Hidden Veggies: Kale Muffins

I love eating things that are both healthy and tasty and I think this combo that comes together as kale muffins fits that description to a T! It started out as an experimental recipe, adapted from a spinach muffin recipe I had made before. As I"m typing they are out of the oven, and a couple are in my belly.

It's September and there is still a lot of kale in my garden. I do like to freeze some to add to soups throughout the winter, but I have a lot. For some reason my mom and I are really good at growing kale. Peppers never turn out so well for us, but we can raise kale with the best of them. This year we had both curly and dinosaur kale in the garden. For this recipe I used curly but I'd swap out any variety any day and bet it wouldn't make much difference.

The muffins turned out just how I like them. A little sweet, with a hint of banana. I recall teh spinach ones being a little brighter green, but the slightly more dull color doesn't bother me. If you're looking to "trick" kids into eating a green muffin, I might go with the spinach instead. Swap it out, tit for tat, no problem.

Here's how I made them...

Ingredients:
6-7 cups fresh kale leaves, washed and roughly chopped with stems removed
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted just enough to be a liquid.
2 ripe bananas
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup quinoa, cooked and cooled
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup slivered or chopped almonds, walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Using a stick blender in a large bowl, puree kale with milk and oil. (This part starts off slow but picks up speed as more kale turns to liquid. Regular milk is just fine if you don't have almond milk.) Add bananas and vanilla and continue blending to combine. Add quinoa, stir to combine and set aside.

Combine next six ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk or stir to combine. Add dry mixture to the kale mixture and stir until just combined. (If batter is very thick and dry, add an additional splash of milk.) Add nuts and stir gently to combine.

Drop 1/4 cup batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Expect about 20 muffins.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Dinner straight from the garden.

To me one of the best things in life is eating a meal made from food homegrown in my own garden. My mom and I did just that with this simple and super healthy pasta.

Like a lot of the things I make, the so called recipe for this meal is very flexible. Add what you have from your garden or farmers market or grocery store. You can't screw it up! Try to eat the rainbow!

Here's what we came up with:

Candy stripe beets and their greens

Yellow squash

Kale

Cherry tomatoes

Yellow onion

Frozen peas

Chives

Basil

Oregano

Other than the peas, tomatoes and onion, we picked all the veggies and herbs from the garden just before eating them. Perfect!

We sautéed them in some olive oil with just salt and pepper before tossing them with pasta and a couple pads of butter. Done. Voila! Super yummy.

Ingredients:

1/2 large yellow squash, or one small one

3 small beets (peeled) and their greens

1/2 large onion

6 large kale leaves

A dozen or so cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup frozen peas

Small handful of chives

Couple sprigs of each basil and oregano

1/2 pound dried pasta

2-3 Tbsp butter

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Prepare pasta according to package directions and save some of the cooking water before you drain. Meanwhile, chop all veggies into bite size chunks. Chop up the herbs as well. Then heat a big drizzle of olive oil in a sautée pan. Add veggies from hardest to most tender. For me the beets and onions went in first. Then the squash and greens. Salt and pepper to taste. After a minute or two we turned off the heat and threw in the tomatoes, peas and herbs. Add the veggies to drained pasta with the butter and another small gulf of olive oil. Add 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid or so to make a very light sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Mmmm. Double chocolate banana peanut butter muffins

So I woke up this morning to the sound of thunderstorms. A very welcome sound since they were in the forecast! The baby and I decided we were going to make muffins for breakfast. A quick scan of Pinterest gave us these:

http://www.averiecooks.com/2014/05/flourless-double-chocolate-peanut-butter-mini-blender-muffins.html

We used a kitchen aid mixer with the whisk attachment instead of a blender but otherwise followed the recipe just like it says. And oh yummy are they good!! They came out of the oven about 10 minutes ago and I've eaten 4 already.

My batch made 23 total mini muffins. I predict the remaining 19 won't make it through the weekend. Maybe not even through tomorrow!

P.S. I guess the my energy really is coming back now that it's the second trimester. Even just a couple weeks ago I never could have imagined scraping up enough energy to cook or bake anything! This is very good news!

