Archives for August 2009

But What About All That Fat?!?!?!

August 21, 2009 By

a sampling of the dairy in my refrigerator right now 

If you’ve spent any time at all perusing my blog, you have no doubt noticed that I do not limit my use of full-fat dairy products, and in fact, I discourage the use of low-fat dairy. You have more than likely thought to yourself, “That’s certainly not healthy!”. Or, “And she thinks her cooking is so healthy!”

That is because you have heard since you were a child that fat is bad for you, that it clogs up your arteries, increases your cholesterol and makes you fat. It does seem to make sense, doesn’t it, that fat would make you fat?

But, my dear, all is not as it seems. The truth, or perhaps I should say, the fact, is that your body needs fat. Healthy fat, that is. And the healthy fat is not the man-made kind filling up the shelves at the grocery store.

You may or may not agree with me on this, but I happen to believe that since God designed our bodies, He had (and still has) a perfect understanding of what exactly we need to keep them running their best. He created all sorts of beneficial foods for our consumption and enjoyment, including an endless variety of fruits and vegetables, grains and grasses, meats… and dairy. And he didn’t make any skim milk cows.

But enough about my beliefs, what about cold hard evidence? I offer a few facts for you to consider:

*Heart disease did not become a major killer in the United States until more than 20 years after the introduction of margarine, and it was not the #1 cause of death in the US until 10 years after the introduction of Crisco. Prior to that time, in our agricultural society, people enjoyed unlimited consumption of full-fat dairy products on a regular basis. (I don’t have one single source to prove what I have written here; I found the dates and causes of death on the CDC website.)

*Recent research shows that milk contains a healthy trans fat called conjugated linoleic acid. Research on CLA is new, but it seems to indicate that it is beneficial to many different systems and parts of our bodies. As I understand it, the higher the fat content, the greater the CLA. By the way, grass-fed cows have greater levels of CLA as opposed to grain-fed and hay-fed cows. CLA is also found in beef.

*Studies show that low-fat dairy reduces a woman’s fertility because it interferes with ovulation. You may think that this is only important if you’re trying to get pregnant, but just because you’re not trying to conceive doesn’t mean your reproductive system has stopped working! It’s not like an on and off button. If you still have your reproductive organs, you still need to take care of them. And they want full-fat dairy, none of that skim milk stuff!

*Low-fat dairy increases the risk of prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. Connections have been found between low-fat dairy and other cancers as well (mostly in lab studies with rats), according to information I found on Wikipedia.

*What about weight gain? Fat makes you fat, right? Nope. Consider this Swedish study, which found the following:

For wholemilk and sour milk and cheese, the women with a constant intakeof ≥1 serving/d during the follow-up period had a statisticallysignificant lower risk of gaining ≥1 kg/y than did the womenwith a constant lower intake of these products.

It also found:

For whole milk and sour milk,cheese, and butter, BMI was statistically significantly higherin subjects with a low intake than in subjects with a high intake

In other words, women who consumed more full-fat dairy products gained less weight and had a lower BMI (Body Mass Index) than women who consumed low-fat dairy products.

So why, then, are we constantly told to avoid full fat and go for the low-fat dairy products? I don’t have a good answer. I think perhaps there was a snowball or domino effect: once one study was conducted that indicated low-fat foods were better for us, everybody focused on that fact and set about to prove it with more studies. Now, even though the research is beginning to show otherwise, we’ve heard it for so long that it scares us to death (literally) to go back to our great-grandparents full-fat way of life. We’re sure that as soon as we trade in the 2% for whole milk, that our cholesterol will sky-rocket, our arteries will harden, and we’ll gain weight faster than a pig destined for the chopping block.

To me, reading between the lines in recent research and considering all the evidence as a whole, it seems clear that full-fat dairy is more beneficial than low-fat. That is why I buy whole milk, real butter and whipping cream. I don’t know about my cholesterol or my arteries (time will tell as far as they go), but I can tell you I have not gained weight since switching to full-fat. What DOES make me gain weight is sugar, but that’s another post for another day.

