Pear Brandy and Walnut Cranberry Sauce

I remember the first holiday my family switched over from the canned “cranberry” abomination to making our own.  It was my third year in college when I spent a lot of time watching the Food Network instead of writing papers.  Which is not to say I didnt write the papers just that I did the writing at literally the very last second before they were due, editing and printing the papers minutes before catching the bus to class.  All the while frantically praying to the goddess of procrastination,  my long time muse.  I did well in all my classes I was just much more interested my new passions born out of living alone for the first time in a big city; cooking, coffee, and beatnik poetry. 

Unfortunately my last minute writing technique was so successful that its the only way I know how to write to this day.  Which is why I often neglect this blog unless someone in my life writes me an email that basically amounts to “blog today or else...”  So if Ive been promising to write about something fabulous I fed you or told you about or a recipe you sent me to try and it isnt blogged about yet, you need to write me a kind but pressing email telling me to hurry up and write about whatever it is.  It works, promise.

Anyway somewhere along the line in the plethora of cooking shows I was watching I got the itch to make real cranberries since my brother was and still is ion love with all versions of cranberry sauce.  So I bought cranberries and enlisted my little brother to help me make them.  We just cooked the simple version off the back of the bag.  Equal parts sugar and water, the bag of cranberries and boil until the berries burst. 

We were fascinated watching the berries burst all over the pot which my mother heard from the other room and probably imagined as something much more dangerous than what was actually happening because she came to watch too.  It really is the simple pleasures in life because we had more fun making those berries than most of the rest of dinner and they were delicious, we never went back to buying the canned stuff

As the holidays went on we got creative and started adding orange zest or cinnamon and comparing them hot versus how good they were cold.  Soon my brother and I were making 3 or 4 batches of cranberries to feast on  while home for the holidays.  It became an obsession and is still a holiday tradition to make too many cranberries.  I certainly wasnt going to shun the tradition this year but since Im making a habit of making new and interesting food I knew I would have to up the ante on the creativity of the cranberries this year.

The fella and I made these for Thanksgiving and fell in love.  They are the best cranberries ever.  With brandy, pears, and walnuts how could you possibly go wrong.  Though they take a little effort they are very much worth it and will wow everyone at the table.  My family, the fella, the chef and I made these disappear very quickly.  We ate them with dinner, then a little bit after dinner, then for dessert, then on top of dessert.  They are great alone but on top of coconut ice cream they are divine.  Dip in a gluten free Christmas cookie and you may never leave the table.  Or you may become so drunk on cranberries you end up playing hours of ridiculous card games.  Either way you will be very happy.

Funny to think my cooking obsession started with cranberries and has led me to French cooking and a food blog.  From playing with food with my little brother to my brother being old enough to drink and me cooking with these two crazy lovable guys.  From living for a year in Iowa with no kitchen to making gourmet meals every night. 

Okay enough end of the year nostalgia.  Its been an amazing journey 2009 but its time to move on to frog legs and shirataki noodles.  In other words, you  havent seen anything yet.

Oh and will someone convince Jacob to share with the rest of the world what he did to the turkey?  It was the best turkey Ive ever tasted and I wasnt around to watch his secret ninja cooking techniques to find out what he did.

Pear, Brandy and Walnut Cranberry Sauce

1/3 cup, plus 2-3 tablespoon brandy, divided use

water

2 cinnamon sticks, each broken in half

8 black peppercorns

12 ounces fresh cranberries, picked over

1/2 cup agave nectar

2 medium firm but ripe bartlett pears, peeled

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

 Pour 1/3 cup brandy into liquid measuring cup; add enough water to reach 1/2 cup liquid total. Set aside. Place broken cinnamon sticks and peppercorns in center of small piece of cheesecloth or large tea bag and tie closed using kitchen twine.

In medium saucepot, combine cranberries, agave nectar and cinnamon-pepper bundle. Using large holes on a box grater, grate pears into saucepot. Stir in brandy-water mixture.

Over high heat, bring cranberry mixture to a boil; reduce heat to medium and cook 10-12 minutes, or until cranberries have burst and the mixture has combined, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Stir in remaining 2 to 3 tablespoons brandy. Let cool. Remove and discard cinnamon bundle. Stir in 7 tablespoons toasted walnuts. Transfer mixture to small serving bowl; sprinkle with remaining walnuts.

Original recipe from Food 52.

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Backstory on Me

I work at a bookstore and since January I have seen a bazillion diet books littering the bestseller tables to prey on the hopeful people whose New Years Resolution is to lose weight and live healthier. Im a terrible dieter and dont do fad diets very often. The few I have tried, I got bored or lazy in a week or two and never saw real results.

So why am I doing this one? A lady was buying the book today and told me about it. The title was intriguing to me because one of my major problems has always been a slow metabolism. To get a better idea of my situation, Ill give you some personal back story.

