Kara's bento box

Kara's lunch and snack for tomorrow, as made by Matt!

Counterclockwise from the upper-left corner: deli ham, cucumber slices, a cut-up cheesestring, grapes, pineapple slices, animal crackers, a cut-up apple cereal bar and a cut-up chocolate and caramel granola bar.

...and it's happy to see you...

This was Kara's homemade pizza from last night.

If the butcher gives you a half-pound of ground pork instead of ground beef...

It turns out that my go-to pizza dough recipe makes a fantastic ciabatta that's good for two sandwiches. Also: you can quickly make an individual serving size carrot slaw by using a vegetable peeler to peel strips off a carrot. Lastly, you can cut the strong pork flavour of an all-pork patty by making a carrot slaw that uses rice vinegar, ginger, sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce. Not a bad way to turn a potential lunch disaster into something to look forward to, self.

Jul 13/14 update: now with picture!

Oh, home-grilled meat, how I've missed thee

You are looking at a plate of beef deckle point, marinated in a tried, true and most-beloved beef marinade, then charcoal fire-grilled.

6 Ingredient Refined-Sugar-Free, Banana-Free, Nut-Free Vegan Ice Cream

• 16 medium-to-large dates, soaked and drained well
• the flesh from one ripe avocado
• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk plus just the coconut cream from another can (I use Thai Express brand because it doesn't contain sulphites, which my body hates)
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• about 1 tbsp. vanilla
• about ½ tsp. salt

Blend the dates and avocado well in a blender/food processor. Add the coconut milk/cream and cocoa powder, blend further. Add salt and vanilla to taste, blend until you have a smooth slurry not unlike melted ice cream. Pour into ice cream maker and work mixture until its consistency is at least as firm as soft-serve ice cream. Scrape mixture into freezer-safe container and enjoy your stash of simple, homemade, delicious ice cream.

Feast your eyes...

...whilst I feast mah belleh.

So, I recently made up a batch of what I was hoping would be date-sweetened (refined sugar free!) caramels, but had to add enough water to get everything to blend smoothly that I ended up with a very yummy salted caramel sauce. It made for a yummy, guilt-free, after-dinner spoonful of deliciousness, but wasn't quite what I was looking for.

Then last night, it occurred to me that I could make caramel tarts! This morning, I prepped my go-to pie crust recipe, with whole wheat flour and made a batch of the caramel sauce. I blind-baked (I've been using dried beans as my pie weights for years) 6 small tart shells and added the caramel to them once they had cooled fully, then crumbled a bit of fleur de sel on them.

If you're looking for a butter tart experience, this isn't anywhere near as rich as those, but they are very delicious in their own right. Although they're fairly time-consuming to make, I thought this was a worthwhile experiment, as I now have a more decadent sugar-free dessert in my arsenal.

Edit: for improved readability

Fast, easy dinner

Stir-fried veggies over steamed brown rice.