Butternut Bowties (or spirals) with a side of Pumpkin Cookie

So on my lovely Columbus Monday off I was lying in bed catching some Rachael ray and she featured a recipe called Butternut Bowties! I love her recipes because they are rather simple to create and always have alot of possible substitutions should someone be looking to cut down on calories and fat. On top of that she toted this one as a "healthy mac n cheese" alternative, and i love me some mac and cheese! Erin was even up to try it so I thought it was a must make.


I still had two butternut squashes leftover from our apple picking trip and I needed to do something quick with them before they rot! (funny fact: i read that squash can stay good for up to three weeks in a dark space...not so much for these ones I suppose. they already have a few questionable spots on them...). Since roasting the squash can take awhile I opted to do that on Monday morning and then have the squash puree needed for the recipe for whatever day of the week we wanted. It baked while I went running! When I returned i took it out and the skin peeled right off nicely. Prep work done.


Here is the recipe: Butternut Bowties


You can follow that link to see exactly how Rachael puts everything together. I wanted to list the ingredients so that I could offer my substitutions:

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, halved and seeds removed
1 tablespoon EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil (skipped, just used cooking spray)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 box of bowtie pasta (I used whole wheat spirals)
2 tablespoons butter (nope)
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (I switched to Fat Free Chicken broth which was a tip Rachael gave during the show)
A pinch of nutmeg
A pinch of cinnamon
5 to 6 sage leaves, thinly sliced (i only had dried on hand)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (I used fat free cheese...more on that below)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (i used shaker parm, not as good but ALOT cheaper :)
A handful toasted almonds, to garnish (optional) (omitted, although I would probably love that)


Now a few words on my prep...I made the casserole ahead of time so that I could just pop it into the oven before we wanted to have dinner. It made a huge pan of pasta and I also added fresh broccoli to the dish to bulk it up (not that it needed it). I love fresh veggies so this was a no brainer. I think you could have add alot of different options.


So...sometimes I go a bit overboard with the substitutions and things just don't quite work out. In this case it was the cheese. Let me start by saying I really liked the dish, but the cheese didn't really melt that well which happens when the their is no fat!! I put the casserole in the oven for about twenty mins and when I checked on it the cheese looked as solid as can be! Another fifteen mins and when I took it out i realized that it was cooked through, the cheese just didn't melt all that well. Erin still said it was good but we both agreed that adding regular cheese would definitely make a difference!





Moving on to the dessert of pumpkin cookies. I made these last year after finding them on Eating Well. They are so moist and a mix of cookie/muffin consistency. I omit the oil and use applesauce and I would definitely recommend using the cake flour I think it makes a difference. Also I added the raisins but you could of course leave those out or add other things instead (cranberries, nuts: all sorts!). I used a tablespoon when scooping these to see if the recipe really made 3 1/2 dozen cookies...it did! exactly 42! They are little so feel free to indulge in several (erin and I did)!

Apple picking, autumn harvest and the first apple pie

Since October is such a short month i have already booked every weekend to maximize all that New England has to offer in the fall! I am sure you can you tell that I love apples?!! So Erin found this amazing apple picking farm call Honey Pot Orchards. It was a "must visit" on our To Do list for October. It was such a nice brisk fall day, sun shining and perfect for some apple picking fun. This farm also had homemade cider donuts, cider, pumpkin patches, animals (erin's favorite feature), hedge maze (that was actually quite tricky) and apple picking! We concluded our day picking apples because we knew that we wouldn't want to truck that bag around the farm. I also picked up some squash varieties to use later on in cooking.(i love squash as much as I love apples).
As soon as we got home I quickly took a little photo of our autumn harvest buys:
Those apples of course just represent two of the many in our bag!

Although I am known to cook healthy and substitute all fat out of my recipes, there are some that I just don't think I could bring myself to change...i.e. my mom's Apple Pie. Now I call it my mom's because growing up she is the one person who always made the apple pie at any function that called for it! Her pie crust is famous in my family...I kid you not! My mom can do alot of things well, and this is just one more on the list. This is one of the recipes, for whatever reason, that my mom and I now make together. I must say though I have yet to put out a crust that I think even comes close to hers...in looks and taste! She literally makes pies that should be shown in a magazine...mine...well you will see below :)!

