Braveheart

I took Braveheart to the vet yesterday. He needs some serious medical care that I cannot afford. I looked into pet insurance, but it's too late since nothing will cover his pre-existing condition. All last night and this morning I was tormented by the idea of just letting him die. So I'm gonna try to raise money for his liver ultrasound and treatment.  Check it out here: http://www.gofundme.com/33hbvk

Here's his story:


         In March, Brave was huddled on some rocks, in Harvey Park pond as we walked by. He was so motionless, I barely noticed him. He was completely unresponsive as I approached and pet him. When I used a belt for a leash, he stood up and tried to climb over the rocks, unsuccessfully. I scooped him up and over. Slowly but surely he followed us home. He was terribly malnourished and skinny with a bald tail. He spent the first 3 days sleeping or gazing sadly around with his big unsure eyes. I posted a found dog on Petfinder and checked lost dog ads. Because of the condition we fund him in, collar-less, worn elbow and knee skin, long cracked nails and starving, he seemed to be abandoned. His cowering response to accidental bumps or loud voices indicate that he was not treated well in his former life. 

               He quickly started eating and drinking and even gained some weight. He was coming back to life. I distinctly remember the first time he howled joyfully as I arrived home from work. He still does this, howling like a seal and spinning in circles when he's happy. Initially we planned on finding him a home among friends, since our house seemed full with Charlie and 2 cats. But now, he's part of our family. Those who have met him know how sweet and loving he is, with his puppy face and loyal eyes. He's now attached to my heels. 
             The vet estimates him to be 5 years old. His initial visit to Maxfund Pet Clinic told us his liver was in bad shape. As the liver is an amazing regenerating organ, we hoped that with a quality diet and supplements he would recover. It's 3 months later and while Brave has improved, he is still very sick. 
              His vet, at Hampden Family Pet Hospital, analyzed his blood work and took x-rays to check for any masses in his abdomen. Nothing worrisome showed up on the x-rays, but his blood work showed severe malfunction in his liver. The vet explained that the next step is a liver ultrasound to rule out cancer of the liver and identify the cause of his liver dysfunction. I have yet to schedule this appointment. I want to give Brave a 2nd chance at life, despite the fact that we can't afford the vet bills. We've already spent over $600 on veterinary bills. The cost of the liver ultrasound is 350$ plus the treatment that would follow. 
              It pains me to ask for money but it's far better than the alternative. Any little bit will help. If you are willing to donate anything to Brave's second chance at life we would be eternally grateful.

Egg Wrapped Breakfast Burritos

Summer is here! There's so much I want to write about, I don't know where to start. School ended last week in a flurry of sadness, excitement and chaos. Oh, I will miss those kids. I might see some today though, at the library. I worked until 11pm Friday night, getting my grad school work done, so we could go away for the weekend. I will post about that later. It took me a whole day to decompress from the emotional, stressful tornado of that week. And then it hit me. I'm on summer break. When I wake up Tuesday, I have nothing to do. Except fix that flat tire. And unpack and maybe clean. 
When people ask me what I'm going to do for my summer, I love saying "Whatever I want!"
I made a list of summer things this morning. Like go fishing, replace the gutters, clean out the closets, wash the dogs, the usual. There's some things on the calendar. But whatever I want is what will go down. Living in my stretchy pants. And I get a paycheck each month. It's a glorious feeling. 

Remember that list of posts I said I would post soon? No? That's good, 'cause it didn't happen. Here's  a quick run down. I'm working on the Chocolate Coconut Cake pops. I tried to duplicate my mistakes that turned into those cake pops once so far. No go. As for the Spartan race, it was freezing, I almost died. Brave is a dog we found 3 months ago. I planned on finding him a home. He is now mine. I love him but he is sick. He's going to the vet today. I'll let you know. 

Oh First Graders: Here's some of my favorite out-of-context quotes from this year:
"This is my best life eveerrr!"
"This is where you lock your dogs, but I have an elephant inside." (Talking about a kennel)
"It's like little marbles, 'cept it's more bigger." (Describing marbles)
"I had a dream about you. We were eating all the cupcakes in the office!" hysterical laughter
"I think the tooth fairy's not real, 'cause she didn't give me my money."
"No I don't have 5 dollars! I just have a 5-dollar bill."
"I think we're broke. But I'm not gonna save it. I'm just gonna spend it. Guess where? Toys R Us." 
"If a polar bear sticks it's tongue to the north pole, it will stick!"
"When we wake up and when we wake up again, it will be Friday."
Me: "Stop wasting learning time." Him: "Yeah, time is money!"
“Yeah, you can tell he’s getting old, he looks all old and sweaty.”
“That makes us shirt brothers!” (They're wearing the same shirt)
"What is this and how did it get in my eye?!" indigently, looking at the eyelash I just got out of her eye.

