My Chock Full of Veggies Lasagna and Summer-y Blackberry Bars

Tonight for dinner I made my signature dish--LASAGNA.  I've been making this for years and it is often the meal I make for special occasions, company and when I just really feel like indulging.  BUT, it's made pretty darn healthy and you'd never know it!

Once again though, I don't follow a recipe and this lasagna still comes out SO GOOD every time!  (It's gotta be because I NEVER put onions in it! ; )  I always use different amounts of veggies and such, so this is just estimates of what I used today.

Katrina's Chock Full Of Veggies Lasagna

1/4 lb. lean ground beef (93% fat free, usually, I only ever buy 90% fat free or better)

green pepper, chopped (about 3/4 of a pepper)

mini baby carrots, chopped, about 1 cup

zucchini, chopped, 1 medium

yellow squash, chopped, 2 small

mushrooms, chopped, about 1 cup

celery, chopped, 2 small stalks

3 garlic cloves, minced

onion powder (okay, I usually put a little in, but powder only)

1--28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1--15 oz. Italian chopped tomatoes

oregano, dried, to taste (about 2 teaspoons)

basil, dried, to taste (about 1-2 teaspoons)  I always use fresh in the summer!

1-2 teaspoons sugar (this cuts the acidity of the tomatoes)

salt and pepper to taste

a little ground red pepper (or flakes)

fat free cottage cheese, about 1  1/2 cups

1/4 cup Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk

Kraft 2% milk mozzarella cheese, about 1 cup, shredded

parmesan cheese, shredded, about 1/4 cup

whole wheat lasagna noodles, about 12 noodles (some think you have to precook the noodles--I never have done that and the noodles always cook just fine in the oven--stop wasting time boiling the noodles first!)

Brown the ground beef, set aside.  Chop all the veggies.  (I LOVE THE VIDALIA ONION CHOP WIZARD (See my post about THE WIZARD CHOPPER)--sure made all the chopping a breeze!--Thanks again, Mom and Dad!)

Saute in olive oil the peppers, carrots and celery (onion, if you must) for 3-5 minutes, then add the rest-zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms and saute another 3-5 minutes until soft, but not too much.   Scoot some of the veggies aside, add a little more oil and the garlic and saute for 30 seconds to a minute.  Stir all together.  I usually move the veggies to a pot instead of a saute pan at this point and add the tomatoes, ground beef, spices, and sugar and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.  During this time, I put the cottage cheese in the food processor and pulse it up until it looks just like ricotta cheese!  Add a good half of the mozzarella cheese and the Egg Beater and pulse a few times. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Assemble the lasagna in a 9x13 pan.  Layer ingredients, beginning with sauce spread on bottom of pan, then lay pasta over the sauce, spread cottage cheese mixture over noodles and begin layers again--sauce, pasta, cheese mixture.  After the third layer, end with sauce, then sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese on top.  Cover with foil and bake for 40-50 minutes, remove foil and bake another 10 minutes.  Let set for 5-10 minutes to cool slightly.  Serve.

 

The corner pieces are my favorite, cheesy-gooey-saucy-flavorful-and HEALTHY! 

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Dessert--I made these yesterday and unfortunately didn't take the greatest pictures, the color/lighting was off, but this is actually quite good.  I got some blackberries at $1 a pint recently (Love those winter sales on summer fruits!) and decided to find something to make with them.  I found this recipe at About.com (Southern Food).  It is simple and more flavorful than I thought it would be.  It is almost more of a cake than bars, but there is a surprise streusel type layer on the bottom.

Blackberry Bars, adapted from About, Southern Food

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sour cream (I use light)

1/4 cup Egg Beaters with touch of yolk (or 1 large egg)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blackberries (these were huge, so I chopped them a little)

Combine flour and brown sugar, cut in butter with pastry blender--wait-as I was doing that, I decided a few pulses in the food processor would be much easier.  Pulse to combine in food processor.  Press 1  1/3 cups of mixture in bottom of an ungreased 8 inch pan (I used a round cake pan), a square pan works, too.  Combine remaining  crumb mixture, sour cream, egg, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Mix together until combined.  Stir in blackberries.  Spoon over crust and spread evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

 

The recipe said to sprinkle with powdered sugar, but I thought that seemed a little boring.  So I made a glaze with some blackberries that I stuck in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  Then I mashed them with a fork and added about 3/4 cup powdered sugar, a pinch of salt and about 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.  Stirred together well and drizzled on the "bars".  Mmmm, good!  (Again, sorry about the color of the photo, it's not bad, but just off a little.)

