VegGyros - as close to a recipe as you'll get from me ...

Today was the Day Of The Great VegGyro Experiment. That's pronounced "Vej-YEAR-oh", by the way. Which means I took my personal experimentation to the next level and made my family eat it.

And it passed well enough that I figured I could share the 'close enough to a recipe' notes with you, since I will make it again but probably not keep taking pictures every time, LOL.

I started by kimodifying the famous (well, in some circles, maybe not yours) Seitan O' Greatness recipe ... which is a baked, rather than simmered, seitan.

I used the spices Becky had listed for the ground beef gyros instead of those listed for the Seitan O' Greatness, and I squarshed it into a flat roll rather than a round roll, both for the sake of finished shape and hoping it would bake quicker, since I was running out of time at the moment I decided this would, indeed, be tonight's dinner.

My kimodified faux-faux-lamb-spam was made as follows:

Ingredients:
1.5 cups vital wheat gluten
2 T. nutritional yeast
1 T. oregano
1 T. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp pepper

3/4 cups water
1/4 cup tomato puree
1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (um, okay, I admit MINE wasn't vegetarian)
a few shakes hickory smoked liquid stuff

Preheat oven to 325°.

I mixed mine in my food processor with the dough blade it came together in a few minutes nicely.

Form into a log 10-12" long, squarsh flat, wrap tightly in foil, twisting ends. Bake for 55 minutes. When done baking, unwrap and cool for a few minutes, until you remember you don't have time to dawdle because it's nearly 6 pm. Slice seitan into 'lamb-spam looking' slices ... sautee in a "beefy" broth (using vegetarian 'beef' broth or soy sauce) and a little more of the same spices added to the dry ingredients, above. When it simmers down and starts to brown, add a splash of cooking sherry, if desired, and cook down again, while waiting for the choir-attending-daughter to return home.

I find it easier to serve things separately so the family can pick and choose which items they want. I used Flat-Out Wraps again, with the faux-faux-lamb-spam, sweet onions, sliced tomatoes, and some lettuce, as well as the cucumber sauce.

The Kimodified sauce was:
1 cup plain soy yogurt
~2/3 c. finely diced seeded cucumber (about 1/2 a cucumber)
~1/3 c. finely diced sweet onion
garlic powder, unmeasured :-)
1 T. lemon juice
1 tsp dried dill weed

Then we assembled them and most of us seemed to like it, more or less. The grown ups more, the children less, but really only two of them stumbled over eating their 'try me' portion, so I figure that's pretty good. And in the end they DID eat them. In order to move on to peanut butter sandwiches. But still.

Ta Da! The finished meal.

These are a few of my favorite meals ...

I'm in a pleasant rut for lunch.

I didn't take pictures because I took pictures of similar meals not too long ago. I don't want to bore you.

But that's really my point, I keep eating more or less the same thing.

Which isn't bad! It's actually good. I don't really get tired of it, and it makes it easy knowing what to eat. It doesn't take toooo long to make, either. Early in the week I make a pot of brown rice for me. Have to repeat that I LOVE the Lundberg Farms Wehani rice, and usually make 1/4 c. of it with 3/4 cup of 'regular' brown rice.

For each lunch I chop up ~1/4 a head of Napa cabbage or bok choy (also known as pak choi), or occasionally even 'regular' cabbage, or mix and match. I often slice up some onion to go with it. Adding other veggies like sliced carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, pea pods, etc. would be fine, but I usually don't. Or mushrooms (shudders to herself)

Stir "fry" / steam in a nonstick pan until greens are as wilty and other veggies are as cooked as desired. (If you're using veggies that cook longer, start them first and add any bok choy or napa cabbage later)

For the sauce I make my own version of a local restaurant's "Veggie Delight" sauce, which by their own vague explanation is "a white sauce with some spices" Hah ha! They're so helpful. White sauce meaning a *Chinese* white sauce, not the butter-and-flour-and-milk kind. Here's a rough sauce guide. I don't measure.

~1/2 cup water
1 tsp "chicken" flavored bouillon (I use a lower sodium one ... use your favorite kind, enough to make 1 cup of broth, but only in 1/2 cup water, unless your bouillon is too salty for that)
2 T. cooking sherry (optional)
1/2 T. cornstarch, more or less
garlic to taste
ginger if desired
pepper if desired (I like cayenne, but black pepper or white pepper work, too)
a drop or two of sesame oil

stir sauce ingredients together to mix cornstarch in well. When veggies are *nearly* done, pour over veggies and continue to stir while sauce boils and thickens. Note that adding the sauce seems to wilt the greens even more, so if you're just doing greens you can add the sauce pretty quick at the start. Serve over rice.

Anyway. It's a pretty quick and easy no-thinking sort of meal, for me, and it keeps me eating healthy lunches.

Asparamawhoosit What??

So. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I took someone dinner, and also gave her some Nutella because, well, it's one of the best foods on earth.

And that was the end of that.

Or so I thought.

Until Monday. When this woman showed up at my door with a bag of fresh asparagus and a recipe. Apparently ever since I gave her the Nutella, and we shared our mutual admiration for hazelnuts, she's been wanting to get me the ingredients to go with this recipe.

For Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup.

(short pause while you ponder that, because, if you're like me, you never would've thought of those two things in the same thought, much less the same soup)

Have you ever had someone do something very sweet for you, like that, and yet didn't quite know how to react? I was pretty sure no one in my immediate family would like Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup. Not to mention the output issues that come (to some people) with asparagus. But I thanked her, because, really, whether I liked the soup or not wasn't the point, was it? She had been planning this very sweet thing to do, and had brought me just what I needed with the recipe!

But, then again, I'm not always as brave as I pretend to be, so the asparagus sat for a few days in my fridge, making me feel guilty. Because, just between you and me, I wouldn't have thought twice of NOT making the recipe, and just passing on the asparagus to my asparagus loving parents, were it not for the sweet thought behind it.

Today I got my brave on, and decided to make it. Well, a half recipe. For my lunch.

You know me, I did kimodify it a little. One because I didn't have celery. Which really ought to be a produce staple, yet wasn't to be found in my fridge. Two, because ... I'm me. I couldn't help it. I added just a little fat free half & half to make it a little creamier, and because I had some to use up. And, thirdly, because I apparently can't read.

I give you ... Slightly Kimodified Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup.

Wanna know something surprising? It's really good! I am serious! I like it! It's also very RICH, with the hazelnuts pureed in it. I'm sure I didn't need the ff half&half kimodification after all. Oh, but I did reserve some of the asparagus, partway through cooking, to dice up and add back some veggie chunkiness to the creamy soup. I'm glad I did. The asparagus flavor is there, but subtle. The hazelnut flavor is there, adding a more complex richness than butter or other fat would've. It is a very rich soup, I couldn't make this part of a low fat, plant based diet. Unless it was a verrrry occasional part. With the dairy omitted. Which I think would work fine, really. It's rich enough it didn't need the butter, and thick enough it didn't need the white sauce to thicken it. Whoa, and I just re-read the recipe to type it and realized that I put in WAY more hazelnuts than it actually called for. I could've sworn it said 2 cups! Whooops. No wonder it was soooo rich and creamy!

Karen, if you've never tried a soup like this, you should, I think you'd like it.

The recipe was copied from a cookbook, but I don't know which one or I'd give credit where credit is due.

Asparagus Soup With Hazelnuts

2 lbs fresh asparagus
3/4 cup hazelnuts* (I used 1 cup chopped hazelnuts for the halved recipe, whoops)
Boiling Water
4 cups chicken broth (I used about 2 cups, or enough to cover the asparagus in the pot)
1 rib celery, sliced (omitted)
1 tsp dried basil
5 T. butter or margarine (I used about 1 T. butter for my halved recipe)
4 T. all purpose flour (I used a little more than 1 T. for my halved recipe)
salt to taste
cayenne pepper (that's what you see sprinkled so pretty on top in the pic)
1/2 cup fat free half & half - cause I had it on hand and need to use it up

Clean asparagus and break off tough ends. Break into 1" pieces.

Cover the hazelnuts with boiling water and let stand about 5 minutes. Drain the nuts and place them in a thick turkish towel. (What, doesn't everyone have one?) Rub to remove the skin. Most, but not all, will be removed. (Note: Yadda, yadda, I didn't do all that. Starting with the 'Cover the hazelnuts' I just opted for the lazy mom way. I used chopped 'recipe ready' nuts which did have some skin on them, but ... whatevah.)

Combine chicken broth, celery, basil, and asparagus in a sauce pan. Place over medium heat and simmer until asparagus is tender, approximately 20 minutes (depends on the size of the asparagus).

Here I reserved some of the cooked, cut asparagus, just a bit before it was all very very tender.

During the last 5 minutes add the hazelnuts.

Puree the mixture in a blender and strain into a clean bowl. (Strain? I didn't strain.)

Melt the butter in a pan (I used the same one), whisk in the flour until smooth, and add the blended soup, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. And a pinch of cayenne pepper and adjust salt.

Garnish with lightly steamed small asparagus tips.

Serves 6-8

Enjoy! Even if you're not sure you will. :-)

Maybe, just maybe, I'll use the other half of the asparagus to make it again, tomorrow, only use the right proportions of asparagus and hazelnut, and omit not only my kimodified half&half, but also the butter and flour thickener.

Fudgier Muffins

I made that recipe from the other day again. The Sorta Chocolatey Muffins?

That is to say, I kimodified it again. And this time I had cocoa. Yay Cocoa. If I'd gone the extra mile to have vegan chocolate chips (which aren't bad. Just please please please don't use carob and say Kim said to. ::shudders::) these even could've been a vegan treat. But as it stands, they're vegetarian. There's milk products in the chocolate chips, you know.

Anyhoo. They were so chocolately and moist. Fudgy. I'm pretty sure breakfast shouldn't be so fudgy. But since I also successfully switched from added oil/butter to ground flax, eliminated eggs, and greatly reduced sugar, I figure they should count for breakfast after all. Only 2 tsp sugar per muffin (plus the natural sugars in the banana, of course) isn't bad, is it? I was very pleased with the results. And the ground flax adds a little healthy oil (if you believe in that) and some good fiber, too!

