om nom nom: scones!

I tried this super easy recipe this morning and was thrilled. By my calculations, each one is about 150 calories if you follow her recipe. I am still searching for a good butter substitute, as her suggestion of Brummel/Brown is not in line with my eating habits (partiallly hydrogenated YUK)...but low sugar is great, and simple recipe that's easy to accomplish is right in line with a busy lifestyle.

Ingredients:
- 2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup dried apple/cranberry (publix has a great organic package of this), or dried berries of your choice...try to go low sugar!
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk*
- 1/4 cup low calorie butter, melted (still seeking a good product, I went with her rec. of Brummel/Brown in the meantime :(

Directions
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Coat a baking sheet with non-fat cooking spray
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar; mix well and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and melted butter.
Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined; fold in dried berries. Don't overstir or you risk a less than optimal texture.
Drop 12 equal two-inch mounds of batter on prepared baking sheet about 1-inch apart. Bake until tops just start to turn golden, about 15 minutes—oven temps vary.
Entire recipe makes 12 scones.

Skip the butter, and serve these with a tablespoon of low-sugar preserves. Trader Joes has a great cranberry "butter" or there are a number of healthy choices out there. Yummmmm.

* She has a recipe for making your own low-fat or fat-free buttermilk on her site.

bison burgers

Mr.Mister and I are both on a pretty big health kick/fitness challenge lately which has greatly squashed my cupcake indulgences and given me new challenges to make food tasty and interesting without breaking my own (very small) caloric bank. Still, we've both been craving big burgers for a few days now, and I finally had a chance to make bison burgers at home to satisfy the craving without going 1000+ calories each by eating out.

No pictures, because I simply didn't take any before all was inhaled. But here's your own moan-and-groan recipe, pulled from here with some explanations and modifications:

Bison Burgers

• 1 pound freshly ground bison meat
• 1.5 teaspoons "Ted's Special Mixture" (see below)
• 1 tablespoon EarthBalance margarine (1TB = 100 calories)

Use your hands to mix up the bison, seasoning, and margarine so all is nicely blended. Divide into 3, fire up the grill, sqash those balls of meat into flattened burgers so they fill the bun nicely when cooked. Grill and serve up on a 100-calorie deli thin Earth Grains whole wheat bun with lettuce and mustard. If you follow the above and divide evenly into 3, you should be looking at about 300 calories per patty, but read your own labels and do your own math to be sure...

If you're like me and you LOVE ketchup, grab a handful of cherry tomatoes and pop one into your mouth right before you take a bite of burger. Ketchup is crazy high in sugar (or HFCS boooo) so fresh cherry tomatoes hit the lycopene and tomato taste in a much healthier way.

Ted's Mixture

• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (see below for scratch on that too)
• 1 teaspoon onion salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 Seasoned Salt (thanks Recipezaar)

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch 

 I ended up making double of each of the above spices and will just keep in jars in the cupboard for the next time I need them. A little seasoned salt was *fantastic* on sliced up, baked sweet potato "fries."

tastes like summer

I threw this together for dinner tonight, and it was so delicious I have to share. Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine in a baking dish
• Small zucchini, sliced
• Small yellow squash, sliced
• One can peeled, diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Stir it around to get everything coated with the oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt, powdered onion, and a little bit of shredded low-fat mozzarella. Bake until everything is tender, about 30-45 minutes.

So good, so good for you.

firecracker shrimp ala the pioneer woman

More than one person asked about this at a superbowl party I attended last night, so here are the details:

I used The Pioneer Woman's firecracker shrimp recipe with just a couple of tweaks for ease and deliciousness.

Here is part 1 of her recipe, and here is part 2.

Here it is with my tweaks:
1. Buy about 1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp. Your fingers will thank you. Trust me on this. It's worth the extra $, says the girl who spent a LOT of time on Edisto Island growing up.

2. Make the marinade:

• 2 TB Sriracha rooster sauce (available at Dekalb Farmers Market and many Asian markets)
• 2 TB olive oil
• 5 cloves of crushed garlic OR 5 teaspoons of pre-diced garlic that you've beat on a little bit in a ziplock bag to crush it down
• 2 teaspoons plain sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt

3. Marinade for oohhh... 4 hours or so. She says 1 hour. I did 4 because my friends like it spicy, and I had other things to do.

4. Skip the skewers, grill those suckers on your George Foreman grill (or a grill pan) that you've sprayed/wiped with a little olive oil.

5. Put in a dish, add more Sriracha sauce (not too much, just a sprinkling will do), shake it up for good coverage.

Voila!

mmmmm zucchini

This recipe is so easy I almost feel guilty posting it. An old roommate of mine, who happened to be vegan, taught it to me one Thanksgiving and I've made it a few times since then.

Ingredients

1 zucchini

1 small handful sundried tomatoes

1 small to medium onion

Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice zucchini thinly; chop up sundried tomatoes so you have slivers instead of chunks; thinly slice the onion (I cut the ends off, then chop it in half, then make half-moon slivers).

Mix up in a baking dish, generously douse with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper (don't go overboard, you can always add more later).

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until it's nice and tender and the edges are starting to look a little crispy.

You can also make this in a pan on the stovetop if you desire, just be sure to stir frequently.

Delish, and healthy!

pie.

 my friend lori shares her apple pie recipe. there's no way it's bad :-)

easy lasagna

I had never attempted to make lasagna before last week, having always opted for the cheater "lasagna" from Real Simple. With food allergies to consider, however, I took on the challenge of veggie lasagna from scratch. I modified this recipe and was pretty pleased (with the exception of an important omission that I've added back in here).