Here are some tips:

*If you’re not ready to go 100% in the full-fat direction, at least do yourself a favor and cook with real butter rather than margarine. Real butter is real food, and has actual nutrients that benefit your body, as well as healthy fats. Margarine, even the non-hydrogenated kind, has been so processed, and is made of vegetable oils that have virtually no nutritional benefit, that any vitamins or minerals it may have were added in and are synthetic to boot. That’s not doing your body any good.

*I don’t personally limit my overall intake of fat at all (although, when I have kept track of my food intake on www.sparkpeople.com, my overall fat intake fell within the normal range of 30% or less of daily calories). But if you want the health benefits of full-fat and yet are scared about the danger it might pose to your health, consider limiting your overall fat intake. In other words, when you do eat fat, make it full-fat, just don’t eat as much of it as you would with low-fat products.

*Avoid trans fats at all costs. Read ingredient labels. Even if the package says 0% trans fat, if hydrogenated oils (either fully or partially) are listed, then there is up to .5g of trans fat in a serving. Even one gram of trans fat is bad for you, so just 2 servings of foods with hydrogenated oils is damaging to your health. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but as time passes, it will become evident. I would like to suggest that manufactured (i.e., not natural) trans fats are the real killers, not the natural saturated fats found in animal products.

*Just because ice cream is a full-fat product doesn’t mean it’s good for you! Same goes for certain yogurts. Be sure that the full-fat dairy products you use do not have additional ingredients that are harmful for your health. (Like, for example, the pressurized can of whipped cream in my picture - definitely an indulgence!)

If you’re intrigued, here are some reading suggestions:

*Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck

*Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

*The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin

Disclaimer: Read these books (any book for that matter) with a critical mind. I don’t agree with everything written in all of them: I take the good and ditch the rest.

1 Comment Filed Under: At Home, Health, Knowledge, On My Mind Tagged With:

Mary Poppins, Eliza Doolittle, and Sara Crewe

August 18, 2009 By

Quick… what do those 3 women have in common? Ding! Time’s up. They’re all fictional characters from across the pond, or more specifically, the “mother country”, namely, England.

And what does that have to do with my post today? Nothing, except that the recipe today is a traditional recipe from England, often enjoyed on a Sunday afternoon with roast beef (naturally). What makes English roast potatoes different from your regular run-of-the-mill kind of roast potato is that they are first boiled and then given a good shake in the pot. The end result is a crispy, crusty, buttery potato that melts in your mouth.

Are you hungry yet?

Potatoes from Across the Pond
1/2 cup butter
4 lbs of potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

First you start with the potatoes. Take about 4 lbs, peel them and chop them into 1″ cubes. Place in a large pot and cover with salted water.


Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the heat and let them simmer about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup of butter on a baking sheet or in a pan, and put it in a 400 oven to melt. It’s even better, I think, if it browns a bit.


Once the potatoes have finished simmering, drain them and return them to the pot. With the lid on, give them a good shake until they’re roughed up a bit.


Pour them into the prepared buttered pan, and use a spatula to evenly coat them with the melted butter.

Roast in the pre-heated oven, basting occasionally. After about 15-20 minutes, carefully turn over the potatoes so all the sides are evenly cooked. The goal is for the potatoes to look nice and crispy:

It may take up to an hour to get that nice crispy look, but it’s well worth it! Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve while hot.


Potatoes from Across the Pond
1/2 cup butter
4 lbs of potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

First you start with the potatoes. Take about 4 lbs, peel them and chop them into 1″ cubes. Place in a large pot and cover with salted water. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the heat and let them simmer about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup of butter on a baking sheet or in a pan, and put it in a 400 oven to melt. It’s even better, I think, if it browns a bit. Once the potatoes have finished simmering, drain them and return them to the pot. With the lid on, give them a good shake until they’re roughed up a bit. Pour them into the prepared buttered pan, and use a spatula to evenly coat them with the melted butter. Roast in the pre-heated oven, basting occasionally. After about 15-20 minutes, carefully turn over the potatoes so all the sides are evenly cooked. The goal is for the potatoes to look nice and crispy. It may take up to an hour to get that nice crispy look, but it’s well worth it! Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve while hot.


