Category — Recipes

My computer time lately seems to be all filled up with freelance work, and other than “Baby Bargains” and other expectant mom resources, my “just-for-fun” book time hasn’t exactly been abundant either, so instead of reading online blogs or real novels, cooking magazines have become my go-to for a little break from reality (on the evenings I don’t fall asleep immediately upon sitting on the bed!).

I’ve been enjoying reading two in particular, Eating Well and Whole Living, and last week I somehow managed to find time to try three recipes from the latest issues!

The first two were dinners from the “Healthy Comfort Foods” article in the March issue of Whole Living. First I made Chicken Pot Pie, which got its “stealth health factor” from the inclusion of barley, a grain full of fiber and minerals. Buying that was an adventure because I had never done that before and the recipe said “hulled barley” and all I could find was “pearled barley” so there I was in Whole Foods, frantically searching on my phone for an indication about whether they were the same or not. (Apparently they are similar but hulled would have been a more healthy whole grain). I went with pearled anyway because I really wanted to try this recipe. I was similarly unable to find whole wheat phyllo dough, but I decided that would just have to be ok too! The recipe made 4 cute little individual pot pies that were yummy and, as the article’s title promised, reminiscent of classic comfort food without including the traditional heavy, less-healthy ingredients.

The second Whole Living recipe I made was Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Shells. It took a while to do this one, since there were quite a few steps, but it was well worth it. The pan of stuffed shells fed my husband and I for dinner and we had at least four more servings for leftovers. The “stealth health factor” on this recipe was using part-skim ricotta and including both spinach and bulgur (another new ingredient for me) in the filling, providing antioxidants and fiber.

Unfortunately I didn’t find these recipes online, but I recommend checking out the March issue, pages 92 and 93, and giving both of these recipes a try!

The third recipe I tried, Chocolate Decadence, was truly an indulgence, but since it came out of Eating Well and contained very little flour and all dark chocolate, I felt it was a worthwhile indulgence to make for dinner guests. It was amazing! Delicious and satisfying even in fairly small portions, unlike some dessert recipes that have me wanting more or leave me feeling unsatisfied the minute I finish.

P.S. This post was written back at the end of February, but somehow didn’t get published…apparently pregnancy brain + technology are not a good combo!

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Liz Vequist, my mentor through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, shared this Potato Leek Soup recipe on her blog with me when I told her about my recent soup kick. I loved it so much that I have made it twice in two weeks, and will likely make it again this week! It’s creamy and comforting, like potato soup should be, and it has just a little kick to it, although of course that can be ramped up or toned down depending on how much and which spices you prefer to use!

One of the best things about this recipe is that unlike some of those delicious, but calorie- and fat-laden, potato soups you might get in a restaurant, this one is dairy-free and it only requires a few wholesome ingredients, so it’s healthy and quick and easy to make.

I did make a few modifications of my own. I didn’t have vegetable bouillon either time I made the soup, so in place of the water + bouillon I used 4 cups of low sodium vegetable broth one time and low-sodium chicken broth the next, and both worked just fine! I also left out the thyme and bay leaf simply because I didn’t have them on hand, and the second time I made it I even left out the chili powder because I had run out of that, and it was still delicious and tasty. If it’s a little bland, try seasoning your individual bowl with extra sea salt and/or pepper, and even add a little shredded cheese or green onions (scallions) on top. I highly recommend this soup as a delicious lunch or supper with fresh bread. I’ll post a photo the next time I make it…and I don’t think it will be long!

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Lately, more often than not, the answer to “what’s to eat?” in our house has been “soup!” The cold weather and a craving for warm, creamy, comforting meals has led me to make butternut squash soup, sweet potato and coconut quinoa soup, broccoli soup, and black bean soup.

The sweet potato and coconut quinoa soup and the black bean soup were both recipes from my beloved Quinoa 365 cookbook (another recipe I tried and liked from it this weekend was the Mexican Casserole!) My experiences making those delicious soups led me to experiment with the broccoli soup recipe I usually make, and I am thrilled with the results.

I already knew that adding quinoa to any soup, much like adding rice, would be a good way to bulk it up a bit, both texturally and nutritionally, and would be a more healthful choice than, say, noodles. But what about a creamy soup? Turns out that is even easier!

What I’ve learned now that you can basically add cooked quinoa to any soup recipe, and, although I love the taste and the texture, if the soup is one that you blend or puree, you probably won’t even notice the addition (hint, hint, moms!)

However, that addition is giving you added protein and fiber with minimal fat. For someone like me, who gravitates toward a mainly vegetarian diet but is often concerned about getting enough protein (especially while I’m pregnant!) quinoa has been a great option, and adding it to my favorite soup recipes is just my newest favorite way to enjoy this superfood.

