Foodsperiment- Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins

This is our recent Foodsperiment. ( with plans of repeating it tomorrow.)
Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins.
Here are the ingredients, peanut butter, banana, brown sugar, 1 egg white flour, baking powder, baking soda, oh.. and the MAGIC.. in this case it was Sweet Potato. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of carrot or cauliflower puree, I didn't have either. I did have sweet potato puree.
The first time I did them. My daughter wanted to help make them. she saw me making the sweet potato puree and started in with " EWWW I don't like that" I said " You don't know that you don't like it you haven't tried it". Then she asked what it was. I said. "Magic." She said " MAGIC?" I went with it... "This is the magic that gives fairies and princesses their magic." She seemed to be good with that. The first batch was realllly sweet. (The 3 year old and the 18 year old loved them. I think because I didn't reduce the brown sugar to accomadate the sweetness of the sweet potato. But I liked them. I am making another batch tomorrow. The next try, I am doing 1/2 the brown sugar. I used smooth peanut butter the first time, but I think I will use chunky next time.
Here is the recipe- and my changes in BLUE
1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar (1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter ( 1/2 cup JIF because it is what we had.)
1/2 cup carrot or cauliflower puree (1/2 cup sweet potato puree)
1/2 cup banana puree ( I actually pureed up some bananas, but I think it was an unnecessary step. I keep bananas in the freezer to make muffins. All you have to do is let them defrost and cut the peel and slide the banana goo out. )
1 large egg white
1 cup whole wheat flour ( I used AP because; say it with me now: it was what I had)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and the peanut butter, the vegetable and banana purees and the egg white using a wooden spoon. (I was trying to read the recipe and let the three year old help. so I did all the brown sugar at this point. and we used a silicone spatula.)
3.Put the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a smaller bowl or ziplock bag, stir or shake to mix. ( I put it through a mesh strainer, instead of dirtying another bowl or wasting another bag) Add to the peanut butter mixture and stir just to combine. Batter will be a little lumpy, do not overmix. ( pretty sure that the Three year old helped over mix a bit...) add the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and stir once or twice. ( like I said.. I didn't have any sugar to add here.)
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. 15-20 minutes. turn muffins out onto rack to cool.
5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or wrap and freeze for up to one month. ( there were only 3 left and they were eaten the next morning.)

I don't know how many changes you have to make to a recipe to call it your own and not someone else's. But CREDIT where credit is due. this was originally a recipe from Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious.

Tomorow is Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins take two and Pink Berry Muffins (and depending on the size of the fit my daughter pitches.. Little Boy Blue Muffins too.)

Scrambled Egg-Speriments

I have this great cook book, Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld. It is all about ways to incorporate and hide vegetable and sometimes meat in foods, normal foods for your kids.
One of the fist recipes I found and tried was for scrambled eggs. Caleigh LOVES scrambled eggs and I figured sneaking veggies into it would be great.
First, I tried sweet potato puree. No go. She ate one bite and spit it out.
Second try, I tried the actual recipe. 2 eggs, 4 egg whites, and cauliflower. NO GO again. Total ambivalence, she ate a few bites, but not like her usual breakfast eating habits.
Third try, this time I did 6 whole eggs, and 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree. Success. Both hubby, and Caleigh devoured them, no question.
I have since played with Egg beaters, and egg vs egg white combos. I can get away with a half and half ratio. I have used cauliflower and squash puree. Both eaten successfully.
I have found for my kid. it needed to look "normal". The sweet potatoes, actually add a sweet taste. If you started off with that and it was all the kids knew, you could maybe get away with the sweet potato. I like the cauliflower and the squash.
For adults. I have also added, cooked chopped broccoli, carrots and zucchini. I have had people who HATE zucchini, But love my veggie scramble.
Score one for the Mommy. I have managed to convert my kids to love something that has veggies in it... WOO HOO.

Little Picky Eaters

This is the beginning of what I am calling FoodSperiments. I need to get food into the kids. I need for that food to contain veggies and to be good for them. They want to eat crackers, muffins, cheerios, macaroni and cheese and as my daughter calls it "chicken srench sries". So this is the battle ground. Mommy's goal to trick the children into eating as many veggies as I can. Kids goal, to try and thwart mommy and only eat Yummy food. These are my opponents. Declan 18 months and Caleigh age 3.

Here are the battles so far. (Blog posts coming to describe each battle in detail....)
*Scrambled Eggs with sweet potato puree... BIG fail the first time. (Kids 1- Mommy 0)
*Macaroni and Cheese with sweet potato puree, another fail. (Kids 2- Mommy 0)
*Cauliflower Mashed " Potatoes" 1/2 win for mommy, Daddy LOVED it, and he normally hates cauliflower. (kids 3 -Mommy 1/2)
* Scrambled Egg whites with Cauliflower (another fail....) (Kids 4 -Mommy1/2 )
*French Toast with Sweet Potato puree. HUGE SUCCESS. My daughter's friend, who had already had breakfast, ate 2 whole pieces. Caleigh ate 4 pieces and Declan at 1. BIG success (Kids 4- Mommy 1 1/2) With NOTHING but successes since.
*Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower FINALLY a success... WOO HOO (Kids 4 -Mommy2 1/2)
*Pancakes with sweet potato puree. ANOTHER success. (Kids 4 -Mommy 3 1/2 )
*Oatmeal with apples and applesauce. Success ((Kids 4 -Mommy41/2 )
AND MOMMY PULLS AHEAD
*Turkey meatballs and rice. Partial fail. Once I got Caleigh to try it she liked it, but Declan wouldn't eat it. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 5 )
*Black Beans and rice (aka Con Gris. ) Always a winner. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 6 )
* Chicken Strips Parmesan with cauliflower puree. ( hopefully a replacement for chicken and french fries...) Score one for the home team.. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 7 )
Macaroni and Cheese with cauliflower or Squash puree ((Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 8 )
Scrambled eggs with sweet potato humus. Success. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 9 )
Chicken Poncit with broccoli, carrots, celery and bean threads, instead of rice noodles. Score for mommy. They Both loved it. ((Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 10)
That is how the battles have gone so far. As you can see. Mommy is in the lead. When they have a few days of finickiness, I resort to one of the Big winners. usually french toast for dinner.
I still use some pre-made and boxed things. But it is all better, than fast food. Right?

