Energy bites

 Pumpkin pie energy bites

1-1/4c rolled oats 

1/4 c ground flaxseed 

1T Chia seeds 

1t cinnamon 

1t pumpkin pie spice 

1/2 c peanut butter or other nut butter 

1/4 c pumpkin purée 

1/4 c maple syrup or honey 

1t vanilla extract 

1/4c mini chocolate chips 

Mix the dry ingredients except chocolate chips in a large bowl, set aside.

Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Blend until smooth. Pour over the oat mixture and mix well until we'll combined

Fold in chocolate chips and mix well combined.

Roll into 12-14 nickel or quarter -sized balls.

PBJ Bites

2-1/2 c quick oats 

2/3c peanut butter or other nut butter 

2T chia seeds 

1/2 c jam or preserves 

Optional mix ins chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, collagen, protein powder, coconut flakes 

Oil for hands 

In a bowl, combine and mix all the ingredients except for the oil.

With oiled hands Roll into 12-14 nickel or quarter -sized balls.

Gluten free carrot cake

 https://meaningfuleats.com/gluten-free-carrot-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-15298

Very good, ate almost all of it myself!

Ha, for my birthday I wanted carrot cake, but wanted something with a little less sugar, so I made this https://fromscratchfast.com/healthy-gluten-free-carrot-cake-recipe/

I was a little dubious of the method for making it - all in the blender- but I tried to "trust the process." As I mixed, I probably blended a little too much. However It baked up nicely. The frosting was very easy, though maybe it needs a little something else, a touch of vanilla maybe...

Overall it is a dense cake with a dense frosting. I think I might try the same or similar ingredients, but be more selective with what goes into the blender vs just mixing stuff by hand.

Cheddar and Nettle biscuits

 https://seasoned.com/blog/2021/07/cheddar-nettle-scones

These are pretty good, but I would definitely add more salt to the dough. I used King Arthur GF 1:1 Flour in place of the regular flour.

Recent Indian food exploration

Potato Masala https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/potato-masala-aloo-masala/#wprm-recipe-container-37991

Just used potato, no dal, also didn't have onions so I used onion powder.

Moong Dal (modified) https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/moong-dal-recipe/

I didn't use tomato or onion in this, but I did use onion powder and lots of garlic in the tadka. This could have been vegan had I used oil instead of butter in the tadka 

Chive blossom vinegar

 https://leitesculinaria.com/80938/recipes-chive-blossom-vinegar.html#wprm-recipe-container-368591

I made this and it was great. It was wonderful to make some salad dressing with this!!

And it was so pretty pink/purple color.

Birthday cakes

For Roland's 6th birthday party,  he wanted a two-tier cake covered in sprinkles.

It wasn't beautiful,  but I did it! To appeal to the widest variety,  I did half yellow cake and half chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. 

I used the chocolate cake I have made many times.  I found a yellow cake recipe on the same blog - web address- and I tried making Swiss buttercream-https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/swiss-meringue-buttercream/#tasty-recipes-80765

Since I couldn't find the right size cake pan,  I just cut down the upper layer.  I had a hard time making them even! 

I made quite a mess putting on the sprinkles, but it looked great and tasted better. 

For Roland's 8th birthday he wanted vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, so I will make this:https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/new-favorite-white-layer-cake/

Stuffed kabocha squash

 https://cookingforpeanuts.com/roasted-kabocha-squash-recipe/#recipe

Made this "acid watcher" friendly:

Subbed pepitas for the walnuts and just omitted anything pepper, tomato, onion,  and garlic-related

For the tahini sauce I just used tahini, water, honey, and salt.

I had one squash and for dinner I stuffed each half with one cup each of brown rice and the tofu taco filling. I ate one quarter of the squash, rice, filling combo and that was quite a lot!