1. It actually takes quite a bit of time to do (at least an hour each day to research recipes, take photos, copy/paste recipes, add commentary, etc – this isn’t even including the cooking time!) and I only have a couple visitors a day (if at all)
2. I’ve been building inventory/doing research for my handmade business and have finally set a deadline of March 1st to open my online shop (and need to get cracking on all the remaining details required to meet that deadline)
3.  I have another blog that I enjoy posting on and trying to keep up two blogs is just too time-consuming (I did start this afterall when at my sister’s for a couple weeks and didn’t have much going on)

So, as you can see, something’s gotta give.  I’ll still be utilizing Cooking Light recipes, but just not blogging about it.  As an aside, my neighbor and I are walking (rather hiking on our road) each day and I feel great and still make slimming my butt a priority.

Thanks to those of you who followed me here.  You can still follow me at my other blog at www.greenearthgoodies.wordpress.com and check out my online shop at www.greenearthgoodies.com

Happy, healthy eating to you all!

Happy cooking to you all!

Ingredients

• 7  tablespoons  low-sodium soy sauce, divided
• 1/2  pound  skinned, boned chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2  teaspoons  vegetable oil, divided
• 2  cups  vertically sliced onion
• 1  cup  (2-inch) julienne-cut carrot
• 6  cups  coarsely shredded napa (Chinese) cabbage
• 1/4  cup  sake (rice wine) or dry sherry
• 1  tablespoon  minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2  teaspoons  sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 4 1/2  cups  cooked soba (about 9 ounces uncooked buckwheat noodles)

Nutritional Information

Calories:386 (10% from fat)

Fat:4.4g (sat 0.8g,mono 1g,poly 1.9g)

Protein:23.5g

Carbohydrate:57.4g

Fiber:3g

Cholesterol:33mg

Iron:2.7mg

Sodium:946mg

Calcium:137mg

Notes:

Well in usual fashion, I didn’t read my ingredients right (I really need to learn to sit down, read through slowly - before I start!) and it wasn’t until just now as I was formatting this blog entry that I realized that it called for rice wine…not rice wine vinegar - no wonder it tasted a bit vinegar-y!  Yes folks, I’d like to think I’m intelligent, but I know I don’t appear so from my countless cooking errors.  One thing is for sure, I’m like the tasmanian devil in the kitchen, I make a terrible mess and I try to accomplish multiple dishes at once which probably leads to my confusion.  It also didn’t help matters that my dear hubby was reading to me about tax liens as investments (hubby is a government employee by night – literally – and investment guru by day) so there were a couple of times that I had to sweetly ask him to refrain from reading aloud so I could concentrate on my directions.  Ah well… 

Verdict:

Even with the vinegar-y tinge, this was still pretty good – not as oily and salty as you would get in the restaurants, but good CL style.  I’m sure it’s even that much better made the right way, so I’ll be sure to not make this mistake twice!   I was also pleased with the 2 cup serving which is very satiating!  The amount of chicken seemed a bit light in this recipe, that is, until I noticed that they all fell to the bottom of the pan, so be sure to dig for these.  You can usually find soba noodles in the Asian set of your local market and they really have a unique taste/texture that compliments this dish nicely. 

Keep in mind that you will likely have 1/4 to 1/2 a head of cabbage remaining, so be sure to utilize it in other ways.  I tried using the “ranch slaw” on the CL site but knew right away it wouldn’t taste right, so I quickly changed gears and found an Asian Cole Slaw recipe on the AllRecipes site.  I halved the recipe, only used the remaining napa cabbage I had on hand (in lieu of the other types of cabbages) and added the other ingredients in (including PB, soy, ginger, garlic and brown sugar and some chili paste I had on hand to give it a little bite) and it was fan-freaking-tastic!  Here’s that recipe in case you’re curious:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Asian-Coleslaw/Detail.aspx

Mmmm Mmmm…

Courtesy of Cooking Light at www.myrecipes.com

When I lived in New York City, I lived only a couple blocks away from what could arguable be the best and most famous falafel shop, Mamoun’s.   Every day there would be a line out the door, but service was quick as they slapped their still-hot chickpea falafel patty into a fresh pita, topped with cucumbers, tomatoes and tzatziki (a salty, cucumber yogurt) sauce.  One need not be vegetarian to crave this favorite at this whole-in-the-wall.  And, well, you’ve already heard me talk about my love of middle-eastern food.  It took fierce willpower not to go every day, but sheesh, for 2 bucks, it hardly was a dent in the wallet. 

