Time for a change.

I’m moving finally!!!!! 🙂 I’m sooooooooooooo excited!!!

Please visit me over at www.petitfoodie.com. 

If you would please update your blogrolls.  I really appreciate you all reading my blog!

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Vanilla Sugar

 My lovely sister sent me some wonderful smelling whole Vanilla Beans.  I stored them in an air-tight zip lock bag and the aroma of them still filled the house! I can not walk past the pantry with out smelling their sweet fragrance.  Its absolutely wonderful.  This is my first experience with whole vanilla beans and I can not wait to use them in more of my cooking! She suggested that I use one of them to make some vanilla sugar since I love my coffees and teas sweetened. Thank you sister 🙂

• Ingredients:
• 1 vanilla bean, whole or scraped
• 2 cups granulated sugar

Directions

If vanilla bean is whole, slice down side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar.

Sorry, I’ve been MIA for the past week but things here have been a bit hectic.  I hope you all had a great week. 

Here are some of the eats I’ve been making/eating for the past week.

The cinnamon bread below is from the cookbook The Bread Baker’s apprentice.  I have not gotten a chance to do a review of this book, there is so much information to be absorbed I don’t feel like I have given it the proper amount of time to do a nice review on it.  I highly suggest taking a look at it though because Reinhart does such a wonderful and thorough job of describing the process of bread making.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Spiced Carrot Muffins

I was browsing around Martha’s website and found a recipe for these.  They looked and sounded wonderful.  Since I had a huge 5 pound bag of carrots that I needed to eat and I couldn’t think of a better way to use them up…well..besides a yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting….but with the summer months on their way I thought better of it and sided on making these more healthy muffins. They were definitely the next best thing!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, due to it being much more dense and thick than I had expected it to be.  My final recipe is below.  These were fantastic.  Perfect addition for breakfast or snack.  I’m sure they would be great with honey, cinnamon butter as well 🙂 But as I said above, I’m trying to behave.  🙂

Ingredients

Adapted from Marthastewart.com

Makes 12

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons apple-pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups shredded (about 5 medium) carrots
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Line twelve cups (each 2 1/2 inches wide) of a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, pumpkin-pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, butter, and eggs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and add yogurt mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in carrots.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. (If desired, muffins can be baked immediately in a 375 degrees oven for about 20 minutes.) Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes, then cover tin with plastic wrap, and freeze until ready to bake, up to 3 months.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake muffins (still frozen) until a toothpick inserted in center of one comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chicken Enchiladas

I’m always looking and trying to think of new things to make for dinner.  It seems like, especially on weeknights, we  get into a rut of just fixing whatever we have ‘at the house’.  Basically a hodgepodge of radom things, unless I make a planned meal.  I don’t really like ‘planning’ meals, I know there are some people out there that swear by it not only for convenience but also to save money.  Honestly, I’m just not good at it. period. If I make a plan I’m going to stick to it and darn it most of the time life just gets in the way of my plans!  Then I get frustrated because we are not having spaghetti on spaghetti night and it’s all down hill from there.  So in an effort to enjoy life and maybe live spontaneously(lol) I don’t make strict meal plans.  If I see a recipe I like I save it and make sure to get the ingredients I need and have it when ever we are in the mood for it.  This may not work for everyone but for my lifestyle it seems to work. 

I saw This recipe and thought it would be fun to spice up our monontonous dinner life. 

Ingredients

Adapted from myrecipes.com

• 3  cups  chopped cooked chicken (2 breasts simmered  in 1/2 t cumin, 1/2 garlic powder, dash of hot sauce)
• 2  cups  (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers(divided)  
• 1/2  cup  sour cream
• 1  (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1/3  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 8  (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 can enchilada sauce (divided)
• Toppings: diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, chopped green onions, sliced ripe olives

Preparation

Stir together first 5 ingredients. Spoon chicken mixture evenly down center of each tortilla, and roll up. Pour 1/2 can of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a baking dish.  Arrange tortilla roll up seam side down. Coat tortillas with remaining sauce and cheese

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Stir together 8-ounce container sour cream and salsa. Spoon over hot enchiladas (if desired) ; sprinkle with desired toppings.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Every time I make pizza dough it starts out looking and smelling perfect, then by the time its finished baking its some how super thin and incredibly crunchy.  So I decided to give Matts pizza crust a try. 

