In the Quest for Easily-Baked Goods

Today is not a very nice day. It is dark, dreary, windy, rainy, and cold (well, colder than I'd like it to be). As if nature hadn't ruined this day enough, it decided to start throwing a temper tantrum at about 3am that was so loud it shook the house and woke me up with some seriously spooky sounds.

And so as a result of all this craziness I decided to do one thing I know that almost always makes me feel better: bake something. It has been far too long. Since I was feeling extra tired I knew it would have to be a recipe requiring minimal effort on my part. I found the perfect one thanks to my Twitter friend Russel van Kraayenberg (@rvank) of the wonderful dessert blog Chasing Delicious.

The Classics: Chocolate Chip Cookies | Chasing Delicious

I followed that recipe to a T and the result was some cookies that were pretty delicious, but not perfect, on account of a few mistakes I made:

- I used a coarser grain of salt, which means that the salty taste of the batter is pretty obvious and overpowering and lingers in your mouth after swallowing the yummy cookie you just ate. Not good. Next time in a recipe like this I'll use my salt grinder as it puts out some pretty powdery salt. Not sure what I was thinking there. Was probably not thinking.

- I preheated my oven as I was starting the recipe, when I should have done it closer to the end. My butter was too hard and so I wanted to get some heat into the ceramic mixing bowl I was using to help facilitate the softening and mixing or the butter and sugar. Result: oven was closer to 425C than 375C and the edges of my cookies were already a really dark brown 3 minutes into the baking time. Woops. They ended up only staying in there about 7 minutes for the first batch, 9 minutes for the second after letting the oven cool off a bit. Both batches were pretty dark, but thankfully not burnt.

- Not enough chocolate. I only had about 1/8 cup of chocolate chips, and about 2.5 squares of dark chocolate left over from one of those large thin slabs of 70% cocoa bars. Luckily this was a pretty small batch of cookies, so every cookie has at least a few chunks of chocolate, but... still not enough for my liking. But hey, that's impromptu baking for you.

And so a last-minute baking adventure was pretty much a success. These cookies should last me a little while... like until tomorrow. Happy baking!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Last week, while throwing yet another couple of browned bananas into my freezer, I noticed that the pile of hardened torpedoes was about to take over my entire freezer. I resolved to finally do something with these poor neglected fruits that I had been hoarding. And so, to Google I went, to search for yet another banana muffin recipe. I had been unsatisfied with my previous staple recipes, and wanted something new and different. I also had some chocolate chips that I wanted to use, because, well... chocolate is great.

And so I stumbled upon this recipe. It had more ingredients than I was used to, and so I was slightly skeptical of it (simple = easy = hard to screw up). But then I read the reviews. All were five stars. All were raving. The words "bakery quality" hit my retinas and I was instantly convinced. A few slight tweaks later, and I was the proud new owner of a batch of the most delicious muffins I've ever baked. Yes, they're that good.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large bananas, thawed and mashed (squished with a fork works too)

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and wheat germ in a large bowl. Set aside. Mash the bananas in another bowl, and then add the rest of the wet ingredients, including the brown sugar with the wet ingredients (I even moved it down in the list so you wouldn't be tricked into thinking it goes into the dry bowl. Helpful hint!). Make sure it's all well-mixed, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until all ingredients are ALMOST incorporated, then fold in the chocolate chips. It's really easy to over-mix muffin batter, and if you do it, you end up with rubber bouncy balls instead of muffins. Over-mixing activates the gluten in the flour, which makes it tough and gummy. So don't over-mix! Combine the ingredients with the fewest amount of strokes possible.

Scoop your muffin batter using a 1/4 cup measuring cup into paper liners or a greased muffin pan. If using silicone baking cups, you'll want to coat the insides with a bit of flour. Just put some on your fingers and run them around the sides and the bottoms. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If your muffins are bigger, you'll have to bake them for a bit longer. Just watch they don't get too brown on the outside. If you're using silicone baking cups, you'll want to take them out of the cups immediately after taking your muffins out, otherwise the bottoms will continue to bake even when they're sitting on the counter and "cooling." I learned this the hard way, after multiple batches of muffins came out perfect except for the bottoms, which were almost black and really tough. I realized that the baking cups stayed extremely hot for a while after baking, and presto! Now my muffins are perfect all the way through. Don't do what I did. Remove them toute-suite. I use a pair of chopsticks and an oven mitt, because those puppies are seriously steaming straight out of the oven! Remove with caution.

