Cravings

Am I the only one with cyclical cravings?  Right now, I'm craving cereal!  Have you tried Post's Great Grains yet?  My current fav is the Raisins, Dates & Walnuts variety.

I'm at about a bowl a day right now.  Sometimes I'll add a second as a night-time snack.  Guess it could be worse, right?

What are you craving today?

Note: This is not a compensated endorsement.  Just a post about the random food cravings of a lunatic.  :)

Powerful Banana Walnut Bread

In keeping true to my usual self, I've had this lovely Power Foodsbook for well over two months now and just finally got to making one of the recipes.  Sigh.  We love bananas in this house, so this flax infused Banana Bread was the perfect start to this lovely book.  If you haven't picked this up yet, it's worth at least a quick leaf through at the bookstore.  The pictures are so gorgeous and appetizing that you'll be craving veggies in no time.  Now, on to the bread.

Despite being a "healthy" snack, it was pretty darn good - and easy to whip up.  Yay!

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 2)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350.  Spray loaf pan with baking spray.  In a bowl, whisk together both flours, flaxseed, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat your eggs. Add melted butter, sugar, vanilla and bananas.  Mix until combined.  Add flour mixture and mix on low until just combined.  Stir in walnuts with spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake until golden, about 30 minutes (recipe calls for 35 but this would've left me with a very dry bread).  Let cool and serve.  Or, if you are like me, wait 2 minutes and grab a quick slice for "taste testing" purposes.  Can be stored at room temp, wrapped in plastic, for 4 days.

Energy Shake - RC Week 3

Goodness knows I could use some energy these days.  Thankfully, Bon Appetit comes to the rescue with this frothy little green concoction.  Green drinks have NEVER appealed to me.  Perhaps it's my aversion to veggies and most things green. I always feel it's going to taste like cut grass or something - and I'm pretty sure some of them do.  But, since this one contains some of my fav, I figured we'd give it a try.  And I didn't like it.  It smelled "green" and the kale bits grossed me out.  My husband however drank both servings this made (minus my sip).

1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1 banana, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup (packed) coarsely chopped kale leaves
1/2 kiwi, peeled
2 pitted Medjool dates, coarsely chopped

Combine orange juice, banana, chopped kale, kiwi, and chopped dates in blender. Puree until smooth, stopping and scraping down sides of blender as needed. Divide between two glasses and serve.  I guess this would be a pretty healthy breakfast.

Vegan Coconut Pancakes & Tropical Salsa - RC Week 3

Having heard great things about Mr. Mark Bittman and his fabulous healthy eats, I was so happy to see one of his pancake recipes in this month's Bon Appetit.  In addition, the fact that they are made with whole wheat flour made them a must try.  The tropical salsa here is the true star of the show.  It was a fabulous breakfast!

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 13 1/2-ounce can light unsweetened coconut milk (about 1 2/3 cups)
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)
Tropical Fruit Salad (recipe to follow)
Additional pure maple syrup
Chopped natural unsalted pistachios (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 250°F. Whisk first 6 ingredients and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Whisk coconut milk, 11/4 cups warm water, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and vanilla in medium bowl. Whisk coconut milk mixture into dry ingredients until batter is pourable.

Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat; brush with vegetable oil. Working in batches, add batter by 1/4 cupfuls. Working quickly and using back of spoon, spread each pancake to about 4-inch round. Cook until small bubbles appear on surface and bottoms of pancakes are golden, reducing heat if browning too quickly, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn over; cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to baking sheet. Keep warm in oven.

Place 2 to 3 pancakes on each plate. Top with Tropical Fruit Salad, maple syrup, and chopped pistachios.

For Tropical Salsa, mix the following ingredients up to 2 hours ahead of breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, or snack...)

1 cup diced peeled pitted mango
1 cup diced peeled cored pineapple
1 cup diced peeled banana
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

The result?  Holy yumminess!!  And enough batter leftover for several more fabulous mornings with less work.

And my husband got to christen one of his Christmas gifts.  Oh yeah, I totally wanted this and bought it for him since Christmas was a good excuse to make the purchase.  :-D

3 days later with nanners and nuts.  Still stinkin' yummy:

I gotta say, I feel so sophisticated in my eating this week.  Bon Appetit subscription ordered.

Just One More - Recipe Challenge Week 2

Ok, ok.  I had to do just one more from Rachel Ray this weekend.  The craving for an egg on toast took over and I recalled seeing an egg dish in the mag.  Not in the mood for meat, I cut the prosciutto from this recipe and used an everything bagel instead of white bread.

