Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins...not fried!

Sugar donuts are an all time classic. I've always wanted to make donuts but always afraid of frying food...Until I found this recipe. These donuts are baked and take a total of 30 minutes from prep to in your mouth. You can find all of these ingredients in your kitchen and even experiment with it different flavors. KStead says...light and air, cake like center, and gone in seconds.

Adapted from Kirbie's Cravings via Baking Bites

(Yields approx 24 mini muffins)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup fat free milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and egg until combined. Add in flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Mix until combined and smooth.
3. Then mix in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
4. Fill each mini muffin cup about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Pop them out of the tin and roll in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Jamie Oliver's Cheat Sponge Cake With Summer Berries And Cream

So as I was planning this week's menu, I grabbed my Jamie Oliver cookbook for some inspiration. Flipping through the dessert section first, as it is the most important meal of the day, I found this beautiful cake with almonds around it and raspberries and chocolate on top. So of course I had to have it. Well, making my grocery list, I jetted to the market only to find that the strawberries and raspberries were over priced, and there was no panettone in site. Well, so I modified. I bought some blueberries, used the banana I got from temple earlier that day, and baked an angel food cake in two cake pans to compensate for the missing ingredients. Well, I won't lie, I'm pretty delighted with my end product.

The original recipe can be found in Jamie's Food Revolution, but recipe is pretty simple.

Cheat's Sponge Cake- REMIXED!

One box of angel food cake mix

I cup of blueberries

1 banana

24 oz of heavy whipping cream

4 oz of dark chocolate

few tbsp of sweet white wine

1pk of sliced almonds.

So first I made the cake according to the box directions and baked in two separate round cake pans. Once the cake cooled, I cut the edges to make sure the two cakes would fit nicely on top of each other. Place the bottom layer on a plate and cover it with sliced bananas. Place the top layer and drizzle with white wine so that cake soaks it up, but not too much that wine is floating on top. In a mixer, whip the cream until its stiff and then frost the cake.  While the cake was baking I had toasted the almonds on the stove top on low heat (be careful not to burn them). Once done frosting, pat the almonds on the sides of the cake. Top with blueberries and chopped or shaved chocolate.

Beef, rice, and french fries! What more can you ask for?

Lomo Saltado

La Buutique, is my older sister who made the best lomo saltado I've ever had. She also made a bomb dot com cilantro sauce to go with it. This was a quick and easy meal that she whipped up last week when I went over to her house. Lomo saltado is a Peruvian dish with Asian influences. Can it get better than that?

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen French fries
• vegetable oil as needed
• 1 pound beef tri tip, sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, sliced into strips
• 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and sliced into strips
• 1 yellow chili pepper (preferably Peruvian aji amarillo)
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 dash soy sauce to taste
• Choice of rice
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 teaspoons mayonnaise

Directions 

1. Prepare the bag of French fries according to package directions.
2. Cook your choice of rice as desired according to package. We used jasmine rice.
3. While the French fries and rice are cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Season the sliced meat with salt and pepper to taste. Fry the meat until just cooked, and the juices begin to release. Remove the meat from the frying pan.
4. Then cook the onions, with additional oil if needed, until they are transparent. Stir in the tomato and aji amarillo; cook until the tomato softens.
5. Pour in the vinegar and soy sauce, cover, and cook until the beef is done, about 3 minutes.
6. For the sauce, add the cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, and lime juice in a mini food processor. Mix until desired taste.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with chopped cilantro and French fries to serve.

