Festive Fall Dinner Party

We had such a fun weekend last weekend! It got off to a great start on Friday night with our newly married friends Angela and Tushar, who came over for dinner. Rich went to grad school at MIT with Angela and we have loved living close by her this year! They have had a busy few months getting married, moving in together and traveling to Seattle and Taipei so we look forward to seeing more of them when their travel schedule lightens.
I planned a festive fall themed menu for our dinner and it came out quite delicious if I say so myself! I made drunken pumpkin chili, pumpkin cornbread with honey pecan butter, salad with apple, pecans and blue cheese, and honeycrisp apple sangria, and we had mini cupcakes from Sprinkles Cupcakes for dessert.

I was going to have shredded cheese and cut-up avocado as sides for the chili, but that day I discovered the cheese was moldy and the avocado wasn't ripe yet, so no dice on those. We did have sour cream on the side at least.

I made the chili on Thursday so it had a whole day for the flavors to meld in the fridge and I thought it came out quite good. I threw in all kinds of ingredients; I'm not sure if I can remember everything that went into it!  Chili is always a smorgasbord of all the fresh vegetables, grains and legumes I have handy. I chopped an onion, a bell pepper, a tomato, three carrots, and half a large sweet potato, and started sauteing those. I added two cans of chickpeas, two cans of black beans, the remainder of a bag of quinoa, some oat bran, a can of pumpkin puree, an Oktoberfest beer, a jar of tomato sauce, some Tofurky kielbasa, and some water for the quinoa and oat bran to soak up. For spices I added chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I'm sure there were more ingredients but that's all I remember now! After a few hours simmering on the stove it smelled warm and inviting.

I failed to take a picture of the chili - this one is from Sweet Pea's Kitchen. It looked kind of like this.

While the chili simmered I also made the honey pecan butter (which is just honey, butter, and pecans blended together in a blender or food processor) and the salad dressing, which was inspired by the best salad I shared a while back.

¼ cup vinegar (any type) - I used apple cider vinegar
½ cup chopped parsley  - I used half parsley and half basil
¼ cup red onion/shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup sugar - I used some agave nectar, less than 1/3 cup
½ cup oil
½ tsp. oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

It's also just all thrown in the blender. My blender got a workout on Thursday. 

On Friday, I made the pumpkin cornbread. I don't bake very often and I hate the mess of flour, so I decided to try grinding oats in the blender to make oat flour instead of using all-purpose flour for a healthier twist. It was a success!  I can't wait to try making all kinds of whole grain flours this way. It was super easy, and I didn't have to buy flour! I used this recipe from sweet pea's kitchen and I would definitely make it again. It was easy to throw together, pretty healthy and TASTY with the honey pecan butter. Although, to be totally honest, that honey pecan butter makes EVERYTHING you put it on taste amazing. My friend Lindsey introduced me to that idea a few years ago and I have been keeping it in my back pocket ever since. 

honey pecan butter

pumpkin cornbread - picture by Sweet Pea's Kitchen

I also made the sangria, and rimmed the glasses with cinnamon and sugar. My favorite party trick! Rimming glasses is so easy and really takes the fancy factor up a notch. I used this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and of course modified it to match what I had since I did not have brandy. Instead I added some triple sec and cranberry vodka. 

We had a blast catching up with Angela and Tushar, and hearing stories about boarding school days and learning Chinese growing up. Always a great time! 

We had the red velvet and caramel apple mini cupcakes... mmmm

Don't burn your house down, eat hummus!

I had my first kitchen catastrophe in the new house yesterday... I was going to make cheesy zucchini brown rice and beans, and I thought I could leave the rice to boil while I walked over to pick up Valerie from school... but I was mistaken. We returned to the smell of smoke, a kitchen filled with smoke and some seriously charred black rice in my best stockpot. Sad face. No rice for us, and today the house still smells like smoke. Plus Rich nearly had a heart attack when he found out I left the stove on. We are just glad a real fire didn't start, and the worst damage is to the pot, which has been soaking until I attempt to scrub it.

Since my dinner plan was foiled I came up with another idea and it was more successful. My friend Sarah found this Layered Mediterranean Dip on pinterest and since I had been wanting to make my own hummus anyway, this inspired me to turn hummus into a meal.

from the seeded at the table blog

I made the hummus recipe from my Blendtec recipe book, which is yet to steer me wrong. I had some leftover sun dried tomatoes that I wanted to use up, so I made the sun dried tomato variation of hummus, with some smoked paprika. Wow delicious!!! I have had homemade hummus come out poorly before but this one is a winner.

I spread the hummus on the plate, and topped it with chopped fresh heirloom tomato, cucumber, red onion, parsley and feta. I did not have banana peppers or kalamata olives on hand, or those would have been excellent as well. The pesto layer from the blog version is not represented either because I forgot about it. Next time!

 It came out looking so pretty and appetizing and colorful, and tasted light and healthy but satisfying. I really wished I had some pitas or pita chips to dip in it, but we made do with some toasted Ezekiel bread, lentil chips and crackers.

A few lessons learned: don't leave a pot boiling on the stove on high; and well... I guess that's pretty much it. So, one lesson learned, and one tasty hummus dip eaten. At least the day wasn't a total loss!

Protein peanut butter cups and homemade shell topping!!!

I have to share this delicious recipe I found on pinterest for Crispy Peanut Butter Protein Cups. 
As usual, I didn't have all the ingredients on hand so I modified to use what I had - most notably I left out the rice cereal, and used sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter. These would be delish with any nut butter! I can't wait to try them with almond, peanut, cashew...  

I used:

Ingredients

For the peanut (sunflower seed) butter cups

• 3 scoops unflavored whey protein powder
• 1/4 cup organic coconut oil (melted/liquid)
• 1/4 cup organic maple syrup
• 1 cup organic sunflower seed butter
•  handful of sesame seeds

For the cacao drizzle (AKA homemade magic shell topping!!!)

• 1 tablespoon organic maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon organic raw cacao powder
• 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil (melted/liquid)

 Since it's summer and we don't have A/C, the coconut oil did not require any heating; it was ready to go. For the cups, I just mixed everything together in a bowl, portioned it into 8 silicone baking cups and stuck them in the freezer for an hour.

Now for the most important part.... the magic shell topping!!!! I am so excited I found this recipe.  There's nothing I guiltily love more than magic shell topping on ice cream... but it's sooo bad for you. This stuff is the most amazing substitute for store-bought shell! And you can just throw together a single serving super quick whenever you want some. You just need equal parts maple syrup, coconut oil and cacao powder. So fast and easy! And it hardens just like shell on ice cream or on these frozen peanut butter cups. This discovery so makes my life right now!!!

These were so easy to make, and they are such a yummy treat for a snack or dessert. Valerie loves them - definitely a hit with kids! For 8 cups, I calculated each one to be about 337 calories, 22 grams of fat, 18 grams of carbs and 16 grams of protein. Okay so not exactly low calorie. For a lighter treat, you could have half a cup for 170 calories. I think what I might do the next time, rather than make them in cups, is to spread the mixture in a pan so you can slice off small pieces, which might make it easier to have smaller portions, rather than only eating half a cup each time.