Nut fruit balls, version 2

These vegan snacks rely on a mix of dates & nuts. I made these to use up what was in my pantry.

Blend in food processor, then knead and shape into golf ball sized pieces.

- 1/2 cup raw almonds

- 1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

- 3/4 cup pressed pitted dates

- 1/4 cup dried cherries

This yielded 8 balls for me, about 125 calories each.

Raw strawberry almond balls

I made a mess of the kitchen. I may have broken the food processor. I didn't eat enough and am now suffering weakness, dizzyness and shakiness... But these were worth it.

My plan was to make homemade granola and put it in my breakfast yogurt.

It's 11:45. So that didn't happen.

I haven't made granola in so long I forgot the sugar and I didn't add my secret ingredient (black strap molasses). I have presented my granola in many forms on this blog so I'm only posting a photo.

But what got me completely sidetracked was homemade protein snacks... Like Larabars. Only I make balls. 

The basic mix is 1 part nuts to 2 parts fruit. Typically 1 of the fruit parts is dates. 

I purchased Baroody pressed and pitted dates at the Turkish store in Allentown for this project almost a month ago. It was $2.99 for 500 grams. And vacuum sealed so it was shelf stable. Not that dates ever last long enough in my house to rot.

I took about 1.5 cups raw almonds and ground them in the food processor. I placed those aside and mixed the following fruits in the food processor:

- 1/3 cup dates

- 1/2 cups raisins

- about 1/4 cup golden raisins and dried cherries

- about 1 cup dried strawberries

Now by the time this got mixed, the food processor was unhappy. So instead of putting the nuts back in with the fruit, I kneaded them into the fruit like working with bread dough.

Them I formed into balls. Golf ball size. Refriderate. About 125 calories each.

Red almond smoothie

I've been making smoothies for a long time. My husband used to make them as a cold summertime treat but after I fell and broke my teeth four years ago, my blender and I became more intimate.

Now I use my smoothie skills to combat two phenomena: when I'm too lazy to eat  (drinking is easier) and when I can't motivate myself to eat fruit. 

Today's smoothie is based on the success of yesterday, but cooler and more tart.

For one big smoothie:

- about 3/4 cup plain yogurt

- 1 packet vanilla carnation breakfast essentials

- about 1 cup frozen strawberries and cherries

- about 3/4 cup unsweetened organic cranberry juice

- about two tablespoons black chia seeds 

- about 1/2 cup ground raw almonds

Cranberry relish

In the food processor combine:

- 12 ounces fresh cranberries

- 3/4 teaspoon almond extract

- 5 small clementines cut into chunks

- 1/4 cup local raw honey

- almost one cup sugar

- almost one cup raw almonds

Chill for several hours. 

I'm going to can this. For Christmas.

Mixed nut butter

As anyone you read last night's entry will know, I found some mixed raw nuts on clearance at Target last night. I prefer to buy my nuts raw and unsalted so this seemed like a good deal.

The mix includes hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pistachios and almonds so I thought I could make a mixed nut butter.

I started with one cup nuts. Didn't roast them or soak them or anything. Just dumped them in the food processor. Added a generous dollop of local raw honey, about 2-3 tablespoons full, and about 1/4 cup warm coconut oil.

After the initial 5-7 minutes of grinding and scraping, I feared I wouldn't hit the creamy texture my family has been requesting. So I thought it would be a good idea to add about three tablespoons water.

Then I had nut soup.

I added another 1/4 cup and ground another 5-7 minutes until my patience ran out.

So it's chunky nut butter. Tastes fine, but not as perfectly scrumptious as the almond cashew butter last time. But I intentionally wanted something simpler and with less ingredients.

We'll see how it tastes when the family gets home.

Sweet potato pumpkin crunch

I made a crazy sweet potato casserole today with an inside custard of 2 eggs, 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, one can evaporated milk, cinnamon, one large can yams and one small can pumpkin.

Topped with crumbs of almonds, dried cranberries, flour and brown sugar.

Poured butter on it and baked at 375 for 35 minutes and 15 minutes at 350.

Served with a side of roast beef and spinach roll ups. Or Lebanon bologna.

Back on track?

Yesterday I had one of my meltdowns. Between my health (anemia-related issues still kick myass from time to time), the final weeks of school and working too many hours, I was overextended.

And as my psychologist once told me, being overextended makes me crazy.

So I called out sick.

Between the exhaustion, the multiple open wounds on my hands from a fall I took on Saturday, minor babysitter issues AND spilling stuff all over my last clean pair of khakis, I was done. And I was in bed by 7:30 and slept until 7.

