In defense of lentils

Let me tell you about my friend Elaine.

My parents immigrated to Cananda from Scotland in the 1960s, and as is the situation with many immigrants, they left their families back home and formed new ‘families’ with friends in their adopted country.

Elaine’s parents were part of my parents ‘adopted’ family – and I’ve known her as long as I can remember. Elaine will always be the person who cut my bangs MUCH TOO SHORT that time, and while I forgave her for that (sort of), I have recently been informed that Elaine is a legumist. You see, she discriminates, unabashedly, against lentils.

How she could hate the honourable lentil, I do not know. They are an excellent source of protein, dietary fibre, vitamin B, and iron. In fact, Health magazine chose lentils as one of the Worlds 5 healthiest foods!  Not only that, they are super cheap and easy to cook.

So, I am on a mission, to convert Miss E to a lentil fan.

I still claim that Lentil Bolognese is a great entry into cooking with lentils – it is super easy, and those worried about how the lentils will taste, can be assured that all you’ll taste is spaghetti sauce. However, if that isn’t enough to win her over, perhaps this is…

My husband makes this soup at least twice a month. It’s very simple, and is hands-down our toddler’s favourite soup. It freezes well.

Lentil Soup

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced carrot
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 cup dried red lentils, rinsed
• 1/4 tsp thyme.

In a medium pot heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion, carrots and celery until soft. Approx. 5 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until lentils are soft.

Remove from heat and puree the soup using a hand blender (or in batches in a stand-up blender). Soup can be quite thick, so add up to 1 cup of water to thin it out of desired.

So, what do you say Elaine….can you give this humble legume a chance?

Enjoy!

 El 🙂

Loving Lentils!

In addition to always looking to make a recipe a little healthier, I’m always looking for ways to stretch my food budget….lentils are a double whammy! Tasty, low-fat, high-protein and a great alternative to beef in this bolognese sauce.

This recipe is extraordinarily easy. If you’ve never cooked with red lentils before, give it a try with this recipe, you won’t be disappointed!

Lentil Bolognese

• 1 cup dried red lentils
• 2 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups of your favourite canned/jarred spaghetti sauce (or homemade, if that’s what you like). I use the inexpensive canned kind.
• Whatever veggies you like to add to spaghetti sauce: I like onions & mushrooms.
• Olive oil

Bring lentils, water, and bay leaf to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until lentils are soft. Drain and remove bay leaf.

Saute your veggies in a little olive oil. Once softened, add sauce and lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Serve over your favourite long noodle.

Easy, inexpensive, healthy, and tasty! This sauce freezes really well, and this recipe makes enough for at least 6 servings.

Enjoy!

El 🙂

Souper easy Chicken Noodle Soup

We make a lot of soup around here. Soup and a Sandwich is bound to be dinner at least once a week – and while I could use help in the sandwich department, I’m never short of a good soup recipe!

My whole family has been hit with a cold this week, so it was time for good old Chicken Noodle Soup. This version is easy and has a lot less sodium than your typical canned variety.

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 950ml cartons of reduced sodium chicken broth
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced thinly
• half a yellow onion, diced
• heaping tsp of minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp savory
• black pepper to taste
• 1 cup  egg noodles (I like a brand called Bechtle German Egg Noodles – they have a thin, short noodle called “Soup Style”, the is perfect…but any thin egg noodle works.)

When I made this yesterday, I also tossed in the white of a leek, halved and thinly sliced, because I had it in the fridge.

Combine all ingredients, except the noodles, in the slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours.

Half an hour before you want to serve, pull the chicken breasts out and chop them up into bite size pieces. Put them back into the slow cooker and add in the egg noodles.

30 minutes later, you have tasty chicken noodle soup!

I always add salt & pepper at the table, so you can adjust for your own taste.

Enjoy!

El 🙂

Peanut butter cookies

My mom is a great cook, but she’s not a baker – so when I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of stuff on hand to spontaneously bake something. But, the one thing we always seemed to have the ingredients to make was peanut butter cookies. Look up most peanut butter cookie recipe, and you’ll find essentially the same simple ingredients; flour, sugar, peanut butter – toss in a little baking powder & baking soda and you’re set.

This recipe is just as easy, but some simple changes make it a much healthier cookie – and in my opinion, much, much tastier than the ones I used to make. They are crispier and thinner than your typical peanut butter cookie.

Peanut Butter Flax Cookies

• 1-1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Ground Flax seed
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• Pinch Salt
• 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Butter, softened
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

In a small bowl combine flour, flax seed, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl cream together the sugar, brown sugar and butter. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Beat in the peanut butter.

Fold in the flour mixture.

