'Tis the Season For Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

This is actually adapted from a pie recipe I've made dozens of times. I was craving this pie but couldn't bring myself to buy white sugar or white flour and have them sitting in my cupboard. I haven't had either for months now. You could certainly make the crust for a one crust pie (see "pastries" within this blog) and put a crust under this. I was just too lazy tonight for that.

4 cups chopped rhubarb
4 cups sliced strawberries (1 lb package)
1/3 cup sucanat
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sucanat
1 cup whole wheat flour

Mix rhubarb, sucanat, honey, and flour. Stir until flour is distributed throughout. Add water. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Remove from heat when liquid is thick and bubbly. Stir strawberries into the hot mixture. Pour into deep dish pie plate or 2 qt casserole dish.

In a food processor, pulse together butter, sucanat, and flour until crumbly. Pour over fruit mixture and spread around. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Simple Cinnamon Drop Cookies

click on image to enlarge

This is just an adaptation from the red/white checkered "Better Homes" cookbook

1 cup room temperature butter
1 1/2 cups sucanat
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground hard or soft white wheat preferred)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend together butter and sucanat. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat one minute. Add flour and baking powder and mix thoroughly. Drop onto a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 or 9 minutes.

Whole Grain Banana Cake

click on image to enlarge

This cake is divine. Definitely company worthy and easy to make. I substituted melted butter for the peanut oil and opted not to sprinkle it with the coconut. My daughter hates coconut. I also used freshly ground hard white wheat for the pastry flour. This comes from the same site where I found the yummy oatmeal cookies I posted a couple of months ago. The picture on the site is prettier than mine; check it out.

http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/41-cake/81-whole-grain-banana-cake.html

Cake Ingredients:
•1 1/2 cups whole grain pastry flour
•1 tsp baking powder
•1/2 tsp baking soda
•1 tsp ground cinnamon
•1/4 tsp salt
•3/4 cup sucanat (Evaporated Cane Juice)
•3 large eggs
•1/2 cup peanut oil
•2 large ripe bananas
•1/2 cup milk (any kind)
•2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients:
•4-oz cream cheese, room temperature
•1/4 cup butter, room temperature
•3 tbsp wild honey
•2-3 tbsp milk
Topping
•Unsweetened coconut flakes
•Toasted pecans


Cake Preparation:
1.Preheat oven to 350F.
2.Grease a 9-inch round cake pan, bottom and sides.
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt.
4.In a small pan over low heat melt sucanat in oil- just till its partially liquidfied, may still be a bit crumbly.
5.In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, bananas, milk and vanilla extract.
6.Add sucanat liquid to dry mix and stir till covered in mixture.
7.Add egg mix and stir until no streaks of flour remain visible.
8.Pour into prepared pan.
9.Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
10.Turn cake out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Preparation:
1.Beat cream cheese and butter together
2.Slowly add honey and milk until creamy smooth.
3.Top cool cake with frosting, pecans and unsweetened coconut flakes.

Kid's Favorite Peanut Butter Spread

Kid's Favorite Peanut Butter Spread

This is lower in calories and fat than peanut butter alone and is sweeter and creamier. Great on toast, pancakes, sliced apples, ice cream, whatever.

Ingredients
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
2 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Real Maple Syrup
1/3 cup milk

Directions
Put all ingredients in a 1 pint glass canning jar. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave for 30 more seconds. Stir. Refrigerate and use within one week. Makes 16 one tablespoon servings.

Number of Servings: 16

Calories: 69.5
Total Fat: 4.1 g
Cholesterol: 0.4 mg
Sodium: 2.4 mg
Total Carbs: 5.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.5 g
Protein: 1.9 g

When you gotta have some Chocolate!!

Microwave Mini Cakes

Ingredients
2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp 2% milk
1 egg
splash of vanilla
3 Tbsp Honey

Directions
Mix flour and cocoa powder. Mix wet ingredients together. Stir all together and pour into 4 sprayed 1/2 cup ramekins or microwaveable tea cups. Microwave 2 minutes. Run a knife around the edge and turn onto a plate.

