Egg in a Bell Pepper Basket

I am still and always trying to add more vegetables to what I eat.  And what better way that with a bell pepper that was on sale at Sunflower Market for $ 0.49 in Colorado in the middle of winter.  I tend to get nostalgic for my summer vegetables during the winter in Colorado especially on incredibly snowy days.  A prime example being today.  It was 60 degrees yesterday though very windy...this morning when I walked out to go to work at 4:20 am (yes, I work at Starbucks, and yes, all you coffee addicts, I get up this early so you can get your fix), it was slightly bizzarding and I had decided to wear capris...my reaction "oh hello snow, where did you come from."  On the drive to work, it was so windy and snowy, my poor little Geo had its own little snow storm inside just for me.  :P  In the first 2 1/2 hours at work it snowed 3-4 inches!  It was wonderful.  Though welcome to Colorado, it is sadly mostly gone now.

Anyway, even with the snow, I was in a mood to eat some fresh veggies while getting a good amount of protein. Hence...Egg in a Bell Pepper Basket.   If carbs are needed, which I did add in the end (though I forgot to take a picture of it), a slice of toasted bread is perfect to add to the combo.

Egg in a Bell Pepper Basket

1/4" slice of a red, yellow or green pepper
1 Egg
1 or more slices of Toasted Bread
Butter to coat the bottom of the frying pay
Salt and Pepper to taste (or other spices as you see fit such as basil or cilantro)

In a preheated frying pan, melt butter. Add slice of bell pepper and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes.

Add egg to center of Bell Pepper.  Cook for 2-3 minutes or until it is easy to flip.

Cook the Egg and Bell Pepper until the yolk reaches your desired consistency.  (Usually another 1-3 minutes)

Remove from pan and serve with toasted bread if desired.

Chickpea Curry

It has been a while since I actually made this chickpea curry, so the ridiculous stories to accompany this dish are either very fuzzy or now non-existent.  Even though that may be the case, I do remember that it was absolutely amazing and delicious and I wish that I had more at this moment!

Chickpea Curry

1 T. Vegetable Oil
2 Onions Chopped
1 Clove Minced Garlic
1 t. Ground Ginger
3 Cloves Minced
1 t. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 t. Mustard Seed
1/2 t. Ground Cumin
1/2 t. Cilantro
Salt to taste
1/2 t. Cayenne Pepper
1/2 t. Turmeric
1 C. Canned Tomatoes (or fresh if you have them on hand)
1 Can (15 oz. ) Chickpeas, including liquid

Heat oil in a pot.  Sautee onions until transparent on medium heat.

Stir in garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, mustard seed, cumin, cilantro, salt, cayenne pepper, and tumeric and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Stir in canned tomatoes and chickpeas including the liquid.  Cook until thoroughly heated and the chickpeas have absorbed some of the flavor of the spices.  (5-10 minutes)

Serve with fresh bread.  I used my fresh Quick and Easy Whole Wheat Bread.  Mmmmm....delicious!

Inspiration courtesy of: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chickpea-curry/ and http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/easy-chickpea-curry.htm

Quick and Easy Whole Wheat Bread

Have I mentioned I love bread!  Perhaps one of my favorite foods outside of watermelon...It is so versatile, and so many flavors and ingredients can be added to make it match any meal.  This bread is super quick and easy, and loaded full of whole grains.  What more could you ask for?!?!  I wanted to make a simply fresh bread for the Chickpea Curry that is to follow.

Makes 1 small loaf (6-8 slices)

Quick and Easy Whole Wheat Bread

1 C. Minute Oats
1 C. Whole Wheat Flour
2 t. Baking Powder
1/2 t. Salt
1 1/2 T. Honey
1 T. Vegetable Oil
1 C. Nonfat Milk

Preheat oven to 450 Degrees F.

Add all dry ingredients (Oats, Flour, Baking Soda and Salt)

Stir and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix milk, honey and oil.  Add to dry mixture and stir thoroughly.

Pour into a well greased bread pan.

Bake at 450 Degrees F for 20 minutes.

Enjoy fresh out of the oven.

I paired this bread with the chickpea curry, but it would go well with honey for a quick breakfast.

