This delicious recipe comes from my local co-op, PCC, here in Western Washington. It is a hearty salad that is really filling, and surprisingly easy to prepare. Even my husband, who has only met the likes of kale as a rubbery garnish on the side of his plate, thoroughly enjoys this salad.

Winter Greens (Vegan) Caesar Salad

Dressing:

1 c. Vegenaise (I really like this as much or more than mayonnaise. Be sure to get this specific brand though)

½ c. olive oil

¼ c. lemon juice (fresh always tastes better)

2 Tbs. (vegan) Worcestershire sauce

1-2 Tbs. minced garlic

1 Tbs. sherry vinegar

1.5-2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1.5-2 tsp ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk.

Salad:

1 bunch Chard

1 bunch Kale

Parmesan cheese, grated (omit if vegan)

Fresh ground pepper

Remove thick stems from both the kale and the chard (I remove the stem all the way up the leaf, using only the leaf). Chop greens into bite sized pieces (I like thin little ribbons). Grate Parmesan cheese on top, dress (with dressing), adorn with fresh black pepper and toss.

Enjoy!

This is the last muffin….

A few more on the plate would sure make for a prettier picture.

I think I may have eaten them with each meal of the day….

Muffins that Taste Like Donuts

This morning my mean kids hauled me out of bed at the crack of dawn, 8:00 am, and demanded food. The nerve!

One of my lofty goals for the summer is to cook more with my kids. Since I have recently become a  Pioneer Woman addict and she highly recommended this recipe, I decided the kids and I would give the recipe  “Muffins that Taste Like Donuts” a try.

Who can resist a name like that anyway? Not only did it sound good, but the little blurb at the top claimed ”tastes like a donut but healthier.”  Add to this the fact that this was the easiest recipe ever and I was sold!

Now before my excitement gets the best of me let me just take a moment to clarify. The word “muffin” generally makes a person think they’re making a healthy choice. Please forgive me, I hate to be the Negative Nancy in the room, but I’ve got bad news to impart.

A muffin is basically just a cupcake without the sexy frosting. Yes, I know, having no frosting does make it a healthier choice, but it’s still cake.  And, if it’s been bought at the coffee shop, grocery store or comes in a box then it’s usually going to have more calories, sugar and sodium than any muffin you’d make at home. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the nutrition facts of a Costco muffin. It’s astounding!

Back to the muffins!

Okay, so I understand that these muffins aren’t going to be the healthiest things we’ve ever consumed. After all they’re dipped in butter and rolled in sugar!  However, there’s potential for improvement here. We can make these babies glide instead of race through the blood stream. I want these to be a “muffin” instead of “cake.”

There are 3 steps to make just about any recipe that contains sugar and flour healthier:

1. Make it yourself (from scratch)!
2. Replace part or all of the all-purpose white flour with whole wheat pastry flour
3. Reduce sugar or replace part or all of the sugar

Number one doesn’t need further explanation. So let’s move on to #2.

*Whole wheat pastry flour is my secret ingredient in all quick breads, cookies, waffles, and pancake type of recipes. It doesn’t impart the strong earthy flavor that typical whole wheat does. It’s also not as heavy; and when you’re making any of the items listed above you don’t usually want a dense, firm texture. A light and moist texture is more palatable.

In the case of the donut muffins we substituted a little over half whole wheat pastry flour for the white flour. All purpose white flour is like no other. If you’re making a treat and you don’t want to compromise flavor or texture at all then you still have to have the majority of the flour you use be white (preferably organic). In the case of waffles and pancakes, and even certain types of cookies like oatmeal or chocolate chip, you can replace all of the all-purpose white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. The trick is to let the batter sit (refrigerated) for awhile (about an hour for cookies and about 10 minutes for waffles and pancakes) to let the moisture absorb and soften the flour.

On to item #3,  Reducing Sugar

I’ve tried all sorts of tricks to lessen the amount of sugar in my recipes and many have failed me miserably. Exhibit A: powdered sweet whey.

Can I tell you the truth? This is after serious research.  Are you ready? Nothing, absolutely nothing can truly replace white sugar. If you replace the sugar with anything else, Splenda (not a healthy choice), brown rice syrup, date puree, it will affect the outcome of whatever you are making. The question is always, “Can you live with that as your final product?”

