Muesli

I think I just had ice cream for breakfast.  And it was amazing.

Muesli:

1/2-3/4 C oats
1 C plain or vanilla yogurt
3/4-1 C frozen fruit

Place oats in blender or food processor and pulse a few times to break up.  Add remaining ingredients.  Blend until well combined and fruit is pureed.  If using plain yogurt you can consider adding 1 Tbsp sweetener (honey, maple syrup, agave, or good old fashioned sugar).

Makes 2 servings

Cheese Tortellini Soup with Sausage

Super tasty and makes a lot!

Olive oil
12 oz Chicken Sausage, cut into thin slices
1 C chopped onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried Thyme
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cartons (8 C) chicken or vegetable broth
4 C chopped fresh spinach
1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz cheese tortellini
Shredded asiago or parmesan cheese

Heat oil in soup pot.  Add sausage, onion, garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes.  Saute until sausage is cooked (if using uncooked sausage) and onion is tender.  Add broth.  Bring to a boil and stir in tortellini.  Cook according to tortellini package directions.  Add beans and spinach.  Garnish with cheese.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a recipe I tried from here.  I really liked the cookie recipe but was uncertain about the icing (brown sugar icing, tastes faintly of butterscotch).  I only made a half-batch of icing and in the end decided the cookies were better without the icing mentioned on the original recipe.  Click on the above link if you want to try the icing for yourself. 

Cream Together:

1/2 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C butter, softened

Add:
1 C pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Sift together the dry ingredients then add to the pumpkin mixture:
2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt

Add 1 C chocolate chips.

The dough is very wet.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes (cookies will still be soft in the middle).  I cooked half the recipe on parchment paper and half without and had much nicer cookies using the parchment paper.

Enjoy!  And thanks again to The Girl Who Ate Everything for a delicious recipe.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Maple-Apple Topping

Delicious!  The maple-apple topping was incredible.  Way better than normal pancake syrup.  Also, I was nervous about grinding the whole wheat kernels in my blender, but it worked just fine.

Blender Whole Wheat Pancakes:

Blend the following for 5 minutes:
1 C whole wheat kernels
1 C milk
pinch of salt

Add and blend 1 minute:
2 eggs
1/4 C oil

Add and blend until mixed:
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon

Maple-Apple Topping:
2 Tbsp butter
3 C sliced peeled apples
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add apples and saute 8 minutes or until tender.  Stir in maple syrup and cinnamon.  Keep warm until serving.

Hoisin Sauce Stir Fry

Geoff lovingly calls this poison sauce.  But don't let that fool you - he requested the poison sauce when I said I was making stir fry and asked what kind of sauce to do.  Either he likes self-inflicted death or it's a misnomer.

1 pork chop cut into stir fry sized chunks mixed with 1 spoonful hoisin sauce and 1 spoonful cornstarch (equal sized spoonfuls).

Cook pork with some minced garlic and stir fry veggies (we used a bell pepper, an onion, a carrot, and some broccoli).

Sauce:  2 Tbsp hoisin sauce, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Dash of red pepper flakes.

Combine sauce and pour over stir fry for last minute or so of cooking.  Serve with rice.

Enchilada Sauce!

Homemade enchilada sauce!  Doesn't that just sound like fun?  And - I braved the pressure cooker (you know, that terrifying kitchen tool that can "blow up" if used improperly) to cook black beans in only 10 minutes!  Overall, delicious dinner.  Even Geoff liked it, despite it's lack of meat.

2 dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 C water
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt
2 C vegetable broth
2 tsp dried oregano or 2 Tbsp fresh
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/8 tsp ground red pepper

Place chiles in 2 C water and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes.  Remove chiles from water.  Reserve 1 C cooking water.

Saute onion, garlic, and a little salt until golden.  Add broth, oregano, tomato paste, and cumin.  Cook 8 minutes.  Pour into blender.  Add chiles and 1 C reserved cooking water to blender.  Blend till smooth.  Add lime juice and ground red pepper.

I used this with black bean enchiladas: 1 can black beans (or 1 1/2 C cooked beans - about 3/4 C dry beans) some green onions, and 1 C cheese.  Roll them in tortillas.  Bake topped with sauce and a little grated cheese.  Delicious!

A note on tomato paste:  I run into recipes that call for a few Tbsp of tomato paste all the time.  If I don't have an immediate plan on how to use the remaining tomato paste, I freeze the remaining paste in1 Tbsp quantities ice cube trays.  Once it's frozen, pop them into a bag and use as needed.

As for the black beans:  I soaked them the night before (so they soaked for about 16 hrs).  Discard all the soaking liquid and rinse thoroughly.  Cook in pressure cooker with 4 C water and 1 Tbsp olive oil per 1 C beans.  I read that without the olive oil, the beans will have too much foam and you run the risk of clogging the pressure cooker vent and causing a disaster.  So throw your health concerns out the window and use the oil.  Mine were good in 10 minutes.

Grilled Pineapple - Finally

Remember when the baby was the size of a pineapple?  And I promised a delicious grilled pineapple recipe?  Well, we had this pineapple a few weeks ago and it was delicious, I was just a blogger slacker and never got around to posting the recipe.  Forgive me.

1/3 C molasses
1/4 C rum - we used pineapple-orange juice that we had on hand
 1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 Tbsp butter
Pineapple, cut into thick wedges or rings

Combine molasses, rum/juice, lime juice, and spices in a saucepan.  Bring to boil.  Cook until reduced to about 1/3 or 1/2 C.  Remove from heat and whisk in butter.

Place pineapple on grill grated coated with oil.  Grill until nicely marked (3-5 minutes per side).  Brush with glaze during last 2 minutes of grilling.  Remove from grill and brush with any remaining glaze.

Original Recipe from Mastering the Grill by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim