Cheater Carrot Cake Jam

Quick & Easy Carrot Cake Jam for Baking via Wicked Good Kitchen

1 (12-ounce) jar orange marmalade,
½ to 1 t molasses
½ c  grated peeled carrots, about 1 med
¼ c  crushed pineapple, well drained
¼ c flaked coconut, or unsweetened flaked coconut
½ t cinnamon,
¼ t nutmeg
¼ t cloves
¼ t  vanilla ,
1 T tapioca flour or corn starch

In med pan (not over heat), combine all ingredients except tapioca flour and crystallized ginger; stir until thoroughly combined. Set aside for 5 min to macerate.Sprinkle tapioca starch evenly over mixture and stir well to incorporate. The residual juices in the pineapple and other wet ingredients will help to dissolve the tapioca. Over med-high heat, bring mix to boil while stirring frequently. Reduce heat to med-low and cook stirring frequently until thickened, about 1 to 2 min. Remove from heat and, if desired, stir in crystallized ginger. Cool completely before using in recipes.

Vegan Lemon Curd

I attempted to make vegan lemon curd from this recipe via Lunchbox bunch.

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped.

While it was good, it never set up like it should have so it was more like a thick lemon glaze.

It was still tasty.  I used it in a frozen dessert instead of as a topping for toast. 

Vegan Lemon Curd Spread via lunch box bunch makes 1 1/4 cups
1/2 cup almond milk, vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp corn starch
6 T sugar
6 T fresh lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
5 T vegan buttery spread
pinch of salt

Dissolve corn starch in the cold soy milk and water in pot. Turn heat to med-high and continuously stir. Add in spread, juice and sugar and continue to stir until mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Reduce heat to low and beat with a hand-held beater for about 90 sec.Transfer mixture to serving dish and refrigerate until chilled. Store in fridge and eat in 2-3 days.

PBJ Mug Cake

Are you ready for another microwave mug cake?  This one is for you peanut butter and jelly lovers out there!

We used strawberry jelly in our mug cakes.  I wished that there was more than a heaping tablespoon of jelly in mine.  Although, I'm not sure I'd feel the same way if it was grape jelly.  I prefer strawberry over grape.  Blockette is the opposite.  Use the jelly flavor and amounts you like best!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Mug Cake from Kirbie Cravings
1/4c flour
1/4 t baking powder
1/4c milk (I've used skim and sugar free almond milk with great success)
3 T peanut butter
4 t granulated sugar
1-2 heaping T jelly or jam

Mix everything except jelly in LARGE, micro-safe mug til batter's smooth. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop out half the batter. Drop jelly into middle of batter that is still in the mug. Plop the remaining batter back into the mug, covering the jam. Nuke for 45-60 sec. I've found that 45 seconds works best for my microwave.  Then let it sit for 5 min.  It will continue to cook as it sits.  If you are going to wolf the cake down immediately, then go ahead and nuke it for a minute.  If you let it sit at all it will over cook and become rubbery.

Peachy Cranberry Chutney

Before Christmas we went to visit my Mother-in-law. One of the things she gave us was a bag of cranberries. This might sound weird, but I was really excited about it!

I'd never cooked with fresh cranberries before.  With dried cranberries being so inexpensive and readily available, it just didn't cross my mind.

I always love the opportunity to learn about a new ingredient.  I think half the fun in cooking is finding out about new things, or new ways to prepare something you've eaten the same way for ages and are just sick of it.

So I went on my usual recipe hunting quest and found this amazing chutney from Averie Cooks.

why yes...that is our Thanksgiving wishbone on the stove...

 I used tangerines and peaches instead of oranges and mangoes.  I accidentally bought tangerines that had seeds in them.  Blockette wanted nothing to do with them, and I'm not a fan of oranges that don't come out of a can, so Mrblocko was having a difficult time eating the entire bag himself before they went bad.

The peaches also seemed like a great choice as I had exactly the right amount of frozen peaches left from making a glaze for a roast.  (Oh I will talk about that roast in another post...the best roast I've ever made/eaten.)

 Once the chutney had boiled down to the thickness I liked (for me, it was about 20 min), I mashed the whole thing with a potato masher.  I wanted some chunks, but not huge ones.

