Disaster Chef: Blueberry Peach Cheesecake Bars

I'm deep into my Fanny & Me blogging, but sometimes, I just have to make something that's not from Fannie Farmer. She doesn't have a whole lot of newer recipes, since the cookbook is over a hundred years old. So, no cheesecake bars. 

I found this recipe I'd pinned on Pinterest a long time ago, and since I happen to have both blueberries AND peaches right now, I had to try it. Plus, it's got a nut crust, which I really like. So, for anyone doing the gluten free thing, this recipe is worth a shot. In fact, check out this blog where it originates--she has a lot of great recipes like this.

Peaches and blueberries, oh my!

Here's my adapted version.

Putting it in the oven.

 Ingredients

All puffed up and ready to eat.

• 1 c almond butter
• 2-4 tbsp finely shredded coconut
• 6 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
• ½ c plain yogurt
• 4 tbsp. xylitol (or sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 large eggs
• ½ c blueberries
• ½ c diced peaches

Instructions

Yuuuuummmmm.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the almond butter and coconut and mix well. I may use more coconut next time, or use almond flour like the original recipe does, because mine were a bit too almond buttery.
2. Spread crust mixture into an 8×8 baking pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes then remove from the oven to cool.
3. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and yogurt and mix well with a hand mixer (or stand) for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time, continuing with mixer.
4. Pour the cheesecake mixture over the crust (crust doesn’t have to be completely cooled). Top the cheesecake mixture with the blueberries and peaches. The blueberries sank into mine, so if you want them on top, I'd wait until the cheesecake has cooked 10-20 mins before adding them.
5. Bake the bars at 350 for 40-50 minutes (until the cheesecake is set).
6. Cool completely then cut into bars and serve.

 These turned out pretty well. The 'crust' I used was just almond butter and coconut, and it was just a little too...almond buttery. Next time, I'll probably use almond meal how the original recipe does. Or at least some kind of nut flour. This was just too wet somehow. Also, I don't think I added quite enough sugar in the cheesecake part. I only used 2 tbsp. but next time, I will definitely use 4. And yes, there will be a next time. This recipe is easy, good, and healthy. Can't wait to make it again.

Disaster Chef: Kale Soup aka Zuppa Tuscana (Olive Garden copycat recipe)

I've made this dish a handful of times. It's my husband's favorite, and a popular meal I've made for my family. It's an Olive Garden knockoff, though I add a few things and change it up a bit (I'm incapable of following a recipe exactly). It can be eaten as a side, but we always use it for the main course as it is very filling and complete all on its own.

I have used different sites for the recipe every time I've made it, but this time I grabbed this one off Pinterest, from My Kitchen Joys.

I cut the recipe in half, since I was using potatoes and kale from my own garden, and I only had a bit of each. Here's the halved version, which serves 4 as a main course.

2 cups potatoes, sliced 1/4" thick.

In the pot.

3/4 cup onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth (I didn't have this, so I used 1 c. water, then added an extra cup milk at the end)

2 cups water

2 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (I never add this and never miss it)

1/2 Lb. Italian sausage

1 packed cup kale, chopped

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I used whole milk, plus the extra cup to make up for the chicken broth, which made it plenty creamy)

*I also add a can of beans, usually red kidney but this time white kidney, as my husband and son like those better.

Place onions, potatoes, chicken broth, water, garlic in pot and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done. Meanwhile, brown sausage and crumble. Add sausage and kale. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn to low heat, then add cream. Heat through and serve. 

Every recipe for this soup that I've used calls for putting kale in at the end, with the cream, but I don't like my kale very tough. It's still plenty chewy after cooking 10 minutes. This soup is a big hit with everyone who has tried it.

Recipe: 4 spoons of goodness
Product: 5 spoons

Disaster Chef: Buckwheat Noodles with Honey Lime Sauce

Finished product.

I was looking for a good recipe to make with buckwheat noodles, which I LOOOOVE, so I grabbed one off pinterest. I like more veggies in my meals so I used a whole carrot. I then discovered I didn't have any green onions, so I used about 1/4 of a regular onion and fried it (along with the grated carrots, since I don't really like raw carrots much).

I followed the dressing recipe from Joylicious blog  closely, though!

Ingredients

• Handful of buckwheat soba noodles (the ones I get come in handy serving-sized portions)
• 1/2 lime, squeezed (I didn't have a fresh lime, so I used about 2tbs. lime juice from a bottle)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1/2 carrot, shredded (I grated one whole carrot and sauteed it...the next time I made it, I also added a couple sliced mushrooms and some shredded cabbage and sauteed everything...it was delicious!)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (I didn't have these so I left them out)
• small handful of cilantro, cleaned and chopped
• 1 tip of a green onion, cleaned and chopped (I used 1/4 of regular onion, sauteed)
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 2 eggs

The sauce mix.

Instructions

1. In a medium pot fill with water and bring to boil. Drop noodles in and cook for 4 minutes at medium heat at a gentle boil.
2. Rinse carrots and herbs and pat dry. Shred carrot and set aside. Finely chop cilantro and green onion and mix with shredded carrots (and if you're me, saute them now).
3. Test to see if noodles are semi firm, if so turn heat off immediately. Allow pasta to further cook in the hot water for an additional 2 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the dressing.
4. In a bowl combine lime juice, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Whisk well and set aside.
5. Test noodles for preferred firmness/softness and strain. Return noodles to pot and mix in carrots, herbs and dressing.
6. In a medium pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Crack egg(s) carefully into pan and fry until edges are browned and whites are set (sunny side up). Flip over and cook for about 1 minute for over easy, ~ 2 minutes for over medium, ~3 minutes for over hard. (I did all this in the same pan, just pushing the veggies to the sides and frying the eggs in the middle, then tossing it all on top of the noodles and sauce, and mixing it as I ate to get some sauce on the veggies).
7. To serve: Place noodles in a bowl and top with fried eggs. Feel free to add a dash of chile powder or chile sauce for an extra punch!

This recipe is wonderful, because it is so versatile and easy! I've made it three times, changing it every time. Sometimes I add extra veggies, sometimes I use only one egg, sometimes I add chili powder or cayenne on top. It's one of my favorite Pinterest recipes, and I think it's the only one I've gotten around to more than once. I love buckwheat noodles, and I've made this three times in the last month. I think I'll just add whatever veggies I have on hand, keeping the noodles, dressing and cilantro the same every time.

Recipe:  5 spoons of easiness
Outcome: 5 spoons of deliciousnsess

Disaster Chef: Pear Pecan Steel Cut Oats (project pinterest)

I bought a bunch of steel cut oats a while back because I heard they were healthier than rolled oats. I didn't know how to cook them, so I did the overnight oatmeal with the first batch. It was okay, but my son did not like the 'chewy oatmeal.' So I ended up eating all 5 jars that I'd made for the week. The next time, I tried to cook it, but didn't leave it in nearly long enough and it was very chewy.

This time I made it the right way, cooking it for a long time with lots of water as directed in the article on two vrooms blog.
Here's their recipe:

1/4 tsp salt
1 c. steel cut oats
1 T + 1 tsp butter
1/2 c. pecans
2 tsp sugar
2 pears (peeled, cored, sliced into chunks). If you don't have or don't like pears, try this recipe with apples instead.
3 T honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Half and half

In a medium size sauce pan, boil 4 c. water and salt. Add steel cut oats and wait for it to boil again. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer (uncovered) for 25-35 minutes, stirring often.

In a frying pan, melt 1 tsp butter. Add pecans and sugar. Stir 1 minute: the sugar should melt and coat the toasty pecans. Move them to a cutting board and chop coarsely when cooled.

Right before your oatmeal is done, melt a tablespoon of butter in the frying pan again. Add the pears and stir occasionally for 3 minutes. The juice should come out of them and they should be hot all the way through. Add honey and cinnamon.

It turned out delicious. My son even ate it a couple days, though he still prefers rolled oats. For this recipe, I used pears from the tree outside our new house, which was exciting. I'm not a big fan of pears, but I wanted to find ways to use up the ones on the tree, since they were there and obviously all-natural and organic and not sprayed. So we collected a bucket of them and used some in this recipe. I made it later for my husband, and he liked it, too.

I did not prepare the pecans as directed in the recipe. I just used plain pecans. I added more honey to the pears than the recipe calls for, and more butter, and I cooked the pears for probably 15-20 minutes before they got juicy and somewhat cooked. I didn't want to cook the pecans, as I don't like the way sugar-coated things feel between my teeth. Plus, raw nuts are healthier. So I just threw a handful of raw pecans on top. This breakfast was great all week, healthy and tasty. Sure, it's still just oatmeal. But it was as exciting as oatmeal gets
.

Disaster Chef: Being Underprepared When Cooking (Black Bean Crunchy Tacos) Project Pinterest

It had gotten a little late last Saturday, and before I’d realized, it was dinner time and I didn’t have anything planned, let alone cooked. So of course I went right to Pinterest, and within minutes, I had found a quick, easy dish.

The recipe is from over at Endless Simmer. Here is the one I attempted to follow, not too faithfully, as you'll soon see. 

Ingredients

• 2 C. black beans, cooked
• ½ C. red onion, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
• 4-6 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 avocado, sliced
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 8 corn tortillas
• Hot sauce
• Salsa
• Sour cream

Instructions

1. 1) In a medium bowl, add beans along with red onion, cilantro, and spices. Add a pinch of salt and lightly mash all of the ingredients together. Grate your cheese and have it ready as well.
2. 2) In a large, non-stick skillet or cast iron skillet, add a few tablespoons of oil and heat over medium-high heat.
3. 3) Add one corn tortilla at a time and let each get hot in the oil for a few seconds. Then add about 1?4 cup of the bean filling to one half of the tortilla. Top with a sprinkle of grated cheese.
4. 4) Using a spatula, carefully fold the tortilla over so it forms a shell. Press down lightly on the tortilla so it holds its shape.
5. 5) As the first tortilla cooks, move it to the side and do a second one. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to get 2 or 3 tacos at once. If you have a griddle you can do even more at once.
6. 6) Cook each taco for about 3 minutes per side until they are nicely browned and crispy.
7. 7) When flipping the taco to cook on the other side, use a spatula and flip the taco toward the fold so the filling doesn’t fall out.
8. 8) Serve tacos with toppings like hot sauce, salsa, avocados, and sour cream.
9. Note: Corn tortillas are resilent to heat. Don’t worry about burning them. They are very flexible. Just be sure to cook them on each side long enough to get them really crispy.

 

I started getting out the ingredients, but of course, as soon as I did, I realized I didn’t have most of what I needed. But I’m the queen of substitution, so I stuck with it. Instead of black beans, I used a can of great northern beans, which was all we had. I thought it might be a little weird in tacos, but by the time it was all made and piled high with toppings (*see pic), you couldn’t really taste the beans, anyway.

I had no Jack cheese, so I used cheddar. I had no cilantro. Basically, I had nothing I needed! But this just goes to show that you can adapt pretty much anything in this recipe and it will still turn out great. I didn’t have a red onion, so I used a small yellow one, making sure it wasn’t too spicy before I used it, since my son won’t eat spicy food (and since my husband was out of town, I didn’t have to worry about my onion breath). Still, I was going to cook the onion, since I’m not a big fan of raw onions. But it was so sweet that I left it raw, as the recipe says. I was trying to stick to the directions, at least, since I had to substitute all the ingredients.

I minced the onion super fine, and mashed everything with a potato masher, like it says. Not too thorough, you don’t want bean soup. Also, if you use a can of beans, as I did, you should pour off most of the liquid in the top of the can, and you can skip the salt. 

I went to get the tortillas from the fridge, only to find that we had only two white corn tortillas, somewhat fused together. I live on tortillas! There are always about 3 bags of them floating around the fridge. But of course the one time I need them for a recipe, we are out. I pried apart the two remaining tortillas and cooked them as directed. I don’t know how the recipe’s original cook fit half a cup of beans in a corn tortilla, but I would like to know! I put maybe half that in each of mine, and it still spilled out while cooking.

 

They cooked great, though, just like she said. Nice and crunchy on the outside. And delicious all the way through.

My son moaned and groaned that he hated tortillas and didn’t want a taco, but even he admitted, as he took the last bites of his taco, that it was “kind of good.” Success!

Disaster Chef: Foodie Friday: Stuffed Zucchini, Squash, and Peppers

Today I'm putting aside Project Pinterest to share one of my very own recipes. It is super simple and delicious.

I started out trying to find a recipe on Pinterest for stuffed zucchini, but I couldn't find any that matched what I wanted to do. I already had in my head what it should be like. I found quite a few recipes, but none that looked like what I wanted. So, I kind of winged it (that's my usual cooking style anyway). They turned out really well! I was so dern proud of my little old self for making something tasty that I just had to share my own recipe. I later used this same exact formula for making peppers, and they were also excellent.

First, I put on some brown rice to simmer, since it takes 40-45 minutes. I left the timer on for this, and asked my sister to turn the stove off when it went off, and I took a little walk. Of course she didn't turn it off, even though she was home, so the rice got a little scorched. But I managed to salvage all but the bottom layer, which by this time was hopelessly fused to the bottom of the pan. The rest of it tasted fine, so I forged onwards. Word of warning, do not count on others to turn off your food, even if you set the timer, even if they are going to be eating said food!

I would recommend just letting your rice simmer while you do the rest of the dish.

First, cut your squash lengthwise into halves and scoop out the seedy soft part in the center. Save this and cut it into small pieces. (If you're using peppers, just cut out the stem and core, pull out any veins and seeds you can and tap the top of the pepper on the cutting board to knock loose any seeds. Throw that stuff out).

Then you will put the hollowed out veggies in a steamer basket and steam them for a few minutes if you don't want them to take a long time to bake. (If you have an hour or so to bake them, you can skip this step).




While your veggies to stuff are steaming, cook the stuffing. You will need:

Ground meat--beef or sausage (I used about 1/2lb for 6 small zucchini/squash)
1/2 large onion
2 large tomatoes, or a 16 oz can diced/chopped/stewed tomatoes with juice
1-2 cloves garlic
olive oil for frying
1 bell pepper chopped, any color (omit this if you're making stuffed peppers)
handful of fresh basil (or dried if you don't have fresh)
a few pinches of fresh oregano (or dried)
grated cheese (any kind)
parmesan cheese

Put olive oil in your pan and fry your onions and peppers for a few minutes. Then add the meat and zucchini innards and saute until cooked through. Add tomatoes, cooked rice, parmesan and basil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Now, retrieve your zucchini or peppers from the steamer. If they are still firm, that fine. I'd try to steam them for about 10 minutes after water comes to boil.

Spoon filling into zucchini, squash, or peppers, top with cheese and fresh oregano. Bake for 15-20 minutes. If you're stuffing raw veggies, 40 minutes to an hour will be needed to cook them. If all your ingredients are already hot, these cook super fast! 

I cooked these in a bread pan, so they wouldnt tip over. Worked great!

I also added some very mild homemade salsa to one batch and it turned out great. When I made stuffed peppers, I used 2 fresh tomatoes and 1 c. canned tomatoes. Feel free to experiment and mix it up!

Disaster Chef: Parmesan Tomatoes (side dish) Project Pinterest #5

Here is another recipe I got off Pinterest. We've had a ton of tomatoes from the garden and didn't manage to get them all canned. So, I was looking for something to do with them. This recipe from Eating Well looked tasty, and it was, if a little plain.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, halved horizontally
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

 Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Place tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

I followed this recipe almost exactly, aside from the fact that I don't measure anything except when baking. I probably used about twice the amount of oregano and olive oil.

One thing I will say for this recipe is that it was sinfully easy. Even I pulled them off without a hitch. But I cooked mine for 15 minutes, and they didn't look anywhere near as cooked as in the picture. I cooked them another 10 and they still weren't as cooked as the picture shows. So allow extra cooking time. Honestly, these weren't my favorites. They would go well with something like steak and potatoes. But eating them alone, or on my veggie plate, they were definitely lacking. I'd recommend as a side, not a snack.

Disaster Chef: Pesto Potatoes (Pinterest Project #3) #foodiefriday

I had a different post planned, but by special request I am postponing that one for a success story: Twice Baked Pesto Potatoes.

I was helping my mom make a family dinner and she had some pesto she wanted used up, so of course the first place I looked was Pinterest (where else)? I was working on Project Pinterest, after all.

I found a recipe for twice-baked pesto potatoes, and though I was skeptical, I gave it a shot. As you can see by my parenthesis'ed comments, I altered a lot of it!

Here was the recipe, from the fantasically photographed See You In the Morning. I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of how pretty hers turned out. But without further ado...

3 russet potatoes (or any kind of good baking potatoes)

2/3 cup arugula pesto, or other pesto (I used regular basil pesto and it turned out delicious)

2/3 cup creme fraiche (I just used sour cream here, since I'm not fancy)

1/3 cup parmesan, grated, plus more for sprinkling

2 cloves garlic, crushed (I skipped this, since my pesto was garlic-heavy already)

1 tbsp chives, chopped (didn't have chives, so I used green onions)

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Wash the potatoes well. With a sharp knife score around the diameter of the potato, just piercing the skin. This makes it easier to cut in equal halves (I did not do this, but it's a good idea. If you don't do this, pierce the potatoes with a knife or fork so they won't explode all over your oven). Bake the potatoes for about an hour, until cooked all the way through. Remove from oven, and let sit until cool enough to handle.  Cut each in half. 

Scoop out the potato from the skins and put into a medium bowl. Fold in the other ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Spoon back into the potato skins. Arrange on baking sheet and sprinkle the tops with Parmesan. Bake for 15 minutes longer until they are golden and melty. 

 

As I said, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, as I'd never used pesto on much of anything but pasta. But they were actually quite tasty, and my brother-in-law promptly asked for the recipe. The only drawback to this was not the fault of the recipe (which was fantastic!), but my own. 

 

See, my mom had just dug the potatoes from her own garden, and a few had nicks in them from the digging fork. I washed them well, but I guess I didn't dig into the little gouges, because my poor husband got a few very sandy bites near the end of his! So a little tip for people using homegrown potatoes...cut out any places where the digging fork might have punctured the skin. Even if it looks all clean, some sand might have worked its way in there!