Healthy Carrot Cupcakes

Low Fat Low Sugar Carrot Spice Cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup white whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 orange, zested
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup firmly packed light splenda-blend brown sugar
1/2 cup splenda or preferred sugar substitute
2 large eggs
1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 4-5 small carrots)
1/4 cup plus chopped walnuts
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

4 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese (recommended: Neufchatel)
3/4 cup Ideal brand confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons ground unsweetened  coconut
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
toasted coconut for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 10 muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift together flours, salt, baking soda, and spices and set aside.

In a large mixing  bowl combine sugars, yogurt, oil, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla, and eggs mixing on medium speed until smooth. Add carrots and mix well.

Add dry ingredients gradually on low speed, scraping down the sides of the until just combined.

Fold in chopped walnuts and coconut.

Divide batter amongst lined muffin liners and bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely.

In another bowl, whip together cream cheese with powdered sweetener, coconut, and cardamom until fluffy.

Pipe frosting on cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

…A few notes about this recipe…

Make sure u scrape in as much of the juice from the shredded carrots as possible. I used my food processor to make it easier.

For the orange juice, I used the juice of my zested orange.

If you can’t find unsweetened coconut, use sweetened and cut the plain sweetener in half. Omit it from the frosting. I grinded unsweetened coconut in my spice grinder but do not think sweetened coconut will be as cooperative.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving and Leftovers

I have to come clean about something. This was the first year I made Thanksgiving dinner all on my own. I took some shortcuts here and there, but I made a lot considering it was only my husband and myself. You all saw my post on brining turkey, so you know my secrets there. Besides the turkey, I made….

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Brown Butter & Sage infused Stuffing (which was otherwise out of the box)

Gravy from scratch

Roasted Root Veggies (that roasted with the turkey…yum!)

Sweet Potatoes with a Cinnamon Pecan Streussel topping

Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits (from scratch)

And of course Cranberry Sauce (but it was out of a can, because that’s how hubby likes it)

For Dessert we had Pumpkin Angel Food cake (from the last post)

and a Pecan Pie (It’s just not Thanksgiving without a pie!)

 

I decided to make the pie at the last-minute because I had pie crusts in the fridge and didn’t feel right having Thanksgiving dinner without pie. I had everything I might need to make a pumpkin pie, but since I already had pumpkin cake, and also had everything to make a pecan pie, I went that route instead.

Mmm Pecan Pie!

This isn’t where I talk about healthy recipes per say…I went fairly indulgent (i.e. pecan pie). After brining my turkey, I rubbed it down with a mixture of bacon fat, hazelnut oil, chopped rosemary, thyme, sage,  tarragon, roasted garlic, and lemon juice. I tried to get it under the skin and over top but had some trouble getting more of it under the skin. I also sprinkled the outside of the turkey with poultry seasoning and black pepper. As soon as it hit the oven, it smelled like Thanksgiving exploded in my kitchen!

I stuffed my bird with a bundle of celery, parsley stems, and sage leaves, one cut up onion, and a bunch of garlic cloves.

The bird took about 4 hours to roast, the veggies were a combination of crispy and soft depending on their location on the pan…perfect! The turkey was nice and moist and practically falling apart during the slicing process.

Mixed in with a drumstick...mostly falling apart!

For the veggies, I peeled and cut up a rutabaga (a.k.a. waxy turnip), 2 parsnips, a fennel bulb, celery root, and a bag of baby carrots. I blanched them all over the weekend and after cooling them, stored them until I was ready to use them. The day of I cut up 2 red onions as well. There was some salt in the blanching water, and I didn’t need to add any more before they went down on my pan. All the drippings from the turkey seasoned them well.

Colorful, Shiny, and Delicious!

 

Stuffing…I used 2 boxes of Stove Top stuffing mix…Chicken flavor, low sodium. I browned 1 Tablespoon of butter, fried the sage in it, and added the stuffing mix. I poured on the hot water and left it to sit. Before serving I poured on some broth from my turkey neck pot.

Not Glamorous, but Easy and Yummy

For the gravy…I took the turkey neck from my turkey packaging, browned it lightly in butter, discarded the butter, and added a carton of chicken broth to make a fortified stock. Some went in stuffing, and the rest went into my gravy. My gravy started with 1 1/2 Tablespoons of butter melted with sage. I whisked in flour, poured in the drippings from my turkey pan (I tried using the gravy separator and failed miserably), added the rest of my stock, seasoning it with some freshly ground black pepper, and let it reduce until it was nice and thick.

