snack

Simple and Easy Pear Sauce

September 21, 2017

Wine country is pretty much adult Disneyland, don’t you think? You are surrounded by so many great vineyards creating amazing wines, and also surrounded by lots and lots of good food.

A few weeks ago my husband and I (and my best friend from high school and her bf) went out to Sonoma and Napa for a long weekend and it was absolutely amazing. Of course, the highlights were all the wonderful wines that we had. But when it comes to food, hands down our favorite meal was at Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc. I had very high expectations going into the meal, and they were all met or exceeded.

One of the more interesting dishes of the night was the cheese plate that came out right before dessert. On it were a few homemade crackers, a delicious local goat cheese, and a pear sauce. At first, we didn’t really know what to do with the pear sauce, other than putting it on the cracker, but it turned out to be amazing. The pear sauce on its own was heavenly, and it perfectly complimented the goat cheese. Of all the wonderful things we had to eat that night, it was the pear sauce that we kept talking about. My friend and I convinced ourselves that we needed to try to make it when we got home.

Well, looks like I got to it first, Michelle. 🙂

Because I was making this a little bling, and just going off of what I knew about making apple sauce, I decided to use a couple different types of pears. If you can get your hands on more than one variety of pear, use them all! However, if you just like one type of pear, by all means, just use that one. I just felt like Thomas Keller wouldn’t just use one type of pear.

To get your pears ready to be pureed, peel and core the pears, then cut them into 1-inch chunks. Add them to a big pot with some water, lemon juice, and a few spices.

Bring the pot to a boil and let cook, covered for about 30 minutes. The pears should be nice and soft. Then use an immersion blender or a normal blender (just be careful) to blend the pears to a nice smooth puree.

And that’s all it takes to make some fantastic pear sauce. Yes, it’s just like applesauce, but made with pears. And let me tell you, it’s delicious with cheese! Of course, you can just eat this on its own. I ate most of the pear sauce right out of the jar with a spoon for a delicious treat.

But let me tell you how to really class up this simple little sauce – throw it on top of a cracker with some cheese. Serve it to your friends and they will think you are just so sophisticated making homemade pear sauce and serving it on a cheese board. But we all know it’s actually pretty easy. And delicious. I mean, if you can’t trust Thomas Keller to tell you what’s delicious, who can you trust?

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Healthy Greek Yogurt Pops

August 22, 2016

I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but over here in my neck of the woods (North Carolina) it’s been HOT! This has definitely been a hot Summer. The hottest I have experienced here in Charlotte.

It’s been hard on me and our AC.

As a way to beat the heat, I decided to turn one of my favorite breakfasts, post-workout snacks, and desserts into a popsicle. Greek yogurt is one of my favorite foods because it is packed with protein and can be mixed with just about anything for a delicious treat. For these Greek yogurt pops, I mixed non-fat Greek yogurt with a bit of whipped cream, honey, vanilla, and berries.

I know what you are thinking….whipped cream isn’t very healthy! And you are partially correct. Normally whipped cream has tons of sugar in it, which makes it pretty unhealthy. Yes, it does has fat, but fat isn’t always bad. Trust me, I am working on the whole fat thing, too. We have been conditioned here in the US to think that fat is bad, when it’s not.

But the whipped cream is key because it helps add air to the Greek yogurt to make them more light and airy. Without it, these pops would just be a block of yogurt ice. So if you want to ditch the whipped cream because you are afraid of the fat, do so at your own risk.

Making these Greek Yogurt pops was easy. Waiting for them to freeze was hard. I was so impatient, I probably ruined a couple checking on them before they were ready.

Oh well…they still tasted great! It was just like eating a big bowl of mixed berry Greek yogurt, except frozen and on stick. Which actually made it the perfect on-the-go breakfast on my walk to the train station in the mornings.

And really, what’s better than a yummy breakfast popsicle on a hot Summer morning?

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Healthy Snack: Toasted Chickpeas

August 17, 2015

There are a couple things I miss about working from home. One of those is day-time television. On slow days or when my day ended early I would just take my computer to the couch and catch up on some day-time TV.

Recently, I was working from home for the afternoon and got to catch on one of my favorites: Doctor Oz. On this particular episode he was raving about all sorts of healthy snacks. One of them being toasted chickpeas.

I had a can of chickpeas and some free time, so I thought I would take Doctor Oz’s recommendation and whip up a batch.

I tossed the chickpeas in olive oil and homemade taco seasoning and spread them out over a baking sheet.

I then baked them until they got nice and crunchy. My test to make sure they were just the right amount of crunchy was tapping them on the counter and listening for the sharp “tap tap” that you might hear if you did the same to a corn nut.

They shrink up quite a bit and darken in color, which just gives them even more flavor. They really do become a lot like a corn nut. Really crunchy, super flavorful, but actually healthy for you!

These were really nice to snack on throughout the day. You don’t need to eat a lot (you’re teeth will not like you if you do), but they are just the right amount of satisfying if you need that salty treat.

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