Sweet Potato Pineapple Casserole

Remember me mentioning that really interesting recipe I really wanted to share from thanksgiving? Well, this is it! I put my own little twist on it, since I changed up the topping but I already tried my first bit and it tastes really good! This isn't your usual sweet potato casserole, this one has a sweeter, more tropical side with some crushed pineapple added. I know, it sounds strange, but trust me, somehow it really works well together.

Sweet Potato Pineapple Casserole
Servings: 1 9x13 inch pan   Prep Time: 30 minutes    Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

•  4 cups sweet potato
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 15 oz can of crushed pineapple.  

Topping:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 400F and poke the sweet potatoes with a fork. Put the sweet potatoes in the oven for about an hour, or until they are soft all the way through.
2. Reset the oven to 325F. Mash the sweet potatoes in a bowl and combine with the sugar, eggs, butter, milk and vanilla extract. 
3. Strain the crushed pineapple to get rid of excess liquid then mix in with the sweet potatoes. Transfer mixture to the 9x13 baking dish.
4. For the topping, combine the dry ingredients and cut in the butter and sprinkle over the top of the dish.
5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until done.

Enjoy! 

Oatmeal Cookies

These oatmeal cookies are always the best! I know oatmeal cookies don't always get the best recognition but about a year ago my eyes were opened to how amazing these are. Now, I usually have a recipe there as a guide as I like to play it a little fast and loose with the rules - I know there are a lot of very talented bakers who have cookie baking down to a science. Usually, my cookies still turn out pretty normal even if I do mess with the instructions and recipe a bit, leaving me with moist, subtly sweet cookies. This time, I mistook my measuring cups and added a little too much butter and slightly not enough flour. I think the cookies still taste pretty great, but I will admit that they are far more runny and flat than they usually are.

I also really wish I would have taken a picture of my first batch of cookies because I made them the usual size and they all flattened out and combined into a huge rectangular oatmeal cookie. Not to worry though, it will still be eaten and enjoyed!

Also, I usually follow this recipe and this time I substituted in low FODMAP friendly ingredients.

Oatmeal Cookies
Servings: 24 Cookies    Prep Time: 15 minutes    Cook Time: 8 - 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups gluten free flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch salt. I find if I use any more than this, I can really taste it in the cookies at the end
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 F if you're not going to chill the dough. 
2. Mix butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together in a bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. You can see in my picture above that my mix is a bit lumpy. Those are brown sugar clumps I couldn't beat out. I'll leave them in as little brown sugar lump surprises.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl (or in my case, rectangular tupperware). 
4. Add dry mixture to the wet ingredients and mix in oats.Chill dough for an hour if you like, or don't if you're impatient like me.
5. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie a little. 
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Now you have your cookies! You should probably let them cool, because I burnt my tongue when I ate one straight from the oven.

 

Pumpkin Pancakes

Is it too late to still be eating pumpkin things? I hope not! because I just found a can of pumpkin puree in my cabinet (It wasn't expired, I promise!) and thought what could be better than a few pumpkin pancakes for brunch today! As you can see, I let a few of the bottom ones burn, I was distracted by a show I was watching. (oops!) But if you're a little more attentive than me, I'm sure they'll turn out like my top few - nicely browned. Also, the serving size is six, even though there are only five in the picture. I gobbled one up before I took the picture - they were too tempting!

Pumpkin Pancakes
Servings: 6 Pancakes    Prep Time: 12 minutes    Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I'm saving the rest of my can for another batch later this week!)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 cup gluten free flour
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions:

1. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl, stirring together the milk, pumpkin, egg and oil.
2. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, brown and white sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until there are no more lumps. 
4. Put a pan on high heat on the stove, letting the pan get nice and hot before adding the mix.
5. Now you're ready to make your pancakes! I enjoyed mine with some maple syrup and nice hot cup of coffee. 

Now I'll just leave you with this little crochet elephant I finished not too long ago. He is very handy for holding odds and ends when you're doing stuff: that extra pen that keeps rolling off the table, the other knitting needle that keeps getting lost in the couch cushions and a little pine twig that makes my kitchen smell really nice.

Thanksgiving!

I am still glowing from this Thanksgiving and absolutely drowning in leftovers! I was super excited because not only did my family come over, but I was really lucky to have a close friend join me and help me prepare the meal. We both have very similar dietary restrictions so this entire dinner was low-FODMAP friendly! 

I know it is past thanksgiving time, but I hope to share some great recipes I got from my friend that can work really well in these winter months. Look at the pumpkin pie! and the sweet potato casserole has an amazing twist, I can't wait to remake them. Oh! and look! I've gotten out the lights! I have my very own baby Christmas shrubs on my balcony. Until next time, when I can hopefully share one of these awesome recipes (and some others I've been experimenting with!).

