Blackberry Lavender Scones

Blackberry Lavender Scones

As I type, I’m bubbling with excitement over the delicious scones that bake in the other room. The unmistakable scent of lavender wafting through the house.

I’ve been on a cut, or “diet” for several weeks. I hate the word diet. Why? Because of the feelings almost everyone feels when they hear the work, including me. It promises restriction, restraint, and a sense that you’re missing out on certain foods. That in order to lose weight and look good, you have to kick to the curb anything aside from chicken breast and cous cous. My intentions are to swing in the opposite direction of how I’ve been eating as of late, as I’ve been pretty indulgent (chips, candy, cookies, wine and lots of it). In swinging hard the opposite way, I’ll see the results I want: to lean out while still retaining muscle and strength. In the fitness world, we call this cutting up.  Somewhere during the process, I’ll find my middle ground – neither restrictive or over indulgent.

So after several weeks of very tight food management and reawakening my awareness around food and what I’m putting into my body and how it impacts my body, moods and athletic performance, I decided it was time to reward myself with some (HEALTHY) baked goods. BlackBerry Lavender Walnut Scones.

Let’s get to it. Grab your aprons and turn on some tunes, you’re in for a treat with these delectable delights.

1. Preheat oven to 425. Line cooking sheet with parchment or foil.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, sugars and salt. Cut the oil into the flour using your hands until it all looks a little grainy and there are no large chunks left. Stir in the delightful lavender.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the almond milk and vanilla. Mix it together until it is almost all the way combined but stop just before you overkill it and make it a perfectly joined mixture. Good! Fold in berries and walnuts. Again, don’t over mix.
4. Scoop out dough into 1/3 cup measurements and drop ’em onto the baking sheet. Brush with almond milk, and if you really want to tickle your fancy, a pinch of white sugar on top (I opt out of the extra sugar). Bake until a little golden around the bottom, about 12 minutes with a max of 15.
5. Remove from oven and experience some self-control, damn it, and only eat a few. Or say fuck it and eat em’ all. Makes about 12-15 depending on how you measure out your servings.

You’ll need: 

2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup refine coconut oil

2 teaspoons dried lavender

1 1/4 cups plain almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup fresh berries (black berries, blue berries, whatever berry your heart delights)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Macros (based on 14 servings)

What makes these healthy, in my opinion, is the source of your carbohydrates, fats, and calories. The major sources of fat are coconut oil and walnuts. Walnuts have omega-3s, powerful free-radical fighting antioxidants, and for some men, a healthy diet of walnuts can enhance prostate health (Who knew?). A majority of the calories from carbohydrates in the scones are from the whole wheat flour. Whole wheat has a bit of an edge because it has the outer layer of the wheat, or bran, and that’s where all the good stuff is: dietary fiber, B vitamins, and antioxidants. Not to mention minerals such as zinc, iron, and magnesium (which helps relieve muscle soreness!)

So, without further ado, here are the macros based on 14 servings

140 Calories

5 g Fat

6 g Sugar

21 g Carbs

3 g Fiber

4 g Protein

Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon Apple Scones Curteosy of Nom Nom Paleo

Cinnamon Apple Scones Curteosy of Nom Nom Paleo

Since I’ve adopted a cleaner eating lifestyle, I’ve missed and craved certain foods. Pastries and baked goods, mostly.

Here is an EXCELLENT recipe for Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones from Nom Nom Paleo.

To make Apple Cinnamon Scones,  I modified it the following way .

• Instead of mixing in cherries, take one skinned, cubed organic granny smith apple. Mix into the batter in the same step as you’d mix in the cherries.
• Before adding the liquid mix to the dry, add in a teaspoon of cinnamon (honestly, I add ALOT of extra cinnamon)
• Lastly, I add more than 2 table spoons of honey (maybe an extra half a table spoon?)

Tips-

Make sure the butter really is as cold as possible

Add a bit of extra honey.

I didn’t do these last 2 things the first batch I made and my scones were dry and crumbly. The frozen butter and extra bit of liquid helps hold them together.

