FOOD: Seeing Red!

As you would assume from this blog, I'm a pretty healthy person. Don't get me wrong, I definitely indulge myself whenever I feel the need, but it's certainly not everyday. My diet generally consists of egg whites, fruit, spinach, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, chicken, low fat cheese....you get the idea, nothing terribly exciting or out of the ordinary on a daily basis. When I'm feeling the desire to splurge calorically, I usually go for some light cheddar popcorn or some chocolate covered nuts. However, there are some times when you just need to go ALL OUT...for instance: when your best friend is getting married.

One of my best friends, who I've known since I was 9 years old, is getting married in June and I am lucky enough to be one of her bridesmaids. This past weekend, I travelled back to our home town so we could throw her a fun and traditional bridal shower at a beautiful venue in Pittsburgh. The shower was classy and elegant and big surprise, I volunteered to supply the sweets.

I made two kinds of cupcakes for the shower (both recipes from NYC's famed Magnolia Bakery) but one of them is my all time favorite - Red Velvet. This particular recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting which I think makes the cupcake...It's tangy and sweet and compliments the faint chocolate taste of the red velvet cake perfectly. Heaven in a few bites if you ask me!

Now there are a few substitutions that I frequently utilize when making this recipe in order to cut down on calories and fat just a little bit - like I said, it's ok to indulge every once in a while, but if you can make simple substitutions to cut down on a few calories, you might as well go for it.

POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTIONS

2 ¼ cups sugar - use 1 ¾ cup sugar and ½ cup baking splenda

1 ½ cups buttermilk - use just under 1 ½ cups reduced fat or skim milk plus 1 ½ TBSP lemon juice (let it sit for about 5 minutes)

cream cheese - substitute neufchatel cheese


Ingredients

3 ⅓ cups cake flour
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
6 tablespoons red food coloring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons cider vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Frosting

1 pound (two 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened at room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour three muffin tins. Place cupcake papers in the tins.

To make the cake: In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and mix well. In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overheat. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake each tray for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool partially in the pans. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting: In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continuously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate icing for 2 to 3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using. When the cake has cooled, spread the frosting liberally on the cupcakes. Makes 3 dozen cupcakes. 

Here are the red velvet cupcakes displayed along with the vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream:

and some beautiful flowers courtesy of Pittsburgh Cut Flowers!

FOOD: How about some hash?

Sweet Potato, Bacon, and Apple Hash

A friend recommended this recipe to me and I have been slightly obsessed ever since. As you can tell from my previous posts, I love comfort food – nothing makes me happier than a belly full of it. This is definitely one of those comforting dishes. It is so incredibly flavorful but the recipe is so simple and quick. I’m going to make it as many times as possible until the warm weather is here to stay!

The original recipe came from the famous and spunky Anne Burrell, but I have made a few modifications to suit my tastes and diet. First, I substituted regular bacon for turkey bacon in order to make the recipe lower in fat. Next, I omitted the scallion and used an extra large onion because I love onion. Lastly, I also omitted pepitas because I just didn’t think the recipe needed them.

See the original recipe here.

INGREDIENTS

     . 2 garnet yams, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

     . Extra-virgin olive oil

     . salt

     . 4 to 6 slices thick cut bacon, cut into small pieces

     . 1 large onion, diced

     . 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss the diced sweet potatoes in the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Make sure the potatoes are coated evenly and arrange them on a baking sheet. Roast the sweet potatoes until they are tender, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and set aside.

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil. Cook the bacon over medium head and when the bacon has started to brown, add the onions, season with salt and saute until the onions are very soft. Add the apples and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the sweet potatoes, and saute until the sweet potatoes are cooked through and starting to become crispy, about 7 to 8 minutes.

After I finished cooking everything, I mashed it all together slightly…just enough to break down some of the potato cubes, because I prefer this consistency better. You don’t have to do this though, whatever you prefer is fine.

Transfer to a dish, serve, and try not to inhale the whole dish enjoy!

YUM, this dish is so good it almost makes me want the cold weather to last a little bit longer…

ALMOST. 

