Rhubarb-Lime Cardamom with Streusel Muffins

Muffins are simply cake for breakfast.  My senior year of high school, Samantha would pick me up and depending on time, we would drive to a spot in town called Mostly Muffins, because they mostly had muffins there.  I rarely got one, but I salivated over the one with cream cheese frosting.  Like I said, they're just cupcakes for breakfast, and since the name is muffin--I feel like I can eat them guilt free.  

It was a rare morning when my mom made muffins as they were mostly of Jiffy box kind, but even those became scarce commodities.  It wasn't until I became a college student that I became acquainted with the ease of these little morsels.  Preheat oven, measure dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients into another, combine & pour batter into muffin cups.  Why on earth had I not monopolized them long before and started my own Mostly Muffins But Better business?

As a mama, I love to serve my girls through baking.  I had rhubarb awaiting manipulation in the fridge and was inspired long ago by Luna Cafe's Rhubarb-Lime Cardamom Muffins with Streusel; however, I wanted to change mine to use almond flour, coconut sugar & honey.  The rhubarb, lime zest & cardamom sit for 30 minutes to macerate the sugar, while preparing the batter & streusel.  What I found is that my love for rhubarb & cardamom are further married in my stomachs mind.  I also managed to cut the fat in the recipe as well, which lucky for all who eat--does not compromise taste.  

Underbelly of the muffins--look at that gorgeous rhubarb

Rhubarb-Lime Cardamom with Streusel Muffins (printable recipe)

As I stated above, these muffins are inspired by Luna Cafe.  I use blanched almond flour from Honeyville, raw clover honey & local WA rhubarb.  

Rhubarb Mixture:

2 TB honey

Zest 1 lime

1 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

3/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves


Streusel:

3/4 c almond flour

1/2 c coconut sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tb ghee, should be liquid form

Batter:

3 cups almond flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup + 2 Tb coconut sugar

3 eggs

6 Tb ghee, should be in liquid form but not hot

1/3 cup whole fat yogurt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  

In a medium bowl, combine the rhubarb, lime zest, coconut sugar, ground cardamom, cloves & honey.  Mix to thoroughly coat and allow to sit for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, work on the streusel by combining the almond flour, salt, coconut sugar & 3 Tb ghee.  Combine together and it should resemble sand.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, work on the dry ingredients for the batter.  Combine the almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & whisk thoroughly to even out any lumps from the almond flour.  Add the coconut sugar and mix throughout again.  

In a small bowl, work on wet ingredients for the batter.  Combine the eggs with the 6 Tb ghee and mix.  Add the yogurt and mix together.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients of the batter and mix gently to combine by using a spatula.  Add the rhubarb mixture at this point and combine till disbursed evenly.  

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with 18 muffin papers (I doubled my papers equaling two per muffin).  Scoop the batter into the muffin cups about 3/4 full.  Smooth them down, in order to put the streusel topping on.

Using your hands, place about 1-2 Tb of streusel on each muffin batter.  You will want to clump it together a bit in your hands; rather, than having a smooth layer on top.

Bake for 23-25 minutes.  I baked one sheet and then put the next one in and rotated them 180 degrees halfway through baking.  Remove from oven.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove muffins to cooling rack. Consume!

Sacramental Act of Sharing Your Table

Of late I've been reading about eating.  Yes, eating.  How eating is something we often don't spend much time thinking about, because, well...we do it everyday in this Western world.  But, did you know that in Ancient Near East culture, it was gathering around the table & sharing a meal where covenants were created and hospitality was formed.  

If I had you at my table and served you food, I was making a declaration, "This shared meal is an act of our binding that I will not betray.  You are part of the family."  Does this sound familiar in the New Testament?  Simon Cary Holt wrote, 

Our life at the table no matter how mundane, is a sacramental act.

So...

What if our tables in this here & now--our physical tables stood for the good glory.  The Spirit ushering about, breathing it at the tables.  It’s not so we can skip past this life only looking heavenward--but to take in the graces of this life given, which speak of a Table never broken.  Read more over at Sisters in Bloom on Sharing Your Table.  

Our Tables Should Not be Stumbling Blocks

Justice, Mercy & Love with Food at our Tables

The apostle Paul in his letter to the church of Corinth, wrote about eating food sacrificed to idols, which you can read more about in 'Not All in the Name.'  He wrote about not eating the meat served to idols if it caused a brother or sister to stumble.  He also said to not serve it to the brother or sister who was too weak to eat it.  What he reconciles is Psalm 24, citing that the earth is the Lord's and everything given in thanksgiving to God can be received.  This gave permission to those who did not stumble and/or were not too weak to eat the meat.  

