Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes

I finally jumped into the deep end of running. I signed up for a half marathon! In four weeks from today, I will be joining 2,000 other runners and running (jogging for me) 13.1 miles through St. Cloud, MN, starting at the college I graduated from, St. Cloud State University. I thought why not make my first half marathon benefit a great school that I studied at for four years?

This morning I have to complete an eight mile training run. Up until today, all of my training runs have been done on the treadmill. But, spending one hour and twenty minutes running on the dreadmill doesn't sound so appealing. So, I'm heading outside. Cold weather is fine running for short runs, I don't mind it...but 8 miles? In 35 degrees?

Here's the view from my back window...doesn't look very welcoming does it?

This morning to fuel up for my eight miler we had pancakes. These pancakes are loaded with protein and whole wheat. I have one with a banana and one with blueberries, the kids usually have peanut butter or chocolate chips in theirs. Little do they know they are also low in sugar and high in protein. :)

Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Pancake recipe

2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup egg whites (or 2 eggs)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Combine yogurt, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and whisk until combined. In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs and extracts and add to the large bowl. Stir until just combined.


Heat a skillet to medium high heat and add 1/2 cup of batter. Spread it out a little bit with the back of a spoon (the batter is a little thick). Cook about 2 to 3 minutes per side until nice and golden brown.


I like to use Trader Joe's Maple Agave Syrup Blend over the top of my pancakes, along with some more fresh fruit to top it!


Enjoy!!

Jamacian Beef Patties

I celebrated the new year in San Diego, CA with my brother, whom I haven't seen in 2 years. He is a Marine, stationed at Camp Pendelton. We spent 5 days accomplishing a whole lot of nothing, something neither of us are accustomed to doing. Each morning we woke up and he complained about how cold the 50 degree weather was (HA! Back in Minnesota it was 10 degrees!!) Then we went for a nice long jog that involved either ridiculously steep hills (Escondido, where he lives, happens to be in the bottom of a valley so no matter where we went it was always up hill) or running along the serene but ferocious ocean. We ran across rivers in our (expensive) running shoes, we sprinted up steep hills until our thighs burned, then we went back to his apartment and ate until we couldn't move. On my last day there, we indulged in a frozen yogurt buffet at the mall and a 10 minute chair massage by some lovely gentlemen that didn't speak a speck of English.

Here is my brother and I (photo above) at Bernardo Winery outside of San Diego. It isn't a running winery anymore but they have tons of crazy stuff just laying around. Below is my brother and his wife. They are so in love it makes you nauseous, but in a good way.

We visited some lovely wineries and saw some beautiful artwork by various street vendors. The whole time I was there I only spent 4 hours actually within the city limits of San Diego. My poor camera only made an appearance one time. I was enjoying my freedom from everyday responsibilities...far to relaxed to think about pulling out the camera to document every moment of our time together. But now that I think about it, it sure would be nice to have a few pictures to remember my trip. Oh well!

Jamaican Beef Patties
Slightly adapted from EatingWell

Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
5 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup ice water
1 large egg yolk

Filling
1 pound 93% lean ground beef
4 green onions, minced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Crust:
Add flours, turmeric, salt, baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Cut butter into small pieces and cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until butter pieces are small, but still visible. Add oil and toss with a fork to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together water and egg yolk and add to flour mixture and stir until dough comes together. Knead for about a minute until dough comes together in a ball, then wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.

For Filling:
Add ground beef, green onion and cayenne pepper and cook over medium heat until beef is no longer pink and is cooked through. Stir in breadcrumbs, water, thyme, turmeric and salt, mix well and let cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To make patties roll out dough until about 3/8" thick, and using a 3" biscuit cutter, cut circles out of dough. Add 1 tablespoon of beef mixture onto dough and add another dough circle on top. Pinch sides tightly together with a fork and poke a hole in top of patty. Repeat until all dough or beef if gone. (I had quite a bit of meat left over, which we used for nachos the next night.) I ended up with 14 patties.

Bake patties until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. I served my patties sour cream. Enjoy!!

Creme Puffs

2011. Those four numbers put together are very significant to me. In 2011, I will be married to my wonderful husband for 10 years. In 2011, our oldest child will start kindergarten. In 2011, I will turn 30 years old, and look back at my life so far with the utmost joy. In 2011, I will have the same best friend for the last 20 years. We have experienced first kisses, first broken hearts, college, weddings, breast cancer, and child birth together.

