For Kylie with Love

So my sister Kylie (AKA Zippaloo or Zip) of All Things Food has been nagging strongly encouraging me to get back to blogging about food. Every time we talk or Skype I tell her about all the fun and tasty things I’ve made since we last spoke. She’s been requesting photos, recipes, etc. So here’s a few desserts I’ve made since moving into our new place…

Carrot Cake (free of animal products, gluten, and refined sugar)

Cashew Creme

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cashews, soaked for 3+ hours then drained

7 dates, pits removed

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 +1/8 your choice of nondairy milk (I used my homemade almond milk)

Tiny pinch of Sea Salt

Optional:

Spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, etc.

Directions:

Blitz ingredients in food processor until creamy.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

Next up…..

Mmmmm Mango…

Raw “Cheesecake”

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 rounded cup Almonds

3 Dates, pits removed

Filling:

1 cup Cashews, soaked overnight then drained

Agave to your liking (I don’t like mine to be too sweet)

2 tablespoons Lemon Juice (If you make it too lemony you’ll end up with Lemon Bars like Kylie’s did.)

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

pinch of Salt

Directions:

Blitz Almonds to your desired consistency in a food processor then add dates and blitz again until it forms into a ball.

Press the crust into a bread pan, slightly oiled if you’d like (I used a little coconut oil). Put in freezer until you’re done with filling.

Blitz  all the filling ingredients in a food processor, blender, etc. until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness and spice if adding. Layer the filling over the crust, smooth it out, then put in fridge until ready to eat. Cuts easily and is great with fresh fruit.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

And a very common dessert in the Ahern household…

Banana Soft Serve

It was just frozen bananas this time, but I love to add other fruit, nuts, cocoa, almond milk, spices, etc. Check out my next post for a delicious mix in I made.

P.S. Kylie, thanks for your encouragement to get back to blogging!

DIY Peanut Butter (1st Guest Post by Kylie Wolf, a.k.a. Zippaloo)

A staple in many families, perfectly paired with jelly, honey, or chocolate is the one and only PEANUT BUTTER.

Peanut butter is and has been a pivotal ingredient in my life.  Here are some classic ways to enjoy peanut butter:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (PB&J) - I personally don’t like jelly but the majority of this country does, I just eat it plain, though some of my relatives and my siblings would eat a peanut butter and butter sandwich coined the “butter butter” sandwich.

All the Reeses products – Growing up, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups would get shipped in from the US to the Commissary in Dhahran. My friends and I would beg our parents to buy many more than we needed because we didn’t know the next time they would be available. Sometimes they would be out of stock for months!

Peanut Butter Cookies -  I enjoy these the most right out of the oven, and with a Hershey’s kiss in the center.  YUM!

The list can go on and on and on… with snacks and even more gourmet options like restaurants using peanut sauces on entrees (grilled chicken skewers with a thai peanut sauce is one of my favorites).

But growing up in Dhahran I loved Peter Pan creamy peanut butter (with the yellow cap) it was super smooth, sweet, and would get stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Which is all great except for the ingredients!

Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter’s INGREDIENTS:

Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed and Rapeseed), Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil.

YIKES!

I care a lot about the food that I put into my body.  I changed my ways and now (thanks to being educated about food) I only buy and eat all natural, organic peanut butter.

Making sure the only ingredient is: Dry Roasted Peanuts.

Over the holidays in Dhahran there was no all-natural peanut butter at the store, so I convinced my dad to do something I had wanted to do for a while:  make my own peanut butter.

If true peanut butter is just ground up peanuts it had to be simple enough and with looking on the Internet and in the Cuisinart cookbook, it was true!

Recipe for Peanut Butter:

Ingredients:

• dry roasted peanuts

(we used raw white peanuts, but I would now recommend buying dry roasted peanuts)

Directions:

• Place peanuts in food processor.
• Process the peanuts for 3-5 mins. Enjoy watching the peanuts turn to powder then form a dough-like ball and roll around the processor. (Dad and I were so amazed I forgot to take pictures!)
• Let the paste sit for about 3 mins for the oils to separate from the peanuts. (You should see the oil bead).
• Process again for as long as you want. The more you process the creamier your peanut butter will be.

With all the excitement and the intensity of the peanut butter (it had a pure peanuts punch!) we skyped Sam to include her on the fun.

The three of us had lots of laughs, oohs and ahhs, and bounced around ideas:

• To decrease the intensity, add honey to the recipe or drizzle honey on the saltines with the PB.

• Try it with ice cream -
  • Vanilla Ice Cream, homemade PB, Hershey’s chocolate sauce.

• Try it with banana slices -
  • Here is an elaborate but delicious snack. Banana sliced, topped with a little PB, sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut flakes.

• Bake it into brownies.

• Try it with oatmeal.
  • I eat oatmeal almost ever day of the week.
    • Cook ½ cup rolled oats with ¾ cup water and a dash of salt in the microwave for 3 mins.
    • Add PB, raisins, generous amounts of cinnamon, and a splash of soy milk.

