C is for Cooking

I made these last night for dinner. They are yummy, fast and easy to make. 

Egg Wraps

Ingredients:

• 2 whole wheat tortilla wraps
• 2 eggs
• lettuce 
• drained and rinsed black beans
• salsa
• left over chicken cut up into bite size cubes
• shredded low fat cheddar cheese

Directions:

Scramble eggs. Then warm your tortilla wraps and layer lettuce, black beans, salsa, chicken and cheese. Add egg and wrap. If you like you can eat it like this, but I like to put in the microwave for 20 s to melt the cheese and make it all sticky and gooey. Makes enough for 2 tortilla wraps

Delicious! Me eat the egg wraps 

I love fettuccine Alfredo. My favorite restaurant use to be the Olive Garden until they closed up here in Canada and were no longer. One of my favorite meals there was fettuccine Alfredo.

I have created my own recipe which is just as good but way better for you. It is thick and creamy just like the restaurant versions but with far less fat. 

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 package or less of Fettuccine noodles
• minced of finely chopped garlic
• 1T butter
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1T flour
• 1/3 cup Parmigiana cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Set a pot of water on stove top to boil. Add Fetticcine noodles and cook for about 8-12 minutes. 

While noodles are cooking, add butter and  garlic to microwave safe dish. Cook 30s and then remove and add evaporated milk and flour and whisk till mixed. Put in microwave and heat 3 minutes, stirring at the half way mark. Heat another 3 minutes, watching that it doesn’t boil over and stir every minute. Take out of microwave, add salt and pepper, whisk in parmesan cheese and let sit out for 5 minutes to thicken. 

When noodles are done, strain and then add to dish. Serve sauce over noodles.

Enjoy!

The other day a friend of mine asked me for some dinner ideas. I was shocked, not because I don’t make dinner, but I hate cooking dinner.  I don’t know why I do, because I don’t hate cooking, I think it is because it takes so much time and I never know what to make.  When I do make dinners, I try to make the recipes easy and fast. When I told her some days I will just make pasta, she said “but it takes so long to make sauce”

It does take time to make sauce, but I am a time saver, and I make a huge pot of sauce on a weekend and freeze the rest so I can quickly pull out sauce when needed to make a quick meal.

Here is how to make a quick and light and healthy sauce. 

• 1 large can or 4 smaller cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 3 Tbsp of olive oil
• 2 onions
• 2 stalks of celery
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 large carrots
• salt, pepper, oregano, basil, parsley and thyme to season.

I add all the ingredients, coarsely chopped to a pot with olive oil. Saute till vegetables are softened about 3-4 minutes. Then add tomaotes and tomato paste. I then use my hand held mixer and puree the entire sauce, but it is up to you how you want your sauce. I have made it chunky as well.

Once the sauce is puréed, I add the seasoning and bring to a boil. Once boiled, I turn down the heat to medium low set the lid on half way and let cook for a few hours stirring occasionally until sauce is thickened.  Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into mason jars leaving an inch or two space near the top, let cool to room temperature and then freeze.  

Next time you need a quick meal you can grab the jar out in the morning and let thaw during the day. When you get home, you will just need 15 minutes to boil some pasta and dinner is ready to go. 

I love a fast meal.

This week I made a lasagne. Not just a regular lasagne

I made a whole wheat lasagne. 

I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out as whole wheat noodles are not my favorite. If I make whole wheat pasta, it has to have some regular noodles mixed in.

When I make lasagne, I always cook my noodles, I do not buy the oven ready noodles, as I don’t like how they cook.  So here is my lasagne recipe

Ingredients:

• whole wheat lasagne noodles, pre cooked
• light cottage cheese
• low fat grated mozzarella
• home-made tomato sauce
• 1 egg

Directions:

After precooking lasagne noodles, remove from boiling water and place on a tea towel to soak up some water.

Stir one egg into container of cottage cheese

In a 9x13 baking pan, place some sauce to cover bottom of pan then add 3 noodles and add more sauce to cover noodles, layer some cottage cheese and mozzarella and then start again with the noodles. Continue in this fashion until you have your lasagne. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I always use broil on the last 5 minutes to brown up the top. 

The other night I attended a party where this wonderful grape salad was served. It sounds gross and looks a right mess, but it is delicious. Who knew grapes covered in score bits and a cream mixture could taste so good!

Of course, the salad was not low fat, but it is easy to adjust the recipe to create a lower fat version without compromising on taste. 

Here is the recipe and beside it how you can tweak it. 

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of grapes 4 lbs of grapes
• 8 oz cream cheese 8 oz light cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream 1 cup light or FF sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup + honey to your taste
• score bits score bits 

Directions:

Mix wet ingredients well. Take 1/2 of the grapes and mix with 1/2 of the wet ingredients. Cover with score bits. Do the same for the second layer. Serve and enjoy.

Me eat grape salad!

We slather it on hamburgers, hotdogs, meatloaf, scrambled eggs, and french fries. My son even slathers it on bread, and eats a good ol’ ketchup sandwich, which is one of his favourite types of sandwiches.   

Ketchup contains the powerful antioxidant lycopene.

Studies have shown that lycopene can reduce the risk of certain cancers such as prostate, lung, rectal uterine and breast.  Other health benefits of lycopene are; reduction of cholesterol, reduced risk of developing diabetes, reduced risk of gum disease, reduced risk of cataracts and the list goes on.  

The tomato in ketchup is what causes these health benefits. Lycopene is an antioxidant that acts in removing the damaging effects of free radicals on our cell tissues. 

