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Citrus Parmesan Mushrooms

May 21, 2013 by Annemarie 10 Comments

This month’s Recipe Redux Challenge invites members to create healthy recipes for a brunch. With the flurry of bridal showers, graduation parties, and other special events this time of year, we could all use some healthy, crowd-pleasing recipes. This appetizer was inspired by one that I recently enjoyed at Cinquecento Roman Trattoria in Boston. A group of Boston Parent Bloggers came together at Cinquecento to learn about Erba Vita, an herbal supplement line based in Italy that has recently been introduced to the U.S. Market. Several of us couldn’t get enough of the delicious mushroom appetizer at the event, and I wanted to re-create the recipe. The server was kind enough to share with me the chef’s general instructions about what went into these little beauties. If you like mushrooms and cheese, you won’t be able to eat just one.

Ingredients:
1 lb. baby bella mushrooms
1 tbs. olive oil
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup mascarpone
2 tbs. grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. lemon juice
¼ tsp. lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Clean the mushrooms and remove the stems. Toss the mushroom caps with the olive oil and salt.
Place the mushrooms in a 9 by 13 inch pan, and roast them in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and strain the liquid.
Mix together the mascarpone, parmesan, lemon juice and lemon zest by hand or in the bowl of a stand mixer. If your mascarpone is too thick to smoothly mix the ingredients, add a tablespoon of milk.
Place the mushroom caps in the baking pan and fill each one with the cheese filling.
Return the pan to the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
Cool the mushrooms for about 10 minutes before serving. The filling will become a bit runny after baking, but it will stabilize as the mushrooms cool.
If you have any extra cheese filling, you can toss it with pasta. Delicious!

Price Breakdown
This recipe costs a total of $4.91 to make, or $.30 per serving (3 mushrooms). This unique mushroom appetizer is a delicious, healthy crowd-pleaser.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: appetizer, gluten free, healthy, Recipe

Chicken Pot Pie

May 20, 2013 by Annemarie 2 Comments

Chicken Pot Pie is one of my favorite comfort foods. This is the perfect recipe for leftover chicken. One of my meal planning challenges is that my son doesn’t like plain chicken; he only likes it if it’s in a dish with other things. I use a lot of vegetables to stretch the chicken in this pot pie, and the biscuit topping is the perfect complement to the filling. This one-pot meal includes everything you need to have a well-balanced dinner.

Ingredients for the Filling:
3 tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 medium red potatoes, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
2 tbs. white whole wheat flour
3 cups chicken broth
½ lb. chicken breast, cooked and chopped
1½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper

Ingredients for the Biscuit Topping:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 tbs. cold butter
1 cup plain yogurt

In a large pan, cook the onions in the olive oil over medium-low heat for 3 minutes.
Add the potatoes and cook for 8 minutes, until they begin to soften.
Add the carrots and celery and cook for another 5 minutes.
Stir in the flour and add the chicken broth gradually.
Simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring regularly to thicken.
While the mixture simmers, make the biscuit batter. Mix together the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor until it reaches a crumb-like consistency. In a large bowl, stir together the crumb mixture with the yogurt to form the biscuit dough. Set aside.
Transfer the chicken and vegetable mixture to a 9 by 13 inch pan. Form 10 patties out of the biscuit dough and divide them across the top of the chicken mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the biscuits are cooked through.

Price Breakdown
This recipe costs a total of $5.77 for 6 servings, so the cost per serving is $.96. For less than a dollar a person, you can feed your family this delicious, healthy chicken pot pie.

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: healthy, main dish, Recipe

Chocolate Chip Blondies

May 16, 2013 by Annemarie 6 Comments

As much as I love chocolate chip cookies, it’s easier to put a whole batch of dough in a pan and bake chocolate chip cookie bars. These blondies have a wonderful vanilla flavor, which deceives the palate and makes these bars satisfying without too much sugar. I use a combination of applesauce and coconut oil to give them just the right cake-like texture. These blondies freeze well, and they’re a delicious treat in a school lunchbox.