A Couple of Darn Good Cookies and "The" Chicken Black Bean Tortilla Bake

I'd better start with the taco "casserole" I made and showed a picture of with my TWD corn muffins, as many seem to want the "recipe".  Well, I'm sorry to tell you that there is NO recipe.  A LOT of the things I make for dinner are made up as I go along.  This was one of those dishes.  But because I care about ya'll so much, I'll see what I can do---Here's is about what I did.  This is the only picture of it I took.

Chicken Black Bean Tortilla Bake (this is all estimations)

2 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1/2 cup black beans (canned), you can use more, but that's just some leftover I had

1/2 cup green pepper, diced

1/2 cup red pepper, diced

2 large garlic cloves (you can chop up and onion, too, but I hate onions!)

1  15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1  8 oz. can of tomato sauce (***The "bake" was actually a tad dry, and I wish I'd have used another 15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes)

1 teaspoon onion powder (omit if adding chopped onion)

a lot of chili powder (1-2 T.???--to taste)

cumin (1 T.???--to taste)

some dried oregano (1/4-1/2 teaspoon???)  See, I just never measure stuff!

I think I also added some ground coriander (1/2 t.???)

a few shakes of cayenne powder

some chopped cilantro (1/4 cup???)

salt and pepper to taste

Kraft 2% Milk cheddar and mozzarella cheese, shredded,  1 cup of each???

tortilla chips  (about half a bag or so)

garnishes--chopped tomato, chopped olives, chopped avocado, chopped cilantro, sour cream, salsa, taco sauce--what do you like on tacos?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook chicken and shred or chop (I had cooked four frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot about 6 hours-they were plenty done, used two for this.)  Set aside.  In skillet or Dutch oven, saute (onion) :(, peppers and garlic  in a small amount of olive oil.  Add canned tomatoes, sauce and spices--to taste.  I like to taste it with a tortilla chip.  Add chicken and beans to sauce and continue to simmer on med-low while you get everything else ready--cheese, chips, chicken, a 9x13 pan, sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

Assemble like you would a lasagna--start with some of the sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Add tortilla chips, crushed slightly, then some of both cheeses.  Layer again with more sauce/chicken mixture, then chips, cheese and any remaining sauce.  End with cheese.  Bake in oven for 30 minutes or so.  I put the tomato, olives and cilantro over the whole thing and served each serving with each person deciding what else they want--sour cream, avocado, salsa, etc.

***Again, this wasn't quite as "saucy" as I would have liked, so maybe use 2  15 oz. cans of tomato (you can use all sauce or diced/crushed tomatoes, whatever you'd like)  Still the flavor of this and all the chicken in it this was perfect.  I really just make things like this as I go along and to taste.  You can too!  ;)

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I've made some cookies over the last few days, but wait, they're pretty healthy!  You gotta try these!  First up, once again, Anna at Cookie Madness has found a great cookie!  She made and shared these on her blog on the first day of the year and I've wanted to make them since.  SO glad I finally tried them and so is Kevin.  He isn't much of a critic with my cooking/baking, he eats super fast and whenever I ask how things tasted he will just shrug his shoulder or say it was fine or good.  That's about all I get from him.  I often tease him that he doesn't take time to really "taste" food.  I do love that he almost always tells me after dinner, "thank you for making dinner, it was good."  And he has taught the boys to be thankful for all my work so they can eat as well.  It is nice to be thanked for my time.  Anyway, got a little off track there. 

After I made these Pecan Chewies yesterday, and Kevin tasted a few, he went on and on about how good they are.  He said he loved the crisp outside and the inside was like a perfect brownie, fudgy and perfectly chewy.  We had some friends over last night and he even convince our picky eater friend to have a few cookies and he even liked them (that's saying a lot!--Hi, Bob!)  Even later, Kevin announced to me that he could seriously eat all those cookies, they are that good and he said these could out do his favorite cookie, Snickerdoodles.    That's saying a lot coming from someone who never really has much to say about things I bake, and I often really want his opinion about things.  So, glad you love them, Kev!

They are GREAT, addicting, simple and even pretty low fat!  Here's the recipe from Anna's blog, but go check hers out on the link above and read what she had to say about them!  I almost followed her recipe to a tee, but accidentally forgot the vanilla!  And I toasted my pecans in the microwave on a plate, for about two minutes, turning them after one minute.   I baked mine 14 minutes exactly and she suggests 15-18 minutes. 

