Chocolate Amaretto Fudgesicles

Since it's been sizzling outside, I bought I popsicle maker! I love popsicles, but I noticed that even the "healthy" popsicles at the store aren't so healthy and they're expensive! Those "fruit bars" they sell and look healthy have sugar and water as the first two ingredients. So, I figured I could do better! Of course, now that I've gotten it I'm doing all sorts of frozen treat experiments. Enter the Chocolate-Amaretto Fudgesicles/ice cream/mousse or whatever else you might turn this into. These are not low-calorie at all (though reducing the amount of nuts would reduce the calories, but also the richness). However, pretty much every ingredient (except the alcohol) is something that on it's own seems like healthy food to me!

Chocolate Amaretto Fudgesicles

This makes about 14 ounces of deliciousness.

~1/2 cup nuts (I used cashews, but almonds also go with chocolate really well!)

1/2  cup milk of choice (I used unsweetened soymilk)

1 large frozen overripe banana, broken into pieces (the more spots the better, heck it can even be almost all the way brown on the outside-the riper, the sweeter, and it reduces the banana taste)

1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3 Tbsp good quality cocoa powder (I used raw cacao and it was amazing)

dash of salt

alcoholic version:

3 oz amaretto liqueur 

nonalcoholic version: 

2 tsp almond extract

if needed, add sweetener or more banana

Directions: 

1) Add nuts to food processor and puree until it forms a ball/paste. It should be a pretty smooth consisitency, but it's ok if it's not as smooth as store-bought nut butters. If the mixture is too dry, you can add water or oil 1 tsp at a time while processing. Note-depending on the size of your food processor you might need to add more nuts for this to work. You can keep the extra nut butter in the fridge for a delicious spread or to use in other treats!

2) Add the other ingredients. Blend blend blend! If desired, stir in extra pieces of nuts or chocolate.

3) Pour into molds or use the batter for something else delicious. 

4) Freeze overnight for fudgesicles. The batter really needs to be completely frozen, not just soft, or else it won't stay on the stick. The alcohol also means this takes longer to freeze completely than other popsicles.

June 30 Day Challenge!

Remember earlier this year when I posted about the 30 day challenges? Well I got a little busy with traveling, and applying for jobs (more on those things later:), so I am just getting started on the next challenge. So here's the big challenge:

Exercise 1 hour every day


Now, this goal without additional restrictions is not a big stretch for me. I actually get a lot of exercise between running, yoga, walking, and swimming- but not every day and not necessarily for an hour. Also, it would be way too easy for me to fill this hour with walking. However, the main goals I have out of this challenge are to increase my overall fitness, and to make sure I keep exercising even as Austin becomes a solar oven for the summer. So I'm giving myself the following rules to go along with the challenge as well:

1-At least 1/4 of the exercise each week is cardio
2-At least 1/4 of the exercise each week is toning
3-No more than 1/2 of the exercise each week is walking (this might not be needed due to the first two rules)

#2 will probably be the most challenging for me, as right now I do very little in the way of toning. Some of my yoga class probably counts as toning, but to help my goals I'm planning on going to some specific toning classes, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the willpower to do 105 minutes of toning every week on my own. Maybe if I found an outdoor gym...

I've been a little lazy on the gardening

Since we moved, I haven't been very dedicated to our gardening. Part of this is we haven't made new garden beds yet and are limited to pots. Part of it is that I knew we were going out of town several times, and didn't want to have unestablished plants that needed extra care. Even so, many of the plants we have are growing well, I think because this spring is so much milder than last spring. 

Our chard is doing well though I need to transplant it. And see that oregano? Yep, it's the same plant as last year.  Also could probably need a bigger pot, which means we need to get more big pots. We also have basil and parsley from last year, although I desperately need to plant more. One bonus of our new house is it came with a huge rosemary bush! Rosemary is actually a perennial in Texas.

Also from last year is this ornamental pepper. Man these are spicy! We haven't actually used them for much but you would only need a few to add a lot of spice. It's a heirloom so I can get you seeds if you want. Each pepper is only about 1/2" long. The green ones were just put on, the red ones have mostly dried out, and you can see it has flowers so it's going to be putting on more soon.

This is one of our orange trees. Even though they are small, they have a few oranges growing! They smelled so great when they flowered around March. Mostly these oranges are an investment for future fruit though, after the trees get larger. Same goes for the blackberries we planted this winter. 

In spite of giving our regular size peppers zero care, they have also been producing. I think they might do better in the pots than when we had them in our raised bed. We planted sweet and spicy banana peppers, and spicy mariachi peppers. Still waiting for our tomatoes to ripen and cucumbers to grow (I think the squirrels may have snagged ripe tomatoes while we were out of town).

 In our courtyard, we also planted some perennial flowers in January. This is a coral honeysuckle, it's native to Texas and is supposed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds (but none so far).

This is a peaberry, also native. You can't see it well in the picture, but it has small cones of pink flowers. The great thing about most Texas native plants is that they only need watering once a month (and most of the time it rains enough that we do not need to water at all). The only problem we're having right now is lots of weeds are coming up through the gravel so I've been pulling them up...maybe we will have to put down the weed blocking cloths eventually underneath the gravel, but this will be a monumental task to do...other ideas are appreciated (we do not use herbicides).

Wonderful Websites

I took a look at my old links and decided my favorites had changed. Also, I figured that by now everyone knew about Lolcats. So these are a selection of my favorite links that I think you're less likely to know about. Enjoy!

Environmental Working Group -This nonprofit focuses on disclosing how safe consumer products are. You've probably heard about the "Dirty Dozen," the common fruits and veggies that have the highest number of pesticides. EWG publishes this, as well as sunscreen safety guides (UBA/UVB spectrum and chemicals), cosmetic safety guides, and cell phone radiation studies, among others. They have some Iphone apps too, so you can be informed on the go.

Seafood Watch -This guide is published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, another nonprofit. It tells you what seafood and sushi choices are sustainable and which are bad, and also give some info. about mercury contamination. They also have an Iphone app and a printable seafood guide, as well as sustainable seafood recipes.

$5 Meal Challenge Slow Food USA - This challenge was based out of the idea that you don't have to spend a lot to eat well. The $5 is based on the average cost of a fast food meal, so people have now submitted thousands of recipes for homemade healthy meals that are under $5/person (many are well under that cost).

Good Guide - This website rates consumer products and brands based on their impact on health, environment and society. Note they are not rated based on consumer satisfaction or value, you will need to use a different website to find that out. They have guides for pet care, kids, toiletries, clothes, and electronics. And they have an Iphone app too:)

Center for a New American Dream - This website is probably encompasses all of my own utopian ideals! Their mission statement says it all:

"The Center seeks to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values, while upholding the spirit of the traditional American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We envision a society that pursues not just “more,” but more of what matters—and less of what doesn’t."

Mediterranean Pasta

This is a recipe that we've been making regularly because it's one of those easy meals that's great for a weekday night, while tasting like you spent a lot of time on it. You can prep all the toppings while the pasta boils. You can play around with the toppings, but I recommend at least keeping in the olive oil, vinegar and garlic, and making sure that some of the toppings will add salt for flavor. 

Mediterranean Pasta

Makes 4 servings (2 cups each)

20-30 minutes

8 ounces uncooked pasta (we use whole wheat penne)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp olive brine

3 garlic cloves, minced

4-6 cups loosely packed chopped spinach (if frozen, use 2-3 cups and thaw (frozen spinach is denser))

15 oz can navy beans, no salt added (or 2 cups cooked)

1/4 cup finely chopped olives

1/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts (to reduce sodium, you could use fresh or frozen and cook it)

2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted

1-2 tomatoes, gutted and chopped

3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

1) Follow package directions for cooking pasta. Continue other steps while pasta is cooking.

2) Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, olive brine, and garlic in a small bowl.

3) Combine remaining ingredients together (spinach-pine nuts), except for feta cheese and tomatoes.

4) When pasta is done cooking, drain then quickly return to pot. Quickly add and stir the spinach mixture and oil mixture into the pasta. The heat from the pasta will warm the other ingredients and wilt the spinach.

5) Top with the tomato and feta.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

Charlie's grandma Jeanne is turning 90 this weekend! In celebration I made this cake. I took a Wilton cake decorating class last year but haven't tested out my skills since. The way we learned to decorate cakes in the class wasn't exactly health-the main frosting recipe we learned was based on shortening. So I set out to make a very special cake. I was worried that if it wasn't healthy, Charlie's grandmother wouldn't eat it. I didn't want it to taste healthy though. I also wanted it to be all natural and vegan. After looking through various recipes for ideas, this is the end result. I think it turned out well. It's not as healthy as eating a piece of fruit (although I did sneak 2 cups of fruits and veggies into this cake!), but as cakes go I think it's pretty good!

