frozen yogurt tarts

I've been on a bit of a tarts kick as of late.  Can you tell?  I really wanted a healthier version, both for me, and for an easy snack for the kids.  These tarts are MUCH healthier than my previous recipe, and are mini sized (perfect for snacking!).

I got the recipe for the crust from Deliciously Ella.  I love her!  She's a super cute healthy girl from London.  A bit hippy for me sometimes, but great for easy, filling, low sugar, veggie recipes.  I had to alter her tart crust recipe a bit to suit me (and to account for the US measurements).

These tarts take about 45 minutes to make (plus freezing time), but you can make them the night or morning before you want them so easily.

These tart crusts only use 4 ingredients.  So simple.  Almonds, dates, coconut oil, and water.  That's it.  Really.  I like mine a little coarse, but you can grind them finer if you like.  I find the easiest way to make these is to cut the dates into small pieces and soak them in a small bowl with the water and (melted) coconut oil until they have softened a bit.

While the dates are soaking pulse the almonds in a food processor until fine.  Pour the almond pieces out into a medium sized bowl.  Now pulse the dates in the water and coconut oil until there are no remaining chunks.  Pour this out into the bowl with the almonds and stir together with a wooden spoon.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and lightly grease a mini muffin tin.

Ball up pieces the size of half your thumb (as a rough estimate) and press them down in each mini muffin mold, pushing the crust out gently up near the tops of the mold.  I ended up with about 21 tarts.  Bake for 15 minutes, then move and let sit about 10 minutes.  Remove carefully and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

I know the darker than average crust color might concern some of you, but almonds and dates are dark before baked.  Don't worry.  Nothing is burned.

Place the tarts on a large plate or tray to prep for the freezer.

I had the PERFECT amount of yogurt in one container to exactly fill all my tarts.  Just spoon a dollop into the center of each tart.

Place the tarts in the freezer until the yogurt has firmed.  Freezing the tarts makes them so refreshing on a hot day, and there's WAY less mess for the kiddos!

Look at how pretty and simple these are.  You could eat them like this.  Or...

...you could spoon a nice dollop of lite cool whip on top of each tart.  Really, it makes all the difference in the world.  Now you have a still pretty healthy dessert that is great for hot days, good for kids, not messy, and perfectly bite sized.

Not enough reason to make these?  Well, they are also super easy to make, required very few ingredients, can be made in advance  Shall I go on?

In short these tarts are sweet, tart, nutty, chewy, refreshing, and creamy.  What's not to love?

You could even go one step further in telling yourself to make these by remembering that the ingredients include whole almonds and yogurt.  Very good sources of protein you know.

And cool whip not included, I happened to have all the other ingredients necessary already in stock.

frozen yogurt tarts
makes 20-22 mini muffin sized tarts

ingredients:

• 7 ounces of whole almonds
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 10 medjool dates
• 1 container of strawberry yogurt (I used yoplait original)
• lite cool whip

directions:

1. Cut the dates into small pieces and place into a small bowl to soften with the coconut oil and the water.  While they soak grind the almonds in a food processor (coarse or fine, up to you).  Pour the ground almonds out into a medium bowl.
2. Pour the date mixture into the food processor and puree.  Pour the mix out into the almond bowl and stir to combine with a wooden spoon.
3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and oil a mini muffin tin (24 muffin capacity).
4. Grab crust pieces about half the size of your thumb and gently push into the base of each mini mold, then push up the sides evenly.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, or until edges have darkened a bit.
6. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before removing from the mold and letting cool completely on wire racks.
7. Place crusts on a large plate or tray and gently spoon strawberry yogurt into the center of each tart.  Freeze the tarts.  
8. Remove from the freeze and top each tart with a large dollop of lite cool whip.  Serve.

The crust recipe is a lightly edited version from Deliciously Ella.

pea-sto pasta

You ever have one of those days where it seems like everyone in the house is sick, or has crazy busy schedules, and you haven't been to the grocery store in what seems like a month?  Welcome to the last month at our house.

