Apple Spice Zucchini Breakfast Cake

This "cake" is free of grains, dairy, soy, and refined sugar. Plus it's got lots of eggs, lots of zucchini and apple and some healthy coconut products. So really, you could eat it for breakfast (once in a while) without feeling guilty. Yup - cake for breakfast. :)

Apple Spice Zucchini Breakfast Cake
In a large bowl, whisk together:
8 eggs
1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or you could use butter if it's not an issue for you)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl combine:
3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir well to combine. Then add:
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 large apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup walnuts (pecans would also be great)

Stir well and bake in a 9" cake pan (round or square) that has been lined with parchment paper (important!) at 350 for 35-40 minutes* or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before slicing. Also note that this cake improves in taste and texture after a couple of hours at room temperature.

*My oven is a little insane. It may take slightly longer for your cake to bake, as I have to cut the time on everything I bake in my oven.

Day 18 of 40 - Wheat Belly

Have you read it? I'd recommend it. I just finished it this afternoon, and I must say it's pretty startling to read about the way our modern-day wheat was created, about the fact that human (or even animal) safety was never tested or investigated before mass-producing and mass-marketing this new grain. And to read about what it does to our blood sugar is truly shocking. Those two things alone would be enough to make me reconsider my wheat consumption, but what really sold me was just a trial of wheat-elimination, and the discovery of how much better I feel without it in my system!

Living with chronic pain is just no fun, as anyone who has experienced it will tell you. Even on a "good day", my hip still bothered me. My mother had her left hip replaced in her mid-50s, and I was sure I was on track to have mine done at least 15 years earlier than that. Not only was it constantly in pain, but the inflammation in that joint made it pop and click with every step I took. Sitting down for extended periods (especially in the car) made it really uncomfortable - I'd have to shift my weight and make it crack just to get some relief.

Imagine my surprise when I cut wheat out of my diet for the sake of my nursing baby, only to discover that removing wheat also cured my hip pain! Of course that wasn't the only benefit, but being able to move freely and comfortably was more than I could have dreamed of. I know, now, the way wheat causes inflammation in my body (it's not the same for everyone), and so I know that a food has to be really worth it before I'd consider indulging. I'm okay if I eat a small amount of wheat (like the crust on a small piece of cheesecake), but if I eat a full sandwich I end up limping for several days. It's just wild.

And it was discovering that whole wheat/pain connection that led me to the question that started all of this:
"If I've been eating wheat my whole life without realizing what it's doing to my body, what else am I consuming that's affecting me negatively?" So when Nicole told me about Whole30, I knew it was something I wanted to try.

Breakfast: 3 slices of bacon, 2 fried eggs and a cup of licorice root tea. About a cup of watermelon.
Lunch: A muffin and two hot Italian sausages with BBQ sauce.
*Those two meals were not a great start to my day. I was tired, cranky, and pressed for time, so vegetable prep got ignored. I have to get more organized tomorrow!
Supper: Salad with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and carrots with Italian vinaigrette. Four small chicken thighs with BBQ sauce. (I definitely didn't need the fourth one, and probably didn't need the third one - but they were really yummy and I didn't stop to ask myself if I was satisfied or not.) A large-ish slice of apple spice zucchini breakfast cake (name still under construction...). (Recipe to come tomorrow when I have the energy to type it up!)

Day 17 of 40 - Dinner With Friends

You know what's nice? To be able to eat at a friend's house during a Whole30 and not have it be a big deal! It's nice to have friends who "get it". We enjoyed a great time with Alexis and her family this evening. The kids went wild, and the grown-ups managed to sneak in a few conversations in the midst of the chaos. Though next time we'll plan our dinner when I'm not doing a Whole30 so we can share some wine, too!

Just keeping this short tonight as I need to get to bed early. We have a busy day tomorrow which will include lots of food preparation on my part, so I need some rest.

