Not your Granny's Toffee Bars

It feels like 2012 just started a few months ago, but as you can probably tell, the 2012 holiday season is right around the corner.  With that holiday season, comes holiday parties with co-workers, friends and family.  If you are in my family, the holiday parties are not complete without grandma's toffee bars.  For as long as I can remember, the night doesn't end until grandma breaks out her round metal cookie tins filled with toffee bars and we all fight over who is stealing them and taking the loot home.  While my grandma's will always, always taste better than mine, I really wanted to find a way to come up with a healthier version to indulge in while everyone else is enjoying the real deal.

Toffee Bars
2/3 C-Coconut Oil (I measured this white the oil was in its solid state)
2/3 C-Honey
1 TB-Blackstrap Molasses
2-Cups of Gluten Free Flour (I have listed the mix that I use below)
3 TB Vanilla
1 TB-Ground chia seeds (mix with 3 TB of water first)
2 bars (about 6oz) of chocolate of your choice-I used Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% dark chocolate
1/4 C-walnut pieces (optional)

Gluten Free Flour Mix
There are many options out there for mixing your own gluten free flour, but a lot of them use coconut flour and my husband is not a fan.  I usually have this on hand ready to use, so this mix makes more than needed for this recipe
3C-Sorghum flour
1C-Tapioca flour
1/2C-almond flour
1TB-Xanthan Gum

Preheat oven to 350

Begin by mixing Coconut oil, honey and molasses in a stand mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer.  Add the flour slowly and then the vanilla and chia seed mixture.  Allow to mix thoroughly.  For anyone reading this that is in my family, yes, the consistency will be slightly wetter than grandma's, but trust me on this one.

Oil an 8x8 pan and pour dough into the pan.  Use the back of a spoon to spread the dough as evenly as possibly over the pan and stick in the preheated oven.  Let cook for about 15 minutes.  Watch carefully, you want this still slightly soft and golden brown around the edges, but not still cakey and super soft.  My oven took about 17 minutes.  Take the pan out of the oven and break your chocolate into chunks and distribute the pieces across the dough.  Stick the pan back in the oven for about 2 more minutes to melt the chocolate.  Lastly, take the pan out, spread the chocolate with the back of a spoon and sprinkle the walnuts.

Cut into pieces while still soft and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Cheese Sticks-Cheat treat

Of all the food that I miss from Illinois now that we are living in the south, it's the fried cheeseballs.  Between The Pub and Green Gables, you can get slightly crunchy, super cheesy, balls of fried cheese that can almost make you forget how incredibly unhealthy they are for you.  After spending about 2 months on strictly fruits and veggies, I have begun to add some foods back into my diet....within reason.  As much as I love cheese, I have managed to steer clear of all dairy.  Tonight, however, I was craving a little bit of home.

I wasn't going to go full force and just fry up some mozzarella, but I wanted it to taste similar, yet healthier.  My husband has been begging me to cheat a bit and try to make egg rolls with spring roll paper (since I am grain free, the rice starch in these make them a no go).  As I was walking through Whole Foods today, I figured I would give it a try, but use them for cheese sticks.  I grabbed some mozzarella goat cheese (goat cheese proteins are smaller and much easier on your digestive track than cow's milk cheeses).  Pretty much anything with goat cheese is a sure hit for me, so finding this mozzarella goat cheese made my day!

Making these is super easy, you just have to have some patience.

Fried Cheese Sticks

1-Package of Spring Roll Skins
1-Block of Cheese of choice cut into sticks(I used Mozzarella goat Cheese)
about 1 cup of Coconut oil-or enough to fill up 1 inch in your pan of choice
Shallow pan filled with about 1/2 inch of water

Start by dipping your first spring roll skin into your pan of water for about 10 seconds.  Create each cheese stick one at a time, do not stick them all in at the same time or these will begin to disintegrate before you roll them up.  Once you pull the skin out of the water, shake some water off of it and lay it flat.  Put your first cheese stick on the edge closest to you and begin to roll away from you and fold in the sides as you roll.  You may need to press the edge of some of the rolls to get the edge to stick.  Move on to your other rolls until you are out of cheese.

