Good for You No-Bake Bites, aka "Conglomerate Rocks"

Mix this with your hands.  I like to make this in the morning when I am up before the family, (every morning!) because I don't use the mixer so I don't make noise, plus, it's an excuse for a peanut butter fix with my coffee.

Makes a baker's dozen of 2 inch balls.  They look like conglomerate rocks, too, for science class.
(This recipe is my adaptation of one from King Arthur's Flour.)

3/4 cup nut butter, or, the rest of the peanut butter left in the jar (it is pointless to try to measure peanut butter in an additional cup)

1 cup oats

1/2 cup raw honey

1/4 cup cocoa (optional)

1/3 cup dried buttermilk powder (or other powdered milk)

3/4 cup oat bran

1 or 2 T apple cider vinegar

Plus 1 cup of mix-ins of your choice:
I used 1 T chia seeds, and a cup of chopped figs and dates

Roll into balls and keep covered in the fridge.  When my family gets up, I'll let you know how they liked them with their lunches!

Chocolate covered frozen banana ice cream....

Remember your teen magazine treat recipes, how you freeze half a banana on a popcicle stick and cover it with chocolate shell?  Remember how cold and frozen it was and how if you're patient enough the banana gets a little creamy inside, and it's not too sweet, you get that earthy aftertaste of the banana and then the rich bitter chocolate, and you can't stop eating them because they seem so much healthier than ice cream, they taste just sort of icy?

We have duplicated the experience. We mixed up about 7 browning bananas with the Kitchen Aid mixer; now lots of people make banana ice cream just like that, in a food processor from frozen bananas, but we started with fresh and then tasted;  we added a little milk to taste, because it so improved the banana flavor, a tablespoon of maple syrup, and for the chocolate:  I had leftover chocolate ganache glaze from a cake in a jar in the fridge, about 1/2 a cup.

The chocolate glaze which I mixed in:   semisweet chocolate chips (Vermont Nut Free Chocolates) melted with equal part heavy cream, and a tablespoon of cognac.

Mixed, frozen and churned:

The taste, texture, temperature and experience, whole family agreed, was exactly that of eating the frozen banana with the hint of chocolate cover. 

Note:  just like the bananas would, this freezes a little too hard at the temperature you would use to freeze your other ice creams, so you may want to turn down the cold a little, or microwave 30 secs. to a minute upon removing from the freezer!

Non-dairy strawberry sherbet!

Creamy, smooth, intensely strawberry sherbet (vegan)

First summer holiday weekend, and we commenced ice cream experimentation to use up nice things in the fridge before the fresh fruits and veggies ripen and start coming home in the Community Share box.  

This is the best ice dessert ever I've made, and I am a dairy princess who loves every food except coconut, but this is totally non-dairy made for my daughter.

Mix about two cups strawberry preserves and about a half cup of lemonade;  mix in a cup and a half to two cups of coconut milk, and a pinch of salt.  That's it!  Chill or freeze for half an hour, then churn in the ice cream maker and freeze for a few hours in a bowl.  

Best yet!

Invisible eggplant cake

This is our Zucchini Bread substituting Eggplant.   The color of banana bread without that cloying sticky flavor; not too sweet tasting with a curious after- tang, I bet no one will identify the mystery ingredient and it will be universally loved.   Good plain or with Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge icing (the glossy dark color perhaps hints at the original shiny aubergine peel).

1 eggplant, sliced in half and broiled 10 minutes each side.

 3 cups all purpose flour      
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
stir together the dry ingredients            

Add

3 eggs
1 cup olive  oil
           2 1/4 cups sugar

Mix.     Scoop the soft broiled eggplant flesh out of the skin and add to the mixture, beating well.
Bake in 325 for 30-50 minutes (I used an oblong glass pan time.)  It will be a gray-brown, banana bread color.

For optional chocolate frosting, I used unsweetened baking chocolate, 4 large marshmallows and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Melt all together on stove top or microwave, mixing until all ingredients are melted and combined and thick and shiny (yum).  Also makes good fudge as it!  I think my daughter will appreciate it, since she no longer eats cake or icing because the butter is too rich; no buttercream here!

The golden warm cake, unfrosted, and frosted!  Ummm more veggies for dessert!

The way to eat kale

Uniquely flavorful, nodding to traditional greens cooking.

olive oil and/or goose fat
clove garlic
kale leaves, ripped from the tough center ribs
roughly chopped baby bella or other mushrooms
salt and pepper
finely chopped and/or whole hot peppers to taste
sauerkraut--(I had about a cup leftover in the fridge)
finely chopped slices of Canadian bacon


Heat on medium the fat/oil in enameled cast iron casserole, add the ingredients in order listed, toss well periodically and cover and let simmer on medium low for about 40 minutes until kale softens somewhat and the fresh green color becomes more olive colored.

Best. Ever.

More cake-as-vegetable: Zucchini Bread!

Another recipe in the series of how to use up your weekly CSA box of fruit and veggies:  the best zucchini bread.  And let's admit it, it's cake.  You can bake this recipe in two loaf pans like bread, but I just bake it as one big beautiful Bundt.

It's great weather for this as fall blows in, and there's lots of cinnamon to warm you up.  No butter or dairy, just healthy olive oil, lovely fiber-y zucchini and optional cocoa-dusted pumpkin seeds for my nephew allergic to nuts.  Stays moist as long as you can keep it in the house.  10 minutes prep, 50 min. to an hour in the oven.

3 cups all purpose flour          

1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
stir together the dry ingredients

Add
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil
2 1/4 cups sugar

Mix.     Don't be alarmed that the dough is stiff like cookie dough rather than wet like cake batter:  the zucchini adds a LOT of liquid.

Add grated zucchini.  (As much as you like: about 2 cups is one large or two small zucchini.)

Mix.

Add (optional) 1/2 cup cocoa dusted hulled pumpkin seeds https://www.superseedz.com/

Bake at 325 degrees in two loaf pans or one bundt pan, for 50 minutes more or less (until skewer inserted comes out clean).  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if desired.

Enjoy!  It's ok--it's your vegetable!

Using up the CSA box: eggplant. And, Dog saves Dinner.

Still using up that weekly farm box.  We try to cook through most of them before the new weekly box.  I thought I didn't like eggplant, and we are getting one or two a week.  But I am loving any variation of my made-up rataouille. It's become my new comfort food!

I heated olive oil in my old enameled cast iron pot.  Add roughly chopped onions, peeled and roughly chopped raw eggplant, a few carrots, 6 chopped plum tomatoes , a crushed garlic clove; I threw in what my farmer calls "spicy peppers", seeds removed but left whole so I can remove before serving, because we are not all, in my family, fond of biting heat.   Salt pepper and cumin to taste.  I added a drained two-cup can of chickpeas and a cup of canned chopped tomatoes because I wanted it saucier tonight.  You might add chopped green peppers, chopped zucchini.  Cook until the eggplant darkens and is soft to bite and the rice is ready.

Grocery shopping online I accidentally bought something like 25 lbs of rice (the photo looked like a small 1 lb bag and cost no more!)  AND I  split bulk oatmeal with my college student's apartment (they are living of course on overnight oatmeal "bakes").  So we are now in the grain business.

For my student:  you cook rice like this.  Ratio 2:1 water to rice.  To match my pot of ratatouille I used 4 cups of water and 2 cups rice.  Boil the water.  Add the rice, (salt and/or butter optional, I skip it) turn heat to lowest setting and cover the pot.  When the water is all absorbed, remove from heat, fluff with fork.  Total time:  20 minutes.

ACTUALLY MY DOG SAVED THE DINNER!  I joined my father on the backyard patio to chat, just for a few minutes, with the window open to smell the good cooking.  My dog came to me stood up with her paws on my knees and a panicky alert cry.  I suddenly thought, I bet the dinner is about to burn!  Sure enough, just in time, it was the eggplant and rice, both done at the same time, liquid gone and a few charred chickpeas, but the pot bottom ISN'T burned!

Serve the eggplant over the rice.  Serves 5-6 as main dish for hearty appetites.

Mmmmm.  My fussy vegetarian and my classic-fine-diner both loved it!  Sweet tasty and warming after a pool day and as the evening falls earlier!


Thanks Dog!