How does this translate today?  

This translates into serving food to a person who has a very clear food conviction, which goes outside of that food conviction (even if you think it ridiculous or don't adhere to the same standards, which I'll go into more in the next couple days).  Food is second to loving the person--this is key.

I often see people associating this with someone being vegan, vegetarian, or another religious conviction.  But I'm going to weigh in on another food related topic.

Overeating

What about the couple coming over for dinner who struggles with over eating, or weight issues?  Would serving that dessert be beneficial or loving to them?  Too often in Christian circles these verses of not making another brother stumble is equated with alcohol, while desserts & sugars are not.  

I clearly remember Ben saying how he got annoyed with this application of Scripture, while he argued that he found it hard to say no to desserts and that is just as big of a stumbling block in his life.  I don't believe this means I should never make a dessert for others, specifically those who are overweight.  Rather, it's something I know I need to be highly sensitive & conscientious about.  

In our family, I have learned how to use my love of baking as a creative outlet, while loving my family by not having the goods around "too often;" as I know it can become that stumbling block.  

Weigh in with your thoughts!

Living Life to its Fullest with Sunshine, Cupcakes & Exercise

Our little life of sun in WA (for a whole week), which calls us to eat & enjoy life outside. It also summons me to bake rhubarb-strawberry filled lime cupcakes, which are adapted to be GF.

Lastly, I am loving how this will be my healthiest & fit pregnancy (still able to do burpees). That said, I did something to my lower back at the gym. Praying for fast recovery & nothing major.

Bubbling Pot in Finding My Passions on Food

 

Can I get on my soapbox for a minute?  It's about food.  It's about eating.  Last night I signed up for BlogherFood held in Seattle.  Last Fall I attended my first blogging conference and felt like a fish out of water.  A whole bunch of Christian women with different niches in one gathered place was both perplexing & refreshing.  

This is a whole other can of worms.  Blogging conference geared toward foodie, food bloggers.  Although I loved my experience at Relevant in October where I was able to meet some women I had been in contact via social media world...there is something about the sessions & agenda for this upcoming conference that brings out the fire.  

I have these women that I know I would love to crack open a couple bottles of wine and talk about semantics, passion & tearing down the walls of biblical womanhood painted by the Evangelical Church (like Suzannah, Sarah, and Joy).  There is this movement among a sector in the Christian world (female Christians) who are challenging notions of biblical womanhood, Proverbs 31 in fundamental/literal fashion, & feminism.  I applaud their efforts and have my slice in there; but, I don't contribute because to be honest...it's not the fire inside of me on a more broad scale.  Does that make sense?

Click to read more ...

Five Minute Friday: Identity

Linking up with Lisa-Jo at Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday

My identity is a wrestling.

Jacob wrestling with God to show who he is.

Mother, wife, writer, cook, giver of hospitality, singer...fill in the blank, but truly it's none of these.

What if these hands couldn't chop veggies?

What if this mouth couldn't decipher taste?

What if this womb couldn't hold an egg & sperm?

Would my worth be less? No!
You are mine & I call you above all creation, "TOV,"---"VERY!"

"Very Good!"

Everything else is good, but my children are TOV. They are very. You have my image stamped on you & you are approved.

Nothing you do or can accomplish this lifetime give you an identity, but that I created you in my likeness.

The mute, disabled, paralyzed, dumb--oh their identity is just as rich as J. Lo's, Brad & Angelina and the President.

Cashew Cardamom Brioche with Orange French Toast: Mother's Day

It's the glory of second trimester, while Spring is bountiful with early sunshine & late sunrises whispering of Summer on the move.  While the majority of the nation has seen weeks upon weeks of high temps, it is our little Pacific Northwest corner still bundled, crossing fingers that the sun will stay out long enough for temps reaching the 60s (yes, that's considered warm).  This week we have been blessed with just that, and eating lunch on the front porch is a must as I don my burgeoning belly in summer dresses found consignment.  I'm eating these moments up.  

V comes up & rubbing my belly asking, "Are you ready to come out baby?"  Both girls searching out names they like for the baby, things like 'Pinkalicious, Rosa, Laura, & Molly,' which is an improvement from Princess Snooglebeak.  My heart just two weeks ago was reminded how this baby is different from my other babies.  The baby we lost in September would be greeting us this month.  I didn't realize till that moment, that it is possible to mourn a loss while greeting a joy at the same time.  

