Recipe: Baked Acorn Squash

Acorn squash can last a while in a cool area, so they are great for Winter Staples.

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
1 cup orange juice
4 tsp butter (or lactose-free replacement)

Directions:

Wash acorn squash well. Cut in half. Leave skin. Remove seeds and goo. Place each half of squash upside down in a baking dish. Pour about 2 cups of boiling water to 1/4 inch depth (depends on your dish). Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn so cut half is up. Bake another 10 minutes, or until tender. Remove from pan, scoop out innards carefully, so that shell remains intact. Mash squash and measure out 1/2 cup, mix with orange juice, nutmet and butter. Place mixture in shell. Reheat for short time, until "butter" is melted, and serve immediately. One acorn squash makes two servings.

Variation: Add a little brown sugar and walnut meats to orange juice mixture before final re-heating

Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC

Recipe: Ham and Spinach Quiche

Here's a quick recipe that's full of protein: Ham Quiche (or Fritatta):

Ingredients:
4 large eggs (fresh or reconstituted from powder)
1/2 cup milk (reconstituted goat or soy milk ok too)

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

salt/pepper to taste

1/2 cup dried onion dices
1/2 cup dried bell pepper dices
1/3 cup dried (dehydrated) spinach

1 cup cubed canned ham or vienna sausages
1/2 cup green can parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Then add dried onion, dried peppers, milk, dry mustard, basil, and salt/pepper. Whisk and add cheese, ham, and spinach. Blend everything together with a fork. Spray a medium-sized baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 50 minutes or microwave 80% for 7 to 10 minutes.

Variation: Sometimes we add italian seasonings, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and parsley. Even more filling!

Revised December 15 2008
Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC

Lentils, Anyone?

We've never cooked with lentils, but since they are a pretty good protein source, we bought them. Tonight we tried them, simply cooked with a little onion powder, drained of extra water, and tossed with our green salad. Not bad.

Trying new things. It's good.

Recipe: Turkey Shepherd's Pie

What to do with all of that left-over Thanksgiving turkey? Try this shepherd's pie!

Ingredients:
1 cup dried onion dices or 1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups chopped turkey (or 1 pound ground turkey, browned)
2 1/2 cups various dried vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, peppers, canned mushrooms, squash, etc.)
1 1/2 cups gravy (see below)
4 cups mashed potatoes (instant or leftovers)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute onion in olive oil. Add turkey and vegetables. Add gravy, and salt/pepper to taste. Stir to mix. Spread in bottom of a baking dish big enough (try a 2-quart). Top with potatoes. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Very filling and quite tasty.

Variation: Use extra-heavy-duty aluminum foil to bake as a Foil-Pocket. Make small enough for a single serving or large enough for everyone. This practically eliminates clean-up.

Gravy:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter (or lactose-free equivalent)
4 tablespoons flour (or corn-starch for gluten-free)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Heat oil and butter. Sprinkle in the flour and cook for several minutes, stirring (don't let it turn brown). Add chicken broth and stir. Will thicken up after several minutes.

If you are careful with ingredients this is GLUTEN-FREE and HEART-HEALTHY.

Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC

Recipe: Orange/Cranberry Muffins

I love making orange/cranberry bread for the holidays. This is the time of year when we find cranberries pretty cheaply at the grocery store, and oranges are pretty decent, being a good stocking stuffer, and fun to preserve with cloves.

This year, instead of making it from scratch, I was hoping to come up with a decent recipe using things we have stored. A short-cut. A quick glance in our baked-goods storage bucket gave me a great idea! Here's the result:

Ingredients:
1 package Martha White "Honey Bran Muffin Mix"
2/3 cup orange juice (canned is ok OR liquify small can of mandarin oranges)
1/2 cup cranberries (washed and halved - frozen is ok)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly spray 7 medium muffin cups with spray. (We usually line with paper baking cups when we have them.) Combine muffin mix and orange juice in small bowl. Add cranberries and walnuts. Stir until muffin mix is just moistened. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 14-17 minutes or until muffin tops are golden brown. Cool 2-3 minutes in pan. High Altitude: add 1 tablespoon flour to dry mix.

Try these out - what did you think?

Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC

Recipe: Pie Crust (2 regular, 1 gluten-free)

Here's a couple of recipes for pie crust dough:

Recipe 1 - Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 cup warmed reconstituted powdered goat, soy, rice or cow milk
3/4 cup oil
1 tsp salt

Directions - Mix ingredients together. Roll as desired. // HEART-HEALTHY. Can be LACTOSE-FREE.


Recipe 2 - Ingredients:
2/3 cup of light olive oil
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp of apple-cider vinegar
1/2 cup ice water

Directions - Measure the olive oil and freeze until like thick honey (approx 3 hours - depends on your freezer). Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Add rest of ingredients and mix (with hands if necessary) until ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled (an hour or two). Remove, unwrap and roll out for one 9" crust. If too difficult to roll, press into pie plate with fingers or back of spoon. // HEART-HEALTHY, LACTOSE-FREE


Recipe 3 - Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups rice flour
4 tbsp cold water

Directions - Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix shortening into flour until crumby-texture. Add water. Mix with hands until soft, and form into a ball. Press into 8-inch pie pan, using fingers or back of spoon. // HEART-HEALTHY, GLUTEN-FREE, LACTOSE-FREE

Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC

Recipe: Pumpkin Turnovers

Here's a recipe that shouldn't be saved just for holidays:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cups brown sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

pie crust (store-bought or made from your favorite recipe)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix pumpkin puree with brown sugar and pie spice. Roll out pie crusts and cut into 4" squares. Using an ice-cream scoop, dollop pumpkin filling in middle of each square. Moisten edges with a bit of water. Fold over into triangles, and seal edges with fork. Place on sprayed cookie sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake for about 20 minutes, until light brown. Serve warm.

LACTOSE-FREE. HEART-HEALTHY. Can be GLUTEN-FREE if you use a gluten-free recipe for pie crusts.

Copyright (c) 2008 New View Group, LLC