Now I’ve made falafels on my own before which always turned out decent, though not like Mamoun’s.  However, this caught my attention as it was listed as a Latin-inspired type of falafel and I was intrigued.  It was also listed as a winner for best vegetarian entree so it’s gotta be good, right?

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1654699

Ingredients

Patties:

• 1  (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/4  cup  finely crushed baked tortilla chips (about 3/4 ounce)
• 2  tablespoons  finely chopped green onions
• 1  tablespoon  finely chopped cilantro
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  large egg white
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  canola oil

Spread:

• 1/4  cup  mashed peeled avocado
• 2  tablespoons  finely chopped tomato
• 1  tablespoon  finely chopped red onion
• 2  tablespoons  fat-free sour cream
• 1  teaspoon  fresh lime juice
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt

Remaining ingredients:

• 2  (6-inch) pitas, each cut in half crosswise
• 4  thin red onion slices, separated into rings
• Microgreens

Nutritional Information

Calories:281 (30% from fat)

Fat:9.5g (sat 3.4g,mono 3.9g,poly 1.5g)

Protein:12.2g

Carbohydrate:37.4g

Fiber:5.9g

Cholesterol:13mg

Iron:2.4mg

Sodium:625mg

Calcium:188mg

Notes:

Sheesh, I ran into a lot of issues with this recipe – it was a true labour of love – but mostly due to my own errors, not because of the recipe.  First, I decided to make a lot of my own ingredients.  For example, I made my own pitas, which turned out great and I was feeling proud to have made something I thought would be very difficult – only to burn my fingers as mentioned earlier in the week, blisters and all.

Now for whatever reason, I made these pitas last weekend, yet decided to make these falafels tonight (and we all know what happens with pitas in just a matter of days…).  Needless to say, my pitas were no longer pliable and fell apart by the time I used them today, so I highly recommend that whether you make your own or buy them to make this recipe within a day!

The recipe also called for beans, which I now soak overnight in lieu of cans, so that could be the reason I kept putting this recipe off – I kept forgetting to soak the beans at night!  So here’s where problem #2 comes in.  As I drained them after their overnight soak, I soon realized that I soaked too many beans to equal what a 15 oz. can would yield even though I googled the equation.  I quickly forgot this and two hours later after they boiled down, I ended up putting the whole batch (probably 2 1/2 cans worth!), with all the accompanying ingredients together.  It wasn’t until I formed the patties and thinking, “damn…these suckers are huge!” did the lightbulb go off.  It was too late, but I cooked them anyways and crossed my fingers.

Finally, I bought radish sprouts last week when I went grocery shopping and yup, they spoiled before I could use them (what was I thinking?) as did the tomatoes, so I didn’t have either of those as garnish.  And then there was the CL-way of oil-usage…clearly not enough (only a tsp. and a 1/2?)  Come ON!  Needless to say, my patties were cementing to my skillet, so I just upended the bottle of oil at that point and added about 2 tablespoons more (ah, what the hell, I was already botching up this recipe bigtime, right?).

I also made my own tortilla chips from homemade tortillas I made this morning (see my other blog soon for more on that recipe), although you could easily use store chips or make your own by slicing up store-bought corn tortillas – the way I used to do it before I finally took the leap today and made tortillas using masa flour.  Luckily these turned out just fine.

Verdict:

Even with all the problems I incurred, these were fantastic!  Even with the disproportionate amount of beans to other ingredients, they were still tasty, although I’m sure would be even more flavorful if I did the ratio right.  The avocado cream was downright addictive.  My husband polished off 3 huge patties and still looked for more.  I will definitely be making again – I can image these will be great, patties alone on a plate, topped with avocado cream and joined by a side of baba ganouj, hummus, greek salad and fresh pita…oh yeah, my kind of meal!

P.S. I didn’t take a picture because of all my mess ups, so I’m just leaving you the CL picture at top – I’m sure it could look that pretty!

