Mixed Mushroom Dahl and 2 Movies Today

I love sleeping in on Saturday morning. It is the only day we get up when are bodies naturally want to wake up and it makes for a much nicer start to the day.

Guess who had another double shot of espresso this morning? Yep, it was me. I need to get a handle on this immediately. Having a machine at home that you press a button and espresso arrives magically is not good when you love the stuff like I do. I am a bit disappointed that I had a double shot of espresso two days in a row. My goal is to go back to avoiding the stuff. We will see if I can do it. I will report in if I fall off the wagon again. *rolls eyes*

Breakfast:

This morning Dan had a smoothie made with: 2 tablespoons oats (grind into a powder first if not using a high speed blender), 2 frozen bananas, 1 cup frozen wild blueberries, 2 kale leaves and stems, 2 collard leaves and stems, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger and water to process. I would have used cold processed green tea but I didn’t wake up early enough to make it before breakfast.

My breakfast, other than the double shot of espresso, consisted of nothing more than 4 large glasses of iced water with lemon slices and cucumber. After my espresso this morning I decided I needed to encourage my body to eliminate the caffeine. Clearly this vicious cycle needs to stop before it gets out of hand like prior times in my life.

Lunch:

As usual we had my parents over for a late mid day meal. I had no idea what I was going to make for since cooking for my unhealthy omni parents is always a bit of a challenge. I ended up making my variation of mixed mushroom dahl over brown basmati rice. Here is what I did:

Mixed Mushroom Dahl
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups moong dahl (split mung beans)
8 cups water or no salt veggie stock
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 ¾ teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (crush in your hands before adding)
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 red onion, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced or grated
3 carrots, finely diced
14 ounces reduced fat organic coconut milk
1 poblano pepper, finely minced (use a jalapeno or serrano if everyone at the table likes heat)
½ pound fresh criminis, thinly sliced
¼ pound fresh shitake stems, thinly sliced
4 diced Roma tomatoes, for garnish
cooked brown rice to serve under the dahl (I cooked 1 ½ cups brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except the tomatoes and rice and simmer until the beans are tender. If desired you can use a little cornstarch to thicken the soup. Just before serving add the diced tomatoes so that they can heat through. Serve on top of the cooked rice.

Nutritional Information (includes the brown rice):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 394.51
Calories From Fat (12%)-  48.39

Total Fat - 5.21g
Saturated Fat - 2.94g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 48.29mg
Potassium - 1199.5mg
Total Carbohydrates - 70.65g
Fiber - 12.65g
Sugar - 8.11g
Protein - 17.77g

Comments:

Three of the four of us loved this. Oddly my parents didn’t even add salt which was quite the shock. No surprise my mother thought this was entirely too hot even though we thought the heat level was mild. If you like heat add more red pepper flakes or use a hotter fresh pepper. If my mother is any indication this is too hot for children or the elderly. *rolls eyes*

To go with the dahl I made a quick salad. The best part of the salad was the dressing which I put together quickly and without measuring. Sorry about that I was running behind schedule.  It was a very simple dressing of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and stevia. This took my under a minute to make and it reminded me of honey mustard only without the honey and its resulting increase in serum blood glucose. This dressing will be happening at my house often from now on.

Dinner:

We opted for a quick salad tonight for dinner after we finished watching our second movie of the day. Since we weren’t exactly active today we thought something on the light side was in order. This salad, which we shared contained: 1 head of romaine, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 4 Roma tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of cashew crème fraiche and ½ avocado.

For dessert I made an extra big batch of strawberry banana soft serve in the Vitamix. These measurements are approximate but should be close: 1 handful walnuts, 3 frozen bananas, 2’ish cups frozen strawberries, ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon powdered ginger and about a cup of water to process. If you still use sweeteners you may want to add a little stevia to the mixture. The Vitamix turns that into a delicious thick frozen dessert that my husband is addicted to. Tonight I had a little of the soft serve with him (about 1/4th of the total) since I had not had much to eat today.

Movies today:

Dan picked the movies today and I didn’t pay a lot of attention. The first one was “From Paris with Love” with John Travolta. It was definitely an action movie which means it was not my thing. The second movie was “Knowing” with Nicholas Cage. I would describe it as a mystery, sci fi sort of thing. It was okay, better than the first movie but not something I would have chosen to watch. As you can tell Dan and I have very different tastes in movies.

Signing out:

Tomorrow is the farmers’ market which means an early morning for us. I hope everyone had a great Saturday and stayed cool in the unseasonably hot weather we had on the east coast today. Things are supposed to cool off tonight and tomorrow at least. Rumor has it we go back to fall tomorrow. I hope the weathermen are right this time. Talk to you tomorrow. :-)

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve with Goji Berries

I have mentioned before that Dan has strawberry banana soft serve most evenings so I thought it was time I posted the recipe. This is something that I only roughly measure because I make it most evenings. Since Dan is having fresh juice with kale every day I have stopped adding kale to his soft serve so that he doesn’t get too many raw cruciferous veggies.  Eating two bunches of raw kale per week and another bunch of collards is more than enough raw cruciferous veggies.  No sense overdoing it, LOL. To make up for the loss of kale I started adding goji berries for additional antioxidants. Here is Dan’s most recent favorite dessert:

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve with Goji Berries
Serves one hungry husband

Ingredients:

¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup oatmeal, dry
2 frozen bananas
2 cups frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons goji berries, dried
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch ginger, powder
stevia, if you need sweetener
water necessary to process (I use about ½ cup)

Directions:

Place the walnuts and oatmeal in the blender and process until it is mostly powder. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Serve immediately, preferably in a chilled bowl. I have little ice cream bowls that are metal in the center and melamine (I think) on the exterior so the interior is cold but the exterior isn’t. Them bowls came from Crate and Barrel. I keep the bowls in the freezer since Dan has soft serve most nights. He tells me he needs the calories. ;-)

Note:  I did make this in a Vitamix. If you are using a less powerful blender you will probably need more water to get the fruit to process completely.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 631.22
Calories From Fat (27%) - 173.22

Total Fat - 20.71g
Saturated Fat - 2.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 13.16mg
Potassium - 1502.54mg
Total Carbohydrates - 115.53g
Fiber - 19.49g
Sugar - 51.02g
Protein - 13.16g

Comments:

Dan has always loves dessert, particularly frozen dessert, and this is no exception. He happily eats this at night, no complaints. Bananas add a creamy texture, strawberries and goji berries add antioxidants. Walnuts provide healthy fat. Oats add calories. Cinnamon helps reduce the blood glucose spike. Powdered ginger helps protect his heart. Not too shabby for a rich creamy dessert that he enjoys.

