Formed in the Womb AND a paleo birthday cake

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah 1:5

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us^[a] for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:4-6

That's right! Today I celebrate my 29th birthday for the 4 time now. I woke up this morning and thanked the Lord for creating me and choosing me before the beginning of time. 

Heavenly Father, thank you, that in your divine power, you created me. You made me from nothing. You reached out your hand and formed me in my mother. Your hand has guided me my entire life. You created me to glorify you. You adopted me into your Holy Kingdom. Thank you for allowing me to speak your Words and for giving me words of life. Use me as your servant and as your light. 

Isn't it amazing to know that He chose us? Before the beginning of time, he knew I would be sitting here on February 7, 2013 celebrating and praising him for my life. The life that would be nothing without Him. I have a beautiful life that He created for me. He loved me so much that he gave me breath and three gorgeous little boys and an adoring husband. And because of His unfailing grace, there is nothing in this world I can ever do that will make Him stop loving me!!

Paleo Birthday Cake

Call me old fashioned, or heck, just call me Southern. My all-time favorite cake is a good classic yellow with chocolate frosting. In staying on my paleo journey, I wanted to make myself a yummy cake. There are a ton of options out there for chocolate cakes because in paleo cooking, cocoa often is used to mask the gluten-less flavor. So I finally found a handful of cake recipes and used my prior non-paleo baking knowledge to whip one up! I adapted some of the ingredients and instructions from this recipe but changed things up quite a bit to make it my own. 

For a 2 layer cake

6 large eggs, room temp

1/2 cup coconut sugar

2 tsp vinegar

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt 

2 TB lemon juice

1 stick butter, room temp

2Tb vanilla

2 cups fine almond flour, sifted

1. Set oven to 325. Cut parchment or wax paper to set in 2 8" cake pans. As long as you have good condition non-stick pans, you won't need to grease. 

2. Separate eggs. Beat the whites & vinegar with a stand mixer or hand mixer until soft peaks form. (If using a stand mixer transfer these white to a clean bowl b/c you will need your mixer bowl for the next step). Set whites aside. 

3. Cream together your room temperature butter and coconut sugar until mixed well- 2-3 minutes on med-hi. It will never 'cream' like a traditional sugar, but mixing them together coats the sugar in fat to help it from changing form when mixed with the eggs & leavening agents. 

4. To egg yolks add vanilla, baking soda, salt, & lemon juice. Yes, it will fizz! Mix with a whisk. 

5.  Add the yolk mixture to the butter sugar mixture and mix on medium for 2 minutes. 

6. Add the whites back to the mixer bowl and mix on low until combines, scraping if necessary. 

7. Finally, add in sifted almond flour. Don't skip the sifting step! You wouldn't believe the 'chunks' that are left behind when you sift. This ensures a softer, finer texture and more rise to your cake.

8. Mix well for 2 more minutes, 

9. Pour into rounds, dividing evenly. 

10. Bake 18-20 mins.

11. Once done, remove from oven and immediately flip cakes out of pans, upside down, onto a cooling rack. Cool completely then wrap up and put in fridge to cool well. You need them cool to get your icing to spread. 

Paleo Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips

1/2 cup of full fat coconut milk

1/2 Tb butter

pinch of salt

1. Heat coconut milk in a saucepan over med lo heat until it starts to simmer.

2. Place chips in a mixing bowl. Once milk simmers, pour it over chocolate. Let sit without touching for 1 minute.

3. Whisk together to reveal a gorgeous chocolate sauce!! Add in butter & salt now and whisk.

* If you prefer more of a ganache type frosting, you can leave as is and pour over cooled cake layers now. If you prefer more of an actual frosting, follow directions below.

4. Once mixed, set chocolate in fridge til close to solid- approx 1 hour. 

5. Remove from fridge and whip it with a hand mixer about a minute to add some air to it and get it spreadable. 

6. To assemble, place one layer of cake face down on plate. Spread about 2-3 Tb of frosting over the top of it. Place top layer over it. Use the rest of frosting to frost your cake. Keep in fridge until serving. 

Paleo On The Go

I LOVE scrolling through my Pinterest feed and noticing so many of my friends pinning Paleo recipes!! It genuinely makes my heart happy seeing people find a healthier way of eating. One question I hear often from friends inquiring about Paleo diet is, "What about convenience? Where do I eat out?"
As I told someone yesterday, the one drawback/ difficulty to Paleo is convenience. No more popping in a Subway for a 'healthy' sandwich or ordering a kid's meal for yourself in the drive thru when you get one for your kids.
So I started a list of all the places we eat out as a family and the Paleo options. Please feel free to comment and add to it!

10 Places to Eat Paleo On the Go
1. Mooyah- Get an 'Iceburger' (beef or turkey)  and load it up with paleo friendly condiments like avocado, bacon, mushroms, pickles, and grilled onions! On the side order sweet potato fries, but ask them to leave off the seasoning b/c it has white sugar
2. Cowboy Chicken- Woodfire chicken (any), with green beans, campfire veggies, sweet potatoes. 
3. BBQ places like Spring Creek & Dickeys. Rudy's is my absolute fav, but they dont have Paleo friendly sides. Often we will go through their drive through and get meat, then come home and fix some quick veggies. 
4. Chik-Fil A- a salad or Grilled nuggets and fruit cup
5. Subway- any sandwich can be made into a salad. Add in lots of veggies and avocado!
6. Chipotle- a burrito bowl or salad with no rice or beans but add fajita veggies, lettuce, guac, pico
7. Tin Star- all their tacos can be made into lettuce cups and they offer broccoli as a side dish
8. Wendy's- good salad options with grilled chicken. good size portion. 
9. Pluckers & Buffalo Wild Wings- offer naked wings & naked strips. Pluckers has sweet potato fries, but again, ask for no seasoning. Add a side salad to a naked basket and you have a great meal!
10. In & Out- Order a Protein Style burger and they will give it to you in lettuce. You can add up to 4 patties! Also, I have heard Mustard Grilled is amazing. 