 

Not so QUICK, I guess, although it probably took me an hour total to prepare mine. I cut the potatoes into small bite-size chunks, which I think helps them cook a little faster. (It may not be the traditional size, but oh well. I’m not English!) Also, some recipes suggest simmering them for only 5-6 minutes, but simmering them a little longer gets a head start and reduces the roasting time just a bit.

Pretty EASY, though. Just remember to shake up the potatoes and then turn them over once or twice while roasting, and they’ll be delicious. The great thing about this recipe is that it’s very difficult to overcook them. You want them to be crispy, and the longer in the oven, the crispier they’ll get. So if you’re prone to overcooking, here’s the recipe for you!

Pretty CHEAP, as long as you buy that butter on sale! I try to pay $2 or less for a lb of butter (most warehouses sell butter for between $1.50 and $2.00/lb), so it ends up being roughly $0.50 for the amount used in this recipe. As I’ve mentioned before, I typically try to pay no more than $3 for 5lbs of potatoes, so that makes it around $3 for this recipe. I paired them with chicken that I bought on sale for $0.47 (oh yes! $0.47!!!) a lb, and served my Dilly Dilly Carrots and some leftover Couch Potato Crescent Rolls. I would estimate $7 or less for the whole dinner, and part of it is actually going to be dinner tomorrow for some friends who just had a baby.

Of course, it’s HEALTHY, too. Don’t worry about the butter. I have seen recipes for English roasted potatoes that call for shortening or vegetable oil instead: don’t do it! Butter’s a better choice than either of those. Potatoes are often maligned, being a starch, but the truth is, you DO need starches/carbs, and it’s better to get them from something real like a potato than from a Danish or white bread. Plus, potatoes are an excellent source of potassium, an essential nutrient.

3 Comments Filed Under: On The Table, Sides Tagged With:

A Unique Use for those Leftover HOMEMADE Mashed Potatoes

August 11, 2009 By

My mom is the one who taught me how to cook. Once she taught me (and my sisters), she expected me (and my sisters) to continue on cooking. I can remember countless hours spent in the kitchen helping to prepare dinners, cookies, desserts, breakfasts, etc. etc. I guess if I were the mother of 11 children, I’d do the same! To be honest, I don’t regret it. In fact (although my mom may have different memories) I don’t think I ever really complained about it. There were a few things I did NOT like to do, such as chopping onions, but for the most part, I enjoyed the whole process of cooking and baking for the family.

One recipe, my mom (and me and my sisters) made a lot was Potato Crescent Rolls. I still remember the first time we tasted them at a good friend’s house, and my mom got the recipe right away. From that point on, it became a staple at our house, and my mom included it in the cookbook she gave to each of us kids as we flew the nest.

But once I left home, I rarely made Crescent Rolls, mainly because I’m lazy, and they’re a lot of work. Memories of baking them at home involve a lot of time and effort, kneading, letting the dough rise, punching it down, letting it rise again, etc. etc. Same reason I almost never make my mom’s famous Sticky Buns, delicious as they are. (And the same reason my blog involves quick & easy recipes.) Yes, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that I’m pretty much just lazy.

But I’m OK with that, because nowadays there are machines to help you out with that. So you can still get stuff done but be lazy, too! That’s what I love about the bread machine. I can make homemade bread without all the effort - it’s wonderful.

So I had some leftover mashed potatoes that I made for my recent post, and since I hate to throw food away, I wanted to use it up in something. I was reminded of my mom’s crescent rolls and found a recipe online that helped me convert it to a bread machine recipe.

The crescent rolls I ended up making are actually quite different from both my mom’s and the recipe I found online at Taste of Home. For one thing, my mom’s recipe made approximately a zillion, but mine only made 24. (still too many for 2 people, good thing I have a freezer!) For another, neither recipe called for whole wheat flour, but you know I can’t make a baked good with just white flour!! I used a mix of whole wheat flour, white flour and bread flour, so that flavor was not sacrificed for healthiness. To make it a little cheaper, I cut out the milk and used just water (which is what my mom’s recipe calls for anyway). Also, I got a little creative with the one pan of rolls, which you will see in a little bit.

