Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Here is a salad were the base is not lettuce! It was a nice change of pace at lunch for Hannah and I last week. We both love tahini so that's why we dolloped a little on top, if you prefer to leave it out I would recommend a good olive oil and garlic dressing for a little more moisture! It was a really quick lunch to put together once the quinoa was cooked, we left it warm but you could make it ahead of time and use it cold. Also one last side note, the tomatoes and kale were freshly picked from our garden!!!!Our Mom has a amazing green thumb:-) It's such a blessing to have fresh produce right in our back yard.

^{Genesis 1:11-12}

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Serves:1

1/4c. dry quinoa, cooked

3 leaves of fresh kale, de-ribbed chopped and steamed till al dente

1/4 c. cooked garbanzo beans

4 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

5 kalamata olives, sliced in half

1 1/2 tsp. tahini paste ( Made from Sesame seeds)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Place cooked quinoa in a pile on plate, top with kale and garbanzo beans. Scatter tomatoes nicely over the top. Drop tahini in a nice looking 'drop' on top!

GF Coconut Banana Blueberry Pancakes

This past weekend I (Esther) decided to try out a new recipe for pancakes, and as you know since we are off gluten they would have to be gluten free:-) This recipe caught my eye the other day when I saw them on Joy the Bakers Blog, I knew that I would have to make them sometime very soon. The original recipe called for the batter to be cooked in a waffle iron. Though as you know with a family of 7 and only 1 waffle iron it was going to be to time consuming a task on a Sunday morning to accomplish! After thinking about it I thought that it could not hurt to try and see if they would work as pancakes, and sure enough they did and some amazing pancakes they they turned out to be! The recipe calls for coconut flour which is basically you guessed.... extremely finely ground coconut,do not try and blend up some of the dried coconut you have in your pantry as it will not work( Hannah and I have tried this before, it doesn't work:-). You will need to buy this flour at your local health food store.

Gluten Free Coconut Pancakes

1/3 cup sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted

4 tablespoons melted coconut oil,

6 large eggs

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup coconut flour

2 tablespoon mashed bananas

Toppings:

Sliced banana

Fresh Blueberries

Almond Butter

Maple syrup

Unsweetened coconut flakes

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200 degrees F.

Place coconut on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 6 minutes. Keep an eye on the coconut, it browns and burns quickly.

Remove toasted coconut from the oven and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together coconut oil, eggs, agave nectar, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas. Whisk until well incorporated.

In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, salt, and baking soda. Work the mixture with your fingers to ensure that the coconut flour doesn’t have any lumps in to.

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mixture will begin to thicken as you whisk. Add the toasted, shredded coconut and whisk to incorporate. Allow mixture to sit for 5 minutes while you plug in and preheat your griddle. Drop the batter by 1/4 cup fulls on hot griddle that has been greased with coconut oil. Bake about 2-3 min. on first side, flip and cook another minute or so, the 2nd side cooks faster so watch it closely! Put in oven to keep warm while you finish the rest of the batter. When ready to serve dab the top of each hotcake with a little almond butter, slice extra banana and sprinkle blueberries on top. Last of all drizzle with a little maple syrup. Enjoy this absolutely amazing pancakes!

Homemade Rees' Cups!

A few weeks ago, Esther and I held a tea party at our house for a few of the young girls, and their mothers, that attend our church. While we were planning the menu for that special day, a friend sent us a recipe for homemade rees cups! They looked so cute and petite, we just had to add them to the tea menu. If you would like to indulge yourself on a rees, but don't want to feel guilty;-) Then give this recipe a try, its sure to fulfil any chocolate pb, cravings you have!

Homemade, Healthier Peanut Butter Cups

If you use another nut butter, you may need to add more honey. Peanuts are naturally sweet. For that matter, this is definitely a “to your own taste” recipe! And you can easily adjust the sweeter to satisfy you.

3/4 cup of peanut butter, toasted and salted (or use nut butter of your choice)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (if you are making this gluten free, make sure to use gluten free vanilla)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/3 cup of chopped soaked and dehydrated nuts, or toasted (I used a mixture of chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds) *
4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
2-4 tablespoons honey *
1-In a small bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla, first two tablespoons honey, and nuts. Mix until well combined.

2-Drop by the heaping teaspoon into mini cupcake pans. Place in freezer.

3-Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in the top of a double broiler (or, like I do, in a heat proof bowl that fits on top of a pot you have). Mix in the honey. Bring about two inches of water to a boil in the pot and place the bowl on top. Watch the chocolate carefully so that it doesn’t burn, stirring gently while the chocolate melts. When there are just a few chunks left in the chocolate, take off of the heat and allow it to melt completely.

