Its been a week!

My posts have been few and far between lately! This past week I had some more, rather unpleasant, tests on my insides. They leave me with a lack of appetite and no desire to cook - or get off the couch for that matter. I still have no positive diagnosis of celiacs disease but all signs point to gluten-free being the way to go.

So this weekend I made some muffins for Jason to take on a roadtrip to Calgary. They were loaded with gluten so I couldn't try one which kind of bothers me! He says they were good but perhaps he was just being nice? Regardless, they smelled nice. The main reason I chose these muffins was because we ran out of sugar:

Apple Whole-Wheat Muffins
1 1/2cups whole wheat flour
1/2cup all purpose flour
2 1/2tsp baking powder
3/4tsp salt
1 egg beaten
3/4cup milk
1/3cup vegetable oil
1/3cup honey
1 cup chopped apples

In the actual instructions, you mix the dry and wet in seperate bowls and then together. I just put the dry in the mixer... then all the wet. It seemed to work. The apples get folded in to finish it off. This recipe makes 12 muffins that need to be baked at 400F for 18-20 minutes.

On Saturday we went to a wedding so I figured I should make something to eat before I left. 

I'm not sure that I've fully grasped the whole polenta thing yet but I'm working on it. This time I fried the medallions in a little bit of olive oil until crispy and baked them in the oven with tomatoes, feta and basil on top. This dish is a work in progress and it's getting better and better....

This was tonights dinner. As I mentioned, Jason had a race in Calgary and he's just getting over a cold so I figured I'd make him something substantial. I'm also trying out some different gluten-free side dish options as we are hosting a Thanksgiving Dinner here on Monday. The menu consisted of Feta & Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast, Pineapple Sweet Potatoes & Brown Rice, Tomato & Basil. Here's the recipes (click on the name to see the originals, although I'm horrible at following recipes!):

Feta & Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast

4 ea Chicken Breasts (I made 2)
3/4 c Feta cheese crumbled (That's alot of feta.. I didn't measure but I'm sure it was no where near that)
1 t Dried oregano or to taste (I didn't add this. I'm bad at reading recipes!)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c Chicken stock
1/2 ea Lemon juice
1 tb Butter
(I mixed chopped fresh spinach in with my feta)

Instructions

1. Make stuffung by combine feta and oregano (spinach) in a bowl.
2. Create pocket in the thick end of the breast, without going through the other side. Stuff cheese evenly into the pockets. Season generously with salt and pepper on both sides
3. Heat pan at medium low before adding oil, so that the oil heats right away but does not start smoking.
4. Turn heat up to medium high and sear chicken for 6 - 7 minutes per side. Do not stir or touch until nicely browned to ensure they don't stick to the pan. Turn heat down to medium heat, cover and cook for an addition 5 - 8 minutes until chicken is cooked throughout.
5. Remove chicken from pan. Add chicken stock to pan and losen brown bit from pan to disolve into liquid. Add juice of 1/2 a lemon to pan and simmer for a minute or two. Turn head to low or off an swirl butter into sauce until disolved.
Serve chicken sliced to show off stuffing, and topped with sauce.

Pineapple Sweet Potatoes

6 sweet potatoes (I used half of 1)
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple (1/3 of can)
1 cup packed brown sugar (A tablespoon perhaps?)
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves (I only had whole cloves so I just picked them out before I served it)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter one 9x13 inch baking dish.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes; cook until tender but still firm. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl to cool. Peel and quarter.
In a sauce pan, combine pineapple, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Bring to boil and reduce heat.
Arrange potatoes in a single layer in baking dish. Pour sauce over potatoes and bake for 45 minutes.

Brown Rice, Tomatoes & Basil

1 cup brown rice
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup champagne vinegar or 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar (I had to shake out the empty sugar container so I probably didn't get this much)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 lb ripe tomato, large-diced
1 cup packed basil leaves, chopped (This would have tasted great but I only had dried!)
2 1/4 cups water


1. Bring water to boil, and add the rice and 1 tsp of the salt. Return to a boil, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed. Transfer the rice to a bowl.

2. Whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, remaining tsp of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Pour over the rice. Add the tomatoes and basil. Mix well and check the seasonings. Serve at room temperature.

Too contagious for work? Bake muffins!

This morning I woke up to a horribly sore throat. Apparently it's a viral throat infection that randomly manifested over night. I'm not tired, I don't have a fever, no coughing and sneezing... just an infected throat. The doctor suggested I stay away from work/people until this disappears so I'm stuck at home with my patchy throat.

Perhaps it wasn't the BEST thing to do, but I baked muffins. Lots of muffins. I used this highly acclaimed recipe:

Banana Muffins (makes 12 muffins)
*The notes made on this recipe came from the original author.. not me!
 

3 or 4 Large bananas, mashed (the more bananas the moister, so I use 4) (i freeze bananas when they go brown in case you were wondering how I had 12 brown bananas sitting on the counter)
1/2 cup white sugar (original recipe calls for 1 cup, but I don’t like them too sweet)
1 slightly beaten egg
1/3 cup melted margarine or butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and margarine together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together! Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees F oven for approximately 20 minutes. Enjoy!

I made 3 batches and 3 different versions:

Dark chocolate (added about 1/2cup of dark chocolate chips)
Milk Chocolate & Walnut (added about 1/2cup of both chopped walnuts and milk chocolate chips)
Peanut Butter (added about 1/2cup of reeces peanut butter chips)

I made 3 tupperware containers of assorted muffins that I was going to put in the freezer but Jason told me not to bother... he'd take care of them.

MY REVIEW: These turned out great! Mine weren't done after 20 minutes... more like 25 but you have to watch them. They are super moist and the ingredients take no time at all to throw together. After peeling 12 frozen brown bananas, I figured out the secret. You need to cut a slit lengthwise down the banana and peel it around sort of vertically instead of pulling it down like you would a fresh banana that you were going to eat. Those inside stringy bits freeze to the banana if you peel it that way and it's annoying to get it all off.

JASON'S REVIEW: They were magically delicious.

Apple Streusel Muffins

This is my first recipe post since I've been back from Europe! I have been cooking lots but nothing exciting or new. It's so nice to have my kitchen back. Eating out every single day really looses its charm after a while! 

 

I wanted to make some muffins for my grandmas birthday but wanted something a little fancier. I think these fall somewhere in between healthy muffin and cupcake. This recipe did make 12 but as you can see there's only 11 pictured. Jason and I did split one and it was fantastic! He's begging me to make some more. In fact he suggested we have a "muffin spree" tonight. Don't really know what that entails but we have no flour so I guess I'll never know.

Streusel Topping

1/3cup packed brown sugar

2tbsp all purpose flour

1/2tsp cinnamon

2tbsp softened butter (I used margerine)

1/3cup chopped pecans (optional) (I used walnuts)

Muffins

1 1/2cup all purpose flour

1/4cup sugar

2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp cinnamon

1/4tsp salt

1/8tsp nutmeg

1cup shredded peeled apples

1/2cup milk

1/4cup vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare 12 cup muffin tin (or 12 of your silicone cups) greased.

1. In a bowl, combine topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.

2. In another bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; blend well. Add apples. Make a well in the center.

3. In another bowl combine milk, oil and egg. Add to dry ingredients, stir just until moist.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling half full. Sprinkle with topping, reserving 3tbsp. Top with remaining batter; sprinkle with remaining topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cheddar Cheese Apple Muffins

 

So I woke up this morning and decided to make some 'Cheddar Cheese Apple Muffins' from my new muffin cookbook - a present from Jason's mom (thanks again!). You're probably wondering why someone with an oven that seems to be unable to reach a temperature higher than 100F would be inspired to bake muffins. It makes no sense that my muffins turned out perfectly and evenly baked either...

You're probably also wondering how on earth I managed to use that oven when it was in the back of Jason's truck (look closely!):

Wonder no more.. I used my new oven!!

Our new Whirlpool Gold was a boxing day purchase. My dad (thanks again) and Jason hauled it into the house yesterday and Honey worked tirelessly to make sure it was level:

It has more features than I could ever imagine using but I am so excited to experiment with it. It not only has a self-clean feature, it steam cleans itself and has a hidden element inside so it will be very easy to keep tidy. It also has the fifth warming burner which I think will come in handy and it's a convection oven as well. This morning I just used the basic "bake" feature and it worked perfectly!

I served them up on my new plate (thanks mom) that looks shockingly similar to my tattoo (which happens to be 2 years old today) and it was a great breakfast.

MY REVIEW: I love my new oven!! These muffins were great - I used 3 medium apples to get 1 cup. This was a messy task so beware. I didn't have any cheddar cheese but I did have a little hunk of marble and some manchego, which I crumbed in. The muffin cups were a little full but it said make 12 so I wasn't going to mess with it. They're more like scones than muffins and make a really good breakfast when served warm.

JASON'S REVIEW: He said these were tasty (much like everything I cook apparently) and a good breakfast!

Berry Baking!

I made 3 different recipes last night with my berries. I still have so many left in the fridge but I think I'll just freeze some. This baking stuff is really time intensive!


