Pecan Crusted Scallops

We went to Aldi today and it strikes me as odd or perhaps apropos that I spent $60 on primarily cheese. And a binge purchase-- scallops.

I have been so hungry for scallops. I got twelve jumbo scallops for $10. 

I decided to crust them in pecans. Normally one would grind the pecans and mix them with good quality breadcrumbs but I went gluten free and just used pecans.

I found some recipes online but didn't like the sound of any of them so I used them as a base. I found one that served with orange butter (1/2 cup orange juice to 2 tablespoons butter). I wanted mango butter. So I took 2/3 cup of frozen mango chunks, thawed them in the microwave with water, and puréed them in the food processor. I added three tablespoons butter and processed it with the mango.

I put this mix on the stove so the heat would melt it partially but not reduce it to liquid completely.

Next I put 1 cup pecan halves into the food processor, figuring a touch of mango and butter wouldn't hurt. Ground those as much as I could.

To flavor my scallops and make them sticky for my pecans, I whisked together:

- three tablespoons honey

- about one and a half tablespoons Briana's Blush Vinaigrette 

- about one teaspoon ground ginger

(The inside of the scallops ended up tasting like maple syrup when they were done. Not sure why.)

I rolled each scallop into this sticky mess and pressed it into the ground pecans. I arranged them in a Pyrex dish, poured the extra goop on them and baked at 425 for twelve minutes.

I served with a nice dollop of the butter, put some extra butter on the plate for the Brussel sprouts and used my mother-in-law's leftover zucchini pie as a compliment. Really good stuff. 

Pecan Crusted Salmon

I'm not a fan of salmon. So I dressed it up. This I very much enjoyed.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with olive oil.

Serve with side salad. Mine was Italian blend greens with dried cherries, onion straws, kalamata olives, feta and a blush wine vinaigrette.

Place three salmon filets on cookie sheet. In small bowl, mix equal parts (I used about two teaspoons):

- extra virgin olive oil

- local raw honey 

- lemon juice

- Dijon mustard

Brush filets liberally with half the sauce.

In a second bowl, mix:

- about 1 cup finely ground pecans

- garlic pepper

- about 1 tablespoon parsley 

- about 1 teaspoon paprika

Coat the top of the filets and drizzle remaining sauce on top. Bake about 20 minutes.

Vegan Paleo fruit "cookies"

I'm neither vegan nor paleo when it comes to eating but I appreciate recipes focused on unprocessed foods with minimal animal products.

This recipe is very clean. No added or refined sugar. No gluten.

It's based on a recipe from Against All Grain, posted on Paleo Parents. I have adapted it to what is in my pantry.

Ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 4 madjool dates, pitted
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil

- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- about 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons each: raisins, dried cranberry and dried cantaloupe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine first block of ingredients in food processor and combine until a fine purée like baby food
3. Add next block and pulse until just combined
4. Add dried fruit and nuts and mix just enough to incorporate
5. Place golf-ball sized cookies on cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper) and press into cookie shapes
6. Bake about twenty minutes, carefully flipping after the first 15

Mine got a tad dark, and are still very soft but so delicious. I think I need a touch more coconut flour in my mix.

But that said, I could eat the whole dozen.

Crockpot oatmeal II

Today we started talking about oats and got hungry for crockpot oatmeal. Crockpot oatmeal can be a super hot breakfast, but it requires some forethought. And while you're supposed to cook on low overnight, it probably would only take a couple hours if you turned the heat up. The trick seems to be to make sure there's enough liquid to keep it from drying up since the oats absorb over time.

This can be a very hearty vegan breakfast if you use alternative milks and a margarine product for the butter. I'm trying mine tonight with almond milk for the first time. Silk's new vanilla almond milk is a favorite of my daughter.

Grease the crockpot.

Mix:
- one cup oats, rolled oats NOT instant ( I used one and a half)
- 2 cups milk ( I used about 1.5 cups vanilla almond milk, 3/4 cup soy milk and 1/4 cup whole cow's milk)
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 chopped apple (I used two)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup walnuts ( I used pecans)
My other add-ins:
- 1/4 cup chopped prunes
- 2 tablespoons vanilla white chocolate chips
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon 
- a few chopped dates

Pecan and fruit French toast

Today I am obviously in a cooking frame of mind. Recycled the last of the spaghetti sauce into a dish of pasta with black olives, whipped out three loaves of cinnamon raisin bread this afternoon and now-- despite my original plan of a hearty baked oatmeal with Morningstar vegetarian sausages-- I am trying my hand at pecan-crusted French toast. It is a total experiment, so it will be fabulous...

Or gross.

Or maybe merely edible.

I started by slicing a loaf of my homemade cinnamon raisin bread into pieces. I made a French roast 'batter' of soy milk, two eggs, a drop of vanilla, a too-large gulp of heavy cream. Fried these up in my skillet with too much butter.

Then I lined them in Pyrex dishes, greased with butter.

I made a water-sugar syrup, which you can replicate using the one I use for tart tartine. What that was boiling heartily and started to condense, I added a handful of frozen berries. After they bubbled a while, I added six chopped prunes. (yes, I'm running out of fruit.)

Now after that bubbles a while I added chopped pecans, I think it was 2 cups worth. I stirred and stirred and then started layering it on top of the French toast. When the piles of pecans finished, I sprinkled them with brown sugar and put them in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

They look good. Smell good. Taste of the sauce is good. So, we'll see.

Pumpkin Pecan Crêpes

I finally got a chance to revisit pumpkin crêpes.
I forgot the thing I always forget. When I make crêpes, they work best if I get the Le Creuset skillet and grease in lightly but completely with butter, get it good and hot- a hair over medium, and then do not add more fat as I could. Dry and hot seems to be the secret to keeping crêpes from sticking. At least for me.