These are to die. Enjoy. Try not to eat them all within 36 hours and if you make it, let me know….

Banana-Chocolate Chip-blueberry muffins

This is a modified muffin recipe from an old friend. I think he said his mother used to “Throw things together in a bowl and these came out.” I’ve taken the ingredients and adjusted them in order to make, what I believe, are some damn HEALTHY, tasty muffins. Note: For added enjoyment, try warming them up for a few seconds. Aside from eating them fresh out of the oven, this is the next best way. 

SHORTHAND

Preheat oven 375—

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup Turbinado sugar (SUB: coconut sugar, maple syrup,etc), 1/2 tsp baking powder, dash of salt, 2 eggs, 5 tbsps Butter (room temp). Mix.

In another bowl, mash together4 ripe bananas, alternate mixing in 1 Cup almond Flour, 2 Cups Oat Bran. Don’t over mix, but ensure it is mixed well.

Once these ingredients are mixed well in their separate bowls, combine the two, ensuring even mixing. Lastly, add in 1 cup  chocolate chips (SUB: Butterscotch or white chocolate chips), and 1 cup (mix to taste) Fresh blueberries

Spoon into muffin cooking sheet and bake on the bottom or middle rack of the oven for  20-22 minutes. They will be slightly golden around the edges and moist on the inside, just how a good muffin should be. 

Listening to

Lorde “Love Club”

Drinking

Lindenman’s 2012 Shiraz

*Disclaimer: Although I am very fond of the person I got this recipe from, a bad idea was baking these muffins, drinking my Shiraz, and texting the person to talk about my muffins. Old. HABITS. Die. Hard. xo

Coconut inspired, peanut butter rolled oat cookies

shorthand

In a large bowl, combine 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar (I used Turbinado raw cane sugar for all of my sugar, I’ve also used Coconut Sugar, whatever sugar substitute you use, Maple syrup is BOMB with this too), and 1/4 cup butter until creammmmmy, as in, the sugar is dissolving and noticeable color changes are happening (room temperature butter, essential)

Add 2 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1 1/4 tsp bakin soda, mix that shit up.

Add 1 cup peanut butter and mix some more.

Stir in 3 cups Trader Joes Rolled Oats, 6 ozs Chocolate chips (I used white this time! LOVE!) and about 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds.

Stir in 1/2 cup (chopped) Shredded Sweetened coconut (I used TJ’s sweetened coconut pieces, they be yumm)

Spoon onto lightly greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. My magic number was 12.

Give em about 2 minutes to cool before even attempting to remove them from the cookie sheet, so mushy soft and just golden brown around the edges. mmmmh.

They taste like they were sent from the Greek Gods. fuck.

I made too many. Around 36-42.

Listenin to

Icona Pop “We got the world”

Sips

Fresh-pressed Rosemary Tea

How to be a thug in the kitchen. Shiiiit these cookies are good. Rosemary Pistachio cookies

What did I do this weekend? I baked and cooked some of the best food of my life.

No joke.

Before giving away the bomb ass crab cake details, (post to come later) let me help you get your sweet tooth on. These little puppies are KILLER. I did some swaps from the original recipe in order to make them healthy/healthier/’guilt’ free So I could eat them.

LIKE. A. BOSS.

I have had to hide these…from myself…in my own home. It’s a really hard game..

Rosemary Pistachio Cookies—-> Modified from Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Chef version

Shorthand

Beat one cup unsalted, ROOM TEMP butter, 1 1/2 cup COCONUT sugar (my sub instead of Light brown sugar), till smooth…

Add 2 eggs

Mix in a total of 2 1/3 cup flour (self rising)- I used about 2 cups Almond meal and 1/3 cup Oat Bran**(key, I believe)

Mix in 1 T baking powder, 1/2 (or more, to taste) unsalted- shelled pistachios, 1 cup (or more, to taste) White Chocolate chips (super ‘cheat’ for me, but trust me, don’t swap this out, for anything), and about 1 HEAPING (maybe even 1 1/2) Fresh chopped rosemary.

