Super Slaws and Salads July 29, 2011

When the heat index starts climbing over 100, I usually lose both my desire for hot comfort foods as well as my motivation for cooking them.

Step in salads and slaws. Most Americans don’t even eat half as many fruits and veggies as we need in a day, and this is a perfect opportunity to do so. And because so much produce grown in the good ole USA is in season now, you can do it on the cheap too!

Salads are easy. You can buy a bag at the store and a bottle of dressing of course, but with a little more time you can come up with some great-tasting creative combos of your own as well. Here are a few of my favorites this summer.

Tomato Cucumber Salad
Chop tomatoes (whatever are on sale) and cucumbers up into bite-size cubes. Add a touch of sea salt to taste. Enjoy.
(For an extra nutrition boost, add fresh spinach, diced carrots, radicchio, or red cabbage)

Easy Bean Salad
1 can white beans
2 tbsp giardiniera (we prefer Pagliacci’s Hot, but beware, it’s spicy!)
1 cup fresh spinach, shredded

Ginger Peach Slaw
2-3 cups savoy or napa cabbage, shredded
1-2 peaches, diced
1 cup spinach or other lettuce, shredded
2 tbsps orange juice
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp canola, safflower, or grapeseed oil
½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp garlic powder
Salt and sugar to taste
Mix fruit and veggies. Mix liquids and spices into a dressing. Pour dressing over veggies and enjoy.

Apple Slaw
2 cups savoy or napa cabbage, shredded
1 tart apple, shredded
1 cup fresh spinach, shredded
1 tbsp sunflower seeds or small walnut pieces
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Deciding on sides – the second part of menu planning. August 27, 2010

Alright, so chicken is on sale, you have your cravings for taco casserole and there’s leftover soup in the freezer and you’re finishing your weekly menu:   grilled chicken, casserole, soup, pizza.. what about sides?

Side dishes should add  extra nutrients as well as variety in color and texture.  White chicken with white mashed potatoes and white cauliflower may be nutritionally sound, but it looks pretty boring and bland.  Same with salmon, sweet potatoes, and carrots.  Usually people expect to see a meat, vegetable, and starch, but even these rules are changing.

  It’s also good to remember how much time you have on hand to make them before deciding on something more time-consuming like scalloped potatoes. 

So back to our menu above…what would I add?

Grilled chicken with sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli…I microwave the sweet potatoes and do the broccoli in a steamer.  Then why not grill some extra and have grilled chicken on top of bagged salad for dinner on day 2?

Taco casserole has the starch, meat, and a little veggie in already, so a side salad can add color and can cool the spice.

What to serve with soup?  If it’s a hearty soup like chili, consider a side salad to lighten the meal up.  If it’s a lighter soup like minestrone, cheese and crackers, or a crusty garlic bread round it out nicely.

Pizza is usually a finger food, and serving a veggie platter keeps the whole dinner silverware-free.  If you do, try making your own ranch dressing out of yogurt, onion powder, garlic, parsley, and salt rather than the high-fat and additive dips dips that are usually served with veggies.  I always like salad with pizza too.

I always have a variety of frozen veggies in the freezer because they make such versatile sides.  Additionally, keeping some bagged salads in the fridge and potatoes and sweet potatoes in the pantry, as well as some brown rice, ensures that whatever I serve, I have a simple, healthy side dish to go alongside.

Making freezer jam June 21, 2010

I decided to make freezer jam a couple weeks ago, and we are enjoying the fruits of my labor!   However, I did learn a few lessons myself from this experiment.   Here is my jam-making saga. 

 The first step was finding pectin.  Nowhere to be found at my fave HEB or Walmart.  I finally asked the lady at the checkout, who called someone else, who told me it was in the School Supplies aisle.  Really?  Since it was fast approaching naptime, I grabbed a couple boxes without reading labels (first mistake).   My reasoning for making freezer jam is first of all the wonderful flavor, and second, to avoid preservatives and minimize sugar.  I found that the Ball pectin was pure pectin, and required more labor and cleanup; the Certo had more preservatives but was easy to mix-in and didn’t require a separate pot for boiling. 

pectin and gelatin

 

The next step was reading the directions inside the box, and to my surprise, the freezer jam called for twice as much sugar as fruit!  Now, there were many dire warnings about how I would ruin the texture if I didn’t follow the recipe exactly…but I decided to test that theory for myself. 

After mashing the strawberries as directed, I tried a 1:1 ratio of fruit to sugar and a 2:1 ratio.  Still a lot of nutrient-devoid calories, but  a little improvement.  I did add the lemon juice according to the recipe for strawberry jam, and just added peaches to my strawberry peach. 

prepping the berries and lemons

 

Next step was stirring for a few minutes.  I employed my two-year-old sous chef for one pot while I did another, and we had great fun stirring for the 3 minutes!  I think he especially enjoyed it, as I caught him stopping to lick the spoon a couple of times.  Guess we won’t be sharing those jars of jam with anyone outside of the family! 

mashing the berries with a potato masher. Smoother is better!

Finally I let them set.  The two pectins had different directions – one said to let it set on the counter for 24 hours, the other said to put it in the fridge after a couple of hours.  I felt more comfortable putting them in the fridge to avoid spoilage, so that’s what I did. 

How did they turn out?  They taste great!  I did need to add a little plain gelatin to thicken them up to my liking – especially the ones with less sugar.  I just mix about a teaspoon of gelatin per cup of jam right after opening a jar.  Last year I tried the low-sugar version and that did give a good texture but had more preservatives; I’m still on the lookout for great freezer jam recipes that call for even less sugar.  I have heard that the no-preservative and low-sugar freezer jams can spoil quickly in the fridge, but we haven’t had any problems at the rate we eat it.  Life doesn’t get much better than strawberry jam on homemade bread. 

Hummus – many ways April 17, 2010

What is a great source of fiber and protein, healthy monounsaturated fat, and even folic acid?  Hummus!  It is also a decent source of iron and calcium, and is the perfect dipping “sauce” for toddlers who like to dunk  every bite.  Here are some of my favorite recipes and adaptations.  Most hummus recipes call for tahini, which I found to be rather pricey and I didn’t use it in very many recipes.  I substitute sesame oil, which adds wonderful flavor to stirfries and can also be used as a relieving massage oil on sore feet after a long day of chasing kids.

I buy the bagged garbanzo beans, or chickpeas (same thing), in order to save money.  I soak them overnight, simmer them for a couple hours after breakfast, and then we enjoy hummus by lunchtime. 

STANDARD HUMMUS

2 cups chickpeas

1/4 cup olive oil

2-3 Tbsps water (more water adds a fluffy consistency, especially if you decrease olive oil)

1 tsp diced garlic

2 Tbsps lemon juice

1 tsp sesame oil

Blend well.  Salt to taste.  Add a couple kalamata olives and refrigerate for a couple hours for extra flavor.  Garnish with parsley and serve with pita as an appetizer.

JALEPENO HUMMUS

2 cups chickpeas

1/4 cup canola oil

1-2 pickled jalepenos (depending on how spicy you like it)

2 tbsps lime juice

water and salt to taste

TEX-MEX HUMMUS

2 cups chickpeas

1/4 cup canola oil

2 Tbsps lime juice

1 tsp garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1 cup fresh spinach

(for some extra heat, add 1/4-1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder)

Salt to taste.  Serve Jalepeno and Tex-Mex hummus with tortilla chips – the green color looks great in a bowl next to a traditional salsa.