Apparently my new blogging day is Sunday

So, I still don't know what day it is.  Or I was just too crazy tired this week to post on a Friday.  I'm not used to teaching every day anymore.  Really, I've never been used to teaching the same prep every day. 

Also, my plan for this week's post didn't happen, for a variety of reasons.  I blame the weather.  However, this post is even BETTER than my original plan. I'm notorious for having a single banana left over.  That does not support the making of banana bread, really.  I have used a lovely recipe that my vegan friends Phil and Judith sent me.  It is Polka Dot Banana Bread from Chocolate Covered Katie.  I just figure out what it needs for however much banana I have.  Awesome. 

The other--read lazier--thing I do with leftover single bananas is banana muffins using the small batch mixes.  Sometimes I use the Honey Bran mix, but I was in a corn muffin mood this week.  Also, I had blueberries and blueberries can only make things better, so I added them in too.

Banana Blueberry Corn Muffins

1 pkg. Jiffy corn bread mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
1 banana, extra ripe
1/2 cup blueberries (fresh)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.) Preheat the oven according to the corn bread mix directions (400 degrees Farenheit)
2.) Spray a 6-tin muffin tin (I needed an extra cup)
3.) Mix banana, egg, and honey together.
4.) Add the Jiffy mix, cinnamon, and milk. 
5.) Stir until combined.  Avoid over working it or the muffins will be tough.  Lumps are okay.
6.) Add blueberries and mix gently.

7.) Fill the muffin tin.  Divide the batter evenly between the tins.  As I mentioned above, I needed a seventh.

8.) Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (About 15-20 minutes)

Remove them as soon as they have cooled a little or the bottoms will get damp/gummy. 

Of course, if you are making them in the morning for breakfast, there won't be enough time.  I always eat them when they are hot.  I won't eat all six though.

Now, for a last minute explanation of  the lack of photos.  Tony Awards.  That is all I have to say.  I've made a variation of these muffins a hundred times, but with no photos.  However, the Tonys kept me too distracted to actually take photos when they needed to be taken, so fail.  I got the important ones though!

And on that note, I will go back to prepping for class tomorrow.

I know what day it is, I swear

Summer confuses me.  I have a horrible time keeping track of what day it is.  However, that problem will soon be solved (ish) as I start teaching next week.  Of course, that actually might not help much, since I teach five days a week.  We shall see.

My hope is that I will actually have a blog post on FRIDAY this coming week. Super sigh.

Now, on to the important part:  the food! Lately, I have been buying a lot of fruit.  Summer berries.  Yummy.  I made strawberry biscuits, but I have more strawberries.  What ever am I to do with them?

While I was Pinteresting this week, I kept finding these recipes for Monkey Bread of various sorts.  Most people don't know this, but Monkey Bread is one of my favorite things EVER.  I love it.  However, it is a bit difficult to make small batches of it.  Generally, my mom would make it in a bundt pan.  That's a lot of Monkey Bread and I would eat it all.

Why I never thought of this, I do not know, but I saw a recipe for Monkey Bread for Two from Sweet as a Cookie on Pinterest.  Pudding mix is not a standard addition to Monkey Bread, but I'll try it!

Then, I saw this recipe for Strawberry Vanilla Monkey Bread from Dessert Now Dinner Later.  I had never thought about using fruit in it!

Since I can't leave anything alone, I sort of combined the two for a Strawberry Cheesecake Monkey Bread.

Strawberry Cheesecake Monkey Bread for Two

1 small can of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (not Grands, just the small 6-biscuit tube)
2 Tablespoons Sugar Free Cheesecake Pudding Mix
8 strawberries, sliced/chopped (or enough to alternate between the biscuits)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon orange extract (optional)
dash cinnamon
dash nutmeg

Grease two baking dishes.  You can use a muffin tin, if you don't have little ramekins.  Place them on a lined baking sheet. Don't make my mistake and just toss them in the oven.  They will overflow some strawberry juice (or it might just be because I didn't and fate does that to me).

Cut the biscuits into quarters, roll them in the pudding mix (not prepared), and then place them in the ramekins.  Alternate the biscuit with the strawberries.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  The biscuits will rise and fill in gaps.

Once all of the biscuits and strawberries are layered in, sprinkle any left over pudding mix over the tops.

In a separate ramekin (because I am lazy, I just used the pudding mix ramekin), microwave the butter and sugar until it is melted.  Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange extract (these are all optional).   Mix it together, then drizzle it over the top of the Monkey Bread ramekins.

Bake them at 350  degrees Fahrenheit for about twenty minutes, or until they are brown on top and cooked through.

Let them cool for five minutes (if you can, because they smell so good). 


I will admit that the cheesecake flavor doesn't really come through, but I might try it with some cream cheese added in, but that might cause some problems.

