(Please … I know that top picture is horrible. Keith took it with his phone because the dish wasn’t all the way cooked until we got to my in-laws. As if we would have thought ahead and brought the camera….)

Every year, we celebrate Easter dinner with Keith’s parents. It’s always a lovely visit: Owen gets to play with his cousins, we all get to chat with Keith’s aunt and grandmother and we linger around the dining room table, wondering when the 37 people will arrive to help us eat the absurd amount of dessert that is crowding us.

This year, I was asked to bring a not-green-beans-or-potatoes-vegetable. It’s really rare that I cook just carrots as a side dish; they are usually part of a stir-fry or medley. But when I asked both Keith and Owen what vegetable they would like me to make, they both said, “Carrots!” So carrots it was. I had some leftover scallions in the fridge, so I immediately thought of using soy sauce in a glaze.

There are about a million soy-glazed carrot recipes floating around the internet. Some have honey, some have ginger, all sound delicious. I wanted mine to be a bit different. I used Rachel Ray’s recipe for honey-soy oven-glazed carrots to help with ratios and cooking times, then I went to town with my scallions, added some garlic for a bite and substituted agave syrup for the honey — all sprinkled with more scallions and some slivered almonds for crunch.

The best part is that these are gluten-free, since we used wheat-free tamari instead of soy sauce, and are very friendly for anyone who has issues with refined sugar. The only sugars that my son can tolerate are raw agave syrup, grade B maple syrup and palm sugar, and even those we use in very strict moderation. These carrots made everyone happy, and got rave reviews even from the folks who will eat anything (I’m looking at you, Rich).

Soy-Agave Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

• about 12 carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into chunks
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 scallions, sliced, with green and white parts separated
• sliced or slivered almonds

Whisk together the olive oil, tamari, agave syrup and garlic. Toss with carrots and white parts of scallions. Arrange in an oven-safe pan and cook at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

Sprinkle with green parts of scallions and slivered almonds before serving. I think sliced almonds would look prettier, but I didn’t have any in the house. You could also sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro, parsley or basil … any of those herbs would be delicious.

Cooking a special dinner and eating at home is one of our favorite ways to celebrate. One of our New Year’s resolutions is to stop being so selfish about it — it’s time to entertain more and share the wonderful spreads we enjoy creating. Now that Owen’s getting older and most of our friends have kids his age, there’s no excuse.

Last year on New Year’s Eve (which we’re still celebrating just the three of us), Keith and I made rack of lamb with a berry pomegranate balsamic sauce, edamame and fresh basil risotto and roasted Brussels sprouts. This year, we’ve decided to stick with the theme: rack of lamb with lamb sausage crust and fresh grape pan sauce, our favorite drunken risotto, and probably just some mesclun salad or roasted green beans. We’re weird about the rack of lamb. I promise we’ll branch out soon.

The point of this post is actually to give you some ideas of interesting side dishes to serve for your celebrations … I really beat around that bush, didn’t I? Oh, and to give myself a place to remember all of these side dishes I’ve been wanting to try and haven’t yet.

Try the heirloom squash farrotto — yeah, they made risotto with farro … brilliant! With yogurt, chick peas and fresh cilantro, there’s a Middle Eastern vibe combining with the Italian farro and the wholesome squash that is so unique and tempting. This would be the perfect accompaniment to grilled marinated chicken breasts.

It’s easy to class up green beans, and I often do them with shallots, some pancetta or prosciutto and fresh herbs and lemon juice. This recipe for scrumptious green beans has got to be bursting with flavor — ginger, mustard seeds, cumin, fresh cilantro and lemon juice all see to that. I’d love to have these alongside beef tenderloin.

So simple, with only five ingredients, yet so elegant, this roasted beet and feta gratin with fresh mint is spiked with garlic and suggested to be served with lamb. Maybe this recipe should be calling to us lamb-a-philes….

This stuffed pumpkin could really be a vegetarian main dish, as the wild rice, mushrooms, tofu and cubed bread make it hearty. As a side dish, I’m feeling roasted chicken would be the perfect pairing. A bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and you’ve just served a speactacular meal.

These vegetable galettes with millet and tarragon could also be a lovely vegetarian lunch with a mesclun salad, but they’d be wonderful with wild salmon.

I’m definitely not into the vegan thing. Eggs are a gift from the food gods not to be squandered. But I will say those feisty vegan bakers and their recipes saved me when my kid was allergic to eggs in the first three years of his life. in fact, almost any recipe by Isa was a big hit in our house with anyone … not just the eggless. And I have a really mean extended family who’s not afraid to tell me when my cooking sucks.

One of our favorites is Isa’a chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have a cousin who has specifically requested these cookies, so that’s very telling. For years, it was revered and I wouldn’t mess with it even a little bit (I’m such a liar … I never use canola oil, so I’d use butter, rice bran oil, or coconut oil). Lately, though, I’ve started messing for a couple of reasons.

I’m sort of off chocolate, in theory. I’ll eat a chocolate dessert now and then, but I’m proud to say I no longer hoarf down a handful of chocolate chips every time I pass the pantry closet. Yeah, I’m prouder than the mom of a round-headed newborn.

I really don’t like the kid to have too much chocolate either since caffeine and the under-6 crowd of bad sleepers really don’t mix. We’ll try anything, even tricking him.

And now we’re back at the messing. A couple of weeks ago, I made Isa’s recipe with half cocoa powder and half carob powder. No one could tell, so I started getting crazy. I added, substituted and made the recipe mine, all mine. And in my house, anyway, we think it’s better.

It’s healthier, super-delicious but still “normal.” I held myself back from adding pureed spinach, but used the most nutritious unrefined sugar I could find, used coconut milk instead of soy milk and some of the oil and this and that until it fit my specs for healthy. Try it and see what you think.

Carob Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut and Cranberries

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice bran oil + 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole flax seeds
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 cups whole spelt flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened carob powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup fruit-sweetened dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)

Grind the flax seeds in a blender until they become a powder, then add the 1/2 cup of coconut milk and blend more, until the mixture thickens a bit and gets gooey.

Meanwhile, mix flour, carob powder, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl.

Using a mixer (yes, Isa, I’m willing to lose the punk points), cream together the oil + coconut milk and the palm sugar, then add the flax mixture and vanilla and keep on mixing until mixture is almost fluffy.

Slowly add the dry ingredients while mixer is set to low speed. Blend well then stir in chocolate chips, cranberries and coconut.

Plop onto greased cookie sheets and make semi-pretty circles almost 2 inches around, slightly flattened in the middle. These do rise and expand, so leave at least an inch between cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes on the pan and then cool the rest of the way on wire racks.

After I finished laughing at the fact that zucchini pie exists, I really looked at the recipe and it sounds absolutely delicious. Oh, are you wondering why zucchini pie is hilarious? That’s what we tell Owen is for dinner when he’s pestering us, because one of the few things he doesn’t like is zucchini. Although lately he’s been eating it….

These banana flax cookies intrigue me, since they call for teff flour (something I’ve yet to experiment with) and flax seeds stirred in whole. When I usually bake with flax seeds, I grind them into a meal first. One thing I can tell you about this recipe, after making billions of banana cookie recipes, is that you really don’t need 3/4 cup of sugar added. I’d use 1/4 cup of palm sugar, max. Oh, the other cookies, you ask? I’ll share my originals with you:

• Almond butter oatmeal banana cookies
• Banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Chef Dad had us for dinner a bit ago and he made us some salmon with a blueberry sauce. His didn’t have balsamic vinegar like this grilled salmon with quick blueberry sauce, but the recipe reminded me of his blended with the berry sauce that we do for lamb. I’ll be trying this one very soon!

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. Hopefully the weather will stick around long after September first, the day Owen starts kindergarten. I’m not fretting too much about it, since he’s only going for a half day — one that’s shorter than his preschool day. That’s right, folks — my son will be released for the day at 11:05.

Even though he doesn’t have to bring a lunch yet, I’m always looking for fun lunches to keep him eating colorful and nutritious foods. I’ve hit the jackpot this week, because Parenting magazine knows what’s hot — bento box lunches.

Mother of God, this is lunch on steroids. Once I got past the fact that it’s probably not as easy as tossing an almond butter and jelly sandwich together, I realized that they really would be fairly quick and simple to do, especially because the creativity part is taken care of if I use Parenting‘s ideas. I can chop, right?

Some ideas I will definitely steal — I’ve got to remember how sticking anything on a toothpick makes it taste better. Well, it does when you’re five years old. The edamame stacked on a toothpick looks so damn cute. If I ever pack him chicken nuggets, hot dogs or the like, I’ll stick the ketchup right inside of it — that’s handy. And I can’t credit Parenting with this one, but I’m on that hot dog octopus pictured above like white on rice.

What seems easy — I can definitely cut lunch meat into strips and loop it to look pretty, like they did in almost every box, and I can even get a few cute cookie cutters to make shapes out of veggies. And I can chop — did I mention that already? And, my kid already likes homemade sushi, so I can do a traditional bento box for him too.

Problems — Some of the fancy folded sandwich pieces, like the bunny’s ears and the flower petals, won’t work with the sprouted bread we use, which is more crumbly than bread made from wheat flour. Yeah, that darned gluten is good for some things, I guess. I’m also thinking that using rice and quinoa, although adorable, just wouldn’t get eaten. If my kid has 15 minutes to eat with a gaggle of friends and needs to use a fork, it ain’t happening.

I can definitely work with these ideas to make fun lunches. I’m inspired — how about you?

When this time of year rolls around, I make quinoa tabbouleh, pretty much a different way every time. I did a few funky things this time, so I wrote it down, lest I become like my father who’s famous for making wonderful dishes … once. Because he never writes down the recipe, therefore we never get it again.

Wow, huge digression. The reason I make quinoa tabbouleh in late summer is because I have many of the ingredients growing right here in my own yard: flat-leaf parsley, mint, roma tomatoes, cucumber and chives (though I used scallions in this recipe).

I made it this time because on vacation last week, I had an amazing red quinoa tabbouleh with some seared yellowfin tuna and a tahini yogurt sauce. It was perfection in every way and so I had better-than-average tabbouleh on the brain. While I didn’t make it to the store to get red quinoa (which is definitely on my list) and I didn’t really set out to duplicate the Ocean House’s tabbouleh, I ended up with one that Keith and I couldn’t stop snitching before the meal was even served, so I did something right.

Quinoa Tabouleh

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1-2 teaspoons miso (depending on how subtle you want it)
• 1-2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
• 8 medium roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup diced cucumber

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a dash or two of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted cumin seed, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the quinoa, water and miso in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, do all the chopping, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, remove them, then use the same pan to toast the almonds. One less dirty pan — score!

Next, you can whisk together the dressing ingredients.

After quinoa has cooled, toss everything together, again with the dressing and serve at room temperature.

We served this tabouleh with Ellie Krieger’s rubbed pork tenderloin, only we grilled it instead of pan searing and baking it. It was delicious!

I’ve been planning this post for a while, but a couple of things have spurred me on. First of all, we have been getting the most amazingly delicious cabbage from our CSA farm. While I adore garlicky Asian cabbage, cabbage and chick pea salad and sweet and sour cabbage wedges, I really enjoy a good, mayonnaise-free coleslaw.

