Trail Mix Pear Bread

Serves: Cut into 28 squares

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
5 pears, diced

1 cup trail mix 

Note: the trail mix I used was primarily sunflower seeds and various types of nuts. While trail mixes certainly vary, I think a kind without fruit or chocolate works best to keep this a healthier choice.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk to combine thoroughly, set aside.

3. In bowl of stand mixer, combine oil and sugar and beat to combine thoroughly.

4. Add egg and yolk and beat to combine thoroughly.

5. Beat in vanilla.

6. Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, a little at a time, beating until just combined.

7. Stir in pears and trail mix. Batter will be very thick, but persevere.

8. Scrape batter into greased 9 x 13 pan, and spread to an even thickness.

9. Cook for approximately 50 minutes.

10. Let cool before serving.

Nutritional Info: 120 calories per square

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Raisin Pear Coffee Bread

I have some reservations about posting this recipe, but I'm going to do it anyway. I was experimenting a bit and the outcome was not what I expected. But it was delicious anyway. I was hoping for more of a bread product, like my apple pecan bread. It ended up being a lot more moist and didn't really hold it's shape when sliced. It was also much sweeter than I anticipated. For that reason, I liken it to a coffee cake, as I think it would be really good with a strong cup of black coffee on a cold Sunday morning.

Serves: 8

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cup oat flour (if you don't have oat flour, use a food processor to grind down rolled oats)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 smidgen fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 medium pears, diced
3/4 cup raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a loaf pan.

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk to combine thoroughly, set aside.

3. In bowl of stand mixer, combine oil and sugar and beat to combine thoroughly.

4. Add egg and yolk and beat to combine thoroughly.

5. Beat in vanilla.

6. Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, a little at a time, beating until just combined.

7. Stir in pears and raisins.

8. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and spread evenly.

9. Place loaf pan onto a baking sheet and into oven and bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 80-90 minutes.

10. Let cool before serving.

Nutritional Info: 400 calories per slice

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Bagel Benny

I love making breakfast on the weekends. All week I eat oatmeal, which is delicious. But after five days straight of oatmeal variations, it's nice to have the time to get a little more creative with our weekend brunches. (Having Mr. FW home to distract the baby FW helps too!)

Now that I've learned how to poach an egg, I feel like that's opened up a whole new world of brunch possibilities.  I used to work at a neighborhood restaurant with amazing brunch food. They called their benedicts "bennies," hence the name Bagel Benny.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
2 everything bagels
4 slices gouda cheese
1 handful fresh spinach leaves
4 strips turkey bacon
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Prepare your bacon strips and set aside.

2. Follow these directions to poach your eggs.

3. While your first egg is cooking, lightly toast your bagels. Remove from toaster and set aside.

4. When last egg is cooking, top each bagel half with cheese and return to toaster oven to melt.

5. Gently place your first three eggs back in the water to warm when last egg has about one minute remaining cook time. Turn off heat.

6. Remove bagels from toaster oven. Top with spinach and bacon. Gently slide an egg on to each half and season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Note: I originally intended for this to be eaten with a knife and fork. While it was a little messy, it wasn't too hard to eat with my hands as an open-face bagel. 

Nutritional Info: 615 calories per serving

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Apple Pecan Bread

I'm not sure how I haven't posted this recipe before. It's a long-time favorite of mine. I've had it so long, I don't remember where I got it from, but trust me, it's wonderful. I eat this bread for breakfast, snack, dessert . . . anytime!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 smidgen fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup apples (about 2 medium), diced
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a loaf pan (or 4 mini loaf pans).

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk to combine thoroughly, set aside.

3. In bowl of stand mixer, combine oil and sugar and beat to combine thoroughly.

4. Add egg and yolk and beat to combine thoroughly.

5. Beat in vanilla.

6. Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, a little at a time, beating until just combined.

7. Stir in apples and pecans.

8. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan (batter will be quite thick) and spread evenly.

9. Place loaf pan into oven and bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 80-90 minutes (45 minutes for mini loaves).

10. Let cool before serving.

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Buffalo Blue Cheese Benedict

Leftovers Alert: this is a great way to use up leftover Buffalo Chick Pea Patties!

I'm calling this one the B-Cubed: the Buffalo Blue cheese Benedict!

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
4 buffalo chick pea patties
2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles
4 eggs

Directions:
1. Splash a little hot sauce on the patties and place in (toaster) oven at 325* for 15 minutes. Flip halfway to heat thoroughly.

2. In a small saute pan, melt the margarine. Mix in the blue cheese and bread crumbs. It's going to look like a brown, pasty mess. That's ok; it will taste better than it looks.

3. When the patties are heated through, spread the blue cheese paste on the patties. This will be more tedious than you want it to be because of the pasty-sticky quality of it. Use a fork or your fingers to stamp it down. Put the patties back in the (toaster) oven on broil for about 10 minutes. You're looking for a pretty golden brown crust to form.

4. While the patties are heating and the crust is browning, you'll need to poach some eggs. I know that sounds scary. I was worried to, but have faith in yourself. And be grateful for wonderful, easy-to-follow directions like this from Smitten Kitchen. I'd never attempted to poach an egg before, but I managed to successfully cook four on my first four tries! It can be done!

