Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Quinoa

To go along with the chicken we had last night, I made quinoa! yummm…originally from this site.

Roasted Garlic, Red Pepper and Mushroom Quinoa

makes about 2 cups—serves about 6 people

1 head garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup of quinoa
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop the top off the garlic and peel away the loose outside paper. Drizzle olive oil on cloves, wrap in foil, and roast for 20-30 minutes, or until golden. Let cool.
(okay, I didn’t actually do this part. I was kinda busy. So I just sauteed five big cloves of garlic in with the onion)

Cook quinoa according to directions on package. (I added a couple of sprigs of rosemary and some salt).

While quinoa is cooking, heat a skillet on medium heat and add olive oil. Sautee the onions for a couple of minutes, then add garlic. When the onions are getting to be translucent, add red pepper and mushrooms and saute until soft, about 6-8 minutes. (optional: when the vegetables are done cooking, add some cooking sherry or white wine and let it simmer in there for a bit, until it’s reduced a little bit.)

When quinoa is done, fluff with a fork and add peppers and mushrooms. Squeeze the entire head of garlic cloves into the quinoa, mashing some with a fork and leaving others whole. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Mmmm…Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken

I’m afraid I’m pretty rubbish at coming up with names for new dishes. Oh well.
this is what I’m trying tonight, with a few changes:
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
about…1/2 cup chicken broth?
about…1/2 cup cooking sherry or white wine?
1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
3 tablespoons brown sugar
chopped parsley, basil, thyme, whatever…optional
Directions:

1. In large sauté pan on medium-high heat, sauté the onion and garlic with the oil until tender.
2. Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Once the onion and garlic are tender, add the chicken to the saute pan (be careful not to overcrowd the pan!). Brown the chicken, turning once or so, for 15 minutes. Lift the chicken out of the pan, and place in a foil-lined 13x9" Pyrex pan, and pour all of the juices over the chicken. 
4. Now you have two baking options:
1. You have a broiler. Nice. Good call. Broil the chicken for 10 minutes on the low setting of the broiler, in a casserole dish lined with aluminum foil. Flip the chicken over. Mix together the ginger and brown sugar and sprinkle over the chicken breasts. Broil for another 10 minutes (the sugar, etc. may caramelize a bit, but that just makes it tastier. Charcoal is usually not tasty.)
2. You have no broiler. None. Sadness. Well, I suppose we can work with that. Mix together the brown sugar and ginger and sprinkle over the chicken. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, 218 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. Then turn it up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit or 260 celsius and bake another 5 minutes or so. Watch out--if your oven is temperamental, it might get burned. That would be sad. Sugars may caramelize, flavors may intensify, but smoking charcoal is usually a bad thing. 
5. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, reheat, on medium-high heat, the pan in which you browned the chicken, onions, and garlic. Add enough sherry (or combination of sherry and chicken broth) to the pan so that 1/4 inch of liquid covers the bottom of the pan. Place the pan over high heat and bring the liquid to a boil, scraping cooked bits of food from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula.
6. Allow the mixture to simmer briefly, just until the liquid thickens slightly, and all of the bits of food have been scraped off the pan. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped parsley, and pour over the chicken (when it’s done.)

Grilled Sea Scallops

So…guess what. While we were busily cooking the yummy dish below, my dad (the best dad in the world, mind you!) was looking up a recipe for grilled sea scallops as a treat for my coming-home Saturday dinner. Best dad, right?! Well, part of the fun was helping him make the “sauce” for the scallops…which turned out ok, but was a bit unnecessary, and the scallops didn’t really pick up any flavor from the “sauce” itself.

So this is the recipe that we came up with instead, based off of this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds sea scallops (you can buy a bag of frozen scallops and defrost them. ) We just left them whole, but you could also cut them into halves or thirds.
Melted butter (quantity? Probably about a quarter cup)
Onion powder and/or dried minced onion flakes
Garlic powder
optional: red pepper flakes
shish kebob fixings (mushrooms, red bell pepper, red onion, zucchini, grape tomatoes, etc)

Mix the seasonings with the butter and brush over the scallops. Thread the fixings and scallops onto the shish kebob skewers, and grill until done (My dad is the one who knows grilling stuff…). If desired, brush with more melted butter + onion powder + garlic powder mixture.

