BSI Winner and Recipes

Hello All! I hope you are having a fabulous Monday (or as fabulous as a Monday can be ;). It is time to announce the winner of this weeks BSI!!! The BSI of the week was pears and you guys truly submitted some incredible recipes! First, a history on the BSI:

Week 8: Cranberries- Gina from Fitnessista

Week 7: Lentils- Shannon from Tri to Cook
Week 6: Polenta-Sabrina from Rhodey Girl Tests
Week 5: Butternut Squash-Jenn from eatingbender.wordpress.com
Week 4: Apples-Andrea & Erin of http://www.caretoeat.net/
Week 3: Mushrooms-Rose of onalobsterplacemat.blogspot.com
Week 2: Tomatoes-Heather of hangrypants.com
Week 1: Quinoa-Christie of sportsnutritionliving.wordpress.com

Next, the submissions (recipes follow):

Tiffie from Miss Tiffie Munches –Pear Leek Chicken

Sabrina from Rhodey Girl Tests- Baked Tilapia with a Pear Mango Salsa

Krista from Krista’s Kravings- Pear and Goat Cheese Tartlets

Heather of Hangry Pants-Pear Biscuits

Catherine of Stevia ‘n Spice- Pear Spiced Rice Pudding

Jess of See Jess Run- Pear and Cranberry Salad

Tina of Carrots ‘N’ Cake- Apple Pear Crisp

Becca of Bites of the Day- Apple, Pear, and Cranberry Crisp

Biggest Diabetic Loser’s -Pear Blue Cheese Soup with Blue Cheese Crostini

Holly’s of Cookie Dough Disciple-Pear Muffins

Bhealthy of Body, Mind, Soul- Pear Quesadilla

Meghann of The Inner Workings of a College Graduate-Chicken with Balsamic Pear Sauce

Gina of Fitnessista- Red Pear with Balsamic Reduction, Goat Cheese and Almonds

Chickpea of The Broccoli Hut-Pear Berry Parfait

Magpie of Say Yes to Salad- Pear & Crab Salad

Erika of Run, Roam, Recycle- Cheddar Pear Pie

Jenn of Eating Bender- Banana Blueberry +Strawberry Sorbet=Incom “pear” able

Lyss of Newtritionista- Turkey Bacon, Pear & Feta Cheese Quesadillas and Turkey, Pear & Apple Butter Bagel Melt

It was nearly impossible to pick a winner- everything looked incredible. Josh and I ended up going back and forth between three of the entries but finally settled on..............

Catherine of Stevia ‘n Spice- Pear Spiced Rice Pudding

Catherine's recipe sounds so delicious that I cannot wait to make it! It is an easy to follow recipe but looks beautiful and could be served at a fancy dinner party! Catherine- please email me your address and I will send you your fabulous prize!

.....and now for all of the incredible recipes. Again thank you all for submitting! If I had more money I'd send you all a prize pack ;):

Tiffie’s Pear Leek Chicken

4 Chicken Thighs
2 Pears (I used Honey Butter, but any variety should work) diced
~2 heaping tablespoons of red currant jelly
4 small leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced into rings
About 2-3 Shallots, thinly sliced
White Wine
4 Slices of Pancetta
As many mushrooms, thinly sliced, as you'd like
Toasted walnuts, chopped (to garnish)

1. I salt & peppered my chicken thighs and browned them in the skillet with the shallots.

2. In a small foiled pan I placed the chopped leeks on the bottom along, drizzled some white wine on top, with four evenly spread out sliced of pancetta.

3. In a separate small pot, I added the pears & red currant jelly together to soften and "melt" the pears a bit. Do this until everything thickens and the pears have softened a great deal.

4. I placed the browned crisped chicken (skin side up) on the sliced of pancetta in the pan (along with the shallots) and added the mushrooms around them.

5.I poured the pear/currant mixture on top of each thigh and then put a foil over the pan and popped it into the oven for about 15 minutes in 400 degrees.

