Pizza Salad--My New Favorite Thing

I love having salad for dinner. I never thought in a million years as a child that I would ever say that. But I do! There are lots of yummy toppings and you don't feel as guilty or bloated as when you have cake and ice cream for dinner... yes, sometimes that happens. Don't judge me.

The only problem with salad is that even when it has ample protein in it, it just doesn't feel very filling and I find myself looking for something a little more satisfying just an hour or two later. I've never been one of those girls who eats a salad and declares how full she is. I say, "Bring on the breadsticks!"

So the combination of pizza and salad is just too good to pass up. You still get that light, happy feeling that all adults do when they have successfully eaten a good amount of vegetables, but you get the satisfied feeling of being full too. And the best part is that this dinner is SO easy, especially when you don't make your own pizza dough. But homemade is really good, so kudos to all you great supermoms and dads and other readers out there! You rock.



Here's how I do it:

1. Buy the frozen bread dough loaves in your local grocery store.
2. Let the dough thaw all day long in a greased bowl. If it is taking too long to thaw, heat your oven to the lowest setting and place the bowl in the oven for as long as it takes for the dough to double in size. 
3. Sprinkle cornmeal on a baking sheet. This keeps the dough from sticking and gives it an amazing texture. 
4. Roll out the dough and place it on the cornmeal covered baking sheet
5. Put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or just until the dough starts to turn golden around the edges
6. Pull the pizza dough out of the oven and top it with your favorite sauce (I did pesto) and fresh mozzarella (you can, of course, not do fresh, but it is SOOOOOO much better with fresh). Pop it back in the oven for about 5 minutes until cheese is all melted. (You can also butter the crust and sprinkle parmesan, garlic, or basil flakes around the edge. It's divine.)
7. Pull pizza out and top with your favorite leafy greens (arugula is great), and your other toppings. (I did fresh shaved parmesan, halved cherry tomatoes, and peppers) 
8. Viola! Enjoy. (Enough parenthesis for you?)

I have done this several times and I have to say that the fresher the ingredients, the better the pizza. It is seriously delicious and my two year old will even eat it, vegetables and all! He'll eat anything on a pizza. 

My favorite toppings for this pizza are so good, even though I don't have a picture, I'm going to share it with you. 

Sauce: fig preserves

Cheese: fresh mozzarella

Greens: arugula 

Other Toppings: bacon, fresh parmesan, sprinkled balsamic vinegar

Healthy Banana Pancakes

My little guy is 4 months old today; I can't believe it! The first few weeks were so hard, but the whole thing has gone by really fast. Some people assume that because it goes fast, that it isn't hard. But it has been really, really challenging to have these two home alone with me for the past few months. They are such great kids, but oh my, it has stretched me to the very edge of my physical and emotional limits.

With Alex, my doctor recommended that he start eating rice cereal at 4 months because he was having trouble gaining weight, and it was such a great experience. I know that the advice is to exclusively breastfeed or bottle feed for the first 6 months now, but since my first was eating at this stage, I can't help thinking about making baby food for this little one.

Baby food is so fun to make because it is so easy! And you can really play with a lot of flavors and spices. It's so fun to see your baby's reactions to all the different tastes. I can't imagine how exciting it must be to go from exclusive milk to all these tasty options.

One of my favorite breakfasts to make Alex when he was about a year old was banana pancakes. We were very careful not to give Alex any added sugar for the longest time, we even stayed away from juice 98% of the time. These pancakes are fun because they are sweet and cinnamon-y and they are healthy.

Plus, Alex just gobbles them up like no one's business.

It is one of the rare moments when he is completely quiet.

Healthy Banana Pancakes
1 mashed banana
2 Tbl flour (you can use whole wheat flour to be healthier or baby oatmeal)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg

Stir it all together and pour onto a greased skillet. Flip when lightly browned on the underside and serve. Makes about 3 medium sized pancakes.

Anytime Salad

Being healthy is not super fun for me. I wish that I had a grown up palate, but I just don't. I think I only just started to enjoy eating broccoli and asparagus about 5 years ago, but I haven't even ventured into the world of quinoa and brown rice.

Okay, so I'm not super adventurous. That doesn't mean that I eat poorly and I try to fit vegetables in wherever I can in meals. I just don't go out of my way to cut out a nice piece of cake for dessert. In fact, I feel like I need to reward myself when I have an especially healthy meal with dessert. This is a problem.