Part of my problem stemmed from not eating proper dinners because I had worked 4 nights in a row and of those four nights, the last three I ate dinner on a fifteen minute break. That gets compounded by shifts that start at 3 or 4, meaning even if I eat a good meal before I leave home, it's not enough.
Last night, I let child pick a restaurant and we went out to dinner to celebrate her report card. She selected a franchise based on her desire for chocolate pudding until I pointed out the dairy issue. She selected a kid and ice cream oriented franchise instead, saying she'd forego the ice cream if we gave her a tofutti cutie at home.

Considering the quality of our meal, I should have talked her out of that too. She ordered processed chicken on sticks that was supposed to come with salad, carrot sticks and celery sticks. It came with lettuce. I'll save my other complaints...

This morning I read the label for the apple fritter bread and as I suspected, it has milk. It has more salt than milk, but it does have milk.

Finally, in an act of desperation, I made my famous homemade granola that the child is munching on right now.

The dry ingredients measures about seven cups, with the dressing consisting of 3.5 tablespoons raw local honey, 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses, and 1/2 cup canola oil.

The dry ingredients were about:
- 3.5 cups oats
- 1/2 cup unsalted raw almonds
-1/4 cup dark cocoa dusted almonds
- 1/2 cup unsalted cashews
- 1 cup dried fruit and peanuts from a commercial trail mix
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tiny chopped candied ginger
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- 1 box sour peach flavored golden raisins
- 1 cup golden raisins, dried blueberries and dried strawberries

Mix and bake at 300 for 45 minutes in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, turning every 10-15 minutes.

A variation of the Imus Ranch cookbook recipe

Chicken salad picnic

As part of our picnic, Gayle made the following chicken salad:

20 ounces of shredded cooked chicken
1 small apple, diced small
15-20 grapes cut in half or quarters if large
1 handful sliced almonds

Mix together

Add dressing of 1 part Mayo and 1 part plain Greek Yogurt or regular
yogurt drained.

There was a lot of grapes (which I liked, they were *perfect* red grapes) and we could have used some more almonds, but then, I love almonds. I love fruity chicken salad. And Gayle and I had the discussion that we're not fans of mayo, so hence the yogurt substitution. Gayle said she read you could used mashed avocado instead of mayo for the fat, and so we added sliced avocado. That was yummy. So there may be something to this avocado idea.

Tea Party

We had raisin bran and soy milk for breakfast and a 9:30 a.m. tea party with Celestial Seasonings sugar plum spice tea, homemade multigrain biscuits with Wegmans raspberry jelly, fresh dates, and dark chocolate (powder) coated almonds.

Life is good.

Work snacks

I packed myself lots of snacks for work as I'm expecting to work late. I don't want to pack a meal, because I'd like to be optimistic and think I'll be home in time to eat a meal before bed.

So, I filled my Sigg water bottle. Packed a banana, a Nature Valley granola bar, a Special K meal bar, some trail mix with lots of extra cashews and almonds, one of my daughter's Very Berry juice boxes and some sugarless gum.

Hope it keeps me happy.

Fred the Bread II

Anyone who has hang-ups regarding following a recipe and letting their creative juices flow should bake with a small child. Small children are good, in general, for any hang-up adults have. But that's another story.

My friend Gayle has been working diligently keeping "Fred the Bread" alive... This is the earlier post on Fred:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/12/fred-friendship-bread.html

I told her I would gladly take some Fred to bake, not to nurture into more sourdough starter. I asked for enough for three loaves. I got three cups, which is twice what I asked for. To make things more fun, my husband rearranged my kitchen and we could only find two loaf pans.

So we made "Fred the Fruitcake" and "Fred in a cake pan."

In addition to the help of a five-and-a-half year old child, I also ran out of oil.

So Fred the fruit cake turned out to be a loaf with dried cherries and slivered almonds, nutmeg, and funky applesauce. I ran out before I was content with the fullness of the second loaf pan so I added some of "Fred in a cake pan," which was a loaf with butter instead of oil...

Almond Sunset 'Kid' tea

My daughter tends to get obsessive about drinks. Apple juice for weeks on end. Chocolate milk next. (Which is why I usually buy chocolate soy milk-- it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup.)

Last night my husband and I tried the new Le Creuset tea pot. It has the least obnoxious whistle of any tea pot I've ever heard. We had the organic black currant decaf tea that I survived on during my business trip to Pittsburgh.

