The Best Pesto You've Ever Tasted (and Vegan, too!)

We are on our last leg of summer in Virginia, and it's time to gather up any remaining basil left in the garden.  There are so many things you can do to preserve it.  Dry it.  Puree it with some olive oil, put it in ice cube trays, freeze and then use later to flavor soups, stews, pasta sauce.  Or you could make pesto.

My favorite pesto recipe comes from a Sicilian cookbook I got years ago.  The reason it's my favorite is that it adds avocado for an amazing creaminess and richness that blows regular pesto away.  Seriously.  This time, I did a little experimenting and found that you don't even need to add parmesan cheese to it and it's still delicious! You will be tempted to skip the step of soaking the nuts. Don't. I switched that up, too, to make it go a little quicker. I also added a little lemon juice to help keep the bright green color and add a little zing.

This recipe makes quite a bit (about 2 cups) and it's so flavorful you don't need to use a ton for the flavor to come through.  The night I made it, I roasted some veggies (fennel, tomatoes and leeks) and tossed it with some pasta, but I still had some left over.  I spread it on sandwiches (turkey is a great pairing) and crackers (livens up a cup of soup).  It will keep in the fridge for about a week, but it might turn a little brown, given the avocado. Still tastes amazing, though!




Avocado Pesto

 1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1 avocado (I used 1/3, because that's all I had, but it turned out fine)
3 cloves garlic
2 cups fresh basil (loosely packed - and you can use some of the soft stems, but be sure to discard any hard, woody stems)
1/3 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water (I use a little of the pasta water before I drain the pasta)


Boil about 2 cups of water (I used an electric kettle and set it to the "tea" setting, which gets it to 175 degrees F), let cool slightly (about 5 minutes), then pour over the almonds and walnuts and set aside.  Peel and pit the avocado.  Peel and chop the garlic. Put avocado, garlic, basil leaves, marjoram, lemon juice, olive oil and salt in the food processor.  Drain the nuts (they should have soaked at least 10 minutes), discard water.  Put the nuts in the food processor. Put the top on the processor and chop everything together, stopping to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl a couple of times.  When everything is chopped very fine, start adding the warm (pasta) water, a little at a time, through the feed tube.  Start with 1/3 cup, then if you need to add more to get a smooth sauce, then add a little more at a time.  This will not be a runny sauce. It will be a little more like a loose paste.

Toss with pasta, use it as a topping for fish or veggies.  Keeps in the refrigerator for about a week.

Failure...And Coming Back

I'm going to confess that I don't always hit home runs in the kitchen.  As a matter of fact, I pretty much suck at making any kind of candy that requires more than just melting some chocolate and spreading it on a slab (i.e., chocolate bark).  Chocolate bark, I can do.  But when I have to boil stuff to a specific temperature, I fail. Every. Single. Time.  But, as an optimist (or crazy person), I keep trying, thinking I will finally "get it."  But then I don't.  Again.

This week's debacle comes from the latest issue of Bon Appétit magazine in the form of  Pecan Buttermilk Fudge:



Seriously, how could you not want to try and make that?  I also happened to have some extra buttermilk to use up. So there was that. Plus my eternal optimism.  I tend to ignore that niggling voice that says, "But Marna, you suck at making fudge from scratch." Should have listened to that voice.  I think I overcooked the fudge, because it set harder than a two-day-old baguette.  I had to literally chisel pieces using a steak knife and a meat tenderizer.  Not lying. I was too embarrassed to take a photo of that mess.

But. But. The reason I didn't throw it all in the trash is because the crumbly shards I was able to scrape off tasted really good, the texture notwithstanding. So, I broke the slab in half and put it away for a couple of days until I figured out what to do with it.

Then I figured it out. Not how to make fudge. No, that still eludes me.  I figured out what to do with this impossible-to-eat (seriously jaw-breaker hard) slab of overcooked sugar.  Here's the problem: since the recipe is based on a mistake and I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, there's no way to replicate this.  Besides, who wants purposely screw up a batch of fudge, then use the results to make something else? That's just crazy.

Besides, the recipe would go like this:

Crust: 4 whole graham crackers
3 Wasa whole grain crackers
1/8 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp melted butter

Crush crackers in food processor into fine crumbs.  Stir in sugar and melted butter.  Pat into 8x8 inch pan.

