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Apple Ring Pancakes

It’s fall and with that: Apple season!
And with an abundance of fresh apples the kitchen is beckoning  to turn them into… I don’t know… stuff. Yummy stuff  😉

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The idea for this was partially inspired by my memories of Basel (my hometown) and the 2 week long autumn fair ‘Herbschtmäss’ that happens every year in, I wanna say late October. I am not certain on the exact timing all I know it is usually when you get cold toes for the first time that fall and you might want to dig out your gloves. The fair which is all over town has rides (like any good fair, I guess) but the best part are the places that have artist displaying their crafts and the food. It is traditionally the start of the colder weather, people start thinking about presents and the winter holidays coming up. But my fondest memory is of the hot apple fritters with cinnamon that one place (and one place only) was offering during those two weeks. You would get them and huff and puff for a while so you don’t completely burn yourself, but I wanna say, a little pain was often involved, it is just so hard to resist that tempting smell…   However, to bring this story full circle, the fried apple rings are maybe not the most health conscious treat out there, plus making anything deep fried is a lot of work, so abundance of apple was not going to equal fried food for this girl. And while this train of though could lead to many an end, the one my brain spat out was ‘breakfast!’ Right, what better way to use an apple than making them into breakfast?

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This is also a good way to add some fruit into your child’s breakfast, all while making it fun! If you’re really good, you might be able to preserve the hole in the middle that filled in with batter in my case. But I did also not try very hard to keep it, if that makes sense, since to me the shape was not as important as it might be to a 5 year old 🙂

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Ingredients

  • 1-2 larger apples (I used a gala apple) cut cross wise into 1/4″ slices
  • 1 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp oil or melted butter
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp turbinado sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • cinnamon-sugar and maple syrup as toppings
  • some oil for the pan

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Directions

  1. Cut apple into 1/4″ sliced crosswise, then using a small round cookie cutter or glass, cut out the core of the apple from each slice. (You can also use an apple corer, then slice the apple)
  2. Make the batter: Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until combined, then add the milk, oil and egg.
  3. Mix with a fork until just combined, some lumps are fine
  4. Preheat a skillet over medium heat, rub the interior with an oiled paper towel.
  5. Using a toothpick, dip the apple rings into the batter, turn to coat both sides and place in skillet to cook, about three at a time.
  6. Turn when they are golden brown and finish cooking on the second side, being careful to turn the heat down if necessary. (You want to make sure the apple gets mostly cooked before the pancake burns) Set aside, cover and keep warm on a pre-warmed plate or in the oven. Cook the remainder of the apple slices.
  7. Serve sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar or syrup and be happy you did not just have plain carbs for breakfast.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Coconut Super-Power Bars

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Here shown with chocolate drizzles…

I was reorganizing my kitchen cabinets the other day, (can you associate with this?) and found that the recesses of the cabinet used as pantry hold much more than can be readily found by me on any given day. Some needed to be tossed 🙁 had been lost in the depths too long, there were things I didn’t know I had anymore but had been looking for and then of course there are the quadruplicates , I mean, duplicates.

Several (open) bags of extra dark chocolate chips, about 4 different ‘grinds’ of unsweetened coconut, all opened too, of course, and several jars with 3 or 4 tablespoons of honey or brown rice syrup were retrieved from the depths of my cabinet. I did promise myself to not get so ahead of myself again, let’s see if it holds next time I face a sale at the store…

So after my botched attempt at making coconut butter (I think the very fine Indian store coconut I had, was a just a bit too dry) I came up with plan B, and a fine plan it turned out to be. My boyfriend who is training to run the NY City Marathon this year, swears it’s those bars that made him finish the last couple of 15 mile training runs with ease. He swears they gave him super-powers, hence the name, they previously were ‘just’ power bars 🙂 And I’ll let you in on a secret, he doesn’t even like coconut ;P but if you bake it until the bars get brown, careful it’s right before the ‘too much’ stage, the coconut gets a taste similar to dark chocolate, add a handful of morsels and the deal is fixed. Just to calm your conscience, yes, he does know there’s coconut in there.

