Cuisinart 9 Cup Food Processor ROCKS!!!

Last week I decided that I wanted to get back into cooking and preparing more raw and fresh foods. How we ended up eating so much processed/boxed food is a good question. I guess with my crazy schedule as well as my husband's, meals had to be quick and easy…thus the boxed/processed foods. I think it just snuck (is that a word?) up on us throughout the years. That and a few extra pounds!

I discovered a great site called chocolatecoveredkatie.com . Her recipes are easy and nutritious and I noticed that she has a Cuisinart food processor and loves it. That week in my Canadian Tire flyer, there was a Cuisinart 9 cup on sale! AND I had some $$ in the bank that was just for this type of emergency!!

It’s heavy base is very sturdy, the blades are VERY sharp and the DVD is a great tutorial. Also comes with an instruction/recipe book. I was really impressed with the durability of each piece and the easy clean-up of each piece ( I hand washed the parts but everything is dishwasher safe except the base).

Today, I did up some carrots ,an onion, a green pepper and the rest of my peppers for freezing. Once I peeled and cut my veggies up a bit, I had them processed in no time! It is SO fast but that’s what was promised in the info/DVD.

I plan on making some banana “ice-cream” later this week with the Cuisinart 9 Cup, as I’d like to make up a few servings of it. I had just been making single servings in my little Hamilton Beach food processor (which did a great job of making Skor Bar crumbs for my ice-cream pie I made today).

Excuse the pics of the processor but I had already taken the veggies out :-)

I did up the veggies, put them on some foil, added a bit of water, salt and pepper and a quick spray of olive oil.

 Then I wrapped them up in the foil and they're ready for the BBQ!

 Oh, and I also added some dried garlic! :-)

I'M DREAMING OF A CHOCOLATE-COVERED CHRISTMAS.....IN JULY!

I  know it’s only July, but I’ve got visions of sugar plums dancing in my head……actually I have my awesome peanut butter cherry bon bons dancing in my head! J

The reason being is that I’ve discovered some really neat recipes in the last few weeks whilst pinning away on Pinterest.

On one pin, I saw a recipe for Chocolate-chip Cookie Dough Truffles.  I saw that they had some similar ingredients as my pb bon bons and started thinking about how I could make these instead of my traditional ones. My bon bons are fairly high in calories and one year I didn’t make them because I figured we needed to eat healthier even at Christmas…….the tribe revolted so I’ve continued to make the bon bons.

The pin came from a site called Chocolate-Covered Katie (http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/ ). Katie has a ton of great recipes but the Chocolate-chip Cookie Dough Truffles caught my attention!

So I got the processor out and started making them. I did omit the sugar though because the chocolate chips made them sweet enough and if you want to make them chocolate covered you really don’t need as much of the sugar. You could also substitute the sugar for a bit of stevia or agave nectar which will again save you a few more calories.

I did a taste test to see how they were before I formed them into balls and they were great without the sugar! I was actually able to make 9 from Katie’s recipe as I made them the same size as my bon bons. I didn’t put a cherry in the middle but even if I did, you use less of the dough to make them the same size. I did make nine but ate one before I took the pic :-)

So now I have to keep my secret “mum” and see if anyone notices that the bon bons are a little different this Christmas!

Happy and healthy eating everyone!!