The Mini-Muffin Mental Game

It is no secret, I love turning bread/cake recipes into mini muffins. I have found when I make cakes or bread (i.e. banana bread) as a cake or loaf, it goes really fast in my house. That is a problem because most breads and cakes are higher in calories and fat because of butter or oil, not to mention all the sugar.  I have found that if I make mini muffins, it tricks my brain into thinking I am eating more when I am consuming less. For example, when I make a loaf of banana bread, it is gone within a couple of days.  If I make it the low fat version it is over 200 calories a slice, I usually eat 4 slices or more in a day which is a lot of calories to consume. When I make the mini muffins, it yields 40 muffins. I usually eat 1-2 muffins at a time and the muffins last a whole lot longer. They are also easier to freeze so I have them as an easy breakfast or snack for weeks.

Spicy Kale Pesto Pasta

This is one of my favorite recipes.  It was one of the first recipes I cut out of my magazines.  When I go to the grocery store I bring my recipes so I can make sure I get everything I need and do not miss anything (I have been known to miss writing down items that I need to get).  On one grocery trip I left it in the cart and it was never to be seen again. It took about five or six times making it before I remembered all the ingredients, and I was able to get the with the measurements correct.

Spicy Kale Pesto Pasta

1 bunch of kale
1/3 cup almonds, preferably roasted
less than 1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
Olive Oil
8 oz Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (or more if you like spicy)
1 can Cannellini Beans, rinsed

• Cut long stems off kale to make easier to steam.
• Steam kale for 7-10 min, until kale is tender, but not wilted 
• Cook pasta according to the package. 
• Remove thick veins from middle of the kale and lightly chop, set aside.
• Put almonds in a food processor until ground. 
• Put kale in food processor and pulse until almonds and kale are mixed together. 
• Put the lemon and Parmesan cheese in to the food processor, and blend until mixed well. 
• While the food processor is running, drizzle in olive oil until the pesto is the right consistency.
• Heat a tsp of oil in large pan at medium heat add red pepper flakes, heat for 1 minute. 
• Add pesto stir for 1 min, then add pasta and beans. Keep stirring until completely heated. 
• Serve immediately and enjoy! 

If you are not into spicy, you can omit the red pepper flakes. We serve this about once a month, and my 2 1/2 year old son enjoys eating this pasta dish. I omit the red pepper flakes from the recipe and then add on my own dish.

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins

I thought that I had found all the amazing recipes out of my Chocolate Cook Book, but I was wrong.  I had left the cookbook out on the table where my 2 1/2 year old found it. He was flipping through the pages then asked me if we could make this one (he love to help me cook).  I had all the ingredients, so I decided to try it.  Wow, it was amazing! I had guests that week and they went fast. 

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Natural Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp ground Ginger
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/2 ground Allspice
1/4 tsp ground Cloves
1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground Black Pepper
One 12 oz package of Miniature Semisweet Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, at Room Temp
1 1/4 cups Sugar
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs
1 cup Dark Molasses
1 cup Very Hot Water

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Whisk together the whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper in a medium bowl.
• Toss the chocolate chips in the 2 tbs of flour in another bowl.
• Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large deep bowl, occasionally scraping the sides down with a rubber spatula, until light and fluffy about three minutes. Reduce to medium speed add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. 
• Whisk together the molasses and hot water in a glass bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the molasses mixture in three batches, until well blended. 
• Fold in chocolate chips.
• For mini muffins, bake on a rack in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes, let cool on a baking rack for 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy!
• For regular muffins, bake for 15 minutes, let cool on a baking rack for 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Challah

Just about every week for 2 1/2 years we have been doing Shabbat dinner at our house. All those years we have bought challah at the store, and $4 per challah adds up.  Since I have always made my own pizza dough, I figured I could try my hand at challah. It took a couple of different recipes to get the one we use now, with lots of modifications, but I have found an amazing whole wheat recipe that wows everyone who tries it. 

Whole Wheat Challah 

Yields: 2 loaves 

1 cup warm water
1/2 cup honey, plus 1 tsp-divided
5 tbs olive oil, plus 2 tsp-divided
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkg)
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs vital wheat gluten
4 eggs divided
1/4 cup raisins, to taste (optional)

• In a small bowl mix warm water, 1 tsp honey and olive oil.  Sprinkle yeast over top. Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast forms a foam on the top of the water. 
• In a bread maker, large mixing bowl or food processor with dough blade, mix flour, salt and vital wheat gluten.
• In another bowl mix 3 eggs, 1/2 cup honey and 5 tbs olive oil and raisins (optional). 
• Next mix wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients.
• If hand kneading, knead for about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. If using another method mix until well mixed. 
• I mix mine in a bread maker and then remove once well mixed and then knead until it is not sticky. 
• In a large bowl, put the remaining 1 tsp of oil in the bottom and roll ball in oil until coated.
• Cover dough and let sit for 1-2 hours until double in size. 
• Depending on your time you can let rise again. I always let the dough rise two times.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Divide dough into two halves. Keep second half covered while working with the first.
• Divide the half into strands for braiding (I like to do a four part braid instead of three)
• Braid dough, repeat for second half. 
• Place both loaves on a baking sheet (I like to use parchment paper, but you could coat pan with oil or cooking spray as well).
• Mix final egg and use a brush to coat tops of the challahs.
• Put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

The original recipe was posted at allrecipes.com, as you can see I made lots of changes to it. I am not sure if the extra liquid from the egg works because of being at a higher altitude, but it makes nice and moist bread.

For step by step instructions on how to make a four braid challah check out ehow.com.  

Beginning of Four Braid Challah

Four Braid Challah with End Rolled Under

Challah Coated with Egg and Ready to Bake

Challah is Ready to Enjoy!

  

Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

On Friday night we had dinner guests over, I wanted to make a recipe I had not made in a really long time. I remembered this recipe took a long time to make, not like most of my dinner recipes, so I gave myself extra time.  It was not enough, I started cooking and cutting vegetables around 4p and we did not eat until 7p.  The 7p dinner time was with lots of help from my husband and guests.


This is an excellent recipe and worth the extra time it takes to make, but the 2 hour prep/cook time listed on the recipe is inaccurate.

Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Serves: 6

Sauce
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
8 oz fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and halved.
1/2 medium white onion, quartered
3/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 jalapenos, quartered (for a milder taste remove the seeds and membrane)
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cumin

Enchiladas
2 cups 1/2-in pieces peeled butternut squash
1 Yukon Gold or russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-in pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
8 oz cremeni mushrooms lightly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs canola oil
1 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese or cheddar 
12 6-in corn tortillas
1/2 cup cotija cheese (I used goat cheese this last time and it worked amazing)

For the Sauce

• Combine all ingredients into a medium sauce pan on high. 
• Cover once boiling, cover and reduce to a simmer, medium-low heat, until all the vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. 
• Remove cover and let cool for 10 minutes. Put into a blender or food processor and puree. 
• Set sauce aside. 

For the Enchiladas

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a large shallow baking pan with cooking spray (I have a mister that I use canola oil in but cooking spray also works).   
• Toss, vegetables in a large bowl.
• Drizzle with oil and toss to coat.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Transfer vegetables to baking pan and roast for 45 min stirring occasionally. Make sure the squash is soft and the vegetables are starting to brown.
•  Let veggie mixture cool and stir in 3/4 cup sauce and 1 cup Monterey Jack/cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup cojita. 

• Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, mist both sides of the tortillas with cooking spray of choice.
• Warm tortillas on both sides, about 30 seconds.
• Coat the bottom of a baking dish with 1/3 cup of the sauce.
• place 1/4 cup of the vegetable mix in each warm tortilla, roll tortilla and place seam down in the baking dish. Repeat until the mix and tortillas are all gone.
• Pour remaining sauce and cheese over the top of the enchiladas.
• Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 min. 
• Serve and enjoy!

*This recipe is one of my oldest it was cut out of my Sept 2005 Shape magazine. This time I tried the roasting vegetables first, thinking it would make everything go faster. That was not the case.  I just served the enchiladas by themselves but they could easily be served with rice and beans. The next time I make this I will do a double recipe of the sauce as I wish I had more to pour over the top prior to eating, it would also make a great salsa.  This is for six servings and is quite filling. 

I wish I had taken a picture, but alas, next time...

 

My Recipe Rules

So here are some of my rules when I look for recipes to cook or I am modifying my recipes:

-Where's the Beef? (you won't find any here, and no pork either)
-Fiber, fiber and more fiber (I only use whole wheat flour, whole wheat pasta, etc...)
-Quick and easy (this applies mostly to meals, I love waiting for dough to rise)
-Just because it has sugar does not mean it is unhealthy (I also love baking, and I have found ways to modify these recipes to make them healthier).
-Must taste delicious!

These are my basic ground rules for cooking. If at any time I post a recipe that doesn't start with these rules, I will try to write what was the original and how I modified.

In the beginning...

Before I learned how to cook, I always joked about how terrible of a cook I was.  It was so bad that I once burned Kraft Macaroni and Cheese while boiling the noodles. When I would tell people that, the would laugh and ask how long I cooked the noodles, before all the water burned out. Well that was the strange thing, I had followed the directions. There were many occasions where I would follow the directions on boxed meals and miss steps or do the steps in the wrong order and really mess up boxed meals. So much for boxed meals being idiot proof, I did a great job proving that wrong.

Since I was a terrible cook, we ate out a lot (my husband, then boyfriend and I).  My once petite figure grew and grew. We went on a camping trip with friends and took lots of pictures. When we got the pictures developed (pre-digital camera age), I could not believe how I looked.  I stepped on the scale and was 20 lbs heavier than I had ever been in my life.  I knew I had to make many changes in my life if I was going to get back to a healthy weight.  I knew I needed to change my eating habits, which meant I would have to be more comfortable in the kitchen.

I started slowly and simply.  For months I had been getting Shape Magazine, they had a section with easy healthy recipes.  Every month I would cook those recipes, the good ones I saved and reused the other ones didn't stay in the rotation.  Some of those recipes, I still cook today. By starting simply and using easy healthy recipes, I got comfortable in the kitchen.  That was seven years ago and now I have started making different types of desserts and breads. There is no recipe that is too challenging for me to try, although my favorites are quick and easy.