If I were making this for myself it would be 3 or 4 servings, but Dan loves sweets so he eats the entire recipe. This recipe contains approximately 140mg of vitamin C, 100mg of calcium, 130mcg of folate, 260mg of phosphorus, 165mg of magnesium, and 14mcg of selenium. Nice stats for dessert if you ask me. ;-)

Unrelated note:

Today has been a bit busy for me. I spent the day rewatching the 2010 Dr. Greger DVD so that I could write up the review and make notes of the articles to obtain. The DVD this year is the best one yet. I learned quite a few things, which always makes me happy. My goal is to get the review and highlights up this week as soon as I find a few studies the doc mentioned and read and analyze them.

I also spent today getting organized for Dan’s trip to Indianapolis. I like to have restaurant options mapped out and healthy snacks that he can take in his carry-on bag.

I hope everyone had a great Monday. I will talk to you all again tomorrow.

Pretty in Pink Cookies: made from juice pulp

My husband has a vicious sweet tooth which many of you know by now. He is always “looking” for a sweet treat. After a number of you asked me what I do with the juice pulp I thought maybe my husband would like some “cookies”, but a healthy version of course. I have made something like this before and you will find the recipe here. Today I wanted to make a healthier version of the cookie. I reduced the nuts to see what would happen. Here is what I did:

Pretty in Pink Cookies: made from juice pulp
Makes 46 cookies

Ingredients:

juice pulp from 10 carrots, 2 apples, 2 lemons, 1 inch ginger, 2 beets
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup macadamia nuts
2 cups reduced fat shredded coconut
2 teaspoons cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon ginger, powder
stevia, to taste (or you can used a few dates instead which will add moisture as well as sweetness)
water, as much as necessary for the dough to just form (I used ½ cup)

Directions:

Grind the raw cashews and macadamia nuts in your food processor until a rough texture forms. Be careful not to over process or you may end up with nut butter. Add the coconut and pulse to mix. Combine the fruit pulp and nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add the seasonings and sweeten according to your taste. Now add water 1 tablespoon at the time and stir to combine. Take a small amount of the mixture in your hand and try to form it into a ball. Once it holds together you have added enough water. I added ½ cup of water.

Line you dehydrate trays with teflex sheets. You will need 3 sheets for this recipe.

Use a small disher (little ice cream scoop) to form cookie balls. Place the balls on the teflex lined trays. I used 5 rows of 4 to allow air to circulate.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees until the exterior is firm but the interior is still soft and cookie-like. Store in a sealed container in your refrigerator.

Nutrition information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories 56.38
Calories From Fat (80%) - 45.35

Total Fat - 5.04g
Saturated Fat - 1.54g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 0.75mg
Potassium - 39.41mg
Total Carbohydrates - 2.46g
Fiber - 1.76g
Sugar - 0.38g
Protein - 1.17g

Comments:

This recipe makes a light tasty cookie. I really like them particularly because they are light. The coconut flavor is very, very light which I did intentionally. Dan is not wild about coconut so I need to keep the coconut flavor to a minimum. I had a couple of these with my afternoon green tea which was a nice healthy treat. I also think they will be wonderful crumbled over a little berry soft serve.

You can also make these cookies with more nuts and/or coconut oil but rather defeats the purpose of a healthy snack, or at least I think it does. ;-)  I have run the nutrtional numbers on the raw cookies on some blogs and many of them are over 200 calories a piece mostly from fat and sugar.  That is just too much for me.

Unrelated Note:

As I expected yesterday ended up being a much longer day than it should have been. I ended up at Costco for a few veggies, because a girl can never have too many veggies, LOL. Now we have two refrigerators full and I can breathe a sigh of relief. ;-) I had to buy two more pair of yoga pants. I swear I don’t know which is worse, my produce or exercise attire addiction.

Being out of the house so long yesterday we had a quick salad and berry soft serve with kale for dinner last night. Nothing exciting this is why I didn’t post it.

Today is another scorcher here. At 6am it was 81 degrees and was 97 the last time I checked. Exercise has moved inside and appears to be staying there for the foreseeable future.

I mentioned the glass straws Dan brought home from 105 degrees for me. I finally broke down and bought little cleaning brushes for them. I wanted to mention this since Aisling asked how I was cleaning them. The little brushes do a nice job and make the process much quicker and easier.

At the moment I have fresh mushrooms marinating to be dehydrated tonight. I have yet to figure out exactly how I am going to use them. But I will come up with something and will try to get it posted tonight.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. Talk to you all soon.

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale?

I know some of you saw this title and thought I have finally lost my mind. But you should know this is now my husband’s favorite evening snack and he had it this morning for breakfast. The kale adds a lot of nutrition and you can adjust how much you add to the soft serve to suit your taste. You will need a high powered blender for this recipe but it is not only good but good for you. I cannot take credit for this idea it came from my nutritionist friend Courtney. Thanks Courtney for sharing this brilliant idea! Here is how I make the soft serve:

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale
Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dry oatmeal (for protein)
2 tablespoon walnuts (for healthy fat)
2 ½ cups frozen berries (I used a combination of 2 cups strawberries and ½ cup blueberries)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (to help the body process the natural sugar)
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger (for the anti-inflammatory benefits)
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
2 kale leaves (finely julienned) – start with one and work up as many as you like
½ cup water
stevia, to taste

Directions:

Place the dry oats and walnuts in your high speed blender and process until you have a powder. Now add the kale and water and process until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and use the plunger to get the mixture completely smooth. Taste for sweetness and add stevia as necessary for you taste. I suggest you start with one kale leaf and work your way up. Dan finds two kale leaves to be the most he likes. I have made this for me with more kale but that does add a little bitterness at higher levels that not everyone finds appealing. ;-)

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 532.87
Calories From Fat (23%) - 122.07

Total Fat - 14.6g
Saturated Fat - 1.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 39.92mg
Potassium - 1307.33mg
Total Carbohydrates - 94.89g
Fiber - 19.27g
Sugar - 27.8g
Protein - 15.77g

Comments:

Courtney shared this recipe with we me late last week and I have made it every day since. Dan adores this recipe. As written this recipe contains approximately 10,500IU of vitamin A, 270mg of vitamin C, 215mg of calcium (go Kale), 7.5mg of iron, 140mcg of folate, 570mcg of vitamin K, 430mg of phosphorus, and 190mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing nutrition for something that comes together this quickly that my hubby considers dessert.