Look at that beautiful gravy atop of potatoes and turkey!

The green bean casserole used shortcuts like frozen cut green beans and condensed cream of mushroom soup. I could have gone all out and made a mushroom gravy but that required much more time and more dishes. I used 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, some evaporated skim milk (about 1/2 cup), 1 – 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup grated reduced fat cheddar cheese, and of course French fried onions!

Classic.

My buttermilk mashed potatoes started with yukon golds and ended with Smart Balance Light and low fat buttermilk! The recipe can be found in an earlier post.

Silky & Tangy

The sweet potatoes (Yams, rather) were made by roasting and peeling a yam the night before. The day of I mashed up with yam with 1 teaspoon butter, portioned it between 2 individual casserole dishes, and topping it with a streussel of cold butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans. I didn’t quite measure anything there, but as decadent as it sounds, most of the calories were probably on top of the sweet potatoes and not in them. We each only managed 1/2 our dishes.

Streussel = yummy

For the buttermilk biscuits, I found a recipe by Alton Brown on Food Network’s website and substituted half the flour for white whole wheat flour. It wasn’t too heavy on the butter and shortening, but boy were they good with the cranberry sauce.

Crunchy & Soft...perfect balance

 

There a mixture of decadent and rich, and in moderation, this meal was not as heavy as it could be on Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday, so we Indulged Intelligently!

Not to state the obvious, but there were LOTS of leftovers! I worked hard at getting every bit off the bones that I could. I saved the bones to make stock this morning. I lightly caramelized onions, carrots, and celery, deglazed with 1 cup of white wine, added garlic, fennel stems, parsley stems, bay leaves and peppercorns, and simmered away, skimming impurities and fat from the top throughout the simmering process.

I sauteed onions, carrots, and celery, strained the broth into my pot, and added chopped white and dark meat turkey. I also added chopped parsley and celery leaves. I seasoned it all with salt and pepper and let it simmer on low heat for about an hour, covered on the stove. I boiled noodles separately, put them at the bottom of the bowl and ladled the turkey and veggie soup on top. This way the noodles don’t get soggy or over-expand.

I forgot to take a picture, but I sent the leftovers home with my husband’s friend who had a cold. I sure hope he enjoys it, because it was his request!

This afternoon we had Thanksgiving sandwiches on Amoroso rolls (not sure if it’s a brand or a type but it’s a Philly classic roll and it’s delicious!) with some light mayo, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and sliced turkey breast.

The other half of my picked through light meat and dark meat was used for pot pies. I took half my leftover gravy, one can of 98% fat free condensed cream of chicken soup, 1/4 cup light sour cream, and 2 ladles of fresh turkey broth I was making, and mixed it well. I chopped up half the left over root vegetables into smaller pieces and cut up the turkey meat. I mixed it all into the gravy mixture well. I also added some chopped parsley. I portioned it between 4 soup dishes I got as a wedding present. I covered them with pie dough and made decorative turkey cut-outs on the top. I brushed it all with egg wash and put them straight in the freezer for a rainy day.

Even the feet are functional as vents when it's time to get baked!

 

I had some leftover pie dough after cutting out the pot pie tops and had a whole extra shell unopened. I didn’t want to bake another pie, so I browsed online for some creative ideas. I thought about turn overs or empanadas (which in hindsight would have been awesome with the leftover turkey and some guajillo pepper sauce!), but ended up finding suggestions for pinwheels. I spread a thin layer of Smart Balance spread on the pie shells. On one I added buffalo wing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings and cheddar cheese. On another I sprinkled on Parmesan, Romano, chopped parsley, chopped sage, and some paprika. I sliced them carefully after rolling them with a bread knife and then brushed the tops with egg wash. At 350 F they took about 15 – 18 minutes.

One was nutty and cheesy and the other had a real bite!

These pot pies are not the most decadent version either. They’re also packed with veggies. Now, I’m down to the leftover turkey from the buffet warmer and both legs and the wings. Since I also have some biscuits I thought about doing a rendition of biscuits and gravy but with turkey instead of sausage. If I get up and feel motivated, I’ll go for it. Otherwise I’ve been in go-mode for at least 3 days straight and might want a break. I would chop up some turkey meat, use some left over gravy and condensed cream of chicken soup to make the saucy part. To make it more authentic I will add chopped sage as well. It would be much healthier than sausage gravy, that’s for sure. =)

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are having fun playing with your leftovers too.

A Heavenly Thanksgiving Dessert

When your Thanksgiving meal can get very heavy and rich, it must be nice to know you can have a sweet end to your meal that won’t make you feel full of guilt and regret the next day. Heck, you can even have leftovers!

