Simple Joys of the Season: Sliced Apples with Vanilla Cheesecake Dip

Whew! It seems like its been a while since my last posting. Fear not! I have not abandoned you! I've been working a lot in my sewing room, trying to really make a go of my Etsy craft store. Right now I've just been putting up napkins-- see this post for how to make your own. I am also working on a few other items, baby quilts and the like that I hope to finish and sell as well. Of course, it seems like every time I finish a baby project, I find out someone I know is expecting. I haven't managed to have a surplus yet!

Living in Southern California, I don't get much variation in the seasons. Even so, Fall has always been my favorite. I thought I'd do a series of short-ish posts sharing a few of my favorite Fall recipes and projects.

One of the quintessential fruits of Fall is, of course, the apple. A few years ago, when we moved into this house, we were delighted to learn that it had several different fruit trees. The first summer we got a few pieces of fruit here and there. Then, last year, came the great squirrel catastrophe of 2012. We never saw a single piece of fruit-- not one apple, peach, plum or pomegranate. Sigh.

 

This year we were much more vigilant (and lucky) and were able to get a nice sized crop of all our fruits. We finally saw a decent amount of peaches and plums. And, some of the largest apples we've seen this tree produce. After picking all we could, making three ginormous batches of applesauce and giving away boxes and boxes, I'm still left with a whole crisper drawer plus a big box full of apples. Thankfully we know from past years that these particular apples will save in the fridge for MONTHS!!

While I'm looking forward to many pies, sauces and even just throwing them in a few savory recipes, sometimes its nice to just eat an apple. Now, I happen to be a fan of eating apples with something-- peanut butter or cheese are old favorites. But sometimes you are looking for something a little different. This dip is slightly sweet, easy to throw together and will transform a simple afternoon snack into something special. It has all the flavor of cheesecake without all the baking. Besides being really good on apples (both green and red), it is also fantastic on strawberries and even grapes. This could also be a fun dish for a party, appetizer or a light and simple dessert.

 

This recipe is ridiculously simple-- I'm almost embarrassed to share it-- but really its too good to keep to myself. The inspiration for it came a few years ago when I picked up a pre-cut fruit platter from Wal-Mart. What was interesting about this tray was that it came with a creamy vanilla bean dip. It was so good, it didn't last even halfway through the party. I thought it'd be nice to find a tub that didn't come with a whole tray of fruit. But alas I wasn't able to find it except prepackaged in the fruit tray. I took that as a challenge and created my own version that I'm sharing with you here. After we started eating less processed foods, I was glad that I already had my own recipe as the original was loaded with preservatives and artificial ingredients.

Recipe: Vanilla Cheesecake Dip

(double for a big batch)

1 4oz package of cream cheese
2 Tbs packed brown sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped--- OR you can substitute with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. its still GREAT!

1) Place the cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl. Gently warm in the microwave-- I know this is kind of obvious but please do remove the foil wrapper first! Just 10-20 seconds at a time. You want it very, very soft and slightly warm, not liquefied!

2) Stir in vanilla and brown sugar. Taste and adjust sweetness & vanilla to personal preferences.

3) Serve with cut fruit-- apples or strawberries are my favorite! Store covered in fridge. Re-warm and stir before serving leftovers!


As always, feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear how this worked out for you. I'm always curious about different perspectives & ideas!

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Real Food, Real Easy: 100% Whole Wheat Waffles

So, with the new year comes a renewed commitment (for most of us) to do better, health-wise. A simple easy start is to make sure that you are eating breakfast everyday! In our busy lives, I know it can be difficult to make good choices-- when you are short on time, do you skip a meal or pick up something in the drive through? Neither is a great option.  Knowing that I'm always pushed for time, instead of making things everyday, I make up a big batch of food on the weekend (usually Sundays). Then I freeze or refrigerate the leftovers and I've got a healthy grab and go breakfasts ready anytime!

This recipe is a great substitute for prepackaged frozen waffles. A few minutes at the waffle-maker and you'll have a week (or more!) worth of ready-to-go WHOLE WHEAT waffles. Plus the base recipe is a wonderful blank canvas for add ins. My favorite stir-in is chocolate chips but you can also up the flavor (and nutrients!) with any kind of fruit -- think blueberries, sliced bananas or strawberries. If you are in a real rush, consider topping the waffle with cream cheese or peanut butter for a less messy, eat-on-the-run meal.(plus it'll get you a nice bit of protein as well!)

Recipe: 100% Whole Wheat Waffles

makes approx. 20 waffles (if 1/4 cup batter used)

3 cups whole wheat flour (I like white whole wheat by King Arthur or Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs baking powder
2-2 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil (use refined to reduce "coconut" flavor)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Optional add-ins:
1 cup- chocolate chips OR blueberries  OR sliced bananas OR sliced strawberries


1) Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to incorporate.
2) Add liquid ingredients and stir until well mixed-- start with 2 cups of milk. Add more until batter is pourable-- it shouldn't be either runny or pasty. Stir in optional add-ins, if including.
3) Heat up waffle iron. Butter or oil compartments as necessary.
4) Spoon or scoop approximately 1/4 cup of batter into center of each waffle compartment. If you have a smaller waffle-maker, this should fill it up. If you have a GIANT belgian waffle-maker like mine, you'll see that my waffles aren't quite filled up. This is okay because one, full-size waffle was TOO big!

5) Cook until LIGHTLY browned and set. This is probably less done than you'd want if you are eating them out of the cooker-- you are deliberately slightly undercooking to ensure that they don't get too dark when you run them through the toaster to reheat!
6) Remove waffles and set aside to cool completely.

7) Package in gallon size zip bag or other airtight container and freeze.

To Reheat: Take waffle directly from freezer to toaster. Cook on normal toast setting (with defrost, if available). Top with butter, syrup, jam, diced fruit, cream cheese, peanut butter or anything else I've missed!

We typically alternate waffles with some of the whole wheat muffins I've made (and keep in the freezer as well). I've also taken to experimenting with whole wheat bagel making. With a constantly changing flavors and types of whole wheat pre-baked breakfasts, the family doesn't get bored of one thing or option. Plus I love knowing that no matter how hurried I get, there is always something I can grab that isn't full of empty calories or tastes like cardboard!

 As always, feel free to comment below and let me know what you think of the recipe or how it worked for you!

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Homemade Whole Wheat Sesame Crackers

I don't know about other people but 90% of my social life for the whole year seems to take place during the month of December. Sometimes this involves people coming over for a simple game night with snacks or it might be a more elaborate holiday dinner. There are also potlucks, cookie exchanges, open houses and more.

Sometimes its hard to figure out what to bring or make, especially if the event is very casual (like an open house or game night) or already has all the food covered (like a dinner party). If you are tired of bringing the same old bottle of wine, you might consider giving crackers and cheese a try. I know, I know. How can crackers and cheese be exciting? Well, how 'bout if you HANDMADE the crackers?

Its a simple and elegant solution. As an appetizer or dessert course, it is light and goes with any event. Plus, you'll be sure that at least ONE thing you are eating has some nutritional value (this is pretty much 3 ingredients: 100% whole wheat flour, olive oil and sesame seeds with a little salt & water). See? So fiber, healthy fats AND some key trace minerals, to boot! Plus its pretty easy to make, not much more difficult than holiday cookies AND if you are trying to keep the sugar consumption low, this could be a great substitute for those little sugar bombs!

Now, these aren't dainty and do well with stronger cheeses, either sliced or spready. I'm sure that like me, you'll appreciate having something sturdy that doesn't keep snapping off or crumbling all over! We've paired this up with blues, sharp cheddars and a wonderful cranberry goat cheese log.

For the crackers pictured, I've simply cut the dough into rough squares/rectangles BUT if you want to be more festive, any kind of cookie cutter would work well here and really give your crackers a professional appearance. Remember when rolling out the dough, you can NOT go too thin. When you think you have it as thin as you possibly can, make another pass and try again!

 

Recipe: Whole Wheat Sesame Crackers

adapted from this NY Times recipe

1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted (black or white will work equally well)
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
4-8 Tbs water

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
2) In bowl of food processor, combine flour, sesame seeds & salt. Pour in olive oil and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Add water, 1 Tbs at a time until dough can be pressed into a ball. Amount will vary depending on your flour and weather. I typically use around 6 tbs.

3) LIGHTLY dust work surface. Divide dough into 2 even portions. Roll out and cut one portion at a time. Roll as thin as possible. The thinner the dough, the crisper (vs. crunchier) the final cracker will be.
4) Cut into desired shapes (use sharp knife, cookie cutters or biscuit cutter). Repeat for 2nd half of dough.
5) Place on prepared baking sheet, close but not touching.
6) Bake 15-25 minutes, until lightly browned. Time will depend on how thick your final cracker dough is and how full your tray is. Mine are typically done around 23 minutes with a medium thick dough (I'm working on getting it thinner!) and a very full tray.
7) Remove and allow to cool on wire racks.
8) Keep in airtight container approximately 1-2 weeks. However if you find them getting a bit stale, just pop them back into the oven for 2-3 minutes.

 

 

 

As always, feel free to comment below! I'd love to hear how this worked out for you!

 

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Turkey & Rice Soup

Its leftovers time!!! By now, I'm sure you've worked through the turkey sandwiches, turkey enchiladas and turkey pot pies -- or whatever your favorite leftover recipes are. And..... you should be left with a beautiful set of bones. Let's make something awesome out of that!!

I made this yesterday-- it took me about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. I packaged up most of it for Hubby's lunches (that's technically what I made it for to begin with....) but kept a serving out for me. I had that today for lunch and not to be too conceited about it, it was the best turkey soup I've ever had! Probably had something to do with the fact that its the first time I also ever made my own stock instead of cracking open a box or can......

Of course, if you've already picked that bird clean or didn't get any bones in your take home bag from Grandma's house, you can easily do this with a chicken carcass (even from a grocery store rotisserie chicken-- we don't judge here!)

I used my ~4 1/2 quart soup pot but any good size pot will do! If yours is smaller, you might end up with a higher tidbits to broth ratio and vice versa for a larger pot. I got about 14-15 cups of soup out of this.

 

Recipe: Turkey & Rice Soup

1 turkey carcass (preferably with bits still on it)
2 stalks celery, chopped coarsely
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped coarsely
1 small or 1/2 a large onion, peeled and cut into chunks
2 bay leaves

1 cup uncooked rice (white, brown, wild or a mix, your pick!)
up to 2 cups extra turkey bits (if your carcass is particularly clean....)
extra carrots, celery & onions if you are squeamish

1) Put carcass into pot, fill until bones are covered with water (pretty much right up to the top). Toss in celery, carrots, onion and bay leaves.
2) Adjust heat to keep soup at a low boil/simmer.
3) Add water as needed to keep level near the top of your pot.
4) Cook for 2-3 hours (2 hours got me a rich, deep flavor & nice soft veggies)
5) Using a spider strainer or mesh collander over a bowl, strain all bones, veggies, bay leaves out of your soup-- KEEP THESE!!!!  Return strained stock to soup pot.
6) Pick through all the bones for edible, usable meat chunks (chop or shred if necessary). Discard all bones, gristle or skin. Return good meat to soup pot. I had a pretty meaty set of bones and didn't actually have to add any extra.  If you don't have enough turkey for your taste, add in some chopped turkey meat (no skin or gristly bits, please!).
7) If you aren't squeamish, continue picking through your strained bits and take your soft cooked veggies and chop them into bite size pieces. Return to soup pot.

