How to make fruit leather (without a dehydrator) from Simply Recipes.
Want to raise a sweets-obsessed kid? Do these 8 things from Raise Healthy Eaters.
Sandwich Monday: ‘The (Sandwich That Helped Kill) Elvis’ from NPR via Food News Journal.
Polly Want a Cracker? from It’s Not About Nutrition.
Here in Connecticut, Fall has arrived. Families are going to the orchard and joyfully picking apples. It’s all good family fun, until you get home and realize you actually have to eat them all.
The good news is that, most of the time, freshly picked apples will keep for weeks. Keep them in a cool, dark and somewhat ventilated place and they may last even longer. But even so, the apple supply can be a tad overwhelming.
Here are a few suggestions (gleaned from previous posts and from other food bloggers) for making apples easy to eat and exciting even when you’re near the bottom of the giant pick-your-own bag:
Sliced apples with honey
Sliced apples with carmel sauce or delce de leche
Sliced apples with cheddar cheese
Apple Flying Saucers
Sliced apples with Mud Dip
Sliced apples served alongside Honey-Roasted Pecans
Applesauce or Halloween Mush
Warm Apples Over Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt
Microwaved Apples
Fried Apple Rings
Apple Crisp Cookies
Grilled Sausage and Apple Kebabs
Please share your favorite way to use up lots of apples in the Comments. Thanks!
Blah blah blah…we were strolling through the farmer’s market like our usual wannabe locavore selves and there it was – a big ol’ sunflower head. The person I gave $2.00 to told me to soak the seeds overnight in salty water and roast them.
I completely thought I was going to get stuck with the job of removing the seeds, but my kids went nuts and removed almost all of them themselves. Those little fingers do come in handy.
Once they were all removed we soaked them overnight in a couple cups of water with around 2 tablespoons of dissolved salt.
Then I roasted them on a baking sheet at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes until they started to brown just a bit.
The resulting seeds are a bit tough to crack. I find it easiest to rest the base of a shell on one of my lower molars and gently press down on the tip with an upper molar. It is a bit of a pain. But the perfectly salty little seed is worth the trouble. My 6 year-old loves these. I have to break them open for the younger one.
The yield was about 1 1/2 cups. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
Yan Yan is a Japanese snack that my kids love. I grew up eating Handi Snacks. They will have fond memories of Yan Yan.
We don’t make it to the Asian grocery very often, so Yan Yans are a special treat. I like that they aren’t at our regular grocery store so that I don’t have to deflect requests/begging every time I take the kids to buy a carton of milk.
There are no nutritionally redeeming qualities here. In fact, the ingredient list is quite frightening. But, the packaging is genius. And I’m trying to chill out a bit and am allowing some pre-planned trash into our diet occasionally.
Teaching Kids to Eat Healthy: Q & A with Feeding Expert Katja Rowell part 1 and part 2 via Raise Healthy Eaters.
Make Ahead Babysitter Meals from Kitchen Simplicity.
Edible Puzzle from Golubka.
10 Snacks Kids Can Make Themselves from Cozi via Simple Bites.
Beyond the Tortilla Chip: Three Mexican Snacks that Aren’t Deep Fried from The Paupered Chef via Food News Journal.
Eating fresh local raspberries this time of year feels like cheating. Raspberries taste like they should only be available at the height of summer. And yet Mother Nature (or is it farmers?) has been kind enough to give us one last taste with the late season berry crop.
I was recently lucky enough to stumble upon some golden raspberries from Sweet Wind Farm. I instantly fell in love with these show ponies of the berry world when I saw a post at Tender Crumb that featured them perfectly. Those little tarts make me smile.
When we got them home, after much deliberation, I finally settled on topping a bowl of mixed raspberries with a dollop of fresh whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup.
And it was perfect.
Has everyone been snacking on edamame and keeping it secret from me?? Actually, now that I think about it I’ve seen it mentioned all over the place as a great snack. But I never thought I was crunchy or worldly enough to take to it, much less locate it at the grocery store.
Luckily, I took the plunge and finally tasted some at a restaurant a while ago. And then I spotted some at the farmer’s market.