Pecan Chewies

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar, lightly packed
6 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
2 tablespoons all purpose flour (.7 oz/16 grams)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups toasted and finely chopped pecans (8 oz)**
1 1/2 oz finely grated or chopped dark or bittersweet chocolate (I used some Hershey's special dark)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Stir powdered sugar, cocoa powder, flour and salt together in a bowl

Place egg whites in bowl of a stand mixer and beat just until foamy. Gradually add sugar mixture, scraping sides of bowl so that all of it is added to the whites. Add vanilla. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for about a minute and a half. Mixture will thicken slightly, but it will not be light and fluffy like meringue. Stir in nuts and chocolate.

Drop the dough onto the baking sheets by rounded tablespoons, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies on the middle rack for 15 -18 minutes or until dry on the surface. Slide the cookies, still attached to the parchment onto a wire rack. Let cool completely, then carefully peel the cookies from the parchment.

Store cookies in an airtight container or freeze.

Makes about 2 dozen (sometimes I get fewer).  *I got 28 cookies!

**To toast, spread pecans on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until they become fragrant and release their oils. Cool completely before chopping.

You won't know how good these are until you try them!  And you need to!   Besides some sugar, these just have egg whites (I had some egg whites frozen in the freezer and they thawed beautifully), a little flour, cocoa powder (which is full of antioxidants and fiber!), a little dark chocolate (also full of antioxidants!) and pecans (nuts are a good fat in limited quantity).  See, not bad on the "bad-for-you" cookie scale!  Kevin's new favorite cookie!  Thanks you, Anna!

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Copy, copy, copy, sometimes I feel like my seven year old, Parker, always trying to copy Scott, my 10 year old, and do just as he does.  Parker does this A LOT, every little thing he can do to be and do just as Scott does, even down to not deciding on his own which cereal to have until Scott decides or honey or jam with his peanut butter.  Anyway, Anna is such an amazing cookie baker, as I aspire to be and she comes up with some GREAT recipes.  She did it again and I told her I'd make these, especially because they are somewhat healthy and I'm trying to eat healthier, but just can't give up baking!  THESE COOKIES ARE REALLY GOOD--with the whole wheat flour and the extra boost from added protein, that and besides a little butter,  they are low in fat (peanut butter doesn't count, it's a good fat!) and sugar.  So, if you need/want a treat, but still want some nutrition in that treat, you've got to make these!  Check out Anna's post about them on her link below as she gives nutrition information and a great write up and picture of her cookies! Once again, thanks, Anna.

Stir & Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies, by Anna at Cookie Madness, the few changes I made are in italics

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (2.25 oz) – all purpose okay too--I used the white whole wheat
1/4 cup protein powder — I used soy protein
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons unsalted butter — room temperature
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
5 tablespoons turbinado sugar **
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg --I used 1/4 cup Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk
1/4 cup peanut butter (a not-too-sweet type like Smart Balance) I used 2 T. Smuckers Natural and 2 T. Naturally More Peanut Butter (my favorite, but I'm almost out!)
1/2 cup chocolate chips –

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 1 or 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the flour, protein powder, salt & baking soda together in a bowl; set aside.

Beat the butter, applesauce, sugar, molasses, vanilla and peanut butter together in a second bowl. Stir in the egg. I do this all with a spoon.

Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and stir until blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir. Scoop up tablespoons of dough and shape them into neat rounds. If you don’t want to bake all the dough at once, just scoop up what you need and chill the rest. The cookies don’t spread much or change shape much, so try to make the mounds of dough look nice rather than scruffy.

Fit the mounds onto one or two cookie sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until cookies appear set. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. These taste good after they’ve cooled. They’re not very good while still hot.

Makes 12 cookies

**Turbinado sugar works very well, but I think packed brown sugar would work well too. Evaporated cane juice would also be a good choice. I also think it might be fun to swap agave syrup for the molasses or use almond butter in place of peanut butter.

Anna mentioned that these don't spread out much, so I decided to flatten these with a fork as is done with traditional peanut butter cookies, I also sprinkled them with just a tiny bit of turbinado sugar.

Sam loves Bob!  If he hears Tes' name (Bob's wife), he goes crazy saying "Bob, Bob, Bob".  If I tell him we need to get ready for church, "Bob, Bob, Bob."  Every Monday night, Bob and Tes come over for Family Night with us.  If I remind Sam that it's Family Night, he goes crazy saying, "Bob, Bob, Bob."  When he's playing on a toy phone, "Bob, blah, blah, blah, Bob...." and even when our phone rings, "Bob."  We all love you, too, Bob--AND TES!

