Floptimism

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but this Ground Turkey Casserole is so delightful...

2012-02-11T11:26:00.001-05:00

Just this past week, the sun was shining and I wasn’t even wearing a jacket to go outside. Now, I’m sitting in bed staring out the window as snowflakes fall gently to the already-white ground. Go figure. No, but really, as much as I smile into the sun and grumble about cold fronts, I feel better about this weather. After all, it is February and I’m currently situated in central Pennsylvania; anything less than the weather falling down upon the grass and lake behind L’s dorm building is, quite frankly, unnatural.

The other relieving part about Mother Nature finally deciding to switch over to winter is that I can really get behind telling you about this recipe for a ground turkey casserole. I did love breaking up the parade of heavy winter dishes with the light avocado salad on Thursday, but it’s just as nice to have this warm and comforting, yet ultimately healthy version of a comfort food to counter it today. Life is all about balance, no?

This casserole brings a meek heat, just as though the spices from the rotel tomatoes were peeking around a corner, asking not to be forgotten completely. It’s creamy in a respectful way, so you can indulge in flavor without feeling weighed down by the end of the meal. The only change that I would make, which should really come to no surprise to you by now when it comes to the meat meals that I cook, is to supplement some of the turkey with some beans or extra vegetables. I definitely like the meat in my recipes to get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, while leaving the starring role to the plant-based ingredients. Still, it tasted delicious as it was, so if you come from a more meat-centric household, I certainly wouldn’t fault you for leaving this as is.

One Year Ago: Classic Chocolate Cake with Ganache Frosting

Ground Turkey Casserole, adapted from SI Money Savers

Yield: 6 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1-2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound ground turkey breast

1 medium chopped red onion

2 celery stalks, diced

15 ounces (no salt added) tomato sauce

10 ounces rotel tomatoes

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried basil

1 cup kale, chopped

½ cup (low-fat or skim) milk

4 ounces (non-fat) plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 cup cooked brown rice

5 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes¹

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

The Method

Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit and lightly coat an 8 inch square baking dish with nonstick spray.

Place the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and, once heated, add in the turkey, onion and celery. Continue to cook, breaking up the turkey until it is nearly or completely done (no pink should remain). Stir in the tomato sauce, rotel, oregano, and basil, allowing the mixture to come to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the kale and continue simmering for another 5 or so minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the milk, yogurt, and garlic in a small, separate saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium-low heat until well blended, then mix in the rice. Add the rice mixture to the turkey off heat and fold to incorporate well. Season with salt and pepper, pour into the baking dish, and sprinkle with the nutritional yeast flakes. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes until it is heated through and bubbly; check on it halfway through and cover if browning too quickly. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Notes:

¹Nutritional Yeast Flakes are a vegan-friendly alternative to cheese in that they impart a cheesy flavor without using any animal/lactose products. They’re excellent sources of fiber and protein, yet low in fat, making them even more enticing additions to a healthy meal. You can find them at many grocery stores, including Wegman’s (in bulk) and Whole Foods. But, if they’re really not your thing, you can use 1 ½ cups shredded cheese, as the original recipe indicated.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Mexican Fiesta Salad

2012-02-09T20:51:00.001-05:00

Boy, I really let this Thirty Minute Thursday get down to the wire, didn’t I? It’s been a busy day, and after writing a fairly long product review yesterday, I’ll keep this one short and sweet.

The recipe from Rachael Ray’s cookbook that I have for you today is called a Mexican Fiesta Salad, and there isn’t much to say about it except that I really enjoyed it. Halfway through February, we’re well into the season of heavy eating – filling stews, chili, casseroles. It was nice to work this into my dinner plan for the week because of how clean and simple it was, providing a nice change from the more traditional winter fare. I want to say this even tastes good for you, that’s how light it is, but I feel like people interpret a phrase like that in a very negative way. It tastes good for you in a way that makes you feel good about yourself, not in a way that makes you feel like you’re eating cardboard and calling it diet food, or something miserable like that. It would pair well with other “clean” foods, by which I really mean other light dishes – no sauces, no gobs of cheese, even red meat might be a little too overpowering for this little gem. I ate it with a simple egg white omelet (is it just me, or is there something extremely refreshing about a plain, well cooked batch of egg whites?), but can imagine it being excellent in a number of other ways, too: grilled chicken, a light wrap or sandwich, or a bean salad on the side. You could even use the salad as a topping for plain tortilla chips.

This salad is vibrant in color but subtle in flavor. The cilantro and lime are at just the right intensities, and the red onion offers a small bite in both texture and flavor. The recipe certainly isn’t revolutionary, but it is very enjoyable, and it may even make you feel like Spring is just around the corner.

One Year Ago: Chicken Shepherd's Pot Pie

Mexican Fiesta Salad, courtesy of Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: 4 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

2 ripe avocados

3 tomatoes¹

⅓– ½ red onion, sliced

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 limes, halved

The Method

Halve the avocados and remove the pits. Use a spoon to scoop out the flesh from the skin and slice the avocados into wedges. Arrange in the center of a platter. Coarsely chop the tomatoes² and add them around the avocado pieces. Arrange the sliced onion over the platter and sprinkle with cilantro.³ Squeeze the juice of 2 limes evenly over the platter.

Notes:

¹I used 8 cherry tomatoes instead

²For a prettier presentation, remove the seeds first – though I generally didn’t find this to be necessary.

³I used “tube cilantro” which is fairly liquid and therefore doesn’t exactly sprinkle. If you’re in the same boat, mix the cilantro into the lime juice (I opted for bottled, by the way), and drizzle the mixture over the platter at the end.

Jane Be Nimble, Jane Be Quick: A Review of Balance Bar's Newest Protein Bar for Women

2012-02-08T18:43:00.001-05:00

Last year, my food science professor gave us a homework assignment: we were to bring a protein bar in to class the following week. We were going to conduct a taste test and sensory evaluation. Now, mind you, the closest I had ever come to tasting a protein bar was an array of cereal bars – Kashi, Kellog’s, Fiber One. As I was soon to discover, breakfast bars and protein bars are two very different beasts. That first experience with protein bars – a chocolate peanut butter one, no less – was decidedly unfulfilling. It wasn’t that it tasted bad or I actively disliked it; it was more that there was this strange essence to the bar that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was the kind of gustatory experience that I certainly wasn’t actively enjoying, but felt compelled to continue nonetheless.

If that mildly disconcerting taste test wasn’t enough to make me a skeptic, a curiosity-kills-the-cat type of investigation of the nutrition labels of various popular bars certainly was. Sure, the bars have protein. Some even have an impressive dose of healthy fats, which are always welcome in my world. But have you ever looked at the sugar? The fiber? The calories? These babies are dense packages of protein, absolutely, but they’ve also got enough sugar to boost you to the moon and a meager 1 or 2 grams of fiber – not nearly enough to balance the sugar out. Ok, perhaps I exaggerate: 15-20 grams of sugar is certainly better than some of the health-claiming yogurt brands out there (a discussion for another time) – but it’s still more than I want as a breakfast or pre/post-workout fuel up.

All of this to say – I was skeptical of the Nimble Bar by Balance Bar when it came as part of my Around the Plate goodie box. Would there be hydrogenated oils holding it together? Would the sugar content make me want to eat it as a lackluster dessert rather than as a pre-work out boost? Would I be as disappointed by the contrast between delicious sounding flavors and ultimately off-putting taste as I was last year?

Before I opened the package, I inspected the nutrition label and ingredients list with a fine-toothed comb. The sugar was remarkably low, as a result of their using Truvia – a bittersweet concession, if you ask me, as I’m still just about as wary of the potential effects of alternative sweeteners as I am about highly refined white sugar. Truvia certainly isn’t Splenda, though, so I moved on in my investigation without much of a grudge. Fiber reached a commendable 5 grams, and calories were low so I could eat it with a piece of fruit or glass of milk to incorporate some more fresh foods without overdoing the calories. It would also be enough to tide me over if I ever were to find myself hungry but not in good reach of real food, which is great because it’s the perfect size to slip into my purse or book bag (I’m always looking for good on-the-go snacks to stash in my purse for when I go out). The ratio was 50:50 between saturated and unsaturated fats, but total fat was really low so I wouldn’t get too hung up on the fact that it isn’t more of a 25:75 or 15:85 ratio. Sodium was low, cholesterol was negligible, and reading through the remaining items on the nutrition panel was like opening up my advanced human nutrition textbook to the chapter on vitamin and mineral recommendations: 100% folate, 50% vitamin D, 50% vitamin E – they even had chromium, molybdenum and selenium covered, and who except for registered dietitians have ever heard of those? Granted, they were all fortifications, and I could go on about getting your nutrients from whole foods and natural sources, and all of that…but in the end, as long as you don’t go and throw everything in your kitchen away and replace it with a diet of 100% Nimble bars…I think you’re ok getting some “extra” nutrients the not-so-natural way every once in a while.

I also took the time to read up on the “40-30-30” ratio of macronutrients that the label touts and, apparently, Balance Bar uses for all of its products. It’s thought that keeping a carbohydrate-protein-fat ratio within these values is the best distribution of nutrients to keep blood sugar and mood stable while bringing down inflammation in the body and boosting energy – all very good things to try to achieve. This isn’t something I can say that my nutrition education has taught me, per se, but it is very similar to the AMDR values set forth by our country’s nutrient guidelines (which state that a healthy diet should consist of 45-65% carbohydrates, 10-35% protein, and 25-30% fat), so I would imagine the science behind this ratio to be relatively sound. What it’s really saying, if you think about it, is that this bar has a well-rounded set of nutrients, so you won’t be loading up on any one type of energy source while ignoring another.

So after what you have probably gathered was a very thorough reading of the packaging, I finally opened the yogurt orange swirl flavor. I took my first bite with caution. I chewed slowly. When I swallowed, I paused before taking the next bite to evaluate the experience I had just initiated. Not too shabby, I thought. It was dense but not overwhelmingly so, sweet but not cloyingly, and the flavor was pretty reminiscent of a creamsicle, which happens to be a favorite of mine from my childhood. Unfortunately, the first bite of this one was definitely the best. The sweetness developed this manufactured component to it, and by the end of the bar I had felt I had had more than enough. The texture was a little bit chalky if you concentrated too hard on it, though not nearly as much as other protein bars I’ve had. In the end, I found myself wishing for a bar half the size – it was just a little bit too much, and I don’t mean in terms of calories or gram weight.

I tried the peanut butter flavor a few weeks later, and enjoyed that one much more. I found it to be significantly less “chalky” in texture, and because it didn’t have the creamsicle elements to it – peanut butter is naturally more decadent than sweet – I found its sweetness to be much closer to what I tend to prefer. I still couldn’t shake the slight aftertaste of something heavily manufactured and just, well, not fresh off the tree, so to speak, but it was absolutely the best protein bar I’ve ever eaten.

So, what was my ultimate verdict? Personally, I’m not really a protein bar kind of gal. I’m not sure that I would purchase these on a regular basis, but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out as an occasional addition to my snack pile, and I think that’s a pretty big concession coming from me. I’d also be interested in seeing different flavors come out, and would absolutely try those based on the differences I saw between the two that I received as samples. That being said, I think this is a great product for the right demographic. Like I said, their portability is phenomenal – they’re discreet, shelf-stable, and I belief tough enough to withstand the depths of a woman’s purse or briefcase, which is none to be trifled with. As much as I harp on getting nutrients from whole foods, the truth is that many people don’t get enough nutrients on a day-to-day basis, so having a bar that gives you a healthy dose of some of the really key ones (especially for women) is not something to overlook. And if you do like protein bars or at least find yourself able to palate them, you should definitely give them a shot, because this overall positive review is coming from someone who usually doesn’t tolerate protein bars well. They’re less than $2 a bar, which sounds reasonable compared to other protein bars on the market (though still not nickels and dimes), and as I’ve said and can’t say enough – they’re better than any other bar I’ve had.

If you’re interested, you can find more information on Nimble (and all of Balance Bar’s products) at www.balance.com or on Facebook. The bars can be ordered online either via the Balance Bar website (previously listed) or Amazon, or found in stores alongside other Balance Bars (though I personally have not stumbled across them in retail in my region yet).

Balance Bar may not have completely converted me with their new Nimble line, but they certainly took me by surprise in a positive way – and as we learn so often in my dietetics courses, it’s those small, incrementally won battles that matter the most. You may be able to make a protein bar lover out of me yet.

Maybe.

The opinions expressed and images shared in this review are entirely my own. Although Balance Bar donated the bars sent to me via the wonderful people behind the Around the Plate community, no further compensation or incentive was given. I am not affiliated in any way with Balance Bar or its subsidiaries.

Peanut Butter Banana Chia Pudding - I promise, it won't make you sprout green hair and turn into a clay pot

2012-02-06T12:16:00.001-05:00

I’m as curious as a newborn when it comes to food. Bizarre flavor combinations intrigue me; new ingredients make me giddy; and I just can’t seem to stick with one tried-and-true staple meal. I’m always looking for new recipes and ideas. So naturally, when I started to read about Chia seeds, all I wanted to do was try them. It wasn’t my trying to be a wannabe-vegan or anything like that – I just wanted to know what all of the fuss was about. When a beautiful little Whole Foods gift card found its way into my possession, I knew one of the things I would need to buy with it was a packet of these seed precursors to those crazy plant pets that were all the rage in the 90s.

The first thing I made with them was a Chia Pudding, which is a vegan-friendly recipe that borders on a substitute for yogurt. You soak the seeds in almond (or soy, or coconut, or, you know, whatever) milk and they create this gelatinous, creamy mixture. The seeds itself don’t have much of a flavor, they just add a nice crunch to the otherwise smooth pudding. I added rum extract (a bit too heavy-handedly, though), cinnamon, peanut butter, and half of a banana. It was mildly sweet in the way that overnight oats are, but it had a little bit of an edge from the extract. I can only imagine creating a dessert by throwing in some cocoa powder or fruit and honey (maybe even broil the honeyed fruit first before topping??). It was incredibly delicious, and ridiculously healthy, proving that you can have the best of both worlds.

One Year Ago: Smokin’ Hot Turkey Patty Melts

Peanut Butter Banana Chia Pudding, adapted from Kati Did

Yield: 1 serving

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

2 tablespoons chia seeds

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened vanilla almond milk

½ tablespoon natural peanut butter

dash rum extract

cinnamon, to taste

½ banana, diced

The Method

Mix the chia seeds, almond milk, peanut butter, rum extract, and cinnamon in a small bowl and place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. Remove to stir every 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened into a gel. Remove from the refrigerator, top with the diced banana, and enjoy.

