Vegan Coconut Lime Rice Pudding

I'm not a vegan and I won't even post a vegan recipe just for its veganiness That said, I often post a delicious recipe that also happens to be vegan. Truth be told, I didn't even realize this recipe was vegan at first. I was just experimenting with a coconut lime rice, and there it was. (I should also note that it is also completely gluten-free, so I'm pretty sure I'm not assured a spot in heaven.)

This recipe is also really really easy. In fact, you can make the base rice for this recipe to eat with any Thai or Asian meal, and then re-purpose it for dessert (should you choose; or you can just start with dessert; no one's judging here).

And while we're talking about re-purposing, you can absolutely eat this for breakfast. Make it with brown or black rice and you don't even have to feel the tiniest little bit guilty eating it for breakfast. Guys--it will be vegan, gluten-free, and whole grain. Not to mention that powerhouse in trendy nutrition: coconut milk. I'm just saying that you're probably a bad person if you don't do it. But, you know, no judgment.

Also, since this is rice based, it is so absurdly cheap for a dessert, well, I just can't help but love it. It comes in at about $.25/serving.

And did I mention that the hands-on preparation for this is less than five minutes...

Vegan Coconut Lime Rice Pudding
serves 8
coconut rice from Ahead of Thyme
Prep and cook time: 25 minutes
Cost: $2.10 (that's about $.25/serving)
rice: .25, coconut milk: 1.50, lime: .25, sugar: .10

2 C jasmine rice (any other type of rice works as well, but jasmine is my favorite)
1 can coconut milk
1 1/2 C water
1 lime
1/2 C sugar (regular will do, but if you're a real vegan, raw or natural sugars work too)
raisins (optional and I know they sound weird, but I liked them)

To prepare rice, put rice, coconut milk, and water into a saucepan. Stir it a bit to get rid of any large lumps in the coconut milk (alternately, if you have some foresight about lumps as opposed to myself, you can put the coconut milk and water in the pot and stir first, then add it to the rice). COVER with a lid and set to medium heat. Bring to boiling, reduce to LOW heat. Let cook until rice has absorbed all of the liquids, about 20 minutes. (If you don't cook this on low heat, you risk having the coconut milk burn/brown on the bottom of the pot.)

Remove from heat and let cool (you can leave a bit warm depending on whether you like your rice pudding warm or cold).

Add the juice from the lime. Add the sugar. Add a bit of lime zest if desired. Note: The truth is that the measurements for the lime and the sugar are COMPLETELY arbitrary (you heard me). You can make this as sweet or as tart as you like. I made it with several different levels of lime and sugar and found I pretty much liked it all ways. So start with a little of each, keep tasting and add more if you want.

Mix sugar and lime together with the rice.

Enjoy.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Enchilada Rice Pot

This seems like it won't be much--it's rice, beans, some sauce, some cheese. I mean, really, every time I assemble it I think, "How is this going to taste good? Won't it just be boring?" No. It's actually kind of fabulous. It's got all the flavors and goodness of enchiladas, but the total hands-on time to prepare it is five minutes. And the total cook time is just about 20 minutes. Who knew that riffing on the rice and beans, beans and rice theme could be so luxurious. And so simple. And adaptable. And leftover-friendly. And cheap, of course. (Also, gluten-free and vegetarian if that's something you need.)

In my experimenting with this, I made it a few ways. My favorite was to make it as a one-pot meal--no need to cook the rice beforehand, just throw everything in.  This is a dumb easy meal for under 30 minutes. It's filling and satisfying. 

The other great way to make this is as a leftover meal with rice you've already got cooked. This makes for a 10-minute dinner. However, since your rice is already cooked it won't be able to absorb as much fluid as I've got listed below, so you'll want to scale back the enchilada sauce by half and maybe cut back on the tomato juices some as well. Also you'll be using twice as much rice since yours is already cooked. The instructions below are for the one-pot meal.

Could this be made with quinoa or barley or something? I bet it could. But I just stuck with reliable white rice. Also, I should note that usually black beans aren't my favorite ones, but they just kick it in this recipe. Try them.