Singing "Do As I'm Doing" for Family Night (it's an action song)

TWD--Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

The recipe for today's Tuesday's With Dorie as we bake our way through the book, Baking From My Home To Yours was chosen by Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake.  It was nice to have a quick, savory baked good to throw together this week and I really like corn bread/muffins.  In fact when I went to New York City this past November, we ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and in the bread basket with our dinner was the most amazing corn muffins I'd ever had.  They were made with blue corn and had jalapenos and spices and corn inside and were so moist and perfect.  I loved them.  When I got home from the trip, I Googled  the recipe and found it.  Now I just need to find blue cornmeal!  BUT, these TWD muffins ARE really good.  I really liked them.  They have just a bit of a kick  from the peppers and chili powder and are moist and slightly crumbly like cornbread should be.  GREAT recipe, Dorie and GREAT pick, Rebecca!

I made two small mistakes that I was rather bummed about, but all still worked out!

1--I had baked something on the almost bottom rack of the oven earlier in the day and popped these muffins in to bake without even thinking about it.  I made six little mini corn muffins and after they had baked for 10 minutes, I went to take them out of the oven and realized the rack was not in the right position!  I fixed that and then baked the bigger muffins just five more minutes.  While I thought the outsides were darker than I'd have liked, the muffins were still good.

2--I totally spaced putting the cilantro in the muffins--even had it on the cutting board ready to add in.  Sigh!  I was so bummed about it, but I was clever and made some cilantro butter to put on the muffins.

These went great with the Chicken Black Bean Tortilla Bake I made for dinner to go with it.

 

Sour cream and chopped avocado on top.  I thought it was really good, especially with a savory corn and pepper muffin on the side!

The cilantro butter

 

Thanks for the great savory pick, Rebecca!

There was lots of chopping involved with the taco bake and getting these muffins ready--a perfect time to try my new Vidalia Chop Wizard that my parents gave me for Christmas.  This thing, even though I loathe onions and will never chop them in this, worked great for chopping everything from the jalapeno and sweet peppers, to the avocado!  Thanks, Mom and Dad--love it!

 

Did You Know?

Did you know, (so I've heard), that if you knock a large Tupperware container of  homemade chicken stock out  of your fridge, that 1) the lid will not stay locked (What's up with that Tupperware?) and 2) that you'll most likely have chicken stock hiding under your dishwasher for a while and your kitchen will smell like chicken for days?  Did you know that?  Just thought I'd share in case it happens to you, you'll know what to expect.  I'm just saying, I've heard this!  ; )

Brownies, Muffins and Bread and Some Stuff In Between

If I get nothing else done today, I'm happy that besides helping the kids with all their chores, I also got all the Christmas stuff put away!  Quite the accomplishment that I was putting off and dreading.  Sure looks bare in here.  Bye-bye Christmas!  (Sam wasn't thrilled to see it all go away.)
Last night Kevin decided to play a guessing game with a bag of M&M's.  I think it was the 14 oz. size.  He had each of the boys and he and I write down how many we thought were in the bag and also how many of each color, this was a holiday bag, so there was red, green and light green.  Then each of the boys counted a color and we added them all up.


No, that's not M&M's all over Sam's face, it's pizza from dinner!
And the results of the counting?  First of all none of us were even close.  My guess was just about as bad as the kids, 182 I think.  Even Kevin's guess of 350 won for the closest guess, but wasn't really anywhere near the 540 M&M's we counted!  And RED (279) far out numbered the greens by more than half I think.  Fun and learning!  Let's go count the 45 oz. bag of plain colored M&M's I got Kevin at Christmas!  (NOT!)  He did count a 14 oz. bag of peanut M&M's with the boys the other day and what color do you think has the most?  Just for fun--there were 25% orange, 20% blue, 18% green, 16% yellow, 11% brown and only 10% red.  Red didn't win on that one!  FYI, Just in case you were wondering all this.  I know I couldn't sleep at night thinking about it! jk  Kevin, he's a numbers guy (professor of accounting) and this kind of stuff thrills him!  He also collects M&M dispensers--hence the reason he gets M&M's at all the holidays.
Okay, on to the real good stuff--baking! ; )  More Black Bean Low Fat Brownies!


