Chocolate Covered Stuffed Dates

Here’s a quick and easy idea to satisfy your sweet tooth or give you a little energy boost.  Instead of reaching for another coffee, pop or energy drink try one of these.  If you don’t want take the extra time and add the chocolate they are just as tasty without it.

These little gems contain quite a bit of nutritional goodness.  Fibre, B-vitamins, potassium, Vitamins A, K and magnesium to name a few.  Just remember though they should be enjoyed in moderation as they are a fruit and contain quite a bit of natural sugar in their small little packages.  I usually wait till these chill for a bit in the freezer and then slice them in a few pieces, so you’re not eating a whole one each time.

Chocolate Covered Stuffed Dates

• Medjool Dates – pitted
• Natural almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
• 70% dark chocolate
• sea salt

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Slice the dates in half being careful not to go all the way through.  You should be able to open them like a book.  Fill with nut butter and close the date.  Dip in the melted chocolate and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Put in the freezer till slightly chilled and slice each date.   Return to freezer to store.

The dates aren’t very photogenic but they make up for it in taste.

~~ Jackie

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Strawberry Jam

I just couldn’t help myself. 

I’ve been on vacation this week, enjoying my time off in the garden and getting some odds and ends done at home.  The weather has been overcast and or rainy all week, but I’m good with that.  I’m not a lover of the heat so this weather works for me, and it makes it easier to deal with the overgrown mess that is the flower beds around here.  The wet ground makes it much easier to pull out those pesky weeds. 

The veggie garden is coming along nicely.  I thought I was going to lose a lot when hurricane Arthur visited a couple weeks ago, but everything survived and has for the most part recovered nicely.  So far I’ve harvested, bok choy, mixed greens, kale, early turnip, radish, and garlic scapes. Still waiting on the tomatoes, cukes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, peppers, potatoes and zucchini.  I didn’t want to let those garden spaces sit empty so I just planted some more radish, mixed greens, and peas a couple of days ago for a second harvest, and they have sprouted already.

One of the the yummy things I wait all year for is our amazing Valley Strawberries.  These little red bundles of deliciousness just can’t be beat.  If only they were around longer. 

There were a couple of boxes hanging out in the fridge that seemed to be destined for some jam.  Since I can’t make traditional jam to save my life Chia jam is a perfect solution.

Strawberry Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Jam

1 pound fresh strawberries

2 –3 tbsp local honey or maple syrup

2 tbsp chia seeds

1/2  tsp vanilla

squeeze of lemon (optional)

Wash, hull and chop strawberries. I pulse mine in the blender or food processor a few times to speed the process up since strawberries take a little longer to break down than other berries, but you can skip that step if you like.

Place chopped berries, and sweetener of choice in a pot over medium heat.  Mash with potato masher once they start to heat up (if you didn’t blend first) to get desired consistency. Bring to a boil add chia seeds, turn heat down to a simmer.  Continue to cook for another 5 – 7 minutes,  stirring frequently.  you can cook a little longer if the mixture still seems very liquid.  Remove from heat, add vanilla and squeeze of lemon if using.  While it’s cooling the magical chia seeds will do their job and thicken it nicely.

Store in fridge to use right away or freeze for later use.

Enjoy, have a qreat day!

~~ Jackie

Dark Chocolate Crispy Rice Treats

Hi everyone.  What fun and interesting activities did you partake in this weekend?  We celebrated our friends 50th birthday this weekend at a fancy dinner in Citadel Hill.  I’ve lived here my entire life and had no idea they held functions there.  It was a great evening with great food, and great people. 

Here’s a quick and easy treat for you courtesy of one of the PC Cooking school classes I went to.  It’s a different take on Rice Krispie treats.

DARK CHOCOLATE CRISPY RICE TREATS

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
• 3/4 cup smooth almond butter
• 1/2 chopped dark chocolate (70%)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 cups krispy rice cereal

 

    

Grease 9 1/2 x 11 pan and line with parchment paper.  Heat brown rice syrup and maple syrup to a boil. Remove from heat, add almond butter, chocolate, butter and salt.  Stir till chocolate melts  Pour over cereal and mix well.  Pack mixture firmly into prepared pan.  Chill for an hour in the fridge or about 15 minutes or so in the freezer.  Lift out of the pan and cut in squares.  These are best stored in the fridge.

Have a good week.  Fingers crossed we’ll see some sun.

~ Jackie

Chocolate Macaroons a Childhood Favourite

How are things going in your neck of the woods?   Mother Nature can’t seem to make up her mind here, one day it’s 15 degrees and then two days later it’s –6 with the wind chill…. brrrr!!  We haven’t had any snow yet so that’s a huge plus in my books.  I’m still working on Part Two of my Kombucha post.  Bottling a new batch today so fingers crossed I’ll have it  in a day or so.

In the meantime I thought I would share  one of my favourite childhood recipes, Chocolate Macaroons (or haystacks, or mud pies they seem to go by many different names).  Mom couldn’t keep me away from these as a kid.  Luckily she only made them once in awhile. These are no bake, quick and easy treats , but I’ll warn you they are NOT fat free, or sugar free but i have switched up some of the ingredients so you can feel better about eating them as a treat , not the whole pan in one sitting which I’m sure I did as a kid.

CHOCOLATE MACAROONS (NO BAKE)

• 3/4 cup Sucanat or coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp fine grind natural sea salt
• 1 tbsp ground chia seeds
• 1/8 cup goji berries soaked in hot water (or spiced rum) to plump, and drained.

Combine sugar, butter coconut oil and milk in a saucepan over medium heat till it reaches a boil  Boil for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat stir in remaining ingredients. Drop buy spoonful on parchment covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and put in freezer till set.  These must be stored in the freezer or fridge. 

  

They are just as yummy as I remember but not as sweet as the original recipe and with a few healthier additions.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

~~ Jackie

Strawberry Muffins

 

It’s been awhile since I actually sat down and wrote a blog post.  I haven’t been totally absent from the online world though, I’ve been posting on the FB page for the blog.  So if you think I’ve gone amongst the missing hop on over and like the FB page.

Back to work after a very soggy Canada Day long weekend.  There wasn’t too much excitement here, Saturday started with a trip to the market.  I was on a mission to find local Valley strawberries.  Nothing says summer than some juicy fresh strawberries.  I found some spray free berries from Annapolis and oh my they were good.  Notice I said were…that would be because they are all gone.

We have a few Farmers Markets around here Alderney Landing, Halifax Seaport Market, Musquodoboit, and The Brewery Market.  Farmers Markets are bursting with fresh local produce this time of year.  Besides the local produce  being far more flavourful than what you pick up at the grocery store, shopping at local markets supports our local farmers.  Why would you choose to buy flavourless hard strawberries from the US or Mexico that were picked, who knows how long ago, when our local berries, the best berries you can find, are in season. 

My friends brother posted this recipe on FB and they looked so yummy I had to make a batch.  I changed up a couple of ingredients ( coconut sugar for some of the white sugar, coconut oil for half of the butter and almond milk for cows milk)  I wanted to use spelt flower but I couldn’t find it.  I’m assuming it’s at the bottom of the deep freeze and I couldn’t be bothered to dig everything out to find it.

STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup organic sugar
• 2 cups organic unbleached flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
• 3 tsp organic sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries.

Spoon batter into muffin pans. (It will be a thick batter)

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes (makes 12 muffins)

So head on out to your local farmers market this weekend and support our local farmers!

 

~ Jackie

Recipe Catch Up

Well hello out there… Hopefully someone’s still out there despite my sporadic posts.  The last long weekend of the summer is over, and all the kiddies are heading back to school.  I have to say though that fall is my favorite time of the year.  The cooler weather, (not that we’ve had a very hot summer), the turning leaves, the annual trek to the Valley to see the Pumpkin People it’s all good.  Well almost all, the one thing I don’t enjoy is the shorter days, but I guess you can’t have everything.
Even though I haven’t been posting I have been taking pictures.  The only problem with that is I can’t remember what recipes go along with what pictures. I thought I would just do a recap of some of the pics that I know.
This first one is for my parents.  They’ve been helping me out a lot looking after my house while it’s for sale. Mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, turning off the lights when the realtors forget and so on.  They live next door to the house so it saves me tons of time and gas driving in from Porters Lake.  I’ve been doing some cooking and baking for them in return.
I thought this recipe came from Oh She Glows but I can’t seem to find it there at the moment. My next best guess is I found it via Pinterest.  It was a simple no bake dessert, that I knew my dad would LOVE, because it contained peanut butter and my dad is addicted to peanut butter.  The other ingredients were rice syrup, vanilla, Kamut puffs, butter (or earth balance) and melted chocolate to drizzle over the top.

Of course I sampled them before delivering them to the parents…. they almost didn’t make it there.

As soon as I saw Angela’s post over at Oh She glows for the Chocolate Chunk Toffee Bars I knew I had to make them.  It seems I missed taking a picture of these.  Not sure what happened there.  These too were super good, but everything I’ve made from OSG has been, so that wasn’t a shock. 
I also whipped up a batch of these Wheat Free Chocolate Digestive Cookies.  I modified the recipe slightly.  I used Xylitol instead of Stevia, and added a little maple syrup, and a couple tbsp of melted butter.

 

Really I haven’t just been making sweet treats.  I found a recipe I knew hubby would LOVE!!!  I mean how could I go wrong it incorporated all of his favorites, pasta, cheese and beer.  Yup, you heard right beer.  Usually I’m drooling over How Sweet Eats dessert creations but this is equally as good.  I think Easy Beer Mac and Cheese is possibly the best mac and cheese I’ve tasted.  

 

I guess that’s all for now.  I’m going to tuck myself into bed and get my beauty sleep before heading back to work tomorrow.

Cheers

~~Jackie 

Let the baking begin!!!

It's that time of year and I will take any excuse I can get to bake. I love, love, love to bake but refrain from doing so simply because I love, love, love to eat it too. I figured I would do some baking since it's getting close to Christmas and take it into work. Excuse number 2 to bake... There was someone in from out of town and he asks for my treats when he visits.

Here's a pic of the yummmy squares.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Really how can you go wrong with a name like that. I found the recipe yesterday while I was blog surfing. They were DELISH!!! and easy.