eummm

i have a huge sweet tooth. sometimes i have control of it and sometimes i just let it run wild :)
both of these recipes are very different from one another but they are both relatively straight forward. for mother's day i wanted to use up the rest of the key lime juice i have (no luck) but also wanted to make something healthier than the strawberry coffee cake i had made last week (i'm behind on post, but it was pretty good, but i needed to add more sugar)

this key lime mousse pie is completely raw. the crust is unbelievable and would make a great energy bar. the filling is really creamy and rich and it's nice and tart w/ the key lime. i adapted the recipe from here w/ some tweaks. 

Raw Key Lime Mousse Pie 
(makes one 9" pie)
Crust
1 c quick oats
1 cup shredded coconut*
1/2 c almonds
1/2 c pitted dates
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T key lime juice
Dash of salt
*The recipe calls for unsweetened but I can never find unsweetened so I just omitted the sugar they call for

Mousse
4 large ripe avocados
3/4 c key lime juice
1/3 c honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pulse the crust ingredients in a food processor and blend until dough like. Spray or grease a 9" pie pan and press the dough evenly into and up the sides of the pan. Food process all the mousse ingredients and pour over the crust. Chill in the fridge or freezer depending on your texture preference for at least 3 hours (we chilled in the fridge and it took longer than 3 hours for it to hold.)

these cookies on the other hand are not raw but the recipe is very straight forward and took all of one hour to whip up start to finish and only has 4 ingredients. how easy is that? the coconut macaroons i've ever had have to be the ones at presti's in little italy, cleveland (not completely random, s4 is studying there). but these little suckers are so quick and easy and kind of taste like a denser coconut goodness of angel food cake. i had to take a picture really fast before the family descended onto them.

Coconut Macaroons (from Alton Brown)
4 egg whites
Dash of salt
1/2 c sugar
8 oz sweetened shredded coconut (could probably decrease the sugar amount b/c of the coconut. I also forgot to toast before tossing them into the oven, but that probably would have made these suckers amazing)

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip the eggs and salt until white and begin to stiffen. Add sugar in 3 parts. Continue to whip until the whites are very stiff. Using a rubber spatula fold in the coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto silpat, parchment paper or a greased surface about 1 inch distance from one another. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on the outside (they will be deliciously soft on the inside).

if today is lunar new year, then yesterday was dad's birthday

it was D's bday on saturday, so of course that meant happy cooking and baking. spent almost two hours at wegman's trying to figure out what to cook for his birthday and ended up making a decision on the spot with the help of a handy smartphone (what did people do before smartphones??)

these empanadas are really straight forward and delicious (it might help that there are 16 oz of cream cheese and two sticks of butter in the crust!) used the crust recipe from simply recipes but changed the ingredients of the filling. i made myself a samosa-esque emapanad with a combination of chickpeas, sauteed mushrooms and onions and this new sauce i got from wegman's. chef sahikh's curry sauces are tasty and good for you (low in sodium and minimal ingredients). here's a link to the nutrition info for the jar i got (the hot curry sauce is really not that hot at all). 1/4 cup of the sauce is only 50 calories and 110 mg of sodium. the meat eaters got chorizo, sauteed mushrooms and onions. 

Chorizo empanadas

(made about 25-30, lots of filling leftover)

1 large onion, diced

1 large king oyster mushroom, diced

olive oil

1 T minced garlic

salt and pepper

3 chorizo links, chopped in small pieces

pastry recipe from simply recipes

Follow recipe for pastry dough.

Saute onions and mushrooms in olive oil and add garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the chopped chorizo. Let cool completely.

Chickpea Indian empanadas

1 large onion, diced

1 king oyster mushroom, diced

olive oil

 1 T minced garlic

salt and pepper

1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 c Chef Shaikh's hot curry sauce

Follow the recipe for the pastry dough. Saute onions and mushrooms in olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper. Combine onions, mushrooms, chickpeas and sauce. Follow empanada recipe.

we got lazy and didn't use a 1/4 of the pastry dough from the empanadas, instead we decided to do our usual bake five million desserts and make a apple pie, minus the bottom crust, b/c really, who likes it when the bottom crust gets all soggy? 

roll out the dough and place over chopped peeled apples that are lightly tossed in cinnamon and sugar. the pastry dough with all the butter and cream cheese was absolutely delicious as a pie top.

this is the mother of all desserts- biscoff ice cream cake. and really, it just came down to mixing vanilla ice cream with biscoff. i love that stuff.

i wish you could taste how good this ice cream cake really was

i don't think you can go wrong with biscoff, but this ice cream cake is absolutely delicious, and it's minimal work but so pretty and melt in your mouth yummy.

Biscoff ice cream cake 
(adapted from two peas in a pod, took out the toffee bits to save D's teeth)

Crust:

1 2/3 cups crushed Biscoff cookies

1 T granulated sugar

4 T unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

*I have a feeling the butter amount for the crust can be decreased

Filling:

1.5 quarts vanilla ice cream, softened

1 cup Biscoff spread

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Topping:

Biscoff cookies, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Combine the crushed Biscoff cookies, melted butter, and sugar together and press into the bottom and sides of a 10" springform pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until firm and set. Let cool completely.

2. Melt the chocolate chips. In a large bowl, mix together the ice cream and Biscoff spread. Swirl in the melted chocolate. Spread the ice cream mixture evenly over the cooled cookie crust. Smooth out the top and sprinkle with chopped Biscoff cookies. Freeze until firm, about 6 hours or overnight.

3. Remove the cake from the freezer and let sit for 5 minutes. Loosen the pan sides and run a knife around the inside. Carefully remove the cake to serve. 

i'm not sure if i mentioned the black bean brownies i had in gmfr in vt, but they were pretty good for being made w/ no butter, flour and with black beans. i finally got around to making it for the family, and i don't know how it happened but this turned out soooo much moister and tastier than i remember it from vt. it's like fudge brownie. maybe it's the banana. i will have to experiment, how terrible :D 

Black bean brownies (9x9)

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

splash of vanilla extract
1/4 c cocoa powder

~3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 to 1/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2-2 bananas, sliced (depends how thick this is sliced)

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9x9 pan with canola oil and line w/ sliced banana. Puree all ingredients except the chocolate chips. Mix in the chocolate chips and pour over the bananas. Bake for about 30 minutes or until set.

happy year of the snake!

pumpkin goodness

a mini pie

if you don't have a pumpkin pie recipe for thanksgiving yet and want something a little different this year- go for this (i may sing a different tune when i try out a paula chiffon pumpkin recipe, but that's not important right now).

wasn't really feeling in the thanksgiving mood (which is a clear sign of something very wrong!) but after my run this morning i was feeling so much better (now i know, those 5 am runs are completely necessary). but anyway, since i had today off from work and was feeling rejuvenated, baking was in order! this is a recipe merging a much healthier recipe with a not as healthy one, and together it's yummy goodness, totally ready for t-day!

the crust inspiration comes from this fitness blog which i think i actually found from some daily newsletter i get in my inbox. 

regular sized muffin cup

the filling comes from my friday-at-work-and-only-30-minutes-left to do perusal. from foodnetwork.

i had some leftover filling (i made less "crust") and so popped the rest in the microwave for 3 minutes and had instant pumpkin pie filling (my favorite part). not sure what to call this- but i'm going with oat & date pecan maple pumpkin mini pie with maple whipped cream. whoo, that's too long. any suggestions?

Oat, date & Pecan crust Maple Pumpkin Mini Pie w/ Maple Whipped Cream

Makes 12 mini, and 8 muffin cup sized pies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups instant oats

8 large dates, pitted (make sure you take out the seeds, or you'll have my problem and wonder why your food processor sounds like it's dying and then have to dig and search for each partially broken seed)

pinch of salt

~ 1/4 c pecans

1/4 c water

1 c pumpkin puree

1 T all purpose flour

1 T sugar in the raw

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 c heavy cream

1/4 c maple syrup, grade B

1 egg, beaten

Maple whipped cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 c grade B maple syrup (or to taste)

dash of cinnamon

Optional

Top with a toasted pecan

Line muffin pans with paper wrappers. Process the oats, dates salt and pecans. Slowly add in the water until the mixture begins to combine (but not wet sticky!). Form into balls and press into the muffin tins.

For the pumpkin filling, combine all the ingredients except the egg. Taste, add more maple syrup or spices as desired, and then add in the egg. Spoon into the muffin tins and bake at 400 for 15 min (for the little ones) and about 25 min for the larger ones. Place a pan filled with some water in the oven (this way the pies won't crack on top and stay nice and moist).

For the whipped cream, beat the whipping cream on high speed until the mixture thickens. Add the maple syrup and continue to beat until the cream holds firm peaks. Dollop on top of the pies and sprinkle with cinnamon. Top with toasted pecan. 

happy baking!

slow starts

juggling school and three jobs hasn't left much room for those slow mornings that i love- reading the free Sun that comes (confession: i always skim through the coupon booklets knowing it's not worth it but wanting to buy those 3 cans of whatever to save 45 cents just because i can), sitting down and eating real food, and enjoying a hot cup of tea. but occasionally, a morning comes around where it all comes together.

 it's amazing how my diet and running suffers when my schedule is such chaos but hopefully i'll get into the swing of things and be able to have more of these kinds of mornings, at least for the weekends. even on 4 hours of sleep i had enough energy to go on a nice long run this morning and then put together a breakfast (it helps to have a late starting work day). Two slices of whole wheat toast, 1 egg (runny! i love dipping toasted bread into runny egg yolk), and a nice handful of arugula salad with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. the apple will most likely be a snack later in the morning maybe before work or on the way home from work.

i'm bundled up in my house in multiple layers and drinking some black tea with a splash of skim milk. it feels good to be healthy after days of interesting and late night food choices (i.e. my love affiar with peanut butter and spinach and artichoke dip at 11 at night on thursday come to mind).

i even packed a colorful lunch (persimmon, sweet potato and a banana). i think i'm missing something so i will probably throw in some almonds and walnuts or a Kashi bar, but it's challenging thinking of foods that are easy to eat in a couple bites while i'm working behind the desk and tourists come in.

and for everyone out there, it's 12 days until my favorite holiday! i've got to start researching foods for this year early and i'll try to post the links as i find them. here's some delicious looking pie recipes. anyone ever tried an olallieberry pie?