Pots & Plots

Well I’m having cravings for yummy baked goods tonight, and as I’ve been trying really hard to avoid making the cookies I REALLY want, so I decided to try making granola bars.  It was an experiment in healthy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar Splenda
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/8 cup milled flax
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup craisins (optional)
• 1/2 cup peanuts (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 egg beaters
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar splenda, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, craisins, peanuts and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg beaters, apple sauce and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Don’t allow the bars to cool totally before cutting, or they’ll be too hard to cut.

The verdict: So yeah…these were revolting.  The lesson here is that you can’t take out all the fat.  And using all whole wheat flour probably wasn’t the best idea either.  I’d like to try some with peanut butter.  Maybe if I used half oil and half applesauce and replaced half the honey with peanut butter? Or all the honey with honey roasted peanut butter perhaps.  I’ll keep trying.

The holidays have been horrible on my sweet tooth this year.  I’ve had a barely controllable urge to devour anything and everything with sugar and butter this season.  Tomorrow is my official Holiday Baking for Gifts day, but I was still craving cookies tonight, so I threw these together.  I have a package of holiday M & M ’s that I separated into red and green (as I need the red for tomorrow’s project).  Since all I was left with was green and I’m trying to healthy it up a LITTLE so I don’t keel over in envy of other people’s full fat, full calorie everythings, I decided that Envy Cookies would be a good name.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
• 1/2 cup Splenda
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsps of brown sugar Splenda
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup egg substitute
• 1 cup green M&Ms
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together flour, wheat flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
3. Beat together Splenda, packed brown sugar Splenda, vanilla and butter flavored Crisco until well blended.
4. Add egg substitute and beat until well combined.
5. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended.
6. Stir in 1 cup of M&Ms.
7. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes.
8. Cool slightly, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

I think this recipe is supposed to make about 3 dozen cookies but we all know that I never manage to make cookies without eating a lot of dough, so that’s a guess.  One thing I have noticed when baking cookies using whole wheat flour–they don’t flatten out all melty like regular cookies.  Personally, this isn’t an issue for me, but if it bothers you, just take a fork and flatten it down like you would peanut butter cookies.  The dough has a bit of an odd aftertaste, which is a good thing for me in this case, as I’m less likely to eat all of it.  The finished product tastes just fine.

I make no claims as to the authenticity of this dish.  I glanced at a handful of recipes online and eventually made this one up based on what ingredients I had on hand.  What started the whole thing was this package of “authentic English sausages” that came in our latest Angel Food shipment.  Now I lived in Scotland for a while, and I know I ate sausage while I was there, but I don’t remember how it differs from our sausage.  In any event, one classic pub dish I remember fondly is bangers and mash.  I can’t guarantee how close it tastes to what they serve over there, but it was a hit at our house.  Interesting.

Ingredients:

• 1 package English sausages (5 links)
• 4 good sized potatoes, diced (peeled if you prefer, but I like the skins in my mashed potatoes)
• 4 oz. fresh mushrooms
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 Tbsp margarine or butter
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

1. Add the diced potatoes to a pot with water and boil until tender (approximately 20 minutes depending on how fine the dice).
2. In a skillet, melt the butter or margarine.
3. Add the sausages and cook over medium heat, flipping when the casing browns.
4. When both sides of the sausage are browned, remove from skillet.
5. Add mushrooms to skillet and sautee them in the juices from the sausage.  This would also be an excellent time to sautee some onions, but remember I am married to Mr. Anti-Onion, so I didn’t use them.  Instead I sauteed them in olive oil and set them aside.  Remove to a plate.
6. Add the sausage back to the skillet and add the cup of beef broth to the skillet.  You’re going to braise the sausage until they’re cooked through.  Mine went about 15 minutes, flipping in the middle.
7. When sausage is cooked through, remove from skillet.
8. Add 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch to a bit of cold water and stir until smooth.
9. Add cornstarch mixture to the skillet. Return to a boil stirring constantly. Add 1 cup of beef broth and make a gravy.
10. Reduce heat to a simmer until thickened.
11. Slice sausage into chunks and add back to gravy along with mushrooms.
12. Drain and mash your potatoes with salt, pepper, butter, and milk as preferred.
13. Plate up with a layer of potatoes, then the sausage, mushrooms, and gravy. And the onions if you want (IMO they’re much better with onions).

DH and I have been doing Angel Food Ministries for a couple of months, which we’ve really liked. This month’s order had a package of Italian sausage, which is something I never buy, so I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it. I finally decided that I’d do something with pasta because hey, pasta goes with all things Italian.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 4 links Italian sausage (about 1 pound)
• 2 roasted red peppers, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 oz. fresh baby bella mushrooms
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken stock (if you make and freeze your sock in ice cube trays, this is 10 cubes’ worth)
• 16 oz. pasta of your choice
• fresh parmesan (optional)
• goat cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Drizzle a little olive oil in a skillet.
2. Remove sausage from casing and brown in the skillet
3. Put cooked sausage into a colander (retaining a couple of tablespoons of grease) and rinse well. This cuts way down on the fat content.
4. To the remaining grease add onion and garlic and sautee until onion is transluscent.
5. Add all ingredients to your crock pot and stir well.
6. Cook on low for 6 hours.
7. Serve over the pasta of your choice and top with sprinkles of Parmesan or goat cheese.

I love hot chocolate. It’s one of my passions in winter. It’s also a favorite gift in a jar. Last winter I discovered Hershey’s fancy hot chocolate in Mayan (basically dark chocolate) and LOVED IT. But I can’t quite bring myself to pay the steep price regularly. But I’ve been in search of a really great recipe. None of them were quite what I was looking for, many calling for top of the line brand name ingredients that just goes against my frugal nature. So I wound up taking aspects of several recipes and creating this one. I went brand specific for the two most important ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder (this was the only Dutch process cocoa powder at Walmart)
• 1 1/2 cup Carnation Nonfat Milk Powder (and at $8.92 for the big one, I have pretty steep expectations)
• 1/4 fat free non-dairy powdered coffee creamer
• 1 cup Splenda (You can use sugar, I’m just trying to save some calories.  Granulated works fine but powdered is best)
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and store in an airtight container. I haven’t exactly decided on the ratio of mix to water. Some say 2 Tbsps to 6 oz. of water, some say fill half the mug with mix and add water. You decide.