0 Energy Bites: Healthy & Delicious (For Real!)

I don't know if you have made energy bites of some sort, but I have become a fan of these yummy and healthy snacks.   A while back, my friend Connie gave me a few of these she had made to sample.  After I had one, I immediately texted her, "YUM! I tried them and I need the recipe!"  Then, a few weeks ago it was my snack-bringing week for church and I felt the need to make something a little more substantially nutritious than the biscuits and coffee cake I had made the previous months.  I looked on my Pinterest breakfast board and found this recipe that was pretty much Connie's recipe but with peanut butter instead of almond butter. I had forgotten about the recipe! 

I made a double batch- which yielded 40 something balls.  They were all gone within a few minutes of serving them.  I don't know if people were desperately hungry or they really liked them.  We have lots of kids that congregate around our snack table at church, so I think we can call these delicious when kids and adults ate them, and we can call them healthy since they are chock full of flax seed, chia and oats! 

I made them again for my family this week and we have enjoyed having them for a quick snack or for a breakfast on the go.  I even had one for dessert the other night (though my son believes that despite that fact that they are laced with chocolate chips, they do not qualify for dessert) !

I'm trying to have things on hand that are protein-rich, as my kids tend to reach for crackers, chips, and starches for snacks.  Lately, I've made Hummus and Texas Caviar to have in the refrigerator and try to always keep yogurt and smoothie-making supplies on hand.  If I get my act together to have the good stuff within reach, and prep a couple of things for the week, they have good, tasty, healthy things within reach.  

 

Energy Bites

Makes about 20

1 cup (dry) old fashioned oatmeal

2/3 cup coconut flakes

½ cup peanut butter (or almond butter- take your pick)

½ cup ground flaxseed

½ cup mini chocolate chips

1/3 cup honey

1 Tbsp. chia seeds

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.  Let set in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  

Form into small balls (about golf ball size).  

Put in an air tight container and keep in refrigerator. 

If this inspires you to get into healthy oatey bar/bite making, I have two granola bar recipes I love that I wrote about HERE and HERE and my favorite go-to granola recipe HERE, oh and the lovely chewy peanut butter granola HERE.  If you are short on time, these simple but nutritionally dense bites are super easy and quick to put together.  

Detail: Energy Bites: Healthy & Delicious (For Real!)

0 Making Banana Pancakes

Having middle schoolers is so interesting.  I'm seeing things about them as people, individual humans that I am fascinated by.  I sometimes wonder which of these attributes will be forever parts of them and which ones are seasonal.  An interesting quality about my son is that he cherishes ritual and celebration. More than anyone in our home.  He's the one who thinks of special ways to honor me on Mother's Day, and wants to commemorate the first day of school, or the first day of summer vacation with certain foods and traditions. Food really is the main focus of his celebrating.  He comes by this honestly.  I really think food is the cornerstone of most celebrating.  

Like earlier this month for my birthday.  I thought of a few activities that were non-food related, like hiking at Radnor Lake and cleaning my laundry room (I know, glamorous…thank you Gretchen for indulging), but for the most part it was about food and coffee.  

So, one of the desires of my son is to have "Saturday breakfast".  A real one.  Seated around the table not standing around or perched at the bar.  Weekday mornings are on-the-go and running about.  People fend for themselves or request a smoothie or egg to be made while someone is already blending or flipping.  The kids usually sit at the bar and Dave and I stand.  So, when we can, I try to honor this Saturday Breakfast Ritual. I love it too.  And I love that he loves it.  

The four mainstays of our Saturday Breakfasts are:

 our favorite Oh Boy Waffles.  If you haven't tried them you must.  They are like no other waffles.

And the Mile High Biscuits.  You need to make them this week! I crave them very often.

And French Toast - inspired by the Pancake Pantry.

And Banana Pancakes.

We were not having great luck with our Joy of Cooking recipe- they were flatter than a pancake! 

But my friend Melissa B. pointed me to the Martha Stewart Classic Pancake recipe and BINGO it's a winner.  It's a great classic pancake- that you can tweak and add to.  I love a Buckwheat pancake, or cornmeal or grainy one, but my family would rather stick to these fluffy, classic ones.

And as long as we can add some toasted pecans and sliced bananas, I'm happy with these pancakes.  They are predictable and easy.

