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Well, the poor little No Bake Cookies never hardened. I figured out why with the help of my very wise (and somewhat disappointed) hubby. I wandered into the office to sheepishly confess that I had "slightly modified" the cookies to "try and make them a little healthier" while he gave me a blank look and simply asked "WHY?". Fair enough. I explained that I wanted to substitute honey for some of the sugar in the recipe, and that since I was adding a liquid I felt like I should subtract some liquid from the recipe. Makes sense, right? Well, the liquid I decided to subtract was butter (which was to be melted before adding to the cookie mix). "But the butter is what holds them together and makes them firm up!" Right. Point taken.
So, I leave you with Nana's No Bake Cookies, which I assure you are little bites of heavenly goodness, and look just like this before they harden up into actual cookies that you can pick up and hold rather than mushy, sticky blobs...
Nana's No Bake Cookiesmakes 4 dozen "2 bite" cookiesIngredients:
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3-1/2 cups instant oatmeal (I've used rolled oats too, they are just a bit chewier)
Steps:
Mix cocoa, sugar, butter and milk in a medium saucepan and simmer for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal.
Spoon onto wax paper or foil until set, 1-2 hours.
So easy, so tasty...so going to be making them soon because now I have a CRAVING!!!
Oh, and I'm fully aware that this is my second post on the day that I'm starting "one post a day"... :)
Goodnight!
What a dreary, rainy day we had. Yuck. I made the best of it with a fabulous Vinyasa Yoga class, a little baking, some Christmas decorating and an awesome turkey noodle soup made by my dear hubby. All in all, it was a great way to end a lovely four day weekend.
Breakfast: A cookie! (I know, slap my hand!!!) along with a banana and almond butter.
I had a quick snack before yoga because I was STARVING. Apparently cookies for breakfast aren't the most filling of choices. Lesson learned.
Snack: Blueberry Clif ZBar.
Yoga was amazing as always, my muscles and joints felt all squishy afterwards. Love it!
Lunch: Leftover roasted veggies, a handful of Kashi crackers and about 1 oz of aged gouda.
I caught up on some blogs, then decided it was time to finally make the maple banana cornbread recipe from Sweet and Natural. I've been dying to try this!!!
Soooooooo good! I had two slices for my afternoon "snack" while decorating our Christmas tree. Both hubby and I were very impressed. I think I overcooked it a bit, it didn't seem done at 30 minutes so I left it in for an extra 5 and it turned out a bit drier than I expected. Totally my fault for not trusting the recipe. :( But still so yummy...I can't wait to share it with the co-workers!
Dinner: Brian made turkey noodle soup with fresh stock made from our smoked Thanksgiving turkey carcass. I can't even describe how good it was. The stock was perfectly smokey, and he added the leftover turkey meat, celery, onion, carrot, potato, fresh sage and my favorite brown rice curly-cue pasta. YUMMMMMM!!!!!! I had this bowl, plus another about 1/2 its size. And a small glass of wine.
After dinner we finished decorating the Christmas tree. I <3 <3 <3 our tree. A few years ago we decided to stop cutting down live trees 'cause we felt bad, and thought it was time to find ourselves a good artificial tree. We thought "hey, if its fake...lets make it REALLY fake" and decided on a fabulous silver tree. Very retro, and I adore it. :)
We have mostly white and silver ornaments (which we had long before the silver tree...just coincidence).
But we also have the obligatory ornaments that you collect from childhood. You can learn a lot about young Andrea from these ornaments...
Like...I played soccer. I loved Winnie the Pooh. I wanted to be a magician. I played the saxophone. I liked penguins. I am a Florida Gator. You get the idea...
All Finished!
And look, my hubby sneaked something under the tree! Presents for moi!!! :)
Anyway, sorry for getting a bit off-subject. But it does help to explain my current mood and why I am now craving an after-dinner snack of eggnog... What is your holiday must-have treat???
