Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

When Kimberly was training for the Park City half marathon, she asked me to be supportive of her training and her effort of to eat health which means "stop making sweet treats". I agree to be helpful and decided to drastically reduce sugar from of our diet and make treats with as little sugar as possible. Cutting white sugar and high fructose corn syrup years ago was easy; I replaced them with organic evaporated can juice. But how do you make treats with very little or no organic cane sugar?
This recipe came to the rescue for me since I like peanut butter and chocolate. The recipe is adopted from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone but I must give a word of caution for those who feel incline to read the book since I have mentioned many recipes from this book on my blog. Even though this book has great recipes, it is not for people who love, enjoy, and plan to eating meat and dairy; her recipes are either vegan or are based on the macrobiotic diet. But her philosophy about dessert is great: "You may not think of desserts as health foods, but I beg to differ. By eating scrumptious vegan desserts on a regular basis, I maintain my mental health, for there is no life without dessert!"

I prefer the mini muffin tin to the regular size tin and one batch makes about 30 mini cups. I can have one or two mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup at night and be happy and satisfied.

3 Table spoons vegan butter; I use 4T if using malt sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener  I use 1/4 cup malt sugar since maple sugar is expensive.
3/4 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter, unsweetened and unsalted; I use Costco's organic creamy peanut butter
10 graham cracker squares or 16 Health Valley amaranth graham crackers, crushed (use a ziplock bag and wooden rolling pin). I prefer the Health Valley graham crackers; they are so good that I tend munch on them for snacks.

Chocolate Sauce
1 cup grain sweetened, non dairy chocolate or carob chips (I love unsweetened carob chips but my kids do not, so I stay with the grain vegan sweetened chocolate chips)
1/4 soy, rice or nut milk; I use So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk beverage
1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts

Line a 12 cup muffin tin (regular size) with paper liners and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture form the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 table spoons per cup, among the muffin cups. Be sure to let the mixture completely cooled before you continue the next step.

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Run and Swim to End the Summer

What a way to end the summer! Kim ran a half marathon this morning at Park City and Cassidy swam a mile with her swim academy this afternoon.

We awoke at 5:15am this morning to get ready. We arrived at the starting location, Newpark Resort and Hotel, at about 6:15am and met up with cousin Kati and her family. It was still dark and there were a lot runners there! It's amazing how many people run marathons or half marathons.

The marathon started at 6:30am. After all of the marathoner took off, runners started to line up for the half marathon. Kim and Kati decided to be in the front of the second wave in stead of the end of the first wave so they lined up right after the orange tape.

The first wave moved out at 6:45am and the girls move to the starting line waiting for the signal.

Waiting, waiting . . . 

They sure did not look like they were about to endure a lot of pain and suffering.

                                               6:50am, time to run!

The half marathoner had to run around the parking lot to get on the trail so we went toward the west end of the parking lot to catch our first photo opportunity of the girls running.

As soon as we took the above photo, we headed to the east end of the parking lot. Here was our second and last opportunity to watch them run, until the end that was. It's funny that we only took a few steps while they ran abut one mile around the parking lot.

These two had been running for a few minutes and they sure look happy to be in the race.









I thought I'd include the course map for those who what to check out the Park City half marathon course. This map is intended for IE browser so it may not work for Firefox or other internet browser.


While Kimberly was sweating and breathing/running hard, Cassidy was getting compensated for having to get up bright and early to watch the marathon.

It just so happened that within 20 steps from where we where watching the girls getting on the trails, there was a Kneaders. Happy Day!

I did not ordered anything at Kneaders; it was too early to eat such a big sweet breakfast. But Cassidy was always hungry. She ordered the Chunky Cinnamon French Toast. It looked delicious! I wounder how many calories it had?

I was so surprised to see a runner back in the parking lot around 8am while we were sitting in Kneaders. That meant he finished running 13+ miles in just over an hour. Wow! We headed toward the finish line at about 8:30am. The girls were running about 10 minute mile during training. We figured that it would take them about two hours and ten minutes to arrive at the finish line. Because the half marathon was an out and back course, the finish line was where the girls started the trail. I was sure that they were looking forward to see the beautiful word "FINISH".

While we were waiting for the girls to cross the finish line, I started to worried a little about Kimberly. She had had a lot of pain ever since her training runs were longer than 7 miles. She had suffered shin splint, her hips would locked up after a run to where she could hardly walk, or sometimes her hip would grind during a run. I was not sure that she would be able to run the course and was afraid that her body would fall apart during the half marathon. 

 

We saw Kati!    

There was no words to describe the feeling of seeing her coming towards the finish line. She was faster than we had anticipated. Her official time is 2 hours 3 minutes and 34.9 seconds.

After Kati came in, I was more worried that Kim was injured. The girls' running speed was about the same, so we expected them to stay pretty close to each other. With every passing moment, I thought that there was a real possibility that Kim was hurt.

Here come Kimberly!

She was smiling, what a great sight!!!

 Her official time is 2 hours 5 minutes and 38.5 seconds.

Way to go girls,

We are so proud of you!!!

In the 19-24 age group, Kati finished 9th and Kimberly finished 12th.
  

After the half marathon was over, we had to hurry back to Marriott Summit Watch so Kimberly could sit in the hot tub for a little while to relax before we had to check out. We had stayed at Park City for the week and it was time to pack up and head home. Actually, Cassidy and I stayed the full week; Roland and Kaydn were visiting grandpa and grandma Brown in Canada. Kim had to work everyday so she only stayed some nights. Kimberly felt pretty good after four Advils (thank you, Dan!), so we did a little shopping on Main Street after we checked out of the hotel. We discovered that there was a bike race going on Main street; a marathon and a bike race all in one day in the same town; pretty impressive.

After returning home, unloading luggage, and running errands with Kimberly to help her get ready to move down to BYU for her senior year, it was time to take Cassidy to the swimming pool for the swim academy semi-annual mile swim. She was wearing her brand new swim suit we purchased before the mile swim. This girl has been growing taller again.

Cassidy and Kaydn joined the swim academy last September, so this is Cassidy's first mile swim.

One mile is 36 laps, or 72 length of the pool, a lot of back and forth. Here is a photo of the swimmers and the counters.

What a great feeling to finish the mile swim; she should wear the goggle indentation proudly!

She finished the mile swim in 31 minutes and 57 seconds.

Three cheers to Cassidy!

One ran the half marathon, one swam a mile, I guess I'd better stay up late to finish this entry on the blog.

 What a special day!

Quinoa Pilaf

Harmon's had their quinoa pilaf for sample one day and I had a taste. I was surprised how much I liked it, so I make a copycat version.

1 cup of quinoa - I like to mix some red quinoa with the white; it makes the pilaf more colorful
Juice of one lemon
1 small red onion, finely diced and lightly sautéed
1/2 cup red pepper, finely diced
1 cup black bean (canned), drained
1 cup corn (canned or frozen), drained
Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 t Agave, optional

Placed 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water in a 1 1/2 quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, covered, and cook until all water is absorbed (about 15 - 20 minutes). When done, the grain appears soft and translucent. The germ ring will be visible alone the outside of the grain.

Add all other ingredients to cooked quinoa and stir to mix well.

Pot Sticker - 鍋貼/餃子

The Nielsons were in town this weekend and we made pot tickers one evening. Yummy!
Try this recipe at you own rick since I do not have exact measurements of seasonings and no good instructions. It's better to come to our house and learn by "live demonstration", so give us a call and come make some pot stickers with us!

1 head of cabbage
1 lb of ground pork or ground turkey
Pot sticker/Gyoza skin
salt
soy sauce
sesame oil

Cut the cabbage into 6 sections and chop in the food processor (I have a Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus) one section at a time. Use pulse so the cabbage does not turn into cabbage soup. Salt the chopped cabbage and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze the water from the cabbage with a cloth; 1/2 - 3/4 cup of cabbage at a time. Mix the dry cabbage with ground meat, add the seasonings and mix well together and you are ready to make pot stickers.

