Baked Hot & Zesty Ceasar Fries

Hola my beautiful readers! I have (again) been away from the blog for a little while. This time, I was on vacation in the BEAUTIFUL Montreal, QC. It was my anniversary (our 1st) so we went there to revisit the spot we got engaged! It was TRES Romantic!

Where we got engaged 2 years ago!

 While we were there, my lovely friend saw on Twitter I was on the look for some Poutine and suggested we try a restaurant called Resto La Banquise. It was a mission and a half to get there by foot, but I trusted my esteemed friend who is the mastermind behind Doodler's Revue. Jon wasn't so sure, so he complained the whole walk there.

Now, I've eaten A LOT of poutine in my time. Along with Cupcakes & Ketchup Chips, Poutine a weakness of mine (I call these my Weakness Trifecta, or the Willpower Incinerators). So, I was a little skeptical of just how great this place was going to be. Then I saw the menu and knew I was home:

I ordered La Matty and Jon ordered La T-Rex...

 

 

La Matty

This was BY FAR, the best poutine I have EVER had in my life. In fact, I still think about how good it was. The fries were so crispy and delicious. The Curds we perfect and even a little squeeky and the gravy has just the RIGHT flavour. Not to salty, but had a very good presence. I kid you not, I'm drooling at my computer right now.

Here is La T-Rex...

Needless to say, poor hubs was in a bit of a meat coma for the rest of the day. What you're looking at is ground beef, hotdogs, sausage and bacon. Serious biz.

So, to make a long story short, if you're ever in Montreal Area, GO HERE.

Now that I'm back from vacation, I'm going through poutine & french fry withdrawl. Hubby suggested we try to make something we usually get at a wing place here where they toss some fries in some sauce.

Side Note: I loooooove sauce. Hubs and I are sauce people. We will pretty much dip everything we eat into something.

Anyway, we concocted these: Baked Hot and Zesty Ceaser Fries. So good, so easy and SLIGHTLY (very slightly) better for you than what you'd get in a restaurant because these are baked! PLUS they make a perfect side to some BBQ Chicken and veggies (okay, we didn't have veggies, but would still be good!) 

Baked Hot and Zesty Ceasar Fries

By Me and Hubs

Ingredients:
5-6 Medium Potatoes (this made enough for 3 people)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/3 cup Creamy Ceasar Dressing
3-4 tbsp of Franks Hot Sauce

Method:

Preheat your over to 450 degrees F.

Cut up your potatoes either using a French Fry cutter or knife. I use a knife, so I just cut them in half, then put the flat side down, cut 4 slices (horizontally) then cut each one of those slices in half again (horizontally). It isn't perfect, but it works!

Put your cut potatoes into a large bowl and toss in the oil and the salt and pepper until evenly coated. Transfer to a greased cookie sheet and spread out evenly. They will look like so:

Toss them in the oven for 8 mins. Take out and flip (with a spatual or tongs). Put in for another 8-10 mins or until they are slightly browned. They shouldn't be TOO soft, but you don't want them to be raw either.

When they are done, spoon the fries into another bowl and add the Ceaser Dressing and Franks and toss until evenly coated.If you like hot, add more Franks, that part it up to you!!!

Enjoy!

Maple Pecan Struesel Pumpkin Bread

Okay, I have a confession. I have this weird aversion to ALL pumpkin related food and drink. It wasn't until YESTERDAY that I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte (or PSL, for all those in the know). I've never had pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin scones, nothing. There is something about pumpkin that grossed me out.

However, in the spirit of my Fall Baking Series for the blog, and the apparent LOVE that everyone else on the planet has for pumpkin, I decided to try out this Maple Pecan Struesel Pumpkin Bread. I like maple, I like pecans and I like bread...so I could maybe get around the pumpkin.

So, the first thing I had to do was find canned pumpkin. For some reason I started in the canned vegtable aisle, but was informed by a very friendly FreshCo employee that it was actually in the baking section. Next, I needed Pumpkin Pie Spice. I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. Not at Walmart, not at FreshCo or NoFrills, not even at Bulk Barn. I finally found a teeeeeeeeeeny tiny can of it at Loblaws for 5 FREAKING DOLLARS. For spice.

Given that I don't even LIKE pumpkin, this hurt me to spend, but again, for the sake of the blog, I obliged!

I have to admit, when I was spooning the pumpkin out of the can into the measuring cup, I almost puked. However, when all was said and done, I actually couldn't get enough of this bread. We had it for breakfast almost every morning (while it lasted, which was really only 2 mornings). It goes amazingly with a fresh cuppa joe!

I hope you try this one, it was SUPER easy and SUPER yummy and is such a scrumptious fall treat!

Maple Pecan Struesel Pumpkin Bread

adapted from Hot Polka Dot

Ingredients:

For the Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup (use the real kind, trust me)

1 egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil  

For the Struesel

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar 

1/4 tsp pumpkin spice

1/4 cup UNSALTED butter (this time, deffo use unsalted)

1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Method:

Place your rack in the oven in the middle of the over. Preheat it to 375 degrees F.

Butter a 9" loaf pan with butter (I don't have an actual loaf pan, so I had to go out and buy the one-time use one that I think was 8" but still worked!) Next, fit a piece of parchment in pan and make sure there is enough hanging over the side!

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice in a small bowl!

