By looking through 260+ pictures I took, it looks like this weekend was as crazy busy as ever. But I can assure you – we definitely spent a few hours just sitting on the porch, soaking in the sunshine and catching up on books that have been gathering some dust over the past few weeks. And of course, we also ate well. Very well. Thank you, Jane and Jim, for being such great hosts! (I also cooked one breakfast and one dinner – cooking is what I love!). So how about a recap? Ready?….

We like breaking up trips that are over 2 hours with fun stops. This weekend was my first time in Potsmouth, NH where I finally got to taste the famous Flatbread flatbreads.

This adorable drawing pretty much says it all My choice of the carne special – pepperoncini oil, organic garlic yogurt marinated chicken, baby spinach, whole milk mozzarella, kalamatta olives, feta cheese, artichokes hearts and herbs was a very good choice. I can’t see it on my camera so here is Adam’s pepperoni + mushroom flatbread (also awesome!).

The place itself is also adorable, very fitting for a super cute town. I want to go back to Portsmouth asap!

The real eating commenced upon our arrival in Maine though…

HEALTHY HOME COOKED MEALS (over 4 days, in no particular order)

Ellie Krieger’s tricolore penne pasta with chicken (recipe here)

Stuffed peppers with eggplant (and parmesan cheese) – recipe here. I had no idea these were somewhat healthy. I limited myself to just one. I may need to recreate them soon to make up for lost time. haha

Dark chocolate bark with walnut and dried cherries (and crystallized ginger) – recipe here. I ate my weight in these. Addictive is an understatement.

Broccoli-cheese (and sausage) breakfast casserole – recipe here

Chobani with fresh strawberries, blueberries and mango

Chobani with wild Maine blueberries, fresh mango, Kashi GoLean crunch cereal + mixed nuts

+ some blackberries Adam freshly picked on the side of the road while I was eating breakfast

Breakfast casserole with mushrooms and asparagus (recipe here, I added more cheese, more veggies than the recipe called for + some fresh lemon juice)

Blueberry tea cake (Adam’s mom has been making it for years… from this recipe?)

Apricot-walnut cereal bars (recipe here, the recipe yields a lot more than 10 servings and they are very delicious!!)

Zucchini rice casserole (recipe here, we subbed broccolini for zucchini and corn – this tasted like sinfully creamy risotto – SO good yet healthy, although apparently time consuming. Thanks for making this, Jane!!)

On Monday night I offered to cook dinner (although it ended up being a whole family effort after all). What’s more Maine than lobster? Adam and I decided that we must eat it every time we come. At $4/lb, fresh out of the water, it doesn’t get much better than this!!

Adam’s dad steamed the lobsters…

I made the lima bean/corn/grape tomato and bacon succotash (based on this recipe, I used 6 corn ears, lemon juice and of course lobster!!)

Mmm, so summery… and so Maine

We bought 5 lobsters – Adam took the meat out of the last one and shared it with all of us. Good job, honey! Adam’s mom made this lovely pear tart from Ellie Krieger (recipe here)

Oh yeah, we ate quite well at home!

THE NOT-SO-HEALTHY MEALS OUT

A super special dinner at Primo. We’ve been dying to go ever since seeing Anthony Bordain go there. Vegetables served in the restaurant are home grown in their extensive gardens and meats, seafood and cheese are mostly local (we spotted some Italian cheeses – who can blame them?!).

The atmosphere was very cozy (read dark soft lighting) so my pictures would not do the food and presentation justice. Here is my favorite serving platter at the charcuterie bar.

The charcuterie board with homemade sausages was my favorite! Adam and I shared it as a starter and it set the right tone for what was to come – more delicious eats! This molten chocolate cake did not dissapoint either. Yes, I know – predictable… but I couldn’t help myself!

Pretty much the exact opposite of Primo was a plate of fried clams we got at Kelly’s on the drive back. I don’t know what was up with me – I actually got this craving. Adam and I shared this plate. You know who ate the onion rings.

OPEN FARM DAY

Food, as always, was kind of the main activity (well eating it at least) but the coolest part of the weekend was visiting 5 different farms all over Maine. There were dozens open for visitors this past Sunday. How lucky was I?!! These pictures should say it all…

This afternoon, before going back to Boston, we picked some wild blackberries for the road.

Slim pickings today. Does that mean we should come back in a few weeks?

The loot:

Another amazing weekend. I feel so fortunate!!

I had lots of time to destress and reevaluate my priorities. Some small changes will be coming to Healthy and Sane. Stay tuned.

