Apple almond bread

Why are almonds and apples so good together? I've been on a real kick lately and luckily, a fresh apple with almond butter is a-okay on Whole 30. And we've almost made it to the bottom of our apple bucket. M is the lucky recipient of the many many many almond breads I've made, though we had a minor meltdown when I realized that one of them had gone south after I offered it to him. Oops.

Why have I tested this recipe so much, you might ask? Well, I thought my first try was pretty darn close to perfect, but my husband thought it was too dry. I thought he was crazy, but his comment stuck in my craw. I tried this quick bread with more butter, more yogurt, more butter and yogurt, etc, but the end results never warranted the extra fat from the butter or the earlier spoilage that resulted from the extra yogurt.

If you like a wetter crumb, feel free to throw in another 1/4 cup of yogurt, but remember that you probably shave off a day from the life of your loaf. (Sans extra yogurt, you get about 4-5 days loosely wrapped at room temperature from this bad boy- not that you'll need it).

For health purposes, you may want to leave off the topping since it's more butter and sugar, which isn't the best way to start the day if you want this bread for breakfast. HOWEVER, I encourage you to live a little and add the topping because it really makes the bread. And it adds less than a teaspoon of brown sugar to each serving while increasing the almond flavor from the raw almonds on top. No need to toast the almonds either because they'll toast while the bread cooks.

Also great about this bread? You only need one bowl (for the base, that is. Sorry)! I worried that throwing everything together in one bowl and not sifting any of the dry ingredients would affect the rise here, but every time, the one-bowl method has resulted in a tall, airy loaf.

Apple almond bread

For the topping:
1 ½ Tbsp butter, melted
¼ cup sliced almonds (not toasted)
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
pinch of salt

For the bread:
2.5 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt (non-Greek)
¾ cup maple syrup
2 eggs
½ tsp almond extract
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup almond flour (NOT almond meal if you can avoid it)
2 heaping Tbsp flax seed meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 cups diced apples (about 2 large apples, not peeled)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 or 10x5 loaf pan with olive oil and set aside.

In small bowl, melt the butter. Add the almonds, whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt and mix well. Set aside.

In a large bowl, melt the rest of the butter and let cool slightly. (Or, melt the butter halfway and stir to melt the rest. This usually results in warm, not hot, butter.)

Add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk lightly to break up and mix in the eggs.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined and no streaks remain. Set aside.

Chop the apples and add to the batter. Stir a few times to combine, but do not over mix.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Check the bread after about 30 minutes or if you start to smell the almond too strongly. Cover with foil if the topping browns too quickly and continue to bake until the tested comes out clean.

Yield: 8-10 slices.

Delicata squash boats!

It's Whole 30 time again, folks. Between the move and my health, I've been feeling unmoored and eating with an abandon that has left me sluggish, foggy, and out of control.

So, I'll be posting some non-Whole 30 recipes that are already in my queue and that we make for Max, but will also be focusing on Whole-30 compliant recipes, especially over on Instagram.

In the mean time, these squash boats are so so good. I made a 1/2 batch for this post and have been eating the plain roasted delicata squash with everything. As I write this, I'm feasting on 1/4 of a squash filled with homemade turkey sausage and topped with a runny egg.

Delicata is the sort-of-lazy man's squash. It's not totally without prep as you have to cut it in half and clean out the seeds in the middle. But there's no peeling, because the peel is edible, which erases the most aggravating thing about squash for me.

Anyway, the non-Whole 30 version of these are a huge hit with the toddler. While, obviously, the cheese, milk, and bread play a big role, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. The bread and nutty cheese are a nice salty, crunchy counterpoint to the sweet, soft squash while the eggs and milk add richness and the kale adds a little green as well. 

Delicata squash boats

2 large delicata squash, washed, ends trimmed, and cut in half with seeds scooped out
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup grated parmesan
4 large sage leaves, minced (or ½ tsp of dried sage)
4 oz stale bread cubes
1 cup finely chopped kale
4 oz cooked sausage
2 oz gruyere

Preheat the oven to 400. While the oven is heating, clean the squash by cutting each log in half, scooping out the seeds and pulp in the center, and placing cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and milk and whisk lightly to combine. Add the bread cubes and stir to dampen all of the bread. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined and nothing is dry. Set aside.