This is also incredibly easy. It uses some shortcuts, and the most complicated piece of equipment it requires is a tube pan.

1 box Angel Food Cake mix

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup cold water

1 tub  frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger

Preheat your oven to 350 F

Mix together cake mix, flour, and spices. Add pumpkin and cold water and mix until blended. Make sure to scrape down your bowl to ensure all the mix is blended in.

Pour the cake batter carefully into an ungreased tube (angel food cake) pan. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes until lightly browned on top.

Take the cake out of the oven and without loosening it from the pan, turn it upside down onto a wine bottle or glass funnel.

What's this lamp shade doing on my head?

While you’re waiting, mix the crystallized ginger into whipped topping gently. Again, make sure it’s thawed. I almost forgot…and that would have been bad.

Fresh out of the oven

After about 1-2 hours, loosen the cake from the edges and the center with the back edge of a knife or a long/offset spatula. Place your serving plate on top and gently flip it over.

Ta da!

Cut the cake in half horizontally.

Frost the bottom half of the cake using a spatula and spreading the whipped topping carefully.

Only half the yumminess

 

Place the second half on top and repeat the same frosting procedure.

Almost there...

 

As an additional option…sprinkle cinnamon on top of the cake.

All decked out and waiting for tomorrow!

 

I found this recipe by accident. I was looking for the ingredients in angel food cake mix for work research. While google-ing angel food cake mix, this recipe came up. Pies are wonderful, don’t get me wrong. I made a pecan pie as well. But this recipe was just the lightened up slice of holiday goodness I was looking for.

I don’t usually use mixes, but as it is mainly my husband and myself for Thanksgiving this year, I am taking some shortcuts. Sometimes when you try to do too much, and too many complicated things, recipes get lost in the shuffle and you don’t always end up with what you were hoping for. I didn’t want to take that chance.

Also, the original recipe  called for pumpkin pie spice. 1 1/2 – 2 tsp if you have it. I never buy pie spices because I always have the individual spices on hand. I also added ginger powder to my spices to enhance the ginger flavor in the whipped topping.

Enjoy this recipe! There may be more Thanksgiving recipes to come…but no guarantees, as they likely been indulgent this year =)

 

Have a great Thanksgiving all readers out there!

 

Brine that Bird!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, many of you may be trying to figure out the best way to keep your turkey nice and moist while still making sure it cooks through.

While a brine sounds complicated, I can assure you it’s not. Heck, if you can boil a water you can make a brine. In the most basic terms, it’s boiling salt, sugar or something sweet, and maybe a couple spices thrown into the pot. Not hard, right?

Of course, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know I don’t keep it simple. I researched brine recipes (my go-to step one when I want to make something new or different) because I wanted to see if I could find something different from the basic or usual brine. Surprisingly, I found a lot of recipes that started with vegetable broth. This was contribution number 1.

Then I found a cool recipe that used worcesterschire sauce. Maybe it’s the born Brit in me, but I love worcesterschire sauce. If you’ve never used it, it’s salty, tangy, and slightly garlicky…many of my favorite flavors!

I also found another recipe that used chili flakes, and that was icing on top!

So, what went in?

About 1.5 gallons of water

1 cup of salt

1/4 cup worcesterschire sauce

1/2 cup honey

1 onion cut into wedges

1/2 lemon

1/2 carrot

1 celery stalk

10 cloves of garlic smashed

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

a bunch of fennel stalks

5 or 6 bay leaves

2 teaspoons chili flakes

 

All you do is dump it all in the pot, bring it to a boil, and cool it before combining it with your turkey.

My combination of ingredients was based off the recipes I found, and adding what you would put in vegetable broth. Vegetable broth is mostly aromatic vegetables, herbs, and pepper simmered in water. I am not going out of my way to buy it, but I’m not using my extra veggies to make a whole batch either, so I added the components of it to my brine.

A brine can also be comprised of whatever you have laying around. The 1/2 lemon and the fennel stalks were just some extra things in the veggie drawer, so they got tossed into the pot.

Getting Yummy in There

I am going to let my brine sit and steep for the night. I don’t quite have space to store it and I’m not ready to brine my turkey yet. I will add ice to cool down further tomorrow and then add it to my turkey. Then it should be real happy and ready to go in the oven on Thursday.

Looks like it could be broth, but it's brine.

