Paleo Gluten Free Crock Pot Cashew Chicken

So generally on Fridays my husband is off while I work during the day then we have the evening together.  There is nothing more I hate then having to go to work for 10 hrs, then come home and have to cook.  So I am always trying to come up with something easy for my husband to make (he's really not that great in the kitchen, but he tries :-) )  So I was craving some Chinese food, but what could I possible make that is both paleo and gluten free? Well Cashews were on sale at the store so I had picked up some of those then it came to me.... Cashew Chicken!  This couldn't be that hard in the crock pot!  And all Josh would need to do is throw it all in the crock pot and turn it on! SIMPLE!!!  One thing to keep in mind if you are gluten free is that Soy Sauce is FULL of GLUTEN!!!  But there are gluten free soy sauces out there, so just keep an eye out for it! I get mine at Sprouts, which is our local health food store.  I believe Whole Foods has it as well.
I then ran into the problem with the brown sugar needed for the sauce, this is not Paleo...now what to do... Then I stumbled across coconut sugar.  After researching all it is is processed coconut flesh to be very fine.  It's pretty delicious too, and it reminds me of brown sugar! Perfect!!  Alright enough blabbing, here we go!

Crock Pot Cashew Chicken

2 chicken breasts, (leave whole)
1-2 cups frozen broccoli 
1 cup carrots, chopped into bite sized pieces 
1/2 cup cashews 
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup gluten free soy sauce
4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons ketchup (try to get sugar free for paleo)
1 Tablespoon coconut sugar
1 Tablespoon garlic powder 
1 Tablespoon ginger powder 
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup chicken broth

Layer chicken, and vegetables in the crockpot
Combine remaining ingredients except water and cashews, and pour over chicken in crockpot
Add water or broth if necessary so that the chicken and veggies are almost completely covered
Cook for 5 hrs on low
Take the chicken out and dice into bite sized pieces, throw back in the crock pot and add the cashews and cook for another hour on low.

You can enjoy this on rice if you are not Paleo, or if you are Paleo you can do riced cauliflower (which is pretty amazing).  Best part of cooking the meal...ENJOY

Carrot Coconut GF muffins (advocare friendly)

Recently my husband has had to move to a primarily glutten free diet. It's been tough wasp evilly when it comes down to baked goods!! But I came across a primarily healthy muffin recipe and kind if expanded upon it adding the carrot and coconut along with making it gluten free. Now you can use all purpose flower for this recipe as well!! Hope you enjoy!!

1 1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour*

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar free apple sauce

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

2 T melted butter

1 egg (lightly beaten)

2/3 cup grated carrot

1/3 cup shredded coconut

*if you use all purpose flower cut the baking down to 1 tsp

Prepare a muffin tin (I used small ones) with either liners or grease. Preheat oven to 350 degreese.

Whisk together all dry ingredients (except coconut and carrot.) Make a well in the middle and add all wet ingredients. Mix all together until combined... Do not over mix. Fold in carrot and coconut. 

Spoon into muffin tin filling about 3/4 full. Bake for 13 mins for the small guys, larger ones will take prob about 18 minutes. Check with a tooth pick and if it comes out clean it's done!!

Now the hard part... Let them cool before eating! The flavors come out more and more as they cool! Enjoy!!