I know, my last post was all about this, but would you ever in a million years guess  that these brownies have black beans (pureed) instead of oil?  I wouldn't.  And especially after tasting them.  You. Can. Not. Tell.  I followed the recipe I posted last time exactly again, but I left out the extra chocolate chips and walnuts.  Again, only because Taylor prefers a plain ol' brownie.  I also added Andes chopped chocolate mints to half the 9x13 pan after they came out of the oven, when they melted, I spread it out, you can also just leave them chunky.  After they cooled, I cut them into 24 bars.  Half plain, half with the mint.  I waited a bit too long into chilling to cut the chocolate mint, and it cracked a lot, but darn it, the brownies were/are good.  My goal is to not have any today!  These are very low fat and so good.  They ARE a bit cakey, I've decided, but moist and fudgy and in my opinion, more brownie-like than cakey.  Try them and decide what you think.  You'll be having a treat and getting some extra protein and fiber in your diet!
Moving on.....
I had three (small) very ripe bananas on the counter (I actually usually always do, I buy extra on purpose).  Not wanting to make my usual low fat mini banana muffins, I did a quick (as in I found these without even looking) search for something to do with the bananas and found none other than Nick, The Peanut Butter Boy to the rescue.  I whipped up a half batch of his Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread (link above) and made 8 large muffins.  These are whole grain and low fat and they are yummy!  I used Gharidelli 60% Cacao chips and those are huge, so I chopped them up a little to distribute the chocolate a little more.  I wanted a bit of crunch, so next time I'll either use crunchy peanut butter or add in a few chopped peanuts, maybe even peanut butter chips--then you're getting into the not-as-healthy category, but....Thanks, Nick!


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Do you think I should do some laundry?

This is just one closet full, Taylor helped load them up.  Uh, we needed another basket!  Sigh!  I love laundry.  Please hear the sarcasm in my voice.  Back to baking!  : )
Go read this NYT article by Jim Lahey all about this amazing bread.  It is so good and SO effortless!  This is the kind of crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-flavorful-on-the-inside bread you often get at restaurants.  I LOVED it, so did Anna from Cookie Madness who got me interested in trying it.  I will probably never knead bread again.  Okay, maybe, because this is different from a good old fashioned loaf of bread, but it's great when you just want to throw a dough together, forget about it for a day and then bake it!  Did I say it's good?  It's GOOD!  (Dad, you'd love it!)  If you are subscribed to Cooks Illustrated, they also have a No Knead Bread that is good, too!  I have adapted a version taking some ideas from both recipes.  
No Knead Bread adapted from a New York Times article from Nov. 2006, by Jim Lahey and Mark Bittman  Read the article for the how to and their recipe.  Here is what I did.
No Knead Bread My Way
1  1/2 cups bread flour
1  1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1  1/4 teaspoons salt
1  5/8 cups water, room temperature
cornmeal
In a large bowl, combine flours, yeast and salt.  Whisk together.  Add water and stir until combined.  The dough will be sticky!  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest in a warm place for 12-18 hours.  The dough will look bubbly.
Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on it.  Add a little flour and knead the dough over a few times.  Cover  with plastic wrap and let it rest on work surface for about 15 minutes.  Using a little more flour, shape dough into a ball.  Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal on a cotton towel.  Set dough ball on it and cover with towel.  Let rise for about 2 hours. 
About a half hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.  Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot in the oven as it heats.  (Cast iron or enamel is best, but Pyrex or ceramic works--of these, I only have a Pyrex dish and that is what I have used--A cast iron Dutch oven is on my wish list!)  Remove pot from oven.  With hand under towel, turn dough into pot, seam side up is okay.  Shake pan to evenly distribute dough.  It's okay if it's rustic!  Cover with lid and return to oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake another 15-30 minutes, until loaf is nicely browned and crispy.  Cool on a wire rack. 
 
 
Look at this airy, chewy, crispy bread!
 
I made this loaf, too, following some of the ideas from the CI recipe, it uses some lager or ale in place of some of the water, but I used all water (1  1/4 cup),  3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar with the 1  1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon yeast.  Seems a little daunting, but mix this up, forget about it, shape it to rise and bake.  It's really so easy.  This all white flour loaf I made was even better than the wheat loaf!  The crust was PERFECT and the inside, even MORE PERFECT!  I can't even tell you, you need to make this bread!
 
