WOW - Creamy (non dairy) Jalapeno Green Sauce (Vegan even) - Low Calorie! HMR Compliant!

A.K.A. the Green Stuff.

This is awesome.  I mean really good.  And it takes a fairly typical salsa/sauce at Taco Trucks (the green stuff) and makes it far more nutritious with far fewer calories.

The bottled green sauce you get at taco trucks and Taqueria's is pretty basic - boiled jalapenos and onion, pureed in a blender with vegetable oil and salt.  Sometimes with garlic, sometimes with cilantro.  Some may add avocado, but most don't, even though everyone thinks it's in there.  It is really good.  To cut the heat, you take out the seeds and the membranes before boiling (which is where most of the heat in a pepper is).  Boil them with the seeds and membranes the heat goes up - your choice.

I have made it without the oil, but it is missing something.  Missing more than the 500 calories a 1/4 cup of oil brings.  The oil adds fat, smoothness and tames the heat some.

Today, VICTORY.

The solution for not using oil?  Soft Silken Tofu.  Yes, Tofu.

Tofu gets you that smoothness, the texture that oil brings to the sauce.  It has just enough fat to taste great, not enough to bust your diet.  It has 180 calories for 12 ounces, not 500 calories for 1/4 cup.  Plus 16 grams of protein, some calcium, iron and other nutrients and minerals.

And it tastes great.  On to the show.

Ingredients

One lb fresh jalapenos, seeded and de-ribbed (wear vinyl/nitrile gloves when cutting and don't touch your eyes!
One onion, chopped (nothing special, it is getting boiled and pureed later).  I use white onions as that is more typical in mexican cooking, but whatever.  You could even use green onions, tops and all.
1 Box (12 oz) Soft Silken Tofu
Salt to taste
Garlic if you like
Cilantro if you like

Recipe
Boil jalapenos and onions for 20 minutes in sufficient water to keep covered
If you like, in the last 5 minutes, add peeled garlic to the boiling water.  As much garlic as you like.

Drain and blend all three ingredients for a minute.  Be careful - it will be hot.  I use a blender, you could use a food processor.  I think the blender gets it smoother.

While blending, scoop in the tofu.  Blend for another 30 seconds.

Add salt to taste (as in, add a tsp, taste, add more as you like, or don't)
Add fresh cilantro as desired, or not.

Serve warm, or put in the fridge to cool.  This will keep for at least a week

If you de-ribbed and de-seeded the jalapenos, the sauce will be quite mild, especially if you put it on food such as HRM Turkey Chili, eggs, as a veggie dip, etc.

Calorie count for the entire recipe 355 - 180 for the Tofu, 130 for the Jalapenos, 45 for the onion. So 355 calories for the entire sauce, which will be about 2 cups.  That is about 11 calories a tablespoon, 22 calories for two tbs.  So this is actually OK on the No Decisions HMR diet as a condiment!

Woo Hoo!

HMR Five Bean Casserole - Becomes.... West African Peanut Stew - Maafe!

The HMR Five Bean Casserole is pretty good.

And you can do a number of things with it - my favorite is making it into Peanut Stew.

Peanut stew is, typically, root vegetables with chicken, and of course, peanuts and peanut butter..  Which is not exactly hmr material.  So, what to do, what to do.

Well, this is what you do

The simple adds are

PB2 - yes, that wonder of modern science, freeze dried, defatted peanut butter.
Cilantro
Green Onions
Jalapenos
HMR chicken soup

Get to add Vegetables?  Time for some fun

Cooked Sweet Potato or Butternut squash are classics
Sweet corn
Fresh or canned tomato
Garbanzo beans (1/2 cup equals one serving of veg)
Cooked potato
Diced red peppers

This is a delicious stew - really!

Leek and Potato Soup - 100 calories a cup!

I like this soup in the fall when leeks are cheap.  As in 69 cents each.  When they are $2.69 each, I don't like them as much.  Plus, they are cheap when potatoes are cheap also - 50 cents a lb - so a big win on the budget front.

To determine calories, you must of course base it on what you use.  Your calorie count will vary...