This was my final dough and it was so easy to work with. Usually it takes me forever to shape the dough into a circular shaped pizza but this was done in a matter of minutes!  It all came together so well! I was expecting to have some troubles with it being that it is all Whole Wheat (for whatever reasons whole wheat flour and I do not get along all that well).  I cannot emphasize enough just how easy this was. 

 

I started by letting my biga and preferment sit out for 16 hours and then I followed Matts directions exactly.  When the time came for refrigeration I only had enough time to put it in the fridge for about 3 hours (which I probably could have left it sitting on the counter for 6 hours) and then I took it out and let it sit on the counter for another 3 hours.  Shaping, again was the easiest part.  I can’t wait to make this recipe again and get a bit more creative with the toppings.  I seriously need to work on that part.  I grew up on mushroom and olive pizza…Its so hard to venture away from that 🙂 The baby and Jonathan had pepperoni and sausage (yum?) 😉

 

The weather has been phenomenal here!! 🙂 I hope you all are enjoying your weekend and eating some healthy yummy eats.

POM Wonderful Juice

The wonderful people over at POM were kind enough to send me some samples of their Pomwonderful juice!! 🙂 Honestly, I don’t drink very much juice (I mostly drink coffee, tea, WATER).  But I have tried their A.mazing

Pom Teas, which I love dearly!!  So when my juice samples arrived I was so eager to try them! 

 

Pom juice is truly wonderful! It’s a thick, semi-sweet juice that is filled with so many wonderful nutrients its unreal.  Plus, they come in cute bottles 🙂 – As my three-year-old, Ava, would say “just my size.” hee hee!

 

This juice is so chocked full of  antioxidants its unreal!!  🙂 Along with this outstanding Health Benefits.  Its really is astonishing…How could I ever go back to giving my child Ocean Spray?? 

 

If you go on to POM Wonderfuls website you will find a plethora of information as well as some amazing looking recipes.

 

A few I can’t wait to try: Pom, Pear, Gouda Quesadilla , pom, rice and veggie salad

 

Also, How cool are these and This.  Very interesting. 

Thank you so much POM for giving me the opportunity to try your wonderful product!! 

Bar Review: Kind Plus Almond, Walnut and Macadamia

This bar was completely not what I had exptected.  I was so looking forward to a nice chewy bar to break up and put in my Fage and strawberries!  Nope thats not what I got!  This bar is soooooooo hard, your teeth with get a work out-becareful!! I must say though the flavor of the bar was A.mazing!!! I loved the Huge chunks of macadamia as well, they totally made the bar. 

Even though the nutritional specs are great (eerrr..aside from 210 calories..Yikes) and it tasted great, I don’t think I would buy this kind of bar again.  They are expensive (I got this one on sale but originally the are $1.70) and very high in calories.  Not to mention very hard, I had a hard time even breaking it to put in my yogurt.   I was a bit fearfully this little bar was going to cost me hundreds of dollars(in dental work)!

INGREDIENTS:
Mixed Nuts (Peanuts, Almonds, Walnuts, Macadamias, Cashews, Brazil Nuts), Honey, Glucose, Soy Crisps (Soy Protein Isolate, Tapioca Starch, Salt) Soluble Dietary Fiber (Maize), Natural Flavour VITAMINS: Vitamin A Acetate, Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C). D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vit. E)

NUTRITIONAL INFO.:
Calories 210
Fat Calories 130
Total Fat 15g
Saturated Fat 2g
Trans Fat 0g
Monounsaturated 9g
Polyunsaturated 3.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 65mg
Potassium 180mg
Total Carb. 11g
Dietary Fiber 2.5g
Sugars 7g
Protein 10g
Vitamin A 50% • Vitamin C 50% • Calcium 4% • Iron 6%
Vitamin E 50% • Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) 10% • Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 4%
Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 20% • Phosphorus 10% • Magnesium 15% • Zinc 6%

Vegetable Chowder

I made this recipe over the weekend and found it to be quite satisfying.  It’s been so snowy and cold here, something we are not used to!  And I don’t foresee getting used to it anytime soon…brrrr~ I made quite a few changes to the original recipe and I think the end product came out to be everything I was craving.

