Lately I have watched the show “Mad Men” on Netflix–have you seen it? It is set back in the 1960′s and they really try to show  a housewife then compared to now. I think this is a recipe perfect for a housewife set back in time–or moms who like to make it all from scratch!  When I made this fruit leather I did not realize it would take far longer to cook than the original recipe I found at Skinnymom.com . Well, they called it fruit rolls–I made mine thicker. I also thought the 3/4 cup of sugar was a ridiculous amount to add to dried fruit–not such a great after school snack if you ask me. So–I set out to try to make it sans sugar. That, my friends, is why it took me so long. I felt like a real 1960′s housewife working on a snack item for about 6 hours–so if you are short on time and do not mind the sugar SURGE for the kids you can of course add back in the sugar.

However, despite the long cooking time, this was so easy to prepare. You can turn on the fruit to boil down and start your daily chores of vacuuming, dusting, waxing, polishing, laundry, bathroom and bedroom cleaning. By the time your afternoon chores roll around you will be taking the fruit leather out of the oven and cooling it in front of the open window while changing into your dinner attire and wait for your husband to come home</sarcasm>. Typing that out and actually picturing it gave me an eye twitch.

Fruit Leather (made with love,patience and fruit)

These are perfect--see why I did not add any sugar?

Step One: Find Lonely and forgotten fruits. I love the shelf in the back at our market–we can get discounted fruit that really is not presentable but are great to use in cooking. Yup–organic fruits marked down to pennies a pound. PENNIES A POUND MOMS!! 

YUM! Fruit Soup!

Step Two: Add the fruits of choice to a large pot set on medium heat. I added bananas, kiwi, apple (skin on), mango, and about 1/4c high Pulp orange juice. 

cauldron burn and cauldron bubble

Step Three: Cook until it is reduced by about 2/3rd. It took me about 2 hours to get it to cook down to a little under half and I should have cooked it longer. The colors will really deepen while it cooks and  you will need to scrape down the sides of the pan as it reduces. It smelled so delicious–warm and fruity like a fall day in the apple orchards. Set oven to 250 degrees F.

The original recipe called for parchment paper. I keep forgetting I am Martha Stewart when I am at the market and do not buy any.  I need to add a reminder to my smart phone–I wonder if there is a Martha Stewart app for that.

Set it and Forget it!

Step Four: Spread fruit evenly and thinly in the backing pan–use caution because it is HOT! In this picture you can see how I spread my fruit a bit uneven and it was a little too thick. So–you do it right–learn from my errors.  Bake for about 4 hours depending on your oven and the thickness of the fruit. When it looks like leather then remove it from the oven and flip the fruit over–it will be MUCH smaller. Place back in the oven and shut it off. 

The Amazing Cooling of the Fruit Strips

Step Five: Once the fruit has cooled to the touch remove from oven and cut into shapes, strips, words. This is a fun idea so be creative! Sharp cookie cutters would also be fun!  Let them air dry and then store in a cool dry place in plastic bags. I made sure to squeeze all the air out of the bag and sealed them and just kept mine in the fridge. 

Making Fruit Leather tells the kids you love them.

Other Good Ideas: The fruit mixture here can be stored in the fridge for about a week.
-Use this to replace fats in baking recipes.
-Swirl some into yogurt for a smoothie tasting treat for the kids.
-Stir a bit into our granola recipe in Squeaky Gourmet in place of half of the juice.

Please check out our book and our reviews for more information about Squeaky Gourmet and the recipes you can prepare for your family with just a little help from us!

So–let’s get on with it, shall we?

What the Fudge
1 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 cup local honey*
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1 cup organic cocoa powder

Step 1: Heat the honey on medium heat for about 5 minutes then add peanut butter and mix in really well.  You can see in the first image here it is still separate, the honey and peanut butter are just swirling around each other not totally in love as of yet. So–keep mixing till it looks like the next image.

See how it is creamy and thick and rich looking in this second image–make it look like this.  This is the foundation of the fudge and making sure you cook it while doing this and stirring it until it is emulsified will give you that chewy texture that feels so good in your mouth!

Step 2: While still cooking stir in the cocoa powder until completely blended.  It looks good, doesn’t it? Well, do not sample it, it is HOT!

Step 3: Remove from heat and stir in the seeds–you have to fold them in really as mixing is very difficult to do at this point.  Once again, I want to remind you that this is hot…hot hot hot. (OK so I burned myself trying it, can you tell?) Press this seed mixture into a lightly greased pan and slice up while still warm into 1″ cubes. This really should be step 4 but I did not get a picture–you know, because I burned myself and was all preoccupied.

Other good ideas:

–Add some dried fruits like cherries
–Add in different seeds like sesame or some chopped nuts

The Superbowl is creeping up on us real fast so I tried to steer my thoughts to making something party worthy.  Well I ended up eating this for my lunch for a couple of days so…so much for the party but it sure killed a huge craving for nachos I’d been having since I saw a monstrous plate of them at Margaritaville in Las Vegas.  So enough on the cravings and on to the deliciousness.  I love beans.  We eat them several times a week around my house.  I usually make a huge pot from the dry stage but sometimes I just used canned. Even better if I can find ones that don’t have anything added to them.  So this is a Really quick recipe that is truly yummy and worthy of your bestest of buddies.

Creamy Bean Dip
Serves 4 (or 2 if it’s your lunch)

1 can refried beans – you can get vegetarian, no fat, regular…whichever you like

1 ripe avocado

½ c salsa

½ t garlic power

2 T lime juice

No fat greek yogurt for garnish- you can omit

Salt to taste- please taste to make sure you get enough

In a medium bowl, scoop out the avocado and mash really well with a fork.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix really well.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then mix some more.  At this point I heated the dip in the microwave, topped with some yogurt, finely sliced scallions and some really HOT salsa.  But if you like, you can add some cheese, then melt it all in the microwave, then garnish as mentioned above.  Enjoy!

Some other great ideas…

Chopped tomatoes, lots of diced scallions, make your own tortilla chips

In the organic whole food section of the store I purchased dates, almonds, dried coconut, dried cranberries, and more gluten free oats. At home I knew I had this protein powder in the pantry that was really unfriendly in most of the recipes I had tried with it. I guess I am not a banana creme lover after all–don’t tell the monkeys.

So, back at home I go–ingredients in the car and ideas in my head. First I knew I wanted to soak the almonds, oats and dates. The oats to remove some sort of acid a friendly blogger mentioned to me–what acid it was–no idea (details escape my ADHD brain). Perhaps she will be kind enough to chime in to remind me! I had to soak the dates to make them easier to use as a paste and the almonds were to be soaked to make them less flavorful–ok, just kidding, I soaked the nuts because it is the thing to do! ( I forgot why)

I am super glad I did soak all of them because the results were a benefit to the end results. The oats with the dates made a fantastic paste that just blended so well together. The soaked almonds added a different texture to the end result that made it feel more earth like and natural, more wholesome. I liked it! I soaked them all for 30 minutes, however, the dates were soaked in hot water, nuts and oats in cold water.

After the soaking and draining, I removed the pits from the dates and added those along with the soaked oats to the hand blender blender. (Dear Santa if you can see this, please may I have a food processor for the holidays?)The oats were really in no need of draining as they plumped right up and absorbed more water than I thought they even would! Once these were fully blended into a paste I added that paste to the stand mixer. I tossed in some dried cranberries, some dried unsweetened coconut and an egg and let that blend together.

While that was mixing I took out my handy dandy coffee grinder (which has never seen a coffee bean) and ground up those soaked almonds into a chucky meal of sorts. You can see how there are still considerable chunks in the grinder along with tiny little almond fragments. I added this right into the stand mixer as well. Then I threw in the protein powder and some cinnamon then watched as it made the dough. I was apprehensive and curious–like a mad scientist waiting to see if the creature would live. I thought about short circuiting the outlet to give the bowl a charge but thought better of it. I then remembered to add some xanthan gum to the batch to make sure once it was baked it would still all be as one versus a bunch of weird lumps of granola or something.

I lightly greased a pie pan ( do not use a pie pan, use a 9×9 pan) I dumped my new creation into the pan. You can click the image of the blob to see what it looks like. Very, um, blob like with lumps of goodies poking out. I then wet my hands (if you cook gluten free you should know this trick) and began smoothing out the dough with my wet hands. Wet hands do not get the dough stuck to them. Nifty, right?

I then took the pan and placed it in the oven and laughed maniacally while rubbing my hands together. I was alone in the house so this was OK behavior. I baked this for 35 minutes, until the edges were brown and the top golden. When I sliced this up and took some out I thought–hey these look like Biscotti! So, I plated some and took some pictures and then threw them onto a non-stick pan and placed them back in the oven to toast them up.

You could certainly serve these after the first baking, they smelled so wonderful and had great texture–chewy and crunchy. I just wanted to see what they would do if I baked them again. I left them in for 25 minutes with the oven still on 350 degrees and checked them for burning while they cooked.

I was very pleased with the end result, as were the kids and the hubby. This is a keeper for sure and I will be making these in batches to freeze for breakfast bars. These will now be a part of a healthy breakfast in our New Hampshire home!

Biscotti Protein Bars
serves 9
13 whole dates
1 cup oats
1 1/2 cups protein powder
1 cup raw almonds
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 large egg
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 TBL cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

Calories Per 2 cookies-360
Fat- 14 grams
Carbohydrates- 30 grams
Fiber- 7 grams
Protein – 32 grams

Quinoa Cakes With Fresh Salsa
Serves 4 ( 8 cakes total)

CAKES

½ c quinoa rinsed and drained (red or white varieties work)
1 c water
1 egg beaten
½ c corn kernels
2 scallions finely chopped
¼ c cheddar (Mexican) shredded cheese or any cheese you like
¼ c whole wheat flour
2 T 1% milk
¼ t sea salt
3 shakes hot sauce
1/8 t pepper
2 T canola oil

In a medium sauce pan bring water to a boil then add the quinoa, reduce heat and simmer for 15mins. Allow to cool when done. Combine quinoa and the rest of the cake ingredients except the oil. Set aside while you prepare the salsa.

Use a ¼ c measuring cup to scoop the mix into the oil. (I could make 4 cakes at a time) Flatten with a spatula. Cook approximately 3-5 minutes per side making sure it is browned before flipping. If you are using a red quinoa, it doesn’t change color much when it browns. The color just deepens a little bit

SALSA

1 c pinto or black beans or substitute 1 diced avocado
1 c chopped tomato
2 T green chilies (hot or mild, you pick)or a fresh jalapeno is great too
3 T finely chopped basil or parsley
4 scallions finely chopped
1 T olive oil
½ lemon- juice only
1 T white wine vinegar
Dash garlic powder
1 t honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. While it is marrying flavors you can cook the quinoa cakes. Heat canola oil in a large skillet on medium heat.

Serve cakes topped with salsa YUM!

Other good ideas:

–add slice avocado

– cook cakes a head of time and use all week