It was in these words by JJ Heller's song, I Get to be the One: 

How does someone so small

Hold my heart so tightly

I don't even know you

I love you completely...I get to be the one to hold your hand

The secret part of my heart not able to convey what it is inside, which is making it hard to attach to this little one in me...is coming to light.  In part, it's the flood of reality that there was a home for the baby we don't get to greet, while a lot of my friends welcome their May babies.  I'm allowed to mourn that even amidst the gift. So God speaks as if he's sharing coffee with me, "that I get to be the one making a home for this baby in my belly."  That I get to be the one, so incredibly broken & incomplete, he chose to be the mama to this third child we welcome in our home.  

Who am I that I would be given this gift when I know of story upon story of the closed womb, the bleeding womb, and the never touched womb.  I don't know.  I do know that it's Mother's Day on Sunday, where I am blessed with my little gifts of life.  I also know that it's Mother's Day, which is yet another reminder to some of those hidden hurts.  My friend Denise puts is so eloquently when writing on the hurt of Mother's Day.  

Can I invite you to open up your heart & your table to one of those who is hurting?  Can you write a note to the woman who has never been able to conceive?  Can you bring flowers & hug to the woman who has no mother?  Can you invite the single woman who longs to be a mother over for a meal?  

I offer you a wonderful grain-free french toast to make for the mother, motherless, or mother at heart woman in your life.  This Cashew Cardamom Brioche French Toast with Orange reminds me of the sweet & slightly bitter life we endure.  Sweet from the cashews & orange, while cardamom bitterly lingers just a bit to be swept away by the rich, creaminess of butter & treacly maple syrup.  

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
~Victor Hugo

Cashew Cardamom Brioche with Orange French Toast (printable recipe)

The cashew brioche is just slighty changed from Coco at Roost, where she creates mouthwatering lovelies.  The addition of orange & cardamom are dear to my heart and nostalgic for a little cafe overlooking La Jolla beach in San Diego.  

Cashew Cardamom Brioche Ingredients:

3 cups cashews

4 eggs, separated

16 cardamom pods, seeds removed & ground

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup whole milk yogurt with live cultures

1/2 Tb raw apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup unpasterized apple juice

Directions:

Add your cashews to a blender.  Blend them until they resemble a fine flour.  I use the medium setting, in order to avoid making cashew butter.  I also utilize the pulse setting toward the end.  Empty the cashew flour into a bowl & set aside.  Add the baking soda, cardamom, & salt to the cashew flour, mix.

Next, add the egg yolks, raw apple cider vinegar, yogurt, & apple juice to the blender.  Puree the mixture until blended well, about 20 seconds.  Place the dry ingredients back into the blender (cashew flour, baking soda, salt, & cardamom).  Puree the mixture till the dry ingredients are nice and wet & combined, about 30 seconds.

In a clean, deep bowl, add the egg whites (room temperature).  Whisk & whisk until you beat them into submission, which means wet stiff peaks form.  Pour the cashew batter into a medium or large bowl.  Take your beaten egg whites and pour them a top your cashew batter and fold them in gently.  Don't overmix or overfold, as you want the air from the egg whites to lend to the airness in the final baked brioche.

Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch pan, or a parchment lined pan.  Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in a 315 degree oven.  

French Toast Ingredients:

one loaf of cashew cardamom brioche

3 eggs

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

zest from one orange

Juice from one orange

2 tsp vanilla

unsalted butter

maple syrup or honey for drizzling

Directions:

Slice your brioche in 1/2 inch slices.  You should get about 9-10 slices out of the loaf.  Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat, add your fat of choice (butter, ghee, coconut oil are great choices).  

In a bowl, combine heavy whipping cream, orange zest, orange juice, eggs, & vanilla.  Whisk together till combined.  Once your skillet is nice & hot, add your slices of brioche to the eggy custard, coating both sides really well.  Add the coated brioche slices to your skillet and cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on how well you like your french toast cooked through.  I love the crispy edges.  Before adding new slices, add more fat to grease pan and continue cooking.

Serve hot with butter & maple syrup or honey.  Enjoy!

Breaking Generational Curses with Forgiveness

While laying on my bed after putting the girls to bed for the night, I was finished.  The weekend seemed filled with mountains of whining.  I'm sure my words were not as gentle towards the closing of the door.  Do you ever feel like that?  You just want to be done with it.  You snap and it feels good...in the moment.  

But, what I see is that God is wanting more from me for the sake of these girls future.  Not that I hit myself when I fail; rather, that I humble myself to go to a three year old & five year old and ask for forgiveness.  

