2013 March | A Soulful Twist

Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

March 30, 2013 by Christina 2 Comments

These little sweet and sour muffins go great with a cup of tea, my preference green tea. I use whole wheat flour to make them healthier and tastier. The whole wheat flour adds another nutty note to the overall flavor, along with a good amount of fiber to start off your morning, or afternoon or evening, I enjoy them as long as there around….anytime….anyplace! I can’t stop eating them whenever I make them. The lemon and raspberry combo make for a sweet and sour delight that is sure to have your taste buds jumpin’ and bumpin’. Check out the recipe and tell me what you think! Oh and I have been made aware that there is a huge controversy over what is a muffin and what is a cupcake….this is a muffin to me, however…it may be a cupcake to you, either way I’m sure you’ll enjoy it…so here’s what you need…..

Zest of 1 Lemon

2 Cups Whole Wheat All Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

1 Cup Sugar

2/3 Cup Canola Oil

2 Eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ Cup milk

12 Oz Frozen Raspberries (keep them in the freezer until time to use)

Lemon Drizzle

Juice from one squeezed lemon

Confectioner sugar

Drop of vanilla

Pre-heat 350ᴼ

Mix your flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl. In another bowl mix your sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla. Now add half your milk and flour. Don’t over mix just mix to incorporate everything well. Now carefully fold in your frozen raspberries. Be gentle so the red from the raspberries won’t run in the mix, you want the color from the raspberries to pop.

Spoon in muffin pans.

As you can see I didn’t have liners…but did I trip? Nope, just spray your muffin tin down with a little Pam or vegetable oil!

Bake for 25 minutes but keep an eye on them cooking time may vary.

While they are baking make your icing, to drizzle on top.

Mix the juice from one lemon with a dash of vanilla and powdered sugar. Add your sugar and beat your mix until you get desired consistency.

Let your muffins cool down and when ready drizzle icing on top.

French Country Toast

March 28, 2013 by Christina 1 Comment

French toast is just one of those things that I love to eat whenever we go out for breakfast….or in for that matter it’s an easy and simple choice. Now every once in a while I like to jazz it up with nuts of different flavorings and extracts, I’ve used all kinds of different breads and mixes, this recipe is none of that! Just easy and simple.

French toast is one of those things that you can’t really mess up. Unless you burn it and even then it can still be enjoyed…as long as it’s not completely smoking black! This recipe is an easy, which is why I call it country, no fancy bread or unique ingredients everything you need is surely already in your kitchen and if not, you probably need to go grocery shopping. Yep, country and simple much like me, here’s all you need…..

4 Slices bread

1/2 cup Half & Half

1 Egg

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 teaspoon flour

2 Tablespoon Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Slice bread into rectangular strips. Mix together your milk, egg, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla. Dip your bread into the mix, coating both sides. Add butter to hot skillet and cook toast for about 2 minutes on both sides. Voila!

Oven- Roasted Green Beans

March 28, 2013 by Christina Leave a Comment

Roasting Green Beans, who knew? I certainly didn’t know when I first tried it, but I was on a roasting spree with all my other veggies and not feeling like doing to much with them. Roasting my vegetables always make them more edible, especially the ones I despise. These were no exception, they were delish!

Green beans are actually one of the more tolerable vegetables I grew up on. My mom would cook them with fat back, loads of butter, and let them sit on the stove and braise much like her collards. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my green beans the way mama cooks them, but I find that roasting them are much less time consuming and lighter on the calories.

When I first tried roasting my green beans, they were so tasty, I knew it would be a dinner staple. It was quick easy and healthy. The color when roasted is absolutely stunning which adds a hint of elegance to a plate of meatloaf :)!

All you need is…..

Green beans

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Crushed Red Pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 400ᴼ.

I remember my mother and I sitting on the couch with a bag of green beans, a trash bag and a bowl. We would break each end off the green beans, but man was it time consuming, especially when you’re doing it alone.