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Vegan, gluten free and grain free and if you don’t count the coconut as nut (they really are considered one of the largest seeds, or technically a drupe, says Wiki) it’s nut free as well 🙂 Oh and don’t forget the power of the sprouted lentils.

image See the little sprout poking out? And I think I spot a lentil too…

And please don’t be discouraged by the seemingly long ingredient list, it is totally worth making and there really isn’t that much effort required.

Since the sprouting takes some time, you want to start this several days before you want to make the bars. In the summer it only takes 2 days in my kitchen, but in the colder months, it could be three or four. Or if your kitchen is highly air-conditioned

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Ingredients

  • 4 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 3/4 cups red lentils, sprouted, divided (makes about 2-2 1/2 cups sprouted)
  • 3/4 cups date pieces
  • 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour*
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips (make sure they are vegan or the recipe is not…)
  • (optional: 1/2 cup sliced almonds: not nut free anymore, but super yummy)
  •  1/4 cup chia seed
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • (optional: a handful of chocolate chips to melt and drizzle over top)

*I am sure other gluten free flour would work as well

Directions

  1. Sprout the lentils until the little shoot is about 1/2″ to 3/4″ long (more details on sprouting here), reserve 1 cup,image
  2. Preheat oven to 350ºF
  3. Mix the chia seed and the flax seed meal in a medium bowl with 1 1/2 cups water, set aside for 10 minutes
  4. Blend the coconut and dates until finely mixed, then add all but the reserved 1 cup of lentils, blend until you have a sticky mass (or mess)
  5. Add the chia mix and the brown rice syrup, pulse until mixed in
  6. In  a large bowl,  combine tapioca flour and 1/2 cup water, the reserved sprouted lentils, and scrape the mixture from the blender into it, stir until incorporated.
  7. Add the oats, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips (and almonds if using) and evenly spread on a silicon mat lined baking sheet (Make sure you use a baking sheet with sides)
  8. Bake in the 350ºF oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Or until nicely browned. Remove from oven, let cool for about 1 hour then cut into bars. Spread the bars onto two (2) baking sheets, preheat the oven to 250ºF and bake for an additional hour, I sheet on the lower rack, the other on top, switching position after half an hour. This step is more to firm up the bars and kinda make them drier and more portable.
  9. Cool on wire rack and enjoy! I store mine in the freezer so I can just grab a couple at a  time.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Bircher Müesli

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You may know versions of it as ‘musli ‘, but this cereal based dish has its roots firmly planted in Switzerland. Dr. Bircher decided, at a time when everything was cooked due to germs, that there were benefits to real and raw foods.

Per my research, for those who care to dive a bit deeper: Dr. Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner  (or in german) (August 22, 1867, Aarau – January 24, 1939) was a Swiss physician and a pioneer in nutritional research. At his sanatorium in Zürich, a balanced diet of raw vegetables and fruit was used as a means to heal patients, contrary to the beliefs commonly held at the end of the 19th century.image

Bircher-Benner changed the eating habits of the late 19th century. He believed eating raw and whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, grains and nuts was healthier than cooked, he also rejected the use of refined products such as white flour and white sugar. His ideas may not all have been correct, he believed solar energy stored in food (in a not strictly defined or explained way) was what made them better and not the quantity or quality of nutrients. His theory of life was based on harmony between people and nature. Some of his ideas originated from observing the daily life of shepherds in the Swiss Alps, who lived a simple and healthy life.

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By now this recipe has as many variations as there are days in a week, multiplied by the number of people in Switzerland (my Dad says we Swiss people are born with the Bircher Müesli recipe attached to the umbilical cord 😉 this is my basic recipe and it’s variations.

 

Walking though the aisles in a grocery store, you will find commercially made musli mixes, including everything from dried fruit to chocolate chips. This is the commercially available basic Swiss version I found at the store the other day!

 

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It’s quite a popular food these days, it seems to me. But here I am taking you back to the roots, the origins of where this all came from. (using my important voice)

 

And let’s face it, why waste money on prepackaged stuff when you can make a better and healthier-for-you version easily at home? No cooking required and easy to make, this recipe is very versatile and adapts through the seasons depending on your fridge or gardens content of fruits and berries.

