Sweet Potato Brownies

Who doesn’t love brownies…seriously I have yet to meet a single person. One of the biggest challenges I had when I started cutting out my allergens and becoming Paleo was finding anything to eat as a desert. This recipe was what I needed, and for those of you wondering it did pass “my husband test”.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups shredded sweet potato, about 1 medium sweet potato (I prefer the orange sweet potato for this recipe)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (make sure you get real vanilla extract)
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder (you want this heaping so don’t make it exact)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons coconut flour
coconut oil

RECIPE

Heat oven to 365°F. Mix sweet potato, eggs, agave, olive oil and vanilla in a bowl making sure they are combined well. Add baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powered and coconut flour to wet mixture, incorporate throughly. Grease a 9×9 baking pan with coconut oil and add mixture so that it is roughly 3/4″-1″ thick. Bake for roughly 30 minutes or until you can insert a pick tooth and it comes out clean.

For anyone new to gluten-free baking, I’ve learned that you should try to keep the oven door closed as much as possible. If you open it regularly, you tend to get baked goods that fall flat.

Happy Baking!

Melissa Van Dover

@mvandover | melissavandover.com

Yam Fries and Spicy Aioli

Just because we’re Paleo doesn’t mean we can’t indulge in fries, especially healthy homemade yam fries. They make a great little (but filling!) snack and an excellent side to just about any dish, plus they are incredibly easy to make.

INGREDIENTS

1 yam
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup paprika

RECIPE

Set the oven to 425 degrees F.
Peel the yam and slice it into thin strips.
In a medium sized pot, bring water to the boil and cook the yam strips on high for a few minutes (they should still be firm when you remove them from the pot).
Remove the yams from the boiling water and lay out on a foil-lined baking sheet.
In a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil until liquid.
Drizzle the coconut oil over the yams and then sprinkle with paprika.
Place in the oven for about 15 minutes (or longer if you prefer them crispy).
Remove from the oven and serve hot!

SPICY AIOLI

For a quick and tasty dipping sauce combine the following in a small bowl (or blender if you prefer it pureed):

1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons coconut milk
1/2 jalapeño, finely chopped
1 teaspoon raw agave nectar

Snack time should be satisfying! Enjoy,

Camilla Carboni

@camillacarboni | camillacarboni.com

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

This is another great “week night” recipe. It takes roughly 30 minutes, you need only 1 pot and it is absolutely amazing. It passed what I call “my husband” test, essentially if my husband likes it, most people will like it. He’s not super adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so I consider him liking this recipe a mini-victory.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground, sweet pork sausage (most natural food stores have great Paleo, organic options)
32 ounces organic, natural chicken stock
24 ounces water
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
2 cups chopped organic kale
2 medium sweet potatoes ( I used white sweet potatoes for this recipe)

RECIPE

Wash and peel sweet potatoes, slice into 1/4″ slices. Place water, chicken stock, potatoes, salt and pepper into a pot and cover. Bring to a boil and remove cover. Add sausage too boiling mixture, breaking it up with your hands. Reduce to medium-high heat, stir occasionally. Test potatoes with a fork, see if you can easily push the fork through the sweet potatoes (about 20 minutes). When you can easily poke through the sweet potatoes add chopped kale to the mixture and stir in. Cover and let stew for 5 minutes. It’s ready to serve!

This is a great savory & sweet recipe. As a note of caution, let the soup cool down for a bit before you try to eat it. Otherwise you’ll end up burning your tongue a bit, and for those of you who are curious, yes I know this from personal experience.

Hope This Keeps You Warm!

Melissa Van Dover

@mvandover | melissavandover.com

A Successful Cookie Demo at Vitamin Cottage

We had such a great time at our Valentine’s Paleo Cookie Demo on February 8th at Vitamin Cottage! We want to send a special thank you to Vitamin Cottage for hosting us. We can’t wait until our next demo which will be focused on Paleo appetizers. We’re also going to prepare a Paleo breakfast demo due to the high demand, so stay tuned for details on dates and times.

For those of you who where there, thank you for participating!

Here are a few photographs to commemorate a successful event!

If you weren’t able to make it visit The Paleo Pact on Facebook to download your free copy of our Cookie eBook.

Camilla and Melissa

Valentine’s Cookie Demo at Vitamin Cottage

It’s the month of love and what better way to celebrate than by baking a batch (or two!) of chocolate chip Paleo Cookies? That’s exactly what we’ll be demonstrating tomorrow at 2pm at Vitamin Cottage, Littleton.

In preparation, we spent this evening baking giveaway samples of both Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Orange Zest Cookies, much to the enticement of the shoppers who were drawn to the sweet scent of Cookie heaven.