Filling: 1 batch of jacked up Pecan Buttermilk Fudge
approx. 1/3 cup caramel sauce (I used Smuckers brand)

Melt the jacked up fudge on low power (I used level 4 for 7 minutes) until softened. Stir until smooth, then add the caramel sauce. Combine thoroughly, then pour over crumb crust. Bake in an oven that you set to preheat to 425 (because you're making a quiche crust so the oven was preheating for that anyway). Take the bars out when the topping is slightly bubbling around the edges.  I think it took about 5-7 minutes.

Topping: approx. 1 c. chocolate chips

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the bars, then let them melt.  Carefully spread the chocolate chips smooth over the bars.

Like I said, this can not be replicated. So, sorry about that. But if you want to try this out, go for it!

Here's the good news.  The crumb crust I made was really good.  Combining the Wasa crackers with the graham crackers gave it great texture and not too sweet. Plus it held up when I poured the melted fudge/caramel sauce mixture. I think I'll substitute Wasa crackers for some graham crackers every time I make a graham cracker crust.

But I guess the point of this post is not to share a recipe, but to show all of you that it's okay to make mistakes.  And to experiment. And be willing to keep trying, even though you've failed many times before. Honestly guys, it's just food. Get in that kitchen and start cooking!

Baklava -- It's Easier Than You Think

Want to become a pastry chef without actually making pastry?  Use phyllo dough.  Unlike puff pastry (a pain to make, to be honest), I don't know anyone who actually makes their own, so no chef can "one up" you by saying they make their phyllo dough "in house."  :-)

Once you get the hang of it, phyllo is pretty easy to use.  Plus, if it rips, it's no big deal -- just layer it on anyway and brush with a boatload of butter.  Fool proof!  The original recipe I found didn't use enough cinnamon, in my opinion, so I upped the spice.  Plus more honey.  More flavor, more goodness. Also, there's no way I wanted an entire large pan of baklava sitting around our house (the original recipe made a 9x13 pan) -- the temptation would be too great to eat it all in two days.  As it was, we ate this smaller pan in 2, and we only gave away 4 pieces to our neighbors.  I have no willpower...

Enjoy!

Baklava My Way

Adapted from a recipe found on Allrecipes.com

1/2 package of phyllo dough
2 cups finely chopped walnuts
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter the bottom and sides of an 8x8 inch pan.  Combine finely chopped walnuts and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Unroll phyllo dough, and place a damp, clean towel on top of it to keep it from drying out.  Take a couple of sheets and line the bottom of the pan.  Brush with melted butter.  Layer another sheet, brush with butter. Repeat until you have about 8 layers on the bottom. Spread 1/3 of the walnut mixture on top of the phyllo layers.  Layer and butter 3 more phyllo layers, then spread the second 1/3 of walnuts, then another 3 sheets with butter.  Top with the remaining sheets, buttering in between each layer.  Carefully cut the baklava into 9 squares, then cut each square in half, making 18 triangles.

Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden brown.  While the baklava is baking, combine water and sugar in a small saucepan, heat until sugar dissolves, then add honey.  Bring mixture to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened and syrupy (you should still have about 1/2 cup of syrup).  Take off heat and add vanilla.

After baklava has finished baking, remove pan from oven and drizzle honey syrup over the entire pan of baklava.  Let cool for at least an hour (2 hours is best, if you have the willpower), so that the pastry can soak up the syrup.

Makes 18 servings (or 9, if you're my family, because you can't eat just one piece).

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

Monster cookies with dark chocolate chips, smoked peanuts, bacon bits, and bacon meringue crumbles.  Crazy?  Not until you taste them!  So, you know from my earlier post that I had some left over bacon meringue crumbles (crumbs, whatever).  I put a lot of sweat and tears into those babies, so I wasn't about to just throw them out!  It just so happened that I had a jar of peanut butter that my kids didn't like so much (the texture wasn't smooth enough), so I was thinking monster cookies.  Also, I didn't have enough peanut butter, so I added a little bit of this chocolate almond spread I picked up at Trader Joe's.  Don't be fooled: it's not Nutella.  I don't prefer the flavor as much, so I'll be using it up in some baked goods or maybe a frosting in the coming months....but I digress.  Because the peanut butter I was using was natural, which tends to be oilier and looser than more processed peanut butters, I did add a little bit of flour, so you may quibble that this is not a true monster cookie.  But you can get over all of that, especially when you take a bite of these bad boys.

