Spicy Sechzwan Turkey Hash April 27, 2009

This is a quick riff on sechzwan eggplant, and is very tasty! Make as spicy or as mild as you like. If you follow my directions, you might find it too hot.

Supplies:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 onion, sliced
125 grams ground turkey
1 medium zucchini chopped
2 small heads baby bok choy, greens separated from the stalks
1 cup bean sprouts
1 tbsp Thai chili sauce
1 tbsp black bean sauce

Method:
1) saute garlic, onion and ground turkey until turkey is mostly cooked
2) add Thai chili sauce, black bean sauce, zucchini, and the stalks of the bok choy and stir until mostly cooked.
3) add tops of bok choy and sprouts, cook until wilted.
4) devour!

OMG Curry April 14, 2009

I admit, I love curry. I have three different types of curry powder in my cupboard right now. My current favourite is a tikka Marsala mix. Very hot, but so good and slightly sweet due to the addition of Ginger and cloves. Anyhow, feel free to use these veggies, or substitute whatever you have on hand. My ingredients were chosen because they were almost bad, and I didn’t want to waste them.

Supplies:
1 medium Japanese eggplant, slightly old. Bad spots removed, and remaining eggplant chopped into 1 cm cubes.
2/3 of a tomato, diced
2 green onions, chopped
300 ml water
1 cube stock (veggie or chicken)
1/2 tsp curry powder (more or less, to your taste)
1 tsp thickener, such as corn starch (I used tapioca, cause it’s what I had.)
1 heaping tbsp sour cream

Method:
Sautee eggplant and onion in a frying pan until halfway cooked.
Add curry powder, stir for about 30 seconds.
Add water, cube of stock and tomato.
Turn heat to about 3/10, and cook until the liquid reduces a bit.
Add thickener and cook until thickened.
Stir in sour cream and you’re done!!

Serves 1 in a big bowl, or 2 over rice.

Holiday Baking: Cranberry marshmallow seed squares November 22, 2008

So, everyone loves cranberries, right? They’re wonderfully tart and seasonal – not only in taste, but colour as well. These super simple squares combine the tartness of cranberries against the sweetness of marshmallow, the saltiness of salted pumpkin seeds, and the wonderful taste of puffed wheat, a very low calorie cereal (less than half the carbs, sugar and calories of rice krispies per cup!!!) finished with some chocolate sprinkles, and not only are these tasty, they look really festive! Cut into small pieces and bring these little squares in as a great treat for your co-workers! Best yet, they’re as easy to make as rice krispie squares.

Ingredients:
32 large marshmallows
1/4 cup butter/marg
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups dried cranberries
1.5 cups salted pumpkin seeds (check the bulk section of your grocery store)
6-7 cups puffed wheat
Brown décor sprinkles

Method:
In a large pot, melt butter and marshmellows, stir in vanilla, mixing very well.
Stir in all other ingredients except sprinkles
Press into a large Pyrex pan, tamping down mixture firmly.
Sprinkle the… Sprinkles over the bars.
Let set. Cut into 1″ squares.
Enjoy!!

Pork Tenderloin Salad November 18, 2008

An easy asian style salad!

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin, sliced into medalions
6 strawberry tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumber
1.5 cups bean sprouts
1 bell pepper, sliced into matchsticks
1/2 head lettuce, chopped
1 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Method:
Sauté pork with soy sauce, and liberally dust with curry powder. Once cooked through, set aside.
Chop up all your veggies and toss together.
Combine the vinegar, sesame oil and powdered ginger, pour over veggies.
Top with pork and sprinkle almonds over top.
Yum!

Best Cauliflower Ever November 12, 2008

So most people I know don’t like cauliflower. It tends to be bland. In the words of my friend Rob, it tastes like weeds, and in the words of my friend Marcia, it’s broccoli’s gross albino cousin. However, I’ve always liked the stuff, so I decided to make up a way to cook it that makes a regular person want to eat it, and boy, did I suceed!! This was so good, for the first time in his life, Adam has thirds of cauliflower! If you serve this to company, be prepared to give out the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
2 cups double strength chicken stock (to make, simply dissolve 2 boullion cubes in 2 cups boiling water.)
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1.5 tsp honey

Method:

1. Chop up cauliflower into medium sized pieces, and place into a large sauté pan.
2. Pour chicken stock into pan, and cover with a lid, or if you don’t have a lid, or the pan is too full, use some tinfoil to cover the pan.
3. Loach the cauliflower over medium high heat until it’s tender – about 5 to seven minutes. When you can easily stick a fork in it, it’s done.
4. Fish out the cauliflower with a dotted spoon, put it in a large dish in a hot oven to keep warm.
5. Turn the heat all the way up, and start reducing the remaining chicken stock in the pan.
6. When thestick is halfway reduced, add the mustard. Stir, continue to cook down.
7. When the stock reduces by half again, add the honey, and cook for about one more minute.
8. Remove the cauliflower from the oven, and drizzle the reduced honey mustard sauce over the califlower.
9. Serve with a slotted spoon and enjoy. Serves 4 as a side, or 2 in place of a starch.

