Another Trip Around The Sun

Daddy-o's birthday came and went without a lot of fanfare this year. Adult birthdays sometimes get buried under the kid activities, so our Wednesday looked a lot like any other busy Wednesday, with school and work, waterpolo, errands, and a rushed dinner before we all had to get down to the church for youth activities and New Beginnings, where Bean was getting an award (more on that later.) Add in that Daddy-o, and now Bug have pretty bad colds, and even his delayed celebration was subdued by Bug having an ear ache that we needed to work with for an hour.

But in some ways, delayed birthday celebrations are nice. This year, it worked out that Daddy-o got cinnamon rolls twice, pizza (convenience when we had such a crazy afternoon/evening) on his birthday, AND got to go out for dinner at the end of the week!

We saved the actual celebrating for Friday night, so after dinner, we came home, (took care of Bug's ear,) and then opened gifts and had cake and ice cream. And the celebrating will continue because his gifts included tickets to Les Misérables when they are in Fresno this spring!

Happy Birthday, Daddy-o. We love you!

(note for future: Lemon Cake from American Test Kitchen cookbook--such good cake recipe!)

White Bean Chocolate Cake

White beans are my new favorite friend.  They let me eat sweet desserts and fun breakfast foods (waffle recipe and zucchini muffin recipe coming soon!) that actually still taste like treats, not sad replacements for the real thing.

This recipe is an adaptation of the coconut flour brownies I've been making, and as much as I do enjoy those, this comes out a little less "wierd health food" and more like a very chocolatey cake.

White Bean Chocolate Cake

1 cup cooked and drained white beans

5 eggs

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 Tbsp. almond flour

3 Tbsp. coconut flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup coconut oil

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor (or blend beans in blender and then use a mixer to add in the rest of the ingredients). 

Pour batter into an 8x8 pan.  Cook at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the center is no longer jiggly.

Frost with topping of your choice.  This isn't a super sweet cake, so if you want it sweeter, use a traditional frosting.  Otherwise, you can top with whipped cream and berries, or just leave it as is.  

Quinoa Tabbouleh

I've mentioned my quinoa tabbouleh before (here and here), but as I'm back to my summer habit of making up a batch each week, and I've had a few different people ask me for the recipe lately, I thought I should actually get my version of it written down somewhere. It's based on the Tabbouleh III recipe from allrecipes.com, but I've changed amounts on the dressing and the quinoa, and the way I combine things. So really, its not that recipe at all anymore :)

Quinoa Tabbouleh
1 cup quinoa
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh parsley (I use about 1-2 Tbsp dry if I don't have fresh--it won't have the green appearance in the final product, but its still good)
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
feta cheese (optional)

Cook quinoa according to directions. Let cool a little and then mix with cucumbers, green onions, and parsley. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and mint and then pour over quinoa. Chill for a couple hours before eating. You might need to adjust the salt, especially if you won't be eating it with feta cheese.

If I'm serving it all right away, then I add the tomatoes, and offer feta cheese on the side to be added as wanted. If I make it for the week's lunches (which is what I usually do), then I just add tomatoes and feta as I eat it so it doesn't get watery or mushy. I like grape tomatoes for this since its really easy to slice a few in half and throw them in. It will last for several days this way, just stir it well to mix the dressing back in.

And totally random note, but I was comparing the picture in this post to the last one I took of my tabbouleh in the second link, and you can see the vast improvement due to my new camera. Daddy-o surprised me with an SLR for mother's day this year and even though I still have so much to learn about using it, I've been loving the quality of my pictures the last couple weeks!

And final random note, don't forget to sign up for the giveaway before tomorrow night!

Free-form Lasagna

I found this recipe in the Daily Herald a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to try it while my mom was visiting. I used to always clip out recipes that sounded good, but hardly ever made them (although my brownie recipe is adapted from a newspaper article recipe) so I had made myself quit accumulating the newspaper clippings that were taking over my recipe binder. But I'm glad I cut this one because these were great! And there is another version with roasted tomatoes and pesto that I can't wait to try.

Only warning is this is not a quick mid-week dinner. I only tried it because I had my mom around to help keep the kids out from under my feet.