Good morning! Sorry I missed a post last night...I was wrapped up in BSI baking and then two movies on the couch with my hubby. :)
I'm very excited about this week's BSI ingredient chosen by Amy over at Coffee Talk...WALNUTS!!! As you've probably noticed, all of my BSI entries thus far have involved baking. I love to bake and realized that I wasn't doing enough of it so this has been a great way for me to get creative with making up my own recipes and experimenting in the kitchen. Walnuts were a tough one for me this week because I really don't cook much with nuts...my hubby HATES cooked nuts in baked goods. Something about the texture. So I never add walnuts to my banana bread or brownies because he won't eat them, which means I would be left with the whole batch to eat all by myself. A feat I am certainly capable of but which is not so helpful in my quest to eat healthier or lose weight.
So this recipe comes from two points of inspiration... 1. How do I incorporate walnuts into a baked good in a way in which Brian will eat the baked good? 2. How can I incorporate some of our leftover Thanksgiving ingredients so that they don't go to waste (buttermilk and fresh cranberries)?
The solution? Cranberry Walnut Sandies!!!
Whenever I have buttermilk in the fridge that is needing to be used I think of a wonderful scone recipe that a friend gave me a long time ago. Her scones are wonderfully fluffy, unlike most dry, hard scones you find in stores. I decided to start with her recipe, but to substitute the all-purpose flour for white whole wheat flour, and substitute some of the total amount of flour for some ground up walnuts. I was hoping that the ground walnuts would give the scones a wal-nutty taste without the big chunks of baked nuts that my husband despises so much. I added turbinado sugar in place of refined, and threw in the leftover fresh cranberries I had in the fridge.
I was surprised when I got everything all mixed together and the result resembled cookie dough rather than scone or bread dough like I thought it would. Because of this unexpected twist, the recipe quickly turned into a cookie recipe rather than a scone recipe. Warning: this is not one of my healthier recipes... :)
Cranberry Walnut Sandiesmakes 18 cookiescalories: 252 fat: 15.4g sat. fat: 5.8g carbs: 26g fiber: 3g sugar: 13.2g protein: 4.8gIngredients:
3/4 cup buttermillk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups walnut halves and pieces
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2/3 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup whole fresh cranberries, chopped finely in processor
4 oz baking chocolate, broken into small pieces
Steps:
Preheat oven to 375*.
Spread walnut halves on ungreased baking sheet and place in oven to toast for about 10 minutes or until fragrant. Stir once at about 5 minutes.
Pull walnut halves from oven and grind to fine flour in food processor or blender.
Mix WWW flour with ground walnuts, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender or rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles course bread crumbs.
Add sugar, chopped cranberries and chocolate pieces.
In separate bowl, mix together buttermilk, egg and extract until smooth. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and fold together until well blended.
Place golf ball sized drops of dough on greased cookie sheet. Press each dough ball down to flatten slightly.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
walnut flour chopped cranberries chocolate chunks pre-baking
I am so happy with the result, especially since I really wasn't sure what to expect. The cookies came out perfectly crunchy on the outside and wonderfully moist on the inside. The walnut flavor in the dough is fantastic...I was worried that it might be overpowering but it is not at all. Because the cranberries are chopped so finely they add more of a sweetness to the cookie than a tartness. And the ultimate test...Brian LOVED them!
I love the little red cranberry specs in them. I will definitely be making these again...probably as a holiday cookie this Christmas. I'd like to try them out as smaller, bite-size drop cookies to increase their crunch a bit.
A quick dinner recap for last night...
Dinner: Leftovers!!! (thankfully the last of them) along with a new batch of roasted veggies. We had none leftover after Thanksgiving!!! But luckily we hadn't roasted all the veggies we had in the fridge, so I was able to do another batch of them last night.
broccoli
brussels sprouts
parsnips
beats
tomatoes
garlic
mashed sweet potatoes
mashed russet potatoes and celery root
stuffing
cornbread pudding
veggies
And two glasses of wine, one while cooking/eating and one while movie watching.
And, 1/2 a cookie for dessert. Bri took the other 1/2...