Pasta alla Belinda

The inspiration for dinner last night began when Bel came into the office with a bag of beet greens. She had used the beets but brought the greens to me because she knows me well enough to know I'd make good use of them.  I've never cooked with beet greens before, but here's what I came up with...

It was an all day rain... gloomy for days. So a good belly-filling pasta made sense to me. This is how pasta alla Belinda was born.

First, the sauce. It's an artichoke and dry salami red sauce. Made from scratch but almost as easy as dumping in a jar of marinara.

In a heavy sauce pan heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Add chopped salami, onion and garlic along with crushed red pepper, dried Italian herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Saute until onions are translucent and salami is starting to brown a bit. Add 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste and incorporate.

Add 1 quart tomato puree and chopped artichokes and stir to combine. Simmer 10-20 minutes to your desired thickness. If you want it even thicker, just add more tomato paste.

Next, the noodles and greens.

Preparing the greens just involves a very rough chop and lots of rinsing. You don't want dirty grit in your pasta! Also make sure to pick out any slimy greens or any that have begun to brown.

Because I can't tell the difference I always use whole wheat noodles. My husband doesn't notice the difference either and he is definitely not a whole wheat kind of guy. These noodles have really been improved over the last couple years. Good news there!

Anyway, prepare the noodles according to package instructions, making sure to add salt to taste. I chose thin spaghetti, but feel free to use any type of noodle you have on hand.

Then during the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time, add your washed and chopped beet greens.

Strain them together in a colander when the noodles are done al dente.

Lastly, plate it up!

  
Top noodles with sauce and grate some fresh Parmesan on top if you wish. Serve with some crusty bread and a glass of red wine and you're good to go!  This dinner takes about 30 minutes start to finish.

Sauce:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped dry salami
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp crushed red pepper, more or less to taste
1 tsp dried Italian herb blend
salt
pepper
2-3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 jar artichokes, chopped
1 quart pureed tomatoes ( diced tomatoes in juice will also work just fine.)

Heat oil in saucepan. Add next seven ingredients and saute until lightly browned. Add tomato paste and combine. Add artichokes and puree. Simmer 10-20 minutes to desired consistency.

Pasta and greens:
1lb whole wheat pasta
2 bunches beet greens, chopped and thoroughly washed.

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Add greens during the final 3-4 minutes of cook time. Strain. Top with sauce and serve.

Magical Muffins.

I got a new oven, so naturally I needed to bake something. Scraping together what I had in my nearly empty refrigerator and paring that with a few different posts on Pinterest I whipped up two different versions. Both super healthy and super yummy!

Version 1: Carrot and quinoa muffins with wanuts.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 coconut oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 carrots, shredded
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine first eight ingredients in a stand mixer and beat just until incorporated. It help to slightly warm the coconut oil so you don't get chunks, but if you're lazy like me and don't want to dirty yet another dish, just turn the mixer on high for 15 seconds or so and that should do the trick.

I know with baking you're supposed to be as accurate as possible with measuring, but that's just not my style. I loosely measured and the muffins turned out great, so have no fear.  Throw them together and they should be fine.

Combine the last three ingredients in a separate bowl and give them a quick mix before adding them to the wet mixture. Do not overmix. Just get everything together.

Divide batter into a lightly sprayed, 12 cup, muffin tin and bak at 350° until a toothpick just comes out clean. This should be about 18 minutes or so. Let them cool a couple minutes in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy or store in a plastic container!

Review: I could taste the quinoa in this recipe so if you're not a fan, move on to version 2. But I was a big fan of these and snacked on them through the week without feeling one ounce of guilt. I feel like they were a good make up snack since I ate lunch at Culver's twice last week.  Love Culver's! In fact, that was my first job. #Memories.

