2009 Christmas Menu

-2009 Christmas Menu-

• Appetizer

Farm Rich mushrooms which I received a coupon for a free bag awhile back. I used the oven method, stabbed each one with a toothpick and served with warm marinara sauce—everyone LOVED these!

• Bread

Italian Loaf for Bread Machine

(for 2 lb loaf—22 slices)

Ingredients:

• 1 c milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c water
• 4 tsp margarine or butter
• 4 c bread flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:

• Add to machine according to directions for bread machine and bake as a basic light colored loaf.

 

• Main Dish

Italian Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lb boneless pork tenderloin
• 1/4 c butter, room temp—I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 c Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/4 c fresh chopped parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried
• 3 Tbsp chopped fresh sage or 1/2 Tbsp dried
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 c apple juice
• 1/2 c apple butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine butter, breadcrumbs, scallions, parsley, sage, and lemon juice. Place tenderloin on surface, cover with plastic wrap. Using mallet, pound until 3/4 inch thickness. Remove wrap; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread breadcrumb mixture within 1/2-inch of edge.
• Starting from long side, roll up and tie with twine. Place in roasting pan. Roast until meat thermometer inserted reaches 170 F for 1 hr 15 mins.
• In a small pot, cook apple juice and apple butter on medium-high heat until thickened, 5 minutes; cool. Brush over tenderloin during the last 10 minutes of roasting. Transfer turkey to platter and slice.

• Side Dish

Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables

Recipe HERE!

• Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Cranberry Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 batch Fiber One crust
• 2- 80z. packages of fat free cream cheese, block style
• 2 eggs + 1 egg white
• 1-8 oz. container fat free sour cream
• 1/4 c + 1 2/3 c sugar (I used 1 2/3 C Splenda and 1/4 c sugar)
• 1/4 c + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz canned pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1/2 c thawed frozen whipped topping

Directions:

• Position racks in center and lower third of oven. Place roasting pan filled halfway with water on lower rack. Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat 9 x 3 spring form pan with cooking spray.
• Follow instructions for pie crust here, but omit the pre-bake.
• On medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, 3 min. On low speed, beat in eggs/whites, one at a time. Beat in sour cream, 1/4 c flour and vanilla. On medium speed, beat 2 min.
• Transfer 1 1/2 c batter to separate bowl; stir in pumpkin, pie spice and 1 Tbsp flour. Pour into crust. Bake 25 minutes or until center jiggles. Top hot layer with remaining batter. Bake 35 minutes or until center jiggles slightly when shaken. Turn oven off. Let cake stand in oven with door closed for one hour.
• Run knife around edge of pan. Cool on rack. Chill overnight. Remove side of pan and spread cranberry sauce over the top right before serving. If desired pipe whipped cream in a star-tipped pastry bag.

 

Make sure to follow me on my Orlando trip for the next week!

 

Berry-licious Cupcake Recipe

Thanks for hangin’ in there to get the recipe for these marvelous Hungry Girl cupcakes—they were really unique because they blended so many berry flavors! Definitely a keeper for the summer months. I am headed home (to my original home that is) to take my dad to Seinfeld Live this Friday. I will be back here sometime Saturday, so blogging will resume either Saturday night or for sure Sunday morning—I may or may not still be floating around the blog world though—I can’t stay away for too long! :o) I hope you all have a super weekend; are you doing anything fun or just relaxing?!

Berry-licious Cupcakes

Adapted from the first Hungry Girl cookbook

Makes 12 servings (or 44 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

(For Frosting)

• One-half 8-ounce container Cool Whip Free
• 1/4 c fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp Splenda
• 1/2 tbsp sugar-free strawberry preserves
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 drop of neon pink food coloring

(For Cupcakes)

• 2 C moist-style white cake mix (1/2 of an 18.25 oz box)
• 1 cup diet black cherry soda
• 1/2 C egg whites (about 4)
• 6 medium strawberries, pureed (I used 1/4 pureed blueberries)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Combine all frosting ingredients in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer at medium-low speed, blend for about 1 minute then chill frosting in the freezer for 20 minutes and then transfer to the fridge until ready to frost cupcakes.
• In a large bowl, stir to combine cake mix, soda and egg whites. And pureed strawberries and food coloring, and mix with electric mixer at medium-high speed until smooth. Evenly spoon batter in 12-cup muffin pan (or 24-cup mini-muffin pan) spritzed with nonstick cooking spray lined with baking cups.
• Place pan in the oven and bake 15-20 mins (until firm). Let cool completely before frosting. Once cool, remove cupcakes from the pan and evenly spread frosting over them.

