Somedays, it doesn't help to be barefoot.

One of the downsides of being eight months pregnant is that it really hurts to be on your feet for extended periods of time.  It's always kind of bugged me to spend long stretches in the kitchen without shoes, because my feet don't have any support and my legs start to wear out, but now, it feels like I can't stand for more than 30-45 minutes or so.  So tonight, the 4-5 hours we've spent cooking and prepping food for the week has been interspersed with a lot of breaks, and things got a lot better once I went and put on my sneakers.  Hopefully the end result of this will be that almost every meal for the week is good to go and we don't have to do a lot of prep work to have delicious, healthy meals.

I haven't posted in awhile, mostly because I haven't come up with many new recipes and because Pinterest basically serves most of the purposes for which I started this blog (a way of cataloging my favorite recipes, etc.)

Anyway, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes this week and while there are plenty of posts and blogs out there, since I have a high chance of having GD again with subsequent pregnancies (the jury is still out on whether this kid gets a sibling, ever), I figured it would be useful to me and perhaps to others to compile recipes.  I haven't met with the endocrinologist/diabetes educator or learned to test my blood sugar yet, but a few friends gave me some advice so for the past few days I've been eating low-carb, upping my protein, and eating 3 small meals and 2-3 large snacks.  I've been tracking everything on My Fitness Pal and trying to figure out how doable being a vegetarian with GD is.  I only have 8 weeks to go in my pregnancy, so if I do end up needing to eat meat to get the nutrients I need and not overload myself or the baby with sugar or salt, I will do so.  (There is very little I won't do to avoid having an 11lb baby, it turns out.)

So here is my meal plan for this week:
Sunday: Burgers and Zuchinni Fries - I used whole wheat bread crumbs and had my burger bunless, with a side of greek yogurt (the black bean burgers from Costco are pretty spicy so the yogurt cuts the flavor.)  I recommend not using panko, or running the panko through the food processor first.
Monday: Lentil Tacos (I'm trying this recipe) on whole wheat tortillas (I buy the whole wheat ones from Costco)
Tuesday: No Noodle Zucchini Lasagna 
Wednesday: Kale Quinoa Salad with Roasted corn and Lemon Vinagrette - I'll probably skip the corn on this one.  My lemon vinagrette is just lemon juice and olive oil and some garlic and salt.  You can add mustard if you want it to hold together better.
Thursday:  Stir fry with tofu and all of the vegetables from our CSA and a side of brown rice.
Friday: Fish with a side of rice and...something with lima beans.

Something that helps me a lot is to make rice and quinoa in advance, because during the week, it's hard to remember to start the rice cooker as soon as one of us gets home from work so that the rice is done at a reasonable time.  (It's possible they make rice cookers that stay warm for hours for exactly this reason but ours burns stuff if it's beyond the time.)

I also made some cookies and chocolate chip bread to use up the 8 very large zucchini that came from our CSA (we went with the Jones Family Farm for any Baltimore locals and it's been great).  Mr. Barefoot approved of the cookies and pronounced them "pretty edible, in fact good."

What are you eating these days? Any low-carb, high protein suggestions for me?

Cookbook Project: Secrets of Fat Free Baking

My mom, the one who is afraid of butter, bought some fat-free baking cookbooks awhile ago.  I don't know why, because Mama Barefoot Does Not Cook.  She occasionally bakes stuff, but that's usually slice-and-bake cookies.  So that she constantly buys cookbooks is really odd.  Fortunately, she has a daughter who likes to cook and "help clean out" the cookbook cabinet.  So I took this one in college, when we all still thought saturated fat was the Enemy.  Since it's not, I actually added butter to the recipe I used - partly because I didn't have the prune puree that the book recommends using, and partly because I don't think saturated fat is the enemy.  Since I made that substituton, I had to make another as well - the recipe was lacking in moisture, so I wound up dumping in a good chunk of apple butter as well.  I also threw in some white chocolate chips, and I will tell you, these cookies were amazing.

