Hello there readers! It’s been a while. I have to be honest – since having the baby I haven’t had a whole lot of mental energy for the kitchen. It used to be that I’d walk around dreaming up recipes to post on here. Now I mostly walk around looking for coffee. I eat at my kitchen counter. I have waaaaay too many cookies in my diet. Smoothies and salads are all but absent from my world. I’m busy. I’m breastfeeding. I’m mesmerized by the new little boy in my life. My jeans are tight and I can’t believe that most of the things in my closet used to fit MY body, but I’m happy. Happy and extremely fortunate. Grateful. Now, with spring finally coming to Montreal, I’m feeling inspired to start cleaning up my diet again.
I need baked goods in my life. This is a fact. If I don’t bake healthy things, I will stuff my face with cookies. Not healthy cookies, cookies that my evil husband brings home from the drug store because he, like me, is a cookie pig. So here we go – Apple Flax Bread. Step one towards edging out chocolate chunk cookies and getting back into my jeans. Also; dang tasty. I hope you like it. It’s very low in sugar. If you prefer a sweeter bread, double the sugar, or add a few tablespoons of maple syrup.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup ground flax
2/3 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup grape seed oil, or other neutral vegetable oil
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9X5 pan
- In a medium bowl, mix the first 6 ingredients
- In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients
- Pour the dry into the wet and mix just until combined. Fold in walnuts.
- Dump into prepared pan and bake for an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Enjoy!
In case you’re curious, he’s one of me and the boy 🙂
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Well I'm just so happy it's you! What a lovely surprise. I guess you really never know who's out there reading your stuff. I would have never imagined you were back in Larry pining away for a bottle of Dirty Bird 🙂 Aaaahhhh if only I could ship it, I'd send some your way tomorrow. Now that this little line of communication is over, Mr. McMarbles, I'll be able to look you up next time I'm in town. I'd love to hear more about what you're up to…maybe by then you'll have come to favourable terms with that employer 🙂
As to Montreal, a friend just described it as "a city you appreciate when you're gone." haha. I definitely enjoy being here – we have a great standard of living and the city is really engaging, when you have the energy to engage it. If only it weren't for the seven month winter….
Good chattin with you too, old buddy 🙂
Yup, it's me. I had read you were preggers last year and also looked on in awe at your venture into coffee bottling! Entrepreneu-extraoardinaire! Wanted to order a case of it and put it in storage for safe keeping 😉 But also knew it would take a bit of time for y'all to settle and nest when the wee one came. So held off yakking at ya for a bit. I'm still in Larryville. Currently I'm in negotiations (we'll say) with a recent former employer for a living wage. I like the work – electrical wiring these doctor tables – but the owner still prefers to keep workers at or below the poverty line. So we'll see how things turn out.
Other than that things are very much the same here – but also all different. Lots of new buildings going up downtown and lots of other changes, too. I'm jealous of you in Montreal … such a pretty, &engaging town. We used to go there when I lived upstate NY 20+ yrs ago.
Anyway, good chattin, thanks for the holla back 🙂
Ned! You just made my whole week. Is this Ned, Ned? As in the Ned I used to work with at Wheaties??? If so, you just opened a door to answer a question I was recently asking myself when back in Lawrence – I wonder what's up with Ned these days… Thank you so much for saying hello, I do hope to hear more from you. And thanks for the comment, you brought on a big big smile 🙂
Hey L!
Congratulations on the baby – you got a cutie!
But I love these posts of yours. The typed words sound so like your own voice: your humor, that casual honesty, a basic straightforwardness with a wry grin. As if we still lived in the same town &you came by and sat down for two seconds, said your peace and then 'wup, gotta go! Cya soon!' Not an easy thing for everyone to do. But your personality and warmth come thru even translated into prose. Well done!
And don't sweat the blog, right? You got plenty to do!
Wishing you well, <3, ned