pie!

Happy late Pi day!

Pecan muffins

Recipe coming soon!!

"Newspaper" Pumpkin Soup

Every recipe most likely has a story, from an experience of making it, first memory/thought of tasting it, or something else memorable like that. I call this Newspaper Soup. Why? because my mom had clipped it out of a newspaper, and glued it to an index card. I really really liekd the soup, and i couldn't remember what it was called, or what it was made out of, but i did remember that it was on a newspaper type of paper on an index card. So I called it newspaper soup. Here it is!

"Newspaper" Pumpkin Soup                   Makes 6 cups
1 c. onion
1/2 c. celery, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t. salt
3 c. vegetable/mushroom broth
1 3/4 c. pumpkin
1 c. unsweetened almond milk
Saute the onion, garlic and celery in a sauce pan on medium or high. I like to saute in water instead of oil. Add salt and cook for about a minute. Add the broth, letting it simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and milk. Cook for 5 more minutes. Let it cool for  a bit, and then put in a blender and blend until you can't see the celery. Reheat on the stove and serve warm.
You can put green onions or daiya cheese on it. Cornbread goes really nice with it too.

Tomato Soup

Here's a classic tomato soup recipe for a day where it's rainy, and you have some toast you want to eat something with. Maybe put some Daiya cheese between two pieces of bread and grill it!

Tomato Soup
1 T. flour
2 c. tomato juice
1/2 c. water
salt to taste
3/4 c. noodles (optionals

Mix the flour and the tomato juice, water and salt, making sure that the flour makes no lumps at all! It may be easier to mix it with the water and then pour it in. The flour makes the soup thicker. You can make the soup without this ingredient. Bring it to a boil and cook your noodles. Add the noodles in if desired, but right at the end. If you put them in too early before you are going to serve it, the noodles become sticky and clump together.

Family Fun "A Better Brownie"

Cleaning out my old Family Fun magazines and I was going through them page by page, to make sure that I didn't throw away something that I'd want later. I came across this recipe. It was called A Better Brownie. "Sarah Phillips, author of The Healthy Oven Baking Book and founder of baking911.com tweaked an old family brownie recipe and came up with a moist, chocolaty treat with less fat and sugar than the typical version."
I was really impressed by the nutritional information and I hope that one of you guys decides to try this along with me. I'll post the recipe today, and then sometime in the near future, and give pictures and maybe the step by step. So here it is!
"A Better Brownie"
1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder (or carob)
1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. salt
1/4 c. apple sauce (or oil if you don't want it fat free)
2 oz carob or chocolate chips
2 fake eggs (Energ Egg Replacer) (follow instructions, like adding water)
1 T. canola oil, or apple sauce
2 t. vanilla extract

1. heat oven to 350. Lightly coat an 8" square baking pan with cooking spray. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set the mixture aside. Melt the carob chips and let them cool. 
3. In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the cooled carob/chocolate mixture, sugar, applesauce or oil, and vanilla together until combined and smooth. Stir in the flour mixture but DO NOT OVERMIX THE BATTER. It will become glutenous and not very nice at all. 
4. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the brownies on the center oven rack until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 25 minutes. The brownies will look under baked (a cake tester will come out with a few moist crumbs), but they will set up more as they cool. Place the pan on a wire cake rack to let the brownies cool, then slice the batch into 24 pieces. 

Nutritional Information for 1/24 of recipe

Calories; 84

Fat 3.5 g

Saturated Fat 2g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium 25mg (1% DV)

Carbohydrates 2.5g

Sugar 9.5g

Calcium 6.5mg

Have fun baking and tell me how it turns out!!