Maple Syrup Raisin Bread

After a long two weeks of kitchen renovations, I finally finally got to cook and bake again.  I had no groceries - like, my refrigerator was bare, and I'm not exaggerating: we emptied it to move it.  So I scanned my Pinterest for recipes that may call for what I happened to have in the cabinets, and voila: maple syrup raisin bread.  Only 7 ingredients, nothing too crazy.

It's a quick bread, and what I loved about it was that it has no sugar in it.  It is sweetened only by a half cup of real maple syrup, and studded with sweet raisins!  It is fairly healthy, I tell myself, due to the lack of sugar, butter and oil, and thus could be toasted and slathered with butter and simply devoured without guilt.

The best part?  This is a quick bread.  It's so simple, it's crazy. You could be eating it in just over an hour, hot and fresh out of the oven.  I know you have all the ingredients.  Get in there and appreciate the fact that your kitchen isn't being renovated!  :)

Recipe:

maple syrup raisin bread
from Mostly Homemade Mom

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg, beaten
1 cup raisins

Instructions:

1) Spray a loaf pan with oil and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  With a large wooden spoon, stir in milk, maple syrup, and egg; mix well.

3) Stir in raisins.

4) Spread into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Flourless Chocolate Almond Cakes

Since many of my loved ones have been diagnosed with celiac disease in the last year or so, I am always on the lookout for good gluten-free desserts.  The plus is when you can find a gluten free dessert that doesn't taste like a gluten-free dessert.  This doesn't happen always - it did with the flourless chocolate espresso cake  - but sometimes it's not as successful.

Luckily, this one is a good one.  The recipe makes two little cakes that bake in ramekins; I actually made a batch to cheer up Maggie and sent both cakes home with her, so no one tried them but her.  She said they were delicious and that she loved them, and couldn't believe that they had been made with nuts in place of flour.

That brings me to what makes these cakes flourless. You use a food processor to turn raw almonds into flour (you can use almond meal if you have it).  It's flavored with awesome things like honey, cinnamon, and even a pinch of cayenne pepper (except I was out of cayenne, so none for me, but how intriguing is that in a chocolate cake!?).  There's no sugar, and only 3 tablespoons of butter, so believe it or not, they're fairly healthy as far as desserts go.  

And there you have it: a gluten free dessert that doesn't taste like it, and a healthy dessert that doesn't take like it!  I think all chocolate lovers should give it a try.

Recipe:

flourless chocolate almond cakes

from A Couple Cooks

makes 2 cakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw almonds (or almond meal)

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons honey

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch kosher salt

1 pinch cayenne

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) If using almonds, grind the almonds very finely until the texture is light and fluffy.

3) In a glass measuring cup or bowl, add 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons honey, and 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips.  Microwave for 10 second intervals, stirring after each, until fully combined.

4) In a medium large bowl, beat one egg with a whisk.  Then add 1/2 cup of the almond meal, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 pinch of kosher salt, 1 pinch of cayenne pepper, and the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

5) Butter two 5-ounce ramekins.  Pour in the batter and bake for 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out nearly clean.

Homemade Funfetti Cake

Did you miss me?  I've missed you, and I have missed my kitchen.  I have learned that, in whatever house Mark and I end up in, we cannot do renovations.  I couldn't handle it.  I went just under 2 weeks without access to the kitchen (and going on 2 weeks with no downstairs bathroom!) and it's just not easy.  I am currently reading some nonfiction about life in a Mumbai slum, so I know that having to walk upstairs to go to the bathroom isn't the worst thing in the world.... but having to go out to eat for a week?  Okay, also not the worst thing in the world... just annoying and also poverty-inducing.  Either way: the kitchen is back, I just finished cooking dinner, and the blog is back up and running.

