Preacher Balls (vegan friendly chocolate sweet treat)

This is supposedly a very old recipe and I found it in one of my favorite sweet cookbooks, The Joy of Chocolate by Judith Olney.
The Joy of Chocolate (Barron's Educational Series)

Preacher balls are sort of like chocolate truffles, but made with oatmeal, nuts and cocoa powder (not chocolate). I upped the nutritional value on these by adding sunflower seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, and ground flax seed to the cocoa mixture. I covered the balls with various combinations of chopped peanuts, cocoa nibs, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and sesame seeds.

Lots of good stuff in these little guys. To re-cap: cocoa powder, oatmeal, almonds, peanuts, cocoa nibs, flax, sesame, sunflower, hemp, chia and pumpkin seeds. And truly, they taste really, really good. I made these vegan by substituting almond milk for regular milk, and vegan margarine for butter. I think you could also cut back some of the sugar by replacing it with splenda or something similar. And, you can roll these in cocoa powder, powdered sugar or coconut if you're not a seed-nut person.

The recipe supposedly makes 36 Preacher Balls, but I ended up with lots more than that. Maybe because I added extra stuff? Anyway, these store well in the refrigerator.

Preacher Balls
1 stick unsalted butter (or vegan margarine)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk (or non-dairy milk)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 cup ground almonds or pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.

Combine the butter, sugar, and milk in a medium saucepan. Let come to a boil over medium heat, then continue cooking at a slow boil for 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and immediately stir in cocoa, the oatmeal, ground nuts, and vanilla. Mix everything well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Cool briefly, then refrigerate until the candy hardens somewhat and you can handle it.

While the candy cools, toast the almonds in a frying pan or in the oven until they are light brown. Chop them into a coarse dice.

Scoop up a portion of candy the size of a large marble and roll it between the palm of your hands until it is smooth. Roll in the chopped almonds and then refrigerate the balls until hard.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Milky Way Cupcakes

This recipe is from Buttercup Bakes at Home by Jennifer Appel.
Buttercup Bakes at Home: More Than 75 New Recipes from Manhattan's Premier Bake Shop for Tempting Homemade Sweets

I am not usually much of a cupcake baker; I prefer to make big 'ol cakes since I'm always too impatient to fill the cupcake pan properly. But, when I read that there are melted Milky Way candy bars in the batter, I had to make these cupcakes. Dave loves pretty much any candy bar ever made. When I buy Halloween candy, I have to buy extra bags to keep him out of the stash for the trick-or-treaters.

These cupcakes really do taste like the candy bar, but just not as sweet. They are moist and rather sticky, so be careful not to over full your cupcake liners or you'll have major trouble trying to get the cupcakes out of the pan.

I iced the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting--cream cheese and powdered sugar with just a bit of vanilla and lemon juice. The not-very-sweet frosting went well with the candy bar cupcakes. Yum!

Milky Way Cupcakes

3 medium-size classic Milky Way bars, cut up

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, divided

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a medium saucepan, melt the candy bars with 1/2 stick butter over low heat. Stir occasionally until smooth and set aside. Cool slightly.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the sugar and the remaining 1/2 stick of butter on the medium speed of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in the melted candy and mix thoroughly.

Spoon batter into the cups to about two-thirds full. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool completely.

Frost with your favorite icing or dust with powdered sugar.

Zucchini Pretending to be Pasta / Gourmet Garlic Gift

Zucchini ribbons in the guise of pasta. Neat, 'huh! This is a good way to have a low carb meal, and also a great way to use up extra zucchini from your garden. For a topping, you can use marinara sauce and some Parmesan cheese, but I like it best just with olive oil and smashed roasted garlic.

And speaking of garlic, my lovely friend Jill sent me a package of gourmet garlic grown in Wisconsin. I love it! I have been adding garlic to just about everything I make. I never knew there were so many garlic varieties, and it's fun taste testing the different types. This garlic is milder, fresher, and less bitter than my local grocery store version. It's really good and I used the Italian Mountain red to make fabulous garlic bread.

You can order some of your own gourmet garlic here.

And, the recipe is from the New York Times and you can find it here.

Haystacks (chocolate-coconut candy) (vegan friendly)

This must be the easiest candy recipe ever; it's just two ingredients and no real cooking involved. These taste sort of like a simplified Almond Joy bar.

You can make vegan haystacks simply by switching out regular chocolate for vegan chocolate.

The two ingredients you'll need are shredded coconut and semi-sweet chocolate--both cupboard staples. The full recipe is here.

Thai Young Coconut / Homemade Coconut Milk

I was so excited to see that the local grocery store has young coconuts for only $1.25 each. I stocked up since I like them much better than the regular brown coconuts. I think they taste lots fresher, and it's SO much easier to get them open.

I usually add the water and meat to recipes, but this time I made my own coconut milk. It was simple to do and really delicious; you just blend the water and meat together. I like using coconut milk in smoothies and vegan ice cream.

Chef Steffy Sue (I love her!) has a neat video on how to open young coconuts. She is such a cutie and she is a wealth of information on healthy cooking. You can watch the video here.

Red Beans and Rice (vegan)

With Dave being away, I can indulge my love of spicy food. Every savory thing I've made lately has a kick to it. Dave does like mildly spicy dishes, but he can't tolerate things that are too smoking hot.

I made a simple red beans and rice recipe though of course, I left out the meat and used vegetable broth. I also added a little liquid smoke.

Here's a basic red beans and rice recipe similar to what I made.

The New Cat Tree

A few weeks ago, the generous people at CSN Stores gave me a gift certificate to use towards an item of my choice. I went back and forth debating whether to get a cat tree or a waffle maker, and the cat tree won out since I love to spoil our critters.

Well, the tree is a HUGE hit. The cats love it and climb it like jungle animals. It's so funny to watch them race up and down and jump from level to level. It was easy to build and is really sturdy and well made. It's such a popular place to hang-out that I think I'll order a second one to have in another room.

Thank you SO much CSN Stores! Your gift is much appreciated.