Kim at The Nourishing Gourmet often induces cravings for healthy delicious foods in me, but today... it's all I can do to stop myself from running to the store to get the ingredients for this now. Since I haven't made it (I just REALLY want to) I'm not going to say much about it. I'll let her post do all the talking.
Here is her original post (but don't forget to visit her blog. It's wonderful!)
Rich, Dark Hot Cocoa (Dairy and Refined Sugar Free)
by KimiHarris on January 18, 2010
I’ve had a sudden fixation on dark chocolate. Long time readers here will know that I’ve always loved chocolate but I’ve been going weeks on end without having chocolate. Well, no longer. To satisfy my chocolate tooth, I started turning to hot cocoa. This version is dark, creamy, and delicious. I find it a perfect treat to have mid-afternoon (or an almost mid-night snack, which we did last night). And it’s pretty guilt free too, sweetened with a drizzle of maple syrup, full of the healthy fats from the coconut milk and unsweetened cocoa powder too.
Chocolate (without all of the yucky other ingredients added to it in most candy bars) is actually considered a very healthy food by many. Like cranberries, apples, onions, tea and red wine, chocolate is loaded with flavonoids. According to The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth by Jonny Bowden, the particular flaonoids called flavanols found in chocolate “prevent fatlike stubstances in the bloodstream from clogging the arteries. When you reduce the blood’s ability to clot, you also reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.” The author also mentions that chocolate is high in magnesium (which, by the way, is why many crave chocolate when they are low in magnesium). I’ve also read of several studies connecting chocolate to a healthy blood pressure.
Because I use coconut milk powder (I ordered mine from Wilderness Family Naturals), this is dairy free, though you could easily use whole milk instead. I’ve sweetened it with maple syrup, but honey would work too. I wanted to use a liquid sweetener because it would dissolve more easily, but use rapadura or coconut sugar if you are willing to do a little mixing. Feel free to use canned coconut milk too. Maybe half full fat coconut milk with an equal amount of water for a rich taste, or more water for a less rich taste.
Rich, Dark Hot Cocoa See notes above for ingredient substitutions.
2/3 cup of coconut milk powder (see notes above) 1/4 cup of full fat cocoa powder Scant 1/4 cup of maple syrup or honey 4 cups of water 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
French Press Method: While water is being brought to a boil, add the coconut milk powder, cocoa powder and sweetener to the french press. Add the boiling water and with a gentle motion, use the press to help mix everything together (I use an up and down motion in the top half of the french press). Add the vanilla and serve.
Regular Method: Place the coconut milk powder, cocoa powder and sweetener in a four glass pyrex measuring cup. Add just enough boiling water to moisten this mixture and whisk to form a smooth paste. Add more water to a bit over the four cup mark. Add the vanilla and serve.
*I’ve labeled this recipe vegan and dairy free, but do note that their are trace amounts of milk in the coconut milk powder. To be completely vegan and dairy free, use canned coconut milk.
This is a delicious meal. I really enjoy mushrooms, and I especially enjoy creamy noodle dishes, so this dish is a win-win for me. I got the original recipe from eatbetteramerica.com and altered it, and I'm pleased with the final product.
1 lb. thinly sliced boneless pork chops 1 teaspoon canola oil 1 cup chopped onion 8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced 1 10 3/4 oz. can of condensed cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic 1 c water 1/2 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme 1/2 teaspoon ground sage 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream 8-12 oz. egg noodles, cooked
Cook chops in large skillet on medium high heat for 4 minutes on each side. Set aside. Heat canola oil in pan and add onions and mushrooms. Stirring constantly, cook until onions start to get tender and mushrooms start to get lightly brown. Deglaze the pan with the water, being sure to get all the tasty 'bits' from the bottom. Add soup, soy sauce, sage, thyme, and pepper and stir well. Return chops to the pan, and bring to a boil, uncovered. Allow to simmer until pork chops are cooked through and the sauce has reduced. Add sour cream, mixing well. Serve mixture over egg noddles.
My mother-in-law makes a fast Nacho Bake that I really enjoy. When my husband requested it a few days ago, I asked her for her recipe and made it last night. I used lean ground turkey instead of ground beef. (If you've never used lean ground turkey, I really would like to encourage you to try it. Where I buy meat, ground turkey is usually cheaper than ground beef, especially the very lean ground beef. Besides being very economical, lean ground turkey is lower in fat and calories than ground beef . It requires a bit more seasoning than ground beef, so it is perfect in dishes that are heavily seasoned, like chili or tacos. Anyway, I digress.) My mother-in-law seasons the meat with chili seasoning (in the packet, which you can find with the gravy mixes and taco seasonings) and taco sauce. It is very good this way. The chili powder adds a great depth to the meat. With the chili seasoning and the taco sauce, I think the dish has a more mid-west flavor, as opposed to a neo-mexican taco flavor, which I tend to gravitate towards. Next time I make this dish, I am going to replace the chili seasoning with taco seasoning, and the taco sauce with chunky salsa. I think it will be wonderful! Oh, and I'll use ground turkey again. I promise: if you don't tell your family that it's not ground beef, they will never know!