I'm trying to kick this habit of needing something sweet, because heck, I'll admit that I'm addicted to sugar.

Enter salad and vegetables stage right.

The problem with salad is that having fresh toppings is pretty hard for me to always have on hand. I either use them for other recipes or I just don't have the energy to chop a million vegetables with a baby on one hip and a toddler constantly bringing a chair over to "help" me.

I have found that the best way to make salad interesting enough for me and keep me from my cookie cravings is to keep them fruity. It is also easier to have fruity salad toppings on hand. Canned fruit, dried fruit, and fresh fruit always seem to be on hand in our home. Whereas sometimes our only vegetables on hand are the frozen broccoli florets.

Here is a salad that I threw together with just things that I have on hand.

Anytime Salad
1 pkg. fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup candied walnuts (obviously if you are really serious about being healthy you can get naked nuts)
handful dried apricots quartered (about 10)
handful craisens
fresh parmesan or mozzarella

Dressing
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp poppy seeds
3 TBL olive oil

Special Occasion Stuffed French Toast

I have one meal that transports Evan to another planet.

I'm pretty easy as far as getting excited about food goes. I crave a million different things. For example, when I drink hot chocolate, I feel like every cell in my body dances. Since I've never tried drugs, this is the closest experience I'll ever have to a serious addiction.

Evan likes eating and he eats pretty well. He just doesn't get excited about food like I do. Except for this one thing I make: stuffed french toast. It's become a bit of a tradition that I make it for every special occasion; birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine's Day. I've tried different breakfast foods that I thought would be just as exciting, but it always ends up not measuring up to the stuffed french toast.

This recipe is by no means healthy, but it sure is tasty. If you want a blog that will give you recipes that help you drop a pant size, this is not the place for you.



So, here's the recipe:

Special Occasion Stuffed French Toast

French toast dip
1 loaf of French bread thickly sliced
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cloves
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum extract (optional)

Cream Cheese Stuffing
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 Tbsp milk

Strawberry Topping
1 pint fresh strawberries sliced
1/3 cup sugar

Combine strawberries and sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl combine all of the stuffing ingredients and mix until smooth.

In an 8x8 casserole dish combine all dip ingredients except for bread and mix well with immersion blender.  Slice each piece of French bread halfway down the middle and stuff with cream cheese mixture and strawberries. Warm a pan on the stove or a griddle and grease generously with butter. Dip bread into the egg mixture and toast on both sides on pan or griddle. Top with remaining cream cheese and strawberries and drizzle maple syrup on top.

To-Do List Before the Big Move Part I: Food

Moving is not my favorite thing in the world. It's not even close. I don't think it even makes my top 100 favorite things. But it is a necessary evil, and one that our little family will have to do in a few months down the road. Even though I hate moving, I've done enough of it in my college days from apartment to apartment to know a thing or two about it.

Since it is still up in the air which state out of three we'll be moving to and it's still relatively far away, I can't plan renting the truck, buying the apartment/house, or too much of the actual packing... and it's driving me nuts! So I've decided to make a check off list for things that I can do months in advance. This is the first in a series of blog installments that I'll be writing as we get ready to head out.

Food Inventory

Our family falls under the poor college kids category and so letting food go to waste really brings me down. It is really hard to move with all of your things when space is limited and food is perishable, so our plan is to leave the house with as little food as possible in tow.

Freezer/ Refrigerator 
The freezer is the spot where most the food goes to waste in a move. We'll be moving at least a couple states away, so bringing all that food with us is just not an option. This is our freezer/ refrigerator game plan:

• Make an inventory of everything in the freezer/ fridge.
• Throw away everything that has been in there too long or has freezer burn.
• Create meal plans from now until a month before the move using as much of the freezer items as possible.
• Don't buy any freezer items or long term fridge items (such as large bottles of condiments, jams, and yeast) unless you can fit it into your short-term meal plans
• Keep freezer completely bare except necessities that will be eaten soon (chicken breasts, quick dinners for moving week, ice cream, etc.)

If it's getting close to moving day and we still have a lot of really good stuff, then we will give it to a friend in the area. I mean really good stuff. I'm not going to give away something that has been in there for so long that it would take weeks to thaw it out of the ice shell its developed. I'm talking freezer jams and unopened packages of ravioli or something. The other stuff should probably be dumped. If you weren't going to eat it, your friends probably won't want to either.