•  If you don't wish to use the pre-cooked veggies, finely dice new celery, onion and carrots. In a separate pan, cook the onion and celery until softened. Put veggies into soup pot and cook until soft. (This could add up to an hour!)

8) Stir in 1 cup of uncooked rice. Simmer soup until rice is fully cooked (about 10 minutes)
9) Taste soup and add salt and pepper to taste (I'm not gonna lie here... its gonna take a pretty amazing amount of salt -- like 2 tsp or more!)
10) ENJOY!!

So the time breakdown for me was 2 hours of occasional minding while the bones simmered. About 20 minutes of carcass picking and cooked veggie recutting. A final 10 minutes for the rice to cook. Honestly the process was so painless that I'm embarrassed I've never done it before. This is probably the 3rd Thanksgiving that the Hubby has brought home the bones and they've always ended up at the bottom of the freezer for months until I finally threw them out. This year the in-laws made 2 turkeys so I have another complete set of bones to cook! Yay!! As an added bonus, if you are of a cheap thrifty nature, like myself, the total cost of this entire POT of soup was under $2. If you compare that to a can of Progresso, you are looking at $3 a can and this made 6-7 cans' worth. Nice!


Feel free to comment below!

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Quick and Easy Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Okay, I know I've been promising these for awhile. They are SUPER easy and this week is the perfect week to enjoy them. Nothing says "Thanksgiving" like pumpkin!!

 

To start with, you will need some pumpkin puree--- NOT PIE FILLING!!!! You can either crack open a can (I like the organic pumpkin puree by Farmer's Market with a bpa free lining) or you can make your own (especially if you are baking off some pumpkins for pies this week anyways....)

For a full batch, you will need 1 cup of puree but I usually make a half batch. That will get you about 12, 4" pancakes. For our family (2 adult eaters and one small child eater) that is usually plenty. Especially if its a side dish to eggs or fruit. If you have a bigger family or want leftovers (they freeze beautifully!) go for the full batch!

To make these, we are starting with our homemade whole wheat baking mix (or Bisquick if you haven't gotten around to it yet)

Recipe: Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes (full batch)

2 cups whole wheat baking mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie or apple pie spice mix (or just plain ground cinnamon)
2 Tablespoons sugar

1) Mix dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Add eggs and milk. Stir to combine. Mix will be slightly lumpy. Stir in pumpkin puree.
2) Heat griddle and grease w/butter or coconut oil. Cook on medium heat until bubbles on top surface of pancakes pop and stay open briefly. Flip and continue cooking until second side is golden brown.

3) Top with butter and maple syrup.


If you are looking for a little extra something to fancy these up, stir into the batter 1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts would be nice) or flavored chips (chocolate actually goes well here but I happened to find an unused bag of cinnamon chips in the bottom of my baking supplies and they were AMAZING).

As always, your thoughts or comments are always welcomed below.

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Making the Most of your Pumpkin: Seeds & Puree

DIY Pumpkin Puree: A Beginner's perspective

Next up is roasting one of my pie/sugar pumpkins. I ended up with 2 as I bought one at the pumpkin patch and then got another one in our farm box last week. I have a couple of experiments to try as I've never attempted to make my own pumpkin puree before-- you have to admit, its pretty easy to just crank open a can..... so I'm following the directions from this page:

http://ohsheglows.com/2012/09/10/how-to-roast-a-sugar-pumpkin-make-fresh-pumpkin-puree-a-step-by-step-photo-tutorial/

DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR SEEDS!!!

First Experiment-- Can you cook/eat a carving pumpkin?? If yes, what does it taste like??:

I cooked up the smallest  of our regular pumpkins -- it was little dude's Halloween pumpkin but we just did those push in decorations-- kind of like Mr. Potato Head, so its not been exposed to dirt & bugs. This was a pretty small pumpkin-- about 3.5 lbs. I prepped and roasted it the same as the directions above, adding time to get it completely cooked. I was pretty easy to get all the guts and seeds out.

After it was cooked and cooled, I peeled both halves. This was a bit of a slow job and pretty messy too. The peel just didn't want to come off easily. Then I pureed half. The result is a very light yellow orange color and is a little bit grainy -- almost like applesauce. The flavor is not very pumpkin-y. It tastes a lot like yellow summer squash to me. I chunked up the 2nd half and I'm deciding if I'm gonna eat it now with a little butter and salt or try to freeze it for later. While seeming perfectly edible as a squash, it's not coming across with any kind of pumpkin color or flavor. Perhaps I'll mix it with some applesauce and a sprinkle of cinnamon to make some new baby food for the little dude!

Edited: I did add in about 1/2 cup or so of unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon to the puree. It tastes like chunky applesauce to me. Seems like a good way of hiding extra veggies...

