Tasty Tidbits

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It's been a very busy week for us, full of fun, family & friends. This pic was from Christmas night, when we got home & exchanged presents while watching The Santa Clause. It was a nice way to end a wonderful day.

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Peach yogurt with Chewy Cherry Granola
• Panettone
• Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Swirl Buns - These were easy to make & delicious. Super chocolately, perfect for a special Christmas morning breakfast.
• Pancakes
• Overnight oats with peanut butter & coconut
• Bananas

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Sandwiches
• Vegetable Wedgie (like a stromboli/sandwich mix)
• Tomato soup
• Grapefruit, oranges & clementines

Dinners

Saturday:
Out to eat at Mangia Mangia

• Beet Salad
• Vegetable Pizza (shared with mom)
• Peanut Butter Bombe

Sunday: 
Christmas celebration with friends of the family - dinner at their house

• Vegetable Strata
• Steamed broccoli
• Green Salad
• Mint Parfaits + cookies

Monday:
Christmas dinner with Mom & Pops

• Broccoli Soup
• Linguini with garlic & oil
• Green Salad

Tuesday:
Christmas dinner at grandparents

• Summer's Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with carrots, cauliflower & broccoli (my contribution)
• Tofu
• Sweet potatoes
• Mashed Potatoes & vegetarian gravy
• Macaroni & Cheese
• Vegetarian stuffing
• Cranberry sauce
• Nut roll

Wednesday:
Christmas dinner with Pittsburgh family

• Homemade pasta with tomato sauce
• Green Salad

Thursday:  
Visiting my college roomie/bestie

• Pizza - gluten free crust topped with garlic-tomato sauce, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, avocado & spinach

Friday:

• Chipotle Salad Bowl!!!!

Treats

• Cookies & more cookies

Tasty Tidbits

Here's a peek at what my view is on a Thursday night. Double-wide stand with lots of music.

We're preparing Christmasy music for the upcoming services. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service is my favorite one of the year. I'm usually forcing my eyes to stay open by the time it starts at 10:30pm (a bit past my bedtime...I like my sleep!). Once the service starts, though, I get wrapped up in everything & suddenly it's Christmas.

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Strawberry yogurt with Chewy Cherry Granola
• Bulgur Porridge with blueberries
• Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes
• Bananas & crunchy peanut butter

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Cooking Light's Zucchini Bread
• Sandwiches
• Basil Lime White Bean Hummus with carrots & pretzels
• Grapefruit & oranges

Dinners

Saturday:

• Gnocchi with roasted broccoli in a walnut vinaigrette
• Green Salad

Sunday: 

• Fresh Tomato Basil Soup
• Grilled Cheese
• Bean Salad

Monday:

• Mega Salad: Baby greens topped with tempeh pan-seared with lemon juice & garlic, carrots, red onion, kiwi, dried cherries, & honey roasted sliced almonds, all tossed in Mama Pea's Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tuesday:

• Angela's Smoky BBQ Chili - This was delicious! It's nice & thick, just how I like my chili. The addition of bbq sauce was a nice twist on traditional chili.
• AllRecipes Whole Wheat Honey Bread

Wednesday:

• Eggplant burgers
• Pan-seared Brussels sprouts
• Turnip Gratin

Thursday:  

• Eating Well's Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps - I'll be making these again for sure! They were quick to make, especially since I made the slaw the night before. I loved the creamy & crunchy texture combination.

Friday:

• Cooking Light's Butternut Squash & Smoky Black Bean Salad - If I could have a salad like this for dinner every night I'd be super happy. Cutting up the squash took some time, but the rest of the salad came together easily.

Treats

• Cookies & more cookies
• Trader Joe's Sipping Chocolate

Back to Nature

It had been way too long between trips to the family cabin. Until last weekend, we hadn't been up since Labor Day. Luckily, we'll be back again in a month!

We took 2 hikes, both to find overlooks that none of us had been to before. Dad saw the rock outcroppings from down on the main road & wanted to find them to see if the views were good.

I love the combination of hiking on the dirt road, paths, & blazing our own trails. It was fun venturing through the trees & jumping over rocks.

Things were pretty muddy, but that didn't stop us.

