Healthy New Year!, Part Three: Almond Butter

Almonds are great for you, and so easy to use in many recipes. The two ways I use them most are in almond flour (a.k.a. almond meal), and almond butter.

I think I've read that almonds are the most nutritious of all the nuts, providing goodies like vitamin E, selenium, calcium, B vitamins...They also contain fiber, protein, and healthy fats. Their neutral taste makes them easy to use in baking. I don't think almond products taste as strong as, say, peanut butter or sunflower seed butter.

 

So I finally perfected these muffins: my Almond Butter-Banana Muffins. I made these over the weekend to make sure my measurements were correct, and the whole batch (not to brag -- ahem) was devoured by my family in one day.

These muffins may be my pride and joy. They are moist and rich and sweet, but healthy as can be. Not only are they full of the almond butter and bananas I mentioned (bananas! one of the best food sources of potassium), but they also contain whole wheat, an organic egg, and a full 3/4 cup of cauliflower (say what?) that you would never, ever know was there. (Trust me on this. A lifetime in which everything I ate tasted subtly of cauliflower would be a hell on earth to me.)

These could be considered a "whole-meal muffin" because they contain a fruit, a vegetable, whole grains, and protein and fat. I let my kids eat 'em for lunch (with, say, some sliced veggies on the side). 

Did I mention these are moist inside? Look at that fine crumb.

 

OK, that's enough, before my head explodes and/or you get sick of me. I'll post the recipe.

Almond Butter-Banana Muffins

(based on a Jessica Seinfeld recipe, but I totally left Jessica in the dust on this one. Sorry, Seinfeld.)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond butter
3/4 cup cauliflower puree
1 1/2 bananas, well-mashed
1 organic egg
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup flaxseed (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups.

Mix sugar, almond butter, banana & cauliflower purees, and the egg in a large bowl.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & flaxseed and stir just to combine.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. Bake 15-20 min., until lightly browned and not mooshy if you press on them.

Enjoy!
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Almond Butter Balls (a.k.a "Chocolatey Balls")

 

Again, here's a treat that looks bad for you but is healthful and simple. There are 3 ingredients in this recipe: Medjool dates; almond butter; and unsweetened cocoa powder. Oh, and sprinkles if you want them.  :)  (And a tiny drizzle of vanilla if you like.)

Dates provide lots of energy, vitamins and minerals, and fiber. And unsweetened cocoa powder is actually a good source of antioxidants, too (I love that factoid -- like all those mental news-clippings I store about how coffee is actually good for me). So these yummy little nuggets make a great after-school snack for children -- energy, good fats, antioxidants...add an ice-cold glass of organic soymilk or milk and you have a fine snack on your hands that makes your kids feel spoiled.

Don't you feel like somebody loves you, just seeing these things?

 

Here's how to make 'em: Take 10 medjool dates (usually in the produce section, in plastic tubs; they are oval and wrinkly and brown. No need to soak them). OK, take your 10 dates and split them down the middle with your fingers; pull out the oval pit and discard.

Place the pitted dates in your food processor. Add 1/2 cup almond butter and 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder. Send 'em for a whirl.

 

The dough won't quite make 1 clump, but it will look moist and clump-ish. Gather bits of the dough in your hands and roll them into little balls of heaven that look a bit like deer droppings. Roll them in sprinkles so that they no longer look like deer droppings. Repeat until you have a cute little plate of goodness.

Happy birthday! I made you a cake. Actually it's just an almond butter ball.

 

Two final notes...

-- You can use any nut butter in these recipes in place of almond butter. I've used peanut and cashew butters with success.

I also, when I'm feeling crazy,  sub about 1/2 of the almond butter in the Almond Butter Balls with sunflower seed butter, which is also full of vitamin E and has a rich, nutty taste...but DON'T use sunflower seed butter in baked goods! It will turn them GREEN after a day or so! It's like something from a horror movie. I feel so good that I could tell you of this and spare you the experience.

-- I know I don't need to say this, but don't make these for babies under 1 year old or for someone who is allergic to nuts.

