Braving Balance

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Husband’s birthday was recently, and for this glorious event- I decided to make some of his favorite foods. While on this adventure, I decided to make one of my favorites as well…delectable soft pretzels and beer cheese.

The only coarse salt I had in the house..

Soggy looking from the baking soda + water bath prior to being baked up in the oven. But..

it yields the signature toasty brown outside, while the inside stays soft and fluffy.!

I’ve also halved the recipe, for a weekend date night, and they turned out perfectly as well. They’re super easy to make, and really worth the minimal effort.

Click through for the recipe, wipe the drool from your chin, and enjoy!

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 & 1/4 cups warm water
5 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar, plus 1 teaspoon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 & 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or melted butter)
1/2 cup baking soda
2 egg whites
Kosher or coarse sea salt, for topping
cooking spray

Instructions

In a measuring cup dissolve the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the flour, white and brown sugars, and salt. Pour the water/yeast mixture and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil into the bowl. Knead for 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth. Add extra water if dough is too dry, until you get your desired texture.
Lightly oil a large bowl. Shape dough into a ball. Place the dough ball in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for one hour.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine 4 cups of hot water and baking soda. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg whites.
After the dough has risen, punch down the dough and then knead with hands for one minute. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and break off small chunks of dough – Roll the chunks into 1 inch diameter balls (I got about 20-25).
Dip the pieces in the baking soda water and place on the baking sheet. Gently drying with a paper towel if they become too wet. Brush each pretzel ball with egg whites then sprinkle with kosher salt (or coarse Pink Himalayan salt if you’re that kind of gal…).
Bake for 7-8 minutes, until browned.

Coffee Snob

As you may have seen via instagram, we went to San Francisco again a few weeks ago.

swoon.

I love this city so very very much.

One of our favorite parts is an awesome coffee chain, Philz where they hand brew each cup and sweeten it to your likeness.

We picked up a whole-bean pound of our favorite roast, and have been hand brewing ever since. This coffee is SO good. It makes starbucks look like a joke, and has such a warm nutty aroma.

I’m in love with our Chemex pot, and will next invest in a burr grinder (it grinds without heating the beans). But for now, this one will work just fine.

I love the Internet

I really adore this video.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/ePsNu35tVk0&source=uds

I don’t work in a dominantly male driven profession- most therapists are female. However most uber successful therapists/consultants that you see are male. Why are men taken more seriously then women? I just love the balance in this video and the feelings it evokes.

That’s right. Feelings.

Because I’m a woman.

And we need to stop tearing each other down or apart.

Paleo Banana Bread

A couple of months ago, I made a gluten-free banana bread.

I’ll be honest, it was so tasty, but the texture and rise, eh, It was just alright.

This one though, is awesome.

I’ve made it every sunday the past 3 weeks and it’s just delicious.

To be perfectly honest, if you didn’t know it was paleo … you would not know that it’s paleo.

Like, for real.

I also loooove that the only sweetener is 4 medjool dates and a tablespoon of maple syrup.

The keys to truly making it awesome

mini loaf pans

greased parchment

cooling / resting on a wire rack

I know these may be things that you are probably thinking, “Oh, I can skip that, no biggie”

You’re wrong, my friend. You need to do them.

The parchment allows excess moisture to escape from the bread, and allows you to easily get the loaves out of the pan so you can place them to rest on a wire rack (where yet more moisture can escape). The smalls loaf pans also allow the bread to rise more and gives a great texture.

Click through for the recipe !

strongly adapted from: Make it Paleo

(i’ve changed up some of the steps/details on this- this it truly key to having a well risen and not too wet bread…trust me)

1/2 c coconut flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

6 eggs (*brought to room temperature by sitting in a bowl of HOT tap water for 5 minutes)

1/2 tbsp vanilla

4 medjool dates (pitted)

1tablespoon maple syrup

1/4 c melted coconut oil

1/2 c overly ripe bananas (this is about 1 & 1/2 bananas)

+ 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips. (paleo-cheat!)

+ 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 & prepare the pans: cut parchment to fit two mini pans (along the bottom and up the sides). Spray pan with baking spray, add parchment, spray again.

