Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Cuteness!

I really wanted Shepherd’s pie today, and since John isn’t eating meat, we thought we would try the Morningstar crumbles in place of the ground beef.  John found this recipe on All Recipes for Zippy Shepherd’s pie. We converted it to a veggie recipe and made the changes below:

1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon canola oil
3/4 pound Morningstar Crumbles
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (14 ounce) can veggie broth
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (15 oz)
7 ounces of diced carrots
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut the potatoes. Place into a pot with water and boil for about 10 minutes until fork tender.

Now we used raw carrots instead of the frozen peas and carrots the recipe called for, so we cooked the carrots in the microwave for about 10 minutes with some water to cook them since the stove time is really short on this.

In a large pan, add the oil, the veggie crumbles, the onions and peppers and the garlic. Cook for several minutes until heated through. Then add the broth, curry powder, ketchup, worchestershire sauce and bring to a boil. Mix 1 tablespoon of corn starch with about 1 tablespoon of cold water and add to the pan. Stir well until the mixture starts to thicken.  Then add in the tomatoes and cooked carrots and simmer.  We cooked this for probably 10 minutes or so while we got the potatoes mashed.  This thickened up the sauce nicely. If you don’t do this, you might want to do another round of  cornstarch/water.

After draining the potatoes, mash together with the butter, milk, salt and pepper.

Turn on the oven broiler. Take a large casserole dish and pour in the ‘meat’ filling.  Spread the mashed potatoes on top.  There really aren’t a lot of potatoes in this version, so the top layer is a little thin.  Then top with the cheddar cheese and broil for a couple minutes until the cheese is melted.  We almost burned ours LOL!  I had to take off the really dark part of the cheese.

Verdict? This was quite tasty!  I would definitely make it again. It’s pretty filling, too.

Nutritional information:  This is calculated with our changes above. Obviously if you use real meat, it will be different.

This makes 6 servings. Each serving has 293 calories, 32 grams of carbs, 11 grams of fat, 18 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.

Cold weather and chili just go together, don’t they?  We were waiting for all the snow to materialize, but it come until Tuesday. However, it is still really cold. I like to make chili, but wanted something vegetarian for John and I stumbled across this recipe using Morningstar veggie crumbles on the website Full Plate Living.  It’s called Last Minute Chili because you can make in about 10 minutes!

I scaled the recipe in half and added some tomato paste to help add a more long-cooked flavor to it.  The ingredients are simple and we had them all, so that worked out really well.

• One 15 oz can of beans, drained and rinsed (whatever bean you like)
• One  15 oz can of petite diced  tomatoes
• 1 cup (110 grams) Morningstar Farms Grillers crumbles (or use ground beef/turkey)
• One 4.5 oz can diced green chiles
• Two tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon chili powder 

Drain and rinse  the beans.  Add everything into a sauce pan. This means using the juice with the canned tomatoes as that is the only liquid you add:

Mix well and heat over medium high heat for about 5 minutes until thoroughly heated. Adjust seasoning to taste. We found it just right and since we didn’t use low-sodium beans or tomatoes, we didn’t add any salt.

Then serve:

This was quite good. I think the tomato paste was key to giving it deeper flavor. That stuff is amazing.

We divided this into 3 large servings, but you could get 4 out of it. It’s pretty filling.

Calories when divided into 3 large servings:  397, 80 grams of carbs, 6 grams of fat, 30 grams of protein. Stats will vary a bit depending on the bean you use and whether you use real meat or veggie substitute.

We tried this and liked it so much we made it twice! The first time we did it with cheese tortellini and the 2nd time with plain pasta.

This recipe is from Damned Delicious. I didn’t want to use 1-1/2 cups of heavy cream, though – so I substituted 1 cup of evaporated milk for 1 cup of the cream and I think it was fine.  I think you could probably use all evaporated milk and do away with the cream all together if you wanted, but it sure tastes good!  I also left out the garlic. John and I are not big garlic fans, so go ahead and add some to the oil before the tomatoes and spinach if you want.

You might even have all of these ingredients on hand!

• 12 ounces tortellini or 8 ounces of dried non-filled pasta.
• 1 cup evaporated milk.
• 1/2 cup  cream
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• Several handfuls of fresh baby spinach
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta according to directions on package.  In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, cream and flour.  In a large saute pan, add the oil over medium high heat. Then add in the tomatoes, spinach and spices and cook for several minutes until the spinach has wilted down.

Add in the milk/flour mixture and stir constantly while it comes to a boil.  

 Cook for several minutes until the sauce thickens. Then stir in the pasta.  I wasn’t sure it would all fit in this pan LOL!

Then serve!  It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. Fast and easy.  I do like the tortellini version better, but you can eat more of the regular pasta since it has less calories.

I feel like we hae finally turned a corner as far as the craziness goes… I hope!  Getting back into routines and not shuttling back and forth between houses is nice.  

Work is just about complete on the dining room – we even got a picture up!:

We will be getting our living room couch and chaise this week, finally!  We have had a trundle bed set up as a couch in the living room for now. Shades of dorm rooms LOL!  It’s beginning to feel more like our house now, little by little. 

Anyway, back to donuts – or getting to the donuts… I had bought a box of Bisquick for a recipe that I can’t recall now, but we needed to use of the rest before we moved and I found recipes for Bisquick donuts to use it up. We liked them so much and they were so easy that we bought another box after we moved LOL!

Here is one of the recipes from the Betty Crocker website

This is a half recipe and it makes 6 or 7 small donuts.

Baked Chocolate Donuts

Makes 6 mini donuts.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (120 grams) of Bisquick Heart Smart
• 1.5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, mix the Bisquick, sugar and cocoa powder to blend. In another small dish, beat the egg, add the milk and vanilla.  

Then add this to the dry mix.  Mix until just moistened. Overmixing can make tough donuts, and you don’t want tough donuts 😀

Spray the donut pan with cooking spray and spoon into the pan.

This is a little full, actually – so keep that in mind. I just didn’t feel like doing another pan for 1 donut (lazy).

Bake for 6-7 minutes.  Check with a toothpick if you want, but they will spring back to the touch.

See how I got this pan just a little full? Turn over to the pretty side on a cooling rack 🙂

Here are the stats for just the donuts:

Calories (per donut): 106, 2.7 grams of fat, 18.2 grams of carbs, 3.3 grams of protein, 0.4 grams of fiber.

Top with any glaze that you want.  This glaze is 1/3 cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of milk and 1/2 tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter.

The donuts are not too sweet, which is nice and so easy and fast to make. You can have donuts in about 20 minutes from start to finish.

It’s funny how I bought a donut pan kind of on a whim and we actually use it fairly often.  John loves the baked donuts, as do I.

New boiler for our furnace tomorrow and the new furniture!  I also have a product review and giveaway for this week, so stay tuned!

Finally getting around to making some of the pins I have!  I love Pinterest and pin way more than I actually do.  Anyway, I have been eating more protein bars lately and decided to make more of my own.  This recipe is based on Sahar’s from Fat Fighter TV with a couple modifications.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 5 tablespoons of honey (100 grams)
• 45 grams of whey protein (I used unflavored whey protein isolate) – approximately 1/2 cup
• 2 tablespoons (26 grams) ground flax seed.
• 40 grams of rolled oats – approximately 1/4 cup

These are so easy to make, too. It takes 15 minutes.  In a small bowl, add the honey and peanut butter.

Microwave for 30 second to one minute so the mixture becomes more liquid.  Stir well. I needed a minute because we keep the peanut butter in the fridge.

In a larger bowl, add the protein powder and flax meal and mix.

Then add the peanut butter and honey mixture:

Mix well and then add the oats:

This will be a stiff batter, so keep mixing until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

I then weighed the dough and decided how many calories I wanted each bar, which was approximately 200 (like a normal protein bar).  That meant I needed to divide my dough by 7, which was about 45 grams per bar.

Then roll into ball shapes.

I also formed one ball into a bar shape, but didn’t bother with the others. Lazy, I guess.  You can do whatever shape you want – even a pyramid!

Verdict?  These are pretty tasty! Almost like a peanut butter fudge.  Now, these are caloric like a protein bar, so use them wisely. These are perfect for my evening snack.

Nutrition info dividing recipe into 7 bars:

211 calories per bar, 20 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat, 11 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber. Your mileage may vary depending on the type of protein powder you use.  This is a good base recipe to do other flavors or use other nut butters.

Happy St. Patty’s Day!  We have an Irish family and this is always a fun day for us.  No green beer, but we do like to make some special dishes.

John made some Irish soda bread:

I had put some corned beef in the crockpot to simmer all day and we tried to make colcannon for the first time.  This is a traditional potato/cabbage dish. Kale is often used in place of cabbage, but I am not a fan of the kale.

Colcannon

• 2 to 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled (if desired) and cut into large chunks
• Salt for boiling water
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 lightly packed cups of chopped cabbage or kale (I used coleslaw mix)
• 1/2 small onion minced
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in a large pot with salted water (a couple good pinches of salt) until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain into a colander and set aside.

Place the pan back on medium heat and add the butter.  Lightly sautee the cabbage and onions together for 3 or 4 minutes until wilted.  Add the potatoes and milk, then mash with a potato masher until the desired consistency of mashed potatoes – lumpy or smooth!  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then serve.  Most traditional recipes call for you to make a well in the center and add melted butter, but I left this step off for calorie sake.

Good, no?  It was very tasty. An interesting way to get in some veggies 😀 Ours looks more colorful because the coleslaw mix has carrots and purple cabbage.

Wednesday is Bagel Day!  Check it out:

Looks so bright and sunny. It doesn’t look like -15 degrees, does it?  That’s -26 Celsius, FYI. Let’s make it feel even colder by converting it, shall we? 🙄   There is light at the end of the tunnel, though – it is supposed to break into the 30s this weekend! I told John I just might run around outside nekkid if it gets that warm.

Okay, not really.

We went somewhere different for breakfast.  Back to Cool Beans. We haven’t eaten here for breakfast in a couple years, I believe. Lots of coffee!

It’s very Adirondack/woodsy style inside, although they were playing country music. Sorry country music lovers, but I despise it. Really cannot stand to listen to it. Isn’t it weird how some types of music do that to you?

Still enjoyed my bagel, though.

You know what a perfect dish is for cold weather? Mac and cheese!  I love baked mac and cheese, but it takes a long time to cook and I am just not interested in boxed stovetop mixes.  However, Alton Brown has the best stovetop mac and cheese recipe.  This is our go to on weekends.  It doesn’t take very long to fix at all.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of pasta of your choice
• 2 eggs
• 5 ounces of evaporated skim milk (small can)
• 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 10 ounces of 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  While the pasta is boiling, assemble the sauce ingredients.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs. add the milk, hot sauce, salt and mustard powder.

When the pasta is done, drain and return to pot over low heat. Add the butter and stir to melt.  Slowly pour in the egg/milk mixture stirring constantly.  Now stir in the cheese a couple ounces at a time.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is all melted, the sauce has thickened up and it is piping hot.

Serve with hot sauce if desired (and why wouldn’t it be?)

This is so good! It’s nice because it makes a lot for leftovers as well.  Stats are approximate. With 6 servings, it comes to 386 calories, 32 grams of carbs, 20 fat grams, 20 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.  It is higher calorie, so I do like to eat it on long bike ride days, but it sure feels good to have during the winter, too!