Oatmeal Fruit Candy (High in fiber, natural sugar only)

Ingredients:
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped dates (i use the kind that have nothing added so it is stickier)
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 cup apple butter

1/2 bar of nice, dark chocolate. a good dark chocolate will have little sugar added.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the oat, cinnamon, and cloves in a large bowl. Add dates, pecans and apricots, stir in apple butter. Mix until ingredients are well blended and oats are moistened with apple butter.

Spread mixture in 8 x 13-inch non-stick pan. Pat it down to make an even bottom layer. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are darkening and fruit should be somewhat crystalized.

While baking, melt chocolate by double boiling or chopping into small bits and microwaving. Add a little butter or milk to make it easier to work with. Drizzle melted chocolate over top of baked candy. Immediately cut into 2-inch squares, do not remove from pan. Allow to cool, go over cuts with knife again, and serve.

Note: These are even better on the second day. Servings: 24

Tofu Donburry

This is a delicious and filling Japanese dish.

First, create sauce by mixing soy sauce (or, i like to use Braggs liquid aminos, it tastes like soy souce but is good for you), some sweet liquid (i think the japanese sauce includes some rice wine but last night i used sparkling pear cider and it was good, you could also use white grape juice, apple juice, maybe some honey, whatever), and sliced ginger (this can be fresh, but traditionally would be pickled)

Steam rice (make as much as you'd need to serve each guest about half a bowl full of rice)

slice but keep separated:

Red Peppers
Onion
Carrots
Mushrooms
Tofu

Then layer in a large pan, in the following order: onion (bottom), carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, then tofu
(again use portions suitable for the amount of people you are serving. for me, one large pan layered thinly served three adults, but you could easily increase thickness to serve more)

Turn burner on medium, add a little water and cover pan with lid.

Crack and roughly mix enough eggs to cover top of your spread (probably about 1 1/2 eggs per person) in a separate bowl, then pour eggs over top of spread.

Let eggs cook a bit, add water if mix seems dry.
Pour sauce over top of spread before eggs cook fully.

Cover, let eggs cook (does not have to be very firm, about a medium is good)

Cut into bowl-sized portions and serve over bed of rice. If you want to make it look nice, top with a pinch of sliced pickled ginger.

Mashed "potatoes" (cauliflower)

steam cauliflower, a small amount of chopped onion, and a clove of garlic
process in food processor

add a pinch or so of curry
a tiny pinch of clove
pinch of thyme

this is so delicious! you can add spice to taste, but be slow to add any spice, i think the tricky thing is is that cauliflower is a little acidic compared to potatoes, thus carries spices to higher planes. benefits are worth it---cauliflower is so much better for you than potatoes (and if you steam it, it retains important enzymes) but when processed has the same texture as mashed potatoes. mmmmmmm.