And…sigh with bliss. Aaaaaahhhh…soooo good.

Pasta with Scallops, Zucchini, Tomatoes, and…pretty much whatever else you have on hand. :)

My first foray into the world of cooking seafood!  
I have decided that scallops are…basically my most favoritest seafood possible. Mmmmmm….
I mean, fish is great, don’t get me wrong. I love it, really and truly. But scallops…? The texture is just so…amazing! And the taste is soft, mild, just right. Sigh. Happiness.

Anyway, so we had a couple of zucchinis being useless in the fridge, so I decided to look for a dish to use up the zucchinis and fresh tomatoes we also had lying around. So…this is what I came up with.

Serves 7-9

Ingredients

3/4 pound dry spaghetti pasta (the original recipe called for a pound. This was way too much. The  box also claimed to serve only 7-8 people. It was still way too much, folks! So…I would recommend maybe serving the pasta and the rest of it up in separate bowls at the actual table, and see what happens…)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchinis, diced
1 package button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup chopped fresh basil
4 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped (you can use a can of diced tomatoes, if you need to.)
1 pound bay scallops (the little ones. mmmmm…Although you can use chicken instead, if you really must…)
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook pasta until al dente. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat oil, add garlic and cook until tender. Add the zucchini, salt, red pepper flakes, mushrooms, and dried basil (if using) and saute for 5 minutes. Add wine and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, bay scallops, and fresh basil (if using) and simmer for 5 minutes, or until scallops are opaque.
3. Pour sauce over cooked pasta and serve with grated Parmesan cheese and freshly grated black pepper.

Mini Oat Buns

These are…still kind of a work in progress. So. If anyone finds some delicious ways of improving this recipe, then please do let me know. These are easily made up in just a short amount of time, and one recipe makes about 7 rolls. They are rather dense/heavy, but I think that’s mostly the fault of the tasty oats.
By the way, I’ve found these are best served hot with lots of honey and butter.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
3/4 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (If you’re sensitive to salt, you might take the amount of salt down a bit.)
1/3 to 1/2 cup buttermilk (I found that 1/3 cup is not quite enough, so play around with it a bit.)
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons butter, cut up into small chunks (the original recipe called for oil. I like butter better, but the oil also worked just fine.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix together in one bowl the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter, then add the buttermilk and honey, and stir until just combined. Form into biscuit/roll shapes with your hands, about a 1/4 cup of dough in each. You should have about 7 rolls. Place an inch or so apart on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper, and bake 15 minutes, until tops are very lightly brown. Brush with spreadable margarine or softened butter right away after taking them out of the oven. Enjoy!

Cheesy Corn Cakes with Spicy Avacado Salsa

Yummmm…The sweetness of creamed corn plus spicy avacado…mmmm…

Originally from this site.

Makes approximately 15 corn cakes, depending on size

2 cups corn
1x 400g (14.11 ounces) tin creamed corn
2 eggs
1½ cups grated mature cheddar
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk
for the spicy avocado salsa
2 avocados, chopped
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped (And by small, we mean small!!! As in, just doing half of a red onion is good. Better. Best. If you don’t want to taste onions in your mouth for the rest of the day.)
1 red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds if you don’t like it hot)
juice of ½ lemon
salt & pepper to taste
fresh coriander and cilantro, to serve

1. In a large bowl, combine the corn kernels, creamed corn, eggs, cheddar, smoked paprika and salt and mix well.
2. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix well.
3. Slowly stir in the milk until the batter is not too thick and drops off a spoon easily. (it should also not be so thin that it spreads too much when you fry the cakes)
4. Heat a large frying pan and add some oil. (A little bit. Not too much. Actually, I found that you can do without.)
5. Fry spoonfuls of the batter until bubbles appear at the top and flip. Allow to cook on the other side. Remove from the pan once cooked and place on some kitchen paper to drain.
6. In the meantime, combine all the ingredients for the salsa and mix well.
7. When all the cakes have been cooked, serve them with the salsa, extra lemon wedges and fresh coriander.

Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers

We had these last night, along with cheesy corn cakes with spicy avacado salsa and a bowl of fresh pineapple. Yummmmm….
Originally from this site.
Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoon Siracha (we didn't have any, so I just put in a heaping teaspoon of chili powder)
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine your ingredients, through the cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
2. Pour marinade over chicken breasts and turn to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
3. Grill on medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear.

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

Hey. So…you remember how I just posted the chocolate coconut ice cream recipe?

Guess what…this is what we had for dinner before the ice cream. You know…the protein part of the meal. Because, you see, you can’t just live off of dessert-y things. Unfortunately.

Oh, and you remember how on the chocolate-coconut ice cream recipe I said that my favorite part was watching the faces of my friends and family as they took their first bite? That goes for this one too. Priceless…pretty much.

Originally from this site

*Serves 4

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons curry powder (yellow works best)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 medium red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (by seeding the jalapeno you lose most of the spice/heat but retain great flavor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Place in medium bowl. Stir together curry, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper and chili powder. Sprinkle over chicken, tossing to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours.

In a large nonstick frying pan, stir onion, basil, garlic and peppers in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add chicken and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 5-6 minutes until no longer pink.

Combine coconut milk and cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Carefully add to skillet, whisking vigorously. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in ginger. Cook and stir for another minute. Serve over hot rice.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………

Coconut Chocolate Ice Cream

My absolute favorite ice cream recipe that I have made so far. Of course, I’ve only made four different kinds of ice cream so far, and one of them is still waiting to go into the ice cream maker. I think I’ll go do that after I finish this…so keep your eyes out for a vanilla gelato recipe.

But back to this one. Three ingredients. One of them is coconut milk. Case closed. My favorite part about this recipe: seeing the faces of my friends and family as they took their first bite. aaaaaahhhhh… Brilliant.

It is kind of…very…rich, so…savor slowly. We served the ice cream with semi-frozen strawberries, and managed to stretch it between about eight people. But then, it’s so rich that those were just the right size servings, even though each person did just get about a half cup. 

Prep Time 10 Minutes
Cook Time 10 Minutes
Servings 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 cans (13.5 Oz. Size) Full Fat Coconut Milk
• 1-¼ cup Sugar
• ½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Instructions

Yields 2 1/2 cups.

In a pot over medium heat, add all the ingredients and stir. Allow to simmer until thickened slightly, about 8 minutes.

Place in a container and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.

Add to an ice cream maker and churn until set, about 15 to 20 minutes. Freeze until desired consistency is reached.

Note: I use a Cuisinart ice cream maker; churn time was about 20 minutes for a soft-serve consistency.

Chai Spice Cookies

For non-chocolate cookies, these are…sigh…amazing. Just wonderful. Scrumptious. Etc. Yup. They’re kinda like snickerdoodles, I guess, but with a bit different spice combination. And no cream of tartar, if you’re a snickerdoodle enthusiast.

We had these with homemade green tea gelato. The gelato was…a bit odd…but good. I think, however, that I’ll be trying out a few different recipes before I post a recipe for green tea gelato.

Oh, and by the way…these are the cookies I was making while working on pizza, in case you were just reading that post.

Originally from this site.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice and black pepper. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar-spice mixture, set aside to reserve for rolling the cookies.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar-spice mixture until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

5. Beat in egg and vanilla extract, combine until fully incorporated.

6. Slowly blend in dry ingredients mixing until just combined.

7. Using a small scoop (2 teaspoons) roll dough into balls and then into the reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

8. Let stand on baking sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Flourless Nutella Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

Originally from this site.
We thought these were pretty amazing…especially with a glass of cold milk. A certain somebody *cough* thought they were a bit salty, and we wondered if the ratio of peanut butter to nutella should be fiddled with. Fiddling with things is one of my favorite past times, I do believe.

Yield: 16 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole Egg
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Whole Milk
1/2 cup Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Nutella
3/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl; add the egg, brown sugar, milk, pb and Nutella. Mix just until smooth.

Add in the salt, soda and oats. Stir.

Drop heaping teaspoons onto the prepared pan and pop the cookie sheet into the preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Once the cookies are out of the oven, let them cool on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes to set up a tad.