Now, if you don't have bacon meringue crumbles, by all means, just use bacon bits and call it a day. I happened to have both, so I put both in.  No sense in doing things half-assed, am I right?  Also, you can leave the nuts out if you want, or just use regular peanuts or almonds.  I happened to have some smoked peanuts (which I mixed with plain roasted almonds) that I wanted to use up as well (are you sensing a theme??), so in the dough they went!  But really and truly, these were tasty!  Chewy, with a sweet/savory/salty thing going on that was heaven!

If you've never made monster cookies before, the real key is to not overbake them.  They will look a little under done when you pull them out, and it's essential to let them sit on the baking sheet about 5 minutes before you take them off.  Honest. Then you take them off the cookie sheet and let them cool all the way on a cooling rack.

This is what it looks like when you combine the eggs and sugars.  It's very loose, but just wait, things will tighten up when you add the peanut butter:

And after you add all of the dry ingredients, the cookie dough becomes really stiff.  I had to sort of knead in the chips, nuts, and bacon bits.  This is what the finished dough looks like:

Here's a shot of the finished product while they are still cooling on the sheet pans.  You will definitely need to line the pans with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

4 eggs
1 1/4 granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz natural peanut butter
3 oz. Trader Joe's cocoa almond spread
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3.5 cups oats, not instant
2/3 cup flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped smoked almonds and/or peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup bacon bits (or 1/2 cup bacon meringue crumbs)

Beat sugars and eggs together thoroughly.  Add butter, salt, vanilla, peanut butter and cocoa spread.  Cream all together. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until combined, then stir in nuts, chocolate chips and bacon.  Dough will be stiff.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined large baking sheets. Flatten each cooking down slightly. Leave 2 inches of space, because they will spread a bit. I could only fit about 10 on a large sheet pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.  The cookies should still look a little puffy and only lightly browned when you take them out. Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before taking them off the baking sheet and finishing cooling on a cooling rack. You do not want to overbake these cookies so that they'll stay chewy and delicious.

Makes a lot -- 4 dozen or so.

Lemon Coconut Macaroons

When I first moved to Washington, DC, I lived near Dupont Circle and a great bakery/food store called Marvelous Market.  They had the most wonderful (marvelous!) chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons.  They were huge, and a true indulgence, but those cookies started my love affair with macaroons.

Please note that there is a difference between macaroons and macarons. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people use those terms interchangeably.  They are two different kinds of cookie/pastry. Macaroons do not have a filling, are generally made with coconut or almonds/nuts as its base, and sometimes you don't even whip the egg whites before adding the sugar and coconut or almonds. Macarons are little meringue-like confections (they look kind of like buttons) filled with ganache, jam or buttercream. They are often tinted with food coloring to make festive colors and can have seemingly limitless kinds of flavor combinations. 

Because they don't contain flour (or dairy, for that matter), macaroons are often served as a treat during the Jewish observance of Passover.  My husband and I were going to someone's house for Passover dinner a few years back, and I had offered to bring dessert, so I thought it would be fun to bring macaroons.  Jonathan was horrified, because he hated macaroons. No offense to Jews everywhere, but the macaroons you buy in the cans don't even begin to compare to homemade.  My husband, who is Jewish, had never tasted a homemade macaroon until I (a Lutheran) made one for him. I find it a little sad that he missed out on those tasty treats for so many years!

Anyway, macaroons are great to make when you have some extra egg whites left over.  I also like to make meringues, but I'll save that for a different post.  :-)  But the real reason I thought I'd make some macaroons is that I had a half of a jar of lemon curd in the fridge, plus the egg whites.  I saw a recipe for macaroons that seemed a little like a macaron, but not as labor intensive, so I thought I would give it a try, using the lemon curd for a filling.  Of course, I didn't follow the recipe as written.  Instead of making a true meringue,where you add the sugar gradually to get stiff, pillowy fluff, I dumped the sugar in all at once.  This deflated the egg whites a bit, but that's what I was looking for -- I wanted the end result to be a little crisp on the outside, but chewy on the inside.  I also like the flavor combination of coconut and lemon, so I decreased the almond meal a little, and added the unsweetened coconut.

The result was very much what I had been looking for: a light but chewy cookie.  What didn't work as well was the lemon curd filling, because the cookies were too chewy; when you tried to bite through the cookie, the lemon filling kind of oozed out the sides. It was kind of a mess.  BUT, the cookies themselves were delightful with a great lemon coconut flavor and just a hint of almond.  Even the kids at the bus stop liked them (well, most of them, anyway).