So ... from Sorta Chocolately to Fudgy, I present:

Fudgy Muffins:

relatively healthy, for a muffin, moist and fudgy too

Fudgy Muffins

ingredients
3 cups White Whole Wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (use vegan chocolate chips to make this vegan)

3 bananas, smooshed
1 cup white sugar (you could substitute a natural sugar)
2 cups water or rice milk
1 T. flax seed, ground
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 9x13 pan (see note, below) or 24 muffin tins.

In medium bowl, Mix together flour, cocoa, chocolate chips, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In mixing bowl blend together in bananas and sugar, then add water (or rice milk), ground flax, and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to large bowl; Mix well

spread in a 9x13 pan - I use a Silpat liner for the bottom and just lightly grease the edges. Bake ~30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cut into 24 square muffins. If using muffin pans bake 18-25 minutes.

Proof they're not too bad for you:
Calories per muffin: 125 cal
fat (g): 3
carbohydrate (g): 26 (less than half of which comes from the chocolate chips and sugar!)
protein (g): 3
sodium (mg): 191
dietary fiber (g): 3

Sorta Chocolatey Chip Muffins

MMmmmmmm nothing like sorta chocolatey muffins for breakfast!

Step one: Pick a recipe
Step two: assume you have all the ingredients
Step three: find out too late that you're pretty much out of cocoa, a necessary ingredient for chocolatey muffins.
Step four: press on! The kids didn't know what kind you were making anyway!

All in all, they turned out quite well, if not the prettiest muffins. They're not brown enough to be clearly chocolate, so they look suspicious, like maybe they're bran and whole wheat. But fortunately, the kids don't know any better on that, either, they're used to whole wheat and flax instead of eggs and flat topped unrounded muffins that don't look picture perfect.

Sorta Chocolatey Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups while whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa* -- sadly, I had a scant quarter cup, which was somewhat spilled by a helper. So that's what I used. But I'd recommend the whole cup. You might want to check first, see if you've got it
3 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon
baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup water + 2 Tbsp. flax seed, ground (substituted for two eggs)
1 banana
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups milk (I used rice milk)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. - I used silicone muffin cups
2. In medium bowl, Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. In large bowl, blend banana with sugar. Then stir in milk, flax and water, and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients to large bowl; beat well.
3. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

For me, this recipe actually made not ONLY 24 muffins, but also an 8" heart shaped pan. When I first saw the original recipe (which has been quite kimodified to this one) I thought I should only multiply it by 1.5 but then threw caution to the wind and doubled it anyway. Whoops. Oh well, now we have plenty more for lunch and snacks.

These are quite sweet, and not too chocolatey as made. I can't vouch for them as written yet, but I suspect they'd be very good made correctly, too. Maybe I'll have another.

Breakfast, Not for the Faint of Heart

Sometimes, as a mother of a small herd of boys, the *boy thing* is more apparent than other times.

Take this morning, for example. It started out innocently enough. A friend of mine had recently made "Monkey Tail Bread" - which I should note is named for the County Fair Treat of frozen bananas, dipped in chocolate, rolled in peanuts. The name is much less creepy if you know that. She gave it good reviews, so I thought I would make it.

Well, you know me, I really hate to be bound by recipes and details. Plus the children had eaten one more banana than I realized, so I had to kimodify. Of course.

So I did some of my standard changes. I used butter instead of shortening, but used a little less. If I had had more bananas, I would've used even less or omitted it entirely. My children don't like nuts *in* things, so I substituted 1/2 cup peanut butter for the 1/2 cup chopped peanuts. I didn't substitute white whole wheat flour or flax for eggs this time, but I think I will next time. Because this was really a great recipe. I also decided I was too impatient to wait for a loaf pan to cook, so I spread the batter into a 9x13 pan and baked for only 30 minutes, and cut them into "muffin squares" - another common kimodification.

But the most significant change was the frosting. The recipe calls for 2 T. chocolate frosting with 1 T. peanut butter. Having just recently made a birthday cake requiring some black frosting, I had some chocolate-almond frosting, very black, left over in the fridge. I mixed that with 1 T. pb and drizzled it all loopy and crazy over the top of the finished pan. It was still quite black.

My oldest son, a Marvel Comic fan, decided my frosting looked like Venom Goo.

Wait, I stand corrected, the term is Venom Symbiote. You know, the space creature that crawled up SpiderMan and created Black Spider Man and then later Venom?

So ... I didn't make Monkey Tail Muffins.

I made Venom Cake for breakfast.

Cool, huh?

And, I must say, that -- for a SuperVillian -- it tasted VERY good.

Venom Breakfast Cake:

6 T. butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas, mashed (only because I only HAD two :( )
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons chocolate frosting (I used some black chocolate-almond I'd made for a cake)
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

mix pb in with wet ingredients.

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 9x13 pan (I use reusable silicone liners).
2. Beat butter and the sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs and bananas until smooth, add peanut butter and again beat until smooth. Beat in flour, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate chips and salt just until mixed. Spread into into pan.
3. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack.
4. Place frosting in small plastic food-storage bag. Microwave on High 6 to 10 seconds or until pourable. Add peanut butter to bag; gently squeeze bag until peanut butter and frosting are well blended. Cut off tiny corner of bag. Squeeze bag to drizzle chocolate mixture over bread.

if you don't have leftover black frosting, I suspect melting dark chocolate chips and peanut butter would make a good dark and tasty drizzle. If you don't require it to be Venom Symbiote colored, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and sugar should work, if you don't have frosting on hand.

Options for making it healthier: (use some or all of these)

- add 2 more bananas and omit butter/shortening entirely
- replace 2 eggs with 2 T. flax seed, ground, and 1/4 c. water
- replace AP flour with white whole wheat
- omit frosting :( - or maybe the aforementioned 'frosting' of warm pb and powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder would be a little healthier than regular frosting ...

And The Boy Turned Seven

I think I've done a poor job getting birthday news and pix to the blog this past year. Of course we did celebrate and take pictures for each child's special day ... I just don't always get them to press ...

anyway, yesterday was Tobi-Wan Kenobi's seventh birthday. Hard to believe it's been so long!

His day started with Strawberry-Banana bread* with white chocolate chips. Mmmm nummy!

And ended with some presents (cool Spiderman skateboard not pictured) and cake ... a robot cake!

I stumbled across the cake at Instructables.com -- I wasn't familiar with the robot, but he was cute enough and easy enough. I did take some artistic license with him, but less than I usually do.

*The Strawberry Banana Bread with White Chocolate Chips was a hit, so here's the recipe for you ...

Strawberry-Banana Bread with White Chocolate Chips

modified (of course!) from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Strawberry-Bread/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound fresh strawberries, sliced -- about 3 cups
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 bananas
1 cup butter, melted (hey! it was a birthday treat!)
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans (I used one 9x3 and one 8"x2" heart pan)
2. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.
3. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and white chocolate chips in large bowl: mix well. Blend banana, then add melted butter and eggs, then mix in strawberries. Add flour mixture into wet ingredients, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Divide batter into pans.
4. Bake for 35 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. (Heart pan was done in about 38 minutes, 9x5 pan cooked 50 and fooled me, it wasn't quite done) Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.

Mmmmmm it was very tasty

if I were to do it healthify it, I would probably reduce or even eliminate the butter and add more banana, halve the sugar (bananas sweeten it, too, it was quite sweet), and maybe use half white whole wheat flour. :) And substitute flax for the eggs.

Maybe I'll even do that on Monday.

April Fools Food!

A few years ago my friend Katie introduced me to the April Fools Food ideas at familyfun.com ...

So this year it was "apple pie" for dessert -- you won't find that one at the above link, I made it up -- and spaghetti & meatballs & garlic bread for dinner. Or wait, the other way round. :-)

The Main Dish:

Apple Pie made with chicken and potatoes. It looked amazingly realistic, if I do say so myself. I made a clear gravy sauce. The only thing that didn't turn out was that I couldn't get the pieces out in neat picture-perfect pieces (I have that issue with real pies, too) so I don't have a plated with mashed potato "ice cream" topping to show you ...

And Dessert:

The meatballs are chocolate covered donut holes. On hindsight reflection, I wish I'd gone with the chocolate *flavored* clear glazed donut holes, instead, because these were too dark. And I'm not totally happy with the transparency of the jelly spaghetti sauce.

Like other years, the meal was quite a hit for novelty's sake, but not so much for enjoyment. The Grand Lunar assured me the pie was actually very good, but the kids, being NOT-fans of potatoes, weren't so impressed. Sometimes you have to sacrifice happy palates for the art of foolery.

For anyone interested in making such things:
I used regular store bought pie crust, cut up poached chicken pieces, cut up canned white potatoes, and a cornstarch-thickened gravy for the pie. It would've been much better with homemade crust, but I was in a hurry.

The spaghetti has a single layer cake cooked in a bowl (for the mound shape) covered with round-extruded frosting, with the donut hole meatballs and mostly strawberry jelly (I added a little apricot, and a little food coloring, to bring it closer to what I'd envisioned). I was going to make cocoa-cripsie "meatloaf" meat balls from the other familyfun.com recipe, but didn't have time. I really should plan this ahead a bit more. Shopping the afternoon of April 1 limits my creativity a bit.

The garlic bread is sliced pound cake with yellow-tinted frosting and some green sprinkles mixed in before spreading.

Next year I should really do it on March 31 or something, since the children have come to expect it and were hoping to be food-fooled.

SweeTart, and Sweet

SweeTart

Friday Morning's Muffins are brought to you by the letter, um, lVl

These muffins were inspired by a discussion with a friend named lVloose ... they are as buttery as overpriced fancy lipstick, but without the excessive cost. As shiny as lipgloss, but sweeter and less slippery on the lips. And if you don't follow all that, that's okay, just enjoy the muffins.

Lemon Butter Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons dried lemon peel + 2 tsp. real lemon extract (or 4 T. fresh lemon rind, freshly grated)
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups flour, unsifted
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt

glossy glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease 2 muffin tins well. Stir lemon juice, eggs and lemon rind into melted butter. In another bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt; make a well in the center. Stir in egg mixture and blend until well moistened. Pour into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 24 muffins.

while muffins cook, whisk sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce to a simmer and whisk 2 minutes until slightly thickened. Brush glaze over tops of muffins while warm.

