Cream Cheese Muffins

Several years ago, I started truly researching types of food and how our body reacts to different foods.  I began to look at GMO foods and issues, read a lot about eating local, in season foods, studied traditional foods (along the lines of Nourishing Traditions), and watched Food, Inc., Supersize Me, and other documentaries about the SAD (Standard American Diet).  I decided that our current way of eating was going to have to change.  I started eliminating processed foods from our diet, adding coconut oil, and trying some grass-fed meat options. 

Then, of course, the bomb dropped - food allergies. I had just begun a gradual overhaul of our entire way of eating when I learned that Jerry and my boys were allergic to all of God's green earth, and began a new research project - how to cook without any recognizable ingredients.  It has taken two years, but I now have a decent repertoire of recipes that the whole family can enjoy, and my boys' are healing - they are truly totally different after two years of treatment! 

Since all of that happened right after I had a baby, and I was only focused on learning how to cook non-allergenic foods for a long time, my weight got a bit out of control.  So once I re-learned how to feed my family, I began to try to lose some weight and figure out how to incorporate the changes I had started to make three years ago into our new-normal allergy-friendly eating plan.  It has taken some major creativity, plus some trial and error, but I finally have a plan that works! We now eat only foods our grandmothers would recognize (Which is really saying something since one of Jerry's grandmothers was born in 1899!), with a few exceptions, of course!  I don't worry about fat in our diet, but use non-hydrogenated fats, such as coconut oil, butter, and olive oil. We have learned to eat quinoa, millet, and add whole grains of all sorts to our diet.  We have eliminated about 80% of the chemicals we used to consume, and rarely consume corn syrup anymore. I have learned to be satisfied with a meal that consists only of meat, fruit, and vegetable much of the time, and no longer eat very many starches.  The result? I have lost a ton of weight and finally like the way I look, my kids are healthier and don't feel like they're missing too much, and we all enjoy the occasional treat and have discovered which of our "coveted foods" from before really don't appeal anymore.

A recent picture to document the end of my weight loss journey.

I've ended up using many low-carb recipes in my efforts to avoid wheat (for my allergic family) and other starches (for me).  I thought I'd occasionally share some of these recipes here, knowing full well that most of the world doesn't eat the way I do.  But if something I put out here looks good to someone, I'm happy to share.  I know my Green Smoothie wasn't a big hit, but these are much more normal looking, and really tasty! (I promise.) I enjoy a couple of these for breakfast or one for a quick snack.  They are best fully refrigerated.  It is like a mini-cheesecake, really!

Cream Cheese Muffins (Sernicki)
Muffins:

• 24 oz cream cheese, softened
• sweetener: 1 cup splenda or sugar, or 1/2 c. honey (honey changes the consistency some)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 5 eggs

Topping:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 c. splenda or sugar, or 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• optional: 1 TB cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 

Blend together cream cheese and sweetener.  Add vanilla extract.  Add eggs, beating in one at a time.  Pour into 24 paper cupcake liners (you MUST use liners with this recipe) in cupcake pan, filling liners about 2/3 full of batter.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes.

While muffins are cooling, beat all topping ingredients together. Spoon a bit of the topping onto each muffin, where an indention has formed from the cooling.  Return to oven for 5 minutes, then remove and cool. 

Even with another layer of muffins on top of these, this container empties quickly at my house since all 5 of use enjoy these!

Oh. My. Garlic.

Heaven in a box.

Wheat

We just got some food back in this last month, and wheat is one item we can now add to our rotation. We can have some wheat twice a week, and I have to tell you that this is very exciting for me!  I have missed pasta.  Tomatoes are still out, so a traditional Italian pasta dish is still out, but pasta is quick, easy, filling, and cheap.  We have dabbled with bits of wheat here and there, but I finally finished our new, revised schedule for foods and yesterday was our first full-fledged wheat day.  For dinner I made a great Olive Oil and Garlic sauce for pasta and added chicken and broccoli.  Oh. My. Word.  It was so good! All four of my guys asked for seconds!  I'm sure to the average person it would have just been an average dinner, but to us?  This was special, amazing, magical even.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but I was too anxious to dig right in to stop and get just the right picture for you all.  Sorry about that. No.  Really I'm not sorry.  I am a bit sorry that I'm not sorry for caring more about getting into the pasta than getting a good picture for you, though.  What? I lost you with all the sorries?  Oh.  Sorry.

