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Survival, baby!

If you are interested in survival topics but get tired of the standard political and religious hulabaloo that tends to surround it, you might want to check out my good friend Georgene’s brand spankin’ new blog. It’s called [DFW Preppers and Survivors].
I find Georgene to be a very level headed person when it comes [...]

Tender Pork Loin and Tomato Couscous

It was a last minute decision to stay in for dinner, and therefore to skip the grocery store. I had the double challenge of coming up with something quick, requiring little effort, whilst having the ingredients on hand.. that would make for a nice Sunday night. I managed surprisingly well. Sorry, not [...]

Eastern Light Oyster Stew

Brrr-rrr-rrr! Are you cold? I am freaking freezing! Therefore, I’ve been on a soup kick! I tried my hand at lightening up an oyster stew recipe, and I was very pleased with the result. Warmed my tummy, it did!
Ingredients
16 oz oysters shucked with liquor retained
4 cup fat free half & half
4 tablespoons margarine
salt, to [...]

Plump buttery oysters in a creamy broth.

Seared Tuna with Wasabi Butter Sauce

Been promising to get back to some healthier recipes. Being short on time, and needing to eat healthier this holiday season, I turned to my old friend RecipeZaar and found this recipe for Seared Ahi Tuna Glazed With Wasabi Butter. Of course, I made a couple of changes… mostly born from lack of time [...]

Artichoke Cheese Balls

So, out come the recipes from last week’s Thanksgiving festivities. I promise, I will break this up with something healthier very soon. Having said that, these aren’t too bad for hors d’oeuvres. My mother loved making these, and I’ve been carrying on the tradition in her stead.
Ingredients
16 ounces artichoke hearts, drained and mashed
2 tablespoons olive [...]

Roasted Acorn Squash with Pumpkin Seed Oil

Posted by Vicky on October 31st, 2009

Wegmans… how I adore you! You have a cooking station where you tantalize me with your fine smells. Then you tease me with a taste. Then you tempt me by putting all of the ingredients right there in front of me… along with the recipe. You had me at “Roasted Acorn Squash with Pumpkin Seed Oil“. I hope you will forgive me, as I had to make a few changes!

The sweet roasty goodness of Autumn veggies. Yum!

Ingredients
3.5 cups cleaned and cut acorn squash, raw
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 large portabella mushroom cap, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil
morton lite salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium bowl, toss squash, onions, and mushrooms with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
Place into shallow roasting dish or on baking sheet. Roast in oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until squash is tender and sweet.
Drizzle with the pumpkin seed oil. That’s it!!!! Enjoy.

This is the ultimate comfort food. Sweet, healthy, and simple! A little bit of fiber, the benefits of olive oil, and just a hint of protein. Squash is a veggie that is a little higher in carbs, but you’re clocking in just 12g or so per serving with this fine dish.

As you read above, I bought the pumpkin seed oil at Wegmans. You should be able to find it in the same section as olive oil in your grocery store or among the gourmet foods. If you’re lucky, you can access a Wegmans and buy some pre-prepped acorn squash. This allowed me to toss this together in record time.

Could I earn money as a Pumpkin Squeezer?

Even if you can’t get to a Wegmans, you can click those links to see the nutritional stats of each ingredient.

The original recipe called for shallots. Alas, my shallots went off before I had a chance to use them. No matter. I threw in some regular white onion, and I added the sliced portabella cap, while I was at it. You can add just about any vegetables you want. Beets… carrots… potatoes… other kinds of squash. Go ahead and clean out the veggie drawer. Make sure the vegetables aren’t toooo overcrowded. If you increase the overall amount of the vegetables, you might want to add a bit more olive oil. (I don’t need to remind you to take into account the nutritional stats of any changes you make, right? Especially potatoes will up the carbs.)

I love all kinds of roasted Autumn root vegetables, but the acorn squash was surprisingly sweet and warmed me up on a particularly chilly Maryland night. I think you will love it, too. The pumpkin seed oil added a lovely and tasty touch, but if you can’t find it… don’t let that stop you. I find a shallow baking dish easier to deal with than a lined baking sheet. Even with the oil, they still kind of stick.

Squarshies!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Slow Cooked Thanksgiving

Posted by Vicky on October 29th, 2009

This year, it will be just my husband and me at home on Thanksgiving. I love tradition, and I have every intention of making it a festive day full of turkey, belching, and football. However, since we have a more formal Thanksgiving dinner planned for early December, I don’t want to do the entire routine twice. I only eat with reckless abandon on special occasions. I could easily turn this into an excuse to pig out twice, and I could easily gain 10 pounds I certainly do not need. With that in mind, I have alternatives planned.

