Wilde Chocolate Mousse

This delectable dessert was a wonderful treat my dear friend Abby Wilde made that I just had to share. Protein in a dessert? Surely not! Linger with this decadent mousse and a bowl full of strawberries for a sinless extravagance.

Wilde Chocolate Mousse
(makes 4)

1 10oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips (*for a vegan mousse, use vegan chocolate chips)

1 14oz package silken tofu

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract (I only used 1/2 tsp)
strawberries (*technically optional, but you won't have the full taste-tacular experience without them)

1) Let the tofu come to room temperature. It will greatly ease your chocolate incorporation.
2) Using your blending contraption of choice, blend tofu until smooth and set aside.
3) Melt the chocolate. I'm sure you have a nifty method for this. I MacGyvered a double-boiler out of a saucepan and a mason jar. Go me!
4) Add maple syrup and vanilla extract to the melted chocolate and mix well.
5) Combine tofu and chocolate mixture in your blender and blend away. You should have a pourable-pudding texture going on about now.
6) Pour mousse into serving vessels, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge. I don't know exactly how long it needs to firm up -- probably not more than an hour. I prepared mine the night before and let it chill overnight.
7) Eat ravenously.

Go on, have a peace! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Frosty Banana "Cream"

My favorite part of eating ice cream when I was younger was waiting for the ice cream to melt through the cone and then eating that mushy sweetness. I love melted ice cream. I've been craving a little sweetness lately and missing those sweet summer days. Here's a raw treat to beat the heat. 

Frosty Banana "Cream"

(3-4 servings)

2 organic bananas, frozen and cut into small slices

handful of raw almonds

1 spoonful organic raw honey

dash cinnamon

1/2 cup almond milk

Blend in your food processor. You can either eat the dribbly, chilled goodness or pour it into a container and stick it in the freezer for a little while. :)

Enjoy!

Finger-lickin' Nana Puddin'

My grandmother makes the best banana pudding ever. I mean, EVER. A single bite of it is lasting ambrosia. It is a happy time whenever I get to visit her, period, but the icing on the cake is a delicious batch of banana pudding waiting for me. Now. The trouble is her recipe involves cool whip, which is full of hydrogenated oils and less than ideal not to mention the excess sugars in the pudding and sweetened condensed milk.

So, here's what I did. I made up a new "healthified" banana pudding recipe, which is very tasty in its own right. You may decide for yourself which route you take. Maybe you'll make both and have a tasting party for your tongue. Who knows?

Finger-lickin' Nana Puddin'
(Makes 6-8 servings)

3 super ripe bananas
2 ripe bananas (can be mushy or just ripened), thinly sliced
7.5 oz extra firm tofu
18 oz soft tofu
2 shakes cinnamon
1 heaping tbsp raw honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 box vegan vanilla wafers (or non-vegan, if you like - just check the box and make sure you know what everything in it is)

Take the overripe bananas, tofu, cinnamon, honey, almond milk, and vanilla and put all into a food processor or blender. Mix until all creamy and smooth.

Next take a bowl (tupperware or glass) and set a layer of wafers in the bottom.

Spoon in some of the blended mixture over top then layer in more wafers and banana slices.

Repeat until you have used up all the banana slices and the blended mixture.

Add one last layer of wafers on top and put into the fridge to set. Should be ready to eat in about an hour.

Enjoy!

Bento 6: Tri-Color Bento

Today's bento was a tasty treat. Eat each part separate or mix them all together. It tastes great either way. Good hot or cold. Which is good, because you'll end up with leftover soboro for days (I am already eagerly anticipating this...).

Turkey and Beef Soboro
(makes too many servings to count)

1 lb ground lean turkey meat
1 lb ground lean beef
1-2 tbsp sesame oil, divided
1/2 cup green onions, chopped, green and white (~2 stalks)
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp thai fish sauce

Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in pan and stir fry green onions. Add meat; brown. Add sugar; caramelize. Add mirin; evaporate. Add soy and fish sauce; simmer. Taste for seasoning.