Unrelated note:

The weather here is glorious again. The morning air is cool (mid 60’s) and a little crisp. I love it when the day starts out like this. :-)

Today I have a few things I need to get done in the morning. But I should have time for a post this afternoon before dinner. We have finished all our panelle and polenta toast. I am going to make another batch this time all panelle so I can compare it to the hybrid recipe I developed. Dan also wants me to make him some sun-dried tomato pesto for the “toast” so that is also on my agenda today.

Talk to you all again soon. I hope you are having a great Tuesday and that your weather is as nice as ours.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

My husband has been craving a rich decadent dessert something fierce these last few weeks. There have been many hints of this that have come my way. As a surprise I decided to take a variation of his favorite tofu chocolate mousse recipe and turn it into a pie. I assumed if I doubled the chocolate that would make the dessert thick enough to slice . Did it work? You will need to read on to find out (muahaha). Here is what I did:

Chocolate Mousse Pie
Serves 6

Ingredients:

¾ cup almonds
6 dates
5 ounces dark chocolate, melted
12.3 ounces silken tofu, firm or extra firm
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
Cinnamon, to taste
Vanilla, to taste
Sweetener, if necessary

Directions:

Place the almonds in your food processor and process until they are finely ground. Now add the pitted dates and process until everything is incorporated. Place the crust (almonds and dates) into an 8 inch tart pan and press to evenly cover the bottom and sides of the pan. It helps to use the bottom of flat measuring cup to flatten the crust. The crust will try to stick to the cup. You can either wet the cup with a little water of spray it with canola non stick spray.

Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on 30% power until it has melted. Place the tofu and melted chocolate in your food processor and process until it is thoroughly combined. Add the flavorings that you desire (I used bourbon, cinnamon and vanilla). Process again to combine. Taste the filling for sweetness; add stevia or agave if necessary. Pour the filling into your crust and refrigerate for at least two hours so the chocolate can set. Serve chilled.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 282.52
Calories From Fat (52%) - 147.31

Total Fat - 17.81g
Saturated Fat - 5.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 23.94mg
Potassium - 297.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 26.15g
Fiber - 4.27g
Sugar - 6.89g
Protein - 9.02g

Comments:

My poor husband is still suffering through his second piece of pie. He had his first one last night but it was too late to post the recipe, and I couldn’t seem to get a good picture. Tonight’s picture wasn’t much better but I wanted to get this posted. Sorry about the pic.

How does this taste? According my husband it is “Smooth, creamy, and rich with a deep chocolate taste.” Yes, he seems to like it. The texture reminds me of a cross between chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. Would I make this again? Absolutely! I will keep this recipe tucked away for when my hubby “needs” dessert.

Unrelated note:

Sorry for disappearing again today on you guys. It was one of those days that I have been having a lot of lately. But my schedule is reasonably open for the next week and a half.

Tomorrow we pick up our first tray of wheat grass. I can’t wait to get that home. It will be nice to not have to rely on the frozen wheat grass juice.

It is getting a little late tonight so this will be my only post today. I will check in with you all tomorrow. I hope you are all having a great Friday. TGIF!

Strawberry and Banana Sorbet

I hope you all had a great evening and your Wednesday is starting out fairly well. I wanted to post a quick recipe before I started my day since it is going to be a busy one.

Last night after dinner we were still a little hungry. After realizing how few calories we had eaten I decided to make a quick frozen dessert. Both Dan and I like strawberries and bananas so I decided to combine the two to make a quick healthy dessert. Here is what I did:

Strawberry and Banana Sorbet
Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen banana pieces (this is approximate)
1 cup water, or what is necessary to process the frozen fruit
Cinnamon, to taste
Stevia, to taste, if extra sweetness is desired

Directions:

Place everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. It does help to place the bananas in the base of the blender. Taste and adjust the sweetness and flavorings as you like. In the past we would have added a sweetener to this but we don’t find that necessary now. Serve immediately, preferably in chilled bowls.

If you don’ t have a high powered blender try allowing the fruit to defrost a little before blending so you don’t burn up your blender. I burned up the motor of at least 5 blenders with frozen fruit smoothies before I bought my Vitamix so I do know these types of recipes are hard on blenders. You may also want to consider starting this in the food processor and finishing it in the blender to be kinder to your blender.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 164.03
Calories From Fat (6%) - 9.62

Total Fat - 1.16g
Saturated Fat - 0.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 7.35mg
Potassium - 734.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 40.48g
Fiber - 8.03g
Sugar - 24.04g
Protein - 2.85g

Comments:

If you like fruit you will enjoy this dessert. It is fresh and light and tastes great to us. It reminds me of strawberry banana yogurt which used to be a favorite of mine.

Each serving of this dessert contains approximately 185mg of vitamin C and 55 mg of calcium.

Unrelated Notes:

Today I had planned on trying to get things accomplished around the house. However my hubby has had a horrible headache since last night and will be staying home at least part of the day. The world at our house stops when my husband doesn’t feel well. He isn’t accustomed to feeling sick and he likes attention when he is ill. Something tells me some of you can relate to this. Since he is generally very low maintenance I don’t mind that he likes the attention. It is actually sort of cute, but don’t tell him that, I don’t want to encourage bad behavior. ;-) 

I will be back later with a dinner update.  As the weather gets warmer I seem to gravitate more toward raw food. It is a safe bet that dinner may be something raw again tonight. I don’t have any particular recipe in mind, just a general desire for raw food.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles

My husband has the world’s most vicious sweet tooth. Giving up sugar and agave his been really difficult for my husband. When we met, decades ago, the man put 6 packets of sugar in a small coffee. When I say he has a wicked sweet tooth I am not exaggerating. Periodically I make him a little sweet treat because he loves them so much. These are things that we eat one or two at a time and only immediately after a meal to keep blood glucose levels down since cancer is a sugar feeder.

When I read a comment that Raw Sierra posted on Vivacious Vegan’s blog about raw cookie dough I knew I needed to make a version of the recipe only with stevia. Instead of adding chips to the dough I decided to turn them into truffles by coating them in melted chocolate. Here is what I did.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles
Makes 20 small truffles

Ingredients:

2/3 cups oatmeal, dry
1 1/3 cups raw cashes
1 pinch salt
1 pinch cinnamon, or to taste
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon water, or as necessary to make a stiff dough
Stevia to taste (I used 3 single unit scoops or 3 grams)
Approximately 4 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Place the oatmeal in your blender and grind into a powder. Add the raw cashews to the oat flour and grind those as well. Empty this mixture into a large bowl and stir in the salt and cinnamon. Add the vanilla, and as much water as is necessary to make a stiff dough. Using a small disher that you fill to a level with dough and form each scoop into one or two balls. I made small balls and got two truffles from each scoop. Roll the dough in your hands to form balls. Place the balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment or silpat and freeze until solid.

Depending on your freezer the balls will take about an hour to freeze. When they are completely frozen melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave. I do this on 30% power and stir periodically until it is almost liquid. It will continue to cook from the heat of the melted chocolate and you don’t want to overheat it so stop a little before it has completely melted.

Dip the frozen balls in the chocolate, allow the excess to drip off and return to the cold, lined pan and return it to the freezer. When the chocolate is hard the truffles can be placed in a freezer bag for storage.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 75.86
Calories From Fat (55%) - 42.03

Total Fat - 5g
Saturated Fat-  0.56g
Cholesterol - 0.28mg
Sodium - 15.85mg
Potassium - 82.01mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.74g
Fiber - 0.77g
Sugar - 3.21g
Protein - 1.76g

Comments:

These taste surprisingly like cookie dough. Thank you Raw Sierra for the cookie dough recipe. I think this basic recipe can be flavored in many different ways to make different recipes. If you have a craving for cookie dough and just want a little something this really hits the spot. Be warned this may be one of those recipes that are too good to resist. I plan to hide them in the freezer so my hubby doesn’t eat them all in one sitting.

Unrelated note:

Time for me to get back to my research. I will try to be back later today with another post regarding our dinner tonight, but realistically that will probably happen tomorrow. Have a great evening in case I don’t get a chance to say that later tonight.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve

Oh Vitamix how do I love you? Let me count the ways. Okay so that was a tad dramatic, but that machine is amazing. Who wouldn’t love a two minute fruit soft serve?

Today I wasn’t much in the mood for food. Salad wasn’t appealing to me, I didn’t want soup so ……. I decided to break out the Vitamix. This is something I make a lot in the summer since it cools me down instantly. It works with any frozen fruit. I like to use berries for their ellagic acid since they are linked to cancer cell death (apoptosis), and they taste good. I add cinnamon to assist the body in processing the natural sugar more efficiently. Orange extract was added for flavor and aroma. Here is what I did.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve
Serves 1 as a meal

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup soymilk, unsweetened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Put everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 241.76
Calories From Fat (17%) - 41.17

Total Fat - 4.6g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 130.11mg
Potassium - 734.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.65g
Fiber - 8.41g
Sugar - 23.45g
Protein - 9.28g

Comments:

If you still use sweeteners you may need to add a little agave or stevia to this. In the past I had to add additional sweetener. Now that we have been off sweeteners for many months (sorry I lost track of how many) this tastes sweet enough to me. It tastes mostly of strawberries with a subtle hint of orange. You can leave out the orange extract but I think it adds a lot. Sometimes I make this with fresh mint in place of the orange extract.

Unrelated Note:

The weather is beautiful here today. The sky is blue and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It is so nice to have temperatures in the upper 60’s. It is one of those days where you want to be outside as much as possible. On that note I am going to hit post and head back outside. I hope the weather where you are is lovely too. Talk to you all later.

Raw Cookies from Cashews, Reduced Fat Coconut and Juice Pulp

Those of you that have been reading for a while know that I don’t like to throw things away that still have a use. That also applies to food. One of the reasons I took so many years to buy a juicer is that I didn’t like the idea of throwing away the juice pulp, which I was certain contained fiber and most likely nutrition as well. Because the flax cracker worked so well I knew that the pulp needed to be incorporated into other foods. When my friend Louis mentioned cookies from the pulp and Heather agreed I knew I had to give it a try. They are so easy it is ridiculous. Here is what I did.

Raw Cookies from Cashews, Reduced Fat Coconut and Juice Pulp

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups raw cashews (not soaked)
1 cup reduced fat coconut (Let’s Do Organic)
Carrot, Apple, Celery, Lemon and Ginger juice pulp from here
4 Medjool dates, pitted

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your food processor and process until the mixture forms a ball. If you are concerned about the power of your food processor you can process until they are ground (but before they turn into nut butter) and then add the remaining ingredients.

I used a small disher to form the cookies and placed them directly on the mesh dehydrator sheet. Since I wanted them to be chewy I dehydrated them at 104 degrees for 4 hours.

The resulting cookies are firm on the outside but chewy on the inside.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 105.69
Calories From Fat (57%) - 60.68

Total Fat - 17.75g
Saturated Fat - 2.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 8.59mg
Potassium - 156.22mg
Total Carbohydrates - 10.51g
Fiber - 1.65g
Sugar - 5.52g
Protein - 2.63g

The nutritional numbers are a bit of swag since I had to estimate what was left in the juice pulp. If anything I have overstated the numbers above, except the fiber which is probably higher than shown.

Comments:

This is going to sound strange, but I am not much of a sweets person. That is my hubby’s role in the family. I tried one of these to see if they were finished, which lead to a second cookie, because I needed to take its picture whole and the interior. Who I am kidding? These things are really good! Not just good, but really good. I am very happy they only have 105 calories a piece. These things could spell trouble.

Unrelated Note:

I will be back later with another recipe. For now I need to get a few things accomplished at home. Talk to you all again soon.

Banana Soft Serve with Walnut Butter Swirl

This is another post about a method rather than a recipe. It is something I saw on Dr. Kim’s blog. He used frozen bananas to make a pie filling. As soon as I saw it I thought why not just skip the crust and make ice cream. Since we bought a masticating juicer as one of our healthy Christmas presents I knew I wanted to try this. I have been suggesting it to Dan every few days and he was completely uninterested. Today I decided I was making the “banana ice cream” whether he wanted it or not.