The other reason — I’ve committed to bringing a coleslaw to a Labor Day weekend cookout, and you can be darned sure it’s going to be one that I will eat. Besides, I feel as though it’s my duty to expose the brainwashed masses to mayonnaise-free potato salads and coleslaws to open their minds and refine their taste buds. I mean really, people, why would you want to eat something that makes you gag? What do you mean mayonnaise doesn’t make you gag? No matter….

This snappy, crunchy vegan coleslaw is gluten-free (probably most of them will be) and bursting with flavor. Cumin, dill, caraway seeds and golden raisins are highlighted by a champagne vinegar and agave dressing. Oh yeah, there’s cabbage too.

Clever, clever, clever … this multicolored coleslaw recipe gives you the choice of three different dressings. Depending on your main dish, you can choose a balsamic dressing, and Asian-inspired one or a Mexican fiesta.

This mayonnaise-free coleslaw reminds me of a Waldorf salad with cabbage — it’s got walnuts, apples, celery and radish and a simple rice vinegar dressing.

Citrus-spiked jicama and carrot slaw is definitely a new twist on tradition, but with a simple citrus dressing and some chopped fresh cilantro, less is more. Or maybe my very own mango coleslaw has the pizazz you’re looking for, with almond butter and ginger in the dressing.

Maybe a traditional Carolina coleslaw suits your fancy more … it’s got celery seed, dry mustard, green pepper and onions. Very, very basic, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Emeril’s delta coleslaw is a souped-up version of this.

Now we’re talking different again, but this recipe for mayo-free coleslaw is really interesting. Mandarin oranges, pears, raw garlic, tamari sunflower seeds, cumin seeds and lemon juice jazz up cabbage in an intriguing way.

I just realized, in looking at this recipe for spicy no mayo coleslaw, that I’ve never had a spicy coleslaw before. It might just be time to remedy that, however I’d probably use some peppers a little milder than habeneros!

This recipe for mayo-free cabbage salad combines a few of the ideas here into one salad — some citrus, some carrots and apple, agave syrup and a new ingredient: sesame seeds. This one sounds really good to me.

As does this parsnip and apple coleslaw … there’s still cabbage, but a honey-laden dressing, parsley leaves and walnuts mae this one special. Plus, I can really appreciate how this blogger goes on about the indignity of mayonnaise. And now we’ve come full circle, and I’ve got a new mayonnaise-hating friend.

I’ll be the first one to admit that not every gluten-free dessert is a taste sensation. Oftentimes, they are dry and crumbly, bland and blah. That was not the case with the raspberry almond torte I baked tonight, though.

We cooked for my parents today, mostly just because but also because they took such good care of the cat while we spent a few days at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was a really wonderful meal that we kept simple so that we could just enjoy being together and not spend the whole day in the kitchen (the grill … oh, how I love a grill meal).

I finally made the crushed pea spread that I’ve been drooling over for weeks and I was right to drool so shamelessly — the combination of sweet peas, goat cheese, tahini, lemon juice, fresh mint and scallions was perfection. I served it with baguette and fresh radish slices and shaved pecorino romano cheese.

For dinner, we marinated a black angus flank steak in an orange soy marinade, grilled some romaine hearts and red potato slices and served some green and yellow beans with poppy seed dressing alongside the grilled mishmash.

Instead of making my go-to zucchini chocolate chip cookies, I was torn between the orange almond flan and the raspberry almond torte for dessert. So you’ve read the title of this post and know which dessert came out the winner, but what I haven’t yet told you was just how delicious it was. We served it with some homemade vanilla coconut milk ice cream with a good portion of Greek yogurt blended in … divine. Here’s the clincher — my dad, my very hard-to-please, dessert-hating chef of a dad said that he could have eaten the entire half of the torte that was left over. That, my friends, is better than the five-year-old seal of approval (which, by the way, I also got in spades).

Now don’t go reading anything Freudian into this. If any of you know me (including my dad who’s probably reading this only because my mother forwarded to him), you know that seeking my father’s approval has never been a big priority for me. I was the fresh, defiant kid (I know, hard to believe) who would go toe-to-toe with my hot-tempered dad when the other siblings would run for the hills to avoid the frothing spittle spewing from his lips. Thankfully, he’s mellowed a lot since then and so have I, and although I’m happy my dad enjoyed the torte, I would love it no matter what.

It was very easy to make, it’s gluten-free and has very little sugar in it (and even then it’s unrefined sugar and maple syrup) and it’s almost pretty. Sure, it could have done with a layer of chocolate (couldn’t everything?) but it was a relatively awesome dessert that topped off this summer meal perfectly. Don’t hold its gluten-free vegan-ness against it — it’s a wonderful torte.

Sometimes Keith is hard to tame when it comes to breakfasts. It’s not his fault; he loves to make pancakes every Saturday morning and every vacation day imaginable and sees himself as the breakfast master chef. I find it rather endearing when he takes charge of the kitchen, but when he wants to pack up all the ingredients for gourmet pancakes and try to make them in an efficiency kitchen in a small beach rental, I have to put my foot down.

When we go away for four days, I just don’t see why we have to have a different breakfast each day. Honestly, can we just keep something simple in this family? I took matters into my own hands and used up the blueberries in the fridge and made a blueberry buckle the day before we left, so we could take it with us and have a yummy breakfast every day.

Inspired by this blueberry buckle recipe, my recipe makes changes that suit our family’s needs and just taste good. I combined my usual sprouted spelt flour with some arrowroot to lighten things up a bit and help the cake be less crumbly. Success! I also cut back the sugar, substituted palm sugar and pumped up the crumb topping.

This was one amazing blueberry buckle. Let me explain to you in five-year-old terms just how wonderful this cake was — Owen requested that I make this cake for his birthday. His birthday, people! The kid doesn’t want a gooey cake dripping with day-glo frosting … he wants a blueberry buckle! Either the kid’s got taste or he’s as weird as his mother, or the blueberry buckle was that good … make it and you be the judge!