We call our carving knife Big Pete to pay homage to my father. He calls his Big Tom.

We call our carving knife Big Pete to pay homage to my father. He calls his Old Tom.

Ingredients
A turkey breast, bone-in, approx 6 pounds.
1 packet onion soup mix

Directions

Rinse turkey and pat dry.
Cut off excess skin, but leave the skin that covers the breast.
Rub onion soup mix evenly over outside of turkey and under the skin.
Place in slow cooker, breast side down.
Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.
Switch slow cooker to low setting and cook for 7 more hours.

Prepped for the pot.

You may or may not be aware that you can usually buy a whole bone-in turkey breast from your grocer’s meat case, as opposed to an entire turkey with the legs and whatnot. Our Walmart always has them. This particular one came from Safeway.

It is important to leave the skin on, as that’s what seals in the herbs, spices, and moisture. You can remove the skin easily enough at carving time. If you are into eating the skin, this recipe is not for you. The skin does not get crispy, nor is it aesthetically pleasing. I avoid the skin in any case. To me, it is not worth the extra calories, fat, and cholesterol. I assume cooking the turkey with the skin on makes for more calories and fat than would otherwise be there had I removed it to begin with, but eating the skin itself is a whole new level of crap. This is a fair compromise for getting a nice moist turkey out of a slow cooker. If you are careful when cutting off the excess skin from the ends, you can provide yourself with a couple nice slits through which to cram the soup mix underneath.

I did miss the dark meat, but I can do without that, too. That is something I will certainly be eating at The Big Meal. I don’t need it bad enough to cook an entire turkey for two people. As with regular oven roasted turkey, cooking breast side down allows gravity to pull moisture down into the bulk of the meat. Do not overcook. I actually took this out of the slow cooker after about 6.5 hours on low. I can often remove meat in far less time than a recipe states. If I go the full 7 or 8, that’s when I end up with something dried out and unworthy. Having said that, MAKE SURE IT IS DONE.

The man of the house still gets to do the carving.

Any onion soup mix will do. This time, I used Walmart’s brand. If you are concerned about sodium, look for a low sodium mix… or, make your own. Really, it does not matter what herbs and spices you use. You will probably want a little bit of salt to help keep the turkey tender, but I don’t think the recipe would be a great loss without it. Morton Lite salt is a nice compromise, or you can find many salt-free herb & spice mixes on the shelf. The dried onions add a nice touch, though. I recommend you include them in whatever you do.

Can't you just smell the aroma from your office chair? (Get back to work!)

This is a recipe I make several times throughout the year. Turkey is hardly the worst thing one can eat, so I didn’t mind making it the other night so that I could share it with you and also to make sure it would provide everything to make our Thanksgiving traditional and festive. Indeed, I had wonderful aromas, a nice moist turkey breast, and plenty of leftovers for sandwiches. This recipe makes about 6 to 8 normal-sized servings.

Gravy cheat!

There are drippings left in the crock that could probably be worked into a homemade gravy, but the point here is to keep things simple. I used a packaged gravy I found at Wegmans.

I served it with some roasted acorn squash drizzled with pumpkin seed oil. (That was luscious and a recipe for posting another day!)

As usual, I have this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box. However, the nutritional analysis is likely a bit off kilter. I calculated for 6 pounds of turkey breast meat. In the end, the total amount of meat would be a bit less since the bone is factored into the weight of the turkey on the label. Also, I put the soup mix in as a custom ingredient. Sugar, fiber, protein, etc. are all listed as less than 1 on the label, but I always round that up to 1. Better safe than sorry, though I’m sure there are far less carbs and sugar per serving that the nutritionals indicate. For the purposes of tracking, you are better off to weigh your own personal serving and enter that into your tracker. One thing is certain, turkey has tons of protein!

My Eggs! My Eggs!

Posted by Vicky on October 28th, 2009

Yesterday, I blogged about a lovely Baked Eggs Florentine I had for lunch. My friend, Lola, wondered if this would be a dish she could tote to an upcoming brunch. I suggested a solution that involves pre-prepping certain ingredients at home and performing final assembly at the home of the host or hostess. However, I have a cache of favorite recipes more suitable for toting.

Keep in mind that you won’t be committing any great sin if you have these for dinner. By tradition, Breakfast for Dinner night at our house makes an otherwise run-of-the-mill weeknight exciting and special. Nothing should stop you from doing that every night, though, if that is your desire. It is much easier to cook for yourself, stay healthy, and save money if you’re willing to think outside the box. Do what is best for yourself and your schedule. Have dinner food at breakfast and breakfast food at dinner, if it better suits your needs.