Pour your coconut oil into the pan and heat  until it just begins to boil and turn the heat back to medium.  Place your cheese sticks in one at a time until you get the hang of the oil temperature and then start frying 2 at a time.  My husband found the most success turning the pan a bit on the side so the cheese stick could float in the oil instead of sitting on the bottom of the pan and burning a bit.  Once you see a golden brown, scoop out of the oil and let cool slightly before enjoying!

**Note-The goat cheese Mozzarella does not stay solid and gooey like cows mozzarella, but still adds a cheese flavor like a "normal" cheese stick.

Avocado Chicken Salad

It's Detox Monday in our household.  Over the weekend we had a family wedding...the first of 3 weddings out of state 3 weekends in a row....and for the first time in 3 months I most definitely fell-off-the-wagon.  I thought I would be a bit disappointed in myself and, I guess, to an extent I am; however it feels great to eat whatever I want, not have any big side effects, and then wake up knowing I choose to go back to the healthier way I have been eating.

It is amazing what a few months of deciding to change the way you eat and live will do to the way you look at things.  Even my husband made a comment tonight as he was going through yesterday's newspaper coupon that it is amusing to him to see coupons and ads for "nutritious" cereal bars or fruity toaster breakfast options.  I think watching the changes in my husband is far more rewarding for me than seeing my own progress.  He doesn't have the digestive issues that I have that push him to change his eating habits, but he makes so many better choices without me nagging him at all.  I have really tried hard not to let my eating changes affect him too much, I really wanted him to WANT to change on his own and not force things on him.  That being said, one of my FAVORITE summer chicken recipes before my stomach issues got bad was this awesome Balsamic Chicken salad.  I am a sucker for balsamic vinaigrette, my husband and my stomach, however, hate it.  This avocado chicken salad is a big winner with both of those critics, though.

Avocado Chicken Salad

2-boiled chicken breasts
2-avocado
1-lime juiced
1/2C-Chopped cilantro (optional, I really go back and forth with it)
Dash pepper
Garlic Salt to taste

Optional
pecan pieces
red grapes cut into pieces

Cut up your 2 boiled chicken breasts into small pieces (I have tried shredding them, it doesn't change the taste, but you need to add more avocado or there isn't enough to cover).  If you have just taken the chicken out of the water, place the chicken pieces into a bowl and stick into the fridge to cool off.  While the chicken is cooling, stick your cilantro, lime juice, avocados, pepper and garlic salt into a food processor.  I use my vitamix and it works perfectly, you just need to use the stick to move it around a bit.  I have also tried mashing the avocado and chopping cilantro by hand.  This works, as well, it is just more effort on your part.

Once all ingredients are combined, pour into bowl of chicken and stir until mixed.  You can stick this back into the fridge to get even colder or serve immediately.

Serves 4....or 2 with enough for lunch the next day.

Stay tuned!

I've caught the raw cheesecake bug!

I am working on perfecting a new "adult" recipe for a cheesecake idea I came up with for my husband.  We made it on Labor day when we made a bunch of mini cakes to try different flavors.  The "adult" cake was the best of the bunch, but still needs a little tweaking!

If it ain't broke.......make it better!

After the success with the first cheesecake, I spent the weekend creating new flavors and coming up with future ideas to share with you.  The first one that came to the husband's mind was raspberry.  Quick trip to the grocery store and a few ideas later I came up with the above raspberry and vanilla bean raw cheesecake!  I even impressed myself a bit with the chocolate drizzles.

I stuck with the same basic vanilla bean recipe in the Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cheesecake recipe, except I added another full lemon to see if it would give it a bit more of that tartness that cheesecake usually has.  The crust stayed the same as well.  The only thing that changed was the raspberry topping and the dark chocolate drizzle.

Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Crust and Vanilla Bean filling-Follow the recipe found hereVanilla Bean, Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Add juice of 1 additional lemon

Raspberry topping
1-small container of raspberries
2-3 ts of potato starch
2 tablespoons of honey

Chocolate Drizzle
1-2 squares from a chocolate bar.  I used 85% dark chocolate.

Place all ingredients in a pan and heat on medium-low.  Using a spoon or spatula, squish the raspberries so they become a liquid with seeds.  The sauce should thicken with the heat and the potato starch.  Once it reaches a thickened sauce state (about 3-4 minutes) pour over the vanilla bean filling.