  
 
DID I MENTION THIS BREAD IS GOOD?!
I've got another loaf in it's 18 hour "rising" stage right now that I've used 1  1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 1  1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour, 1/4 cup 10 Grain Cereal Mix.  Can't wait for this one to be baked!  I'm scared to try all whole wheat flour, but that eventually is my plan--gotta get those good carbs in!  Thanks to Anna for opening my eyes to this recipe I hadn't seen before.  Some others who have made the bread and blogged about it are Jaden at Steamy Kitchen (how cute is her son whipping up a batch of the bread!!!), Karen at Family Style Food (added herbs to the bread, yummy!) and Sue at Basically Baked (awesome looking loaves--one with walnuts and dried cranberries added--gotta try that!).
Get ya'self some buddah and make this bread!
How would you take this bah-bah away from this cuteness?!

He was just walking around with the blankie wrapped around his head and plopped down on the floor in total happiness!  Sigh.
And now, I'm signing off.  I started this post this morning and now at 11:00 p.m., I must go to bed!

Low Fat Delicious Brownies, A Great New Website/Blog and A BIG Boy Bed!

Let's start with the bed.  Taylor is almost 5 1/2 years old.  Up until today, he's still been sleeping in a toddler bed.  Yes, the ones that use a crib mattress.  Oh, don't feel bad for him.  He's wanted to keep that bed.  I would feel bad putting him to bed at night with his BIG, little body almost being oversized for the mattress.  I recently asked him if he wanted a big bed yet like his brothers.  He finally said yes, but only if he could get one just like theirs with shelves (their shelves are full of junk!).  We tried to call Nebraska Furniture Mart (love this place!) to order a bed just like the others, but they no longer carry that bed.  So we all made the trek to Kansas City last week to look at beds for Taylor.  We found one that we agreed on and bought it for delivery today.  Taylor was so excited that when he got home from school today his new bed would be here!

He went from this---

TO THIS!

Pretty cool!

Mom, when you said in an email recently--

"That's special that T gets his own big bed!  More places to hide stuff under....hmmmmmmm."

Oh, if you only knew what he'll now be able to hide under this bed!

 

See the little door down there on the left?

Peek-a-boo!  His very own hiding place/cubby hole/junk storage under the whole bed!  He loves this and I love this and the brothers all think it's pretty cool, too!  Now THAT'S a bed!

 

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Low Fat Brownies (with black beans)

Combine dry ingredients in medium size bowl:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (can omit for even less fat)

1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts (can omit for even less fat)

Whisk together.  Add:

3 eggs (or as I did, 4 teaspoons meringue powder egg whites to the dry ingredients, equals 2 egg whites plus 1/4 cup water plus one large egg)  Could also use 3/4 cup Egg Beaters

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put 2 tablespoons canola oil in liquid measuring cup, to it add black bean puree to equal 2/3 cup   (Black bean puree is so easy.  Take 1 can of black beans, including the liquid and puree in food processor or blender until smooth and creamy!) *or you could use all bean puree or half oil half beans, I wanted a little oil

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until combined.  Spread batter in a 9x13 baking dish lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake in 350 degree oven for about 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.  Cool brownies on wire rack until completely cool.  Remove from pan using foil edges and cut to desired sizes.  I did 24 brownies.

These are just slightly cakey, but still fudgy and really good.  You cannot taste the beans AT ALL!  You can omit the chocolate chips and/or walnuts for less fat, or add whatever add-ins you want.  You can also make brownies with a boxed mix and just use bean puree in place of the oil as well as egg powders or Egg Beaters.  Above are my brownies from scratch.  Here is a brownie from the  boxed mix.

They are both good.  You can get the boxed brownies video demo on the link above from Crystal at Everyday Food Storage.  Check out her great blog for all kinds of recipes and ideas and ways to use up things in your pantry and food storage.  She is linked up with some other great gals to make another great blog Fun With Food Storage.  Together they share ways to plan your food storage, how to get the best deals buying things you'll need and use and what to do with it (recipes!) once you have it.  Check it out this week, they are having a great giveaway, too.

**Some of my blog readers may be wondering what "food storage" I'm talking about.  I am a member of the LDS Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and we believe we should and have been asked by leaders to have at least a 3 month food supply in our homes.  The goal is to really have a one year supply for your family.  With all that is going on in the world, you just never know when you may be in need of food for your family (natural disaster, power outages, etc.) as well as to help others.  I am FAR from having all the necessities and food storage our family needs, but am working on it.  Do you have enough food and water storage in your home if you were to be out of power or have other needs (job loss, etc.) to support your family?  If you do, GREAT!  This is more just a reminder to myself to work on it more!  You can find out more information about our church and/or food storage on the links I've provided above.  Check out that Fun With Food Storage site for great, fun ideas! 