Second Experiment-- Does a pie/sugar pumpkin really taste sweeter?? How does homemade puree compare to canned??:

After the regular pumpkin, I cooked up the pie/sugar pumpkin. I found the prep/cleaning a bit more difficult than the regular pumpkin. The seeds were really stuck in the guts and the guts were really tightly stuck to the walls. It took probably twice as long to clean and prep as the other pumpkin (maybe the regular ones are bred for easy carving??). However, that being said, after it was roasted the skin came off like a breeze. I just scooped out the pumpkin like I would if I had made baked sweet potatoes.

After pureeing, the texture, color and flavor of the pie pumpkin is MUCH different. The puree is significantly more orange and thicker/smoother in texture-- again very similar to baked sweet potato. And the flavor is much more pumpkin-y.

I can definitely see/taste the differences and I probably won't bother roasting off a regular pumpkin again. But it sure was interesting to do the experiment!

Regular pumpkin---------Sugar/pie pumpkin

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!!

I finally got around to cooking the pumpkin seeds from our Halloween pumpkins yesterday. We didn't carve the pumpkins until Weds. afternoon but then were so busy with trick or treating that we didn't have time to bake them off that night. I'm happy to report that letting them sit out in a collander overnight didn't hurt them one bit!  If you haven't gotten around to doing yours yet either or have the seeds saved from making the puree above, I'd recommend following the instructions on this page:

http://ohsheglows.com/2012/09/17/how-to-roast-perfect-pumpkin-seeds-easy-crunchy-addictive/

She has it step by step and the only thing I did differently is to have baked them for much, much longer. Maybe I had more seeds? Maybe because they sat overnight? Which ever it was, they seemed to take FOREVER to dry out properly. But now I have a nice jar of crunchies. We'll just have to see if they last more than a day this time!

As always, feel free to comment below!!

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DIY Whole Wheat Baking Mix

I LOOOOOOOVE  Bisquick.

Growing up, weekday breakfasts generally meant a bowl of cereal or piece of toast. But Saturday meant pulling the Bisquick box out of the cupboard, scooping some into a bowl, adding a dash of milk and an egg or 2 and cooking up pancakes or waffles or some other yummy carbohydrate coma inducing breakfast. If I'm brutally honest, pancakes made from scratch just don't taste the same to me..... which is kind of sad.

With the family's switch to real food, one of the obvious things to go was the box of Bisquick. I didn't throw out the old box but I really only saved it for "emergencies". So my Jumbo Box Store size package had actually managed to last me for the last 6 or so months. Sadly, we are down to the last scoop or so. I figured it was about time to really work on a good substitute. I had tried several 'from scratch' recipes for whole wheat pancakes (what's the point of redoing a recipe if you don't healthy it up a bit?) but I hadn't made any that seemed quite right to me.

Recently I had been put on to the King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour-(they are NOT a sponsor, I swear!)-- its a 100% whole wheat flour but naturally lighter in color and flavor. I've been using that in all my baking and its been a GREAT way of coverting all-purpose flour based recipes. So I thought I'd try to find a DIY Bisquick recipe and swap out the flours and see how it went. Unfortunately, most of the recipes call for shortening, which to me is about the MOST unnatural substance in the food industry. Certainly it is nothing I want to eat or feed my family. Luckily I found this base recipe that was 50/50 white/wheat flours and used butter! Score!!

So, I put together a half batch using 100% whole wheat flour. It came out great! I made a few plain pancakes and the rest of the batch became pumpkin pancakes (I promise I'm posting that recipe next!). The plain pancakes had all of the flavor of Bisquick that I really liked. They were soft, fluffy, buttery and deeeeeeeeeelicious!

I will say that a few years ago I had tried to do a home Bisquick mix and I had followed the directions and used shortening. I hated it. I never got the flavor or texture I wanted out of it. Using butter seems to be the key here, at least for me. As it does contain butter, I'd recommend keeping it in an airtight container inside the fridge. Some people keep it in the freezer.  In either case, unless you house is pretty consistently cool, it'd probably do best in the chill box somewhere.

 

 

 

100% Whole Wheat Baking Mix

• 5 cups whole wheat flour (see note above)
• 6 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (only if using unsalted butter!!!)
• 1 cup butter (salted or unsalted), cold

1) Add dry ingredients to work bowl of your food processor.
2) Divide butter into 1 Tbs sized chunks.
3) Add to food processor.
4) Pulse until combined-- it should look like and feel like a dry mix. Resist the urge to over process or hold the button down, you'll just melt your butter and make lumps!

                        Use as you would standard Bisquick:

Pancakes: 2 cups mix, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs

Waffles: 2 cups mix, 1 1/3 cups milk, 2 Tbs cooking oil (coconut), 1 egg

Biscuits: 2 1/4 cups mix, 2/3 cup milk, drop or roll out/cut, bake 8-10 min @ 450 F on ungreased cookie sheet.

As always, due to flour variations (especially amongst whole wheat types) you may need to add additional milk or water to achieve desired consistency!


Please feel free to comment below and let me know how this worked out for you!!

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DIY Fruit Roll ups

And now...... a break from zucchini posts!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!

As we've been getting pounds and pounds of fruits and veggies in our every-other-week farm box, I admit that I've lost track of some produce from time to time. These are the things I set on the counter to ripen up a bit or put in the fridge and then promptly forgot about. For veggies, this is the kiss of death-- straight to the compost bin for sure! For fruit, not so much. It really depends. Anything short of absolute mold is probably salvageable as an ingredient in something-- bread, muffin, smoothie???

