BIZZY BAKES

Kudos to Louise who hosts our annual picnic which has the best food in Foodie Land.  Louise has an amazing blog,  Months of Edible Creations  , one of the most interesting ones around.  If you ever have time to be fascinated, hop over there and read about some of the special days and more important, the special foods that are highlighted, each day.  Pick up tidbits, tales and recipes and most important, fun and enjoyment. My gratitude to Louise for this picnic that you are all invited to, with or without a recipe.  Come and eat our food.  I hope you enjoy this salad from Rick Bayless. This salad calls for a little more prep work than other salads, I make.  It has tons of vegetables and could be eaten as a main dish although, I served it with grilled chicken from Ellie Krieger. Vegetable Salad with Lime Dressing      Serves 6   Adapted from Rick Bayless I advise doing some of the prep work in advance.  There is ...

I am a bit scared that I am in hot water. As you know, I started my Lunch Project to avoid falling into the rut of just grabbing something, for a major meal, lunch. Yesterday was a great success and I enjoyed my tomato dish. Today, I had an even more enjoyable dish, which I will share with you, but this one is not as healthy. I am weighing it out in my mind, one piece of bread without crust, 1/2 cup cheese, onion, 1 potato, 2 eggs, 1 slice of lox and a little milk. Tell me, it is not sinful. Absolutely no additional fat, noting the word additional, and no additional salt, again that word, was included. What if I do this, everyday? I guess, I will just have to look into our Recipe Box and find some healthy recipes to make but I still want some indulgent ones for those days I NEED to indulge myself, yeah sure. Please leave both, some to give me comfort and some to keep me healthy. You are the greatest. Since I eat only kosher food, I can't have milk and meat at the same me...

I have made a decision which I am going to work with, this summer. Can you sense my hesitancy? My decision is to make myself a decent lunch, each day, Monday through Thursday. Usually, those are days, I will plan as I go along.  Since the teaching year is over, I will, in some way, divide my days between pleasure activities, prep work for next year and appointments that I want to fit in.  Eating is part of each of these days and my normal way of handling this, in the summer, is to eat anything, on hand, at the particular moment, I have time to eat. My plans are to change this.  I am just not sure, my actions will keep up with these standards.  I will share some of my good meals with you.  Cheer me on, please.   For lunch today, I had something delicious, feta stuffed tomato.  Feta hold its own in flavor and the flavor shone through but it was tempered with the onions and parsley.  It came together with the most delicious taste and I am...

My Cherry Almond Muffins from last week are sitting in for this week's Muffin Mondays. Most of my stir fries are vegetable but once in a while, we have chicken, which I do love to eat.   Almost, every time, I make a stir-fry, I add soy sauce (gluten-free soy sauce). Sidebar:  When one is gluten-free; her thinking is a little different.  Every item gets checked and still, I find when I re-check it, at home, I can make a mistake.  Hopefully, I catch all the mistakes.  It is not funny for someone who is gluten-free to eat a "mistake". I protect my husband by doing a massive shopping at Passover time.  That is when you can get gluten-free soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce gluten-free, with ease.  I do see these, in the store, during the year but before Passover, they are massive quantities.  There are a whole bunch of goodies, I buy.  Sure, I can make my own but I love getting ready made blintzes and I can use them in a blintze so...

Melt sent me two containers of their product and I made delicious blueberry mini cakes with it. It is creamy and easy to work with. This is the Melt promise. "Our Promise Let’s face it:  when it comes to nutrition, nowhere is there more confusion than around eating fat. From low-fat, high-carb diet fads to the launch of hydrogenated oils into our food supply, and the associated vilification of naturally saturated fats, its understandable why so many of us are still confused about what to eat and how to cook for our families. We are very proud of our flagship product, Rich & Creamy Melt® Organic, a butter alternative that is truly delicious. We now also carry a delicious Honey butter alternative that is organically sweetened and contains all of the goodness of our original flagship product, Rich & Creamy Melt®. These products contain the perfect organic blend of the healthiest fats that supports healthy weight when replacing other fats in your daily diet. Each se...

  I am not sure where I got this.  It was on someone's Face Book page.  It is interesting that I had a chat with a friend, this morning about later years and how important it is, if one has the health to pull it off, to work or be involved in charity or hobbies, grandchildren or social groups and even the Internet.  Living can only get better in later years. I thank God that my health allows me to be active in life and hopefully with His help, I want to do this until my very last day.

I think, this is going to be a summer of smoothies.  They hit the spot on a hot day and they are relatively healthy, depending on what you put into it. Maple Cherry Berry Smoothie                                                                                    Ingredients : 2 cups plain yogurt 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 cup blueberries 1 cup cherries 1 cup ice cubes 1 tablespoon sugar (optional) Method: Put all ingredients, except ice cubes in the blender.  Blend on low and put up to high when ingredients have turned one color.  Blend on high for another 30 seconds. Add ice cubes and blend until they have disappeared. Now, drink hearty. Linked to Whole Food Wednesdays       Scrumpti...

Veggie Delight I had no name for this dish, I put together, this evening.  I am finding it difficult to follow recipes from cookbooks or online.  Almost always, I take the recipe, in another direction.  That is what happened, today.  I pulled out a few cookbooks, found a recipe for roasted cubes of vegetables in a tomato sauce and covered with cheese.  It had veggies, I had in the house and the idea of roasting vegetables with a cheese topping intrigued me. I ended up slicing the veggies thinly on the mandolin and separately putting piles of them, in a baking dish.  I then dropped some spicy cheese on top, well spaced out.  It was delicious. Ingredients: 1 zucchini 1 yellow squash 2 carrots 1 mini red pepper 1 mini yellow pepper 1 mini orange pepper 1/4 green pepper spray olive oil 3 slices from a twisted spicy mozzarella roll 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil (my basil is re...