Blueberry Buckle

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup palm sugar
• 3 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1 1/2 cups sprouted spelt flour
• 1/2 cup arrowroot flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 3 tablespoons whole milk plain yogurt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries (other berries can be substituted)

Crumb Topping:

• 1/4 cup palm sugar
• 3 tablespoons sprouted spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Add 1/3 cup palm sugar, 3 tablespoons butter and an extra-large egg to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium to blend well.

In a separate bowl, mix together the spelt flour, arrowroot, baking powder and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to sugar mixture in mixing bowl, along with half of the milk. Repeat with remaining flour and remaining milk and yogurt, beating just until blended.

Stir in the blueberries gently with a mixing spoon and pour into prepared pan.

For topping, add 1/4-cup palm sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons butter to a small bowl and blend with a fork. Sprinkle crumb mixture over the cake batter, breaking the crumb mixture into small pieces with your fingers if necessary.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until texture seems firm in the center of the cake. Serve warm or cold.

I’m having flashbacks of this cake that can only be described as obscene … is it wrong to lust after a breakfast food with such fervor?

A friend of mine recently started a raw food diet, and when I got the opportunity to split a case of kelp noodles with her, I jumped at the chance. Trying a new food is a beautiful thing, and when it’s this healthy for you, it makes it all the more exciting. No-carb noodles with all the nutrition of a sea vegetable and can be served like your favorite pasta? Yes, please.

They are so easy to use too — just rinse and plop in your recipe. You can heat them through, as I did here or just use them cold or room temperature. I’m not sure there’s a wrong way to eat kelp noodles. There’s another positive — they’re a forgiving food.

Speaking of forgiving … I ate “pasta” and didn’t leave the table bloated — score!

We bought some salmon to eat with the kelp noodles, so I went with some flavors I love combining with that flaky, oily, heavenly little pink fish — garlic, ginger, miso, lime juice, sesame oil. The recipe just created itself from there (based on what I had in the house) and this nutritious, vegetarian dish was born.

Kelp Noodles with Almond-Miso Sauce

Ingredients:

• 12-ounce package of kelp noodles
• 1 huge broccoli floret, chopped
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• sesame seeds for sprinkling
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 teaspoon miso
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Saute the broccoli and the onion until tender and golden. Add the kelp noodles and heat through.

Meanwhile, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together.

Add the sauce to the broccoli and kelp noodle mixture and quickly heat through. Remove from heat and sprinkle in sesame seeds, cilantro and red pepper flakes.

The less you heat the noodles, the more you’ll probably like them, at least that’s what we found. They are pretty wonderful no matter what, but the longer you cook them, the more rubbery they become, whereas fresh from the package they have a delightful crunch. (The five-year-old called it a “pop.”)

Owen, by the way, loved these noodles (you’ll notice the dot of sauce on the tip of his nose — consider that proof), and if you’re a savvy parent, you won’t cut them to your desired size as the package suggests. No, your desired size will be the long, slurpy strings that make your kid grin from ear to ear.

As I was dumping the ingredients for these brownies into my food processor, making this recipe for the first time, I was thinking to myself, “This may be the grossest dessert I have ever attempted. OK, maybe not the grossest. That would have to be the carob avocado banana pudding, which actually isn’t half bad.

People, I have hit rock bottom. This recipe doesn’t come from a place of healthy love for all foods good for you — I am desperate. Keith and I have given up caffeine, chocolate and white sugar for a couple of months to cleanse and I’m flippin’ hungry. Sure, I’ve lost five pounds and quite frankly look fabulous in my summer clothes, but I’m not sure the trade-off is worth it … I’m wasting away, I tell you!

I jest a little because I honestly don’t miss my nightly dose of chocolate as much as I thought I would, though I do wish I could have the occasional special treat. Enter these black bean brownies. Now, I’ve been making a recipe similar to these black bean brownies for years, but this recipe was a little bit different. It caught my eye because there were bananas in it, which cut back the amount of sweetener by over a cup from my other recipe.

I had to change things up a bit, but there was no time like the present to try, since Owen is going to a birthday party tomorrow and he can’t eat the cake with all his food allergies. Believe it or not (I’m still in awe), what I came up with works. It really works. I’m not feeling like I’m eating a second-rate dessert (the cinnamon is brilliant!) and they just looked so pretty when I took them out of the oven that I almost don’t care that they don’t stay together very well after you cut them.

Black Bean Carob Brownies

Ingredients:

• 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 whole bananas
• 1/4 scant cup of agave syrup
• 1/4 cup carob powder (or cocoa powder if you’re not cleansing….)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (brilliant, I say!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup carob chips (any other day I’d use grain-sweetened chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8×8″ pan and set aside. Combine all ingredients except the carob chips in a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping sides as needed. Stir in carob chips. Pour batter into the pan. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing. (This is very important. If you try to slice them too soon, they don’t hold together.)

A few notes:

• Store them in the refrigerator after cooling, and cut them when chilled if you don’t want them falling apart on you. They still taste good, but tricky to bring to a party.
• They are mushy, so the chips are a great addition and I’d even throw in some roasted, chopped almonds next time.
• The cinnamon is brilliant — have I mentioned that yet?
• A dollop of coconut milk ice cream sprinkled with granola would top these brownies perfectly.
• The taste is a huge hit with the men in the house, and anyone who likes banana desserts will adore these.

Let me be clear — this is not my favorite dessert in the world, but it satisfied my craving and was pretty yummy. Not perfect, but just what we needed.

UPDATE: My men will not stop going to the refrigerator and snitching from the pan of these brownies. They obviously like them better than I do, or I am not the desperate woman I thought I was….

