What I Want Now: Chocolate Coated Orangettes

I love the chocolate and orange combination - they complement each other so well. That is why I am over the moon over my latest find: Chocolate coated orangettes. The orange rinds, even before cooking, look so pretty and glossy all uniformly sliced up. But the devil's in the details - I'd skip the corn syrup.

Photo and recipe from Someone who Bakes:

Orange and Fennel Salad

Three ingredients – orange, fennel bulb, and maple syrup. Ready in a jiffy and makes for a delicious breakfast.

To make, you'll need one orange, half a fennel bulb, and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Just shave off shards of the fennel bulb; slice the orange horizontally to get thin round discs. Reserve a little orange juice and add that to the maple syrup to make the dressing. Combine, mix and tuck in!

Orange, Peppers and Cabbage Salad

It was just one of those days. Between getting late for work and making the best of what's available in the fridge (My stock's run out), this salad is what I could rustle up for lunch.

Orange, Peppers and Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

• Cup of cabbage
• Cup of green pepper
• 1/2 cup carrots
• 1/2 cucumber
• Tablespoon of sunflower seeds
• 10-12 black olives
• 1 1/2 oranges
• 2 jalepeno peppers
• Teaspoon of olive oil

To make:

• Chop up the cabbage, carrots, cucumber, and peppers into thin long slivers.
• Juice half an orange. Mix this with the olive oil to make the dressing.
• Peel and seperate the remaing orange.
• Toss together the veggies with the jalepenos, olives and orange slivers.
• Add the dressing.
• Garnish with sunflower seeds.

Som Tam Salad (Well, sort of)

Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam) is the most popular salad in Thailand. As in all things Thai, fish sauce is a must. But I excluded it because a)I don't do fish, and b) I don't have any fish sauce available! Instead, I made a dressing of honey and orange juice. For a more authentic Som Tam recipe, refer here.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a large raw papaya
• 1 carrot
• 1 cucumber
• Handful of spinach leaves
• The juice of one orange
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Drizzle of honey
• Handful of crushed peanuts
• Flesh of a coconut, fresh, not dried or dessicated
• Black pepper, freshly ground

To make:

• Shred or grate the peeled papaya, carrot, coconut and cucumber into long thin slivers. See here on how to shred a papaya.
• Chop up or tear a few spinach leaves.
• Mix the orange juice, olive oil, honey and black pepper to make a dressing.
• Mix all the salad ingredients.
• Add the dressing right before you are going to eat the salad.
• Garnish with the crushed peanuts.

My Very Own Walnut, Date, and Orange Zest Balls

Raw and vegan power balls - a tasty and healthy treat.

Ingredients:

• About 200 grams of unsalted walnuts
• About 200 grams of dates (deseeded)
• Zest of an orange -- about a fist full - The imported big oranges work better than the local ones.

To make:

• Grind the walnuts to a granular powder in a blender - I prefer a bit of uneven chunkiness. Set aside.
• Grind the dates or finely chop them up.
• Grate the zest of an orange.
• Using these three ingredients, form a dough, mixing all three well together.
• Form bars or balls in the size you desire.
• Refrigerate for some time

Serving: Will make about 25 laddoos.

PS: Unlike the last time I made these kinds of balls, I left out honey or water - so that this time the "dough" was really dry. That way I dont have to leave the balls out in the sun to dry out the excess moistness.

Something Sweet...That's also good for you!

Here's my version of a raw energy bar.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of seeds (I used pumpkin and watermelon)
2. 8-10 dates
3. A little orange zest
4. Dash of honey

To make:

1. Divide the cup of seeds into three batches. I wanted varied texture in my bar and not everything ground up into a fine paste. So, what I did was put in each batch in a blender at a different time. So that all the seeds are not evenly ground up.
2. Throw in the first batch of seeds (1/3 of the cup) into a blender and dry-ground them till its a powder.
3. Into this powder, throw in the second batch along with the dates, orange zest, and honey. Blitz once again.
4. Finally toss in the last batch of seeds. I wanted these to remain as whole as possible.
5. Add a little honey or more dates, as required, till you are happy with the consistency of the final mixture. I refrained from adding water because I didn't want a soggy bar.
6. Lay out the mixture in a plate.
7. Leave it to dry in the sun for a couple of days (or a dehydrator). This step is only if you are planning on keeping the bars for a few days. If you just want to eat it immediately, dig in!
8. Chop into pieces or roll it up into a ball, as desired.