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Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
I recently received a copy of Chef Susan Irby’s cookbook, Substitute Yourself Skinny. This book does a good job of taking classic, familiar recipes and remaking them into lower calorie versions of themselves.
 Before I tell you more about the book I just wanted to tell you my thoughts on fat-free/low-fat/full-fat ingredients. Many of the recipes in this book call for fat-free ingredients, such as milk, yogurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese, etc. I rarely use fat-free ingredients. Substituting fat-free ingredients for full-fat ingredients is a fantastic way to whittle away calories in a dish, but in my experience most fat-free items are tasteless (for me the one exception is fat-free milk – I actually prefer its taste over full-fat milk). Anyway, for most fat-free foods I don’t think their taste is even worth the few calories that they do have, which is why I tend to gravitate towards low-fat items. Either that or I’ll just use a smaller amount of the full-fat version…if an ingredient is really high quality I find that you can use much less and still be satisfied. That’s just my personal preference though. That being said, when a recipe calls for a fat-free ingredient I usually replace it with low-fat instead.
This book contains a nice variety of different recipes, including typical take-out foods (burritos, Buffalo wings, sweet and sour chicken – I’m excited to try this one next!, pizza, eggrolls, etc.), some more elegant recipes (Bavarian Cornish hens, chicken cordon bleu, seafood crepes, etc.), and classic comfort foods (New England clam chowder, chicken a la king, chicken pot pie, lasagna, etc.). There are a few pictures interspersed throughout, and a really nice feature of the book is that nutritional information is listed for every recipe.
A Few Pictures from the Book
The recipe I made first was Gouda Burgers. For this recipe, the Gouda I chose to use was called Cono Dutch Red Wax Gouda, which I had never had before. I was really surprised that the flavor of this cheese reminded me of sharp American cheese. (Actually, its color and the way it melted also reminded me of sharp American.) This type of Gouda was good on the burgers but if I make this dish again I think I will use smoked Gouda instead because I think its smoky flavor would pair well with the earthy flavor of the mushrooms.
 Cono Dutch Red Wax Gouda
I made Gouda Burgers first for two reasons: (1) I had turkey in my freezer waiting to be used, and (2) I absolutely love Gouda. I made a few changes to Susan’s recipe; the main changes were as follows: I slightly increase the amount of meat and omitted the egg whites she used; I added onion instead of garlic for flavor; and instead of salt and pepper I seasoned the burgers with steak seasoning. Mike and I both really enjoyed these burgers. I served them with oven roasted potato chips and a salad and all together it was a wonderful meal.
 Gouda Burgers (Adapted from Susan Irby’s recipe for Gouda Burgers in Substitute Yourself Skinny)
(Yield: 4 burgers)
4 portabella mushrooms
1 TB olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 small onion, grated
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp steak seasoning
About 2 oz Gouda cheese, shredded (I used Cono Dutch Red Wax Gouda)
Fresh minced parsley (optional, for garnish)
Preheat the broiler. Place the mushrooms on a baking sheet and drizzle both sides with oil. Broil until just tender, about 3-5 minutes per side, then set aside.
In a medium bowl, use your hands to combine the turkey, grated onion, Worcestershire, and steak seasoning; be careful not to over-mix. Shape the meat into 4 patties, then grill or bake the patties until they are no longer pink in the center.
To assemble the burgers, place each burger on top of a mushroom and sprinkle cheese on top of the burgers. Broil until the cheese melts (1-2 minutes). Garnish with fresh minced parsley if desired.
 To make oven-roasted potato chips (this is my mom’s recipe): Preheat oven to 425F. Peel and thinly slice (about 1/4-inch thick) as many potatoes as you want, then toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange the potato slices in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been drizzled with a little more olive oil. Roast for about 30 minutes, flipping once (or until golden brown on both sides).
Tags: Burgers, Cookbook Review, Gouda, Recipes, Roasted Potato Chips, Substitute Yourself Skinny, Susan Irby
Posted in Book Reviews, Recipes | 32 Comments »
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Brandy and I had so many lovely submissions for our All Through the Year Cheer Easter event…please check out the beautiful round-up and winner here!
Giveaway: Just in time for Earth Day (April 22) I recently received a gift package from Green Giant through My Blog Spark, containing a coupon for a free package of Green Giant frozen vegetables, a mini herb garden, a bamboo utensil set, and a 100% recyclable grocery tote.