Although I enjoy my sprouted spelt flour baking, I’m really trying to cut down on my carbs, grains and flours in general. Gluten-free is supposed to be easy to digest but mostly, it’s just a bunch of weird flours that tend not to have much fiber or nutrition.

So I’ve been on a hunt for some gluten-free treat recipes that use real food, not seven different obscure white flours and three different vegetable gums. Luckily, my hunt is proving fruitful and I’ve got some great recipes to share with you. The best news is that you probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry already, but if you don’t, a trip to the closest market will get you all you need.

Elana’s Pantry created this gorgeous cranberry almond loaf that she enjoys slathered with goat cheese (yes please) but that she suggests you could also toast and use for a turkey sandwich. Almond butter, almonds, seeds, eggs and other easy ingredients combine for a flourless bread. OK, so there’s a little bit of arrowroot in it that might be hard to find, but I got my Bob’s Red Mill Arrowroot Starch Flour, 20-Ounce (Pack of 4) for pennies on Amazon.

Yummy — oatmeal carrot cookies are gluten-free if you make sure you get oats that aren’t contaminated, but if you don’t have celiac you probably don’t care. They call for stevia liquid (I know, I really have to explore this stuff) as a sweetener, but I’d just throw in agave syrup, palm sugar, brown rice syrup or a little honey.

Melting Wok’s arrowroot cookies sound divine … it’s the coconut milk that gets me. I’m definitely trying these.

Is it painfully obvious that I have a ton of arrowroot flour and I’m looking for recipes to try? Here are two arrowroot cake recipes — a yellow cake and a double chocolate cake — made with all normal ingredients. Too normal … I’d use palm sugar and organic butter, and replace the cream with plain yogurt. Other than that, I’m anxious to try these recipes because we don’t often make cake.

I just have to give a shout-out to La Tartine Gourmande — she’s got a gluten-free (and fabulous) section on her website, my favorite recipe being the chocolate tahini gooey cake.

The rosemary growing in our yard is lush and green right now, loving every minute of the above-average temps we’ve been having here in New England … well, until last week, when the 70s crept back in but the sunshine still made me cheery. I thought it was about time to find some recipes to take advantage of my tasty little plant.

Rosemary roasted red pepper hummus — Cumin, soy sauce, cayenne and all the other traditional hummus ingredients combine to make this a hummus I’m dying to try.

Rosemary olive oil cake — This recipe intrigues me like no other. To me, rosemary is a savory herb, occasionally paired with lemon in a semi-sweet muffin. But this cake’s got chocolate chunks!

Cheese and rosemary biscotti — See, now this is what I think about when “baking with rosemary” comes to mind. A savory, side dish biscotti — brilliant!

Brie stuffed figs with fresh rosemary — I feel like I’m playing Jeopardy, and the question is, “What’s the easiest appetizer recipe dressed to impress?” I do think I’d go for blue cheese here, though.

Herbed chicken crepes with fresh rosemary cream sauce — Keith and I went out for dinner last week and had a wonderful crepe appetizer, stuffed with smoked salmon and asparagus and topped with caviar and the thickest creme fraiche I’ve ever seen. So I’ve got crepes on the brain, and this recipe sounds scrumptious. You know I’d make gluten free crepes and substitute Greek yogurt for the cream, but still.

It’s not often that I find a collection of dessert recipes like this, all in the same week. Usually, I’m altering more conventional recipes into something naturally sweetened and substituting flours. Most of these ingredients are just fine for everyone’s issues in this house — yay!

Since we’re all taking a short break from chocolate in my house (short … I can only handle short, but it’s been good because I really was eating it abusively and I haven’t missed it quite as much as I thought I would), this carob layer cake caught my eye. It’s only sweetened with honey, agave or brown rice syrup, which I like and she gives alternatives to sugary frostings, which I also like.

I’m attracted to the idea of these raisin bars, because they don’t have sugar in them at all, but I still think all of that dried fruit is going to make them very sweet in their own rite. Since they sound so delicious and I happen to have all of the ingredients in the house, I just may try them.

I may not be OK. I’m not sure how to stop drooling … over the picture … over the recipe for cherry amandines … over the fact that there’s no wheat or white sugar in the recipe … over the fact that Bea used cherries, pits, stems and all, in her beautiful dessert. That’s bold! La Tartine Gourmande, you’ve won my over with this one!

Would you get a look at that creamy goodness? We make ice cream fairly often, partly because we’re careful about our refined sugar and dairy intake but mostly because it’s fun to stand at the ice cream maker with a spoon and snitch as it’s churning. We’d never tried a strawberry ice cream before and now that we have I can’t imagine why it took so long!

Our CSA farm’s strawberries came in early this year — hooray! — so we picked a bunch of luscious ripe berries this weekend. They were so sweet and ripe, they weren’t going to keep long enough for us to just eat them out of the container. So we made ice cream!

A few notes about this recipe: It’s very close to our pumpkin coconut milk ice cream with a few alterations. I was going for creamy — you know, strawberries and cream — so I added some strained Greek yogurt and I really like the way it blends with the coconut milk. Too much yogurt and it would be too sour for my tastes, so don’t be tempted to add more than the recipe calls for unless you’re prepared for a little tang with your sweet.

You know how homemade ice cream gets really hard after you put it in the freezer? One thing I really like about this recipe is that it didn’t until a couple of days later. I think the creaminess of the yogurt combined with all the sugar in the strawberries helped with that. If you still think it gets too hard too fast, add a shot of some strawberry liquor.

Our berries were dripping with sweetness, but if yours are more tart, feel free to add more agave syrup until it’s just the way you like it.

Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut milk (14 ounces)
• 1/2 cup Greek strained yogurt, plain (I used 2% because no markets in my area see fit to carry the whole milk version)
• 3 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups freshly picked strawberries

In a medium bowl, mash the strawberries with a fork, then whisk in the other ingredients. Dump into your ice cream maker and grab a spoon … in about 10 minutes, you can start snitching while the ice cream churns….

I realize that I have a problem. My abhorrence for mayonnaise has become a fell-fledged obsession with mayonnaise-free potato salads. And why not? With any of the recipes I’ve tried and posted in the past, I’ve never once felt shortchanged or disappointed. In fact, I know many people who make potato salad without mayonnaise just because they are lower in fat and calories and actually taste better.

My theory is that the lack of the traditional mayonnaise brings out the creativity in the recipe creators. But that’s my gain; if they want to overcompensate for the missing ingredient by giving me flavor combinations like the ones below, I’m all for it. Step aside, mayonnaise and pickles — potato salad just got better.

Roasted onion and sweet potato salad really tempts me — doesn’t the combination of sweet potato, bacon and mustard sound divine? Don’t forget the sweet potatoes and onions are roasted, not boiled and raw. There’s some green pepper for crunch too.

This Caribbean sweet potato salad is great — I made this one. I like that it’s sweet potatoes and regular potatoes combined, and I’d highly suggest making this one ahead of time. The night I made it, it was just okay, but two days later, when all the flavors had time to meld, it knocked my socks off.

This layered potato salad with creamy avocado dressing is an over-the-top beauty. It’s made with three different colored potatoes (orange, white and purple) and layered with a veggie and olive … for lack of a better word, tapenade. I’m betting this one is delicious as well as gorgeous.

Are you looking for simple? It doesn’t get much easier than this potato and orange salad. Consisting of only six ingredients (and salt and pepper), I’m betting the flavors blend perfectly. Potato, orange, pimento, red wine vinegar and olive oil and onion … can’t be bad! I would have a very difficult time not adding a few capers to this one though….

I love hummus. I love garlic. How could anyone go wrong with this Mediterranean garlic hummus potato salad? You’ll also find plain yogurt, pine nuts, parsley and lemon juice in this fine salad.

Now here’s a different one for you … blissful red anjou potato salad combines potatoes, pears, macadamia nuts, coriander and a very simple rice vinegar dressing. That sounds like a balance I’ve got to try.

Anyone hankering for an old fashioned German potato salad? Yoo-hoo, Bob, it’s got bacon….

This French potato salad is simple and elegant, with sliced potatoes instead of chunked and shallots, mustard, lots of fresh herbs and a champagne vinaigrette.

Yummy — this balsamic vinegar potato salad, with roasted red peppers, black olives, artichokes and oregano sounds delicious, easy to prepare and kinda impressive. It reminds me of a pasta salad but with potatoes instead.

Don’t forget to check out gourmet potato salads for the mayophobic and more potato salads for the mayophobic. Enable my potato salad OCD.

Eating healthy comes with a price. For many people, that’s a smaller waistline, glowing skin and lots of energy. For me this week, it’s been dessert cravings! I’ve stuck with my tiny serving of grain-sweetened chocolate chips (and a few snitches of the cherry coconut milk ice cream Owen and I made today) but the recipes crossing my path this past week have really been testing my will power.

Seriously, Heidi Swanson, will you cut it out? Your recipe for chocolate cherry brownies just about killed me. As if gooey brownies more like a fallen chocolate cake wouldn’t be enough to send me screaming to the kitchen for my KitchenAid, you have to include port-soaked dried cherries in the recipe? Must. Not. Bake….

Now this recipe for olive oil cake with orange-lavender syrup definitely made me sit up and salivate. I’ve never seen anything like it, I adore cooking with lavender and it’s got marsala, lemon zest and not too much sugar. I’ll be trying this one with all of my usual substitutions: spelt flour, palm sugar or sucanat and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I even love that it’s served with sour cream, which you know I will replace with organic whole milk plain yogurt.

This recipe for Mexican chocolate cake is just weird enough to work. Both gluten-free and vegan, those points alone would sell it for many people. Add in the nutrition of the sweet potato puree and lots of cinnamon and a winner is born.

Just writing this post has packed a few extra pounds on me, so I’m off for a bike ride on this beautiful spring day.

I might have mentioned once or 87 times that Kona’s got me addicted to making homemade pasta. I started with what came out to be a cross between fettuccine and linguine for my pasta with green beans, artichokes and capers. It was delicious, fun, satisfying and all that other good stuff, but my real motivation for making homemade pasta was because I desperately miss raviolis.

Sure, I’d snitch a bite if Keith ordered them from a restaurant, but it’s not the same as enjoying a whole meal of them and it’s very difficult to find wheat-free raviolis. These were my first attempt, based on a Hawaiian recipe which was a little too crazy for my first foray into ravioli-land. I simplified the flavors and made it more traditionally Italian, since that’s what I had been craving for years anyway.

I liked the recipe because I had everything in the house and there was no cheese filling, which my son definitely didn’t need. They got the seal-of-approval from the five-year-old, so the cheese was not missed (though I will be making some cheese-filled ones at some point).

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Raviolis

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup white beans, cooked and drained (I used canned)
• 5 sun-dried tomatoes, re-hydrated
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water from the sun-dried tomatoes reconstituting
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil

Cook the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil and then add them to a food processor, along with all the other ingredients. Blend, and add more sun-dried tomato water to get your desired consistency.

Make your pasta dough like Kona did, or try making spelt flour pasta, my favorite! Roll the dough out to your desired consistency, cut into ravioli-sized squares and plop some filling in the center of each square. I just wet the edges with a little water, put another pasta square on top and pinched the raviolis shut.

Toss raviolis into boiling water and cook until they float, which is not very long at all, just a few minutes. Serve with your favorite sauce, or try the one below.

