Pineapple Empanadas

It's Tasty Tuesday! And I have a super tasty recipe for you - all the way from Costa Rica.

Pineapple Empanadas
Recipe by Jeannette Avila Valverde, Translated and adapted by Annette Kolnitys

Ingredients for dough:
2 sticks of margarine or butter
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 box of cream cheese

Ingredients for filling:
3 cups of fresh pineapple (or or canned pineapple)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of pineapple juice (or can juice)
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons of cornstarch
1/2 cup of raisins (optional)

Ingredients for prep:
2 egg whites
flour

Directions:
1. Combine flour, cream cheese and all-purposes flour. Mix well, using your hands if necessary. Form a ball and cover with saran-wrap. Refrigerate at least four hours, or overnight.
2. Cut pineapple into chunks and shred. In a medium pan, add the pineapple, sugar and salt. Dissolve the cornstarch in the pineapple juice and add to the mixture. (If using canned pineapple, you will have likely already added the "pineapple juice" - just dissolve in a bit of water before adding). On medium heat, heat mixture until it boils, stirring occasionally. When at a boil add raisins, if desired, butter and lemon juice. Mix well and continue cooking until filling has thickened. Cool a bit before using.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Roll out the dough on a clean, floured surface. With a medium circular cutter (I've used the top of a sour-cream tub and the opening of a very large cup), cut circles out of the dough. Work the dough a bit, stretching it a tad to form an oval. Add a spoonful of filling (you'll need less than you thought!) and fold dough over, pinching the ends closed with your fingers. Continue with all of the other circles of dough. Place empanadas on a greased cookie sheet. Brush empanadas with egg whites and use a fork to create decorative edging. Cook for about 15 minutes or until golden.

I hope you enjoy this recipe - it takes a bit of time but is worth it! Plus, the dough is so easy to make and the filling is so good (my mom kept sneaking some with a spoon when I made it at home). Depending on the size of your empanadas, you may have extra filling - you can use it for an ice cream topping or freeze it for the next time you make emapanadas. I learned this recipe while studying abroad in Costa Rica, and I love these empanadas- they make great snacks no matter what country you are in.

Before they bake

Forming the empanadas

Yummmm

Linked to www.flamingotoes.com

I'm Back!

I'm back from all of my summer travels, which you can check out here. I spent six weeks in Costa Rica, a couple of days in San Diego and another three weeks travelling up the Oregon Coast. I don't have anything exciting for Miscellaneous Monday, but later this week I'll be posting a recipe or two from Costa Rica!

Off to Costa Rica!

Sorry there haven't been any blog posts lately - this week was crazy with finals, moving home, my sister's bridal shower and, oh yeah, getting ready to go to Costa Rica! I am studying abroad in Costa Rica for six weeks. My adventures will be chronicled at my (new) travel blog Jet Set Annette.

Have a great summer! See you in June!

Crocheted Sheep

This week was the closing mass for the first graders I teach religious education to. Since I love crocheting and my first graders are pretty awesome, I made them each a crocheted sheep. This pattern is from "Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet", which is a totally awesome book! The sheep is adorable, relatively easy and makes a great gift for end-of-the-year catechism gifts. I attached a Bible verse to each sheep with ribbon- there are a lot of great sheep related options out there! Two that I didn't use is the "good shepherd" verse and the "I know my sheep and my sheep know me" verse. Instead, I chose Luke 15:4 which reads (In New American version)

"Which man among you having one hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?"

Pyramid of sheep!

Close-up

With the ribbon and Bible verse

Sheep in a box. With all my craft supplies around

They're technically supposed to have legs, but I didn't feel like making 44 of them. So they're a bit more like sheep blobs. But still adorable. =)

On another note, I got a really fabulous and super cute catechist gift, and I wanted to share it with you too. Perhaps you could give something similar to a teacher for and end of the year gift?

It's one of those awesome reusable iced coffee cups! It has the church's logo on it, which I think is super cool. It is also filled with chocolate (love!), more specifically, Hershey's treasures. The note on the straw says "You are a treasure! You are loved! <3 Thank you from your SFdA Parish." And there's a ribbon tied around it. Too cute! And practical! And chocolate-y!

Anyways, happy Funky Friday. I know I'm 39 minutes late, but that's not my fault. My computer just hates finals as much as I do. =)

Linked up at

Healthy Thursday

Hey! So I'm trying out a lot of new health ideas, and I'd like to share them with you. For one, I'm exercising and eating healthy because it's good for my body - not to fight against it.

Food:
This is a picture of my packed lunch. I  know it's not perfectly proportioned, but it's a whole lot better than what I was eating before! Correct proportions for each meal should be: 1/2 fruits and veggies, 1/4 grains and 1/4 protein. I'm guilty of eating much more grains that I should, but at least I switched to whole wheat. That's a step right?

This meal is comprised of:
Peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread
Whole grain popcorn
Baby Carrots
Strawberries
100% Juice

Now just grab a yogurt or a cheese stick and you're good to go!

Fitness:
On Pinterest I found these awesome workouts that I just started trying today.

This one I do as a "warm-up" do build my ability to do all of these things. I've added plank position to this list (10 seconds for the first week, 15 seconds for the second week, etc.). This is from downtownn.tumblr.com.

These are awesome! They're visually appealing and for some reason, that makes me more motivated to work out. I like the variety - it's not just running on an elliptical for an hour, which is boring. These are from thinspo-exoh.tumblr.com.

Matched by Ally Condie

This book is about a girl, Cassia, who lives in a futuristic world. In this world, each person is matched with their soul mate on their sixteenth birthday, and their dates are planned for them. But when she puts her microchip in the computer to learn about her match, an unexpected face flashes on the screen and then disappears. Now she must decide - follow the fate set aside for her by the government, or forge her own way?

This book was actually really stupid and pointless. It reminded me of Hunger Games - cool futuristic world, awkward love triangle... but the similarities end there. There was no plot to this story. It was like watching a boring movie instead of checking my watch every thirty minutes or so I would stop every 50 or so pages and ask "has the story started yet?" I never quite figured out the point of the story... there was no plot. This book is definitely not worth your time.

Picture from goodreads.com

Maple Citrus Pork Chops

At the beginning of this semester I bought a whole pork loin (or roast, I'm not sure). Anyways, I ended up with 18 pork chops, and I'm trying very hard to find something to do with them all! I honestly have no idea where this recipe came from, my mother just e-mailed it to me with the subject line "Pork choppie sounds good". And it looked good, so I tried it. The overall result is very very citrusy. Which is fantastic to go with a stir-fry (think the pork version of orange chicken), but not so great by itself. So if you make this, at least make some rice and maybe some veggies to go with!

Ingredients:
4 pork chops
Salt (Or a seasoned salt)
Pepper
Flour
Olive Oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange (or another lemon)

Directions:
Season pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper, dust with flour. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. (Cool tip from my roommate - you have to cook pork on a medium or low heat [not high like my impatient college self is used to] because otherwise the outside will cook too quickly and the inside will be raw). Cook the chops for about 5 minutes on each side, until browned. While this is happening, in a bowl combine maple syrup, brown sugar, lemon juice and orange juice. Add this mixture to the pork chops. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, turning a couple of times to keep the chops coated in syrup. Uncover and cook for about 5 minutes more, turning once or twice.

I don't have a juicer, so I just cut the citrus in quarters and squeezed. My hands were covered in juice (so don't do this if you have a cut!), but it worked pretty well.

Who needs a juicer?

Don't they look delicious?

Why were these pictures taken on a paper plate? Because I'm a poor college kid and I used my one "real" plate to defrost the pork. =P

Happy Tasty Tuesday!

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