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Roasted Chickpea Fajitas and the Attack of the Spacey Cook

2012-02-04T10:40:00.001-05:00

My kitchen karma has been off lately. Ever since returning to school for the semester, I’ve been downright destructive in my cooking practices, and it really is unlike me. A kitchen may look like a bomb has gone off when I finish making some recipes, but that’s only a superficial mess – one that a good sponge and some elbow grease can fix right up. No, in the past two weeks I have melted a spatula handle, gotten over-heated oil potentially permanently smoked into a frying pan, caused the Teflon coating of a soup pot to literally lift up off of the bottom, and am even now, as we speak, soaking yet another pan in the hopes that just 24 hours more of warm water will coax a thin speckling of burnt chicken stock and bean debris off the bottom of it; I’ve ruined two batches of beans trying to cook them, and turned a soup into a pasta sauce by letting it cook down too long. My kitchen is one step away from being a slapstick comedy routine, and I’m not really sure what’s going on.

Even these delicious vegetarian fajitas brought out the novice in me. Luckily, I didn’t ruin them, but it’s almost amazing that I didn’t. Last Tuesday night I intended to have a chickpea soup, but that’s when the aforementioned Teflon fiasco occurred, and I decided “elevated risk of cancer” was not going to be on the menu that night. I had to chuck the chickpeas that I had been cooking and find something else. I spotted the extra chickpeas I had soaked all day but hadn’t cooked – the ones meant for this meal later on in the week – and pounced. In my relief to find a solution to my problem, it never even occurred to me that I had not yet cooked them. I know, there are no words. Let’s just move on at that. Like I said, something’s definitely off at Floptimism right now.

The good news is that they turned out to be totally edible – more than that, they were fantastic! The fajitas had this creamy-crunchy dynamic to them that was awesome – you don’t want to bite into a wrap made of mush, right? And they were smoky hot, not run-for-the-nearest-fire-hydrant hot, which worked well with the chickpeas. The cilantro held its own as a flavoring, which was definitely a welcome addition. The only things I’d do differently would be to serve lime wedges and avocado as additional toppings – I think the lime flavor could have been stronger, and I love any excuse to add a little avocado to my world. But really, this recipe’s a great one. In addition to the toppings that I have listed below, you could definitely add some cheese, salsa, or even other vegetables, so don’t feel tied down by what I used or suggest. As a side note, I had leftover filling that tasted amazing the next day scooped up with lime tortilla chips. I may have enjoyed that even more than the filling wrapped up in a tortilla!

One Year Ago: Healthy Chicken Waldorf Salad

Past Fajita Recipes: Easy Chicken Fajitas

Roasted Chickpea Fajitas, adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Yield: 6-8 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon chili powder, divided

½ teaspoon garlic powder

2 ½ teaspoons ground cumin, divided

3 tablespoons lime juice, divided

2 tablespoons water

1 ¼ cups dried chickpeas, cooked

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 bell peppers, sliced

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

½ teaspoon dried oregano

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

⅓ cup chopped cilantro

serving suggestions:

warm whole grain tortillas¹

diced tomatoes (or salsa)

sliced avocado

chopped spinach

plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)

lime wedges

The Method

Start by roasting the chickpeas. For the full recipe, preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit; for a single serving, you can use the toaster oven set at 350°, no preheating necessary. Either way, line a baking sheet with foil (optional) and coat with nonstick spray. Whisk together 2 teaspoons chili powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and the water in a medium mixing bowl. Toss in the chickpeas until all of the beans are nicely coated with the spice mixture. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring halfway and removing when the chickpeas have become a little crispy.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet and add the onions, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring once in a while but not frequently.

While the vegetables are sautéing, mix the remaining chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and lime juice in a small bowl. Add the spice mixture to the pan and allow the entire mixture to cook about 5 minutes more so that the vegetables are tender. Finally, stir in the finished chickpeas and fresh cilantro and remove from the heat.

Divide the filling evenly amongst the tortillas and serve with desired toppings. Make your own tortilla, roll it up, and enjoy immediately!

Notes:

¹If you’re able to use the toaster oven to roast the chickpeas, just rest the wrap on top of the appliance to keep it warm. If you’re using the oven, you can wrap the tortillas in foil and place them in the oven for the last 5 or so minutes of the chickpeas’ roasting time, then turn off the oven when you remove the chickpeas and leave the wraps in until you’re ready to assemble and serve.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Rice & Turkey Stuffed Peppers

2012-02-02T17:05:00.001-05:00

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Rachael Ray’s meals, or at least the ones from the book I have of hers, it’s that she’s not a big fan of the bold, in-your-face flavors. Her Classic 30 Minute Meals book is full of safely good – conservatively good food. That’s not to down play the “good” part of that statement; I do enjoy a large majority of the recipes I make from it, but I don’t often find myself so blown away that I need to copy the recipe down for safe keeping. Once I feel as though I’ve more or less finished cooking my way through this book, I will likely give it away – it’s now full of food stains and my own haphazardly written notes in the margins so I doubt it’ll fetch any sort of price, but maybe it’ll find its way to a garage sale. Or maybe a few years from now I’ll become rich and famous and people will crawl over each other trying to get this old beat up cookbook I once owned, full of my own honest-to-goodness hand-written insights. Sounds likely, right?

Anyway, the recipe for this week’s Thirty Minute Thursday post is the most loosely based on one of Rachael Ray’s recipes as I’ve created yet. I took a recipe for rice with peppers in it and turned it into a full on stuffed pepper. In the end, I’m glad I did – I think the rice on its own would have been a little lackluster, and even with all of the changes it remained a very modest meal. I tend to go for the really wacky, explosively flavorful recipes, but every once in a while, even for me, it’s nice to turn to just a simple, understated recipe – and I know a lot of people prefer the majority of their meals to be that way. So for all of you out there, this one’s for you. No big flavors, no big spice, no big fuss – but it is good. The only thing I didn’t hit out of the park was the portions – the filling that I made was probably enough for about 1 ½ servings, so that’s been adjusted in the recipe below. If you wind up with extra, though, save it for a snack the next day, wrap it up in a tortilla with some beans for lunch – there are plenty of ways to enjoy it later on.

One Year Ago: Chicken, Two Ways – Italian Herbed or Smoky Herbed

Past Stuffed Vegetables: Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes, Carb-Haters Stuffed Peppers, Sophisticated Stuffed Portobellos, Tabouleh Stuffed Tomatoes,

Rice & Turkey Stuffed Red Peppers, inspired by Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: 4-5 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 ½ cups chicken broth

¾ cup brown rice

¼ small red pepper, finely chopped

½ cup cooked ground turkey

2 tablespoons chopped celery

¼ cup onion, diced

½ cup chopped kale

4 teaspoons sesame soy dressing

4-5 whole red peppers, left in tact

1 ½ tablespoons sliced scallions

The Method

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Add the broth to a medium pot and bring to a boil, covered, before adding in the rice. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover again, and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until the rice has absorbed the majority or all of the liquid. Stir in the chopped red pepper, turkey, celery, onion, and kale, and allow to cook until the mixture has warmed through, approximately 5 minutes. Mix in the dressing so that it is evenly distributed.

Slice the tops off of the remaining whole peppers and hollow out the seeds. Divide the rice mixture evenly amongst them, packing it in if necessary but not actually overstuffing them. Wrap each stuffed pepper in foil (this will make things easier if they don’t all stand up on their own; the filling won’t spill out even if you need to bake them on their sides) and place them on a baking sheet in the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, remove from the foil, and serve with a scattering of the scallions on top.

Kale, Peanut Butter, and the No-Good-Very-Bad-Day

2012-01-31T21:58:00.001-05:00

Some days, things go exactly according to plan. Spirits are high, the sun shines, you finish your work by lunch and have so much free time that by dinner you’re almost wondering what you should do next. You cook an elaborate, delicious dinner, and enjoy every bite of it. Maybe you even save room for dessert.

Today was not one of those days.

Today, I fell out of the way of positive thinking, and I fell hard. Floptimism reigned on high today, and all I could think of was throwing in the towel – with school, with applications, even with cooking dinner. Especially with cooking dinner. When your world feels like it’s crumbling, even if it’s because of wholly superficial reasons, it’s easy to take it out on food and your body. At least, I find that to be the case. So tonight, in my gloom, I considered just going straight for dessert, or at the very least for my phone to dial the local pizza joint’s number. But I knew what was upsetting me had nothing to do with my dinner plans, and giving my body the instant gratification of an indulgent meal wouldn’t ultimately solve anything.

On days like today, it’s good to have an arsenal of ridiculously easy, ridiculously healthy recipes. I won’t go far as to say that after I cooked my healthy meal and ate it, I saw the light and everything was better. But I did at least have a nutritious meal in me. I wasn’t left feeling weighed down by emotionally-driven decisions. And in the end, I did find a way to get myself up off of my pseudo-shag area rug and pull the shambles of my day together. I even opened my eyes to some pretty great things that happened today, that I had been blind to earlier on.

Think of this recipe for kale in a peanut sauce as one of those ridiculously easy, ridiculously healthy recipes that you can keep on hand if a bad day gets the better of you. I paired it with a leftover burger and my toaster oven hadn’t even heated the burger through completely before this dish was finished – that’s how quick this is to make. And on top of it all, it tastes really good. The peanut butter makes it creamy and feel indulgent, too, so you might even be able to satisfy that emotional distraction with it. And if not, at least you tried, and that little square of dark chocolate will still be waiting for you when you’re done to try its hand at easing the crumminess of your day. No one’s judging.

One Year Ago: Baked Eggs in a Tomato Parmesan Sauce

Sauteed Kale in a Peanut Sauce, adapted from The Local Cook

Yield: 2 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tomato, chopped

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

8 cups kale

½ cup + 2 teaspoons water, divided

2 tablespoons chunky natural peanut butter

2 scallions, chopped, for garnish

coarse salt, for serving

The Method

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onion, garlic and tomato. Simmer the mixture for 2-4 minutes, then add in the spices (coriander, cumin, cloves, and cinnamon). Stir in the kale and ½ cup of water, stirring occasionally but allowing the greens to steam until they are soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining water and peanut butter until the kale is evenly coated with the peanut butter. Top with scallions and a scant amount of coarse salt before serving.

Black Bean Guacamole: healthy enough for your resolutions, flavorful enough for the Superbowl!

2012-01-28T14:00:00.001-05:00

In T minus 7 or 8 days, millions of Americans will be staking their claim on their favorite sofa cushion and turning the television on to the Superbowl. Many will be having parties, and I’d venture to guess that nearly all of them will be chowing down on some serious eats. I’m not a big football fan myself (I’m trying, though – I now understand what a down is!), but I still can’t wait for next year when L and I are less than 250 miles apart and I can cater the Superbowl party he throws every year. I’m bursting with creative and fun riffs on Superbowl classics (for example, the Buffalo Chicken Wing Cupcakes I recently stumbled upon and am practically crawling out of my skin to try), but for now, I’ll have to stick with the brainstorming.

Just the other week I had half of an avocado and some leftover black beans that needed to be used up in the fridge, and I thought a little twist on guacamole would make a good, light lunch. I was also dying to crack open this new bag of lime flavored chips by Food Should Taste Good that I snagged at Whole Foods that have – get this! – a whopping 5 grams of monounsaturated fats per serving. Sure, it means they’re not as low calorie as dipping a stick of celery into this already modestly caloric dip, but they sure do help me reach my goal of 20 MUFA’s per day in a new and delicious way. If you haven’t tried the brand before, I’d definitely recommend it, and this coming from someone who’s really not big on chips.

Photo Source: foodshouldtastegood.com

As for the dip, it was definitely a win (or, should I say, touchdown?). There was a tiny bit of a kick but it was mostly just creamy and full of smoky cumin goodness. It was colorful and healthy, but totally indulgent enough to stand up against the formidable wings, enchiladas and meaty chilis it’s likely to compete with come Game Day. Guacamole is a great dip to offer because even though it does have some calories and fat (which might help keep you full and prevent you from overeating), they’re awesome calories and fat, and you can work in some servings of veggies while you’re at it. So whether you’re in need of a good Superbowl treat or, like me, you just feel like having a dip around, definitely try this one out. I’m pretty proud of it, at least!

One Year Ago: Easy Chicken Fajitas

Past Dip Recipes: Beet Hummus, Chickpea & Rosemary Dip, Cilantro-Jalapeno Hummus, Easy Black Bean Dip, Lightened Up Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Black Bean Guacamole

Yield: 2 meal-sized or 6 appetizer-sized servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 avocado

½ cup black beans

2 teaspoons lime juice

2 teaspoons plain greek yogurt

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ small red bell pepper, diced

1-2 tablespoons diced tomatoes

The Method

Place all of the ingredients except the peppers and tomatoes in a bowl and mash together with a fork (or, for a smoother consistency, puree in a food processor). Fold in the peppers and tomatoes and store minimally in the fridge (guacamole will oxidize and turn brown as it sits, so try to make this as close to serving as possible). Stir to bring out the green again just before serving alongside your favorite dippers – chips, veggies, whatever!

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Thai Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

2012-01-26T16:39:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite meals may be a well-cooked burger. It doesn’t have to be beef, either. In fact, a homemade veggie burger can knock the socks off of even the most delicious beef hamburger (that is, if hamburgers were ever to wear socks). Today, though, I’m not talking about beef or veggie burgers; I’m talking about turkey burgers, sometimes known in the Floptimism kitchen as the most common type of burger made. With grass-fed beef being more expensive and, even with its lowered saturated fat profile, still a food more suited for the occasional indulgence than everyday fair, I wind up making a lot of meals using ground turkey breast. As long as you choose a package that clearly says ground turkey breast, not just ground turkey (the nutrition label should read about 1g saturated fat, no more), you’re getting a pretty healthy source of protein. Plus, I think it’s pretty tasty.

Earlier this week I made Rachael Ray’s Thai Turkey Burger, and absolutely loved it. It was a soy sauce and scallion-infused burger topped with a mild spicy-sweet pineapple salsa. The flavors were strong but well balanced, and the burger was filling enough that I didn’t even need any sides (but in the future would definitely consider making more, smaller burgers and pairing them with a side salad of some kind to take the focus away from the meat).

I made 2 burgers and ate the leftover one several days later over kale sautéed in a peanut sauce (more on that later!), which was equally excellent; and I had the leftover pineapple salsa first mixed with peanut butter as a wrap, and next layered with some Chobani Passionfruit yogurt for a mid-day snack. I meant to add a drop of rum extract and would have topped it with some dried coconut if I had any, but it was really good even without those two ingredients.

I would definitely recommend making this recipe (or really, recipes plural if you split up the salsa and burger) – it was easy and by far one of the best recipes I’ve made from her cookbook yet. This one’s a keeper!

One Year Ago: Chicken & Pear Paninis with Oven Roasted Pear & Sweet Potato "Fries"

Thai Turkey Burgers, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: 4-6 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients – The Salsa

1 small, fresh pineapple

1 tablespoon sesame oil

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ small red bell pepper, seeded and diced

¼ red onion, finely diced

1 tablespoon brown sugar

The Ingredients – The Burgers

1 ⅓ pounds ground turkey breast

1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

4 small cloves garlic

2 tablespoons (low sodium) soy sauce`

2 teaspoons curry powder

2 scallions, chopped

4-6 rolls or sandwich thins, toasted (optional)

kale or lettuce, for topping

The Method

Coarsely chop the pineapple and place it into a food processor. Pulse until coarse and chunky. Meanwhile, heat the oil and red pepper flakes in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, add the bell pepper and onions; cook 1-2 minutes. Add the pineapple to the pan and allow the juices to evaporate a little, 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle with the brown sugar, let cook an additional 1-2 minutes, and then turn the heat as low as it will go while you cook the burgers.

Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat (but err on the side of medium) and spray with nonstick spray. Combine the turkey, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, curry powder, and scallions so that all of the ingredients are evenly distributed in the mixture. Form into 4-6 patties and arrange somewhat evenly spaced on the heated pan. Cook the patties 6 minutes per side.

Serve the burgers either over a salad or as sandwiches, topped with the kale and 1-2 tablespoons pineapple salsa.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites - it's National Peanut Butter Day!

2012-01-24T10:54:00.001-05:00

Did you know that today is National Peanut Butter Day? Now that you do, are you surprised that I’m just about bouncing out of my chair to tell you about it? I was talking to L and he commented that it might as well just be called Jess Day, with the amount of peanut butter I consume on a daily basis. I can’t really argue there, though I’d imagine I’m not alone in that boat.

One of my most recent peanut butter creations (the way I worded that made it sound like I developed the recipe – I absolutely did not) was a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bite, which is exactly how it sounds – a miniature peanut butter cup baked in the center of a small brownie. Yeah, it’s also as delicious as it sounds. In this dessert you get the quintessential Reese’s flavor surrounded by a fudgy brownie. I’m pretty sure I wound up eating my weight in them on New Year’s Eve – I’ve already explained how I’m pretty bad at controlling my portions with miniaturized desserts – so I might prefer to next time either make a sheet of brownies studded with the cups and cut my own slice, or put a whole reese’s in a brownie batter-filled jumbo muffin pan (now that sounds dangerous!). I just can’t get over how amazing these brownie bites are – on their own, with vanilla ice cream, really any way at all.

I used whole wheat flour and the stevia MoreFiber blend instead of the white flour and sugar, and for once no one could detect the stevia at all. I think it’s because there was still a decent amount of brown sugar, plus the refined sweetness of the actual peanut butter cups. I figure that Stevia might just need to be an ingredient you use to partially replace something rather than swapping it out completely. It might be a little overwhelming on its own. The only other change I made was to try to decorate the tops with rainbow sprinkles, only to realize that – newsflash! – basically all sprinkles (not the granulated ones, just the jimmy-like ones for ice cream sundaes and whatnot) are made with hydrogenated oils. Go figure. So I got a little bummed, scraped my pretty decorations off, and lamented at how plain the brownie bites wind up looking without any garnish. If I were you, I’d decorate them somehow – some mini m&ms, chopped peanuts, mini chocolate chips, a drizzle of brightly colored royal icing….just something to perk them up a bit. Your taste buds won’t give a hoot, but it’ll make your display look a little more festive.

One Year Ago: Chickpea Pasta Casserole

Peanut Butter in the Past (blog): Peanut Butter Cookies, Peanut Butter-M&M S’mores, Peanut Butter & Honey Dog Treats, Peanut Ginger Tofu Salad, Thai Chicken Salad

Peanut Butter in the Past (Facebook): Homemade Peanut Butter “Cheerios,” PB&J Yogurt, PB&J Oat Pancake, Peanut Butter-Banana Crunch, Peanut Butter-Banana Smoothie, Peanut Butter Stuffed Banana Bread French Toast,

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites, adapted from Mom’s Cooking Club

Yield: 40 brownie bites

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

¾ cup salted butter, melted

¾ cup Stevia MoreFiber Baking Blend¹

¾ cup light brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

¾ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup cocoa powder

40 miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

The Method

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit and generously spray 4 mini cupcake pans with nonstick spray.²

Stir together the butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. One at a time, beat in the eggs, then mix in the flour and cocoa powder until just combined. Fill each cupcake well approximately halfway with the batter and place one peanut butter cup in the center of each, press down until it is almost level with the batter. Bake the brownie bites for 15-18 minutes, and cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (or, you know…not).

Notes:

¹Or ¾ cup granulated sugar.

²These were pretty finicky and I found that the amount that I sprayed wasn’t enough to prevent some from falling to pieces when I tried to remove them. I would say either try spraying them even more thoroughly, or just throw in the towel and use liners. Not that broken peanut butter cup brownie bites are a sin, but they certainly don’t look very presentable.

Blueberry Sausage & Egg Bake

2012-01-22T16:26:00.001-05:00

Today, I’m leaving for my last semester as an undergraduate. It’s surreal to think that in just 3 ½ months I’ll be employable –becoming an actual Registered Dietitian is still another year away with my internship, but with my undergraduate I can actually earn a salary instead of a wage. It’s very bizarre. When did I get to be so old? When did I turn into a – gulp! – actual, bona fide adult?

In honor of my embarking on my last semester as a college student, I have an egg recipe to share with you. I’ll bet your wondering where that bridge is, the one explaining why eggs have anything to do with leaving college (no, I’m not going to try to make some analogy, I promise). You see, when I first got my own apartment and suddenly had to cook for myself more often than not, I discovered the beauty of a good egg dish. Inexpensive, easy, fast, and stress-free, egg dinners are ideal for college. It started out mostly with omelets, but I’ve recently been branching out into egg bakes. They take a little bit more time since they need to, well, bake, but they’re still ridiculously easy, forgiving, and versatile enough so you don’t feel like you’re eating the same thing day in and day out. Take that, Ramen.

This egg bake is spongy and light, but don’t let that fool you – it’s also really filling. You could even halve the recipe if you pair it with a side dish; or, turn it into a quiche by adding some milk, cream, and/or a crust. The added dairy would give it a denser texture, and I do like the airiness that this recipe has on its own, but it could still be good. Also, if you’re wary of the ingredients, don’t be, they work really well together. The ginger gives the dish a fragrance but in terms of flavor, it and the lemon zest really just enhance the blueberry flavor from the chicken sausage. They aren’t superstars on their own in this recipe. Adding a nice vegetable salad or side dish would do this dish some good, since unlike most dishes that I create, this one isn’t loaded with fruits or veggies to begin with. I ate it with the lemon and parmesan kale salad I told you about a little while back, and it was wonderful.

One Year Ago: Taco Pasta Toss

Blueberry Sausage & Egg Bake

Yield: 2 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup egg whites

3 blueberry chicken sausages¹

⅔ teaspoon grated ginger

½ teaspoon lemon zest

The Method

Lightly coat a small frying pan with nonstick spray and place over medium heat. Add the sausages and cook to sear and thaw, rotating every one or two minutes. When browned on all sides, remove from the pan. Dice the sausages and add them to a medium mixing bowl along with the remaining ingredients. Whisk together to incorporate, then divide the egg mixture evenly between two small ramekins. Bake in a toaster oven (or regular oven if making more than 2 servings) at 350° for 20-25 minutes. When they look just about done – that is, puffed up and relatively firm to the touch – switch the oven’s setting to broil and cook an additional 5 minutes. Remove and serve.

Notes:

¹I’m not really sure how common “blueberry chicken sausage” is. I found it in a local supermarket under the brand “Al Fresco –“ it’s a whole line of chicken sausages that are low in fat and totally devoid of science experiment-sounding ingredients. Just be sure to check the ingredients if you have some dietary restrictions – I noticed some had pork casings (the blueberry one did not). Aside from that little snag, I think these sausages are great!

Oatmeal Cranberry Treats....are for the dogs!

2012-01-20T12:32:00.001-05:00

I have to apologize for the lack of Thirty Minute Thursday posting yesterday – luck was not on my side, and I just wasn’t able to cook something new over the past week at all, much less a recipe from Rachael Ray’s cookbook. I head back to school on Sunday, though, which will start a domino effect of my needing to cook for myself at all times once again; my choosing not one, but three Rachael Ray recipes just for next week alone; and, therefore, my having plenty of meals to share with you for future Thirty Minute Thursdays.

And on top of all of that, I don’t even have a recipe for humans to share with you today. Well, that isn’t entirely true – you certainly could eat these Oatmeal Cranberry Dog Treats if you wanted. There’s nothing stopping you but your gag reflex, since all of the ingredients are 100% edible to both humans and canines. They just don’t have the fat or sugar to make it particularly palatable; at least, that’s what I’m assuming based on my last experience making dog treats where curiosity got the better of me and I took a nibble of one. If you also choose to do this, you may question if your puppy has taste buds at all, because both dogs to whom I gave these treats (my own puppy as well as L’s dog) somehow loved them. To pass my puppy’s test is no great feat – he’s been known to eat everything from organic, grass fed beef to actual stones that he picks up outside – but L’s dog, in his older age, is more particular, yet he still loved them.

My only regret with this recipe is that it didn’t make more. I’m not sure if I made the treats about twice the size of how they were intended, but I only got 1 dozen out of the halved recipe, when a full batch was said to yield 5-6 dozen. Still, a dozen is a decent amount considering you don’t want them hanging around as long as the preservative-laden store bought treats anyway (plus, they should be a treat, not an all-the-time kind of thing), and if you go into the recipe expecting that you might wind up with a lesser amount, you should be fine.

One Year Ago: Individual Fresh Lasagna Casseroles

Past Dog Treats and Occasions: My Puppy’s First Birthday, Peanut Butter and Honey Dog Treats

Oatmeal Cranberry Dog Treats, courtesy of Doggy Dessert Chef

Yield: 2 dozen

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

4 tablespoons butter

The Method

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Meanwhile, mix the cranberries and oats together in a medium-large bowl. One at a time, add the remaining ingredients, combining well after each addition. Roll the dough into roughly 2 dozen balls and place them ½ inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Treats will keep for 2-3 weeks.

Autumn-Spiced Beef Chili

2012-01-18T10:07:00.001-05:00

I love red meat. There, I’ve said it. I actually didn’t used to – I found hamburgers to be dry; my mom would make half of her lasagna with just cheese, just for me; and I never truly appreciated the beauty of a well cooked steak. My only true weakness was a classic Philadelphia cheesesteak, which at one point in my life I probably ate on a near weekly basis. Now, though, perhaps because I’m afforded the opportunity to eat red meat so much less frequently or perhaps simply because taste buds change over time, I’ve realized how much I do genuinely enjoy a well executed red meat dish every now and then.

Ever since making the choice to only eat grass fed beef, my red meat consumption is almost exclusively limited to its ground form. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to steal a spot at L’s dinner table when his mom is cooking boeuf bourguignon or some completely aromatic lamb dish, but really, if I’m eating red meat these days, it’s ground. I’m really ok with this; I mean, I’m still surprisingly underwhelmed by even a perfectly made steak, and I think ground meat is some of the most versatile you can come across.

Once last year, I had some cooked ground beef in the freezer, and a lot of leftover ingredients in the fridge. I threw them all into a skillet, and this dish was born. The beef was seasoned with sage and rosemary; the pan was deglazed with just enough apple cider to coat the bottom; a scant tablespoon of cream cheese was added to create a thicker, creamier sauce; vegetables like corn and spinach were cooked in; and it was all served over a baked sweet potato. It was nice, a beautiful contrast between sweet and savory. But in all the hub-bub of this impromptu lunch, I forgot to take a picture, so I knew I needed to make it again.

The second time around, I didn’t have plain ground beef, but I did have leftover beef chili, so I threw that into a pan with some bell pepper strips and whole cranberries. Pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cumin found their way into the dish, and took it to a new level entirely. There were two layers of spice – one traditional kick from the chili and a warm, fall-themed one from the cinnamon. The cranberries offered a bite; the pumpkin lent a creaminess to the dish without the cream cheese. I ate it alone for a relatively low carb meal, but feel free to eat it as a more traditional stew-type dish by adding in bread or a potato (or stay low-carb but amp it up with a nice side salad).

Either attempt could have added some tofu, beans, or even chopped mushrooms to replace some or all of the beef if you’re looking for either a less meat-centric or completely vegetarian meal. But if you do eat meat, give it a try with the beef – there’s something wonderful about autumn spices and beef together. If you’re going the route of beans, I would say black beans would pair well with the flavors, but really anything you have will do. I believe the second attempt was more successful, so I’ve included that as the recipe below, but feel free to incorporate any of the elements that I mentioned from the first part. In particular, the spinach would be nice, as would a dollop of greek yogurt (as a healthier proxy for the cream cheese).

One Year Ago: Orange-Almond Biscotti

Autumn Spiced Beef Skillet

Yield: 2 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 cup (approximate) beef chili

½ - ⅔ cup mixed bell pepper strips

½ cup fresh cranberries

½ teaspoon (approximate) cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

¼ - ½ teaspoon (approximate) cumin

½ cup pumpkin puree

(2 heaping tablespoons plain greek yogurt)

(1 cup fresh spinach, torn)

The Method

Cook the chili according to instructions, or use leftovers.¹To use leftovers, add the chili, red pepper strips, and cranberries to a pan coated with nonstick spray. Season with all of the spices. Once warm, stir in the pumpkin, yogurt, and spinach, heating over low heat and stirring frequently until the spinach has wilted.

Notes:

¹If cooking from scratch, blend the two recipes. Follow the link to the beef chili and add the ingredients for this meal in the following way: add the bell pepper strips, cranberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and cumin along with the garlic and onion in the chili recipe. Stir the pumpkin puree, yogurt, and spinach in with the tomato sauce and hold at a low temperature until warm and the spinach is wilted.

Individual Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes

2012-01-16T15:02:00.001-05:00

Personally, I don’t love portion-controlled desserts. The mini muffins, personal pies, small cookies – all of the minitiarized versions of normal desserts that are meant to prevent us from overindulging actually wind up leading to my overeating. If you give me a big slab of chocolate cake, I can satisfyingly cut it in half and eat slowly until I’m full. If you give me a full-sized muffin, I’ll likely only eat half. If you give me a regular slice of apple pie, I may even leave some crust on my plate. But if you present me with a plate of bite-sized brownies, mini muffins, or personal pie, I’m so much more likely to take multiples because one just doesn’t seem like enough, even if I know the calories are more than sufficient to satisfy me.

With that being said, everyone else I know just loves smaller, pre-portioned desserts. If I’m bringing dessert with me to a gathering, probably nine out of ten times it’s been scaled down to its cute, mini form. Sometimes it’s because there’s going to be a huge variety of desserts, and by making mine smaller, people can make their own sampler platter without feeling like, well, a pig, right? Other times, they just don’t want a full portion, even if they don’t plan to create a smorgasbord on their dessert plate. Either way, small desserts are popular, and so I often go that route.

These Oreo Cheesecakes were actually made to be personal-sized, so I didn’t need to alter the recipe preparation at all. I did use a combination of regular and 1/3 less fat cream cheese and substituted plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream, but really I didn’t play around too much with the recipe. I’d be interested to see how it would turn out with a fat free/low fat cream cheese combination too, though. As it was, it was ridiculously easy and fast to make.

