Roasted Cauliflower

I like cauliflower, but I don't ever crave it.  I decided to try a roasted cauliflower recipe I found here.

I bought cauliflower on sale (Kroger has a lot of specials), and finally decided to try the recipe today.

Here's what you need 

1 medium head cauliflower (about 2-1/4 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets
3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used 1/2 fresh lemon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

I did not measure the pepper or Parmesan cheese, but added to my taste.

Directions: 

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. 

Combine cauliflower and garlic. 

Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (I added some Parmesan before cooking and after). 

In a single layer on a cookie sheet, roast at 450 degrees F for about 25 minutes, stirring once. 

Sprinkle with Parmesan. 

I had wax paper under the mixture.

Serve immediately.

This was really good! It had quite a but of flavor, and it is a recipe I will use again when I have cauliflower, and it might even be a recipe I crave because it is so good! 

Yum!!!

Less than 100 Calorie Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins!

I saw pictures of a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin on Pinterest.  I'd click the link, and I couldn't find the recipe, but I finally found it!  The recipe I'm sharing today I found on this website.  It claims this is a 95 calorie muffin.  It looks good, but how does it taste.  I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients:
I saw pictures of a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin on Pinterest.  I'd click the link, and I couldn't find the recipe, but I finally found it!  The recipe I'm sharing today I found on this website.  It claims this is a 95 calorie muffin.  It looks good, but how does it taste.  I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup	Oats
3	Egg whites
3/4 cup	Unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup	Unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
1/2 cup	Plain greek yogurt (or regular plain low fat yogurt)
1/2 tsp	Cream of tartar (or 2 tsp. vinegar)<-I was nervous to try vinegar, so I used cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp	Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp	Baking soda
1/4 tsp	Salt
1 cup	Hot water
1/2 cup	Baking stevia OR 1 cup sweetener of choice that measures like sugar
1/2 cup	Semi-sweet chocolate chips Makes 16 cupcakes-about 95 calories each (depending on the calories in your ingredients)

I used cupcake liners, because they do stick.  I used foil and paper, but I did not notice a big difference.  You will also need a blender or food processor.  My blender worked just fine, and it's nothing special.

1. Preheat the over to 350.
2. Mix all of your ingredients in the blender EXCEPT for the chocolate chips.

3. Blend until the mixture is smooth and oats are ground up.

4. Pour mixture into a bowl to stir in 1/4 cup of chocolate chips (or all 1/2 cup chocolate chips if you don't want to put chocolate chips on top).  Pouring into a bowl is recommended because when I did it in the blender to avoid getting a bowl dirty, some of the chocolate chips went below the blender blade, and was difficult to get out to put int he muffin pan.

5. Pour mixture into the muffin pan (with cupcake liners, or without if desired-but greased).  Do not fill to the top or they will overflow.  This mixture made 16 cupcakes with my pan.

6. Cook for 10 minutes. Take out and add the rest of the chocolate chips (1/4 cup) to the top of the muffins.  Continue cooking for 2-5 minutes.

My oven took longer, and I even raised it to 350, but it is definitely my oven.  It's like that with all recipes.  It's important to know what your oven is like.  When they are finished, they are quite tasty warm, but let them cool before putting them in a container, or you will have melting chocolate chips (which isn't so bad).

To me these are not too sweet.  If you use a different sweetener, you may have different results.  At 95 calories and relatively healthy ingredients, they are definitely worth a try, especially if you already have the ingredients at home!

Overnight Oatmeal without the Peanut Butter??

When I first saw overnight oatmeal, I was intrigued.  I wasn't sure how it would taste the being cold, not cooked, and never even warm!  I thought I'd try it, and a friend said she only liked it with peanut butter in it.  I tried it a few times, and some days and recipes were better than others.  The recipe I'm sharing today is one I adapted from this recipe.

Lemon Blueberry No-Cook Oatmeal

3/4 Cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Almond Coconut Milk
1/4 C Pecans
1/4 C Blueberries
1 Tb Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice (1/2 lemon)
1 Tb Chia Seeds
1 tsp Honey

Combine the oatmeal, lemon juice, blueberries, pecans, chia seeds, and almond coconut milk in an airtight container.
Refrigerate overnight. Add an extra splash of coconut milk in the morning of the oatmeal is thicker than you prefer.
Add honey, lemon zest and as many blueberries as you want.

The verdict is-I added a lot of honey because it wasn't sweet enough for me.  I considered adding stevia.  If my blueberries had been sweeter, maybe I wouldn't have needed something, but they were not sweet enough for me.  This reminded me again of why I really like peanut butter flavored overnight oatmeal.  It adds more flavor!

What overnight oatmeal recipes do you like?  I'd love a really good recipe!

I bought an eggplant... *Updated*

I bought an eggplant.  I like eggplant when I get it at restaurants, so I thought I could make something, so I bought an eggplant.  I had it for almost a week and had found a few recipes that I thought about, but I had no idea how to cook eggplant.

I settled on this recipe-Spinach & Eggplant Casserole.  I gathered my ingredients, and I read up on tips for cooking eggplant.  I found this tip about salting the eggplant on both sides, letting sit for an hour in a colander, and then rinsing.  It's supposed to add flavor.

It was time to make the recipe.  I do not cook exactly according to a recipe most of the time.  This was no exception.

I cut up the eggplant (then later cut them up more, and wished I had cut them up even smaller).  I added salt, but probably should have let the eggplant sit for longer in the salt.  The next step was roasting the eggplant.  I decided to use a smaller casserole dish, so I used less ingredients than the original recipe called for.  I put the oven on low broil, and roasted the eggplant coated in olive oil.

I am impatient, so I probably should have let this cook for longer, and possibly less eggplant in this dish to cook more thoroughly.

Next I steamed frozen spinach.  The recipe called for fresh spinach, but I have an abundance of frozen spinach that I needed to use.

The original recipe did not call for meat, but I thought I would add ground turkey.

After roasting the eggplant, I added ground turkey, spinach, mushrooms, a roma tomato, and spaghetti sauce.  I did not measure anything, but added based on what I had, and what I thought would be good.  I then topped it with pizza shredded cheese (mozzarella & Cheddar mixture).

Then I put it in the oven to cook on 375 for about 20 minutes.

It looks very tasty, and I think it would have been better had the eggplant been cooked a little more.  I like spaghetti sauce, so that added lots of flavor, but overall this dish did not have as much flavor as I would have liked.

I plan to try this recipe again, and I will update to tell you what I did to hopefully make it better.  If you try this, let me know what you did, and how you liked it.

*UPDATE*

I had leftovers, so today I decided to heat some up for lunch, but wanted more flavor.  I decided to add cottage cheese, a little salt, pepper, and basil flakes.  I warmed it up in the microwave, and it was SO GOOD!  Next time I think I will add cottage cheese when I bake it, and make sure that I cook the eggplant more thoroughly.  I might add more salt, pepper, and other seasonings, but I think the cottage cheese is what gave this leftover dish added flavor and more yumminess!

Baked Eggs in Avocado (Avocado egg boats?)

Summer break began, and I adjusted quickly to sleeping in later than normal, having Netflix binges, reading novels, scheduling lunches with friends, and neglecting my goal to cook a new recipe everyday.  Because of this, I decided to cook 2 recipes today.  This is what I had for breakfast today, and what I imagine I will have again next week adding variations.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, another way I have been spending my time since the last day of school.  I did not add many changes to the original recipe today, but I imagine I will be tweaking it some next week.

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
2 eggs
1-2 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled or real bacon bits
1/4 Roma Tomato chopped
Shredded Cheese
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
















1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Slice avocado from the top to the bottom in half.  Take out the seed.  Scrape out some avocado if needed to ensure the egg fits in the avocado without spilling (I needed to scrape out more of my avocado because the egg was too big).

3. Put the avocado on a pan or container that is oven safe that will keep the avocado from tipping over.

4. Crack open the egg into the avocado or bowl to spoon into the avocado. (If you like your yolk runny, make sure you do not separate the yolk).

5. Add tomato, bacon, cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on top of the egg to taste.

6. Cook for 15 minutes.  Check eggs and cook until desired consistency.  Then remove.  Let cool, and enjoy!

Additions/Substitutions
Next time I will scoop out more avocado and cook the egg longer.  It was runny and tasted good, but I would have liked it a little less runny.
You could add sprouts, salsa, &/or spinach to the top after cooking.
You could add mushrooms and fresh lemon juice (for flavoring) before you cooked the avocado eggs boats, or any other vegetable, but remember, it's not too big.
You could scrape out to eat on toast, or eat directly out of the avocado.

Let me know what you think if you try this recipe.  I'd love to hear how yours turned out, and what you did to personalize your dish!

Enjoy!

No bake chocolate oatmeal cookies

Last summer I found this recipe for no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies that used coconut oil.  I had just decided to start using coconut oil, and this recipe seemed intriguing.  I decided to try the recipe out, but adapted it a little bit. Money Saving Mom's Blog has the original recipe I found.  Here is my adaptation:


Ingredients:

1 cup Peanut Butter (I use natural peanut butter with the only ingredient being peanuts)
1/2 cup Honey (I've used a variety, and I sometimes use a little less than 1/2 cup.  I like to use raw honey when possible)
1/2 cup Coconut Oil (I prefer unrefined because it adds a bit of a coconut taste)
1/3 cup Dark Chocolate pieces (I use less than 1/3 cup, and I don't always measure, but throw is a small handful-it's more than enough for me)
1/2 cup or 2/3 cup Walnut &/or Pecan pieces (whichever you prefer...add more or less as you desire)
3 1/2 cups of Old Fashioned Oats (I add more or less depending on consistency.  You want all oats covered, but it doesn't have to be covered thickly)
1 tsp vanilla



1. On low to medium heat combine Peanut Butter, Honey, & Coconut Oil in a medium or large saucepan.

2. After mixture is heated and blended to a liquid (mixture should be warm enough to melt chocolate), remove from heat.

3 Add other ingredients.  Add 3 cups of oats, then smaller amounts until you have your desired consistency.


















4. Separate into cookie sizes to put in the refrigerator (I use about 13 cupcake liners. In my experience, making into bars is too hard to cut after refrigerating.)

Lately it seems as though the honey is making them too sweet, so I might add less honey, but I think the honey also helps with the consistency.  

Additions/Substitutions:

You can also use almond butter instead of peanut butter.  

You might also consider adding flax seed (seed or ground meal) or chai seeds.  I've added them and it does not affect the flavor.  The flax seeds adds an extra crunch.  

You can put in coconut flakes, different nuts, or no nuts.

It just depends on what you like and what you are looking for in your diet.  I hope that you enjoy these.  Please leave comments below if you try these!  I'd love to hear what you think and what you changed or added to yours!

I adapted this recipe from Money Saving Mom's Blog.

Summer Break begins!

Today was the last official day of school for teachers.  I'll be venturing back to school throughout the summer, but not every day, and most days it won't be as long as a school day.  Summer break is much needed for students and TEACHERS!

This summer I will continue working out (adding running and P90X3 to my normal Jazzercise classes) and eating healthy (for the most part, as I've been doing for a few years), but I will be trying a new recipe almost every day that I am in town.  If you have a recipe you think I should try out, leave me a comment with the recipe or shoot me an e-mail at diannawolf@gmail.com.

I tend to take recipes and change them a bit to fit what I like, so you'll see that in my blog, as well as tips and things that did not work well for me.  I'm not a master chef, but I enjoy cooking, and I am hoping to find some easy healthy recipes that I can keep using when school is back in session and time is scarce.

I haven't decided on a recipe for tomorrow's blog, but it is likely to have old-fashioned oats in it!  I hope you'll try something new with me!