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Iron Skillet Cookie

Yup. This thing is amazing!!! I can’t even begin to describe it. So I won’t. Just try it and see for yourself.
Originally from this site.

• 5 T butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1 T molassas (I used honey because we didn’t have molasses, and it still tasted amazing)
• 1/.2 t vanilla extract
• 1 egg (If you happen to have a...rather small iron skillet, you can halve the recipe and, instead, mix 1/2 Tablespoon flaxseed and 1 1/2 Tablespoons water, and let stand for a while by themselves. This is a substitute for half of an egg, but is not nearly as tasty a way to make your cookie. :) )
• 1 C flour
• 1/2 C oats
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• a handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter, sugar, and molasses together in a skillet over medium high heat. Turn the heat off and let cool for a few minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
Add the egg right into the skillet and stir until combined. Add the vanilla. Then carefully stir in the flour mixture.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
We used a square 8x8” iron skillet.
Enjoy! Which I’m sure you will…

Zucchini Brownies

Okay, so I know that I said that the other brownies recipe was a keeper. But…well, I DID just post a second pizza dough recipe after saying that the other one was a keeper. Plus, these are a different class.

The recipe is originally from here. She gives a frosting recipe for the brownies, but we found that wasn’t really necessary.

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped raw zucchini
• 1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil, or melted butter
• 1/2 cup low fat yogurt* (regular or Greek)
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (may substitute gluten-free oat flour, if desired. I did one cup all-purpose flour plus one cup of oats, pureed in the food processor before I pureed the zucchini mix. It does give it a bit of a different texture, but we found that the texture was an attractive thing.)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (dark cocoa recommended)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan. In blender or food processor, puree zucchini, oil, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add pureed wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until moist throughout. Pour into greased pan, spread evenly, and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. (Overcooking will result in dry brownies.) Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for 20-25 minutes. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on them to make them prettier.

Pizza Dough II

Hello again, friends! We’ve been having a busy week in the kitchen this week, so expect to be overwhelmed with an abundance of very yummy recipes sometime in the near future. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but that front bed still needs freedom from all of its entangling weeds…

Well, one of the yummy dishes served up from the kitchen this week was pizza! (More or less a once-a-week dish nowadays…which is definitely a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. ) Since it was a warmer Saturday and we don’t have access to baking stones here in my sister and brother-in-law’s beautiful kitchen, I thought I would pull out an old favorite pizza dough recipe that conveniently does not require you to heat the oven to 525 degrees Fahrenheit.

The recipe is originally from allrecipes.com, and can be made either in a bread machine or by hand.

(makes 2 14-16” circles of dough, although if you like thinner pizza crusts, I made one large rectangular one rectangular one that was about 10x16 and two smaller ones that were about 12-14” circles, so three pizzas in total. The large rectangular one fed all four of us, including two guys.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons dry milk powder
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 or 3 Tablespoons wheat gluten (optional)
1-2 Tablespoons dried oregano (optional)

If you’re making the dough in the bread machine, put all of the ingredients into the bread machine bowl in the order recommended by the manufacturer, and put on dough cycle.
If you’re making it by hand, then:

Mix together yeast and water in a large bowl and let them sit a bit while you whisk together (in a medium bowl) the flour, salt, and milk powder. Add the sugar and oil to the yeast mixture, then gradually add the flour mixture into the yeast mixture. Knead the dough, then place in an oiled pyrex bowl, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. If you’re in a drafty kitchen (as in…one with lots of beautiful windows in it! ), then turn the oven on to warm for about 5 minutes. Turn the oven off, and slide the bowl of dough right into the oven and let it rise for about an hour and a half.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions, depending on how thin you want it to be. Roll into balls and let rest for about 5 minutes. Begin rolling out, very gradually, waiting about 10 minutes in between attacking it with a rolling pin. This part is actually really important…don’t rush here! Plus, it’s an opportunity to do other things…like make cookies at the same time….which I did.

Put the rolled out dough on lightly sprayed pizza pans and let rest again. When it starts to puff up, brush with a little olive oil, and poke with a fork all over. Bake until lightly brown on top, about 10 minutes.

At this point, you can take the crusts out, let them cool on racks, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze them.

Or, you can proceed with the sauce, toppings, and cheese. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melting and very lightly browned in some spots (it depends on how much cheese you put on there! )

For our toppings tonight, we put on sliced mushrooms, a whole sliced yellow onion, a red pepper, and cooked Italian sausage, with this recipe for sauce. It…was very yummy. We used a pint of tomatoes for our sauce, and a whole onion, and it was just the right amount of sauce for the big pizza. I would highly recommend not cooking it on an aluminum pan, however—and be sure to cover whatever roasting pan you do use with parchment paper!!)

What happens if I'm out of sour cream?

As many of my friends and family members have discovered this summer, I like doing unusual things when I cook. Basically, I like experimenting with ingredients--substituting, omitting, adding, etc. So I have found this website to be very helpful, whether I'm trying to make dumb/wacky/questionable ingredient substitutions, or...just forgot to buy sour cream. :)

Low-fat Quiche with Oat Crust

Originally from this site.
I think I’ve found the keeper quiche recipe! Besides, of course, the one that I have from my French cookbook…but that one has a pint of heavy whipping cream and lots of whole-fat Swiss cheese in it. Oh, and bacon. So…while that one is possibly the best-tasting, most melt-in-your-mouth quiche I have ever (and I do mean ever) tasted or made, it’s high-fat content means that it’s…*sigh*…more of a once-in-a-while treat than a good breakfast quiche that happens to be nicely high in protein.
I’ve made this a couple of times now, and have found that you can experiment a bit with the vegetables you put in here. The first time we made it, I used frozen spinach. The second time we used both fresh broccoli and fresh spinach. So…go for it! If you like it, put it in! If, like my brother, you don’t like spinach, try something else. Or just use bacon.

For the Crust

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 tbs. cold, unsalted butter (by the way…don’t use coconut oil to substitute for the butter. Don’t. Please. It makes it super-duper salty tasting for some reason…and not good tasting at all. Be warned.)
• 3 tbs. cold low-fat milk For the Filling
  
• 1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
• 3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped (or frozen, or broccoli, or mushrooms, or…bacon…but maybe not 3 cups of bacon.)
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 4 eggs, beaten (can also do 2 egg whites and two whole eggs if desired)
• 1 cup skim or low-fat milk
• 3/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp. pepper (or to taste)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make the crust, put the oats, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add in the butter and pulse until you get a pebbly-like texture. Add the milk and pulse a few more times to combine.
2. Now you have two options:
1. For individual-sized quiches: Form the mixture into a ball and place it between 2 large pieces of waxed paper. Roll out into a circle about 10 inches in diameter. Cut the circle into 4-5 separate pieces (depending on how many and the size of your dishes) and shape into smaller circles to fit your dishes. Spray each dish with cooking spray and press crust into each dish. Place the dishes on a large baking sheet and bake for about 7-9 minutes. Set aside.
2. For one larger quiche: Butter a 9x9” pyrex baking dish. Press the dough flat into the pan, going about half-way up the sides. (Not any more than half-way, though!)
3. To make the filling, you again have two options:
1. Stovetop: heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add the garlic and sautee for about 30 seconds. Add the spinach or broccoli bits and cook until wilted.
2. Easier…: microwave the frozen spinach, if using, until defrosted. Drain well, squeeze the moisture out, and then proceed…
4. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. Whisk the beaten eggs, milk, cheese, salt and pepper together. (If you did the “easier” method, go ahead and add in about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, leaving out the olive oil all together.) Stir in the spinach. Pour into the dish (or dishes)Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

No-Bake Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Originally from this site.

Yum….these accompanied us on the 11-hour drive from Oklahoma to Indiana, whipped up in about…15 minutes at about 10 o’clock the previous night.

The original recipe calls for oat flour, which you can make by blending the oats in a food processor (as you can read below). However, I had no desire to whip out the food processor and bring its disruption into the almost-sleeping house. So I used all-purpose flour, with a little bit of protein powder. I found that it worked nicely enough, but thought that the texture would be much improved and less…weirdly grainy if you use oat flour instead. However, I did like the taste of the tablespoon of vanilla protein powder (besides the fact that…it’s protein powder, and therefore super good for you, right? ) So I recommend using 1/4 cup oat flour, plus 2 Tablespoons protein powder. As you see below.

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (10g)
• 3/4 cup quick oats (60g)
• 1/4 cup oat flour (or make your own by blending oats in a food processor until they become powder. Measure after blending.) (60g)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar (62g)
• 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil (my sister thought that the coconut oil made it taste too salty. But…I didn’t notice anything. So if you’re very sensitive to salt, use vegetable oil. )
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. In a cup, combine liquid ingredients, then pour wet into dry and stir until incorporated fully. Transfer to a plastic bag and smush into a ball. Now you can roll into smaller balls or fridge until a little firmer. (Note: if you use coconut oil, these cookies will harden when chilled, but they go back to being soft if left out.) You could also bake these if you wish, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs

 

Originally from this site. 

Seriously. These are pretty wonderful and very muchly so amazing. We made them last night for dinner, along with baked sweet potato fries and broccoli. And....then ate them all together on the porch in the lovely evening 75-degree weather. It's times like these that make you realize so strongly that God has blessed us so richly!

So here's the recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup ranch dressing

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

3 or 4 good-sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts - cut into 1 inch cubes

Whisk together the sauce. Let it stand while you cut up the chicken, then put them all together in a bowl, cover it, and refrigerate for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour. If you have wooden skewers, don’t forget to soak them for a while—I think we soaked ours for about an hour. Then preheat the grill, skewer the chicken with a little bit of space in between each piece, and off you go! It took about 10 minutes for the chicken to get done on Scott’s grill.

If you want to, you can bake the chicken with the marinade in a pyrex pan in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes.

Brownies. It’s a keeper.

I think I found the brownie recipe of my dreams. Yup. I mean, black bean brownies are fun, and good, and good for you, and all that. But these...well, they're just great. And wonderful. 

Oh, did I mention that there's no eggs in them? Well, I just discovered that you can use a flax seed+water mixture instead of eggs. So...there's like, no fat in these. Except for a little bit of coconut oil, but you can use applesauce instead, I'm sure, and it would be fine. So...I guess you could call them semi-healthy. Which is what I'll call them. Lower in fat so they're a bit better for you, but not health-nut crazy ridiculous. Plus, you don't have to use the food processor to puree the beans. And it's easier to tell the boys what's in these than it is with the black bean brownies. :)

So here it is! 

Originally from this site. 

Ingredients
1-½ Tablespoon Ground Flax Seed
5 Tablespoons Water
1 Tablespoon Instant Espresso Powder
¼ cups Boiling Water
¼ cups Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
6 Tablespoons Margarine Spread, Melted
1 Tablespoon Oil (I used coconut oil, but I think you can use applesauce instead)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 cup All-purpose Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
½ cups Unsweetened Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
⅓ cups Chocolate Chips

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a small bowl, combine the flax seed together with 5 tablespoons of tap water. Set aside.
In a large glass work bowl, combine the instant espresso powder and boiling water and stir together until dissolved. Then add the chocolate chips and Earth Balance, and stir until melted. To fully melt all the chocolate chips, you may need to place the bowl in the microwave in 10 second intervals, stirring after each interval.
When the mixture has melted and cooled slightly, add in the canola oil, vanilla extract and ground flax mixture.
Add in the remaining ingredients and stir until just combined.
Pour mixture into a lightly greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish and bake for 12-15 minutes, being sure not to over-bake! The middle should still be slightly gooey.
Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes, then slice and eat!
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light 2008.

Pumpkin Doughnuts/Muffins (From Mrs. P.)