Breakfast: Two fried eggs, three slices of bacon, two cups of decaf with coconut milk.
Lunch: More soup with chicken, this time with some sliced cherry tomatoes stirred in.
Supper: YUM! Chicken legs marinated in Italian vinaigrette then smothered in Paleo BBQ sauce, with tossed salad and grilled zucchini and cauliflower on the side. A shared bowl of cherries and some licorice root tea rounded out the evening. Who says eating this way isn't delicious?

Day 16 of 40 - Blog Love

(I just realized that if I were just going for the standard 30 days I'd have hit the half-way point already. I feel like I still have so much work left to do that I'm glad I've set my sights on 40 days. Who knows? Maybe I'll go for longer...)

I'm a blog addict (says the blogger). I can't help it. I posted a while back about some of my favourite style/fashion blogs, although I've since discovered my newest favourite, which I highly encourage you to check out. (My favourite feature is Inspiration Monday. I generally play along, but I still don't have the nerve to photograph my outfits or post them!)

More recently, however, I've become engrossed in many Paleo/Primal food blogs. I'm always on the hunt for new meal ideas for Whole30 living, and of course there's some serious food porn when it comes to treats I'm looking forward to trying after this is over. So without further ado, some fun food blogs:

PaleOMG - Juli is just kind of hilarious, if you can handle a little crudeness. I totally can, and I love her recipes.
Nom Nom Paleo - I actually read Michelle's blog every. single. day. Her food is delicious but still practical. You can cook these recipes up in a hurry and still eat yummy grub. She hasn't published a cookbook, but her iPad app makes me wish we owned an iPad. (Sorry, RIM.)
The Clothes Make the Girl - Sometimes I wish I were more like Melissa Joulwan. She's pretty bad-ass. We recently bought her cookbook, Well Fed (the ebook version since the actual book isn't available in Canada yet *pouts*), and we love it. 'Nuff said.
The Foodie and the Family - This one's a new favourite. I came across it by accident in my quest to find a good chocolate zucchini muffin recipe, and now I've got at least 15 of her recipes on my to-try list.

Breakfast: Francis made me bacon (2 slices), 2 fried eggs and two sweet potato latkes. Two cups of half-decaf with coconut milk.
Lunch: Leanne's mention of her taco salad (inspired by mine from the other day) made me really want another one. So that's what I did. :)
Supper: Two hot Italian sausages with sliced tomato and roasted cauliflower and broccoli.
Snacks: A couple of snack balls.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to start experimenting a little more with meal sizes and spacing. For example: I wasn't really hungry when I got up this morning, but since breakfast had been cooked for me, I ate it. And at supper tonight I served myself what I thought was a reasonable portion (the sausage were fairly small) but by the time I'd finished eating it all I realized that I felt somewhat uncomfortably full. I need to try to be more mindful when I eat.

Day 15 of 40 - Farewell Old Friend

Oh, Starbucks. It was weird to walk right past you in Chapters today. It's pretty rare for me to go in there and not come visit you. I wanted to - but only out of habit. When I actually started running through your menu in my head, I wasn't really tempted. And that felt weird.

I used to love your lemon poppyseed loaf, but I know that once my Whole40 is over I can make a more tummy-friendly version to savour. And I have fond memories of sharing a grande mocha frappuccino with Francis while we went for our weekly grocery shopping/thrift shopping date. But now, I think I'd rather just have my unsweetened decaf with coconut milk.

It was fun while it lasted, Starbucks, but I think it's over. Don't take it too hard. It's not you, it's me. Or maybe it is you. Sorry. I'll send you a postcard when I open my own Paleo/Primal snack wagon and I'm making a fortune selling people food that is actually good for them. 