Nutritionals

• 113 calories
• 2g fat
• 197 mg sodium
• 21g carbs
• 0g fiber (boo!)
• 11g sugars
• 3g protein

Good for You Goodies: Enjoy Life Granola

   For someone like me who has never been a granola gal, today’s Good for You Goodie totally changed my mind! I’m not really sure why I’m not too fond of it—maybe the brands I’ve tried lacked in taste, texture, and good nutritionals, so I was turned off. But this granola is definitely a turn on! Check it out! (BTW, if you missed the slew of other products in the Good for You Goodies line up, check the side bar tomorrow for an easy access list!)

The Company: Enjoy Life Foods (Check em’ out featured on Food Network’s Unwrapped here!

The Good for You Goodie: 3 flavors of granola

The Chew Review:

A little about the company first--

“At Enjoy Life, our whole business is making smile-good foods that keep people’s insides happy too. That’s why all of our foods are specially made to be gluten-free and free of the 8 most common allergens, which account for 90% of all food allergies. Our mission is to make delicious products that just about everyone can EAT FREELY. We promise they’ll make you smile inside out!”

 Sounds good to me! So, I received 3 huge bags of granola from the generous folks at Enjoy Life and I knew if I didn’t like it, my mom or dad would—but I was hoping that I would like it! The flavors I got were Cinnamon Crunch, Cranapple Crunch, and Very Berry Crunch.(These are all vegan for my vegan-ized friends!)

• Cinnamon Crunch(My Favorite)

The website says this granola is “new and improved”, but I don’t see how they could have improved it—really people it is WONDERFUL! Upon opening the bag I was engulfed in a heavenly cinnamon aroma almost reminiscent of walking by a Cinnabon in the mall! Ya know that smell? I quickly poured some into my hand and dove in. Yummy in my tummy to say the least! And I think another reason I am a new fan of Enjoy Life granola is because of the awesome texture. It’s not so huge and overly chunky like some. Look for yourself!

 

ingredients:

Brown Rice Flakes; Evaporated Cane Juice; Brown Rice Syrup; Water; Raisins*; Rice Crisps (Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Honey, Salt); Rice Bran; Cinnamon; Natural; Cinnamon Flavor; Ground Flaxseed; Rosemary Extract

NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, VITAMIN FORTIFIED, 23 GRAMS OR MORE OF WHOLE GRAIN PER SERVING, GLUTEN FREE, CASEIN FREE

vitamins and minerals:

Magnesium; Iron; Niacin (Vitamin B3); Zinc; Thiamin (Vitamin B1); Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5); Folate; Vitamin B6

• Cranapple Crunch(2nd Favorite)

   This flavor was a lovely combo hybrid of—you guessed it, cranberries and apples! It had another really great aroma(I never remember other granolas having such a great smell!)and I am a total die-hard fan of cranberries, so I knew this would be a treat!

ingredients:

Brown Rice Flakes; Brown Rice Syrup; Evaporated Cane Juice; Water; Rice Bran; Dried Cranberries (Cranberries, Sugar, Sunflower Oil)*; Dried Apples*; Rice Crisps ( Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Honey, Salt); Expeller-Pressed Vegetable Oil (Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil); Natural Apple Flavor; Malic Acid; Ground Flaxseed; Rosemary Extract

NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, VITAMIN FORTIFIED, 23 GRAMS OR MORE OF WHOLE GRAIN PER SERVING, GLUTEN FREE, CASEIN FREE

vitamins and minerals:

Magnesium; Iron; Niacin (Vitamin B3); Zinc; Thiamin (Vitamin B1); Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5); Folate; Vitamin B6

• Very Berry Crunch

Freeze dried strawberries + raspberries= a party with granola! It was beyond wonderful—and no skimpy dried fruit here people, you get what you pay for(well in my case I didn’t pay, but you get the drift!).

ingredients:

Brown Rice Flakes; Brown Rice Syrup; Evaporated Cane Juice; Rice Bran; Rice Crisps ( Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Honey, Salt); Water; Freeze-Dried Raspberries* and Strawberries*; Expeller-Pressed Vegetable Oil (Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil); Natural Strawberry Flavor; Citric Acid; Ground Flaxseed; Rosemary Extract

NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, VITAMIN FORTIFIED, 23 GRAMS OR MORE OF WHOLE GRAIN PER SERVING, GLUTEN FREE, CASEIN FREE

vitamins and minerals:

Magnesium; Iron; Niacin (Vitamin B3); Zinc; Thiamin (Vitamin B1); Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5); Folate; Vitamin B6

 

Please get your hands on some of this granola ASAP, and if you become highly addicted, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

A Slew of News

  I am overly eager to report my apartment is better than I could have imagined! Of course I scouted the kitchen out first—and it is the cutest! It’s all white, lots of cupboard/counter space and just perfect for me! Then there’s the huge bay window in the living room/dining room area that provides a great view from the 3rd floor. When you walk in to the left is a giant pantry and the right is a giant coat closet complete with shoe racks and all! Then the bathroom is a bathroom, nothing too extravagant. 2 bedrooms—the guestroom is a little smaller but still has a big closet(I am using this for my craft room/office like I have at home), and then my room is gigantic complete with a walk-in closet!! I have never had a walk-in..just 2 closets I took over here! So needless to say the 2nd week in July cannot come any sooner. Bad news—no pictures could be taken seeming how the prior family was still partially there. So you’ll have to imagine for now. My room themed plans are as follows:

• Kitchen-White/Pink Cupcake/Ice Cream Theme
• Bathroom-Tropical Flare
• Living Room-Not Too Sure, More of a Modern Look
• My Bedroom-Fantasyland Complete With All Things Butterflies
• Guestroom-Undecided. Any fun ideas?

So my wonderful mom who already knew my whole pink/white cupcake/ice cream kitchen theme has started early to stock me up =)

(Cupcake plates, dish scrubbies, hot pads, cooking mitts, baking funnels, and a tie apron for all those messy jobs!)

 

Our day ended with a nice meal (one of my fav fast food meals) and a sweet treat dessert—DQ anyone(hey, Krista!) For those of you that are new to the blog, I know I mentioned it before in previous posts that my first job when I was fifteen was at KFC—yes I know I was young/desperate—but hey I worked with a bunch of friends and we had a blast all the while earning moolah! So I decided it was time for a little walk down memory lane! I had planned on trying the new KFC Grilled Chicken, but my mom ordered hers first and I was a bit disappointed that it had skin on it!(I despise skin on my chicken), so I passed it up and went with the standard. My mom said to Grilled was nothing to rave about and she really didn’t find any significant difference between the grilled and the original + it was even a bit drier!!—Bummer!

My Standard(minus the biscuit!):

I ordered up a Tendergrill chicken breast without the wrap and all the extras, some good ol’ green beans and some comforting mashed potatoes with half the gravy. It really is a healthy meal for a fast food place although I wouldn’t advocate eating instant mashed potatoes 24/7. Also I learned that you could just order a nice chicken breast when I worked there—I would actually bake them—they are just frozen like you would buy at the store, a little bit of seasonings baked with no oils/grease/butter/etc. So now you know a little trick—order a Tendergrill chicken breast sans anything else.

Then who doesn’t want to end a great day on a sweet note? I do!

DQ Cherry Sundae can’t be beat! I always get it with 1/2 the syrup otherwise it’s a major sugar overload. Such a nice occasional treat!

Enjoy your Friday and remember—tomorrow’s the weekend!

Sweet As An Angel, But Sinfully Good

  It was my great-grandma’s 91st birthday on Tuesday and the poor thing is still in the hospital struggling with her hip replacement—it has worn out(they only last about 10 yrs or so), and now she is finally scheduled for surgery next Wednesday to fix it up! So fingers crossed all will go well! I feel so blessed to have a great-grandma because not many people get the chance to develop that relationship. So when my grandma asked me to make the cake(Why does she even ask? She knows the answer!), I said I was on it. I didn’t want to do the traditional birthday cake because my great-grandma is no traditional gal! She was a cook extraordinaire teaching culinary classes at the local college, and she was a nutritionist as well! So I was looking to impress her and I managed to pull it off! Do you agree?

I decided to make my first fruit-filled roll cake due to the abundance of blueberries(they were BOGO!), and a can of cherry pie filling that’s been calling my name. I started with a boxed Pillsbury Angel Food Cake Mix to lighten it up a bit—and plus Angel Food Cake pairs fabulous with tart berries for a great summer treat. Check out the jelly-roll process—I was a little nervous at first, but it worked out great!

