Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Paleo Ice Cream

Yep.  You read that right.  And it was GOOD!

I like in the Bible when God made things, like, say, the Universe, trees, planets, animals, humans, etc, and called it, "Good."

I am not God.  I know you knew that but I just wanted to make sure no one else thought I was throwing such a claim out there.

I know I wrote about it at one point over the last 6 years, but I think it's quite possible that the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was likely cherries.  I mean, really, what could have been that good that Eve just had to have a taste?  I mean, maybe a peach tree?  But probably cherry, I'm guessing...

Anyway, I did create black cherry dark chocolate ice cream tonight...and it was SO GOOD!  Which is why I snapped pictures, after the fact (like, I fished the can and bag out of the recycling bin and trash...), and told my husband it was blog worthy.

He agreed.

In fact, in his words, "Wow!  This rivals Sebastian Joe's Raspberry Chocolate Chip!"  And let's just say, coming from my husband, such a statement is a big freaking deal.  It is his all time favorite ice cream flavor from his all time favorite ice cream parlor...and my quick throw together tonight, induced by a monthly craving, gave his fave a run for its money.

Here you go:

• 1 can organic full fat coconut milk
• 1 10 ounce bag frozen organic dark sweet cherries, I used Earthbound Farms
• 2 to 3T agave nectar
• 1/2 tsp pure almond extract

In a blender or food processor, combine all of the above items on high until smooth.  Pour into your pre-frozen ice cream maker and let churn for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile:

In a glass measuring cup, combine 1/3 cup dark chocolate (I used chips...you could use some of your secret chocolate stash in your cupboard, back there behind the good china or wherever you hide it...) and 1 T butter (you could use coconut oil I would guess but I always use butter when it comes to making my fudge sauce).  Microwave for about 30 seconds until chocolate and butter mix smoothly.  Remove from microwave.  Add 1 tsp dark cocoa powder.  Stir.  Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 to 2 tsp of almond milk.  Stir until smooth.  *(Can be dairy-free/vegan if you skip the butter and use coconut oil instead...)

By the spoonful, add semi-cooled chocolate mixture to the churning ice cream so it swirls in and becomes "chips," if you will.  If it's too hot, the mixture won't become chips but will mix right in...make sure you add the chocolate when your ice cream is almost done and set up...

Umm.  It was awesome!

Even Em liked it, and she hates coconut milk!  I think the almond extract took the coconut flavor away.

4 ingredients.  Four.  F. O. U. R.  Go to the local grocer and count how many ingredients are on the back of a typical national brand.  Oh yeah, and try to pronounce them...Add the chocolate "chips" and you are only adding 4 more ingredients: chocolate/cocoa, butter, vanilla extract, and almond milk.

This was a last minute treat so the lighting isn't great, but Em, who is 10 and has informed us she has more taste buds, assured us it was really yummy. 

Let us know if you guys try this recipe and if it passed your kids' taste buds.  With ingredients I know are healthy, I can feel good about a dessert like this once in a while for my family.  We have some more ice cream recipes up our sleeves.  We'll share here at some point :)  Enjoy!

Me, Adrienne, Cavewoman!

(Beat your chest...)

Look at Raquel rock her Jane rags...

Oh.  Wait.  That's Tarzan and Jane.  Whatever...

Anyway, I'm Primal.

And by, "I'm Primal," I mean I have adopted the Primal/Paleo way of living and eating and exercising.

Do you have to believe in Evolution to be Primal or Paleo?

No, in fact, you don't.  Although, I do believe we have evolved or adapted, if you will, over many years of existing here on Earth.  But that really has nothing to do with whether you want to eat this way or not.  But I was never a fish or a monkey...

No, you just have to believe in something opposite of what the horrific traditional American way of eating has brainwashed you to believe.  And you have to want to do something about it...

This is not a fad diet.  It's not all just eating bacon and cheese.  It's a way of life of whole foods, lots of raw fruits and vegetables, lean meats and fish, and nuts and seeds.  It's a lifestyle free from refined, man-made, genetically engineered "food" found in boxes, bags, and cans with dozens and dozens of ingredients on the label.

