Family Bites

Chewy Chocolate Molasses Cookies

‘Tis the season for cookies, clementines, hot chocolate and pomegranates. Eat, and repeat. Like my Christmas decorations, every part of my merry making this year has been pared down to the very basic and most essential, and I can honestly say I’m enjoying the lead up to the holidays far more than any other year.

In place of vibrant holiday decorations, I’ve decked my halls with candles, fairy lights, greenery and a Christmas tree that’s sporting nothing more than white lights and oven-dried orange slices. My minimalist approach is mostly due to my curious, climbing toddler, but it’s also a reflection of my obsession with all things hygge (you can read more about it and this Danish word over on SavvyMom).

21 Questions for Allison Day (Whole Bowls Review)

I’ve long said that one of the very best things to come from food blogging are the friendships that have been formed along the way, and today’s post is an excellent example of that fellowship in full effect.

My friend Allison Day – Canadian food blogger extraordinaire – recently released her first cookbook, Whole Bowls. I haven’t actually met Allison in person, only briefly spotting her across the room at last September’s Taste Canada food writing awards, where we were both nominees (she won, I didn’t). However, thanks to the positive powers of social media we became quite friendly in the months that followed, and in January discovered we share a literary agent. Since then we’ve exchanged numerous emails, most of which are just me gushing over the beauty of a book she’s been working on, and I was only too thrilled to organize a blog hop with some of our fellow food writer friends in an effort to spread the word about her crave-worthy creation.

Whole Bowls is a collection of more than fifty gluten-free and vegetarian meals to power your day. Organized by breakfast, salad, entrée, and dessert bowls, there are also dozens of mini recipes-within-recipes, plus the homemade extras and basics found at the back of the book. The idea is that you’ll use these ideas and components – plus her brilliant “Whole Bowls Formula” - to build your own quick meals throughout the week. I’m especially fond of the vegetarian pantry guide, a useful resource for anyone interested in constructing more dishes with less meat.

Sweet and Salty Whole Wheat Blondies

The above picture looks cute, I’m sure. Three hands – one of which is barely big enough to hold an egg – reaching across the coffee table to grab a just-cut, freshly baked blondie that finished cooling on the countertop only moments before. In reality, the older brothers are mocking the youngest one, whose pudgy fingers find their way into all of my food photos these days, because I have exactly two seconds to take a snap before he tries devour whatever he finds on the plate.

It’s adorable, without a doubt, but equally as frustrating. I try to plan my photo sessions around naptimes, but since those are few and far between these days (and always have been), my 13-month-old assistant is around for most of my working hours. The writing part of my work I try to reserve for a booth at Starbucks one night a week, or, more frequently, the front seat of my vehicle. Jerry Seinfeld may be a comedian in a car getting coffee, but Jan Scott is a writer in a mini van with a hot chocolate and a sleeping toddler. My non-napper will almost always sleep in the car, so sometimes we drive until he dozes off and then I park somewhere with a nice view, or where I can access some Wi-Fi, haul out my laptop, and write in the car while it’s quiet. Did you ever think working from home could be so glamorous?

When we aren’t hauling around the travelling workbag, we spend most of our mornings in the kitchen coming up with new recipes, like this sweet and salty whole-wheat blondie. There’s something so satisfying about sinking your teeth into a traditional brownie, but the sugar and fat content are admittedly a little higher than I like for an everyday snack. Since the big boys can scarf down half a pan in one sitting, I try to make treats like these a little healthier when I can. In this recipe, I’ve swapped whole-wheat flour for the all-purpose kind, and reduced the sugar and butter by roughly forty percent. The result is a not-too-sweet afternoon treat that everyone, toddler included, wants in on.

Sweet and Salty Whole Wheat Blondies

Makes 24

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons liquid honey
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup chopped pretzel sticks
• Optional: Maldon sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with nonstick spray and line with a piece of parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a second bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and honey. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. 

3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until almost combined. Add the chocolate chips and pretzel pieces and mix until just blended.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, if using. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the centre is soft but barely set. It will firm up as it cools. Once completely cooled, cut into 24 squares.

Spiced Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

I’m going through a lot of muffins these days. They’re being packed into lunchboxes, eaten for an afterschool snack, and munched by the handful at 11:00 p.m. when a certain teenage boy comes home from hockey.

On average, they – the food-inhaling adolescents in our house – go through a dozen muffins in a day or so. I might have one for breakfast, or with my afternoon tea, and Rob usually sneaks one when he walks in the door after work, but other than that the boys take care of the whole batch themselves, a feat that still fascinates me.

I’ve tried boycotting the muffins, presenting hummus and fruit and other non-baked goods instead, and while those offerings do eventually get eaten, they’re usually met with the same amount of enthusiasm as the kids display when the Wi-Fi’s down. So now, instead of trying to beat them, I’m joining them and enabling their muffin-munching addiction, but there’s a catch: the muffins have to do something good for their body, not just their taste buds.

For a few months now, there’s been batches of chocolate chia oatmeal muffins and whole-grain banana bread muffins, but now that fall is in full swing I’m adding pumpkin muffins to the rotation. I developed this recipe a few years ago for SavvyMom and more than 1,ooo people have liked, shared, pinned and commented on the recipe. In other words, it’s seems as though it’s worth knowing about. Made with whole-wheat flour, oats, cooked quinoa, and Greek yogurt, there’s plenty of fibre, protein and healthy fats packed into these baked bundles. Naturally, there’s also sugar, but not too much, so they err on the side of being not too sweet.

I don’t actually cook quinoa specifically for this recipe, but rather I intentionally make extra and store the leftovers in the fridge or freezer so I have it available when the mood – or need - to make muffins strikes. I do the same with the pumpkin as well, measuring it into ¾ cup portions and freezing it in small ziptop baggies.

If your hungry kids are looking for a baked snack I highly recommend giving these a go. Maybe just don’t mention the quinoa, though. For some reason that word immediately puts up red flags, so we can just keep that part of the recipe a secret between you and me.

Spiced Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• ¾ cup whole-wheat flour
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup canola, olive, or (melted) coconut oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ¾ cup pumpkin purée
• ½ cup cooked quinoa

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a bowl, combine the flours, oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, honey, egg, yogurt, oil, and vanilla.

4. Stir in the pumpkin. Add the dry ingredients and the quinoa; mix until just combined.

5. Scoop batter into the prepared muffin tin filling the cups ⅔ full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the centre is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Note: Muffins can be made in advance and stored in the freezer. To thaw, remove from the freeze and place in the fridge overnight. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds prior to serving.