4-Drop by the teaspoon over the peanut butter mixture and place back into the freezer. Freeze for 20 minutes. Take out, and using a butter knife pop them out. Keep in the freezer or refrigerator and enjoy!

*To toast the nuts, place in a dry pan over medium-high heat. Stir almost continually until they are starting to brown. Take off of the heat.

Del Sisters note: We did not use nuts in our recipe, and they were good anyway!

Also, we would cut down the amount of coconut oil for the PB filling to 2T. instead of 1/4c.

Next time we might double the filling but keep the chocolate amount the same. I personally think that the recipe does not have a very prominent peanut butter flavor....so doubling the filling would fix that problem!

Great Recipe!

Not much cooking going on around our house lately, just the usual everyday kind of stuff, though we have found this really tasty healthy brownie recipe from Green Kitchen Stories! We modified it a little by leaving out the Chai tea and using almonds and walnuts instead of hazelnuts. Try them for a guilt free pick me up for your next afternoon snack or an after dinner treat!

How daring are you?

Lately Hannah and I have been experimenting with green smoothies. I have only gone a little wild once, that's when I decided to put in a rather large amount of swiss chard:-) I just thought that if a little was good why not add just a little more....right?!?! This morning I made us a very delicious concoction consisting of 11/2 bananas, 1cup strawberries, 4 kale leaves, 2 very small swiss chard leaves, and 2 cups almond milk, this does serve 2. Oh, and just for a side note, all our greens are coming straight from our Mom's garden!!!!

( Because of having this smoothie for breakfast we were not able to capture a picture of this awesomely green concoction......sorry:-)

So my dear readers, are any of you the adventuresome type? Do you like to add those extra greens to your morning smoothies???If so, please do share we always love to try new things!

Monkey Bars

Monkey Bars

Ingredients:

• 5 T. coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 large mashed bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/3-1/2 cup oat flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 and spray 8″ square pan or 11×7 pan
• Melt coconut oil over medium heat along with honey and stir with whisk. Remove from heat and let cool while doing the next step
• In a large bowl, mash bananas, add the beaten eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. Add the slightly cooled oil and honey mixture
• Add oat flour and w/w flour and salt. For less moist bars, add more oats.
• Bake for 25-35 minutes until they don’t jiggle in the middle anymore and turn slightly brown around the edges
• Allow to cool and then melt chocolate chips and spread on top.

Saturday Morning Donuts!

Back at Thanksgiving our Mom took us out for the "Black Friday Sales", one of our stops was at Bed, Bath and Beyond! Upon browsing the cooking/baking section we came across these donut pans. Our little siblings LOVE donuts but we don't buy or make them that often because it involves that dreaded process of FRYING;-) When we saw these pans for baked donuts we could not resist, we just HAD to buy them. Upon buying new kitchen tools you sometimes forget that you bought them, well that's what happened to us, we made donuts the day we got the pans but had not made any since!!! Last Friday evening Hannah announced that she was going to make donuts for our Saturday morning breakfast. This time around upon making them we used a different recipe. If you like pumpkin and you have a donut pan that you always forget to use, and might have forgot that you bought it like we did , try this recipe out;-)

Baked Pumpkin Donuts

Yield: 12 donuts

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon milk
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• cinnamon sugar for dusting
• melted butter for dunking in before coating in cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 6-count donut pans with non-stick cooking spray (or alternatively spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray). Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl. In a stand mixer or medium sized bowl and hand mixer cream together the brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract on medium speed until the butter is well incorporated.

2. With your mixer on medium low speed, slowly add the dry sifted ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until just barely combined. Do not over-mix.

3. Scoop pumpkin batter into a large Ziploc bag, pushing batter down towards one end of the bag. Snip the end of the bag with scissors and fill each donut mold with the batter. Be sure to wipe any excess batter that may have gotten around the edge of the mold or on the center "hole".

4. Bake for 6 – 8 minutes or until the exterior springs back when touched. Remove from pan and dunk in melted butter then in your cinnamon sugar!

The perfect afternoon snack!

So what do you make yourself after you get back from your sweaty afternoon workout? A smoothie of course!!! What could be more refreshing?!?! This smoothie recipe I came up with about a week ago has all the right ingredients to make sure you are fueling your muscles after winding down from your workout. After trying this recipe you will not want to go back to your original smoothie because this one is so much more creamy then any other you could imagine, the secret ingredient.......cottage cheese, that's right you read me right, cottage cheese! For me cottage cheese is something that is not on my favorite "foods" list but I was needing to eat it because of the extra protein content, after eating it plain a few times I had this brilliant idea, why not put it in a smoothie just like you would yogurt? There both dairy products right, so why not? After pouring it into my cup I a little hesitantly gave it a try, to my surprise it was so creamy, it almost tasted like a frosty and no I'm not joking! Just make sure to blend it well so you don't get those cottage type chunks:-) Enjoy!



