Talbot's Banana Cream Pie

Don't be fooled by the abnormal coloring of this pie - it is full blown banana.  I have many guilty pleasures, but True Blood is one of my favorite to indulge in.  I get together with my ex-work/half-marathon training/book sharing buddy during the summer on sundays and we watch the new episodes while munching on something tasty.

Last week for the premiere of season 4 I actually decided to theme the dish (dorky I know...but hey its my guilty pleasure, if you can't be a dork for that then what is the point?).  So I dyed my healthier version of banana cream pie red and named it after the fabulous vampire foodie in season 3.

• Cooking Spray
• 12 graham cracker squares (or 6 full sheets)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 3 Tablespoons boiling water
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1 and 1/2 cups lowfat milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups banana sliced
• Copious amounts of red food dye (if going talbot-y)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9 inch pie plate with cooking spray.

In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until finely ground.  Add butter and 1 tablespoon of water, and blend until the mixture begins to clump together.  Press the crumb mixture into the pie pan and up the walls of the pan about 1/2 inch.  Bake for 10 minutes and set aside to cool.

While baking the crust, in a small bowl dissolve the gelatin in 3 Tablespoons of water.  Combine the milk and eggs in a medium sized bowl.

Add the flour, sugar, milk, and egg mixture to a medium sized sauce pan, over medium heat.  Whisk the mixture so the flour and sugar dissolve, continue stirring about 10 minutes or until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened slightly.  Add food coloring here if desired.

Lay sliced bananas in pie crust and then pour the pudding mixture over the bananas.  Let set in the fridge for about 3 hours.

You may serve with whip cream, but I think its quite good on its own :)

Bread Salad (aka Panzanella)

During the hot lazy days of summer tomatoes are at their peak.  So it was only natural that my roommates and I used to crave bruschetta while we lazed around cramming for tests during summer sessions.  However the idea of turning on our stove in our non-air-conditioned apartment was nightmarish.

Bright students that we were, we just decided it would be better to tear up our bread and throw it into the tomato topping we created.  And so bread salad became a summer staple.

Later I discovered a fancier name "Panzanella" and added some ingredients, but at its core this recipe is one that makes me think of summer no matter when I eat it.

• 3 cups cherry tomatoes quartered or halved (or 3 large tomatoes diced)
• 3 cups whole grain crusty bread torn or cut into bite sized chunks
• 1/2 cucumber sliced
• 1/2 red onion diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper sliced
• 1 can of chick peas rinsed and drained (or use the roasted chick pea recipe for a nice twist)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped basil
• 2 to 4 garlic cloves smashed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss and serve.

Peanut Noodles with Steamed Veggies

It has taken me forever to find a peanut sauce that I can make at home that rivals what I get when I go out to eat.  This quest has become all the more complicated since my mom found out that she is allergic to soy.  Trying to make the majority of asian food without soy sauce is like trying to make bread without flour.  

This sauce is pretty amazing - and I was able to substitute broth and some salt for the soy sauce so my mom and other soy sensitive folks can have it too.  To make this a great healthy meal, serving the sauce on whole grain spaghetti with steamed veggies is the perfect combo.  

Peanut Sauce

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup broth (vegetable, chicken, beef) or 1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

2 Tablespoons lime juice

1 scallion, cut into pieces

3/4 inch fresh ginger, finely grated

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon salt (if not using soy sauce)

Blend until smooth.

Toss 2/3 of the sauce with whole grain linguine and drizzle remaining sauce over a healthy portion of steamed broccoli florets, snow peas, and sugar snap peas.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or roasted peanuts.

This recipe is courtesy of Ellie Krieger with modifications including omission of brown sugar.

Garden Risotto

I'm sort of on an Ellie Krieger kick this week.  If you haven't encountered her on food network or the cooking channel, she's a really amazing chef and nutrition professor at columbia.  I love her recipes because they keep the flavor strong while incorporating healthy ingredients and reducing the amount of oil.

