Chewy Almond Butter Bars

I've been making the Chewy Almond Butter Bars from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals over and over and over.  They are so good.  In fact, I made it a bunch of times and never took a picture - that's the reason I haven't posted about it yet.  Oats, puffed kamut, sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, apricots, currants, and golden raisins, held together with a glue of almond butter and honey, with just a hint of vanilla and salt in the mix.  The recipe calls for additional sugar, but I've been leaving it out as the notes suggest to lighten it up.  I can't imagine it with more sweetness - it's perfect just the way it is.  I'm on the verge of not needing the recipe for this one anymore.  It's quickly become a favorite.  I'm looking forward to some variations - chocolate and peanut butter, a hazelnut version, an apricot/pistachio combo... the possibilities are endless.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I haven't been cooking much lately.  Since school started right after we got back from vacation, I've been pretty busy reading, reading, sitting in class, and reading.  As I mentioned, though, not eating well makes me feel like crap, so I did my best to carve out some time to cook this week.  Last week, we cut up onions, red peppers, and broccoli on the weekend and used them in omelets and pita pizzas.  Not too bad for lazy cooking, but I want to do better!  Fortunately, I have a new fun cookbook to help me - Georgie's new book Fuel Up.  It's full of nutrition advice, even photos of how to stock your refrigerator!  And of course there are tons of recipes.  I wanted to make something from the book, but didn't feel like doing a lot of prep work or going to the store.  After flipping through for a while, near the very end, I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies.  The recipe has 4 ingredients and you bake the SIX cookies in the toaster oven.  Perfect!  It was exactly what I was looking for.

I had peanut butter, but I have an almost-done container of almond butter that needs to get used up pronto, so I decided to try out some Almond Butter Cookies first.  They were so easy to make.  The flavor was pretty good, but the cookies flattened out - nothing like the picture!  (And no, I did not forget the baking powder!)  They were more on the crisp side, like sugar cookies.  Ken asked me to make them again, and I decided to try it with peanut butter this time - I was determined to make them look like the picture!  I guess peanut butter is texturally fluffier or something, because they did puff up and look pretty like the picture in the book.  They were a little gooey in the middle, but tasty.  One of my favorite qualities of this cookie was that I didn't want to eat a lot of them - they were so rich!  What a great little snack to make when you're craving baked goods but don't want to end up eating a lot of junk.

Almond Soba Noodles

Since we wanted to experiment more with soba noodles (and maybe follow some directions this time) I decided to try the Almond Soba Noodles from 101 Cookbooks.  We had broccoli from our CSA and used that in place of the pea shoots.  Rather than bother with a separate pan (cooking tofu is enough of a struggle) I just tossed the tiny florets in with the soba noodles in the last minute of cooking - they came out perfect.  My rule for cooking vegetables is this: if you think they're going to be underdone, they are probably ready.  Only a taste will tell, but better a crunchy veg than a mushy one.  Broccoli undergoes an extreme personality change when overcooked, at which point we no longer get along.

The dressing for this recipe uses almond butter and Thai red curry paste.  I thought it was very good, but Ken wants to try it with peanut butter instead.  I think it just needs more of the curry paste.  I thought the basil was crucial - it complements the flavor of Thai red curry paste perfectly.

Since this was such a quick and easy meal (delicious too) I'm sure I will be making it again - the openness to variation makes it very inviting to me as well.

Broccoli Crunch

For our cooking date, Haley picked out Broccoli Crunch as an entree. We had planned to add some shrimp to make it more of an entree, but we totally forgot about it and didn't even notice until we were having seconds. This recipe, although it was a bit of work, was absolutely delicious.

The crunchy shallots were one of my favorite parts. They got a little lost in the salad because of the red onions, but they were so fun to make and yummy little crisps. These can be made in advance, which I would recommend since I was constantly running back and forth to check them. I guess I am not the type of person who can handle more than one thing on the stove at a time.

One sad part was that I cooked the broccoli a little more than I wanted to. The salad is called "Broccoli Crunch" for a reason - everything is supposed to crunch. I cooked the broccoli in boiling water as per the directions, but left it for a few minutes rather than a few seconds. It wasn't mushy or bad, just not crunchy enough. The broccoli also was unfortunately not that great quality either. I would like to try again when I see some better broccoli at the market in the coming weeks.

We used Pink apples and Fuji apples (or so said the sign at the store). Both were delicious, but I particularly liked the Pink apples. We sliced them thinly, which was fine, but I would also cut the apples into bite-size pieces next time in keeping with the rest of the salad being crunchy bite-size pieces.

The almond butter dressing was amazing, and we used sliced almonds instead of walnuts to complement the dressing. It was so good, and I know it would lend itself to shrimp as well, even though we forgot them. They would be perfect in this bite-size salad. I think some tofu croutons (see How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) might be yummy as well. I also want to note that I left out the optional chives. I think the salad was oniony enough without them, and after the sad green bean experience yesterday, I didn't want to use them in case they were part of the problem.

One more note about leftovers... I might make this again on a weekend, keeping all the ingredients separate and combining them only for individual portions. I might cook the broccoli each time too, since my slightly overcooked broccoli didn't hold up too well in the leftovers. But it would be easy to throw together during the week with everything already prepared and ready to go. I found that it worked well to keep the thinly sliced apples in a tupperware with water and the juice of one lemon. They seem to be keeping really well.

This is definitely something I will be making again, especially as more apples come in season. According to this map on Epicurious, broccoli will be in season through October, so I will have plenty of chances to perfect this recipe. If I am lucky, broccoli will stick around for Thanksgiving so I can make this for the big meal... I am already plotting to cook lots, although I won't be able to have it at my house, so hopefully my mom will host and take care of the meat and things. But that is a topic for another time...