Rose's Ragout:  quick, healthy & delicious
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Quick, HEalthy, Delicious

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Rice Crispy Treats

11/13/2014

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Pumpkin is still in style, right?  

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Okay... good.  I'd be so depressed if it wasn't.  It wouldn't stop me from eating it though.  If you've been following my blog, you know I have a love (and partial obsession) with ALL THE PUMPKIN foods.  I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I mean, I'm bringing you yet another pumpkin themed recipe, right?  You also probably know of my love and partial obsession of coffee.  I promise there's a connection here. 

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So a few weekends ago, I went home to Ohio to visit my parents and sister and had to make a stop at one of my favorite places in Cincinnati, Coffee Emporium (a coffee shop, obviously).  I had to stop by, because in trying to fit so many things in to one day, I may have only had 4 hours of sleep the night before, so coffee was needed, obviously.  I had also come to town that specific weekend because Alton Brown was visiting as part of his tour (sidenote:  it was awesome, go see it when he comes to your city).  This brings me to reason number two for stopping by Coffee Emporium.  Rumor had it Alton Brown was going to pay a visit.  Spoiler alert, I missed him by an hour.  Sad day indeed.  However, it seems Alton really enjoyed his honey late.

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Coffee Emporium happens to be the place back home that also sells my all time favorite chocolate chip scones.  Is your mouth watering?  Mine is.  Well they were out of them the day I stopped in.  It's fine.  They also happen to make these amazing pumpkin rice crispy treats.  Except I was really lucky that day because they were out of those too.  So instead of crying about my bad luck (because of course, on my way back to my parents house after the Coffee Emporium stop, I got a flat tire on the highway), I decided I'd just make my own version of the pumpkin rice crispy treats (plus chocolate, obviously) when I got back to Peoria.  Seems my luck must have turned around at some point because they turned out pretty great, which is why I'm sharing the recipe with you.  Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Rice Crispy Treats

Makes 24 rice crispy squares.

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 (10 ounce) bag mini marshmallows
3 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 cups rice crispy cereal
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.




Instructions:

Grease a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Line a small mixing bowl with a paper towel.  Measure out pumpkin puree onto paper towel.  Use a second paper towel and ring out some of the moisture from the pumpkin.  This is important because you want "crisp" treats, not soggy ones.  Think of this the same way you would think of removing extra moisture from defrosted frozen spinach.

Measure out 1/3 cup marshmallows (these are for mixing in later).  

In a saucepan, melt butter and remaining marshmallows together.  Remove from heat and fold in pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice.  Allow mixture to cool completely (20-30 minutes).  Not allowing mixture to cool will result in soggy treats.

In a mixing bowl, combine cereal, cooled marshmallow mixture, reserved marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  Spread evenly in greased baking pan and allow to set for 20-30 minutes before cutting in to squares.  

Treats should last about 1 week.  Enjoy!


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Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Muffins

9/21/2014

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Today I'm kicking muffins up a notch.
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The muffins are the muffins created when a delicious chocolate cinnamon muffin marries a moist pumpkin muffin, and has a child.  The pumpkin side of this muffin is a throwback to a version of one of the first recipes I ever wrote (back in my Tumblr days).  The chocolate cinnamon side of this muffin is inspired by quite possibly one of my favorite Starbucks treats ever.  

Indecisiveness is a permanent part of my life when it comes to food.  All food sounds good.  All the time.  And when it comes to a muffin craving, how do you decide between rich and delicious chocolate or deliciously moist pumpkin?  Seriously, pumpkin everything this time of year.  But everything is better with chocolate?  Decisions are tough.  

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I figured if marble cake is allowed, and chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream is allowed, chocolate-pumpkin muffins should be allowed too.  As a child, I was indecisive.  I could never decide what I wanted.  I always figured at some point in my life I'd grow out of it but as I've tried more things, making decisions has just gotten progressively more challenging.  Like I wish when you go to a bakery, you could order half of one muffin, half of another, and half of a third.  This could seemingly solve my donut problem too.  Instead of ordering 3 dounts, I could order 3 half donuts.  Bakery owners, if you read my blog, take this idea seriously, I think it's a winner.
 
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So instead of having to decide between two types of muffins, now you know it's possible to combine them into one muffin.  Scoop half of one batter, and half of another batter into the same muffin slot.  Using a knife or toothpick, swirl together.  I'm having daydreams of doing this with banana and pumpkin, chocolate and banana, banana and cinnamon... the list is seemingly endless.  What two muffin flavors would you combine together?  Let me know in the comments.  

And for those of you currently rolling your eyes going, "Another quick bread recipe?"  Get used to it.  The quick bread love isn't going anywhere.

