Cake Batter Blondies

I really don't have a whole lot to say about this other than OMGamazing. I borrowed this recipe, and it was the best life decision I have ever made. Also, I did not alter the recipe one bit. I just did not add the optional white chocolate chips. It would have been too much. This was already very sweet.

3/4 of the blondies were consumed between last Friday night and Saturday morning (ok, it wasn't just me! Sehar was there too!) The last 1/4 was consumed at some point during the St. Patty's Bar Crawl.

Just go here, now. And make these. Eat them for dessert. Eat them for breakfast. You won't regret it until you wake up from your sugar coma covered in rainbow sprinkles.

Tofu-nk

In a tofu-nk and in need of ideas!

I realized I really haven't had much meat in quite a while. I might order it when I am out to eat, and I am happy to eat it if someone cooks it for me; however, I am not going out of my way to buy and prepare meat myself. I am not mostly vegetarian for moral or ethical reasons, or even really for 'diet' purposes. A lot of vegetarian dishes can have just as many calories as meat-filled dishes, depending on how they are prepared. While I didn't make a conscious decision to phase it out of my diet, it kind of happened naturally. Wanna know why?

My #1 reason for being mostly vegetarian is because I am cheap. Have you seen how much one pound of ground beef is lately? Not to mention I don't like touching raw meat (specifically, chicken). A block of tofu is $1.99 at Trader Joe's. Eggs are cheap too. I am going for the most bang for my buck here.

Eggs and Morningstar sausage. Tofu. Super versatile. Yum.

I have made or tried tofu prepared in a few different ways now (see recipes page for some of these recipes if you are interested!): tofu noodles, tofu pigs in a blanket, baked sesame tofu, tempeh in pasta sauce, tofu in soup, and I recently made up a delicious tofu marinade. My favorite way to eat it is sliced thin, marinated, and pan seared in my new cast iron skillet (one of my favorite purchases as of late). I will eat this tofu plain, and I have put it on a sandwich and used it as 'lunch meat.' A grilled cheese with mayo and tofu hits the spot, and provides a little more protein than just a regular old grilled cheese.

To make the marinade, I mix dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and a bit of canola oil. Then I pour it over the sliced tofu and let it sit at least overnight.

I feel like I am now comfortable cooking and working with tofu. Now I need to expand my library of recipes! Please help! Also, if anyone has any good vegetarian frozen meals or snacks. I am stuck on Morningstar, (sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits!) but I know there have to be other good vegetarian options out there. I need ideas, please!

Leek and Potato Soup

While reading some blogs today, I was inspired to make some Leek and Potato soup! It has been a while since I blogged a new recipe. I wasn't sure how this one was going to turn out, but I took some pictures anyway. Lucky for all of us, it is a winner!! Low in calories and very filling. Try this for dinner tomorrow night.

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Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 large onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, diced

3 medium leeks, white and light green parts chopped and rinsed

3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced

3 c. low sodium chicken broth

1 c. skim milk

Season to your taste: I used salt, pepper, celery salt, 

cayenne pepper, and some Zehnders all purpose seasoning

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In a large soup pot, take onions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes. Then add diced and rinsed leeks and saute for another 5 minutes. Once all of these veggies are soft, add in the potatoes and broth. Make sure that there is enough broth in the pot to cover all of the vegetables. 3 cups should do it!

Add any additional seasonings that you desire. Bring the pot to a boil and cook until the potatoes are done - 15-ish minutes? I forgot to time it...

Once the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat and blend with the immersion blender right in the pot! Or transfer to a blender or food processor and blend it up that way. I left some 'texture' in the soup by not blending all the way. 

This recipe makes 5 hearty portions (about 2 cups each) and is a really good fall/winter comfort food recipe. Enjoy!!

Serves 5

Calories - 123, Carbs - 26, Fat - 0, Protein - 5, Fiber - 2, Sodium - 380 

Sweet and Spicy Chex Mix

I went on a Chex Mix-a-thon this weekend... I bought two boxes of Chex, pretzels, and Cheez-its in preparation for our big trip to Las Vegas this week! Homemade Chex mix always reminds me of the holidays.