Tonight I put the blank plate into the juicer and grabbed the bananas from the freezer. I had frozen very ripe bananas (peeled) in a Ziploc bag weeks ago so that I could make this. I took bananas from the freezer and stuffed them into the chute on the juicer and an unnatural looking extruding mass came out the front of the machine. It wasn’t too appealing looking but I persisted with the entire bag (about 6 bananas). I tried the bananas and to my amazement it was the taste and texture of banana ice cream. The texture was so perfect I could not believe it. I then added a swirl of my homemade cinnamon walnut butter. To say this was good doesn’t do it justice. OMG this was amazing. Even my husband, who is not a banana lover, offered to go to the store for more bananas after a few bites. We didn’t need any bananas, but it was that good that he was willing to trek through the 30 plus inches of snow for bananas.

If you have a masticating juicer you really need to try this. We are both completely besotted by this concoction, as my new friend Laloofah would say. We will be making more of this very soon (as soon as we run out actually). This is absolutely mind blowingly delicious. Laloofah tells me you can make this with frozen bananas and a food processor with a little non-dairy milk if you don't have a masticating juicer.

Wild Blueberry Fool with Lemon and Bourbon

Tonight for dinner we had black bean soup and a baby spinach salad with avocado, cucumber and grape tomatoes dressed with vinaigrette made of fresh lemon juice, flaxseed oil (for omega 3) and dried oregano. It was an easy dinner that was tasty and filling. That is beautiful thing about beans. They cook with little attention and keep you full a long time.

After the dinner we had an equally quick wild blueberry fool. I used chia seeds to help the tofu firm up. The also provide omega 3 fatty acids which are anti-inflammatory. Lemon zest was included in the tofu mixture since it works well with blueberries. Since I didn’t want the acidity from the lemon juice I used the zest instead. As I reaching for the almond extract I thought of bourbon and changed my mind. A few years ago I had a blueberry julep and remembered the combination so I went with a tablespoon of bourbon. It adds more aroma than anything else. You can substitute vanilla if you wish but I like the bourbon.  This recipe is a healthier version of one I posted here.  Here is what we had tonight for dessert.

Wild Blueberry Fool with Lemon and Bourbon
Serves 3 (a double for Dan and a single for me)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoons white chia seeds, freshly ground
12.3 ounces firm organic silken tofu
1 lemon, zest only
1 tablespoon bourbon (substitute: ½ teaspoon of vanilla and 2 ½ teaspoons water)
1 scoop stevia (or to taste)
1 cup frozen wild blueberries

Directions:

Grind the white chia seeds in a spice mill. I use a coffee grinder that I reserve just for grinding seeds.

In your food process combine the ground chia seeds, tofu, lemon zest, bourbon, and stevia and process until smooth. Stir the wild blueberries into the tofu until combined. Taste for sweetness before storing. You may need to add more sweetener to your taste. Refrigerate until cold.

Serve cold topped with a few sliced almonds if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 129.84
Calories From Fat (27%) - 34.85

Total Fat - 3.94g
Saturated Fat - 0.56g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 42.51mg
Potassium - 232.96mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.45g
Fiber - 1.31g
Sugar - 1.56g
Protein - 8.99g

Comments:

This dessert was very fast and tastes more complex than it should. Both the hubby and I enjoyed this dessert. In fact he told me I could make it again any time. I would say that means it was a success.

Unrelated Note:

Tomorrow is another hectic day at our house. However, I should be back after lunch. I hope you all have a good evening. I will be back as soon as I can.

Chocolate Covered Walnut and Date Truffles

We had a lovely dinner out tonight with our good friend Phil. I always love having dinner with Phil because he is such warm and genuine person. For those of you that have friends from the mid-west I know you will understand what I mean when I say he is mid-west nice. Phil is just a genuine guy which common sense values. As always, it was a lovely dinner with lots of good conversation that we thoroughly enjoyed

After we dropped Phil at his hotel we came home and I decided to finish the little chocolate covered treat that I started making this afternoon. My husband loves anything with chocolate so this is something I made for him to have a little treat ever once in a while.

Since reading the abstract on the benefits of consuming polyphenols and polyunsaturated fats I immediately thought about making some healthier truffles. This time I used many of the same ingredients that I had in this recipe, but in a different way. Additionally I decided to cover the truffles in dark chocolate since the cocoa powder version was my husband’s favorite the last time.

These truffles came together fairly quickly. Some time was spent forming the balls and waiting for the time to freeze, but overall I don’t think this recipe had more than 15 minutes active time. Here is what I made.

Chocolate Covered Walnut and Date Truffles
Makes 24 truffles

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
½ cup oatmeal, dry
10 medjool dates
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 pinch salt
4 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Place the walnuts and oatmeal in your food processor and process until walnuts and oatmeal are ground. Add the dates, cinnamon, ginger and salt and process until the dates are completely ground.

Use a small disher (the 1 ½ tablespoon size) and form 12 balls from the nut and date mixture. Take each of the 12 balls and divide in half and roll into your hands to form a sphere.

Place the spheres in a half sheet pan lined with a silpat or parchment paper and freeze for at least an hour.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until soft.

Remove the nut and date balls from the freezer. Using two skewers roll the nut and date balls, one at a time, in the melted chocolate. You want to completely coat the balls in chocolate and then return the to the cold sheet pan. Continue to coat the balls until all are coated. Return the covered balls to the freezer to solidify.

Once the chocolate covered walnut and date truffles are hard they can be removed from the freezer, wrapped individually in plastic cling film and stored in a zip top bag in the freezer.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 88.16
Calories From Fat (44%) - 38.41

Total Fat - 4.66g
Saturated Fat - 1.15g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 0.79mg
Potassium - 98.92mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.5g
Fiber - 1.54g
Sugar - 6.79g
Protein - 1.32g

Comment:

The taste is good with a nice cinnamon flavor coming through. I like the snap of the chocolate on the exterior. The only problem for me is the interior texture. With standard truffles you expect the interior to be soft and gooey and this came out a little crumbly. I had considered adding a little coconut oil to the filling but didn’t want to add the extra fat. Next time I make these I will turn the walnuts into walnut butter and fold the ground oatmeal (from the Vitamix) into the walnut butter and see if this improves the texture.

Overall, I think this was a worthy experiment and one that I am going to play around with to adjust the texture. For now these truffles are in our freezer waiting for someone to need a little sweet treat after dinner.

Cranberry Orange Granita

(pictured: granita in an espresso cup with a demitasse spoon)

This granita is something I make all fall and winter long. It is the reason I buy at least 10 pounds of fresh cranberries each year for the freezer. I adore this dessert/palate cleanser. The fresh tart flavor is one of my favorites. We always have this with our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

If you like the flavor of cranberries I really think you will like this granita. It is easy to make sweeter by adding more agave. The red wine helps the mixture to achieve the correct consistency. If you prefer you can substitute white wine or a couple of tablespoons of vodka in lieu of red wine. If you use red wine be certain you love the flavor of the wine, as you will be able to taste it in this granita. Here is what I did.

Cranberry Orange Granita
Makes 8 servings of approximately 4 ounces each

Ingredients:

1 cup whole cranberries
2 cups cranberry juice, unsweetened (used "Just Cranberry" by RW Knudsen)
1 orange, zested and juice (buy organic since you are using the zest)
¼ cup red wine (used Amarone)
½ cup agave, or to taste

Directions:

Place the whole cranberries (frozen are fine) in your food processor and pulse to break them into small pieces. Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and pulse to combine. Taste for sweetness. I used ½ cup of agave but you may need more. We try to stay away from sugar and now find that we don’t need much to make foods taste sweet. In the past we would have needed much more sweetener.

Pour the cranberry orange mixture into a shallow container with a lid. I used an 8 by 8 glass Pyrex that has a lid. Place in the freezer and set a timer for one hour.

Pull the mixture from the freezer, uncover it and use a fork to break up any portion that is starting to solidify. Recover the pan, return it to the freezer and reset your timer for an hour. Continue the process of scraping and returning the pan to the freezer until the mixture is completely frozen. The final texture should be similar to Italian ice. The ice crystals should be small. This is why you continue to scrape and fork the mixture as it freezes.

The exact time this takes will depend on how cold your freezer is. Mine is always finished in 5 hours or less, but I use my large stand-alone freezer that is colder than a standard refrigerator freezer. I would suggest you make it the day before you want to serve it.

The completely frozen and scraped granita will last for months in the freezer.

I prefer to have mini servings of this after a heavy meal as I have picture above. It seems to make me feel better as though I am digesting my dinner better, but this could be my imagination.

Nutritional Information (assumes 8 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 61.77
Calories From Fat (2%) - 1.31

Total Fat - 0.16g
Saturated Fat - 0.01g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 4.91mg
Potassium - 120.03mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.36g
Fiber - 2.21g
Sugar - 9.7g
Protein - 0.5g

Comments:

You get a fairly sizable portion for 60 calories. I only eat an espresso cup of this at a time and find it to be enough to satisfy my frozen sweet cravings. If you want to change the flavor you can add finely minced candied ginger, cinnamon powder, or fresh mint that you finely minced.

Each serving of this granita contains 97 grams of calcium but not much more in terms of nutrition. I eat this mostly because I like the texture and the flavor.

We have this for dessert or we serve it as a palate cleanser between courses when I make a multi course meal. This is always popular with my friends and family. The recipe I have given is what I make for my husband and I. When I am serving this to others I double the amount of sweetener.

Unrelated Note:

This morning started was a flurry of activity as I tried to get everything ready for my hubby to leave earlier than usual. Mondays aren’t my best day, and having to get started earlier than normal didn’t help. I made us a quick smoothie, packed his lunch and got out of the way while he buzzed around before leaving.

Next the felines, who think they are still kittens, decided to help me decorate for Christmas. They have a particular fondness for the ribbon I used as garland to drape on my tree. As I write this I have one cute little white boy sound asleep in the cat bed I snuggled under the tree. They are so angelic when they are sleeping. While I have an opportunity I am going to get back to decorating.

I will be back later with another recipe from Thanksgiving and tonight’s dinner (whatever that turns out to be). I really should try to plan our meals. That would make my life a little easier. I hope you are all having a great day!

Chocolate Mousse - Reduced Sugar with Bourbon

This is hands down my husband’s favorite recipe. Using tofu in chocolate mousse results in the most wonderful creamy mousse. The chocolate chips make the mousse thick and rich. I make many different versions of this chocolate mousse, which you will find here and here and here. This version cuts back on the sweetener by replacing half of it with stevia. I try not to use much sugar in my recipes because sugar feeds cancer. This recipe seems to be the right balance of agave and stevia. This mousse is not deadly sweet. The mousse retains an almost bittersweet feeling, which my hubby and I both like. If you like your desserts more sweet you can add additional agave to taste.

We are having dinner tonight with one of our good friend, Deirdre, and her new guy Rob. We love Deirdre but she has some “quirky ideas about food”. Whenever we get together I like to get Deirdre to try new foods that she thinks she doesn’t like. Tonight’s new food is tofu. Deirdre is convinced she hates tofu. In fact we have had many conversations about her hatred of tofu. Needless to say I am taking a big risk with the tofu chocolate mousse. But, I am never one to play it safe so we will see what happens tonight. I will come back and update the post later this evening with our tofu hater’s reaction to the chocolate mousse. Here is what I made this afternoon.

Chocolate Mousse - Reduced Sugar with Bourbon
Makes 5 large servings

Ingredients:

2 boxes (12.3 ounces) of Mori Nu organic silken tofu, firm
4 tablespoons agave
4 scoops stevia powder (or substitute with 4 tablespoons of agave)
1 pinch sea salt
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon (can use rum, frangelico, kahula, or noccino)
½ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated (about 1/3 of a whole nutmeg)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Place everything except the chips in your food processor and process until smooth.

Put the chips in a microwave proof bowl and heat on 30% power until the chips are completely soft. This took about 6 minutes in my microwave. I heat them for 1 minute and check the texture and add more time until they are soft.

Scrape the melted chocolate into the food processor with the other mousse ingredients, and puree to completely combine.

Pour the chocolate mousse into 5 separate containers and cover with plastic wrap and cool completely before serving. They should be ready to eat in two hours or less.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 238.21
Calories From Fat (40%) - 95.72

Total Fat - 11.56g
Saturated Fat - 5.17g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 114.74mg
Potassium - 393.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.09g
Fiber - 4.85g
Sugar - 2.49g
Protein - 11.95g

Comments:

Prior versions of this mousse used much smaller serving sizes. I was previously using servings that were what I would eat. However, since my husband is normally the one that eats the mousse I decided to use “husband sized” servings. I think this dessert is too rich to eat an entire serving as listed, but my husband vehemently disagrees.

Eat serving of the tofu chocolate mousse contains more than 130mg of calcium.

If you like nuts with your chocolate you can add some chopped nuts or sugared nuts or nut brittle on top this mousse. I have also added candy sprinkles (white chocolate) on top the mousse. Any topping should be added just before serving.