Once folded left it sit in the fridge for approx 10 mins to let it firm up a bit. [note: let it sit a little longer if you can – as the dough can be a bit sticky if not left long enough]

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Shape the dough into small balls on a greased baking sheet. Flatten the dough with a fork. Make sure to leave some space between the cookies as they get really flat when baking. (it makes approx 30+ cookies depending on the size you making them so you’ll have to do more then one batch.)

Put extra dough back in the fridge for the until ready for the next batch.

Bake for 8-10 minutes( until lightly brown).

Let cool on sheet for approx 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Extra cookies freeze and reheat well.

 

Note of caution – flax seed is high in fibre! Henry loves these cookies, and the first time we made them, he had *several* in one day….you can use your imagination as to the results.

Enjoy!

El 🙂

 

the boys asked for pink cookies

Actually, the boys asked to go to the park, as they had every day for the rest of the week. But it was raining and I’d gotten home late and making cookies seemed like a good distraction. Then they had a long argument about whether we should make pink or brown cookies, and when I suggested we could do both, they quickly settled on pink. Ah, toddlers.

So: I could have done the pink-frosting thing, but that would have taken longer as well as being butter + suger on butter + sugar. The boys couldn’t help with frosting, either, but with snickerdoodles they could help with the cinnamon-sugar rolling. So I added a few drops of red food coloring to the butter/egg mixture and pink was achieved. You don’t have to do that, unless you want your uncooked dough to look like meatballs, as ours did.

I started with the (guess) Cooks Illustrated Light Recipes sugar cookie recipe. Aside from the red dye, the only change I made was the roll in cinnamon sugar–oh, and accidentally adding too much sugar to begin with, but you don’t have to do that either.

Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

– 3/4 C unbleached flour
– 1/2 C cake flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 5 Tbsp butter, softened
– 1 C sugar
– 1 egg
– 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
– 1/3 C sugar
– 2 tsp ground cinnamon

1) Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2) Stir together flours with baking powder.
3) In a separate bowl, cream butter and 1 C sugar until very light and fluffy, 2 minutes with an electric mixer or 5 minutes by hand (or 10 minutes with toddlers). Add egg and beat well. Stir in vanilla.
4) Mix in flour until just combined.
5) Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes to firm up a bit. Skip this step if you have toddler “help.”
6) Mix cinnamon with 1/3 C sugar in a shallow bowl.
7) Scoop out dough in ~1-inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
8 ) Bake one sheet at a time for 9 minutes.

Makes 30 cookies (only 90 calories each!) plus small dough snacks.

~Liss

Yankee Wife’s Gumbo

My husband was born and raised in the South. I, to put it mildly, was not. He doesn’t miss much about Texas and Louisiana-as he puts it, he’s from the South–but after family and friends, food almost certainly tops the list. I know better than to try to replicate real barbecue, and I can’t bring myself to fry a chicken. But with a little research and experimentation, I’ve managed to satisfy his gumbo cravings. It’s not entirely authentic, no, but it’s quicker and healthier. And when my mother-in-law visited last weekend, she called it delicious. That’s good enough for me.

The trickiest thing about making gumbo and making it healthier is the roux. This oil-and-flour mixture must be cooked at low heat for a half-hour or more, to “peanut butter color” and just to the edge of burning. One speck of black, and you have to start over. Traditional roux is made of equal parts oil and flour, half a cup of each in many recipes. Here’s a secret, though: the flavor and thickening power of the roux both come from the browned flour. The oil enhaces the flavor, of course, and helps everything blend together more easily. But you don’t need much to make a delicious gumbo.

A few other changes: I tracked down lighter chicken andouille sausage instead of traditional pork. Real gumbo uses bone-in chicken, especially the dark meat. I went with chunks of skinless, boneless chicken breast to save both time and fat. You could also use whatever leftover cooked poultry you have on hand.

Cheater’s Gumbo

• Cooking spray
• 1/3 C flour
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 stalks celery, minced
• 1 small bell pepper, minced (I skip this due to Texas Husband’s preference)
• 6 C low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14-oz) can petite-diced tomatoes
• 2 C sliced okra (I use frozen)
• 8 oz smallish raw shrimp/prawns, shell-on (no big deal if they’re pre-shelled, but the shells add flavor and authenticity)
• 10 oz boneless/skinless chicken breast, raw or leftover
• 1 link chicken andouille sausage (available at Whole Foods and occasionally my neighborhood Safeway) or 1 hot link
• 2 tsp gumbo file’ (available in the spice aisle at most grocery stores)
• Cooked rice