Finally I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Liam is the only left with a light cough, Christmas chaos is far behind, and I finally have time to grocery shop.

In the meantime I can make pea-sto pasta.  I've been making it for ages, but I really appreciate it now.  Quick, hearty, comforting, with pretty healthy and sparse ingredients.  Yes please!

This is one of those recipes that I've been making for years, but somehow totally forgot about when it came to blogging. Its great.  The ingredient list is minimal, the pea-sto sauce can be made quickly in a blender while the pasta is cooking,

This is total comfort food.  Warm, creamy, filling, and you can get your veggies and protein all in one dish.  Bonus, the kids love it.  I'm pretty sure that the brighter color a food is, the more the kids will like it.

I like to use my baby bullet blender for this because it is the PERFECT size.  You can use any blender or food processor, I just don't want like to use one that's too big because I feel like I lose too much sauce even if I use a spatula to scoop out as much as I can.

You might wonder (or not) why I use garlic powder in this recipe instead of garlic cloves.  The real garlic would be very strong raw, and one of the best parts about this recipe is how quick it is to make.  I didn't want to spend so much extra time roasting or sauteing garlic.

I completely forgot to set out the pine nuts in the above photo, but not counting the pasta, this is all you need.  Really.

I like to use frozen peas because they taste the freshest.  Don't try to blend them still frozen.  Just don't.  Microwave them for about 2 minutes until warm,   Add the peas, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, pepper, and basil to the blender (food processor, etc.) and blend.  I like mine a bit chunky, but feel free to completely puree.

My favorite three things about this recipe are so random:

1. perfect if you're craving pesto, but are a bit short of basil and want to fill the sauce out a bit more.
2. you can always prep the sauce ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate it separately to have instantly.
3. the creamy sweet texture from the peas makes this dish feel so fatty and decadent without adding a million calories.

The pea-sto sauce can also be used as a good sauce over chicken, or you can bake and cut up a chicken breast and mix it in with this pasta.  I am SUCH a fan of a balanced (ish, at least) meal you can eat out of a bowl.  I love mixing things together!

Pea-sto pasta
2 large servings
total time: 15 minutes

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, warmed
• 1 large handful basil
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp parmesan
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz. dry pasta

directions:

1. Boil a pot of water and add the pasta. Cook al dente.  Drain.  Set aside.
2. Start making the sauce as soon as you add the pasta to the pot.  Toss the rest of the ingredients (peas, basil, pepper, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts, and olive oil) into a small blender or food processor.  Stop when your sauce is a chunky or pureed as you prefer.  If you want to thin the sauce out a bit add a bit of water or olive oil (1/2 tbsp at a time).  Scoop out the sauce and add it to the drained pasta.  Enjoy!

almond milk

Liam loooves smoothies.  Jack thinks he's a big kid so he wants to eat everything Liam does.  For most foods this is no big deal, but it became a problem for smoothies.  I put milk in Liam's smoothies instead of juice (to thin it out), but Jack isn't old enough to drink cow's milk for another few months.

The solution?  ALMOND MILK!

But... I didn't have any.  So I decided to make some.  As usual, I was too lazy to take both kids to the store (other parents should understand this!), but I checked my freezer and found a bag of almonds.  Woohoo.

This actually turned out better than I was hoping, because in addition to the almond milk, which turned out great, I now also have several cups of almond meal to bake with.  Score.

This was actually really easy, messy too, but clean up was really quick so no biggie.  And I ended up with half a pitcher full of almond milk.

Start out by soaking two cups of almonds overnight in a bowl of water on the counter.  Make sure to add enough water because the almonds will swell.  Don't freak out when the water changed color.  It will darken and maybe turn slightly cloudy.

Dump the water out and add the almonds plus four cups of fresh water to the blender and turn on high for 3-5 minutes.  I know that sounds like a long time but think about it.  You're pureeing nuts.

When the almond mixture looks smooth turn off the blender.  Get out a pitcher, or other container for your milk. Over the top put a sieve and a square of cheesecloth.

Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth.  Do this in multiple small batches so over don't overload your sieve or the cheesecloth.

Let the liquid drip down into the pitcher.

When all the liquid has come out on its own squeeze the cheesecloth and twist it to release all the available milk.

The solid almond meal left in the cheesecloth looks like this.

Get a lipped baking sheet covered in parchment paper to start offloading the almond meal.

When there is only a tiny bit of almond mixture left in the blender add half a cup of water and blend for a minute.  Pour it into the cheesecloth.

The finished product.  See what I mean though?  Messy.  All it took was two swipes of a sponge though and the counter was shiny clean again.

I ended up with about two cups of almond meal.  Spread this out on the baking sheet and bake until it dries out.  Store it in an airtight container in the fridge.  Or toss it if you don't want to bother with it.

The whole product.

The almond meal fresh from the oven.

This is my super simple smoothie that both boys can enjoy.Just strawberries, blueberries,and almond milk.

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almond milk

by Liesl July-28-2014

Fresh almond milk with almond meal by-product

Ingredients

• 2 cups almonds
• 4-5 cups water

Instructions

1. The night before put 2 cups of almonds in a large bowl on the counter covered in plenty of water. The almonds will plump up and they need to be covered completely. The water will darken and possibly cloud the next morning.2. Dump out the water and put the almonds plus 4 cups of clean water into the blender and blend on high for 3-5 minutes until there are no noticeable pieces.3. Get out a large pitcher and cover it with a sieve with a large square of cheesecloth over top. Pour the almond mixture into the cheesecloth in small amounts and let it drip down into the pitcher. Once the liquid has drained on its own squeeze and twist the cheesecloth to get all the available liquid out. The leftover solids are almond meal. Dump them out onto a lipped baking pan with parchment paper. Continue to pour the mixture into the cheesecloth until there is only a tiny amount left in the blender. Add half a cup of water and blend for a minute. Pour into the cheesecloth. You now have almond milk! The almond meal on the baking pan should be spread out and baked at 350 for 20-30 minutes until it dries out. Then store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Details

Prep time: 8 hour Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 8 hour 15 mins Yield: 1/2 a large pitcher

lazy pasta

This pasta is great when you're starving and want to eat something healthy enough you won't massively regret later.  This is fast and has veggie and protein (peas and pine nuts), and is a much better quicker option than say, a bag of chips, or some other quick fix meal that will only make you feel full for a few minutes tops.  This will keep you full, tastes yummy, and generally I have all the ingredients for this in my pantry at all times.

Although it isn't necessary, if you want to be super proud of yourself you can make this dish with whole wheat pasta.  I don't have a choice, Jeff gets miffed if I try to buy non-whole wheat pasta.  It's all good though, I like 'em both.

It works best if you mix everything together in the pasta pot once you have drained your pasta.

 Frozen peas are such a great buy.  They're cheap, fresh, and easy to add to any dish for extra flavor, nutrients, and color.  Add them to the pasta two minutes before you take it off the heat to drain and they defrost quickly without turning to mush.

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lazy pasta

by Liesl June-20-2014

A quick, easy, yummy and healthy enough pasta dish. My go-to comfort food dish made just with pantry staples.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces whole wheat shell pasta
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp parmesan
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp basil
• 2 tsp garlic

Instructions

1. Boil a small pot of water, then simmer and add the pasta. Cook until al dente, then add the peas. 2. Drain pasta and peas and put back into the pot (off the heat) 3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and evenly distribute. I use dried basil and powdered garlic because this is a quick meal, able to be made with everyday ingredients. I always keep dried seasonings around for dished like this.

Details

Prep time: 2 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 12 mins Yield: 2 bowls