Kale Sesame Chips

I wanted something to go with our pumpkin sauce pork-chop lion, so I decided to make some kale chip "jungle leaves".

A local blogger friend of mine, Emily, has the basic recipe that I used here.  I substituted coconut oil instead of EVOO, and sprinkled mine with sea salt and sesame seeds.  They tasted amazing!

Kale:

+

Coconut oil, salt, and sesame seeds:

=

Yum!!

These really were easy and delicious and they made a great side with the pumpkin sauce lion.

Pumpkin Sauce and Pork-chop Lion

Today's fun food was made to look like a lion.  It was also grain-free and dairy-free.

To make the lion's mane I used Ancient Harvest Quinoa veggie curls.  Follow the instructions on the back of the box precisely, I boiled mine for a couple minutes longer than suggested and they came out a little softer than I would have preferred.

The pumpkin sauce contained:

Pumpkin puree - 1 (15 oz.) can

Chicken stock - 2/3 c.

Coconut milk - 1/2 c.

White onion - 1/2 medium onion, chopped

Kale - hand full, finely chopped

Salt - 1 tsp.

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Curry spice blend (cardamom, ground tumeric, ground cumin, coriander, chili powder) - 1 tbsp

Pumpkin spice blend (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice) - 1 tsp.

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat until it bubbles.  Be sure to stir often to avoid burning the bottom.

While I made the sauce I had these cooking.  Boneless pork-chops, seasoned and popped into the oven at 350 degrees F for about 30-45 minutes.

To make the lion, I put the pasta and sauce on the plate first and topped it with a pork chop face.  I also used two small pieces of pork chop for the ears.  The details on the face were made with green, yellow and red pepper (eyes, mouth and whiskers), an almond (nose), black beans (pupils), and a cauliflower (muzzle).

We ate our lions with a side of "Jungle Leaves" (aka. kale chips), recipe here.

Homemade Bit-O-Honey... or not...

I couldn't decide whether or not to post this recipe because, as the title implies, the intent was to make a homemade version of Bit-O-Honey.  My version, though it did taste good, didn't quite capture the same flavor as the official candy.  My family loved this recipe though, so I decided to post it.

This was also my first time attempting to make homemade candy, so I used a combination of the ingredients listed on the original candy and the instructions for a honey caramel candy found at Naturally Sweet Recipes.

I simplified the original list and ended up with 6 ingredients (one not pictured).




















Honey - 1 c.
Coconut milk - 1/4 c.
Almond Meal - 1/4 c.
Coconut Oil - 2 Tbsp.
Vanilla Extract - 1 Tsp.
Almond Extract - 1/2 Tsp.

Pour one cup of honey into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Continue to boil until the honey reaches "hard crack stage", which is just over 300 degrees F on my candy thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, I found this page that explains another way to check candy stages.  To avoid burning the honey, I kept the stove top on the lowest possible heat to keep the boil and continually stirred the honey with a wooden spoon.

Once the honey hits "hard crack" stage, immediately remove it from the heat and add the other ingredients (coconut milk, coconut oil, almond meal, vanilla extract and almond extract). Stir until everything is combined.

Pour mixture into a parchment lined (or well oiled) dish and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour or until cooled and hardened.
*I also had a random candy mold lying around so I put a little but into the mold to see what would happen.

Once everything was cooled (which took about an hour in my fridge), I took them out to make individual candies.

The molds were easy, I just turned the whole thing over and applied slight pressure to the middle of each candy mold and they popped right out.

To make the rest of the candies, I pulled the "honey brick" out of the container and used a large knife to cut individual pieces.  The honey brick was fairly hard so I had to use a good amount of pressure and a back and forth rocking motion to get through it.

I cut the brick into bite size squares and  wrapped each piece individually using sections of wax paper.

Keep candy in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Final notes:

Although my family enjoyed my recipe "as is",  I still feel the recipe needs some tweaking.  The flavor was a little strong for my taste, so I think next time I'll omit the almond extract completely.  The amount of coconut oil can probably be reduced as well.

I'd also like to use this recipe as a base to experiment with making honey lemon throat drops.