Meatloaf, In Cupcake Form

First of all, I love Pinterest.  I continue to be inspired by all sorts of things that people post on the site - and the food ideas are plentiful.  I absolutely couldn't resist when I came across a picture of a meatloaf cupcake and had to repin it immediately.  Thank you skinnytaste.com for posting your "skinny turkey meatloaf cupcakes" and passing on the inspiration!  I thought it would be a fun meal to make for Valentine's Day so here is my bison meatloaf version:

Bison Meatloaf Cupcakes w/ Garlic Mashed Potato Frosting

1 lb ground bison

1 egg

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/8 cup wheat germ

2 tbsp Honey Bunny ketchup 

2 tbsp organic mustard

1 tbsp Honey Bunny bbq sauce

1 carrot, shredded

fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp italian seasoning herb blend

1/2 small onion, finely diced

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot - reserve for garnish

Combine all ingredients well.  Spoon into lined muffin tins.  I found some foil liners that didn't even require the use of a muffin tin and they worked out very well.  Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through (if using a meat thermometer: internal temp of 170)

Bison is a very lean meat so that is why I made sure to add lots of wet ingredients and use flax seed and wheat germ as the binders, instead of breadcrumbs.  Omitting the wheat germ also would easily make this a gluten free recipe.  

*note:  I decided to plug this particular brand today as I've used Honey Bunny products for quite a while now and absolutely love them - organic, local and honey to sweeten rather than sugar.

Garlic Mashed Potato Frosting

2 cloves, roasted garlic 

fresh thyme

pepper

milk (almond, cow, soy)

1 tbsp organic mayonnaise

Peel and cube 2 potatoes.  Boil until fork tender.  Meanwhile, wrap 2 cloves of garlic in foil and pop in the oven with the meatloaf.  The garlic will be soft and sweet.  You should be able to squeeze the clove out of it's skin but if it doesn't easily come out just peel the clove and use the back of your knife to "puree" it before adding it to your mashed potatoes.  

Drain and mash the potatoes with the remaining ingredients, adding the milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.  Add a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes to the top of each meatloaf and garnish with a carrot heart.  Thanks to my mom for the fantastic idea of a carrot heart, the perfect "cherry on top"!  To make the carrot heart simply cut a carrot into thin coins, making four cuts - two to the bottom to create the bottom point and a little v on top.  To smooth out the top points carefully use a vegetable peeler.  Love it!  

Another Pinterest find was this honey sweetened lava cake from acouplecooks.com.  I used their recipe as is and it was fantastic.  I overcooked mine on the first try but as they said, still delicious as a normal cake!  

Baked Spinach & Artichoke Dip

A couple of years ago I had a cold asiago/artichoke dip and thought it was delicious (even though I thought I didn't like artichokes).  Turns out I like artichokes when they are disguised in dip form.  And then recently I've been getting into Pinterest, a website where people "pin" things they like.  I love the site as it gives me inspiration for many things, and lots of recipe/food ideas.  I saw a recipe for the dip and it reminded me how tasty it was.  I figured it would make a good dinner for a night where I felt more like munching!  Here is my version:

Baked Spinach & Artichoke Dip

1/2 cup organic mayonnaise

1/4 cup organic cream cheese 

2 tsp stone ground mustard

splash lemon juice

1 cup organic frozen spinach

1 can artichoke hearts, drained

1 clove garlic, crushed

pepper to taste

2 green onions

1/4 cup shredded organic cheese (reserve some for top)

Combine first four ingredients in a food processor and combine well.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse until well incorporated and desired consistency is reached (I'm not a fan of chunky sauces/dips so I pulsed it well).  Preheat oven to 350.  Place mixture in a small baking dish, cover with thin layer of cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and golden.   Serve with whole wheat baguette slices, oat crackers (my fave for flavour combination), seed and rice crackers and veggies for dipping.   

Memories of P.F. Chang's

I was in Phoenix, Arizona recently and we had dinner at P.F. Chang's.  I had never been but I will be back!  It was such yummy Chinese food!  Earlier today I happened to come across a picture of the lettuce wraps on Pinterest and I immediately decided that this would be dinner tonight!  I checked out a number of recipes online and decided to use this one as a reference and go from there.

Lettuce Wraps (reminiscent of P.F. Chang's)

ground organic chicken breast

2 large cloves garlic, minced

low sodium soy sauce (enough to coat chicken)

1-2 tbsp honey

fresh ground pepper, to taste

tsp fresh grated ginger 

splash rice wine vinegar

mushrooms, chopped

2 green onions, finely chopped, as garnish

lettuce leaves (iceberg would be ideal but romaine leaves work like a little boat)

brown rice vermicelli - prepared according to package directions

1 tsp sesame oil

Brown ground chicken breast.  Add mushrooms, garlic and ginger.  Honey, soy sauce and vinegar are added when the mushrooms are cooked down.  Add 1/8-1/4 cup of water and put the lid on to simmer while you chop onions, prepare lettuce "wraps", and soften noodles.  P.F. Chang's had crispy noodles which I liked but I added some sunflower seeds (which must go in every wrap type meal I make!) for some additional crunch.  The recipe I looked at used peanuts which would be tasty.   At the last minute I added the sesame oil to the meat mixture and combined well.  Layer noodles on the bottom, spoon meat over the noodles and top with green onion.  Dig in!

Pumpkin Sauce

The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company opened my eyes to pumpkin bechamel one fall day.  They used it as the sauce on their thanksgiving inspired pizza.  Delicious.  I had blogged about it and tried to recreate that pizza when I got home.  The leftovers became a cannelloni dish.  Yesterday I put another spin on it, using chicken chorizo instead of turkey on the pizza and then created a leftover pasta bake with rigatoni noodles, pumpkin bechamel, chicken chorizo sausage, chopped spinach, chopped yams, caramelized onions and cottage cheese.

Season's Eatings!

It's hard to believe that the Christmas season is over for another year.  Seriously, where did it go?  I love the anticipation of Christmas - making preparations, buying gifts, planning menus, playing Christmas music around the house, treats, food, food and more food... but it goes by in a whirlwind.  Personally, I think that adds to the wonder of the whole season.  It makes us want to savour it all the more.  Here are some of our culinary experiences this Christmas, made all that much better with the company of dear friends:    

The first photograph is red velvet pancakes with a cream cheese icing; a mix given to us as a gift.  Doesn't it look delightfully festive?

This year I chose a fresh turkey and it seemed to be slightly more tender and juicy than it's frozen counterparts.  I prepared it the same way as I normally do with a compound butter (see below) and covered in cheesecloth.    

Compound butter:  Soften organic butter and combine with a mixture of (chopped) fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, orange zest and pepper.  Gently use fingers to separate the turkey skin from the meat and then spread the compound butter inside.  Place two slices of orange on the breasts.  Place remaining orange rinds, sprigs of rosemary and thyme inside the main cavity.  

 Soak unbleached, food-safe cheesecloth in Vegetable Stock and place over the turkey, covering as much of the exposed bird as possible.  This is for an open roasting method at 325.  Heat a couple of cups of vegetable broth for the first basting (using pan juices for the next bastings), keeping the cheesecloth moist throughout the cooking process.  Remove the cheesecloth for the last half hour and it magically turns golden brown without burning.  

It's no secret that I love stuffing.  Looove it.  My mom makes the best stuffing, and I think it tastes so good because she stuffs the bird but I get freaked out by all the warnings with stuffing and food borne illnesses.  So, I have been trying to create my own 'baked separate' version that emulates the flavours of my mom's.  This years was the best thus far.  

Begin by laying an entire loaf of bread on cookie sheets to dry out overnight.  (Or you could lightly toast it if you forgot to do step 1).  I used a good whole wheat loaf with flax.  When you're ready to finish the stuffing saute 2 onions (finely chopped) and about 8-10 stalks of celery until softened.  The day before I had roasted a head of garlic so I added a few cloves at the end, just to combine with the celery and onions.  Roasted garlic has a wonderful aroma and sweet taste.  

Chop/tear bread into cubes and put in a large bowl.  Add softened celery/onions/garlic.  Now, you'll need your nose.  Add a few tablespoons of dried sage and adjust as desired.  You can also add some fresh sage leaves but the dried sage really makes sure you get that wonderfully "sage-y" stuffing with every bite.   Dried savoury and pepper to season, then it's time to add some melted butter (I can't recall how much I added - perhaps 1/4 cup) and organic, low sodium vegetable stock.  This part is difficult to measure.  It depends on how dry the bread is.  I begin adding and stirring until all the bread is moist and has soaked up the stock (without having it swimming in liquid).  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour.  I put it in when I take the turkey out to rest.         

Roast turkey and pan gravy; sage and celery stuffing; garlic mashed potatoes (add some butter, milk and a few cloves of roasted garlic to the potatoes and mash well); roasted brussel sprouts with orange juice, cranberries and pecans; mashed rutabagas; carrots, cranberry sauce and onion buns.

 Still have room for dessert?  Warm gingerbread with dulce de leche ice cream.  I really wanted to attempt to make this dessert 'clean' but at the last minute it was decided that 1/4 cup of brown sugar in the recipe could be a Christmas indulgence.  I really wondered if date jam could serve as a substitution. Perhaps I should test this out in the near future ;)

Turkey leftover sandwich:

Whole grain bread, mayo, lettuce, cranberry sauce, turkey and stuffing.  