Now you can end there, and just enjoy it. It's very tasty at this stage. Or you can go a step further if you have a meat grinder (I used my attachment to my mixer):

Pour contents through a strainer, saving the juices in a large bowl. Then put all the meat/garlic/green onions through the meat grinder until it comes out in teeny tiny mushed up bits. Collect these bits in the bowl with the juice, stir well to coat, and refrigerate.


Carrot Brown Rice
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup carrot juice
water

Using a rice cooker, put 1 cup brown rice in with 1/2 cup carrot juice and then fill to the 1 cup line inside the bowl. Cook like normal brown rice. It will come out orange and mildly flavored. So good!


Asian Pickles
(This recipe was donated by Abby Palanker, who made these delicious pickles and kindly agreed to give me the recipe when I begged.)

2 boxes persian cucumbers (TJ's)
1 tbsp salt
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar

[Note: I made a half of this recipe and it's still a lot. I replace the sugar with brown sugar, halved the salt, and left out the crushed red pepper. Very tasty both ways.]

Slice cucumber 1/4 inch thick. Mix with rest of the ingredients.
Leave on counter for several hours, stirring now and then. Refrigerate.


And that is it. All together, it was so good! Yum yum yum. Nom nom nom.
Go on! Have a peace!

Watermelon-Strawberry Mint Sorbet, or Momo's Frozen Mash-up

In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to try making something that I think my mother would like. So I took a few of her favorite things - watermelons, strawberries, lemons, and mint - and went mush. :)

Here's what I came up with:

Watermelon-Strawberry Mint Sorbet, or Momo's Frozen Mash-up
(Serves many momos)

juice of 1 lemon, about 2 Tbsp
~1/3 cup date sugar (I used a little less, because that was all I had left)
1 cup pureed, frozen strawberries (5 large strawberries, frozen, then pureed)
4 cups pureed, chilled watermelon
2/3 cup water
~1 Tbsp minced mint (I used the awesome mix of mints that my parents grow at home and dried for me - see picture below - but any mint will do.)

In a food processor, puree frozen strawberries, then set aside in a large bowl. Without cleaning out the processor, puree the watermelon and add that to the bowl with the strawberries. Add lemon juice. Stir until all mixed up. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to chill.

Pour water, sugar, and mint into a small saucepan and set over low heat. The date sugar takes longer to break down than normal sugar - one of the good and bad things about it. It took me about 20 minutes before it finally melted completely, which worked out quite nicely as the mint had really saturated the sugar with its oils by then and smelled heavenly!

(Looks a bit like soup, doesn't it? But nope - it's date sugar water and mint!)

Set to medium heat and let boil for 1 minute. Then pour through a wire-mesh sieve into a heat-safe bowl and mash with the round side of a spoon until nothing else will go through. Save the remaining non-liquid date/mint mixture for later. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Set a timer for ~1 hour. It can stay in longer if you want. I don't think an hour or two will make much difference at this stage.

When you come back after at least an hour, pour the liquid sugar/mint mixture into the strawberry/watermelon mush and stir until well combined.

Pour this into a metal pan (about 8x8 should do), cover with plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for 4-8 hours. Scoop all the frozen fruit and sugar out, run it through your food processor until it's chopped up, and pour it back in the metal pan again. Freeze again. In 2-4 hours, it should be crisp, cold, and delicious. Although you may need to let it thaw a bit before serving.

Now if you want to make it extra delicious - take the leftover mint and date sugar mash and stir it thoroughly with ~1 tbsp of fine balsamic vinegar. I used FINI, which if you haven't heard of it is one of the yummiest balsamics around. [I thought of it because it's awesome when drizzled over fresh strawberries.]

The slight sour builds on the sweet and makes it a savory delight on the tongue. Just a little goes a long way. With or without the balsamic, this treat makes a delightful light dessert or a refreshing palate cleanser. Enjoy! And Happy Mother's Day, Momo! Go on, have a peace. :)

A Satisfying April Fool's Day Meal

You know what to expect here, right? I mean... really. So here's a couple little tricks that you can play on your friends if you want. :)

Jello Juice 
Okay. This is the easiest "prank" ever.

1 package strawberry or lemon flavored Jello
miniscule amount of either strawberry or cranberry juice (for the strawberry) or lemonade (for the lemon)

Follow the package directions and then, instead of pouring the Jello into a mold or tin, pour it into a clear juice glass with just a tiny bit of juice poured in on top of it. Insert a drinking straw and put in the refrigerator to set. Then, when someone asks for something to drink, pull out the glass and watch them try to get that juice out. :) [If you're concerned about top texture, you can add a little more juice on top the jello before you serve it.]


Protein Cupcakes
This one could be really mean, so don't pull this on your veggie or vegan friends... Remember, April Fool's is about playful pranks and is not an excuse to be recklessly cruel to people.

"Cupcake":
2 lbs lean ground chuck
1 cup chopped fresh spinach
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

"Icing":
Either Velveeta or blue cheese, melted, and mixed with a cheerful food coloring. Spread liberally on top.

Set your oven to 350F. Place opaque muffin papers into a muffin tin.

Mix the "cupcake" ingredients together in a large bowl - if you have a food processor, blend them first. Then divide the "batter" into the muffin papers. Bake for about an hour, or until the meat reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees. Take out and allow to cool to room temp, then place in the fridge.

Next, make your icing. If you use the blue cheese, you'll want to blend it so that it's a smooth texture. I'd use something innocuous like pink or blue for the coloring so it's more innocent looking. Once it's nice and gooey, spread it liberally on top of the "cupcakes" and return to the fridge to cool again.

Serve with pride. :)

Raw Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles (now with almonds)

A coupled days ago, I made the Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles posted by The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen with a couple small changes and brought them to a party at a friend's house with excellent results. All credit goes to them. For their blog and their exact recipe, click here. And go check out the rest of their recipes - I've tried several of them and they are all supremely superb.

Raw Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles

[Note: You'll need a food processor to make these.]

2 cups raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup raw unsalted, sliced almonds

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

~1 cup pitted medjool dates (I used a few more than called for)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup (Can also use dark agave syrup)

~ 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut powder (The recipe calls for shredded coconut, but I was unable to find any shredded that was unsweetened, so I used the powdered kind. The texture, I thought, was better than it would have been with shredded, but it's up to your taste.)

Directions:

Place the sunflower seeds, cinnamon, and sea salt into a food processor fitted with the "s" blade. Process until seeds are very finely ground (~2-3 min). 


Then add the pitted dates and olive oil. Process again until combined and sticky. The recipe said only to add the agave maple syrup if need be - but the dates I had were not squishy enough to moisten the mix. The best way to gaugue whether you need the extra sweetener is to check to see if you can form a ball by rolling a spoonful of the mixture in your hands. If it falls apart then add more sweetener and process again.


Scoop out the sunflower mixture by the large spoonful and roll into balls. Then roll in coconut powder. Store in the fridge for up to 10 days. We ate them on the second day and they were delicious. 

[Original source: www.nourishingmeals.com]

Broccoli Salad

Here’s a delicious recipe for broccoli salad that appears every year at family gatherings. It’s good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and is a nice chilled addition to predominantly warm meals. If you're veggie, simply leave out the bacon or use a bacon substitute. Either works.

Broccoli Salad 

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh broccoli, broken into small pieces
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds
8 slices cooked turkey bacon
1 cup raisins
1 cup fat free mayo (or miracle whip light)
1/2 cup sugar (or splenda baking sugar)
2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions:
Mix together and allow to set in refrigerator about 1 hour for better flavor. Serve chilled.

See how easy that was? Enjoy.

Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are a yummy, healthy snack. My Gram makes addictive ones. She claims, as many of my kitchen-talented relatives do, that they’re easy and there really ‘is no recipe’. Which is true, in a way. You have to do it to your own taste. But here’s a base to start from:

Deviled Eggs 

Ingredients:
10 eggs
4 yolks
Miracle Whip Light
Organic Yellow Mustard
Salt and pepper.
Optional- paprika and/or olives

Directions:
Hard boil your eggs.* (Gram says the peel comes off easier if you use an egg cooker to hard boil them. The steam helps. But either way works fine.) Put them in the refrigerator until cool.

Peel the eggs and slice them lengthwise. Drop the yolks in a mixing bowl. Set the egg halves to the side on a plate or in a tupperware container.

Mash the yolks with a fork until there are no large lumps. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop 1 large spoonful (~1 tbsp) mustard into the mixing bowl and mash it around with the fork until well mixed.

Scoop 4 large spoonfuls (~4 tbsp) light miracle whip into the mixing bowl and mash it around with the fork until the mixture is smooth, but not too thin.

Taste. If you want more of anything so far, now’s the time to add it. As Gram says, “You can always add more, but you can’t take away.”

When you’re satisfied, fill the half eggs with a generous spoonful of the yolk mixture.

Gram says you can use a melon scooper or a small ice cream scooper if you want them to be ‘fancy’, but if you do that, you need to make the mixture a little thinner.

Optional- Slice pimento filled olives for decoration and/or sprinkle (carefully) a tiny amount of paprika over the tops of the eggs.

Set in refrigerator at least 1 hour. Eggs keep in the fridge up to 4 days without spoiling.

Enjoy!

Gram's Banana Pudding

Nothing brings to mind memories of childhood comfort for me quite like my grandmother’s banana pudding. It’s simple, delicious, addictive, and (shock of shocks!) mostly healthy. Unfortunately, it’s also always been unreasonably difficult to replicate for some reason. Try as I might, given her list of instructions and ingredients, I still could not achieve the level of ambrosia that occurs in her version of this “easy” dish.

So this time, we did it together, and I wrote down everything she did. It came out wonderfully and disappeared within seconds.

Gram's Banana Pudding (sometimes called Nanner Puddin’) 

What you need:

2.5 qt Corningware bowl* (It doesn’t have to be this brand. But it does have to be this big and it needs to have a flat bottom.)
hand mixer
mixing bowl
spatula 

Ingredients:

Sugar Free JELLO Vanilla Pudding mix (1.5oz/42g)
2 cups cold, fat-free milk* (If making a larger portion or using a larger pudding mix box, always use 1 less cup of milk than the package instructions direct.)
4-6 bananas, barely spotted* (For the tested recipe we used 4, but they differ in size and some folks like more than others.)
1 box Reduced Fat Nilla Wafers* (Gram says if you don’t mind the extra calories and sugar, you should replace these with Pepperidge Farm Chessmen and use the same as instructed.)
1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip Free

Directions:
Pour milk into a mixing bowl and sprinkle in the package of pudding mix. Stir with a hand mixer until well blended, then add the whole can of sweetened condensed milk. 

Mix until “just a little thick”.

Fold the cool whip in with a spatula until you can no longer see any dark yellow streaks in the mix.

Now, for the prep. In the corningware bowl (or whatever appropriately sized serving bowl you’ve chosen), put down a layer of nilla wafers.

Slice bananas into ~1/2 in thick slices. 1 layer of those on top of the wafers.

Now pour 1/3 of the pudding mix on top of that.

Repeat, for two more layers, with nilla wafers first, then banana slices, then the next third of pudding.

Repeat again. 

You’re done! Now simply place the lid of the corningware bowl (or cover with clingwrap) and put into your refrigerator.

Allow the pudding to set for at least 2 hours and a max of 2 days. How long you let it set depends on how much you like the pudding set, and also has an effect on how much the flavors will have blended and ripened together. I prefer 8-12 hours for the perfect mouth-feel and comfort-taste.

Serve generously.

Thanks, Gram.