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Gingerbread Pancakes

Posted on December 5, 2010 by kissmybroccoli

This morning I woke up and couldn’t decide if I wanted another bowl of Gingerbread Oats or if I wanted to celebrate “Pancake Sunday” with the rest of the blog world. So, I decided to get a little creative…

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Pancakes topped with Pumpkin Maple Syrup

Whole Wheat Gingerbread Pancakes:
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup oats (pulsed in food processor until fine)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk (I just added 1 Tbsp of vinegar to my milk)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp molasses

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, vanilla, and molasses. Next, add dry ingredients to wet in 2-3 batches (this prevents lumps in your batter).

Heat a greased skillet to medium-high heat and pour in 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until lumps form. Then turn and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Plain ol’ maple syrup just wasn’t gonna cut it with these babies so I decided to spice it up a bit! Just add and stir!

Pumpkin Maple Syrup:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 Tbsp pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

With dried cranberries for good measure!

I was really happy with the way these came out. Kinda like if a gingerbread man and a bowl of oatmeal got together and had a baby! Perfect match!

The rest of the morning and afternoon was pretty ho-hum: put out the Christmas decorations and set up my new little 3 foot tree, had tea and “hippie-roons” with a friend, and oh yeah, I bought this:

Nikon D5000

This my friends is my early birthday/Christmas present to myself for ohhhhh, I’d say the next TWO years…because that’s how long it’s going to take me to learn how to use the darn thing! 😉

After reading the manual and tinkering with it for a couple of hours, I started to get a little hungry. I had two choices, 1.) something quick and thoughtless like a bowl of cereal so I can get back to studying orrrrrr 2.) cook something up and shoot it and see what happens? Hmm…

I really HAD been wanting to make this for a couple of days now.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu

I stumbled upon this recipe on 101 Cookbooks and new I just HAD to try it. Orange, ginger, garlic? Need I say more? Below is the recipe with my adaptations in red.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu:
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (I only had enough oranges for 1/2 cup so I used that + 1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger (I used the minced stuff in the jar)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp mirin (I used dry white wine + a pinch of sugar)
2 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
roughly 10 ounces of tempeh (I used extra firm tofu)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 lime (omitted)
a handful of cilantro (omitted)

Other than some minor changes, I stuck with the recipe:

Frying up the tofu!

Sizzlin'!

Soakin' in some sauce!

This dish was so quick, no marinating time required! The sauce infused every bite of tofu!

I served it over some leftover wild rice (not the same batch from Thanksgiving! lol) and shredded sprouts salad for some veggie action…awesome combo!

Spicy gingery, garlicky goodness!

So what do you think? Not bad for some of my first shots, huh? There is still quite a bit left to master but I am usually more of a hands-on type learner. I’m better off when I just dive right in and sort of “press every button till something happens!”

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend! I’m off to stick my nose in the camera manual!

Posted in Breakfast, Entree, Holiday, Pancake Sunday | Tagged gingerbread, oats, pumpkin, tofu | 12 Comments

Hello! My Name is Betty Crocker??

Posted on December 4, 2010 by kissmybroccoli

What happens when you deny yourself the right to bake because you are WAY too busy with life? Well, besides racking up most of your computer’s memory with recipe bookmarks, if you’re like me, you wind up going on an all out baking binge that, by the end of the day, leaves you questioning your identity!

The morning started off as any other…although I had totally been dreaming about Allie’s Gingerbread Oats ALL night. So what did I do as soon as I woke up?

Gingerbread oats topped with cinnamon "whipped cream", pecans, and pom arils

What do you think of my new bowl and mug? “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” The decorations are going out tomorrow! 🙂

Gingerbread Oats Inspired by Allie @ LiveLaughEat:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk of choice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp molasses (don’t skip this…it really MAKES the oats!)

Toppings:
Plain Greek yogurt aka “whipped cream” spiked with cinnamon
Pecans
Pom arils

Combine all ingredients in medium sauce pan and cook on med-low heat, stirring occasionally, until desired thickness. These were creamy and super thick thanks to the pumpkin! Just like I like ’em!

After breakfast, I just got this urge to bake something. Maybe it was the gingerbread oats… maybe it was the new festive dish…maybe it was the fact that it has been WAY to long since I last baked!

It all started as I was perusing my plethora of recipe bookmarks and started drooling over Elise’s “Hippie-roons“, a vegan version of macaroons. I’ve always had the ingredients, but NOW I had the time!

Hippie-roons may be my newest obsession!

Yum!

Seriously folks, this recipe was so simple and out of this world! One bite and I was in HEAVEN! Make this NOW!!

At this point, most normal people would go sit on the couch, watch some TV and nibble on their tasty macaroons, but I (aka Betty Crocker) had just gotten started! I couldn’t help but notice another of Elise’s creations…Pumpkin Banana Bread and well, when you look over at the fruit basket and see this, what else can you do?

Insert Monty Python quote: "Eh, we're not dead yet!"

I ended up making TWO different versions of this bread with a little tweaking here and there. First up: Pumpkin Banana Coconut Bread with Pepitas. Ingredients are as follows with my changes in red.

Pumpkin Banana Coconut Bread with Pepitas:
2 overly-ripe bananas(I used 2 1/2 bananas)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 cuppumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract(I used plain vanilla extract)
chia seed “egg” (1 tbsp chia seeds + 1/8 cup water) (I used this, but for non-vegan bread, you can use 1 egg)
2 cups whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup stevia baking blend (I used 1/2 cup raw turbinado sugar, you could also use brown sugar)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas), chopped

I followed the recipe but just added the pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon to the dry ingredients before combining with the wet. The coconut I added in at the last-minute (ideas…they just come to me!). Pour batter in loaf pan and top with chopped pumpkin seeds. Cooked at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Slicing it up!

Sliced and ready to...photograph??

This is where I realized that I had indeed lost myself to the baking. Good ol’ Betty was taking over…but I didn’t mind. So, as I tightened up my invisible red striped vintage apron, I continued on with…

Pumpkin Banana Raisin Bread:
Same ingredients as above (with my adaptations), but THIS time I added 1/2 cup of raisins instead of the 1/4 cup of coconut. I started out with 1/4 but it needed more…plus I love pumpkin and raisins together!

Instead of the pumpkin seed topping, I stirred up a quick mix:
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar (you could use regular brown sugar too)
1 tsp cinnamon

Spread nut mixture over top of bread and bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes (more time due to the moisture of the raisins).

Still warm from the oven!

Now THAT's what I'm talking bout!

I love the way that both breads turned out but the pumpkin raisin combo is my fave! The brown sugar/cinnamon/nut topping really made it! It’s a little sweeter than the first batch (due to the raisins) but not overly sweet where you feel guilty having another slice!

And with that I was finished! Special thanks to Allie, Elise, and of course…you too Betty! 😉

Disclaimer: Betty Crocker is a registered trademark to General Mills, Inc.

Posted in Breakfast, Desserts, Holiday | Tagged bananas, macaroons, oats, pumpkin | 17 Comments

A Pinch of This, a Dash of That

Posted on December 3, 2010 by kissmybroccoli

That is how I would describe my cooking method, if you could even call it a method. Usually, I start off with a couple of recipes whirling around in my head from my latest blog reading or a search on good ol’ Google. I start with a bit of structure and the next thing I know, I’m adding more veggies, more sauce, more seasoning!

I used to think my mom was a kitchen magician. She could take a pound of pasta and a can of tomatoes and *POOF* she had a fantastic dinner on the table, no recipe needed. I just thought, “I’ll never be able to do that. You just…you HAVE to follow a recipe!” It wasn’t until recently that I finally realized that it doesn’t take a kitchen magician to create a recipe. You just have to have some tasty ingredients and a bit of imagination…and a bit of taste testing of course! 😉

Inspired by Jessica’s Shredded Sprouts Salad, I got in the fridge today and decided to use the Brussel sprouts I’ve been eyeing for a week and a half. I bought a big bag of sprouts at SAMs just before the holiday, but due to my overabundance of leftovers, I felt guilty for making a new dish until today. It was definitely worth the wait!

Fakin’ it Out Shredded Sprouts:
8 ounces Brussel sprouts, shredded
1 small to medium eggplant, cubed
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 Vidalia onion, diced
1 cup cooked wild rice
3 strips Fakin’ Bacon tempeh

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Cut the ends of sprouts, place in food processor, and pulse until they are just shredded.

Cut ends off a medium size eggplant (mine was about past it’s prime…saved just in time!), peel and dice into cubes.

Place eggplant in a skillet with shredded sprouts, carrots, and onion.

Mix balsamic vinegar, oil, and maple syrup in a bowl and add to skillet. Sautéed veggies in syrup mixture until tender (about 7-8 minutes).

I found this at Whole Foods last month and have been dying for a chance to use it. Love the smoky flavor!

Fakin' it Out Shredded Sprouts

This was so delicious and super filling. The combo of the maple syrup and the smoky “bacon” was just right! Thanks Jessica for the inspiration!

Oh, and breakfast was just too purdy not to post 😉 so I will leave you with this. My “Waffle Mountain” as Allie would say: A Van’s Organic waffle topped with cottage cheese, cinnamon, pom arils, bordered with fresh-cut persimmon wedges. I LOVE persimmons!