(Healthy) Hot Chocolate!

It's that time of year again... It's getting colder outside. Christmas is in the air. The kids go playing outside and then come in freezing (well, not quite freezing here just yet, but we've had some fairly cold days!) and want something warm to drink. Something like hot chocolate, of course!

If you love hot chocolate but maybe don't love all the sugar that goes into it, then read on! If you're happy with your sugar-laden hot cocoa, I still encourage you to try this because it tastes just as good, if not better. No kidding! Hot chocolate does not need to be unhealthy, and this way..it's not!

Snack time! Apple Nachos

I saw something about apple nachos on pinterest recently,and it caught my attention. I'm glad I clicked to learn more because I first thought it looked like they were drizzled with caramel. Sure, that might be yummy (though I'm not a big caramel fan, myself), but it's not the healthiest thing ever. I almost passed right over the pin and moved on. But then I realized, nope..it was peanut butter. The whole snack was pretty darn healthy. And I knew I had to try them. But I had to tweak them to make them allergy-friendly for our home. The hubby has some tree nut allergies and is also allergic to peanuts, so out went the peanut butter and sliced almonds. Apples are in season big-time in North Carolina right now, so we've been buying a half of a bushel at a time from the Farmer's Market and eating lots of apples. So, a new way to eat them for a snack really appealed to me. Not that we tire of just plain apples. We can, and do, eat them every day! But new is nice sometimes.

So, this is our version (based on this one). Hope you try it and like it! You can easily change things up and make it your own. Feel free to share how you make it, too!

Apple Nachos
2-3 apples, depending on size, sliced thin (thin enough for little kids to easily eat after toppings are on them, not super thin)
3-4 Tbsp Sunflower Butter
Small handful of chopped pecans
Small handful of chopped walnuts
Small handful of dark chocolate chips and/or raisins
Unsweetened shredded coconut

Slice the apples and place them around a big plate, overlapping some, if needed. If you want, you can spritz them with some lemon juice to keep them from turning, but we didn't do this.

Melt the sunbutter until thin enough to drizzle over the apple slices.

Side note: I first tried this on the stove. Even though I used low heat, it still did not work and resulted in sunbutter that had to be tossed. Maybe this works fine with regular peanut butter, but it didn't work for me with the sunbutter. I could have attempted using the microwave to melt it, but I was left with just enough for the snack at this point and didn't want to chance ruining it all. So, I used the double boiler method, just as if you were melting chocolate. That worked well enough! It did take a few minutes, but it was very worth it in the end! (Updated to add...tried the microwave. That didn't work, either. So far, double boiler is the best way I've found to thin the sunbutter.)

Once sunbutter (or whatever nut butter you choose) is melted and thin enough, drizzle over the apple slices. I just took the whisk and did a little at a time. It didn't drizzle perfectly, but it worked well enough! Leave a little bit of the sunbutter for the very top layer.

Sprinkle on pecans, walnuts, chocolate/raisins, and coconut. Drizzle remaining sunbutter on top of everything. Serve!

We used dark chocolate chips on one half and raisins on the other half. I actually (surprisingly) preferred the raisins! Aiden didn't seem to care which he got. So, I'll probably stick to raisins next time. Camden, the 12-yr-old, wasn't thrilled with the snack but kept coming back for more here and there. He isn't a huge fan of sunbutter, but he liked the rest. I didn't love sunbutter when we first started using it, but I've gotten so used to it now, I kind of prefer it to peanut butter. If you've never tried it, it's a great nut-free alternative.

Raisins side...

Dark chocolate chips side

We ate this while having some family time with a redbox movie (Rio - very cute!). The snack did not last long, even though I made a huge plate full of it! One other thing I loved was that it is not nearly as messy as it looks! Everything really sticks to the nut butter pretty well! It was a big hit, and we will definitely be serving this up again.

YUM!

