Moms' Idea Factory

Pluma Moos

  Everyone in our family, right down to our smallest member, is totally addicted to this amazingly easy dessert. This comes courtesy of my mother's Mennonite heritage. I remember gobbling down bowlfuls of this stuff at my grandmother's kitchen table. Maybe that's part of the reason I feel compelled to make this for my kids? This is essentially a cold fruit soup that you can make in the summer with fresh fruit, or in the winter with tinned and dried fruit. It's an awesome way to get your kids to eat more fruit, especially of the, ahem, regularizing kind. If you're using fresh apples or apricots instead of dried, use 11/4 cups of the fresh fruit in place of the dried.

• 2/3 cup each of: raisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped dried apple, pitted prunes

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1 1/2 cups fresh (pitted or not, as you like)or canned cherries

• 4 cups water

• juice from canned cherries, or 1 pkt cherry jello powder

• 1/2 cup cold water

• 1.5 tablespoons each of cornstarch and flour

Heat dried fruit and first quantity of water in a large pot. Allow to simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add fresh blueberries, cherries and jello powder or cherry juice. Simmer 10 minutes more. Shake second quantity of water in a sealer with flour. Stir flour & water mixture into the simmer fruit mixture. Cook and stir 5 more minutes. Eat warm, or chill and serve with or without cream.

Blackberry Tea Cake with Struesel Topping

What to do with 8 litres of blackberries? Well, besides making jam and syrup, we made this awesome, not too sweet tea cake for mum's group this week. Because its so full of fruit and whole grains, I feel okay about giving this to Silas, even Cooper got some!

CAKE:

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine

• 2/3 cup brown sugar

• 2 Tablespoons white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 cup whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup white flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking spda

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 pinch nutmeg

• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

• 1/4 apple sauce

• 3 Tablespoons water

• 1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries

TOPPING:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

• 1/4 cup ground nut meal (almond, hazelnut, pecan...)

• 1/4 cup butter, melted

• 1/4 brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325F or 165C. Grease an 8x8 inch pan.

In your stand mixer, beat butter and sugars for 2 minutes. Add  eggs and beat for 30 seconds more.

Combine dry ingredients and mix in well. Mix in lemon juice, apple sauce and water. Gently fold in blackberries. Pour the batter into prepared pan.

In medium bowl, mix struesel ingredients until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle over the top of the cake batter.

 Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool in pan and then cut into slices.

Planet Organic's Cosmic Power Cookie

Okay, so I don't always make these when I make cookies, but I should. They are not the low-fat, sugar-free kind of healthy. They are more of a "lower" fat, "natural sugars", organic with lots of nuts and seeds kind of healthy. Which is just fine by me because, have you tasted a low fat cookie? Blech. Why bother? So if you're going to feed your kids a treat, you can feel better about these ones. Make a small (1/2) batch though, because they are pretty tasty to adults too....They taste just like the ones from the bakery counter at PO so everyone in our family loves them. Plus, Silas likes to help mix.

• 2 1/4 cups quick cooking oats

• 2 cups spelt flour  (you can substitute whole wheat or mix it 50%)

• 1 cup sunflower seeds

• 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds

• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 

• 1/4 cup flax seeds 

• 3/4 cup sugar (PO uses cane sugar, I just use brown sugar)

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

• 2 1/4 tsp salt 

• 1 3/4 cups dark chocolate chips 

• 1 1/4 cups craisins, raisins or other dried fruit

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/4 cup molasses 

• 1/2 cup canola oil

• 1 cup milk (PO uses soy, I use cows)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.

 

Drop dough by large tablespoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Gently flatten cookies. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 24 to 36 cookies.