Cranberry Oatmeal Buttons

Cook’s notes: Adapted from a recipe by Sunmaid Raisins (link). These are tasty, low-fat cookies. As the original recipe said, “This is one recipe where low is good. Low sodium, low fat, and low cholesterol — now that’s a really good cookie.”

Tasty and low fat

The recipe has several options: I used white whole-wheat flour, canola oil, plain yogurt (instead of vanilla, to keep the sugar down), and quick oats. You could even reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1/2 cup. If you like oatmeal raisin cookies, try these button-shaped cookies, which are tasty and very satisfying.

1 cup white whole-wheat flour (from King Arthur) or whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup fat-free plain yogurt (or fat-free vanilla yogurt)
1/8 cup (1 oz) canola oil (or corn oil)
1 large egg
1 overflowing teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (or uncooked old-fashioned oats)
1 cup dried cranberries (5 oz package)

Heat oven to 350∫ F. Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine brown sugar, yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla. Beat to combine. Add flour mixture; beat just until combined to make blended dough. Beat in oats and cranberries. Dough will be quite sticky.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. They will puff slightly when cooking, but they will not spread out flat.

Bake for 12 minutes until very lightly browned. Check them at 10 minutes — do not over bake.

Slide cookies from parchment paper onto countertop to cool.

Makes 40 cookies.

Estimated nutrition information per serving (1 cookie): Calories 42; Protein 0.9 g; Fat 1 g; Carbohydrate 7.6 g (net carbs 6.9 g); Dietary Fiber 0.7 g; Cholesterol 5 mg; Sodium 52 mg (from http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php)

Dietary exchanges for 2 cookies: 0.9 bread/starch

Menu: Healthful Holidays

Cook’s Notes: We are having a “Happy & Healthy Holiday Potluck” at work. I was inspired by this great idea to start researching appropriate recipes. Healthy dishes don’t have to be boring! You can still have festive holiday meals while you lighten the menu. Dishes that are low in sugar, fat, or carbs, or high in fiber are much more than cardboard and rabbit food. Think about serving grilled chicken or salmon, roasted vegetables, fresh fruit, quinoa salad with beans, open-topped pies, dips made with fat-free plain Greek yogurt, whole-wheat pita bread, mixed salads with vinaigrette dressing, or raw vegetables served with salsa.

Helpful Articles:

• Low-Carb Thanksgiving
• High fiber ideas: Explore categories at allrecipes
• Low-fat Christmas cookies at delish
• Lighter Thanksgiving recipes (at least 20) at eatingwell
• Non-alcoholic holiday drink recipes at eatingwell
• Potluck recipes made healthy (these may be more suitable for summer, but at least 6 recipes are provided)
• Recipe Makeover: Holiday Classics from Cooking Light
• Top 10 Healthy holiday foods (link)
• Top 10 low fat Christmas recipes can be found at about.com

Menu ideas

Select a few items from each category. You would not serve all of these dishes at one time!

Appetizers:
Baked chips
Black bean hummus (link) on whole-wheat pita breads
Cranberry salsa
Pear and blue cheese flat bread (link)
Raw nuts and seeds, instead of potato chips and salted nuts
Shrimp with cocktail sauce (best one: Alton Brown’s recipe)
Sliced turkey wrapped around asparagus stalks or steamed broccoli
Smoked salmon spread on cucumber slices
Smoked turkey with blueberry chutney on a biscuit
Tortilla rollups with sliced turkey on a light tortilla spread with low-fat cream cheese
Vegetable tray with salsa, instead of cheese dips
Whole-grain crackers with low-fat cheese

Main Dishes:
Black bean burgers
Boneless skinless chicken breast with a light pan sauce and mushrooms
Grilled poultry
Grilled or roasted salmon
Skillet Salmon
Stir-fry: brown rice with vegetables
Stuffed baked squash with crunchy pecans and sweet dried cherries or acorn squash with rice and cranberries
Turkey breast or cutlets

Starches (rice, pasta, potato, or bread):
Baked Sweet Potato Fries, instead of sweet potato casserole with butter and marshmallows
Cornbread
Garlic mashed potatoes, made dairy free with fat-free broth (link)
Pasta with peas in a fat-free cream sauce
Whole-wheat rolls

