I made coffee cake this weekend for Saturday morning brunch. It is a great quick and easy basic coffee cake. You can easily modify it by adding various nuts/fruits to the batter. Next time I’m going to try substituting puréed pumpkin for some of the oil. I’ll also add some pecans instead of almonds. This cake would also be nice with diced apples added to the batter. Enjoy playing around with this recipe!
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 12
A basic coffee cake recipe to play around with. Try adding various fruits & nuts!
- Topping
- 1 cup flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- Batter
- 3/4 cup almond milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 1/4 flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Oil an 8 x 8-inch square pan.
- Make the topping: Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add canola oil slowly, mixing with your hands to create crumbs. Stir in sliced almonds.
- Make the batter: Combine almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a large measuring cup and let it curdle. In the meantime stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir sugar and canola oil into milk mixture. Pour liquids into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
- Pour batter into pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle topping over batter. Bake for 30 minutes.
2.1.7
I picked up the latest Whole Living after reading about the “Perfectly Prepped” article. The idea is that you cook ahead a bunch of ingredients on the weekend. Then you can mix and match with these items throughout the week to create quick, easy and tasty dinners. For the past year I’ve been experimenting with this idea so I was immediately interested in this article. I’ve been doing things like washing & chopping my lettuce, making a big pot of soup and precooking some beans. However, this article takes the idea a step further adding vegetables, grains and sauces to the mix. This truly allows you to create a number of meals in minutes. In the article there are three condiments, three grains, four vegetables and two proteins given. I decided to follow the idea this week and went with the same numbers though used different recipes. The total prep today took 2-3 hrs. For my perfectly prepped week I made:
Condiments:
- Teriyaki sauce: Combine 1/2 cup soy sauce & 1/2 cup mirin or honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and add 1 clove garlic, grated & 1 Tablespoon ginger, grated.
- Chimichurri sauce: Leave out the water and add half the amount of olive oil & white vinegar.
- Golden raisin vinaigrette (one of the recipes from the article)
Grains: These I decided not to make ahead since I have the rice cooker and can easily set it on a timer to cook quinoa & rice. Pasta is less than 10 minutes so I decided not to pre-prep it either.
- Pasta
- Quinoa
- Rice
Vegetables:
- Steamed collards: Cut off stems & dice. Cut leaves into 1″ pieces. Steam stems for 2 minutes. Add leaves & steam for another 2 minutes. Dump into a bowl of ice water to cool & preserve the green color.
- Roasted poblano peppers: Cut peppers in half & seeds. Place on a baking sheet. Preheat the broiler to high. Broil 3-5 minutes until skin of peppers is blackened. Let peppers cool then peel off skin.
- Roasted butternut squash: Cut squash into 1″ cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper & cinnamon (1/2 to 1 teaspoon of each). Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, until squash is tender.
- Braised cabbage: Slice one onion into half moons. Core & shred half a head of cabbage. Sauté onion in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add cabbage and one cup vegetable stock. Cover and cook 5-10 minutes, until cabbage is tender.
Proteins:
- Chickpeas
- Roasted chicken
I also have some salad greens & cheese on hand. I’m not sure what we’ll end up eating this week, however, tonight I ended up making a pasta dish. Pasta + roasted squash + chickpeas + collards + golden raisin vinaigrette + blue cheese. Yum!
This is one of the recipes from my fridge cheat sheet. I really love the combination of earthy lentils and red wine. It is great over rice or another grain, served with a poached egg on top, or leftover wrapped in a flour tortilla.
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 4
The sauce for these lentils is primarily reduced wine and the butter or olive oil added at the end. The butter makes a rich-tasting dish while using the olive oil makes the dish a bit lighter. If you choose olive oil, be sure to use a nice, fruity olive oil so the taste can shine through.
- 1 1/2 cup French green lentils, rinsed
- salt and pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 large carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 celery rib, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
- 2/3 cup dry red wine
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 Tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
- Cook lentils in approximately 4 cups of water with the bay leaf until they are tender but still hold their shape (25-30 minutes).
- Meanwhile, in a medium skillet cook carrot, onion and celery with 1/2 teaspoon salt until vegetables are browned (~10 mi). Add garlic & tomato paste; sauté for 1 min. Add wine and simmer until liquid is syrupy (~10 min). Stir in mustard, butter (or olive oil) and drained lentils. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
1.2.4