Sweet Potatoes – 2 ways

DSC01954

This is one of our go-to paleo sides. It’s easy to make a big batch and it reheats well. We’ve come up with two different variations here.

Ingredients: 

3 Sweet potatoes – scrubbed and chopped into 1″ squares
1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil

Variation 1 –
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Variation 2 –
1 star anise, finely crushed
1″ piece fresh ginger, grated
1 lime, zested and juiced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Fresh ground pepper

DSC01948

More

Hemp Oatmeal Cookies

In celebration of International Hemp Day which was on 4/21 I got together with my friend from grad school that happens to be an expert hemp enthusiast and made some hemp-tastic food! We thought the cookies turned out particularly well! So well that we had to make another batch the same day because the first batch made too few cookies!

All the ingredients

All the ingredients

Ingredients:
More

Honey Spiced Brussel Sprouts

These days, being in grad school, I need things that are fast an easy that I can make while soon other things. In an attempt to make cooking brussel sprouts easier and also copy some of the best brussel sprouts I’ve ever had from Michael’s On Main in Capitola I came up with this ridiculously easy method.

Ingredients

Brussel Sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
handful of roasted pecans

20121107-164954.jpg

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F
Chop the brussel spouts into quarters, making sure to remove the bottoms
Coat the brussel sprouts with olive oil and then season with salt and pepper
Bake for 20-30 minutes total, stirring half way through
Meanwhile, melt the butter, honey and cinnamon in a sauce pan 
Once the brussel sprouts are done cooking, pour the honey butter over them
Top with chopped up pecans
Enjoy!  

20121107-165017.jpg

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

FoodPornDaily.com is our drool-a-day website.
The cookbook is just as beautiful and where we got the following recipe…

Dough Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. butter, melted
¼ cup granulated sugar (or in our case  Maple Sugar)
½ tsp. salt
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 large egg, beaten
½ cup lukewarm water (105 – 110 degrees F)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
3 ¾ cups flour, plus extra- as needed
cooking spray

Filling Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Instructions:

More

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

Taken straight from the lid of the Quaker® Oats container!

Ingredients:

1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2  cup granulated sugar
2  eggs
1  teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1  teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1  cup raisins

More

Currant Scones & Molasses Frosting

We started from this recipe on epicurious, added some cinnamon and then made up our own molasses frosting! Yum!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar OR sucanat
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teasp
oon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup currants, cranberries or raisins

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon molasses
cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger to taste

More

Whole Wheat Molasses Waffles

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons honey
5 large eggs
2 cups milk, plus more as needed
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon molasses

More

Cloud Pancakes

We’re loving Martha Stewart’s breakfast section! We love cottage cheese, we love pancakes… put them together for a yummy reason to wake up in the morning!

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, separated
1 cups small-curd cottage cheese
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (or a dash of lemon juice)
Butter, for cooking

More

Upside-Down Apple Sour Cream Cake

From our guest baker/blogger Laurie. Adapted from a recipe she found on epicurious.com, we totally love her version–just the perfect amount of sweet. We were all talking about second helpings before we even finished our first slice! Yum!

Cake Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)

Apple Ingredients

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 8-ounce Golden Delicious apples, peeled, halved, cored, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Find full instructions on epicurious.com

Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

These are the kind of cookies that you eat and then you can’t stop talking about how good they are. They’re SO good. Really. It’s hard to explain how a cookie can be so good. Like, seriously. The only reason you’d regret trying them is because you can’t stop eating them. Because they’re SO good.

Originally seen on foodporndaily.com and then adapted from hotpolkadot.com.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup demerara sugar
2 eggs
2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups 60% chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate

More

Moroccan Chicken Minestrone

This is Tami’s version of Minestrone Soup, with Moroccan influenced spices and  chunks of chicken. You can use any ratio of veggies you happen to have on hand. This is just what we used when we took the pictures.

Ingredients:

Onion
Carrots
Celery
Zucchini
Fresh Tomatoes
Canned Skinned Tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Chicken

Equal Parts:
Cumin
Coriander
Turmeric
Cinnamon

More

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are a couple options when making these cookies… you can make them the healthy way or the good way! We’re all for healthy desserts, but this time the healthy option just doesn’t measure up to the white flour and sugar version! We made them with sucanat & whole wheat flour and then sugar & white flour. There was no contest. The sugar & white flour version has a much smoother consistency, though if you were only presented with the sucanat and whole wheat flour version you probably wouldn’t complain… they just can’t hold their own in a comparison.