Pantry
The pantry is a little different as far as planning ahead because the items can last longer in normal temperatures, so you can bring a lot of the stuff with you. But if push comes to shove, you'll probably want to use the space for your clothes or furniture rather than your food, so this is all about compacting things!

• Again, make an inventory and create meal plans to use up a lot of the things in your pantry, especially hard-to-move items.
• Cans are easy to pack, but they are very heavy, so include this on your eating list even though they are longer lasting food items.
• In fact, try to eat everything you can and limit your shopping trips for more food. You don't want to use up all your space packing something like cereal. 
• Use this time to get organized! Flour or sugar packed in their normal bags run the risk of being punctured and spreading all over everything else, so you could invest in some dollar store containers. (Or if you're cheap and have a baby like me, just use old formula containers)

Other Things to Do Months in Advance (not food related)

• Collect and save boxes. Save everything that comes into your home in a box.  We have a nice pile of empty diaper boxes ready to be loaded. You can also ask nearby grocery stores for their extra boxes, or just go dumpster diving. This will save a lot of money in the long run, because, really, who wants to spend money on a cardboard box?
• Start packing away your winter (or summer) clothes. 
• Stop buying in bulk for cleaning, office, and kitchen supplies.

Spring Salad

It was 70 degrees today! Spring has been slipping in and out of my life for the last couple of weeks, but I think it is ready to stay awhile.

I do enjoy the cold months because I love any excuse to drink hot chocolate and watch a movie in sweat pants (and the sun just makes you feel so guilty if you try to do that in the summer), but I am embracing spring more than I typically do because I have a very bored almost-one-year-old to entertain.

We've been going on walks almost every day which is great for his napping and even better for my thighs, who are just about ready to pull out the swimwear.

Which brings me to the recipe for today. What could be better for your swimsuit body then a wide variety of salads? Okay, salads don't really NEED a recipe but I made the poppy seed dressing from scratch, and it was delicious and so easy. Plus it looked really pretty to me, so I had to take a picture of it and fit it in somehow. I actually took this to a church activity and all the ladies loved it and didn't leave any leftovers.

So here's the recipe:

Salad
1 large romaine lettuce head, torn
3/4 cup craisens
2 sliced gala apples
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup glazed walnuts
1 cup poppy seed dressing

Poppy Seed Dressing
3/4 cup mayonnaise (low fat works if you're into that)
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and stir until no lumps remain. Set aside. Slice apples and sprinkle with lemon juice to preserve color. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing in salad bowl, toss, and serve immediately.

Valentine's Day Sourdough Pancakes

My husband isn't really affected by food. I mean, when people ask me what I craved when I was pregnant, I'm stumped because I crave food irrationally all of the time.

But to Evan, food is fuel. He can tell the difference between a mediocre steak and a fantastic steak, but eating a fast food burger doesn't bring him down. It can be kind of hard to please a guy who is so easily pleased, if you know what I mean. For the first bit in our marriage, I was really stumped how to get him emotional about food. Since the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I kind of felt like I wasn't really getting to him.

And then I realized that his one true (food) love is breakfast. From stuffed French toast to waffles, he loves it all. This all works out perfectly because he's made it a tradition that he'll make me dinner all by himself every Valentine's Day. He thinks that Valentines Day is solely a male responsibility, but since I love the holiday and don't want to be excluded, I've taken over breakfast.

This year, I wanted to try something that scares me. Although Evan's favorite pancakes are the sourdough variety, I've shied away from the task because it seems so daunting. But, I decided I would do it this year so I did my sourdough starter last week and it wasn't as hard as I thought!

Here's the recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

Keep mixture in a container with a loose lid in a room temperature location. Dump half of the mixture out every 24 hours and replace with another cup of flour and another cup of water. Mix. After 4 to 5 days, place mixture in the refrigerator and feed it on a weekly basis.

It's that simple! Who would've thought? I did do my research though, and here are the things I found out: 

There are lots of starter recipes out there. 

I searched around the interweb for quite some time and realized that there is an abundance of different recipes for starters. Some recipes call for sugar and yeast, this gives your starter a little boost and feeds it right off the bat. What I read about these recipes is that the end product will not be as potent. I never got a full reason why, but I decided to trust the other blog writer. Apparently, people have been doing the flour and water equal ratios for centuries (for reals). There are some restaurants in places like France that have sourdough starters that have been in the family for generations. 

