Working on my Christmas desserts...& Thanksgiving recap

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what I want to do for dessert this year.  I've made four different lists, crossed out more than I've left uncrossed, and re-written the list on way too many scraps of paper.  Good thing we are recyclers!  I have a few favorite recipes I love to make, but we are such a small group that I feel like I am the one who ends up eating mostly everything.

I've gained ten pounds since my gallbladder surgery.  SIGH.  VERY LOUD SIGH.

A nurse friend told me last night not to stress about it, that my body needs time to adjust, but I know the truth,  I've grown lazy and have a tendency to binge eat with no ability to portion control.  I need to get off this emotional path I am on and get healthy again!  I am realistic and know that this is NOT the time of year to try to change.  Too much going on, too much stress with work and life and getting everything done in time.

So where was I?  Oh, yeah.

For Thanksgiving, I made a wonderful assortment of single serve desserts.  Mini Cannolis, mini peanut butter cheesecakes, mini apple pies and turtle cookies.  Much easier to watch how much you eat when you are only having a small piece, right?  As long as you don't keep going back for more and more, right?

I had a picture of these yummy desserts on my iPhone, but someone (who shall remain nameless) deleted all the food pics from the Photo Stream in effort to make more room in our cloud storage.  :(

So here are the links for Thanksgiving yumminess (all recipes were made with clean ingredients, of course:)

Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Mini Cannoli

Apple Pies

Turtle Cookies

Well, I gotta say while I enjoyed not having pies, and doing something different, I think my sister-in-law and her family were disappointed.  They expected and wanted pies.  I think all the time and effort I put into making all of the above went unappreciated.  So next year they will get a boring apple pie and a boring pumpkin pie.  Hmpf.  I ended up with a lot of leftovers (left a lot at their house too) and some even went in the garbage after a few days.  So so much for that.

Now I am back to Christmas...do I stick with my traditional cookies to avoid disappointment by my guests, or do I make what I want?  LOL Or do I do a combination?  There are only eight of us; eight.  Four adults, three teen boys, and a pre-teen girl.  Most who have experienced teen boys would argue that three teen boys = six adults, so I should count them as double.  I don't want tons of leftovers, no one wants me bringing plates of cookies anymore (I used to LOVE baking for an entire weekend then giving it all away) so what to do?

I'm so overthinking this.  Kathy

Post Thanksgiving Yumminess

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Thanksgivukkah, or how ever you spent the day.  Our meal was delicious, and very filling.

We spent the day at my sister-in-law's house.  Alas, as hard as I tried I could not get good photos of most of our meal.  Hard when it's not your place.  I wanted a pic of my herb infused olive oil & artisan bread from my bread maker, but it was not displayed in a form pleasing to the camera.  Again, hard when it's not your house.  I should have done it at home before I left.

But I can share some of my desserts; again, not nicely displayed but in their travelling containers.

 Pecan pie rugelah 

Sugar cookies in seasonal shapes.  Only veggie based colors used. 

Apple pie!! 

My hubby made this yummy veggie turkey for an appetizer!

Now...time to plan Christmas!

Happy Eating!

Kathy

Clean Thanksgiving Meal

So what's on your table this year?

I am going to my lovely sister in law's house, so most of my meal will be out of my control.  How to handle that? Luckily my clean eating is not a secret to them, and in the recent past my sister in law has started cleaning up what and how they eat.  But they still have a long way to go...and...she works full-time.  So what will that mean for me? A yummy meal with family.  And a no thank you to most of the leftovers.

My contribution to the feast are the appetizers and the desserts.  Nice healthy, clean appetizers and desserts.

Did I mention that my sister in law's husband is Jewish?  In case you haven't heard, the first night of Hanukkah is also Thanksgiving.  So we are blending the two traditions for a unique meal this year.

Being raised Christian, I don't know too much about Hanukkah traditions, so I hit the internet to see what traditional foods are served for the holiday, so I could plan something fun.  I found out it's all about oil and cheese.  Deep fried foods, especially.  Well...my gallbladder does not agree with fried foods in general. Soooooooo...a challenge was to be had here!!

I've got some ideas, working on ways to clean them up.  Come back tomorrow to see what I came up with!!

Happy Eating,
Kathy

Avoiding Toxic Chemicals in your Thanksgiving Feast

This was shared with me today; am curious about what they say about rice.  I use organic brown rice on a regular basis...must research this more!!

http://healthychild.org/10-ways-to-avoid-toxic-chemicals-in-your-thanksgiving-feast/

Happy Eating!
Kathy

Non-GMO Thanksgiving

Okay, so it's been a bit longer than I had planned, but I've been really busy.  Doing great keeping with my increased clean eating, but I do admit I indulge a bit every now and then. Very little now, so much  more so then. :)

This came across my Facebook page today, and I had to run and share it.

 http://farmersmarkets.streamshare.com/posts/8531#/8531

I can't figure out how to post the picture here; but it's a guide to help you when planning your Thanksgiving meal.  Tells you which foods are safe, and which ones to be cautious of.  Now, keep in mind, this is for GMOs only; does not take into account pesticides or anything else used by farmers.  It is not an organic list.  Just to help you figure out which foods would contain GMOs and which ones do not.

Happy Eating!
Kathy

Clean Eating for Thanksgiving Part 3

The apple pie!

Yesterday was such a whirlwind of cooking, preparing, etc that I did not get to take too many pictures. My in-laws are what we call round here "snowbirds." They spend half a year in New Jersey and half a year in Florida.  So as they prepare to flee the chilly weather, we do Christmas on Thanksgiving. So presents are part of my Thanksgiving as well.  But I did get to take pictures of the apple pie!

My version of my mom's 1950-something apple pie recipe:

pie crust for double crust pie, rolled into thinness you like and bottom crust placed in pie pan


2-3T whole wheat flour
1-2t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
3/4-1c sugar; I like turbinado, esp in apple pies; the molasses flavor really adds to the pie
2T butter, cut into chunks







mixture of tart, medium and sweet local apples, # depends on size or pie & size of apples.
      (for a 9" pie I have at least 7 medium apples)




Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl.  You want this ready as the apples will start to brown pretty quickly. 






Peel, core & slice the apples. I have been reading a lot about NOT peeling the apples; how we are throwing away all that great fiber and other nutrients when we do that.  I want to try it one day and see how it comes out.  For Thanksgiving, I needed to keep my pie the same as always.  If you are fortunate enough to be able to get/afford organic apples, I can see leaving on the skins.  But regular store apples I most likely will not.

Once they are all sliced, toss the apples with the dry ingredients.








Slowly pour them into crust-lined pie pan, stopping to pat them down, adjusting to fill in large gaps.  The apples will settle as they bake; but if there is too much gaping, you will end up with a space between your apples and top crust.

Dot the apples with butter.  I like to stick in the small butter cubes as I am layering the apples.


Prepare top crust. I used three small cookie cutters to cut out leaves; sometimes I just carve an apple out of the center.  Whatever you like!! Make sure to put small air vents around large crust areas; helps crust mold to top of pie.





I use aluminum foil all around the bottom of my pie, bring it up and around the crust edges to make my little crust guard.  Burned edges are such a turn off on a pie!  You can see mid-process in the picture on the side.  Last 10-15 minutes of baking, loosen the the foil to brown up the crust edges.  This method also catches and contains the drips.

Bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes, depending on size of pie. Beautiful!!

Cool on wire rack at least two hours.  I remove the foil for cooling.

Clean Eating for Thanksgiving part 2

Desserts!  My personal favorite part of the meal.

Due to gallbladder problems, I am in a strict "as low fat as I can go" meal plan at the moment,  but that will not stop me for preparing Thanksgiving desserts!  While I may not get to enjoy a lot of what I am making, I am doing everything I can to make sure I can enjoy part of it.  I will come back and post pics as I am cooking.