Two warnings:

#1 These cookies are super addicting!
#2 We’ve made these cookies without the chocolate chips and had friends ask why we wasted our time not putting chocolate chips in!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar OR sucanat
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour OR whole wheat pastry flour OR a mixture of the two
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup+ Ghiradelli chocolate chips (optional)


More

Butternut Squash Muffins


We found this recipe here, but made just a couple substitutions and upped the amount of spices.

Muffins Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup sugar OR sucanat
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 cup buttermilk (or make your own with 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1/2 cup mashed, roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin puree, if you prefer)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup yogurt


Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar OR sucanat
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/4 cup melted butter

More

Pumpkin Cheesecake & Gingersnap Crust

We were so excited to make this cheesecake that we forgot to take pictures when we started! Whoops! The original recipe came from Epicurious–we left some things out, tried the pecan topping but couldn’t get it right, so what follows is our version! The cheesecake also got ravaged at the party we took it to before we could snap any respectable pictures. So you’re going to have to take our word for it that it turned out beautifully!

Crust Ingredients

2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
(we only had one cup of crispy store bought cookies, so we used our soft molasses cookies for the second cup)
1+ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling Ingredients

4  8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1.5 cups sugar or sucanat
3+ tablespoons all purpose flour
1.5+ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1+ teaspoon ground ginger
4 large eggs
1  15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

More

Maple-Pecan Apple Crumb Pie

From the Esalon Cookbook! We can’t wait to try more things out of this cookbook!

Piecrust

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons sucanat
1 cup cold butter
1/2 cup ice water

Pie Filling

6 cups cored , peeled apples, sliced into 1/4 inches slices
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sucanat OR honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup maple syrup

Maple Pecan Crumb Topping

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole pastry flour
1/4 cup sucanat
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped pecans

More

Carrot Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting

We’re determined to make desserts that taste good and are good for you (well okay… desserts that at least aren’t horrible for you and don’t have processed sugar!). The original recipe came from Epicurious, but we made a decent amount of changes to get it sugar-free and we also substituted coconut oil for canola oil, since coconut oil is more beneficial.

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

1/3 cup dried shredded organic unsweetened coconut
3 cups (a little less than a 1 pound) organic farm-fresh carrots, shredded
1 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons organic ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated organic nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sucanat
3/4 cup organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
3 organic eggs

More

Lamb Meatballs


Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons quinoa
1 egg
olive oil for frying

More

Chocolate Beet Muffins

Found the original recipe on this blog, but–big surprise–modified it slightly to its current form. We’re not totally convinced about the awesomeness of this recipe; and not sure we’d even make them again. It got very mixed reviews from our official samplers, but if you really like beets try it out! If you don’t like beets and are wondering what beets are doing in a dessert, then don’t waste your time!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil
1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾-1 cup whole milk
2 cups pureed (cooked) beets
some chocolate chips, if you want to add them to the tops of the muffins!

click “read more” for additional photos and the instructions!

More

Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

8 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped into eight sections
Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats

More

Spiced Plum Pie

Ingredients:

one pie crust–store bought or try our easy homemade whole wheat crust!

1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges

More

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Found on Epicurious, but we modified how the crust was prepped. These were a HUGE hit at the party we took them to!

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup flour (we used wheat pastry flour)
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 cup pecan halves (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
1 cup sour cream (we didn’t have enough sour cream, but it still came out great!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

More

Whole Wheat Waffles & Blueberry Yogurt Syrup

Perfect for Sunday morning. This recipe was ad-libbed enough from Epicurious that we’re not even going to reference you to the original recipe… it was really more a guideline.

As far as we know, the Blueberry Yogurt Syrup was totally made up! And totally good!

Waffle Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup oat flour
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 egg whites

Blueberry Syrup Ingredients:

1 container blueberries
Agave maple syrup
Greek yogurt
dash of vanilla

Preparation:

Mix all the waffle ingredients until smooth
Cook waffles as usual

Dump blueberries in Quisinart
Add chosen ratio of syrup and yogurt to produce desired consistency

Pulse until just mixed (over mixing will make it thinner)

Serve with eggs and coffee! Enjoy with your favorite person on a relaxing weekend morning!

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Taken straight from the Martha Stewart website! Changes made from original recipe: we took out the fresh ginger, used 1/8 cup unsulfured molasses and 1/8 cup bootstrap molasses to get the full 1/4 cup of molasses and we used a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

with sugar and without

Ingredients:

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

 

 

 

 

 

More

Mango Pineapple Surprise

We found this recipe here, because we had a lot of leftover phyllo dough and some fruit that needed to be used up. We didn’t have all the ingredients and so modified it heavily to get to the recipe you see below. We think it worked out quite well and was much simpler and faster than the original recipe .


Ingredients:

1/2 pineapple
1 mango
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water
phyllo sheets (we just used leftover scraps)
1 stick butter

More