Pumpkin Soup: In the pumpkin!

Last weekend I tried making soup in a pumpkin. It was honestly an epic fail. It was my first time using dried beans and even after soaking them and cooking them for 1.5 hours they were still ummm...a little crunchy.

Outside of that I didn't get that wonderful pumpkin puree, thick, delicious product shown in other photos. I think those people cheated. I know it's still a pretty serving vessel so maybe I'll cop out next time and just transfer it to the pumpkin at the end.

I'd give you the recipe but really I'd recommend using Alton Brown's.

Using the tinfoil as handles was very helpful. It turns out while baking the pumpkin shrinks a bit and without the foil the lid would have fallen into the soup!

The soup contained corn, beans, and pumpkin- also known as "The Three Sisters" in Native American culture. Together these plants formed a symbiotic relationship. The corn stalks allowed the beans to grow upward while providing shade for the squash. The squash also kept the soil moist and protected. It was common for Native Americans to plant a fish underneath plants to provide more nutrients as well.

Home-made Granola Bars

The Pennsylvania Nutrition Program has a carrot granola bar recipe I tried out for work. It's easier than you'd expect and there are carrots which is an added bonus.

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.Heat honey and peanut butter in a sauce pan to melt.

3. Add oatmeal, craisins, carrots, stir until combined.

4. Pour concoction into baking pan/sheet, press down. Bake for 25 minutes

 

I was impatient and didn't let the bars cool before eating a few with hot apple cider.

IF you let them sit they do get a lot more bar like. This would be a good breakfast treat too.

Depending on how thick you want the bars to be you may want a bigger pan and increase the cooking time. The ones I made were pretty thick. 

Throw back bonus: using juicer pulp is an option too!



Serving size: 1 bar. Yield: 12 bars.
Nutrition Information: Calories-160, calories from fat 60, total fat 6g, saturated fat 1.5g, cholesterol 0mg, sodium 5mg, total carbohydrate 25g, dietary fiber 2g, sugar 15g, protein 4g. 

Chia Seed Meatloaf

After doing a presentation on Chia seeds it's time to cook with them. 

Chia seeds are a good source of fiber, Omega-3's, and surprisingly calcium. For 1 ounce there are 11 grams fiber, 9 grams fat (only 1 of which is saturated), and 18% of the calcium in the day. Ounce for ounce chia seeds have more protein and fiber than quinoa.

Chia seeds are considered an "ancient grain" like quinoa. Lately it's been pegged as a super food because Dr. Oz said it was. Outside of Dr. Oz's support chia seeds are pretty cool! They have a 9 to 1 ratio for water...rice is 2 to 1. If you cook rice regularly that's pretty insane to think about. This means they absorb a lot of water. The seeds themselves become very jelly when added to liquids.

You can add chia seeds to almost anything. Most internet sites say to add it to smoothies, juice, yogurt, and to sprinkle it on top of anything.

The only warning I would have is if you're new to chia sees and want to try them add them slowly. As one ounce has about half the fiber recommended in a day you may have some, uh, intestinal discomfort. Additionally folks with diverticulitis may want to avoid chia as well. I checked several sites with mixed opinions from experts so I imagine it's a trial by error for such individuals. 

The recipe: Chia Seed Meatloaf

Way more interesting than a smoothie!

Just mix all the ingredients together and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I personally like making "mini" loaves so you can freeze them. Since I'm one person and admitting to eating 1 pound of turkey in a short period outside of thanksgiving freaks me out. 

So much chia!

This was my first time making meatloaf and it was really good! I thought adding tons of chia seeds would change the texture/composition of the meatloaf but it didn't. If anything the meatloaf was lighter than meatloaf I've had in the past.

The sauce consisted of the above and regular ketchup. Surprisingly good. The shot glass is brown sugar.

Nutrient Analysis (no sauce): Calories-356, Fat-11.5g, Saturated fat-3.25g, Fiber-12g, Protein-28g, Cholesterol 84mg.

(Used http://nutritiondata.self.com/)

Modified from: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2390899

Eggplant Pizza

I bought an eggplant awhile ago at a Farmer's Market because it looked cool. Then I remembered I have no idea what to do with eggplant. 

The farmer told me Sicilian eggplant has smaller seeds and is sweeter than Italian eggplant.

Once you slice the eggplant is the perfect shape for mini pizza's!

Regarding sauce to cheese ratio I prefer things on the cheesey side. When drinking wine I get a little saucy but for all other intents and purposes cheesiness will always be victorious in my life.

Delicious purple crust pizza

Cheese makes anything worth eating so this was definitely something I might try again!

Monkey Bread

Considering the previous post was about "Gramma's cooking" it is no wonder I have been thinking about monkey bread. It is hands down the best thing -food wise- at the holidays in our family. It hasn't been around the last few years so I made up a lazy recipe- ensuring it's eventual return to the table next to the cheese-ball.

 

I'd imagine by now you've figured out I ain't about that measurement thing. It's 4 ingredients, if you're really struggling with the concept of "winging it"...look at another blog.

Procedure:
1. Shape biscuit dough into globular shapes, roll in cinnamon sugar and line a pie pan with them.
I used 2 store bought containers of dough (vacacation is no time to make dough from scratch).

2. Bake in a 350 degree oven. About 12-15 minutes
3. While baking melt butter in a pan. Add leftover cinnamon sugar mix from rolling biscuits...if you used that up feel free to use brown sugar. Melt down sugar-let it bubble make sure it doesn't burn.
4.Remove delicious biscuit wreath from oven

5. Pour butter/sugar mixture over delicious biscuit-wreath

6. Try to let cool before devouring

These little nuggets are obviously the best. Biscuit, butter, sugar. The risk of developing pre-diabetes is a risk I'm willing to take.

I made this for my Mom while we were at our cottage. It's a miracle any made it through the night and into the car for the ride home. The second it was done it was being devoured. We got our fingers dirty, we ruined out appetite for dinner. We did not care.

French Toast Casserole

This past Sunday I didn't have to work. Given this rarity I woke up early and decided to make french toast. But I ran into a snag when it was discovered there were no eggs in the house. Eggs are not worth the effort of putting pants on just to walk to the corner store. So instead of ordinary french toast the improvised french toast CASSEROLE was created!

1. Cut bread into about 1 inch cubes

2. Melt butter. Add all liquids together (second time around I'd skip the yogurt, left a mild sour taste)

3. Add in sugar and spices

4. Put bread into dish, pour liquid over bread- make sure to get every part of bread wet. Even if it means some gentle stirring (the liquid itself doesn't fill the dish...for a reason).

5. Bake about 10 minutes at 350. NOTE I used a toaster oven.

Before

After!

In the end it was a little over baked so it came out more like a bread pudding. If you're into that keep the recipe the same. I'd either shorten the baking time or remove some liquid for next time.

Frozen Dragon Fruit

A few days ago I went to Wegmans. As usual I was spending too much time in the produce section where I found dragon fruits (irradiated from Vietnam!) and thought to myself "Screw it, let's do this."

Upon returning home I realized most recipes using dragon fruit were savory or using it as a sauce.  I was NOT about to go down that road. DRAGON fruit takes a backseat to no one. So the only dessert not completely outlandish was sorbet. After skimming several recipes and checking out the ingredients (ignoring the measurements) I assumed I could just wing it and make it work.

This is the result:

   I'm pretty legit

The ensuing ensuing experiment (at the beginning I thought FAIL) was due to my shrugging off the the fact every recipe asked for a food processor and ice cream maker. Puhleez did the old Vietnamese have those things? NO.

Procedure:
1. Cut a dragon fruit in half to show off what it looks like.
2. Scoop out dragon fruit
3. Try at least 4 different kitchen utensils to mash the dragon fruit since you're too stubborn to find the food processor.

