Here is why Whole 30 is treating me better than Paleo: I am not spending my days and nights dreaming up some random concoction of almond flour, applesauce and agave syrup to create an excuse of a muffin or something that will keep my weird dessert/sweets cravings at bay. Instead, you just have to give in to the fact that these things don’t exist. And, somehow you survive.

I can tell, however, that I’m beginning to obssess about the food thing a little bit. That’s coming from late night Pinterest surfing and recipe searching. I did decide that it was time to try to find something that might be acceptable to both the Whole30 and to me as a “dessert”. Those bacon-date thingies, those were actually pretty darn good. What else is there?

I tried out two recipes that I’ll share with you. I can’t say that either of them were a huge success out of the gate, but I’m not going to give up on either of them just yet.

Let’s start with the “Slow Cooker Baked Apples”. The inspiration came from this recipe. I made swaps and substitutions based on what I had in the kitchen.

Apple-Raisin-Coconut Concoction (dress rehearsal. Needs some work)

The result was a little dry for my taste. Kid didn’t like it. Husband didn’t like it. Oh well. I put the leftovers in the fridge and slept on it, so to speak.

In the mornings, 6 days out of 7 I will have eggs for breakfast. If I’m not following Paleo it’s more like 5 days out of 7. Usually, that seventh day I’m just sick of eggs and I can’t do it. So it’s toast if I’m not on Paleo, and random meat stuff if I am. This morning, the day after the baked apple fail, I scrounged around, and took out the apple concoction. From the pantry I grabbed a can of lite coconut milk and unsweetened dried coconut and my (new) bag of chia seeds.

And, you know what? A real improvement to this dish. I sprinkled some chia seeds on top and found what I was looking for. Oh, and since I had a can of coconut milk open, let’s pour a little bit of that in my black coffee. Great idea! This made the morning better, and somehow kept me full (alongside some mixed berries) until lunch.

Apple-Raisin-Coconut Concoction Finale

It goes something like this:

Apple-Raisin-Coconut Finale:

• 6 small apples (I used Pink Lady), peeled, cored, chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1-2 tbsp coconut oil, plus more to grease pot
• 1/4 c coconut flour
• 3/4 c chopped nuts of your choice (i used walnuts & almonds)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Top With (measurements are to your liking):

• 1/4 c coconut milk
• 1 tbsp coconut flakes
• 1 tsp chia seeds (optional)

1. Grease the slow cooker with some coconut oil.
2. Combine apples, raisins, tbsp cinnamon together. Melt the tbsp+ of coconut oil. Once melted mix in the flour, nuts and spices until you create a crumble top. Add it on top of the apples in the slow cooker
3. Set the slow cooker to High for 2 hours, then turn to low for the last 30 minutes (if you want a drier crumble top, take the cover off for the final 30).
4. To serve, pour some coconut milk into a ramekin, enough to just cover the bottom. serve out about 1 cup of apple concoction. Then drizzle more coconut milk over and top with dried coconut and chia seeds.

Voila! You can see how easy it would be to mix and match, fruits, toppings, etc.

That open can of coconut milk will come in handy for my next sweet treat experiment. To be continued…