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I found this recipe on Whole Foods’ website and modified it for my tastes … the result are absolutely delicious peanut butter balls that make a great protein/energy bar alternative or you can pop on as dessert. John loves them because they are (minus the chocolate) Paleo-friendly and high in protein. I love them because they are peanut buttery.

{photo from Whole Foods}

chloe’s most delicious peanut butter balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic peanut butter with NO palm oil  ( I like to use crunchy!)
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup honey (depending on your preference; I use closer to 1/4 cup)
• 1.5 teaspoons unsweetened organic cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons organic unsweetened shredded coconut + more for rolling balls in
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life’s semi-sweet chocolate mini chips that are
  dairy- , soy- and gluten-free!)
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds + more for rolling balls in
• 2 tablespoons uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts (your choice: walnuts, pecans, etc.) for rolling balls in

To Make:

Before measuring the peanut butter, stir it up well.

Mix the peanut butter, honey, cocoa powder, coconut, sesame seeds, and quinoa until combined. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Place the remaining coconut, sesame seeds and nuts into 3 separate bowls. Scoop small heaps of the peanut mixture from the bowl; roll into 1 1/4-inch balls. Rolling is easier if you form a rough ball, roll in the coconut, and then continue rolling into a more perfect shape. (Remember how you used to make a ball out of Silly Putty? That’s how you want to roll these little suckers.) Roll each finished ball in coconut, sesame seeds and chopped nuts. I like to do some with all three (coconut, sesame, and nuts) and some with just one or two toppings.

Arrange the balls on a plate or in a container, cover loosely with plastic wrap or container lid and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Makes about 15-20 balls.
And just for fun… a nice neutral palette:

I have been noticeably absent from the blog lately, so instead of prolonging the silence I wanted to report that I will be taking somewhat of a blog staycation. I will still post, but with less frequency than previously and my posts will be smaller (quick little snippets of design, pet, products I love, etc…). So things may look and feel a little different!

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I love cookbooks. I have more than I need; and I also score pretty food blogs for even more recipes. Between the cookbooks I have, the recipes I have printed and bookmarked I have way more recipes than I could possibly hope to make in my lifetime. However, that doesn’t stop me from finding more cookbooks and recipes and food blogs.

I just got Alicia Silverstone’s cookbook, The Kind Diet, which is Alicia’s approach to a vegan lifestyle. I am not a vegan, but I can appreciate the healthy recipes in Alicia’s book nonetheless. Some of the recipes I marked in the book are Barley Casserole, Hearty Pinto Bean Stew, Peach Crumble, Clean, Mean Burritos, and Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts. Alicia uses brown rice syrup as the sweetener in many of her recipes, and as I am trying to diversify from agave (I will still use it, but I want to vary my healthy sweeteners more) I am looking forward to trying brow rice syrup. Most recently, I have been using dates, date sugar, and stevia as switch ups  for agave; I like all three of these sweeteners so far, but am willing to add yet another.

On Saturday, John was jonesing for chocolate, so I decided to whip up some chocolate cupcakes for him. I used Elana’s recipe for chocolate cupcakes that are make from coconut flour, and since I had just received and finished reviewing The Kid Diet, I made the chocolate frosting from the book – Fudge Frosting is what Alicia calls it. The cupcakes turned out absolutely delicious! Here is the recipe for the Fudge Frosting so you can make it yourself:

1/2 cup Earth Balance (I use the soy-free one)
1/2 cup agave
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup soy milk powder (I didn’t have any so I just left this out)

Use a mixer to cream the butter together with the agave in a mixing bowl until very smooth.  Add the vanilla and half the cocoa, mix on a low speed to combine. Then add remaining cocoa powder and beat on a medium-high setting until fluffy. If it is runny, refrigerate the frosting until it sets up.

Alicia also has a website companion for the book, thekindlife.com, which is basically Alicia’s blog that covers food, health, house, style, and environment in relation to her lifestyle philosophy. I have not checked out he website in detail yet, so I cannot tell you much more.

I mentioned dog food in the title of this post because Alicia dog address it in her book! She points out the fact that “Conventional pet food is basically junk food, only worse: It’s chockfull of animal byproducts (intestines, bones, brains, and other lovelies), preservatives, chemicals, and fillers. Is it any wonder pets these days routinely die of nasty conditions like cancer and kidney failure?” (Silverstone 118) Sound familiar?

Alicia’s solution is to feed her pack Dr. Harvey’s organic dog food, along with L-carnitine and taurine supplements (because Dr. Harvey’s food doesn’t have them) and she also feeds her pack her leftovers. With Dr. Harvey’s dog food and the leftovers, her pups get a plant-based diet filled with healthy, organic grains, beans, and vegetables. Now I will admit that Alicia’s approach may not work for everyone; but I for one plan to try to incorporate my leftovers into Mocha’s diet more often: not all the time, mind you, just occasionally.

