They're peanut buttery, chocolaty and perfect for Passover. Yum. Unleavened Peanut Butter Cookie Balls are the perfect recipe to make ahead for Unleavened Bread/Matzah Week (also referred to as ULB). I found the recipe for these cookies even before I knew what leaven was- then when we started keeping the Feast of Unleavened bread; it occurred to me that these cookies fit the requirement for any food that is to be eaten during the Feast. First of all they are unleavened, secondly they are super easy to make (that's not actually a requirement) and third, they are absolutely scrumptious (actually, that's not a requirement either- but it should be!).

Here's the Recipe I used (altered enough to my own liking that it is almost completely different from the original! ha)

Unleavened Peanut Butter Ball Cookies

1 cup Soft White Flour 

1/3 cup Raw Cane Sugar

1/3 cup Sucanat

1 cup Natural Peanut Butter

1 cup Chocolate Chips

1 Egg

Combine all ingredients. It may seems dry, but trust me, it works. Next, pack dough into cookie scoop and place balls on cookie sheet and bake at 350* for 9 minutes. Let cool and remove from sheet.

So, the good news is- here's a fun recipe to try!

The bad news is that I didn't get this finished before ULB so you didn't get to try these this year :( And the other bad news is that I tried to make a Trim Healthy Mama version but they weren't worth sharing.  Maybe next time.

Hope your Pesach was as awesome as mine!

Bethany

Hello everyone!

We have been getting ready for so many things recently. Passover....Unleavened bread......Emily's graduation.....Joe and Naomi visiting. This year my family and I are going to Tennessee to celebrate the spring feasts. I can't wait! 
So many things to look forward to!

One of the things I did to get ready is make Granola, yum!

Here's the recipe that I use:



GRANOLA

1 stick of butter

1/2 C coconut oil

1/2 C olive oil

1 C honey

12 C rolled oats

1/2 C chia seeds

1/2 C sesame seeds

1 C sunflower seeds

2 C raisins or chopped dates

1 Tbsp cinnamon

In medium pan add: butter, coconut oil and olive oil. Heat on low heat until melted. Add: honey. Stir well, until melted. (Can add 1 tsp vanilla.) In large plastic bowl put: rolled oats. In coffee grinder, grind: flax seeds, chia seeds and sesame seeds. Add to bowl. Add  raisins and cinnamon. Mix wet into dry ingredients, a small amount at a time until very well mixed. Let set for 30 minutes. Preheat oven on 275*. Spray 9X13-inch pans or cookie sheets well. Put granola in pans just until all of bottom of pan is covered (about 1/2 inch). Bake 15-20 minuets, until golden brown. Take out and let cool on racks. Use a spatula to remove. Can store for 3 weeks or more.

Well, I got to go!

Blessings, Lydia

Gluten. Did any of us even know what gluten was ten years ago? But now gluten-free foods seem to be popping up everywhere and many books promote the gluten-free diet as a cure for headaches, bloating, or even excess weight. I don’t find any advantages in the diet (I’ve gone gluten-free for a few months without much noticeable difference) but I have friends who have had great results in going gluten-free.

Perhaps you are gluten-free for health reasons. Maybe you can eat gluten but you cook for family members who can’t. Or maybe you like to try gluten-free recipes because you enjoy exotic textures and the challenging adventure of cooking with unfamiliar ingredients.

I come from the latter group. I was first introduced to gluten-free by my older sister Naomi who, like many other women, likes to follow health trends (Vegan, gluten-free etc…). I appreciate this about Naomi. She likes to follow health trends but I’ve always been the one who gets caught up in false “health” trends- Low-carb, vegetarianism (the kind high in SOY), using artificial sweeteners etc… Thankfully I’ve had a change of mind when it comes to what constitutes “healthy”; Whatever God gave us as food, as close to the way He made it as possible, with variation and moderation.

It’s been about two years since Naomi introduced our family to the highly addictive qualities of Brazilian Cheese Bread. These little breads are actually more like biscuits. I honestly don’t know why they’re called ‘bread’, because they’re not a solid loaf. It would probably make more sense to call them ‘breads’… but let’s just call them biscuits. These are fairly fast and easy to throw together, in fact, my brother (Clayton) made a batch of these the other day and they turned out great- and, having four older sisters, he’s not the most experienced cook in the family.

