My Usual Breakfast, How I've Missed You

Grapes. Pineapple. Banana Slices. Wheat Germ. Oikos (organic) Greek Yogurt. A drizzle of honey. And....drumroll...a bit of coffee with soymilk.

Hi guys, I haven't seen you in weeks. Instead I've been gorging myself on egg sandwiches, waffles and muffins (hi, carbs). But today you're back. Or maybe I'm back (no pregnancy-induced nausea this morning!). So hello again fruit and dairy food groups, my old friends. Cheers to healthy breakfasts.

Holiday cookies

Yesterday was a fun day. My brother came to town a few days ago so we sat around decorating these cookies for a while yesterday, using M&Ms, spice drops, sprinkles and frosting. Then we ate copious amounts of food: glazed carrots, tons of cheese, crackers and melon, green beans, my Mac and Cheese, and even red velvet cake.

So this morning I woke up and made something fairly healthy: I took a dollop of Oikos greek yogurt, a handful of frozen berries, a splash of vanilla soymilk, 1 T of wheat germ, and 1 t of honey and blended it together. I drank it so fast I didn't get to take a picture of it. Then Chief the cat finished off the remnants.

Today's plans: Movies and Chinese food!

Moosewood's Low-Fat Mac and Cheese

I used to make this recipe more often, but now I haven't made it in ages. Since I misplaced my Moosewood cookbook somehow, last night I scoured the Internet for this more healthy version of the old childhood favorite and finally found it.

I love that Moosewood includes onion, cottage cheese and skim milk (I used soy milk) in the recipe - makes for a creamy yet lighter version of this dish. We also didn't have cayenne or bread crumbs, but it turned out just fine. You might also try vegan cheese instead to make this a vegan recipe.

Winter Chili -- Again

I know, I know, I just made chili and blogged about it. In December no less. What kind of food blogger am I?

However, I'm pregnant! I should be able to cook whatever I feel like eating, no? (It's a pretty decent rationale - I might stick by it for months).

It's been so hard not sharing this news sooner - especially in the throes of morning sickness when my eating got, well, weird. It's also just hard not talking about it all the time:) We're very excited. And I'm also getting an extremely strong girl vibe right now, although we won't have the possibility of knowing this for certain for another month or so.

Anyway, for about 6 weeks - for those of you interested - I was up at 4 a.m. every single night gagging and hoping a B-natal lollipop would help. Sometimes it did; sometimes it didn't. I wound up watching a lot of television in the middle of the night: old Buffy the Vampire reruns, infomercials, and a long and wildly entertaining movie called The Abyss. But now I'm in my 15th week and doing a lot better - hooray.

So here is my new chili recipe -- basically my old chili recipe with a twist (thanks for the carrot suggestion, Sheri!):

1. Sauté an entire minced yellow onion in extra virgin olive oil (wear onion goggles if weepy).
2. Add an entire minced orange bell pepper, a chopped carrot or two and a chopped celery stalk.
3. Add a can of tomato sauce, a can of kidney beans, a can of black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and 1 cup of quorn, a meatless and soy-free protein.
4. Add 1 teaspoon of chili powder to the pot and stir everything together for a bit over medium heat. Then I put it on low heat for quite a while before eating.

Voila. Now that I'm back in St. Louis after a week in Miami, I can say with fervor: Happy winter.

Roasted Vegetable Latkes

So today my mother-in-law had the most brilliant idea over what to do with leftover roasted vegetables: make vegetable latkes!

We had roasted eggplant, mushrooms, asparagus, and red and green peppers the night before (we had drizzled them with olive oil and then put them in 450 degrees for 10 or so minutes). Today she took what was left -- about four cups -- pureed them all in a Cuisinart, added 1/4 c diced yellow onion and a shallot, and then added 2 eggs and a cup of matzoh meal (as much matzoh meal as it takes for it to have a firm consistency). Then she let the mixture refrigerate for a couple hours.

