Bon Appetit!

Hey guys! I was busy working on a little food project today and I made sure to take plenty of pictures so I can do a nice little how-to that I'll share with y'all tomorrow.. I'll give you a hint on what it is though...

Was that too big of a hint? Probably! But I couldn't contain myself :P
More on that tomorrow!!
***
I got very excited when my Bon Appetit magazine came in the other day. I got it on one of those special deals where it was selling for like $4 for a 12 month subscription...you know, one of those special deals that happen, oh, all the time:P
Seriously, if you ever pay more than $6 dollars for a year's worth subscription to a magazine then you're being ripped off, there's always a sale going on somewhere (Amazon is usually the best).
I immediately ripped it open (with my teeth, I was desperate!) and took a quick flip through the magazine. Wow! The photography was beautiful and it was chocked full of mouth watering recipes..my type of magazine!
I love how most of the recipes even had the nutritional facts, and if they weren't there in the magazine you can go to the recipe on their website.
I usually save my magazines for the gym so I can read something interesting if I'm stair climbing, but this one I couldn't resist. Also, they had an article talking about 12 or so favorite restaurants across the country that serve the best desserts and one of them was in Austin! Score :D
Despite reading a lot of the magazine at home already, I took it to the gym anyways. I found this delicious looking recipe as I was sweating it out on the stair climber. Honey-Marinated Pork with Gremolata? Count me in! We had nothing planned for dinner and pork loin in the freezer so I figured it was fate! And since my gym grows rosemary bushes out front I figured I could just grab a sprig on my way out, I'm sure they won't mind :P
Instead of sprinkling the finished pork with the gremolata mixture, I just put the rosemary and orange zest into the sauce. We didn't have fresh thyme or sage so I couldn't add those. Oh and chicken stock instead of white wine in the sauce, but I'm sure the wine would have tasted nice we just don't have it around the house.
Sure looks pretty!

Posing with my stolen sprig.

The pork was marinated in honey, garlic, and orange juice and then browned in a pan before put in the oven. The honey caramelizes in the pan and gives it a great crust!
I served the pork along side steamed snap peas and roasted sweet potato.

The sweet potato was flavored two different ways- one pan was spicy, and the other was sweet!
I used my mom's new mandolin slicer that gave me perfect quarter inch thick slices.
Here's my "recipes" for the sweet potatoes

Spicy-
1 pound 2 ounces sliced sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Sweet-
1 pound 2 ounces sliced sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
pinch cayenne

Directions (for both)-
Mix all the ingredients (except sweet potatoes) together until combined. Pour over sweet potato slices and arrange on lightly sprayed cookie sheet so that they are all in one layer. Cook at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.
***what I found with the coconut sweet potatoes was that when I poured the mixture onto the sweet potatoes, the oil started to clump and harden. To fix this, make sure your coconut oil/spice mixture is hot and your sweet potatoes are room temperature before combining.

Wow, I can't tell you guys which one I like better, they were both SO good! I think I liked the sweet ones a tad better but that may be because I love chocolate and coconut together..

Yum!
***
So remember when I said that my dad was going to make his famous Santa Fe french toast for breakfast? Well he didn't disappoint! I was startled awake this morning by my dad saying "French Toasties in 20." Too bad I went to bed at 12:30 and my dogs kept me up all night. It was 7:30 in the morning and I was so tired (and a little cranky)!
Unfortunately, my dad couldn't resist putting in a little bit of heavy cream into the custard mixture (instead of just milk) but he did use my whole wheat bread (instead of white). Oh well, ya can't win every battle I guess.
The special thing about this french toast is that it is pan fried, then baked! Also, he uses jumbo pieces of bread (and my bread fit the bill nicely). No skimping with the lovely, lovely carbs!
Here they are after they were done baking (they puff!)-

I topped mine with a fruit mixture that consisted of mixed berries, lemon juice, lemon zest, and a little sugar. I made the mix the night before so the fruit could thaw since it was frozen.

And a little powdered sugar for show!

Is that magazine worthy, or what?!
My dad says he could charge 20 dollars for one of these puppies, thankfully he makes them for his family free of charge. :D
I drank three cups of expresso hoping it would wake me up, but I was still feeling miserably tired so I somehow managed to go back to bed and get another hour of sleep. Still not enough, but it got me through the day at least.

***
And lastly, I would like to share with you the soup I made last night. It was this Italian Sausage Soup that I saw on All Recipes. My mom had bought some Italian sausage for something that we ended up not using it for, so it was up for grabs. Unfortunately, it was full fat sausage (30 grams of fat per link!!) so I wanted to make sure I drained a lot of that fat out when I made the soup. I could show you pictures of the fat drenched paper towels, but I'll spare you :P I actually think I did a really good job getting most of the fat out because when I checked on the soup today (after it had cooled) there was only a few small dots of fat that had hardened and risen to the top.
I followed the recipe exactly except I used a 32 ounce container of low sodium beef broth instead of 24 ounces, added half of a big sweet onion in with the carrots, and didn't add the 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
You know what pisses me off though? After I put in the can of italian style stewed tomatoes I glanced at the ingredient list to see what kind of seasonings they put in it and guess what I found-

Since WHEN does a simple can of tomatoes need high fructose corn syrup?! I avoid HFCS like the plague and it bummed me out that they put it in there. I usually check the ingredient list of every new (to me) product I buy but I figured that canned tomatoes would be safe. Apparently they aren't. Lesson learned! I already added the can, so there was nothing I could do about it. Pooooooop.
Anyway, I served up the otherwise very healthy and colorful soup with some of my cottage cheese herb loaf that was from the freezer.

This soup was packed full of veggies with zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and carrots. And each bite of the delicious Italian sausage gave a huge burst of flavor. I am definitely keeping this recipe and will make it again and again! Instead of Italian sausage, you could do tortellini (and vegetable broth) instead for a great vegetarian meal. And the cottage cheese bread was still amazing! I need to figure out a better way to freeze my bread, though. It always seems to get a little stale. Any ideas?

Off to bed!
Goodnight :D

I heart Indian Food!

A while ago I found a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala, one of my favorite dishes to get at Indian restaurants. It was definitely up there as the next thing I wanted to make as soon as we had chicken on hand.
A couple of days ago I got pretty pumped when I realized we had chicken and all the ingredients on hand to make it! I followed the recipe exactly except I used diced tomatoes instead of crushed (thought the recipe called for diced! woops) only 2 tablespoons or oil in the sauce, and milk instead of heavy cream. I think that since I used diced tomatoes instead of crushed and just milk instead of cream the sauce turned out a little watery and didn't quite turn out like the chicken tikka masala I'm used to. Even if this wasn't chicken tikka masala, it was darn tasty! Everything was so full of flavor! I didn't take that many pictures, but you can see some great pictures at this link.
I served the chicken along with my absolute most favorite green bean recipe ever. Green Bean Masala. We had double the amount of green beans so I just doubled the recipe, and trust me you're going to want leftovers.

Here's the recipe- 

Green Bean Masala

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or light olive oil (I used 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil)
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (I used 1/2 cup light coconut milk)
• 3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Method

1)Heat the oil in a 3-quart sauté pan over medium heat. Add almonds and cook, stirring, until light golden. Remove from heat and transfer almonds to a plate or bowl; set aside for garnish. (I've found that I like to just toast the almonds in the oil but keep them in the pan when adding the onion and spices)  

2)Add onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, chili pepper flakes and salt to the unwashed sauté pan, and return to medium heat. Sauté until the onion is tender and begins to fry, about 4 minutes.
3)Add coconut milk and green beans. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until the beans are tender, about 6 minutes. (mine usually take a lot longer to cook, but it all depends on the size you cut your green beans.)4)Sprinkle beans with lime juice, and toss lightly. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and garnish with almonds and cilantro. If desired, serve accompanied by plain cooked rice or roti flatbread.  
 

The super spicy, coconutty sauce that goes with these green beans is out of this world. If I could choose one thing to eat the rest of my life it would be these green beans and this sauce. And don't leave out the almonds! They make the dish. You can see some great pictures at this link or the original recipe's link.

I think I might use the leftover coconut milk to make more of this sauce so I can dip veggies into it!

 I served the chicken and green beans with instant brown rice-

Both of these recipes yield super spicy, bursting with flavor foods; I was in major need of a tissue after eating this meal!

***

Have you ever heard of a plumello?

It's a super thick skinned citrus fruit that is similar to grapefruit but less bitter. They are super big when you see them in the grocery store, but once you peel them they are half their original size! The skin/pith has got to be more than half an inch thick.

I peeled one this morning and just wanted to show y'all how much of it is just the skin.

You kind of have to attack it with a knife if you want to have any chance of getting to the inside, but its worth the effort!