To save the time and hassle I bunch them up in my hands as evenly as possible and cut each ends with kitchen scissors. Wash them drain and spread evenly on the surface of your roasting pan.

Pour a liberal amount of olive oil across and salt and pepper to taste . Go heavy on the salt this is one veggie that need a good amount of seasoning.

Add a bit of crushed red pepper, and place in oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Easy, fast, good and good for you…..

Lemon Potato- Chip Cookies

March 27, 2013 by Christina Leave a Comment

I am a dessert person. I absolutely have to have a dessert after my dinner, preferably a calorie rich, soft and savory dessert which brings on an extreme bout of guilt and shame because you know it goes against all the principles of clean eating that you admire to do to stay young and vivacious. You get it….I love sweets calorie rich coma inducing sweets.

One of my favorite flavors are light citrus combined with some sweet vanilla notes. This brings me to my sweet and savory Lemon Vanilla Potato Chip Sugar Cookies that are looking so adorable up there sitting on that plate. They have just the perfect combo of lemon, vanilla and crunch. The potato chips add some extra depth to the cookie.

Try it out and take your senses on a roller coaster ride…in your mouth!

COOKIE

1 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour

½ Teaspoon Baking soda

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 Cup Sugar

1 stick butter (½ Cup) Room Temperature

1 cup potato chips

1 Egg

½ Tablespoon Vanilla

½ Teaspoon Lemon extract

ICING

Confectioner Sugar

Lemon Juice

Vanilla

Pre-heat the oven to 350ᴼ. Sift/Mix together the flour, baking soda, and lemon zest. Set aside for now. Cream together sugar, butter, and potato chips. At this point your mixture should be sort of crumbly now add in your beaten egg. Add vanilla and lemon extract. Mix in flour and roll into balls. They will spread but not much. If you want a soft cookie keep in balls and put directly on cookie sheet as so. If you desire a harder cookie flatten out the cookie with the bottom of a cup before baking. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

To make icing…..

Start off with about ¼ confectioner sugar, squeeze the juice of lemon into bowl and use a whisk to create the consistency you like…add a dash of vanilla and drizzle on top of cookies.

Lemon Potato Chip Cookies

2013-12-28 11:17:09

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Ingredients

1 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking soda
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Cup Sugar
1 stick butter (½ Cup) Room Temperature
1 cup potato chips
1 Egg
½ Tablespoon Vanilla
½ Teaspoon Lemon extract
ICING
Confectioner Sugar
Lemon Juice
Vanilla

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350ᴼ.
Sift/Mix together the flour, baking soda, and lemon zest. Set aside for now.
Cream together sugar, butter, and potato chips.
At this point your mixture should be sort of crumbly now add in your beaten egg.
Add vanilla and lemon extract.
Mix in flour and roll into balls.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
To make icing…..
Start off with about ¼ confectioner sugar, squeeze the juice of lemon into bowl and use a whisk to create the consistency you like…add a dash of vanilla and drizzle on top of cookies.

Notes

If you want a soft cookie keep in balls and put directly on cookie sheet as so. If you desire a harder cookie flatten out the cookie with the bottom of a cup before baking.

By Christina Heggins

A Soulful Twist http://asoulfultwist.com/

Spiced Corn Salad Saute

March 26, 2013 by Christina Leave a Comment

3 Slices Thick Sliced Bacon Chopped

½ Red Onion Chopped

½ Green Pepper Chopped

1 Garlic Clove

2 Cups Frozen Corn

½ Teaspoon Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon Honey

Salt

Chop bacon into medium-sized bits and cook in skillet. When bacon is crisp and fat s rendered, place your bacon bits on a paper towel and save for later. Add about 1 more Tablespoon of bacon grease/butter to hot skillet. Add onion and green pepper and sauté add grated garlic clove, be careful not to burn. Turn your skillet on medium high heat and add the frozen corn. Saute the corn and mix everything in well. Add Honey and mix in chili powder salt to taste and toss everything together well.

Garnish with a bit of crushed red pepper and bon appetite you have a quick and easy summer side- dish. Aint it pretty!

