, how can you beat that price? So moving on, there is something so appealing to my taste buds about orange and cream together. It reminds me of those orange creamsicle ice cream bars that our grade school would give out for "ice cream Fridays" if our class completed all of our homework or if we were well behaved and what not. Ah nostalgia. 

I mentioned it on my last post, but when you are using any sort of citrus fruit in a recipe that calls for zest and juice from said fruit, always zest first! And zest the shit out of it too. You can never have too much zest. Except in key lime pie, then you can certainly have too much zest. I happened to use all the zest in the picture above, and that's about two oranges worth. I like to get into the pith when I zest, not just the initial layer on the outside. Pith, for those of you who don't know is the white stuff on the peel in oranges, lemons, and limes. It has lots of nutrients and sounds like a kid with a lisp saying 'piss' which I find amusing :) And another thing about nutrition and such. BUY FREE RANGE EGGS. Or cage free, or open air. Whatever they are listed as in your neck of the woods. I'm talking about the eggs that come from chickens that are not factory farmed. Chickens that are free to eat the bugs naturally found in their environment and have enough space to roam without bumping into one another and that are not fed hormones and antibiotics. The nice thing about living in Portland is that even though it is a city, there are several families who raise chickens and sell their chicken eggs to other residents in town. For cheap too! These eggs taste better, and you can actually taste the difference. You can feel it as well, the egg shells are much harder to crack. Alright though, enough life advice for how to buy your eggs...haha. 

Printable Recipe :)

Orange Muffins:

Dry:

3 cups almond flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1.5 tablespoons of baking powder

a pinch of sea salt

Wet:

1 cup organic raw sugar

6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

4 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup canned organic coconut milk

zest from two oranges

juice from two oranges.

Dark Berry Crumb Topping:

2 cups frozen berries (I used an organic 'northwest' mix from my grocery store that included blue berries, black berries and raspberries)

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1 cup crushed pecans

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup (or less) raw organic brown sugar (demerara)

1/2 cup creamed coconut. AKA coconut butter. Softened but not melted. 

Directions!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, grease two muffin pans.

1. Stir all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl add melted coconut oil and sugar. Stir until grainy like the picture to the right.
3. Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla, coconut milk, and orange juice.
4. Combine the liquid and flour mixture, stir until well combined.
5. Here is everyone's favorite part (unless you're freaked out by raw eggs) taste the batter. Just a small dip. Get a sense for how much orange flavor you taste. If you want a lot more orange flavor add all of the zest. If you want a more subtle flavor add half the zest and continue to add and taste until you reach your desired flavor :)
6. Fill muffin cups half full.
7. Prepare the berry mixture by melting the frozen berries until they are soft. Squish them with a fork. Add the tapioca starch until you reach a 'gel' type consistency. 
8. Dribble the berry mix onto the surface of the muffins.
9. In a small bowl stir the pecans, flour, and sugar. Then cut in the creamed coconut like you would for butter in a pie crust. 
10. Sprinkle the crumble ix on top of each of the muffins and then place in the oven! 
11. Cook for roughly 15 minutes. 

Gooey hidden berry center of deliciousness :)

Orange Poppy Seed Cake

This last weekend was Easter weekend. Saturday morning my work held an Easter egg hunt and breakfast for the community which I always enjoy being a part of. Over the course of the week prior I had helped stuff thousands of eggs full of chocolates for the little ones, and my perfectionist tendencies for matching colors made my co-workers roll their eyes. I see nothing wrong with aesthetically pleasing color arrangements, however I'm sure no little kid will even notice, but I know that they match and that's enough for me.

I helped out at the food table for the egg hunt because duh. At work I'm always picked to do anything with food because I enjoy it and I talk about it enough that I think most of my peers tune me out until I mention 'cupcakes' or 'cookies'. None are too interested in the 'healthy talk'. Anyway I decided to play around with my food display a bit, knowing full well it would soon be destroyed by the voraciously hungry flocks of humans. My greatest piece of food architecture was this yogurt pyramid. Many of the tiny humans thought it was funny to try to destroy the structure by taking yogurt from the bottom. BUT! Their attempts were no match for this pyramids fortitude and the integrity of the structure remained! Until all the yogurt was gone of course. I had some fun with the bananas as well :) I have always been a fan of presentation and I can miss an opportunity :)

Nearly all the eggs are already gone!

We had so many oranges left over from the egg hunt that I took an entire box home with me. Immediately I began to scour my favorite food website TasteSpotting, for inspiration for orange flavored treats to make for Easter dessert. I came across a few orange poppy seed combinations which I thought was ingenious considering lemon poppy seed is a well know and well liked pair. So Easter morning I started baking my famous Snicker Doodles that were requested by my boyfriends aunt, and this lovely cake :) I also made a lightly sweet coconut cream drizzle to top this cake :)

Orange Poppy Seed Cake:

Dry:

2 cups almond flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Wet:

1 cup coconut cream (from a can, I get mine at trader joes :) )

6 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted but not hot

1 cup organic unrefined sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cups fresh squeezed orange juice, roughly two large oranges.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

orange zest to desired taste, I used roughly 1.5 of an orange. 

Coconut Cream Drizzle:

Left over coconut cream from the can (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup)

1/2 cup of sugar or less

Orange zest. 

IMPORTANT TIPS: Zest the orange before juicing it. It might seem obvious but some people don't think of that. Also if you place the orange in the fridge for an hour before juicing it, it will yield more juice :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a bundt cake pan with coconut oil*

1. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Melt the coconut oil, make sure that it is not hot before you use it in the recipe. I usually melt more coconut oil then I need, because its much easier to measure it as a liquid than a solid.
3. Stir coconut oil and sugar together in a separate bowl. Add the eggs one at a time to temper. 
4. Next scoop the coconut cream from your can and melt slightly in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup to the egg mixture. Again make sure the coconut cream is not hot or you will cook the eggs.
5. Stir in vanilla, orange juice, and orange zest. 
6. Blend the dry mix with the wet mix until combined and free of any lumps. 
7. Now pour the batter into your bundt pan and place in the oven :) Cook for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. 
8. Prepare the coconut cream drizzle while the cake is baking. Simply mix the three ingredients together. Add as much zest as you would like. I personally enjoy the taste of coconut cream without sugar, so I add even less then 1/2 cup  if it is just me eating it, or omit it all together. It is totally up to your taste :)
9. Once the cake has cooled, drizzle the coconut cream on top and serve :)

* : SUPER VERY IMPORTANT!!! OMG READ THIS: So I thought that this cake was a fail. I didn't even bring it in to share with my boyfriends family because I didn't want to share a fail cake with everyone. It was stuck to the pan and I just could not get it out and I thought that surely it had to suck. So when I returned home I decided to try to cut it out and hope to salvage it. IT ACTUALLY SLICED OUT SO EASILY. And tastes amazing! So the lesson here today kids. Be generous with your coconut oil spray.

yummy goodness :) ENJOY