julie’s kind kitchen

This is also a tester recipe from Dreena’s upcoming book. All I can say is MmMmMm…

Yesterday wonderful Leslie let me know about the HUGE sale going on at our local co-op. They are moving to a new location, so yesterday they had 25% off of all of their produce and perishables. oh boy! I made a killing. Well, today I decided to go back (since it’s their last day before the move) to see if they had lowered their prices any more. They had! 40% off all produce and perishables!

Here’s what I got:
(As you can see-there wasn’t much produce left when I got there.)

3 Amy’s Roasted Veggie Pizzas (I have wanted to try these for FOREVER, but they are always so expensive!)
Ezekiel 4:9 Buns
Naked Green Machine
Earth Balance sticks
frozen organic peppers
two containers fresh organic raw salsa
Amy’s Cali Burgers
Medjool Dates
Southwest Sunshine Burgers (sooo good! thanks, Les)
Kumbucha drink (for Matt)
Organic Valley Mild Cheddar

Total= $39.00

Not bad!

Today was a day of a lot of cooking! For brunch (when I got home from work at 1:20PM –Is that still brunch? LOL) , I made Tofu Scramble from the PPK. It was really good. Especially good since I actually followed the recipe this time and had all of the correct spices! For a late dinner, I made Baked Potato & Green Soup with Potato Wedge Croutons, which is a tester recipe from Isa and Terry’s upcoming book. Mmmmm… good. I haven’t had potato soup in I don’t know how long and this really hit the spot!

So, with inspiration from both Leslie and this post by the Fat Free Vegan, I’ve made something great with my locally-grown organic Medjool Dates. I used Leslie’s base recipe for her bars of: dates, honey (she uses agave nectar) and oatmeal. For the first batch, I just mashed together the base recipe ingredients (no blender or food processor needed-yay!), formed the ingredients into balls, and then rolled them in coconut. For the second batch, I added raw sunflower seeds and almond butter to the base recipe mixture. Oh boy!! These were so awesome! They were a perfect snack to take over to Matt’s brother’s house tonight for some Nip/Tuck watching (we don’ have a TV).

The reason the Lara Bars are in the picture is because they used to be my favorite snack…until I made these. Don’t get me wrong, Lara Bars are great…but these are much more fresh tasting (Matt agrees) and a lot cheaper!

Bonus: Dates are a good source of fiber and potassium. Woo-hoo!

So, I just bought a bunch of dates after Leslie found out they were selling them for cheap at our local Co-op. Sounds great right?! Well, I don’t have a food processor and our blender just broke! I was really really set on making some sort of date bars. Can it be done?