Saturday, March 24, 2012

Awesome Cookies

These taste like a combination of a chocolate chip cookie and a macaroon.  I don't usually like to share recipes with such specialty ingredients but it is totally worth buying the coconut oil and coconut flour for this one.  I think these are some of the best cookies I have ever made and the whole family agrees.  Hope you try them and enjoy them as much as we do.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 375.

1/2 cup coconut oil, I used virgin which smells slightly coconutty
2/3 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all in stand mixer or bowl with hand mixer till smooth and creamy.

Add 2 eggs and beat again till smooth.

Add in:
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup quick or old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup coconut flour

Mix on low till thoroughly combined, won't be smooth due to oats.

Stir in 1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut and 1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, I used a silicone lined pan.  Bake each tray for 10 minutes and let cool on pan a minute or two to firm up a bit.  Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before storing airtight.

Hope you like them!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sweet potato, Lentil and Kale Veggie Burgers w/Curried Yogurt Sauce

The Burgers:

3/4 Green Lentils
1 bunch of kale (I used about 1/3 bag of trader joes prewashed and cut kale) - Remove stems
1 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 medium onion diced
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
(recipes says pinch of cayenne here too, but my curry powder was plenty spicy enough without this)
3 garlic cloves
2 eggs beaten
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
squeeze of lime juice (I took 1/4 of a fresh lime and hand squeezed it into the mix and that was fine)
3/4 bread crumbs
1/4 almond flour or meal (since we can't have nuts in our house I used wheat germ and it was a great substitute)

Preheat oven to 375.

Okay, the recipe has you using dried lentils for this, but I had a package of precooked lentils and it was fine for this.. I refuse to use dried beans whenever possible! Anyway, they also have you steaming the sweet potato and kale separately, but I found that if I put the sweet potato on the bottom of a steamer and the kale on top, and steamed it for about 8 minutes they both came out fine...

While the things are steaming, chop up the onion and garlic and sautee in olive oil with the spices until the onion is translucent. When the kale is done add that to the onion and sautee for about 2 minutes. Mash the lentils and sweet potato together with a potato masher, add the onion and kale mixture. Stir in the eggs, cilantro, salt, and lime juice. Fold in the bread crumbs and wheat germ or almond meal. Shape into patties (should make 5 or 6). Fry in olive oil until browned on each side, if your fry pan is oven safe put it in the oven and bake for 12 minutes.. or if you're like me and don't have a good fry pan that is oven safe, put them on a cookie sheet instead.

Yogurt sauce:

1 cup greek plain yogurt
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp coriander (I only had seeds so I didn't add this and it was just fine without it)
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper (again, didn't want it too spicy so didn't add this either)
Drizzle of honey (I added more than a drizzle, but I like honey in yogurt)

Mix all the ingredients and serve on top of burgers.