Healthy Snacks

I am the parent-helper in my youngest son's preschool class tomorrow (whaaat?  my youngest is in preschool??).  One of the duties of the parent-helper is to provide the snack for the class.  I found and modified a cute recipe for some little round "energy bites."  They are both healthy and tasty. 

No-Bake Energy Bites
adapted from Smashed Peas and Carrots

1 cup oatmeal
1/2 sunbutter (this is sunflower seed butter, which is nut free, but feel free to sub peanut butta!)
1/3 honey (use liquid honey, not creamed honey)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup roasted ground flaxseed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients together and let chill in your fridge for half and hour.  Roll into balls and keep refridgerated until serving.  Makes about 2 dozen.


Here is a list of other popular snacks with my kids:
- apple slices with nut butter for dipping
- apple slices with peanut butter
- whole grain crackers or bread with nut butter and banana slices
- other fresh fruit
- frozen fruit smoothies
- whole grain crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly; or with sliced cheese and apples
- veggies, pita bread triangles and hummus or greek yogurt dip (like tzaziki)
- dried mango; other dried fruits
- tamari almonds or other nuts
- pretzels
- homemade granola bars, muffins, quick breads
- yogurt and granola with fresh or frozen berries

Often my kids' lunch is made up of a smoothie and a combination of some of these healthy "snacks."  I am always looking for new snack ideas.  What do your kids snack on??  Let me know in the comments!

Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats (Slow Cooker Recipe!)

I guess I am kind of risking it, seeing as these are in my slow cooker right now (for the morning) and I haven't really sampled them yet. This recipe comes highly recommeded from a friend whose daughter saw a teacher eating them at her school and it looked so good she asked for the recipe (hope I got that story right Michelle!).  So, although I am not sure of the original author of this recipe, nor am I sure what they taste like, I am also sure they will be good!  I am also sure my friends daughter will grow up to be a foodie if she isn't already - I definately would have been the kind of student to run after a deliciously aromatic bowl of food too!

Since I am still using up my pumpkins, this is a perfect one for me to make!  Funny story about my pumpkins...those of you who know me well have likely heard this because I think it's hilarious - last year, we planted one pumpkin plant in the garden, and yielded one pumpkin, which had grown under our fence and into the neighbour's yard.  It grew very large, and we had no idea it was even there until my neighbour hit it with his lawn mower last October!  This year, I planted one pumpkin plant again, and got about 30 pumpkins!  Crazy!  From one in the neighbours yard to 30 taking over my whole garden!  Good thing we loooove pumpkin.....


Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats (Slow Cooker)

3 cups cubed raw pumpkin (you could also likely use 1 can of pumpkin puree)
1.5 cups steel cut oats
6 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Put in your slow cooker for 8 hours.

Did I mention this recipe contains NO sugar?  Just honey!  LOVE it!

Vegetable Tempura

So, I usually love to plan my meals and all, but let's be honest - sometimes you just need to use up what you have in the fridge.  I like to do a sort of weekly clean-out and it doesn't always make for the most impressive of meals.  This weekend I had a bunch of veggie leftovers, so I bought a box of Tempura flour, thawed out some shrimp, and went to town making a pile of Japanese Tempura!  You may had this battered and fried dish at a sushi restaurant before, but homemade is definately just as good, not to mention (from how I figured it out) about 1/8th of the cost. 

**oops!  I snapped this picture after the family had already "dug in!"  Better than nothing, right?

Vegetable and Shrimp Tempura

Assorted vegetables (I used carrots, eggplant, zucchini, sweet potato, red pepper, snap peas, broccoli) cut into pieces (kind of the size you would use in a veggie tray) or thinly sliced (1/4") for carrots, eggplant, sweet potato.
Shrimp (uncooked, peeled, tail-on, thawed)
1 box Tempura batter mix (I got this in the asian section at Safeway for about $2.50)
Canola Oil

*I served these with PC brand Tempura Dipping Sauce.  I diluted it slightly with water.  My husband commented that it had a nice gingery flavour.

Mix tempura flour with amount of water required on box.  Add water if needed to achieve a nice thick but liquid batter good for coating.  Keep this cold (I contained the batter in a bowl and placed it within a larger bowl of ice).  Heat about an inch of oil in a large pot.  Dip veggies and shrimp into batter, letting excess drip off.  Drop into the hot oil.  Do not crowd the pot.  Rotate as they cook and test with a fork after a minute or two to check if they are done.  Pull out with a fork and place on a paper-towel lined plate.  Keep frying until all your batter is used up, or until you have no more veggies and shrimp to dip.  Serve on a large platter with Tempura Sauce for dipping (see *note above).