Free-form Butternut Squash Lasagna

3/4 C flour
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 cup + 3 Tablespoons butter
1 (2 pound) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped rosemary, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
ground pepper
grated nutmeg
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
grated parmigiano-Reggiano

Make pasta dough with flour and olive oil, add in egg and knead until smooth and shiny (see here if you need instructions for making pasta). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Roll out pasta dough very thin (a 6 on most machines), in approx. 4" wide strips. Cut into squares and dust with flour.

Heat 3 Tbsp. of butter in skillet over medium-high heat. add cubed squash, 1 tsp. rosemary, 1/2 tsp. shallots, and salt to taste. Cook until squash has slightly browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 min. Reduce heat to medium and cook until squash is tender, about 5 more min. Remove squash from pan, add wine to pan and cook over medium-high, scraping the browned bits and reducing the wine to a glaze. Add squash back in and coat with glaze. Season with pepper and light grating of nutmeg.

In a small bowl, beat together the ricotta, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. shallots and pepper and a little nutmeg.

Cook pasta 4 or 5 sheets at a time in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water. Pasta will float to the top when done, about 1-2 min. Remove and drain on a tea towel. Repeat until all pasta is cooked.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup butter in a skillet over medium heat with 1 tsp. shallots, 1/2 tsp. rosemary.

Place a square of pasta on a greased heat-proof plate (I just used a cake pan because I was too scared to try putting my dishes in the oven) and brush with melted butter. Spoon 1/4 cup ricotta in a low mound in the center. Arrange a loose mound of butternut squash on top. Generously dust with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Place another square of pasta on top. and brush again with the melted butter. Scatter more squash cubes on top and dust again with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Repeat with 3 more plates. (I actually found that I could do another layer and still had enough to make 5.)

Arrange the plates on a cookie sheet and heat through in the oven for 8-10 min. Serve immediately.

Now, I should have taken a picture of the kitchen after I finished this. Definately glad that there was someone to help me with the dishes that night!!!

French Bread

I haven't posted any food lately. Honestly, I haven't been doing a lot of actual cooking to post about. It's just too hard during the week when I'm on my own until the moment that we sit down to eat (and Daddy-o doesn't always make it home right then either), and even on the weekends we don't really feel like doing a ton of dishes after we get the kids to bed so I've been trying to cut back--lots of simple soups and dishes that I can make double batches and freeze (and we've been finishing off the meals my mom helped me get in the freezer before she left.)

But I do make bread pretty much every week. I love homemade bread. It used to be a special occasion thing, but then when Bean had her milk and soy allergies, it was hard to find bread that she and I could eat. And then the same thing happened with Bugaboo so I've just been in the habit of making bread pretty often and like to keep it up. Plus, there is just nothing quite as satisfying as pulling a beautiful loaf out of the oven.

This started out as my mom's french bread recipe, but once again, I've made some changes, although our favorite is still the original, but this version is healthier and so the all-white flour version only happens when we have company come for dinner. This recipe is so easy if you have some type of heavy duty mixer (I love my KitchenAid!)

Whole Grain French Bread

2 packets of yeast (2.25 teaspoons each)

2.5 cups of warm water

2 Tablespoons sugar

Mix together and let the yeast dissolve--you should see some bubbles.

3 cups of whole wheat flour

1 cup of oats

1/2 cup of oat bran

Mix well and then switch to a dough hook.

1 Tablespoon salt

2 Tablespoons oil

2-3 cups of white flour--add until the dough clings together in a ball and is not too sticky to touch.

Turn mixer on every 10 minutes for a few seconds. Go through 5 cycles. After the last one, split the dough into 2 and form 2 loaves (you can use loaf pans, or use a cookie sheet and make traditional french bread shaped loaves.) Let rise until about double (usually takes around 45 min, but will totally depend on the temperature in your house.)

Just before baking, brush the top with an egg white to get the sheen (you don't have to do this, and I usually don't unless we are having people over or I'm giving it away--it just makes it prettier).

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min.

This makes phenomenal toast and if you let it sit a couple days it also makes great french toast (we don't always manage to do that and I end up having to use a fresh loaf, which also works).