Repost - Tahini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

One of my very first posts and I did not do the recipe justice at all.  I went to look up the recipe and I was overwhelmed with what I saw!  My entry was colourful, distracting and far too wordy.  This one is much cleaner and I hope you are inspired to try this recipe.

 Cookies all lined up before baking.

These are highly addictive and a perfect balance of sweet and not sweet (ha haha ha). These are easy to make, they freeze well, they go in lunches well and are somewhat nutritious. At the very least you are using tahini which will add the goodness of sesame in your diet. Yum yum! If you make hummus at home, you probably have tahini in the fridge. If you don't make hummus at home, you should (kidding, it's not for everyone). But I would recommend borrowing some tahini from a friend to try these cookies then you WILL be going out to buy tahini to make these again and again (and give your friend a batch to say thanks for the initial lend of tahini). Tahini is found at my grocery store in the Natural Foods section and in the Ethnic Foods section. You will find it next to the canned stuffed grape leaves (which are also very good, go ahead and bring a can of them home too - just don't eat them all in one sitting, it is all natural fat but it's still fat). Stir the tahini every time you open it as it will separate much like a natural nut butter.

Cookies all lined up after baking.  This is the same pan, see how they did not spread at all?

Tahini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

inspired by UrbanVeganista's site

2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup mixed flax meal, wheat germ and oat bran (or another 1/3 cup flour) (so 1 cup flour total)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, rounded
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup coconut oil (or butter)
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts and / or raisins and / or sunflower seeds
(I'd limit the add-ins to 1.5 cups total from experience of adding more and it being harder to work with)
- mix dry in medium bowl
- beat tahini and coconut oil with electric mixer, add sugar and beat, add eggs and beat, add vanilla and beat
- add dry to wet and combine well
- add add-ins (chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, seeds...)
- form into balls and flatten slightly (cookies do not spread much at all, so you can space them pretty close together).  You may need to use wet hands for this.  You may also want to chill the dough for about 20 minutes before this step.
- 350F for 12-14 minutes
Please tell me you tried them and love them as much as my family and I do!  Or not...

Tamale Pie (baked chili casserole with a cornbread topping)

Inspired by Cheeky Kitchen's tamales, I remembered I had a recipe with more vegetables in it so I pulled it out.  This recipe turns out to be, essentially, a veg chili with just enough cornbread topping baked on it. 

Tamale pie plated. Miam miam.

The recipe is quick to make with pantry and fridge staples (usually they're staples in my house unless I've run out).

The chili portion can take almost whatever veggies you want it to.  You could use a portion of chili you may have frozen in the freezer for a make-ahead meal.  Thaw completely, spread it in your pan, top and bake.  Even quicker!

 Tamale pie filling (chili) ingredients.

The cornbread topping is just enough, not too much and not too little.  It's delightfully light and surprisingly buttery without any butter or cheese. 

Cornbread topping - so yummy!

So the recipe I followed last night was from Moosewood Restaurant`s Low Fat Favorites (here`s an online version of the cookbook recipe).  I used no cheese and no cilantro (I can't stomach it, here's an article which may explain some of my innate aversion).  I used plain yogurt in the topping.  Those are my only variations, I think.

Tamale pie broken open.

Everyone in my house loved it and it served us all for supper with two lunch servings for the school-guy and worker-dude. What am I going to have for lunch now?! Hmmmm

Tamale Pie
Adapted from Moosewood`s Low Fat
2 tsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
3 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp cumin
1 t. oregano
2 Tbsp water
1 cup peeled diced carrots
1 cup diced bell pepper
½ cup frozen corn
1 c. crushed canned tomatoes (15oz)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (19oz)
1 can green lentils, drained and rinsed (19oz)
Topping
¾ c. cornmeal
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking  soda
1 egg
½ cup plain yogurt, which I used (or buttemilk)
2 Tbsp oil

- warm oil in saucepan add onion and garlic and vegetables. Cover and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Add cumin, oregano and water to prevent sticking.  Stir in tomatoes, lentils and beans, cover and simmer 5-10 minutes remove from heat add salt and pepper to taste.
- preheat oven to 375F.
- prepare 2 qt casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread mixture in bottom of dish.
- in bowl combine flour, meal, salt powder and soda. In separate bowl combine egg, milk and oil gently fold wet ingredients into dry . Pour on top of veggies bake 30-35 minutes.