They also taste amazing. In fact, they taste absolutely amazing, and if you love cheesecake, and you love Oreos, then you just have to make this dessert. The Oreo cookie surprise at the bottom doesn’t stay crunchy, as you should expect with a cookie that’s been topped with moist batter and then baked for 20 minutes, but it’s not soggy either, so it winds up being okay. The cheesecake itself is the perfect balance between light and dense, not airy like whipped cream but not so thick you could hurt someone with it if you’re not careful. The Oreo crumbles are just present enough to give it the quintessential cookies and cream taste, and it’s rich but not overwhelming because of the small muffin-shaped size. Again, I think I’d still take a mountainous slab of this cake over the single serving, but I’m notoriously resistant to richness, so I’ll bet I’m in the minority and anyone you make this for will just love everything about this dessert.

One Year Ago: Roasted Turbot in a Tomato-Masala Curry Sauce

Individual Oreo Cheesecakes, adapted from The Wicked Noodle

Yield: 18 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

24 Oreo cookies

8 ounces full-fat cream cheese

8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature and lightly beaten

1 cup plain greek yogurt

The Method

Preheat the oven to 275° Fahrenheit and place 18 cupcake liners into regular muffin tins. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each cup and crush the remaining cookies. Set both the tins and the crushed cookies aside.

Meanwhile, beat both types of cream cheese on medium speed until it smooths out, scraping down the bowl as needed. Slowly add in the sugar, continuing to beat until combined, then mix in the vanilla. Gradually drizzle in the eggs, followed by the yogurt. Fold most of the chopped cookies in by hand, reserving some for topping the cheesecakes at the end.

Divide the batter evenly amongst all of the lined cups, filling each one nearly to the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-11 minutes, rotate the pans, and then continue baking until the filling has set, approximately 10-11 minutes more. Transfer the pans to wire racks to cool completely, then refrigerate at least 4 hours before removing the cheesecakes from the pan and serving.¹

Notes:

¹When I made these, I thought you were supposed to immediately remove the cheesecakes from the pan and cool that way. This resulted in some casualties and much more hassle than I was expecting. After re-reading the instructions, I can officially say that I was completely mistaken, and you should cool the cheesecakes in the pan and only attempt to remove them once they have set up in the fridge. This will make your life much, much easier, I promise.

Cook Eggplant Zalouk for Comfort, Taste & Health

2012-01-14T16:58:00.002-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with eggplant. Really, it’s mostly love, but I may be a bit snobby about how it should be prepared, and this can lead to some dissatisfying eggplant experiences. If it’s not cooked thoroughly enough, it’s spongy. If it’s cooked in too much oil, it’s mushy. And if you peel it, as so many people I know prefer because for some reason the skin irks them, it just looks like a soft brown blob. That soft brown blob, to me, is not eggplant. Eggplant is darkly vibrant, a soft-textured vegetable that doesn’t disintegrate in your mouth; it’s not bursting with flavor but it does have a distinct taste; it adds heartiness to stews and casseroles without being heavy. Like I said, I do really love eggplant. You just have to do it justice when you cook it.

The first thing is that it takes patience, since you really should let it sweat out for a good 30 minutes before you even start to cook with it. Yes, I really do cover my eggplant slices in kosher salt (and then rinse them like crazy once they’re done draining, of course!). In fact, this one step is the only thing in this recipe for Eggplant Zalouk that’s even remotely difficult or time consuming.

The best part about this dish is that you can taste all of the spices without having them right in your face in an overpowering way. The cinnamon in particular comes through beautifully, reminding me just how much I adore that spice, particularly in more savory recipes. I did leave out a few of the seasonings – I didn’t have any caraway seeds or cilantro on hand, and although I’m not very familiar with caraway seeds, I know that the cilantro would’ve been a great addition. The consistency was a little mushy, a little stew-like, and so it certainly benefitted from the crunch of a toasted pita. Even just a side salad with some nuts, homemade croutons or romaine lettuce would balance out the texture of the main dish really well. You could also eat this as a chunky pasta sauce, stuff it into the pita for a sandwich, or even bulk it up with more veggies (and maybe some beans or tofu) for a filling winter stew. I thought as I was eating it that a green like spinach thrown in would add a nice pop of color. It’s an incredibly enjoyable meal – L even liked it, and he and eggplant do not have as amicable a relationship as I do with the purple veggie.

One Year Ago: Mexican Fiesta Omelet

Eggplant Zalouk, adapted from 64 Sq. Ft. Kitchen

Yield: 2 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 eggplant, diced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

½ teaspoon paprika

2 tomatoes, diced

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon cumin powder

pinch of cinnamon

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil, divided

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

warm whole grain bread, for serving

The Method

Arrange the diced eggplant in a colander and coat generously with kosher salt. Set aside from approximately 30 minutes to draw the bitterness out of the vegetable. Rinse and pat dry thoroughly, then preheat your oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Spread the eggplant pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet and drizzle with ½ tablespoon of olive oil, or more as needed to coat each piece. Season with pepper and toss gently to coat. Bake until the eggplant becomes golden brown and tender, but not too soft, approximately 20 minutes.

While the eggplant is cooking, heat the paprika, coriander, cumin and cinnamon in a pan over medium heat. Stir the spices around until they release their fragrances, then add the remaining tablespoon of oil, tomatoes, and garlic. Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium-low, cooking approximately 10 minutes. At this time, add in the cooked eggplant and any other pre-roasted or delicate (i.e. spinach) vegetables you may want to use. Toss the ingredients together well, add additional oil if needed, and cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Serve with the bread or pasta to soak up all of the juices.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Simple Beef Goulash

2012-01-12T13:00:00.001-05:00

The biggest dilemma I face surrounding this blog is whether or not I should post the recipes that don’t turn out absolutely perfect. On the one hand, I started this blog to document my journey in learning how to cook and bake really well. It’s inherent in that journey that I will encounter flops. I want to be honest with all of you and say that, yes, I have come a long way in the kitchen and I can cook and bake some pretty fantastic things, but sometimes I mess up, too. On the other hand, as the blog gains momentum and more people begin to stumble upon it, I wonder if maybe I should clean my act up a little bit and only take up your time with the recipes that are truly remarkable.

I’ve recently decided that a combination of those two scenarios are in order. If I make something and nail it the first time, of course I will share it with you. However, if I make something and it just isn’t quite there, I will work on it and tweak it until I do get it right (or decide that it’s not possible to “get right,” perhaps) – and then I will post about that recipe’s journey as well as my own. Maybe now and then I’ll mention a recipe that really was a total failure, just to keep things in perspective, but I genuinely feel that at this point in time, I need to step it up a notch. You deserve tried-and-true, amazing recipes – not just hodge podge, piecemeal endeavors that come close but ultimately miss their mark.

Unfortunately, I’m going to contradict myself and tell you today about a recipe that did miss its mark, just by a little. You see, it’s Thirty Minute Thursday and I don’t have any backlogged Rachael Ray recipes. So the only one I have wound up being a little bit lackluster, meaning I either needed to skip Thirty Minute Thursdays this week (which I try not to do) or tell you about it, anyway. I’m choosing the latter, especially since it certainly wasn’t bad – my kitchen didn’t explode, no one got food poisoning, and everyone’s plates were clear by the end of the meal – but it just wasn’t as flavorful as I was anticipating. My dad actually loved it, actively, so I really shouldn’t write it off completely.

The recipe was for a beef goulash, a dish with which I’m not overly familiar. I was expecting a stew-like meat dish with pasta mixed in, something that you could really sop up with bread and revel in in the cold winter season (a quick Wikipedia search confirms that I was not, in fact, incorrect in this assumption). What I got was a dish that had the consistency more suited for a stuffed vegetable, and actually, when my mom brought that up it occurred to me how wonderful this goulash mixture would taste stuffed into an eggplant. The next time I try it, I will definitely serve it this way. I’ll also increase the spices, as they essentially got lost in the dish. We were all expecting a meal that was full of flavor, and it was much, much tamer than that. I’ve left the spices in the amounts I used, but if you’re looking for something with a lot of power, definitely increase them, and don’t be afraid to do it by a lot.

One Year Ago: Down Home Chicken & Dumpling Pie

Simple Beef Goulash, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: 4-6 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

2 cups dry whole wheat rigatoni

1 ⅓ pounds lean ground (grass-fed) beef

1 medium white onion

1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

pinch of nutmeg

1-2 teaspoons dried marjoram

1 tablespoon dried oregano

14 ounces (no salt added) diced tomatoes

1 cup frozen chopped kale

2 rounded tablespoons plain greek yogurt or soygurt

The Method

Start the water for the pasta to heat, adding the pasta in once it reaches a rolling boil. Cook according to package directions, approximately 10-15 minutes once the water returns to a boil.

Meanwhile, add the ground beef to a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown.¹ While the meat is cooking, grate the onion and add it to the skillet along with the beef. Also stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, nutmeg, marjoram and oregano, followed by the tomatoes and kale. Heat the mixture through, then lower the heat or remove completely and stir in the yogurt. Drain the pasta and serve with a scoop or goulash on top and a side salad.

Notes:

¹I can only get 85% lean grass-fed beef, not 90%, so I drained my pan pretty significantly after the meat browned, despite the recipe not indicating to do so.

Cinnamon Ice Cream & The Secret to Homemade Ice Cream

2012-01-11T13:21:00.001-05:00

Ice cream may be one of my favorite treats, or at least the one I seem to never tire of or not feel in the mood for. The ice cream machine that I bought last year was certainly an impulse buy (ok, I had a gift card to use up – I didn’t just plop down a lot of money on a whim), but it’s turned out to be one of the best, more spontaneous decisions I’ve made. I still haven’t figured out if it’s more economical to make your own ice cream, and up until pretty recently I’ve had my qualms about quality differences – you’re just not going to get the smooth, fluffiness of store-bought, and those fun mix-ins can get a little pricey – but it’s such a fun gadget to have.

Recently, I tried my hand at a custard-based (aka “French Style”) ice cream for the first time. Now, growing up I was all about French Vanilla. I would regard those little black specks in the Vanilla Bean ice creams in disgust. Who dared to defile my precious vanilla ice cream with those dirty-looking flecks? Sometimes I wonder if some alien performed a personality switch on me sometime around the age of seventeen. Now, especially after making my own custard-style ice cream, I can definitely say that I prefer the pure simplicity of “Philadelphia Style” ice cream the majority of the time, and those little “specks of dirt” that I now know to be vanilla bean specks are treasures rather than trash. However, there’s something to be said about a richer frozen treat every now and then. The richness actually subdues the ice cream a little, plus for most people it’s a great method of portion control because they find it difficult to overeat. I, of course, can plow through even the most decadent of desserts, but that’s an entirely different matter.

This cinnamon ice cream is good. It was one heck of an ordeal to make – not because the recipe was flawed or overly complex, but rather because I just did something wrong – and at first I was ready to label it an utter failure. You see, the actual ice cream was easy to make; a little time consuming, but easy. Then, I poured it into my ice cream machine, and waited. And waited. And waited. Forty minutes later in a machine that’s supposed to work magic in 20-30, my cinnamon ice cream was still pure liquid. I wanted the ice cream to be as fresh as possible for the dinner at which I was serving it, so I didn’t leave time for much extra chilling. By the time dessert rolled around, it was still not even close to semi-solid. So, I heated some up and turned it into a creamy sauce to pour over baked apples. It was good, but I was disheartened.

After a full night’s stay in my freezer, it came together and solidified. In its current state, it’s slightly too icey and it’s best scooped after sitting on the counter for about 10 minutes, but it is, to its credit, ice cream and not a liquidy mess of eggs, sugar, and heavy cream infused with cinnamon sticks (not that that sounds so terrible, though, right?). I realized later on that the issue was likely the temperature of my canister. I put it in the freezer two days in advance so it certainly froze completely, but I put it in the small freezer above our refrigerator rather than in the stand-alone freezer in the laundry room. I made another batch of ice cream (this time plain vanilla and from the Cuisinart manual to try to see if it was an issue with my machine) a few days later, and placed that canister in the full freezer beforehand instead. When I pulled it out, I couldn’t even touch it with my bare hands, that’s how cold it was – even after 2 days in the smaller freezer, my canister never got that cold. The latest ice cream attempt was the most glorious ice cream I have ever made (and if I can remember to take a picture of it, I’ll tell you about that one, too!), and so I genuinely believe that the cinnamon ice cream “flop” had a whole lot to do with temperature, and not a whole lot to do with the recipe. So remember, if you don't need a towel, apron, or hardcore gloves to transport your ice cream canister from the freezer to the machine, it's not cold enough, and you're not going to get as good of a result.

This ice cream is gentle, but formidable. The custard base does lend a richness that prevents you from shoveling into your mouth like a caveman, yet the cinnamon flavor is subtle and demure. It was good with the baked apples; it was good perched on top of a cinnamon bun; it was good topped with crumbled ice cream cones and cinnamon flavored m&ms; and, I imagine it would be good blended up into a milkshake with a little bit of natural applesauce (or bananas and a nut butter, or…) or eaten alongside some pumpkin granola, though I haven’t had the opportunity to test either of those theories out yet. I would love to make this recipe again to see if I can master the texture now that I know the secret trick to getting my canister cold as cold can be, because even with its iciness I find myself reaching into the freezer for more whenever I get hungry for dessert.

Past Ice Cream Recipes: Kahlua Ice Cream, Williams-Sonoma Vanilla Ice Cream, Strawberry Ban-Oreo Frozen Yogurt, White Chocolate Sorbet with a Blueberry Swirl

Cinnamon Ice Cream, courtesy of Brown Eyed Baker¹

Yield: 1 quart

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 cup whole millk

¾ cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

10 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up²

2 cups heavy cream, divided

5 egg yolks³

The Method

Combine the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and half of the heavy cream in a medium saucepan over medium or medium-high heat. Warm the mixture through, gently, then remove from the heat and cover. Set aside at room temperature for one hour.

Return the milk mixture to the heat to rewarm it, then remove the cinnamon sticks and discard. Add the remaining heavy cream in a large mixing bowl, place a mesh strainer on top, and set aside. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks in a third bowl. Slowly pour the warm cinnamon-infused mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly to temper them, and then return the warm cinnamon-infused mixture along with the yolks back to the pan.

Over medium heat, constantly stir the yolk-milk mixture using a heatproof spatula, taking care to scrape the bottom of the pan as well. Continue warming until the mixture has thickened and coats the spatula, reaching approximately 170° Fahrenheit. Pour the custard through the strainer, into the cream in the mixing bowl you’ve set aside. Place the large mixing bowl into an ice bath and stir until the mixture has cooled.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator – preferably overnight, but as thoroughly as time permits – and then freeze in your (very, very, very cold) ice cream machine according to manual instructions.⁴

Notes:

¹This recipe was adapted originally from David Lebovitz’s cookbook, The Perfect Scoop.