My original plan was to finally make this week’s CEiMB recipe for panzanella with chicken sausage which was featured by Pantry Revisited (recipe here)… but something told me that didn’t qualify. In fact, Adam told me if I hesitated to answer whether this was a man meal or not, that meant that it wasn’t. I guess that’s true. I also purchased some fresh corn on the cob at the farmers market on Friday. Corn is best in the very first few days after being picked so that had to be featured for dinner. After a quick brainstorming session we had dinner which qualified as a man meal but also satisfied this girl. I love my man meals just a little fancier.

Italian style chicken sausage on a whole wheat bun with tomato/cucumber/basil “relish” (based on Ellie’s panzanella salad)

Lemon-garlic glazed corn on the cob (recipe here)

This meal really came together. The salad added lots of freshness and the corn recipe was definitely a winner. I’ve never cooked corn on the cob on the skillet but now I’m a believer. It basically steamed with butter/EVOO/garlic + lemon mixture (I used a little less than the recipe called for) which infused it during the cooking process, and then it was finished with the reduced sauce. Lovely. Adam said this was the best corn on the cob he’s had at home (the one from Toro taking first place so far – I am going to attempt recreating that next time).

Working backwards… lunch

Hummus/smoked gouda/capers/ tomato and spicy mustard panini

This wasn’t just any old hummus – I made EDBV white bean hummus with thyme and fresh basil last Sunday (recipe here) and have been enjoying it in a variety of ways. This is a really fantastic dip – there is so much depth of flavor with dijon mustard, garlic, red wine vinegar and all the fresh herbs. I was in love from the first spoonful. I highly recommend it (don’t worry, it’s not too “herby”).

This panini was another great lunch. The combination of a very flavorful hummus with the creamy cheese, a little pickled flavor from the capers and the freshness of tomatoes was absolutely amazing. The hot mustard gave a kick right at the end. Yum!

A few hours later I made this instant blueberry oatmeal snack. I am actually not a fan of this particular oatmeal flavoring but topped with Barney Butter and fresh blueberries, this was quite satisfying. I got these blueberries at the farmers market on Friday – they are SO sweet. I’m so happy I got 2 containers because every time I pack some, a few jump into my mouth (and I have no problem with that at all. lol)

I also had one breakfast cookie before bootcamp in the morning (for visual, see previous post), an iced coffee with soy milk mid-day and at night- an apple, a serving of dry roasted almonds and some fudge when my sweet tooth hit (sorry, no picture – it was quite ugly so I didn’t bother). As previously mentioned, 3-2-1 is going really well. I feel stronger, lighter and overall a lot healthier. That’s a lot to accomplish in a week.

I’m off to work……story of my life.

So we are back to semi-regular food journal blogging. After a weekend away, I jumped back on the cooking wagon right away. That’s the best way to ensure that I’m eating nutritious foods. Here are the highlights:

I dug deep into my freezer and found an old box of Holy Donuts, which made an appearance in Monday morning breakfast.

I don’t know what kind this was. It was a bit stale but still filled me up.

I added something new to my green smoothie – sprouts. They made the smoothie taste a bit “healthier” but the almond milk + banana + peanuts still added a good amount of sweetness. Not bad. Not bad.

Lunch was a grilled veggie + Samira’s Homemade jalapeno hummus + Foxboro Cheese fromage blanc wrap. Yummy. No picture.

Dinner was AMAZING! Adam mentioned he was craving Chinese food over the weekend. Before I even had a chance to say: “I’ll make some” he added: I want it to be authentic and greasy. No can do on the greasy part. Sorry. I still made a Chinese dish for our Meatless Monday dinner and it was authentic tasting.

Pineapple tofu stir-fry (recipe from Eating Well can be found here)

The sauce was sticky, sweet, sour and a little spicy (I added chile-garlic sauce). This was seriously perfection. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe.

TUESDAY…

started on the right foot. With brunch! Well actually breakfast since it was 8am but it tasted like brunch.

Grilled eggplant, tomato and bacon egg & cheese

+ a bloody mary (virgin don’t worry, I don’t drink before work )!!!

I picked this McClure’s bloody mary mix up in Brooklyn before we left and I’m so happy I did. This mix is spicy and super pickly (not a word, but you get it, right?) – just how I like ‘em! I actually had another glass after dinner. This time I used about 1/2 mix and 1/2 water and it was a little less “I’m drinking tomatoey pickle water”… even though honestly I totally could. Yes, I am obsessed with everything-pickle. I may just make a quick one right now to take to work.

Conclusion: if you see this mix, buy a case!

LUNCH

Leftover pineapple tofu stir-fry in a wrap + carrots. Yep, still amazing.

DINNER

I picked up some grass fed beef at the farmers market the other day and decided to make Lauren’s beef, potato and root vegetable stew for dinner last night (recipe can be found here).

Yes, I know it’s basically summer but I don’t care. This was made in my crockpot (I just threw everything in after browning the meat) and was delicious. I did add a whole bunch of hot sauce, extra salt and pepper and garlic powder to flavor the broth a bit more. After about 6 hours in the crockpot, the meat was tender and the broth thickened up around the veggies.

Summer or not, I still enjoyed this inside our air-conditioned condo.

In other news: I tried a pecan pie larabar yesterday and thought it was incredible. Have you tried it yet? You should.

Oh and of course I promised a giveaway. This one is mostly to Boston readers. Remember the Healthworks event I attended at Alibi? Remember that crazy awesome swag-bag? One of the things included was a free cut + color from a new hair salon on Newbury Street – Rock Paper Scissors. I’ve tried enough salons to know that I can’t cheat at my girl Amanda at Jerel 119 but maybe you’re up for a free hair-do? Sues and Colleen really loved the experience there and have some pretty awesome cuts to show off.

So here are the giveaway rules:

1) Leave a comment if you are interested in entering the giveaway.

2) For an extra entry, blog or tweet about this giveaway (and come back here and let me know you’ve done so). If you don’t have a blog or a twitter account, tell a friend about this giveaway and after they enter, come back and tell me you’ve referred them here.

I’m going to have this open for a few days. If you win, please take some before and after pics and share them with us. Cool?

The rest of you are welcome to comment on anything else in this post. I think there is some good material here, no?

All right, it’s time for me to make my bloody mary and run to work. Happy hump day!

Bats may be the most misunderstood animal in the United States; however, as consumers of enormous numbers of insects, bats rank among the most beneficial of mammals. Bats are vital to their ecosystems and are also wonderful pest controllers. One small brown bat can catch up to 1,200 mosquitoes in just 1 hour! By helping to control many insect populations that attack farms and garden crops, bats allow us to reduce our dependence on pesticides. While natural predators such as owls, hawks, snakes and raccoons do prey on bats, man seems to be the only animal having significant impact on bat population.

Compassionate action for bats:

• provide shelter for bats by erecting a bat house in your backyard
• adopt a bat in need
• make your backyard a wildlife sanctuary by incorporating native wildflowers, shrubs and trees

This little blurb (and more) was on the back of the package of the endangered species chocolate.

The chocolate was not only educational but delicious. The little cacao nibs inside were great. In fact it was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture of the actual chocolate. I had 4 little squares.

Before chocolate, there was real food…

BREAKFAST

2 Food for Life millet toasts with peanut butter and cherry preserves + a pear & coffee

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Peanut butter choc chip granola bar – mmm

WORKOUT

I took a pilates class during lunch and it was LAME. The was a sub and seriously I didn’t even break a sweat. We “stretched” for like 20 minutes at the beginning (and it’s only a 50 minute class). I guess I need to take it easy anyway if I’m going to fight off this cold but I still couldn’t help but be annoyed at the snail’s pace this woman was leading the class. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

LUNCH

Leftover ma po tofu with steamed broccoli and broccolini

DINNER

Eating Well fettuccine alfredo (recipe can be found here)

I was *this* close to having another meatless day, but threw in some grape tomatoes and bacon in at the end. The bacon really made this dish, I’m not going to lie. Overall the dish was quite creamy and delicious. My only complaint is how calorie dense it is. This was a small portion and I was still hungry after finishing it.

Super charge me cookie to the rescue…

And then a bit later, a Doctor Kracker “flatbread” and chocolate (see above)

Not a bad day of eats, even if I did get the munchies in the evening. Are you ready to adopt a bat yet?

We started with this recipe from Eating Well for lemon squares. I know these are traditionally a summer dessert but I got a strong craving for them in the morning and decided to listen. Don’t worry, there are more traditional holiday desserts coming up, but you don’t want to miss this one!

Sweet and tart – we all loved these little guys! Note: we were getting impatient so I cut the first few after just an hour of setting. They were sticky and hard to get out of the pan, although delicious nonetheless. Upon cooking for a longer period, the squares were much easier to produce.