A great summer meal, I love it anytime of day, but in Switzerland, it is not considered a breakfast food. It is eaten as alight lunch or dinner with a buttered slice of crusty bread. (We love our bread) …And sometimes some whipped cream on top…

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I always put it up to my Dad being a foreigner, him never being super exited about Bircher Müesli, but now I am wondering if it is a guy thing. Let me explain. The other morning over breakfast, Nelson kept talking about ‘having some ‘Beatle Music’ and pssssshhhh totally over my ehad. Well, I figured it out Beatle Music = Bircher Müesli, hahaha. Of course I thought he meant ‘beetle music’ and was utterly confused, imagining a line of beetles tapping their little feet (or legs?) rhythmically, so sadly I was left with the impression that maybe he did not like my ‘Beatle Music’ turns out he does, it’s after all juts a better version of oatmeal, cold and with fruit!

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Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup rolled wheat, barley, millet, and/or rye flakes (you can use all oats instead)
  • 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
  • 2 tablespoons raisins
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 yogurt (optional)
  • 1 apple
  • 1 banana
  • 1 1/2 cup mixed fruits and berries (plums, peaches, apples, pears, oranges, grapes, strawberries or even frozen blueberries, the possibilities are endless)

optional: you can also add chopped roasted hazelnuts, pieces of dried fruit or banana)

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Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cereal flakes (or just the rolled oats), raisins, almonds and hazelnuts and 1 1/2 cups of the milk.
  2. Grate an apple on the large holes of a grater, stir to combine.
  3. Cover and let stand 1 hour or until the oats are softened.
  4. Slice the banana, chop the peach and the berries (used in the picture are peach, plum, strawberry, banana and apple) or whatever other fruit you have on hand.
  5. Uncover the bowl, stir in the yogurt (if using) and the rest of the milk (You can add more if it looks dry) then add all the fruit, gently mix so one person doesn’t get all the fruit and serve.
  6. Store any leftovers in the fridge and eat within 2 or 3 days

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Healthy Breakfast!

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Campfire Chili

imageCooking under the stars always makes things have a special taste. Whether cooked over the fire or on a camp stove does not seem to matter. I guess you could even get ok good results at home, IF you really have to 😉 but I strongly believe the view and therefore the mood you’re in while cooking influences the result and how could anything not be fantastic, having a view like that?  ‘Cooked with love’ as my Peruvian friend likes to say. Or maybe ‘with peace in your heart’ would be more fitting.image

For this easy and quick dinner I am using a variety of beans, to add some visual as well as textural interest, and you can certainly substitute your favorite beans for what was used here. Making this at home I would totally use frozen beans (I cook dried beans and freeze them in portions) but since this was going to be one of our optional meals, I brought some cans along so it wouldn’t spoil if we decided against it. If using cans just make sure you rinse them really well, they usually pack quite a punch of sodium. To get ‘the look’ below, use 3 different types of beans and some corn (the regular size can, US 15.5 oz) just understand that variety comes at a price: This dish feeds half an army (6 people) And since it was just the two of us, we ate it three times, with a side of cheddar corn muffins. The really awesome part about the quantity is we had leftovers (stored on the ice in the cooler) to take home and have for dinner after our trip. Nothing like coming back from an active vacation and dinner is ready 🙂

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You may have notices that there is no onion in this recipe, and you could certainly add onion. We wanted to. Sadly for us however, the onion sat safely back at home in a bag with the extra cucumbers from the market, in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. But as I learned, with the right (rest of the) ingredients, that isn’t a problem at all and we could not even tell it was missing at all. Use a big can of San Marzano tomatoes if available, they are awesome for Chili. Yes, I am aware that they are Italian :), but trust me, makes all the difference. That and my secret ingredient, the steak seasoning.

imagecooking with wind guard and view of the lake

Ingredients

  • 1 can dark red kidney beans (15,5 oz)
  • 1 can butter beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can small red beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can no salt added corn (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can San Marzano tomatoes whole peeled (or stewed, chopped tomatoes) 28 oz (big can)
  • 2 lb mixed ground meat (half venison, half beef is fab)
  • 4-6 tablespoons medium to hot chili powder (Penzey’s makes an awesome one)
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • 2 tsp steak seasoning (such as the one from La Cense or  Chicago Steak Seasoning)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Heat some oil in a pot over medium, add the ground meat, and proceed to cook and break apart using a spatula until the meat is cooked and not pink anymore.
  2. Add the spices and the tomatoes, then stir in the rinsed beans and corn (don’t open all the cans before hand, in case you run out of space, you can pass on one of the cans, bug make sure the ones you use are well rinsed)
  3. Cook until slightly thickened, taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. The longer you stew it the more the flavors will blend (or heat, cook 10 minutes, and wait for the leftovers to do that)
  4. Serve with some Cheddar Corn Muffins and maybe a glass of full bodied red…

By the way, this is soooo easy to make, even a novice cook can whip it up in no time!

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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English Muffin Breakfast Eggs

Breakfast is a very important meal and can start your day right or set you up for hunger bangs by 10 am. And as anyone knows, when you are outdoors a lot hiking, kayaking or even just relaxing by the water, food tastes twice as good. Or maybe you get twice as hungry? Who knows. In order to fill our bellies and give us some energy for the hiking and whatever else we could come up with to fill the day ahead, we dug through the cooler and found some of our yummy supplies that had lived through my boyfriend’s searches for snacks. Okay, we planned a bit better than that, but you never know with hungry guys, they can mess up meal plans 😉 Eggs keep pretty well in a cooler, so we had ourselves some of those for breakfast on day three of our last camping trip. Prosciutto and cheese are also stuff that keeps rather well and luckily were not all gone from snacking or making our Campfire Chili.

Ingredients

(per person)

  • 1 english muffin, split
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 slices of prosciutto (or sliced ham)
  • 1 oz of cheddar*, thinly sliced

*it works with other types of cheese that melt as well, and we have even tried feta with good results

Directions

  1. Place a skillet over medium high heat, add a little oil, then carefully crack the eggs into the skillet.
  2. When the eggs are near ready, place the english muffin pieces face down next to the egg to heat up, then turn over and layer the prosciutto and cheese onto of the bread and slide the eggs on top.
  3. Enjoy by a waterfall (optional, but recommended)

and if the egg white gets out of hand, just flip it over like we did!

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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making Butter

A while back I discovered that my farmers market offers raw milk, and I started drinking raw milk again. I switch back and forth between regular (cow) milk and goat milk. I have made goat cheese and fromage blanc and mozzarella, and butter. You’d be surprised to find just how easy this is, using modern convenience tools like a blender. No shaking a barrel for hours and NO, nononono, you do not get one of these: 

         or 

To me, raw milk is the only milk worth drinking, hands down, and not just due to the taste (more here). Not only are my food decisions based on how any given food tastes, but also how it is raised. And raw milk dairies are (at least in this country) organic, my milk is from pastured, grass fed cows (you know, happy out on the pasture vs. in a dark stable tied up somewhere), so far all the raw milk diaries I have visited care a great deal about their animals and take care of them like you and I would. From a regulatory stand point, raw dairies are generally under much more scrutiny, for cleanliness, safety etc. The cows have names. Ok that part might not make the milk taste better, but wouldn’t you agree that if you name your animals, they are closer to your heart than if they just have a number? 🙂

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Mound of butter, by painter Antoine Vollon

Ever read the label of supermarket butter? One of the most surprising ingredients often is coloring. Now why would there be food coloring in your butter making it, presumably prettier, more buttery looking maybe, that is more yellow? Do we and if so why do we think it’s better if it’s yellow? If butter isn’t yellow after it’s made, then why would we think it needs to be? Complex questions you are asking, or then again not. Butter USED to be more yellow, at least in 1875 (see the painting above) when the cows where still out on the field, eating what they were meant to eat : Grass. Since most of your generic super market cows here in the US are kept indoors and fed a mixture of corn and cornstalks fortified with vitamins and minerals, the color doesn’t turn out quite the same. And it seems that people are smarter than we give ourselves credit for and somehow remember that butter is supposed to be yellow and it is more nutritious that way and this is where we get duped: color is added and our little  minds are happily appeased into thinking yummy healthy butter. A little sad, I know. BUT since it is soooo easy to make your own, from good fresh cream, you can have great butter again in less than 15 minutes of work. When you start making butter you will notice that the color of the resulting product changes throughout the season, in the spring when the cows are out on the lush, fast growing spring pasture, the butter is a sunflower yellow, almost orange! But no matter what time of  year, there still is more color in it than the regular stuff from the store. And taste!