I made Sweet and Spicy Chex Mix and Original. Since boxes of Chex are gigantic, with the leftover cereal, I made Muddy Buddies.

For the Original and Muddy Buddies, I got the recipes straight off the Chex boxes. I just used a little less butter in the original, and added some cayenne pepper for a kick. I used reduced-fat peanut butter for the Muddy Buddies because that is what I had on hand.

For the sweet and spicy, I made up my own recipe! It is oh-so-good and can be altered based on your tastes.

Ingredients:
4 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted (I used light butter)

1.5 tablespoons dark brown sugar (I used Splenda Brown Sugar, it was pretty sweet so if you like it less sweet, then I would use less - adjust to your liking!)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 teaspoons of coarse or kosher salt

2-ish teaspoons of garlic - more or less to taste

2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce 
10 cups of stuff (chex, cheezits, pretzels, nuts, etc.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a medium pot/pan, melt butter and add in brown sugar, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and salt.

Drizzle over chex mix and stir until everything is coated - use extra butter if you want more topping!

Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and return to the oven for 20-30 minutes, stirring the mixture twice. Keep an eye on it... it may need more time to fully 'dry out'

Remove from the oven and let cool completely before storing in a large baggie or Rubbermaid Food Storage container.

Lazy Saturday

As much as I love Friday, I also love Saturday. I get to sleep in (well, as much as sleeping in is these days...), and go to bed on Saturday night without waking up to an alarm the next morning. It is safe to say that I really just love weekends (don't we all...)

I woke up this morning and smelled something delicious! I remembered! I had crock pot applesauce ready for me this morning. I let it cook longer than the recipe called for, and the apples broke up easily with a fork and made a nice, chunky applesauce. A bit sweeter than I would normally like, so I would cut back on the brown sugar next time. I had already cut back from what the recipe called for. I got my apples in my farm share, so I am not sure what kind they were and they may have been sweeter than average.

I just knew that this was going to be the perfect complement to my pumpkin oatmeal pancakes (adapted from a Hungry Girl recipe). And so it was! The pancakes weren't super sweet, so they were the perfect contrast to the applesauce. I took a bite of the pancake and topped it with the applesauce. Yummy! I served the applesauce with a small dollop of cool whip, and the pancakes with a bit of light butter and some powdered sugar.

I hope you all enjoy your Saturday!!! I hope to accomplish a few things today, but not too much. It is a lazy Saturday after all.

Pumpkin Softies

It is Fall. It is cold here in Charlotte, NC. And I love pumpkin. A perfect excuse to bake Pumpkin Softies! Recipe courtesy of Hungry Girl.

I am not much of a baker, but when I got this recipe in my gmail inbox and happened to have all of the ingredients, I really couldn't resist... Now, I do not like raisins, but I decided to substitute with Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips for no change in points plus! (P.S. this is officially the longest that a bag of chocolate chips has ever lasted in my refrigerator)

Pumpkin Softies

1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed - I used Splenda Brown Sugar)
2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
2 tbsp. fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I made my own)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup raisins (not packed), chopped (this is where I substituted chopped up semi-sweet chocolate chips, mini's would have been great too!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, white sugar, butter, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly with a wire whisk or fork.

Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt, and thoroughly stir until smooth. Add oats and chopped raisins (make sure raisins don't stick together), and stir until evenly dispersed. Spoon batter onto the baking sheet in 8 evenly spaced mounds. Use the back of a spoon to spread and flatten batter into circles about 3 inches wide.

Bake in the oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a "softie" comes out clean, 12 - 15 minutes. Allow to cool and then enjoy!

Makes 8 softies. One softie per serving.

Nutrition facts: 126 calories, 2g fat, 93mg sodium, 25.5g carbs, 3g fiber, 11g sugars, 3g protein, 3 Points Plus.

Tortellini and Tofu Soup

1 can vegetable broth

1/2 diced zucchini

1/2 diced yellow squash

1/2 chopped head of broccoli

1 container baby bellas, roughly chopped

1 container extra firm tofu, cubed

1 container of Trader Joe's Spinach Tortellini

Heat vegetable broth and additional can of water over medium-high heat. Add vegetables and tofu. Boil for 10 - 15 mins. Add Spinach Tortellini. Boil for an additional 5 minutes. Simmer on low until you are ready to serve! This serves four at 6 points plus per serving.