It's because, 

When I am breathing this side of heaven’s last breaths, I want to leave a legacy of a forgiving heart.  Our world needs more reconciling forgiveness than anything.  There’s a powerful grace in forgiveness.  When our parents have hurt us, or we have hurt our children or spouse, or ex-spouse...when those four words spill out, “Will You Forgive Me?” Jesus can’t not be present there.  ​

Join me over at MomHeart today as I share my story of breaking generational curses & leaving a legacy through the power of forgiveness.

Q&A: Logistics on How We Arrived Here in our Health, Budget & Story

Today is the last Q&A day for Redeeming the Table on Food Stuff, and why we eat the way we eat.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.  But, before I dive into the last portion of questions (which will all be put together under the 'About' section), I wanted to express a little more.  

I was reading a friend's words today and she mentioned how story was important, about how we got to the conclusion we found.  I think of people talking and people telling stories.  What stood out was her examples of not simply giving the "5 Tips" on how to achieve a goal (one of them talking about grain-free eating), but weaving a story of the struggle in how we got to the other end of the conflict.  I couldn't help but think, "Is she talking specifically to me?"  

Maybe not.  

Regardless, I wanted to provide some links to old posts & how we as a family got here.  

Ultimately, I REALLY love to eat.  I am a sensate person & enjoy food SO much.  However, when I was hitting 200 lbs (and during 1st & 2nd pregnancy over that), that love of eating & sedentary lifestyle didn't help that love.

What Got Me Thinking

When I hear the words from Ben, "my doctor said, 'good thing you don't smoke, because you would have lived half your life with your genetics & cholesterol (age 18),'" how can I not want to love him through cooking well.  

When I see various doctors, one being a genetic counseling doctor for our oldest saying that she might possibly have Prader-Willi Syndrome, which the number one way it affects the person is through obesity because they literally don't get satiated when they eat...how can I not take that into account through lifestyle changes?  

When the last time I saw myself as in shape, or body even remotely beautiful was before puberty...why would I not choose to love myself better?  

When I have two little girls who are looking to their mama as a model of what a high self-esteem, healthy eating patterns are...how can I ignore this?  

I want my girls to love food.  

I don't want them to be the typical girl who shys away from finishing her dinner, or not asking for seconds, because it's a "fat thing."  I want them to know what good choices are when it comes to food.  I don't want them to become obese, have Type II Diabetes, or other health problems, because I allowed for poor choice making in their early years.  Will they be out of my grasp when they are at friend's houses and get to choose for themselves?  Yes.  But, I want to teach & give them the tools needed in making good food choices.

I love that V loves roasted beets & brussels sprouts.  I love that Tay can eat bowl after bowl of salad.  I would rather my girls love food, the processes it came about and know how to treat it and themselves well by age six; rather, than being a stellar reader or writer.  

Every mother has different "prides" when it comes to teaching their children.  I see the teaching of eating a balanced meal, enjoying a good sweet treat, and learning the feasts & fasts of life as foundational in their life, because it is in the plenties & wants of life that are inevitable.  This is why I feel so strongly about food, and why I am constantly reading the whys and hows, along with the beautiful essays & stories on food.  God said to tend the garden, and to treat our bodies as temples.  I have done a poor job with that in the past, and I choose differently now. 

This is also my attempt to share with you that you are not your past, but you have a choice to write something new for yourself when it comes to health & food.  I share this, because I passionately believe in communing around the table with good food.  I want you to share the table with me.

Question & Answer: Logistics on How We Arrived Here in Our Health & Budget

The way you eat looks good & healthy, but it also appears rather idealistic & expensive.  How can one actually afford to eat this way?  

I agree that eating this way has increased our family food budget.  When buying meat from animals fed a la natural (grass-fed for cattle & lamb, not just slops for the pig, and critters for the poultry) from a grocery store, you will be paying A LOT.  When I was at the Farmer's Market and saw the prices for grass-fed beef rump roast, my jaw dropped.  They were asking somewhere along the lines of $35 (or more) for a 4 lb rump roast.  That's $8.75/lb & ridiculously expensive.  

We buy a ¼ or ½ of a beef cow, which drops the price significantly.  Rather than paying that $8.75/lb, or sometimes more depending on the cut, we pay a flat fee of $2.35-2.55/lb (farmers vary).  Pork costs more and you get less meat.  Pastured eggs vary from town to town, but in our town you see them maxing out at $6.50 a dozen.  I find that expensive.  We get our eggs from our friends for half that price.  

Eating meat proteins from sustainable, reliable & ethical places does cost more than buying a box of macaroni & cheese.  However, with high cholesterol on Ben's side, we view the upfront costs of eating this way now will save us the long term costs of healthcare later.  I hear prescription drugs are mightily expensive these days.  