Enchilada Rice Skillet
adapted from Damn Delicious
Serves 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $4.50 (about $1.12/serving)
rice: .50, tomatoes: .60, beans: .60, enchilada sauce: 2.00, cheese: .80

1- 1 1/4 C rice, uncooked
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans enchilada sauce (red or green or a combination--I do a combination)
1-2 C grated Cheddar or Colby Jack cheese

Add-ons for fabulousness: These aren't necessary, but one or a combination of these make this meal just amazing.
sour cream
squeeze of lime
cilantro
avocado

Add rice to pot. Add all other ingredients, except cheese. [Note: To clarify--You are NOT adding any water to this--the liquid will come from the sauces.]

Cover and cook as you would an every day pot of rice (that means cover it, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat significantly--to low--and let it cook for about 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed). When it's just about done, have a taste. If your rice is just about done, you're good. If it's still a little tough in the center or too chewy, add a bit of water and let it cook a few minutes longer.

When it's about 2 minutes from being done, add the cheese to the top, re-cover the pot, and let the cheese melt.

Serve. You can serve it plain or add any of the add-ons for fabulousness that you choose.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies--picture redo

Good thing I had so many lousy pictures in the earlier (okay, and sometimes even later) days of this blog, so that I have plenty of opportunity to remind you all about some of my favorite recipes.

This flourless peanut butter cookie wins on so many levels. It's delicious. It's easy. It's gluten-free. It's filled with good fat and protein. Yes, it has a lot of sugar, but evenso, I consider it a thoroughly acceptable weekday treat. Truth be told, I'd even eat it for breakfast in a pinch. (I haven't, mind you, but I honestly consider it a lot better than many of the breakfast foods out there.)

Now go put your kids to work and tell them to make you some cookies.

(And just for kicks, here's the old picture). And just in case you're wondering--yes, in real life they look pretty like the good pictures, not ugly like the bad.:

Oat Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies

For a long time I've been after a chocolate chip breakfast cookie that I really love. I've got this one, which is good (though I always knew wasn't perfect), but still usually gets trumped out of the breakfast scene by these or these or these(worst pic ever and I make these at least once a week--time to fix that picture) or even these. So I was looking for something that could really compete. And I found it.

The oat flour in these takes a good breakfast cookie to a great one. And if you like macadamia nuts, then these will be better to you than some dessert cookies. (Note: I love macadamia nuts; my family doesn't like "chunkies"--unless those chunkies are comprised of chocolate of course--so I usually just put a handful of nuts in the last bit of batter and make myself some with nuts.)

The taste alone is enough to sell me on this cookie, but it gets even better because if you're worried about allergies, gluten, or need an easily veganned breakfast cookie, this cookie is:

-Potentially gluten-free (use all oat flour--a type that hasn't been processed with gluten stuff)
-low sugar
-whole grain
-egg free
-potentially vegan (sub that milk out with almond or soy or whatever and sub the chocolate chips out with whatever vegans usually use for chocolate--or skip the chocolate chips all together and use raisins or nuts; this is still a great) cookie

Oat Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
adapted from Chocolate-Covered Katie
makes 12 smallish cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 8 minutes
Cost: $.85
oats: .30, sugar: .10, chocolate chips: .30, milk: .05, oil: .10

Note: You can use all oat flour. I think this is my favorite. I've also tried it with 2/3 C whole wheat flour and 1/2 C oat, which is also good. And I'm betting you could use a lot of different grains for that 2/3 C if you wanted to experiment or do a cookie with different grains/textures.

2/3 + 1/2 C oat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp brown sugar (or 2 Tbsp brown, 2 Tbsp white)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp coconut oil in liquid state (or another vegetable oil)
1/4-1/2 C chocolate chips
5-6 Tbsp milk (can sub out vegan types of milk if needed)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Now, form this into a big ball and then make little balls from the big one. I know that sounds weird, but it works the best for these cookies (unless you've been generous with the milk, in which case, you can just drop them). Then flatted the balls with your hand or a spatula.

Bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool.

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Basil Spinach Pesto

It's that pesto time of year. Basil is on and oh, I love it.

While basil, in and of itself, is not at all devoid of nutrition, it's still not quite the powerhouse that other things green and leafy are. I'm okay with that, but I did start wondering what would happen to my pesto if I mixed some spinach into it. Because, you know, when you're mixing green stuff into pasta made from white flour, well, you (and by 'you' I mean 'me') want to feel kind of good about yourself. I mean you really don't want to feel like the pickiest nine-year-old alive who is sitting across from you and eating his pasta with tomato sauce is actually getting more nutrition. Because that's just embarrassing. And then one day as I was pondering about spinach pesto, I found this. Okay, so I'm never the first one to a party, but that doesn't mean I can't take home a party favor.