²I found it easiest to smash the cinnamon sticks with a knife, as you would a clove of garlic, and continue breaking them into pieces that way.

³You can freeze the whites.

⁴Just before placing in my ice cream machine, I stirred in 2 tablespoons white chocolate liqueur; small amounts of alcohol can be added to homemade ice cream to combat that iciness that’s commonly encountered.

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Pumpkin Pancakes: The Picture of Health (Really!)

2012-01-09T13:41:00.001-05:00

Maybe you weren’t convinced after my last post to try the mushroom stew over pumpkin pancakes, but even if that was the case, you should really consider trying each of these recipes separately. With the stew, the pancakes didn’t taste nearly as pumpkin-y as they did when I had the leftovers on their own, or as they did when I made them a second time just the other week. It’s nice to have a festive pancake recipe that really is relatively healthy, since pancakes might be one of my all-time favorite treats.

In making these, I’ve substituted white whole wheat flour for the whole wheat pastry flour, and the maple syrup for the honey since I think it gives it an added layer of fall. A little nutmeg might really make it pop. With the more savory topping of the stew, the pumpkin blended into the dish, which was nice; it came out a little more when I ate it topped with a lightly sweetened homemade cranberry sauce. When cooking them, just remember that less is more – they rise as they cook and if you make them too big/thick, you’ll never get the insides to be anything but wet, batter-y mush – and to err on the side of low heat and slightly longer cooking times.

I’m still looking for the perfect regular pancake recipe (since I’m currently still in denial that all of those truly great diner pancakes are made with anything but copious amounts of butter and a hearty dash of sugar), but for now, these certainly hit the spot.

One Year Ago: Cheater’s Gingerbread Cookies

Pancakes in the Past: Buttermilk Pancakes, Bread Pudding Pancakes, Sour Cream Pancakes

Pumpkin Oat Pancakes, adapted from Mother Rimmy’s Cooking Light Done Right

Yield: 6-8 pancakes (approximately 2-4 servings)

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 ¼ cups white whole wheat flour

½ cup oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons maple syrup

6 tablespoons egg whites

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 ½ tablespoons canola oil

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk¹

1 teaspoon cinnamon

The Method

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder and baking soda) in a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined.

Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick griddle over medium heat, and add four ¼-½ cup-fulls of batter to the pan. Lower the heat to medium low and cook until the pancake just starts to bubble, 5-6 minutes. Flip, curse since this is the first batch and they all fall to pieces, and cook the other side until cooked through, approximately 5-6 minutes more. Repeat for the rest of the batch, without the cursing because the pan is now finally cooperating.²

Notes:

¹You can also use low-fat milk, or likely whatever milk alternative you prefer.

²I don’t know why pancake griddles insist on ruining the first batch, but since I always make a larger batch of pancakes than I need, my first 1-2 batches are for the freezer, anyway. That way, I can warm up the griddle and still have the hottest, most recently cooked pancakes for serving immediately rather than worrying about keeping all of them warm while the rest cook.

Tomato & Mushroom Thyme Stew

2012-01-07T12:52:00.001-05:00

You wouldn’t know from looking outside that it’s a full week into January. The sun is beating down on us and the temperature is already into the 50’s at 11:30am. It should be frigid and windy; my face should be frostbitten and my eyes should be tearing from the bitter cold air. There should even be the chance of snow. January is stew time, but not today. And as much as I love more temperate weather like today, it’s disconcerting to find it at this time of year. So I’m going to talk about stew, anyway.

A little while back I made this mushroom and tomato stew, and really loved it. It cooked down enormously, as mushroom-based dishes tend to do, so you really need something else with it – sop it up with bread, mix it with pasta, or do what I did and serve it atop pumpkin pancakes. I can feel your eyes boring holes into me now. Pumpkin Pancakes? As the base for a stew? You’re probably wondering where I come up with this stuff. Honestly, I don’t know, but it works – so much so, in fact, that even if you don’t make this with pumpkin pancakes, the recipe would probably taste fantastic with the addition of some roasted pumpkin slices or a swirl of pumpkin puree.I also through in a hefty handful of spinach - maybe 1/2-1C per person - and really liked that addition, too.

One thing you need to know about this recipe is that it makes your kitchen smell like warm, wintry heaven. It will be hard to leave it alone for the time that it takes to cook down, but your patience will be rewarded. I absolutely loved this stew, and even though I don’t think I quite nailed it – it definitely needed more mushrooms, in my opinion (though I accidentally used a smaller measuring cup than I was supposed to), and maybe some beans, too – it was more than satisfying enough to convince me to tell you about it now.

As for the pumpkin pancakes, you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer.

One Year Ago: How to Make a Not-Deep-Fried Tortilla Bowl

Mushroom and Tomato Thyme Stew, courtesy of Beyond the Peel

Yield: 4 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 large onion

6-8 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

8 cups roughly chopped mushrooms

2 large tomatoes, roughly 3 cups chopped

½ cup tomato paste

4 cups stock

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon balsamic vinegar

grated parmesan and fresh thyme, for garnish

The Method

Slice the onion into wedges and set aside. Coarsely chop the garlic cloves, and combine with the onion and oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook until the onions are translucent, approximately 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pot, and continue to cook. Meanwhile, dice the tomatoes and add them along with the remaining ingredients (save for the parmesan and fresh thyme), and simmer until the sauce has thickened and become stew-like in consistency, approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.¹ Top with the parmesan and thyme, if desired. Serve alongside bread, pasta, rice, pancakes, or just on its own (but where’s the fun in that?).

Notes:

¹Because I quartered the recipe, I only needed 45 minutes for it to simmer to the right consistency. If you’re playing around with the yield, just make sure you keep an eye on it around this part because time will vary according to the quantity of food in the pot.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Turkey & Mushroom Meatloaf Patties with Herb Smashed Potatoes

2012-01-05T15:32:00.001-05:00

Apparently, meatloaf is making a comeback. What once used to be regarded with disdain – surely we’re too good for lowly little meatloaf, that block of dry ground meat and whatever mysterious leftover ingredients mom needed to use up that week – is actually topping the lists of predicted food trends for 2012. Now, I never grew up on meatloaf. I can’t even tell you the first time I tried it, or if I even necessarily did before I made my own version last year. I don’t know if I quite understand everyone’s previous grievances with meatloaf. I know people who associate it with “poor people’s food” – generally, people who grew up in hard times and can’t really separate those financial struggles from the foods upon which their families relied; I know other people who balk at the texture. Yet really, what is meatloaf but a “bulk” scale version of a burger? It’s ground meat, some filler…it seems pretty innocuous, if you ask me. Plus, as people have been commenting recently, it’s super versatile, and you know how weak in the knees I get for a recipe that can shape shift to keep things exciting without too much added effort.

Rachael Ray includes her own version of meat loaf in her Classic 30 Minute Meals cookbook, and I gave it a shot just last week. She uses ground turkey breast instead of beef, adds in some meaty mushrooms (which you could totally increase in order to cut back on the meat even more), and has you form the mixture into patties rather than one log. The patties are lightly sautéed rather than baked, and I think the combination of keeping them individual and on the stovetop really helps to eliminate that cliché “dry” meatloaf that so many people probably have stuck in their minds. I thought they were absolutely delicious. The other thing they most certainly were, was enormous – I think, given the right side dishes, the meatloaf mixture could easily feed 5-6 non-ravenous people, though the recipe claims it’s only for 4.

I served it with two other RR recipes – lemony green beans and herb smashed potatoes. I only tasted the potatoes and then focused on the meat and beans for a lower carbohydrate meal, which is why the full patty was good for me, but if you have a healthy serving of potatoes and fill a good half of your plate with the green beans, you could easily trim back on the meat portion of the meal. Although, I found both side dishes to pale in comparison to the main meat loaf patty, so maybe you should go for a more enjoyable pair of sides instead of these two specifically. In fact, I’m not even going to tell you about the green beans because I actually disliked them, and it takes a whole lot to get me to actively dislike any veggie-based recipe. It was admittedly, to some extent, my fault for using defrosted frozen beans instead of fresh, and heating them in the pan with the lemon juice, which resulted in that unwanted shade of green, but it still just didn’t do anything for me, or really anyone else who had them. They were edible, sure, but ultimately forgettable. The potatoes were much better, and maybe my lackluster review has more to do with the fact that I just don’t get very excited about regular potatoes in general. You can see my adapted version of Rachael’s recipe for those below.

Also, please note below that I used dairy alternatives in place of all of the butter. The original calls for the real stuff, but my dad chooses not to mix meat and dairy, so we always cook with soy/almond milk and butter alternatives when a meat dish calls for dairy. It took a while to find a butter alternative that worked. Most are chock-full of hydrogenated oils, and a surprising amount contain trace levels of dairy products, such as whey from milk. We finally found Bestlife Buttery Spread, which is free of hydrogenated oils and all signs of dairy, even in the most minute amounts. I still use regular butter whenever meat and my dad aren’t involved, and my dad also uses regular butter whenever he isn’t planning to eat meat, but this has been a great find for us. Just know that you can make this recipe with regular dairy products if that’s what you prefer – it’s how it was intended – but I think all of dishes turned out perfectly well with the substitutions, too.

One Year Ago: Cranberry & Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad

Turkey & Mushroom Meatloaf Patties with Herb Smashed Potatoes, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: 5-6 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients – The Potatoes

6 red potatoes, cut into chunks

freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons butter alternative

1 ½ shallots, chopped

15 blades chives, chopped or snipped

1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme

¾ cup chicken broth

6 ounces goat cheese (optional)

The Ingredient s – The Meatloaf Patties

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

8 crimini (baby Portobello) mushrooms, chopped

8 shiitake mushrooms, chopped & stems removed

1 shallot, chopped

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 ⅓ pounds ground turkey breast

1-2 teaspoons dried, ground sage

1 tablespoon barbeque sauce¹

½ cup panko or homemade breadcrumbs

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons butter alternative

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

2 cups chicken broth

The Method

Start a large pot of water to boil for the potatoes, then start working on the meat patties. Place a very large skillet or sauté pan with 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat, then add the mushrooms and shallots when the oil has heated. Season with pepper and sauté until the mushrooms have darkened and tenderized, 5-6 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Place the turkey in a medium-large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Into the well, add the sage, barbeque sauce, bread crumbs, eggs, and sautéed mushroom-shallot mixture. Season with pepper and mix together thoroughly before dividing into 5-6 equal, 1-inch thick patties. Set aside (refrigerate if you plan to make these in advance).

Once the potato pot has reached a boil, add the potatoes and let the water return to a boil. Once it reaches the second boil, continue to cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, approximately 15 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of oil to the same pan you sautéed the mushrooms in, and arrange the patties in the pan. Cook the patties for 10 minutes on each side, adding more oil as necessary if the patties stick too badly (remember, ground turkey breast is much leaner than ground beef, and won’t leech nearly as much fat to help with the nonstick process).

As the patties are finishing up, and once the potatoes finish cooking, drain the potatoes and return the empty pot to the stovetop. Lower the heat to medium and add in the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter. When the butter has melted, add in the shallots, sautéing 2-3 minutes before adding in the chives, thyme, and potatoes. Mash the potatoes (you may transfer to a food processor or stand mixer if your family likes well-pureed potatoes, but I think these turned out best slightly chunky), slowly adding in the broth until you achieve the right consistency.

Hold the potatoes over low heat and transfer the meat patties to a serving platter in order to make a quick gravy: add the remaining butter and, once it has melted, whisk in the flour. After 1-2 minutes, whisk in the broth and thicken the gravy to your liking. Serve the potatoes with a side of goat cheese and the meat patties with a side of the gravy, and enjoy!

Notes:

¹I really cringe when I read the ingredient list on a bottle of barbeque sauce. I’m not sure if Worcestershire is any better. For now, I use it so infrequently that I haven’t scoured the grocery store aisles for more wholesome alternatives, but if you know of one, definitely feel free to use it here. It may even be good with a little bit of whole grain mustard!

Mission: MUFAs, by way of Tuna Stuffed Avocados

2012-01-03T14:39:00.001-05:00

I tend to walk around feeling pretty good about my diet. I might even go so far as to say I can get a little overly confident about how well I feed myself. For the most part, I’m not wrong. I eat whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; I stick to vegetarian or otherwise lean sources of protein the majority of the time; I use olive oil for most of my cooking; I limit my sodium intake; and I scour nutrition labels for any sign of trans fats. But still, every so often, something or someone comes around and knocks me off of my high horse, opening my eyes to a part of my diet that may not be so ideal after all.

Most recently, this happened in the context of my monounsaturated fat intake. I never really paid attention to what “recommendations” were for these so-called MUFA’s – there really aren’t strict recommendations anyway, though apparently it’s thought that you should be getting a minimum of 20g each and every day. Up until just a few weeks ago, I did not even come close. On a good day, I might hit the 20g, but more often than not I was likely only getting half of that at best. After talking to a registered dietitian, she recommended that I really focus on bringing my MUFA intake up, and that’s exactly what I did. You see, even sickeningly-healthy nutrition students have room for improvement! Really, this new goal was a hall pass to overdose on peanut butter, at least for the first few weeks of my attempt. I piled peanut butter onto rice crackers, dipped apples into a bowl, and even once or twice just dug in with a spoon. After a little while, though, I knew that I needed to branch out a little bit – it isn’t that I got sick of peanut butter (not even remotely possible!); I just am a big proponent of a varied diet, and while peanut butter day in and day out is delicious, it’s also a little stagnant.

Olive oil was the next major source that I turned to, adding in a tablespoon here or there between my days of peanut butter indulgences. Each tablespoon of olive oil has a whopping 10g, so that certainly made the 20g minimum much easier to reach.

Now, there’s a third really excellent source of MUFA’s that I enjoy working into my diet: avocados. People started giving them a hard time a little while back because they pack a lot of calories, most of which come from fat. However, I’ve come to appreciate the wonder of a good fat. The fat content of a food, while something that I certainly pay attention to, is not something that scares me anymore (unless it’s all saturated or – I shudder at the thought – trans, of course), because the good fats, the MUFA’s (and PUFA’s!) of the world, are awesome little molecules. Or big molecules, if we’re getting nit-picky. Plus, half of an avocado is only just a smidge over 100 calories, so if you use it as a replacement for cheese on your favorite sandwich or burger, you’re not even really adding calories, just tons of fabulous nutrients. It offers almost 7g MUFAs and just under 5g fiber – and then there are all of the micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals, to consider.

I’ve loved finding new ways to add avocado to my diet, and this recipe for tuna-stuffed avocado is definitely one of the best yet (although really, none of them have been bad). The avocado really mellows out the tuna, so if you’re one of those people who has a really hard time getting past tuna’s bad rep, I think this might be a nice starter recipe for you. I ate it just a few months ago, but I can imagine how refreshing it would be on a hot, summer day. For now, give it a try when you’re feeling a little bummed about the cold weather, and just pretend it’s nice and warm outside. It was a little too liquidy when I made it, so I definitely recommend draining the tuna and the red peppers (if you’re not roasting your own – which I’d recommend in general, but this time I cheated and used up a leftover jar I snagged from my house). It’s one of the fastest recipes I’ve made, too, so you can have a healthy, delicious meal ready any time of day in just about 5 minutes flat.

