Black-Bottom Cupcakes

My friend recently moved into a new apartment across town. Due to various reasons, I wasn’t able to offer much assistance in the way of helping her move items, but I thought in lieu of physical labor, I could offer to bake her something fabulous to enjoy in her new home.  Anything she wanted. Her only request was that it be chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Confession: I don’t particularly like chocolate. Therefore, I have never made anything chocolate. So I had to do some serious research.  In my search, I found Black-Bottom Cupcakes. Here’s the trouble though, they aren’t exactly easy on the calories.  I really wanted to try these out before I made them for my friend though, since I planned to modify the recipe to make it a more reduced fat treat than it was. 

I mean come on, I don’t run all those miles just so I can break even with eating dessert. This cupcake though? Worth each and every one of the 11 miles I ran on this past Sunday morning.  I even forgot to add in one of my subs (some sugar free applesauce) which happened to be quite fortuitous because I can’t tell that I ever needed it.  SK’s original recipe is linked above, below is what I made though

Calories 246 / Fat 11.1g / Carbs 39.8g / Fiber 2.0g / Protein 4.3g

Serves 12

For the filling:

8 ounces Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg white, at room temperature

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

1/4 cup Canola oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling: With a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and egg white until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with Pam or line the tin with paper muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Do not over stir.

4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed.

P.S. I absolutely run so I eat things like this without feeling guilty.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

The great thing about living where I live, is that the Farmer’s Market is open year round. There’s a huge farmer’s market about 20 minutes from my house that I don’t frequent often just because it’s a bit of a drive, and I have this weird thing where I like to arrive to the market super early, and well, I also like to sleep in a bit on Saturday. So those two things are kind of counter productive to each other.

I did however make it this morning by sheer dint of will.  That, and I got out of bed early and actually stayed focused on getting to the market. Despite the wind and the cold (which is relative, I know) I got a lot of things I needed and wanted.  Like a jar of local honey, in a flavor called Sourweed. And a TON of fresh, locally grown produce. I also got a pound of fresh kettle korn and a freshly squeezed lemonade – the obvious necessities in my list of purchases.

I knew I had shrimp at home that I needed to make a dinner out of tonight, but I had no ideas what I was going to make.  As I browsed through one of the produce tents though and came across a little tub of 8 Roma tomatoes (Plum) dubbed as “uglies” for $1.50 I knew it was Shrimp Fra Diavolo.   

The only thing ugly about the tomatoes was that the skin was a little puckered looking, but seeing as I was going to be peeling that skin off anyway, I wasn’t really of a mind to worry about it. They certainly didn't taste ugly.

This also happens to be one of my mother's favorite Italian sauces, and since it turned out to be such a success, I've been charged with writing down my measures for all the spices so that I can duplicate this exact taste at a later date.  I found this to be the perfect amount of heat, but you can up the amount of red pepper flakes for more of a kick.

Calories 246 / Fat 5.9g / Protein 23.4g / Fiber 3.5g / Carbs 17.1g

Four  1-Cup servings

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 tsp salt

1 Red Bell pepper, chopped

1 Orange Bell pepper, chopped

1 Medium Onion, chopped

~2 cups White Mushrooms, sliced

3 Garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried Basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried Thyme

½ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1 Cup Dry White Wine

14oz Shrimp, uncooked, peeled and deveined

*8 Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

In a medium pan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, basil, thyme, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Sautee until soft about 8-10 minutes, then let simmer.

 

While peppers simmer, add diced tomatoes to a pan and bring to low boil while crushing with a fork.  Let boil for 1-2 minutes.  With an immersion blender, blend tomatoes until desired consistency.

Add cooked tomatoes to pan with peppers. Add garlic, and wine.  Stir to combine and bring to a low boil.  Reduce to low and let simmer for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add shrimp and cook 5 minutes more.

Serve over fettucini or spaghetti.  Top with Parmesan cheese.

 

*How to Peel Tomatoes:  bring a small  pot of water to a boil.  Using a slated spoon, place tomato into boiling water and roll it around so that all sides are submerged – about 15 seconds. Using the slated spoon, remove tomato from boiling water. They will be hot to touch, but should not burn you.