 

Make your turkeys happy…and stay tuned! There will be lots more Thanksgiving to come…

Stuff You Veggies with Veggies

After about a week not making the best eating choices, and a potentially indulgent Thanksgiving around the corner, I decided to make a healthier dinner tonight. On Saturday morning I went to the grocery store for a final round of Thanksgiving ingredients. Since my turkey was thawing in the fridge, and I’m taking a huge shortcut on stuffing, I was mostly buying fresh vegetables. I saw some half-cut squashes and couldn’t resist. I picked up Kambocha squash and for some reason I felt like it was begging to be stuffed and roasted. I dug around to see what I had…

I took out

1 medium onion

2 celery stalks, trimmed

1 green bell pepper

2 andouille chicken sausages

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup barley

1 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

8 ounces tomato sauce

Emeril’s Bayou Blast seasoning

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Peppers, Celery, Onions getting cozy

 

I brought the chicken broth to a boil, added the barley, and reduced it to a simmer and let it go for 25 minutes. In the meantime, I finely minced the pepper, onion, and celery. I let them caramelize in about 1/2 tsp of olive oil and 1 tsp smart balance light for about 15 minutes.

Veggies ready for the sausage

I added the sausage after dicing it, and mixed in the garlic cloves after putting them through my garlic crusher. I let it all cook together and let the sausage render. I mixed in the barley. I added the tomato products and bayou blast seasoning and let it cook for a few minutes. I checked the seasoning and added some salt and pepper to taste.   I took out my squash and scooped out the seeds and stringy stuff. I thought it would be hollower than it was and I had a good amount of stuffing! I took the spoon I used to scoop out the squash stuff to scrape down the inside of squash a bit. It was like having shavings of squash. In hind sight, I should have checked before my stuffing was done or before I cooked my stuffing. Since I got a little heavy handed with the salt, I minced up the squash I pulled out which was almost like a puree at that point and stirred it into my filling.

I sprayed the squash with cooking spray, sprinkled it with sea salt and pepper and packed in the barely & sausage filling. It was mounded real well at the top because there was so much of it.

That's a lot of stuffing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's almost the size of a whole s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I covered the top with a piece of foil and packed in the stuffing.

All wrapped up and ready for the oven

I put it in the oven at 375 F. It took about 65 minutes to get the squash to soften a little bit. I took the foil off the top and baked it for another 10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All done and out of the oven

 

Worked like a charm =)

It comes in its own serving ware!

It was a little tricky to cut into wedges, so I would recommend slicing it instead. You’ll need a pretty sharp knife to get a clean cut.

 

Fail...

With all the spicy flavors in there I would suggest mixing paprika into sour cream and serving it on top for a cooling contrast.

Forewarning…this is a very filling meal! There’s lot of fiber and nutritious goodness in this dish.
For a vegetarian version of this recipe, you can use kidney beans or black eyed peas in place of the chicken sausage and vegetable broth to cook the barley in. Just make sure that you use more seasoning to achieve the same flavor.

 

A delicious balanced meal!

It might look like a lot of filling compared to the squash, but it’s a good ratio as the squash is mild and slightly sweet and filling is spicy and rich.

It’s a comforting fall meal to feel good about. You could also make the stuffing in advance and bake the two together when you’re ready to eat it.

Enjoy!

Following up on a New Year’s Resolution

First, let me preface this post by apologizing for my lack of activity on my blog. I can’t promise I will continue to post regularly, but I have heard a handful of complaints recently that it’s been a very long time since I’ve put anything up on here. I will try to rectify that! I recently got a new job that I love, but it certainly puts my spare time into perspective. That combined with my husband’s love of Groupon and Living Social deals, I have definitely been cooking less. I try to do some bulk cooking on the weekends here and there, but I don’t cook anything mind blowing. Everyone once in a while I’ll cook after work too, but usually something simple, like the day I really wanted cobb salad, or using my pre-cooked szechuan london broil to make stir-fry.

Thursday I worked from home, so I took the opportunity to make some Coq Au Vin (chicken cooked in red wine). It wasn’t my best batch but it was yummy. I learned that while I have a huge container of dried gourmet mushrooms, they never cook like fresh mushrooms, even after having been soaked.

Today I did a balance of both. I made a whole bunch of turkey meatballs in tomato sauce. I used oats as a binder since I didn’t have breadcrumbs. I mixed the oats with milk and eggs, and the meatballs were nice and sturdy. With Italian seasoning, parmesan, garlic, onion, worcesterschire sauce, they were really yummy too.

