Category: Food&Recipes

Have you ever wondered how many calories or carbs are in a favorite recipe? It’s pretty easy if you bought that cake or package of dinner rolls at the store. But what if you make it yourself? There are no labels on your own homemade goodies. Sometimes a recipe is posted on-line and will include the various nutritional numbers, but not always.

Sunday I was motivated to make a big batch of my favorite muffins…Blueberry Banana Walnut Muffins. This is a Vegan recipe…meaning no dairy or egg involved. I had tweaked the recipe over the years so while the original may have had nutritional information now I had no idea about those values.

Recently, I found out that I’m no longer so sensitive to egg protein and wondered if adding one egg to the recipe would boost its protein level or make no difference. I figured adding one egg to a recipe making 12 muffins would also be safer for me as I tried to introduce even a small amount of egg protein to my diet.

While I was mixing and baking, I wondered if I could figure out the nutritional content of a single muffin, specifically calories, carbohydrates and protein.

It is so much easier to buy a packaged item and look at the Nutrition box on the package. I’ve been reading the information on the back of almost every package I buy, since I’ve been careful to avoid all dairy and egg products. I’m sure you’ve read them too. For example:

This information is required by law now and is very helpful if you or your family members have allergies to certain foods.

However, in my house, most everything I make is from scratch so the nutrition labels only refer to an individual ingredient, like flour or sugar. Some items have no labels:

So, I spent Monday creating a chart to include the items I wanted to know about in my muffins…like calories, carbs and protein. I could have added fiber, fat or sodium if I had wanted to track those nutrients.

The two items below were essential to make this chart…a general book listing most foods and their nutrition content…and a calculator. I also used this website: https://calorieking.com/us/en/.

I printed out the revised recipe with the addition of one egg. Of course, adding the egg meant it was no longer a Vegan recipe. If I find the egg bothers me, I know the recipe is just fine without it.

I first started scribbling on sheet of paper and finally decided to make a Table in Microsoft Word (shown below).

The first section of 4 columns is for the standard measure of the ingredient; the next 4 columns is the amount in my recipe. Once the numbers are added up (shown at the bottom of the columns, I divided each number by 12 and got the final amount for each muffin.

First, I listed the separate ingredients in the first column. Then I looked up each one to find the basic measure (like 1 cup) and recorded the three values: calories, carbs and protein.

Then I recorded the amount used in my recipe and computed the three values in the second set of 4 columns. I finally tallied the totals at the bottom and divided by 12 (muffins).

Now I could say a single muffin would provide about 204 calories, 27.2 gm of carbs and 3.2 gm of protein. Adding the egg to the recipe increased the protein a little, but I could easily leave it out if this tiny bit of egg protein bothered me.

Note: This method isn’t perfect. I can’t guarantee that every muffin has the same number of blueberries, but it’s good enough for me!

At the end, I made my table into a Template by deleting all my notes about the muffins and saved it as a PDF. I will use it when I want to know the nutritional value of any other recipes I make. If you would like a PDF of this chart send me an email at marykisner@comcast.net, or you might be able to capture it right out of this post.

You can make a table yourself like this in Word and include the categories you are interested in. I probably should find someone who knows how to set up an Excel spreadsheet Template that would let me type right into the form and add up the numbers automatically! Wouldn’t that be nice! As it is, I’m happy using a pencil or pen for now. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

This first Saturday of fall the sun is shining, but we woke up to 42 degrees! The forecast was for sunny with a high of just 65 degrees. I wanted to try sun tea, even if it took all day. I really don’t care for hot beverages but I needed the boost of green tea. So I found some at the grocery store that had added pomegranate to it for flavor. I’m sure there are many brands and flavors, but this is what I bought:

I had a 2-quart jar and filled it with cold filtered water. I pulled out 7 teabags and cut off the strings.

I put the jar on our patio table in the sun and crossed my fingers. By late this afternoon, I had green tea ready to be chilled and poured over ice!

Seemed to work just fine! I’ve done this before for Bert’s favorite tea, but never in cool weather. It seems like a good hot summer weather thing to do, but this way works too! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

We have been watching the progress of our first attempt to grow Delicata Squash. Bert planted seeds under grow lights back in the spring and carefully transplanted them into the garden in late May. We did not really know anything about growing or cooking the squash so this was an experiment for the season.

