Personal pumpkin bowls

The pumpkin, midway through the preparations.

 Fresh pumpkin is delicious and has a taste entirely different from that of the canned stuff we find on sale at the grocery store around Thanksgiving.  A smallish orange pumpkin can be cooked in the microwave.

You will need:

• 1 small orange pumpkin (2-3 lbs or less)
• Spices: pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and sweetener to taste

1. Place the whole pumpkin in the microwave.
2. Cook on high for 5 minutes on high to soften the pumpkin.
3. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the innards.  You may bake the seeds and eat them later if you like.
4. Place the pumpkin halves face down on a plate, and fill the plate with water.
5. Microwave the pumpkin halves for 10 minutes on high, or until soft.
6. Season each half to taste with the spices.
7. Mash the pumpkin and spices together with a fork.
8. Enjoy!

Note: cooking times will depend on the size of your pumpkin and the power of your microwave.  If this is your first time cooking a winter squash in the microwave, exercise caution and cook the squash for shorter periods and check up on it periodically.

Oreo muffins

The chocolate muffin lineup.

Following the success of the Gluten-Free beer bread and Spiced Plum Muffins, I decided to try a third recipe with the same (surprising!) oat flour and GF beer base.  The result was a batch of beautiful muffins with a very unique texture and flavor.  The final product is more crumbly than a traditional cake-y muffin, and if you go light on sweetener it tastes like an interesting bread more than anything else.  Lightly sweetened, these muffins would be suitable to accompany your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but they wouldn't taste chocolatey at all.  With a lot of sweetener, they taste like oreo cookies, in muffin form.  I really enjoyed eating these muffins sprinkled with sugar.  To make the muffins, you will need:

• 3 3/4 cup oat flour
• 1 12 oz can of beer (I used GF New Grist)
• 3 tablespoons of baking powder 
• 1-2 tablespoons of oil of choice
• to taste: unsweetened cocoa powder (1 used ~1/4 cup of Hershey's Dark), instant coffee, sweetener (you'll need more than you think; get your batter to taste as sweet as you want it to and then add a bit more sweetener to be safe-it's vegan so you can taste the batter :D), and salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line muffin tins with baking cups.
3. Mix oat flour and baking powder together; fluff with spoon.
4. Add beer and stir until mixed.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently.
6. Pour into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Enjoy!  (these are delicious warm or cold)

Makes 12 medium-size muffins.

Note on beers: you will probably want to choose a lighter tasting beer if you are making a dessert.  You don't want the beer flavor to overpower the other flavors in the dish.

Spiced Plum Muffins

These babies are whole grain and gluten-free, but you wouldn't know it!

 Following the success of the Gluten-Free beer bread, I decided to try a muffin recipe with the same (surprising!) oat flour and GF beer base.  The result was delicious!  It's more breadlike than a traditional cake-y muffin and less sweet.  These would be suitable to accompany your breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  To make the muffins, you will need:

• 3 3/4 cup oat flour
• 1 12 oz can of beer (I used GF New Grist)
• 3 tablespoons of baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoons of oil of choice (optional)
• to taste: lots of cinnamon, sweetener, salt, and diced dried plums (such as Plum Amazins)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line muffin tins with baking cups.
3. Mix oat flour and baking powder together; fluff with spoon.
4. Add beer and stir until mixed.
5. Add remaining ingredients and stir gently.
6. Pour into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Enjoy!  (these are delicious warm or cold)

Makes 12 medium-size muffins.

Note on beers: you will probably want to choose a lighter tasting beer if you are making a dessert.  You don't want the beer flavor to overpower the other flavors in the dish.

View from the top.

View from the side.

All together now.

Crumbly.

DIY Fruit-on-the-bottom Yogurt

Your very own fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt parfait, with more protein and less sugar.

I prefer to make my own sweet fruity yogurt to buying the ready-made varieties in the store. I have found that the standard store-bought fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt has too much sugar-and too little protein-for my taste. The sugar-free fruity yogurts have too many weird ingredients. Making your own fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt is easy. It tastes better, and takes only minutes. You'll need:

• 1 container plain yogurt (I used fat-free Greek)
• jam or preserve of choice (I used sugar-free a Wegman's brand triple berry flavor)

1. Put the jam or preserve at the bottom of your container of choice.
2. Top with yogurt.
3. Enjoy!

Fun with fruit: kumquats!

These beautiful fruits can be eaten whole.

These tiny citrus fruits are delicious!  You can eat the entire fruit (no need to peel it!) so each kumquat has a really strong orange flavor.  In a given box, a few of the kumquats may have an overly strong flavor or be a bit bitter.  To counteract some of the bitterness, you can halve the kumquats and sprinkle sweetner on the insides. 

Cut up and covered with stevia.

Spaghetti with cheese sauce

Make this creamy, cheesy pasta in minutes!