The kicker, however, was my lobster dinner.  It may sound silly considering I went to culinary school, but I have never cooked lobster on my own before. No joke. It was sort of one of those, “if you feel comfortable killing a lobster, go a head, if not, don’t worry about it.” I’m a tad squeamish, so I didn’t like the idea of of stabbing the lobster between the eyes. I wasn’t really sure why we couldn’t just drop them into the pot after freezing them the humane way, but that probably had a lot to do with the reason I never cooked one before.

Today, I decided it was time to cross lobster off my bucket list. As I usually do with most recipes, I read up on different sites and put together the ideas I like best. Sometimes, I wing it as well. This was a prime example of a time I did both. I found a recipe calling to cook the lobster in champagne, and then I looked for traditional New England lobster boil recipes. I made sure I had potatoes and corn on the cob. Then I saw fennel on sale at the grocery store (finally!), so I bought a bulb, sliced it, and added it to the pot. Instead of spending money on champagne to cook it (yikes!), I used 1/4 of a bottle of chardonnay (it was all there was left). To add some spice and flavor, I added 2 sliced chicken andoiulle sausages and a few cloves of garlic. And because I was cooking seafood and seafood loves acid, I added a lemon cut in half. I added the lemon a couple of minute before adding the lobster. Since I’ve actually seen recipes omit this crucial ingredient, I will mention, I added plenty of sea salt to flavor everything in the pot.

Because this was my first attempt, and a bucket list cooking experience, I wanted to do it right. I went to the fish market and bought a live 1.5 lb lobster. I’ve seen plenty of possibly dead very sluggish lobsters at the grocery store, but didn’t want to take the easy way out. By the way, did I mention I’m a bit squeamish? The fish monger picked up a rather lively lobster for me to take home. I was honestly very afraid of it trying to jump out of the bag so I asked him to pack it with a bag of ice on top, hoping it would at least make it sluggish. Instead of waiting for dinner time, since it was already about 3 and we were hungry, I decided to cook the lobster right away. It definitely wasn’t moving around in the bag, so I set it on the counter and prepped the rest of my ingredients. when the timer went off on my potatoes and it was time to add the lobster, I thought I would just grab tongs and place it gently in the pot. As soon as removed the bag of ice and brought it over the stove, it started squirming! I tried to pick it up once but the tongs wouldn’t get a grip. It started squirming some more more and its antennae started lashing around. I think I angered it. After breaking out into a sweat and asking my husband to do the deed, it took me a minute to collect myself. Being the wonderful husband he is, he told he he wouldn’t because it my resolution to cook a lobster and he couldn’t take that away from me.

I took a deep breath, gripped my tongs around that bad boy hard, and gently placed him, head first, into my boiling pot. I quickly put the lid on, and tried to find youtube videos explaining how to break down the lobster after cooking it since it had been a while. I knew there could potentially be roe in the cavity, but wasn’t sure what to expect. Unfortunately, I found a lot of poorly detailed videos giving me no real useful information in 12 minutes, and decided I would figure it out on my own. I took a dry kitchen towel, and tried to pull the lobster out right away, but it was still just as slippery. I drained out some of the liquid from my pot and tried again. This time, I just pulled it out by the claw, and it worked much better. I drained out the rest of the ingredients and placed them on my tray. I cut off the rubber bands around its claws, and voila! Lobster dinner!

I also melted some Smart Balance Light with dried tarragon and a little lemon juice from the lemons I put in the pot. I don’t care for clarified butter personally, and this tasted way better. After taking a picture to capture my first lobster experience, I took the lobster apart to make it easier to eat. I figured out a time for the lobster from watching Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen on the Cooking Channel last night. The girl scares the bejeezus out of me, but she was making lobster and I was told by one of her almost equally creepy counter characters on her show, that you should boil a lobster for 10 minutes for the first pound, and an additional 3 minutes for every pound after that. Since mine was about a pound and a half I cooked it for 12 minutes.

Winner Winner Lobster Dinner!

I first twisted the lobster tail away from the body. Then I cleaned up the possible brain and roe that oozed out in the process. I know that some people consider those parts a delicacy, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Then, I pulled off the large claws. For good measure, I pulled off the legs in case I could get some meat out of them. I cut the lobster tail in half and cleaned off the “vein” which is very similar to a shrimp vein, but much bigger. Thankfully, I got the timing just right.  It was all very tender and not too chewy. It picked up just enough salt from the cooking liquid and some hints of other flavors. The andoiulle sausage didn’t impact the flavor very much though. The tarragon lemon butter was a great accompaniment to the lobster. The veggies got a little extra cooking time with me getting scared of the lobster, but they were delicious. All in all it turned out to be a very filling but healthy dinner. Also, the leg meat that I could get out was so delicious, I couldn’t figure out why people tend to toss them.