We planted only 6 seeds. We had no idea how big they would get, but from the size of the first few leaves, I knew they would be BIG!

We watered frequently and held our breath!

While we waited, I did some research about when to pick them and how to cook them. Eventually the skins turned the right color and hardened. They were about 8-9″ long. They almost fell off the vines last week, so it must be time!

Recipe #1: Roasting Slices

The first recipe I found was a simple roasting of slices. The directions said to cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and slice them in 1/4 to 1/2″ slices.

I put the slices in a bowl and drizzled oil on them, then added salt and arranged them on a cookie sheet.

I roasted them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; then turned them over and roasted for another 15 minutes. They were supposed to be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

They tasted good but were a little hard to eat. The rind was still tough so we had to sort of nibble on the inside. They were hardly thick enough to cut off with a knife. So…moving on to another recipe!

Recipe #2: Stuffed and Baked

Bert suggested we use them like we would a sweet pepper, stuffing them with a hamburger/rice mixture and baking them in the oven.

We prepped the squash like before…cut in half and scooped out the seeds.

Then we assembled the stuffing:

1 1/2 lb. of hamburger, cooked with onion, garlic, salt and pepper

1-2 cups of cooked rice

1-2 cups of cooked tomatoes (or canned)

Italian seasoning

We mixed this all up and stuffed the squash shells:

I covered the pan with foil and baked it at 350 degrees for an hour. This made a very tasty meal! The squash was soft enough to scoop out of the shell while we ate the stuffing. I will consider this recipe a success!

Delicata squash is not as sweet as Acorn squash, but it made a pretty dinner. It would have been good with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top, before or after baking (if you can have it). Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Let me be clear…I do not have chickens in my backyard. I wish I did, but now that I can’t eat eggs I don’t see the point and Bert would prefer to not deal with chickens as pets. However, a friend who does have chickens in her backyard wondered if I would test a recipe for a baked seed cake recipe. I guess similar cakes can be purchased but she wanted a cake that would have wholesome ingredients with no extra chemicals or additives. Why not!

Here is the recipe:

My friend provided all the ingredients, which helped a lot. Many of the ingredients were unfamiliar since I don’t work with chicken feed, so I had to figure out which bag had “scratch grain” and which was “layer feed.”

The rest of the ingredients at least sounded like things I was familiar with, like sunflower seeds, whole wheat flour and cinnamon!

I measured out all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl I mixed the eggs, molasses and coconut oil. Then I poured the wet ingredients into the pile of dry ingredients.

I was able to mix it up with a big spoon. The recipe said I could do it with my hands, but the spoon worked fine.

My plan was to use my small loaf-shaped pans so I sprayed them with oil and filled them about halfway. I needed to press firmly in the corners and along the sides to pack it tightly.

I had a small cookie cutter and cut a hole to put the string through.

Once I removed the bit of packed seed, I inserted a small piece of dowel rod and packed the seeds around the stick. I left the dowel rod in while baking.

The last cake of seed dough I divided into two baking cups, making two smaller cakes. I wanted to see how those cups worked.

After baking for 30 minutes at 325 degrees, I let them cool for a few minutes. While they were still warm, I was able to twist and remove the dowel rods and run a table knife around the edges of the pans. The larger cakes popped right out of the pans. The smaller paper cups should have been sprayed but the cakes were fine.

I let the cakes cool on the racks overnight so they could harden and were not sticky. I was able to string a piece of twine through the holes and they are ready to hang in the chicken house or barn. Hope the chickens like them!

In the past I’ve also been asked to try to make a chicken coat. That was a learning experience too! Check it out at https://marykisner.com/when-does-a-chicken-need-a-coat/.

Give this cake recipe a try or share with a friend who has backyard chickens! You may be rewarded with some eggs! Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

My fingers are shriveled and my back is tired…all to preserve the 20 pounds of blueberries I picked up today from the Kiwana’s blueberry sale. Whew! I just finished washing and freezing 22 pints of blueberries. It always feels great to get them all safely tucked into the freezer. I have enough to last a year and I can almost taste the first batch of blueberry muffins I have in mind! (Check out my favorite muffin recipe: https://marykisner.com/the-best-vegan-muffin/).

