Food for Thought

Being that it's right after the holidays where I eat practically literally everything in sight, I've been putting a lot of thought lately into eating more mindfully. Yesterday I came across this article in the Times, which shows what 2,000 calories (which is about the average amount of calories an adult needs to consume on a daily basis, give or take a little for your weight/sex/age) looks like at a relatively large span of different kinds of common restaurants, and then shows the amount of food you can eat for the same amount of calories by cooking at home. In a lot of cases in the restaurants, 2,000 calories only got you one meal, or in some extreme cases, one item! The gist of the article, basically, was that even if you're not specifically trying to limit calories, when you cook at home you're going to consume fewer calories per meal.

Ever since we moved into our house, eating meals we've prepared at home has become much more of a regular occurrence for Jeff and I. When we were in the apartment, of course we had a functioning kitchen, but it was small and crappy and just wasn't a place that I liked to spend a lot of time in. Of course, I still baked (way more than I do now, actually), but after doing all of the baking that I did in that cramped space, I just didn't feel like putting in the effort to cook many meals. We ended up eating a LOT of takeout and Wawa, or a lot of the time I'd just eat my meals at work (which wasn't hard, seeing as I worked in a restaurant then). Even though I wasn't cooking a lot, I still tried to make a conscious effort to eat as healthfully as possible, but "as healthfully as possible" was usually still pretty unhealthy. Plus, it took a lot of effort trying to select things to eat that were relatively light, so a lot of the time I'd end up eating something like a side of mushrooms or a sweet potato for dinner. Not ideal.

Now that we have a kitchen that I love to cook in, I cook at least 4 nights a week, and a lot of the rest of the nights we eat leftovers from previous nights (which is also generally what I eat for lunch). I try to limit eating out or takeout to one night a week, sometimes two if we're extra busy or have social stuff going on. I'll admit that I'm not the greatest at meal-planning; I usually just buy a bunch of random stuff that can be mixed and matched to last throughout the week, and fly by the seat of my pants. I could definitely save time and money by planning better, so that's something to work on, but I feel like I've gotten pretty good at working with what I have, especially when it comes to putting leftovers/odds and ends from previous meals to work. I used to be terrible about throwing food away, but now I at least put forth an effort to use what I already have before going out and buying new stuff.

As I've mentioned before (since you probably didn't catch my subtle sarcasm), I don't diet. That said, I do try to make healthy choices overall. Sometimes I'm good at this, sometimes I fail completely (I say, as I munch on a pretzel rod smothered in Nutella). Since I've been feeling (physically) pretty gross from all of the indulging I've done over the past few months, I'm trying to make a concentrated effort to freshen up my eating and pack my meals with actual nutrients that I've been ditching in favor of butter and cheese. Oh, all of the cheese. I don't cut anything out or make all sorts of crazy swaps to make my food practically calorie free or swap all of my refined grains for farrow and chia seeds, because that's not practical for me (and Jeff would probably leave me), but I do try to pack my meals with tons of nutrient dense veggies, and attempt to make little switches here and there, such as quinoa or brown rice instead of white rice or pasta. Another thing that I do that actually makes meals easier as well as healthier is to eat primarily vegetarian a few nights a week. I don't really even do this on purpose a lot of the time; some nights it's just easier to throw together a meatless dish.

One thing that I like to do on nights I don't feel like working out a composed dish is to throw together whatever I have laying around, especially vegetables that are looking on the sad side or bits of leftovers from previous meals. For example, the other night I made this:

Carmelized Onion and Spinach Bowl

Loosely adapted from Dinner a Love Story

Slice a couple of onions, and cook in a glug of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium low heat for 15-25 minutes (the longer you can wait, the better they get...but you have to keep an eye on them). Once the onions are nice and brown and melty, toss in some salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add a generous handful of spinach, and sauté until the spinach wilts. At this point, you have a very tasty topping for...anything you have on hand. I served mine over a little bit of brown rice cooked in chicken stock, and Jeff's over some leftover penne. It'd also be delicious over quinoa, a baked potato, some couscous, or whole grain spaghetti (which is how I serve it on the reg). If you're feeling saucy, it's great with some crushed red pepper flakes, or if you're feeling cheesy it's great with some parm grated over it.

