What Would You Do With. . .Apples?

I think I've said this before, but if each month had a fruit or vegetable mascot, September would have to be the apple.  Last fall I blogged a yummy crockpot apple sauce and today Aubrey and I are telling you what we would do with apples this month!

So last Sunday Olivia and I made baked apples!  I didn't use a recipe, just my favorite ingredients.  I cut the apples into quarters and dolloped cinnamon honey butter (2T butter, 1/4c honey and how every much cinnamon you want.  At Olivia's request we added a bit of nutmeg.  She loves fall spices) Then I couldn't help myself to drizzle a little more honey and sprinkle some cinnamon on top.

After 15 minutes I pulled them out and flipped all the apples over.  The honey and butter had melted and pooled on the bottom of the pan so I wanted the cut side of the apples to soak in that goodness.  I think I baked them at 350 for 45 minutes.

We pulled them out of the oven and then went on a walk around the block.  They're hot like lava, so they were still really warm when we got back 30 minutes later.  And you cannot buy a candle that will make your house smell as good as these apples.

They would be AMAZING with ice cream but we just ate them alone and the kids could not get enough of them! (I'm really trying to watch my junk food intake now that I'm feeling a little better this pregnancy.  Trying and mostly failing but not this time!)

Do you have a killer apple recipe??  Link up below!  And join us next month when we tell you what we would do with the color orange! My husband has informed me that he's going all out with Halloween decorations so he might just do the whole project for me haha!

An InLinkz Link-up

What Would You Do With. . . Strawberries???

It is time for another installment of What Would You Do with my girl Aubrey, also known as the only time I ever blog any more.

This month we're talking STRAWBERRIES.  You guys.  This is my favorite food of all time.  Except when my favorite food is perfectly ripe freshly picked peaches.  But according to the Miss Lancaster Pageant 2001, my favorite food is strawberries, so that's usually what I tell people.

So of course, I have SEVERAL recipes I want to share with you today.

First, my strawberry lemonade slush.  I wrote this frozen lemonade recipe when I was in college, but it was my friend Tiffanie that came up with the idea to add strawberries.  She's a genius.

1/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c sugar (you can do 3 T if you like it less sweet)
1/4 c water
2-3 strawberries
as much ice as it takes to get thick. . . like 4-5 cubes?  It just depends of the size of your ice.  You can always add more if its too liquid.

BLEND!  Enjoy!


Second, low calorie strawberry shortcake.  I made this recipe soon after Olivia was born and I was working to lose some baby weight.  I have found that I lose the most weight when I avoid all processed foods regardless of calories.  But if you like to count calories or maybe induldge in a processed food treat on occasion, here is a recipe for you ;)

Cupcake: (I broke down a cake mix into a smaller portion, because you KNOW what happens if you have extra cake lying around the house. . . and you're hungry. . . )
1 c Betty Crocker white cake mix (put the remainder of the cake mix in a Ziploc bag and back into the box)
1 egg white
2 T sugar free applesauce
1/3 c + 1 T water

Mix all ingredients, beat on medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Spoon into 8 cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. I let them cool, kept two for our dessert and put the rest in the freezer for another day. Because of the applesauce, these cupcakes will go bad faster than regular. I guess I could have made an even SMALLER batch, but I just didn't want to figure how to break down 1 egg white.
Cupcake: 100 calories

Strawberry topping:
2 cups fresh strawberries cut in half or fourths
2 T sugar (I'm going to try just 1 T next time)

Place strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Use two knives working like scissors to cut the strawberries into smaller pieces. The sugar will help draw out the strawberry's natural juices and make a really good topping.
1/2 c of topping: 45 calories

Whipped Topping:
1/2 c evaporated milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 T powdered sugar (must use powdered)

Place milk in a mixing bowl and place in the freezer until ice crystals form around the edges of the milk. (Consider freezing your beaters as well) Mix with a hand mixer on high for 1 minute until frothy. Add vanilla and sugar gradually. Mix on high for 2 more minutes until stiff. Serve immediately. (This can only be used on cool or cold desserts. It will melt on anything hot or warm) Makes 2 cups.
1/4 c whipped topping: 25 calories 


Next month we're doing the colors red, white and blue in anticipation of Independence Day!!!

