Paleo Cupcakes

I have a major sweet tooth and since I eat mostly paleo, my beloved sweets have been cut out of my life. However, some awesome people in the paleo community have created paleo friendly recipes for sweets and other comfort foods so this weekend I decided to make cupcakes.
You should note that even though these are technically alright to eat on the paleo diet, they are a once-in-a-while treat because they are still too sugary for you. 
I found the cupcake recipe at Elana's Pantry which also linked me to a frosting recipe as well.

For the cupcakes you will need:

• ¼ cup coconut flour
• ¼ cup cacao powder
• ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt (I just used regular salt)
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• ⅓ cup honey

1. Pulse together dry ingredients in a food processor
2. Pulse in wet ingredients
3. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and scoop ¼ cup into each
4. Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes
5. Cool and serve

Makes 8 perfectly moist cupcakes. My dad compared the flavor to an Almond Joy which is one of my favorite candy bars so, woo-hoo!

For the frosting:

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• ⅓ cup coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and coconut oil
2. Stir in vanilla extract
3. Place frosting in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes to thicken
4. Remove from refrigerator and whip frosting with a hand blender until thick and fluffy
5. Frost over Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes

You must, must, muuust refrigerate the frosting for 15-30 minutes. I forgot about the frosting and it just solidified to a giant sauce pan shaped chocolate bar so I had to reheat it to start over. I'm not too sure about the flavor of this frosting. No one else complained but I've never really been a fan of the coconut oil flavor and that was all that I picked up on while eating the frosting.

All in all I would say there is barely any difference between these cupcakes and normal cupcakes. My three taste testers also approved them so I will say that this paleo recipe is here to stay!

California Academy of Sciences

 I wanted to do something fun this long weekend and I wanted to get out of the house. My first idea was to go down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium but after getting up too late on Saturday and then realizing that it takes almost 3 hours to drive down there, Alex came up with the great idea to spend the day at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on Sunday. I had not been to there since I was probably 12... way before the remodel so I was pretty excited to not only see the exhibits but to see all of the new renovations. Here are a few pictures I took... in the 4 hours that we were there, I took almost 200 photos so you're pretty lucky that I could narrow it down to this many. There were just too many things to see there!

Candy Haul

Yesterday we bought candy. Lots of candy, which is unusual because for the most part, we (and by we I mostly mean I - he still love his Honey Bunches of Oats) have given up processed foods. However, when I saw that purple package of Choward’s Violet mints (the same one I’ve seen floating around Tumblr) I knew I had to try them.

Then I saw the Bon Bons. The same chewy goodness that I used to buy from the French Club back in high school. How could I resist?

Not wanting to feel left out, Alex picked out a candy too.
“Happy or fizzy cola?” he asked.
“Fizzy!”

They may be empty calories but gosh dern-it, they are tasty.