Now, place your chocolate squares in a glass bowl and put in the microwave.  If you have the history like I do of over cooking chocolate, you will know why I say to watch this closely.  Stick the chocolate in the microwave for :30 intervals.  After the first :30, take out and stir.  Depending on your microwave, you may not need a full second :30 cycle.  Once the chocolate has reached a nice liquid state, used your spoon and roll it in the chocolate and then drizzle across the cake.

The raspberry takes a bit longer to solidify, so I kept this one in the freezer over night and then moved to the fridge.

Cheesecake for Breakfast?!

One of the ironic things that I have learned along this path to healthier eating is when you cook with healthy whole foods, there really isn't an 'inappropriate' time to eat anything.  The past few months I haven't been eating dairy and have been staying away from all the sugar add-ins most ice creams have, instead I have been freezing slices of bananas, tossing them in the food processor and enjoying some banana ice cream.........I may or may not have indulged for breakfast, too.

This little creation of mine is no different.  I have been experimenting with numerous grain, dairy, egg, sugar free recipes for awhile now, but I wanted something a little bit more 'gourmet'.  I looked around and found that many people use cashew cream for raw cheesecakes.  I had a little experience in making cashew cream after making these chicken pot pies from the spunky coconut http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2011/01/pot-pie-pockets-gluten-free-casein-free.html.  Her recipes are incredible and really motivated me to get more creative about what I am making.

Truly, the hardest part about this recipe is waiting for your cashews to soak.  I have seen some people say you don't really need to soak them for more than an hour or so, but I have always just thrown them in water before going to work and by the time I get back, we are ready to go.  For this recipe, you don't need to save the water that the cashews are soaking in, but if you have more cashews in soaking than you need, throw the extra in a food processor with some of the water you soaked them in.  Blend it up and stick in the fridge.  You can use the cashew cream for so many things!

I wanted to create a recipe that was strong in flavor and really resembled a 'normal' dessert.  Naturally, my first instinct was peanut butter and chocolate.  Ok, yes, I usually avoid legumes and peanuts are legumes, however, you can sub in almond butter if you prefer.  I preferred a little cheat.  If you know me well, you know how crazy it is for me to now think of peanuts and peanut butter as "cheats" in my diet haha!  I am going to keep developing some new flavors, but for now, we have Vanilla, Chocolate, and peanut butter Cheesecake! You can also cut down on some of the vanilla if wanted.  I was concerned with the cake having too much of a cashew, nutty flavor so I put much more vanilla than I intended to.

Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Crust

The carb lover in me really likes crust.  That being said, if you don't want as much of a crust or don't want a crust that goes up the side as well, feel free to cut the recipe in half. 

10 Dates

Half Cup of Almond flour

1 Cup of Pecans

3 tsp vanilla

Filling

• 2 c raw organic cashews, soaked overnight (just put in a bowl and fill with filtered water about an inch above the cashews)
• 5-6 large dates
• 1/3 c coconut oil, melted
• Juice from 1 lemon (about 1/3 cup)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean (I used both)
• 1/4 c almond milk
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp water

• ·         1/3 c +2 TB of peanut butter

• ·         3 TB agave nectar

• ·         1 TB vanilla

For the Crust

Combine all ingredients in a food processor.  Blend until the crust sticks together when squeezed in your hand and is a darker brown color.  You may need to add a few more dates as needed.  Put a piece of parchment paper into an 8” spring pan and pour crust into pan.  Press the crust into the bottom of the pan and up the side about an inch or as crust allows.

Filling

Vanilla-Combine all ingredients up until the cocoa powder in a food processor.  After all is blended and VERY SMOOTH, remove 2/3 C and put into a separate bowl.

Chocolate-With the 2/3C you set aside, add the cocoa powder and water until well blended

Peanut Butter-Combine the peanut butter, agave nectar, and vanilla in a separate bowl and stir until well mixed.

Pour  the vanilla  into the crust and spread evenly with the back of a spoon.  Follow this with the peanut butter and then the chocolate.

Tap on the counter to even out.  If you don’t plan to eat it for a while, you can put it straight into the fridge.  We were eager to eat it, so we stuck it in the freezer for about an hour and then moved it down to the fridge and it was perfectly set!  Keep this in your fridge for up to a week……if it lasts that long!