So for any of you out there, whoever isn’t mad at me for not posting in a long time, if you have something that intimidates you, don’t be afraid to go for it. I know I have more to tackle on my list, but getting my number 1 fear out of the way, makes the rest feel like cake =)

It’s amazing what you can do if you just give it a try.

Intelligently Indulgent Indo-Fusion – Recipe 2

Some of the ideas pulled for this next recipe were inspired by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences. If you look back to some older posts or remember an older post of mine, I made a “vegetarian delicacy” consisting of quinoa, eggplant, chickpeas, squash, raisins, dried apricots, and so on. I knew I wanted to slice my eggplant and stuff it with something, but didn’t want to use cheese again. From remembering that recipe, I thought chickpeas would go well, but I couldn’t use them whole. If I did use them whole they would have been rolling out of the eggplant rolls. So I ground them up in my food processor to make them stick inside. Usually something rolled up like that needs a sauce to compliment it, so I used the base recipe for my butter chicken sauce, made it a little spicier, and made some adjustments to compliment the flavors with the eggplant.

Chickpea Stuffed Eggplant

Filling

1 15 ounce can Chick Peas, drained and rinsed

¼ cup bread crumbs

Few sprigs cilantro

Few basil leaves

½ tsp salt

2 tsps garam masala

1 ½ tsp ground cumin

Combine chickpeas and other filling ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Grind until well mashed.

Chickpea filling for Eggplant Rolls

Eggplant

1 eggplant thinly sliced (12 – 14 for a large eggplant)

Kosher salt

toothpicks

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 bay leaves

½ cinnamon stick

4 cardamom pods

6 cloves

1 tsp fenugreek seeds (dana methi)

2 tsps cumin seeds

3 dried red chilies

 Lay out eggplant slices on a wire rack. Sprinkle slices with salt. Allow to sit for 15 – 20 minutes until slices are softened and flexible enough to roll.

Salted Eggplant Slices

Distribute filling onto slices and place it in the middle of the slices. Pat chickpea mixture together to solidify.

Chickpea Filling on Eggplant Slices

Roll eggplant slices up and secure with toothpicks.

Heat canola oil over medium-high heat in a large pan. Add spices, bay leaves, and dried chilies to pan. Cook until the seeds start to pop. Add eggplant slices to the pan, seam side up and brown slightly. Turn eggplant rolls over carefully and brown slightly on the other side. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add ¼ cup of water. Cover with a lid and steam until eggplant is soft.

Eggplant Rolls in the Pan

Cooked Eggplant Rolls

Bake, covered in a casserole dish or baking dish with a layer of Tikka Masala Sauce on the bottom, and more spooned on top of each roll, like enchiladas at 325°F for 20 minutes.

Tikka Masala Sauce

1 Teaspoon Canola Oil

2 Tablespoons Smart Balance Light

1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric

3 Bay Leaves

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds

4 Cardamom Pods, Crushed

1 Tablespoon Garlic Paste

1 Teaspoon Ginger Paste

1 Onion, Sliced

Salt to taste

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

8 Ounces Tomato Sauce

1/4 Cup Fat Free Half-n-Half

1 Tablespoon Dried Fenugreek Leaves

1 Teaspoon Garam Masala

1 Tablespoon Smart Balance Light

Over medium high heat, warm oil and 2 tablespoons smart balance light. Temper cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and turmeric until cumin seeds pop

Add onion and sauté until soft. Add  garlic paste, ginger paste, and tomato paste and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomato sauce, salt, and dried fenugreek leaves.

Tikka Masala Sauce

Add fat-free half-n-half and stir well.

Tikka Masala Sauce w/ Fat Free Half-n-Half

Put mixture in blender with last tablespoon of smart balance light and puree until smooth.

Eggplant Rollatini in Tikka Masala Sauce

Intelligently Indulgent Indo-Fusion – Recipe 1

Say that 10 times fast!

All though they were none-the-wiser, my mothers were guinea pigs on Mother’s Day. I had some ideas for Indian-fusion recipes I had honestly never made before, but were fairly confident they would work. My goal was to make healthy, high fiber, nutrient-rich, lower in fat and simple carbohydrate gourmet cuisine for my moms. Indian food is always familiar, but I didn’t want to go the traditional route, so I came up with some interesting ideas.

