Homemade croutons

When I was in nursing school and rather poor, I learned to make a lot of pricey things we usually buy at the store from scratch. I never liked store-bought croutons as well as the typically softer, more flavorful ones I'd have at restaurants. And at $2+ a box, I couldn't justify purchasing them while living on student loans. Whenever I buy bread, buns, rolls, etc., one or two pieces go stale before I can eat them, so those become croutons. Croutons are ridiculously easy to make and you can use any old bread-type items you have around. You can even use flavored bread or garlic bread. Today, I used half of a wheat English muffin and the heel of a loaf of bread I bought at the farmer's market almost two weeks ago (pictured below). As long as the bread isn't moldy, it's fine for this recipe.



This is my most basic recipe, but sometimes I'll add other spices, like Italian seasoning or Parmesan cheese. These croutons keep really well in the freezer, so you can make a few batches at once and freeze the extra for later.

Croutons
3 T olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cloves minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
2 cups diced bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all ingredients in a container with a lid, or in a zip-top plastic bag and shake until bread is coated with oil and garlic. Arrange croutons in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, stirring about every 10 minutes. If croutons are still too soft, bake until they reach desired crispness, stirring every 10 minutes. Croutons will become more crisp when they are cooled.

Quick Indian-style tofu

It's cold and rainy today, and I was craving palak paneer, my favorite Indian dish and the perfect comfort food for bad weather. I was quite excited when I realized I had the ingredients to make something close enough to it to satisfy my craving. Palak paneer is chunks of cheese in a spicy spinach sauce, and is usually served with rice. Palak paneer, like all comfort foods, is a little high in fat, doesn't contain much protein, and takes a long time to cook. By using tofu as the base rather than cheese, this version solves these issues- tofu is high in protein, low in fat, and I cooked this whole dish, including chopping the vegetables, in about 15 minutes. This would be good over jasmine rice or with naan on the side and mango chunks for dessert.

People are often turned off by the appearance of Indian food, as it tends to look like mush. Palak paneer looks like green slime with white chunks of who-knows-what, but it's the best tasting green slime you'll ever eat!

Quick Indian-style tofu
3 T olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-7 oz bag spinach
1 medium tomato, cleaned and cut into chunks
1/2 t ginger
1 t turmeric
1 t curry
1/2 t salt
hot sauce to taste
1 12 oz package soft tofu, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 oz paneer, queso blanco, or feta cheese

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, cook and stir for 5 minutes or until onions become translucent. Add garlic, cook and stir for one minute. Add spinach, tomato, spices, and hot sauce. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add tofu, cook and stir until tofu is hot, about 3 minutes. Add cheese, cook and stir one minute.

Although my craving for Indian food has been satisfied, I'm now dying for a chai latte. Off to Java House!

Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

On Sundays, I usually eat an early dinner and then have a snack during Desperate Housewives (second best show on TV. Of course, the first is Glee). I still had some frozen dough left over from last weekend's bittersweet chocolate tart (from www.101cookbooks.com, my absolute favorite food blog). The tart filling is simply dark chocolate, heavy cream, and an egg, and it is absolutely divine. I decided to make little cookies out of my leftover dough, and, reminiscent of the tart itself, I put a little chunk of good dark chocolate on each cookie. They came out crispy, not too sweet, and very tasty. I could have made them look a little nicer with a cookie press or by rolling them out and using a cookie cutter, but I didn't want to take the time. I had mine with a glass of iced green tea, but these would be perfect with wine, coffee, or milk.

Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
70-85% dark chocolate chunks

Cream butter, sugar, and salt until well combined. Add egg and mix until smooth. Add flour and mix until dough comes together. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

To make cookies, break dough into 1 teaspoon pieces. Roll into little balls, then flatten and place on a baking sheet. Top each with a small chunk of dark chocolate. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until browned. Allow to cool completely. Cookies taste best chilled.

Asparagus Feta Tart

I like to make tarts and quiches because they are a great way to use up left over vegetables, cheese, and/or herbs. Plus they look pretty, taste delicious, and are impressive enough to serve to company. Yesterday was the first Iowa City farmer's market (yay!), and I got a little carried away buying asparagus. I also got carried away when I saw feta on sale at the grocery store and bought more than I will use in a long time, hence today's tart.

Quiche and savory, egg-based tarts tend to be very fattening, full of cheese and heavy cream. I have been making this lighter version of quiche for years, using evaporated milk and fat-free cottage cheese to add richness to egg whites. Feel free to change up the vegetables, cheese, and herbs in this tart; use what you've got on hand, or what's on sale. If home made crust is too much time, use a store bought crust or a mix. Sometimes, I don't even make a crust, saving even more time and calories.

Asparagus Feta Tart
1 recipe whole wheat tart shell (see below)
12 stalks asparagus, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into thirds
2 oz crumbled feta cheese, divided
6 egg whites plus one whole egg
1/3 cup fat-free cottage cheese
1 6-oz can fat-free evaporated milk
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or oregano leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tomato, cleaned and sliced

Preheat oven to 350. Place asparagus in tart shell, then cover with half the crumbled feta cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together whites, egg, cottage cheese, and evaporated milk. Stir in thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour egg mixture over asparagus and cheese in the tart shell. Top with the rest of the cheese, and arrange tomato slices on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until firm. Allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Whole Wheat Tart Shell

4 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
cold water

Place butter and flour in food processor and grind until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Alternatively, this can be done with a pastry blender by hand. Add egg and salt, and grind in food processor until combined. Add cold water until dough is moist enough to be formed into a ball. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Press dough into an un-greased, 9-inch tart pan or pie dish.

