Homemade Whole Wheat Chocolate Wafers

These Chocolate wafers are great by themselves, or you can use them for other recipes that call for those "Nabisco" type chocolate wafers.  You can also use them to make ice cream sandwiches or even oreo type cookies.  They are quick and easy, and these are a wholesome version using whole wheat flour and sucanat for sugar.

Homemade Chocolate Wafers

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/2 cup Sucanat or Coconut Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or Real salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Milk or Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract


Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Put dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
3.  Add the butter and mix until well blended.
4.  Add milk and vanilla and mix until all clings together well.
5.  Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a long and narrow log, about 1 1/2 inches     diameter. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a week.
6.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7.  Slice the dough logs into slices; about 1/8 inch thick.
8.  Lay the slices on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart.
9.  Bake for 12 -14 minutes. Test them to see when they are crisp enough. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes then transfer them to the racks to cool completely – they will crisp up as they cool. These freeze well.

Makes about 6 dozen

Mix your ingredients,  and roll into a log.  Refrigerate for several hours, slice and bake.

You could also roll the dough out and cut them with a round cookie cutter and make them very nice and round like the store bought version; but those are  more time consuming and I don't like taking all the time to do that. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes if you want them crispy.

They make wonderful cookie sandwiches or as is with a nice cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

12 Ways to Eat Well

Picture courtesy of the berry.com

Christmas is around the corner, and I am excited for its coming. This year we will have several of our children and grandchildren home with us.  It's a first for us to get to have some of our Grandchildren with us at Christmas; you know I can hardly wait. To me it is what makes the Holidays delightful; I am having to keep my enthusiasm and imagination reigned in to an even pace while I work on some delights for the Grandbabies (such happiness to think of it).  So as I work on my 12 days of Christmas, I thought I would set the pace with "12 Ways to Eat Well".

I love the little girl in the picture above. She is an expression of a part of my inner self. There have been times when I could truly sit down and eat an entire pack of Oreo cookies and a glass of milk at one setting. What can I say, its true. But there is also the other part of me that loves to gaze at, smell and eat whole grain bread, topped with sprouts and veggies, avocados and raw goat cheese. These two parts of me have always been there side by side since I was a little girl.

Fortunately, I have tamed my "inner little girl" above, (for the most part...smile). We have worked hard to develop the habit of eating well. We are not perfect, nor are we "Food Saints", but we do our best to try to eat well most of the time. We enjoy life, holidays,  special occasions without being hardcore or legalistic about food, but on the every day, normal routine, we "eat well".

Because we have struggled off and on in various ways with our health and weight, we have found over and over again, that what we eat affects the way we feel; Thus, we have had to change and adapt some of the ways that we eat.  It isn't easy to change the way you have always done something. Changing your life a step at a time can make it easier... do 1 or 2 new things until it is a habit, a part of your life, and then do the next thing.  I have come to think of the following list a little like a blue print for us.  It is also a helpful reminder for Holiday food preparation. I would like to share it with you.

 1. Eat and Be Thankful

This is step number one for us.   Living a thankful life honors the Father and brings forth joy, health and well-being.  Even todays scientist and psychologists have confirmed what the word of God has told us all along: When we are thankful, our life will go well with us. Our health will be better, our marriages will be better, our emotions will function positively.  Jesus gave thanks when there wasn't enough food to feed the multitudes and our Heavenly Father multiplied a few loaves and fishes into enough to feed 5000.  Jesus gave thanks at His last supper, because He trusted His Father with His life, even though he faced death, and our Heavenly Father resurrected Him.  Thankfulness reminds us to walk in humility (Deut. 8:10,11) and that our Father provides good things for us.  I personally think thankfulness changes our DNA.  I have no scientific proof about that, I just think when we are thankful, we change our heart, which changes our body chemistry and then our circumstances.

^" And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  Colossians 3:17

2.  Eat Real 
If I can't understand what is in the ingredient list of a food, it probably is not what I call "real" food. The commercial food industry has worked hard to turn good food into a creative way of profiting.  I don't have a problem making a profit, nothing wrong with that, but if profiting supersedes ethics, then I have a problem.  Science has done some weird things to our food  in order to make it last longer on the supermarket shelf, to make it look better, taste better, to help us loose weight, and to tempt us, and to addict us.  I just want to eat  real food don't you?

