Dinner: A Circus of Citrus

My dinner last night was inspired by citrus fruits. Sunday was about 42 degrees and Monday was 40 degrees. Considering the winter we've had, that felt like spring to me. Rather than making another hot, hearty meal, this little bit of warmth deserved a warm-weather inspired meal.

I used the above fruits to make a salad, broil fish, and squeeze onto dessert.

The meal-

Salad: baby spinach, sections of orange, sections of grapefruit, cucumbers, green and yellow peppers - drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. (I also roasted some pecans to throw on top but forgot to add them - that would have been good though!)

Fish: trout broiled at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, flipped halfway through. Spray pan with cooking spray and squeeze juice of half of lemon onto fish before cooking. Also add fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, and any other spices you feel like. I also sauteed some plum tomatoes and garlic to add on top of the fish when it was done.

Dessert: slices of mango covered in lime juice and sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Here's the before and after shots of my fish:

I spayed a small skillet with cooking spray and sauteed a sliced plum tomato and one clove of garlic for a few minutes until hot and wilted.

As the fish broiled, I made the salad, sauteed the tomatoes, and sliced my mango.

This whole dinner came together in about 20 minutes, and the colors and taste almost tricked me into thinking winter was over. Almost.

The salad was light and refreshing.

The fish was nice and flaky, and the flavor combination of the lemon, tomato and garlic was delicious.

The mango with lime juice and cayenne pepper was very good - although I think I overestimated my tolerance for spice. Just this amount was very spicy - so next time I'll probably put about half as much as I used here. My brother went to college in New Mexico, and this is a popular treat there (although there they serve the entire mango on a stick and there's much more cayenne added!).

The "spring"-like weather did not last long. I woke up this morning to several inches of fresh snow covering my car. Temperatures are supposed to drop way down the rest of the week, so I guess spring isn't coming quite yet.

This morning I tried another variation of Overnight Oats - I'm calling it Apple Crisp A La Mode!

Last night I put the following in my big mug:

-1/3 cup oats

-1/2 cup water

-several large spoonfuls of unsweetened applesauce

-1 tsp cinnamon

This morning I added a large scoop of 0% vanilla Greek yogurt, some more cinnamon, and some chopped walnuts. Delicious!

Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies

Last night, as the snow continued to fall and temperatures dropped, I made cookies. I wanted to bring something in to work as a little "thank you" to all of the employees who aren't able to work from home and who braved yet another day of terrible driving. Since I got to work from home, I decided to use the time I would have spent commuting on baking cookies instead! These Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies are Martha's latest Valentine's Day idea, and I thought a perfect way to show some love!

(Don't laugh - that is my attempt at shaping these cookies into a heart. Fine, you can laugh. Pat did, too.)

Let's get started. These cookies take a little longer than others because you need to form the cookies, chill them, partially bake them, fill them with jam, and then finish baking them. In the end its worth it, though! I made a double recipe so that there would be enough to go around at work.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and sugars with mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. I'm not going to lie, this got messy. Bits of sugar and butter went flying everywhere - I haven't quite mastered my electric mixer yet.

Beat in peanut butter.

Beat in eggs.

Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture until dough forms.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (about 2 tbsp). Arrange on parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press into 1 3/4 inch rounds.

 

Press hearts into centers using your fingertips (I used my pinkies).

Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and reshape hearts using fingertips (since these are much bigger I used my thumbs and pointer fingers for these). Fill indentation with 1/2 tsp jam to form a heart. 

Bake until cookies are firm, 6-7 minutes longer.

I made many trays!

Recipe
This is my doubled recipe which made 48 cookies. Original recipe here.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 10 oz jar raspberry jam, stir well to loosen

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in peanut butter, then eggs. Reduce speed to low, and beat in flour mixture until dough forms. If dough is sticky, refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (about 2 tbsp each). Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press into 1 3/4-inch rounds. Press hearts into centers using your fingertips. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
3. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and reshape hearts using your fingertips or the handle of a wooden spoon. Fill indentation of each with a  1/2 tsp jam to form a heart. Bake until cookies are firm, 6 to 7 minutes more.
   