Make your own iced mocha... plus a yummy snack!

I try not to splurge on the $4, 800-calorie drinks at the coffee shop. I really do. Sometimes, however, they are just too hard to resist. The iced mocha, which happens to be one of the most expensive and calorie-laden beverages on the typical coffee house menu, is my personal favorite. When I realized just how unhealthy these are, I decided to learn to make my own, lighter version. There are recipes all over the internet for iced coffee drinks, but most of them instruct you to brew the coffee and refrigerate it overnight. Sounds great.. unless you want that mocha NOW! I brew one cup of coffee with enough coffee for two cups, so the coffee is double-strength, then add ice to cool it off. Over the years, I have experimented with every different add-in you can imagine, but have finally decided this is the best recipe.

Iced mocha
1 cup very strong coffee
1 tablespoon half and half
2 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup (the stuff you put on ice cream)
1 packet Splenda (or 2 t sugar)
1 cup ice
Reddi-Whip (optional)

Place coffee in a 16-oz cup (this would be a regular-sized drinking glass). Add half and half, chocolate syrup, and Splenda, and stir until combined. Fill cup the rest of the way with ice. Top with Reddi-Whip

To make it a frappe, put all ingredients except Reddi-Whip in a blender and blend until smooth.

The mocha pictured above has about 150 calories, and did not cost me $4


With my mocha, I had the most delicious, filling, and healthy snack that I heard about on another blog I like, www.carrotsncake.com. I added 1 teaspoon cinnamon to a cup of vanilla yogurt, then used this as a dip for apple slices. Tastes like apple pie!

Gleek Party Platter

I am a huge fan of the T.V. show Glee. I love everything about it! I have a couple of friends who are big fans as well, so when we can, we get together and watch the show. Last week's episode featured music from Madonna, which I knew would be amazing, and I felt this warranted a special snack: the Gleek Party Platter!

The platter consisted of white bean rosemary dip, red bell pepper strips, carrot coins, zucchini slices, and pita chips. This is one of my favorite foods to serve at parties, because if there are leftovers, then I've got a healthy snack for later!

White bean dip
1 15 oz can white cannellini beans
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Instead of placing the dip in the center and piling the veggies around it (old-fashioned, in my opinion), I arranged it this way:



This does a nice job of displaying the veggies and looks so pretty.

There weren't many leftovers, and the Madonna episode of Glee was definitely fantastic!

My great grandmother's peanut butter rolls

I just can't stay out of the kitchen this weekend! After feasting on dinner party leftovers all day, I suddenly felt the need to try this recipe of my great grandmother's. My great grandmother, I'm told, was everything a grandmother should be: she raised five kids on an Iowa farm, wore her gray hair in a bun, kept her home so clean you could eat off the floors, and could cook like the dickens. When my grandma told me about her incredibly delicious-sounding recipe for peanut butter rolls, I became convinced that my great grandmother must have been a genius!

Great Grandma Hoover's recipe was just her cinnamon roll recipe, but instead of using butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar for the filling, she used butter and peanut butter.

My recipe is an updated version, using whole wheat flour and brown sugar- this combination produces a rich flavor when baked.

Peanut butter rolls
Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the sugar, salt, egg and the white flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the wheat flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
Lightly grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan or two pie dishes. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Smear the dough with butter, then peanut butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Roll up the dough along the long edge until it forms a roll. Slice the roll into 16 equal size pieces and place them in the pan with the cut side up.
Cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake rolls until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Extra cool: I baked these in my great grandma's Pyrex pie dish.

Dinner Party Leftovers= Brunch!

Whenever I take the time and energy to cook, I try to make sure I'll have leftovers so I can get a free, no-cook meal out of my effort. I had a few friends over for dinner last night, and although everyone ate heartily, I had plenty of leftovers to play with today. The menu included:
Mixed greens with strawberries, feta, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette
Rosemary focaccia
Linguine with parsley walnut pesto
Bittersweet chocolate tart

On Sundays, I like to make something special for brunch, so I always end up experimenting and cooking something new and delicious. This week's creation was simple but elegant: egg and chèvre on rosemary focaccia!
I sliced off a hunk of the focaccia and then cut it in half, so I had two slices, like a bun, and toasted it in the toaster. Then I scrambled an egg with plenty of salt and pepper in a frying pan. I spread a couple of tablespoons of chèvre on one slice of the bread, then topped with the egg and the other slice of bread. Sooooo good.



I always try to have some fruit with my breakfast, but on days I'm not feeling it, I make a smoothie. For this morning's strawberry smoothie, I used 7 cleaned, stemmed strawberries, 1 banana, 1/3 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup lemonade, and 1/3 cup ice. Blend on "frappe" in the blender for about 15 seconds.

Jumping on the bandwagon

I love to cook beautiful, simple, healthy food. Much of my cooking inspiration in recent months has come from food blogs. There are so many lovely blogs out there, full of recipes and pictures that could make any mouth water. Never enjoying the spotlight, I have long resisted starting my own blog. Why would anyone want to see a picture of what I'm eating for dinner? It's just this seared salmon and Greek salad I make all the time... nothing special! I live in Iowa... I can't possibly be eating anything as chic as those food bloggers in NYC/San Francisco/Boston/Minneapolis! However, the constant requests for recipes (and dinner invites) from friends, the joy I get from cooking delicious food produced right here in the heartland, and the desire to journal my own cooking (and eating!) experiences have led me to create this blog. I'm excited to finally start writing down some of my recipes and sharing them with others. I hope you enjoy!