Couch Potato Crescent Rolls
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup warmed leftover mashed potatoes
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Layer the ingredients in that order in your bread machine pan and select the Dough cycle. One hint for bread-machine baking: never put the salt and yeast together. I almost gave up on bread-machine baking until I read that little tip in a book called “Bread Machine Magic” and all of a sudden I fell in love with the bread machine. Now I always separate the salt and the yeast by the flour.

When your dough is done, approximately an hour and a half or so later, it is ready to be made into crescent rolls (isn’t that wonderful? no kneading, extra risings, etc etc. so simple). Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, and roll them out into a 12″ circle. Melt about 1/4 cup of butter and spread about a fourth of that onto the dough with a pastry brush.


Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough into 12 equal wedges (more in a minute on that white stuff you see in the picture)
Beginning at the wide edge, roll each wedge up, and bend the ends inward to form the crescent shape and place them on a baking sheet. Brush the tops with another fourth of the melted butter. Cover and let them rise for about 25 - 30 minutes.

Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Repeat with the second portion of dough.

Now about the white stuff. The cool thing about these crescent rolls is that before rolling them up, you can do a million fun things with them. My mom would often stuff chunks of hot dog into them and make “pigs in a blanket” (Don’t try that at home.). We also experimented on occasion with various herbs and spices; Italian ones work really well.

So I made one “normal” batch and one creative batch. On the creative batch, I sprinkled some crumbled goat cheese and some dried basil. I wish, I wish, I wish I had had some fresh basil, but alas, I did not. That would have been soooo yummy. So if you try this, make sure you plan ahead and have fresh basil! It was very yummy as it was, but it would have been yummier with the good fresh stuff.

When you compare it to the original recipe, this one is QUICK. If I made it the old-fashioned way, it would be a day-long process, but this way only takes a couple hours of your time.

Using the bread machine makes it so EASY. I love that I don’t have to knead dough anymore. For some reason, I always hated that part, even with the Kitchen Aid mixer kneading attachment.

Using up those leftover mashed potatoes makes it a CHEAP recipe. Also, it makes 24 rolls, so unless you have 24 people in your family (hey, it happens), you can eat some now and freeze some for later. Food in the freezer is a very frugal concept.

It’s very HEALTHY, as far as dinner rolls go, especially with the whole wheat. The addition of goat cheese adds an extra element of health, as goat products are considered to be more easily digested and therefore more usable by our bodies.

So if you haven’t made mashed potatoes yet, go forth and make mashed potatoes (real ones!) so you can make these yummy crescent rolls. And enjoy!

Find more healthy bread recipes at:

3 Comments Filed Under: Bread, On The Table Tagged With:

Better than the Box – Mashed Potatoes

August 10, 2009 By

I like what Kristin at Cuizoo says: “We’ve all been hoodwinked.” We’ve been hoodwinked by the successful marketing campaigns of food manufacturers who insist that we are not capable of, or do not have enough time to, cook real food.

Take mashed potatoes, for example. If you have ever bought one of those boxes of dehydrated potato flakes, or even worse, one of those frozen packages of mashed potatoes, you have been hoodwinked into thinking that making mashed potatoes is either too difficult or too time-consuming. And consequently, you have spent far too much money, and have fed your family food that is considerably lacking in the nutrients God intended it to have.

Ouch. I didn’t mean to say it so harshly, but there it is. And perhaps you will forgive me if I put it this way: you CAN make mashed potatoes. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take that much time. You are an intelligent person who knows your way around the kitchen (whether or not you think you do), and you want to feed your family the food that is best for them. And you can!

There. Was that better? And if you already DO make mashed potatoes from scratch, you know I am proud of you for making that extra little bit of effort to cook foods that are healthy for you and your family.

The thing about mashed potatoes is that they are so personal. There really is no wrong way to make them, because as far as I can tell, there are as many methods to making mashed potatoes as there are people who make them. And some people are very adamant that their way is the right way, but don’t listen to them, because somebody else says the same thing about their way. So add your own variety to the mix and share your own version of mashed potatoes with the world! Or at least with your family. They’ll love it, I promise.

