One healthy meal...check

Feeling a bit stuffed like last week's Thanksgiving turkey, Chris and I decided to get ourselves back into the gym every day this week. So far we've made good on that promise.

Another promise we made post-Thanksgiving was to eat a bit healthier. In other words, cutting out sweets (as much as possible). We're still working on that one. It's hard to resist Breyer's chocolate ice cream especially after having a salad with every dinner. But I haven't baked anything this week (yet). That counts, right?

I turned to homemade soup to help with the healthy food part of our December "resolution." What could be better for you than a nice hot bowl of minestrone soup?

I looked at a variety of minestrone soup recipes online since I haven't made it before, and decided to put together my own version which thankfully, turned out to be just what I was hoping it would be. It's loaded with vegetables and helps check off the box on our promise to eat healthy -- at least for one meal.


Minestrone Soup
(Courtesy of the Clarendon Cook)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup carrots, diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
5 cups chicken stock
1 (28 oz.) can of petite diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can of cannellini beans
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 cup of orzo pasta (or other small pasta)
1 cup of frozen diced green beans
1 cup of frozen corn
3 T. of your favorite pesto (This adds a fantastic depth of flavor to the soup. My favorite store-bought pesto is Bear Pond, which I've only seen at Whole Foods.)
Salt and pepper, to taste (I used about 1 tsp. of salt and 1/2 tsp. of pepper.)
Grated Parmesan, for garnish

Method:

In a stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, carrots and celery, saute for 10 minutes. Add zucchini and saute 5 minutes longer.

Add chicken stock, tomatoes, basil, oregano, and pasta (if uncooked) and simmer the soup for 10-15 minutes. (If pasta has been cooked ahead of time, add this at the very end.) Add the green beans, corn, and pesto, and simmer 5 minutes longer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with grated Parmesan.

Move over meat, vegetables are the new star!

I grew up on meat and potatoes so to speak, so the term "vegetarian" was like describing a member of a foreign country. Vegetables were normally just side dishes, not main dishes, in our family.

Well, fast forward just a couple of years (okay, maybe a few more than that), to present day. I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian (I still love meat too much) but I do love vegetables even though they're usually relegated to the side of a meal as an afterthought. After all, I have a husband who when he's hungry, wants to be filled up. Vegetables usually don't fill that void. Claire, on the other hand, is the one member of our family who consumes more than her fair share of them right now.

However, I found a dish that's pleasing to my hungry husband and to me, and that is (gasp!) vegetarian! This "Bombay Vegetable Stew" is quite delicious, nutritious, and plenty filling. The recipe is from a book titled "Feeding Baby Green" by Alan Greene, M.D., which, being a new mom and all, I've been reading since it has a lot of good meal ideas for kids. This is a meal I will eventually make for Claire when she gets a little more used to chunky textures but for now, I'm definitely going to be making this a lot for the adults in this household.

Bombay Vegetable Stew
Courtesy of Alan Greene, M.D., "Feeding Baby Green"

Ingredients:
1/2 cup lentils, dried (or 1 cup canned lentils)
1 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. fresh ginger, minced
3 large carrots, diced
1 cup cauliflower, broken into small florets
1 (14.5 oz.) can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup green peas
1 1/2 cups water (if using canned lentils, include the liquid from the can with the water to equal 2 cups total)
Kosher salt, to taste

Method:
In large saucepan, cook the dried lentils according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions and garlic until the onions are tender. Add the ginger and stir.

Add the carrots and cauliflower to the onion mixture and continue to cook until the carrots are warm all the way through, but still crisp. Add the tomatoes and curry powder and cook a few minutes more.

Add the lentils, chickpeas, green peas, and water. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Turn off heat if you are not serving immediately to prevent the vegetables from becoming mushy. The flavors will intensify and blend beautifully. Reheat briefly before serving.

A New Culinary Adventure: Baby Food

There it is -- one of my newest adventures in being a mom -- homemade baby food.

Butternut squash, to be exact. Packaged in neat, 2.5 oz. containers. Ready to eat. Gotta love that.

I'm happy with my efforts in making baby food since introducing solids to Claire over the last month, although this is about the simplest cooking I've ever done. Steam. Puree. Store. And it tastes good. (Yes, I've tried it - every time.)

(I have been using the Beaba Babycook which allows you to do all of that in one device, but obviously, you can make your own baby food without it. I do love it for the pure convenience factor.)

Claire has been particularly fond of butternut squash and sweet potatoes, but thankfully has eaten everything put in front of her so far. Even though she first snubbed carrots, she eats them now. We'll see how long that lasts, right?

A byproduct of introducing solids into her diet is that Chris and I have been eating more veggies. And one of my new favorite ways to eat butternut squash is through roasting. It's easy and makes for a delicious side dish. So while Claire is feasting on steamed and pureed squash, we will be enjoying it a different way.


Roasted Butternut Squash
(Courtesy of Whole Foods)

Ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Halve the squash lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out and discard seeds.

If desired, peel with a vegetable peeler or cut into big chunks and keep steady on the cutting board while cutting off the peel with a knife.

Cut into 1-inch cubes. Transfer to a large, rimmed baking sheet. Toss with oil, salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer. Roast, tossing occasionally, until just tender and golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Fresh Flavors: Lebanese Bean Salad

I've recently been working my way through a cookbook titled, "Ethnic Cuisine: How to Create the Authentic Flavors of 30 International Cuisines," by Elisabeth Rozin.  I tried her baba ghanouj recipe the other day -- which I'll add to this blog soon -- and it turned out wonderfully.  I'm going to try to make her hummus recipe in the next few days.  Another recipe, Lebanese Bean Salad, looked inviting since it combined very fresh flavors -- tomato, cucumber, parsley, mint -- with kidney beans, providing a great way to make my diet a bit more healthy.  (Gotta balance those chocolate chip cookies out!)  The salad turned out really well, and it was definitely best after the flavors were allowed to sit and meld together for a few hours.  I feel healthy just writing about it.

That said, on a related note, a news story about Lebanon's government collapsing this week caught my eye.  (Associated Press story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKLdFozTq_mjqIHyByXq9DMbpz2w?docId=51dbcaef794b4ea0a78ead4e8b809d23)  I don't hear much about Lebanon normally, nor do I hear much about governments collapsing (I cannot imagine that happening in the USA), and so this post is dedicated to the people in that country who are living through this tumultuous situation.  I'm praying for the Lebanese people and hope you'll join me.

Lebanese Bean Salad
(Courtesy of Elisabeth Rozin, "Ethnic Cuisine: How to Create the Authentic Flavors of 30 International Cuisines")

Ingredients:
2-2 1/2 cups cooked or canned red or white kidney beans, drained
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped, or 3-4 scallions, finely chopped
1 T. fresh mint, chopped, or 2 tsp. crushed, dried mint leaves
1 large ripe tomato, coarsely chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

Method:
Combine beans, parsley, onion, mint, tomato, and cucumber in a bowl.  Combine olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a separate bowl and beat together.  Pour the dressing over the vegetables, and stir together.  Refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours.  Mix again before serving.

Fall is the perfect time for satisfying soup

Fall is here! Despite the recent 90 degree temps we've had in the DC area, I'm definitely in the mood for fall and the cooler days ahead.  That's partly because I love fall food -- apple pies, apple cider, pumpkin bread, spice cakes...I could go on and on.  And I will.  There's much to share on this blog!

One of my favorite ways to enjoy the fall weather is by making homemade soup.  My Aunt Nancy recently gave me some leeks from her garden.  I don't use leeks very often so I had to search for a good recipe in which to use them.  I came across the Leek and Potato Soup recipe below from Epicurious.com and was intrigued because it only used 5 ingredients.  Well, this recipe is a keeper.  It's very flavorful -- and I only had to add a few pinches of salt to get the taste just right.  I'll definitely be coming back to this recipe again.  Hope you enjoy it too!

A note about leeks: a good way to clean these onions is to dice them and put them in water for a few minutes.  Any dirt will sink to the bottom and then you can scoop up the leeks for use.

Leek and Potato Soup
(Courtesy of Bon Appétit, May 1996)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/1922?mbid=ipapp

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
3 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, thinly sliced (about 4 1/2 cups)
2 large russet potatoes (about 18 ounces total), peeled, diced
4 1/2 cups (or more) chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Method:
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks; stir to coat with butter. Cover saucepan; cook until leeks are tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes. Cover and cook until potatoes begin to soften but do not brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add 4 1/2 cups stock. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in processor until smooth. (I used an immersion blender which did the same thing and it was much easier to do.) Return to saucepan. Thin with additional stock if soup is too thick. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) Bring soup to simmer. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with chives and serve.

Easy Entertaining: Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

It's funny how food moods change with the seasons.  Given how warm it's been (unusually warm for Washington, DC as well), I've been wanting lighter, fresher meals.  So when my family came for a visit over Easter weekend, I knew I wanted to make a shrimp dish.  I found the perfect one - Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp.  The taste was light and fresh, and it was definitely healthy.  I baked it in one big casserole dish and then served it over cous-cous.  Perfect!  This is a good dish for company since it's easy to assemble and it's healthy.  Your guests will thank you.

Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp
(Courtesy of  The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp
1 bunch (10-12 ounces) fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, halved, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 T. olive or vegetable oil
Salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. lemon-pepper seasoning salt
Parsley sprigs for garnish

Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Shell and devein shrimp.

In bowl, combine spinach, tomatoes, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt.  Toss to coat.  Place spinach mixture in four 1-1/2 cup shallow casseroles. (I didn't have individual casserole dishes, so I just used one large casserole dish, which worked just fine.)

In the same bowl, combine shrimp, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, lemon-pepper seasoning salt, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt; toss shrimp to coat.  Arrange shrimp mixture over spinach mixture.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until shrimp are opaque throughout.  If you're using individual casserole dishes, the recipe recommends that you serve this dish by placing each casserole on plate and garnishing with parsley sprigs.  (I served the shrimp over cous-cous.)

Note:  This recipe makes 4 main-dish servings (it allows plenty for seconds or leftovers).  Each serving is about 205 calories, 26g protein, 6g carbohydrates, 8g total fat (1g saturated), 219 mg cholesterol, 865 mg sodium.

Cute Little Appetizers for Baby Showers

It seems that many of my friends are having a baby these days, as is the Clarendon Cook, whose bun will be finished baking come mid-June. :)  That has given us ladies ample opportunity to host baby showers, which in many ways are much more fun than wedding showers given all the "oohs" and "aahs" from the guests as the moms-to-be open cute little baby clothes, cute little books and various cute little things that will ensure the baby becomes successful at an early age.  But even more fun is being a hostess for one of these events (for me at least) because it's a great opportunity to make cute little appetizers and desserts which I may not normally get to make.

A few of us from my church hosted an afternoon baby shower for our friend Carrie on Valentine's Day.  We opted for appetizers and desserts because it was Valentine's Day, after all, and we figured that most people would want to eat light because of dinner plans with their Valentines that evening.  I'm including some of those recipes below (be sure to scroll all the way down the page).  While I can't promise that these recipes will make the baby smart and successful (though that's certainly possible), it appears that they may have the power to coerce the baby to make his or her appearance sooner rather than later. It was only two days after Carrie's shower that her cute little baby daughter, Helena, came into the world (though only a few weeks early).  I suspect it was all the sugar that enticed her...

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

(Courtesy of the Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/3 cups milk
2 t. vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
4 large eggs
fluffy white frosting (I used store-bought.)
red and blue food coloring (or whatever color you want the icing to be)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line thirty-six 2 1/2-inch muffin pan cups with fluted paper liners.

In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.  In measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla.

In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar and margarine until blended.  Increase speed to high; beat about 2 minutes, until creamy.  Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared cups, filling each cup about three-fourths full.  (Bake only as many cupcakes as 1 rack in center of oven can hold.)  Bake 25 minutes, or until toothpick in centers comes out almost clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool completely on racks.  Repeat with remaining batter.

Once cupcakes are cooled, you can ice them.  Since I used store-bought white icing, I added a few drops of red food coloring to the icing until I got the desired shade of pink, and the same with the blue food coloring until I got the blue shade of icing that I wanted.  Keep in mind that it doesn't take much food coloring, so add a few drops and then stir, adding more if you need them.

To ice them, I used two different decorating bags with tips and layered the icing on...feel free to be creative with the type of tip you use...that's part of the fun of decorating cupcakes!  I made half pink and the other half blue.  I also found some clear food glitter and sprinkled them on these cupcakes as well to give them an extra sparkle.

Cucumber Dill Tartlets

(Courtesy of Kelly Oliver, adapted from Oxmoor House's Little Book of Holiday Appetizers)

I doubled this recipe in order to have enough filling:

Ingredients:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (if doubling, use the whole block)
3 T. frozen minced chives (fresh works well too)
3 T. sour cream
1/2 t. dried dillweed
1/4 t. garlic salt (may need more to suit your taste)
1/8 t. ground white pepper
2 packages of frozen small phyllo dough tartlet shells (or something similar that you can fill)
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
Fresh dillweed

Method:
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread cream cheese mixture in phyllo dough tartlet shells. Top with 1 cucumber slice and and a sprig of fresh dillweed.  Freshness note: These are better eaten closer to the time they're filled.

Stuffed Tomatoes

(Courtesy of Paula Lively, Ariel Lively's MIL)

Ingredients:

1 lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (equates to about 3/4 jar of Hormel real bacon bits)

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

2 T. chopped fresh parsley (Ariel used cilantro for the ones pictured above.)

2 T. grated Parmesan

1/2 cup mayonnaise

24 cherry tomatoes (equates to about two mesh bags of the vine-ripened cherry tomatoes)

Method:

Remove stems from tomatoes and rinse them.  Place tomatoes stem-side down to cutting board.  Cut thin slice off top of each tomato (opposite end of stem side).  With small melon scoop or sharp grapefruit spoon, carefully hollow out tomato, leaving shell.  Invert tomatoes on paper towels to drain for several hours.

In a bowl, combine bacon, onions, parsley, Parmesan and mayonnaise.  Stir until well-blended. Refrigerate for several hours to let flavors blend, then fill the tomatoes with the bacon mixture.

Tip:  Ariel saved the tomato tops and guts into a plastic bag and froze them to use for soups, etc., that call for tomatoes.

Lovely Lentil Soup

It's been a busy few weeks filled with lots of traveling, and I'm happy to be able to return home to do some of my own cooking.  January's wintry weather has really gotten me craving soup, and I found a great recipe for Lentil Soup.  I've been trying to figure out ways to use lentils, and this is a pretty good place to start.  This recipe uses real bacon to flavor the soup, and I laughed at myself as I bought a package because I realized that I had never bought real bacon before!  I've always bought turkey bacon.  Let's just say that I'm definitely a fan of real bacon.  On to the recipe...

Lentil Soup
(Courtesy of Everyday Food/Martha Stewart Living)

Ingredients:
3 strips bacon (3 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch half moons
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. tomato paste
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 t. dried thyme
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)
1 T. red-wine vinegar
Course salt and fresh ground pepper

Method:

In a Dutch oven (or other 5-quart pot with a tight-fitting lid), cook the bacon over medium-low heat until browned and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour off all but 1 T. of the fat.

Add the onion and carrots; cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste, and cook for 1 minute.

Add the lentils, thyme, broth and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cover; cook until the lentils are tender, 30 to 45 minutes. If the soup becomes too thick during cooking, add up to 1 cup more water.

Stir in the vinegar, 1 1/2 t. salt and 1//4 t. pepper.  Serve soup immediately.