Zucchini Boats

I'm getting excited about all of the veggies that are coming into season right now!  Everything is so colorful and tastes so much better than it did a few months ago.

It is during this time of the year that I love zucchini and summer squash, but I get bored with the same old steaming or grilling, so I searched Pinterest for some squash inspiration.  I found a beautiful picture of zucchini boats that were roasted in the oven with little grape tomatoes, perfect!  Bonus, these tasted wonderful and even got approval from the kids of a coworker!

I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to make a mental picture :)

Zucchini Boats
adapted from: Proud Italian Cook

• 4 medium, straight zucchinis
• 16 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• a pinch of pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 8 thin slices of mozzarella
• 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (the real stuff is better!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tinfoil.
2. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise and scoop the seeds out of the middle.  Line them up on the cookie sheet.
3. Place the grape tomatoes in the zucchini boats, 4 to a zucchini.  
4. Drizzle zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle on the garlic powder, pepper, and salt.
5. Bake for about twenty minutes, or until zucchini is starting to get soft.
6. Remove the zucchini from the oven.  Turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.  
7. Put the mozzarella on the zucchini and sprinkle the Parmesan on top.  
8. Return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown.  Watch it closely to make sure it doesn't burn!  Enjoy! 

Caprese salad for a crowd

Happy late father's day!  The past two father's days have been a little rough in my family.  Little might be an understatement...Last year, my husband's father passed away and this year we lost my grandfather a week before father's day.  But I spent a wonderful day with my father and all of my uncles and ate lots of yummy food!

I kept trying to figure out what I should make for our gathering.  I wanted to make something really quick and something that I could eat with a burger in case there were limited food options (which there weren't!!).  I was thinking caprese bites, but making each tiny salad on a toothpick was going to take awhile.  Then I remembered a wonderful thing that we had started making at the in-law's a few summers ago.

This salad is super quick and is a real crowd pleaser!  The ingredient list is really short, which is an extra bonus!

Caprese Salad for a Crowd

• 2 pints grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• Almost a cup of basil leaves (not a packed cup, just a big handful size)
• 16oz mozzarella (full fat tastes better!)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• a pinch of pepper

1. Cut the mozzarella into small squares or rectangles like above.  If you can find tiny little balls of mozzarella, those would be really cute and you could cut them in half to match the tomatoes!
2. Chiffonade the basil.  This is really simple, but sounds fancy.  Stack some basil leaves and roll into a little cigar shape.  Slice down the leaves to create little strips of basil.
3. Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and toss gently.  Sprinkle on the olive oil and vinegar and add the pepper.  Toss gently and serve
4. If you are going to eat this later, I would recommend adding the vinegar right before serving, otherwise everything turns a little brown and isn't as pretty.  Enjoy!

Garlic and Pumpkin Mashed Sweet Potatoes

How do you like the new blog title?  Since I can't bake with real flour anymore, the old title seemed ill-fitting.  Max came up with the nickname "wife-a-saurus" a while ago, though I'm not sure if it was meant as a term of endearment...Since people in the paleo world often say that they eat like a dinosaur, I thought this would make a cute new title.

So, with the new title comes a new recipe with a paleo spin.  I roasted an entire turkey last week which was left over from Thanksgiving and was taking up far too much room in my freezer.  I needed a side for my turkey, but didn't want a traditional mashed potato.  I have made these before and they made a perfect pair for my turkey.

This recipe does use dairy, but could easily be made with coconut milk for those with a dairy intolerance.

Garlic and Pumpkin Mashed Sweet Potatoes
adapted from: Oh She Glows

• 4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 14oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie spiced!)
• 1 10oz package of frozen, chopped spinach (thawed and drained of excess liquid)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons salted butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper

1. Put the diced sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes break apart easily with a fork, just like a regular potato.  Drain water from potatoes and return to pot.
2. Add garlic to potatoes right away.  I find the potatoes are hot enough to get rid of the raw garlic flavor.
3. Mash the potatoes a bit and then add the pumpkin, spinach, cream, and butter.  Mash and stir until the potatoes are fairly smooth.  I enjoy some chunks in the mashed sweet potatoes, but that is up to you.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Banana Bread Lara Bar

Last week the local "health food" store had a sale on Larabars, which I love, but I can't eat most of them because of the nuts they use and they are usually very expensive.  I looked at the ingredients and did some searching online and found out that they whole process of making these wouldn't be very hard and I could customize them with non-allergy causing ingredients.

