Culinary Compositions

After many comments, praise and encouragement, I've decided to create a Facebook page dedicated to things I make in the kitchen.  Please "like" Culinary Compositions on Facebook.  It's a place where I'll post photos and recipes.  I hope to inspire others to spend more time in their kitchens at home creating tasty dishes from scratch instead of eating out all the time or eating something that came from a box.  Always pursue happiness and health!

From The Kitchen

The staff/faculty at my school honored our cafeteria manager (it was her last day) and a custodian (received an award) by having a dessert buffet in the faculty lounge last Friday.  I contributed two desserts that kept me busy for 5 1/2 hours (on a school night!).  They were the hit of the party and barely made it to lunch.  By that, I mean that the word got out of what I brought and many had to sample them before lunch because if they waited they may have missed out.  Good thinkin'!  I'm lucky to have been able to try them myself.  I must say.... they were pretty.darn.tasty. 

Mmmm...

 Carrot Cake

Peanut Butter Torte

Dinner FAIL

I WAS going to have eggs for dinner, 

but the carton slipped out of my hand.  

Oops.  

Have you had a dinner fail lately?

Jenn's Natural Protein Bars

A friend of mine is currently on the South Beach diet and is having great success.  In fact,  I'd even say that she's enjoying it.  ; )  I'm so proud of her!  Anyway, she was interested in my running protein bar recipe I posted the other day but was curious as to if it could be modified to be more South Beach friendly.  This would mean replacing the Jif PB and the honey with natural PB and agave syrup.  I felt like needed to figure out these modifications myself.  Oh, darn!  ; )

It turned out that some measurement modifications were necessary, but I think it was for the better.  The natural PB is a much sturdier PB and I couldn't get near the amount of oats stirred in, which means less carbs.  The fewer carbs the better in my opinion.

Here's what I came up with today...

Jenn's Natural Protein Bars

(South Beach Friendly)

Ingredients

1 cup natural creamy peanut butter 

(I used Trader Joe's PB. Ingredients: Peanuts, salt)

1/2 cup agave syrup (I used TJ's)*

1 1/4 cups protein powder (I used GNC)** 

1/3 cup quick oats (I used Walmart's Great Value)

2 Tbsp. flax seed (Whole Foods)

Directions

Microwave peanut butter and agave syrup in a microwave-safe bowl for about a minute. 

Stir well and add protein powder and flax seed until well blended.  

Add oats and stir well.

Mix might be kind of crumbly.  

Pour mixture into a lightly pammed 8x8 pan and pack mix down. 

Chill for about an hour and cut into bars. 

I get up to 36 bars out of this recipe.  

They are small, but are rich and filling

These freeze well!

I took these protein bars (along with non-diet friendly items) to a "girly party" tonight with a bunch of girlfriends.  Not only were these things disappearing, but they were disappearing FAST. The women loved them and couldn't believe they had protein powder in them.  Several women asked me for the recipe.  

Moral of the story: I should probably be more confident about my "healthy" creations and encourage others to be healthy with me.

Snow Day #2 Update

"These pretzels are makin' me thirsty!"

David and I were bad... REAL BAD.  We made pretzels today in 3 different varieties; original, cinnamon sugar, and savory (with Penzey's Sunny Paris seasoning and their granulated garlic). These were ridiculously good.  The recipe can be found at Allrecipes.
This weather and the snow days are not good for our waistlines.  At least we're creating memories together while he's still in town.  

Snow Day #2

It's still cold.

 Heatwave! 

I made homemade protein bars last night.  Yum!
I'm still working on perfecting the recipe, 
but here's what I have so far....

Jenn's Running Protein Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup (heaping) honey*
• 1 1/4 cups protein powder** 
• 1 1/3 cups quick oats
• 2 Tbsp. flax seed

Directions

• Microwave honey and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl for about a minute. 
• Stir well and add protein powder and oats until well blended.  
• Add flax seed and stir well.
• Mix might be kind of crumbly.  
• Pour mixture into a lightly pammed 8x8 pan and pack mix down. 
• Chill for about an hour and cut into bars.  
• I get about 25-30 bars out of this recipe.  They are small, but are rich and filling.
• These freeze well!

* The honey (glucose) will be burned off quickly during a workout.

** I combine vanilla and chocolate protein powder.  Banana is great too!

A Day In The Kitchen

The average person would probably be tired of being in the kitchen after baking and decorating over 6 dozen cookies. It's a good thing I'm not average.  ; )

I prepared some yummy food for me and the hubster today. Here's what I made and/or ate...

Brunch:  

Multigrain Banana Nut Pancakes

• Whoa!  These were good. I used Trader Joe's multigrain pancake and baking mix. I halved the recipe on the box and used unsweetened soy milk instead of regular milk. I also added an entire mashed banana and chopped pecans. Mmm...
• David absolutely loved eating these with a cup of fresh coffee while chillin' in his pajamas. We LOVE lazy days

Snack:

On Your Own

• We munched. David had baby carrots and some other stuff. I munched on LF string cheese, raisins, and raw almonds.  

Dinner:

Garlic, Herb, & Wine Baked Chicken

• I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a seasoning packet by McCormick and then baked it this evening. So tasty!

Roasted Carrots

• I took whole carrots, scrubbed them well, cut off the ends, and placed them in a corningware baking dish with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. I baked them at 375 for 30 minutes then turned the carrots, topped with a bit more olive oil, salt, and pepper.  They baked for another 30 minutes. I made them once before (recently too!) and David loved them so he actually requested them while we were at Sams today. We purchased a 5lb bag of carrots for 2.98.  Awesome!
• I experimented by making glazed carrots too. I scrubbed and cut off the ends of the carrots and then cut them in bite-sized pieces.  They were placed in another corningware dish along with 1Tbsp (all I had open at the time) and a nice sprinkling of brown sugar. The carrots were baked for 30 minutes at 375. When the timer went off, I pulled them out, gave them a good stir, and baked them for another 30. I was worried they'd be too sweet, but it only provided a very thin glaze. These were really good and similar to the glazed carrots that Red Rock Canyon Grill serves (but I bet mine were healthier). I'll be making these again.  

Cracker Barrel Limited Edition Cheese

• This cheese is out of this world amazing. For real. Cheese is expensive, but I can't live without it. It's honestly one of my favorite foods. I was at Walmart the other day and saw they had this cheese marked down to 1.98. I bought one to try and ended up going back to purchase four more. Like I said... it's out of this world (and currently affordable!).  

Olives

• I finally made it to an OKC Aldi the other day. My first Aldi experience was in St. Louis. Times were tough and ALDI helped us survive.  Whew...  Anyways, I became a huge fan of many of their products. Unfortunately, Aldi isn't as convenient or close to me as the one in STL so I won't be going there every time I go grocery shopping. Some of the products I love from Aldi are their OLIVES. I don't know what it is, but they have THE BEST BLACK OLIVES! I purchased some from Walmart and ended up throwing them out. A co-worker of mine agreed and informed me that she purchased a name brand can of olives at a local grocery and ended up throwing them out. I'm tellin' ya, ALDI's OLIVES ARE BEST!  I also love their Spanish olives, refried beans, canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned veggies, turkey ham, guacamole (just like Wholly Guacamole, but much cheaper), and their frozen turkey meatballs.  Oh Aldi, I have missed you!!! My pocketbook has also missed you. I promise to not wait so long before visiting you again.  

Oatmeal Cake

• I was obviously having baking withdrawal. I told you I wasn't normal.  = )  This recipe came from my Grandmother and it's incredible. It's the perfect winter dessert. The cake itself calls for 1 cup brown sugar AND 1 cup white sugar. I experimented and replaced the 1 cup white sugar with 1 cup Splenda for baking. The cake still turned out wonderful. It's topped with buttery coconut brown sugar goodness. I cut the cake into small servings, but David still had 3 pieces. How funny is that?! The man LOVES sweets.I keep telling him that he's sweet enough already.  ; ) 

That's our day in a nutshell. We'll be eating leftovers for the next couple of days. That gives me time to decide what I want to do with the turkey ham that's in the fridge and the pie crust. Hmmm...  Decisions, decisions.  

OU Cake Balls

How is this for Sooner Spirit ?

BOOMER SOONER!!!

Tonight is the Bedlam Game.  

I'm hoping OU will win and go to the 

Championship Game.

Baby Shower!

No, not mine, silly!

Maybe I should be careful. That's how rumors get started. FYI- We're waiting a few more years.

I helped host a baby shower for a wonderful teacher at school. It was so much fun! Here are a few (unedited) photos I took...

Mmm... Tasty cheese and crackers.

This was my first attempt at Cake Pops/Cake Balls.

I'll be making them again soon.

I may have to go with the

good ol' BOOMER SOONER theme. = )

Cheesecake bites

Precious!

