If you're an Irish, Food Loving, Chocoholic and maybe Alcoholic

You know what I'm doing today.  But if you're not as brave/irish as I, you can sit inside and enjoy watching the rain and heck maybe even light a fire.  If this is what you do, do me a favor and make AT LEAST one of the following.  Your taste buds will be eternally grateful and your hips will forever shake their fists at me.

1. Irish Cream Brownies (your hips will just shake its head sadly at you, not shake its fists because these are from Cooking Light.)(warning that I choose not to follow: Cooking Light recipes are only beneficial if you don't eat the whole pan.)


1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt 
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter 
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg+1 egg white)
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream
1 tsp vanilla
Cooking spray


1. preheat oven to 350
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level with a knife.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.
3. Place chocolate chips and butter in a large microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes or until chocolate chips and butter melts, stirring every 30 seconds.  Cool slightly.  Add sugar and next three ingredients, stirring well with a whisk.  Microwave on high until sugar dissolves, stirring every 30 seconds.  Fold in the flour mixture, stirring just until moist.  Spread batter in a thin layer in a square 9 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray.   Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out almost clean.  Cool on wire rack.  
(16 servings) 145 calories 5 grams fat, 1 gram of fiber   (or you can just eat the pan and water and carrot sticks and call it a day.)


2. Irish Snugglers
Hot cocoa (or coffee just in case you think saving 70 extra calories is worth it)
1 shot Baileys
1 shot Kahlua
1/2 shot Peppermint Schnapps
Whipped cream.  NOT cool whip, please for the love of everything green, just use whipped cream


put in mug and enjoy

3. Irish Car Bomb

3/4 pint Guinness® stout

1/2 shot Bailey's® Irish cream
1/2 shot Jameson® Irish whiskey

Add the Bailey's and Jameson to a shot glass, layering the Bailey's on the bottom. Pour the Guinness into a pint glass or beer mug 3/4 of the way full and let settle. Drop the shot glass into the Guinness and chug. If you don't drink it fast enough it will curdle and increasingly taste worse.

Pumpkin Cheesecake, Anyone?

For Thanksgiving, my Mother-In-Law made pumpkin cheesecake.  What's more- the crust was made of gingersnaps and pecans.  Da.
I snatched the recipe when she wasn't looking (lie) and promised (her) I would give it back the next time I saw her.  Well here she is this weekend, and tis time for me to part.  I'll share it with you.  With her permission.  Even though it is a recipe from Food and Family magazine.  (2006)


25 Gingersnaps, crushed (about a cup and a half)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter
4 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
3 tbs flour*
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
dash of ground cloves


Preheat oven to 325*F (or 300 if using a dark pan).  Mix ginger snap crumbs, pecans and butter; press firmly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9 in springform pan.


Beat cream cheese, flour, 3/4 cup of sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until well blended. 


Remove 1 1/2 cups plain batter; place in small bowl.  Stir remaining 1/4 sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.  Spoon half of the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half of the reserved plain batter.  Repeat laters.  Cut through batters with knife several times for swirl effect. 


Bake 55 min or until center is almost set.  Cool completely.  Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.  Cut into 16 slices.  Store leftover cheesecake inrefrigerator.


(You can also bake this cheesecake in a 9x13 baking dish.  Line the dish with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan.  Prepare as directed, decreasing baking time to 45 min, or until center is almost set.)


*Recipe didn't call for flour, but MIL and I both think it would be a good decision for a sturdier cheesecake.


note: this is not fat free vegan  (ha. ha. ha.)

Thanksgiving Countdown (Fat Free Vegan Pumpkin Pie)

Im not really sure when I got hooked on telling the world fat free vegan recipes. Actually I do know. It's when some of my family decided it was for them. And my world of hosting turned up-side-down. (k, I'm being completely dramatic, but you just can't order a pizza...)

