Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Snacks

  • Raspberry Oat Breakfast Muffins (with just a bit of chocolate chips)

    Ever since I bought a bag of frozen raspberries and some old-fashioned oats, I've been really wanted to make some healthy, substantive raspberry oat breakfast muffins.  Unfortunately, finding a basic recipe that would fit what I wanted has been a little hard to come by.  After a lot of searching for a non-banana oat muffin recipe (I wanted to stay away from banana recipes because banana seems to form a key part of the batter that I don't quite know how to alter when omitting them), I finally found this very basic recipe on AllRecipes.com:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Oatmeal-Muffins/Detail.aspx.   I made several alterations to the recipe, and have an idea about how to make them even better — the details follow the picture below.

    Raspberry Oat Muffins

    I made several ingredient changes to the recipe to add more flavor.  I added in 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, and 1 cup of frozen raspberries.  I also substituted 3 tbs. of blue agave nectar for the white sugar called for in the recipe to try a more healthy alternative to sugar (my first time baking with agave nectar).  Finally, I also altered the recipe by baking the muffins for 15 minutes instead of the called for 20 – 25 minutes. 

    Although I enjoyed the muffins when they came out of the muffin, there are definitely a few things I would change the next time I make them.  First, I would definitely add more agave nectar — probably just another tbs. or so to add more sweetness to the muffins.  I still don't want to make the muffins too sweet, but I think adding in one more tsp. would help make them a bit more tasty.  Second, I would definitely reduce the oven temperature from the recipe's recommended 425 degrees to a more standard 350 or 375 degrees.  The batch I made using the original recipe resulted in really brown bottoms to the muffins even though I reduced the baking time, and I think its just a function of the oven temperature being much too high.  Third, I will probably also increase the amount of berries (or some other sweetening agent, perhaps raisins?) to add even more flavor into the recipe while trying to maintain the healthiness of the muffins. 

    All in all though, it was a good attempt at using my frozen raspberries and oats and I look forward to many more!

  • Homemade Tomatillo Salsa

    I recently attempted to make tomatillo salsa with Andy, who
    has spent years enjoying homemade tomatillo salsa from his co-workers.  We didn’t exactly know the best way to proceed,
    so we relied on Andy’s memory of how he’s seen tomatillo salsa made, guidance
    from a few online recipes involving tomatillos and of course relying on some of
    our favorite ingredients for any type of meal – hot peppers and onion.  The suggested recipe and directions we came
    up with follow the picture.

    Tomatillo Salsa

    Ingredients for 3 Cups of Salsa

    •  1.5 pounds of tomatillos (approximately 12 or 13)
    • 2 good size Serrano peppers, chopped OR 1-2 large Jalapenos
      (I’ve used both and been happy)
    • ½ Habanero, chopped (if you are feeling adventurous!  Definitely not necessary)
    • ½ large white onion, chopped
    • 3 tbs. chopped cilantro
    • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
    • ½ tsp. coarse salt

    Directions

    • Remove husks from tomatillos, and wash them to remove the
      stickiness
    • Place tomatillos in a medium pot, cover with water, and
      bring to a boil
    • Boil tomatillos for approximately 5 – 7 minutes, rotating
      the tomatillos so that their entire skin appears dullish green after cooking
    • Remove tomatillos from heat, and either drain and lightly place
      tomatillos in a blender or use a slotted spoon to put the tomatillos into
      blender
    • Place other ingredients into blender and blend until you reach
      your desired consistency.  I prefer
      chunkier salsas, and as such, may reserve some of the chopped onions for
    • Remove salsa from blender, and serve with chips, tortillas
      or any other vehicle of your choosing. 
    • Note:  From my two
      at-home experiments, it seems that the salsa will keep for at least a few days
      and will thicken as it sits in the fridge, which may make it better for
      enchilada sauce.

  • Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

    I’ve been looking for a recipe for cream cheese brownies for some time, but never have really invested my time to really find a good one.  Thankfully, my colleague Ian told me recently that his mom has a fantastic recipe for cream cheese brownies, so I just made my first batch for Christmas Eve at the office (yes, unfortunately the office was open on Christmas Eve).   Cheryl’s (Ian’s mom) recipe is below the picture of Ian with the brownies.