My 7-year-old daughter recently got her first “real” camera, and she snapped a picture of these bars after I left the room. She cropped the picture herself on the computer, and she said she likes how well you can see the crumbs up close. It looks like I have a budding food photographer on my hands.

My 7-year-old daughter’s first official food photo

Ingredients:
2 cups gluten-free flour or white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
½ cup applesauce
½ cup softened coconut oil
1 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch pan.
In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the applesauce, coconut oil, and maple syrup. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until all the flour is incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
Transfer the batter to the baking dish and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the bars on a wire rack.

Price Breakdown
This recipe costs $8.06 to make, or $.45 per serving (serves 18). These chocolate chip blondies are a healthier, kid-friendly dessert that your family will love.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free, healthy, Recipe, vegetarian

Homemade Chocolate Chips

May 13, 2013 by Annemarie 24 Comments

Every package of chocolate chips I’ve seen has highly processed sugar as one of its ingredients, so I like to make homemade chocolate chips. This recipe requires just 2 ingredients, and you can adjust the sweetness to suit your taste. We’re very fond of chocolate in my house, so I love having these on hand to add to a healthy batch of muffins or cookies. If you don’t have a frosting tool to shape them, you can just melt the ingredients, let them cool a bit, and then shape the chips by hand. Alternately, you can pour the whole batch of melted chocolate into a loaf pan, refrigerate for an hour, and then break it into chocolate chunks. Children love to participate in this process because we’re basically making the simplest candy here.

Ingredients:
6 ounces single-ingredient chocolate (I use Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate)
1/3 – 1/2 cup maple syrup

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate over medium-low heat. Turn off the burner and stir in the maple syrup. If you want to add mint extract or vanilla extract to give the chips a different flavor, add it here.
Working quickly, transfer the mixture to a frosting tool with a wide tip. I use this fun cupcake decorating tool.
Press out little chocolate chip sized portions onto wax paper. I use my fingers to shape each chip into a triangle.
Refrigerate the chocolate chips for at least 30 minutes so they solidify. I store them in the refrigerator until I’m ready to bake with them.

Price Breakdown
This batch yields 9 ounces of chocolate chips and the total cost is $2.71. There’s no packaged brand of chocolate chips with clean ingredients that I can compare these to, but a 10-ounce bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips retails for over $4.00. Enjoy Life is considered one of the cleanest store-bought versions of chocolate chips. You won’t believe how easy it is to make these homemade chocolate chips, and your family will love them.

Linking to Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free, healthy, Recipe, vegan

Shallot Vinaigrette

May 9, 2013 by Annemarie 4 Comments

Having a good supply of homemade salad dressing recipes is essential in our house because we get lots of greens every week from our farm share. My children are generally happy to eat salad as long as they like the dressing, but I need to rotate different dressings so they don’t get bored with the same one over and over. A big salad with lots of different veggies is one of my favorite meals, and I love so many different dressings. Many people say that homemade dressing tastes superior to the store-bought version, but I actually love the taste of bottled salad dressing. However, I usually make homemade dressing for several reasons:

It doesn’t contain a laundry list of questionable ingredients.
You only make as much as you need.
You can tweak the flavor until you get it just right.
It costs less than store-bought dressings.

This shallot vinaigrette is simple to make and the flavor is wonderful. You can adjust the proportions to your taste. Check out my Greek yogurt ranch dressing and my honey lemon lime dressing for some other ideas to dress up your next salad.

Ingredients:
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbs. red wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbs. diced shallot
½ tsp. salt (or to taste)

Combine the ingredients in a jar. Shake well to combine. Taste it and adjust the flavoring as needed.
Store any extra dressing in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Price Breakdown
This makes 1/3 cup of dressing and the total cost is $.53, or $.18 per serving. If you want to eat more greens, get into the habit of making homemade salad dressing from ingredients you keep on hand.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: healthy, Recipe, salad dressing

Homemade Waffle Cone Bowls

May 7, 2013 by Annemarie 2 Comments

Beautiful spring weather means it’s time for homemade ice cream, and what better way to enjoy ice cream than in a waffle cone? I make these little waffle cone bowls out of pizzelles. It requires some trial and error to determine which bowl you should use to mold the pizzelles into the right shape, and my Japanese tea cups do the best job.

You’ll need a pizzelle maker to cook these bowls. Do yourself a favor and read the instructions carefully before baking. You need to grease the machine properly or the pizzelles will stick. This creates an epic mess that you don’t want to deal with, trust me. (I use this palm oil shortening.)

If you’re hosting guests, this is a special dessert that everyone will enjoy. They don’t look perfect like store-bought cones, but I think their rustic look is part of what makes these waffle cone bowls wonderful. This recipe is adapted from my mother-in-law’s pizzelle recipe, which is a common cookie at our family gatherings.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
½ cup maple syrup
1/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups gluten-free flour (or white whole wheat flour)
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat the pizzelle maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs, maple syrup, cooled coconut oil, and vanilla extract until well-combined.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until all the flour is incorporated. The batter should be sticky and fairly thick. If it’s quite runny, add just a little more flour.
Bake the pizzelles according to your machine’s instructions. When each pizzelle is finished cooking, immediately place the hot pizzelle on the bottom rounded end of a small bowl or glass. Hold it in place for about 30 seconds, until set.
Continue with the remaining batter and let each bowl cool completely on a wire rack.

Price Breakdown
This recipe yields 16 waffle cone bowls and costs a total of $3.80, or $.24 per bowl. This is the perfect way to serve a special ice cream dessert that your guests will love.

Linking to Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dessert, gluten free, healthy, Recipe

Fiesta Popcorn

May 5, 2013 by Annemarie 6 Comments

Homemade popcorn is one of the easiest, most affordable real food snacks you can make. That’s why I make sure to always have popcorn kernels on hand. If my children have a last-minute play date after school and there’s “nothing to eat,” I can always pop some popcorn to make a sweet or savory snack.

This fiesta popcorn is a breeze to make, especially if you keep homemade taco seasoning on hand. It’s addictive, so you shouldn’t expect to have leftovers if you’re feeding a group of hungry kids or adults. For a sweet popcorn snack, try my chocolate popcorn or maple gingerbread popcorn.

Ingredients:
1 cup organic popcorn kernels
3 tbs. coconut oil
2 tsp. taco seasoning

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and melt the coconut oil.
Pop the popcorn kernels. I use this air popper, but you can use whatever method works for you.
Pour the coconut oil over the popcorn and stir to coat. Then sprinkle the taco seasoning on the popcorn and mix it until the popcorn is evenly covered by the seasoning.
Place the popcorn in the oven in a roasting pan. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every couple minutes.
Remove and cool on a wire rack. Store the popcorn in an airtight container.

Price Breakdown
This batch yields about 13 cups of popcorn and it costs a total of $.98, or $.16 per 2-cup serving. You read that right – it costs less than a dollar to make this entire batch. Try this delicious fiesta popcorn the next time you’re in the mood for a savory snack.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free, healthy, Recipe, vegan

Five Tips for a Great Fruit Salad

May 3, 2013 by Annemarie Leave a Comment

With summer getting closer every day, I’m starting to look forward to fruit salad season. As much as I enjoy individual fruits, I love them even more when their flavors come together in a fruit salad. Even if I only have three or four types of fresh fruit on hand, I like to chop them up and mix them together so I can enjoy them with my lunch and my kids can get a bright burst in their lunchboxes. Fruit salad can go in so many different directions, but here are five principles I keep in mind when making a fruit salad.

Take the time to chop the fruit into small pieces. That way, you can get more flavors in each forkful.
Keep the peels on the apples for extra vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Pay attention to the dirty dozen list to help you decide when to spend the extra money on organic produce. (If you can afford it, organic is best.)
Include several different colors. This will help the fruit salad look and taste better.
Add a little orange juice to keep the apples from browning.

Here’s a simple fruit salad recipe that we’ll be enjoying at a large family gathering this weekend. Of course, you can use any fruit you like, but I use mostly firm fruit so it doesn’t turn into a mushy mess. Store-bought fruit salad never tastes good to me, and the fruit is typically cut into giant chunks. Take a few minutes to make your own fruit salad, and you’ll enjoy it much more.

Ingredients:
1 pineapple
4 oranges
4 apples
1 lb. strawberries
½ cup orange juice

Chop all the fruit into small pieces.
Add the orange juice and stir to coat.
Store the fruit salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Price Breakdown
This recipe yields 18 cups of fruit salad (24 servings of ¾ cup each) and the total cost is $14.04, or $.59 per serving. Make this easy fruit salad for your next barbecue and everyone will be sure to have a little something healthy on their plate.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free, Recipe, vegan

Roasted Tomato Hummus

May 1, 2013 by Annemarie 2 Comments

Homemade hummus is one of the simplest healthy snacks to make. All you need is a food processor or blender and a handful of ingredients, and within minutes you can have a delicious dip for veggies or chips. Full of protein from the chickpeas, hummus also makes a great sandwich spread. As you may have noticed at your grocery store’s hummus shelf, you can flavor it in so many different ways. Add olives, scallions, carrots, red peppers, lemon juice, or anything else you would like in a savory dip.

Homemade hummus is also one of the most affordable snacks you can make. This 2-cup batch of hummus costs less than a dollar to make. This quantity would cost over five times as much at the store. I start with dried chickpeas because canned chickpeas cost 3 times more than dried chickpeas. I cook a whole bag of chickpeas and then freeze what I don’t need. That way, when I’m looking for a healthy, high-protein snack, I can defrost some chickpeas from my freezer and whip up a quick batch of hummus.

I use a small amount of roasted tomatoes to add a little extra color and flavor to my hummus. If you want a stronger tomato flavor, you can increase the quantity of tomatoes. This hummus may be just the thing you need to help your hesitant eater to enjoy some vegetables.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 tbs. sesame seeds
1 tbs. roasted tomatoes (or sundried tomatoes)
½ tsp. minced garlic (about ½ a small clove)
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup olive oil (and/or sesame oil if you want a stronger sesame taste)
1-2 tbs. water (or more as needed)

In a food processor or high-quality blender, combine all the ingredients except the water. Process until smooth, and add water 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a creamy consistency.
Store the hummus in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Price Breakdown
This recipe yields 2 cups (16 ounces) of hummus and it costs a total of $.93, or $.06 per serving (2 tablespoons). A 16-ounce container of Tribe Hummus at my grocery store costs $4.99, more than five times as much as my homemade version. Full of protein and flavor, homemade roasted tomato hummus is a delicious, healthy snack that your family will love.

Linking to Pennywise Platter.

Filed Under: Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free, Recipes Tagged With: dairy free, gluten free, healthy, Recipe, snack, vegan

Coconut Apricot Energy Bites

April 26, 2013 by Annemarie 10 Comments

These coconut apricot energy bites are a delicious snack to grab when you’re on the go. One of my favorite store-bought snack bars used to be the Almond and Apricot Kind Bar. I loved the combination of apricots, almonds, and coconut. However, when I realized that those bars contained 12 ingredients including soy lecithin and other mysterious things I wouldn’t cook with at home, I stopped eating them. These energy bites replicate the flavor of those Kind bars without all the fillers.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried apricots (I use unsulfured apricots from Trader Joe’s)
¾ cup Medjool dates
¾ cup almonds
¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

In a food processor, combine all the ingredients and chop them until a paste is formed. Don’t chop them so much that you can’t see little bits of almonds.
Form 1-inch balls and refrigerate. They will be set in about an hour, but you can also eat them straight out of the food processor.
Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Price Breakdown
The total cost of this recipe is $3.78, or $.21 per energy bite. These coconut apricot energy bites are a healthy mid-morning or after-school snack to help get you through to the next meal.

If you’re looking for other healthy snack ideas, see this post about saving money with homemade snacks. It’s amazing how much we can save by making things from scratch.