I hope you try these; they are especially good for breakfast and will keep you full for a long time.  Although I highly recommend trying the real thing, this is a great recipe and ends up being a lot cheaper.

Banana Bread Lara Bars

• 3 cups dates (make sure you pit them, I initially forgot this step!)
• 1/2 cup banana chips
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Chop up the dates in a food processor (a blender may work, but you might burn out the engine, not sure).
2. Remove the dates from the food processor and put in the banana chips and walnuts.  Pulse the nuts and fruit a few times until chopped into little pieces.
3. Place the dates, walnuts, and bananas into a bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Mix with your hands until fully combined.
4. On parchment or wax paper, spread the mixture out into a rectangle.  It should be about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into eight pieces.  They should look like granola bars, or similar to that.  If you have ever had a Lara Bar, it should look pretty similar.  If you haven't had one, well, I probably should have taken a picture!!!

Heavenly Chocolate Mousse

Another post already?  Why, yes!  I have made this chocolate mousse three times now and it is so yummy.  I have not made it the same way twice because sometimes I have one type of chocolate and sometimes I am missing eggs (oops!) and sometimes I really want a dark chocolate orange mousse, which was the case tonight.

For those of you who don't know, I work at a chocolate factory.  Because of this, I usually have a surplus of chocolate on hand and I don't usually eat any of it.  If you're lucky enough to live close to me, you've probably benefited from this, and if you haven't then I apologize.  I had some wonderful orange dark chocolate (which is one of my favorites) and was craving a dessert.

Now this is not low fat or low anything in fact, but it a nice indulgence at the end of a long day.  I'm going to post the original recipe, but feel free to play with the flavors a bit.  Even if you mess this up, it will be a delicious mistake!

Heavenly Chocolate Mousse
from: All Recipes

Ingredients

• 8 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (if you prefer milk, use it, if you like flavored chocolate, use it!!)
• 1/2 cup water, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter (no substitutes)
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons sugar (If you use a sweeter chocolate, such as milk, reduce to 1 tablespoon)
• 1 1/4 cups whipping cream, whipped

Directions

1. In a microwave or double boiler, heat chocolate, 1/4 cup water and butter until the chocolate and butter are melted. Cool for 10 minutes. 
2. In a small heavy saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar and remaining water. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches 160 degrees F (it will feel slightly thicker under your whisk), about 1-2 minutes. 
3. Remove from the heat; whisk in chocolate mixture. Set saucepan in ice and stir until cooled, about 5-10 minutes (or, as I did, whisk egg mixture into chocolate and place in fridge, whisking every few minutes.  Don't forget about it or your chocolate may seize up). 
4. Fold in whipped cream (Don't use cool whip or the stuff from a can!  It won't work or taste good.  Tip for great whipped cream: place whisk and bowl in freezer for 15 minutes before making). Spoon into dessert dishes. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.  Then lick the bowl!!!

Sweet and Spicy Candied Walnuts

Healthy eating: not always very exciting.  I am trying to eat more healthy fats, which includes nuts.  I can't eat some nuts (almonds and hazelnuts, sad right?) so I was eating plain, un-roasted walnuts.  Well, that got boring very quickly, but they were filling and good for me.

I decided I needed to make them more exciting and did a quick search for sweet and spicy walnuts.  This recipe does have a lot of sugar, but you don't add any extra oil and I always feel like homemade is better than store bought.  A quarter of a cup of these is filling, crunchy, sweet, salty, and so yummy!!!  The added cayenne pepper adds a little kick at the end, which you could leave out if you want (bought don't, please!).

Sweet and Spicy Candied Walnuts
by:Smitten Kitchen


Ingredients

• 1/3 cup dark-brown sugar
• 2/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 11/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
• Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pound walnut or pecan halves or whole peeled hazelnuts (or a mix)
• 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
2. Mix sugars, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon, making sure there are no lumps; set aside. 
3. Beat egg white and water until frothy but not stiff. Add walnuts, and stir to coat evenly. 
4. Sprinkle nuts with sugar mixture, and toss until evenly coated. 
5. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper. 
6. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven, and separate nuts as they cool. 
7. When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.