This recipe seemed the easiest and the most authentic, so that's the way I went. 

It's hard to kill your starter.

This is really fortunate, because I'm not the best person to keep things like plants alive. This is why I have an aloe plant, which is pretty much just a fancy cactus. This is a feeding bacteria colony and it thrives when it has food and water, so you just need to remember to feed it on a daily, and then weekly basis. You will have sourdough for the rest of your life if you want it! Just remember to dump some out or use it so that it won't turn into a monster that takes over your fridge. 

You will see results quickly. 

The first day, the starter will just be a runny dough. The second, it will have bubbles and a darker color. The third, it will start to have a sour smell similar to beer. It will also have a thin layer of liquid on top. The fourth day, it will appear frothy and the smell will be a lot stronger. When it starts getting really bubbly like the picture above, it is okay to use. You can really use it before then because you can smell the sour smell faintly on even the second day, but if you want a strong flavor, wait until the fourth day. 

If you need any more reasons to make a sourdough starter, read the blog post from Nourished Kitchen here, although I didn't use that exact starter recipe or pancake recipe. There's just so many to choose from. 

The recipe I used came from here. 

Rich Sourdough Pancakes

3 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups Sourdough Starter
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter melted

Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk and sourdough starter.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar;
add to the egg mixture, mixing well. Stir in melted butter.
Lightly grease a hot griddle. Drop the batter by 1/4 cup onto
the griddle and cook until light brown, turning once.
Makes 6 servings.

I was a little scared at first to try them, just because I wasn't sure how well my starter turned out, but they were amazing! They tasted like a thicker, richer crepe. Add some strawberries and bacon and I know our Valentine's Day breakfast will be a big hit. 

If you're reading this and thinking, "well, shoot. It's too late to start." I'd still give it a try! My starter began smelling fermented the very next day, so you could definitely try it. The flavor just might be a little more mild, but a lot of people like mild sourdough. You can also put a little bit of yeast and sugar in to boost the process. 

Even if you don't have time for Valentine's Day pancakes, making a starter is a great idea! I'm really excited to keep feeding and using mine for breads, waffles, biscuits, and more. You can even make cookies and cakes, which would be pretty exciting. 

Lisa

Resolutions and Lettuce Wraps

I woke up this morning not feeling very nice. Everyone at this house has gone through the Christmas holiday flu and I thought that I made it through unscathed. I was so wrong.

To make it worse, when I looked on Pinterest to get my mind off of my rolling tummy, I was bombarded with pictures exclusively made up of rock hard butts and glitter (only the butts were rock hard, not the glitter) and I realized that the new year is upon us! Everyone is looking forward to their cool parties and to working off all the Christmas poundage for their New Year's resolution.

It's been a pretty long time since I've made up some resolutions so I figured I would make a simple list. So I thought about what I wanted to accomplish this next year, grabbed my snuggle buddy for a couple of pictures (he loves to look at the screen while we take them), and waited for his nap time so I could write them down. Which brings us to now:


2014 Resolutions

1. Be more outgoing.

I have always struggled with this, but now that I'm a stay-at-home mommy, I have to work harder than ever to make good friends. Before, I could easily be friends with the people that I worked with because we had so much in common anyway. Now, I have to find people that I share similarities with, or try extra hard to be friends with people who are really not like me at all.

2. Be more spiritual.

Okay, so these aren't in any particular order. If they were, this one should have come first.

I used to take my spirituality personally, but now I realize more and more how important it is for me to be a good example for my son. I want him to grow up knowing he is a son of God and that there is more to life than just climbing the next great mountain or buying the latest sports car. I want him to learn that he should show compassion to others, not just because it's what he would want for himself, but because everyone around him is his spiritual brother or sister. I want him to know that he can find peace in heeding promptings rather than escaping life through loud music or social media.

The only way I can teach him all of that is by being a good example of faith. He needs to see me take time to be spiritual every day.

3. Lose that baby weight!

I am still 20 pounds heavier than I was pre-pregnancy. I kind of feel like I'm in AA when I say that. I don't care so much about the pounds, but my selection of clothes is not so hot. I'm really trying to save money by not buying a whole new wardrobe. If I can fit into my pre-pregnancy pants before the end of next year, I will be satisfied.

4. Be more productive.

This is a pretty big goal and it's hard to measure. I mostly want to keep the house clean and stick to a cleaning schedule. When the house is clean, I want to eat and cook healthy meals, I am more motivated to work on my freelance jobs, and I feel more satisfied at the end of the day.