Smash and measure banana and set aside. For the dates, you prepare a little “mixture”. Pit the dates, add 4 tbsps of HOT water to the dates and the tablespoon of maple syrup and smash them into a smashed up mess. I use a butter cutter in a metal bowl to do so. I then combine the date mixture with the bananas.

In bowl of a stand mixer, beat the room temp eggs and vanilla together. Add the banana/date mixture and beat until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and then stir in the dry ingredients (I sift them together in a bowl, and then mix into the wet ingredients. Also, measure the flour, then sift.)

Stir in melted coconut oil.

Fold in ~~optional~~ chips and nuts.

Bake on 350 for 45 minutes. once out of the oven, allow to rest for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

ENJOY!

Nothing But Juice

My lovely juicer.

Repeat with 5 other recipe’s every morning for 3 days, and

Ta-daaa!!

Three days of juice only.

My system feels reset, my mind clear, and my attitude adjusted.

Broke my sugar cravings big-time and I’ve been able to take pride in making good healthy choices for myself, and being mindful and appreciative of the moments I choose to indulge!

I’ve included the recipe’s I chose out of the book for my juice meals- but there’s lots of other yummy options if you buy it here.

My favorites were the Pear Ginger and Mango Kale. YUM.

I showed all the finished products on Instagram.

Click through for the recipes!

DAY 1

Water with Lemon

Green: Carrot Beet

2 large carrots

1 large red beet

1 red apple

1 stalk celery

1 piece of ginger root

Fruit: Ginger Pear

1 tangerine

1 lemon

1 large pear

1 (1/2 inch) piece of ginger

Green: Mango Kale

2 bunches of kale

2 mangoes

1 large granny smith

Alkalizer: Coco Kale

1 lime

1 handful of kale

1 & ½ cups of coconut water

2 pears

(juice citrus separate)

Green: Spinach Pineapple Mint

½ lemon

3 cups spinach

2 granny smith

2 cups cubed pineapple

8 mint leaves

(juice citrus separate)

Nut: Cashew Milk (makes 2 servings)

2/3 cup raw cashews (soaked in water

for 4 hours then drained)

2 cups water

1 cup ice

1 medjol date, pitted

2 frozen bananas

DAY 2

Water with Lemon

Green: Carrot Beet

2 large carrots

1 large red beet

1 red apple

1 stalk celery

1 piece of ginger root

Fruit: Apple-Berry

2 apples

1 cup strawberries

1 cup blueberries

Green: Mango Kale

2 bunches of kale

2 mangoes

1 large granny smith

Alkalizer: Cucumber Apple

1 cucumber

2 apples

1 (1/2 inch) piece of ginger

Green: Spinach Pineapple Mint

½ lemon

3 cups spinach

2 granny smith

2 cups cubed pineapple

8 mint leaves

(juice citrus separate)

Nut: Cashew Milk (from yesterday!)

DAY 3

Water with Lemon

Green: Carrot Beet

2 large carrots

1 large red beet

1 red apple

1 stalk celery

1 piece of ginger root

Fruit: Ginger Pear

1 tangerine

1 lemon

1 large pear

1 (1/2 inch) piece of ginger

Green: Mango Kale

2 bunches of kale

2 mangoes

1 large granny smith

Alkalizer: Coco Kale

1 lime

1 handful of kale

1 & ½ cups of coconut water

2 pears

(juice citrus separate)

Green: Spinach Pineapple Mint

½ lemon

3 cups spinach

2 granny smith

2 cups cubed pineapple

8 mint leaves

(juice citrus separate)

Nut: Cashew Milk (makes 2 servings)

2/3 cup raw cashews (soaked in water

for 4 hours then drained)

2 cups water

1 cup ice

1 medjol date, pitted

2 frozen bananas

Shopping list

6 large carrots

3 large red beets

7 red apples

3 stalks of celery

Ginger root (enough for 6- ½ inch pieces)

2 tangerines

4 lemons

6 large pears

Container strawberries

Container Blueberries (1 cup)

Kale (enough for 8 large handfuls)

6 mangoes

9 large Granny Smith apples

2 limes

1 cucumber

Spinach (enough for 9 cups)

Pineapple (enough for 6 cups cubed)

Mint (25 leaves)

Raw Cashews (2 cups)

3 Medjol dates

6 bananas (frozen)

Coconut water (3 cups)

Detox: Days 2 & 3

Still feeling super jazzed about this cleanse, but MAN, this whole thing is just, difficult.