Since it's summer, we're doing a 21 day sugar detox. The amount of ice cream and such I consumed during the last month of school was out of hand. Ever since I went to Tom and Annah Borak's nutrition seminar in the fall, I've been changing the way I eat. During my 30 day no-grain, no-cane sugar trial, I learned how much better my body feels on a primal diet. Then life got stressful. And stress leads me to the comforting bosom of sugar. So sugar detox, here we go! I'm altering it slightly since we don't eat meat and will be climbing and crossfitting. In order to survive this I will be making these today and other sugar detox recipes from Paleomg.

Sam's gonna do this with me. Probably. He doesn't like eating first thing in the morning, so sometimes I make him breakfast burritos to-go with gluten free wraps. But he's eliminating grains as part of this experiment. So here's a genius idea: egg-wrapped breakfast burritos!


Egg Wrapped Green Chili Yam Breakfast Burrito Recipe
Makes 2 burritos with some leftover filling

Ingredients:
1 small yam/sweet potato, cut into very 
   small slivers or cubes
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1 (4 oz.) can fire-roasted diced green   
   chilies
2 cups organic spinach
1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil
Sea salt & pepper

6 organic pastured eggs, scrambled with a dash of almond milk (optional)

3 oz. organic white cheddar cheese, sliced (optional)
1/2 avocado

Aluminum foil and waxed paper. I think the egg might stick funny to the foil, so I top it with waxed paper. 

Directions:
Make filling: 
- Heat coconut oil on medium in a large pan. Add sweet potato and stir to coat with oil.  - Cover (they cook faster) and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes. 
- Add onion and jalapeno and cook for 3-5 minutes more.
- Add spinach and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Turn heat down to low and cover to wilt spinach. 

Make egg wraps: 
- Heat some coconut oil in a pan on medium low. Pour in half the scrambled eggs and 
  gently spread so they cover the pan with the size of the wrap you want. Cook 2-5 
  minutes, until edges are set.
- Carefully flip the egg wrap like a pancake, and cook 2-3 minutes more. 
- Layer aluminum foil and waxed paper. Lay Egg wrap on top and pile on the filling. 
  Top with cheese and avocado. Roll up gently and take it to go.

Cheers!

Mother's Day Cake (Vegan)

So I hear my blog is pretty popular with the moms. And by the moms I mean my mom, Sam's mom and my friends, Kevin's mom and Jay's mom. So yea, it's popular with the moms.

To to all these moms and more Happy Mother's Day!
Mom's are pretty special. This cake is for you. It's two two vanilla cakes & one rich chocolate cake layered with vegan vanilla cream, berries and cream cheese frosting. I will present it to my mom later tonight. She will love it. She loves baking, cooking and desserts just as much as I do. Or rather, I should say I get it from her. Also, she loves everything I do, because she's my mom.

Mom, thanks for loving me so dearly even though I'm such a brat! You're the best!

I'll update this post later with the recipe. (It's here! Keep scrolling)
Right now, I need to clean my wrecked kitchen and myself so I can go see my second mom, Cindy Kay. Sam's mom has loved and cared for me since I was 17. Plus, she raised my best friend. And did an amazing job, because he's amazing. Mama CK, I love you!

Tips: Take the time to line the cake pan with parchment paper in the bottom and grease with coconut oil and lightly dust with flour. If you don't,  your cake will fall apart as it comes out. If you have time, make the vanilla cream the night before and keep it in the fridge to set up. Always sift cocoa powder. I don't sift anything else, even when recipes call for it. I don't have time for that. But I do it with cocoa powder. Finally, be prepared- this cake takes me a couple hours. 

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe (This is my cupcake recipe halved to make just 1 layer of cake. For the best chocolate cupcakes, double this recipe.)

1/2 Cup almond milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (white wine vinegar will work in a pinch)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup high quality cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper in the   
  bottom and grease with coconut oil and lightly dust with flour. 
- Whisk together almond milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. 
- In a small bowl sift in cocoa powder and mix dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl mix together oil, sugar, vanilla, almond and milk mixture.
- Add dry ingredients and mix well until no large lumps remain. 
- Pour into the cake pan and spread around evenly. Bake at 350 for 18-25 minutes, until 
   toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

- Cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes, then invert onto the rack. Allow cake to 

  continue to cool outside of the pan. 

Vegan Vanilla Cake Recipe
1 Cup almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1  1/4 Cups white wheat flour
2 Tablespoons corn starch (or potato starch)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance spread
3/4 Cup organic cane sugar
1  1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper in the   

  bottom and grease with coconut oil and lightly dust with flour. 