5. When the crust is golden brow on the blue cheese paste, remove from oven. Put two patties on each plate, and top each with a poached egg. And you're done!

I didn't get a picture of this one because I didn't feel like the hassle of a camera while I was attempting poached eggs for the first time. Plus, Baby FoodWhore needed to go to sleep so I was fighting the clock to get dinner on the table before an epic melt-down.

Nutritional Info: 524 calories in each serving

Serving Suggestion: serve with potato hash and fresh sliced tomatoes.

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Orange

Last week, Mr. Foodwhore and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. We played hookey from our jobs, went to brunch and spent the day walking around downtown, looking at the Tulips and all of the other beautiful things in bloom. It was a lovely day.

We started things off by eating at Orange. The menu looked delicious, but we were sold on the two specials: an omelet with apples, brie, onions and ham, and a pancake flight. What is a pancake flight, you may be thinking. It's a sample plate of four different kinds of pancakes: raspberry cheesecake, blueberries and cream, apple cranberry, and sweet potato and coconut. I'm usually a savory breakfast person, but the flight looked just too good to pass up. And it didn't disappoint. I didn't even need syrup!

Orange has several locations, but we went to the one on N Clark Street. It was just a short walk from there to the Water Tower in the heart of Mag Mile. While this location is BYOB, they didn't even charge us the advertised $3 fee. We brought our own champagne and ordered a large OJ to make our own mimosas. (I love this city!) The atmosphere was nice, the service was friendly. I only wish they'd had their patio open so we could have enjoyed the beautiful morning. We'll definitely be back.

Chewy Granola Bars

Since Mr. Foodwhore is working now, he likes to have a lot of snack food on hand to munch on at his desk. But store-bought snack food is full of sugar, empty calories and can be expensive. So I'm always looking for healthy, easy options to make at home.  I tried this chewy granola bar recipe, tweaked from a combination of recipes found on all-recipes.com.

This recipe gave me delicious granola bits, easy for snacking on and delicious to crumble up and eat with yogurt or as cereal, but it wasn't exactly a granola bar. So I'm still on the search for a good granola bar recipe.

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup margerine, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter, softened

1 cup almonds, sliced or crushed

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325* and lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine all of the ingredients except the raisins.  Mix well.

3. Gently stir in the raisins.

4. Lightly press mixture into the pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

5. Let cool completely before cutting or removing from the pan.

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Banana Nut Carrot Bread

As I've mentioned before, it's my goal to save money this year, especially in the kitchen. To do that, I'm trying to cut down on the food waste we toss out. This week I made both banana bread and carrot cake cupcakes, and I had remaining ingredients laying around preparing to go bad. So I put on my creative cooking hat and mixed up a new concoction: Banana Carrot Nut Bread!

It's a little bit Banana Nut Bread and a little bit Carrot Cake. And a lot delicious. It's good with coffee for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.  I prefer it warmed up with a little butter, but it's moist enough that you don't need to add anything.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 overly ripe banana, mashed
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup of your favorite baking nuts, finely chopped (I used almonds)

Directions
1. Grease a loaf pan with non-stick spray. If you don't have a loaf pan, you could use muffin tins or a 9 x 9 pan.


2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar and honey.

4. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

5. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Add carrots and nuts. Mix well.

6. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 50 minutes. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then transport loaf to a baking rack to cool completely.



Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore

Sweet Potato Latkes

Mr. FoodWhore and I love sweet potatoes. Our favorite side dish is sweet potato chips from the grill.  But this time around, we were looking for something a little different. I had a couple of huge sweet potatoes, and Mr. FoodWhore suggested doing something like hash browns with them.  I was pretty shocked, considering Mr. FoodWhore doesn't really get into the whole creative side of cooking too often. So I headed online to see if anyone else had attempted such a thing.  I found a great recipe for Sweet Potato Latkes on All-Recipes. I modified it a bit. Here's my version:

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes (medium sized)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil for frying

Directions
1. In a food processor or with a grater (I highly recommend the processor), shred the potatoes.

2. Place sweet potatoes in a colander to drain the excess liquid. Place a cheesecloth (paper towel will work fine too) over the potatoes, and squeeze the potatoes to release as much liquid as possible. Let the potatoes sit for a few minutes, then squeeze them again.

3.  In a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, eggs, brown sugar, flour, cloves, cinnamon and red pepper.  Mix well.

4.  In a large skillet, heat oil to medium high.

5.  Form mixture into pancake size cakes and fry in hot oil. Fry for 4-5 minutes (or until browned) and flip to cook the other side. 

Note: make sure the oil is hot enough. Our first batch took much longer to cook because I don't think I'd heated it enough to begin with.

6. Line a plate with paper towels and place cooked latkes on them to soak off excess oil.  And enjoy!

Serving Suggestion: These can be served with just about anything. We topped them with low-fat sour cream and served them with omelettes.

Makes around 8 medium sized latkes; 70 calories each.

Note: these are best served fresh out of the pan.  If you aren't going to serve/eat all of them at once, the sweet potato mix will stay in the fridge for a about a week. You may need to drain excess liquid if you do this, though.