Busy day ahead... Christmas decorating (didn't get to it last night what with all the movie watching...), yoga!!!, more baking, cooking a few things to get a head start on the week, maybe spin.... I'll report back later!
Enjoy your Sunday!
This is one of Brian's all-time favorite desserts, made for him by his grandmother whenever we see her. A few year's ago, Nana gave Brian a book of all of his favorite recipes of hers so that we can make them whenever we want. This one is requested every fall...
I made a couple of minor adjustments (turbinado in place of refined sugar, butter in place of oleo, WW pastry flour in place of white) but for the most part stuck with the original recipe. I'd love to figure out a good substitution for the butter/oleo in the topping to make it a bit healthier, so if anybody has any suggestions please let me know!Nana's Apple Crisp(with a few Bella Eats modifications...):
Ingredients:
Apples
14 medium, tart apples
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Crisp
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 cups rolled oats
1-1/2 cups turbinado sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup melted butter
Steps:
Preheat oven to 375*.
Peel, core and slice apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over apples, toss to coat.
In separate bowl combine all crisp ingredients.
Stir apple mixture and pour into ungreased 9x13 pan. Spread topping mixture over top and "pat down".
I hope everybody had a simply fabulous Thanksgiving! Ours was full of amazing company, fantastic food, lots of wine and tons of laughter. We had a fabulous time hosting and are so grateful for our wonderful friends who helped us to have an amazing day.
I started the morning with a 3-1/2 mile run/walk with Lucy to try and get the energy out of her in preparation for our company. She has a tendency to get pretty hyper when we have people over, so I wanted her to be as mellow as possible. We ran about 1-3/4 miles of the total distance, which was great for both of us. I haven't run much with her, especially since her surgeries this summer, so it took awhile to get our pace right but then she was a champ.
When we got back I had a big bowl of cereal with 1/2 cup Kashi H2H, 1/2 cup Back to Nature Maple Nut Medley, 1 banana, sprinkle of pom seeds and 1 cup Silk soymilk.
Then, I jumped in to help Brian prep our big T-Day dinner! In this case, I feel that pictures are definitely worth more than words, so here's a recap of our day...
Morning Preparation
dinner rolls
nana's apple crisp (recipe coming soon!)
veggies to roast
country bread and sage dressing
turkey!!!
Our guests arrived while the turkey was smoking and the veggies were roasting. We worked on munchies for a couple of hours...
Munchies
white sangria with mango and star fruit
cheese, fig spread, crackers, olives, etc.
And finally, the feast!!!
Our guests with Brian...
Our guests with me...
Such an amazing day we had!!! I haven't had a chance to read all of your Thanksgiving posts...but I can't wait! I'm hoping to play catch-up tonight and this weekend.
Ok, quick recap of today's eats.
Breakfast: We got up this morning to shop, luckily the stores we wanted to go to didn't open 'till 8am anyway so we were able to sleep 'till 7:30. I grabbed 1/2 a Clif Mojo PB Pretzel bar and a banana to chow on in the car (sorry...no pics). After shopping for a few hours and finding some incredible deals, we went to Bodo's Bagels for a real breakfast. I had eggbeaters, muenster and tomato on a whole wheat everything bagel.
I also went to the running shop this morning to report my test runs to my coach. I'm still having some foot and knee pain with the inserts we put in my shoes so he actually gave me a pair of shoes out of the store to try out with the training group tomorrow, no charge!!! He says if they work I can come back in and pay for them tomorrow, and if they don't we will try something different. How great is that?!?!? Late lunch/dinner: Leftovers!!! I decided I'm not counting my calories for yesterday or today, its just too hard and I'll get back on track tomorrow. No biggie. We munched on some cheese and crackers and fig spread while our t-day eats heated in the oven. Not all of this though, don't worry!!! :)
My leftovers plate.
One of my lovely dinner rolls.
And a winterbock from Star Hill, a local brewery.
Turns out I wasn't as hungry as I thought. Here's what was left when I was totally stuffed.
But an hour later I was ready for apple crisp...
Whew!!! That was quite the recap. I hope that everybody has a lovely Friday night...we are laying low and recovering from yesterday's festivities. Stay tuned for Nana's Apple Crisp recipe!
First of all, thank you all for being so supportive! You are all sogreat, I really appreciate your kind thoughts and suggestions for ways to work with phyllo dough! I meant to post a question asking if anyone had any suggestions, but I was so tired last night when I posted that I completely forgot. Thanks for offering some up anyway! :) I guess I no longer see it as a complete disaster because I still like the original concept, I just need to execute it in a better way. The flavors were great together, so I'm not ready to give up on it yet!
Now, just to be clear, I didn't rush on to do a second BSI just because my first failed. I would have just submitted the first but I've been wanting to try and "healthify" a classic favorite of mine and Brian's for awhile now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Thank you Lindsay for choosing pumpkin!!!
I give you...
Pumpkin Cranberry Bread!!!
This has been a favorite in our household for a few years now. As soon as the leaves start to change and the air cools down I am ready for this bread. It has become a classic fall recipe for me and, until last night, has been listed under my "dessert" recipe folder rather than "breakfast" or "bread" because of its high sugar and fat content. I've been inspired by the recipes onsweet + natural, and have really wanted to try and "healthify" this classic favorite of mine for awhile now.
I replaced all of the sugar in the original recipe with a combination of Fruit Sweet and applesauce. Fruit Sweet (FS) is an all-natural sweetener made from concentrated pear and pineapple juices. The ratio I use (recommended by the company, Wax Orchards) is to substitute 2/3 FS for the amount of sugar in the recipe. They recommend to reduce all other liquids by 1/3 the amount of FS used.
I removed all added fat from the recipe, turning 4 eggs into 4 egg whites and completely eliminating the vegetable oil required, figuring the added liquid from the FS and the applesauce would keep the bread moist enough. I also replaced the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour (WWWF).
The result? I think these numbers speak for themselves...
Original (per one slice of bread)
calories: 253 total fat: 5.6g sat fat: .6g carbs: 48.5g fiber: 1.6g sugar: 30.9g protein: 3.8g"Healthified" (per one slice of bread)
calories: 116 total fat: .4g sat fat: 0g carbs: 25.7g fiber: 3.5g sugar: 10.1g protein: 3.6gPumpkin Cranberry BreadNOTE: this recipe is for 2 loaves of breadIngredients:
2 cups pureed pumpkin
3/4 cup applesauce
1-1/4 cups Fruit Sweet
4 egg whites
4 cups WWWF (I think this should be reduced to 3-3.5 cups, the dough was a bit too dry)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
Steps:
Preheat oven to 350*. Grease two standard-size loaf pans.
Blend together the pumpkin, applesauce, Fruit Sweet and egg whites.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and spices.
Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together until blended. Do not overmix!
Chop cranberries and fold them into the dough.
Pour dough into loaf pans and bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes before releasing. Cool on rack out of pans for 20 minutes before slicing.
I am beyond pleased with the result. The bread is sooooo good, and so much better for you than the original!!! Its not too sweet, and the cranberries add a wonderful tartness. Brian also loved the flavor, but we both felt like the bread is a bit too dense. The flour amount in the recipe is pretty high, so I think I will try reducing it to 3-3.5 cups next time I make it. Does anybody know if whole wheat pastry flour might be fluffier than WWWF?
For breakfast this morning I had two pieces of my new bread smeared with almond butter. Yummy combo!
Paired with a cup of plain Oikos topped with fresh raspberries and sliced almonds.
And now I am off to yoga! I'm sorry I haven't commented on blogs in the last day or so...I promise I've been reading!!! Its been a whirlwind of activity around here getting ready for our Turkey Day guests, so I've been struggling just to get my posts uploaded. I'm hoping to have some catch-up time tonight!
Enjoy your Sunday!!! I can't wait to see all of the BSI entries tonight! :)
Thank you ladies for your kind thoughts regarding my BSI and your faith in me in the kitchen! I hope I don't disappoint you but, BSI pumpkin attempt #1 was definitely a disaster. However, my goal for myself with these BSI entries is to try something new for me, which I did, and I feel like I learned something, which is good. So that is why I am still going to share the recipe + experience with you all (but Lindsay, please don't submit it! I have another recipe that I am going to post in the morning...). So, here goes.
Pumpkin Creme "Disasters"Ingredients:
Pumpkin Cream
8 oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 roll of frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Apples
2 apples, cored and sliced thinly
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp turbinado sugar
Steps:
Combine all pumpkin cream ingredients together.
Combine apples with cinnamon and turbinado sugar in separate bowl.
(this step has many modifications as evidenced by the photo above, but this is what seemed to work best...) Unroll phyllo dough. Take two sheets and lay them on cutting board. Cut in 1/2 down the length of the sheets. Spread pumpkin cream across one of the strips of dough. Pile a couple of spoonfuls of apple mixture at one end, and roll phyllo dough to form a little packet.
Place packets on greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg white (I used butter, which was not good. I think an egg white would be better.) and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 375* for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
pumpkin cream cinnamon apples
They all look different because I was having a lot of trouble with the phyllo dough and was trying different methods of wrapping/rolling. I realized that what I really needed was puff pastry (lesson #1) and that phyllo dough doesn't work well with more liquid fillings because it gets soggy and the filling seeps through (lesson #2). I was pretty bummed because the flavor was good, the form however was not. This photo pretty much sums it up...
Oh well. I'm over it now and have moved on to a new BSI recipe which I will post tomorrow. It satisfies another goal of mine, the "healthify classic favorites" challenge I set up for myself last weekend, so I'm pretty excited about it.
On to the food diary.Dinner: Brian and I met a friend at our favorite Indian cuisine restaurant in town, Maharaja (sorry, no website). I LOVE Indian food. This restaurant gets me so excited because I know I am always going to have a great meal there with plenty of leftovers for the next day. Our meal tonight definitely brought the food dance out of me (reserved only for stellar eating experiences.) Sadly, the pictures are pretty awful (iphone + dark restaurant = grainy photos). I'll have better ones tomorrow when I eat my leftovers for lunch.
I had the Dal Saag (lentils and spinach in a cream-based sauce) and Vegetable Masala (veggies and chickpeas in a spicy tomato sauce) along with 2 pieces of naan (nobody can resist the naan!) and some white rice.
I had double what you see on my plate below, about 1/2 the total entree you see in the picture above.
And 1/2 this glass of wine. Brian finished the rest for me...
We went to Whole Foods afterwards, nice and full so we didn't buy the whole store. We did manage to spend a stupid amount of money per usual... It really got me thinking about all of you bloggies that are participating in the Thanksgiving Challenge. I am SO IMPRESSED with all of you and can't wait to see your final numbers. When we got home I looked through our freezer and pantry and realized that we have A LOT of food. I am hoping to next month adopt a similar challenge for Brian and I, even if just to cut our grocery bill in 1/2 for the month. It seems like great timing to clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry before going home to Florida for Christmas, and the perfect time of year to be saving money and giving thanks for what we have.
Here's our loot for the trip. We decided to do a separate Thanksgiving trip on Tuesday (hello crowds!!!) to get the veggies and other miscellaneous items we need for the big dinner.
whole wheat bread for bri's lunches
whole wheat pizza dough (should be in the newbies)
coffee
clif mojo and clif z-bars (we got clif builders for Brian b/c he LOVES them)
fancy cheese for fancy grilled cheese sandwiches one night
eggs
soymilk
oikos
maple syrup
tuna
canned beans for chili
canned tomatoes for tomato soup
pasta sauce
vino
bell peppers
onions
garlic
pears
fennel
bananas
raspberries (not in season here, but 2 for 1...can't resist that!!!)
frozen berries
celery
The newbies!!!
whole wheat pizza dough
cinnamon roll Larabar! (still no pb cookie or coconut!!!)
dates!!!
adriatic fig spread!!!
new tea - honey vanilla chamomile for night time and nutcracker sweet for work
I'm sipping on the honey vanilla chamomile right now and it is yummy! It also means that I'm about ready for bed...chamomile is the perfect evening relaxer for me. I will post my official BSI entry in the morning, along with some preliminary Thanksgiving plans! I can't wait to hear what you all are doing for Thanksgiving!
