Pumpkin & Pi

Chickpea Puppy Chow

2013-03-26T11:30:00.000-05:00

A long time ago, I tried roasted Chickpeas. This was before I got too much into recipe testing and new-to-me "healthy living" foods. They were curry flavored based off some recipe and were good, but not good enough to stick with for that long.

Fast forward nearly 6 years and I am at it again. We love Puppy Chow in our house, but haven't made it in quite a few months. I had gone on a brownie and girl scout cookie fix and we didn't always have the ingredients to make it. It actually wasn't even in my thoughts until we simultaneously stocked up on Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips that I had the hankering again. The only problem, we still had no Chex or Crispix in the pantry. I did, however, have two cans of Chickpeas that had been collecting dust for a couple months.

Have you ever Googled "how to roast chickpeas"? Yikes, some of the results almost scared me away from trying this, with lots of steps and issues if they weren't followed just so. Have no fear though, there is a super easy roasting method from Chow.com (how fitting...haha!). 400°F for 40 minutes. The rest was easy peasy, pretty much like the original Puppy Chow recipe, but this version packs in a powerful protein and fiber punch. The roasted chickpeas give this treat a nice crunch too!

Chickpea Puppy Chow

Ingredients

2 Cans Chickpeas
Spray Oil
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Powdered Sugar + a possible 1/2 Cup for extra coverage

Instructions

Roast Chickpeas: Heat oven to 400°F. Drain and rinse chickpeas, then pat dry. Line jelly roll pan with foil and lightly coat with oil. Place chickpeas in a single layer on the foil and spray to lightly coat them as well. Roast 40 minutes. Turning after 20 minutes and again at 30 minutes. Allow chickpeas to cool.

Prep Chocolate Coating: In a small bowl, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together. About 30 seconds in the microwave, stirring 1/2 way through. Mix cooled chickpeas and chocolate mixture.

Coat with Powdered Sugar: The goal is to just get it all evenly covered. The easiest way is to sprinkle 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a gallon size bag, then add chocolate covered chickpeas and the top with the other 1/2 cup of sugar. Seal bag and shake to cover. Add more powdered sugar as needed for coverage.

Before roasting.

After. Major shrinkage.

Close up. The darker ones are crunchier.

The good stuff!

Ready for poppin!

Happy Birthday to my very favorite Brother!!!

Sesame Orange Kale Salad

2013-02-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Bret and I were stumped for dinner plans. A couple of times recently we have found ourselves wandering around HEB looking for the evening's dinner and not really sure where to go. This happens when we don't want to fall back on a greasy appetizer (which happens often enough already), pizza, or HEB sushi (because we just had it the night before).

That one time we happened upon the pre-packaged deli area. There were a variety of veggie and noodle or potato salads that looked intriguing. One stood out to us though; the Central Market (HEB) Kale Cranberry Pepita Salad.

Kale is scary. It is. It's bright green (in color and flavor), is kind of tough, and has a big thick stem on each leaf. Over the past year, I have introduced it to my life in the form of green smoothies occasionally because it is a super super food, but have not ventured much past the blended version. A number of healthy living blogs have touted good salad recipes, but I guess I needed someone else to prepare it for me before setting out a my own.

On top of the new-ness of kale, in general, I am not a big salad person. Once and a while I get on kicks of it, and I will usually eat one that is set in front of me, but we just do not eat them at home very often. Well, let's just say that this salad may have changed things a bit. I attempted my own version of with excellent success, and here is my version of the Cat HEB Kale Salad.

Sesame Orange Kale Salad

Ingredients:

1 Bunch of Kale
1/3 Cup Pepitas (Pumpkin seeds)
1/2 Cup Slivered Almonds
1/2 Cup Dried Cherries (Craisins would work well here too)
Sesame Orange Dressing

3 Tbsp Rice or Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Oil (Canola or Olive)
1 Tbsp Crystallized Ginger Diced
1 Tbsp Orange Juice Concentrate
1 - 2 Tbsp Shallots Diced
1/2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
Salt, Pepper and Sweetener of Choice to taste.

Instructions:

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together and let sit while the remaining components are prepped.
Begin toasting your slivered almonds in a saute pan on medium. Keep an eye on them and toss occasionally until most are starting to brown, abut 8 minutes. Be careful not to burn them.
While the almonds are toasting, rinse the kale and partly de-stem and chop the leaves into thin strips.
In a large mixing bowl, massage dressing into chopped kale for about 3-5 minutes. This will allow the dressing to thoroughly coat and soften the kale a bit.
Mix toasted almond slivers, dried cherries and pepitas into dressed kale.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes prior to serving.

Notes:

Kale can be very chewy, so keep the pieces thin to keep your jaw happy!

Whole Leaf: This is what you start with.

De-stemmed. Be sure to keep the small leaves that you rip off from the bottom.

A little stem near the top (like this) won't hurt you. Keep it in!

Same leaf from above, chopped and ready for dressing.

My first attempt at the dressing did not have any extra sweetener and it was good, but not as sweet as the HEB version. It would be very simple to add a teaspoon of sugar, a few packets of Splenda or a squirt of honey or maple syrup to bring up the sweetness.

Crystallized ginger and shallots for some flavor.

Kale creepin' on the dressing. It must know how yummy it is all together.

This salad tastes just as fresh the next day, so feel free to make it early for a fast dinner or dish to pass.

Toastin'

To get the idea of how much tasty extras are involved.
The nuts, seeds and berries really make this dish complete.

Not for cats though. Sorry Pumpkin!

What's your favorite salad topper?

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

2013-01-22T11:02:00.001-06:00

Most people don't associate "healthy" with chocolate cookies. While these aren't the healthiest replacement for say veggies or an apple, they are a pretty good alternative to real chocolate chip cookies.

If you have heard of Larabars or date balls, that is essentially what these are. I have quite the sweet tooth, so it is nice to have some guilt-free, tasty and filling sweets. Two weekends ago I took my first leap into the date ball process and bought dates! Whoa, I know...big step ;) That weekend I attempted my first recipe and was a little disappointed with the results. The were pretty sticky, and almost too sweet for me. My mini food processor didn't appreciate the dates either and never quite blended the ingredients properly. I even left out the chocolate chips so as not to "waste" them in sub-par date balls.

To my surprise though, the balls equilibrated overnight and turned out to be quite the hit in our household! I think the oats and chia seeds soaked up a bit of the excess moisture and calmed down the sweetness.

With renewed date-ball spirit, I attempted them again this weekend. This time, instead of processing the dates, I just diced them by hand an used a muddler to smush them all together. It took a little elbow grease, but it worked, and it saved me the concern of ruining my small (but functioning) food processor.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups Diced Dates

2 Tbsp Vanilla

1 Cup Whole Oats

2 Tbsp Chia Seeds

1/3 Cup Chocolate Chips

Instructions

Remove pits from dates and dice into about 1/4" x 1/4" pieces.
Muddle (of food process) the diced dates and vanilla into a paste.
Separately, process oats to reduce size. Complete pulverization is not necessary.
Mix chia seeds and processed oats into the date paste.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Roll dough into about 1" balls and refrigerate.
Enjoy! You can eat the chocolate chip cookie dough balls immediately and they should last at least one week, maybe two in the fridge. I would suggest to let them rest overnight to get the best product.

Diced dates.

Processed Oats.

Mushing it all together.

Actually a mint muddler for mojitos.
Also works great for mashing potatoes in a pinch.

Finished product. Bret approved!

And, the kitties sniffing around.
Pi wanted in the box (anyone surprised?) and
Pumpkin wanted out the door (again, surprised?).

Have you tried making any recipes with dates?

Creamy Apple Carrot Soup

2013-01-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

After all of the fun and excess of the holiday season, I have been consciously trying to use up left overs. Another good resolution (that is not official or anything) is to waste less food. I can get carried away at the grocery store sometimes...okay, a lot of times. At the same time, I want to have a good amount of fresh produce on hand to whip up healthy meals as often as we are in the mood.

Two things have helped me use most of the fresh stuff as we buy it.

Green Smoothies. I usually keep them to greens and fruit, but if there are excess carrots...In they go!
Creamy Vegetable Soups. You know how I was raving about the butternut squash soup here, and here. Well, it's success has inspired me to try other blended veggie soups like...

Creamy Carrot & Apple Soup

These pictures are from my first attempt making Angela's Ginger Carrot Apple Soup. It was okay. I'm not the biggest ginger fan yet (working on it!) and the soup had practically no fat in it. My goal is not to promote supper creamy, unhealthy soups, but if a soup is going to be my dinner, it has to have some umph and staying power. That leads me to this recipe. My fridge had a big stash of extra baby carrots and apples that were dying to be souped up. It's a cross the Ginger Carrot Apple soup and Butternut Squash soup.

Ingredients:

1 Small Onion Sliced

2-3 Cloves of Garlic Minced

1 Tablespoon of Oil

2 Gala Apples Cubed

4 Cups Carrots Cubed

1 Red Pepper Cubed (or any other veg you want to use up)

2 Cups Chicken Broth

2+ Cups Milk (enough to cover at least half of the top layer of apples and carrots in the pot)

4 oz Cream Cheese

Spices to taste

Instructions:

Heat oil in stock pot and saute onions and garlic until onions begin to become translucent.

Add apples, carrots, pepper, broth and milk to onion mix. Bring mixture to boil and simmer until carrots are tender. About 15-20 minutes.

Blend until smooth. If using a blender I believe you need to let the soup cool slightly. I usually just plunge my immersion blender in without much cooling though.

Add cream cheese and spices to taste. Blend again until all is incorporated.

Enjoy!

Note: Gala apples have been on sale in Houston, so that's how I ended using those. I bet others would work well too! Also, the red pepper was an afterthought as it was also in my fridge, but it worked here.

Toasting.

All ready for addition! This is a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup for your reference.

Set it and....forget it! For 15 minutes. That is the magic of soup :)

Not particularly exciting, but good.

In my soup escapades this season I have found that a little cream cheese goes a long way. I love it. Another thing I love about soups is the lunches they also provide. I have a few glass jam and almond butter jars that are great for bringing soup to work for quick work lunches. I just microwave the whole jar and eat right out of it. Perfecto!

On a completely different note. Here are a few old pictures from Thanksgiving. The bird got a little toasty in the oven and let off a nice amount of smoke at one point. We set up fans to blow out the smoke and the kitties kept trying to escape! You can hardly tell, but both window here are cracked open to let air in, but not enough to let cats out.

The first explorer.

He's thinking, "Is this a trick? Why do you torture us so?"

Stumped.

Broken Brownies

2013-01-13T08:39:00.002-06:00

I found a great black bean brownie recipe a couple months ago, and have made it 6 times! Chocolate Covered Katie posted it. It's very simple and doesn't require any sugar. Sure it takes maple syrup, splenda and chocolate chips, but I think that is still an improvement over a regular box.

Fuzzy ingredients.

Anyways...It's easy and even Bret has come around to it's awesomeness. I was going to make "real" brownies from a box for him one night this week, but he actually requested the black bean version. Houston hath frozen over!

So, I whipped up a quick batch. SIDE NOTE: Another great thing about Katie's recipe is that it bakes in 15 - 18 minutes. We enjoyed 1/2 of said batch that night. I almost brought a piece to work the next day, but stopped short because I know that 1/2 a pan is a great dessert for the two of us.

That evening, I get home and find Bret already home. I start trying to figure out what to make for dinner and and notice the brownie pan is missing. I don't think much of it and figure he was just hungry when he got home. Time goes by that night and I ask him what happened to the brownies (because, of course, I needed chocolate). He said to me in passing "It broke." I was like "huh?" to myself, but was not in the mood to think too much about it that night.

Fast forward another day. I start getting concerned that the brownie pan is actually broken. It's a Pyrex 9x9 or 8x8 and is my only square pan. Normally, if Bret finishes a dish he puts it in the dishwasher or leaves in on the counter in plain sight. No pan in sight. I again approach Bret about the "broken" brownie.

"Oh!!" Says Bret. "I hid it." He goes and pulls out the pan from a bottom kitchen drawer. He had hid it so that HE could eat it later...but then he forgot.

BUSTED!!!

Lucky for Bret, the brownies were still good and the pan was not broken. :) I apologize if this was too long winded, but it was just funny! Here I thought I was the only one who was sneaky with chocolate. I may have met my match!

Other Fun Things This Week

The Bachelor is now on! I do believe we will see some fun drama this time around :)

source

Martinis!!! My lovely brother gave us fancy martini glasses for Christmas and we have figured out a few good recipes. Cosmos are the best!

Date night! Les Mis. Very good movie. Teared up at the end and would recommend it to anyone who likes musicals. I have not actually seen the musical in person, but I knew most of the story line from watching the 25th anniversary concert. With that, I learned more depth of the story line from the movie and was able to follow the whole thing very easily.

Stretching out!

Happy Pumpkin

2012-11-27T08:13:00.001-06:00

This cat probably ate more Turkey on our day of Thanksgiving than I did.

He probably would have kept going if the plate didn't run out.

Digesting under the Christmas tree.

Tough life he leads...

We were expecting to find turkey barf that evening or the next morning, ~~but he kept it all in!~~ Edited: Bret found some this morning, 4 days later...not sure if that still counts.

Amazing Race 11/25

Good episode overall. I like that the teams are splitting off more and are not always on the same flight.
The Double U-Turn strategy by the Twins and Texans was awesome! It obviously paid off, and I couldn't be happier. It is nice to see smart racers every now and then.
Abby made me feel a little bad for her out there dancing and organning in the rain, but Ryan squashed that sympathy pretty quick.
After the first leg, I said it's a game and you always have to do what you can to win. At that time, it was Abby and Ryan doing the winning when they passed the double amputee, and now the tides have turned. Boo Hoo, no $2 Million for you two...
Lastly, who in their right mind would want to race with another team when you know you are at the back of the pack? Two episodes in a row for that matter!?! Thankfully, the Doctor Beekman was able to talk some sense into his buddy. Phil even tempted him with an option to lose!

Butternut Squash Soup

2012-11-09T20:40:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago, there was a pretty bad homemade soup flop in this house. Sorry Honey! I had the best of intentions with homemade chicken broth, noodles and frozen vegetables. Well, the issues started with weak broth, and then to make matters worse, I took out all of the floating fat (it looked like a good idea at the time...) but just didn't work. There was no flavor and all of the salt and pepper in the house could not save it. As of yet, I am obviously not soup chef extraordinaire, but maybe someday?

Bret was nice enough (or hungry enough) to eat it all, but I know I need some practice. Remember when I linked to a couple soup recipes last week? Well, I a couple! The butternut squash soup seemed the most straight forward and afforded me the opportunity to use my immersion blender! Sorry, the new appliance will lose it's novelty at some point, but I'm still looking more ways to use it :)

Butternut Squash Soup

See the recipe here that was originally inspired here.

1. Chop the Squash! This was the hardest part, but once I figured out to use my "Rock n' Chop" Miracle Blade it went fairly smoothly.

2. Slice onions and saute in stockpot with rosemary and a little oil till softened.

3. Add butternut squash cubes, broth, milk**. Bring to boil and simmer till the squash is tender.

4. Sip a little red wine while you wait :)

4. Immersion blend the soup!!! Then add cream cheese and S & P to taste.

In action!!!

5. Enjoy!

* I used soy milk in place of regular milk and cream because I didn't have either available. As the soup simmered, the soy milk separated somewhat and looked grainy (causing more failure nervousness!). Luckily, the immersion blender did its thing and the soup turned out super smooth and rich.

I had that fairly large bowl for dinner with some crackers and was way overly full. I didn't expect the soup to be so filling, so be warned! This recipe is a keeper, and this could even be a weeknight supper (especially if the squash was cut the day before).

