Nikki's Healthy Cookies Recipe. I keep in touch with one of my best friends from high school. Her name is Nikki and she lives in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and four kids. Four! She's an inspired cook who can throw a meal together on a whim from a refrigerator she keeps packed with all manner of whole, natural foods. She's an enthusiastic supporter of local growers and producers and regularly sends me emails highlighting recent cooking triumphs and trials. A few months back she emailed me her recipe for butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies - I promptly filed it under "can't possibly be good.
" When I made a trip to Philadelphia a few weeks back and spent the day with Nikki the topic of the cookies was revisited. Wayne and his brother Greg drove me out to see Nikki in Kennett Square, and for those of you who find yourself in the area I'll list off a few of the places Nikki took me to visit that day. Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe. This pumpkin soup recipe is so perfect for this time of year that I can't help sharing it with you.
That being said, I've got about 15 minutes of battery left on my laptop (with no power source in sight), so this write-up is going to be quick. The other night after toasting pumpkin seeds the oven was hot so I cut both a small pumpkin and acorn squash in half, slathered them with butter, kissed them with a sprinkling of salt and in they went. I forgot about them for about an hour as they roasted and then removed them when they looked perfectly bronzed and a poke with a fork confirmed their tenderness. Although I was tempted to eat them just like that, I resisted and put the flesh into a pot with coconut milk, water, and a good amount of spicy Thai curry paste. There was just a whirl of the hand blender between me and a stunning, rich, flavorful soup. Keep in mind that different Thai curry pastes have differing strengths. Carefully cut each squash/pumpkin into halves (or quarters).
Cranberry Pistachio Dark Chocolate Bark. This sweet treat is not only chocolate-y good, it's healthy too!!
Pistachios, cranberries and dark chocolate are loaded with antioxidants, not to mention fiber, good fats and vitamin C, so here's a sweet treat you won't feel guilty giving out. With the holidays around the corner, if baking is not your thing, making chocolate bark just couldn't be easier. With only three ingredients, the only appliance you need is a microwave to create this. You can use any combination of nuts and dried fruit to make bark, but I just love the festive colors in this combination, and it tastes great too. What's your favorite bark?
Cranberry Pistachio Dark Chocolate BarkSkinnytaste.comServings: 14 • Size: 1 oz (roughly 3-1/2 x 3-1/2") • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts Calories: 126.6 • Fat: 8.1 g • Protein: 2.6 g • Carb: 15.3 g • Fiber: 2.1 g • Sugar: 10.7 g Sodium: 1.1 mg Ingredients: Add melted chocolate to nut mixture, stirring until just combined. Egg Avocado Bake.
German pancakes. Saturday, December 2, 2006 Back when I was still getting daily “are you okay?”
And “do you need anything” phone calls from my mother each morning after my little rumble with the stairs, she told me one more she’d just made German pancakes for breakfast. “Oh, you remember them, don’t you? I made them once in a while when you were growing up.” Well no, I don’t. The recipe, by the way, mom says she got from one of those inserts that came with her at least 30-year old blender, completely crushing my romanticized notions of this being something her parents over brought from the “old country.” German Pancakes From my mom’s old blender cookbook Yield 2 9-inch pancakes.
Butternut Squash Soup photo by SunFlower.