G'night! :)
So this morning I finally had a chance to try out the BSI recipe I've been working on for the last couple of days!!! This is my first BSI submission, and the one goal I set for myself was to try something that I had never tried before, not necessarily something that nobody else has ever tried before. A big thank you to Melissa for picking Sweet Potatoes as this week's BSI! It was fun to challenge myself to come up with my own recipe and really think about what sweet potatoes mean to me.
I've been in a mega-baking mood lately, so I decided to run with that and come up with a yummy sweet potato baked good. At first I was thinking cookies, then I got really into breads so I decided to do muffins instead. I love that baked goods become so seasonal - I make strawberry rhubarb pie in the spring, fresh berry and peach cobblers in the summer, pumpkin bread and apple crisp in the fall. I really wanted the muffins to scream "this is fall!!!" and become something that I crave when the weather gets cooler.
I started with my banana apple bread recipe and substituted sweet potato for the banana, thinking that they would have similar consistencies and the apples and spices in the bread would compliment the sweet potato well. I wanted to make some sort of crumb topping, and cranberries immediately jumped to mind, but I only had dried cherries in the pantry so I made do with those. Here's the recipe, I hope you enjoy it! There are a few modifications at the bottom that I think will make the muffins even better next time.
Sweet Potato Apple Muffins with Cherry Crumb ToppingYields 12 muffins146 calories, 3.7g fat, .8g sat fat, 26.3g carbs, 13.1g sugar, 3.2g protein per muffinMuffin Ingredients:
1 medium baked sweet potato, mashed (about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp apple sauce
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup peeled, chopped tart apple (pink lady, granny smith, etc.)
1-1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Crumb Topping Ingredients:
2/3 cup walnut halves
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup WWWF
1-1/2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp brown sugar
Steps:
Preheat oven to 350*. In a small bowl, mash the potato and add the brown sugar, applesauce, orange zest and egg. Mix well.
Add the chopped apple to the wet mixture.
In a larger bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold together.
Place walnuts, cherries, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a blender and briefly blend to chop coarsely.
Put topping mixture into small bowl and add butter pieces. Blend with fingers until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
Pour batter into greased standard-size muffin pan, sprinkle with topping and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan then release and cool on rack for 10 more minutes before serving.
wet ingredients dry added to wet topping mixture pre-baking
I'm pretty happy with the result! The muffins are perfectly moist, and the sweet potato and apple flavors work beautifully together. I love the tartness that the dried cherries add, and will probably increase the orange zest next time because it didn't really come through. I am a bit disappointed in the topping, it could be a tad more sweet and a lot more crunchy. In hindsight I realize that I should have toasted the walnut halves prior to coarse chopping them in the blender. And I think that pecans may have been a better nut choice, but I didn't have any in the pantry.
All-in-all I am really pleased with this recipe and will definitely be making it again, with those few minor adjustments to the topping. :)
Mmmmmmmm potage. One of my favorite cold, rainy night dinners. Its basically a creamy soup made by simmering veggies (and sometimes meat) together until they break down enough to puree' them together in a blender. Brian helped me tonight...he's kinda become our dedicated potage chef. He used and slightly modified a recipe from one of our soup cookbooks, Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka. It turned out perfectly.
Green Potagemakes (4) 1-1/2 cup servings180 calories, 3.4g fat, 1.8g sat. fat, 35g carbs, 4.3g fiber, 4.5g protein in one servingIngredients:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cups mashing potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
5 cups veggie broth
1/2 medium head of broccoli, stems peeled and cut into coins, tops into florets
4 tsp kosher salt (less if using a commercial veggie broth)
ground pepper to taste
Steps:
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until wilted and translucent.