1. In a large pot at medium heat, cook onions, celery and peppers in a little cooking spray. If using raw chicken, brown it a bit but don’t worry if it doesn’t get cooked all the way through.  Remove from the pot and set aside
2. Heat oil in the same pot.  Add flour and blend it in as well as you can, breaking up any lumps.  Stir frequently so the flour browns evenly.  Be careful–you can go from “golden” to “burnt” very quickly and your goal is a medium “peanut butter” brown.
3. Add the chicken broth 1/4 C or less at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition, to prevent lumps.  The first round will have the consistency of paste; be patient and you’ll be rewarded with a nice smooth soup.  Once it’s thinned out to the consistency of honey, you can add the rest of the broth all at once.
4. Put the onions, celery and peppers back in the pot along with the tomatoes, okra and chicken.  Add the andouille sausage if it’s not already cooked.  Bring to a boil.
5. When the sausage is cooked through, slice it from end to end and then into small half-moons. Dump the pieces back in the pot along with any juices.
6. Add the shrimp and continue to simmer until the shrimp are curled and cooked through and the vegetables are very soft.  Turn off the heat and stir in the gumbo file’.
7. Serve hot over rice.

~Liss

P.S. Stay tuned: El’s back from vacation, Liss is done with five-count’em-five family visits plus the plague, fall is coming and we’re back to cooking.  And posting.  We promise.

Not your Mama’s Mac n’ Cheese (unless you’re my friend N)

Confession #1. This is not my recipe. I didn’t even really ‘reboot’ it – just slightly tweaked it. It’s my friend N’s mother’s recipe. But, when compared to what I grew up eating, it’s a complete reboot.

Confession #2. This is not health food. It contains cheese. And bacon. BACON. But, now we go to my philosophy around this site and the recipes we post. This isn’t about diet food. It’s not about food to eat to lose weight, it’s about making good food just a little (or a lot, as the case may be) healthier for you. It’s about fueling your body with food that makes you, and your body, happy.

Confession #3. I didn’t eat macaroni and cheese growing up. I did, however, eat a hell of a lot of Kraft Dinner. If you’re not Canadian, you might be scratching your head. You see, in Canada, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (you know, in the blue box), is called Kraft Dinner. I have no idea why. But it’s become a bit of a source of national pride for my generation. It’s not mac n’ cheese, people. It’s Kraft Dinner! However, as an adult I have had to retire the good ol’ blue box. It may be tasty, but it’s full of yellow dye (yellow #5, apparently not so good for us. It’s banned in Europe).

But what to do? Homemade mac n’ cheese always seems so…..pale. And sometimes it has breadcrumbs on/in it. What’s with that?

Then I meet N, and she shares with me her mother’s recipe for Mac n’ Cheese. I am won over. But know this now – it’s not traditional. It’s not going to replicate Kraft Dinner – but it will be the tastiest cheesy pasta dish you’ve had in a long time. Did I mention the BACON?

N’s Mom’s Mac n’ Cheese (slightly rebooted from the original)

You’ll need:

• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup flour (whole wheat works great)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 cup milk (skim, 2%, whole – whatever you’re happy with)
• 1 can condensed tomato soup (I told you, not traditional!)
• 3/4 to 1 cup cheese (I like a good strong old cheddar – you can use less because the flavour is strong)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 6 slices of bacon (I opt for the low-salt bacon)
• About 450g dry pasta (shells or spirals work best)
• A few dashes of Worchestershire sauce

Fry up the bacon, and remove to paper towel to drain, then chop into bite size peices

Saute onion and green pepper in bacon fat (drain some off, if you like). Set aside with bacon.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce by melting butter, then adding flour, salt & pepper, dry mustard and paprika – stirring to make a paste.

Cook over low-medium heat, adding milk slowly, stirring to avoid lumps.

Add tomato soup and cheese. Once melted, add the sauted bacon, green pepper and onion.

By this time, pasta should be done. Drain, add a few shakes of Worchestershire sauce and combine with sauce in a large baking dish. I usually add the drained pasta to the baking dish, then pour the sauce on top and stir it all together in the dish. Easier than trying to fit it all in the pan you made the sauce in!

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes at least 6 servings.

I crave this fortnightly. Doesn’t it look yummy? (oh, and in case it’s not obvious, I added some red pepper the last time I made it!)

Enjoy!

El 🙂

Building a better pizza

Only one slice left! Forgive the camera phone image; I got too impatient to wait for the real thing.