So here's a tried and true Fat Free Vegan Pumpkin Pie. From my sister, who, although sharing her life with a vegan, is a noteworthy meat eater :)

Apparently this pie makes it's own crust:


Impossible Vegan Pumpkin Pie

1 1/2 cups soymilk
1 tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer*
1/4 cup water*
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups pureed or mashed cooked pumpkin (or cushaw or winter squash)
1/2 cup rice flour (or flour of your choice--not whole wheat)
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch deep dish pie pan with cooking spray. (I used a Pyrex pan, and it came out with no sticking.) A deep dish is recommended because this pie will rise a lot during cooking but will fall back down as it cools.

Put the first five ingredients in the blender, and blend well. Add the pumpkin, and puree. Add the remaining ingredients and blend on high for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides a couple of times to make sure everything is thoroughly blended. Pour into a pie pan and bake for about 60 minutes. The top and edges should be brown, but the edges should not be over-done. (Since this is a custardy pie, using the standard toothpick or knife test does not work; it will remain somewhat moist in the center, but it shouldn't be uncooked.)

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the counter. For best results, refrigerate until chilled before eating.

*If you don't have Ener-G egg replacer, you can omit it and the 1/4 cup water and use any other replacement for two eggs. Of course, if you're not vegan, you could use two eggs, but why not give the vegan version a chance?

153 calories, 1g fat, 3g fiber

found on fat free vegan blog

(sorry no picture, no link, no bold, reader friendly post- don't know what's up with blogger right now?)

Thanksgiving Countdown (Cranberry Sauce)

My peeps: I'm gonna let you in a family recipe. Or at least that is what I thought until my mom told me otherwise. For as long as I can remember, we've had this stuff at Thanksgiving dinner. The aroma when you make it is nearly unbearable. You might think you died and made it to heaven. Here goes it:

Cranberry Sauce

1 Large Package of Raspberry Jello

1 large bag of cranberries (usually 12 or 16 oz), sorted

1 orange with rind, seeds removed

1 cup of sugar

1. Make Jello according to package
2. In a food processor or blender, grind the cranberries and orange with rind . Add the sugar and let dissolve.
3. When the Jello starts to congeal, incorporate cranberry mixture into the Jello.
4. Put mixed Jello into a mold (which my mom does not do) or a glass bowl because "the color is absolutely gorgeous."

Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Countdown (Pecan Pie)

via Cooking Light

So the countdown begins. (Clearly I am not hosting Thanksgiving or else my countdown would've begun like 3 months ago)

If you are like me and are going to be an innocent, bystanding guest (in a good way) become more likable and bring this Low(er) Fat Pecan Freakin' Pie. It's amazing, friends. Truly steal-my-heart amazing. I've made it now for three or fours years, and my popularity has grown exponentially. Ja.

Pecan Oatmeal Pie

• 1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (or make your own, of course)
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2/3 cup regular oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Roll dough into an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under; flute.
3. Combine brown sugar and remaining ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For 1/12 of the pie, this has 311 calories, 11 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber. I'm not going to go look up the nutritional information in a regular pecan pie, but relatively speaking, this pie is like eating broccoli.

Fat Free Vegan Lentil Stew

This past Friday, a few of my friends and I had our second annual meal exchange. We each make enough meals for participating families, and so we each receive meals to stock our freezer for the busy holiday season! Last year I made and received 6 frozen meals. This year, three people bailed because of sickness, out of town, and full term pregnancy- but I still made and received 3 meals. That's three nights of not cooking! Woohooo!

My friend who plans and hosts it does a great job. Her house is always clean and inviting, and the dining room table was packed full of treats for the kids and moms.

We put the cooked meals in freezer friendly storage somethings, put instructions on how to reheat and serve, and include a copy of the recipe. Two of my friends and their families follow a fat free vegan diet. I made a Fat Free Vegan Lentil Stew. Mr. Incredible even loved it. And he is alll about the beef:

Easy Lentil Stew

3 cups broth

28. oz can peeled Italian tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup dried parsley

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 lb. dried lentils, rinsed and drained with stones removed

1 large onion, chopped

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 celery stalks, sliced

4 oz. chopped mushrooms

3 tsp. garlic

Throw everything in your crockpot. Break up the tomatoes if you feel like it. Cover. Cook on high for 2 hours, then low for 4. (Or high for 4. Or low for 10. What every your day can handle.)

Serve on top of rice if you want a starch with your meal. !enjoy!