Monthly Archives: October 2011

This Is Halloween…

by

…and it just wouldn’t be Halloween without candy for dinner!  Seriously.  And it’s a good thing that dinner was easy to describe because I’ve got to keep this quick; I’m spending 8am – 9pm on campus tomorrow and I need to sleep.

Unfortunately I ran out of time this morning and didn’t even manage to finish more than 1/3 of my oatmeal.  My yogurt and pear held me over okay while I was busy, but the minute classes were done I needed to EAT!  I just had to get through my 30 minute commute (I walked today) to tear into this huge plate of bread with dipping oil.

Guys, this bread is so freaking good.  It speaks to my soul.

Mmmmmmn!

I was craving a Reece’s Cup all day but we were too cheap to buy candy so I settled on this peanut butter chocolate ice cream bowl instead.

I put a healthy scoop of chunky pb in the bottom of a cup, topped with mini chips, microwaved until melted, and then scooped on a bit of slow-churned vanilla ice cream.

So much better than the candy bar could ever be.

And I even did end up getting my candy.  I had to break a $20 before tomorrow so I bought 15cents worth of the good stuff from the bulk bins.

Followed by pumpkin beer!

We headed over to a friend’s house for a Halloween get-together and this Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin Ale was split three ways.

I also had a small cup of tasty punch,

a handful of pita chips with hummus,

and some organ sugar cookies.

I believe I ate a stomach and a humerus.

Other than cookies and company, the impetus for the get-together was introducing our friend Anna to the fabulousness that is “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

She’s a fan now!  Especially of the music.  Confession – I totally call “TNBC” by the title “This is Halloween” instead!  Happy Halloween, guys!

Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

by

It took me a couple of days, but I knew I had to get this recipe posted for you guys.

This recipe is a little time-consuming – you have to make three separate batters and layer them together – but the end result is totally worth it. 

These are muffins and not cupcakes, no frosting and the texture is more muffin than cakey, but they still work perfectly for dessert. 

Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Yield: 30 muffins; Prep Time: 1 hour; Cook Time: 23 minutes

Instructions

For this recipe you’ll need to prepare the pumpkin batter, chocolate batter, and cheesecake filling separately and then layer them together into the muffin tins.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.  Line muffin tins with baking liners then set aside.  You’ll need to prepare the batters in separate bowls but the prep time will go more quickly if you work on both simultaneously (i.e. measure all your flour at once, all your eggs at once, and so on).

for pumpkin batter

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Combine pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat until well-combined.  In another bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour through salt).  Working in small batches, whisk dry ingredients into wet.

for double chocolate chip batter

  • 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Place dry ingredients (flour through mini chips) in a large bowl.  In another bowl whisk together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla.  Pour wet into dry and carefully fold together, taking care not to overmix.

for cheesecake filling

  • (2) 8oz packages 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
  • 1 cup confectioners sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Use electric beaters to cream together cream cheese and sugar for 3 minutes.  Beat egg whites and vanilla into the mixture.

muffin instructions

Place approximately 1.5 Tbsp of pumpkin batter in the bottom of a muffin liner.  Top with 1.5 Tbsp cheesecake filling, placing filling as close to the center of the cup as possible.  Top with 1.5 Tbsp chocolate batter.  Repeat process with remaining batters until all of the tins are full (you will most likely have a little bit of chocolate and cheesecake remaining when the pumpkin runs out, but 30 muffins are plenty).  You may wish to alternate which batters are the top and bottom layers, I did half of each.  Carefully use a toothpick or chop stick to swirl around the edge of each tin, ideally mixing the batters a bit but not moving the cheesecake filling.  Bake at 375* for 20-23 minutes, until muffin tops are firm and an inserted knife comes out clean.

Adapted from Rachael Ray’s Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes and Food Network’s Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Hallowed Breakfast

by

Happy Halloween! 

We didn’t have any fun plans this year but I am all about any holiday with theme candy and colors!

I even applied those colors to my breakfast.

orange = pumpkin, black = chia seeds and mini chocolate chips

My (stove-top) base was 1/2 cup each water and skim milk, 1 medium banana, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds.

With a handful of shredded, unsweetened coconut and 1/2 tsp mini chips for topping.

This was good but I had too much food and not enough time, I’ll probably only finish eating half of the bowl.

spooky snack preview

I don’t have time for “lunch” on Mondays, but I do have a few things packed to snack on during our short breaks.  A gorgeous looking Comice pear,

and a vanilla YoCrunch with candy bits for the holiday.

What are your Halloween plans?  Did you celebrate already this weekend?  Costumes?!

Cheesy Baked Eggplant Casserole

by

Full disclosure – all brand name products in this post were provided by Newman’s Own and the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.  They also sent a Flip Cam for video-shooting.

The eggplant turned out perfectly.  (there’s a written copy of the recipe at the bottom of the post)

It was cheesy and rich and comforting.  The eggplant turns to *butter* (in flavor and texture) when you bake it like this!

We ate our servings with nice side salads.

