Dark Chocolate Nut Butter Rice Crispy Treats--

I was actually an adult before I had a rice crispy treat. My mother was a lentil bean feeding hippie throw back when I was little. We did not have a lot of the junk food treats like Twinkies, ho hos or rice crispy treats. Different world out there today, less people prepare their kids snacks and more people purchase fast food. When I pack my kids lunches I always wonder if they will be looking over at what the other kids are eating and wish they could have it, too. I know I did, no one when they are little likes to be left out. Though--a lot of school peers loved to trade some of their food for my mothers Zucchini muffins--bonus for me!

Anyway, school is about to begin here in NH and with the foods schools are offering I try to make sure I have a variety of healthier choices at home to be packed into the lunch pail. This week we tried out some gluten free organic rice cakes. Now, I will admit just because it is organic does not make it healthy for the body. What it does do though is provide a better advantage to the body in processing the foods and allocating the nutrients to where they belong. our body is not looking at the artificially created food product and wondering just what the heck it should do with it. So--this is a good reason to even make treats organic. In this recipe we include the fats of peanut butter to fill the child up longer and of course help they remain focused at school. Slow down that food fuse to allow for a nice burn rather than an energy surge and a crash of fatigue 60 minutes after snack. I also used brown puffed rice cereal since it is gluten free and has more fiber.

Puffed Rice Bars
serves 16
3 cups Organic Puffed Rice Cereal
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
8 marshmallows OR 1/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 cup raisins
1 ounce dark chocolate

Combined peanut butter and marshmallows and heat in a microwave for 2 minutes. Stir the mixture until smooth--you want to make sure the marshmallow has melted and melded with the peanut butter. Then add in the puffed rice and raisins--blending so the cereal is coated. When I did this it did not look at all like it would form bars, it looked like the cereal was barely coated at all but when you press this into your pan it will stick wonderfully--trust me!
So--press firmly into a pie plate or a 9x9 baking dish. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread evenly on top of the newly created treat and cut into even pieces before the chocolate cools. I made palm sized pieces, or 1.5"x1.5" which ended up being about 100 calories each.
My kids devoured these....DEVOURED--so I plan on making them on Sundays and quickly putting them into containers for the lunch bags so they won't be gone by Monday.

Per Serving
Calories- 98
Fat- 4 grams
Carbohydrates- 13 grams
Protein- 3 grams

Summer Frittata

OK, let's face it--eggs are really underrated in their versatility and they still have such a bad reputation thanks to the "anti-egg" campaign of the 1990's. I am not sure how we came about degrading such a natural wholesome goodness of the egg--which is full of good fats, good vitamins and rich in proteins. We think of eggs as boring, additive ingredients made to make a dish more cohesive. So I wanted to rethink the egg and rethink breakfast, but in my genius rethinking of the egg I ended up with an old classic--a Fritatta. A frittata is basically an open faced omelette--once again making the egg the background scene for a main dish. Let me just emphasise, though, that the egg in this dish is as much a benefit to this dish as a 400 small block engine is to the Camaro.

Summer Frittata
serves 2
4 whole large eggs
1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup shredded peppers
2 cloves garlic pressed
1/2 small onion shredded
1/2 sweet red pepper shredded
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped finely
2 fresh basil leaves chopped finely
2 ounces feta crumbled

Preheat a non stick skillet on medium heat. In a mixing bowl beat eggs until frothy. Add in the rest of the ingredients except the feta. Pour the Frittata batter into the pan, moving the mixture around to ensure there is no pan showing. Cover and cook until egg is firm--about 7 minutes.
Invert egg onto a serving platter and top with feta cheese. Serve warm.

Calories Per Serving: 235
Protien: 17 grams
Carbohydrates: 7 grams
Fat: 15 grams



Other Good Ideas:
- You can vary the vegetables in this depending on the season. Shredded potato, squash, peas, brocolli etc
-You can serve this cold making it an excellent ( I wanted to say egcelent I admit it) luch box menu item

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread? Wait--and it tastes good too!?!?

It is June here in New England but the weather has been reflecting cool autumn days rather than the hints of summer heat. Rather than actually turn on the heat in June I decided to do some baking. I was rewarded with the reminder that baking is wholesome and that the scent of cinnamon and pumpkin is as soothing as the summer nights. Keeping with the trend in here of baked goods being gluten free i decided to look around at some bread recipes and see what I came up with. I am very pleased with the results--even the husband and kids asked for more--MORE--MORE!

You can see in the image that the bread has a delicate texture with plenty of air holes resulting from the chemistry of ingredients melding to form the goodness that was this bread.




Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
(serves 30 because I made 2 big loaves)
1 1/2 cups Rice Flour
3/4 cup Tapioca Starch
3/4 cup Potato Starch
1 tsp Cinnamon
3 tsp Xantham Gum
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup cream ( I used this instead of oil-you can use soy milk even!)
1/2 cup Agave Syrup
4 whole eggs
2 cups pureed Pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oilk 2 loaf pans then dust them with flour to prevent sticking. Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. In a mixing bowl add all the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Slowly add dry mixture to the wet mixture--I did this 1/2 cup at a time to ensure even blending. Split batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 60 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans. Allow to fully cool before slicing.

Calories Per Serving-140
Carbohydrates- 24 grams
Protein- 2 grams
Fats- 4 grams

Other Good Ideas-
You can serve this with some Greek Yogurt spread over the top.
Great for toast!