Tomato & Feta Cheese Sauce for White Bean Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces diced tomatoes
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons white wine

Cook onion in the olive oil until tender, then add wine, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes to pan. Cook to reduce slightly then stir in all other ingredients. Serve over raviolis.

The ecstasy of being able to eat raviolis again has been unmatched by any other food experience lately. Oh stuffed pasta, I missed you so … I’m very glad you’re back in my life.

The fun part about writing a food blog is that I can go on and on about a recipe I loved, long after my family is sick of hearing about it. You’d be surprised at how long I can not only rave about the amazingly perfect chewiness of these addictive oat waffles … almost as long as I can make Keith feel guilty for eating the last leftover one and saving me exactly none!

My inspiration for this recipe came from Mothering‘s outta here oat waffles. In fact, Mothering is almost back in my good graces after the clearly untested chocolate pretzels recipe that they published, which was a complete fail.

Besides the outrageously perfect texture — crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside — these waffles are prepared in such a way that they are nutritionally maximized. Because the grains are soaked in an acidic medium — in this case, yogurt — the anti-nutrients that are present in most grains are become chemically inactive, allowing the rich nutrients to get where they need to go — into you.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled or whole or steel cut oats
• 2 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/4 cup organic plain whole milk yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons melted butter

Combine oats, milk and yogurt in blender. Cover and let soak, refrigerated, for 8 hours. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Preheat an oiled or nonstick waffle iron. Pour batter onto griddle and cook for about 5 minutes, or until golden. Serve hot however you like — a little drizzle of grade B maple syrup was all I needed.

Makes 8 waffles.

It seems like a lot of prep time, but if you just do the first step before bed, blending in the other ingredients in the morning is a snap, and if you have a waffle maker, you don’t even have to watch it — just take it out when they light turns green.

Out of all the waffles I’ve ever made, this texture is my hands-down favorite … I can’t wait to make them again.

Just picture this: Seven children up to their elbows in pretzel dough, creating strange and deviant-shaped pretzels and loving every minute of it. That was my Saturday night when it was our turn to host the monthly parents’ night out for our moms’ group.

Contrary to my fraught-with-procrastination personality, I actually prepared for this ahead of time. It was a good thing too, because the plan was to make chocolate pretzels. Mothering, you’ve let me way, way down because this recipe was useless. The dough never became dough and we ended up tossing it and finding another easy homemade pretzel recipe that was perfect. Perhaps it was the lack of yeast that made the chocolate pretzels one giant fail but there was no way that dough would roll into snakes to shape into pretzels.

Regular pretzels worked amazingly well and it was fun to see the difference between regular flour and the spelt dough we used for Owen. They both came out perfect but very different. One thing they had in common was their addictiveness: we were making another batch less than 24 hours later.

Spelt Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 teaspoons yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons of sprouted spelt flour (or regular)
• 1 egg, beaten
• sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350º.

Measure warm water into a large bowl. Sprinkle on yeast and stir until soft. Add salt, sugar, and flour. Mix and knead dough with hands. Roll and twist into any desired shapes. Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with salt. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Tricks and tips:

• When you paint on the egg, be generous. Although these won’t get super-browned (the regular flour version didn’t either), the egg does help.
• Also don’t be shy with the salt. We were with the first batch and they really needed more. The second batch was perfect.

It was seriously fun to make these pretzels and the instant gratification with the yeast product was something that spoke to my heart.

Owen calls them “those big cookies.” I just call them delicious. They are dense and buttery and I can only eat one, but it’s plenty.

The inspiration for these scones came from three different places. I know I’ve mentioned Uprisings before, and there’s a recipe in there for orange date scones that caught my eye. My friend Michelle often makes her Grandma’s chocolate chip date cake for playdates, and it’s something we all beg for … so good. Finally — does anyone else out there remember the chocolate chip orange scones that Trader Joe’s used to sell but then had the nerve to discontinue? Back when I could still eat wheat, we’d buy them often and eat them with wild abandon.

All of those and more went into this recipe.

Orange Date Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 4 cups spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate + 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup dates, chopped
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put the butter, flour, baking powder and baking soda in your food processor and blend until you’ve achieved coarse crumbs. Or if you must, cut the butter into the flour by hand and eat these for breakfast next year or so.

By hand (meaning with your hands), mix in the eggs, agave and orange juice mixture until just moistened. Fold in the dates and chocolate chips.

Plop that dough right on your countertop and flatten to about 1 inch high. Use a large round biscuit cutter to make your scone shapes or just form them into biscuits shapes by hand. There’s no right or wrong here — they’ll taste great no matter what.

Place scones on a greased cookies sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

I recently made a lemon poppy seed bread. It was dense and buttery and everything it should have been, but today I was craving something light and airy and lemony.

It’s hard to get lemony enough for my taste, but since I don’t like my baked goods too sweet, the lemon shines through more. A little vanilla extract takes the edge off, so the muffins aren’t tart. The poppy seeds add a delightful “pop” and I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast.

If you fear the lemon, sprinkle a little turbinado (raw, coarse) sugar on the tops of your muffins. They’ll look spectacular and your sweet tooth will be satisfied.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups sprouted spelt flour (or your favorite)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup agave syrup, or your favorite sweetener
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup oil (I used rice bran)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
• turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and the wet in a medium bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just moist. Fill 12 greased muffin tins and sprinkle each with turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 16 minutes. Enjoy with a little butter or just fresh out of the pan. My kid had three — is that a shining recommendation, or what?

I mentioned in a recent post that Kona has turned me into a crazed homemade pasta maker. I’ve yet to write up those recipes — they’re coming — but I have been collecting quite an array of ravioli recipes, now that the world is my oyster. Really, it may seem silly to you, but being unable to eat wheat and craving filled pasta has left me feeling like the greyhound chasing the rabbit, for years.

