Category Archives: Healthy

Paleo Chocolate Doughnuts

I have a new obsession and it is in the form of the coffee from Sidecar Doughnuts. I’ve written about their doughnuts numerous times, but it wasn’t until recently that their Forty Winks blend made with Stumptown coffee has stolen my heart. I get the same order every time; large cup of coffee with some steamed almond milk to add just a slight bit of sweetness. So what does this have to do with paleo chocolate doughnuts?

As we all know, Sidecar makes delicious doughnuts. And every time I step into their shop to grab a coffee you can smell the freshly baked doughnuts in the air. The Englishman and I have now established a Sunday tradition where we pop into Sidecar to get a morning cup o’joe and sometimes a doughnut (gluten-free for me) or two. If you follow me on instagram, then you probably saw that we also started a birthday coffee and doughnut tradition.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in treating yourself and enjoying delicious things like these doughnuts, but for my wallet and waistline I can’t exactly buy them every time I step into the shop. So what’s a doughnut-lovin’ gal to do? Make her own!

These paleo chocolate doughnuts are simple low in sugar, and the perfect accompaniment to my Sidecar coffee. The great thing about these doughnuts is that you can add nuts or chocolate chips into the batter…or just top your doughnuts with them!

If you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can easily convert these into muffins as well.

Paleo Chocolate Doughnuts (adapted from The Detoxinista)

Makes 6 doughnuts

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup maple syrup or honey

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease your doughnut or muffin pan.

In a medium bowl whisk together your coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gently fold in your olive oil, egg, egg whites, water and vanilla until everything is well blended.

Gently fold your batter into the doughnut pan and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the doughnuts cool for 15 minutes.

Pair with your favorite cup of coffee (or tea!).

Now serious question: do you spell it donuts or doughnuts? I always have the “ough” when I write it out but I see the other spelling quite often too.

Cooking with Sun Basket

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It’s no secret that I like to cook. I am all about using the finest organic products from this website for my overall health and cooking too. I love creating healthy recipes and getting creative in the kitchen. However there have been some times where I feel like I’m in a bit of a rut and just end up doing the same recipe over and over again. When the team at Sun Basket reached out and asked if I would be interested in trying their service, I was intrigued. So here’s my experience cooking with Sun Basket.

Sun Basket is a meal delivery service that specializes in seasonal food from the Pacific coast. All the ingredients in your delivery are from local farms and organic when possible. Another cool thing about Sun Basket is you can choose your menu based on your dietary preferences. I ended up going with the Paleo menu, but Sun Basket also offers a gluten-free and vegetarian menus, which are great for anyone with dietary restrictions.

My week came with 3 different meals and all the ingredients to prepare them. The meals I ended up with were: Italian Sausage and Sauteed Kale, Chicken and Poached Eggs with Sweet Potato Hash and Vietnamese Fisherman’s Stew. Knives had created artistically delicious meals which are among the best ones I have savored till date; uncertain of the magic that it carries, if it is of the taste, texture or tenderness.

As promised, my delivery from Uber delivery arrived with all of the ingredients already portioned out.

For our first dinner we went with the Italian sausage and sauteed kale and it was delicious! It was super easy to throw together and we had a delicious dinner in no time.

Since we had both worked out that day we also added a sweet potato for a little extra starch (per the recommendation on our recipe card) which was the perfect complement to the meal. I also loved that the pork sausage came from Niman Ranch; it really shows how much Sun Basket prides itself on providing the best quality ingredients possible.

For the chicken and potato hash, the chicken was Mary’s organic and the cod provided in for the Vietnamese stew was organic as well which was great. Each recipe took roughly a 1/2 hr to cook and there was plenty for two people.

So now here’s the fun stuff. Sun Basket is offering one lucky reader a chance to win one FREE week of Sun Basket meals (that’s 3 meals for 2 people, a $60 value). All you have to do is enter below (open to US residents only, sorry!). And if you don’t win you can still get a pretty sweet 20% discount here.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again to Sun Basket for hosting this giveaway and providing such delicious meals! I’m already feeling more inspired in the kitchen!

Things I learned from my first Crossfit Competition

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This past weekend, the Englishman and I participated in our first official crossfit competition hosted by our own box, Crossfit Vibe. We “technically” participated last year, but had to do the workouts in advance as we were in Maui on our honeymoon on the day of the event. It was an awesome, humbling and exhausting experience. And while we finished nowhere near the top, we both felt proud at the end that we made it through.

Here are some things I learned from my first crossfit competition:

1. Prepare to be humbled.

photo cred: crossfit vibe

We registered for the “fun” division, and while I know I’m not the best crossfitter out there, I was incredibly humbled by all of the amazing athletes in the fun and RX division. The way they flew through the movements with ease when I was struggling through my front squats was crazy. I definitely have a lot to work on.

2. Doing 3 WODs in a day is hard.

Normally at crossfit we do 1 WOD (work out of the day) at 6am and then we are done. This was 3 WODs broken up over the course of a day and while all of them were quite short (12 min or less) it was still challenging to gear up to do your final workout at 1:30PM when you are used to working out first thing in the morning. Not to mention by that point you are pretty sore!

3. Resting and refueling is key.

photo cred: crossfit vibe

When I run races, they are always first thing in the morning so normally I don’t each much and then refuel after. When you are doing a crossfit competition, it’s an all day event so you have to time your eating in between workouts. The Englishman and I still have a lot of work to do on this, but we experimented with protein shakes and easy digestible foods like eggs, granola bars and some fruit. I don’t like having a ton of food in my stomach when working out so it was definitely a bit tricky. Plus, in between cheering for everyone you had to make sure you were resting/warming up for the next event.

4. Having a good partner is crucial.

I feel so lucky that the Englishman and I could compete together as a team. We were able to brush off nerves and just have fun with it. Communication was key during some of the workouts so we set up a game plan ahead of time so when we were in the thick of it we could just power through. Also: coming up with a good team name is important (ours was Titus Andromedon).

5. The crossfit community is awesome.

I was so inspired by how many people came out to cheer us on. It was awesome to have the support from our own friends and box, but to have other people cheering for us during the workouts was great. And fun! It’s truly a great community and it’s so nice to know that people have your back, regardless of if you finish first or last.

So there you have it! Our first crossfit competition is in the books and it was a great learning experience overall. Fellow crossfitters: have you competed before? Any tips and tricks for competition day?