Ive never been skinny. I am not a slim build. I am a sturdy, short, woman.

That being said, I wasnt always fat.

When I was a teenager, I was very active in sports and hip hop dancing. I was on the school swim team as well as a local city swim team and I swam every day. When I moved on to high school, I didnt have enough time to dedicate to swim team due to the rigorous academics and advanced classes I was taking. However, I did join several dance groups and had practice atleast 4 times a week. I remember for senior prom, I told myself I couldnt eat ice cream and curly fries (my two favorite junk foods) for two months prior to the dance to make sure Id fit in my prom dress. Im not sure if that actually made a difference but I did fit just fine into my prom dress.

My lowest teenage weight aka weight at prom:
108 lbs

My BMI at that point was 21.1 for a height of 5 feet.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm

This is a normal BMI and is acceptable. Yay! Go high school me!

At that time I didnt really think about "real dieting" and had no idea what a BMI was. I was at the stage where "dont eat a ton of junk food and youll be fine" was a successful form of diet.

Sadly, it goes downhill from there. What happened? College happened.

As a freshman in college, those who decided to live on campus stayed in dorms that had no common rooms or common kitchens. Instead, we were required to purchase the meal plan to the cafeteria that provided three meals a day. This is all fine, except it was the gateway to my downfall! LOL.

I was raised never to waste food. Leftovers were eaten until completely gone or undeniably inedible. I know, I know, everyone says eat a big breakfast, its good for you. But honestly, the way I ate prior to college was little, to no breakfast, (assuming I woke up early enough to eat breakfast) and a decent sized lunch, and a decent sized dinner. I never ate much on a regular basis, just whenever I was hungry. Now in college, my parents put a lot of money forward to help me pay for school. This included the very expensive meal plan. I say expensive, because I could have survived on a fraction of that cost if I only had a kitchen to make healthy meals on my own. I was never a ramen girl and my mom taught me how to cook my favorite meals before I left for college. So in order not to waste any of the money my parents spent on that meal plan, I ate a lot and often just for the sake of eating. For instance, I would wake up just to eat breakfast, even if I had no class, and regardless of if I was actually hungry. Then Id go back to sleep and wake up when it was time to eat lunch. At lunch and dinner, I made sure to eat a full meal, no matter if I felt like eating or not. Looking back on this, my mom said I didnt have to eat like that but for some reason my thought process was that if I ate the meal plans worth in food, I wouldnt be wasting my parents hard earned money.

Of course, I gained the usual Freshman 15 that everyone talks about, but mine was probably more like Freshman 20. Since I was young, I have always had a pretty slow metabolism. Often when I ate, I was full for a very long time and only ate a little throughout the rest of the day. That eating pattern could be an argument for why I have a slow metabolism but its been this way since I can remember. I honestly dont know which came first: the slow metabolism or the bad eating habit. I have always had extremely low blood pressure (to the point where the doctor would joke if Im actually alive). This is supposed to be related to why Im always freezing and why I get dizzy very easily. Meanwhile, my skinny baby sister has always had a fast metabolism. Since she as a baby she would wake up in damp blankets from sweating all night. She actually wakes up in the middle of the night to get water because she gets dehydrated. She is like a walking heater even now and very perfect for snuggling with in the winter. She also eats like a horse and of course, eats A LOT of breakfast. Im talking pizza, chicken sandwiches, etc. Related? I dont know. Probably. I did try that big breakfast thing before but I would just get sleepy after breakfast. I hate eating a lot for breakfast. Im not a morning person and neither is my tummy. It wakes up around 10AM.

Anyways, back to the story. I should have tried losing that Freshman 20 over the summer but it was hard and I fluctuated between losing 5lbs and gaining it back. And the weight gain spiral continued...

I was a computer animation major and anyone in that field can tell you that it involves hours upon hours sitting on your bum in a dark room. The course was difficult and demanding and I often spent 20 hours a day doing homework on the computer or painting something in my dorm room. The demand for more time led to less sleep and missed meals.

By senior year I ended up staying awake 3 days at a time desperately trying to finish my complicated thesis in time. I often took an hour nap or so, and occasionally passed out for 3 hours. I lived on coffee (I couldnt stomach energy drinks). Ive been told that only the first cup of coffee is supposed to have any effect and every one after that is useless but it somehow fueled me through those exhausting, semi-conscious days. Probably psychological effects LOL. With less and less time available, I was also unable to work very much so my income was almost non-existent. I could usually survive on healthy meals on about $30 a week if I cooked my meals but that income dwindled down to $15 to $20 a week and then sometimes $0 a week if I couldnt fit any work into my schedule. I also didnt have much time for shopping or cooking. I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous to say I had no time for this but anyone who went through the or similar program can vouch that it is really true. Working was only made possible because I worked on campus so I could just stumble into my desk job and the hours were very flexible.

So by senior year, my diet consisted mostly of coffee and salted rice. I would eat miscellaneous food if I had the money, usually sandwiches from a coffee shop across the street, but when without money, it was salted rice. I didnt want to ask my parents for more money. Occasionally my family would send me a $20 or so when they got worried about me and my boyfriend would come over and take me shopping at Walmart so that did help a lot. What can I say, I was a proud person. I didnt want to ask help from those who had already given so much.

During this time I also had painful and irregular bowl movements. I had cramps and wouldnt #2 for days. My mom actually made me get an X-Ray because she was concerned that I was pained every time I ate and the X-Ray showed that I was literally full of shit... like my entire intestinal track. All that rice and too little veggies.

Anyways, that poor diet combined with irregular eating times, and little to no sleep led to a graduation weight of... *belly drum roll please*

142 lbs aka 27.7 BMI and soundly overweight and halfway to obesity.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm

After graduation, I was also sickly. I had insomnia as well. Im the type of person who is the last person to get sick in a room full of sick people, and even then Ill probably only start to feel sick and not get the full cold. But at this point, I was instantly sick if someone coughed in my vicinity. This did not help that a lot of my new after-college friends were in the nursing program or registered nurses. They carried all kinds of cooties everywhere they went I bet. I managed to get strep throat at this time. Youd think the upside to that would mean that Id lose weight but not really. I also would occasionally have chest pains that took my breath away. It would feel like someone punched me in the chest and ran away.

After a few months, I went to a doctor and got a health exam. They evaluated my health with blood tests and other doctory things and determined that I had borderline hypothroidism aka low thyroid hormone production. This is related to metabolism. You can read more about it here: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/hypothyroidism-topic-overview I asked if they could just give me a thyroid injection but the doctor said it might give me hyperthyroidism instead. So in short, she gave me a very strict diet plan and information for a nutritionist. 

This diet was very specific and is very similar to the HCG diet. Everything is measured, you can only eat certain food, and no other liquids but water. I was also recommended to try taking those lipo shots to help jump start my whole system. So I tried a bit of the HCG and a bit of the lipo. The diet was very very hard to stick to. I never realized how most of the time I spent hanging out with friends involved eating! I had to bring my own little healthy snacks to eat when we went out so I wouldnt be tempted to eat whatever deliciousness they were eating. This made them feel guilty eating when I couldnt which in turn made me feel bad. I was desperate to feel better and followed this plan for the recommended 30 days. I dropped from 142 lbs to 130 lbs in the course of the month. Yippe skipee!

Afterwards, I continued on to eat normally with healthy choices and exercise and I dropped down to 124 lbs. over the course of a few months. OMG tis a miracle! I was getting close to my goal weight of 115 lbs to 120 lbs. Sadly this was not to last.

Shortly after my miracle road to health I went to Ukraine to a wedding. Their party hospitality was amazing and I ate way too much delicious and rich food. You couldnt walk into someones house without being made to drink tea and at least eat sandwiches, if not a full lunch. It actually got to the point where I was afraid to pop in and say hi to anyone. LOL I thought I was going to gain it all back but it was not so. I only gained about 4 lbs. This was probably because of all the walking we did. We rarely rode anywhere. It was all walking and public transport. And the people dont casually stroll there. It is a brisk New York pace in stilletos on broken cobblestone roads. My sneakers barely survived the ordeal and my one pair of heels was demolished. If I can find the picture I will post it later.

Anyways, I returned to America weighing 128 lbs. For the longest time I was just stuck at 128 lbs no matter what I did. Since then, I fluctuate between 128 lbs to 138 lbs. This fluctuation is due to holiday eating and breast cancer marathon training. I also gave up meat for Lent. Thus my eating habits are still irregular. Eating healthy is expensive and hard work! It is also very frustrating because I feel like even though my mom and I eat the same meal, I carry those pounds for a week and hers are gone within a day or two. How can this be? We exercise relatively the same amount each week. Shes even twice my age! If anything her metabolism should be slower than mine! What is this nonsense?! Its not like I eat fast food and junk food all the time. I actually eat pretty healthy meals and lots of tea. I love Teavana =) I still dont eat big breakfasts though... *pout*

So... after that very long winded story, you now know a little about me and my health. From this point, I am going to finish reading through the "Fast Metabolism Diet" book to see exactly what it is Im supposed to do for this diet and share my notes with you. So far its not very demanding. Its mostly stuff I eat on a regular basis, just specific rotations of how often and when I eat it. There is also an app to help me plan out my meals. I have also begged a friend to do the diet with me to help me stay on track and receive encouragement and guilting if need be. It says you could lose up to 20 lbs in a month but Ill be a bit more realistic and set a goal of 10 lbs aka lose 5 lbs of water weight and 5 lbs of actual weight loss. The purpose of this blog, whether or not anyone actually reads it, is to not only document if this actually works and give me another reason to stay dedicated!