Notes: I reduced the salt to 1.5 tsp from 2 tsp and they were still a bit saltier than needed, so I reduced it more for this posting. Also ... the batter puffed right away. I'm sure it was some magic baking powder and lemon juice science. But they seem to have spent their puff a little too soon for the baking, they did not rise much beyond the initial puff, and some fell. So ... I'll have to ask my chemist father how to adjust that. But, despite those minor problems, these tasted great. The recipe was very similar to a pound cake recipe, only in quick-cooking muffin form, and with more liquid.

In other Sweet news ....

I'm washing my first load of laundry! Bedding from icat's bed. fun fun fun!

updates to follow!

I'm so blue I don't know what to do ...

Okay, I'm not blue as in sad.

I'm just up to my eyeballs in blueberries!

On Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We went way south of town, got to the place, and were told they were at the end of their season, early this year, and that the picking wasn't great for littles, all the remaining blueberries were small and high. They sent us another 7 miles down the road to a place that still had great picking.

we got about 18 lbs in around an hour, not too bad. It was hot, but early enough in the day we didn't bake.

Yesterday I made blueberry quickbread, only made it in a 9x13 pan because it cooks much quicker:

And that was well received and tasty ...

Today someone suggested scones. Scones??!

I've never made scones. I thought they were fancy. But I thought I could give them a shot. Turns out they're really just glorified biscuits! Who knew!

So this morning we had Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones:

The recipe I pulled from allrecipes.com -- Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones

I didn't make many changes ... I used dried lemon zest because it's what I had, no real lemons here. And I used plain fat free yogurt, rather than the lemon yogurt suggested, because it's what I had. I added about 1.5 tsp lemon flavoring, as well.

here is the recipe as I made it:

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup plain fat free yogurt
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup butter, melted
* 1 cup fresh blueberries*

GLAZE:
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the yogurt, egg and butter. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over warm scones.

*If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter.

Stay tuned for more blueberry fun!

Cranberry & White Chocolate Muffins

from a lemon poppyseed recipe

INGREDIENTS
4 cups white whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 T. flax seed, ground, plus 1/2 cup water (or sub 4 eggs)
2 cups plain, fat free yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Combine the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl mix the water, yogurt, apple sauce, lemon juice and lemon zest. Blend well and pour over the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do no overmix!
Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 30-35 minutes.
Let muffins cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing them from the pan.

For muffin pans bake ~20 minutes.

Possibly a full cup of sugar in every bite!

Are you a Jell-O mom?

I'm really not. I don't know why. I suppose because I don't love the stuff, myself.

But The Grand Lunar, he's a Jell-O Man. He likes the artificially colored, artificially fruitful wiggly blobs. And when he bought some Jell-O for the kids a while back they were very excited and pleased with his choice.

And so I thought ... "Why not? I could do Jell-O now and then."

Only.

I have to do it MY way.

Of course.

And of course MY way would take all day.

"All day? For Jell-O? What could you possibly mean, Kim?"

Simply this:

Six layers of jiggly rainbow bliss.

Because my favorite color still is "rainbow".

Proper enjoyment for the under 3 crowd included obligatory squarshing.

Recipe:
8 serving boxes of strawberry (cherry also acceptable), orange, lemon, lime, blue raspberry, and grape Jell-O. Use the Jiggler recipe, halved. Make one layer at a time, poring layers successively into pan in proper rainbow order, allowing at least 45-60 minutes between layers. Requires patience. And at least 4.5 hours, I did it in 6. And some ability to remember to make the next layer. A timer works well. Also requires space in the fridge.

Long Overdue Cowboy Caviar

I'd never heard of Cowboy Caviar until dh found a recipe and said we should try it. I was skeptical. Very very skeptical. But I made it for him, and everyone loved it, including me.

I've seen many recipes online, since, but none of them are anything like this one. Go figure.

I don't know why this wasn't the first recipe I ever posted, it's that good. But Theresa has asked for the recipe, and I'm more than happy to (finally!) get it posted:

Cowboy Caviar

Ingredients:
6 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup light sour cream
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chopped olives
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. lemon juice
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bunch green onions, chopped
cherry tomatoes or a little red pepper
tortilla chips

Directions:
Hard boil the eggs and let cool
Blend softened cream cheese and sour cream and spread in a low, flat dish
Mix beans, chopped olives, garlic, lemon juice, and spices. Adjust spices to taste.
Cover sour cream with bean mixture.
Finely chop eggs and sprinkle evenly over top of bean mixture
Sprinkle green onions over egg mixture (or for artsy-fartsiness around edges)
Quarter cherry tomatoes and arrange decoratively around edges and center.
Sprinkle with red pepper flakes (or paprika) for extra spice and color.

Serve as a dip, with tortilla chips

Now I need to tell you, I am not a fan of olives. This whole recipe sounded scary to me before we tried it. But it has become a huge hit and potluck staple and is always well received.

The quantities of ingredients are very flexible, if you want it more cream cheesy, use more cream cheese - I added the sour cream to increase spreadability and dipability. If you don't like the heat of red pepper, use a little paprika for color. If you love spicy food, lay it on! The redder the flakes, the prettier it looks. If you love garlic, add a bit more. Go nuts! The above picture has some cutesy tiny red peppers that I found and cut into rings.

Let me know if you try it.

Coming later ... Yvette's enchiladas. Which I forgot to take a picture of. Phooey. But they're not so much fancy-pretty as really yummy.

This Time They're Healthy

Since last time I made muffins I didn't "healthify" them, in hopes of being praised for the fatty, sugary indulgence, and was not, today I went back to our regular healthified muffins.

Well, mostly healthified. You gotta go with what works.

I'll tell you my secret.

Chocolate.

Seriously.

A little bit of mini chocolate chips go a long way.

I can make my muffins 100% whole wheat, reduce the sugar, omit much of the added fats, even add giant cans of pumpkin, and if there's chocolate chips in it, they'll eat it. And like it.

If your children like dried fruit and nuts in their muffins, you're way ahead of me.

Anyway. Rambling on. Today's breakfast is Mostly Healthy Peanut Butter muffins.

Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Muffins

3 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp salt
2.5 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey (or agave nectar)
2 Tbs flax seed, ground
3 cups water
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (use a vegan brand of chocolate to make these vegan muffins)

mix dry ingredients, then blend in peanut butter until the mixture is a grainy texture

Mix honey and water and add, mix to blend, then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a nonstick-lined 9x13 pan

Bake 22-30 minutes at 400 degrees

Cut into 24 square muffins

Think about it. 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips is only 8 servings of mini chips, spread over 24 muffins. And yet they're tiny enough to give you a little chocolate in every bite, and seem like a treat. Isn't that better than a stick or two of butter and an extra cup of sugar?

Hey, it works for me.

Just Pooped Today

Like my 4 year old, my almost-2 year old is running a little slow on the verbal development. Not as in "I'm concerned there's a problem" but as in he'd rather gesture and use one-word statements and re-enactments to get his point across. He's really quite good at making himself known, most of the time.

But when I ask him how his diaper his, he pats his bottom, nods, and says, "Mom."

Mom?

What does that mean, that he says Mom when patting his diaper? At first I thought it was a much-shortened version of "It's fine, you don't need to change it, Mom."

Today, though, I realized he might just mean "Full of Poop."

That could be synonymous with Mom, to him. After all, I'm the one telling him he shouldn't need to nurse for 5 minutes, play for 5, nurse for 5, play for 2, nurse for 3, play for 6, nurse for 4, etc. all day long. I'm the one telling him he can't go outside alone, or eat chocolate for lunch. I'm sure my statements come across to him as just full of poop.

But the Grand Lunar had a different interpretation. A nicer one. Maybe "Mom" means pooped. That, too, would be true of both me and the diapers. Me more often than the diapers, really.

Like today. I'm just pooped.

The sad thing is, today isn't the day I worked hard.

That was yesterday. Yesterday I made a long list of "home recovery" from the Easter Weekend. I assigned the older children independent school work, and some of the cleaning, and all day long I kept moving on to the next thing on my list. And I got it all done. And the house looked nice.

The idiotic (full of poop!) thing is that I realize if I would just do that EVERY day, it wouldn't be so much work. Yeah, yeah, I've learned that much from the flylady. I've learned the concept. But not the practice.

I'm good at that.

Today, since the house looked fairly nice when I started, I didn't make a list, nor did I stick to my regular list. I knit a little. Worked a little. Assigned a little. I did a lot of a little, but didn't really see things to completion.

So here it is, 7:36 pm, and I'm pooped, but most of today's work is still unfinished.

Again.

You'd think I'd eventually learn, wouldn't you? But no, I'm sitting here blogging, instead of working.

Oh, but there IS good news. Dinner was good. I've posted it before, so instead of the recipe I'll just link to it. Linda's Rice and Beans.

Oh, except I see that 1.) I didn't actually follow the recipe as it was written (I never do!) and 2.) that's not what I called it there. It's the 2nd recipe down. The 2nd sister. So I'll just semi-repeat today's version, and you can go back and read the other version (especially with the first recipe for the cucumber salsa! -- which I didn't make today) if you're interested in the many variations ....

Today was even easier:

Linda's Rice and Beans

1 cup white rice
1 cup Jubilee brown rice blend -- LOVE that stuff.
4 cups water
cook together as usual until rice is cooked
mix in 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
spread in 9x13 pan
sprinkle with
~2/3 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup shredded cheddar
heat in 300 degree oven until heated through (or 30 minutes while you pick up your child from choir)

Yum. Everyone liked it. Except Gark, who refuses to eat rice. And we had a fruit salad with it. The kind that's made just out of fruit. That was good, too. It was nice to have a relatively healthy dinner for a change. I'm looking forward to feeling better regularly enough to cook healthy for us again.

But that's a different ramble.

Right now I've got a kitchen to clean.

And laundry to finish.

And fold.

And, apparently, change a diaper that's really really mom.