A few trees were down across the path. It wasn't hard to find each other through the brush, though. Since it's hunting season, we were all wearing orange vests for safety. It's always funny to look at us in our hunter orange when none of us actually hunt.

The sky was crystal clear on top of the mountain.

When we reached the first vista, we realized it wasn't so clear in the valley. Still, it's beautiful to see the hills & valleys covered in the thin fog.

Mom & I wore our earbands. It wasn't super cold, but when the breeze came along, the chill went right through us.

The guys just had hats on. And carried walking sticks. :-)

Along the way we passed several stands for hunters. This one was on the ground, but we saw a few that were mounted up in trees. Dad thought this one was pretty cozy.

Everything was moss covered. Did you know that moss only grows a few inches per year? It took a long time for some of the large rocks we saw to be covered.

We found it! From this overlook, we were able to see the road to the cabin of a family friend. The next day, we actually saw the cabin. These rocks were massive & the crevices between them dropped straight down for hundreds of feet.

We had such a great time exploring & breathing in the fresh air. I can't wait to go back. It's so relaxing & calming to be away from everything & outside. Hiking is one of my favorite forms of exercise. I just wish we had more opportunities to go.

Christmas Cookie Baking, Part 2

Over the weekend, we did a second cookie baking session. Sure, the first was successful & all, but can you ever really have too many cookies? There are so many delicious recipes out there to try!

In order as you see above, here's what we made.

1. Limoncello Pizzelles - The guys made both pizzelles, as usual. They're trying something new & flavoring them with liquors. To these, they also added lemon zest. It brought out the flavor nicely!

2. Cooking Light's Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprints - We loooooove these! It's always nice to have a chocolate cookie in the mix & these are pretty, too.

3. Apricot & Pistachio Biscotti - Usually you find pistachios combined with dried cranberries, so the addition of apricots is refreshing. Another thing I love about biscotti is that it keeps well. Perfect for when you have a lot of cookies around.

4. Joy's Vanilla Almond Orange Cloud Cookies - I never baked with almond paste before, so these were a change. Also, they're flour-free, so they're great for people with gluten allergies. They're chewy inside with a crisp outside. So good!

5. Kahlua Pizzelles - They were a little disappointed in the texture of these - they're not as crisp as usual. We're not sure what happened there, but the I'm not worried. They're still good!

6. Summer's Dirty Snowballs (not pictured) - These were least impressive of all the cookies. Maybe because they're frozen? They look cute, though. I think we'll try ours in banana soft serve, making a kind of blizzard treat.

I hope you're still in the cookie spirit! Happy baking!

Tasty Tidbits

Last weekend we saw Mary Poppins! It really was amazing. I've been singing the songs all week.

It wasn't exactly like the movie, but pretty close. Some of the scenes were switched around or altered to be more stage friendly. I loved how the characters were so true to the roles that I was used to from the movie.

We stopped for dessert before the show at Mixies, a new frozen yogurt bar in Hershey. They had a great selection of flavors & toppings for such a small shop. It was yummy!

We're still getting ready for Christmas around here. So much to do! We're taking the weekend off to spend away from all the craziness though.

Our living room ceiling is still a work in progress. The Bup works on it any chance he gets, but that's not as often as we'd like. He has about 1/3 of the insulation up. Since it got colder, you really notice a difference when you walk into the room. The other night we were huddled under a blanket when I felt a breeze & noticed the curtain moving. Frigid air from outside was actually creeping into the room from between the wall & ceiling. Brrrr! I can't wait to have it all insulated & cozy.

In crazy thoughts this week, we've decided that if it's all true, & aliens come to abduct us on 12/21/12, we'll be rescued by some pretty cool ones. My rescue alien's name is Bangles, a little purple alien covered in stars. The Bup's rescue alien is blue & his name is Thor. They'll be dressed in all silver & so happy to see us! :-)


Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Strawberry yogurt with Angela's Cinnamon Bun Granola & crispy lentils
• Easy Baked Oatmeal with blueberries
• Cooking Light's Banana-Chocolate French Toast - YUM!!!!
• Bananas & crunchy peanut butter

Lunches

• Leftovers
• PB&J
• Popcorn
• Basil Lime White Bean Hummus with carrots & pretzels
• Grapefruit & oranges

Dinners

Saturday:

• Cooking Light's Mushroom Lentil Burgers on homemade whole wheat-spelt buns - We loved the flavors in these burgers! They were a little softer than I like my veggie burgers, so next time I may try added more breadcrumbs. I ended up making 6 burgers instead of the 4 the recipe called for & they were still nice-sized burgers. I froze 3 for future eating. Next time I'll make a double batch to save time & dirty dishes.
• Baked Sweet Potato Fries
• Green Salad

Sunday:
Extended Family Christmas Dinner

• Pasta with roasted butternut squash
• Spinach salad
• Stuffing
• Cooked carrots
• Roasted sweet potatoes
• Pepper Slaw

Monday:

• Quesadillas
• Baked Sweet Potato Fries
• Green Salad

Tuesday:

• Gena's Yam & Peanut Stew with Kale - We really enjoyed this. At first I thought the kale might be an odd addition, but it totally made the soup. Aside from minimal chopping, this was pretty hands-off. It came together, ready to eat, in just over an hour.
• Dad's amaretto onion blooms
• Bon Appetit's Boston Brown Bread

Wednesday:

• BBQ Mushroom, Onion & Pineapple Tortilla Pizzas
• Green salad

Thursday:  
Traditional choir night dinner at Mom & Pops' house

• Cooking Light's Cavatappi with Browned Brussels Sprouts & Buttery Breadcrumbs - Browned brussels sprouts = win. Try it!
• Green salad

Friday:

• Homemade pizza
• Green Salad

Treats

• Pumpkin S'more Cake
• Cookies

Pumpkin S'mores Cake

I'm not quite ready to leave fall behind yet. It's not officially over for another week or so. Just enough time to squeeze in a few more pumpkin baked goods.

This cake is super light & fluffy, despite being made with whole grain flours. There's also banana (which you can't taste, if you're against banana flavor), pumpkin, & a variety of warming spices, all with great health benefits to get out of a yummy piece of cake.  I wouldn't call it a health food, but at least it has some healthy aspects. You won't even realize there's anything healthy at all once you take a bite!

As for the topping...who doesn't want to remember summertime with the s'more combination? It goes well with the soft, pumpkin cake; the perfect blend to remind us of summer & fall.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin S'mores Cake

Inspired by How Sweet It Is

Serves 20

2 c loosely packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 ripe banana, mashed
1 1/2 c pumpkin puree
1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour

1 c spelt flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/2 c unsweetened almond milk

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c miniature marshmallows
1 full sheet graham cracker, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together the eggs & brown sugar in a large bowl until no lumps remain. Add vanilla & butter, whisking to combine. Add pumpkin puree. Once combined, whisk in both flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt & spices. Stir just until no dry spots remain, then add milk & whisk until batter is smooth. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean & the edges pull away from the sides of the pan.  Remove from oven & sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Once cake is cool, sprinkle with marshmallows. Broil for about 3 minutes, watching very closely, until marshmallows are lightly toasted. Do not walk away while broiling! The marshmallows will go from toasted to burnt very quickly. Top with crushed graham cracker, slice & enjoy!

Tasty Tidbits

When I got out our Christmas decorations, I pulled out our singing angel bear.  It plays Christmas music & the wings move. Tink loves it! She watches so intently & nudges it with her nose.

This weekend we're seeing the Broadway show of Mary Poppins! It was a birthday gift from the Bup - I just keep prolonging the celebrations. :-)

How is your decorating coming?  Has anyone baked cookies or made homemade presents?

