Lavender Chocolate Bars

Veggie Belly recently posted about several interesting things to do with lavender (both edible and not). It reminded me that I'd been meaning to write up the lavender chocolate bars that Rhubarb made. It's another recipe from Ani's Raw Food Desserts; the ingredients include lavender, almonds, raisins, and cacao powder. I'd never noticed it before, but raisins plus chocolate creates a wonderful caramel-like flavor. Lavender plus chocolate is simply divine. The bars need to be kept in the freezer, which makes for a cool, chocolatey summer treat.

Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

I like to start my work day with cookies. Not for breakfast, of course. Instead, I eat a bowl of cereal or some peanut butter toast at home, then head to the office and, within five or 10 minutes of arriving at my desk, break out the cookies. It's basically my treat for going in to work.

Since I eat cookies on a regular basis, I like to think about ways to make them slightly less bad for me, while not sacrificing taste or texture. One of my tricks is to make peanut butter cookies using whole wheat flour instead of white flour -- while I'm not always a fan of whole wheat cookies, I think that the nuttiness of whole wheat blends really well with peanut butter.

After some experimentation, I've adapted my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe to include spelt flour in place of some of the all-purpose flour. (I tried making chocolate chip cookies using only spelt flour, but they turned out thinner and less chewy than I like.) The revised recipe also uses a little less sugar than the original.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white spelt flour
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 12-ounce package of chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (right now, I'm on a macadamia kick)

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream the butter, sugar, molasses, and vanilla extract.
Beat in the eggs.
Stir in the salt and baking soda.
Slowly stir in the spelt and all purpose flour until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Using a teaspoon, scoop up little bits of dough and drop them onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Strawberry, Avocado, and Spinach Salad

Rhubarb says that avocado is the vegetarian bacon. But would bacon taste this good with strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette? I think not.

Chocolate Cups With Almond Cream And Berries

I wanted to make a birthday dessert for someone who doesn't do wheat, rarely does dairy, and is cutting back on sugar. As someone whose dessert repertoire leans heavily on butter, sugar, and all-purpose flour, I was a little stumped. Then, wandering through the stacks at Powell's during a recent trip to Portland, I noticed Ani's Raw Food Desserts by Ani Phyo. The design was cute, the photos were pretty, and the recipes were not only simple, but also consistently wheat-, dairy-, and gluten-free. So, I decided to give it a shot.

The recipe I chose was "Almond Frangipane Kream," which I planned to serve as a pudding topped with fresh berries. How simple was it? Put some raw almonds in a blender along with agave nectar, vanilla, and water, and process for about 30 seconds (or until smooth). That's it.

The result was a pleasantly sweet, smooth blend that tasted of almond and vanilla. I really liked it, but I was worried that the dessert might need a contrasting flavor, and so I ran out at the last minute and bought some little chocolate bowls. (Yes, the bowls were a cheat, both in terms of being store-bought and in terms of containing some sugar and dairy...) In retrospect, my concerns were unfounded, as the berries themselves provided a good contrast to the cream.

This is the only recipe that I've tried from the book to date, but, so far, I'm pleased with my selection. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the book is accessible even to someone who isn't a raw foodie. Other recipes I'd like to try in the future include Pineapple With Ginger And Lime, Lavender Chocolate Bars, and Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake (!!!).

Socca (Chickpea Pancakes)

I'm not very big on pancakes for breakfast, but I've discovered that I really like having pancakes for supper - or, at least, I like dining on socca (pancakes made with chickpea flour). The socca recipe is simple, requiring only chickpea flour, salt, pepper, olive oil, and water. After the batter rests briefly, the pancakes are poured into a skillet coated lightly with olive oil, then cooked for three minutes on one side and one minute on the other. One half-batch serves two people. Rhubarb and I ate them topped with zucchini and tomatoes, which were roasted with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. Very simple, but also very satisfying.

How to Pack a Salad/Salad With Rice Noodles, Tofu, Cilantro, and Peanut Sauce

Salad makes a great lunch, but I hate handing over $8 any time I want fresh greens on a work day. So, I saved one of those nifty plastic bowls from a local salad shop, and have been using it to carry my own homemade blends of veggies to work.

I've come up with the following method for layering a salad that will travel to work:

*Pour the dressing in the bottom of the bowl.
*Next, add ingredients that will not get soggy in dressing - for example, diced carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, apples, cabbage, red onion, olives, beans or walnuts.
*If you are using diced or crumbled cheese, add it next. Noodles work well at this stage, too.
*Finally, add the veggies that would get soggy if they sat in dressing (lettuce, spinach, herbs).
*Add-ins like baked tofu, falafel, or tortilla chips can be wrapped separately and mixed in at lunchtime.

This week's salad features rice noodles, tofu, cilantro, bell peppers, and red onion in a spicy peanut sauce (which can be more or less spicy depending on the amount of red pepper flakes used). It requires a little advance work (cooking the rice noodles, baking the tofu, and assembling the peanut sauce) but, once prepped, these ingredients can be used all week. I prefer to chop my veggies each night, but that could be done in advance, too.

I didn't have them this time, but chopped peanuts would make a great topping.

Ingredients
1 batch baked tofu, cooled
1 batch peanut sauce (see below), cooled
4 ounces rice noodles, prepared per package instructions, drained, rinsed in cold water, and set aside
2 red or orange bell peppers, washed and diced
2 cups cabbage, washed and thinly slivered
10 cups of greens (I used a lettuce/spinach blend), washed
1/4 red onion, washed and thinly slivered
1 bunch cilantro, washed

For each salad:

Pour 1/4 cup peanut sauce in the bottom of the bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon red onion, 1/3 cup bell peppers, and 1/3 cup cabbage.
Add about 1/2 cup chopped rice noodles.
Top with 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, and 2 cups chopped greens.
Close container.
Separately pack the tofu.

Peanut Sauce Ingredients
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I like the fresh ground peanuts from the health food store)
Dash red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 teaspoons ginger, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat until the sauce is smooth.
Bring the sauce to a light simmer.
Let the sauce simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, whisking occasionally, until it thickens to the consistency of gravy.

Spelt Scones

I've been wanting to try spelt flour in place of wheat flour. I'd read about its nutritional benefits, and I liked the fact that it's higher in protein than wheat flour. However, I wasn't sure that baked goods made with spelt would have the same texture and consistency as those made with wheat.

I chose cream scones for my first attempt at baking with spelt, using white spelt flour in this recipe, and adding a little grated orange rind and a handful of dried cranberries. Cream scones might seem like an odd choice in light of my interest in the nutritional aspect of spelt, but they were a great vehicle for the flour: the scones rose beautifully, and had a light, flaky texture. I say "had" because, although I made them just yesterday morning, they're already gone.