I was equally excited about dessert.  I made a chocolate cake and frosted it with this frosting that I had seen on Tasty Kitchen. (I couldn't make a regular frosting since powdered sugar has corn in it and it isn't a corn day...) I don't know if it is because I bought whole wheat white flour or if our tastes have just changed that much, but we didn't really enjoy the cake that much.  Or the pancakes I made this morning, for that matter.  I am determined to keep trying, though, because wheat flour is about 1/5 the cost of spelt flour and 1/7-1/10 the cost of the other flours we have been using.  Oh, and it is already ground for me.  You know? Maybe that's it.  Maybe I should buy some wheat berries and grind them myself.  Perhaps we are just used to the taste of freshly ground flour now. 

Either way, the bottom line is the same.  We love pasta.  We've missed pasta.  We'll be adding pasta to our regular menu again with rejoicing.  However, the other wheat flour items?  Well, their just not all we remembered.

Savory Surprises

I had a great birthday surprise recently.  I went out to get the mail, and this box was sitting at my front door!  When I was visiting Joanna a couple months ago, she and I had a conversation about onions in which I shared my *love* of onions.  I put onions in everything I can, and I tried my best to introduce Joanna to my favorite way to eat them: roasted!  Anyway, I guess I made an impression on Joanna with this conversation, because she ordered these lovely Vidalia onions from Georgia for me!  I have really enjoyed them.  They are perfectly sweet without losing their bite. Mmmmmm.  I only have four left, and I am rationing them!

Thanks, Joanna!  You're the best.

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

I had a ton of fun looking through all the rhubarb recipes you linked for me. In the end, I decided to go with something with strawberries in it, too, since I had strawberries in the fridge that needed to be eaten along with the rhubarb. But I am saving all the other recipes because in the end, I was a bit disappointed that the rhubarb flavor didn't come through more. In this recipe, there is so much sugar and strawberry flavor that the rhubarb is more of a subtle tone, not the star!

I found this exact same recipe over and over on the web, so I feel okay reproducing it here. The end result is really yummy, even if it isn't overly rhubarb-y. It makes a super yummy breakfast treat, too!

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

1 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces (cut to 1 inch slices)

1 1/2 cups strawberry slices

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Combine rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice in 2-quart saucepan. Cover; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender (8 to 12 minutes).

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in small bowl. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil (about 1 minute). Continue boiling until thickened (1 minute). Remove from heat. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all crust ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Spread filling over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

I actually used my food processor to make quick work of making the crust, and it worked beautifully. If you have some extra strawberries and rhubarb hanging around your kitchen, this is a great treat!

Rhubarb

At the beginning of the spring, I saw all sorts of posts and recipes all over blog-land highlighting rhubarb. They all looked so very wonderful and I thought I bookmarked quite a few of them to try. Now I have a big bag of beautiful rhubarb in my fridge and I cannot find any recipes for the life of me. So - help me out! What's your favorite rhubarb recipe?

An Interesting Lunch

What do you serve your kids for lunch when you realize that you are out of almost everything lunch-worthy? Why Banana Dogs, that's what!

Now don't look at me like you've never wanted to eat a banana in a hot dog bun smeared with peanut butter and topped with chocolate chips! You know you have! :o) The kids loved it. They couldn't stop smiling while they ate it.

I hope they enjoyed it, too, because another thing this lunch did was help get rid of yet some more preservative filled food. I am currently ridding my pantry. It is going to be a sad day for my kids when it is all gone, but I am tired of feeding my family things that aren't actually nourishing their bodies. I have dabbled on and off for the last four years with organic foods, whole foods, and basically eating in a way that nourishes our bodies instead of just filling us up. I cannot afford to go totally organic, nor do I think one has to in order to be healthy. But I have done a lot of research lately and what I am finding is motivating me to make small changes. I'll be writing more about this later, but one place I have been doing a lot of reading is the blog The Nourishing Gourmet. There's some really interesting stuff there. One change I have already made is adding some coconut oil and coconut products back into my diet. I used to do this, and stopped for some reason which I cannot now remember. I already am noticing some benefits. Read a bit about it here.

