Who doesn't LOVE cupcakes? We have been experimenting with cupcake recipes and the part that we found most challenging was finding a frosting recipe that mom approved of AND tasted good. Some of the buttercream frosting recipes call for 6 cups of powdered sugar... no thanks! So, we went to work researching and taste testing and here's what we found out. You can make GREAT cupcakes without even using flour. Both of the following recipes are for flourless vanilla cupcakes. I am posting two cupcake recipes and two frosting recipes because they are all great and give you more options in case you have allergies or prefer honey to sugar, etc...These are Paleo, gluten-free and Primal friendly cupcakes and frosting.

The best part is, these are something you can make as often as you like because the ingredients are healthy!

If you prefer flourless chocolate cupcakes, you can find the recipe here.



Cupcake Recipes

Cupcake Option 1
(I adapted this recipe from a Beyonddiet.com recipe for yellow cupcakes)

Ingredients:

5 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp Celtic or Himalayan salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (or 3/4 tsp baking soda and 3/4 tsp cream of tartar)
5 TBS coconut flour
1 - 16 ounce can white beans such as Northern or Canellini
3 TBS Rapadura (whole cane sugar) or raw honey
1/4 tsp stevia extract powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 TBS Spectrum Organic Shortening

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ᵒ F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups.

Drain and rinse beans.

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend until well combined, being careful not to over blend.

Spoon batter into lined muffin cups. Fill to 3/4 full as cupcakes will rise.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Let cool before frosting.

Cupcake Option 2
I found this one in a book that I highly recommend, called Indulge and Heal: 40 Nourishing Treats Without Grains, Dairy, Nuts or Refined Sugar.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut flour
6 eggs, room temperature if possible
6 TBS raw honey or 3 TBS raw honey and 1/4 tsp stevia powder extract
6 TBS coconut oil or butter
2 TBS coconut milk or plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350ᵒ F. Line muffin tin with 8 baking cups.

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until well combined. Use mixer, starting with eggs and coconut flour if you do not own a blender. Spoon into muffin tin filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Buttercream Frosting
(Also from Indulge and Heal which is full of great, healthy treats for the whole family)

Frosting Option 1
This first one is sweetened with honey.
 
Ingredients:

2 egg whites
6 TBS raw honey
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup or 8 TBS softened butter or coconut oil (we used butter)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Make a double broiler over a pot of gently simmering water. (Just place water in one pot, bring to a boil and turn the heat down to medium low. Add a smaller pot into the simmering water inside the larger pot.)

Add to pot (the one on top with no water in it) and whisk together egg whites, honey and salt until slightly fluffy and hot to the touch. (Mine didn't appear fluffy, I just kept whisking until they were nice and hot.)
The mixture should be about 140ᵒ F and will take about ten minutes.

Remove mixture from heat and add to a mixing bowl. Whip mixture until barely warm. ( I mixed it until it was totally cooled off and it still worked out fine!) Add the butter 1 TBS at a time and whip on high speed until the mixture appears to separate. Be patient, this really will happen at which point it is about to become amazingly firm and creamy buttercream frosting!

Use immediately or refrigerate. It will need some time to soften after being refrigerated before you frost the cupcakes.

Frosting Option 2
(This one came from a wedding cake maker and is our favorite, although it does contain a small amount of organic sugar. Here's where I found it.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg white
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a double boiler over simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.

Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about
doubles in size. (Here’s a tip: when you transfer to the mixer, make sure you
wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl so that no water gets into the
egg whites. This can keep them from whipping up properly.)

Add the vanilla.

Finally, add the butter a stick at a time and whip, whip, whip.

Note from author: Do not have a panic attack when this takes a while to come together
(though I did every time). One super-large batch took 15 minutes, but it did and
will come together. Patience, young Jedis. ( I found this to be very true, but the second time I made it, it only took about 30 seconds to separate and get creamy again!)

Time: About 30 minutes active including clean-up
14 to 21 days to ferment

Before you begin, sanitize a 2 quart or 2 - 1 quart canning jars with boiling water. (Just boil the water, fill jars with the boiled water and allow to sit for five minutes.)

Ingredients:
2 large heads Napa Cabbage or 3 small heads
6 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
4 medium carrots
1 small red onion
1 fresh jalepeno pepper, seeded
2 tsp ground cumin
3 TBS Celtic or Himalayan salt

Picture above is missing the carrots!

