Life without mayo- Tuna salad

So I have never been a big fan of mayo- who am I kidding?  I friggin hate mayo.  It's the devil.  It's creepy looking, creepy smelling, it makes me uncomfortable.  Anyway somehow I have become obsessed with greek yogurt and all of the things that you can do with it, including adding fruit and eating it with chicken.  Recently I made a tuna salad with it, so good it was gone in a day.  Still playing with the recipe, but I think it had potential.

Mayo-less Tuna Salad
Recipe inspiration from Not Enough Cinnamon

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of white albacore
• 1/2 cup non-fat greek yogurt
• 1 apple diced
• a few scallions diced
• 1 can artichoke hearts diced
• a couple handfuls craisins
• a dash or so balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Dice everything that need to be diced and mix it in a bowl, salt and pepper added last to your taste.  I like this on a bed of greens but it works in a sandwich as well.  I think adding sun dried tomatoes or drained roasted red peppers would be nice too.

Dump a lot of stuff in a cookie

Sometimes I put too much stuff in a cookie.  And sometimes it works out.  I bought some spelt flour on sale at Whole Foods the other day, not really sure why, just thought it would be nice to try.  And for some reason I thought it was gluten-free, not so though, spelt is a breed of wheat so that was a bust, but it has less calories that regular flour and more protein content, so it is a good flour to mix into a recipe.

Compost Cookies
Recipe adapted from Half Baked Harvest

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup canola oil (use a little more if batter is too dry, or if adding extra chocolate chips or nuts)
• 3 eggs
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 handfuls craisins

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 and line 3 baking sheets with foil.  Mix oats, flours, b soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.  In a larger bowl mix sugars, oil, eggs, orange zest, and vanilla in another bowl.  Combine the wet and dry in the large bowl and mix, you may have to do this with your hands.  Add more oil if the batter is too dry, it is supposed to be stiff though.  Now add your chocolate, nuts, and crasins.  Don't worry if all of the chips and nuts don't stick in the batter, you can eat what is left in the bowl when you are finished forming the cookies.  Grab big balls of dough with clean hands and roll into a ball, then drop onto baking sheet and press down with your hand to flatten a bit.  You can also take what chips are left in the bowl and press them on top of the cookies once they are formed on the sheet.  This is messy and the cookies will seem like they are not going to stay together but once they bake and set and cool they will be sturdy.  Bake for about 13 to 15 minutes until deep golden in color, then LET THEM SET on the sheet once out of the oven for at least 10 mins, they need to cool on the sheet or they will fall apart, enjoy!!

Trail mix cookies

Wow, long time no post right?  Thanksgiving come and gone, these are the cookies I made that were inhaled shortly after arriving at my grandma's house.

Chewy Maple Trail Mix Cookies
Adapted from Hungry Rabbit

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups (4-1/2 ounces) old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1-1/3 cups (6-3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) packed light-brown sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup pure grade B maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method:
Preheat oven to 300.  In small bowl mix oats, flour, salt, and sugar, coconut, raisins, and chocolate chips, set aside.  Melt butter in small saucepan and stir in sugar, maple sugar, and vanilla.  In another small bowl mix baking soda and boiling water and then add to sugar/butter mixture immediately.  Pour sugar/butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix til combined.  You might have to add a little more maple syrup at this point (1 or 2 Tbsp) if the dough is a little dry.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place on a tin foil-lined baking sheet.  You can crowd these cookies on the tray because they don't really spread.  Flatten the cookies a bit with your hand because they don't melt down like a regular cookie.  Bake for around 20 minutes give or take depending on the cookie size.  I like these quite brown on the edges, otherwise they don't hold together as well.  Let them cool before you remove from the sheet or they will fall apart.  Sometimes I add nuts to these or other seeds or dried fruit.  They are a big-time crowd fave.

Baking with pumpkin!!

Yet another way to tell that it's fall, canned pumpkin is aplenty.  I saved this recipe a week ago and was very glad that I did.

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffin with Craisins and Walnuts
Recipe adapted from Aida's Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 cup craisins
• 1 cup crushed walnuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 430.  Mix flour, b powder, salt, cinnamon, and cornmeal in a small bowl.  In a larger bowl mix sugar, eggs, pumpkin, canola, and molasses.  Pour dry into wet and mix til almost combined.  Add craisins and walnuts and mix completely.  Divide into about 8 muffin cups and put in oven.  Turn oven down to 400 and bake for about 20 minutes.  Muffins are done when they are firm to the touch.

Illustration credit:  www.123rf.com

Muffin Thursday: Sweet Potato Zucchini Muffins

This is a great recipe. I love a muffin with a lot of stuff in it. And anything that fills the house with cinnamon smell is a keeper.

The original recipe is from Bake-A-Holic. I made a few changes. I made it half whole wheat flour and half white, I quartered the sugar, subbed out some of the oil, and made the whole eggs into yolks because I eat the whites and save the yolks for baking.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup ap flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy milk or regular milk or OJ- whatever your preference
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small zucchini- grated
1 small sweet potato- peeled and grated
1/2 cup nuts (I used pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup raisins or craisins (I used some of both)

Method:

Preheat oven to 450.
Combine first paragraph of dry ingredients in a small bowl, set aside.
Combine 2nd paragraph of wet ingredients in another bowl, set aside.
Add dry to wet and combine, don't over-mix.
Add grated veggies, seeds, and dried fruit, mix until just combined.
Divide batter into prepared muffin tin and throw them in the oven for 5 minutes at 450. Then bring the temp down to 400 and bake for about 18 or so minutes more until they are mostly done in the middle.
The zucchini is so wet they might be a little under in the middle, it's ok, they'll set up as they cool.