Today, I made half the recommended sauce for these crêpes, and added about 1 or so cups of chopped pecans. I also reserved some extra pumpkin from the can to substitute for one of the eggs in the traditional crêpe recipe. So where my traditional crêpe recipe calls for two eggs, the pumpkin recipe only has one. More details in the second link below. 

The pumpkin filling and sauce:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/pumpkin-maple-crepes.html

The pumpkin crêpes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-crepeslessons-learned-from-le.html

Five minute chocolate cake

From Instructables.com


o coffee mug
o 4 tablespoons flour - make sure you measure it right - or the cake is a lie!
o 4 tablespoons sugar
o 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
o 2 tablespoons whisked egg - 1 egg is too much, 1 egg white is too eggy, 1 yolk is too dense, but 2 tblsp is just right!
o 3 tablespoons milk
o 3 tablespoons oil
o 3 tablespoons chocolate chips
o splash vanilla or other flavoring - try peppermint or cinnamon

For a fudgier version, omit egg!

Cake Wrecks posted this to Facebook. It cooks in 2.5-4 minutes in the microwave.

We made ours with chocolate soy milk instead of milk.

We also discovered one of our eggs made two cakes.

I made mine with chocolate chips, pecans and chopped caramel candies to make a turtle cake.

Super Salads

So, this is my first full day on medication for Vitamin D and iron deficiency. I made a pledge to myself to eat healthier. Iron pills can make you constipated, so I want to make sure I get plenty of fiber.

Breakfast:

• about 6 ounces apple-kiwi-strawberry 1oo% juice
• cream of wheat made with soy milk with a touch of sugar
• 1/2 cup coffee with non dairy French vanilla creamer

Snack:

• 1 slice fruity fred, thawed from the freezer (Amish friendship bread with almonds and dried cherries)
• green iced tea with blueberry

Lunch:

• small bowl minestrone soup
• homemade multigrain baquette
• Trader Joe's hummus
• about 6 ounces chocolate silk

Afternoon snack

• sweetened green tea (grrr, though it was unsweetened)
• a banana

Dinner

• large salad with two types of bagged greens (and some carrots and cabbage)
  
• asiago
• cheddar
• chopped pecans
• dried strawberries
• raisins
• red wine vinaigrette dressing
• a side of Motts Healthy Harvest No Sugar Added Country Berry Applesauce
• 16 ounces unsweetened soy milk with Banana Moo Magic Powder
  

Sweet Potato Crunch

My husband's Aunt Carolyn makes a variation of this dish, so I thought the recipe came from her. It appears the one I have came from "Janet Muchoney" in the Weis Recipe Exchange...

Sweet Potato Crunch

• 4 large sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled and cooled
• 1 cup sugar
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
  

For the crunch:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cupped pecans, chopped
• 1/2 stick butter or margarine, melted

In a large bowl, mix the first set of ingredients. Pour into 9x13 inch greased pan. Mix remaining dry ingredients. Layer on top of creamed sweet potatoes. Pour melted butter over topping.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

My modifications:
I didn't use fresh yams (and Gayle is mad at me for this, or perhaps disappointed). I used two 29 ounce cans of Taylor Yams in syrup, drained. I also reduced the white sugar to 2/3 cup. I upped the pecans to 1.5 cups because I like pecans...

And I used an 11x7 dish not realizing how small it is...

Frozen baked goods and picnic

For breakfast, we pulled some sticky buns out of the freezer. The link below for sticky buns should take you to the recipe.

For lunch I packed a picnic and we took it to Monocacy Park where we inadvertently ended up watching fishermen trying to catch the final smart fish from the stocked creek.

The lunch consisted of a big bottle of ice water, two turkey sandwiches with butter lettuce and soy mayo on store-bought wheat bread from my father-in-law (cut into fingers so everyone didn't notice I only had enough meat for each person to have 2/3 of a traditional sandwich), baby carrots, pretzels, and fresh pears.

Sticky buns

I wanted to make sticky buns today, so I started them before class and worked the dough after...I need to work this afternoon, so I plan to leave them in the oven and set the oven timer to have them cooking when we get home... These photos are from the last time I made them, which is probably a year ago. Yes, I'm serving these for dinner. Maybe with scrambled eggs. The base recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook.

Caramel Sticky Rolls
3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 packages yeast
1 cup very warm milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
3/4 cup pecan halves

2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Phase 1: Mix two cups of the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add warm milk, 1/3 cup butter and egg. Mix for one minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough flour to make the dough easy to handle.

Phase 2: Knead on floured surface for five minutes. Place in greased bowl and let rise about 1.5 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Phase 3: Heat one cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup butter to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add corn syrup. Pour into bottom of 13x9x2 pan. Sprinkle with pecan halves.

Phase 4: Punch down dough. Flatten into rectangle about 10" by 15" . Spread with two tablespoons margarine. Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle evenly over dough. Roll from the 15" side and pinch to seal. Shape as desired. Cut into 15 one-inch slices and arrange in pan slightly apart. Let rise 30 minutes in a warm place until doubled.

Final phase: Preheat oven to 350. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately invert onto heatproof serving platter. Let stand one minute until sauce drains.

How I changed it: I swapped out the chopped pecans for loads of raisins and golden raisins. I also used almond milk instead of milk, and applesauce instead of egg. And I got way more than the original yield, so I left the end of the roll a "loaf" and figured I'd cook it on it's own. And I omitted the corn syrup (just used water).