Lemon Coconut Macaroons (inspired by a recipe I found on Epicurious)

3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
zest of one lemon
3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I used flaked, but you could surely use shredded)


Preheat oven to  275°F. In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks (1).  Add the sugar and beat until the whites are shiny and airy, but will fall off the whisk in a thick ribbon (2). Fold in the ground almonds, lemon zest and coconut.

(1)

 
















(2)

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter  onto the baking sheet. I used a cookie scoop, but you could also use two spoons to scoop, then scrape onto the sheet. Place the cookies 1 inch apart (they won't spread much when they bake). Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cookies are firm and very slightly brown. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before removing the cookies from the baking sheets to a rack. When cool, store in an air-tight container. Makes about 30 cookies.

P.S. I am working on a post about our street's annual Meat Day, but I haven't loaded up the pictures.  I realized it's been a while since my last post, so this one will have to do until next week...

Fluffernutter Brownies - From Failure to Fantastic!

I had wanted to get this posted days ago, but then the flu happened in our house, and my time has not been my own.  So I apologize for not being able to be a more regular poster.  That will be my New Year's resolution...

Hopefully you're not sick of brownie recipes yet, because I have another one for you.  :-) And, fair warning, I have a couple of recipes you can make using up brownies, so stay tuned.  I had a lot of brownies to use up after that whole brownie experiment thing...

I didn't intend to make brownies, but sometimes things don't go your way and you need to take a different direction.  Such as today.  I had attempted to make peanut butter fudge, a recipe I saw in my latest Penzey's spice catalog (seriously, sign up for their mailing list, even if it's just for the recipes).  I should have known.  I am not very patient, and making candy takes patience. So, after letting it set up for 2 days in the fridge, I wasn't sure what I ended up with, but it wasn't fudge.  What I got was some really delicious, fluffy, peanut buttery goo that was too good to throw away. I actually made myself sick taste-testing the "fudge" to ensure that a) it tasted good, and b) it actually wasn't fudge.

Here's what I had. Clearly too soft to be fudge.

What was I going to do with this stuff?  One of my all time favorite flavor combinations is peanut butter and chocolate, so I thought, "Why not swirl some of this into brownies?" So that's what I did.

You need to make enough brownie batter for a 9x13 inch pan, so I doubled my favorite brownie recipe (nothing healthy about these, despite my previous attempts).  This is a recipe from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook and super simple. You can, however, use a box mix (I won't judge) to keep it simple, since you'll be putting in some time on the the peanut butter fudge.


Here's my go-to brownie recipe. I love it because you make it in one pan and it is incredibly simple.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Brownies

1 cup butter
12 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa (or about 1/2 cup)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Fluffernutter Filling
(If you want the same consistency that I had, cook for 5 minutes, and don't use a candy thermometer. If you want to actually make the peanut butter fudge, then use a candy thermometer to make sure you get to the soft ball stage.)

Grease a 9x13 inch pan and preheat oven to 325 (F).

Combine butter and cocoa in a 3 qt. saucepan.  Heat over low heat, stirring, until butter is melted and cocoa is completely blended in until smooth.  Set aside to cool (about 5 minutes).

When cocoa is lukewarm, beat in sugar and vanilla. Then beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the flour and salt, beat until combined.

Pour brownie batter into prepared pan, then drop blobs of filling (I only used about half of the recipe) onto brownie batter, then use a knife to swirl the two together.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (when a toothpick is inserted near the center, it should come out with a few bits of crumbs clinging to it).

I hope you enjoy these!  They are delicious!  And, in the spirit of the season, I gave the brownies as thank yous for our trash and recycling guys.  I hope they like them!

I still have to figure out what to do with the other half of that failed peanut butter fudge...

Healthy Brownie: Oxymoron or Attainable Dream?

I've been working on a long-term project to see if it's possible to create a "healthier" brownie.  After several tries and taste tests (yeah, it's a tough job), I actually did come up with a pretty good alternative, which I'll share with you a little later.

But first, a discussion about my brownie preferences and what I mean by "healthier." I fall into the dense and chewy camp of brownie lovers.  I definitely will not say no to a cakey brownie, especially if it has frosting, but I prefer the kind of brownie that is dense, rich, and chewy.  Usually the sugar amount is higher than the flour amount.  If it has a crackled top, that's even better!