While I was whipping up the lemon squares, Coco and Signe took over the whole grain oatmeal peanut butter Christmas cookies (recipe can be found here). These are basically soft peanut butter cookies with an added chewiness from the oats and a chocolaty burst of the (Christmas colored!) M&Ms (we used dark chocolate M&Ms).

I loved loaded cookies and these were great! Except for the M&Ms, all the other ingredients are wholesome so you can gobble up with a little less guilt (especially if you can keep portion control to reasonable levels… I can’t!)

The last cookie of the night was a traditional sugar cookie. Coco sent me a link to a yummy sounding sugar cookie recipe, but I just couldn’t use 14 tablespoons of butter the recipe called for. Instead I dug out my trusty cooking bible for lighter traditional recipes – The Best Light Recipe cookbook. I had a feeling their sugar cookies would be a hit, and with just 5 tablespoons of butter, I was willing to give it a chance (quite the difference, no?). Our batter made only 15 cookies, instead of 24, but we thought they were the perfect size… and boy, where they delicious! I can’t even imagine a more indulging tasting sugar cookie. They were rich and perfectly chewy.  14 tablespoons of butter?! No thanks, I’d rather have a second cookie!!

These were rolled in sugar before baking. They sparkled. Gorgeous!!

The sugar cookie recipe can be found here.

So fun! An abundance of desserts all around me definitely puts me in the holiday spirit. Back to the gym tomorrow

What’s your favorite cookie recipe? If you bake during the holidays, do you go for the full fat recipe or try the lighter version?

I added some banana slices to half of the waffles, they kind of stuck to the waffle maker but still caramelized nicely. A little maple syrup + walnut pieces and coffee completed this breakfast.

The waffles were sweet and delicious, but kind of dry. I’m going to look for another recipe for my next waffle batch, but I bet they will still be great toasted some day and made into a waffle/Barney Butter/banana sandwich. Mmm

On the agenda:

• Get a Christmas tree
• Go to a bootcamp class at the gym
• Plan a dinner menu
• Go grocery shopping
• Clean the apartment
• Decorate Christmas tree
• Host a dinner for my parents and aunt from Russia!!!

Busy, busy day…

Adam and I went to a fancy dinner last night. I hope to write a review very soon. Stay tuned!

***

In case you missed my other 500 reminders (hehe) – the Waterpik giveaway can be found here.

So it was about 2pm. I just recently finished my delicious (and very filling!) lunch, and as I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to work on my report, I get a huge craving for something warm and baked (read: a chocolate chip cookie!). I think about my lunch and how it’s sitting in my stomach a little bit like a rock, and how a cookie could not fit in it at all; yet the urge to pick up my wallet and walk over to Paradise Bakery for my crack of choice is overwhelming. Why is that, you ask? I’m worried about my project! It’s that simple. I identified this “craving” for exactly what it was, and made a conscious decision to NOT deal with my anxiety related to my project by eating a cookie. A cookie won’t help this problem – only working on my project will! I’ve done this walk to Paradise Bakery too many times. I can tell you from experience the cookie did not do my project for me About an hour later I had a snack, which I planned for later. That gave me a minute to enjoy my food (there was even a tiny cookie incorporated into the snack) without breaking my diet. Much better.

I’m making a conscious effort, as seen above, to solve my problems instead of emotionally eating my problems away. They never really do go away; there just becomes a new problem – me hating myself for overeating. Join me today, and stop the emotional eating! Solve your problems without cookies (unless the problem is that you want a cookie )!

TODAY’S EATS:

Breakfast: Leftover apple pancakes with nutty topping

Mid-morning/pre-workout snack: 1/2 FFL english muffin with 1/2 mashed banana + 1 Barney Butter packet

Lunch: leftover kung pao tofu with brown rice

Mid-afternoon snack: 1 oikos with 1/2 pear and 1 small choc chip cookie

Dinner was almost a disaster. I planned on making a maple roasted pork tenderloin but last minute realized I was missing 2 key ingredients (1 of which was maple syrup!). Doh. Quickly scanning through my saved recipes saved the day! I found Lauren’s post on “pork fingers” and knew it was perfect. The pork fingers were made by following this recipe from Eating Well for almond-crusted pork with honey-mustard dipping sauce. I had some pre-sliced almonds on hand and decided to just leave them like that instead of pulsing them further in the food processor (excellent, 1 less thing to wash! My husband will thank me later for it ). I thought the crunch from the almonds was perfect… I’m glad I left them chunky like that.