Paleo {not} Tortilla Soup

It's actually hit winter here in Texas! Which means the temp dips below 50 and I can flip the switch up on my magical gas fireplace! We've also all been sick here in the Caney house battling colds, flu, sinus infection, bronchitis, and even pink eye!! When it's cold out and I'm sick, nothing hits the spot like some good soup.
I came up with the {non} Tortilla soup and it was a huge hit with my tex-mex cravin' hubby. We had some pico & salsa leftover from La Hacienda and it made the perfect base starter for my soup!
I have made tortilla soups before with canned tomatoes & salsas, but the flavor depth of this one using the fresh pico & salsa was to die for!!

Ingredients
1 lb chicken- breasts or thighs
1 cup of fresh pico de gallo
2-3 whole carrots, peeled and cut in chunks on the bias
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup of fresh salsa of your choice- a fire roasted fresh variety gives the best and deepest flavor
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper
4-5 cups chicken broth
fresh avocado
fresh cilantro, chopped

**optional for NON-Paleo- black beans, corn, chips, cheese, etc.  I added black beans for hubby and the kiddos, but left it out of my portion.

1. Place raw chicken breasts, carrots, and onion in bottom of your crock pot. Sprinkle spices, salt & pepper over chicken.
2. Dump in pico, salsa, & chicken broth. Stir.
3. Cover, set your crock to low for 6-8 hrs.
4. Walk away
5. When ready to serve, shred chicken with fork. Dip into bowls and top with fresh cubed avocado and cilantro!

Why Paleo???

I first heard about the Paleo diet from watching a news special a few years ago evaluating many different current diet fads. HcG, Atkins, South Beach were just a few discussed. Then, they discussed the Paleo Diet, noting that of all the fad diets, it seemed to be deemed the healthiest for your body while still helping you achieve weight loss. Meat, vegetables, & fruit--- ONLY?? That sounded like torture to me!! So I just carried on my marry little way of eating what I presumed to be light & healthy.

Sometime later, I got pregnant with Knox, my third and final baby. It's funny how the more pregnancies I have, the worse my diet gets. It always starts out good- veggies, oatmeal, chicken, etc. But by the time I got to the 3rd trimester with him, I was living on bacon, cupcakes, sugar cookies, bacon, and steak. Oh, and bacon.  I DESPISE being pregnant, so maybe it was comfort eating? Maybe I was cashing in on the fact that it was to be my last pregnancy. In the back of my head I sort of knew I was going to try something more extreme to loose the baby weight once I had him,  so I justified it by packing in the sweets & meat.  I decided Paleo was to be my torment of choice. I had mentally given myself a time line of starting it after my 6 week post partum check up. 6 weeks post partum and I was soft, flabby, and feeling not so hot, so I started the following week. I was 11 pounds over my pre-baby weight. This may not sound like much, but when you are 5'ft 4" and small framed with narrow hips, 11 lbs is a few sizes!  Now 9 mos later, I am still nursing and have reached my pre-baby weight and continue to lose about 1 lb per month. I know some people are back to pre-baby weight in a few weeks, but for me, this is the quickest I've ever gotten back there.
Caveman---Paleo---Paleolithic. It's all the same. Our early ancestors, Paleolithic cavemen, if you will, ate what was available to them. Sometimes a meal was a whole chicken. Sometimes they had some green beans, sometimes they had an apple if there was a tree near by.They were hunter gatherers.
There was no grain. There was nothing processed. No sugar, no diary (unless you were lucky enough to own a goat). So think about it---> Many people 'think' they are eating  'healthy'. I see all these Pins stating "100 Days of Clean Eating" and then you open them and they include foods like whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, brown rice, greek yogurt, etc. While all of these things are better for you than a Big Mac or a slice of pizza, they are still processed. They are not foods that you can walk out and pluck up from God's green earth and consume. Even milk has to be pasteurized.

So my list of Paleo foods consists of:

• Meats
• Eggs
• Fish 
• Veggies (all except white potatoes)
• Fruit
• Nuts*
• Unprocessed oils such as olive & coconut
• Honey & natural sweeteners such as 100% all natural maple syrup

I do not eat:

• Grain- wheat, rice, quinoa, etc. 
• Dairy- yogurt, cheese, milk

That's it. I don't count my calories at all. If I'm hungry I eat something on that list. One reason I chose this diet to follow is that I am planning to breastfeed Knox for at least a year. Breastfeeding mommas cannot constrict their calories and still produce quality milk. As of now, Knox is almost 9 mos and still nursing great!


*I'm not legalistic about my nuts. True story- the peanut is NOT a nut, it's a legume. But I allow myself peanut butter in moderation. Well, moderation goes out the window sometimes, but I allow it anyway. The same is true for butter.
*** Another confession: We have a family cheat day. It is usually Sunday. On Sunday, I eat anything I want. I wouldn't say I consume mass quantities of food, I just allow myself those sugar cookies, or pancakes, or pizza, that I wouldn't allow myself during the week. I have still managed to slowly loose weight with this plan.

For more info/research:
Robb Wolf
EveryDay Paleo