Palak Paneer Tarts

Palak Paneer Tarts

(This may look familar from a previous post, but I now have a healthier, more refined recipe)

Indian Tart Shells

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup graham flour (Besan)
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1/4 cup achar oil
ice water (about ½ cup)

Combine the pastry flour, graham flour, salt, and flax seeds in the base of a food processor.

While it is running, slowly pour in oil.

Processing Pastry Dough

Next, pour in ice water slowly and carefully until a ball of dough forms in the processor. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it slightly. Form it into a disk, cover it in plastic wrap and allow it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Tart Dough

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Lightly dust a large surface with flour. Rolling in one-directional movements, from the center out, roll the dough until it’s about 1/8 of an inch thin.

Using mini tart molds, place one on the dough upside down and cut circles ¼ of an inch around the mold. Do this until you end up with 6 circles. You may need to push a few scrap pieces of dough together, pinch the seams, and run your rolling pin over it to level it out to get an extra one or two.

Cutting Tart Shells

Gently press the dough into the molds taking extra care to push into the edges at the bottom. Run fingers around the rim to push the dough into the edges to ensure a shapely crust.

Push the extra dough down at the top of the rim and use your rolling pin to cut through the dough. Pull off excess dough.

Trimming Tart Shells

Dock the tart dough with a fork. Place tart shells on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes until firm and very lightly browned.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Finished Tart Shells

Shells can be stored in an airtight container for a few days until needed for a recipe

For the filling I made some modifications to my base palak paneer recipe, starting with less spinach:

10 Ounces Frozen Spinach, Thawed

6 Ounces paneer crumbled

1 Medium Onion, Pureed

2 Tablespoons Garlic Paste

1 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger Paste

1  Teaspoon Green Chile Paste

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

6 Ounces Tomato Sauce

2 Teaspoons Canola Oil

1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric

1/4 Teaspoon Red Chili Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Cumin

2 Bay Leaves

2 Teaspoon Coriander Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Garam Masala

2 Tablespoons Dried Fenugreek Leaves

1 Egg

1.  Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan
2.  Temper turmeric, cumin, bay leaves, and coriander powder until cumin seeds begin to pop a little.
3.  Add onion, garlic, ginger, and green chili pastes to the pan and cook for a minute stirring well.
4.  Add tomato paste and tomato sauce along with 1/2 teaspoon salt and red chili powder. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes longer
5.  Puree spinach in the meantime and add to the saucepan. Stir well and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes
6. Add  garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon salt and fenugreek leaves, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.

Palak for Tart Filling

7. Cool and then whisk an egg into the mixture.

Putting it together: Place some of the paneer at the bottom of each tart shell, trying to cover the base.

Sprinkle paneer with a little salt (may not be necessary depending on the brand you buy or if you made it yourself). Divide the spinach mixture between the tart shells.

Gently spread the spinach mixture out to cover the layer of paneer.

Assembling Tarts

Sprinkle a little more paneer on top of each tart shell. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes.

Tarts Ready to go into the Oven

I know the egg might sound unnecessary, but it helps set the spinach mixture and prevent it from pouring out when you break into the tart. These were most easily eaten by hand.

I also normally make my own paneer with 2% milk but was short on time. You can expect a post in the future about paneer making and some twists I put on my home made paneer.

Madness and Mother’s Day

Do not fear, the two do not coincide. Once again, I’ve let my blog slip from my hands, but I am trying to rectify that now. Most recently, in the past 5 weeks, I started cooking for an elderly couple. I got the tip from the Delaware Dietetic Association and jumped on the opportunity. The couple is in their 90’s and still very independent. The wife had broken her shoulder and her daughter was looking for someone to prepare heart-healthy meals for them as the husband is severely sodium sensitive. I don’t have a ton of experience in low sodium cooking, but I was up for the challenge. And a challenge it has been. As open minded as they proclaimed to be, they’re still fairly picky and traditional. Bob, the husband also does not eat any peppers of any kind. I’ve managed to introduce them to a few things and fool them with some things. For example, they now know they love rutabaga, and I managed they somehow believed my bolognese sauce (that’s a fancy way of saying meat sauce) was made with beef when it was really made with turkey.

I haven’t been spending much time experimenting for ourselves at home as this was a full day affair twice a week up until this week when we dropped it down to once a week. We’ve also been been redecorating/renovating our home in the majority of our spare time and been relying on our friend Joe, Trader Joe, to feed us.

Last week I did have fun grilling corn and artichokes. I meant to report about it but only managed to get a picture of my artichokes swimming in acidic water to prevent from browning. Whoops.

