Mutt Muffins Indeed

I don't know what got into me tonight, but I just finished making a meat item.  Okay, I do know: Kenzie asked for these, and Amanda had made them and said they were delicious, and I am always intrigued by food in muffin form.... even if said food is meat.  But to be honest, when I have to make meat foods, ground meat (except for beef... UGH) is less horrifying to me than having to hack hunks of chicken fat, or ripping off membranes (OMG remember those freaking ribs!?) 

So anyway, the muffins: when I asked Mark, Mom, Rach and Alex tonight if they would eat some, they said no.  Mark emphatically reminded me that he will not eat ground chicken, and Alex and Mom said they sounded awful.  I think now, looking back, that my mistake was calling them muffins... okay, fine, I kept calling them mutt muffins (which brought back bad memories of my failed attempt to make corn dog muffins back in the winter... and we gave them to the dogs and named them mutt muffins).  If you call these by their proper name, chicken parmesan meatloaf muffins, they don't sound as weird.  Mini meatloaves, basically, is what they are; I think my family was imagining muffins with chicken and sace baked inside.  They were very quick to throw together, and I was impressed with the many different spices to flavor the chicken: like dried basil, tyme and oregano, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.  They are topped with tomato sauce (I used Kenzie's own sauce since she made meatballs and sauce Sunday) and then a sprinkling of mozzarella (which I was out of, so I used monterrey jack... oh well).

Let me say this: I do not like meat.  You know that, I know.  But I do have to admit that these are pretty good.  They are moist, flavorful, and rather delicious.  I even made believers out of my mother and sisters (Mom said she wishes she could eat it on top of pasta, and Rach wanted more sauce but liked the flavor).  Mark and Alex did stick to their refusals to try them, but I would have to say it's their loss.  And they are only 4 Weight Watchers points, for those family members of mine who are counting points these days :)  And there are leftovers, so come on over!

Recipe:
chicken parmesan meatloaf muffins

Great Smelling House!

My house smells absolutely amazing right now because I just made muffins.  It smells like fall and cinnamon and pumpkin and all sorts of wonderful things!  Now, don't get ahead of yourself: this does not mean that I like fall.  I still hate it.  But I may love the smell of pumpkin muffins.  Don't get carried away.

Anyway Kenzie has another freakish medical issue going on (what's new) and today she texted me and said, "make me pumpkin muffins cuz you feel bad I'm on my way to a stroke plz".  How can I say no to that?  So Mark stopped at the store for me to grab a can of pumpkin (and bought 3, of course, so plan on seeing more pumpkin soon!) and I got to work tonight.

With Mom's Pumpkin Men!

It was nice to make a good old cakey recipe, mixing the dry and wet ingredients separately and then mixing them all together.  It feels like a while since I baked something like that.  The only weird thing was once these great-smelling babies came out of the oven.  The recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of butter to be melted and to brush it all over the muffins.  Now, they already have a whopping 10 tablespoons of butter in them, so the thought of brushing more on top kind of freaked me out.  I lowered it to 3, and then only brushed the tops.  Then I was supposed to mix 3/4 cup sugar with 2.5 teaspoons cinnamon to roll the muffins in, but again, I only did the tops.  I did mix those amounts, and ended up wasting quite a bit.  I would recommend cutting the butter down to maybe one tablespoon, and the sugar and cinnamon down by half at least.  I don't think the muffins need to be rolled in tons of butter and sugar.

Now, only Mark and I have had these since everyone is out shopping, but I think they are really good.  There is a nice, light pumpkin flavor and a really moist cake.  They are also not overly sweet.  There is only 3/4 cup brown sugar in there.  They are supposed to be rolled in sugar, like I said above, but I just did the tops, and I think it is plenty.

Even if my family hates the muffins, there is no way they will hate the smell of the house tonight :)

Recipe:
pumpkin doughnut muffins

Mostly Healthy

I have three recipes to share today.  Two are healthy and absolutely delicious.  One is not healthy, but absolutely delicious!  And one is a repeat with a few tweaks.  Get excited, people.

Last night after a 2-hour trip to our new Pricechopper (which, by the way, is fabulous, just incredibly crowded right now), I did not have much time before I was heading out to a friend's house, but I have been dying to make Mexican tamale pies since I saw them on Pinterest.  They are meatless, which I love.  They are full of vegetables, which I also love.  And then they are topped with polenta.  I do not have much experience with polenta (besides the fact that Linny always said that her mom used to say "your mother eats polenta" as a horrible insult!), but in the pictures, it kind of looked like cornbread. So I was hooked.