I will start by referring you back to my favorite eggy recipe, Jalapeno Heaven. This is my go-to recipe for potlucks, guests, and regular household fare. It is low in sugar, low in carbs, and very tasty. You can tweak it in any number of ways to suit your own tastes, and it is a guaranteed winner.

I think this next recipe is my husband’s favorite when it comes to the eggy recipes I’ve made over the years. It is called Monte Cristo Casserole. I had this at a diner in Texas many years ago and finally came across a good rendition of the recipe on RecipeZaar. When made exactly as shown, it is not the healthiest recipe among the din. However, there are several ways to lighten it up. To be a real crowd pleaser, your best bet is to use the frozen French Toast. However, if you do… you will want to take the egg substitute option. There is a whole school of scientific mumbo jumbo that explains why eating whole eggs is perfectly fine as part of a carb controlled diet. I will refer you to an article in The Journal of Nutrition and encourage you to Google the topic further. Suffice it to say… works for me. My aim is not to bore you to death. For our purposes here, I recommend you use the egg substitute if you employ the carby French Toast.

I see absolutely no need to top this with powdered sugar. I have never bothered with strawberry ice cream topping, either. Having said that, Smuckers makes some pretty good sugar free toppings, jams, and syrups, if the syrup option looks attractive to you. They have a sugar free blueberry breakfast syrup that might be a nice addition. Any kind of sugar free jam might work. Finally, you can always resort to the trusty sugar free pancake syrup you have in your kitchen already if you made my Autumn Gold Pumpkin Butter recipe. Neither myself nor my husband have ever seen the need for any sugar or syrupy topping. From time to time, we do dip it in a little ketchup. I have successfully made the Monte Cristo Casserole without the French Toast. It certainly isn’t as exciting this way, but it is still very good and much less damaging. You can certainly use just half of the called for amount of toast. Most of the time, I do a 50 / 50 version where one half the pan includes the French Toast for my husband and the other half is French Toast free for me. Simply increase the other ingredients on the toast free side to make sure the recipe is a consistent height across the pan before putting it into the oven. The best thing about this recipe is that you can assemble it the night before, store it in the refrigerator, then wake up and pop it into the oven. It is also very good as a cold or reheated leftover. This makes it perfect for a potluck or to provide you with a few day’s worth of lunch.

Another favorite breakfast / brunch / egg type recipe among my family is Matzoh Brie. This is a recipe traditionally eaten by Jewish folks at Passover when only unleavened bread is allowed. It is pronounced “br-eye”. If you Google the topic, you will find that it is spelled 40,000 different ways, and there exists as many varieties of ingredients. There is no reason why you can’t eat it throughout the rest of the year and for whatever meal you wish. Some serve it on Christmas morning.

Ingredients
4 sheets of matzoh
4 large eggs or 1 cup egg substitute
boiling water
non-stick spray
salt and pepper

Directions

Boil water in a kettle. You won’t need very much of it. Maybe 1/3 cup.
Break up matzoh into a medium to large bowl. You want the pieces to be about the size of regular crackers.
Pour boiling water over matzoh just a little at a time to slightly moisten it.
Spray a medium sized frying pan / saute pan / skillet with non-stick spray and place over medium heat.
If using whole eggs, blend them in a smaller bowl with salt and pepper.
Add egg mixture to the matzoh bowl and very gently mix to coat. If you’re using egg subtitute, you can forget the smaller bowl and just pour it right into the Matzoh bowl.
Place the entire matzoh / egg mixture into pan. Cook over medium heat until eggs start to set. Flip and cook until eggs fully set or you have the level of doneness you desire.
Cut like a pizza into 4 – 8 servings.

Allow me to now impart to you some tips. To get just the right amount of moisture in step 3, I pour just a tiny bit of boiling water into the bowl at a time and then swirl the bowl around until the matzoh soaks it up and I see no extra. Then I add a little more water. I keep doing this until I see just enough extra water to be sure the matzoh is saturated. You do not want to add too much water. You’re looking for moist matzoh… not soggy matzoh.

To make the Matzoh Brie easier to turn in the pan, I cut it in half twice to make 4 big wedges. Then, I flip each wedge. To me, it is much easier to turn this way. Some people quite successfully turn the whole thing at once without breaking it. I am not one of those people.

To lighten this up or make it more wholesome, you can choose a more suitable variety of matzoh. There are whole grain, low sodium, and ultra thin varieties available at most supermarkets. Though unleavened, matzoh is still bread, so your best bet is to use egg substitute instead of whole eggs. It tastes just as good and dirties up fewer dishes. Sometimes I will use Southwestern style Eggbeaters to add a kick.