Ingredients

Leeks (3 @54 calories each, 162 calories total)
Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled (18 ounces @ 26 calories per ounce, 468 calories total)
Swanson or Progresso Chicken Broth, low sodium (8 cups, 15 cal per cup, 120 calories total).  Or go with vegetable broth.
1 cup water (free)
salt and pepper to taste (free)
Thyme to taste (free)

Yields 8 cups, so 94 calories per cup with what I used.

Cut the dark green portions of the leeks off, slice in half the long way, then slice fine.  Put in a big pot of water and swish around to get the dirt out of them.  Drain.

Add to big pot and sweat (that is, cook at low to medium heat till they soften).  You don't need oil, butter or anything else.  They will release moisture as they cook down.  Salt with about a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.

Peel and slice potatoes into 1/4 thick slices.  I do it this way because they then cook evenly no matter how big the potato is - every slice cooks at the same speed.

When leeks have gotten soft (10 to 15 minutes), add potatoes, thyme, broth and water.  Cook at medium until potatoes are soft

Put half at a time into a blender, blend till smooth - be careful and put a towel over the blender and don't fill it more than 1/2 way - to much is a good way of blowing the top off, burning yourself and painting the walls with the soup.

When pureed, serve.  Good hot, good cold.

Green Sauce, a.k.a. Creamy Green Sauce a.k.a. Jalapeno Avocado Sauce a.k.a. ?????

There are a lot of names for this, none of them really very accurate, outside of “green sauce”, because it is, well, green. You will find this in only the finest taco joints.  And by finest, I mean good ones.

While smooth and luscious, there is no dairy, so not really creamy (although you could add crema or yogurt)

While it kind of tastes like perhaps there is avocado in it, there isn’t.  But you could put one in instead of the oil.

It is really just, well, DELICOUS!  Crazy Good!  The kind of stuff you go to a taco joint just to eat spoonfuls of!

So, what is it?

Jalepenos (or other pepper like Poblanos or Anaheims), onion, garlic, salt, fresh squeezed lime (if you like) and oil, cooked and pureed.

Super simple – make some tonight!

This is the mild version - if you follow the directions, it really will be pretty mild, unless your jalapenos are the insanely hot (sometimes they are)

Ingredients

• ·         1lb jalapenos (about 20 or so)
• ·         4-5 green onions, cut into 3 inch sections, whites and greens)
• ·         3-6 cloves garlic, peeled
• ·         ½ teaspoon salt
• ·         ¼ cup corn oil (or other neutral oil – no olive oil)
• ·         ½ lime juice, to taste

Recipe

• ·         Put on some disposable gloves
• ·         De-stem, de-seed and de-rib the jalapenos.  If you like your sauce spicier, skip step – just toss in whole.   WEAR GLOVES.  Really bad idea to do this and then rub your eyes.  #justsayin
• ·         Toss jalapenos, green onions into pot of water, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until soft (about 20 minutes)
• ·         For the last 1 minute or so, toss the peeled garlic cloves into the simmering water.  This will temper the raw garlic taste
• ·         Drain, let cool
• ·         If you did not de-stem, etc earlier, do so now.  The more seeds and ribs you scrape out, the milder it will be.  Like it spicier?  Leave some or all of that out.  But do get rid of the stems
• ·         Toss everything into blender, add salt, puree at low speed
• ·         When things are getting nice and pureed, start slowly adding oil to mixture in blender.  Once added, speed up the blender.  Basically your making a nice emulsion so the oil does not separate out of the sauce
• ·         Taste, add more salt or squeeze some lime juice into the mix while blending.  The lime juice will brighten up the flavors.  Not sure it needs it, be sure to start with just a half lime.  You could use a tablespoon of white vinegar

Options

If too spicy, cut with greek yogurt or sour cream or add advocados.  Yogurt adds it's own tang and was generally preferred in our house.  If you were planning on using yogurt, especially yogurt with fat in it, I would probably reduce the amount of oil.  Same if your adding advocados

1 cup cilantro is a very nice contribution - just put it in at the start of the blending stage.

I like it better without the lime, but to each their own

If you want to have this on chips, remember you want El Milagro "Totopos" homestyle chips.  Really you do.