Nacho Bake 1 lb. ground turkey (or very lean ground beef) 1 packet chili (or taco) seasoning 12 ounces taco sauce (or chunky salsa) 1 12 ounce bag of nacho cheese flavored chips (I use Doritos, but using a store brand doesn't change the taste of the dish much) 8 ounces mexican cheese Sour cream
Brown the ground meat (if using turkey, use a tablespoon of two of canola oil; this is not needed for fatty ground beef), drain if needed, add the entire packet of seasoning and the taco sauce. Allow the meat to simmer for a couple minutes so that the sauce is absorbed. Crunch up all your chips and put a little less than half in the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish. Spread half the meat evenly in a layer, top with half the cheese, and repeat the layers. I like to top the dish with a little bit of chips (instead of just cheese) and it comes out looking cute. Bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees, or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream and enjoy! I hope you try this!
A couple years ago, I bought some beautiful fabric to make myself a costume for a renaissance fair. In pure 'Debbie' fashion, I never got around to it. (To be fair, one of the reasons I never finished it is that I messed up a cut, and would have had to buy another yard.) So for a couple of years, I've had this large bundle of beautiful dark rose corduroy and a light rose silky fabric. I decided a few months ago to make a quilt out of it and actually started to, but soon found out that I NEEDED a rotary cutter and mat to make everything even. Well, I finally have them, and I have been cutting out my squares. I'm going to make a lap quilt and a pillow or two. Here are my plans, and a picture of the actual fabric. Each little block is 4" by 4" so the final lap quilt will be 3' by 5'. I'm going to keep a large part of the blanket simple, and just put the corduroy in large blocks. I'd like to do the whole thing patchwork, but I know I'd never finish that! =D So, I'll make it a little easier on myself, and it'll still be stunning. I'm going to make the back of the blanket entirely out of the silky fabric. It'll be so cozy and wonderful, like a large child's blanket. I love it! Here's a (poor quality) picture of the actual fabric: I can't wait to get sewing!
What a name, eh? These beauties are made of chocolate dough with chocolate chips in it, rolled in chocolate sprinkles (or drizzled with chocolate for sprinkle haters), and topped with a chocolate kiss. Sounds good, right? They were amazing! I found this recipe some time ago at the Blissfully Domestic blog (such a great blog, by the way), and just had to try them. I thought they would be wonderful Christmas cookies, and boy, was I right! I'll post the original recipe first, but, as usual, I altered it quite a bit, so I'll re-post the recipe with my changes.
Super Duper Chocolate Kiss Cookies Ingredients:
16.5 oz package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2/3 cup chocolate-flavored sprinkles 2 tablespoons milk 40 Dark Chocolate Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large Ziploc bag, combine the cookie dough and cocoa powder. Seal the bag and knead it with your hands until the dough is well mixed.
3. Put chocolate sprinkles in a shallow bowl, and then the milk in another shallow bowl.
4. Remove the dough from the plastic baggie and start forming them into 1-inch balls.
5. Dip the balls in the milk, just to moisten them, and then roll them in the sprinkles.
6. Place these balls two inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for approximately eight minutes, or until the edges are firm.
8. Immediately press a Hershey's kiss into the center of each cookie. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack and let cool.
Makes approximately 36 cookies. These can be frozen for up to three months after baking them.
The first thing I did was decide to double the recipe! With a family like mine, especially on a holiday like Christmas, I needed more than 36 dinky little cookies! So I went out and bought a 36 oz. bag of assorted kisses. The bag included dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and chocolate 'meltaways.' I couldn't find any that were already unwrapped (bummer!) so I set my husband to unwrapping! We mostly just used the dark chocolate, but tried some meltaways to see if they made a difference (you can't tell they aren't normal kisses after their baked, so don't bother), and reserved some milk chocolate ones for drizzling. Instead of buying two 16.5 oz. tubes of dough, I just bought a 30 oz. tube. It was much cheaper, so I just went with it. I left it out to get to room temperature so that I could easily mix in the cocoa powder (there's no way I was going to try and scrape cookie dough out of a baggie, so I nixed that and just used a wooden spoon and a huge bowl.) I used double the cocoa powder that the recipe called for even though I didn't exactly double the dough. I figured it would just be extra chocolate-y, and who doesn't like that? At first, it was difficult to mix the dough, but after mixing for just a couple minutes, the dough became glossy and a beautiful chocolate color. (As a raw dough, it had a slightly bitter taste from the cocoa, but this cooked out.)