So many things about life have built me into the strong, smart, independent woman I am now. Every time I've been tripped up by life, I've had someone there that loves me to help me back up. Every struggle I've gone through I've had a best friend there to comfort me.

I didn't make any new years resolutions this year. Resolutions seem to be made to be broken. But I have so many dreams and wishes that I am going to watch come true this year instead. In 2011, I am going to not care about my scale, but instead my energy level and how my body feels. I am going to treat my body like I do my family...with love and respect. I will respect my body by feeding it healthy food, exercising regularly and sleeping plenty.

In 2011, I am going to do a better job at being a friend, a wife, and a mom. Somewhere along the line, the calendar started flipping my months instead of days. My children grew, my friends became busy with their children, my husbands business flourished. And now it feels like I'm missing chunks of time. So this year, I will stop for coffee with friends, I will bake cookies for no reason and drop them off at friends' houses, I will eat dinner by candle light with my husband, and I will waste entire Saturdays at the park with my kids. I will neglect nothing by my dirty laundry.

So here's to a great year ahead of us!

Pastry Puffs

1 Cup Water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 - 2 cups flour
4 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or a sil-pat.

In a saucepan, bring the water, butter and sugar to a boil over high heat. Immediately remove from heat once boiling starts and with a wood spoon stir in all-purpose flour. Continue to stir until the mixture begins to pull away from sides of pan (about 2 minutes), as pictured below.

Let mixture slightly cool (about 2 minutes) and add eggs, one at a time and stirring after each addition, until batter comes together.

Transfer batter into a piping bag or ziplock bag and cut off corner of bag about 1/2" up the side. Pipe into desired sized mounds (1" apart) onto lined baking sheets.

Bake 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake until your puffs are golden brown and feel light and hollow in the center...about 20 minutes.


I filled mine with whipped cream and dipped them in melted semi-sweet chocolate! Delicious!!
(To make whipped cream, combine 1 cup heavy whipping cream and 3 tablespoons sugar, then whip until light and fluffy).

Enjoy!

Beer Bread

I love this bread during the holidays. It is great for cutting up into cubes and used with your favorite dips as an appetizer. It is a pretty hardy bread and won't break apart when dip is smeared all over it! My favorite is to dip this bad boy into spinach dip and eat it accompanied by a nice cold beer. Remember...if you wouldn't drink it, then don't bake with it. So you'll have to actually sacrifice one can of your favorite beer for this recipe, but it is well worth it!

Beer Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 can (12 ounces) of your favorite beer
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Grease an 8"x4" loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, salt and beer. Mix well (it easier if you let the beer foam subside then stir). Pour into the loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes. At the last 3 minutes of baking, brush melted butter over the top of loaf and continue baking for the final 3 minutes.

Sticky Buns

I love the holiday season simply because it gives me the excuse to bake everything that is not good for me. Especially sticky buns. I NEVER make sticky buns unless winter and Christmas is close. Then I have an excuse to wear a ridiculously large sweater to cover up the sticky buns that have...well...stuck themselves directly to MY buns.

Mmm...see all that gorgeous caramel in the bottom of the pan? During the months of November and December only it is fat free caramel. Just pretend and when you consume half the pan you won't feel so bad!

One other great thing about sticky buns is when its freezing cold outside you have an excuse to run your oven half the day and heat up your kitchen. Then you should probably go and run your butt off on the treadmill because you are definitely going to need it!

Sticky Buns
slightly adapted from Cheeky Kitchen

Basic Roll Dough
2 cups warm water (115 degrees)

3 3/8 teaspoons yeast

1/2 cup sugar

3/8 cup eggs, beaten (its 1 1/2 eggs)

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

5-6 cups all purpose flour

Sweet Roll Filling

4 tablespoons cinnamon

1 cup soft butter

2 cups brown sugar

Sticky Caramel Topping
1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup dark karo syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add warm water, yeast and sugar. Let set for 5-10 minutes until the yeast activates and forms a foam on top of the water. Add eggs, butter and salt and mix on low with the dough hook attachment about 2 minutes, until ingredients are combined. Add 5 cups of flour and mix on low about 5 minutes until dough becomes elastic and starts to clean away from side of the bowl. Add up to 1 additional cup of flour if needed. The dough is supposed to be light and slightly sticky. Oil a large glass bowl and place dough in bowl, turning so the greased side is up. Cover lightly with a layer of plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size.

Stir ingredients for the filling together in a bowl until well combined. Roll dough out into a 9"x24" rectangle. It will end up roughly 3/4" thick. Using a rubber spatula, carefully spread filling over entire surface of dough and roll the long way into a log and pinch together the seam. Cut rolls 1" thick, so you get 24 rolls.