Vegetables/Salads:
3 bean salad
Baked squash
Black and White Beans
Mixed salad with vinaigrette (non-creamy) dressing on the side
Quinoa salad with black beans and corn (link)
Quinoa salad with roasted vegetables (link)
Roasted broccoli
Roasted carrots and chickpeas
Roasted green beans, instead of the green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup
Roasted vegetables (or lemon roasted vegetables)
White bean salad (link)

Soups:
Roasted red pepper soup
Soup made with Faith’s Roasted Vegetables
Turkey and vegetable soup

Fruits:
Applesauce (homemade)
Cranberry chutney
Fresh fruit salad
Fresh fruit: apples and pears
Winter fruit salad: Orange slices and pomegranate seeds

Desserts: Fruit
9 Apple Pie with minimal sugar
Baked pears with cranberries
Dark chocolate oatmeal cookies
Dried fruit dipped in dark chocolate
Low-fat gingerbread cookies (link)
Open-top pie (uses less pastry)
Pumpkin pie made light with 1 cup of evaporated skim milk and 3 egg whites, or a crustless pumpkin pie
Reduced-fat cheesecake
Sweet potato pie

Drinks:
Apple Zinger Punch
Non-alcoholic drinks (“mocktails“) or mineral water, instead of alcohol and sodas
Spiced cider, made in the slow cooker (link)

Halloween Candy Corn Mix

Cook’s notes: A simple blend of dry roasted peanuts, candy corn, and plain M&M’s in fall colors. I made a double batch for a bake sale at work. I did one batch with “Indian corn”, which are candy corn with a cocoa base. This recipe can easily be halved: blend 16 oz peanuts, 22 oz bag candy corn, and 3 cups M&M’s.

Mix and go

Double batch:
2 x 16-oz jar of dry roasted peanuts (6 cups total)
2 x 22-oz bag candy corn (6 cups total)
42 oz bag plain M&M’s (6 cups total)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, and stir well to combine. Package in treat bags, about 2/3 cups mix per bag.

Yield: 27 servings (2/3 cup each), at a cost of about 80 cents each

Two kinds of candy corn

Menu Idea Roundup: Thanksgiving Appetizer Party

Cook’s notes: Two excellent discussions at Chow and at thekitchn.com centered around having a Thanksgiving party with just finger foods and appetizers. As one reader noted, “a Thanksgiving cocktail party instead of the traditional gut-stuffing menu” sounds like a really fun idea. Notice that no one suggests a green salad! This party is one in which you have all appetizers for the menu.

For a regular Thanksgiving dinner, the suggestions for appetizers were consistent: a raw vegetable (crudite) platter with a light dip, shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, and spiced nuts.

I was inspired to take reader suggestions from both discussions, sort them by category, add a few ideas, and add links to recipes and other related sites. Remember, you would not serve all of these dishes at one party! (nor have I tested all of these recipes!)

When planning your party menu, pick a few items from each category. Diane Phillips recommends a cocktail party menu similar to the following:

• 1 to 2 signature cocktails
• 1 dip with veggies
• 1 cheese platter with breads and crackers
• 5 to 7 “small bites”, including spiced nuts
• 2 dessert offerings

Since this appetizer menu is in place of a meal, you’ll want some substantial offerings. Pick at least one turkey dish. It’s Thanksgiving, after all.

SIGNATURE COCKTAILS / BEVERAGES (1 to 2)

Be sure to have at least one non-alcoholic offering for the designated drivers. Sparkling cider is easy: just pop the cork.

• Autumn Sangria with figs, plums, and dried apricots (Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens)
• Cider or sparkling cider
• Cosmopolitans or cranberry martinis. Presentation tip: For the martinis, skewer cranberries on swizzle sticks and freeze.
• Maiden Madras: Blend 4 oz cranberry juice and 1/3 c orange juice
• “The Signature Cocktail”: Fill a 12-oz glass with ice. Stir together and pour in: 2 oz simple syrup, 1.5 oz cranberry juice, and 1 oz vodka. Top drink with club soda.
  Source: USA Weekend, Nov. 10 – 12, 2006, p. 7

SPREADS AND DIPS (1 dip plus veggies)
Presentation tip: Scoop out some mini pumpkins and serve dip in them

• Baked Brie cheese topped with cranberry sauce appetizer, such as Cranberry Sauce with Cherries, Marsala and Rosemary (link)
• Baked sweet potato fries with dipping sauces
• Cranberry Chutney served over a block of cream cheese
• Blanched Green Beans (link) served with an onion dip (link): these are green beans served as crudites instead of green bean casserole
• Mediterranean 7-layer dip: layer hummus, scallions, cucumber, grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, roasted red pepper, and chopped fresh parsley. Serve with pita crisps or flatbread. (This is “easy and a hit even with unadventurous eaters,” says Chow reader “intuitive eggplant”)
• Pear chutney and goat cheese bruschetta (link)
• Raw vegetable platter with a bowl of blue cheese dip (link) and Terra Chips (Sweet Potato, naturally)

SMALL BITES – Pick 5 to 7

Include 1 cheese platter with assorted breads and crackers.