Risotto takes way more effort than pasta, but is all the more satisfying when you eat it.  So if you have time to sit and stir the risotto for 20-30 minutes this recipe is definitely worth the arm work.  Ellie's recipe isn't vegetarian, so I modified it a bit and added some nuts to make it a main dish.

6 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 and 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 a cup of dry white wine
3/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of black pepper
3 lightly packed cups of baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 pound asparagus (cooked for 1 minute with a teaspoon of water in the microwave, chopped into 3/4 inch pieces)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Bring broth to simmer in a medium sauce pan.  Heat oil in heavy sauce pan over medium-low heat and cook onion until soft, stirring occasionally about 3-5 minutes.

Add rice stirring constantly about 1 minute.  Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly until liquid is absorbed.  Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly until liquid is absorbed.  When absorbed, continue adding 3/4 of broth at a time, stirring throughout.  Do this until the rice is almost tender and creamy looking (somewhere between 20-30 minutes).

Add spinach and peas and cook until spinach is wilted.  Add asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot.  Add in the walnuts and parmesean.  If risotto seems too thick add some more broth.

Recipe with modifications courtesy of Ellie Krieger.

Easy Funky Black Bean Soup

Black Beans are by far my favorite legumes - they are dense and meaty and full of antioxidants.  I love using them to make burgers, dip, salsa, you name it.

When I was visiting some friends down south we had a dinner where people contributed dishes from their unique repertoires.  As my friends are pretty diverse, the meal turned out to be pretty diverse too (with japanese, vietnamese, and other random cooking).  My vegan buddy made this delicious and easy black bean soup with a ton of spices and PINEAPPLE.  Seriously, I would have never thrown it in there, but it blended perfectly into the soup.

• 2 cans black beans not drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes with juice
• 3/4 cup of frozen corn (or 1/2 can of corn drained)
• 1 Tablespoon chilli powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 Tablespoon corriander
• 2 cloves of garlic smashed
• Splash of red wine vinegar
• Splash of lime juice
• Can of pineapple tidbits

Throw all ingredients except pineapple into a large soup pot.  Cook over medium heat until warmed through.  Right before you turn the heat off add in the pineapple.  

Eat with crushed tortilla chips or on own.  Then go brag about eating a vegan meal to some animal lovers :)

Grand Nelson's Fudge Squares

When I was a kiddo I had the luck to spend some time with some of my great grandparents before they passed.  My Grand Nelson was born on the 4th of July in 1899.  I remember growing up being extremely jealous of such a cool birthdate.

Grand Nelson lived through two world wars and whipped up some pretty fantastic recipes that bent to the culinary constraints of rationing (he's in the top right corner of the above picture, 19 years old).  My favorite recipe of his are his "fudge squares" which are a hybrid brownie/fudge/cookie.  The pictures I took cannot adequately convey their amazing uniqueness.

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening (crisco)
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 and 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream sugar and shortening using a whisk.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla

Sift together dry ingredients and add to bowl.  Add in chopped walnuts.

Spread mixture in a greased 13X11 or 12X12 pan.  Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges pull away from the pan.  Cool slightly before cutting.

Side Note: Nelson was Grand Nelson's first name, and yet I spent my entire childhood calling my great grandmother Mormor Nelson.  The mini-feminist in me wishes someone had let me know that wasn't her name at all, but then again who wants to be called "mormor myrtle".

Spicy Chick Pea Burgers

I love burgers.  I remember spending a good year or two in L.A. trying out the top rated burger joints on yelp/citysearch/whatever it was.  Venturing out to these places and sampling their menus was always an adventure, some adventures much better than others.

When I started this year of flirting with vegetables, I was worried about what I could get to replace my burger cravings.  Little did I know how delicious veggie burgers can be.

This burger is made of chick peas and sweet potatoes - and it is good enough that my meat-and-potatoes type brother requests it when he comes home for a visit.  Plus with all the quinoa its just so pretty looking.