After my breakfast I got to work on, you guess it, more bread. I was inspired to use this whole wheat nut and seed loaf when I saw it on Allie's blog. She's been a bread baking machine just like me. I swear, once you get hit with the bread bug you can't stop! She said it was her favorite bread she has made yet, and it had great reviews on the KAF website, so I had to give it a try! The only changes I made was use almonds instead of walnuts because we didn't have any walnuts on hand. I poured the 3 tablespoons of oil required from the recipe into a small saucepan and toasted the almonds in the oil to give them extra flavor. Just make sure you cool the almond/oil mixture before you add it to your yeast mixture! It didn't occur to me that a loaf of bread that requires 4 cups of flour might be a little too big for my small loaf pan until the bread nearly exploded out of the pan. I had left the bread to rise as I went grocery shopping and Costco shopping. It said to let rise for 2 hours, so I figured I had time. I came home right at the 2 hour mark and checked on my loaf. WOW I thought it was going to burst any second! I carefully removed it from the oven where it had been rising and took a picture.

It's hard to tell just how much this guy has risen until you compare it to this picture back from when I made my other sandwich loaf.

And I thought that was big! Look at the difference!
After 40 minutes in the oven the bread was ready for another photo shoot.

I brushed it with an egg wash to give it a nice shine. I didn't want to put the egg wash on pre-oven because I thought the bread might deflate.

The residual heat from the bread cooks the egg anyways, so there's no need to worry about raw eggs.

Outta the pan!

This guy is HUGE! Next time I make it, I will 3/4 the recipe so it doesn't get so lop-sided and crazy. I was so excited to cut into this one!

Awh, it so cute and abnormal :D

Ah, much better (after a couple of slices were taken).

This bread was perfectly fluffy and I loved the sweetness. I can't wait till I can make this again, but with less dough so it doesn't overflow! This officially trumps my other favorite sandwich bread as my new fave!! It will definitely be my go-to bread recipe for now on. The great thing is that you can switch up the add-ins. Instead of 1/2 cup of walnuts and sunflower seeds you could do 1/2 cup raisins or 1/2 cup 7-grain hot cereal..experiment! 

Just take a look of this fluff-

Spread with homemade peanut butter and chocolate hazelnut butter.

 AH-MAZ-ING :D

 

I've convinced my dad to make his famous Santa Fe french toast out of this loaf tomorrow for breakfast. He takes huge slices of bread, pan fries them, then bakes them. I've also convinced him to try making it healthier by using whole wheat bread (instead of his homemade white bread) and milk (instead of half and half). He's always up for trying healthier methods so he was all game! Gotta love that (:

Get excited!

<3

I feel like I'm on Cupcake Wars...and Mean Girls.

I had some leftover crushed pineapple from the carrot cake I made the other day so I decided that I would make some carrot cake cupcakes for my food science class to enjoy. Random treats are brought in frequently in that class, so there's no need to wait for a special occasion :D.

I got to work on my cupcake batter thinking there would be enough to make enough cupcakes for my whole class.

Sadly, I only had enough to make 14! You can't come to class with only 14 cupcakes for a class of over 20, so I had to think of plan B. I didn't want to make more carrot cupcakes because it took me so long to make the first batch (there's a lot more ingredient prep compared to a normal cupcake) but I knew I had to make more of something. So I decided on making the classic chocolate cupcake. This unexpected 2nd batch of cupcakes made the whole process a lot longer than I was expecting. It also didn't help that my icing bag exploded, and that I had to make more icing half way through. I started making the cupcakes at around 8:30 at night and didn't finish until 11:20! I still had a million things to clean but I just saved it for the next day and got ready for bed. I made so many cupcakes that I felt like I was on Cupcake Wars!

I frosted both cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. The carrot cupcakes got a garnish of crystallized ginger while the chocolate cupcakes got colorful sprinkles. 

Even though it took forever, they came out looking gorgeous! I'm glad I made some chocolate ones anyway because that's a flavor that teenagers are more familiar with.

Doesn't this remind you of the "1,000 Cupcake" display they always make the contestants do on Cupcake Wars? I really actually hate that show; the host is obnoxious and they always have a contestant on that has to act like a complete idiot. And the french judge? He'll say he absolutely abhors something and then you'll see his plate and he has demolished the whole cupcake... anyone agree with me here?