Lemon Thyme Muffins

I don't know about anyone else, but this winter weather really took me by surprise! I ran out of my apartment this morning to head to work and got quite a cold shock when I flung the door open. It went from a slight chill in the air to below freezing overnight! Of course, I ran back upstairs to bundle up "as if I were going on a trek to the north pole" (direct quote from a coworker who saw me come in today wrapped up in my knits from head to toe). It also made me think of eating and drinking all the warm, comforting, filling things - especially freshly baked goods. True to my blogger name, the first thing I did when I got home from work was bake these amazing, fluffy, sweet muffins. I ate three straight from the pan (slightly burning my tongue in the process, but definitely, deliciously worth it). I find that they're even better though after letting them cool and drizzling the glaze over them because it soaks in and makes them extra moist. 

Another thing I just thought of - you may be wondering about the combination of flavors, lemon and thyme. Especially thyme, which could seem weird in a dessert. Well actually, I saw the flavor combo in a pin on pinterest first and I actually think it was made as a sweet bread. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the pin in my mess of a board and my google search has been fruitless. I would love to give the credit to the original recipe maker so please, if you have any idea where I got the idea from, let me know! They really work well together to give this muffin just the right amount of a savory kick.

 
Lemon Thyme Muffins
Servings: 12 muffins    Prep Time: 20 minutes    Cook Time: 12 minutes

Muffins:

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp dried thyme (you can probably also use fresh thyme, I only had dried on hand)
• ½ cup oil (also can substitute the same amount of butter)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups gluten-free/wheat-free flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• Juice of 1 lemon

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbs lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) and mix well.
2. Put the milk and thyme in a smaller microwave safe bowl and microwave for a minute to get the flavor of the thyme into the milk. Set it aside while you continue with the next step.
3. Add the wet ingredients (oil, eggs, lemon) to the dry ingredients and mix until there are no lumps. 
4. Now add the milk and thyme mixture and mix it together. Maybe sneak a taste in here or there, I'll pretend I didn't know anything about it.
5. Fill the muffin pan with the mix as evenly as possible. If you can fill each one evenly, tell me how! I can never get them all the same size.
6. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the center is cooked. For these, you aren't really looking for them to brown, you want them to be moist and a little dense.  
7. While the muffins are in the oven, mix together the glaze ingredients. 
8. After you've taken the muffins out of the tin and let them cool down, pour the glaze over them. Now you're ready to eat them all in one sitting! No? Is it unusual to eat all the baked goods at once? Oh. Well, I guess I'll just keep being an odd-ball!

Rosemary Chicken and Kale Stir Fry

I recently came back from a weekend trip to Houston and when I got home late Sunday night I thought, "what is the quickest, easiest meal I can throw together for my lunch at work?". I want to pat Thursday-me on the back for going grocery shopping so I didn't have to stare into an empty fridge when I was trying to whip together a quick meal and I put together this stir fry dish! It may be the odds and ends of some things in my fridge, but it actually ended up tasting quite good! And, of course, my favorite part is that it was simple enough to make that even I didn't mess it up! I felt so prepared for the first half of my week, I portioned out the stir fry and some rice for my lunches. 

Rosemary Chicken and Kale Stir Fry

Servings: 3 - 4    Prep Time: 15 minutes    Cook Time: 40 minutes

• 6 chicken tenderloins (or 1 lb chicken breast or thighs would work as well)
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 2 cups chopped kale
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 cup water
• rosemary, cumin, salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven 380F for baking the chicken. 
2. Slice up carrots and kale and put in a frying pan over low heat with the water and let it simmer while the chicken is prepared and baked.
3. While the veggies simmer and soften, lay out the chicken tenderloins in a baking dish. Mix together the lemon juice and vinegar and pour over the chicken. Season the breasts with rosemary, cumin, salt and pepper.
4. Put the chicken tenderloins in the oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, or until just done. Chop them up and add them to the simmering vegetable mixture. Here, you can add a little more seasoning and maybe a dash of soy sauce for a little extra flavor. Now, you're done!

If you like your chicken browned, I would fry them in the pan for just a little bit before seasoning them and putting them in the oven. Of course, you could also try adding some other low FODMAP friendly veggies to this recipe and maybe even crack an egg in there or add the rice directly to the pan! That's what I love about a stir fry - you can really make however you like (or, in my case, with whatever you find in the fridge and pantry).

Lemon Thyme Baked Salmon

Doesn't this Salmon look so good!? I was so super excited when I was getting this ready - I love salmon and this was actually super easy to make. Actually, I was so overly excited about the salmon that I forgot to make the rice to go with it, which is why my plate looks a little empty. No worries though, I just heard the beeps of my rice maker so I can finish off my dinner. I'd have to say this is my biggest success in terms of "real food" so far, I'm definitely going to put this on my list of go-to recipes. 

Lemon Thyme Baked Salmon
Servings: 4 - 6    Prep Time: 10 minutes    Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1.25 lbs frozen Salmon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbs olive oil

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 400F and taking the salmon out of its packaging. If you're forgetful like me, you won't have remembered to defrost it overnight so you'll have to bake it for a little longer.
2. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the salmon and season with salt, pepper and thyme. Slice up the second half of the lemon if you'd like and place on top of the salmon. If your knife skills are anything like mine pretend that you were purposefully going for the half-crushed lemon wedges instead of even, circular slices.
3. Bake the salmon for about 40 minutes, until the salmon flakes and is opaque. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! And that you also don't forget to prepare the rest of your dinner in your excitement.