Fast & Easy Coconut macaroons

 It's been a while.  The covid vaccine seems to have reset my immune system.  Good news, most of my allergies are gone.  Bad news, my Chronic Fatigue is fluctuating wildly.  But, despite the erratic energy, I have made cookies!  

I love coconut macaroons and these are so fast and easy.  Takes about 10 minutes to mix up (while the oven is preheating) and then 18 minutes to cook.  I'm using allulose sugar as part of the sugar because it keeps my blood sugar lower.  (Yes, I'm eating cookies to be healthier. Go me!)

Here's the recipe:

1.5 C unsweetened shredded coconut  (in bulk at health food store)

1/4 C sugar + 1/4 C Allulose

2 TB all purpose flour (I'm using up the last of my GF flour)

1/8 tsp salt

4 TB egg whites (I'm buying these by the carton since I make these so often.  Should be 2-3 eggs worth.) at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

optional add-ins:  1/3 C of choc chips & pecan bits

Preheat oven to 325.

In a small bowl, combine coconut, sugar, flour. optional add-ins & salt.  Add egg whites and vanilla and mix well.  

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet or use parchment paper.  Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on wire rack.  I get 2 dozen from this recipe.  

I'm enjoying the allulose cookies for dessert so much that I bought a glass cookie jar so I can see how close I am to needing to make more.  And this week, I can only be thankful for our AC which makes it so cool that baking cookies is still fun.

I hope your weekend is healthy and not too warm.

Halloween treat: caramel apple cheesecake

 A recipe for Caramel Apple Crisp cheesecake bars came across my FB feed and since I love cheesecake and Jeff loves anything he can put caramel sauce on, this seemed like a winner of an idea.  I printed out the recipe and successfully made some but the recipe didn't include eggs in the cream cheese mixture so I added one and I found the results tasty but bland.  The rest of the family came back for seconds so it was a success but since I only get dessert once every 2 weeks, I want something more.

So, here's my plan.  I'm going to take my favorite cheesecake recipe and use half the cheesecake filling amount since I'm doing an 8x8 pan not the 9x13 it calls for.  I liked the crust in the above trial which added rolled oats to the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar that is traditional for the cheesecake crust.  (We used GF graham crackers, of course.)   To add the spicy apple part, in addition to the peeled & sliced apple, I'm going to sprinkle the cheesecake with fresh ground cinnamon before putting the apples on. And maybe a bit of ground ginger too. And then there's the crumbly topping from the above recipe which needed way more than the recipe called for: The original recipe called  for 1/4 C AP flour (GF), 1/4 C.  rolled oats, 1/4 C brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 TB coconut oil  (I subbed butter since Jeff doesn't like coconut oil).  I'm going to add some ground cloves.  If this doesn't cover well enough, I'll make more because I like the crumbly bits all over the top.  

Bake at 350F for 40 minutes, a bit longer if you want totally soft apples.  Cool for 15 minutes.  I'm not sure if the refrigerating overnight is actually required.  But add caramel sauce when serving.  We used Trader Joe's GF no-corn sauce and it was quite tasty.

 

Toffee, the gateway to candy making

Despite getting my annual summer cold, I am continuing to make favorite dessert foods on the weekends.  The latest treat was toffee, an easy candy and a good introduction to candy making.

There are lots of recipes available on the net and in books.  I used Better than Anything Toffee from "Mom on Timeout" because it came up high on the list and I love pecans.  You can use any chopped nut instead of the pecans, or leave them out entirely. 

Ingredients:  1C chopped pecans, 1C unsalted butter, 1C sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1C chocolate chips.  The recipe calls for milk chocolate and I subbed dark. 

After prepping the 9 inch sq baking pan, put butter, salt and sugar in a large pan (she calls for 3qt but 2 would probably work).  This calls for patience as the toffee mixture has to heat to 290 F, aka hard ball if you want to use the water test instead of a candy thermometer.  And stir regularly to avoid scorching. 

Once the candy has turned brown and hit the required temp, add vanilla and pour it over the nuts in the pan.