Croque Madames

Four 1-inch-thick slices good-quality white bread (or a bagel which works out lovely)
Fig spread
2 tablespoons butter
1 rounded tablespoon flour
1 cup skim milk
Salt and pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
8 slices prosciutto cotto with rosemary, if desired
8 ounces fontina cheese, grated
4 large organic eggs

Preheat the oven to 375. Arrange the bread on a baking sheet and spread a thin layer of fig spread on each slice. In a small skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour for half a minute, then whisk in the milk. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Turn off the heat and stir in the mustard.  Sauce will thicken.

Divide the sauce among the bread slices. Top each slice with 2 folded prosciutto slices and a small mound of fontina, scattering the cheese all the way to the edges of the bread. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

When the sandwiches are done, cook the eggs to order in pats of melted butter. Top each sandwich with an egg and serve.

Can ya tell I was too lazy to whip out my cheese grater?  Instead I just tore off clumps of cheese and tossed them onto the bagel.

Despite my shortcuts, this was so, so good.  This is also my first time using Fontina and it will not be the last.  What a delightful combination of flavors!  Never would've thought to combine these ingredients.  I can see us having this with ham on Sunday mornings or as a lazy weeknight dinner.

Frittata - Recipe Challenge Week 1

I know this first "challenge" week consisted of some very less than challenging recipes, but I'm going to give myself props for sticking with it anyway as I had three 12 hour workdays thrown in as well.  And with only one real flop during the whole week, that ain't too shabby either.

This meal was probably the easiest so far and very tasty.  I always love a good egg dinner but we don't do it too often.  This potato and leek frittata was great.  The addition of ricotta, which I've never done before, really added something to the texture.  Didn't hurt that I used some wonderful farm fresh eggs either.  Hello fluffy goodness!

Potato & Leek Frittata

1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek (white & light green parts only), thinly sliced
2 cups cooked cubed potato
9 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup part skim ricotta
salt & pepper

Heat oven to 425.  In ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add leek and potato, season with salt & pepper and cook until leek is translucent. About 5 minutes.

Add eggs and ricotta, season with salt & pepper and stir to combine.  Cook until edges are set.  About 2 minutes.  Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top is just set.  About 10-15 minutes.  Slide frittata to dish and cut into 6 to 8 wedges.

Since this was dinner, I served with some Alexia garlic bread (yeah, the frozen kind, I was lazy after doing so much cooking this week) and a spinach salad.  It was enjoyed by all - the frittata, not the salad, that's got "green stuff".

Don't you just love breakfast for dinner?

A "Smooth" Morning with Martha - Recipe Challenge Week 1

So clever I am, no?  :)

This is the very first post in my month-long recipe challenge (more about that HERE).  As you can see, we are starting out easy.  Today you get a smoothie and tomorrow you may get a super easy dessert but you'll have to wait and see.  After that, it's on to the main dishes!  Best thing - this whole week will consist of "light" recipes for those of us still trying to shed those holiday pounds and eat cleaner.

Anyway, the first recipes I tried from Food Everyday (Martha Stewart's little recipe mag) were smoothies.  Perfect for a Sunday morning!  The two we made were the Almond Date and Pom-Berry Banana.  Both recipes are meant to yield two smoothies.

Almond Date Smoothie
3 tbsp almond butter
4 pitted dates, chopped
1 cup low fat yogurt
1 cup apple cider or juice
1 cup ice

Blend all ingredients in blender.

Pom-Berry Banana Smoothie
1 peeled orange, quartered
1 cup frozen berries
1 ripe banana
1 cup pomegranate juice

Blend all ingredients in blender.

Cheers!  So good, we even broke out the Simon Pearce for breakfast.

My son downed the Pom-Berry immediately.  My husband and I shared the Almond Date (he also polished off what was left of the berry).  It was a bit gritty from the almond butter. The Almond was not as refreshing as the other, but still very good.  These were filling as a breakfast too - and I usually can't do a "drink" as a meal.

Nutritional info as per magazine:
Pom-Berry
Calories - 197
Fat - 0g
Protein - 2g
Carbs - 50g
Fiber - 4g

Almond Date
Calories - 373 (clearly, a meal)
Sat Fat - 2g
Protein - 11g
Carbs - 53g
Fiber - 3g

Snow Day = Pancakes on a Weekday

When I saw these pancakes just yesterday over at Baking Serendipity, I immediately printed them out thinking we'd have them one lazy Sunday.

Well, another 9 inches of snow on the ground, no school for the kids and a very late arrival at the office for me meant we could have homemade pancakes on a Wednesday!  I love that many of Sarah's recipes are made with whole wheat flour too so be sure to check out her entire blog.  Just makes them a little less of a guilty pleasure.

Sarah's Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pancakes

1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Melt butter and stir in brown sugar in small bowl.
 