I didn't have a small ice cream scoop to make same-sized dough balls (my favorite way of doing it), and I was running out of time, so I pat the dough into an inch thick disk, wrapped it in plastic, and tossed it in the fridge. I figured it would be easier to handle if it was cold, and the cocoa would have a chance to really flavor the dough. When I took it out, I cut the disk into 3/4 inch squares, rolled them into balls with my hand, dipped them into milk, then into the sprinkles. I soon found that dipping them into milk first is just not an efficient way of doing things. The milk got the sprinkles in my bowl wet and made them clumpy, it made my hands gooey, and didn't help the sprinkles stick to the dough at all. I skipped the milk and just rolled the balls in the sprinkles. This worked perfectly. The sprinkles stuck very well and they looked so cute all lined up on parchment paper. I made some without sprinkles (a particular husband of mine thinks that sprinkles are a waste of stomach space) and melted some chocolate to drizzle on top instead. I baked them for about 8 minutes, took them out and put a kiss in them, and let them cool on my cookie rack. When they come out, they are very soft, and a few broke and fell through the cracks in my cookie racks, so be wary of that. As soon as they cool enough to bite into, eat one! They taste like brownies when warm, especially with a melted puddle of chocolate kiss/chocolate goo on top! Sooooo good! All in all, they were a hit. They were super chocolate-y and a nice change from peanut butter kiss cookies. I will definitely be making them again!
Here is the recipe, my way:
Super Duper Chocolate Kiss Cookies (otherwise known as Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocoate Kiss Cookies =D)
Ingredients: 30 oz package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2/3 cup chocolate-flavored sprinkles 70 dark chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine room temperature cookie dough and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Pat into an inch thick disk, wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for an hour or more. (Chilling it is optional, but the dough is less gummy and very easy to handle when cold.)
3. Cut the dough into 3/4 inch squares, roll each square into a ball with your hands, roll them in sprinkles, and place them on parchment paper covered cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Note: Dark pans/cookie sheets heat up faster and stay at a higher temperate than lighter pans. This extra heat causes the cookies to spread out too much and cook too fast. This results in cookies that are well done on the bottoms and underdone on the top, as well as being thinner than desired. Be sure to use light colored pans/cookie sheets, keep your dough chilled, and try to stagger your pans so that you are putting cookies on cool baking sheets, instead of hot ones. Trust me, you'll have a taller, softer, more evenly cooked cookie everytime.
4. Bake for approximately eight minutes, or until the edges are firm and immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack and let cool, being mindful of how fragile they are. And don't forget to eat one while they are still hot!
I was in a hurry and didn't take pictures of the cookies when they were just cooled. I've been kicking myself for forgetting! So I rounded up the few 'rejects' or 'ugly' ones that didn't make it to my display plate and photographed them. There was only one cookie without sprinkles left, and I don't think they look as good, but I showed it anyway. You'll have to forgive the terrible quality of my camera, and keep in mind that these are the 'ugly', broken, or oddball ones. They're delicious though! I hope you make these for your family!
Oh, I do love Christmas. It is so hard to believe that beloved holiday is almost here! This Christmas is especially joyful as it is my first Christmas as a married woman! My husband and I have spent the last several Christmases together while we were dating, but this one feels so special since we actually have our own place to live and we can begin celebrating the holiday our way. So wonderful.We have our Christmas tree up now, and I am just so thrilled with it. For my first tree on my own, I think it is just about perfect. We went with an artificial tree, mostly because I was able to find this amazing 7" tree for $65 from abcdistributing.com! Here it is all put together and ready to be adorned!My husband was apparently hiding behind the tree when I took that, hence the 'scary claw' hand sticking out. Silly guy. I love the tree. Although I prefer to make my own ornaments, I've simply not had the time or the money to do so this year, so we bought a bunch of red and silver ones. I think they're beautiful.I did have a few ornaments to add to the tree this year, and I think they go very nicely. The green one here (with the red bow) is one that I crocheted.
And so, the final look!
Hope your Christmas decorating goes well!
Well, it's the dreaded first post. The post where you write why you are starting your blog, say that you hope you will stick with it, and where you promise to write every day. At least, that's how has been for me. I've had several blogs in the past; like my high school teenage-angst blog, my college 'life sucks' blog, and my attempt at an esoteric blog as an adult. All of these failed, and I started each one with a post saying that I hope my new blog will really be something. So, I have decided to do no such thing for this blog. This time, I welcome you, you big scary first post. You are the beginning of a blog, regardless of how long it is, and I like you.
I am someone with many titles. I consider myself a crafter, a cook, a reader, a writer, a gardener, a photographer, a 'hippy', and a decorator. I am a wife, a sister, a friend, and, some day, I will be a mother. I love to make things. I love the joy of making seeds grow into plants, yarn into a scarf, flour into a biscuit, and groceries into dinner. My many interests and hobbies will be reflected here.
