Baking and desserts

Apple Picking and Calzones

By Jackie in Adventures, Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes, Mains, Snacks 2 Comments

You know what I love best about food (other than the whole keeping you alive thing)?  It’s the memories that go with it.  As far back as my brain can go, the big memories are associated with food.  One of the first things I can recall is being forced to choke down an overcooked brussel sprout (at age 3 or 4) and then promptly throwing it back up.  Of course we all have thousands of more pleasant food memories – from school lunches and holiday feasts to picnics, tasty travels and everything in-between. And the best of them all usually involve friends and/or family.

That brings us to a beautiful day at the end of August when we visited our local apple orchard for some apple picking shenanigans.  It was a fabulous time – after picking (and tasting) several varieties – the kids tried caramel apples for the first time and then we went home and made fresh pressed apple juice and crumble.  And just when I was wondering how to store all those apples, they were gone.

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Sweet Potato/Banana Pudding

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes 1 Comment

Confession:  I spend way too much money on groceries.  Some people buy shoes, I splash out on organic papayas and grass-fed beef.  Once you’re aware of the effects of your food choices on your health and on the planet, it’s impossible to go back.  But, with the cost of pretty much everything creeping upwards, I’ve been attempting to chop my grocery (and other) bills.  Better meal planning, leftover nights and “clean out the fridge” stews are all part of the plan.

That is how I came up with sweet potato/banana pudding.  I found myself with 1) bananas that were so ripe they had to be used immediately, 2) an overbuy of sweet potatoes (oops!), 3) the desire to put a nutritious dessert on the table without shopping – voila!  I was quite surprised at the almost buttery, yumminess of this pudding.  And judging by the empty containers in the lunch boxes the next day, so were my kids.

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes, Snacks 2 Comments

I have big love for all autumn food.  The favourite of my faves being the great pumpkin.  And my pumpkin love isn’t just about the amazing health benefits (although being a great source of beta-carotene, vitamin C and fibre doesn’t hurt), it’s everything else that comes with it:  Thanksgiving feasts, trips to the farm, hikes to be surrounded by the beautiful autumn leaves, and the spices like cinnamon and ginger that often accompany pumpkin in recipes.

This recipe was not part of the plan at all, but I could not resist trying out the carton of Pacific Foods pumpkin puree that jumped off the shelf into my shopping basket.  I am expecting a fresh pie pumpkin in my organic food delivery today, so I made a promise to myself to use this pumpkin puree immediately.

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Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes, Snacks No Comments

Apricot Oatmeal Cookies!

Something smells good in here, besides the scent of a freshly cleaned house without kids in it, that is!  We’re celebrating the first day back at school with some home-baked after-school treats.  It’s pouring rain outside and I love being a homebody on a rainy day.  I decided to come up with something I could make without a trip to the store.

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Blissful Blueberry Orange Bars

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments

Does this ever happen to you?  You go shopping with a carefully planned grocery list and the items that make their way into your cart were not part of the plan?  I’m guilty of this, especially when it comes to food shopping.  I thought I was fairly safe on the day I went to Costco with my best pal – how much toilet paper can a person buy right?  $400 later, obviously I was so wrong (the camping chairs are really comfy though, even if they’re hard to open!)  So the jumbo bag of frozen, organically grown blueberries that are now resident at my house are no real surprise.  I’ve been trying to come up with some creative ways to use them as I now feel obliged to make it seem like they were part of the plan all along.

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Better For You Brownies and other healthy bake sale ideas

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments Tags: , ,

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a potluck dinner with 40 other holistic nutritionists.  It was a kale and quinoa delight for the senses, a whole foods smorgasbord!  And the next morning I found myself in what seemed like the opposite end of the universe:  the annual school bake sale, where I also had the privilege of volunteering.  It really was odd to transition from one world to the other, I had a good laugh over it!

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Sweet Potatoes Stewed in Coconut Milk

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes, Mains, Sides, Snacks 4 Comments

So I’ve been a bit of a slacker about posting recipes lately.   I have a camera full of lunchbox delights that somehow haven’t made it onto the computer with the words and recipes to accompany them.   One can only get by on good intentions for so long and today I break the cycle of procrastination with a wonderfully comforting recipe that I created just for me (and as a bonus it is a favourite of one of my children too).

This dish isn’t actually one that I send to school as it contains pistachios, but it’s too yummy not to share.  Sam and I happily devour it for breakfast, after-school snack, or dessert.

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Whole Grain Seed Bread

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments

My friend Dee taught me how to bake bread almost 20 years ago.  I didn’t yet own a cooling rack or know the delight of kneading dough until your forearms ached, but I was immediately hooked!  Every time I make bread I feel like I have a connection to all those who came before me and turned such simple ingredients into daily sustenance for their families.  Sure, I don’t grow or mill my own grains (although there is an attachment for the Vitamix that I’ve been eyeing) and I don’t have a wood stove to bake in (thank goodness), but I do have a wild imagination!  I’ve been baking bread ever since that first experience - in the bread maker, by hand, and a combination of the two – love the bread-maker for making dough when I’m pressed for time.

My kids often ask for sandwiches for lunch and I am much happier to make them with our home-made bread, knowing that it doesn’t include anything but whole ingredients and love. After years of experimenting, this is my favourite whole grain sandwich bread.  And Dee – I think you’ll be happy to know that I now own three cooling racks.

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Very Banana Berry Spelt Muffins

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments Tags: , ,

When I was asked to provide a recipe for one of Sam’s playgroups years ago, I came up with a muffin recipe that was low in sugar and high in goodness.  It was adapted from the cookbook Looneyspoons by Janet and Greta Podleski.  I’ve been making it for years now and it has morphed into something quite different from the original – this is Sam’s favourite muffin so I’m posting it for him.  One day he’ll be making these for me!

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JELL-O the Makeover Way

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments Tags: , , ,

When I picked up Sophia from preschool last Thursday, the first words out of her mouth were not “I love you mom and I missed you so much” or “today I learned all about the theory of relativity”.  Instead she greeted me with “Mom, what is JELL-O?”  Alas, I knew this day would come.  Now I’m just waiting for the “why don’t we ever eat at McDonald’s” question.
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Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Jackie in Baking and desserts, Lunch Recipes No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

My mother came over for a tea party the other day, so Sophia and I decided to bake these cookies for our tea party treat.  There is always an abundance of coconut in our house – coconut oil, water, milk, flour – it’s fantastic stuff.  And we chose chocolate, because, well…Sophia will only bake with me if chocolate is involved.
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