Now we need to prepare the sinfully delicious topping! In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium high heat until melted. Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring just to boiling. Remove from heat and pour into four 8" round cake pans.

Place 6 rolls into each pan on top of caramel sauce. Allow rolls to raise for about 30 minutes until they have not quite doubled in size. I usually raise them just until the rolls start to touch.

Bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for 15 to 17 minutes just until rolls start to turn brown on the edges.

When you remove rolls from the oven, if you are going to serve them right away, place a plate on top of pan and quickly invert rolls onto the plate. The caramel is HOT so be careful! If you'd like to freeze them for later, I simply cover cake pans with 2 layers of tight tinfoil and freeze. To reheat, place rolls still covered in tinfoil in a 300 degree oven for 15 minutes and invert onto a plate after removing from oven.

Enjoy, Enjoy, and then run on your treadmill. Then congratulate yourself for working out with another sticky bun. Repeat process until they're gone.

Fish Cakes

Winter has taken over. The once green grass is covered in white snow. My once dry driveway is covered in ice. The once full green trees are now bare. The bird bath that once had doves bathing in it is now holding 6 inches of snow and there are no birds to be seen.

So, every once in a while when its especially chilly out (like the day after Thanksgiving when it was a whopping 12 degrees) I have to close my eyes and pretend I'm in tropical paradise. I make fish cakes and a pina colada with a little umbrella and imagine the sun beating down on my face. Then one of the kids scream and I'm home again in the cold snow. Nice try though, huh?

Fish Cakes

2 pounds Tilapia
2 cups panko bread crumbs
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cups flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon dill (Fresh or dried)
1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
Canola oil for frying

Chop fish fillets into about 1/4" to 1/2" chunks and place in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.

In a 12" cast iron skillet, add enough oil to cover bottom of pan about 1/4" deep. Heat oil over medium high heat.

Form about 1/2 cup of fish mixture into a patty and cook on each side 3-5 minutes, until they are golden brown. It will probably take 2 batches to cook all the patties.

Place cakes on a paper towel to remove excess oil and serve with your favorite tarter sauce, pretend you are basking in the sun on a tropical island and enjoy!

Orange Rolls

I spent the entire day Saturday in the kitchen with my mom. The weather has officially switched to winter. Its cold...and snowing...and cold...did I mention that already? I can't think of a better way to waste a weekend then by spending it in the kitchen with the woman that taught me to cook. There was flour everywhere. There was sugar everywhere. There were dirty dishes everywhere...anyone what to come over and wash them for me? No? I don't blame you...I don't want to wash them either!

Brown sugar, butter and orange zest...the thoughts of cold and snow are melting from my brain. All I can think about now is the sweet filling in these rolls!

Orange Rolls:

For the Rolls
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (.25 oz package)
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the Filling:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
zest of two oranges

For the Glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
juice of 1/2 orange
1/8 teaspoon salt

Heat milk and water in a sauce pan until mixture reaches 120 degrees. Pour milk and water into your stand mixer bowl with the dough hook attachment. Add sugar and yeast and put mixer on stir just so it make one loop around. Let mixture set about 5-8 minutes until it froths (yeast activating).
Add egg, butter, salt and flour and mix on low speed for roughly 5-8 minutes until dough becomes elastic and should start to pull away from side of the bowl. The dough will still be sticky.

Grease a large bowl. Add dough to bowl and turn dough over so the top is greased. Place dough in a warm draft free place to raise for roughly one hour until it has doubled in size. I like to turn the oven on 400 degrees for 2 minutes, turn oven off, then place bowl in the oven.

Meanwhile, make your filling by adding sugar, butter and zest into a small bowl and mashing together with a fork until mixture is well combined.

Punch down dough and place on your floured countertop. Roll dough into 24"x6" rectangle. Spread filling mix onto dough with a rubber spatula, making sure to cover the entire surface. Roll dough the long way into a log and pinch the seam together. Cut rolls 1" wide. Know what my mom just taught me? Slide a piece of dental floss under the dough, and cross over the top, pulling quickly. This will give you a nice clean cut without smooshing your rolls.

Place rolls on a baking sheet about 1/2" apart so they have room to raise. Cover with a dish towel and allow 45 minutes to raise. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until rolls are lightly browned on top. Allow rolls to completely cool.

For glaze, whisk together butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, almond extract, orange juice and salt until icing is smooth and creamy. Top cooled rolls and ENJOY!