ABC Muffins

ABC Muffins.  As in Apple Banana Craisin muffins, not Already Been Chewed muffins.  That's right you generation texters, you have no idea what ABC stands for.  You also have no idea that we from the 80's were so far ahead of our time.  We were totally using awesome acronyms long before OMG and LOL.  We always had to make sure our gum wasn't ABC gum.

Meh, who am I kidding... no one under the age of (Hey Sissy, how old are you again?) 29 reads my blog!

I have made ABC muffins twice now, and both times they were awesome.  The first batch was ABC - apricot banana craisin, and the second batch was technically PBC - peach banana carrot.  Because of the carrot, PBC is the recipe and pictures I've posted here on my blog.

Also, it is important to note that these are muffins.  They are flavorful and delicious, but not very sweet.  They are not bald cupcakes.   


Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/3 cup walnut oil 

1 egg 

2 bananas, mashed 
1 peach chopped  (1 apple or about 5 apricots)

1 cup shredded carrot  (1/2 cup craisins)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.  In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.  Add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Pour batter 2/3 full into muffin cups (yields 12ish... 15 the first time and 13 the second).  Bake about 20 minutes, until browned.

Look how pretty all the yummy, healthy ingredients are!  

The finished product is also very pretty. 

As far as the hidden veggie goes, the carrots were shredded, so they were visible.  A puree for veggies would be better for completely hiding them.  My 1 1/2 year old gobbles them up, but he also eats only the veggies out of our macaroni and cheese, so he might not be the best gauge...  wait, why am I hiding the veggies?       


The Verdict:

"Yum."


The best thing about this recipe is the variations are endless.  I could use vegetable puree in place of the banana, or any shredded or chopped fruit or veggie that is in season.  Any dried fruit would be great...  NUTS!  I could add nuts!  Cashew starts with C!  Well, these are going to become a staple in our house, I can already tell.

Not Betty Crocker's Hamburger Helper

So there I was, standing at the pantry thinking "I wish I was one of those people who bought hamburger helper" because I was too lazy to think of anything to make, much less cook it.

Not too lazy to look online to see if I could make homemade hamburger helper though!

I found this site and proceeded to make one of the many options for homemade hamburger helper.  The great thing about hamburger helper, even from a box, is that it is all mixed together which makes it a great candidate for hidden vegetables.

I choose the chili cheese hamburger helper recipe and added pureed carrots.  I've had success with carrots in spicy food before, it's a good sweet and spicy flavor.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 cup hot water
2 cups milk
1 cup carrot puree (or I'd say any puree that is not green)
1 1/2 cups macaroni or whatever fun noodles you have
1 tablespoon corn starch
3/4 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cup shredded cheese

(note:  if you go to the site, you might notice I changed the spices a little bit)

Brown ground beef, drain fat.  Add all other ingredients except cheese.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low for 12 minutes or until noodles are tender.  Add cheese for the last few minutes of simmering.  When cheese is melted and noodles are done, let stand uncovered for a few minutes to thicken.

Oh WAIT!  I forgot to tell you the best part!  Here it is:  my sister bought me one of these for my birthday:

So awesome!  It is so easy to puree the veggies, and the clean up is SO much easier than my blender.  See, here are the carrots and water in the pot they boiled in:

Then I blend them in the same pot:       

TA DA!  So easy.

Anyway, back to the homemade hamburger helper...  here is a picture:

We liked it, and the veggies were well hidden.  No one would guess they were there.  We had it with salad, and even our 18 month old ate some.  :)

The verdict:

"I wouldn't know there were veggies if I hadn't seen you take a picture of it." 

Sigh, he is on to me. 

Good thing Gordon Ramsay wasn't here... Scallops!

Imagine this, with scallops, and that is my experience with them.  Well, not MY experience... I watched season 8 of Hell's Kitchen in support of one of my high school classmates who was on the show.   And for the record, she should have won... but anyway, Gordon Ramsay smashed quite a few raw scallops that season, so I was both excited and intimated as I purchased them at the store.  I actually thought "Oooh, scallops!  I bet I could really piss Ramsay off!" 

I have never even eaten scallops before, but this whole "eat fish once a week" resolution is broadening my horizons!

