{SRC}It’s Natural to love this food!

I have sad news. This is the LAST SRC  post – ever!!  After five and 1/2 years our fun and discovery is coming to an end.  It was a great run!  I discovered so many great food blogs, food,  and people.  I have cooked outside my comfort zone.  Learned new techniques and flavors.  I am sad to see it all come to an end.  Thanks to Amanda, Sarah, Amy, Jane, Susan, Camilla, and April for leading us through 5 1/2 years of food exploration!  I have cooked with all most of them and they have some awesome recipes to share.

As you know, I usually do three recipes from my ‘assignment’.  How can you possible go with JUST ONE??  Sometimes I share the recipe on the blog and sometimes I just leave a link.  We wanted you to visit their blogs after all.  I decided to go out with a bang and NOSH more than three.It was only NATURAL since there were so many good recipes on my ‘assigned’ blog.  When I first got it I thought. “I will never find much here!” because it was a Healthy, Gluten-Free, practically Sugar-Free blog.  Really!  But as I went through the Noshings/Recipes I found much more than I expected.  Thanks to Nora of Natural Noshings  I have more great recipes to work through.

So….

Breakfast:  

 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

If I were on a liquid diet this would come close to the real thing.  Lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger in this one.  Oh, and pumpkin.  I could eat this a lot!

Lunch:

Kung Pao Chicken

My son and I love Asian (and Indian) cuisine.  Nora has so many Asian style dishes it was hard to pick just one.  We started with this one.  I didn’t change a thing.  It was perfect just as it was.

I also tried a pizza for lunch. Not pretty, but pretty tasty.  And with a completely different crust.  The crust is made with WILD RICE!!!  It was chewy, slightly crunchy.  I used Nora’s crust for a simple mushroom/Mozzarella Pizza.  So completely different.

Wild Rice Pizza Crust

The only drawback is that the wild rice takes so long to cook.  I would suggest, if you want to make this pizza, is the cook the rice the day before.  Other than that…

Dinner:

We got back late from an unexpected trip and I needed something quick for dinner.  One of the MANY recipes I Pinned was the Pizza Quinoa Casserole.  It was ready in a short time.  The time it takes to cook the quinoa.

 

Pizza in a bow? Maybe.  At least the flavors.  A spicy sauce.  Lots of cheese.  All mixed with quinoa.  Healthy Pizza!!

Okay.  I would have loved to make more from Nora’s blog but I just plain ran out of time.  I can still go back and do the ones I missed.

Thanks, Nora, for some lovely and delicious food!

Again – thanks to all of our ‘leaders’ past and present.  I have really enjoyed meeting new foodies and cooking from their recipes.  I enjoyed all those times I didn’t think I would find anything on them to cook.  I enjoyed all the ‘out of the box’ adventures with some.  I will miss The Secret Recipe Club!

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{SRC} In the Kitchen with….

…a creative cook. Someone who loves to create good food for her family. Someone who started a blog because she wanted to share her requested recipes with family and friends. LYNSEY!  Of LynseyLou’s who is making our days delicious!!  And she did.  

Lynsey started blogging in 2008 because she was simply inspired by another blogger.  And, it was her way of sharing her recipes with the friends and family who asked for them.  Lynsey, that’s the same reason I blog.  Keep on, Lynsey.  You have some darn good stuff on LynseyLou’s.

So many good things that, as usual, it was hard to pick just one.  So I went with …

DINNER:  

Spicy Sausage Casserole

Which everyone in the family loved.  Rotini pasta mixed with sausage, lots of cheese, Rotel tomatoes, and onions.  While Lynsey used turkey sausage I used a local smoked sausage.  It was delicious!

A couple of nights later I needed a good filling side:

Sweet Potato Wedges

Roasted in the melted butter and cinnamon.  Perfect.  I am a big fan of sweet potatoes and always stock up when they are in season.  These will definitely see their way into the oven again.

And I saved the best for last:  DESSERT!

Peanut Butter Pie

Which The Man said was the best PB pie he had ever had.  {Thank you, Lynsey!}

Forgive the drizzle on top – it came out way faster than I expected.  But it’s the taste that counts, right?

• 2 Cups heavy whipping cream, divided
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 8 Oz (1 bar) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
• 1 Cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 Graham cracker crust, homemade or store bought
• 1/4 Cup semi sweet chocolate

Place 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream in a medium bowl with two tablespoons of sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form.  Set aside.

Place cream cheese and peanut butter in a large bowl and beat on high until combined.  Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and beat until incorporated.  Increase speed to high and beat an additional 1-2 minutes, until mixture is slighly airy.  Gently fold the whipping cream into the peanut butter mixture.  Transfer mixture to the cooled pie crust.

Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in 15 second incremints, until completely melted.  Fill a piping bag, fitted with a round tip with the melted chocolate and drizzle the pie with the chocolate.

Whip the remaining 1/2 cup whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  Spoon the whipped cream onto the center of the pie.  Drizzle with additional chocolate, if desired.

Place the pie in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving, to allow to set     {adapted by Lynsey from Paula Deen}

Lynsey was my assignment for Secret Recipe Club.

Were there more recipes from Lynsey I wanted to try?  You Betcha! But I had to choose just a couple for SRC.  The hardest part of being a member is choosing.  The fun part is discovering new bloggers and their wonderful, tasty recipes.  There is more from The Secret Recipe this month.  Just follow the frog!

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{SRC} I am eating CHEAP!!

Third Monday in May.

Time for Secret Recipe Club again.

One of my favorite times of the month.

The end result – meeting a new foodie and cooking something or things from their collection of good things. I have found over the years that cooking just one thing is not a good way to learn about what makes a person tick. Or in the case of my ‘assignment’ this month – people. This month I was matched with Feast on the Cheap which is run by Mother and Daughter Duo Mary Ann and Mariel. Mary Ann is caterer and Mariel is writer with extraordinary culinary skills learned at her mother’s side. Between the two of them there is an awesome collection of great recipes.Not only that – the cost of every recipe is laid out for you with the ingredients. Thus the name “FEAST ON THE CHEAP”!! It was great to see how much each dish would cost.

I usually make three different treats. Usually a side and an entree and maybe a sweet treat. But it seems everything I went looking for something I was in need of something sweet. So here are two desserts – unusual for me – and a nice little quinoa dish.

I had a quart jar of pears in the pantry. We have a couple of trees so I put up pears every year. Finding this…

Cinnamon Pear Cake with Maple Brown Butter

was perfect. It is easy to make and yummy with the Maple Brown Butter Syrup and Pecans on top. Merial called for walnuts but we aren’t big fans and I always have lots of pecans in the freezer. Another change I made – I subbed out 1/2 of the AP flour for Whole Wheat. This is a grown up {what we used to call} Poke Cake. After the cake is cooked and cooled a bit holes are poked all over which lets the lovely syrup soak into the cake. Oh, Yeah!! Since I used my canned pears I skipped the “boil the pears, cinnamon, and water” part and just heated the pears and their juice with the cinnamon (and a little extra). Make this cake!!

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The next time I wandered through the site I found another sweet treat and since I was completely out of cake I deemed it absolutely necessary to make another. This time…

Butternut Bread

Our garden yielded a lot of butternut last year. We could not eat all of them or give all of them away. There is just so much butternut one can eat. So I had cooked up quite a few, scooped out the good part, and froze packages of butternut squash. Lucky me to have found this cake, also from Merial.

This is supposed to be a quick bread but I changed it up just a tad and made ‘brownies’ with them. I poured the batter into a 11″ x 7″ pan and baked them for about 24 minutes. Merial made a Ginger Apple Butter for her bread but I chose not to use a ‘frosting’. But I did use some Sweet Potato Butter on some and they were wonderful!! Slicing these was a cinch since I had Mom’s special brownie pan (she loved gadgets like I do)

PRESTO!! 18 perfect snacks!!

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Okay, I just couldn’t make another sweet treat. I HAD to go along another path.
For Lunch:

Quinoa Salad with Sweet Bell Peppers, Dried Cranberries and Turkey Bacon

1 cup organic quinoa
2 cups water or chicken/vegetable stock
½ Teaspoon salt
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
¾ cup pecans, lightly toasted and chopped –
¾ cup dried cranberries
4 scallions (green onions), white and green parts thinly sliced
5 ozs. Montrachet or plain goat cheese (NOT Feta)
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled

For the dressing:
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 Teaspoon Turmeric or dry mustard
1 Teaspoon Cumin
3 Teaspoons honey
¾ cup olive oil
salt and pepper

If not using organic quinoa, rinse in a fine mesh strainer under cold, running water.

In a 1½ quart lidded saucepan, combine the quinoa, salt, and water or stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, cooking until all of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff the grain with a fork and set aside. Allow to cool to about room temperature.

In the mean time, prepare the remaining ingredients and dressing. Set the dressing aside.

Toss the peppers, cheese, nuts, cranberries, cucumber, onions, cilantro, and crumbled bacon with the quinoa. Season the Pilaf with salt and pepper. Add the dressing if serving all at once, combining well.

This was definitely a hit with me. The sweet cranberries and pecans mixed with the sweet pepper and green onions was a nice contrast. The tangy sweet dressing brought it all together. I made 1/2 of the recipe and it was plenty for two light lunches (with cake!). And so colorful which means lots of good things in the dish that are good for you.

So many recipes, so little time. I did make the Whole Wheat Parmesan Drop Biscuits. I couldn’t pass those up. Now I want to go back and try

Onion Rings
Mushroom/Ham Quiche
Crab-and-corn-soup
WW Pasta with Peppers and Shrooms

And that’s just my short list.

Visit with Mary Ann and Merial – you WON”T be sorry!!

And visit the rest of the Secret Recipe Club Members and see what they cooked/baked this month.