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Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Muffins

Yield- 24 muffins

Ingredients: 

PUMPKIN MUFFIN BATTER:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree

CHOCOLATE MUFFIN BATTER:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups non-fat, plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Nutrition: 
(per 1 muffin)
Calories:  210, Fat:  8.8 g, Cholesterol:  30.1 g, Potassium:  103.8 g, Carbohydrates:  28.9 g, Fiber:  2 g, Sugar:  14 g, Protein, 6.3 g


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12 compartment muffin tray.

Prepare each batter separately.  
For the pumpkin batter, combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in one bowl and mix with a fork.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugars, oil, eggs and pumpkin to create the wet ingredients.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing only until combined.
For the chocolate batter, combine flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and chocolate chips in a bowl and mix with a fork.  Combine yogurt, oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugar in a separate bow and mix to create the wet ingredients.  Fold the wet into the dry and mix until combined.

Fill each muffin cup with half of each batter.  Using a knife, swirl the batters together to create the marbled effect.  

Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick could be removed clean from the center of a muffin.  Allow to cool then enjoy!
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#PizzaNight- Utilizing Leftovers To Add A Mushroom Twist On My Pumpkin Pizza

9/14/2014

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I've been watching a lot of Chopped lately.  Food Network has been airing the leftovers series.  I think it's funny when the contestants find out they are cooking with leftovers.  They get mad and say things like, "I never eat leftovers," or "Leftovers are gross."  That makes me sad.  Leftovers are a beautiful thing.   I get excited about leftovers.  Yum.

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Last night, I was working on some reading for graduate school.  Since it was Saturday night, I felt like I should at least go someplace to read instead of locking myself in my apartment.  Because that's depressing.  I went with a friend to Starbucks and witnessed maybe one of the greatest moments ever.  A group of about 10 "frat bros" came in and got an assortment of drinks.  The two guys who ordered Frappicunos were really excited.  They clinked their cups together and exclaimed, "We are Frappucino bros!"  I hope that someday, people will get that excited about leftovers.  Maybe frat guys will want to be "Leftovers Bros."  I'm not sure that makes sense... but it could become a thing.  


I think people who don't eat leftovers are missing out on life.  Leftover soup tastes better the next day.  Leftover cold pizza is delicious for lunch.  Using leftover ingredients saves money, and everybody wants to save money.  Am I right?  I made my pumpkin pizza on my whole wheat crust again today since I still had ricotta, pumpkin, kale, and bacon in my fridge from when I made it last week.  I also had leftover pizza dough.  It was meant to happen.  I also had leftover baby bella mushrooms from another recipe I made earlier in the week, so I cooked those off in the bacon fat after rendering my bacon for this pizza.  It was a very welcomed addition to my pizza.  


Happy Sunday, have fun using your leftovers, and most importantly, eat Pizza (because it's Sunday--reference here for why Sunday is Pizza Night).  
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#PIzzaNight-  Pumpkin Pizza with Kale and Bacon

9/7/2014

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{DISCLAIMER:  I was in no way compensated for mentioning Libby's Pumpkin.  Libby's is solely mentioned in this post because the use of Libby's Pumpkin was a requirement for the recipe contest I entered this pizza in}

Pizza Sunday is one of my favorite holidays.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  Pumpkin is one of my favorite foods.  I think you get where I'm going here...based upon all of these things, this pizza recipe is a no brainer.  I'm going full on fall, diving right in with this pizza that has two wonderful fall things:  pumpkin and kale.

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What is Pizza Sunday, you ask?  Well great question.  My roommate during undergrad once told me that she and her family always ate pizza on Sunday for dinner (clearly a brilliant idea).  We attempted it for a while, but being the busy college students we were, our schedules never seemed to fall in alignment and Pizza Sunday never became the consistent thing I had hoped it would.  Then, another group of my friends started making crust from scratch every Sunday.  Yet again, schedule conflicts, as I always seemed to sign up for work shifts at the Italian Restaurant on campus and never made it more than a few times.  But for the sake of nostalgia, Sunday will always be "Pizza Sunday."  #PizzaNight will be a recurring theme a few Sunday's each month on this blog.  I hope you're as excited as I am.

Now for this pizza.  I entered it into a recipe contest.  Yep.  the town about 12 miles east of Peoria is called Morton.  Morton, IL is known for this totally awesome thing:  its annual Pumpkin Festival.  This festival literally sounds like the best thing ever.  They have everything you could ever want to eat with pumpkin, a pancake breakfast, a pie eating contest, a 10K race, and of course the recipe contest sponsored by Libby's Pumpkin.  I can't wait to try ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS.  Like honestly, my mouth is watering now.  I'm mentally planning out what to try, without spending all of my money.

