Football food...

Now that football season is here, it's time for football food! One of the blogs I like to read, Life as Mom, is having a recipe swap involving appetizers and snacks. One of my fellow teachers shared this recipe with me, and it's been a hit. I've lightened it up, but I'll admit, it I can't say it's exactly a healthy recipe. One interesting thing I found out while shopping for ingredients is that regular bacon bits are just as "healthy" as turkey bacon bits. In fact, I think they even had less sodium than turkey bacon bits.

Party Dip
16 oz light sour cream
3 oz bacon bits
2 C shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (8 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1/2 C chopped green onions
Tortilla chips, such as Tostitos

Cream all the ingredients together. Place in a small backing dish and bake at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

The muffin mistake

Do you see these lovely, crumb-topped blueberry muffins? The recipe for them is here. I've made them several times and they are a hit with everyone in the family.

But, alas, they don't taste as good this time. Why, you ask? No sugar (not on purpose - although this has happened before with pumpkin bread). I try to cook healthy foods for my family, but this was going too far. The good news is that they still tasted great with berry cream cheese on them!

A perfectly easy cake

I like dessert, and I prefer that it be easy to make. My grandma sent me this recipe a few months ago for a quick chocolate cake. When I told her how much we (and our friends) have enjoyed it, she mentioned that there were several cake variations based on the chocolate version. We haven't tried the Oatmeal-Molasses cake yet, but grandma says it's the best! I can say that it doesn't take long for the chocolate cake and applesauce cake to disappear.

Chocolate Snack Cake
1 2/3 C flour (I use about half whole wheat)
1 C packed brown sugar
1/4 C cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 t vinegar
1/2 t vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Mix in remaining ingredients. Bake 35 - 40 minutes in an ungreased 8 x 8 inch pan. Variations: Dust with powdered sugar after baking or before baking sprinkle with 1/2 C chocolate chips.

Applesauce Snack Cake:
Omit cocoa and vanilla. Mix 1 1/2 t ground allspice into flour mixture. Decrease water to 1/2 C and stir in 1/2 C applesauce. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or try a dollop of cool whip.

Oatmeal - Molasses Snack Cake:
Omit cocoa and vanilla. Mix 3/4 C quick-cooking oats, 1/2 C raisins and 1 t ground allspice into flour.

Great new recipes

This week I remembered to plan our weekly menu ahead of time, which is good news for my family. When I plan ahead, I usually squeeze in one or two new recipes because I have time to shop for missing ingredients. I am extremely happy with our two newest recipes.

Our new meal had a "Chinese" theme: homemade egg rolls and egg drop soup. This egg drop soup recipe is easy and delicious. A little broth, some eggs, green onions, and...it's done.

The egg rolls were time consuming, but worth it. In order to save a little time, I substituted the chopped celery, carrot, and cabbage with fresh broccoli slaw from the store. The slaw was shredded, so I put it in my Cuisinart for a quick chop. We were really happy with the results in regards to taste and nutrition. The baked egg rolls don't have the preservatives or fat content that store bought egg rolls contain.

A little experimentation

My in-laws brought us some wonderful pears last weekend, and although we enjoyed eating them, we weren't able to eat them fast enough. So, I decided to make a pear baked good or dessert. When I browsed the recipes on my favorite cooking website, I didn't see anything I really wanted to try. I found a pear pecan bread recipe in my reliable Joy of Cooking cookbook, but I could tell it wasn't very healthy. Then, I remembered the zucchini bread that my family has enjoyed a couple of times already. It's healthy and doesn't taste like it is. After comparing the recipes, I combined and modified them to make a moist and delicious Pear Walnut bread.

Pear Walnut Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups grated pear (or mushed if very ripe)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Grate pear and mix with lemon juice.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl.

Combine egg substitute and next 4 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; add sugar, stirring until combined. Add pears; stir until well combined. Add flour mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly between 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Thanks goes to Cooking Light for providing me with a healthy quick bread base!

Bagel Making 101 from a beginner

I discovered Tammy's blog a few months ago and loved it because, well, I love looking at recipes. I could read cookbooks and cooking magazines for hours. The only problem is that it frequently makes me hungry!

Tammy has instructions for making bagels on her blog, so I decided to give it a try. I love fresh bagels from a bagel shop, but we don't have any shops close to our home. So a bagel craving leads to a drive downtown and an overpriced, but delicious, bagel.



After making the dough, letting it rise, and then shaping the dough, I boiled each bagel for about 30 seconds.



Then the bagels needed to dry off for a while. Before baking, I brushed them with an egg wash and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on half of them (my favorite bagel at the bagel shop is cinnamon-sugar).



The finished product was tasty and I was very pleased that they looked like bagels! The only problem I had was that the bagels stuck to the baking sheet. Next time I think I will try lining the baking sheet with parchment paper. Although this recipe is somewhat time-intensive, it was worth the effort for this bagel fan.

Ways with Tomatoes - #4

So far, I've told you a few ways to use a small amount of tomatoes. But what about a large amount of tomatoes filling a counter top in your relatively small kitchen?



I grew up in a family that likes to can. Every year we would can tomatoes and make spaghetti sauce. Last year, my mom and I canned spaghetti sauce in pint jars, which turned out to be the perfect about of spaghetti sauce for our family. Mom and I also canned jam jars with spaghetti sauce to use as pizza sauce. I was a little skeptical, but the experiment worked out wonderfully. I make homemade pizza two to three times a month, and last winter we ran out of pizza sauce probably by February or March.






This year I did things a little differently. Instead of canning, I'm froze the spaghetti sauce. My mom recently told me she froze her pizza sauce in paper cups, then removed them from the cups and stored them in ziploc bags. I tried it, and it worked really well! Homemade pizza is on our weekend menu!



One thing to remember when making spaghetti and pizza sauce - tomato paste! It's the key! Last year I didn't buy enough tomato paste to thicken the sauce. Every time I used the sauce I had to add 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste.

Picking blackberries

I truly enjoy picking fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe because growing up my family spent a lot of time going to orchards and getting apples, peaches, apricots, and cherries. When our family went camping we would look for wild blueberries and blackberries. I have a lot of great memories from those times.

Now, James and I have taken up the tradition. On Friday night James picked blackberries growing in a local subdivision (I was monitoring the little munchkin). Emily and I walked around the neighborhood enjoying the scent of ripe blackberries and finding little treasures (like bark chips and one little ant who almost lost his life).

We had enough berries to add to our Sunday morning buttermilk pancakes as well as a peach/blackberry cobbler. Thank you for picking the berries, James!

Note: The cobbler recipe does not call for blackberries, but they were a great addition!

Ways with Tomatoes - #3

Tomatoes and pasta! Where would the world be without this combination?

On Friday night we made Pasta Caprese. It's an easy one-dish meal with pasta, tomatoes, and mozzarella. The basic idea is to marinate your seeded and cored tomatoes in a moderate amount of olive oil, lemon juice, finely chopped onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook your pasta, cube your mozzarella, and throw it all together. It's a tasty summer dish.

This dish is best served immediately. The leftovers were not worth saving.

For the full recipe, go to America's Test Kitchen (registration required).

What to do with all that zucchini...

It's zucchini time! I've been trying new recipes and as you can see, the results are great!

I think the zucchini is an amazing vegetable because it is so productive and fruitful. People start giving away zucchini just like they do tomatoes because they run out of ideas for using it and they get tired of it. When we walked through the vegetable exhibits last week at the fair the vegetable "guard" was sitting at a table with a sign that said, "Free Zucchini." How could I resist? This is my first year growing zucchini and the poor plant has had to put up a tough fight against the overshadowing tomato and the intrusive cucumber. So let's just say I haven't picked a single zucchini.

When I got home I started looking for healthy baked-goods recipes my little family could enjoy. Cooked zucchini isn't a favored dish in our house. It doesn't matter how many seasonings I add, it's still zucchini to my husband. Here are two recipes we've tried:

1. Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded zucchini (12 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl.

Combine egg substitute and next 4 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; add sugar, stirring until combined. Add zucchini; stir until well combined. Add flour mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly between 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield 2 loaves, 12 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 150(26% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 0.4g,mono 2g,poly 1.6g); IRON 1mg; CHOLESTEROL 9mg; CALCIUM 21mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.3g; SODIUM 96mg; PROTEIN 2.7g; FIBER 0.6g

Found here on the Cooking Light website.



2. Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk
2 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
8 teaspoons fat-free milk
2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray; dust pan with 1 tablespoon flour.

Place sugars, cream cheese, and vegetable oil in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Lightly spoon 2 1/2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 1/2 cups flour and next 5 ingredients (2 1/2 cups flour through cinnamon) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in zucchini, 2/3 cup chocolate chips, and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare glaze, combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine milk, 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, coffee, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in a 1-cup glass measure. Microwave at medium 45 seconds or until chocolate melts, stirring after 20 seconds. Combine powdered sugar mixture with chocolate mixture, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Yield 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 281(30% from fat); FAT 9.5g (sat 2.4g,mono 4.2g,poly 2.4g); IRON 2.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 27mg; CALCIUM 96mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45.6g; SODIUM 241mg; PROTEIN 6.6g; FIBER 2.6g

Found here on the Cooking Light website.

We've enjoyed both of these recipes, and I think it's great that neither of them contain much vegetable oil. I froze one loaf of zucchini bread for a rainy day, and I may end up freezing some of the cake - I'm just not sure how the glaze will hold up. I hope your family can enjoy some healthy zucchini baked goods! Here are a couple more recipes from Common Sense With Money that I plan on trying once our zucchini is ready to pick.

