trail mix cookies

April 1, 2014April 7, 2014 | circadee

spring. Spring. SPRING! I think it is really here. The sun is pouring through the windows. The trees are starting to bud. It’s amazing!

Over the weekend, I made trail mix cookies. This is the third or fourth time I’ve made these and they never last long. I thought I’d share the recipe with you all because they’re pretty tasty, vegan and the trail mix ingredients pack a lot of energy. There’s not a ton of sugar either so they’re not overly sweet. The cookies have a crunchy exterior and are soft inside almost like a granola bar. Yum!

I’ve dubbed them Trail Mix Cookies because there is 3/4 cup of trail mix ingredients that you can choose – seeds, nuts, dried fruit. I haven’t made these the same way twice. Stay tuned and I’ll explain…

Trail Mix Cookies – makes about 2 dozen

1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 apple sauced
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup granola
1/2 cup dried fruit
1/4 cup seeds (1/8 c sunflower kernel + 1/8 c flaxseed)

Pre-heat your oven to 275 degrees and grease 2 cookie sheets.

I like to sauce a fresh apple. Core and peel an apple. While measuring the other ingredients, allow the apple to boil. Using an immersion blender, blend the apple into sauce. (A work around for this step is to just add 1/2 cup of jarred apple sauce.)

Combine coconut oil, brown sugar, apple and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. This will make a nice adhesive for your trail mix.

Combine flours and baking soda and add to your mix.

Now for the fun part…and in the “trail mix” of your choice – 1 cup of granola + 1/2 cup of dried fruit (like cranberries, peaches or raisins) + 1/4 cup total of seeds and/or nuts. I usually use 1/8 cup of sunflower kernels and 1/8 cup of flaxseed. I have also used cashews. The possibilities are endless.

Spoon cookies about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

For the brown sugar, we have been using Turbinado sugar which is essentially raw “brown sugar”. We have been avoiding processed white sugar where we can. Most brown sugars are just processed white sugar with the addition of molasses. Turbinado is raw sugar with molasses.

There are other modifications you can make to this recipe for it to work for your pantry choices. For example, you can substitute the coconut oil for canola oil.

And while we’re in the kitchen, I don’t believe I shared you with you my two cents about oiling cast iron. I posted last week over on Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint blog about the wonders of hemp oil and cast iron. Check it out here.

In fact, I’ve been all over the web lately. I’m excited to share that our bathroom renovation was featured on Apartment Therapy and Hometalk over the weekend. So if you’re new here, welcome! Please enjoy our Trail Mix Cookies!

spiced pumpkin bread

October 10, 2013October 11, 2013 | circadee

For as many years as I can remember, I have been making my tried and true pumpkin shortbread. I wish I could remember the original source for this recipe but it has been so long. I particularly love it because a.) it is so tasty and b.) it yields 3 loaves. One for us, one to gift and one to freeze for later.

This year though I tweaked my recipe to make it just a little bit healthier or “cleaner” as we are on a quest to eat fewer processed foods. I started with subbing white flour for whole wheat flour and refined sugar for raw sugar.

It is also the first time I made it with actual pumpkin versus the canned stuff. In fact, I plucked this one right from my porch. Yum, so much tastier with the real thing!

I’d love to try tweaking the recipe even further by substituting the vegetable oil for perhaps more pumpkin puree. I think some of the sugar could possibly be substituted for apple sauce too based on what I’ve read.

But anyway, here’s the recipe as it stands today, just a little bit “cleaner” or less processed.

15 ounces real pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups raw sugar
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.

Remove the skin of a small pumpkin. Cut in chunks and boil until pumpkin is soft. Puree in a blender or food processor.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes.

The spiced pumpkin bread is perfect paired with a cup of coffee!

You’ll notice that I had a squash in my fall porch vignette too. It is also long gone because we ate it! (So is that little zucchini.)

You may have caught a snippet on my instagram or facebook of the butternut squash & spinach lasagna that we had for dinner last week. It was so good! I followed the SkinnyTaste recipe posted here. Delish! However, I didn’t roll the noodles as recommended.

I would make this again for the creamy butternut squash sauce alone. We used the extra for pasta a few nights later.

Looks like I need to redecorate since we ate most of my fall porch vignette. What fall dishes are you cooking up?

P.S. This Sunday we’ll be at Clover Market with a truck full of vintage finds! And next weekend I’ll be at Serendipity showing you how milk paint works. Hope to see you soon!

Sharing at the Pumpkin Parade!

veggie frittata

September 19, 2013September 19, 2013 | circadee

Friends, I made a frittata. And it was good. I’m so proud.

You see, I was faced with this little problem. We had way too many vegetables in the house and had to come up with a dish that would use some up. A nice problem to have but still. And quite frankly, another salad or pasta just wouldn’t do.

So frittata it was! I love that word by the way. Frittata! Hakuna Matata.

I thought a frittata would be complicated but it was truly a very easy one pot dish to make. And it is a great way to use up your harvest or even leftovers. The options are pretty much endless. You can add vegetables, meat, fish, cheese. And you can serve it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I used one cup each of the following vegetables: red/green peppers, tomatoes/tomatillos & scallions.

I chopped up the veggies the night before so when I woke up I felt like I was on a cooking show with all of my ingredients prepped in handy little bowls. And then I remembered that I don’t have a hair and make-up artist on staff. Hmm, I’ll have to work on that.

First, I chose a round pie pan because it could go on the stove and in the oven. Anything cast iron would work too. I found that most of my pans, though, had handles that aren’t ovenproof.

So I sprayed the pan with olive oil and pre-heated the oven to 400. On medium heat, I sautéed the hardest vegetable first. In this case, the peppers. I decided to add some sesame oil for added flavor.

I continued to add each vegetable and seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme. But again, the seasoning options are pretty much endless.

Once the vegetables were cooked (about 15 minutes), I added shredded cheddar.

And then the eggs. I whisked 8 eggs and poured them over the vegetables and cheese. The sides cooked up in about 10 minutes on the stove top.

Finally, I placed the concoction in the pre-heated oven. It took about 15 more minutes for the eggs to cook through. The top of the frittata browned nicely.

Cooking times will vary depending on the size of pan you use and how many ingredients you add. You could certainly double this in a casserole for a brunch.

Our version serves four: 3 cups of vegetables, 8 eggs, 10 inch pie pan

I let it cool for a few minutes, cut into wedges and served it with wholegrain toast for breakfast. It was met with rave reviews!

That, my friends, is a frittata! Means no worries. Oh wait, that’s Hakuna Matata.

Circa Dee

vintage inspiration for a modern lifestyle

baking

trail mix cookies

spiced pumpkin bread

veggie frittata