This was so simple to throw together.  You basically whip the filling ingredients into a pan and simmer for 40 minutes.  Meanwhile you make the polenta topping, which felt like a science experiment.  It's just a cup of corn meal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2  2/3 cups of water.  It starts out looking like sandy water with the corn meal all sitting at the bottom.  Then you boil it and stir constantly, and the sandy water suddenly becomes this beautiful, yellow, thich mush!  That might not sound appetizing, but just trust me here.  Anyway then I got to finally use my cute little Le Creuset individual-sized bowls (along with 2 ramekins) to make 6 little pies.  The filling of corn, pinto beans, tomatoes, and zucchini (with delicious Mexican spices) goes on bottom, with the polenta on top.  Now it was not so easy to evenly spread out the polenta on top without it sinking into the filling, so some of my pies got way more filling than others, but just do your best and then bake them for 45 minutes, and prepare yourself to be in love with these little pies.  They taste like chili (vegetarian chili!!!) with a wonderful, thick, cornbread-y polenta-y topping.  Mom and I were both scarfing these down.  Today Susie came over and had one, and was thrilled to see that it only cost her 3 Weight Watchers points!  So, healthy, vegetarian, easy, and delicious?!  More Mexican tamale pies are in my future.

Today I decided to make some chicken salad with the leftover chicken that Mark bought Friday, and with the rotisserie chicken that I bought yesterday at Pricechopper because I had a coupon.  I do not usually crave anything with meat,  but I had made this salad before and I actually liked it.  As someone who hate mayonnaise, I was pumped when I found a recipe that calls for Greek yogurt instead.  I was shocked at how much I really enjoyed it!  The "sauce" is the yogurt, a little Dijon mustard, brown sugar, lemon juice, and a smidge of cayenne pepper.  It's a weird mix, but it's really tasty.  Then the salad has chicken (duh), diced green pepper, and red grapes! I love the sweet and salty mix of flavors, and the crunch of the grapes and peppers.  The added benefit is that it's really healthy!  Low fat, low calorie, high flavor.  I will be taking this to lunch this week quite happily.  I am happy that I made the decision to double the chicken and peppers, triple the grapes, but not to double the sauce. Last time it was a little too wet, and this time it's perfect.  I will post my exact recipe below.  It makes a nice big Tupperware for multiple lunches!  If you want to follow the original, I'd still recommend cutting down the sauce recipe.  Trust me- I made it perfect :)

Okay they look like meatballs but they are good!

Then for a dessert today, I was reading of lists of options to Mom, Kenzie and my grandmother.  I read something about pecans, and my mom mentioned that pecan pie is one of Gram's favorite things.  I remembered pinning a recipe for pecan pie muffins, and I had the ingredients to make them, so I decided to surprise Gram.  They were very easy to make, but also kind of weird.  They only have a half cup of flour!  I think the majority of these babies is pecans!  And butter... and brown sugar.  Anyway they were fast to throw together, and I ended up with 24 mini muffins.  I am happy to say I have about 6 left!  They were a big hit with Mom and Gram.  Kenzie hates nuts, so she wasn't a huge fan, but if you like pecans, these are the perfect muffin for you.  They are nice and miniature, with a great pecan pie flavor in a little muffin shape.  In fact, Mom said they were in the top 10 best desserts that I have made.  Go figure!

Back to the grind tomorrow.  Can someone explain to me how it has only been one month of school?  Because it feels like it has been waaaay longer than that!


Recipes:
Mexican tamale pies
pecan pie muffins

healthy chicken salad
adapted from Fabtastic Eats

Ingredients:

1  1/2 cup diced green peppers

6 cups cooked chicken, cubed

5 ounces Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup quartered or halved red grapes (I quartered the big ones, and halved the small ones)

Honey Wheat Rolls (optional... I couldn't find them but I have had them with ciabbatta rolls and regular rolls)

Instructions

1)  In a large bowl add the green peppers and cubed chicken.

 

2) In a separate small bowl whisk together the Greek yogurt, Dijon, lemon juice, brown sugar, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

 

3) Once completely whisked together, pour into the chicken and pepper mix. Toss to combine and thoroughly coat.

 

4)  Add the quartered grapes, and toss to mix.

 

5) Spoon into rolls or on a salad (but seriously, spoon into rolls) and enjoy!