I seasoned this with salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb, and some Zehnders All-Purpose Seasoning. You could season this with really whatever flavors you like. You could also substitute with veggies you have on hand - this just happened to be what I had. Turned out absolutely delicious!

My Favorite Things: Fall Recipes Edition

I am not a fan of fall and winter, or cold weather, but I am a fan of soups. I love making and eating soup. Lots and lots of soup. It is hard to make lots and lots of soup in the summer time (it is hot in NC!) So I try and take full advantage of the cooler weather. I tend to be a bit overzealous with my fall cooking in the beginning of the season... the lucky people who live and work near me get to benefit from this enthusiasm. Soup recipes make a lot of food, and I love handing out portions of my creations!

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Butternut Squash Soup

My preferred serving style: topped with reduced-fat sour cream, sunflower seeds, and served with a side of cornbread. 5 P+ per serving (plain), 11 P+ when served as suggested.

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Crock Pot Turkey and White Bean Pumpkin Chili

My preferred serving style: 2 servings poured over 1/2 cup of brown rice and topped with reduced-fat sour cream. 3 P+ per serving, 10 P+ when served as suggested.

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Low Fat Creamy Potato Soup

My preferred serving style: topped with scallions, cheese, and bacon bits. Sour cream would be good too, but this soup is pretty creamy by itself! 5 P+ when served as suggested.

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Thyme and Vegetable Lamb Stew

My preferred serving style: as-is! This soup is delicious as-prepared. 6 P+ as-prepared.

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Of course, making soup requires some very sophisticated kitchen tools. Not really, but here are some of my kitchen must-have's for these recipes.


- Immersion Blender (I got mine at Wal-Mart)

- Slow-Cooker

- Good cutting boards in a variety of sizes

- Calphalon Contemporary Knives
Now go, make these Fall recipes and let me know how they turn out! What are some of your favorite Fall recipes?

Hoarders: Canned Goods Edition

Apparently, I am auditioning for an unannounced show called Hoarders: Canned Goods Edition. Credits belong to Food Lion, Aldi, and my father.

My Rubbermaid handy-cart post-Aldi trip filled with some of the goods
It is funny the habits children pick up from their parents without even realizing it. I make fun of my dad for having a pantry full of canned goods and making chicken noodle soup. I now have a pantry full of canned goods and made chicken noodle soup with said canned goods last week.

Exhibit A
A few weeks ago, I got some fun pantry organization supplies from Rubbermaid! A can organizer as well as a helper shelf. They have tons and tons of organizational tips and tricks on their website as well as their blog. Check it out!

I feel fully stocked for the winter (canned goods, peanut butter, pasta sauce, and toilet paper have all been purchased in bulk). Speaking of peanut butter, prices are going up! Stock up while you can. I got two jars of reduced fat Jif at Food Lion today.

In other news, with my newly built stockpile, I plan on making and eating a lot of soups! Healthy, nutritious, and filling. On tap for the next week or two:

- Beef stew (beef, orzo, diced tomato, green beans, potato, onion)
- Turkey white bean pumpkin chili from Gina's Skinny Taste
- Butternut squash soup is in the freezer - best served with sunflower seeds and sour cream on top, with a side of cornbread
- North African Meatball Stew over couscous will be next week (I use turkey meatballs instead of making my own).

I really enjoy making soup because it is easy and portable. And it is also basically foolproof. While I have not really messed anything up in the kitchen before (minus my recent kale incident - which I don't like to talk about)... soups are incredibly easy. Chop some meat up, open a few cans, toss in pot, add some seasonings, and heat until the flavors have melted. Or even easier, throw all that stuff in a crockpot and come home to a yummy smelling dinner!!

It's farmshare day!

Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 PM is quickly becoming one of my favorite times of the week.

Reasons why:
#1 - It's not Monday anymore
#2 - It's almost time to go home
#3 - It's Farmshare Time!!!