It's strange to try cook something I have not eaten before... what was I thinking?!?  What is a scallop, anyway?  How do I know if it's done?  How do I know if it tastes right?  What if Ramsay shows up and throws me out of the kitchen?  

Turns out that scallops are a shellfish like clams or oysters, but get this, they move through the water by opening and closing their shell.  That is why they are so much larger than clams or oysters, because they are so much stronger.  There are bay scallops which are small, and sea scallops which are large.  The ones I bought must be sea scallops?    

I watched this tutorial "How to cook perfect scallops with Gordon Ramsay" which is really Ramsay channeling Bob Ross and impossible to follow at his speed.  (Also, if you watch the video, there is a part 2.)

But I picked up what I could, and I also read a few other blogs and pages about scallops to fill in where Ramsay sped on through.  Here are some things I picked up:

-there is a "foot" that needs to be pulled off
-scallops must be cooked quickly
-and eaten right away
-overcooked scallops are rubbery
-there should be a nice golden "crust"  

So, I followed Ramsay's tutorial and here is what I did:

1. Rinse the scallops and pat them dry, unless they are dry-packed, then no rinsing needed.  I rinsed mine.
2. Heat up a pan with some kind of oil or oil/butter combination until almost smoking (I used olive oil, mine was smoking, but no smoke alarm I swear)
3. Season the scallops with salt and pepper, only salt and pepper
4. Set the scallops in pan starting at 12:00 and working around the clock (DO NOT MOVE THEM)
5. Cook for 2 minutes (I only timed the 12:00 scallop and the others just followed along)
6. Flip them and cook 1 min  (Oh crap!  I just remembered that I forget to squirt some lemon juice on them at this point!  AHHHH, SMASH!)
7. Remove scallops - it is easy to overcook scallops 

Based on what I read, they are sort of translucent before they are cooked, and white afterward.  (Protein is always like this, for example, with eggs we can really see the change.) 

SO... here are the pictures:
 

Not too bad, eh?

We ate them and they tasted like fish.  They were cooked all the way through, and none were rubbery, so I'd say I did alright.  :) 

The Verdict:

"We should have these again!"

We actually did really like them, and will definitely have them again.  I will probably look up some other recipes because it sounds like they are also good with a cream or butter sauce.  Hmm... cream sauce sounds like a chance for hidden veggies!  We'll see...

The thing I am not telling you is... that Ramsay would have thrown me out of the kitchen, maybe not for my scallops, but definitely for the rice.  I ruined the RICE?!  Who does that?!  Well, me... completely ruined it. Too salty, too crunchy, yucky, nasty AAHHHH SMASH!!!   Too focused on the scallops I guess!   ;)


ps.  I have made deviled eggs with hidden cauliflower twice since my post, both times with great success!

Even better Chocolate chip cookies

Now that I have been eating again (if you just started reading, no I didn't have an eating disorder... just the first trimester of pregnancy) in order to feel good all day, I have to eat 3 cookies a day.  I can hear your thoughts and see the eyes roll, but I can't explain it.... my stomach doesn't feel very good, I eat a cookie, and I feel better!  My worst days since eating again have been when I haven't had any cookies.


Well, if you know me, this is an unacceptable amount of junk food, even if I am pregnant!  So I decided that if I am going to eat this many cookies, I better take some measures to make "better" cookies.


I needed to make them better for me in more than one area:  avocados for butter, whole wheat flour for white, and maple syrup for white sugar.  I replaced the "white" food in amounts which I thought wouldn't totally ruin the cookies.

I also threw in some whole oats, and would have also added nuts if we had any.

So these cookies have several things going for them.... they don't have as much of the "bad" ingredients, and they do have additional "good" ingredients.  (I hate labeling any food "bad," even butter... everything has it's place.  I just couldn't think of better wording...)

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 avocado
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup (100% pure here people, not flavored sugar water)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Bag o' favorite chocolate chips

You know the drill:
1.  Combine all dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt) and set aside. 
2.  Cream butter, avocado, and sugars (don't add the maple syrup yet)
3.  Add eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition
4.  Add maple syrup and vanilla beat well
5.  Mix in flour 1 cup at a time
6.  Add chocolate chips and oats

For pan style cookies (my Mom always makes them this way), spread in greased 15x10 inch jelly roll pan, bake 350 degrees, 20-25 minutes.

