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Aurelie

Honey Spice Bars

These whole grain snack bars have a hint of honey, but are sweetened mostly with healthy fruits. They are great for school lunches and quick snacks.

1 cup white whole wheat flour
3 tbsp rolled oats
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp poudre douce or nutmeg
1/2 cup dried apricot puree
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
3 tbsp apple juice concentrate.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix the flour, oats, cranberries, and spices.
3. Incorporate the puree, oil, honey/maple syrup, and juice into the dry ingredients and pat the mixture into an oiled 8'' x 8'' pan.
4. Bake the bars in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool, slice, and serve!

Makes 8 bars

Blueberry Dressing With a Hint of Ginger and Cinnamon

Unless, as does the famous Popeye, you enjoy ingesting copious amounts of plain, dark, leafy greens, you are most likely always looking for new ways to eat these nutrition powerhouses. This blueberry dressing may become one of your favorite ways to dress dark, leafy green salads. It's especially good in a spinach salad topped with apples, celery, and walnuts.

Juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup olive oil
2 tbsp blueberry jam (use fruit-sweetened if possible)
1 tsp mustard
Ginger, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper to taste

1.In a mixing bowl, whisk all the ingredients together with a fork. Serve!

Makes about ½ cup dressing

Slow Cookin' Beans

Until recently, I was a diligent promoter of cooking beans... over the stove. Now, not so much. Why the change?

I discovered the slow cooker. Oh, sure-- I had cooked (mostly stews) with the slow cooker before, but without great results. However, I did notice two characteristics that nearly all slow-cooked meals shared: they all tasted the same (this is a downside for me since I like lots of variety in my dishes) and they all emerged perfectly cooked for slow-cooker, especially the meals containing beans. It was the latter characteristic that prodded to try cooking dried beans in a slow cooker.

It so happens that cooking beans in a slow cooker is a perfect solution to almost every problem that can arise when cooking beans (over-bubbling, burning, under-cooking). Plus, a slow cooker isn't as finicky as the pressure cooker and always results in perfectly cooked beans.

If you've been wary of cooking beans regularly because of the hassles, give the slow cooker a try. To do so, soak beans overnight in a large bowl of water. Then, in the morning, drain and rinse them, transfer them to the slow cooker, cover them with water and set the slow cooker* to either the high setting for 6 hours or the low setting for 8 hours. Meanwhile, live your life and come home to a pot beans ready to be ''played'' with. You'll be glad to have given a chance to the slow cooker.

*Some beans take less time to cook than others, but these settings work well for the average bean.

Review Coming Soon

Stay posted for a review of the Ronco Electric Food Dehydrator! I was recently approached by a company who has a dining room furniture online store and a cooking equipment online store and who offered me the opportunity to review one of their products. Of course, I accepted, and, after looking over their products, I decided that the food dehydrator would be the most review worthy item. So, in the following weeks, I'll be experimenting with dehydration as a healthy food preservation method. Look out for a slew of posts on the topic.

Pineapple Blueberry Bake

Pineapple Blueberry Bake

This easy-to-make bake makes a nice dessert for casual weeknight suppers.

4 cups chopped fresh pineapple

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

2 tbsp almond butter

2 tbsp cashew butter

1 banana, peeled

¼ cup apple juice concentrate

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. In an 8'' x 8'' pan, toss together the pineapple and blueberries. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, blend the nut butters, banana, juice, and spices together using a handheld blender. Mix the nut butter mixture into the fruit.

4. Bake the fruit bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Serve!

Makes 4 servings

Notes:

*You can use ¼ cup of either almond or cashew butter in place of a combination of both. Tahini can be used in the case of nut allergies.

An Idea Worth a Toast

Here in New Brunswick, we are enjoying a quiet, snowy day that is a nice respite from the cold, icy, biting weather we've been having recently. The Christmas spirit is in the air and even though our family is staying close to home this holiday season, we're (or at least I am!) planning a Christmas feast.

With ideas for all sorts of festive desserts running through my head, it's definitely not astounding that I was in the mood to toast the holiday season with a festively topped toast (no pun intended): date square toast!

Date squares are traditionally made somewhat in the same way as apple crisp. They have a layer of crust (made up mostly of oats), a thick layer of pureed dates, and a topping of either more of the crust or chopped nuts. By using a slice of whole grain toast instead of the crust, you can make a delicious breakfast version of this dessert that is still wholesome enough to be considered breakfast.

To make, take a toasted slice of whole grain bread, spread on almond butter or tahini (bitter tahini complements sweet foods wonderfully), generously spread on date puree (or chopped Medjool dates), and lastly, top with a handful of chopped pecans and shredded coconut and a pinch of cinnamon. Enjoy!