Here’s my own version of mashed potatoes. Make it my way, or make it your own.

My Own Special Kind of Mashed Potatoes

First I start with about 6 medium or medium-large potatoes. I’m not super particular about the kind of potato I use, although many people swear by starchy potatoes. I just use whatever I have on hand (which usually happen to be starchy). I peel the potatoes, because my DH can’t have too much fiber in his diet and the potato skins have a lot of fiber, but leaving them unpeeled would save time and make them even healthier.

Next, I cut the potatoes into chunks and boil them until they can be easily pierced with a fork. I drain them, and then use a pastry blender to mash them up a little.


Now at this point, most people add milk. Not me! I have a special secret ingredient (can you guess what it is?):

Nope, not sour cream. Plain yogurt! It serves the same purpose, but it is healthier because of the live cultures. I use a couple heaping spoonfuls of plain yogurt, and then I pour in a couple tablespoons or so of milk and a couple tablespoons of butter. I also like to add salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic, chives and parsley:


Leaving it all in the same pot, I use my hand-held mixer and beat them until they are fluffy and creamy.

That’s all there is to it. These have a lot of flavor, so you can serve them plain with a dab of butter. If I’m going to serve them with gravy, I’ll leave out some of the chives and garlic.

Now wasn’t that QUICK? The longest part is probably the boiling, but you can let them boil while you fix the rest of your dinner.

And admit it; it’s EASY! There’s no special trick to it. OK, so there’s a little labor involved in peeling and chopping the potatoes, but you’re not afraid of a little work, are you? Didn’t think so.

And it’s CHEAPer than the store-bought options. I am often able to buy 5 lbs of potatoes for $3 or less, and I use about half of them or less to make the mashed potatoes. Since I only use small amounts of butter and yogurt, the cost for those is minimal, and the cost for the other seasonings is negligible.

If it’s going to take a little more of your time and energy, it had better be HEALTH-ier, right? Well, it is! Even if you buy a box of potatoes that boasts it is made of 100% potato, making them at home is still healthier. That’s because, by virtue of the dehydration process, a box of potato flakes has more fat (the bad kind!) than a plain old potato. It also has more sugar and less fiber. Besides which, during the dehydration process, vitamins and nutrients are lost, so then they have to be added back in. And of course, the synthetic vitamins that are added back in are not as easily absorbed or used by your body. And let’s not even talk about the boxed mashed potatoes that have additional (and less desirable) ingredients, especially the flavored ones: trans fats, artificial flavorings, preservatives, artificial colors, BHT, the list goes on and on. Stick to the real thing and you don’t have to worry about what’s in it.

3 Comments Filed Under: On The Table, Sides Tagged With:

Guilty Confessions of a Chocoholic

August 9, 2009 By

… who is aided and abetted by her husband!

The other day, after a long day of organizing, packing and fighting traffic, I said to my husband, “I am really in the mood for something ooey, gooey and chocolatey right now.” I wasn’t trying to work my feminine wiles on him. Not really. Ok, well, maybe a little bit. But I did feel guilty when he offered to go out and get something chocolatey for me, so at least I wouldn’t let him do that. (Now if I were pregnant, I would have said, “Sure, and get two of whatever you find!” But since I’m not pregnant, I did not have that excuse, alas.) But then he offered to make something chocolatey for me… and who can refuse that?!?! Would you? I don’t think so!

So he went online and found the perfect recipe for me: Really Chocolate Chocolate Cake, a yummy chocolate cake recipe from Hershey’s website with a fudge frosting to top it off. And then my sweet husband actually proceeded to make it for me. I offered to help, but he insisted on doing it all himself. He even got creative and instead of using 2 cups (gasp!) of white sugar, he used 1 each of brown sugar and regular.

When it comes to quick & easy, my husband is all over that. The quicker and easier, the better. Cheap? Not so much. Healthy? I don’t think it’s in his vocabulary. Or if it is, he considers it a dirty word!

So this cake is actually pretty QUICK as cakes go. I was surprised at how soon it was ready to enjoy.

Pretty EASY, too, even the frosting. And it baked up perfectly: moist with a nice light crumb, fluffy almost.

Wasn’t exactly CHEAP, though. Two whole cups of sugar, a cup and a half of milk, 4 cups of powdered sugar, 2 whole cups of cocoa… it really used up quite a bit of ingredients. My desserts are never that luxurious!

And HEALTHY? Not even close. There’s enough sugar in one small slice to last you for a whole week! And let’s not even talk about the white flour…

But wow, was it delicious! I started with one small piece… and had to have another… if you’re a chocoholic like me, you’ll understand.

We’ll be back to our regular broadcast of Quick & Easy, Cheap & Healthy recipes in a day or two. After I have another piece of cake…

Wanna bite?

4 Comments Filed Under: Celebrations, On My Mind, On The Table, Reflections Tagged With:

Super Simple Strawberry Syrup

August 5, 2009 By

I was dumb the other day and left strawberries sitting on the counter instead of putting them back in the fridge. Agh! What was I thinking?! Apparently, I wasn’t! So now instead of nice, plump, juicy fresh strawberries, I was left with half a pound (yes, half a pound!) of slightly shriveled, mildly dehydrated, far-from-fresh strawberries. Blech. But I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, and I didn’t feel like making a smoothie, so I racked my brains for something I could do to save the strawberries. I still hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I opted for strawberry syrup to top my French Toast.

Am I the only one who does brain-dead things like leaving food out on the counter all night long, by the way? I hope not!

A Tasty Recipe for No-Longer-Fresh Strawberries
1 cup sliced berries
1/2 cup apple juice

Place the berries and apple juice in a pot on the stove, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Once boiling, turn heat down to low and allow to simmer, occasionally stirring and breaking up pieces with a wooden spoon.

When strawberries are softened and mixture is slightly thickened, remove from stove and let it stand for about a minute before using.

QUICK enough for breakfast! I’d say probably about 10 minutes or so was all it took, start to finish. And the strawberries simmered on the stove while I fixed my French toast, and everything was ready to eat at the same time.

Very EASY, easy enough for morning brain (if you’re a night owl like me!). Even easier would be pre-sliced frozen strawberries if you happen to have them.

Since I used strawberries otherwise destined for the trash, it was pretty CHEAP, too. But at any rate, it’s still pretty inexpensive because I usually try to pay $2 or less per pound of strawberries.

And HEALTHY, of course. Apple juice serves the same purpose as sugar would in this recipe; it sweetens and thickens the syrup just slightly. The good thing is, it’s a lot better for you than sugar would be!

This recipe is incredibly versatile, also. You can use any berry you want or have on hand. I’ve thought of several different things you can do with the syrup:

~as topping for French toast, pancakes or waffles
~on ice cream or banana sorbet
~on a slice of plain cheesecake
~mix with plain yogurt
~mix with lemonade for restaurant-style strawberry lemonade

3 Comments Filed Under: Basics, On The Table Tagged With: ,

Guilt-Free Dessert. Really.

August 4, 2009 By

Bet you don’t believe me. But it’s true - I have found a guilt-free dessert. A frozen, creamy, sweet treat - it even has a little bit of chocolate - without any sugar, and no unhealthy fats either. Besides which, it takes minutes to whip up and does not require any special machinery (unless you count a food processor). Still don’t believe me? Too good to be true, you say? Well, read on.

I have been hanging onto this little recipe clipping from a Woman’s Day magazine for at least a year. And actually, the recipe on the clip that I wanted was for strawberry sorbet. But I’ve never made it because, well, to be honest, strawberries are expensive, you know, and it required a lot of strawberries. To be frank, I’m just too cheap for my own good! Besides, I like my strawberries fresh. But I just noticed the other day that under the recipe for strawberry sorbet was a recipe for banana chocolate sorbet and I was instantly intrigued. Reading on, I was stunned at the simplicity, ease… and yes, frugality, of the recipe.