I always use Morton’s Lite Salt in place of regular table salt in any recipe to lower the sodium content. You can also use less salt and spice your Matzoh Brie up in other ways. I’ve used regular chopped onions, onion powder, a variety of fresh or dry herbs and spices… There is all the room in the world for creativity here. As is usually the case, some people opt to slather on sugary toppings I find to be unnecessary. A little ketchup does the trick if you need anything at all. Salsa is a wonderful accoutrement with little to no nutritional cost if you choose your brand wisely. You can make a much larger serving in an electric skillet. The general rule is 1 egg per sheet of matzoh.

Matzoh Brie holds up to the tote-along and leftover tests quite nicely.

Finally, I will link you to some other tried and true recipes. The nutritional content varies. Be sure to moderate your servings and substitute ingredients as necessary. Keep in mind the whole carbs-to-eggs thing. I would apply the same rules when deciding whether to use full fat, low fat, or fat free cheeses. The less carbs I eat, the more I allow myself full fat dairy. My nutritional lifestyle is one of moderate to low carbs. I do take the preferences of others into account when making meals for several people and potlucks. These recipes aren’t necessarily low in carbs as listed. Most of the time, non-stick spray is perfectly fine when oil is called for in the pan. Margarine can be used in place of butter, if that’s what your program requires. Etc.

Joni’s Garden Veggie Quiche

Linda’s Spinach Cheese Bake

Cheesy Confetti Pepper Egg Thing – This was just me making the Jalapeno Heaven a little bit different, but it seems to have garnered many good reviews.

Easy Chile Relleno on RecipeZaar

Southwestern Rice and Corn Frittata on GoodHousekeeping – You can certainly reduce the amount of rice and/or corn in this one. You can replace the corn with less starchy veggies. Many ways to lighten this up.

Oooh, you can always make Soy Marinated Eggs as a low carb option. Sounds gross, but they’re fantastic. I just finished off another batch of these myself!

Nothing screams Autumn like boiled eggs in soy sauce.

That’s about all for now. Kind of long and rambly and stream-of-consciousness this morning. Sorry!

Baked Eggs Florentine

Posted by Vicky on October 27th, 2009

There is a fairly new brunchery in Annapolis called Eggcellence. We’ve been curious when walking past it a time or two, but we’re never in town early enough to go inside. I will now make a point of going in the near future.

Broked Eggs Florentine

As I was flipping through What’s Up? Annapolis magazine, I ran across a recipe for Baked Eggs Florentine. I happened to have all the ingredients here, for once, so I decided to have this for lunch.

Ingredients
2 large fresh eggs
1/2 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup chopped white onions
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese, shredded
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place a ramekin or small casserole dish in the oven to preheat at the same time.
While oven and ramekin are preheating, saute onion and minced garlic in olive oil over medium high heat in a pan for about 2 minutes. Add spinach and toss in pan for about 2 additional minutes.
Remove ramekin from oven, spray with a little non-stick spray, and crack two eggs into it. Top with sauteed vegetables. Place dish back in oven and bake until the whites are fully cooked and yolks are still runny (or however you desire them) about 7 – 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and finish with a little parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Allow eggs to sit a moment before serving, as they’re pretty hot.

Sssssmoky saute.

Ready to go into the oven.

In the magazine, there is no mention of spraying the ramekin with non-stick spray, but I should have done this anyway. I thought perhaps the olive oil would provide enough of a barrier to keep the eggs from baking to the dish, but in the end it stuck a little more than I’d like. Nevertheless, this was still quite delectable.

It was a lovely surprise to have my husband home early for lunch… just around brunch time, in fact. I doubled the saute ingredients and used the remaining half, along with some Southwestern style Eggbeaters, to make a nice omelet for him. He prefers his eggs scrambly.

Spontaneous Florentine Omelet

It's travail does not diminish its beauty.

That's Eeyore's arse.

While I was looking to see if this recipe was typed out online somewhere, I came across a video of the chef, William Paine, actually making his signature dish. A couple of things he says in the video are slightly different from the printed version of the recipe. I imagine this is probably because the printed version is more suitable to make at home.

In the video, he puts the oven to 450 degrees. In the article, he says 425. He only bakes them for about 3 minutes, while the printed version states 7 to 10. He also is very good at tossing things around in the pan, while I kludged along with my spatula. I also broke one of the yolks at cracking time, but that didn’t wreck this dish at all. I might just keep one whole and crack one on purpose the next time. And FINALLY, he uses non-stick spray in the video. Curses!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Devilishly Chocolate Reduced Sugar Bundt Cake

Posted by Vicky on October 26th, 2009

On Sunday my father came over for a lovely prime rib dinner with my wonderful husband and I. We ate heartily, and then we settled in to switch between the baseball playoffs and the late football game. It was a pleasant evening.