Desserts for our Thanksgiving Meal:
apple pie                                    toppings:  chocolate syrup, caramel, whipped cream
apple crisp
pumpkin biscotti
ice cream

I can't eat the pie, so the crisp is really for me. If I am just going to eat out the filling of the pie, I might as well make something else.

My apple pie is an old recipe of my mom's.  She had a Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook from 1953 that I have kept and use whenever I can.  I love old cookbooks, since they were made before most processed foods, they give you great recipes. One thing that drives me nuts is when I get a recipe and it calls for something already prepared. I don't like when tv chefs do that either.  I will do a separate entry on the pie.

I am thrilled to have found some GREAT cooking websites.  One of my favorites is Simply Recipes.  Elise's blog is my first stop for recipes.  In fact, most of what I am using today comes from there.

Elise's Apple Crisp

Elise's Pumpkin Biscotti

Elise's Caramel Sauce


Another frequent stop for me is Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry.  This is a great place for information on "real" clean eating.  For Thanksgiving, I will be serving her:

Tiffany's Chocolate Syrup


The whipped cream comes from  Kathy Maister's Start Cooking Her site is great as it gives instructions AND information about cooking, so you can be a bit more informed about what you are making.

 Whipped Cream

So that leaves me with ice cream.  I have an OLD (we're talking 20 yrs) hand crank which works really good.  I used to use this recipe: Vanilla Ice Cream 4 ingredients!! And I lower the sugar to 1/8 c turbinado. I can't find low fat whipping cream anywhere, sigh.  So I will be skipping the ice cream & caramel cause this year. But the whipped cream I may get a dollop of. :)

Unless you have an ice cream maker, you really won't want to try this.  So if I need to buy ice cream, what do I buy? The only one I have found so far is Breyer's Lactose Free Vanilla. Whether or not you are lactose intolerant, this is a decent alternative for when you cannot make your own, or you need to bring ice cream somewhere and you don't want to fill your body (or the body of others who will be eating it) with additives.

           Lid and side panel





 Here is the lowfat Breyers Vanilla:
 

           Lid and side panel






Both include a "gum" but the lactose free is "free-er" of other stuff.  So if I need to bring, this is what I buy.  So far...no one has noticed that it is lactose free. :)  Again, clean eating "my way."

Happy eating!!   Kathy

Clean Eating for Thanksgiving part 1

Skipping ahead in my pre-planned introductory posts to think about Thanksgiving.  I am working on my shopping list for the week.  The stores can get crazy this week, I'm sure you know, so I'm getting out early.

I was very successful last year in keeping with my clean eating for the holidays, and fully intend to keep it up again this year.  How about you?

I have been put in charge of the salad and the desserts.  The salad is easy, until you get to the dressing. That is when it gets REALLY hard.  Bottled dressings are filled with extra stuff that we really don't need!  A simple oil & vinegar can taste quite yummy when you play with the oils & vinegars, and can be much cheaper than buying a bottle dressing in the long run.

Here is my salad:   (organic is always preferred, but not always easy to find)
     1 package baby spinach
     small to medium can of mandarin oranges (juicer than fresh, plus easier to find)
     sliced baby portabello mushrooms
     chopped pecans or walnuts, your preference
     2-3 hard boiled eggs, chopped

That's it - yummy flavors & textures that work together so well!  I'll take a picture and post it after it's made.

The dressing:
    1/2 c oil (light oils better than olive here; I use grapeseed)
    2T balsamic vinegar (I like  more; we can also use a white balsamic for a slightly different flavor)
    2T sugar
    pinch of salt

Wisk together in liquid measuring cup, pour over salad & mix in (if everyone likes it that way) or serve on side.  Yummy!!!

My dessert entry will be quite long, so I'm going to put that in a separate post.

Happy eating!! Kathy