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until well combined. Add eggs, milk and vanilla.  Mix well. Gently stir in brown sugar and butter making sure to blend completely.  The batter will now be very airy and light (well, mine was anyway). Spoon batter onto greased griddle or large skillet, cooking well on both sides.  I love how these rose up high.  

 

My daughter, who has been complaining about everything I make lately tasting "too healthy" loved these.  Finally!!
 
The downside.  Snuggling on the couch with the kids, watching the weather on GMA and eating these fluffy pancakes made me just want to go back to bed.

Overnight French Toast

We made this lovely dish on Christmas Eve morning.  We all had to be out of the house early and wouldn't have the kids for breakfast Christmas morning, so a dish I could prep the night before and throw in the oven upon waking was perfect!

This recipe comes from Sweet Tooth Sweet Life and is a must try.  It is kind of like candy for breakfast and unless you are an Elf, probably not something you should do weekly.  But, for the holidays, I say why the heck not!!

What you need:

2 tbsp corn syrup (I used light)
1/2 cup butter (this can be modified down)
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 loaf french bread
8 eggs*
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

*I used 1/2 a cup of egg whites and 3 eggs

In a saucepan, combine the corn syrup, butter and sugar.  Simmer until syrupy.  Pour this mixtur into a 9x13 baking dish lined with parchment and sprayed with baking spray.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Slice the bread into 20-24 slices and coat with egg mixture.

Lay the bread slices in the pan, squishing into the caramel.  Pour remaining egg mixture over top (use your judgment, I felt I had too much egg mixture left to use the entire thing).  Cover dish and put in fridge overnight.

Next morning, preheat oven to 350.  Bake covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for another 10.  Serve and enjoy!  I served with chicken sausage as I thought we should have some sort of nutritional value in the morning.

Store leftovers in a tupperware as the caramel will stick to the parchment upon hardening.  I found this is great cold out of the fridge too as a leftover sweet treat.  :)

Hope everybody had a terrific Christmas and is looking forward to a healthy and happy 2011!

Week O' Ina - Part I: Granola Bars

A few months ago I shared our dirty little secret.  After the kids go to bed and my husband and I have a little time together, we like to pour some wine, shut the lights and cuddle on the couch and...oh yeah, you know where this is going...somewhere hot and spicy, seductive, exciting, inspiring and oftentimes, delicious...watch the Food Network!!  Hello, Iron Chef, Triple D (in layman's terms: Diners, Drive Ins & Dives), The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Next Food Network Star.  Now that's some primetime excitement right there!

Many years ago we I first discovered the Food Network, I immediately fell in love with Ina Garten.  Her food is doable, delicious, fancy yet not gourmet and most times, not completely drenched in butter and cream (ahem...Paula Deen, the American Heart Association called and they ain't happy y'all!).  I have many of her cookbooks and love when I catch her shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  As my little tribute to Ina, this week I am posting some of my recent favorite dishes.  Oddly enough, they all appeared on the same show that I was lucky enough to catch on weekend.  Afterwards, I immediately ran to FoodTV.com and printed the recipes every single thing she made.

Our first stop will be granola bars.  I have made these at least five times since seeing them on television and will be giving them out as gifts this Christmas as well.  So, without further ado, Ina's homemade granola bars.

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8x12 baking dish and line it with parchment paper.  Spray the paper with cooking spray to prevent sticking.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dates, apricots, and cranberries and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares. Serve at room temperature.

These are delicious and addicting.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Waffles - finally!!

I know I said I'd make pumpkin waffles with a sweet nutty topping about a month ago in a prior waffle post HERE.  As is typical, they didn't make it to the table until about two weeks ago.  And now they finally make the blog.

Recipe found in Food Network magazine and modified slightly.

1 can pumpkin
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup fat free yogurt
1 cup skim milk
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Topping:
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pepitas
1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup dried cranberries

To make the topping, combine almonds, sunflower seeds and pepitas in a bowl.  Add maple syrup and dried cranberries.  Stir to combine and set aside.

 

For the waffle batter, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl.  Whisk the sugar and eggs in another bowl then whisk in the pumpkin, yogurt and milk.  Add your melted butter and stir to combine.  Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture and fold in until just combined - it will have some lumps.

Cook on a preheated waffle iron to desired doneness.  Remove from iron and top with your nutty topping and extra syrup.  They are pictured in the magazine with whipped cream as well.  Mmmmm.  Enjoy!

These were really, really good.  I will make this again.  Best part is that I made the batter and topping the night before and stored in the refrigerator.

