Dish of the Day: Brussels n' Bacon

At our house we do love Brussels sprouts but not in the conventional way. We shred them or roast them until they carmelise. Tonight I decided to do something different. I added bacon. Here's how to try this at home

Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon:

- For two, chop about 12 medium-sized heads into strips (after removing the stem) and dice 1 piece of raw bacon.

- In a large frying pan, heat up 1 tsp of olive oil on medium low heat, and then place the sprouts and the bacon into the pan.

- Cover with a lid and wait for about 5 minutes before using a large spatula to turn everything in the pan over.

- Leave the cover on for the first 15 minutes of cooking, and turn every few minutes to prevent burning and evenly cook the contents of the pan. Leave the cover off after that so you can keep a close eye on the leaves so they don't burn.

- It will take about 25 minutes for the Brussels to fully cook, at which point they will be tender and you can pierce them easily with a fork. If you turn up the heat it will take less time but the leaves may brown too quickly, or burn.

- Remove from heat and add a sprinkling of salt and pepper to taste.

This is a great way to eat a very nutritious member of the cruciferous family. While most people think of Brussels sprouts as soggy vegetables with a strange texture, this recipe turns them into a savoury dish with a nutty, not mention, bacon-y, flavour.

Dish of the Day: Stuffed chicken and potatoes

Lazy dinner,
originally uploaded by me.

Today's post is about making the process of cooking dinner easier and more efficient. This photo at left shows how I saved time preparing dinner tonight. I crammed 3 different things on the baking sheet, some for tonight and some for tomorrow's lunch.

The chicken breasts were sliced in half and stuffed with herbed feta cheese, and I rubbed the breasts in oil and rolled them in a mixture of corn bread crumbs and herbs. I chopped the potatoes and drizzled some olive oil on them and then topped them with chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. The potato on the right will be peeled and mashed tomorrow and added to leftover baked herbed salmon to make salmon patties for our lunch.

The point is, I used only one tray and the food was ready all at the same time, but for the whole potato which I left in the oven after I turned it off. The baking tray won't even need to be washed thanks to the aluminum foil, a baking aid which I try not to use too often.

On the side, we served up leftover boiled broccoli florets for our greens. All in all, a pretty easy meal!

Peanut Butter Separation Anxiety - Solved!

Do you like peanut butter? Mmm...I sure do. But wait - I'm not talking about that peanutty spread pictured above. That's just hydrogenated oil and icing sugar mixed with some crushed peanuts. Yeccccch!

I'm talking about ground peanuts in a jar. It's yummy stuff and it's one of my favourite treats, drizzled onto a banana, spread on toast with honey, on a cracker at night time. The problem is, there is a lot of separation of liquids and solids in a jar of peanut butter while it's sitting on a store shelf waiting for you to take it home. I have spent many collective hours wiping oily splotches off my counters made by an attempt to stir the PB oil and peanuts back together so that they become a homogenous spread. This has always been a tricky job, until now. I have discovered the secret to mixing natural peanut butter back into a lovely, smooth consistency.

Many people decide they'd rather buy the Kraft-type peanut spread pictured above because it's just so much easier to open the lid and spread away! Now you'll no longer be tempted by these horrible spreads because here is the solution you've been waiting for.

Buy a new jar of PB before your old one runs out. Place them side by side on the counter, lids removed. Using a fork, take out several forkfuls of peanut butter out of the new jar and place it into the "old" jar. Be careful not to let any of the oil drip onto the counter as you transfer the ground peanuts between jars. No focus on the new jar: use your fork to stir the oily, peanutty mass into a nicely blended spread. If it looks like you have too much in the new jar and the oil levels might seep out of the jar as you're stirring, simply take a bit more out of the new and place it in the old jar. Now put your newly-blended jar of PB and put it in the fridge. It will stay blended. And use up that old jar as quickly as can be. No mess, no fuss, no spills!

Exercise More, Stress Less

Faithful readers of BEYG know that we are not advocates of exercising for weight loss. But we can't think of a better way to stay fit and feel great. Regular exercise makes a body feel wonderful, when not done to excess, and folks who are physically active just know that it has positive effects on their mental health as well.

Now some clever scientists at Princeton University are showing how regular exercise can produce new cells in the brain that do not react to stress. The article, goes into depth on this study and others which are demonstrating how rats brains are changing in response to exercise, and are becoming less anxious and stressed. Several studies involve putting rats on a running program and then subjecting them to laboratory-induced stressful situations. The runner rats were cool as cucumbers.

"It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms," says one graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth. And it appears that the benefits appear somewhere between 3 and 6 weeks of getting on a regular training program. In the University of Colorado experiments, for instance, rats that ran for only three weeks did not show much reduction in stress-induced anxiety, but those that ran for at least six weeks did. "'Something happened between three and six weeks,' says Benjamin Greenwood, a research associate in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, who helped conduct the experiments."

It's no surprise that there aren't any quick wins in the exercise department. Good things come to those who wait, and persevere. I'd better shut my laptop and start doing my exercises!

Ode to the Humble Pea

Most folks with kids come to appreciate the humble pea as it's an easy food to cook (from frozen) and most kids enjoy this cute, round finger food. Personally I hated peas until I moved out on my own because I'd only encountered them in their canned incarnation. Like most moms in the 70s, my mom only served vegetables that came from a can, so I thought that all peas were mushy and a sickly, grey-green colour.

But at our house, we love our peas which are fresh from the pod in the summer and fresh from the freezer the rest of the year. Frozen foods have come a long way in recent years and they're generally picked at the peak of ripeness and flash-frozen which preserves most of their vitamins and minerals. And because peas are so often "right there" in the freezer, just 3 minutes and a pot of boiling water away from being ready-to-eat, they make their way into lots of dishes.

I encourage you to consider adding peas to your meals, for an extra dab of fibre, protein and vitamins. If you've already got a main with a starch, a protein and a veggie side, you could add in peas to bump up the veggie factor. Here are some ways to incorporate peas into your meals:

- add to green salads

- add to pasta salad (try rotini, chicken, grape tomatoes and peas)

- add to creamy pasta dishes (e.g. shells, baby shrimp and peas)

- adding green peas to boxed macaroni and cheees bumps up the veggie quotient but still serve another vegetable on the side

- add to stews (in the last 5 minutes)

- add to soups (even canned veggie, chicken noodle)

This last suggestion we do frequently, and I love the way peas add colour and thickness to pureed soups. Go to your favourite recipe site, such as recipezaar.com or epicurious.com, and type in 'peas' and you won't believe how many interesting recipes pop up. Eat your peas today!

Mmm...Snuggie

This is not a post about food. This is a post about my latest fashion favourite. Call it a gown for Recessionary Times. A "little black dress" for the eco-conscious, if you will.

This is me pictured above in my Snuggie. It's cozy and warm, makes me happy, and enables me to keep the thermostat turned down in our leaky old house. It may not be sexy, but then I don't plan on wearing it anywhere. I suppose you could go for the zebra or leopard pattern if you wanted to mince around the house looking mysterious. And it looks like anything goes at those Snuggie Parties. Call me a bore, but I'm not taking this baby into the great outdoors. I'm too afraid that harm might come its way: it might get stained, or torn. It's not even fire-retardant, poor thing.

I love my Snuggie! It's a baby blanket for adults. I just hope I'll be able to get a new one before it disintegrates from overuse, like my childhood blankie did. Poor Boodie....

Hallowe'en Party

11/02/2009,
originally uploaded by follepourchocolat.

We had a Hallowe'en party this past weekend and I made gingerbread pumpkin cookies, vegetable macaroni and cheese and a veggie tray with dip. I was planning on sharing the recipe, but the truth is, I didn't keep track of what I did.

Baked Mac n' Cheese with Veggie Sauce

- Cook some whole grain macaroni according to package directions; drain in colander

- At same time, place a mixture of vegetables in a pot and just cover them with water. Bring to a boil. I used leek, broccoli stems, carrots, and some cauliflower.

- Boil until tender, about 15 minutes; let cool

- Puree vegetable mixture in your blender, reserving a bit of the water and add milk. It should be quite thick, not watery. Add vegetable water if it's too thick (i.e. you cannot pour it)

- Place macaroni back into pot you used to boil it

- Pour the vegetable puree over the macaroni and mix it in with a spoon. Add 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, or less.

- Put pasta into a buttered glass baking pan; sprinkle with 1 cup (or less) of shredded cheese of your preference

- Cover with foil and place into an oven at 400F

- Bake for 20 minutes, then remove foil. Bake until cheese topping bubbles.

- Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

The kids loved this dish and so did the adults, with everyone being quite surprised when they learned it was chock full of veggies. Yummy, good cold weather food. Oh! and the pumpkin cookies were a hit too....

Read Labels and Don't Be Duped

I can't say enough how important it is to read labels now that every supermarket chain has its own branded "healthy food" line. Twice now I've come home with a product I grabbed off a shelf because I assumed it was good for us because the label told me it was.