Of Muffins And Ice

Of Muffins ~

Despite my fears mentioned in my previous post, the muffins turned out fine, they didn't stick much at all. Phew! They turned out pretty good. Not great like I expected. they seemed less sweet after baking. Perhaps they were a bit too eggy for my tastes. But they were well received, and the children are full. That's good enough for me.

Peggy asked why on earth I didn't healthify them. Um ... uh ...

The lame reason is:

Sometimes I get tired of healthifying things. Sometimes I dream of the "Wow, these are great muffins!" rewards of making things chock full of butter, sugar, and fat. And I just cave in, going for the compliment instead of the health.

Which, in this case, didn't really work. I mean, they liked them, but no one raved. No compliments that I'm a great cook, or that these are great muffins. Oh well.

Truth be told, my best bet is to make very healthy muffins and add a half cup of mini chocolate chips to a 24-muffin panful. Which, in my mind, is probably a better compromise anyway. So I guess I'll do that, next time.

But if you want it, here's the recipe for not-so-healthy pretty good muffins:

Lemon-Yogurt Muffins ~

makes 24 square muffins

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 9x13 pan on the sides, and forget to put in the non-stick liner. Oops.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon extract.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the lemon mixture until just blended. Spoon batter into the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. If you're clever and set the psycho timer that does not work, make sure to keep an eye on the muffins and test them with a toothpick.

Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Cut into 24 squares.

Of Ice

These are pictures from the other day. Yesterday, maybe. I lose track. But today started pretty much the same.

The poor rescued daffodils aren't getting a break:

The squill are drooping under the cold and lack of sun:

And the anemone blanda aren't too happy, either:

And now I'm back to the basement for another day ... or hour ... of work.

Can it be Four, already?

Four years ago today I'd been up most of the night.

Giving birth.

But by early morning the hard work was over and we had a sweet new baby boy.

How do they grow so fast?

When did my baby grow to be such a big boy?

For his birthday breakfast I made a yogurt-chocolate chip breakfast cake.

On fancy plates. :-)

It was quite good!

Not super healthy, but not too bad.

Birthday Yogurt Breakfast Cake

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas
2 cups non-fat yogurt
2 large eggs (I used Ener-G egg replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 scant cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray 9x13 inch pan or line with a Silpat liner (recently on sale at Meijer for the 9x13 pan size!).

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Blend banana, yogurt, egg replacer, and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Serve warm or cool completely before serving.

Happy Birthday, Little D!!!

Even If You Don't Like Lentils Easy Lentil Soup

So you don't like lentils.

I didn't think I did, either.

For one thing, I was buying those sludgy olive gray ones. Ew. Plus, I have tasted a few misguided attempts at lentils-as-meat-replacement. There are many reasons to think you hate lentils.

May I encourage you to try them again? Just one more time. If you still hate them, you may officially say you hate them.

First, skip the sludgy gray green ones. Buy some "red" lentils. I find them in the international section at Meijer. They're a light reddish-orange color.

Second, don't try to make a lentil loaf. And if you don't like international food, don't go overboard on the international flavors. Our friends from Sri Lanka made us some excellent spicy dahl (which happens to mean "lentil" I believe) and I've even made some myself, but it's okay to tone it down. The Grand Lunar isn't fond of middle eastern and Indian flavors, but even he liked this soup.

Ready? Don't be scared. It's easy and good, and not too strong on the eastern flavors.

Even If You Don't Like Lentils Easy Lentil Soup

1 cup red lentils, rinsed
1 cup rice ~ you can use white rice or brown rice
6 cups water
2-4 cloves garlic, or garlic powder to taste
~1/2 cup chopped onions. I've used both sliced green onions and dried onion flakes with success
1/2 tsp. cumin - this is a very tiny amount
1/4 tsp. turmeric - this is even smaller, but makes it such a pretty yellow
1/4 tsp. paprika - again, very little
2 T. chicken bullion (equivalent to making 6 cups of stock)

that's it. bring to a boil and simmer ~20 minutes OR let it sit in the crockpot for 2-3 hours on high or 6 hours on low. It seems to be pretty flexible. If you do it on the stove, you may need to add a little more water as it cooks.

The lentils don't hold together in their lentil shape, they sort of become one with the soup, making it thick. The taste is like a very mild curry, but it's so mild you should try it even if you don't like curry. Seriously. And if you DO like curry, go ahead and add a lot more of the spices, to taste. Add some hot pepper flakes if you like it hot. But you don't have to, it's simple and good just the way it's written.

Oh, and in other news, here's how far I am in the first sock.

You can see I completed the heel flap, the heel gusset decreases, and am working on the "foot" part heading towards the toe. I only hope it fits me, and not someone else, when I'm done. But that sounds kind of selfish.

A Pretty Soup for a Sickie Day

I'm nothing if not a noodle girl.

Noodles are one of my greatest comfort foods.

Today I wanted noodle soup, but something a little more traditional than my asian soup with the "wormy" noodles (thanks, guys, for that imagery!)

So I went with stir fry noodles that weren't stir fried, vegetarian "chicken" broth, a lot of garlic, and then threw in some bok choy at the last minute for the veggie bonus.

Okay, so maybe the last minute bok choy addition makes it less than traditional, but it sure is pretty, isn't it?

Soba Noodles Three Ways

Alright, I admit, it's a catch-up entry.

I've been eating a lot of buckwheat soba noodles lately.

I most often eat them with some form of cabbage. Bok Choy or Napa Cabbage, usually.

Here's three favorite ways to eat them.

Bok Choy and Soba Noodle Salad:

A lot of bok choy, and/or cabbage, and or napa cabbage. Onion. Pepper flakes. And some sort of asian sauce. Often with a little peanut butter in it. I don't really have a recipe, I just put some soy sauce, some honey, some garlic, maybe a little rice vinegar, a little peanut butter ... maybe some ginger ... maybe some hot sauce if I have it ... mix and pour ...

Creamy Bangkok Noodles:

This is actually a variation on a recipe from Dr. McDougall's Newsletter.

Because I don't have mung beans, and don't love shredded carrots, I used only one juliened carrot, 3 cups of shredded napa cabbage, and 1 bunch of green onions. I omitted the tofu in this recipe, and made a few other minor changes. In the end it was similar to the salad, above, only with more noodles, more sauce, and less veggies (there was 4 cups of napa cabbage, carrots, and green onion, but the hot noodles and sauce wilted the cabbage right down). But that's okay, 'cause I like the whole range from saladish to noodleish. It's all good.

I used 2 tsp of chili-garlic sauce, but it really could've been a lot spicier. Maybe I bought the wimpy chili-garlic sauce.

I served it (to myself, LOL) with the hot noodles and hot sauce poured right over the salad, and it was a nice warm dish today.

And then there's soup. A great lunch on a cold day.

Bok Choy & Soba Noodle Soup on an Ugly Laminate Desk:

Again, no real recipe. I cook the noodles in a vegetarian "chicken" broth to which I add a little soy sauce, garlic, ginger, green onions when I have them, regular onions when I don't, and red chili flakes. When the noodles are done I dump in the bok choy and take it off the heat. The noodles mostly sunk to the bottom, so you couldn't see them in here. This is also good with rice noodles.

I guess I shouldn't really put this in the recipe section, those aren't going to be "recipe-y enough" for many of you. But ... it's the best I've got. LOL.

* p.s. -- I think I decided I WILL make a food blog ~ sort of. I'm just going to copy and paste my posts from here to there. That way I can post links to recipes on places like the McD discussion board without inviting those surfers and lurkers HERE to our cozy little spot. Right? But I won't put anything there I haven't put here, so you don't miss anything. And I won't have to babysit that blog with *extra* posts, then. It shouldn't take much more time or energy. I don't think.

Chalk One Up For The Lunar

We were peeling off the little stickers on our Mrs. Dash containers. Or, rather, The Grand Lunar was. I peeled one off in hopes that it was a coupon (which I could then stick to the fridge and never remember to use). But when it wasn't a coupon I left it sitting on the table, didn't actually read it, and forgot what it said.

But The Grand Lunar hates stickers on things, so he was peeling them off to purify the outside of the containers. And, being a smart man, he actually looked at it. Turns out it had some recipes. I immediately scoffed, sure that they would all be meatocentric dishes. But they weren't! And The Lunar said he liked the sound of one.

Now I'll admit I was suspicious, I didn't think I'd like it. Potatoes, green beans, and honey mustard? I'll let you in on a secret of my skepticism ~ I've only been willingly eating mustard for a few years, in my childhood it was one of my very vocally forbidden M's ~ mustard, mayo, and mushrooms. Don't even TRY to sneak them into my food. But I'm a little older and perhaps wiser, and have learned to actually try foods with mustard or mayo in them (not mushrooms, though. Let's not go crazy.) and discovered I don't always hate them. But I'm even newer to honey mustard. Why would you mix something good with something bad? Because, as it turns out, it's not bad. Really!

So anyway. I didn't think I'd like it much, but I try to try the things The Lunar suggests would be good. He's very often right. He's a smart man, that Grand Lunar.

And so, as it was with Cowboy Caviar, which I thought for SURE I'd blogged about but can't find, so I'll have to sheepishly post it later. Sheepishly because it's definitely not plant based (although plants make a fine showing!) nor low fat nor dairy / animal product free. It IS, however, an excellent appetizer. It doesn't sound good, but it IS good, really, it is. You should try it. But I digress. Back to Mrs. Dash.

It was really good! It was supposedly for a make-ahead-cold-salad, only we ate it hot, fresh from cooking, and I heated the sauce before mixing it in. Only the tomatoes were cold. And it was really good! I guess I already said that. Good pick, Grand Lunar!!

Here's the Recipe:

This isn't strictly vegan due to the honey-mustard, but I'm sure you could make your own dijon mustard sauce with agave nectar or something non-honey, if bee barf, of whatever it is, freaks you out. Me, I don't mind honey. Kind of like it, I must admit.