Blackberry Peach Smoothie
Serves:1

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1/2-3/4 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 frozen peach
1/2-3/4 cup water
Put all ingredients into blender and blend on high till very smooth, about 1 minute.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Since Valentines day is arriving within the week, we thought we had better make something chocolate and share the recipe with y'all! These brownies are an adaption from a recipe we saw on Elana's Pantry, we thought they looked so scrumptious that we must try them! Upon viewing the recipe, we found that we didn't have all the exact ingredients on hand, so we switched a few things around from the original recipe. They were just as good as the picture looked and we will be keeping the recipe in our brownie archives:-)

Double Chocolate Walnut Brownies

½ cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

¼ cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

½ cup honey

¼ cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup chopped walnuts(opt)

⅓ cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao

1. Place ½ cup chocolate chips in food processor and pulse until the consistency of coarse sand
2. Pulse in coconut flour, salt and baking soda until combined
3. Pulse in eggs, agave, grapeseed oil and vanilla
4. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pyrex dish
5. Sprinkle walnuts and remaining chocolate chips over batter
6. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes
7. Cool and serve

Banana Walnut Cake

Yesterday, I had my birthday party! I requested this very yummy banana cake that I had seen on Cooking for Sevens blog a while back. It turned out so very moist and was not to sweet. I asked for walnuts instead of pecans and Hannah also used half maple syrup and half honey.

Maple & Pecan Banana Cake

from How to Bake by Nick Malgieri

Ingredients:

For the Cake

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 3.4 cups (11 ounces) whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup mashed, not pureed, bananas
• 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk

For the Frosting

• 1 eight-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened but still firm
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup toasted pecans, for garnish

Directions:

To make the cake:

1) Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 13×9-inch glass baking dish and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2) In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand beater, cream the butter until soft and light. Gradually add the maple syrup and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes more, or until very light. The butter and maple syrup may separate slightly.

3) Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the bowl and beaters occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.

4) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture along with the milk and bananas. Beat on low speed just until combined.

5) Scrape the batter into the prepare pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until the cake is well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack, removing the paper, and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

1) In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter, maple syrup, and vanilla and beat until smooth.

2) Store in the refrigerator until serving. If the frosting becomes too hard, let it sit a room temperature until spreadable.

To serve the cake:

Cut the cake into desired sized pieces. Spread with frosting. Garnish with toasted pecans. Serve immediately.

Makes approximately twenty-four 2-inch squares

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Balsamic, Brie and Swiss Chard in a Sandwich.....HEAVEN!

We made this lovely sandwich at our mother's special birthday dinner. The balsamic roasted tomatoes and the brie when melted went together like bread and butter.......Ah, so delicious! We got the recipe from a sweet friend we know that goes to our church. She had never made it before but really wanted to, so we decided to use it for our cooking club (ccbakers.blogspot.com)! If you go in that blog you can see other girls pictures and things that they changed. The original recipe does not call for it to be grilled, we added that step. It was definitely a superb change and I would recommend doing it!

So do you like brie cheese? When I was little it was one of those things that I could just not stand. Every Christmas Eve our friends would invite us over to their annual party and the one tradition would be brie cheese coated in brown sugar and pecans served with crackers. When ever I would get close by it I would almost have to hold my nose because the smell was just to intense:) Now after growing up and becoming a foodie I have acquired a taste for that "smelly" cheese. I would classify it as one of my favorites!

So Mrs. M if you read this be sure to make it this year at your Christmas Eve party, I will be looking for it.............so now you answer the question, do you like brie cheese?

Chicken-and-Brie Sandwich with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Adapted From Cooking Light

1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes (about 1 pound)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 T. low-fat mayonnaise
2 T. sour cream
2 garlic clove, minced
1 (16-ounce) loaf Mutil-Grain Bread, cut in slices
3 ounces Brie cheese, sliced
3 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound)

Spinach Dressing
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups fresh swiss chard

Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tomatoes; cook 4 minutes, stirring once. Remove from heat; stir in 2 tablespoons vinegar. Sprinkle tomatoes with thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Wrap handle of pan with foil; bake at 300° for 15 minutes. Keep warm.

Combine mayonnaise, mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Spread mayonnaise mixture evenly over top half of bread loaf. Spoon tomatoes evenly over bottom half of loaf. Arrange Brie over tomatoes; top with chicken. Combine 2 teaspoons oil, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add swiss chard, tossing gently to coat. Top chicken with spinach mixture; replace top half of bread. Brush each side of bread with olive oil and grill till golden brown on each side, and cheese is melted.

