dates – Backdoor Hospitality

Whole 30: Day 30 & Key Lime Pie Kamillebars

Well friends, today is day 30 of my 30 day challenge. It is officially over at 12:01 am, but I will avoid any temptation of getting out of bed for a glass of wine. These 30 days have been quite remarkable, in the physical yes, but even more in the emotional, mental & spiritual realm. It’s interesting when I tell people about this challenge, because there have been typical responses.

Eyes pop out of their head
They realize their eyes popped out and try to compose their facial expression to a more subdued look.
Nodding of the head (as in I cannot believe you are doing this to yourself).
The response, “Wow, you must have a lot of willpower,”
Or my other favorite response, “That’s amazing (but I wonder if they really think I’m nuts), but I couldn’t live without…FILL IN THE BLANK!”

As for willpower. I guess if you asked my mom about me being a girl, if I had a strong will, she’d say yes. If you asked Ben the same, he’d probably agree. However, I think willpower is more about seeing the potential for something good and setting on the course to achieve it. It’s making choices everyday because you see the end goal. I make choices now as a mother to discipline my girls, in order for them to know of life’s consequences and how to have enough “willpower” to say no when faced with life’s bigger dilemmas (you know the ones that have catastrophic effects).

When I looked at myself in the mirror even three years ago, I didn’t see someone who was healthy or someone I wanted to be. But when you hit a place in health decline, whether that’s being overweight, chronic health issues, lethargic, etc, you can easily get so trapped and wonder, “How did I get here? And how do I get out?” This goes for any challenge in life, it just happens to be nutrition & exercise for me. And specifically, this 30 day challenge was a challenge; considering I love to bake and my shelves are overflowing with cookbooks. Yet, when I see myself now compared to the girl who walked into Jogo August 4th for a basecamp fitness introduction (ached for days), I remind myself of her. I see that girl and think, “that’s willpower, to get up at 5:30am to come workout, completely out of shape and all because she wanted better in life.”

Who would’ve thunk it? Certainly not me, but I’m SO VERY THANKFUL for it. In fact, it’s amazing how alive your taste buds are when you take away sugar for 30 days. Dates are simply ethereal (and a bit dangerous) and figuring out how to make my own Larabars were even more so. I first had a Key Lime Pie Larabar during the challenge, and I could have sworn there was cream cheese in it. The ingredients simply said: dates, cashews, almonds, key lime concentrate. I set out to do what any rational person would do…figure out how to make my own. And they’re good, really good! But, I’m warning you right now to only save a couple and share the rest, because 1. you’ll be sure to make friends that way and 2. you’re body will thank you later.

Key Lime Pie Kamillebars (printable recipe)

I have made these twice. The first time they turned out better than the second time, merely because the nuts didn’t get finely chopped in the food processor. I realized that the first round I used dates from Trader Joes, which were more dry. I think more dried dates work better in this recipe. While the second time I had these wonderful, soft dates from Costco. Due to the dates being quite soft, they pureed before allowing all the nuts to puree. So the pureed dates caused everything to stick without chopping.

Ingredients:

16 ounces dates (weight is based on dates with pits still in)

2 cups/225 grams raw cashews

1 1/8 cup/165 grams raw almonds

1 cup/80 grams unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 tsp pure lime oil

3-4 key limes, juice OR juice of 2 limes (the kind you find at the grocery store)

Directions: Place cashews, almonds, coconut, & pitted dates into the bowl of a food processor. Process until the nuts are almost pureed, just not into a nut butter. You may want to pulse a couple times. Once the the nuts & dates are chopped well, add the lime juice & oil and pulse to combine. You will want the mixture to be a bit sticky. Taste to see if you need to add more lime juice.

Put in a 9×9 square pan, patting down evenly. You can slice fairly soon after. I cut mine into small squares; rather, than the traditional bar. If left out they will dry a bit. So cover them if you want to retain some moisture.

Energy Bars

I can recall ubiquitous labeled ‘energy bars’ everywhere in the 90s. It seemed like they popped up in all shapes, sizes, flavors or non. I also recall most them making me want to gag. They were full of healthy ingredients, but a little too healthy that you wondered why they didn’t just call it a multi-vitamin bar instead.

That being said, I’ve never been a big fan of Luna bars or crunchy granola bars. What was left was soft, yet sugar filled granola bars. All of them lacked various components. When I think about an energy bar, I don’t want to see sugar on the label, or carob, alfalfa or cooked so long that it chips a tooth. Luckily, I married a man who agrees with me on all accounts, which is probably why he found Great Harvest Bread’s energy bar stellar. It was chewy, a bit moist, but not crumbly, rounded flavor and filling. Everything an energy bar should behold.

Here are the ingredients in order on the G.H.B.’s energy bar: rolled oats, dates, natural peanut butter, honey, almonds, oat bran, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, vanilla & sea salt. Of course, we don’t know how much, but that’s what my job is–right?! I cracked a code and came up with a pretty darn close replica. I used a full 6 cups in this recipe, but after baking them, I think 5 cups would have been better. I had planned on using 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter, but only used 1 cup. If I had used 1 1/2 cups, then the 6 cups of oats might not have been a problem. But enough with what I did–go on and make them and let me know what you think. They’re sure to be a hit and be gone more quickly than you can make them.

Energy Bars (printable recipe)

These are great to tie you over and quite filling. If you’re vegan, then try using maple syrup or agave nectar. If you have a peanut/tree nut allergy, you could always use sunbutter.

Ingredients:

5 – 6 cups; 17.5 – 21 oz; 500-600 grams rolled oats

2 1/4 cups; 8 1/2 oz; 236 grams medjool dates (seeds out)

1/2 cup hot water

1 cup; 8 oz; 226 grams natural smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup; 6 oz; 170 grams honey

3/4 cup; 3.5 oz; 100 grams almonds

1/2 cup; 2.5 oz; 65 grams oat bran

1/4 cup; 1.25 oz; 34 grams whole wheat flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp kosher salt

Directions: Soak your pitted dates in a bowl with the hot water and cover with a plate for about 10 minutes. Drain the water and dump dates into a food processor. Puree it up. You will need to scrap the sides occasionally. Add the peanut butter to the dates and puree again. While the machine is running, add about 1/3 of the honey (save the rest for later). The mixture will clump into a ball and that’s okay.

Remove as much of the date mixture into a small bowl–set aside. Put in the almonds and pulse at 3 second intervals until they are coarsely chopped.

In a large bowl, combine 5 cups (or 500 g or 17.5 ounces) of rolled oats, leaving the additional 1 cup of oats aside, oat bran, w.w. flour, almonds & salt. Mix it all up.

Put the date puree mixture into the rolled oats bowl. Add the vanilla now & using your hands, begin to mix the ingredients altogether. This will take a bit to incorporate the oats into the date puree. You want the oats to be completely bound by the date mixture. Go ahead and add the rest of the honey to help soak more of the oats & bind it all together–mix some more.

Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and press mixture into the pan. You will want them to be about 3/4 inch thick.

Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. The underside of the bars will have more of the toasty look. (You can cut them and turn them over & bake for an additional 5 minutes) Cut them into squares (or bars). Serves about 12-15.

Vegan Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I lived in a house in college where I lived with 9 of my best friends. Well, no, they weren’t my best friends, but I did live in a house full of girls (10 of us total) for two years. The second year I lived there, one of my housemates had a gluten & lactose sensitivity. I remember thinking, “well that’s not fair that she can’t enjoy baked goods!” (at that time gluten-free products were not nearly as common as they are now). Part of my make up is creating food that people like, enjoy & can eat without irritability.

I have since become acquainted with words, xanthan gum, teff, quinoa, buckwheat, millet & so many more sources for gluten-free living. I find that this is a way I can contribute a portion of my hospitality to my non-gluten loving friends. They need some baked yummies–dontcha think! Well, tonight I made these cookies from my new cookbook The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. I wanted a something sweet like chocolate chip cookies, but I didn’t have any eggs and I didn’t want to have cookies leftover in my house. So, I had the ingredients to make them, I could eat a couple and give the rest to my friends Laura (gluten, egg & lactose intolerant) & Tina (gluten intolerant).

Vegan Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (printable recipe)

These are gluten-free, egg-free and if you use coconut oil than they’re also lactose free. And as for a non-allergic individual, I find them to be pretty darn good. Note: I wouldn’t call these chewy, but still good.

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies

1 cup medjool dates, pitted

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup melted virgin coconut oil or organic butter

1/4 cup whole cane sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon xantham gum (I used 1 teaspoon agar agar)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup (or more–I used 1 cup) organic chocolate chips

I also added 1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Place pitted medjool dates into a small bowl, cover with boiling water. Let sit for about 15 minutes. Then place soaked dates and water into a blender and puree.

3. Scoop out date puree with a rubber spatula and place into a bowl. Add melted coconut oil, whole cane sugar, and vanilla; whisk together.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and sea salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together with a fork or wooden spoon. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Gently flatten each cookie with the back of a spoon. You don’t want to flatten them too much, only slightly.

6. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes. Baking time will depend on what size the cookies are. Larger cookies need a little extra time and smaller cookies a little less. Let cool slightly then enjoy! Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.