Yesterday's Lunch

So, my husband loves a hearty, filling lunch on Sundays when he comes home from work.  However, I still like to keep it healthy.  Here's a pic of yesterday's lunch.  Homemade falafels with salad!  It was SO delish!

I just kind of threw in what I had for the salad.  Spinach, garden tomatoes, cucumber, feta, red onion, fresh dill, and a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Seemed to be good enough for a hungry man!

Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies

Sometimes in the fall I get the uncontrollable urge to bake something gingery!  I have a few ginger treats that are on regular fall rotation at our house.

These cookies are a great twist on your plain ginger cookie.  They are slightly more chewy over crisp and of course, there is the addition of chocolate chips!   I often will use chocolate chunks as a substitute, or maybe some nice, dark, 60% chocolate chips (which I can't even eat, but I feel like other people love 'em!).

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart.  Makes about 2 dozen.

• 7 oz. good quality semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Grease 2 baking sheets. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.  Add egg; beat until combined.
3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; Refridgerate mixture for 2 hours or more.
4. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.  Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

made-from-scratch Oreo Cookies

This is one of my go-to kid-friendly treats for holidays.  They are definately appropriate for any day, but I love that you can customize the filling colour to fit with a holiday (ie. pink for Valentine's day, red and green for Christmas, etc).  Today I did orange for Halloween.  The fact that they are easy to transport to school functions is a plus as well!

In my opinion, these are better than the "real thing," because well, they are the real thing!  Here is the recipe!

made-from-scratch Oreo Cookies

For the chocolate cookies:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons room-temperature, unsalted butter
2 large eggs

For the filling:
1 cup unsalted butter
3-4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp heavy cream
desired food colouring or gel dye

Method
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While on low speed, add the butter, and then the eggs. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart.  Bake for about 9 minutes, until cookies look a little crackly on the top
4. To make the filling, place butter in mixing bowl and at low speed, gradually beat in the icing sugar one cup at a time.  Add a little cream and vanilla.  Add more cream or icing sugar if necessary to achieve desired consistency.  Whip at med-high speed until icing is nice and fluffy. (Optional: Blend in a tiny bit of gel dye until you reach the desired color.)
6. To assemble the cookies, put some icing in a freezer bag and snip off a corner.  Pipe tablespoon-size blobs of cicing into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the icing. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with icing.

Egg "McFunks"

This homemade version of the popular fast-food breakfast sandwich is a favourite breakfast of my whole family.  Sometimes, I just crave a savory breakfast instead of something sweet or fruity, and this option, which I usually serve with hashbrowns and a fruit smoothie, really hits the spot.  The credit for this idea goes to my mother-in-law, who has been making these for breakfast at the lake as long as I have known her and longer.

I have made these the night before, then heated them up in my panini press or oven in the morning.  I have also heard you can freeze something like this (individually, for convenience), but I have never done it myself.

**In this recipe, I bake my eggs in a giant muffin tin.  If you do not have one, you can fry the eggs in a pan instead and then add them into the sandwich.


Egg McFunks

6 whole wheat english muffins
6 nice thick slices of good cheddar cheese
9 slices of bacon cut in half, or a little bit of shaved ham, or omit meat
6 eggs

Grease one giant muffin tin (one that makes 6 muffins), or 6 - 4" ramekins.  One at a time, crack eggs into a mug or glass measuring cup and beat SLIGHTLY, just until yolk is broken, then pour into muffin tin until each hole is filled with an egg. Add a pinch of salt and a crack of pepper to each egg. Bake about 15 minutes at 350F or until eggs are set.  Let cool slightly.
Cook bacon (I do mine in the oven), or warm ham in a pan on stovetop if using.
Cut open english muffins. 
On one side of the muffins, layer cheese, ham/bacon if using, and top each with a baked egg and the other half of the muffin.  Warm them on a baking sheet in the oven, or in a panini grill until cheese is melted and muffin is toasty. 

Maybe serve with hashbrowns and a smoothy for a good breakfast or in my house, this flies as lunch too!  Yum!
Also, please excuse my photography skills!  I am working on it!