Strawberry Shortcake Re-do!

After making the biscuits this morning and then blogging about them, I got to thinking about the strawberry shortcakes!  We don’t usually stock whip cream at our house (although I sometimes wish we did!)  Don’t get me wrong -we love the stuff, but reserve it for special occasions.  I couldn’t get the shortcakes out of my head when I remembered the strawberries in the fridge.  Once ingredient away from a favorite dessert…what to do?!

Then I spotted the Mediterranean Strawberry Yogurt tucked behind the strawberries and the light went on!  Here is a photo of the results. 

I think the recipe is self-explanatory but here is the basic idea:

• Cut up fresh strawberries and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar.  Let sit for 15 min or more to let the berries release their natural juices.  You don’t need more than 1 tsp to get the berries to make that yummy syrup that soaks into the biscuit.
• Next, cut a biscuit in half, spoon the strawberries and their syrup onto the bottom half, scoop a bit of yogurt on top.
• Cover it with the second half of the biscuit and another spoon of yogurt and a bit more strawberries, if you like!

It would be heavenly with vanilla yogurt instead, but the strawberry was amazing!

A Healthy (er) Biscuit / Scone

Who doesn’t love a nice warm biscuit or scone, straight from the oven on a Sunday morning?  The only problem is that the typical version, made with white flour and heavy cream will leave you hungry an hour later and feeling a little guilty (if you prefer a lower fat diet for your family).  These are still in the “treat” category, as they are made with lots of butter, but I have replaced half of the flour with whole wheat and replaced the heavy cream with 1% milk.  The kids still gobble them up as if they were their 100% white flour cousins but I feel a bit better serving them.  You can go 100% whole wheat (in fact, I love them like that too), but they will be a little more dense and might not fool the masses as well.  I suggest a “weaning process” myself.  I have successfully done that with many recipes.  Start with the original recipe and each time you make them, increase the whole wheat flour a bit.  The trick is to get them LOVING your biscuits enough to not inspect them closely, but rather, just close their eyes and enjoy them!

These biscuits can be made into “drop biscuits”, which is how I love them (see recipe note below) or “scone-shaped” with added dried fruit, berries, seeds or nuts.  Try a sprinkle of cinnamon too!  They can be cut out to look more uniform, if you prefer.  This is the recipe I use for Strawberry Shortcake biscuits too.  (Or blueberry shortcake or any other kind of seasonal fruit, for that matter!)  Serve them with fresh fruit and a blob of whip cream for a delicious dessert.

Baking Soda Biscuit Re-mix

These are best served warm from the over with jam.  They are also fantastic as Strawberry Shortcake biscuits.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup cold butter, cut into pea sized pieces
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat over to 400 degrees F.
2. Using your hands, toss the dry ingredients with the cut up butter to evenly incorporate the baking powder, sugar and salt with the flour.
3. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry ingredients a bit further, to make sure you don’t have any large lumps of butter left.
4. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and fold it all together.  You are going for “just mixed” here.  Do not over work.
5. Drop the biscuits into an unlined non-stick cookie sheet.  They can be whatever size you want but kids love small things.  I make them about the size of an egg.  If you like, you can turn the dough on to a floured surface and pat it into a slab about an inch thick and punch out rounds to make a more uniform shape but I like the rustic look of a “drop biscuit”, myself.  Also -less work, and less clean up.  Wiping the counter down afterward is an extra step I don’t need!
6. Bake them until they are nicely browned and are firm to the touch.  The timing really depends on the oven and the size of the dough.  For small biscuits, I start the timer for 5 minutes and check them.  If they have no colour yet, I let them go for another 2 min and then touch them.  The touch test is really the best.  You want to make sure they have no “give” to them and should look dry and be flecked with brown spots.  Small biscuits usually take 7-10 min and large ones usually take 15-20 min, depending on how big.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding Pie

Fall Nesting Rituals……

Today was one of two big nesting days.  We trimmed the trees and hedges, cleared out the garden, and put the lawn furniture away last weekend.  Today I cleaned out the girls room.  Not just vacuuming around the furniture and picking up the toys but moved all the furniture pieces away from the walls and cleaned behind them, under them and in them.  Every few months I do this and while I’m at it, I change the furniture placement.  The girls LOVE it.  It’s like Christmas morning for them, without the wrapping paper and the huge dent in the bank account.

Anyway -no big nesting day around here passes without a dig down into the pantry to see what’s back there and getting forgotten about.  Today, it was a can of sweetened condensed milk, some graham cracker crumbs and some cocoa powder.  SO – it’s homemade pudding in a graham crumb pie shell.

There is, of course a few calories from sugar etc, but, all in all, not a horrible choice to make for Sunday night dinner.  It also has a fair amount of calcium and it’s not too high in fat, so that’s gotta count for something, eh?!

Recipe:

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups  Evaporated Milk

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp vanilla Extract

1) Mix cocoa, cornstarch, salt, water and condensed milk in a sauce pan and whisk to blend.

2) Cook over medium heat stirring constantly for 7-10 minutes, until thickened.

3) Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Stir to combine.

You can serve it warm of cold.  At this point, I slapped together the graham pie shell, as directed on the box, and poured the warm pudding on top.  I chilled it and served it after a nice bowl of squash soup and some homemade croutons.

Whole Wheat Crepes

Crepes are a great way to serve up lots of different foods for picky eaters.  They are yummy plain for those of us who prefer a bland taste, or filled with all sorts of great fillings for the more adventurous types.  This is a recipe that actually tastes BETTER with 100% whole wheat flour, if you ask me.  You can add a sprinkle of ground flax-seed or bran to it too, if you like.  They are a great addition to the lunch box, served as a wrap with their favorite sandwich fillings.

At our house, the girls each have one small one warm off the stove to eat while waiting for breakfast, then one at the table when they are all ready.  We like to fill them with fruit and spoon vanilla yogurt on top.  I fill a platter with all sorts of fruit and berries and give the girls each a small butter knife and let them chop up and build their own crepes right on their plates.  They are way more adventurous when they are making them by themselves.

Recipe

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk or soy milk (unflavoured)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted or vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP sugar -optional, but if you are going to serve them plain, it gives them a hint of sweetness

1) Mix milk, water, egg, sugar and salt with a whisk until frothy.

2) Add the flour and incorporate it with the whisk slowly until it is all blended and the give it a good whisking to add some air into the batter.  It forms lumps quite easily.  You can ignore a few lumps, if you like or you can use an electric mixer to whisk them away.  I use my stand mixer with the whisk attachment.  It’s really not a bad thing to have a few small lumps though.  You won’t even notice them once they are filled with yummy ingredients.

3) Heat a non stick pan on medium heat for a few minutes and then rub the pan with a greased paper towel (or cooking spray, if you prefer)  I just dab a bit of butter or oil onto a paper towel and it lasts for the whole batch of crepes.  I don’t like them cooking in grease and there is already a bit of butter or oil in them.

4) Ladle a spoon full of batter into the center of the pan.  Use the bottom of the ladle to spread the batter into a nice sized crêpe that is not too thick.  Once the top of the crêpe changes to a slightly dryer look – a bit darker and …dryer looking, flip it and cook on the other side.  If that instruction doesn’t make sense, just gently lift the corner of the crêpe and peek to see if it’s golden brown.  When both sides are golden, remove it and start the next one.

Serving suggestions:

• with ham and cheese, like a wrap….great in a lunch box
• with a sprinkle of brown sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice
• with maple syrup and fruit
• with yogurt and fruit
• with vegetables and cheese sauce
• with peanut butter and jam
• sautéed mushrooms
• any other favourite crêpe fillings!

Make me some new suggestions…..how do your kids like their crepes?

Tomato Sauce – plain and simple

Nothing goes over better at my house than plain and simple pasta.  I almost always serve it when the girls have a friend over for dinner.  My oldest daughter gave this simple Marinara Sauce the name “Mama’s Sauce”.

Mama’s Sauce

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 half a large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of crushed or minced garlic
• a splash of oil for the bottom of the pot
• about 1 tbsp dried basil (or a bunch of fresh, fancy pants!)
• 1-2 tbsp sugar, but kind of to taste.  If it’s sour, add more.  You can adjust it as it’s simmering away.
• maybe some salt, but you might not need it – there is salt in the canned tomatoes.
• pepper, if you like that, but Sadie doesn’t, so Hannah and I add it at the table
• **1/2 cup or so of TVP if you want a bit of extra low-fat, veg protein.   You can get TVP (textured vegetable protein) dried in bulk at the health food store.  OR you can add browned ground beef or Italian Sausage (if you must)

1. Saute the onion in the oil in a thick bottomed pot until translucent.  About 2 minutes on medium.
2. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, garlic and salt and pepper.
3. Simmer on med/low for at least 20 minutes.  An hour on really low is great but you can rush it a bit and it’s still great.
4. If you like a chunky sauce, turn off the heat and serve.  I love to purée the diced tomatoes with an immersion blender (but a regular blender will do the trick too).  Why not use crushed tomatoes in a can, you say?  Good question!  You can but it’s not the same.  You will be surprised at the difference in colour, taste and texture from using the crushed tomatoes in a can.  The seeds that are in the diced tomatoes get crushed up and add a lot of flavor and colour to the sauce.

** If you want to add the TVP, toss it on with the tomatoes and add about 1/8 -1/4 cup of water.  The TVP absorbs a bit of the liquid from the sauce and it might be a bit too thick without the water.  Just adjust it a bit by adding more water or TVP until it’s the right consistency.  If you want to have meat in it, brown it in the pot with the onions and then go ahead with the directions.

Brownies (whole wheat & flax seed…but don’t tell!)

Ok. I love a brownie as much as the next girl.  In fact, my own girls love a brownie more than your average girl.  BUT -I can’t bring myself to send them with Mama’s Top Secret Brownies slathered with icing to school.  I can, however, surprise them with one of these in their lunch on a Friday.  Actually, they are so similar in taste to a regular brownie that you don’t even notice the “better choices” ingredients.  They are just as good dusted with powdered sugar or straight up, but we like them topped with a handful of chocolate chips.

Recipe

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 whole wheat flour

4 tbsp ground flax seed flour

1 handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix eggs, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
2. Add melted butter and stir fairly quickly to avoid cooking the eggs.  In fact, let the butter cool slightly after melting it in the pot or in the microwave.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, ground flax seeds, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.
4. Add the flour blend to the wet ingredients and mix until combined but do not over mix.
5. Grease and flour a square baking pan.  Pour batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.  They are ready when they are just firm to the touch and slightly pulling away from the edges of the pan.  Also, follow your nose!  Baking always smells good at the end when it’s nearly finished.  Once you start to smell them, keep an eye on them.  They are best when they are JUST cooked but still soft and moist.
6. Immediately sprinkle the top of the hot brownies with the chocolate chips.  Try to get them evenly spread out without having to move them around.  They start to melt right away.  You can gently press them down a bit so that they stick to the tops of the brownies when they cool down enough for cutting.  They can portion them off and freeze them.  Toss them frozen into lunch boxes for a special treat at school.

Blueberry Muffins!

Freeze ‘em for school snacks.

Make mini ones -they taste better tiny.

I have always hated spending money on the store-bought snacks available in the grocery store.  The choices are sometimes interesting to my kids but not so interesting to me.  They are not always, but often less healthy that something I can make myself, over priced and over packaged as well.  So I made a resolution for myself this year that I have kept!  I have not bought any pre-packages snacks to go in school lunches this year.  I think I did break the rule once for some reason but I have been very good.  I have managed to keep a few choices of home-made snack sized items in the freezer to replace the store-bought granola bars etc and have managed to also wash and chop up the fruits and veggies to go along with them.  Here is one item that often shows up in my freezer.  These blueberry muffins are much lower in fat than typical ones made with a high content of oil.  The butter milk is fantastic in the flavour department and successfully reduces necessity for so much oil.  I tend to make a 60 / 40 blend of whole wheat and white flour for these muffins.  You can, of course go for 100% whole wheat but the results are  bit heavier than I like personally.
Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or a blend of both whole wheat and all-purpose
• 3/4 cup white sugar + a bit more to sprinkle on the top
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup buttermilk or regular milk
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Mix eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk.  Add dry ingredients but only mix until the ingredients are blended.  Add blueberries last.  Just fold them in but don’t over mix or your muffins will be purple.

Sprinkle with sugar on top.  Bake at 400 degrees until done.  Hmmm – about 12-15 min, but when a toothpick comes out clean.

“Squash” Soup

“Squash” Soup in our house has become a bit of an inside joke.  My youngest daughter will insist that she does not like carrots or carrot soup or carrot cake or anything to do with that particular orange vegetable.  She does, however, LOVE “Squash” soup.  What she doesn’t know is that to make that soup, everything orange in the fridge and pantry goes into pot to get squashed up into a smooth creamy (yet dairy free) orange soup.  Staples in this soup are carrots, celery, and onion.  I like to refer to those three as the holy trinity in my soup pot.  After that, an acorn squash will indeed make an appearance -but not always!  I tend to forget to pick one up when I am out shopping or I spontaneously get asked for “Squash” soup and have to improvise.  Another of my favorite inclusions are red lentils.  I like the way they dissolve into the broth and give it a natural thickness.  The nutritional benefits are wonderful too.  But the orange doesn’t have to stop there!  Orange peppers can go in but be warned – the skins don’t purée up as nicely as the other vegetables so kids who are fussy about texture will likely notice the tiny bits of skin that remain “unsquashed”.  Sweet potatoes are full of goodness and can really sweeten up the soup.  For stock, you can use store-bought or home-made, whichever you prefer.  If you use store-bought, look for low sodium and if you can buy it from a health food store, you will often find ones that are more healthful than the choices in the supermarket.  I feel quite happy if the girls eat a big bowl of this soup and some whole wheat bread and cheese on the side.  I love that it makes the perfect leftover for their school lunches the next day and it freezes so well.  I re-use milk bags that I hand wash as freezer bags.  They are thick and keep the freezer burn at bay.

Soup instructions:

• a splash of vegetable or olive oil (just enough to lightly cover the bottom of your soup pot)
• 1 small cooking onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 large  white potato and / or sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 3-4 carrots, depending on the size
• 1/2 cup (or more) of red lentils
• 1 acorn squash, roasted until soft (see instructions below)
• 1 bay leaf
• vegetable soup stock (home-made, from a can, from powder…whatever you prefer)
• Anything else orange you would like to add
• pepper to taste
• salt ONLY if you must.  I never add any myself.  The soup stock is salty enough

*these quantities are for a small batch of soup.  It makes a good meal for two kids and two grown-ups.  You can easily increase everything to make as big a batch as you would like.

1. Rough chop and sauté the “trinity” (onion, carrot, celery) in oil until the onion is translucent.  3-5 min on medium low heat while you stir frequently will do the trick.
2. Add water or stock to the pot that about equals the amount of soup you would like to end up with.  Some liquid will reduce during the boiling process but you can always add a little more water or stock as you go.  (If you are using powdered soup stock, now is the time to add it to the water.  Follow the package instructions with a light hand and taste and adjust as you go.)  To add the squash, scoop the flesh out of the skins after it has been roasted. *See below for handling of the squash.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables, lentils and the bay leaf  and bring the soup to a gentle boil.  Turn down the heat and let it simmer until the vegetables are very soft and the lentils are completely cooked.  Don’t worry about the potatoes getting over cooked, they are going to be pureed in the end anyway.  This step should take about 30-40 minutes, depending on how large or small you chopped the vegetables.  Sweet potato is very firm and should be chopped quite small or baked first.
4. REMOVE the bay leaf, let the soup cool and purée the soup until very smooth.  I like to use an immersion or stick blender.  I turn off the heat and purée it right in the pot it cooked.  Season it with a bit of salt if it requires but taste it first.  BE CAREFUL not to let hot soup splash and burn you if you get impatient and purée it while it’s still hot.
5. Reheat and serve.  You can add a bit of cream to each bowl at this point but I never do.  The potato and the lentils give the soup a non diary creaminess and I never miss the heaviness of the real cream.  The pepper goes in at the table and only into the bowls of willing pepper eaters.  One of my daughters loves pepper and the other one won’t even smell it.

*To roast an acorn squash, wash the skin, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds.  Place both halves on a baking sheet or roasting pan, cut side up.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for about 30 min or until soft.  Watch out that it doesn’t brown too much or it will show up in the soup and kids who are fussy about colour (brown bits) will balk at it.  Once its soft, scoop out the flesh and add it to the soup stock.