Love these!

The sweet corsage the mommy-to-be wore.

Can you believe her mom wore it and saved it all these years? WOW!

The Mommy's plate.... CUTE!

CONGRATS to my Sweet Friend!!!

She is going to be an amazing mother.

BOOMER SOONER!

The first OU game of the season was today. That obviously meant I had to sport my awesome crimson shirt and accessories. Boomer Sooner!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the game or watch it on TV (because I'm too cheap to pay for cable). Missing out on the game didn't mean that I was missing out on all the fun. I met up with my friend, Kaci, for dinner tonight. Her birthday was on Wednesday so we had to celebrate. We met for dinner at Big Truck Tacos because Kaci hadn't been there yet and BTT always sounds good to me. It was delicious!

Here's Kaci enjoying BTT for the first time...

Here are some photos that will make your mouth water.....

The MOJO

Refried Beans

Chips and Guacamole

The spread

Bowl of Cherries

Have you ever tried Rainier Cherries? They're amazing... so amazing that I actually ate an entire pound in a 48 hour period. YUM!

Spicy VIP

David often wonders what I do on my computer all day. Well, I just inform him that I stay busy looking up deals, finding coupons, and scoring some freebies. If I can't be making money, I may as well be saving some.

We were lucky enough to be Spicy VIP with Chick-Fil-A when introducing their Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Check it out...

This is the face of a man that was just told that not only was he getting a FREE SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH, but also a FREE SIDE and a FREE DRINK. He was HAPPY!

Me at the food area in West County Mall in Des Peres, MO. They had reserved seating for Spicy VIP guests. Each table even had FRESH flowers!

Introducing...

The NEW SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH from Chick-Fil-A

7th Anniversary

David and I decided it had been about a year since we actually went on a dinner date as just the two of us. So, we thought we'd splurge and treat ourselves for this special occasion (our 7 year wedding anniversary was on June 7). Please note that we both cheated pretty bad on our diets that night. It's not so bad if it only happens once a year. ; )

Ready for a night out!

Oh, yes! We finally experienced The Drunken Fish in Central West End.

My handsome hubby!

I'm the luckiest gal in the world!

Our vegetable tempura appetizer...

My Starburst Roll

I think this was the Drunken Fish...

I can't remember what this was. I'll have to ask David.

YUMMY!

Another look at my Starburst Roll

Chicken Soba Noodle Stir-Fry

He was lovin' the evening!

My California Roll

I'm really focused on my food... lol!

Decaf Americano from Starbucks for dessert.

We both had a wonderful evening and

are looking forward to celebrating

our 8th Anniversary next June 7.

Green Monster Post #3

Today's GREEN MONSTER:

2 handfulls Spinach (somewhere between 1-2 cups)
1/2 frozen banana
1 cup unsweetened soymilk
3/4scoop vanilla whey protein powder

1 Tbsp. flax seeds

Put all ingredients in blender/Magic Bullet and blend. Pour in a pretty glass, mug, or jar and enjoy!

www.greenmonstermovement.com

Green Monster Post #2

Today's GREEN MONSTER...
Ingredients:
3 handfulls Spinach (somewhere between 2-3 cups)
1 frozen banana
1 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
2 Tbsp. unsweetened coconut
1 Tbsp. flax seeds
4 ice cubes

Put all ingredients in blender and blend. Pour in a pretty glass, mug, or jar and enjoy!

This was HUGE today! I'm going to start making them smaller.

www.greenmonstermovement.com

CHOCOLATE

I may have had a couple of

Sugar Free Dark Chocolate bars on hand.

My local Trader Joe's sells them for 1.99 a bar and

my local Walmart sells them for 1.47 a bar.

What on earth is a girl to do with

2 bars of chocolate?

Melt it and eat it with a spoon???

It could happen, but I wouldn't suggest it

with the sugar free stuff.

It's likely that you'll regret it in a few hours.

Check out the GORGEOUS STRAWBERRIES I picked up at a local farmer's market today.

And the STRAWBERRY meets CHOCOLATE!

It's a match made in heaven!

I may have dipped a couple of

frozen bananas too...

And then I dipped some peanuts...

Does it get any better than this?

Mmm... probably not.

I know it's a bad photo (iPhone and horrible kitchen lighting), but you get the idea...

Peanuts, bananas, and strawberries all dipped in

SUGAR FREE DARK CHOCOLATE!

All Together Now:

Oooohhhh......

Aaaahhhhh......