Conspiracy Theories

You know what I thought was one of the biggest eating better conspiracies was?  The things you loved before just don't taste as good when you have them again.  I'd like to say that I just wanted to test this theory, but I really just wanted some chocolate.


Last night we caved in for chocolate...and I wouldn't even call it caved in...it really was just more like we wanted some and thought a once in a while special treat is not going to hurt us.   Just a plain Hershey bar...and I'm pretty sure that I could live without one ever again.  It wasn't awful...but it DEFINITELY wasn't the same...DEFINITELY wasn't worth it.

So...it is theory no more!!

The funny thing was...I didn't feel guilty for eating it...I felt guilty by the thought of not posting it.  I think the reason why is we aren't doing this to cheat.  Hiding failures isn't going to get us anywhere...not that I consider this a failure.  We made the conscious decision to have a once in a while treat without feeling like we want to give up or have to start all over.

On another note, during last night's post I was a little distracted, so I forgot to talk about my new favorite app - Fooducate.  It scans bar codes and gives you a score based on its ingredients and then details based on what its ingredients are.

This app has been helping us a lot when we have to get certain things from the store that we can't make on our own or don't have the time/equipment to make.  Its a free app (there is a pay one too) so you should check it out.

Finally, we were looking for almond meal/flour at the store and found it in a 1 lb bag for just over $10.  That's insane!!  So we decided to make our own today.  I've found that roughly 8 oz of almonds makes about 2 cups of almond meal.  We used the flat blade on the magic bullet but many say that a coffee grinder works best.  It was a tedious project, blanched, removed skin, dried in the oven, ground and sifted, but at $3.88 a lb for almonds, I'd rather make my own.

We made apple muffins with the almond meal and they were good, but different.  I was looking to make something as a dessert, but they weren't very sweet.  The texture is not that off of wheat flour, but I think it will take a little getting used to.  I'll get it into the recipe section.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Apple Muffins

A nice treat, but probably best as a side item to a breakfast than a dessert

From the Everyday Paleo Cookbook

Yields: The recipes says approx. 16 but we got 12 when we filled the tins 3/4 full

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups almond meal
• 4 eggs
• 1 apple, preferably organic, finely diced
• 1 very ripe banana
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 heaping tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Using a fork, mash the banana in the bottom of a large mixing bowl
3. Add all other ingredients and mix by hand.  The batter will not be super thick, but more like a cake batter
4. Using a bit more coconut oil, grease a muffin tin.  Fill the tins about 3/4 full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  You will know they are done when you can insert a toothpick into the middle of a muffin and it comes out clean