Here’s my slightly revised broccoli soup recipe. I’ve added in the quinoa and shifted other ingredient quantities just slightly based on experience. Give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 2 bunches broccoli
• 2-3 large or 4-5 small sweet potatoes, peeled
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tablespoons tamari (wheat free soy sauce)
• optional: Parmesan or organic cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Place quinoa and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until quinoa is tender.
2. While quinoa cooks, cut the florets off of the broccoli so that you have almost no portion of the stalk and place in a separate bowl.
3. Cut the stalks of the broccoli and the sweet potatoes into small pieces.
4. Place in a medium pot and fill with water just until the veggies are covered and bring to a boil.
5. Cook until soft, about 10-12 minutes.
6. Remove broccoli and potato from the water, reserving the water, and put into blender.
7. Add cooked quinoa and blend.
8. Slowly add the water from the pot to your blender until you get a good soup consistency.
9. Add garlic and tamari, and blend again.
10. Place soup back in the pot and add broccoli florets.
11. Leave on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot with a little fresh ground pepper.
12. Optional: sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese or organic cheddar on top of your bowl before serving.

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Late last week I had a craving for cinnamon rolls. This craving had gone on for several weeks, but every time I was out Christmas shopping at the mall, I made the decision not to cave and buy one, even though they smelled so good…

Luckily when the craving just had to be satisfied, I did a quick web search and found this “Easy No-Rise Cinnamon Rolls” recipe from The Happy Housewife. It was a great instant gratification recipe since I didn’t have to wait for the dough to rise, and it called for no oil, shortening, or refined sugar, like many other recipes I found.

I needed the whole cup of milk, and I found it only made 8 rolls, which surprised me. I used a 9″ round cake pan and it didn’t fill the whole pan, but I was able to line the pan with them and when they baked they spread out and touched each other. Before I put the rolls in the pan, I greased it with a little bit of butter and sprinkled some brown sugar and cinnamon in.

I only needed to bake them for 16 minutes, and they were yummy drizzled with some leftover royal icing I had from making Christmas Cut-Out Cookies!

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This month instead of sharing book reviews, members of the Kitchen Reader group are all sharing a holiday recipe that is special to them.

I decided to share my mom’s recipe for Christmas cut-out cookies, although to be fair, they can be and have been made many times at other times of the year. Although they are probably the most time-intensive recipe I make at the holidays (because of the decorating time), I always make at least one batch because they remind me of making and decorating them with my mom, and they make me (and the loved ones who ooh and aah over them) feel young.

I thought about tinkering with the recipe to make it fit my blog a little bit better, perhaps swapping in a natural sweetener for sugar, but ultimately decided to stick with the original. I did use wholesome ingredients (organic butter, sugar, and flour, cage-free eggs) and decided they were a treat worth enjoying (in moderation!) Here’s the recipe!

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1.5 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Cream butter, confectioner’s sugar, egg, and vanilla.
2. Blend in dry ingredients.
3. Cover and chill the dough for a few hours or overnight.
4. Roll out on a floured surface and cut with favorite cookie cutters.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 4-5 minutes per batch.

For decorating, you could make buttercream frosting or Royal icing. I made Royal icing (using meringue powder) for the first time this year because it hardens nicely and I wanted to mail some cookies to relatives we won’t be able to see this year.

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Today is my birthday, and I decided to bake myself a cake, but not just any cake…a gluten-free chocolate cake that a friend found online and emailed to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I am not allergic to gluten but am sensitive to wheat, so I try to avoid it when I can. Usually baked goods are a place where I make an exception, but this cake was too intriguing not to try! Unlike many other gluten-free cake recipes I have checked out, it doesn’t contain any difficult-to-find ingredients. Instead of flour, it uses quinoa! I love quinoa, and the idea that I can use it in a chocolate cake was just fantastic.

I made the cake this morning and was pleased with the ease of the recipe. I did have to cook the quinoa first and let it cool, and then the rest of the batter creation took place in my blender and a bowl, by hand…I didn’t even have to use my mixer! I did have a little trouble getting all of the batter out of the VitaMix blender, and unfortunately I didn’t have 8″ pans, only 9″, so my cake is a little bit larger and flatter than the photo with the recipe, but taste-wise it was a complete success!

The cake had just come out of the oven when I was leaving for a birthday lunch with a friend, so my darling husband took it out, let it cool, and had it frosted and ready on the cake stand when we returned. As my husband observed, it’s a slightly more dense cake than many made with flour, but it’s still delicious. We’ll have a few more friends over later for dinnertime slices so I will get some more opinions then, but so far it’s a unanimous success.

Here’s a link to the recipe, which comes from a book that was already on my wish list but has just been bumped to the top: Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming.

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I adapted this recipe after seeing it on How To: Simplify, where it was adapted from Cooking Light magazine’s recipe. It’s goeey and cheesy and delicious!

I had a little bit of trouble finding the ingredients in the right quantities. I guess cans of enchilada sauce come bigger at my store than others, for instance. Still, I think being flexible when cooking is important and when it comes to how much sauce or cheese or chiles to include in a casserole, going with what you have on hand what fits your preferences is essential!So if you don’t have the exact variety or amount that I used, or you prefer to use a different type of cheese, go for it, and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1  cup broth—I used bean broth I saved after cooking dried beans earlier in the week for Three-Bean Bake
• 1  (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles
• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2  tsp. olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 can black beans (approx. 1.5 cups)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) Monterey Jack cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese
• 1 can red enchilada sauce (10, 12, 14 ounces—whatever you find! I used about 12 oz. from a 14-ounce can)
• 12  (6-inch) corn tortillas—I bought a package of 12 sprouted corn tortillas but only used 10!
• 1 cup (4 ounces) sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1  ounce tortilla chips, crushed (about 6 chips)—mine were blue…thus the dark spots in the photos!

Directions:

1. Combine broth and chiles in a large skillet and bring to a boil.
2. Add chicken breasts. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is done, turning chicken once.
3. Remove chicken from cooking liquid, reserving cooking liquid; cool chicken. Shred meat and set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 350°.
5. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté 3 minutes or until soft.
6. Add reserved cooking liquid, beans, evaporated milk, Monterey Jack, cream cheese, and enchilada sauce and stir well. S
7. Stir in shredded chicken and cook 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
8. Place 3-4 tortillas in the bottom of a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray.
9. Spoon approx 1/3 chicken mixture over tortillas. Repeat layers twice, ending with chicken mixture.
10. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and chips.
11. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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This is essentially the same recipe as Winter Squash Stew, but I have updated it a little bit to reflect our taste preferences and my first experience using a sugar pie pumpkin.

I expected the small pumpkin to be easy to carve into pieces, but it wasn’t at all–it was difficult to even split it in half! I decided to steam the pumpkin in large pieces in a steamer basket over boiling water to soften it before trying to peel it, and that did the trick. After about 10 minutes of steaming, I was able to scoop the flesh from the outer peel and add it into the pot with the other ingredients.

I thought about swapping in cinnamon and nutmeg instead of cumin, but after a week of experimenting with pumpkin muffin recipes (the final version will be in my October email newsletter–subscribe now!) I decided that a slightly different pumpkin flavor would be welcome. And it was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1 sugar pie pumpkin, seeded, peeled, and cut into chunks
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• approx. 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tsp. cumin

Directions:

1. Sauté finely minced onion and minced garlic in a tsp. of olive oil.
2. Place pumpkin in a pot and fill with stock until just covered, then add cumin, garlic, and onion.
3. Boil until tender (if pumpkin is pre-softened, just simmer all together for 5 minutes or so).
4. Move chunks of pumpkin, onion, and garlic to blender, along with some, but not all, of the liquid (save the rest).
5. Blend in blender until smooth, adding more of the cooking liquid to reach desired consistency.
6. If you didn’t use it all, discard remaining cooking liquid.
7. Return blended mixture to the pot to heat through.
8. Serve with cilantro, parsley, pumpkin seeds, and/or grated parmesan cheese on top.

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There is a surprising lack of definitive information available about the origin of salad dressing, and why people started putting various concoctions made with oils, vinegars, herbs, and spices on their leafy greens. I’ve heard that it originally had nothing to do with taste—it was because people believed that the ingredients in the dressings themselves had medicinal properties. I’ve also heard that people knew that the vitamins in salad greens were fat-soluble and that our bodies would be more likely to absorb them when mixed with some oil. I’ve also heard it was because the greens needed some “dressing up” to taste good, and the greens are so healthy that dressing them up was the way to get people to eat what was good for them.

I’m pretty sure all of the above were/are true to some degree, but regardless, dressing up a salad is obviously common practice today, and in fact the options for what to dress it up with have become nearly limitless. Just head for the salad dressing aisle at the grocery store, and you can find spicy, creamy, oily, smooth, chunky, and tangy dressings, in full-fat, low-fat, and non-fat versions.

But did you know that just by looking in your cupboards (and possibly the fridge) you can find the ingredients to quickly and easily make delicious, good-for-you dressings for your salads? It’s true! And making your dressings yourself means less cost and less potential for added ingredients you may not want, such as the added sugars, sodium, calcium disodium EDTA, phosphoric acid, and water (who wants to pay for watering down their salad?) that are commonly found in commercial salad dressings.

Now, you won’t be able to make a completely non-fat salad dressing following the recipes below—for that, feel free to try just balsamic vinegar and/or lemon juice. But if you go that route, consider adding some avocado or lean meat to your dinner plate so that your body will get some fat along with all of those fat-soluable vitamins!

