Really? Almocot bars? Should I just give up on naming food?  Any creative food names I’ve ever had on this blog were either thought of by Emily (my neighbor), or Erica (my 9 year old).  When I name things, you’ll know.  Cause I’ll have words like, “Almocots”.

Anyway- Who cares, right? These Apricot Bars are tasty! They are super sweet though.  Definitely a hiking treat, when you’ll have time to burn off some of the glucose here.

One of my all time favorite books is The World’s Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan. There is almost 900 pages of whole foods in every food category- fruits, veggies, grains, meats, beans, and herbs.  Each food has 3-5 pages with descriptions of the food, storage ideas, the health benefits, and recipe ideas for each.  Although I wouldn’t consider it a cookbook, I use it in cooking a lot!!

So, this recipe came under the section for Apricots.  My mom gave us a whole box of apricots, and I’m trying my hand at drying them in the sun.

So here it is:

Apricot Snack Bars

• 1/2 cup cream honey (I used cinnamon flavored cream honey)
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract

Mix altogether in bowl with a spoon.  Then stir in (you may have to use your hand)

• 1 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup granola
• 1/2 cup chopped or sliced almonds

Mix all ingredients.  Press into loaf pan and chill in the fridge. (Gluten free, but not vegan unless you used something besides honey)

The almond extract really makes these things yummy. The kids ate them, but all I got was a token, “They’re not bad.”  I guess that’s better than, “They’re not good,” right?

I was checking my archives, and couldn’t believe I didn’t have any posts about the health benefits of apricots!

• Rich in beta caroten and beta cryptoxanthin (Precursors to Vitamin A)
• Only 17 calories per apricot!
• Dried apricots are high in Magnesium!!

Boy has this blog come a long way!  My first attempt at frozen bananas was a disaster!  And the picture was even worse!

Didn’t I know anything about cameras?? How embarrassing!  Anyway- This time was much better!

One tip on dipping bananas, whether you dip in yogurt or chocolate, is to freeze the bananas first.  So we punctured half a banana with a stick, layed them on wax paper and put in freezer for an hour or two.

Then, we dipped each frozen banana either in yogurt or semi sweet melted chocolate.

Then, we rolled in a topping of our choice and froze again.

Toppings for our frozen bananas were:

• sliced almonds
• chopped pecans
• Flax meal
• sprinkles
• unsweetened coconut
• Chopped walnuts

Other topping ideas that kids might like on their frozen bananas

• Granola (especially on the yogurt one)
• Peanut butter or almond butter
• Crushed graham crackers
• Crushed peanuts

Speaking of the Banana Stand, does anyone here miss Arrested Development?  We loved that show!

There just isn’t any reason to buy popsicles full of sugar and High fructose corn syrup, when they are so easy to make yourselves.  Last week’s Tofu Chocolate popsicle was such a hit, we decided to make others.

We blended some

• vanilla yogurt (you can use plain too),
• apricot jam. (No sugar added)

-in the food processor, and filled the popsicle mold.

These froze in less than 3 hours. It could have been sooner, but that is when we checked on them.

Tip for getting your popsicles to release from the mold, is to run the mold under water for just a second.  Usually, they will pop right out after that.

Exciting news: Anni Daulter, (who I spoke of last week) will have an entire cookbook coming out next year with ALL popsicles!

Other popsicles recipes:

• Chocolate tofu pops
• Get your juice on
• Fruit puree popsicles

Monday nights around our house is our dessert night.  This last week we made Dessert Taco’s.  That’s what my kids call them. But simply dessert tacos for us is Crepes and fruit. I love Crepes because you can literally pack them full of good stuff like strawberries and blueberries like we’ve done.  Warning… these are messy to eat.  So let your kids go outside with them and drip yogurt and strawberries all over themselves, and then hose them down.

Our Basic Crepe recipe is:

• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water (or a little  more until it’s a consistency you like)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 TBL melted canola oil
• 1 cup whole wheat flour

Pour 1/3 cup of batter onto skillet and cook until both sides are browned and middle is cooked through.

For the filling we used plain yogurt and berries

So enjoy this beautiful summer day, and hurry with the berries, they are already starting to go up in price around here

You know what people are saying don’t you?  That vlogging is the new thing!  (Video Blogging).  I never was much interested in it, until I got this email from 45pounds.com, .

“We want video clips of kids, with or without parents, making meals from our meal plans. If they choose to use the clips, they pay $50.

Instructions: Just pick a meal or two, tell us in advance so we don’t make one somebody else already made. Pretend it’s like a cooking show – just lay out the ingredients and show how to prepare the meal. The web guys also said "make it fun" – whatever that means… Just keep shooting, don’t worry about any mistakes since we have a team that will do all of the editing. You can use any of the meals from the plan we sent (you don’t have to be a member), or pick one from this: http://www.45pounds.com/MenuPick

Just mail the finished product to the address below. If the editors want to use it, they will send you a check for $50. That’s about it. Let me know if you have any questions. Mark Daniel 6018 Highway 206 Cisco, TX 76437 “

Sounds fun, right? Here is Erica’s attempt at making apple dessert.  And for the record, she really loved the dessert.  I told her she could keep the $50 if they use her video.. She’s already spent it in her head!!

Obviously, we are totally new at the video blog/ cooking show thing.  But if you like cooking videos, you must check out Kelly’s blog, Two Kids Cooking, where she has ton’s of video’s of her kids – Alex and Sophia cooking!!  Not only does she have great video’s, if you sign up for her newsletter, she’ll send you tips for having FUN while cooking with kids. So, check her out.

Last week, reader Kendra asked for suggestions on getting her kids to eat beans!  What a great idea for some posts.  So this week is BEAN WEEK! I’ve got 5 ways to add more beans into your families diet.  Today will be #1.

First, why more beans?

• Beans are healthy! In fact, Joel Fuhrman recommends a full cup of beans PER DAY!
• Beans are cheap!  Food is not cheap, but dry beans can help you get control over your food budget.
• Beans last a very long time!  Besides having 50lbs of oats, we probably have 150 lbs of different dried beans.

So, Tip #1 Add them to baked goods

Are you still substituting applesauce for the fat in your baked goods?  I think bean puree turns out a better result.

The Journal of the ADA reports when pureed cannellini beans were substituted for shortening in Brownies for 25% and 50% of the fat, no difference was detected. (You can read the abstract here) “Yielding an acceptable and more nutritious product”.

So, while this practice is best when you replace 50% of the fat in cake like baked goods, we replaced 75% of the fat in a cookie (because I love cookies!).  They also turned out pretty good.  They were eaten at least. 

First, I used

• 1 can of white beans (I used Great Northern Beans).
• Placed them in a food processor (remember, mine is just a $25 Cusinart from Costco)
• Blended until smooth (I did not add any water).  It turned out the consistency of shortening

Then, I used the puree in this cookie recipe, replacing 75% of the fat for white beans.  So, the original recipe used 1 cup of butter.  I used 1/4 cup of butter and 3/4 cup of the white beans.

Printable recipe

White Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies

• · ¾ Cup Pureed White beans
• 1/4 cup butter
• · 1 Cup brown sugar
• · 1 Cup white sugar
• · 2 Eggs
• · 1 tsp vanilla
• · 1 cup whole wheat flour
• · 1 ¼ cup White flour
• · 1 TBL baking soda
• · 1 tsp baking powder
• · 2 ½ cup Ground oat flour (put regular oats in blender or food processor until the consistency of flour)
• · Chocolate chips

Mix pureed beans, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Mix dry ingredients together. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix softly with wooden spoon just until all flour is mixed in.

Drop by TBL onto cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 6 minutes.

Makes 3 Dozen cookies

So come back tomorrow for Tip #2 for getting kids to eat their beans!

• Day 1: Pureed Beans in Baked goods
• Day 2: Bean Dip
• Day 3: Chick-En nuggets, Falafel
• Day 4: Roast them!
• Day 5: Mixing them in

If you noticed on my menu for the week I posted, Banana Roll-ups as a snack.  I tried it recently, after not making it for a long while.   Wade actually was the biggest fan.

The recipe:

• 4 oz light cream cheese
• 1 tsp agave nectar (or honey)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 banana
• 2 whole wheat tortillas 

Mix cream cheese, honey, and cinnamon in small bowl. Spread on tortilla. Slice bananas and add to top. Roll up.  Grill slightly on hot skillet till barely browned.

(Holding it together with a corn cob thingy)

It definitely tastes like dessert.  All warm and crispy, and sweet

On Monday nights, we indulge.  It’s dessert night at our house, following a one hour scripture lesson by my 9 year old.  Literally an hour!  If I were in charge of the lesson, it would be a 3 minute discussion about a scripture story, but Erica loves the bossy side of teaching.  She insists each week to being in charge. And she is good at being bossy. No one can talk unless she calls on you.  So as we patiently wait for her lesson to conclude, and our thoughts are on the dessert that awaits us.

And hooray for spring, because it’s STRAWBERRY SEASON!!

Did you know that:

• 1 cup of strawberries has 100% of the daily value for Vitamin C!!

And, so I can kill 2 birds with one stone (study for my Nutrition test next week, AND make a blog post out of it)… Here is what you should know about Vitamin C

• Vitamin C is water soluble (which means we need to eat it everyday because we can’t store it)
• Vitamin C has antioxidant properties (meaning it helps to stabilize free radicals.. which ages you)
• It regenerates oxidized vitamin E
• It reduces formations of nitroasmines in stomach
• Assists with collagen synthesis
• Enhances immune function
• Assists in the synthesis of hormones, neurotransmitters, and DNA
• Enhances iron absorption
• Assists with carnitine synthesis (fat metabolism)
• A deficiency in Vitamin C causes scurvy (bleeding gums, loose teeth, weakness, hemorrhaging of hair follicles, poor wound healing, swollen ankles, diarrhea, bone pain and fractures, depression, and anemia…very rare in developed countries.. although there was a case of a college student in the US getting scurvy!)
• Also known as ascorbic acid.
• Has been shown to have preventative effects in Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, cataracts, gout, hypertension, asthma.
• Best food sources: Fruits and vegetables.

Too much information?  I know, and there are about 15 vitamins or minerals I need to know all that information for!… I’m making flash cards to memorize it all.

So clearly, as the picture indicates, our dessert on Monday was strawberry shortcakes.  My kids LOVE these.  We use angel food cake cups because they are lower in sugar than pound cakes or cups.  We pile on the strawberries, and we don’t have to worry about their vitamin C intake for the day!

Post note:  I need to apologize that I am not responding to your emails promptly.  For the next four weeks, (or 9 years) things are a little hectic.  So I will respond… just not right away)

Did I mention only 1 cup of strawberries has

49 calories, 1 gram protein, 12 grams carbs, 149% or 89.4 mg of Vitamin C, 3 grams fiber, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol

Related Posts:

• Eat the rainbow- starting with red
• What about strawberries
• Fruit Roll ups

My kids have never had coconut macaroons, and I loved them as a child.  So, I found this awesome recipe (one of the few without sweetened condensed milk).  The only thing this one (from Alton Brown) had was:

• egg whites, (totally healthy and good for you.  4 egg whites has 16 grams of protein)
• a little sugar, (this just makes it taste good)
• some coconut,  (also a power food!)

They turned out great!  I ate three. My husband had several.  But my kids, the little stinkers, weren’t exactly fans.  My husband and I were both shocked they didn’t like them.  However, I should have known. They have never liked coconut.  I had hoped these cookies would change their mind.

They were easy to make:  Coconut Macaroon Recipe (Food Network)

I whipped the egg whites until stiff

Slowly added sugar.  Then folded in the coconut and salt.  I actually added a touch of flour (because we are at high altitude and I always add flour to stuff.

Then we scooped onto parchment paper.

After they were cooked, I put some almonds on top, so they would be like little bird eggs.

Like I said,  not a hit with the kids! But soooo delicious!

Perfect nesting place for the wounded bird we found in our garage last summer.

I have a great opportunity for you. Pleasant Grove High School (in Utah County) entered a video contest to win $3000 for their Drama Department. And you know how our schools need money, right? All you have to do is vote for them! It will just take a second, and you can vote every day!! Go vote! Please vote! Save Drama!

Other coconut posts:

• Scientific Investigation

If you change anything in my house and make it sweet, chances are, 80% of us will like it.  True for sweet mashed potatoes. We already LOVE mashed potatoes.. so sweet mashed potatoes were great.  

View Full Album

I used three sweet potatoes (not the yam variety). Chopped and boiled.  An actual recipe can be found here.

The final product was a coconutty, mashed potatoey sweet treat.  Perfect with BBQ chicken.

So, are there any health benefits to adding the coconut milk? Actually, YES! Coconut milk has been shown as containing Lauric Acid (which has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal properties.  It can help boost the immune system.. a definite bonus coming into flu and cold season.