Basic Pancakes
by Martha Stewart

1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
1 large egg

Butter or oil for pan

Assorted toppings or mix ins: chopped bananas, toasted pecans, berries, mini chocolate chips

Soft butter and syrup

Preheat oven to 200˚; have a baking sheet ready to keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, butter (or oil), and egg.  Add dry ingredients to milk mixture; whisk until just moistened (do not over mix; a few small lumps are fine).  If you are adding mix-ins, do so now.

Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.  Rub skillet with a little butter or oil on a paper towel.

For each pancake, spoon 2-3 Tbsp. of batter onto skillet, using the back of the spoon to spread batter into a round.  (Or use one of those fancy pancake pens- which I don't have or I would have provided photos to demonstrate. It's on my wish list.)

Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles and a few have burst, 1 to 2 minutes.  Flip carefully with a thin spatial and cook until brown on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more.  Transfer to baking sheet; cover loosely with aluminum foil, and keep warm in oven.
Continue oiling/buttering pan before each pancake pouring.

Top with butter, syrup, and/or fruit, nuts, etc.

Enjoy!!

I can't help but sing the Jack Johnson song, Banana Pancakes, every time I make them! Do you know this song? It's a great weekend, breakfast-making soundtrack.  That entire album is.  I looked up the lyrics so I could really sing along and realized that I really didn't relate to it at all  (except that I like to make banana pancakes), nor was it the most family friendly lyrically.   So, for those of you who get to lie in bed on a weekday with your spouse and tempt him/her to stay in bed and take the morning slow and eat banana pancakes, then this might be your anthem.  My anthem is more about choosing to wake up early so that we can steal a quiet hour of drinking coffee, chatting, reading and centering before the onslaught of children and busyness and tasks enter the scene.  Unlike the song, our banana pancakes are requested by our children who devour them in 8 minutes.  And after a  "thanks for the pancakes" they are ready to move on to the next activity of the day.  Nevertheless, I still play the song when we make Banana Pancakes.

It's such fun to honor my teenager's desire to sit around the table together and make a special Saturday breakfast memory. I don't assume that this will always be the case, though with him, it just might.

Detail: Making Banana Pancakes

0 Brownie Bottom Coconut Bars & Honoring MLK

For about 8 years my family has sought to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King on his birthday weekend.
We talk about the life and work of Dr. King, and we think about what we can do in our lives to carry on the work for equality and dignity for all people that he and his colleagues did. I posted HERE about this tradition. As my kids are getting older, I want to think of some even more significant things we can do for this holiday.

I always make a treat that somehow incorporates chocolate and vanilla to represent racial integration and togetherness.  I have made cookies and cakes of various sorts.  Like this one.

I was trying to decide what to make for this year- a new recipe, one we've done in the past, a variation on a standard.  But when I was looking for another recipe in a stack of my old Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazines I found this recipe for Brownie-Bottom Coconut Bars.  I have had the recipe in my torn out magazine pages for years but have never made them.  I knew they would have to be good since they are brownie on the bottom and coconut macaroon on the top!  I decided MLK weekend would be a good time to make them, with their black and white togetherness.  They are simple to make and they are really, really good!

They are pretty and feel special.  All of my coconut-loving people gobbled them up.

Brownie-Bottom Coconut Bars 
from martha stewart's Every Day Food magazine

Chocolate Brownie Base:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Coconut Topping:
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 package (7 oz.) sweetened shredded coconut (1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling)

For the brownie:
Preheat oven to 375˚
Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a slight overhang; butter bottom and sides of foil (not overhang)
Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl; melt in microwave.
Add sugar and salt; whisk to combine.
Whisk in egg, then cocoa and flour until smooth.
Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake just until sides begin to pull away from edges of pan, 10 to 15 minutes (do not over bake). Let cool slightly while preparing coconut topping.  Keep oven on for topping.

For the coconut topping:
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with sugar and vanilla.  Gently mix in flour and coconut (except 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling).
Drop mounds of mixture over chocolate base; spread and pat in gently and evenly with moistened fingers.  Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup coconut.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes.  Cool completely in pan.  Lift cake from pan,  peel off foil, and cut into 24 bars.

It makes 24 small bars- but they are rich- so being small is good.

In our city Regal Cinemas and Metro Public Schools teamed up to offer free admission to students to see SELMA in the theaters.  We went on Saturday and it was very impactful.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do.

It was hard  to watch.  It was emotional  and painful  and honest  and hard.  Lainey and I held hands most of the time and cried a lot during the film.  It was really important though.