 

I had never made a “chowder” before.  After adding all the ingredients and finally the potatoes I got a bit anxious it was going to be to thick (the way a chowder should be!!!) and burn up in the pot before my potatoes were cooked all the way through.  Ignorantly, I added about 3-4 Cups of water…making my chowder…well..a brothy soup!! It was grand nonetheless! The flavors blended so well together, there is nothing better than the combination of potatoes and corn.  A perfect vegetarian soup..errr..chowder 🙂

 

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 1 1/3 cups)

Ingredients

·         1  tablespoons  butter

·         1  tablespoon  olive oil

·         1 large onion

·         1/2  cup  finely chopped carrots

·         1/2  cup  finely chopped green bell pepper

·         2  cups  2% milk

·         3  tablespoons  all-purpose flour

·         3  cups  veggie broth

·         2  cups  fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears)

·         2  pounds  cubed peeled Yukon gold or red potato

·         1 1/4  teaspoon  salt

·         1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

·         1/4  cup  finely chopped fresh parsley

 

Preparation

Heat butter and oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, pepper; cook 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently. Combine milk and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Slowly add milk mixture to pan, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, corn, potato, salt, and freshly ground black pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in parsley.

 

Like always, this was 10 times better the following day 🙂

I’ve died and gone Vegan!

For the past several months I have seen these vegan cupcakes all over the blogging world!  They look so good but for some reason I never got around to making them.  Then the lovely  Jenna reminded me just how droolworthy these little babies looked!! So I just had to try them kicks and giggles.  Luckily we have weekend guests coming, so they won’t all be consumed by moi!

Vegan Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Vegan Butter Cream Frosting.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, we use Earth Balance
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.

2. Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

Variation:Cookies ‘n’ Cream Frosting (pictured): Stir into frosting 1/2 cup (about 5 cookies; mash first, then measure) of finely mashed vegan chocolate cream-filled sandwich cookies, like Newman-O’s. Frost cupcakes generously, and top each cupcake with half of a sandwich cookie.

The very best part? You are free to consume as much of the batter as your little heart desires (NO RAW EGG WOO!HOO!)……for the record I only had a few tiny licks of the spoon..honest!! 

Cook Book Review: Donna Hay Modern Classics1

The first thing that attracted me to Donna Hay was, of course, the beautiful photography that drenches her books and magazines.  They are so simple yet so extravagant.   

 

In this cookbook Hay takes all of our classic recipes that we grew up with and gives them an eloquent modern twist, such as soy simmered chicken.  This is such a breath of fresh air for the culinary world.  This book contains an array of very basic how-to’s along with a descriptive glossary, conversions and a list of useful tools.  This is a great book that ever new and seasoned cook should have in their kitchen.  It’s so nice to have one book to refer to when for basic things that not everyone knows how to do, such as making gravy, roasting a chicken, making hummus.  All of these recipes are very traditional recipes and I love how she lays it all out in descriptive wording and step by step pictures. 

I’m very much a soup person and I love new soup recipes, so I was naturally eager to see what this book had to offer…honestly I think that is the one pitfall of Modern Classics.  I just was not that impressed with this section of the book.  yes, it has the basic how-to’s for French onion, minestrone, clam chowder and chicken stock.  For some reason I just felt the chapter was lacking in comparison to the others. 

Recipes I’ve made and love from this book: basic bolognese sauce (the best sauce I have ever made!), hummus, basic mash, basic howto rice, lemon parmesan risotto.

Recipes I’m dying to try: Vegetable tempura, mixed mushroom risotto, smoked ham and cheddar quiche, vegetable pie, laksa.

Interesting recipes: Octopus salad, creamy spring vegetable soup, thai green chicken curry.

I love the quote on the back of the book, it depicts this cookbook perfectly “Commonsense cooking redefined with modern ingredients, outlook and style”.  🙂 I love it.

For more on Donna Hay check out her website here.  She is, on a smaller scale, the Martha Stewart of Australia. If you ever get the chance to check out her Magazines or Cookbooks you will be captivated.