    Chocolate_cheese_cake_brownies_with

    The only recommendation I have is to NOT use fat-free cream cheese (that’s all I had in my fridge, so that’s what I used — but I think it can be much better with low-fat or original cream cheese).  I would also recommend you use electric mixers with the cream cheese blend so you get rid of all of the chunks.  You may also want to refridgerate the brownies after making them to make them more fudgy.

    Ingredients:

    One 8-oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature

    1 and 1/3 cup sugar (keep the 1 cup and 1/3 cup seperate)

    3 eggs

    2 1-oz. squares of unsweetened chocolate

    1/2 cup butter

    3/4 cup flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    Directions:

    1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

    2.  Blend cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 egg until well mixed, and then set aside.

    3.  Melt chocolate and butter together.

    4.  Beat 2 remaining eggs until fluffy, then pour chocolate mixture and add 1 cup sugar to the mixture and mix well.

    5.  Combine dry ingredients and stir them in to chocolate mixture.

    6.  Pour 1/2 chocolate mixture into a greased 8 x 8 inch pan.

    7.  Add cream cheese mixture.

    8.  Add remaining chocolate mixture in scoops, and then pull a knife or spatula through it to create marbled look (I did not create the marbled look with my brownies, but learned this technique from other recipes online).

    9.  Bake 45 – 50 minutes.

    Thanks Cheryl and Ian!

  • Phenomenal Chilled Artichoke Dip (and it’s low fat!)

    I first had this wonderful artichoke dip at Becky and Rob's home — Becky is Andy's boss.   It's a chilled dip that has a lot of different flavors working together to make it completely irrestible.  Becky serves the dip in a bread bowl, and I did the same when I made it twice in one weekend — using a fresh-baked french bread bowl from the local Dominicks.  I didn't cut into the bread too deep to make the bowl though because there is only about 1.5 cups of dip that this recipe makes.  The only modification to this recipe that I made is to add many more chopped green onions and use canned artichokies instead of frozen artichokes (couldn't find frozen artichokes at the store).  I highly recommend you try this dip — it's fantastic!  And you won't feel guilty making it twice in one weekend before it's not bad for you at all.

    The recipe was from the New American Heart Association Cookbook, and can be found online here.

    Low_fat_artichoke_dip

  • Soft Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

    The office birthday baking continues!   This week, I made soft oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Mark. 

    Oatmeal_chocolate_chip_cookies

    I used this great recipe from AllRecipes.com, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Oatmeal-Cookies/Detail.aspx, and added in about 3/4 cup of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips (as you can tell if you’ve seen the past few posts, mixing different types of chocolate chips have been popular in my kitchen the past few weeks).   I also increased the baking time to about 12-14 minutes because the cookies seem to only be fully baked when they are browned throughout (not just the edges).   

  • Andy’s Papaya Shakes (Vegan and Wonderful!)

    This weekend, Andy made some Papaya shakes with soy milk.  They were incredibly tasty and healthy, so I asked him to email the recipe to me for madhuknitsandcooks.com.  They are not too sweet and wonderfully creamy.  I highly recommend you try them! 

    Papaya_shake_with_cinnamon

    Here is the recipe, which makes 4 large servings or 8 smaller (approx. 8 oz.) servings:

    • 1 ripened papaya that is skinned, pitted and cubed
    • 1/2 large carton of cold vanilla soy milk (approx. 4 cups)
    • 3-4 tablespoons of sugar
    • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
    • Ground cinnamon

    Note:  If you have a standard size blender, you will probably be able to only make two shakes at a time so just halve the ingredients for each blend cycle.  These directions reflect usage of a standard size blender.

    Directions:

    • Place half of cubed papaya in the blender
    • Cover the papaya with soy milk
    • Add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar
    • Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
    • Blend until there are no more papaya chunks (the mixture is smooth)
    • Pour into glasses
    • Add some ground cinnamon as a garnish.  Although you may think that cinnamon makes no sense at all in this recipe (as I did), just try it — you won’t regret it!
    • Serve immediately

    Papaya_shake

  • A pizza I didn’t mess up!

    A few years back, when I was living in D.C., I bought a $9 pizza stone at Target thinking it would change my life.  Since then, I have never made a good pizza.  I usually use the Trader Joe’s refrigerated pizza dough, which you can find in a variety of delicious flavors at any Trader Joe’s for under a $1.   You can make an entire pizza for less than $7 that is much, much better than any other place (unless you live in New York or New Haven).

    At first, I didn’t realize you need to pre-heat the pizza stone which of course meant I was cooking the pizza for an hour and inevitably burning the cheese, while waiting for the dough to cook. 

    And then I found on the internet that you should not only pre-heat the pizza stone, but also pre-heat the crust to avoid the burning of the cheese problem. 

    So finally, I put all of these pieces of advice (which I now feel may actually be common sense) to make a great pizza.  Recipe is below the picture.

    Trader_joes_pizza

    For this awesome pizza, I used:

    1 bag of Trader Joe’s refrigerated whole wheat pizza dough

    Pizza sauce — very easy to make and the recipe makes 2 servings of sauce.  Another recipe from AllRecipes.com:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Pizza-Sauce-I/Detail.aspx

    • This recipe uses tomato paste, garlic, dried basil and oregano, salt and pepper, water and olive oil.
    • I highly recommend that you make the sauce a day ahead to let the flavors blend.
    • I also highly recommend that you reduce the water needed for the recipe to no more than 1 cup of water and if you want a thicker sauce, you should also reduce the amount of olive oil you use.

    1 – 1.5 cups of part-skim, low moisture shredded mozzarella

    Any and all toppings that you want — I usually just mince 3-4 cloves of garlic as well as maybe 1/2 of a large fresh jalepeno for my pizzas.

    To make the pizza:

    • Preheat your pizza stone at least 30-40 minutes at the full temperature recommended for your dough.
    • Follow the Trader Joe’s directions to roll the pizza dough (and depending on the dough you use, you might want to hand stretch it to prepare it as some of the flavors do not take well to a rolling pin!)
    • Throw the dough onto the hot stone, and preheat the dough for 5-7 minutes.
    • Take the preheated dough out of the oven, sprinkle mozzarella and toppings.
    • Bake another ten minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted AND the center of the pizza dough is fully cooked through (poke in a knife or fork in the center of the pie to make sure it is no longer doughy)

    Enjoy!

  • HUGE Chocolate Chip Cookies

    The birthday baking for co-workers continues to get more and more delicious.  This time around I made some gigantic cookies for Carlos.  I found the recipe at AllRecipes.com at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx.  The recipe is really easy and quick.  However, you only get about 12 cookies or so in a batch because you drop the cookies onto the baking sheet at a quarter of a cup of dough for each cookie.   I would recommend making a few batches at a time because these soft and chewy cookies go quick!

    Instead of using just regular semi-sweet chocolate chips,  I also used white chocolate chips as well.  I put in about a cup of regular chocolate chips and about 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips.  The result was fantastic.

    Giant_cookies_for_carlos

  • Mouthwatering Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

    I’ve made a positive life change recently — I’ve been buying fruit on a regular basis.  Unfortunately though I have not been eating my fruit before it ripens too much, but this has created a whole new baking opportunity for me with bananas which I ALWAYS buy too many of than I can eat! 

    So I recently made fabulous banana chocolate chip muffins, using the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home Muffin Madness recipe.  I highly recommend picking up this book, especially for vegetarians.  All of the recipes I have made thus are easy and very tasty, including these muffins which I could not keep my hands off of!  And as you can tell, others also couldn’t keep their hands off of them because the banana smell out of the oven will make your mouth water.

    Banana_chocolate_chip_muffins

  • Birthday Lemon Bars from the Gourmet Cookbook

    Given that four of my co-workers have had birthdays the past few weeks, I have been quite busy making them their promised choice of baked goods.  For Heather, I attempted my first batch of lemon bars.  Although it was a great learning experience, and I got to dust off my zester which I thought I would never use again, unfortunately Heather was unexpectedly traveling for work when the lemon bars were brought in and was unable to eat them.  So, it looks like I will be trying to make lemon bars again, potentially with a different recipe than the Gourmet Cookbook one I used this time (p.690 of the 2004 version).

    Lemon_bars

    Although my other co-workers really liked the bars, I think there is room for improvement, especially with the lemon topping which I thought could have a more smooth consistency.  So I’ll make sure to post if I find a better recipe.

    The best picture though out of this baking experiment was of my co-worker Carlos who enjoyed a lemon bar while browsing www.madhuknitsandcooks.com!

    Carlos_and_lemon_bars