Roast the squash for 15 minutes, or until a fork can just pierce the outside of the squash (the squash will continue to cook, so don’t look for full fork tenderness and you don’t want overdone squash because it could fall apart). 

Remove from the oven and carefully flip over being mindful of the steam. Scoop equal amounts of filling into the centers. Top with grated gruyere and place back in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is brown and melted.

Yield: 4 dinner-sized servings for adults (M usually eats about ½ of a squash)  

The best broccoli, maybe ever.

I don't make that claim lightly. Even the toddler eats this with abandon, though he's intermittently a huge fan of broccoli. I say "intermittently" because, like all toddlers, he's mercurial and what he loves one day, he abhors the next. But broccoli falls back into favor more often than any other vegetable. All that to say, this broccoli is great- salty and crunchy and garlicky, but with a bit of freshness from the basil and something indefinable and unctuous from the anchovies.

Two things: Don't fear the anchovies and don't skip the fresh basil or substitute dried. It won't be the same. But back to the anchovies: This is a divisive little bottom-feeder. Love them or hate them, try them in this recipe. You won't really taste them because they are broken down at the start of the cooking process, so they really just become a salty, briny background note.

This dish is a great side for grilled proteins or mixed with whole grain or white pasta. I haven't yet tried it, but I also want to mix in some lentils for some non-meat protein.

Broccoli with anchovies and basil

2 medium heads broccoli, chopped into small pieces
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2-3 large anchovy filets (or 4-5 small ones)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup whole wheat panko
15 basil leaves (about 1/3 cup chopped)

Preheat the oven to 400. Chop the broccoli and spread evenly over a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet. Add 2 Tbsp of oil and toss to coat. Add a small pinch of salt (the anchovies are salty, so you don't need much extra seasoning). Roast for 30-40 minutes until the broccoli is deeply browned on at least one side (usually the side touching the hot pan roasts first). Check the broccoli occasionally to make sure it isn’t burning. If it looks like the greens aren’t cooking evenly, give them a shake.

While the broccoli is cooking, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of oil over a medium flame. Turn the heat to low and add the anchovies. Using the back of a spoon or spatula, squash and chop the filets while they cook until they are completely broken up.

Add the minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Increase the heat back to medium low and add the breadcrumbs. Mix ingredients thoroughly and toast the breadcrumbs for 4-5 minutes, shaking the pan often to stir the ingredients and distribute the heat.

When toasted to a slightly darker golden brown, remove from the heat and place in a large bowl. When the broccoli is done, add it to the breadcrumb mixture and turn to coat.

Add the chopped basil and turn a few more times to distribute.

Yield: 4-6 side servings

Apples and honey breakfast cookies

Oh apple season, how I love you. However, baking with you in your natural state sometimes leads to a soggy mess. So, dried apples it is. I like the Trader Joe's version the best because they're dry (obviously), but not so dry that they're hard to eat. Though I still have to cut them up for M because he shoves so many of the whole ones into his mouth that he chokes. When will he learn??

Anyway, these cookies are ever-so-slightly sweet thanks more to the dried apples and golden raisins than the honey, though the honey is necessary for binding everything together. These cookies are sort of like if granola, oatmeal, and a cinnamon raisin cookie had a baby, but with less refined sugar than most granola or cookies and more portability than oatmeal.

This is also a great place to sub in some store-bought sunflower seed butter to make these lunchbox appropriate. Pretty sure the rest of the ingredients would mask the sometimes glue-y taste of store-bought versions. Using gluten-free oats also makes these safe for kids with gluten allergies. And I haven't tried these with egg substitutes, but I'm assuming that two or three flax eggs would also work to bind these together. If using a flax egg, directly reduce the amount of flax seed meal that goes into the batter, but keep the baking powder the same. I would also use a full cup of honey as an increased binder. But note that I'm speculating here as I haven't tried these changes myself. I'll update the post if I do!

