Christmas Kid Party Kababs!

I have twins in first grade and was asked to contribute specific items for the holiday party... 24 paper plates?  No problem!  24 fruit kabobs.....sigh.  There are tons of super cute ideas on the net that are easier...but somehow I got snowmen on the brain and they just had to be.  I am NOT a food photographer, and I could have tried a little harder to make the picture cuter, but I still have a dozen of these bad boys to go, and they are supposed to be at school TOMORROW, not Wednesday like I thought.

I didn't have a melon baller, so I used a tablespoon for the big sections and a teaspoon for the head... 1/2 a grape for the hat brim, and another grape for the top of the hat.  Raisin bits made up the eyes and buttons.  (cut in long halves, pre-poke the hole beforehand with an extra skewer.)  And little slivers of carrots for the nose!  I had all kinds of ideas with apples, apple bits, watermelon mittens even... but these were what I ended up with tonight.  They did keep getting cuter and cuter...I'm sure some super pinter-person will do them up even nicer and get great pics.

Baked Smoothie

I recently followed an interesting online conversation regarding the tagging of recipes as Whole30. In many cases, recipes that contain non-compliant ingredients were incorrectly tagged as Whole30. Duh... they shouldn't be. However, the more controversial recipes were those than contained all compliant ingredients but did not necessarily meet the intent of the Whole30 program.

This is where my interest in the conversation suddenly increased.

When my daughters and I complete a Whole30, our intent is to spend 30 days ridding our bodies of toxins and eating the best we can by eliminating all the "illegal" foods prohibited during this program. My kids are 9 and 10. The promise of better health is not quite good enough motivation for them to want to eat this way. So my challenge, as mom and head chef of our household, is to entice them so that they want to adhere. Show them that I can take some of their old favorite dishes and turn them into Whole30 compliant dishes and usually, make them taste even better than before. I'm not talking paleo-ized mac-n-cheese and fried chicken. But do I look at recipes I've been making for years and seriously consider how I can improve them in a way that makes them healthy to eat? Heck yeah! And I don't feel I'm straying from the spirit of Whole30 by doing so.

So I apologize if I'm one of "them"... one of the people who has been tagging recipes as Whole30 that don't meet the intent of the program. I thought I've always made good judgement of what is or isn't. But maybe my perception of the program differs from what it is meant to be. I'm sorry and I will try to be more conservative in the future.

Like now... (tempted as I am, I will forego the Whole30 tag)

My daughter came home from school one day last week and proudly relayed to me how she turned down cupcakes being passed out for a friend's birthday. This is my sweet-tooth kid and I know the willpower it took for her to say no. A LOT. And so when she ended that story by asking if we could make a treat over the weekend, I gladly agreed.

I've seen many "cake in a cup" recipes and at some point realized they look suspiciously similar to our favorite PB Cup Smoothie. So here's my take on it... They're delicious and contain only Whole30 compliant ingredients.

Makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond butter
• 2-3 T 100% pure cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add all ingredients to a blender and mix until smooth.
3. Grease cupcake pan or fill with liners.
4. Divide batter evenly to make 9 cupcakes. Tins should be about 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Serve immediately.

Apricot-Cranberry Ginger Balls

If you haven't yet made your own homemade version of Lara bars... what are you waiting for?  The best site with the most versions I have seen is at Chocolate Covered Katie's blog.  This is NOT a paleo blog!  She's Vegan and does a lot of raw...and its all desserts.  BUT - her fudge babies are great, and they are paleo--well, most of them! The original recipe is very good, much like a chocolate brownie.  My kids love the "hot chocolate" flavored ones the best.  But today I wanted to use up some dried apricots, and was in the mood for something spicy.  

The basic recipe and procedure is really easy... almost equal amounts of dried fruit and nuts...add spices or cocoa... and blast it all in the food processor until it looks like coffee grounds.  See her site for more, but here is my recipe for today:

Apricot-Cranberry Ginger Balls

6 dried apricots

2 dried dates (big medjool ones, 3 or 4 if you have really small dates.)

1/2 cup dried cranberries.  

(Total amount of dried fruit is 1 cup!)

2/3 cup almonds

1/4 teaspoon dried ginger

pinch allspice

pinch ground cloves

pinch of salt

Dump all ingredients into a food processor and run it until it looks like coffee grounds.  Takes a while, but pay attention so you don't get paste.

Form into balls, or press into an 8"x8" pan and cut into squares.

Makes 16

(When I make these, I dump the finished mix onto cling wrap...form into a log, wrap the log in the plastic wrap and squeeze it together... then I unwrap the log and cut it into 16 pieces.  Then take the chunks and roll them by hand into bite sized balls.  The first time you try these you may think there is no way the mix will stick together, but it does!)