Being on day 3, the one thing that’s sticking out in my mind seems to be:

eating healthy takes major planning and is time-consuming.

Now that i’m nearing the end of day 3, I’m already having some slight detox symptoms (headaches) but the trade off also is, that today I feel

…awake…

It’s amazing how after 1 and a half days of completely clean, organic, produce filled, ZERO processed stuff-eating that i’m already having intense cravings for bread and sugar.

like dreaming of this:

joy the baker

Day 2:

water

banana-berry smoothie

roasted veggie and chicken salad

celery

homemade almond butter

cod baked in foil

roasted veggies

Day 3:

water

green banana smoothie

kale-quinoa salad

carrots

homemade hummus

veggie stir fry

brown rice

For all these recipes, dressings are super simple and homemade, and there’s a very low-to-no added salt on anything. I will say so far- it’s all been mostly great.

Reset

Welcome, welcome 2014! How dearly looking forward to you I am! I managed to cross a few things off my list for 2013, and have set some new intentions for this year to hopefully be the best yet.

However, the holiday season has left me bloated and sluggish. It seems like I’ve been all outta whack since we made this huge life choice to buy a house. I’m truly trying to enjoy it and slow my roll on the pacing of things, but i haven’t done yoga or posted here in a while. The things I was doing to keep myself grounded flew right out the window, so now I’m making the conscious choice to get them back.

I was looking into cleanses and came across this lovely new book. The authors (one a super overachiever and one who struggled with Celiac’s disease) have put together great recipes and information on taking charge of your choices, healing your body, and re-establishing mindfulness about how you nourish yourself both on the physical and meta-physical levels.

I’m a “type 3” cleanser, which includes 4 days of pre-cleansing, 3 days of juice only, and a post cleanse phase. I hope to break my sugar and bread cravings and maybe kick whatever’s weighing me down! I also convinced a good friend of mine who’s preparing for her wedding to do it too (hooray for moral support!).

I bought a bunch of organic produce and felt awesome leaving the store without a single processed item yesterday. My plan is to prep all the food for the next day the day before. SO yesterday I prepared my day one menu.

My day 1 menu includes:

water with lemon upon waking

veggie fritatta

spinach salad and roasted chicken breast

avocado stuffed eggs

turkey stuffed peppers

So far so good. Also, the dinners for the 4 days of pre-cleansing are definitely husband friendly- so he’ll just have to fend for himself through the weekend! Can’t wait to share more about this experience here!

November | December Montage

Sorry for my absence.

You know that awesome scene in the movie Rocky, where he’s jumping on top of the steps, fists pumping in the air because he finally did it!

And prior to that iconic scene are short video clips that show how he got there- little snippets of months and months of this dude working his ass off set to music: a short video montage. It’s to prove he’s been working all this time, but we’re not going to really show you or explain it because that would just take too much time…

Well, we all need a good montage sometime.

Husband’s first marathon.

custom closet installed

butternut squash soup

ikea trip

cranberry apple chutney

we painted a room

pre thanksgiving, marks 1 month in our home

trip to FL and turkey trot with the family

and also getting to see some of my besties

homemade biscuits

semi-homemade chicken soup

little sister and her boyfriend are our first house guests & first snow of the season

heeeeey ms. Carter

and JT all in the same week

biggest success of holiday baking

plus a new tradition.

Christmas Eve in our home

and when you can’t get it together in time for a Christmas card- simply make it a Happy New Year card instead.

So there it is folks. Unfortunately, there is no fist pumping going on here yet though! The past few months have been jam-packed full of fun and sparkling moments, but we still have quite a bit of nesting and styling to do around the house. I hope to keep the creative juices flowing and pulling from the inspiration of Internet world.

We’ve got some great stuff planned for 2014, and I can’t wait to share more recipes, cocktails, crafts, beauty tips, and travels here soon!