Tomato Basil Tart

This is one of my absolute favourite meals in the whole world. Yes, it's a bit hyperbolic, but it's soooo good, covers at least a couple of food groups and can be made with only a few ingredients.

I shamelessly stole this from Christine Ingram's Vegetarian and Vegetable Cooking.

Tomato and Basil Tart

Ingredients:

1 9-inch frozen pie shell
5 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced (about half a ball)
2 large tomatoes, thickly sliced
handful of basil leaves
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F and cook your pie shell for 10 minutes until just starting to turn golden. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Turn the oven down to 350F.

While your shell cools, slice everything. Now, with the garlic. Have you seen Goodfellas? Well if you haven't you should, but that's another discussion. Please see the photo below:



This is how thinly you should slice your garlic. It should be translucent, but not tearing. If you slice it too thin it will become crispy and burnt, if it's too thick it won't roast the way you want it to.

Okay, tangent aside.

Your crust is cool now, yes? Layer your mozza all around. Don't worry if you missed a couple spots, as the cheese melts it'll fill the crust. Then layer your tomatoes around. Then, dip your basil leaves and garlic in olive oil and place on the tomatoes. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top, then grind some salt and pepper over top.

It should look like this:



Now, bake that sucker for 40-45 minutes until the tomatoes are dark red and fully cooked.

Of course, yesterday was pure kid-crazy-chaos and I forgot to take a photo of the final product. Sorry!

Monster Cookies

So the other day my mom sends me this recipe from when I was a kid. Flashback! I'm not sure why they're called monster cookies, but I'd assume it's from Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. I think he's called something else now.

Like, Organic Whole Grain Spelt Flour Sugar Free High Fiber Biscuit Monster.

Or something.

What's even funnier is that I'm about to admit that I found the recipe still had too much sugar/butter for my kids so I adapted it! I know, I'm THAT parent.

If you want the original unfiltered recipe, post in the comments and I'll post it.

Monster Cookies

Ingredients:

2 c. peanut butter (I used the natural just peanuts stuff)
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 very ripe banana
3 c. quick oats
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. canola oil
1/2 c. raisins
1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions:

If you have a mixer, I'm going to make this very easy on you.

Dump and mix.

If you don't have a mixer, or would prefer to dirty more dishes, you can do it like this:

Blend peanut butter, sugar, eggs and banana. In a separate bowl stir together oats, baking soda, salt, raisins and coconut.

Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture. It will be wicked thick. While stirring, add the oil in a drizzle so that it loosens everything up.

Drop by teaspoonful, or shape into little balls, on baking sheets and bake at 350F for about 12-15 minutes.

NOM NOM NOM

Banana Coconut Muffins

I'll admit it. I'm on a health kick. After having baby numero dos in May, I've been eager to get back into shape. Even though I don't think that having three muffins for breakfast qualifies as a portion I explain it by pointing out that I NEED more food than before since I'm nursing. And I mean, it's whole wheat flour, that should count for something!

It has nothing at all to do with creamy coconut milk swirling around mashed bananas and oats. No. Not at all.

I made this recipe this morning for the first time, but it worked out so well I'm going to post it anyway.

Banana Coconut Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. white sugar (Next time I might even take out the sugar all together.)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 c. coconut milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 1/4 c. puréed bananas (about 2-3)

Directions:

Mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat up your egg, then add the rest of the wet ingredients.

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Bake at 400F for 15 minutes for regular muffin tins, or 25 minutes for the larger muffins. Maxi-muffins if you will.

_____

Now. I'm a big fan of the creaming of the butter and the adding of the sugar, and all the best banana muffins I've ever had began with a butter base. But these. These trump all other banana muffins. They literally melt in your mouth, creamy but with little oat nuggets, and a slight coconutty tang. Super good.





I didn't get a great photo, but I'm not a great photographer. Hand me the mixer instead of the camera anyday!

These get a 4.5/5 from me!