If children will be eating this mousse substitute brewed coffee for the alcohol. The coffee flavor will intensify the chocolate but you won’t be able to identify the coffee in the final product.

Update:

There was much trepidation before the first bite. Deirdre put it off as long as she could. And …. her reaction after the first the taste and I quote “Alicia, this is freaking awesome”. Need I say more? I couldn’t imagine a more glowing reaction to the tofu mousse from a self-proclaimed tofu hater.

Deirdre, next time we are tackling hummus! We had a great time tonight we need to schedule another dinner again soon. We both enjoyed meeting Rob, he is as nice and adorable as I expected.

Fresh Strawberries Topped with Sweetened Tofu Sour Cream

This is more of concept than a recipe. For dessert tonight I topped fresh sliced strawberries with tofu sour cream that I sweetened with agave to taste.

This is the perfect desert, tasty and ready in less than 5 minutes. Can you say heaven on a spoon? I am going to finish my dessert now.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

This is the first of many apple recipes this week with the plethora of apples I have in the house. In our unhealthy days I used to a make an apple cranberry crisp that was loaded with sugar. Sugar in the fruit and the topping. And, gasp, butter was included in the filling and topping. Needless to say something with that amount of fat and sugar is off the menu at our house for many reasons. However, my husband always loved that dessert so I decided to a make a clean healthy version of it.

I used a small amount of agave for the sugar. I subbed a reduced amount of canola oil for the butter. I increased the amount of cinnamon in the recipe and added powdered ginger for the antioxidants. Here is what I did.

Apple Cranberry Crisp
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 apples, cored and cut into bite size pieces
¼ cup frozen cranberries
¼ cup walnut pieces
¼ cup oatmeal, dry
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 tablespoon agave, for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the apples, cranberries and walnuts and place in a two single serving ramekins.

Combine the oatmeal, 1 tablespoon agave, cinnamon, and ginger and mix to thoroughly and top the apple and cranberry evenly with the oat mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the apples and cranberries are soft.

To serve top each serving with a ½ tablespoon of agave.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 287.97
Calories From Fat (51%) - 146.54

Total Fat - 17.12g
Saturated Fat - 1.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5.46mg
Potassium - 303.26mg
Total Carbohydrates - 34.86g
Fiber - 8.26g
Sugar - 15.92g
Protein - 3.97g

Comments:

First, need to caution you to keep an eye on this so the topping doesn’t get too brown, as mine did. A few minutes more and I would have burnt the topping. Agave browns much more quickly than sugar. Next time I would probably lower the heat to adjust for the browning factor.

The amount of agave you need is a factor of how sweet the apples are you use. For example if you use granny smith you will definitely need more agave.

Overall both my husband and I thought this was quite good. We both commented that it was surprising that we thought the dessert was sweet enough with only one tablespoon of agave in each serving. My, how our tastes have changed since we all but eliminated sweeteners from our diet.

Cardamom Scented Whole-Wheat Tofu Pound Cake – with agave

This kitchen experiment worked out fantastically well. I was pleasantly surprised that this worked on the first try. In this version I replaced the sugar with agave and reduced the salt to cut back on the sodium. I also used 50% the amount of agave and the cake is still more than sweet enough for us.

By including agave this cake cooked a little quicker than the sugar version and got browner on the exterior. I like the exterior color better on the agave version of the cake. Additionally the cake didn’t rise quite as much as the sugar version, but the texture is good so that doesn’t bother me.

Comparing the nutritional statistics of the two cakes the agave version is the clear winner. It has 80 fewer calories per serving and more importantly over 20 fewer sugar grams per serving. This worked so well I am inspired to modify some of my other bakery recipes since it is getting to be that time of year.

Cardamom Scented Whole-Wheat Tofu Pound Cake – with agave
Serves 6

Ingredients:

5 ounces of low fat silken tofu (approximately 5 big tablespoons)
1/3 cup amber agave
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 ½ cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cardamom, ground

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a loaf pan with canola oil, or pan spray and set aside.

Combine the tofu, agave, oil, water and extract in your food processor or blender and puree until completely smooth.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom and whisk to evenly distribute the leavening ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently to incorporate. The batter should be the consistency of cake batter (pourable). If you keep your whole-wheat flour in the freezer you will probably need to add a little water (a few tablespoons at a time) until the batter has the correct consistency. I had to add about ½ cup of water and the final cake texture was still perfect.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for 5 minutes in the pan then move to a rack and cool completely or serve the cake a little warm.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 206.38
Calories From Fat (43%) - 87.97

Total Fat - 9.88g
Saturated Fat - 0.8g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 404.62mg
Potassium - 161.35mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.43g
Fiber - 4.92g
Sugar - 0.71g
Protein - 5.7g

Comments:

I suffered for you all and had a little slice of the pound cake with blueberries with my lunch today. And … if you believe that I have a bridge to sell.

The texture of the cake was perfect, and no one could be more shocked by this than I am. I expected the first version to need tweaking to get the texture right, but it doesn’t it is great just the way it is.

You could serve this with a little tofu sour cream on top, or the coconut banana ice cream would be great with this. I liked the cake plain with a few blueberries but it is light and not overly sweet this way (exactly the way I like it). If you are a big fan of cardamom you can double the amount and it won’t be overpowering. Since not everyone loves cardamom the way I do, I try to keep the level down in my recipes.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do.

Cardamom Scented Whole-Wheat Tofu Pound Cake - with sugar

This recipe is my modification of a recipe that appeared in "The Vegetarian Times" in early 2007. The original used white flour, regular tofu and wasn’t flavored with cardamom. As soon as I saw the original recipe I knew I could make it healthier and immediately made changes. I can’t tell you how the texture of this compares to the original because I have never made it with white flour. Tofu pound cake became my go to recipe when we were having guests and needed a dessert.

Last weekend my omnivore father requested that I make pound cake. Of course, he is getting this healthier version. Then my husband said he wanted pound cake too. Houston we have a problem!

I don’t mind making special treats for my husband but I really don’t want him eating too much sugar or flour. I decided to try to make a version of this pound cake with agave. Stay tuned for the results of that test shortly; the agave version of the pound cake is in the oven now.

Cardamom Scented Whole-Wheat Tofu Pound Cake - with sugar
Serves 6

Ingredients:

5 ounces of low fat silken tofu (approximately 5 big tablespoons)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 ½ cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cardamom, ground

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a loaf pan with canola oil, or pan spray and set aside.