Fish Experiment # 31

I don't mind fish. I have had fish that I totally loved, however, I am consistently afraid of fish. I hate fishy, mushy fish. I am never sure what to try. I do really well with ocean fish. I do mahi-mahi, salmon and shark pretty well. But, I have also had fish that was mushy, fishy, slimy and to me... totally gross. So every time Alex wants to try a new fish, or something, I wait as long as possible. I have to build up courage to try it. Last night we tried Tilapia again. This was the second time I have made it. However, it was the first time I have seasoned it.
We had pan seared tilapia with roasted potatoes and green beans.
I didn't think I had any lemons, so I used grapefruit. I zested it for the potatoes. Then I segmented it for the fish. I used the juice from the grapefruit and a couple of the segments broken up. 1 clove of garlic, minced, 1 tbs of oil, 2 tsps of basil, and (I did find a lemon) zest of one lemon and juice of half of a lemon. I let the fish rest in the marinade for a minute, then into a hot pan with a little bit of oil. I seared them for 2 minutes. Then I topped them with the rest of the marinade. Then I put them into the oven to finish off. (350*) I left them in there for about four more minutes.
They came out AWESOME. The fish was tender, flavorful, moist and perfectly cooked. The potatoes were Yummy. Here is a picture.
Yummy. I think tilapia is added to the list of fish I like.

Meatless Monday Experiment

My mom told me about this alternative to MEAT, called Jackfruit. It is an Asian fruit that looks like a bumpy football. (or if you get it my way it looks like a metal can...) you tear it apart and pull the middle core out. Then re-heat, season, and sauce or flavor it and build a dish.





I decided to make Pulled Not Pork Barbecue Sandwiches. Then I decided to make my OWN BARBECUE SAUCE. (thank you Bobby Flay for showing me how to do that).




OH MY WORD DEAR the sauce is fabulous. It had a nice flavor, good build up of heat, but not overwhelming. I sauteed the jackfruit with minced garlic and onions. Then I added the sauce and cooked it in for a few minutes. Heat up some sandwich rolls, add yummy barbecue stuff.














MMMM YUMMY.

4 Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Yep... and they were YUMMY.
So, here is the recipe.
I made 6, so that is what the recipe is based on.
1/4 med onion diced
1/2 medium zucchini, diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
oil spray
total of 1/4 cup of your four favorite cheeses. We used 1 Tbs Parmesan (grated), 1Tbs feta, 1 Tbs Monterrey Jack (grated or diced) and 1 Tbs of Mozzerella. semi soft to hard cheeses are best, brie, goats cheeses and other soft could be messy.
OH and the mushrooms. 6 Med-Large (muffin cup sized) mushroom, cleaned, stemmed.
Heat oven to 400
Combine diced onion, zucchini and garlic and saute` until lightly golden. Move to mixing bowl.
Using your MUFFIN PAN (thank you Rachael Ray) or a regular cookie sheet, or an oven proof skillet. Oil lightly with spray. Place mushrooms stem side down and bake for about 5 minutes. this is to pre-cook them a bit and dry them out so you don't have soggy mushrooms or filling.
Return to filling add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs, and a little basil (or any other herbs you like.)
Stir to combine. Add in 3 of the 4 cheeses, reserve one to melt on top. We used the mozzarella to melt on top.
Remove mushrooms. Mound the stuffing up on the mushrooms, and pack it a little bit. Return them to the pan and bake 5-7 minutes. Just until everything starts to melt. Top with reserved cheese and return to oven to melt.
These were SO yummy. Totally vegetarian as is. We decided though that this would lend itself well to adding crab (or Krab), shrimp, or sausage, or even pieces of shredded chicken. You could add green chiles instead of the feta and Parmesan with the chicken. MMM maybe that will be next.
This was easy to make. It took me about 20 minutes. I did it while I was marinating the fish for dinner.

Our First Meatless Monday

Last night was our first Meatless Monday. We had tostadas. Vegetarian refried beans. My favorite tostada shell, Los Pericos. Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles, that I cooked with salsa. Then topped it all with shredded romaine lettuce, tomatoes, scallions, and avocados. It was super yummy.
I love the Morningstar Farms meatless crumbles. You find them in the freezer section. they cook up in about 5 minutes. It makes enough to make 8-10 totadas. I cook it in a skillet over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with a little oil spray, and add 1-2 tbs of your favorite salsa (or 2-3 packets of Taco Bell hot sauce) Then cook stirring often for a couple minutes. It really cooks so fast. Dinner is ready in no time. The price per meal is comparable to ground beef. I had a package of ground beef in my hand that was a little over a pound of 85/15 that was $4. 26 and the Morningstar Farms crumbles were on sale 2/$7.
Enjoy. Super easy, Low cost.
Morningstar Farms crumbles 2/$7 on sale (used one bag). Refried beans $.88, Lettuce $1.89 a head (only used 1/2) Avocados $1.00 each, Tomatoes $.99 a lb. Scallions $.89 a bunch (used 1/2) Tostada shells $1.49. Grand total. $10.05 for 3-4 people.