I never measure when I’m making bean soup, and I often end up soaking way too many beans. Lately, I’ve started purposefully prepping too many so that I can freeze some soaked beans for later, thus cutting down my meal prep time by 24 hours. Last time, I threw all the fixings for that week’s soup into the bag with the pre-soaked beans and froze it all together. Now, when I’m in a rush (or forgot to soak the beans, which I sometimes do), I can just grab the frozen stuff out of the freezer, dump it in the crock pot, add boiling water, and be done.

As you can see, this is a really simple recipe. I let my kids choose a new heirloom bean to try from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (and since I never write the name down, I can’t remember what these are called), and I cook them up pretty similarly: a big spoonful of stock paste, a couple strips of bacon, two or three bay leaves. Sometimes an onion cut in half. Then I fill the crock pot up with water and set it on low for the day. When the beans are done, I add Worchestershire sauce or salt to taste, and that’s it.

Having a “bag of soup” in the freezer, ready to go at a moment’s notice is really convenient. And because I prepped one week’s meal with the future bag of soup, it didn’t take any extra effort on my part.

I discovered a new lunch time hack last week. When I cut the crusts off my kids’ ham sandwiches, I added some cheese (they’re dairy free, but I’m not!) wrapped them up in big crunchy leaves of Romaine lettuce, and sat down to the table right away with my very own “Crust Wraps.”

These delicious, inside-out “mini-sandwiches” are a perfect answer to wasted crust and extra calories. Don’t they look delicious?

It really is delicious - creamy, rich, sweet, and filling. It’s by no means a “Health Drink” but it certainly scratches the milkshake itch without being quite so devastating to your waistline!

Cinnamon Banana Date Smoothie

1 frozen banana
1/2 c plain yogurt (I used nice thick Greek yogurt; if you don’t, you might want to reduce your milk a bit)
1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or whatever you have on hand)
4 dates, pitted
1.5 TB peanut butter
1-2 tsp cinnamon (I like lots)
splash of vanilla
3-4 ice cubes

Put it all in the blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

I am sure this recipe could be tweaked and “healthified” with the addition of wheat germ, chia seeds, flax seed, or whatever your heart desires. I might do that some day! But for now, I’m enjoying a smoothie that isn’t chocolate but just as satisfying to my treat-tooth.

Before I get into the review, let me say a little about agave nectar and sugary stuff in general.

Hey Laura, what about sugar?
Sugar is sugar is sugar is sugar. It is an empty carbohydrate that is not meant to be a quality food substance. Sugar should be a treat, a flourish, a small part of your well balanced diet. Just because a sugar is “all natural” or “organic” or “raw” or “low glycemic” doesn’t mean you should indulge in it any more than you would any other kind of sugar. Those labels don’t make it a health food!

That said, I think that life is only worth living if you are enjoying the living of it! Who cares if you can avoid death for an extra 4-5 years at the end, if you have had such a spartan, unpleasant lifestyle that has kept you from truly enjoying the life you’ve been given?!

For most people, a happy life means (among a lot of other very important, much more existential things I’m not going to go into here) including a moderate amount of sugar in your diet.

Are there certain types of sugar that are better than others? Yes. I believe so.

As a general rule, I try to avoid highly processed foods. I use evaporated cane juice instead of chemically-processed sugars; I buy local raw honey; I love dates as a sweetener for certain recipes. Agave nectar is probably the most processed sweetener I use, and I always buy the organic raw stuff that hasn’t been cooked to death or filtered with nasty chemicals.

Agave nectars are not created equally. The two brands that I trust are Wholesome Sweeteners and Madhava. Their farmers use organic methods and their manufacturers use gentle processing to extract the nectar from the plant. There have been cases in which other manufacturers have adulterated the agave nectar with high fructose corn syrup (this happens with honey, too!); this isn’t a very well regulated industry, so you have to choose manufacturers you can trust.

I really appreciate that Wholesome Sweeteners is Fair Trade Certified and has a “Fair Trade, Not Aid” mentality in their cooperative efforts with Mexican farmers. One of the best long-term ways to combat third world poverty is to fund industry rather than pour money only into rescue missions. It’s that whole “teach a man to fish” philosophy, and I am a huge supporter of it.

But I heard agave nectar is super bad for you - basically HFCS in disguise!
Oh, you are probably thinking about that article that Dr. Mercola got published in the Huffington Post.

I have found Dr. Mercola to be increasingly tiresome in his rants. For someone with the term “doctor” in front of his name - someone who ought to be dedicated to a more scientific approach, his attacks are vitriolic, inflammatory and often not even based in fact. His article about agave nectar seems to be the latter.