Homemade Yogurt

I've been making our yogurt for a while now. I started mostly because I didn't want to buy sugar-filled yogurt when Aiden was starting to eat it as a baby. We got a yogurt maker and were set. The yogurt was good, easy, we knew what was in it, and we flavored it ourselves. I had heard about making yogurt without a yogurt maker, and not too long ago, I finally tried it. I was kind of getting tired of using those little jars to make yogurt, for one thing. And it took up space on the counter, which is already so small. Anyway, after looking up some recipes online, I went for it. And it worked! I've tried several ways, many of which work just fine. If you want to make yogurt at home, I recommend it. It's really very easy; you'll just have to find which method works best for you!

Why make your own yogurt? Any flavored yogurt out there will also be loaded with sweeteners, for one thing - and way more than you need (and probably way more than you want, once you really take the time to look at the label). There are usually preservatives and other things that are unnecessary. Even organic yogurt (and especially those yogurts made for babies and kids!) will have stuff in there that you probably don't want. Plus, organic yogurt is expensive - making your own organic yogurt is a lot less costly. Yogurt you make requires only a couple ingredients. Milk and some kind of starter. Yes, that's it. We do buy freeze-dried yogurt starter for some batches. I'll make yogurt with that, and then the next round or two is made with leftover yogurt that hasn't been flavored. Below I'll show you how I make yogurt for my family. The recipe I use is based on a post from Passionate Homemaking (great blog - check it out!).

So, here's how to do it all...

Cold-Brewing Coffee

Again, I have a new way of making coffee... (If you remember, I recently cut out sugar and posted about going through that. Yay!) I had heard about cold-brewing a couple times, especially through reuseit.com, since they sell stuff for that and promote it. But I hadn't seriously thought about trying it out. Then a friend posted Pioneer Woman's way of making cold coffee. Again, still didn't think about it seriously.

And then Aiden's birthday came around again. (Yes, another post I haven't gotten to, yet... August is a busy, busy month.) Whenever we have a crowd over, we serve a cold coffee drink that is always a big hit. But we don't have a coffee pot. We only have a filter-thingee that makes one cup. One. Last year, we borrowed a pot from a neighbor to make enough coffee for the party, but I once was told, "If you have to borrow it twice, you should buy it." So, I didn't want to do that again. But we also didn't want to buy a coffee pot to use just a couple times a year.

Then I remembered the post on cold-brewing. I actually read it, realized how easy it was, and went for it.

And it was more than easy. I will be doing this from now on.

Strawberry Soup!

There are so many reasons I love making strawberry soup. For one, the boys both *love* it. It's super healthy. It's super easy with just a few ingredients and a blender. It's the perfect thing to make for lunch when it's suddenly lunchtime and you realize...whoops, nothing is planned and everyone is hungry NOW. That's the kind of meal I love.

I found this recipe in a magazine... You never know how those kind of recipes will turn out, especially when you're the kind of person who loves things that come with lots of reviews (I would be that kind of person). You don't get reviews when you make something from a magazine. BUT this did not disappoint! And I found a way to make it even better - spinach! (Yes, really. Get excited!) So, here's the recipe with at least one review (mine), if that counts for much. ;)

My Ideal Comfort Food

This is comfort food to the max for me, which is kind of surprising because I have such a sweet tooth...and this is not a sweet dish, quite the opposite, in fact.

My mom used to make this dish when I was younger. I don't remember loving it or hating it. I just remember that it was served here and there, that I think it was usually served with green beans (not my favorite veggie, but when I think about this dish, it seems to need to be paired with green beans because I remember it that way), and I would put ketchup over both the beans and the dish. So, I guess it probably wasn't my favorite thing at the time. I would use ketchup with the green beans, since I didn't care for them all that much, and maybe that's why I put ketchup over the dish, as well? I don't know.

What I do know is that I love this dish now. To me, it screams comfort. Maybe it has to do with the memories of my mom making it or that it's a warm, soft dish. Whatever it is, I love everything about it, and it makes me feel so good. And I love that it happens to be good for me! The lentils, the beef...some great sources of protein and iron. It's very low-fat. Simple ingredients. And cheap to make, as well. There's not much I don't like about this recipe.