An Italian Blend lettuce bag base topped with groats and 2 Tbsp of Newman’s Own Family Recipe Italian Dressing.

The dressing was a little more caloric than I usually prefer to use (130 calories for 2 Tbsp) but the flavor was great.  It was oily in a very pleasing way.

Speaking of oil, we were feeling a little unsatisfied after dinner so we drove to Wegman’s for a loaf of Garlic Tuscan Bread.

Confession – we used up our grocery money for the week already so we recycled our cans on this trip for the $!

We dipped our hunks in olive oil with spices and all was right with the world.

It’s almost Halloween!

I may not be dressing up this year but I’m still excited.

Cheesy Baked Eggplant Casserole, serves 4

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Layer eggplant and tomato sauce into an 8×8 inch casserole dish; placing tomato sauce as the bottom and top layer.  You’ll most likely end up with three even layers of eggplant if your eggplant was sliced thinly enough.
  3. Bake 40 minutes. 
  4. Remove from oven, top evenly with cheese, and return to oven for 10 additional minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Way Too Busy For A Sunday

by

Hi, all; hope everyone else had a relaxing Sunday!  My day has been busy and stressful, but cooking for the Chili Sale went even more smoothly than we could have hoped so I’m not going to complain.

I have some amazing, funny, hard-working classmates.

We made almost 200 servings of chili today!  100 beef and 75 vegetarian.  There was a lot to do, and all of the measurements were based on my math so I was pretty nervous, but we got it all done and finished just under our time goal.

I was too busy to eat breakfast but I did sip on this half-sweet, pumpkin spice latte throughout the day.

Plus a slice of veggie pizza that our instructor bought us for lunch.

A classmate whose family owns a local restaurant brought us fancy cookies.

I planned on eating half a jack-o-lantern but I got distracted by stirring and ended up only tasting a bite or two.

When I got home I made up for lost sugar by eating a small square of this chocolate-cheesecake bar I baked up with leftover muffin batters.

Did I mention what type of muffins they were yet?  Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins!  Oh yes.  I’m posting the recipe some time tomorrow and I urge you all to copy it down.  I brought most of the mufins to school today and my classmates all gave them rave reviews.

Other afternoon snacks included a slice of 2% provolone cheese,

and this fruity yogurt bowl.

I topped some Fat-free Plain Stonyfield yogurt with TJ’s mango butter and a handful of (sweetened!) shredded coconut; the bowl was quite tasty.

I needed to be well-fueled because my main to-do this afternoon was shooting a fun video for my dinner post.  I’ll see y’all then!

Too Busy For A Saturday

by

Oh man.  I’ve been “on” for 14 hours straight so please forgive me if this post is “off.”  I spent several hours on campus this afternoon and I’ll spend most of tomorrow there as well so I’m warning you in advance that Sunday’s recap will be cranky!

Today’s plan included three main objectives –

  1. Attend a training at school.
  2. Get all the shopping for Chili Sale cooking completed.
  3. Bake amazing muffins to help thank classmates for coming into school on a Sunday.

The training was actually for a job, thank goodness.  A short-term one though; I’m going to spend the next month working as a caller for the Buffalo State College alumni donation effort.  10 – 2pm today was spent in training sessions for the upcoming first week of work.

I didn’t have much time in the morning (I was trying to maximize sleep!) so I packed this NuGo Organic Double Dark Chocolate Bar for breakfast.

The NuGo people knew what they were doing when they stuck these samples in our HLS bags; every bar of theirs I’ve tried I plan on buying for myself!  This wasn’t as good as Balance Bar Cookie Dough (what is?!), but I liked the crunch and chewiness of the inside and the chocolate coating was sweet without being too sweet for breakfast.

I bought a sandwich for lunch on our break.

This was a book store cafe paninni with pesto, roasted tomatoes, and mozzarella.

Plus an Earl Grey with skim milk.

When I left campus at 2 I headed straight to the store to meet up with some classmates in the Chili Sale group.  We had to go to Wegmans, then BJs, then back to Wegmans again, but I think we are ready for tomorrow.

I bought a coffee with skim milk while we shopped.

And very happily accepted this chocolate sample with my beverage.

Guylian shells are my favorite chocolate candy of all time and they are pretty pricy so this 2-piece freebie put a huge smile on my face.

That smile was promptly wiped off as our hunt for dinner turned into an epic journey.  I got the first half of my work schedule for the week and it required some meal plan switching so we decided to go out.  But we don’t have much (any?!) money right now so we agonize over how we spend it.  Nothing is good enough to justify the expense and the dining options in Buffalo just aren’t that good to begin with.  Adam and I wasted a good hour driving around from vetoed, to closed, to 40 minute wait-listed.  We finally ended up at JP Bullfeathers and decided just to split two of the cheaper options.

I ate 2/3 of the Julius Caesar;

a salad with sun-dried tomato Caesar dressing topped with crab and rock shrimp salad.

Plus 1 triangle of Adam’s grilled avocado quesadilla,

which had cheddar, jack cheese, and roasted poblanos.

Mine was better 😉

Dinner wasn’t as filling as I would have hoped though.  I did a few nibbles whilst baking, plus I noshed on this bag of Combos.

These weren’t bad but I think my thing is finally over.

When we got home around 9, we finally got to baking.

I don’t have the time (or energy) to tell you about these muffins now, but I promise to blog the recipe soon because it’s a good ‘un!

Thank you to my amazing husband for playing medical intern to my lead surgeon (ie holding bowls, laying out supplies, and wiping my brow); without whom my baking project would probably still be underway.

Staying Alive, Staying Alive

by

Let’s not talk about last night.  Dinner was a disaster, studying was a disaster, bedtime was a disaster.  Let’s not talk about this morning either.  No breakfast, no answers to the test questions, no remembering that my car was parked on the wrong side of the street and that deciding to walk would earn me a ticket.

Let’s just start this post at 11; that’s when the eats for today started anyway.  I spent the hour between my test and class in the food lab, planning for the Chili Sale.  We are selling on Tuesday and cooking all day Sunday so my group had to go think logistics.  We’ve got a specific plan for what all 18 classmates will be doing in the kitchen for 6 hours on Sunday, but I’m pretty sure it’s still going to be a shit-show.

Today’s food lab was the fat substitute group.  Normally I don’t snap pictures because I’m too busy taste-testing but there were a few things I couldn’t eat today so I had the time to photograph.  We tried regular and reduced fat samples of potato chips,

pudding,

and shredded mozzarella.

I could totally tell the difference between the original and modifieds!  Appearance, texture, and flavorwise.

After lab I got some real lunch (and breakfast!) at the campus bookstore.

Del Monte Tropical Medly fruit cup for vitamin C.

Plus this go picnic snack pack.  It contained crackers with hummus,

and roasted edamame, a fruit and nut blend, and a small square of dark chocolate (all of which were fantastic).

This ended up being a very filling lunch, though 520 calories is low to cover two meals.

I was stuck on campus until 2 so I got a little bit of studying done.  After our crazy chili week we have two super difficult weeks of testing and assignments and I’m hoping to be a little better prepared.  And speaking of being prepared … I am recertified in CPR!  That was what my committment at 2 was, BSC offers classes to students for free.  2 hours of chest compressions felt like quite a workout!  I can’t think of a better motivation to start hitting the gym than the fact that I might be too fat and out of shape to save a life.

This weekend is going to be super busy (I’m spending Saturday and Sunday on campus) so when I got home I did some preemptive cleaning and got ready for our weekly grocery trip.  Plus I put dinner into the crock pot.

I refueled around 7 with a Honeycrisp apple.

Plus half a Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale, split with the husband.

We weren’t fans sadly, neither of us finished our half.  The first sip was heavenly but every subsequent taste felt a little more bitter.  I washed my mouth out with a cordial.

And then we were off to the store.

Thankfully dinner was preparing itself at home because we were HUNgry like Attila by the time we got home.

And this meal was gooood!

Roasted green beans.

Tofu “fish” cakes from More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.

And a hunk of Piccolo bread from Wegman’s bakery.

Some notes on the bread – a) it was perfect; chewy yet airy; b) I dipped it in olive oil but couldn’t get a good photograph; and c) another (smaller) hunk was also hungrily eaten in the car on the way home!

Are you CPR certified?

Fruit In My Purse, In My Chocolate

by

I should NOT be blogging right now but I needed a study break!  Tomorrow is going to suck; I’ll leave it at that.

Breakfast was grabbed quickly but ended up being good.  A Revolution Foods Organic Berry MashUp.

I’ve seen some chatter on the internet about how lame it is for grown women to eat “baby food” but all I have to say to that is – sorry you don’t know what’s good?  These are delicious and if you can find another way for me to stick a half cup of berries straight into my purse, I’m all ears.

Plus a sample box of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola from HLS.

This was so crunchy and tasty that I actually snapped a picture on my phone to remind myself to buy more!

Since you can already see my warm jacket peeking out from those pictures I’ll admit defeat and show you bundled up look –

It was in the low 30’s today, there could have been snow!  There’s even another shirt on under that top layer (which was Adam’s!).

Not to worry, no one could see that I was wearing stripes + stripes + plaid, that layer was purely for bundling.

Towards the end of our 4-hour class our instructor took us on a field trip across campus to see some of the research posters being presented by faculty from across the disciplines.  We got out of class early and they had food, score!

Fruit,

veg (that brown stuff is a hummus based sauce),

bit of pasta salad and a turkey sandwich with chipotle mayo.

The photos make everything look a bit bigger than it was in real life, this was a smallish lunch.  Good thing I supplemented it with Combos.

I’m having a Combos thing this week, so sue me.

The hours of 12 – 3 were spent hard at studying with some friends in a computer lab.

So. Much. Material!!!

Cherry cordials when I got home.

If this evening goes like I think it’s going to I suspect this will not be the only dessert I have today…