Happy March!

As people say, "Time is flying!" Yes, I will join the majority who believe that the last two months just disappeard! I honestly thought I was going to be dragging through each and every day this winter, because that's what it felt like last year. I am so glad time is flying! I have many things to look forward to this year.

I heard about people doing "Project 366" or whatever, where you take a picture and post it every day for a year. Well, I just don't have enough interesting photo subjects to do that! People would get pretty tired of seeing rainbows, the beach, my happy feet at the beach, and my husband/cookies/food all the time. If I wanted to attempt something like this, it'd  have to be short and at least have some direction. So, someone posted this up on Facebook, and I thought I'd give it a try:

Looks like fun, right? I'm going to give it a whirl. I'll be doing a blog post every day (also a challenge, for me!) so I don't overload people on FB.

Here we go!

3/1: Breakfast: Greek Yogurt, homemade choco granola, and berries #marchfoodphotos

Fun With Flax

Sometimes I feel like I'm turning into a weird hippy-version of myself. One day I woke up and decided that I needed to jump on the flax train.

Right around the beginning of high school, I noticed that I just could not make it from breakfast to lunch without feeling like I was starving by 10am. I decided to save breakfast as the last thing to do before I left for school, but even that didn't help. Now, how many years later? I've finally got my solution (yeah maybe my metabolism is a little crazy but this works).

Flax. This simple little seed that makes me feel so full! I love it! And I can't even taste it! After I got my urge to jump on the flax train, I went down to our local (aka next door) health food co-op store and scooped up some flax meal. I started adding it to my bowl o' Vanilla Honey Greek Yogurt with added assorted berries. I couldn't taste it and I made it until lunchtime! So amazing! Yes, I am really excited.

There are lots of other blogs and websites out there where you can read about the benefits of flax. So go do that. I just love that it's high in omega-3s and fiber. Woot!

Once flax became acceptable as a "good food" to me, I couldn't wait to try it out in other things. I found a recipe via Pinterest for different kinds of granola. I'd been buying granola for my yogurt and the good stuff was getting expensive. My mom-in-law made an awesome granola for us for Christmas and it inspired me to try to make my own!

I made an almond vanilla granola which came out... not too tasty (still eating that mistake - I'm too cheap to throw it away!). Then I tried this recipe from Always Order Dessert for Triple Chocolate Quinoa Granola. Holy chocolate granola goodness. It was sooo delicious. I brought some to work and they demanded more. I sent some to my mom for her birthday and she demanded the recipe. I have yet to sit down and eat some myself (remember, eating the first mistake) so I'm pretty excited to get to it! The recipe calls for chia seeds (which are supposedly even BETTER than flax) but I substituted in my amazing flax meal instead. I had some leftover quinoa so I was able to throw that in. The only things I had to buy were the rolled oats and raw cocoa nibs (which my husband recommends you do NOT eat by themselves, haha!). Give this a try! I want to experiment with subbing in coconut oil for the olive oil since I have a lot, maybe throwing in some wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and more chocolate chips? :)

I also had to give a cookie recipe a try. And I saw this in my very first copy (thanks, Mom!) of the Food Network Magazine. This picture pretty much enticed me:

That and the fact that I already had all the ingredients! Love it when that happens.

Let me tell you that these cookies are a match made in heaven for K and I. For some weird reason, he loves crunchy cookies. I love delicious, soft n' chewy cookies! Whenever I make cookies for us I have to do some juggling to make sure we both get our fix.

These cookies are baked perfection, for both of us, all in one go. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Wow! And ya know, "semi-healthy" with the addition of the flax. TRY THEM!

Oatmeal-Flax Choco-Chip Cookies
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
Makes 32 small or 15 big cookies

Ingredients:
- 6 oz (12 T) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 3/4 c packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 c quick cooking oats
- 1/4 c flax meal
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 c (or more!) semisweet chocolate chips

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, mix and scrape the bowl.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, letting them incorporate fully.
4. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the mixer, on low speed.
5. Mix until just combined and fold in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for three minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Notes: I decided to go against my "small cookie" routine and go BIG! using my cookie scoop. These took a bit longer in the oven (13-16 minutes). Not sure the small cookies will be as chewy but it's worth a shot! I would love to try this recipe with whole wheat flour and maybe bigger chocolate chunks!

These also fit perfectly in my snazzy ant-proof cookie jar (thanks FSIL!!). That chalkboard part is just too much fun!

So, try some flax. And these recipes. Got any more to share? I'm game.

Lilikoi Butter

I am so glad that I moved to Hawai'i six years ago, otherwise I may never have had the opportunity to discover this amazing fruit - lilikoi.

Lilikoi is the Hawaiian name for passionfruit. It has a pretty tarty taste right out the gate, but with some sugar and butter, it is just heavenly! I had never seen it "in the wild" before until last year when walking up a hill in my neighborhood with my sister-in-law. One of the things I love about Hawai'i is that if fruit is on the public side of a fence or street, it's fair game! We'd discovered a lilikoi vine on a fence outside the public water municipal property. We kept our eye on it, waiting for the time when the fruit would be ripe.

In Hawai'i, the yellow variety is most prevalent (the fruit turns from green to yellow). A beautiful flower sprouts up on the vine, and the lilikoi fruit comes out of the flower! How cool is that?!

(not ripe when it's green and hard)

It's kind of weird, you have to wait until the fruit gets wrinkly and looks like it's going bad before it gets ripe. When I had my fruit ripening on the counter also, it made my whole kitchen smell like stinky feet. Not desirable but I was willing to wait it out to get that delicious fruit! You can eat lilikoi just by cracking open the peel and sucking out the juice/seeds. The seeds are surrounded with delicious fruit pockets and are okay to eat, although I prefer to spit the seeds out.

I'm currently growing my own vine in the small strip of dirt we've got on our lanai. I got this tiny, 6-inch clipping from my husband's cousin in December, transplanted it in April, and it has just now started to take off!

I've heard they grow pretty fast, and I thought it would just magically grab onto the fence and climb but it needed some help. I picked up this bamboo trellis and I'm hoping to train it to go all over the place. So far, it's grabbed onto three different places.

I'm hoping that next year, I'll be harvesting my very own lilikoi! The concentrate from Perfect Purée out of Napa Valley is pretty pricey (which can be found at Foodland Farms market in Aina Hina), so being able to make my own fresh from the fruit is practical and worth it. I also like knowing exactly what is in my food. No preservatives or too much sugar here!

I found this recipe for lilikoi butter and decided to give it a whirl! I used about seven fruits and got 2 mason jars full of lilikoi butter. I picked up the lilikoi at this amazing little local market called Waialua Fresh  on the North Shore of O'ahu. It's a drive (45 mins from Town), but it's so worth it! It can be used on ice cream, toast, or you could modify the recipe and make it into a thick curd for tarts, pie, etc! (just add more egg yolks or some cornstarch, your choice!)

Lilikoi Butter
(adapted from LavaLily)

1 cup fresh lilikoi juice
8 oz unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs

In a saucepan, bring to a boil the lilikoi juice, butter and sugar. Temper this hot mixture into the eggs, then add all back to the pan and return to a boil, whisking constantly. The original recipe recommended cooking for another 1/2 hour at a simmer, but I just stopped after it came to a boil. You can strain the liquid if you like before you pour it into some sterilized jars. Cap those suckers and turn them over to seal the jars. Refrigerate after opening.