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Raspberry yogurt with cherry & honey lentil granola 
• Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
• Cereal (see below for a view of my overflowing bowl of deliciousness)
• Bananas & crunchy peanut butter

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Sauteed brussels sprouts
• Roasted cauliflower
• Grapefruit & oranges

Dinners

Saturday:
Dinner at Mom & Pops' house after cookie baking

• Pumpkin Stuffed Shells with salsa
• Vegetable Pad Thai
• Cinnamon swirl rolls
• Green Salad

Sunday:

• Pepper Jack fondue with broccoli, carrots, garlic bread, & apples to dip 

Monday:

• Baked Spaghetti Squash Casserole - spaghetti squash mixed with chopped kale, Italian seasoning, garlic, onions, jalapeno peppers, ricotta cheese & tomato sauce

Tuesday:

• Gnocchis with roasted broccoli in a walnut vinaigrette - This was a variation on a new recipe we tried from a newspaper. It was sooooo good! We're going to make it again next weekend & I'll post it. It was quick, easy, & full of flavor.

Wednesday:

• Deb's Cauliflower Feta Fritters - These were fantastic!!! I used a little more cauliflower than the recipe called for, so a few of mine fell apart, but they tasted so good. I didn't make the dipping sauce & didn't miss it.
• Couscous
• Roasted beets 

Thursday:  
Traditional choir night dinner at Mom & Pops' house

• Corn Quinoa Chowder
• Nut roll
• Green salad

Friday:

• Taco salad - lettuce topped with black beans, salsa, onion, & guacamole

Treats

• Trader Joe's Sipping Chocolate
• Bon Appetit's Cherry Almond Granola Bars
• Deb's Chocolate Sorbet
• Cookies

A Ceiling in the Works

It's Christmastime! This year, we have one of the biggest, nicest trees we've had in awhile. We're choosing to embrace its natural beauty - as you can see, our ornaments are a bit sparse!

The main reason we originally thought to go light on the ornaments was because we weren't sure how Tink would react to the tree. She's been really good, though! We hung up a mini stocking for her. :-)

We're under construction!

It turns out it was a good thing we didn't put the lights on the tree, because it's already been moved all over the living room. Everytime I go in there it seems like the furniture is in a different spot. We're planning so that once all of the construction is complete in the living room & den, we can get new carpet. This one has been through a lot (plus it's ugly!).

My amazing husband is redoing our ceiling. Originally, it had ceiling tiles over the insulation pictured above. It was a very low ceiling, so we really had to watch when we turned on the ceiling fan. I hit my hands many times doing yoga in there!

He removed all the tiles & insulation & we're going to have a vaulted ceiling now. I'm so excited!

Right now, we have either bare wood or the pieces that keep the insulation from molding as our barriers from the cold. I'm thankful that we've had a mini-warm-spell since he is doing the majority of the work this week.

This end, the sunroom, has insulation up already. It's amazing how much difference it makes in the temperatures. He's also working on lighting, which so far looks great. It will be hidden in the beams, causing the light to bounce off the ceiling.

I can't wait for the finished product. I'm so thankful to have such a handy husband!

 

Christmas Cookie Baking

Last Saturday we went to my parents' house & baked 6 batches of Christmas cookies!

My mom made the Lime & Ginger Chewies shown above, plus some Spicy Gingerbread Twigs. Both recipes were from the December issue of Better Homes & Gardens. Their cookies recipes for this year are full of variety.

We had some issues with the first batch of the Lime & Ginger Chewies. They spread a lot during baking & we wound up having to cut them apart (hence the squares in the upper right of the pic above). If you make these, space them far apart on the cookie sheet! They really are chewy cookies, which we love. Plus, the lime flavor shines through perfectly without overwhelming the cookies.

The Spicy Gingerbread Twigs are like hard sticks of gingerbread cookie. Much easier to make than rolling & cutting out gingerbread men, but with the same flavor. I'd suggest omitting the cayenne pepper if you're serving them to kids. It adds quite a kick.

I baked 2 kinds of biscotti. The ones pictured above are Anisette Biscotti from BrownEyedBaker.com. I used sambuca for the anisette liquor, & coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.  They're more soft & crumbly than what I think of biscotti as being, but the flavor is sooooo good!

The other biscotti I made was from Eating Well. I made this Double Chocolate Biscotti before a few years ago & it is just as good as I remembered! The traditional Italian biscotti does not have any added oils/fats, but uses eggs instead. This recipe follows that tradition. It has a rich chocolate flavor without being overly sweet.

If you're a huge chocolate fan like me, try dipping these into hot cocoa. It's delicious!!