6. I took the foil off, added the toasted walnuts on top and popped it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

Sabrina’s Baked Tilapia with a Pear Mango Salsa

The tilapia:

Ingredients:

1 lb tilapia

4 oz white wine

1 whole lemon

salt and paprika to taste

a dash of parsley

Directions:

Set the oven to 400 degrees. Place the washed tilapia in a pyrex and season the fish. Pour the wine over it and squeeze half a lemon over the whole thing. Slice the other half lemon into rounds and place over fish. Bake for 20 minutes.

PEAR mango salsa:

Ingredients:

1 sweet red pear

1 large mango

1/2 red onion

1/2 avocado

salt and pepper to taste

Peel and slice the red pear, avocado and mango into cubes. Dice the red onion. Toss together with a bit of salt and pepper.

To put it together:

When the fish is done plate it and spoon a bit of the PEAR mango salsa over it. Enjoy!

Krista’s Pear & Goat Cheese Tartlets

Filling:-

6-7 bartlett pears

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup raisins

2 Tbsp maple syrup (I used ED Smith sugar free)

1/2 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

Chop pears up to a pretty fine dice and put into a dutch oven along with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Shells:

I used a package of Dr.Oetker pie crust. Empty contents of package into a bowl and add 3-4 TBSP of water, stirring after each addition. Form into 2 balls and flatten slightly of a floured surface. Roll out fairly thin and using a water glass or coffee cup, cut out circles. Place dough circle into pre greased muffing pan.

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 deg

thinly slice plain goat cheese and put the slice on the bottom of the tartlet shell.

Fill with about a 1/4 cup pear "sauce".

bake for 20 minutes or until edges of crust turn golden brown.

remove from oven and allow to cool before digging in!

Heather’s Pear Biscuits
2.5 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour
3 t baking powder
1 cup blue cheese crumbles
1 cup cut pears (2 pears)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup honey
8 T butter
1 cup skim milk

Steps:

Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. Cut butter into cubes. Cut butter into flour (I use a pastry knife). Add the milk to the flour mix. I use my hands to combine until everything is moistened. Combine blue cheese crumbles, pears, honey and walnuts in a bowl. Mix around so honey is coating everything.Add pear mix into flour mix and combine with hands or spatula. Roll out dough into a ball (on a floured surface) and roll out with rolling pin until about 1 inch thick. Use a glass to make circles. Bake at 325 for about 15 minutes. Drizzle with honey.

Catherine’s Pear Spiced Rice Pudding-

1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
1 small pear (I used a Foselle), diced
1 Tbsp vanilla rice milk (plus more as needed)
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
pinch salt

Cut a squash of your choosing in half, scoop out the seeds, and place in a roasting pan - cut side down. **I used Carnival squash because it has a nice sweet flavor to compliment the filling, but acorn or butternut could work fine too. Pour about an inch of water into the pan so that it surround the squash. (keeping it moist)

Bake the squash at 425 degrees for about 40-50 minutes or until the skin is tender.
While the squash is baking, mix together the rice, diced pear, rice milk, honey and spices in a small bowl.

Put the pear & rice mixture in the microwave and heat for 1 minute until hot so that the pear and rice is tender. With a fork, mash up about 1/2 the warmed mixture. (if you don't have vanilla rice milk, soy or normal milk will do fine, just add in some vanilla extract)

After roasting the squash for 40 minutes in the oven, flip over the squash and spoon in the pear-rice mixture into the squash cavity and broil for an extra 5 minutes.

**I mixed in some of the squash with the rice pudding to spread out the sweetness and it was so so good! Carnival squash is a little sweeter than acorn squash… or at least mine tasted sweeter.

Jess’s Pear and Cranberry Salad

Salad ingredients:
Mixed greens
Chopped zucchini
White onion
Cranberries
Diced fresh pear

I made a dressing using canola oil, red wine vinegar, and 1 teaspoon oregano

Tina’s Apple Pear Crisp

Ingredients:
2 pears (I used Bartlett)
2 medium apples (almost any kind will work)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter (or 7-8 tbsp of your favorite butter alternative)
Cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Haphazardly slice apples into small pieces.
(I used Macoun, Macs, and Fuji.) You don't need to worry about how the
apple pieces look. The different size pieces "fit together" nicely
once all of the ingredients bake together. This recipe is great for
less-than-perfect apples– you can just cut off the rotten part and use
the rest of the apple. You can also peel the apples, if you'd like,
but I prefer to leave the skins on for this recipe.

