Sweet potatoes are so versatile—they work beautifully in a dip! This sweet-smoky dip with white beans and chipotle peppers is great with chips, pita, veggies, and crackers.

Photography Credit: Erin Alderson

Moist and delicious banana muffins sweetened with pure maple syrup and topped with crushed pecans – so good you won’t believe they are light!

This week has been a crazy week, for those of you who missed it I was on QVC Wednesday selling The Skinnytaste Cookbook!

Here’s a link to the video if you want to see it. (I never realized I talked so much with my hands until playing this back!) I was a little nervous, but honestly David is such a great host, he made it so easy. After that I flew to Pittsburgh to visit the Delallo family (I will share more about that later this week) but it feels so good to be back home in the kitchen cooking and sharing recipes.

Madison, my youngest LOVES banana muffins, so whenever I have ripe bananas on my counter I always like to bake a batch for her. Whatever we don’t eat that day is usually her breakfast the next day. In my house, these go pretty quick, but if you live alone, you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them for a later day, then pop them in the microwave – they taste just like you first baked them.

These muffins are slightly adapted from my low fat banana nut bread recipe. Here I wanted to use pecans, pure maple syrup and some maple sugar I purchased, but if you don’t have maple sugar any sugar would work. What I love about making these banana muffins is that they come out so moist, and I only use 2 tablespoons of butter in the whole batch!

Maple Pecan Banana Muffins

Moist and delicious banana muffins sweetened with pure maple syrup and topped with crushed pecans – so good you won’t believe they are light!

Ingredients:

• 3 medium very ripe bananas
• 1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup maple sugar (or brown sugar)
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup crushed pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a cupcake tin with liners.
2. Mash bananas in a bowl, set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl cream butter and 1/4 cup maple sugar with an electric mixer.
5. Add egg whites, mashed bananas, maple syrup, apple sauce and vanilla; beat at medium speed until mixed well, scraping down sides of the bowl.
6. Add flour mixture, then blend at a low speed until just combined.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Spread the pecans evenly over the muffins.
8. Bake the muffins on the center rack for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Nutrition Information

Yield: 12 servings, Serving Size: 1 muffin

• Amount Per Serving:
• Freestyle Points: 4
• Points +: 4
• Calories: 142 calories
• Total Fat: 5g
• Saturated Fat: g
• Cholesterol: 5mg
• Sodium: 113mg
• Carbohydrates: 23g
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 12g
• Protein: 3g

All images and text ©Gina Homolka for Skinnytaste

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This month, we welcome back Marta Rivera for more of her meal plans. Marta is a trained chef, mom of twins, and Army wife – and she is also one of our Simply Recipes contributors and recipe testers!

How is it already October?!?! I’m still trying to get into the fall groove with our school and work schedules. These days, I just want to enjoy the chilly temps, daydreaming about pumpkin spiced something-or-other, and Oktoberfest (which I celebrate all season long!).

Great produce is still coming into season in October. Keep an eye out in your food markets for corn, broccoli, cabbage, and kale this month!

In the last few years, I’ve started seeing boxes of pre-cooked rice in the freezer aisle at my local grocery stores. They’re super convenient, but way pricier than just cooking up some rice at home. I wondered if it’d be possible to make my own version at home.

After some trial and error, I found that, yep, it works great! And it’s much more economical, too—as you would expect.

It’s also easy to incorporate this prep step into your routine—if you find yourself making rice for a meal, just make twice as much, so you’ll have some to freeze for next time. Of course, you can also have a dedicated prep day where you freeze some rice for future meals.

I often make a big batch of rice in my Instant Pot and freeze half of it.

HOW TO FREEZE RICE

This method works with any kind of rice, brown or white. I find that the rice still has great texture when reheated, but it does have a tendency to dry out quickly after reheating. Make sure to serve it straight away to avoid this issue. Cook your rice as you would normally, on the stove or in a pressure cooker, then freeze it by following the instructions here.

1. Spread your just-cooked rice on a cookie sheet, fluffing it a bit as you spread it out in an even layer.

2. Once the rice is cool (this takes about 20 minutes), scoop it into freezer-safe plastic bags. Label the bags with the type of rice, the date, and the amount of rice in the bag. It’s really important to label the bags, since different kinds of rice pair well with different meals, and it’s pretty hard to tell varieties apart when frozen!

3. Pop the bags in the freezer, stacked nice and flat. They’ll keep well this way for up to 2 months. After that, it gets dry and the texture suffers.

HOW TO REHEAT FROZEN RICE IN THE MICROWAVE

When it’s time to reheat the rice, just follow a few easy steps:

1. The rice will have frozen into a solid block. Break this into chunks (you can do this while it’s still in the bag for less mess), and place it in a bowl.

2. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, or with a reusable, microwave-safe lid or bowl.

Place the covered bowl in the microwave and cook the rice on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. The timing will depend on the wattage of your microwave, so you want to check on it after a couple minutes. Mine is pretty powerful, so I find that 2 minutes is plenty.

3. Carefully remove the lid from the bowl (it will be very hot and steam quite a bit!), then fluff the rice with a fork and serve it right away.

HOW TO ADD FROZEN RICE DIRECTLY TO DISHES

Alternatively, you can use the rice straight from the freezer, in its still-frozen state.

This method works best when you’re adding it to a soup or a chili, since it will defrost evenly when fully submerged in liquid. I often break up frozen rice into chunks, then add it to a pot of simmering chicken soup. Once it comes back up to a simmer, it’s ready to go.

And that’s it, really! I hope this helps you save some bucks and speed up your weeknight dinner routine, too.

