Meatless Monday-thanks Cathy

So, I tried to post this and it disappeared and now I am annoyed. For dinner tonight I made a deliciouse, nutritious, comforting, everyting you want in a macaroni and cheese dish, without the guilt. So how did that happen?? With butternut squash of course. I got the idea to make this from my dietitian friend, Cathy. Dietitians are always talking about food. So, off I went, home to look up the recipe on the Cooking Light site. Behold, there it was and I had most of the ingredients. Since I would improvise anyway, that was not holding me back, I had the squash, I had cheese ( cheddar not guyere) and I was ready to go.
Most recipes want the cook to peel and cube a hard squash. This is a pain in the neck in my world, so I say no to that. I have 2 methods of dealing with a squash #1 lazy method is to use frozen. #2 with a fresh squash I like to microwave it for about 10 minutes, being sure to put several vents in it with a knife. You do not want a squash to explode in your microwave - it is not nice at all. This method softens the squash inside, so that it can be seeded and scooped out - easy peasy.
I also added a kick to the original recipe by using some cayenne pepper.

Creamy Macoroni and Cheese with Butternut squash

1 medium sized butternut squash softened or 1 pound of frozen, thawed squash
1.25 cups reduced sodium chichen broth
1.5 cups fat-free milk
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste.
2 TBSP greek yogurt, fat free (lite sour cream would work too)
1.25 cups- 5 ounces cheddar cheese
1 ounce rted parmigean cheese, divided
1 pound cooked pasta - rice pasta for gluten free

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 13x9 baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine squash, broth, milkm garlic and black pepper and cayenne in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until squash is totally cooked. Remove from heat and blend using an emmersion blender.
3. Add cheddar cheese, 1/2 of parmesean and the yogurt, mix well.
4. Combine the sauce with the pasta and spread into prepared pan. Top with remaining parmesean cheese.
In my world wheat pasta and rice pasta is made, the sauce is divided among the two pastas.
5. Bake for 25 minutes until bubbly and browning on top.
Serve with another veggie, like broccoli.

Yum -- Thanks Cathy

Easy Peanutbutter Noodles

I have quite a pile of recipes that I have played with over the past few months. I could say that I have been so busy, no time. But I must confess, I have found lots of time for wasting time. My muse has left me for a time. Let's see if she has come back for a bit.

It's been a time of transitions with one daughter moving out and the second soon to be. It's been a time of change in body, mind and soul. In times like these cooking and meals often come as an afterthought. I was doing really well for about two weeks. My daughter and I did menus for the week, and agreed that who ever came home first would get the meal started. This, again, was great for 2 weeks. Then I was winging it again. Last week I made dinner all of 2 times. I hear myself telling my patients that they need to plan, plan, plan. The little voice in my head is saying" hypocrite".

So I have a few easy meals, that I have been making often lately. One is my meat sauce with tons of veggies, another is the chicken and pineapple in the crockpot (see previous blog). Third is Peanut Butter Noodles. I found a good base peanut sauce and went from there, this is what I ended up with. Easy and quick. Gluten free and vegetarian. I have made this with chicken as well.

Peanut Butter Noodles

1 cup low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

3 tbsp minced ginger

6 Tbsp soy sauce

7 Tbsp chunky peanut butter

3 Tbsp honey

4 tsp hot chili paste

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 package firm tofu - cubed

1 red pepper chopped

2 Tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 cup frozen green peas, cooked

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a bowl.

2. Heat oil in a skillet. Add red peppers and saute until slightly softened. Add tofu (Add cubed chicken if using) Saute for 3-5 minutes. Add sauce and cook until heated through.

3. Add green onions and peas.

Serve over gluten free rice noodles, udon noodles, spagetti or egg noodles.

I like Kale, but who else will eat it.

It's been 9 months since my last post. No, I did not have a baby. It's been a year full of ups and downs and changes. I am hoping now that I can spend some time polishing up my writting and getting some good information out there for any reader.

My plan is to focus my posts on eating well in this crazy world. Useful, down to earth good nutrition and eating. During the craziness of my last year meal planning has been sporatic. Many meals were spur of the moment with what was on hand. This could be a simple healthy meal or chips and salsa. In focusing on this blog, I can also focus on my changing family. We now have the gluten free hubby, the college grad and the 18 year old that comes and goes and the busy woman who is trying to age with grace.

Last weekend my daughter and I actually sat down and made a plan. Many evening she just makes a pot of pasta and throws on sauce and cheese. I can easily add a salad, but gluten free man is out of luck unless I make something else.
The plan was easy. We picked out a few standard recipes, made sure we had all the ingredients on hand, put the recipes and meal ideas on the kitchen desk and who ever gets home first can start cooking - first come gets to pick. The list included: Easy Mousaka - for that I cooked the eggplant the day before, Orzo with Kale and grilled chicken, Kale and Bean soup (we had a big bunch of kale from our CSA), Spagetti squash, Black bean dip. A few dishes we made together. the Orzo with Kale I actually made this morning as I am going in to work late and getting home late.

The come and go girl feasts on the left overs or makes a can of chicken noodle soup (healthy choice)

This is week number one of the expiriment. Friday we will sit down and plan for the next week.

This should be fun as consistency is not my first name.

Orzo with Kale

1 tsp ground tumeric

2 cups uncooked orzo pasta

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 bunch of kale (remove stems)-coarsley chopped

1 large lemon, juiced

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese ( use good cheese please, not the stuff in the can)

black pepper to taste.