See?

I meant to take a picture before I ate a cookie, but, well, I needed a cookie and I needed it RIGHT THEN.

I have tried to label all cookies as "pregnancy food" and make them off limits to my research team, but *sigh* for the purpose of this blog I had to let him have one...  :)

The Verdict:

"These are delicious."  (He sounded shocked, and I tried not to let that hurt my feelings.:))  "They are moist and sweet."


They are sort of fluffy for cookies.  I would be curious to see how they turned out as individual cookies, but I like them the best this way.  Plus, I am lazy.   This way I only have to bake one batch in one pan once.

These really are good, I don't think anyone would guess they have been altered to be healthier than the average cookie.  And they have now be taste tested by a few other randomly chosen research team members who randomly showed up for dinner, who said they were "too good."

Too good!  Well, that is about as good as it can get when hidden veggies are concerned!

Deviled Eggs

There is nothing quite like deviled eggs, is there?

You see them on the plate at the party, and its like they are drawing you in... you can't resist them and their creamy delicious center...

So what is my plan?  Oh, you know what it is.  Here are your options:
a.  eat the whole plate
b.  ruin them with hidden veggies
c.  make them delicious with hidden veggies?
d.  all of the above

My deviled egg recipe was given to me from my brother-in-law, Smash.  (Actually, I secretly wrote it down as he was making them, same thing, right?)  Smash is my research team's brother, and he is my idol in the kitchen.  Sometimes when he is making something, I follow him around, or sit and watch in awe as he makes delicious things come together effortlessly...  I hope he doesn't read this, he might think I have a crush on him, and that would just be weird.

Back to the eggs!

So I decided I'd make a batch and divide it into three parts: one would stay original, one would get cauliflower puree, and the third would get carrot puree.  I thought it would be hilarious to not tell my research team anything and just see what he thought, but he is on to me.  He knew there was hidden veggies as soon as I told him there were three different recipes.  La-ame!  Oh well, it was still fun to eat a bunch of deviled eggs!

Here is the recipe:

I call these Magic Deviled Eggs, because I don't have amounts of the ingredients because Smash didn't measure anything, he just mixed it right in.  So they are magic because... it doesn't matter how much of anything, it always turns out great!  (Yeah, right.  Smash is just magic, I am only pretending.)

So I started with 6 whole eggs, which would end up as 12 halves, 4 of each flavor.

I halved the boiled eggs, mashed all the yolks together and added:

Miracle Whip
Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Pickle relish
Dill
Fresh green onion (or onion powder)
Horseradish
Hot sauce

Note:  add more of what you like, and don't skimp on any of the flavors!  (Is skimp a word?)

Then I stirred it all together and divided it in three parts.

I added 1 tablespoon of cauliflower puree to one batch and 1 tablespoon carrot puree to another batch.

I used plastic baggies to "pipe" the yolk mixture back into the eggs, and sprinkled them with paprika:

Yum!!  Looking at the pictures makes me happy.  :)  It is hard to see the difference in the pictures, but in the above picture the egg on the right is the original recipe, the middle has cauliflower, and the egg on the right has carrot.  The carrot egg is more orange, although it is hard to see in the pictures.

This plate is the same order as the above picture (if I make the picture bigger, does that help?).

But this picture is reversed:  carrot on the left, cauliflower in the middle, and original on the right.  Do you see the difference yet? 


The Verdict:

"I could not distinguish between the original and the cauliflower egg.  The carrot puree did have a different flavor.  The bottom line is, cauliflower hides really well."

This was a really fun experiment!

All the eggs were good, and even I couldn't taste the cauliflower.  The carrot did change the flavor, but it would probably not be recognizable without knowing what it was.  Also if you make your deviled eggs on the spicier side, carrot would be easier to hide because the flavor would cover it better and the carrot color would make the eggs look spicier.

I'd say this was a huge success!  So... I used 1 tbs puree for 2 whole eggs, which comes to about 1/3 cup of puree for 12 whole eggs.  However, I am confident enough in the yolks hiding the veggies that I would probably use 1/2 cup puree for 12 whole eggs (or more!  I haven't ruined them yet!).  


Well, now that there are hidden veggies in the deviled eggs, I choose: 

a.  Eat the whole plate!


Thanks for the recipe Smash!!

Fish Dish Numero Uno

Here it is, my first fish dish post!

We have had this recipe several times already and it is SO good that I am going to create a 'done fish dish' tab above just so I have somewhere official to put this. 

My brother-in-law and his wife turned us on to this salmon recipe, they said it was the best, and they were right.  It hasn't failed us yet, and we usually manage to screw something up!  (To give you an idea how good it is, in the four weeks that we have had fish once a week, three of the weeks were this recipe.)

We buy the wild salmon from the fish counter at the grocery store which allows us to pick exactly the amount we need for no leftovers, and the wild salmon is as fresh as we're going to get here in Colorado.

Salmon marinade:

(note:  According to the recipe this is for 4 six ounce fillets, but my brother-in-law doubles the recipe when he makes 4 fillets.  I have been making this exact recipe for the 1/2 lb of salmon we get.)

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Whisk all ingredients together.  Put salmon into plastic bag, pour marinade over it, seal and refrigerate for one hour.  (We have done less time and it still turned out great.)

At this point I hand the bag and a cold beer to my research team (he says he can't grill without a beer...) who expertly and magically prepares the salmon on the grill.  If you need instructions on this part, here is the link to the recipe.  :)

Well now that I am publishing my fish dish of the week, I feel a little more motivated to make some different dishes... which is kind of scary.  Wish me luck!!

Next time, more hidden veggies!

Potato Salad

I'm baaaaack!  Here are my excuses for not posting since December....

First it was the holiday season.  The holidays are not a time for hidden veggies, they are a time for pigging out on delicious food made with butter.  There has to be exceptions, and what better time than the holidays...am I right?

Then in January we found out we were expecting our second baby!  This was promptly followed by me puking my guts out for months and therefore not cooking, eating, or spending any time anywhere that smelled remotely like food.  (My poor research team was left fending for himself and our son...  thankfully, they survived.)

Now it's the end of April and I am so happy to be back in the kitchen... this weekend I made my mom's chocolate chip cookies, then I made her coffee cake, oooh, I also made fresh salsa, we marinaded and grilled chicken one night, then red snapper the next night... it has been so good to EAT again!!    So, I'm back.

I am going to add something to my hidden veggie blog.  This year, before the puking, I made a New Year's resolution to have fish for dinner once a week.  Since my research team and I don't eat much fish usually, every week will be an experiment.  So along with new and improved hidden vegetable recipes, I will post our most successful (or maybe the biggest disaster...) fish recipes.  Also, if anyone has any great family favorite fish, or any seafood dinners, I'd love to hear them!!

So onto my hidden veggie recipe of the week....  Potato Salad!

Here in Grand Junction it has started to feel like summer, and nothing says summer like grilling burgers and a good potato salad.  So I googled "best potato salad" and went about butchering the recipe.  :)  Here is the original recipe if you are interested. 

I basically halved the recipe and added my own little something.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs red potatoes
1/4 small yellow onion, chopped
1 cup red pepper, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 cup cauliflower puree  (I should note that I made this puree with milk instead of water so that it would be creamier)
1/2 cup miracle whip
3 tbs cup mustard
2 tbs sweet pickle relish
bunch green onions
salt and pepper
garnish with paprika and green onions

Chop potatoes, boil until soft, cool.  Mix all ingredients together, chill until meal time.

Here are some photos:

(Yes the pineapple on my mini burger is larger than the hamburger... what can I say.)

The verdict:

"Good enough to take to a potluck."


It wasn't as creamy as potato salad made with a gallon of mayo, it had a lighter feel to it, which I liked.  I felt like it was a little bland, so since we have left overs I may add a little something more to it tonight and see the difference tomorrow.

On the plus side, there was no sign of the cauliflower at all, so this was a successful hidden veggie!

**I sprinkled dill and Worcestershire sauce and stirred them in, it sat overnight.  The new verdict?  It was better, but maybe just because all the flavors meshed better overnight?  I think this recipe is pretty good, but I am going to experiment with it at least one more time before posting under in the 'done' recipe tag.**