Make sure you link up your strawberry posts!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Food Friday: Homemade Apple Sauce

The food of September is the apple.  And that's when I made this.  I just didn't get around to posting it until now.  Oops!

This is such a simple recipe, so it's fun to get your kids in on the action, especially if they're any good at peeling apples.  Olivia isn't, but that didn't stop her from giving it the ole college try.

We peeled and cored 10 apples and then I just kind of took it from there, with a giant scoop of creamy honey, lots of cinnamon and a couple glugs of my imitation vanilla (I know, I know, my argument is that I don't really bake and I'm not that picky!) Cooked that sucker in my crockpot for 4 hours on high and then mashed it with a potato masher.

It was SO yummy, but not very pretty. Okay FINE, yes I really just forgot to take a picture. But it still wasn't pretty, so you're not missing out.

(Hey!  I've been working on uploading all of my iPad pictures to my picasa web album and check out the gif they made with these pictures.  Equal parts creepy and cool that they do that with out me telling them too. . . )

Clean Banana Bread (make this banana bread right now)

One of my friends made whole wheat banana bread a few weeks ago and I have been wanting some ever since.  But I was sure there were recipes that didn't include a ton of sugar, or any sugar actually.  I'm trying to not eat sugar.

I found this recipe, and it was awesome!!  Call me crazy, but I thought it was a little bit sweet, so I swapped the honey with the applesauce and I think it was much better balanced.  Instead of 1/2 c honey and 1/4 c apple sauce, I did 1/2 c applesauce and 1/4 c honey.  Perfection.

It's so good for you, you can eat it for breakfast.  It's so good tasting, you can eat it for dessert.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed (I never have any so I leave this out)
• Pinch of sea salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• 1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (or semisweet chocolate chips)
• Olive oil cooking spray, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, flaxseed and salt.
2. In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, beat bananas until smooth. Add egg whites and beat until combined. Gradually mix in applesauce, honey and safflower oil.  (OR you can do what I do and put the bananas and eggs in the blender and whip 'em up good and then add in the the remaining wet ingredients) 
3. Mix dry ingredients into banana mixture; stir in chocolate. (You can add the dry ingredients to the blender and pulse a few times, but you'll have to stir the chocolate chips in with a spoon) 
4. Mist a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until browned on top.

Honestly, I have a hard time getting my banana bread not gooey in the middle.  Sometimes it comes out great and other times not.  I'm going to try five degrees hotter and five extra minutes next time I make it.  Tomorrow.  Or today.  Right now. 

Update: When I pulled my banana bread out of the oven I stuck a knife in it and it was still doughy in the middle. So I put some foil over the top and stuck it back in for ten minutes and voila!  Perfectly baked.  Also, when mixing the batter I used a whole egg instead of two egg whites because it's just one yolk and I hate to waste :)

Food Friday: Pepperjack mac 'n' cheese

I used to have a cooking blog, Kimberly Cooks.  I posted like five times before getting pregnant with Olivia and cooking pretty much stopped.  My domain expired over a year ago, and suddenly I couldn't look up this recipe on line anymore. . . I finally dug up my old wordpress account information and pulled off those five recipes so I can post them here and give them new life. (Never occurred to me to write them down somewhere else)  This was the recipe I was most excited about.  

This fun grown up macaroni and cheese recipe starts with one of the five French mother sauces, a bechamel.  A bechamel sauce is essentially a white sauce.  Then I added some yummy pepper jack cheese and Worcestershire sauce.  Pour this onto some fully cooked pasta shells and it is divine!

Ingredients: 

• 2 T white flour
• 2 T butter
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 c milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp white pepper (if you have it, if not, black pepper will work just fine)
• 4 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded.
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 c uncooked pasta shells, cooked to your desired firmness.
• 1/4 c Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook butter and flour on medium heat, about five minutes to remove the floury flavor and texture.  Be sure to stir constantly.
2. Wisk in onion powder, milk, salt, nutmeg and pepper.  Stirring constantly, cook until thickened and then stir in cheese and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Add cooked pasta to the sauce and serve immediately.  Or, place in an oven safe dish, top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 10 minutes at 350 if you prefer a crusty mac and cheese.