Name: Mrs. Dash Garden Potato Salad
Source: Mrs. Dash Herself

Course: Lunch or Dinner
Category: McDougall Friendly

Description: Serves 8. Per Serving: 98 cal, 0 g. fat, 0 g. sat. fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 173 mg sodium, 21 g. carbs, 2 g protein, 3 g fiber, 525 mg potassium

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs Small new potatoes unpeeled
2 cups whole green beans (I used ~3 cups, I think)
2 1/2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend
1 cup Cherry Tomatoes quartered
1/3 cup green onions sliced
1/2 cup Fat-free honey Dijon mustard salad dressing *
1 tablespoon lemon juice

* I used a honey-mustard, rather than a salad dressing ~ would you believe that all the salad dressings had either a lot of sodium, added oils, or one even had anchovies?!?!?. Emeril's was one sale for the same price as store brand!

Directions:

1: Cook potatoes 8 minutes in large pot of boiling water

2: Add green beans. Cook another 5-6 minutes until vegetables are done

3: Drain and rinse in cold water (I did not rinse to cool)

4: Combine with remaining ingredients; mix well (I mixed the honey mustard, lemon juice, Mrs. Dash seasoning, and green onions and heated it 1 minute in the microwave)

**5: Refrigerate, covered, 2-3 hours to allow flavors to blend

** we actually skipped this step, and ate it while the potatoes, green beans, and sauce were still warm. It was very good! It would also be good served cold, a nice alternative to a potato salad.

Thanks, Grand Lunar!

Hey, I made dinner!

I have to admit, I didn't want to make dinner.

After yesterday's dinner flop. And all the past dinners that were on plan but just ... okay. Sometimes I just want to be a fantastic cook, regardless of the health quotient. But that's not what we're aiming for right now.

The Grand Lunar reminded me that simple things are often better.

And so I made Pasta Mexicali for The Grand Lunar and I, tonight. The kids ate bean and cheese burritos, with just a smidge of cheese. Always a favorite. I don't usually cook two meals, but bean burritos are super easy, and more than that, I wasn't up for any complaints. Plus, I'm trying to get them to eat up the cheese so it's gone.

I'm trying out new cookbook software, so this recipe format is slightly edited from it's text export. I tried the HTML export but it was all fancy, more fancy than I wanted.

Name: Pasta Mexicali

Source: Marla's Marvelous Meals ~ Penne Mexicali

Course: Supper
Category: McDougall Friendly
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 ~ very easy!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 8 servings or so

Ingredients:
8 ounces pasta original recipe called for penne
1 cans Ro-Tel or chopped tomatoes with chilies 10-15 oz. can
16 ounces salsa
1 cans red beans rinsed and drained
1 cans black beans rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes or onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
chopped cilantro for garnish (omitted)

Directions:

1: cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain.

2: Place all other ingredients in a pot and simmer while pasta cooks.

3: Add cooked pasta and heat through OR serve sauce over pasta. Garnish with optional cilantro before serving.

note: I used Rigatoni, the closest thing I had to the Penne called for. But in retrospect I would have preferred a smaller pasta. I also used 16 oz. pasta rather than 8 oz. and I don't regret that. Also, I used a fresh salsa, but those aren't The Lunar's favorite, he's not a fan of the cilantro that's usually in them. So next time I'll use a nice jar of cooked salsa, like he likes.

All in all, I was really pretty pleased with this, and he liked it enough to have seconds. I needed that, after yesterday. :)

S-A-TUR-DAY ... Night!

I should be in bed.

I was up doing the small church newsletter. Now I just have to remember to TAKE it to church. Don't you hate when you're doing something a newsletter and the necessary info doesn't quite fit on one page, so you have three choices: Make it tiny text to cram it in one page, make it big huge text to fill up two pages, or invent some content to fill the space. I chose option three, and surfed up some corny Valentine word finds, scrambles, and word ladders. The newsletter is about 45% fluff. Oh well. I guess I could've invented some real content, but then I would've been up even later.

While I was up late, I saw how pretty our icicles look with the back floodlight shining through them. But I couldn't get a good non-flash picture without a tripod and more camera knowledge. Someday I will learn what to do to take low-light pictures. Not tonight. So here's one with the flash, looking up the icicles.

In food news, our meals weren't all that exciting today. Leftovers for lunch. For dinner I was craving egg rolls, but of course those aren't low-fat, and I haven't found egg-free egg roll wrappers locally, and blah blah blah. I was running out of time, too. I actually do have some rice paper wrapper things ... is that what they're called? The ones you soak in water and they turn really slippery and pliable and sometimes fragile? I didn't want to mess with those. To make spring rolls, I think. Anyway, I tried to make something "chineseish" without much effort. It was one of those meals that, in the end, was ... adequate.

Of course, several of my children don't like rice, not even white rice (which I used. I know brown rice is healthier. I didn't have time, since I didn't plan ahead). They all ate a little of something, but none of them really ate much, and they filled up on whole wheat bread and whole wheat english muffins and all fruit jelly not long after dinner. Which, I suppose, isn't a horrible thing to fill up on, but it's disheartening to make a reasonable meal and have no one be very excited about it. I'll admit, even I wasn't excited about it. Not that it was bad. Just ... okay. You know what I mean? Am I the only one who has meals like that?

So what is it? It's steamed broccoli over white rice, and yet another cabbage salad. I put the same sauce over each, it was a home made teriyaki sort of thing, but I wasn't very pleased with it. Again, not awful, just ... meh.

So instead of posting the recipe for today's sauce, I'll point you to this previous post with a much better homemade Hot Garlic Sauce in it. If I was doing dinner over, I'd make that instead of making up something new. Because I'm very pleased with that previous sauce.

And now, I just remembered that I forgot to upload the newsletter to it's little home on the web. I better do that before I forget. And then I better go to bed. Two of the children are singing in the choir tomorrow, so I need to be alert and ready to help.

Good night, blog friends!

You can eat that?

Here's a great trick I picked up from the good doctor himself ~ this is a kimodification (of course) of a recipe from Dr. McDougall's Nov 2006 newsletter. That means it's a "legal" recipe ~ at least before my changes, and they weren't toooo bad! Healthy, on-program, and tasty? Who can argue with that?

Easy Fudgy Brownies

1 box Dr. Oetker Organics Chocolate Cake Mix
1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin

kimodification additions:
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I added this, to make it fudgier)
~1/2 cup chocolate almond milk (or rice milk)
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
~1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pour the mix into a bowl, stir in the pumpkin until very well combined. (add kimodifications if desired) Pour into a 9 X 13 non-stick baking dish and bake until done, 20-25 minutes (insert a toothpick into the center, if it comes out clean it is done). Dust lightly with powdered sugar if your husband desires it.

Can you believe it? You can make them with just the box mix and a can of pumpkin. And seriously, they are not "pumpkiny" at all. The original recipe (just the cake mix and pumpkin) wasn't as chocolatey as we were used to. So this time I tried to modify it just a bit. Next time I am considering using more pumpkin rather than adding the chocolate almond milk, and white stevia powder rather than the honey. Adding the milk gave it a little 'cakier' texture, and we like our brownies dense, not fluffy-cakey.

Best of all, the Grand Lunar, never a big fan of "healthified" treats, likes these. Actually likes them. Maybe not loves them, but likes them enough for seconds, and that's big.

My next step will be to replace Dr. O's cake mix (which I was surprised and delighted to find at Meijer) with a healthy homemade cake recipe of some sort. I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out. But for now, this is as easy as boxed brownie mix, almost as good, and way healthier. Who would've guessed?

In walking news:

I have walked 63 miles -- 105% of my goal of 60 miles for January!!

I Ate This ~ Artichoke Tomato Soup & Homemade Bread

It appears the Yeas have it, and the quiet Nays will have to suffer through some recipes and pictures of food.

I will admit up front, though, that while sometimes I try for the artsy fartsy nice picture of the food (like yesterday's salad, I was pleased with that) some days I'm just going to have lame pictures of food on my (often crumby) table, sparkly lime tablecloth and all. Maybe someday I'll be a fancy food photographer, but for now it's usually about getting dinner on the table to feed the crew.

This is last night's dinner. Tomato-Artichoke soup and garlicky whole-wheat bread.

One caveat to the recipes: We're trying to reduce sodium intake. I'm still in the process of using up some higher sodium ingredients, but trying not to add a lot of salty bullion or whatever to the things I make. Everything I've read says your tastes adjust in less than a week. So if you try them and find them bland, put your salt shaker on the table and salt to taste. Really! It's okay if you start with a low-sodium *base* food, to use salt at the table. Studies have shown that people use less sodium that way (adding it to taste) than if it's in the recipes/ingredients to begin with. Apparently it loses some of it's perceived flavor when it's mixed in rather than on the surface to contact the tongue.

Back to the recipes:

Tomato-Artichoke Soup

1 can petite diced tomatoes with sweet onions (note: this is not a low-sodium ingredient)
1 can + water
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 T. minced garlic
dried basil to taste (1/2 T, maybe?)
dried oregano to taste (1 tsp, perhaps?)
~1/2 T. Hauser Vegetable Broth (this is an all vegetable, no added sodium broth powder, scroll down to the bottom on the link to see it)
1 cup Rotelle pasta

Simmer the first ingredients together while making the bread. Add the pasta about 10 minutes before serving. You may need to add more water. In retrospect, I would've done this with a smaller pasta. Also, health wise, whole grain pasta would be a better choice. But ... we don't do whole wheat pasta here, at this time.

Garlicky Whole Wheat Bread

This is a variation on my favorite homemade whole wheat bread recipe.

Modified from Nita's Handmade 100% Whole Wheat Bread (2 loaves)
Original Recipe By Nita Crabb, Real Food Digest

2 cups water -- 110 degrees
2 Tablespoon yeast - this was doubled from 1 T. for speed-rising. I use SAF Instant yeast.
2 Tablespoons honey (just a glop to feed the yeast)
3 cups whole wheat flour - I am currently not grinding my own (gasp!) but using King Arthur White Whole Wheat.
~ 2 T. additional honey
1 Tablespoon flax seed, ground (added to original recipe in place of oil)
250-500 mg Vitamin C* tablet, crushed (sugar free, optional)
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1-2 cups additional whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
~ 1 Tablespoon dried basil
~ 1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano

additional whole wheat flour for kneading, if necessary

For Kitchen Aid: In 6-quart Kitchen Aid bowl, dissolve yeast in water; stir in 2 tablespoons honey and 3 cups flour and let "sponge" while putting together remaining ingredients. Add additional honey, ground flax, and garlic to the sponge. Mix in a separate bowl the salt, gluten, spices, and 1 cup flour. Add to mixer and mix on "2" until well combined. Add additional flour by 1/2-cupfuls, until dough cleans the sides of the bowl and holds together in a mass. Let machine knead for 6-8 minutes.