Instructions:

Before you start, if you have a scale, weigh the bowl you will put the veggies into. Then, after chopping, add veggies to bowl and weigh again. You will use 3 TBS of salt for 5 pounds of veggies. So, if you do not have a full 5 pounds, use a bit less salt. When making sauerkraut, there is no need to do it all perfectly. There has never been single case of food borne illness from raw sauerkraut!! There are many ways to make it, this is just one! Typically, the rule for salt is 2 tsp - 1 TBS per pound of veggies used.

Using a food processor with the grating attachment, slice all veggies (except garlic) to fit the feed tube of the food processor. If you do not own a food processor, simply chop all veggies into thin, lengthwise pieces or grate with a hand grater. Mince garlic and add to veggies. Add salt and cumin.

With clean hands, knead the veggies. As you do, the juices will be released and this will form the brine or liquid in which the veggies will ferment. If you are worried about the bacteria from your hands, rest assured, this is an important step in the process as you are adding your 'love' to the kraut! We are so afraid of bacteria in our culture that literally, it is damaging our health. Consider welcoming the bacteria:) We are actually made up of 10x more bacteria than cells. Adding healthy bacteria to our bodies every single day is more important than most other things we can do for our health.

If you have a canning jar funnel, place this on top of your sanitized jar/jars. I always use a funnel so I don't end up spilling all of my kraut down the sides of the jars. Add veggies to jar. If they are submerged in water all the way to the top of the kraut, leaving about 2 inches at the top for room for kraut to expand as it ferments, then no need to add water. If the water level does not come to the top of the veggies, add a bit of pure water. Making sure to leave about 2 inches at the top of the jar, place a lid on top and set the jar in a bowl because some liquid may leak out as it initially expands. This can get stinky for a few days so you may want to put this in the garage if it's not too hot out there.

Allow kraut to sit for at least 7 and as long as 21 days. If you like it really sour, leave it longer and if you don't, leave it for a shorter amount of time. There is no right amount of time. The amount of time depends totally on your taste preference. You can open the jar every few days and taste it to see how you like it.

I eat a couple tablespoons of raw kraut at every meal for digestion and to continually add healthy bacteria to my gut!

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions by commenting below!

The other day I was doing the dishes and took the trash can out from under the sink and found that my kids had thrown away a yogurt container and two plastic cups. This was frustrating for me mostly because of the shame I was feeling that I hadn't instilled in my kids the awareness that would cause them to care about recycling. When your whole life is centered around health and mindfulness, it's so hard to see the lack of it in your own kids! I catch myself being lazy about this sometimes too, so I had to face that as well, no fun!

I paused for a moment, considering the ways I could teach them this lesson in a way that they'd WANT to recycle next time. I pondered taking my anger (shame) and projecting it on them, blaming them for lacking awareness about the effects of trash on the environment (while silently realizing that it was my own shame and not their lack, that was bothering me.) But, I knew if I did that, I'd have to live with myself afterwards, so there went that idea. So, I went with the option of taking this as an opportunity to teach them what is important to me and then allowing them to make a choice as to whether it suits them or not.

I called them all into the kitchen and asked them if they enjoy God's creation. I asked them what they like about nature and the outdoors. Then I asked if they know where all the trash goes when we throw it away and introduced the landfill concept, (ie... we throw away our trash and it fills up nature with trash so we have less nature to enjoy.) It not only gives us less nature to enjoy but it gives everyone else less nature to enjoy.

I had them imagine what it would be like to go on a hike through stinky, slimy trash. Then I said, the less trash we create, the more nature we have to enjoy and when we recycle, our trash gets made into something useful instead of being thrown away and taking away outdoor space.

Next I simply presented them with the opportunity to consider whether they might like to help contribute to keeping Creation beautiful by simply washing plastic and glass containers and putting them in the trash container with the blue lid. I have not seen anymore recyclables in the trash!

Now, I fully realize that there is much more to this story than the kids and their enjoyment, but these are kids and I wanted to make it matter to them. I have learned that if I give a long dissertation backed up with factual evidence, they stare at me blindly and ask if they can have a popsicle.

I'd love to hear your ideas on teaching awareness to your kids!

If there is one snack my kids beg me to make over and over, its my cheezy kale chips. They are even very willing to help, so it's a great way to spend some time together while also accomplishing a task (my favorite way to do it!), as long as mama is in a good mood and not too task oriented. When I am, that usually makes for a less than pleasant kale chip-making experience for the kids. You know how it goes, you want it to be efficient and work out perfectly.... always a mothering disaster for me, so if your kids are with you, take a deep breath and be prepared to laugh a lot!

