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Guest Posts

Slow Cooked Pears with Lemon and Thyme

November 22, 2013 by Jackie Ritz Leave a Comment

I’m honored to have Julie from Real Fit Mama over here on my blog today sharing a simple, yet decadent recipe.  Julie loves sharing her passion for fitness, health and well-being and I’m so grateful to have her sharing a beautiful recipe with us. Julie authors an amazing book, Real Fit at Any Age, A Fitness Guide to Optimal Health from 1 to 100. Please give Julie a warm-welcome and be sure to follow her Facebook page to keep up with all she is doing! 

Slow Cooked Pears with Lemon and Thyme

pears

Simple to make, the soft warm pears will melt in your mouth.  A perfect desert for any night, they are naturally sweet and full of flavor without any concentrated sweetener.  The thyme adds just a hint of complexity, and boosts the immune enhancing quality of this dish.  Cinnamon is warming and promotes circulation.  It also helps to relieve cold from the outer layer of the body.  Pears themselves nourish the lungs and moisten the body, enhancing skin quality and large intestine function.  To dress them up, simply serve along side vanilla ice cream or top with homemade whipped cream.

All of this in a delicious dessert? Sign me up! Plus, with the slow cooker, they are so easy to make it’s just ridiculous.  Like all good desserts (in my humble opinion), these pears make an awesome breakfast too.  Slow-cooked pears with some warm homemade pumpkin bread, anyone? Or how about with a big side of bacon? Yes yes yes, please for me!

Added bonus: These pears are an adaptation of a traditional Korean cold remedy.  Cooking them fills the house with a rich soothing aroma that stokes your appetite.  With no concentrated sweeteners, they are naturally flavorful and full of health benefits.  Ready to dive in to Autumn? Here we go…

 Ingredients for Slow Cooked Pears:

  • 6 pears, medium ripe and firm
  • 1 TBS butter
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 TBS raisins
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ lemon

ingredients

How to prepare:  

  1. Wash and peel pears.  Then quarter them and remove the cores.
  2. Place in a slow cooker.
  3. Mix juice of ½ lemon with vanilla extract and cinnamon.
  4. Pour over pears.
  5. Sprinkle in raisins.
  6. Add butter.
  7. Place thyme sprigs on top.
  8. Cook on low for 3 ½ or 4 hours.
  9. Serve warm.  Drizzle with juice at bottom of the slow cooker.

pearsincooker

Enjoy!

cookedpears

realfitmama

Julie de Lagarde, Real Fit Mama

Conceived in the belly of my integrative wellness practice, Real Fit Mama was born in early April 2013 as the next generation in my wellness family. I recently started writing and blogging, ready to share what I’ve learned through decades of living and nearly a decade of clinical acupuncture practice. Real Fit Mama has opened doors to allow me a more personal and intimate connection with a broad base of people, based on my experiences as a mom, Real Food eater, athlete, and acupuncturist.  My mission is to inspire and empower people to find connection, joy, and optimal wellbeing.

 

Follow Julie on Social Media! 

  • Blog
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Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes Tagged With: crockpot pears, desserts, gluten-free, grain-free, healthy desserts, paleo, pears lemon, primal, slow cooked pears, thyme

Raspberry Chocolates

October 24, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 7 Comments

 

I’m excited to post this delicious recipe that Stephanie from Good Girl Gone Green has offered to share with my readers! Make sure you check out Stephanie’s Facebook page to stay up-to-date on all the delicious recipes she is posting! I know you are going to love this recipe for Raspberry Chocolates! Please welcome my friend Stephanie! 

Homemade chocolate tastes better than any store bought on the market and you have control over all the ingredients. No soy lecithin or milk or unrecognizable ingredients that sometimes sneak up you without warning.

They are a pinch to make- it is just waiting for the chocolate to set that can be cumbersome. But totally worth it. Add some creamy raspberry filling to your chocolate experience and you have a wining combination and healthy treat for you and your family.

Do you make your own chocolates?

RASPBERRY CHOCOLATES

Yield: 12 chocolate raspberry cups depending on the size of your molds

Ingredients

Chocolate

  • 1 cups of solid cacao butter
  • 1 cup of raw cacao powder
  • 1 Tbsp of vanilla powder (optional)
  • 1/2 cup of liquid sweetener like honey, maple syrup or coconut nectar

Raspberry Filling

  • 2 cups of raspberries
  • 5-6 medjool dates
  • 1/2 cup of cashews, soaked for 4 hours

What you need

  • High powered blender or food processor
  • Silicone muffins cups or chocolate molds
  • Muffin tins

Method

Chocolate

  1. Gently melt the cacao butter in a pot or double boiler.
  2. Once melted, add the cacao powder, vanilla powder to the pot and stir to combined.
  3. Next, add your liquid sweetener of choice. Stir.
  4. Set aside

Raspberry Filling

  1. Add the raspberries to a high powered blend and blend until completely smooth.
  2. Add the dates. Blend together until the dates are broken up
  3. Now add the cashews and blend up until a creamy texture.