 For over 100 years Green Giant has worked hard to reduce the carbon footprint it leaves. A few of the things that Green Giant has done include reduce the amount of land and water needed to grow vegetables, team up with growers to install a more efficient irrigation system that can reduce water usage, and switch to a more earth-friendly paperboard to package frozen vegetables. This year Green Giant is celebrating Earth Day by giving $200,000 to The Nature Conservatory to help fund a project to encourage greener farming practices to protect the Root River, one of Minnesota’s (where Green Giant is located) best trout streams. If you’d like to win the same prize pack, just leave a comment on this post telling me what you do to help the environment. The giveaway will end on 4/10 at 9PM EST, when I’ll use a random number generator to determine a winner.
 Book Review: The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged! by Tosca Reno: Since I loved Tosca’s Eat Clean Cookbook I was thrilled to recently receive a copy of this book to review. This book has over 50 healthy recipes, but the majority of the book is devoted to describing the ins and outs of “clean” eating. One of the most impacting things I got out of the book was what Tosca calls the “Body Beautiful/Body Healthy Formula.” According to this formula, a beautiful and healthy body results from 80% nutrition + 10% training + 10% genetics. Tosca put it best when she said “nutrition is far more responsible for creating your shape and your health than you ever could have imagined”!
 In the book, 8 principles of clean eating are discussed; a few of these principles include eating more throughout the day, eating breakfast, eating a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at every meal, eating enough healthy fats every day, and carrying a cooler packed with clean foods each day. From my own personal experience, I have noticed that eating breakfast is the most important eating habit for me, not only to start up my metabolism early in the day, but also because it sets the tone mentally for the food choices I make throughout the rest of the day.
 Throughout the book Tosca gives a lot of helpful information, such as lists of lean proteins, starchy complex carbs (from both whole grains and vegetables), carbs from fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats. A quick reference is given to show healthy portion sizes. Tips for clean shopping are given, including information on how to decipher nutrition labels. Tosca discusses how to eat clean in any situation, including eating at the office, at restaurants, and at parties. To decipher a menu when eating out, Tosca suggests looking for the following key words: baked, grilled, dry-sautéed, broiled, au jus, roasted, poached, or steamed, and avoiding the following: breaded, au gratin (with cheese), casserole, carbonara, creamy, sautéed, tempura, gravy, fried, or bisque.
 Tosca describes her cooler plans in detail. Each cooler plan is meant to be a day’s worth of food. There are three different week-long cooler plans listed: (1) hardcore eating plan for rapid results, (2) strict eating plan for best long-term results and year-round maintenance, and (3) a plan to get used to the idea of eating for health and life.
 In the book there is a whole litany of benefits that can be expected from clean eating, including a natural detox, lean physique, and constant energy. I think the best motivation for eating clean can be summed up in this quote from the book: “Just as cars do not operate properly on dirty gas, the human body does not function well on poor fuel. Eating foods devoid of nutrients stimulates your craving for more of them, and there is never a real sense of satisfaction in what you have eaten.”
 The Recipes: The recipes portion of the book includes the following sections: breakfast, starters, salads, soups/stews, proteins, sides, complete meals, and desserts. Just like Tosca’s Eat Clean Cookbook, the recipes here are simple, focusing on quality ingredients that don’t need a lot of preparation or fuss to make into a delicious dish. I love how a lot of the recipes really seem to teach you the method of making something, but have a lot of leeway for customization. For example, I can imagine any variety of veggies in the Picante Frittata, a multitude of different fruits in the Ultimate Smoothie, and just about any type of legume in Lentil Spread.
 The Recipe I Made Right Away: The first recipe I made from this book was Power Balls, which basically look like healthy truffles. I made several substitutions and alterations, mainly to work with what I had on hand (the only substitution I made because of preference was to use honey instead of agave). This recipe was easy to make an only took about 25 minutes from start to finish, including the time it took to roll the balls. They were delicious with a gooey texture and a flavor that reminded me of peanut butter cookie dough.
 Power Balls (Adopted from Tosca Reno’s The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged!)