Breakfast: Sweet and salty! Apple breakfast cobbler from the crock pot and three slices of bacon. It was our first time trying this recipe - we enjoyed it, but I think next time we'll serve it on top of these or rolled up inside these. (And only on special occasions, because it was SO sweet!) Two cups of decaf with coconut milk.
Lunch: More soup with shredded chicken.
Supper: Half a steak smothered in a heap of onions sauteed in ghee, with baby bok choy (cooked in olive oil with young garlic and sea salt) and about a quarter of a tomato from our CSA. I cannot believe the difference in colour between these tomatoes and the ones from the grocery store!
Snacks: About a cup and a half of cantaloupe - I picked at it throughout the morning.

Day 14 of 40 - Costco Conquest

We bought a Costco membership today and took our first spin around the store. I have a friend who calls it the "One, Two, Three Hundred Dollar Store". I'm proud to say we spent under $34 and left with only things we actually need.

Just a short post tonight, because I just read Mark Sisson's latest article and it's like he was talking right to me. So I'm going to shut down the electronics, curl up with a good book for a little bit, and hit the hay early.

Breakfast: The last of the kale AND the last of the homemade sausage meat with two scrambled eggs and two cups of decaf with coconut milk.
Lunch: Two small chicken legs with a quick dip - half an avocado with a tablespoon of mayo, a splash of lemon juice, some garlic powder, cayenne, paprika and sea salt. A slice of zucchini bread - I made chocolate zucchini muffins (with a few mini M&M's sprinkled on top) for Francis and the kids, because Princess reeeeally wanted to throw a party for her daddy. The kids kept asking why I wasn't having a muffin, so I had my own "treat" instead.
Supper: Taco salad - a large bowl of mixed greens topped with tomato, taco meat, salsa and a quarter of an avocado.
Snacks: A bite of a cashew Larabar - one of the sample tables at Costco. (It was hard to pass up the peanut butter one, but will power won out! And sadly, as much as I love cashews, that bar was NOT enjoyable.) About 2 cups of cantaloupe over the course of the day.

Day 13 of 40 - Too Sweet!

I've been meaning to start drinking my licorice root extract tea for several weeks now, but I just kept forgetting about it. (That happens when I stick things out of site in my cupboards.) I know it's important to help my adrenals heal, but here's the problem:

It's so sweet!

I first thought maybe I was imagining things, until I read this article. I'll save you a lot of reading - just check out this paragraph:

How does this take the place of cake again?
Back to that taste. When you think of licorice, you may think of that bitter taste found in black licorice candy or fennel seeds -- savory, not sweet like a chocolate bar. But licorice actually tastes sweeter than sugar, which is why it is also called "sweet root" -- 50 times sweeter than sugar to be exact. The active compound in licorice root is glycyrrhizin (or glycyrrhizic acid), which provides the taste. Brewing up a glass of this tea to enjoy after a meal or while sitting on the couch in place of that bowl -- or pint -- of ice cream *no judgment here) will save you some calories. Plus, you don't need any added sweeteners.

With my newly-adapted tastebuds, I'm having a hard time drinking this stuff. It's way too sweet! I actually kind of feel like I'm cheating on my Whole30 by drinking it. I know it doesn't contain calories so it's not actually spiking my blood sugar, but I'm still not sure. Thoughts? I'm going to try again to find licorice root in capsule form, but considering how many stores I checked last time (in two different cities), I'm not optimistic.

Breakfast: Sauteed kale with scrambled eggs and ground sausage meat with cherry tomatoes. My mouth gets HAPPY when I eat that combination! Also two cups of half-decaf* with coconut milk.
Lunch: A cup of licorice tea and a bowl of chicken salad - a baked chicken breast mixed with half an avocado, some homemade mayo, curry powder and salt. (Gee, that sounds an awful lot like my tuna salad, doesn't it...?)
Supper: A bowl of soup (minus the honey!) with about 1/3 of a large chicken breast shredded and stirred in.
Snacks: Three dates and a few macadamia nuts. I may have some fruit later this evening - I've got a giant cantaloupe and a big bag of cherries waiting for me.

*I've been trying to only drink decaf these days - so when I say I had half-decaf it's code for "I got VERY little sleep last night."