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Lily's Chocolate Beet Mini Birthday Cakes - Gluten Free

Last winter I did some experimenting with beets.  I personally have never been a fan of beets whether they were boiled, pickled or roasted it didn't matter, I just never liked them.  But they are so good for you I had to try a way to get beets into our diet.  Upon searching the Internet I found a few grain/gluten free recipes and tried a few with the results being quite tasty if a little gummy in the middle.

Since we are your normal busy family, it's always a good idea to have a quick grab and go snack on hand.  Muffins are one of those snacks and this winter since I have had a bit more experience with gluten free cooking I have "created" a very flexible gluten free flour mix that works quite well with many different kinds of muffins.

One of the best parts of this flour mixture is the muffins hold together beautifully even though they contain no added gums (guar or xanathan), I don't like to use gums as they seem to upset my stomach and I think they haven't been around long enough to know whether they are safe to consume long term.  Natural is always better.

Lily's Chocolate Beet Mini Birthday Cake - Gluten Free


Preheat oven to 375F with cast iron pans in the oven.


In a medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients, mixing well.

1 cup almond flour
1 cup brown rice
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

In a blender mix together until creamy:

4 eggs
3 cups cooked, mashed and cooled beets

Using a spatula scrape the beet/egg mixture into a large bowl and add:

1/2 cup honey
1 cup melted butter
2 tsps vanilla or 1 vanilla bean scraping or both :)
1/2 cup cream (or milk)

Mix all ingredients together well.

I used my preheated, seasoned Lodge mini cake pans filled half full with batter and baked them in a 375F degree oven for 12-15 minutes.  I have also made them in my smaller Lodge mini muffin pan and baked them at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes.

I stick a pointy knife tip into the cakes to see if they are done, but because I cook in cast and the muffins have to sit for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove them from the pan they will still cook for a few minutes after coming out of the oven.  Therefore I usually take them out of the oven a touch earlier than I would if I were using stainless steel pans.

My Food Journey

Born and raised in Canada I have been very active all my life.  Growing up my mom liked to cook from scratch at home and we always sat down to eat family dinners.

I have fond childhood memories of eating bacon, eggs and home fries regularly as well as 2 slices of toast dipped in a very, very chocolaty hot chocolate for breakfast.  Cereal was also very big in my house.  Bowls of chips and diet pop were a regular Friday and Saturday night treat.

As a kid I had lots of digestive troubles.  Chronic constipation combined with bouts of very painful diarrhea.  Diagnosed as lactose intolerance.  My skin has always been very dry, with bumps which I now know are keratosis pilaris.

I was a bit of an anomaly in my family in terms of exercise.  I was the only one that was good at pretty much any sport or exercise I tried and exercise has always made me feel really good.  As a teen I started smoking and drinking.  My diet was terrible, corn chips for breakfast and a burger and fries for lunch, a lot of junky fast food but in spite of that I never lost my love of sport.

I married young at 20.  I quit smoking and drinking and had my first baby at 21.  My daughter was born and at 6 weeks we were told she was blind.  Shocked but resilient I made the best of what life gave me turning the focus of my life to being as healthy as I can be.

I started cooking everything I could from scratch.  Luckily for me I have never believed all the low fat mantra.  I've always preferred to use real ingredients like butter over margarine, thank you Mom.

I went on the blood type diet for a while in conjunction with a 40/30/30 plan and it worked well for me.  I worked out out a few times a week lifting weights and interval running and got in great shape.  Then somehow I went off that eating plan, I can't remember when or why.  Probably because trying to keep track of the ratios proved to be a pain.

Fast forward 5 years and I was pregnant with my second baby, working at Tim Hortons (a coffee and donut shop) to make extra cash while my daughter was in school.  I gained quite a bit more weight with my second pregnancy than my first.  Damn you bagels and donuts!  I went from 125 to 160.

I lost most of the baby weight though and then after watching a few videos on the PITA website I decided to become a vegan for humane reasons.  Such a bad idea for me in retrospect, I was a horrible vegan and I gained 10 lbs in a year while still exercising at the same level.

For Christmas that year I was given Nourishing Traditions by my mother in law and a lot of what I read in the book made sense to me.  I was unhappy with my weight gain and constantly hungry on my vegan diet so I started sourcing out humanely raised, grass fed local dairy and beef and pastured eggs and chickens.  I wanted to eat meat because my body craved it, but it had to be from animals that were treated well.

So I started eating meat and dairy again.  I found and joined the website Sparkpeople and put myself on a restricted calorie diet to lose my extra weight and as someone who had never paid attention to calories before I was shocked to discover that breads, pasta and grains all contain a ton of calories. But not only that, the nutrition they provide in terms of vitamins and minerals was so low that to me they became not worth eating because I considered those calories wasted.

I guess I am considered low carb now, I usually eat under 100g of carbs a day.  Although I don't track my foods anymore.  I found not only was constantly tracking a huge time suck it also isn't necessary when I eat the way I eat. A whole food diet consisting of lots of vegetables, meats, fats and some fruit.  I have also come to discover that this way of eating is Primal/Paleo although I do make some treats for the family that are not 100% Primal/Paleo.  What can I say, kids like muffins and cookies (husbands like them too), so I make some tasty gluten free ones that have all real food ingredients to satisfy those needs.

So that has been my journey so far.  It feels really natural to eat this way and I am feeling so good right now I can't imagine changing how I eat.

Thanks for reading,
April

Pull Up Bar

This is not me.  I lost our camera in the summer and am going to buy a new one very soon.  Getting pictures from my I Phone onto the blog has proven to be a pain and I really want to take some great pictures to go on the blog.  Coming Soon!

     Last week I ordered a pull up bar online and I was so excited this week when it arrived.  I decided on the Ultimate Body Press because it had really good reviews and I liked the clean look of it, my gym is in the dining room after all.  So it arrived and Adam installed it for me on Friday night and the whole family was fighting over who got to use it first.

     When it was my turn I pumped out a measly 2 chin ups and I could do 0 pull ups!  Granted I had done a workout earlier in the day but I was a little disappointed in just 2 and 0.  I hopped on the net to check out how to do pull ups and I was introduced to a "walk the plank" technique where you just lower yourself slowly for 8 reps in order to build strength so eventually you can achieve actual pull ups.  I did a couple sets of those and then did some hanging leg circles for my core which worked amazing.

     The kids each did a few sets of assisted chin ups, pull ups and some hanging knee raises and Adam bless him can actually do chin ups and pull ups!  One of the best things about the bar I've discovered is that it is great for stretching.  My upper body was/is pretty sore from being introduced to the new exercise and I must have hung on the bar 6 different times yesterday just to stretch because it feels so good.

     I will keep you posted on my pull up progress.  I will be super pumped when I am able to do 8 straight!