Berrylicious Angel Food Cake Roll

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

• 1 box Angel Food Cake Mix
• 1 1/4 C Water
• 1 {21oz) can Cherry Pie Filling (I used light—same price)
• 1/2 c Fresh Blueberries
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
• 1 tub of Vanilla Frosting (next I am doing cream cheese!)
• 2 Tbsp of chopped walnuts
• Hershey’s chocolate syrup
• 3 tbsp Powdered Sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix cake mix and water until combined. Line a 15 x 10 x 1 in. pan with waxed paper or tinfoil and spray with cooking spray. Carefully pour batter evenly over pan. Let bake for 17-20 minutes until cakes springs back and is lightly browned on edges.
• Meanwhile take a kitchen towel(or use a pillowcase like me)and sprinkle it evenly with the powdered sugar. Then mix berries, pie filling, and almond extract in a small bowl.
• Take cake out and immediately invert on to prepared towel and roll up starting the long way. Carefully move to cooling rack and allow to completely cool, about 45 minutes.

• Once cake is cooled, carefully unroll and spoon berry filling evenly inside.

• Then re-roll the cake, leaving the towel out, but still using it to keep cake sealed while you prepare for the next step.
• Take out frosting and microwave with top off for about 15 seconds. Trim the ends off the cake if they aren’t even and frost the cake liberally making sure to cover ends completely.
• Once frosted, drizzle with chocolate glaze and sprinkle with walnuts.
• Cut and serve! Oh, and enjoy! :-)

It’s berry beautiful!

Happy Birthday My Lovely Meme!

I Am a Self-Confessed Bowlaholic!

It’s true! But before I explain, let me quick shout out to two awesome giveaways you need to enter before I forget!

Gena over at Choosing Raw is hosting her first raw giveaway—up for grabs is a cool spiralizer that makes fruits and veggies magically turn into pretty ribbons.

The 2nd giveaway is over at Fitnessista and up for grabs is two chances to win the Ani’s Raw Food Desserts Cookbook—any cookbook is a gem in my eyes! =) Plus who doesn’t dig free stuff?!

Also, a little pat on the back for me—your girl won a cereal creation/naming contest over at Me&Goji which specializes in letting you create your own custom artisanal cereal. I was so pumped when I found out because I am a cereal hound. I love collecting and EATING different kinds. I will just reveal the name to you so far, but you’ll have to wait for the grand appearance of what it consists of! It’s called-“Berry Spice ‘n Everything Nice”! Can’t wait to try it out!!!

Speaking of cereal, that leads me to thinking about bowls, which is what my post refers to. I just recently noticed that almost all of my meals lately have been eaten from BOWLS! Not that it’s a bad thing, I just thought it was rather funny and wonder if this happens to anyone else?! Here’s what I mean--Breakfast=Great new cereal find(discussed below) in a bowl. Lunch=Great new bowl creation(I’ll share below also BTW). Snack=Yogurt/Fiber One/Fruit Mess in a bowl. Dinner=Included a giant salad in a bowl along with other random things. Snack=Popcorn in a bowl. What can I say besides that I am a bowl diva?! Did I mention I have quite the collection of bowls also. I will have to get around to snapping a picture once I round em’ all up.

New Cereal Find Alert!

I don’t know about you, but I love eating tons and tons of cereal. Sometimes the 1/2 C or 3/4 C serving size just won’t cut it—for me it’s all about bulking it up but still being plump full of nutrients. I think I found my main man. Nature’s Path Kamut Puffs are simply great! I avoid rice puffs because they don’t retain their puffy shape and often get so soggy in my milk before I even finish making for an unpleasant cereal splurge. Kamut Puffs completely stand up to my soy milk even better than my Cheerios and Chex I mix with them!(Variety is the spice of life!) They’re low fat, vegetarian, no trans fats and of course whole grain for a whole grain lovin’ girl! Honestly, with some cinnamon this is the best, although plain looking cereal. It has a natural wheat taste that is just hard to beat! I found mine at my local Health Food Store, you can order online too!

It had me at the 2g of fiber PER CUP—yay + vitamins, no sugar, and no sodium. =) Happy day!