- Whisk together almond milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. 

- In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients

- In a large bowl, cream together sugar and Earth Balance until light and fluffy, about 2   

  minutes, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times (Us a hand held mixer or your 
  muscles).

- Beat in milk mixture, vanilla and almond until well combined.

- Add dry ingredients and mix until no large lumps remain. (Don't over mix)

- Divide batter evenly into 2 round cake pans and spread evenly. Bake at 350 for 18-25  
  minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

- Cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes, then invert onto a wire cooling rack. Allow cake to 

  continue to cool outside of the pan. 

Vegan Vanilla Cream Recipe (Adapted from Babycakes)

1/2 Cup almond milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla

1/2 Cup soymilk powder

2 Tablespoon coconut flour

1/4 Cup agave nectar

1/4 cup powdered sugar (or more agave, but I think it helps the texture)
3/4 Cup coconut oil, melted

1 - 2 teaspoons lemon juice

- In a food processor process everything except the coconut oil and lemon juice for 2 minutes. 

- With the processor running, slowly add melted coconut oil and lemon juice and process for 1-2 minutes more.

- Store in a sealed container in the freezer for 2 hours, or in the fridge for 8+ hours to set.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

1/2 Cup vegan cream cheese (I prefer Tofutti)

1/2 Cup Earth Balance spread

2 Cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon zest

- Cream together cream cheese and buttery spread until light and fluffy.

- Add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches and beat until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.

- Add vanilla and lemon and beat 2 minutes more.

- Keep in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use. 

Fresh Berries- any combination of strawberries, black berries, raspberries & blueberries

Assembly:

- Layer 1 vanilla cake on the base. Spread 
   liberally with 1/2 of the vanilla cream. 
- Build a little "wall" of vanilla cream around 
  the rim to contain the berries and help hold 
  the cakes together. Gently press a layer of 
  berries into the vanilla cream.

- Top with the chocolate cake and repeat   
  with vanilla cream and berries. 

- Top with the final vanilla cake. 

- Use the cream cheese frosting to frost the   
  top and sides of the cake (A turntable and a good frosting spatula really helps)

- Decorate the top with fresh berries. You could also drizzle with chocolate or dip the  
   strawberries in chocolate. 

- Dont' drop it!

Now share it with your mom! (other people are ok, too)

p.s. In trying to make a Primal version of this cake that same morning, I ended up creating a Paleo caramel cake that I plan on doing something wonderful with later this week. Maybe when I have an opportunity to share with people who'll appreciate some Paleo dessert.

Paleo Applesauce Cake

At first I was only going to write- "When I have that perfect combination of free time and energy, I'll get to posting more recipes. I have plenty of pictures and scribbled recipes. But I've just started 2 grad courses! So tune in later." 

But let's face it, that perfect combination may not ever come. Actually, in about 3 weeks, it probably will come. Less than 3 weeks 'till summer!  It always comes so fast.  
Now I'm in my annual state of tormented mixed emotions: Giddy joy for summer vacation. Sadness for letting go of my kiddos. Regret for all the stuff I didn't do well this year. Over-whelming stress for all the end of year stuff. I would love to keep my kids for next year. They know summer's coming, so it's getting crazy. Our school carnival was Saturday. Sam and I made balloon animals all day. It's one of my secret skills. 

I made these applesauce cupcakes for the cake walk. With the Primal Frosting. Some poor kid had no idea they were getting 'healthy" cupcakes.












I used this recipe for my Mom's Birthday applesauce cake with a few variations. For Mom, I made real cream cheese frosting with powdered sugar. It's definitely better. My mom used to make this when we were kids all the time. Even my brothers thought this paleo version was great! It can be a sheet cake, cupcakes or muffins. 

(Mom, me and my brother- Apparently it's genetic)


Paleo Applesauce Cake Recipe

Ingredients
1 Cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1/4 Cup Coconut oil, melted
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice OR 1/2 teaspoon ginger & dash of nutmeg & allspice
1/4 Cup honey (OR 2 Tablespoons maple syrup & 1 teaspoon stevia)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Lightly grease 9x9 glass baking dish or line 12-cupcake pan with paper liners
- Mix dry ingredients
- Mix wet ingredients
- Combine wet and dry and mix well
- Let sit for 5 minutes (for coconut flour to absorb moisture) & then mix once more
- Fill cupcake pan or baking dish
- Bake at 400:
  For cupcakes 15 - 18 minutes, until tops lightly brown. Cool on wire rack.
  For cake bake 25 - 28 minutes, until lightly browned, & toothpick inserted comes out clean

Cool, frost and eat!
Optional: Garnish with apple slices lightly rubbed with lemon and sprinkled with cinnamon.

