Onion Dip

I told you all about my love for onion dip when I was a kid when I shared my version of Mark Bittman's Veggie Dip. I also shared another dip recipe - Spinach Leek Dip - which is also delicious.  But sometimes nothing quite replaces classic onion dip served with potato chips - times like my munchkin's 3rd birthday party!  Unless, of course, by "classic" you think I mean from soup mix, in which case this might be the first time you're reading this blog...ingredients like partially hydrogenated soybean oil, MSG, and disodium inosinate are not part of my cooking these days.  But I have proven yet again that ingredients like these are DEFINITELY not necessary to make yummy treats.  This onion dip, amazingly enough, gets most of its flavor from real onions.  And while part of me thinks it's really sad that we've gotten to the point that people were surprised that I could make onion dip without a powder, I was also so excited to be able to share this treat with our guests, knowing that I had managed to serve delicious food without compromising my ingredient standards OR creating a ton of work for myself. 

Onion Dip

adapted from Food Network

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups diced onions (approximately 1 large onion)
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup plain non-fat greek yogurt*

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until they are very well carmelized, approximately 20 minutes or longer (turn the heat down if the onions start to burn - this is best done as a slow process.  The onions don't need much attention, though, so plan to do this when you have other things going on in the kitchen!).  

Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Mix the rest of the ingredients, and then add the cooled onions.  At this point you can call the dip done, but I chose to puree using my immersion blender to create a smoother dip that was less likely to offend any 3-year-olds (or grown-ups) who might not appreciate the pieces of onion.

Refrigerate the dip overnight.  Stir and adjust seasoning before serving.

* You could skip the yogurt and just use more sour cream, but I did not think the yogurt compromised the taste or texture at all, so I think it's a nice way to lighten this up a little bit.  On the flip side, you could also experiment with using more yogurt to replace the sour cream and/or mayo - if you do, let me know how it goes!

Delicious Whole Grain Waffles

If there's one thing I've learned in the past 2 years since I started this blog, it's that homemade foods are often simpler than they appear.  I grew up on Eggo frozen waffles, with the occasional homemade version from Bisquick (until one day my dad decided the ancient, caked-on waffle maker was just way too hard to clean, and into the garbage it went!).  As an adult, my mom bought one of the fancy belgian waffle makers to use on ski trips, but we still used a mix and even that way they seemed like such a big deal to make.  Frozen waffles, of course, are super-easy, and there are lots of brands of supposedly more wholesome varieties.  But upon closer inspection, like so many processed products, it's hard to find a whole grain, organic version that doesn't have all sorts of additional ingredients like flavors, preservatives, dough conditioners, etc that I could do without.  And that's not even considering the price tag!

So after about a year of doing without waffles altogether because I wasn't happy with the choices in the store, I finally decided to invest in a waffle iron.  I found a recipe on All Recipes that was packed with wholesome ingredients but promised to be delicious.  With a little bit of skepticism, I gave them a try on my new waffle iron and was blown away.  Somehow, miraculously, these waffles are 100% whole grain, incorporate flax seed, and are LIGHT!  They crisp up beautifully, are just a tad sweet, and are enthusiastically gobbled up by my 3-year-old.  I would venture to guess that you could serve these to any crowd and no one would ever guess the ingredient list!

So make a double batch, throw the extras in your freezer, and enjoy wholesome AND convenient waffles any time you want!

Delicious Whole Grain Waffles

adapted from All Recipes

Dry Ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup flax seed meal

1/4 cup quick oats (or wheat germ)

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs

1 3/4 cups milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  In a large bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.  Pour dry into wet and quickly whisk just until combined.  Allow batter to sit while preheating waffle iron.  Pour batter into waffle iron in batches according to manufacturer's directions, and cook until crisp and golden brown.  Serve immediately, or let cool, freeze in a zip-top bag, and reheat in the toaster whenever you want.

Makes 11 waffles (1/2 cup batter each)

Crunchy Nut Bars

In my post on Coconut Granola Bars, I mentioned that I've been looking for the perfect bar recipe for ages with very little success.  Well, in a stroke of really good luck, it seems like I've found two great recipes in just a few short weeks!  One of the blogs I follow is called Enlightened Cooking, and cookbook author Camilla has tons of bar recipes, many of which look great, but use nut butters or dates (which I don't much care for), or lots of sugar to stick together.  But recently she posted recipes for replicas of TRIO and KIND bars.  I had no idea what these were until I happened to be given a free sample of an almond coconut KIND bar, which turned out to be delicious.  I went back to check out the recipe more carefully and found out that this recipe meets pretty much all of my criteria - wholesome ingredients, no nut butters or dates, moderate sugar, and a simple process.  Could this be for real?

