Busketty, Part Two

If you come upon two spaghetti squashes and want to explore different ways of enjoying the 6 cups of flesh they yield, look no further than my previous post as well as this one!

Last time I showed you two sauces that complement spaghetti squash’s awesomeness. Now, it’s time for a twist!

Spaghetti squash… in muffins? Yep. Whole wheat? Yep! Vegan, too? Uh-huh! And it’s filled?? Yep again!

BLACKBERRY-LIME SPAGHETTI SQUASH MUFFINS
Yields about 14 muffins.
Inspired by this recipe.

Get yourself…

• 1 cup of cooked spaghetti squash, blended in a food processor
• 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice + additional for sprinkling (I use Trader Joe’s brand)
• 3 tbsp ground flax mixed with 6 tbsp warm water (or a one-egg substitute of your choice, or one egg if you don’t care about it being un-veganized)
• 2/3 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk), divided
• 1/2 cup softened vegan butter (I use Earth Balance Buttery Spread)
• 1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a dash of salt
• juice and zest of one lime
• 14 teaspoons of all-natural blackberry jam (or other jam of your choice… strawberry would probably be awesome, too!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line your muffin pan.

In a large bowl, mix baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk the sugar and softened butter until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except 1/3 cup of the milk and the jam. When combined thoroughly, add wet ingredients into the flour mixture and gently fold with a spatula or spoon until everything is moistened. (Don’t whisk unless you want flat, ugly muffins! You have been warned!) If the batter looks too dry (it should be slightly thicker than cake batter, but not as thick as cookie dough) add more of the milk until you get the right consistency.

Fill the muffin wells barely 1/3 full of batter. For me, this was about a heaping tablespoon. Add a teaspoon of blackberry jam on top of the batter, using the back of your spoon to make a small dimple so the jam can sit in it. (Don’t worry if it doesn’t stay put though!) Add batter on top of the jam until each muffin cup is about 3/4 full.

Sprinkle the top of each with a little of the reserved sugar and bake for 20 minutes. Let the muffins sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then enjoy!

The best ones were definitely those that showed a little bit of the jam peeking through the top.

Am I right or am I right?

These disappeared in record time when I brought them to work this week! Nobody could tell there was spaghetti squash in them. I hope that next time someone in the office brings in produce from their home garden that the rest of my coworkers aren’t scared to try something new!

Busketty, Part One

A coworker’s wife has quite the farm, with such a bountiful harvest this summer that said coworker has been bringing in all of his extra home-grown organic produce. Today, he had peppers and spaghetti squash!

My other coworkers had no idea what spaghetti squash was!

I mean, I can’t exactly blame them. I didn’t know what spaghetti squash was until about a year or so ago, but I discovered it by doing what I do best: trying something new. I was in Trader Joes’ produce aisle and saw a spaghetti squash with a sticker on it that had instructions on how to cook it. I figured, “Why the hell not?” and grabbed one.

I followed the instructions to a T…

1. Cut squash in half.
2. Scrape out seeds.
3. Bake, cut side up, for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees F.
4. Scrape flesh with a fork, lengthwise.

Easy peasy. I remember exactly how I prepared it: olive oil, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. Yum, yum, and yum! Sure, it doesn’t taste anything like spaghetti, but it’s still crazy delicious and super nutritious.

I grabbed two squashes by the end of the work day because despite all I’d told them – how to cook it, fun dishes to try, etc. – barely anyone else wanted to take one! (There were still two left when I passed by them on my way out!)

So, what did I do with them? First, I prepared them as explained above.

Tip: Use an Ove Glove as to not burn the hell out of your hands! Trust me.

Well, now what? I have this huge bowl (i.e. the biggest glass mixing bowl I own!) full of spaghetti squash!

I am indecisive, and I like experimenting. I also enjoy leftovers (which is why my fridge has lots of little jars and baggies half-filled with leftover stuff). So, I made two sauces for the squash, of course!

The one at the top is a green avocado-pesto (sort of!) sauce with…

• 1/2 avocado
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• about 10 fresh basil leaves
• a small handful of fresh baby spinach
• a dash of paprika
• a dash of cayenne pepper
• a few tablespoons of sesame oil

Pulse it all in a food processor until somewhat smooth. This made enough for two servings!

I had this one for dinner tonight, but for lunch tomorrow I used a home-made vegan “cheez” sauce, similar to that found in The Kind Diet – a great book by Alicia Silverstone that I will definitely talk about in a future post.

My sauce contained roughly…

• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/3 cup unsweetened plain soy milk
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• dash of salt
• a few dashes of smoked paprika
• a hefty squeeze of spicy brown mustard

Simply whisk together! Add more soy milk if too dry; add more nutritional yeast if too thin. This made about 1/2 cup of sauce and has lasted me about 4 days so far (just a little left in the bowl as of tonight, which I plan on finishing tomorrow!). It’s such a versatile sauce… I eat it on nearly anything savory!

Prepare for Busketty, Part Two – a sweet way to use spaghetti squash! (Seriously!)

Un-planning

More often than not, some of the best dinners I’ve eaten are those that are unplanned.

