A Fun Way To Eat Apples

As a kid, I did not like eating apples. I loved applesauce. I loved apple cobbler. But apples in and of themselves were difficult for my mouth to handle. I always had a hard time breaking through the skin, and sometimes the skin made it a little bitter to me. I love apples now, but I do prefer apples with softer skins still.

Red Delicious apples often have a tougher skin, but they are as their names suggest, d-licious. So eating them is worth a bit of creativity for easier munching, plus who doesn't love eating cute food?  All you do is turn the apple on its side and slice it into discs, then using a tiny cookie cutter or melon baller, cut out the core. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to send a little message of love, or use a circle shape to make the rings look like apple donuts.  Simple. Healthy. Delicious!

If you're babysitting, having a picnic with your significant other, it's a rainy day, you need to bring a side dish to the office party or the church luncheon, keep things simple, and make these.

And... especially if you have kids of your own, get them involved in making these. Its fun for the whole family!  For breakfast today, I sliced the apples into the discs, and my 6 year old cut out the middle. Family and food are my favorite!

Really Good Lentils

I really like the lentil soup I made yesterday. Lentils are pretty new to me. I did not grow up eating them. My husband on the other hand, did grow up eating them, and when we got married, I asked him what his favorite food was, and he said lentil soup. Ever since then, I've tried to make lentil soup from time to time, and of all the recipes that I have followed in the past, I have found that the simpler the recipe, the better the outcome.  Lentils with a hint of spices and a few veggies are really good.

A good basic recipe to follow for lentils is as follows:
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups dry lentils
1 quart chicken broth
1 quart beef broth
1 14-ounce can of diced roasted tomatoes with olive oil and garlic ( or just diced tomatoes)
1 to 2 teaspoons salt

Saute the veggies in the olive oil until the onions are translucent, then add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot, cover, and simmer 35-45 minutes, depending on how much bite you want left in your lentils. Or you can forget about it and leave it on the stove for an hour and a half, like I did. If you do that, you will have to add another 3 cups of water or so, as there will be none left in the pot.

Last night's lentils had the following ingredients also added to the pot:
A sprinkle of garlic powder and freshly ground black pepper
Half a teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon coriander powder

This was wonderful served in bowls with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and warm, soft tortillas for dipping!

Minute Granola

I found this recipe online at Amyshealthybaking.com and used it as a guideline to make my own microwave granola. It'll do in a pinch for granola, and I'm often in a pinch when I'm hungry for breakfast and I didn't make my own homemade granola the night before.

The recipe is a simple three ingredients-

Half teaspoon maple syrup
Half teaspoon water
3 tablespoons rolled oats

In a bowl stir together the maple syrup and water. Mix in the oats and microwave at 40 power for 2 minutes. Stir the Granola so it doesn't stick and microwave again at 40 percent power for another 2 minutes. Let the granola cool a touch before eating.

I added some freeze dried strawberries and I ate my granola with a low fat vanilla yogurt. It was the bomb diggity. I think I'll have some again tomorrow for breakfast.

Snackin' on Artichokes

When you think of snacking on veggies, what comes to mind? Carrots and ranch? A crudite platter? Celery and peanut butter?

Did steamed artichoke make your list? As much as I love them, I don't often think of artichokes as a snack food. However, these lovely thistle flowers, usually served for fancy meals, were on sale this week at the store and I picked up a few. I decided to steam them all up in the afternoon at the same time in a large steamer basket. 1 hour later, I had tender artichokes and a mostly full belly from lunch. So, I ate some of one with some help from family passerbys and put the remnants in the refrigerator for another time, not knowing if they even reheat very well. Well today I needed a snack, and a leftover artichoke was looking at me from the fridge. I popped it in the microwave for a couple minutes.  To my relief, it heated through wonderfully. In my former life, I would dip each artichoke leaf in a dollop of mayonnaise. Not so much any more considering my low fat diet. In fact, I don't even have any mayo in the house to tempt me right now. Instead, I opted for bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a shallow dish with salt and pepper. I may never go back to mayo, I love this new combination so much, which is a huge YEAH for low fat dieting! 

Happy artichoke snacking!

Recipe Inspiration

I love to read recipes!  I especially love recipes with pictures.  Cookbooks and food blogs are one of my favorite things in this life.  The last little while, with a cleaner way of eating, I have found very few recipes that look appetizing and require no substitutions for healthy eating.  Granted, I didn't look very hard after having little success with the recipes I did find.  Anyhow, yesterday I found a blog with lots of recipes I want to try.  Below is the web address for my future browsing. 

amyshealthybaking.com

Banana-Oat Breakfast Bars

Need a quick grab-n-go breakfast that you don't feel guilty about eating?  Sweetened slightly with natural ingredients, containing almost no fat, and overflowing with all the health benefits of oatmeal, you can feel good about eating these bars for breakfast (or packing in a lunch or serving for an after-school or late-night snack).  Say good morning to these Banana-Oat Breakfast Bars! 