I tested it out, and sure enough these bars were not only easy to make, but they tasted great!  Light, crunchy, and a little bit sweet.  I even brought a few to a friend with a new baby, and she immediately asked me for the recipe (for when the baby is not so new anymore of course :).  So while I am a big fan of the taste of the Coconut Granola Bars, I am completely sold on the simplicity of these bars.  I just made batch #4 today and love having these around to snack on!  I made a few tweaks to the recipe to suit my taste, so definitely check back to the original post for more ideas for including dried fruits, seeds, etc.

Almond Coconut Bars

Walnut Coconut Bars

Crunchy Nut Bars
adapted from Enlightened Cooking

2 1/2 cups roughly chopped almonds or walnuts (measured before chopping)
2/3 cup unsweetened dried coconut (shaved or shredded)
2/3 cup crisp brown rice cereal
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup brown rice syrup

Toast the nuts by placing in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking every couple of minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 325.  Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper, letting the paper come up on two sides to form "handles".  (Alternatively, line with foil AND spray with oil.)

In a medium bowl, add the coconut, rice cereal, and salt.  By this point the nuts should be toasty enough; add them to the bowl and mix.  (Note, if you are using large shavings of coconut, you might want to keep it aside and throw it in the hot pan for a minute or 2 after the nuts are done toasting to highlight the coconut taste).

Add the brown rice syrup and mix until all ingredients are well coated.  Transfer to prepared pan and use a piece of parchment paper or sprayed foil to spread and push down the mixture evenly throughout the pan.

Bake for 18 minutes and remove to a rack (the bars will still seem really soft, but they are ready to come out!).  Cool for 10 minutes, until the bars are set enough to remove from pan but still warm, and use the parchment or foil handles to transfer to a cutting board.  Cut into your desired number of bars and cool completely.  If you are using foil, the bars may stick until they are 100% cool but they will release easily at that point!

Bars will keep for several days in an airtight container at room temperature, or can be frozen.

Guest Blog

Hi everyone!  I usually stick to recipes and their stories on this blog, but in addition to cooking, I spend tons of time reading, thinking, and talking about the best ways to feed kids.  This week, my friend Laura Cipullo at Whole Nutrition Services asked me to guest blog about how I feed my kids on her new blog, Mom Dishes it Out.  Here's the link if you're interested!

Coconut Granola Bars

Most of you are probably unaware, but I have been obsessively making various kinds of granola and protein bars for months. I have a serious addiction to NuGo Organic Double Dark Chocolate protein bars, which I have been trying to break for ages. Not only are they expensive and loaded with sugar, but I hate eating so much processed soy, and the ingredient list, despite being organic, is a mile long. But after searching and searching, and trying recipe after recipe, I could not find a single one worthy of sharing. It has been a frustrating endeavor to say the least! The problem, I think, is that I have an unrealistic set of expectations here - I am looking for a bar that tastes good, isn't too annoying to make, includes lots of wholesome ingredients, and isn't too high in sugar. And did I mention I'm not a fan of the fruit and nut style bar (like Lara bars), and that I don't really like nut butters either? This is a problem in bar making because apparently the most popular binders are some form of sugar in large quantities (brown rice syrup, honey, etc), peanut butter, and dates, all of which I've pretty much eliminated. I started thinking that my perfect home made replacement was a pipe dream, unless, of course, I relaxed my standards a bit!

In a stroke of good luck, just as I was finishing the last NuGo bar in the box I swore was going to be the last, Martha Rose Shulman posted some recipes in the NY Times on healthy snacks for teenagers. Among them was a coconut granola bar recipe that actually had what I'd consider a reasonable amount of sugar for a bar! Unfortunately it requires a lot of steps, but in the interest of being open-minded, I decided to give it a try to see if the effort was even worth it. As it turns out, these are the best bars I have made yet! They do not crumble, aren't bland, don't have a weird taste from a weird ingredient (black bean chocolate protein bars anyone??), and even resemble real granola bars! In fact, they taste just like the Nature Valley Oats 'n Honey bars - crunchy, toasty, and sweet. I'd love to reduce the sugar a bit, but I think they probably won't hang together. In the mean time, they are a nice afternoon treat when I am wanting something sweet that also has some wholesome ingredients to tide me over until my next meal!

Coconut Granola Bars
adapted from NY Times

1/4 cup canola oil, plus additional for the pan and for your hands
2 cups rolled oats
1 heaping cup flaked coconut
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup lightly toasted walnuts (or nut of your choice), coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the oats in a bowl and toss with the oil until thoroughly coated. Line a baking sheet or pan with parchment and spread the oats in an even layer on the parchment. Place in the oven and toast for about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the grains are lightly toasted.

While the oats are toasting, add the coconut, spices, salt and nuts to the bowl. Add the oats when they are done and mix. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees.

Place the honey and vanilla in a saucepan that can accommodate at least three times the volume of the honey, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the oat mixture. Stir until the oat mixture is evenly coated with honey.

Oil a 9x13 pan, line with parchment so that parchment sticks up on the sides, and then oil the parchment. Scrape the granola mixture into the pan and spread in an even layer, using a piece of parchment to spread it out. Place in the oven for 25 minutes, until just golden. Do not allow to become too brown, or the bars will be too hard. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes, until still warm but set enough not to crumble when you pick them up on the parchment. Place on a cutting board and cut into your desired shape, and then allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, or freeze.

White Whole Wheat Bread (Bread Machine)

Would you believe me if I told you that you could make a sandwich bread at home that's 100% whole grain, simple as can be, and is light and fluffy?  If you took my advice and have a bread machine, you can try this recipe for yourself and see if you agree!  As I have told you over and over, white whole wheat flour is a whole grain baker's best friend, especially if you don't always want your baked goods to be heavy and dense.  I am a huge fan of a traditional whole wheat bread, but sometimes I just want something lighter, and that's where this recipe comes in.  It's great for sandwiches, as a side for soup, as the basis for croutons, or even to make delicious french toast.  And if you are cooking for others who are not whole grain converts, or are trying to ease your family into a more wholesome lifestyle, I promise you won't get any complaints!

White Whole Wheat Bread
adapted from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup agave, honey, or maple syrup
2 tablespoons oil

3 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons SAF yeast (2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast)

Add all ingredients to bread machine as directed for your model.  Set for whole wheat cycle (on my machine with SAF yeast I use quick wheat).  When bread is done, remove from pan immediately and allow to cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Makes a 1.5 lb loaf

Salmon Burgers

Here we go with another late-summer burger recipe, this time featuring salmon!  Throughout my life I have not been a huge fan of food that "lived under water", but with all of the talk about salmon being such a healthy food, I felt I owed it to myself and my family to get it into the rotation.  I'm proud to say I've found quite a few variations that I really love - Maple Glazed Salmon, Salmon Cakes, and even some canned salmon mixed with mayo for an easy lunch.  Earlier this summer, I was shopping in Whole Foods and saw that salmon burgers were on special, only $2.50 instead of $5.00 each for a burger made with wild salmon, so I had to try them.  They grilled up beautifully and were delicious, but the regular price just seemed excessive for something I should be able to make at home!

Of course I decided to try to make them one afternoon when my fridge and pantry were sparse (we were even out of soy sauce!) and no time to go to the store, so when I went searching for recipes I was very limited on what I'd be able to try.  I came across a somewhat odd sounding Rachael Ray recipe for "Everything Salmon Burgers" which seemed to be trying to replicate the flavor profile of an everything bagel with lox and cream cheese.  That was a little much for me, but I liked the stripped down idea for the burger (well, it sounded good enough and I could make it quickly with what I had on hand!).

The result was perfect for me...with all of the seasoning and grilling, the salmon taste is not overly strong, but the burgers are flavorful, easy to throw together, and such a great way to eat more fish.  Note that I would NOT recommend going out and spending $20/lb for fresh wild salmon for this recipe - it is perfect for when you can get wild salmon at a bargain price.  My favorite is frozen wild salmon from Trader Joe's, which comes already skinned for $7.99/lb!  The previously frozen kind doesn't have the best texture when cooked as a filet, but is the perfect solution in a recipe like this :)

Salmon Burgers
adapted from Food Network

2 6-ounce skinless wild salmon fillets, cut into large chunks

1 tablespoon grill seasoning

1 tablespoon sesame and/or poppy seeds (I used all sesame)

1 rounded teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped)

Olive oil for drizzling

Preheat outdoor grill if using to medium high. Prepare hot grill with cooking spray. 

Place salmon in food processor and pulse a few times to coarse grind meat to form burgers (do not puree!). Transfer fish to a mixing bowl and season with grill seasoning, seeds, and dill. Mix and form 3 patties. Drizzle the burgers with extra-virgin olive oil.

Cook burgers 3 minutes on each side.

Serve on toasted 100% Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns with Lemon Dill Sauce and your favorite toppings (we love beefsteak tomato and avocado slices!).

Serves 3