Calling All 'Healthy Snack' Makers

I'm looking for some good kid-yummy, kinda healthy, not too fancy recipes for school snacks. Cammy's our picky eater. He'll eat my banana choc. chip muffins, choc. chip cookies and zucchini brownies (the zucchini part's our secret, okay?). Do you see the common denominator here? Chocolate. Ri likes my oat bars, most muffins and banana bread. Nolie - well, as long as the muffins are minis, he'll eat them.

Does anyone have something yummy they'd like to share? I'd love a plain ole chocolate chip muffin recipe as I'm not struck on mine. Cookies? Squares? Bars? Anything? The only condition is no nuts. What do you say? Can you help?

Strawberry Dream Cream

Riley received a cookbook for her birthday, called 'Simply in Season Children's Cookbook.' It's chock full of yummy seasonal goodness and Ri's been itching to try it out. All in good time, I say, as ingredients become locally available - which is, after all, the point of the book.

Awhile back, my co-worker, Bev, dug out some mint from her garden and gave it me. (I love when people share like that.) So, Ri made Orange Minty with it. Ya, I know - orange isn't exactly seasonal here...ever, but now she knows a little about mint and how to use it. Baby steps. (It's more than I knew when I was ten.)

Last night we moved on to the next big recipe. Any guesses on the main ingredient? I'll give you a couple of hints. It's June and it starts with straw...yes, good. We've still got lots of strawberries so she made Strawberry Ice Cream. Here's how she did it...

Strawberry Dream Cream
(from Simply in Season Children's Cookbook)

500 - 750ml strawberries (2 - 3 cups)
Remove stems from strawberries. Use a fork to mash strawberries in a bowl.


500 ml whipping cream (2 cups)
Pour whipping cream into a large, deep mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form.