Anyways, everyone loved the cupcakes and despite being slightly foreign the carrot cupcakes were quite a hit :D

In other news, something more obnoxious than the host on Cupcake Wars is happening in my school at the moment. A group of (presumably) girls are sending out lists to everyone. There are many lists they have sent out, such as the "Sluts" list and the "Girls that keep their legs crossed/Prudes" list. I haven't seen all of them but the "Slut" lists are separated by grade so there is the Freshmen Slut list, Sophomore, etc. The lists are being spread by texts and texts only but somehow almost everyone in my school has heard about or seen the lists (and my school is big, with 2,500 students enrolled). The lists not only list girl's names, but also says a number of mean things about many of the girls on the list. It's just like Mean Girls! Except for in Mean Girls, the burn book was kept hidden and secret while these "burn" lists have been purposely spread by the girls that started them. No one knows who they are, or why they wanted to do it, but it's really ridiculous.

In fact, I am on one of the lists. The "Prude" list. It has around 30 girls on it (there are 630 people in my grade). The things is, though, that no one cares (for the most part) if they are on the "prude" list or the "whore" list. Most of us are taking it as a joke because SO many people are on a list! In fact, many people who aren't on a list want to make a "people not on the list" list! So the funny thing is that these girls who started the lists were trying to be mean and hurtful but in fact, no one cares! It has caused a lot of rumors and gossip, though. Everyone can't stop talking about it, but I'm sure it will die down..unless another list comes out. Anyway, just random drama that I wanted to share.

In other news... I made homemade creamy and chunky peanut butter!

I've never made homemade peanut butter because I always buy Skippy Natural. I like Skippy, but I don't like the fact that it has added palm oil. 

I got a big bag of raw peanuts from the bulk bins for $2.29 a pound. I ended up getting $3.11 worth which was almost 4 cups. I wanted to keep track of the prices so I could see if it was cheaper or not to make my own PB. In the end I made probably about 2 cups. A jar of Skippy has around 1 3/4 cup of peanut butter in it and costs around $2 dollars a jar. So in fact, buying Skippy is cheaper. But I'm sure I could probably find cheaper peanuts in bulk packaging or buy them on sale.

First, I dry-roasted the peanuts in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. I reserved 1/2 cup of those peanuts for when I made the chunky pb. By the way, raw peanuts freshly roasted taste SO much better than pre roasted peanuts!

I probably could have roasted them more, but I didn't want to burn them and ruin four cups of peanuts!

Plus, they continue to cook once you take them out of the oven. (You'll hear them sizzling!)

I then whirled em in the processor for a couple minutes-

 Once it got to this stage, I added a 1/4 tsp of salt (I ended up adding a dash more later, though).

I put some in a jar and then added the reserved peanuts to the remaining peanut butter that was still in the processor and pulsed it, just to chop the whole peanuts up a bit.

Here's what I ended up with!

I had just a little that didn't fit in the jars. *sigh* I hate when that happens.. On the left was the smooth (in a million-year-old artichoke heart jar) and on the right was the chunky. I immediately had to try some out on a saltine (the classic) and it was delicious! The Skippy kind is way too overpowering compared to this one.. it has an almost too roasted and salty flavor! You can actually enjoy the peanutty taste in the home made version. I think next time I might try adding just a little sugar in with the salt..is that a sin? I don't want it to taste sweet or anything, I just want a subtle balance.

The next morning I tried the peanut butter out on one of my favorite breakfasts. Toast with nut butter and banana!

Before banana-

I always doing crunchy whenever I do the nut butter/banana combo.. I just love the contrast!

Topped with banana-

mmm, the peanut butter taste even better on toasted warm bread!

Speaking of peanut butter, I made these amazing "Monster" Cookies a couple days ago. They're basically peanut butter oatmeal cookies studded with pretzel M&M's.

These cookies were a HUGE hit and just HUGE in general! Each cookie used 1/4 cup of dough batter!

Here's the recipe I used (slightly adapted)-

Monster Cookies

Yield: 13 large cookies

1 egg plus 1 egg white
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
2 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pretzel M&M’s

2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla extract, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Then stir in the melted butter and peanut butter, followed by the oats and flour. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips and M&M’s. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

3. Drop the dough by ¼ cupfuls onto baking sheets (if weighing, each ball of dough was approximately 2.7 oz or 77g). Use your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Baking for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

These cookies are intensely peanut buttery and super chewy because of all the oats. They have almost 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in each cookie!! I think next time I make these I will increase the amount of flour and decrease the amount of oats. So perhaps 1/2 cup flour and 2 cups of oats. Other than that, these guys were perfect! Also, I used Brummel & Brown butter which worked out great.