One before-the-renovation recipe I had to share was Nick's birthday cake.  Nick is infamous around here for having rather terrible eating habits and taste... for instance he picks out shredded carrot from salads, refuses most vegetables, and never drinks water.  He loves artificially-flavored anything: Red Bull, canned soups, buffalo sauce. His favorite cake?  You probably can guess.  Yup: funfetti, preferably boxed mix.  With frosting from a can.  I have refused to allow him to eat something like that in my house, so for his past few birthdays, I have tried to coax him into some real birthday cakes.  Hence last year's black and white mocha cake.  This year, I decided to let him have some funfetti, but I would make it from scratch.  I had seen a few recipes for it and thought it was time to give the kid what he wanted.

The cake was a fairly straight-forward vanilla cake, kept nice and moist by some yogurt.  And then of course there are the sprinkles; the recipe specifically says not to use nonpareils - they have to be sprinkles.  I assume the sprinkles hold their shape and color better, maybe?  Then there is a vanilla buttercream frosting - nonpareils are okay sprinkled on top of that, so you can use up all your colored sweets :)  I will confess to being 1 cup short of confectionary sugar, and the frosting wasn't sweet enough for that reason.  I think that's probably why the cake wasn't completely devoured.  My family isn't big on funfetti anyway, but I will strongly urge you to make this instead of a box mix next time the funfetti craving strikes you :)

Recipe:

homemade funfetti cake
from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
for cake:
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla; it can be regular or greek yogurt, or you can sub sour cream)
3/4 cup milk (cow's, soy, or almond all work)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup sprinkles (not nonpareils)
for vanilla buttercream:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9-inch springform or baking pan (round or square) generously with nonstick spray.  Set aside.

2) In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave.  Whisk in the sugars vigorously, getting out any brown sugar lumps; mixture will be gritty.  Whisk in egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract until combined.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients until no lumps remain.  Batter will be thick.  Slowly stir in sprinkles, but do not over mix because the sprinkles will bleed their color.

3) Pour/ spoon batter into prepared cake pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Cover loosely with aluminum foil.  Bake for 13 - 17 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool.

4) To make the frosting, beat softened butter on medium speed with an electric or stand mixer.  Beat for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.  Add powdered sugar, cream and vanilla extract with the mire running.  Increase to high speed and beat for 3 minutes.  Add more powdered sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if mixture is too thick.  Frost cooled cake as desired and top with sprinkles.  Cake stays fresh at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 5 days,

Thai Veggie Burgers with Peanut Sauce

I've become a bit of a connoisseur of veggie burgers.  I have certainly made my fair share of them.  I have made them out of eggplant, out of sweet potato, out of rice and beans, out of quinoa... okay obviously I have made a lot of veggie burgers over the past couple years!  I have to admit that I honestly love them all in different ways, but these... these are something special.  These are veggie burgers that my family ate happily, dousing them with peanut sauce and topping them with most colorful, beautiful cole slaw that you've ever seen.  These are the kind of veggie burger that all get eaten, that people take to work, that my mother heats up for lunch.  These babies were a big success, and now that I sit here typing about them as Alex and Rachael screw cement board onto my kitchen floor, it makes me crave them and want to make them as soon as the kitchen is back in order!

The burgers themselves are made from quinoa, oats, cornmeal, chickpeas, bell pepper and red onion.  Isn't that such a wonderfully eclectic combination off things!?  And gluten free too, I'll add.  They are flavored with salt, paprika, garlic, and sesame oil - are you drooling yet?  But wait, there's more: there's the slaw: red and green cabbage, shredded carrot, and cilantro.  That's it.  No "sauce" or anything but fresh, delicious vegetables.  The sauce comes later: it's a peanut sauce made from peanut butter, honey, soy sauce, fresh ginger, lime juice, and red pepper flakes.  Toss some chopped peanuts onto the entire thing before you top the bun, and you have yourself a filling, delicious veggie burger.  The flavors all meld together so well, and you get the best of both textural worlds: soft burger mixing the crunchy peanuts and slaw.  Man.  I want one of these now!