The End of Week-o'-Craziness

Oh my lord.  What a week this has been!  I had no idea Sunday night that I would literally not get the chance to cook anything again till Friday night.  Monday was open house night at work, Tuesday I went to Mary Poppins at the Hanover, Wednesday we went to see Sam James play in Worcester (go Team Adam!:) ), and yesterday we went to the Big E.  I am overtired and barely able to keep my eyes open now!  I fully plan on sleeping an embarrassing amount of hours tonight... and may or may not have attempted to hit the hay at 8:00 tonight but was ridiculed into staying up a little longer.

I did manage to do a little cooking though; after all, I've missed my kitchen this crazy week!  When Mom and I went grocery shopping a few weeks ago, we were looking at the butternut squashes, and she mentioned that Anne had a recipe from my uncle PJ's wedding that was an amazing butternut squash and apple soup.  I was pretty surprised that Mom would think squash and apples would combine to make a good soup, but clearly I knew immediately that it had to happen because I love mixing weird things.  Tonight I finally had the chance to give it a try.

I made a few changes... mainly because I was not entirely sure what a quart of butternut squash looks like, and I also did not want the soup to be too sweet because I knew it would freak my family out a little.  I also doubled it, which was probably not a great idea since we never finish anything anyway, but it made a nice big pot of a lovely, thick, yellow, fall-colored soup.

Mom loved the soup.  She said that it was a treat, and recommended that you slurp a nice big spoonful into your mouth and let it run all over your tongue.  It kind of reminded me of elementary school health class when you learn that the tongue has separate taste buds that taste different flavors.  You definitely did want to let it hit the salty and sweet taste buds, because it is a very interesting mix!  You can definitely taste the apple, and the squash, and the fresh thyme.  I can't really taste the maple, but it said "to taste" and I was nervous about adding too much.  I didn't want the soup to be too sweet; in fact, I cut out 2 apples from the recipe.  And yet still, Kenzie didn't like it because she said it was sweet.  But I have quickly learned that you cannot please them all!  Obviously since this is healthy, low-fat, and vegetarian, Nick bitched all night and would not go near it.  Mark loved it and had two mugs full (don't get me started on him and his eating out of mugs) and I thought it was really tasty too.  Definitely a delicious fall soup on a cold rainy night.

Mark's mug and bandage!

Recipe:

butternut squash and fall apple soup
adapted from a recipe given from the Bedford Village Inn

ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium white onions, peeled and diced
8 cups of roughly chopped, peeled, seeded butternut squash
4 apples, peeled, cored and diced
8 cups chicken stock (approximately)
2 cups apple cider
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
pure maple syrup to taste

directions:
1) Over medium heat, slowly saute onions in butter until translucent.  Add butternut squash, apples, fresh thyme, cider, and chicken stock.  You may need to adjust the amount of stock to completely cover the other ingredients.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.

2)   Bring to a boil them reduce to a simmer.  Simmer until squash is very soft.  (For this reason, don't be lazy and toss huge hunks of squash into the pot.  Otherwise you will be simmering forever!)

3)  Place all ingredients in a blender (or use an immersion blender if you are lucky enough to have one... sigh) to puree the mixture while hot until smooth.  Be careful here if you use a blender - Mark  burned himself like nobody's business because the steam built up and the cover exploded off.... squash everywhere!

4)  Add maple syrup and salt and pepper to taste.  Adjust consistency if needed with more chicken stock (I did not need to do this).

5)  Optional garnishes include a tablespoon per bowl of lightly honeyed whipped cream or creme fraiche and freshly chopped chives.  I did not have any of these so the soup was fine on its own.

Thanks Mom for the medical help!

Happy bithday, Pat!

I am finally feeling a lot better from this bizarre fall cold, so I took advantage of today to do a lot of cooking and baking.  My darling Marky had the day off and was making his delicious roast for dinner, so I took care of lunch with black beans and coconut-lime rice.  Mom and I had planned on me making this meal for dinner last Monday, but I spent so much time laying around sick this week that today was the first time I could get to it.  I love any meatless meal, but I especially love beans with all their protein-packed goodness that leaves my family not complaining for once that they are starving after they eat!  I also like strange flavor mixes, like coconut and cumin, lime and black bean.  For these reasons, I knew this meal would be delicious.

And oh man, was I right!!!  I am a little in love with this lunch.  The rice was beyond amazing.  It was made with not just water, but water and chicken broth.  Then I had to toast shaved coconut in the oven, and that went in to the finished rice along with cilantro, scallions, lime zest and lime juice.  The rice was salty and sweet and sour and just all sorts of amazing.  The beans on top were great too, but the rice was really the star of the meal!  I am pretty pumped to have this for lunch tomorrow.  It just might make curriculum night bearable.