Stir in the potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the broccoli. Cover. Simmer until the potatoes and broccoli are completely tender, about 10 more minutes.
Strain the soup and reserve the liquid. In a food processor or blender, puree' the vegetables with a little of the reserved liquid. Whisk the puree' into the remaining liquid and return to the saucepan.
Add salt + pepper and heat through.
My task tonight was to try out the Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread recipe I found on Itzy's Kitchen. I was really impressed with how easy and fast this recipe was. And, it was really good! VERY filling. I made a couple of small modifications.
Oatmeal Breadyield 1 loaf, 12 slices198 calories, 4.5g fat, .4g sat fat, 35.1g carbs, 4.2f fiber, 5.7g protein in one sliceIngredients:
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups hemp milk
Steps:
Preheat oven to 450*.
Grind oatmeal in a blender. In a large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, dissolve honey in vegetable oil then stir in the milk.
Combine both mixtures and stir until a soft dough is formed. Move dough into a greased loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
If I had more honey, I would have used the 4 tbsp recommended in the Itzy's Kitchen recipe. My bread was really good, but it could have been a bit more sweet. Unfortunately I ran out after 3 tbsp so I just worked with what I had! I will definitely be making this recipe again.
Dinner was sooooooo good. Exactly what I wanted at the end of this dreary day. The potage and bread are both really filling. I had about 1-1/2 cups of soup and 1-1/2 slices of the bread paired with a small glass of wine, and am now completely stuffed!!!
A little backtrack to my afternoon snacking. Lunch only stuck with me for a couple of hours....it was just veggies. I realized when I was starving at 2:30 that I hadn't had much protein today, but sadly didn't have anything to supplement with at work. So, I had my apple and slice of banana apple bread for a snack with a cup of green tea, which held me over for another couple of hours.
On Friday afternoons my office always gets a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers to celebrate the end of another week. Today we were also celebrating my big drawing submittal yesterday, which was nice. I had a small glass of wine, about a 1oz piece of really yummy white cheddar and a couple of water table crackers. No pictures, I still haven't gotten comfortable enough to clue my co-workers in to what I'm doing. I think that's best for now though.
Tomorrow starts another week of training and blogging!!! I wasn't very good this week, I was so busy that my workouts and home cooking suffered. I hope to find a way to better balance things because the busy weeks will keep happening and if I want to get to my goal weight I need to stay on top of my exercise and good eats.
I am now totally pooped out and ready for bed, so no BSI cooking tonight. I did spend about an hour working out my recipe though, so I'm all ready to prepare it tomorrow!
Last night I tried out a new recipe. My inspiration came from several sources, the first being Jenna at Eat,Live,Run with her whole wheat banana bread recipe. I made this bread a couple of weeks ago with one alteration inspired by my mother's banana bread recipe, which uses a peeled, chopped granny smith apple. I was really happy with how it turned out, and decided to continue to make a few changes to make it my own.
Banana Apple BreadYields 1 loaf—12 slices106 calories, .4g fat, 0g sat fat, 24.6g carbs, 13.2g sugar, 2.2g protein per sliceIngredients:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1-1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp apple sauce
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup peeled, chopped tart apple (pink lady, granny smith, etc.)
Steps:
Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, mash the bananas and add the brown sugar, applesauce and egg. Mix well.
Add the chopped apple to the wet mixture.
In a larger bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold together.
Pour batter into prepared nonstick (or greased) loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes in the loaf pan then release and cool on rack for 10 more minutes before slicing.
I am extremely happy with the results!!! The bread is super-moist, and the chunks of apple are wonderful little surprises. The white whole wheat flour made it fluffier than the whole wheat flour version (for a great explanation of WWWF see sweetandnatural). Yay baking!!!
Nana's No Bake Cookies
makes 4 dozen "2 bite" cookies
Ingredients:
