Tuesday, July 25, 2017

CINNAMON GARBANZO BEAN COOKIES & HONEY GREEK FROZEN YOGURT SANDWICHES

My poor hubby has been thought the ringer with hives and itching.  So this was a spontaneous treat I came up for him last night.   He's in love.   He wanted to know when is the next time I'm going to make these. 

Note: Make the FROZEN YOGURT FIRST!

INGREDIENTS:
1 Can Garbanzo beans
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
1/2 Table spoon butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 1/2 cup flour.  Add one half cup at a time.

FROZEN YOGURT:    
2 cups of Greek Yogurt.
1/2 cup honey
3 Table spoon sugar.  


FIRST:
You are going to need a food processor to cream the G beans.   If it has blades use it..... well your lawn mower has blades?  Use your best discretion.   But hey if you really want to be creative??????  LOL  







Drain and put all the G beans into the processor with olive oil and water, puree.   Make sure you use a spatula to scrap down the sides and puree some more.  The mixture should be creamy.  Next add butter and blend well.  








Place all in bowl and add sugars, honey and cinnamon.  Mix well.
 This is really wet.   No flour in it yet.
 Mix in 1/2 cup of flour.
 Mix in another 1/2 cup flour. 
 And mix in the last 1/2 ish cup flour.   I'm squeezing the dough with my hand to show you it should not be wet and sticky, rather tacky, but it does not stick to my hand.

 Have a cookie pan sprayed with nonstick and hand roll the dough into walnut-ish size dough balls.  With a small cup that has been sprayed with non stick on the bottom flatten the cookies.  They will not flatten on their own.   Turn the burner to 375 and cook until the bottoms are golden.  When cookies don't have eggs or lot's of butter in them, you don't judge doneness by the tops, you watch the bottom. 
 See how light colored the tops are, they don't look done.  But oh! the bottoms are nice and golden, there done. :)    When their in the oven gently pick one up with a metal spatula and look underneath.








FROZEN YOGURT.

Mix Honey, sugar and yogurt together really well.  Pour all in to plastic container and cover with plastic wrap and put in freezer.    This should take about 2 hours.


Assembling your sandwich.

Cookie
1 Tablespoon of yogurt
Cookie
Eat.     mmmmmmmmmm

On a hot summers day these are amazing. 

Sunday, July 16, 2017

MAYONNAISE FREE CAULIFLOWER & POTATO SALAD.

 This is a really nice meal to make in summer and with garden fresh tomatoes it's a winner. 

Keep in mind you can alter this recipe to your heart content.  Too may potatoes?  use 2.  Don't like capers leave them out. 

So here we go.

INGREDIENTS:
4 Medium Potatoes
1 Medium size Cauliflower
 2 Table spoons of Capers
1 Jar of marinated Artichoke Hearts.
2 Garlic cloves
3 celery stalks.
1/2 White onioin
1 Green Bell pepper.  Aka Bel-tilla. ;)
3 Piece of a Medium avocado
1/2 cup of Garbanzo beans
1 Garden picked tomato for garnish.



A pan with water add it to it.  About 4 cups.  
 Place the steamer basket on top.   Do not turn burner on yet.
 Cauliflower.   Clean, take steam off and separate florets.
 Put in bowl and set a side.
 Potatoes.
 Naked Potatoes that have been peeled.
 Slice the potatoes in half. Place face down.
 Cut each one into 4 quarters.
 Then cut four times again.  Diced.
 Put all the diced potatoes in a pot and fill with water.


Like so.  Turn burner to high.   If you start the cauliflower and Potatoes at the same time, they will be done at the same time.  
When done the potatoes should be firm.  The test, Take a piece out and cool it.  Squeeze it between your finger, it should not give.  But when you bite into it.  It should not be crunchy, but give and taste good. 
If it's crunchy it need to be cooked longer.








Back to the Cauliflower.   With a small knife, but the cauliflower into approximately the same size as the potato pieces.  
Put all the cauliflower piece into the steamer basket.   The piece are still bright white it's the lighting.  Not cooked.  But the lid on and turn burner to high.


 Celery
 Sliced
 And Diced
 Bell pepper.
 Cut the top and bottom off.
Slice and dice.
 Onion
 Slice
 And dice.   Remember you don't have to be perfect. 

Take a gander at the potatoes.   That the starch coming out and it's close to being done.











 Steamed cauliflower.  Now the pinch test is not going to work for the cauliflower.  It should be tender, but not fall apart. 
 Cool the potatoes.  Added ice cube to the water to speed the process up.
 Chopped veggies.
 Mixing chopped veggies with cooled cooked potatoes.
 The two cauliflowers on the left are cooked, and have a slight translucent yellow look. The one on the right is bright white, uncooked.
Marinated Artichoke
 Chopped.
 Add two table spoons of capers and the Artichokes and mix in.










Add cooled Cauliflower.   Mix in.
 Garbanzo beans & Avocado.
 1/2 Garbanzo beans and Avocado slices with garlic.
 Blend all.
 Add all to salad and mix well.


Saturday, July 15, 2017

DOUBLE DARK CHOCOLATE CHERRY & AVOCADO MUFFINS

Well let me start off with some of the end pictures did not turn out so well.  To post or not to post?  Post!.     So yeah I did not get a good shot of the muffins and my sweet toothed monster came by and made short work of the muffins. 

Warning this recipe is not healthy.  To go beyond this point is to throw caution to the wind.

INGREDIENTS:
1 40z Bakers chocolate  YES!
2 Medium Avocados
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown
2 Table spoons honey
2 Teaspoon baking powder.
1 cup of chocolate chips.  Double YES!!!!!!!! 
2 cups of cherries.
1 3/4 cup flour.

First as you can see by the picture above I have the chocolate in a double boiler.   Add water to a pan below to boil then place a glass bowl on top with the chocolate.

Cut Avocados in half and half again and peel off skin. 
Remove two.   6 slices will only be needed.  
Cream avocados.   
Chocolate melting just find.   Move around squares until they all dissolve and melt.
Add baking powder and sugar to avocado mixture and honey.   I covered it up. 😕
Mix in. 
Now add the chocolate from the double boiler and mix in.   Let this cool to room temp.
Mix and mix.











   Cut right into the cherry until you hit the pit and cut around the pit.  Then cut off the tip. 










Add chips.

Add cherries and mix in. 
Ok now add the flour a little at a time to the mixture and stir until all the flour is gone.   Add some more and stir in very well, until all the flour is gone.  This is going to be a very thick batter, not runny at all.  

Well this is not what I call a award winning food picture, but it get the message across.   Fill the muffin tin with batter.     




Now if you have a muffin tin with lot more holes, never ever leave a hole empty.   Why?   It will warp your tin.  So let say you have four holes empty. First set your muffin in in the oven.   Then with a measuring cup fill the pans holes with warm water about a 1/2 inch from the top.  You have to be extra careful when moving your muffin tin in and out, but this will insure that your pan will not warp. 

Turn the oven to 375, have tooth pick ready.  And keep your eye on your evil goodness.  When the tooth picks come out clean your ready to nom. 

Now if you want to Double the Madness.  Here is what my Hubby did. 
 Warmed Double Dark Chocolate Cherry & Avocado Muffins with Vanilla Ice cream.
Cut muffin into chunks and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream.     Pure Evil.