Devilishly Chocolate Bundt Cake - Reduced Sugar

I have several recipes from that meal to blog about, but I’m a rebel and choose to blog dessert first! A reduced sugar very chocolate-laden bundt cake. Let me say that again. REDUCED sugar. Not LOW sugar. Not SUGAR FREE. Very much higher than what you’re used to seeing here. A lot of it is Whey Low, a low impact form of sugar. Nevertheless, it’s quite a conglomeration of sugar. MODERATE YOURSELF. Got that? Ok. Let’s move on.

The bulk of the body. No pun intended.

Ingredients
1 (18 1/4 ounce) box of reduced sugar devil’s food cake mix
1 (1.4 oz) package sugar free instant pudding mix, chocolate fudge
1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups water
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray non-stick bundt cake pan with butter flavored non-stick spray.
In large mixing bowl, stir together cake mix, pudding mix, and chocolate chips
In another bowl, beat the 2 eggs. Add the water and vanilla. Mix well.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix until just blended.
Pour mixture into bundt pan.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until flat knife or wooden toothpick comes out clean from the densest part of the cake.
Cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting by beating together butter, cocoa powder, whey low, cream, vanilla and 1-3 tablespoons of warm water as needed to achieve the texture you desire. Beat, beat, and beat some more. Pretend you are mad at it.

The thick and the thin of it.

What you see in this picture isn’t exactly what you see in the recipe. I kind of messed up. The recipe I base this on calls for a 4 ounce box of regular instant pudding mix, which is 4 servings. Well, the sugar free equivalent… also 4 servings… is 1.4 ounces. I made this once before and managed to do the right thing, but this time I put in two boxes of the sugar free before I realized my mistake. Fortunately, I didn’t put in 4 ounces worth! However, the cake was really really really dense and added up to more calories than it needed. You’re better off sticking to one small box of sugar free instant pudding mix.

Most of the batter made it into the pan and not into my mouth. Yay me.

This was the first time I tried making frosting with Whey Low. Everyone, including me, seemed to like the frosting… but I reckon it was too granular for the average person. A better option might be a cup of Splenda or a powdered equivalent. Whey Low actually makes a powdered version of their product, but you probably need to buy it off the internet. I’ve not personally seen it on the shelf anywhere. I’m also not really fond of Whey Low. It is a low impact sugar, but it is still sugar. I can see myself replacing small amounts of brown sugar with the Whey Low Gold in the future, but I doubt I will use it very much in the future to replace substantial quantities of white sugars.

Good 'nuff without frosting.

If I make this again, I will either make a lighter glaze for it or not bother frosting it at all. It’s moist and chocolaty, and I think crapping it up with frosting probably wasn’t the wisest decision. Do as I say… not as I do. You will love it, whatever you do! That much, I’m sure of.

In SparkRecipes, I calculated for 14 servings. However, I’m truly satisfied with a ladylike half serving. Seriously… moderate yourself. It’s THAT chock full of chocolate goodness. Chock choc, Jayhawk.

All dressed up like a harlot!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Sweet Carrot Sauce

Posted by Vicky on October 23rd, 2009

A few weeks ago, I saw a recipe for Carrot Curd on Anatomy of a Dinner Party . Never heard of it… didn’t really know what the hell a curd was apart from a cheese by-product… but it looked darn good, and I have been dying to make a “lighter” version of it ever since. I’m not sure I did it much justice, so I’ll just call mine Sweet Carrot Sauce and encourage you to visit the original recipe if you desire the real thing. What I did come up with is very tasty, very saucy, and a great change of pace from pumpkin butter.

The pumpkin has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Touch of Autumn.

Ingredients
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar free maple maltitol based syrup
1/4 cup erythritol
1/2 cup Whey Low
2 Tbsp Splenda Brown
2/3 cup carrot juice
1 cup VERY finely chopped carrots
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

In medium (non-reactive) bowl, whisk yolks and whole eggs until combined.
Add erythritol, Whey Low, Splenda Brown, and maltitol syrup. Once again, whisk until combined.
Add carrot juice and a pinch of salt. Whisk, whisk, whisk-a-go-go.
Put mixture in (non-reactive) pan. Cut butter into 4 pieces, and add to pan. Cook over medium to low heat stirring CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon until mixture thickens into a thin sauce-like consistency.

Combining eggs, carrots, juice, and a veritable cocktail of sweeteners.

The recipe says to stir constantly, and it means CONSTANTLY! There is a very fine line here between creating a sauce and creating sweet scrambled eggs with carrots… at least the way I did it. Maybe the next few paragraphs will allow me to blame something besides my own ineptitude.

