Black bean, sweet potato & spinach soup

It's definitely fall. On my second post of pot of soup to have for my lunches. This week's soup: black bean, sweet potato & spinach, adapted from this recipe and another one that I can't find.

Serves 6-8 and if the recipe is correct a serving (about 1 1/2 cups is 5 Weight Watchers points)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic
4 little peppers that hubby bought for another dish (1 red bell pepper would do)
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 quart vegetable broth
1 can black beans
1/2 bag frozen spinach
1 tablespoon brown sugar

sea salt, black pepper, cumin & lime juice to taste (I didn't measure this stuff)

1. Heat oil, saute onion and garlic till soft. Add sweet potatoes and stir to coat. Add broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender.

2. With a slotted spoon, remove about 2 cups of sweet potato cubes; set aside. Puree soup in batches until smooth. Return soup to pot, add sweet potato cubes and black beans, cook for 5 minutes.

3. Cook frozen spinach according to directions, then add to soup. Cook for 5 more minutes and serve.

FYI, LMN will be rebroadcasting Sins of the Mother, the movie based on Orange Mint and Honey, this weekend.

Bootleg eggnog latte recipe

I made this up yesterday and I'm really digging it. I don't think I've said here that I started Weight Watchers a couple months ago. I've lost 13 pounds so far. The eggnog latte at The Coffee Shop That Shall Not Be Named is 11 Weight Watchers points. For one grande! My drink is probably not even a full point since a whole cup of soy milk is 2 points.

It's not exactly the real thing, but it works for me. Here's the recipe:

strong coffee
generous splash soy milk (as much milk/cream as you may usually like in your coffee)
1 pk Splenda
dash cinnamon
dash nutmeg
splash vanilla extract
splash imitation rum extract

Tasty!

Sangria from leftovers

After the book party, I had some leftover red wine and ginger ale. Today I made sangria. Here's the recipe:

1/2 large bottle of red wine (mine were dry wines, but a sweeter one would do)

1 can ginger ale

1/2 cup of lemonade

slices of 1/2 lime, 1/2 orange and 1/2 a green apple

a few bing cherries

It's good, but not very sweet*. You could also add a shot of brandy and/or a shot of triple sec and/or some orange juice and/or a little sugar, depending on your tastes.

Pour over ice and enjoy!

*Actually as the fruit mellowed in the liquid it got pretty sweet. If you're not going to drink it right away (say let it stand in the fridge a few hours), I'd recommend tasting it before adding sugar.

Thanksgiving traditions

Every year I cook for Thanksgiving. It's one of a handful of times I cook. I know, lucky, huh? We do the traditional meal: turkey, stuffing, cranberries (from scratch and none of this orange, ginger relish nonsense), etc. Hubby and I are in sync this way. Thanksgiving is for keeping things exactly the same.

Christmas dinner is when we get a little crazy. The last few years, we've had green chili, chicken and waffles, appetizers. Any suggestions for something out of the box for this year? Though, it has to be something that we'll both eat. For example, hubby would like bouillabaisse. But fish stew ain't happening for me. I could do a soup with red beans and zucchini (red & green, get it?), but he hates them both. I'd love some ideas!

Soup season

How can you tell winter is coming? Frost was on the ground this morning. That's one sign. Another is that I've been spending more time in the kitchen. Making cornbread, roasted chicken, and chicken-veggie-brown rice soup.

This soup uses the leftover chicken, some leftover brown rice and a bag of frozen veggies. Add in onion and garlic powders, basil, oregano, black pepper and salt to taste. Voila, you've got soup. Easy and healthy.

Orange mint recipes

There are recipes in Orange Mint and Honey for orange mint tea and orange mint cookies. But I adapted and tested a couple other recipes that didn't make it into the book.

My recipe for orange mint mojitos has already been posted over at Tayari Jones' blog. She also has recipes for lots of other yummy drink recipes from writers so check it out.

The other recipe that we ran out of space for is:

CHICKEN A L’ORANGE WITH MINT

Because woman can’t live on cookies and drinks alone, here’s a little protein. You can make it even healthier by using skinless chicken and skipping the browning step. Simply season the chicken and bake.

Serves 4-8 people

INGREDIENTS

4-8 pieces of chicken
2 oranges
¼-½ cup flour
1½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup chicken broth
Canola oil to brown chicken
Fresh mint leaves for garnish



DIRECTIONS

1) Grate rind of 1 orange. Squeeze juice over chicken. Slice the 2nd orange into thin slices and set aside (make sure you have enough slices for each piece of chicken).
2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3) Mix flour and spices.
4) Dredge chicken in flour mixture.
5) Heat oil in skillet and brown the chicken on both sides.
6) Place browned chicken in a cake pan, leaving space between pieces.
7) Sprinkle grated orange rind over chicken.
8) Pour broth around chicken. Put a slice of orange on each piece of chicken.
9) Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until chicken is done. Sprinkle cooked chicken with fresh mint leaves and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve with rice or roasted potatoes.