Version 2: Coconut, banana, walnut muffins with quinoa and summer squash (long name, I know)

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 coconut oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 very ripe banana
1 small summer squash, shredded
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

I ran out of eggs so the banana and baking powder takes their place. The summer squash I had was in the freezer from last summer's crop. I actually had it cut into 1 inch pieces so I threw it in the food processor for a couple pulses to "shred" it up but it more or less turned out as a chucky puree. No prob.  Whatever you have is fine. Substitute zucchini here if that's what you have.

So, the directions are VERY similar to version one.

Combine first nine ingredients in a stand mixer and beat just until incorporated. It help to slightly warm the coconut oil so you don't get chunks, but if you're lazy like me and don't want to dirty yet another dish, just turn the mixer on high for 15 seconds or so and that should do the trick.

Combine the last four ingredients in a separate bowl and give them a quick mix before adding them to the wet mixture. Do not overmix. Just get everything together. here's a plus with this recipe: no eggs means the batter is free game. I LOVE MUFFIN BATTER! (I actually fully taste it with the eggs in too.)

Divide batter into a lightly sprayed, 12 cup, muffin tin and bak at 350° until a toothpick just comes out clean. This should be about 18 minutes or so. Let them cool a couple minutes in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy or store in a plastic container!

Review: These turned out a lttle flat on top, but their flavor was ah-mazing. This is the perfect version for those of you trying to hide healthy things in yummy tasting food. You cannot taste the quinoa or squash here. The coconut, banana and walnuts completely take over. I'm a fan.

Try them out and let me know what you think! Try substituting some of what you have in the pantry and give it a try. If it turns out, great! If not, oh well. Learning lesson.

PS, loving the new oven.

Quick Lunch with Some to Spare.

It was about noon on Saturday when the hubby and I started to wonder, what's for lunch?  I'm a huge fan of going out to eat, but cooking at home is typically my vote to keep the budget in line. So we agreed on some tomato soup with, of course, grilled cheese.

The thing is... I don't do canned soup. So here's the quick and super simple bowl of tomato love that I whipped up.
 

In the pot goes onion, garlic, carrot and celery. If you don't have all that, put in what you do have! Throw in some fresh or dried herbs, and blend will do. I used Italian seasoning and added some crushed red pepper as well. As you will see now and in the future, I'm not big on measuring. To help the veggies soften up instead of brown I added a splash of chicken broth to the pot.

Once the veggies were soft instead of crunchy, I added two cans of diced tomatoes. The ones I had in the pantry were fire-roasted tomatoes. Okay, fine! Regular old diced tomatoes will work too. Stewed? Yes. Garlic and onion? Even better.

Simmer for a bit and whir it all together with an immersion blender. Top it with some parmesan cheese and set it aside a grilled cheese sammich. Lunch is done in less than 10 minutes.

Of course I always make a bit extra for leftovers so I don't have to buy lunch. It was a risky decision to eat it today at my desk with a white shirt on but all came out okay in the end, no spillage. Half an avocado made it into the mix for a nice addition as well. Nothing fancy, but super tasty and healthy!

Dinner for One, Pumpkin Pasta

It's guys night. The golf simulator was calling. So it's dinner for one tonight. And when I'm not obligated to put meat in the meal I generally skip it. So tonight, pumpkin pasta with blue cheese sounded fab!

First off, I inherited some pie pumpkins last fall. To save time my mom and I cooked and pureed them all at once. We then separated them into plastic baggies and threw them in the freezer of they are ready to use on a night like tonight! You can totally use canned pumpkin puree. Or butternut squash puree! In fact, my original plan was to use squash, but my freezer only offered pumpkin. In general, I use the two interchangeably.

Sauce time. Heat a small drizzle of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan. Add half an onion, diced, and two cloves of garlic, minced, and cook until softened. Sprinkle in some fresh or dried herbs and a bit of crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. If your onion starts to brown add a splash or two of chicken broth or water. Stir in the pumpkin puree and let it bubble over low heat for a few minutes. Season to taste. Done!

And this one didn't do anything to help...

Meanwhile... cook some pasta. I chose some whole wheat bowties this time around. Drain them and return to the pot. Add the sauce and stir it all up!