Dad & Bup made pizzelles. Can you tell we have some Italian background in this family? :-) My grandma gave us this pizzelle iron as a wedding gift. I made pizzelles with it once before the Bup took over that job. He & my dad make a great team.

Dad mixes up the dough & then the Bup cooks them. He has a timing system down pat.

Their first batch was Almond Apricot Brandy flavored & the second was Anise. I'd share the recipes with you, but Dad guards his recipe card with his life. He has so many alterations to the original recipe that you can barely read the card. I'm going to have to copy it down at some point so we can preserve the recipe.

They're hard to tell apart by sight on a cookie platter. We store them in separate tins & label them so we know what we're getting without having to take a bite.

We had pre-dinner drinks to finish off a successful afternoon of cookie baking. This recipe was a new discovery from one of our drink books. It's called Fire & Ice, and is made from equal parts Sambuca, Brandy & Triple Sec.  Our day had an anise theme to it: biscotti, pizzelles, & drinks.

Having tasted these once before, I opted for the small glass. This is a strong drink!

 Here's to a festive & joyous Christmas season full of cookies!

Cheers!

Tasty Tidbits

We celebrated my parents' retirement last weekend. I'm so happy for them!

When we went shopping for celebratory champagne, this fancy bottle caught our eye. Knowing that Dad loves interesting bottles, we thought this was perfect.

Opening it was quite a challenge & required actual tools. 

The hammer was just for show. :-) It must have been just intimidating enough to the bottle, though, because right after Dad picked it up, they got it open.

Cheers to Mom & Dad retiring!

In other news, we were blessed with an abundance of produce this week. In the mix: turnips, Tuscan kale, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, celery & leeks. I used them throughout the week & still have some left for next week.

And just in case you thought I'd move on to the food without the weekly picture of Tink...here are two!

She's so snuggly! (Yes, I'm wearing purple yoga pants. All the cool people are.) :-)

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Raspberry yogurt with cherry & honey lentil granola 
• Minimalist Baker's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes
• Whole Food's Flax & Honey Banana Bread
• Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
• Bananas & crunchy peanut butter

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Mama Pea's Kale Sunshine Salad
• Grapefruit & oranges

Dinners

Saturday:

• Ashley's Apple Sage Chickpea Burgers - These were delicious! The apple & sage flavors were subtle but really added to the burger.
• Baked Sweet Potato Fries
• Green Salad with Mama Pea's Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

Sunday:

• Asian noodle bowls: bean thread noodles, Jenna's Crispy Tofu, steamed broccoli, & sweet potatoes, topped with a lime/ginger/soy sauce 

Monday:

• Root Vegetable Winter Warmer Soup from Everyday Gluten-Free Slow Cooking: More Than 140 Delicious Recipes - Our crockpot was about help about 2 cups too little for this soup, but I crammed it in there anyway. I was able to chop the veggies on Sunday, then just dump them & the broth into the crock pot Monday morning. It was so nice coming home to the smell of soup.
• Bon Appetit's Boston Brown Bread - I didn't have any cans, so I made regular loaves. This paired really well with the soup, plus it's good on its own.

Tuesday:
Friends over for dinner

• Comfy Belly's Cheese Bread Pizza Crust dipped in tomato sauce, pesto, & bbq sauce

Wednesday:

• EatingWell's Moo Shu Vegetables served over millet - We loved the flavor & crunch of this dish. It came together quickly, too, since it calls for a bag of pre-shredded veggies. We used broccoli slaw as the base. I didn't have mung bean sprouts on hand, so we threw in celery instead. I think this is a good base recipe that we could change up a bit for each season.

Thursday:  

• Tortilla Pizzas - Brown rice tortilla topped with bbq sauce, tomato sauce or pesto, onions, broccoli, pineapple, kalamata olive & feta

Friday:

• EatingWell's Parmesan Spinach Cakes
• Sauteed leeks
• Roasted beets & cauliflower

Treats

• Trader Joe's Sipping Chocolate
• Bon Appetit's Cherry Almond Granola Bars
• Deb's Chocolate Sorbet
• Lisa's Chocolate Avocado Pudding
• Mom's Nut Roll