Almond Flour

This post piggybacks on my last post about almond bars. It's just another way to use that leftover pulp, and it's just as easy, if not, easier. Take the pulp and spread it thinly in a baking dish or cookie sheet. Turn your oven on as low as it goes. Put the dish with the almond paste in the oven and don't remove until the paste turns dry from dehydrating. This takes several hours. Next, put the dehydrated almond pulp into a food processor and grind until you have a fine flour. So simple.

Frozen Almond Bars

What does one do at 2:30 in the morning when one should be sleeping, and preparing for the soon to come adventures of a busy toddler? Write, of course. Here goes. So, I am constantly making things that I find so simple I deem not worthy of writing down. These are, however, the same things that completely vanish from memory after the fact, until something like Timehop brings it back into consciousness. This time, I decided to write a couple down. We will begin with the frozen almond bars. Since my afore mentioned toddler loves almond milk, I have become obsessed with providing her the freshest, most nutritious version possible. Enter Soyajoy G4. Let me start by professing my undying love for this newly acquired contraption. I could write pages describing all of its wonderful attributes, but this is a post on almond bars, not my beloved Soyajoy, so I will refrain. Anyway, the procedure of creating almond milk leaves you with two things in the end, the milk and the pulp. In seeking to find ways to make use of this pulp, which I'm certain is still full of nutrients, I have googled and googled and finally have come up with my own version of almond bars....the simplest version possible. So simple, I doubt it could actually be classified as a recipe. You'll see. Take the leftover almond pulp and mix it with almond butter until it forms a sticky, not runny texture. Spread into a baking dish, making it about half an inch thick, sprinkle with pink Himalayan sea salt, cover and freeze. Once frozen, cut into small bars and put back into a storage container in the freezer to pull out whenever you crave a bite of pure awesomeness. Of course, you can switch it up by adding mini chocolate chips, shredded coconut, the options are endless. However, I had just returned from a much needed vacation to South Beach and almond pulp and almond butter were pretty much the only things left in my kitchen at that time. Yes, that is seriously it. See? That is precisely why I never write these things down. Now I have. You're welcome.

Whole Wheat Almond Butter Pancakes

So....a bit of a different take on the ol' blog today. Since becoming a mom, and now newly a stay at home mom, I spend much more time in the kitchen than in restaurants, much to my dismay. So...in lemons to lemonade style, I decided to save myself from my daily afternoon pull my hair out stuck in the apartment winter boredom, and start listing my triumphant, kid friendly, kid tested recipes on this site....mostly, so I wont forget in my mom fog. It is still about food, after all. Here we go... Whole Wheat Almond Butter Pancakes.. not being much of a baker, I went online and googled a few different recipes, and created this one solely based on what I happened to have in my kitchen at the present moment, since it is snowing and 23 degrees outside right now...aka...no way in hell I am going outside, or even getting out of my pajamas for that matter. Here is what you need for about a dozen silver dollar sized pancakes: 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons of raw sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of almond butter 3/4 cup of almond milk, Himalayan sea salt, coconut oil, and a nonstick pan/skillet. Warm up the almond butter enough to make it easy to mix, then combine everything and drop circles onto a coconut oil greased heated nonstick pan or skillet. When the pancakes start to bubble, flip them over until they are golden brown. Easy peasy. My toddler just ate five of these....FIVE! Seal of approval.