Health Kick

                How come short weeks always feel so long? Even with a four day weekend (thanks to Abe, Ronald, and Obama) these past four days seemed like an eternity. But there is light at the end of the tunnel: March. The groundhog called early spring, so fingers crossed that he predicted right. To get through the rest of February, I’ve been upping my cooking. While advancing my still-beginner cooking skills, I’ve learned that it’s okay to take some liberties and stray from a recipe. So that’s just what I did with what I whipped up this week.

                Because I’ve been on a health kick, I wanted to make some muffins to grab as a healthy snack (and to have something to put in the cupcake holder Kenzie got me for Valentine’s Day). I searched for a recipe to start with and found a Banana Muffin recipe from Sparkrecipes.com. I made some minor tweaks, and they came out delish. And good thing they are low cal because I thought they were pretty addicting.

Love my cupcake stand. Can't wait for an occasion to bake some.

Banana Muffin (with Yogurt)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (didn’t have it, so I just used the powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt (I used vanilla)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I added a handful of oats for a little extra texture

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together banana, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the yogurt (I've used applesauce when out of plain yogurt as well). Stir banana mixture into flour until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool before serving.

 

                The Title of an article in February’s Better Homes and Gardens had me hooked. It’s called “Warming Winter Fare” and featured a recipe called Green Chile Pork Stew. The recipe called for the stew to be cooked in a Dutch oven, which I don’t have. So I baked the pork in the oven first and then put everything in a pot on the stove.

Green Chile Pork Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb. pork tenderloin (salt and black pepper)

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 7oz packages mixed vegetables in garlic herb sauce (I used one big package…I couldn’t find what they were calling for, but I found a bag of “Ranchero Fiesta Blend” which had a few different kinds of beans, carrots, and peppers. It was unseasoned so I sprinkled some extra garlic and cayenne pepper into the stew)

1 4.5 oz can diced green chiles

1 tsp ground cumin (skipped it)

Fresh cilantro

Lime wedges

Directions:

1.       Cut pork into ¾ inch pieces; sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. In Dutch oven head olive oil over medium high heat. Add pork; cook 4-5 minutes or until browned. Stir in two packages of the thawed vegetables, the chiles, and the cumin. (I put in the olive oil and cooked pork into a pot, and added the veggies shortly after.)

2.       In a blender, combine remaining thawed vegetables and 1 cup water. Process until smooth. Add pureed vegetables to Dutch oven. Bring to a simmer. Cook, covered, over medium high heat about 15 minutes or until pork is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Ladle into soup bowls. Top with cilantro and squeeze of lime juice. Makes 4 servings. (I skipped the pureed veggies and just added the water to my mixture. It was still yummy and flavorful.)

Stay warm. Love,

Annie

Hugs and Kisses

          Although many feel like Valentine's day is a product of capitalism, how can you hate a holiday that celebrates love, flowers, chocolate, and all things pink? Every year, I try to do something crafty and thoughtful for my friends and family. This time I made bookmarks with famous love letters printed on them written by different historical figures--Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Napoleon Bonaparte, Abagail Adams, Winston Churchill, and Nathaniel Hawthorn. I printed the letters in pretty type on card stock, punched a hole in the top, and tied a ribbon through.

          I also made cut-out cookies of X's, O's and hearts. I frosted them with homemade frosting and topped with X and O sprinkles. The butter cookie recipe is from my mom's Mennonite Cookbook, and has always been a family favorite. The frosting is my mom's recipe and super easy to whip up.

Cut-out sugar cookies

Makes: 4 dozen

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups shortening, butter preferred; 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar; 2 egg yolks; 4 cups flour.

Method: Cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and continue to beat. Add sifted flour and stir until well blended into mixture. Roll out on floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out with cookie cutters and decorate with frosting or colored sugar. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

Frosting

Makes: About enough to frost one cake

Ingredients: 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp molk, 3 cups confectioner sugar, 1 tsp vanilla.

Method: Cream butter. Add milk and sugar. Continue adding sugar until frosting is desired consistency. Stir in food coloring if desired.

         Next, I put an X, O, and heart cookie in a cellophane bag (I found cute X and O ones for $1 at Target), and tied the bookmark to the outside. Wallah! I had a great time making these, and will need to look for more excuses to craft little creations. St. Patrick's Day, anyone?

Happy Heart Day and a special shout out to my Valentine, Mackenzie.

Love,

Annie

...And to my other valentine, Monti, who is not happy to be wearing this T-shirt.

Cooking for love



Taken on the beach in Maine last weekend

           This past week has been cold, windy, and more cold. So to stay warm, and to keep from getting severe cabin fever, I've been cooking and baking my heart out. Monday, I made this Artichoke Spread, which came out delicious (and not nearly as unhealthy as you would think). It's one of Kenzie and my favorites to order out, but it made a good stay-in treat.

          Of course, I found it on my favorite recipe site, sparkrecipes.com.

Artichoke Spread

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 3 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach 1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped 1 8oz pkg reduced fat cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup fat free mayonnaise dressing or salad dressing 2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese (8oz) 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (2oz) 2 dashes bottled hot pepper sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 3 minutes. Add spinach, cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender and spinach is cooked, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in chopped artichoke hearts, cream cheese, mayo, cheddar cheese, parmesan and hot pepper sauce. Transfer artichoke mixture to an ungreased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Bake for 40 minutes.

For some extra crunch you can add 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans and bake for 10 more minutes.

Number of Servings: 64

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user DEADEENA.

 

          Thursday, Kenz and I made rice and beans and quesadillas, which didn't turn out so beautifully. So we tried again Friday with the new quesadilla maker Jay brought up, and the results were much nicer to look at.

We threw in some rice, cheese, chicken, salsa, onions and peppers. Yum!

Kudos to Jay!...Pretty cool, huh?

          Lastly, I went on a late-night baking binge yesterday. I remembered I wanted to make a Valentine's Day cake, so I whipped this up. It's just Pillsbury mix and pink frosting, but the results are always yummy.

Topped with red hots and X&O sprinkles.

Not quite decorator quality, but still festive.

          I'll be sharing the rest of my V-day creations once they're finished and dolled out.
Love,
Annie

I made these a couple weeks ago, but thought I'd include them since they're more Martha Stweart-esque

 

If at first you don't succeed...

                As you can tell, I’ve had the topic of New Year’s Resolutions on my mind a lot lately, and it appears I’m not alone. The last page of my January/February edition of Women’s Health featured statistics on that very subject. One declared that 38 percent of women break resolutions in a month or less. And if this statistic is true, that means by today, February 1, nearly half of all resolution-bearing women have “broken” their goals. But I’m having a problem with the word broken. What does that even mean—to miss a day at the gym or give up entirely? And if we are prone to resolution failure, are we the problem or are we simply aiming too high?



Pic from http://justjudyjudyjudy.com/



                Personally, I think the important thing to remember is that there are 12 months in a year. Okay, so Monti’s leash is starting to collect dust (not really; please no calls to PETA), and the book I started reading for fun over break is still half finished. But I refuse to accept defeat so soon! I mean, come on it’s only February. I have had some successes in my resolutions, and although I could give a laundry list of excuses for why I’ve faltered in some, the most important thing is to keep working towards them. If you resolved to get healthier, one cupcake does not mean you’ve failed or even “broken” your resolution. If you vowed to save money, one new pair of shoes is not the end of the world. My view? Let that guilt nag at you if you’ve veered from the path a little, and work to get back on. Saying a resolution is broken on February 1 is a copout.