So the recipe contest.  I entered the adult savory competition.  The only requirement for the recipe contest was to use 1 cup of Libby's Pumpkin Puree.  A little background on me and recipe contests.  I'm not used to losing.  Before this weekend, I have only ever NOT placed in a recipe contest 1 time.  I'm published in Rachael Ray's cookbook, won the Miami University Dining Healthy Recipe competition, and a few other very small contests.  I've even been hand selected to audition for Master Chef with Gordon Ramsay for the past 2 years (however I will not be accepting the invitation this year due to my busy schedule).  So NOT placing tonight was a bit of a shock.  I'm not complaining.  Food is completely subjective.  A dish could be amazing but be disliked by many people.  As a cook, you have to stand behind your dish, and let me tell you, this pizza is AWESOME (aka I stand by my dish).  Actually, since when does something with bacon on top lose?  Apparently today.  The winning recipe was Chicken and Waffles.  In my opinion, it didn't look that great, but I'm clearly biased!  At the end of the day, not placing kind of did me a favor (I think...).  It saved me the hassle of re-making this pizza next weekend.  It saved me the stress of presenting my dish in front of hundreds of people and 3 celeb judges on a big stage next week.  Most importantly, it clearly saves me the calories I would have consumed by tasting pieces of cheese and bits of bacon while cooking again (I kid, I kid).  Now I get to enjoy the festival next weekend without the stress of making my pizza.  So thank you Chicken and Waffles, it looks like you did me a favor.  

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pizza, before being baked.

Like I said before, my pizza is AWESOME.  My crust recipe is amazing.  I've finally developed the perfect thin, whole wheat pizza crust recipe.  A recipe I'm proud of.  The crust is thin, crispy and slightly nutty.  The pumpkin puree mixed with sage, honey and ricotta is the perfect amount of creamy and sweet, with the honey bringing out the natural sweetness in the pumpkin.  The creaminess of the mozzarella, mixed with the saltiness of the parmesan and fontina contrast the sweet pumpkin nicely.  Smokey and salty bacon adds a depth of flavor that is irreplaceable and makes this pizza a total winner (Everything is better with bacon right?  Even this Jew thinks so...).  Finally, not only does the kale provide you with your daily dose of nutrients, but it rounds out the pizza with a little crispness in texture and earthy flavor.  It's to die for.  This pizza is perfection, and I hope you'll agree.  

Sometimes in life, you don't win everything so I'm okay with it.  Actually it worked out because this morning, I ran a half marathon and placed second in my age group.  So I still won something this weekend.  Even if its not what I had originally planned on winning.

Keep scrolling, the recipe is below this picture.  Happy eating everybody!  

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Pumpkin Pizza With Kale and Bacon

makes two, 8-10 inch pizzas 

Ingredients:

½ cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup Libby’s canned pumpkin puree
1 tbsp honey
5-6 fresh sage leaves, minced
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
5 strips bacon, chopped
1 cup chopped kale
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup fontina cheese, shredded
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 pizza dough rounds (pizza dough recipe)


Instructions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.  Place pizza stone in bottom of oven to heat as oven warms.  If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can use a cookie sheet to bake the pizza.  Make sure to grease it with cooking spray.

  2. Combine ricotta, pumpkin, honey, sage and pepper in a bowl.  This will serve as the base of your pizza.  Set aside.

  3. Preheat a frying pan over medium high heat with a teaspoon of olive oil.  Add bacon and allow to fry until cooked through.  Bacon will continue to crisp as the pizza bakes.  Set aside (ideally in a bowl lined with a paper towel to catch the extra grease).

  4. Chop kale into ½ inch sized pieces.  Toss kale with 1 tsp olive oil.  Set aside.  

  5. To assemble the pizza, drizzle olive oil onto each pizza round and spread evenly over the dough.  Next, spread the pumpkin and ricotta mixture evenly on each pizza round.  Then top each pizza with ½ cup mozzarella, ½ cup fontina, and ¼ cup parmesan cheese.  Finally, divide kale and bacon evenly between the two pizzas and bake one pizza at a time in the oven for 5-7 minutes until kale is crispy, the cheese is melted and bubbly, and the crust is golden brown.
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Pumpkin Cornbread... and the "unofficial" Start to Fall

