Berry Parfait Pie--Family Recipe

Years ago, when my Mom was clearing out her cookbooks, I snagged a cookbook that had been compiled by my Father's mother's family. It is one of those self published cookbooks, similar to those put out by churches and other civic groups. It has the typical types of mostly 1950's type convenience recipes. I've not made anything from it--the only family recipes I have are my Mom's gazpacho and my Dad's Grandma's cheese sandwiches (not sadly, in this book). So for my Pie Month celebration, I decided to make a pie from the collection. I selected one called "Strawberry Parfait Pie," only since I didn't have strawberries I used raspberries.

Ingredients:
1 3 oz pkg raspberry jello
1 1/4 cup hot water
2 c vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 c raspberries
1 9 inch baked pie shell

Dissolve jello in hot water, add ice cream, and stir until blended/melted. Chill until thick, but not set. Add fruit, and pour into pie shell. Garnish with whipped cream and more fruit.

I made half batch, in a 5 inch pie, because I wasn't sure how this would turn out and didn't want to waste the ice cream. I used sugar free ice cream and jello, and a home made vanilla wafer crust.

Surprisingly it didn't taste that bad, though it moved in an alarming way and the crust got a little soggy as liquid came out of the fruit. I liked that it was lighter than other pies I made so it was more like eating a fruit salad than pie. Plus I ate it with some fruit and a dash of whipped cream! I'm not saying I'd make it again, but I'm not tossing it out.

Breakfast Bowls

Since I changed my diet last year, I have tried to eat real breakfast foods in the morning. I know that nutritionally it doesn't matter what you eat when, and that cake in the morning is just as healthy as cake in the evening. But I think eating a proper meal in the morning gets things off on the right foot for the rest of the day. I rotate between cheerios and yogurt, cheerios and fruit and rice milk, and an egg mug of some sort with a multi grain thinwich.

During the summer, I ate a lot of fruit--strawberries, peaches, raspberries, blueberries--in my cheerios, and I still get veggies in my egg bowls. Sometimes I use leftover veggies from the night before in my eggs in the morning, but lately it has been harder to get my fruit and veggies in my morning meal. I miss fresh berries, but I'm not willing to pay 6 dollars for a small thing of berries that will not last few mornings.

This morning I was out of bread and had nothing to eat my cheerios with, so I found another bowl meal and gave it a whirl. It is sort of a dish in between the eggs and cereal and should be easy to experiment with different variations. This recipe comes from the author of the Make Your Someday Today blog, though I couldn't find the recipe there--he posted it on the lose-it forum. So go read Trevor's blog, this isn't the first yummy thing I've made from him--his zucchini pancakes are a favorite of mine!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup rolled oatmeal (not instant)
1/4 cup berries (any type, fresh or frozen0
1 tablespoon milk
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Cinnamon



Just like with an egg mug, you really need to start by spraying your soup bowl or mug with cooking spray. Otherwise it will stick and be hard to clean up later--unless you let your dog lick the bowl. Which never happens. Never. Like I let her do anything.

Mix together all the ingredients--you could also add peanut butter, or chocolate. I substitute honey for the brown sugar when my brown sugar was too hard.Once it is combined, it goes in the microwave for between 90 seconds to 2 minutes--or until it is set and not liquidy. I've found adding too many berries can make it more liquid, and if they break can give it a grey cast--but that is easily disguised with some whipped cream. You can eat it in the bowl, or turn it over on a plate and top it with goodies.

It comes out like a very soft pudding cake--less mushy than regular oatmeal, which I hate the texture off, and more like a proper breakfast. I think it would be good with some fresh fruit on the side as well!

The Verdict: A nice hearty breakfast that is lower in calorie, while still providing protein, whole grains, and some fruit as well. It really hits the spot--though I just calculated this as under 200 calories per serving, so I may increase the quantities so I'm fuller longer. This will be joining my other breakfast bowls in the morning rotation!

Adventures in Quinoa

So I selected two options from my Quinoa 365 cookbook, one is a main dish and one is a dessert. I figured if I was cooking Quinoa I might as well use it twice! And I wanted to expand my horizons--I've never had quinoa in anything but savory dishes.

Here are my two recipes from the book: Thai Cashew Chicken and Broccoli on Quinoa, and Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins.

 I took these photos of the recipes to the store so I would get everything I needed, and I still ended up with no whole wheat flour, no baking soda, and no cashews. I borrowed the first two from my sister, in exchange for muffins! The second just didn't happen. So it is just Thai Chicken and Broccoli, no cashews.

My Quinoa has "bloomed" but still had some liquid to absorb.

I cooked quinoa just last week, but I usually cook it in the sauce, so it absorbs the flavor and everything cooks at once. So I was worried about getting the liquid ratio right--when the timer went off it had bloomed, but was still sloshy. Fortunately, a little more cooking, a lot of time sitting, and some fluffing and it turned out the right consistency.

 While the quinoa cooled and absorbed liquid, I got out the ingredients for the muffins. When I borrowed the flour from my sister she was all fancy with her food scale, and I wanted to do the same, but the amounts in the book were confusing. Sadly math is hard, so I got my measuring cup out and went to work. Dry ingredients in the bowl, I turned to the main dish.

I don't want to see the chicken this came from!

Oyster Sauce and Sesame Oil are new additions to my kitchen.

I buy chicken in 20 lbs bags from Costco, so I knew I'd have enough for this recipe. It calls for 4 chicken breasts, but the one I pulled out of my monster bag was almost 13 oz, which I figured was equal.






            The marinade was so flavorful and easy--I thinly sliced this monster breast, and set it all in the fridge to work its magic. 

 The quinoa had cooled, so in it went into the dry ingredients, where it formed funny little balls. The cream cheese was more of the same. I struggled with the raspberries--the frozen ones I bought were monster sized (and not even from Costco!). But I moved on to wet ingredients, where I sadly used mostly substitutions to make them lighter. Egg substitute, apple sauce, and a sweetener blend, pretty much only the vanilla was as called for in the recipe.

    I found the chicken dish to be easier to follow the recipe, (though I must admit that besides forgetting the cashews, I added less peanut butter and honey at the end). Broccoli and onion chopped, I fried them up with some sesame oil. Then the chicken into the pan. It had been marinating for hours by this point (in between cooking the muffins and finishing the chicken I went and played with my nieces) so it was pretty brown. It made it sort of hard to see when it was cooked all the way through, but since it was so thinly sliced it cooked fast!  I added a touch of peanut butter, a drop of honey, and tossed it together with the broccoli. Yummy, even without cashews!

  The Verdict: The chicken dish had great flavors, but the ratio of broccoli to chicken didn't work for me. In fact, I took the leftovers and added two more cups of broccoli, some mushrooms, and left off the quinoa all together. That is a dish I'd make again!

I brought over some warm muffins to my sister when I went to play with my nieces, her response: "tastes healthy" and "maybe you need better recipes." I actually enjoyed them--they are filling and yes, healthy. Maybe if I hadn't done all the substitutions they would have been more than healthy.

Verdict: tastes healthy.