In the kitchen: pumpkin dog biscuits

'Tis the season of pumpkin, for everybody!  Pups included.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dry milk
2 1/2 cups flour
water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Blend eggs and pumpkin together; add salt, dry milk, and flour. 
• Add water as needed to make the dough somewhat workable. 
• The dough should be dry and stiff, don't be concerned with crumbs being left in the bowl. 
• You will need to mix this with your hands because it is too stiff for an electric mixer. 
• Roll to 1/2-inch thick. 
• Cut into shapes. 
• Place 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. 
• Bake for 20 minutes on one side, then turn over and bake another 20 minutes.

Original recipe found here.

Zia approves!

In the Kitchen: kale chips

I loved having a whole extra day this weekend to go to the market and prepare thoughtful meals and homemade lemonade and snack foods.  It felt good to try new recipes and actually have time to devout in the kitchen. 
     
After the 48, er 12 hour cleanse I tried ::shudder:: I had a bunch of kale leftover that I needed to get rid of, so I took to the internet in search of a recipe for kale chips. Besides the cleanse, I had never bought kale, but remember eating it in chip form at a restaurant in OKC called 180 degrees.

So, I went for it.. why not?

Ingredients

• 1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.

 

I posted about Kale Chips on Instagram over the weekend.  And they started quite the (positive) discussion so I thought I would post about them here too!  

This One Time I Tried a Cleanse

My co-worker, who usually joins me for restaurant crawls and happy hour, asked if I wanted to do a cleanse with her this week.

First response: "no way"
But then she said it was only for 48 hours and she needed a buddy, so I reluctantly said "yes?".

Obviously doing this over the weekend was out; there wasn't a chance that we were going to waste our weekend having no fun (cleanse = no fun), so we decided to do it on Tuesday and Wednesday.

What did we get ourselves into?  

Breakfast was alright, the lunch smoothie was delicious, but I wish I could have 3 more, juiced kale wasn't too bad, and my snack of radishes and green beans was comical.  I tried to have a good attitude, really really hard, and kept saying "2 days, 2 days, 2 days".

And honestly, it wasn't the lack of delicious food I'm used to eating (and the morning coffee of course), I wasn't having cravings for french fries, it was how my body was starting to feel that made the cleanse so hard... I was tired and had an awful headache and was making poor decisions.  Dr. Oz said we could eat as many "snacks" as we wanted, but I went through my whole bunch of radishes, ate 4 celery sticks, and still felt pretty sluggish.

It was dinner time and I had a big ol' pot of stew cooking (per the strict menu) and I thought, this is going to be fabulous. I will eat this massive pot of stew and I'll be okay! I can do this!

After an hour of simmering, I took a quick taste, and it was horrible.  I even added things I wasn't suppose to add in a last ditch attempt to make it worth eating and nothing helped.

I grabbed a piece of bread (not on the list) and tried to eat the soup with it, but I just ate the bread instead.  Then put butter on it (definitely not on the list).  Then grabbed another piece of bread, and another.

The downfall.

I lasted 12 hours of a 48 hour cleanse.   

The (simple) Truth About Hummus

It's SO EASY TO MAKE!

-yes, I'm yelling at you.

Ingredients:
1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) drained and rinsed
1 squeezed lemon
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/8 c. tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/2 tbls. olive oil

1/4 c. water
1 tsp. salt
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
Throw all ingredients in a food processor and mix together until smooth.  I used a little Cuisnart chopper, so anything of the like will work.

For other varitions:
Olive Humus (seen above, so good!)
Basil Hummus
Avocado Hummus

The tahini paste is a little expensive, about $8-9 a jar, but it lasts for quite awhile and makes such a big difference in taste.  You'll definitely save money in the long run by making your own hummus at home over buying it in the store. 

In the kitchen: pinterest success stories

Left to right: creamy spring pasta, strawberry and cream muffins, breakfast muffins, roasted cabbage with lemon, vegetable tian, spinach salad, eggplant with goat cheese, cake batter bars, and vegetarian hot pot.

I haven't shared many recipes on the blog lately, even though we've been cooking so much at home.  My Pinterest board is full of delicious-looking foods (that I can't wait to try myself), but I thought I would share only the success stories -- the recipes that we actually made and enjoyed!

PS  We eat the eggplant and goat cheese dish about once a week, it's so good.  

Cinnamon Roll Party - Family Style

**For my Mom and Aunt,
Under special guidelines to not include photos of faces, "messy houses", or the bad batch of cinnamon rolls. I followed them accordingly.

**And to Gran,
Thanks for helping me critique, they really needed our help, didn't they?

Last Friday, my favorite women got together to pour sweat (from pounding the dough) and tears (from laughter) into a cinnamon roll recipe, that, in the end made over 4 dozen rolls and took 10+ hours from start to finish.  Good thing Gran and I provided the entertainment and superb taste-testing skills.  I don't think the day could have been a success otherwise.

As always, I documented:

In the Kitchen: Mini Pumpkin Pies

The mini pumpkin pies were a huge hit at the last gathering we hosted at our apartment.  We let everyone add as much Cool Whip as their little heart desired (I chose none, others chose a lot) and nixed the "nut topping" all together.  We followed this recipe and everything worked out perfectly... and tasted delicious!  Easy recipe for non-bakers like myself.

What you’ll need (makes 36 bites):

1 can Libby’s 100% pumpkin

3 store bought pie crusts

3 tsp cinnanmon

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk

pinch of salt

whipped cream

nut topping

:: Preheat your oven to 350°.
:: Roll out your pie crust. Take a circular object, like a glass or can, and cut out 36, 2-3 inch circles.
:: Place the circles in your mini-muffin pan to form little cups.
:: Mix the rest of your ingredients together and scoop into your pie crust cups.

In the Kitchen: Spinach Salad

I was inspired after eating the BEST spinach salad at The Wedge last week.  I mean, forget the pizza, what the restaurant is known for, and give me an extra large salad please.  I couldn't stop stuffing my face.  So, I decide to make it myself for dinner tonight.  It's not difficult at all, it's just leafy spinach and some fixin's, but you'll want seconds, I gurantee.

Ingredients:
Spinach
Apple Slices (or pear)
Candied Walnuts
Goat Cheese (or asiago/parmesan)
Balsmic Vinegar Dressing

The walnuts made the salad and they were so easy.  1/2 cup of walnuts mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil & 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey - stir really well and bake at 325 for 8 minutes.  Done!