New Recipes

Well, so far so good for trying new things.  Nothing earth shattering, but everything was edible.  I suppose that sounds less than positive.

On Monday, I made zucchini carrot fritters.  Basically, they are savory pancakes.  I shredded 3/4 of a zucchini, about 7 baby carrots, 1/3 of a jalapeno, a little red onion, and a little green onion. I pressed the juice out through a  mesh strainer.  Then I mixed 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of flour, and a splash of milk, and a dollop of sour cream with some garlic and cayenne pepper.  Mixed in the veggies, and made about 6 pancakes.  Phil even liked them.  The jalapeno and cayenne made this dish - without the heat it would have been blah.  Phil grilled steaks, and I ate 1/2 of a fillet - about 3 oz.  It was a pretty good meal.

Today, I went a little crazy.  We're running out of the cookies Phil made last week - with the family eating about 3 a day - one for me, Kylie, and Phil.  Marshall won't eat them (um - weirdo).  So I decided that a modified apple cake sounded fall like.  I remember seeing that people sometimes add 7-up to cake, and since we have a 2-liter bottle of it, figured I'd try that.  The recipe online called for 3 cups of sugar.  Holy cow!!!  So, I just started improvising:

I cut up 2 apples and 1 pear, and cooked them on the stove top with about a 1/4 cup brown sugar, a hefty dash of cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg and allspice.  Then, I melted a 1/2 cup of butter.  I added a 1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt to it, and 3 eggs.  Added a dash of vanilla, and a 1/3 cup white sugar.  In the dry ingredients, I used 1 cup All Purpose Flour, and 1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, and a dash of salt.  I mixed the wet with the dry, and realized I meant to add some brown sugar, so I added 2/3 cup of brown sugar at that point, and then loosened the dough with 1 cup of 7-up.  I put 1/2 the dough down, spread the apple/pear mixture in a layer, and then the rest of the dough on top.  Baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.  It is dense, moist, and I think pretty good.  Phil says it isn't sweet enough - guess he needs 3 cups of sugar instead of a cup and a half or so.  I'll send 1/2 of it to work with him, and have a few more desserts.  It's a higher calorie dessert than I've been eating, but somehow anything with fruit feels healthier to me.

Cauliflower - I don't like you.  In fact, I don't like any vegetable that tastes like a vegetable I think.  I like arugula, but doused in balsamic.  I only like my cucumbers pickled.  I don't care for steamed asparagus, but learned that I do actually like it grilled with olive oil and salt a few months ago.  Kale chips need to be "nacho cheese" flavored.  Spinach needs a ton of garlic to make it pesto.  So I found this recipe for cauliflower "wings" and decided to try it.

Eh.  The soy flavor was good, but it's normally the texture of a veggie that loses me, and this texture was not at all "wing" like.  We both ate it unenthusiastically.  I won't make this recipe again.  http://cupcakesandkalechips.com/2013/09/08/sesame-glazed-cauliflower-wings-sundaysupper-tailgate-glutenfree-vegan/

Phil found me a recipe where instead of dipping kale into my faux cheese - cashews, red pepper, garlic, and lemon juice - you just puree them up with it, and make little blobs in your dehydrator on wax paper.  We'll see how this method of kale chips turns out tomorrow.

On Monday, I ate over 1300 calories, more than I wanted to - but did some sit ups, push ups, and stretching.  Today, I ate just over 1200 calories, but no exercise.  About to start my work week, so we'll see how that goes.