• Black Pepper Almonds (link)
• Chicken wings or small drumsticks
• Mini butternut squash and cheese tarts (link)
• Mini corn muffins
• Mini turkey sandwiches: 1) buttermilk biscuits flavored with sage and spread with cranberry sauce and dressing or
  2) whole wheat rolls with sliced turkey, cream cheese and cranberry sauce
• Olives wrapped in cheese dough (link)
• Orzo salad-stuffed tomatoes (link)
• Potato pancakes (link) or sweet potato latkes (link)
• Pumpkin bread
• Relish tray: black olives, mini sweet pickles, and carrot sticks.
• Fancy additions to the relish tray: Harvard Beets (link) or stuffed olives: Get fancy with green olives stuffed with blue cheese, whole garlic cloves, or whole almonds.
• Shrimp Cocktail (the absolutely best recipe is by Alton Brown)
• Spiced nuts or pumpkins seeds (18 recipes and counting here)
• Stuffing-stuffed mushrooms (link)
• Stuffing baked in muffin cups (such as Rachael Ray’s version)
• Turkey Crescents with Cranberry Sauce (link)
• Turkey Cutlets
• Turkey Cranberry Pinwheels (link)

SOUPS

Presentation tip: Serve the soup shots in espresso cups with tiny cheese straws.

• “Shots” of butternut squash soup (link)
• Also suggested: chowders, creamy garbanzo bean soup, cream of mushroom, or pumpkin

DESSERT OFFERINGS – Pick 2

• Apple wedges and seedless grapes (fresh fruit)
• Bakerella’s mini pumpkin pie bites (link)
• Mini apple pies made in muffin tins
• Nantucket Cranberry Pie made in muffin cups with whipped cream (link)
• Pear slices with caramel fondue (link)
• Pumpkin and pecan tarts (link)
• Pumpkin pie cupcakes (link)
• Mini pumpkin cheesecakes (link)

No-bake Coconut Loaf Cakes

Cook’s notes: For me, it just isn’t Easter without the yellow cake and coconut frosting. The night I wanted to make this cake, I was also roasting broccoli…which should not be in the oven at the same time as cake. I came up with this no-bake version. The amount of sugar in the filling is greatly reduced (the traditional recipe calls for a gagging 2 cups of sugar with just 8 oz of sour cream). I also want to try this with fat-free plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

2 frozen loaf cakes, 10.75 oz (such as Sara Lee All Butter Pound Cake)
16 oz container light sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
14 oz bag sweetened flaked coconut, about 5-1/3 cups

Remove the cakes from their foil containers and slice them horizontally into 3 layers. Layers don’t have to be perfectly even. Put the bottom layer back in the foil pan.

Make the filling: Combine the sour cream and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Stir in the coconut.

Spread 1/3 of the coconut filling on the bottom layers. Cover with the second layer of cake. Spread another 1/3 of the filling on the second layer; top with the last layer of cake. Use the remaining 1/3 filling to cover the tops of the cakes (it will be mounded up).

Cover the cakes with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. You may wish to have them sit overnight.

Optional: Cake layers can be spread with melted apricot jam before topping with the coconut filling.

Christmas Potluck Dinner 2010

Cook’s notes: This menu served 8 people. The mashed potatoes were divine — the recipe on the Chow site is loaded with excellent tips. We are lucky to have friends that also love to cook, so that we didn’t have to prepare all the food ourselves!