What do I mean by "healthier?" Preferably, something that doesn't use refined sugar or wheat flour, with a better oil source (not dairy fat like butter, something with a modicum of health benefits).  I understand that, depending on your nutrition goals, my definition of healthy might not be yours, but there is a lot of room for experimentation.  There are tons of "healthier" brownie recipes on the internet, using black beans, beets, sweet potatoes, zucchini.  I tried them all, or at least a version of them.  And I invited over some friends to help me taste test them.  Here's what we tasted:

I numbered the different brownies so that no one would prejudge a taste before they actually tasted it.

Here are the notes from one of my friends.  I picked his list because he has fanatically neat writing, and his words summed up the general consensus of the group:

Here are the brownies, and a link to the original recipe, if I got it from an internet source:

1. Variation of the Wuollet brownie using almond flour, maple sugar
2. Wuollot brownie recipe (full butter, sugar, etc, for comparison)
3. Paleo brownie (raw, with nuts, dates, cocoa)
4. Red Velvet (with beets) - I love that my friend wrote "with a certain je ne sais quoi" for that one.  He was really surprised when I said they were beets.
5. zucchini brownie
6. Sweet potato brownie
7. Marna's "Healthier" Brownie (recipe below)
8. Black Bean Brownie
9. Brownies with egg whites, no flour (kind of like a flourless chocolate cake, but I made a mistake and added the sugar to the whipped whites before adding it to the flour mixture.  The texture was horrible, so I'm not even sharing the recipe with you on this one).

As you can see, there was a lot of tasting and experimenting.  I personally liked the texture of the zucchini brownie (although it had a kind of "green" smell that hit you just before you bit into it.  The smell went away once you had the brownie in your mouth) and the "Marna's Healthier Brownie" the best.  So, what did I find, given my initial premise?  You can add veggies or fruit to a brownie, which will give it more fiber and maybe some vitamins, but if you still keep the sugar. butter and processed flour in it, it's still going to be unhealthy overall.  In all my experimentation substituting different things, here's what I learned:

1) There's not a good natural substitute for white, granulated sugar. Either it's not sweet enough (honey) or gives it an odd taste (maple sugar) and there is definitely a difference in texture (not as chewy as I like)

2) Flours were also a problem, if you want a pure chocolate taste.  The almond flour was a little gritty (I didn't mind the texture, but my 8 year old did) and definitely added an almond taste to the chocolate (not unpleasant, but may not be what you want). The chickpea flour had an earthy taste, but with the chocolate, it wasn't off-putting.

3) Using half ghee and half coconut oil does make a good substitute for butter, without the dairy in it.  You still get some butter taste, but it's not overwhelming (as it is when you use only ghee), and the coconut oil is a neutral taste that blends well with the ghee. However, if you're trying to avoid saturated fats, this combo might not be for you. Click on the links for some nutritional information about each of them, if you are interested.

4) To make brownies healthier, it's better to just substitute one unhealthy thing, and leave the rest as in the original recipe. I don't think there's ever going to be a "healthy" brownie that will truly compare to the unhealthy original, but you CAN make it healthier, substituting a "healthy" ingredient for one of the unhealthy ones (depending on what your nutrition goals are and what you generally want to avoid).

Now this doesn't have to be the final word on the healthy brownie debate, or course, and I realize the use of chocolate chips (using refined sugar, oils and such) makes any brownie less healthy.  There are a lot of flours that I didn't try (if you're interested in gluten-free options). And I am still intrigued about using a flourless chocolate cake recipe as a starting point.  Where is the one with the applesauce, you may be asking?  Well, that recipe is pretty common, but frankly, I think that comes out a little too cake-y for my taste, so I didn't add it here, but if you have a good one, feel free to share it. I'm always open to new ideas!

For me, what worked best was using blends of things, as you can see from the recipe I came up with, below.


Marna's "Healthier" Brownie

1/4 cup ghee
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup natural honey
2 eggs
1/8 cup maple sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup natural cocoa (I get mine from Penzey's)
1/2 cup almond flour (I use Bob's Red Mill brand)
1/8 cup Chick Pea (Garbanzo Bean) Flour - again Bob's Red Mill
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.  Melt ghee and oil together, set aside to cool.  Beat together the eggs, honey and maple sugar.  Add oil to the egg and sugar mixture. Blend well.  Add the dry ingredients, stir to combine completely, then add the chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes (a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan should come out with a few crumbs on it, but not gooey batter).  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting.  (Trick: to get a clean cut on the brownies, you have to let them cool completely.  No shortcuts -- except I will put them in the fridge after a while to finish cooling...).