Ingredients

• 1  pound  uncooked penne (tube-shaped pasta)
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 1 1/2  cups  chopped onion
• 3/4  cup  chopped red bell pepper
• 1  (12-ounce) package sweet basil and pine nut chicken sausage (such as Gerhard’s), halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  tablespoon  tomato paste
• 1  tablespoon  balsamic vinegar
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 3  (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• Cooking spray
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, sausage, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until sausage is browned. Add tomato paste and next 5 ingredients (through diced tomatoes); cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Combine pasta and tomato mixture; spoon into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with cheeses. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Calories:453 (30% from fat)

Fat:15.3g (sat 6.6g,mono 5.7g,poly 2.1g)

Protein:24.4g

Carbohydrate:55.3g

Fiber:4.6g

Cholesterol:56mg

Iron:2.1mg

Sodium:954mg

Calcium:319mg

I purchased my chicken sausage in 1 lb. packets, so I went ahead and used the entire pound so it didn’t go to waste –  an additional 4 oz. than the recipe calls for, so that certainly upped the calories (eh…I’m okay with that).  I also opted for monterey jack cheese in lieu of provolone since its what I had on hand and is similar in texture/flavor in my book.  I also had a bunch of tomatoes that were starting to turn, so I used that in lieu of one of the cans of diced tomatoes.  For the two remaining cans I used plain diced tomatoes although I’m sure the basil or garlic flavored variety would be exceptional in this recipe.

Prior to adding cheese...looks bland but flavors really do meld together well!

When I first put all the ingredients in the casserole, I was concerned that it looked awfully bland.  I was concerned that there was too little sauciness to it.  After first bite, I was slightly disappointed and longed for some hearty tomato sauce to put on top.  However, as I continued to eat and as it cooled down, I really enjoyed the flavors coming together – it was in fact quite good!  We made a salad chock full of veggies and that combined with the casserole left me thoroughly satiated.  My husband on the other hand went back for a second helping and found that it was that much more flavorful with more cooling time.  That being said, I suggest you refrain from being chow hounds like us and allow it to cool for a good 15 minutes – it’ll be worth the wait.

Overall, very happy with how this simple recipe turned out and will definitely add this to our rotation.

One of the upcoming recipes is for falafels and in a rush, I grabbed flatbread instead of pitas at the store.  Feeling adventurous I decided to try to learn how to make my own (which by the way was quite successful) however my mind was somewhere else during the process and instead of using oven mitts to handle a rack that had just come out of a 500 degree oven, I accidentally picked it up with my fingers and well…you know what happens next.  Now they are blistered and bandaged but alas, I did get to this recipe with the help of my wonderful husband (and thank goodness – this was a multi-step, time-intensive recipe!).

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673143 

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup  low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4  cup  water
• 1  tablespoon  dark sesame oil
• 1/2  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 1  garlic clove, minced

Wraps:

• 12  napa (Chinese) cabbage leaves
• 1  tablespoon  canola oil
• 1 1/2  cups  shredded carrot
• 3/4  cup  finely chopped red bell pepper
• 3/4  cup  thinly sliced green onions
• 1  tablespoon  minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 3  tablespoons  minced fresh cilantro
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh basil
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2  cups  cooked bean threads (cellophane noodles; about 3 ounces uncooked)
• 36  medium shrimp, cooked and peeled (about 1 1/4 pounds)

Preparation

To prepare sauce, combine the first 6 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until the sugar dissolves and sauce slightly thickens (about 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Remove from heat; cover and chill.

To prepare wraps, steam cabbage, covered, 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and pat dry; set aside.

Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot and next 4 ingredients (through 2 garlic cloves) to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add cilantro, basil, and juice; toss gently to combine. Place about 3 tablespoons vegetable mixture and 2 tablespoons bean threads on each cabbage leaf. Top each with 3 shrimp; roll up. Serve with sauce.

