Love, loss, and what I ate

I haven't been posting many food updates because I haven't been baking as much. It's this whole "it's January and no longer my birthday so I should pretend to eat healthier for a few months" thing. I try to eat healthy most of the year, but baking is generally my undoing. I find reading food blogs is a gateway because once I read about something the idea is planted and I have no choice but to make some absurd cheesecake rich in refined sugar. However, as luck would have it, January is the time that everyone posts only their "low carb" "low sugar" and (a recent addition to the health party) "gluten free" recipes. As such, I've yet again embraced my oven for things other than broiling salmon and making kale chips.

Here are two recipes I've tried recently with great success. I'm a big believer in adding a vegetable to something unhealthy and thus claiming it's healthy. Butternut squash mac and cheese? Been there. This first recipe is in that vein. I saw another blogger posted a recipe for pizza crust made from cauliflower . I'm not going to post the recipe because I essentially followed her process (well except that my microwave is clearly far more powerful than hers because it only needed about 6 minutes). Also, my toppings of choice--based on what was in my refridgerator at the time--were blue cheese and bacon. It's no wonder I require vegetables in my pizza crust when the contents of my fridge at any given time are blue cheese and bacon.

I guess the other reason I haven't been posting about food much is because I still haven't figured out how to make the finished product not look like crap on a plate. I think a big step in that direction would be using an actual camera instead of a phone.

The second recipe that I met with some success with was for a dessert with no added sugars or oils. Yes, I was skeptical too. It's for a sort of clafouti but with raspberries instead of cherries. Actually, in the original recipe I adapted it from, she used cherries, but I'm not as into pitting them. I actually used frozen raspberries in this recipe because the fresh ones cost about the same as plutonium right now and if I bought them I would eat them before they made it into a dessert.

Here's the recipe (followed by the finished product, which I swear tastes better than it looks--stupid iphone in bad light):

Ingredients:

2 bags frozen raspberries or 2 containers fresh (if you have more self control around them than I do)

1 1/3 cup almond meal

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 large eggs beaten

4 egg whites

1 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup sliced almonds

This is really very easy. Preheat the oven to 375. Now, just put the raspberries (no need to thaw if you're using frozen) in the bottom of a tart pan. In a small mixing bowl combine the two flours and in another bowl combine all other ingredients (except the almonds). Add the dry to the wet, mix well, and then pour over the berries. Sprinkle the sliced almonds on top and put the whole thing in the oven for 50 minutes. Comes out delicious and plenty sweet.

Again it's so much better than it looks.

Today is the first real snow of 2012--so I might just be doing some more baking tonight! From what I can see there are already a couple of inches on the ground. Stay warm readers (for those of you who don't live in Texas, that is), and have a great weekend!