packing and packing and sorbet

I've been spending the better part of every day surrounded by boxes. Packing is overwhelming! It makes the home look very unorganized and i have a hard time functioning in a place that isn't organized.. so i find myself walking in circles a lot. I'm almost finished though! It's looking pretty empty, especially since we sold our couch, coffee table and dining table. Yay for craigslist.

We've been eating some pretty weird combinations of food as a result of trying to use up what food we have. But one thing I wish I had more of is this meyer lemon sorbet. I've been on a (refined) sugar fast since the beginning of the year and surprisingly i haven't had any terrible cravings for it. As i was trying to figure out what i wanted to do with a bag of meyer lemons, i came across this sorbet recipe. I gave it a shot and used agave in place of sugar. It was most delicious!! And I promise you there is no difference in taste and texture as far as the agave vs. white sugar. If you're trying to steer clear of refined sugar, give this a go.

Meyer lemon sorbet

3/4 cup agave (i highly highly highly recommend xagave, i've used other agave brands in sorbet and they were no good)
1 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed juice from meyer lemons (it was about 5 lemons for me)
2 teaspoons fine lemon zest

Mix together all ingredients and chill in the refrigerator until cold.
Once cold, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can pour the mixture into a shallow pan and freeze in your freezer until semi-solid. Then take a fork and fluff it up, returning it the the freezer to freeze firm. Then put in a food-processor or blender to process until smooth.

Place sorbet in an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

tuesday

Just another start to the work week.

sewed up a pretty case for my "pearl"



my husband and his brother have been working on a comic book. the first printing arrived today, along with a bunch of paper strips. Mosey had a blast hiding in it, and pouncing on it.
(info about the comic book here, it's really neat)





i consumed plenty of these no-bake cookies today. i had almost forgot about a childhood favorite of mine, until sheena posted about them a bit ago.
they are too easy and i spruced mine up to be healthy (somewhat??)
she called them gorilla poops, and i liked that so thats what i'm calling them now.


makes about 20

1/2 cup pure agave (you can sub sugar if you must!)
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1/4 cup milk (almond milk was great)
1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt


In a medium sauce pan mix agave nectar and baking cocoa. Add milk and coconut oil. Stir over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, salt and oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets. Stick the pan into the refrigerator until the mounds are set, then eat away.

strawberry freezer jam (honey-sweetened)

*This was supposed to be posted the day I left. Somehow that didn't happen. Oops!
I'll be back soon with a little blog about my trip*

I'm off to Washington for the next ten days. I'm looking forward to the non-humid, and somewhat cool weather they have been having there. Hopefully i'll find the time to pop in here and show you what i've been up to. But for now here is an awesome sugar free freezer jam recipe.

It sets up like regular jam, tastes amazing and is much healthier than the sugar alternative. And it takes a whopping 5 minutes to make (give or take?)

Strawberry freezer jam (honey-sweetened)

4 cups strawberries
1 T lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
(this can vary, depending on how sweet your berries are. Start at 1/3 and go up to 1 cup if needed)
1 package of No sugar needed pectin
3/4 cup water


Clean and stem berries. Blend with honey in food processor/blender until pureed.

Pour pureed berries into a bowl and add lemon juice and water. Sprinkle on the pectin and stir until well incorporated.

Ladle into clean jars/containers, leaving plenty of room for expansion. Let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to set up and then transfer to the freezer to store