Green Smoothies

I've been making the family green smoothies for a while now, at least a year. We were instantly sold when we started because...well, they taste just like regular smoothies! I get lots of questions about how I make them, lots of requests for my "recipes." Well, I'll give it a go...but I'll warn you... I don't really follow an actual recipe. And once you get started you'll see why.

And because of this, hopefully this post won't be all over the place and will make some sort of sense!

Why are green smoothies important? For one, who doesn't like a good smoothie?! Secondly, how many of you consume a lot of greens on a daily basis? Greens are so nutritionally dense, but most of us do not eat them daily or even often. They're packed with all sorts of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, fiber, phytonutrients...just such an incredible amount of goodness!! And if you don't eat them because you don't like them... Or if you only eat them on occasion in a salad here and there, which isn't as much as you should be getting... Green smoothies are the perfect way to get the goods and enjoy your food!

Blueberry Season!

I love summer. I think one of the main reasons I love it so much is all of the fresh produce that is suddenly available...all the fruits and veggies you can find at the Farmer's Market and local Pick-Your-Own farms. And yeah, the grocery store, too. I told Ryan the other day, I think the way to my heart is fresh, organic produce. After buying some cherries and wishing I had more, he bought some on the way home and even found (and purchased the next day) a cherry pitter that pits four cherries at once. I was beyond thrilled. Yes, it's definitely the way to this girl's heart...

I'm finally getting him on board with picking our own fruits from some of the local farms, too. Not that he loves doing it, but he's getting better at enjoying it. His biggest complaint is the heat, of course. And then there's the fact that it's "work." And then I have to mess up the kitchen washing the fruit, flash-freezing it in batches, and getting it into containers to freeze, etc, etc. But he's seen the payoff from the last couple years, especially with how cheap it is, so he's much more on board than he was when he first started this tradition I have...

I already wrote a post about what we do with all of our strawberries from the spring. In the summer..it's time for blueberries! We found a couple not-so-nearby places that have pesticide-free blueberries, the closest being about 25 minutes. Blueberries take longer to pick, being so small and on bushes. And with it being smack in the middle of summer, it gets hot, so we go as early as possible! I've discovered it's good to have two parents around when taking a toddler, mostly due to the time issue, the more open fields, and the fact that it's a bit more tedious than strawberry picking. Those berries are much smaller, so it takes longer to get enough! But oh man is it worth it! Fresh blueberries you've picked yourself are just so much better than store-bought (or even those from the Farmer's Market - they're just that much fresher!). Even after freezing and thawing, they're still yummy to just pop in your mouth. And you can't beat the price when you compare picking your own to buying them at the market or the store (esp if you're getting organic - and keep in mind, blueberries is on the Dirty Dozen list, so we get organic).

I freeze most of the berries to use throughout the year. We go through a LOT of frozen blueberries...for muffins, to toss into oatmeal or things like that, in smoothies (we make lots of smoothies!), etc. Aiden loves to eat them frozen when he gets the chance. I also like to make blueberry sauce. It's delicious over ice cream, pancakes and waffles, or in yogurt. And here is the recipe.... Actually, two. One is a sweeter version, and the other uses honey instead of sugar (and much less). Both are good, but I will be honest in that I prefer the first. Yes, it has more sugar, but I easily use less of it because it is sweeter.

Blueberry Sauce
From Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics
Makes 2 cups.
This recipe is for the whole 2 cups, but I always halve this recipe. And it still makes more than enough - and lasts us quite a while! A little goes a long way.

3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (or as we do, store-bought, because really...)
2/3 cup sugar (you can use a bit less)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
4 half-pints fresh blueberries (why doesn't she just say 2 pints??)
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (I never ever remember the lemon ingredients...)

Combine the orange juice, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When the mixture is translucent and thickened, stir in the blueberries and simmer for 4-5 minutes, just until a few berries have burst but most are still whole. Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice and cool.

And the recipe with less sugar...