Improv is back with the best ingredients yet, cherry and almond. Both stand alone and together, a winning combo is created. Kristen from  The Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemake r is the hard worker who organizes this monthly project and we appreciate her. I made this recipe with blueberries previously in Bizzy Bakes and we loved it. We love it, even more, with cherries or I think we do. Both are so fantabulous, it is hard to tell. All, I know, this is the recipe my hubby calls for more of. It is from  Levana Kirschenbaum  and her new book, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen, a giant of a book and one for all cooks. Cherry Almond Mini Muffins Ingredients: Canola oil spray 2/3 cup Rice Dream 2 large eggs 2/3 Canola oil 1 cup sugar 2 cups cherries 1 cup old fashioned oats 3 cups gluten-free brown rice flour mixture 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup golden raisins 1/2 cup almonds 1 tablespoon cardamom I topped with a teaspoon ...

We may not eat much meat but we do eat too much cheese.  I am working on cutting down the cheese in various recipes and still keep the richness of the dish.  I applied this to my mac and cheese, yesterday.  Step one was to cut down the main cheese in the recipe.  The second step lit up like a light bulb in the middle of my mixing my ingredients.  Use an avocado to get the creaminess. Creamy Avocado Penne and Cheese Ingredients: 1/2 pound gluten-free penne, cooked according to package directions 1 avocado, mashed 2 tablespoons cream cheese 1 cup Cheddar or Mexican mix, shredded 1 cup low fat milk 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Method:   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Drain and rinse penne.  Place in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mash together cream cheese and avocado.   Add milk and black pepper to the penne and mix.  Combine with avocado-cream cheese mixture.  Make sure the cream cheese coats the macaroni. Transfer to g...

I won a cookbook and what a cookbook, it is.  It is perfect for us, as we work on eating more healthily.  The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen by Levana Kirschenbaum is a fabulous book with beautiful photos, clear instructions and the yummiest recipes.  I must note that you do not have to be kosher to love this book.  All recipes are for all of us.   There are about 350 pages in this book, each one filled with delicious recipes and good pointers.  There are beautiful photos but I would have liked more. I won this book from Joy of Kosher , a site, I have enjoyed for a while.  Jamie is a young woman who has made her mark in the world of kosher cooking.  Her site has tons of recipes and I suggest you go over and see for yourself, how much fun you can have there.  These are Jamie's books and another one is in the making. Back to Levana who has a warm approach to cooking,  I plan to write a review of this book after, I make more r...

I am like a kid with spaghetti squash.  I enjoy pulling out the strands and seeing "almost" spaghetti strands.  You can do so much with this squash.  You can sub it in, in place of spaghetti.  You can mix it up with a sauce of any kind, mix it with vegetables, add some chopped meat or chicken or flake some fish into it. I came across Paula Deen's recipe and decided to try it. Skillet Spaghetti Squash     (adapted from Paula Deen) Ingredients: 1 spaghetti squash 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1/2 green pepper, sliced 1/2 red pepper, sliced 1 teaspoon sesame oil 2 tablespoons orange marmalade 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Procedure Microwave spaghetti squash, cut in halves for about 7 minutes until you can pull out the strands with a fork.  (You can bake this in an oven for 40 minutes, if you prefer.) While squash is cooking, put olive oil in a large ...

Cabbage is not pretty but it is good to eat, especially with apples. I made this as a side dish for chicken. C reamy Cabbage with Apples Ingredients: 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 large onion, chopped salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste 2 tablespoons cider vinegar 1 bag shredded green cabbage 2 large Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and thickly sliced 1/2 cup vegetable broth 1 pinch nutmeg 1/2 cup sour cream Method: Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Stir the onion into the pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook and stir over medium-high heat until onion is translucent. Sprinkle in the sugar, then stir in the vinegar. Add the cabbage, stirring well to combine. Cook, uncovered, until cabbage is reduced and starts to soften, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in apples,and vegetable broth. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more stoc...

Getting an award is huge to me.  I know one has to pass it on but one has to select, in whatever say, the person chooses to do it, and that means someone thought of me.  I don't take that for granted.  I know that I give a lot of thought to who I give awards to.  These are the questions, I ask myself. Have I give the person an award before? Is the person a new blogger? Is the person new to me? What is it that I like about the person's blog? How do I make it meaningful to the receiver? Since it is about three years that I have been blessed to receive and give awards, I have had the opportunity to ponder over this and I can only say to whoever I pass this along to, it is because I respect you and I like you.  In some cases, I simply want to get to know you better.  At this point, I have not decided who to share this with but that happens after I answer all the questions and I am more into the whole scene. I thank Jamie from Love Bakes Good Cakes ...

Add your recipe to the RECIPE BOX LINKY by linking below. I am closing Bake With Bizzy and opening the Recipe Box. Help me fill it up with delicious dishes.   Anything food related is welcome. Honey Almond Strawberry Salad This is such a delicious salad, I thought it would be appropriate to open up my Recipe Box and find it.  I discovered on the linky, My Meatless Mondays and it is from The Vegetarian Casserole Queen. I didn't have all the ingredients, on hand, but I was hungry so I altered it to fit what was in my kitchen.  I enjoyed this light meal and could have had a second plate. I thought the star of this salad was the honey almond goat cheese.  It has a delicate flavor, yet it dominated the recipe.  I also love the cranberries with their chewiness.  Needless to say, strawberries are winners.  I would add mango to this recipe. Strawberry Poppyseed Salad Ingredients: 1-1/2 cups spinach, torn into small...