   
   
   

These cookies are very good - they taste like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the bread (I'm sure that's not surprising to you). A tall, cold glass of milk is amazing with these. Pat and I each sampled them last night, I packed one in his lunch today, and the rest came to work with me. I'm guessing there were 42 cookies in my huge Tupperware container, and they were gone in under 3 hours! I was stopped in the hallway by several people who thanked me and told me they were great. Some people left me notes on the whiteboard in the kitchen: 

My supervisor, who didn't plan on eating any because she's on a diet, grabbed one from the kitchen and immediately sent me the following email:

OMG!!! I just caved in & grabbed a cookie!!!!!!!!!! Very Yummy.

So I'd say these cookies were a hit! Make them for someone you love!

Hills and Chills

The Hyannis Half Marathon is fast approaching, and today I realized that I haven't done any hill training yet. I'm also not 100% happy with my training because so far its been completely indoors, which I've never done. With all the snow and ice its been impossible to do any sort of running outside, so I've been stuck with the treadmills at the gym. On my lunch break today I went to the gym to get a hill training in.

The Workout

-Warm-up: Run 3/4 mile at easy pace (6.0 mph)
-8 Hill Intervals - 2 minutes each (6.5 mph pace and 5.5 incline) followed by 2 minutes at same pace and 0 incline
-Cool-down: Run 3/4 mile at easy pace (6.0 mph)

This is all I could fit in before I booked it home for a 2pm conference call. On my last hill interval I increased the pace and incline and by the end of the 2 minutes I felt a little pukey.  Normally that's not a good thing, but its good to experience that and train through it so you're prepared on race day. The more you can work through in training, the better off you'll be when you hit the course.

No strength training today - I put my time in by shoveling instead!

For a quick lunch I had a pita pizza - this was fast and easy and really satisfying. I also had 1/2 banana, 1/2 a baked sweet potato and a piece of chocolate (I like to tell myself that sugar is important for muscle recovery).

All you need to make the pita pizza is a pita, a few spoonfuls of marinara sauce, and some shredded cheese.  All of my ingredients were from Trader Joe's - I used a whole wheat organic pita, marinara sauce,  light mozzarella cheese, and some torn up fresh basil.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toast the pita for a few minutes (so it gets crisp enough), then assemble toppings. Put pita pizza on tin foil and bake for 5 minutes, until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Pat has been in bed all day. Literally. I've woken him up a couple times to take some medicine and drink some Gatorade, but otherwise he's been sleeping. He is all stuffed up and has the chills. I just got him up so he can eat some soup and be awake for a few hours before going back to sleep again. I was supposed to have dinner with Steph tonight, but the roads are horrible, so instead I'm going to stay home and take care of Pat and make some cookies, and try to avoid getting sick myself. Don't worry - there will be ample hand washing involved between my nurse duties and my baking!

Groundhog Day

I think we're all familiar with the legend of Groundhog Day - on February 2nd, the groundhog comes out of his hole after months of hibernation to look for his shadow. If he sees his shadow, it signifies six more weeks of bad weather, and he returns to his hole. If he doesn't see his shadow it is a sign of spring and he stays above ground.

Source

I'm working from home, and just saw the live announcement that the groundhog did NOT see his shadow and that it will be an early spring. All I can say is, it better.

Does anyone else feel like we're living in the movie Groundhog Day?

Source

It seems like we keep getting hit by the same storm, over and over. The weather reports on the news could have just been replayed in a constant loop for the past 6 weeks because they keep saying the same thing. Don't drive if you don't have to. Consider leaving late for work. School closings across the state. Its going to be another bad one.

For those of us who have to drive, our commutes have been doubled and tripled in the past few weeks. These are some scenes from my commute last night and the neighborhood this morning that I've seen far too many times:

I've tried not to complain about the storms, snow, ice, awful commutes, endless shoveling, and freezing temperatures. But please make it stop! An early spring would be amazing!