Let me know what you think, and if you have any tricks to make brownies healthier, I'd love to hear them.  Personally, I'll probably just make regular brownies (I don't make them very often).  I figure, at least it's better than using a brownie mix, with its additives and such, right?

Happy baking!

Healthy Breakfasts

Sooo, how did your Thanksgiving go?  Of course, as usual, I overate -- especially in the sweets department. The disappointing part this year was that we ate dinner at someone else's house, and there really wasn't a lot left over to take home (my favorite is leftover turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce).  We did, however, bring home half a pan of apple crisp, which I proceeded to eat for breakfast for the next 3 days.  And it was delicious.  In an amazing display of self control, I did NOT put ice cream on top.  :-)

But now it's time to get back on track, as I am determined not have a replay of last winter, where I gained 7 pounds and had a devil of a time working it off.  Some of you might think that 7 pounds isn't that much, but when you're short (not quite 5'2"), even a pound can make a big difference in how your jeans fit. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, but so many more parties and celebrations ahead, I'm going to make a point of eating healthy on most days, so I don't feel so guilty when I (inevitably) indulge at the parties.

Part of that healthy eating is starting out the day right with breakfast.  My three go-to breakfasts are my homemade granola with sliced banana and almond milk, Almond Joy Oatmeal, or a chocolate almond smoothie.  Seriously, who doesn't want to have chocolate for breakfast??  But, surprisingly, the only added sugar in the oatmeal is from the chocolate chips and there is no refined sugar in the smoothie (unsweetened cocoa powder adds the chocolatey taste).  However, if none of those float your boat (I understand that not everyone likes a sweet breakfast), here are some other ideas:

This one is simply whole grain bread (thinly sliced) with peanut butter, apple slices and raw honey drizzled over the top.  It would also be yummy with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  I realize that this probably qualifies as "sweet" in many people's books, but I use natural peanut butter (no added sugar, just straight peanuts) and you can adjust the amount of honey to your taste.  Pay no attention to the glass in the background.  Beer is not part of my healthy breakfast plan (Although I did date a nationally-ranked shot-putter who would go on a strict beer diet when he had to lose weight.  True story). For the record, it is actually water, which is what I usually drink first thing in the morning.

This breakfast was made with a whole grain breakfast mix from Wegman's (if you have a store near you, it's found near the rice), but you could totally make it with quinoa or oatmeal (follow package directions).  I then just added pecans and fresh blueberries.

Sometimes I just want an egg sandwich.  Since I rarely eat actual bread anymore (especially English muffins, scones and such), this was a bit of an indulgence, but you could use gluten-free or whole grain bread to health-ify it (or do away with the bread all together). It's just herbed goat cheese, a couple of slices of avocado, and a fried egg on top (I cook the egg in a non-stick pan and don't add any extra oil or butter). It was so delicious!  But if you don't do dairy, it would taste just as good without the goat cheese. Honest. You could even do a tapenade or roasted red pepper spread instead of the cheese and get some amazing flavors jumping around your mouth first thing in the morning.

I hope this inspires you to start your day off with something healthy and delicious!  Please share your favorite breakfasts with us!

A Tale of Two Sauces

For a friend's birthday, I made her a chocolate-peanut butter swirl cheesecake, and I promise I'll share that recipe with you in a later post.  What I want to talk about today are the sauces I made to go with it.  Not content with just the cheesecake, I wanted a chocolate sauce and a peanut sauce to serve with it and make it look pretty. Luckily, I knew where to look.

A few years ago, I got a book called The Flat Belly Diet, which I should probably follow at all a little more religiously. I liked the book so much that I also bought the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook when it came out a little later. Honestly, when I was following the program and using the recipes, I actually did lose weight. But the reason I liked it was because most of the recipes had ingredients I was already buying anyway.  I'm not going to preach about one diet or another, because I don't think dieting in terms of short-term weigh loss works at all.  What one eats (one's "diet," as it were) needs to work with how your body metabolizes food and your lifestyle, and what works for one person may not work another.  Plus, as your body ages, it's going to have changing needs as well.  Like, cutting out carbs almost all together after you turn 40. It sucks.