I received my new electric food dehydrator as a gift for mother's day, since then, I've also been experimenting with drying. You'd never believe that picture below represents a big bucket of fruit that most people probably would have sent straight to the bin!

We've especially been over gifted with stone fruit. Plums, plums and more plums. I do like plums but I can only eat so many of them. Also, we've gotten mostly reds and I prefer the black/darker variety--sweeter, less tart. I have worked out a great plum coffee cake/muffin/sweet bread recipe that uses lots of plums but it also has a fair amount of sugar so I can't be making that every week. We do eat the plums out of hand at lunch or for snack but we've also got bananas, pears, apples, oranges, strawberries and usually a melon of some kind as well. So we can't really afford to focus in on just one kind of fruit.

A few weeks ago, I found myself with better than a dozen plums. Some red, some black. Some under-ripe, some over-ripe. There were a few wrinkly peaches as well that had begun mummifying themselves in the back of the fridge. I peeled and chopped the whole lot (being sure to cut out any bad spots) and dumped them into a sauce pan. I added just a few tablespoons of water (less than 1/4 cup) and absolutely nothing else-- no sugar, no pectin, no gelatin! I cooked the mixture on low until the harder, unripened fruit had softened and most (but not all) of the liquid had evaporated. I had a chunky, bubbly, syrupy kind of mix. I took that and dumped the whole thing into my food processor and whirled until it was a smooth, thick liquid.

I poured the liquid onto the special fruit leather trays of my food dehydrator (that I had previously LIGHTLY rubbed with coconut oil). I tipped, swirled and spread the mixture until it was evenly distributed over the tray. Not too thick (but you could if you were going for more fruit leather consistency) and not too thin as it would likely rip too easily. This amount of fruit (approx 12 plums peeled & seeded and 3 peaches) made 2 full trays PLUS a bit of extra puree (that I used as baby food). I set my dehydrator on 135 F and walked away for about 6 hours. Most of it was dry and ready at that time. There were a few spots that had been a tad thicker that took longer to finish. You'll know the fruit is done when you can easily peel it up and the surface looks matte and there are no sticky spots. It should feel leathery.

Dried fruit puree on dehydrator tray

I peeled off the fruit in one giant ring and placed it onto a piece of waxed paper. I opted to divide each ring into 6 portions-- so with 2 trays this equals 12 servings total. I found kitchen scissors to be a fast and easy tool for the job. From there, I simply rolled them up from center out, securing the roll with a small square of transparent tape. I keep these in a zip top baggie in the fridge and so far they've held up beautifully. Barring any exposure to water or other liquids or leaving the bag open for them to get too dried out, I'd expect the shelf life here to be pretty indefinite.

Dried fruit on wax paper. Halve, then divide into thirds.

Leave wax paper on for rolling to minimize sticky problems!

I've since repeated this with a slightly different mix of fruits. This time only maybe 8 or so plums and the rest was extremely mushy, very over-ripe pears. From reading my dehydrator's instruction manual, you can use basically any kind of fruit that has a good amount of pectin in it and it will set up nicely for you with no additives. Not sure about your fruit? Mix it 50/50 with unsweetened, organic apple sauce for extra insurance.

Yes, you absolutely can do this without a food dehydrator. BUT you will need to have an oven that will get below 200 F (or keep the door propped open) and plan to be home ALL day. Because a dehydrator has a fan, the food is getting heat AND air. As most ovens do not have a fan, the overall drying time can be much, much longer-- you may even have to do it over 2 different days!

 The family loves that they get a sweet treat that really looks, feels and tastes like the store bought stuff.  I love that I get to use up dodgy fruit that would (likely) be heading off to the compost bin and I know its been made with 100% fruit and no nasty artificial colors or added sugar!!

Feel free to comment below and let me know if this worked for you!

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Sunday Savings Tip: DIY Lunchables

Who doesn't love lunchables? They're small, cute & fun to assemble and eat. I freely admit the little dude ate plenty of these in his toddler years. Especially when getting anything into him was a big battle! As he's grown, his sense of food adventure has expanded (thank goodness!). He's much more willing to try new foods and recipes. However, he still has a soft spot for those little packaged lunches.

Now, there are two really great reasons NOT to feed these to him. One, they are expensive for what you get. Store brands cost $1.29 for 6 crackers, 6 pieces of american cheese and 6 squares of bologna. If purchased in bulk, its about .25 worth of food. Secondly, they have little to no actual nutrition, just calories. Its hard to spend the time I do shopping, prepping and cooking healthy meals at home for the family and then send junk with him to school.

Thankfully the idea behind lunchables is easily translated into real food.

For a meat/cheese lunchable: These are my favorites. I often get tired of making sandwiches (for myself and everyone else) This is a quick throw together lunch that covers the same bases but in a different way. For the base of your stack, choose a whole wheat "triscuit" style or similar cracker. If you get them baked, they often have only whole wheat & salt as ingredients. For the cheese, replace the american with a nice organic cheese you like-- mozzarella, cheddar, jack. It's pretty convenient that a basic slice of cheese will fold and break into 4 perfect squares. So 2 slices of cheese will set you up for 8 cracker stackers. For the bologna, replace with sliced lunchmeat w/o nitrates, sugar or added preservatives (try the deli counter if you can't find it prepackaged). When assembling, be sure to pack the crackers separately from the cheese/meat or they'll get soggy.

For a pizza lunchable: These are the little dude's favorite! He loves pizza and the whole "make it yourself" aspect really gets him excited! For the crust, try a whole wheat tortilla or pita cut into quarters. For the sauce, I just use an organic canned tomato sauce. I've taken the extras, divided it up into portions and frozen them in my silicon muffin liners. After its solid, I'll pop them out and toss in a baggie in the freezer. On days when he wants this for lunch, I'll just put one disk into a sealed container or baggie and it'll defrost by lunch. For the cheese, I just shredded up some organic mozzarella. Couldn't be any easier! He's happy, I'm happy, its a win/win for everyone!

Whole wheat tortilla from Trader Joe's, quartered

Sauce art

Finished slice w/shredded mozzarella

Extra sauce for the freezer/future lunches!

To complete this easy lunch, just add a piece of fruit and/or some veggie sticks and a bottle of water!

If you really want to get cute, get one of those divided plastic bins and it will look just like the ones from the store!

Back to School Treat: Cranberry Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bar

So the day has finally come---yesterday the eldest had his first day of kindergarten! He has been attending preschool a few mornings each week for the last 2 years, but this was a sharp transition to a full day kindergarten at the local elementary with staff & students that neither of us were familiar with.

Of course one of the (many) stresses for me was food. What to pack? How much to pack? How much time will he really have to eat? Will he eat the food I send?

Yesterday I dramatically overpacked his lunch. It was probably like 2 days worth of food. As expected, he didn't finish. Of course when the teacher said he could bring one item out at recess for snack and he chose his water bottle, that didn't really help!

Today's snack time went better but at lunch he decided to start with his apple slices (a notorious time waster) and never even got to his main dish (quesadilla on whole wheat tortilla) or water or anything else. Needless to say the little boy who trudged in the door at 2 pm was tired, overheated and CRANKY!!

I had thought he might need something special today after finishing his first "week" at school and whipped up a batch of these chewy granola bars while Daddy was walking around the corner to pick him up (I love that we live 3 blocks away from school!). While the bars were finishing cooling, first thing up was to get some fluids into him. Then I had him work on eating the rest of his lunch that he hadn't "had time" for. By the time he was finished with all that, his special treat was cooled off and ready to be eaten. By 2:30, I had a completely different son. No longer teary and cranky from hunger and low blood sugar, he was ready to sit down and tell me all about his day!

I will probably be sending these bars most of next week because I know he can eat them fairly quickly. They also pack a great energy punch-- a little high in added sugars than ideal but completely necessary for a little guy who spends his whole recess and lunch running at top speed! Plus the sugar is nicely balanced with the whole grains from the oats and a healthy amount of fat from the coconut oil.

This recipe is a super quick variation of my plain granola recipe and can be adapted for your family's favorites. Just substitute any dried fruit (raisins, chopped apricots, etc) for the craisins. You can omit the chocolate chips altogether or swap them out for peanut butter chips, carob chips, butterscotch, white chocolate, etc. These bars have the look and chewy texture of the store bought ones but without the additives & high fructose corn syrup! Its a win/win for everyone! Plus the whole thing only takes about 15 minutes to do!

Recipe: Cranberry Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars 
(yield ~10 bars)

3 Tbs coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

1) In a large sauce pan, combine vanilla extract, honey, brown sugar and oil (I used refined but virgin would work well here, just be prepared for a little bit more tropical flavor). Heat until sugar and honey are dissolved completely.
2) Stir in oats until well coated. Turn burner to medium/high. Continue cooking while stirring CONTINUOUSLY for 3-5 minutes-- basically until oats start to emit a nice cookie type of smell and begin to have a slight amount of browning.
3) Turn off heat and stir in craisins. Let mixture cool in pan for 10 minutes.
4) Pour mixture into buttered 8x8 square pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. LIGHTLY mix with spatula (if you get too vigorous, all you'll get is a melted chocolatey gooey mess!)
5) Use your spatula to gently press down the mixture into the pan until its tightly packed and of even depth.

6) Put into refrigerator to cool for 15-20 minutes.
7) Slice down middle of pan. Cut each large rectangle into 5 bars approximately 1 1/2 in x 4 in.
8) Store in air tight container inside fridge for up to 2 weeks.

I'd love to hear what you think-- feel free to comment below!

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Things to do with Tomatoes, Part II: Tomato & Basil Bruschetta



Whenever we have a surplus of tomatoes, I love doing bruschetta. There is something magical about the crisp bread, fresh tomatoes, earthy basil and the tang of garlic and vinegar. Yum.

The trick to getting consistently great bruschetta is to get the tomato mix as DRY as possible. You want to get out all the juice and seeds you can. Otherwise your topping will look more like soup and your breads will just get all soggy!

Recipe: Tomato & Basil Bruschetta

Topping:

Tomatoes (about a dozen golf ball/plum sized, 6-8 romas, 4-6 big guys)
12 or so fresh basil leaves.
3-4 cloves finely chopped garlic or about 1 Tbs jarred, crushed garlic
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
Salt

1) Wash and cut the stem end off of the tomato. Gently squeeze the juice and seeds out. Coarsely chop tomato flesh & drop pieces into a medium sized collander.

2) After all tomatoes and chopped and well drained, transfer to a medium sized mixing bowl.
3) Stack basil leaves on top of each other, roll and chop finely. Add to tomatoes.

4) Add in garlic and vinegar. Stir to combine.
5) Add a lightly sprinkling of salt, stir and taste. You are looking for the sweet/meaty flavor of the tomatoes to be the primary flavor and second is a mild basil and garlic flavor (as that will intensify over time)and finally a light tang from the vinegar. Adjust seasonings as needed.
6) Cover and refrigerate for at least ONE hour.