Ways with Tomatoes - #2

The greatest challenge for many gardeners is not growing fruits and vegetables, but making use of the garden's abundance. This time of year is great for non-gardeners in the workplace. Extra vegetables and fruit mysteriously show up in break rooms and faculty rooms. Gardeners are desperate to share because they honestly get tired of all of the produce. One of my dad's co-workers shared kale, eggplant, corn, peppers, and some herbs with us last night. I don't know how to cook half of those items, but I'll have fun experimenting with them.

Our garden abundance is coming from the tomatoes. Earlier this week, I shared a Margherita pizza idea with you. Because I plan to be cooking with a lot of tomatoes in the next few weeks, I thought it would be fun to do a mini "tomato series" for you. We all need fresh ideas once in awhile, don't we?

My husband used to tease me about how I always needed to use a recipe when I cook. I'm learning from him and I'm not using recipes as often now. So, last night's salsa idea is only that - an idea for your overflowing tomatoes. I chopped up three medium-sized tomatoes, 1/4 of an onion, one jalapeno, one clove of garlic, and added some lemon juice, fresh-ground pepper, and a little salt. I thought it would need more pepper, but it was spicy enough for our taste. If you have ideas for using poblano and anaheim peppers, I would love to hear them. It's either that or we'll be making a lot of salsa and buying a lot of tortilla chips for a while.

A Recipe Swap

The writer of the blog Life as Mom is doing a recipe swap about meals to share with others in need. I like the idea of participating in our church's meal ministry for families with new babies, suffering from illnesses, or just dealing with hard times; however, every time I get a call from the meals ministry coordinator a sense of dread overcomes me. What can I take that's easy to transport, mild flavored for nursing moms, and everyone will like? My biggest problem is that casseroles don't excite me, and casseroles are the easiest thing to transport. I love to try new recipes, but they are rarely casseroles. My mother-in-law shared this casserole recipe with me that works well when sharing a meal.

Chicken Enchilada Stack

8-10 small flour tortillas
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups cut-up cooked chicken
1 sm. can diced green chiles
1 cup sour cream

Mix everything except tortillas in a large bowl. Starting with chicken mixture, layer with tortillas ending with chicken mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

When you're on a budget, this isn't the most frugal meal to share, but it's a tasty dish. I read on Money Saving Mom recently that she shares homemade pizzas when taking meals to a family. I might just try that next time.

Margherita pizza

We've been getting more tomatoes from the garden, but since there aren't enough to can, we're trying to use them all fresh. If you're looking for a way to use your fresh tomatoes, this pizza is the way to go. A Margherita pizza is my favorite pizza to order at Italian restaurants, but last night was the first time we've made it at home.

I make my pizza dough in the breadmaker because it's easy and I don't have to pay attention to it. I usually use 1/3 whole wheat flour and 2/3 white flour. 100% whole wheat pizzas don't get a good review in this household. I accidentally made one when Emily was a couple of months old, and it was a pizza we won't soon forget.

For the Margherita pizza, I made a simple pizza sauce and then layed the pizza with round slices of mozzerrella cheese. Then, I added a layer of thinly sliced tomatoes, followed my a layer of thinly sliced basil. Lastly, I drizzled it with olive oil and sprinkled a clove of crushed garlic on top. It's a very simple meatless pizza with a lot of flavor. We liked it so much, I think we'll have it for dinner again this week!

Home-made ice cream

One of our most fun wedding presents was the my mom and dad's gift of an ice cream bowl attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. We've really enjoyed experimenting with it. I have to confess, we didn't use it at all last summer when Emily was little, but we've tried several recipes this summer. They all came from a Cooking Light magazine I found in the library's give-away bin. So far, we've tried:

1 - Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. This was not our favorite recipe. It was a bit too cheesy for us. :)

2 - Peach Ice Cream. Delicious! We loved that the serving size was relatively large (one cup). Don't we all eat that much ice cream in one sitting anyway? This recipe was full of fresh peaches, making it a little like a sorbet.

3 - Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (minus the bean). I substituted pure vanilla extract, and the result is yummy. It's always fun to "dress up" vanilla ice cream with other toppings. Last night it was chocolate and caramel syrup and peanuts. I know the ice cream isn't as healthy after those additions, but it's okay once in a while. Tonight we'll try it with fresh blueberries!

Healthier Baked Oatmeal

I've really enjoyed reading this blog for the money-saving advice and occasional recipe. One recipe she's shared a few times is for baked oatmeal, and everyone in my little family enjoys it. I realized the recipe, although wonderful, was not as healthy as I try to cook for my family. So, I use the following recipe from the Cooking Light website because it's healthier and delicious. The leftovers are great microwaved and we get two to three breakfasts out of it. The important thing is that my family is eating oatmeal!

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup raisins
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine the milk, applesauce, butter, and egg. Add milk mixture to oat mixture; stir well. Pour oat mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

5 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup)

CALORIES 281(24% from fat); FAT 7.6g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.5g,poly 0.9g); IRON 0.8mg; CHOLESTEROL 47mg; CALCIUM 148mg; CARBOHYDRATE 48.8g; SODIUM 171mg; PROTEIN 7g; FIBER 3.4g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2003

The full recipe can be found here.