No joke, this jam took less than 10 minutes to make. I do have to mention that a microwave played a major role, and I’m usually not one to rally behind nuked foods. But when a recipe claims to take a mere ten minutes, well, I’m a sucker for that kind of thing.

When it first came out of the microwave, the mixture had ballooned considerably and then slowly deflated, leaving a soupy mixture. As it cooled, the jam thickened, and I have to say, it’s scrumptious. K, of course, thought it was a fabulous science/cooking experiment, which I guess it kind of is, and she loves the jam.

I’m always happy to try out new things, but it does make me a little uncomfortable to consume microwaved food. Every time I heat up leftovers, I feel a pang of guilt. But oh, the convenience! At any rate, this jam was definitely worth the try, and now that my curiosity is sated, I’m back to healthy cooking!

Here’s a behind the scenes look-see of K styling the jam and taking test shots with her little camera, setting it all up for me to shoot. I think she might have a real future in this line of business…

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve continued with my daily green juice for nearly a year now. It helps jumpstart my day, but I must ‘fess up to still being hopelessly addicted to my beloved coffee. Maybe it’s the coffee voiding the green juice, but by mid-afternoon I usually need an energy boost.

I made these no-bake energy blasts (named by one of K’s friends who happened to be over while I was typing this up) and they live up to their name. I slightly modified this recipe by replacing the honey with brown rice syrup (left over from the healthier rice crispy treats), and adding a little dried bing cherries and slivered almonds. I also bought whole flax seeds instead of ground by mistake, but it wasn’t an issue at all.

These are delicious! And kid-approved! A seven-year-old and eight-year-old both extolled the flavor, and this is after I told them that these are on the healthy side as far as snacks go. I popped one in my mouth and savored the notes of poppy seed (from the chia seeds?) mixed in with the sweet/tart zing of the dried fruit and mellow nuttiness of the pistachios and almonds. Increasingly I’m preferring brown rice syrup as a sweetener because it’s not as cloying.

My food processor didn’t like blending the dates, syrup, chia seeds and flax seeds though. An ear-splitting grating noise exploded the first couple of seconds, then it slowly and painstakingly churned the mixture into a semi-smooth mush.

That was the only hiccup, however, and these are so easy to make — my favorite kind of recipe. I’m piling a bunch in containers to keep in the fridge (they’re supposed to last a couple of weeks chilled). Now I’m ready for the afternoon slump!

K made an unusual pronouncement on Sunday that threw me for a loop. “I want something different for breakfast, Mommy,” she said. For the past five years, I’ve been serving up buckwheat pancakes every Sunday. It’s like clockwork: wake up, brush my teeth, make pancakes.

Turns out that my routine girl didn’t want to deviate too much from the ritual. She just wanted different pancakes, so we thought it might be fun to each make our own version. K created a chocolate chip concoction and I investigated our cupboards and pantry for ingredients that might work. I found a bag of oat flour and some super ripe bananas, and hazily remembered pinning a banana pancake recipe, but my gargantuan board proved to be too much work to sift through and the search function wasn’t too helpful, so I googled “Banana Oat Pancakes” instead (must address the Pinterest issue). Voila! I had all the ingredients, and though I forgot to include the cinnamon and nutmeg, these were delectable!

My pancakes were fluffy and virtually sugar-free:

Her pancakes were a sweet tooth’s dream and more like crepes:

Guess which one she preferred?

“Here, Mommy, you’ve gotta try these. My recipe is awesome.”

And you know what? She was right. She made the batter entirely by herself, so I have no idea what she put in there, but they’re soft and airy and marvelous.

Of course, I was partial to my own, much healthier version. Okay, I did drizzle a teensy bit of extra maple syrup on my tower of (mini!) oat pancakes, but these are fairly guilt-free as far as pancakes go:

Oh! I completely forgot that today is April Fool’s!! May your day be filled with gentle pranks that make you chuckle.

I keep a loose sort of blog schedule — every Friday, I list out potential post ideas for the following week and most of the time, I don’t follow the schedule at all because I’m always way too unrealistic and wait to create my post the day before. I’m pretty much a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of gal. On rare occasions, I will list the same topic over and over, carrying it through several weeks without making it happen even though it’s completely doable. These avocado chocolate cookies are an example of that.

I’ve been wanting to make these cookies for months. I love avocados. I love cookies. I especially love healthier options for sweets. I have all the ingredients for this recipe at all times (avocados, coconut sugar, egg, cocoa, chocolate chunks, baking soda and water). Seemed like a sure winner, yet I couldn’t muster the energy to make them.

Part of it was because I knew it would be yet another challenging photography project. Here’s what I mean:

I tried all sorts of things to make them look less cow-pat-esque, but what can I say?

Just as I thought, the recipe was so quick and easy, and within half an hour, I had 18 cookies cooling on my rack. Having had success with avocado chocolate frosting before, I assumed I would adore these. They’re not bad, but some tweaks are in order. I wasn’t sure how much 50grams of chocolate chips would be (I don’t have a scale) so I tossed in a 1/2 cup. Should have added more. Also, my avocados weren’t totally ripe, and this was an issue. There’s a distinct guacamole aftertaste, which, for an avocado aficionado, isn’t such a problem, but it’s definitely weird in a cookie. So super ripe avocados are necessary.

The recipe does state that these taste better cold and after chilling overnight in the fridge, so I’ll test that out tomorrow morn. I just had my second cookie, and you know, they’re growing on me. Guac-cookies they may be and a little odd, but they’re palatable. I like that the batch I made doesn’t use any flour, and coconut sugar is supposed to be a decent sugar alternative, but out of curiosity I might try this recipe next – this one sounds promising! I’m still trying to cut back on sugar, but sometimes chocolate is mandatory, don’t you think?