Crumbly Choco-Pumpkin "Cheesecake"

I swear it tastes better than it looks! ;)

Do you love chocolate? What about cheesecake? And pumpkin too? "YES, YES, YES!" should be your answer. ;) I know that's what I would say. Anyways, this is my humble attempt to combine some of Brent's and my favorite treats--chocolate, pumpkin, and cheesecake. 

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour

4 tsp honey

3/4 cup coconut butter

1 and 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice

1 and 1/2 tsp honey

1/4 cup 100% coco powder

1/2 cup coconut cream from can of coconut milk*

1/4 cup organic pumpkin

1/16 tsp freshly ground clove (or a few good shakes)

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cinnamon

*Tip: Let the can chill in your fridge for a few hours before, then skim off the cream that rises and settles at the top.

Method

Start by blending the cup of almond flour and 4 tsp of honey in a Ninja or blender. Then, press into your dish round or pie pan using a spoon or your fingers to form a crust.

In a medium or large mixing bowl, blend the coconut butter, lime juice and 1 and 1/2 tsp of honey. This is the "cheesecake" base. Split the mixture, scooping about half of it into another medium or large mixing bowl.

Next, blend the coco powder and coconut cream with first half of "cheesecake" base in the large bowl.

Mix the organic pumpkin, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon in with the second half of "cheesecake" base.

Finally, layer the mixes over the crust, pressing each layer gently down with a spoon (or your fingers--who doesn't love to use their fingers?!) to form a solid surface. 

As you can see, I chose to have a layer of chocolate mixture, then a layer of the pumpkin mixture, and lastly a second layer of the chocolate mixture. 

Allow the whole thing to chill in your refrigerator for at least 5 minutes before serving.

I'll be the first to admit, it's a little dry; but Brent and I think the flavors are good. I'll be sure to keep tinkering with this recipe (and post successful updates) so that it's in prime condition for our Paleo Thanksgiving. This year, we're hosting both parents and some of my siblings--it's going to be a zoo! I'm hoping this dessert will tame the masses, that is, if the tryptophan from the turkey doesn't. :-p

Dairy-Free Mocha Latte

I'm working from home this morning and with the sudden onset of dreary weather (the past few days have been in the 80's and bright, but this morning it was a chill 57 and grey out), I was in the mood for something warm and comforting. "Coffee?" I thought, "No... Maybe tea? No. Maybe, later." I sighed, I wanted something but I wasn't sure what. So I tidied up my breakfast dishes and started to make my way downstairs to my office.

Curried Ground Pork with Carrots and Celery

Last weekend Brent and I bought a couple cookbooks on sale at the local Barnes & Noble, and one of them was called The Curry Bible. Brent and I love food. Yes, we eat Paleo more and more frequently; but we love food, all kinds of it. Curry is one of my favorite things to eat out. All this Paleo business has kept us from going out to eat. Now, that's awesome because we're saving big money not eating out. But it's a little less awesome because we're not going out to eat for some of our favorite things (like curry!).

So, this weekend, despite being insanely busy (and not with the usual stuff like cleaning house and grocery shopping and cooking multiple big meals to have all week), I made sure to make some time for experimentation.

My one and only curry recipe that I make at home is a peanut-butter curry chicken. OMG I love that stuff. YUM. It is near and dear to my heart, but alas, peanuts are a legume and thus off-limits all through the Whole30 Challenge (oh wait, that's right, it's over! woah...) and generally not acceptable even when we're doing a 80/20 approach to Paleo. You know--80% Paleo, 20% whatever-we-want.

I guess Brent and I are pretty much sticking to Paleo (at least 80/20) from now on, with the occasional cheat day. This isn't an official decision, just something that seems to be happening. So, still in this 100% Paleo mindset and knowing that we had approximately 1 pound of ground pork desperately in need of being used hanging out in the fridge, I decided to try creating my own curried ground pork recipe. We also had plenty of onion and garlic (typical), lots spices in the cabinet (also typical), and a few select veggies in the fridge (carrots and celery, also in desperate need of being used soon). 

I started by looking through a few recipes in The Curry Bible. Then, I rummaged through our pantry and sniffed (yes, literally sniffed) a variety of different spices next to the curry powder.  This may sound a bit silly, but I find it very effective: I hold the curry powder in one hand near my nose, and then in the other hand hold one or two other spices at a time; I then sniff all three more or less at the same time, somewhat waving them in front of my nose so I can get all the scents as close to simultaneously as possible. In this case, I feel pretty confident it worked out. 

And so, without further adieu, here is my new Curried Ground Pork with Carrots and Celery recipe...