2. Next, sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg all over the apples. Feel free
to add as much or as little as you'd like. I try to cover the entire
top layer of apple slices with both spices.

3. Combine flour and sugar (and a little more cinnamon and nutmeg, if
you want) in a small bowl. Next, using a fork, combine butter with
flour and sugar. (I used Smart Balance instead of butter.) The mixture
will begin to look lumpy. Make sure that the majority of the dry
ingredients have combined with the butter.

4. Cover apple slices with flour-sugar-butter mixture. Spread evenly
over top layer and fill in all around the apple slices.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes until top becomes slightly "crispy" and
apples are soft. Your house will smell AMAZING at this point!

6. Remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve alone or
with French vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Becca’s Apple, Pear, and Cranberry Crisp

Filling:
1 pear, diced (I used a comice)
1 small-medium apple diced (I used stayman winesap)
1 handful fresh cranberries
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ap flour
1 palmful cinnamon (1 tablespoon?)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Topping:
1/4 cup oats
1/4 whole wheat flour (you might want to use less)
Brown sugar (maybe about a tablespoon?)
*You could probably halve all this and have enough, I had plenty left over!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together for filling, adjust sugar and spices to taste. I would have liked to use less sugar but knew the cranberries would be tart. Distribute between 3 4 ounce ramekins. Combine topping fillings and sprinkle over filling. Bake in oven until filling is bubbling and topping is beginning to brown, approximately 20 minutes in a convection oven. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Biggest Diabetic Loser’s - Pear Blue Cheese Soup with Blue Cheese Crostini

14.5 ounce chicken broth (can easily be substituted with veggie broth to make vegetarian)
2 medium sized pears, peeled and sliced
2 ounces blue cheese
1.5 ounce pancetta, diced and pan fried (then cooled)
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of Paprika

Put broth in pot and add sliced pears. Cook until pears are soft enough to blend with a stick blender - mine took about 10 or 12 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in blue cheese and add salt, pepper and paprika.

Tony got this squash from the store for a dollar - I think its called delicata squash? It makes a nice presentation! Pour soup in squash (or bowl!) and sprinkle fried pancetta and serve with crostini.

For the crostini, I just lightly buttered a piece of french bread, added about .3 ounces of blue cheese and put under the broiler. This would be a simple make ahead recipe, because you would only need to warm it up to serve. EDIT: I forgot to add that this soup is not overly sweet - extremely savory with just a hint of the sweetness from the pears. We were both pleasantly surprised not having any kind of soup like this before!

Holly’s Pear Muffins-
Ingredients
1/2 c. plain nonfat yogurt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 tablespoons baking soda
1/4 tspn. salt
1 diced pear
Mix together yogurt, oil, and egg, and set aside. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl, and slowly add in the yogurt mixture. Add in diced pear. Spray muffin tins with Pam, and bake 12 -14 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

Bhealthy’s Pear Quesadilla

Ingredients:
Ham ( canadian bacon)
Blue Cheese Crumbles
Pear
Whole Wheat Tortilla
Baby Spinach
Mushroom
Mustard
Red Onion

Directions:

First I grilled half of the D-Anjou pear a little in my toaster oven, while layering on ingredients ( Whole Wheat Tortilla, Ham, baby spinach, mushroom, mustard, red onion). On the side I used the remainder of the pear to make a little boat filled with spinach, red bell pepper, red onion, and some blue cheese crumbles!

Meghann’s Chicken with Balsamic Pear Sauce

Ingredients:
chicken breast
1 small pear, sliced
1/4 of a small onion, chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
handful of crushed pecans

Cook the chicken breast on the stove top until the chicken is cooked through
Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside
Add the onions to the hot pan until soft then add the sliced pear
In a separate bowl mix together the broth, balsamic vinegar, sugar and whole wheat four until well blended
Pour the sauce mix into the pan and bring to a boil
Once boiling reduce temp and return the chicken to the pan
Cover the pan and let simmer until the sauce thickens to your liking, between 5 and 10 minutes
Once plated top with the crushed pecans

Gina’s Red Pear with Balsamic Reduction, Goat Cheese and Almonds

1. Make the balsamic reduction-- simmer 1 cup of balsamic vinegar, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes until mixture is reduced and sticks to the back of a spoon. Add in a little sugar (I used 1/2 tbs of Sucanat)
2. Slice a pear and dip the top of each slice into the reduction.
3. Top with goat cheese and almonds.
4. FEAST!!!!