One Year Ago: Bittersweet Cake Brownies

Past Avocado Recipes: Avocado Tea Sandwiches, Avocado, Tomato & Feta Quinoa Salad, Avocado & White Bean Wrap, Avocado Toast with Tuna, Mexican Chicken Salad

Tuna-Stuffed Avocado, adapted from Give Recipe

Yield: 2 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 avocado

¼ cup canned tuna, rinsed and drained well

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1-2 tablespoons minced red onion

1 large roasted red bell pepper, chopped

The Method

Halve the avocado lengthwise and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh from both halves and add to a mixing bowl. Add in the lemon juice and olive oil, and mash until it reaches a smooth consistency. Stir in the tuna, herbs, and roasted red bell pepper until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. Divide the mixture between the two avocado shells and garnish with extra parsley, if desired.

Start the New Year Right: Carrot Cake Oatmeal

2012-01-01T15:01:00.001-05:00

It’s January 1^st, so naturally my Comcast homepage is flashing photos of scales and headlines that promise the one crash diet that really will work. I’m really not a resolution scrooge, I swear – I think that if the clean slate and promise of a new year are enough to motivate you to make the changes you’ve been trying to make, then by all means, go for it. But too often people set goals that are just a bit too out of reach, and it sets themselves up for failure. I set a lofty goal last year – finding the perfect sugar cookie recipe and perfecting the art of decorating them with royal icing – but even though I wound up needing a little bit of an extension on that last one, I’m still proud of my progress. So, this year I have three resolutions:

Continue improving upon my cookie decorating skills.
Finally finish that banana bread recipe I've been working on (and I'm so close!).
Find at least one thing to be thankful for each and every day in 2012.

There are lots more things I could be working on, but those I think are attainable for me, and small steps in the direction I need to be going. I also won’t hesitate to add smaller goals throughout the year as I encounter them, because as easy as it is to use the start of a new year to try something new, it’s not the only time.

What about you? Do you have any goals? If any of them have anything to do with eating a little bit healthier, I think this recipe is a good one today for you. Rather than focusing on all of the things you can’t or shouldn’t or won’t eat in 2012, why not focus on all of the delicious things you can eat? Positivity can help a person stick to a resolution much more, well, resolutely, than negativity can, and it can often be easier to change a diet based on adding healthier things rather than removing the not so healthy things. Both kind of have to happen eventually, but it’s nice to start with additions to keep those pesky feelings of deprivation at bay.

This carrot cake oatmeal certainly won’t leave you feeling deprived, though, and you can forget about guilt over enjoying it. I ate it for a filling but healthier dessert one night, but it would make a great meal any time of the day. Oatmeal is one of those foods that dietitians love to promote because it has fiber and bulk to tide you over to the next meal and carry some of those unwanted molecules like fats and cholesterol out of your system, and you have the option of mixing in any number of healthy “extras” like low-fat dairy (or dairy alternatives), fruit, and even veggies, as you can see from this recipe here. Now, I think I’d decrease the sugar next time – it was suspiciously sweet, and a full tablespoon of brown sugar to start the day is a little heavy, if you ask me. But all in all, it was very reminiscent of a carrot cake…well, without the cream cheese flavors from the frosting. If you want, try making it with all water instead of half milk, and then swirl in some light cream cheese at the end. It isn’t a super low calorie recipe – I calculated it to be around 340 calories, which is perfect for a small-medium meal but a little high for just a snack. Consider halving it if you want a little something sweet between actual meals, or going with the full recipe for a more substantial serving.

One Year Ago: Heavenly Pear Streusel Muffins

Carrot Cake Oatmeal, adapted from Something to Chew Over

Yield: 1 serving

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

½ cup old fashioned oats

½ cup low-fat milk/dairy alternative

½ cup water

4 baby carrots, finely grated¹

1 tablespoon raisins

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

The Method

Combine the oats, milk, water, carrot, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger in a small-medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to just below a boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it looks like the oats are soaking up all of the water too quickly, add a pinch more water. When the oats are done cooking, stir in the brown sugar and top with walnuts for garnish.

Notes:

¹Or approximately 1 full-sized carrot.

2Nutrition Facts: 339 calories, 9g fat (2g saturated), 117mg sodium, 56g carbohydrates (7g fiber, 24g sugar), 12g protein

I hope your new year is already off to a great start, and continues to be a happy and healthy one for you and all of those around you! Be sure to come back for another year of recipes!

A Sugar Cookie Year in Review, plus How to Make Snowflake Sugar Cookies

2011-12-31T14:20:00.002-05:00

Today is the last day of 2011, and it felt only appropriate to focus today’s post about my resolution from this past year. Now, I’m not usually one to make resolutions. I like making goals throughout the year, not waiting for one arbitrary date to challenge myself. Plus, resolutions have the terrible reputation of being useless things you stick to for a week, maybe even an entire month, before letting them peter out and die. But this year, I really did want to focus on one thing throughout the year: I wanted to find that perfect sugar cookie recipe, and learn how to decorate ike a pro.

My first attempt resulted in a chewy whole wheat sugar cookie. They were a far cry from the soft, melt-in-your-mouth-and-surely-laden-with-shortening iced concoctions you find in the grocery store bakery section, but they were still good in their own way. They were heartier, and although I knew they wouldn’t be My Recipe in the end, I really liked them and would surely consider making them again under different circumstances. As for my decorating skills, well…it was my first try. It took hours, my back ached afterwards, and they looked shoddy at best.

Then there were the ones I made for mardi gras. These were closer to what I wanted from a sugar cookie recipe, but still, something was missing. A lot of people really liked them, but I wasn’t satisfied. I found them to be dry and bland without the saving grace of royal icing, and I foolishly used a dark baking sheet that turned the bottoms of my cookies an ever-appealing shade of burnt. The decorating may have improved – I was certainly more ambitious this time around – but I still had a long way to go.

Next came the soft and chewy sugar cookies from Brown Eyed Baker. I was able to use whole wheat flour and get away with it, which was a definite plus. They were buttery and sugary, which was what I really wanted. However, they spread like crazy in the oven, making them a better drop cookie than roll-and-cut. Still, it didn’t stop me from chowing down on five in one sitting, probably in a mere blink of an eye, and L loved them, too. Clearly, I needed a combination of the past two recipes – I needed a cookie that would hold its shape like the mardi gras ones, but have all of the flavor components of these most recent ones.

And then, I found it: the holy grail of sugar cookies. The dough was soft and a joy to work with. They froze well. They baked well. They tasted like the best possible version of those soft and sweet sugar cookies from the store, without all of the pesky chemicals and preservatives. They held their shape. They were rich. There is not a single person who has tasted these cookies and not fallen absolutely head over heels in love with them. The first time I made them was for a little pre-movie party L and I had for the Deathly Hallows (part 2) premiere last summer. Although the conditions for decorating with royal icing were atrocious – think humid and hot – I persevered and actually wound up with half decent cookies. I was still very clearly working on finding the right consistency needed for piping and flooding, and the designs looked decidedly amateur (which, hi, they were). It was the first time I really accepted the fact that it was going to take me more than a year to develop the kind of skill I was interested in, but at least I had my recipe.

The next time I made an attempt was for my sister and her boyfriend’s (M&M) housewarming party. I helped to “cater” the gathering by making an array of desserts, including house-shaped sugar cookies. I have to say, these are by far the most inspiring ones I’ve made to date. I was ambitious with my use of colors, which helped, and free-handed the windows, doors and rose bushed. Again, I struggled to get the right consistency and wound up with some “bleeding” houses, but all in all I was really proud of them. I was improving! The only thing my mom said was that I couldn’t do this as a business because I’d have to charge an arm and a leg for the amount of time it takes me to finish a batch. It’s true – that was definitely something I needed to work on – but I was more focused on perfecting the skill. Speed would come over time.

After that, it was a long time before I made any cookies at all. I planned to do some for my birthday, but then there was this whole fiasco with that celebration, I got really frustrated, and it never came to fruition. It was Halloween before I tried again, and I didn’t even have my meringue powder with me to do royal icing. I used a buttercream as a stand in and decided to make pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies anyway, and while I’m pleased with the results, I can’t really count it as a step towards my goal, especially since the thing I need to work on the most is getting the right consistency of the icing. One thing I did attempt with this batch, though, was substituting 100% white whole wheat flour in for the all-purpose. Everyone really liked them still, but I wasn’t as pleased. Sure, they still tasted excellent – beyond excellent in fact – but the difference was noticeable. I may try to sneak in a small amount of whole wheat flour – maybe ½ cup or so - but in the end, I’m not willing to sacrifice taste for just a small increase in fiber.

And then there were the snowflakes. I changed something with these, too – I used my MoreFiber Stevia Baking Blend. I just figured, what the heck – they weren’t the focal point of the dessert, and hopefully the royal icing would mask any small changes in taste. The dough was noticeably less soft when being rolled out – I had much more of an issue with cracking than I ever had before – and the finished product was just slightly off. L didn’t notice a difference, but my mom and I did. It wasn’t that they tasted bad (well, my mom thought so, but we’ve quickly determined that she just does not like stevia, and I may be starting to agree); it just didn’t taste as good. The stevia brought the cookie down from ethereal to earthly – it was just another sugar cookie. Good, sweet, nice to look at…but not something that I could enthusiastically eat an entire batch of without even thinking. Not something that would make the ensuing bellyache totally and irrefutably worth it. I learned that this cookie recipe is not to be tampered with. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try. After all, I’m too stubborn and incurably curious not to play around with a recipe until there is just nothing more to try with it. However, I’m now a skeptic with this recipe. Any change that I make has to be imperceptible; otherwise I’m going back to full-fat, full-sugar, and full-satisfaction original.

Now that we’ve reached these cookies, I suppose I should tell you how to make them. Well, the first step is to not do what I did – that is, realize that your icing consistency is a little off but be too stubborn to take it out of the bag and try again. It was a miracle that they came out half as aesthetically pleasing as they did, because I had icing running all kinds of amuck. It opened my eyes to the fact that I need to sit down, maybe not even with a batch of cookies, and just pipe until I get a feel for the right thickness and thinness for both piping and flooding. That really is the key to decorating a good cookie. If you can hone that skill, even if you’re the least artistic person in the world, you can create a decent cookie – I’m convinced.

So what have I learned about decorating sugar cookies with royal icing in 2011?

You need patience.
Invest in multiple standard tips and couplers so that you don’t need to waste time and energy washing between color changes, if you have them. I don’t know the size tip I use – I should research it – because my tip set didn’t come with labels. But I do only own one coupler and one of each type of tip, and anytime I do several colors it becomes a real hassle.
Don’t be stubborn. Admit when you’ve made an error, and start over. You won’t get better by throwing the towel in this time and saying you’ll work on it next time.
When you’re first starting out, try to even just practice with white icing, as I’ve done here. It removes the added complications of colors and intricate designs. Once you feel comfortable with the basics, then start being more ambitious with colors and details.

And now I bring to you:

How to Make Snowflake Sugar Cookies

(printable recipe)

The “Ingredients”

1 batch snowflake sugar cookies

½ batch royal icing

1 icing bag

1 small, round tip with coupler

1 plastic “squirt” bottle (like for ketchup)

1 toothpick

edible “pearl” sprinkles¹

tweezers, washed thoroughly

The Method

Once your cookies have baked and cooled completely, arrange them spaced out on a relatively high counter – you don’t want to be hunched over while you decorate. I often decorate my cookies on the cooling racks or a cooled baking sheet, but any flat surface protected by wax paper for easy clean up is fine.

Adjust the thickness of the icing in order to pipe it, add what you need to the pastry bag (placing the bag in a tall glass and inverting it a little is an easy way to get the icing in), and keep the rest closed in an airtight container. Outline each of the cookies. Use your non-dominant hand to guide the pastry bag and keep your other hand steady, and don’t hesitate in your motions. The more fluidly you work, the more seamless your cookies will look. Tap the tip down at each change of direction to ensure precision. If there’s a break in the icing, simply go back and fill it in. When all of the cookies are outlined, let them dry for at least one hour.

After about 45 minutes, thin out your icing to a good flooding consistency. Most people say that if you dip a knife or spoon into the icing and then pull it out, the drippings should absorb back into the icing and return to a smooth surface within 10 seconds. I’m still working on this. Once you think you have the right consistency, cover the icing again and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. When you return, there will be air bubbles – stir these to break them up, and then add what you need to the squirt bottle. Add a generous amount of the thinned icing to one cookie; I usually find it easiest to start at the center and make branches out to the outer crevices. Let that cookie start to spread while moving on to the next. Work on 2-3 at a time, as you feel comfortable. Once the last in that grouping has icing on it, return to the first with the toothpick and smooth the icing out to all corners, adding more icing if necessary. Repeat this process until all of your cookies have been flooded. Any air bubbles that appear on the cookies themselves can be popped with the toothpick. Let the cookies set for several hours, preferably overnight.

Once the flooded cookies are completely dry, thicken the leftover icing up again to a piping consistency, and transfer to the piping bag (you may want to use a fresh one for this). Work on just one cookie at a time. Draw a straight line from a scant millimeter of one tip of the snowflake to a scant millimeter of the snowflake tip that is directly 180° across from it. Repeat for the remaining two sets of tips, so that you wind up with an “x” design with a vertical line through it. Add two small “v” shapes to the end of each tip, and one small dot mid-way between each line, just above the center. Finally, add a little bit of extra icing to the center and, using your tweezers, gently place one edible pearl in the center. Repeat for the rest of the cookies. Allow to dry completely before packaging in an airtight container. Store at room temperature.

Notes:

¹I’m quickly discovering how many baking decorations are made with hydrogenated oils. These pearls, along with those quintessential ice cream sprinkles (I call them “jimmies” – you know, not the granulated kind, the other kind), are no exception. I’m sure the amount of synthetic fat in 1 pearl is not going to wreak havoc on your body, but if you’re as insistent as I am on avoiding them whenever possible, either don’t add the sprinkles or knock them off before eating. I did the latter, since I now have an entire container of them to go through since I bought them before I got on this whole anti-trans fat kick.

If the written description is confusing, you can find a wonderfully helpful video post about snowflake decorating over at University of Cookie, which is an all around fantastic resource for anyone interested in working on their cookie skills. My cookies were fairly small, so I stuck to some of the simpler designs, but with a bigger cookie you can make some truly elaborate snowflakes.

Now, I’m off to make some peanut butter cup brownie bites and vanilla ice cream for tonight’s festivities (which may, in fact, wind up being me, L, pajamas, and the tv – oh, and copious amounts of dessert!), and gear up for 2012! I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year, and all the luck with any resolutions you may have set.