Appetizers:

• Assorted cheeses with crackers
• Chex mix – Ranch dressing (link)
• Chex mix – Sweet (similar to this recipe)

Buffet:

• Turkey breast roulade with stuffing (from Trader Joe’s)
• Smoked ham
• Mini muffins: Double Corn Muffins, made with buttermilk
• Whole berry cranberry sauce (canned)
• Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, recipe scaled to make 5 lbs (link)
• Faith’s Roasted Vegetables: carrots, red bell pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash
• Sautéed cremini mushrooms with garlic

Desserts:

• Pecan Pie (from Goode’s in Houston)
• Pumpkin Pie
• Baklava

Holiday Open House Menu

I went to a delightful open house last night for the holidays hosted by two good friends. The theme was “Hot Cider: Spicy or Spiked”, and the buffet of finger foods to go with the cider was so lovely. My friends are graciously allowing me to document the menu for future reference. He said everything was simple to make, and I loved how the variety of food could meet everyone’s needs, whether they were vegan, raw-food, gluten-free, or omnivores. The snacks were mix-and-match, with plenty of vegetables. It was so refreshing to be at a holiday party where the menu was so much more than sugared items.

Here’s a shot of the buffet table, decorated with pine boughs and pine cones:

Delectable snacks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The menu:

• Hot cider on the stove, with cinnamon sticks and apple slices
• Cider garnishes: Butter, brown sugar, additional cinnamon sticks, apple slices, cloves, and spiced rum (guests could mix and match their fixings)
• Cookie plate: Gingerbread cookies and one more kind (both homemade)
• Chocolate plate: Pistachio bark and brownies
• Raw almond balls
• Assorted crackers (2 kinds), sliced pumpernickel bread, and sugared almonds
• Sliced pear, crystallized ginger, and dried cranberries
• 3 dips/spreads: Balsamic fig, hummus, and ranch dip
• Raw vegetable plate: peapods, celery, cherry tomatoes, and carrots
• Seafood platter: Shrimp with cocktail sauce, sliced cucumbers, salmon, and asparagus, and a wedge of soft cheese with herbs
• Bowls of dark chocolate covered almonds were also placed in the living room.

Quick Pumpkin Bread

Cook’s notes: Makes two loaves or one Bundt cake or about 24 muffins.

3.5 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp double-acting baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
15 oz can cooked pumpkin
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or nut of your choice
1-1/3 cup raisins or chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350∞ F. Coat two 9×5-inch bread pans or one Bundt pan with cooking spray.

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices together.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, butter, and eggs until light and fluffy. Beat in the pumpkin and 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in the milk and another 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in remaining 1/3 flour mixture. Add the vanilla and nuts and beat just until thoroughly mixed.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about 1 hour, until the loaf has separated from the sides of the pan. Serve plain or with whipped cream. Store in the fridge for one week or freeze up to 6 months.

Variation: Pumpkin Muffins
Heat oven to 400F. Lightly grease muffin tin. Mix batter as directed above. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.

Adapted from Susan Lowell’s book Clouds for Dessert

May Day Dinner Menu

Cook’s Notes: Summer is just around the corner, even if it is still unseasonably cold outside. In fact, late Spring allergies have put me a little under the weather, so an easy meal is called for tonight. While searching for information on the holiday, I found the works of poet Sarah Teasdale (see below). Have a lovely dinner, read a poem, and as the Germans say, remember to “Dance into May!”

PS: We had enough salmon for two dinners, so there are two menus posted.

Menu 1:

• Appetizer: Shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce (shrimp were already cleaned and cooked; bought from the seafood counter)
• Roasted baby Yukon gold potatoes with green peas (trying a new recipe)
• Sauteed button mushrooms
• Maple-Glazed Salmon (serves 4)

Menu 2:

• Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar: deluxe mac and cheese; sauce made with non-fat yogurt instead of milk and butter
• Sicilian Spinach
• Leftover salmon
• Dessert: Vanilla ice cream sprinkled with chocolate chips

May Night

The spring is fresh and fearless
And every leaf is new,
The world is brimmed with moonlight,
The lilac brimmed with dew.

Here in the moving shadows
I catch my breath and sing–
My heart is fresh and fearless
And over-brimmed with spring.

– Sarah Teasdale

Tangerine Cranberry Sauce

Cook’s Notes: A holiday favorite side dish to be sure. This version has less added sugar than the traditional recipe, but it is still sweet. The tangerine juice adds a nice citrus note.

1 cup tangerine juice
3/4 cup sugar
12 0z bag whole cranberries, rinsed, drained, and picked through
1 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Combine juice and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries, ginger, and cinnamon. Return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time. Makes about 2 cups.

Adapted from the recipe on the side of the bag (link)