"food matters" and it is "so easy"

Two weeks ago, the weather was crappy...it rained for two days straight! It rained so much that there were a lot of landslides. (Luckily not in our neighborhood)

To keep myself entertained indoors I decided to try some new recipes.

From "Food Matters" by Mark Bittman...I tried the "Nutty Oatmeal Cookies". Instead of chocolate chips, I added nibs and in place of butter I used olive oil.

My oven is so teeny that it took me some time to bake the half a batch that I tried.

I used a scoop but think I may have made some too small because I actually ended up with 20 cookies instead of 18.

Anyway, these are delicious and gives your jaw a nice workout.

Also from "Food Matters" I tried the "Hybrid Quick Bread", since I didn't have whole wheat flour, I added some ground flax seed (about a tablespoon).

Also, I put them into cupcake papers so that I would have individual servings. (Way easier to store and clean up.)

I made half the recipe and was kind of worried it wouldn't rise because I didn't have the correct amount of baking powder, but it turned out okay.

I also didn't add the optional honey nor the sprinkling of salt on top, so these need jam, sauce or something. I really like the texture of this, soft and a little fluffy.

We had this with an over easy egg and salad for breakfast one morning...yum!

From "So Easy" by Ellie Krieger, I tried her recipe for "Cherry Almond Chocolate Clusters".

Only 3 ingredients---dark chocolate (60%-70%), dried cherries and almonds...easy, right?

I melted the suggested amount of chocolate (I used 70%), added the almonds and cherries and put tablespoon mounds onto parchment paper.

Chilled them in the refridge and got these delicious treats. Serving size is one piece.

With some of the leftover chocolate, I filled one of my Hello Kitty cheese molds.

Even with the two days straight of rain, this year our rainy season seems to be late, in fact, we've been having cool weather.

I'm pretty sure this will affect the veggies and fruit this year.