Frankenmuffins

I don't know about most people, but as for myself...  I know I could do better at getting veggies into my body.  And more importantly to me at this point, as a mother, I want to get more veggies into my sweet little girl.  Her diet is determined largely by me (and somewhat by her dad, and I'll admit it:  he's a healthier eater than I am).  So it is up to me to make sure she is getting what she needs.  And, I often fall short on the veggies.  It's one of the reason I'm looking forward to a high-end blender and some green smoothies! 

Because I want my veggies to taste yummy.  And I'm always on the lookout for delicious recipes that include vegetables.  My stir-fry veggies recipe has helped me a lot.  I really like getting a variety of vegetables that way.  My husband loves it.  And so does my toddler.  But I don't make them every day, of course.  And so it's nice to have other recipes to turn to :). 

Well, this recipe is bomb.  My friend Lea saved some Family Fun magazines for me -- figuring I may find some family fun stuff to do with my young family!  And I found several awesome things.  Including a recipe for Frankenmuffins!  Granted, they are named to be suited for Halloween.  And I probably will make them for Halloween for sure!  But I wanted to try them out, and since I had all the ingredients (thanks to my THRIVE Spinach!), I felt motivated to do it today :).

FRANKENMUFFINS
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk (I used whole milk because it's what I had in the fridge)
6 ounces (6 cups packed) fresh baby spinach  (I used 3 cups THRIVE Chopped Spinach and rehydrated it)
1 large ripe banana
2 teaspoons vanilla (I used THRIVE Pure Vanilla Powder)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 16 muffin cups with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients and stir with a mix until well combined. 

In a blender, add the oil, milk, and spinach.  Puree until smooth.  Add banana and vanilla and blend until all is well combined.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until completely mixed (I used my stand mixer).

Fill each prepared muffin well two-thirds full.  Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes (mine took 17).

And seriously...  This recipe is amazing.  The batter tastes good too, just fyi.  And there's no raw egg, so it's pregnant-lady and toddler friendly ;).  But the real test is the muffin itself, right? And they are so good.  Especially about 10 minutes after I pulled them out of the oven! 

And so now you have an adult's opinion on them.  I think they taste great.  And I love that they have spinach and we're getting veggies.  And that there is whole wheat, which is also good stuff. 

But what does my toddler think?  So, I gave her half of one for a snack.  She gobbled that thing up and asked for more.  Which I didn't give her, as it's close to dinner time.  But I am thrilled that she liked it so much!  And the way I see it, these could even be used as a breakfast.  What a great way to get some veggies in you first thing in the morning!

So moms...  If you want something new to get veggies into your kiddos, give this recipe a try!  I will be making it again and again!

Roasted Buttercup Squash

This year we planted a lot of squash.  Of a lot of different varieties:  crookneck, yellow zucchini, green zucchini, acorn, and buttercup.  Not to be confused with butternut...  I'd never heard of buttercup squash before, but we figured we'd plant it and see what happened.  It's a winter squash. 

Well, we got 2 buttercup squash from our plant.  And the easiest way to eat it is by slicing it in half, roasting it, and adding butter and brown sugar.  So that's just what we did :).

In case you're like me and don't trust yourself to cook without some sort of recipe...  Here's how it goes:

Preheat oven to 350.  Cut squash in half and scoop out and discard pulp and seeds.  Place cut-side down on a baking dish (I covered mine with foil because I have a lazy streak).  Bake for 30 minutes.  Flip over.  Place 1/2 tablespoon butter in each half.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon brown sugar over meat.  Bake an additional 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

My husband eats the skin...  I don't.  I just eat the flesh stuff inside. 

This is what a buttercup squash looks like.  They aren't particularly large -- this was the larger of the two we got.  I thought it tasted good, but we probably won't plant these again...  We just didn't get as much as we'd hoped we would from the plant.

We served this as a side dish to buffalo chicken pasta salad and garden zucchini cakes.  Because I love those two items :).

Tomato Biscuit & Cheese

As I mentioned here, I got this recipe from my mother-in-law.  It is a great way to enjoy fresh garden tomatoes when the tomato harvest is on!  And ours definitely is!!!  In fact, last night's dinner featured tomatoes and zucchini from our garden.  I made these plus the zucchini garden cakes.  It was delicious! 

This recipe is relatively simple -- and it's one of those I like to call "accordion" recipes.  You can make more or less depending on how many people you are feeding.  There is something about the blend of flavors that really makes this a refreshing and delicious meal, in my opinion.  I'd never had it before I tried it last summer when all our tomatoes were ripening.  But now that our tomatoes are ripening again, I made sure to put it on our list (particularly since the temperatures have been in the 70s the last several days -- you know my rule about heating up the house with the oven in summer!).  So I'm hoping the temperatures drop while we still have fresh tomatoes.  Because I want to make this again :).  (Especially since my sweetie came home from work last night and gobbled up 6 of them ;) -- leaving none for leftovers!  I can't say I blame him, though...  He works 10 hours and doesn't eat lunch.  Poor guy.)

You could probably enjoy this as a side dish as well, but we usually use it as a main dish -- meatless style!  I always use cottage cheese, which has a decent amount of protein, so I feel like we get what we need.

I made the biscuits from scratch, though you can use English Muffins or other pre-prepared biscuits.  The biscuit recipe I used can be found here on my THRIVEing Nilla blog, since I used THRIVE butter powder to make the biscuits.

And here is the recipe for Tomato Biscuit & Cheese:


8 English Muffins or biscuits or home-made recipe of biscuits already baked
8 slices of tomato (thickness of your choice, but probably not super-thick as you want them to get hot and cooked somewhat in the cooking stage)
salt, pepper, oregano, and basil to taste
1/2 cup cottage cheese (or sour cream or plain yogurt -- I always use cottage cheese)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 to 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Place biscuits (or English Muffins) on a baking sheet.  Place a slice of tomato on each biscuit.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil.

Mix cottage cheese and mayonnaise.  Distribute evenly over tomato slices.  Sprinkle all with cheese.  (If you push the biscuits together, you can keep the cheese sprinkling more contained :)).

Bake at 450 degrees until the tomato is hot and cheese is melted (I did about 5 to 7 minutes).  *You can also microwave these individually until the tomato is hot and cheese is melted.

Garden Zucchini Cakes

If you've ever grown zucchini in a garden...  You know it's a plentiful crop!  Very plentiful!  I have definitely found a variety of ways to cook and enjoy zucchini.  But, even so, I still end up shredding and freezing a lot to use throughout the year for zucchini bread and zucchini brownies.  And I'm okay with that!  Yumm-o!

But during the summer, we try to enjoy our zucchini fresh and in a variety of ways.  Which led me to finding this recipe on Pinterest.

The recipe is delicious.  Even my toddler likes the zucchini cakes!  So here it is (with my changes):

2 cups shredded zucchini
2 eggs
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs (I used unseasoned, because that's what I had)
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning (Tony Cachere's brand)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons flour

Heat skillet over medium heat.  Spray with cooking spray (or use a small amount of olive oil).  Add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix together until well blended.  Form the mixture into patties.  When the pan is to temperature, place the patties in and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side.  Serve as soon as possible so they are warm.  I got 9 zucchini cakes from this recipe.

*Original recipe claims they can be frozen and heated up later.  Wrap individually in plastic wrap and then place all of them in a freezer storage bag and freeze.  That and re-heat in a skillet or microwave.  I'm currently trying this, so hopefully it works well!

Yum!

I served these along-side a buffalo chicken pasta salad using THRIVE seasoned chicken strips.  Delicious!

Sunny Asparagus Tapenade

3/4 pound fresh asparagus, chopped
3/4 cup packed fresh parsley sprigs

1/3 cup unsalted sunflower kernels
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon pepper
Additional sunflower kernels, optional
Assorted fresh vegetables, crackers and/or toasted French bread baguette

In a large saucepan, bring 1/2 inch of water to a boil. Add asparagus; cover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and immediately place asparagus in ice water. Drain and pat dry.

Place in a food processor; add next 10 ingredients (through pepper). Cover and process until desired consistency.

Transfer to a small bowl; sprinkle with additional sunflower kernels, if desired. Serve at room temperature or chilled with dippers of your choice.

Recipe from Taste of Home.

Notes:  I used about 1/2 teaspoon dry parsley. I cut the pepper back to 1/2 teaspoon. And I made the mistake of buying whole sunflower seeds and having to shell them. I don't recommend doing that!

 

Verdict:  It's a keeper mostly because it's in the Monday Meals cookbook.  However, it's not a bad recipe.  It's an interesting mix of flavors.  Mine turned out a little wetter than I was anticipating.  But I have had 5 different people try it (including my husband) and everyone seems to really like it, though it's definitely unique.  It's not my favorite, but I'm glad everyone else likes it!  Plus, it's a way to eat my veggies :)!

 

 

Stir Fry Veggies

So I am not the world's greatest vegetable eater.  I don't enjoy most vegetables plain -- whether cooked or raw.  They generally need salad dressing or veggie dip to make them tolerable. 

That said, I'm always looking for new ways to eat vegetables.  Ways that will make me happy to eat them.  A lot of them.  Because I know they are good for me.  Important.  And I want to be a good example to my daughter of eating vegetables. 

One place I was happy to eat my share (and even more) of vegetables was Mikata, a Japanese steak house in Dothan.  It was one of the places on my must go here list while we were down visiting in November.  So the last night we were there, we treated my parents, and they really enjoyed it.  My dad even ate the mushrooms (which he likes to call slugs). 

So, upon our return to Washington, I started thinking...  I bet I could do that! 

And so I set out trying different things.  And I think I have it down now.  So here's my recipe.  Sort of.  I haven't exactly measured, so it's approximates.

1/2 crown of broccoli, broken into small florets
2 stalks celery, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 to 2 cups cabbage coarsely chopped
1 to 2 carrots, cut into carrot sticks
1 small zucchini, cut into sticks (roughly the same size as the carrots)
1/2 a medium onion, cut into thick slices or 3 green onions, sliced in 1 1/2 inch pieces (or both)
3 to 4 mushrooms, sliced into thick pieces
1 to 2 tablespoons butter (depending on the amount of vegetables.  I use 2 tablespoons for the vegetables pictured above)
2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon soy sauce (again, depending on taste and amount of veggies.  I use close to 1 tablespoon for the veggies pictured above)

Heat frying pan over medium heat (I would prefer a wok, but this is what I have) and melt butter.  Add carrots, celery, and broccoli and cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.  Add onion.  Cook another minute.  Add cabbage and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes.  Add zucchini and stir a couple times.  Add mushrooms.  Cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add soy sauce and stir into vegetables another minute.  Remove from heat and serve. 

I usually am cooking total time of 7 to 8 minutes.  But you can go longer or shorter, depending on how crisp you prefer your vegetables.  And you can change up the order as well, but that's the order I prefer, because I like my celery and carrots more done.

A lot of this recipe is dependent on the cook's preferences, but I'm pretty happy with this.  I've been making it more and more.  I love to add a lot of mushrooms.  And I've also added the canned baby corn (didn't like it in this) and asparagus stems, since I had them leftover from Monday Meals.  The asparagus stems were fine with this and I added them with the carrots and celery.

This is the first recipe I have ever developed on my own, and I'm pretty happy with it, so I thought I'd share :).