The results have been nothing less than thrilling, and trying these new raviolis are tops on my list.

Roasted portobello with caramelized onion ravioli would have been the first one I tried, if I had those ingredients in the house. I love that this recipe doesn’t have cheese in it so I can control the amount of cheese that goes into my food sensitive child by just using a sprinkle of cheese in the sauce. But I’ve been feeling caramelized onions in a ravioli… oh yeah.

This recipe, originating from Hawaii, has got some really interesting flavors. White bean and sun-dried tomato ravioli includes chipotle in adobo and cumin, along with more traditional Italian flavors. I riffed off of this recipe for my first ravioli recipe, which I kept more traditional, just in case. Trying this unique version could happen though.

I’ve been dying to make pumpkin ravioli, but I’m having trouble deciding which recipe to try. This Wolfgang Puck pumpkin ravioli recipe probably doesn’t suck (and I love that he uses spinach dough), but there’s enough heavy cream in the raviolis to put my son into a dairy-induced coma, so I probably won’t attempt it. Martha Stewart’s pumpkin raviolis sound delicious, but there are crumbled up cookies in them. Beyond being weird, we don’t eat wheat so we’ve defeated the whole purpose for making homemade ravioli.

So I’m exploring the amateur chefs to see what they’ve got for me. These butternut squash raviolis can be made with any orange squash and they have some parmesan cheese which I can substitute with pecorino romano (sheep’s cheese) and my kid will make it through the meal. This one’s a distinct possibility.

One more — a dairy-free pumpkin ravioli recipe! I’ll forgive the vegan for being vegan about it, because this recipe sounds delicious from start to finish and not at all what I was expecting from a pumpkin ravioli. I’m really excited to try this one.

Which one sounds best to you?

It’s all Kona’s fault. I had been planning on making homemade pasta for a while now, because I really miss raviolis and can’t find any gluten-free ones locally. Somehow, I always had an excuse when it came time to make them.

Then Kona wrote her post about her foray into homemade pasta land, and how easy it was. That’s it! I was determined to try it … and now that’s all I want to do. Like Bob, I think I’m in a cooking rut.

My first homemade pasta adventure came when we invited my parents to diner a couple of weeks ago. Way to experiment on the dinner guests… and put them to work. Keith rolled out the dough and my parents and I uncurled it and laid it out in preparation for the cooking. Then I figured, we’ve already gone this far, so I asked my dad, the family gourmet, to make the sauce.

Oh, just one note here — we used Kona’s homemade pasta recipe, but with the spelt flour we needed four eggs instead of three, and I wholeheartedly agree with Kona that I wouldn’t roll the pasta before cutting next time. It adds an extra step, and the unrolling was labor intensive.

I had in mind what I wanted: something light and lemony and green so the pasta wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sauce and it would complement the poached steel head trout we made in the Sous Vide. I’ve eaten my dad’s cooking long enough to know that he’d make a sauce that would embarrass many Iron Chef contestants, so after I described the sauce from my imagination, I followed him around the kitchen and took detailed notes.

Homemade Pasta with Green Beans, Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups green beans, lightly steamed
• 6 ounces artichoke hearts (I used frozen)
• 2/3 cup basil, chopped chiffonade style
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups baby spinach
• your homemade pasta, cooked until it floats

In a large skillet or saute pan, saute the chopped shallot in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, then pour in the white wine and cook until it’s reduced by half. Add artichoke hearts and capers, cook to heat through. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and the green beans and cook through again. Add spinach and the cooked pasta, cook until the spinach is wilted and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss in basil just before serving.

If I made this recipe again, I’d probably use more lemon and more spinach, but that’s only because I’m a lemon freak and a green veggie whore. It truly was perfect as-is. Thanks Dad!

One of the treats that I wanted to make as Valentine’s Day gifts (but didn’t quite get to) were crispy skillet cookies. I thought it would be fun to get my hands dirty with the five-year-old and turn a sugary recipe into a healthy treat. I did both last night and lived to tell the tale, both about the fun we had rolling the cookies in the coconut and about how delicious the recipe turned out. I know I say this a lot, but you really wouldn’t even guess that these were healthy … honest.

But they are good on so many levels — tasty, sweetened naturally, flourless, which means wheat-free and gluten-free in this case, easily made 100% organic and did I mention tasty?

Let me just make a few notes for you. Since Keith brought me home an organic brown rice cereal that was lightly sweetened (but he did the shopping so I wasn’t going to nitpick!), I left the agave out at first. They were plenty sweet but a bit tricky to stick together. If I squeezed them tightly in my hand while the mixture was still good and warm, I was successful.

Toward the end, when the mixture began to cool, I needed to squirt on a little agave syrup to help them stick together. So my suggestion, and the way I altered the recipe, is to use the unsweetened puffs and add enough agave to make the mixture sticky. I’m thinking a couple of tablespoons would be more than plenty. You could also just add more dates and chop them very finely and make sure you heat the mixture very well to get them nice and gooey.

Crispy Skillet Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped dates (or more to help cookies stick better)
• 3 tablespoons organic butter
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups organic rice puffs
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• agave syrup to taste (try about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 cup flaked coconut

Mix dates, butter and egg in heavy skillet. Melt over low heat; cook for about 5 minutes on low heat, until bubbly. Remove from heat; add vanilla, agave, rice cereal and almonds. As soon as the mixture is cool enough to handle, roll (really squeeze) into small balls and roll in coconut.

I tried mixing it up a bit and rolled a couple in carob powder. Yeah, don’t do that, although I think cocoa powder would be heavenly!

UPDATE: I recently made these as above but added about 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter along with the agave — delicious!