Ever since I got my Instant Pot a few years ago, I’ve stopped making rice any other way! It’s such a simple, basic method, and you never have to worry about it getting gummy or a pot boiling over on the stove.

Every time I make rice, I achieve the same results: separate grains, with a pleasing, chewy texture. Pressure cooking does give rice a slightly different texture than stovetop cooking, and I have actually grown to prefer it prepared this way. Give it a try and see what you think!

HOW MUCH WATER FOR PRESSURE COOKING RICE?

You can cook any kind of rice in your pressure cooker, long or short grain, brown or white. (It even makes a killer risotto, but that’s a recipe for another day.) No matter what kind of rice I’m cooking, I use the same ratio of rice to water or broth, 1:1.

This is probably less water than you’re used to using for cooking stovetop rice, and that’s because there’s very little evaporation when you’re using the pressure cooker. This ratio produces fairly firm, separate grains—you can add a little more water, maybe about 1/4 cup extra, if you like softer rice.

HOW LONG TO PRESSURE COOK RICE?

The amount of water (or other liquid—you can also use stock) will remain the same. Different kinds of rice, however, take different amounts of time to cook under pressure. Wild rice and brown rice will require more time than white rice, for instance. Any variety can be cooked at either high or low pressure; it comes out a little fluffier at low pressure, and a little chewier at high pressure.

Although you can cook any variety of rice on the automatic “rice” setting, brown rice works better on either a manual setting, or a setting that’s specifically designed for whole grains, such as the “Multigrain” setting on the Instant Pot.

Here are my preferred cooking times for cooking rice in the pressure cooker:

• Brown rice: 20 minutes on high pressure for firm rice, or 22 minutes for softer grains
• White rice: 15 minutes on low pressure for firm rice, or 17 minutes for softer grains

RINSE WELL FOR FLUFFY RICE

I don’t always remember to do this step, but it helps when I do: Rinse the rice in a wire mesh colander under cold water for 30 seconds or so, or until the water runs clear.

Rinsing makes the rice fluffy, and seems to make more of a difference with white rice varieties verses brown; the latter is protected by its hull and doesn’t tend to have a lot of extra starch clinging to the outside of the grains.

JUST ADD WATER—OR BROTH. OR GARLIC. OR BUTTER.

Just like on the stove, you can cook rice in the pressure cooker with broth or water, use as much salt as you like, and add extra seasonings, a pat of butter, or a little olive oil for extra flavor.

I sometimes sauté a little garlic in olive oil before adding my rice and broth, which turns a basic pot of grains into a flavorful side dish! You can also use seasonings such as turmeric and coriander for some Indian-inspired basmati rice, or chili powder for rice to tuck into burritos.

USE A NATURAL PRESSURE RELEASE

No matter what kind of rice you’re cooking, it’s a good idea to let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes before opening the pot. This allows the moisture to distribute evenly throughout the grains, and helps it unstick from the bottom of the pot, too.

You *can* open the pot with a quick pressure release if you like, but it really does benefit from a little resting time!

MINIMUM (AND MAXIMUM) AMOUNTS OF RICE

One last rule of thumb to keep in mind is that you’ll need to cook at least 1 1/2 cups of rice in a 6-quart pressure cooker to get nice, even results. This is because the bottom of the pot isn’t perfectly flat, but slightly concave. If you use less rice, the grains in the middle of the pot will not cook as evenly, since they won’t be submerged in the water as much as the rice on the sides of the pot.

On the flip side, don’t overfill your pressure cooker with too much rice, either! It should be half full or less when you’re cooking any grains, beans, pastas, or other foods that can tend to foam up. I find that I get the best results when I cook between 1 1/2 and 3 cups of rice at a time.

By the way, you can always make extra rice and freeze the extra. Here’s how to do that!

Those are my best tips for cooking rice! Of course, you can also just follow the basic recipe below. Either way, enjoy!

MORE PANTRY STAPLES TO MAKE IN THE PRESSURE COOKER

It’s Friday – let’s make pizza!

I’m so crazy about this pizza because it’s packed with a TON of vegetables, but not in a boring “I”m trying to eat my vegetables” way. It tastes amazing because each one provides an interesting texture or flavor. The broccoli gets all roast-y toasty, the corn pops with sweetness, the sun dried tomatoes bring that tangy umami-flavor, and the jalapeño brings some spice to this Friday pizza party. The whole thing gets doused in a creamy/savory layer of cashew cream in lieu of any cheese or dairy. It’s pizza you can feel good about! ?

While this looks like a lot of ingredients, it actually all comes together pretty quickly.

Once you chop everything (even the stems of the broccoli!), toss everything together in bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper until everything is well seasoned and well coated. While you do this, your partner could be stretching the pizza dough.

To make things easy, I like to use Whole Foods’ Multigrain fresh pizza dough – it can be found in the refrigerated area near the pizza section of the store. If you don’t see it, ask the people at the pizza counter. I’ve also heard that Trader Joe’s fresh dough is delicious.

And just a side note: I’ve been really enjoying this hole-ey pizza pan lately – it gets the bottom edges of the crust nice and crisp.

Look how many vegetables! I love it ?

Spread just a thin layer of cashew cream onto the stretched dough. You want just enough so that the vegetables have something to stick to, but you don’t want the middle to become too gooey.

The oozy cashew cream layer goes on at the very end. You don’t want to bake cashew cream in the oven – it loses a lot of its creaminess if you do.

So once the pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle the cashew cream very generously over the top. Finish with fresh basil and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, if you like.

Slice and devour!

EASY Butternut Squash Soup with Pears, seasoned with curry and ginger

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer