Monday, August 30, 2010

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Craving oatmeal cookies, and loving coconut, I mixed two recipes together and added a touch of my own. They were crumbly, so maybe next time I'll add in a bit of honey. Hubby loves oatmeal raisin cookies, and he declared these better than any he had ever had!

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry ingredients together:
2 c. flour (I used brown rice, tapioca, white rice, xanthan gum mix)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. shredded coconut
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1 c. shredded carrot
1/2 c. raisins and cranberries
1 stick ground cinnamon
pinch or two of ground ginger

Mix wet ingredients:
1/2 c. agave nectar
1/c. melted coconut oil
1/2. melted butter

Mix wet and dry together.

I tried baking this two ways. Teaspoon sized cookies on a cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes, and pressed into a stoneware baking sheet. The cookies were bite-sized and perfect for kids.
The bars took longer to cook and broke apart on their own. Basically, bake until golden brown on top.

Enjoy! And if you have any improvements, I'm happy to hear them.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Leftovers That Became a Tradition

Dinner started as tofu with a dipping sauce and Millet with Summer Vegetables (p. 239) from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen Cookbook. The next day, it turned out to be something spectacular. So wonderful that our six-year-old asked what date it was.

"August 2nd."
"OK. So, every August 2nd we are going to eat this."
"You only want to eat this once a year?"
"Oh, yes! Every year on August 2nd we should celebrate and eat this."
Tradi-TIOOOOOON! Tra-DI-tion!

Here's what we did. It's a bit different than the recipe, but has the same idea.

Dinner One, Millet Pilaf:
Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes 1.5 cups washed millet in 3 cups water with salt.
Dice or chop 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 cloves garlic and sautee. Add kernels from 3 ears corn, and 2 cups chopped zucchini. When the vegetables are slightly cooked, just warmed through, add millet, a bit of olive oil, too much dill, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper. Serves 4 for 2-3 meals.

Dinner Two, Better-than-Pizza:
Brown ground meat, add millet pilaf and a can of drained, diced tomatoes. When warmed through, top with mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, and green scallions. Broil until the cheese starts to brown. Deeelish! We still have leftovers from dinner one, and will be making dinner two again as soon as we purchase more mozzarella!