I’m assembling an awesome board of cocktails and concoctions to help get you through fall. You can check it out on Learnist along with my other food & drink boards…and check back often because there are more scintillating sips to come.
Monthly Archives: October 2012
I like having little snack foods around the house. Something I can just grab a quick handful of as I go about my day, cleaning house, playing with the dogs, being awesome, avoiding doing chores. I like these snacks to be crunchy but flavorful and preferably something easy to make. I also like a variety of flavors…I bore easily, after all. Hey, let’s go ride bikes!
I’m just kidding. It’s too cold outside to ride bikes.
Anyway, these almonds are great. I made them last year as Christmas gifts. I started making them again this fall as snacks for get-togethers or just to keep around the house. I’ve tried a few different flavors, my favorites being rosemary-olive oil, and cinnamon-sugar. The pumpkin spice were pretty good, too. 
Last year, I made these with regular sugar but this year I started making them with Splenda so that my sugar-conscious friends could still enjoy them and to be honest, you really can’t tell the difference.
Everyone loves munching on the sweet (or savory) and crunchy little snacks. If you need a snack to put out before holiday meals this year, this is it. They also make great, hand-made gifts wrapped up in pretty cellophane bags and tied with a bow. And if you get almonds from a bulk-food co-op or store like Costco, they can be really affordable too!
Sugar-free Cinnamon Almonds
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole blanched almonds
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup Splenda
- 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250F.
- Whip the egg white until frothy (just a minute or so). Add in the splenda and cinnamon and the fold in the almonds. Stir until the almonds are thoroughly coated in the mixture.
- Line a baking pan with parchment or tinfoil and spread the almonds out on the pan. Bake at 250F for one hour. Let cool and eat! Store in an airtight container.
Notes
More interested in the rosemary-olive oil almonds? Replace the egg white with 1/4 cup olive and replace the Splenda and cinnamon with a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary.
For pumpkin spice almonds, sub a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon in this recipe.
And don't forget all the other flavors you could try---chili and lime (a bit of lime juice and zest and chili powder), cocoa almonds (canola oil, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar), or even vanilla bean almonds (scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean or use vanilla bean paste and mix that into white or brown sugar). Be creative! And enjoy.
© Have Fork, Will Eat
This mousse won’t give you diabetes. Seriously. I can’t make this claim about much of my food (coughapplesyrupcough) but this mousse is actually sugar-free. Free of regular sugar, anyway. I’ve been experimenting with sugar substitutes and this recipe is one of my new favorites. It’s also free of one other thing: effort. If you can put things in a mixing bowl and blend them together, you can make this mousse. It’s great for days when you’re low on time, or low on energy and want a creamy, chocolaty fix. I’m feeling under the weather myself today, so this is my quick-fix pick-me-up.
Enjoy 
Sugar-free Chocolate Cream Cheese Mousse
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup Splenda (or similar sugar substitute)
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream (hey, I didn't say this was lowfat)
- (optional: dark chocolate shavings for garnish (may contain sugar))
Instructions
- Cut the cream cheese into smaller chunks and put it into a mixing bowl with the Splenda and cocoa powder. Turn your mixer or beaters on medium and blend well. Drizzle in the whipping cream and continue to beat a few more minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until well incorporated. Serve immediately (with a chocolate shavings garnish if desired).
Notes
I ran the ingredients that I used through a nutritional calculator and it came out with approximately: 405 calories; 9g carbs; 41g fat; 6g protein; 2g fiber per serving. Again, that's an approximation and your mileage may vary.
© Have Fork, Will Eat
Eating with Evernote: Harvest Pie Cook-Along
chocolate chip cookie pie
The latest Evernote Cook-Along is this week and it’s awesome: a celebration of all things fall, harvest and pie. It’s going to be amazing. I’ve already been experimenting with caramel apple pie recipes in preparation for it, and this week I’m going to make Paul’s delectable cinnamon pie, some pumpkin pie and maybe some individual pie pops.
mini cinnamon pies
And I want you to join me! The fun of the cook-alongs is two-fold: 1) you get to make (and eat) food! And any excuse to do that is a valid one. And 2) you get to share what you made and see what other people are doing, and get tips, inspiration and recipes—which is the whole point of the internet, if you take away the cat pictures.
tiny heart shaped apple pies
Plus this time there’s a contest—I’ll choose my favorite 5 recipes (the most interesting and most innovative to me) and from there the worldwide Evernote fanclub will choose the top 3. Those winners will get prizes and the all-important bragging rights.
So join us. Post your pies for posterity and enjoy the delicious harvest of fall with some sweet and savory deliciousness!
How the Cook-Along works
Join the Facebook Event!
My Harvest Pie Evernote recipe collection
Hashtag: #evernotelife