Anyway, this Mother’s Day I will be having my parents and my in-laws over for a late lunch. My parents are coming into town tomorrow evening, so we plan to have dinner together as well. Recently, I’ve found out that my dad’s blood sugar was getting out of control and when I tested his fasting blood sugar at home, it was definitely in the pre-diabetic range. So was my mom’s. They’ve both been making big changes to their diet, and so have I. I’ll admit after my back injury I didn’t care for a while and also didn’t feel like I had to strength to work out, but for the past few weeks I’ve been diligent and finding that the more active I am the better it is for my back.

For years I was a tried and true carb-o-holic. I even used to have a shirt that said “I Love Carbs” with a picture of a food guide pyramid underneath it with all carb products in it, but now I’m cutting back. I’m not doing any kind of crazy low carb diet that might work for some but I don’t feel is healthy for anyone. Just eating less of them and less often. I’ve cut down on snacking as well, because let’s face it…those snacks were predominantly carbs.

I’ve been fixated on some indian-fusion recipes I’d like to try out this weekend. They’re all vegetarian and all healthy.

Tomorrow night I want to make grilled tandoori tofu. First I’m gonna drain and press a block of tofu and then I’m gonna marinate it in tandoori masala, greek yogurt, and some other special spices. I got a bunch of zucchini and spinach so I want to use that too. Not sure how yet though. Then, I’m gonna make soba noodles (asian buckwheat noodles) and toss them in a little bit of this achar masala infused oil I made a while ago.

For Mother’s Day, I plan to do something indian fusion as well. The main dish will be a mini tart with the shell made of whole wheat pastry flour and chickpea flour, filled with a spinach puree (flavored like palak paneer) and topped with crumbled paneer. Then I’m gonna make eggplant rollatinis stuffed with mashed chickpeas and topped with a tomato-based sauce. Then, I’m gonna make a curried mushroom pearl barley risotto. Instead of arborio rice, I’m using pearled barley which is really high in fiber and much better for you.

I’ll make sure to take pictures and write recipes to get back to you. =)

Keep reading at eating!

A Treat for the Munchies

Salty crunchy cravings are common for many of us. Every once in a while, no matter how healthy you are, the urge comes along, so what do you do? You end up purchasing a bag of greasy potato chips which are craving-quashing heaven in the moment. But…a few minutes later, after the salt and fat dissipate from your brain, you’re left with guilt. Hey, we’ve all been there.

Fear not my guilt-stricken friends, there is a solution that tastes good and works.

I’ve been on a mission lately to bake my own potato chips. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the Lays version of a baked potato chip is a little frightening. Does it bother anyone else that it no longer even remotely resembles a potato? Thanks, but no thanks. Trader Joe’s actually does a pretty good job. They’re a little hard, but their potato chips look like they came from potatoes and they taste way better. Salt and Vinegar chips without the guilt? Sign me up!

I found a recipe in Food Network Magazine for baked potato chips, but it didn’t work very well. I made some adjustments like lowering the oven temperature and baking them for shorter periods of time (because 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes makes sense), but it still wasn’t quite right.

So I sliced my potatoes a little thicker (paper thin was not a good idea), soaked them overnight in cold water and a little bit of malt vinegar. The next day I drained and rinsed them well and patted them dry before their trip to the oven. Food Network Magazine recommended making a garlic-infused olive oil for tossing the potatoes in before baking. I heated some extra virgin olive oil with lots of garlic, dried jalapeño, and a pinch of citric acid. I did that the night before as well until the garlic started to brown. I took it off the heat and let it sit overnight.

 

After preparing the potatoes and straining the olive oil, I combined them together. No more than 2 teaspoons of oil per 2 potatoes. I used Yukon Golds which run smaller than Idaho potatoes. You can add the salt when you’re tossing the potatoes in oil or sprinkle the potatoes with salt after you’ve spread them onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

I sprinkled after spreading the potato slices on the baking sheet. After that, I baked them at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes. I got to a point where I pulled the brown ones off the baking sheet in cycles and allowed the paler ones to continue baking until they were done.

They may be darker but they are another variety of potato and are baked not fried.

And it still looks like a potato!

Try them yourself. It may not be an exact recipe, but the technique is there. A few notes:

You can try different potatoes if you’d like. Something starchy like a russet or yukon gold is appropriate but I wouldn’t suggest a waxy potato like a red skin potato.

The flavors you can add are also up to you. Definitely make sure to season the oil aggressively for it to transfer to the chip.

A mandoline makes a huge difference when it comes to evenly and efficiently slicing potatoes.

 

Keep Reading and Eating!