Then Mom has been begging me to find an apple muffin recipe, and I found one from good old Martha Stewart which has diced apple in the muffins, but also one thin slice on top.  They were really quick to make, but looked kind of gross.  Have you ever mixed melted butter, buttermilk, and eggs together?  Because it curdles and looks repulsive and makes you think you messed up the whole recipe.  But never fear: the gross liquid mixture gets folded into the dry ingredients and poured into a muffin tin, and voila: apple muffins!  Kenzie maintains that these are "boring but good," so not surprisingly, Mom was obsessed with them! They are flavored with sugar, cinnamon, apple and walnuts, so if those are your favorite fall flavorings, make 'em up.

Last was my struggle of the day: chocolate swirl buns.  It's Pat's birthday and I had to make him something special since he always comes over to sample my treats, and never has anything to say other than how great things are.  When he was here the other night, I had been looking at Annie's newest recipe, which was chocolre swirl buns.  The pictures were just gorgeous, and it said these are a simplified version of a chocolate babka, which made me think of Seinfeld.  So today Pat said he'd like those for his birthday, and I thought, easy!  Yeast dough rolled around a chocolate cinnamon mixture? No problem.  So I made the dough and waited for it to rise.  And waited.  And waited.  And finally I decided I must have done something wrong, so I made another dough and waited.  And waited.  I have come to the conclusion that my yeast is dead.  RIP.  The jar does say to use it within4 months of opening, and it has definitely been more than 4 months.  I left both doughs on the kitchen table and went to sulk for a while.  Miracle of miracles: five hours later they both were rising slowly!  I found this out only because Delilah started eating one.  So I tossed that one and decided to make the buns with the remaining dough.  It was not as risen as it should be, and it kind of freaks me out that I baked with dying yeast, but hey: it rose.  So I rolled it out, used my cute new little food processor (thanks Ajemians!) to chop the chocolate mixture up, sprinkled that on top, rolled it up, and cut it into twelve pieces.  Each piece goes into a muffin tin well, and they come out looking absolutely beautiful.  The bread part is buttery and soft, and the filling is a cinnamon-y, chocolate-y, decadent mush!  They are sort of like a cinnamon roll, but made with chocolate.  Bittersweet chocolate, to be exact.  Kenzie claims they were too bitter for her super sweet tooth, but Pat, Mark, Mom and I loved them.  Mom even said they were perfect because they aren't "sweety-sweet."  And the birthday boy gave me his usual: "loved it."  A job well done :)

Recipes:

chunky apple muffins
chocolate swirl buns


Black beans and coconut-lime rice

from the May 2010 issue of Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1  1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons butter, divided
1 1/4 cups uncooked basmati rice
1 small onion, choppd
2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 lime
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet 8-10 minutes or until toasted.

2)  Bring broth, next 2 ingredients, 2 Tbsp. butter, and 1 cup water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Stir in rice.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 15-20 minutes or until rice is tender and water is absorbed.

3)  Meanwhile, melt remaining 1 Tbsp. butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion (and if you want, 1 diced poblano pepper, but I obviously did not do this).  Saute 5 minutes or until tender.  Stir in black beans, chili powder, cumin, and 3/4 cup water.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

4)  Grate zest from lime into a bowl.  Squeeze lime juice into bowl. 

5)  Fluff rice with a fork.  Fold in lime zest and juice, coconut, green onions, and cilantro into hot rice. Serve bean mixture over rice with desired toppings (the recipe recommends lime wedges, diced mango, sliced radishes, sliced fresh jalapeno peppers, and sour cream, but we found no need for any of these things!)

Lemon loaf Cake

Well I was lucky enough to be stricken with the fall cold that seems to be flying through Glenwood Elementary like wildfire.  I still don't feel 100% - I think there is a real chance that I am experiencing my first ear infection - but I am good enough to entertain myself by baking tonight since I am home alone. 

I have been wanting to make Annie's Eats' newest cake recipe since she posted it at the end of August.  I do not like cake - I have been known to have Jello on my birthday - but I love citrus, so a lemon loaf cake intrigued me.  It uses a ridiculous amount of lemons (both their juice and their zest) so I knew it would be a little sour as well as sweet.  This most likely means that Mom will hate it, but I love that sweet-and-sour, tangy and sugary thing that citrus cakes got going on!

