Peppermint Patties

When we were little, we went on lots of trips with our church youth group.  Some of my favorite memories are from the nights before these trips when I would spend the night with my friend, Julie, and we would make mix tapes (that's right...tapes) and her parents would take us to the grocery store to load up on Teen magazine (that's right...Teen magazine, and yes, I think we were about 12) and candy.  Some of my favorite candy was hot tamales (probably because I had a crush on a boy who liked them!) and york peppermint patties (probably because chocolate was maybe my first true love).  They say songs and scents are invoke memories stronger than anything else.  I think food is another one (then again, I love food, as evidenced by my food blog).  For me, peppermint patties do it every time.  If I close my eyes I'm certain I'm on the "people mover" reading Teen magazine and listening to my mix tape.  takes me back to those days of bus trips with my youth group.  Thanks to Chocolate Covered Katie I can still experience the memory.  Thanks Katie!  What about you -- what's your favorite food memory?


Ingredients

2 tsp water
2 tbsp coconut butter or Homemade Coconut Butter
1/8 tsp pure peppermint extract (or as desired)
1 1/2 tsp honey
2 tbsp coconut oil (unrefined)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp water
2 tbsp honey


Directions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl (it is best if the coconut butter is not melted.) In a separate bowl, combine last 4 ingredients. In candy molds or cupcake liners, spread out half of the chocolate, then spoon the mint filling on top.

Cover with the rest of the chocolate and freeze until chilled.

Notes: If you don’t like mint, of course you are free to omit the extract. If you don't have coconut oil, you can substitute melted dark chocolate for the last four ingredients.

Printable Recipe

(Recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie)

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! 

Xoxo,

Snacks and Desserts

Watermelon frosty (or margarita!)

Heads up: watermelon is my very favorite summer fruit. 

I can. not. get enough of it.  The good news is that the hubs' mother knows this about me and every time we visit her in the summer she sends a local watermelon back.  (The visits to the hubs' hometown of Paris (not France) may or may not increase drastically in the summer).  All that to say, I have several watermelon posts planned for the summer so get excited!  The debut watermelon recipe for Snacks and Desserts is this deliciousness. 

I first tried this recipe first, with great success, at a recent FNHH.*  As soon as my friend and I tried this libation, we knew it was a keeper.  The following week we had it again.  And I'm pretty sure we'll have it again this weekend.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's on the regular FNHH summer rotation.  And by rotation, I mean it's the only drink we'll consume at our summer FNHHs.  Obvs.

*What's FNHH, you ask?  Well my friend and I often abbreviate our words (and yes, I have, in fact, abbreviated words since I was in elementary school, so if People magazine (or whatever magazine it was) calls abbrevs a trend of 2012, I guess that means I am obviously a trendsetter).  Somewhere along the way, these abbrevs my friend and I are so fond of turned into initials instead of short words.  It's a pretty fun, if slightly stressful, game.  You should try it.  In any case, we often have Friday night happy hours at my house with some of our neighbors.  So natch our Friday night happy hour turned into FNHH.  Y'all should join us.  The more the merrier!

Do you have a favorite summer cocktail or frozen beverage? Do tell!


Ingredients

2 1/4 cups frozen watermelon cubes
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp honey
1 large lemon, squeezed (lime juice also works very well: use 2 limes)
1 fresh banana
optional: tequila (or more water or fruit juice)

Directions

Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a glass (or drink directly from the blender -- I won't judge) and enjoy.

Printable Recipe

Original recipe here

Bacon-wrapped Pineapple

The hubs and I had a friend in town this past weekend, and I had already planned to spend the day in the kitchen making several recipes I've been wanting to try.  So my friend was gracious enough to give me her honest opinion about whether or not the respective recipes were blog worthy.  This one, without a doubt, passed the test.  After going on and on about how good it was, she said "Oh shoot, I should have said something really clever or funny so I could get a shout out on the blog."  I told her that was enough to merit a shout out.  Especially because she was, in fact, going on and on.

