Mini Pineapple Cheesecakes

We had people over for the fourth of July, and I was itching to make a no-bake pineapple cheesecake.  However, I remembered the last time I did this, I had a ton of leftover cheesecake, and we're pretty low on fridge space these days.  So I compromised and made much simpler and cuter mini-cheesecakes.

You will need:
-2 containers phyllo shells
- 1/2 block cream cheese (low fat is fine) - softened
- 1/2 tub cool-whip (do NOT use low fat)
- 1/2 can crushed pineapple - drained
- 1/4 cup sugar

Procedure:
1.) Whip cool whip, cream cheese, pineapple, and sugar together.
2.) Spoon into phyllo cups.
3.) Chill for one hour and serve.

Sweet Potato Cashew Curry

We have finally gotten the hang of menu planning for two people with busy jobs, I think.  The trick is to plan meals that allow for advance prep, but don't require it, and to allow for a few slacker meals.  This week's menu plan:
-Pear, Leek, Goat Cheese Pizza
-Potato, Mushroom, and Leek Croquettes
-Pad Thai
-Sweet Potato Cashew Curry

Theoretically, we were going to do all the prep work on Sunday.  That didn't happen - we got to the leeks, the onions, and the stuff for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.  So instead, last night, I prepped everything for the potato, mushroom, and leek croquettes and the sweet potato cashew curry while also making pad thai.  This means that this morning, I just tossed the curry in the crockpot and came home to a really delicious meal.  Since I adapted the original recipe, I'm going to share my changes here.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil
1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup raw cashews
3 tbsp (or a conservative pour) Trader Joes yellow curry sauce
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, and cut into small chunks (I only used one, but two would be better)
1 can diced tomatoes (with juice)
2 cups water
1 cup frozen corn
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp (or generous pour) yellow curry sauce

-Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, saute onion, saute until translucent, then add cashews.  Saute until golden brown.

-Add yellow curry sauce and sweet potatoes, fry for another minute or two.  Transfer to crockpot.  

-Add can diced tomatoes, water, frozen corn, tomato paste, hoisin sauce, and remaining yellow curry sauce.  

-Cook on low heat for 4-6 hours.  Serve over rice.  

Frozen Burritos

When I started my new job, I knew I wanted to have easy to grab lunches in the fridge.  I went from working at 10am to 8:30am, so I no longer had time to make myself lunch in the morning if we had gone out the night before and didn't have leftovers, or just had burgers and fries for dinner.  I buy the CedarLane Vegetarian Burritos from Costco, but they don't always have them, and I was looking for an even cheaper way to make freezable lunches. 

So when I had an extra sweet potato one day, and had accidentally opened a can of Trader Joe's Refried Beans instead of black beans, I whipped up about 8 frozen burritos.  They are surprisingly delicious and store pretty easily.  I just let it thaw on my windowsill all morning, then heat it up in the microwave. 

Recipe:
1-2 sweet potatoes, mashed (add salt and pepper to taste)
1 can vegetarian refried beans
6-8 flour tortillas (I used white and I think that is part of why they held up so well - the white ones are just softer and heartier)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Procedure:
1. Put a flour tortilla on a piece of saran-wrap. 
2. Spoon sweet potatoes and refried beans into center of tortilla until it is pretty full.
3. Add cheddar cheese to the top. 
4. Fold burrito over and in on itself.  If it is having trouble sticking, use a bit of sweet potato as additional glue.  Immediately wrap in Saran Wrap. 
5. If your sweet potatoes are still hot, place in the refrigerator until cool.  If they are not hot, place burrito directly in the freezer. 

I made these about 2 months ago and just had one for lunch and it was good. 