Grasp skin of tomato and peel off. Use a knife to slit skin for ease in grabbing of necessary.

I seed them by cutting them in half length wise, and then running my thumb down both seed pockets to excavate the seeds. 

Lady Track Shack 5k and Glazed Orange Cranberry Cake

This morning was the Florida Hospital Lady Track Shack 5k race in Mead Gardens. It was an amazing race that I had really been looking forward to.  The event is to celebrate womens health and fitness and the only participants in the race were women.

There were nearly 2,000 participants; from elementary aged girls to senior citizens and the elderly.  There were “running in memory of…” signs attached to the backs of many runners, and a woman dressed from head to toe in a pink fairy costume. It was an emotional race for a lot of women there, from the snippets of conversation I heard at the start and on the course. On my way out, as I traversed the path that ran along the race route, just coming into the last 0.10 of a mile to completion was a woman wearing a pink shirt, screaming in joy and excitement when she spotted the finish line, both arms pumping the air, smile splitting her face from ear to ear…and soft peach fuzz for hair on the top of her head. Not only did she live to fight another day, but she lived to race another race, and it brought tears to my own eyes to see it.

I did really well in the race and I’m happy with my results.  I came in 94^th in my age division – which could be amazing or dead last, since I don’t know how many were in my age group.  I also came in 568^th overall. On top of that, I beat my best time by more than a minute for a new personal record of 32:35, with an average pace of 10:29 per mile.  I also had my body fat percentage taken at one of the booths and came out with 18.8%. Anything less than 18% is “Excellent” on the chart they gave me, so I have that to strive for as a new goal.

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Glazed Orange Cranberry Cake

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 ¾ C sugar

4 Teaspoons baking Powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Nutmeg

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

1 Cup fat free milk

1/3 Cup Canola Oil

4 Large Egg Whites, lightly beaten

1 Tablespoon grated Orange Zest

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1  Cup dried Cranberries

1 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar

2 Tablespoons Orange Juice

Orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 10-inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Whisk together milk, egg whites, oil, vanilla orange zest in  medium bowl. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in cranberries. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean; 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

To make glaze, put confectioner’s sugar into a medium bowl and slowly stir in orange juice until a thick glaze forms.  Drizzle glaze over top of cooled cake; sprinkle with orange zest Let cake stand until glaze sets, about 20 minutes.  Serves 20.

180 Calories / 4g Fat / 19g Carbohydrates / 1g Fiber / 3g Protein

Strawberry Banana Overnight Oats

I have been toying with the idea of overnight oats for a while. Ever since I heard about them, really. What’s not to love about breakfast tailored to your day and tastes, being ready to consume the moment you wake up?  I looked around online for recipe inspiration and tried my hand at a few crock pot versions that involved steel cut oats; they were revolting.

Every single time I tried the cooked oats, they were sticky and bland, and just plain gross.  So I stepped away from that experiment, and pretty much wiped my hands of the idea.  And then somewhere in my travels I heard about uncooked overnight oats using plain old fashioned oats. I was stoked about making up a batch.

The problem I was running into was making a batch of overnight oats for breakfast would negate the need for my daily morning green monster. What to do, what to do. 

As luck would have it, today is my “First Wednesday’s” run.  It’ll be my second time attending.  It’s an event where a group of people show up on the first Wednesday of each month at the local running specialty store, that happens to be a block away from a paved walking/running/biking trail, and run 3 or 5 miles.  It’s kind of fun to run in a group, even if I don’t yet know any of the other participants. Night running is amazing out on a trail too, with the stars above your head. Anyway, considering my evening run, I thought today would be a perfect day to switch up my meals with oats in the morning, and the green monster as a cool refueling treat when I get home.

So before bed last night, I made my breakfast. There’s no cooking in involved at all. Just mix your ingredients and refrigerate overnight - that’s all! Use more milk if you want a creamier dish.

1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1/2 Cup Organic Fat Free Milk

1 Large Banana, sliced

1/2 Cup Strawberries, slices

In the morning I added:

2 teaspoons Agave Nectar

1 teaspoon Canola oil

1 Tablespoon Flaxseed, ground