Since pine nuts are expensive enough right now to set into a gold band, I used walnuts in this. I also omitted the Parmesan (as I always do in pesto, figuring you can add it into your dish later if you want it).

I was worried that the spinach and parsley would overpower the basil, but basil--she's a strong girl and can carry her own. I had this for lunch today and while it was a wee wee bit less basil-y than my classic pesto, it was still a basil-based pesto through and through. Truly, if I hadn't been trying to compare the spinach to the sans spinach versions, I never would have thought to notice a difference. In fact, if there is someone in your family who doesn't like classic pesto because it has so very very much basil-y kick (cough, Kip), this might be just the ticket as it is slightly more subdued. How awesome is that? You can please your picky eaters and trick them into eating spinach at the same time. I'm kind of freaking out about it it.

This was great on pasta and would be delicious on sandwiches, pizza, and over meat. You can also use it in your pasta sauces and meatballs (two places I love me some pesto), although here I must say that I do prefer the classic pesto in my meatballs and spaghetti sauce. That said, 'prefer' doesn't mean that this spinach-y one wasn't still very good in those things. It was good (and the difference was not noticed by anyone but me); it just wasn't quite as good.

Basil Spinach Pesto
adapted from Gluten Free A-Z Blog
Makes about 2 Cups (about enough to fill up an ice cube tray)
Prep time: 20-30 minutes (the de-leafing of the herbs gets you)
Cost: $2.00
basil: mine's from the garden and free; I'm guessing it would be .50-1.00, but don't know as I haven't bought it in several years; parsley: .20, spinach: .50, olive oil: .50-1.00)

Note: This recipe also calls for parsley (not too shabby nutritionally either). I did use parsley and this pesto really was great, but I think that if you don't have it, you could probably add another cup of spinach, basil or a combo of both to very good effect as the parsley adds only a very subtle mildness to the pesto.

2 C basil leaves
2 C spinach leaves
2 C parsley leaves
1/2-1 C walnuts (use sunflower seeds for a nut-free version)
4 cloves garlic
1/2-1 C olive oil

Clean and remove leaves from their stems. Peel and crush the garlic. Add ingredients to food processor or blender and process until smooth (The blender gives me a smoother pesto if you care about that sort of thing).

Store it. I freeze mine in ice cube trays, then plop them into a Ziploc bag. Then I can add 1 or 2 to sandwiches or a dip or whatever if I just need a small amount, which I often do.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Broccoli Salad (Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

It's another Secret Recipe Club post.

This month I got Angela's Kitchen, which features gluten-free and dairy-free cooking. I myself could probably gnaw on gluten all day, but I have a friend with Celiac's, which means I do have an appreciation of the challenge of finding gluten-free foods and the joy in finding ones that taste good. Angela's blog is packed. Also, she does all kinds of cool things, like educated restaurants about gluten-free/dairy-free options for their menus.

I went for something veggie-based because I was nervous about unusual types of flour and also because I love broccoli salad and have been meaning to get one up on this blog, oh, forever. Some of you may know that raw broccoli just isn't my thing. Oh, sure, I can get it down, but it's not love. Broccoli salad, however, I adore. (I guess that's what happens when you add some fat and sugar to your unloved veggies; I didn't say this salad was an act of strong moral character, okay. I only said it tasted good.)

Broccoli Salad
adapted from Angela's Kitchen
makes 6 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cost: $3.00
broccoli: 1.50, raisins: .25, walnuts: .50, bacon: .50, other stuff: .25)

Note on nuts: Angela uses sunflower seeds, but I didn't have enough; The sunflower seeds would be perfect for a nut-free salad, but if nuts aren't an issue I bet you could sub a variety of different nuts in this salad

5 C broccoli florets
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C walnuts
1/3-1/2 C cooked, crumbled bacon
2 Tbsp finely minced red onion (since Kip hates onions, I left this in a separate bowl to be added according to taste (And, yes, he is obscenely spoiled.))
3/4 C mayo (you're going to need gluten-free and dairy-free if that's what you need)
1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar (I've also used balsalmic to good effect and I'm betting lemon juice would kick butt too)
2-4 Tbsp sugar (original recipe called for 4, but I scaled it back to 3 and maybe could have scaled it back a bit more)

Cook your bacon. While it's cooking, make your dressing. Combine mayo, vinegar, and sugar. Whisk. I recommend starting with 1 Tbsp vinegar and 2 Tbsp sugar and then having a taste and adjusting it according to your needs for sweet and sour.

Cut your broccoli into bite sized (or smaller) pieces. Crumble bacon and add it. Add nuts and raisins.

Drizzle dressing on and then add salt and pepper to taste (I found I liked it without either).

Chill and then eat eat eat.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Granola Balls (Raw, gluten-free, potentially vegan)

You know what the problem is with high-energy snacks? Those for whom they were designed--those with metabolisms approximately equivalent of 150 pound hummingbirds--forget about the snacks you've made and wander about the house wondering what they can possibly eat and then decide to just go to Rural King instead so they can get to work on the yard. You, on the other hand, you who have every bit the metabolism of a very nearly 35-year-old woman, do not forget. You know what's sitting there in your cupboard or refrigerator or freezer. You brush against them as you clean the kitchen. They catch your eye as you gather ingredients for leftover night. They call to you. And then you call to your husband at Rural King and ask why he hasn't eaten the snack you made for him and question whether he really loves you and also whether he thinks your butt looks big in the jeans you're wearing today. And then he says you're butt is just fine and that he forgot about the snacks and that he'll eat them when he gets home and that he has to go because he's carrying 20 pounds of grass seed and the checker is waiting for him. And then you hang up and eat some granola bites and feed some to the kids and by the time he gets home, starving of course because he skipped breakfast and/or lunch, they're all gone.

Note: Although the above story is actually a piece of fiction, there is much truth at its heart. Truth that gets repeated at least once a week in this house. Oh the efforts those of us with lean (albeit strong, tough, and perfectly handsome) husbands go to in order to keep said husbands weighing in a few dozen pounds (or even a good baker's dozen) heavier than us. Tragic, don't you think. The great thing about these being in smallish balls is that you can practically throw them into your husband/teenager/woke-up-too-late-for-breakfast child's mouth as they rush out the door.

So don't give up. Make some healthy, high-energy snacks. Remind your man to take them to work. Eventually it will sink in. Unless the dog/kids/grandmas/neighbor's kids get to them first. Sigh.

Granola Balls
Adapted from Smashed Peas and Carrots
Makes 12-18 1-inch balls(a little sketch on the numbers here; I made a bunch of this stuff last week and it's all smearing together for me)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.90
oatmeal: .10, peanut butter: .50, honey: .70, coconut: .60

1 C oatmeal (choose a type that hasn't been processed with gluten-y foods if you're going gluten-free)
1/2 C peanut butter
1/4 C honey (use agave nectar if going vegan)
1 C coconut flakes (I used unsweetened; if using sweetened you may want to cut back the honey by a Tablespoon or two)
1/2 C ground flaxseed (optional; I skipped because we didn't have and threw in some more coconut)
1/2 C chocolate chips (optional)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything until fully incorporated. You can let this chill for easier ball-rolling, but I just go for it and roll them into balls.

These keep very well refrigerated or frozen.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chocolate Oat Muffins

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.



After looking at my list of dinners on our menu, one of my friends commented that we have our days backwards--we start them with dessert (hello, breakfast cookies) and we often end them with eggs or pancakes and some type of friend potato. Um, I couldn't really argue with that. Eggs and I don't go well in the mornings. In fact, one of these days my kids are going to grow up and meet someone who eats eggs and perhaps bacon for breakfast and wonder what planet they came from. You know, the planet of normal people with normal eating patterns. That's definitely not the planet our family lives on.

So, when I found this recipe for chocolate muffins (a dessert-seeming breakfast if ever there was one) a few years ago in Shape magazine, I was willing to give it a go. Even if it did have a little more sugar than I like in my breakfast foods. And even if it did call for 1 C of applesauce and only 1 teaspoon of oil. Which did give me pause. Because I usually don't go for applesauce replacing the oil thing. In my opinion it usually makes food taste so, well, healthy. Or more precisely--it makes them taste like something that has been altered to be made healthy. Or what magazines like Shape consider healthy. "Oh well," I thought, "I can fix that."

