Sunday, August 21, 2011

Drunken Plumb Spice Cake

I found a recipe with a unique take on Pineapple Upside Down Cake in Tosca Reno's "The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2." She created a wonderful plum upside down cake recipe which is delicious! However, being gluten sensitive I adapted this recipe and created a gluten free spice cake with my own twist.

Ingredients
1 cup of dark rum
5-7 small plums peeled,pitted, & sliced
2 TBS expeller pressed safflower oil
1/4 cup demerara brown sugar
2 TBS of molasses
1 egg + 2 egg whites mixed
2 TBS buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum extract
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup light amber agave nectar
1 cup of almond flour ( I use Honeyville)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger

Soak plums in rum overnight or up to 2 days covered in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9- inch GLASS or CERAMIC pie plate with safflower oil. Sprinkle sugar evenly over bottom of pie plate then drizzle molasses. Next arrange the plums on top of the sugar mixture then set aside. Mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer all the wet ingredients; eggs, buttermilk,extracts, apple sauce, and agave until well combined. In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices together with a whisk until combined. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in thirds scraping bowl with spatula between each addition and blend until combined. Slowly pour batter on top of plums in the pie plate so as to not move the plums or sugar mixture too much. Bake for 35 minutes or until baked through. Test with a small butter knife in center of cake and make sure it comes out clean before removing cake from oven. Serve warm with low fat frozen yogurt.

Roasted Vegetables with Goat Cheese

My grandmother created a baked vegetable dish one summer when her garden produced an abundance of tomatoes and zucchini. It was layers of sliced tomato,onion, and zucchini with mozzarella cheese in between each layer.  Her dish inspired this little creation of mine. You do need to allow a two to three hour window to prepare this since this dish does include eggplant.

*To prepare the eggplant wash, slice thinly, place in a colander, and sprinkle with salt. Allow it to sit for an hour then rinse with cold water or you can simply soak the sliced eggplant in cold salted water for an hour then rinse and pat dry. This process removes the bitter taste from the eggplant.

Ingredients
*4-5 small eggplants or 2 medium sized washed and thinly sliced ( make sure you follow preparation stated above!)
1 large zucchini washed and thinly sliced
1 large tomato sliced
1/2 sweet onion thinly sliced
2 TBS Expeller Pressed Safflower oil
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/4 cup of goat cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a small casserole dish with nonstick spray. Toss eggplant and zucchini in oil, italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix the two cheese together in a small bowl and set aside. Place one layer of eggplant mixture in baking dish then top with 1/3 of cheese mixture. To that top with a layer of tomato and onion then repeat process starting with eggplant mixture. The final layer should be cheese. Cover dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until desired tenderness.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Quick Honey Mustard Salmon

Busy mom. Busy wife. Busy life. Quick dinner!
I created this recipe back in college and my boyfriend, now husband, loved it! Cooking the fish in parchment paper keeps the fish moist because the fillet steams while it is baking. Until I started cooking my fish this way most fillets would end up dry and overcooked.
1 Salmon fillet (1-1.5 lbs)
1 TB Honey
1 TB Dijon mustard
1 TB Lemon
2 TB dry unsalted shelled sunflower seeds
Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay a piece of parchment paper large enough to wrap fillet in inside a 13x9 pan. Lay fillet skin side down on top of parchment. Mix honey, mustard and lemon juice together then spread over fillet. Top fillet with sunflower seeds and fold parchment over and under fillet so it is completely covered and sealed. Bake for 30 minutes or until fillet is tender and flakes.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Keeping It Lean on Vacation

Vacation is a time of relaxation and rejuvenation and more often than not waist line expansion.  In the past my husband and I have vacationed by staying in hotels or taking a cruise. In general this means limited healthy food options and ability to exercise. This year I decided to try a little experiment and challenge myself to make it as a healthy experience as possible without taking away from the relaxing experience it is meant to be.
For our four year wedding anniversary we decided to stay in a  hotel with suite apartments that included a full kitchen. We drove to our destination so I packed a few staple ingredients for the trip that included: extra virgin olive oil, demera sugar, agave nectar, some herbs and spices. The day after we arrived we had nutritious breakfast out and then hit up the local grocery store.   I purchased enough lean eats to last us through our trip. We also had a $20 dinning credit to use daily to two local restaurants that was included with our stay at the suite. I stuck to preparing quick lean meals and we ate out once every day for one of our main meals.
To keep it brief here are two recipes that I created while on this trip.
Chocolate Pudding:
1 cup of greek yogurt
1 tsp of agave nector
1 scoop of chocolate protein powder
! cup of berries.
Mix first 3 ingredients.Top with berries. Serves 2

Broccoli & Tomato Omelet:
2 whole eggs + 4 egg whites
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tsp of Italian spices
1 package of frozen Brocolli (about 2 cups)
1 cup chopped tomatoes
2 TB skim shredded mozerella cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil in an oven proof skillet. Saute broccoli, tomatoes, and Italian spices for 3 minutes. While veggies are sauteing mix eggs with skim milk and salt and pepper then add mixture to skillet. Cook until bottom of eggs are set and almost ready to flip. Then top with cheese and bake at 375 degrees in oven till top is golden brown and eggs are cooked about 5 minutes. Serves 2.