Recipe Review: Squash Pancakes

Happy dance.... happy dance!  Okay, Janae, you're my first non-related blog follower.  Welcome.  I know it was a huge step for you to follow a sugar-free blog.  That's okay.  I won't tell! :). 

Today was a super busy day- I spent most of it getting ready for my group piano lessons today and tomorrow.  When it was time for dinner I hadn't even planned anything.  I threw together tacos for the kids, and Jimmy ended up eating them too (He's been really good about his eating and has lost about 15 pounds in the last month).  He decided that they were better than the alternative:  Squash pancakes.

I had leftover cooked squash in the fridge, so decided it was time to try out this recipe from gnowfglins.com:

1 cup cooked, pureed squash [I used a little butternut and mostly acorn squash].
4 to 5 eggs [I used 4]
1/4 c. coconut four [I used this] OR whole wheat flour OR 1/3 c. sour dough starter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 to 2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
butter

Serves 6

Separate eggs.  In one bowl, whip egg whites a few minutes until frothy/foamy.  In a separate bowl, combine yolks with squash, flour, sweetener, vanilla and spices.  Fold in egg whites.  Fry slowly in lots of fat in cast-iron skillet over med-low heat or on a griddle with a bit of butter at about 300 to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Watch for the bottoms to begin browning when the edges look dry and flip once.  If you find the pancakes are very thin and breaking apart, add a bit more flour or sourdough starter to the batter. 

The lazy way:  Instead of separating the eggs, just mix everything together in one bowl.  The pancakes might not have as much height or fluff, but they're still perfectly fine, especially for a weekday morning. 

Check out that crazy batter!  I'm glad I didn't put an extra egg in because they were moist enough without.    My first mistake:  I just hand mushed the squash instead of blending them.  Second mistake:  I think they would be better with the 1st recipe option of folding in stiff egg whites so the pancakes are fluffier.

The first flipping went better than I thought, but they still looked pretty rough!  The second side brown really fast and got a bit burnt looking.

Here's the final product.  Some real beaut's, eh?  They tasted pretty good, but then about an hour later.....  BLEH.  I feel SO yucky.  I have no idea what caused it- The new Grade B maple syrup I used?  The acorn squash I haven't ever used before?  Some of the spices in it ? (cloves, nutmeg, etc.)  All I know is that this is not on my list of favorites.  They're heavy in my stomach, and I just don't feel well at all.  They get one out of five stars.

Productive Day with My Chef!

You may remember how I'm doing a trade where I teach my friend's son piano lessons, and she's bulk cooking for me once a month (see HERE). 

Yesterday we had our second cooking marathon, and it was great!  This time I took some pictures. 

Cindy's first project:  Cauliflower Pizza Crusts

These are SOOOOOO good!  One of my favorite recipes right now.  They are so easy, too.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

2 Cups Cauliflower

2 Cups Mozzarella

2 Eggs

Blanch Cauliflower and shred. Put in a strainer to remove excess water.

Combine with mozzarella and eggs.

Place in mounds on parchment paper making sure that it is distributed evenly.

Bake at 450 for aprox 10 minutes.

You don't really taste the cauliflower much at all.  I've also made them with raw goat's milk cheese, and they were great, too.

I just freeze them, then we can use them for a snack or dinner by putting a bit of marinara sauce on it, sprinkling a little more cheese, and then you can put any toppings you want.  YUMMO.  5 out of 5 stars.

Other projects from the day:

Two different types of lara bars.  Nice to have on hand for after school snacks.

Cranberry Scones.  These are made with almond flour, egg, butter, honey, and cranberries.  Super easy, and I LOVE THEM.  The weird thing?  The rest of my family doesn't get in to them.  I served everyone one this morning, and none of the kids ate it.  Strange.  I think they're almost like a cookie for breakfast.  For me?  5 out of 5 stars.  Not so good with the kids, though.  I'll just save them for my lunches or snacks now.

A couple of nice big pans of meat balls.  No, no liver this time.  Cindy doesn't do liver :).  We had some last night, and they're very yummy.  I froze the rest.  I found out something very interesting today, though!  I was watching a free video on www.westonaprice.org  (Check it out HERE) about cooking materials recommended for your whole foods kitchen, and they mentioned how you shouldn't be using aluminum.  I just realized that my cookie sheets are aluminum.  Whoops!  They said you could cover them with parchment paper and be okay, though.  That's what I'll have to do next time.

Yes, a very productive day.  It's so fun to have my own "personal chef".

These Burgers are Alive!

Tonight I made the strangest meal that I have ever made- Sprouted Lentil Burgers.

MMMMMMmmmmm.  Sounds delish.... (at least I kept trying to convince my family!)

First of all, the lentils had sprouted A LOT.  I had no idea what to expect, but I'm not sure if I sprouted the lentils right.  I think so.  The first night I covered the lentils with water.  A few hours later before bed I checked on them and added another inch of water, because the lentils had already expanded more than I expected & I thought that overnight they might not all be covered.