5. Stick to the budget.

Evan and I have made a new budget and we're pretty satisfied with it. I am in charge of most of the bills and other things, so it is really my job to make sure we are spending as efficiently as possible. We have a lot of things to save for, so this is super important!

I think those goals are big enough to keep me busy for the next year. I've realized that being a mom means your work is never done. I used to see goals as hurdles to jump over. Now goals are something that you have to start and keep up forever!

Now that you've read up to this point, I have a little recipe for you that was a big hit in our house a couple of night ago. They are Chinese lettuce wraps. I think they are similar to P.F. Changs, but I haven't had them in a while, so I don't know how close they are. All I know is that they are delicious. Enjoy!

Chinese Lettuce Wraps
Serves 4 people

2 large chicken breasts
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
6 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons orange marmalade
1 to 2 teaspoons sriracha sauce
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 green or red bell pepper (finely chopped)
3 stalks green onion (chopped)
course black pepper
1 to 2 heads of lettuce

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, soy sauce, orange marmalade, and sriracha and mix. Add more sriracha to taste and set aside.

Pour 1 Tablespoon of oil into frying pan and heat. Cut raw chicken breasts into small pieces, about the size of a fingertip. Place chicken into frying pan with oil and pepper and cook until done. Remove from pan and pour more oil into pan. Add garlic and chopped bell pepper and heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Add cooked chicken, green onion, and sauce and stir fry. Let the mixture simmer for about a minute and remove from heat.

Carefully remove lettuce leaves from the head and wash. Try to keep them as intact as possible since this will be your vehicle for the chicken mixture. Put a few spoonfuls of chicken into a lettuce leaf, roll like a tortilla, and eat.

Lisa

Almond Poppy Seed Loaves

"Hey, what's with all this bread?" you may be thinking. Well, I guess fall is the time for baking. It also seems like the time to put on your extra pounds to keep you warm while the snow falls outside.

When I go grocery shopping I like to go down every single aisle, especially if my husband is home with the boy. It serves as my thinking time, and I would be lying if I said I was in a huge hurry to get out of there. Since cooking meals and making lunches is now in my job description, I like to take my time looking at different ingredients and daydream about the different food creations in my future. 

Unfortunately, most of my daydreams will remain in my head since I'm still trying to lose the baby weight. But sometimes I'll splurge on a recipe that I want to try. And I'll usually try to make it for a party so I can give away the leftovers. 

So on one of my wanderings in the grocery store, I stopped for a good five minutes in the spice section trying to get some ideas for the next week of dinner meals. But what I found distracted me from all my dinner planning. Poppy seeds. 

I love poppy seed things. Almond poppy seed muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins, everything bagels... and that's about it... but I love all of them! So although it wasn't an amazing price and it was way more poppy seeds than I could probably use, I waved away the angel on my shoulder saying, "you really shouldn't..." and I marched to the checkout with the seeds and the rest of my groceries. 

And I'm glad I did! It opened me up to so many avenues of internet searching. Here are some recipes that I am going to try eventually: 

Chewy Almond Poppy Seed Granola Bars from Cooking Classy

Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes from Baking with Blondie

Homemade (everything) bagels from Annie's Eats

Poppy Seed Dressing from A Pinch of Yum

Although all of these look really great, I was dying for some almond poppy seed bread. So here's the recipe I made from Our Best Bites. I made just a minor change with the flavorings because I didn't have butter flavor and I didn't make the glaze because I didn't want it to be too sweet. It turned out perfect!

Almond Poppy Seed Bread
(makes 2 normal loaves or 4 mini loaves)

3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/8 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
2 tsp poppy seeds
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp almond extract

In a mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the sugar. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Grease 2 normal sized loaf pans or 4 mini sized loaf pans. Separate batter between pans and put in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.


It's funny because if you search for almond poppy seed bread online, you pretty much just get this recipe. It's like everyone thinks they are being original but they all really just stole it from one another! But it tastes great, so why change a good thing?

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Happy Halloween! I know it's a little bit late, but I wanted to acknowledge the holiday, even if its purpose is a little questionable. Halloween is 1000 times better when you have a kid, I realized this year. It was so fun making all of our costumes so that we could all coordinate. I know that in two or three years he's going to want to do his own thing and it will be more difficult to all match, so this year was really fun!

If you couldn't tell, Evan was Han Solo, I was Princess Leia, and Alex was R2D2

One thing that really surprised me this year for Halloween is that the trick-or-treaters made their way around the neighborhood super early. We were completely cleaned out of candy before 5:30. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the northwest where it gets dark a touch earlier than here in Utah, but I remember always going trick-or-treating when it was dark out. I guess it's safer this way, or they get to go to more neighborhoods. But it made us feel a little awkward because we had to just shut our lights off and pretend we weren't home for a while.

But anyway, Halloween always reminds me of pumpkins and I love pumpkin pretty much anything! We busted out our first can way before October rolled around and there's no sign of getting bored of it yet. One of my favorite things to make is pumpkin bread, and here's my recipe:

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

(makes two regular or four mini loaves)

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pumpkin (I highly recommend Libby's)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup apple cider 

2 eggs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Mix pumpkin, sugar, cider, eggs, oil, and vanilla together and stir well. Add flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Divide into greased loaf pans. 

Bake 65 to 70 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to continue cooling. 

This is a perfect gift to give out to neighbors, especially if you make them in mini loaves. It's delicious served warm with butter. Or if you're like me and love hot chocolate, you can dip it in a warm, steamy cup!

Lisa

Apple Cider

Oh Utah fall, how my Washington heart loves you! To many people, Utah has a great climate. It's hot in the summer and pretty much beautiful everyday if you want to plan ahead for a barbecue or an outdoor wedding. The winter produces fresh snow almost daily for all the skiers and snowboarders. It is the perfect weather for the person who loves to do outdoor activities.

However, I am not a person like that. I wouldn't say that I'm not "fun", but maybe I'm not the typical kind of fun that most people think of. I love sweats and books and cuddles with my little baby. And I love warm comfort foods and drinks. But I don't like to be restricted indoors either and I'm not a huge fan of snow. So this is why fall is my favorite.

It's cold enough that it brings people closer together to get cozy. It also allows you to reasonably wear sweats to keep warm as well as to hide that extra layer of winter chub. The leaves are changing and the rare desert rainy days are not so rare.

If Utah was fall all year round then I might love it as much as my Pacific Northwest home. Unfortunately, it doesn't last that long, so Utah fall will remain a seasonal dessert that I can look forward to while I cope with the other extreme temperatures.

So enough of my brain skimmings. Here's the point: I made homemade cider.

It was really easy! And the result was a house that smelled like an orchard and a quart sized jar of cider swirling with spices. Here's the recipe:

Apple Cider
(makes one quart)

6 apples (it is best to have a variety of sweet and tart)
1 orange (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (less if you have an orange)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon, or two cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 pinch of nutmeg
enough water to cover

Slice apples and oranges and put them into a thick bottomed pot that has a lid. You don't have to worry about peeling or coring the fruit since you will be straining the mixture later. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and spices to the pot. Pour enough water to cover the fruit. The apples will float, so just remember where the water would have covered the fruit. You want to add enough water to maintain a good boil for an extended amount of time, but not so much that your cider turns out diluted.

Heat the mixture on the stove until it reaches a rolling boil. Allow it to boil for 30 minutes uncovered. Stir and mash the fruit as it becomes softer. Cover the pot and lower the temperature so it is a little more than a simmer. Stir and mash fruit occasionally and boil for 4 to 5 hours.

Remove from the heat and mash the fruit again. Strain through a cheesecloth, a handkerchief, or pantyhose. Taste and add more spices, sugar, or lemon juice as needed.

Enjoy!

Lisa

Fall Sauce

Right now I am re-reading Anne of Green Gables for probably my fifth time. Whenever I read this book, I seem to enjoy the seasons so much more. This time around my appreciation for nature and the changing seasons seems to be amplified. Maybe it's because I'm a new mom and I am constantly aware that I'm in the presence of a human that is experiencing everything for the first time. Or maybe it's because I am reading this book during the season where the mountains surrounding my house seem to be on fire with the changing leaves.

Whatever it is, autumn has hit me hard this year and I feel like I may never recover.

I am constantly dreaming of new concoctions that I could make with apples or pumpkin. Nutmeg and cloves call out to me from their shelf tucked away. So when I acquired an assortment of apples, pears, and peaches from my mom and grandma, I mentally drooled over the possibilities.