Ok, so these are pretty much amazing. I think. :) They're super-duper moist, super-duper pumpkin-y, and...not too terribly sweet! I did have a few that tasted a bit too...much like baking soda. Maybe a mixing problem, and maybe because there's either too much baking soda or not enough sugar. Either way.
I do want to try substituting honey for the brown sugar...just because I like honey, and because I like substituting things. :) So, according to this website, it's a bit up to taste. (By the way, there are 4 Tablespoons in a quarter cup.) I think I'll try a 1/4 cup of honey. Then do a 1/4 cup buttermilk, not a 1/2 cup, reduce the oven temperature to 325, and see what happens! Normally, it says to increase the baking soda in a recipe as well by a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey. However, since this'll be such a small amount of honey, and since I already think it tastes a bit too much like...baking soda...we'll try it without that little addition. :)

"Doughnuts"
Makes 12 very small muffins, but I think they're just the right size. You could...try putting a big spread of nutella in the middle to make them taller...just sayin'. :)
The recipe is from a book called "Deceptively Delicious," by Jessica Seinfeld. Her website is here

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sweet potato puree

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 large egg white

1 tablespoon soft tub margarine, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a doughnut mold or 12-cup mini-muffin tin (I used regular muffin pans) with cooking spray

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, pumpkin, and sweet potato purees, milk, egg white, margarine, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spice, and mix until completely incorporated.

If making into doughnuts:
              Pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag or pastry bag, and cut the bottom tip off of one side of the bag. Squeeze the batter through, into the doughnut mold.
If making into muffins:
             Spoon into the muffin tins. Makes 12 muffins.
Bake until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted, 15 to 25 minutes. Turn out onto a rack to cool. When cool, dust with powdered sugar.

pizza

As I write this, the last movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony is playing loud and clear, flowing through the entire downstairs. So glorious! :)

Anyway. This is the pizza recipe I've been using this summer, along with one of our favorite pizza toppings ensemble.
 I've found that while you can make ahead and bake the dough, and then freeze it, it isn't nearly as good as making it right there, same day, and plopping the toppings on it right away. But either way it's still good...


Here is the recipe for the dough: (makes 2 pizzas)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
Put it in the breadmaker on "dough setting." I usually make two batches on one day, freeze one, and put the other in the fridge til I'm ready for it. But--do make sure to take it out of the fridge a while before! Like...half an hour!
Divide the dough in half, and roll out to be about 13"in diameter. Sprinkle cornmeal on the hot pizza stones, then slap the pizza dough on and bake at 500 for only 5 minutes. Do watch it!!

Toppings:
Slice up some Roma or beefsteak tomatoes in the food processor. Then rinse out the food processor, and put in about 3 handfuls of spinach leaves, one handful of basil leaves, two or three cloves of garlic, and about a tablespoon of olive oil, and puree.
Spread the tomatoes on the pizza, and put the basil stuff over the top of that (I've tried it other way around. It's easier, but I think it tastes better with the basil on top of the tomatoes). Then comes your toppings--I like mushrooms, bell peppers, and canadian bacon, and maybe some roasted grape tomatoes...or sun dried tomatoes...or leftover chicken...or really...lots of things. Then the cheese goes over the top...we use mozzarella, but I think a blend of mozzarella and shredded parmesan would be great! Stick back in the oven at 400 for about 15minutes, until cheese is bubbly and turning brown.
Slide onto a cutting board and slice, then slide back onto the pizza stone and serve up! Oh, and don't leave it on the cutting board...it gets soggy. Yuck.

Another topping we've found that's good is to sautee mushrooms, bell peppers, and halved grape tomatoes, then to add a bit of balsamic vinaigrette and some italian seasoning. also yummy. :)
Enjoy! :)

graham cracker ice cream sandwiches

Okay...so these are amazing. Basically. :)

2 cups lowfat plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
2 Tablespoons lemon juice (use the real stuff! I just zested and juiced one whole lemon, and it worked perfectly)
grated zest of 1 lemon
16 lowfat graham crackers, broken in half (32 squares)
shredded coconut (optional)

Makes 8 sandwiches
In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and freeze for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the mixture starts to thicken. (I did mine in a 13x9" aluminum baking pan. And it took a lot longer than that time--like, overnight...)
To form the sandwiches, scoop out and then press about 1/4 cup of the semifrozen yogurt mixture between two graham cracker squares. Wrap each in waxed paper and freeze 30 minutes, or until firm.
If using coconut, put some on a plate and dip all four edges of the sandwich to coat. Or dip in chocolate!

Variations: I dipped the graham crackers in chocolate (the recipe for the glaze in the black bean cake) and then froze them. Nom nom...:)