paleo – Northern Produced, Southern Seduced.

Cookie Monster

April 4, 2015April 22, 2015 danicote

I’ve made a lot of great choices since The 30 Clean ended and a lot of choices that were not so great. Between heading home for my Papa’s funeral, apartment hunting and wanting to “reintroduce” certain foods back in I’ve kind of been a hot mess.

I’ve decided that on Monday, the day after Easter, I would get back on track. I don’t plan on eating foods that are 30 Clean compliant 100% of the time, but want to aim for 70-80% of the foods to be pretty close. Very veggie heavy, lean proteins, fruit, nuts, seeds and healthy oils. I’ve already started experimenting with making my own desserts to avoid buying stuff from stores and restaurants that will be loaded with too much sugar and a whole lot of other stuff that I want to cut out.

I loved the Avocado Cookies that were feautured on Pure Barre’s blog and the Chocolate Brownie Bites from Our Paleo Life.

Today, I thought it would be a good idea to google “Best Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies”. Y’all this is so me:

…I came across Livin’ Paleo’s “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I’ve Ever Made” post. I had all the ingredients. Boom. Correction, I didn’t have almond flour, but had almond meal and figured I’d give it a try.

She’s not kidding when she said that they would spread out when cooking. Make sure you make 12. I only made 9 and I now have something that looks like a cookie cake. Hey, I’m not complaining. These cookies don’t need to impress anyone.

Cookie Do I like them? Of course I do.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Saturday! ❤

Dine

My First Date

April 2, 2015April 22, 2015 danicote

When I was at Trader Joe’s the other day I threw a container of Fancy Medjool Dates into my cart. What was I going to do with them? No idea. I’ve never purchased dates before and if I hadn’t happened to see them I wouldn’t even know where to look for them. During The 30 Clean I had come across a ton of recipes for Paleo desserts that called for dates and now that I could make desserts I figured why not?

I’ve been thinking about Dairy Queen’s 75th Fanniversary blizzard that came out on March 30th since I first got the email about it. Yes, I get emails about stuff like this. I mean who even wants “deliciously decadent salted caramel truffles, this Blizzard® treat also packs buttery toffee pieces, rich cocoa fudge, and choco chunks, all blended with creamy vanilla soft serve” anyways?

Towards the end of the day I texted my boyfriend and said I may go get one and asked if he wanted one. His reply, “I’m staying away from that stuff.” Wait, what?! Ugh, nevermind. I guess at least one of us learned something from the challenge 😉

Why must you continuously torture me?!

I got home and remembered that I had the container of dates and didn’t want them to go to waste. I always look for excuses and reasons to rationalize – NOT ok. I remember seeing a recipe on my friend Christina’s blog for Chocolate Brownie Bites. After hunting it down, I realized it was the same recipe that my friend Ashley had used to make for her husband when she was doing The 30 Clean. Come to find out, I had all the ingredients. Perfect. Right?

Everything would’ve been perfect if I had thought about what I was doing before I threw everything into my Vitamix. I placed all the ingredients in the correct order in the Vitamix, but apparently that wasn’t going to cut it. I should’ve put in one ingredient at the time and then let the Vitamix do it’s magic before adding in the next ingredient. After overheating my Vitamix two times, I finally was able to make these delightful treats. Luckily, things got a little messy and I had to lick multiple utensils clean once I was finished.

Photo Credit: Our Paleo Life

Mine are currently in the freezer so they can get nice and chilled. Then, I plan to move them to the fridge (as I take them out to eat one).

The recipe can be found at Our Paleo Life. What are you waiting for?! Go make them! This girl will not be sharing. Just kidding. I might. 🙂

Update: KEEP THEM IN THE FREEZER! They will taste like brownie flavored cookie dough. ❤

Dine, Play

Saturday Solace

March 28, 2015April 22, 2015 danicote

It’s been eight weeks since I was in Charlotte on a SaturDAY. This morning I taught two classes, stayed and chatted with my friend Stephanie for a bit and then headed to Whole Foods to pick up an essential ingredient.

I got home, made some bacon and eggs (yes, I included my veggies, Cleaners) and poured myself a glass of champagne. Luckily, I had picked up oranges earlier in the week and squeezed some fresh orange juice in and threw the slices in to my flute.

I had been eyeing the Avocado Cookies that were featured on Pure Barre’s Blog yesterday. After brunch I found myself staring at them again and figured it was only a matter of time before I made them, so why wait?

Photo Credit: Pure Barre Blog – my cookies weren’t as pretty. Hey, I was a little too anxious to try them once I smelled the cookie dough.

Oh. My. It’s basically a brownie flavored cookie. I highly suggest these cookies. I threw in shredded coconut (recipe suggests adding either walnuts or coconut and I am loco for coco so coconut it was!) The aforementioned essential ingredient was the chocolate chips that I needed for the recipe. I’ve only tried the cookies warm so can’t vouch for them other than that. I told Stephanie I would bring her some…at least that way I knew I wouldn’t eat them all in one sitting.

My boyfriend went out of town for the day with a friend and I had nothing that I HAD to do today. Woah, what? Might as well take advantage. There’s some things I’ve been meaning to do and wanted to get some cleaning and organizing done so figured I would do just that. I’m often go go go, but I’ve gotten so much better about slowing down, taking time for myself and learning to do a little thing called relaxation.

A little over a month ago my Mom had ordered two DateCrates. I had shared the link with her after I saw that a former coworker of mine and her husband had started the company.

We offer creative and unique dates with your interests in mind. Each date’s description provides a brief overview of the activity, but the items included in the crate are left a mystery. Who doesn’t love a good surprise!

The couple started the company after they were

“…inspired by friends who encouraged us to invest time in our marriage each month. In courtship the focus is on each other, but in marriage the focus tends to shift. One of the greatest enemies of romance is busyness. We created DateCrates with the hope that it will give you time to invest in your relationship.”

The two DateCrates that my Mom ordered are pictured below:

DateCrate S’mores are heaven sent.

DateCrate I am way too excited to crank that popping machine after I get a RedBox.

Both come with a great card that essentially gives you instructions for the contents of the crate. Super cute and great gift idea.

I love the concept and wish my friend, Caroline and her husband the best of luck with their new business venture. ❤

Speaking of loving concepts. I received the sweetest package from a friend today. One part of the gift can best be described through this photo:

Lori #PegItForward

On the opposite side of each clothespin is the hashtag #PegItForward. Lori wrote the following message on the opposite side of the sparkly purple paper (when I first typed this I wrote sparkly purple hair – wonder if she intentionally chose purple?!)…

“Creating positivity by secretly distributing messages of goodwill throughout the world via something as simple as a peg!”

How cool?! I love it. It’s like a non stop Easter egg hunt. I can’t wait to put these in various places and see if I’m able to track down the person who finds it via social media.

I love being reminded of the awesome people that I get to interact with on a regular basis. I am so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life. Thank you, Lori!

For the rest of the day and evening, I plan to:

Research apartment complexes in Greenville, SC – please send me your suggestions if you have any. Yes, you read that correctly, we will be moving a little further South in the next month or so. Stay tuned for more details…
Cook up something delicious for dinner (even if it’s my leftover spaghetti squash and homemade marinara sauce) and spend some time bookmarking some new recipes to try. For my meals, I’ve still been sticking to 30 Clean compliant foods. Can’t say the same for some treats and sips that I’ve had though.
Get some of that organizing and cleaning done that I mentioned.
Enjoy the time with Me, Myself & I.
Catch up on some of my favorite blogs.

What do you like to do for YOU? Do you feel like YOU time often gets pushed further and further down your “To Do” list? If so, start to find a way where it can get pushed a little closer to the top of your list!