Make these!!

Since I've had some questions on how I make my eggs (for sandwiches), I wanted to share with you guys how I do it. I've made two egg sandwiches recently that were really delicious, and came together in 5 seconds because of the egg cooking method I used. If you don't have an microwave egg poacher, there's no need to go out and buy one. You can use ANY container you have on hand but try to find one that will be roughly the same size as whatever bread you are using. I love using this method because you don't need to use any extra oil or dirty a lot of pans!

First, crack your egg into your container of choice. Then, depending on how you would like your egg you can do one of the follow: poke the yoke with a fork, swish the yolk a little so it is partially scrambled (my favorite way), or completely scramble the egg. At this point you can add anything you want to the egg such as salt, pepper, hot sauce, milk, seasonings, etc. Then top your container loosely with something like a plate, Tupperware top, or paper towel. Microwave for around 30-50 seconds. It will all depend on the size of your container but for me, I get the perfectly cooked egg at 40 seconds. You will hear popping/exploding sounds but don't be alarmed. If you stop the microwave and check your egg, the steam will escape and the egg might take longer. After it looks done, let it cool for a minute and then loosen it with a spatula from the container.

The whole process takes 2 minutes, and most of that time you can spend preparing other parts of your sandwich!

I had an egg sandwich with a wedge of french onion laughing cow cheese and spinach that was just divine..

Don't you love the butt ends of bread loaves? So much crunchy goodness!

The other egg sandwich I had was a real winner. It was on toasted whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread with a wedge of creamy swiss laughing cow cheese.

I love love loved this combo! I like to only partially mix the egg yolk before microwaving because then I still get to taste the egg yolky flavor independently but it's more dispersed throughout the whole surface area instead of all in the middle, ya know?

Anyways, I hope y'all try out this method; it's saved me a lot of time :D

What's you're favorite flavor combos with eggs? I need ideas!

The two most important meals of the day

Hey guys! Once again I must play catch up; because I didn’t have time for blogging the past couple days and I have a lot to share!

A couple breakfasts I have enjoyed lately-

 Pumpkin oatmeal with apple butter and molasses mixed in, topped with mini chocolate chips, toasted pecans, and chocolate toffee creamer (doesn't taste like chocolate at all). Mmmm, this is what winter is all about!!

egg-before cooking (with hot sauce & pepper)

After

With center cut bacon and whole grain english muffin!

All together now-

yum yum yum yum yum yummm

This is a whole grain bagel, one side topped with low fat cream cheese + jalapeno jelly, and the other side topped with Laughing Cow French Onion cheese.

Guys, if you haven't tried the jalapeno jelly/cream cheese combo, you MUST. I basically can't eat bagels any other way (i.e if there isn't jalapeno jelly in the house, I won't eat a bagel!)

We were out of crunchy peanut butter, so I tried mimicking crunchy pb by making a serving of PB2 (powdered peanut butter) and then mixing in some brown rice crisps. I then topped the slathered English muffins with a smear of chocolate hazelnut spread. Sadly, the crisps turned into uncrisps so it didn't work out as well as I would have liked. Still good, though!

And lastly...

One serving.

Blueberry coffee cake!

I used this recipe from whole foods but modified it a touch (as always).

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Serves 8

 Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, divided
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Brummel & Brown Butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup white sugar (use 2 tablespoons if using blueberry yogurt instead of plain)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt or blueberry yogurt***
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups fresh or frozen, thawed and drained blueberries, divided
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan (I used a 10 inch spring form pan) with cooking spray; set aside. Put 2 tablespoons of the whole wheat pastry flour, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and cardamom in a medium bowl and mix together with a fork or your fingers until well combined and mixture is in large clumps; set streusel aside.

Put remaining whole wheat pastry flour, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and stir to combine; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, vanilla and eggs then pour into bowl with dry ingredients and stir until combined. Gently fold in 1 cup of the blueberries.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and sprinkle reserved streusel over the top. Scatter remaining 1 cup blueberries over the streusel then top with almonds and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Once cooled, loosen edges of cake and transfer to a plate. Cut into slices and serve.

Nutrition

Per serving: 201 calories, 5g total fat, .9 g saturated fat, 36g total carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 16g sugar), 7.5g protein

***If you are using one container of blueberry yogurt (such as Chobani) then put the yogurt into a measuring cup and add water until it measures one cup. 

Okay, so it's not the prettiest coffee cake I've ever seen, but it sure was tasty! When I made this, I didn't toast the almonds because I thought they would toast in oven. They actually didn't so the almonds were a little bland. I also used a container of blueberry Chobani greek yogurt instead of plain, so that's why the cake is so odd colored! I think next time I make this, I will nix the streusel topping (which kind of sank into the cake) and top the cake with 1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon curd instead (and toast the almonds). You know how much I love lemon curd and blueberries. :D

My dad was a real fan of this, and you gotta love the nutritional facts! All that for a whole eighth of the cake!!

Gotta love spring form pans..so much easier to get the cake out!

Dinners I've had lately?

Well, we had my dad's famous black bean soup-

Served along some homemade bread (more on that in a second!)

The soup has black beans (duh), assorted soup-prone veggies, hot Italian sausage, and a bunch of spices. My dad cooks dried beans in a pressure cooker with a bunch of water and a ham bone that imparts a lot of flavor. All the meat that was left on the ham bone, along with the bean water (and beans) are then put in with all the other stuff. We had the leftovers of this soup tonight for dinner and it only gets better as it sits!

Salmon!

We actually had this dinner a really long time ago..last Friday! I told you, I'm playing major catch-up.

This salmon recipe was based off of this recipe from All Recipes. The recipe is a honey and mustard mixture that is spread on the salmon and then topped with bread crumbs and pecans. The pecans toast up in the oven and add great crunch.

I pretty much followed the recipe, except I used whole wheat bread crumbs, dried parsley, and a whole lot more salmon for the proportion of topping. Oh and I never use the full amount of butter (and use Brummel & Brown) This is pretty much the only salmon recipe I can make because my mom hates salmon and this is the only one she can tolerate. Hey, at least that means that this is a good enough recipe that even a salmon hater loves it! 

I served the salmon with roasted broccoli seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon zest along with fruited red rice that had dried cherries, crystallized ginger, carrots, onion, along with other things.

Classic fish meal!

Another meal we had lately was spinach ravioli stuffed with a spinach cheese mixture-

With asparagus.

I made a lemon sauce for the pasta and veggies that consisted off milk, chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pepper. I used a roux of a little butter and flour to thicken it. The lemon flavor worked really well with the spinach and the asparagus!

And last night we tried something new...Quinoa pasta!

My mom isn't a fan of whole wheat pasta, so we're constantly trying to find a middle ground in debating which pasta to get. She constantly brings up that "if I have to suffer through eating the whole wheat pasta, then you can suffer through eating (blank)" I then roll my eyes and we move on. But really, its more of a win-win for me since I love virtually any food or dish! No suffrage on my part :P (and yes I realize I just said no right to vote)

So I saw quinoa pasta at the grocery store and finally decided to give it a try. I've always seen it, just never gotten it. We had the pasta in a tomato-meat sauce (the "ground" meat you see was actually a failed attempt of meatballs I made many months ago and put in the freezer). The verdict? We all love quinoa pasta! It has a much milder taste, which my parents enjoy, and still is a whole grain pasta, which strikes high points with me! I wonder why the first ingredient is corn flour and then quinoa flour, though. Why can't it all be quinoa flour?

 ***

NOW I'll fill ya in on the bread we had with the black bean soup.

I had the hankering for making more bread but this time I wanted to make a bread that had more flavors than the typical whole wheat. I made a herbed cottage cheese bread. This bread had cottage cheese (duh), parsley, dill, onion and honey as it's flavoring agents. The good thing I like about the process of making this bread dough was that it took a lot less time than it took for my other breads. The first rising only took 40 minutes, the second rising 25 minutes, and the third 15! Compare that to a total of 6 hours of my french bread. Here's the dough before slashing-

After slashing and egg wash-

After a good bake!

Wow! This bread was so beautiful and had such amazing flavors going on! I love the fact that it was whole wheat too. I got this bread's recipe from my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, so it's another one I can't share.

The reason why it rose so much faster than the other breads was because it had the addition of an egg and a cup of cottage cheese, which lightened the loaf. My mom, who hates dill, even thought it was really good! And of course my dad loved it, but I think he just about adores every bread I make.

Well I still have more things to recap, but at least I'm getting a little more caught up!

Have a good Friday, y'all!

<3