Here’s a sneak peak of the pre-baked cookies…

Here’s us in baking mode…

And this is what you can expect tomorrow…

We hope to see you then!

If you can’t make it visit The Paleo Pact on Facebook to download your free copy of our Cookie eBook.

Camilla and Melissa

Sweet Morning Iced Chai

This is a great pick me up in the morning. My favorite part is that you don’t have to wait forever for it to cool down, which anyone whose’s made a jug of ice tea knows how long hot tea takes to cool down.

INGREDIENTS

12 ounces of water
1 chai tea bag (Tazo is always great and it’s organic)
2 black tea bags (you can substitute decaf here if you’re not big on caffeine)
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup of ice (you can adjust the amount depending on your drink container)

RECIPE

Bring 12 ounces of water to boil (an electric kettle is great for this). Place 3 tea bags into a glass and pour water over the tea bags and let steep for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes remove the tea bags and discard, mix in 1 tablespoon of honey. Fill your tumbler (or tea container) with ice and pour tea mixture over ice. Add more ice if necessary. You’re good to go!

Have a Chai-tastic Morning!

Melissa Van Dover

@mvandover | melissavandover.com

Sweet Citrus Chicken Wings

These chicken wings are baked, so other than the five minutes of prep-time and the 45-55 minutes of waiting while they bake, this recipe is super simple, succulent and superbly delicious. Chicken wings have never been so sweet…

INGREDIENTS

6 fresh/defrosted chicken wings
4 dates, chopped
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange (blood orange is my favorite)
6 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon thyme

RECIPE

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Place the chicken wings in an oven dish and top with the coconut oil.
Add the chopped dates.
Drizzle with 1/2 the orange juice and sprinkle with 1/2 the paprika.
Place in the oven and set the timer to 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and turn the chicken wings.
Drizzle with the other 1/2 of the orange juice and sprinkle with the other half of 1/2 the paprika.
Place back in the oven for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve the chicken hot, drizzled with the date and orange sauce from the oven dish and topped with the thyme.

Enjoy!

Camilla Carboni

@camillacarboni | camillacarboni.com

Paleo Teriyaki Lettuce Wraps

This will become your “go to”, “1 pot”, “30 minute” week night dinner. It’s Paleo and it’s delicious. Here are our Paleo inspired teriyaki lettuce wraps!

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon garlic coconut oil (you can substitute this with other Paleo oils if needed)
5 tablespoons teriyaki sauce (here’s a great link to a Paleo teriyaki sauce)
3 tablespoons hot chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup sliced and chopped carrots
1/2 red onion diced
2 pounds organic, grass-fed ground beef
1 head iceberg lettuce

RECIPE

Heat coconut oil in a large frying pan on low, medium heat. Add carrots, onion, black pepper and salt to pan, cook roughly 5-7 minutes until the carrots and onion start to become soft. Increase heat to medium and add ground beef and 3 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, let cook until meat has browned. Drain excess fat from the mixture and place back on the stove. Add remaining teriyaki sauce and chili sauce, allow to cook for 3 more minutes at medium heat and then turn stove down to warm(or your lowest setting).

Slice the bottom off of the iceberg lettuce remove outside lettuce leafs and discard. Begin to peel off leafs and place on plate to use as lettuce cups. note: when you get towards the end, you can shred the remainder of the lettuce and make a salad.

For reference, NuCo is the flavored coconut oil I found in my local health food store.

Happy Cooking!

Melissa Van Dover

@mvandover | melissavandover.com

Agave Spiced Sausage

Our favorite new breakfast treat: Agave Spiced Sausage!

If you’re anything like me, protein for breakfast is a must and as much as I love bacon, sometimes switching it up makes life a little more interesting.

This recipe couldn’t be easier:

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/2 pound breakfast sausage
1 tablespoon coconut oil

RECIPE

Place the sausage in a small bowl.
Using your hands, work the agave and Italian Seasoning into the sausage meat.
Once well combined, form the mixture into patties.
Heat the coconut oil in a medium saucepan.
Grill the patties until well done, turning periodically.
Serve hot and enjoy!

Camilla Carboni

@camillacarboni | camillacarboni.com

Paleo French Onion Soup

Here’s an easy French Onion Soup Recipe. It won’t take you more than 45 minutes and it’s one of those get it started and forget about it recipes!

INGREDIENTS

5 small to medium yellow onions
4 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 bay leafs
48 oz. beef stock (organic)
10 oz. water

RECIPE

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot on high.
2. Slice onions and place into pot with salt and pepper. Cook and stir occasionally until light brown.
3. Pour in beef stock, water and add bay leafs. Return to a boil.
4. Cover and change heat to simmer.
5. Let simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

Have fun!

Melissa Van Dover

@mvandover | melissavandover.com