First off, you do need cow milk to start. Goat milk is higher in fat,but naturally homogenized, so that the cream does not separate and rise to the top.

  vs 

Brown Swiss (Cow)                                           Domestic Goat

Juuuuust in case you were doubting your animal knowledge 😉

After bringing the milk home (it comes in half-gallon glass bottles) I pour it into a wide mouth glass container that I keep for just that purpose and stick it in the fridge. It needs to sit overnight since the transport home and the pouring it from on e in to another container mixes up the milk, like I do by shaking it before pouring a glass, if I am not going for butter. Wide mouth because the next morning, I can easily scoop the cream off the top using my silver gravy ladle from the thrift store.

Gently skim the top layer off the milk, it will appear a bit darker, cream colored instead of white (no pun intended) and put it right into the blender bowl.

After that all that’s left to do is whirl the cream until the fat particles start clumping together.

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The process goes in stages, at first the cream is liquid and gets sloshed around, then it becomes thicker and has a creamy consistency (In my blender it never get’s whipped like when using egg beaters, but noticeably thicker, but if you use egg beaters, it becomes whipped cream first, the kind Grandma used to make, thick and rich, juts keep going you’re not there yet)

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keep blending on low, if you have that setting and the cream will start to get liquid again, separating into lumps of yellow goodness and buttermilk.

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it’s just starting…

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here you can see from the side, how it separates

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You can rinse the butter in a bowl with ice water, using your hands to ‘knead out’ the rest of the buttermilk but I find the automated way a tad easier and since the blender needs to be washed anyways…image

just make sure you rinse all the butter milk out, or it will go rancid.

 My lump of butter!
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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

 

 

 

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Healthy Camping Pt1

So many think that when you take food along or cook outside your kitchen that forcibly the quality of your food has to go down, as in unhealthy and bad for you. But there is really no reason for that, whatsoever. As proven by or most recent camping trip and many hikes before that (I made Vietnamese summer rolls on time, put the peanut sauce right into them), you can definitely ‘rough it’ without sacrificing on the food side of things.

This time we only had a few days so it was sadly much shorter than we would have liked. But hey, that was in June (yes, sometimes that’s how long it takes me to get a post completed) and now it’s only August, and even if you are cold easily, camping season extends till at least the end of September.
We set off on a blistering hot weekend where temps here in the Lehigh Valley topped out just short of the triple digit mark, drove through several fronts of thunderstorm and heavy downpour ( there was an inch of water in my kayak by the time we got there! ) up to the Catskills which proved to be cooler and therefore much more agreeable with everybody. Oh and the best part? It did not rain one drop once we got there!

We went with friends and the cooking duties were split evenly: we were responsible for one dinner and one breakfast.

But first, here are some general guidelines for meal planning, away from you regular kitchen:
Use seasonal produce for fresh and healthy meals. Most produce can be kept at room temperature for a period of time ( unless it’s berries, which we did put on ice in the cooler) Things like cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, apples, grapefruit, oranges, watermelon , cantaloupe , red bell pepper, onions or green beans, even kale if wrapped in a moistened paper towel before put in a plastic bag will happily keep a while. And if you end up having more space than expected, you can always store them on top of the rest in your cooler. ( don’t refrigerate your tomatoes or bananas)

Breakfast:

Mix up the dry ingredients for pancakes and store in a zip top bag, all you need to add is the liquid stuff (a liquid like milk, oil and eggs, if you are making them with eggs)

Omelettes are always a good choice, easy and versatile that can be made with pretty much anything added.
Desert: doesn’t have to be roasted marshmallow or smores either, branch out. Try fruit salad with watermelon or mixed berries with yogurt the first couple of nights. Yogurt keeps fairly well, it’s fermented. Folks used to turn milk into cheese and yogurt in order for it to keep before there was no refrigeration. Keep it cool, but you can also bring it along for a picnic on a hike, no need to panic about it. When you get down to the end of your supplies and the more delicate things are gone, make these chocolate bananas over the fire. Or make a fruit compote topped with granola for crunch!

Dinner choices beyond the hot dog and chips: Pieces of meat are healthier than mystery meat in a casing. That said this time we did have chicken sausage the one night. Carl at the farmers market is a sausage genius and I know for a fact that his chicken sausage is made from chicken breast he sells right there alongside the sausage made from it. Steak, pork chops and chicken breast can all be easily grilled but need to be kept cold on ice in your cooler until you are ready for them. In my experience, meat, like ground beef, sausage or steak. (Oh yes, I said we did it in style, didn’t I?) keeps well right on the ice or bottom of the cooler, submerged in the water. To make doubly sure and make it keep longer, freeze it solid at home, then place in a zip top bag to keep it from getting ‘watered’ or in one of those Rubbermaid ‘take alongs’ (storage containers), they seal the water out and keep the meat inside cool and dry. You can cook chicken breast pieces in an aluminium foil pack with vegetables and seasonings included. Potatoes do well cooked that way, too, although they do take a while, sweet potato seems quicker.

Oh and remember, aluminium foil is your friend, as is a good set of grill thongs and a mitt 😉

imageWild Blue berries along the hiking route

Serves 4

Breakfast:

We decided to go with an omelette with spinach and feta for sustenance and flavor. I cooked these over a camp stove, not the open fire. And it ended up being easier to make one at a time since the pan i have, makes it hard to put more than 3 eggs on at a clip and still have it cook through. Wasn’t a problem at all since other really only takes minutes to cook.

Basic Spinach Omelette:

  • 12 eggs (3 per person)
  • Spinach ( about 2 hand full per person)
  • 4 oz Feta Cheese, cut into 1/2″ cubes

Variations on a theme:

  • Use Swiss Chard or Kale, instead of Spinach
  • Add some deli ham, or prosciutto for additional flavor
  • Use cheddar, Fontina or Swiss instead of Feta

imagewith Fontina and Prosciutto

This one’s with Swiss Chard from the garden & Ham

Desert:

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Grilled bananas with chocolate

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 And for an easy camping desert, bananas with chocolate:

  • Cut in to the top of the banana, making sure not to cut through.
  • Use 1 row of fine quality semi dark or milk chocolate (Lindt is excellent) and push the single pieces into the top of the banana
  • Wrap in a rectangle of aluminium foil: Place banana in the center, flip the foil up on both sides and fold down twice, then fold in ends
  • Place on a hot grill until bananas are tender and yield gently to the touch, about 10 to 15 minutes (depends on the heat of the embers)
  • Carefully open packets, and eat with a spoon. Careful very hot!!

Waking up to sunlight…

image…and some lovely scenery from the kayak cockpit!

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Looking up through the rocks at where we will end up, after the uphill hike. And of course I had brought some Trail mix Granola Bars!

imageSunset Rock, overlooking North South Lake. You can’t see it from here, (I know this from the map) out of sight, off to the left there, are the Kaaterskill Falls, the lake water drains over the rocks into a fantastic multi level waterfall

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Peach Orange Corn Muffins

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I love the taste and texture of corn bread, and corn muffins are very close, but there’s always like 5 sticks of butter in those cornbread recipes, and while I decidedly like butter, I think there is a limit before the result is more of a garden variety of ‘fried food’ as opposed to a bread or muffin (don’t even mention what it might do to the inside of you) So that needed to be fixed, but I did not want to sacrifice the awesome moist crumb that so often is characteristic of buttery muffins, so what’s a hungry girl to do? First of, I asked myself, is it really the butter that makes them moist? I mean, have you mashed a banana lately? Or cut up some peaches? There is quite some liquid in there, so off to the kitchen we go and since I had frozen peaches on hand…

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I know, I known… Let’s back it up a minute here, I know what you’re thinking, ‘does she know it’s summer?’ Ehhm, yes, it’s quite hot, so… but here’s how it happened: I couldn’t resist to buy one of those whole pecks of ripe peaches at the farmers market the other week, it smelled soooooooo good! I know you would have bought it too. And since they were only a day away from spoiling, I had to chop and freeze most of them right away. (For the record, I did have some fresh peaches on the side). So there I am with my frozen, sliced and chopped peaches, and heck yes, I was going to use them.  But drop the butter, use dairy instead, yes maybe the fromage blanc I made, to keep it soft and moist without the butter.