Cranberry Spice Cookies (p. 170 - Secrets of Fat Free Baking)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (just used whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unbleached flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 plus 2 tbsp prune puree (or 1 stick of butter, plus apple butter until dough is workable)
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I also added in about 1/4 cup white chocolate chips)
1 cup oat flakes or other ready-to-eat cereal flakes (I used oatmeal)

Process:
1. Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flours, sugar, baking soda, and spices, and stir to mix.  Add prune puree or butter, honey, and vanilla extract, and stir to mix well.  Stir in the cranberries or raisins and oatmeal.

2.  Grease a baking sheet, drop cookies onto the sheet.  Flatten them with a spoon (I didn't do this - it's advisable - these cookies do not spread.)

3. Bake for about 9 minutes (longer, if you didn't flatten your cookies.)  Transfer to racks and allow to cool.

Prune Puree (if you want to try it)
3 oz pitted prunes (1/2 cup)
1 cup water or fruit juice
2 tsp lecithin granules (or why I didn't make this recipe)

Put all ingredients in a food processor, blend until smooth.  Can refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

Verdict:  I really liked these, and husband's office approved as well.  They tasted a bit of apple butter, but not really, and the cranberry/white chocolate chip combination made them really good.  They have a little more refined sugar than I would like, but often when we swap out one ingredient, like fat, we add a lot of sugar to make up for it.  I will be making them again this week for book club and trying to use a bit less sugar, since they get some from the white chocolate chips.

Yoda Cookies!

In case you didn't know, Mr. Barefoot and I are pretty big Star Wars fans.  Maybe the name Darth Mixer tipped you off.  Star Wars is actually how we got together, so it holds great relationship significance for us as well.  Also, whenever it's cold out, I ask if we can watch my favorite cold weather movie, which is ESB.

So, I think, it is entirely possible that I will spend the next few months collecting all of these, whether I need them or not.

(only $40)

(yes, you could buy 4 reasonably priced aprons for this price but they are NOT AS COOL)

(Darth Mixer needs a friend!)

(What kind of mom will I be if I can't make yoda cookies for my kids?)

Tragically, the Barefoots are trying to save right now for our awesome summer trip to Wales, so I'm going to have to hold off on purchasing the entire WS Star Wars line.  But you don't have to!  Go forth and shop, my friends, and then send me pictures of your children eating yoda cookies!  

Cookbook Project: The Betty Crocker Cooky Book

I love this book.  This recipe is for Lemon Crinkles.  The book notes:
From Mrs. Alfred T. Neilson of Council Bluffs, Iowa, who prefers simple and easy recipes that leave her time for her hobby of making hats.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp ginger 


Heat oven to 350.  Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs; blend in lemon rind.  Blend dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture.  Roll int 1" balls, dip tops in granulated sugar (I skipped this step.) Bake on an ungreased baking sheat for 10-12 minutes.  


Enjoy.  These were really good.  They taste more like regular sugar cookies, but they're really good.  

White chocolate chip spice cookies

I had the chance to make the white chocolate chip spice mix cookies over the weekend, and they are really good. They take longer to cook than most cookies (15-20 minutes), so I wouldn't recommend them for a last-minute cookie baking project, but they are delicious.  The white chocolate cuts the otherwise heavy taste of the spice cake mix, and the spice cake mix gives the white chocolate more flavor than it would usually have.  I omitted the nuts because I don't like nuts, and in the future will probably make a few other changes as well.

Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
1 stick melted butter (next time, I will swap this out with 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup butter)
2 eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips (actually measure - in this recipe, there is such a thing as too much chocolate chips - I put in too many and the dough was pretty hard to work with.

Recipe:
1.  Preheat oven to 350.
2.  Mix together mix, butter, and eggs until consistent.  Add chocolate chips.
3.  Scoop onto ungreased baking sheets - these cookies don't spread, so you can clump them pretty close together.
4.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until fairly done.  Remove with a spatula and allow to cool on cooling racks.  (This is actually important - if you try to pull the cookies up with your fingers, they fall apart.)