Dish it up, add some crumbled blue cheese, sliced almonds (or chopped walnuts) and some fresh cracked pepper. Ready to eat!

Recipe: Pumpkin Pasta
Ingredients -
1Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Butter
1/2 Medium yellow onion, diced
2 Cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 Tsp Dried herbs
1/2 Tsp Crushed red pepper
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp Chicken broth, if needed
2 Cups Pumpkin puree (or butternut squash puree)

1/2 Pound Pasta, cooked according to package instructions

Crumbled Blue Cheese
Slivered almonds (or chopped walnuts)
Fresh cracked pepper

Heat oil and butter in sauce pan. Add onion, garlic, herbs, red pepper, salt and pepper and cook until onions are soft, adding broth if necessary. Add pumpkin and simmer 5 minutes over low heat. Serve over pasta. Top with cheese, nuts and pepper.

 I always make extra for leftovers!

Sunday Dinner: Luxury Lasagna Night.

The girls literally spent all day cooking.  The morning started off with canning stewed tomatoes and we ended the evening with two lasagnas that are made to please.

Lasagna #1 used up one of the  many butternut squashes growing in our garden, and we took care of the remaining basil that my sister had been growing as well. This is a recipe from Food Network's Giada de Laurentis (one of my favs) that I have made once before.  Like most lasagnas, its one that gets better in the fridge overnight for lunch the next day.

Click here for the recipe.

Lasagna #2 is an ooey gooey pan of artichokes and sun dried tomatoes. My sister found the recipe through Pinterest.  We substituted the mozzarella for pepperjack.  That was a good move.  Just a little kick in the layers really added to the dish.  We also cut down just a little on the cream cheese.  It's a super rich supper.

Click here for the recipe.

After one slice of each lasagna a piece, we were stuffed. Add a glass of wine, or two, to the equation and I was falling asleep on the way home. Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner, Shrimp Tacos.

We didn't have a specific recipe for shrimp tacos this week, so we made things we like, to put on top.  It turned into a bit of Asian-Latin fusion and ended up delish.

I'm not one for measuring but I'll try my best to type up a recipe.

Shrimp:

2 pounds, raw medium-sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1Tbsp Siracha Sauce
1Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste

Grill 1-2 minutes per side until just pink.  Serve immediately.

Topping 1: Asian Vegetables
2 medium zucchinis, sliced into sticks
1 onion, sliced
1 - 8oz package mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp Canola oil, or Olive oil

Heat oil and butter in a sautee pan or wok. Add remaining ingredients and sautee over high heat until crisp-tender.  Serve.

Topping 2: Carribbean Beans and Rice

This is a recipe adapted from Pinterest

1- 15oz. Can black beans

1 onion, chopped

1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped

1 mango, chopped (can substitute papaya, pineapple or other tropical fruit if mangoes aren't available.)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lime, juiced

1 orange, juiced

1 Tsp Cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup cooked rice, white or brown.

Sautee bell pepper and onion in olive oil until softened. Season with salt and pepper.  Add remaining ingredients except rice and simmer until heated through.  Serve over rice.

Although we used topping 2 for our tacos, this is a great side dish on its own as well!

Sauce: Benihiana's Shrimp Sauce

2 cups mayonnaise

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon garlic juice

3 -4 teaspoons ketchup

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon Siracha sauce

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon paprika

3/4 teaspoon white pepper

up to 1/2 cup water to thin as desired

Whisk together and serve with Asian veggies and shrimp, recipes above.

Side: Cilantro and Blue Cheese Slaw, Courtesy: Taste of Home

8 cups shredded cabbage

1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon grated lime peel

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, onion, cilantro and jalapeno. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; pour over salad and toss to coat.

 

Now for the tacos, make any or all combinations with the above.  Add extra chopped onion, chopped cilantro, jalapenos, hot sauce, sour cream, etc to make it your own!

I preferred the beans and rice on a soft shell.

Brother-in-law Andy, preferred the veggies and shrimp sauce with jalapenos on his! 

Plus here's a pic of his pateneted borrito hold... to keep the spillage to a minimum. :)