Super Simple Sides

I really like vegetables, but I get tired of making the same old thing all the time. Our dinners usually consist of a main dish accompanied by either steamed broccoli, roasted veggies, or corn and either rice or potatoes. Boring. But my problem is that I don't want to dedicate time to making sides. I have decided that I need to have some super simple side ideas and I need to branch out a bit. This is my first attempt at that goal! I made this recipe by thinking about what flavors I might like together. Hope you enjoy!

Super Simple Sauteed Zucchini

Cast of Characters (This phrase is shamelessly borrowed from The Pioneer Woman. Check out her recipes - they rock!):

2 medium zucchini

1/2 cup corn

one large or two small shallots

2 tsp. olive oil

Herbamare seasoning

black pepper

First you need to get out your big, sturdy skillet. If, like me, you do not use non-stick cookware, spray it with a non-stick spray. Then heat about 1 tsp olive oil in the pan over medium high heat. Give the shallots a fine dice and saute them in the oil until they are nice and brown. I like to use shallots for this because they are more mild than onions and I think they match zucchini better because of that. But if you don't have shallots, by all means, use an onion. About 1/4 of a medium ought to do it.


Once the shallots are soft and brown, add another tsp of oil to the pan, followed by diced zucchini. I like my zucchini in about a half inch dice. This way the cook up nice and fast and are small enough that they are not too much bigger than the corn. I like my mixed veggies to all be roughly the same size for some reason...

When you add the zucchini to the pan, resist the urge to stir them right away. Just let them hang out in a single layer for a while so that they get nice and brown. If you have your heat high enough, this won't take too long and after you turn them once to get nice and brown on the other side, they'll have a perfect crisp-tender texture!

When you flip the zucchini the first time, go ahead and add the corn. This is best with frozen corn that has been thawed, or fresh corn cut from the cob. But I only had canned on this day, and it is fine that way too. In fact, this is a great way to use up leftover corn. After you add the corn, it is time to season the veggies. I like to use Herbamare seasoning. This is a really nice seasoned salt that can be found at natural food stores. It pairs great with veggies, fish, and chicken! If you don't have this, or another seasoned salt you like, kosher salt would work well. I also add pepper. I think some basil or thyme would be good here, too. Go crazy and try whatever spice sounds good at the time!

By the time the zucchini is browned on the other side, the corn will be heated through and this is ready to serve! Even with the chopping, this dish only takes about 15 minutes, and the results are worth the extra effort! I served this up with a yummy beef enchilada casserole! Yummy!

The Rest of My Menu

I know I am in danger of making this whole blog all about food, but lately it is all I have done. You know, cook. And sleep. And sit on the couch wishing I could sleep. Oh, and read other blogs. What a dangerous, time consuming occupation that is!

Anyway, all three of the recipes I chose from Pioneer Woman this week turned out great, and I liked the last two even better than the Migas! In addition to the recipes turning out well, thanks to Joanna's tips, I think my pictures of the results turned out better, too!

The Zucchini Farfalle was yummy and easy. It came together quickly. I did buy arrowroot since I had never used it as a thickener before. I liked how it worked. It doesn't take too much to do the job either. I don't think I would change anything about this recipe, and I'll make it again for sure!

On to enchildadas...mmmm...have I mentioned here before just how much I love Mexican food? I think it is in my blood after having lived the majority of my life in Texas. These were really good. Sadly, they were really time consuming as well. Too much so for me. I don't understand why you had to lightly fry the tortillas before then dipping them in the enchilada sauce and rolling them up. I also think that this would be so much easier to do as a casserole. Not as pretty of a presentation, to be sure, but easier. The next time I make it, I will put some sauce on the bottom of the pan, add a layer of tortillas, followed by layers of meat, olives, onions, and cheese before adding more sauce and starting over again. I really think this would be just as satisfying. And I'll get a chance to try it today, because I had SO much meat left over! Corn tortillas are small, and there is just no way to stuff 1 1/2 pounds of meat mixture into 14 tortillas! I had leftover sauce, too. Anyway, I highly recommend that you try this recipe. I doubt you'll be disappointed - even if you decide to do the very time consuming variety.