Cool for 5 minutes to let it get solid, then put the chocolate chips on top and spread.  Then it goes in the fridge for 2 hours or more before getting cut/broken  into pieces and eaten.    Yummy stuff and next time, I'll use the candy molds I ordered so I can better control the portion size. 

Fast and easy dinners for those crunch times

This last month has been terrible.  I had a massive CFS flare after our vacation followed by this coughing cold thing that is now going into 3 weeks.  However, we're still eating healthy home cooked meals most days thanks to my changing my expectations on dinner.

First off, I now rely on frozen organic vegetables to go with the main course.  Since I'm eating keto-ish, dinner is protein and produce.  The frozen veggies make this super simple.  We rotate Trader Joe's Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and asparagus with some occasional sauteed mushrooms when my energy is up at dinner time.

Second, I'm allergic to chicken and chicken eggs along with wheat and tomato so we generally eat beef, pork, seafood and duck eggs for protein.  You can of course use chicken instead for any of the other meats if that's what your family likes.

Third, I've started using recipes that I can make earlier in the day before my daily energy falters.  And everything is kept super simple because standing is harder than sitting when CFS is clobbering me.

So, what's for dinner?  Basic meal when I feel totally blah is crockpot bbq pork/beef.  Pour bbq sauce into the crockpot, put the chunk of meat in, and slather with a spice mix.   This time, I used a bbq sauce with minimal tomato and Penzey's sate spices.  I do this around lunchtime and then only have to cut the meat and nuke the vegs for a healthy dinner.

We buy at least 2 pound roasts for this so we have leftovers.  

The other favorite meal right now is salmon a la pesto.  Because we're in the PNW, salmon is common and getting wild caught is easy.  This can be done with any other fish of course.  Line a baking pan with foil, put the fish on the foil.  Slather with pesto (we buy ours at Costco) and cover with sliced olives.  Or if you have enough energy, chop up some kalamata olives for even more of that Mediterranean flavor.  Seal the foil up so you have the little packet to steam the fish.  Use a second piece of foil if needed.  (google cooking in parchment paper for more about this fast and easy technique)  This can go in the fridge for hours if you're not sure you will have the energy at dinnertime.  Cook in a 400 F oven for 20-25 minutes.  Comes out moist and delicious.  And decrease cooking time if you're using a thinner fish fillet.

We buy a quarter of a cow each year which means lots of ground beef just waiting in the freezer.  What do I make?  Tacos, of course.  The carb eaters get actual tacos, and I get taco salad.  I use a spice blend I got from googling, see recipe here, and after some adjustments for our personal taste, we now buy the ingredients in bulk at the local coop (the most frugal way to buy spices in my experience) and keep a jar full on the counter.  Crumble the beef in a skillet, I use cast iron, add spices and brown.  On iffy days I do this earlier in the day and then pull it out at dinner time along with all the taco fixings.  Then everyone makes their own.

So when life is hectic, this is one of the ways I simplify so we can still have tasty, healthy, fast dinners. 

Herbal Chai: a winter crud aid

I've been down for the last week with some flu like bug that just will not give up.  And I realized it's been years since I posted my herbal chai recipe.  So here it is again, as I make the second quart for this week.  It helps with feeling chilly, congestion and low energy level so if you have any of those, you might give it a try.  I got this recipe from an acupuncturist when I was living in Boulder.


1.5 inches fresh ginger root (peeled or unpeeled, doesn't seem to matter) sliced thinly
8-10 cinnamon sticks (I split mine in half to get more exposure to the water)
10 cardamon pods (or about 50 cardamon seeds if you can't get pods) Split the pods open slightly
10 whole cloves
5 peppercorns

I put a small amount of water in the bottom of my glass double boiler and turn it on high while I prep the spices.  I also fill the electric kettle to get the rest of the boiling water.

 Simmer for 30 minutes total. I reduce the heat and put a lid on the pot with a slight gap at the edge of the lid. Add honey, lemon, milk or rice milk to taste. I have also used heated herbal chai as water to make tea with when I want the kind of chai you get at a latte stand.

After the 30 minutes, the liquid will all be a lovely cinnamon brown color.  I strain through a hand held strainer into a quart measuring cup and watch it disappear quickly.  Yields about a quart of chai.