I did this with onions and spinach, but you get the idea. You could do something similar with whatever veggies you have laying around - roasted cauliflower is always great (as is roasted broccoli), or a favorite of mine is pan seared brussels sprouts with corn cut off the cob. Get wild. Dinner's a piece of cake.

Stopped Cold

It's COLD out, yo! That polar vortex nonsense appears to be rearing its ugly head again (that picture is actually from last winter, though...this year so far we're getting the cold, but have only had a teensy bit of snow. Phooey.) Even though I grew up in snow central USA, I am totally unable to deal with being cold. I completely shut down when it's cold...and I'm pretty much always cold, even when it's warm out. So you can imagine what a wuss I am when the wind chill drops into the single digits. I have a pretty extensive list of totally not ridiculous things I do to keep warm, including but not limited to: taking multiple scorching hot showers in one day, turning my oven to extremely hot temperatures and cracking the door and sitting in the kitchen (this is an actual thing I do, and I hope Jeff doesn't read this because he'll lose his mind...so will my mom, probably), standing over our heat vents like a damn cat, wearing a winter scarf in the house, eating hot soup when I'm not hungry just to warm up my belly, cooking something that involves a tedious amount of time standing over the stove, and turning the shower on as hot as it will go and letting it run while I'm in the bathroom so that it creates a sauna-like effect. Believe me, I'm a pro at finding ways to keep warm (most of which only moderately work). But I do also do more normal things, such as drinking red wine or having a cup of hot tea or cocoa. In the spirit of keeping toasty, I thought I'd share a tasty warm drink recipe Jeff and I have become addicted to ever since ordering it after dinner one night:

Flannel Pajama Coffee

Mix your favorite coffee (I actually prefer this with hot cocoa - who'da thunk it?) with a generous shot of butterscotch schnapps and a shot of Godiva chocolate liquor (we've been using dark chocolate, but I think the white chocolate would be even yummier). Top with a pile of whipped cream. Drink up and feel instantly warmer, or at least happier. 

Homemade Applesauce

You guys, homemade applesauce is SO EASY to make.

 

I've been craving homemade applesauce recently. My Gramma used to make it all the time; she'd make both delicious regular applesauce and the horrifying neon-red kind made with cinnamon candy. I preferred the delicious regular version. I wasn't really sure how she made it, but how hard could it be, ya know?

Not. Not hard. I made mine in my trusty crockpot because I wanted my house to smell like delicious apple pie goodness all day, but it can be made in about 20 minutes in a regular pot on the stovetop. Judging by my Instagram feed, I know you all have about 45 pounds of apples to use up from the 5 trips to the orchard you all made (as well you should have, how perfect has this fall been?), so I highly suggest whipping up a batch of applesauce. It's delicious warm (and would be heavenly over a scoop of vanilla ice cream...I don't think there's anything that makes me more joyful than puddles of melted ice cream mixed with spiced apple goop), and I think it's even better chilled. And you can make it however you like it - I used the full range of apple pie spices, but you can only use cinnamon if you prefer, or no spices at all. I almost didn't make it because my apples looked so pretty in their bowl on my dining room table and I'm an idiot, but I'm glad I did.

Homemade Applesauce

Peel and core apples; chop into manageable chunks (I used 8 large honeycrisp apples, but you can use whatever you have on hand...just make sure you adjust the rest of the ingredients depending on how many apples you use. This "recipe" is very forgiving, don't get all uptight about it.). Dump into vessel of choice (crockpot or large stockpot) and throw in 1/3 cup brown sugar (white can also be used; I like the deep color brown brings to the table. You can also use more or less sugar depending on how sweet you want your sauce), 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp each of allspice, nutmeg, ground ginger, and cloves. Pour in about 3/4 cup of apple cider (water would also work), and cook until apples start to break down and sauce is thick. I cooked mine in my crockpot on high for about 5.5 hours, but it was technically done after about 3, I think. I haven't done it on the stove, but most recipes I glanced over state that it takes about 25 minutes. When the apples are cooked, break them down with a spoon until a chunky sauce forms, or if you prefer a smooth sauce, puree in blender. Eat warm, or chill and gobble as desired.