Easy, cheesy.  And delicious!  I have grown to prefer this dish to Kraft concoctions, when I get the odd craving for cheesy pasta.  This dish is much healthier than the standard mac and cheese.  It's also very diet and special-diet friendly: the pasta is low-fat, very low-carb, high protein, gluten-free, and the whole (huge!) bowl has 150 calories or less.  You will need:

• 2 bags of shirataki noodles
• 2 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese, in Original Swiss flavor
• salt, garlic, and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Take the shirataki noodles out of the bag and rinse them really, really well.  Drain.
2. Put the noodles in a bowl and microwave them for 90 seconds on high.  Drain again.
3. Unwrap the cheese wedges and add them to the bowl, stir until most of the cheese has melted onto the noodles.
4. Microwave everything again for 30 seconds on high, and then stir the noodle mixture some more.
5. Add spices to taste and stir.
6. Enjoy!

Makes 1 huge and filling portion.

Some notes on shirataki noodles:  You can find Tofu Shirataki Noodles by House Foods at many supermarkets these days, and you can find standard Shirataki noodles (tofu free!) at most Asian markets in the refrigerated section.  I think both varieties work well in this recipe - use whichever you can purchase conveniently.  Shirataki noodles tend to be polarizing - people either love or hate them.

Note: this recipe has been inspired by, and adapted from several by Lisa Lillien.

Mile high coffee club

This coffee is served with love (and in my case, cream).

My experiences with airline coffee have always surprised me.  While the meals on flights are notoriously bad, the coffee is generally quite good - fresh, not at all bitter, and neither too strong nor too weak.  A recent flight on Southwest added a nice touch to the coffee service - heart-shaped stirring rods and unlimited snacks.  Included in the snack selection: plane-shaped graham crackers.  Too cute!

The coffee also is served with yummy graham cracker planes.

Finding vegetarian food in Texas

Aside from salad, pizza is a good option. These photos are from Barry's Pizza in Houston. Very attractive, if somewhat greasy, fare!  Let the photo shoot begin!

Seedy brussels sprouts

These sprouts are light and crispy!

I was running out of dijon mustard, so I decide to try a variation on my favorite dijon sprouts recipe.
I really like this take on sprouts.  The sprouts have a lighter, less oily, taste than the sprouts in the original recipe and yet they are very flavorful.  I also used very little oil, so these sprouts are also pretty healthy!  I like the look of the black mustard seeds in this dish.

Note: I've written this recipe with a small (1.5 quart) crockpot in mind.  If you wish to use a larger crock, scale up the volumes of the other ingredients accordingly (you want to be sure your crock is at least 1/2 full to avoid burning the food!).

You will need:

• 1 pint of brussels sprouts
• 2 spoonfuls of dijon mustard
• 2 spoonfuls of mustard seeds
• 2 spoonfuls of oil (vegetable or olive)
• 1/2 spoonful of salt

1. Chop off the bottom/stem part of the sprouts and then quarter them.
2. Place quarterd sprouts in crockpot.
3. Add remaining ingredients and toss until most of the sprouts are covered with some oil.
4. Cook on low until soft on the inside and somewhat crispy on the outside.  Check on the sprouts every 2 hours or so and stir them.  In my crock (a 1.5 qt Chefmate unit from Target), the sprouts cooked in a little over 4 hours.
5. Enjoy!

Black beans with ginger and cilantro (crockpot!)

This is my new favorite way to eat black beans.  The beans in this recipe are both rich and mild, with different seasoning from your typical Mexican restaurant. After eating something similar at a friend's house a few days ago, I realized I had to try to recreate the magic for myself in the crockpot.  You will need, approximately:

• Dry black beans (1-1 1/2 cups)
• 1 spoonful of turmeric
• 2 spoonfuls ginger
• 1/2 spoonful cinnamon
• 3 spoonfuls dried cilantro
• 1 spoonful salt
• dash chili powder
• 1 spoonful of oil (either olive or vegetable)

1. Check the beans for impurities, then rinse and drain them, and put them in the crockpot.
2. Add the spices and oil.
3. Add 5-6 cups of water.
4. Cook on high until beans are tender, the time will vary depending on the crockpot you use.  In my 1.5 qt Chefmate model from Target, the cooking time was about 5 hours.  If you are going to leave the house during the cooking time and/or you are just learning to use the crockpot, cook on low instead - the cooking process will take a bit longer but you can be sure that nothing will burn!
5. Taste, and add extra spices/salt if necessary.
6. Enjoy!

Note on crockpots: you want to be sure that your crock is at least 1/2 full so that nothing burns, and it's better to aim for a 2/3-3/4 full crockpot.  If you have a larger crockpot and want to make this recipe, you should probably scale the food quantities accordingly.

Easy Mocha Pudding

The pudding has a thick, creamy texture.

This is a really tasty pudding, and it's really easy to pull together.  The pudding has a Greek yogurt base, so it is high protein and low sugar to boot!  You get the health benefits of Greek yogurt without the sour taste.  You will need:

1 container of plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 spoonful of instant coffee
sweetener to taste (I used 1 stevia packet)
a few drops of vanilla extract

Stir everything together and enjoy!

The yogurt base is really tasty on its own, but it's rather tart.

All the ingredients together in one container, before mixing.

Stirring it all together...

Yum!

Postscript: If you liked this post, check out Oreo Muffins, Peanut Butter Pudding, and  DIY Fruit-on-the-bottom Yogurt as well, and stay tuned for more delicious uses for plain yogurt!