Mayan chocolate is probably best known as a delicious, hot, and frothy drink made with ground cacao beans and corn meal and spiced with chiles and cinnamon. This rich but bitter drink – called xocolatl – has been around for thousands of years, and only became a sweet treat in the 1700s in Europe. These…
Category: Snack Foods
Muhammara – The Red Pepper, Pomegranate, and Walnut Triple Threat!
Middle Eastern dips and sauces are some of the best in the world, in my opinion. Often thick, rich in flavor, and healthy for you, they are also easy to make – and to modify – if you know what goes into them. What is Muhammara? Muhammara, a red pepper and walnut dip from Aleppo…
Fueling your Run and Recovery Without the Grains + How to Make Plantain Chips
Though I’ve been out of a routine the last couple of months, I usually run pretty regularly. In fact, I am planning to run in a half marathon this Saturday in a place called Monte Cristo. The last time I was there, I ran into a moose and her baby. While the thought of seeing…
Yummy Honey, Seed & Nut Power Snack Recipes
Last week I talked about tasting honey. In my opinion, honey can be overpowering – rich, sweet, even palpitation-inducing – on its own and tastes best in combination with more savory ingredients…like tea, or nuts, or meat. The very different flavors balance and enhance each other. And, honey is a great binding agent for pulling together…
Super Simple Hummus – With or Without the Chickpeas
Every time I think about posting a recipe for hummus, I stop. It seems like it is one of those things that everyone covers just because it is so darned simple. And the core ingredients of lemon, cumin, garlic, and olive oil – and even the distinctive tahini sesame paste – can be mixed with…
Garbanzo beans pop, pop, pop – who knew?
Have you ever eaten a fresh garbanzo bean? Have you ever even seen one? I’ve eaten chickpeas for years dried and then cooked, but never, until this month, have I seen these wrinkly legumes in their fuzzy little pods. They “pop” when you try to open them, releasing the air inside. And they taste very…
25 Quick and Easy Gluten-free and Dairy-free Snacks
I love snacks. I’m what you might call a forager or grazer, eating here and there throughout the day. And, when I am not at home, I have a back-up plan. Back in the day, I had a drawer full of snacks that could rival your best grocery store selection…from soup to nuts, literally. And,…
A Weekend’s Worth of Canning Farmer’s Market Finds
We had a state holiday here in Utah a week and a half ago that gave us a three-day weekend. I thought I would go to our local farmer’s market to pick up some sweet cherries – in season, and one of my absolute favorite fruits – and find some corn for a barbecue we…
Clearing the Cupboards = Exotic Trail Mix
I was making a shopping list this morning and realized I had dribs and drabs of certain ingredients, and way too much of others (i.e., they’ve been sitting around for a while and need to be used). This is a common theme in my cooking life. I had about a ¼ cup each of hulled…
Mulberry and Walnut Snack Bars
After making trail mix the other day, I decided to figure out what to do with the mulberries I had left. I ran across a blog called Afghan Cooking Unveiled that had a recipe for Afghan Mulberry and Walnut Power Bars. Very similar to a Lara or Think bar, these raw dried fruit and nut…