I had a lot of curiosity to satisfy by the time I was done with this recipe. First of all, what in blazes is a curd? Indeed, it’s a byproduct of cheesemaking, but according to Wikipedia…

“The word can also refer to a non-dairy substance of similar appearance or consistency, though in these cases a modifier or the word curdled is generally used (e.g., bean curds, lemon curd, or curdled eggs).”

Silly me. I know what curdled eggs are. Nevertheless, I pulled up one or two more definitions to satisfy my obsessive curiosity. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says…

1 : to form curds; also : to congeal as if by forming curds [a scream curdled in her throat]

Ahhh… the plot thickens! lolz. See what I did there?? And I think curdled screaming is very Halloween appropriate, so we’ll leave that there. Finally, dictionary.net says…

1. To change into curd; to cause to coagulate. “To curdle whites of eggs” –Boyle. [1913 Webster]
2. To congeal or thicken. [1913 Webster]

Ok, I’m more than satisfied. Was it good for you, too?

That spoon should be stirring!@~

Alrighty. Next course of action was to find out a little more about non-reactive pans and bowls. I knew it had something to do with acid and metal, but my cookware is limited. I went with what I had. Turns out, I was ok with the non-stick pan. Might be that the non-stick pan only worked because it’s cheap and all the non-stick coating has worn off.

Recipe Tips had this to say on the subject of non-reactive crap…

A pan or bowl made of non-porous material the does not alter or add a flavor to or change the color of a food being prepared. Stainless steel, glass, enamel, and glazed ceramic are examples of non-porous materials that do not adversely affect the taste and appearance of foods such tomatoes or citrus fruits that are high in acidic content and may react with absorb components of porous substances. [sic]

The jist of my research was: Avoid aluminum.

Guess my noxious plastic storage container was a suitable alternative to jarring.

Perhaps my noxious plastic storage container isn't ideal either.

Of course, the first thing I did with this was add it to Greek yogurt. I like to make sweet snacks with Greek yogurt as the base, but I usually wind up adding an extra packet or two of sweetener to the concoction. This was the first thing I ever added that required no enhancement. It didn’t take much. It is SUPER sweet. You might opt to cut back on the sweeteners a bit, depending upon what you plan to do with it. I never seem to remember that you need only 1/2 as much Splenda Brown as brown sugar called for in a recipe. Not sure that had much of a bearing here, all told…

I might have to go ahead and make a low sugar version of the pumpkin bread featured in the original recipe, just so I can drizzle this on top! So, I really don’t know what a serving size is. I reckon I had about 4 cups when all was said and done… and I think I used about 1/8 cup on my Greek yogurt, if that. If you can MODERATE the amount you use, this can be enjoyed as part of a reduced sugar / reduced carb program. Having said that, Whey Low provided a large portion of the sweetener. Whey Low claims to be low impact. Nevertheless, it’s still a form of sugar. Make of that what you will. This was the first time I cooked with Whey Low. It worked out pretty well, but I will still moderate my usage of the stuff. I really wanted to wait until I found some Whey Low gold, but I gave up. I should have ordered some from the good ole information superhighway when I first thought about it, but I was wrastlin’ with my inner moppet over that sugar issue.

Pathetic and lazy, I bought a Pumpkin Pal. What's with the teeth?

My husband has a link for everything!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.
For the full-on real thing, visit Anatomy of a Dinner Party.

Lazy Glazed Parsnips

Posted by Vicky on October 22nd, 2009

The often overlooked parsnip can provide a fine alternative to the usual mundane side dish and offers a good smack of fiber. My favorite way to cook parsnips is by roasting them in a honey mustard glaze. This Mustard and Honey Glazed Parsnips recipe on RecipeZaar is pretty much how I do it, though I always swap the honey out with some type of sugar free maple syrup and I don’t bother to remove the centers. Personally, I don’t find the centers offensive.

Don't they look INSANELY good, Georgene?

Last night, I wanted to use up some parsnips I had leftover from a much more substantial veggie roasting session. However, the oven was full with Cornish Hen, and I wanted to be lazy. I came up with a perfectly suitable stove top variation.

Ingredients
3 large parsnips, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar free maple syrup

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, syrup, salt, and pepper to a smooth and even sauce.
In a medium pan, saute the parsnips in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes until tender. Add fresh ground pepper, if desired.
Add sauce to pan and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until parsnips are glazed to your satisfaction. About 5 min.

Fish shaped bowl not mandatory.

Parsnips are root vegetables similar to carrots but are lighter and have a more aromatic flavor. If you’d like to read more about them, Wikipedia has a good article on the topic.