Healthy New Year! Part Two: Oats

I know, I promised y'all flaxseed for the next Healthy New Year! installment. After introducing the world to the exotic vegetable I call "cauliflower," I hoped to again dazzle. But I want to test one of my flaxseed recipes again before I sing its praises in blogland, so today I have a humble, unsung little hero of the healthy pantry... regular old oats.
 

My kids won't eat straight-up oatmeal...that's grandma food, or something. But they love Trader Joe's "pecan praline" granola (with a name like that, who wouldn't?). And our most common use of oats around here is oat flour... or, "the Quaker oats mommy grinds in her coffee grinder."

Yes, I'd like to impress people by saying "I make my own  homemade oat flour," but oat flour is nothing more than some Quaker old-fashioned oats poured into your coffee grinder or food processor and spun around 'til it's soft and fine and looks like, well, flour.

Wheee!

 

Oats before. Oats after. A shocking difference. "What the hell happened to you??!"
 

You can substitute oat flour for up to 1/2 of the flour in any recipe. If too much is used, it sometimes makes recipes a little crumbly (though still delicious), so err on the side of caution 'til you get the hang of it.

Oh, wait! I forgot to tell why oats are so good for you. They are not flashy, they are not a fad food, but they are a powerhouse. They contain lots of fiber, especially soluble fiber, which lowers blood cholesterol. Oats are full of antioxidants like selenium and manganese. They are fabulous for balancing blood sugar, and so make a great breakfast for kids who are heading off to school and need sustained energy to concentrate.

Here's the easiest way in the world to eat oats:

 

Served to you by a smiling child.

1. "Cookie Dough Bites"

(courtesy of the blog Veggie Kids)

2/3 cup raw cashews, walnuts, or a mixture thereof
1/3 cup regular oats
3 Tbsp. maple syrup (or agave nectar)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C chocolate chips

In your food processor, grind up nuts and oats 'til well-mixed and almost flour-like. Add maple syrup and vanilla; process until dough forms into a clump.

Scoop the dough into a bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into little bite-sized balls and serve at room temp. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.


2.  Home-made, Better-Than-Bisquick

I am proud of this recipe because it is actually my own creation. When I realized that we could have healthy pancakes at the drop of a hat, I was almost giddy. These take no more time than Bisquick, I promise you. And they are 100% whole-grain!

3/4 cup  white-whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds; or, just another 1/4 cup wheat flour)
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tbsp sugar (adjust if you like less-sweet pancakes. this is how we like it)


 (This is the "Bisquick" part. You can make this ahead of time, store, and just add the wet ingredients when you're ready for pancakes.)


1 1/4 cups organic milk or soymilk
Optional: 1/8 cup ground flaxseed
1 egg
3 Tbsp butter or marg, melted

Mix the first 6 (dry) ingredients. Then make a well in the middle, pour in the milk, egg, flaxseed (optional) and butter, and mix til smooth.

Grease your griddle well....I like a quick spray of Pam followed by a small pat of butter. Scoop in approximately 1/4 cup batter per pancake.  When bubbles start to pop on the top side of your pancakes, flip 'em and cook the other side til they are nice and golden. Serve with maple syrup. Feel healthy and yet indulged.


How to store your Better-Than-Bisquick: If you omit the flaxseed and almond meal, you can store this in your pantry in a big Ziploc bag or tupperware for a long time. Make a bunch of the dry stuff at once -- double it! triple it! yes! -- and mix it well -- then measure it out and add as much liquid stuff as you need, whenever you need it.

If you're using almond meal and/or flaxseed: Store the dry ingredients, mixed, in your fridge, tightly covered, up to 2 weeks.

Healthy New Year!

All right, so it's March.  Ever since Christmas I thought: I have all these "healthy" recipes collected that I use for my family...I should share them.  And it shall be a series called "Healthy New Year!," said in an excited voice like you are about to blow your noisemaker and dance around in confetti. 

It never happened, but I still like to share, so I am going to try in a modified, half-ass sort of way. Or maybe I should just say a "low pressure" way. 

I like learning about healthy things to cook for my family, but I love treats too. We eat dessert every day (some small sweet thing after lunch and dinner). We get the dreaded oil-slathered popcorn at the movies. We have no health food rules when we eat out. I feel fine with deviations from the norm as long as, overall, my kids eat healthfully almost all of the time.

