Sunday, November 20, 2011

My Little Monkeys


My kids love all things bananas, but they do have times when they want nothing to do with them. When that happens this is the recipe I use to make THE BEST banana bread EVER!

1 cup of sugar (I use a sugar sub)
1/2 c butter
3 very ripe bananas
3 large eggs
1.5 tbsp buttermilk or sour cream
1.5 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of kosher salt
2 cups flour (or GF making mix)
1.5 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c creamy peanut butter
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Then add in one banana and one egg at a time until they are all blended in to the butter mixture.  Then add in all the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.  And yes I dump the nuts and chocolate in with all the other dry ingredients.  Dump into a greased and floured loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 60 minutes.  Let it cool in the pan for about 10 mins and then remove to cool on a wire rack.

This is normally gone in a day in my house.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Heavenly Chocolate Covered Cheesecake

One of the things that I believe I have mastered since having gastric bypass is cheesecake.  Why, because it is high protein and can be made reduce fat and sugar free- if you want... or you can make it completely sinful!  While this isn't gluten free with some minor changes it can be gluten free as well.  Cheesecake is one of those things to me is rich, tangy, and just ooooohhhhh so lush and creamy in your mouth.



Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Crust:
1 cup Murry sugar free short bread cookies
1 box of Sugar free Oreos- minus 5 cookies (lore ate them)
1/2 cup of splenda
1/2 cup of DiabetiSweet Original Sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted 

Crust:
In a medium size bowl, combine everything and mix well. Spray the pan with PAM, making sure you get th sides. Mix well and place in the bottom of an 8x8-inch pan. Make sure to press against the bottom of the pan. Place into oven and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:
4 boxes of reduced fat cream cheese, softened
2 cup splenda
2 teaspoon vanilla extract -I used a dried vanilla powder
6 eggs (or 1.5 cup egg sub)
1 pinch of kosher salt

Filling:
Prepare the filling by beating cream cheese. Mix in splenda and vanilla while beating until well blended. Add in eggs one at a time and then add salt. The mixture is runny. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight or if you want it faster- place in freezer for an hour and then add the chocolate topping and freeze again until set.

Chocolate Glaze:
1 stick of butter
2 50/50 milk chocolate bars (giant carries these)
2 cup splenda
1 cup heavy whipping cream (or half and half)
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat. Add chocolate to the butter. Whisk in everything and whisk until combined. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes while whisking constantly.


WHen I made this I was also able to make 12 cupcake size mini cheesecakes besides the 8x8 cake. I didn't put the crust in the cupcake papers, just the cheesecake mixture. You can also add the chocolate mixture on these as well. I also put 2 tsp of sugar free strawberry jelly into these mini cheesecakes. They came out very yummy as well.

Yield: 20 pieces in the 8x8 pan and 12 cupcake minis

Friday, November 4, 2011

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"- Spanish Styled Beef

Spanish Styled Beef

A few years ago I was trying to broaden Lorelei's taste palate.  A lot of times we would pick a place from the History Channel or maybe something in an article would spark an idea.  One Sunday we had missionaries at church who were in the mountains of Spain and they were talking about their adventures there and how different the olives were there in Spain.  Lorelei already liked olives but she got to taste the ones from Spain and was in love.  So that started the hunt for a dish that I could put them in for her (and hide them from me- olives yuckie).

This is a pretty basic recipe using items that we can get at our grocery stores.

2 to 3 pound bottom round roast (or something close to that cut wise)
2 tbsp of EVOO
2 large Spanish onions (if you can't find them use sweet onions)
4 large cloves of minced garlic
1/2 c sliced pimiento stuffed green olives (if you can use Spanish ones)
1 tbsp of olive juice (what the olives are canned/jarred in)
1.5 tbsp of dried oregano
2 tsp of sugar (or sugar sub)
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 cup of low sodium beef broth

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut beef into 1 inch cubes.  If you see large pieces of fat trim them off.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat - if you have a well seasoned cast iron skillet it use it.  Brown the beef on all sides and remove to a 9x13 baking dish.

Add the onions and garlic to the skillet and saute in the beef drippings until soften to add a richer flavor to the vegs.  Carefully add the rest of the ingredients over medium heat until well combined and heated through then pour over the beef.  Cover with foil and bake until done.  For me it was 2 hours one day another 2.5 hours.  You want the beef to be fork tender.

I served this with rice to soak up all the yummy goodies from the baking dish.  Also, salt wasn't added to this dish because pimientos and olives tend to be salty. 

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Clean Eating Magazine

I love books.  Real books.  You know the kind where you can ACTUALLY turn real pages.  We have an eReader but I hate reading on it.  It isn't the same comfort that I seem to get from books.  And my love of books, I love love love magazines.  We we moved into our house and then had Lorelei I didn't renew a lot of our magazines, however I have gotten two magazines this year.  The one I want to talk about today however is called Clean Eating.

I got a great deal on the magazine and I am so glad that I got it even through I hadn't heard of it before.  It covers everything from gluten free, veggie only, and good high protein dishes.  Most of the items they call for I can get in my grocery store and only once I had to go to our local health food store for an item.

One of the recipes I liked a lot from the magazine has been the Seared Chicken with Maple glaze.  This is their photo of the dish.  I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the dish because it was gone as soon as plated it for everyone.  To me that is a huge success with any meal since I have one child that will eat anything and another that is kind of picky/bland when it comes to eating.  I think the secret to this dish being a mark in the win column was the maple glaze.  Now I used a sugar free maple syrup for this dish and kosher salt, so this dish came out even lower carb count wise and sodium wise.  I also didn't find this overly sweet because of the maple syrup either where in some other dishes we have had that issue and well that food was hard to choke down.

So if you are looking for a great new magazine to give to someone as a gift or looking for a way to make your own cooking healthier and dishes easy on the budget I highly recommend this magazine.  BTW- I wasn't paid to review this recipe or the magazine.  I paid for it out of my own pocket and have loved every minute of it since it has arrived in all it's colorful wonderfulness in my mailbox.