Lisa Mallette Photography: Food

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."

~ Audry Hepburn

( iPhone 6 )

This gardening season some vegetables did ok while the others, not so much. Despite a great start with our planting in the spring not everything grew as expected. It was a learning process. However, what did very well and grew all season season long were the leafy greens. Except for my Swiss Chard, which was invaded by some odd beetle, but that is a whole other story. ARUGULA, in particular, grew the best. Arugula (also known as Rocket) is my all time favorite! A fun leafy green that is crisp, peppery and yet refreshing in taste. Add a bit of balsamic vinaigrette and I could eat a bowl of it just by itself. It was definitely a winner this year. Fingers crossed that it will grow just as well next year, along with a few more veggies.......hopefully.

Happy Eating,

~Lisa

Sharing with LIFE thru THE LENS and Pierced Wonderings this week.

Baking always makes my day feel more productive. I don't know why. When I sit down in the evening and talk to my husband and tell him about my day, if my recap sounds like "I did this, this and that"...it never really seems to represent how busy my day may have been or really felt. I often feel like well, that does not sound like much or I do not know why that took so much time in my day. But when I get to say I did X, Y, Z and I BAKED with SUCCESSFUL results, well it just makes me feel like a rock star! That's right, I baked and it came out right! LOL. Does anyone else feel like that too?
Well I did some baking today.....and thankfully it came out as I had hoped. Can you hear it???? "Hahhhhhhhhhhhh"....in case you are unsure as to what that sound is, that's the sound of the crowd in the background. LOL. To top it off, what I made was not even for the family.

You see, we have the best little four legged furry family member who was in need of a snack. Low and behold in the pantry his bag of treats was empty. Shocking, I know, to find an empty bag of dog treats in the pantry instead of in the trash can where it should be. Anywhoo, I had just returned from running errands so the option to go back out in the bitter cold was not the most desirable option. I thought, why don't I make some?

Here they are........

(50mm, F2.8, 1/250, ISO 200)

They don't look too bad do they? Good enough to eat right?

Actually, the kids and I have made some dog treats in the past as a Christmas gift for their grandparents' dog. So I knew I could tackle this task. We even have a cookie cutter shaped as a dog bone from that project.
I began scouring the web looking for a recipe hoping that it would include ingredients that I had on hand. In particular, I was looking for a grain free recipe. There were a ton of great recipes to choose from. Many called for sweet potato as a main ingredient. One ingredient.......however, that I unfortunately did not have. Ha! But I finally did come across one that I liked and I had majority of what was needed. Double Ha! You can find the original recipe HERE listed as "Bad Breath Busting Biscuits." I did change the recipe up just a bit to suit our needs with what I had on hand today and with what I thought our dog would like.

Here is what I used:

1 1/2 cups coconut Flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 tsp salt
2 Bananas
2 TBSP of Bacon Grease (Bacon Grease? Yes! Bacon Grease!) - but you probably can use any other fat instead
2 TBSP Peanut Butter
3 Eggs

Mix the dry ingredients first. Mix the wet ingredients separately. Fold together. It absorbs fast so you will need to use your hands to mix thoroughly. I rolled the dough in between two pieces of waxed paper as described in the original recipe. Using the dog bone cookie cutter I shaped the biscuits until I did not have enough dough for that particular cutter and then used the smaller heart shaped one. :0)

I baked mine at 350 for 30 minutes to really dry them out and then let them sit in the oven to cool with the door open.

Here they are again. Personally I think I like the look of the heart shaped biscuits. Baked with love.