300 ml sweetened condensed milk (1-1/4 cups)
250 ml cold water (1 cup)
6 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Add with mashed strawberries to whipped cream. Beat with electric mixer. Pour mixture into a 3.5L pan (9" x 13"). Freeze until mushy, 3 to 4 hours. Remove from freezer and put back into mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth but not melted. Spoon into popsicle containers or return mixture to pan. Freeze another 3 hours.

~~~~~~~

For dessert tonight, we had ice cream. Strawberry ice cream. Like ice cream should taste.

These Won't Last Long

Awhile back, my good friend, Anonymous, kindly passed on a muffin recipe in the comment section here. Anonymous is good that way - always sharing and stuff. And she's really good at hide-and-seek too. Anyway, tonight I tried the recipe he left and, man-oh-man, it is good. Paul just snuck one (I was watching), and all I heard was, 'mmmm' as he walked down the hallway. If you believe nothing else that I tell you, believe this: you have got to try this recipe. Or get someone to try it for you. And then share.

Chocolate Cheese Cake Muffins

Topping
250gm cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Cake
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup salad oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Grease muffin tin. Fill 2/3 full with the cake mix and then add the cream cheese mixture on top. Bake at 350* for about 20 -25 minutes.


And, dear friend Anonymous, please don't be shy. I know who you are, really I do, but my faithful followers don't and I just know that they will want to thank you for your contribution. So, please, ole pal, leave us a note so we can properly express our appreciation. (And if you won't do that, could you leave some kind of *code* that only you and I would know. You know. Just for fun.)

~Liz

The Fog May Be Lifting

There hasn't been a lot of baking going on around here. Just haven't been in the mood for it since Christmas. But yesterday the fog started lifting and I felt like I was coming back around. Riley had asked for chocolate chip muffins last week so I found a couple of recipes and gave one a try yesterday. Must have been good because the last two disappeared this morning.

Since I had all this stuff out, I figured I might as well keep going so I pulled some blueberries out of the freezer and made four loaves of lemon blueberry bread. (There's one with your name on it, Marian.) There were also some bananas languishing in the freezer so I baked up a couple of loaves of banana bread. And, just for good measure, I made a loaf of cornbread - another request by Ri.

Last night I wandered over to visit Darlene who lives next door. Her birthday was last week, so I took her gift over and also brought a loaf of lemon blueberry and a loaf of banana bread. Her son, Shane, seemed particularly happy to see the banana bread.

Today I made a couple more batches of muffins - this time a batch of chocolate chocolate chip muffins (without the nuts) and a remake of yesterday's chocolate chip muffins. I'll have to hide some so they make it through the week.

The temperatures have warmed up here too. Yesterday we made it up to +3 and today, things are hovering around zero. A lot of snow has melted and the driveway has turned into a really bad skating rink. The happy snowfamily that came to life last week now looks more like a poorly cast production of the Wizard of Oz - "I'm melting! Melting..." But, it's nice to see the frigid temps leave again for a bit. Should be nice tomorrow for Riley's second of three ski trips with the school.

This week I'm going to get ready for the Cold Antler Farm snap pea challenge. I'm up for anything that remotely feels like summer. ;o)

Have a great week everyone!

~Liz

Cookies and Candyland

Tomorrow is our annual Christmas cookie exchange at work so today 8 dozen cookies had to be made. First things first, though, the boys and I decided to play a rousing game of Candyland. It was a close game, neck-and-neck for quite awhile, until Cammy turned up the Queen Frostine card. Drat. Nolie and I pretty much knew we were done. (Actually, Nolie had no clue; he's just happy that he's figured out how to play the game. "Two gween. One, two, thwee, four." Somehow he ends up at the right place anyway.)

For the cookie bake, I decided to make yummy chocolate mint truffle cookies. Seems to me I make them most years but they are sooo good.


Chocolate Mint Truffle Cookies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 oz semisweet chocolate
3/4 c butter
1-1/2 c granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp mint extract
1-1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c mini chocolate chips (the first time I made this I couldn't read my handwriting and used mint chips instead - I've used mint every time since)
1/3 c crushed candy cane

• In heavy saucepan over medium-low heat or in microwave on low, melt unsweetened and semisweet chocolate and butter. Remove from heat. Whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs, 1 at a time. Whisk in mint extract.
• In a bowl, whisk flour with baking powder; stir into chocolate mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Transfer to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate for 2 hours. (Make ahead: refrigerate for up to 24 hours)
• Roll dough by heaping teaspoonfulls into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart, on parchment paper-lined or greased rimless baking sheets. Bake in top and bottom thirds of oven at 350F until slightly firm to the touch, about 8 minutes, rotating and switching pans halfway through.
• Remove from oven and sprinkle each cookie with scant 1/4 tsp chopped candy. Let cool on pan on rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; let cool completely. Store in layers separated by wax paper for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 1 month. (Canadian Living, Holiday Best, 2001)

Mmmm, they look good enough for, well, Santa.

~Liz

Lemons and Blueberries

This morning I was grabbing something out of the freezer downstairs when I noticed one of the thousands of bags of frozen blueberries that had been packed away. I was out to Wilmot several times this past summer, sometimes dragging kids kicking and screaming (mwahahaha), once picking peacefully by myself and, on the final visit, I even managed to put the hubby to work out there. Oh, I love picking berries. The blueberries this summer were beautiful...to look at, anyway; quite honestly, I can't stand the taste of them. But everyone else in the family loves them and a bowlful of blueberries is devoured in seconds.

Tonight I was bored and looking for something to do. Okay. Not really. But the kids were actually...wait for it...getting along and I wanted to use some of those berries so I looked through my collection of recipes and found this one for Lemon Blueberry Bread.

I made a couple of changes. First of all, no walnuts. Second, there's no lemon zest in the house so I added more lemon juice. Instead of white sugar, I used icing sugar and added a couple of extra tbsp to thicken the glaze. Paul and I each tried a slice and it's very moist but more like cake than bread. (That's not a complaint!) Yummy. The glaze adds a nice tang to it although I may add a bit more lemon next time. I think this recipe is a keeper.

~Liz

Toll House Cookies

Paul's Mum is something of a tin collector and every now and then, one or two come my way. Recently I 'inherited' a Toll House cookie tin...and am I ever glad I did. On the side of the tin is the recipe for the original Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Oh, they're good. Sweet. Chocolatey. Yummy. And according to the tin - still a favourite today. Mmm.

Last night I made a batch. We all tasted one (or two) when they came out of the oven and the kids each took a couple to school in their lunches. And when I got home tonight they were nearly gone. As a matter of fact, the few that were left were up on top of the fridge because of the frequency with which little hands were visiting the cookie jar. I guess that proves that they really are - still a favourite today. Here's the recipe...

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

2-1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 c (Nestle Toll House) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large mixer bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract; beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonsfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (I reuse parchment paper).

Bake at 375F, 9-11 minutes.
Makes about 5 dozen 2-1/4 inch cookies.


I don't like nuts in cookies so I leave them out. Besides the kids go to a nut-free school (kind of ironic when you consider that the kids are nuts; but I digress). And I don't get anywhere near 5 dozen cookies, but let's face it - 2-1/4" cookies aren't gonna cut it in this house.

~Liz


** Update, Dec6, 8:50pm - Just spoke with Calvin McBonk who has just pulled his Toll House cookies out of the oven. We have decided that this recipe is good enough to cover the four food groups: you've got yer flour (grain), butter (dairy), eggs (well, they come from a meaty animal) and they're in the shape of a slice of cucumber (vegetable). Sounds like Sunday supper to me. ~L

Aunt Jemima Doesn't Live Here Anymore

We like pancakes. Some of us like them with chocolate chips in them. Others, blueberries. Me? I like them plain. Pancakes are pretty much a hit around here. But you don't get many meals out of a box of Aunt Jemima.

So, I decided to find a recipe for homemade pancakes. I figured they can't be that difficult to make and since I'm baking more now, I'll probably have the ingredients on hand. I searched the internet and came up with this one. They're pretty good.

Over time, I altered it a bit. See, I have a thing about using whole wheat in place of all-purpose flour. I've used whole wheat in muffin, and banana and zucchini bread recipes that called for white flour and had no problems. But this summer I invested in a grain mill and that all changed.

A month or so ago, Paul & Nolan picked up a 25kg bag of hard spring wheat for me at Merrylynd, an organic farm near Lakefield and I tried it out. Hmm, not the same. Now, when I say not the same, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do have to figure out the tricks to baking with homeground flour 'cause it's not the same as store-bought.

The first couple of whole wheat loaves I made didn't rise. I did some surfing and found that w. wheat flour is lower in gluten than white bread flour. Turns out that vital wheat gluten does one thing - it helps improve the rise and texture of bread; it adds elasticity. So, I picked some up at the Bulk Barn. It's not cheap, but you don't need a whole lot either; about 1-1/2 to 3 tsps for every cup of w. wheat or rye flour. Now my bread rises.

I've also had to start over with my muffin, banana bread and pancake recipes. I tried the pancake recipe a month ago or so with only homeground flour. Not so good - it didn't stick together the way it should have. So, I've gone back to the start. Each time I make it, I replace another 1/2 cup of white with another 1/2 cup of w. wheat. This time I used 1 cup of w. wheat and 2 cups of all purpose (I double the recipe). It was good. I don't want to use the gluten because of the cost and besides this is working.

Tonight we all sat down to a plateful of pancakes, maple syrup from the Staples farm in Cavan (and three time world champion to boot), and some apples from Allin's in Newcastle. By the time we were finished, our tummies were full.

~Liz