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Turmeric

Sweet Potato Paleo Muffin Recipe

August 18, 2015

Sweet Potato Paleo Muffins

I don’t own a measuring spoon.

In the beginning it wasn't intentional. I had misplaced the ones that I did own. But weird as it sounds, I found this freedom from measurement liberating. With all the other things I obsess and perfect over in my life, cooking should be the one thing I can do without rules. Everything I need, I can get from my silverware or the pinch of my fingers.

When I first taught myself to cook, I followed recipes as if it was the word of God. I could not begin the process until I had spent at least an hour looking for the perfect recipe. And then I might change my mind 10 more times. And then, if I was missing one ingredient, I'd change my mind 10 more.

Paleo Sweet Potato Muffins

But as I got more comfortable, I realized how much more freeing it was to close out of the recipe on my phone, drop the measuring spoon, and just eyeball it.

This is all well and good for cooking. But they tell me (you know, the imaginary kitchen police) that this approach can’t be done for baking.

Baking requires formulas. Baking requires science. And baking most definitely requires measuring spoons.

Umm, respectfully, I say, F that.

I baked the meanest muffins this weekend (mean as in AWESOME), and I totally ignored the rules. Yes, I did consult a few recipes first (to get inspired), but then I just went for it.

I realize that it may take awhile for newbie cooks to get to this point. Obviously for me it took years of trial and error and obsessing. Which is why, before I dive into the recipe, I wanted to share with you a post that I did awhile back that helped me understand why formulas are used in baking – cookies specifically. If I could understand that, then I could be creative within the parameters of the rules. I highly recommend reading it it if you would like to come up with your own recipes:

Healthy Stacey Cookie Creation Guide

HealthyStaceyCookieCreation

Now, this time around, I didn't make cookies. I made muffins. But the process wasn't much different than cookies. (I'm sure many bakers would disagree with me)….

You've got your wet ingredients, your dry ingredients and your main ingredient – what creates the flavor. You mix them up seperately, then you mix them together. Then add in any finishing touches (i.e. a chocolate chip or a dried berry).

I knew I wanted something sweet. But not too sweet; something I could eat for breakfast, but also dessert. I had oodles of sweet potatoes that needed to be used before they went bad. And I wanted to use ingredients that boost the nutrition factor up a few notches.

And thus, Sweet Potato Paleo Muffins were born! Complete with nutrient-packed sweet potatoes, anti-inflammatory turmeric and healthy-fat coconut oil. Naturally sweetened with dates and a bit of maple syrup. And, best of all, the perfect dense/moist texture with just enough sweet to satisfy that nagging tooth.

Below is the recipe.

I realize the irony here that I’m writing a post about not following a recipe by giving you a recipe. But what I want you to do is feel inspired by the possibility that you don’t have to follow it to a T. You can be a little loose, and have a lot more fun.

So follow it. Don’t follow it. But whatever you do, don’t overthink it. Just test the batter as you go, add more good-tasting things if it’s not tasting good enough (your batter is a pretty heavy indicator of your final product), use common sense, and enjoy the process.

Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe

Sweet Potato Paleo Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 6 pasture-raised eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter, clarified butter/ghee, or coconut oil, melted – I like this one
  • 1 teaspoon pure star anise extract (because that’s what I had – feel free to use vanilla extract)
  • 1 cup of dates
  • ¼ cup of maple syrup
  • 3 cups shredded sweet potatoes
  • ¼ cup coconut flour
  • ¼ cup arrowroot flour
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
  • optional: 1/4 cup of some fun mix-in – dried cranberries, dried cherries, chocolate chiiiips!

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Put your cup of dates in a glass of water. You will let them soak for about the amount of time it will take you to do the next steps before you need to add in your dates (10 minutes or so).
  3. Prep your counter ahead of time with the following: 1 dry bowl (bowl for dry ingredients), 1 wet bowl (just guess what this one’s for), a muffin tin or muffin liners spread with coconut oil or butter so the batter doesn’t stick, snd a food processor.
  4. Pulverize the sweet potatoes in a food processor with a shredder. It took me about 10 sweet potatoes, but I was using the organic Trader Joe’s sweet potatoes which are unusually small. Unload them to a seperate bowl (you'll be needing the food processor for the dates).
  5. Mix together the dry ingredients: coconut flour, arrowroot flour, sea salt, baking soda, turmeric and cinnamon.
  6. Whisk eggs in wet bowl.
  7. Time to take care of your dates! Drain half the water out of the glass of dates. Throw them in your food processor (no reason to rinse out the sweet potatoes mess; it’s all going the same place). Pulse until it’s a smooth liquid.
  8. Add in melted butter/oil, anise (or vanilla) extract, maple syrup and date syrup.
  9. Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  10. Fold in shredded sweet potatoes.
  11. Add in raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips – whatever floats your boat!
  12. Spoon the batter into your muffin tins or your muffin liners.
  13. Pop in oven for 25 minutes. Take out, check them with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Most likely, you’ll need 5-10 more minutes. But I’d rather you be safe than sorry.
  14. Once done, put on an upside down plate (or a cooling rack if you’re fancy like that). Do your darndest to wait until it cools off to eat one.

 

Much Love,

HealthyStaceySignature

Like what you read today? Think somebody else would like to learn how to create their own cookie recipe or make a mean sweet potato muffin? See those cute little social shapes underneath this post? They're for sharing! Click one to post to Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or comment right here on the blog. I would love to hear from you.

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Paleo Pumpkin Carrot Turmeric Muffins + What’s A Food Swap? I Want One!

July 7, 2015

A couple weeks back, I got the privilege of attending a conference called Eat Write Retreat. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time, and was so happy to find that it was everything I thought it would be and more. For three days straight, I was entrenched in good food, great ideas and inspiring, creative, foodie food bloggers. I was in health blog heaven.

EatWriteRetreat_CatalystRanchSevenLionsCarrotDish

ProsciuttoDiParma

SevenLionsApps

There were presentations, food tastings, sponsors, breakfasts, lunches, dinners and one very memorable activity called a Food Swap, run by a fellow Chicago blogger Emily Paster from West of the Loop. What is a Food Swap, you ask?

MuffinAerialShot

A Food Swap is essentially a bake sale in which the only currency is your own food. Each attendee was asked to bring their own homemade products and dress them up in pretty packages. We had 15 minutes or so to peruse everybody else’s goodies. When time was up, we scrambled for our top picks, hoping that the maker would be just as interested in our treat as we were in theirs. No money passes hands. Just food.

FoodSwapGoodies

Let me tell you, I cleaned UP. I had so many goodies – half of which I would never take the time to make myself, but I was so so happy to reap the benefits of others’ hard work. By the end of the swap, I walked home with:

And I paid for all of it with these babies:

Paleo Pumpkin Carrot Turmeric Muffins

PaleoPumpkinTurmericMuffins

Inspired by a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers – NomNomPaleo – this spongy, slightly spicy muffin is a paleo-approved combination of warm comforting ingredients. But I decided to make a few tweaks and add one very important ingredient that not only makes it more exotic, but also adds big health benefits. That’s right, my favorite anti-inflammatory friend – turmeric.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 large eggs at room temperature – huge fan of Vital Farms
  • 4 medium carrots, grated and squeezed of juice (final volume: 1½ cups shredded carrots)
  • 1 cup almond flour, spooned and leveled
  • ½ cup coconut flour, spooned and leveled
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder + more for sprinkling on top
  • 1 teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ¾ cup canned pumpkin purée – I order this brand by the dozen
  • ½ cup local honey
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower butter – my fav is MaraNatha
  • 1 teaspoon melted coconut oil + more for greasing muffin cups
  • 1 tablespoon sliced almonds
  • 1 tablespoon toasted pumpkin seeds

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Take your eggs out of the fridge (room temperature eggs = better blending)
  3. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and coat them with coconut oil for extra non-sticking assurance
  4. Grate carrots with food processor or by hand
  5. Place carrots in two sheets of cheese cloth, gather up the sides of the cloth, and squeeze the heck out of the carrots until they’re dry as a bone (I know it’s a pain, but skipping this step might make the muffin fall apart)
  6. In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, pumpkin spice, turmeric spice, baking soda, cream of tartar, ground cinnamon, and sea salt.
  7. In a separate bowl, mix together your room temperature eggs
  8. Add the pumpkin, honey, sunflower butter, and melted coconut oil
  9. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir
  10. Fold in the dry-as-a-bone carrots
  11. Scoop the batter evenly into your greased muffin tins/cups
  12. Toss pumpkin seeds on a sauté pan or put them in the oven for about 5 minutes to toast them
  13. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds and turmeric on top for a vibrant orange and green topping
  14. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the tin halfway through
  15. As soon as you can get a toothpick to come out clean, they are done!
  16. Transfer to a cooling rack and try to hold on as long as you can before you stuff one in your mouth and still burn your tongue (because you definitely did not hold on long enough)

BakingPaleoMuffins_HealthyStacey

Like what you read today? Think somebody else could benefit from a good anti-inflammatory muffin? See those cute little shapes underneat this post? They're for sharing! Click one to post to Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or comment right here on the blog. I would love to hear from you.

Cooking Without Thinking + Sweet Potato Carrot Soup Recipe

June 3, 2015

I made the most perfect meal last week. It was rich and creamy, a little sweet, a little savory. So robust, each sip hit every single craving spot – from tongue to tummy.

But my favorite part about this dish is that I made it with absolutely no recipe.

OrangeSoupInPot

On the train ride home from work, I had this mad craving for something soothing and comforting. I knew there wasn’t much in my refrigerator but leftover bone broth and a few odds and ends.

As soon as I walked in my apartment and opened the refrigerator door, it became clear: I would make soup.

It didn’t matter that it was May 26th and nice enough outside for light jackets and open-toed shoes. After a stressful day in freezing cold air-conditioned office, the very best thing for me would be soup.

And the ingredients to that soup would not come from a Pin, a cookbook or a blog. It would simply be determined by my cravings. I start to pull out leftovers from the shelves and scrape the bottom of the produce drawer…

Carrots. Sweet potatoes. Pumpkin. Turmeric.  

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Everything was turning up orange. The color of comfort in my book. Reminds me of fall candles, the summer sun and warm ooey gooeyness.

I got to work. I turned on Boys II Men (don't judge). And I didn't think too much.

I roasted the carrots so they could match the texture of the already roasted soft sweet potatoes. I found half an onion, chopped it up, and sautéed it in ghee on the bottom of my big silver soup pot. I sliced and diced up my turmeric root, tossed it in with the onions, and not soon after added the broth. As soon as the carrots were starting to soften, I swept them in the bowl too, along with their orange sweet potato counterpart.

Stir the pot. Set to simmer. And a look through the spice cabinet for any last minute additions. Paprika for smoke, cayenne for spice. A little hot red to add to the orange. And last but not least, a dash of salt and a few grinds of pepper.

And for the big finish. I removed the pan from the burner. Sat it on an upside-down plate. And waited impatiently for it to cool. As good as it would be just as it was. I knew nothing could beat the taste of blending every ingredient together to create one big, complex, hearty soup.

IMG_3578

So as soon as I deemed it ready, I carefully poured it in my food processor and pulverized it till the colors turned one bright sunset-orange. The end result? The just-enough-spice, more-than-enough layers of smooth and creamy, richest, fullest soup I have ever, ever had.

Now I’m not naïve enough to think that this soup was an “It’s so easy” dish. I hate when people tell me that and it’s so obviously time-consuming or complicated. And I don't say this to toot my own horn and declare my awesomenss in the kitchen. It was just that, in the midst of all this slicing and dicing, sautéing and roasting, I realized that this effortless cooking dance was only the result of years of practice. A culmination of reading recipe after recipe, Googling, pinning, researching, watching, asking, and prepping my kitchen with “odds and ends” that I’m guessing most people don’t have (turmeric root, anyone? Anyone?).

