Desserts!

Well, my friends, I am not allowed to upload any more pictures.  Quel horreur, mes amis!  So, I think until I have the time+energy to mess around with that stuff, I'll be linking you to my Tumblr (which you should visit anyway ;) ) for my pictures, and posting the recipes here.
Oh, gosh, I'm writing this at 4:41 in the morning.  I will be leaving at 7 for my traditional Thanksgiving Day race (I'm so excited), and I guess I was just too anxious to sleep... (?)  So, thus, I am typing this, in order to stall on doing my french homework...

I give you desserts!

Up first is CCK's crustless pumpkin pie, which I gave a crust, and topped with some raw whipped cream.  I made two servings, and divided that recipe into two ramkins.  For the crust I mixed together 3 tbsp oatmeal, 1 tbsp whole wheat flour, and 1 tbsp applesauce, and baked it for about 12 minutes at 350, until firm.  Then I added the pie (doubling pretty much all of the seasonings), and using baking blend stevia. 

These babies were a chocolateglobofgoodness :D  I used PB2, and sugar free maple syrup for the agave, but no changes other than that.  Woooowww...

I wasn't too big on the texture of these blondies, but it may have just been my flour.  However, the flavour was excellent.  I used applesauce for the oil, and skipped the frosting since it doesn't freeze too well.

WHOLLYFREAKINGBANANAS This cake was excellent.  Seriously.  Good.  Gooooood.  I essentially fifthed the recipe, so I used 2 dates, 1/5 banana, and 3 tbsp of pretty much everything else.  The only actual changed were to use applesauce for the oil, and instant coffee powder + water for the coffee.  Topped with more of the raw whipped cream from above.

Lunch Wrap + Blueberry Muffins

Double whammy today! 
A) I'm proud of myself for starting to be braver about eating raw foods - like onion.  I used to be so scared to eat raw foods like onion and cabbage, because I thought it would mess up my stomach (don't ask).  However, my courage is slowly returning.  Thus, I put raw onion in my lunch wraps, and am loving it!
B) Have been searching for frozen blueberries for a llllllooooong time, and finally found them!  I don't like fresh blueberries (I know, don't hate), but decided to try frozen.  Voila, I like 'em!

And with all of that...

Muffins are from HHL, changes are whole wheat flour, baking blend stevia in place of sugar, omitted orange juice and oil, gingerbread cookie tea, and no almonds.  24 mini muffins at 35 calories per muffin.
The wrap is adapted loosely from VegBurgers.  It consists of:

• avocado
• raw red onion slivers
• silken tofu blended with lemon and cilantro,
• iceburg lettuce
• smoky cashew-pesto cheese, using this pesto recipe (omitting the oil, using water instead, and omitting the miso), and adding sun dried tomatoes to it
• tofu, pressed, cooked on the panini press after being smothered in bbq sauce (omitting the oil, omitting the bourbon and adding vegan worchestire sauce and rum extract)

And I suppose that I should go ahead and add in here that I made a pizza with the bbq sauce:
Pizza crust topped with bbq sauce, paninied mushrooms and red bell pepper, arugula, and the cheese from above.

One Good Orange Recipe... and One Not So Good

It's most certainly season for most of the orange foods out there.  This post I will focus on two of the veggies- sweet potatoes, and pumkins.  Although, I do have to say, oranges are beginning to tastes really good, too!  Currently I really can't be pressed to think of any other orange foods, but whatever.  Carrots!  There, thought of one. 

Life is getting really hectic.  I nearly broke my record of not having opened a soup can for over a year now because we have been running so utterly dry on leftovers.  Which is quite a pitty, and I have no clue whawt I will be doing in this next week as far as food goes.  It's a darn hard life!  Why can't I just skip english or something and go home and cook instead?  Much better use of time than reading AE Poe.  Seriously.  I really, really hate Poe right now.  It's Halloween time, so I think my English teacher is trying to get us into the mood for that.  Which is great and all, but not when I just want to go to sleep, and I am left wading through lakes of words that I can't understand half of.

Anyway, now that I am done ranting, on to those lovely sweet potatoes. Oh, just by the way, sweet potatoes have more fiber that white.  I thought that was rather interesting.  The potatoes are really easy to make, and require minimal hands-on time.  And they are rather good too- a nice thing to whip up, and a reaccuring theme in my lunches this week.  Make sure to use fresh sage, because that makes all the difference in the dish.

