Honey-Roasted Almonds

These are some delicious, honey-roasted almonds my sister made for us over Christmas. I didn't eat any, since I'm trying to be better about eating low oxalate, but Mr.Surly gobbled them up. They looked and smelled wonderful.

Coffee Cake Muffins with Crunchy Almond Topping

A couple weekends ago Mr. Surly made a comment on how coffee cake sounded good. On weekends he likes sweets that compliment his coffee. I haven't had coffee cake in years, so I set out to make some. I knew I wanted them in cupcake form for perfect individual portions. I went onto Tasty Kitchen to view some recipes. I finally settled on this recipe as a base; of course I had to make my own tweaks.

I wanted to make a crunchy nut topping. I figured a few oxalates from the almonds wouldn't hurt me. I would rather have used walnuts instead of almonds, but I didn't have any. Without the nut topping these would have been a good low oxalate treat.

I messed up the recipe a bit, you were supposed to reserve some of the filling and use it as the topping. But my medicated brain missed that step--ooops. It didn't matter though, I made my own topping and got a few extra cupcakes from the batter.

These were delightful. A perfect accompaniment to Mr.Surly's coffee and my cappuccino. These did not last long. I think they only lasted 2 days. Which is good, since I have a list of other sweets I want to make.

Chai Biscotti

Well, my low oxalate diet has begun. It’s going to take some time to fully adjust to it, and I have to reference my "good", "bad", and "limit" lists. Black tea is on my “foods to avoid” list, so my daily cup of chai tea (made from black tea) is out. So I had to find a new way to get my chai fix. I’ve been thinking a lot about biscotti recently, I’m not sure why, so I decided to try to come up with some kind of chai flavor biscotti. I wanted to make them vegan, and that took some adjusting to make sure the texture came out right.

It took a few attempts to get the right flavor ratio and dry to liquid ratio. The almonds are on my list of “bad” foods, but I figured ¼ c of thin slices spread throughout the whole loaf wouldn’t be too harmful for my diet. And flax is on my “limit” list, and I figure 2 Tbl is limiting.

I made a small batch, because I wasn’t sure if Mr. Surly would be into eating them. It’s a nice treat, and for me, it was the right amount. But feel free to double the recipe if you’re really into biscotti.

Homemade Granola Bars

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for awhile. I really like the idea of making my own granola bars. I’ve been on a muesli kick for awhile now, and decided it was time to make some granola. I usually keep granola bars in my purse when I have to go to the hospital for doctor appointments and tests, since I’m usually sitting around forever, waiting. I’m in love with the white chocolate macadamia Luna bars. These homemade bars are a much healthier option. I suppose I could have added some melted chocolate to these, but they are so good on their own. They remind me of the Two Moms in the Raw bars they sell at Starbucks and Nordstrom’s snack bar, I love the gojiberry one. Have you ever had one of these bars? They are delicious, and I'm so glad my granola bars taste very similar to them.

I'm glad to have another product that I can now make myself so I don't have to buy a prepacked version. Can you tell I'm obsessed about controlling what goes in my food? When you have abdominal issues, this becomes a must.

Another plus is how easy these are to make. I haven't had much energy the past couple weeks, but these came together rather quickly. These bars were plenty sweet for me, since I don't eat much sugar, but if you like things sweet I'd stir in more (up to 1/4 c brown sugar). I sprinkled brown sugar on top to give the tops of the bars a bit of a sweet, sugar crunch.

Fresh Peach Crisp

I’m not a huge fan of peaches unless they are at their peak seasonally, which is now. Over the weekend the grocery store had locally grown peaches for only 49 cents a pound! I probably bought too many of them. I liked the peach blueberry crumbles I made awhile ago, but wanted to try to make a peach crisp. I found a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that sounded good. These were so delicious, I’m going to make them again this week. I do wish the filling was a bit juicier; maybe mine wasn’t because the original recipe calls for frozen peaches,which when thawed would produce more liquid. But why use frozen peaches when fresh ones are in season? I bet if I omitted the cornstarch I would get more of a bubbly filling using fresh peaches.

Almond Cake

This has quickly become our favorite dessert. It’s sweet, but not overly so. I serve it with whipped cream. I buy almonds already sliced and toasted from Trader Joe’s. All I did was measure out 1 cup and poured it into the food processor--so easy. I have made it using cake flour and all purpose, and didn’t notice much of a difference between the two versions. We usually share a cake; I can’t eat a whole one in one sitting; it’s just too much.