3.  Eat Fresh
Grow your own, or buy from your neighbors who grow their own, or buy from local farms that grow organically; Here is a really interesting link from Dr. Mercola about Walmart and its connection with obesity

4.  Eat Whole
Think "whole" when buying your food.  Especially for grains and sugars.  In America we have a problem with eating far too many carbohydrates and high glycemic foods.  Step one in helping this problem, is eating whole grains and whole foods, step two, is to reduce your consumption of high glycemic foods such as sugars and starches.  When we eat food in their "whole" state,  our body can assimilate the way it was created to.   It can be digested in a way that our insulin levels don't go haywire, and we can benefit from all the nutrients that are still intact to nourish and strengthen our bodies.... "the wholer the better".... is that are real word "wholer"?  I just made it up, but it works doesn't it?

 5. Eat Organic 

What we call "organic" these days, is what our parents or grandparents called "real food".  I have sometimes heard people balk at or get annoyed with the idea of organic food, but really, organic is just a new term for food that was grown, harvested and eaten for all of history up until about 30 years ago. This goes back to the "Eat Real" category.

 6.  Eat Homemade 
A busy life can take its toll on the quality of life that we live.  Eating homemade will take some prioritizing of your time, but it doesn't take long to build a habit of just making it homemade.  I have learned not to be afraid to try anything from scratch.... infact, my creative side enjoys the challenge.  I think we have been brain washed in this generation to think that we can't  do without some store-bought version of something premade for us.  But there is so much at our finger tips to try.  We live in a time in history where we can get anything from vanilla beans to coconut oil to grass fed beef to organic whole grains via the internet.  What a time and opportunity to learn how to make and create anything from scratch.  Making from scratch is becoming a trend that we are seeing more and more of and that tells me that the time is ripe to take a hold of a new way of life and not be chained  to the pre-packaged, pre-made food industry.  It isn't that hard to make it yourself... just begin and let that "giant of intimidation" fall.

 7.  Eat Healthy Oils and Fats 

Another way I have learned to improve our health and eat well, is using the best kinds of fats and oils.  Dr. Mercola offers a great explanation of them here: Link if you need some good info.  Most candy, snacks and fast food are cooked in or loaded with transfats... artery cloggers... among other things. Another good reason to eat homemade.

Fats we  use:
Coconut oil
Olive Oil
Organic Grass-fed Butter (get it raw if you can)
Organic Red Palm Oil
Palm Oil (not Palm Kernel Oil)
Cocoa Butter

 8.  Eat  Un-processed Sugars Instead of White Sugar
For example:
Coconut Sugar (low glycemic)
Coconut Syrup(low glycemic)
Honey: Raw, organic and local is best
Sucanat
Brown Rice Syrup
Stevia

All of these have pluses and minuses, but all are better for you than white sugar or chemical sweeteners

 9.  Eat Less Sugar
This is one you will have to judge for yourself; are you a sugar junkie like me?  I have had to learn to reign it in.  Cut it down in your recipes... It is amazing how much sugar you can cut out of something and still have a very sweet treat.

 10. Eat What the Lord Has Given you
Often our cultural excesses have caused us to develop problems such as wheat allergies, milk allergies, various food intolerances etc. Experts will tell us the answer to this problem is that we shouldn't eat grains, dairy, eggs, butter or cooked foods; you name it, it has been through the list of "thou shalt nots".  It can really be confusing.  If you have food allergies, you do have to figure out how to eat differently; but let's also remember that these problems are relatively new problems in our culture.  Generally speaking, people have eaten these foods for hundreds of years without  problems. Perhaps there is another reason for the current food intolerances and food allergies.  Perhaps it is the excess in which we eat them, and how we eat them,  and how the  food industry has taken normal foods and turned them into "Franken Foods". Add to that, the many toxic additives in our atmosphere; even our cleaning products have changed in the last 20  years; our bodies are not able to cope and our immune systems wear down.

The Father brought the children of Israel into the land "flowing with milk and honey" and he told them that He gave them:

"...a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything;...." Deut. 8:8

 The foods in the list above were "whole" grains, "raw" dairy, "grass fed" animals and un processed sugars, as opposed to much of what we find in the grocery stores these days.  God gave us good foods. But if we are filling our body with counterfeits rather than what He has given us, our bodies will not be able to assimilate our food and our health will suffer.

Sometimes we have no other choice but to eat some of those things that are not so good.  Perhaps it is because of finances,  perhaps it is because of availability.  In our home, we have always tried to remember to be Thankful no matter what.  We eat what is put before us, but we set it in our hearts to pursue the better things that He intended for us.  In  due season, doors open,  He gives us ideas and provision how to find those good foods.