Finally, she made them into little balls and flattened them out. She formed all the patties first before frying them in heated vegetable oil in a pan. She fried them 2 minutes on each side until they were delightfully crispy. Yum.

Round Holiday Challah

Braided dough with eggnog and sesame seeds:

This recipe is from a lovely book called In the Jewish Tradition by Judith B. Fellner.

I am in Miami right now, so this morning my mother-in-law and I mixed up 1 and 1/4 c flour, 1/4 c honey and 1 1/2 t salt in a large bowl. We then added 1/2 c olive oil, 1 c hot tap water, then we beat the mixture together for 2 minutes. Then we added 3 eggs and 1 egg white, 1/2 flour and beat it again for another 2 minutes. Then we stirred in another 4 cups (approximately) of flour to make soft dough, which we then kneaded for about 10 minutes.

We then placed the dough in a greased bowl and covered it with plastic wrap for about an hour (or two). It doubled in size at this point, so then I punched it (punch! punch!) and divided it into three pieces, which I braided. Then we placed it on a greased cookie sheet and painted it with egg yolk and sesame seeds for another hour.

Finally, we baked it at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. It is beautiful! Seriously, this should win a contest.

And here are a few other Miami photos. You may have heard about the flooding the occurred last week during a rainstorm (we got something like 12 inches in three hours). Here is one view:


This is Hootie, a cockapoo and one of the sweetest, most endearing animals I have ever met. I spent a lot of time with Hootie this past week and he was soooooo hard to leave!


Finally, here is one of Jake and Gabe (Jake's twin brother) and I behind the bar at the famous Joe's Stone Crab. Jake and I got there hours before dinner to put our names down so there wouldn't be a long wait once more of the family arrived. And Joe's had the best creamed spinach I've ever eaten in my life.


We also took a trip out to the Everglades again and spotted quite a few alligators - those pics are forthcoming!

Sugar Cookies/Biscuits

Yesterday I had a hankering for sugar cookies. So I preheated our oven. I dug out a baking sheet. I stirred up some flour and baking soda and baking powder. I measured out some butter. Then I realized we are out of sugar (the horror, the horror). So I used Splenda (ick, right?). Nah, they were okay. I wound up with these sugar cookie/biscuit type things. Well, Jake likes them.

Weekend Chili

I've had a craving for chili for days and finally just made some - I think it will last us throughout the weekend.

First I minced about 3/4 a white onion and browned it, then I added two sliced roma tomatoes (I had to put them to good use), then I added the following ingredients you see above: one can of kidney beans, one can of black beans, one can of diced tomatoes, one small can of tomato sauce, quite a bit of chili seasoning, annnnd a great ingredient my cousin told me about, Quorn, which is a soy-free meatless protein (mmm, and delish).

I let it simmer for a bit and it is ready to go for the weekend!

And Happy Hanukkah! Latkes posted soon!

Thursday's Lunch

Mmmm I heart Naked Green Machine juice.

Glazed Lemon Muffins

I don't know what got into me this morning. It's Monday, after all. But I woke up early (way early - 5ish) and started reading a couple cookbooks and felt inspired to make muffins. I used my favorite cookbook, the Delightful Tomato Woods. Just kidding, the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (no one will find this funny).

Here is the recipe for these supersweet Glazed Lemon Muffins. I made them so early we ate them for breakfast:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly grease 12 muffin cups if they're not nonstick (I used butter spray).

2. Combine 6 T brown sugar, 4 T melted butter, 1 cup yogurt (I used Stonybrook's French Vanilla), 1 egg, 1/4 c lemon juice, and 1/2 t grated lemon rind in a medium-sized bowl and beat well.

3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, sift together 2 c unbleached white flour, a few dashes of nutmeg (we are out of this), 3/4 t baking soda, 2 t baking powder, and 1/4 t salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet mixture. Then you can stir in optional nuts or raspberries if you desire. I added about 1/4 c chopped walnuts. Stir together.

4. Fill the muffin cups up to the rim and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan right away and cool for about 10 minutes before glazing.

5. Glaze: Combine 5 T sugar, 1/4 lemon juice and 1/2 t grated lemon rind in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil then lower heat to a simmer for 5 minutes then remove from heat. Let cool for 5 minutes then spoon 1-2 t glaze on top of each muffin (Note: I only had enough glaze for 3/4 of the muffins).

6. EAT!

Spanish Potato Garlic Soup

sautéd green onion, one large thinly sliced potato, with 1 teaspoon of paprika.

broth!

Dinner!

Winter soups sounded so good today, so I found a recipe out of the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cook book, and took a stab at it.

Here's what I did:

I boiled a large pot with 1 sliced onion, 2 sliced sweet potatoes, 1 potato, 2 chopped celery stalks, one bay leaf, and 3 garlic cloves. I let it boil and then turned it down to a simmer and put a lid on it for an hour.

Then I unpealed an entire head of garlic and put the cloves in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes. Here is when the kitchen started to smell amazing. Then I blended the garlic with a cup of water in my Cuisinart.

I drained the vegetable broth but kept a bit of the veggies intact, added the garlic mixture and let that simmer for a while longer. Then in a pan I sautéd some green onion, one large sliced (thinly sliced) potato, with 1 teaspoon of paprika. I added a can of diced tomatoes and then eventually added this vegetable mix to the broth. Then I added a can of corn, straying from the recipe but so what - and voila! Dinner!

The verdict: I should have used more garlic, allspice like the recipe suggested, and miso with the broth (again, like the recipe suggested). It is light enough with some of my favorite veggies, but a little bland. I'd make it again with cornbread next time;)

Spaghetti Squash with Mushroom/Tomato Sauce

This was an experiment, as I've never made spaghetti squash before today. But I was at the grocery store, gawking at all the luscious vegetables and I thought, well, why the hell not. But how to cook it? I turned to Google, and then mainly followed instructions from this lovely blog. I've been reading more and more blogs lately and there are SO. MANY. GREAT. VEGGIE BLOGS!

Like Lettuce Love, I halved the squash with a very sharp knife, scooped out the seeds and pulp, and baked the halves for 30 minutes at 350 while I made a tomato sauce: I sautéd 1 shallot, 1 green onion, 1/4 diced white onion for a bit, added a handful of sliced mushrooms, then added this mixture to a can of diced tomatoes, and added oregano and black pepper.

Not too shabby.

Not Cooking?!

I did something a little different this Thanksgiving holiday: I didn't cook! It was the strangest thing. I haven't not cooked for Thanksgiving perhaps since I was in college. Nine years ago, oy.

So instead this year my husband and I drove 2.5 hours to the Lake of the Ozarks to hike, jog, drink hot cocoa, read books, and NOT WORK for four days. It was super lovely.

Here are the food highlights - this first photo is on Thanksgiving day where Jake and I gorged ourselves on fancy hotel cheese omelets, broccoli and cheese, and three kinds of potatoes, among other things. Here I am with a delectable slice of pear tart and coffee.
This was a real find. We drove around mid-Missouri looking for the perfect breakfast eatery and finally happened upon a cute diner in Gravois Mills, MO with $4 breakfast platters.

This might quite literally be the best pizza of my life. Shakespeare's pizza in Columbia, Missouri is fresh and overloaded with veggies and shredded cheese. It is the perfect texture and the perfect comfort food. I daydreamed about this pizza for days before tasting it.

Mustard Potato Salad

I remember we always used to eat potato salad on weekends when I was a kid. Somehow, I haven't had any in years.

So today I changed that.

I boiled four large red potatoes (I didn't remove their skins -- more nutrients), chopped them up, and threw them in a bowl with a handful of diced white onion. Then I sort of eyeballed almost equal amounts of Miracle Whip, spicy mustard, sweet mustard, and dill relish until the salad was creamy and yellow.

And quite good!

Waffles with dried cherries and cranberries

What do dried cranberries not taste delicious in? I woke up absolutely craving waffles, so I googled waffle mix, found this lovely recipe, and tweaked it a bit. Voila!

Combine the following ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cups whole wheat flour (if you prefer all whole-wheat waffles, try 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour total)

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar substitute

2 eggs

1 2/3 cups vanilla soy milk

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup dried cherries

Pour the mixture into a waffle iron. Enjoy with jam or honey (or whatever you prefer)!

Peanut Stew

As I said, I recently spent the weekend with my lovely foodie friend, Astra Libris, and we made some of her delicious Peanut Stew. In fact, it is so delicious that I made some more last night. Yes people, it's that good.

French Toast on a Tuesday Morning

I've been really into eating breakfast lately.

Years ago I'd eat a Yoplait yogurt, but lately I've been wanting eggs, toast, or the perfect blend - French toast - in the mornings. This is especially true after spending the weekend with my lovely friend, Astra Libris - we ate eggs, veggie sausages, home made biscuits, and banana pancakes throughout the weekend (so good!).

This morning I cracked an egg into a dish and added some vanilla soy milk and a dash of cinnamon, dipped a slice of whole wheat bread into the mixture, then fried the toast and added a little honey and powdered sugar on top. Voila! Instant satisfaction.

Pasta maker!

I finally used my pasta maker this weekend and it was a lot of fun. After taking a pasta-making class at the Kitchen Conservatory earlier this year, I decided that I would be a person that makes her own pasta. But how time escapes me. Anyway, I came home today from a workout and errands and thought, why not now?

So to make a recipe that serves six (think leftovers!), you use a large bowl and measure 500 grams of flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, then add four eggs and mix it together with a fork until you get dough that is neither too wet nor too dry. Add a bit of water or more flour if you need to do so. Then knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands and cut a piece off to use in your pasta maker - you might even want to save some of the dough in a plastic bag for the next day.

Then piece by piece, you feed the dough through the pasta maker quite a few times until it is paper thin; then your pasta maker will make noodles (spaghetti and/or fettuccine) out of the thin dough. Also boil a pot of semi-salty water while you do this. Finally, drop the noodles into the hot water and let them boil for just a bit, then add shredded Parmesan cheese and a dab of margarine to a bowl (or a tomato sauce if you prefer). Voila! A very early Sunday supper.

Altogether with the measuring, kneading, and feeding the dough bit by bit through the pasta maker many times, I probably spent 1.5 hours in the kitchen (so lovely on a weekend, but a bit time consuming for a weekday). So I won't likely be making this a few times a week like my cooking instructor said she did. But oh so tasty! It's also nice to know exactly what you're eating:)

Weekend Eats

A few favorites:

Cheddar cheese, sliced tomato and avocado on whole wheat toast!

Dip for chips or crackers -- though I could eat this with a spoon: 1/2 avocado (chopped); 1/2 tomato (diced); 1/4 white onion (minced); 1 T garlic - stirred

Orange and Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

I sort of messed up an old Quaker Oats cookie recipe and came up with this:

- Heat oven to 350.
- Beat together 1 stick margarine, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/4 c granulated sugar.
- Add 1 egg, 1/2 t orange flavoring, and 1 T molasses.
- Add combined 3/4 c all-purpose flour, 1/2 t baking soda, 1/2 t cinnamon.
- Stir in 1 and 1/2 c Quaker Oats and 3/4 golden raisins.
- Drop by rounded spoonful onto lightly greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes (I have a slow oven).
- Let cool then eat!

My Cousins' Inventive Halloween Treats!

Isn't this clever? A good idea for next year!

This was called a "Kitty Litter Cake," and since I'm used to cleaning out litter boxes, I couldn't seem to try it!

Scary - but delicious - cheese blob! Boo!

These were made with Quorn, which I want to start cooking with now. So yummy!
For the adventurous!
**Recipes coming soon!**