I make pizza pretty much every week. I could use my children as an excuse, but it started way before they were born. It’s portable, versatile, delicious–what’s not to love? All that fat, perhaps. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and you don’t have to resort to weird fat-free cheeses to build a better pizza. I’ll offer some ideas, but I’m sure you have other, better ones–please comment with your own inspirations. 🙂

1) Start with a fat-free, part-whole-wheat crust. All-whole-wheat gets cardboardy, but a pizza made with half whole wheat flour can still be decadent. Here’s my recipe, which makes enough for two large, thin-crust pizzas:
– 1.25 cups cold water
– 1 tsp. yeast
– 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
– 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
– 2 tsp. salt
I use a stand mixer to combine, adding extra flour 1 Tbsp at a time if it’s sticky. It should be tacky and stick to the bowl; you’ll think it will be hard to handle. Knead in the mixer 3-4 minutes or by hand for 10. Dump onto an oiled plate, cover, refrigerate for 5 hours and then bring to room temp before using. To use, divide in half, flour generously and roll/stretch to desired shape and size–mine are ~10 by 14-inch rectangles these days. Cook ~9 minutes in a 475-degree oven (use lower temps and longer time for thicker crust).

2) Put extra veggies in the sauce. Spinach wilts down nice and flat.

3) Use less cheese. Sprinkle it sparsely; it’ll spread as it melts. Leave spaces in the cheese to put the toppings directly on the sauce. Boost cheesy flavor by mixing a stronger-tasting cheese such as sharp cheddar or a little crumbled feta in with the mozzarella. I use only 4-5 oz of cheese on each large pizza, and nobody complains.

4) Use awesome toppings–I like zucchini, thinly-sliced shallots, mushrooms and peppers; but any veggies or low-fat meats are good. The more toppings you have, the less you’ll notice that you’re using less cheese. Just keep them in a single layer so it doesn’t get soggy.

Of course, let’s be honest, the boys prefer just meat–usually Canadian bacon. (El, can I call it that here since this blog is half-Canadian?)

Any other ideas?

~Liss

Not too buttery Butter Chicken

In my hometown, we have a very large east Indian population, which means I am never at a loss for an Indian restaurant to choose from. I love the flavours of Indian food – so warm, spicy, and rich.

Butter Chicken is probably one of the most appealing dishes to western palates, and it’s not too spicy so it’s kid-friendly. Unfortunately, it’s full of butter (I know, a shock) and heavy cream. This recipe is a much lighter version.

Adapted from Simply Great Food (a cookbook from Dieticians of Canada – I highly recommend it!). Even though their recipe was way healthier than traditional butter chicken, I reduced the amount of salt and cream further.

You’ll need:

• 2 tbsp tandoori paste
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs (or a mix of both),  cut into chunks (2-3 cm or 1 inch)

Add paste, lemon juice, yogurt & chicken pieces into a large ziploc bag, close and mix around. Let marinate for at least 1 hour (but it’s better if you can leave it over night)

Pour into a baking dish and cook for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

While chicken is baking, prepare sauce.

In a bowl, combine the following:

• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, finely grated
• 1/4 tsp dried red chili peppers
• 4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp chili powder

In a large saucepan, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium heat. Stir in sauce and bring to a simmer. Add cooked chicken and cook for about 10 minutes to combine flavours. Add 3/4 cup half-and-half cream and cook for a couple minutes – but do not boil.

Serve over rice with a nice bright green veggie.

I didn’t marinate the chicken long enough, so it didn’t pick up enough tandoori flavour or colour….but it was still tasty. Next time, I’ll be marinating it a lot longer.

If you’ve never tried Indian food before, this is a great first-step. You’ll become a convert before long!

Enjoy.

– El 🙂

No green goo here!

I hate to admit this – but it wasn’t until I was a grown woman that I ate coleslaw that wasn’t bought pre-made. I don’t think it ever actually occurred to me that one could (or should) even make coleslaw. Well, I’m here to tell you that once you make it yourself, you will never go back to that store bought stuff again.

If you were anything like me, when you thought of coleslaw, you thought of the stuff you got in a little styrofoam cup with your  Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think it might have changed over the years – but when I was a kid, that ‘stuff’ was neon green and looked like it had already been chewed. So when I first came across a recipe for coleslaw in Jamie Oliver’s COOK (a great cookbook, which I highly recommend), it was a bit of a revelation.

This may not be exactly Jamie’s recipe, but I’m sure it’s close (it’s such an easy thing to make, I haven’t looked back at the recipe since the first time).

You’ll need:

• 1/3 of a large green cabbage, sliced thinly
• 1 carrot, shredded (Jamie said not to shred, lest it turn mushy, but I don’t have the talent to julienne a carrot)
• 1/2 tart apple, sliced into matchsticks
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp mayo (if that)
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine all in a bowl. Done.

I believe Jamie’s recipe called for fresh parsley, which I never have on hand, and I don’t miss it.

The amounts can all be fudged, but err on the low side of the mayo and mustard – trust me when I say you need less then you think!

I could eat bowls and bowls of this stuff, and it’s always a hit at bbqs!

– El 🙂