1. Cook the orzo as on the package - add 1 tsp tumeric to make it a pretty yellow color.

tumeric is also full of lovely antioxidents.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. cook the garlic for a few seconds, add kale. cover the skillet and simmer on low for 10 minutes or until kale is tender. (pay attention - this can easily get burnt). Stir Kale into the orzo mixture with lemon juice and nutmeg. Add Parmesan cheese. Season with pepper as desired.

I am going to keep some orzo seperate for the non-kale eaters. I have some leftover rice for gluten free man or a small baked potato. I had a patient the other day who was having difficulty with eating meals together as his spouse and he had very different diet requirements. I had him think about deconstructing meals and planning for meal parts that they could enjoy together.

Starbucks - Trenta- Why

So Starbucks feels the need to offer a 31 ounce drink - yes just shy of a quart. I'm not sure who this is marketed to and why anyone would need a 31 ounce coffee, but hey.
So a 31 ounce Cafe Mocha with milk has - are you ready - 561 calories, 23 grams of fat and 68 grams of carbohydrate - mostly from sugar. As many calories as a big Mac. Have a 31 ounce Cafe Vanilla Frappachino and there goes 600 calories , about 1/3 of your calories for the day. Sounds like a belly ache to me. A Cafe Latte is a better choice if you are going with the skim milk - 174 calories and 25 grams of carbohydrate- the carbs are from the milk, unless you add some sugar. I do not want to think about how much caffeine is going on here. Add the jitters to the belly ache.

Healthy Cookies - Gluten free

Winter storm Benedict has hit us hard with over a foot of snow. I am quite lucky that I can stay in today. A snow day means a bit a baking has to be done.
One of my dietitian collegues made cookies over the Christmas baking season. I would have to say these were not your typical Christmas cookies. My comment was, "these would be great to take hiking". They were dense, not too sweet, high in protein and fiber. A healthy cookie.
The ingredients being, a banana, chunky peanut butter, honey, rolled oats, whole wheat flour and dried fruit.
Today I decided to try them, but modify they for gluten free. The results were very good. The second batch is cooking now. The bananas add fruit and pottassium. Oats, brown rice flour and flax add fiber. Peanut butter and dry milk powder add protein. The fat is from mono-unsaturated fats in the peanut butter. I added chocolate chips, because I can not help myself.

Banana-Oat Cookies

1 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown rice flour (whole wheat pastry flour for non-gluten free)
1 Tbsp ground flax seed
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup mixture of dried fruits (raisins, dried cranberries and /or cherries) and chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine bananas through vanilla. In a small bowl combine oats through baking soda.
Add the two mixtures together, until well combined. Stir in dried fruit and chocolate chips.
3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Flatten dough mounds slightly. (Definited do this ) Bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Kung Pao with Tofu

The picture is of the Kung Pao with chicken form the December 13th entry. Last night I tried it with tofu, making it vegetarian. I have to say it came out delicious. The sauce has a kick to it and has a deep flavor, and it seeps into the tofu.
Before using tofu in a stir fry, I like to press out some of the water. This makes the firm tofu, firmer for cooking and improves the texture. It's less likely to fall apart, as well. To do this: drain the tofu well, slice it in halve lenth wise, wrap it in a few layers of good paper towel and place it in a collander, under a large bowl. Press down with your hands and then place a heavy object on top.
This can be done several hours ahead or overnight and placed in the refrigerator. In my case, I was not thinking ahead and the tofu had about half an hour to drain. Not optimal, but it was ok.
By using tofu there is a 200 calorie savings if consuming 3 ounce portions of each. The tofu is lower in sodium and fat as well as being higher in calcium. The same amount of tofu does not bring as much protein, 26 grams for the chicken and 7 grams for the tofu. The rice and the veggies in the dish would bring the total protein up to about 15-18 grams. To put this into perspective a 150# person needs about 54-68 grams of protein for a whole day. So for a whole meal the protein content would be just fine.
The older girl has woken, up started talking and she keeps going and going.

Pancakes with Carmalized Apples and Pecans

Don't worry - after I took this picture I wiped down the counter. Smudge was so cute with her leg hanging down.
This morning, after doing 75 minutes of fast walking on the treadmill, while reading an exiting mystery novel, I make buckwheat pancakes with caramelized apples. I have posted the recipe for the pancakes in a previous blog, but have not done so yet for the apple part. The apples have come about, due to my daughter, who prefers her pancakes with applesauce, rather than maple syrup. I don't always have applesauce in the pantry, so I started doing caramelized apples. These are a breeze to do. I start them before I start the pancakes and keep them cooking on low until the pancakes are done.
As I've said before, buckwheat is not wheat. It is gluten free. I like that I can use it as the main flour and everyone like it.
the pancakes simply are: 1 cup buckwheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 Tbsp sugar. 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 4 tbsp melted trans fat free margarine. I add 2 tsp of ground flax seed for more fiber. The dry ingredients are mixed separately from the wet and then combined.
For the apples: slice one or two apples, leave the skin on. Melt 1 tbsp trans fat free margarine in a non stick skillet, toss in 1 tbsp on brown sugar. When this is melted add the apples and simmer over medium heat, add chopped pecans ( 1-2 tbsp). When apples are soft they are done. Serve over the pancakes. They would be good on ice cream as well, I would think.
Pancakes are a great meal for getting in a fruit serving or two. A slice banana and syrup or some blueberries on the top come first to my mind. I like to warm some frozen blueberries in the microwave. The apples too, of course. Fresh cut strawberries with a bit of whipped cream. The trick is to keep the fruit up and the sugar and extra fat down.

Smudge got whisked off the counter and then she snuggled up into the clementine box that she like to use as a bed.