Using your mixer, combine the pumpkin puree (yeeeeeeeeeeeeuck!) sugar, maple syrup, egg and oil.  Next, mix in the dry ingredients until JUST combined. (For the record, I don't know what JUST combined means...I just make sure it looks blended but not totally mixed...if that makes any sense)

Not going to lie, I was completely shocked that the batter was orange. Why? Wishful thinking, maybe?? Either way, it actually kind of looked like baby poo. So far, this wasn't helping my total distaste for pumpkin. 

A BABY POOED ON MY MIXER!

Next, making the Struesel...what is Struesel? I have no idea...up until last week, I thought it was a type of pastry, soooooo this was an interesting experience. 

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and pumpkin spice together. Next, cut in the butter (again, wtf does this mean????) until the butter is pea sized. Make sure you use UNSALTED. I used Salted and the top of the bread was, well...quite salty! 

Kind of Pea Size?

Next, pour the patter into your loaf pan and smooth out the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the struesel on top 

Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 mins or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean! Because my pan was shorter, it took mine a little longer. I also didn't have a toothpick, so I had to use a wooden BBQ skewer.


Let it cool in the pan for 5-10 mins and then remove by lifting it out by the parchment paper!

ET VOILA!

So, with great fear, I cut it up...

...and had a bite. 

Yummmmm. So very good. I'm totally hooked now. My husband has been asking me to make this almost every day. As I mentioned though, next time I will use unsalted butter. The crust was really yummy, but just a TAD too salty!

If you try this one out, please let me know! I'd love to hear what you think about it! Actually, come to think of it, if you every try any of the recipes I post, please let me know what you think! I'd love love love to see your creations!!!!!

Happy Baking!

GUEST POST: Paleo Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I am SOOOOO excited to share with you, my very FIRST GUEST POST! It is very fitting that this post comes from my dear friend Carianne. As she explains below, we first met at Zumba and we became fast friends as we bonded over our love of food and fitness. She is also the very sweet lady that kindly designed my Running to Bake logo for me (and it's so perdy!). She is a wonderful person, inside and out and I'm SO lucky to call her my friend!

Cari and I at COLOR ME RAD this year!

She was also the first one to introduce me to the world of Paleo Eating. While I don't follow the diet, I think it is quite interesting and I admire her commitment to it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the amazing muffins she'll tell you about below. She brought them as a post-workout snack to a class we did together and I couldn't believe how delish they were. I'm going to go ahead and say I enjoyed them even more than the kind made with regular flour.  

Read on below for how SHE was introduced into the world of Paleo, her incredible story and for her amazing muffin recipe! 

- Lisa

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Hello Running to Bake readers!

My name is Carianne, and I am so excited and honoured to be featured on the blog today! Lisa and I met a few years ago at a fitness class, both near the beginning of our journey to health, and became fast friends. While we both already had experienced some success, we had not yet found our niche. I am so excited and proud of the both of us to now find ourselves here, feeling fantastic, and making the right choices for US.

I also love to run, bake and eat. I must stress the eating part. I love to eat. Most of my day is spent deciding what I will be eating next, and how delicious it will be! However, food is both my friend & foe. Although it seems to comfort me when I’m down, it very quickly becomes an enemy when I’ve devoured an entire bag of chips and that bloat starts to set in. I found myself at a weight a few years ago where I knew it was time to make a change. Change is SO hard! I joined a weight loss program, lost a bunch of weight, and was so proud of myself. Then I got bored, and lazy, and started ‘rewarding’ myself for all my hard work. However, my ‘rewards’ started outweighing my healthy choices. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t seem to claw my way back to that lifestyle.

While continuing my struggle with food, my husband got very ill. Fast forward a tough year, and a tough diagnosis of Lyme disease, we found ourselves presented with a very difficult diet plan for him to follow. We struggled through the first six months trying to figure out what we could prepare for him, when we stumbled across the paleo lifestyle. It fit perfectly with his new rules of eating! He had not eaten a baked item in close to a year, and the first paleo muffin recipe I made blew our minds! Thinking back on it now, and it was nothing compared to what we make now, but it was a start! It took awhile, and a lot of courage before I decided I would do this with him and commit to leading a paleo lifestyle. I was super nervous, and to be honest not that confident that I could do it. I was so pleasantly surprised when I had been eating this way for a month, had lost a few pounds, felt INCREDIBLE, and didn’t crave any of my old food choices! I also love to cook, and this gave me the opportunity to try so many new recipes and learn new ways to prepare some of our old favourites, but with just a few substitutions.

I have been following this lifestyle for about a year now, and although I’ve ‘fallen off the wagon’ a few times, I’ve never found it difficult to re-commit myself. Today I am so excited to share with you one of my FAVOURITE muffin recipes! I do hope that you’ll give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Paleo Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Makes 6 muffins

Dry Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut flour, sifted

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp sea salt

Wet Ingredients

4 eggs

¼ cup pure maple syrup

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

2 tsp lemon zest (about 1 lemon)

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

Add In

2 tsp poppy seeds

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients, except the coconut oil, and blend well with a hand mixer.

With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the coconut oil. Blend well.

Stir in the poppy seeds.

Fill 6 paper lined muffin cups two-thirds full with batter.

Bake 21-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top and the center of each muffing springs back when pressed lightly.

Cool 5-10 minutes in the pan. Serve! You can store any leftovers (which I doubt there will be!) in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze them!

Thank you SO much for having me here today, and letting me share my story with all of you!

Happy Baking everyone!

- Lisa
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