(Yield: 18 (1 TB) balls)
1/2 c unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 c rolled oats
3/4 c dried apricots
1/4 c honey
1/4 c natural, unsweetened peanut butter (I used Smucker’s)
1/4 c sesame seeds
In the bowl of a food processor, combine sunflower seeds and oats; process until they form a grainy powder. Add the apricots and process until they’re completely integrated with the seed/oat mixture. Add the honey and peanut butter and process until the mixture forms a dough-like consistency. Scoop the dough into 1 tablespoon size balls and roll in sesame seeds.
Tags: All Through the Year Cheer, Giveaway, Power Balls, Recipes, The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged, Tosca Reno
Posted in All Through the Year Cheer, Book Reviews, Giveaways, Health & Wellness, Recipes | 43 Comments »
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Book Review: Ciao Italia: Five-Ingredient Favorites by Mary Ann Esposito, Host of Public Television’s Ciao Italia: I was excited to recently receive a copy of this cookbook to review. This book gave me a chance to take a deeper look at Italian cuisine, because even though I’m familiar with quite a few Italian dishes, I don’t have much experience cooking Italian food. While reading this book, I was happy to see that the cooking methods are straightforward and attainable for cooks of all experience levels.
Going through this book I discovered how refreshing it is that Italian dishes are mainly based on bringing out the flavor of a few high quality ingredients, which coincides perfectly with the theme of this book – delicious dishes with only five ingredients. I really love the concept of this book, and I think it works well for each recipe; I just want to say that in order to incorporate each recipe into a meal, you will probably need other ingredients. For example, you’ll probably want to make some sort of veggie to accompany a pasta dish, or some kind of protein dish to go with a salad of veggies. Even though this book is full of five-ingredient dishes, it’s not necessarily full of five-ingredient meals, which worked fine for me since I don’t mind making a couple of dishes for a meal.
This book is nicely organized into the following chapters: food for thought (which discusses food staples in the pantry, fridge, and freezer), antipasti, soups, pasta, sauces, meat and poultry, fish, vegetables, sweets, and seasonal five-course menus. Each chapter contains an introduction, which gives personal stories and background information related to the Italian dining experience. Directly after each chapter’s introduction there is a list of five useful tips that pertain to each chapter. I found the tips interesting and helpful; here’s one of my favorite tips from the soup chapter: Drop a slightly beaten egg white into boiling broth or stock; it will foam up and act like a magnet to attract the scum that forms on top. (I never knew that, but I can’t wait to try it!)
  I know a lot of people prefer cookbooks with pictures of every recipe; I think that while cookbooks with pictures of every recipe make for nice coffee table material (and also help to visualize a recipe), you can really miss out if you forgo reading through cookbooks without pictures. This book only has a few pictures, which I didn’t mind because the recipes were amazing enough to stand alone…in this book there are two inserts of color photos, each insert containing four double-sized pages, for a total of 16 pictures of recipes. Even though I didn’t mind the scarcity of pictures in this book, the way the pictures were done was strange…there were a total of 16 pictures, but there were three recipes (cauliflower salad (pictured above), prosciutto and pine nut pizza, and chocolate, hazelnut, and banana tartlets) that had duplicate pictures so that only 13 pictures were of different dishes. In a book with limited picture space, I thought it was a little strange to see duplicates of three recipes.
The Recipes: The recipes in this book are fabulous, and right off the bat I noted at least one-third of them that I want to make. There are a few classics in here, such as creamy leek soup, Tuscan bean soup, little parsley gnocchi, and coal-miners’ style spaghetti (spaghetti carbonara). There are also a few twists on classics that I can’t wait to try, like cheesy stuffed meatballs and Italian cheese fondue. Many of the recipes are new to me, and sound phenomenal…one of the most interesting recipes I found is for paradise soup. In this soup, little “meatballs” are made from breadcrumbs, cheese, and eggs and cooked in broth. It’s called paradise soup because who would have thought that soup made of this would taste so divine!
 The Recipe I Made Right Away: When you read through few of the recipes, you might think they sound delicious but could use another ingredient or two (don’t fall into this trap!). This is what I thought when I saw the recipe for linguine roman style. The recipe calls for linguine, ricotta cheese, butter, cooking water from the linguine, and pecorino cheese. When I first read the recipe I thought it sounded great but could use maybe just a little garlic. I didn’t give into temptation though…I followed the recipe as written (except I used fettuccine instead of linguine because that’s what I had on hand) and I was glad I did! It was fabulous and I didn’t miss the garlic at all. Even though I didn’t have to add any other ingredients to this recipe, to make this dish a meal I made a big green salad to serve alongside the pasta.
This dish was deliciously cheesy and tasted similar to fettuccine alfredo. The only thing qualm I have about this dish is that it tastes much better served right after making. If there are leftovers that are reheated, the ricotta takes on a lumpy, cottage cheese-like consistency (don’t get me wrong, I like cottage cheese, but it was not a pretty sight). To solve that, I recommend only making enough at a time for what you plan on serving; be forewarned, this recipe uses a pound of pasta and it says that it makes four to six servings…if you consider it four servings that means that one-quarter pound of pasta is a serving, and this is a LOT of pasta! To avoid leftovers and stick with a healthier serving size, I consider the entire recipe to be about six to eight servings.
Linguine alla Romana (Linguine Roman Style)
(Yield: 4 to 6 (or about 6 to 8 to avoid leftovers) servings)
1 lb linguine (I used fettuccine because it’s what I had on hand)
1/2 lb whole milk ricotta cheese
1 stick (8 TB) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c cooking water from the linguine
1/2 c grated pecorino cheese
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bring 4 quarts of water up to a boil, then add 1 TB of salt to the boiling water. Cook the pasta to al dente according to the package directions. When you drain the pasta, reserve 1/4 c of the pasta water to add to the sauce and return the pasta to the cooking pot.
In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the ricotta cheese and butter and heat for 8 minutes (stirring constantly) until it forms a smooth, creamy sauce.
Heat the pasta over low heat, and stir in the ricotta sauce and the reserved pasta water. Stir in half the pecorino cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Transfer the pasta to a serving dish and serve with the remainder of the cheese to pass around to sprinkle on top.
Tags: Book Review, Pasta, Recipes, Ricotta Cheese, Vegetarian
Posted in Book Reviews, Recipes | 20 Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Book Review: The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.: Recently I received a copy of this book to review. With its wonderful insight and knowledge regarding health and nutrition, this book had me hooked right from the beginning. The first paragraph of the Foreword is profoundly thought-provoking; it reads in part:
Today we are faced with unprecedented challenges for the health of our bodies and of the planet. And the most powerful tool we have at our disposal to change our health, our environment, our politics, and our economics is our fork (emphasis added)…Putting six ounces of meat on our table from a commercial livestock feeding operation takes sixteen times as much petrochemical fuel and produces twenty-four times as much greenhouse emissions as growing a cup of broccoli, a cup of eggplant, a cup of cauliflower, and a cup of rice.
That right there made me want to put down my fork to think about that for a minute! While this book is focused on bone health, it’s no surprise that bone health and overall health are inextricably linked. This book is helpful no matter what your age, since an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In this book, Dr. Colbin discusses risk factors leading to bone fractures and the causes of osteoporosis, the nutrients need for bone health, and the factors that deplete calcium and other minerals. I thought it was very interesting to learn that factors such as sugar consumption, caffeine consumption, lack of (or excessive amounts of) exercise, and even consumption of some vegetables (those known as nightshade vegetables, including potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, chile peppers, and tobacco) can lead to depletion of calcium and other necessary minerals!
Dr. Colbin goes through the standard suggestions for strengthening bones (such as milk and soy consumption, bone density testing, medication, and hormone replacement therapy) and explains what works and why. It’s fascinating to learn what the most nutritious foods are for bones…and believe me, you might be surprised!
Something I’ve always thought was interesting is that many people believe eating large quantities of meat is necessary for bone health, and health in general. This book contains quotes at the beginning of each part, and at the top of Part I was the following quote, which I thought was pretty enlightening:
One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden
This book provides a fantastic explanation as to how various aspects of health, including physical (such as diet and exercise), mental, emotional, and spiritual all come together to affect our health. Through a case study, Dr. Colbin even shows how it is actually possible to regain lost bone.
The Recipes: While this book isn’t primarily a cookbook, it does contain 85 nutritious, well-rounded recipes for good health. I was surprised to see that very few of the recipes include dairy products…this really helped to dispel the idea that I had that dairy was the best source of calcium. I think this really goes to show that nutrition for good bone and general health may be different from what is expected!
There are quite a few recipes that I’m familiar with (like basic garlic greens, baked buttercup squash, simple roasted chicken, French tart with greens and leeks (this looks similar to quiche, but without milk or cream), chicken soup, and creamy polenta), but I was very excited to see so many recipes and ingredients that are new to me. There are quite a few recipes that call for Asian ingredients that I’ve never cooked with before (but am excited to try!), like agar (a flaked, colorless seaweed product), kombu (another form of seaweed), and shoyu (a sauce similar to tamari, except that it contains wheat).
