I use the spent grain from beer brewing to make breads, biscuits, pizza dough and cookies.  The grain adds a wonderful nutty taste/texture.  So tasty!  Oh, the cookies are the best.  If you have access to a home brewer, I'm sure they'd be happy to off load some spent grain. 

I start with this recipe:

http://www.omnomicon.com/spent-grain-cookies

Add more peanut butter, throw in some coconut if I have it and basically tweak the spices to however I'm feeling that day. 

I had a yummy quinoa salad dish today--not my recipe so I don't know it exactly but it's probably easy to make up...

• Cooked quinoa
• onion
• multi-color cherry tomatoes
• feta cheese
• olive oil as dressing
• salt and pepper

Yummy

Something I frequently do for lunch:

 

1 avocado, diced

Splash of lime juice

Pinch of salt (optional)

Chili powder (more if you like it hot, less if you don't)

Mash all of that together

 

Open 1-5 oz. can of tuna (I use chunk white albacore), blend into avocado stuff

 

Scoop onto crackers or toast or roll up in a tortilla.  A serving for me is about half the batch.  So, one batch works good for two people.  You could use chicken instead of tuna if you like.  I've never tried it, but tofu might also work well.

I've  been a vegetarian for years, but before I went meat-free I would frequently make tuna salad and serve inside a halved avocado. Eat with a spoon. So delicious, and a nice option for people wanting to reduce their carb/gluten intake (seems like a lot of people are doing this nowadays - not me!).

MM update your blog, hope all is well today, thinking of you;0)

Zucchini overload anyone?

Try this

ZUCCHINI BREAD

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large cake pan (10.5 x 5.5 x 4 inches) with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan thoroughly. You can also mix the flour with cinnamon sugar, or grease the parchment paper and then coat with cinnamon sugar, if you like additional sweetness.

Sift together:

3 cups whole wheat flour (pastry flour or white wheat flour work best)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Shred

4 cups of zucchini (I don't peel them, but do as you prefer)

Beat

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp rum (plain or spiced)

add

1/2 cup oil (you may use 1/4 cup oil + 1/4 cup applesauce, if desired)

Fold together

- egg mixture

- shredded zucchini

- flour mixture

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Fold gently until mixed well, but do not overmix.

Fill batter into cake pan.

Bake on a lower rack, so that the whole cake is about in the middle of the oven, at 350F for 2 hours plus 10-15 minutes. Test with a bamboo skewer for doneness (stick it all the way through, if it comes out without batter adhering, or almost no batter adhering, the bread is done). You might have to cover the top with aluminum foil or parchment paper to prevent the bread from getting too dark after 1.5 hours.

Take bread out of the oven, and immediately turn out onto a cooling rack. Remove parchment paper, if used. Wait about one minute, then turn bread around, right side up again, to let cool completely. If you don't let it cool on the rack, it gets doughy and too dense on the bottom.

Bread freezes well. It tastes even better on the next day, but picks up moisture over time, too. I keep it lightly covered in aluminum foil on the kitchen counter, but it also keeps well in the fridge (recommended unless it gets eaten up within a day or two).

So, here's the

Award-Winning Chocolate-Hazelnut Cream Pie:

(Mandy, I can imagine this would also taste great with the almond butter you suggested, instead of the Nutella, and toasted almonds for sprinkling instead of the hazelnuts)

1 graham cracker pie crust (I used an organic one), chocolate cookie pie crust, or vanilla wafer pie crust

13 oz. Nutella or other hazelnut spread, divided, at room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (make sure hazelnut spread and cream cheese are the same temperature)

16 oz. heavy whipping cream, divided

2 packs "Dr. Oetker Whip It" (keeps whipped cream stiff)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp confectioner's sugar (optional)

2-3 Tbsp toasted hazelnuts (skins removed), chopped

2 Tbsp Nutella or hazelnut spread for drizzling (or chocolate sauce)

1) Refrigerate pie crust until cold and set.

Carefully spread 1/4 cup hazelnut spread onto the graham cracker pie crust. This is easier if you warm up the spread in the microwave (approx. 3 times 10 seconds, stirring in between), so that is is softer, almost liquid. Don't overheat, as it will burn. Don't make it too liquid, or it will drip through the crust.

2) Mix remaining hazelnut spread with the softened cream cheese. Make sure they are the same temperature, so that they won't curdle. Let cool to room temperature or colder (refrigerate, but not too cold, or it will be difficult to fold in the whipped cream).

3) Beat 1 cup whipping cream for 20-30 seconds, then add 1 package of the "Whip It" powder, and continue to beat until the cream is just nicely stiff, don't overbeat. Very gently fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.

Fill the cream into the pie crust. Refrigerate until cold, best overnight.

4) Beat remaining 1 cup whipping cream for 20-30 seconds, then add second package of the "Whip It" powder, confectioner's sugar and vanilla (I did not add the confectioner's sugar, so that the cream would be a contrasting taste to the sweet chocolate filling, but do as you like). Beat until stiff, then gently spread over the pie filling. Smoothen top, make "waves", or finish the top with the last few tablespoons of whipped cream using a cake decorator tool with a "star" nozzle.

5) Slightly warm up hazelnut spread in the microwave, be careful not to overheat. It should be just lukewarm, so that it flows more easily, but will not melt the whipped cream topping. Fill hazelnut spread into a cake decorator tool with a small, round nozzle, or a ziplock bag and cut off just a little bit of one corner, keeping the opening very small. Drizzle hazelnut spread over the whipped cream in a nice pattern.

Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts over top.

Refrigerate before serving.

Note: You can leave out the "Whip It" powder if you can't find it in your store (I know Wegmans carries it), it just keeps the whipped cream reliably stiff, but the pie also works without it. You could also use just a very small amount of gelatin (soak, dissolve, mix a little bit of whipped cream into the gelatin, then whip the gelatin into the whipped cream).

Bran Muffins

Great before or after a morning run

2 cups of Bran Buds

1-1/4 cup of milk or skim milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup pecan pieces

2 bananas mashed up

Basically just mix it all up with a hand mixer, spoon it into muffin papers in a muffin pan or into a greased muffin pan, and bake at 400 F for 22 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.

I tinkered a good bit to get this to where I like it.  It is simple to do and delicious.

Well, John, how did I do for a first timer?