Healthy(ish) Butterscotch Brownies

I get migraines. Two or three times per week, sometimes more if the weather is bad. At my prenatal appointment yesterday, the midwife suggested cutting out all common dietary migraine triggers for the next two weeks to see if that helps any. This leaves me without: cheddar and other aged cheeses, hot dogs and other foods with nitrites, anything containing MSG, peanuts and peanut butter, sour cream and yogurt ... and chocolate. That's right - no chocolate for two weeks! I can substitute other things - like almond butter for peanut butter, mozzarella or monterey jack for cheddar, etc. And, as is evidenced by my previous post and many other posts, I know that I am perfectly capable of making and enjoying delicious dessert and snack items without using chocolate. But I'm the kind of person where, if you tell me I can't eat chocolate, that's all I think about!

So this is my attempt to curb my sudden intense desire for chocolate by replacing it with something else, to prove to myself that I can satisfy my sweet tooth with something that not only doesn't include chocolate, but also has healthy ingredients too. This recipe (from the More with Less Cookbook) proves to me that yes, I am strong! I can live for two weeks without chocolate! I can survive!

But I don't have to be happy about it.


Healthy Butterscotch Brownies
1/4 cup margarine
1 tbsp. molasses
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. dry milk powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8-inch square pan.

Melt margarine. Add molasses, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir well. Sift in milk powder, baking powder, and salt. Add wheat germ and walnuts. Stir enough only to blend, using no more than 20 strokes. Spread in prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes.


The verdict? Well, it's not chocolate. And it's not very brownie-like either. The bars are a bit chewy, with a very wheaty flavor and texture. But that said, I like them. They even have almost a cocunutty flavor, though there's no coconut in them. They'd probably be even better spread with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting or sprinkled with powdered sugar or something. But they're pretty good plain too. And they have Zaylee's seal of approval.


But they're just not chocolate. Sigh.

Summer Cherry Cake

Oh yum. This was so fantastic! I saw this recipe earlier today on My Muffin Thursdays. We just bought cherries yesterday for $.88 per pound and have been eagerly snacking on them. But I knew they needed to be used quickly or they would go bad - we bought them near the end of the sale knowing they only had a couple more days left to go. This cake looked so simple and so delicious that I knew I had to make it!

And I'm so glad I did. This is a very delicious cake. The cherries are soft and moist, and the cake is buttery and tasty, with a crispy and flaky top "crust" that formed as it baked. Oh, it was so yummy!


Summer Cherry Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup flour
2 cup cherries, pitted (sweet, if using sour increase sugar to 1 cup)

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Sift in salt, baking powder, and flour.

Pour batter into a sprayed 8" cake pan (I used a greased 8-inch square pan) and poke cherries through the batter, pushing to all different levels. After this I added a step of lightly spreading the batter over the cherries, since pushing them in had made the batter very uneven and funny-looking on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Oooh, look at that delicious cake! Doesn't it look so beautiful?


Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.


Yeah. REALLY glad that I made this cake, heeheehee...

My Kitchen My World - Ukraine (late...)

This post is several days late, I think. But I wanted to make these dishes anyway because they looked so delicious and I had the ingredients. So here is my late submission to My Kitchen My World, Ukraine!


Cabbage with Tomatoes
1 small head cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup butter or bacon fat
3 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. butter or bacon fat
2 tbsp. flour
1 cup diced canned tomatoes
1 tbsp. sugar, or to taste
2 tbsp. sour cream
Salt & freshly ground pepper
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Saute the onion in a large frying pan until tender. Add the cabbage and water and cook, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until the cabbage is tender but still slightly crisp.

In another pan, melt the butter or bacon fat. Add the flour, stir to blend, and add the tomatoes and sugar. Cook until the sauce thickens. Add the sour cream and season to taste with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes

Combine the sauce with the cabbage and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes to blend the flavors.


Sour Cream Cucumber Salad
3 medium cucumbers
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup fresh chopped dill (I cheated and used dry dill)
1 tbsp. white vinegar
Dash white pepper
1/4 cup (add more depending on your taste and size of cucumbers)

Peel cucumbers and slice thinly. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand 15 minutes. Drain liquid. Add green onions, dill, vinegar, and white pepper. Toss lightly with sour cream.


Served with some fresh homemade bread, this was a tasty Ukrainian meal (though I do admit it probably would have been more authentic had I made rye bread. Oh well, no one's perfect). I think these are probably more along the lines of adult taste, as my usually unpicky children wanted nothing to do with anything on their plates except the bread. But Jeff and I really enjoyed the cabbage and the salad.

Both of these delicious recipes came from Nash Holos, "a blog about Ukrainian music, musicians, radio, TV, internet, culture and community in Canada, Ukraine and elsewhere." This blog has lots of yummy looking Ukrainian recipes that I would love to try! Especially the many desserts, mmmmm...

Raisin Oatmeal Scones

I grew up eating eggs and cereal for breakfast nearly every single morning. About the only variation we had was whether the eggs were fried, scrambled, or boiled, and what type of cereal we had available that day. My mom had eight kids, and it was the easiest and fastest way to get breakfast on the table, though on Saturdays we sometimes had a special treat in the form of pancakes or omelets. Now that I'm grown and have my own family, I have departed quite a bit from the typical eggs-and-cereal breakfasts that I grew up with - I prefer variety and don't mind spending a little extra time in the kitchen to achieve it on occasion. I'm sure that as my children get older and we as a family get busier, I'll lean toward the quick and easy breakfasts more and more often, just as my mom did. But for the time being, we enjoy a large variety of breakfast foods (here are some that I've posted about).