Remembering That I Love To Cook

Somehow, I forgot. In the midst of life - hectic schedules and exhausted evenings - I felt uninspired, eating so I didn't fall over rather than being mindful of how I was fueling my body and taking joy in the preparation of a meal. It sure takes a concerted effort, intentional planning and commitment to get a balanced, clean meal on the table. It's usually the first thing to go in our busy lives, isn't it? As I realign my priorities, yet again, I have been encouraging myself to make the time to plan and prepare meals that I savour with every bite. (Rather than that whole, 'eating so I don't fall down' approach.)

This week began with slow roasted short ribs that I used again in tonight's meal: Short Rib Stroganoff. Oh boy, was it tasty. (p.s. Have I ever mentioned the smaller plate trick? I often serve our dinners on the "side plates" to curb over-eating. It helps you control your portion size!)

Short Rib Stroganoff

leftover cooked organic beef short ribs, with reserved cooking liquid

button mushrooms

pepper, to taste

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp organic butter

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/4-1/2 cup organic 0% plain yogurt

kale chips

I braised my short ribs a couple of days earlier in red wine with thyme, rosemary, a couple of smashed garlic cloves, an onion and chopped fennel. After cooling, I put the leftovers in the fridge as is, with the cooking liquid and all the aromatics. Today I

removed the meat, scraped off as much of the solidified fat as I could, took the meat off the bones (put that meat aside) and returned the bones to the pot. Then I added enough water to cover the bones and let it simmer for about 1/2 hour or so - the longer the better to extract further depth of flavour. The smell of the stock simmering was so rich and comforting!

Meanwhile, prepare a skillet with the olive oil and butter and preheat to med-high heat. Once the butter is melted add a couple of cups chopped mushrooms to the pan. Sautee until golden brown, reducing heat when the liquid has cooked out. Add the minced garlic, cooking for a couple of minutes then stir in the reserved short rib meat. Season with pepper.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare pasta or rice of choice according to package directions.

Strain the beef stock, skimming the top to remove some of the fat. Return the strained stock to the pot and thicken with your preferred method. (Cornstarch, brown rice flour, wheat flour, etc). Simmer until it begins to thicken, adding more water if it gets too thick. Add the meat/mushroom/garlic mixture to the thickened sauce, again adding a little water and mixing well if it is too thick. Finally add the yogurt stirring to combine. Heat through then spoon over pasta. Top with crushed kale chips. Enjoy!

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And how about a delicious pizza? I love creating new toppings! This one has chopped steamed kale, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and spicy chicken sausage with goat mozzarella and "cream" sauce base. (Basic white sauce using milk - almond, soy, dairy - with garlic and goat mozzarella)

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I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible, especially processed meats. So I was delighted to find natural corned beef from Sunworks Farm. I turned a plain corned beef sandwich into a cozy grilled version. All it took was some stone ground mustard, the corned beef, goat cheddar cheese on some sprouted grain bread which was then dipped into a well beaten egg and grilled. Served with yam fries.

Corned Beef Monte Cristo

Bison Roast & Scalloped Root Vegetable Au Gratin

I wish I could put a scratch and sniff button on my blog so you could smell how good the house smells right now. A bison roast slowly braising all afternoon will do that.
I had a bison inside round roast that I seared in my small dutch, added a chopped yellow onion and a few cloves smashed garlic. I seasoned the roast with fresh cracked pepper and dry mustard and finished it off with a generous "splash" of organic red wine. Then the lid went on and the pot went into a 300 degree oven for 3 1/2 hours. (I got a little excited and didn't take a picture of it when I took it out of the oven.)

As a side dish I decided to try rutabagas and golden beets together. I've done a turnip/potato scalloped dish before that turned out well so why not with beets? The main problem I've encountered with anything scalloped is the vegetables not being cooked all the way through. I peeled and sliced both the beets and the rutabaga and steamed them for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile I made a white sauce starting with a roux - melt a couple tablespoons of butter, add equal parts flour and whisk until smooth and flour taste is cooked out (just a minute or so). Then slowly whisk in milk and let simmer and thicken. Add more milk if it gets too thick.

Then I layered the vegetables in a buttered baking dish with a layer of the white sauce. Next I sprinkled each layer with fresh thyme, parsley and finely chopped onions. On the top layer I ended with the last bit of sauce (which I had to thin out slightly to make sure I covered the top) and finely grated some organic mozzarella cheese to finish it off. I put it in the 300 degree oven for the last half hour of the bison roast's cooking time. When I took the roast out I turned the broiler on to get the top golden brown.

The last touch was preparing pan gravy while the roast rested. Yum.