Butternut Squash Pie

So I decided that this Christmas I wanted to make a different dessert. The pops and I were heading to Madison to visit family and see my cousin's new baby. Since they were making dinner (which included a very yummy goat curry), I decided, even though I was post-call and exhausted because the stupid pager was going off all night, that I would make dessert. So after Googling online for various pie recipes, I found one I liked @ a blog called Farmer's Daughter, and made a few changes to make my own and this is what I came up with:

Lulu's Butternut Squash Pie

Ingredients:

Pie crust (frozen)

1/2 butternut squash

1.2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 banana

2 eggs

In the oven I baked the squash @ 325 degrees for an hour. I then let it cool and scooped out the squash from the skin and placed it into my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl. I added all the remaining ingredients (except the pie crust) and mixed well until everything was well combined. The oven was preheated to 425 degrees. I rolled out the pie crusts (I used two) and placed them inside a 12 x 8 baking dish (something like that) as I didn't have a round pie pan. I then filled the crust with the squash filling and placed the pie in the oven for 10 mins. After the first 10 mins were over I decreased the temp to 350 degrees and continued baking the pie for another 50 minutes. Once the pie was done baking I took it out to cool, et voila! The pie was a BIG hit at dinner. There was only two pieces left by the end of the night because I had to steal them before anyone else tried as I wanted some for breakfast the next day. I really hope you guys give this one a try.

Christmas Pear Custard Pie

This Christmas, KStead's sister, who lives in Milan, Italy, sent us a Harry and David gift. The Taste of the Valley basket consisted of Royal Riviera Pears, smooth Red Pears, award-winning Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue cheese, buttery Havarti and a walnut-handled spreader, this uniquely designed trivet made of sustainable bamboo unfolds into a pear-shaped basket. KStead engulfed a few pears and they were so juicy. We decided to make a pear pie since I had a frozen pie crust in the freezer. I wanted a recipe that didn't require me to leave the house, so I found a custard pie recipe from Martha Stewart. The pie turned out great! I usually don't eat seconds, especially with desserts, but I kept on going back for more.

Pear Custard Pie

• 3 Royal Riviera or Red Pears, peeled, halved, cored, and sliced
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; Prick pie crust with a fork and cook for 5 minutes.  
2. Peel, halve, and core 3 pears; slice 1/4 inch thick lengthwise. Arrange slices, overlapping slightly, in crust.  
3. In a blender, process 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter, 1/3 cup each granulated sugar and all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 3 large eggs, and 3/4 cup milk until smooth.  
4. Pour batter over pears; bake until golden and firm to touch, about 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The Great American Bake Sale

First of all, I have to thank those that participated in the great American Bake Sale which I organized at my jog along with the help of the fabulous Nurse J. I thought, "What a great was to help raise money to end childhood hunger" because I love sweets and so do our patients at the clinic. But our patients are primarily obese people with diabetes and hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, so I thought, "Why not do a bake sale of all our favourite holidays treats, but make healthier versions of them?" So here's what we came up with and soon to come... The Cook Book! Big thanks you to the Milwaukee Cupcake Company for donating TWO DOZEN gluten free cupcakes to the bake sale. 

Nut Clusters

Cupcakes from Milwaukee Cupcake Company

Chocolate Truffles

Mini Sweet Potato Pies courtesy of Dr. I

Even the medical student joined in by baking granola bars

Slllllooooow Cooker Asian Short Ribs

The weather has been getting a bit chilly here in VA: that's a sign for warm comfy homemade food. I've always wanted to make short ribs but was scared I wouldn't get the same "fall off the bone" effect as in restaurants. Until now! I found this recipe on Real Simple and... it's real simple. I ended up making this dish twice within a week. Kstead and I gobbled this up the first night and the second night we had my parents and Kstead's mom over to meet for the first time. Prep time took no more than 15 minutes!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 8 beef short ribs (about 4 pounds)
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and halved crosswise
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Directions

1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and red pepper. Add the short ribs and carrots and arrange in a single layer.
2. Cook, covered, on high for 5 to 6 hours (or on low for 7 to 8 hours), until the meat is tender and easily pulls away from the bone.
3. Transfer the short ribs and carrots to plates. With a large spoon or ladle, skim the fat from the cooking liquid and discard.
4. If the slow cooker is on the low setting, turn it to high. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water until smooth. Whisk into the cooking liquid and cook until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the sesame oil. Spoon the sauce over the short ribs and vegetables and sprinkle with the scallions (if using). Serve over jasmine rice.