Mint Cocoa Bars with Chia seeds

I'm usually not a big fan of most protein/snack bars.  I just don't like the way they taste.  Most of the time they taste too sweet and too artificial with the exception of a few (Cy & I both like Kind Bars).  So when I saw the recipe for this Cocoa Bar in my CSA Box I was very curious to see how they would turn out with such few ingredients. And you know what? They were delicious!  It was just the right amount of sweetness with the flavor of natural mint chocolate chip - one of my favorites {for ice cream ;)} It's a perfect bite for when you just need a little pick me up.

Now that I know you can make your own tasty snack bars with no refined sugars, the possibilities are endless! My head is swimming with thoughts of coconut shreds, dried cherries, all different kinds of nuts, and on and on...
What flavors would you make?

Zucchini Hash

A quick post today of another dish Cy & I made for the brunch last along with the Double Strawberry & Basil Tart - a Zucchini hash.
Less carbs than potatoes and can also work as a nice alternative to pancakes ;)

Best of all, it's simple to make.  Just grated zucchini, an egg, some garlic/ginger, and a little coconut flour.

Satsumaimo: The Japanese Sweet Potato

Wagashi is a term for Japanese confections often served with tea.  I've been wanting to make this particular rustic wagashi for sometime now.  Very simply named the  "Sweet Potato", it is of course made from the Sastumaimo, better known as the Japanese sweet potato. The Satsumaimo has a much more mild and delicate flavor than your usual yam or sweet potato and is easily a favorite in Japan.  During autumn months, you can find Satsumaimo flavored everything over there from Soft-serve ice creams to chocolates.  

There is something very comforting about the satsumaimo for me - like coming home.  Maybe because it never fails to make me think of my sis as it was a favorite of hers growing up.   Even now, I associate this maroon colored potato with my her just as I associate penguins with Cy ;)

The naturally sweet nutrient-packed veggie lends itself well as a dessert ingredient.  And this simple to make recipe makes for the perfect healthy sweet bite when you need a little tea or coffee break. 

Arugula & Walnut Pesto with Summer Squash

I've always had a thing for Arugula.  There's something I find really attractive about that very distinctive aromatic flavor, but maybe it's not for everyone because apparently Cy does not find arugula very tasty.  

Which is really unfortunate because like most other dark green leafy vegetables, it's packed with amazing nutrition like Chlorophyll, and is best eaten raw (or a cooking time of within 5min or so).  

Here's the science tidbit- Chlorophyll has a biochemical structure just like red blood cells, except it has a Magnesium center versus an Iron one.  When you cook arugula (or any other green veggie), the Magnesium center is replaced by Hydrogen, turning the bright green color into a dull one (So interesting isn't it!?) The loss of Chlorophyll means you're losing out on all of its possible anti-cancer properties. The wholefoods site actually has a great article source list here.  

As much as Cy does not like arugula however, he really enjoyed the arugula pesto.  So this dish might be a great way to get the benefits of raw arugula, even for the non-arugula lover.  And the fact that it's with a "pasta" that's completely carb-free?  Only an added plus.  It's really perfectly refreshing for a hot summer day like the ones we've been having lately.

I used walnuts in the pesto, but you can always replace them with other types of nuts (pine nuts, almonds, etc).  Whatever works for you!

Freeze any leftover pesto in ice trays and save them for another day ;)

Summer Tomato Tart

I seem to be on a tart roll lately..maybe because it tends to be be easy to make, pretty to look at, and delicious to eat ;)

This recipe for the tomato tart I saw over at cannelle vanille (whose blog is beautiful by the way), and I immediately knew that I had to make it.  We recently started getting our produce from the folks over at farm fresh to you, and I have to say that it's been amazing.  It's so nice to wake up to a box full of organic produce once every couple of weeks!  It's kind of exciting to open the box, wondering what kind of veggies and fruits we were going to have to try to cook with that week.

Needless to say, we got a wonderful assortment of heirloom tomatoes in our stash so I knew I had to use them for this tart.

The tart  does have a thin layer of arborio rice in it, as well as some rice flour in the dough,.  I love that the tart is gluten-free, but I definitely serve it to Cy on days I know he's going to be playing basketball so I know that he can take the extra carbs.

Since we also had some avocados and beets in our produce box, served it with a little of this on the side ;)

Double Blueberry tart

It's been a little while since I've posted, life get's a little crazy sometimes as most of you know.  BUT, I hope that this recipe for  my absolute favorite blueberry tart will make up for it.  The double dose of both cooked and fresh blueberries provides an amazing contrast in texture and really just a wonderful burst of blueberry flavor - so perfect for summer!

The tart is really very simple - the filling is from one of my favorite baking sites , and is really just blueberries and just a handful of sugar which you can replace with a sugar alternative like stevia if you'd like.  I made a gluten-free tart crust out of almond meal from clean start just to lower the carb content for Cy, but really, you can use ready made pie crust if you're in a time crunch.  

                   

Cocoa & Cherry Biscuits, Meyer Lemon Curd, Meyer Lemon & Thyme Marmalade

The title is rather long I know.  I had a bunch of Meyer lemons I needed to do something with this weekend so I made the curd and marmalade.  But then I realized that I needed something to have them with, so I went ahead and made the Cocoa Biscuits.  Though really, I think I can just eat lemon curd on its own by the spoonful ;)

Cy has finals this week, so I figured these would make great high protein snacks.  The Cocoa biscuits are gluten-free and made from almond meal with a little bit of cocoa and some cherries thrown in for good measure.  It makes for a good contrast with all the lemon condiments.

Lemon curd is one of my all time favorites, but I always assumed that the luscious consistency came from all the butter.  However, I am happy to announce that it doesn't have to.  I based my recipe off of this one.  It uses very little sugar and absolutely no butter.  And similarly for the Marmalade, I don't know if it was because my meyer lemons were not too tart, I found that I did not have to add too much honey to make it.