Interesting Facts about Ketchup

• A tablespoon of ketchup has 16 calories and no fat.
• 4 tablespoons of ketchup have the nutritional value of an entire ripe, medium tomato.
• As with wines, there are good and bad ketchup years depending on how sweet and flavourful the tomato harvest.
• Most brands are made from tomato paste or tomato concentrate, boiled down in late summer when tomatoes are harvested, and used throughout the year to cook the final product.
• Ketchup made in summer is made directly from ripe tomatoes.
• Ketchup is great for restoring the glow to copper pots and pans. The acid in ketchup removes tarnish and brings out the shine.

So now my son can say: I don’t have to eat tomatoes-ketchup is good for me!

Everything in moderation…. What is wrong with a ketchup sandwich, or should I say Catsup?

 Here are some interesting facts some foods we eat.

• “Organic” according to the USDA, means a food is at least 95 per cent organically produced. The remainder can be non-organic or synthetic ingredients.
• “USDA Certified Organic” food must be produced with zero synthetic ingredients and must meet federal organic standards.
• “Made with Organic Ingredients” must have at least 70 per cent organic ingredients.
• “No hormones added” cannot be used on pork or poultry product labels. Reason? Hogs and chickens are already raised without hormones.
• “Natural” according to USDA regulations means “minimally processed with no additives.” That could be true of an apple or of a poisonous mushroom.
• “Antibiotic-free” means an animal was never treated with an antibiotic, even if it was sick. According to federal law, however, no cattle receive antibiotics or hormones for 45 days before slaughter. And the practice of mixing antibiotics into cattle feed to prevent the spread of disease among cattle was stopped in 1985, according to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.

Finally I am posting a recipe you can have for dinner or lunch.. heck you could even alter it and create a breakfast recipe. 

I have made this recipe twice now for dinner and both times were very successful.

It is like having taco’s and can be just as messy, but the second time round I served them in little serving bowls and used a fork and knife and it was much less messy. 

Ingredients:

• 4-6 medium whole wheat tortilla’s
• ground turkey or if you must extra lean ground beef
• salsa
• low fat sour cream
• shredded lettuce
• shredded low fat cheese(although I use reg fat)
• diced tomatoes
• sliced and sautéed onions and pepper 
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large skillet add meat seasoned with salt and pepper and cook right through. Set aside

When meat is cooked using the same skillet, add onions and pepper and sauté until soft.  

 While onion and peppers are cooking, heat tortilla’s in microwave for about 30seconds to a minute, depending on your microwave.  Once microwaved and still hot, use a muffin pan and take one tortilla and press into pan creating a tortilla cup. Repeat for each tortilla. when tortilla’s are all in cups, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until crisp and just starting to brown.

Place cups in a bowl or on a plate and layer with meat, onions and pepper, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes and top with cheese. Serve hot.

Get Creative:

• Use leftover hamburgers crumbled up as the meat base
• Add some eggs and create a morning breakfast tortilla

This is a yummy recipe that I make all the time. 

As you may have noticed all my recipes so far posted are the baking kind. I do cook, but I don’t enjoy as much as baking. Stay tuned for other recipes in the near future. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 mashed ripe bananas
• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mashed banana and mix well. Sift dry ingredients in a sepearte bowl and then add to wet ingredients mixing until just moistened. Fold in Chocolate chips.

Pour batter into a lightly greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 1 hour.

You can make muffins too with this recipe. Just pour into muffin liners filling to about 3/4 full and bake approximately 16 minutes

Me eat the banana bread!

Bugs Bunny would love these muffins.

This carrot recipe is so good and moist, they are one of my favorites

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup melted butter or 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffins tins with paper liners. Combine wet ingredients and mix well. Sift dry ingredients into a seperate mixing bowl. Mix dry and wet ingredients until dry ingredients are mostly wet. Then fold in raisins and walnuts. Do not over mix. 

Spoon batter into cups filling about 3/4 full. Bake approximately 15-18 minutes.

Me eat the muffin!

Peanut butter is a staple in my house and a favourite. The lunch time favourite is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

How do I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich more healthy?

Here is what I do. 

My kids like white bread. I don’t blame them, white bread tastes good. I like white bread too, but I do eat my brown whole goodness breads more.  I buy wonder invisibles so they are getting the extra goodness in the breads. Here is what they are getting: 

Oat,  Wheat, Spelt, Khorasan Wheat, Golden Flax, Corn, Millet, Barley, Quinoa, Brown rice, Rye, Soy, Sorghum, Triticale

On top of all that goodness listed above, I also sprinkle about 2 teaspoons worth of ground flax and wheat germ right on the bread.   Then spread the PB and the jelly cut and serve.  

Ingredients:

• Bread(whole wheat is preferable) or Wonder bread invisibles
• Peanut butter - reduced fat is preferable
• Jelly - any flavor - lower in sugars preferable

Directions:

First you take the peanut butter jar out of the cupboard and you open it
you open it,
You open it, open it, open it.  

For your peanut, peanut butter
And jelly sandwich
Peanut, peanut butter
And jelly sandwich

Then you get the jelly and the bread and you get ready, get ready, get ready, ready, ready 

 For your peanut, peanut butter

And jelly sandwich
Peanut, peanut butter
And jelly sandwich

Then you take the bread
And you spread it,
You spread it

 you spread it, spread it, spread it.
 
For your peanut, peanut butter
And jelly sandwich
Peanut, peanut butter
And jelly sandwich 

Then you take your sandwich
And you eat it,
You eat it
you eat it, eat it, eat it

‘Cause its a good, peanut peanut butter
And jelly sandwich
Good, peanut peanut butter
And jelly sandwich