Now that you're prepared to be a fun mom:), here are the ingredients you'll need:

2 large bunches of curly kale
1 lemon
2 red bell peppers
1 1/2 cups soaked raw cashews. (place cashews in a bowl of very warm water for about an hour, then strain and rinse)
Himalayan or Celtic salt to taste, I use about 1/2 - 2 tsp, starting with one and tasting before adding more. You'll want them to be nice and salty!
5 TBS nutritional yeast
Dash of cayenne pepper

Chop the red bell pepper and add to blender or food processor with the juice of one lemon. Blend until smooth. Add the cashews, 1/2 tsp salt, a dash of cayenne pepper and blend again until smooth. Next add nutritional yeast and blend again. Devein the kale, meaning, remove the center stalks. Tear kale into the large pieces as they will shrink when dehydrated. Place in a large bowl and pour marinade over kale. Massage marinade into kale so all of it is well covered. Let sit for about 15 minutes, unless you're in a hurry, in which case, skip this step.

Place the kale on dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper. This recipe does not work in the oven b/c the marinade is too thick. Trust me, I've ruined a few batches. Set dehydrator to 115 degrees F and allow to dry for 8 to 15 hours, until very crispy.

If you are comfortable leaving your oven door open and do not own a dehydrator, you might try setting the oven to lowest setting, leave the door open and dehydrate overnight, rather than trying to bake them, which won't work.

Store in ziplock bags or airtight containers.

The following are possible supplementation suggestions that may just be exactly what you need to finally get rid of those pesky cravings and extra pounds. Please always check with your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise or supplementation routine. The following suggestions are not to be used as a prescription.

Probiotics-

One of the number one ways to experience vibrant health and a healthy body weight is by balancing the good to bad ratio of bacteria in the intestines. Most people have 15% good bacteria and 85% bad. This ratio needs to be reversed in order to be healthy. Studies show that overweight people do not have the same bacterial balance in their intestines as people that are at a healthy weight. There have been many studies done on this and one showed that when the bacteria that overweight people are found to have, is injected into the intestines of mice, the mice started to gain twice as much fat. There could actually be a fat manufacturing plant in your intestines! Couple this with high cortisol (meaning high stress in your life or even constant low stress and you are in for a double, fat creating double whammy!) Another study showed that obese people were able to reduce their abdominal fat by nearly 5 percent, and their subcutaneous fat by over 3 percent, just by drinking a probiotic-rich fermented milk beverage for 12 weeks.

Many people think of their gut as a simple mechanism to digest food, but this is a woefully inadequate assessment. Your gut is quite literally your second brain as well as the home to 80 percent of your immune system.

Do you experience any of the following symptoms on a regular basis? Do you have difficulty digesting foods, or have food allergies?

Gas and bloating 
Headaches
Constipation or diarrhea
Fatigue
Nausea 
Crave sugar/refined carbs?

These are all signs that unhealthy bacteria have taken over in your gut, and these warning signs should be taken seriously, since a healthy gut is your number one defense system against ALL disease. There are actually ten times more bacteria in your body than there are cells. Balancing the good to bad bacteria has the potential to do more for your health than any single other thing you can do.

80 % of your immune system resides in your intestinal tract and if there is not a proper ratio of good to bad bacteria living in there, you are going to have health problems.

How does this get off balance?

Very simply, we do not eat bacteria rich food because we have a cultural fear of bacteria. These foods are necessary to replenish beneficial bacteria. To add to this, we feed the harmful bacteria with sugar, processed foods, and alcohol.

A healthy ratio of good to bad gut bacteria is also essential for:

Proper development and function of your immune system 
Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease 
Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients 

The probiotics in your gut also play a role in helping numerous bodily functions, such as:

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates 
Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins     
Keeping harmful bacteria under control 
Preventing allergies 
Psychololgical health
Nervous system function     
Hormonal function
Brain function

The Top Step to Optimize Your Gut Bacteria AND Shed Pounds

Avoid consuming sugar, including fructose, and processed foods (which virtually all contain added sugar
and fructose). The sugars serve as fuel for the growth of pathogenic anaerobic bacteria, fungi and yeast, and competitively inhibit your good bacteria, tending to crowd them out of their appropriate niche. These pathogenic bacteria, fungi and yeast then produce metabolic waste products that will cause your health to deteriorate.

When you eat a healthy diet, consisting of whole food plant based carbohydrates, protein, healthy fat and probiotic rich foods, that are low in sugars and processed foods, it automatically helps enable the beneficial bacteria in your gut to flourish.


