The Garden Variety Cookbook More Than 500 Vegetables and Fruit Recipes for Nonvegetarians

The other day I discovered another thrift store in my area, of course I picked up a few books. One was The Garden Variety Cookbook More Than 500 Vegetables and Fruit Recipes for Nonvegetarians. As promised it has a lot of ideas I have not seen before. Here is a recipe for carrots that is like a hot carrot salad:

Carrots With Raisins

1 tablespoons mild, light-flavored olive oil
1-1/4 pounds carrots, sliced
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder.
Steam the carrots until almost tender. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the carrots for 2 minutes. Sprinkle Brown sugar over carrots and add raisins. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients. Stir into carrot mixture in skillet.

Here is their Fruit Tart recipe:

Fresh Fruit Tart

1 cup granola
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup regular stick margarine, containing less than 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, melted
1/4 skim or low-fat milk
5 cups sliced fresh fruit ( see possibilities below)
1 cup nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine granola, crumbs, cinnamon, sugar, margarine, and milk and blend.
3. Press the mixture onto bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan and bake for 25 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes. Fill shell with sliced fruit. Top with the yogurt around edge.
5. Chill for several hours before serving.
Fruit Possibilities
Blueberries and peaches
Strawberries
Apricots and blackberries
Nectarines and raspberries

Cooking The RealAge Way- Smoked Mozzarella and Veggie-Stuffed Pizza

Cooking the RealAge Way is another book I picked up the other day. I have participated in the RealAge program quizzes online but I didn't really pay that much attention to see if they were also promoting a book. Guess I didn't pay attention because the RealAge program questions really make your bad eating and exercising habits stand out and I have plenty of those.
Anyway I like this book because it is divided into seasonal sections and breakfast, lunch and dinner. The recipes also have a lot of variations and substitutions you can make. Here is a recipe for a healthful pizza.

Smoked Mozzarella and Veggie-Stuffed Pizza- "one huge slice has less than 300 calories but plenty of lycopene and potassium, making your RealAge younger by 10.0 days"

1 pound fresh, cut stir-fry vegetables (packaged or from the salad bar), such as broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, red onion, bell peppers and julienned carrots
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoon olive relish, olive paste, tapenade or olivada
2 tablespoon sun-dried tomato bits
1 (12-inch or 10 oz.) prepared thin pizza crust, such as Boboli
1/4 cup chopped mixed green herbs such as chives, thyme, parsley and basil
1/2 cup (2 oz.) finely shredded smoked mozzarella cheese
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high he4at until hot. Coat with cooking oil spray; add vegetables. Stir-fry 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Combine tomato paste, olive relish, and sun-dried tomato bits. Spread over pizza crust; top with cooked vegetables, herbs, and cheese, in that order. Bake the pizza directly on the oven rack for approximately 10 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.

Cooking With Three Ingredients- Chocolate Flan

My latest acquisition from Paperbackswap is Cooking With Three Ingredients by Andrew Schloss. Most of the recipes included some type of premade sauce as a way to get around having too many ingredients. But this recipe caught my eye as being different. This is what he says about it. "This is a miraculous recipe. As it bakes, the chocolate in the milk sinks to the bottom, which becomes the top once the flan is inverted for serving. The result is a shimmering milk chocolate discus, glazed in caramel and lacquered with dark chocolate."

Chocolate Flan

1 cup sugar
1 quart chocolate milk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. After 2 minutes, start stirring and continue stirring until the sugar melts into a pale golden caramel, about 2 minutes longer. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. Immediately pour the caramel into a 9-inch round baking dish. Carefully tilt the dish so that the caramel covers the bottom of the dish in a thin even sheet. Work quickly because the caramel will stop flowing if it cools. Set aside.
2. Add the chocolate milk to the sauce pan. Any caramel clinging to the pan will immediately solidify. Heat the milk to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Any solid caramel will melt into the milk. Stir the hot milk slowly into the eggs, mixing constantly. Pour the custard into the caramel-lined dish and set in a larger pan of water.
3. Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out with just a speck of custard clinging to it. Cool on a cooling rack to room temperature and refrigerate for several hours until thoroughly chilled.
4. To serve, run a knife around the perimeter of the custard and cover with a large rimmed tray. Invert onto the tray. Shake lightly to release the custard. When the custard drops, lift off the dish, allowing the caramel sauce to run over the top of the flan and down onto the tray. Serve the flan in slices with a bit of sauce spooned on top. Serves 8.

Duncan Hines Deliciously Simple Desserts- Lemon Chiffon Cake

Not too long ago on another of my blogs I did a post about chiffon cakes. They seem like a lot of trouble to make. Today I came across a way to make an angel food cake mix into a lemon chiffon cake. It is from Duncan Hines Deliciously Simple Desserts, a Favorite Brand Name Recipe booklet.
Lemon Chiffon Cake
1 package Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake Mix
1 cup water
3 eggs
2/4 cup Crisco oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
1 container (16 oz.) Duncan Hines Vanilla Layer Cake Frosting
2 teaspoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Lemon slices, for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For cake, combine egg white mixture (blue "A" packet) from mix and water in large bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer for 1 minutes. Beat at high speed for 5 to 10 minutes or until stiff peaks form; set aside.
Combine cake flour mixture (red "B" packet) from mix, eggs, oil, flour, 1 tablespoon lemon peel and vanilla extract in large bowl. Beat at low speed until blended. Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. Fold in reserved beaten egg white mixture. Pour into ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Run knife through batter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool following package direction.
For frosting, combine vanilla frosting, melted butter and 2 teaspoon lemon peel in medium bowl. Stir until thoroughly blended. Frost sides and top of cake. Garnish with lemon slices.