Nutritional Information

Calories:151 (19% from fat)

Fat:3.2g (sat 0.4g,mono 1.3g,poly 1.2g)

Protein:10.6g

Carbohydrate:19.7g

Fiber:1.1g

Cholesterol:72mg

Iron:1.7mg

Sodium:443mg

Calcium:55mg

Notes:

Okay, we had a couple problems here.  First I had burnt fingers and was limited to handling the cold stuff, though chopping was quite a chore with 2 burnt thumbs and 2 burnt forefingers.  Not fun but we were hungry and forged ahead.  Made the sauce as is, but it says to cool which helps it to thicken.  In haste, I poured the sauce into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a couple minutes.  What I didn’t realize is that when I shut the freezer door, I upended the bowl on its side pouring all of the contents out and onto a packed freezer.  When I opened the door to retrieve said bowl, I was not only deflated that we lost all our sauce but had to take 10 minutes to wash off the gooey/sticky/half-frozen sauce that had poured over multiple items.  Needless to say, I was brooding.  To make matters worse, we had used up the last of our soy sauce to make the sauce and couldn’t make another batch.  So now I was hungry, in pain and pissed…not a good combination.  I usually have a pretty cheerful disposition, however, this was not one of those moments.  All was not lost though – I did have a bottle of unopened hoisin sauce which is similar in taste to the soy sauce and brown sugar, so we made another batch with hoisin sauce in lieu of those two ingredients and tragedy was diverted.

Some other things to note, I realized half way through the recipe that I didn’t have carrots (what the heck? I know, I seem to have that problem often), so I used a small can of water chestnuts that I happened to have on hand to fill in for the missing cup and a half of carrots and missing crunch and I’m thrilled I did – it gave great texture overall and I would make sure to use these if I were to make again.

Also, the napa cabbage as wraps simply did not work.  They didn’t hold the filling and it made for a drippy mess.  With this in mind, we decided to scrap the cabbage (though you could chop up and add if fresh and crispy) and we mixed everything together like a noodle dish (instead of keeping all the components separate).  I would recommend you do the same.

Verdict:

Despite all the problems we incurred, this was really flavorful and even better the next day.  Should you choose to make this, I recommend you mix all the ingredients together in the end rather than trying to arrange as wraps. 

As an aside, blisters have come down quite a bit today after a good slather of calendula cream and I should be back to cooking some more tonight!

This recipe I found in the latest issue of Cooking Light (which I bought the day I decided to start this blog and before I learned about the advanced recipe search online thus eliminating my need to search through mags).  As such, this recipe is not yet listed online, so I’ll transcribe from the latest issue.

Cooking Light, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009

Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients

• 3  3/4 c. water
• 1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2/3 c. toasted wheat germ
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 c. sliced bananas (about 2)
• 3 tbsp.  brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. butter

 Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 6 minutes or until thick and thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.  Divide cereal evenly among 3 bowls.  Top each serving with 1/2 c. banana, 1 tbsp. brown sugar and 1 tsp. butter.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 336

Fat: 8.4g

Protein:12.1g

Carbohydrate: 59.1g

Fiber: 8.3g

Cholesterol: 10mg

Iron: 3.9mg

Sodium: 226mg

Calcium: 35mg

Notes:

Made as directed, no changes.

Verdict:

Whenever I make oatmeal, I usually also cook a couple slices of turkey bacon as I need something salty (remember, I’m a savory breakfast gal)and I need something with a fair amount of protein in the morning otherwise I end up being hungry a couple hours later.  However, the wheat germ in this recipe adds some protein, fat and fiber and held me over for many hours.  In fact, I only ate 1/2 of my oatmeal and still didn’t eat lunch until almost 2 pm as I found the slices of turkey bacon and oatmeal were exceedingly filling.  The flavors were a little muted and I prefer my oatmeal to be a little bit sweeter (either in the way of more brown sugar or maple).  My husband, a big fan of hot cereal, enjoyed this quite a bit and I’ll probably make this version with the wheat germ and bananas again.  It’s a hearty, filling breakfast alright!

Update: Because I forgot to take pics yesterday morning when I made this and didn’t realize until it was dark (I hate using flash), I decided to shoot the above pics using our leftovers his morning tand we both agreed that it was even better the 2nd day – as if the brown sugar blossomed.  Yum!

Food:

Well, let’s just say that while the CL recipes are going great, I haven’t been very good about my other meals/snacks throughout the day.   My first stop after landing in CO was McD’s followed by Dairy Queen.  Oy, not a good way to transition back home.  Also had a really indulgent, overflowing fluffernutter sandwich following my husbands lead.  Together we can be each other’s best motivator and also each other’s worst influence.  It’s hard to deny that food is intricately involved in celebrations, emotions, transitions and familial bonds and we are no different.  We celebrated seeing each other after 2 weeks apart, but that celebration, unfortunately involved food.