Mix until it is all blended supa dupa smooth, think LL Cool J lip licking smooth.

use a fork to place approx. 1 inch sized cookies 2 inches apart on a wax-paper covered cookie sheet. These puppies expand, so, you don’t want them sticking together AND they should be smaller cookies, little bites of fucking badassness to be had.

Bake em until golden brown around the edges – Oven @ 375 degrees F.-MIDDLE RACK/mid oven people, don’t burn these little puppies.

**keys here**

Use room temp butter. Don’t try and warm that shit up in the microwave before, let it sit out for as long as it takes to soften up and mix in well with the sugar. Otherwise you will sweat mixing that butter and sugar delish concoction. Also KEY* When you are mixing the sugar and better, and beating the hell out of it until you are sweating or your kitchen-aid mixer is screaming, make sure the concoction starts to lighten, as the sugar is dissolving INTO the butter, keep mixing and beating until this process starts to happen, otherwise when you bake these cookies, they will turn to crap

Trust me.  Also,

I think the rosemary is key, so, don’t go HAM with it, but make sure to put a good dose in- Tim’s recipe only called for 1 T but I decided I wanted more. It was worth it.

Lastly, watch them cook. They take no time and you DO NOT want to over cook them. I started watching closely around 10 minutes in.

Take them out. Eat the SHIT OUT OF THEM until you have had so many DIVINE rosemary pistachio cookies that you need to lay down and take a nap….But really…

I bought FRESH rosemary (**another key thing, I believe, fresh ingredients really do make all the difference, so splurge if you can). ..Had some left over so I boiled some hot water, poured it into my French press and tossed rosemary leaves in there. Let it seep for 10 minutes, and BOOM Antioxidant RICH Rosemary Tea.

Go Get your cookie on. Please. You won’t be sorry. This made about 45 ish cookies. So you have plenty to feed to your friends, who will in turn love you even more for the badassness that you possess. Own that shit.

xo S

Strong-woman cookies, challenge, and http://fourhourchef.com/

http://fourhourchef.com/

I am shaping this blog around many things, one of them being the Four Hour Chef recipes. I am awaiting my copy of the book to arrive, so until then…

I am excited about this journey in the kitchen. Taking the recipes from Tim Ferriss’s book and recreating them in my kitchen, as I explore the ways I am pulled to my kitchen. My other Zenspiration for this journey of tackling recipes is the film Julia & Julia In times of happiness or despair, highs and lows, or for the simple fact that the kitchen calls to me. Something about cooking, baking, creating something finite, and then enjoying the fruits of your labor. It can be meditation in motion. It is preparing and creating food for my temple; my body and soul.

Last nite I created cookies. I had a long day, full of emotions with the man in my life and the friends and family whom I love. Yesterday I had a hard day with myself. I found myself in the kitchen. What emerged was a woman who was firmer on her feet, and happier in her heart, and satisfied in her belly. These cookies were ad-hoc, but turned out tasty, and SO-ubber healthy (in my opinion). Also, the half bottle of Menage a Trois I drank while baking and enjoying the fruits of my labor sure was a nice addition.

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter-Strong woman-cookies

3 cups Trader Joe’s Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Balade Light butter with Sea Salt

1 cup (give or take) Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Maple Syrup

2 eggs

I cup creamy salted Peanut Butter from unbalanced peanuts (TJ brand)

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 heaping tsps. of cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, and syrup together until blended well. Add in the rest of the goodies, mix it all together evenly, spoon batter onto lightly greased (with 100% pure coconut oil from TJ’s) cooking sheet, allowing some growing room. Bake about 10-13 minutes or until barely brown around the edges. The original recipe called for some chocolate chips, but I had none! So I used the Trader Joe’s Powerberries Trek Mix with Almonds, cashews, and Cranberries and just picked out the powerberries and a handful of the cranberries (about 3/4 cup total, or all the powerberries in a 12 oz bag). And since it was in my fridge, I also threw in about 3/4 cup of Baker Josef’s (TJ’s) Shredded Sweetened Coconut. These secret goodies made ALLLLLL the difference in the happiness my cookies gave me, and those who enjoyed them. Bon appetite!