Here are my most time-tested "tricks":

1. I offer a fruit and/or a veggie with every single meal and snack.  If Soren asks for pretzels as as snack, he also gets a sliced apple along with it. He doesn't have to eat either of those things, but because he loves to eat, he almost always does.

2. I do use some "sneaky" recipes to get extra, healthful ingredients into my kids' food.  See below.

3. Before dinner, when my kids are hungry, I always put some little bowls of fruits and veggies out on the table: organic cherry tomatoes, bell pepper slices, cucumbers, blueberries, whatever we've got around. They don't complain about being hungry while I'm cooking, and they often eat 2 or more servings of fruits or veggies before I even get dinner on the table.

4. I also bring baggies of fruits and veggies with us everywhere. If we go to the community pool, I have a baggie of bell peppers with me. They always get hungry from swimming and they'll pound back a whole organic bell pepper apiece on the way home from the pool. They never say "ew" and I don't have to nag at them to eat their veggies later. They just know that if we are out and about and they ask for a snack, it's going to be some fruit or veggie. It has never occurred to them to complain about this.

5. I never make my children clean their plates. But if they want dessert, they do need to eat most of their protein and vegetables, and they know this.

6. I switched to baking with all whole-grain flours. A year ago, this wasn't the case; I used white flour for everything. Then I very slowly began increasing the whole-grain/white ratio over time.  First it was maybe 10% of the flour, then a quarter, gradually a half....and now we don't even keep white flour in the house except for birthday cakes and Christmas cookies. The kids didn't even seem to notice because the change was so gradual. They still don't want to eat, say, some seedy, nutty, sprouted rye -hemp-bread thing that looks like it could start its own plant colony..... but they eat my whole-grain baked goods, anyway!

Those are really my only "tricks." The obsessive veggie baggies thing, and the whole grains. No expensive supplements, nothing like that; we don't even take vitamins. (Surely, my family has heard my diatribe about how "Americans have the most expensive pee in the world!" because we are so over-supplemented.  I'll spare you.)  And I have no idea whether my kids are actually any healthier than any other kids, but at least I don't stress about it.

So! As part of my little series, which may be useful to no one (but how would I ever know, anyway? - so I'll pretend it's useful), I think I'll take one healthy ingredient and share how we cook it in this house.  I much prefer talking about all the benefits of yummy things to eat than nagging about why we should NOT eat this or that. I need joy. I need food joy.  Please share in my food joy.

Today's Special: Cauliflower

Cauliflower? Where is the food joy? It smells like you put a rotten egg in a sock and then boiled them together on your stovetop for three hours. If only cauliflower were bad for you.  But it's not. It's so annoyingly good for you. It's full of antioxidants like vitamin C and manganese. It decreases inflammation in the blood vessels and kidneys (this is sexy stuff, no doubt). It contains vitamin K and fiber and a substance called glucoraphin that protects the lining of your stomach. Darn you, cauliflower!

But I have a fool-proof recipe for you. It's not even a recipe. Get yourself a head of nice cauliflower (it's not on the high-priority organics list, so don't sweat it unless that's a big thing with you) and wash it and chop it up and steam it in your microwave until it is soft. (I put mine in a big bowl with an inch or so of water and a plate on top, then microwave for 3 minutes or so. The fork should go in easily.)

Puree your cauliflower and freeze some in about 1/2 cup portions in your freezer. Next time you make mashed potatoes, sub one-quarter to one-half of the potatoes with pureed cauliflower.



 Continue as usual with your butter, pepper, salt, etc. DELICIOUS! The cauliflower is hardly noticeable but, because it's been steamed rather than boiled, you still get most of those health benefits and as a bonus, lower-cal mashed potatoes. My kids devour this stuff and I always make extra for the next day's lunches, too.
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You can also add a couple tablespoons of cauliflower puree to scrambled eggs. You'll just want a dash more salt to compensate. This was how my kids got scrambled eggs for the first few years of their lives, until they wised up. Cauliflower is great for babies transitioning to solid food because it contains choline, a substance also found in breastmilk but not that many other foods -- so they'll still be getting that important nutrient with all its other benefits even as they drink less of mama's milk.

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There you go. Next time, flaxseed. I'll share some honest-to-goodness recipes, I promise.