Looking through the recipes, there were quite a few that I’m interested in making: stir-fried bok choy with shrimp, salmon frittata with fresh dill, portabella beef stroganoff, Mediterranean herbed chickpeas, tempeh in coconut milk curry, cilantro egg drop soup, miso soup with wild mushrooms and garlic, oat-dulse crackers, coconut cream, cashew cream, and sardine spread.
The Recipe I Made Right Away: I decided to try the sardine spread first. Let me first tell you that in general I am not a big fan of sardines. Actually, I don’t like them at all…they’re just so fishy (I know, what do I expect considering they’re fish, right?…ironically, I really enjoy most other types of fish). Also, to be 100% honest, the looks of them scare me a little…and by scare me, I mean they make me shudder just to think about them.
Anyway, I really wanted to push out of my comfort zone and give them a try because my husband loves sardines and eats them regularly. Plus, I thought that all of the other flavors in the recipe might help to mellow out the sardines’ flavor. I’m happy to say that once this recipe is made, the spread looks quite appetizing (it looks like a tuna fish and mayo salad more than anything else). Since there are quite a few other strong ingredients in this recipe (like the grated onion, lemon juice, and tahini), the sardines’ flavor is definitely mellowed (hubby said that this spread is much less fishy tasting than plain sardines). I wouldn’t say that I now love sardines, but I would say that I did enjoy eating this spread and at least I got to try something new!
Sardine Spread (Adopted From The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.)
1 can (about 4.5 oz) sardines (packed in oil or water)
1 TB grated onion
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB tahini (optional)
1 1/2 TB chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp sea salt
Pepper
About 1 TB chopped black olives (optional; this is my addition)
Crackers, for serving
Drain the sardines and transfer them to a bowl; add the onion, lemon juice, tahini, parsley, and salt and mash with a fork until blended. Serve on top of or alongside crackers, with a grinding of pepper and the olives (if using) on top.
Tags: Book Review, Recipes, Sardines
Posted in Book Reviews, Health & Wellness, Recipes | 16 Comments »
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Check out Brandy’s fantastic recipe for Pear Crisp with Vanilla Brown Butter…don’t forget to get your Thanksgiving-themed recipes ready to submit to All Through the Year Cheer later this month. There will be a great prize!
Book Review: Eat Clean Cookbook by Tosca Reno: Recently, I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Cookbook to review. The book is nicely organized by recipe type, and it even includes a chapter called “Baked Goods and Treats” (oh yes, you can eat clean and still enjoy delicious confections like tofu crème brûlée, carrot cake, chocolate walnut brownies, and rice pudding!).
This is a really gorgeous cookbook to read through, with beautiful color photos of every recipe. There is a short narration for each recipe, which is typically a personal story related to the recipe or more detailed information pertaining to certain ingredients in the recipe; I enjoy reading these anecdotes and I think they help to give a more complete view of each recipe. I love how for each recipe the prep time, cook time, and nutritional information are listed.
There is one small thing that I would change about the format of this book to improve its functionality (it’s really a very small thing!)…the ingredient amounts are listed in fractions, which are shown very small. It’s no big deal really, but when the cookbook was on the counter while I was making something, it was hard to just glance down to see the amount listed (and I have good eyesight…I don’t wear glasses or contacts). The fractions are that small that I had to stop and go in for a closer look. That being said, everything else about the layout/format of this book was completely user-friendly.
 The Eat Clean Recipes: On to my favorite part…the recipes! Many of these recipes are basic (and beginner-friendly) recipes for healthy cooking. If you already cook healthy, there will probably be several of these recipes that you are familiar with. I found that there are quite a few recipes that I make fairly regularly, such as everyday breakfast porridge (love my oats!), roasted plum tomatoes, no-cook colorful bean salad, roasted summer vegetables, homemade polenta, beef barley and vegetable soup, chickpea stew, and sautéed garlic spinach. On the other hand, if you rarely cook or are just starting to cook healthy, then each and every recipe in this book will be a lifesaver for you.