But this is not the point of my post.  The point is, in the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook, there are recipes for a Sweet Peanut Sauce and a Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce, which was exactly what I was looking for. Not only are they tasty, but they are super easy to make and versatile.

The peanut sauce can be served with apple slices, over ice cream, folded into whipped cream (scroll down to see pics), served over chocolate chip pancakes (oh so yummy!) or stirred into plain (or vanilla) yogurt for breakfast. The chocolate sauce can be used the same way (dip bananas in it, then swoon). I found it's also really tasty drizzled over a fig and nut cake that I bought at Wegmans, my favorite grocery store.  The sauces definitely taste better when it's warm, rather cold.

Ummm, yeah, those are finger marks in the sauce.  Quality control and all.  Because I care.  :-)

Folded into whipped cream...

And, below, is the chocolate sauce drizzled over the fig and nut cake from Wegmans.  Essentially, the "cake" is just dried figs pressed together with various nuts into layers.  It was so, so good!

So, without further ado, there are the recipes for Sweet Peanut Sauce and Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce:

Sweet Peanut Sauce (from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook):

1/2 cup creamy, natural, unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk
2 Tbsp. honey

Heat the peanut butter, milk and honey in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and smooth.  Serve warm. (8 servings, about 2 Tbsp each)

Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce (from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook):

4 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar

Heat the chocolate, milk, and brown sugar in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. Serve warm. (4 servings, about 3 Tbsp each)

What did I tell you?  Super simple, yet very good.  You'll want to keep these on hand for when you just need a little something sweet!

Little Balls of Heaven

One of my favorite all time Saturday Night Live skits is the one about Schweddy Balls. If you're familiar with that skit, I hope you're laughing at my title!  Otherwise, you might just be scratching your head at my inappropriateness.

Anyway, I used to get a bunch of different food magazines, but now I've winnowed it down to just two: Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.  These are the two magazines where I consistently find recipes that I want to try.  To be honest, for all my "foodiness", I really try to avoid recipes that involve a gazillion ingredients or stuff that I don't regularly buy.  I hate having my cupboards and fridge cluttered up with half-used bottles and jars of stuff (rosewater, chickpea flour, chili lime pickle, anchovy paste...just to name a few).  Look for future blog posts that will utilize these ingredients.  :-)

But I digress!  Back to my balls.  So in the latest edition of Bon Appetit, I found a recipe for Cocoa-Date Truffles where the only sweetener is the dates.  I made them for the staff in the front office of our elementary school.  I made them instead of, say, cupcakes, because our school is labeled a "healthy foods" school (or something like that) where we can't have sweet treats (unless it's fruit) for parties and the daily snacks that the kids bring can't have sugar of any kind in the first 3 ingredients. It's not that big of a deal, and I get why they're doing it, but at the same time, not all of the food choices the school offers in the cafeteria are exactly packed with nutrition, either.  It would be nice if they were consistent, but I'll roll with it.  Ha! I am just full of ball puns today...

So I made these date balls to show the front office that you can have a sweet but healthy (or at least healthier) treat and that just because something's sweet, doesn't mean it's unhealthy. (I'm angling to get low fat brownies allowed, but not sure how that will go over).  The other great thing about this recipe is that it's dairy-free and doesn't have nuts (at least the original recipe), so it's safe to serve anyone who has a milk or nut allergy.

Now, I didn't have raw cacao powder and just used regular cocoa powder, so I'm not sure what the taste difference would be, but I wasn't about to go searching for raw cacao powder.  I just didn't have it in me.  So, here's the recipe from Bon Appetit, with my modifications noted after.

Cocoa-Date Truffles (from the June 2012 edition of Bon Appetit)
makes about 20

3 Tbsp. raw cacao powder
1 1/2 cups Medjool dates, pitted
3 Tbsp. (or more) unsweetened, shredded coconut or quick-cooking oats
pinch of sea salt

Flavoring Options (choose one)
1 Tbsp. unsweetened shredded  coconut
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
1 tsp. instant espresso powder

Coating Options (mix and match)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup lightly toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup crushed, lightly toasted pistachios
1/2 cup crushed, lightly toasted hazelnuts

Puree cacao powder, dates, 3 Tbsp coconut, and salt in a food processor until almost smooth, adding water by teaspoonfuls if too dry and crumbly and coconut by teaspoonfuls if too wet and sticky (the original consistently will be determined by how moist your dates are).  Add desired flavoring and pulse to combine.