Oh yes, and how can I forget I said I’d share my lovely new lunch bowl! It stemmed as an idea that I realllly wanted Hawaiian pizza, but don’t like to order out (I prefer making my own), and unfortunately I would rather not use our rather disgusting dorm kitchen to roll out dough, etc. So then came the idea of making it on a pita—but no, I didn’t have time to let the oven heat up. So I resorted to this--

Tropical Bonanza Bowl

Serves:1 Prep Time: Like 10 mins! =)

• 1 1/2 C Spinach
• 1/2 C Mushrooms
• 1/4 C Chopped Pineapple
• 3 Slices Thin Deli Ham
• Desired amount of Pizza Sauce
• Sprinkle of your fav Cheese
• One Pita Bread(I use Joseph’s)

1. Steam spinach and mushrooms(I used a steamer bag).
2. Meanwhile, chop pineapple. Cut ham into strips and do the same with the pita bread.
3. Once things are done steaming, take and pour it into a BOWL =) and top with pineapple and ham. Then mix in pita strips and cheese & top with marinara sauce.
4. Mix, mix, chop, and EAT!

If you try this—lemme know! By the way, What’s your favorite thing to eat in a bowl?

The Best Berry Crumble Cake

Don't you just love when you come up with your own recipe creation and it is a total success?! That's what happened to me yesterday when I had the goal of using up some fruit that was on the verge of rotting, but still perfectly edible. I have found that overly ripe fruit is actually better for baking! It gives the piece a more moist texture and the flavor of it just seems to ooze within! I started with a base recipe that is pretty special to me. If you've never heard of the Apple Festival in Bayfield, Wisconsin, it takes place every October and thousands of people crowd the streets of the quaint Lake Superior village of Bayfield. I absolutely love the town! It reminds me of a city on the east coast, but really it's just a few hours east of my town. Everything is obviously themed around apples, hence the "Apple Fest". Every kind of food imaginable infused with apples, and for about a month after the festival your still eating fresh apples picked from the orchards, and then for the rest of the year your pretty much appled out. It turned out we couldn't finish the 4 or so bags of apples we bought, but I happened to snag a family recipe from the lady at the orchard. I looove getting family tradition recipes, because they're almost guaranteed to be delicious since they've been passed down from generation to generation. They had an apple cake with cream cheese frosting and once we had a piece we couldn't stop ooo'ing and ahh'ing over the moistness and robust flavor. So I was thrilled when she offered to write down the recipe for me! Right when I got home I made it and to my delite, it turned out just as good! So not that I wanted to totally change this recipe when I made it this time, but I wanted to adapt it to the ingredients I needed to use. And I thought why not try and make a great recipe even better? Turns out I did! Instead of the standard 2 cups of white sugar, I used 1 1/2 and then 1/2 cup of brown sugar to add more of a maple flavor. Then I took the 4 C apple, decreased it to 3C, added 1/2 C of blueberries, and then instead of 2 TSP. cinnamon, I decreased it to 1 TSP. and added 1/2 C of Cinnamon chips I have been wanting to use up; these made a heck of a difference! Ooey and gooey and cinnamony all at once =) Then I topped it off with 1/2 C of chopped walnuts for the subtle crunch factor. Not only did this make the house smell outrageously good, it was gone within 2 days!(My mom brought it to her office at work!) This is a crumbly cake, and I decided to bake it in a bundt cake as opposed to the standard 9 X 13, but you can bake it in whatever pan you have handy. Also, I think this would be even better with a dollop of whipped cream, or some ice cream sounds even better! Please don't pass up this cake! It's a winner!

Mixing it all up

Chopping up the apples

The extra "yum" factor!

In the oven it goes....Beautiful and delicious result!

Check out the texture of this!!!!

The Recipe for my Best Berry Crumble Cake
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 C cooking oil
1 1/2 granulated sugar+ 1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 C nuts
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 C apples, chopped
1/2 C whole blueberries
1/2 C Hershey's Cinnamon Chips
Drizzle(optional): 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1.5 Tbsp melted butter, 1/2 C powdered sugar
Directions:
Beat eggs and oil until foamy. Add sugar and vanilla. Mix in cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Then add flour and mix until well-blended. Then add apples, blueberries, nuts, and cinnamon chips. Bake in a bundt pan, or 9 x13 pan that is well greased on 350 F for 50-60 minutes.
Icing: Mix all ingredients together and drizzle over cake while still warm.