Paleo chocolate mug cake

I can't believe I waited so long to try this. I could've been eating cake every darn day if I wanted to! I got the recipe from PaleOMG and slightly modified it.


Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake
(serves 1)

1.5 tablespoons coconut flour
1.5 tablespoons almond flour
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon

1. Add all dry ingredients in a microwave-safe mug and mix well.
2. Add coconut oil, honey, and egg and mix well. Make sure that the egg is well incorporated in the batter.
3. Microwave on the highest setting for 1 minute and 45 seconds.

Coconut chia pudding

I'd known about chia pudding for some time before I finally decided to get a bag of chia seeds from Healthy Options. They don't come cheap, that's why it took me a while to get on the chia bandwagon. They're not strictly paleo, but I do find them good for me. Mark Sisson briefly wrote about why we should be cautious about consuming too much.

I make chia pudding the night before I plan to have it for breakfast, since it should be chilled before eating.


Coconut Chia Pudding
(serves 1)

1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons chia seeds

1. Using a blender bottle, mix together coconut milk and coconut sugar. Make sure that the sugar is dissolved.
2. Take out the wire whisk ball thingamajig and mix in the chia seeds. Stir every few minutes.
3. Pour the mixture into a small bowl or mug, cover with a plastic wrap, and chill overnight.

Feb 7 WOD: Round 2 with Cindy

Still bleary-eyed, I checked the site for today's WOD, and what I saw woke me up good -- we were doing our second dance with Cindy. I don't know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't a benchmark workout. Sneaky coaches!

Cindy is 20 minutes AMRAP:

- 5 pull ups
- 10 push ups
- 15 squats

The first time we did Cindy was in sometime in September. I was able to do 12 rounds + 10 push ups that time so I was looking to beat my previous score. I did a scaled-down version of the pull up using rings. Miggy explained that if we'd been using the pull up bands for a long time and still couldn't do no-band pull ups, it would be better to train other upper body muscles in the meantime. But I made up for that by doing "man" push ups -- finally!

The first few rounds were okay, but I started to slow down by the 6th or 7th round. It was like a slow burn, and I understood why we were told to pace ourselves from the beginning.

My score: 14 rounds + 4 push ups. And I couldn't be happier.

I celebrated by having a paleo lunch of ampalaya with eggs and homemade chorizo burgers.

Dec 19 WOD: Team WOD

Team workouts are always fun because you get to work with other people, and there's always the added challenge of competing with the other teams. I got teamed up with Gerard and Rach, and we had to do 20 minutes AMRAP of:

- 7 kettlebell swings
- 3 laps shuttle runs
- 7 burpees
- 1 lap shuttle run

We used a 16 kg kettlebell, and in the end we did 23 + 2 laps shuttle runs. It was awesome. After that, we had the seafood buffet lunch that Amie had ordered from Dampa. It was supposed to be our Christmas lunch party, as we'd all agreed that the noon crew should have its own "party".

Good food, good people. Like the song goes, it's always a good time.

And, oh, I just want to share this:

From yesterday's paper (18 Dec 2012)

It's our very own Tere in the paper! It's amazing what paleo and CrossFit have done for her. A few months back, she was telling me she's lost so much weight that one of her patients (she's a dermatologist) even had the gall to assume that she'd had liposuction. We had such a good laugh when she told us about it. She's had to work her butt off to look the way she looks today, and it's an insult for someone to imply that she didn't put work into it at all.

I've been doing CF for a year now and it never fails to amaze me when I see people around me getting stronger, healthier, and better-looking (a fortunate side-effect).

Easy peasy pancakes

Don't laugh, but I went on a special trip to the grocery just to get bananas for my new favorite, two-ingredient pancakes (whose recipe I got from Carrots 'n Cake, remember?). The first time I made them, they didn't look so pretty because I couldn't flip them well. But I'm able to do it better now.

Two-ingredient Pancakes
(makes 2)

1 medium-sized banana
1 egg

1. Preheat a little bit of coconut oil in a nonstick pan over low-medium heat.
2. Mash the banana very well.
3. Crack the egg into the mashed banana and mix thoroughly. Like, really thoroughly. Otherwise, you might end up with a banana omelet.
4. Pour half of the batter in the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes. Cook the rest of the batter.

I like topping it with coconut butter.

My new favorite paleo snack

Now that singkamas is not available anywhere anymore, my new go-to snack whenever I have the munchies is carrot sticks. I get baby carrots because they're sweeter, and I probably consume about 4 everyday. So when one day I get 20/20 vision you know it was the carrots that did it. :)

Just today, I discovered something that makes it even more of a pleasure to eat. I brought a small tub of coconut butter because my big jar of coconut butter was languishing in the pantry and I thought I could eat it by the spoonful when I got bored at work. Then I remembered my carrots and tried dipping a stick in coconut butter. Y-U-M-M-Y! Then again, they do say that coconut butter makes everything yummy.

You have to try it.

Cold-brewed coffee

Yes. I didn't even know this term until a few weeks ago when, after browsing for paleo recipes, I came across a link that talked about using paleo condensed milk for Vietnamese-style iced coffee. I love Vietnamese coffee because it has such a rich flavor, and I didn't know there was such a thing as an iced version of it.

Apparently, there's a whole population of coffee drinkers who prefer this method of brewing coffee over the usual way of hot-brewing. This site explains why cold-brewing is better than hot-brewing.

If you love iced coffee, maybe you'll become a convert like me and start cold-brewing. This is the "recipe" I follow (if you can even call it a recipe). I adapted it from The Pioneer Woman's recipe.


Cold-brewed Coffee
(makes 1 liter)

1 1/2 cups ground coffee
6 cups cold water

1. Place the ground coffee in a sealable container (could be a plastic or glass jug). Pour the cold water into the container and stir to make sure that the grounds are getting soaked. Let this mixture sit at room temperature for 24 hours. I let mine sit for 36 hours and it turned out well.
2. After having let the mixture sit, place a cheesecloth over a strainer and pour the mixture through that and into another container.
3. Store in the refrigerator.

One-liter jug of coffee concentrate

Creamy Iced Coffee
(makes 1 serving)

1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
Half a glass of coffee concentrate
Half a glass of full cream milk
Lots of ice cubes

Spoon the condensed milk into a tall glass, then fill the glass with ice cubes.

Pour in the coffee concentrate.

That's the condensed milk at the bottom

Then pour in the milk.

Stir well to make sure the condensed milk doesn't stay at the bottom.

Notes:
- Adjust the proportions to suit your taste.
- To "paleo-fy" this, just substitute sweetened condensed coconut milk and coconut milk. I haven't tried it yet because it's so much more convenient to use non-paleo ingredients.

Homemade chocolate

I don't know about you, but I can't live without chocolate. That remains one of my indulgences even now that I'm trying to be as paleo as possible.

I started looking for paleo chocolate recipes when I couldn't find paleo-friendly chocolate chips for cookies I wanted to back and had to settle for regular chocolate chips. The cookies would've been perfect if they didn't make my tummy hurt (I assume it was the sugar's fault).

Anyway, I eventually stumbled over this raw vegan coconut oil chocolate recipe from Avery Cooks. I never knew making paleo chocolate could be so easy! Her recipe called for vanilla extract but we never have any on hand so I omitted that and tweaked a few things, too.


Paleo Coconut Oil Chocolate
(makes 1 big-ish bar)

6 Tbsp virgin coconut oil
6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (not the Dutch-processed type)
3 Tbsp coconut sugar (or to taste)
1 Tbsp coconut nectar (optional)

1. Lightly grease a loaf-sized pyrex dish then line it in cling wrap. This will make taking out the chocolate easier when it has hardened.
2. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour into the dish and spread out.
3. Refrigerate or freeze then cut into bite size pieces when set.
4. Store in freezer.

Note: If you don't like the texture of coconut sugar granules mixed with your chocolate, use a liquid sweetener instead.

Spiced Chicken with Moroccan Dipping Sauce

I took it upon myself to make lunch yesterday, as it seemed people around the house didn't feel like coming up with a lunch menu. We didn't want to do anything work-intensive, and since I went paleo I learned a trick: baking. You just season everything, stick that in the oven, wait 30 minutes or so... and voilà! You're good to go!

It doesn't look like much but it sure smelled fantastic!

Spiced Chicken
(adapted from this recipe by The Clothes Make the Girl)

6 pcs chicken leg quarters
Salt for salting the chicken
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp ground allspice
1/2 Tbsp black pepper
1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Olive oil for drizzling

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Rub salt over the leg quarters and let sit for about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine all the spices in a small bowl.
4. Place the chicken in a baking dish big enough to fit all the pieces comfortably. Sprinkle on the spice mix a little at a time, making sure that the chicken pieces are all pretty well coated. Turn the pieces over and coat the other side.
5. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and rub again.
6. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the juice runs clear when you pierce the meat.

We paired this with Moroccan Dipping Sauce, still by The Clothes Make the Girl.

Moroccan Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp paprika

Pinch cayenne pepper

1/2 salt

Pepper to taste

1/3 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp minced cilantro or parsley

Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper together. Gradually whisk in the olive oil, then stir in chopped cilantro or parsley. Serve at room temperature.

Paleo Tablea Cupcakes

The first and only time I made this was during the Paleo Challenge last March. I'd adapted this chocolate cupcake recipe from Elana's Pantry, and while I was happy with its taste, I wasn't thrilled about the centers that had sunk. Also, it's not that easy to find 100% pure tablea. Most of the ones I see in supermarkets either have sugar and milk or whey.

But since then, I'd found several other sources of tablea -- there's the Kablon brand, and there are also several sellers on sulit.com.ph -- and now I feel confident enough to share the recipe.

Tablea cupcakes and Coconut banana muffins

Paleo Tablea Cupcakes
(makes 18)

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tablets pure tablea, chopped
6 eggs
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup coconut nectar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, sift together coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a double boiler and mix in chopped tablea, whisking until the tablea is melted and the mixture is smooth. Transfer this to a medium mixing bowl and let cool for around 5 minutes.
4. When the chocolate mixture is just a tad warm, add the cocoa and mix well. Then, add the coconut sugar and coconut nectar.
5. To the chocolate mixture, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Add the coconut flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and blend well.
7. Scoop a scant 1/4 cup into each cup. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

This goes extremely well with Fog City Creamery's paleo coconut vanilla ice cream.

Paleo Banana and Cream "Oatmeal"

On a rainy day like today, there's nothing more I would like than to have a bowl of warm porridge. During my pre-paleo days, I would have oat bran or champorado with sweetened condensed milk. I still have champorado occasionally when I have a cheat meal to spare. That's one of the few times I wish rice were paleo.

Anyway, the past few days I'd been googling recipes for paleo "oatmeal". There were a lot of good ones (this one on Mark's Daily Apple seemed to have a lot of good reviews), but I wanted something that didn't require a lot of time and ingredients to prepare. What can I say? I'm lazy like that.

Well, I finally came across this Banana and Cream "Oatmeal" recipe on A Girl Worth Saving's site. It had only 4 ingredients and you hardly have to cook it. Perfect! I tried it today and it totally satisfied my porridge craving. Plus, it was a good way to use up the coconut butter I still have sitting in the pantry.

Banana and Cream "Oatmeal"
(serves 1)

1 ripe banana
2 Tbsp coconut butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt

1. In a small microwavable bowl, mash the banana, then mix in the salt and cinnamon.
2. Mix in the coconut butter.
3. Microwave on low for about a minute. Take it out and mix it further to make sure that everything is getting heated. Put it back and microwave again for about another minute.
4. Enjoy!

If the mixture seems too thick or creamy for your taste, you could put a little bit of coconut milk in your bowl. You can also top it with dried fruit or nuts.

Jul 9 WODs: CrossFit Games Open 11.2 + Bootcamp

I don't think I'll be joining the upcoming paleo challenge. I've mulled it over, and I thought, what for? Paleo challenges are great for people who are totally new to the lifestyle. They're the ones who'll benefit the most if they join. As for me, I'm like, been there done that. I learned a lot from the last challenge I joined: I learned how to plan my meals, how to cook, how to discriminate healthy from unhealthy food, and how to read labels. I haven't regressed and I try to eat as paleo as possible. Or am I telling myself these things because I'm too chicken to join??

For today's workout, we did the 2011 CrossFit Games Open Workout 2. It's 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 9 dead lifts (Rx: 95 lbs)
- 12 hand-release push ups
- 15 box jumps (Rx: 18")

Grabbed from the CFMNL website

Almost Rx'd again. I say almost because halfway through, I started having a hard time doing strict push ups and couldn't keep the correct form. Bah. I blame all the cake I ate during the weekend!

My score: 6 + 2 HRPUs.

After resting a while, Ann and I decided to join the bootcamp.

Round 1: 8 mins AMRAP of:

- 5 burpees
- 4 sprints

< 2 min rest >

Round 2: 8 mins AMRAP of:

- 10 mountain climbers
- 4 frog hops

The frog hops were fun but we were super tired! My scores: 9 + 3 rounds.

Jun 20 WOD: CFMNL Throwdown 3.2

I was actually excited to go to the box today because I wanted to work on my double unders. Lala had posted a video of herself finally doing it after days and days of practicing, and I was so inspired!

(source)

She said she just kept practicing everyday, and Jordan was there to help her. She's living proof that persistence trumps talent!

Anyway. Today's workout was a little different. We were given 10 mins to do sets of 15-12-9 of:

- Thrusters
- Chest to bar pull ups

After completing that, we were to do AMRAP lateral burpees (do a burpee, jump over the bar, then jump back) with the remaining time until the 10 mins is over. The number of burpees done is the score.

I used a 45 lb bar for the thrusters and the green band for the chest to bars. My score: 23.

After the workout, I continued working on my double unders with Jordan. He kept giving me pointers, and finally I was able to string 2 together!!! So happy!

I was very hungry by the time I got to the office so I had my simple paleo lunch of sweet potato hash and seasoned ground beef with fried eggplant slices. Now all I need is coffee.

Jun 4 WOD: Triplet

Seeing tweets about the throwdown between the Libis and Fort boxes makes me regret not having joined. I think CrossFit has awakened the competitive side of me. Anyway, I didn't join because one of the requirements was that you have to be able to use the blue band for the pull ups, and we all know that I haven't quite graduated from the green band yet. Also, I was too chicken.

Yesterday's workout was 10 rounds of:

- 3 dead lifts (Rx: 70% of 1 RM)
- 6 burpees
- 9 toes to bar

I would've done this workout as prescribed if I had been able to do toes to bar. But I can't even do knees to elbows yet, so I had to settle for doing knees to chest. My 1 RM for dead lifts is 170 lbs, so 70% is 119 lbs but I chose to do 115 lbs instead.

My score: 14:40.

I had paleo "cereal" this morning. Inspired by CupcakesOMG's post, I assembled sliced bananas, raisins, and chopped walnuts in a bowl. Then I poured coconut milk and about a tablespoon of coconut nectar. It made me miss regular cereal less. And really, you can "paleo-fy" regular recipes with a little bit of imagination.

Coconutty coffee

I started taking my coffee black with no sugar when I went paleo, but I discovered something that allowed me to have (somewhat) creamy coffee again: coconut cream!

Creamy looking coffee

Don't be fooled by the photo above, though. The cream doesn't integrate that well with the coffee so it rises to the top. But I like it because I taste the coconutty flavor whenever I take a sip.

I've tried putting a few tablespoons of Ayam coconut cream and a couple of teaspoons of coconut sugar in my coffee and I liked how it turned out. And just today, I tried putting powdered coconut cream instead of liquid coconut cream in my coffee. It tasted just as good. This was the brand I tried:

Kara coconut cream powder

When I was at the grocery, I checked the ingredients of all the available coconut creams and milks there (both liquid and powdered), and none of them were wholly paleo, so I chose the one that had the least number of ingredients.

Contains 80% coconut extract, which isn't bad

This is the coconut sugar I put in my coffee. I also use it for baking paleo goodies.

Benevita organic coconut sugar

A look at the back label:

Coconut sugar is also great for diabetics

Coconuts are my best friend. It's amazing how many food products can come from just one plant. Think about it: coconut sugar, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut butter, coconut water, coconut meat, coconut flakes, and coconut nectar. It makes me thankful that I live in the Philippines where coconuts are in abundance.

I just wish that producers would make their products widely available locally. As it is, I've had to search far and wide to obtain these products. Like you wouldn't believe. Coconut butter and coconut nectar were more complicated to find, but I was able to source them eventually. The producers probably don't think that the market is big enough here so they prefer to export their products, and that's just too bad.

Breakfast

I savor mornings when I don't have to go to the box because I'm able to take my sweet time eating breakfast. Like today.

I fixed myself a plate of scrambled eggs and my leftover almond flour pancakes, which I heated in the toaster. I topped them with coconut butter and coconut nectar. Yuuummm.

Pancakes, eggs, and hot chocolate

I like my scrambled eggs a bit runny

Coconut butter is love

Now, who says the paleo diet is restricting?

Almond Flour Pancakes

The search is over. I finally found the best paleo pancake recipe. I know that paleo pancakes can never be as fluffy as regular ones, but this comes close. Even Nanay (who is anti-paleo because she thinks I'm being too extreme in my diet) and Tatay were surprised that it tasted good.

I got the recipe from The Urban Poser here. I changed some things but it still turned out well. Here's my version:


Almond Flour Pancakes
(makes about 20 small pancakes)

1 1/2 cups fine ground almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs (room temperature)
5 Tbsp coconut cream (gata in Filipino)
2 Tbsp coconut nectar

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. You could also sift or whisk them together. The important thing is the dry ingredients are well combined.
2. In a smaller, separate bowl, blend together the eggs, coconut cream, honey, and vanilla.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Let rest for 5 mins, then pre-heat your pan over medium heat (I used a non-stick pan).
4. Add about 1/8 cup of batter to the pan. Make sure the pancakes are no bigger than 3" in diameter or you'll have a hard time flipping them. Cook until the surface starts forming a few bubbles and the edges just start to form. Flip and cook the other side.
5. Serve with your choice of toppings. I had mine with butter and coconut nectar.

Almond flour is expensive so you'd want to cook every bit of batter in the bowl. You won't regret making this recipe, though! I'd post a photo, but I was so hungry this morning and they're gone now, though I stored some in the freezer. I'll make sure to take photos next time.

Post-challenge Day 51 + May 4 WOD: Do your weakness

Today's meals

Breakfast: Bread with peanut butter (non-paleo)
Lunch: Pan-fried cream dory, stir-fried eggplant, sweet potato hash, fudge babies
Dinner: Same as lunch
Snack: Orange, vanilla milkshake (non-paleo)

WOD

We had to do the following for time:

- 150 double unders OR 800m run
- 50 wall balls
- 150 double unders OR 800m run

I chose to do the run first, and when I was done with the wall balls I chose to do the 750 single unders. I almost didn't make the 20 min cap! Darn those 750 singles. Halfway through it I was wishing I'd chosen to run instead. Ah well. My time: 19:04.

The thing I love most about doing CrossFit is I learn to push myself further every workout. Well, okay, maybe not every workout, but most workouts I'm able to do it. I want to reach that point where I leave everything on the floor, and I walk out of the box feeling like I couldn't have done better because I'd given it my best shot.

Give it up for the WOD. Every. Time.
Source

Post-challenge Day 49 + May 2 WOD: The Bear

Today's meals

Breakfast: Banana with coconut butter, coffee
Lunch: Sweet potato hash, stir-fried eggplant, chicken fingers
Dinner: Sweet potato hash, stir-fried eggplant, chicken nuggets
Snacks: Bananas with coconut butter

WOD

Well, that was a hairy WOD. As soon as I saw the demo of The Bear Complex, it got me scurred. It is 5 rounds of 7 cycles of these:

- Dead lift
- Hang power clean
- Front squat
- Push press
- Back squat
- Press
- Down

There is no resting during the set. You cannot put down the bar at all until you're done with the 7 cycles. If you do, it's a fail. However, you can (and probably should) take as long as you want because it's not a timed workout.

Darn it was hard!!! I was able to work up to 45# on the 3rd round but I failed on the 6th cycle. So I went down to 40# and used that for the 5th round as well. So that was my final score.

Chocolate-Covered Katie's Fudge Babies

I've been wanting a paleo treat that doesn't need a lot of time to prepare (i.e. no baking), and I finally stumbled across these fudge babies by Chocolate-Covered Katie.

Now, for the longest time, I've avoided making anything with dates. Why? Because we don't have a food processor, and almost all the recipes I've found require the use of it for the dates. But I've had a pack of dates sitting in the fridge for some weeks now, so I thought the fudge babies would be a good recipe to use it in.

I have to say that they were perfect. I think I need to buy dates regularly now. Here's the slightly modified recipe that I followed:


Fudge Balls

1 cup walnuts
1 1/3 cups pitted dates
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1. Chop walnuts very finely, then set aside.
2. Place dates in a shallow dish and sprinkle with some water (about 1 to 2 Tbsp). Microwave on a low setting for about a minute, mash with a fork and sprinkle with more water if needed, then microwave again for about 2 minutes and mash very well using a fork. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
3. Add cocoa, walnuts, and salt to the mashed dates. Use your hands to mix everything together very well, and when everything's mixed, form into 1 to 1.5" balls. Be warned: the mixture will be very sticky but it's so gonna be worth it. Trust me.

I almost wasn't able to take this photo because I couldn't help
eating them all!