ChickPea’s Pear Berry Parfait

Magpie’s Pear & Crab Salad

Ingredients
1 bosc pear, chopped (centimeter-ish cubes are good)
6 ounces of lump crab meat (1 can)
2 big handfuls of fresh basil, chopped - maybe 20 leaves?
1/3 cup finely chopped white onion
1/2 cup shredded cabbage OR chopped celery (or both! I was out of celery, but that was my original idea - I substituted in cabbage and it was still really good)
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup cashews (optional - I was going to add these at the end and I completely forgot - but they would have been perfect) - or walnuts, or almonds, or your nut of choice!

Dressing
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or vinegar of choice)
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon mustard

Directions
To make the dressing, just mix all the dressing ingredients well.
For the salad, mix everything but the crab. Then gently fold the crab in.
Pour the dressing over the salad and gently mix them together. Serve! Topped with cashews or other nuts would be delicious, especially toasted walnuts or sliced almonds.
I had mine on top of lettuce with some extra pear slices; Bobby had his alone with extra pear slices. We will definitely be making this again.

Erika’s Cheddar Pear Pie-

For the pie:
6 cups pears, peeled and sliced
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
3 TBSP cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pie crust, unbaked (homemade or store bought)

For the topping:
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I use reduced fat. Just don't use FF - it won't melt right!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 butter (I use earth balance)

Set oven to 400 degrees.

In one bowl, mix the first three toping ingredients, and then cut in butter until it resembles a crumble (like you're making an apple crisp topping or something).

In a separate bowl, toss the pears and lemon juice. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a separate bowl, and then combine with the pears to coat.

Pour the pear mixture into the pie crust, and then top with the "crumble" topping. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. I always have to check mine at 40 - last thing you want is overcooked/burnt pears!

Jenn’s Banana Blueberry +Strawberry Sorbet=Incom “pear” able

Ingredients:
1 cup orange juice
1 medium banana
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 Island Way Orange Mango Sorbet
1/2 green D’Anjou pear, sliced
I blended the ingredients together and then added the remaining 1/2 pear to the top of each smoothie for garnish

Lyss's Turkey Bacon, Pear & Feta Cheese Quesadillas

Ingredients:

1 Whole Wheat Tortilla (such as La Tortilla Factory's Low Carb High Fiber tortillas)
1/2 yellow pear (or any other pear you have on hand)
2 slices turkey bacon
Feta cheese, crumbled

1. Cook turkey bacon in microwave, between two paper towels, for 1 min. 45 seconds or until desired crispiness.

2. Spray nonstick skillet and 'fry' one side of tortilla.

3. Meanwhile, thinly slice half of the pear.

4. Layer tortilla with pear slices, crumbled turkey bacon and feta cheese.

5. Fold over tortilla, reduce temp to low, cover and cook 2 minutes longer.

Lyss's Turkey, Pear & Apple Butter Bagel Melt

Ingredients:

1 Whole Wheat Bagel (I used a Thomas Whole Wheat bagel, they are big and soft!)
1/2 yellow pear (once again, any pear you have will do)
1 oz. hickory smoked turkey deli meat
1 slice mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons apple butter

1. Preheat toaster oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spread both sides of the bagel with apple butter.

3. Layer one side with pears and cheese, the other with turkey.

4. Place both sides in the toaster oven, and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble.

5. Put the sandwich together, slice in half and enjoy!

Again, thank you thank you for the wonderful recipes! I will def be making some of these during my next blogger week! So whose up to pick the next BSI ingredient you ask....

Meghann of The Inner Workings of a College Graduate! I cannot wait to see what she picks!