On a happier note, I am very glad to work from home on Wednesdays, and did not have to brave the storm this morning. I've had endless mugs of tea to stay warm as I hear the pellets of hail hitting the windows and the continuous groan of plows going up and down the street. For breakfast I had Overnight Oats for the first time. I have oatmeal almost every morning, but had never tried these! They were very good, and I look forward to trying different variations.

Last night I put 1/3 cup oats, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup water, about 1/3 cup pumpkin and a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice in a large mug. I stirred everything together, covered it in saran wrap, and stuck it in the fridge. This morning, I took it out. Considering how freezing it is outside, I microwaved for 30 seconds, just so the oats wouldn't also be freezing (this step will be omitted when the sun decides to grace us with her presence). I then sliced 1/2 a banana in the bowl, put a large scoop of vanilla Greek yogurt on top, and finished with a dusting of flax seeds.

 

This breakfast is a great source of fiber, protein, omega 3s, vitamin a, potassium and calcium. And its delicious!

Good luck and stay warm to everyone who is braving these storms! For those of you who aren't, would you like to have me as an extended house guest until spring arrives? I'll bake for you!

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Muffin Bars?

I love carrot cake. Carrot cake and pumpkin pie are two of my most favorite desserts. Naturally when I see either of these desserts I am unable to restrain myself  its hard to say no. Even though both of these desserts have healthy foods in the names, don't be fooled! I remember one night  a couple years ago I went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and for dessert I ordered the carrot cake. I thought I was being good by avoiding the dozens of decadent cheesecake options on the menu, but when I got home my roommate informed me otherwise. Her boyfriend was a manager at a Cheesecake Factory - and she told me that the carrot cake is the worst thing you can order on the entire menu! I couldn't believe that it could be worse than the cheesecakes, but I guess there's a reason why that cream cheese frosting crusted in walnuts tasted so good. You're fine, she soothed, I'm sure you didn't eat the whole piece. Cue in guilty face here. I'd devoured it - every last bite (and that was after eating my dinner). So while I haven't gotten carrot cake at The Cheesecake Factory since then, its definitely still one of my favorite desserts.

Yesterday Jenna posted a recipe for Carrot Cake Muffin Bars on her blog. I instantly began to crave carrot cake, and decided that I'd make these, but would healthify the ingredients for a more nutritious and less guilt-laden snack. Please note - I know that "healthify" isn't a real word, but I like it, and am going to use it!

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Muffin Bars

Makes 12 (or 9 if you're hungry!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and oats in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream together the butter pumpkin and sugar.

Add the egg and beat again until smooth.

Slowly stream in the milk while mixing on low (or with hand).

Mix together the dry and wet ingredients with spatula.

Add grated carrots and chopped walnuts and mix until combined.

Spray a 9x9 pan and pour batter in. Add any additional toppings you like, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden.

Voila!

Recipe

I changed Jenna's recipe by swapping out white flour for whole wheat, replacing the butter with canned pumpkin, reducing the amount of walnuts, increasing the amount of carrots, and adding some coconut to the top. 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 1/4 cups grated carrots (2-3 carrots)
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• coconut for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and oats. Set aside.
3. Cream together the pumpkin and brown sugar. Add the egg and beat again until smooth. With mixer on low (or mixing by hand), slowly stream in the milk. 
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Add in carrots and walnuts and fold into batter.
5. Spray a 9x9 pan and pour batter into pan. Add any desired toppings (I added coconut flakes to about 1/3 of the pan) and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Coconut topped:

Plain:

My whole apartment smelled amazing as these cooked. Pat even started to think that he might like carrot cake as he smelled these in the oven. They taste like a cross between carrot cake and pumpkin pie - and in my eyes that can never be bad thing.

Depending on the recipe, you can get away with replacing all/some of the oil/butter with unsweetened applesauce, canned pumpkin, or Greek yogurt (those are the swaps I've tried). I chose pumpkin because I love pumpkin and had some in the fridge. I think if you used applesauce instead of pumpkin in these they would probably taste more like straight carrot cake, while this tastes like pumpkin carrot cake. Its good, but I bet the applesauce would be good, too! Depends on what you're in the mood for.

Enjoy!