Whole Wheat Orange Yogurt Muffins November 9, 2008

So, I don’t bake much. Baking is an exact science, and I can’t resist playing around with a recipe when I make it. This is a heavily adapted muffin – it started out life without whole wheat flour, and with less salt. Not that I am getting all Paula Deen on you guys, it just needed more salt. There still isn’t a ton of it. I also added more fruit flavour, because half the fun of muffins is how fruity they are.
At first this recipe made 8 sort of small muffins, so I doubled it, and it makes 12 huge muffins now.

Supplies:
3 cups whole wheat flour
3.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar or splenda
4 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp oil
2 tsp grated orange rind
2 cups low fat fruit yogurt (I used raspberry)

Method:
1. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3. Beat eggs and sugar together until very well blended.
4. Add vanilla, oil, orange rind, and yogurt to egg and sugar, and mix until well combined.
5. Add dry ingredients in thirds, stirring well.
6. Divide mixture between 12 muffin tins, each lightly sprayed with non stick cooking spray.
7. Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Enjoy! These muffins are low in fat and high in whole wheaty goodness.

Green salad October 25, 2008

I really do mean green salad – all the ingredients are either green or white. The bean sprouts and Chinese cabbage give a bit of an asian feel, so I made a dressing of Dijon mustard and lemon juice… Just to keep you on your toes.

Ingredients:
3 cups spinach, washed and dried
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/3 cup pea shoots
1/2 cup suey choy
1/2 pear, finely chopped
1 chicken breast, grilled, chopped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Spray some cooking spray into a skillet and grill chicken breast until browned on one side. Flip and brown on the other side.

2. While chicken is cooking, chop up and toss all veggies together.

3. Combine mustard and lemon juice.

4. Once chicken is cooked, chop up, add to salad, and drizzle mustard dressing over salad.

5. Rejoice, as your low fat, extremely healthy dinner has been prepared from scratch in under 15 minutes. That’s faster than takeout!

Ghetto Thanksgiving Wraps October 13, 2008

These wraps are not ghetto at all actually. However, I didn’t make or have a thanksgiving dinner this year, so a turkey wrap was the closest I got to the traditional feast of giving thanks. There’s no pie or yams, but it does have sage, an ingredient in many traditional stuffing recipes.

Ingredients:
Wraps
Red pepper, sliced into sticks
Pea shoots (or alfalfa sprouts, but the pea shoots are sooooo good.)
Turkey breast deli meat
Tomato (I used halved heirloom cherry tomatoes – I told you these weren’t ghetto wraps!)
Cheese (chedder, Swiss or even Brie would be good here!)
Sage paprika aioli

1. Mix together 2 tbsp mayo (or miracle whip), 1/2 tsp sage and 1/4 tsp paprika. Add more sage if you want. Set aside.

2. Take your wrap, add turkey, and paint a generous amount of the aioli down the centre. Add the toppings to your liking, and then roll up!

I sort of over filled my wraps, but they were so tasty. The sage was the magic ingredient in this mix.
To make these more healthy, omit the cheese, and use a big piece of romaine instead of the wrap, as I did.

Green Eggs and… Tomato? October 3, 2008

Supplies:
3 eggs
1 tsp pesto
Salt
Pepper
Grated cheese – about 1/4 cup
Tomato, thinly sliced

1. Mix eggs, pesto, salt and pepper.
2. Scramble eggs until cooked.
3. Top scrambled eggs with thin slices of tomato, and grated cheese.
4. Broil until cheese is melted.
5. Serve to your boyfriend, who is confused because the eggs are green.

Creamy Blueberry Breakfast October 3, 2008

Not all my breakfast ideas involve eggs. However, I really like eggs, so I tend to cook them on the weekend. This breakfast was developed because I needed to use up some cottage cheese before I left for the weekend.

Supplies:
3/4 cup fat free cottage cheese
1/3 cup blueberries
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash of brown sugar/drizzle of honey

1. Mix first three ingredients together.
2. Sprinkle on brown sugar, or drizzle honey.