Cake batter:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups flour (I used 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour)

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 1/4 cup water (you could use 2 eggs instead and omit oil)

2 Tbsp Canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups grated zucchini

additional water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add wet ingredients. Stir until mixed, then add zucchini and stir until just blended. If the batter seems to dry, add more water, 2 Tbsp at a time until a better consistency. Coat 2-8 inch baking pans with cooking spray and pour mixture into pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in pan then remove and completely cool on wire racks. This will make 2 short layers, if you want a tall cake you could double the recipe. The zucchini makes this very moist.

Raspberry filling: 

1/4 raspberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)

1/4 raspberry preserves

Puree raspberries then mix in preserves. This will spread pretty thin, if you wanted a thicker layer then you could use just preserves (but I find this to be too sweet). 

Chocolate frosting:

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup pureed raspberries (fresh or frozen, if you don't want the fruit you can sub water or soymilk)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp smooth peanut butter at room temperature (or you can use coconut oil)

I had to use an immersion blender to get this to come together, since the peanut butter is a little hard to mix in. If the consistency is too thick to spread, add more water, 1 Tbsp at a time. The peanut butter in the icing will make the icing harden int the refrigerator. Although this doesn't sound like a lot of icing, it spreads easily so I even had some leftover. It tastes completely sinful too. Eating it, I can tell that there's peanut butter in the frosting but it's not the dominant flavor and it's not bad.

Buttercream frosting (for keeping filling inside and for decorating the top)

1/4 cup softened butter or non-hydrogenated margarine ( I used organic earth balance, which is vegan)

2 Tbsp pureed raspberries (or other berries, for color, sub water for white frosting)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus extra

Mix with a hand blender. Add powdered sugar if it's too thin, or water 1 tsp at a time if it's too thick. I had a lot of frosting left for the amount of decorating I did. I don't recommend making any less than this though because it will be hard to fill the pastry bag. I really like the flavor that the raspberries give the frosting. If I wasn't trying to cut down on the sugar I would consider doubling the recipe and frosting the whole cake with it!

30 day challenges

I absolutely love TedTalks and I found some inspiration from this one by Matt Cutts (who apparently got his inspiration from others). He wrote a novel in 30 days. Was it good? Not according to him. But he did it. I find New Years resolutions to be difficult. A year is way too long for most things. I need mini goals, so I thought the idea of 30 day challenges is great! And I also completely get what Matt says about new experiences slowing down time. Apparently the idea for 30 day challenges is common, there's websites that let you track your progress and many blogs dedicated to various 30 day challenges (see http://30daychallenges.net/ and http://30daychallengearchive.tumblr.com/ for example).

So I started my first 30-day challenge last week. My goal is to work through the book Microsoft Access 2007 Data Analysis by the end of February. I have been trying to learn more about databases for awhile and I decided this is the kick I need to get started. I will let you know how it goes in a few weeks!

I am hoping to get hooked on these eventually, with breaks in between each challenge. Some of my ideas are really something new or different, and others are just things I need to make myself do. These are a few of my ideas so far:
-write a thoughtful letter or email each day
-do something creative each day (like drawing or a poem)
-organize a fundraiser
-complete a big home project (since we moved, there are so many of these)
-learn a newer version of GIS software
-do something outside the house each day (it's easy to stay home since I'm not working right now)
-meditate for 20 minute a day (so easy to do, yet so easy not to do)
-get rid of a file a day (having been a perpetual student, I have way too many files)

Why I love second hand

http://savers.com/Default.aspx

In the past, I've been guilty of buying new clothes and later not liking them. I think there's something about just how good the stores are at marketing the clothes. The displays, the lighting, evening the mirrors in the dressing rooms seem to make everything look better. But then I go home, wear it a few times, and decide that what I bought really wasn't so great.

Now, completely unrelated to the above experience, I have wanted to start shopping for used clothes primarily to lessen my environmental impact. But I starting realizing there are many benefits to buying used. 

1. Less environmental impact. My consumer dollars are no longer going to buy new manufacturing in other countries, since the stores were paid by the original owner of the clothes. Literally someone's "trash" is my treasure. No new pesticides will be released into the environment and no dyes or bleach will be spilled to manufacture my clothes. No gas will be spent transporting them halfway around the world. The only impact I can think of is the utilities to keep the store open, and my driving to the store (if I have to drive). And those impacts are true of anywhere I'd be buying clothes. 

2. No slave labor. I no longer have to worry about poor worker conditions and child labor in other countries when I buy clothes, because I didn't pay a store for their new items that could go toward employing workers in bad conditions.

3. The money often goes to a good cause. This does depend on where you buy the clothes since there are for-profits like Filene's basement and Plato's closet, but a lot of second-hand stores are run by charities that use the money for workforce training, and sometimes more specialized program like afterschool programs for kids. Some stores in Austin with charitable programs-Goodwill, Savers (Easter Seals), Assistance League, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Michael's Academy.

4. It's much cheaper. For example, I bought an Ann Taylor knit shirt for $9 and a Danskin organic cotton shirt for $4. And you can go even cheaper by looking at what may seem like less desireable items (like this blog that I love!). Sometimes if you spend a lot of time looking around you can get these kind of deals on new clothes, but I'd say it's probably much harder to find deals like these on new, good quality clothes.

5. If I buy the clothes, I must love them. The fancy displays don't exist. Everything is thrown together on the racks. The lighting is bad and the dressing room mirrors are normal mirrors. If I pick it out and it looks good, then I probably will wear it. But if I end up not loving it, I don't feel as bad because it was pretty cheap in the first place.

There's a few items that so far I'm not willing to buy used. Undergarments and socks, for example. I haven't bought used shoes yet but might consider it if they were washable and I could put in new insoles (but I think this eliminates most shoes). I am also sure there will be occasions where I am looking for a very specific item that I will need to buy new. So I'm trying to find responsible sourcing for these items. My experience so far is that it's more difficult (and way more expensive) to buy new responsible items than it is to find something used.

Also, under this system not everyone can buy used. There would have to be new manufacturing coming into the system somewhere. But from what I've seen, once you find the right second-hand clothing stores, there's lots of good second-hand options available. My favorite so far is Savers. These stores probably exist because of people like me, who would buy clothes and later realize that they were not what they wanted after all. If you want to buy used clothes but don't know where, a good place to start looking is Yelp! Now if I could find something like this for good home furnishings I'd be in heaven, but so far everywhere I've looked for used furnishings is actually really expensive when they are in good condition. Maybe because they would be considered antiques, but they are more pricey than what I'd be buying new. Ideas anyone?

Book List 2011

I've decided to keep track of what I read each year, especially since I got some good recommendations from last year's post. This year I didn't do as much leisure reading. I blame my dissertation. Reading  and rereading my dissertation made my eyes glaze over sometimes. That, and I really didn't find a good stream of books that I wanted to read. When I starting writing this, I realized that I prefer to read books in a series. Not necessarily because they're better, but because if I like the first book then it's easy to find more good stuff to read.

Earth's Children Series This series is historical anthropology-that is, it's fiction about when Neanderthals and humans both existed in Europe. Pretty cool concept and currently relevant with the new DNA studies finding hybridization between Neanderthals and humans. Overall I really enjoyed the first three books in this series The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of the Horses, and The Mammoth Hunters. I found out about these books because the last book in the series was published recently and NPR interviewed Jean Auel. I just had to read them after listening to the interview! The books can be long winded but I would just skim the slow parts. There were a few things that also made it hard for me to take seriously, like Auel making the Neanderthals telepathic. I stopped reading in the middle of The Plains of Passage. True to the name, it was a trek across plains so not a lot going on, at least not where I stopped reading But give the first few books a try, they were a nice read, especially if you are interested in prehistory.

Millenium series I read the first two books in this series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. I ended up really enjoying both, and actually enjoyed the second book more than the first. I would classify these as mystery. The main character is a very introverted person that happens to be an excellent computer hacker and uses her skills for fact-finding missions. Hmm I think my description does not do the books justice. The first book was really slow to start, it took me 100 pages to get into it. Usually I only give a book about 50 pages to capture my interest, and the first book would have failed in that regard so I'm glad I kept reading. I'm looking forward to reading last book this year-The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

In Defense of Food I decided to read this since I really enjoyed the Botany of Desire and Animal Vegetable Miracle. I also have gotten much more interested in where our food comes from. I think this is a really interesting and informative, yet easy read about the state of how and what we eat. I have to say that I really like that he's not vegetarian. Although I am vegetarian, I think that much of the food literature published by vegetarians is biased (of course, so are many of the other people promoting specialized diets). Still, Pollan's cover message is "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Great advice.

Small Wonders I love Barbara Kingsolver, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed her essays greatly. Her writing style somehow rings true to me. She writes about everything, including politics, food, and whether she should let her daughter have a Barbie doll.

Books I couldn't finish:

Bitten This is the first book of the Women of the Otherworld series, and I had high hopes that this would be a good read to follow the Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse books that I enjoyed last year. I think I found the fact that the main character was a werewolf to be too out there, I couldn't relate enough. Probably why I enjoyed the vampire books from a female human perspective but haven't tried a lot of science fiction where it's an entirely different world.