Cookbook Challenge: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Yes, the project is still going on.  Today I tried a new chili recipe from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker - Three Bean Chili with Chive-Flecked Cornmeal Dumplings.  I've adapted it slightly to accommodate the ingredients in my pantry and my personal taste.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili powder
One 28 ounce can giant tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can light kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Dumplings:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
salt
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Saute onion, garlic, and red pepper over medium heat until soft.  Add tomato paste and chili powder.  Add to crockpot.
2. Add tomatoes, beans, salt, and pepper.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, frozen corn, and milk, together.
5. Drop spoonfuls of cornmeal mixture into crockpot.  Replace lid, and either cook on low for another hour, or cook on high for 30-45 minutes.

Cookbook Review: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker was the first crock-pot cookbook we purchased when we got our crockpot, and it's always the one I recommend to friends who say, "uh, I got a crockpot...how do I, like, make food?"  All of the meals are balanced, substantial, and delicious.  I've made several recipes from this book and never had a flop.  The directions are straightforward and easy to read, any weird vegetables have instructions for how to clean them and what they taste like, and the book is well organized.  You should definitely buy it.  And then make some chili.

Lentil Chili

I've been looking for a copycat recipe for the TastyBite Madras Lentils for a little while without any luck, but tonight I was craving some healthy chili goodness so I found this recipe on AllRecipes.  I wound up adapting it quite a bit, but I love the use of the bulgar wheat.  It creates a similar mouthfeel to the ground beef substitute that we put in chili sometimes, but isn't so many questionable chemicals, and it's cheap.  And we have it in the house.

I adapted the recipe quite a bit, so this is what I did:
Ingredients:
5-10 cloves garlic
1 cup lentils
1 cup bulgar wheat
1 onion chopped/1 tbsp dried onion
2 cans diced tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
2-4 tbsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream (optional)

Process:
1.) Soak the lentils for an hour or so or boil them for a bit - maybe for about 10 minutes.
2.) Saute garlic and onion until clear.
3.) Add lentils and bulgar, then toss in tomatoes and juice, and vegetable broth.  Add chili powder and salt and pepper.
4.) Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, adding more water/broth if necessary.
5.) Once lentils are soft and delicious, serve up and add heavy cream to taste.  I find I need a bit of it to help offset the heat of the chili powder.

You could also do this in a crockpot by just tossing everything in and cooking for 4-6 hours on low.

Extra Fluffy Quinoa

I like my quinoa super-fluffy.  Almost cous cous like in it's fluffiness.  If you haven't tried quinoa, or have been disappointed that it just...doesn't taste good, you might want to try it the Barefoot way.

Ingredients:
1 cup Quinoa
1 3/4 cups water
salt
bullion or other vegetable stock seasoning (or you can use veggie stock instead of the water)

Process:
1.  Wash quinoa in a strainer.  This is definitely, totally, necessary.  If you don't wash the quinoa, it tastes like eating sand.
2.  Combine quinoa, salt, bullion, and water in a pot, or in a rice cooker pot (I think the rice cooker is my secret to great quinoa, but if you don't have one, you can do it on the stove.)
3.  Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until super fluffy.  If quinoa seems to be cooked but not fluffy at the end of the 15 minutes, add more water.

Honey Mustard Flounder

I really don't care for mustard.  I think it's pretty disgusting, really.  However, on fish?  It's delicious.  Especially when mixed with honey.  I made this last night, and both Mr. Barefoot and I thought it was really tasty.  The best part was, the whole thing took about 15 minutes.  Served with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.

Honey Mustard Flounder

• 2 (or more) flounder fillets, thawed if using frozen.
• some mustard (I would guess I used about 2 tbsp)
• some honey (I would guess I used about 1 tbsp)
• Cooking spray

Recipe:

1. Mix honey and mustard together.  Preheat oven to 425.  
2. Spray pan. Put fillets on pan.  Put honey mustard mixture on top of fillets.  
3. Bake for 15 minutes.  

Actually, it's embarrassing to type that and call it a recipe, but I'm working and commuting these days, so we've been doing a lot of quick, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cooking and this will probably be a meal we turn to more and more (as long as we remember to thaw the fish.)

