Recipe Roundup

Last week I experimented with three new recipes.  All three were good, and two were instant favorites.

First up, Smashed Chickpea & Avocado Sandwich from Two Peas and Their Pod.  This is the sandwich that was so yummy, I chose it over grilled cheese.  I love the play of salt and lime juice with the avocado and chickpeas.  Not only was this a great sandwich spread, it made an awesome dip.  A very rare recipes for which I didn't and wouldn't change a single thing.   

Favorite of family and friends last week were my Star Wars Day dueling lightsaber cupcakes.  Give them a try (light sabers optional).  I got the recipe for 100% Whole Grain Chocolate Cupcakes from Texanerin Baking.  I chose to top them with a Nutella-style hazelnut chocolate spread instead of the espresso frosting.  The combination of hazelnut chocolate spread with these cupcakes was just too yummy.  Erin gives a couple variations in this recipe, I used whole wheat pastry flour, turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw), and canola oil.

Our house is anything but gluten-free, but I'm always on the lookout for a tasty cookie with no refined white flour or sugar, and for deserts that combine some worthwhile nutrition with the treat.  These Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies from Kneadtocook have no refined flours and are full of protein.  I followed the recipe as written, using almond butter, and the cookies turned out well.  Next time I would add 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  To get the best cookie taste, a pinch of salt to contrast the sugar would have really added some extra kick to the flavor.  I have a feeling most almond butters contain a little salt, but my almond butter had none, so check your almond butter before deciding whether or not to add salt.  Aside from needing that kiss of salt, a decent, chewy, gluten-free cookie.  The batter is very sticky- make sure to use Silpat or parchment paper as indicated!

This week's new recipes on the horizon include an interesting spice blend to roast and grind.  It will then become part of an intriguing new spiced cashew snack.  Should be fun!

Portable Post Run Recovery Snack

Wanted: a healthy snack that can survive an eight mile run while bouncing up and down under the hot sun in a very unrefrigerated pocket.

Having a small snack after a serious run is supposed to do all sorts of helpful things to aid in muscle recovery so that we can feel well and get back out on the trail again sooner.  Problem is, we walk almost a mile to and from the trail.  By the time I get home to prepare a fresh snack, we've missed the half hour window where that post run recovery snack can make the most difference.

We had to find a portable snack that we could eat on our walk home.  It couldn't be too messy, it had to be nutritious.  The obvious choice was to buy a nutrition bar, but we wanted fresh, home made food, not something loaded with preservatives that came out of a box.

So today we auditioned Soft & Chewy Sugar-Free Granola Bars from OhSheGlows.com.

Thanks to the Vitamix this recipe was very easy to put together.  I used the dry container to grind the oat flour and the wet container handily made the paste of dates and water.  The bars turned out great- not too sweet, palatable, and gentle on the stomach.  We put both bars in a little Ziploc in my husband's pocket (yes, Ziploc snack bags are BPA free- I checked!)

The only snafu in our experiment was that the two thin bars I packed came out of our 8 mile run completely fused into one big bar.  Kind of romantic, in a sugar-free, nutrition bar kind of way.  We just broke the two-become-one bar in half and enjoyed!