The good news is that this was a 330 calorie breakfast, which isn't too bad. The bad news is that I want a traditional Monkey Bread now. 

Or even just this one: 

Strawberry Biscuits

We had a girls day brunch the other day.   I made Sangria (from Sally's Baking Addiction's recipe) which was amazing.  I just didn't know what to make with it.

Since I went a little strawberry crazy (the recipe calls for 10 strawberries and I bought two quarts), I decided I should do something with those strawberries.  I'd already eaten bowls of them, put them on ice cream and yogurt, and added them to spinach salad.  However, I wanted something a little special to go with the brunch.

I've been eyeballing the blueberry biscuits in the refrigerator section of my local grocery store.  I want them so bad, but I don't need eight biscuits and I know I would eat them all.  I have no control.  With that in mind, I decided to try my own take with these strawberries.

I have to admit that I am not the best biscuit maker in the world.  Whenever I do rolled biscuits, I overwork them and they end up tough.  Really, whenever I make biscuits completely from scratch, I overwork them and they end up tough.  I went with my old friend Bisquick to avoid the problem.

However, I almost didn't avoid eating the whole batch by myself.  Good thing I made them immediately before I needed to leave!

Strawberry Biscuits

3/4 cup Heart Healthy Bisquick
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
 1/4 cup light almond milk (or whatever milk you have on hand)
1/4 cup chopped strawberries


milk for coating
Sugar in the Raw for dusting

1.) Preheat oven to 450 F.
2.) Mix together the Bisquick, sugar, and nutmeg.

3.) Add the chopped strawberries.

4.) Add the milk and mix carefully, just until fairly incorporated.
5.) Divide dough into four parts.
6.) Form the dough into round disks (or just drop it onto the cookie sheet).



7.) Dab the tops with milk to help the raw sugar adhere.
8.)  Sprinkle raw sugar on top.

9.)  Bake until golden brown (about 8 minutes).
10.)  Cool for as long as you can :-)

Obviously, I went for the drop biscuit form.  Also, you may notice that there are fewer here than were in the previous photo.  Yeah.  Meagan and I ate them, before Andrea even got here.

After I told my dad about these, he had a couple of good points.  First, almond extract would highlight the berry flavor a bit.  Second, I could have made a simple glaze for these.  Either (or both) would be a lovely option.  I also thought about adding some lemon zest to the dough.  However, these were awesome just as they were.

I think I may go make these again :-)

Excuse the break

Last week was a little crazy between finals and grading and THATCamp.  I never got around to really making something worthy of a blog post.  Then, I didn't really eat any non-chain/life-changing food to replace my own post.  I almost did a birthday ninja post, but I will save that for another date.

Along with the busy-ness that made me not post on the blog last week, I ate like a crazy person.  I was very disappointed in myself, especially since I didn't even walk Remy (he was at the PetHotel) for exercise.  So part of my plan for this week (and looking forward) is to be back on track with healthier foods and fewer snacks.  Does that mean I am not splurging at all?  No.  However, I am being more thoughtful about what I spend my calories on. 

In order to make up for the lack of posts, I will now post TWO in a row.  Today I am posting a turkey burger recipe that I make (in different versions) all the time.

The great thing about this recipe is that I can vary the meat and the add ins.  Sometimes I make green chili burgers and use bread crumbs or panko.  Sometimes I use beef (my mom calls them Sy's burgers after my grandfather).  I've used different flavors of Cheez-its.  These are easy, fast, and I never feel guilty about them.

Spicy Turkey Burgers

4ish ounces ground turkey
1 Tablespoon crushed spicy cheez-its
1 teaspoon egg beaters
1 1/2 teaspoons milk
1/4 teaspoon dried onions
a dash ground chipotle
a dash spicy Mrs. Dash

Mix all the ingredients together.

You may want to use your hands for it.  With burgers and meatloaf, you just have to use your hands to get it mixed together.

Form into  a patty.  If it is not holding together that well, you may need to add more cheez-its.

Fry until cooked through.  I don't trust any ground meat to be undercooked, so I cook it until it is super super done.

I added a slice of reduced fat colby jack and served it on a multigrain thin with lettuce and tomato.  For a side, I made a salad with light ranch dressing.

These burgers don't really shrink that much (depending on the fat content and brand of ground turkey you use), so I obviously did a great job of forming the patty to the size of the bun.  Oh well.  :-) 

Pistachios, anyone?

Several weeks ago, a professor shared some pistachio brittle with us in the DH.  It was lovely.  I could have eaten the whole bag all by myself....but I didn't. I am not that rude.  However, I did stop by the store to see if I could get a bag for myself.  I won't repeat what I said when I saw the price. 

I have never been a candy maker, but I was sure I could make some pistachio brittle that was equally tasty and much cheaper than the store bought kind.  However, I was not ready--read as too lazy-- to buy a candy thermometer, so I had to find a base recipe that didn't require one.  I used this one, from the Brown Eyed Baker, as a base.  I cut it in half as I only had a cup of pistachios and

Pistachio Brittle

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pistachios

Line a sheet pan (if you care about its finish) with parchment and spray it with cooking spray.  I was being lazy (once again--it is a very real problem for me), so I didn't go buy parchment.  I used waxed paper.  Also, I didn't want to use my spray, because I was making it to share and it was made with soy (and one of the DH group has food and gluten allergies). I used butter.  Between the two my brittle stuck and we ended up eating a little paper.

Add the sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt to a sauce pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until the syrup becomes a golden brown color.  This may take about 25 minutes.  It is important to watch the mixture fairly closely, especially when it begins changing color. 

Once it reaches the correct color, take it off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients.  I saved the baking soda for last.  Stir it quickly, then spread it on the prepared baking sheet.

This goes quickly, but no worries if it is not even.  You are breaking it into pieces anyway! Let it cool before you try to break it.  This can take about 15 minutes.

Store it in an airtight container.

I just wish that I had saved some for myself!

In the future, I think I am going to try it with cranberries.  I may also try a peanut brittle with chipotle. 

Maybe the future is now?

Can we try that again?

This has been the week of recipes not going the way I had hoped.  First, I tried a southwestern quinoa burger with the leftover quinoa from my recipe from last week.  It was pretty good, but I wasn't very precise about ingredients (it was more of a throw-things-in-a-bowl-and-hope-it-works-out recipe), and I didn't take any pictures.  Then, I made brown rice pudding.  It was undercooked and really dry.  It tasted good, but it wasn't quite what it was supposed to be. 

I really wish I had taken pictures of the steel cut oat bars I made on Sunday!  They were a hit.

I'm going for easy now.  Instead of those recipes, I am sharing my mini cheesy corn muffins.  They aren't exactly the most difficult recipe ever, or the most creative, but they are comfort food for me.  My sister and I used to make these (minus the chipotle and sometimes plus bacon) for lunch during the summer when we were kids.  What better time for comfort food than the eve of finals week?

Mini Cheesy Corn Muffins

1 package (6 muffin) corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy)
+the ingredients for making the muffin mix
          1/3 cup egg beaters
          1/3 cup light almond milk
             2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup shredded cheese (taco blend is best)
1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder

shredded cheese and cajun seasoning for topping

First, preheat the oven according to the package directions.  Spray a mini muffin tin.

Mix the wet ingredients (egg beaters, milk, oil for me) into the mix.

Add the cajun seasoning and the shredded cheese.

Fill the muffin cups.

Top with more cheese and cajun seasoning.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.  Mine took less than 10 minutes.

I took these to a potluck party and they were very popular.  I took all twenty four (Okay, twenty three.  I ate one.) and brought about six home. Then I ate two more.

Quinoa Berry Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese

Parties are always a bit complicated.  There is so much junk food available and it is hard to control myself sometimes (all the time).  We had a little DHL party this week, and one of us has some food allergies.  I wanted to make sure that she had something to eat, but I also wanted something a bit healthier for myself (although I completely failed in my plan to eat one cupcake and some salad). 

My sister made a lovely wheat berry salad a few years ago and I wanted to recreate that. It was springy and lovely.  Of course, I couldn't just find her recipe and make it, because wheat berries are NOT gluten free.  So what I did was use it as an inspiration for this salad.

Quinoa Berry Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese

1/4 cup quinoa, cooked
1 1/2 cups spinach
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1 1/2 oz goat cheese

Lemon Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste
World Market Mediterranean Seasonings

Cook the quinoa according to the package instructions.   I used water and cooked the 1/2 cup recommended amount, but only used half of it for the salad.

While the quinoa is cooking, wash the berries and chop the strawberries.  You can use other berries.  I just found strawberries and blackberries that looked good in the store.  Add them to the spinach in a bowl.  I used the bowl I intended to serve it in, because I am a bit lazy.

Once the quinoa has cooled a little, add it on top of the berries and spinach. 

Break up the goat cheese a little and add it as well. I used honey goat cheese, although I had hoped to find cranberry or blueberry goat cheese.  We have limited resources out here in the LBK.

Make the vinaigrette by adding all of the ingredients to a canning jar.  Shake it up and add it on top of the salad, then mix it to combine.  (My apologies, but I got too excited about the vinaigrette and I ended up not taking a picture of it.)

I would like to say that it was a great hit, but it wasn't so much.  Junk food wins again.  However, I only had a small cup leftover and I did quite enjoy it, if I do say so myself.  I think I like it better with the wheat berries.  Now if I can just think of what to do with the leftover cooked quinoa!