All fresh edamame needs is a five minute steam over salty water. When they’re done, run them under cold water for a couple minutes to cool them down and stop them from cooking further. Et voila!
Popping the beans out of their shells brings some fun to the table. But I also genuinely like the taste. They remind me of a firm pea, but not as sweet. My normally adventurous eater has recently decided she doesn’t like edamame. But the younger one loves them. I’ll take it.
Working a new food, especially a legume, into my family’s diet is a bit of a thrill for me. Such is the life I lead.
This recipe, adapted from Dorie Greenspan‘s Dimpled Plum Cake, is a new favorite chez nous. I’m still in awe of how well the plum works in this recipe. It is best to use plums that are ripe but still firm espiecally if you’d like some of the muffins to be edible the next day. Plums that were mushy to begin with tend to get ugly sitting overnight.
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat flour
1/4 salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (if you don’t have any, use ground cinnamon)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, beaten
1/3 cup canola or safflower oil
Zest of one lemon, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 small ripe plums, halved and pitted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grease a regular muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.
Cut the plums into two halves along the crease and remove the pits. Set aside. When I accidentally mutilate the plum trying to get the pit out, I just put it in the batter pit side down.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, and cardamom. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the brown sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the oil, lemon zest, and vanilla and stir to combine. Add the flour mixture and stir well.
Transfer a scant 1/4 cup of batter to each muffin cup in the prepared pan. Place one plum half into each cup pressing down slightly so that it is firmly nestled in the batter.
Bake on the center rack for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the batter comes out clean. Rotate once during baking. Allow the muffins to cool for 2 minutes in the pan. Use a knife to gently dislodge the muffins and transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Serve once cool, paying special attention to the plums as they stay hotter longer.
Yield: 12 muffins
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Bake-time: 15 minutes
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Even though I’ve been eating peaches, plums and nectarines for what seems like weeks on end, I couldn’t stop eating this salsa. If only I could sneak a little jalapeno into the mix, it would be stellar.
My youngest tentatively snacked on this dip even though she saw me nonchalantly cutting up the yellow tomatoes. She is (currently) not a tomato fan. It was either a moment of genius on my part or dumb luck that she even tried it; most likely the latter.
1 medium ripe plum, pitted and chopped
1 medium ripe peach, pitted and chopped
1 medium ripe nectarine, pitted and chopped
1 medium yellow tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped purple onion (optional)
1 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1/2 lime)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
In a small bowl, mix together the plum, peach, nectarine, and tomato. Add the cilantro, onion, lime juice and salt and stir until they are well distributed. Serve with tortilla chips.
Yield: 2 cups
Prep-time: 10 minutes
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These tart shells are super easy to throw together and there is no rolling out of the dough. They take as much time and effort as throwing together a batch of cookies. I still love cookies, but these are a delightful and healthier alternative that can serve as a breakfast treat, snack, or dessert.
Whenever any kind of fresh raw fruit is piled into tart shells, the kids are completely on board. My favorite way to fill it up so far is with fresh chopped peaches, strained yogurt, and honey. Add a dash of cinnamon on top if you dare.
The only warning I should give is that it isn’t the easiest crust to cut up. It’s on the hard and crumbly side. So, don’t hate me if the kids (or grown-ups) make a mess.
1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups oats & honey granola (I use store-bought)
3/4 cups walnut pieces
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, melted
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place the flour, granola, walnuts, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Run the food processor for approximately 30 seconds or until the mixture resembles large crumbs. Drizzle the honey through the feed tube of the food processor and incorporate for a five seconds. Then pour the melted and butter and coconut oil through the feed tube with the machine running and process until the mixture starts to come together.
Take one large golf ball-sized portion of dough at a time and press it gently into a 4-inch round tart pan with removable bottoms until it covers the bottom and sides of the pan. You should have enough dough to make 8 shells. Place the filled tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Place baked shells on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. To serve, remove gently from tart pan by popping up the removeable bottom. The shells may be stored in the pans in an airtight container for up to two days.
Yield: 8 4-inch tart shells
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Bake-time: 10 minutes
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