Toasts:

1 baguette (french or sourdough is fine)
olive oil
garlic salt

1) Slice baguette crossways about every 1/2 inch. Place slices on baking sheet.
2) Drizzle or brush olive oil over each slice.
3) Sprinkle with garlic salt (or rub with fresh cloves of garlic & sprinkle sea salt)
4) Broil in oven for just a few minutes until crispy and browned. If you don't want to heat up the oven (who does in the summer heat?) you can also grill these (oil side DOWN) for a few minutes on high on your gas or charcoal grill. This adds a really nice smoky flavor as well.

Other Serving Suggestions:
This lovely tomato topping isn't just great on bread. If you happen (ha ha) to find yourself with extra, try spooning it on grilled chicken or fish. It is also FANTASTIC as a pasta topping/sauce.

Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences in the comments below!

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Things to do with Tomatoes- Part I: Salsa Fresca

Its tomato time!! Tomatoes are a big favorite in this house-- even the 5 year old has been popping cherry tomatoes in his mouth practically from the time he learned how to chew. (usually spraying juice and seeds everywhere-- but that's another story). Our old house had a great spot in the backyard where any tomato plant was guaranteed to turn into a gargantuan, jungle-like growth with more tomatoes than would ever be possible to eat.

I made the mistake the first year I set up the garden at the old house and put something like 6 tomato plants in the planter (10' x 5') that we'd built. They quickly overwhelmed the bamboo supports I had given them and formed a wild riot of tomato vines. I particularly remember spending a few hot summer days hacking away at those things desperately trying to get at the crop underneath (with a baby strapped to my back no less).

I wisely resolved to plant only 2-- just 2-- tomato plants the following year. These were primarily small cherry/pear type tomatoes. The larger slicer/beefsteaks we discovered did very poorly-- growing so fast they split their skins and exposed the inside of the fruits to a lot of insect activity. The new plants each still exploded with growth and provided all the tomatoes we cared to eat. Our top favorites were 'Sweet 100' a sweet red cherry tomato and a meaty savory yellow pear tomato.

This year, in the new house, we've started allotting corners of the yard to various garden items. But, I don't think our tomato corner is doing very well. We have 3 small, lightly fruiting plants. Happy? yes. High producing? no. We're still getting to know the new house (and the assorted wildlife in the neighborhood-- don't get me started on squirrels right now!) and we're still discovering what works well and where. I *think* maybe they got too much water. I'll try cutting back a bit and doing less watering overall next year (drip mist maybe?) to see if I can get them to fruit more. I know alot of people have great success with dry farming but I don't know if it gets too hot out here for that (its averaging over 100 right now with near 0 humidity)

Thankfully my lovely mother-in-law also has a big love for tomatoes (and an even bigger yard and garden). She didn't mess around and planted well over 2 DOZEN of assorted varieties. As expected, huge crops are coming in and there is a bounty of tomatoes to be had! (Thanks Mom!) I brought home a big box (probably over 10 lbs) of several varieties of tomatoes last week and I've been enjoying pulling out all my favorite tomato recipes and trying out some new ones!

Here is the first big tomato user-upper project I did-- for the Hubby-- who LOVES salsa (more than anything except me and the kids --maybe). I kept things simple and fresh (cuz that's the way we like it). I made about a quart of that stuff on Saturday and its already gone. Yep. The whole thing. I guess I'll be making more of this soon!

Recipe: Salsa Fresca

Tomatoes (about 6 cups chopped, roughly)
Onion (1-2, peeled & chopped roughly)
1 bunch of cilantro
1 lemon
1-2 cans diced green chiles (can sub in fresh, we just didn't have any!)
splash of hot sauce (I like Crystal but any will do)

1) Wash, stem and roughly chop tomatoes and throw into work bowl of food processor.
2) Peel & roughly chop ONE onion and throw into work bowl of food processor.
3) Pull out about 8 stems of leafy cilantro. Rip it into chunks and throw it into the work bowl....
4) Dump in 1 can of diced green chiles (or 2 small/1 medium stemmed/seeded jalapeno)
5) Squeeze in juice of lemon.
6) Pulse until tomatoes and onions are chopped finely and well combined.
7) Taste. Add more chiles, cilantro, onion or hot sauce as needed. (I ended up with 1 1/2 medium brown onions, 1 can of chiles and a good 4 or 5 splashes of hot sauce.)
8) Let sit in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours for flavors to fully develop. Enjoy!

Feel free to comment below! I'd love to hear what you thought or if you tried the recipe!!

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Sunday Savings Tip: Crockpot "Rotisserie" Chicken

I love the ease and convenience of the supermarket rotisserie chicken. With no effort at all, you can bring home a great roasted whole chicken for about $5-6.00. However, it is much cheaper to buy a whole chicken and do it yourself. Not to mention when you do it yourself, you know exactly what is going into your family's food! I, personally don't have a rotisserie but I discovered that roasting it in your crockpot will give you a similarly tender result with about the same amount of effort as buying a pre-cooked one!

Okay, this "recipe" is so easy its almost embarrassing! I had specifically asked for a larger, oval crockpot for my birthday over 2 years ago for the sole purpose of being able to cook whole chickens in it (well that and larger pot roasts). And yet, embarrassingly enough, yesterday was the first day I ever did it. The results were nothing less than spectacular. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to it. Soooooooo easy!! Soooooooooo tasty!! Soooooooo little effort!!

