Baked Apple

Baked apples are the perfect meal or snack for a cool rainy day. It reminds me of a perfect personal apple pie with granola. Though baked apples seem to be more of a fall treat, they are definitely underestimated, perfect for any season, and sure to warm your tummy.

I didn’t follow a recipe but anything you would put in granola or oatmeal would work.

Kinda recipe

• 2 apples, cored with melon baller or other tool
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• lots of cinnamon
• little nutmeg
• chopped almonds
• lots of raisins
• good sprinkle of unsweetened coconut
• flax seeds
• agave or honey , for top

mix all the ingredients,  except the agave in a small bowl. pack oatmeal mixture in each apple till filled. drizzle with agave or honey over the top. bake for 25ish minutes in 350 degree oven. serve warm

Chocolate Chip Smores Cookies

When a few of my friends showed up at my house I was caught off guard and without a dessert. So after a short discussion about what to make, my friend, and fellow baker, kim decided we should attempt to make smores cookies. We started off with my favorite chocolate chip cookie base crumbled in some graham crackers and ripped up some marshmallows and out came delicious gooey cookies! Im not the biggest smores fan but these were delicious and addictive!

the recipe makes a lot of cookies! so i decided the batter and only added the graham crackers and marshmallow to a small portion of it.

INCREDIBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

adapted from here

3 2/3 cups (8 ½ oz.) all purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups; 10 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (8 oz.) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks to taste
Sea salt or kosher salt for garnishing

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. (Unless you have a plastic guard that sits around the rim of the bowl, this will make a big mess at first, with flour flying everywhere. I found that carefully holding a dish towel around the top of the bowl helped a lot.) Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly to incorporate.* divide batter if you don’t want all smores cookies. we added crumbled graham crackers and ripped marshmallows into pieces to taste.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

When most people think of Rhubarb they think of strawberry rhubarb pie or crisp . These muffins offer a different use for this unusual (vegetable?). The muffins are so light and fluffy with little bursts of sweet rhubarb. If you are always making strawberry rhubarb pie and want to try something different or have always wanted to use rhubarb but didn’t have a recipe try this one, you won’t be disappointed.

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

adapted from here 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk (milk plus about 3 tbs white vinegar to equal 1 cup total)
• 1 1/2 cups diced rhubarb

Streusal

(all estimates)

• 2 tablespoon melted butter
• 3 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

makes about 24 muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with paper cups.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla and buttermilk with an electric mixer(or by hand) until smooth. Pour in the dry ingredients and mix by hand just until blended. Stir in the rhubarb and walnuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, filling almost to the top. In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and oats sprinkle a little on each muffin
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for at least 10 minutes before removing.

DIY Nail Wall Art

I have seen art similar to this in anthropologie or online. It is super simple and pretty self explanatory by just looking at it.

Supplies

• any piece of wood 1/2 inch or thicker  (I found an old piece in my garage about a 1/2 inch thick)
• nails( mine were wire nails #16 x 1-1/2″)
• hammer
• hemp
• scissors
• random buttons
• glue gun and glue sticks

Fudge-y Zucchini Chocolate Cake

If you couldn’t tell by now I have a lot of zucchini. Some of them are slightly too large and tend to be less flavorful then the smaller zucchini. So the extra plump zucchini are perfect for recipes like these.  This Chocolate Zucchini cake is so simple, moist, delicious and vegan!  If you have the same zucchini problem as me definitely try this one!

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

adapted from here

1 ¼ cup flour

1 cup sugar

⅓ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coffee

1/4 cup water

1 cup grated zucchini

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

⅓ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar

Glaze

about 1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons vegan margarine or shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

about 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1)
For the Cake

Preheat oven to 350F (177C). In an 8 x 8 inch square pan, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a fork. Add the water, coffee, zucchini, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and vinegar. Mix the ingredients together. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

2)
For the Glaze

melt chips over a double boiler. remove from heat and add margarine or shortening stir in vanilla then whisk in powdered sugar till there are no clumps.

3)

Pour the glaze onto cake and let it cool for one hour.

4) enjoy!

Healthy Zucchini Muffins

My excess of zucchini and forcing me to try new recipes.  This recipe is for a healthy zucchini muffin, or healthier.  They are delicious moist and more of a cinnamon flavor then zucchini.

 

Healthy Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients

• 4 3/4 ounces whole-wheat flour (about 1 cup)
• 3 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2/3 cup)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil(or applesauce)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 large egg
• Cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation

1. 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. 2. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine whole-wheat flour and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine zucchini, milk, oil, honey, and egg in a small bowl; stir until blended. Make a well in center of flour mixture; add milk mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.
3. 3. Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; sprinkle over tops of muffins. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.

It even has the nutritional data!

Amount per serving

• Calories: 145
• Fat: 3.1g
• Saturated fat: 0.4g
• Monounsaturated fat: 1.6g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 0.9g
• Protein: 3.5g
• Carbohydrate: 27.1g
• Fiber: 1.8g
• Cholesterol: 21mg
• Iron: 1.1mg
• Sodium: 154mg
• Calcium: 58mg

Zucchini Noodles with Baked Tofu

Every summer my neighbors have the best garden and always bring over delicious vegetables. This time they brought over lots of zucchini! When we have zucchini we usually grill it or make pasta primavera or zucchini bread, but this time I wanted to try something different. ZUCCHINI NOODLES! The recipe I used was super simple and super delicious( not to mention gluten free and vegan which is half my family).

The recipe* is a cold pasta with Tamari (g.f. soy sauce) based sauce with just enough crunch from the blanched vegetables. The recipe says ago pan fry the tofu but I baked it instead but spraying it with cooking spray and putting it in a 375 degree oven flipping it when it turns golden brown on the underside.

*the recipe explains how to peel zucchini in noodles. I saved the left over core of the zucchini to make zucchini bread. (recipe to come)

Happy Fourth of July!

Well actually its the 5th of July but I forgot to post because I was swimming and eating too much. Anyways I made a small little collage of pictures as just a sampling of what my day consisted of.

top left: chocolate and vanilla cake pops, top right: various wild flower in a milk bottle with miniature flag, bottom right: low fat cheesecake with berries and apricot glaze, bottom left: my dog with festive blue scarf on.

 

All the food was delicious but I was especially excited for the low fat cheesecake because I have never made a cheesecake before. It turned out a little ruff looking because it both sunk and cracked but tasted delicious.

Creamy Ricotta cheesecake

adapted from Ellie Krieger

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 4 ounces Neufchatel cheese, or reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon or orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup apricot jam
• 2 tablespoon water
• berries

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Place ricotta in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Add sour cream, Neufchatel, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla,  zest and salt. Process until well blended. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the center is just set, 50 to 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

 

In a small saucepan, bring the jam and water to a boil, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove sides of pan. spoon a thin layer of jam on the cheesecake so the berries stick. pour remaining jam on top of berries for a shiny coat.