And the pumpkin salad was rather interesting, to say the least.  If you like pumpkin, than I think this is an excellent dish that would catch your heart instantly.  If not, like I found out was true for me, then I will keep experimenting with different veggies.  It's a really great base, I just didn't like the pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Salad Recipe

Adapted from 101 Vegetarian Cookbooks
Makes 6-8 servings

2 pie pumpkins

fine grain sea salt

15 shallots, peeled

1 ½ cups wild rice

1/4 cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup mirin

2 tbsp miso paste

2 tbsp rice vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 cm lengths

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the pumpkins into quarters-ish and put them on a baking sheet. On another baking sheet put the shallots and carrots. Roast both for about 45 minutes, until tender.

For the rice, boil 1 ½ cups water. Add the rice, and simmer for about 45 minutes, until all the water is gone.

For the dressing, combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.
When the veggies are done roasting, allow pumpkin to cool, cut off the peel, chop, and add to dressing with the shallots, carrots, and rice. Mix well.

Ricotta Cheese Sweet Potatoes
Serves 6

Adapted from All Recipes

3 medium sweet potatoes
2 shallots, finely chopped
1/2 cup fat-free ricotta cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

Wash the potatoes, poke holes in them, and microwave until tender. Allow to cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, sauté the shallots until tender, about 5 minutes. Combine with remaining ingredients. When the potatoes are cool, cut open and remove pulp, taking care not to break the skins. Mash the pulp with the ricotta mixture, and refill the potatoes. Heat through either in the oven or microwave.

Pumkin Seeds!

 

This is just a quick little recipe that I have made several times with the seeds from pumpkins.  Basically, all you do is chuck the seeds in a bowl with enough cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg to coat, and mix it all together.  Then roast the seeds in the oven for about half an hour at 325, until they are slightly browned.  Quite delicious.

And a word on the seeds- wash the stringy pumpkin bits off immediatly after you finish carving up the pumpkin.  That way it's a lot easier to get the strings off, and they have not dried on the seeds.  The clean seeds can wait in a container in the fridge for quite a while- I know atleast a day or two.

More Fall Recipes!

I feel like I have been doing so much cooking today.  They have all been really small and quick dishes, but it's been quite a creating-leftovers sort of day.  I'm kind of stocking up for next week... Which is going to be, I think, over the top crazy.  Which really stinks.  I want Thanksgiving holiday to be here so bad- I know both M and I are tired of the hectic lives we have.  But ever onward we shall go...

In the meantime, I whipped out another two delish things for dinner tonight.  Pumpkin dumplings, and tomato soup.  They were rather interesting, and, although they were nothing to rant and rave about, I was pleased with the day's results.

The soup is just tomato soup.  Nothing super special, unless you count the basil, but sometimes a person just really wants tomato soup.  It's a comfort food, I think.  I know M was especially grateful for the soup, as she has been rather sleep deprived.  And I just like tomato soup.  So there.

The dumplings were interesting, to say the least.  I think the filling took all of 3 minutes to mix together, and filling them took about half an hour.  I was so pleased with the results too, because I managed to use up all of our wonton wrappers and all the filling.  That never happens.  And so in the oven these went, where they developed a nice crispy shell.  I'm still trying to come up with a good sauce, but as of right now I think the best option would be apricot preserves watered down with something.  Milk, maybe?  Soy sauce?  Anyway, the pumpkin flavour was different from what M and I normally eat, and was a nice change of pace.  Although, I do have to say I didn't do all that neat of a job filling them, because the wrappers were being very breakable.

Ricotta-Pumpkin Dumplings

Adapted from Taste of Home

Makes about 40

15 oz can pureed pumpkin

1 cup skim ricotta cheese

Salt, to taste
40 wonton wrappers

Mix together the pumpking, cheese, and salt in a small bowl.  Spoon about 1/2 tbsp in a wrapper, wet the edges of the wrapper, and seal.  Place on a plate.  Repeat with remaining filling.  Freeze until frozen through, or you are ready to use.

For baking: Preheat the oven to 375.  Coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray, and place dumplings on sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned, crispy, and heated through.  Serve with dipping sauce.

Tomato Basil Soup

Serves 6

Adapted from Cooking Light

2 cups roughly chopped onion

2 cups roughly chopped fennel or leek

3-4 cloves garlic, roughly minced
4 cups vegetable broth (or 4 cups water and bullion cubes)
1 28 oz can tomatoes, any form (the original says diced, but whatever you have on hand works)
½ tsp thyme
2 tbsp fresh basil, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a dutch oven over medium high heat. Sauté the onion for 3 minutes, and then add the leek or fennel and sauté for 3 more minutes. Add the garlic, and after two more minutes add the remaining ingredients except salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 35 minutes.

Remove from heat and blend with either a blender or immersion blender (how I would love one of these). Return the soup to the pot if necessary, and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.