Blueberry Syrup
From cleaneatingmag.com
Makes 1/2 cup

3/4 cup fresh blueberries
2 Tbsp raw honey
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp arrowroot powder

In a small saucepan, bring blueberries, honey, lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp water to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small dish, combine arrowroot powder with 1 Tbsp water to form a slurry. Whisk or stir arrowroot mixture into blueberry mixture until incorporated. Simmer for 1 minute or until just thickened, carefully mashing blueberries with a fork to extract juice. Remove from heat and cool. 

Obviously the second one is a bit healthier for you, with less sugar. And really, both are good. When I use some to flavor Aiden's yogurt, I can use a very small amount (very) of the sauce made with sugar, but I need to use a larger amount to get a good flavor when using the honey-based version - and he doesn't need it to be very sweet, either..I just need more to get the blueberry flavor coming through well. Regardless, both are great! Try one, try both and see which you prefer. Or if you know you want the "clean" one, just make it and you won't know any better! ;)

Here are some pictures to get you motivated...

Homemade ice cream with homemade blueberry sauce. Hard to resist!

He didn't even try to resist. ;) In fact, he didn't think he would like it because he's used to plain ice cream. Once he got over the fact that it was on his ice cream anyway and he tried it, he was sold!

On top of gluten-free pancakes (finally found some that taste amazing - you would never guess they were gluten-free...from King Arthur Flour!)

Takes barely any sauce to give the yogurt a great flavor!

Of course, as mentioned above, we don't just serve blueberries via the sauce around here. That's just a special treat here and there. And honestly, our favorite way to eat them...is by the handful. Plain. There's not much better than ripe fruit on its own.

One more picture... While blueberry picking, Camden was playing with a roly-poly, and Aiden was quite interested!

And for more blueberry fun... Here are pictures from our blueberry picking trips this year.

Blueberry Picking

What is your favorite way to eat blueberries??

Homemade Strawberry Jam

During strawberry season this spring, it seemed anytime I thought of the words "strawberry jam" together, that song "Strawberry Wine" by Deana Carter started going in my head... That's a blast from the past, huh? Anyway, homemade strawberry jam is sooooo easy. Make it once and you'll wonder why you didn't realize before how easy it was. You'll also be sold on how stinking delicious it is and will swear to never buy store-bought again. Maybe not, but that's pretty much been the case for us! Last year I made a bunch but didn't know how much we would need to get us through the year. We barely made it and had to buy a small jar or two. Ours was much better, though. This year, I tried to do the same (but didn't write down how much I made last year, so I had to guess again...), but then we had a TON of rain during the season, which ended it and left us without quite as much as I wanted. *Sigh* And where is that rain now...?

Anyway, strawberry season is over here, but it is still in season in many other areas, so if you want to make some... Go for it!! Here's how we do it.

First, go get some strawberries! Get a bunch. From a local farm (that doesn't use pesticides) where you pick them yourself. That way will get you the best strawberries. And it's fun. :) If you're around the Triangle, our favorite is Phillips Farm. Here are pictures from our picking trips. We made plenty.

2011 April ~ Strawberry season!

Then run to the store to get some pectin. We tried out a couple brands but didn't get to try out a third one that looked promising. Strawberry season ended abruptly due to too much rain. I'll let you know what we thought of the two we tried.

Pectin #1 SureJell

Smash the berries. Don't puree. You want some chunks.

Add sugar. Does it look like a lot of sugar? Well, that's because it is. (There is a low/no sugar variety, but we haven't tried that one.) Basically, this one uses more sugar than berries... 2 cups crushed fruit + 4 cups sugar.

Boil some water with the pectin. This only means cooking for a minute or so, but there is some cooking involved...  

Mix that in with the fruit/sugar and pour into your jars. Sit overnight to set the jam before freezing. 

Pectin #2 Ball

This one uses twice the berries and less than half the sugar. You can see the difference in the amount of sugar if you compare this picture to the one above... 4 cups of berries + 1 1/2 cups sugar.

No cooking at all. Just combine ingredients and stir!

And there you go!