• 1 small sweet potato (baked)
• 1/4 cup dried red quinoa (you can use white if you want)
• 1/4 cup dried barley
• 15 ounce can chick peas, rinsed and draines
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings : Thinly sliced red bell pepper, red onion, greens, ketchup.  Or whatever you like on burgers.

To bake sweet potato you can stick it in the microwave for 6 minutes.  Remove from microwave and wrap in foil.  Set aside for ten minutes.  Unwrap and scoop out contents into a food processor.

Cook barley and quinoa according to directions on packaging - barley takes 3X the amount of time to cook generally.

Add chickpeas, spices, flour and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the food processor.  Add cooked quinoa and barley to the food processor.  Blend.

Form 4 patties using the mixture.  Cook over medium heat using the other tablespoon of olive oil.  It takes about 3-5 minutes each side to brown.

Serve with the suggested toppings or others that you like (cheese? pickles? mayonaise?).  These burgers are pretty flavorful on their own so they don't need a lot to finish them off.

Traditional Lasagna

My brother was up this weekend and he doesn't like to cook much (ie lazy male college student). To help him out a bit, I decided to make lasagna for him to take back to school. I should confess that I haven't ever made lasagna before as an adult.  I did serve as "helper" when I was a kid, but that mostly involved eating any of the noodles that fell apart (noodles fell apart a lot when I was cooking, pretty sure it was on purpose).

Anyways I sat down with my Giada cookbook and made a modified version of her traditional lasagna.  I didn't realize how many sauces I'd have to make to do this - but I was up for the time organizing challenge.

Marinara Sauce

• 32 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 carrot peeled and sliced into chunks
• 1 celery stalk sliced into chunks
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 clove of garlic smashed
• 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil.
• 1 dry bay leaf

Heat the olive oil on medium high heat in a saucepan.  Add chopped onion and smashed garlic and cook until translucent (about 10 minutes).  Add salt and pepper.

In a food processor, blend tomatoes, carrot, and celery.  Pour contents into sauce pan with onion and smashed garlic.  Add dry bay leaf - simmer for about an hour until sauce thickens.  This can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Right after you leave the marinara to simmer, its a good idea to start heating salted water in a large pot with a bit of olive oil for cooking the lasagna noodles.

Bechamel Sauce

• 2.5 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups warmed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of pepper
• pinch of ground nutmeg

While the marinara sauce is simmering, making the bechamel sauce is easy (if you have a second pan).  Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat.  Whisk in flour with melted butter until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add in warm milk slowly, whisking so to avoid the sauce clumping.  To thicken, simmer the sauce over low heat for 10 minutes while continuously whisking the sauce.  DO NOT LET THE SAUCE BOIL.  Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Meat for the Lasagna

• 1 lb lean ground pork
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat olive oil on medium heat in sauce pan.  Cook meat until browned through - seasoning with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Drain fat from meat, let cool.

Hopefully your marinara sauce is done now :)

Lasagna

• 15 Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
• Marinara Sauce
• Bechamel Sauce
• Meat prepared earlier
• 10 oz pack of frozen spinach, defrosted and drained
• 1 and a half lb of fresh ricotta cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese 
• Butter

Preheat oven to 375.

Cook whole wheat lasagna noodles 3 at a time for 6 minutes each.  Drain lasagna and rinse.  Set to the side.

Combine Marinara and Bechamel sauce - salt and pepper to taste.

Butter 13 by 9 baking dish.  Use 1/3 of sauce to cover bottom of dish.  Lay 5 noodles slightly overlapping above the sauce.

In a small bowl combine ricotta cheese and eggs.  Spread this mixture on top of the noodles.  Cover with spinach.

Lay 5 more noodles on top, overlapping so that entire pan is covered.  Cover noodles in 1/3 of leftover sauce.  Spread meat over the top.  Sprinkle with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.

Lay last 5 noodles on top, overlapping once more.  Use remaining sauce over noodles.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.  Do a fine grating of parmesan on top of this.

