Here are some great ideas from a few momma's!!
amilynn36 suggested this yummy cauliflower dish. Sounds great!
I made one Sat night that was pretty yummy, brown rice (which I swear is like an art form to cook right) and I boiled caliuflower for like 4 mins and then put it in a greased baking pan (like brownie size) in layers, melted a lil butter on top then sprinkle on panko bread crumbs and parm cheesebake
425 for 30 min ish......was pretty good to me!
Jean52580 shared this link for baked brown rice! This one I am trying for sure! Yum!
Beggan suggested this easy breakfast idea:
1 banana covered with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, a little honey, and a palm full of grape nuts (I usually hate grape nuts, but like this they are yummy)
TaraLeighRenee shared a link for one of her favorite Crock Pot Recipes:
Crock pots are the best for us momma's with babies!!
missmichon21 is another crock pot lover!! She says:
I love my crock pot!! I buy a whole chicken and put it in my crock pot for ten hours. I like cracked pepper and lemon slices on top and I add a can of 100% fat free chicken broth...it comes out melt in your mouth! Soooo good!
Beggan also shared a yummy Fajita Recipe:
Fajitas
Take eye of round steak, cut into strips, and brown it with garlic and lime juice.
Add bell pepper slices (orange, yellow, and red - can use green, but I don't like them!)
Add onion slices
Cook until tender
Put on wheat tortillas with salsa and we use pepper jack cheese sparingly
It's very yummy and filling :)
(I think it would be great with Chicken too! yum!)
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
liztull's Tofu Dish
This is off of liztull's blog. It is a fun read, with what sounds like a yummy recipe!! (there are more pictures here.)
So okay, people, my recipe is a tofu dish. And the thing about tofu is, it’s all about the sauce. Because tofu itself tastes like…well it tastes like unsalted boogers, and if you don’t like it, that’s probably mostly because whoever made it didn’t prep the tofu right before they started to cook it. I have a couple of tips, ways to make the texture more meaty and help the tofu absorb the flavors of your sauce, which I’ll describe below.
First, the most important tip is to marinate tofu for an hour or so in whatever sauce you’re going to cook it in and then squeeze out all the excess liquid. (You can reserve that marinade for your cooking.) Marinating makes the tofu absorb all the flavor and taste like…well like flavored boogers. But really, as long as the flavor’s good, you won’t mind the texture, and you’ll get rid of the semi-gamey soy taste.
Gosh, I’m making this sound appetizing, aren’t I.
But really, this recipe is completely un-tofu-ish. I love Indian food, make it at least a couple times a month, and one of my favorite dishes is Palak Paneer, which is basically spinach and paneer cheese (a white cheese that looks a lot like tofu) in a curry sauce. Deeelicious, but also really heavy and fatty. So I thought, why not try to make a vegan, lower fat version? I could call it Palak Panofu. Or…Palak Tofu-neer? Or does that make it sound even less appetizing? Anyway, paneer cheese actually has a tofu-ish consistency, the only real difference is that it has a bit of a sour (cheesy, I guess you could say) flavor. So I tried to mimic that by marinating the tofu in water with just a few squeezes of fresh lemon.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. First I froze the tofu. Freezing really improves the texture, makes it less mushy and more meaty. Frozen tofu blocks also, it turns out, make nice cooler packs for baby bottles. You know, if you have a baby. And if you’re looking for a replacement for regular cooler packs that don’t stay cold as long, and will make your husband look at you like you’re insane until you tell him it’ll save the 3 cents in energy costs you would’ve spent having to re-freeze your regular packs, after which he will say SCORE!
Once it’s fully defrosted, marinate the tofu for an hour or so in the fridge, then squeeze out all the lemony water, so that the tofu can absorb the flavor of the sauce you’re going to be cooking it in. (It’ll retain the flavor of the marinade even after squeezing.) I use two plates, and squash the tofu between them into the sink. You will look like a fool while you’re doing this, I just tell you that as a warning. Demand that anyone who may be lingering in the kitchen leaves before you start, or they may laugh and then you will either laugh too and drop the plates, or throw the plates at them, depending on your personality and your mood. Which will ruin your dinner. Not that this has ever happened to me.
Okay, now the tofu is thoroughly squozen, you’ll need to cut it into chunks.
(This is the thing I like best about cooking with tofu, that it cuts so easily. Everything else about it is a little bit of a pain…) And then fry it up for about 8 minutes, until the edges are just slightly browned. It’ll have a really nice, semi-chewy texture, although at this point it’ll just taste like sour tofu. So…we should get working on the sauce. (Note, I’ll give the actual ingredients at the end of the post, which is a totally back-asswards way of doing things, I realize. But…there was nowhere to put the ingredients above without interrupting the flow of this cooking story. And as an author, I’m all about story flow.)
Okay, veggies. You’ll need to go to your local farmer’s market, and pick up some fresh vegetables.
(Gratuitous Anna Shot, along with my nose, in profile. She looks skeptical, but really, is there anything better than farm-fresh?)
We belong to a community organic farm, where we pay a lump sum once a season and go every week spring through fall to collect fresh vegetables and pick various herbs and berries. Are you jealous? No? Because they also have pick-your-own flowers.
Jealous now? Well don’t be too jealous. I have to live in Jersey for this privilege, which kind of negates everything.
Okay, where were we? I’m rambling on as usual, and I have 38-years-of-diabetes-bad-short-term-memory-syndrome. Rambliness and long-term-d are not a good combination.
Oh yeah, the vegetables. Well okay, first I chopped one of these beautiful farm-fresh onions.
I realized after I added them to the pan that I should’ve taken the tofu out first, because if you stir it around too much it breaks apart. But I forgot. Probably because of that 38-years-of-diabetes-bad-short-term-memory-syndrome. Let’s pretend I didn’t forget, though, and in the photos below, try to pretend you don’t see tofu chunks, okay? So you’ve taken out the tofu, and now you should fry up the onions with four cloves of chopped garlic and some crushed ginger. Here’s my garlic and ginger with a Kyocera ginger-mincer. The mincer–unlike the microplane I used to use–is supposed to collect ginger juice as well as the minced ginger, which is supposed to add extra gingeryness to your recipe. That’s probably all hype, it all tastes pretty much the same to me, but I keep using it anyway just because I don’t want to have wasted the eight bucks.
Those are also all the spices I’ll be using, minus coriander (because it’s in a jar labeled sesame seeds and I didn’t want to confuse you. Don’t ask.)
Once the onions and garlic are caramelized, you’ll want to add your spinach. They didn’t have spinach at the farm this week, but any leafy green will work. They had chard, so I used that instead.
Actually, they had a buttload of chard (doesn’t that sound appetizing?) But I used it all, because it really wilts down, so you’ll need a full buttload. I mean look, all of this…
…wilted into this…
So if it doesn’t fit into your pan at first, just add half, let it cook down and then add the rest. Or you could just add a couple of packs of frozen chopped spinach, that works perfectly too.
Okay, next you want to add your spices: Coriander, cayenne (or a chopped chili pepper), cumin and turmeric and garam masala.
Then add a cup of yogurt, and a couple of squeezes of lemon, and salt and pepper to taste…I don’t usually use salt, but it really helps tofu taste less tofu-ey, so I made an exception here. I also added a can of garbanzo beans, which isn’t usually in Palak Paneer, but I feel like the beans add an interesting texture, and make a more complete protein. (Actually, I don’t know if it makes a more complete protein at all, that just sounded like the thing to say. You believed me for a second there, I bet.)
And here it is, just before I served it out…
Can you believe the buttload of chard wilted down this much? I cook this stuff all the time, and it still surprises me.