Assembling the chocolates

  1. Take your silicone cupcakes liners and place them in muffin tins.
  2. Spoon the chocolate mixture into each muffin liner. Place in the freezer until solid, which should take about 10 minutes.
  3. Spoon the raspberry mixture over the solid chocolate. Place back in the freezer. This will take several hours to become solid.
  4. Spoon the remaining chocolate over the raspberry mixture and place in the freezer until hard. Another 10 minutes.

Tips and Notes

  • You can sub macadamia nuts for cashews, but it will lend a slightly different taste.
  • You can use coconut oil instead of cacao butter, but the chocolate will be more brittle and hard. The chocolate containing coconut oil will will melt faster once taken out of the freezer. The cacao butter chocolate has a more chewy texture.
  • Experiment with any berry! I have used blueberries and they are tasty. They just don’t make as nice a picture with the contrast.
  • You can substitute carob for the cacao, but the taste will most definitely be different.
  • You will most probably have some extra raspberry filling left and potentially some chocolate. I just pilled it all in a small dish and froze the left overs.

Raspberry Chocolates

StephMoram 125x125

Stephanie is a tree hugger and plant-based real foodie trying her best to make a difference on this planet. To say she is passionate about “all things green” and simply calling her passion environmentalism is an understatement! You can find her collecting trash on the streets or along the water, creating raw treats in the kitchen or simply making a difference over on her blog, Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and Pinterest.

 

Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes Tagged With: cocoa butter recipes, dessert recipes, gluten-free, homemade chocolate, paleo, primal, raspberry recipes, vegan recipes

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

October 16, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 24 Comments

This is another generous guest post from my friend Kelly over at A Girl Worth Saving! Today she is sharing her recipe for Paleo Pumpkin Spice Cookies!  Please welcome my friend, Kelly! 

There are three things that signify fall in my book: 1) That otherworldly feeling that the seasonal light has changed 2) The appearance of golden and blood red leaves on the trees that line my neighborhood and 3) The warm, pungent scent of cinnamon and nutmeg baking in my oven.

It’s amazing how the smell of these pumpkin spice cookies wrapped around me like a well-worn sweater. I couldn’t help but snatch them out of the oven and destroy two of them before I got the frosting on them. These cookies are soft and, like any treat with a lot of spice, they get better as they age.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

 
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 6
Paleo Pumpkin Spice Cookies
 
Ingredients:
 
Cookie Batter :
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp molasses
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp cardamon
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar

Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup palm shortening
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/s tsp cinnamon
Instructions:
  1. In a mixing bowl add your pumpkin puree, coconut oil, egg, molasses, coconut sugar and vanilla then blend.
  2. Next add in your dry ingredients and mix until you have a soft dough.
  3. Pinch a walnut size piece and roll into a ball. Place on a piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet and press flat with your fingertips.
  4. Repeat.
  5. Bake in your oven at 350 degrees for 25 – 28 minutes. Remove and let cool until warm and then frost.
  6. To make the frosting, whip all the ingredient in a small bowl until well combined.
  7. Enjoy!
 

Paleo Pumkkin Spice Cookies

 

kellybejellyheadshot

 

Kelly Bejelly is a grain-free cook, with an admitted sweet tooth, who creates Paleo, Gluten-free Recipes on her food blog – A Girl Worth Saving. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and instagram.

 

Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free cookie, paleo cookies, paleo pumpkin spice cookies, primal

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

October 9, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 13 Comments

pumpkin pie

I’ve been so excited to share this delicious recipe with you all from Sylvie at Hollywood Homestead. Hollywood Homestead is one of my favorite Paleo bloggers, and I’m not just saying that. She puts out some incredible recipes, home schools (technically unschools), and is making Paleo work for her large family. She is so motivating to follow on Facebook and is always giving practical advice on how to transition a family over to eating Paleo. Please welcome my beloved friend Sylvie as she shares her delicious Paleo Pumpkin Pie recipe with all of us! 

Pumpkin, pumpkin, everywhere! If you’re a pumpkin addict like we are you’re eager to use pumpkin in just about everything this time of year. Now, we don’t do treats very often, mainly because they’re not always quick and way too easy to eat the whole thing (ahem, not that I would know anything about that).

But sometimes you just need to paleo-ify the greatness that is pumpkin pie! Try it this Thanksgiving, or this Sunday or heck even tomorrow!

Paleo Pumpkin Pie 

Image 5

What you will need (FILLING):

  • 1 3/4 cups pumpkin purée
  • 1 cup coconut milk (full fat) 
  • 1 large ripe avocado
  • 1/2 cup raw cashews
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup 
  • 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp. all-spice
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin spice
  • 1/4 tsp. sea salt

What you will need (CRUST):

  • 2 cups almond flour 
  • 2 Tbsp. coconut oil 
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Directions (FILLING):

  1. Put 1/2 cup cashews in the food processor and blend until in fine chunks.
  2. Peel, cut and add the avocado to the mix.
  3. Blend until creamy.
  4. Place the mixture in a large bowl and add all other ingredients, starting with the pumpkin and coconut milk.
  5. Mix thoroughly (I used a Cuisinart “smart stick” hand blender, which worked perfectly).

Directions (CRUST):

  1. Add all ingredients to the food processor and mix until it looks like dough.
  2. Grease a pie pan and place dough in the center.
  3. Use your hands to stretch dough until it reaches the edges of the pan.
  4. Pour in the filling mixture.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
  6. Enjoy!

Image 4

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Hollywood Homestead: Sylvie is a celebrity personal assistant and mom of 3 by day, paleo enthusiast and blogger by night. She and SAHD hubby, Eric, each lost over 60 lbs with paleo and continue to improve their family’s health with food and lifestyle tweaks. Sign up for her newsletter at www.hollywoodhomestead.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes

No Bean Paleo Pumpkin Hummus

September 18, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 15 Comments

Don’t you just love that name…meatified!?!!! It just makes me want to search the Meatified website and make a big juicy and meaty pot roast!  Rach from Meatified has such a beautiful website with some delicious recipes. I get lost looking at her food photography on her page! She has put together a recipe that will satisfy that Pumpkin itch and leave your belly satisfied and full of Paleo Pumpkin Hummus…oh and with no beans! Cause we all know friends don’t let friends eat beans! Please welcome my friend Rach from Meatified!!!

I think if I ever wrote a memoir of my former vegetarian days, it would probably be titled something cheesy like “Hummus: A LOVE STORY”. Because, boy, could I chow down on the stuff. I think it’s safe to say that I was bordering on the obsessive. I can’t remember how I first came to the realization that a plain ol’ bean could be transformed into something creamy, tangy and ridiculously delicious, but once I did, I’d hazard a guess that approximately 347% of my meatless meals probably featured hummus.

Well, ok, that might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration. But only a little. I really, really liked the stuff. And then came Paleo. Well, actually, first came the misery of Hashimoto’s Disease. Paleo definitely helped to alleviate the symptoms of my thyroid problems, but it’s safe to say that it also destroyed my hummus dreams. If there was ever a reason to lament the loss of legumes, the absence of hummus in my life was it.

When people began telling me that you could make hummus from zucchini, I flat out refused to believe them. I mean, there was no WAY that a squash was going to replace a bean. Stop taunting me with your Paleo lies! And then one day, desperate for my dip-fix, I caved. I made zucchini hummus. And the hummus-afficionado in me became so ecstatic that it’s a good job I live in the middle of nowhere. The perks of country life? No one can see you dance around your kitchen like a flailing toddler. Yay.

Since Fall is supposedly coming but it’s still in the 90s for me temperature wise, I’m not quite ready to pumpkin spice ALL THE THINGS! But I did want to get my pumpkin habit started on time, so I flavored this batch of no bean Paleo hummus with pumpkin puree. It adds a gentle sweetness, a vibrant color and even a little extra snazzy creaminess to the original recipe. Top that with a little smoked paprika and this is one heck of a dip! Best part? It will take you all of 2 minutes to make if you’ve got a mini food processor. Let’s face it: nothing beats fast, healthy AND tasty in the kitchen!

No Bean Paleo Pumpkin Hummus
makes just over 1 1/2 cups

Pumpkin Hummus 3 WM

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup peeled & chopped zucchini
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Directions:

  1. Add all ingredients to a mini food processor.
  2. Process until everything is combined and the texture is as smooth as you like – that’s it! Drizzle with a little extra olive oil for prettiness before serving.

A former vegetarian, Rach at Meatified originally came upon the Paleo lifestyle while looking for a way to improve her health after years of Hashimoto’s disease. She writes original recipes that are grain and sugar free while trying to finally figure out how to work the camera she shamelessly “borrowed” from her husband. When she’s not in the kitchen, she can usually be found planning her perfect future mini farmstead in gloriously overly-exaggerated detail.