Although I will always consider it my mom's recipe, some may also call it Betty Crockers Recipe. Whatever. I don't really have to follow the book anymore I pretty much know how its done. I went to work peeling, slicing, cinnamon and sugaring the apples...then the difficult crust. It always starts out so promising, and everyone has their own tricks they use, but it just seems I can't quite get it right. The dough always seems to split, or stick to the counter if I don't use enough flour. Ah well...like my mom says it taste the same going down!

One pointer that she sticks to is to try and not restart rolling alot. The more you handle it the easier it is to start crumbling or splitting.

Here's mine from pre-bake to cooked: (marked with an E for...erin of course!)

Do you like my piece it together edge there?

Now for one pointer of my own (also given to me by my mother :) If you can't do the fun wavy crust like the pros then you can cover the edge of your pie with tin foil until about 10-15 mins. are left to cook. That way the thinnest part of the crust doesn't burn and it all stays golden brown.

It was good going down...no matter what it looked like.

Oh My, Healthy Apple...Cobbler

So, I love apples. i love apple crisp.i love hungry girl. i love fiber one. So, after getting the recipe for HG Apple Cobbler. (And after going apple picking and needing a few ideas to use up those apples) I dove right into trying out this yummy sounding desert. The email challenged anyone who normally didn't like Fiber One to try out this recipe and ensured a change of heart. Since I already heart Fiber One I thought this was a no lose trial!

I think part of the reason I so love apple cobbler is the topping, because it's always so oaty and crunchy and just delicious. I quickly noticed that there was not any oats in this recipe so of course I threw some in on my own! I will say that the serving size was quite large (a 1/4 of that pan!) and there was alot of topping to go around...however the consistancy of the crumble didn't totally impress me :(. I liked the flavor (very healthy as erin would put it), but it just wasn't the same crunchy, oaty goodness that I come to expect from Apple Crisp.

All in all I must say that its a great swap if you are looking to have a really really large portion of desert and keep it super low cal/low fat. I also put it with a bit of Fat free frozen yogurt the next night (i obviously liked it enough to have 2nds...) and that really spruced it up for me! I threw it in the microwave for 15 secs. and then put a few scoops of vanilla FF frozen yogurt on top, and mixed. That was really really tasty.

The 2nd round definitely made me rethink making it a 2nd time!

Pizza Pie and Pumpkin brew

Erin and I love to watch travel shows and the food network and often times the travel shows include food too! We were watching a show last night and Bon Appetit magazine was listing the best bar food in the country. One of the items that constantly made an appearance was of course Pizza! In my perusal of Trader Joe's I had come across 99cent whole wheat pizza dough, how can you beat that. Erin and I also have very different taste when it comes to pizza, so making our own personal pies is always a great option.

I have lofty ideas to make a goat cheese/fig pizza but I ended up just picking up a can of artichokes hearts (which erin and I both are HUGE fans of) and I knew I had some shallots that needed to be used up, and also some homemade pesto that was on its last leg. I opted to make a pesto/shallot and artichoke pizza with a sprinkle of Fat free Parmesan cheese and a few lone peppers. Erin decided to use up some monterey jack cheese/pesto and artichoke hearts on hers.

My oh my how homemade pizza fills a void in someone!

The pizza was delish! I think pizza can be such comfort food and can take on so many different forms depending on your taste.

Since the travel show was about bars we of course had to partake in our favorite fall beer as well! We live near an amazing package store (this is what they are called in MA because they don't sell beer in a grocery store like NY) and it offers so many local breweries and interesting beers. Erin and I have decided to try and taste all the pumpkin/fall beers and determine our favorites. The two we tried that night were Shipyard Pumpkin Ale and Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale. They were both great and different. I started with the Smuttynose but switched with erin for the Shipyard. I guess it depends on your mood. (erin said she was secretly hoping we would switch). I can't wait to go back and try some of the other ones as well.