Last night I had a gig to go to (more on that another time) which ended up being cancelled. I was originally going to just have soup or something for dinner upon coming back home since I figured that I would be rushed for time and/or too tired to make something good.

Well, since I was home about an hour earlier than originally planned, I had an hour more to spend making something better than soup from a can!

I made a cup of brown rice and seasoned it with cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and salt. I sliced some hot sausage and browned it in a pan for the boyfriend, but for me I got a little more creative and fancy-shmancy.

I put half of my portion of rice in a bowl, added a huge handful of baby spinach, and topped it with the other half of hot rice. I topped it with a generous helping of nutritional yeast (I’m confident I’ll blog about this delectable stuff in the future… more than once!), a quarter of an avocado (cubed), and a good amount of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.

It was a salad. It was a rice bowl. It tasted like a cheesy taco.

It was a cheesy taco salad rice bowl. It was a delicious un-planned success!

The good, the bad and the tasty.

It’s our intern’s 20th birthday, so I took the liberty of being a good role model (a whopping 5 years older than her, but whatever) and giving her a nice gift – food!

Cupcakes, to be specific.

I asked her what her favorite baked good is and she gave me a wordy response that included “chocolate cake or cupcakes” and “strawberries” somewhere in it. Well, following the crazy cupcake trend that’s been spreading throughout the world, I made a nice batch of chocolate-strawberry cupcakes for her.

I used this recipe for the chocolate cupcakes but substituted mayonnaise in place of the sour cream. (You’ve got to work with what you’ve got! You can also use yogurt in place of sour cream or mayo.)

For the buttercream frosting, I basically followed my go-to recipe. I used to be awful at making buttercream frosting, but I soon learned some tricks:

1. Don’t be scared of butter! I used to try to use margerine, but it never held and would melt like crazy. No matter how much powdered sugar I’d add, it would never get stiff. Use butter. (I will post, in due time, a recipe for vegan “butter”cream frosting.)
2. You don’t need to be exact. I used to measure every half or quarter cup of powdered sugar… every single 1/8 teaspoon of extract. No need! Temperature, age of the butter, how long the sugar has been sitting in your pantry, etc. all affects how things will turn out, so scrutinizing your measurements with something as simple as frosting is a waste of time. Just taste and test as you go, that’s it.
3. Get a good mixer. Before I had my Kitchenaid mixer, I had a standing mixer I got for free from my boyfriend’s mom, who got it for cheap at a garage sale. It did its job for a while, but it took forever for frosting (or anything, for that matter!) to come together. Since I was very very young, I dreamed of owning a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and finally I was able to get one after winning a gift card to Amazon.com. I love it, and it makes mixing, beating, whipping, etc. infinitely easier!

Now, onto the recipe.

Stupidly Simple Buttercream
Makes enough to frost & fill 12 cupcakes… at least!

• 1 stick of butter @ room temperature
• roughly 1/3 of a 5lb bag of powdered sugar
• a few drops of vanilla extract
• a drizzle of whipping cream

In a standing mixer (or using a hand-held mixer… or using a whisk, if you’re super-strong) beat the butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Keeping the mixer on medium-high, add the powdered sugar in small batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Continue adding until the frosting is stiff but spreadable.

Add the whipping cream while the mixer is still running. Add powdered sugar if you notice the frosting is too wet and/or won’t hold its shape. Frost cooled cake or cupcakes. Lick the beater until clean, too.

Tip: To get your butter at room temperature in a pinch, put the stick in the microwave for 10-12 seconds.

I made my batch into strawberry buttercream by adding a few heaping spoonfuls of strawberry jam (100% fruit, no added sugar or other garbage). You can use any jam, obviously, to make custom fruity frostings.

You can make chocolate buttercream by adding about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder before you add the cream.

Replace the vanilla extract with any extract you’d like to make it unique. Peppermint, butter, almond, orange… get creative!

I decided to add a little finesse to my cupcakes by not only filling each cupcake with a little of the buttercream, but I also dunked the tops of each in chocolate ganache before piping the frosting on top.

Booya.

Definitely not health food… and you can bet that after licking the cake batter bowl clean and licking my Kitchenaid mixer’s whisk attachment free of frosting that I went for a 40-minute run up and down stadium stairs! All the pain was worth seeing my coworkers – especially the birthday girl! – enjoy the treats.

Obligatory Introduction

My friends, family, and boyfriend can all tell you the same thing: I love food. Only my parents and [especially] my boyfriend know the following: I am eclectic, indecisive, and have quite the potty mouth.

I’m combining all of these things into this blog. I’ve started who-knows how many blogs in the past 10 years, 5 of which have been created (and died) within the past 12 months. The subject matter I’ll mostly talk about will primarily be food, diet and wellness, with a little bit of life’s crazy antics thrown in. This time I’m blogging for me, for my friends, and for my boyfriend… and if you are none of the above, I hope you can handle juvenile humor and inconsistent updates, because although I can’t promise this blog will last more than a couple of months, I guarantee it will be all-over-the-place… just like me!