4. Add remaining ingredients

5. Strain the dragon fruit through a strainer...give up and resort to mashing dragon fruit against strainer sides for desired texture. Combined liquid and mash.
6. Put in freezer and wait....

                                                                                                        Tadaaaa

As you can see it had quite a few crystals. Which I imagine would have something to do with not having an ice cream maker. I'm not sure I've never used one before.

Still a success. Dragon fruit tastes a bit like a kiwi but more flowery? Try it yourself.

Tips for next time: Buy a kitchen that is all cute for blogging and stop being so grumpy.

Greek Yogurt Tarts

                                                                                                                "Green Lantern" Themed Tart!

These are  the easiest and tastiest tarts I have made. Granted these are the only tarts I've made. I went to the store wanting to make something new and tarts are adorable. Then I thought "What is even in a tart Rachel?"

Frankly I still have no idea how to make a "real" tart. Nor do I want to.

The goal was to make something that tasted good with limited fat. So instead of cream cheese it made sense to grab Greek yogurt which is high in protein and has zero fat. It has the right thickness and adds the tartness desired. Next to sweeten it up I grabbed a tub of cool whip (why not?). Finally mascarpone cheese. A sweet french cheese often found in desserts. The cheese if you opted for fat free cool whip is the only part of the filling adding fat.

All you need to do is combine the filling in a bowl. Don't even bother thawing the cool whip. Use HALF the container of cheese. To fill the tart shells add the filling to a ziploc bag, cut off the corner and squeeze away. This amount filled 18 shells for me.

After that add fruit. Which between cutting and given my tendency to obsess over detail took the longest time. This whole recipe is easy and fun.

Based off of the 18 servings per recipe each tart is around 120 calories (NOT counting fruit as it will vary. The kiwi for example added 20 calories). Most of the fat coming from the cheese and the tart.

The beloved grocery store chain in my area sells tarts which are 210 calories. 120 from fat.

Take that pre-made super expensive tarts! Plus mine were super hero themed...which is so much cooler than those fancy tarts you have to offer. HAHA

Tip to try: Add some vanilla to make them even better.

(Note the calories for my recipes are estimated based off of the containers and may vary slightly)

Strawberry Citrus Pulp Cookies

The unfortunate part of juicing is that you waste a lot of fiber by creating pulp. Since juicing is so in and people love posting crap on the internet there is now a ton of recipes for pulp. Here is 1 more!

Strawberry Citrus Sugar Cookies

From a cookie making stand point any sugar cookie recipe will do. If you don't make cookies often the general procedure is as follows...

1. Cream the sugar and fat (butter or oil) together. This involves a mixer. This helps incorporate the sugar which will melt and the fat together
2. Add the other wet ingredients
3. Add the rest of the dry ingredients

Tip: try not to over mix.


Now it's pulp time

It may not look pretty but it sure makes things tasty! Don't have a juicer? I'd recommend finely chopping some strawberry and oranges or mashing them up with a fork.

Just gently fold it into the batter. Then you have cute confetti looking dough with real chunks of fruit.

 I baked mine for about 10 minutes, but again depending on the sugar cookie recipe YOU chose it may be different. In the end I made twice as many cookies as the recipe said it would yield.

                                                                    Delicious cookies!

The tiny bit of fruit made the cookies taste like fruity pebbles. I am not kidding. Who knew a little bit of fruit would make such a flavor difference. I added red food coloring to some which caused them to be a little too soft from the added liquid. The ones on the farthest right are just plain.

Future goals for my baking: try and make a batch of cookies that actually looks like one batch of cookies.

*just because these cookies have fruit in them does not mean they're good for you. Try not to eat them all!

It's Fall and time for APPLES

Apple picking and apple cider donuts are delicious. Apples are also have fiber!

Today was the 3rd time I've been to the Plattsburgh Heart Walk and we gave out apples and some nutrition information on apples

                                                  Snagged this recipe from allrecipes.com