Combine the tofu, sugar, oil, water and extract in your food processor or blender and puree until completely smooth.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom and whisk to evenly distribute the leavening ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently to incorporate. The batter should be the consistency of cake batter (pourable). If you keep your whole-wheat flour in the freezer you will probably need to add a little water (a few tablespoons at a time) until the batter has the correct consistency.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for 5 minutes in the pan then move to a rack and cool completely or serve the cake a little warm.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 281.68
Calories From Fat (31%) - 86.75

Total Fat - 9.84g
Saturated Fat - 0.8g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 510.35mg
Potassium - 140.16mg
Total Carbohydrates - 44.81g
Fiber - 3.69g
Sugar - 22.62g
Protein - 5.61g

Comments:

This is my standard pound cake. We have been eating it so long it has become our new normal. Even though it is 100% whole-wheat I don’t find it to be dense. You can add a sugar glaze if you like but I find it to almost too sweet as it is. If you have mostly given up sugar like we have don’t add a glaze it will be too much.

I would serve this with some fresh fruit and a little vegan ice cream. The coconut banana ice cream would be great with this cake.

Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"

(pictured: coconut banana ice cream still soft serve going into a container for the freezer)

My husband is an ice cream fiend. He has always loved ice cream and has eaten many hundreds of pounds of the stuff in his lifetime. I like to make things he enjoys but don’t want to make anything that is too bad for him. This frozen dessert is my compromise between yummy ice cream and something that is reasonably healthy. We will see how long it takes him to eat it all.

Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"
Makes 4 generous husband sized servings, or 8 wife sized servings

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 ½ cups reduced fat coconut milk
½ cup almond milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons arrowroot
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 banana, peeled and cut into small chunks and added at the end of the process

Directions:

Combine everything except the vanilla and the final banana in the blender and puree until the mixture is completely smooth. Add enough coconut milk or almond milk until you have three cups of liquid.

Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed pot and cook, while whisking, until the mixture begins to thicken. This should take about 5 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat.

If you are in a hurry you can fill your sink with cold water and whisk the mixture until it falls below 100 degrees. Again this should happen in 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the mixture into a container with a lid and store in the refrigerator or freezer until cold but not frozen.

Pour into your ice cream maker, add the vanilla, and churn until the texture reaches a soft serve consistency. Before removing from the ice cream maker add the final banana so it can get distributed through the ice cream. Store the frozen dessert in closed containers in your freezer until ready to eat.

If you like your ice cream a little soft remove the container from the freezer 10 to 15 minutes before you are ready to serve so that it will soften enough to be easily “scoopable”.

Nutritional Information (assumes 4 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 120.66
Calories From Fat (16%) - 19.68

Total Fat - 2.03g
Saturated Fat - 1.23g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 21.26mg
Potassium - 357.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.85g
Fiber - 3.28g
Sugar - 11.1g
Protein - 1.18g

Comments:

This ice “cream” is very rich and creamy from the coconut milk. It also has a very tropical feel from the coconut, banana and vanilla. I love coconut so this dessert speaks my language. I find 1/8th of this with some fresh fruit and a tablespoon of nuts on top is more than enough. My husband, AKA the ice cream fiend, thinks this definitely only makes 4 servings. However, he would make it one serving if I would let him. That man has a vicious sweet tooth.

Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

This recipe is based on the flourless brownie recipe found here at the Whole Foods website. I replaced the eggs, butter, and sugar with healthier ingredients and added a little mace for flavor.

These brownies are denser than my husband likes. To say he is particular about his brownies would be an understatement; he prefers brownies that are somewhere between "cakey" and "fudgey". I will need to play around with this recipe a little to suit his taste. However, if you like dense fudge-like chocolate brownies these are quite tasty. The texture is similar to a flourless chocolate cake.

When I tasted the raw batter I thought I could detect a little bean flavor. However when the brownies were cooked I could not taste any remnant of the beans. The brownies have a wonderful deep chocolate flavor. We like the combination of mace and chocolate, but you could substitute cinnamon or cayenne for the mace for a very different flavor.

Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies
Makes 16

Ingredients:

4 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
6 tablespoons warm water
15 ounces cooked black beans, drained and rinsed (mine were still hot from cooking)
1/3 cup canola oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 pinch kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup amber agave
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup walnut pieces, roughly chopped
1 pinch mace (could substitute cinnamon or cayenne instead)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place egg replacer and warm water in your food processor and process until frothy. Add the beans, canola, cocoa, salt, vanilla and agave and process until smooth. Stir the chocolate chips and walnuts into the batter (reserving a few walnuts for the top). I think the beans were easier to process because they were still hot from cooking. You may want to heat the beans in a saucepan or microwave before processing to make it easier to disintegrate. I find it is also easier to get smooth hummus if the beans are warm so I think this makes a difference.

Pour the batter into an 8 by 8 inch pan and smooth to create an even layer of batter. Top the brownie batter with the reserved walnut pieces and sprinkle with a little mace.

Bake for 20 minutes and check to see if the brownies are just set in the center. I cooked mine for 25 minutes with my oven set on 350 degrees convection. If you don’t have a convection setting you may need to cook yours another 5 to 10 minutes.

Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting. Serve cold, the texture is better if the brownies are completely cold.

These brownies have a moist dense texture. I am storing mine in the refrigerator because I think they would deteriorate more quickly at room temperature and the texture is better cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 135.11
Calories From Fat (56%) - 75.58

Total Fat - 8.84g
Saturated Fat - 1.64g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 20.5mg
Potassium - 140.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.44g
Fiber - 3.78g
Sugar - 0.37g
Protein - 3.43g

Comments:

While beans in dessert may sound odd other countries use beans in dessert often. One of my favorite desserts is adzuki bean ice cream. This love of red bean ice cream is what made me want to try making the black bean brownies. Overall the flavor of these brownies is better than I expected. As I indicated earlier if you are a fan of dense brownies these are quite good. While my husband and I would prefer these to be more cake-like my parents liked the dense version and took home some of the extras. No one could taste the beans and we all thought these had a nice flavor.

Each brownie contains 44 mg’s of folate, and over 3 grams of fiber. While the fat is higher than I usually make most of it is mono or poly unsaturated which are the fats we should be eating more often. The omega 6 fat in each brownie is only 0.85 of a mg which I really appreciate. I also like knowing they are made with agave and contain a little protein.