Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, VitaCost Dark Choco Almond Drop Cookies

July 16, 2014 by KTgreen

I’ve been trying to keep myself on a more healthy track. Not always easy. This afternoon I put in an order for some goodies from my favorite online health food company, Vitacost. I was reminded about a pic I took of a box from their last shipment.

They print funny little things on their boxes. Like, ‘5 Ways to Reuse This Box:’, and this time there was an intriguing recipe for an almond butter cookie, with chocolate chips. OK, you had me at ‘chocolate…’ !! On top of it, it was gluten and dairy free…hmm. I might have to try that one. As you know, not all of these ‘healthy’ cookies are much like a treat at all. I’m always skeptical, as I’ve made, and tossed, a lot of glorified dog biscuits. I only share the winners with you – the ones that get a thumbs up not only from me, but my non-health-food eaters.

VitaCost Dark Choco Almond Drop Cookies

Step 1:

Gather the goods

1 Cup Almond Butter – see photo – I use ‘No-Stir Almond Butter’ because after 15 min of stirring the other was still nothing like any kind of ‘butter’.

3/4 Cup Natural Sweetener (I used Whey-Low, but I’ll bet organic cane sugar would be good)

1 Large Egg (you can go egg-free*, but I didn’t)

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

3 oz. Dark Chocolate Chips (I used Ghiradelli 60%, about 1/3 cup)

Step 2:

Preheat the oven to 350deg. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. Then add in the chips.

Step 3:

Scoop by the tablespoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for about 12 min. I let mine go a minute more and they were really brown, but they held up better. Let them cool on the pan.

Finale:

Look how yummy !! Gluten free, dairy free, and could’ve even been egg-free (by substituting 1 Tbl. Flax mixed with 3 Tbl water). So good! Now even though that super healthy organic almond butter was super runny, and nothing I’d buy again, I’d certainly make these cookies again. Maybe next time, I’ll add in a touch of gluten free flour and maybe some chopped almonds, to give it some body.

But, until then – Enjoy!!

Michelle Beal

http://badzoot.com

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Green Tea

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 by Michelle

My favorite grocery store, Publix, makes a wonderful iced tea available in the deli section that has green tea, and honey with ginseng. I love that I can just pick up a gallon for parties. It is soooo good. But not as ‘healthy’ as it sounds. The ingredients list contains sugar and carmel color, and other not-on-my-list items. In fact, the diet version lists Splenda right on the front label – no thank you. But I still like it. And you know me, if I like it, I’d like to make it…myself.

Now, I have plenty of green teas, honeys, agave nectar, and a lemon is never hard to find in my kitchen. Ginseng, is another matter. That is something I don’t stock. I went looking for a ginseng tea. While at my favorite local store, I spotted, in the tea section, a little gem I’d not seen before. It’s an herbal/green tea from Celestial Seasonings and it has all the cast of characters – this could work. The taste, however wasn’t really exact. It has white tea in it too, which is great, but made it rather mild. I like my tea over ice, so I tend to make the batches a bit strong. That said, I found the following worked perfect.

Michelle’s Publix-Style Green Tea

1 quart bottle: I reused one from some cider, so it’s got a lid that can take heat.

2-1/2 Cups Boiling Water

1 bag Green Tea

1 bag Celestial Seasonings Green Tea w/honey, lemon and ginseng

3 Tbl Agave or Honey

First warm up that bottle with some warm tap water so as not to shock it later. Get the water boiling either on the stove or microwave.

When it’s ready, pour out the tap water, add in the Celestial Seasonings bag (because it has no tag) to the bottle. Pour over the boiling water. Then add the green tea bag and try to hold the tag out of the neck of the bottle. Leave the cap either off, or just put on lightly so it can release some heat. Leaving the tag out makes it much easier to fish out. Set it all aside and let it steep for a half hour or so,…don’t you have emails to check?

OK, that’s it – slowly pull out the green tea bag, leave the other one there, add the sweetener and give it a swirl. Top it off with some regular temp water (about 1-1/2 cups or so) and add the bottle to the fridge.

Way better for you with only a few ingredients. And you can add more or less sugar if you like. The lemon and white tea makes it remind me of an Arnold Palmer too. Feeling really overheated, add a sprig of mint to your glass or bottle.

Why only a quart? Because this is poured over a full glass of ice, and that means that with only me drinking it a half gallon is just too much. Besides, don’t you need a reason to get one of those uber cool swing-top ‘growler’ bottles? I thought so.

Go ahead Summer – bring on the heat – I’m ready!

Michelle @ badzoot.com

Adventures with Michelle

July 2, 2014 by Michelle

Back in May I put up a post about my Oakleaf Hydrangea that I’d bought the previous year at my favorite nursery. After reading the post, my Aunt Kathy responded with a note that they’d been closed down. ‘GASP’ Noooo – I had to check this out. Besides, it was Mothers Day weekend and I had told the boys NOT to have a florist deliver the usual bunch of roses. Not that I don’t like them – I do. But the cost is OMG! So it was a lovely day and I was out looking for flowers to plant and enjoy for a bit longer than a week.

I cruised over to the old spot where Sherwood Forest used to be. I had known that the lot was sold to a church and the main entrance that we’d been used to was closed off. The entrance to use was on Lamson Ave. and is the old ‘back-door’ gate used for the sod and mulch trucks. The sign was gone, but the gate was open. I went in and things didn’t look as they had. Many of the landscape trees were missing and it looked like that church had swallowed up a bit more of the old lot. Although, the trucks were there, the loaders, piles of mulch for sale. In front of the landscaping plants was a big section of lovely flowers. I parked and walked around. I knew all was well when, off in the distance, helping another customer, was the distinct voice of Ed. He’s been selling me plants for nearly 20 years! (wow-that felt old just typing it) The once vast fleet of radio flyer wagons has been reduced to a half dozen, and the staff seemed to be trimmed to two that day.

I picked out some lovely landscape roses that I’d not seen anywhere else – which is usually the case with this nursery. The price was great too – as usual.

As I paid, another familiar face wearing his signature Warren Zevon glasses, said it’d been bought out by a landscaping company by the name of Hildreth Sod and the plans were to get it back up to operation asap. There have been issues with growers that have gone out of business or changed hands, as they have, so just getting stock takes time. I tend to believe that. Even a rose from J&P can be in short supply (they’ve been out of Simplicity White for like 2 seasons now). It takes 3–5 years to grow one big enough to sell…which is about how long this recession has been. So, I’ll be patient and will continue to buy from my local guys and hope you will too. Over the years I can safely say that I’ve not had anything I bought from them not perform. Buying from the Big Box Stores is convenient, but let’s just say, it’s a lottery. So, like the rest of us weathering the economic hurricane, my favorite plant purveyors are still hanging on – by their fingernails, but hanging on.

If you need their number, it’s the same, 352-683-2976. Pay them a visit sometime and hopefully they’ll regain their foothold.