What else contributes to a health filled life?

Aside from nutrition, I workout at a crossfit gym, which I have found incorporates an all body moving program.  We do everything from Olympic lifts (cleans, jerks, squats) to met-cons (box jump, push up, run).  The movements serve as functional movements one would make in a day.  

When I began the gym in August 2010, I was overweight, out of shape, had major stress & anxiety and finally decided for myself that I needed and wanted better for my life.  Insert joining Jogo.  Getting regular exercise combined with eliminating the majority of grains (primary emphasis on gluten) and refined sugars has allowed me to not run in circles mentally of death & the end of life.  

On top of eating & exercise, I would say a huge contributor to a health filled life is getting enough sleep.  I would habitually stay up two hours past Ben and notice that my anxiety level & functioning capabilities were out of whack.  For myself, staying up too late simply leads to more harm than good mentally & spiritually, which leads to anxiety stomach aches & worry.  

That's what I have found to be helpful in my life, along with taking fish oil supplements, 5,000 IU of Vitamin D daily (I live in WA), and try to keep my water intake high as well.  

Additional Posts on Food, Health & this Journey

My First Week at Jogo Crossfit.

I also wrote about cooking, baking & eating Paleo in this post.

Day One of the First Whole 30 and I wasn't bonkers.

Day Two of the First Whole30 and I was bonkers.

Day Three of the First Whole30 and I ponder.

Week Two of the First Whole30 and life is looking up.

Week Three of the First Whole30 and I hit an Emotional Wall, but...

My Last Day of the First Whole30.

How Exercise became a REAL community I never knew I would find.

Q&A: On Food Ideologies, Eating Meat, Seasonal, Organic?

Today is Day Four into Redeeming the Table's Q&A series with the focus on food ideologies. I get excited about this stuff, much more than 'How' we eat or bake. I'm always driven by why we do the things we do in regards to food. The breath & spirit of food and how that translates into our relationships with self & others. I would love to hear your food ideologies as well.

Do you have a food ideology?

I like this question, because whether we realize it or not, we all hold a special ideology on food. You can read about why we eat the way we eat here, which helps shape my food ideology. Primarily though, I would say that I believe in eating food that requires preparation from a sustainable, reliable, & ethical source, holding to an 'eat with the seasons & locally' as much as I can ideology. Flavor is really important to me as well.

How does your food ideology pan out with meat proteins?

I find eating primal is very ethical. Our family buys grass-fed cattle, pork & pastured eggs from local farmers & friends. Health being a huge element in our family ethos, I want to ensure the meat sources are high in Omega-3's. Grass-fed & pastured animals supply this, which is counter to the “red meat causes cancer” schtick. It's all about what the animals are eating (grain versus grass). When we buy from a local farmer who practices grass-feeding, it is actually more environmentally sound than most assume. It's sustainable, ethical, & reliable.

How does your food ideology translate with fruits & vegetables, organic or not, in season or out?

Vegetables & fruit is the same. It's not necessarily about organic for me on this one. It's more about flavor, no spray & from a source I trust. I trust the crew at Joe's Garden, or some of my favorites at the Farmer's Market. I believe that restraining from buying strawberries the other 10 months out of the year, I'm practicing a sort of spiritual discipline. I wait for early June to hit for Whatcom County grown strawberries and pay the reward for that discipline.

I strongly believe it is the food, which makes a truly great cook or chef. Why eat an orange in summer and strawberries in the winter? Why not practice the art of eating with the seasons as much as possible, in order to train the taste buds, the soul, and the chef knife for fabulous eating? When I tell my girls we can't buy those cherries flown from Chile in winter, it's me translating two things. One, you'll thank me later even though it might appear I don't know what I'm talking about. Two, that we can't always get what we want, even if we can.

How does all this eating in season, locally, sustainability talk translate into your relationships?

Here's the thing...underlying all of my personal beliefs & convictions on food ideology, I've left out the most incremental part---PEOPLE. My relationships with others is superior to my convictions on food. Lucky that I'm married to a man who feels the same as me on this, which makes it easy to not be the awkward person at a dinner with friends or relatives. I believe food can be far too exclusive. It always has been, and always will be. I never want someone thinking, “We can't invite her over, because she has all these opinions on food.” No, no, no...it's sharing food, stories & hospitality that redeems our tables. Food should be a bridge builder, not a bridge destroyer. The table is about inclusivity, not exclusivity.

What are your food ideologies?  How have you come to form them? What is your take on seasonality, locality and such terms?

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