How long you saute the parsnips is up to you. We like ours not quite crunchy but not mushy. If you have a preference, adjust the time accordingly. The longer you saute them, the softer they become.

All snuggled up in the pan.

I used Safeway brand sugar free pancake syrup, but just about any kind of syrup having some thickness to it should work. If you so desire, give honey or agave a try. Maltitol based sugar free syrups work great, and Smucker’s sugar free breakfast syrup would probably work fine. Perfectly Sweet has a wide array of sugar free syrups and what they call sugar free Bee-less Honey which is a fine honey replacement if you can tolerate maltitol.

If I do these the lazy way again, I will add some sliced carrots to the mix. Carrots and parsnips go well together, as you might imagine. The best, however, is to roast them in the oven with other Fall veggies such as beets. Check back, as I plan to journal an all-out Autumn veggie roast very soon. If you want something different and quick, though, this is a perfectly suitable recipe and a lovely alternative to the usual side fare. This recipe put out 2 or 3 servings. If you’re feeding a whole crew or want your servings bigger, just double up on the ingredients.

Shown here with a Wegman's stuffed Cornish Hen.

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Cheesy Pork Stuffed Apples

Posted by Vicky on October 20th, 2009

This recipe was inspired by my friend Ron, who updates us on Facebook with the wonderful meals he cooks for dinner each night. I’ve stuffed meat with apples before, but I’ve never thought about stuffing apples with meat. Judging by the very slim number of recipes I found, perhaps you haven’t either.

Cheesy Pork Stuffed Apples

Ingredients
2 apples
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 tsp lite salt
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp cider vinegar (optional)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/3 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

Directions

Cut apples in half horizontally. Using a melon baller or small spoon, remove core and inner flesh until you are left with a wall about 1/2″ thick. Chop and set aside 1/2 cup of inner flesh.
Set apples, hollow side up, into a baking dish just big enough to leave about an inch of space around each apple.
In medium to large pan, saute onions in margarine until slightly tender. Add thyme, pepper, and salt. Saute another minute. Add pork, the reserved 1/2 cup apple flesh, and vinegar. Saute until pork is just shy of done and apple flesh is tender.
Remove pan from heat. Let pork mixture cool a minute or two then stir in 1/4 cup of the cheese.
Scoop pork mixture evenly into the four hollowed out apple halves. Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese and some more fresh ground pepper.
Pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the pan.
Bake about 25 minutes until cheese on top is lightly browned and apples are tender..
Serve as soon as possible.

Fruity meat!

This turned out to be pretty tangy. If tangy isn’t your scene, you might opt to leave out the cider vinegar or even use a less tart kind of apple. Personally, I really enjoyed the strong flavor that resulted.

Melon ballers aren't just for balling melons! Or something...

Melon ballers aren't just for balling melons anymore! Or something...

As you can see by my apples, you don’t need to worry about perfection when it comes to coring. If you care, you can cover up uneven coring and other imperfections with the stuffing for a better presentation. I often find that people are afraid to experiment in the kitchen because they’re not very good at the finer details of preparation. Be aware that even the finest gourmet chefs (which I’m clearly not) are not always perfectionists. What they are is good at creatively covering up their mistakes. If you’ve ever repaired a torn or uneven cake with extra frosting, you know what I’m talking about.

Are you going to Scarborough Faire?

If you make a hole in your apple when removing the stem or with the slip of your utensil, simply plug it up with some of the flesh. This trick doesn’t really make for a better presentation, but it does keep your apple from being useless.

When I am stuffing smaller objects, such as mushrooms, I find an ice cream scoop… or even a cookie dough scoop… comes in very handy. The cavities of apples are big enough, though, that a spoon worked well enough.

Stuff your stuffed stuff into the oven.

Obligatory artsy froo froo pic.

Unflattering composition? Poor lighting? Can't wait to find out. :)

Unflattering composition? Fork it!

This was a fine alternative to the typical hearty Autumn dishes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Ode to the Slider

Posted by Vicky on October 19th, 2009

Whilst shopping at Wegmans… which is a topic worthy of its own post… I came across some bacon cheddar slider burgers made with 80% lean ground beef and ready to cook. Before this, I had never thought to make my own sliders before. This is probably because I had never seen the new Pepperidge Farm slider buns. They’re available in white and wheat, and they’re so cute! At least, I think they’re new. My package has “NEW!” splashed across the front. However, the ones shown on the Pepperidge Farm website do not.

Tiny buns.

Because it is rare that I eat white carbs like bread, I don’t often make burgers. My husband adores burgers. When I make them, I typically help myself to 1/2 or so of a regular-sized burger with no bun, while I make a regular bunny burger for my sweet prince. Well, it dawned on me today that I could make my own sliders out of even leaner ground beef or ground turkey or ground pork. I can experiment with bacon, different kinds of shredded cheese… whatever my imagination can conjure up. I can serve several, bun and all, to my husband for probably less calories than the one or two burgers he would normally have… and I can make my own small slider and feel like I’m allowed to have a whole serving of something for once. I will still forego the bun, but I can have an actual whole cute little round burger on my plate. How exciting! Ok, well, it ain’t that exciting… but the possibilities for experimentation certainly are.

Football fare!

Yesterday, being out of counter space and in a hurry to get them done before game time, I threw the Wegmans burgers into a skillet with a little canola oil and cooked em up the lazy way. Normally I use my Cuisinart Griddler which requires no oil, drains off a lot of fat, and has removable dishwasher-safe grilling plates. (I love this thing!) I topped them each with 1/4 slice of sharp cheddar and served them with ketchup. Since I eat mine with a fork instead of a bun, I sacrificed mine to the “see if they’re done” cutting.

Four sliders and 2/3 a banana for my man.

My 2 sliders and 1/3 banana.

As you can see, I used a salad plate while my husband received a dinner plate. I always use small plates and small utensils at home. Doing so helps me to control my portions, and it psyches me into thinking I have more food than I do. I’ve been doing this for several years now. Trust me… it works! In fact, I picked up a good book on this very topic a few months ago: The 9-Inch ‘Diet’: Exposing the Big Conspiracy in America The book talks very specifically about how plate sizes have grown over the years and how this increase has affected our average calorie intake. Very interesting stuff and worth a browse next time you’re parked at the Barnes & Noble cafe.

In spite of watching our home team lose another heartbreaker of a game, we had a lovely lunch and a good day. I can’t wait to make more sliders. One more thing to note… as I was putting the slider buns away, I noticed they were exactly the same size as some dinner rolls I picked up from the Safeway bakery last week. I must remember to see if they’re cheaper than the specially made Pepperidge Farm rolls. Bet they are!

Chocolate Chip Banana Cream Bread

Posted by Vicky on October 16th, 2009

My husband adores banana bread, so I am constantly honing my recipe to be more wholesome and nutritious. That’s not to say this is a health food, but it sure is a delicious compromise. As flax has been proven to help lower cholesterol, at least in this house, I’ve managed to work it into the recipe with no negative impact on the taste. In fact, I think it tastes better. I love wholesome ingredients, and they certainly make a smaller serving of anything much more satisfying.

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl... dry in another. Voila. Simple!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 ounces Neufchatel, cream cheese style
1/2 cup Splenda brown
2 medium bananas, overripe
1 large egg
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup Flax meal
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp lite salt

Directions

Blend together butter, Neufchatel, and Splenda until well mixed. Add bananas, egg, and yogurt again until well mixed.
In another bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed.
Pour into a non-stick spray coated bread pan and bake in 325 degree oven for 1h 15m.

My latest attempt at artsy fartsy photography.

First and foremost, the more ripe the bananas… the better the bread. You want them overripe. This is a terrific way to use up bananas before they spoil. The browner, the better.

These are by far not the darkest I've used.

This bread is incredibly moist the way I make it. In fact, it’s verging on soggy… but in a creamy good way! You can use just about any combination of flours and meals so long as it totals 1.5 cups. I recommend you choose from among whole wheat flour, soy flour, flax meal, and almond meal. White flour is certainly acceptable if you don’t watch the amount or type of carbs you eat. The more fluffy and bread-like you want your banana bread, when using this recipe as a guideline, the more you should increase the ratio of whole wheat, soy, or white. If you choose to go with a lower carb version of all nut meals and flax, you may wind up with a soggy mess. While this is a great combination for chewy recipes such as my Chewy Chocolate Protein Bars, it didn’t work too well with this creamy banana bread recipe. I plan to try again using a different recipe base, but I don’t recommend it here.

The Neufchatel can be replaced with regular or low fat cream cheese, if desired. I’d steer clear of the fat free dairy stuff when it comes to baking. By the same token, the Greek yogurt can be subbed with regular yogurt, flavored yogurt, or sour cream. An equivalent amount of egg substitute works just fine in place of the egg.

Most of all, I can’t stress enough how great mini chocolate chips are. Just 1/3 cup goes a long way in this recipe where you’d need twice the amount of regular sized chips to achieve a similar taste and texture. You can certainly chop down regular sized chocolate chips, but to me it just isn’t the same. I’m very particular about my chocolate!

It should bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, but you should start checking on it at around an hour. The whole flours and meals tend to give it a darker look, so your best bet is to check for doneness by sliding a thin knife into the center. When it comes out relatively clean, it’s done!