I feel I should warn those of you, like me, who have never cooked with fresh cranberries...they are going to make all kinds of crazy popping noises as the mixture comes to a boil.  This is normal.  Cranberries have 4 air chambers, which causes them to float when the cranberry bogs are flooded for harvesting. The popping noise is from the air in these chambers expanding, which causes the cranberry to crack, or pop open.  So don't be like me and freak out!  The freaky weird noise is perfectly fine.

I don't think Mrblocko liked the chutney at first.  I'm pretty sure it was the seeds that threw him.  He's not a big fan of seeded jams and jellies.  I reminded him that dried cranberries also have seeds in them and he never seemed to have a problem with the seeds in anything I made with dried cranberries.  Or maybe this chutney is so darn good that he is able to overlook the seeds.

This recipe made 3 small containers of chutney.  I froze 2 and we're now down to the last jar.  (sob!)

I'm very happy to say that this chutney freezes wonderfully.

I've been mostly eating this as a dip for wheat thins, and instead of sour cream and salsa on quesadillas.  Seriously, as a condiment for quesadillas, this chutney is amazing.  I got the idea from the flavor combination from Cranchiladas, and the jelly sauce that you get on the side when you have a Monte Cristo Sandwich.  Ah.May. Zing.

Cranberry & Orange Ginger Mango Chutney from Averie Cooks

1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
1/2 of a peeled orange, diced (about 1/3 c) (I used a whole nectarine, seeds removed)
3/4 c mango, diced (I used frozen peaches)
1 1/4 c water
1 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground ginger, or more/less to taste (I used 1 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or more/less to taste (I used 1 tsp but I love cinnamon)

 Combine all items in a sautee pan on the stovetop and bring to a rapid boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer until desired thickness is reached.  For me this was about 20 minutes but will vary on how thick you want the chutney and the rate/heat of your simmering on your stovetop.  I could see this being “done” for some people at about 10-12 minutes and for others, 30 minutes.
Yields: approximately 24 ounces of chutney (3 small glass jars).  Will keep in jars in the refrigerator for week(s) so you can make a large batch at once.  This freezes well too.

Monte Cristo Casserole

It's been precisely eleventy two years since I've had a Monte Cristo Sandwich.  I have no idea why.  OK.  Scratch that.  I know why.  Cause we rarely go out and when we do, they don't have Monte Cristo on the menu.  Oh and Monte Cristos are usually fried, and we've already established my dislike and fear of molten oil.  All these things have left me sadly Monte Cristo-less for ages and ages.  At least I was until I found this recipe for monte cristo casserole over at Real Mom Kitchen.

This is what the casserole looks like right out of the oven.

And here it is all plated up with powdered sugar and strawberry sauce. 

Now the original recipe calls for two 12.5 oz boxes of French Toast.  I looked at my grocery store and, on sale, a 12.5oz box contains only 6 slices for $2.  Now I can make 12 slices of French Toast from scratch for less than $1 total.  $1 and a little bit of my time seemed a whole lot better to me than spending $4 and no time.

So I did a little advance planning and made a double recipe of French Toast using this recipe for waffled French Toast. (Just cook the bread on a skillet instead of in the waffle maker.)  Doubling the recipe yielded me 15 slices. I made the French Toast one day, let it cool on racks, and then stuck 12 slices in a large zip bag and stored it in the freezer. This left me with 3 extra slices which I greedily ate for breakfast the next day. I took the French toast out of the freezer the morning I planned on making this hotdish, and let them thaw all day in the fridge. When as I was preparing dinner, I popped them in the toaster to get nice and crispy.

I used leftover ham that I had frozen from Easter.  The turkey was a bit trickier.  I looked in the deli and the turkey there was crazy expensive.  The brand of lunch meat Mrblocko usually eats was loads cheaper so I used some of that instead.  I grabbed a stack of slices and chopped them into cubes.  This was easy as the slices really like to stick together.

I also used the last of my failed strawberry freezer jam that didn't set up, instead of the frozen strawberry and jam topping mixture.  This turned out perfect, and we're finally done with all that failed jam! Hooray! 

Although this took a bit of advance planning, I felt it was worth it.  Even the leftovers were good.  So good, in fact, that we fought over who got to eat the last slice.  I didn't attempt to reheat the casserole as it tasted so great, cold, from the fridge.

Monte Cristo Casserole from Real Mom Kitchen
2 packages (12.5 ounces each) frozen French toast slices, thawed (or 12 slices if you're going to make your own)
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 cup of thick sliced deli baked ham, diced
1 cup thick sliced deli roast turkey, diced
8 ounces or 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
powdered sugar
24 oz container of frozen strawberries slices, thawed and drained
1/2 cup strawberry jam or ice cream topping (I used my homemade freezer jam and omitted the frozen strawberries)

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the slices of thawed French toast into 3/4 inch cubes. In a bowl, whisk milk and eggs. In a large bowl, place half French toast cubes. Pour half of the egg mixture over cubes and toss gently with a spoon or spatula. Toss until cubes are well coated.

Place the coated French toast cubes in a 9 x 13 baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.Next layer half the ham, turkey, parsley and cheese on the coated French toast cubes.

Using the same large bowl, toss the remaining French toast cube and egg mixture to coat. Place coated French toast cubes in an even layer in the baking dish followed by layers of remaining ham, turkey, parsley, and cheese.

While the casserole bakes, combine sliced strawberries with jam/ice cream topping. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and set in center. Remove to cooling rack; cool 10 minutes.

Cut into 8-12 squares. Sprinkle the top of each square with a dusting of powdered sugar followed by a spoonful of the strawberry mixture.

Bloody Banana Cinnamon Waffles

A few weeks ago I attempted to make strawberry freezer jam. Strawberries have been on sale for a dollar at Meijer's for a few weeks, so it seemed like a good time to experiment, in case something went awry.  Wouldn't you know it, the jam never set up properly.  Grrr.  And I followed the recipe in the package to the letter too.

Instead of pitching a fit (and the jam) I decided that it would make perfectly awesome syrup.

Now what to put that strawberry syrup on?  Obviously I would make waffles, not pancakes.  That's a given.  But what kind of waffles?  I searched the internets and found this recipe for banana cinnamon waffles from Handle the Heat.

As luck would have it, I happened to have two very ripe bananas.  Awesome!   We hardly ever have over ripe bananas.  These must be waffles of destiny. (Insert dramatic music here.)  

Here they are in all their syrup-y glory.  Let's pretend that the waffles DON'T look like they're bleeding.

And here they are nekkid. 

I was a little worried while making the waffles. First, they started sticking to my waffle iron. Something that doesn't normally happen. After a bit of trial and error. I discovered that I needed to spray the iron with cooking spray after every other waffle. Second, they really smelled banana-y while cooking. Normal people would not think this is a cause for concern, unless those normal people have the same aversion to the aroma of bananas that I do.

Luckily the scent was short lived, and I didn't have any nausea flashbacks.

The strawberry syrup and waffles made a great pair.  I can appreciate bananas when they are accompanied by strawberries. Even if the strawberries make the banana dish look like it's in dire need of a tourniquet.

The waffles were quite filling.  I usually eat 3, but could only eat one and a half.  I thought maybe it might have just been my appetite that day, but now that I think about it, Blockette usually eats two waffles, and only ate one.  Oh and Mrblocko only ate two as well.  Maybe its the combination of the whole wheat, flax and banana that makes them so hearty.

I'd totally make these waffles again, even if I didn't have any strawberry syrup.  Although, I think next time I'd add some walnuts.  Cause that would be like banana bread waffles!

Banana Cinnamon Waffles from Handle the Heat  
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 large ripe bananas, mashed

Combine flours, flaxseed, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

Whisk together milk, butter, and eggs in a large liquid measuring cup or small bowl. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until blended. Fold in mashed bananas.

Preheat a waffle iron. Coat iron with cooking spray. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto hot waffle iron, spreading batter to edges. (I used a heaping 1/3c for my round waffle iron.) Cook 3-4 minutes or until steaming stops; repeat with remaining batter.  (I set my waffle iron on a 4 out of 5.  I usually make waffles set on 5 as I like them crispy.  If you have your waffle iron set too high, the banana in the waffle will start to burn.) Makes about 1 dozen in a standard square waffle iron, and 9 in a round waffle iron.