Meal Plans

I know that lots and lots of bloggers post a meal plan for the week every Monday. Although I will never commit to doing that because I know I will fail more often than I succeed, I did plan a menu this week. You might notice that I have added Pioneer Woman Cooks to the links on the side of this blog. Mostly that is because I think her blog is incredible! However, I forget to check it and each time I remember, I wish I had checked it sooner. I am hoping that seeing it there will spark my memory! Anyway, this weekend, I was browsing through the 7,523 posts that she has put up since the last time I checked and realized that she has a tremendous number of recipes that I want to try. So I made my entire menu from her blog's recipes!

Meal 1: Migas, fruit, Bronco Bread

Meal 2: Zucchini Farfalle, grilled chicken

Meal 3: Beef Enchiladas, chips, black beans

Now, before you all freak out on me and think that I have forgotten how to count the days in a week or simply left off the rest of my menu, I only planned to cook three times this week. My boys are still young enough that they eat very little, so I plan for leftovers. Plus, my husband won't be home for dinner every night this week. Be honest, do you really cook a full meal for just you and the kids (if your kids are 5 and under like mine)??? I never do. And I never, never cook on Sundays. Just my little rule. So three meals it is.

I'll have to post each recipe (my version) as I make it. I am so excited about all three of these meals!

So, what's for dinner at your house this week?

A Bit More Comedy

Ethan is our child who keeps us laughing. Last night at dinner I made these super yummy Chicken Puff Pastry Things (yes, that is the technical name) and Ethan took a bite and said, "Ooh, these are yummy. They taste like dead chicken nuggets!" Aaron, however, was unconvinced and did not want to try this new and very weird food. I asked him, "Aaron, does mommy ever make really gross food like lizard toes? It is good food, just try it!" Jerry, always the helpful husband, said, "Not lizard toes, but I think I saw cat on the menu!" Ethan chimed in, "You can't eat cat! (Whew, glad he knows that!) It would taste hairy!" Yeah, that's the reason I was going to give for not eating cat, too...

Cornbread Issues

Alright, here's my problem. For some reason I feel compelled to like cornbread. This is a problem because, actually, I don't like cornbread. It's an even bigger problem because Del doesn't like cornbread. Being as Del is from a soul-food-cooking background, he's quite experienced in the cornbread arena and whenever I make a new recipe, he puts a bit in his mouth and says, "Nope, this isn't right." Do you know how many recipes for cornbread I've tried? It's ridiculous. Here is today's version. Wish me luck.

Mmmmm...Bagels!

I love bagels, however I haven't had one in a long time because I haven't been able to find one without sugar in it! However, I found the Alternative Bagel today! I found these at Wal-Mart next to the refrigerated bagels. I had one of the cinnamon spice bagels with cream cheese for lunch today, and it was yummy! They are really cheap too - the same price or a little bit less than the other brands! This really surprised me because I normally have to pay more for sugar-free food! I am also excited because this made a perfect lunch since I was very nauseated this morning. I cannot believe that I am already nauseated! This is almost a full week earlier than any other pregnancy for me! I am praying that it stays fairly mild for a while though...there's always hope, right?

Dinner

Thanks for the idea! It was a hit.

Yogurtlu Kebab and Bread

Can I just say how much I enjoy Middle Eastern food? I really like it. I mean, they take the oddest ingredients, put them together and it's absolutely delicious. Take dinner tonight: I made the standard hummus, tabbouleh and pita. For the main course I made Yogurtlu Kebab or in English Kofta with Tomato Sauce and Yogurt. Doesn't that sound sort of...icky? You should have seen the look on Del's face when I put this on the table for dinner. I should have taken a picture. Especially with "yogurt???" Oh my lordy, it was hilarious. The were all sort of silent and I could tell they were thinking, "What in the world had Mom put on the table now? What sort of strange culinary experience is she subjecting us to now?"