Then it said to drain the lentils "up-side-down", which I'm assuming meant to put in the colander & sit throughout the day as they drained?  And I rinsed the lentils both morning & night for about 3 days.  The musty smell of the sprouts kind of made me nervous as I was preparing the burgers, because it was pretty funky.  I couldn't imagine how these would taste good at all.

The first step was to put a couple cups of the lentils into the blender along with 1/2 cup coconut oil, two inches of peeled ginger, 2 tsp of salt, and I was supposed to put in some horseradish, but all I had was Woeber's Horseradish Sauce, which COMPLETELY goes against everything pure I'm trying to eat right now.  Here are the ingredients:  Soybean Oil (!), Water, Corn Syrup (!), Vinegar, Egg Yolks, Modified Corn Starch (!), Horseradish, Salt, Artificial Flavoring (!), Potassium Sorbate (!), Xanthan Gum (!), Calcium Disodium EDTA (!).  I did put about a tsp, because I thought I better balance out all that ginger.  I'm still waiting to see if I have some sort of reaction to something in it.

I pureed the ingredients, then I was supposed to throw 6 cups of the sprouted beans in the food processor with the puree & coarsely chop them up so there was some texture for the burgers.  I don't have a food processor, so I hand chopped them.

That worked just fine.

Next step was to mix the puree and the chopped lentils together.  It was very moist, and I wasn't sure if it would even hold together while I was cooking it.

I used my hands, because I really needed to shape & mush together.  It said to use a skillet, but I just used my electric griddle at about 300 degrees.

Even at this point I wasn't so sure about these burgers.  I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to flip them with them falling apart.  Surprisingly, they were fine.

I loved that they even browned, which looked more appealing. 

So, the verdict?  They tasted about 50 times better than I thought they would.  It turns out our family dinner time was a split up, with Jimmy eating on the go.  He ate one and was really good about it.  He said "Tastes.... healthy".  Then he said it had an Asian flare to it, and on his way out he commented on the strong aftertaste.

He took Jess & Bek, and KJ and Grace are gone.  So it was Shiloh and me.  Her reaction?

I give this recipe 3 out of 5 stars, and thought it wasn't too bad.  It's definitely something that would have to grow on my family, and is a great recipe for Halloween.  My kids think it is creepy.

Recipe Review: Cinnamix Powerbar

I tried another powerbar recipe that I got from an e-book called Healthy Snacks to Go (from Kitchen Stewardship.com) .  We had it for a treat at our Monday night family night.

The Cinnamix Powerbar

I keep trying new flavors hoping to find one that Jimmy will like. 

The Cinnamix has:

2/3 c. almonds & 1/2 c. cashews, blended up.  You add 1 c. dates, and 1/2 c. raisins, then 1 tsp cinnamon, and blend all together.

This was fast & easy, and it was a nice consistency that turned into bars easily.  I'm going to start rolling them into bite size balls, though.  I don't really like how they look as bars ( a little too much like....#2).

I liked this powerbar a lot, but not as much as the first one that I made (see post HERE).  I give this bar 4 stars out of 5.  As for Jimmy?  He ate one this time and actually came back for seconds, but they were all gone.  This recipe is a keeper!

Homemade Larabar Recipe Review 2

Yesterday's snack was supposed to be trail mix that had banana chips in it, but my bananas were still dehydrating & needed more time.  So I decided to try another recipe in my Healthy Snacks to Go e-book. 

I loved the first recipe I tried a week or so ago (see post HERE), which was a basic larabar, but my husband thought they were way too chocolaty.  This time I decided to make one without the cocoa powder, the "Coco-shew" bars.  The recipe is so basic, and sounded really good to me because I like cashews. 

Coco-shew Bars Grind: 1/3 c. cashews
Add: ½ c. raisins, ¼ c. coconut
Stream in: ½ tsp. vanilla

The author recommends making these bars in a food processor, but I don't have one so I used my Vitamix.  It worked fine, but it was hard to get down into the bottom of the blender picture & scrape out the sticky mixture around the blades.

Verdict:

Not nearly as good as the basic bars that I made last time.  They turned out WAY too sticky, so I kept adding more & more cashews to try and make them dryer.  I couldn't even really form them into bars or balls well.  The taste was alright- nothing to shout about.  The even more frustrating part?  I couldn't even get some of my family to try them. 

Lesson learned:  I need to remember that as I try these new foods some of my family will hesitant to try them, but I need to keep trying.  Maybe sometimes they'll be pleasantly surprised.

I give these bars 2.5 stars out of 5.
** I just had to update this.  I had put some of the leftover in a bag & put it in the fridge and just ate a little, and it is LOTS better!  The fact that it's not mushy... it's more solid, and the flavors had blended more or something.  It would raise my rating to a 3.5 stars out of 5 if refrigerated.