I was originally going to try to make homemade cider, but I didn't have any cheesecloth, and since the day was an I-may-never-get-out-of-my-sweats kind of a day, I decided to stay homebound and find something else equally blog-worthy.

With some prodding from my mom, I decided to make fall sauce. I can't exactly call it applesauce since it was an assortment of fruit, but it's the same basic idea. This was the best idea ever, because not only do I have a husband who loves applesauce, but I have a growing baby who will be able to eat this starter food soon. Who wouldn't want to save the money that they would have spent on baby food?


This recipe was pretty dang easy and it made my house smell magical.

Fall-Sauce

10 medium apples (an assortment will add more layers to your sauce, but I just used Gala)
6 medium pears
2 large peaches
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
dash of cloves
dash of nutmeg

Wash, peel, and core all the fruit. Cut it into slices and place in a deep crock pot. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the fruit to keep it from browning. Mix regularly while cutting the fruit. Add the sugar and spices and set the crock pot on low for 6 hours. Stir every hour. After it's done, blend the fruit mixture with an emersion blender until desired consistency. This made a little more that 2 quart sized bottles.

You can continue on to can your sauce in a canner, but I just decided to freeze my extra bottle. Your refrigerated bottles will last up to 3 weeks.

This sauce turned out to be pretty yummy, if I say so myself. The mixture of fruit and spices really added depth to the sauce. It combined all the sweet, tart, and spicy tastes really well. It's mild enough to give to a baby, but not bland at all so an adult would enjoy it too.

This is a great way to take advantage of the fall apples and end of summer peaches!

Enjoy!

Lisa

Food: Clean-eating sweet potato cheddar rolls

Clean eating. There are so many levels of clean eating, but what I mean be clean eating is homemade, non-processed, whole food goodness. Or, at least "kind-of-good"-ness. Because, let's be honest, when you're first starting out on a journey of clean eating there are times when you would give anything for something processed with a lot of sodium or high fructose corn syrup. But I digress...

I found these rolls on Clean Eating Magazine's website, and changed it just a bit. They're called chipotle cheddar sweet potato muffins. I photographed my journey, and have it displayed below. I have to admit, I had a horrible cold when I made these, so didn't have the best sense of taste. My husband rated them at a 4/5 stars. Very filling, but not amazing plain.

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (I used lemon juice and milk substitute)
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese (I used half pepper jack)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp chipotle chile powder (I only had normal chili powder, not chipotle chili)
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees f. In a small sauce pot add sweet potato and cold water, and bring to a boil. Boil until fork tender, drain, then mash. Add buttermilk and stir until well combined. Mix in the egg and cheese, then set aside. In a separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients, then add half to sweet potato mixture and fold in. Repeat with second half of flour mixture. Spoon batter into muffin tins to almost full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then enjoy. Store in air-tight container in fridge for up to a week.

So, I doubled the recipe, since I figured making it once would be easier than twice. Once I got the sweet potatoes on the stove, I shredded the cheese.

 Turns out I didn't have chipotle chili powder, so I thought using pepper jack for half the cheese in the recipe would be good.

The dry ingredients...

I used a buttermilk substitute, since I didn't have buttermilk or the inclination to go buy some for this recipe. 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in the bottom of a measuring cup, then fill milk to the 1 cup line and allow to sit for 5 minutes will give you a good sub.

Here are the mashed potatoes

Here they are with everything added to them

And here they are coming out of the oven! They were pretty yummy, and went very well with our salad that night. However, they are much, much easier to get out of the muffin tin if the tin is sprayed with cooking spray first. Hate to point out the obvious, but since it wasn't explicitly stated in the recipe, I didn't think to spray the tin until about 10 muffins into it, which made for a fun project once they came out of the oven.

Single Serving Pies

This may be the most excited I've ever been about pie. There are some things you learn when you become a stay-at-home mom, and that is that making lunches for your husband is probably as boring as eating packed lunches.

I'm not a cold cuts kind of girl. I've always hated packed lunches from the time I started kindergarten to the end of my college career. Unfortunately my husband is exactly the same. He'll eat whatever I make him, but it is not very satisfying to make someone a lunch you know they won't enjoy.

Enter: single serving pies.

If there is one dessert my husband loves, it's apple pie. So these on-the-go pies are perfect for his lunches. You will need the half pint, wide mouth, short Mason jars for this recipe. It is important that you get the ones with the straight sides so they are easier to fill and eat.