This year the blueberries came from New Jersey. In the past they’ve been sourced from Maine. They were quite clean already but I still rinse them in cool water and remove any squashed or unripe berries. They can be washed, scooped directly into freezer bags and put in the freezer. When frozen they can easily be measured out like a pile of marbles and baked into goodies, added to fruit cup or eaten on cereal.

Out of these 20 pounds, I think I had to throw away about 1/2 cup of squashed berries and stems…not bad. The bags stack neatly on the freezer shelf and will be a real treat in the middle of winter.

We tried growing our own blueberries a few years ago, but our soil must not be right and we had to fence them completely because the deer, bunnies and birds would help themselves as they wandered by. An ongoing battle in Pennsylvania!

I’m all for letting folks that are good at growing things we can’t, be my source to stock up my freezer. In the dead of winter around here local blueberries are NOT available! Knowing there may be food shortages this winter, I’m always on the lookout for things that I can add to my freezer without having to grow them myself. Check out farmers markets near you to do the same!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Baking bread has always been my favorite activity when I want to do something that reminds me of my mother. I learned the “feel” of a well-kneaded loaf of bread when I was young and carried that skill over to my family when I became a mother. When sticky buns made an appearance in my mother’s kitchen, I was always glad I had hung around and could try the first batch.

Fifty years ago, we had few choices at the grocery store…white bread was everywhere. There was much in the news about how white flour had lost much of its nutrition by sifting out the wheat germ and bleaching it with chemicals. Of course, then we used wheat germ in cookies and added the bran back to our diets with bran cereal! When I cruise the bread aisle today, I’m always struck with how many choices I have of whole wheat and multi-grain artisan bread and buns. However, I still enjoy the process of making my own bread.

I’ve already shared my Oatmeal Bread recipe (https://marykisner.com/marys-oatmeal-bread/) but I’m still struggling to find a good whole wheat recipe that tastes good and isn’t as heavy as a brick. Last week, I did an internet search with “the best whole wheat bread recipe” to see what came up. Lo and behold, a recipe called, “The Very Best Whole Wheat Bread Recipe” was at the top of the list! The recipe was from https://www.fivehearthome.com/. It looked pretty simple so I thought I’d give it a try.

The day before I was going to bake, I went to the health food store and picked up about 10 lbs. of white whole wheat berries and a small bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. This powder will add more wheat gluten so the loaf sticks together better.

I set up my wheat grinder and got it running. Within an hour or so I had about 10 lbs. of beautiful flour ready to go.

Here is the recipe:

Here are the rest of the ingredients:

Directions:

Step 1: Measure out the flour, vital wheat gluten and yeast into the mixer bowl.

Steps 2-3: Add 2 1/2 cups of very warm water. Mix up for 1 minute (I did this by hand) and let rest for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Add salt, oil, vinegar and honey. Mix for 1 minute.

Step 5: Add and mix in 2 1/2 to 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time.

Step 6: Knead in the mixer until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and feels smooth rather than sticky (5-15 minutes). Turn the dough out on to a floured surface. Form into a smooth ball.

Steps 7-8: Grease 2-3 bread pans. Divide dough into three oblong loaves and put them in the pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. for one minute and then turn off the oven. Place the pans in the warm oven and allow them to rise for 20-40 minutes, until the dough is nicely domed above the tops of the pans.

Step 9: Without removing the pans from the oven, turn on the oven again to 350 degrees F. and set the timer for 30 minutes. The oven will go through the whole preheat cycle now, which sets the crust.

Step 10: The bread is done when the tops are golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 190-200 degrees F.

Step 11: Once the loaves are baked, immediately remove the hot bread from the pans to cool on a rack.

I think this recipe will be my go-to recipe for whole wheat bread. I was so happy with it that I ordered a 25 lb. sack of white whole wheat berries from Amazon! Beats trying to bag it up myself at the health food store!

Give it a try…even mistakes taste good! Enjoy!

Please leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.