Lest you think my friend Ann was saying recipes were good just so she could get a shout out on the blog, she did feel free to tell me some recipes weren't blog worthy.  Like the cauliflower pizza crust I tried.  (We ended up agreeing it might be good for something besides pizza crust but it wasn't good enough as is).  More to come on that recipe if I get around to experimenting.  In the meantime, y'all should make this recipe sooner than later.  We had to FORCE ourselves to stop eating these delicious bite sized pieces of pineapple.  Wrapped in bacon.  Thank goodness the hubs wasn't far off and he was more than willing to eat to his heart's content.  My philosophy: the more the eats, the less I eat.  Win win.

Let's be honest, people.  Bacon is one of the best foods. Ever. I have a friend who had sugar coated bacon at her wedding reception. It was ridiculous good.  This recipe isn't quite the same, but the way the sweet from the pineapple mixes with the savory from the bacon is pure genius. 

Ingredients

Fresh pineapple, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Bacon
Honey

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. 

Wrap a wire cooling rack with aluminum foil and place on top of a baking sheet. 

Heat honey over low heat just to get a runnier, less sticky, consistency.  Cut each slice of bacon in half and dredge in the honey.  Run your index finger and thumb down the bacon to remove any excess honey.  (By the time I finished this step, there wasn't much honey left on the bacon, and I'll probably even leave it out completely next time I make these because the pineapple is sweet enough on its own). 

Wrap half a piece of bacon around a piece of pineapple and secure with a toothpick.  Place each piece of bacon-wrapped pineapple on the foil-lined baking pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until the bacon looks brown and crispy. You can turn the oven to broil for the last few minutes to get them really crisp.

Remove from oven.  Let cool slightly.  And enjoy. 

Printable Recipe

Chocolate covered peanut butter banana bites

The name of this recipe is kind of a mouthful.  Which makes sense because I want my mouth full of these delicious little suckers.  Chocolate + peanut butter + banana = Pure deliciousness. 

When we were little, my mother would sometimes make bananas and peanut butter for us.  Well, this is like bananas and peanut butter on steroids.  Dark chocolate steroids.  Dark chocolate makes everything better.  Everything.  And since my mother used to make this recipe (sans chocolate) for our breakfast it makes me feel like leg eating two or three of these for breakfast, which I might or might not have done yesterday.   Turns out, eating these banana bites with a cup of coffee might make them even better.

The original recipe recommends eating these banana bites frozen, but I found that frozen bananas were harder to chew than I like.  So I stuck mine in the refrigerator after they were frozen.  Cold, but not frozen, bananas with peanut butter and chocolate is the Mary Poppins of bite-sized treats.

Ingredients

2 large bananas
1/4 cup all-nat­ural peanut but­ter (or nut butter of your choice)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar, chopped
2 tbsp - 1/4 cup milk (preferably raw)

Directions

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Slice bananas into slices about 1/2–3/4 inch thick. Spread a dol­lop of nut but­ter on top of each one.

In a small saucepan, combine the chocolate and milk (less is more so start with less and add as needed) and melt until they can be stirred together.  You want a dippable, not spreadable, con­sis­tency.  Add a splash more milk if nec­es­sary.

Dip the banana chunks into the melted chocolate.  Place choco­late coated bananas on the prepared sheet and place in freezer until com­pletely frozen (3–5 hours).

Remove frozen banana chunks from the sheet and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator (or freezer if you prefer frozen).

Printable Recipe

Recipe from here

Chicken Spaghetti

This recipe is important to me for two reasons: 

1) Our favorite chicken farmer has had some recent back trouble so he's no longer a vendor at our farmers' market.  Tragic.  Not only did we trust his chicken, but he was the most affordable (chicken) farmer at our farmers' market.  I recently tried to buy some chicken from a different farmer.  Our conversation went something like this:


Me:  Hi, I'd like one pound of boneless chicken breast, please.
Mr. Farmer:  No problem.  (Digs around in his freezer).  Well, looks like I only have 1.1 pounds.
Me: Oh, that's no problem.
Farmer:  Great.  (Does some math).  Ok, that'll be $19.25"
Me:  I'm sorry, I thought you said nineteen dollars and twenty five cents.
Farmer: Oh yea, I did.
Me:  Ummm.  Ok, I'm gonna have to pass.  Thanks anyway.


I shamelessly walked away with my head held high.  Highway robbery, I tell you.  Highway freaking robbery.  The next week I was able to find one pound of chicken for only $9.00.  The $10 difference would have bought me three lattes at Starbucks!  Clearly that farmer is crazy.

2) I just got a new job (hooray!) for a pay cut (boo!) so gone are the days where one chicken breast = one meal.  Even at the reduced price of $9.00 a pound.

1 + 2 = the following email I sent to my mother and sisters. 

"Does anyone have a good chicken chili or chicken casserole recipe?  I have a pound of chicken and I want a recipe that will make leftovers so it will go farther than just one meal."  Thank goodness for like-minded family, right?  My sister quickly responded with this recipe.  The hubs and I both enjoyed it the next night.  And for the next few days, too.  I liked it because it's cheesy but not creamy (think cream of so and so soup -- guh.  ross.).  The hubs liked it because he had lunch taken care of for the next several days.  Win win.

Ingredients

9 oz. whole wheat spaghetti
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
29 ounces stewed tomatoes, undrained, chopped (You can buy canned, but I prefer boxed as studies have shown BPA is in many canned goods)
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dried italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded cheese, divided
3 cups chopped cooked chicken

Directions

Cook the pasta according to package instructions and drain. 

While pasta is cooking,  heat skillet over medium high heat.  Add onion and garlic and saute until soft.  Add tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, italian seasoning, and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.  Stir in 1 cup of cheese.  Stir in cooked spaghetti and chicken.

Pour mixture into casserole dish.  Top with remaining cup of cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until hot.

Printable Recipe

Asian Coleslaw

This recipe is a great way to get your raw vegetables in.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some steamed vegetables, roasted vegetables, pretty much any way you prepare them vegetables.  7-year-old me's jaw just dropped to the floor, by the way.    It's strange how much my tastebuds have changed since I started the real foods adventure two years ago and even though I ate far more vegetables than 7-year-old me would've chosen to eat, vegetables weren't one of my favorite foods.  It's true, though, and I can't imagine going back.  Raw vegetables have their own unique health benefits, but sometimes I have a hard time getting raw vegetables in.  I can only eat so many heads of raw broccoli, right?

Enter this recipe.  Problem solved.  It is truly delicious (the hubs and the sister who was staying with us for a few weeks both agreed).  It's also vegetarian so you can serve it to anyone (assuming they don't have a nut allergy).  And it's something new and different for when you sign up to bring the salad to the next pot luck dinner.  Or perhaps the Memorial Day cookout you're attending this weekend. 

Don't be scared by the word Asian thinking it has to be served with Asian food.  The dressing is made up primarily of asian ingredients, but I served it with baked tilapia.  It would be great with anything, really.  And as an added bonus, it's good as leftovers and doesn't get soggy.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

Dressing:
1/4 cup honey (next time I'll use half that amount or even omit it totally)

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tablespoon Bragg's liquid aminos ("real" soy sauce)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon all-natural peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (Thai hot sauce - optional, and I left it out)

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I used 1 teaspoon dry ginger)

1 large garlic clove, minced

Slaw:

4 cups shredded cabbage

2 cups shredded carrots

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 cup cooked and shelled edamame

2 medium scallions, finely sliced

1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts (or you can leave them whole)

1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro

 

Directions

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir until the peanut butter is dissolved. Set aside.

Combine all of the slaw ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss well. Let sit at least ten minutes so vegetables have a chance to soak up the dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.  Serve cold.

Printable recipe

Recipe from here