While Annie claimed it was easy to make, I would like to elaborate on that.  It kind of took me a while.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that I am half asleep and drugged with Benadryl, or the fact that I am the world's slowest lemon zester and juicer.  But I like to blame the fact that you have to make the cake, zest and juice 3 lemons, make a syrup, and make a drizzle a glaze.  Multiple parts to a cake means multiple hours if you are in a Benadryl daze!  It was okay though, since I had the whole night to keep myself entertained. 

It's in the oven now, and my entire house smells like lemons.  Definitely a plus about this cake!  Considering it's already 9:30, way past my bedtime, you may have to wait for photos and an update on the flavors of this baby.  I'll be grabbing a piece for breakfast- because yes, you can tell yourself eating lemon cake is breakfast because it has fruit in it.

Recipe:
lemon loaf cake

Thai Turkey Bundles

Unfortunately the fall cold has gotten to me already!  Last night I made the chowder, ate it, hung out with the Cormiers for a bit - all feeling fine - and then, boom.  It hit me all of a sudden.  I started  sneezing and my nose was running and my eyes were itching.  It was really the strangest thing.  I was hoping it was allergies, but today I am still not feeling great, so perhaps it is more than pollen and mold.  Anyway, Mom and I had bought groceries today for a meal I was excited about, so even though I feel pretty crappy, I decided to make dinner.

My uncle used to have a bake-off and grill-off competition at his house every summer.  It was pretty awesome.  Everyone would bring their own grills and set up shop.  There were judges, and awards, and everything; and my family does not mess around when it comes to their food.  Lots of huge egos, great flavors, and good old-fashioned teasing!  I have great memories of watching my dad win many times, wrapping his dessert trays with fairy lights and using his laptop to play music to add ambiance!  Believe it or not, Jay and I won one year with a chocolate cake; I still have the cookbook we won.  My immediate family was best at the baking competition (now that I think about it, maybe this explains my affinity/love for baking!), but I do remember one year that we actually won the grilling competition.  It was my mom, and her amazing Thai turkey bundles. These delicious little Asian-inspired nuggets were wrapped in cool savoy lettuce leaves, and there was a ridiculously flavorful dipping sauce.  When Mom found the recipe in her files, I knew I had to make it.

This meal was pretty quick and easy to throw together.  I think it is pretty similar to making meatballs (not that I have ever made them, since meatballs are gross), because you mix up all sorts of things like ginger, water chestnuts, scallions and soy sauce into ground turkey.  They you make little "loaves" and either grill or broil them.  My mom grilled them when she won the award, but the grill kind of scares me, so I broiled them.  The recipe was doubled and supposed to make 24 little turkey bundles, but I made them much smaller and ended up with probably closer to double that amount.  Once they are cooked, you serve them in little cabbage leaf cups and dip them in the sauce which is a hodgepodge of everything you can imagine going into an Asian sauce: soy sauce, fish sauce, cilantro, sugar, lemon juice, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper.  There are a lot of flavors going on in this sauce!  It definitely makes the meal, so do not skip it or substitute!

These turkey bundles were a big hit.  Rachael actually said it was the best thing she ever ate!  Mom and Kenzie gave it rave reviews as well. Nick proceeded to devour them (without cabbage of course) until I mentioned the fish sauce in the dipping sauce, at which point he was "full" again (rumor has it he just went to McDonald's).  Nevertheless, this was an easy and very delicious dinner.  After all, it is award winning!

Recipe:

Thai turkey bundles
source.... TBD... it is photocopied on a piece of paper.  It does say Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen, so perhaps that's a clue!

Ingredients:
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup coarsely chopped water chestnuts
1/3 cup fine bread crumbs
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash ground red pepper
1  1/2 pounds ground turkey
12 savoy cabbage leaves
1  recipe Thai dipping sauce (see below)

1)  In a large mixing bowl, combine egg, water chestnuts, bread crumbs, green onion, soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger, sugar, salt, and ground red pepper.  Add turkey; mix well.

2)  Shape into twelve 4 x 1/2 x 3/4-inch loaves (or smaller if you'd like!).  Grill over medium-hot coals or boil 3inches from heat for 12-14 minutes or till juices run clear, turning once.

3)  Serve each loaf wrapped in a cabbage leaf  (I recommend cutting out the thick white spine part and making each large leaf into two small ones).  Serve with Thai dipping sauce.

Thai dipping sauce

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 tablespoon snipped cilantro, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil.