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Archive for December, 2008

Rum Raisin Muffins

Published December 9, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Tags: hint, muffin

I love muffins. I love them because you can eat them for breakfast with a piece of fruit, pack them for lunch, and of course have them for a snack with tea in the afternoon or evening. But the reason I like them most is because they are a measured portion. No guessing – if a muffin is 2 grams of fat, you don’t have to wonder if you’ve cut the right size piece, like you do with a loaf of bread that asks you to slice 16 servings. How big is 1/16th of a loaf. Did you make the slice too small? Maybe you need to cut a little more to even it out. I know someone, who will remain nameless, who could “even out” half a chocolate cake without ever really cutting a slice.

I make muffins almost once a week. Rum raisin muffins are some of the best muffins I make. They are especially good warm – but they also keep well. You can reheat them easily in the microwave for about 40 seconds at half heat. The original recipe was from Cooking Light.

Rum Raisin Muffins

1 cup raisins
3 Tablespoons rum
1 cup buttermilk (I never seem to have buttermilk when I need it. I used ¾ cup non-fat sour cream mixed with ¼ cup non-fat milk)
1/3 cup oat bran (or wheat bran)
2 Tablespoons applesauce
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg white
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose white flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
Additional cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Combine raisins and rum in a small bowl and let soak for 10 minutes. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together buttermilk, bran, applesauce, oil, egg white and vanilla (It took a little extra whisking to make the sour cream smooth). In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Stir raisins and rum into buttermilk mixture. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture just until the dry ingredients are moistened – there is no flour on the bottom or sides of the bowl. Do not over mix. Using a large spoon, divide the batter among the 12 muffing cups – they will be nearly full. Lightly sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cinnamon and sugar mix. (The recipe says to mix 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon for sprinkling, but I wasn’t that precise. I have a shaker canister with mixed cinnamon and sugar for handy sprinkling on all sorts of things, so I used that.

Bake the muffins for 12 to 16 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Serve warm in possible. Makes 12 muffins at about 2 grams of fat/muffin.

rum-raisin-muffins

HINT: Muffins are often not made in a mixer because you don’t want to over-beat the batter, or they will not rise well. You mix them lightly by hand, using a spoon or spatula to incorporate the flour with the moist ingredients. Hmmm – another reason to love muffins: I don’t have to clean the big mixer bowl and beaters.

Peanut Udon Noodles wth Lemon, Ginger, and Chives

Published December 6, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Asian, hint, noodles, peanut butter, peanuts

One of the few things I miss eating very low fat, especially when I am in weight-losing rather than maintenance mode, is peanut butter. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are one of my favorite comfort foods. I have been known to eat peanut butter straight off the spoon. It’s not that you can’t eat peanut butter – you can eat just about anything if you account for its fat grams – but at 16 grams for a 2 tablespoon serving, it takes up a good hunk of your daily grams. I did find something called Better’n Peanut Butter. It has 2 grams of fat/serving. It isn’t “better’n”, but it actually makes a decent PB&J sandwich.

So I am always looking for recipes that give me the taste of peanut butter but spread the peanut butter out over several servings. I found this recipe in my daughter’s blog. She got it from cookthink, a blog I am going to explore for more recipes. It makes a good dinner side dish with perhaps a chicken breast or an Asian-style pork tenderloin. I made it to have something interesting and filling to take for lunch. A spoonful of water in the container and into the microwave – it reheats nicely.

Peanut Udon Noodles with Ginger, Lemon, and Chive

About 3/4 lb udon noodles (I used a half pound package of fresh noodles, or you could use about 3 packages of dry)
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce
½ cup water
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon honey
2 teaspoon minced ginger
2 Tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Cook noodles according to package directions and drain them. Combine all remaining ingredients except chives in a small saucepan and simmer for five minutes, whisking to dissolve peanut butter. Stir chives into sauce and simmer for another 30 seconds, then pour over noodles and toss to combine. This makes 4 servings at about 5 grams of fat/serving.

udon-noodles

Variations: If you want it to be very lemony, add another tablespoon of lemon juice. Or omit the lemon juice altogether and you will have noodles similar the sesame noodles you sometimes get in Asian restaurants. You can also sprinkle the finished udon with ¼ cup of chopped, dry-roasted peanuts, but you will need to add 4 grams of fat/serving, or 9 grams/serving total (but it’s very good this way if you have room in your gram count).