Let me tell you more about the breads themselves. They are a pretty golden color when baked. The texture of these biscuits could best be described as a mozzarella stick with a crusty exterior when hot, and a slightly dry, tough biscuit when cold.  For this reason our family prefers to eat these hot and fresh. If your breads do get cold you can to throw them in the toaster oven until hot- but they are best fresh.

One good tip to remember- Don’t forget the tapioca flour! Naomi made these once and completely forgot to add the tapioca… thankfully she put them into muffin tins because when she took them out of the oven they were little puddles of greasy cheese. The worst part of this story is that we ate them anyway! We rarely throw food away here. For example; we’ve eaten sugarless brownies, burnt pancakes and stony, dry biscuits. Thankfully we don’t have to endure this type of food too often but it does happen.

I tried to track down the recipe source online and I couldn’t find it! I did alter the recipe and re-write the directions so it’s not exactly like the original. I don’t claim to have created this recipe and don’t take credit for it. If I knew the author of this recipe I would certainly give the credit to them.

Brazilian Cheese Bread

7 TBS butter

1/3 cup and 2 TBS water

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp salt

2 cups tapioca flour

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 beaten eggs

Preheat oven to 375*

Place butter, water, milk and salt into medium sauce pan, and place over high heat. When mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat immediately and stir in tapioca flour until smooth (However I can never get it smooth, so no worries if you can’t either). Set aside to rest for 10 minutes. ***SPOILER ALERT*** the texture of the mixture is very much like the finished biscuits!

Stir cheese and eggs into rested tapioca mixture until well combined; it will be chunky- think yellow cottage cheese. Drop by the spoon full onto an ungreased cookie sheet or into mini muffin tins (We prefer the cookie sheet method best).

Bake until tops are slightly golden (15-20 minutes). This batch makes about 12 biscuits.

I like to prepare these to accompany our Mexican Black Bean Soup. Actually, I like to make these to eat with any type of bean soup.

Eat and give thanks!

Bethany

Matthew 4:4 “…Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God”

So I was looking for something to have for dinner one night and I found this on www.food.com. It sounded really good so I decided to try it and it was good! Below is me modified version of the recipe, I hope you enjoy! 

Ingredients:

6 cups vegetable broth 
2 Tablespoon tomato paste
4 cups chopped cabbage

1 cup green beans
3 cup chopped kale
1 yellow onion
1 cup carrot
8 garlic cloves (or more!), minced 

2 cups navy beans, cooked
1/2 teaspoon basil 
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste 

1. Spray pot with olive oil and saute kale, onions, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes.

2. Add broth, tomato paste, cabbage, green beans (I used our home-canned ones), navy beans, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

3. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes until all vegetables are tender then add Zucchini and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.

Serves about 12

We also really liked putting milk or plain yogurt in each bowl when it was ready to serve.
. 

Be happy and Healthy! 
                   Lydia

I had never cooked with rhubarb before... until our friends gave us some from the overflow from their friend's garden. Their friends happened to be our friends too and I want to share this recipe with them :) The friends of the friends I mean.

Since rhubarb has a lemony tartness many people use it in recipes that require large amount of sugar. I am a bit of a health nut and didn't want to make a sugary rhubarb dessert. This is when I turned to my best source for recipe ideas. After googling "Healthy Rhubarb Bread" I decided to get more specific and search the internet for "Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Rhubarb Bread Recipe". I figured that a recipe with bananas in it would help cover the rhubarb's tartness without using as much sugar. If I was making this recipe for myself I would have halved the sugar but I was making it for my family too so I thought it best to leave the recipe alone.

It's a slightly altered recipe from SnoWhite from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

It is a tasty recipe so I thought I'd share it.

Whole Wheat Banana Rhubarb Bread

Ingredients

• 1 C sucanat or sugar
• ½  C honey
• 2/3 C plain yogurt (slightly heaping)
• 3 medium bananas, mashed
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 C spelt (or flour of your choice)
• ½  tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• Splash of milk (if needed)
• 1 ½  C chopped rhubarb

Directions

Cream together the sugar with yogurt.  Add in honey, mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla. Mix. 

Pour in flour, salt and baking soda. Stir well. 

If batter is overly thick, add in a splash or two of milk (up to 1/2 C) to thin slightly. The batter will be thick, but shouldn’t be like cement :) 

Stir in chopped rhubarb. 

Pour into 2 lightly greased 8-inch bread pans. 

Bake at 350 for until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about an hour then check it every 5 minutes). If I remember correctly my loaves took around 70 minutes.

Nothing completes Shabbat dinner like a soft, warm out of  the oven Challah.