Inspiration courtesy of: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/oatmeal-whole-wheat-quick-bread/

Celebration Carrot Cake

The GRE is done with a score that I am quite happy with, so I can now spend some more of my free time cooking instead of trying to remember high school math and random big words!  And what better way to resume than with a carrot cake to celebrate my mom being cancer free for 16 years!!!!  I of course had to make it healthier than even the healthier version...not as sweet as a normal one, but still delicious (and due to less sweetness, you can always layer on some icing to increase the sweetness!)

Fills a pie pan, so serves 6-8

Celebration Carrot Cake

Little Less than 1/2 C. Sugar
1/3 C. Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt
1/3 C. Orange Juice Concentrate (I actually used 5 T. Lemon Juice and 5 T. Water...no Concentrate in my house at the time)
2 Eggs
1/2 C. All Purpose Flour
1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 t. Baking Powder
1 t. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 t. Ground Allspie
1/4 t. Baking Soda
1/8 t. Salt
1 C. Grated Carrots
1/4 C. Raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients.

Pour into a pie pan or 8 inch square baking dish coated with non-stick spray.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool and then sprinkle with powdered sugar or coat with ice as you see fit.

(and then I proceeded to go overboard with the icing!)

Cut a slice and enjoy while being thankful for the lives around you!

Inspiration courtesy of: The taste of home COOKBOOK p. 613

Whole Wheat Cranberry Almond Biscotti

While working on my admissions essay to get into grad school at CSU, I needed a distraction and a way to keep myself busy but at the same time, low key enough to process and order my thoughts about how I was going to write an essay about myself.  What better way than to cook biscotti to dunk into all the tea and coffee that I have been consuming.  Of course I changed the original recipe to make it a bit healthier.  The result is what follows.  In mine however, I accidentally left out a few key ingredients that I will be sure to add to the recipe that I post here.  I blame the memory lapse to the excess quantity of mate that I had consumed...which for some ironic reason was the inspiration of the biscotti.  

Makes 14-16

Whole Wheat Cranberry Almond Biscotti

1 C. Whole Wheat Flour

2 T. Flax Seed

6 T. Sugar (which equals 1/4 C. + 2 T. Sugar)

1/2 t. Baking Powder

1/4 t. Baking Soda (this is what I left out)

1 Egg

1 Egg White

1/2 T. Almond Extract

7 oz. Craisins

7 oz. Slivered Almonds

1 T. Lemon Zest (I used 1 t. lemon extract)

1/2 C. White Chocolate Chips

1/2 T. Oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Add the first 5 ingredients and mix thoroughly. 

Make a little hole in your dry mixture and add the next 6 ingredients.  Stir until thoroughly combined.  

Pour onto a greased cookie sheet and spread out until the mixture is about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.  Make sure to keep batter away from the edges to prevent burning of your soon to be super delicious biscotti.  

Bake for 30 minutes at 325F

Remove from oven reduce heat to 300 F and slice half cooked biscotti once length wise and then proceed to make about 1/2" cuts width wise.  Place biscotti on sides this time before placing back in the oven.

Place back in the oven at 300 F and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Either enjoy without the white chocolate chip drizzle or proceed to the next steps to top with the white chocolate chip drizzle.

To make the White Chocolate Chip Drizzle

While the biscotti is cooling, combine the white chocolate chips and the oil in a microwave safe container and microwave until the chips are melted-about 1 minute.

After the Biscotti has cooled completely, drizzle the melted White Chocolate over the Biscotti, covering the biscotti as much as you would like.

Let the White Chocolate dry and enjoy your freshly baked biscotti fresh right now or with your next cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Inspiration courtesy of http://lottamadness.com/home/2011/11/23/almond-cranberry-biscotti/

Cranberry Wontons

This whole idea came about on a lovely Sunday morning as my brother was getting ready to leave to go back to college...no better way to send him off than with a delicious fresh baked breakfast and of course a sulking barking dog that was miserable because he saw all the bags and thought he was being abandoned forever.

I love working with egg roll wrappers.  They are so versatile and easily take on the flavor of whatever you put in them while staying healthy if you bake them and not fry them.  Seeing as I have already tried pumpkin wontons, it was time to branch out and go for a different fruit inside my wonton...this time cranberries due to the fact that they were just sitting in my fridge and needed to be used up.  The joy of wontons and egg roll wrappers...you get so many of them and there are so many variations that you can do with them.  (I recommend buying the egg roll wrappers instead of the actual wonton wrappers.  You get just a few more for the same price, and all you have to do is cut them in 4 pieces.  And, if you want to have a full size egg roll, you still have that option.

