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make your own almond milk
Alright, alright. I’ve been talking about being healthy for awhile now, so I think it’s time I posted a healthy recipe, don’t you?
I’ve been seeing these Chia Seed Pudding recipes pop up all over the web. Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic has one, and I just found another in the January issue of Martha Stewart Living earlier this year. Most are made with some sort of vegan milk alternative, and since I had had success with making almond milk last year, I thought I’d make the pudding with almond milk.
huge caramel apples
When I was sick and wanted to die with my first pregnancy, I used to lie on the couch for hours (holding an empty bucket that was newly washed out and smelled like Pine Sol), and watch lame television shows to pass the time. The Rosie O’Donnell show wasn’t lame though. That was the best part of my day. And certainly better than puking.
She used to be in love with those giant caramel apples from Williams Sonoma, and ever since then, I’ve always wanted to try one. Sometimes you have to just take the plunge and spend over $20 on a good treat, but in the last 13 years since hearing about them, I never have. When the kids asked me to make caramel apples for them the other day, I thought I’d take a whack at something resembling the ones at Williams Sonoma. They were the perfect thing to celebrate the arrival of fall.
kashi’s peanutty dark chocolate layered granola bars
Remember that post I did about Kashi’s 7 Grain Flakes & Granola with Black Currants & Walnuts last month? Kashi also sent me their new TLC Peanutty Dark Chocolate Layered Granola Bars for me and my family to try out and asked me to write about them. Here’s what I had to say:
The kids and I have been trying to switch to healthier food . . . or at least I have. Well, my kids agree with me in theory, but actually eating the food has been a different story. They still aren’t big fans of salad, and they can’t seem to kick their candy obsession.
emergency brownies
Wow, I may have just broken a record. I have made bake sale week last nearly a full two weeks this year. I just ran out of days faster than I could bake cookies, apparently. Time has been going by so fast lately. In fact, my kids called me from school last Friday, reminding me to come get them because it was early out, and I was late. I never even realized it was Friday until they had called. Anyway, here I am, with one last recipe.
My favorite brownies showed up in 2008. They use an entire bag of chocolate chips, and are the easiest thing in the world to make.
But sometimes, you just don’t have a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry. You may have thought you did, but when you go to find it to make the brownies you have just set your heart on, you may discover it has been nibbled down to about a half a cup’s worth by your sugar-addicted-nine-year-old (not that I would have any personal experience with that).
That is what some would call a chocolate emergency.
bake sale week: maple bacon pecan bars
I told you about these beer and bacon pecan bars by the Beeroness on facebook last week. Since I don’t drink beer for religious reasons, but since I couldn’t stop thinking about these amazing cookies, I decided the only thing I could do was make my own.
It was important to uphold the complexity of flavor that the stout in her recipe provided though, so I opted to make the entire recipe with pure maple syrup, and not use brown sugar or corn syrup.
Now, I’m not gonna lie to you—these things ain’t cheap. By the time I finished buying all the ingredients for these—Niman Ranch bacon, pure maple syrup, maple sugar, and pecan halves—I had spent at least $20. So, you might want to bring those marshmallows to your bake sale or even those s’mores bars, and keep the maple bacon bars for yourselves.
bake sale week: cranberry breakfast muffins
I asked my friend what I should include in bake sale week, and he suggested I do something healthy, with cranberries.
Now, the term healthy has come to have as many meanings as there are Birkenstocks in a natural foods store. For some people, whole wheat isn’t particularly healthy, while for others, anything without hydrogenated oil is hailed as a model of virtuous cuisine. The other day, I saw a bag of gummy bears with a sticker on it that said “Healthy!” Apparently, they didn’t didn’t have any high fructose corn syrup in them, which I guess . . . makes them healthy?
bake sale week: caramel swirl marshmallows
It’s two days after Labor Day, and about time I got up my first bake sale week post, wouldn’t you say? Before I go diving into the fall, I just want to say a few words about summer.
With two moves, a crazy diet, a month of running every day, and a sad attempt at online dating, I’m not gonna lie to you: I’m glad it’s over. I’d like to get back to a the semblance of a normal life. But I can’t say goodbye to this season without first acknowledging my deep appreciation to the gods of summer fashion who decided beach hair should be the “in” thing this year.
I have waited thirty-six years for my hair in its natural state to be the mode, and finally, this year, it was. And so was my daughter’s. We enjoyed several months of no blow-drying, and letting our hair do its thing.