So I immediately made it and it was great. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, being very skeptical, but it actually was delicious. Everything a sorbet should be.


Guilt-Free Banana Sorbet
3 bananas
2 TBSP of water
1/4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

Peel and slice the bananas into 1″ chunks. Place the chunks onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze them until solid, about 1.5 hours.

When banana chunks are solid remove them from the freezer and place in food processor. (You may need to do this part in batches, depending on the size and power of your processor.) Add 2 TBSP of water and process at a high speed (I used the highest on mine) until the bananas are no longer chunky but smooth and creamy. You may need to add a little more water to help the processor along. Shave the baking chocolate into the bananas using a grater, and pulse until thoroughly blended.

(Don’t do what I did: with one batch, I didn’t have time to process the bananas right away, so I took them off the pan and put them in a bag to use later. That batch was not quite as sweet as the other, and the only thing I can think of is that the bananas defrosted a tad and then re-froze again and lost some of their flavor. So process the frozen bananas right away.)

Serve immediately or freeze.

 

So go ahead. Be healthy. Eat dessert.

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Ginger Peach Shortcakes

August 1, 2009 By

Ahhhh, vacation! Or rather, “staycation”. We had fun this week, visiting local haunts and spending time with family, relaxing a little bit, and enjoying ourselves a lot.

One thing we did, which my sister declared she could do for hours, was pick peaches at Larriland Farms in Woodbine, MD. I don’t know if I could do it for hours (I have a hard enough time figuring out what to do with the peaches we picked in one HALF hour, let alone many hours!), but it was fun for sure! And once we got home, the real fun began: I had to figure out what to do with a 1/2 bushel of fresh peaches. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we worked through the half bushel without hardly any effort.

Here’s my Certain Little Someone thoroughly enjoying his first peach-picking experience. He LOVES peaches, and he had a lot of fun picking them (although he was very sure he would much rather eat them! We had to keep his little hands off the box of freshly picked peaches.).


With part of our bounty, I made some Peach Shortcakes to bring to a bridal shower. I was inspired by the recipe at Baking Bites, a fun blog with lots of great recipes. There was nothing wrong with the recipe, but of course, I made some changes, because how boring is it to make a recipe exactly as written?! The main change is that I did not grill the peaches only because I have no grill (one of the many drawbacks to living in an apartment). Also, I altered a couple ingredients to make it just a tad bit healthier, because that’s what I do.

 

Here’s my version:

Ginger Peach Shortcakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup regular all-purpose unbleached white flour
1/2 cup “healthy” sugar (so there’s no such thing as healthy sugar, but at least a healthiER kind)
1 TBSP bkg powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, chilled and cut in pieces
1 6oz container yogurt (I used homemade.)
Some milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup candied ginger, diced
6 medium peaches
2 TBSP butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2″ piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 TBSP honey
nutmeg, grated

Mix the flours, baking powder, sugar and salt until well blended. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender.
Place the yogurt in a liquid measuring cup and add enough milk to measure a scant 1 cup. Mix together thoroughly, and add to the dry mix. Add the vanilla, and stir gently until well blended. If necessary, add some more milk, just a little at a time. Be careful not to overmix, because then the shortcakes will be tough. The dough should be pliable and just a tiny bit sticky.

Carefully mix in the diced candied ginger. Using an ice cream scoop so as to create even, well-shaped shortcakes, drop the dough onto a lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 400 for approximately 15 minutes. Peel and slice or grate the fresh ginger.
Peel and slice the peaches, and mix them with the melted butter, sliced ginger and cinnamon. Place them in a square baking pan and warm them in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes just to soften them a bit and blend the flavors.
Whip the cream until soft peaks form, then drizzle in the honey. Continue whipping until you have stiff peaks.

Now it’s time to assemble the shortcakes (or alternatively, to allow your guests to assemble their own).

Slice the shortcakes in half and place the bottoms on your serving plate. Top each shortcake bottom with several peaches:
Place a generous dollop of whipped cream on each short cake.
Grate some nutmeg, just to add a nice touch and a hint of flavor and finish up with the tops of the shortcakes.


 

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