Wonderful Dinner Hash with Baked Eggs

Butternut squash.  Another ingredient that is new to me.  I was finally convinced to try it after seeing Lauren's breakfast for dinner post on Healthy Delicious.  This is a great brunch or dinner dish.  Heck, I don't see why you can't use it for breakfast too!  I modified this only slightly by increasing some of the ingredient amounts.  Lauren says her recipe will feed 2-4, but I think this amount would feed up to 8.

Sausage and Butternut Hash

4 links hot chicken sausage, removed from casings
one sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 large potato, diced
3/4 cup apple cider
6 leaves chard
6 eggs (or more, or less)
olive oil, for pan
ground oregano (forgot to pick up fresh)
salt
ground pepper

Prep (thank goodness for my little handy chopper thingy because this was a lot of chopping):

Heat oven to 400.  In a large skillet cook your sausage meat until done.  Remove from pan and set aside.  In same pan, cook the onion and garlic with a little olive oil until softened.  Add squash, potato and cider.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally.

When potatoes are cooked through and squash is softened, add your sausage back into the pan.  Add chopped chard.  Stir over low heat until chard wilts.  At this point I realized I need a MUCH bigger skillet. I had to divide this amongst two pans. This recipe makes a LOT of hash.


Remove pan from heat and make enough shallow wells in the hash in which to crack your eggs.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano and transfer pan to oven.  Cook for 5 minutes or to desired doneness.  I'm totally insane a little picky about my eggs and they cannot be remotely wiggly, so I made sure they were completely cooked through before taking out of the oven - about 10 minutes total.

This is incredibly delicious.  Next time we have guests over for brunch, this is on the menu.  The prep is quite a bit of chopping, but after that it's a fairly easy and quick recipe that you don't have to stand over the entire time.  Oh, and it also tastes great cold!  Thank god because we have a lot leftover.

Kid review: It's a hit (well, after they pick out the "green stuff")!

Overnight Oats - FAIL

After reading so much about overnight oats on the various health blogs I visit, I had to give it a try.  For some reason though, I just didn't like them.  My husband did and even just prepped the same thing for tomorrow morning though.

Anyway, I think it may have been my choice of oats.  I used five-minute Irish Oatmeal and I think it just soaked up too much of the other ingredients and left me with mush.  Cold mush.  Ick!

But, if you are like my husband, perhaps you'll like it.  Here's how we did it:

1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup fat free yogurt
1/3 cup skim milk (almond for the Mr.)
1 heaping tbsp chia seeds (too much if you ask me)
handful of dried cranberries
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix these ingredients in your breakfast bowl.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning I added sliced banana, peanut butter, crunchy granola and a drizzle of honey.  At this point you can nuke it for a minute as well, but we do not have a microwave so that wasn't gonna happen.  And if I had to dirty a saucepan I figured that would kind of negate the whole convenience factor of overnight oats.

Sounds and looks like it should taste great, right?  It actually wasn't bad tasting, I did eat it, but I think it was the cold temperature and the sticky texture that got to me.  I will give it another go but with different oats and much less chia seed.  Also going to give them a go in the crock pot as I've heard good things about that too.  And I think I prefer my oatmeal hot.

Anybody else have a good overnight oat recipe?

Here are a few blogs I read where fabulous things are done with oatmeal:

Kath Eats Real Food (KERF) - she has an entire tribute to oatmeal page!!
Live Laugh Eat
The Health Nut

Amazing Oatmeal - finally

I do enjoy my irish oats several mornings a week, but I've seen so many bloggers posting about their amazing oatmeal creations with all kinds of toppings, etc.  I've tried many combos but just couldn't find something that knocked my socks off.  Until today!!!  My bowl of oatmeal this morning really rocked.  And it was pretty too.  :)

1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup irish oats
cinnamon
vanilla extract

Toppings:
honey
chopped noor dates
1/2 tsp coconut butter (will add more next time)

Simple but delicious.  I really loved the addition of the dates and will use more than 2 next time.  So, I was all happy about it and just had to share.  I'm sure I'm the last person on earth to attempt this combo, but just in case someone else is in the dark, please give it a try.  'Tis nummy!

Coconut Macadamia Buttermilk Protein Pancakes

Whew, that's a mouthful!  And you'll want mouthful after mouthful of these little guys.  They are delicious and a great way to get in that RDA (and more if you are in some sort of training program) of protein.

Here's how I did it today:

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup egg whites
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/4 cup macadamia pieces, ground
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tbsp low fat buttermilk

In your blender, chop macadamia nuts.  Add remaining ingredients (starting with 2 tbsp buttermilk) and blend until it forms a batter consistency.  Add additional buttermilk if batter is too thick.

Drop onto your heated skillet and cook like you would traditional pancake mix.  These have a nice little sweetness to them so not too much syrup is needed.  I love maple though, so I had to have some with mine.

For the hubs - with a little chicken breakfast sausage: