No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Apparently I was very impressed when I was a child and my grandmother made no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies for me.  So impressed, in fact, that I prepared them for my sixth grade class demonstration project.  All these years later I have found that I still love these things, but mine use half the butter and I've added the omega-3 goodness of hemp seeds. I've also replaced the refined, white sugar with some sucanat and turbinado sugars.  You really have to use butter here over a heart-healthy oil as the butter is needed to solidify here.  Though, if you are a vegan, or are simply avoiding dairy, you can replace the butter with 1/4 cup of coconut oil.

These are good.  Damn good.  We won't go crazy and call them health food or anything, but they sure do wonders for a chocolate craving.  

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

½ cup peanut butter

½ cocoa powder

½ cup sucanat

½ cup turbinado sugar

½ cup nonfat milk

2 ½ cups of rolled oats (regular, NOT quick cook)

½ cup hemp seeds

1 - In saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.

2 - Add milk peanut butter, cocoa powder, sucanat and turbinado sugar to melted butter and stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and sugar has melted. 

3 - Remove from heat.  Immediately stir in oats and hemp seeds until wet and dry ingredients are well combined.  Be careful not to overstir or oats will begin to break up. 

4 - Drop by measured tablespoons onto wax paper or aluminum foil covered baking sheet. 

6 - Place into fridge or freezer until hard; remove from pan and place into an air tight container.

Cookies will keep in an air tight container in fridge for up to one week.   I dare you to try and keep them around that long!



Recipe makes 30 cookies.  Nutritional info per cookie:



Nutritional info is compiled using ingredient compilation program for 2,000 calorie diet and is deemed close but not exact.

Spinach, Tortellini & Bean Soup

Five Minute Soup

I did not set out to rock the culinary world with this post. What I am trying to show, is that many ingredients can be combined and heated for a near-instant meal that is satisfying while still packing punch in the nutrition department.   This is not to say that there's anything wrong with this kind of cooking.  Any good cook has a few tricks up his/her sleeve and sometimes simplicity is damn satisfying.

Here, beans and spinach are the real stars of the balanced eating show so make it without the tortellini if you are not a pasta eater (or perhaps throw in some quinoa instead). I was able to locate a whole wheat pasta that was made with just a few ingredients so I tossed it in.

If you can open a can, you can throw together dinner. It will taste better than a TV dinner and is healthier, too (I don't care if healthy is in the title of the tv dinner or not!). 

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups chicken stock or low sodium broth
1  14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in their juices
1  15.5 can of small, white beans, rinsed thorougly
2 cups fresh (or fresh/frozen) whole wheat tortellini
3 cups frozen, chopped spinach (two of the small "bricks") 
Optional: Additional seasoning agents, as described below



INSTRUCTIONS:

1 - Pour chicken stock into large stock pot.

2 - Add the tomatoes and their juice, beans and tortellini (don't add spinach yet or it just gets brown and ugly!).

3 - Bring to a boil.  Cook until the tortellini have begun to float. Add the spinach, stir and serve immediately. 

SEASONING NOTE: There you have it!  And now that your culinary confidence has been boosted, consider experimenting with some seasonings.  Added just before serving, lemon zest and some freshly grated parmesan cheese would be nice here.  Or, instead of lemon, drop in a little bit of rosemary (a little goes a long way).  Like heat?  Red pepper flakes would fit well.  Need more depth of flavor without added sodium?  Add balsamic vinegar.  These tricks, by the way, will add flavor and a brightness to a wide variety of dishes--without adding salt. 

Now get cooking and enjoy!

~  Lynn, a.k.a. The Country Tart. 


Recipe makes 8, 1 cup servings (without tortellini, it makes 6, 1 cup servings):

Per serving (with tortellini on left, without on right):

Nutritional info created using ingredient compilation tool for a 2,000 calorie diet and is deemed close but not exact. 

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Salad dressing could not be easier to make at home with a few, fresh ingredients and the end result not only tastes way better than anything out of a bottle, it contains none of the unidentifiable ingredients often found in commercial salad dressings.  By controlling the added salt and using ingredients far superior to the manufactured variety, you will be pleased with the end result.


INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard
1 - 1 ½ teaspoons raw honey
1 tablespoon of champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 clove of garlic, crushed
(in season, some finely chopped fresh basil makes a great addition to this dressing)



DIRECTIONS:

Add all ingrendients into a jar such as the one found here: Salad Dressing Maker.

Shake until well combined. Makes 8, one tablespoon servings.



Per serving:

*Nutritional data calculated using ingredient compilation program for a 2,000 calorie diet and is deemed close but not exact. 

Apple, Avocado & Lentil Martini

In 1896 when the maître d of the famed Waldof-Astoria, Oscar Tschirky, first combined apples and mayonnaise, surely an eyebrow or two was raised.   Once people got a bite of this salad, it became an instant classic that is still well known to this day.

With creamy, ripe avocado instead of mayo and the addition of protien and fiber (not to mention iron) rich lentils, this not only provides lunch in an instant but one that will do the body right.



INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces of Black Beluga Lentils precooked from Trader Joe’s
2 ounces of avocado, cut into cubes
3-4 ounce crisp, mildly tart to tart apple such as crispin or Jonagold or Granny Smith
pinch of sea salt, lemon juice or zest

1 - Cut open and cube avocado. If you are unsure of how to handle an avocado, click here.

2 - Cut up apple leaving skin intact (the skin has lots of good fiber in it!) into cubes also.

3 - Toss avocado, apples and lentils together.

4 - Add a dash of sea salt.  Lemon juice and zest are also great flavors to add in here.

5 - Place into martini (or similar) glass and eat.


Really, there's nothing more to it!



Recipe makes one serving, approximately one cup:

 * Nutritional data created using ingredient compilation program and is deemed close but not exact.

Grandma Jennie's Stuffed Peppers

 

I have been eating a version of these peppers since I was a child, as did my mother, and did her mother. My great grandmother's recipe, there is little fuss to them which, I believe, is what makes them a great example of peasant cooking at it's finest.

Don't let their hardiness fool you--these are actually 100 percent animal-free and cound be served to vegans and meat-and-potato-types alike. A pepper that is not nearly as popular as the more boring green bell variety, these are often easily picked up at roadside stands for next to nothing. I grow them in containers in my front yard and one plant easily yields 6-10 peppers.


INGREDIENTS:

10-12 Sweet Banana Peppers
4 medium, fully ripened tomatoes
1 tablespoon fresh oregano or basil  chopped
8 slices of stale hearty bread*
2 Tablespoons - 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
fresh ground pepper and salt, to taste

1 - Preheat oven to 400 degress.  Meanwhile, wash and cut pepper tops off on a bias, as pictured below:

2- Clean the seeds out of the inside and discard the tops (or save for flavoring grains or soups later on).

3 - Mill the tomatoes.  The objective here is to liquify them and you can either use a food mill, a blender, an immersion blender or a food processor.  Oregano can be added during this step, before breaking up.

4 - Break bread into 1/2 -1" chunks and place into a large bowl.  

5 - Mix in tomato and oregano into bread thoroughly.  You will need to use your hands and really get messy.

6 - Take some of the mixture and, using finger, stuff deep into the pepper.  Place in glass baking dish and ball up a nice handful of pepper to press onto the top of the pepper.  Continue to do this with remaining peppers.

7 - Drizzle peppers with olive oil, making sure to get some oil on the filling and flesh of each pepper. 

8 - Bake for 20 - 25 minuts or until peppers are soft and beginning to brown. Stuffing shold be crisp but not over-cooked.

*Traditionally, this recipe is made with stale, crusty bread, however, sometimes I will make this with a combination of wheat, whole grain and sprouted grain breads to increase the nutritional value of this recipe.  Certain breads, such as sprouted grain breads, do not hold up well in stuffing and thus should be kept to 1/4 of the ingredients.  Nutritional data, below, is for recipe made with: 2 slices Ezekiel bread, 2 spelt English muffins, 2 slices potato bread and 2 slices of 100% whole wheat bread.   Also shown in photo at top of page.

Nutritinal Info Per Pepper:

Nutritional data created using ingredient compilation and is deemed close but not exact.