A Cookie Lover's Dream

The "Chewy Macadamia Nut Biscuits" from the Healing Foods cookbook is simply beyond delicious! The unique combination of dates, coconut, and macadamia transforms this cookie into a dream of a dessert! When my kiddoes finally retire for the night, I relax with some cookies, a piping hot peppermint tea, and my favorite magazine, ahhhh....

For those of you who don't own this cookbook, here's the recipe (with permission from author):

4 cups almond flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup macadamias - chopped roughly (yeh... took forever till I got to the nut store... but well worth it)

1 cup dates - chopped roughly

1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 300F. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the almond flour with the baking soda. In another bowl, whisk the egg with the vanilla extract and honey. Combine with the almond flour and add the macadamias, dates, and coconut. With moist hands shape the dough into ping-pong size size balls and flatten when placing onto the lined baking tray, leaving enough room for expansion. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the biscuits have turned a golden brown color. Cool and store in an airtight jar.

P.S. I'm not having any luck with making cocoa butter ice cream. I find that the taste is just too profound for ice cream. I'd love to hear your ideas...

Hooked on Cocoa Butter!

I'm hooked on Cocoa Butter! Ever since my tastebuds experienced this marvelous taste, I just won't settle for any less! This weekend I made the cocoa butter cupcakes and the cocoa butter frosting from the recipes I've posted below. The results were beyond delicious! Be creative with the frosting - if you have a juicer, juice some beets and add it to the frosting for a deep pink color. WHAT'S NEXT? Cocoa Butter Ice Cream! Mmmm... My mouth is watering!

How to make chicken taste really good...

Ever since I started making the bbq sauce from the "Grain Free Gourmet" cookbook, my chicken never tasted this good! In fact, my family never quite cared for chicken. Flipping through cookbooks for ideas, I was always disappointed with the traditional brown sugar & ketchup combination. Fortunately, I discovered this sauce, and we now enjoy chicken to the very bone...

2/3 cup homemade Tomato Paste (tomato juice cooked for a long time until it becomes a thick paste, if lazy, see below)

2/3 cup White Vinegar

1/2 cup Honey

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (I use Prima)

2 Garlic cloves, pressed

1/4 tsp Paprika or Cayenne Pepper

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until combined.

2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Smear the chicken generously with sauce. Bake at 375F for 2 hrs covered, and 25 minutes uncovered.
4. Any remaining sauce, pour into 4 oz. cups with lids and store in the freezer. When using sauce from freezer, there is no need to thaw, since it stays "sauce-like" in the freezer.

*For those of you turned off by the tomato paste prep, I have a solution for you! You can use the Lusardi's Marinara Sauce instead, and skip the last three ingredients.

*I triple this recipe and it lasts me for quite a while. When I'm down to one container I know that I gotta "plant" some more seeds to my freezer garden : )