Recipe:

Thai veggie burgers with peanut sauce
from Annie's Eats
serves 6-8

Ingredients:
for the burgers:
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided, plus more for pan
1 cup water or veggie broth
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas)
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup diced red pepper
1/3 cup diced red onion

for the slaw:
1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced green cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

for the peanut sauce:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
juice of 1 lime

toasted burger buns
coarsely chopped peanuts

Instructions:

1) In a fine mesh strainer, rinse the quinoa well.  Shake vigorously to remove as much water as possible.  Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat .  Add the drained quinoa to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the water or veggie broth and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let stand covered, 5 more minutes.  Remove the lid, fluff with a fork, and set aside to cool.

2) In the bowl of a food processor, combine the chickpeas, oats, cornmeal, salt, paprika, garlic, and sesame oil.  Process until the mixture is finely ground and well blended.  Pulse in the egg until combined.  Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.  Fold in the cooled quinoa, diced red pepper and onion, as well as an additional 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  Stir together gently until evenly mixed.  Form the mixture into patties (about 6 - 8, depending on the size you make).

3) To make the slaw, combine the cabbages, shredded carrot, and cilantro in a bowl.  Toss to combine.  Set aside.

4) To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.  Whisk together until well blended and smooth.

5) To cook the burgers, add a generous drizzle of olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high.  Coat the bottom of the skillet with the oil.  Add the patties to the pan and cook, turning once, until both sides are browned and the patties are cooked through, about 6 - 8 minutes total.  Remove the cooked patties from the pan.

6) Assemble the burgers on toasted buns topped with the slaw, a drizzle of peanut sauce, chopped peanuts, and a squeeze of lime juice as desired.

Veggie burgers for lunch = 1 happy teacher!

Slow Cooker Pearl Couscous Soup

Wow, life has been so insane lately.  And not in a good way.  I sometimes feel like I am about to literally explode with all the craziness going on in both my personal and professional lives.  Cooking and baking usually helps me relax at times like these, except for the fact that I've been too busy, not to mention that the kitchen is out of commission while Alex rips our floor out and tiles it.  So mostly I've just been not really eating (I guess it's a new type of wedding workout? I've lost 4 pounds...).  Luckily for you, I do have a small backlog of recipes to share, so that will get us through the next week.  After that, the floor will be done, I will be on April vacation, and maybe at least some aspects of my house will calm down!?

Anyway... let's talk about soup.  What better comfort food is there?  And when you can get it done in a slow cooker on a cold, busy March day, what more can you ask for?  This soup has pearl couscous, which I haven't used before, but I definitely love it.  It's kind of like a little round noodle.  Then there's kidney beans for protein, and lots of veggies like onions, carrots, bell peppers, and tomatoes.  It's flavored with oregano, salt and pepper - so nothing too crazy, but it all comes together in the slow cooker to make a really delicious soup.  I brought the leftovers for my lunch for days until it was gone.  My family liked it too; they always appreciate when my soups have beans to help fill them up, and it always helps when it tastes delicious :)  I'm wishing I could whip up a batch of this right now!

Recipe:

slow cooker pearl couscous soup
from Vegan in the Freezer
yield 6 - 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup pearl couscous, not cooked
2 15-ounce cans red kidney beans, drained
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 can (14.5 - 15 ounce) diced tomatoes
1 cup spaghetti sauce
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:

1) Heat the butter in a skillet.  Add the onions, bell pepper and carrots.  Sauté until the onions become translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes.

2) Add the sautéed vegetables to the crockpot.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.

3) Cover and cook on low 2 - 3 hours.  Check the couscous at 2 hours for tenderness.

Low Fat Banana Nut Bread

I recently found myself the proud owner of 15 bananas, all spotty and overly ripe.  This was due to the lucky occurrence of a parent donating the bananas for a pre-MCAS snack for my coworker's classroom.  Obviously, fifth graders aren't too keen on eating spotty bananas bright and early, so the majority of them were left after the two days of testing.  My teammate didn't want them and offered them to me.  I figured I could definitely make use of them by baking with them, and since I often buy bananas in order to let them get spotty but my sisters end up eating them, this was the perfect opportunity!

I decided to try a different banana bread recipe.  I love my jacked up banana bread, but since my family and I are in the middle of our pre-wedding diet, I thought I should find a good go-to low fat banana bread.  Enter Skinny Taste, and the low fat banana nut bread!

When you think "low fat bread," you probably don't imagine a sweet, moist bread bursting with banana flavor (there are seven bananas in there!) and studded with walnuts - but that's what you should think of when you get ready to make this bread.  It's low fat due to only calling for half a stick of butter, and it uses applesauce to help sweeten it naturally.  The recipe actually makes two loaves, and I figured one of them at least would go to waste.  I was very pleasantly surprised when my family devoured almost the entire two loaves in a couple days!  

And in full disclosure, these breads were, in my opinion, were not my finest work - no fault of the recipe's.  I was trying to use up old baking soda that was very clumpy and hardened, and some of the clumps didn't break apart.  If you've ever tasted baking soda in a baked good, it "tastes like poison" according to my mom, and she's right. And every now and then in these banana breads, you'd get some bites that tasted like chemicals and would make you want to spit everything out.  I got a bite in a slice of the bread and refused to cut another slice after that, but my family, despite poisonous bites, kept going back for more.  So, since then, I have thrown out the baking soda and bought a new box; no need to worry about poison bites in my next bread!  It just makes it even more impressive that my mother and sisters announced that this was my best banana bread ever!  Definitely need to make this again, without baking soda clumps!

Recipe:

low fat banana nut bread

from Skinny Taste

Servings: 26 slices (2 loaves) • Size: 1 slice • Old Points: 3 pts  • Points+: 4 pts 
Calories: 129.2  • Fat: 4.4 g • Carbs: 20.6 • Protein: 2.8 • Fiber: 1.4 g

Ingredients:

7 ripe medium bananas, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (no clumps allowed!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

4 large egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ounces chopped walnuts (or 3/4 cup)

baking spray

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 8x5-inch loaf pans with baking spray.

2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt with a wire whisk.  Set aside.

3) In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick.  Scrape down sides of the bowl.

4) Add flour mixture and walnuts, then blend at low speed until combined.  Do not over mix.

5) Pour batter into loaf pans and bake on the center rack for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6) Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes.  Bread should be room temperature before slicing.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Pistachio Stuffing

Okay so it may be April, but I have come to realize that spring doesn't exist in Massachusetts.  And in all honestly fall lasts maybe a week.  We have winter, and summer (about 2 months of that).  So yeah, maybe this recipe is more geared towards the fall, but since there are only 2 seasons here, I hereby announce that fall and spring recipes are acceptable year round.

With that said, behold the best fall dish, and thus the best dish for any time of the year, really.  This was another one of my mother's choices.  I had set her up on A Couple Cooks' food blog, knowing that anything she chose from there would be amazing.  I was a bit concerned when I saw that this choice had been one of their Thanksgiving entrees (Thanksgiving in March?!) but hey, it was meatless and sounded delicious, so I went with it.

Now here is some background information.  Before I learned how to cook, I would rarely - maybe a few times a year - get this weird longing to get into the kitchen.  One of these occasions - maybe 10 years ago or so - I tried making stuffed acorn squash.  I don't remember where I got the recipe from, or what the squash was stuffed with.  What I do remember is my family and I refusing to eat it because it tasted terrible.  I have a very vivid memory of spooning some of the stuffing down to Daisy, who immediately spit it out onto the floor.  You know it's bad when your dog won't even eat it.

So for obvious reasons, I was kind of scared to make stuffed acorn squash again.  Alex, who has teased me about acorn squash for years, and Rachael left the house promptly when they heard my dinner plan.  Nick ran out to buy the makings for burgers, and Kenzie was whining and announcing she would refuse to try even a bite.  I ignored all of them and set about roasting the squash, cooking wild rice, sautéing garlic, shallots and kale, and chopping pistachios.  Seriously though - how delicious do those ingredients sound!?  Add feta into the stuffing, and if you're not drooling by now, there's something wrong with you.

Mark, my mother and I dug in first.  I think we were all nervous, but immediately we were shocked at how delicious they were!  Mom even said it was my finest work and made me promise to make them again soon.  Kenzie got curious - despite all the whining she did earlier - and devoured one herself, getting so excited about them that she packed one up and left to bring one to her work friend.  With still plenty of squash left, I called Christy to come eat some, and she loved them too.  The last lone stuffed squash was the subject of a fight between my mom and Kenzie over who would get it for lunch the next day!  So the bottom line is that these stuffed squashes are absolutely delicious - and I think my family trusts me with acorn squash again :)

Recipe:

roasted acorn squash with wild rice pistachio stuffing
from A Couple Cooks
feeds 6 - 8

Ingredients:
4 acorn squash
1 1/2 cups wild rice
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 bunch kale
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup pistachios, chopped

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2) In a medium pot, add 1 1/2 cups wild rice and 4 1/2 cups water.  Boil for about 45 minutes until tender.  Drain any remaining liquid from the pot.

3) Meanwhile, chop each of the acorn squash in half and then in quarters.  Using a spoon, scrape out the guts and seeds.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the squash on the sheet and drizzle with olive oil on the cut sides; sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.  Turn a cut side down on the sheet and roast until tender, about 40 minutes.

4) While the squash roasts, finely dice 3 cloves garlic and 1 shallot.  Cut the kale into thin strips (chiffonade).  In a large skillet, heat 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil; add garlic and shallot and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the shallots are soft.  Then add the kale and sauté for about 2 to 3 additional minutes until the kale is tender and bright green.  Turn off the heat and stir in the rice, 2 tablespoons olive oil (I did not add any additional oil at this time), 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper.  Taste and adjust the seasonings if desired.

5) Chop the pistachios.

6) To serve, place the squash quarters on a plate.  Top with wild rice stuffing, then sprinkle with feta and pistachios (alternatively, feta and pistachios can be mixed into the wild stuffing - That's what I did).

Clean plate club!  And shocked that she loved it :)

Bailey's Irish Cream Bread Pudding

What better dessert for Saint Patrick's Day than a bread pudding made with Bailey's Irish Cream?  I could think of none.  So on the big day, I made another batch of whole wheat Irish soda bread muffins, and my mom made corned beef and cabbage, and I made this for dessert.  I had gotten the idea a few days before and spent some time on Pinterest looking for a recipe.  This one jumped out at me because it didn't have chocolate chips as a main ingredient (it did call for them, but as an option).  I'm just not a huge lover of chocolate chips, and I wanted the Bailey's to be the star of the bread pudding.

This was a very easy recipe to put together.  You basically just have to mix everything together and bake it.  The final result?  Well... my mother said it tasted like you were taking shots, and she was right.  The alcohol flavor was way too strong.  I thought for sure after 45 minutes in the oven that the alcohol would burn off, but that was just not the case.  Apparently 1 1/3 cup of milk is not enough to combat a cup of Bailey's.  Wow.  This was not a bread pudding to be eaten before work in the mornings!  (And yet the recipe writer says she created it for Christmas brunch....)

If I made this again - because I do think that it's worth fixing - I would increase the milk and decrease the Bailey's by at least half.  The nutmeg and the raisins help to make it really delicious, and the texture was great.  It's just that after a small bowl of it, you're hammered.  Maybe that's the kind of dessert you're looking for?  If you aren't, just fix the milk and Bailey's amounts, and you've got yourself one heck of a bread pudding!

Recipe:

Bailey's Irish Cream bread pudding
from Lemon and Lace
serves 8

Ingredients:
6 slices soft bread, cut into 1" cubes
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup milk (soy or almond)
1 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
5 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
raisins or chocolate chips, optional

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter or spray a 2-quart casserole dish.

2) Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla.

3) Slowly add the milk, then the Bailey's Irish Cream.  Mix.

4) Add bread into the liquid.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.  Toss until well coated.

5) Pour into pan.  Add chocolate chips or raisins if using.  Refrigerate now, if making ahead.

6) Bake 40 - 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.