Itzy's Kitchen

Monday, October 25, 2010

E: Tosh & Pumpkin Biscotti

I hope your week is off to a good start. Lots to cover, so I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

Sunday, Bryan, Mandi, Josh & I headed up to Columbia, SC for the Tosh Tour 2010. The boys chose the Flying Saucer for dinner pre- show due to the large amount of beers on tap:

Me & Mandi:

The tap wall (which was 4x’s as long as shown- the backing is a wall of pennies):

and some of the many personalized saucers on the wall of the restaurant:

Although the atmosphere was very cool and the beer selection was impressive….the restaurant was not good. The staff (minus the bartender who was AMAZING) were incredibly rude. We sat down at a table to have a waitress come over to us and tell us they were too busy basically to serve us. She suggested we go to the bar…

I got a goat cheese, walnut & craisin topped salad:

Mandi ordered a chicken salad wrap. They ran out of wraps and Mandi ended up with a chicken Caesar salad.

Onto the show! Adorable Mandi & Bryan:

Josh & I (whats up with my hair?;))

Tosh…I can’t say enough. He was HILARIOUS. The show was worth every dime. If you get an opportunity to see him- DO IT!

A friend of mine’s husband is having surgery soon. To try and help cheer them up, I decided to put together a little coffee and biscotti gift for them. I used this pumpkin biscotti recipe and just decreased (slightly) the amount of sugar and added raw pumpkin seeds into the mix. Pre-oven:

Post first bake:

Post second bake:

and last, but not least. The winner of the Fresh Express coupons & Itzy’s Kitchen baked goods is…

HEATHER!!!!!!!

Heather- send me an email with your address and we will discuss which baked good you would like.

Enjoy your week!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

E & M: Nature’s Pride Review & Oatmeal Apple Butter Toffee Chip Cookies

E: Hope you guys are enjoying your weekend. Mine has been wonderful so far! I had a date night with Josh, taught body step, went to brunch with Lindsay at Charleston’s Cafe:

and had a great time at the party we attended Saturday night.

Nature’s Pride & Food Buzz recently sent Mandi and I two of their new breads to review, Oven Classics Oatmeal and 100% Whole Wheat (disclaimer: we received the bread for FREE, but the opinions are our own). I sampled the Oatmeal:

(source: Nature’s Pride Website)

and Mandi took on the 100% Whole Wheat:

(source: Nature’s Pride Website)

Friday night, I used the bread to make “fancy” grilled cheese for Josh and I. I toasted the bread up under the broiler and topped his with hummus, artichokes, spinach and sharp provolone cheese:

My open faced sandwich consisted of tomatoes, avocado & sharp provolone (the cheese melted and made the sandwich look a little weird, but I promise it was awesome):

We also had fruit and V8 butternut squash soup on the side.

A delicious and easy Friday night meal. Now, maybe I’ve been eating too many Arnold’s thins, but this bread was awesome. Thick and flavorful. It tasted super fresh and even Josh commented on how awesome it was (he asked for a second sandwich when he was done with the first).

M: Seriously, the minute I opened the bag, the first thing I noticed was the smell of sweet nutty bread! The second you pick up a slice, you can see this bread is super soft and smooth. So, let's say it's a Friday night and you have nothing planned for dinner and it's already quickly approaching dinner time. You don't want something too heavy or greasy. What do you do? You take some of this incredible, all natural bread and make some good ol' BLT's!

I usually always have some bacon, tomatoes, and lettuce laying around. So, I quickly cooked up slices of bacon, thickly sliced some yellow and red tomato, and tore off some LARGE leaves of butter lettuce. I thought I wanted to throw in a little something extra, so instead of the normal mayo, I whipped up Ina Garten's basil mayo - it was the perfect compliment to the tomatoes and the nutty bread!

The final product - and let me say, these slices are slightly larger than the normal slice of bread, so it held our sandwiches verrrrry nicely!

All in all, we loved this bread. It was smooth and soft, was perfect toasted, slightly nutty, and had such a great taste that I can definitely imagine anyone with kids would easily be able to get them to eat whole wheat very easily with Nature's Pride Whole Wheat =) The added bonus to their whole wheat loaf is that it has 25% less sodium than regular whole wheat bread, 19 grams of whole grains, and 5 grams of protein per SLICE! I will definitely be making Bryan's sandwiches for work this week with the rest of this yummy loaf!

E: A BIG thank you to Nature’s Pride & Food Buzz for letting us give this bread a go! I will definitely be purchasing in the future.

As a side note, I made up three cookie recipes for the party on Saturday night: My own Peanut Butter Flour Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Jessica’s (Not) Red Velvet Cookies, and a fun new Oatmeal Apple Butter Toffee Chip cookie. I have made notes below on how to veganize the cookies. They are really delicious and perfect for fall.

Oatmeal Apple Butter Toffee Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

Wet:

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter (or earth balance), softened
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup apple butter

1 egg (or 1 tablespoon flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
1 teaspoons vanilla

Dry:

2 cups uncooked oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Chips:

1 cup toffee or cinnamon chips (or vegan chips of your choice or nuts)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Use a mixer to blend together wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, hand mix together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet and use mixer to combine. Hand mix in chips.