Baked Apples and Peaches

Fruit is amazing when it's cooked. Baked bananas with some unprocessed cocoa are my favorites. But other fruits cook well, too.





I sliced one gala apple and one little peach and put them in a pyrex dish with about .5 cup of milk and some ground cinnamon. They baked on 375 for 15 minutes and I turned and added 2TB flax seed because I was reading something the other day about how great it is and I remembered that I still have quite a bit of it in my fridge that I haven't used in ages. My original plan involved peanut butter. They baked for another 15 minutes or so.

The picture isn't the greatest, but it tasted nice. I should have put the cinnamon on closer to the end and it possibly could have cooked 10 or 15 minutes longer.

Just Peachy

Today was an all around great day, as I knew it would be before I even got out of bed. First, I knowingly slept in. Then I checked my email and found the lecture I was supposed to give at the US Postal Service HQ was cancelled, which was excellent since I didn't actually create a presentation. So I got to work and we got a 1/2 snow day! Score! I came home, ate, no, scarfed down, my leftover green bean delight, and took the dog to play in the snow. I can't feel my toes, but I'm starting to get feeling back in my hands.

When I got back from the park I was famished. I had planned to eat a peach, but the peaches are kind of gross and mushy. And since it was so cold outside, I decided to make warm "peach sauce," which is not a sauce you put on something. It's the same exact thing as applesauce, just with peaches.

So I boiled some water, tore up 2 peaches (you could use a knife if you're all sophisticated, I guess), and watched it fall apart and become saucy goodness. I added some nutmeg and cinnamon and let it boil until it was the right consistency for me. I poured it into two 1-cup pyrex ramekin's that my brother and his girlfriend bought me for Christmas so it would look pretty. I topped off the one I was going to eat immediately with a tablespoon of ground flax seeds and let the other one cool.

I was scared to actually combine the flax and peach so I initially just spread it on top. But it was hard to keep it from getting in the peach sauce so I just mixed it all together. Yummy.

You can do this same thing with similar fruits like apples, apricots, or plums, any combination will work. You *can* add sugar/other sweetener, but fruits are so sweet, especially when you cook them, that I think it's unnecessary. You can also add lemon or lime juice and whatever spices you prefer. It's way better than storebought crap, and way better for you. Takes less than 15 mintues start to finish.

Tofu Saturday

Jennilicious inspired me to buy tofu a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with the quiches that I decided to branch out. This morning I made scrambled silken tofu (1/2 the box) with green onions, cilantro, chilli powder, and turmeric. After a small mishap with 1/2 the bottle of chilli powder ending up in the pan, I plopped the mixture atop a nice warm piece of toast with Trader Jose's (Trader Joe's) habenero and lime salsa. Yum and only about 250 calories.

Since I still had a half a block of tofu and 2 tomatoes I needed to use today, I thought a creamy tomato basil soup would hit the spot on this freezing (well, below freezing) day. I blended the tomatoes and tofu, put it in a pot, and added salt, pepper, and dried basil. When I have soups, I like to dip bread into it, but today I decided to be a little different and use whole grain couscous. Instead of making the couscous first and then adding the soup, I put 1/3cup couscous in the bowl and topped with the soup and covered. Five long minutes later, I returned to the bowl slightly disappointed. I was hoping for a soupy mixture with couscous sitting on the bottom of the bowl. But, it all sort of mixed together. And the water from the tomato separated a little bit from the rest of the soup so I had to stir it all together again. Which is fine, it all tastes the same!

The soup came out a beautiful pink, and when topped with raw green onions, it looked amazing (if only my camera worked). It tastes even better than it looks. Next time I make it, I might thin it out some with unsweetened soy milk. And I meant to add some roasted garlic (6 cloves) to the blender, but I was famished and couldn't wait for the garlic to roast so I left it out. Only about 400 calories for a giant bowl.

Unrelated to tofu, I decided to make some pear chips. So I used my fancy slicer (otherwise known as a knife) to create somewhat even slices. But since I'm dumb, some of them ended up quite a bit thicker than the others. Oh well. I popped them in a 275ish degree oven and let them cook for an hour, maybe a little longer. I flipped them twice and moved the pan around when I put them back in. The last time I flipped them, I sprinkled cinnamon over them and added a total of .5TB of dark brown sugar to the tops. I let them cook until the brown sugar looked bubbley, then I put them on the rack to cool.

Amazingly I haven't scarfed them down yet, but that's because they were cooling while I was making my soup. I sampled one, though, and they are delightful.