Over the last month I've essentially eaten this way, minus the fat intake.  So, basically, I have avoided oils and nuts and seeds, but eaten healthy portions of all the rest of it.  Now that the cleanse part is over and I'm introducing fats again, I'm not going to lie.  I've found something that might be my downfall.  I need to get a handle on it, because it's super yummy, but super fatty:  pistachios.  Oh, my!  


Now, mind you, this is a #firstworldproblem.  I'm sure Stella in Kenya doesn't dream about root vegetables and Svetlana in Russia doesn't drool over potatoes.  It's those dang twins who really started Facebook who keep marketing pistachios.  It's working and I'm buying them.  And too many nuts make my thighs a little chubby.

But I can't even begin to tell you how free I feel just eating clean, ignoring the scale, doing CRAP LOADS of squats, push ups, lunges, and curls, and, did I mention, eating clean?  I have a ton of energy.  I literally sprinted, S P R I N T E D, the other day, several times in a row, and had no backlash of pain during the routine or the following day.  I don't sprint.  I've said it before, no one is chasing me, so why run?  But that's the thing, I've had the energy, stamina, and strength to do just that....it's crazy!

I have found a way of living that works for me.  My goal is to eat this way 95% of the time.  Once in a while I may have a sugar laden, gluten free goodie, but to be quite honest, since I've cut sugar out over the last month, it's all just too sweet.  I'll likely go here for a fix if I need one...

If you are looking for a lifestyle change that will radically change your health for the better, I highly recommend going Primal.

That's all.  No monkeys or scientists are getting kick backs for this recommendation.  I'm just feeling good and wanted to share :)  Happy Weekend!

In a Nutshell

I've been away from a scale for Friday weigh-in's the last two weeks, but I weighed in this morning and am 129.0 lbs.

This is pretty crazy because over this past weekend I literally ate 100 pistachios, easily, not to mention so much other great food.  But I stayed active.  Very, very active.

I know nuts and seeds are not on my food intake list until next weekend, actually, but we were guests at a friend's ranch and I was doing my best to navigate the menu without drawing attention to myself.  I was able to grab fruit and salads and veggies on most occasions, but not always a little meat.  It all worked out and the night they had pizza, I darned near emptied the pistachio jar.  (Yep...any of you reading who were also at the ranch, that was me...sorry!)  And, I'm truly not being legalistic, which is a first for me pretty much in my whole life when it comes to myself and my own behavior.

Anyway, I'm finding that I have a ton of energy.  I'm sleeping so soundly and am able to spring out of bed in the morning to greet the Lord and read The Message.

I've looked at a little food porn lately, and by "food porn" I mean some recipe blogs and websites.  Particularly, I've been searching ones that are solely Primal or Paleo in nature.  This is essentially how I will be eating the rest of my life 95% of the time.  But, looking at food porn at this point in my cleanse is NOT a good idea, only because it's inevitable...I'm looking for a main course meal option with tons of veggies and fish or meat and then a grain-free, vegan baked good pops up on the site that's all chocolaty and amazing looking and I start to drool and wonder if I have the ingredients on hand.  And that's what I mean by "food porn."

Anyway, I'm enjoying working out again, which for a season it seemed like I just was doing it out of fear of fatness or fear of being a lazy 40-something who makes the excuse of just being too busy.  Now, I feel so strong.  I even discovered I have deltoids over the weekend.  Whofreakingknew?!  I didn't!  I have literally never had definition in my arms, though I've had muscles I could feel under a coating.

I'm not trying to lose weight or anything like that at this point.  I'm building muscle and trying to gain strength and tone.  I can curl 15 lbs now.  And, I did 40 push-ups in a row on Saturday.  Followed by 35 more.  I do them on my knees, but if you think that is wimpy, then go ahead and try it...all the way to the floor, wide push-ups and Yoga-style tricep chaturanga push-ups.


Ready:  Go!  (Yeah...that's what I thought...)