UPDATE: I recently found two fantastic blog posts on decorating with royal icing. The first is all about the supplies you should have on hand, and the second is about coloring and preparing the icing, complete with great tips on icing consistency. I haven't tried them out yet but I'm definitely eager to now!

Cranberry-Orange "Petits Cakes" with White Chocolate Buttercream Filling

2011-12-30T13:02:00.001-05:00

If we were face to face right now, I would be on my knees. My hands would be clasped together in a plea. My grin would be so wide you’d barely be able to see the rest of my face. I would be asking you, beseeching you, to make these cakes. I have gone nuts over desserts before, and likely even on the pages of this blog, but never have I felt so emphatically about a recipe. At least, I don’t think I have.

I’m calling these petits cakes, though I know it’s a brutal Americanization/butchering of the French language, because they were intended to be petits fours, but rather than cut the cake into teensy tiny squares, I went with more substantial, full-size servings instead. It was really more for my own sanity, and to accommodate the normal-sized sugar cookie I wanted to adorn each cake with. They really are petits fours at heart.

The cake, halved and brushed with white chocolate liqueur.

Speaking of little cake squares and hearts, petits fours will always hold a place in mine. My family often went to this one bakery not too far from my house – every birthday cake, Saturday morning cinnamon bun, and just-because-we’re-going-to-be-passing-by box of assorted treats came from this shop. And, although I loved their birthday cakes, my true allegiance as a child was to the vanilla petits fours. Beautiful little rectangles enrobed in smooth, rich white fondant and topped with piped buttercream flowers in assorted colors, they were likely the first proof of how easily I could knock back an alarming amount of even the most decadent treats. Whereas the richness would likely stop most people at just two or so of these petits fours, I could finish off a box like it was my job. Whenever they were in the house – and trust me, they didn’t last long – I’d be sure to get my share throughout the day. Yes, even starting with breakfast. Clearly, I was not always so focused on proper nutrition.

Now that I’m older, I certainly don’t eat petits fours for breakfast. I also haven’t been to that bakery in a long, long time, in fact eschewing most pastry shops for their inevitable use of shortening. I know, I know, how snotty (and stubborn) of me. This means that I also haven’t eaten a petit four in longer than I can remember, and yet it was almost by chance that I thought to make my own last week.

The cake, halved and topped with buttercream and cranberry filling.

I was all set to just make decorated sugar cookies to bring to L’s dad’s Christmas Eve dinner, when I realized that C’s girlfriend (C being L’s brother), who happens to be downright awesome at decorating sugar cookies with royal icing, would also be contributing a plate of knock your socks off cookies. I know it’s not a competition, and that L’s family wouldn’t jeer at my still inferior decorating skills; it just started eating away at me and I got more and more uncomfortable with the idea of our two plates of cookies sitting side by side on the kitchen counter. All upset, I woke up Friday morning and frantically weighed my options. I didn’t want to give up the cookies because I’m still trying to practice my skills, and it seemed silly to totally abandon that opportunity for such practice just because I was intimidated; on the other hand, I really wanted to make something special, something that would stand out. When I came across a recipe for Petits Fours on Annie’s Eats, it struck me – I can have my cake and eat it, too! And by that I mean, I could still practice my decorating skills with sugar cookies without making them the focal point of my dessert – they would just be the garnish of the petits fours! It was perfect.

I wasn’t quite satisfied with Annie’s recipe, though. I wanted to incorporate this white chocolate liqueur I’ve been trying my best as a sorry excuse for a drinker to go through on my own; I also wanted a fruit filling that would be more seasonal than most berries are at this time of year. Cranberry came to mind, but how was I supposed to get cranberry jam? What about the cake flavor – would lemon still work, or should I change it? I wanted a pure white cake with a pure white sugar cookie – would the vibrant cranberry filling pop in a good way, or just look like my seemingly virginal cakes were bleeding a slow and painful death? I spent so many hours brainstorming the logistics of this cake, to the point where even though none of these recipes are my own creation, I feel a sense of pride in the finished product.

What I brought with me Saturday night to L’s dad’s house was a plate of thinly glazed orange cakes sandwiched around layers of thick, sweetened homemade cranberry sauce and white chocolate (liqueur) buttercream, each topped with their own haphazardly decorated (yet remarkably elegant) snowflake sugar cookies. Tomorrow’s post will go more into the sugar cookies themselves – an appropriate end to 2011, I think, with my resolution to perfect the art of sugar cookie decorating – but today I won’t hold out on you with the cakes themselves.

To warn you, they are ridiculously sweet and rich. L actually didn’t particularly like them – he’s not a big icing person, and even the thin layer of buttercream mixed with all of the other sweet components, particularly the fondant, was just too much for him. But everyone else raved, including myself, and I usually tend to hold back on my own desserts. You bite into one of these cakes and the soft cake just melts in your mouth, releasing a burst of orange encased in a sweet, slight crunch from the hardened fondant glaze. You chew for a moment, and your taste buds are greeted by the spiked white chocolate-sweetened cranberry combination, and pure sweet is replaced by an indulgent richness. This is a cake to be savored. Eat it slowly. Close your eyes after each bite. Swallow with a subtle pang of regret that you can’t keep experiencing those flavors over and over again. Or, go and sneak another serving and relive the moment all over again. This dessert is other-worldly, more than a show-stopper in both appearance and taste. I meant to write about this earlier in the week so that you could make this for New Year’s Eve, but even now that it’s more last minute I urge you to change your plans. And this is me, a diehard chocoholic, telling you to drop everything and make something that doesn’t have even half an ounce of real chocolate in it. That is not advice to be taken lightly, my friends.

One Year Ago: Carnation’s Famous Chocolate Fudge

Cranberry-Orange “Petits Cakes” with White Chocolate Buttercream¹

Yield: 18 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients – The Buttercream²

1 ½ ounces white chocolate³

½ cup butter, softened but not quite room temperature

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons white chocolate liqueur, plus more for brushing the cake

The Ingredients – The Cranberry Filling²

3 cups cranberries

⅓ cup sugar⁴

¾ cup water, divided

2 tablespoons cornstarch

The Ingredients – The Cake

6 eggs

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 ½ cups sugar, divided

1 teaspoon orange zest (from 2 oranges)

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

The Ingredients – The Fondant

4 ½ cups powdered sugar

½ cup water

¼ cup light corn syrup

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

The Method

Begin with the buttercream: melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or a large glass bowl set over a sauce pan with a small amount of simmering water. Stir once in a while and keep the heat low to prevent burning. When it’s melted, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in gradually, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Pour in the liqueur and melted chocolate and continue beating to incorporate. Refrigerate in a covered container to store, bringing to room temperature (which should take just a few hours depending upon the temperature of the house) to ensure spreadability before using.

Next, make the cranberry filling: combine the cranberries, sugar, and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook while stirring frequently until the mixture starts to boil and the cranberries pop. Mash the cranberries down a little bit with the back of your spoon as you go. Remove from the heat. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix together the remaining ¼ cup water and cornstarch and then stir into the hot cranberry mixture to thicken. Set aside to cool completely, at least an hour. For a completely smooth filling, puree in a food processor once cool.

Finally, move onto the cake itself: separate the eggs and allow both the whites and yolks to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed of a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Slowly add in ½ cup sugar and increase the speed to high until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325° and lightly grease a 9x13” pan with cooking spray.⁵

Add the egg yolks to the stand mixer (you don’t need to worry about washing because you did the whites first), and beat on high speed until thick and lemon-colored, approximately 5 minutes. Add in the orange zest, juice, water, and vanilla extract and lower the speed to medium just to combine the new ingredients. Gradually add in 1 cup of sugar before increasing the speed again to medium, and continue beating until the mixture thickens slightly and doubles in volume, approximately 5 minutes.

Mixing by hand, sprinkle ¼ cup of the flour at a time over the egg yolk mixture, folding until combined between each addition. Next, fold 1 cup of the beaten egg white mixture into the yolk mixture, and then gently fold the yolk mixture into the remaining whites. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and place in the oven for 27-30 minutes, or until the cake springs back lightly in the center upon being touched. Remove from the oven, run a knife or soft spatula around the edges, and invert immediately onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled, slice it horizontally into two halves, as equal as possible.⁶ Brush each cut side with a generous amount of white chocolate liqueur. Spread a layer of the white chocolate buttercream on top of one of the cut sides, and top the buttercream with a thin layer of the cranberry filling. Place the other cake half (with just the liqueur on it) on top, cut side down, and even out as best you can. Using a serrated knife – running it under hot water can help – cut the cake into 18 equally-sized mini cakes; I cut it into thirds lengthwise, then crosswise halved it and cut each of those halves into thirds. If desired, slice a centimeter or so off of all of the edges for uniformity (I didn’t both doing this, but it does conveniently leave some pretty tasty cake scraps for you to munch on).

Finally, turn to the poured fondant: arrange the cakes at least an inch apart on cooling racks with wax paper underneath. Place the racks close to the stove top. Combine all of the fondant ingredients in a double boiler or large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until lukewarm. Lower the heat to the lowest setting possible and return to the mixture from time to time to stir it. Armed with a knife in one hand and a ladle or spoon in the other, portion the thinned fondant mixture over the cakes, allowing it to spill over the sides (use the knife to smooth the fondant over the entire cake). You will waste a lot of fondant, so feel free to pull the maneuver that I did and swap out the used wax paper for a new sheet and recycling the fondant that has pooled on the new one. This is the trickiest, fussiest part of the whole cake, so just be patient.

Use any extra fondant to help adhere any garnishes or decorations. Set the cakes aside to cool and allow the fondant to set, then refrigerate as best you can (I just kept mine in less well heated parts of the house and in my trunk).

Notes:

¹Sources: the buttercream (The Pioneer Woman, adapted), the cranberry filling (All Day I Dream About Food) the cake and fondant (Annie’s Eats, adapted)

²If you’re pressed for time on the day that you plan to serve these cakes, both the buttercream and cranberry filling can be made up to a few days ahead of time. Refrigerate until ready to use, and leave a few hours the day of assembly for the buttercream to return to room temperature and soften up.

³Be wary of white chocolate if you’re the kind of person who pays attention to ingredients and the nutritional components of food. Many white chocolate chips are little more than chemicals and partially hydrogenated oils; I used a few squares of dove white chocolate, which is the real deal.

⁴I think that you could get away with decreasing this to 3-4 tablespoons. The rest of the dessert is so sweet that you really don’t need it, and leaving a little tart bite in the filling may actually make the cake even better.

⁵The bottom of my cake stuck to the pan – not horrendously, but it did stick, so feel free to be a little bit less judicious with your use of cooking spray. “Lightly” may not be enough in this case.

This recipe may look daunting, and it’s certainly time consuming, but it really isn’t too treacherous and can easily be split up over several days. Just leave at the very least the assembly for the final day. It really is fantastic – I’m actually all set to make the cake portion again to serve with a chocolate fondue on New Year’s Day!

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Wonderful Walnut-Spinach Pesto over a Homemade Ravioli Flop

2011-12-29T09:22:00.001-05:00

This week did not go as planned. I sat down on Tuesday to write about these to-die-for petit fours cakes that I had made over the holiday weekend, and just then, the phone rang. My grandfather. A fall. A broken hip. Maybe fractured. I spent the rest of the day at the hospital, keeping both him and my grandmother company while he waited to be taken into surgery. Thankfully, the fracture was small and the surgery went well, and he is now on the road to recovery.

All of this to say, my plans for the past two days were thrown out the window, and all of the productivity I had planned for – including things related to this blog – were little more than a joke. I felt a twinge of regret for being so absent, though understandably so, over the holiday weekend, and had every intention of coming back this week full force. And suddenly, it’s already Thursday, and so the petits fours will have to wait at least one more day, making way for a Thirty Minute Thursday post.

One of my latest meals from Rachael Ray’s book was a mushroom ravioli with a walnut-spinach pesto. The recipe was actually for tortellini and pesto, using pre-made frozen cheese tortellini, but I have always wanted to try making my own. So, I followed the recipe for the pesto, and instead of dumping some frozen ravioli into a pot of boiling water, I laid out my newly purchased wonton wrappers and got to work on a different recipe for fresh ravioli I had bookmarked most likely centuries ago.

The ravioli were a total bust. I don’t really know what happened, though I’m thinking I may have boiled them too long, since they absolutely fell to pieces. It was, as I so aptly wrote in my notes about this dish, a hot mess. I also didn’t find the crudely salvaged meal to be particularly filling, despite the high-fat and, therefore, high-calorie nature of pesto. Making the pesto with a cheese-filled tortellini would likely solve that problem, but so could throwing in a protein like tofu, chicken, or fish.

The pesto itself, on the other hand, was very nice. It was easy to come together, though maybe it wound up being less pureed than I typically expect from a pesto sauce. This is either a result of my “trusty” little mini-chopper that I use instead of a real food processor, or just the nature of the recipe itself. It was even a little spicy, and I can’t quite place why that was (there’s really nothing in it that has any heat). The combination of spices must have just come together in this synergistic way so that the sauce was greater than the sum of its parts. Or, my taste buds have gone totally wacky and you should no longer listen to a word I say. Let’s go with the first one, ok?

One Year Ago: Oatmeal, 3 Ways

Walnut-Spinach Pesto, courtesy of Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals

Yield: enough for 10 servings of pasta

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

4 ounces chopped walnuts

1 cup chicken (or vegetable) broth

10 ounces baby spinach

4 cloves garlic

⅔ cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

The Method

Toast the walnuts in a dry pan on the stove or in the toaster oven until lightly browned, shaking occasionally and checking often. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil in a sauce pan and then remove from the heat. Working in batches, puree the spinach, walnuts, broth, and garlic in a food processor. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients. If using for pasta, add the cooked pasta and toss until evenly coated.

Lemon & Parmesan Kale Salad for the Win!

2011-12-26T11:24:00.001-05:00

Welcome back, everyone! I hope that you had an enjoyable weekend, whether you were celebrating the holidays or not. I know that it was a whirlwind for me, but I had an incredible time with L’s family and am really looking forward to telling you about some of the things I made for dessert for both Christmas Eve and Day. I need a breather, though – a little reprise from all of the holiday baking and traveling. I’ve always found the day after Christmas to be a little anti-climactic. The Christmas songs go away, the energy from Christmas morning wanes but doesn’t go away completely – I find myself up today, drinking a glass of almond milk in preparation of returning to my workout routine after a few days of sacrificing it for the sake of getting all of that baking done, and I’m almost thinking to myself “Well, what now?”

This kale salad is anything but anti-climactic, though. In fact, I was so skeptical about it because I wasn’t fully convinced that I even liked kale beyond kale chips, but my produce calendar said it was in season and I’m up for giving anything a second chance. Plus, I always feel like salads should be doing more for me nutritionally than my beloved romaine, yet sometimes a big plate of raw spinach really rubs me the wrong way. As it turns out, kale is the perfect blend of the two! It has the light taste of romaine – not the same watery crunch, but still very far from the chew of spinach – with all of the nutritional powerhouse qualities of spinach. It’s absolutely my new favorite salad base!