I plan to start on Monday.

Talk to you soon!
- C

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Cranberry Flax Seed Breakfast Muffins

 

Until this weekend breakfast had me stymied.

Gluten free bread is tough enough to make on its own and calls for all sorts of esoteric ingredients like xanthan  gum or tapioca starch.  Unfortunately those celiac friendly starches that mixed together in perfect combinations emulate the dreaded but nicely sticky gluten in wheat are insanely high on the GI index and therefore a Montignac  no no.  And all the recipes for low fat, high fiber breads that would be Montignac friendly were too whole wheat dependent to modify for the gluten free.

This just wouldnt do.  So I spent a week searching the internet and all the gluten free cookbooks I could find for a solution.  It didnt exist so I gave up on bread and thought about other tasty breakfast options, something that wouldnt need yeast and would still be tasty while still being really dense.  Enter muffins.  Gluten free muffins would be much more forgiving than bread.  So I combined my original Montignac bread recipe with a vegan sorghum flour fruit muffin and hoped for the best.

I took all the fatty ingredients and most of the sweetener out of this recipe from the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and started adding back liquid in the form of skim yogurt, hoping that the old vegan trick of using flax seed as a binder and egg substitute would work.  And it did!

If I hadnt just told you these were healthy you would never know it.  They made the house smell amazing and it took all the will power I had to wait until breakfast to try one.  That morning the fella and I sat with our muffins, wide eyed with the tastiness of my creation.  I was so excited to have one I got out of bed at 7AM on my day off to partake in one.  Im that big of a food nerd.  But I was not disappointed, these heavy little fruit packed chewy muffins are worth getting up early for.  The only thing that will make these muffins any better is baking them with fresh blueberries once they are back in season.

I fear however that this muffin success has gone to my head, I now have the desire to do all sorts of other combinations with this basic recipe.  Ginger pear.  Fig lemon.  Now that I know it works the fella is going to have an endless array of breakfast muffins to look forward to.  The poor guy, he has such a tough life.

Cranberry Flax Seed Breakfast Muffins

2 cups sorghum flour

2 tablespoons arrowroot

1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/ 2 teaspoon salt

1/ 2 teaspoon cardamom

1/ 2 cup applesauce

1/ 4 cup agave nectar

3/ 4 cup yogurt

2 teaspoon vanilla

1 orange zested

2/ 3 scant cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/ 2 cup flax meal

2 cups fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Well oil a 12 cup muffin tin or line with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl mix together well the sorghum flour, arrowroot, baking soda, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, salt and cardamom.

In a separate medium bowl whisk together the applesauce, agave nectar, yogurt, vanilla, orange zest, orange juice.  When combined stir in the flax meal and let mixture sit for a couple of minutes until the flax meal has thickened and absorbed some of the liquid. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix together.  Add the cranberries and gently fold together.  The batter will be lumpy and thick, the consistency of a heavy banana bread or oatmeal, if its too wet add a little flax meal, if too dry add a bit more orange juice.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup to the top.  Bake for about 20 to 27 minutes or until slightly browned on the top and able to pass the tooth pick test.  Remove muffins from tin to cool completely.

Serve with a little sugar free jam and a small bowl of fat free yogurt with berries for a perfect low fat/high carb Montignac breakfast.

Modified and made Montignac friendly from a recipe at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

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Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Chips

This is my attempt at modifying another recipe from the Lisas Kitchen blog to make it gluten and sugar free.  I was hoping to make it 100% Montignac friendly as well but I couldnt justify putting almond flour in something with a cup of peanut butter in it so I used brown rice flour instead.  That means this is a decent treat for dessert on the maintenance phase since it just has a hint of carby goodness in it instead of a refined flour.

My version isnt perfect as its a little dry so feel free to play around with the ingrediants and let me know if you could up with a different flour ratio.  Besides slightly dry baked goods are an excuse to have ice cream along side it and ice cream makes everything better.  And we all know how well peanut butter and chocolate go together so there really isnt anything else I should have to say to sell you on these yummy bars.

Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Chips

7 tablespoons of melted vegan shortening (I used Earth Balance butter flavor spread)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (divided use)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
scant 3/4 cup chickpea flour
scant 1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate finely chopped (or 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

Grease an 8 inch square pan with shortening. Line with parchment paper, leaving some overlap. Grease the paper in the bottom of the pan with more shortening.

In a large bowl, combine the melted shortening, agave nectar and 1/2 cup of the peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gently beat in the flours, arrowroot, baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir in the chocolate and remaining peanut butter.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until it passes the tooth pick test.

Modified from a recipe on the Lisas Kitchen Blog.

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