Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Woah yum. In case you haven't noticed, I've become a fan of oat bran muffins. Today, I wanted to use up some leftover chopped pears, and I came across  this Farmgirl Fare recipe  that would not only use the pears and oat bran, but also the candied ginger leftover from my (thankfully over) days of morning sickness. I made a couple of changes in the recipe, just for convenience: -I had no wheat bran, so I used 2 c oat bran and 1 c Fiber One cereal, ground in the food processor. -I was short on honey, so I used 1/3 c honey and 1/3 c brown sugar. -I was a little short on pears, so I filled it out with some applesauce. It was delicious, but I'll go 100% pear next time. These will be made again. They're delicious, hearty without being too heavy, and the pear and ginger flavors make them stand out from your ordinary muffin. I'd serve these for house guests or bring them to a brunch potluck... they're a winner. The Recipe: 2 c oat bran 1 c...

Like big pumpkin cookies. These are maybe a little bit too good. I want to snack on them all afternoon. They're fluffy and just the right amount of sweet, and they remind me of oversized pumpkin cookies. Next time I make them I'll have to add more healthy stuff - lots of ground flax seed and maybe some whole oats in addition to the oat bran? - just so I'm not as tempted to devour them all as unnecessary afternoon carbs. They're super easy and certainly healthy-ish in their current form, which I got from  this recipe . My only change was that I doubled it and then increased the amount of pumpkin by about 1/2 cup, so it would use up a 15oz can. Because although pumpkin lattes sound like a great idea, any leftover pumpkin in my fridge would likely go forgotten. I also used 2 whole eggs instead of 4 egg whites, again to avoid having any waste leftover. The Recipe: 3 c oat bran 1 c whole wheat flour 1 c brown sugar 4 tsp baking powder 2 tsp pumpkin...

It took me until day 3 of leftovers to finally take a picture. Imagine 3-day-fresher-looking tomato sauce on top, but it was delicious in this state too. First, I must brag that I made from scratch the ricotta cheese , the mozzarella cheese , and the tomato sauce (from fresh tomatoes that I'd canned) before assembling this casserole. I'd say that for a normal day in the future, the ricotta and the tomato sauce were definitely worth it to make from scratch. The mozzarella is slightly more of a project, so I'm more likely to buy that unless I'm really in the mood to make cheese. I should have written down what I did for the tomato sauce, because it was really good this time. My memory is that I sauteed 1/2 an onion in olive oil until translucent, added 3 cloves of garlic and stirred, then immediately added 2 pints of tomatoes with some salt, basil, and oregano. I thought it would need a little bit of sugar, but I tasted it and it was plenty sweet, probably just...

Must. Not. Eat. Toasted. Marshmallow. Until. After. Photo. Is. Taken. In the next display of Winter Baking Season, I really wanted to make brownies but I didn't want something so decadent in the house because I'd eat them all right away. I settled on these black bean brownies and they're perfect - more nutritious if I do binge-eat several in a night, but also so rich that I really am satisfied with just one. Well, one really big one. The toasted marshmallow topping is not in the  original recipe , and the brownies would be perfectly good without it. But I don't pass up an opportunity for toasted marshmallows. The Recipe: 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 c dark chocolate chips 3 tb canola oil 3 eggs 2/3 c brown sugar 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/8 tsp salt 1/2 bag marshmallows Pulse beans, 1/4 c of the chocolate chips, and oil in a food processor until well blended. Add the eggs...

I want to eat you. This is exactly the kind of baked good I crave - sweet and rich without being too sweet or rich, airy yet substantial-feeling because of the oats, and it has chocolate. And it's not terribly unhealthy, either. I mean, it's not a nutritious breakfast item, but it's not bad for a snack or dessert, which is when I want to eat them. I found this recipe  here  by searching Pinterest for ways to use up some sour cream. I followed it exactly except I decreased the cocoa powder to a tablespoon because I didn't really want them to be solid chocolate, this time at least. I also used all white flour instead of a white/wheat blend to make sure they were light and fluffy. I'm sure it's the sour cream that makes these so delicious, but I will definitely be trying them again with yogurt since I always have yogurt on hand and I foresee myself craving these someday and feeling the need to make them RIGHT NOW. The Recipe: 1/2 c sugar 1/2 c honey ...

If it looks like there's a lot of pesto caked onto those gnocchi, that's because there is. I ended up with a spare jar of artichoke hearts recently, and Pinterest pointed me to  this pesto recipe  as a solution. If we didn't love  spinach-avocado pesto  quite so much, I'd say this recipe would become a new favorite. But when life hands you lemons and artichoke, this is a delicious way to use them. The lemon I got was gigantic. In fact, I almost broke into it a few times over the course of the week, thinking it was a navel orange. Somehow it didn't occur to me that maybe I should only put half of it in this pesto; I was just excited about how much juice was coming out of this thing. As a result, our dinner was VERY lemony. I'd fix that next time. As a side note to this recipe, this is my favorite way of preparing shrimp. I got it from Ina Garten and I rarely do it any other way - it's easy and delicious. Olive oil, salt, pepper, bake at 400 for ...

I cannot make a taco beautiful enough to photograph. Imagine this in a taco. Starting in about middle school, I developed three cooking specialties: fat-free cakes with green food coloring (they tasted just as good as they sound), tofu stir-fries, and taco meat. My taco meat method used to be to combine a little bit of every liquid condiment in the refrigerator: ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, and perhaps an odd salad dressing or other specialty item. The adult version is more subtle, but it still has ketchup. I've tried working from fresh tomatoes instead, but the tomato+sugar+vinegar+smoothness of the ketchup wins. Through my various periods of vegetarianism, I've usually maintained a taste for two meat items: pepperoni pizza and my homemade taco meat. However, the taco meat has gradually gained more non-meat items and I really like this version which is about 50% beans and vegetables. Adjust the meat to bean ratio to your liking; it works fine with al...