FOOD: Ma...the MEATLOAF!

Who doesn't love Mom's meatloaf!? There's nothing like traditional comfort food to warm you up in the last few weeks of the frigid winter. But no matter how good Mom's meatloaf tastes, it is most likely heavy and fatty...not too comforting.  

This recipe, courtesy of the wonderful Giada De Laurentiis, is a lighter yet much more flavorful version of mom's meatloaf (SORRY MOM!) Firstly, it's made with ground turkey, which is considerably lower in fat than traditional beef/pork blends. Next, sun-dried tomatoes and salty feta cheese add a powerful and savory punch of flavor. 

There are a few alterations I've made to the original recipe, which are *starred* below. Also, I doubled this recipe and made a free form loaf on a baking pan (yes, I really like this meatloaf!) - it's up to you if you'd like to use a loaf pan or make a free form loaf. 

I make this turkey meatloaf all the time and really recommend it - it's very easy and makes great leftovers.

SUNDRIED TOMATO and FETA TURKEY MEATLOAF

Ingredients

• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped garlic and herb-marinated sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, optional
• 2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons whole milk* 
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese**
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground turkey
• one small onion, chopped***

* I used skim milk

** I used light feta (via Trader Joe's)

*** I added the onion...simply because...I love onion!

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Coat a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the bread crumbs, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, if using, eggs, milk, feta, onion, salt, and pepper. Add the turkey and gently stir to combine - do not overwork the meat.

Carefully pack the meat mixture into the prepared pan and bake until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and slice. Put on a serving platter and serve.

(Just like I do with my banana bread, I slice the meatloaf into individual portions and freeze them so that I have a quick grab and go lunch!)

FOOD: Whole Wheat Banana Bread with White Chocolate, Macadamia Nuts, and Coconut

Of course my first post would be about food…what else! 

I had to start out with one of my very favorite foods: BANANA BREAD. I usually always have some variation of this personal staple lying around my apartment.  I eat it for breakfast nearly everyday and I truly do not get tired of it.

I think the key to not tiring of it (other than my innate addiction to any and every baked good) is VARIETY. There are so many different things you can do with banana bread - you never have to make (or eat) the same loaf twice. You can add chocolate, nuts, dried fruit – whatever you prefer.  I tend to lean toward the sweet, more dessert oriented variations because I inherited quite a strong sweet tooth from my father (thanks, DAD!)

In any case, this particular version is one of my recent favorites. It has everything –and more – that you could want in a banana bread!  The white chocolate adds the best element (in my mind):SWEETNESS! The macadamia nuts add a wonderful crunch. The coconut compliments the bananas subtly and perfectly. It really is as amazing as it sounds, I promise!

Since I’m a little bit of a big heath fanatic, I try to make healthy substitutions whenever possible.  The original recipe (fromFor the Love of Cooking) is listed below, but here are my suggested substitutions – feel free to utilize as many or as few as you like:

-          ½ cup of butter: either use light butter or ¼ cup of applesauce + ¼ cup of butter (any way you can reduce the amount of fat in a recipe is a plus!)

-          ½ cup of white sugar: I substitute with Splenda for baking (my dad is diabetic so I’ve gotten used to incorporating this in many recipes)…it’s zero calories and you can’t taste any difference! Agave or honey are both effective natural sweeteners, but they contain calories…so it just depends what your goal is – less calories or more natural

-          Use all whole wheat flour (1 ½ cups altogether)

-          ½ cup sour cream: I prefer using fat free greek yogurt

ORIGINAL RECIPE :

1/2 cup of butter, softened

1 /2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup of macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.

 In a bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. 

Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 



Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Add the bananas, sour cream, chocolate chips, coconut, and macadamia nuts. Stir just to combine – do not over mix. 





Pour into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Slice, serve and enjoy.

Since I’m a single girl living alone —- I slice my banana bread, wrap it in individual servings, and stack the slices in my freezer so they will stay fresh and last longer. Then I grab one each morning, defrost, and enjoy.