2011 | The Wannabe Chef

Yearly Archives: 2011

Paleo Mug Cakes

Written on December 2, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

You’re going to want to bookmark this one; trust me.

I never understood the appeal of mug cakes before recently. It seemed to me that if you wanted something chocolate and delicious you should put in the time and effort to bake some almond flour brownies and the extra hour would be well worth it. It also didn’t help that most mug cake recipes aren’t gluten-free, or—if they are—come out with a weird starchy taste to them.

But now I’ve seen the light and have come around to mug cakes, partly because the oven I use was 3 floors below where I lived at the time I made this and partly because the recipe is so damn good. When I was trying the recipe, I also wanted something that was sort of healthy. This is healthy enough even to be eaten for breakfast, which I’ve done on a few too many occasions.

The original recipe is only 4 ingredients, but you can add in things like chocolate chips, walnuts, candied ginger, vanilla extract, and anything else to shake things up.

Paleo Mug Cake

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 3 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 cake):

1 small ripe banana
1 1/2 Tablespoons almond butter(or any nut butter)
1 egg
2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons sweetener(optional)
Chocolate chips, walnuts, dried fruit, or other mix-ins(optional)

Method:

With a fork, mash the banana into a smooth puree.
Mix the almond butter, egg, cocoa powder, and extra sweetener if using into the banana puree until it forms an even batter.
Fold in any mix-ins into the batter that you’d like. Otherwise, our the batter into a mug or other microwave safe container. Be sure to only fill the container up to 2/3rds the way because it will expand in the microwave.
Microwave on high for 2 and 1/2 minutes until the center is set. Carefully remove the mug from the microwave and enjoy hot, cold, or at room temperature.

I don’t add sweetener to mine and it still tastes delicious. I’ve only ever made it with almond butter but I’m sure peanut butter would be a nice alteration. The banana flavor is definitely prevalent, especially once it cools, but that only reminds me of a chocolate covered banana which I love. The best things about these cakes are that they don’t have any sort of flour flavor to them and are rich and fudgy like a brownie. The worst thing about this recipe is once you make it you’ll never stop.

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The Best (Vegan) Quinoa Stuffing

Written on December 1, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

Since I eat quinoa all the time, I get asked a lot what recipe should somebody who’s not really a fan of quinoa try to get themselves to like it. This is that recipe.

I made this last Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas Eve since it was such a hit. If you’ve never seen 80 year old aunts nudging each other to get the serving spoon for more quinoa, it’s quite hysterical. The only difference I made this year was using oil in place of butter and vegetable broth for chicken broth so that this was both vegan and gluten-free. You won’t miss the white bread in this untraditional stuffing.

If you want to save some time and chopping, you can buy pre-diced mirepoix at most grocery stores like Trader Joe’s nowadays.

The Best Quinoa Dressing

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 8 servings):

2 cups quinoa, rinsed
4 cups vegetable broth(or chicken broth)
2 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 tablespoon rosemary
1/4 cup cane sugar

Method:

Bring the quinoa and broth to a boil in a large pot. Cover the pot and turn off the heat, letting the quinoa sit to absorb the water.
In a pan, sauté the onion, celery, and carrots in 2 tablespoons of oil until the onions are translucent and the carrots have cooked through.
When the quinoa is fully cooked, add in the sautéed vegetables, sugar, and herbs. Mix those in while fluffing the quinoa.
Move to a serving bowl and serve warm.

I’ve never been so happy for Thanksgiving leftovers.

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Yellow Mashed Potatoes

Written on November 30, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

Every year for Thanksgiving we’ve had mashed Russet potatoes, and they’ve never really caught my attention. This year, since I’ve started to warm up a lot to the organic yellow potatoes I find at Whole Foods, I thought I’d try making mashed potatoes with those. They’re slightly waxier and starchier than Russet, which makes them perfect comfort food.

This recipe uses no cream or milk—just butter, which makes it very low in lactose and milk proteins. You could easily substitute a vegan margarine for dairy-free alternative. The chives and seasoning help to give it a subtle flavor while still highlighting the potatoes. I keep the skin on since it adds some fiber and nutrients and gives the dish texture.

Yellow Mashed Potatoes

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 80 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 10-12 servings):

5lbs organic yellow potatoes
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped chives

Method:

Bake the potatoes skin on for an hour and 20 minutes at 350 degrees until all of them are cooked through.
Let the potatoes cool enough to be handled. Dice them into quarters for easy processing.
Add half of the potatoes, 1/4 cup of butter, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and puree until mostly smooth. Scoop the potatoes into a serving bowl and repeat with the same ingredients.
Fold the chopped chives into the potatoes. Garnish with extra chives. Serve hot.