Bon Appetit!
The FoodWhore

Breakfast Burrito

The black bean dip I made the other day was so good and I was looking for new ways to incorporate into our meals so we weren't just sitting around eating dip and chips. Mr. FoodWhore is a big fan of breakfast for dinner, so I made breakfast burritos the other night! They were a big hit. So tasty and easy and quite filling. 

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite winter-time meals because it's a warm hearty meal and it's easy to make for busy weeknights and best of all it's cheap! Two eggs cost around $.30 instead of chicken breast or steak or seafood that cost much more than that. And one final reason I love breakfast for dinner so much: a lot of times, we're rushed in the morning. We barely make time for cereal, let alone frying bacon and cooking up home-fries.  So getting a delicious hearty breakfast is a treat no matter what time of day!

Ingredients
4 tbsp spicy black bean dip
4 eggs
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/8 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbsp low-fat sour cream
2 of your favorite wraps (I am loving Flat-Out right now!)

Directions
1. In a medium sautee pan, heat some low-fat margerine and sautee the tomatoes and onions until the onions are softened and translucent.

2. Scramble the eggs in a bowl and toss into the pan, cooking until done.

3. While the eggs are cooking, nuke the bean dip briefly so that it's warm. Spread the dip on the wraps. 

4. Split the eggs between the two wraps and roll tightly. Sprinkle with cheese and pop in a toaster oven on broil until the cheese is melted...just a minute or two.

5. Top with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy!

Makes 2 burritos.  Depending on the specific products you use, this burrito has approx. 395 calories.  Add 2 strips of turkey bacon and home fries for another 220 calories.

Game-Day Menu

This week my Gators play the Vols. I could go on and on about the rivalry and the expectations for this game, but I'll spare you. Instead, here's this week's Tailgate Menu. It includes breakfast and lunch since the game is at 3:30 p.m. and we'll be arriving at our tailgate spot at 7:30 a.m.!

Breakfast:
Mimosas
Bloody Marys
Cinnamon Rolls
Bacon, Cheese, and Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche
Pancakes

Lunch:
Whiskey
Beer
Spicy Cilantro-Lime Wings
Tangy Grilled Chicken Sandwiches
7 Layer Bean Dip
Pasta Salad

Stay tuned for reviews and recipes!

Bon Appetit!
The FoodWhore

Morning Tailgate Menu

This Saturday, my Gators play a very early game at 12:21 p.m. (What a random time!) Naturally, we'll be tailgating quite early in the day. When most people think of tailgating, they envision chips and dip, burgers, hotdogs, ribs...hardly breakfast-appropriate foods. So what will we serve?

Early Morning Tailgate Menu

Cinnamon Rolls

Bacon and Sundried Tomato Quiche

Mini Bagels with Cream Cheese

Fruit Salad

Devilled Eggs

We will have a grill at our tailgate site for toasting the bagels, but the quiche and cinnamon rolls will be cooked at home in my own oven while we're packing up the car and getting ready. Both items can be served warm instead of hot and should retain their heat if packed well.

Drinks are another decision to make. If it was going to be cold, we'd serve Irish Coffee for sure. But since we're talking about Florida, it's likely going to be blazing hot, even before the sun is fully up. So we're looking at Mimosas and Bloody Marys. Here's my preferred BM Recipe, but served with a couple of jumbo green olives and celery.

For more great tailgate breakfast ideas, check out this site.

Bon Appetit!

The FoodWhore

Real Men Eat Quiche

It's true, your husband/father/brother/etc may not admit to it, but if you fill a pie tin with cheese, eggs, and good hearty fixins he will like it. Or if the it's the name "quiche" itself that turns him off, just call it "Breakfast Pie" like my bumpkin roommate from freshman year.

Mom handed this recipe down to me. There are many variations. Here's the most recent one I made.

Ingredients
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup diced ham
1/2 bag fresh spinach
1 tbsp garlic
1/2 cup red onions
1/4 cup diced sundried tomatoes
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar and monterey jack are my favorites)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
frozen pie crust, thawed

1. In a sautee pan, heat the garlic until it is browned. Add the spinach and cook until done

2. Layer the spinach over the bottom of the crust. Sprinkle on the ham, tomatoes, and onions.

3. Spread the cheese over the meat and veggies.

4. Beat the eggs and stir in the nutmeg. Pour over the cheese. Top the quiche with whipping cream.

5. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook at 350 for 30-35 minutes. I recommend placing the pie tin on a cookie sheet, as it usually cooks over.

Quiche can be served hot or at room temperature. It's a wonderful breakfast, but is hearty enough for lunch or dinner too. I love making quiche in the winter time because it's a great warm breakfast that only takes a minute to prepare (nuke) in the morning.

For variations, try any combination of the toppings I included. Or go vegetarian by leaving out the ham. Or try just cheese quiche or changing the type of cheese for a different flavor.

*Health tip for dieters: cut into 6 slices, this particular variation has about 400 calories per slice. Using lean ham or low fat cheese and cream can cut the calories.

Bon Appetit!
The Food Whore