This soup never would have been easy or enjoyable for me to make 3 years, 2 years or even 1 year ago. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t revel in every single moment of it on that sunny, nice-enough-outside 26th of May.

Because that’s the day, I realized I can really cook. 

Wherever you are in your cooking journey, I beg you to try your version of my comfort soup. Drop the recipe book, put down your Pinterest and just cook. You never know. You just might surprise yourself.

Orange Comfort Soup

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I give you this recipe as a jumping off point. But I strongly encourage you to replace the ingredients with whatever you have in your refrigerator and suit it to your own tastes. That's the beauty of soup. Chop it up, roast it up, toss it in, pulverize it and cross your fingers. Yes, it could be complete crap. Or it could be delicious… 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 Carrots
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1 already roasted sweet potato
  • Turmeric root
  • 1 tablespoon pureed pumpkin
  • 3 cups of bone broth
  • 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
  • Ghee
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • pinch of cayenne
  • Salt & Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Dice up carrots into approximately 1 inch pieces.
  3. Drizzle or roll in coconut oil.
  4. Roast for 20 minutes.
  5. Note: If you're sweet potatoes aren't already roasted, you'll want to do start them first because they will take the longest (approximately 45 minutes).
  6. Saute chopped onion in ghee for approximately 5 minutes, or until the onions just begin to become translucent.
  7. Toss in sliced turmeric and saute another 1-2 minutes.
  8. Pour in bone broth and stir.
  9. Add roasted sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, paprika, cayenne and salt and pepper.
  10. Let it simmer for 5-10 mintues.
  11. Remove from heat and let cool.
  12. Pour soup into a food processor and pulverize until smooth and creamy.
  13. Enjoy every spoonful because you deserve it.

 

I want to hear from you guys! Have you seen yourselves grow in the kitchen? Or at least had that moment where everything came together perfectly? Does anybody else feel liberated by going recipe-less? Comment below!

Healthy Stacey Facelift + Carrot Ginger Smoothie Recipe

February 26, 2015

I love this blog. More like obsessed, actually. And I love what it has become over the past year and a half (or so). I'm getting some great feedback from you, my readers, telling me that my posts are inspiring you to have fun with your health and try new – sometimes odd – healthy things. Shout out to Angela who now drinks Kombucha instead of her morning coffee and Sarah who is using my recipes to help maintain her weight loss. That's awesome to hear. Like really really awesome. With that said…

I think I can do better. 

SO I wanted to let you all know that HealthyStacey.com is going to be going under a little construction over the next month (or so). A face lift, if you will. I will be rolling out a new look, new pages and new products. Yeah, you heard me. Products. I'm all grows up now. 

Please be patient with me as I may not be able to update it with the weekly-ish blog posts per usual. But once it's all complete, it's going to look AWESOME, be AWESOME, and YOU are going to love it. 

To keep you going in the meantime, I have included a great recipe below that just happens to be my latest obsession.

As always, thank you for being a reader. It means the world to me.

Much Love,
Stacey

CARROT GINGER SMOOTHIE 

Great for post-workout inflammation and deflating bloated stomachs

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cup of coconut water
  • 2 large carrots
  • 1 stub of fresh turmeric (or 1 teaspoon of the powdered spice)
  • 1 stub of fresh ginger 
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons Great Lakes gelatin (or protein powder if you don't have gelatin yet – but seriously, you should get it soon; my hair is looking awesome and my sore muscles are feeling great ever since I started using it).
  • Dash of coconut milk
  • 2-3 ice cubes

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Toss all ingredients in a NutriBullet (or blender of your choice)
  2. Drink up!

Note: If you're having it post workout, make sure to drink it in the first 30 minutes and go easy on the coconut milk. But if you're just enjoying it for the health benefits, go to town on the coconut milk and – Heck! Add a drizzle of honey while you're at it. Woooo. Somebody stop me. 

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