Lightened up: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

I love lemon poppyseed bread, but I'm not sure I love the nutritional stats! We love snack foods and breads around here, so I decided to try out Skinny Chef's version of the lemon poppyseed muffin. I originally saw this on Lovestoeat, who swapped orange for the lemon, which sounds like a good idea too! I decided to do half orange and half lemon. With the lemon, I added almond extract and with the orange, I used pineapple Malibu as my "extract"/flavoring! We had some sitting around and orange and pineapple sounded like a good combo.

The texture of these is great (like a dense cake), and the flavor combos worked out pretty well! I will be doing these again.

On a similar note (I guess?), I am considering searching for a copy of Bethenny Frankel's book...anybody read it and recommend it? She seems a little neurotic..I wonder if the book is the same way.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

From Skinny Chef

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup low-fat, trans-fat free margarine, melted and cooled

1 egg white

1/4 cup low-fat, sour cream

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Directions:

Heat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl or zipper lock bag. Stir well to combine.
In a medium bowl, mix sugar and margarine until smooth. Stir in egg white, sour cream, lemon juice, extract, lemon zest, and poppy seed. Add flour and mix until a batter forms, about 10 strokes with a wooden spoon. Don’t over mix, otherwise your muffins will be tough.
Fill muffin tins three-fourths full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins spring back to the touch. Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Quinoa with Shrimp and Bean Saute

I am trying out quinoa for the first time after Jillian and I went on our inaugural trip to the awesome Whole Foods in OP. Another Eating Well recipe! I wanted to try something gluten free (the quinoa) to see if it settled my stomach down. Then I accidentally had a blueberry muffin with it. DUH!

Snapping the green beans made me long for summer and brought me memories of my mom and I in the kitchen snapping them and then simmering them for a long time and having just green beans for a few meals in a row. So good!!

Back to the food: Norris loved the meal, and I am still trying to decide if I like the flavor of paprika. I thought the meal was really good, but there was one flavor that just wasn't clicking with me, and I'm pretty sure it's the paprika. If you like paprika, or don't mind it, you'll really like this!

Paprika Shrimp & Green Bean Saute with Quinoa

ingredients adapted slightly from Eating Well

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
4 cups green beans, trimmed (about 12 ounces)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 T minced garlic

2 teaspoons paprika

1 pound raw shrimp (21-25 per pound)

1 16-ounce can great northern beans (or some kind of white kidney bean), rinsed

2 cups hot cooked quinoa

¼ cup sherry vinegar or red-wine vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped fresh parsley, divided

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Paprika Shrimp & Green Bean Saute Instructions
1. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Put green beans in a steamer basket, place in the pan, cover and steam until tender-crisp, 4 to 6 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and paprika and cook, stirring constantly, until just fragrant but not browned, about 20 seconds. Add shrimp and cook until pink and opaque, about 2 minutes per side. Stir in beans, vinegar and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup parsley.

3. Divide the quinoa among the plates. Top with green beans, then the shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with pepper and the remaining 1/4 cup parsley.

How to cook quinoa

(as instructed on the bin at WF!)

1 cup quinoa

2 cups cold water
1/2 t salt, optional

Soak the quinoa for 15 to 20 minutes in water in its cooking pot (different water from the 1 1/2 c). If you don't have that long, soak in hot water for 5 minutes.

Rinse and drain the quinoa.

Place quinoa in empty pot, pour 2 cups cold water over top, and add the salt. Bring to a boil, then cover with lid and reduce to simmering.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to sit with lid on for 5 minutes. Remove lid and fluff, just like rice!

Why quinoa is awesome:

It's not technically a grain, but we use it like one

It's the only "grain" that is a source of complete protein all by itself

It's gluten free

and many other nutritious benefits...look them up if you want to know more.

and I present my rigged steamer...I was thinking about buying a steamer basket, but thought it would take up a lot of space. This colander fits right down into my stockpot and a little saucepan lid fit tightly over the beans! So, if you don't have a steamer, give it a try! I'm still considering buying one so I can put more food into it to steam...we'll see...

Taco Stuffed Shells

This meal is a great way to get one pound of ground beef (or turkey, or chicken) to stretch to feed about five people. In our house, that's a stretch, anyway!

This recipe is from this website, although there are a ton of different versions out there. Kraft foods has a version where you soak crushed Ritz in some milk, and then eventually add them to the meat mixture to add some more bulk. Sounds a little too meatloaf-y to me, so I'll stick to this one! We will definitely make this meal again.

As far as the pictures go, they weren't happening last night. I got one while I was prepping, and then one later when Norris got out the leftovers to have some more. If you want to see a good picture, click the original recipe link for step by step instructions!

Taco Stuffed Shells

adapted from blogchef for my non-salsa eating husband; check out the original version if you like salsa!

1 lb ground beef, turkey, or chicken

1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning

16 jumbo pasta shells (couldn't find in whole wheat version...tell me if you know where to find those!!)

4 oz. fat free cream cheese

1 cup mexican shredded cheese

2/3 cup taco sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

2 t onion powder

1 t ground red pepper

1 1/2 cups tortilla chips, crushed (optional)

other topping as you like: green onions, sour cream, more salsa..

Brown ground beef, drain fat, and prepare according to taco seasoning directions.

Put a pot of water on to boil for pasta shells. Prepare according to package directions (mine boiled 10 minutes).

After taco meat is prepared, add cream cheese, cover, and simmer for about five minutes, until cream cheese is melted in. Stir it all together.

After pasta shells are done, lay them out so they aren't touching so they won't stick, or toss them in a bit of olive oil to do the same thing.

After meat is done, let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together tomato sauce, garlic, onion powder, and ground red pepper and pour in bottom of 9x13 baking dish.

Stuff each shell with meat mixture and place in dish. Pour taco sauce on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, uncover, sprinkle cheese and crushed chips on top, and bake for another 15 minutes. (great chance to clean the kitchen up:)

Pre-baking. I thought we could probably have gotten away with stuffing a couple more shells with the meat mixture, but I just overstuffed these instead!

Laughing Cow Chicken

I have seen this cheese stuff on one of my favorite recipe swap websites, Hungry Girl, many times, and she has suggested tons of things to do with it. I remembered this one in particular and finally tried it tonight! This recipe has been popping up lots of places, so I decided we better finally give it a spin. If you haven't ever used Laughing Cow, buy the light in whatever flavor near the cream cheese and prepackaged Gorgonzola type stuff. 1 Weight Watchers Point per wedge, and you can do lots of things with it--make a light alfredo sauce, spread it on some bread and broil it, stir it in some pasta by itself...all for good swiss flavor.

This recipe comes together in about 10 minutes, then you can clean up while it bakes! We had it with green beans and mushrooms and toasted french bread. It was a really great meal!

Laughing Cow Chicken

(aka Mad Cow Chicken:)

2 chicken breasts, butterflied (cut almost in half horizontally, so that you can stuff them)

2 Laughing Cow cheese wedges

1 1/2 t Italian seasoning

3 T Italian or regular bread crumbs

2 T grated parmesan cheese

cooking spray

Mix cheese and Italian seasonings together in small dish.

Combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in shallow dish.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Spread half of the cheese mixture on the inside of each chicken breast. Close the chicken breast so it looks like it's never been opened.

Spray each breast with a small amount of cooking spray and then dip both sides in the bread crumb mixture.

Bake for about 35 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken.

Cinnamon Torte

It's torte time in ProStart land, and I wanted to do something a little different. This torte has layers similar to thin snickerdoodles and cool whip. I changed the original measurements to how we had to change it how we went. The filling wasn't sweet enough, there was WAY too much of it, and if you really made this with all 30 layers, as it recommends, it would be about up to my knee. The recipe below will give you a more manageable amount of everything.

