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To do this, go to the right hand column and scroll down to where it says “Get Elephant Eats Sent to your Inbox!” If you haven’t done this yet, you probably received an ugly text email about my post today…but when you switch over you’ll get a better html version. I’ll make sure to take you off the other list when you do.

WordPress subscribers please follow my directions in my other post. Thanks!

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Nate likes to have bread of some sort with dinner every night. He usually buys his beloved Trader Joe’s whole wheat dinner rolls, but every once in a while I like to make him something fresh.

When I was reading Martha Stewart Living magazine the other day, I came across this interesting-looking recipe for Potato Scones. I guess they were called scones because mashed potatoes were combined with flour to form a dough. But unlike typical bready scones, these were filled with cheese and pan fried, rather than baked.

I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of cheese and being fried in butter, so I figured I’d give them a try.

Man, these were so easy and SO delicious! You have to try them…seriously. I think they’d be an amazing use for leftover mashed potatoes, but I followed the recipe and boiled and mashed potatoes just for this recipe.

Nate and I both gave this one a giant thumbs up!

Potato Scones

Taken from Martha Stewart

Print from Martha’s site

Makes 8 scones

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes (or 2.5 cups mashed)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus 2 teaspoons for skillet
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 pound Tipperary cheese or sharp white cheddar, diced small (about 1/3 inch)
Directions

Bring potatoes to a boil in a pot of lightly salted water. Reduce heat, and simmer until fork tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain well.

While still warm, push potatoes through the large holes of a ricer, or use a potato masher to mash them until smooth (you should have 2 1/2 cups). Stir butter into warm potatoes until combined well. Stir together flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, then stir into potatoes with a wooden spoon until just combined. Form dough into a ball on a lightly floured work surface. Cover with a dish towel, and let cool for 20 minutes.

Dust rolling pin and work surface with flour, and roll out dough to an 8-by-10-inch rectangle. Sprinkle half with cheese, and fold to create a 4-by-10-inch rectangle. Gently roll out. With a floured knife, cut dough into four 2 1/2-by-4-inch rectangles, then cut each in half diagonally.

Heat a griddle or a large cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat, and add 1 teaspoon butter. When it has completely melted and is sizzling, cook 4 scones until golden brown and cheese melts, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Keep scones warm in a 200-degree oven while you cook the remaining dough.

This is the meal that I made Nate for Valentine’s day…because nothing says love like lentils.

Also because I didnt’ have any better ideas and I got a craving for something like this. I know this isn’t much to look at, but it tastes amazing!

We could have gone out to dinner but making something seemed a little more special.

I don’t think Valentine’s day really needs to be a meal any different than a regular dinner.

Dessert, on the other hand, must be either red, pink, or heart-shaped, but as you may remember, I had that covered!

P.S. Those biscuits you see…I totally cheated. They’re Pillsbury. Who doesn’t love Pillsbury biscuits?!

**NOTE: If you were an email subscriber before and you haven’t switched over to Feedburner, please do so! To do this, go to the right hand column and scroll down to where it says “Get Elephant Eats Sent to your Inbox!” If you haven’t done this yet, you probably received an ugly text email about my post today…but when you switch over you’ll get a better html version. I’ll make sure to take you off the other list when you do. Thanks!

Lentils with Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, Feta and Balsamic Dressing

Print this recipe!

makes 5 very generous servings 

1 cup dry lentils
1 lb sweet italian turkey sausage
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4″ cubes
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
s+p to taste
1 1/4 cups feta

Dressing:
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp olive oil

Rinse and drain lentils, then add to a 4 quart pot filled halfway with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 min or until lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain lentils and set aside.

Remove sausage from casings and heat in a large saucepan over med-high heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Stir until cooked through. Remove with slotted spoon to a bowl and set aside.

Add sweet potato to pan with sausage drippings and cook over med heat for 5 minutes.

Raise heat back to med-high, add 1 Tbsp oil, onions, carrots and celery and cook 5-10 minutes or until onion is soft.

Add sausage and lentils into veggies and stir until warm.

Mix dressing ingredients and pour over lentil mixture, tossing well.
Serve with a generous serving of feta sprinkled on each plate, or toss into lentil mixture if desired.

**Before getting into today’s post, if you’re a WordPress,com blogger, please read my last post! I made some changes to my blog and if you were “following” me before, you won’t be anymore until you make the changes in that post!**

I don’t know the last time I ate a donut (I’m not counting the two bites I snuck at work on Friday when I was being tortured by the smell of Krispy Kreme’s someone brought in.)

I mean we all know donuts aren’t good for you, although Dunkin Donuts might say differently.

There are tons of those baked donuts going around the food blogs lately. Honestly though, I don’t think you can pretend a baked donut tastes like a fried one…so why bother. That’s where this recipe comes in.

I’m not pretending these are donuts. Nope. These are muffins through and through. But if you love the taste of a cinnamon sugar donut then you *might just like these too.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Quick bread is an American term used to denote a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads includes many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, pancakes, scones, soda bread, and in this instance: muffins.

Pumpkin Donut Muffins

Very slightly adapted from Cait’s Plate

Print this recipe!

makes 12 muffins

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (or omit whole wheat flour and add an additional cup of white flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Topping:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper cups.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

In a small bowl, whisk together soymilk and pumpkin puree.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup with batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean (about 25- 30 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture.
Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

…you may have noticed that my blog has undergone some changes.

I finally got around to transferring my blog from wordpress.com to wordpress.org.

Changes can be good…and I now have the ability to completely customize my site….but I lost all my wordpress.com Followers in the process!! :(

 

So if you were following me thru wordpress you have to re-follow me by doing the following (also found at http://en.support.wordpress.com/following/):

Go to the wordpress.com homepage and log in. Click on the “Read Blogs” tab:

click Edit List:

In the text box at the top of the page, enter www.elephanteats.com and click “Follow.”

Now you’ll receive my blog posts by email again!

I don’t know if there’s any way to transfer my followers (I figured out how to transfer my email subscribers), but if there is, please let me know.

Thank you to all my loyal followers :)

Amy

As you know, I decided to make a tasty risotto for Nate the other day. But I realized that the meal was lacking in protein and I try to serve us balanced meals as often as I can.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what to serve with it, since I had zero desire to cook up any sort of meat. Nate suggested that I make an appetizer, and that’s when I remembered an interesting type of dip I’d seen going around the blogging world.

This dip is made with a bean base, like hummus, but with the addition of peanut butter and honey it becomes a wonderful spread for apples, graham crackers, or whatever else you want.

It’s simple to make too, since you just dump all the ingredients into a food processor. I used my small 3-cup one.

I hope you’ll get past the fact that this is made from beans and give it a try. This is a perfect way to serve your kids a snack that’s healthier than cookies and chips. Serve it to your family and don’t tell them what’s inside ;)


High Protein Peanut Butter Dip
Recipe by Me 

Serves 4 for a snack with things to dip

Ingredients
1 (15oz) can White kidney beans (aka cannellini beans), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp Smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate graham crackers and sliced apple for serving

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend well.