(vegan) corn chowder

I have my sister to thank for recommending The Conscious Cook cookbook. Mike got it for me for my birthday. We had this delicious corn chowder tonight.

From 04/25/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

If you want the recipe, I'd be happy to pass it along-- I'll just say that it uses cashew cream for the cream- yummm.

po'boy sandwiches

From 04/23/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

I was going to make these last Friday, but we had no power from 3:50-9 pm or so, so cooking the fish was out (and I ended up having to throw out the fish fillets I had thawed). We tried it this week instead- served with canned peaches.

Fish Fillets

1/4 cup cornmeal
3 TBSP Old Bay Seasoning/other seafood seasoning
4 boneless firm fish fillets (~6 oz each)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Topping

1/2 cup Tartar Sauce (I made my own with light mayo, relish and lemon juice)
1 TBSP minced red onions
3-4 romaine lettuce leaves, cut into rough shred

4 kaiser or sub rolls
1 tomato

Place cornmeal and Old Bay on plate and mix well. Press fish into it to coat it. Heat the oil in skillet on med. high heat, until hot but not smoking. Add fish and cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Place fish on paper towel to soak up excess oil.

While frying fish, in a bowl, stir together the Tartar Sauce and onions, add the lettuce and toss until evenly coated. Toast rolls and slice tomato.

To make sandwiches, place a fish fillet on the bottom half of each roll. Spoon on some topping, add tomato slices, and cap with top half of roll.


Recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.

grilled kielbasa with hawaiian salsa and sweet potatoes

I based this dinner roughly on the recipe found here for ham with Hawaiian salsa and sweet potatoes, but I mostly just threw in ingredients I thought would be tasty from what we had on hand. And it turned out very tasty indeed (all partakers agreed). I didn't have the recipe on hand at the time, but we had these oven fries at my parents' last weekend, and I was attempting a similar approach when making the sweet potato fries.

From 04/15/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

sweet and sour tofu

From 04/12/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

The recipe looks kind of lengthy, but it was actually fairly simple. And it tasted like something off a restaurant menu- a lot of flavor. Recipe adapted from Laurel's Kitchen.

1/2 cup walnut pieces
2 blocks tofu
4 TBSP shoyu (soy sauce)
2 sherry or saki (I used some dark sesame oil- not really the same, but I was going from another recipe from Moosewood too)

1 large onion
1 large green pepper (I used orange)
1 stalk celery (I used 2)
1 large or two small carrots
2 tablespoons oil
1 heaped cup fresh pineapple chunks

1 1/2 TBSP honey
2 TBSP vinegar
1 1/4 cups veg. stock or water
1 1/2 TBSP cornstarch

Toast walnuts. Cut tofu into 1" cubes and marinate in 2 TBSP shoyu and sherry. Cut onion and pepper into wedges and celery and carrots into thin diagonal slices. Stir-fry in oil until crisy-tender, adding pineapple after first 2-3 minutes.
Combine honey, vinegar and 1 cup of veg. stock, and add vegetables, along with tofu. Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes to thoroughly heat tofu.
Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/4 cup veg. stock and the remaining soy sauce. Stir into vegetabeles. Heat, stirring while sauce thickens and clarifies somewhat.
Top with walnuts. Serve with brown rice.

weekly meal plan 4/12-4/18

As mentioned in my other blog, I am going to start up with bi-monthly/monthly meal planning again. I have already planned out about three weeks+ worth of meals, but I'll just post them weekly. I prefer not to plan breakfast and lunches- unless we're all home, though we've been having a lot of leftovers for lunch, as Michael isn't taking them to work anymore (his work provides lunch every day).

weekly menu
April 4-April 10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday 4/12-- sweet and sour tofu with pineapple, onion, bell peppers, celery, carrots and walnuts, short-grain brown rice

Tuesday 4/13-- pasta with artichoke hearts, steamed carrots

Wednesday 4/14-- homemade wholewheat pizza with veggies, salad with cucs and peppers, fresh pineapple and strawberries

Thursday 4/15-- grilled kielbasa with hawaiian salsa and sweet potatoes

Friday 4/16-- po'boy sandwiches, peach brown betty

Saturday 4/17-- we'll be at our monthly teams meeting (Mike and I are bringing dessert- still haven't decided what to make)

Sunday 4/18-- roasted ratatouille with crepes, baby greens with pecans and pears


If you'd like any of the recipes, let me know, though I may post some of our favorites here throughout the week anyway.

Chocolate sour cream cake with fudgy frosting

Made this (non-low-fat) cake for Easter (and Mike for his birthday, since I didn't make him a cake on Good Friday) today, with Jack's help.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 8-oz. carton dairy sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 recipe Fudgy Frosting

Directions

1. Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

2. In small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium speed until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted chocolate and sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans.

3. Bake 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool.

4. Prepare Fudgy Frosting. Place one layer flat side down on plate. Spread top with 1 cup frosting. Stack second layer flat side down. Spread with remaining frosting. Makes 16 servings.

Fudgy Frosting: In large pan over low heat melt and stir one 12-oz. pkg. semisweet chocolate pieces and 1/2 cup butter. Cool 10 minutes. Stir in 8-oz. carton sour cream. Stir in 4-1/2 cups (1 lb.) sifted powdered sugar; stir until smooth. Makes 4 cups.

*recipe from www.bhg.com

low-fat cinnamon rolls

We wanted to try out making cinnamon rolls, but not with all of the fat. This recipe uses applesauce and honey as a substitute, but you can't even taste the apple. They were super-easy to make, and they turned out delicious and doughy. We made the icing, but I personally thought they were better without.

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

From 04/04/2010 (by Eye-Fi)

Low Fat Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from allrecipes

Dough:

• 1 cup warm fat free milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup light spread, melted – I used Smart Balance Light
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 teaspoons honey

Icing:

• 1/2 package fat free cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place dough ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order listed. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, mix together honey and applesauce
   
4. Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with applesauce mixture and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 16 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
5. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together icing ingredients. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

*makes 16 rolls, approx. 195 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per roll

Hot Cross Buns

We will be traveling on Good Friday (the traditional day to make these) so my girls and I had our first adventure with yeast rolls today.

There were quite a few steps to this recipe, so we started early enough to still be in pajamas.

There was measuring.
And kneading.
Lots of kneading.
Voila! Hot Cross Buns.

Thanks to Family Fun for this idea!