I did a blind taste-test with Ryan to determine which jam he preferred...the one with more sugar or less. He chose the one with less. He didn't know it was the one with less sugar, but he said he thought the other was sweeter and good..but this one had more of a strawberry taste. It does use more berries, but when you pick them from a farm yourself...that doesn't mean much more cost at all! So, that was fine by us. Of course, we didn't know the season was going to end early, so we ended up with a little less than we wanted. The Ball pectin also makes a jam that is slightly softer than the other, but it's not a huge difference and not one that bothers us.

I did have some Pomona's Pectin to try. This is more natural, has no preservatives, and you can adjust the amount of sugar (or honey, etc) that you use. But we didn't get to try it out in the end. You would think we had enough berries, as much as we DID pick, but...we didn't.

Here are some other details, in case you're interested.

• Pectin costs...  SureJell: $3.37 for a 2-pack / Ball Pectin: $2.32 for a 2-pack (less sugar AND cheaper!) Unfortunately, I didn't write down how many boxes of pectin we used, but each packet of pectin gives between 3 and 3 1/2 pints of jam. 
• I also had to use jars for freezing, of course. They will run about $8 or so for a case of 12 wide mouth pint-sized jars or about $6 for a case of 12 8-oz jelly jars. I already had most of these but did buy another case of the pint-sized jars. I ended up freezing 21 pints of jam... You can use other containers, of course, but if you go with glass, make sure it's freezer safe first.
• Strawberries from a nearby farm $1.50 per pound. We bought 81.56 pounds of berries, totaling $135.99. (We did buy 15lbs from another farm that had a few berries left after our favorite had run out, and they charge a bit more.) 

This gave us 21 pints of jam and 40 cups of frozen berries (2 cups per bag, 20 bags).

I was totally going to try to figure out how much it cost me to make the jam versus buying, but...it was getting too complicated. Trying to figure out the cost of the sugar and berries (when I measured per cup and bought per pound) and...blah, blah. It's probably cheaper to make it, esp since we buy organic strawberry jam; either way, it does taste better, and it's nice to have a big stash in your freezer whenever you run out.

If you're wondering how in the world we use so much jam over the year... Well, no we don't eat that many pb&j sandwiches or that much toast and jam. We use a bit of the jam in plain, homemade yogurt instead of buying flavored (way less sugar that way, too!). Every now and then when I need a decent lunch right now and don't have something made up, Aiden loves peanut or sunflower butter in a bowl with a bit of jam and then eaten with crackers. It's great as an ice cream topping, as well.

We've also made some blueberry jam (not sure if I'm going to be crazy about that one) and mango jam, when there was an awesome deal on champagne mangos at Whole Foods. Love those things! I only made half a batch of each of those, about three half-pints.

These are frosty because I took them out of the freezer for the picture... In order: Champagne Mango, Strawberry, and Blueberry jams

Homemade Hummus

A couple of the guys in the house like hummus. I *wanted* to like hummus, but as much as I tried it, I just couldn't.

Until I made it myself. Now I kinda love it.

Homemade hummus is soooo easy to make. You might have heard that from folks who make it and didn't believe it. Maybe you just have to try it to realize how easy it really is. So, do that. Try it!

I tried a couple different recipes before I found out how we liked it. I realized we need to go much easier on the lemon juice than most recipes. And I think I now know why I don't like store-bought...the tahini is made from sesame seeds. I like sesame seeds just fine, even roasted. But apparently I do *not* like tahini made from sesame seeds, which doesn't really make much sense because the only added ingredient other than sesame seeds is a bit of oil. Go figure. Anyway, I like tahini made with sunflower seeds. It's a subtle difference, but enough of a difference for me! Ok, so let's get to making this stuff...

I don't have pictures of how to make tahini, but it is ridiculously easy, as is all of this. And you make a couple cups at a time and only use a bit of it with hummus. It will last quite a while in your fridge, which is a good thing because you'll want to make more hummus and will need that tahini!

