Healthy, tasty grain-free breakfast cookies

These cookies are super yummy, full of energy, and have no added sugars. Dates and fruit are used to sweeten. Almonds, coconut and eggs provide healthy fats and protein.

• 1 chopped apple with skin
• 1 banana (without skin)
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup shredded coconut unsweetened
• 2 Madjool dates
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp of coconut oil, melted
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 C.

Chop the red apples coarsely, and add them to your food processor. Pulse until they are uniformly chopped into small pieces. Put into a mixing bowl.

Pulse almonds, coconut and dates until they are a uniformly chopped into small pieces. Put into mixing bowl.

Mix dry ingredients well. Mix vanilla, melted coconut oil and eggs. Beat together. Add to dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Drop cookies by large spoonful onto baking stone or baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Adapted from: http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/apple-banana-cookies/

Lazy Saturday bread

Continuing the theme of waste not, want not, I had some leftover oatmeal in the fridge that needed to be used up this morning. I wasn't sure...should I make muffins? pancakes? And then I remembered that I ate the last of my homemade bread yesterday, and thus, needed a new loaf.

I found a recipe online for bread machine bread made with cooked oatmeal. While my oats were not steel cut (these take too long in the morning, so I opt for large flake oats on weekdays), the recipe looks like it should yield a nice loaf. I used a cup and a half of spelt flour in place of part of the regular flour, and brown sugar instead of honey or maple syrup, and added some butter.

My "new" recipe now looks like this:

Cozy weekend oatmeal bread

1.5 cups of cooked large flake oats
1 cup of water or whey (from my cheesemaking activities, this is a great way to use up your leftover whey)
1.5 cups of spelt flour
2 cup of white or whole wheat flour
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1.5 tsp of real salt (I use salt from Utah that is full of trace minerals)
2.5 tsp of bread machine yeast
1 tbsp of butter (I like to add a little bit of butter or oil to my breads, as it adds to a lovely crust)

Assemble ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine. Choose grain setting if you have it. If the dough is not pulling cleanly from the sides during the kneading cycle, add a little more flour. Flour quantities vary depending on its moisture level.

Enjoy, warm, with butter and honey, or homemade apple butter. Yumm!

It's in the machine now, and will be ready this afternoon, just in time for a late lunch. I will post a picture later.

What a cozy way to start the weekend!

In the Left Coast

The great thing about Vancouver -- Cafe Artigiano. I'm in town to give a workshop on a super geeky topic...but off hours I hope to geek out on food.

I still remember the coffee from my last business trip over two years ago. I wish I could find coffee this good back in Ottawa!

Maybe on Friday night I'll be able to get to the Granville Market. Tonight, dinner was from the grocery store. Hippy food - balkan yogurt, bananas, blueberries and meusli...and Mighty Leaf tea to top it off. Heaven. And now, I'm off to bed. It may only be 8 pm in Vancouver, but it is past my bedtime back home.

It's Friday! Veggie box time...

I love Fridays. On Friday, I get a few days of family time. I also receive my organic veggie box and that makes me happy! Having a box of healthy fruits and veg delivered to my door every week means that as long as  I have staples on hand (cooked beans or meat in the freezer, tofu in the fridge, rice, noodles or bread), I can always whip up a healthy meal.

That my box costs me less than a meal out doesn't hurt, either. This week: bok choy, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes (or yams?), tomatoes (two ways!), celery, parsnips, sugar snap peas, bean sprouts, oranges, apples, a lemon, blueberries, apples. I get my box from Ottawa Organics, and have for almost two years now. I've become really adept at not letting food go to waste, which takes some time to get used to, but is better on the budget and the environment and your health in the long run.
I've begun to realize that when I let food go to waste, I'm also tossing a long chain of effort and resources into the compost heap. There's nothing like a little reflection to figure out what is really important.