The first was a President's Choice Blue Menu cracker; the other a Safeway Eating Right fig newton. When I finally read the labels, each of these foods had sugar listed as the first ingredient, before flour. That means that there was more sugar in the product than flour. I've followed a lot of cookie recipes over the years, but not even the sweetest one contained more sugar than flour. And why a fig newton cookie needs that much sugar is a mystery: figs are incredibly sweet on their own.

Companies are taking advantage of our trust and our lack of time in the grocery store aisles to sell us food that will do more harm than good. If you avoid processed food altogether, you won't get taken in, because most of these foods are processed and packaged to look like homemade, wholesome foods. But instead they are made with cheap ingredients (sugar, white flour) with a few healthy ingredients thrown in (e.g. flax seed) to make us think that the foods are good for us.

I encourage everyone to stick to your instincts about what's good for you and your family and take the time to read food labels. Just because a package looks like it contains a healthy item, does not mean it actually will. Apparently the FDA is planning to put pressure on companies who use coercive marketing and packaging to dress up unhealthy choices as healthy ones. They are looking into enforcing national labelling standards that will make it easier for consumers to pick the right foods. Don't expect to see them steering consumers away from sugar anytime soon though. Sugar still manages to avoid any medical blacklists, but that is due to change in the future.

Knowledge is definitely power, and what's more powerful than being in control of every thing you put into your body for fuel? Do yourself a favour and spend time finding out what's in the food you buy and eat.

Dish of the Day: Spinach Artichoke Dip

In Vancouver, there are several restuarants that offer spinach and artichoke heart dip as an appetiser. They serve it with those fried nacho chips and I think they refry them before bringing the dish to the table because they always seem extra greasy.

One of these restaurants published their recipe years ago and I haven't ordered this dish ever since. Turns out that mayonnaise and butter are the main ingredients, as well as a lot of shredded cheese. Yummy....but a bit hard on the digestion, and who needs that much fat at one sitting?

I've asked my old friend ricotta cheese to stand in as the main ingredient in this delicious, cold weather appetiser. Ricotta is a relatively low fat cheese and it's still very light, high in protein and incredibly versatile. You can buy ricotta in low fat versions if you like, but I'm not keen on overly processed dairy foods.

Recipe for Spinach Artichoke Dip

- Take one block of frozen chopped spinach and prepare according to package instructions (usually, you boil it in a small amount of salted water for a few minutes)

- Dump the cooked spinach into a sieve, or colander and squeeze out all the water, or your dish will be watery

- Take 2 small jars of artichoke hearts (1 used one large can 398 ml) and also put them into the colander to remove all the water, or oil in which they were sitting

- Chop up artichoke hearts into smaller pieces if desired, and remove any woody pieces

- Generously butter a small oven-ready dish (I used an 8 x 8 square pan); go all the way up sides and edges

- Dump into your baking dish the contents of a 500 ml tub of ricotta cheese

- Now add the spinach and artichokes and mix well with a fork

- Stir in 2 Tbsp mayonnaise or sour cream and 1 Tbsp olive oil to make for a creamier consistency

- Add in a few shakes of salt and pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper if you like a bit of spice

- Finally, add in 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (white cheddar, edam or gouda)

- Cover dish with aluminum foil and place in over at 375 for 20 minutes

- Remove the foil, crank oven up to 425 and cook for 5 more minutes

- Then turn oven to broil and watch your dish until cheese starts to brown

- Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. If you're eating with people who are related to you, or very good friends, eat right from the dish with tortilla chips, preferably a baked or multigrain kind. I served this with open-faced salmon sandwiches.

This dish can be reheated and really should serve 4 people at least 2 times. This is why you've buttered all edges of the pan to prevent ingredients from burning and sticking.

Dish of the Day: Turkey Roast

Happy Thanksgiving!! This year we were a wee group of 6 diners with small appetites, and we're not big fans of turkey. I find that the white meat especially can be quite dry. There was also no way we'd make a dent in a big turkey, so I decided to try and cook a turkey roast, which I believe is when you take a turkey breast and stuff it, twine it and roast it in the oven.

As you can see above, it looked beautiful en route to the oven, but more importantly it tasted delectable. I'm attributing that to the extra special step of brining the turkey beforehand. The recipe which I loosely followed is this one. I made my own stuffing with whatever we had around the house: raisins, apples, onion, whole wheat bread, butter and chicken stock. I bought fresh sage for the occasion.

What did we serve with this, you ask? Peas and French green beans. Sadly I don't have a photo of the turkey after it was cooked because we gobbled it all up. But from now on, I will always brine a turkey. It's fast and easy and makes the meat moist and delicious. Highly recommended!