Make ya some brownies with black beans.  I am most excited that my kids have NO idea there are black beans in them and they like them as much as any brownies I've made.  Taylor especially is my picky eater and I know doesn't get enough protein and fiber in his diet.  He even helped me make the brownies and because I already had the beans pureed, probably thought the puree was some kind of chocolate or something.   He didn't even question it.  Now I just need to figure out how to cut some of the sugar a bit!  

Branching Out--Baked Citrus Herb Salmon

I don't just bake goodies.  Who knew?  Sometimes I make dinner and such. 

I don't like seafood.  I've tried.  Funny thing is, I LOVE halibut.  That has been pretty much the only fish or seafood I will eat and have even been known to order it at restaurants and be craving it.  I know, it's not a very "fishy" fish.  That's beside the point.  Something recently (not even sure what), made me want to give salmon another try.  I ordered it a few months ago on a sandwich.  It was really good.  A bit fishier, but good.  I was so proud of myself for eating a fish that wasn't halibut!  After that I bought frozen salmon fillets and stuck them in the freezer and forgot about them.   I watch a bit (okay, maybe it's more than a bit!) of the Food Network and with the New Year  they are doing a lot of healthy recipes and episodes.  I have seen a lot of salmon recently.  I've also seen plenty in blogland.  So I got out the salmon and decided to make this---

Roasted Salmon with Garlic Rosemary Rub from Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen

I didn't take pictures of this.  It was a little salty, but even the boys tried it and wanted more salmon!  Go check out Kalyn's awesome healthy blog for some great recipes!  Again, the salmon didn't seem to fishy, which I've always thought it to be.

I bought more salmon.  Made this---(not the greatest picture!) Baked Citrus Herb Salmon

I found this recipe at Recipe4Living.  The recipe called for fresh herbs, but I used dried.  You can get the recipe on the link above, but here it is as I made it.

Baked Citrus Herb Salmon

6-8 salmon fillets (about 2 oz. each), these were frozen/thawed

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoon (roughly) grated lemon rind

1 tablespoon grated orange zest (I used a clementine)

dried chives

dried thyme

dried oregano

dried tarragon (I didn't have any)

lemon slices

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line baking sheet or shallow oven-safe pan with foil.  Spray lightly with cooking spray. Set fillets on foil.  Salt and pepper the fish fillets.  Sprinkle the lemon and orange zest over the fish.  Sprinkle spices to desired amount .  Add lemon slice to top of each fillet.  Cover with foil and seal edges.  Bake 15 minutes and check for desired doneness. (These fillets were pretty thin.)

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The boys (meaning Scott and Parker) each had one fillet.  Taylor actually tasted it!  How cool is that?!  I am now all salmon-ed out for a bit. 

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Mom-I took a cooking class (it's really an instructor demo-ing the food and the students eating it all) tonight at our local health food's store about warming winter soups.  Goodness, that lady made four delicious soups, and get this, all four of them had onions!  Dad, I'll send you the recipe for one of the soups that was SO good for you to make for mom--a creamy mushroom, chicken, wild rice soup.  It was my favorite.   So, yep, branching out--I ate onions!  (Not enjoying my breath right now, but aren't you proud!?)

I think this is a cute picture of big brother and little brother.  Scott LOVES Sam--most of the time!  He really gets annoyed when he's playing the Wii and Sam just comes right up and turns the tv off or messes up the picture!  ; )

TWD---French Pear Tart

This week, to start off the new year, our Tuesday's With Dorie recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours was chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan!  How cool is that?!  Not to mention, she picked a GREAT recipe.  Do you wonder if it was hard for her decide?  I can't wait to check out her blog post about the tart!  You can get the recipe on her link above, but I say it pretty much every week, go buy a copy of the book, if you don't have it!  It's great!  (Thanks, Dorie!)

I've never really made a tart like this before.  I've made lots of pies and galettes and such, but this was my first "tart".  Needless to say, I don't own a tart pan.  And I looked at a few places in our "smallish" city here and did not find one.  So, I made a freeform tart.  I am/was actually pretty proud of how it turned out!

I drew little lines on the back of the parchment paper at 9 inches in diameter and formed the dough around the "circle"  I tried to flute the edges a little with a cookie cutter, but you can't really tell.  There is also a bit of a ridge.  This picture is after I'd spread the almond cream on the prebaked crust.  Last time we prebaked a crust, for the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, I thought the crust was overbaked, as did lots of others.  And I was very tempted to not prebake this crust for fear that it would also be overbaked.  Darn it all, I prebaked it anyway, and well, I also think this one is overbaked.   Bummer!  So, I probably just won't prebake crusts from the book anymore, or maybe only half the suggested time.  Now, that said, it didn't stop me from eating this tart!