Here are some articles in defense of agave nectar, so you can make your own decision.

- A third-party, comprehensive look at the facts and fictions regarding agave nectar.

- Madhava’s rebuttal to Dr. Mercola’s article.

- Wholesome Sweeteners’ rebuttal to Dr. Mercola’s article.

You know that HLW is all about helping you be informed. I can’t make the decision for you to use agave nectar or not; you get to decide what you are going to feed your body. Personally, I have no issues with using agave nectar in moderation - just like any of the other sugary sweet stuff I include in my enjoyable life!

Finally, the review!
In addition to the familiar Organic Blue Agave Nectar and Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar, I also got a bunch of little packets of Wholesome Sweeteners’ flavored agave nectars. Naturally flavored with cinnamon, maple, strawberry, and vanilla, these single-serving packets are a fun new way to enjoy agave nectar.

My favorite was the cinnamon - the flavoring is real and doesn’t leave a weird aftertaste like artificial cinnamon flavors. Plus, the spice of the cinnamon cuts the sweetness of the agave nectar a bit. I absolutely love it over some plain yogurt. I would definitely purchase this for myself as a special treat.

My kids’ favorite was the strawberry, for the opposite reason - it was super duper sweet! I did not care for it, but they thought it was great on their pancakes. It certainly tastes better than artificial strawberry syrup, and is sweet enough that it would be a great alternative if you are trying to wean your kids off the HFCS “fake” syrups out there. Plus, a little goes a long way (agave nectar is about twice as sweet as table sugar). The 2 tsp packet was plenty to sweeten an entire 5 inch diameter pancake slathered with peanut butter.

The maple flavored agave nectar was just okay. I simply prefer real maple syrup (grade B - the darker the better!). However, if you need or want a lower glycemic alternative to maple syrup, this would be a nice treat. (The only trouble I foresee is that since it’s extra sweet, the smaller volume of nectar you need on a pancake leaves it drier than if you were to drown it in maple syrup.)

The vanilla might be really nice in tea if you like a little extra flavoring. But I didn’t think that the vanilla added that much extra “wow” to the already lovely burnt caramel undertones of plain agave nectar.

I prefer the organic raw agave nectar - it is processed at a more gentle temperature, leaving more of the plant’s good enzymes intact. Taste-wise, the “plain” regular and raw agave nectars are not that different. I sometimes use plain agave nectar in place of honey, when the viscosity of honey is going to make stirring difficult. Tea is a good example - the agave nectar dissolves immediately, whereas honey usually settles at the bottom, even after a good stir. I also use agave for certain recipes - if you sub it for granulated sugar, you need to use less (remember, it’s sweeter than sugar!) and reduce the overall liquid amount.

While I wouldn’t replace all the sweeteners in my house with agave nectar, Wholesome Sweeteners’ products are a nice solution for certain situations. Just the other day, I tried using it in place of the honey called for in The Best Peanut Sauce Ever, and it tasted great! I’ll probably do that from now on, since the super-quality honey I buy is way spendier than agave nectar!

The Giveaway!
I have some sample packets of agave nectar to send out to my loyal readers, plus information brochures and coupons! As long as supplies last, I’ll mail samples to whoever is interested, first come, first served. Just email me your address and I’ll send you the loot!

(As always, the postage comes out of my own pocket. If you want to offset my costs, feel free to shop through my Amazon link, which earns me a teensy kickback over time.)

Most of the time, the results weren’t that bad. Sometimes they were great, and only very rarely I’d have to throw a whole batch away and start over.

But there was no consistency, because I never found anything that was really worth making again. Even if they were good at breakfast, the pancakes didn’t keep well. They were also never fluffy “diner style” pancakes. Not always a lead brick, but usually a very solid slab.

All that to say, you can imagine my family’s relief and rejoicing when I stumbled upon a recipe for “Eggless Pancakes (easy, soft and fluffy)” from a food blog called Rak’s Kitchen.

Even I was rhapsodizing about these pancakes. They are amazing! Furthermore, they stay soft and fluffy even after you store them on the counter for the day’s snacks - or even freeze them and reheat them in the toaster!

After making the recipe exactly as Rak wrote it, I modified it for my family’s dietary preferences. I substituted white whole wheat flour, eliminated the sugar, and used water for half of the milk. The pancakes are still perfect.

