Chicken and Black Bean Casserole

Posted by Michele at 5:58 PM 0 comments

This is one of those 'toss it in the crockpot' recipes that makes your house smell DIVINE.

In the crockpot, put:
2 frozen chicken leg/thigh quarters
1 15oz can of black beans (undrained)
6-8 small tomatoes, quartered
2 carrots, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium onion, diced

Cook on low for 6 hours.  It will create its own stock.  Add:
1 cup basmati rice
1 packet of Goya Sazon con culantro y achiote (optional... you could just add salt if you want, but I love the Sazon spices)

Cook for an additional 30 minutes or until the rice is done.  (Alternately, you could cook the rice on the side with the broth once you get home if you couldn't just add the rice mid-cycle.)

Mix well and serve with crusty bread and a side salad.

(Dye-Free) Red Velvet Cake

Posted by Michele at 7:31 AM 0 comments

Bobby loves red velvet cake.... but he is allergic to red dye.  Over the last two years, I've experimented and we've ended up with pink cake or a spice-brown cake... But never "red" cake.  Poor Mr. B. begs for "red" cake and each time he asks, I've been stuck saying no. :(

I was discussing this with a friend of mine who is a professional baker and she started researching why this was happening.  She came up with a few sites, one of which mentioned that the cake needed to be acidic in order to keep a red color.  While I didn't care for the original recipe because it was a pound cake base (which my family isn't huge on), I decided to modify my cake recipe but create the "red" as the blogger recommended.

So, I made the cake yesterday and it was huge hit!  Half of it is gone, and it stayed RED!!!!

****

1.  I roasted about a half dozen beets (varying in size from small to medium), well washed, skin on, and diced in 1/2 cup of water at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.  Once they were out of the oven, they cooled for two hours.  The pieces were put in a blender with 1/3 cup of lemon juice and 1 tbsp white vinegar, then pulsed until the texture of stage 1 baby food. 

2.  In a stand mixer, I created a twist of my standard white cake, sans sugar since beets add their own.  (Want to cheat?  You could use a high quality, white boxed cake mix for your dry ingredients, but it will be sweeter since sugar is already a part of the recipe.  Just make sure the leavening is NOT baking soda based.)  2c A.P. flour, 1tbsp baking powder, 1tsp salt,  6oz plain Greek yogurt, 1tbsp vanilla, 3 eggs, and 1/4 cup of plain cocoa powder (NOT processed- so no alkaline chocolate or dutch processed chocolate... sounds nuts, I know, but the cake needs to be acidic.)  You wont add any water or additional liquid.  Add the beet puree, which will add the remainder of your "liquid".  I found that the puree I made was in between 1.5 and 1.75 cups.  (I'm an awful measurer.) 

I greased three 8" rounds and the cakes looked like a reddish-fuscia when they went in the oven, which was way better than anything I'd done before, but I remember thinking wasn't as perfect as I'd hoped.

Oh me of little faith.  I checked on them at 10 minutes and they had definitely deepened in color.  By 18 minutes, when I pulled them out to cool, they were red.  I let them cool on the counter while I made my cream cheese buttercream frosting, with enough to do a three layer cake.  I mixed 2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup) with 8 ounces of cold cream cheese, and alternated 4 cups of powdered sugar with enough whole (raw) milk to make the correct texture.  (I'll guess between 3/4 cup and 1 cup total). 

When the cake was fully cool, I dirty iced it and put it in the fridge to set for half an hour before removing it and completing the icing.  It stayed in the icebox until dinner started, when I pulled it out to come up to room temperature.  Bobby did the honors by cutting into it and red it was!  The cake was decimated in silence at the table, and I've already been asked to work on a "blue" velvet cake for Maya (purple carrots maybe???).

Success!!!

Cake and Frosting

Posted by Michele at 7:10 AM 0 comments

I basically have one cake and one frosting recipe that I can make in my sleep.  Every other cake I make is a deviation off the basic recipe.