Place baking dish in the center of a baking pan with a small edge (to catch fluid if it boils over).  Bake for 45 minutes.

Peanut Butter Smoothie

While I enjoy green smoothies, my ultimate favorite are smoothies made out of peanut butter.  This probably has to do with my peanut butter obsession - I'm the peanut butter equivalent of a choco-holic.  

This smoothie is great for the summer because, similar to the green smoothies, you can eat it fresh or freeze it as a cold treat for a hot day.

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk or soymilk or rice milk or almond milk 
• 1/4 cup of yogurt (plain or vanilla depending on how sweet you like it)
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter (I like using chunky for the texture it gives the smoothie, but smooth works fine too)

Blend. Pour. Drink. Smile.

Also a note about frozen bananas.  I started freezing bananas during my undergraduate years because I could never eat them fast enough before they turned.  Freezing them turned them into a delicious creamy treat and now thats how I prefer them.  Plus it saves me money to use for other produce :)  To freeze, I peel them and wrap them in foil (which I attempt to reuse).

Pesto Pizzas (includes dairy free version)

I'm not a fan of cheese overload and so when it comes to pizza, I love making it at home.  Its easy enough to stop by the grocery store and pick up a bag of pizza dough (my fave is Trader Joe's whole wheat dough).  Then all you do is bake the dough for a bit, cover with toppings, bake the dough a bit more and your done.

I started making my trader joe's pizzas with the fresh tomato sauce blogged about earlier.  But then we tried using pesto instead.  OMG.  Pesto pizza is perfect - garlicy, basily, and just slightly cheesy.

The Pesto Recipe that follows is the one we use at my house - its thicker than usual pesto (better for spreading on pizza) and it uses less olive oil (better for spreading on your arteries).  A few friends who have dairy allergies more severe than mine have asked for an adapted cheese-less recipe.  This can be done using nutritional yeast as a substitute for the parmesan.

6 ounces fresh basil (rinsed, with large stems removed)
1/2 Cup pinenuts
1/2 Cup walnuts
1/2 Cup parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast for allergies or vegans)
4 cloves of garlic
2 to 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

Blend ingredients.  Use as a dip or spread on pizza dough.

I like to cut bell pepper and red onion in 1/4 inch slices and use this with sundried tomatoes as a topping.

Sidenote: My dog is obsessed with garlic.  Whenever we eat anything with pesto she becomes the ultimate begging machine.

Adventures in Gnocchi

A long time ago in a not so far away place I lived in a small two bedroom apartment with 4 other girls and a teeny tiny kitchen.  We tried many a recipe in this location and most turned out well.  Except for the Gnocchi.

I don't know whether it was a failure of mine in reading the directions or a failure of the size of my kitchen or just a failure due to lack of skill.  But Gnocchi beat me and we had to order pizza.

So today confronted with lovely rain instead of sunshine I decided to take Gnocchi on again with the help of a you tube video featuring an accented and attractive italian chef.  I also documented my battle with my ancient camera so I could share the smiting that followed.

Potato Gnocchi

• Sea salt
• 1 pound russet potatoes
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup flour

Preheat over to 425.  Salt the bottom of the baking pan and then place the potatoes on top of the salt (don't ask questions - this is how its done lol).  Bake potatoes for 45 minutes.  Let potatoes cool enough so you aren't burning the heck out of your fingers when you remove their skins.

Using a cheese grater, grate the potato.  If you are an awesome grater of potato it will look like this:

In a large pan heat salted water - you'll want it boiling when you've formed the gnocchi. On a clean counter space make a mountain of potato gratings.  In the center of the mountain create a well.  Add the egg, parmesan, nutmeg, black pepper and salt to the well.  Add the flour around the top of the mountain (there is no flour on my mountain below).

Hopefully tactile stuff doesn't bother you - otherwise why would you be messing with Gnocchi?  Use your fingers to scramble the egg in the center and then begin pinching and kneading all the ingredients together.  Shape the Gnocchi dough into a log.