It is a very well done film and a raw look at the difficulty of a tumultuous and unjust time in our country and the bravery of some amazing people. I think we need to know and remember and in doing so deepen our compassion for the not-so-long-ago events that continue to have ripple effects today.

Thanking God for the courage, clarity and spiritual strength of Dr. King and his comrades this weekend and praying that we might be people of conviction and action like them.

Detail: Brownie Bottom Coconut Bars & Honoring MLK

0 Frozen Fruit Salad and Pumpkin Seed Roasting: Childhood Memories

Aside from a few seasonal fruits, including apples (which I adore and eat daily) the upcoming months of fresh fruit options do not compare with the BOUNTIFUL VARIETY of summer fruits!  That's when it's time to get creative.

this Jell-O ad is reminiscent of our
grandmother's creations

Growing up,  my grandmother made the most creative and interesting frozen and congealed salads. Some were delicious.  Others were frightening.  My sister and I were often a tad fearful of some of her frozen and gelatin creations.

However, my mom made this Frozen Fruit Salad as a staple in our house and we loved it.  She froze it in various sized and shaped molds and kept it on-hand in the freezer.  It is great for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It is made from all canned ingredients (aside from the bananas) so, it's a good fruit salad to keep in mind for the months when there are not many good fresh fruits to choose from.

We called it "F.F" for short and requested it frequently.  I even had a friend in High School who would ask my mom, when he came over with youth group pals, if we had any F.F.  It was famous.

Frozen Fruit Salad

1 large can frozen orange juice concentrate (12 oz) 
1 (orange juice) can of water
1 large can apricots
1 large can crushed pineapple
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 ripe (but not overly ripe) bananas

Mash bananas and put lemon juice over them. 
Mash apricots and add all over ingredients. 
Pour into muffin tins or individual molds. Freeze until solid.
Pop them out of the pans and place in large ziploc bags or plastic containers.
(If they don't easily come out, run a table knife around the edge and/or pour room temperature water over the back side of the pans. I flip muffin pans over on top of a baking sheet and pour water over, so that if one falls, it falls on the pan.) You can also use paper cupcake liners. 

Makes 30-32 cup cake sized cups. 

It's so simple and easy and is tangy and delicious.  I love that it has apricots in it- a fruit that is so delicious. (You can certainly alter the recipe anyway you would like.)
Here is the original recipe:

And speaking of foods from my childhood, we roasted pumpkin seeds this weekend. It's a childhood tradition that I have continued. When we carved a pumpkin at a neighborhood party last weekend, we scooped out the seeds and brought them home.  My kids were anxious to roast them and snack on them immediately. We decided to do 1/2 salty and 1/2 sweet.  (We all voted that we liked the salty best.)
I love that my kids know that if it's pumpkin carving time, then seed roasting is part of the fun.

Salty Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons melted butter (or olive oil)

2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.





Scoop out the inside of your pumpkin, and separate seeds from pulp. Don't worry if there's a little pulp left on the seeds when you roast them—it only adds flavor. Just remove the biggest pieces so that the seeds are easy to toss.





In a bowl, toss the seeds with the melted butter, coating thoroughly.  Add salt and seasonings.





Spread seeds in one even layer across a greased baking sheet (or you can use a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil).





Bake for 30 minutes, or until the seeds are golden brown. Stir the seeds every so often while

they're baking, so that they toast evenly.

(For the sweet ones, we substituted cinnamon/sugar mixture for the salt.  It might have been better to put a little salt with the sweet ingredients). 

These next few months are a great chance to carry on a family tradition or try a new recipe!  It adds zest to life and gives us fun things to break up the sometimes mundane grind of life.

Detail: Frozen Fruit Salad and Pumpkin Seed Roasting: Childhood Memories

0 Mile High Biscuits & Motherhood

At times days creep by in this very full life (especially the last weeks of summer break), yet the years seem to be flying by.  It has dawned on me lately, with my 12 year old son, that  I don’t have many more years with him in my home!!!  Dave and I are potentially nearing the end of being his primary influences.  Oh dear mercy.  This is a hard reality to face. And I can’t imagine life without him in the daily fray.  But I can’t really think about that today.

This reality has caused me to step back and consider what I haven’t yet passed on to my kids that I want to.  I have begun to pray for wisdom to know what they need from me that I can show them or teach them while they are still under my roof. 

