Prickly Pear Limeade

We occasionally get fruit from a co-op in town. The last time we picked up our produce, there were a bunch of limes and a bunch of prickly pears. The Hermit Crabs love eating the Prickly Pears, but they can't possibly eat through 12 of them on their own. We ate some, but ultimately, there are too many seeds inside to make eating them pleasurable. Therefore, the recipe for Prickly Pear Limeade was invented.

Ingredients:

10-12 limes (to make about 3/4-1cup juice)

3 prickly pears (to make about 1/2 cup juice)

1/4-1/2 cup raw agave nectar 

3 cups water

Directions:

Juice limes and prickly pears. 

To juice prickly pears, cut ends off of the fruit, gently slice through the skin and peel off. Press fruit through mesh sieve. 

Combine agave with 1/2 cup of warm to hot water (to make agave easier to combine).

Combine all ingredients well and serve over ice.

Note, when I made it today, I only had about 3/4 cup of lime juice and used 1/4 cup of agave. My drink is on the tart side.

Old Thyme Potatoes Recipe

Ingredients

1-2 Potatoes per person
Dried Thyme (about 2 tsp, to taste)
Salt (pinch)
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice potatoes thinly (1/8" thick).
Rinse potatoes under cold water to get rid of some of the starch.
Lightly grease cookie sheet with olive oil. (<1tbsp)
Pat potatoes dry.
Place potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
Brush a light layer of olive oil over top of potatoes.
Sprinkle with Thyme and Salt to taste.
Cook 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and flip. Return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes. Potatoes should be lightly browned, or cooked to your liking.

Notes

Use longer time if cookie sheet is lined with parchment paper. Potatoes do not brown/crisp as much.
Use shorter time, and check about 10 minutes into 2nd cooking time, if cookie sheet is not lined or is lined with foil. Potatoes brown/crisp quickly toward the end.

Chocolate Pudding (Vegan, Dairy Free, Gluten Free)

Sorry, no pictures of this one.

Ingredients:

2 cups cashew pieces (soaked at least 2 hours, longer is better)
1/2 cup dates chopped (soaked if dried, at least 2 hours, longer is better)
1/2 cup milk alternative or water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1t vanilla
Optional (for sweeter "pudding")
1/4-1/2 cup liquid sweetener of choice (agave, maple, honey-not vegan)

Directions:

Drain cashews and dates, reserving 1/2 cup of the water (if not using milk alternative). Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor and combine until smooth. Chill 2 hours and serve. (Adjust liquids as necessary to achieve desired thickness. It does thicken as it chills.)

I have a KitchenAid blender that has been serving me faithfully for 10 years. I feel a little disloyal, but I imagine someday owning a Vitamix or Blendtec which would make blending this pudding so much easier. (I've never actually used either appliance, but my friends who own Vitamixes or Blendtecs swear by them. I don't have any friends who own a KitchenAid blender or swear by it.)

Banana Muffins (Gluten/Dairy Free)

Ingredients:

1 cup palm sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 eggs
4 mashed bananas
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
pinch salt
1t vanilla (extract)
1 cup almond meal
1 cup (scant cup) coconut flour
1/2-1 cup raisins (optional)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped nuts-pecans or walnuts are excellent (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Combine ingredients in order shown. (I use my stand mixer with a paddle.) Stir in nuts with a spoon (if using mixer). I find the nuts and my mixer don't like each other very much.

Line or grease muffin pan. (They do like to stick.)

I use 1/4 cup of batter per muffin. These do not rise too much.

Bake 25 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick (cake tester) comes out of center clean.

Makes about 30 muffins (if adding the raisins and nuts).

If making mini muffins, bake about 15-17 minutes.

Gluten Free Waffles

I used The Crafy Runner's Gluten Free Rice Flour Waffles recipe to make waffles this morning. It's the end of the week and my pantry supplies are getting low. I had white rice flour in the fridge that had been there for a while, so I searched for rice flour waffle recipe and stumbled on her excellent recipe.

I did make some changes, by accident and by necessity.

I only had white rice flour so I used all white rice flour.

I did not have any apple sauce, so I pealed and cored 3 small apples, added about 1/3c water, 1T palm sugar, and 1t cinnamon and pureed my own apple sauce. (This made almost exactly a cup.)

I used baking soda instead of baking powder with no ill effects. This was an accident.

I omitted the salt.

I added about 1/4 cup of maple syrup to the batter for some sweetness. I justify this because I do not typically add syrup to my waffles, but eat them with peanut butter.

What I noticed when mixing up the batter (actually my 4yo Z was doing this mixing) is that the rice flour caked together and had to be broken up. If I had been mixing quickly I probably could have avoided this, but my helper was helping. When I finished mixing my batter, it was still lumpy, so I dumped it in the blender and mixed it on high for a minute to combine well. It was at this point that I added the maple syrup.

This recipe made 10 waffles. The 1/2 cup of batter per waffle was perfect for my waffle iron..