Now cut the dough log into 4 pieces.  Then take each piece and cut into three equal pieces.  On a clean un-floured surface, roll each piece until it is a snake about 1/2 inch in circumference.

Sprinkle flour on top of these rolls and then slice into 1/2 inch pieces.  Set aside pieces until all dough has been dealt with.  Do this quickly - because the italian guy said too.

When pieces have been formed.  Take a zester/cheese grater and using your thumb roll each piece of dough off the grater.  This forms a well in the center of the dough and adds texture to the back.  It will help each Gnocchi to hold sauce better.  If this is confusing, definitely watch the italian guy do it.  You'll get better with practice.  They end up looking like this.

In that water you started heating earlier - add Gnocchi slowly to water.  When the Gnocchi rises to the surface of the water it is done cooking (about 90 seconds) remove from water.  Don't let it sit in there too long cause its texture will get "gummy" - or so I've heard.  This is what cooked ones look like.

Toss Gnocchi in some olive oil so they won't stick.  There are ways to freeze Gnocchi for later - but you've just been cooking for 2 hours or so.  In my world that means its time to chow down not time to save for later.  So I'm not including those directions.

Instead, in celebration of conquering the beast that is Gnocchi, I vote to throw Gnocchi in a bowl with your favorite sauce and to commence eating :)

Oh and here's the fantastic Italian guy showing you all that stuff in a much better way :)

Vegan Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, and Banana Treats

A few months ago I thought I'd try to make my own vegan cookies.  I found this recipe and gave it a shot.  I enjoyed them, but I wouldn't exactly call them cookies.  They remind me more of soft chewy granola bars mixed with banana bread.  They are still good and pretty light (under 100 calories each).

• 1/3 Cup peanut butter
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons soy milk
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 and 1/2 cups quick cooking or rolled oatmeal
• 1/4 cup flour
• dash of cinnamon

In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork until smooth.  Add peanut butter, soy milk, flour, vanilla, and honey and mix well.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 13-16 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

If you want a more chocolate-y version, instead of a 1/4 flour I substitute 1.5 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 1.5 Tablespoons flour.  You can also throw in some chocolate chips or raisins to amp up the deliciousness :)

Grilled Chicken and Avocado Napoleons

This "sandwich" is incredibly delicious, enough so that I've been craving it all week.  I love the flakiness of the puff pastry with the creaminess of the avocado.  Giada says this is a light recipe - its definitely not, but its worth the caloric intake.  Next time I eat meat - you can bet this is what I'll be cooking.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 (9 by 10 inch) sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed and cut into 6 rectangles
• 2 (4 ounce) boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
• Kosher salt
• Olive Oil (to drizzle)
• 1/2 large avocado, thinly sliced
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
• 1.5 Tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise 
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Place an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the pastry rectangles on the baking sheet.  Using the tines of a fork, prick the top of the pastry all over.  Cover the pastry rectangles with another sheet of parchment paper and place another baking sheet on top.  Bake for 25 minutes until golden.  Remove the top baking sheets and parchment paper.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat a grill pan.  Season chicken with salt and drizzle with olive oil.  Grill until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes on each side.  Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise and cayenne pepper.  You can also buy pre-made spicy mayonnaise and skip this step if you want.

To assemble the Napoleons: Place 2 pieces of pastry on a work surface.  Slice each chicken breast diagonally into 1/4 inch slices.  Place 3 chicken breast slices on each piece of pastry.  Place 1/4 cup of spinach and sliced avocado on top.  Spread 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise mixture on the underside of another 2 pieces of pastry to create a middle layer of each Napoleon.  Place on top.  Repeat layering.  Each Napoleon should be completed with a piece of pastry as its top.

This recipe is courtesy of Giada De Laurentis.

Sometimes I find it way easier just to skip the layering and just assemble these like open faced sandwiches.  Regardless deliciousness :)