Pavlova

Have you had pavlova?  It's dessert pizza, with meringue for crust.  We had my aunt and uncle over for an Irish themed dinner and I made pavlova, which is technically from Australia or New Zealand, but it came up on a list of Irish desserts and I've been dying to make it.  When I announced I had made pavlova, my aunt said, "the last time we had that, we were in Ireland."  So, I felt pretty victorious.

This recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking.
Pavlova Meringue
Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites 
• 1/8 tsp cream of tarter 
• 1 cup caster sugar (just grate it in the food processor)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp vinegar

1. Whip egg whites and cream of tarter until soft peaks form.    
2. Add caster sugar slowly, a few tablespoons at a time.  
3. Whip until stiff peaks form and egg whites are stiff and glossy.  (Joy of Baking recommends beating until sugar is no longer grainy.)
4. Add vanilla extract and continue to beat.  
5. Sprinkle cornstarch and vinegar over the top of the eggs and fold in with a spatula.  
6. Spread pavlova into a circle on the un-shiny side of foil or the waxy side of parchment paper.  
7. Bake at 250 for 75 minutes.  

Mine was underdone in the center and stuck to the parchment because I used the wrong side and undercooked it a little.  I would even consider going 80+ minutes and then turning off the oven and letting it cool completely with the meringue inside.  

To make the rest of it, just mix 1.5 cups heavy cream with 1 cup confectioners sugar and beat with a mixer until it forms whipped cream.  Spread over filling and top with sliced berries and other fruit. (I used sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries.)  

We finished this off and licked the platter clean.  I highly recommend making it if you have the time - it's a crazy-easy dessert that packs a really impressive punch.  

Chili Salmon

We've been eating a bit more fish in the Barefoot household lately.  Mr. Barefoot loves strong flavors, like chili, and I like milder things, like cream sauces, so I tried this recipe from Fitness Magazine for chili salmon with cilantro cream.

Verdict: It was good.  Usually I do salmon with chili powder and breadcrumbs, but this was really tasty without the added hassle of crumbs.  I made a few alterations, like taking out the poblano pepper and using greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  I also only made it for two.  Here's my recipe:
Ingredients:
2 limes (or one lime and some lime juice, which is what I used)
4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped up, or fed through a garlic press
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp olive oil (I actually used canola and it was fine)
2 4oz salmon fillets
1 cup frozen corn kernels (don't need to thaw)
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt (I use fat free)
bunch of cilantro washed and pulled off the stalks

Procedure (preheat oven to 425):
1. Put juice of one lime, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and 1 tsp olive oil together in a prep bowl
2. Put salmon in a marinating bowl or on baking sheet, coat in lime/garlic/chili mixture.
3. Combine red pepper, corn, onion, 1 tsp olive oil, and more chili powder and ground cumin together in a mixing bowl.  Stir until evenly coated.
4. Lay the corn out flat on a baking sheet.  Put salmon on baking sheet.
5. Cook both for 10 minutes.  The salmon may need a little longer.
6. While cooking, combine greek yogurt and cilantro in blender/mini food processor.  I used the immersion blender and a bowl because I didn't feel like cleaning the food processor.

Burger Salads

Over the weekend, we had veggie burgers but no buns.  I was not in the mood to cook an elaborate meal and we didn't really have time anyway.  Not wanting to eat another box of Annie's Mac & Cheese, we threw some burgers on the George and resigned ourselves to the fact we didn't have buns.

I had Spinach and our Aerogarden was ripe for picking, so I started making myself a salad.  We had goat cheese as well and since Mr. Barefoot and I had opted to split a veggie burger, in addition to each having our own, I decided at the last second to cut mine up more and enjoy it with my salad. The back of the box is always recommending I have my veggie burger with a salad, but this was the first time I've tried it.  It was delicious, and it made up for both the fact that we didn't have burger buns and we didn't have croutons.  You can do this a million ways, I'm sure, but here's mine:

Ingredients:
1 Tomato Basil Pizza Burger or Bruschetta burger
1 cup spinach or mesclun greens
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette (the burger adds a lot of flavor so you really don't need to drown this salad.)