Number of Servings: 4

Calories: 209.8
Total Fat: 13.5 g
Cholesterol: 84.3 mg
Sodium: 101.9 mg
Total Carbs: 21.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.1 g
Protein: 3.8 g

All Natural Oatmeal Cookies

these came from this site:

http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/43-cookies/58-healthy-oatmeal-cookies.html

a lot of the recipes have sugar in them that I won't use but many of them don't. I have a whole file in my computer of recipes from there that I want to try. So far, so good. We love these ones.

All Natural Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 tsp each of baking powder, baking soda, and salt
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp Molasses
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup raisins, dates, cranberries
1/2 cup pecans, walnuts, or other nut

Directions
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Stir together. Mix in raisins and nuts. Bake at 335 degrees for 15 minutes on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Makes 24 cookies using the pampered chef medium cookie scoop.

Number of Servings: 24

Calories: 129.6
Total Fat: 6.3 g
Cholesterol: 19.0 mg
Sodium: 166.3 mg
Total Carbs: 17.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.8 g
Protein: 2.3 g

Chocolate Pudding Pie with Oatmeal Crust

Oatmeal Pie Crust

Ingredients
1/2 cup oats
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter cut into pieces
1/4 cup very cold water

Directions
Process oats in food processor until fine. Add flour, agave nectar, and salt. Pulse a few times. Add butter and process until it looks like coarse crumbs. Run processor and pour water through the hole in the top until it begins to come together. Shape into a disk then roll out between 2 layers of plastic wrap. Press into pie plate and crimp edges as desired. If you want to pre-bake the shell, line with a circle of waxed paper then pour 1/2 cup dry beans into that. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake for 5 more minutes.

Number of Servings: 8

Calories: 129.4
Total Fat: 8.1 g
Cholesterol: 20.1 mg
Sodium: 250.0 mg
Total Carbs: 12.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.9 g
Protein: 2.4 g

All Natural Chocolate Pudding Pie filling

Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup salt
2 cups milk
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Whisk together cocoa powder, corn starch, and salt. Add 1/2 cup of the milk and whisk until it forms smooth paste with no lumps. Add remaining milk and agave nectar and whisk until combined. Cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens, stirring often, and constantly at the end. Stir in vanilla. Pour into pre-baked pie shell. Cover with plastic wrap, allowing the wrap to touch the top of the pudding. Chill 2 hours.

Number of Servings: 8

Calories: 99.9
Total Fat: 1.6 g
Cholesterol: 4.9 mg
Sodium: 98.6 mg
Total Carbs: 19.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
Protein: 2.6 g

Blueberry Apple Cobbler

Blueberry Apple Cobbler

2 cups frozen blueberries
one peeled, sliced apple or pear
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp minute tapioca
sprinkling of cinnamon

1 cup whole wheat baking mix (listed in a previous post)
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup agave nectar
one egg
pinch each of salt, cloves, and nutmeg
zest of one orange

Put first list into the bottom of a 8 inch square pan.

Mix second list and pour over the top.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until the top of the cake portion is cracking and no longer moist looking.

6 good sized servings.

Calories: 240.1
Total Fat: 8.0 g
Cholesterol: 54.3 mg
Sodium: 174.6 mg
Total Carbs: 39.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.1 g
Protein: 5.0 g

Baking mix for Whole Wheat Pancakes, Biscuits, or Muffins

5 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp Honey
2 sticks butter

Pulse in food processor until completely combined. I make 2 batches in a row and put them in a one gallon ice cream bucket (left over from a weak moment or a child's birthday party).



To make pancakes: 1 cup mix, 1 egg, 3/4 cup milk, cook on hot skillet sprayed with olive oil spray. 1/6 of this recipe is 128 calories, 6 grams of fat, 15 carbs, 2 fiber, 4 protein, 171 sodium.

To make Muffins: 1 cup mix, 2 Tbsp Honey, 1 egg, 1/4 cup milk. Bake at 400 for 17 minutes. 1/6 of this recipe is 144 calories. 7 grams of fat, 20 carbs, 2 fiber, 4 protein, and 159 sodium.

To make Biscuits: 1 cup mix, 1/4 cup milk. Stir, knead 10 times, flatten out and cut as desired. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes. 1/4 of this recipe is 166 calories, 8.4 grams of fat, 20 carbs, 3 fiber, 4 protein, and 223 sodium.

This recipe follows ALL the rules, as long as you don't eat too many, or slather them with too much butter or naughty stuff, of course.