Remove dough two lightly greased round cake pans. Let sit in a warm place (I use my oven at 150 degrees) for ~20 minutes. You can spritz them lightly with water to prevent the tops from drying out. Leave in oven and turn temp up to 350, bake 20-25 minutes. Cover with a dishtowel while hot to prevent crusts from getting hard.

For making by hand: Mix as above. Turn out onto lightly-greased counter and knead, adding flour a little at a time, until dough cleans the counter and holds together well, but is still sticking to hands and between fingers. Knead for at least 10 minutes, scraping fingers and rubbing hands together often to remove excess dough. Dough should be sticky, but not unmanageable. You should "feel" the dough change and become smooth and elastic when the gluten is well-developed. Follow remaining directions above.

Makes two 8” round loaves.

*The Vitamin C is an optional dough enhancer, which can help yield a better rise. It seems to help my bread. You can buy fancy bread-specific stuff, but crushing up the kind that's sold to be non-chewable vitamins works fine, too!

Salad In The Limelight

Back by popular demand! The asian inspired salad.

That would be my demand, of course. I'm the only one who eats my fabulous lunches.

Kerri and Ethan asked about the recipe. I had neglected to say it was posted here at Flickr, with the original pictures, but I will post it on the blog, as well.

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Asian Inspired Salad

A very loose hybrid of a fresh kimchee recipe and a Thai peanut sauce

Salad Portion ~ a loose & adaptable recipe (I don't actually measure things):
~2-3 cups shredded napa cabbage
~1-2 cup green cabbage
sliced onion to taste
~1/3 cup dried cranberries

today's version (above) adds 10 almonds, chopped, and 1 mandarin orange, pulled into segments.

sauce:
~2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
~1 Tbsp reduced sodium Tamari (soy sauce)
~1 Tbsp light agave nectar (or honey)
~1 tsp creamy peanut butter
~1 tsp minced garlic
~1 tsp minced fresh ginger
a few shakes dried red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp?)
a few shakes whole mustard seed (1/4 tsp?)
a few more shakes (1/2 tsp?) sesame seed

today's version omits the peanut butter and adds just a few drops dark sesame oil. It's good, but I really like it best with the peanut butter.

blend sauce together and pour over salad. Eat fresh or let sit awhile.

Obligatory Kimodification notes: This salad is good with lettuce, and probably with spinach, although I'm not a big fan of it, myself. I love it with Bok Choy, and it adds a great dark green contrast. If you aren't familiar with bok choy, this is a good way to try it. Anyway, use the veggies you like, I will not let you be bound strictly to my recipe. ;-) Oh, and the white "rib" parts of both napa cabbage and bok choy make great finger food for kids. They're similar in texture (but somewhat less stringy) than celery, but have a milder, less "celery-y" flavor. Often when I'm cutting up my salad, I have little hands reaching up to ask for pieces of the 'ribs'. You can't ask for better than kids asking for veggies!

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I was pondering trying to chronicle some of my better experiments with food. I know I've always posted recipes here and there (note to self, turn back on the old recipes entries) but it was more in a "Oooh, this turned out great" sort of way. But as few of you know, we're back to trying to eat a low fat, plant based diet, for health reasons. Not that we think meat is evil, or will eschew it forever (eschew, giggle) but that we won't eat it as part of our daily life & meals.

One of the most common reactions I get to that concept is "Oh, we couldn't do that!" to which I sometimes wonder, "Why not?" There are some great meals out there that don't contain meat and dairy and high fats. Tasty, healthy stuff. It's not all twiggy or plates of spinach. Of course, I've been posting salads, but that's because I like salads. Well, these, anyway. Of course, there are great, tasty meals out there that are high fat or high in animal products, too, I won't argue that. I have some posted in old entries. But that kind of recipe is pretty easy to find. I bet you already have some. And sometimes, when you go looking for vegetarian food, you find it's all cheese and eggs. Or it's all weird food from far away places. (Then again, maybe my salad seems weird to you). I'm striving to find a little core of "normal" plant based foods that we like. Comfort foods, staple foods, healthy foods.

Anyway, so what do you think? Are you interested? In seeing my food? LOL

Sounds kind of lame, put that way. :)

By Popular Demand ~ The Cornbread Recipe

I am pleased to share this recipe with you. (With much extra rambling!) Not only is it very good, but it's also fairly healthy! I got it from the Real Food Living's Real Food Digest, which I'm not sure exists anymore. It was an email loop thing, and later a yahoo group. About using whole/real foods. Whole grains. Natural sugars. Stuff like that.

ANYway, we've always liked this corn bread. Even The Grand Lunar, who likes sweet 'candy' Jiffy Mix cornbread most of all. ;-) Don't go looking for that type of Jiffy Mix**. I'm making up that title, sweet candy cornbread. Because it's so sweet. You know? But this whole food recipe is sweet enough.

Plus, it's great because, if you eat strict vegetarian (um, except for the honey) you can use flax seed to replace the egg and butter, and it's still good! Or you can make it with those things, and it's still good! Or you can mix and match your healthy choices, and it's still good!

Oh, so the recipe is written assuming you've got your grain mill and whole grains and are milling it fresh for the recipe. Which I did for awhile, until my grain mill choked on a popcorn seed and I found out that it's lifetime warranty doesn't help much if the company goes out of business. So now I (gasp!) buy store bought cornmeal and store bought flours and, meh, it's good enough for us, for now. I do want to say that the King Arthur brand "white whole wheat"* is pretty good, for store bought whole wheat. Yeah yeah, I know it's healthier to mill your own. Enough already, on with the recipe.

Ultimate Corn Bread

If you want to make it in a skillet:

1/2 C. honey
2 eggs **or** ~2 T. ground flax seed
1 tsp. salt
1 C. whole wheat flour (try freshly ground pastry wheat)
2 C. yellow cornmeal (try freshly ground popcorn seeds)
1 TBSP baking powder
1 TBSP butter, melted ** or ** ~4.5 T ground flax seed
1 1/2 C. milk or buttermilk or rice milk

Or if you love it and want to make MORE:

3/4 C. honey
3 eggs **or** ~3 T. ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. whole wheat flour (try freshly ground pastry wheat)
3 C. yellow cornmeal (try freshly ground popcorn)
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder
1 1/2 TBSP butter, melted ** or ** ~4.5 T ground flax seed
2 1/4 C. milk or buttermilk or rice milk

Beat eggs together then beat in honey, melted butter and milk. Sift flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt together. Stir into wet ingredients until well-mixed. Spread into oiled or buttered 10" or 12" skillet or the larger recipe in a 9 X 13 inch pan -- Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes (maybe a little longer in the 9x13 pan). Serve hot, with extra honey to drizzle!

I cooked mine 25 minutes in my heavy skillet for this latest batch, and used eggs, rice milk, and ground flax instead of the butter.

You can make it with all purpose flour instead of whole wheat, but it's really good (and not 'whole wheaty' WITH the whole wheat, so why not go for one step healthier?)

*White whole wheat flour is whole wheat. It's made from white wheat instead of read wheat berries, so it's lighter in both color and flavor. Many of the nutrients are lost quickly after milling, but it's still a little healthier than all purpose flour. Store it in the freezer to keep it as fresh as you can.

**Did you know Jiffy Mix is from Michigan? I didn't. But now I do. And so do you!

Hey You Pone-headed Crackpot!

So my hillbilly and/or southern friends keep talking about eating "soup beans"

No, not bean soup.

Soup Beans.

When I asked for a recipe, I got a vague description. Which was, essentially, "Ya cook beans and add some salt. And eat it with a pone."

Well, I was both suspicious and intrigued. I pressed for more information and found that some people season them with more than salt. Ham seasoning. I hadn't heard of that, either. Sounded a little creepy, actually. And I found that pintos or great northern beans are the favored beans. Folks used to cook it with their ham bones. And that there's no recipes. Just 'what my grandma used to do' and the like.

So I went to WalMart and found me a bag of beans labeled "HamBeens". Seriously. They looked to be pinto beans, with a packet of artificially flavored ham seasoning. And, just to be true to the not-recipes, I bought some additional "Ham flavored soup base" and some actual ham. With bones. It was hard to find a small amount of ham-with-bone that wasn't sliced. But I did it.

Now you know me, I cook without recipes all the time. Which is to say, I read a lot of recipes and then kimodify them until they bear little semblance to any originals. But starting with NO recipe to make something I've never seen nor tasted? That was a little harder.

So I rinsed the beans last night, and then soaked them overnight. This morning I poured off the soaking water, rinsed them, and put them on to slow-cook, covering them with about 2 inches of water, in my crock pot. Sometime in the evening I added a little onion, some garlic, and some of that "ham seasoning". And later the actual ham, diced up. I tried hard not to season it all to death, as I am wont to do, because I wanted it to be as close to authentic Soup Beans as I could make.

And I made me a pone of corn. Turns out pone means a round or oval cake. It's just cornbread. But they gotta call it something funny to make Northerners feel weird, I guess. I cooked it in my heavy skillet, to be as authentic as I could.

The Grand Lunar and I had our soup beans over our corn bread. I used my usual corn bread recipe, of which I am very fond. The kids had their corn bread on the side. All in all, most of us liked dinner okay. Two small children didn't really want to eat it. Although Baby Buzz had several servings. And it was quite filling. I might make it again. But certainly not weekly. Unless it grows on us. We'll see.

BelJuWhat?

I asked The Grand Lunar, and he said I should first list the Kimodified Recipe, then the "inspiration piece", and so I will.

Tonight's dinner I will call "BelJut: The Spinach Hater's Sausage".