For a basic salad dressing, start with 3 parts oil (I usually choose olive oil), 1 part lemon juice or vinegar (balsamic, red wine, white wine, etc.) and sea salt and pepper to taste. Voila! Even when I am most rushed getting dinner to the table, I can put together some variation on this to dress up our salads. Often I add minced garlic and basil or dill as well, but now I am getting ahead of myself.

The way I learned to start experimenting with making my own salad dressing was by taking the dressing ingredients from other salads I like, such as Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad or Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Mint and using those dressings on green salads. Soon I realized how easy it is, and how I can play around with the amounts and choices of oils, vinegars, and spices, and I haven’t even considered buying a bottled dressing since!

Here are two of my favorite staple salad dressing recipes. Try them, or get inspired by one of them and mix and match ingredients and create your own!

Italian Dressing

This one came from my newest treasure, The Spice Kitchen, a cookbook by Sarah and Katie at tsp spices. I recently ordered and received a super fun delivery of all sorts of fun organic spices and this cookbook from them. I’ll be sharing more recipes and love for their products in future posts, I am sure! See below the recipe for modifications I’ve made.

Yield: 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. minced shallots
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. mustard
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions: Whisk together the vinegar, garlic, shallots, sugar, mustard, basil, oregano, and salt in a small bowl. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly, until blended.

I like to double this recipe and keep it in a glass bottle in the fridge. Since oregano is forbidden in my house (my husband can’t stand it!) I just use extra basil in place of the oregano, and I rarely remember to grab shallots at the store so I just use extra garlic instead. And as always, I use sea salt instead of regular salt!

Egg-Free Caesar Dressing

I don’t know how to source this recipe because it’s based on tweaking a ton of them that I found out there on the internet. Give it a try, and tweak away if you like!

Yield: approx. 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 large (or 2 small) clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• sea salt
• black pepper

Directions: Whisk thoroughly, or combine all ingredients together in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

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Every so often my extremely healthy-eating husband will request something decidedly unhealthy, like one of the sugary cereals he loves: Fruity Pebbles or Cookie Crisp. I repeatedly say no to those (and since I do the grocery shopping, they just never make it into the house) but when he requests baked goods, I have trouble saying no. Monkey Bread I tend to put off at least for a while, but when he asks for something easier like chocolate chip cookies or, like tonight, lemon bars, I often acquiesce pretty quickly.

Tonight after dinner he mentioned lemon bars for, oh, the third time in as many days, so we got out the family cookbook that his mom put together and lo and behold, I had all of the ingredients on hand. So I set out to make him some lemon bars, which was fun because he stayed in the kitchen to help me! He actually did quite a few of the steps himself, all the while declaring that these were going to be the very best lemon bars EVER made, because he was helping. He even documented the process with his camera.

First you mix butter (the original said shortening but we used butter), flour, and powdered sugar and press them into a 9 x 13 pan.

That goes into the oven at 350 until golden brown…this took about 25 minutes in our oven.

The next step is to combine eggs, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, lemon juice, and more flour—this is the top layer. My husband did this part, and commented that it was really hard to mix…and more cloudy than he expected…he remembered the top layer being kind of transparent, and maybe even brighter yellow…but oh, well.

The mixture gets poured over the baked crust, and then the whole pan goes back in the oven for another 25 minutes.

When it comes out, it gets a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Let cool, then cut and enjoy!

When the bars were done and ready to sample, we were both surprised that the layers had similar consistencies and the entire bar was a little more “cake-y” than we expected. We figured we were both just remembering a different lemon bar recipe.

Then, as I sat down to write this post and transcribe the recipe, I noticed that flour is listed in the ingredient list twice…because you use it in the first step (2 cups) and in the 2nd step (4 Tbsp.) Unfortunately, when my husband read “Combine eggs, sugar…and flour,” he then looked up at the ingredient list, and added 2 cups of flour. Oops. That explains the blister he got whisking all of those ingredients together and trying to get them smooth!

OK, so it wasn’t a perfectly executed recipe but we had fun, the bars are still tasty, and we got a good laugh once we discovered what went wrong. But according to him, the baking is going to be left to me from now on…or at least the recipe-reading! I hope I can convince him to try again, though, because the group effort made it more fun.

What funny mistakes have you made by misreading a recipe?

Lemon Bars
(A family favorite)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups flour for bottom layer + 4 Tbsp flour for top layer
• 1 cup powdered sugar, divided (1/2 cup for bottom, 1/2 cup for sprinkling on top)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 6 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine butter, 2 cups flour, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Press into prepared 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
2. Combine beaten eggs, sugar, baking powder, lemon juice, lemon zest, and 2 Tbsp flour.
3. Pour onto hot crust and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, sprinkle 1/2 cup powdered sugar on top.
5. Let cool, cut, and enjoy!

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