Garbanzo Bean Salad

This was originally intended to be a black bean salad; however, I discovered I had no black beans. In fact, I couldn't find a recipe that 100% coincided with ingredients I did have and needed to use. So...I made my own. I'm great at adapting or modifying pre-existing recipes, but I'm not very skilled at coming up with my own. However, this bean salad turned out wonderful and would be the perfect summertime addition to any picnic. Which is exactly what we did.

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Garbanzo Bean Salad
Adapted from: Me!

Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans
2 ears of corn, cooked
1 "stalk" green onion
1 medium green pepper
2 sweet peppers
1 medium tomato
Sun-dried tomato vinaigrette dressing
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:
Drain and rinse garbanzo beans and place in bowl. Using a knife, remove corn from cob and add to bowl. Chop green onion and peppers and add to garbanzo beans & corn. De-seed tomato, dice, and add to mixture. Add salt, pepper, and vinaigrette to taste. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour {to marry flavors} before serving.

Modifications:
I think some red pepper would be nice in this dish and give it some more color. If you don't have fresh corn you could use frozen. Black beans would work in place of, or in addition to, the garbanzo beans and you could use any variation of vinaigrette. When seasoning, I use sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Whole-Wheat Apple Pancakes

These are fairly simple to put together. In fact, I whipped up a batch for Aaron's breakfast before work one morning. I put the leftovers in the fridge to heat up for other breakfasts'. They kept nicely and heated up well. This recipe should make 6 pancakes. Serving size is 2 pancakes and has 230 calories and 3g of fat. {I'm guessing most of which is from the syrup!}. A yummy, healthy, but hearty, breakfast option.

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Whole Wheat Apple Pancakes
Adapted from: Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
3/4 cup non-fat milk
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. honey
6 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1 medium apple, diced
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 250. Put the apple in a microwave-safe bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap; microwave on high until softened, about 2 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk, nonfat milk, eggs and honey, then slowly add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.

Heat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat. Spoon 1/4 cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake and sprinkle each with apple, then drizzle a little more batter over the apple. Cook until the tops are bubbly and the edges are dry, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 more minutes. Keep the pancakes warm on a baking sheet in the oven while making the rest.

Place 2 pancakes on each plate. Drizzle with the syrup.

My Modifications:
I can't remember if I modified anything in this recipe, but I'm thinking I didn't. However, if you don't have any buttermilk, did you know you can make your own? Put 1 Tbsp. white vinegar or lemon juice per cup of milk. Let it stand for 5 minutes and Voila! Buttermilk! You'll see the consistency change.

Coconut Cream Pie

Aaron recently asked me to make a Coconut Cream pie. I didn't know he even liked that kind of pie and I'd never made it. But what my man wants! I set out to find a recipe and very quickly realized that it wasn't going to be as simple as I thought. Not impossible, just a little more involved, like tempering the eggs and such. I finally managed to find one that seemed do-able and it was delish. Let's just say, we both had 2 pieces for dessert. I made one minor modification, which I do think improved the quality.

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Coconut Cream Pie
Adapted from: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups milk
4 eggs
3 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup flaked coconut
1 9-inch pie shell, baked

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour and salt over a medium heat; gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture is thick and bubbly. Reduce heat to low and cook 2 minutes more. Remove the pan from heat.

Separate the egg yolks from whites. Beat the egg yolks slightly. Gradually stir 1 cup of the hot mixture into yolks. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and bring the entire mixture to a gentle boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes before removing the pan from heat.

Stir butter, vanilla, and coconut into the hot mixture. Pour the hot filling into the baked pie crust. Cool. Cover and chill to store the pie if not serving immediately.

My Modifications:
The recipe calls for 3 cups of milk, so I used 2 cups (1 can) of coconut milk and 1 cup of regular 1%. I think using the coconut milk enhances the coconut taste, but it's still pretty mild. I use whole-cane sugar for baking & cooking, but it's a 1:1 ratio with your average granulated white sugar. I also chilled for a couple of hours and sprinkled flaked coconut on each slice before serving.

Breakfast Casserole

The first time I made this recipe was for our Sunday School class. After I finished preparing it the night before, I started to get nervous...it can be a risky little game to make something for other people that you've never tried before! However, it turned out really well and is a definite "will-make-again".

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Breakfast Casserole
Adapted from: Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 cup half & half
2 Tbsp. green onion
salt & pepper
butter to grease pan
6-8 slices Texas Toast
1 lb. pork sausage
1 cup (or more!) grated cheddar cheese

Directions:
In a small bowl, beat the eggs until they loosen up. Add the half and half, and green onions. Mix well, highly season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Butter a 12 by 10-inch baking pan. Line the pan with the bread, cutting and rearranging, if needed. Sprinkle the bread with the cooked sausage and cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the entire pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook covered for 25 to 30 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.

My Modifications:
I added green peppers and much more than 1 cup cheese. I used extra sharp cheddar, but I think any would do. Think of this dish as a big omelet over toast. Anything you would put in an omelet would be delicious in this. I also used 7 eggs...you could use more, if desired. Just increase the cooking time. Make sure to butter the pan really well to avoid stickage!

Supper Success

You probably know this by now, but I love to cook. I enjoy reading recipes, even if I never intend on making them, and I'm a sucker for any cookbook or cooking magazine. I'm pretty good at modifying existing recipes to suit my needs or preferences, but I'm not very good at creating my own ideas. Many times I know what things go together and what I want to use, but I lack the inspiration to actually create a dish. Enter allrecipes.com. I love this site because, not only the recipes user rated, but it features an "Ingredients" tab which allows you to input the ingredients you want to use and it will search the database for matching recipes. Pretty slick feature.

Last night I wanted to do a dish with shrimp & spinach and I found this recipe for Fresh Tomato Shrimp Pasta. Not only did it taste amazing, but it was fairly easy to prepare. I was pleased to be able to use some spinach, tomato, and fresh basil that I got in my CSA share last week. The only thing I did differently was to use whole wheat angel hair instead of fettucine and I served it with homemade bread garlic toast. We both had seconds!

sauteing garlic, onion, basil, tomato, oregano

spinach & shrimp added

tossed with pasta

Don't pictures make things seem much more appealing?? I did also add the cubed mozzarella because I had some, but I think the dish would be perfectly fine without it. Don't run out and buy the mozzarella specifically for this.

Peach Cobbler

I've really been enjoying the peaches down here. I think the season begins earlier than what I am used to because of the warmth, and there is no shortage of them, for sure! I had never made a peach cobbler before, but lately it's been sounding really good. I used this Taste of Home recipe and have made it twice in the past week and a half! It says to use 2 peaches (??) which doesn't make sense. The first time I made it I'm pretty sure I used 5 and this time I used 6. I think 5 was a perfect amount for an 8x8 pan. I also used just under 1/2 cup butter. It was deeeelish!

I feel very Southern. :)

You Might Think I'm Crazy...

...but I know what I saw. Or didn't see.

Yesterday I was out and about running errands. I needed to make a left hand turn onto the highway, but the turn signal was red, however the light was still green for cars going straight. So, I was stuck at this light for a while. It's fairly common down here to see people in the median or on the side of the road homeless or in need of money. I mean, it's not like every street corner, but I see it more here than I have before. Well, except for Northampton. Anyway, so there is a man standing in the median with a teeny piece of cardboard that simply says "Homeless. God Bless You." My heart always goes out to people that I see begging like that. I guess it makes me think about what got them to this point and how hard it would be to "come back" from it. Plus, I always just feel super self-aware when I'm sitting there in my brand new car, enjoying my perfect little life, and these poor people are practically staring me in the face. And I can't spare something to help?! Please. Ok, anyway, so it was almost 90 yesterday, not to mention humid and I figured this guy had to be thirsty. I had been to Target earlier in the day and gotten 2 large bottles of Starbucks Frappucino's. So, I rolled down my window and called out to him. He came over and I offered him one. I said it wasn't cold, but he said that was okay..it was wet! So, he proceeds to start telling me that he doesn't have anything in this world, but he has Jesus and even though he's homeless, Jesus still loves him and he can talk to Him. On & on he goes. At one point, I agree with him that the Bible does say that Jesus loves him. Finally, the arrow turns green (this was a seriously long light!) and I say, "Well, my arrow is green, hope you have a nice day!". He says thank you & God bless and off I go. So, I'm making my turn and look in my rearview mirror and...

HE WAS GONE!!

I'm telling you. NOT THERE. He did not cross the 4-lane highway, he was not hanging onto my bumper, he was just gone.

So, you think what you want. I'm just saying....

"Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13: 1-2