Baked Donuts

June 1st is National Donut Day.  We definitely had to celebrate!  The only downside, is I am still on a pretty strict diet, and donuts are a big no-no for healthy eating.  So I googled and found a blogger who made baked donuts.  Perfect!
The recipe calls for sugar, and I wanted to make them sugar free, so I substituted agave nectar for the sugar and then decreased the amount of milk, but in my excitement, I didn't read the recipe and totally messed up.  I fixed it as best as I could though, and in the end it must have worked, because they were delicious!!
The recipe is:
Dry Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Egg replacer for 1 egg
4 TBS margarine

Icing Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 TBS soy milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk wet ingredients together over the stopetop on low.  Do not let the mixture get too hot, just warm to the touch.  Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add the wet to the dry mix.  Do not over mix.  The batter will be very sticky.  Form in to donut shapes on a pan, handling the dough while your hands are very wet to avoid it sticking to you.
Bake for 12 minutes.  You don't want them to brown, but they should slowly pop up when pressed with a finger.  Cool on a wire rack, then decorate. 

Tips for reducing fat

Here are some tips for reducing fat in your diet. Most allergy kids need the extra fat, but I am posting the tips for me, and for my sweet niece who finds herself needing to make dietary restrictions.

So, here are some fat reducing tips:

• Use non stick pans, so that you do not need to add extra oil.
• Sautee vegetables in vegetable stock instead of oil.
• Oil in salad dressings can be replaced with vegetable stock.
• Puree a potato and add to homemade soups in place of the cream. You can also use low fat yogurt.
• Sauces and gravies are usually made with fat, flour, and liquid. To omit the fat, toast the flour in a dry pan on medium heat until it is lightly browned. Add the liquid and any seasonings. Whisk to remove lumps, then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.
• In baking, recipes can call for up to a cup of oil. Try reducing it to 1/3 cup. Applesauce, pureed banana, or pumpkin can also be used to replace oil. Pureed prunes are good for chocolate, spice, and carrot cakes.
• Season vegetables with spices and fresh herbs rather than butter or margarine.
• Broil meat, so fat drains away as it cooks.
• Beware of low-fat claims on packaged foods. Read labels instead, for actual fat content.
• Poach fish or chicken. Always remove skin.
• Avoid over-cooking vegetables so they retain their flavors.
• Use small amounts of strong, hard cheese rather than large amounts of mild cheeses.
• Use egg substitutes in baking, or two egg whites for each egg the recipe calls for.
• Boil potatoes, spray lightly with oil, and then crisp in the oven.
• Tenderize lean cuts of meat with marinades as they can be tougher than fatty cuts.
• Eat more vegetarian meals.
• When making frostings, replace the butter or margarine with marshmallow creme.

Most the ideas from 101 tips for a healthy diet on diet and fitness today.com

Check out their webpage, because it's awesome!

Ketchup and Meatloaf

Ever since Tia was one and she tested allergic to tomatoes, I've been looking for a substitute for ketchup. I pretty much gave up. But then I re-googled it this week and found one to try.

It's the ketchup recipe from SisterCooks.

Tomato free Ketchup:

• 1 can Gerber plum with apples and pears baby food
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 dash onion powder
• 1 dash garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp vinegar
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 drops red food coloring

Mix all ingredients together. Let sit in the fridge for an hour so flavors can meld, then stir again.

I couldn't find the plums with apples and pears, but I did find plums with apples. So I bought it and a jar of pears and mixed the two together and doubled the rest of the ingredients.

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So then, since I had a ketchup for her, I thought I'd try meatloaf, since she recently passed a beef trial and can have beef now.

I use Aunt Lavona's recipe for meatloaf. It is:

• 1 lb ground meat
• 3-4 carrots finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper
• 1/2 c or so oatmeal
• 1 cup of left over rice
• at least 1/2 c ketchup
• 1-2 tsp mustard
• chopped onion

Sauce

• 2-3 T ketchup
• 1 T br sugar
• garlic powder

Use plenty of ketchup and touch of mustard. (Tia's used her baby food ketchup, and didn't get mustard). Another key is to mix ingredients very well. It works best to use your hands and squeeze the mixture thru your fingers but I mixed real well w/a fork. The sauce of course mixes up after you've put the meat into a greased loaf pan and spreads over the top.

Then bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

When Tia's came out I hesitantly tried it. I was surprised! It was delicious. WAY better than the one I made for the rest of the family with real ketchup!

Aaron got home and I had him try it too. He loved it. Until I told him the ketchup on hers was made out of baby food. Then he stopped chewing and said, "Baby food?! I'm eating meat and baby food??!?!?!!!" Trust me, though. It was good.

Food facts

Foodfacts.com is a GREAT web site! I just found it and I already love it!

At the top of the webpage is a search engine. You can search for any brand food, or food type and using the keywords you type in, it brings up a list of foods. Find the food you're looking for and click on it. And for that food it shows you what's good about it, what's bad about it, its ingredients, and its allergens. Amazing!!

Or you can click on the allergen you want to avoid and it brings up foods that are free from that allergen.

I bookmarked it. And I also downloaded the iPhone app. It's amazing!

Go to their web site and give it a try!

Carrot Cake

Dry ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Mix above ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

1/2 cup applesauce
2 ener-g egg replacers
1 1/2 cup canola oil
3 cups finley chopped carrots

Put in blender 1 egg replacer, 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup carrots. Add another egg replacement mixture, 1/2 cup oil. and 1 cup carrots. Repeat this step by adding the 1/2 cup apple sauce, 1/2 cup oil, and 1 cup carrots. Blend until smooth Add blended mixture to dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixture until smooth. Pour into greased bundt pan, bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Frost when completly cooled with frosting.

Frosting recipe:
1 cup cornstarch free powdered sugar
1/2 tsp clear vanilla
1 tbsp vanilla ricemilk
2 tbsp nucoa margarine softened

In a mixing bowl combine powdered sugar, vanilla, ricemilk and nucoa.
Stir in additional ricemilk 1 tsp at a time untill it reached drizzling consistency.

Blueberry cobbler Ala Mistake

I am pretty picky about my cobbler. I like it not too crusty, not too flakey, so I combined and tweeked about four recipies to create this little ditty.

Ingredients

2-1/2cups blueberries (I usually use frozen because thats what I have on hand)
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp haines baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 ener-g egg replacements (to replace two eggs)
1 cup oats
1/2 cup nucoa margarine
1/2 cup vanilla rice milk

Place blueberries in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
MIx together flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, oats, and mixed up egg replacements untill crumbly. Spread evenly on top of blueberries.
Mix together melted nucoa and vanilla rice milk and dribble over top. Bake at 350 untill lightly browned. About 15-20 minutes.

Butternut squash soup

This soup is so yummy, even my meat loving husband loves it.

Ingredients

2 tbsp Nucoa
1 small onion chopped
1 stalk of celery chopped
2 medium carrots chopped
2 or 3 medium potatoes diced
1 medium butternut squash- peeled, seeded and cubed
32 ounces 365 vegetable broth from whole foods. (see picture on potatoe soup recipe.)
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt Nucoa & onion, celery, carrot, potatoes and squash in large pot. Cookfor five minutes to brown a little. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Simmer covered for 20 minutes or untill veggies are soft. Blend half of soup mixture in blender till smooth. ( I like my soup hearty and chunky. If you prefer it smoother, blend more or all of soup in blender till it reached desired consistancy.
Add salt and pepper.