Scoop date puree by the tablespoonful and roll  into 1" balls.  Can be made up to one week ahead. Cover and chill.

Roll truffles in desired coatings to cover.

Notes:

From Bon Appetit: Raw cacao powder and unsweetened, shredded coconut can be found at natural food stores, specialty food stores and some supermarkets.


Marna's notes:  Instead of the coconut or oats, I added 2 Tbsp of walnut butter plus 1/4 cup of finely chopped, toasted walnuts.  Plus, as mentioned earlier, I didn't have raw cacao powder and just used regular unsweetened cocoa instead.  I ended up having to add about 2 Tbsp of water to get things to a consistency where I could shape the mixture into balls. In terms of servings, I used a tablespoon scoop and only got about 12 balls, so you could make them smaller to get more, or just count on this making less than you originally thought (or double the recipe).

Never Buy Granola Again

For someone who likes a lot of variety in my meal choices, I am amazingly routine in my breakfast of choice. My usual breakfast is granola and fruit over yogurt.  Truly, I eat it nearly every morning (or else I'm making oatmeal).  Sometimes I like a muffin or scone or cinnamon roll, but those are on very rare occasions.  Clearly, I like to get my carbs in early.  :-)

The thing about store-bought granola is that it's either too sweet, too greasy or too dry.  Not to mention expensive. It took me a lot of fiddling to make a granola I really like, but finally came up with one that has great texture, crunch, and sweetness all balanced together. But the great thing about granola, is that you can tweak it to reflect your own preferences.  Don't like nuts? Leave 'em out.  Don't have raisins? Put in whatever dried fruit you've got (or leave it out all together).  Play with spice/flavor combinations.  Try different oils.  The sky's the limit on the number of variations you can do.  It's really about proportions, so when you get the proportions that you like, then you can mess around with the different ingredients, as long as your dry vs. liquid vs. fruit proportions stay relatively the same.  Here's my one bit of advice: don't do dates.  I love dates, but just not in granola. It's an odd texture and just sticky sweet without adding much flavor to the mix.  Just my opinion.  Remember, it's just ingredients, so if you don't like a combo, toss it, or give it away as gifts (to friends or enemies, depending on how it turned out). Ha! (All my friends who have ever received food gifts -- and there are a lot of them -- are now hating me....).

This time I experimented with using coconut oil, but I'm not sure how I like it. When the granola was baking, it smelled like suntan lotion in the kitchen, and even now, it has a faint suntan lotion-y essence, but not as bad as before. On the other hand, the oil definitely enhances the coconut flavor.  It's all a matter of taste.

Be that as it may, here's the recipe for my granola:

Marna's Granola Recipe:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Mix together in a large bowl:

5 cups old fashioned or quick-cooking oats (not instant!)

½ cup bran or flax seed

1 cup nuts

1 cup coconut

¼ cup brown sugar

 

Heat in a saucepan or microwave:

½ cup canola oil

1/3 cup maple syrup or honey

1 Tbsp chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

Stir the warmed liquids to combine and add ½ tsp of vanilla and ½ tsp salt

Add the warmed liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until oats and nuts are coated.

Spread mixture onto two cookie sheets and baked, stirring every 15 minutes, for about 40-45 minutes (keep an eye on it, as the coconut can start turning too brown quickly).  You might even want to switch the sheets from top to bottom, front to back, about halfway through.

Once the granola has browned and is sort of dry, take out the oven and let cool.  Return to large bowl and add 1-2 cups dried fruit (raisins, cranberries,  diced apricots, golden raisins – whatever you have on hand, really).  Stir to combine.

 

Makes about 10 cups of granola

This is really just for proportion – around ¾ cup (7 oz, so be exact) liquid to 7-8 cups dry.  You can play around with this a lot – more or less nuts or fruit, coconut or not. You get the picture. For this batch, I added some honey crunch wheat germ, subbed coconut oil for canola, and used golden raisins, regular raisins, and dried cherries to the mix.  I happened to forget the vanilla this time and ended up adding the salt after I had put the raw granola on the baking trays.  Still turned out pretty delicious (won't be giving it away, unless my mother-in-law asks for some, which she usually does).  Like I said, granola is pretty forgiving.

Have fun experimenting with this one! Be sure to report back any of your favorite flavor combinations!