Taco Salad - Phase One Friendly

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought I'd post my original taco salad recipe. If you're following the Know the Cause Phase One Diet, if you're into low-carb, or if you're just a healthy eater, you'll love this recipe.

Taco Salad
1 – 1 ½ lbs grass-fed ground beef
Chopped onions & green peppers
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes (check ingredients! No sugar, etc)
Chili powder
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Pepper
Onion Powder

Sauté onions & peppers in olive oil until clear
Brown meat, break down into very small pieces
Add diced tomatoes
Add spices
Bring to a boil
Allow to simmer on Low 30 minutes, until liquid is reduced
Add garlic

Guacamole
1 avocado, diced
3 grape tomatoes
Green onion, roughly chopped tops & bottoms
2 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt
Mix together in Magic Bullet with Cross Blade,
Using Short Cup

Serve over a bed of leafy greens, grape tomatoes, and shredded yogurt cheese. Top with a dollop of real sour cream. Serves 3-4, depending on portion size.

Think Outside the Box - Snack Bar Recipe

For those of you who enjoy trail mix-type bars, I thought this recipe that I adapted from TBS Dinner & A Movie's "Cramming for the Bar" is a yummy alternative to those pre-packaged "healthy" snack bars with all the added sugar and grain. If you're following the Know the Cause Phase One Diet, or if you're just a healthy eater, you'll love this recipe.

Healthy Snack Bars
No Grain, No Sugar


Ingredients:
• 2 1/2 cup dried unsweetened cranberries and other berries
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1 cup raw almond slices
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1/4 cup raw pecans
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed
• 1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 5 tablespoons agave syrup or raw unpasteurized honey
• 1/4 cup Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

Directions:
1. Combine the dried fruit in a food processor. Pulse mixture 10-15 times until a ball forms. Add the remaining dry ingredients and continue pulsing until the nuts are chopped and the mixture begins to come together. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and add the oil and honey and knead 5 minutes until the mixture holds its shape in a ball.

2. To form the health food bars, line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap and press the mixture forcefully into the pan. Place another piece of plastic wrap over the top and then use a large rolling pin to compress the mixture into a solid block. Alternatively you can press into small cake molds or wrap in foil and twist tightly into cylinders.

3. Cut into bars. Bars can be left plain or coated in your favorite choice (i.e. sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, dehydrated coconut, green tea Mache, powdered cocoa, etc.) Freeze bars for 30 minutes and then wrap individually and keep refrigerated for longest shelf life.

Happy Happy Birthday Cake

Chocolate Fudgy Bundt Cake
No grain, No sugar
Adapted from Hannah Byers’ Original Chocolate Fudge Almond Butter Cake Recipe

2 cups almond butter
4 eggs
1 cup raw unpasteurized honey
1 tsp. baking soda

8 oz. unsweetened (100% cocoa) chocolate
2 sticks butter
1 cup xylitol* (or more or less to taste)
*This recipe is meant to have ½ cup raw honey in the chocolate mix, which would make the cake MUCH more moist. See Notes below for more info.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Melt butter, chocolate squares, and xylitol in a pot over low heat.
Mix almond butter, eggs, honey, and baking soda with mixer until smooth.
Pour in chocolate 2/3 of chocolate mixture, and beat until mixed.

Pour into a bundt cake pan, greased with extra virgin coconut oil and lightly coated with coconut flour. Bake for approx. 50 minutes at 350 degrees (if you use all honey instead of using xylitol in the chocolate mixture, you will probably need to bake up to 10 minutes longer)
Allow to cool 20 minutes, then flip out onto serving plate.
Reheat remaining chocolate mixture and drizzle over top.
Add fresh strawberries and/or raspberries to center.
Add a dollop of heavy whipping cream, whipped with stevia added, to taste

You can also divide ingredients for cake batter in half (as in Hannah’s original recipe) and pour into two round cake pans lined with parchment paper. Then you can make a filling and ice the top. The following is a recipe for filling/icing. Or you can just half the recipe and bake as brownies, too!

Icing/Filling:
1 8oz. cream cheese
1 stick butter
¼ cup raw unpasteurized honey
3 T. unsweetened cocoa, optional for chocolate icing (or more to taste)
You can also add heavy whipping cream and beat for an extended period to make it fluffier.

Notes:
1. I tried making this in the round pans and greasing the pans with coconut oil but the cake STILL stuck due to the gooiness of the honey. My MIL makes wedding cakes and advised me to line with parchment paper. You can’t do this in a bundt cake pan though. So you just have to carefully work it out of the pan before it’s cooled too much.

2. Almond butter can be expensive, but I do not recommend peanut butter because this is a healthy recipe and peanuts contain mycotoxins which are extremely harmful to the body. Cashew butter can also be used, which is less expensive. You can make your own almond butter (which will save a lot if you find a good price on almonds. Sam’s Club has 3lb. bags of plain unroasted almonds for $10) by putting almonds in a food processor, adding a small amount of almond oil, and mixing until a buttery texture.

3. You can substitute the xylitol in the chocolate mixture for ½ cup raw honey. I opted for xylitol because there was already so much honey in the cake, and honey is very high on the glycemic index, especially for people with diabetes, PCOD, thyroid disease, obesity, and other endocrine diseases.

4. Because this is a healthy recipe, I strongly recommend using eggs from free range, organic hens that are NOT fed grains; butter and other dairy products that are from grass-fed organic dairy; raw, unpasteurized organic honey; and organic ingredients whenever possible.

5. For more information on mycotoxins and why I avoid grain and sugar, please refer to Know the Cause