Caramel Almond Bar

So I recently found out that my mom is pre-diabetic. Since I'm living at home I have to make food that my parents can eat unless I want to gain even more weight. My goal for this year is to post 1 diabetic friendly recipe per month. I apologize for the blurriness of my photo I currently have a new camera on my birthday wish list.


Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar substitute 
• 1/2 cup margarine , softened
• 1 teaspoon almond extract 
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsel
• 1/2 cup caramel morsels  

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F Grease 9-inch-square/round baking pan.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat sugar, margarine and almond extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Spread into prepared baking pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes. Remove pan to wire rack. Cool completely in pan on wire rack; refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes or until chocolate is set. Cut into bars.

Pisco Sangria Punch

I love sangria. It always brings back memories of the holiday parties during college. I normally made sangria with red wine but I had a lot of cheap white wine from my Christmas party so I threw this together one night.  

Ingredients:
1 cup white wine
1 orange thinly sliced
1-2 shots of pisco
2 tbsp agave
thinly sliced strawberries
ginger ale

Directions: 
1. Combine agave, oranges, lemon, and strawberries in a large pitcher.
2. Cover with the white wine and pisco.
3. Chill sangria for several hours.
4. To serve, spoon fruits into glasses or goblets, pour wine over top of the fruit.
5. Top glasses of sangria off with a splash of ginger ale and serve.  This serves 2-3 people.

Butternut Squash Casserole

I think butternut squash has become one of my favorite vegetables. This is an excellent side dish for ham and turkey.

Ingredients

• 4 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup asiago cheese
• 1 cup bread crumbs

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚.
2. Cube butternut squash in 1/2″ cubes. Toss with the onions,  olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Remove and place in a large bowl. Reduce oven to 350˚.
3. While squash cooks, whisk together cream cheese, egg, 1/4 cup parmesan, 1/2 cup of asiago, and 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Once squash is done, fold cream cheese mixture with the squash and place in a small baking dish.
4. Sprinkle remaining cheeses and breadcrumbs on top. Bake at 350˚ for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve hot.

Dragon Fruit Salad

So as many of my previous know, there's a Filipino superstition that I follow for New Years. Traditionally you're supposed to create a fruit basket that contains 12 different round fruits. I don't know how this tradition turned into 13 different fruits, but that's how we do it in my family. As you can imagine finding 12 different round fruits is really difficult so we kind of just stick with 13 different fruits in general. For the New Year my mom and I went to the Asian market to get our fruit. We were struggling with the 13th fruit when we saw this beauty:

My mom automatically asked, " Why is it called dragon fruit? Is it because it comes from a real dragon?"

Me: "Really ma? Really? That's something I expect Tatay to ask, not you."

Mom: Well it would have explained why it's so expensive!  

Expensive indeed. But we were intrigued. I wasn't sure what to make of the fruit. When I cut it in half and tried a piece it didn't really have a lot of flavor. It had a similar consistency to a kiwi but it didn't have a very distinct flavor. I decided to whip up a quick fruit salad with it.

Ingredients:

2 tbsps of buko- coconut strips in syrup

1 dragon fruit

1 tsp agave
juice from 1 orange
2 basil leaves roughly chopped


After mixing the ingredients together refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. This got a little addictive. It's a good thing I only had 1 dragon fruit : )