Apples and honey breakfast cookies

8 oz natural peanut, almond, or sunflower seed butter
¾ cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup flax seed meal
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups dried apples, chopped (plus 12 whole ones for decorating the tops of the cookies)
½ cup golden raisins
Olive or coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the peanut butter, honey, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until all have been incorporated into the wet ingredients and no streaks remain.

Wet hands and form the dough into 12 large balls and gently press down onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. The dough will be sticky and crumble-y, which is why wet hands are helpful. Don’t worry if the dough feels like it will imminently fall apart. As long as it mostly sticks together, they’ll bake and cool into a solid cookie.

Press a round dried apple onto the top of each cookie and spray or brush with coconut or olive oil.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the sides just begin to brown. 

Let cool completely before removing from cookie sheet. (The cooling also helps bind the crumbly cookie together.)

Yield: 12 very large cookies

Green enchiladas

So, we got the oven fixed. And by "fixed" I mean that a man came over, looked in the oven with his iphone light, and pronounced it "dirty." He then proceeded to mansplain how an oven works like I don't have A FUCKING COOKING BLOG. And then charged us $119. So far, homeownership is fairly humiliating.

Anyway, now that we have an oven again, let's talk about enchiladas, shall we? I love them because they're a throw-anything-in-as-filling-and-bake-until-bubbly kind of dish and with cooler weather coming, who doesn't look forward to these dinners again? However, I haven't had many good jarred sauces, so I decided to make my own and now I can never go back. Which makes this dish a bit more complicated and more appropriate for, say, a lazy rainy weekend than a frantic school night.

A couple of notes about this recipe: I used zucchini, turkey, and pinto beans, but feel free to sub any other veggies, beans, and proteins. You will have extra filling, but I felt it was silly to use less than the whole pound of turkey, which is the only amount sold by our farmer's market turkey stand. Eat it with an egg for breakfast and you won't mind having leftovers at all. Do not, however, change the cheese. This recipe hinges on the cheese. If you can't find cojita (though look as hard as you can because its GOOD), you can use a crumbly white cheese like ricotta salata or queso blanco. You'll also have extra sauce. I recommend doubling the sauce recipe because the casserole calls for just a bit more than half of the original recipe. Doubling means you'll have enough for 2 more large casseroles. Freeze it in two parts and you can cut down on the prep time for this dish significantly.

I adapted the sauce recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and it's darn near perfect. I added another 1/2 cup of green chilis because I thought the green chili taste could have been slightly stronger. Other than that, this sauce is dynamite.

For the sauce:
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups canned, roasted poblano or other green chiles
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent too much browning.

Add the flour and stir until it has coated the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently for 3 more minutes to take away the raw taste of flour.

Add the cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook for one more minute, stirring constantly. Add the green chilis and cook for one minute.

Slowly whisk in the broth and stir to break up any clumps. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce is sufficiently thickened. It should coat the back of a spoon while still being a little runny. If too thick, add more broth. If too thin, continue cooking until the sauce tightens some more.

For the filling:
2 Tbsp oil
½ large onion
1 lb ground turkey
2 small or 1 large zucchini, chopped (about 1.5-2 cups)
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
½ tsp mild chili powder
¾ tsp cumin (heaping ½ tsp will do if you don’t want to be that precise)
½ tsp salt

For the casserole:
12-15 Corn tortillas
1.5-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (about 3-4 oz)
1 cup cotija cheese (about 3 oz)
1.5-1.75 cups green enchilada sauce (about half of the recipe, plus a few more Tbsps)

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a brownie or casserole dish and set aside.

Lay out a tortilla and scoop 1-2 small spoonfuls onto the middle of one tortilla. Sprinkle with a tbsp of cojita cheese and fold the ends to overlap in the middle. Carefully flip the bundle over and place into your casserole dish with the folded-side down. Repeat until the dish is full, squeezing as many tortillas as you can into the nooks and crannies.

Cover the folded tortillas with a thick layer of green enchilada sauce and spread into the corners. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or the cheese starts to look lightly golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4-6 dinner servings, depending on how hungry you are and your sides.