Even if you’re familiar with healthy cooking this book is still a wonderful asset. It can help you give your favorite recipes (such as vegetable lasagna, chili, fajitas, 7 layer bean dip, and brownies) a healthy makeover. There’s also a multitude of recipes that are unfamiliar, new, and exciting, such as nasi goreng, hollandse rooie kool, and Persian beef. Not to mention all the healthy ingredients that might be unfamiliar (even if you’re a healthy eater) but are definitely worth trying, like bison, wild rice or manmoomin, and kefir.
Thumbing through the cookbook, right away I knew I wanted to make a few things…lifestyle bars (more on those in a minute), sunflower seed spread, oat tea (!), Moroccan pumpkin soup, tagine beef stew, cream of wheat pudding, and hazelnut espresso cookies (these cookie actually look like almond lace cookies!). I decided to start with lifestyle bars…
And of course, since it’s less than two weeks away and I’ve got Thanksgiving on my mind, I noticed that so many of these recipes would be absolutely perfect for Thanksgiving (or any holiday) dinner. Here are just a few: breakfast corn pudding (I know it says breakfast, but it’s savory and I bet would be fabulous as part of a dinner spread!), herb and garlic roasted baby potatoes, baked deep-dish butternut squash (this is topped with a mixture of apple butter, pecans, and breadcrumbs…it looks incredible!), lemon and cinnamon sweet potatoes, and baked cranberries and apple.
 The Recipe I Made Right Away: When I was looking through this cookbook, I was immediately drawn to these “lifestyle bars” because of their interesting name. As you probably guessed, the name of these bars comes from the fact that these days everyone leads such busy lives and from time to time we all need help with meals. Instead of ordering fast food, why not have healthy fast food waiting for you in your fridge?
I love how these bars contain the components of a healthy breakfast: protein and fruit. Plus there’s even coffee in them for a little kick, and who doesn’t enjoy that with breakfast?! These bars are so delicious it’s hard to believe they’re healthy. Although their consistency isn’t chewy, the density of these bars and all the mix-ins actually reminded me of peanut fudge.
 Let me give you a little notice though, these bars are very calorie dense. Tosca recommends getting 9 bars out of this recipe, each with 419 calories (and be careful if you’re watching your calories because the actual portion size for the 419 calorie bar isn’t nearly as large as it appears in the cookbook’s photo). I decided to cut this recipe into 16 bars, each bar with slightly over 200 calories. That way, I figured I could use these bars as a snack when I need a little pick me up, or I could incorporate them into a healthy breakfast by pairing them with yogurt or cottage cheese and a piece of fresh fruit.
I made a few changes to the original recipe (I noted my changes below) just to utilize ingredients that I already had on hand. Despite all the changes I made, I have to say that this is a very forgiving recipe…the bars came out perfect!
In the photo in the book, these bars were wrapped so beautifully in waxed paper and twine…since the holidays are nearly here I thought waxed paper and ribbon would be festive and pretty!
 Lifestyle Bars (From Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Cookbook)
(Yield: 9 bars)
½ c raw, unsalted slivered almonds (I used sunflower seeds)
½ c pecans (I used walnuts)
¼ c coconut butter, or 1 TB butter + 1 TB olive oil (I used coconut butter)
½ c natural almond butter
2 TB unsulfured blackstrap molasses
1 tsp honey
Pinch sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 TB instant coffee granules
¼ c ground sesame seeds (I used golden flaxseed meal)
½ c golden goji berries (I used a mix of dried cranberries and sultanas)
½ c chopped dried apple slices
8 by 4-inch baking pan (about the size of a bread loaf pan)
Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the almonds and pecans on the sheet in an even layer. Toast the nuts in the oven until just golden (about 8 minutes), stirring halfway through. Allow them to cool slightly, then coarsely chop the nuts either by hand or in a food processor. (Instead of toasting the nuts in the oven you can do it in a dry pan on the stovetop.)
In a mixing bowl, combine the coconut butter, almond butter, molasses, honey and salt. Heating this mixture slightly (either over a double boiler or in the microwave) helps to combine everything. Stir in the vanilla and coffee granules, then stir in the nuts, ground sesame seeds, goji berries, and chopped apple.
Press this mixture into an 8 by 4-inch baking pan and refrigerate until set. Cut into bars, wrap in waxed or parchment paper, and store in the fridge.
Tags: Book Review, Nuts, Recipes
Posted in Book Reviews, Health & Wellness, Recipes | 32 Comments »
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