Mexican Chocolate Pancakes August 31, 2008

I’m in Calgary this weekend, visiting, and one of the things I love to do is cook a nice breakfast. I made pancakes and made 2/3 of them plain and made the rest into these things, which sound super exotic but are very east to make. Feel free to adjust the amount of chocolate in the pancakes if you want them even gooier. I forgot to take pictures, but I assure you, they were good.

Mexican Chocolate Pancakes:

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped up very finely, but leaving some larger bits

Method:

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Stir well.

2. In a separate bowl, wisk together eggs and 1/2 cup milk.

3. Pour milk and egg mixture into dry ingredients. If mixture is too thick and lumpy add more milk until it’s thin enough for you. The thinner the mix, the thinner the pancake. Don’t overmix though – it makes the pancakes less soft and fluffy.

4. Add cinnamon and chopped chocolate, giving it one final stir.

5. Cook and serve. You can go fancy, with whipped cream and shaved chocolate and more cinnamon. Or just slather in butter and syrup like we did.

Electric Dress Salad with Miso and Cherries August 26, 2008

I was lucky enough to be gifted with some frsh organic green cabbage and some ripe cherries, so I thought I better come up with something good to put them to use… This salad is light, sweet and really tasty.

Salad:
1/2 head lettuce (I used romaine because the greengrocer by my house sells them 2 for a dollar)
2 cups very thinly sliced green cabbage
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 & 1/2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cherries, pitted
1 chicken breast, slow roasted and shredded

Dressing:
2 tbsp miso (I used red)
1.5 tbsp seasame oil
0.5 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1. Set oven to 350 and cook the chicken breast, liberally salted and peppered, then wrapped in tinfoil for 40 minutes. When done, remove from oven and let cool.
2. Chop up all your veggies (except the sprouts) and toss into a bowl. Pit the cherries and leave aside.
3. Combine all ingredients for dresssing and pulse for a second in an immersion blender.
4. Take cooled chicken, and shred with a fork and your fingers.
5. Plate by piling salad, then chicken then cherries, and drizzling dressing over top.

The dressing has a strong taste that works with the wateryness of the raw cabbage and sprouts. It’s also a bit tart, but that balances well with the cherries and red pepper. Best of all, you don’t need much, as it’s so powerfully flavoured. This recipe serves 3.

Pro tip: like brown sugar, but use it so infrequently that it turns to rock? Buy splenda brown sugar. That stuff will outlast the cockroaches. Seriously.

Broccoli and Two Cheese Dinner Fritata August 24, 2008

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the bastard father of most of my recipies. If you ever find yourself needing to use up some old broccoli, or a carton of eggs, this is a nice easy way to do it.

Ingedients:

10 eggs
3 medium heads broccoli
Salt
Pepper
1 large, ripe tomato
1 cup shredded cheese (Chedder, Swiss)
Thinly sliced soft cheese (Brie, Camembert)

Materials:

1 12″ springform pan
Cookie sheet
Tin foil
Cooking spray

Method:

Chop and wash you broccoli, then place into a bowl with a very small amount of water and microwave for 5 minutes to partially cook it.
Slice your tomato up thinly (1/8″), and cut your soft cheese to match. Try for 6 slices of tomato and 5 of cheese.
Next, wrap the outside of your springform pan with tinfoil, and spray the inside with non-stick cooking spray. Also, set your oven to 350.
Crack ten(!) eggs into a large mixing cup and stir in shredded cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
Take your broccoli out of the microwave and drain it if needed.

Now, plop that steamed broccoli into the greased pan, and spread out so it covers the bottom.
Now, pour the egg mixture on top.
Finally, arrange the tomato and soft cheese on top of the broccoli.
Gently place pan onto cookie sheet, and then put the cookie sheet into the oven.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean – about an hour. Then broil for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

Once that’s done, let it sit on the counter for a couple of minutes and release the springform pan. You should have a lovely, firm fritata.

Slice up and enjoy. Feeds four. Serve with ketchup if you’d like. I don’t mind, I love ketchup.

Variations:
Add/substitute:
Thinly sliced and sauted leeks
Mushroom (also cooked)
Bell pepper
Ground chicken

Note: 10 eggs sounds like a lot, but it is divided by 4 – so it’s less than a typical 3 egg omelette, and with a lot more veggies in it!

Why I run August 23, 2008

This is a fun example of how much weight I lost after I started working out -in specific, running.

Easy Taco Salad August 19, 2008

Wherein I post thoughts, recipes, and wonder how those rap dudes keep their pants up. To start you off:

Kathleen’s Easy Taco Salad (serves 4-6)

• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 bell pepper (your choice of colour)
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 red onion, cut into thin, small chunks
• 1 cup chopped cucumber
• 2 breasts chicken
• 1 tsp hot chili powder/taco seasoning
• seasoning salt
• 1 jar salsa
• cheese, grated (grate as much as you’d like)

1) Wash and chop all veggies except avocado, and put into a big bowl. Toss the salad (hurr)

2) Chop up raw chicken breasts and fry up with your seasoning salt and chili powder. If you don’t have that, try some taco seasoning instead.

3) Remove pit from avocado and slice into chunks.

Get everyone to get a big individual bowl of the salad mix. Top with as much avocado as you’d like. Add some of the cooked spicy chicken breast chunks, then add salsa to your taste, and some grated cheese.

Optional: crumble corn chips over the salad for extra crunch.

Why eat this?

Salsa is good for you! It has almost no calories (20-25 per 1/4 cup) and is made from veggies. It packs lots of flavour for very little cost. It’s far better for you than most salad dressings. I don’t add sour cream to this salad because it doesn’t really need it. Trust me, you’ll see. The avocado and cheese add lots of creamy texture, and avocado is full of good fatty acids. Even with cheese, this is very healthy because the bulk of the salad is veggies and lean meat.