Carrot Bread

Sliced

Last night after dinner I wanted to bake. It wasn’t that I wanted a specific food, I just wanted to bake. The problem was that without wanting something specific it was difficult to settle on a recipe. Another hurdle was finding a recipe that used ingredients that I had on hand.  The final factor was I didn’t want three dozen cookies or an entire cake. I decided to log onto Cookie Madness to see if anything would grab me. The first thing I did was go to the section “Scaled Down Recipes”.  This carrot bread recipe was the first recipe that I saw and I had all the ingredients!

The bread is baked in two 3″x5″ loaf pans.  Just perfect for a household of two! The batter rises to make a nice dome, and the top has just a bit of crust. The slight crustiness might be my favorite part of the bread. Nuts, carrots, and spices on the moist inside. What’s not to like?

No mixer is required, but you do have to grate some carrots. Otherwise this comes together really fast. I chose not to make the icing and I don’t really think it needs it unless you’re looking for more of a carrot cake like experience. This worked well for me since I wasn’t looking for something super sweet.

You can find the recipe here.

Gingerbread Biscotti

I have recently stumbled upon a couple of really great biscotti recipes and today I’m sharing the bolder one of the two. This is the cookie I wish I could keep on hand at all times, and I could if my husband and I could only keep our hands out of the cookie jar. It has a satisfying crunch and a mouthful of flavor. It’s firm but not too hard, and has chunks of crystallized ginger. You can dunk it in your afternoon tea or coffee if you’d like, but you’ll enjoy it even if you’re not a dunker. With no eggs or butter you can even keep it vegan to share with your vegan friends if you use a non-dairy milk like almond milk. The recipe appears several places on the Internet. It was of course brought to my attention at Cookie Madness. You can see Anna’s post and the recipe here.

The first time I made them I used regular dairy milk, but next time I’m going to try almond milk.

Gingerbread biscotti

These are excellent and I won’t be limiting them to fall or holiday baking. I love ginger and think it’s a flavor to be enjoyed year round.

Fresh Tomato Tart

In the previous post I mentioned that zucchini season seems to be over in our garden. Fortunately we’re still getting fresh tomatoes. Years ago I would can some of them, and one year we froze them, but really, we like them best fresh, in salads, on sandwiches or sliced right onto the plate. Occasionally we roast them, which I love, and once in awhile we use them in a dish like this Fresh Tomato Tart.

The crust for this tart is super simple but delicious. It makes enough for two tarts which we didn’t need so I double wrapped the extra dough and used it a few days later for another recipe.

Instead of retyping the recipe I’ll link directly to the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. As you read the recipe you’ll see they have filling instructions for two large tarts or for individual tarts. I made the recipe for the large tarts but halved it.

Both my husband and I liked this recipe a lot. It lends itself to a lot of variations so I think we’ll be making it again with other seasonal vegetables throughout the year. Speaking of variations! I just remembered that instead of using the spices indicated in the recipe I used an Italian Seasoning Blend that I had on hand. You could substitute the herbs you like best

Banana Oat Muffins

These are fairly healthy stick to your ribs fare. They aren’t very sweet, and they’re not too high in fat. In other words they’re the kind of muffin you can eat for breakfast, or serve as a snack and feel like you’ve offered some good nutritious food instead of a cupcake masquerading as a muffin.

No doubt there are people who buy bananas specifically for baking, but when I bake with bananas it’s because I purchased too many and if I don’t bake with them or stick them in the freezer for smoothies they’re going to go to waste. I also had some yogurt to use up. You’d think with that combo that I would have made a smoothie and popped the rest of the bananas in the freezer, but I couldn’t let go of the idea of a banana muffin using yogurt. You could make these even lower in fat by leaving out the walnuts, but I wanted the crunch, and I’m starting to appreciate walnuts more than I did in the past. You could probably add in a few chocolate chips and have a muffin that tastes more like a treat.

I’d like to try some honey in these instead of the brown sugar. Next time….

Banana Oat Muffins (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites)

1 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
3/4 c. ground rolled oats
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2-3 ripe bananas
1 egg
2 T. vegetable oil
1/2 c. plain non-fat yogurt
1 egg white

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. (I used silicone cupcake liners and have learned NOT to spray them.)
Whisk together the first six ingredients. Process the oats in a food processor until you have a course flour. Whisk the oats into the other dry ingredients. Stir in the walnuts.
Break the bananas into chunks and process in the food processor. (I used 2 1/2 bananas) Blend in the yogurt, oil and the egg.
In a separate bowl beat the egg until it becomes white and foamy but not stiff.
Fold the banana mixture and the beaten egg white into the dry ingredients until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the muffin should come out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then remove to a wire rack until completely cooled.

My new immersion blender

Raspberry Smoothie

For Christmas I received a wonderful new kitchen gadget. A Kitchen Aid immersion blender. I’ve used it twice already. The first time was to blend some butternut squash soup, and today I used it to make one of my favorite healthy snacks. Smoothies are so easy and you can pack a lot of nutrition into a glass. You can also vary them according to taste or what you have on hand. I usually put in some whey protein powder. It’s an easy way to up my protein intake without adding a lot of fat. I like to use pineapple juice as the sweetener. It adds a lot of sweetness, and some vitamins, but if I don’t have any I use orange juice, apple juice or whatever juice is available. I buy a big can of pineapple juice and then freeze it in ice cube trays. When I need it I just take out what I want and I don’t have to worry about the juice going bad before I use it up.

Making this with the immersion blender was so fast and easy, and so easy to clean up! Thanks to my daughter for this wonderful and much appreciated Christmas gift.

Today’s smoothie is raspberry pineapple.

Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

3/4 c. frozen raspberries

3/4 c. plain soy milk

3 oz. pineapple juice

1 scoop whey protein powder

Place all of the ingredients in the cup of your immersion blender, or in a regular blender, and blend until completely mixed.