Would be great garnished with sour cream and scallions.  Or served with a few tortilla chips, which we did.  Yeah, baby!

 Tamale pie baked - gorgeous!

Tin foil cod supper

Still on the topic of campfires and sing-alongs, who wants a tin foil supper?  No, you're not going to eat the tin foil, but your supper will be steamed inside tin foil pockets on the fire (or BBQ if you're just not survival-person enough to build and maintain a fire... no judging here, I can't even start a respectable fire).

Plated! Yum!



First step: go out and hunt, fish or go to your nearest fishmonger like I did, I'm a city girl.  I bought cod from Evan's Fresh Seafoods & Restaurants and all the slaying I had to do was slice open the pretty little plastic vacuum sealed bag it came in.  Phew!

Pocket of Evan's cod.

Next step: harvest the vegetables.  I chose frozen veggies and fresh carrots.  I should've added a potato, I missed it.  Slice up an onion when you get back from the field.  Rrrrr rrrr rrrr.

Pocket of veggies.

Then, create two tin foil pockets.  I'm not really talented with this, so I had two sheets to just cover the food.  I put the fish down on one with S&P, onion, butter, folded it up as well as I could (I don't wrap gifts very well either), very gently flipped it over and wrapped the second layer as tightly as I could.  Repeat with the veggies' pocket. 

Fire should be all red (this is where I leave you fire-people, I'm BBQ'ing mine) or BBQ hot.  Turn one burner off and gently place your pockets on the other side.  You will not be flipping, it's too fragile.  Mine were, yours may not be so precariously wrapped.

20 mintues later, supper can be photographed!  Em, I mean served!

This can very easily be done with hamburger meat as well which is fabulous with a packet of French Onion Soup mix!  You can make one pocket for each person too if you have differing tastes.  Mark an initial on the pocket after wrapping and before cooking so you can differetiate to serve.

What are some combinations you've done and loved?  Or not-so-much?  Want to talk some more about campfire memories?

Rainy Saturday afternoon special - S'mores!

We just had a snack after a nutritious snack - we had s'mores!  We microwaved the marshmallows. It was quick and easy. 

Lacking were the campfire songs, mosquitoes, and burnt (sometimes like a torch) marshmallows lost into the ashes.  I have fond memories of Girl Guide camp, year after year, when my Mum was our Leader and we made s'mores, we sang songs (mmmhmmm, I wanna linger, mmmhmm a little longer, mmmhmm a little longer here with you)(I can still sing most of "Barges", anyone else know that song? I have vague recollections that it was written by a young female cancer patient looking out her window, is that accurate?)(how about the one about "sipping cider through a straw"?  We actually had to stop singing that one, it was "banned" and I never knew why 'til I was older).

These are relatively clean and easy.









Our s'more recipe
from my childhood, circa 1980
2 graham wafer squares
peanut butter
chocolate chips
1 big marshmallow

- thinly spread both graham wafers with pb (this is so the marshmallow and the choc chips don't fall off, there is logic to this).
- place both graham wafers pb side up in the microwave, top one with enough choc chips to satisfy (perhaps cover the surface, then adjust to taste), top the other with a big marshmallow (or as many minis as you can squeeze on there)
- microwave 10-12 seconds (don't leave the microwave, it happens fast) until the marshmallow(s) puff up
- quickly flip either layer on top of the other, this takes a bit of finesse.
- don't press down, let the weight of the top side do it's work
- let sit for about 30 seconds to melt everything and set the marshmallow just a bit.
- eat, lick fingers and / or plate as needed.
- Repeat as needed.