I had planned to make half a recipe, since I was very unsure of it's reception. Only I didn't really halve things, but decided based on ease, laziness, and some made up "health quotient" how much to include. I made one preparation-oriented substitution and one addition. The resulting Kimodified Recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
1 - 12 oz. package of breakfast sausage links, chopped
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 - 10 oz. box of frozen, chopped spinach
1 - 32 oz. bag of frozen diced potatoes ("Western Style Hash Browns", containing only frozen potatoes & preservatives, no oils, spices, or other stuff)
2 Tbsp. minced garlic (I used the kind pre-minced in the jar, it's cheating, I know)
water to keep things moist (maybe 2 cups total by the end?)
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Brown sausage until somewhat surfacy-crispy in a big pot. I added some water and let it cook completely off, I read that somewhere , sauté chopped onions with sausage.
• Pour off any remaining grease (um, there wasn't any? I'll pretend that doesn't mean the onions soaked it all up)
  
• Add frozen spinach, potatoes, garlic, and some water so it isn't sticking. Simmer on medium low, covered, until mixture is hot.
  
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Impressions:
Well ... it didn't kill us!!!
What do you say when someone tells you even spinach haters will like it? We decided "Will like it" is too strong. "Will not hate it" is a possibility. I, for one, am not quite a spinach hater. But I am far from a spinach liker. Having read that the potatoes and spinach would taste sausagy, we were wary, and rightly so. The sausage we liked. The potato wasn't bad, just a bit bland. And the spinach ... well, it still tasted like spinach. :)

Over all, neither Lunar, Baby Buzz, or I hated it. It was okay. Lunar and I felt it needed more ... something. We found it rather bland. Perhaps this was due to my proportion of sausage-to-potato being low. But if you hate spinach you will certainly not be fooled. Of the other 5 children, 4 declined to taste it. One tasted it and fumbled to politely say she didn't like it, because she thought we liked it, and didn't want to offend. She was relieved to hear us say it wasn't our favorite, either.

I have enough leftovers to do another Kimodification ~ I am thinking maybe a little half-and-half and chicken stock, a splash of vinegar or lemon juice, and more garlic might give it a new twist. I'll let you know.

Staci, I hope I haven't offended you!

Inspiration Piece: Staci's Beligain Jut (pronounced like Foot)

You might love this recipe if you like sausage and garlic. Because you can't really taste a "spinach-y" taste. The spinach tastes garlic-y and sausage-y. Only four ingredients are needed: sausage links, spinach, potatoes, and garlic

1) Brown a large package of sausage links (about 20 oz.) in a skillet until they are nicely browned and crispy;
2) Pour the sausage links into a pot and scrape the bottom of the skillet into the pot also for flavoring;
3) Pour in two boxes (or one lb. bag) of frozen cut spinach (you can also use fresh or canned);
4) Peel and cut about 8 potatoes and add those to the pot;
5) Add 2 heaping tsp. of minced garlic (I buy it in the jars); you can use more or less garlic depending on your taste
6) Add water just to cover the potatoes (keep your eye on it as it cooks and if you need to add a bit of water, do so)
7) Add salt and pepper to taste

Cook it on medium-low until the potatoes are tender. It's quick and easy and savory and most kids, believe it or not, like it because it has potatoes and sausage in it. When my kids were really young they wouldn't eat the spinach but as they grew older they realized the spinach tasted like sausage so now they eat that too.

If I get* fat, it's Rosanne's fault

Yesterday Rosanne mentioned she'd like to know more about the brownies I'd mentioned. And I thought "What's a recipe without a picture?" So I went to take a picture, at 9 in the morning, before I'd had any breakfast. And, I tell you, those brownies looked so sweeeeet and pretty. So I had one for breakfast. Then the other. Then all the little leftover bits that had crumbled. 'Cause you can't just leave a mostly empty pan sitting around. Right?

Independence Glazed Brownies

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa
  
• 2 cups (1 14 oz bag) white chocolate chips
  
• 2 cups sugar
  
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• (optional (and we omitted this) 1.5 cups chopped walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350°

Mix sugar and softened butter in mixing bowl until blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until creamy. In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients thoroughly and then add them to the sugar mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated (we used the KitchenAid mixer), Fold in the white chocolate chips (and nuts) (again, we used the mixer). Mixture will be stiff.

Original instructions: Drop brownies by 1/3 cup measures into lined cupcake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until brownies are set. Cool before removing from pan. (it doesn't say how many it would make, my guess is 24)

What we did:
Spread mixture in greased 9x13 pan and bake ~25 minutes until brownies are set.

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

• 2.5 cups powdered sugar (or icing sugar, if you're Canadian)**
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional

Combine powdered sugar, water, butter, corn syrup and vanilla in a small bowl; mix until powdered sugar is moistened. Beat at medium speed until smooth, adding additional water to reach desired consistency. Glaze*** cooled brownies. Let stand until hardened.

These brownies were really good, especially as batter!! :-D I thought maybe they were good enough to become our "new" brownies, but dh said, "They're pretty good, but different from boxed mix." -- box mix being his favorite-reminds-me-of-childhood type of brownies. Which, all in all, is good because boxed brownie ingredients are less tempting to have in the house than things like sugar and butter and white chocolate chips. So I'll save these for now and then, lest I get* fat making them.
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*GET fat. Ha.

**I looked and looked for our Icing Sugar Discussion, but couldn't find it on any blogs. :shrug:

***Because we were sooo pressed for time, ours didn't glaze all pretty like the picture. We also mixed up some store bought white fluffy icing to pipe stars on the top in red and blue. The recipe we started with showed this, as well as some snowflake-star-icing-decor, but did not mention it in the directions :really: so ours weren't pretty like their picture, in their little red white and blue liners with their tidy and artistic glaze-and-frosting, but they were cute enough.

Feed Hot Walk!

Feed

I moved the RSS link up on the sidebar and reworded it, but here, also, is the link to it: http://andfam.net/kimblog/index.rdf ~ now you don't have to check in on me daily unless I post daily!

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Hot!

Here's the Recipe I've been working on. It's not quite perfect, but it's close enough to post. I'm still tinkering with the sugar and vinegar amounts.

Chinese Hot Garlic Sauce
Serve on cabbage salad, or over steamed rice, shrimp or chicken, and veggies.
You could substitute honey for the brown sugar, sesame oil for the chili oil, and of course adjust the pepper flakes to taste. This doesn't taste tooo spicy when you dip your finger in, but increases in heat when it's spread over your lunch. :) Mmmmmm, spicy!

Ingredients
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
6 clove garlic clove(s)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp chili oil
1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions
Mince Garlic. Combine with other ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Garnish with sliced green onions if desired. Makes 1 cup total; 4 quarter cup servings. Weight Watcher's points = 2 pts per 1/4 cup, or 1 pt per 2 Tbsp. -- I may try to tinker the points lower ~ it's low fat but high in sugar...

Quick and Easy Spicy Asian Salad
2 cups bagged coleslaw mix (without sauce)
2 T. Hot Garlic Sauce
1 T. slivered almonds

2 points per serving.

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Walk

I did the WATP 2 mile Express this morning Gark and I had our date out and walked a mile down the Rail Trail and back, 2 miles total. That was nice.

So that makes 32 miles this month, I think. And, erm, no water today. Yet!

Breakfast Today - Yogurt Bread

Usually on Sundays I make cinnamon rolls from a can, an age-honored family tradition. But I realized yesterday that I hadn't bought any, so I made this recipe, instead. The only thing I forgot was the ground flax seed, which isn't necessary but was my claim to health, LOL. Oh well, it's still not toooo unhealthy, and the kids really like it. And it comes together fast, so it makes a reasonably quick*-to-make breakfast (other than baking time.)

Yogurt-Wheat Quick Bread (with chocolate chips!)

modified from this recipe at allrecipes.com

Original recipe yield: 1 - 9x5 inch loaf - multiplied by 1.5 to make 1 - 11x5" loaf

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1-1/2 cups plain non-fat yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup flax seed, ground
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 11x5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine melted butter and honey. Whisk in yogurt, egg and lemon juice.
In a separate bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, ground flax, and chocolate chips. Fold this mixture into the yogurt mixture, stirring just enough to blend. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven until top of loaf springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

* unless you stop to blog about it, in which case you will probably end up late for church.

Requested Thanksgiving Recipes****

Jodie's* Pie Crust

1 c. shortening/butter (I use butter)
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 c. flour
1 t. vinegar (I used lemon juice)
1 egg
1/2 c. cold water

cut shortening/butter into flour and salt. Stir in other ingredients. Refrigerate if necessary to roll out (usually only needed if the butter is very soft)

makes 2 crusts (actually, this is a half recipe, Jodie's was doubled and made 4).

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hm. This isn't really a recipe, I'll admit that up front. This is vaguely what I remember doing. I wing these things and don't write them down. I read the pumpkin pie recipe and the easy cheesecake recipe and then shot for something in-between.

2 - 8 oz. packages cream cheese
2 c. white sugar
1 large can (um ... 28 oz?) solid pack pumpkin***
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 heaping T. cinnamon**
1 tsp. ground cloves**
1 tsp. ground nutmeg**

blend cream cheese and sugar until creamy. mix in solid pumpkin. blend in eggs. Add vanilla and spices and mix until well incorporated. Pour into 2 unbaked pastry crusts. Bake at ... um ... 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Loosely cover edges with foil and continue to bake 20 more minutes. When pie is done the center should be loosely set but still slightly jiggly, it will continue to set up.

Allow to cool completely. Serve with Cool Whip to please your hubby :)

If you have excess pie crust, roll a little out and cut into cutesy shapes to decorate the top.

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* Jodie from the QFHaven gave this to me a few years ago. (It should still be on the Haven Recipes, I'd guess) She claimed it was easy AND good. I was skeptical. She was right.

** I don't really measure spices at all. So these are guestimates. Sorry.

*** This filling was a bit much for 2 pie crusts. I could've either added 1 more cream cheese and done 3 pies, or maybe used a smaller 16 oz. can of pumpkin, instead. I think that's what I'd do if I did it again.