You can find Meatified on Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter, too!

Recipe shared on: Real Food Forager and Healthy Roots Happy Soul 

Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes Tagged With: bean free hummus, dairy free hummus, gluten-free, grain-free, no bean hummus, paleo hummus, pumpkin dip

Stressful, Corporate Job to Homesteading and Living in a Yurt

September 8, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 3 Comments

I am so excited that Erin from Blue Yurt Farms is sharing a piece of her life with all of us. Her story is so similar to mine (which I still need to share someday). The lure of homesteading calls even the most “corporate” of us all. I believe it’s because that is what we are designed to do. I hope you enjoy what she writes and I, truly, hope it encourages you to start thinking about what you can do to take a step towards raising your own food and enjoying the beautiful world around us. 

As I sit here in my big blue yurt, with a happy dog curled in a bright sun spot and chickens clucking outside…I think back to five years ago and how impossible this would all sound. Back then, my husband, Mike, and I were working intense corporate jobs in NYC and living a polluted, processed, stress filled life. PM-byf8

We knew that we wanted to do something different with our lives, but we weren’t sure what exactly that meant or how to get there. A health scare around that time motivated us to change our eating habits to pastured only meat, and unprocessed, whole foods. That was definitely the step that got us moving toward our current homestead life.

The next step was finding a home based income stream to decrease our stress levels. As web designers by trade, it wasn’t a far jump to start our own business doing the same, but BOY was it stressful. Following your dreams is way, way more difficult than living with the status quo. But the rewards are also much higher, I can promise you that.

After the first two years of building up our business in the city, we were able to relocate to a semi-rural area in NJ. We still had constant traffic noise outside our windows, but at least we were living in an old farmhouse! Around that time we started visiting local farms and dreaming of a future with chickens of our own.

Our friends laughed at us for making kombucha, butter and our own hamburger buns, but we loved any little taste of homestead. We even convinced our neighbors to collaborate on a garden space.

Imagine six mid-20 adults laughing and giggling through Home Depot with grow lights and seed starters…and you might come to the same conclusion as the employees did. “Suuuure you’re growing vegetables, sure you are,” they said.

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But we truly were that excited about the prospect of growing our own food, as were our friends. The garden that year was a bit of a flop, from a growing standpoint since we were all such beginners, but we were bitten by the homestead bug and hard. That first home grown sugar snap pea was the best we’d ever had (it was probably the most expensive sugar snap too!).

Thanks to the hard work starting our own business years before, we were able to look nationwide for our perfect homestead spot. The only criteria for work was that we had high speed internet! Initially we were drawn toward Oregon, for the amazing food culture and hipster vibe. We even had a flight booked to visit the entire west coast, starting in San Francisco and driving up to Seattle.

Then I picked up a copy of Mother Earth News, and read their annual “Great Places You’ve Maybe Never Heard Of” and one in particular, Floyd, VA, cried out to me. After re-reading the one page description a few times, I walked over to Mike and said, “this is where we’re moving.”

We scheduled a quick weekend trip down the following month, and loved it just as much as we thought we would. Three months later we hauled all of our belongings from NJ to the mountains of VA and a year after that, we moved into our yurt on 22 acres.

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It has been a roller coaster ride, and our dream is still evolving, but I’m so glad we took those first steps back when we did. If we hadn’t, I wouldn’t be sharing fresh eggs from our free range chickens with friends, enjoying a meal made from meat we raised on our farm and enjoying clear, unpolluted night skies.

PM-byf2
PM-byf7One step can make all the difference, even if it feels like a teeny tiny step to you right now. Who knows where YOU’LL be in five years. Perhaps a yurt in the mountains of VA, or feeding your friends and neighbors out of a backyard garden, or managing an urban farm on a city rooftop.

The sky is the limit, what’s your dream? What step will you make today?

erin-kelly

Erin and her husband, Mike, left their stressful urban lives two years ago to live in a big blue yurt on 22 rolling acres in rural Southwest Virginia. A rag tag mix of farm animals keeps them company, from oinking pigs to honking geese. They’re slowly using sustainable methods and animal power to rehabilitate their land…one acre at a time. Follow their adventures on the Blue Yurt Farms blog or Facebook page.

Find Blue Yurt Farms Online:

Follow their Blog
Follow them on Facebook
Follow them on Instagram
Follow them on Pinterest
Buy their E-book, “So, You Wanna Live in a Yurt?” 

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged With: dreams, free range chickens, homesteading, raising your own food, stressful job, yurt

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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