It is tradional folklore to use a piece of a milk chocolate bar, but they don't melt fast enough and I find them too sweet (I use semi-sweet choc chips).  Peanut butter is not customarily used.


Edit: We went outside moments after posting this and HAD A FIRE and ROASTED MARSHMALLOWS, of course!  Here are some pictures.

Where were you when you had your first s'more?  Have you not had one yet (what are you waiting for?)  What do you dress yours up with?

Quick bread - molasses

I made stove top baked beans and a molasses quick bread for lunch today. 

The beans were another story altogether, I need help with baked beans.  I love them so, but, alas, have failed in every attempt to make them, but I do keep trying.  I get points for that.

The bread was a winner and a do-again-er.

This is the recipe I used.  Next time, I will bake it for the full hour.

Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread
directly from The New York Times' diners journal

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 2/3 cups plain yogurt *
1/2 cup molasses
- mix dry, mix wet in separate bowls.  Combine only to wet.
- pour into greased bread pan (9x5 or so)
- bake at 325F for 45mins to 1 hour, when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
- let cool in pan 15 mins, turn out on board to cool almost completely before you cut into it, try to wait, it's worth it!

* or use buttermilk, or sour your own room temp milk with 2 Tbsp white vinegar and milk to equal 1 2/3 cups

There's a "lighter" (in texture) version here that I will try next time, even though I liked this one very much.

Now to work on those baked beans... can you help me?  My biggest problem is they are hard, but even the finished flavour and texture is not quite right.  I just cannot capture the feeling of Québec maple sugar shack baked beans.  Now THEY know beans.

Alfredo sauce, vegan-style

For supper, we had rotini tossed in a vegan alfredo sauce.  The Big Kid loves pasta in white sauce and he gobbled this one right up. 

The mgic ingredients: rotini, garlic confit and tofu.  That's it.

The rotini is a good shape for the three wee ones to handle and eat all by themselves, which is important to them and frees up my hands for other things, like feeding myself or wiping up spilled whatever or fetching whatever or rounding up whomever.

 The final product!

As the pasta was cooking, I threw in some frozen mixed veggies to cook alongside.  This was coated in sauce in the same pot as the pasta cooked in so I consider that a one-pot meal.  The sauce was whirred in my food processor so I'm just going to pretend that that didn't happen and there's only one pot to clean.  But I don't mind an extra dish.

The sauce after it whirred around for a minute or so.

I think this garlic confit thing is here to stay in my kitchen. I used both the garlic and the oil for this dish.  Dee-licious!  The Big Kid asked for it in his lunch tomorrow.

Rotini with tofu alfredo sauce
inspired by Spark Recipes
made enough to serve 4
6 oz (1/2 pkg) soft or silk tofu, plain
2 garlic cloves (I used the ones in my confit)
1 Tbsp EVOO (I used the oil from my confit)
1 Tbsp milk of choice (I used Silk)
S&P to taste (this took a surprising amount of salt and pepper)
- blend sauce ingredients in food processor, magic bullet or blender
Toss with 4 cups pasta shape of your choice. (4 cups before it was cooked)  You can have up to 1 cup of vegetables cooked with the pasta (I recommend broccoli, peas, carrots, sweet potato or fresh beans, asparagus in season.)

This version is a vegan one, you can add up to 1/8 cup parmesean and 1/8 cup romano cheese if you like, or more to taste.

The winds of change

Changes, they are a' comin'. 

Not sure what at this moment, but I'm pretty excited!

I started it off with a trip to stock my kitchen with better food for me.  Ezekiel bread, Silk, coconut oil, coconut milk, tofu.  I may lose a few of you, but hopefully not. 

Hopefully you'll join me to see where this is going and see if you want to make any adjustments to your eating style.  Maybe you don't need to and maybe you just want to watch me or offer your suggestions.