I quartered the recipe and wound up with enough for about 2 pretty voluminous, though not necessarily entirely filling, portions. When I first made it, I ate it with an egg casserole; the next day I just had it on its own and both times it was nothing short of amazing. The vinaigrette, which I’ve made twice now and have gotten big compliments on it from everyone, is full of depth from a good olive oil and flavor from the citrus and parmesan. Lemon and parmesan really do go well together (and, by the way – I have officially switched over to the Real Deal parmesan; no more of that awful canned Kraft stuff here at Floptimsim!), and you don’t need much of the cheese to get the desired flavor. The pine nuts added a toasty chew, too. Plus, the salad got arguably even better overnight –the next day I was practically in heaven. You need to make this salad. You just do. If you’re looking for a lighter reprieve from the sugar rush of this weekend, this is perfect. If you could care less about healthy eating but just want a ridiculously good salad, a real crowd pleaser (does anyone need an idea for a New Year’s Eve or Day gathering recipe??), this is perfect, too. In fact, I don’t know if there is a situation where this salad wouldn’t be perfect.

One Year Ago: Croquembouche (Espresso Cream Filled Choux Pastries)

Lemon & Parmesan Kale Salad, adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Yield: 4-6 side, 3-4 main dish servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

4 cloves garlic, finely minced¹

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon vinegar²

⅔ cup oil

⅓ cup shaved parmesan

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 bunch kale, rinsed and well dried

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

shaved parmesan, for garnish

The Method

Whisk together the garlic, lemon, vinegar, and pepper in a small mixing bowl and set aside for at least 15 minutes, preferably overnight.³ Slowly stream in the olive oil, whisking all the while, and then stir in the shaved parmesan.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop the kale and add it to a (very) large bowl. Toss with the dressing⁴ and garnish with the toasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan.

Notes:

¹The second time I made this I used pre-minced garlic, a fraction of a tablespoon. I’m sure it’s not exactly the same, but the garlic wasn’t overpowering in either instance so I didn’t notice much of a difference. Use what you have.

²The original calls for white wine; I used red wine the first time and tarragon the second. I also added freshly parsley the second time around, which was nice.

³I let mine sit for 25 minutes the first time and several hours the second.

⁴It says to toss the full recipe with just a few tablespoons of the dressing, but I have a confession: I used the whole thing and had a very well dressed salad. Look, I will dip the tines of my fork in salad dressing and just get a scant amount per bite all day long, and I’ll even enjoy it – but deep down, there’s a part of me that just goes to town over a salad really really well coated in a homemade or vinaigrette. These are good fats, and if you stick to the 2/3 cup of oil for the full batch it works out to just under 2 tablespoons of oil per person. It’s really not too obscene, I promise, and it’s so good if you “indulge” in this way.

Tradition, Memories, and Black & White Rice Krispy Treats

2011-12-23T17:06:00.001-05:00

This time of year is always a bitter-sweet one for me. I love the atmosphere that settles in the closer we get to Christmas – it can be frigid and icey or temperate but rainy, and yet there’s still a warmth almost everywhere you go. The decorative lights are inviting, the gift buying and wrapping is exciting, and houses start to smell like pine needles, pot roast, and gingerbread. I even forget that I don’t love Winter right about now. But then, I can’t help but feel a small void inside of me, a little twinge of…regret? Sadness? Introspection. This is the time of year where I remember my grandmother most. If you knew her, you couldn’t not remember her around Christmas. Our house was decked in wreaths, garlands, candles, ornaments, and the biggest tree our old Victorian home could house. She lived with us until she passed away, which was over ten years ago now. The first few Christmases were hard. Then, the decorations slowly changed. The traditions changed. We no longer got a tree. Mezzuzahs and menorahs replaced the holly and mistletoe, now that everyone else in the house was Jewish. Everything about how we celebrated the holidays changed. More than anything, I miss the perpetual smell of cookies that would waft out of the kitchen as she baked dozens and dozens of cookies to give out to neighbors, friends, family – even my bus driver got a package each year.

I don’t know why, but as much as I bake, I have yet to take on those cookie recipes. I was hit with this wave of nostalgia too late this year, just last night feeling a strong desire to keep her cookie baking tradition alive, but know that next year I will be picking up where my grandmother left off, even if it is ten years delayed. I love trying new recipes and shaking things up, but I think you need a little reminder of tradition now and then, too.

I want to pause in all of the crazy baking schemes I’ve been in the midst of this week, and talk to you about a recipe that I think holds a lot of memories to a lot of people. Ironically, it doesn’t really for me. I feel like it’s almost this rite of passage to grow up on homemade rice krispy treats, and yet the first time I made them myself was just last month. I may not have my grandmother’s famous chocolate covered peanut butter ball recipe to share with you today (I’m pretty sure I ate at least a dozen of those every day leading up to Christmas when I was a kid!), I can share with you a recipe that I hope will bring back childhood memories for others. Because even if it’s painful, a little sad and bitter-sweet, it’s important to take a minute at this time of year and just remember.

These rice krispy treats are subtly sweet and very simple. They’re softer than a store bought square, but I haven’t yet figured out if that’s the recipe or the fact that I was maybe, possibly, I hope you can keep a secret, using stale crispy rice cereal. Please don’t judge me. They still tasted really good. I actually put the leftovers in the freezer which was a completely spontaneous move – I have no idea if they’ll be anything close to edible when I take them out to thaw – but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. I’ll let you know how they are when they’re not fresh. If mine ever were fresh to begin with…sigh. I’m doing a mighty fine job of selling these, huh? They’re extremely enjoyable, though, I promise.

One Year Ago: Special Delivery Cake

Black & White Rice Krispy Treats, courtesy of Annie’s Eats

Yield: 18-22 servings

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 ½ ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

4 cups mini (40 individual regular) marshmallows, divided

6 ½ cups crispy rice cereal, divided

½ cup mini chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Method

Line 18-22 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Melt half of the butter and all of the dark chocolate and cocoa powder together in a microwave safe mixing bowl, stirring frequently to prevent the cocoa powder from scorching. Add half of the marshmallows and return to the microwave for 1-2 minutes, until fluffy and melted. Stir in half of the crispy rice cereal, making sure the chocolate coats all of the cereal. Stir in the mini chocolate chips and set aside for 15-30 seconds. Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared muffin tins and press down to create level tops.

In a second (or washed) microwave safe bowl, melt the remaining butter and marshmallows in the microwave for 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows have fluffed up and the butter has melted completely. Stir in the vanilla and remaining cereal until the mixture is fully incorporated. Set aside for 15-30 seconds. Divide evenly among the muffin tins already filled with the chocolate treats.

Chill the treats in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, or let sit at room temperature until set before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Healthy Chickpea & Rosemary Dip

2011-12-22T13:00:00.001-05:00

This week, I’ve been more or less glued to the kitchen. Hannukkah started on Tuesday, L’s brother’s birthday was yesterday, my sister’s birthday is tomorrow, and then, of course, there’s Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The food part of my brain has been kicked into holiday high gear, and I am appeasing it by focusing this week’s updates on quick and easy ideas for entertaining food. As it turns out, I even have a Thirty Minute Thursday post for you that would be perfect for a holiday gathering!

Dips are popular appetizers, probably because they tend to be no-fuss crowd pleasers. However, some of the best (I’m talking to you, Spinach & Artichoke!) are worse for you than the dessert course. That’s not to say that if you love those dips and one of the holiday parties you’re at is serving them you should avoid them like the plague (in fact, check out this post for a slimmed down version of an artichoke dip), but balancing them with a lighter option is definitely a strategy for keeping things in check.

This chickpea and rosemary dip can do just that. It’s just as easy and fast to make as any other dip, but it’s something you can feel good about eating. It’s flavorful but not enormously filling on its own, which I think is actually a good quality in an appetizer – a dip especially. If you use crunchy vegetables as dippers (I chose broccoli), the fiber from those will help you feel a little bit more satiated. You could also serve it with whole wheat pita. Once the holidays are over, turn it into a meal by spreading it on a whole grain wrap and topping it with some spinach, tomatoes, and pepper strips.

The only warning about this dip is that it was a little bit tough to puree. To be fair, I was using my mini food chopper, not a full-sized food processor, and I found myself needing to be patient. It still came together quickly, though, and I really did love it in the end.

Chickpea and Rosemary Dip, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Classic Thirty Minute Meals

Yield: 4-6 servings

(printablerecipe)

The Ingredients

2 (heaping) cups chickpeas¹

¼ cup chopped roasted red peppers

2 tablespoons chopped artichoke hearts

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 sprigs rosemary

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons (nonfat) plain greek yogurt

The Method

Combine the chickpeas, roasted red peppers, garlic, rosemary, pepper, and lemon juice in a food processor until mostly incorporated. Add in the greek yogurt and pulse again until completely combine. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and refrigerate until serving.

Notes:

¹I made mine from dried beans, but the original recipe calls for 2 cans, drained. I’m all about dried beans for the most part (just cook up a huge batch and freeze them until you need them) since they have no sodium and are dirt cheap (yes, even compared to the cans), but if you use cans just rinse them thoroughly to rid them to excess salt.

Brunch Made Easy with Egg Muffins

2011-12-21T11:52:00.002-05:00

I’ve always wanted to host a brunch. I see sunshine, a brightly lit room, a buffet table bursting with trays and platters of everyone’s favorite breakfast dishes. In my head, it’s always Spring or Summer, but for people whose family members come in from out of town for the holidays, you probably link the idea of brunch to this time of year. After all, when you have a whole slew of relatives in town, you have a lot of hungry people when the sun comes up!

My family prefers restaurants to home-based festivities. Most of them view family gatherings as a whole lot of work, which I won’t deny – it really can be a big endeavor, particularly if one person or a small group within the family winds up doing most of the preparation. So, all of my baked French toast and strata recipes lie dormant on a shelf, while I go to the local diner or upscale brunch buffet instead. Certain brunch-friendly recipes, though, I can make for myself. It certainly isn’t enough to nip my brunch hosting day dreams in the bud, but it does give me the opportunity to taste some really wonderful breakfast-y treats.

Recently, I made a scaled-down recipe for egg muffins for dinner, paired with a vibrant tomatillo guacamole (how many times have I mentioned that stuff at this point – three? Four? A thousand?) and fresh red pepper strips. The muffins were exactly what I was expecting them to be – hot, spongy, savory, and full of potential. They were also stupid easy, and I use that adverb because they took maybe two minutes to prep. Granted, it would take a little bit longer to make enough for a larger group, and if you need to slice and dice too many filling ingredients that could tack on a few more minutes, but ultimately you can have these in the oven in minutes flat. Imagine that – a recipe that only requires you to be disengaged from your guests for a handful of minutes.

Now, I messed around with the recipe just a little bit. I couldn’t help it. First, I blanked and completely forgot to add in the egg whites, so I just had 1 whole egg in mine – still, I thought the volume was fine so you might even be able to stretch the recipe further based on that. I used chopped onion instead of scallions, 1 ½ tablespoons of strong cheese instead of 2 ½ tablespoons, and half of a sausage link instead of bacon. I also pooled my two muffins into one ramekin and baked in the toaster oven. After about 22 minutes I was able to just pop it right out of the dish and dig in! Below is the recipe exactly how I made it, but don’t let that box you in. I chose not to add vegetables because I knew I was going to be eating red pepper strips and guacamole on the side, but use whatever meat, vegetables, herbs, and flavorings you want!

Egg Muffins, adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 12 muffins

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

3 links lean chicken sausage, diced

6 eggs¹

splash of (low-fat) milk

2 tablespoons chopped onion

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons blue cheese

3 tablespoons parmesan

The Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Lightly brown the chicken sausage in a lightly greased cooking pan, 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, milk, and onions together; set aside.

Divide the sausage and blue cheese evenly amongst the muffin tins and top with the egg mixture, being careful not to overfill. Use a fork to mix each muffin up for better distribution, and top each cup with the parmesan.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, removing when they are puffy and just slightly brown on top. Take care not to overcook them, as that will produce a rubbery muffin.

Notes:

¹The original recipe calls for 12 eggs or egg equivalents; this is where my forgetting about the egg whites comes in. Because I made it with just 1 egg per serving, I can’t tell you exactly how many egg whites would be perfect. The original recommends 9 eggs and 6 egg whites, since 1 egg white only counts for half an egg. If you use 6 whole eggs, that means you should have 12 egg whites, which would be over 1 cup.

Crustless Pizza Bites: proof that appetizers don't have to be unhealthy!

2011-12-20T13:49:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things to do when I’m cooking for myself is to make a dinner out of one or two appetizers. It’s almost like my own little version of tapas. In this way, I’m able to sample a bunch of different foods without having too much of any one thing leftover, I can keep things a little lighter, and I get to try out all of those appetizers that I’ve been dying to make but never have a reason to make them.

Over the next week or two, though, I know many people will have a reason to make various appetizers, and if you’re still trying to figure out what to make, please make these “crustless pizza bites.” They are insanely good, and a really healthy way to start off any party. Appetizers can be a health-conscious person’s downfall, but if you make careful choices, they really don’t have to be all that bad. Take these, for example – you basically roast some tomatoes to within an inch of their lives and top them with a tiny amount of part-skim (or not!) ricotta cheese. Aside from the nutrients you inevitably lose from the roasting, this recipe is practically saintly. And, it really does taste exactly like a crustless pizza – and I love a good pizza, so I wouldn’t joke around about that.

Seriously, make these as soon as you can, even if you aren’t looking for an appetizer; I paired them with a batch of roasted cauliflower (reminded me of tater tots – talk about a healthified childhood throwback meal!) and was a very happy camper.

One Year Ago: Savory Eggplant Croquettes

Crust-Free Pizza Bites, courtesy of Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen

Yield: 8 appetizer, 4 larger portions

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

4 tomatoes

½ cup (part-skim) ricotta

dried oregano & coarse salt, to taste

dried basil, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder, to taste

grated parmesan cheese, for garnish

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a casserole dish with aluminum foil and grease with a non-stick cooking spray. Halve or third each tomato and arrange them in the dish. Spray the exposed sides of each tomato with cooking spray (lightly).

Sprinkle the tomatoes with all of the herbs and seasonings, and place in the oven to bake for at least 1 hour. The key is to err on the side of overroasting; you want them to carmelize and bring out that cooked, saucey flavor. When done, remove from the oven, dollop each half with 1T of ricotta, and sprinkle with parmesan before serving.

And lastly, to everyone celebrating Hannukkah - I hope you have a happy, happy first night! We're having a small family dinner tonight, and I could not be more excited for the food: mom's brisket and homemade applesauce, latkes (of course!), a simple garden salad with a TBD vinaigrette, and - last but not least - I'll be making baked cinnamon oatmeal stuffed apples served alongside a scoop of homemade cinnamon ice cream! Gotta love the holidays.