Peanut Butter Chia Cups

Peanut butter cups ohhh how I love you! There is absolutely no need to buy these at the store!  I was having an insane craving for one the other day but couldn't imagine running out to the store. Unfortunately, and fortunately I guess at times, the closest grocery store is 20 minutes away. Sighhhhh. I am normally a huge lover of peanut butter but lately my pregnancy and  peanut butter (like I always ate before, right off the spoon) have not been mixing. Things with peanut butter in them sound great like peanut butter brownies, or peanut butter cups, but actual peanut butter; no thank you.  I know what a health nut. I even added chia seeds to these to bump up the crunch and health factor. Happy National Dessert Day!

-2/3 bag Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips and 1/2 bar Ghiradelli Midnight Dark Chocolate melted together; I used a double boiler

-1/2 cup natural peanut butter; crunchy or creamy (melt in microwave for 20 seconds to make more pourable)

-2 Tbs Chia Seeds- add to peanut butter

-12 Cupcake liners

Place liners in a cupcake tin. Melt chocolate and fill each cupcake liner with 1 large spoonful of chocolate. Place 1 spoonful of peanut butter on to of chocolate layer. Add the final layer of chocolate to cover the peanut butter. Place in fridge for a few hours to harden. 

Ginger Soy Salmon Filets

Salmon. One of my favorite dinner proteins. Tasty, nutritious, versatile, and cooks in minutes. Perfect in my book. Salmon is total brain food, giving you a good dose of inflammation reducing Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Perfect to add to your families weekly dinner repertoire. Introducing it early in life will definitely increase the likelihood of your kiddos liking it and them building a taste for it. The recipe below is super kid friendly as well. Salmon can be pricey so my favorite way to incorporate this on a regular basis is to purchase it in frozen filets. Its convenient, defrosts quick, and leaves you with perfectly portioned pieces. I purchase mine from Whole Foods Market, which I know seems like it would be more expensive, but oz for oz  happens to be a really good deal. They've always got some on sale. I feel like if I'm going to have animal sources of protein it's important to learn a bit about sustainable farm and fishing practices. If your interested, check out that link. Really interesting stuff.

This recipe incorporates fresh garlic and ginger. Full of antioxidants and flavor, try incorporating both of these as much as possible into your diet.  Fresh ginger is great added to warm water with lemon or tea, and I like to keep it in the freezer so none goes to waste.When buying ginger, it will look like a gnarly, twisted root (which it is). If dirty just give it a rinse, chop off a 1 inch piece and peel it. Now your ready to chop it into pieces as big or small as you'd like. 

Ingredients:

2 defrosted Salmon filets

2 pieces of aluminum foil, large enough to form packets around the Salmon

1 inch of ginger root chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped (1 for each piece of Salmon)

2 Tbs low sodium soy sauce or Tamari

Drizzle of sesame oil (small drizzle onto each filet, optional)

Place one Salmon filet on each piece of aluminum foil, top with garlic/ginger, soy, then sesame oil. Close the aluminum foil to create a packet for each.  Place each package on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until Salmon feels firm to the touch and flakes with a fork. 

Black Raspberry Cobbler

I was trying to think of the perfect recipe for the 4th, trying to come up with something to pay homage to the nations colors, but I couldn't come up with anything! Thinking back to when I was growing up there is nothing that says American to me more than a dessert with black raspberries in it. Not that they hold some special place in American history (or maybe they do hahaha) but I just always connect being an American with black raspberry pie. Weird I know haha. Maybe its all the effort my mom used to take trudging through the overgrowth to pick the berries, and all the time it took to make the homemade crust. It was such hard work to make one small pie! She was channeling the hard working spirit of all Americans I'm sure:)  This cobbler isn't nearly as labor intensive as a pie, but just as good. Who has the patience for pie crust? especially gluten free pie crust? Not me thats for sure. This takes about 20 minutes to put together, and the minimal amount of ingredients really lets the berries shine.The biscuit topping is a simple drop biscuit  with the addition of corn flour and oats. A touch of buttermilk and cinnamon are added at the end! It really doesn't get more American than that!

1 Cup gluten free baking mix 

1/2 Cup fine corn flour

1/2 Cup rolled oats

2/3 Cup buttermilk

1/2 Cup water

dash cinnamon

Mix all ingredients and set aside to be used as the topping.

Add to an oven safe pan such as a cast iron skillet:

3 cups black raspberries or any berry

2 Tbs maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash salt

Let cook for 3-4 minutes on medium high, or until berries are just starting to break down.

Scoop the biscuit mixture on top of the berries with an ice cream scoop. This will give you about five large biscuits. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.