If keeping for more that 2 days, keep in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Primal Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 Cup organic cream cheese

1/4 Cup organic unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/4  Cup honey OR 1- 2 Tablespoons Stevia( it can be grainy)

1 Teaspoon vanilla

- Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, 2-3 minutes.

- Beating on low, add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches, then vanilla. Mix until smooth. 

It will be runnier that the classic version

Classic Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 Cup organic cream cheese
1/4 Cup organic unsalted butter (1 stick)
2  Cups powdered sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

- Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Beating on low, add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches, then vanilla. Mix until smooth.

Both versions can be refrigerated until ready to use. 

Hopefully Upcoming Posts:

My Spartan Race nightmare/accomplishment

Paleo Chocolate Coconut Cake Pops (I still need to try to duplicate this before I can post the recipe)

Brave

Oh, First Graders

Mother's day special with The Best Cake Ever!

Roasted Cauliflower

Snacks

Blackened Catfish & Foolishness

Here's some interesting tales from my weekend (Totally unrelated to catfish) that you may or may not enjoy. Or just scroll down to the recipe. I'll understand.

Story # 1
I spent 5 hours Saturday, completing my final 6-page paper for an online grad class. At some point, I thought that it would be wise to save this in my online dropbox. It would be terrible to have any technical difficulties and lose my work. Stuff like that always happens when you procrastinate, like I had. I finished my paper 1 hour before it was due. Yup, I hit every point. My APA format and references were spotless. I saved, closed, logged in and uploaded my work. YES! We went out for fajitas and margaritas to celebrate. Cake and ice cream too. The next morning, something prompted me to check. Oh, My paper's already graded. But what I read didn't make any sense: where's the data, no conclusion, references not in format, a D! No, no. I checked the attachment and confirmed my fear. I turned in the rough draft saved on my desktop. She never saw my final paper. I emailed, totally crushed and embarrassed, to explain. It was too late, grades have been submitted. I'm still kicking myself thinking about it now. But then, I think about the fact that I still got an A in the course. A-, but really, who sees the -.

Story # 2
On Sunday, Chattman, Sam and I headed up to Golden Gate State Park to find a new climbing crag. While I was driving, the gas light came on. It's fine, I drive on E for days sometimes. I'll get it on the way out.  I've only run out of gas once in this truck. Besides, I've already passed the last gas station. After some hill climbing and gage dropping, there was a sign that read 9 more miles. Oooh, this might  be longer than I thought. (I can imagine this is reading like a bad horror movie. You're just screaming "Ditch the high heels, get out of the rain and turn around for gas you stupid girl!") Well, that though did not cross my mind. Instead I thought, I'll just go real slow up the rest of this hill, put her in neutral on the way out and just coast down to Golden.  Don't tell them. You'll make it back to the gas station and they'll never have to know. We finally got to the entrance and Chattman read the rest of the directions, "After turning, drive down to the end of the dirt road." Oh No. I have no idea how much farther it is.

"I need to tell you guys something.... we don't have a lot of gas,"
"What! Are gonna run out of gas?"
"Uuuum, I don't think so."
"We're totally gonna run out of gas." (They saw the gas gage)
"Maybe"
"We should turn around and get gas"
So, I turned around. They started laughing, probably out of pure frustration. I find the whole thing to be hilarious, so we all laugh for a while. I laughed longer than them. Through my laughter, I revealed my train of thought, or lack lack there of. I can't believe that I never thought to just turn around and get gas. They were not impressed with my plan to keep it in neutral since it made the brakes do crazy things. That didn't last long. We made it to the gas station! I filled up with 18.9 gallons of gas.
"Round two."
"We do it right because we do it twice!"
Back to the park we went.

Conclusion:

It was a weekend full of foolish decisions.
These stories do not portray me is a very positive light, I know. Procrastination may be the base of the problem. It was pretty funny though. I probably won't learn my lesson since I still got an A and didn't actually run out of gas. I'm kidding. I've learned my lesson. (Sam says I have not learned my lesson : )

Anyway, here's a good decision, Blackened Catfish.

Blackened Catfish Recipe

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

4 cat fish fillets

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or just thyme

2 teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon cayenne (Add more if you like it spicy!)

Directions

- Heat oil in a large skillet on medium.

- Mix all the spices together in a wide, shallow bowl.

- Roll catfish fillets in the spice mixture.

- Drop in the pan of hot oil and cook for 3-5 minutes, until blackened

- Flip over and cook 3-5 minutes more.

To make Cajun Tarter Sauce:

Mix together some Mayo, relish (dave’s spicy), fresh parsley, salt, pepper & a drop of hot sauce

So good!