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Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

Somehow our family of 4 managed to finish off 2 gallons of milk this week, so when I went to make breakfast, the options were a bit more limited than normal. We had about 1 cup of yogurt leftover from the Chickpeas and Pita Casserole (which the parents really liked, but the kids found a bit garlicky), so I figured I could use that in something. We have tons of frozen blueberries still, so when I found this recipe at For the Love of Cooking, I knew I had a winner! I changed it up a bit, partially based on what we have in the kitchen. One thing I am always trying to add is flax seeds. Our oldest has fish allergies, so there goes one source of omega-3s. Flax seeds are another great source, and the Flax Paks make it really easy to throw into recipes.

Blueberry – Yogurt Muffins:
Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Flax Pak
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup yogurt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 400. Mix the try ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients and stir into the dry. Spoon into greased muffin pan. Cook 18-20 min.

Rotini with Butternut Squash

I adapted this recipe from this post at Former Chef’s blog, which was in turn adapted from Giuliano Hazan’s 30 Minute Pasta book. It’s a really fast, really good meal, especially if you cut up the squash in the morning so it’s ready to go a dinner time.

Rotini with Butternut Squash and Bacon
(Adapted from Former Chef and Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta

1 yellow onion, diced
3 Tbsp. butter
3 oz Pancetta, cut into 1/4″ pieces (could use bacon)
1 medium butternut squash, diced into 1/2″ cubes
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb pasta
3 oz Grated parmesan cheese

Boil water for the pasta. Add the butter to a large saute pan and add the diced onion. Cook over medium heat until golden brown. Add the panceta and cook until it starts to crisp, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the squash and season with salt and pepper. Add the  water, stir and cover with a lid for 10 minutes until the squash is soft. Check after 5 minutes and add more water in 1/4 cup increments if it’s drying out, until the squash is soft enough to mash with the back of a spoon.

Cook pasta and reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water before draining.

Add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water to the sauce, smashing the butternut squash with the back of a large spoon. If it seems too thick, add the other 1/4 cup. Toss the sauce with the cooked pasta and the grated cheese and serve.

 

Butternut squash tart

I had originally planned on using the Women’s Day recipe for the filling, and just substituting this for the corn-meal pie crust. But neither filling was exactly what we wanted (or had), and pre-cooking the onions and squash (like the Scraping the Skillet recipe calls for) seemed like a good idea. So I modified each a bit and came up with the following.

I mostly followed the crust recipe, but made it by hand rather than in the food processor:

  • 2 1/4 c Flour
  • 3/4 c Cornmeal
  • 1/2 c Vegetable shortening, cold
  • 1/3 c Unsalted butter, cold
  • ~1/2 c Ice water
  • ~1 Tbs Lemon juice

Mix the flours and cut in the butter and shortening. Add the water and lemon juice and mix. Using your hands kneed it a couple of times to bring it all together into a ball. Put in the refrigerator while getting the filling ready.

For the filling

  • ~2lb Butternut squash, peeled and cubed
  • 1 Red onion, sliced into rounds
  • 2 Tbs Olive oil
  • 1 tsp Dried thyme
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup Cheddar cheese
  • 1 Egg

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Caramelize the squash in a pan with the oil. Add the onions and caramelize. Add the thyme, salt and pepper. Remove from heat, let cool a bit.

Divide the pie crust in half and roll each half into a circle about 14in across. Don’t worry too much about the shape. Move the pie crust to a greased cookie sheet (or cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper). Place half the filling in each pie crust. Sprinkle the cheese on top, and fold up the edges of the crust. Brush the crust with egg. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Mint scones

Mint scones based on recipe at The English Kitchen:

  • 3.5 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 Tbs finely chopped mint leaves
  • 1/4 tsb salt
  • 6 Tbs unsalted butter
  • 8 oz cream ( I needed to add about 1/4 c more)
  • Jam

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and the sugar. Using pastry blender chop in butter until the mixture resembles  bread crumbs. Stir in the mint leaves. Add the cream mixing it in until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into triangles or other shape. Place onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving a good two inches between each.

Gently make an indentation into the center of each scone using the back of a teaspoon or one of your fingers. Spoon a heaped half teaspoon of  jam into the middle of each indentation. Place into the heated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Meals for Feb 5-11, 2010

  1. Salad with Butternut Squash, Lentils,  & Feta, from DALS, using the salad greens on sale this week and omitting the pecans.
  2. The Indonesian Chicken from last week didn’t work out…dried out in the crock pot. So this week, we’ll try Polynesian pork. Rice and mixed veggies on the side.
  3. Crisp rice cakes with stir fried vegetables and chicken (TFMCB, p. 324)
  4. Beer-glazed [pinto beans] with chorizo and orange (TFMCB, p. 397, and kind of like this)

Pork Shoulder Ragu

This appeared on Dinner A Love Story, one of my favorite sources these days. The original recipe called for braising in a dutch oven for 3-4 hours. Given that we don’t own a dutch over (why do they cost so much!?!) and it is much easier to put stuff in the crock pot and go off to work and come home to a tasty meal, I adapted it for the crock pot…or more truthfully, I just followed the recipe, it didn’t need any adaptation! YUM!

All I did was brown the pork shoulder in a skillet first as directed. After putting the pork in the crock pot I put the red wine in the skillet to deglaze and get all the browned bits scraped up. Add that and everything else to the crock pot and cook on low for a while, I did 9 hours because that’s how long it was until dinner time!

Came out yummy! Thanks for the recipe.

Crisp and Spicy Chickpeas with Ground Beef

This is from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cook Book (p. 410, also posted on this blog).

We made this last week, but with sleep overs, and other things, it’s taken a while to get photos uploaded and this posted…

This was really good! The crisp chickpeas and beef had a great texture.