They Won't Know Raspberry Coffee Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used all whole wheat)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened raspberry (fresh or frozen, if using frozen do not thaw) (fresh for me!)
1 tablespoon sliced almonds (i wish i had some)

GLAZE

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon nonfat milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Combine the egg, yogurt, butter, and vanilla: add to dry ingredients just until moistened.
3. Spoon two-thirds of the batter into an 8-in round baking pan (a pie or cake pan work great for this) coated with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Combine the brown sugar and raspberries; sprinkle over batter.
5. Spoon the remaining batter over the top.
6. Sprinkle with almonds.
7. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched and is golden brown.
8. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
9. In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients.
10. Drizzle over coffee cake.
11. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Low Fat Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (half whole wheat/half white)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat milk or soymilk (you can also use low fat buttermilk) (i used skim)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters egg substitute
1 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a nonstick 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray or line with paper cups.
2. In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
3. In a small bowl, combine milk, canola oil and egg.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk, oil and egg mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries.
5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake 18-20 minutes until golden.
6. Cool on wire rack.


Raspberry Lemon Loaf

1¾ cups flour (half whole wheat/half white)
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup low-fat, lemon- flavored yogurt (i could only find fat free)
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen) (fresh for me)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray and set aside. (I was able to make 1 mini and 1 normal size loaf with this recipe. I like to make the mini so I can try it and freeze the big loaf.)

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, oil, egg, egg whites, and lemon zest. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in raspberries.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely before slicing.

MY REVIEW: I can't review the cake yet because it went straight in the freezer. The muffins were really good. I've never had blueberry muffins look like that... they looked more like blue ink muffins than blueberry! I probably added too many blueberries because I didn't measure. They still tasted good. Loaf was good as well. It looked nothing like the picture on the website I got the recipe from! Mine was all swirly and looked almost blue.

JASON'S REVIEW: There's only a few muffins left from the 12 I made last night so I think he likes those. He hasn't tried the other goods but I'll post a review once I have it.

Berry Muffins & Banana Bread

I did some low-fat baking yesterday.
The muffin recipe was from this book:

1 1/2cups whole wheat flour
1cup all purpose flour
2/3cup sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp baking soda
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp salt
1 1/2cup fat free buttermilk (I used low-fat as I couldn't find fat free)
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/4cup melted butter (margarine)
2cups frozen mixed berries
1tsp grated lemon zest (didn't have a lemon so I mixed a bit of lemon juice in with the berries)

Combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Combine the buttermilk, eggs, and butter in another bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture; stir just until blended. Gently fold the berries and zest into the batter.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups sprayed with non-stick spray (I made exactly 18 muffins). Baking at 400F until golden brown.

The banana loaf came from RecipeZaar but I changed a few things around after reading the reviews:

1 1/4 cups sugar (i used brown sugar)
1/4 cup applesauce (doubled this)
1/4 cup margarine or butter (removed this)
1/2 cup egg substitute (i used 2 egg whites)
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 medium)
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon maple extract or vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour (half brown/white)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (did not use)

1. Set oven to 350 degrees (set oven rack to second-lowest position).

2. Grease bottoms only of two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans (if desired you can line the bottoms only of the pans with parchment paper, although baking time will need to be increased). (i was only able to make 1 large and 1 mini loaf)

3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer at medium speed mix together the sugar, applesauce, egg substitute, margarine or butter and maple extract until well blended.

4. Add in the mashed bananas and buttermilk; beat until smooth.

5. In a small bowl mix together flour with baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture; stir with a wooden spoon until JUST blended (do not over mix!).

6. Add/mix in nuts (if using).

7. Divide the mixture between the two pans.

8. Place both pans directly in the MIDDLE of the oven on the oven rack leaving a couple inches between the pans.

9. Bake for about 1 hour or until the loaves test done.

10.Cool 10 minutes in pan then loosen the sides of loaves and remove from pans.

11. Cool completely before slicing.

JASON'S REVIEW: Your muffins were the best thing since sliced bread. The loaf was very good considering it's low fat.

MY REVIEW: Both were good... not greasy but still moist thanks to the buttermilk and applesauce. Would make again.

Really Good Banana Muffins

We had 4 old bananas in the fruit bowl so I found this easy easy muffin recipe:

3 or 4 Large bananas, mashed (the more bananas the moister, so I use 4) (i used 4 too!)
1/2 cup white sugar (original recipe calls for 1 cup, but I don’t like them too sweet)
1 slightly beaten egg (i discovered we had no eggs so i used 1/4cup unsweetened applesauce)
1/3 cup melted margarine or butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and margarine together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together, being careful not to over-stir! Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees oven for approximately 20 minutes.

MY REVIEW: This made 12 perfect lovely muffins. They were very moist. Perhaps it was the applesauce? I'd do it again without the egg!

JASONS REVIEW: They tasted different than when made with eggs but still good. Very moist.

Ok so looks like what I liked in the muffins is what Jason didn't like. Regardless, they were good! Could add walnuts or chocolate chips next time too.