Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki from Kevin at Closet Cooking

If you want to see the most delectable, drool-inducing food photo you've ever seen...take a look at Kevin's Okonomiyaki. I'd never heard of a "Japanese pancake," but as soon as I saw his photo, I knew I had to make it.


This dish is pretty easy to prepare...not a lot of ingredients required, and it cooks quickly. I did have a little trouble maneuvering the pan around so I could flip the pancake (which is made mostly of cabbage and other vegetables), but I think it just takes practice. I made two versions: one with turkey bacon and one vegetarian. I have to say, the bacon version won hands down over the veggie.

I have sort of an aversion to mayonnaise, but I decided to try a little bit anyway for the sauce. I mixed some low-fat sour cream with Worchester and about a TB of mayonnaise. And you know what.....it was still too mayonnaise-y for me. So next time I'll have to figure out a different sauce. Any ideas?

Anyway, in spite of the mayo, I really liked this! It's definitely a healthy and unique meal and I would recommend it! :)

Good Morning muffins

Good Morning Muffins from Recipezaar
144 calories each when you make a batch of 17

The batter for these muffins smelled.....so good. Heavenly. Yum. They smelled really good when they were baking too. Now, my last attempt at muffins wasn't that great. Actually, it was really disappointing. So I was hoping for the best.



The verdict: they are good! Hallelujah. My sister said they taste like Christmas. That's because of the yummy spices in them. I would also compare them to a little carrot cake in muffin form. Except better, since I don't like carrot cake. I did use white-wheat flour in these, so they are extra healthy, don't worry. ;)

I had a heck of a time trying to photograph these. I think I finally got some decent pictures. Oh! One more tidbit...from my experience the last time I made fruit-y muffins, you should probably keep them refrigerated (if you have leftovers).

Homemade Spinach & Mushroom Lean Pockets

Here is one of the "homemade lean pockets" I made the other day. I had a turkey pepperoni one for lunch yesterday, and a spinach one today. Both are very good.

For the spinach pockets, I had a variety of cheeses around, so each one has a different variation of ingredients. I think this one had spinach, sauce, mushrooms, garlic, about a quarter TB of neufchatel, half a slice of muenster cheese, and a little bleu cheese: approx. 250 calories (or less). I made the whole-wheat dough in the bread machine.

You can buy packaged dough to save time. Roll it out and throw in whatever ingredients you want, then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. You can wrap them up and freeze them, and reheat them in the microwave for 2 minutes.