Serves 2 for a meal, or makes about 12 wontons

Cranberry Wontons

1/2 C. Fresh Cranberries
1/2 C. Water
5 oz. Low Fat Cream Cheese
1 T. Cinnamon Sugar + extra to sprinkle in each
(Extra sugar is you like your cranberries sweeter)
1/4 t. Ginger
1/4 t. Vanilla
3 Egg Roll Wrappers cut into 4 pieces each
1 Egg to brush on top of each wonton.
Powdered Sugar to sprinkle on top of the finished wontons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, heat water, cranberries, and 1 T. Cinnamon sugar until cranberries pop and all the liquid has evaporated.

In the meantime, mix low fat cream cheese, vanilla and ginger.  (Add the extra sugar if you want a sweeter and less tart filling).  Once the cranberries are done, add to the cream cheese mixture and stir until thoroughly blended.  

Place about 1 t. of Cranberry Cream Cheese mixture into the middle of each 1/4 of an egg roll wrapper.  

Rub a small strip of water on two consecutive sides of the wrapper, fold over and seal by pressing the edges together.  Place on a greased pan.  

Beat one egg to coat the top of each wonton to give the wonton a crispy finish.  

Brush the top of each wonton with the beaten once it is placed on the greased pan.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.

Take the wontons out of the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Once they have slightly cooled, enjoy while they are still fresh.

Spinach Pancake Sandwich

Apparently, I like to come home on a Friday night and start cooking.  It could be the fact that I don't have a lot of energy left over from opening at Starbucks 2 days in a row, nannying, and trying to fit in running and rock climbing in the meantime.  And for me, cooking is a way for me to relax and calm down.  This night, I realized that I had a lot of spinach that was sitting in my fridge going to waste.  Seeing as it is still winter (and cold) in Colorado, a spinach salad with my new favorite salad dressing of a super fruit vinegrette did not sound too warming on a cold winter night, so I did what I do for most of my recipes and inspirations...I headed to Pinterest!  There I stumbled across these pancakes...perfect combination...spinach (to keep up with my goal of eating more veggies) and warmed up, but not the icky just cooked spinach.  And it contained a bit of protein to help my muscles recover from all the strength training and rock climbing that I have been doing.

Spinach Pancake Sandwich

(What the original recipe calls for...due to the fact that I don't always follow directions or measure out what I am supposed to...don't worry, I will tell you later how I fixed mine)

3 C. (Handfuls) Fresh Spinach
3 Eggs
2/3 C. Rice Flour

My ingredients (and seeing as it was only me eating)

2 C. (Handfuls) Fresh Spinach
2 Eggs
3 Heaping Spoonfulls of Whole Wheat Flour (I work at Starbucks and thus cannot afford many specialty items, and I am also not gluten intolerant so there is not need to cut out healthy whole wheat flour)
Salt, Pepper and Dried Basil to season

Extra egg to make a sandwich
Cheese (I used some fresh homemade 'mozzarella')

In a blender mix spinach and eggs until pureed...yes, it will share a great resemblance with baby food, but I can guarantee you it is much tastier in the end!

Now add flour and blend or stir until thoroughly combined.

Heat skillet and spoon mixture into pancake sizes onto slightly greased skillet.  It should bubble on top like pancakes, but if not, flip when they start to brown on one side and do not stick anymore.

Right as the pancakes were finishing up on their second side, I started to cook a third egg for the pancake sandwich that I was going to make.  

As soon as the egg is done, remove pancakes from skillet, top with cheese, egg and the other pancake.  If so desired, add tomato and any other delicious vegetable that you would like to your pancake sandwich.

This is one recipe that I will be making again.  It was absolutely delicious and the egg and cheese really brought out and combined all the flavors.  Next time, I will be trying it with some hummus and other goodness yet to be determined.

In the end, I had some left over batter and I was still hungry, so I cooked it up in one huge spinach pancake and lightly topped it with the homemade 'mozzarella'.

Inspiration courtesy of http://spabettie.com/2011/01/21/spinach-pancakes/