 11. Eat What You Enjoy and Enjoy What You Eat:
One of the hard things about changing your eating habits is often the idea that you might have to change your  habits to the degree of doing things that you and your family hate: Pretty soon you can hit burn out.  Nobody wants to carry on dreading their food.   There are several things we have done to prevent that.

      a. Transform your favorites into healthier versions by changing the original recipe ingredients to whole and organic meats veggies, grains, sweeteners and milk products and add raw and fresh where you can.
       b.   Enjoy yourselves once a week.  Eat your dessert, comfort food, etc once a week, it can be when you go to someone's house for dinner, or a family night together, what ever suits.

  
12. Eat "Power Foods" : For starters, add sprouts, yogurt and wild salmon to your diet. Instead of always saying what you can't have, think in terms of "how I can add these things in?"  I have found when I have added these in, I am building my confidence in eating better, while building my health, then I don't want to go back to the old way, because I am doing so well. 

Making Turkey Broth

We are enjoying a peaceful Saturday.  It has been a wonderful rest after our long haul with remodeling and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Steve is out cutting and splitting wood today, and I am making Turkey Broth out of our Turkey Carcasses.  We had two turkeys this year.  We were a group of 14 friends and family and had a wonderful time together.   I made 2 turkeys, because I always like to have enough for dinner and left overs; thus 2 turkey carcasses.  Steve cut all the meat off the bones for me yesterday, and we put the bones into my biggest stock pot for broth.  It cooked all day long and cooled out in the carport last night, where the freezing temperatures went to work for us.  Today I  deboned and put up 6 quarts of meat and broth.  The broth was loaded with gelatin, after so many bones cooking for so many hours.  It was almost a solid.  I bagged up 4 quarts of meat and gelatin and put 2 quarts of broth and meat into jars.  Now I have a nice store for the next month or two, and can make up some wonderful soups and casseroles.

 This pot has been cooking all day.

When I put the bones and meat into the colander to strain, it didn't move; it was molded with gelatin.

This makes a wonderful nutritious addition to your healthy meals.  It is actually a success when 

your broth turns to gelatin after it is cooled.  It means you have extracted the collagen, from the bones, as well as glucosamine, chondroitin, msm and many minerals  all of which are far better utilized in your body through a broth like this than by taking supplements.

I usually have quite a bit more broth than this; but because of the gelatin factor as I said above,  I made chicken and gelatin concentrate, and diluted the last of the gelatin into broth.  I included  the meat in my broth, although you could also strain all the meat and just keep the broth for when you need stock.  It is always good to have stock and broth in the freezer ready when you need it.

Turkey Broth/Stock

Ingredients

1 turkey carcass

Optional veggies:

2 or 3 stalks of celery

1 medium onion,

2 or 3 small carrots

1 small handful of parsley

3-4 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1.     Place carcass in a large stock pot.

2.     Fill with water until the carcass is covered.

3.     Add remaining ingredients

4.     Bring pot to a boil, and then turn down to simmer.

5.     Simmer all day; (4 hour minimum); The longer the better.

6.     Cool and skim excess fat.

7.     Strain bones and meat.  

8.     Place broth/stock into jars and freeze.

9.     If desired, de-bone the meat, and add to the broth, or freeze separately.

Use for:

Turkey Noodle Soup
Turkey and Rice Soup
White Turkey Chili
Turkey Pot Pie
Turkey and Dumplings
Gravies and sauces
Turkey Casseroles

Turkey and Green Chili Casserole

After several days of Thanksgiving fare, my pallet always craves a little Mexican Food.  Here is a good recipe for using up your surplus turkey meat, and hits the spot for that Mexican Food craving.  Its also a great casserole for feeding some of your extra Holiday company that may still be at home.

For this recipe, you can use store bought corn chips, or just make your own.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Add your tortillas.  Brush them lightly with a little oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 3-5 minutes, take them out and flip them over and bake another 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned and lightly crisp... keep a close eye on them so that they don't over brown.

Take them out and let cool.  Cut or break into pieces. You can break the pieces up smaller than this if you want, I just like them cut into wedges.

Begin layering them in the pan.

 Add chopped chicken or turkey meat.

 Top with chopped green chills and oinions.

Spread with sour cream mixture.

Add Cheese.

If your casserole pan is on the small side, you are done… or for deeper casseroles,  you can repeat all layers ending with Cheese.

Slide into the oven which has been preheated to 350 degrees.

Baker 30 - 40 minutes or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is slightly golden.

Turkey and Green Chili Casserole

Ingredients

4 Cups Chicken or Turkey cooked and  cut in chunks

2 1/2 cups Green Chilis Chopped

8 oz of sour cream

1 Container of Cream of Chicken Soup

6-8 Corn Tortillas or 1/2 of a bag of Tortilla Chips

8 oz Cheddar cheese (or more if you like it real cheesy).

salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degees.  Mix together Cream of Chicken soup and sour cream and set aside.  Lightly crunch up your tortilla chips.  Begin by layering them on the bottom of a 9x13 casserole pan.  Layer with half of the ingredients as follows: meat,  chilis and onions, sour cream mixture, and cheese. Reapeat, ending with cheese.  Bake until bubbly and golden brown; approximately 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Wishing you Blessings as you celebrate Thanksgiving.

Vegetable Casserole

Here is another classic favorite in our family.   It is one I often make for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  The recipe, like several of our favorites, was given to me by my Mother in law,  Jo.  It is another great variation for the famous green bean.  This one has the crunch of corn and water chestnuts, along with sour cream, cream soup, cheese and cracker crumbs.  It is one of those that makes you want to go back for more than one helping.

The water chestnuts are not something I would have thought to be yummy when I first got ahold of this recipe... but after tasting it for the first time, years ago, I realized they just make this dish complete, the flavors and textures are really good together. The recipe calls for the traditional cream soups and other conveniences, many of which can be homemade ahead if desired, or found in the organic version for a healthier variation.  It also calls for canned French cut green beans and canned corn.  I used frozen.  If you prefer a softer green bean, use the canned, but if you like a little crunchier version, the frozen is good.

 Layer 1: Green Beans

 Layer 2: Corn

 Layer 3: Water Chestnuts

 Layer 4: Chopped Onions

 Mix together sour cream and any "Cream of" soup.

Layer 5: Cream mixture

Layer 6:  Cheese

 Layer 7:  Cracker Crumbs

 Layer 8:  Butter

Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 40-60 minutes; and uncovered for the last ten minutes, until all is lightly brown and bubbly.

 Vegetable Casserole

Ingredients

1 14 oz can french cut green beans (drain vegetables), or the equivalent of frozen

1 15 oz can corn or the equivalent frozen

1 8oz can of water chestnuts

1 small white onion chopped

1 cup organic sour cream

1 can cream of soup (cream of mushroom, celery, or chicken)

1 1/2 cups grated Montery Jack cheese

1 1/2 cups crackers crushed (I used a butter cracker)

1 stick of butter melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a 9 inch casserole pan, layer first four ingredients.  In a small bowl, mix together sour cream, and soup.  Spread mixture over casserole.  Top with cheese, cracker crumbs then drizzle with butter.  Cover with foil and bake  for 50 minutes (if using canned vegetables cook 30 - 40 minutes).  Remove the tin foil the last ten minutes and cook until lightly browned and bubbling.

Enjoy

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Everyone

Ginger Crinkles Dipped in White Chocolate

It is snowing here today, and we are beginning to feel that "cozy, holiday feeling". Steve and I are still hard at work with the kitchen remodel. We are thinking by tomorrow we will be able to wrap it all up... at least for the most part and hoping to have everything ready in time for Thanksgiving. Today I am up at our cozy little cottage making and baking a few things for Thanksgiving, while Steve is at our house working on hanging trim and cabinet doors. Thought I would share a favorite Holiday Cookie Recipe with you, since I am in the process of making a batch.

Years ago, a friend gave me a variation of this recipe in her Christmas card. It has been a favorite of ours ever since. I loved how she included it in her Christmas card, and I have thought of her every time I make this cookie. I thought it would be nice to make it this year for part of the Thanksgiving table. I added the white chocolate as a little extra pizazz. It tastes wonderful that way.

As usual, I have given the recipe a bit of a makeover, using whole wheat flour, and unrefined sugars. It tastes every bit as good and moist this way. Enjoy.

 

Ingredients

1. 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
3. 1/4 teaspoon cloves
4.  1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
5. 2 teaspoons baking soda
6. 1/2 teaspoon real salt or Himalayan salt
7. 1 cup Sucanat (whole unrefined sugar), Evaporated cane juice, or Coconut Sugar
8. 3/4 cup butter, melted
9. 1/4 cup  molasses
10. 1 egg
11. Organic granulated sugar for rolling cookie dough balls (about 1/4 cup)
12. 1 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Mix together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, sugar, molasses and egg until combined.
4. Add the dry mixture to the molasses mixture and mix until just combined. .
5. Roll into balls.
6. Roll each ball in organic sugar. 
7. Place on cookie sheet.
8. Bake 10-12 minutes until just set, but not hard
9. Cool Completely
10. While cookies are cooling, melt white chocolate in a double boiler.
11. Dip  each cookie  in the melted white chocolate until it covers a little over half way.
12. Lay  each on parchment paper and allow to rest until white chocolate is hardened again.

Enjoy!