Fall is here. Fall food is amazing...not to mention the fall beer. Get ready for some fun posts (if I can stay sober :)

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

I have had three black, ripened, frozen bananas in the freezer for about two months now just dying to be made into bread. I actually use to have about six but little by little I used them up in oatmeal when the fresh bananas were all gone. I knew it would be overwhelming to narrow in on just one banana bread recipe (just try googling healthy banana bread), the options are endless. Thankfully in my daily blog reading I had come across rave reviews for Fitnessista's homemade whole wheat banana bread.

Here we go:

100% Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Servings: 48 Makes: 2 loaves
• 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed

• 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt

• 1 egg

• 1 1/4 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar of your choice)

• 1 cup golden raisins

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray glass loaf pans (2 - 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5) with cooking oil spray.
Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Stir until blended but don't over mix. Pour into loaf pans. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 5 - 8 minutes. Remove from loaf pans and cool completely. Slice and serve. Wrap with plastic wrap keep moist.
Per Serving: 71 Calories (maybe less because I omit the oil the original recipe calls for) 2g Fat 1g Protein 13g Carbohydrate 1g Dietary Fiber trace Cholesterol 79mg Sodium

So now for my minor changes (mainly due to my lack of supplies). I thought that I had a full cup of nonfat yogurt, but I only had about 1/2 :(. I opted to make up the difference with fat free sour cream...this subsitution completely worked! Also I had to leave out the golden raisins because we didn't have any in the house. I thought about adding in walnuts, which we did have in the house, but erin isn't a huge fan of nuts in bread. I did go ahead and add a bit of ginger to the spices just to add a bit more flavor (i was feeling adventurous haha). The mix was quite thick and I added a few splashes of skim milk just to make sure all the flour was fully incorporated.

This bread turned out really great! I thought about freezing one loaf but the way that baked goods go around this house there really was no need! I always worry with whole wheat baking that it will be too dense, or lose any moisture overnight, but three days later and it is still really yummy.

I couldn't believe that the calories were so low for this bread, especially because the flavor was so good. I think you could also choose to add in raisins, nuts or other dried fruit of your liking. The possiblities are endless. This will be a must bake again for me.

baking chocolate chip bars

sometimes subsitutions DO work out! I wanted to start off with that bold statement because after my skinny cookies let me down I was determined to bake something good to statisfy my sweet tooth. I work from home on Thursdays and normally I hit a lull in the afternoon and need something to fix my boredom. Since I always find so many great looking recpies in the blog world I decided to try and attempt one each thursday afternoon. This week it was a great looking chocolate chip cookie bar recipe for none other than Eating Well!

really how can you go wrong with a little bit of flour, chocolate chips and an oven. these sure didn't dissappoint. I couldn't seem to find the recipe again online when I searched so I listed it below:
Chocolate Chip Bars:

• 2/3 cup of flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbl of Butter (I used Brumel and Brown)
• 1/4 cup of Fat Free Cream Cheese (the recipe calls for less fat cream cheese but I always use completely fat free and it never seems to effect the outcome)
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chopped up

Pre-heat oven to 375 and spray a 8x12 pan. Stir together flour, bk soda, salt. Melt butter in a sauce pan and then add to cream cheese, sugars and mix well. Add egg and vanilla. Add together with dry ingrediants and stir in chocolate chips. (the batter at this point was very thick) Pour into pan and spread out to cover the pan. Bake for 20-25 mins.

After them came out of the oven and cooled I cut them into bars for all to enjoy. These were a mix of chocolate chip bread and cookies. Erin and her family really enjoyed them, so I guess they passed the test.

Pumpkin Spiced Coffee

it's here...fall is almost here. To prove it this morning after my workout, and on my way to over an hour commute to work, i stopped and got a pumpkin spiced coffee. YUM. I tried to take a picture during my commute, but I am still working on figuring out my camera phone.

As I was drinking down that Honey Dew goodness (that's right not everyone in New England is obsessed with DD) I started to thinking about all the recipes I cannot wait to blog about this fall. Not to mention the beverages that have similar fall flavors. (after starting this post erin and i had a surprise visit from my parents for the weekend and they bought Shipyard pumpkin ale at the local, amazing, liquor store...yes!!!).

When I started this blog last year I had just come off from a pretty inspiring season of cooking. Needless to say this fall will hopefully be a repeat of last year with lots and lots of blogs!