And there you have it. Lovely muffins that are delicious AND nutritious! I was surprised at how moist they were, and yet the texture was still firm and not too crumbly. I think it was the yogurt. What a lovely secret ingredient! They also weren't too cake-like, which I hate. If I want something sweet, I'll make a cupcake. I like my muffins to be muffins. I like to think that the wheat germ added a bit more nutrition and fiber, so let's just pretend that these are a health food. (Note: I said pretend, so don't sue me like this lady sued Nutella over its so-called "health-food" claims.) Health food with chocolate in it? I'll take it!

B. <3

Easy, yummy Tomato Sauce with Beef.

I was struggling to come up with a title for this recipe, and so I ask for your forgiveness. It's quite... un-inspired. But really, what else can I say about this dish? There are tomatoes. There is some beef. And some other spices. And voila! A beefy, tomato-y sauce. It's adapted from this recipe from Real Simple. I leave out the fresh mozzarella because I found it didn't really need it, and I don't always have it around. Also it doesn't really add any flavour. Parmesan is much more flavourful and not so bad with the sodium if you don't dump it on. Just use a little. Like, less than a tablespoon's worth. There's enough flavour here already that you don't really need any at all. But you can add some if you really feel it's necessary. You won't die without it, I promise.

I also add some canned/jarred pasta sauce to this recipe, because otherwise it isn't really saucy enough for me. And so, this recipe is a wonderful mix of home-made and pre-made. I hate to take things out of cans or jars, heat them up, and just eat them as is. This might be because we didn't really do this at my house growing up. I was fortunate enough to have a mom that valued eating fresh food, and so hardly anything came out of a can--even our holiday cranberry sauce was made on the stove, a simple mixture of sugar, water and fresh cranberries boiled down into a mush. This is probably why I prefer to add things to pre-made sauces and make it my own. Or you could see it as using these convenience items as helpful aides in the kitchen, since I don't have time to be simmering a pot of home-made sauce for hours. ANYWAYS.

I really love this recipe. I've been meaning to write a post about it for quite some time. I've made it at least four times in this past month alone, and every time, I think "Crap! Should've taken a picture for the blog," including this time. Apologies for that, too.

It's really quite simple to put together. The ingredients are staple items which you would usually have lying around, looking uninteresting and lonely in their natural state. However. Don't be fooled by all this normalcy. Because inside each of these ordinary, boring ingredients is the potential for something delicious. Beef. Onions. Garlic. Tomatoes. You can make these ingredients sing. They'll mingle and make love in a hot pan, and conceive delicious flavours for you to enjoy.

Alright, enough of that business. Let's get down to it.


Ingredients
olive oil
1/2 of a white onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 large beefsteak tomato
1/2 a can of plain pasta sauce 
3 basil leaves
A pinch of Italian Seasoning (I only cheat a TINY bit here because I don't have any other nice fresh herbs and spices. This does the trick.)
Salt and pepper


Method
Do my fancy water-boiling trick (which isn't really all that fancy. It's more time-saving than fancy) and put some pasta on the boil. Since this sauce is quite chunky, I like to use pasta that is in shapes instead of long strings. Shapes like rotini or penne are great for holding lots of thick, chunky sauce. I've preferred using whole-wheat pasta lately since it's extra filling (and you won't be eating a whole bowl of simple carbohydrates, which basically turn into sugar in your digestive system), BUT HEY. It's your thing. Do what you wanna do.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil over medium-ish heat in a large skillet. Turn it down if you need to. I always do, since my garlic tends to burn in a matter of minutes on medium. I go for medium-low. Chop some garlic and throw it in. Let it simmer while you chop your onions. Throw them in the pan too. Add some salt and pepper and let the onions simmer for a few minutes until they get soft. Add the ground beef and brown. Drain any extra fat in the pan. Add the tomato paste and stir it around so it gets on most of the beef. The pan might seem a little dry right now, but that's alright.