After all, it had plenty of good things going for it. It was whole grain, using all oat flour. (And I do love whole grains--they are not made to taste healthy--they just are healthy and they taste good on their own--at least unless you were raised constantly being told to eat them because they're healthy. I was not, and can therefore enjoy them for the nutty complex flavored carbohydrates that they are). It also had no eggs, which meant I and my children could lick as much batter as we wished from the bowl without worrying. I mean, which meant I could give the muffins to people with egg allergies. And it was chocolate.

So I figured I'd just have to fix it. The thing is I didn't even try the original recipe. Instead I started altering it immediately. I used 1/2 C oil and 1/2 C applesauce. That was okay, but not great. At the time, I had a baby, and thus several purees hanging about in our freezer. So I tried it with sweet potato puree, pumpkin puree, banana, blueberry, carrot, and perhaps a couple others. They were not great, except for the banana, which was good, but made it most definitely into a variety of banana muffin. And then, as I was about to throw up my hands in health-rebel despair, I figured that as the scientist that I was (um, not really, but go with me, I do love to experiment with food), I ought to at least try the original recipe. So I did. And it was awesome. I liked it. The kids liked it. Kip loved it. And we all lived happily ever after.

So for health food cynics and non-cynics alike. For those with allergies and for those without. Here you go.

Chocolate Oat Muffins

Makes 9 muffins or about 18 mini muffins

Adapted from Shape magazine

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes for mini muffins, 15-20 minutes for full muffins

Cost: $.80

(applesauce: .40, sugar: .08, extracts: .05, oat flour: .10, cocoa: .16, other stuff: .01)

Note: There is one problem with these. They tend to sink in the middle. I suppose if I knew more about leavening I could fix this. But I don't. So, after several years of making them large and enjoying them just fine even if they were a bit sunken, I took a tip from my littlest sister and I make them into mini-muffins, which took care of the sinking problem by giving them less sinking area. So there you go--food science at its finest.

1 C applesauce

1 tsp oil

1/2 C sugar (I like brown best, but used white today because of cost)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

3/4 C oat flour*

1/3 C cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4-1/2 C chocolate chips (opt)

Mix wet ingredients together. In separate bowl (or not if you're lazy like me), mix dry ingredients. Add dry to wet. Add chocolate chips if using.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 for mini muffins. Bake 15-20 minutes for regular sized muffins.

Variation for banana chocolate muffins:

As I said above, these were good with banana if you like banana bread and that sort of thing.

In place of 1 C applesauce, use 1/2 C applesauce and 1/2 C mashed banana (about 1 banana).

*To make your own oat flour: Dump a bunch of rolled oats in the blender and blend till flour-y.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chocolate Oat Breakfast Cookies (aka Waybetterthantheylook Breakfast Cookies) (oh, and they're low-sugar too)

The Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch our family of 6 eat (or try to) on $6/day.

(Psst. I took some better pictures of these cookies now that I can actually kind of sort of work a camera. I'll leave the other pic's below so the post makes sense, but know that your food won't look entirely like deer droppings.)

(And here's the old photo.)

When you make chocolate-y things that are lumpy in form and then try to take pictures of them, you take certain risks. I will not elaborate too much on those risks, but there's a reason truffle makers often make them perfectly round or add little swirly do's to the tops--because chocolate lumpy things sometimes look like other lumpy things--things that rhyme with doggy choo, if you follow my drift.

Yeah, so anyway, these don't look like much. But they are possibly the best breakfast cookies I have made. And, not to be too humble or anything, I have made some good ones.

Also, if it matters to you, they're only 1 alteration away from being gluten free.

So get in touch with some inner beauty and give these a go.

Chocolate Oat Breakfast Cookies (aka Waybetterthantheylook Breakfast Cookies)
Makes 12-15 small cookies
Adapted from Kaylyn's Kitchen (hers look prettier than mine)
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 7-8 minutes
Cost of batch: $1.00
(Whole wheat: .12, cocoa: .25, baking soda: .01, butter .50, sugars: .05, vanilla: .01, oatmeal: .05)

Note on oat flour: I make my own by putting oats in the blender and blending until fine. It's a little chunkier than store bought, but still great (I think better in these cookies because it adds some nice texture). The original recipe actually called for "oatmeal crumbs," which would be a little coarser than what I made, but just by a bit.

Note on pecans: Nuts don't quite fit into our cheap eat challenge, but I chopped up 3 and put them in 2 of the cookies just to see how they would taste. They were really really good--and I don't usually like nuts cooked into my cookies.

Note on gluten-free oats: As you'll see in the comments, not all oats are gluten-free. However, if you need them you can order them online. After a QUICK glance over the internet, Bob's Red Mill looks to the be affordable.

Note on egg: If you'd like, you can add an egg to these (after you've creamed butter and sugar). A friend recommended this in order to make the cookies less crumbly. I tried it and it does make them more cohesive. Which is nice. However, as they stand these cookies have a rich, almost short bread/European cookie kind of taste to them. Adding the egg caused them to lose that quality. I prefer them without the egg. However, with the egg they're still delicious and they're less of a pain because they do cohese (is that a word) better.

2/3 C whole wheat flour (Use oat flour if going gluten-free)
5 T cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C butter, melted (I tried less, but it was just not wet enough--you can maybe cut out 1 Tbsp, but not much more)
2 T brown sugar
3 T white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp (a generous 1/3 C) oat flour
1/4 C chopped chocolate or chocolate chips (optional)
1/4 C chopped pecans (optional)

In large bowl mix whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a different bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix. Stir in oat flour or "oatmeal crumbs", then add chopped chocolate or pecans (or both if you like to live dangerously).

Roll into balls and then smash a bit. And by 'roll' I mean press into balls with your hands, because the dough is very very crumbly (in fact it looks like crumbs). If it's too crumbly add another T melted butter or T milk.

Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes.

P.S. These are great at room temperature, but they are out of this world a bit warm.

P.P.S. I've been doing some further experimenting with these to see if I could get them even healthier. Here are some ideas.
1. I made them with half peanut butter and half butter. Good, but I needed an extra tablespoon of milk to make them ball-able.
2. I made them with all peanut butter (I even melted the peanut butter). It turned out remarkably dry. I ended up needing to add 1/4 C more wet stuff (I was experimenting, so I threw in yogurt, butter, and milk). Still they were barely workable and came out more dry than usual. If you want to add more peanut butter, this is what I recommend: 6 Tbsn peanut butter, 2 Tbsp butter, and (probably) 2 Tbsp milk.
3. I made them with 4 Tbsp (1/4 C) butter and 4 Tbsp (1/4 C) coconut oil. In the same night (because sometimes I cannot stop myself) I made them with 1/2 C coconut oil. They were both very very good. The texture of the half butter half coconut oil was slightly more cohesive, while I preferred the flavor of the all coconut oil one (I love coconut). If you make the all coconut oil cookies, you'll probably want to add and extra tablespoon of oat flour as they were acutally a little wet (normally this dough is a bit crumbly so I was surprised). Also, I threw a tablespoon or so of coconut flakes into a couple of the test cookies and that was super super good, so if you want to add 1/4 C coconut flakes to these cookies whether or not you use coconut oil, you won't regret it (unless you hate coconut and then you will regret it). I meant to take a picture of the coconut flake ones because they were quite pretty, but then I forgot and ate them first--is that alarmingly cookie-monster-ish? Hmmm. Also, are you getting lost in these run-on sentences yet? In closing: Why coconut oil? It is supposed to be quite healthy. Have a look here if you want to know why. Coconut oil isn't cheap (I'm only able to use it for this challenge because one of my best friends gave me some as a gift), but Mountain Rose Herbs sells quality stuff for a good price. And...One final note: My son, who does not like coconut, could tell even with the half and half cookies that there was coconut in them, which surprised me. He wouldn't eat them, saying, "They taste like coconut." So, be warned.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Cheap Eat Challenge Count Down: 12 days

Don't have a mold? Worry not.

Yeah, these are good. To say they are merely better than the store bought kind would be to stab me in the heart. They are in a different league. Also, they are easy to make. And gluten-free if you've got a Christmas friend in need of such a treat. My gosh, does that make them a health food? Just don't ask your scale.

Seriously, though, if you've never made your own candy, you ought to give it a go. All homemade food is beautiful in its own right. Which is partly what makes home cooking somewhat spiritual in nature. To cook food is a small act of creation. In this, as well as other ways, it can be deeply satisfying. Which is why, even though there will be a fair amount of eating-too-many-of-these jokes throughout this post (because some in this family--who have metabolisms to handle it--can pop these babies into their mouths whole as though the peanut butter balls were wee chocolate chips), I usually just eat just one. Slowly. Happily. And that's all I need.

It's a much different experience that tossing something into your cart at check-out and, honesty--HONESTLY--it doesn't take much longer. Not including the periods of waiting for chocolate to set up, these probably took me 7 minutes to make. Not counting chocolate melting times, they probably took me 4 minutes.

And if making your own food is good, is spiritual, decorating your food is just one step further. If it were perfectly healthy, it'd be, like, food nirvana. Beautification is its own little department in the bureau of home cooking. It's not a step I always take, but with these it's easy. The melted chocolate does all the work. I believe that beautiful chocolates make women feel beautiful. If they made us feel like gross, piggy slobs, they wouldn't be given on Valentine's Day, now would they. Make them yourself and you'll feel better than beautiful. You'll feel powerful and beautiful. Now that's a food worth savoring.

If you're using a mold (they cost a buck or two at Michael's), you'll fill them with melted chocolate on the bottoms and sort of paint it up the sides with your finger. Let it harden.

  While the chocolate is setting, mix up the peanut butter filling. It won't be rock hard, but it'll be rollable.

Once your chocolate is set, add a blob of peanut butter goodness.

Then pour more chocolate on the top and voila.

Bang the mold on the counter a few times to get any air pockets out. And let it harden. Then turn the mold over and press them out.

If you're making balls, roll the peanut butter delight into balls, place them on wax or parchment paper, then dribble melted chocolate on the top.

After they've set you can flip them over and do the bottoms, but by the time I got to that step there were only 4 left (true story) and that didn't seem worth bothering about. (Though I do like the contrast of the shelled outside and the soft middle--if, you know, you and yourn have 30 minutes or so of willpower.)

If you'd like the outside to be a thinner chocolate, put a smear of melted (and not extremely hot) chocolate in the palm of your hand and roll the ball around in it.

A note on chocolate. You can buy tempered chocolate. That way your chocolate won't get light-colored splotches on it in a day or so. (Also, I hear that using very high quality chocolate helps with splotching.) You can temper your own chocolate by cooling it off at the right rate. I hear that this can be done by melting the chocolate (either in the microwave or over a double broiler), then taking it away from the heat source and adding about an ounce of hard chocolate and mixing it in until it's melted.
But you'll have to read up on the internet for more information on this because I never mess with it. First of all, it doesn't change the taste, only the appearance of the chocolate. Secondly, did you miss the part about how I couldn't even do the bottoms of my chocolate balls because there were only four left. Ahem.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Makes (I forgot to count) at least 30

Filling:

Note: If using a mold or if you want a really creamy center, you can scale back the sugar to 2 C. With the reduced sugar, you might have to get it good and cold in the refrigerator if you're rolling it into balls. It will be worth it because it is so creamy and awesome, but it requires foresight, which can be lacking in this household.

3 oz. cream cheese
2 1/2 T butter
2 1/3 C powdered sugar
1/4 C peanut butter

Beat cream cheese and butter together. Beat in powdered sugar, then peanut butter.

Roll into balls and cover with melted chocolate. You'll probably use about 1 C or 6 oz. chocolate.

How to melt chocolate:

I do it lazy style. I pour chocolate chips (semi-sweet or bittersweet) onto a plate and microwave in 20 second intervals, mixing each time the microwave dings until they're melted.

You can also use a double boiler and just pour them into the top and mix until melted.

If you don't have a double boiler or a microwave, you can put a bowl over a pan of boiling water (as in find a bowl with a top just bigger than your pan's top so the bowl is suspended above the bottom of the pan). Then get the water boiling and mix the chocolate in the bowl until it melts. But seriously, this is the type of instruction that keeps people from doing this sort of thing. Just put it in the microwave. 20 second intervals.

Dribble and harden. And eat. With joy. With love. Power. Beauty.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Pumpkin Breakfast Pie

A time to be born,

A time to die,

A time to have

A breakfast of pie.