EAT IT

Dad’s Butternut Squash, Chicken and Pasta, Risotto style

Dad’s Butternut Squash, Chicken and Pasta, Risotto style.  Low calorie, low fat, all delicious.

This is cooked risotto style - that is to say the pasta is sauted in a pan then cooked in chicken stock with the rest of the ingredients.  As it is not boiled, merely simmered,  the pasta takes longer than normal to cook.

Calories are approximately 194 per cup.  Approximately.  It depends on how much you cook down the sauce, how much cheese you put on, did you measure the oil, how big was your butternut squash, etc.  So basically, with 2 tbs of grated parm on top, I call a two cup serving 400 calories.

1 onion, small dice

1 stalk celery, small dice

1 red bell pepper, small dice (or large, if a food fusser wants to pick out theirs)

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and diced fine

1 medium to large butternut squash, cubed (½ inch cubes) - mine ended up being 5 cups diced.

1 lb raw chicken breast, no skin, bone or fat,  cubed (½ inch cubes)

2 oz white wine or white vermouth

3 cups chicken broth

4 oz Creamette 150 calorie pasta

½ lemon

1 tbs italian seasoning (dried basil, thyme, etc.  I use Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset)

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese (not included in above calorie count - 1 tbs grated is 20 calories)

Heat pan (burner at 6 or so (medium heat)  add olive oil.  Put chicken in Pan, brown chicken  in a teflon coated chicken fryer that has a lid.  You could do this in a Le Crueset pot, but you will probably need another ½ tbs of olive oil if you do.  Don’t forget to adjust your calorie count. You do not need to cook it all the way through at this time - just brown it.  It will finish cooking later.  After brown, put to the side in a bowl, leaving any remaining oil, juices in frying pan.

Return pan to heat.  Saute the onion, celery, red bell pepper and italian seasoning.  If you need to add oil , adjust your calorie count.  Since I used a teflon coated pan, I did not need to.  When just about turning brown (or browning a little bit) add the garlic, saute for another couple of minutes.  I am generally at medium heat for this.

Add Pasta, saute with veg.  Pasta will get coated with oil and start to toast.  Feel free to cook for a while, or not.  Add vermouth or wine and stir.  When the pasta has absorbed the vermouth, use a spatula to scrape out the pan into the bowl that is holding the chicken and set aside.

Return pan to the burner and add the butternut squash and chicken stock.  Bring to a low boil (still at medium heat), cook for 5-6 minutes.  Be sure to cover the pot at this time to keep the chicken stock from evaporating too much.  When you taste a piece and it is getting cooked, but still firm, that is where you want it.

At this point, add all the ingredients back to the pan that is cooking the squash in the stock.  Stir, and cover.  A nice thing about the teflon chicken fryer I have is that it is a glass top, so you can observe the cooking without pulling the top.  This keeps the cooking temperature up, the evaporation down.  

Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring two or three times  Basically you are cooking the pasta till al dente - just slightly chewy.  The sauce is going to thicken and become very creamy, even though you did not add any dairy nor flour nor cornstarch..  Basically this is a combination of the starch from the pasta and the butternut squash forming a nice thick sauce.  You may need to add a little boiling water if it is getting too thick and the pasta is not cooked yet.  I usually just get the electric tea kettle going and keep the water hot in case I need it.  If the pasta is cooked and it is to liquidy, I take the top off and cook it down some.  Generally if you use the same proportions I do, you won’t need to do much of this.

When the pasta is just about cooked, and the sauce is nice and thick, I turn off the heat and let it sit for a minute or two. If you wanted to  you could mix in a bag of frozen peas which would make a little more food and add some nice green color (adjust calories if you do, although I think the per serving calorie count would be near about the same).

Just before serving, squeeze the juice of half of a lemon on top and stir.  Serve, with grated parmesan on top.

This will make four servings of two cups each. More or less, depending on how thick your sauce is.

A great dish, the takes some work but not to much.   It should be served immediately as you do not want the pasta to overcook.

A nice green salad would be perfect with this.  If you wanted to make this vegetarian, I would add a can of drained chick peas in place of the chicken.  Adjust the calorie count as required.

If you had some left over chicken sausage, that would be great also. Adjust calorie count.