In baking what I try to do instead of replacing is reducing. So many recipes call for way more sugar than is actually needed. Starting small is a sure way to achieve success. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar reduce that by a couple of tablespoons. Slowly, over time you can (often) cut the amount of sugar in a recipe by half. Your taste buds will change and things will start to become too sweet.

Replacing Sugar

In the case of replacing I suggest xylitol or stevia (Use the kind of stevia that is not highly refined. It should still be brown like the leaves it comes from) for baking. Starting out you might want to just replace a couple of tablespoons with xylitol. Or you might want to eliminate two tablespoons of the sugar and then replace another two tablespoons. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it.

Just keep one thing in mind, compromises are always going to be made. It’s up to YOU to figure out what those compromises are for your family!

By the way, my kids loved their muffins! Paired with a hard boiled egg, some blueberries, and a glass of milk this made for a tasty and relatively healthy breakfast.

Muffins that Taste Like Donuts, Healthified!

• 1-3/4 cup Flour- 1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoons Salt
• 1/2 teaspoons Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1/3 cups Canola or Olive Oil
• 1/2 cups Organic Sugar (white) or substitute (see above)
• 1 whole Egg
• ¾ cups Milk

For the Topping:

• 1/4 cup Butter
• 1/3 cup Organic White Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl.

Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix. Let cool.

Enjoy!

*Whole wheat pastry flour does not have much gluten in it so it should not be used in place of whole wheat or all-purpose white flour in recipes, such as bread, that contain yeast.

Whole wheat pastry flour is now readily available at most grocery stores. King Arthur is my brand of choice. You can also order it online

These cookies are one of my favorite ways to use up a bountiful harvest of blueberries! They’re like a fruit crisp in a cookie. Of course, I’ve tweaked this recipe to make it lower in calories, sugar and higher in fiber than the original. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats (regular work too)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or half white flour and half wwpf)
1 to 2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 baking powder
1/2 to 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, salt baking soda and baking powder; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in blueberries (gradually so you don’t have too many). Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto lightly greased, or parchment lined, baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: about 3 dozen

Ahhhh, fresh berries. They’re my favorite part of summer. I love to be in the middle of a field of berries, listening to the birds chatter, popping warm luscious berries in my mouth, just letting my mind wander. It’s a sensory delight; taste, touch, smell. It’s all good (except maybe the thorns!). 

It’s when I get the berries home that the real work begins. Jam is usually first on my list.  On a cold day in December nothing quite hits the spot like homemade bread, fresh out of the oven, piled high with homemade jam.

For years I made cooked jam, slaving over a hot stove in an oven of a house, so that I could give it away as gifts. After many years (and I mean many, I apparently have a thick skull), I realized that I had maybe given away three jars of jam the whole year and we were eating the rest. I decided tea towels would have to do as a hostess gift.

Not only did I realize that cooked jam was a whole lot more work than freezer jam, I also realized that I preferred the taste of freezer jam. The berries weren’t cooked. They were fresh and bright in color. The taste was reticent of an actual berry instead of a mushed up, cooked to extinction berry-like creature.

My major problem with most jam is that it is loaded with sugar. And I’m here to tell you that it just doesn’t have to be. I mean, we eat and enjoy fresh berries, right? They don’t generally need sugar to taste good, they’re good on their own.

And yes, I tried the pectin box that allowed the jam to be made with alternative sweeteners or juice. Still, it just didn’t turn out to my liking. It left the berries with a dull lifeless flavor.  I wanted to taste SUMMER in a jar. Is that asking too much?

Finally I found this pectin, Ball Instant Fruit Pectin and it’s now the only one I use. It’s relatively low in sugar, you can use alternate sweeteners if you like (which I haven’t tried, because it’s hard to get the consistency with alternative sweeteners and I refuse to feed my family chemicals, ahem, I mean artificial sweeteners) and it’s super easy. I mean seriously EASY.

Here are the steps for strawberry freezer jam. (You can use whatever kind of fruit you want.)

Wash berries. Even if you use organic strawberries, wash them, they grow low to the ground and are FILTHY!