For the tahini, you simple roast either sesame seeds or sunflower seeds for a short amount of time. Put them in a single layer on a baking pan, pop them in the oven, and it doesn't take long at all. You want to get the oils coming out of them, but you don't really want to get them roasted. Here's a recipe we like for tahini made with sunflower seeds. I might have used a little less oil, since another recipe for regular tahini used a lot less. I basically combined the two methods to get it how I wanted. Use whichever seeds you prefer. I get both from the bulk bin at our grocery store, and the price for each is about the same.

Then you move on to the actual hummus.

NOW...you can either buy a can of chickpeas OR you can buy them dried and cook them yourself. I happen to avoid canned goods whenever possible, and I get our chickpeas from the bulk section at our grocery store, which is also much cheaper than canned. I buy a bunch and cook them all at once. Then I freeze them in pint canning jars that are freezer safe. One jar equals a can (with maybe a few extra beans in there; no harm in that!). I have plenty of "canned" chickpeas ready to be used whenever I want, there's no concern of BPA from the can lining, and I know they are nice and fresh. Plus, I think they taste a heck of a lot better! I didn't like chick peas when I tried them from the can. When I pull out a jar of them to thaw for hummus, I have to really make an effort not to eat them all before making the hummus.

Ingredients (minus lemon juice)

My hummus recipe is based on Alton Brown's recipe found here. I've just made a couple small adjustments to make it suit us better. When his directions say it takes 15 minutes to make this...he's not kidding. Well, it doesn't even take that long, to be honest. More like five minutes or so.

Daisy's Hummus

• 1 can or jar of chickpeas (which would be between 1 2/3 - 2 cups cooked chickpeas)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (or not...you're going to be putting them in the food processor anyway)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (most recipes I see call for a few Tablespoons; Alton's calls for 5! We like 1... We do not like lemony hummus)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup tahini (stir well before measuring out any)
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Place chickpeas, garlic, and salt in food processor; process for 15-20 seconds. Stop, scape down sides of bowl, and process another 15-20 seconds. Add lemon juice and water; process about 20 seconds. Add tahini; process another 20 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl periodically. I usually leave the processor running during all of this and pour ingredients in from the top while it processes, stopping every now and then to scrape down the sides. While processor is running, drizzle in olive oil.
 

Serve! 

So easy, we made it while still in PJs!

We all like to eat this differently. I prefer eating it with veggies, especially carrots. Or veggie chips. Ryan prefers to eat it with pita chips. Aiden..he'll eat it just about any way, sometimes even just with his finger or spoon. Camden doesn't like it. He's now the only one in that category. (Edited to add: Camden is starting to taste it every now and then. He'll eat a tiny bit on a tortilla chip sometimes. He's a consistency kid, and this is one of those consistencies he's not a big fan of..but hopefully he'll like it more and more as he keeps trying it!)

Edited to Add:

I've had some friends ask if this can be made in a blender, for those that don't have a food processor. So, I had to do it myself and find out! You can make it in a blender, but you don't follow the recipe as far as adding certain items at certain times. It will be too thick for the blender and will cause too much frustration. Add it all at once. Blend first with a very low setting to get it started. After you've done that for 30-50 seconds, blend at a higher speed. You want to really get it going! Blend for 45-50 seconds, stir, and repeat a few times until you get the right consistency. It takes a few times, and you need to be patient, but it will work! If you have a BlendTec blender, like I do, blend on speed 1 for one cycle and then speed 5 for a few cycles, stirring between turns. I have been doing it this way since trying it out because the blender is just easier to clean than the food processor...

Homemade hummus! Ready to be devoured!

Homemade Chicken Broth

Why make your own chicken broth? There are a number of reasons that make it more than worth the time and (little bit) of effort. It's cheap. It's fresh. It's healthy. It's tasty. It's cheap (oh, did I already say that one?).  And it's easy.

Are those enough?

Your house will also smell wonderful while simmering the broth.

Should be plenty of reasons.

I'm sure there are tons of recipes out there, and this is just the one I use. I looked up a number of them before going for it. This one was easy with few ingredients, most of which I always have on hand. Since I started making it more than a few months ago, I haven't even considered buying it from the store.