Procedure:
Put burger on grill or in microwave.  Wash and spin salad greens, put them in a bowl.  Add goat cheese and vinaigrette.  When burger is done, cut into bite sized pieces, add to salad.

Flax Seed Bread (in the food processor!)

I bought flax seeds last week.  Because I read in a magazine that they are good for you and will help you lose weight.  Plus my old roommate likes flax and speaks highly of it.  The health benefits seem high, and although I'm currently 25 and don't have to worry about high blood pressure, cholesterol, or prostate cancer (probably never have to worry about that), I firmly believe that I should eat weird tasting food now, so that I don't develop those health problems as I get older, and more importantly, so I'm not adverse to eating healthy foods when I do develop health problems.  So I'm trying to eat more whole grains, and in case you haven't noticed, I've been making, and eating, a lot of white bread lately.  (Another advantage to making whole wheat bread is that it's not quite as delicious.)

I made it in the food processor - a single loaf fit just fine in my 6-cup food processor, and The New Best Recipe cookbook recommended kneading bread in the food processor rather than in Darth Mixer.  It worked pretty well for this recipe - we'll see whether I stick with it.  The food processor is lighter, but harder to clean and more likely to take off one or more of my fingers.

Flax Seed Bread
1 3/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp dry milk powder
2 tbsp oil
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cups flax seeds

Recipe:
1.  Combine yeast and warm water and let yeast dissolve.
2.  Add honey, salt, milk powder, and oil.
3.  Combine 2 cups flour and water mixture in food processor, process (our food processor only has two "on" settings - pulse and go)
4.  Stop food processor, remove lid, add remaining flour and flax seeds.  Mix some more, until you have a dough.
5.  Put dough in a pan.  Let rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour.
6.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

This is a pretty good whole grain bread, unlike my last foray into making wheat bread, which did not rise at all and can be at most generous, termed a disaster.  This turned out like well, bread.

Goat Cheese and Black Bean Buritto

So I came home for lunch today and made myself a burrito, but since I splurged at Costco and bought goat cheese over the weekend, I knew I wanted to use it. (Goat cheese is $4 for like, 1lb. of it at Costco, so its really not a splurge.) I had a black bean and goat cheese burrito at Burrito Beach when we were in Chicago, and it was delicious, so I decided to channel that.
Ingredients:

• Goat cheese
• Black Beans (I used about a half a can, but that was for just me)
• Spinach leaves (fresh.)
• red onion (I happened to have some leftover, you could use regular onion as well, or no onion
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste (I was too lazy to mince garlic)
• Tortilla
  

Procedure:

1. Saute onions in olive oil.
2. Add black beans and warm through. Remove from heat. Season.
   
3. Add goat cheese and melt in with the black beans
4. Put tortilla in the microwave (I zap them for about 20 seconds so they are more malleable.
5. Spread a thin layer of goat cheese on the tortilla.
6. Add some spinach leaves.
7. Pile on the black beans.
   
8. Enjoy.

I estimate the total cost of this burrito to be less than $1.50. I think the one I got at Burrito Beach was like, $6. It did have veggies and rice though, but this has certainly perked up my Tuesday, all in about 10 minutes.