At the same time, limiting fructose is essential not only for the make- up of your gut bacteria but also for your weight directly. Fructose tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism, as it turns off your body's appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") and doesn't stimulate leptin (the "satiety hormone"), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.

Why Keeping Your Gut Bacteria in Balance is an Ongoing Process

Your gut bacteria are an active and integrated part of entire system, in constant communication with your nervouse system, brain and hormones. Your bacteria are affected by your emotions and lifestyle. If processed foods are eaten often,  your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast. 

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics 
Chlorinated water 
Antibacterial soap 
Agricultural chemicals 
Pollution

Because virtually all of us are exposed to these at least occasionally, ensuring your gut bacteria remain balanced should be considered an ongoing process. Cultured foods like raw milk yogurt and kefir, some cheeses, and sauerkraut are good sources of natural, healthy bacteria, provided they are not pasteurized. Keep an eye out for future posts on these foods.

If eating probiotic-rich foods has not been a part of your diet, it would be a good idea to do a super charged approach to building those bacteria.

I offer a very inexpensive 5 month gut-recolinization program. This is a complete, 4 stage, replenishment course. The investment is only $122 for the entire 5 month program. If you are interested in supercharging your health, this is the way to go. Just email Maria@mariarippo.com to order. Shipping prices vary so the orders are taken manually.

You can also add 1 – 2 TBS of raw sauerkraut to each meal, kimchee, cortido or any other type of fermented vegetable combination, as long as it’s raw! Instructions on how to make, coming soon! These foods are very high in beneficial bacteria and available at most health-food stores. I like to eat mine with a little olive oil, salt and Dijon mustard. Fermented foods are a normal part of the diet of almost every culture but North America!


Multiple Vitamin for nutrition and cravings

A multi-vitamin can help nourish your body and mind, eliminate cravings and give you an overall sense of vitality. 

I take Solaray Spectro ™ Multi-Vita-Min or Allergy Multi by TwinLab. They are all available in most health food stores or on Amazon.

Cravings

If you crave sugar, starch or alcohol, it may be helpful to takeL-glutamine. Julia Ross, author of the Diet Cure recommends 500 – 1500 mg L-glutamine before meals in the early morning, midmorning and midafternoon. This is also healing for your intestinal tract.

If you crave pick-me ups, lack energy, feel apathetic, lack drive or focus, have ADD or are easily bored, you might benefit from 500 – 1500mg L-tyrosine in the early morning and midmorning.


If you are overstressed, have stiff or tense muscles, find it hard to relax/loosen up, or get to sleep, feel overwhelmed and burned out or eat to relieve stress, you may benefit from taking GABA 100 – 500 mg as often as needed (be careful, it will really relax youJ )

If you are very sensitive to emotions or physical pain, tear up or cry easily, crave treats for comfort, enjoyment or numbing, ‘love’ or get a high from foods you eat or have behavior such as over-exercise, infatuation, self-harm, starving or purging, you may benefit from DL-phenylalanine– 500mg midmorning and midafternoon.

If you have afternoon or evening cravings, negativity, depression, worry, anxiety, low self-esteem, obsessive thoughts or behaviors, winter blues, PMS, irritability, rage, panic, phobias, fibromyalgia, TMJ, are a night-owl, or find it hard to get to sleep, have hyperactivity or benefit from SSRI’s you might benefit from 5-HTP 50 -150 mg midafternoon, if needed to get to sleep by 10pm or L-tryptophan 500 – 1500 mg midafternoon if needed, for getting to sleep by 10pm. 

If you would like more information on amino acid therapy for these issues, please purchase the book The Diet Cure, by Julia Ross.

General Health and Vitality

My favorite gut healing green powder that I use upon arising every single day an when I get tired in the afternoons and need a non-caffeine pick me up is Vitality Super Green. This product helps to nourish the inner ecosystem and keep it healthy and strong. It contains generous amount of nutrient-rich elements like GlutImmune (a covalent bonded glutamine), FOS from chicory inulin to feed the healthy bacteria, GMO-free lecithin, and aloe vera extract. This product will also help to curb cravings and give you energy.
 
Broken Cell Wall Chlorella

Broken cell wall chlorella is a perfect addition to any diet. For energy, detoxification,
cravings, alkalinity, and healthy blood. You will find this at any health-food
store. 

Refererences:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/18/good-gut-bacteria-may-help-fight-obesity.aspx