Not Yo Mama’s Meal Prep

It’s probably the most beautiful Sunday in the history of Sundays outside right now. Seriously, I don’t think New England has seen weather like this since the Pilgrims landed. But what am I doing midst this wonderful weather? Writing a …

Pantry Staples: Healthy Baking

As you’ve read, I make a lot of my own food from scratch. I also substitute things frequently in recipes. So here are my pantry staples for baking. Note these are only staples for my healthy baked goods. The fat kid treats have their own staples which I’ll touch upon in a later post.

 

This is the most organized this shelf has looked in a long time. Don’t be fooled.

1. Gluten Free Oats

6 months ago I was told to eliminate gluten from my diet. During this time period, I got REALLY creative with baked goods. The gluten free flours are treacherous. I did a lot of process of elimination to find a good one. If you are in the market for a decent all purpose gluten free flour, I highly recommend King Arthur’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. This is in almost every grocery store now and has the least weird flavor. Be sure to do your research on adapting regular gluten filled recipes for gluten free.

Anyways, it was during this time that I found gluten free oats. Not all oats are safe for a gluten free diet so you have to buy the ones labeled gluten free. These oats from Bob’s Red Mill are thicker than normal and have a decent texture. They don’t go to complete mush. I use these a lot in muffins, granola bars, and other quick breads.

2. Organic Whole Wheat Flour

I pick and choose what I buy organically. Flour is something I’ve recently started to buy organic. It honestly makes my baked goods better, especially using organic whole wheat flour. Any “quick bread” recipe that calls for white flour, I will either use all whole wheat or do 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat. Whole wheat flour adds some fiber and whole grains to the dish. My mom used King Arthur Flour growing up which means I use the same. I can’t use any other brand. I’m convinced stuff won’t taste the same.

I need a manicure and a better camera. Ignore both discrepancies please.

3. Ground Flaxseed

Isn’t this exciting guys?!? FLAX! Ground flax meal is an easy to addition to almost any baked good. It adds some fiber and omegas. If you have never cooked with flax before do some Googling on it. It’s nothing something you want to add too much of.

4. Unsweetened Flaked Coconut

You all know my love affair with coconut. Coconut oil, milk, or raw coconut I love it all. You can add unsweetened flaked coconut to a lot of baked goods. I’ll add some to muffins or even to cookies. It adds a nice texture and coconut is rich in the MCT fat I talked about yesterday. Sometimes I’ll even add it to smoothies or on top of yogurt.

5. Natural Applesauce (Just Apples – Nothing Else)

I cannot speak highly enough of applesauce. You can replace any oil / butter in a quick bread / brownie / muffin recipe with applesauce. You won’t notice a thing different. It saves you so much fat in a recipe. You can also use less sugar by replacing the oil / butter with applesauce. I would not recommend swapping applesauce for butter in things like cookies or cakes though.

6. Coconut Milk

More coconut! Surprised? I hope not. I will bake a lot with coconut milk because it helps any type of dish last longer. Plus, I love coconut anything. And no, this will not make your baked good taste like coconuts. It’s pretty much flavorless.

7. Real Good Vanilla Extract

A quality vanilla extract will change any dish. The higher the quality, the better the flavor. It’s one item I splurge on.

This is from my last trek to The Fresh Market. I do not shop there anymore because frankly it’s just not healthy. They put up a good front but it’s not filled with healthy stuff. 

8. Baking Quality Peanut Butter

Listen, I know I’m a big advocate for minimally processed food. However, if I were to buy the all natural PB every time I made a PB based baked good, I’d go broke. My fellow office mates are big fans of PB. So when I bake stuff for work I try to incorporate PB into whatever I bake. Those Peanut Butter Blondies I made used almost a whole jar of PB. It’s wild. Anyways, I try to look past the processed-ness and get Skippy’s Natural Peanut Butter. It’s less expensive and bakes really well. I try to keep a jar of smooth and a jar of chunky on hand at all times.

9. Pirate’s Booty for Good Luck

This is not what I use for baking. But this is what I snack on while I bake, especially with fat kid treats. To avoid eating all the ingredients and / or dough, I’ll portion out a serving of Pirates Booty to snack on. I LOVE this stuff. Seriously think I could live off of it.

Mixed Potato Veggie Frittata

As I blogged yesterday, I made a mixed potato veggie frittata. It’s something I dreamed of in my brain Saturday and decided to see if I could actually create it. Well I did and I’d say it was pretty successful. It’s all I can do to not eat the whole pan of it right now. I highly, highly recommend it. This will last me all week and will encourage me to not only eat breakfast, but eat a homemade breakfast. Not some number from Dunks.

Ingredients: 

1 medium white potato (yukon gold or russet)
1 medium sweet potato
3 large pieces of roasted red pepper
1 Cup Spinach
1 Cup chopped raw broccoli – you could use frozen but be sure to drain out any extra water first
1/2 Cup caramelized onions
1 Tbsp Olive Oil or Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup organic shredded mozzarella milk
7 whole eggs
8 egg whites
1 cup low-fat milk
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 rectangular pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Wash potatoes thoroughly. Whether you peel them or leave the skins on is completely up to your preference. I usually peel sweet potatoes but leave the skins on regular potatoes.

Slice potatoes into thin circular slices. Do this as best you can, it’s not going to really change the dish if they aren’t all perfect circles. I have self-diagnosed OCD so I spent way too much time trying to get even, perfect circles.

Chop broccoli into manageable size. If you choose to use frozen broccoli, try to thaw and press any excess liquid out of the broccoli. Raw is preferred because frozen broccoli adds a lot of water to the frittata while cooking.

I always buy roasted red peppers packed in water. Pat excess water off before dicing. Slice and dice 3 relatively large pieces of roasted red pepper into manageable size.

For the caramelized onions, I try to purchase sweet onions. You’re just guaranteed better flavor and less chance of burning anything. Dice about 1/2 cup of sweet onion. Add about 1tbsp of olive oil or coconut oil to a fry pan on medium heat. Once oil has come to temperature, add onion. Toss around medium-high heat for a minute or so. Turn heat to low and let onions sit. This is where the magic happens. The onion should start turning translucent and slightly brown in color as time goes on. I let the onions sit on low heat, tossing occasionally while I finished the next few steps.

Arrange potatoes in alternating rows of sweet and white along the bottom of your pan. Like this image below:

Can you see where the OCD comes in?

Layer spinach on top of sliced potatoes like the image below. You want this is be a thin layer of spinach as there’s a lot more veggies to go.

Sprinkle your chopped broccoli and roasted red peppers on top of spinach.

Sprinkle your mozzarella cheese on top of veggies. You can use whatever type of cheese you prefer for this. You could also use whatever type of veggies you want too. I try to buy organic, grass fed cheese whenever possible. I also try to stick to part-skim mozzarella as well. If you want to go “full paleo” don’t use cheese.

Check your onions. If they are to your desired level of caramelization, sprinkle on top of mixture.

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Whisk until well combined. Pour egg mixture over your layered veggies. It will NOT come to the top of the veggie mixture. That is okay. The eggs will rise as it bakes and everything will get nice and happy.

Here comes the tricky part. I can’t remember exactly how long I cooked this wonderful creation for. I know it was a while because I figured the “low and slow” cooking method would be best to cook the raw potatoes without killing the eggs. So this is my suggestion: check the dish after about 30-40minutes. I want to say this took about an hour to be fully cooked. But I was also baking the quinoa at the same time which I know slowed cooking time. The center should be firm to the touch when all is said and done.

The finished product will look like this:

I portioned this into 8 squares. I figure that’s about 2 eggs a square. Along with the veggies, milk, potatoes, and cheese, it makes for a pretty sustaining meal. I will bring a square of this to work, microwave it for about 80 seconds, and eat it for breakfast. Sometimes I’ll mix it up and have this for lunch or dinner and a smoothie and muffin for breakfast. Greatly depends on how early I drag myself out of bed in the morning.

I promise as I progress further in the blogging world to get better at recording how long things actually cook for. Also I have a tendency to just eyeball stuff when I cook so take all measurements with a grain of salt. Nothing I make can’t be altered a little. So if you want more or less of something just go for it.