The sauce was Adam’s favorite part. He absolutely LOVED it! Here is a quote: “I love this sauce! I want to drink it. No, I want to bathe in it. Make a note of that. Yeah, I think I’m about to start writing poems about this sauce. You need to keep it on hand at all times!” Haha. I actually found the sauce to be too sweet (even after adding a little more dijon mustard than called for) but a review like that made me happy. It was pretty yummy with the pork fingers dipped into it. A little goes a long way here…

One last note on this recipe. Both my husband and I enjoyed it, but we agreed that chicken would be a great substitute for the pork here from the economical point of view. The pork actually tasted like chicken. No need to spend the extra $$$ on the pork if you can’t taste the difference

Oh yeah, I also had a glass of cabernet with dinner. Actually still enjoying it right now

TODAY’S WORKOUT:

I took the abs + spinning classes during lunch today. The abs class kicked my butt (err abs) because I haven’t been doing much of abs exercises lately, and spinning was gloriously sweaty. I loved every minute of it!

All right, I’m off to bed. This girl needs her beauty sleep

TODAY’S EATS:

Breakfast: 1/2 FFL english muffin with a light laughing cow wedge and wild smoked salmon + oikos greek yogurt with organic Maine blueberries

Mid-morning/pre-workout snack: Classic Glo bar from the HLS swag bag:

So much hype about this bar! I think the seeds once again freaked me out a bit. I also spotted peanut butter in the ingredients list and was really hoping for pb flavor. Nope. The bar was definitely wholesome and packed with lots of great stuff, but I wouldn’t “buy it” if I had the chance. I guess I’ve been picky lately

Lunch: “cuban sandwich” – pulled chicken, ham, American cheese, pickles and dijon mustard on whole wheat bread:

I was hoping to toast it all up and let the cheese melt inside, but the toaster at my work had a different plan. It was still a yummy sandwich

Mid-afternoon snack: leftover cake

Today I had “real” dinner: kung pao tofu with brown rice to be exact. I followed this recipe from Eating Well pretty much to the T. I’m not sure what makes it “kung pao” tofu but it was delicious nonetheless. It was great to have a real home cooked meal. I feel like I’ve been combining ingredients lately (read: salads and sammies) rather than really cooking. This was great!

Post dinner snack: last candy bar from my trip to Israel:

By the way I completed 5 miles during the lunch break at 8:47 minute mile average pace. It was a tough run, not sure if I’m still a little weak from the flu or if it’s because I’ve been so inconsistent with my running (due to work, traveling and then the flu) over the past few weeks. Probably both. I’m pretty happy with this time overall (and that I finished it at all!). The important thing was to get my legs moving. They were sore, sore, sore.

Wednesday is tomorrow already. So excited about that.  I’m living for the weekends lately!

How do you stop the snack monster?

Oh and another random question: do you have any easy but delicious green bean recipes? I want to make some as a side dish tomorrow for dinner.

I’m still going through the book and hope that they address all of my questions. I’ve been allowing myself to eat whatever I want (the first stage) in order to free myself from food related guilt. The thing is so far, despite my mouth being satisfied, I can’t get my brain to catch up. I know I’m doing this for a reason, but I can’t help but feel like I’m doing horrible things for my body by allowing consumption of 2 cookies/day.  This is the point of this first stage – breaking the connection between food and guilt.  But… how can you not feel bad about certain foods if you eat them and gain weight and you KNOW they are not doing anything for you nutritionally? And how can you stop thinking about this first stage of unconditional permission to eat anything as a temporary thing? Even if it’s thinking that one day you’ll want to eat less of it, desperately waiting for that day to come before you balloon up? Apparently as long you continue to think of it as temporary (i.e. not really believe that you can have it any day if you want it), then you will continue overeating these foods because you know it will eventually end.  This is supposed to be a freeing experience, to stop the cravings and the “deprivation backlash” (basically bingeing) that inevitably follows. I am SO ready for the next stage! I guess patience is a virtue I do not possess

All right, so this is what I had yesterday… you’re missing a picture of 2 Paradise Bakery cookies. You know what they look like, right? SO good! (But I SO need to stop craving them!)

1/3 c rolled oats, 1/3 c skim milk, 1/3 c water, dried bing cherries, bottom of the jar Barney Butter and apple butter. Yum!