Ingredients:

• 1 8 ounce package oven-ready lasagna noodles
  
• 1 9 ounce package frozen raw spinach
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups low-fat cottage cheese
• 3+ cups pre-made tomato sauce (see below: 28oz diced tomatoes, 2TB tomato paste, Italian seasonings, garlic, onion and a little water) or jarred pasta sauce
  
• 3 cups grated low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Make your tomato sauce:
Sauté a few cloves of garlic (to taste) and one small onion with olive oil in a medium sized pot. Add large can (28oz) diced tomatoes (don't drain), 2TB tomato paste, about 2TB Italian seasonings (marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil), and a little water to match up with the tomato paste. Mash everything down to crush the tomatoes farther than they already are (I used a potato masher), and let it all simmer a little bit so the spices distribute and soak up nicely.  Next time I'd like a little more than 3 cups, but I like lots of tomato sauce.

Make the rest of the lasagna:
In medium mixing bowl, beat eggs; add cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Spray a 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
Put one layer of slightly cooked lasagna noodles flat across the bottom of the baking dish.
Add a thin layer of the tomato sauce and 1/2 the leaf spinach, pressing down lightly and evenly over noodles.
Top with another layer of lasagna noodles.
Top this layer of noodles with another thin layer of tomato sauce and the cottage cheese mixture; add the remaining spinach.
Then add the last of the lasagna noodles laid evenly on top of spinach.
Spread the remaining pasta sauce evenly over the top; sprinkle with a little more Italian seasoning and the mozzarella cheese.
Press down lightly.

In a nutshell: 
You're layering noodles, spinach, the cottage cheese mixture, and pasta sauce throughout then topping with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I like my ingredients evenly spaced, but you may want to mix it up a little.

Other things you might consider adding: mushrooms, shredded chicken, tofu, ground beef (or the fake version of it)...As always, think about what you'd like to be eating later ;-)

Finally:
Cover baking dish with foil, using foil sprayed with cooking spray and keeping foil off the center of the lasagna. Secure sides tightly over baking dish.
Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes in oven. To lightly brown the top, remove foil for a few minutes at the end of baking time.

Peppermint buttercream icing

I took this buttercream icing and modified it to go with my cinnamon mocha cakecones, and thought it was enough of a raving success I should share. Not my recipe, and apparently not Annie's, so many thanks to Cook’s Illustrated for this stroke of easy brilliance. (thx to kah for pointing me to annie's page :-)

As you can see, best served with red sprinkles and a maraschino cherry!

Easy Peppermint Buttercream
Ingredients:
20 tbsp. (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. peppermint
2 tbsp. heavy cream  

Directions:
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds.  Add confectioners’ sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds.  Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds.  Scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds.  Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.  

Source: The Way the Cookie Crumbles, originally from Cook’s Illustrated, April 2007

cinnamon mocha cupcakes

I make no secret of the fact that I am a fan of cupcakes. Well, really, baked goods in general. But I really, really like cupcakes. They appeal to my designer self, they appeal to my kid self, they're simply appealing in general for the multitude of options they offer.

I thank Denise for the reminder that cupcakes can be baked in ice cream cones (they're even callllllled cake cones) to take these from tasty to quite joyous.

The original recipe lies here but I've modified as per usual. I plan to ice these with peppermint buttercream icing, or a basic chocolate icing. They're pretty awesome without icing, too, if that's your thing.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar plus a couple of spillovers so it's not quite 2/3 but more than 1/2
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 14 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon: Next time I may add even more
  
• 1/4 cup brewed espresso: I use one of these Bialetti stovetop espresso makers
  
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon; add to creamed mixture alternately with coffee and buttermilk.
2. Put cake cones one each in a muffin tin to keep them steady, then fill them to just shy of the top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

beet and cabbage soup, aka borscht

The original recipe is pulled from Epicurious, but I've modified it for a few reasons: I read the reviews carefully and agreed with a lot of what I read based on my own borscht experience; I knew I wouldn't use the rest of the cabbage later in the week; and I experienced the Great Beet Disaster of 2010 somewhere mid-recipe. There's nothing quite like the hot pink carnage of beets on the white tiles of your black/white kitchen floor...

Ingredients:

• 3–5 tablespoons (TB) olive oil (more or less...i add until it looks appropriate, so i probably hit closer to 5TB)
  
• 3/4 pound russet potato, chopped: this equaled one 3/4 pound potato for me
  
• 1 small to medium head of cabbage, chopped (peel off the outer layers where it's been exposed to nasty in the store, and don't use the core)
  
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 8 cups (or more) vegetable or beef broth: I keep Better than Bouillon in my cabinet for just such an occasion
  
• 6 2-inch-diameter beets, peeled, chopped: Or 3, if you splatter half of your goods all over your kitchen
  
• 2 TB tomato paste, if desired: I skipped this, and it did not suffer
  

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• Low-fat sour cream: vegan or original
  
• Chopped fresh dill, or dried dill if that's what you have and you're tired of buying stuff

Directions:
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat.
Add potatoes, cabbage and onion and sauté until cabbage softens, about 5–10 minutes.
Add 8 cups broth, beets and tomato paste (if you're using it).
Bring soup to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes to an hour.

Add lemon juice; season with salt and pepper.

Top with spoonful of sour cream; sprinkle with dill (makes it yummy!)

PS. Borscht rocks for good healthy stuff. See here for beet information and here for cabbage information.

confections of a master baker

You may notice a new link over there, Confections of a Master Baker. I just devoured (no pun intended) her book last night on our trip home from Denver, and can't wait to dive into her recipes. Fantastic book. FANTASTIC book. Well written, and for anyone who loves pastries, breads, sweets....it's a dream to read. It's probably a good thing I was trapped on a plane as I read it: I wanted to try the recipes she's scattered throughout the chapters immediately.