Basically this dish is some toasted pita pieces covered with a tomato sauce made of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and oil cooked on the stove until hot and soft (10 minutes?), plain yogurt, a drizzle of paprika oil (olive oil with paprika in it) and the kofta on top. Kofta is ground lamb (you can use beef), onion, salt, pepper and parsley made into little one-inch hamburger patties basically. You broil them. Anyway, it did look strange and different from anything we'd ever had before, but it was delicious! There's supposed to be pine nuts on it but I forgot to put in on the grocery list so they didn't get bought.

Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

AND, I finally was able to make the bread dough tonight. I really should be ironing. But I like making bread better. Plus, Lily won't go to sleep so we're listening to Sara Groves, Del's playing a game on him game machine and entertaining Lily and I'm futzing around in the kitchen. I like it in there, even though it is really small.

I kneaded it for a full 10 minutes I think because you're totally right, the dough is so different. I hope it turns out! Oh and I used 2 cups of white, 2 cups of wheat and it felt alright to me. I proofed the yeast in all the buttermilk and honey, then added everything else and then the flour. For the record.

Where I Homeschool and New Ventures

I guess you already know this but I saw it on A Cheerful Heart and Nerd Family and I thought it was a pretty neat idea so here is where I homeschool. The dining room table. We've done some school on my bed when I was sick and on the couch when Ella was sick and in her top bunk when there was too much chaos in the other parts of the house...er, apartment. I do better with a set spot so we stay there much of the time. For science we often go outside and for history we often go to the kitchen. We like to cook history. The more I do it, the more I love to homeshool. How about you?

On a completely different note, I made Lily my first batch of home made baby food today. I made butternut squash. She chowed down quite heartily. I think I could have gotten about a dozen baby food jars out of the one squash I bought. It was 69 cents a pound and three pounds (you do the math). When I last purchased butternut squash in a baby food jar it cost $1.29...for one jar. Can you believe the savings!!! I found all sorts of instructions here for making your own baby food.

Valentine's Day Goodness

Here are the yummies I made for the girls yesterday. The cake is orange cardamom cake and is really delicious! The chocolate cookies can be found here. They have wheat germ and rolled oats in them. I think they're very tasty, but Del doesn't really care for them.

Here are the girls in their aprons. The were a bit distracted by the chocolate but Ella kept saying, "Oh good, now I get to wear my own apron", and they were really happy that Lily has one, too. They really wanted us to put Lily in hers, too but...that's quite impossible.

Also, did I tell you that I passed this huge kidney stone on Wednesday? I was shocked. I made an appointment to see the doc, and she will probably give me a referral to a urologist. Crazy, eh?

Creative?

So I think Aaron is one of the most creative and artistic four year olds I know. I realize that I am biased in this, but other people seem to confirm this for me on a regular basis, too. So I had high hopes for the art project I planned for today. I gave him a cleaned off styrofoam tray, sugar cubes, and glue and told him to create any design he wanted to with the sugar cubes on the tray. We would glue them down and "paint" them with food coloring when we were done. I was anticipating all sorts of things in my head, but this is what he made:

I asked him what it was, and he said, "It's a brick wall." Hmmm, okay. It does look like a brick wall. That's it?? No castle or ostrich or mytical creature?

And just in case you were worrying about my longevity and overall health, today I ate a quite healthy lunch of leftover soup and an orange!

By the way, I am shocked to see that a whole day has gone by with no post from you! :) Are you okay?? :)

Polar Opposite Lunch

So the lunch you ate today looked great. Full of nutrients, veggies, and fresh food. Very healthy, and I am sure it gave you the energy boost you needed to get through the rest of the day. I, on the other hand, ate this for lunch:
Yes, that is some 7 Layer dip and an open bag of chips! I washed it down with some ice-cold Coca Cola, which was diet and cafeine free of course! Yes, my lunch was the absolute antithesis of yours. The only redeeming factor about this lunch is that I only have it about twice a year, since that is how often I have reason to make 7 Layer dip. This was left over from a fajita dinner with my church small group. Mmm, mmm, good.

Turning a New Leaf

I wrote about Middle Eastern food on the other blog. Part of the reason I like it so much is because it's so healthy. Check out my lunch today: Hummus Chicken Salad, Tabbouleh, Avacado, Pita and Hummus healthy lunch. Wanna come over? I'll hook you up.