Do you have a go-to yummy and easy soup recipe?

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Swirl Pancakes

2012-10-24T08:59:00.000-05:00

This Saturday I felt like making a new breakfast. My first thought was pumpkin french toast. There are a number of recipes floating around where you add pumpkin to the egg part. It looks good, and always seems to please the eaters. Well, we had three eggs, but they were already a few weeks past expiration :( Not deterred, I thought of Angela's pancakes that have been intriguing me for a while. She is vegan, and first introduced me to the idea of a flax egg as a replacement for a real egg. Hmmmm.... Well, there was no better time to try it out than when my chicken eggs were bad, so I forged ahead into unknown territory.

The base pancake recipe is practically the same as Angela's, but the swirl turned it into a pumpkin-wonderful breakfast.

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Swirl Pancakes

Pancake Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat flour
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cup Milk (I had almond milk on hand)
1 Tbsp Ground Flax
3 Tbsp Warm Water

Swirl Ingredients:

3 Tbsp Pumpkin Puree
3 Tbsp Peanut Butter
Splash of Milk
Pinch of Spices. I used cinnamon and nutmeg, but cloves and or pumpkin pie spice would work too.

1. Prepare flax egg by mixing the ground flax and warm water. Set aside to gel.
2. Prepare the Swirl by placing all ingredient in a plastic zipper sandwich bag. Mush together till combined. Push contents to one corner and cut it slightly for easy swirl making.
3. Combine dry pancake ingredients in bowl. Whisk in milk and then gelled flax egg.
4. Heat griddle or skillet, spray with oil and portion out the pancake batter for cooking.
5. As the first side cooks, take the Swirl bag and pipe a swirl on the pancake.
6. Flip pancake when bottom begins to brown and/or bubbles start popping. Brown the other side being careful not to rip the swirl off when removing from the pan.
7. Enjoy with pumpkin butter or syrup!

Gloopy flax egg success!

Flax egg before mixing.

Swirled.

Nice and fluffy!

We ended up with two large pancakes and one extra large. I swirled a "B" on to the extra large one for Bret :) It was a really tasty and filling breakfast with only a few bites left uneaten because I was so full.

The real Pumpkin swirl.

What is your favorite pancake recipe?

Baby Kitties

2012-10-01T08:03:00.000-05:00

Before they came home to us...

Baby Pi

Baby Pumpkin

The first day we brought Pumpkin & Pi home, everything was set up, like the litter box and food dish with all the same stuff they were familiar with. We let them out in the living/dinning room of the apartment and blocked off the rest to help them acclimate. It didn't take long for them to get annoyed with the blockade and meowed (squeaked actually) and attempted jumps. I think we scrapped that formality after about a day or so, and they settled right in exploring and re-exploring their new digs.

Pi ~1 year old

Pumpkin ~1 year old

Chillaxing with a monkey ~ 1 year old

Now at 2 1/2 years, they have the run of the house. Or so they think!

Who am I kidding...they definitely run the place. Lucky for me, they are still pretty small and very fluffy.

Wisconsin Girl in Houston

2012-09-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

Source

Lots of changes happened in the first half of 2012. So many, that sometimes it is hard to believe...

new job
new state
engaged
bought a house

The year prior was a pretty stagnant period of my life. I was living in Madison, WI while my fiance was in Houston, TX. We were able to spend many weekends together, but life and the future was kind of in limbo...when will Amy find a job in Houston? Will she even find a job? Where will it be? Will we be able to afford a house? Stressful times I tell ya!

It was all worth it though. My work experiences in Madison during our time apart definitely helped me get my new job here. The new job is great with a ton of new opportunities to learn and people to meet. Every time I take a moment to really think about the way life has sorted itself out, I feel so extremely fortunate.

There will always be bumps along the road, but the more I live and grow, the more I feel confident that I can handle it. Support and encouragement from my other half has helped a lot too. Teams are great! :)

Now I must get back to the Badge game. Let's hope for a W for UW!