Cinnamon Torte

adapted from recipezaar Serves 10

Cookies:
1 3/8 cup flour
1 T cinnamon
3/4 c butter
1 c sugar
1 egg

Filling:
4 c whipping cream
1/4 c powdered sugar
1 T vanilla
1/2 c chocolate curls

1. With a mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg with mixer running. Add flour and cinnamon a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Let dough rest 15 minutes.
3. While dough is resting, grease as many 9” layer cake pans as you have. (or line with parchment paper) and preheat oven to 375 F.
4. After 15 minutes, divide dough into 7 portions and pat one portion at a time into cake pan. It will be very thin but this is what makes your layers.
5. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until it starts to brown on the edges. Turn out of the pan and do it again until all layers are made.
6. At this point you can wrap and store these cookie layers until you are ready to use them, or go on with the assembly of the torte.
7. Whip the cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until stiff.
8. Set 3/4 c of cream mixture aside for the decorating the top of the torte.
9. Place a small amount of cream on the bottom of the cake plate to anchor your cake. Place your first cookie on it. Spread with cream and continue layering until all cookies and cream are gone.
10. Put the remaining whipped cream into a piping bag and do 8 rosettes on top.
11. Sprinkle with chocolate curls.
12. Refrigerate 4 hours to overnight before serving.

Setting a good example

I am often challenged with setting a good example in front of my students. Even if you think they aren't watching, they are. When I think they are all just off in la-la land, they see and hear what I say and do. It kind of amazes me!
This means that I have a huge responsibility to be a good example for them. They need someone who can relate to them and also be a role model. Someone who can communicate and act like a professional. I try to do this every day, and can only hope I am doing my job of that. This job often seems to be even more important than teaching content. Only when both of those things are happening can you have a successful classroom.

I saw this article and am pretty amazed with this seemingly humble man who also happens to be in charge of the Kansas City Royals. This story is a really cool one--click the link to read. It's kind of a lenghty article, but a great read about someone who is in a position where he could be a role model of how to greedily live it up with the money he has or someone who can continue to stick to what they believe in and be a good example for so many people.

**(If you haven't figured out yet, the link is in the words "this article". I normally put my links within the sentence, normally on the word "this". With my color scheme on here, it's kind of difficult to tell. Wave your cursor over "this article" and it will turn purple! Click there:)

Cream Puffs

These have been researched and experimented with for many years by Gram, so here they are in all of their perfection!!

(our experimentation: milk/water, hand/mixer--led to a WHOLE bunch of cream puffs!)

I really can't ever believe how simple they are, ingredient wise. She has experimented with the merits of water versus milk, and says water works just as great. In the last few years, she has started to use a mixer after combining the final ingredients, and showed us how much of a difference this makes in the "puff" part of the cream puff. Try your hand at these!

(Ours of course are not as perfect as hers, but our attempt:)

Cream Puffs

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour


Preheat oven to 400 F.
Bring water and butter to a rolling boil.
Stir in the flour all at the same time. Keep stirring over low heat until it comes together in a ball (pulls away from the sides), about 1 minute.
Remove pan from heat and immediately put dough in mixer bowl.
Using a mixer, beat in eggs one at a time (don't want to scramble the eggs!!).
Beat mixture until it is smooth and velvety.
Drop from a spoon onto greased baking sheet, about three inches apart.
Bake until cream puffs are dry. Thump them on the bottom to see--they should sound like dense bread when you thump. Bake time for small puffs: 25 to 35 minutes; large puffs: 35 to 40 minutes
Remove puffs from oven and allow them to cool.

When puffs are cooled, cut off tops with a sharp knife. Remove the inner filament (the doughy strands). Fill with pudding or filling of your choice.

Replace tops, dust with confectioner's sugar, and serve! (best cold)


Makes 20 small puffs; 8 large puffs


She also reminded us how many possibilities there are with these...fill with chicken salad; add a little sugar when you add the flour and make a sweeter version; some people even put mashed potatoes, peas, and cheese in them!! (blech!!)

But these are totally meant to be filled with some sugar free lemon pudding (yes, it does exist!) and topped with some powdered sugar....or filled with some SF french vanilla pudding and topped with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. YUM!!

Thanks again to G & G for coming to teach us the art of the puff!