Oven Puffed Pancake

Ed has been craving pancakes lately, since there has been a definite lack of pancake-y breakfasts since I started eating healthier.

I decided to do a bit of research and came up with Cooking Light's, "Oven Puffed Pancake," a lower calorie and delicious alternative to the traditional breakfast treat. As an added bonus, it's much easier to make than a normal pancake and it also a bit more fun.

Oven Puffed Pancake 
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c. fat free milk
2 T granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 T butter
Powdered sugar (optional)

Nutritional Information

(serving size - 1/4 of pancake)

Calories:

141 (28% from fat)

Fat:

4.4g (sat 2.3g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

5.2g

Carbohydrate:

19.9g

Fiber:

0.4g

Cholesterol:

64mg

Iron:

0.9mg

Sodium:

222mg

Calcium:

48mg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through egg white); Stir until combined.

Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet or other oven safe pan (we used a stainless steel pan).

Pour batter into pan. Cook over heat for 1 minute. Do not stir!

Transfer pan to oven and bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, or until golden.

Ours barely made it 15 minutes, and was very poofy and golden brown.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar using a sifter (if desired) and cut into fourths (kitchen shears worked the best for this!). I had a little over 1/4 (the serving size) and Ed had the other 3/4's.

We topped ours with cut strawberries and just a touch of low calorie maple syrup. The pancake would also be lovely with honey, jam, or even plain, as it is sweet and delicious on it's own!

Happy Breakfasting.

Vanilla Cupcakes

With all my healthy eating, treating myself to cupcakes was not high on my list of dessert options. However, Ed and I had been feeling a little bored with our pudding and ice cream treats, and thought that this would be a fun treat.


The recipe is officially titled, "Hungry Girl Fluff Cakes," and is a lightened version of the traditional cupcake, that can pack a mind boggling 348 calories and 14 grams of fat. This version has a much more respectable 164 calories and only 3 grams of fat. It tastes lighter, but it still really enjoyable! To see the original recipe, click here.


Light Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 9 - 10 Servings


For Frosting
1 1/4 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed
1 1/2 tbsp. Jell-O Sugar Free Fat Free Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix


For Cupcakes
Half of an 18.25-oz. box (about 1 1/2 cups) moist-style yellow cake mix (I used my food scale to measure out 9.15 oz of cake mix)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Sprite Zero (or another diet lemon-lime soda), room temperature (I used Fresca)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites


For Topping

3 tbsp. rainbow sprinkles


Directions:


First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 


You'll want to make the frosting first, because it needs time to sit in order to reach it's full potential :). 


To make the frosting, place your Cool Whip in a bowl, and then add the pudding mix. Mix until smooth. Then, take plastic wrap, and press into the top of the frosting until covered, press into sides of bowl and over the top. Place in fridge and keep there until needed. 

Next, I took a large bowl and put my sifter over it. Into the sifter, place the cake mix and baking powder and sift so that there were no lumps. Then, add the soda and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth. The batter will be fizzy! That's okay :). Once you've finished this step, set it aside. 

In a smaller bowl, whip egg white with a handheld mixer, set on medium speed until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. (This part was very cool, as I've never whipped egg white before! They got very fluffy. I whipped mine for about 1 1/2 minutes). Gently mix egg white into the cake batter until thoroughly combined. It took longer than I expected to mix these together, but they got there.




Now, it's time to get the pan ready. Line 10 cups of a 12 cup muffin pan with baking cups (the recipe says it will only fill 9, but ours filled 10 with a little to spare). Evenly distribute the batter among the cups (start with filling 9 and then add to the 10th if you have enough batter). The cups will be VERY full - that's okay! All of the cups on ours will fill to just above the brim, which was perfect. 

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes (ours baked for 17) until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out fairly clean. Your cupcakes should be slightly golden and poofy. 

Remove the cupcakes from the pan using a knife and your hand to carefully lift them out and onto a plate. This will help them to cool faster. Once the cupcakes are cool (it takes what feels like a long 20 minutes, with the cupcakes removed from the pan) frost with your reserved frosting and add sprinkles. The frosting is delicious and we'll need to make a bit more to frost the last of our cupcakes, but if you do a thin layer yours should cover all of them. We only frosted the ones we were eating so that we could leave the cupcakes out overnight and have freshly frosted cupcakes when we're ready for them!

Enjoy!


Makes 9 - 10 Servings

"Homemade Pizza"

While this isn't really a recipe, it's a good reminder that making "homemade" pizza can be a quick and fun activity, and is infinitely superior to the boxed variety.

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Pizza

*Trader Joe's Pre-made pizza dough, fresh herb (sold in small bags in the refrigerated section of the store.
* Tomato sauce (we used Classico's Red Bell Pepper and Roasted Garlic)
* 1/2 an onion
* 2 zucchini
* 4 artichoke hearts, (canned in water)
* minced garlic (to taste)
* Fontina Cheese (about 2 cups)
* Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes (also from trader joes)

Ed and I were in the mood for pizza and, since we were given a very nice toaster oven for Christmas, from Ed's Brother Tom, that promised it could cook a 12 inch pizza, we decided to give it a try.

We began by pre-heating the toaster oven at the "pizza setting". We realized afterwards that this setting is probably for frozen pizza and wasn't quite hot enough for ours. Next time, we'll set it at 450 like the dough packaging recommends.

Once the oven we going we started cooking the onion and zucchini. I like crisp zucchini, so I cooked the onion first, until it was slightly caramelized, and then cooked my zucchini over a higher temperature, sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Once they were cooked, we put them aside.

Next, we took the artichoke hearts and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then, we put them in a pan with some minced garlic and cooked a minute or two, until slightly browned.

Once the "cooking" was done, we were ready to assemble the pizza.

The fun part was making the crust. Ed and I took turns turning and stretching it until it reached the 12 inch size needed to cover our pan. Once it was made, we put down a thin layer of tomato sauce, and then covered with our onion, zucchini and garlic artichoke hearts.

After our layer of veggies, we coated the pizza with a layer of fontina cheese.

Next, we put down a layer of sliced heirloom cherry tomatoes, face down.

We put the pizza in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It was very delicious and fresh tasting, and we especially loved the dough. We topped it with some parmesan and red pepper flakes to give it some spice. The dough wasn't quite as crispy as we would have liked, and next time we'll pre-heat the pan to see if that helps.

All in all, though, a very successful meal of pizza!

Seared Sesame Encrusted Ahi with Onion Quinoa and Asparagus

This recipe is my go to recipe for when we have company over, because it is reliably good, somewhat impressive, and pretty healthy.

Onion Quinoa

*1 large yellow onion
*1 T Olive Oil
* 1/2 C. White Wine

* 1 t olive oil
* 1 - 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 C Quinoa (rinsed)
* 2 1/4 C. Chicken Broth
* 1/2 t. onion powder
* 1/2 t. garlic powder

The quinoa should be started first, as it takes the longest to cook.

To begin, caramelize cut up one large, yellow onion into small pieces. Place onion into a heated pan, coated with olive oil. Put a lit over onions and let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once onions have started becoming translucent, add about 1/2 a cup of white wine and recover, cooking another 10 minutes or so, until the wine has cooked off. Once the onions look caramelized, take off the heat and place to the side. I usually only do this step before guests arrive, as from here on out, it is very simple and takes only about 25 minutes for dinner to be ready.

Once you are ready to start cooking dinner, take a medium saucepan and add a small amount of olive oil (1 tsp or so). Heat the pan over medium heat until oil has warmed, then add chopped garlic (1 -2 cloves). Let cook for about one minute and then add 1 cup of rinsed quinoa and the caramelized onions. Cook for another minute, to toast quinoa, and then add 2 1/4 cups of Chicken Broth, and the onion and garlic powders. Stir a few times to mix, and then put on the lid. Continue cooking until liquid has been absorbed (20-30 minutes).

Seared Sesame Encrusted Ahi

* Seared Grade Ahi Tuna Filets
* Sesame mixture from whole foods (A mix of black and tan sesame seeds would also work)
* 1 T sesame oil

The Ahi is the easiest part of this recipe. I start with sear grade Ahi filets from Whole Foods (though any good produce store will work). Whole Foods is best, though, because when you buy their Ahi, you can get complementary sesame mix that works perfectly for encrusting the filet.

The Ahi is a very quick cooking fish and should be started about 5 minutes before you would like to eat. To prepare, cut the Ahi into filets. Then, take a stainless steel pan and heat over medium high heat. After pan has heated, at a few tsp of sesame oil to pan, swirling to coat. Once oil has heated, take each filet and dip one side and then the other in the sesame mixture. Place filets in pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. The filet should still be pink around the center, with a tan color around each edge.

Asparagus

* 1 lb. Asparagus, trimmed
* salt and pepper, to taste

The asparagus goes well with this dish, and can be roasted in the oven (with a little olive oil, salt and pepper) or steamed on the stove.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Food

My Woodside Race report is still coming (but, long story short, it was wet and fabulous! I had a great time :) ), but I thought I would take a moment to put up some of the many food creations I've been making lately. Ever since I've begun my journey to be healthier, I have become a lot more adventurous with cooking and baking. I've also been using my camera to document my lovely creations. I thought it would be fun to actually post some of those recipes on here, both to share with all of you, and to have a record of things I've tried so that I can look back on it :).

So, the next few posts will be some of my favorite food successes from the last month!

Revisiting an Old Trail

Ed and I were looking for a good trail to do 6 or so miles on, that would have held up decently after all the rain we're continuing to have. I had the fun idea of going back to the trail that we ran on for our first date in Nisene Marks State Park, south of Santa Cruz. It would only be about 40 minutes away, and full of those rain resistant redwoods. I'm sure I've shared this story before, but Ed and my first date was a 7 mile, somewhat challenging trail run. We met when I had just come home from a 20 mile trail run (and he was moving into my apartment building, into the apartment just below mine), so Ed knew me from the first moment of our meeting as a runner. It's great because when he sees me with my hair in a ponytail all sweaty, it reminds him of the first time we met :). Anyways, since he knew I was a runner from my outfit, he asked me if we could go for a run. I wanted to impress him (and was at the tail end of my 50 miler training) so I suggested this 7 mile loop. Ed did admirably well and it was a very meaningful and enjoyable 1st date, where we got to talk a lot and get to know one another.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years, and we were looking forward to retracing our steps. Of course, the problem was that we hadn't done that loop in about 2 years, and didn't exactly remember it. We had also never run it in winter, so things looked a bit different. We had to park in a different spot because part of the fireroad was closed to cars. This threw us off a bit. We started off going up the West Ridge Trail, which I knew best from my worst 20 mile run ever, where I almost maced a squirrel, I was so freaked out about running into a mountain lion.

With company it was better, but still steep and challenging uphill. It seemed to just keep going and going, I tried to run when I could, but I was just feeling tired. I had been unusually tired all week, perhaps from all the running last weekend. It was gorgeous though, and I was soon warmed up. I took off the long sleeved and felt great wearing a tank top!

After ages, we finally reached what we thought was the turn off, and I was wishing we had brought the map. We got a bit of downhill which was fun, but introduced a new element - slippery mud! I shrieked a few times as my feet came close to slipping out from under me. When we reached another sign we got a bit confused, as it didn't have the names of any of the trails that we thought we were going to see. We took a guess and kept going, on some beautiful singletrack. Parts of it had the narrow trail just cut into the side of the hill, with a drop off of hundreds of feet off to the side.

What was really special was that we could see the tops of the redwoods that started hundreds of feet down in the bottom of the gorge. It was such a unique experience, to be running in the "Canopy" of a redwood forest :). There were some very narrow sections, made a bit perilous by the mud, but we took them slowly. There was a very neat section with an old plank of redwood that crossed over a section - just very beautiful.

We kept having moments during this whole section where it felt familiar, but we weren't certain we had done it on that run together. When we reached the redwood switchback section that I distinctly remembered, it was much, much steeper than I had recalled. At the bottom of it, we faced a sizable stream crossing. With Ed's help, I made it across dry, but on the other side was a trail posting that made us really feel that we had done something wrong. At this point we were pretty positive we had made a mistake, but we weren't sure what it was.

In any event, the sign reassured us that we were heading back to the main fire road of the park, so at least we were heading back to our car, eventually. For the next mile or so, the trail winded next to the creek, and was just gorgeous. However, with being so close to the creek, it was only a matter of time before we had to cross over again. This time, it was much wider, and I would have had to use 3 or 4 slippery stepping stones to make it. While Ed had no trouble, I was doubtful of my ability to keep from slipping. I had images of twisting my ankle as I stumbled fully into the full creek. Since I figured I'd just wet anyways, I decided to run through.

Wow! That water was cold! It felt nice, though, to just go through. It's just water, after all. And, in about 4 minutes or so, my feet warmed up and I was fine. A bit later, we got to see a beautiful waterfall that actually ran over the trail. It was small, but just magical. Then, we got to run over these platforms, which I think were there to keep the trail from slipping down the hillside. Next up, was a bridge over yet another stream. At around this point, Ed commented that this was definitely up there as the most beautiful run he had ever been on.

Finally, we got to a somewhat flat section that I did remember from our first date run, and then, we were back to the fire road. We still had about a mile to get to the car and I was hurting. Still, it reminded me of all the times I ran down that fireroad at the end of a long run, so I was enjoying it, even through the pain.

Once we got to our original trail head, I knew we were almost finished. We made our last bridge crossing, and then we were at the car. My legs were in quite a bit of pain, but I felt accomplished. We were sure we had gone more than 7, but we'd had to wait until we got home to find out by how much.

We made a quick stop for lunch, since we were not going to be able to make it home for food, and then finally got back home.

Actual mileage total? 9.3 :). A hard 9.3.

So much for taking it easy....

A week from today I'll be tackling my first "big" race, a 17k (10.6) in Woodside :D.

I am so ready!