Healthy Holidays!

Like millions of women around the country, I spent hours in the kitchen yesterday. (Unlike billions of women around the world, I only do that a few times a year. Hubby is the cook in our home, and God bless him!)

I roasted a turkey, mashed potatoes, cooked cranberries and...drum roll please...made stuffing from scratch with herb bread I made myself (in the bread machine) and for the first time EVER I made good gravy. Yummm. Oh, and I made a low-sugar gingerbread. Recipes, you ask? But of course.

Stuffing
To my regular 1/2 wheat 1/2 white (King Arthur Bread Flour) bread recipe, I added:

1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 small handful of rosemary from my garden
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

I let the bread get stale for a couple of days, cut it into cubes, then added:
more sage (maybe a teaspoon?)
more thyme (ditto)
more onion powder (maybe 1/2 teaspoon?)

I sauteed a couple of onions and celery stalks in 2 sticks of butter (yep, 2 whole sticks--for me it's just not Thanksgiving without butter--however, you could add less butter and more broth), and added that to all the dry stuff. Then I added about 2-3 cups of turkey/chicken broth (I always cook the turkey giblets mixed with some chicken broth on top of the stove for extra broth).

We always stuff our bird (or "stuffing delivery system" as we call it) and cook it to an internal temp of at least 180-190 degrees, and every year I worry we're going to die of turkey poisoning, but so far, so good. This year I was even brave enough not to cook it until it was dry as dust. (Oh--we also always get a Red Bird turkey and brine it overnight, which helps greatly with the dry thing.)

Cranberries
1 bag of cranberries
about 2/3-3/4 cup of crystalized fructose (fruit sugar)
1/2 cup grape juice
1/2 cup water
Lower sugar, still kind of tart, but quite good!

Gingerbread
1/4-1/3 cup canola oil
1 container of baby food prunes (maybe 1/4 cup?)
1 egg
1/2 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda


Beat the wet ingredients together for about a minute. Add the dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Pour into a pan and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. My gingerbread was kind of flat, so I'll try adding more baking powder next time; the wheat flour and molasses are pretty heavy ingredients, so more leavening might be a good idea.

Served with whipped cream made with heavy whipping cream and 2 packets of Splenda. Even Hubby liked it!!

I wish I could give you a recipe for the gravy, but I just kept adding stuff (flour, butter, turkey drippings, chicken broth, milk, salt & pepper) until it worked. The trick was that this year I had some great pan drippings, so the gravy tasted like turkey and not like weak chicken broth.

And for lunch today? Turkey-lettuce wraps with mayo (again mayo is more of must for me than bread, especially because I will be having more stuffing for dinner tonight).

Deadlines are good for you!

Here's excellent news from the September/October issue of Wild Oats Marketplace:

To maintain a healthy immune system, "stay somewhat stressed." The article by Tony Farrell goes on to state:

Scientists have recently discovered that although passive stress (like watching violent TV shows) will generally lower your body's production of certain immunity proteins, more active stress, such as trying to meet a deadline, can actually increase your levels of disease-fighting immunoglobulin. to give yourself some "good" stress, set goals (for hobbies, work, or redecorating) that require some effort to reach them.

Writers must be some pretty healthy folks! :)

And speaking of healthy immune systems, I had my first fall bowl of oatmeal yesterday. I added a few drops of almond extract to the cooking water (along with a dash of salt and a few dashes of cinnamon). I served it with sliced peaches and a little milk. OMG. So good. Going back for more.

Low-sugar chocolate chip zucchini bread

The original recipe called for 2 cups of white sugar, which I replaced with 1/4 c Splenda sugar, 1/2 c apple sauce and 1/2 c of currents (because I had them in the cabinet). I also reduced the oil by half (since I was adding moisture with the apple sauce) and replaced half the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour.

3 eggs

1/4 c Splenda sugar

1/2 c unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 c canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 c shredded zuke

1 c chopped walnuts

1 c chopped Dagoba 73% cacao drops (or you could use semisweet chips)

1/2 c currants

1 tablespoon orange zest

1 1/2 c white flour

1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Blend flours, baking powder, soda, salt, spices and orange zest.

2. Beat eggs, add sugar and beat until well blended.

3. Stir in oil, vanilla, zuke, nuts, chocolate chips and currents.

4. Stir in dry ingredients.

5. Turn batter into 2* greased 9 x 5 inch pans.

6. Bake at 350 for 50** minutes or until done. Remove loaves from pan and cool.

*My loaves are kind of short. Maybe it's the altitude? But next time I'll only use one pan.

**My loaves were done in 33 minutes, though our oven temperature isn't reliable.

Thanks H for the zuke from your garden!

Low-sugar blueberry corn muffins

These are kind of dense, but tasty. (There's a bad joke in there, but I'm going to leave it alone.) The original recipe called for white flour, which I replaced with whole wheat pastry flour, and 1/3 cup of white sugar, which I replaced with 2 packets of stevia. Cornmeal still has a medium glycemic index level, so if you're concerned about your sugar intake, be sure to eat them with a good protein (such as a boiled egg).

Here's the recipe:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (which you can buy in bulk at natural food stores)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 packets powdered stevia (I've heard the liquid kind isn't good to bake with.)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup 1% milk and 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
2 cups blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease muffin tin(s)*.
2. Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Beat the egg, and to buttermilk or sour milk.
4. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients. Do not overmix (lumps are OK).
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Fill cups about 3/4 full (this batter doesn't rise as high as batter made with white flour).
7. Bake about 15-20 minutes (until brown on top).

*It's supposed to make about 1 dozen muffins, but I used mini-muffin tins and it made 24 mini-muffins and there's some leftover batter in the fridge.

Best damn birthday cake ever!

In December I went off sugar. Everyone wanted to know for how long, so I decided until my birthday...which is Saturday. Between December and now, I've had 2 regular Cokes and 2 regular cookies (it was work; I was testing recipes for my book) and a few bites of fruitcake (it's a hubby/Grandmama thing...you wouldn't understand).

Today, I made myself a low-sugar chocolate birthday cake and good grief was it sweet! It was tasty and I immediately wanted MORE so I stuck it in the freezer until Saturday. But now I feel a little sick. This recipe is less than 1/2 the sugar in my usual chocolate cake recipe, but next time I'll use even less sugar. Give it a try:

1 stick butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Splenda sugar blend (too sweet for me!-could be cut to 1/3 cup)
1 packet (about 1/4 cup) baby food prunes
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour (bulk from Whole Foods)
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup water
1 airport bottle (about 1/4 cup) coffee liqueur (or eliminate liqueur and increase water to 1 cup)
2/3 cup 73% cacoa Dagoba choco chips (I'll cut these, next time.)

Frosting:
3/4 cup Splenda sugar blend (Will cut to 1/2 cup next time.)
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons brewed coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla

For decoration:
1 cup chopped walnuts

This is a one bowl cake. Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the eggs, vanilla and baby food prunes and beat until smooth. Add the cocoa, baking powder, salt, baking soda and whole wheat flour, blend. Add the white flour, water and coffee liqueur, blend. Fold in chips. Bake in greased and floured cake pan(s) for 20 minutes or so at 350 (my oven runs hot, so cook until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool on a rack. Frost the bottom layer and cover with 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Cover with 2nd layer and frost just the top and sprinkle with remaining walnuts. (There's not enough frosting to cover the sides--a way to cut down on sugar, don't you know.)

Recipes

The first is for whole wheat (and somewhat healthier) pancakes. I made it up the other day...and it worked. I thought they were delish.

1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder (I find this works at high altitude; for lower elevations?)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp melted butter
1 cup "sour" milk (1 cup milk + 1 tblsp lemon juice)

Typically, I'd recommend one egg, but we were out of eggs so to the above I added:
1 tblsp flour
1 tblsp corn starch
1/2 tsp canola oil
2 tblsp milk

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Don't overbeat-lumps are good. I served mine with toasted walnuts (for protein, fiber & omega-3 fats) and a little warmed apricot "simply fruit." Oh yes, and butter. Very, very tasty! Next time, I'll try leaving off the butter on top and using flax oil.

The 2nd is a recipe for book sales. Or at least according to a survey of 813 people by the ad agency Spier NY quoted in Publisher's Weekly and today's Denver Post, here's why people buy books:

49% friend's recommendation
45% familiarity with author
32% description on jacket
22% reviews
21% advertisements
17% placement on best-seller list
16% reading group pick
12% cover design

Obviously, this is a very interesting topic to me. What makes you buy a book?

6th week in a row!

Snow. Again. Luckily, I just made a big pot of soup. I call it African-Italian-American Vegie Soup because it's got black-eyed peas, greens, mixed vegies, tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic. Yummy, healthy and very easy!

I also posted some garden porn on my website to remind us the snow can't last forever. Because it can't. Right???

Oh well. I'll eat soup and read the last 78 pages of my ms out loud. I got my edits from my editor today. So I've got plenty to keep me busy and warm inside. May we all be so lucky!