On October 12th 2012, I made my very first Pumpkin Challah- We loved it so much that I kept it in the
corner of my mind to do a blog post about this recipe. 

If you’re not a pumpkin fan- never fear! The pumpkin in this recipe is not overpowering.

The best part about this particular recipe is that the recipe below it is called “Pumpkin Challah Cinnamon Sticky Rolls” and it uses a half batch of Pumpkin Challah dough. 

When I made this recipe I divided the dough in half in order to follow the Sticky Roll recipe. The entire recipe made a nice large
Challah and a pan of Sticky Rolls. Sticky Rolls make a wonderful Shabbat Night dessert.

If you want to try out this recipe (and many others, just as tasty!) it is found in the “For Zion’s Sake Cookbook”
on page 91 (in the section titled “Bread and Breakfast” and the subsection "Yeast Breads”). 
 
As you can see from the picture, I am a challah braiding amateur! Plus, I sprinkled the top with cinnamon resulting in a dirty, dusty looking challah loaf! Oops! You live and you learn.

 Thanks for reading!! :)

                                                                                             Bethany
                                               
                                                 (Sorry, no picture of the Sticky Rolls, they were gone too fast ;)
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In the first week of December you can expect:
 
An article from Emily on the importance of spending time with your brothers and some ideas on activities that you can both enjoy. 

Also, Lydia will be posting an article on napkin folding that will consist of; directions for folding, pictures, and resources for more ideas. You can use your newly acquired skills to add beauty to any meal. 

Naomi will be posting in second week of December about volunteering at a local food pantry/thrift store. She will share some of her experiences and encourage you to be a servant in your community. 
 
I (Bethany) will also be posting in the second week of December. My post will be about book choices. Even if you don’t completely agree with the conclusions I draw, I hope you will be challenged to re-think your choices.  

For the second half of December we will be posting on:

Praising YHWH  (Emily)

Hairstyles Part 2 (Lydia)

Pumpkin Challah Reveiw (Bethany)

Contentment (Naomi)

                                                                                   Keep living (everyday) set-apart,
                                                                                                   -Bethany-


Dates and Themes are subject to change without notice.  ;)

My generous uncle just gave us some giant zucchini from his little zucchini farm (it’s not really a zucchini farm-he only has 50
plants). We are very grateful because our zucchini plants are dying (as of this publications they are DEAD).
Anyway, I wanted to share one of our family’s favorite zucchini recipes with anyone brave enough to try it. 

This is a wonderful recipe to try if you have a boat load of zucchini and you've already made; zucchini bread, zucchini relish, zucchini marmalade, zucchini pickles, zucchini pizza- you get the idea. I found this Apple Pie recipe last August but I forget exactly how I came across it but I am glad I did! Here is the original recipe if you would like to try it- http://www.food.com/recipe/zucchini-apple-pie-38717

The first time I made it I used white flour but last time I used whole wheat flour. Using whole wheat flour does make in a little grainy but if you already use whole wheat 99% of the time you probably won’t mind- we didn’t. 

Here is my version of the recipe


 Mock Apple Pie with Zucchini 


Ingredients:

½  LARGE Zucchini (to make 10 cups thinly sliced)

1/3 cup Lemon Juice

1/3 cup Water 

½ cup Soft White or Spelt (you can use white flour if you want)

1 cup Sucanut (or granulated sugar of your
choice)

1 ¼ tsp Cinnamon

¼ tsp Nutmeg

1 dash of Salt 

For Crumb Topping:
½ cup Soft White or Spelt (or white flour)

½ cup rolled Oats

1 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

½ tsp Nutmeg

1/3 cup Butter (Slightly softened)

Directions:

1. Peel zuccini and slice in quarters lengthwise

2.  Gently scrape out seeds, slice thinly (very thinly, as thin as you can get it!)

3.Put zucchini, water and lemon juice into a pot with lid on top, simmer and stir frequently until slices are tender

4. Drain but do not rinse 

5. In a medium bowl mix zucchini, flour, sucanut, 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon and salt 

6. Place all of the above in a pie pan

7. In a seperate bowl mix together the first five crumb topping ingredients then cut in butter

8. Place all of topping on top of pie

9. Bake at 400* for 30-45min

 

Not all Zucchini pie recipies are alike!! One of my sisters made a different recipe and it was yucky :)
When I made this recipe no one even guessed the secret and didn't believe it when I told them!

Yahweh bless you and happy baking!

-Bethany-
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