Here’s my recipe for…

Perfect Pancakes

(makes between 9-12 medium sized pancakes)
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs baking soda
1 cup water *
1 cup milk (we use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1 Tbs oil **

* You may need a bit more for the whole wheat flour; add extra liquid if the batter is more like pudding than thick soup.
** I once melted some coconut oil in the microwave and forgot about it. It never went into the batter and they turned out fine just the same; however, I see nothing wrong with a little oil, and they are certainly better with it!

Start by putting a large cast iron skillet to heat on low for 5 minutes.

Whisk everything together and let it sit for 10 minutes. This is important! It’s what makes your pancakes fluffy - all that baking soda needs some time to create a sponge batter.

When you set your batter aside to rest, turn off the stove.

After 10 minutes are up, heat the skillet on medium, spray or wipe the pan with a little oil, and pour (or spoon) batter onto your skillet. (This heating-up rigamarole will help your pan heat evenly, creating a uniformly cooked pancake.)

As with any pancake, you know it’s time to flip when the edges start to look a little dry and the majority of the bubbles on top have popped. Flip ‘em and only let them cook for another minute, at most.

Serve with peanut butter, maple syrup, and an over easy egg on top. Mmmmm. My family thinks that’s gross, but it is my favorite way to enjoy pancakes!

We also like to add a little cornstarch to our frozen berries as we heat them up on the stove. The cornstarch thickens the juice and makes it more like “berry syrup” - which is what I’ve conned my kids into thinking it is.

(In case you’re wondering, this recipe works pretty well in the waffle iron, too, although the fluffy aspect is lost. The resulting waffles are passable, but pedestrian. Nothing like the delight of pancake form.)

This is a modification of the recipe linked above. I used raw spinach, garlicky sauteed green beans (which I’d made for our lunch earlier today), shredded raw carrot, sliced raw bell pepper, and green onions for our veggies - just the stuff I needed to use up in the bottom of the veg drawer of my fridge.

It took about 15 minutes to put together - I just prepped veggies and tempeh as the noodles were boiling!

Do your tastebuds a favor and make this soon!

If you’ve ever enjoyed a Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich, imagine this as the noodley, salady, vegetarian version of it.

Here’s the sandwich version I made once. Looks yummy, huh?

Here’s a picture of the Bowl version:

To make the Bahn Mi Bowl, here’s what you’ll need:

Noodles
Enough noodles (udon are best, spaghetti will work in a pinch; rice noodles work great for a gluten-free option) for the people you’re feeding.
Boil, rinse, drain, and set aside. You can stir a little sesame and olive oils in if you want, to keep them from sticking.

Meat
Tempeh, or meat if you are so inclined.
Marinate in soy sauce and pan fry on high heat in a cast iron skillet; set side and keep warm.

Salad
Really any veggies you have on hand will be great. Here are some favorites:
- Carrot
- Daikon (typical in Bahn Mi sandwich “pickle”)
- Broccoli
- Bean sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cucumber
- Bell pepper
- Spinach
- Snow peas or sugar snap peas
- Green beans
- Zucchini
- Cilantro (this is essential! Lots of it!)
- Mint (a recent addition; makes more of a Thai impression, and very good)
Slice thinly or shred the veggies. I like to marinate shredded carrots, zucchini, cabbage, and broccoli in rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a little honey, salt, and pepper (but that is totally optional! If you’re in a hurry, just use them as-is). I like to leave the softer veggies out of the marinade; they stay fresher longer.

Dressing
This, my friends, is the magic here. It’s simple, but it makes the whole dish. It takes what would be way too many raw vegetables for one meal and brings them together into creamy deliciousness.
- Vegenaise (or mayo if you like)
- Sriracha (you know, Rooster sauce!)
Mix a generous couple of dollops of Vegenaise with a very generous squirt of Rooster sauce. The final product should be a pleasant salmon color, with enough heat to be interesting but not so much as to blow steam out your ears (unless that’s your thing).

Serving
Put a serving of noodles in a bowl, top with whatever veggies you like, add some meatsies, ladle on the sauce. Mix it all up together and enjoy!

By the way, this is a great meal for a crowd. You can assign each component to a person to contribute, or if you are going to swing it yourself, almost everything can be prepped ahead of time. I made this for about 15 people recently, and it was a huge hit.

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I often like a hot drink that isn’t tea.

Crio Brü is most akin to coffee. You can’t go in expecting a typical cup of “hot chocolate.” It lacks the thick, creamy mouth feel because it isn’t full of sugar and fat.

My husband likes the soporific effect Crio Brü has on him (I don’t notice it at all, but then I’m not a 2-3 espresso a day junkie!), and I like that it really takes the edge of my late afternoon snack attacks.

If you’re looking for a warming drink that isn’t coffee or tea, but doesn’t have the calories and fat of most other alternatives, try Crio Brü and tell me how you like it!

You can read a history of arepas on Wikipedia, if you like. I’ll just tell you that they are basically…corn flour pita pockets.

I’m sure millions of Colombians and Venezuelans are shaking their collective fist at me for describing their national dish so rudely. But hey, they’re made out of corn flour, and (at least in many places) split open and stuffed full of deliciousness. If they’re not split, then the toppings go on top, which is also like pita bread! So there you have it: corn flour pitas. And not just for lunch! In Colombia, arepas are typically a breakfast food.

When I make arepas, I do up a big batch for breakfast, and if we’re lucky they will last us through a couple snacks, lunch, and the next day’s breakfast. But only if it was a big batch. ;)

Arepas
(Recipe amounts taken from Gluten-free Girl’s lovely essay on making Arepas)
2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (optional, but it does make them toast up so evenly!)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups pre-cooked white cornmeal (P.A.N. Harina Blanca is the only acceptable type, in my opinion!)

Knead it all up in a big bowl. You have to use your hands, because the texture here is important. I always aim for the consistency of brand new Play Dough. You want the dough wet enough to hold together without crumbling, but not so wet that it doesn’t hold its shape. Make sure you let the dough rest a bit, because the corn flour will absorb water for a while after you mix it in. You can always add more water if you need to.

Heat up a griddle or frying pan (I use my cast iron skillet) and wipe it with a bit of oil. Now wet your hands and shape your arepas.

Shaping the arepas takes practice. Every family makes them slightly differently.

(Venezuelans make them quite thick - that’s how I first had them - topped with black beans, avocado, and sour cream. But I married into a Colombian family, and now I make them fairly thin - split open and stuffed with cheese, meat, and…because my husband is also half Norwegian and fully American: tater tots and ketchup. My father-in-law puts cheese into his arepa dough; I do not. His wife taught me to make sweet arepas with cinnamon and honey mixed into the dough.)

I shape my arepas about 4 inches across and 1/4 inch thick or so (somewhere between Colombian and Venezuelan thicknesses). I can get three into my 10” cast iron skillet if I crowd them together. That’s really what informs my creation: how fast can I get breakfast on the table? :)

I’m going to show, not tell, you how to actually do the shaping. Watch this grandmotherly Colombian woman deftly working the arepa dough. She makes hers much thinner than I do mine! There’s no way you could split these and fill them; she puts the cheese on top.

Whatever thickness you make your arepas, it’s vital that the arepa dough on the inside gets cooked while the outer shell gets crisp, but not burnt. A perfect arepa has a lovely crispy outer layer, with a fluffy moist inside. If you’re going to stuff your arepas, scoop out the insides onto your plate and spread them with butter and honey to eat with a spoon. Mmmm.

At my house, we stuff our arepas with cheese (sometimes the traditional queso fresco, but most often the amazing English cheddar we’ve been buying lately), breakfast sausage (most often the vegetarian kind) or bacon (the oink-oink kind), and Tabasco and/or ketchup. The second round of arepas usually gets treated with peanut butter and honey.

Arepas are so easy to make - just as easy as pancakes or waffles, and they are more conducive to a savory, higher protein breakfast than the former. I also sometimes make them for supper when I’m in too much of a rush to make dinner rolls or cornbread for our soup.

Enjoy!

I made these amazing little dinner rolls last night and knew I had to share the recipe. They take about 40 minutes from mixing to serving, so they’re perfect for the last-minute bread addition.

I adjusted the recipe I found to have less sugar and half whole wheat flour. I’m going to keep tinkering with it to try for all whole wheat, as that is what my family prefers. I made some rolls plain (as we love honey on ours!), and some with cheese and sage. I think these would be great at breakfast with some cinnamon stirred in and sugar sprinkled on top.

Weeknight-Easy Rolls
(Adapted from Kitchen Parade)

1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce, 2-1/4 teaspoons)
2 c warm water
2 TBs sugar (I use Sucanat)
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 egg
2 c AP flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
2 c white whole wheat flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
2 TBs (yes, tablespoons) baking powder
2 tsp table salt
Chopped fresh herbs such as chives, sage or rosemary, optional

Preheat oven to 425F.

Grease the cups of a muffin tray with standard-size cups. Stir together the yeast and water, set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil and egg. Separately, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture a cup at a time until just mixed, adding a portion of the yeast-water mixture between additions.

Stir in herbs, if using. With two soup spoons, one to scoop and the other to scrape, fill the muffin tins.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool for 5 minutes. Best served hot but keep two to three days.