9/1/2014

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Now, before I really get started, I want to point out that as I sit here and type this post, it's 84 degrees F and humid here in Peoria, and my AC does not work properly and I'm sitting here sweating in my apartment.  Now that you have that picture in your head, it's had to believe that this post is about FALL.  Yes, I went there.  I'm a HUGE proponent of the notion that fall food only tastes good when it's actually fall (I stand by that opinion, now and forever).  When you have a cool, crisp, autumn breeze, the crunching of the leaves, and of course the hues of orange and red--that is when it's fall--that is when fall food is most delicious and most comforting.  Not August 25, when Dairy Queen and Starbucks decided to release their fall favorites.  Seasonally speaking, the official end to summer and start of autumn isn't until September 22!  However, seeing all the fall decorations, menu  items, and of course CANDY CORN all over town got fall on my mind early.  I've been telling myself that I wouldn't cave and I would wait until it actually felt like fall outside, but alas, I succumbed to the peer pressure, and here I am, on September 1st, developing a recipe that's all about that season that hasn't happened yet.  But September sounds more like autumn than August, so I'm just gonna go with it.  Besides, those who know me best know that I get giddy just thinking about foods made with apple cider, pumpkin, and all the other fall staples.  

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So you can thank my good pal Molly for this post because she kind of inspired the idea.  That, and I've been looking for some savory applications of pumpkin for entering a recipe contest, so this seemed perfect.  After an afternoon of messing around with ratios and comparing other standard cornbread recipes, I think I've developed a winner.  Let's just say my kitchen smells AMAZING.  It's definitely a savory cornbread.  It's slightly sweet, and slightly salty, with just the right amount of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg for that fall spice your senses crave.  It's moist in the center and crisp and golden brown on top.  It's so easy to make, requires ingredients that most people typically have at home, and most importantly, takes 30-35 minutes, TOPS.  I'm all about the quick (hello! Quick, healthy, delicious is my blog name...).  Baking in 30 minutes?  COUNT ME IN.  

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Pictured above are most of the ingredients.  When I bake, I always like to do a mixture of whole wheat and white flours--I think that's the future dietitian in me.  Extra fiber, ya know??  The oil is necessary (for all you health nuts), it's what keeps this cornbread nice and moist.  The buttermilk adds richness to the batter.  The higher fat, the better, but this time around, I actually didn't have buttermilk so I made my own using the skim milk I had available.  Take 15 tbsp milk and add 1 tbsp lemon juice and allow to sit for around 10 minutes to curdle.  This will work as a great substitute for the buttermilk.  The spices add fall flavor--it's not fall without nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.  Trust me, you will thank me later when your kitchen smells AMAZING!  The honey is in there to balance out the flavor.  It's not intended to be overly sweet.  2 tablespoons of honey should be more than enough.

First I mixed the dry ingredients with a whisk, to get out all the lumps.

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Then the wet ingredients.

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Then combine, mixing as little as possible.  You don't want to over mix or your dough will become dense.

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Grease an 8x8 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  It should be nice and golden brown on top.  This makes a great snack or breakfast with just a drizzle of honey on top.

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the drizzle photo is something i'll have to work on--for now, you're stuck with this.

If you want to make a fall meal out of the cornbread (and who doesn't on an 84 degree day in September...), you can make a chili.  Now, due to many reasons not limited to and including that I am out of cumin, I didn't really make a chili who's recipe I'm proud enough to share.  When I'm not in the mood to eat my chili, I typically make some sort of variation of this chili recipe by Rachael Ray.  Sometimes I add meat, sometimes I don't.  What I love about her chili's are that she adds beer to them.  That's right.  BEER.  It adds a nice depth of flavor to the chili leaving your tastebuds going, hmmm....  So, in good fall fashion, I added pumpkin beer.  Because I caved at the store last week and was looking for a reason to pop open the 6-pack.  Why not for a chili to eat with my pumpkin cornbread?  Seems logical.  So using the few excuses for chili ingredients left in my fridge, I managed to scrounge something together and pictured below is the delicious fall (even though it's not fall yet) meal that I enjoyed.  I can only imagine how delicious this will be once it's actually chilly out.  

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Pumpkin Cornbread

serves 16

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup cornmeal
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup buttermilk
(skim buttermilk works and was used in the nutrition analysis, but bread will be moister and richer with fattier buttermilk)
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Nutrition:
Calories:  110, Fat:  4.6 g, Potassium:  92.9 g, Carbs:  15.2 g, Fiber:  2.0 g, Protein:  2.7 g
Instructions:


1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and grease an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.
2.   Combine all dry ingredients with a whisk.
3.  Combine all wet ingredients with a whisk.
4.  Combine wet and dry ingredients.  DO NOT OVER MIX.  Only mix ingredients until combined and that there are no dry pieces in the batter.  Over mixing will create a dense dough.
5.  Pour into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and top is golden brown.
6.  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing.  Serve with chili or with a drizzle of honey.  Enjoy!!
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    Rose K.

    My name is Rose and I'm always hungry.  Come take a bite out of life with me, and learn just how easy leading a quick, healthy and delicious lifestyle can be.

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