**** Hey, it's my 200th post! My BiCenPostial!

Burrito Bake ~ Easy and tasty

Here's some simple, homey food. I made this tonight and it was a hit AND pretty. I should've taken a picture, but didn't think of it until now. You probably don't want a picture of the empty, dirty dishes proving it was a hit. LOL!!

Burrito Bake

1 can refrigerated breadsticks*
1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained**
1/2 cup dried onions
1 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese

Optional Garnishes
sour cream
sliced green onions
chopped fresh tomato

Lightly grease 9x13 pan***.
Brown ground beef and onions ~ **I used the extra lean ground sirloin, the kind that's only 4 g of fat per serving; spread in prepared pan.
Scoop refried beans over the top, relatively evenly. I used fat free canned refried beans.
Pour salsa over top. I think i used more than 1 cup of salsa, but I didn't measure. Surprised?
Sprinkle cheese over top.
Unroll breadsticks and either cut into little chunks and scatter evenly or go to the trouble to make a cute lattice. It'll impress the kids.
Bake for ~15 minutes at 375°.
Serve with sour cream and chopped green onions and tomatoes, if desired.

* The original recipe called for a Bisquick mixture. I was thinking I could make my own, homemade whole wheat bread recipe and make it into "worms" for a lattice. Think that would work?
*** The original recipe also called for all this to be in a pie plate! That would be one filling serving. I spread this across a 9x13 and I think it was a reasonable amount. But you could double it if you were concerned. We won't have any leftovers, and maybe could've eaten more (okay, I for sure could've) but I didn't NEED more, I'm quite full. I served the adults' servings over a bed of shredded lettuce with extra salsa (HOT!) on the side, and sour cream on the side. I would've added red onions but apparently I'm out. And it's really not the season to buy fresh tomatoes in Michigan. Bummer.

Oh, and Leslie, this is the kind of thing I'm cooking these days, we're really not doing the low fat vegan at all ... It's NICE to be a good cook again, LOL!!! But I'm still trying to lean towards "healthy" versions ~ with the very lean ground beef, fat free refried beans, and thought about making a healthy topping. LOL!

White Chili

Mmmmm apparently I'm on a food blogging binge.

Dinner tonight: White Chili. Not only a favorite meal of mine, but a hit with the children, too.

Chicken stock, smoked turkey, great northern beans, yellow bell peppers, hungarian wax chiles, onions, garlic, and a little butter, cream, and spices: oregano, cumin, white pepper, a little dried cilantro...

Topped with a bit of sour cream and oyster crackers. A nice meal for a cool Autumn evening. Served on the lovely plate The Grand Lunar bought me, isn't it pretty? It makes me happy.

Omit the turkey & use veggie stock to make it vegetarian, or use canned evaporated skim milk to make it low fat. Make it spicy or make it mild. Serve it with tortilla chips and a little monterey jack cheese. You really can't do this one wrong.

recipe for Kerri:
2 small-to-medium yellow onions, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 yellow or white bell peppers, diced small
2 yellow wax hungarian peppers (which are hot, or use the similar yellow banana peppers, which are mild, or omit or substitute something else, light green anaheim work well; just go for a light color and the heat of your choice. It's so easy!)
~ 2 T. butter
2 c. chicken stock (homemade or from bouillon base stuff, sub vegetarian if you'd like)
3/4 - 1 lb diced smoked turkey (omit for vegetarian)
2 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. white flour
~1 c. cream, half & half, milk, or condensed skim milk

saut� the veggies in butter, or to keep it lower fat in a little broth.
add the chicken stock, turkey, and beans and simmer awhile
season to taste (guesses for Kerri: 1 t. ground cumin, 1 t. dried crumbled oregano, 1/4 t. white pepper, 1/2 t. dried crumbled cilantro, more cumin never hurt anyone LOL, a few shakes hickory smoke flavoring, if desired)
just before serving mix flour with cool water or broth to a thin batter, pour into soup and mix until it simmers and thickens
stir in cream and remove from heat
serve with oyster crackers, sour cream, and/or monterey jack cheese

Pink Lemonade Pie

At Carrawayseed's request: Presenting the last two pieces of Pink Lemonade Pie ~ another way too easy dessert that's pretty and tasty and fun. This is modified from the recipe I got from Connie. Makes 8-12 pieces (the picture shown was cut into 12)

Pink Lemonade Pie

1 can Raspberry Lemonade concentrate (but limeade, pink lemonade, orange juice, all also work! have fun with it!) 1 8-oz container of non-dairy whipped topping (uh, I used a 12 oz this time, it was on sale) 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk 1 pre-made graham cracker crust (you could make your own, but I'm lazy)

Whip together the sweetened condensed milk and the lemonade concentrate. I use my Kitchenaid Mixer with the whisk attachment.
Whip in the whipped topping. The original directions said to fold it in carefully, but ha ha I'm too lazy for that. I use the mixer.
Pour the mixture into the pie crust. If you're lucky (I always am) you've whipped it too much and it isn't fluffy and 'moundable', it's a tad bit too soupy. So you pour the remainder that doesn't fit into the crust into the whipped topping container, and freeze it. If it's not in a crust, it has no calories. Eat it like ice cream when the kids aren't looking.
Artsy Fartisfy - optional. Take a small blob of seedless raspberry jelly ~ I prefer all-fruit, and the black raspberry makes a beautiful color ~ and melt it in the microwave. Stir in a dribble of lemon juice. Drizzle the melted jelly mixture over the top and then swirl with a knife. Ooooh, pretty. And so easy.
Freeze until serving. This step is important.

Albino Brownies

Daniel (featured at right) said these were in the Top 3 brownies he's tasted. Carrawayseed said I can't tell people I'm making treats without sharing the love. So here's the way-too-easy recipe:

Albino Brownies*

1 package white cake mix 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter ---- 1 - 14 oz. package Kraft caramels 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk ---- 1 generous c. white chocolate chips

mix together cake mix, sweetened condensed milk, and melted butter
divide dough in half. Press first half in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan
bake the base for 6 minutes at 350 degrees
meanwhile melt together unwrapped caramels with 1/3 c. sweetened evaporated milk, stir until smooth. Use a glass container and microwave or a double boiler.
pour melted caramel mixture over baked brownie base. If necessary, carefully spread caramel.
sprinkle white chocolate chips evenly over surface.
crumble remaining brownie dough evenly over surface
bake 18-22 minutes in 350 degree oven.

When cooled, gently loosen edges and place a large cutting board over the pan. Invert pan on to cutting board and press lightly, brownies should fall onto cutting board. Cut into 24 pieces.
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* Adapted from Grandma's Monona UMC cookbook. No albinos are harmed in the making of this treat.

I Bet You Didn't Have This For Dinner

Watermelon Salsa

On a bed of romaine, with a parmesan and cream cheese sauced pasta with chicken. It was good.

Elaborated for Karin
Those are red onions in the watermelon salsa, it's one of those sweet-savory sort of things. I wasn't sure if we'd like it, but The Grand Lunar and I did, it was different but good. Here's the ingredients:

• watermelon, cut small (and seeded would've been nice, LOL!)
  
• red onion
  
• garlic, minced
  
• small spicy chile of some sort, seeded & minced (I didn't have one so I added cayenne powder)
  
• cilantro
  
• ground cumin
  
• lemon juice (I would've used lime if I had it, and I saw one recipe that called for balsamic vinegar instead)
  
• salt

Did everyone like it? sigh.
The Grand Lunar and I liked it. Although Lunar did say he would probably prefer a tomato salsa :) The children didn't try the salsa, I didn't try to make them. Actually, for a change I was a "nice mom" (or so I thought) and didn't serve the meal all stirred together. (I do mostly one-dish type meals, rather than 3-4 separate dishes) So I made chicken-and-noodles together, and I made a big bowl of plain watermelon, and I had the romaine separate. They each got a small portion of each of those three items. I thought the children would really like the chicken-and-noodles -- with a sauce that had cream cheese melted into it? Who could resist that? And it was good, it wasn't one of my weird food flops LOL. But ... it wasn't a hit. Oh well. Nearly all of them ate the requisite "try-me" bite, and I guess that'll have to do.

Two Sisters Simple Supper

If 6/7 of your solids-eating family likes dinner, that's a success. (Especially if the reluctant 1/7 hates just about everything else, too. But we won't dwell on the negative today.)

I decided to call our dinner Two Sisters Simple Supper.

Sister #1. I have been wanting to make cucumber salsa since Kelly blogged about it. The recipe originated with me but she turned it into a real recipe (I never make it the same way twice) and reminded me how much I like it. Today's version was:

• 3 cucumbers from the neighbor's yard, peeled, seeded & diced
  
• 1/2 a medium red onion
  
• one large clove of garlic, minced
  
• one cute little hot red pepper from Poppie's garden, minced
  
• a large splash of lemon juice
  
• ground cumin
  
• a sprinkle of dried cilantro for the pretty green color
  
• a sprinkle of salt
  

mixed together and set aside to chill

Sister #2. The cucumber salsa was served over a modified version of Lunar's sister Linda's rice and bean dish, which she introduced us to at her home in Connecticut. Today's version of this ... (ok I admit, I never make ANY recipe the same twice):

• 2 c. white rice
  
• 4 c. water
  
• 1 T. chicken bullion
  
• a small handful of dried onion flakes
  -- simmered together until the rice is done
  
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
  
• a small package of goat cheese (that Linda also introduced us to)
  
• ~1/3 c. parmesan cheese, shredded
  
• ~1/2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
  

The beans are mixed with the rice in a dish, and the cheeses sprinkled on top. Then it is warmed until the cheese is melted and served with fresh salsa. Linda makes a yummy one with fresh local tomatoes and red onion and cilantro and I believe lime juice. But, like I said, I was wanting cucumber salsa. It was really pretty together and tasty. I should've taken a picture of a prepared plate, but it was too good to wait. :)

The nice thing is that it's so versatile. You can make your favorite salsa or use a fresh salsa from the store. You can make it spicy or mild. You could make it ahead or throw it together with cooked rice and canned beans. You can use brown rice or white. I think it will become and AndFam staple meal.

Thanks, Linda and Kelly, for being the inspiration for a great meal.