Now I’ll tell you that I used this recipe for D-Feast Friday because I thought tofu had, like, no carbs. I was wrong, it turns out that it has about 3g an ounce. This recipe has about 4 servings of tofu, which would make about 12g carbs. The garbanzos and yogurt also add a few carbs (11g in 1/4 cup chick peas, and 4g in 1/4 cup yogurt, which makes about 15g per serving.) So…okay, I’m completely guesstimating the carb count, but I doubt it has more than about 27g per serving. But then, I messed it up by adding rice. If you’re watching carbs you can leave out the garbanzos and the rice, and you’ll do quite well, and it’ll still taste just as good. For those of you okay with carbs, I use this stuff, which is really high fiber, and slow-digesting. (35g carbs in a 1 cup serving.) It also tastes so delicious and nutty.
See the rice cooker in the background? Those of you who read my blog in the olden days, remember when I was doubting the wisdom of my ebay bid for it? Turns out, it was SO worth it. It makes rice taste like that stuff you get at Chinese restaurants, all sticky and buttery. I mean, it wasn’t worth going broke over, but it still makes me happy every time I use it. Plus, it plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star every time it starts up. How can you beat that?
I made the rice blend into cumin rice, by frying up some cumin seeds in butter (you can also use ground cumin, but that doesn’t give quite the same nuttiness), and adding a squeeze of lime juice. They add a really interesting flavor that goes well with this recipe.
And that’s it! You’ll notice that the picture above is not all that pretty, so I added chopped tomato and lots of cilantro (both also from the farm.) (If you don’t like cilantro, the recipe tastes fine without it, but IMO you’re crazy. Also, I don’t know if we can be friends.)
And Ta da!
Okay, so I just realized that the only photo I took of the finished dish is totally blurry. Which, when you’re blogging about a recipe, is akin to cooking a big dinner and bringing it to the table only to drop it all on the floor. And here I thought I was being all food-bloggery, and could take over for The Pioneer Woman. I guess I will keep my day job. BUT…Really, the plate was beautiful, and the recipe would make Rachel Ray use that word that drives me especially insane. Seriously, it’s easy, healthy and delicious. Before I forget, here are the actual ingredients:
◦1 pound extra-firm tofu
◦A buttload of spinach or chard (translation: at least a pound)
◦1-2T vegetable oil
◦1 large onion
◦4 cloves garlic
◦About 2 inches of fresh ginger
◦2 tsps coriander
◦1 tsp cumin
◦1/2 tsp turmeric
◦1 tsp garam masala (or you could add extra cumin, plus cinnamon, cloves, a little bay and paprika)
◦16oz can of garbanzo beans
◦Salt and pepper to taste
◦Cilantro for garnishing
◦1 large tomato diced (also for garnishing)
So okay, people, my recipe is a tofu dish. And the thing about tofu is, it’s all about the sauce. Because tofu itself tastes like…well it tastes like unsalted boogers, and if you don’t like it, that’s probably mostly because whoever made it didn’t prep the tofu right before they started to cook it. I have a couple of tips, ways to make the texture more meaty and help the tofu absorb the flavors of your sauce, which I’ll describe below.
First, the most important tip is to marinate tofu for an hour or so in whatever sauce you’re going to cook it in and then squeeze out all the excess liquid. (You can reserve that marinade for your cooking.) Marinating makes the tofu absorb all the flavor and taste like…well like flavored boogers. But really, as long as the flavor’s good, you won’t mind the texture, and you’ll get rid of the semi-gamey soy taste.
Gosh, I’m making this sound appetizing, aren’t I.
