Thurs, 24-May-2012

Okay, this is not going to be my normal post, as I am literally plum tired and my brain isn't working too well.

Got home from life group late last night, after 10:30 pm and stayed up catching up on some things and wasn't in bed until a little after 12:30 am.  Set my alarm to wake up at 5:30 am so I could bake cupcakes for both my kids' classes, and instead, my body wakes me up just before 4:30 am, with less than 4 hrs sleep BUT, I'm wide awake.

So, I happily pop out of bed, forgetting to take my BP meds, drink water, pee, or anything, and begin grabbing things to setup what I'm going to make first.  My list of cupcakes included 4 different kinds, which I will be sharing my modified recipes from 2 different food bloggers.  One food blogger uses agave nectar and I honestly think agave nectar is crap and highly processed.  Yes, it sounds healthy, but I wonder if refined sugar is just as healthy as that, so I avoid using that.

My sweeteners of choice are:  1)  Natural fruit, 2) Xylitol, 3) Maple Syrup, 4) Raw Honey.  In these cupcake & frosting recipes, I'm going to use the first 3 and not the honey.

My flours of choice for cupcakes are:  1) coconut flour, 2) blanched almond flour

Oils of choice are:  1)  extra virgin coconut oil, 2) grapeseed oil (sparingly)

All recipes contain eggs, and only 1 recipe contained any semblance of nuts.

Frostings main ingredients:  1)  Heavy cream or whipping cream, 2) cream cheese (full fat), 3) avocados

The 4 types of cupcakes & frostings I made were (all Paleo-friendly or low carb).

• Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado Swiss Mocha Frosting
• Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting & Fresh Strawberry Slice
• Banana Cream Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting Sprinkled with Chocolate Dirt & Banana Slice
• Key Lime Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Key Lime Frosting

I made about 22-24 cupcakes of each flavor.  For you math lovers, that's almost 100 cupcakes.

Each cupcake type was made totally from scratch.  The Banana Cream Cupcakes, I could not find blanched almond flour, so I easily made my own flour with blanched almonds in the Blendtec for maybe 15 seconds.  Easy.

Anyway, I didn't finish making the frosting until 2 pm.  Since I had frostings that cannot stand heat, I rushed to the kids' school with cupcakes in a borrowed cupcake carrier, 2 cake carriers and 2 aluminum pans full of unfrosted cupcakes.  Had my son's 3rd grade class come get the cupcakes as I parked my car.  Then, my son's teacher, some of her students helped me frost & decorate all the cupcakes.  Worked well as a team.

Then, when the kids and I got home, since they didn't obey me with what they were supposed to do yesterday while I was in life group, they got a lot of work to do, not only including what they were supposed to do, but also a lot of other housework on top of that.  Obeying the first time is always easier.  I ought to keep that in mind when the Holy Spirit speaks to me and tells me to do something.  Note to self.

Oh, today I did eat something that was totally NOT what I should've eaten.  It wasn't the cupcakes as the cupcakes actually were pretty healthy, which I ate 1 cupcake of each of 3 of the kinds (not the strawberry shortcakes as they went fast).  I ate a croissandwich with ham and bacon from Jack in the Box.  Wasn't sure if I had enough eggs to do all my baking and really didn't have other foods to eat that were convenient.  Guess I could've always opened a can of tuna?

So, while the kids were organizing, cleaning out the frig, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, doing laundry, doing the dishes, I made an Indian Vegetable Curry dish.  My first authentic Indian dish from scratch today.  But, I added ground sirloin to it, so it became a Beef & Veggies Indian Curry dish.  Also made a Turmeric Cauli-Rice to go with it.  Dinner actually took about 1.25 hrs to make today.  Combine that with the 8 hrs on the cupcakes . . . that's a full day of cooking and I'm wiped out.

There is enough Curry to last probably for several meals for my kids and I.  They loved it.  

Anyway, I have not worked out this week, but have been swamped busy and I haven't slept enough a couple nights, including last night.  I may not even get any workouts in this week.  

Tomorrow, I plan on making hamburger and hotdog buns or something.  Stay tuned.

So, my social calendar is: 

Saturday - BBQ & Swim

Mon - Friend's house or some CS Single's Family Thing

Tues - Day Life Group potluck

Wed - Evening Life Group potluck

This is a lot of cooking.