Exercise:

Pffft…as if.  Exercise fell by the wayside big time this week.   I didn’t work out out the day before I left for home with trying to wrap- up projects.  I managed to eek out a 20 min. routine on Saturday before my flight…and then Sun., Mon. and Tue. lended itself to laziness relaxing couch-side with the hubby.  He was off for 4 days and I find that we tend to get off schedule when that happens.  Since he goes back to work tomorrow and I was successful at exercising last week when I was home alone, I’m thinking that tomorrow will be a good day to get back on track.  Back on schedule…no more transition…no more excuses.

Successes:

I continued to cook one recipe just about every day and I continue to be pleased with the food I’ve cooked.  This is a fun adventure, so I’m looking forward to refocusing.

Challenges:

Nothing I haven’t mentioned before…oh yeah, except for the fact that I gained 1/2 a pound, but frankly I’m happy it wasn’t more considering my bad eating and lack of exercise this last week.  Looking forward to seeing the scale go down next week!

How are you all doing this year with your healthy eating/healthy living goals so far?  Please let me know so I don’t feel like the only one out here struggling with this!  Thanks y’all!

The name of this recipe is what grabbed my attention, however, looking at the ingredient list, I’m not sure it’s going to be all that exciting, but quesadillas are like pizza…kinda hard to screw up and still pretty good even if it’s not great.   Let’s giddyup and see if this recipe holds up to its name.  

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  bottled salsa
• 8  (6-inch) fat-free flour tortillas
• 1  cup  chopped smoked turkey ham (about 4 ounces)
• 1/2  cup  fresh corn kernels (about 1 ear)
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers

Nutritional Information

Calories:154 (24% from fat)

Fat:4.1g (sat 2.3g,mono 1.1g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:8g

Carbohydrate:21.3g

Fiber:1.4g

Cholesterol:8mg

Iron:1.7mg

Sodium:598mg

Calcium:132mg

Notes: 

Made as listed, however used frozen corn in lieu of fresh. 

Verdict: 

These were decent…no wow factor, but like I suspected, it was like pizza and still good.  I did find that the serving size of 3 wedges or 1/2 a quesadilla was just not filling enough.  Perhaps it was because I had a light breakfast and lunch and didn’t have time for any snacks and was quite ravenous by the time I got home, but nonetheless I helped myself to another serving (not bad considering that only totalled 300 calories), followed by 3 chocolate dipped orange wedges from earlier this week.  Ah…contented tummy!

Courtesy of Cooking Light and www.myrecipes.com

Since we have some leftovers from the slow cooker as well as leftover lentil soup, we decided to keep the cooking light tonight (no pun intended!).  Organic cucumbers were at a great sale price this week so I bought a bunch and went in search of a cucumber recipe.  I found this and it reminded me of a favorite garnish/salad/appetizer in Thai restaurants.  Since I had all the ingredients on hand and since it also had an “outstanding” rating by reviewers, I decided to give this a go.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  pounds  cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
• 2  teaspoons  kosher salt
• 1/2  cup  rice vinegar
• 1/2  cup  water
• 3  tablespoons  sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 2  tablespoons  minced red onion
• 1  tablespoon  chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Nutritional Information

Calories:76 (17% from fat)

Fat:1.4g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.6g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:1.6g

Carbohydrate:14.6g

Fiber:1.5g

Cholesterol:0.0mg

Iron:0.3mg

Sodium:247mg

Calcium:27mg

Notes:

Surprise, surprise…I made it exactly as listed!

Verdict:

Holy hot tamale – my tongue and lips were en fuego!   Admittedly, as much as I like spicy food, I can’t handle a lot of it as I was not raised with it, so my palate is still trying to adjust.  We were hungry and dug in and damnit, I forgot to take a picture.  But it was gooood!  My hubby, a big fan of Asian cuisine loved it.  Because I had to eat bread in large quantities chased with milk to cool the heat in my mouth, I’ll probably cut the spice in half next time when making, but add it back in to his dish so it’s not too wimpy for him.  Definitely will be making again!