I've also just finished the book, "Unchain Your Brain," by Dr. Daniel Amen, MD, and Dr. David E. Smith, MD.  If you suffer from any kind of addiction, I would highly recommend this book!  The subtitle is, "10 steps to breaking the addictions that steal your life."  I re-checked it out from the library so I can read it again, it was just that helpful.

Food is a real addiction.  I'm breaking free from mine!

No food in the world is worth hurting myself or sabotaging just for the taste or comfort.  If my head isn't on straight to make that healthful or unhealthy food choice, then I've been getting out of the kitchen or situation, and changing course.

Will I ever eat sweets or treats again?  Yeah.  Once in a while.  But in America, we eat it every day and we wonder why we have so many diseases...it really is no wonder.

There is no reason to wonder.

Stop wondering.  

Write down what you eat and how you feel and then make changes to feel better.  One choice at a time.  No one else can choose health for you.  Loving yourself doesn't mean rewarding yourself with foods that make you sick.  Loving yourself is nourishing your body and brain.

How close is the food you are about to consume to its original DNA God-design?  Keep this question in mind at the store, at restaurants, and at home.

Eating whole tastes awesome!


God knew what He was doing when He made it...imagine that!?

T-t-t-t-t-trigger, of course!

(Isn't that a line in a song or something?!)  Oh yeah, it is, here's the link...hilarious!

ANYWAY, the last week has been pretty good food wise.  I have kept myself very, very, very, very, very, very busy, as I said I would.  I tell you, when busyness is productive and not just busyness for the sake of being busy, well, those big item tickets start getting marked off the "To Do" list and....drum roll....there's not a lot of time for snacking out of boredom.

Some of those big ticket items entailed painting a bathroom and the dining room, changing the chandelier in the said dining room, and hanging crown molding.  I was going to sew curtains but my mom told me to create a little margin in my life, so I took her advice and realized we don't need curtains before Thanksgiving.  Do we ever really need them?  No.  No one needs curtains, unless your shower is glass and faces your neighbor...we need food, water, shelter and some clothes, but that's another post.

So, I'm not going to lie.  I mean, just painting a bathroom doesn't sound stressful or like it could trigger stress eating, but I'm anal.  I hand cut in my edging because I like clean, straight lines.  That in and of itself isn't necessarily stressful, but wrapping my body around the toilet with my head in a precarious position, much like this, it can become stressful.  Painting the dining room wasn't stressful, though I had to stand like this most of the time trying to paint the cove ceiling so as a result my neck had a kink in it which earned me a neck rub, so, the stress didn't stick around too long.

Last week I ate Paleo style, eliminating high glycemic starchy foods, eating tons of salads and meat, raw veggies and pretty much an apple each day.  Besides the fact that my 15 month old cut 6 teeth and didn't sleep amazingly, I felt great, didn't have gas and wasn't hungry between meals.  I got this great book from the library called Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso.  I'm thinking Paleo will be my first choice round of the 4 month eating plan when I start officially.  

ANYWAY, where the stress, or trigger, came in was when Jason started cutting and hanging the crown molding.  THAT is NOT a simple thing, I tell you!  It looks beautiful now, but baby there's some wood putty, let's just say...

The tipping point, or real trigger that drove me to pour a large glass of wine and consume a heavy dose of chocolate was the hanging of the chandelier.  Hoochie mama, was that super fun?!  #$%^&*  Our marriage is happily still in tact but standing on a chair holding a chandelier while your hubby stands on a bar stool twisting wires, your arms shaking because you did the extra long version of Jackie Warner's workout earlier, and the little stinking bolts that are supposed to secure the mighty piece to the ceiling keep falling to the floor...well, like I said, it was a large glass of wine.

For reals, my husband is an engineer and even he said the chandelier, at least how it is secured to the ceiling, was designed poorly.  I hadn't even added the weight of the glass candle covers, and to be honest, all I could imagine was the whole thing falling to the table during Thanksgiving causing senior citizens, and even junior senior citizens, to have heart failure.  Jason added two extra screws, secured in sheet rock anchors, and literally, the stress lifted.  No one will die at the dinner table!  WHEW!