By the way, you can find all of Alicia’s posts on the kindlife.com regarding animals here.

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I always love hearing from you all …. What is your favorite cookbook? Do you have The Kind Diet book? How do you like it? Where are you at with your dog’s diet and how/what you feed them?

During my search for the perfect baby shower recipes (for a shower I am throwing) and during my hiatus from agave nectar, I experimented with remixing Martha’s (as in Stewart, who else?) {Pistachio-Raspberry Tea Cakes}. I nixed the usual suspects – white, refined sugar, butter, and white flour.  My substitutions included date sugar, which I am giving a try, grapeseed oil, and almond flour.  They came out of the oven a bit ago and are cooling …

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I found a great way to add quinoa to my oatmeal bake thanks to a friend of mine who sent me a link to this recipe. I have made this new quinoa variation once, substituting 1 cup uncooked, rinsed quinoa for 1 cup oats.  The oats were lost in the quinoa, and as much as I love quinoa, I would like to know the oats are there a little more, so next time I will try this:

• 1-1/4 cups rolled oats (I use gluten-free)
• 3/4 cup uncooked, rinsed white quinoa
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces,  raw
• 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 ripe banana, cut into small pieces
• Scant 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• 1-3/4 cup almond milk (or other milk of your choice)
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup agave nectar***
• 1 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• frozen blueberries (organic)

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Generously grease the inside of an 8-inch glass or ceramic square baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the oats, nuts, chopped banana, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, agave, egg, melted butter, and vanilla.

Sprinkle some blueberries in the bottom of the baking dish (however many you would like). Cover the blueberries with the dry oat mixture. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the oats, pouring to distribute the liquid as evenly as possible throughout the oats. If you want to add more blueberries, sprinkle some more on top.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is nicely golden and the oat mixture has set. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.

*** As you may know, I am a little weary of agave nectar right now, so my last batch of this I used 1/4 cup maple syrup and no agave nectar.  Results we just as delicious!!!

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So, I attempted my version of the almond citrus olive oil cake (I made the recipe as cupcakes) with interesting results.  Interesting because the cupcakes tasted good, but the moisture content was off.  My conclusion is that because almond flour is moister than regular flour, that perhaps less olive oil is needed.  So, I will be modifying the recipe again and see where that gets me.  One of my major changes will be nixing agave nectar all together and using a different sweetener.

So why the agave avoidance? Well, I have been researching a little more about agave nectar after someone mentioned to me that it is “basically high-fructose corn syrup”.  I found this enlightening and somewhat alarming article about why agave is bad from a reputable source.  Well, agave is NOT high-fructose corn syrup, but it has more fructose than corn syrup.  And it turns out, agave is not natural as we are led to believe; the agave we buy off the shelves is NOT the same as the traditional Mexican agave nectar that is derived from the plant (and is natural).  Agave nectar as we buy it on the shelves is actually made through chemical processes (see the linked article above for more information).  I have forwarded the article on to a trusted personal source and authority on nutrition, and I am interested to see what she has to say.

To avoid agave, until I feel satisfied I will be using other truly natural sweeteners;  this article (from the same source as the one above) has some good information about the different sweeteners, natural and not.  I will probably use stevia and dates.  And, voila!, here is the perfect recipe from Elana’s Pantry to give stevia and dates a whirl, which the banana walnut muffin recipe was actually Elana’s response to the “agave debate” she experiences.

What sweetener(s) do you use? What do you make of this information on agave?

So, remember how cute my Mocha is riding in Midgey?  Well check out this pic from Saturday when I was following Mocha and John into our garage…

On to other topics, for a baby shower I am planning for a friend, I am thinking I will make individual bundt cakes as opposed to having one big cake…  the other kicker is that the cakes must be gluten-free because the Mama has Celiac’s.  For some reason, citrus almond olive oil cake popped into my head … I googled it and a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis popped up.  It sounds right on the money for what I was thinking but I will have to make some serious modifications to make it gluten-free and healthier (baked goods can be delicious AND healthy!!!).  I am definitely replacing the all-purpose flour with almond flour and I may use Meyer lemon-infused olive oil from the Durango Olive Oil Company, but I am thinking these will be my other modifications:

I plan to do a test-run of my version this week sometime so I will let you know how it turns out!

healthy bake sale following a nutrition class

nutrition class at 10am presented by lisa nielsen and sponsored by 24/7 fitness solutions

more information about castaway kids and the bake sale on our website

www.healthybakesale.com

Fretting about what to get your Valentine this Feb 14th? Look no further, every day between now and Valentine’s Day, I will be posting a Valentine gift idea here on my blog. Some will be for your human Valentine, and others will be for your pet Valentine. Something sweet, fun, meaningful…

That’s my Jam! Vanilla Peach Jam 8 oz

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Cupcakes & Christmas…

What is this post all about you ask?  Read this to find out!

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