Summer Veggie Lasagna (No Bake)

As you may have noticed from my previous post, I have indulged a bit over the past few weeks.  Max and I needed to start eating some more veggies so I combined a few recipes for Summer Veggie Lasagna that I found online.  This is nice for the summer too because you don't have to bake it in the oven so you don't heat up your whole house.

Summer Veggie Lasagna
adapted from a bunch of places

• 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 small summer squash, thinly sliced
• 1 small eggplant (optional), peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced
• 1 diced onion
• 1-2 tsp of minced garlic
• 3 tsp chopped, fresh basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cups part skim ricotta
• lasagna sheets
• olive oil

1. Boil salted water for the lasagna sheets.  The number of lasagna sheets you need depends on how many people you are feeding.  You will need two sheets per plate.  Boil lasagna for the time stated on the box.  Set aside.
2. Saute onion in olive oil until almost translucent.  Add garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes.  Remove onion and garlic from the pan and set aside.
3. Add summer squash, zucchini, and eggplant to the same saute pan.  Cook until the squash starts to become translucent.  Add salt and pepper.  You may need more olive oil to cook these.
4. In a bowl, mix ricotta, onion and garlic mixture, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  Taste the mixture to make sure it is seasoned well.
5. To create the lasagna: cut one sheet in half and put on the plate.  Spread with ricotta mixture.  Layer with squash, eggplant, and tomato.  Cut another lasagna sheet in half and put it on top of the tomatoes.  If you want, you can sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and microwave for about a minute to melt it.  Enjoy!

Tortilla Pizzas

Since I've started my new job at night, I've had to make dinner for me and Max before I leave or I would be very hungry when I got back at 8.  I was browsing some of the food blogs that I frequently follow and I came across this recipe.  I went to the store after class and intended to buy some pitas, but the store didn't have any!!  They did have some big, wrap-sized tortillas that I thought would work really well.  I was right and now I am sharing this yummy recipe with you :)

Tortilla Pizza
adapted from: gimmesomeoven 

• wrap-sized tortillas (any flavor, I used spinach-herb)
• mozzarella cheese
• pizza sauce 
• Parmesan cheese (if you like a little extra cheese)
• any toppings you like!
• I used Canadian bacon and pineapple

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees with your pizza stone in it. 
2. Put on the sauce, cheese, then toppings.
3. Put in oven and bake for about 10 minutes, but check on it because the crust is so thin.
4. Pull out of the oven and enjoy!

I made one of these for each of us.  Because the crust is so thin, they may not be as filling as normal pizza, but are super-duper yummy!!!  This is a quick dinner that I think most people will enjoy!

Quinoa Salad

I start my new job next week as night time coordinator at the Writing Center and I am very excited.  That doesn't really have anything to do with the recipe for today, but I thought I'd share :)

Today's recipe, quinoa salad, is something I kind of made up.  I was inspired by a recipe for quinoa stuffed peppers.  I made this to bring to a friend's house the other day and she asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share it with everyone here too!  Max loves this, so its not a girly meal; he finished everything that was left over from Brittani and Chris's house, I didn't get to have any!

Quinoa Salad

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water (or chicken broth)
• 1-2 avocados, diced into cubes (depending on taste or availability) 
• 6-10 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 can Rotel (I used the kind with cilantro and lime juice)
• lime juice (however much tastes good to you, it also helps stop the avocado from browning)
• cilantro (optional)
• salt and pepper

1. To cook the quinoa: bring 2 cups of water (or broth) to a boil.  Add the quinoa.  Turn heat to medium and simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed.  Fluff with a fork.  Let it cool for a while before you add all of the other ingredients.
2. Add all of the ingredients to the quinoa.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Chill and enjoy!  

I usually eat this for lunch.  Quinoa is very filling and is considered a complete protein.  If you haven't had it before, you really should try it.  It looks a little like couscous, except bigger.  It has more flavor than couscous or rice.  I usually make it with Better than Bouillon because it adds a bit more flavor.

mmmm enchiladas

Tonight I made enchiladas.  They were amazing, and vegetarian.  Not that that really matters, but I'm trying to eat healthier and these were filling.  I think the ingredients were pretty cheap, didn't really add it up.  If I had bought more cheese then I could have made almost a whole other 13x9 pan of these because there was extra filling.  Since I had extra filling, I made some quinoa and made quinoa salad.  I like to mix veggies with quinoa.  Max and I really like this and it will make a good lunch tomorrow to bring to school.