But really, this recipe is completely un-tofu-ish. I love Indian food, make it at least a couple times a month, and one of my favorite dishes is Palak Paneer, which is basically spinach and paneer cheese (a white cheese that looks a lot like tofu) in a curry sauce. Deeelicious, but also really heavy and fatty. So I thought, why not try to make a vegan, lower fat version? I could call it Palak Panofu. Or…Palak Tofu-neer? Or does that make it sound even less appetizing? Anyway, paneer cheese actually has a tofu-ish consistency, the only real difference is that it has a bit of a sour (cheesy, I guess you could say) flavor. So I tried to mimic that by marinating the tofu in water with just a few squeezes of fresh lemon.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. First I froze the tofu. Freezing really improves the texture, makes it less mushy and more meaty. Frozen tofu blocks also, it turns out, make nice cooler packs for baby bottles. You know, if you have a baby. And if you’re looking for a replacement for regular cooler packs that don’t stay cold as long, and will make your husband look at you like you’re insane until you tell him it’ll save the 3 cents in energy costs you would’ve spent having to re-freeze your regular packs, after which he will say SCORE!
Once it’s fully defrosted, marinate the tofu for an hour or so in the fridge, then squeeze out all the lemony water, so that the tofu can absorb the flavor of the sauce you’re going to be cooking it in. (It’ll retain the flavor of the marinade even after squeezing.) I use two plates, and squash the tofu between them into the sink. You will look like a fool while you’re doing this, I just tell you that as a warning. Demand that anyone who may be lingering in the kitchen leaves before you start, or they may laugh and then you will either laugh too and drop the plates, or throw the plates at them, depending on your personality and your mood. Which will ruin your dinner. Not that this has ever happened to me.
Okay, now the tofu is thoroughly squozen, you’ll need to cut it into chunks.
(This is the thing I like best about cooking with tofu, that it cuts so easily. Everything else about it is a little bit of a pain…) And then fry it up for about 8 minutes, until the edges are just slightly browned. It’ll have a really nice, semi-chewy texture, although at this point it’ll just taste like sour tofu. So…we should get working on the sauce. (Note, I’ll give the actual ingredients at the end of the post, which is a totally back-asswards way of doing things, I realize. But…there was nowhere to put the ingredients above without interrupting the flow of this cooking story. And as an author, I’m all about story flow.)
Okay, veggies. You’ll need to go to your local farmer’s market, and pick up some fresh vegetables.
(Gratuitous Anna Shot, along with my nose, in profile. She looks skeptical, but really, is there anything better than farm-fresh?)
We belong to a community organic farm, where we pay a lump sum once a season and go every week spring through fall to collect fresh vegetables and pick various herbs and berries. Are you jealous? No? Because they also have pick-your-own flowers.
Jealous now? Well don’t be too jealous. I have to live in Jersey for this privilege, which kind of negates everything.
Okay, where were we? I’m rambling on as usual, and I have 38-years-of-diabetes-bad-short-term-memory-syndrome. Rambliness and long-term-d are not a good combination.
Oh yeah, the vegetables. Well okay, first I chopped one of these beautiful farm-fresh onions.
I realized after I added them to the pan that I should’ve taken the tofu out first, because if you stir it around too much it breaks apart. But I forgot. Probably because of that 38-years-of-diabetes-bad-short-term-memory-syndrome. Let’s pretend I didn’t forget, though, and in the photos below, try to pretend you don’t see tofu chunks, okay? So you’ve taken out the tofu, and now you should fry up the onions with four cloves of chopped garlic and some crushed ginger. Here’s my garlic and ginger with a Kyocera ginger-mincer. The mincer–unlike the microplane I used to use–is supposed to collect ginger juice as well as the minced ginger, which is supposed to add extra gingeryness to your recipe. That’s probably all hype, it all tastes pretty much the same to me, but I keep using it anyway just because I don’t want to have wasted the eight bucks.
Those are also all the spices I’ll be using, minus coriander (because it’s in a jar labeled sesame seeds and I didn’t want to confuse you. Don’t ask.)
Once the onions and garlic are caramelized, you’ll want to add your spinach. They didn’t have spinach at the farm this week, but any leafy green will work. They had chard, so I used that instead.
Actually, they had a buttload of chard (doesn’t that sound appetizing?) But I used it all, because it really wilts down, so you’ll need a full buttload. I mean look, all of this…
…wilted into this…
So if it doesn’t fit into your pan at first, just add half, let it cook down and then add the rest. Or you could just add a couple of packs of frozen chopped spinach, that works perfectly too.
Okay, next you want to add your spices: Coriander, cayenne (or a chopped chili pepper), cumin and turmeric and garam masala.
Then add a cup of yogurt, and a couple of squeezes of lemon, and salt and pepper to taste…I don’t usually use salt, but it really helps tofu taste less tofu-ey, so I made an exception here. I also added a can of garbanzo beans, which isn’t usually in Palak Paneer, but I feel like the beans add an interesting texture, and make a more complete protein. (Actually, I don’t know if it makes a more complete protein at all, that just sounded like the thing to say. You believed me for a second there, I bet.)
And here it is, just before I served it out…
Can you believe the buttload of chard wilted down this much? I cook this stuff all the time, and it still surprises me.
Now I’ll tell you that I used this recipe for D-Feast Friday because I thought tofu had, like, no carbs. I was wrong, it turns out that it has about 3g an ounce. This recipe has about 4 servings of tofu, which would make about 12g carbs. The garbanzos and yogurt also add a few carbs (11g in 1/4 cup chick peas, and 4g in 1/4 cup yogurt, which makes about 15g per serving.) So…okay, I’m completely guesstimating the carb count, but I doubt it has more than about 27g per serving. But then, I messed it up by adding rice. If you’re watching carbs you can leave out the garbanzos and the rice, and you’ll do quite well, and it’ll still taste just as good. For those of you okay with carbs, I use this stuff, which is really high fiber, and slow-digesting. (35g carbs in a 1 cup serving.) It also tastes so delicious and nutty.
See the rice cooker in the background? Those of you who read my blog in the olden days, remember when I was doubting the wisdom of my ebay bid for it? Turns out, it was SO worth it. It makes rice taste like that stuff you get at Chinese restaurants, all sticky and buttery. I mean, it wasn’t worth going broke over, but it still makes me happy every time I use it. Plus, it plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star every time it starts up. How can you beat that?
I made the rice blend into cumin rice, by frying up some cumin seeds in butter (you can also use ground cumin, but that doesn’t give quite the same nuttiness), and adding a squeeze of lime juice. They add a really interesting flavor that goes well with this recipe.
And that’s it! You’ll notice that the picture above is not all that pretty, so I added chopped tomato and lots of cilantro (both also from the farm.) (If you don’t like cilantro, the recipe tastes fine without it, but IMO you’re crazy. Also, I don’t know if we can be friends.)
And Ta da!
Okay, so I just realized that the only photo I took of the finished dish is totally blurry. Which, when you’re blogging about a recipe, is akin to cooking a big dinner and bringing it to the table only to drop it all on the floor. And here I thought I was being all food-bloggery, and could take over for The Pioneer Woman. I guess I will keep my day job. BUT…Really, the plate was beautiful, and the recipe would make Rachel Ray use that word that drives me especially insane. Seriously, it’s easy, healthy and delicious. Before I forget, here are the actual ingredients:
◦1 pound extra-firm tofu
◦A buttload of spinach or chard (translation: at least a pound)
◦1-2T vegetable oil
◦1 large onion
◦4 cloves garlic
◦About 2 inches of fresh ginger
◦2 tsps coriander
◦1 tsp cumin
◦1/2 tsp turmeric
◦1 tsp garam masala (or you could add extra cumin, plus cinnamon, cloves, a little bay and paprika)
◦16oz can of garbanzo beans
◦Salt and pepper to taste
◦Cilantro for garnishing
◦1 large tomato diced (also for garnishing)
Tomato Basil Soup
Tomato Basil Soup-3 points per serving. (about 1 cup per serving)
I made this for dinner last night, along with grilled sandwhiches (ham and cheese for hubby, and salmon spread for me). It was very tasty!!
Ingredients
4 Tbsp. (60mL) Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Garlic Seasoning Blend
1 Tbsp. (15mL) Mrs. Dash® Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend
2 Tbsp. (30mL) olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
28 Oz. (784g) can whole tomatoes, no salt
4 cups (1L) low sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup (160mL) evaporated fat free milk
basil leaves as garnish
Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan until foaming.
2. Add onion and cook on medium heat until onions are tender.
3. Do not brown.
4. Add tomatoes, Mrs. Dash® Garlic & Herb, chicken broth and Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Garlic.
5. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes, stir occasionally.
6. Remove from heat and cool.
7. Process in blender or food processor or press through a sieve (strainer).
8. Return to pan, add evaporated milk.
9. Heat but do not boil.
10. Serve in warm soup bowl and garnish with basil leaves, if desired.
I made this for dinner last night, along with grilled sandwhiches (ham and cheese for hubby, and salmon spread for me). It was very tasty!!Ingredients
4 Tbsp. (60mL) Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Garlic Seasoning Blend
1 Tbsp. (15mL) Mrs. Dash® Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend
2 Tbsp. (30mL) olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
28 Oz. (784g) can whole tomatoes, no salt
4 cups (1L) low sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup (160mL) evaporated fat free milk
basil leaves as garnish
Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan until foaming.
2. Add onion and cook on medium heat until onions are tender.
3. Do not brown.
4. Add tomatoes, Mrs. Dash® Garlic & Herb, chicken broth and Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Garlic.
5. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes, stir occasionally.
6. Remove from heat and cool.
7. Process in blender or food processor or press through a sieve (strainer).
8. Return to pan, add evaporated milk.
9. Heat but do not boil.
10. Serve in warm soup bowl and garnish with basil leaves, if desired.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Antipasto Lasagna
Here's one to start us off. My sister and I made it last night. It was soooo yummy!! We left out the kalamata olives, and cut it into 6 servings instead of 4! It was still a good size serving.
Leaving out olives, and cutting into 6 servings makes this recipe 6 points.
Ingredients
1 (27.5-ounce) jar fat-free mushroom-and-roasted garlic pasta sauce
Cooking spray
6 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and chopped
1/2 cup chopped turkey pepperoni (such as Hormel), divided
1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
Oregano sprigs (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°.
Spread 1/2 cup pasta sauce in bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; top with half of artichokes, half of bell peppers, 1/4 cup pepperoni, and half of olives. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese; top with 3/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers, omitting cheese, ending with noodles. Spread remaining sauce over noodles. Cover and bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until noodles are tender and sauce is bubbly. Uncover and top with 1/2 cup cheese; bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Garnish with oregano sprigs, if desired.
Nutritional Information
Calories:375 (20% from fat)
Fat:8.4g (sat 3.9g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.8g)
Protein:21.7g
Carbohydrate:50.7g
Fiber:5.5g
Cholesterol:37mg
Iron:4.3mg
Sodium:1379mg
Calcium:285mg
Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 1998
Leaving out olives, and cutting into 6 servings makes this recipe 6 points.
Ingredients
1 (27.5-ounce) jar fat-free mushroom-and-roasted garlic pasta sauce
Cooking spray
6 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and chopped
1/2 cup chopped turkey pepperoni (such as Hormel), divided
1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
Oregano sprigs (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°.
Spread 1/2 cup pasta sauce in bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; top with half of artichokes, half of bell peppers, 1/4 cup pepperoni, and half of olives. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese; top with 3/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers, omitting cheese, ending with noodles. Spread remaining sauce over noodles. Cover and bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until noodles are tender and sauce is bubbly. Uncover and top with 1/2 cup cheese; bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Garnish with oregano sprigs, if desired.
Nutritional Information
Calories:375 (20% from fat)
Fat:8.4g (sat 3.9g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.8g)
Protein:21.7g
Carbohydrate:50.7g
Fiber:5.5g
Cholesterol:37mg
Iron:4.3mg
Sodium:1379mg
Calcium:285mg
Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 1998
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