A Tale of Two Cookies

Last week, Jeff had a bake sale at work, so I was called upon to whip up something tasty. I haven't baked as much since quitting my brief stint at going pro, but I've been getting back into it little by little, plus this is the time of year that I feel like baking (and cooking) constantly, no matter what.

My favorite way to bake is to take recipes that are already great and tweak them to my personal taste. The only problem with this is that I often have people ask me for recipes, and I usually forget the tweaks that I'd made, so I'm never able to give a very accurate representation of the recipe I used. I've been trying to get better at that, both because it's annoying if I want to replicate something awesome I made and I can't remember how I made it, and because if I ever decide to open my own shop I'll obviously need accurate recipes!

I decided to make two cookies for the bake sale: nutmeg maple butter cookies, which I snagged from my all-time favorite source for baked goods, Smitten Kitchen (who doesn't love Deb?) and honey chocolate chunk cookies from Pastry Affair, which I found on Pinterest.

As far as the actual recipe for the nutmeg maple butter cookies goes, I didn't have to do a whole lot of tweaking, as Deb's recipes are usually pretty close to flawless. The main thing that I changed with these guys was that Deb rolls them and cut them into adorable shapes, and I'm lazy, so I decided to make them slice-and-bakes. Also, I had received a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Sugar as a housewarming gift that I hadn't gotten a chance to use yet, so I sprinkled some on the top of these babies, and it was perfect.

With the honey chocolate chunk cookies, I made a couple of different tweaks. The recipe called for dark brown sugar and I didn't have any, so I used light (which usually doesn't make a HUGE difference, but I'd probably still use dark if I had it since it brings a deeper molasses flavor to the table), and it called to replace some of the flour with whole wheat flour. I don't really like whole wheat flour in desserts; I prefer to use it for breakfast type breads or muffins, so I nixed it and replaced it with an equal amount of bread flour to up the chew factor. I also figured the cookies would be on the sweet side since they called for both honey and sugar, so I sprinkled them with flaky sea salt and used bittersweet chocolate (the original recipe doesn't specify what kind of chocolate to use, but the pictures make it look like she used bittersweet in the originals as well).

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup maple syrup (*see note)
1 egg yolk from a large egg
3 Cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
Vanilla bourbon sugar or muscovado (raw) sugar for topping (optional)

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and mix until combined; drizzle in maple syrup. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture. Mix until just combined. Dough will be on the dry side.

Gather dough on to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a log (at this point, I had planned to form it into a disc to roll but decided at the last minute to make it into slice and bakes, so it would actually probably be ideal to form two shorter logs, but I made one long log). Wrap log in plastic wrap. I find that once my log is wrapped, it's easier to perfect the shape of the log - I try to get it as close to a cylinder as possible, but since it'll be sitting on a flat surface it won't be perfect. Don't worry about it. The cross-section of your cylinder will the the size of your cookies, so keep this in mind. Chill log in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Remove log from refrigerator and unwrap; slice into 1/4 inch slices. At this point, I cut the edges off of mine to form rectangles, but you can leave them a more rustic shape. I also used chopsticks to create four indents on each cookie, but this was just decorative; you can skip this step entirely. Dust with sugar if using.

Arrange on parchment lined cookie sheet (these cookies don't really spread, so you can get quite a few on a sheet - it depends on how large your cookie sheet is, but I was able to get 15 per sheet). Bake from 8-12 minutes at 350, or until golden. Baking them longer will make them crispy, baking for shorter will leave them a little chewy in the center. Transfer to racks to cool.