Gingersnaps

My husband and I are thieves.  Sometime in our lives, we stole from a roommate a Betty Crocker cookbook.  I'm pretty sure it was him that did the actual thieving when he moved from one apartment to the other, but because he thought it was mine.  Once upon a time, we didn't live together and I kept a few cookbooks at his place.  (And a toothbrush, but the cookbooks moved in first.)  It was actually this relationship dynamic that led to this blog (since I never knew where my recipes were).  Anyway, we stole the cookbook.

I've made a few things from it - lemon bars, and pineapple upside down cake.  Both are really good, really easy, really solid recipes.  I suppose there is a reason this cookbook is on it's 10th edition, but everyone still makes fun of Betty Crocker.  Go figure.

I needed to make gingersnaps for the thanksgiving cheesecake recipe and I turned again to this book.  The dough was delicious, and the cookies are too.  I modified the recipe a bit to get softer gingersnaps.

Ingredients:
1 cup packed brown sugar (I used light)
3/4 cup shortening (I used 1 stick of butter and 1/4 cup oil)
1/4 cup molasses (spray the measuring cup with pam first and the molasses slides right out)
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Procedure:
Cream brown sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg with electric mixer on medium speed.

Add in everything else.  Mix until it looks like cookie dough.

Chill overnight in refrigerator (you don't have to do this, but I did, so let me know how they turn out).

Lick beater and bowl.  Avoid eating batter with spoon, it's unseemly.

Then put on ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart and bake at 375.  (I baked mine at 350 and they came out delightfully soft and gingerbready.)

Even the softer gingersnaps crushed right up in the food processor for gingersnap crusts.

Passover Meringues

It's that time of year.  When all my Jewish friends show up with matzoh sandwiches and complain about not eating carbs.  I invited my friend and now neighbor Boston over for passover dinner tomorrow night - fortunately, she's chill enough to use my regular dishes and not make me sweep out my apartment with a feather - so I made some meringues which are kosher for passover (I think.)  I checked to make sure that cream of tarter was allowed, and read the ingredients list on my chocolate chips package to check for leavening.  I think they're sufficient, but I could be wrong.  They are sufficiently delicious, and I know my sister will eat them if my friend doesn't.
Ingredients:
2 egg whites
dash of salt
dash of cream of tarter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2-1 cup mini chocolate chips


Procedure: (preheat oven to 225)
1.) Place egg whites, salt, and cream of tarter in metal mixing bowl.
2.) Whip egg whites with electric mixer
3.) As egg whites stiffen up, slooooowly pour in sugar.  
4.) Once egg whites are stiff and glossy, add chocolate chips.
5.) Spoon out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6.) Bake for 1 hr on top rack and 1 hr on bottom rack. 

Charm City Christmas

So I had a cookie swap earlier last week, and for it I made meringues. I'm gonna post them Pioneer Woman style, with way too many pictures. The recipe is here.

You start by crushing the peppermints in a food processor. This is way better than using a hammer, which is what I used to do.

Then you put the eggs in the bowl with cream of tartar and salt, and you start mixing.

Eventually the eggs will get really fluffy and white as you add the sugar and then you will beat them until your hand hurts, and then you will add the chocolate chips.

Then you just scoop them out and put them on parchment paper.

When you make these, it is important to use only metal utensils. Plastic retains oil and any trace of fat will prevent the eggs from whipping up and getting stiff. Also make sure you use parchment paper or a sil-pat instead of greasing the pan.

Happy baking!

Chocolate Walnut Crumb Bars

The holidays are coming up and if you want a delicious treat to take to a party and impress everyone with, these are delicious and easy. This recipe is from my future mother-in-law and was a big hit at a recent party.