Anyway, house projects can trigger me even though I enjoy doing them.  And, as I asked myself that question last week about being angry, I learned a few more of my triggers.  Now I just have to figure out what I should do when I'm around a trigger or something or someone triggers me. 

I think awareness is half the battle.  Do you have triggers?

Searching for the Right Fit

There is a method to my madness.  I'm sure in your heart and mind you have a method, too.  It makes sense to you, but to onlookers, well, they just may not get it.

If you looked at my "Diet Reviews" you may have come away overwhelmed with all the ways of eating I have tried.

I feel for you.

How do you think I feel?

In trying out different "diets" over the years or ways of eating, if you will, I know that at the beginning I was looking for the quick fix for fat and weight loss, even if that meant compromise.

Now I am looking for what makes my machine run optimally.  I want to know, and practice, the way of eating and stewardship that helps me spring out of bed in the morning to meet the day, utilize the nutrients in food for energy and health, and eliminate and halt the autoimmune responses that are already occurring in my young body.  I'll talk about these in another post...

I have figured out some of my allergies, but I know that sometimes I eat something that seems like it should be a "safe" food and I bloat up or almost kill my family with noxious gas.  (Why lie?  This is an "honest" blog site...right?!) *This almost ALWAYS occurs for me when too many sugars/starches/grains/dairy have been consumed, fyi.

The point is, I need to listen to my body, love it, take care of it and give it nourishing, healthy, whole foods a majority of the time.

I take the time to feed my spirit and my soul through reading and prayer, but my body has been neglected and abused.

It's time in my journey to listen to my body and stop just watching numbers on a scale!

So, I am searching for the right fit...that is, the right fit for me.  And, I'm not talking about jeans or a number on the scale.  I am talking about a healthy way of eating, every day, not just a week here or a week there, but a lifestyle, that will have me feeling my best to face each day.

Every book I've read on diet and health allows for a "cheat day" or a "day off" where anything goes, or two cheat meals in a week.  So, with that understanding, I know I can make healthy changes and once in a while still have beloved chocolate or a plate of yummy gluten free pancakes.

As a result, I have done some research over the last several months.  There are three ways of eating, three different approaches according to style, but all with similar theories, I am going to test on myself over the next several months to a year to find what works for me.  My idea is to give each "program" or lifestyle 4 months.

Feel free to join me if you'd like, or try your own thing and share.  However, the criteria is this:  the program must have whole foods.  What are whole foods?  Whole foods are foods found closer to the original design of how God made them.  So, for instance:  an apple is a whole food, whereas an apple cinnamon sugar cereal with Red Lake#40 is not.  Therefore, if you try a system that is based upon processed boxed foods, powders and artificial sweeteners, and still lose weight, that's fine to share your celebration with those of us reading here, but as far as health goes, I won't ever recommend or encourage another person to go down that road, as well.  God didn't make Red Lake#40...He made red apples, red tomatoes, red peppers, red onions, red beets, red strawberries, red cherries...you get the idea :)

So, here are the plans:

• This Is Why You Are Fat (And How to Stay Thin Forever) - emphasis: cleaning up the organs, balancing hormones, ridding the body of sugar addiction, eliminating autoimmune diseases, building strong muscle.
• The Yoga Body Diet (Slim and Sexy in 4 Weeks Without the Stress) - emphasis: eliminating stress, eating according to your body type and body's needs, bringing overall balance, building lean, long muscle tissue instead of bulk.
• The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat - emphasis: eating foods we were genetically designed to eat  (no grains, processed foods, or dairy), eating closer to the way "early humans" ate, protein/veggie/fruit/nuts, eliminate autoimmune diseases, build athletic muscle and performance.

I haven't decided in which order to begin, because they all seem pretty solid, but if you have one in particular you'd like me to try out first, by all means, let me know and put it in the comments.

If you have a friend that you know is struggling with similar issues, just wants to learn about a new way of eating and health, wants a fresh blog to read, or just wants to gawk at a lady on her search for freedom from addiction, feel free to share this journey with them as I share my own.

Maybe I'll even give away a copy of the book I'm following to a blog reader, just to make it fun for everybody :)  Details to come...