Michele’s Basic Butter Cake Recipe
Mix & Set Aside: 2c A.P. flour, 1tbsp baking powder, 1tsp salt
Cream: 1/2c softened butter, 4oz. applesauce (a snack size cup)
Slowly beat in: 2/3c white sugar, 1/2c brown sugar
Add in, one at a time, and mix well: 6oz plain Greek yogurt, 1tbsp vanilla, 2 eggs + 1 egg white, 1/6c
almond milk (or regular milk if you’d prefer)
Add in the flour mixture slowly then beat on medium-high for 2 minutes
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes (however your oven works) until done.  Makes two 9” rounds.

Chocolate Cake: Melt 7oz dark chocolate with 2 tbsp (of the 8 you will use for the recipe) butter.  Add to the creamed butter (before the sugar) and then follow the above recipe.

Spice Cake: Add 1tsp each of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves to flour mixture.  Follow the above recipe.

Carrot Cake: Add 1tsp each of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves to flour mixture.  Follow the above recipe.  At the end, mix on medium-high for only 1 minute, then add in 2.5c of shredded carrots and a handful (to taste) of dried currants.  Beat for another minute.  Bake as directed.

White Cake:  Follow the basic recipe, but instead of 2 whole eggs plus an egg white, use 3 egg whites.  Instead of brown sugar, use only white sugar (1¼ cup).

Coconut Cake:  Follow the basic recipe, but instead of 2 whole eggs plus an egg white, use 3 egg whites.  Instead of brown sugar, use only white sugar (1 cup).  Omit the Greek yogurt and almond milk; instead, use 1 cup of coconut milk.   At the end, mix on medium-high for only 1 minute, then add in 1 cup shredded coconut.   Beat for another minute.  Bake as directed.


Michele’s Basic Buttercream Frosting (enough to frost two 9” rounds)
Beat 1c of softened butter until creamy.  Add 1tsp vanilla and 1/6c almond milk (or regular milk).  Slowly cream with 3c powdered sugar.

Cream Cheese Buttercream: Cut the butter to 1/2c.  Cream it with 6-8oz COLD cream cheese (one
package).  Add 1tsp vanilla and 1/6c almond milk.  Slowly cream with 3c powdered sugar.

Chocolate: Melt 3.5oz chocolate with 1tbsp butter.  Cream 7tbsp butter with tsp vanilla.  Add the melted chocolate, then cream with 3c powdered sugar.

Coconut: Beat 1c of softened butter until creamy.  Add 1tsp vanilla and 1/3c coconut milk).  Slowly
cream with 3c powdered sugar.  Add 1c shredded coconut.

Peanut Butter Cantaloupe Muffins

Posted by Michele at 3:11 PM 0 comments

This recipe was created by Bobby and I as a homeschool science class.  What better way to learn science and math than by creating and cooking different recipes!!

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

 First, make a cantaloupe puree by filling the blender about 2/3 way full with cantaloupe pieces.  We added a dash of water and then hit puree until it was liquid.  It will make approximately 2 cups of cantaloupe puree.

Mix the following together:
3 eggs
2/3 cup full fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup coconut oil (at room temp/solid)
1 tbsp. vanilla

When that is blended well, add:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar

Finally, add
2/3 cup (freshly made) crunchy peanut butter.  (We use fresh PB from our local Farmer's Market.)

In a different bowl, mix together:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

Alternate adding the flour with the cantaloupe to the sugar mixture, starting and ending with flour.  Then, set up your muffin tins with liners and pop those bad boys in the oven!

Bobby getting the muffin tins ready

This recipe made 36 muffins.  We topped half of them with a cinnamon sugar mixture and half with a pinch of Michele's Pumpkin Spice Granola for a taste of early fall! 

The muffins baked in a 325 degree oven for 25 minutes.  I'm happy to report they are moist and delicious!  A hint of peanut butter and that crisp sweetness of cantaloupe.  A definite success!!