You can use any pie crust recipe that you love, but here is one that is perfect every time. This recipe has been passed down at least three generations, if not more, and it produces a flaky, delicious crust that I dare you to try and beat.

Mom's Flakey Crust
(makes one standard size 2-crust pie)

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening
5 Tbs cold water

Combine the flour and salt. With a pastry cutter, incorporate the shortening into the dry ingredients until crumbly. Once all the flour and shortening are incorporated, add the cold water one tablespoon at a time. Mix lightly with a fork between each tablespoon. Do not overwork. Gather the crust into a ball and roll out on a floured surface.

For these pies, you can cut out the tops of the crust with the lid of the mason jar or you can use the crumble top recipe.

Crumble Topping
(makes about 6 single-serving pies)

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons of oats

Stir sugar, flour, and cinnamon together. Cut butter in with a fork or a pastry blender until incorporated. Add oats and mix together. Add two to three tablespoons of mixture to each pie top.


Apple Pie Filling
(makes 4 to 5 single serving pies)

2 to 2 1/2 cups of sliced and peeled apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch of cloves
1 tablespoon of butter chopped into 4 to 5 pieces

Add all ingredients except the butter in a bowl and stir. Coat evenly. Fill each crust with a little space remaining at the top. Add the pat of butter. Top with the top layer of crust or the crumble topping. Make sure to poke holes in the top layer of crust for vents if you aren't using the crumble topping.

Heat oven to 375 degrees and bake pies for 45 minutes or until the tops are browned.

You can eat these right away and use the baking instructions above, but I doubled the recipe and saved a lot to freeze. Don't cook the pie first if you are going to freeze it; just assemble it in the jar and screw the lid on tight! 

To bake after freezing, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the jar on a cookie sheet and remove the lid. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top is browned. So if you are packing this in your lunch, bake it far enough in advance that it is cool enough to travel in your lunch box. You can then eat it at room temperature or give it a little zap in the microwave before eating. 

This idea is also great for really any kind of pie, so the sky is the limit. Be creative and enjoy!

Lisa

Cheesecake–Mousse Lovechild

I'm already behind on my posting, and I'm horrified! I actually made this little recipe several days ago (and consumed all of it) but haven't been able to post until now. So here's to holding my breath that Baby Al won't wake up too soon.

Sometimes I daydream of food. Sometimes I even night-dream about it. Often my dreams don't pan out to anything tasty, but I was pretty pleased with the results of this dessert. The day I made it, I spent a considerable amount of time drooling over a picture of a no-bake cheesecake that I saw on the Inter-web. I usually don't like no-bake cheesecakes because they seem kind of phony to me. So I had a minor heart attack wondering if I was pregnant again, calmed myself down, and started mixing.

Here's the line up of ingredients (minus some butter and powdered sugar):

Looks pretty simple, right? It is! It took me about 10 minutes tops to make the whole thing. First, I made a graham cracker crumble. I blended about 5 crackers in a blender and mixed it with about 1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Then I mixed 4 ounces of cream cheese and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar together until they were all incorporated. I melted about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave blended it in with the cream cheese mixture. However, I found that it just wasn't enough chocolate, so I ended up with probably 2/3 cup of melted chocolate chips. 

You could probably just put in some cocoa powder instead since the rest of the ingredients are pretty sweet all by themselves. 

Then I folded in 1 1/2 cups of cool whip. I was careful not to mix it too much. 

 Finally, I layered graham cracker crumble and cream cheese mix a couple of times in some sundae dishes. I topped it with whipped cream and more graham crumbles. You can put it in the refrigerator to cool it more, but most the ingredients were cold to begin with and the cream cheese mix was already a good consistency, so there's no need to wait!

Here's the recipe:

Makes about 4 servings

Graham Crumble

5 graham crackers blended

2 Tbls melted butter

Cream Cheese Mix

4 oz. cream cheese softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2/3 cup melted chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup cool whip

Whipped cream for topping

Mix graham crumbs and melted butter together and set aside. 

Blend sugar and softened cream cheese together. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave, heating in 15 second increments, stirring between. Add chocolate to cream cheese mixture until well blended. Fold in cool whip until it is mostly incorporated into chocolate. Some white streaks will remain. 

Layer graham crumbles and cream cheese mix until desired amount. Top with whipped cream and garnish with graham crumble. Enjoy!

Lisa