Freezer Cleaner Muffins May 2, 2009

Choco-banana-blueberry goodness - perfect for a weekend brunch

What a gross, terrible name for a baked good. However, it does accurately describe the process of these muffins, but not the delicious, delicious taste.

Basically, I was rummaging around in my freezer, thinking, “crap, I’ve got these two small, bananas. They’re not enough to do a full loaf of banana bread, but maybe I cold augment them… somehow? Is that half a cup of frozen blueberries languishing in a sandwich bag? Maybe I can use those too…”

Anyhow, I cook and bake by instinct. This sounds really scary, but as long you know the proper  ratios of wet to dry ingredients, you can basically screw around and make up your own recipes. Besides, muffins are really forgiving. I hope you don’t mind that my ingredient list includes portions like “a splash”. I realize that’s not helpful for people who bake like scientists, but for those of us who take a more Jackson Pollock approach to the culinary arts, this sort of thing makes perfect sense. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 2 smallish bananas, very ripe
• about 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup liquid egg whites
• splash of milk, if required

Method

1. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside
2. Mash ripe bananas in a large bowl. Add sugar, egg white and vanilla
3. Microwave the frozen blueberries for about 1 minute (in my microwave at least…) dump the now thawed blueberries and any juice that comes out from them into the banana sugar mixture
4. Stir all the wet stuff together, take your reserved flour mixture, and dump in all at once. Stir it together, but don’t overmix. If the mixture seems too thick and dry for muffins, add a splash of milk.
5. Spoon into greased muffin pans and bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 
Variation: Omit the cocoa powder, and reduce sugar to 1/4 cup.

Salmon Cakes with Dijon Cumin Aioli January 19, 2009

OMG! Suddenly you have people coming over! You’re in a rush, and you have to make something fancy for dinner! Your father is judging you! Judging you as you frantically search the cupboards for something tasty, fast and healthy…

This happened to me, so I whipped these up, and they were a big hit! Also, really tasty, and pretty good for you.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of salmon
• 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
• 1/4 cup very finely chopped onion
• 1/2 a big zucchini, grated and with most of the moisture squeezed out (see below)
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup egg whites, just to bind everything together
• Dijon Cumin Aioli for garnish

Method:

1. Chop up the garlic and onion, then add it to a bowl.
2. Drain the canned salmon really well, and pick out any big bones, dump into a bowl with the garlic and onion, add salt and pepper
3. Grate your zucchini, and spread it into a tea towel. Now wring the crap out of that tea towel to get lots of the moisture out. Repeat, then add the zucchini to the bowl too. This is about 1 cup of zucchini when I do it.
4. Mix everything together, and add the egg white a bit at a time to help it stick. 
5. Take 2 tbsps of the mixture at a time and press into cakes. You may need to squish extra moisture out towards the end. I get 12 cakes, about 2 inches across. 
6. Fry in a hot non-stick pan with some pam until golden brown.
7. Serve with Aioli!

Dijon Cumin Aioli

In a bowl, mix together:

• 2 tbsp miracle whip
• 1 tsp whole grain dijon mustard
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cumin 

Spoon into a sandwich bag, nip the corner off with some scissors, and then pipe onto finished salmon cakes.

 

Frying the salmon cakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden brown!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YUM! He's so happy I'm going to eat him!!

Healthy Chai Spice Shortbread! December 21, 2008

 

Look, it's about as healthy as you're ever going to see shortbread.

Well, not really. Not much, but ever so slightly, marginally better for you than standard shortbread. A smidgen healthier – don’t get too excited. This is adapted from a Whole Foods recipe, but my changes make these cookies diabetic friendly. As long as you don’t roll them in the sugar at the end. However, they look lovely and festive with the delicate sugar coating. You could also roll these in icing sugar, or even special dusting sugar, but they look great with regular sugar, and that is the thing people are most likely to have on hand.

The other benefit is that these cookies are almost silly they’re so easy to make, so if you need to put together some last minute baking as a gift, you can be in and out of the kitchen with a wrapped tin of cookies in under an hour!

 

This makes a big batch of about 28 – 30 cookies, which is perfect for gifting/bringing to a potluck at Christmas, but could easily be halved if you don’t need 30 shortbread cookies hanging around. I certainly don’t. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter/margarine 
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp splenda 
• 2 SCANT cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar – for rolling cookies in (optional)

Method:

Using a hand mixer, mix together butter and splenda for at least five minutes until butter is very whipped up and fluffy.

Add spices, flour and vanilla, use hand mixer to mix all ingredients together.  Mix should be a little crumbly.

Using a teaspoon, scoop up the mix and form into slightly flattened balls. 

Bake in a 250 degree oven for 18 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then roll the tops of the cookies in the sugar. 

Eat copious amounts, thinking to yourself, “they have fiber! And almost no sugar! And spices! Spices are healthy, right?”

Easy Gourmet Tuna Sandwiches September 16, 2008

So, it’s late, and you’re tired and you have a nearly empty cupboard, and you want a new taste and no hassle, right? Right!

1 can tuna
1 tsp parsley flakes
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Bread

1. Drain tuna, and mix in mustard and parsley flakes.
2. Spoon tuna onto two slices of bread and toast under the broiler, or slap together and eat cold.

If you find just straight up Dijon mustard too intense, cut it with some mayo. Also, Dijon mustard is way lower in fat and calories than mayo, so you can pretend this is a healthy tuna sandwich.

Why I run August 23, 2008

This is a fun example of how much weight I lost after I started working out -in specific, running.