I had the opportunity to pick up some nice pasture raised whole chickens at a good price. As I am new to this whole pastured meat thing, I had heard that sometimes the meat can be a little bit tougher (since the chickens actually run around and stuff). And as a result, they really benefit from low & slow, moist cooking. I gave a new spice rub a try-- #33671 from www.food.com. I only made a half batch but the skin portions still ended up being a little strong on the paprika for me. I think next time I'll just stick to my preferred lemon pepper/garlic salt combo.

I spiced up the chicken, popped it into the pot, put on the lid and set the temp to low. I let it cook for approximately 6 hours. I checked the temp in a few places and it was completely cooked through. I wanted to take a nice "after" picture with the roasted chicken on a plate but the whole thing was so tender that both wings and one whole leg & thigh fell off when I was taking it out of the crock pot. The whole chicken was super tender and moist. And, there was tons of concentrated chicken stock at the bottom of the pot.

We ate all that we wanted the first night and made burritos out of the leftovers the second. This still leaves a chicken quarter for Hubby to take to work for lunch! Yay whole chickens!!

Do you have any "its so easy I can't believe I didn't know about that" type tips?? Comment below!

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A Beginner's Bread Baking Part II: Whole Wheat English Muffins

I like English muffins for breakfast. Sometimes toasted with peanut butter for a quick meal and other times with an egg (and/or cheese and meat) tucked inside for a hearty breakfast sandwich. I don't eat many in a given week, just one or two, but I like to keep a small supply in the freezer so I have one whenever the mood might strike. With all the foods we've eliminated due to excessive (and unpronouncible) ingredients, English muffins were about 2nd on my list of foods I was missing.

So, once again, off to the kitchen!!

After doing some research and a few test recipes, I've learned a few things about English muffin recipes. First, there's a lot of them. Some are simple and others have an ingredient list even longer than the ones at the grocery store! Secondly, there are no fewer than 3 major approaches to making an English muffin.

You can go dough based and roll or hand shape your muffins. The first recipe I attempted used a dough based approach. While the outer appearance and flavor were acceptable, they were completely lacking the critical nooks and crannies characteristic of a great English muffin. This also made them a bit dense.

There is batter based where you spoon a looser, more liquidy type of mix into ring molds where they cook. I was going to go for a batter based approach for attempt #2 but I don't have any ring molds and I'm not particularly interested in buying any (or eating 4-6 cans of tuna to make some) just for this recipe.

Finally there is what I'm calling the overproof method. This involves making something with a consistency between a dough and batter an allowing the yeast to rise until the dough falls under its own weight. The proponents of this method claim it is the most traditional approach. I don't know if that is true or not but it is the technique I found the most success with. With a few modifications from the recipe posted here (to get to 50% whole wheat & streamline the process) I think I have something workable.  The flavor is very similar to my old grocery store brand (VanDeKamps) and the process was pretty easy (although it does take a long time overall, it is mainly short bursts of activity here and there, like bread making) The recipe below yields 6 larger muffins or 8 medium sized ones.

Recipe: Whole Wheat (50/50) English Muffins

1 cup milk (I used whole)
1 Tbs butter
1Tbs honey
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur's)
1/2 tsp salt--see note at step 4
1-4 Tbs water
1 cup corn meal


1) Gently warm milk in a saucepan or in microwave (be careful of hot spots!) until it is very warm but not scalding hot.
2) Add in honey and butter. Stir until butter melts and honey dissolves.
3) Add yeast to warm liquid. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until foamy (if it doesn't foam, your yeast is dead & you need to start over!)
4) In a large mixing bowl, combine flours and salt (if you used salted butter in step 2, you may omit the extra salt).
5) Pour foamy liquid into flour mix. Stir to combine. Soft dough should form.
6) Slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time, add the water. Stir vigorously to combine. Stop adding water when dough is wet enough to stick to all sides of your bowl and the consistency is between a batter and a dough.

Dough Mix before rising

7) Cover dough mix with a tea towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm corner of the kitchen. Allow it to rise until it collapses (approx. 2 hours for me-- it may be more if your yeast isn't as fresh or your kitchen is colder). NOTE: The longer the dough sits, the more sour the bread will be. My first batch sat about 7 hours (the original recipe called for overnight) and was MUCH too sour for me. The 2 hours I used for the subsequent batch isn't sour at all. If you want them somewhat sour, try 3-4 hours to start with and go up from there to find your preferred balance!

Dough mix at maximum rise

Dough mix after collapse-
note wrinkled surface &
pulled bubbles at edges.

8) Pour corn meal into a dish with sides.
9) Stir dough thoroughly and scoop out approximately 1/3 cup dough mix.
10) Drop dough scoop into corn meal. Roll until evenly coated on all sides.
11) Carefully pick up dough ball and gently pat into a flattened circle 3-4" in diameter.
12) Place on lightly greased skillet on stove. Be sure to leave 1-2" between muffins for expansion.

13) Once skillet is filled, turn heat on to low. Not super low but not medium either. Cook first side until golden (12-15 minutes). Flip & cook other side (8-10 minutes). Low and slow is necessary for the insides to cook without the outside getting too brown.
14) Remove to wire rack for cooling.

15) Use fork to split muffins for maximum nook and cranny-ness.

ENJOY!!

If you aren't going to eat all of these in the first day (I'm not judging here....) you might consider keeping them in the fridge or freezer as they are preservative free.

Comment below and let me know how this recipe worked for you in your kitchen!

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