may 2008 056

My creative cooking side is pretty hit or miss, but I searched around to create a few dishes for weekend festivities without having to go to the grocery.

First up — pineapple upside down cakes for Alma’s early birthday celebration. I took a yellow cake mix, some applesauce, a lemon, a can of pineapple rings and some crumb mix I had leftover from a muffin recipe and threw them together. I used the applesauce to make the recipe lower in fat. Alma is dropping weight like it is her job and I knew she wouldn’t bother enjoying her birthday cake if she knew she’d have to run it off later.

may 2008 055

Mike and Sam were in town and having a pool party. Mike called and asked if I could bring a “Kelli creation” to the party. I had about two hours to prep and no motivation to go to the grocery. The result was two-fold:

may 2008 049

I took a package of taco seasoning, a can of black beans, a can of garbanzo beans and some pickled jalapeños (including the juice) and threw them into the blender with some lemon juice.

may 2008 050

This dip I loved. It could be great warm with cheese on top, or cold with pita. It was just spicy enough and I liked the added white beans.

may 2008 053

I also made some green tea sugar cookies. Morag (my old roomie) left behind some packages of Chinese green tea powder. I found them in the pantry and threw them in with my standard sugar cookie recipe, although I also added applesauce to these to make them more cake-like. The flavor was a muted sweet sesame. I really liked them, although I think I should have baked them for 5 more minutes.

may 2008 054

I’m taking a baggie of food with me to travel — some to share and some to avoid eating mystery meat in a fit of hunger. Protein bars, instant oatmeal, Crystal light are all in there. I’m trying to convince myself I won’t end up drinking cold Coke in the bottle. Pretty sure Nirvana is inside a cold bottle of Coke on a hot, humid day.

~K