[BakerAunt]

I used to make tortillas, but I never could get them as thin as the ones in the store. If you are interested, Mike, I'll look for the recipe, which probably came out of the L.A. Times food section many years ago.

For dinner on Thursday, I made my Spaghetti Squash-Turkey Casserole, a recipe that I adapted last year from the internet. It’s rather like a lasagna, only with spaghetti squash instead of noodles, and the cheese just on top.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I baked a new recipe, “Whole Wheat Apple Muffins,” which appeared on p. 24 in the Fall 2019 issue of Sift. I made some changes, as most of the King Arthur Flour muffin recipes are more cupcakes than what I consider muffins. I replaced ½ cup butter with ¼ cup of oil. While I usually use 1/3 cup of oil to ½ cup butter, most muffins are too oily, and this one uses 1 cup of applesauce as well as fresh apple, I knew they would be moist with the lesser amount of oil. I reduced the brown sugar from ¾ to ½ cup, and I cut the salt in half. I added ¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I increased the fresh apple from ½ to 1 cup and used a Jonathan. I omitted the raisins and reduced the walnuts to 1/3 cup. I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and some autumn colors decorator sugar. I baked it as six large muffins rather than twelve small ones, in lightly sprayed muffin papers on the middle shelf of my oven for 30 minutes. I had one with my tea at lunch, and my husband also had one with tea. We both like them.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I was able to guess the correct answer.

[BakerAunt]

According to the container of Crisco, a tablespoon contains 3.5 g saturated fat, which is half the saturated fat of a tablespoon of butter. I hesitate to use Crisco for baking, although I will use it to grease pans and to make up The Grease, because I recall how people were pushed for years to use margarine rather than butter, before it was discovered that margarine is worse than butter. I've seen some Mayo clinic recipes that call for a "non-transfat margarine," but I'm not sure that is the answer.

I have made oil-based chocolate chip cookies, but the chips are their own saturated fat problem. I've used them sparingly, which prompted my husband to call such cookies "unsatisfying" due to the scarcity of chips. He was spoiled by the oatmeal-chocolate chip ones I always baked.

[BakerAunt]

For Wednesday dinner, I cooked some bulgur in chicken broth, and we had it with the other half chicken breast and microwaved broccoli.

I also made broth from the bones left from the rotisserie chicken we had last week.

[BakerAunt]

I was able to work out the correct answer.

[BakerAunt]

For Tuesday's dinner, we are having Panko-Parmesan coated roasted chicken breast halves (which we will likely halve) with more of the leftover quinoa salad.

[BakerAunt]

Moving to this small town was quite a change from where I lived before. There I had two grocery stores that I shopped often, and a Walmart. Occasionally, I'd go to Target.

Where I live now, there is one grocery store in town. It has the occasional deals, as well as 10% off for senior citizens on Tuesday, but there prices on most items are rather high and produce is limited. The farmers market has been helpful with the latter; while not less expensive than the grocery, the produce is usually superior. There is also a CVS, and that is where I buy my milk, as well as a few grocery items (canned chicken, Healthy Request Tomato soup) when they are on special.

We drive to a larger town about 30 minutes away for big grocery trips, usually about every two to three weeks. We always shop Aldi's, which usually has good produce with the better prices and carries ground turkey, at a good price, which we cannot get locally. My husband gets his quick cooking oats there, and I've found their canola oil to be a good price. They had excellent butter prices, but I rarely buy it anymore. They have good prices on nuts, usually, as well as chopped dates, although the latter is a seasonal offering.

Across the highway is the Walmart. It carries KAF flour at a reasonable price, and we usually pick up condiments. They have a good price on frozen salmon. However, we seem to be buying less food there than we once did.

A short distance away is a Kroger across the street from a Walgreens. Walgreens often has good prices on some foods when they have sales (nuts, tuna, sugar), although lately they seem to be out of advertised items when we are there. The Kroger carries the soba noodles we cannot do without, and it's where I found peanut butter and almond butter without additives (although the almond butter is expensive). They have great prices on the peanuts my husband likes as snacks. Their yogurt prices often beat out Walmart, and there are the occasional specials on flours. I can get Bob's Red Mill products there, although I find the prices a bit high. (Note: CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger require free membership cards to get most sale prices.)

I do more advance menu planning now, as I need to have items on hand for several weeks of possible meals, even if I don't always know exactly when I will be making a specific meal.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for the follow-up, Italian Cook. Sharing of information is one of the great advantages of this site.

Also, thank you to Mike for the explanation not just about brussels sprouts but about broccoli. It took some effort to get my husband to stop overcooking broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

I've seen such recipes, Italian Cook and wondered about them, since banana is such a soft texture. I tried a fresh peach bread once, with chopped fruit, and these breads are wetter and don't hold up more than a day or so. Even baking apples in breads tend to be better the first day or so.

Thanks for posting about trying this recipe and the results. I'll stick to my mashed banana recipes.

[BakerAunt]

I know this one.

[BakerAunt]

I made a “grain bowl” for dinner, consisting of farro cooked in homemade chicken broth, onion, roasted delicata squash; leftover rotisserie chicken, peas, and sage. The combination is delicious.

[BakerAunt]

I know this one.

[BakerAunt]

I'm taking notes on Len's experiments. I noted that a lot of the U-Tube videos brush the tops of the risen Kaiser rolls with milk and then dip them in a seed mixture (how do they not deflate?) or brush the tops with milk, then sprinkle the seeds on top.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I realized on Saturday that my husband had worked his way through most of the whole wheat sourdough crackers, so in the evening, I fed my sourdough and used what I removed to make the dough for my lower-saturated fat version of Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. The dough is divided in quarters, then refrigerated for 4-5 days. I’ll bake them next week.

[Author]

Posts