Let it all simmer while you chop your tomato, then throw it in and mix everything up. Your tomato should add enough liquid that all these ingredients can mingle sufficiently. If it doesn't, add a little water to the pan. But not too much. Add your basil and/or Italian spice mix. Stir occasionally. Let it simmer for a few minutes, until the tomatoes look soft, and then add the pasta sauce. Turn the heat right down at this point, almost to the lowest setting. You want the sauce to heat up and obtain the flavour you just coaxed out of all the lovely ingredients in the pan. You don't want the sauce to boil and bubble and leave streaks of sauce on your walls that you'll still be finding weeks later. Heat slowly. Let it simmer for at least five minutes. My pasta had to sit in the pot all drained and dry, waiting to get sauced. It's worth it if you have the time. If you don't, it isn't the end of the world.

Taste the sauce. If you like the way it tastes, throw in the pasta and mix it around and call it a day. If it's not done yet, let it be, or adjust your seasonings if you like. This recipe makes enough sauce for approximately 2-1/2 cups of prepared pasta, which will feed two people twice. Or four people, once. It makes a bunch, how about that. Bonus of cooking in large amounts: it's even better the next day.

Note: Feel free to experiment with the amount of tomatoes you add, and even the type. Last time I did this recipe I used some grape tomatoes I had in the fridge that weren't getting eaten and were about to go soft.

And there you have it. An easy yet delicious and filling meal that comes together in under 20 minutes.

Hooray for minimal effort in the kitchen!

Cheese Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato

In search of an easy pasta dish with which I could make use of the remaining pile of baby spinach in my fridge, I found this recipe over at Real Simple. Its minimal ingredients and fresh approach won me over, as did the frozen bag of ravioli I picked up last week as a just-in-case-I-had-no-energy meal. Since I had already consumed three pieces of bacon with my breakfast this morning, I decided I could do without the bacon and keep this a veggie meal.

This recipe was thrown together and finished in about 15 minutes, making it great for someone without much time. It was full of flavour and just as satisfying as one of those frozen skillet meals you can get in a bag, but this version is obviously better in every way: it's cheaper, healthier, tastier. The only part I cheated at was the ravioli, and frankly, I trust Ontario Ravioli Ltd to deliver a well-made product. I know where it comes from.

Please excuse the picture quality. There was still a bunch of steam in the way.

Ravioli with Spinach and Tomato (makes 2 servings, measurements are approximate)
1 cup fresh or frozen ravioli
1-1/2 cups baby spinach leaves, stems removed
2 medium-sized tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
3 basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a large pot of salted water to boil (boil the water in a kettle first if you're really strapped for time). Boil the ravioli, stirring occasionally, following package directions for timing.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Finely chop the garlic (or mince it, or bash it with your knife) and toss it into the heated oil. Stir and let it cook for a few minutes. Dice the tomatoes roughly, and add them to the pan. Add salt, pepper and basil leaves and cook for about five minutes, until the tomatoes are soft. Finally, add the spinach leaves and stir frequently for two minutes or until the leaves are wilted.

Drain the ravioli well and add it to the skillet. Toss it all together and adjust your seasonings if necessary. Dump it all into a bowl and top with Parmesan cheese if desired (I found it unnecessary); stuff into face.

Sometimes, it's okay to cheat.

Like when you've been battling a viral infection for a week, and you have little to no energy. Making meals for myself has been a real challenge. Besides being exhausted all the time, I hardly have any appetite, which doesn't really help me in the motivation department. The only thing that keeps me shoving food into my face is the knowledge that my body needs fuel in order to help itself get better and fight these monsters inside of me.

For tonight's dinner, I knew I needed to bring out the big guns: garlic and onions. These things are heavy hitters in the Foods That Heal bracket, and I happened to have a bit of a jar of alfredo sauce in the fridge. Pre-made sauce equals less prep time for me, and that's a huge plus in my current state. And so a simple meal idea was born: garlicky shrimp and broccoli alfredo.

All measurements are approximate. This recipe made enough for two large servings. I hope you like it as much as I did. Feel free to adjust the levels of garlic to your liking.

Ingredients

Some large, flat noodles (either fettucini or linguine will work)

4 cloves garlic

1/2 of a medium Vidalia onion

1/2 of a head of broccoli

3/4 cup shrimp, thawed

1/3 of a jar of Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo sauce

Salt and Pepper

Method

Start some water boiling for your pasta. If you're short on time, a trick I like to use is to fill up my electric kettle with hot water from the tap and set it to boil. Once it's popped, pour the whole thing into a pot you have ready on the stove. Turn the dial to high, and blammo--you will have a pot of boiling water in less than half the time it would have taken if you just poured a bunch of lukewarm water into a pot and waited for it to boil the traditional way. ANYWAYS.

In a large frying pan, heat some oil or butter over medium-low heat until hot. Cut up some garlic and onions and toss them in the pan. Cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Rinse your shrimp, blot them with some paper towels, and toss them into the pan as well (you don't want too much liquid in the pan or the shrimp get all rubbery). Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes, turning often. Dump the contents of your jar of sauce into the pan and let it simmer, stir often. Feel free to adjust the amount of sauce depending on the amount of pasta you're cooking. Heat everything all together over low heat for a few minutes, or until your pasta is done.

Meanwhile, your pasta should be nearing completion. During the last few minutes of cooking, dump your broccoli pieces into the boiling water right along with the pasta. The time the broccoli takes to cook depends on the size of the pieces you cut and how tender you like your broccoli bits to be. Adjust cooking times accordingly.

Drain your pasta and broccoli thoroughly, then dump it into the frying pan with the sauce. Toss everything all together; stuff into face. Remember that cheating is a perfectly normal and acceptable thing... sometimes.

Best things ever.

Are these things.

Zucchini Fritters from Anja's Food 4 Thought, a sweet blog documenting one woman's quest for wellness through healthier eating. If you're ever feeling like you need to go on a health food kick, this is definitely a blog you should look through. The recipes are all so unique and utilize whole grains, fresh in-season fruits & veggies and are frequently gluten-free and all that business. I'm not really there just yet; regular flour doesn't seem to bother me and I'm just getting started with my adventures in food. But the recipes look awesome nonetheless. Take these zucchini fritters for example.

They are lovely little things. The insides almost remind me of the texture of quiche, with the outsides cooked to a lovely brown crispness (thanks to the wonders of bacon grease... have I also mentioned I'm not a vegetarian?). I would highly reccommend trying this recipe if you're looking for something different. Or if your mom has a zucchini plant in her garden that's producing much more than expected.

Anyway. Here's my modified version of Anja's Zucchini Chickpea Fritters:

1 cup zucchini, coarsley grated
1 egg
1/3 large white onion, diced very finely
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1/4 cup feta cheese (crumbled finely)
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

bacon grease (or some other such oil that you wish to use to lubricate the pan)

Whisk egg, then stir in flour, onion, feta cheese, salt and pepper. Add zucchini and fold everything together. Your batter might seem a little thick at this point but don't worry, the moisture from the zucchini will loosen it up a bit (or it may have been some other magic process through the ingredients, who knows). Here's how mine looked after it was all mixed up.

Scoop the batter into a pre-warmed pan by heaping teaspoonfulls. This made mine a little smaller than I expected, but I was cool with it. You'll want to flatten them a bit so the insides cook evenly throughout. Cook for about 4 minutes on one side, then flip and cook until they're done enough for you. Mine ranged from pale and barely holding together in the first batch, to perfectly browned and firm throughout in the second. It's all a matter of preference really.

The second batch looked a lot better but they didn't last long enough for me to get a picture.

Serve immediately, and bask in the deliciousness of what you just created. There is no need for sauce like ketchup or mayo. Be amazed that things like onion, zucchini and feta cheese could taste so damn good.

And there you have it! A delicious way to eat more fresh, in-season vegetables.

Parmesan Pasta

Easiest dinner you could ever make. This was the remnants of what was left over in the pot, so it was a bit oilier and cheesier than the rest of it (please disregard the chipped bowl. Me? Clumsy? Never).

Add just enough oil that everything is slightly lubricated. You don't want it dripping. About 2tbsps should be enough. Method:

1. Cook pasta.
2. Meanwhile, slice up some garlic and onions. Put them in a pan with some hot olive oil and sautee until translucent.
3. Cut up some chicken and throw it in the pan. Add some salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is white on one side, about 3 minutes, then flip over. Add S&P again.
4. While you're waiting for your chicken to cook, slice up some vegetables. Tonight I used broccoli, green peppers and zucchini. If you're using the same vegetables, put the broccoli in first since it takes a bit longer to cook (medium-low so it doesn't burn). Add the peppers a few minutes later, and add the zucchini last. Cook for a few minutes or until desired done-ness.
5. Drain your pasta. Toss with some olive oil and a bunch of parmesan cheese. Add more salt or pepper to taste.
6. Stuff into face. Marvel at how easy cooking can be.

Food Challenge!

The phrase "food challenge" evokes images of Kitchen Stadium, all fog and lights and shiny knives while opposing chefs stare menacingly at one another.

This isn't like that. This is a challenge where we can set goals regarding the food we buy for ourselves and how we eat. I'm aware that I'm a little behind in officially starting, but I unofficially challenged myself a few weeks ago to start eating healthier, and this has expanded into the following goals:

1. take advantage of the glut of fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season,
2. hone my cooking skills so as to be able to comfortably experiment with and incorporate new flavours into my meal rotation,
3. save a bit of money by buying my fruits and veg from a local farmer's market,
4. be smart about buying in large quantities, and utilize my freezer for its awesome preservation abilities,
5. lose a teensy bit of weight.

The last one has already started to come about, mostly by accident. I don't actually own a scale--though I should probably get one--the only reason I know is that I was told recently that it looks like I've "lost a bit of weight". It's not my primary goal, hence why it's the last on my list, I'm just aware that it's an inevitable consequence of eating a diet that's lower in fat and sugar and higher in whole grains and fresh things.

In last week's grocery run, I will admit that there were more frozen and pre-packaged food than I would normally buy--however someone in my household is currently going through recovery after a some minor surgery, and "want" foods became "need" foods for comfort reasons. These include some frozen pizzas, toaster strudels (my weakness! which I have successfully resisted! go me!), frozen waffles, and some pizza pops. These items are in my "occasional treats" category, and I've been pretty good lately at reaching for healthier alternatives for snacks than constantly having these same things. And if I do reach for some frozen waffles, I make sure to have them with a bunch of fruit on top and a glass of milk. Like this!

But for the most part, the grocery list has been successfully tweaked: bottles of pop, bags of chips, and frozen pre-prepared foods are no longer seen as necessities like they used to be. This time last year, I was at the same point, except I gradually let these things become essentials. I let my dietary standards slide and got into a vicious cycle of valuing convenience over nutrition, and settled into a routine of bad habits. Now that we've gone backwards, we're feeling much better about how we're eating, and surprised at how little we find ourselves wanting these things. Chips? What are those? Now, if I want some chips as a snack, it'll be whole grain tortilla chips that I can eat with salsa. Ideally the ones with flax seed in them, they're awesome. Because salsa counts as a vegetable dish, right? Totally.

Last night's dinner was especially successful; I was tempted to just throw in a frozen pizza but I caught myself--I remembered that I had a whole crisper drawer chock FULL of fresh green veggies to use up. And so I made a whole-wheat pasta dish with three different kinds of vegetables and some chicken. And it was awesome.

Oh, and today I stopped by a farmer's market on the way home, but it was closed. Boo.

Something I still need to work on: actually bringing food from home to eat while I'm out at school, every freaking time. I tend to underestimate my need for a meal being at school for 4-5 hours at a time, and I assume I'll be fine--but I never am. I have a change purse that is almost always full, which allows me pretty much whatever I want from a vending machine. So I need to stop that.

So that is where I'm at, a few weeks after making a conscious decision to eat better. Special thanks to my good pal Melissa over at BrokeTO for the inspiration to share my dietary and budgeting goals for the month of August. Follow her $100 Grocery Challenge and stay updated here (original post with instructions here)!