Tuna Fish Remixed

March 23, 2013 by Christina Leave a Comment

As a family our food budget is astronomically large between having taste for different items throughout the week (which leads to the market almost daily) specialty cheeses and just ordinary everyday meals our food can become quite expensive.

What does help is that we rarely eat out. I make all our meals. There was a time when it was just me and the hubs and we were quick to take a breakfast, lunch or dinner trip to Panera or Chick-Fil-A to save some time and we thought money.

After introducing a couple of kids to our family we have been much more conscious about how we spend our money especially when it comes to food. That coupled with the fact I have had to become more conscious of what I’m putting in my body cause it ain’t that small no mo’…I try and come up with cost effective ways to feed my face throughout the day.

So this day I had some leftover hoagie buns from our Steak and Cheese Sandwiches earlier in the week. I needed to use that along with a half used red onion and a can a tuna fish I bought probably a year ago (seriously) I decided to make it work. I haven’t had tuna fish sandwich in forever. I remember my mom making it with some old bay, relish and mayo…that was pretty decent so I just needed to spruce it up a bit!

What you need……..

Couple Slices of Bacon

Put your bacon in the oven while you are mixing your tuna and other ingredients…

Can of Tuna

About a ¼ cup Mayo or Miracle Whip

About a Tablespoons Sweet Relish

½ Stalk Finley chopped celery

1 Teaspoon Old Bay or Seasoning Salt

Hoagie Rolls

Few Slices of White American cheese

Thinly Sliced Red Onion

1 Tablespoon Butter

While your Bacon is baking in the oven open and drain all of the liquid off of your tuna.

Mix Tuna, Mayo, Sweet Relish, Chopped celery and old bay. Now start building your roll with tuna cheese and finished bacon.

Add butter to your hot skillet press your onion on top of closed sandwich and put that side in the pan press on your hoagie to flatten it out and the red onion will caramelize right on top of the roll.

After about a minute flip over and toast the other side. This step is for the cheese to get melted and nicely incorporate all your ingredients along with getting a buttery crisp toast on the outside of the roll.

By this time your mouth should be watering from that oh so good smell.

I’ve never tasted a tuna fish so good. Who knew something so simple could be so good. The red onion caramelized on top along with the crispy bacon and creamy cheese, just takes this basic sandwich and gives it a nice twist. Bon Apetit!

Quick Southern Cabbage

March 21, 2013 by Christina 1 Comment

Just looking at these pictures makes me want another bowl. Yes I eat cabbage by the bowl and I promise as soon as you try this easy recipe you will too. If you are from a family of southern cooks you would definitely have grown up on cabbage. Cabbage along with collard greens are staple veggies in the southern kitchen. But this recipe unlike our ancestors before us does not take all day to slowly cook in fatback. It takes about 30 minutes to prepare. Oh and did I mention it’s cheap, you can get a head of cabbage from your produce department for about 29 cents a pound, and feed your entire family a healthy side dish. SO if you want a quick and easy and very tasty veggie try this hearty Cabbage and did I mention it has BACON!

What you’ll need………

Head of Cabbage

Smoked Bacon 3 Slices

Unsalted Butter 2 Tablespoons

Apple cider vinegar 1 ½ Teaspoons

Chicken Broth 1 Cup

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut your cabbage, I like to cut it into strips so they are manageable during the sauté step.

Chop your bacon up into small pieces.

Brown your bacon and when fat is rendered add the butter. (Don’t let it burn now). Toss everything together get all the cabbage nicely coated with the rendered bacon fat and butter. Continue to toss and sauté so the cabbage can get some color. About 5 minutes.

Add the Apple cider vinegar and chicken stock mix well. Salt and pepper to taste but just keep in mind the salt from the bacon, and be careful not to use too much. Put your top on pan and turn heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 more minutes.

There you have it, a quick and easy side dish or for lunch when I’m eating light I will have a bowl, good fiber, healthy vegetable and the bacon adds some heartiness. Enjoy!

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