Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Gorgeousness, thy name is carrot cake. 

Today is Easter (in case you didn't know), and while my family is not religious in the slightest, we will take any excuse to get together and eat a lot of food any time.  Easter is no exception.  My contribution to the meal today is this fun and delicious (and reminiscent of bunny images, therefore holiday appropriate, in my opinion) carrot cake.  I found a yummy sounding recipe on the Pioneer Woman's recipe sharing site, Tasty Kitchen,  and tweaked it to be slightly more nutritious.

Next time I will tweak it even further, I think, cutting the oil in half and substituting applesauce for the remainder.  Still, you'd never know this was a whole wheat cake with (relatively) low fat frosting!  It has the delicious spices you expect from a carrot cake, the moisture and extra sweetness thanks to the carrots, and a load of personality. 

I chose to make this cake as an 8" square layer cake just for something a bit different, but you can also make it a round one, or bake it in a 13 x 9 rectangular baker.   And a note:  I found that the cake sagged a bit in the middle, which is something I'll work on correcting in the future - it was easily fixed with extra frosting in the middle!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from ginabe's Tasty Kitchen recipe

INGREDIENTS:

cooking spray

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups grated carrot (about four carrots)

8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese (neufchatel), room temp

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

handful chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray two round or square cake pans, or a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray.

2.  In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or by hand in a large bowl) combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla.  

3.  In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined.  Stir in the carrot. 

4.  Pour the batter into the baking pan(s).  The pans should only be about half full (the cake will rise significantly).  Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for about half an hour, then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

5.  Make the frosting:  beat together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla,  and powdered sugar.  Frost the cake (if doing two layers, there will be enough for the middle and the top).  Sprinkle with pecans.

Enjoy!

PW Macaroni & Cheese

This is my absolute favorite recipe for macaroni and cheese.  It seems like a fairly traditional recipe for mac & cheese, but there are a few sneaky secret ingredients (dry mustard, seasoned salt, and an egg, in fact) that make it absolutely spectacular.  It comes from everyone's favorite blogger, the Pioneer Woman (if you haven't heard of her, you seriously have some catching up to do - she's amazing).   And it is, in a word, amazing.

This is a cheesy, creamy, fantastic dish of deliciousness.  You might want to whip up a little salad to go alongside to alleviate the guilt a bit.  I've tried to make it a little healthier by using whole wheat pasta and skim milk - have to do my part for mankind, and all that.

Use whatever cheeses you like - I've made it with all sharp cheddar before, and it was fantastic.  This time I made it with a combination of medium cheddar and mozzarella, which was also great.

PW Macaroni & Cheese

adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

cooking spray

salt

2 cups dry whole wheat elbow pasta

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose (preferably whole wheat) flour

1 1/4 cups skim milk

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 cups grated cheese (cheddar is pretty much a must)

1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and coat a medium-sized baking dish with cooking spray.

2.  Bring a pot of water to a boil and salt it.   Cook the pasta until just barely al dente - it should be a bit too tough to eat - and drain; return to the pot.

3.  While water is coming to a boil, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add flour and whisk constantly for about 5 minutes to cook out the floury taste.  Be careful not to burn.  Add milk and mustard, and whisk until smooth.  Cook for another 5 minutes or until very thick, whisking almost constantly.  Reduce heat to low.

4.  Temper the egg - beat it first in a small bowl, then add about 1/4 cup of the sauce from step three, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the egg.  Add the mixture to the rest of the sauce and whisk until smooth.

5.  Stir in all but 1/2 cup of the cheese(s) to the sauce until melted.  Add seasoned salt and pepper - increase to taste as you see fit.

6.  Pour the sauce into the pot with the drained macaroni and stir to combine.  Top with reserved cheese.  Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake for 20 minutes, or until bubbly and golden on top.  Serve.

Enjoy!

Steak with Whiskey Sauce

Some cookbooks are just too good to pass up.  I try to avoid really butter-laden, gluttonous meals, but when the beloved Pioneer Woman's cookbook came out last week, I had to have it.  Her blog is my favorite of all the blogs I read (and there are many), more for her wit and her stunning photography than the recipes themselves.  You see, PW is not afraid of butter.  I'm not either - in fact, I love it - but I use it in moderation because I try to keep my meals on the healthier side.

So tonight I decided to experiment with one of her dishes, and make it a bit more heart healthy.  I changed up a few things,  but the spirit of this dish is still there.  This is a delicious steak with a simple yet unusual sauce.  We don't normally have whiskey in the house, but I'm glad we happened to have some right now, because this is a sauce I plan to make again and again.

I definitely recommend serving this on a bed of sauteed veggies.  We had ours with some baby bok choy, which soaked up some of the extra sauce and made for a nicely rounded meal.

Steak with Whiskey Sauce

adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

serves 2

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons diced onion

1/4 cup whiskey

1/4 cup low sodium beef broth (chicken broth will work too)

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup milk

10 to 12 oz. top sirloin steak, trimmed and cut in half

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until brown, about 4 minutes.

2.  Turn off the burner when the onion has browned, and add the whiskey.  Stand back just to be on the safe side.  When most of the whiskey has evaporated off, turn on the burner to medium and pour in the broth.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3.  Whisk in another 1/2 tablespoon of butter, and allow the mixture to bubble for about 30 seconds.  Reduce heat to low, and whisk in the milk.  Allow to simmer on very low heat while you prepare the steaks.  Stir occasionally.

4.  Melt remaining tablespoon of butter with remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Season both sides of the steak(s) with salt and pepper, then add to the hot skillet.  Cook about 4 minutes per side for medium rare, depending on the thickness of your steak.

5.  Plate the steaks and spoon the sauce over each one.   You might have some leftover sauce.

Enjoy!

Savory Vegetarian Bread and Butter Pudding

I am a huge fan of bread and butter pudding. Huge. There are so many variations, both savory and sweet. This one is more like a breakfast casserole. I made it for our mother's day brunch on Saturday, and it went over very well. Best of all, it was so easy!

The idea is to use stale bread, though I'll admit I actually bought a loaf of bread with this recipe in mind. I made sure to buy it a few days in advance so I'd feel less guilty about "wasting" fresh bread on a bread and butter pudding - but once you taste this, any concern about waste will be right out the window. It's tangy and gorgeous. Make it for your next brunch!

You can put in just about any vegetable, or even add meat and make it non-vegetarian (crumbled bacon, anyone?). No matter what you put in, it will be delicious. Promise.

And a note - the reason I put 8-14 as the range for servings is because it all depends on whether this is one of many brunch offerings, as it was for us, or if it is your entire meal. Plan accordingly!

Savory Vegetarian Bread and Butter Pudding
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
serves 8-14

INGREDIENTS:

9 large eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 cup plan low fat yogurt
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper
6+ slices of whole wheat bread, cut into quarters
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced
1 bunch of baby spinach
2 scallions, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and yogurt. Stir in the cheese, dijon, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk until smooth.

2. Coat a large baking pan (preferably pyrex or similar) with cooking spray. Put in a single layer of bread quarters, making sure there are no gaps and the entire base of your baking pan is covered. Overlapping is okay. Evenly distribute the tomato slices and then the spinach. Pour in the egg mixture, making sure all the surface area is covered. Sprinkle with scallions.

3. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the eggs are set and don't wiggle too much when you move the pan. Serve hot.

Enjoy, and happy mother's day!