The wrapping part is where you have to come see the demo; I don't think I can explain. I promise that if my friend Chris and I get together to make pot stickers again, I'll take lots of photos and update this blog with detailed instructions!

Misc information: 
If the dumpling is boiled, it's called 餃子 (jiaozi) or 水餃 (shuǐjiǎo); if the dumpling is pan fried as the picture shown above, it's called 鍋貼 (guōtiē) or 煎餃 (jiānjiǎo); if the dumpling is steamed, it called 蒸餃 (zhēngjiǎo). Dumplings are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during the Ming Dynasty for money and the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money, so serving them brings the promise of wealth, good luck and prosperity. Many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Year's Eve so they have money at the changing of the years. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find. According to legend, the pan-fried pot stickers were invented when a royal chef accidentally left a pot of dumpling on the stove too long and burned the bottoms. Undaunted, he served the dumplings anyway and a new dish was born! 
He must not burned the bottom of the dumpling too badly. When I burn something, it's burned; not usually fit to be consumed a food!

Summertime Succotach - lima beans and corn

This is a dish from the book The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and I was pleasantly surprised the first time I tasted it. I must confess that I had not been big fan of lima beans for a long time. When we first moved to the states, my mother used lima beans in place of fresh soy beans in a recipe because they looked almost identical (back then fresh soy beans were impossible to find). My prejudice against lima bean was formed when I was expecting fresh soy beans and got a mouthful of lime beans instead. Never the less, I love the idea of lima beans because of the book A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon (see the end of the blog entry). I loved the story and the fun illustration and used to read it to my kids all the time.

1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter (I often skipped this ingredient and just use the olive oil because I'm too lazy to get it out of the fridge)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup diced red inion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 (10 oz) package frozen baby lima beans, thawed
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon white or red balsamic vinegar (I definitely like the white balsamic better)

Heat the butter and oil together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and saute for 5 to 7 minutes or until the onion begins to brown. Add the garlic, and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the lima beans, and saute for 5 minutes. Add the corn and tomatoes, and saute 1 minute longer or until just heated through. Remove from the hear, and stir in the parsley, basil, and vinegar. Serve warm or chilled.

There is a young girl in the book that likes lima beans...but she doesn't want her friends to know that she likes them...(she worries what others might think of her)...so she stops eating lima beans in order to be like everyone else...and she starts getting stripes and all sorts of patterns and colors all over her body...read it to find out what happens in the end...

Stir-fry sauce

Here are a couple of sauces that I always have on hand for making stir-fry dishes. I keep them in the fridge in empty Briannas' salad dressing glass bottles; the recipes have been modified to fit in the 12 oz container. The brown sauces can be very versatile; it can be used for stir-fry as is or you can add other ingredients like plum sauce, ketchup, or black bean sauce to make some totally different dishes. Sometimes I even use the brown sauce as dipping sauce for pot stickers and the teriyaki sauce for dipping tempura (after thinning it some by adding water).  I prefer using fresh garlic and ginger and always have some garlic in my spice cupboard and a piece of ginger in the fridge or freezer. Ginger can keep in the fridge for a while but if you can't use it up fast enough, just put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in the freezer. I sometimes grate the ginger when it is still pretty frozen. There are a couple of indispensable tools that I use all the time if a recipe calls for minced garlic or powder ginger.  One tool is the Microplane stainless steel zester; I use it to grate lemon/lime zest or ginger. The other one is a Kuhn Rikon stainless steel garlic press; it cost me dearly but it is easy to use and easy to clearn. Plus, I hate the cheep one at the grocery store that don't work well or I manage to break them (I have broken two OXO garlic press). Did I also mention that I don't like to chop garlic by hand? I don't like my fingers to smell like garlic.

Brown Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup broth or water
1/8 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon ginger, minced
1 oz cooking sherry or replace it with broth or water
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
The original recipe also had 1/2 tablespoon of accent (MSG) but I never use it.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup dry sherry or replace it with broth or water
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
2 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 t ground ginger