Today apparently, my daughter could be bribed to eat her breakfast with a glass of 'dessert tea.' So, to the teapot I go. I believe I mentioned this tea once before, but it has become such a favorite (which I did not expect) that it should be mentioned again.

Mommy's special dessert tea is actually Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset, a decaf herbal dessert tea of "roasted carob, roasted barley, roasted chicory, cinnamon, orange peel, natural almond flavor, blackberry leaves, and anise seed."

And this is how I make it:

Supplies

• one tea pot with water
• one expresso cup/ demi-tasse
• soymilk
• honey
• one teabag (Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset)
  
• one baby or sugar spoon

and when pleasing children, scale and details are important.

As water heats, prep demi-tasse with about 1/2 teaspoon honey, either in the bottom or along the side. When the water boils, hold the teabag with one hand against the side of the cup and pour the water over the teabag into the cup. Fill the cup about 3/4 full, then dip the teabag several times into the water until it turns a rich orange-brown. Then remove the teabag. (This keeps the tea from getting too strong.) Stir with the tiny spoon to dissolve the honey. Add an ounce or two milk, in my case plain soy milk, and stir again. Serve with the spoon inside so little hands can stir and sip.

Brownies.... for dinner

Our entire family had a bad day yesterday, even down to the five-year-old who got yelled at by a substitute in her kindergarten class. So I warmed up some Duncan Hines brownies I had made for a last minute event wednesday night, topped with vanilla ice cream and dark-chocolate dusted almonds... and served for dinner.

Chocolate crunch brioche

Cross your fingers. I found a chunk of brioche dough in the freezer. Freezing brioche dough does not seem to work for me. Patricia Wells, author of the Paris Cookbook, a cookbook I depend on for my brioche recipe, says you can freeze the dough for a month. My response is sure, you can freeze it, but don't expect it to rise.

Freezing finished brioche works much better.

But I regress... This brioche dough was from July. One of my best batches ever. Wells claims the dough can be frozen a month. It's been two. So I thawed the dough in the fridge, as directed, and plopped it in large balls in my pyrex dish (totally expecting them not to rise).

Now, I had my daughter slice some butter, about a pat for each ball. I took my chocolate crumb topping leftover from the chocolate almond streusel muffins and rolled each brioche ball in the topping and set it on top of the pat of butter.

My hope is that the very sticky brioche dough will keep hold of those crumbs that refused to stick to my muffins last week.

The problem is: I have no idea if bread and crumb topping *go.* We'll see.

That's why I say fingers crossed.

Recipe for the muffins and the original brioche can be found via the links.

Note: Hub and I loved them. Child preferred without crunchies.

Chocolate almond streusel muffins

I wanted to make something this morning, yummy yet suitable for the freezer. So, I took my coffee cake streusel recipe and adapted it into muffins with chocolate almond topping. The topping did not stick to the muffins as well as I'd expected so I shook it off onto a plate and plan to freeze them for a future project.

The topping
About one cup Emerald dark chocolate roasted almonds, chopped in the food processor
About one cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

The muffin/coffee cake
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
(equal amount lemon extract if you have it, I didn't)
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons soymilk

Preheat oven to 350. Cream sugar and butter. Beat in egg and extract(s). Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add alternatively with the milk. Pour into muffin tins. Top with topping, bake 25 minutes.

Yield: eleven muffins and tons of crumbs

And we hit Thursday...

So, our daughter solved our dinner dilemma last night by requesting nachos. We made them with mango salsa, black olives, cheddar cheese, beans, and tomatoes from the garden.

This morning for breakfast we each had half a cinnamon raisin bagel with cashew butter.

My daughter considered yesterday's yogurt with mix-ins a "deluxe" breakfast, so I upped the ante for lunch today: Vanilla yogurt with cinnamon grahams, peanut butter crunch, AND dark chocolate covered almonds, grapes, and now she's eating an apple. The kid never stops...

I have fresh French-style honey-wheat bread on its second rise. After my daughter gets out of school, I plan to run to Wegmans for some fancy cheese and some fruit for a pre-birthday dinner for my husband.

Peach and Almond Pasta

Leftovers are often the key to stretching the grocery budget. After Friday's dinner, we had eaten all the pork with apples but we hadn't finished all the gravy. In this particular case, pork with apples became pork with peaches and apples (not to be confused with pork with peaches and snow peas) because we ran out of apples.

I didn't want to waste that yummy gravy so we heated it up and added slivered almonds. We served as the sauce for multigrain pasta. It was fabulous. Though raisins would have made it better. We didn't have raisins,

Also, went bike riding five miles this afternoon. My water bottle is plastic and it always tastes plastic to me. I hate warm plastic-flavored water. And I knew by the time I needed the water it would be very warm. To combat this, I brewed a glass of Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger tea and threw it, bag and all, into my water bottle with all the ice I could stuff in there and some more water.