*Note - Grade B maple syrup is ideal for these cookies, because it has a much more pronounced maple flavor. I have a heck of a time finding it unless I order it online, so I also have a bottle of maple flavoring lying around and any recipe that calls for maple syrup I use more common grade A mixed with about a 1/4 tsp of the maple flavoring. I got the flavoring from a local kitchen store, but maple extract would also work. Obviously use real maple syrup, regardless. Don't even think of whipping out Mrs. Buttersworth. We love her, but this is not her jam.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Adapted from Pastry Affair

1/2 Cup unsalted butter, softened
1 Cup brown sugar, packed (I used light, but dark would be even better)
1 large egg
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup all-purpose flour
3/4 Cup bread flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
Flaky sea salt, for garnish

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix until combined. Add honey and vanilla. In separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients slowly, until just combined. Mix in chocolate chunks by hand.

Drop by generous tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets (I like to make my chocolate chip cookies from the large side to humongous - around 1/4 Cup, as it helps with texture. If you're going to make these larger, just double the recipe as I did, since this size batch wouldn't make very many larger cookies. I also like to chill chocolate chip cookie dough anywhere from overnight to ideally 72 hours, which imparts a wonderful deep almost butterscotch flavor and helps the cookies brown better. I only chilled these for a couple of hours though, and made them on the small side, and they turned out fine. Just make sure your dough is firm, as they'll spread too much if your dough is too warm. I also recommend chilling between batches.) Sprinkle cookies with flaky sea salt. Bake cookies for 8-15 minutes (I know this is a huge range, but baking time depends entirely on the size of your cookies. Keep an eye on them, and if you can smell them, definitely check on them. Once you can smell them, they're usually almost done.) until the tops are just slightly golden. Remove from oven and let rest on cookie sheet for 10 minutes; move to racks to cool.

Pinterest success! Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Milkshake

I'll admit it: I'm a Pinterest junkie.



Pinterest is addictive. Let's just admit that. It might seem lame, but it's a good idea. A virtual corkboard to keep all of the interesting things you find online - outfits, recipes, DIY projects, funny little snippets, anything. It keeps everything organized and at your fingertips. It's great.



Anyway. Specifically, what I wanted to discuss is this shake I found on Pinterest. Now, I've found a lot of dubious recipes on Pinterest, and some that didn't SEEM dubious, but yielded disastrous results (I've also found a lot of successful recipes, but that's not the point I've clearly set out to make). This shake recipe was one that SOUNDED kind of gross...or at least like it would turn out boring...but the picture on the pin looked so delicious that I just had to try it. And it turned out to be absolutely delightful! Allow me to share.

The idea behind this shake was to make, I guess, a chocolate peanut butter milkshake that's not horrifically unhealthy. The only ingredients are frozen bananas, cocoa powder, natural peanut butter, almond milk (which I didn't have, so I just used regular 1% milk), vanilla extract, maple syrup (which I didn't want to use, so I used agave nectar), and ice. The recipe listed specific amounts of ingredients and instructions, but all I did was this: break up a frozen banana and toss it into my ninja with a big spoonful of natural PB (I think the peanut butter being natural is key, otherwise it'd make the shake too sweet), a tablespoon of cocoa powder, a big splash of milk, a tiny splash of vanilla, a squeeze of agave, a tiny pinch of kosher salt, and a scoop of ice, and blend it until it was smooth. I expected it to be mediocre at best, but it was freakin' delicious! It tasted like a rich, thick chocolate/peanut butter/banana milkshake, and it was only mildly sweet, which somehow made it taste more decadent. The amount that I made  added up to be about half of the recipe that Pinterest yielded, and I shared it with Jeff. I think that the full amount that I made would be a perfect size for a filling breakfast, or for a really satisfying dessert - and it's relatively healthly and low calorie, at least compared to a traditional ice cream shake. I highly recommend throwing one together; it takes about 45 seconds to make.



Happy sipping!