Hull strawberries and cut into small pieces

Crush strawberries- I use my potato masher

In a separate bowl mix pectin with sugar (preferably organic)

Add strawberries to pectin and stir for 3 minutes

Ladle strawberry mixture into sterilized GLASS jars. Please, please, I am begging you, Do not use plastic containers to store your jam in. Plastic leaches, especially when it comes into contact with anything acidic, and you don’t want to feed your family toast with plastiscines (we’re going for toast with jam). Use straight sided glass jars (even old peanut butter jars with their original lid work great!) so they don’t swell and burst in the freezer.

Place in refrigerator overnight. You can store in the fridge if you’ll be using the jam right away but if you plan to eat your jam over time, place in the freezer for up to a year.

Note to all you cooked jam fanatics: I will be expecting a thank you note in the comment area below after you have whipped up a batch of this delectable toast topper without breaking a sweat.

This bread dough recipe is my favorite! It is originally from Cook’s Illustrated but I’ve adapted it to my own preferences over time. It’s tender, great for sandwiches, alongside your favorite soup, and slathered with butter and honey.

1 1/4 cups 7 grain hot cereal mix (I use Bob’s Red Mill 8 grain)

2 1/2 cups boiling water

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

4 Tbs. honey

4 Tbs. melted butter

2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast

1 Tbs. salt

1. Place cereal mix in bowl of standing mixer and pour boiling water over it; let stand, stirring occasionally, until mixture cools to about 100 degrees and resembles thick porridge, about 1 hour. Whisk flours in medium bowl.

2. Once grain mixture has cooled, add honey, melted butter and yeast and stir to combine. Attach bowl to standing mixer fitted with dough hook. With mixer running on low speed, add flours 1/2 cup at a time, and knead until ball forms and is no longer sticking to the side. Let dough rest, covered, for 20 minutes.

3. After 20 minutes, add salt and continue kneading with mixer for about 5 minutes. Transfer dough to floured work surface and knead until smooth. Grease the mixer bowl and place dough in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and light towel and let rise in warm place until doubled. I have an electric oven so I turn on the oven light and put in my oven (this keeps the oven at about 90 degrees). On top of the fridge or in a gas oven both work as well.

4. After dough has doubled in size take out of bowl and shape into 2 standard sized loaves and put into greased pans. Once again, cover with plastic wrap and light towel and let rise in a warm location until doubled.

5. Cook at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reaches 180 degrees.

6. Remove immediately from pans and cool on a wire rack.

My husband is a big beverage fan. He loves liquid and I often find him surrounded by multiple drinks. The majority of which are usually NOT healthy choices. However, over time he has been a convert to a few of my better concoctions. These are really what I consider summertime drinks, but since it’s citrus season I thought I’d share them now.

I have often taken my cue from Starbucks non-coffee drinks that I figured I could make at home for a sliver of the cost. One such drink was raspberry lemonade tea. This was simply Passion Tazo tea chilled and mixed with lemonade over ice. Of course, Starbucks used plenty of lemonade, but to cut down on sugar and calories I just used a splash of lemonade. My husband loved it, my daughter thought it was the perfect princess drink (since it was pink), and my son was pretty sure his mother was really a sugar loving alien in disguise (since his mother would never allow such a splendid drink to touch his lips). Now, just to be clear, I was very careful to get lemonade that was free of high fructose corn syrup. Newman’s Own lemonade, Simply Lemonade, and Trader Joe’s lemonade all fall under that category.

This past summer Limeade was all the rage at my house. Since straight Limeade is about the sugariest juice drink one can find I set out to find a way to cut the sugar. At first I tried to make my own limeade sweetened with stevia. I’ve never liked stevia though and it’s flavor came right through. Plus, it was a lot of work to squeeze all those limes. Heck, if I go to the trouble of squeezing limes it’s going to be for a mojito!  Next, I tried adding plain “Talking Rain” sparkling water to the limeade, and this was good. I wanted to be rid of the sodium though so I settled on Trader Joe’s lime sparkling water. This with a splash of limeade and some fresh mint leaves is a delicious and thirst quenching drink that we all enjoyed. This same concoction is good with lemonade and sparkling lemon water. You can also brew raspberry tea and mix with berry flavored sparkling water. None of these sparkling waters contain real or fake sugar and the brands of lemonade stated above also come in lime.

Good, old fashioned iced tea made with black tea and a touch of honey, agave nectar or brown rice syrup (added while it’s still hot) is always popular, but let your imagination go wild. Again, I took a hint from Starbucks and added a splash of lemonade to unsweetened iced tea. Over crushed ice with a few mint leaves, this is not only an everyday beverage but one you can proudly serve to guest.

Licorice root tea is naturally sweet and is very soothing to a sore throat. However, it is extremely refreshing and light when served cold. Green tea makes a lovely and light iced tea. In fact, just about any tea can be delicious cold, with a twist of lemon, or a splash of lemon or limeade.

Closer to summer I’ll discuss some of the tasty drinks you can make with fresh ginger! I feel like I’m on the porch swing already.

Last week I was visiting my Naturopath and we were discussing alternative sweeteners. She asked if I had tried Xylitol. I told her I’d heard of it and knew it was good at protecting against cavitites but that I had yet to try it. She recommended it and said you could use it one to one in place of sugar. I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners and am unwilling to use them, however, since xylitol is considered an alternative sweetener, not artificial, I thought I’d give it a try. So, off I trotted to the health food section of Fred Meyer. There a 1 lb bag of Emerald Forest Xylitol sold for $10. And I thought my organic sugar was expensive! Thinking that this was going to make for a very expensive batch of cookies, I plopped down the money and went home to do some research.

I went to www.emeraldforestsugar.com in hopes of getting more information and more recipes. They didn’t have a ton of recipes but I did get a bit more informed on exactly what Xylitol is. I also noticed that they were selling the same 1lb bag for almost half the price I paid. Of course there’s always shipping to add.

The very next day I spoke at a MOPS group about added sugars in food and someone asked specifically about sugar alcohols and if I had an opinion of Xylitol. This prompted me to go home and actually try the stuff so I could give a more informed opinion. I thought I might try the brownie recipe on the Emerald Forest website but then I had an idea!

Lately, to assuage my chocolate cravings I’ve been making a very rich, very dark, and extremely satisfying cup of hot cocoa at night.  The original recipe, which I got out of the newspaper years ago, contained double the sugar I currently use so I knew I was really pushing the envelope trying to cut it in half again, only this time substituting Xylitol.  My husband loves this hot cocoa and he agrees that less sugar makes it more satisfying. However, he is not usually a fan of my healthifying of treats so, after quietly substituting half of the sugar with xylitol, I slid the steamy mug of hot cocoa in front of him and walked away.

Now, the one thing that Emerald Forest warns against is that too much Xylitol can cause “stomach upset.” Having tried the Atkins diet treats years ago I remember quite well exactly what can happen. It’s not pretty to say the least. So, I thought I’d start small. And my favorite hot cocoa was just the place to start!

I sipped away at my almost pudding like consistency hot cocoa. I couldn’t for the life of me taste anything different, unusual, or after-tasty. It tasted the same. I wondered if it was just me, but there was my husband, fully enjoying his mug of chocolatiness and he wasn’t making any faces or looking at his mug in wonderment.

I let my husband in on my little secret and asked him if he’d noticed anything different. He said he hadn’t and that it tasted the same as usual. Neither of us had any stomach upset that night or the next day. It was a hit!

If you’re looking for a tasty, low calorie treat I highly recommend what Seattle chef and cookbook author, Greg Atkinson dubbed his original recipe “The Best Hot Cocoa.”

Be sure to let me know what you think!

Best Hot Cocoa

1/4 cup dark (european style) cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Extra Dark)

1/8 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup xylitol

2 Tbs organic (non-GMO) cornstarch (look for it in the Fred Meyer health food section)

1 pinch salt

1/3 cup water

2 cups milk (I substitute 1 c. with unsweetened almond milk, or unsweetened chocolate almond milk. This cuts down on calories too!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the cocoa powder, brown sugar, xylitol, cornstarch and salt into a saucepan and stir with a whisk to mix. Add the water and whisk until smooth. Put the pot on the burner over high heat and continue whisking until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil (careful, it globs up fast! So have your milk ready).
2. Gradually stream in the milk, whisking all the while. While adding the milk, keep the mixture hot and steamy, just below the boil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and stir gently for 3-5 minutes, or just until the mixture is thickened and beginning to boil. Remove the cocoa from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Ladle into cups and serve immediately. Enjoy!