Curried Vegetables with whole wheat pasta

I lost two days?!?!? How did I lose two days?
Okay, let's not talk about that. But I will admit that I was chagrined to note that I spent $200 on dining out in the month of April. Not good. My grocery budget was $220, which normally would be good had I not splurged so much with the take-out/dining. My job is seasonal and I don't work in June and July. Basically, I could have saved that money and used it to buy groceries in June. I'm mad at myself.
Anyway...

We all came home starving today and my in-laws had served my daughter crappy grocery-store bakery-made pizza for lunch for the second time this week. She had an apple for breakfast, some grapes mid-morning and no other real food that I know of so I needed something fast and full of vegetables.
Curry popped into mind.
I've never made curry.
But that's never stopped me before.
I whip out my vegetarian cookbooks, but quickly feel like I'm looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack. With a hungry family, that's not a good feeling. I grab the laptop and google "curry pasta sauce." Get several hits. Like this one:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/pasta-with-low-fat-curry-sauce.html#

INGREDIENTS

(as originally listed)

8 ounces dry pasta
3 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
Pinch cayenne, or to taste
1 cup frozen peas, rinsed briefly in hot water to thaw
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Okay, I look around my kitchen. I have:
13.25 ounces of whole wheat penne pasta
1/4 cup slivered almonds
olive oil
cumin powder
one can diced tomato with garlic
curry powder
[I forgot to look for cayenne]
frozen peas
frozen cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
1 cup soy milk and 1 cup dehydrated milk which I add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to so it "cooks" more like buttermilk.

1. Prepare pasta.
2. While pasta cooks, toast almonds in skillet and set aside.
3. Thaw vegetables.
4. Put spices and tomatoes into skillet. Add a drizzle of olive oil as needed to keep from burning.
5. Add vegetables. Drizzle with olive oil and heat until hot.
6. Reduce heat and stir in milk, simmer until a consistent temperature.
7. Drain pasta. Combine pasta and sauce.
8. Sprinkle almonds on top.

Baked Chicken and Fruit

As I mentioned another day, I own many cookbooks and I don't get to read them often enough to remember what I want to try... 

This particular recipe was the dinner I made when we had our first post-baby dinner party. Our neighbors had a baby one week older than ours so we shared this casserole one night. It comes from The Big Book of Casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt. 

Baked Chicken and Fruit (pictured before it goes into the oven): 

1 chicken, cut into serving pieces (3 to 3.5 pounds)

[I have always used about a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small chunks]

salt and pepper to taste

paprika [I don't have any today]

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil [I use olive]

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup golden raisins [I use golden and regular, we like raisins]

1 cup pineapple chunks [I use one can]

4 peach halves [I use one can sliced peaches]

8 dried prunes [I skip]

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.

2. In Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, warm one tablespoon oil. Brown chicken until golden, five minutes on each side. Add more oil if needed. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Cover and bake until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 50 minutes. Baste with sauce while cooking. Remove

 lid and cook 10 minutes longer. [I don't imagine the covering and uncovering is necessa

ry with my little pieces.] 

I made brown rice to accompany. My husband had three plates. I had three small scoops, which more or less equaled one big serving. My daughter ate one serving. I divided the leftovers into three containers: two containers each with one serving for an adult lunch and one big container with enough for all of us to have for dinner. If I had to figure it out, I would guess the whole batch cost less than $10 to make and more or less covered three meals for the family. 

Almond-Oatmeal-Apple Cookies

My four-year-old devours every drop of batter from the bowl as the oatmeal cookies bake in the oven. I didn't use eggs, so that makes it allowable for me to let her eat the raw sugar, oats and butter.

If you're looking for something with a traditional cookie batter I wouldn't recommend my adaptation... but the standard Betty Crocker Almond Oatmeal Cookie also looks good.

As Betty Crocker intended:

Almond-Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1.5 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup ground toasted almonds

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg. Stir in oats, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in almonds. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake ten minutes or until light brown. About 3 dozen cookies. 80 calories per cookie.

My variation:

Almond-Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

about 6 tablespoons applesauce (no sugar added)

1.5 cups oats (measured by a four-year-old)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

a general dash of cinnamon (about one teaspoon)

1/2 + a bit toasted sliced almonds

See directions above and note that applesauce as an egg replacement in a cookie often leads to cookies that burn easily.