A couple of notes:
-I call this a grown up mac n cheese and it really is.  Olivia helped make it, she was so excited to eat it and sadly it turned out to be too spicy for her.   Any cheese can be substituted for the pepper jack cheese.
-Since I wrote this recipe before having kids, the fact that it only feeds two didn't bother me.  But when Olivia couldn't eat hers, both Adam and I were eager to help her out.  Maybe double it, especially if you like leftovers.
-I like making this with pasta shells, but I totally blanked on buying pasta when I was at the store.  Luckily we had some actual macaroni in the cupboard and that (obviously) was great.  I just like the way the cheese gets trapped in the pasta shells.

Food Friday: The Best Oatmeal

I have a confession.  I don't really like oatmeal.  I eat it, almost every day, and eh, it's just not my favorite.  My favorite is Lucky Charms, but I'm not 6 so I try to eat healthier than that.  Mostly.  And oatmeal is healthy, fast, inexpensive and my kids love it so it's oatmeal all around. 

My life was changed two years ago when my friend Mary posted about her breakfast.  I was totally inspired and this is the only oatmeal I actually enjoy eating!  (The funny thing is I posted about a banana peanut butter smoothie I made that night and Mary was inspired by me!)

1/2 c quick oats (I just like how they're creamier than old fashioned but you can use that too)
1 c water
honey
1 banana
2-3 T chopped walnuts or almonds

Cook the oats, add the other stuff.  :)

I'm not wild about those ingredients on their own, but together they are synergistic and mmmmm.  The walnuts are my favorite because they add just the right crunch, but almonds are also yummy (I think Mary used almonds in the one she posted about).

Okay the only oatmeal that I enjoy eating more than this is peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal, but that's more of a dessert. 

How do you make oatmeal?  I would like to have more than one oatmeal recipe that I enjoy :)

Five Food Friday Favorites: Comfort Food

I didn't know if this was a "Food Friday" or a "Five Favorites on Friday" so I combined them.  Regardless, comfort food and the fall is a match made in heaven. 

I admit that in "researching" for this post, I got a little sick.  Last fall I was pregnant and comfort food was all I could think about.  This year, it was a bit much to eat all of these meals in one week.  Except the lentils.  Those are so delicious, but also really healthy.  Score.

1. Tuna Noodle Cassrole
This version is amazing!  A few more steps than the original, but it brings it to a whole new level.

 

2. Goolash
So this is the closest thing I found to the way I make it.  Basically brown some ground beef and onion and then throw in tomatoes, tomato sauce, italian seasoning and pasta, maybe a little water and let it simmer.  Top with some cheese and you're golden.  Axel loved this meal, he ate leftovers for two days after!

3. Mac and Cheese
I really need to post my mac and cheese recipe on here!  In the mean time, this one was good.  But not as good as mine!

4. Sweet and Sour Lentils
Oh my goodness, these are amazing.  My vegetarian brother said these made him feel guilty because they tasted like my mom's meatloaf (He was probably referring to the sauce that she put on top, because it also has a sweet and sour flavor)

5. Stew
I love the beef stew my mom made when we were growing up, but since I don't have it right here, I will say that LOVE making Tiffanie's slow cooker beef stew. 

 What do you like to cook in the fall?

Food Friday: Corn and Pumpkin Soup

Sorry for the pumpkin post already fall haters, but like it or not summer is on the way out!  Bring on the pumpkin.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain and chilly temps.  Fall weather opens up a whole new section of recipes to choose from: Soups!  Adam wont eat soup from March- October, but my dinner choices were limited, plus RAIN.  So I knew we were good to go.  Throw in some homemade bread and you can't go wrong. 

When we left church it was sunny and warm.  Whatever.  I was a girl on a mission.  Also, there wasn't many options in my kitchen.  Grocery shopping took place promptly on Monday morning.

I decided to caramelize some corn and onions like Bridget showed me how in her amazing recipe for sweet potato burritos (I made them last month.  How long do I have to wait before I can make them again???)  Embarrassed to say, that in all of my cooking training, I really didn't know the proper way to do that.  So I threw in some corn and a finely chopped onion, a little bit of olive oil and let them sizzle on medium for 30 - 40 minutes (I can't remember)  Bridget says to put them on lowest heat, but I think it depends on your stove.  Mine on lowest heat would have taken a month to caramelize.  I was too hungry for that.

Ingredients
1 onion, finely diced
1 c of frozen corn, thawed
2 c pumpkin, about 1-14.5oz can if you have one, or just measure two cups out of the giant can
2 c broth, I used vegetable broth because that's my jam, but you can use chicken if you want.  Beef?  I feel like that would be weird.
1 c milk, I used almond milk because I'm not a fan of dairy (unless it's sour cream, cheese of any kind or ice cream, basically I don't like milk)
Garlic powder, salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste (guys I suck at measuring spices)
Sour cream for garnish

Directions
1. Caramelize onion and corn on the lowest heat that will maintain a low sizzle.  Stir every 5-10 minutes for about 30-40 minutes.  Let your heart guide you on this one.
2. Add pumpkin and broth.  Bring to a boil (it will more likely bubble and splat.  Stir it frequently until it's heated through.)
3. Add milk and heat through.
4. Serve with sour cream, if you want.  (Adam thinks that's weird.)

Who wears pink bibs and loves pumpkin soup????  This guy:

Food Friday: Amazing meat balls

Last day to enter my giveaway here!

An great thing happened at the dentist on Tuesday.  I was pondering what to make for dinner.  I had stuff to make turkey and quinoa meatballs and pasta.  But Adam doesn't like pasta.  I also wanted to try my friend Tiffanie's  grilled chicken.  But was there time to heat the grill when I got back?  What if. . . what if I made the meatballs with rice and cooked them in Tiffanie's husband's special grilling sauce.  What if. 

Amazing.

They were soooooo good.  I asked Adam if he liked dinner (as I often do because he usually wont say one way or another) and he said "Yeah.  The sauce is good."  When I told him what it was, he was surprised.  In any case, this is a great way to enjoy this grilling recipe when it isn't grilling season!

Plates of meatballs do not photograph well.  I was going to leave a picture off all together, but then, what will you pin???  :)

Ingredients
Meat balls:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp dried onion
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3/4 cup cooked quinoa
1 egg
1 Tbsp BBQ sauce

Sauce: 
1 c BBQ sauce
1 c fat free Italian dressing

Directions
1. Mix all meat ball ingredients together with your hands and form into balls about the size of a golf ball.
2. Brown them in a frying pan on medium high heat, turning them carefully so they don't fall apart before they firm up. 
3. When they are browned on three or four sides, lower the heat to medium low or just low (know your stove!) and pour the sauce over the meat balls and cover.  Cook for 20 minutes while you cook your rice.  They will both be done at the same time and dinner is served!

Food Friday: Peach Pie

I've never been a big fan of pie.  Making it, eating it, not my favorite.  I'll eat it, if it's there, but I hate making pie crust.  And to be honest, I don't love the taste of it either.  Are you still reading?  I'm not pleading my case very well, ha!

Adam, being the ever loving husband that he is, bought me 25 pounds of peaches.

He knows I love fruit and cooking.  I made peach jam, froze peaches for smoothies, peach syrup, peaches and cream (or almond milk in my case) and we ate peaches with our lunch for a week!  Also, I made a peach pie.  I don't know what got into my head, but I just wanted to.

It was so good.

Do you know how I know?  My husband asked me later if there was any more.  And he told my brother how good it was.  And he asked me to make it again.  Adam isn't picky, and I appreciate that.  But he also isn't very enthusiastic about food so getting him to rave about my food is a huge accomplishment.

The first thing I did was find a pie crust recipe that I would like and that would be easy.  I decided I wanted my pie crust to be more like a sugar cookie, because the lack of crust sweetness is what bothers me the most about it.  I found this recipe here and decided to use 1 c of whole wheat flour and 1/2 c all purpose.  Oh, and I upped the sugar to a rounded 1/4 c.  I mixed everything in a bowl but then dumped it right into my pie dish and mashed it down.  None of this rolling it out crap.  I hate that.  I made some fork pricks and blind baked it for about 15 minutes at 400 (The recipe says 20 minutes but I figured it would get baked with the pie filling too)

Ever classy with my pictures, you can enjoy the flour that spilled out of the bowl, my glass of water and the fruit from our dinner.

Here is the pie filling recipe I used.  It was so simple and so yummy! 

I don't usually post recipes unless I personally created them, but I wanted to post this one because I liked the combination of the whole wheat sugar cookie crust with this peach pie filling. The original can be found here.

Peach Pie Filling
3 Tbsp. Flour
⅓ C. Sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
3-4 c. sliced peaches
½ tsp. almond extract

Combine the dry ingredients, then stir in peaches and almond extract. Bake at 375 until crust turns golden brown (about 35-40 minutes). (Unless your crust is already baked like mine!  I think I baked it for 30 or 35 minutes)

Here is my final pie.  Have I mentioned that the lighting in my kitchen is horrible?

Food Friday: Quinoa and Fruit Lettuce Wraps

So you might remember that this is vegetarian month at our house.  So far so good!  I feel great, I'm not just eating junk (like so many vegetarians are accused of I think) and no weight loss, but I blame breastfeeding!  :)  A lot of my the pins on my healthy food pinterest board are vegetarian, but not all of them.  This recipe was inspired by this pin:

Original Pin

I thought about just leaving the chicken out, but then it would be nothing but grapes and apples!  Not very filling for a dinner.  I decided to replace the chicken with quinoa and thus this recipe was born.  Also I changed the dressing.  You can try the almond butter and honey, but I already cut the chicken so I figured going forward with a traditional mayo dressing was still pretty healthy.  Here's mine:

It takes like ten of these to fill me up, but YUM!

Ingredients:
1 c quinoa, rinsed
2 c vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 c of grapes, halved
1 apple, chopped
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1/3 c mayo
salt, to taste
curry powder, to taste
pepper, to taste
romaine lettuce (or your favorite lettuce)

Directions: 
1. Cook quinoa in the broth just like you would cook rice.  Cool.
2. Mix quinoa, fruit, nuts and dressing ingredients.
3. Chill for like an hour or more until dinner time.
4. Serve in lettuce cups, or roll up. (my lettuce was too crisp to roll, it would have just cracked)

I was pleased how much this reminded me of the classic chicken salad so often served at baby showers.  Feel free to add more mayo if that suits you (I would have but we were running low)  You could also eat it wrapped in a tortilla if you wanted something a little more filling.  This was a great summer dinner.

Food Friday: Eggplant Parmesan

We get a basket of produce from Bountiful Baskets once every couple weeks.  Last Saturday we had an eggplant in our basket and on Sunday I changed dinner plans and decided to make eggplant Parmesan.  I was missing a couple ingredients so I made some substitutions and it still turned out great!  I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to enjoy this little graphic that I made instead :)

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
Salt
1 egg
1 c breadcrumbs (I didn't have any so I put a few slices of stale bread in my food processor)
1 T Italian seasoning (I didn't have any so I used basil and oregano instead)
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
1 c parmesan OR mozzarella (the recipe called for mozz and I only had parm, so I went with it)

Directions:
1. Begin by peeling and slicing your eggplant into 1/4" slices.  Salt generously and let sweat for 30 minutes.  Rinse well and pat dry.
2. Wisk egg.  Mix bread crumbs, seasoning and 1/4c parm cheese.  Dip eggplant slices into egg, then bread crumb mixture. 
3.  Bake eggplant slices for 5 minutes at 350 F.
4. Remove eggplant from oven and layer in a 9x9 baking dish: eggplant, marinara, cheese, repeat.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

This fed two adults, one toddler and a lunch for Adam the next day. . . so I would say serves 4 normal people, especially if you have sides.  I served this with fruit salad.  Green salad and french bread would also be good.  Enjoy!

Food Friday: A light summer stew

I bought a lot of frozen tilapia for a recipe that didn't use much and I have so much leftover.  I don't usually care for the taste of tilapia, so I was a little nervous to try this recipe, but YUM!  It turned out so good.  A perfect stew for spring and summer, since its full of veggies and lighter ingredients.  Its not a hearty, stick to your bones kind of stew, its a get ready for swim suit season stew.  My recipe is heavily adapted from this recipe. 

1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 c corn
1/4 c cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2 T olive oil
1/2 large zucchini, small dice
1 red bell pepper, small dice
10 kalamata olives, small dice
salt, to taste
salt free seasoning (I used my fajita seasoning, it has no salt)
2 filets tilapia

1. Pulse half can of tomatoes, corn and vinegar in a blender.  It should still be chunky, you don't want a puree.
2. Heat oil on medium high heat in a deep frying pan and cook garlic until fragrant.  Add tomato/corn mixture and remaining tomatoes. 
3. Add zucchini, bell pepper and olives. Season with salt and seasonings.  Stir and cover for five minutes.
4. Add fish and cook 15-20 minutes until fish is flaky and cooked through.

I tried to leave the fish as whole as possible, but it fell apart so easily.  I wanted to add some parmesan cheese as well, but we were so hungry we ate it before I could remember to add it! We also ate it before I could take a picture! 

Friday Food: A simple summer sandwich

I was never a sandwich person growing up.  The first time I remember liking a sandwich was when we had Subway for a picnic lunch when I was a kid (no idea how old)  I think my biggest problem was store bought bread and dry bread.

So basically, I love them now.  I don't make them as often because I like the works.  I want lettuce and tomato, sure.  But I also want olives, banana peppers, bell peppers, spinach, cucumbers and pickles.  That is a lot of chopping for one sandwich!  So I usually stick to Subway for my sandwich needs (which used to be once or twice a week when I was teaching!  Oh the good life. . .)

A few weeks ago I was reading Shay's food blog (she is the sister of Sean the Bachelor!  Check her out!) and she had this simple yummy sandwich.  I was inspired.  So when planning dinner I decided we would have sandwiches one night, but keep it simple.

First, I made this bread.  So easy.  Just try it, it is the best.  The only change I made was using half whole wheat flour.  I put half of the dough in an 8x8 pan and then after it baked, I cut it in half and split it open.  (So my sandwich was 8x4)

I had some leftover pesto and extra cream cheese so I mixed the two together and spread it on the bread.  Then topped it with turkey slices, pepper jack cheese, cucumbers and avocados.  So good, so simple.

Not super photogenic though. . .

This is just the worst picture.  Yes I have dishes in the sink, a cheese wrapper and knife in the background as well! 

Food Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

It was a crazy day last week (psh, everyday is crazy with Olivia living here) and I did not feel like cooking.  I had planned to make pizza for dinner and then I thought maybe it was too much for me on a day like that.  But you know what?  It wasn't. 

Adam had won some buffalo wing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings (How??? I don't know, I was out of town!) so I decided to go with that.  It was a little spicy so I did 1/3 of the pizza with BBQ sauce for Olivia and the other 2/3 in buffalo sauce.

This picture is not very appetizing, but I promise it was good!  We also like to add a little baby lotion too. . . just kidding, I don't know why there is baby lotion in this picture.

The pizza dough I made is so simple!  But you can always buy dough if you want to make it even easier.  You can find the original recipe here, but this is what I used.

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c white flour
1 t salt
1 c warm water
1 T honey
1 packet yeast (.25 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flours and salt.  
3. Mix water, honey and yeast and let it sit until foamy.  
4. Mix water and flour mixtures.  
5. Let rise for 10 minutes. 
6. Roll out and prick with a fork.
7. Cook for 10 minutes or until desired crispiness is reached.
8. Cover in sauce, cheese and toppings.  
9. Heat in oven until cheese is bubbly.  

My toppings were just mozzarella cheese, chicken and red onions.  Celery would also be fun, but I didn't have any on hand.

Oh yeah, dip it in a little ranch or blue cheese for the full effect :)

Food Friday: Pleasing Pita

I love this recipe.  Its yummy and super healthy.  I look at the list of ingredients as guidelines, you can add what ever you like!  Its called "Pleasing Pita" but I usually eat it like a salad, not in a pita pocket.

Pleasing Pita
3 cans of beans, drained and rinsed (I use small red, white beans and some times black beans, but you can also use kidney, butter beans or any other kind you like)
1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained
1/4 c prepared quinoa
1/4 c barley pearls
1/4 c cooked wheat berries
1/4 c cooked lentils
1 red bell pepper chopped (or what ever colors you like!)
1/2 c Anaheim pepper, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Dressing
3/4 c sweet chili sauce
1/2 c olive oil
2 T granulated white sugar
1 lemon, juiced

Garnishes
Avocado slices
Tomato slices
Sprouts


Mix all salad ingredients and toss with dressing.  Does it get any easier than that!?!?!

When I made it I didn't have barley, wheat berries, or Anaheim peppers so I left them out.  And I had a small amount of quinoa left so I just cooked it all and it was a little more than 1/4 c.  Just add what you like, as much as you like and leave out what you don't. 

This recipe can be found in my favorite diet book, The Wow Diet.

Dr Pepper Cupcakes

So right after I wrote this post about losing weight, I promptly went into the kitchen and made cupcakes.  Okay maybe not that quickly.  I never make desserts because we don't need a full pan of brownies for two people (we WANT, but we don't need) but mainly because I don't like baking.  But when my mom talked about buying a cake for the baby shower she was throwing for my sister-in-law and me, suddenly I had this urge to make cupcakes.  With a box mix, of course.

My mom wanted Nutella frosting and I wanted Dr Pepper frosting.  So we did both.  I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and a batch of vanilla cupcakes and we did half in each frosting.  (because I wanted the Nutella frosting on chocolate and my mom wanted it on white cake) To make the cupcakes more decadent, I used buttermilk instead of water and an extra egg.  That's how I do homemade.

I looked every where for a Dr Pepper frosting recipe that REALLY tasted like DP.  Dang those people for keeping their 23 flavors such a secret.   When I read a recipe that had you make a DP reduction I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I could get some syrup from a soda fountain before it was mixed with the fizzy water????"  And then!  Inspiration!  I remembered that Target sold those ridiculous soda machines (you know, the ones that allow you to make your own fresh soda) but more importantly, they sold syrups for the different flavors!  So I grabbed some Dr. Pete syrup and soon I was on my way to Dr Pepper bliss. 

I garnished my cupcakes with maraschino cherries

Dr Pepper Frosting

1 c Butter
1/2 bag powder sugar
1/4 c heavy whipping cream
2-3 cap fulls of DP syrup (found here)
3-4 splashes of maraschino cherry juice
red food coloring, if you want

Mix and taste and add more syrup or cherry juice if needed.

The Nutella recipe my mom used is here.

My mom garnished her cupcakes with a hazelnut cookie

 And there you have it.  Cupcakes.  Just another item to check off my "real blogger" list.

A pet peeve and a recipe

I've been using Pinterest since the early days.  Back then it was pretty pictures of interiors and art work and clothes.  Slowly people started pinning recipes and workout ideas and quotes and memes (I have NO idea how to pronounce that) and those are fun, but my feed just isn't as pretty as it used to be.  But the thing that really bugs me is clicking on a pin and it taking me to a site totally unrelated to the picture.

So listen up everyone!  PSA: Before you go repinning, check to make sure it is what its supposed to be!!! 

If I click on a pin and it leads me somewhere else, I do a quick google search and I can almost always find the original site and pin it from there.

Oh also, don't write the whole recipe as the pin description, just the title.  That way the blogger who wrote the recipe or tutorial can get more page views from the pin.  It's the right thing to do.

That being said. . . I pinned a really yummy recipe and didn't check it first.  It takes me to some weird site that has nothing to do with food!  But I did a google search (since you're looking at a picture, doing a google images search is probably the quickest way to find the original site) and found the real recipe. 

We had it for dinner last night and it was very simple but SO good.  So I had to share.  It's your reward for putting up with my silly rant. 

Source

Boil penne 6 minutes less than al dente; add broccoli florets, and cook until penne is al dente. Drain; return to the pot, and toss with a couple of crushed garlic cloves, some olive oil, the zest and juice of a lemon, salt and pepper, and plenty of Parmesan.

February's Goal II

So for my last two homemade meals of the month:

On February 20th I made: 

Spaghetti Squash Primavera

(I didn't make a side dish, but maybe a green salad and some bread would go nicely)

On February 26th I made:

Mushroom Stroganoff 

and

Peas

I'll probably cook dinner one more time before February is over, but hey!  I accomplished my goal for the month!  Yay!

February's Goal I

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

When I planned my goals for the year I failed to realize that my mom would be here to cook me dinner for the first week of February, so I'll fulfill my goal by cooking four meals this month. (When I put it that way, it doesn't sound like much!)

I'm lucky that dinner got made, taking pictures of it would have been possible but I wasn't concerned about making it look pretty so. . .  I didn't bother!  :) 

On Valentine's Day I made:

London Broil

Fresh Green Beans

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffed Mushrooms

and

Brown Sugar Blondies with V-Day M&Ms

On February 19 I made:

Salmon and Pasta Dijonnaise (I used this marinade on two small pieces of salmon, baked the salmon in the marinade at 400 for 15 minutes and then shredded the salmon and used the cooked marinade as sauce on whole wheat pasta)

and

Fresh Broccoli 

I'll do another update when I've cooked my last two meals!