This is an example of a breakfast food that's a little more effort-requiring and fun than just eggs and cereal. This recipe for raisin oatmeal scones came from the Tightwad Gazette (I love that book!) and makes an inexpensive and delicious breakfast. These scones are wonderful spread with margarine and jam, and pretty easy as far as "fancy" breakfasts go.


Raisin Oatmeal Scones
1 1/2 cups flour (white or wheat)
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup softened margarine
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup sour milk (milk with 2 tsp. vinegar added)
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400. Mix dry ingredients; cut in margarine and raisins. Stir in enough sour milk just to moisten. Divide the dough in half.

Flour hands and pat dough into two circles on a greased cookie sheet about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into quarters. Bake for 10 minutes. Brush on egg and then bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 more minutes. Serve with honey, margarine, or jam.


I used whole wheat flour in my scones this morning. They were good in a stick-to-your-ribs kind of way, though a bit dense. All-purpose flour will yield a lighter-textured scone. And just a note, like many scones these might be considered kind of bland on their own. They're meant to be paired with something sweet like jam or honey to bring out the flavor. :-)

"Freezing Foods" Article on Allrecipes.com

Just a quick post - I was on allrecipes.com and found a really great article on there about making freezer meals. It has great ideas, safety guidelines, a best-by chart, and several recipes that would be good for freezing. Just thought it would go great with my little freezer meal series I've been working on. I know I learned a thing or two. Check it out here!

Baked Beans with Hot Dogs - Freezer Meal

Just a basic Baked Bean recipe that I added hot dogs to. Beans freeze really well, so they make an ideal freezer meal no matter how you cook them! Like with the bean soup, I used half black beans and half black-eyed peas. Other beans or bean combinations can be used; the actual recipe suggests navy beans.

At this point I'm running low on room in the freezer, and bemoaning the fact that I have no room or money for a chest freezer! I may or may not have to go on a freezer meal hiatus after these beans, until I can use up some of the stuff we've got in the freezer and make more room for meals. :-) We'll see how it goes. But I sure am having fun stocking my freezer with all these meals! With these baked beans, there is now a total of twelve meals and twenty burritos in my freezer. Awesome.

Ick, yucky picture. Lighting is all weird lately. Too bright for the bowl, too dark for the beans. Sigh.

Baked Beans with Hot Dogs
1 lb. dry beans
2 quarts water
1/2 cup molasses (wasn't sweet enough for me, I also added 1/2 cup brown sugar)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. dry mustard powder
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 package hot dogs, sliced

Soak beans in water overnight or by quick method. In same liquid, bring beans to a boil and simmer until tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Drain, reserving liquid.

Combine beans with remaining ingredients in a 2 quart casserole. Add bean liquid to cover. Bake 4-8 hours at 275, adding liquid occasionally if necessary. Cover during first half of baking time, then uncover.

Or you can do it in the crock pot - I chose to because I didn't want the added heat of running the oven for four hours! Combine beans with remaining ingredients in crock pot. Add bean liquid to barely cover. You won't need as much liquid as if you were doing it in the oven, because the liquid won't cook off. Cook on low overnight.

Freezer Meal: By now you should know the drill - let the beans cool, then spoon into freezer containers, canning jars, or freezer bags. Freeze. To use, thaw in refrigerator and reheat in a saucepan over medium heat.

Bean Soup - Freezer Meal

Here's the next installment in my freezer meal saga! Going through all my dry beans, I realized that I'm running really low; there was only enough for the refried beans, the chili, and these next couple of bean meals. So this soup and the baked beans (soon to come) had to be made with the only beans I had left - one pound each of black beans and black-eyed peas. I soaked them all together, then used half of that combination to make the soup and will use the rest for the baked beans. And yes, we bought several more pounds of beans when we did our weekly shopping yesterday!


I will take this moment to remind you (or rather, remind myself...) that when you decide to do several large freezer meals in a short period of time, make sure you have all the ingredients necessary. I took it for granted that we would have basics like carrots and onions, because we always have those! But I forgot to take into account that I've been using them in large amounts for the other meals I've done. So when I went to start chopping veggies for the soup, I realized I had only two small carrots and was out of onions. Jeff volunteered to walk to the nearby grocery store and pick up onions (I just can't live without onions), and I added a chopped green bell pepper in place of the third carrot. I could have avoided the need for an extra trip to the store had I made sure that we had all necessary ingredients before we did our shopping yesterday - even the ones that I take for granted!

Bean Soup
2 cups (1 lb) dry beans
2 quarts water
1 ham bone or several polish sausages, sliced (optional, I didn't include this)
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 quart tomato juice or stewed tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak beans overnight or by quick method. Drain and add fresh water, 6-8 cups. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 2 hours or more until beans are tender. Add more liquid if necessary. If you used a ham bone, remove meat from bones, chop, and return to soup.

Freezer Meal: Let soup cool, then spoon into freezer containers or canning jars in meal-sized portions. I don't recommend putting the soup in freezer bags, just because it's so liquidy. Freeze. To use, thaw in refrigerator, empty into a saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Should be good served with a loaf of fresh bread or some corn bread!


I'll probably cook the rest of the beans this evening and do the baked beans in the crock pot overnight tonight. That way I won't heat the apartment too much, which is very important. ;-)

Just a note to myself: I really need to start using more of what's already in the freezer - I'm running out of room to put all these freezer meals! I still have a few more planned and am just hoping that there will be room to squeeze them all in. Fingers crossed!