Paleo Butter Candies

     When I was a little girl, our whole huge family would get together for Sunday dinner after church and holiday dinners at my Aunt Lena's house. As the youngest cousin, I'm a good 10 years or more junior than practically everybody. This meant my teenaged cousins didn't know I existed. They'd be off listening to music and talking about whatever teenagers give a crap about and I'd sneak off, undetected, to the empty dining room. The men were in the living room with football and the women would be in the kitchen with Butterball.

It wouldn't be until we all sat down to eat that they'd find my tiny fingerprints in the margarine tub.

      My love of all things butter flavored has never waned. That's why I knew I struck gold with this recipe.

Sweet. Creamy. Delicious gold.

   
     I just came across this recipe from Empowered Sustenence last night on Pinterest and had to try it but, of course, I had to tinker. If you know me, you know I can't leave anything alone. This time I gambled and won. I added vanilla and lemon extracts and it's almost, but not quite, lemon frosting. Imagine lemon frosting but instead of heavy and cloyingly sweet with sugar, it's rich and unctuous.

Yeah. Unctuous. I said it.
   
If you are craving something sweet, but not too sweet, this is your new go-to treat. They were super simple to make, didn't take long and...satisfying. Most sweets make you crave more but these are oddly satisfying. I'm guessing it has to do with the fat.

Without further ado,

                                          Paleo Butter Candies

1 block (8 oz) Kerrygold butter, softened (any brand grassfed butter will do)
3 tablespoons honey (raw and local if you can swing it)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (the good kind)
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract (again, don't waste calories on cheap junk)
generous pinch sea salt (1/8 teaspoonish)

Cream butter with mixer or immersion blender, add other ingredients and combine well.

Spoon into sandwich bag, or pastry bag fitted with a tip--if you're fancy. Clip corner of sandwich bag, if you're going that route. Squeeze (or pipe, Fancy Nancy) button-sized drops of the mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper or a silpat sheet. Place candies in fridge to set up, about a half hour.

Pop them off the sheet and into a covered storage bowl and keep in fridge...or gobble down immediately.

Up to you.

A commenter on the original blog post mentioned using cocoa powder for chocolate candies. My next batch will definitely be chocolate! Maybe even chocolate with raspberry extract! The variations are endless and my love of butter is deep.

*A word of caution, butter absorbs odors, so be sure to keep these babies covered or they won't be as tasty. Unless you like garlic lemon honey butter salmon candies. I don't judge.
   

Paleo Golden Mushroom Soup

     I always hesitate to call any recipe "paleo" for two reasons.

Reason 1: Some people see "paleo" and read "weird" and automatically dismiss it.

Reason 2: Some extreme paleo eater's head explodes because it contains an ingredient they would rather choke on than eat.

     This recipe is so yummy I think anyone who likes chicken, mushrooms and soup will enjoy it. So I'm posting it and you can call it whatever you like!

 I started with two bags of my homemade broth. I used turkey, but if I'd had chicken I would've used that. If you don't have homemade, storebought is perfectly okay.

I also put in two frozen, boneless, skinless chicken tenders.You can add probably two more before it's a 

not-enough-soup-too-much-stuff situation. I know chicken isn't a typical ingredient in golden mushroom soup but I thought I'd add a bit more tasty animal protein.

That piece of chicken looks like a tadpole! Appetizing, huh?

   

While the broth was melting, I sliced some onion (I had red on hand but a yellow one would be tasty too). I also chopped and added about half of a 16 ounce box of crimini mushrooms (washed and stems removed). Again, substitutes are okay. Any old non-hallucinogenic 'shroom will do.

About now, I seasoned the broth. I added soy sauce (you can sub coconut aminos), poultry seasoning, salt, garlic powder and rice vinegar. I used rice vinegar because it's light, but I think any vinegar other than balsamic would taste okay.

I let it go about five minutes or so and I removed the chicken and diced it up. I also removed that little nasty tendon that's always still attached to the bigger end. Don't you just hate that when you get served one of those in a restaurant? I always want to take it to the chef and show him how to pull it off. It takes like a whole second to do. Okay, tenderloin rant over...for now.

Looks like tofu but I promise it's not.

I let the whole deal cook down about 15 minutes until the veggies were good and soft. I finished it off with a tablespoon of good old Kerrygold butter and let it melt before serving it up. You could totally puree and serve this that way as well.

Mmmmmm!

 Here's the breakdown:

Paleo Golden Mushroom Soup

3 cups chicken or turkey broth

2 boneless skinless chicken breast tenderloins (or one small whole breast)

1/4 cup sliced or chopped onion

8 oz of stemmed, cleaned, sliced mushrooms

1/4 cup soy sauce (or coconut aminos)

                                                      1 teaspoon light vinegar

                                                      1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

                                                      1/2 teaspoon sea salt

                                                      1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

                                                      1 tablespoon butter

Place broth and chicken in pot over low-medium heat. Prepare vegetables and add to pot. Remove chicken and dice into fine pieces. Add in soy sauce, vinegar and spices. Cook an additional 15 minutes. Just before serving, melt a tablespoon of butter in the whole pot.

Grain Free Paleo Cereal Recipe

     One of the big holdouts on the whole family completely adopting a paleo lifestyle is breakfast cereal, pizza, and pasta. We only eat pizza a couple times a month and we only have pasta on Thursday nights. Cereal, however, is a daily staple. I may have found a solution with this recipe.
     When we tried veganism, we stopped eating dairy. That was several months ago and we don't even miss it. The hardest part was getting my child on board with nondairy milk. That took a little doing. We did a taste test between almond and coconut milk. The choice was neither. So I started mixing almond milk with some organic chocolate syrup from Trader Joe's for awhile. Next I used those milk flavoring straws and eventually just plain almond milk. Never even went noticed.
    Feeding your child sugar cereal, or even Cheerios, feels awful when you know it's not the best thing for them. What else can you do if they refuse to eat eggs and you want them to have a grain free, protein rich breakfast? I just gave up and kept buying cereal.
     Meanwhile, I found a few recipes for grain free energy bars for lunch. Since I can't get my child to eat meat without prodding, it's not even an option for lunch. I used to pack store bought granola bars but started to feel bad about some of the ingredients. The bar recipe I tried said to refrigerate so I figured if I froze them and packed them they'd be thawed by lunch. What happened instead was a crumbly, greasy mess. Cleaning out the bento box, a lightbulb went off over my head. The mess was tasty and looked like granola. A few tweaks later, I had a granola cereal that's full of protein and fiber and has a little fat and fruit in it as well.

     Without further ado...

GRAIN FREE PALEO CEREAL

8 oz. unsalted, roasted, crushed pecans
8 oz. unsalted, roasted, slivered or sliced almonds
1 cup almond meal (I used what was leftover after making almond milk, but you can use whatever nut flour you like)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup dried fruit (I used raisins)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond butter

Mix all ingredients well and place in an airtight container. Done!

*NOTE: The container is half gone, the recipe makes twice this much cereal.


You are welcome to adjust the ingredients to your tastes/needs. It's not a cake or a bar or anything that needs to set up solid, so the amounts of things don't really matter. This is the recipe I used and it turned out mighty tasty so I plan to make it this way again and again. I used sliced almonds and mashed them up with my handy-dandy Chop & Stir tool. You could also swap out agave or maple syrup for the honey if you want. We like this served with cold almond milk, but I bet it'd be good alone or as a topping for yogurt or ice cream too. Just go easy on your portion sizes or this is not very figure friendly.