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas
from: The Cooking Photographer
10 to 12 small flour or corn tortillas (I like corn, kinda reminds me of tamales)
10 oz package chopped spinach, thawed (I do this in the microwave)
15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles and spices, drained
¾ cup scallions, chopped
19 oz can green chile enchilada sauce
8 oz sour cream
3 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese
Garlic powder and onion powder
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get out a 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish.

2. In a colander, squeeze out as much water from the spinach as you can by pressing the spinach with the back of a spoon. Place the spinach in a large bowl. Add the rinsed beans, drained tomatoes, most of the scallions, and dash of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Mix together the sour cream and green chile enchilada sauce. Spread about 1/3 of the sauce mixture into the 9x13 inch dish.

4. On a plate, place a tortilla and top with some of the spinach mixture and a small amount of pepper jack cheese. Roll into cigar shape and place into the baking dish seam side down. Repeat until the dish is full.

5. Spread the rest of the sauce on top of the enchiladas and top with the remaining cheese and scallions. Bake for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Wait a few minutes and serve.

No picture of these because, even though they are yummy, enchiladas don't photograph that well.

First Post

Hi everyone! I created this blog to share pictures of my food creations with family and friends. I've found myself baking a lot lately (and that may be an understatement) and keep getting requests for recipes. This is an easier way to share these things than facebook, that's for sure!! I bake about three times a week and I plan on taking pictures and sharing these experiences with all of you!

I have a small back-log of photos that I've taken since Christmas with my new camera (thanks Max :)) and I'll post those and some recipes as soon as I figure out the picture thing. For today, I'll just tell you what I made. I decided I would try hummus today with the tahini I bought at the co-op in norther NH. I got it after our trip to the mecca of baking, King Arthur Flour (more about that later). I also made some pita bread. I made some yesterday and Max liked it so much that I made another batch today (I think today's turned out better). So, here are the recipes. Hope you give them a try and enjoy!

It doesn't look appetizing, but trust me, its good!!

Hummus
1 15-19 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cups water
2 tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 lemon (or 2 if its not a juicy one)
1/2-1 tsp of salt
1-2 tsp of cumin
2 tbs tahini

• Put garlic in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until the garlic is chopped
• Put all other ingredients, except water, into the food processor. Blend until everything looks combined, it'll probably look a little dry.
• Slowly add water while blending until the mixture has a smooth, but slightly gritty, look.
• You have now made hummus, enjoy!

Pita Bread
from Making Fresh Bread
3 cups bread flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp superfine sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 scant cup lukewarm water

• Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl and whisk in the sugar and yeast. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and water. Stir well with a wooden spoon (or your hands) until the dough begins to come together. Knead a little with your hands until it leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Or, use the dough hook attachment of your mixer and knead for slightly less time.

• Brush (or spray) the bowl you used before with oil. Shape the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl, covering with a damp dish towel or paper towel. Let rise in a warm place for an hour when the dough has doubled in size.

• After an hour, punch down the dough (you can do this is the bowl). Divide into 6-8 pieces using a bowl scraper or butter knife. Shape each piece into a ball, put onto a cookie sheet, cover with the damp towel, and let rise for 10 minutes.

• Slightly flatten each dough ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface into an oval that is approx. 6 inches long and 1/4 inch thick. Place on a lightly flour towel (or again, a paper towel) and cover with another towel. Let all the pieces rise for another 30 minutes.

• While those are rising, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Make sure you do this 20-30 minutes ahead so that your oven gets really hot. Put 2 cookie sheets in the oven so that they get hot too. Put pita dough onto the cookie sheets with space in between. It says bake for five minutes, but mine needed 4-5 minutes longer each time. Cook until they are lightly browned and they should puff up. Cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack and then put them in a towel again so they stay soft. Store in a big zip-top bag for a few days.

Note: this recipe uses a lot of dish towels and since I didn't feel like doing that much laundry I just resorted to paper towels. They worked fine and you can use them to clean the flour off your counters when you are done baking.

If you don't feel like making the hummus, put on some butter and jelly or make a sandwich!

So, let me know what you think so far and leave me a comment to let me know you've visited.