Health Facts about Peanut butter:

PB should NOT include sugar, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), salt, or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Good, healthy, pure peanut butter is JUST ground up dry roasted peanuts.  No need for extra oil, or extra anything.  Make sure you check the ingredients because even Peanut Butter’s that claim to be “Natural” are still made with some of these intruders.

Sugar and HFCS get put in because the US loves sugar and it enhances the flavor. HFCS is incredibly cheap to produce (it’s made from Corn) and is found in thousands of products. It is really just another form of sugar.  Unfortunately adding these ingredients increases your sugar intake, your calorie intake, and your insulin levels.
Hydrogenated vegetable oils are added to stabilize the peanut butter, make it easier to spread, and to prevent oil separation.  I don’t think any of those things is worth the risks that Trans Fats (trans fatty acids) can cause: atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, or a stroke.
Salt is added to prevent spoilage.

Benefits:

Peanut butter does contain mostly fats, but these fats are monounsatuarated fats and they help protect against the risk of cardiovascular disease and lower levels of LDL (“bad” cholesterol).

Peanut butter (and peanuts) also provide proteins, vitamin B3, folate, vitamin E, magnesium, and fiber.

If you have a peanut allergy:

First, I’m sorry, I have a serious love for peanut butter and can’t imagine a life without it.

Second, please be very be very careful – a reaction to peanut allergy is anaphylactic shock and many factories use the same machinery for peanuts as other things, check labels. Better to be safe than sorry.

I hope this post will make all you readers more excited and aware of America’s simple and classic snack, peanut butter. And be sure to check the ingredients of the peanut butters you now purchase!

If you have a food processor I recommend that you buy 1/4 kilogram of peanuts and try this recipe out!

Its easy and delicious.

Kylie (a.k.a. Zippaloo)

*** Check out Kylie’s new blog here! ***

Avocados for Dessert and Channeling Jason Mraz

So a while back my sister Kylie (aka Zippaloo) told me that the singer Jason Mraz not only has an avocado farm <sigh> but is a raw foodist! I love avocados. I like them with veggies and eggs for breakfast (I’m still eating eggs now and then), in salads, sandwiches, on top of chili or soup, or as a spread or dip.

Around the same time I heard the news about Jason and his avocados my friend Natasha posted about a raw lime pie she had made using avocados. (She had found the recipe here.) I had to try it as I had never thought of avocados as a dessert ingredient and was a bit skeptical. I looked at the recipe and tweaked it as I went along tasting. I’ve got to say that next time I will not be using Coconut Oil. As much as I’m coocoo for Coconut, the tang of the oil over-powered the tartness of the limes and no amount of lime juice and agave could bring the right flavor back. I ended up drizzling it with agave and a bit of lime juice and it was still good, just not perfect.

So I didn’t keep track of all the measurements but the version I’ll make in the future will have look like this:

Raw Key Lime Tart

Ingredients:

• Avocados
• Key Lime Juice (I like it more tart than sweet)
• Agave
• Pistachios (or other nuts if you must)
• Dates
• Shredded Unsweetened Coconut (optional for crust)
  

Directions:

• Blitz up the crust (1 part Pistachios and 1 part Dates).
• Press it into a tart tin and put in the freezer.
• Blitz the rest of the ingredients for the filling (tasting all the way).
• Put the filling on top of the crust and freeze again.
• Note: Can be kept in the freezer, but best to put it in the fridge an hour before serving.

OK, so avocados as an ingredient in sweet dishes not just savory ones blew my mind. I think it’s brilliant that someone thought of this. Avocados really have such a great creamy consistency, taste like whatever you add to it, and are such a great alternative to dairy products. As you know I’m interested in eating more vegetarian/vegan/raw, but I’ve been skeptical about desserts. I am starting to see the light. Tonight I decided I wanted to try to make a chocolate pudding. Here’s what I came up with:

Chocolate Pudding (Serves 2-4)

Ingredients:

• 1 Avocado
• 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
• 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
• 1/3 cup Water
• 1-2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

Directions:

• Place everything but the water in a blender or food processor and blitz.
• Gradually add water until creamy.

This was super delicious! The consistency was somewhere between pudding and mousse. I love chocolate mousse and I must say that I could trade this vegan/raw version for the dairy/cow hoof versions for the rest of my life. Also, Jim really loved it and despite the richness, ate all of it. I hope to feed this to some friends or family and tell them that it’s vegan, raw, and made with avocado afterward. Jim agreed that people wouldn’t be able to tell.

Side Note: Back to Jason Mraz…since moving to Costa Rica Jim and I have listened to Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” a fair bit and often sing it while walking on the beach together. (We’re goobers.) My sister Kylie got to see Jason Mraz live this fall and loved it. Although I can’t catch him on tour this year in person, I can see him (or other people) play his music online. Check out this little guy rock it (even with an itchy nose):