Maybe if I start recipe testing now I’ll master the art of gluten-free gravy by next Thanksgiving.

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Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Written on November 29, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

I’ll be the first to admit I hardly eat like the paleo diet; I do, however, when such tasty desserts fit the bill.

I couldn’t decide between making a pumpkin or pecan pie this year. I decided to split the difference and make a pumpkin pie with a pecan-date crust. Since gluten is out of the question, I knew I’d have to get a little creative with the recipe.

For the filling I used butternut squash puree; this tastes much more similar to canned “pumpkin” than fresh sugar pumpkin. I also added some almond butter for richness and flavor. And the maple syrup sweetener adds a nice amber sweetness.

The crust tastes like a soft Larabar. The cinnamon adds amazing flavor to the pie. I was impressed that it held up so well to being baked for an hour. You could also use it as the crust for a raw pie with a little chilling.

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients(Makes 1 pie):

1 1/4 cup pecans
8oz dates
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups butternut squash puree
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 eggs
1/4 cup almond butter
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

Method:

In a food processor, blend the dates, pecans, cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of salt until the dates and pecans are finely ground.
Slowly add the water while the dough is pureeing until it comes together and forms a ball. Turn off the food processor.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Press the dough into a pie pan so that there’s 1/4-inch of dough on the bottom and along the sides.
Mix together all of the remaining ingredients until the filling is smooth and uniform.
Pour the filling into the crust. Put the pie onto a water bath and bake for an hour or until the center has cooked through.

Don’t wait until next Thanksgiving to make this pie; it’s too good to wait. Find an excuse to make it this week. You’re almost out of leftovers, right? Right?

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Cinnamon Honey Butter

Written on November 28, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

This week is all about Thanksgiving recipes. In some respects that was poor planning on my part, since Thanksgiving won’t come around again for another 51 weeks; but I hope some of these recipes you’ll be able to work in and enjoy for Christmas or other times during the year, like this one.

This was so simple to make it almost didn’t feel like a recipe at all. And yet despite how easy it is, the flavor is rich and complex. You could easily make this to keep around for breakfast on toast or dinner on squash. It’s kind of addicting; before you know it you’ll be slathering this on anything.

This recipe calls for unsalted butter; I think it’s always best to keep that in stock since you can always add salt later on. If all you have is salted butter, just omit the added salt in the recipe and it will still taste great.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
6 Tablespoons honey
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

In a small bowl, work all of the ingredients together until completely mixed together.
Scoop the butter onto a piece of Saran wrap. Roll the butter into a log and place it in the refrigerator to solidify.
Unwrap the butter and put it on a butter dish to serve.

When I made this, I licked the bowl I mixed it in. It was simultaneously the grossest and best part of my day. The end.

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My Marathon(Or Anytime) Playlist

Written on November 27, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I listen to music whenever I’m running or working out. I usually listen to music and ~~try to~~ sing along when I’m cooking and think I’m alone until somebody comes by and wonders who’s killing a cat. And now I’m listening to music as I write this.

You’re not really supposed to wear headphones when you’re running a race, but I couldn’t stand listening to my own thoughts for 4 hours. That would drive me nuts. My strategy for long runs is always to distract myself with music that’ll get my heart racing. A good playlist is invaluable for a marathon to take the focus off the pain.

This is the playlist I used for my most recent marathon. It’s pretty evenly mixed between 3 different genres for variety. I put the whole thing on random so I never really knew what was coming up.

Top 40:

These types of songs are great because they’re usually up-tempo and kind of catchy. Plus you’ll probably already know them because they’re played on the radio every day.

Country:

I’m a big country fan. For the skeptics, I promise it isn’t all songs about dogs dying, wives leaving, and drinking too many beers on a Friday night. There are definitely those songs but they aren’t all the songs. I usually look for the songs with a good, strong rhythm that you could picture people in a bar in Texas line dancing to(not that I’ve done that… yet).

Alternative Pop/Rock:

These types of songs are really good for running in particular since the beat is so strong and they get your heart racing. I’m not a fan of the crazy, screaming metal rock like Metallica, though that works for some people, but alternative rock I find fun and invigorating.

Some albums to check out:

Here are a few of my favorite band and albums. If you’re looking to buy new music, I suggest listening to a few of these and seeing what catches your ear. Most of them are available to preview on Spotify.

Masterpiece Theater—Marianas Trench

Ever After—Marianas Trench(not on my playlist since it came out the day after my marathon, but I’ve been listening to it ever since)

Shallow Bay: The Best Of Breaking Benjamin—Breaking Benjamin

Incredible Machine—Sugarland

Various Songs—Miranda Lambert

The Singles Collection—Britney Spears

What are you favorite workout songs lately?

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Thanksgiving 2011

Written on November 25, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Holiday

Expect a lot of recipes to come next week. Until then I’ll be digesting pie and Christmas shopping for myself online. I suggest you do the same.

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Sweet Freedom, Round 2

Written on November 23, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Restaurant Review

While I was in Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but take a trip to Sweet Freedom Bakery. I came here the last time I was in Philly and fell in love. It’s the only bakery I’ve ever been to where I could order absolutely everything there and not have to ask about the ingredients(which they proudly display), and their baked goods taste just as good as any others.

I intended to a couple of their cinnamon buns(which are incredible) but sadly they had none this time around. There menu had changed a lot since the last time I was there and a lot of the pastries were seasonal. The “cupcake tops” caught my eye.

I’m a huge frosting fan. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve had layer cakes where I just ate the frosting and filling and left the cake part. Cake just isn’t as delicious. Naturally, anything with a frosting to cake ratio of 2:1 is right up my alley. I tried the chocolate flavor; while the frosting was great, the cake was a little disappointing, which made me glad I didn’t get the whole cupcake. It tasted a little starchy from the gluten-free flours used; I’m guessing the recipe has a bit too much potato or tapioca starch and it overpowers the cocoa.

The other dessert I tried was their “magic bars”. It looked small and unassuming, but ended up being my favorite of the two. The bottom tasted like a homemade graham cracker-peanut butter crust. On top was a chocolate ganache and flaked coconut. I don’t think I could get tired of chocolate and peanut butter desserts, and this just attested to that. It’s something that also looks easy to make at home so I’ll be trying to replicate their recipe soon.

Obviously I’m a fan of Sweet Freedom Bakery, but I could have told you that before I went. I’d definitely recommend visiting if you’re in the neighborhood.

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Philadelphia Marathon Recap

Written on November 22, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Running

8 months ago I ran my first marathon. I swore I would never do it again… and then I signed up for the Philadelphia marathon 5 days later.

What made me change my mind so quickly? I got injured really early during training for my first marathon and was really lucky just to be able to finish. Originally I had hoped to run under 4 hours but learned to live with 4:19:37… or at least for 5 days.

The Philadelphia Marathon appealed to me because it was a big marathon in the North-East region which has no registration standards or lottery. It also helped that Fall in the North-East is perfect for distance running and Philadelphia is fairly flat. I came down in April and ran a 16-mile run here along Kelly Drive, which ended up being the same route as miles 13-17 and 21-26, so that worked out pretty perfectly.

As for training, I posted my plan here but the core of it was fitting in 3 20-mile runs. This didn’t really make me feel 100% prepared for the marathon; then again, knowing me, the only way I would have felt prepared is if I had run a practice marathon and in the time I was aiming for, which is usually considered excessive as far as training plans go. What the 3 20-milers taught me was that 2:50:00 was a reasonable 20-mile time for me and that if I did that I could drop my pace significantly over the last 6 miles and still make my goal, so that was more or less my marathon strategy.

Funny Encouragement Ecard: Good luck not hitting the wall and shitting your pants in public.

Fueling during the race became my biggest obstacle to overcome(you can skip this paragraph if you don’t want to hear about bathroom talk, but I’d say it’s a pretty big deal when it comes to marathons). I have GI problems when I’m not traveling 5 hours and anxious about running a marathon; this weekend threw my body off way off. I ate oatmeal and some almond butter a few hours before the marathon, tried to go to the bathroom and no luck. I knew drinking water or Gatorade or a GU during the race would send me racing for a porta-potty and use up time I didn’t have, so my plan ended up being drinking as little as possible for the first 20 miles. This might sound crazy, but since I never ate or drank during my 20-mile runs, it wasn’t a huge shock to my system. And the cool weather helped since I wasn’t sweating much.

The first 6 miles or so were pretty crowded and it was hard to go ahead of many people. Normally this would be a bad thing but I think the crowd helped to pace me and prevent me from going out too fast at the start.

The next 7 miles people started breaking up. It made it a lot easier to find a comfortable running spot. It was pretty noticeable when the half-marathoners split off from the marathoners but there were a surprising number of full runners so the course didn’t feel empty at all after the break.

Miles 13 through 18 were surprisingly good. It felt like I had picked up my pace a bit and was passing a lot of people. It really helped that Kelly Drive was flat and that I had ran it before so I had an idea of what to expect.

18-20 had us go down through Manayunk and back. This is when I first started feeling exhausted. I tried to drink a cup of Gatorade and water and later an orange slice from a spectator which helped a little; still I knew I couldn’t overdo it on the liquids if I wanted to avoid using the bathroom. The crowds down at this part were great and kept everyone’s spirits up. When I checked my watch I realized I finished the first 20 miles in around 2:53, so just around goal.

The last 6 miles were by far the toughest. I think there are two halves of a marathon: The first 20 miles and the last 6.2. My legs were exhausted and I was definitely in need of more electrolytes. I tried to zone out into my playlist as best I could to not obsess over how much longer it was. I remember seeing that I had almost an hour to run 5 miles and figured I was in good position. Still, my pace dropped by about a minute each mile because I just didn’t want to go on anymore.

When I got to the last 5k I told myself it was only 30 more minutes of hell. I thought about taking walking breaks but questioned if I had time for them. I settled into a 10 minute/mile running pace for the last couple of miles telling myself it would only be 20 minutes of hell and that was do-able. As cliché as they are, the signs that said “Pain is only temporary” really helped me through this part and reminded me that if I couldn’t hold out for the toughest part than what was I training for all this time? There were also a ton of people cheering the last .75 mile so that helped to keep me going, and once I could see the finish I just took off and forgot my legs hurt at all.

I knew as soon as I finished that it was faster than 4 hours. After drinking a bottle of water and a cup of Gatorade, I checked online and saw that my official time was 3:52:17. That couldn’t have been a bigger relief.

Funny Encouragement Ecard: Best of luck finishing a marathon that doesn't involve episodes of Law & Order.

Now that I have a sub 4:00 marathon under my belt, I’m not rushing to sign up for another any time soon(don’t quote me on that in 5 days). But really I don’t have any more running goals in mind at the moment, so if I did train for another race it’d be more for the fun of it. You call a marathon a lot of names when you’re running it; “fun” isn’t one of those.

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Peanuts And Pretzels Dark Chocolate Bark

Written on November 21, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

Over this weekend I went to Philadelphia and ran a marathon. How did I do? I don’t actually know yet; I’m writing this 2 days before the actual marathon. You can probably check my Twitter. I hope to have an actual recap up by tomorrow.

But whether I hit my goal or not isn’t important(OK, it’s kind of important); what matters more is that I had fun with some awesome people. Madeline and her boyfriend were kind enough to let me crash at their place the night before the marathon so it only seemed fair that I shower them in chocolate.

Madeline and Boots love gluten-free pretzels and gluten-free chocolate covered pretzels even though neither are gluten-free, which I find hysterical as someone who’s gluten-free and never even bought pretzels before I decided to make these. I don’t know that they like peanut butter, but I’m just going to assume that that’s the case, too. Because—I mean—who doesn’t like peanut butter?

I sneaked a piece before I gave the rest away(because you can’t give something as a present and not taste it first to make sure it’s good, right?) and they were good. I would have added a touch more salt; when I tried the gluten-free pretzels on their own I realized they weren’t as salty as I expected them to be and I think the sweetness is a little overpowering. Otherwise I hope these will be a hit. And if you enjoy things that are sweet and salty I’d highly recommend them, too.

Peanuts And Pretzels Dark Chocolate Bark

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes(allow 20 minutes for cooling)

Ingredients:

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate OR 1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup crushed pretzels
1/4 cup salted peanuts
1/4 cup peanut butter chips

Method:

In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt the chocolate until it’s smooth and liquid.
Spread the chocolate out on a piece of parchment paper in a 1/2-inch thick layer.
Evenly distribute the peanuts, pretzels, and peanut butter chips over the chocolate. Press the ingredients lightly into the chocolate to make sure that they stick.
Refrigerate the chocolate for 20 minutes until it has hardened.
Break the bark into individual-sized pieces. Store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Peanuts-And-Pretzels-Dark-Chocolate-Bark-square

I hope to have a full marathon/weekend recap up tomorrow morning, but if it’s a little late it’s because I’m going from Philadelphia to Boston to Providence and then back to Massachusetts to cook and photograph and eat Thanksgiving dinner. Basically it’s going to be a bust week and I can’t wait for all of it.

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