Playing with Food

Cosmetics

Okay, this post isn't about food, but oh well.

The Environmental Working Group has a site for learning about safe ingredients in cosmetics....cosmeticdatabase.com

I know very little about cosmetics or the ingredients used in them, but I've recently had an interest in learning about what things might be better (or worse) for our skin.  I found the website a bit overwhelming for someone who doesn't even know where to start, so I just scrolled down to the Shopper's Guide to Safe Cosmetics and figured I could start with that.  I printed of the guide and am checking out the ingredient labels of things in our home.  Wouldn't ya know, the majority of the ingredients on our bottle of hand soap are considered "ingredients to avoid."

Guess I'll have to start reading more ingredient labels!

Keeping it Real

Dinner at our house this evening:
Take and bake pizza from Wal-Mart
Salad and raw veggies
Fresh peach slices

Lessons from the Crockpot

Well, I've been trying some of the recipes in Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, which I borrowed from the library.  More than finding new recipes (as if I need more, ha!), I'm learning how to use my crock pot.  Here are a few things...

• It is difficult to burn anything in a crock pot, but given the correct amount of beans, vegetables, and water, it is quite possible to make a pile of mush.
• Slow cooking vegetables in a stew really does make them taste better!
• I've learned that my 6qt crock pot should have 3-4 cups of cooked beans and lots of chopped vegetables.  This means leftovers!  Leftovers means a night off from making dinner!
• I've learned that my crock pot cooks the above beans and vegetables in four to six hours on low.  This means, I fill the crock pot after lunch and it is ready for dinner time.

Yesterday, I made my first attempt to convert a stovetop recipe for French Lentil Stew into a crock pot recipe....Lesson learned: Use less water!

I hope to master my crock pot to make it a more useful tool.  Do you love your crock pot?

Disclosure.

Andy Bars

My three year old asked if we could have "andy bars" for a snack the other day.  I had no idea what he was asking for.  He explained that they were black and I thought perhaps he meant candy bars.  I explained that we didn't have any candy bars and he suggested that we cook some.  (What a great problem solver, huh?)  He reminded me that they would be black and further explained that he would mix the "flour and everything."  Well, who was I to snuff out such a good plan?!

So, I tweaked a recipe that called for cocoa and flour and we made Andy Bars.  My three year old did indeed mix "the flour and everything."  Then, he waited patiently while they cooked and cooled.  I was a bit nervous when it was time to cut them, was this what he had on his mind?

I cut and served him an Andy Bar and, clearly, this was not what was on his mind.  He suggested that we needed to cut them.  So, I cut the candy bar shaped treat into a granola bar shaped treat and that was satisfactory.

In case you need Andy Bars at your house, here's our recipe.  By the way, they do not taste anything like candy bars, or brownies or cake either.  I guess they are just Andy Bars.



Andy Bars
modified from Healthified Cocoa Squares

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2T ground flaxseed
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2-3 T orange juice
1/2 ripe banana, mashed

1.  Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2.  In a separate bowl, combine everything else.
3.  Add dry ingredients to wet and mix.
4.  Pour into a greased 8x8 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  Cool, cut, and serve.