Hint: To chop peanuts, measure them out and put them in a small sealable plastic bag. Pound them all over with a heavy knife handle or the bottom of a glass or cup until they are the size you’d like them.

Carribean Banana Cookies

Published December 5, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: banana, cookies, hint

Finally. All of the bananas are gone! I feel like I never want to see a banana again. I don’t even want to have them one my breakfast cereal. This cookie is moist and chewy – but it is almost too sweet for my taste. It is also an interesting cookie recipe because it doesn’t have oil or eggs. I think that the mayonnaise (in a cookie!) takes their place.

Caribbean Banana Cookies

2/3 cups brown sugar
½ cup ripe mashed banana (about 1 medium banana)
½ cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon rum
¾ cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
½ cup flaked or shredded sweetened coconut
½ cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350. Line a large cookie tray (pr two trays) with parchment paper (HINT: if you want the parchment paper to lie flat on your pan, spray the pan lightly with cooking spray before you lay the paper down).

Place brown sugar, mashed banana, mayonnaise and rum into the bowl of a mixer and beat at medium speed until well blended. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level with a knife. Combine flour and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheet making 20 cookies. Bake at 350 for 20-23 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet and cool completely on a wire rack. This makes 20 cookies with about 2 grams of fat/cookie.

carribean-banana-cookies

Variation: The original recipe for these cookies had ½ cup of chopped walnuts, added at the same time as the raisins. But that just seemed like one too many ingredients, and since I was thinking of these as tropical, it didn’t go with the theme. You can add them, but the cookies would then have 3.7 grams of fat/cookie.

Confession: I was making these cookies at 2 a.m., and I accidentally put a tablespoon of rum in instead of a teaspoon. It was promptly absorbed into the brown sugar. I frantically scooped out most of the soaked brown sugar and added dry brown sugar back in. They still tasted a little to rummy – sort of like soaked fruitcake.

Family confession: Late night cooking is a family tradition. Allegedly, my father hated the smell of baking, so my mother would bake late at night after he had gone to bed. In truth, I think when we were teenagers it gave her an excuse to stay up until we came home from our night-time escapades. Whenever we asked her why she was up so late, she would say she was chopping nuts. I still miss her.

Banana Pecan Biscotti

Published December 1, 2008 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Tags: banana, cookies

Banana and biscotti are two words that just don’t seem to go together to me. Banana things are soft and moist; biscotti are hard and crunchy, ready for dipping in coffee or tea. But in my banana overload desperation, I was looking for something other than bread and muffins. These biscotti are quite good, crispy on the outside and not too sweet. The original recipe came from Cooking Light magazine.

Banana Pecan Biscotti

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mashed very ripe banana (I used 1 banana)
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, combine mashed banana, oil, vanilla, and egg. Add flour mixture and pecans to banana mixture, stirring in thoroughly. The dough will be sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half and, with floured hands, shape each half into an 8 inch long roll. Place rolls on a baking sheet covered with cooking spray and flatten each one to ½ inch thickness.

Bake at 350 for 23 minutes (they will start to brown slightly). Remove rolls from baking sheet and cool them on a rack for 10 minutes. Cut each roll on a slight diagonal into 12 pieces. They should be about ½ inch wide. Place slices cut side down (on their sides) on the baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 250. Bake the slices at 250 for 15 minutes. Turn cookies over and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Cookies will be slightly soft, but they will harden as they cool. Remove from baking sheet and cool completely on racks. This makes 24 biscotti, with 2 grams of fat/cookie.

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ABOUT KAREN

I have lost 200 pounds. I did not do it through surgery – I don’t like knives and needles – or by joining a club, vigorous exercise, or rigorous dieting. I did it by gourmet cooking. To be precise, by cooking low fat, really delicious food. I love to cook as much as I love to eat. Food magazines are some of my favorite reading. I would feel deprived if I couldn’t have the sensuous experience of good food crossing my lips. This blog is about my perpetual feast, my passionate love of food, with recipes, photos, and occasional advice and principles that I have learned along the way.

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The Perpetual Feast

Archive for December, 2008

Rum Raisin Muffins

Peanut Udon Noodles wth Lemon, Ginger, and Chives

Carribean Banana Cookies

Banana Pecan Biscotti

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