Fondue Night, "Fudge Babies" and "Quick and Easy Tastes Like PB Cookies"

Daddy was a little late getting home last night so we ate dessert first!

I told the kids we were going to make cookies, and they went upstairs to get their aprons and chef hats. The boys came down in their sailor hats. Sissy had my old Martha Washington cap (from my 6th grade Constitution play). They said they couldn't find the others', but they didn't seem to care at all. Tornado and Sissy put on their Lowe's Build and Grow aprons.

We had two cooking stations going on, for two different kinds of cookies.

We made these "Quick and Easy Tastes Like PB Cookies" that I saw on Rawdorable's blog.

Here is the recipe.

It's basically just almond butter (we had to throw in a little cashew butter because we didn't have enough almond), nuts, flax, and agave. I'm telling you, my kids gobbled these up as quickly as they would any cookie with sugar and margarine. Daddy loved them, too (although I had to finally hide some away for him before the little cookie monsters ate them all). He said these were his ideal kind of dessert.

I had to use my tiny food processor to make the "flour" because I was already using my other one. Next time, I will try to pulverize the nuts even more.

I am definitely going to be trying out more of Rawdorable's cookie ideas. Look at these fun Play-Dough cookies. This is a different post about how she made them.I got this idea from Chocolate-Covered Katie, a very fun blog. You can check out her recipe she created; it's just walnuts, dates, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Look, chocolate is very important to me, and I'm not usually quite so satisfied by any raw type of dessert. However, this tastes GOOD (although I only ate a couple myself - "I" don't need as much "healthy fat" as the kids do). And you don't even have to cook them.

Dates are seriously amazing. I only started using them this past year. Before that...they FREAKED me out. I thought they looked like little roaches or something. It was Ryan always telling me how good they are - and reading about all of these healthy, raw recipes - that helped me get over it and try them. Now, I don't think they're "freaky" at all. They sweeten your recipe without sugar and help it all stick together.

We shaped them like cookies because I thought it might entice the kids more to call them "cookies." We barely had any dough left, by the time it came to shape them. I definitely need to tripe/quadruple this recipe, too.

Dash said, "Mine don't look as good as yours!"
"That's okay!"

How about mixing the two?

Or how about a little Fudge Baby Sandwich?

Daddy's idea was to make fondue and eat it on our bed (tablecloth thrown on top of the covers!), while we watched a show about dinosaurs he had recorded. My little pajama-wearing Brachiosauruses were thrilled.

We dipped toast chunks, olives, grape tomatoes, bell peppers, baby carrots, fava beans (givin' them another chance...and no, not because they are apparently a "natural viagra," according to Cary...I just needed to finish up the bag.), baked tofu, kielbasas, and broccoli. I used the Swiss Fondue recipe out of Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Cheese Cookbook.

This is one of the cookbooks I use the very most.

Kid Snacks

Nothing too original here - pumpkin seeds, grapes, almonds, blueberries, granola, carrots, olives, peaches, and pecans...but this is what I'm trying to do lately.

One of my "problems" during the day is having three kids wanting to snack throughout the day. I'm all for them snacking and eating when they feel hungry, rather than at required meal times, but it's gotten a little out of hand. I just feel like I'm in continual "fill drinks and prepare food" mode and constantly up and down the stairs. Having set meal and snack times made it a little better because I could say, "Snack times at 10:30; wait until then." They still try to sneak things out of the fridge that I don't really want them to snack on all of the time, like soy cheese and bread with margarine.

So that is why I've been giving this a try, and so far, so good. I fill a mini loaf pan after breakfast sometime, and then either set it out on the table or put it in the fridge for the day. They can pick from it when they want. Since there isn't anything unhealthy, it wouldn't really matter if it "ruined their supper," but that hasn't been the case. Plus, the pan is really easy to carry around.

Granola bars pieces, oranges, avocado, raisins, cashews, and apples...I stirred the avocados and apples in a little orange juice to keep them from turning brown during the day. The fruit usually goes the quickest, which is good, since it is losing its vitamin C after being peeled. I just googled how quickly that happens. All I could find was this about oranges: After only 8 hours at room temperature or 24 hours in the refrigerator, there's a 20 percent vitamin C loss. If that's true, that actually isn't as bad as I thought.

back to Nature Organic Stoneground Wheat Crackers, carrots, blueberries mixed with goji berries, and cheese cubes made from a recipe out of The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak...great cookbook, probably the one I use the most of any cookbook.

The cheese is made out of ingredients like tahini (didn't have any, but I was able to quickly whip some up by food processing raw sesame seeds, olive oil, and water), nutritional yeast, cashews, and agar flakes. I have made grilled cheese sandwiches, fondue, nachos, macaroni and cheese, and cheesecake with ideas from that book.