*Chocolate Walnut Crumb Bars *

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1/4tsp salt
2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate morsels, divided
14 0z can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar and salt until crumbly. With floured fingers, press 2 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13 x 9 baking pan. Reserve remaining mixture. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 13 – 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Warm 1 ½ cups morsels and sweetened condensed milk in small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Spread over hot crust. Stir walnuts and remaining morsels into reserved crumb mixture; sprinkle over chocolate filling. Bake in 350 oven for 25-30 mins or until center is set. Cool before cutting.

Chocolate Crinkles

To celebrate the end of exams (one paper left) I put together some cookie dough. I'm about to bake it up to test it out (I've been having trouble with cookies coming out flat lately.)
These are Chocolate Crinkles from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 sq. unsweetened chocolate (4oz., melted)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 2 cups Gold Medal Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup confectioners sugar (yeah, I don't think you actually need this much)

Procedure:

1. Mix oil, chocolate, and granulate sugar
2. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed
3. Add vanilla
4. Add flour
   
5. Add 2 tsp. baking powder, and salt.
6. Chill overnight/for a few hours
7. Roll in powdered sugar and shape into balls
8. Bake at 350
   

Uh. I just realized I didn't add baking powder or salt. I'm going to go deal with that.

Christmas Cookies

So the cookie bake ended up being a little sad - most people couldn't make it out, what with traffic and holiday stress, which is totally understandable, so it was me, my hockey buddy, and her boyfriend. My sister and brother-in-law stopped by too, later, to enjoy eating the cookies.
I wound up using the dough from the Best Recipe Cookbook. I went with that recipe because normally when I have trouble with a recipe, I use the BRC and it fixes whatever problem I'm having. My french toast is always too soggy. BRC adds flour to the french toast mix, and tells you how long exactly to soak each side of the bread for, and then how long to cook it for. French toast comes out crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Same with waffles.
However, the sugar cookies were only mostly okay, but the cream cheese glaze was weird. My sister actually spit it out when she tried it. I'm going to have to get my cousin's girlfriend's recipe, because that was pretty good. Or I could continue to make drop cookies because my cutters are rusty and rolling dough out is a pain in the ass. Plus my drop cookies are good.
I also did spritz cookies, and I still can't figure out how to get the dough off the cookie press.

Cookie baking tools & reviews

So last night I made my all time favorite christmas cookie, the peppermint meringue. I love these cookies. So does my sister. And my mom. So I figured I would bring them to both my family's christmases, and whatever was leftover to Mark's family. I figured that instead of making two separate batches, I would make one batch.
DO NOT EVER DO THIS! (I will qualify this -if you have a stand mixer and two ovens, it might be okay.)
The recipe says it makes 16. I could easily say that I get 32 out of each recipe. I had to use every baking sheet I own, and that includes the baking sheet for the toaster oven. However, they did come out totally perfect and awesome...so maybe I shouldn't complain. (Although we'll see about my salmonella cookies that I cooked halfway last night and need to do the rest of this morning...)
I also put together dough for christmas cookie cutter cookies from my trusty cookbook. This is a great cookbook because they give you the reasons why their recipe is best, like that regular granulated sugar makes holes that are too big in the butter, and that you shouldn't use the creaming method for cookie cutter cookies because then there is too much flour at the end. The only problem with starting with the flour is you are basically using the pie crust method, and that is just really something you need one of these babies for. (I keep telling myself that my thrice annual need to make pie crust does not justify my taking up cabinet space with a food processor. Then I tell myself that the deep fryer takes up way more and would get used even less.
I also had to make superfine sugar, which was done in my trusty mini-chopper (I told you, its a great gift idea!) and wound up looking like an episode of Will it Blend when I opened the lid, with a cloud of sugar dust coming out. (P.S. I totally need a blendtec to make meringues, because chopping up peppermint with a hammer is no longer cutting it.)

Cookie Bake

We're not gonna talk about the high hopes of the slow cooker challenge that were quickly dashed by one too many holiday parties, birthday dinners, and meals-on-the-go.
We are gonna talk about the Holiday Cookie Bake. I have purchased 4lbs of butter and 3 dozen eggs to make christmas cookies. I'm not sure that I have enough flour, sugar, or anything else to really make this work, but I am optimistic. I also got two new cookie cutters - a gingerbread man and a candy cane.
So now I need recipes. I need cookie recipes and icing recipes! Lay 'em on me, readers!

C*e*l*e*b*r*a*t*e*!

Ding! I'm done with exams! So what did I do? I baked cookies!
Mark's mom was kind enough to give me a cookie press last christmas when she cleaned out her cabinet. My old roomie had an electric, which I didn't like. But the manual one so far is pretty cool. Its easier to clean, I can use it anywhere in the kitchen, and it doesn't make a weird noise.
So my first batch was a half batch of spritz cookies from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book, a classic (and great gift idea) cookie book. (Anyone know when we started spelling cookie with the ie?)
Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter or margarine
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tsp flavoring (almond or vanilla)
* 2&1/4 cups Gold Medal Flour

Equipment:

* Cookie press
* Mixing bowl
* Spatula

Procedure:

1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Mix butter, sugar, egg, salt, and flavoring thoroughly. (I used a mixer, I don't think they existed when the book was written.)
3. Measure flour by sifting or dipping method. (I sift because I don't know what dipping method means.)
4. Add flour slowly.
5. Put dough in press in 1/4 batches. Put onto UNGREASED cookie sheet. (Apparently if the sheet is ungreased, it helps the dough stick to it. Also, the cookies are prone to sliding if you grease it.)

I haven't quite worked out the best method of getting the dough off the press. It might depend on the shape. I had the hang of it for like, 8 cookies, and then I lost my touch. I was using the butterfly shape. I think in the future I might go with "Scottie". There are also club, spade, and heart shapes for my next poker night.

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
I tried making these as the recipe I found, but they were very dry, so I added an extra egg white. The mini chocolate chips make it easier to distribute the chocolate widely.

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Equipment:
Mixer
2 bowls
Measuring cups.
Oven at 350

Procedure:

1. Cream sugars and butter together using mixer.
   
2. Add egg whites and vanilla.
   
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
   
4. Add dry ingredients 1/3 at a time, mixing thoroughly.
   
5. Place on a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 8 minutes.
   

Cinnamon Jumbles

If you are like me, you have trouble when it comes to some types of baking. I have a lot of trouble with cookies. Usually because I don't let the butter sit out until it actually becomes "softened" or I try to make weird and unwieldy substitutions or I just have trouble when it comes to mixing. I do make delicious cakes, and my macaroni and cheese leaves little room for doubt, so I don't worry too much about my cookies.
I do make excellent Cinnamon Jumbles. Those of you who were lucky enough to have a good family friend who gifted you with the Betty Crocker Cooky Book when it was reprinted a few years ago will recognize these as The Best Cookie of 1880-1900. They are easy to make, don't require a mixer, and are fantastic care-package cookies because they stay soft for weeks. They are also a good "on hand" cookie, made from things you should have in the pantry.

1. 4 cups flour (sift if you'd like)
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 1 cup butter
5. 2 cups white sugar
6. 2 eggs
7. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8. 1 1/2 cups buttermilk - (I do not keep buttermilk on hand, so I use either sour cream (low fat, not fat free, or skim milk mixed with a bit of vinegar - check a substitution chart for details)
   
9. 1/2 cup white sugar (for topping)
   
10. 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (for topping)

Equipment:

1. Mixing bowls
2. Measuring spoons
   
3. Mixing spoons
4. Dredge (optional) for shaking out topping
5. Refrigerator
6. Oven

Procedure:

1. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Combine vanilla and buttermilk, set aside.
   
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at time.
3. Combine the dry mix with the wet mix alternately into the butter and sugar mixture.
   
4. Cover dough and chill (for at least twenty minutes, or for as long as overnight).
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously grease cookie sheets.
6. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Combine the cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle some of the mixture onto each cookie.
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.