Salad

Okay, so today is a set of instructions, not so much a recipe. How to make a salad. A real salad - not a bag-o-salad dumped into a bowl with some croutons.
1) Go to Target or Goodwill and spend $3 on a salad spinner. There is a super-cheap one at Target on the dollar shelf - you won't regret it.
2.) Consider what type of salad you want to make. Decide on a dressing first, because a dressing sets the tone of your salad. I alternate between balsamic vinaigrette and Italian. When buying a dressing, consider the fat content. Try to pick a dressing that has 2-6 grams of fat - you need a little bit of fat to reap all of the benefits of salad. Stay away from creamy dressings unless that is the only way you will eat your salad.
3.) Buy some lettuce. Try not to go for iceberg lettuce - go for either a mixed greens that you can buy by-the-pound, or go for two types of lettuce. Since Mr. Barefoot hates salad, I buy one type of lettuce, because it takes me at least two salads to eat it, and it goes bad in a week. I like either romaine or red leaf lettuce - whatever you do, go for a dark lettuce. Also, maybe toss in some spinach or arugula.
4.) Consider what else you would like - tomatoes? red onion? red pepper? I like cucumbers in my salad, if I'm having an Italian dressing salad; sometimes tomatoes, and occasionally red pepper. Some people like thawed/cooked corn in their salads. Beans? Cal Tor has an amazing black bean salad with black beans, tomatoes, corn, and lettuce, but I need to be having a salad with a Mexican type dressing to go for black beans and corn in my salad. If you are doing a ranch salad, go for carrots and Broccoli - yum!
5.) Now that you are done with produce, consider toppings. I require cheese on my salad - parmesean, feta, or goat cheese. Goat and feta are a little lower in fat. Sometimes I like some mozzerella - the little balls - and I cut them up and they are great in a leafy green salad with balsamic dressing. With goat cheese or feta, I like to do the dried cranberries. With parmesean and Ceasar, Italian or balsamic dressing, I like to do croutons. Some people like nuts in their salad, but I'm not one of them.
6.) Protien - I usually don't add any, some people like chicken strips. I keep meaning to try some of the vegetarian salad finishers. Or I could just add some white beans or tofu that has been marinating in italian dressing.
7.) Now that you are done shopping, its time for assembly. Go home and break out your 12" serrated bread knife. If you don't own one, why not? Saw through the lettuce until it is in front of you in 1-1.5 inch strips. Put the salad leaves in the strainer from your salad spinner. Now wash the salad leaves. If you are really afraid of dirt, float the leaves in a bowl of water for 10 minutes, then fish the leaves off the top - the dirt will have sunk to the bottom.
8.) Spin the salad. Let it sit and drain some more while you chop the other vegetables and produce for your salad. Be sure to wash those too.
9.) Dump the leaves into a big mixing bowl. If you have salad scissors, use them now. Add some dressing - probably about half a serving. Using a rubber spatula (a spoonula is even better), toss the leaves with the dressing until each leaf is evenly coated. Add your other produce and toppings and mix them in.
10.) Serve salads into salad bowls. (This is the part where I confess that I skip this set, and sit on the couch, midafternoon, with a giant mixing bowl in my hands and eat straight out of it.) I find that to weigh the salad down enough to fit enough salad in the small salad bowls, I have to coat the leaves in dressing, and I don't like an excess of dressing. So the high walls of the mixing bowl help keep the salad from ending up everywhere.

Cupcake fat replacement

Last night I made applesauce cupcakes - that is cupcakes with applesauce instead of oil. I made a half batch, so just twelve, which is too many as it is. But they came out delicious and fluffy, which has been a problem in the past.
This time, I replaced the full amount of oil with an equal amount of applesauce. I had read somewhere to only use half as much applesauce, but that's not going to work as well. So I was making a half batch, so I used a half of a third of a cup (I love my OXO measuring cups that have half markings on them!) of applesauce. I also used egg whites, two egg whites instead of one and a half eggs. I whipped them up with the mixer for about a minute until they were at that almost ready to fluff stage, but not peaking or anything. I think this contributed to the fact that the cupcakes were not as dense as they were the last time.
I used the full half-cup of water. They say sometimes to reduce the water when using applesauce, but I didn't and it was fine.
Using unsweetened applesauce and egg whites takes out most of the fat from the recipe, and they taste just like normal cupcakes that you might make from mix. I was using white cake mix, and you really can't taste the difference.