For those of you that somehow don't know about my farmshare from Know Your Farms, my coworker Elizabeth and I split it each week. It is delivered to the office at 4:30 PM on Tuesdays, with all of the fruits and veggies from local farms within 100 miles of Charlotte. It is AWESOME. For the price of about $15.00 per week, I get more produce than I should be able to handle (but don't you worry... I handle it just fine).

Part of this farmshare is the reason I have taken on a flexitarian diet - I am not opposed to eating meat (and Friday night's scheduled dinner is a big ol' steak from Outback... I have a coupon.), I just choose to eat a mostly vegetarian diet. I eat meat on occasion throughout the week (mainly deli meat or turkey/chicken sausage). Anyway, due to this new diet change and my newfound love for working out, I have decided to take a little Weight Watchers hiatus and see if I can lose weight on my own by living a healthy lifestyle. I seem to have plateaued since umm March with Weight Watchers and essentially keep gaining and losing the same 3 lbs. While frustrating, I know I need to make some more lifestyle changes in order to get these last 10 lbs off.

I digress - the whole point of this blog post was to discuss (as promised) what came of my farmshare this week!

After work, I made myself workout - went on an enjoyable run/walk (I put run first this time because I think I did more running!!) and did some strength training. Came back, showered, and got down to business in the kitchen.

Let me first address that I am trying to grow an herb garden - or rather, keep an already grown herb garden alive. I can hardly keep myself alive let alone plants or other living creatures - so this is an experiment... See my cute little herb garden below: thyme, oregano, and basil. I included some fresh herbs in my recipes tonight. Shout out to my mom for giving me the moral support it took to make the $8.00 investment in these plants :-)

Recipe 1: Sauteed Peppers and Onions - very simple recipe. I diced up fresh green pepper, onion, and seasoned with Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning.

Recipe 2: Veggie and rice deliciousness - I do not have an official title for this recipe, but it is definitely delicious.

First I put a pot full of brown rice on to boil (1 cup of dry rice cooked according to directions). I diced up eggplant and onions and sauteed in a large pot with a little olive oil and garlic. Later in the cooking process I added fresh basil and cuban oregano (courtesy of the farmshare) After the veggies were softened and appeared to be fully cooked, I added some sliced green olives. Here is where I usually add a can of diced tomatoes. I did not have a can of diced tomatoes, but fortunately I had a container of homemade tomato sauce courtesy of my lovely coworker Elizabeth. I added the rice and the sauce and voila! Veggie and rice deliciousness. The beauty of this dish is that with a rice and tomato base, basically any veggie could be added and taste yummy. The first time I made this recipe, I happened to use what I had on hand which happened to be the components I continue to use due to their deliciousness.

Note to self: need to restock the garbanzo beans... Side comment: I ordered some fun pantry organizers (can holder and small shelf) as well as new food storage containers (yay for new Rubbermaid Glass!) from our employee purchase website today. Can't wait until they arrive!

Recipe 3: Gnocchi and chicken sausage pasta sauce - I cheated and pulled the sauce out of the freezer (pasta sauce, spinach, and garlic and fontina chicken sausage from Trader Joe's). I also bought the Whole Grain Gnocchi from Trader Joe's and put it all together. Not a farmshare recipe, but this was my dinner tonight - carbloading after my workout :-)

Recipe 4: Roasted Potato and Onion - diced potato, onion, fresh garlic, fresh thyme roasted in the oven until it appeared to be cooked. It's as simple as it looks. Finished off with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

As you can tell, I was busy in the kitchen today but now I have lots of food to last me the rest of the week! My potato and onion dish turned out kind of like hash - I might have that for breakfast tomorrow morning with some grits. Yum! Lunch tomorrow is at Flat Iron Kitchen in Davidson. If you haven't been there yet, you should... the staff is very attentive and the food is delicious. I already know what I am getting and it is what I had last time (boring, yes. so what? delicious, definitely.) A shrimp salad with a basil citrus vinegarette, goat cheese, picked beets, and some peppers over spring greens served with a side of multigrain bread. Nom nom. Tomorrow, the week will be halfway over!! Dinner tomorrow night is my refried bean "tostada" with arugula instead of spinach... or should I have a hummus wrap with arugula? Sigh, the decisions...