Wicked Good Blueberry Custard Crumble

Last summer about this time, my husband and I were in Maine for a trip together before he had to leave for almost half a year of training.

The drive to get there took forever, but as soon as we entered the state, we pulled over at a roadside stand for fresh blueberries and we ate them all week long.  

So the first bite I took of this dessert instantly made me think of Maine.

 

We went sailing, kayaking, hiking, exploring...it was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  The towns were small and quaint, and the people used "wicked good" as an adjective for everything.  I highly recommend it for a summer trip!  (Especially since the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts are much cheaper than they will be in the fall.)

On to the dessert:

Wicked Good Blueberry Custard Crumble

Preheat oven to 400.

For the custard, mix together:

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sucanat (or sugar)

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

Add:

2 1/2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Pour into a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the topping:

6 tablespoons butter 

1/2 cup rolled oats

4 tablespoons sucanat

4 dashes cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

(You can either melt the butter and then add the other ingredients, or just chop the butter into small pieces and then mix.)

After the custard has baked for 25 minutes, sprinkle on the topping and bake for 15 minutes more.

Adapted from here.

Chocolate Coconut Bites

 

If you like LaraBars, you'll love these!  I picked up a LaraBar on that disastrous shopping trip and noticed that it only had 5 ingredients: dates, almonds, walnuts, unsweetened cocoa, and coconuts.  As I read the ingredient list and thought, Why am I spending $1-something on this one bar when it looks like I could easily make this at home? as well as What do dates look like and where would I find them in this store?, I glanced down and happened to notice a bulk bin labeled, "Dates."  

Then I faltered in my decision to make these homemade LaraBars, because those dates looked to me like cockroaches.  Anyhow I gulped and bought some, anyway.

When we got home, I googled "homemade LaraBars" and found this page: Fudge Babies.  I changed that recipe just a little bit by adding walnuts and rolling the "babies" in coconut as the final step.

Ingredients:
-1 cup chopped walnuts and/or almonds (I used about 1/2 and 1/2)
-1 1/3 cup pitted dates
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-3-4 tablespoons cocoa powder
-Shredded coconut to taste

The most difficult step is taking the pits out of the dates.

After that, just put everything into a food processor and process away.

It may seem a little too dry, but it's actually just right for forming into balls and then rolling in coconut.

You really won't believe how delicious they are even without any sugar!

They are full of nutrition, too: omega-3 fatty acids in the walnuts, heart-disease-lowering power in the almonds, and antioxidants in the cocoa.

Tempting + healthy = perfect :)

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cookies

This recipe is, perhaps, more for Autumn.  But my husband is such a health nut that it is not easy to get him to eat cookies.  I need him to eat cookies with me so that I won't feel so guilty.  (Even though the nice thing about using (semi) healthy ingredients is that you can eat as many as you want and it's okay.)  (I think?!)  But anyways, I wanted to make him a treat for his lunches, and he likes these so much that he'll eat the whole batch if I don't hide them.

The original recipe is Big Soft Ginger Cookies from Allrecipes.com.  It has 2,777 positive reviews, so you know it will be good! I just made a couple of changes to make it healthier.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used white wheat flour this time, but I've also used regular whole wheat and they still come out great)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup raw sugar or sucanat
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses

Side note... do you see that brand of molasses I bought?  Brer Rabbit?  When I opened it up, I realized that it didn't have any kind of seal, nor did the lid pop up.  I went back to the store but none of the bottles had any type of seal!  So I guess they are sold that way!  I was hesitant to use it, but I did, and we are still alive.

Directions:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

-Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  If you use sucanat or raw sugar, it doesn't always look so light and fluffy:

 

-Beat in the egg, water, and molasses.

-Add the dry ingredients.

-Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

-Spray the bottom of a glass with nonstick spray, and then use the glass to flatten the cookies.

 

-Bake 8-10 minutes.  When you take out the cookie sheet, let the cookies sit on it for a few more minutes to finish baking.

Now, leave just a few out for others to eat and hide the rest quick! Especially if you want to save some for yourself! :)

Linking to Recipe Swap @ Remodelaholic

Apple Blueberry Crumble

  

I saw this dessert at Rachana's blog and decided to try it a few months ago.  I make it several times a week now either for breakfast or a snack. 

Organic Granny Smith apples seem to taste the best.

 Here is our favorite type of blueberries:

I made just a couple of changes to her recipe...

Apple Blueberry Crumble

Ingredients:

1 organic apple, chopped 

1/3 cup blueberries

1 tablespoon honey

Dash of cinnamon

Topping:

1 tablespoon whole wheat flour or oat flour

2 tablespoons oats 

1 tablespoon sucanat (or brown sugar)

Handful of chopped walnuts

1-2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Cook the apple, blueberries, honey and cinnamon powder in a pan on medium heat until the fruits are slightly soft.  (You can throw in some ground flaxseed too if you like.)

-Mix all the ingredients of the topping, except for the butter, in a bowl.

-Place the cooked fruits in a small baking dish.  

-Use that pan to melt the butter and then add it to the topping ingredients.

-Spoon the topping over the cooked fruits and spread evenly.

-Bake for about 15 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (and a couple cherries...)

Goal: To eat more fruits and vegetables.

I often buy lots of delicious looking fruits at the grocery store, with the best of intentions.  But so often they get moldy after only one day.

So one day I discovered that if I cover some strawberries in chocolate, I will eat them ALL within a day or two.  I know that chocolate covered strawberries have been around forever, but they have never tempted me because strawberries have never tempted me...they have all those little seeds and make for a weird texture.  But somehow they are really good with chocolate.  I guess if you use dark chocolate then it doesn't make it unhealthy.


1.  Wash the strawberries.


2.  Melt the chocolate.

I used this 85% dark chocolate plus some regular chocolate chips because the 85% is not sweet enough for me.

I broke the bar into small pieces and melted it all in a saucepan on low heat, stirring constantly.  I only used maybe a third of the bar along with some chocolate chips.

3.  Dip
Just tilt the pan a bit so all the chocolate gathers into one little pool, grasp a strawberry by its stem, and twirl it around in the pool of chocolate until it is covered.  Or, you can use a spoon to drizzle chocolate around the strawberry while you're holding it above the pan.

Place the strawberries on a plate covered with wax paper and pop it all in the fridge for a little bit.  Pretty soon the chocolate will harden.

As you can see, I dipped some cherries too, because I happened to have them on hand and wanted to see how they would taste covered in chocolate.

Now whenever you have a sweet tooth, you have a delicious snack in the fridge ready to go, and you can feel so good about all the vitamin C and antioxidants you're getting!  Enjoy! =)