I realized one morning when I called out, “Anyone want to make biscuits with me?” and my 10 year old yelled back, “No thanks, Mom!”, that she had never made biscuits with me and I really needed to teach her.  It would be a misstep if she were launched into the world without knowing how to make some of our favorite foods. I decided that instead of a general ask, I needed to pursue her and invite her into the secrets of biscuit making.  I told her I wanted her to come and let me teach her, because it was something I wanted her to know how to do!

She agreed to come and stand beside me and learn how to make from-scratch biscuits. As we did, I had to slow down and become more patient as she took far longer to cut the butter into pieces than my comfortable-with-a-knife-hands are.  She didn’t like the sticky mess that was part of the job.  I realized that this was perhaps one of the reason she had opted out of the task every time.  (These are good moments for life lessons- life is sometimes really messy, but it's often worth the mess to enjoy the finished product.) She wanted to use a spoon, but I told her that I think our hands are our best tools, as they are calibrated and intuitive more than any other kitchen utensil. *(see footnote on this idea) She had to be taught that biscuits must be handled lightly and not pressed down – which is different from the sugar cookie cut outs that she is more familiar with.  I told her it’s like people.  Some people need to be handled more carefully – a truth she knows well.  I told her I would love for her to be the biscuit maker of the house.  She lit up at that suggestion.  We have talked about people’s “signature” dishes that are so fun to discover. I told her that this biscuit recipe is new to me and my favorite yet! We are never too old to learn a new trick.

I have made biscuits of many varieties through the years.  This Cheddar Biscuit is one of my favorites.  But these biscuits are even more magical because of the stacks of flaky, buttery layers. The layers are similar to the scones I love so much from The Bread Bible.  
This recipe for “Mile High Biscuits” is from In Praise of Leftovers.  (I have mentioned this blog before and posted her Blueberry Muffins on the blog that are amazing!) 
Sarah reports in her blog post that people in her life call them “Sarah’s biscuits” but she kindly encourages readers to “call them yours”.
  

I have told Lainey that these could be “Lainey’s biscuits” if she wanted.

They require quick and careful work but are so simple for the amazing results they yield. (Sarah actually has posted these biscuits twice- once in January 2010 and another time September 2012.  Her instructions are a little different in each as to how to handle the dough.  I recommend you try them both and then find the method that creates the best results for your altitude, oven, and hands!)

Mile-HighBiscuits
borrowed from In Praise of Leftovers

2 cups flour


1 Tbsp. baking powder


1/2 tsp. coarse salt


8 Tbsp. (one stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup cold milk + a little more for brushing the tops

Preheat oven to 450˚

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Drop butter in and cut in with your fingertips until mixture has pea-sized lumps of cold butter all through it. Do this as quickly as possible so the butter doesn't get too warm.  Pour the cold milk evenly over and mix quickly with a wooden spoon, forming a ball.

Let dough rest for one minute.

Now for the rolling-out part.  This is what gives the biscuits their flaky layers.

• With a floured rolling pin on a floured surface, roll your ball of dough into a rectangle, about 6" x 11" and about 3/4" thick- though don't roll it too hard. 
• Turn the rectangle around so you're standing parallel to the long end.  Fold the short ends of the rectangle in toward the middle (like a set of french double doors).
• Now take the folded rectangle and fold the whole thing down toward you in half.
• Roll that dough out into a rectangle again about 3/4 inch thick. Cut biscuits.  Take scraps, do the same procedure, and cut biscuits out of that.

Place 1/2" apart on baking sheet.  Brush lightly with milk. 

Bake until golden on top but not burned on the bottom, 10-14 minutes, checking frequently after 10 minutes.

I'm praying to be a good steward of the time I have to teach my children about life and love and God.  I find that oftentimes these moments happen in the kitchen or around the dinner table. 

___________________________________________________________

* In May of 2012, I wrote the following on my blog, and it bears repeating:

In An Everlasting Meal, (which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago), the author Tamar Adler writes about using our senses to assist in cooking. She talks about using your sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing in the kitchen.  She writes, "You must taste and taste.  Taste everything and often.  Taste even if you're scared...

Listen as though you could cook something just by hearing it...

When you touch the food you cook, you develop intelligence in your fingertips.  I cook mostly with my hands:  they're calibrated, by now, to turn things at the right moments, to choose correct amounts of salt."

Detail: Mile High Biscuits & Motherhood