After some near fails (the ones that collapsed totally the moment they came out of the oven) I nailed it and here is your healthy, yet moist and airy corn muffin with peaches. Yes it is both low fat AND low in sugar. I think you just need to go over to the kitchen and try a batch yourself!

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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup fromage blanc, made from whole milk*
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped frozen peaches, bite size chunks
  •  1/2 cup milk
  •  1 extra large egg (or two smaller ones)
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp turbinado or granulated coconut sugar
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, liquid
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp orange zest, (if using dried reduce to 1/2, or you could use natural orange essence or flavor)

* I have also successfully made this using half greek yogurt, half sour cream, about  3/4 cup each, plus or minus

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
  2. Remove the peaches from the freezer.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and baking soda and 1/4 cup sugar and set aside.
  4. In a separate large bowl, mix the egg(s), fromage blanc (or yogurt and sour cream), milk, coconut oil, orange zest until well blended.
  5. Add the wet mixture to the bowl with the flour, stir just until combined, then stir in the peach pieces and divide among 12 prepared muffin cups. (Line them for easy cleanup)
  6. Bake 24 to 30 minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and the center is set.
  7. Let cool in the muffin cups for 15 minutes before digging in (it seems to help the muffins not stick to the paper liners like mad), then you may devour them and claim the muffin tin only made 11 9 muffins or finish cooling on a rack and share. Enjoy!

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Raw ‘Pasta’ Alla Checca

imageServe up some summer!

‘Alla checca’ is one version of a classic Italian summer fresh uncooked tomato sauce. Dreamed up in Italy, when the summer sun ripens tomatoes by the minute and you just don’t want the extra heat nor want to spend much time indoors cooking sauce. When tomatoes are at their ripest and most flavorful, you want to give this recipe a try. Use either your own fresh picked tomatoes or something pretty from the farmers market, no watery, flavorless kind from the store will do here.

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Summer Bounty!

To take this a step further, I omitted the pasta and went with another summertime favorite that abounds in gardens this time a year, summer squash. Using Julienne cut zucchini and yellow squash instead of noodles, this is THE best dish of the summer. Low in calories, refreshing and oh so yummy! And the colors were so vivid and bright, I just kept looking at it, until my whole kitchen smelled like the garlic I used and hadn’t cleaned up yet;) Not as bad as the one time my whole house smelled like onions for a week, because of my over zealous helper, but more on that some other time…

Use it as a vegan main meal or serve some meat or mozzarella cheese on top or alongside. A crusty slice of bread would go well here too.

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Ingredients

  • 2 medium summer squash (I used one zucchini and one yellow, for visual appeal and because that’s what I had)
  • 2 to 2 1/2 cups of tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  •  2 tbsp capers
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup black olives, preferably niçoise
  • 1/4 cup basil leaves
  • fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

Special tools: Julienne peeler

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Directions

  1. Julienne the squash like such, set aside in a medium bowlimage
  2. Chop the tomatoes, add the garlic, capers and olives, cut into pieces if big, grind black pepper over top and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to mix the sauce ingredients. Let stand for about 5 to 10 minutes to let the tomatoes release some of their juices, then salt to taste (I find that with the olives and capers, I need hardly any salt)
  3. Roll the basil leaves and slice into thin long ribbons, add about half to the dish, toss. reserve the rest for topping.
  4. Divide the cut zucchini and squash on two deep paste plates (as a main meal, four if served as a side) Top generously with the ‘alla checca’ sauce and some more basil, serve and let everyone grind some more pepper on top, if they like.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade