Date Bars
This homemade energy bar recipe is the perfect wholesome snack! It’s naturally sweet, featuring oats, chia seeds, and pecans.
Ingredients
- 15 Medjool dates (9 ounces)*
- 1 cup raw pecan halves
- 1/2 cup gluten free oats
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200F.
- Remove the pits from the dates with your fingers (they come right out!). Place the dates in the food processor and process or pulse until they are mainly chopped and a rough texture forms. Then add the remaining ingredients and process for a minute or so until a crumbly dough forms.
- Line a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Dump the dough into the center of the parchment paper and use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle that is 6” x 10.5”. Cut the dough into 14 bars that are 1.5” x 3”. (You don’t have to be as precise as we were, but we found it was easiest for cutting uniform bars!)
- Bake the bars for 30 minutes (this step helps to make the texture more dry and less sticky). Cool the bars to room temperature, then store refrigerated in a sealed container between sheets of wax paper. If you’d like to package them for on the go snacking, cut out 4” x 6” rectangles of wax paper, wrap them around the bars, and secure them with tape. Stays good for 1 month refrigerated (or more, but they may not last that long!).
Notes
- it technically works in the blender! Hooray
- If you leave out nuts, say you’ve forgotten to buy them, use less dates or more oats: it gets real sticky and hard to fashion
- Possibly also don’t blend the dates first, for similar reasons
- Roll them out between two parchment sheets
- Use the bench scraper to cut them
Pickled Onions
They go on everything.
Ingredients
- Red Onions, undefined
- Vinegar, 1 part
- Water, 1 part
- Salt, a big pinch
Instructions
- Very thinly slice the red onions from root to stem and add them to a jar.
- Add equal parts vinegar and water to a pot (use enough to submerge the onions in the jar) with a big pinch of salt (2% by weight if you want to measure). Set the pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat.
- Pour the hot pickling liquid over the onions until they are completely submerged or the jar is filled.
- Cover and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving. The pink color will get deeper the more days they sit (keep in the fridge).
- Put them on everything & enjoy.
Notes
- try the other one you got bookmarked next time, for learning
Easy Black Bean Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 teas ground cumin
- 2 chipotle peppers (seeded and diced)
- 2 15 oz. cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1 ½ c. sweet corn
- 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 4 corn tortillas (chopped)
- 1 qt. vegetable stock
- Salt and pepper
- 6-8 corn tortillas (sliced)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 teas chili powder
- 1 teas kosher salt
- 1 teas black pepper
- Fresh jalapenos
- Limes
- Cilantro
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, add olive oil and diced onions. Cook until onions are translucent over medium heat, about 3-4 minutes. Then add minced chipotle peppers (opt.) and garlic. Stir to combine.
- Add in drained and rinsed black beans, corn, and tomatoes along with vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer.
- Add in chopped corn tortillas and simmer on low for 10 minutes. Tortillas should mostly dissolve. Season soup well with salt and pepper.
- Serve soup with any all garnishes you want, but most importantly crispy corn strips (or corn tortilla chips in a pinch).
- For Crispy Corn Strips:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Slice corn tortillas and toss with olive oil, chili powder, salt and pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake corn strips for 15 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
- Remove corn strips and let cool. They will continue to crisp up as they cool.
- Freeze this soup by letting it cool down to room temperature. Then transfer to freezer safe bags. Stores in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat slowly on the stovetop.
Notes
Gigi Hadid Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb pasta shape of your choice ((I recommend orecchiette or small shells))
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced shallot or red onion
- 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic ((from about 2 cloves))
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp vodka ((you can omit if you don’t want to use))
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes ((can use more or less or omit altogether and add at the end to individual dishes))
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, (plus more for topping)
- Chopped basil, (for topping)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions. When draining, reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water.
- While pasta is cooking, add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add shallot or onion and cook until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute.
- Add tomato paste and stir. Let cook for 3-4 minutes until it’s starting to brown/caramelize a bit.
- Stir vodka into sauce and let cook for about 1 minute.
- Add heavy cream, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
- Add cooked pasta, reserved pasta water, and butter to skillet and toss to coat pasta in sauce. Stir in parmesan cheese.
- Serve pasta topped with additional parmesan and chopped basil.
Notes
It was cold but we went to Wendy’s to get free frosties. We got keyfobs that let us do this, from S—‘s dad. This makes us part of a rare and very exclusive club: pescatarians1 who occasionally go to Wendy’s. this is an absolute waste of time (especially when its cold out), but nothing worthwhile is not a waste of time. Joy is felt best outside of existence’s upkeep. This is the first lesson Gigi Hadid’s pasta taught.
Footnotes
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ugly word ↩
Dragon Quest VII links
Here, apropos of nothing: a list of resources I used to complete Dragon Quest VII. I played the game in Japanese, a language i am not fluent in, which is pretty difficult for such a text-heavy, quest-flag-dependent game.
Walkthrus:
- gamefaqs walkthru
- gamer guides walkthru (slower page load, better details)
- Fragment Locations
- Overworld Map