The almond cream was/is delicious (I have about 1/3 of it left, what to do?!).  I even blanched, skinned, slightly toasted and ground my own almonds, never would have done that in the past!  And for the almond cream I used 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.  Oh, I also added ground blanched almonds to the sweet tart dough (page 444 of the book).  This crust and tart really was quite simple, though it almost seemed like it wouldn't be just reading the recipe.  The recipe called for three pears.  Well, I must have found the world's largest pears----

So after slicing one and rubbing it with a little fresh lemon (I opted not to poach the pears in a sugar bath.), but I took the slices from one of the three giant pears and laid it out on the pear and decided that one would do!

Here's the tart out of the oven--a little too dark of crust for my liking, maybe it wouldn't have been so dark had it been in a tart pan, I'll betcha!

Having not seen anyone else's tarts and there is no picture of this one in the baking book, I have no idea if this looks right, but I do know it tasted great, so I don't really care how "right" it is.

A little sprinkling of powdered sugar and my perfect tart plate---

Still, just not quite enough, though pretty and tasty.

 

So this is how we served it.

MMMMMM, a little vanilla ice cream and caramel topping.  Now we're talking.  Go make a French tart, you'll feel all sophisticated and you'll have  a simple, yummy dessert to go with it! ; )  Great choice, Dorie, as I probably would have never picked this recipe!   Thanks.

Stay tuned for my next post, I'm branching out.....

"Unwanted" Pretzels and Chocolate Cookies and Samoas? (Coconut Date Cookies)

Today I made some yummy and interesting cookies that are chock full of chocolate and white vanilla flavored coated pretzels as well as some chopped up Palmer's chocolate.  I don't get it?  At Easter time, the boys always get chocolate bunnies from the Easter Bunny and they always gobble them up.   Santa gave them these chocolate North Pole Pals for Christmas---

Cute, huh?  Silly Santa!  Doesn't know anything?  For some reason they decided they didn't like them.  Whatever.  But I decided not to just throw them away.  I chopped up a cute polar bear and a sweet little penguin

  

Sorry cute penguin.  I made my favorite cookie dough and added 7 ounces of Palmer's chopped North Pole Pals, about 12 ounces of chocolate covered pretzels (mostly white) and for good measure, 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips.  We had a lot of chocolate covered pretzels that were given to us this year.  Also in the past, the boys gobble them up.  Nope, this time they decided they didn't want them.  So I chopped those up, too.

Into the dough they went.  I thought the dough was SO good with the bit of saltiness from the pretzels and they were definitely sweet enough!

Okay, I admit it.  I really like chocolate chip cookie dough!  There, I said it.  (I didn't really taste THAT much of it, I'm trying to be good!)  But sometimes, I'd rather have dough than a cookie!  Sigh.

And they cookies--GREAT!  Anyone (local) want some?  Come and get them! ; )  I'm proud of myself that some great things didn't go to waste, now if I could just figure out how to get the cookies to NOT go to my waist! ha

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Wanting to bake the other day, but also wanting to find a more healthy treat, I found these great cookies on Tina's great blog, Carrots 'N' Cake. (Check out her amazing, healthy, fun blog!)  She mentioned that her husband thought they tasted like the Girl Scout Samoa cookies, without the chocolate.  So since they are pretty healthy, I drizzled some  melted 60% dark chocolate over them and they do taste a bit like the Samoas I remember.  Great little snack cookies.  Tina made 12 bigger cookies with her recipe, but I made them pretty small and got about 36.  I think they are gluten free and could be made vegan pretty easily, too.

 

Coconut Date Cookies (Samoas), from Tina at Carrots 'N' Cake, adapted ever so slighty

1 cup pitted dates (approximately 15-20 whole dates; make sure measuring cup is full)

1/4 cup oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar (Tina used 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar) (I used brown sugar) 

1 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup soy milk (I used skim milk)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend well until there are no large date pieces.  Make balls of dough with your hands in the desired size and put them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies cool a few minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.  

For Samoas-Melt 1/4 cup of chocolate chips  (I used 60% cacao dark chocolate) in the microwave.  Pour the melted chocolate into a zip top plastic bag, squeeze the air out of it and zip it up.  Cut a little hole in one corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the cookies.  Let set in a cold place.

Thanks, Tina!  Great cookies!