Creamy Tomato Soup, no dairy, low calorie

I updated the recipe, with calories - call it 100 calories per cup.  The math is close enough for a liberal arts major such as myself.

Creamy Tomato Soup - non dairy, low calorie.  Vegan if you like (skip the chicken stock)

Apple Oatmeal Bars - No Sugar

Really good recipe from Two Chums

Simple to make, taste good (sweet, but just barely)

Also, I like this recipe because they don't label in "no sugar" and then add sugar such as honey or blue agave or other sugars.

Also, no fat - they use bananas and apple sauce.  Well, I suppose the walnuts have fat, Much as the apples have sugar.  But lets be real

Anyway, very fine and simple.

Pasta Salad

This may be vegetarian, but it is not exactly low fat or low calorie.  Not high calorie, but not diet food.

I put this together as a side/vegetarian option for a family dinner.  I know - vegetarians hate salads as their dinner option - nothing says we really don't care about you like making great food for the meat eaters and foisting off some dreck to the non meat eaters.

Well, sometimes life makes you salad.  This one is pretty good, and satisfied our vegie.

Salad Fixings
1 Red pepper - sliced
1 Yellow pepper - sliced
1 can black olives, drained and sliced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups fresh green beans, cooked and cut in half
12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved

Pasta
16 oz cooked pasta - my preference is whole grain/high fiber - be sure to not overcook - whole grain pasta overcooked is very unpleasant

Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mixed seasoning - basil/thyme/marjoram
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 ground pepper
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 large or 2 small lemons, juiced)
2 tbs honey

Recipe
Mix all dressing ingredients, whisk.  Let sit at least 1/2 hour
Pour over all salad fixings except pasta
Let marinate for at least an hour, mixing vegies and dressing several times
Mix in Pasta, toss repeatedly
Serve

Butternut Squash and Shrimp Pasta

You know what happens when your internet goes down?  You lose all your recipes.

Since I have basically packed up all my books and now use only the internet for recipes, it’s a little odd to cook when you just can’t look something up immediately.  So last night when I was trying to cook dinner and the internet went out I was stuck going, how is this going to work?

It worked pretty well.  Low calorie, low fat.  Good Tasting.  Serves four.

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp, thawed and peeled

1 butternut squash, peeled, small dice

1 can diced tomatoes (not drained)

1 onion, fine dice

4 cloves of garlic, diced, two piles

½ lemon

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

4 oz whole wheat pasta, variety your choice

1 can vegetable or chicken stock

1 tbs Italian Seasoning

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Fresh grated Parmesan, 1 oz

2 tsp olive oil

Recipe

Toss thawed, peeled shrimp in bowl with juice of ½ lemon, 1 tsp olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic crushed.  Let marinate.

Boil squash till almost tender, drain

At same time boil pasta till almost cooked, drain

Sauté onion in 1 tsp olive oil

When onion is translucent, add garlic and Italian seasoning, sauté for 3 minutes

Add squash, tomatoes, beans, pasta, stock to onions, bring to low boil

Stir in shrimp, cover, cook for 5 minutes

Season with salt and pepper to taste

Serve with fresh parm grated on top

No need for the shrimp if you don't want to.  If you wanted to throw some fresh spinach in when you added the shrimp, that would be good to.  Frozen peas would be a fine addition also.  To make it a more complete meal I served it with roasted cauliflower.

Low Fat! Peanut Stew – HMR Diet Worthy! (a.k.a. Maafe)

One of our favorite dishes – Peanut Stew.  Usually attributed to West Africa, I have no reason to doubt that is its original home.  Fairly simple, comprised mostly of root vegetables stewed, it is flexible and easy to make vegetarian.  Basic idea is that this is a vegetable stew, with peanuts and/or peanut butter. If you keep that in mind, you are free to add or drop ingredients as you have them or are available – don’t worry about having the “right” ingredients

However, it is hard to make low fat, vegetarian or not.  Why, you ask? Have you checked out the calorie count for Peanut Butter?  Some recipes call for a full cup!  That’s 1,500 calories.  And that is way too much if you’re on a calorie restricted diet.

So, what’s the solution?  How do you make Peanut Stew low cal/low fat while still using peanut butter?

Why, it’s the perfect time for Bell Plantation PB2 PowderedPeanut Butter – which has 85% less fat than regular peanut butter.  PB2 is peanut butter protein – you get the flavor, not the fat – just reconstitute with water.  PB2 has 45 calories for 2tb, peanut butter has 190 calories for 2tb.  All of a sudden, cooking with peanut butter (or PB2) is great for low cal!    

Making it even simpler is the use of Penzey’s Sate Seasoning – Peanut stew calls for ginger, a little cayenne, a bunch of other spices.  Rather than tracking all of that down, I just use the Sate seasoning.  Buy it online or at their stores.  Penzey’s Sate seasoning includes coarse flake salt, brown sugar, garlic, white onion, coriander, purple shallots, ginger, turmeric, sweet paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne red pepper, lemon grass, so it has everything you need.  Feel free to use it fairly heavily even if you don’t like hot – it is not that spicy.

Ingredients for the Stew

1 medium onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2-6 garlic cloves, minced (adjust based on level of vampirism in neighborhood)

1 lb chicken thighs, diced

2  medium sweet potato, peeled diced

2  medium potatoes, diced

14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes with or without green chilies (or use fresh)

1 lb total of butternut squash or acorn squash or carrots or other root vegetable, diced

1 can garbanzo beans or other bean – I like using Black Eye Peas

8 tbs PB2

2-3 tbs Sate Seasoning -start with two and add more if you like

2 cans (small, not the big honking ones) vegetable broth (or chicken). 

For the garnish – prepare and serve on the side for people to spice as they like

·         cilantro, chopped

·         green onions, chopped

·         jalapenos, fresh, chopped

·         lime quarters

·         unsalted dry roasted peanuts

Serve with Brown Rice or for even lower calorie - cauliflower rice!

Recipe

 Brown onion and celery (and chicken, is using).  Use 1 tbs olive oil

Add garlic, cook for two minutes

Add vegetables and garbanzo beans (what ever you are using) (but not PB2), broth, spices

Cook for about 30 minutes, or until root vegetables are soft

Add PB2

Cook for five minutes

Adjust seasonings

Serve over Rice and have the garnishes on the side for people to add as they prefer.

Kisir - Turkish Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Vegetables

From AZ Cookbook

Pretty cool website that has food from "Azerbaijan and Beyond".  When daughter #3 came back from Turkey with tales of food, off I went to internet and I found AZ.  Since I had also purchased wheat berries, this recipe of Turkish Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Veg sounded great.

And it was.

Basic concept is pretty simple - Cook Wheat Berries, Roast Veg of your choice.  Roast chicken if you like.  Add dressing, serve.

Go to the above link for the recipe, but I made a few changes.

For veg I used zucchini, mushrooms, red peppers, sweet potato and butternut squash

I had some cooked chicken

My dressing was equal parts olive oil, fresh lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.

I did not have the mint nor the parsley, but I did have dried basil.  So I used that.  Tasted great, but I will try it with the fresh mint and parsley this summer when I can grow or buy fresh.  Pomegranate syrup I replaced with the balsamic, but I am sure the Pom syrup would be great.   This would be an absolutely great summer off the grill meal

Whole Foods FAIL - This is Healthy?

Comes along this tweet from Whole Foods

Edamame + garlic + onion + herbs = vegan EDAMAME DIP W/ GARLIC CROSTINI: bit.ly/ViAZPm #WFMdish #HealthYeah
— Whole Foods Market (@WholeFoods) January 10, 2013

Sounds great - but read the recipe

It has more than 3/4 a cup of oil (3/4 cup plus 2 tbls, to be exact)

That is more fat than three big macs

More fat than 15 small fries at McDonalds.



Let me put this plainly Whole Foods

#FAIL

Green Owl Restaurant Review - Madison, WI

My Yelp Review

Good Food, not just good Vegan Food can be found at the Green Owl.

Lunch for four as my daughter was leaving for a month to go overseas. We picked the Green Owl as being both convenient and vegetarian, meeting our two most important criteria of the day.

What we got was also delicious. As a meat eater, I am often disappointed by the food at vegetarian/vegan restaurants. Basically they seem to assume that they get points for being vegan. Blech.

Not at the Green Owl. I have to say, I would be happy to bring anyone there, and expect to be served food that pleases all palates. 

All four meals were fine, but by consensus the eggplant meatball sandwich was the winner. Really good, I mean better than most meatballs you get anywhere else good. My lunch was the Mediterranean Platter - hummus, tabouli, muhammara (roasted red pepper and walnut spread) and baba ganoush served with toasted pita, olives and pickled vegetables.  Excellent.  

I will say service was slow, and it was not particularly packed (3/4 full?). Prices were not high, but not cheap for lunch either - 10 to 13 is pricier than most places. Portions are ok, but not huge.  It was for those reasons that I gave the Green Owl four stars rather than five.

The cinnamon roll cheesecake loved by the three ladies - myself I found the cinnamon too much, but I will concede I am not a huge fan of it (cinnamon, that is) 

I look forward to returning.

Monty's Blue Plate Diner, Madison, WI - Review

Link to Yelp Review


Part of the Madison based Food Fight Inc (16 restaurants currently?), Monty's was the first, or one of the first.  They are all different, yet are the same in one way.  They are good places to eat.

Monty's is styled after a 50's diner - counter, chrome, lots of "traditional" diner foods, and a lot that you never got at a diner.  Service is fast, food is good, prices are reasonable (but not cheap) and wait staff is friendly.  Feels neighborhood friendly, although they bring in people from all over the area.  Plenty of good vegetarian options also.

Food is interesting, with lots of things not found in your typical diner.   Coffee is from Just Coffee (that is a bonus feature people - if you like coffee, this is a great place) and many of the specials are made with organic foods.  Want a burger but don't eat meat?  Swap out the Walnut burger - which, as a meat eater, I can say is good.  Certainly better than their hamburger.  Speaking of which...

What is up with that hamburger?  First off, it comes medium well done - no burger should ever be cooked to that.  Second, it is heavily, and funky seasoned.  As in, if I ordered it, it would go back.  A good burger needs salt and pepper.  They add a bunch of stuff.  However my niece who ordered it liked it, so we kept it.

Deserts are very popular at Monty's, but that was our disappointment.  Cheesecake was rubbery and the carrot cake was dry - stale dry.  Really?  I am almost tempted to go to three stars just for that.

Overall, I have to stick with four stars.  Great coffee, mostly really good, and interesting, food, fast, good service.  Without a doubt I will be back if in the area.  But I will skip desert.

Beans and Pasta (Pasta e fagioli)

Growing up my parents provided a wide and varied table.  No jello salad - we had things like Turkey Ballotine or risotto or a hundred other dishes that, trust me, were not common in the rural midwest.

However, one thing that was not common (or ever) was pairing pasta with beans.  Pasta e fagioli in Italian.  Which is to bad - because it took me a long time before I put the two together, and let me tell you, it is a great dish.  Inexpensive, quick, varied, vegetarian (vegan, if you like).

Now this dish can be made soup like or dry - I, because I am not a huge soup fan, always make it dry.  But anyway you do it, it is great.

Looks and Tastes Great

Basically dirt simple.  Cook beans, cook pasta, mix.  Add whatever else you want.

The above dish is a little more complicated (and not very healthy, truth be told).  But really good.

Ingredients
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained.  You can use any white bean in it's place also
1 can diced italian (or not) tomatoes, drained
4 cloves of garlic, pealed and minced (don't use out of jar, please)
1 tbs Italian Seasoning from Penzey's
4 oz cured olives (order from Cresp, save yourself some money)
8 oz high fiber pasta
2 oz pesto (tastes great without it - if not using pesto, feel free to aggressively use fresh ground pepper)
Parmesan Cheese to taste (grate it fresh please, no jars)
Olive oil
1 lemon, quartered

Recipe
Mix beans, tomatoes, italian seasoning and garlic with olive oil (at least 1 tbs, if not 2)
Roast in 350 degree oven for at least 20 minutes on a foil lined baking sheet.  The longer you go, the more dried out and nutty the garbanzos will be.
Cook pasta in salted boiling water - DO NOT OVERCOOK.  High fiber pasta is terrible overcooked.  I mean feed it to the chickens bad.
Drain pasta, mix with pesto and a tbs olive oil
When Beans are cooked, mix with beans/tomatoes on baking sheet, plus the olives, put back in oven for 5 minutes to let flavors meld.  Add more olive oil if it needs it.
Serve with fresh Parmesan and lemon - a squeeze of lemon really adds some nice acidity to the beans and pasta, which need it as there is a lot of fat on them.

Really quite a good dish.  Not diet friendly.  If you skip the parm, it's vegan.  Of course this is a fine dish to put sausage or chicken or shrimp in also

Eggplant and Mushroom Taco's

Never been a fan of eggplant.  Mushy tasteless congealing mass of blech.

Yet one does what one has to do.  Aldi's started stocking eggplants - $1.49 each, which is cheap for November.  So, off to the interwebs I went

Started with this recipe from We Should Be Fat.

Actually looked pretty good, and simple.  So off we go.

First, gather all the ingredients

1 small eggplant, cut into pinky sized strips
8 oz mushrooms, quartered
1 tbs Chicken Taco Seasoning
1 tbs Adobo Seasoning
2 tbs oil

Mix it all up and put on a pan (foil lined)
Roast for 30 minutes at 350 - flip half way through

While that's going on, put together the rest of the fixings.

Cheese
Sour Cream
Avocado
Tomatoes
Onions
Diced Jalapenos
Chorizo (what can I say - I like it)
whatever

Serve on tortillas

Plate it up and serve.  Makes 4 good size tacos

So I added Chorizo.  Shoot me

Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole

Sweet Potatoes are one of our favorite things.  Great baked, they are equally fine in stews, breads, chili, pie or just about anything else.  They are also one of the mandatory items for Thanksgiving, at least in my book.

This recipe is effort number one in creating a low calorie, low fat version for this years Thanksgiving.  It tastes great - almost pie like.  I will be trying others, but this could be the winner.

I made this recipe scaleable - basically the ingredient list below is for 1-2 people - so just scale it up depending on how many you have.

Ingredients
1 Sweet Potato, baked
1 Medium apple, peeled and cored
1/4 teaspoon Apple Pie Seasoning (Penzey's)
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tbs (or none) brown sugar
Pecan pieces

Recipe
You can peal, dice and steam or boil the sweet potato   However I feel that leeches out some of the flavor, so I recommend baking them until soft.  In either case, you want them well cooked.
Heat evaporated milk, brown sugar and apple pie seasoning, whisking as you go - you just need it warm enough to incorporate the seasoning/sugar.
Mix sweet potato, apple and milk mixture in a bowl.
Pour/scrape into baking dish sized appropriately for the amount you are cooking.  It should be like thick applesauce when you put it into the baking dish, not watery and not to dry.  Just right.
Sprinkle as much pecan pieces over the top as you like
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  If you made this the day ahead and it is cold, probably go 45 minutes

Do not over season with apple pie seasoning - more is not better.  Cinnamon can be bitter if there is to much - if you over add you will have to add more sugar

Serve

Yellow Curry - Thai Style - Vegetarian (or not)

Some people love curry, some people hate curry.  Some love the spices like lemongrass, Some hate the spices.  Some love the heat, some hate the heat.  And it can be definitely not diet friendly (big bowl of rice and coconut milk?  Tastes great, but calorie wise, not good)

Well, with the Wife having abandoned us for the evening, leaving just Daughter #3 and myself at home, it was time for some curry.  We like the spice, and Marjorie likes some heat, so it was time for Yellow Curry, Thai Style.

I have no idea if this is true, but I find that store bought yellow curry pastes are milder than green and red curry pastes.  Now of course if you make your own you can control the heat, but lets face it, most of us 1) do not have the time, 2) don't have access to all the ingredients and 3) when we do, don't what to pay the price ($4 for lemongrass?  no thank you).  So do what most people do (including Asians , buy it already made, in the store.  I suggest going to a local Asian grocery, such as L'Oriental here in Eau Claire, but even the paste in most groceries is going to be ok.  The advantage of going to an Asian grocery is they will have many brands and you can ask the staff there about them.  I use Mae Ploy brand.  The stuff lasts forever in the fridge once opened.

The key for me to make Asian food more diet friendly is not to do away with ingredients like coconut milk and rice, but to fill the dish with other things so you don't use so much.  So the key filler ingredients in mine are white potatoes and sweet potatoes - they give you starch, but better starch than rice.

Ingredients
8 oz of Tofu, drained and pressed (or at least blotted) dried
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetarian stock
1 tbs fish sauce
1 red, yellow or orange pepper, sliced thin
1 bag frozen peas
8 oz white potato, pealed and diced
8 oz sweet potato, pealed and diced
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced
1-3 tbs Yellow Curry Paste, use to taste (start small, you can add more)
1 tbs Tamarind Paste (ok, you don't have to, but it also lasts forever)
8 oz Chicken thighs, diced, if not veg
1 cup rice
Cilantro, diced
Lime, quartered
1 Fresh Jalapeno, sliced thin (if you like some more heat)

Recipe
Add coconut milk, fish  sauce and veg stock to pot (le crueset works great here).  Bring to low boil
When heated, add Yellow Curry Paste and Tamarind.  Stir until mixed.  Tamarind may not fully disintegrate.
Add White and Sweet potatoes.  Cook until they are done to your taste.
Add Peas and Tofu, cook 4 minutes
Add sliced peppers, cook 1 minute
Serve

When you start the meal, start the rice separately and hold warm till the Curry is done.  I hate overcooked veg in my curry.
Serve Cilantro, Lime and Jalapeno on the side for people to add as desired

If you want meat, what I like to do is mix 1 tbs oil and 1 tbs yellow curry paste - mix together and let sit 15 minutes for the oil to pick up the flavors.  Then fry the chicken in the oil/curry paste (separately from the curry if you want to keep the main dish veg).  Hold and serve with the curry for those who want meat.

I like my curry wet - more like soup.  So I cook most of this with the top on the pan to prevent evaporation. If you like it dry, cook with the top off.

Tofu Cutlet

Never had this before - Tofu Cutlet.

Kind of an interesting product.  One of the issues with tofu is that it is very wet, and if you are going to stir fry it you typically need to drain and press out the liquid.  It takes a while, it is a little messy and it is not conducive to a quick meal.

So I picked up some Tofu Cutlet at L'Oriental, which is a local asian grocery.  Basically it appears to be pressed and deep fried tofu block.  Taste is somewhat bland (that's a surprise), however it is very easy to use - just cube, slice, whatever, and it is ready to go.

I used in in a stir fry - mushrooms and chinese mustard greens, with a hoisen sauce, with some buckwheat soba cooked and then tossed with.

At least I think they are chinese mustard greens.  I should of asked.  Peacock Tail mustard greens, I believe

Corn Fried Rice

Got this idea from Food Network

This is their picture and recipe - it's ok, but...

Scramble 1 beaten egg in peanut oil in a skillet over high heat; remove to a plate. Heat more peanut oil in the skillet. Add 4 slicedscallions, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, and salt to taste; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wineand 1 cup thawed frozen corn; stir-fry 1 minute. Add 2 cups cooked rice and cook, stirring, 3 minutes. Stir in the scrambled egg and season with salt.

I am thinking more corn and vegetables  less rice.  Even if you used brown rice that is way to many empty carbs.

My way...less carbs, more protein, more vegetables

Dad's Corn Fried Rice

Ingredients

6 eggs, beaten with a fork
1 cup leftover brown rice
2 carrots, diced fine and microwaved for 3 minutes
4 green onions, diced
12 oz frozen peas, nuked for 2 minutes
1 lb frozen sweet corn, cooked
2 tbs Braggs Aminos (or soy sauce)

Recipe

Scramble eggs, place to side
In same frying pan, add 1 tsp oil, heat to back to medium/high
Add cooked rice, carrots, peas, sweet corn.  Cook till hot
Sprinkle Braggs Aminos over rice and stir quickly. 
Add eggs and green onions, mix
Serve

Using 1 or 2 eggs and then substituting chopped raw, peeled shrimp would be great also