I made these when the bananas on my counter were super-speckled and crying to be used in a baked good.  I searched the internet, used lots of different recipes for inspiration, and ended up with a great breakfast bar.   

Banana-Oat Breakfast Bars

Yield: 12 bars

 

Ingredients:

• 2 c Whole Oat Flour (make your own by blending old-fashioned oats in a blender until they resemble flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 medium-sized, ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 c honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.
2. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, except nuts and mix well.
4. Stir in nuts.
5. Pour into pan and bake 15-20 minutes until center is done. Let cool before cutting.

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Finally! A way to eat oatmeal for breakfast that really jives with me.  Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies. Stop your snickering! Cookies for breakfast? You got it. These, however, are not the sweet oatmeal cookies the way your grandma would make them. They are definitely okay for breakfast, slightly sweet, practically fat-free, more like a chewy English scone that is made with oatmeal. And in the form of a cookie. And so much better tasting than a bowl full of mushy oatmeal that for the life of me I just can't seem to get over. I think it's just that texture thing that gets to me, but I really want to like oatmeal, and now I can.  I warm one of these big breakfast cookies up for 12 seconds in the microwave and serve it with a cup of milk, and it makes a perfect cholesterol-lowering heart-healthy breakfast.

I bet you want the recipe. I happened to find this recipe online at stacymakescents.com, a website that has a whole bunch of yummy-looking healthy breakfast recipes that I want to try.  This one turned out pretty good, so I know I'll be revisiting that site again for inspiration.

Below is her recipe.  Do what I did and double it.  I didn't have any nuts so I left those out and I used half raisins and half dried unsweetened cranberries for the dried fruit. I also ran out of nutmeg, but in my opinion that spice is optional. The cookies keep well in a zip top bag.

Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies

• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup oat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons honey
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup chopped nuts
• ¼ cup raisins

 

1. Combine oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
2. Stir in vanilla, egg, honey, and yogurt.
3. Fold in nuts and raisi
4. Spread into 4 large cookie shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Bake at 375 for 6-10 minutes or until done. It will depend on how thick you make your cookies.

Yield: 4 breakfast cookies

Shoyu Cucumbers

Shoyu is a Japanese word for soy sauce. Or maybe it's a Hawaiian- Japanese word, I'm not exactly linguistically sure on that, but I'm also not that bothered by my lack of expertise enough to look it up on a search engine.  You'll have to wait in suspense, or just go look it up yourself.

Shoyu cucumbers I grew up eating, unlike most of my neighbors and friends who have probably never tried them before. Let me tell you they've been missing out. But they don't have to anymore!  The method of making them is simple. Basically, just peel and slice thinly a cucumber or two.  Then put it in a medium-sized bowl, or reused cool whip container like we did when I was a kid, than sprinkle soy sauce over the top and vinegar in about equal parts and a grind of pepper. If you accidentally poured too much vinegar or soy sauce you can always dilute the mixture with some water. There you have it! Done. I suppose these are like a quick Japanese-inspired pickle.  It's a yummy side dish, and quite refreshing, and the best part is it is fat free!

Comfort Food Lightens Up

I love meatloaf! It has such an undesirable name, but it is definitely on my list of favorite comfort foods. I made meatloaf for Sunday dinner, but mine was a lighter version and a very tasty one at that! I portioned out the meatloaf mixture into several mini loaves for quicker cooking. I also used a pound of lean ground turkey instead of the normal full fat ground beef. I loaded up on whole grains as I used 2 slices of whole wheat bread pulled into crumbs and a half cup of rolled oats as filler. Then I seasoned with McCormick steak seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, a squirt of ketchup , and dried parsley. I never use a recipe when I'm making meatloaf, or meatballs for that matter. I just kind of throw it all together, let the egg do the binding, and bake. As long as there's enough seasoning on the meat, it always turns out good. I slathered ketchup on top of the little mini meatloaf before I baked it, but I don't always do that. It just sounded good to me this time.

My mom joined our family for our meatloaf dinner. She raved about how the meatloaf was to die for. Also, the next day, both my children were asking for meatloaf leftovers at lunch time. That never happens. Hardly ever does any member of my family besides myself welcome leftovers. So I guess that is a true testament that this one was a winner!

The mini turkey meatloaf was served with a side of broiled asparagus, steamed sweet potato, and sliced shoyu cucumbers. Mmmmmmmmm...  Look for recipes for these side dishes in another blog post.