I know which time I'm ready for.

It started when my friend gave me a piece of pumpkin pie somewhere around the beginning of October. Suddenly I couldn't get enough pumpkin. Seriously, I was like an addict who had just fallen off the wagon. Who knew? I tried out several different recipes to choose a winner for what will be my Thanksgiving day pie. And then I thought, "You know with a little less sugar and a healthier crust, a person could eat this for breakfast." Oh yeah.

(Also, I will not tell anyone if you happen to eat regular pie for breakfast. Not that I would ever do a thing like that. Nope, not me.)

It took a few tries--practically enough tries to push me over the pumpkin edge. Thus, the ramekin. By the time I hit on the final recipe, I couldn't handle a whole pie recipe anymore. Or even a half (I mean, pie wasn't the only pumpkin I was eating at this point in my life). So I pulled out my trusty math skills and reduced my recipe by a third or fourth and made 2 ramekins of pie. Don't you just love ramekins.


But for you, my friends, the full pie recipe. I should note, of course, that the vitamin A count here is something to be proud of. If you cut the pie into 8 slices, each serving will give you about a day's worth of vitamin A for only 2 teaspoons of sugar (which is about how much you get in a bowl of lightly sweetened cereal such as Honey Nut Cheerios). It is not low-fat unless you forgo the crust. Sorry, folks, sometimes something's gotta give. That said, this pie is delicious even without a crust. It's also gluten-free that way. I like it with the crust because I find it more filling.

I should note, too, that if you, like my oldest son, cannot bear to eat anything for breakfast besides cold cereal, lest the world as you know it come to an end, this also makes for a great healthy dessert. (Or you could do, as one fitness magazine I read a few years ago suggested. You can put a bit of Sweet 'n Low into 1/2 C canned pumpkin. This, the magazine, assured me, would waylay any pesky cravings I might have for a pumpkin pie. That's right--canned pumpkin mixed with artificial sweetener. I don't know about you, but I think the people who make suggestions in fitness magazines have not had regular pie for a very very long time. I'll take my chances with breakfast pie.)

May all your days be bright and may your skin not turn orange from those pesky pumpkin addictions.

Pumpkin Breakfast Pie
Serves 8

For the custard:

1 C fresh or canned pumpkin puree
3/4 C milk
1 egg
4-6 T brown sugar (white works too) (6 T will give you a pie that tastes just about like a regular pie--it works out to just over 2 t sugar per slice. 4 T is more virtuous, but works too, especially if you're the type to add a dollop of loosely whipped cream. It comes out to just over 1 t sugar per slice)
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground nutmeg
1/8 t ground ginger

Whisk pumpkin, milk, and eggs till smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, and spices and mix.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and cook for another 30-40 minutes. A nickel-sized spot in the middle should remain and be slightly jiggly when you take it out. Or, if you have a food thermometer, it must read at least 160 and will probably be closer to 180 when you take it out.

For the crust (which you may skip if you have fat and/or gluten concerns)

1 C whole wheat flour*
1/2 C white flour
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 C butter (1 stick)
4-5 T water or milk
*If you'd like more protein, swap out 1/4 C flour for 1/4 C finely chopped pecans

Combine dry ingredients.

Cut in butter. You can use a pastry cutter or even a fork or 2 knives to do this. As for me, I use a food processor. Why? Just because it's easiest and I'm not motivated to make a crust if it's difficult. I've heard a blender works too. I will not even tell if you use your hands to mash it together and thereby warm the butter (oh, the flaky pastry horrors). We're not opening a restaurant here where we need a perfectly flaked crust--just trying to get something somewhat healthy-ish and tasty under our pie. You may even note from the somewhat stunning picture above that my crust is, er, not exactly fit for a magazine cover. It tasted good anyway.

After the butter is in pea-sized chunks begin adding the water or milk (I use milk) one tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together.

Lay it on a floured counter or on a piece of parchment paper (this will make it easy to put in the pie pan) and roll it out to 1/8 inch thick. Flop it into your pan and cut off the edges. Add the pie filling and bake as instructed above.

It's good warm or cool and I like it with a dollop of loosely whipped cream because I'm that kind of a girl.

PRINTABLE RECIPE