Creamy Poppyseed Chicken Salad

Poppy Seed Chicken in Pita Bread
(adapted from Food Network)

3 skin-on, bone-in Chicken Breasts (about 2 pounds)
1 Lemon*
Kosher Salt and fresh Black Pepper
1 cup cup low-fat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon Raspberry Wasabi Mustard
1 stalk Celery, chopped
1/4 cup Onion, minced
1/2 cup chopped Pecans, Almonds or Walnuts, toasted )
2 tablespoons fresh chopped Parsley
1 + 1/2 tablespoons Poppy Seeds
1/2 cup dried Apricots, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

lettuce leaves, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Squeeze half of the lemon over tops of chicken breasts in a baking pan. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Bake until cooked through and juices run clear (170 degrees). Remove from oven and let cool.

2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the yogurt, juice of the other half of lemon, mustard, celery, onion, parsley, poppy seeds, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Add the apricots, cranberries and nuts if desired or save the nuts for sprinkling over top.

3. Shred the chicken, discarding the bones and skin, and toss with the dressing. Stuff a few lettuce leaves and some of the chicken salad into each pita. Sprinkle with nuts.

*To get the most juice use a room temperature lemon, microwave for ten seconds and roll against counter using the palm of your hand.

Italian "Pasta" Lunch

Quick and easy Italian "pasta" salad

1/2 zucchini peeled with a veggie peeler ( makeing what lookes like pasta strips)
5 chopped olives
1/2 tomato
1T. balsamic dressing

Top zucchini pasta with remaining ingredients, and eat!

Serves 1

Bobby Flay's Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd and Fresh Raspberries

This is what we had this morning for breakfast, what did you have?

Click Here to find the recipe!

Baba Ganoush

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized eggplants
  
• 1 lemon, juiced
  
• 3 Tbsp. tahini
  
• 1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)
  
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
  
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  
• parsley for garnish
  

*Serve with pita bread, sliced baguette, veggies for dipping

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2) Using a fork, prick the eggplants (like 5 or 6 pricks all around). Place eggplants on baking sheet. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Take out of oven, let rest for 10 minutes. Cut in half and scoop out eggplant flesh with a spoon.

3) In a food processor, or mixing bowl, add eggplant, lemon, tahini, salt, pepper, olive oil and crushed garlic. Mix until well blended. Chill for at least one hour before serving. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with parsley and serve with bread or veggies.

Who said PB and J was just for lunch?

This version of oatmeal is sure to be a favorite in your family as it is in ours! Who can resist the creaminess of peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam on oatmeal for a hearty healthy breakfast?

Family Favorite Oatmeal

Family Favorite Baked Oatmeal
Serves 8



5 apples peeled and thinly slices

1/4c. oil
1/4c. applesauce
2 1/2c. milk
1T. vanilla
1/3c. honey
1T. cinnamon
3c. oats
2t. baking powder
1t. salt

1/2c. chopped walnuts


Preheat your oven to 350. Place you apple slices into a greased 9x9in. baking dish.
In a large bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce milk, vanilla, and honey. Next add the remaining dry ingredients, and mix well.
Pour your oat batter onto the apples in the baking dish, sprikle with the walnuts. Place in the oven, and bake for approx. 30-45 min. depending on how crunchy you like the top!Serve as is, or with maple syrup!





Note: If you like to have yours with milk, reduce the milk in the recipe by 1/2c.

Banana Ice Cream

Yesterday evening for dinner Hannah and I made this scrumptious dairy free ice cream. You may be wondering why we had ice cream for dinner? Well, me( Esther) had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday so I'm on soft foods for a while:) So far so good, not to much pain, just a little swelling. Some other foods I have been enjoying have been, chicken broth a coconut,mango, pineapple smoothie and this morning Hannah made a creamy oatmeal pudding! I really like smoothies so it has not been really that bad:)

2 frozen bananas
1 T. peanut butter
1 T honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Blend bananas till really creamy. Top with melted peanut butter, honey and vanilla. Serves 2

Homemade Chocolate Chips

We had a request for the homemade chocolate chips we made a few weeks back, we found it on Heavenly Home Makers.

Hummus

We both just love hummus! Some times I like to make very different flavored hummus but this time I felt like some traditional stuff:)

Place 1 can 15 1/2 0z. of chickpeas in a food processor with the juice of 1 lemons, 3 minced garlic cloves, and 2 or 3 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Process until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 T. tahini, and salt. Process. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley. (I first drizzled some good olive oil over the top before sprinkling with the parsley.) Serve with toasted pita. Yield: about 1-1/2 cups.