And this is the aforementioned lunch. I used this recipe from the Cooking Light magazine for stir-fried bok choy and lettuce with mushrooms. It was in the Jan/Feb 09 issue in the Chinese New Year section. I bought bok choy at the farmers market the other day and thought this was the perfect celebratory dish to star it. It was very time consuming (took me over an hour to make, something I certainly don’t recommend doing in the morning!) but I was happy to be finally cooking, even if that made me a little late for work. Plus, who doesn’t love a little Chinese food bright and early in the morning? Not you? Oh, ok

We ran out of lettuce in the house, so I omitted it. I also added some massive shrimp to complete this entree (just stir fried them a bit before adding in the bok choy) + served it on the side of brown rice to soak up the sauce. This definitely tasted like authentic Chinese food to me! The mushroom sauce was thick and yummy. De-licious

Some snacks…

Yeah, sun-maid. I don’t know about this message…

Am I living up to “Elina”? What do you guys think? Haha

I ate 1/2 of these. Just wanted something fresh to munch on before my run. Speaking of the run, I tried the Boston Nike running group yesterday. Yeah, I don’t know… it was a little bit a waste of my time. It was quite disorganized, and I ended up running with a guy that did not want to push himself as much as I would have if I ran by myself. The loop we ended up doing ended up being only 4.3 miles (I planned on doing 5) so I left him off and ran another 0.7 to finish myself off. I sped up for that last part, but the average speed was still 9:05 minute miles. It was crazy humid, and the run was tough (kind of made me nervous for 13.1 miles – eek!), but I know I could have done better than that. I was hoping to find someone running at my speed that I could befriend and train with for my first half marathon (signed up yesterday, btw – SO excited!!!!!) but that didn’t happen. I hear Lululemon has another running group starting on Thursday nights, so I may check that out. We’ll see.

By the time I got home (after a shower at the gym) it was nearly 9pm, so dinner was quick, but still crazy awesome I followed this recipe from the Eating Well magazine for tijuana tortas. We used a french baguette form Panera (Adam refuses to eat whole wheat ), omitted the onions, and sliced the avocado instead of mashing it. The result? So simple and flavorful. I discovered recently that Adam is a HUGE black beans fan. He was practically moaning while eating this, and said he could become a vegetarian if he could eat this every day. I liked it a lot but for me the avocado was the star. I love avocado!!

Messy but yummy

I wanted chocolate for dessert and grabbed a healthier chocolatey treat:

Unfortunately this kind of overstuffed me. Damn. Why do I keep doing this to myself? This is like the 3rd day in a row that I went to bed in pain. Ugh. Apparently the sensible thing would have been just taking a few bites of it and putting it away. The “finish your plate mentality” needs to stop. Like asap. Of course I’ll keep you posted on my progress Does anyone else feels like they have to finish their plate? How often do you realize it wasn’t a wise decision after all? Happens to me more often than I’d like it to be, but I am determined to get better.

Happy Thursday! The weekend is just around the corner

In the most recent (December 2008) Eating Well addition, the grand prize winning cookies of the cookie swap challenge were the Angel Delights.  The recipe sounded easy enough and I thought would be fun to bring to work with me.  Here are some progress pics and some commentary on the challenges I’ve encountered.

Chopped dates, sugar and butter…

Melting in the pot:

** If you make these (which you should) make sure to melt the butter, dates and sugar really well.  The recipe states to do this until it looks like a paste.  I chopped the dates pretty coarsely so I thought they wouldn’t really melt away and turned off the heat when I thought it looked “pasty enough.”  After reading the reviews online (and the editor’s comment) I realize I probably should have given it another 5 minutes on the stove!**

Combine with vanilla extract, salt, coconut and rice crispies…

It looked to me like there wasn’t enough date/butter mixture to rice crispies ratio.  I was afraid they wouldn’t stick together well, and my fears materialized.  I squeezed these bad boys pretty hard and made about 35 balls until the rest of the mixture seemed just way too dry to stick.  Here are the beauties:

My husband ate one right away and said he understood why this was a winning recipe… and he doesn’t even like coconut!

I tried to salvage the rest of the mixture, added it back into the pan hoping that some of the leftover butter would warm up and make it a little stickier.  I added a little bit of honey too.  No luck!  I think I got another ball out of it, but then pressed the rest into a bread pan and stuck it into the fridge.  There aren’t many dates left there, but I’m hoping somehow they will melt together as they cool.  I just tried to cut a little piece off but it still kind of crumbles.  I ate a few spoonfuls worth  It was yummy!

So yeah, the moral of the story… these are delicious (I’ll update with my co-workers reviews) but make sure you really melt the butter/sugar/dates into a paste!

Hope your Sunday is going well… I have a bit of a sugar rush now