Dad's Kitchen - What You Need to Make Meals Made of Love

Dad's Tool List for the Kitchen - this is the basics (no appliances) what you need.

There are often cheaper alternatives. Just don't go too cheap. I love high end Henckels, but if you need to spend less, don't waste your money on junk, buy all Victorinox with Fibrox handles. Can't afford (or steal from your father) Le Crueset? Tramontina is a good brand, less expensive. 

Do Not EVER put you knives in the sink or the dishwasher. Use them, hand wash them, hand dry them, put them away. Don't make me stage an intervention.

Don't buy sets of anything (other than place settings and silverware). Sets are filled with things you won't ever use. Better (generally) to buy just what you need.

You don't need that much (this comes from a man with darn near every piece of junk ever made). Don't waste your money filling your cupboards - buy good things. You will love them, use them, and ignore everything else. You don't even need everything on this list to produce a whole lot of meals made of love.  An 8" Kitchen knife, cutting board and a teflon fry pan will get you through most everything.

This also makes a great list for wedding gifts

Easy Cassoulet - And Healthy!

Cassoulet is a classic french dish.  It is also, made traditionally, very high in fat.  It also takes a long time to cook.  Well, I need less fat and more time, so I came up with this recipe - Easy Cassoulet - Start to finish in 45 minutes.  No, it's not traditional.  Yes, it is good.  If Meme liked it, it's close enough.

It is also easy to make vegetarian - drop the meat.  You can add a couple of tsp of soy sauce or Braggs aminos.  Some whole mushrooms can add "meatiness" to it also.  You can also always cook the meat on the side and serve it that way, although the meat juices add a lot of flavor to the dish.

Ingredients

2 (or 3) cans northern beans, drained and rinsed.  If available, I like Randall's Beans - they come in a glass jar. 

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 celery rib, diced

1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs – diced

Chicken sausage (left overs if you have them)

Low fat ham if no sausage, diced.  Can use Canadian bacon

1 tsp oregano and thyme (each)

1 Bay leaf

4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1 can chicken broth/stock

½ cup white wine, if you have it.  White vermouth works also

2-3 cups fresh spinach, if you like.  Kale is also an option

Whole wheat garlic croutons (home made) – Toast bread, peal garlic clove, cut garlic clove in half.  Rub garlic over toast.  Cut into small pieces.

Either frozen veggie or salad on the side. 

Cooking instructions

Sauté onion, carrot, celery, chicken with 1 teaspoon oil.  When beginning to brown, add garlic and spices – cook an additional 2 minutes.  Add white wine, if using.  After wine cooks off some, add beans, sausage and chicken stock.  Add fresh spinach if you are using.  Cook for ½ hour.  Add ham/Canadian bacon about 15 minutes in.  

Make low fat garlic croutons (see above)

When done, toss garlic toast croutons over cassoulet, then serve.

Serve with veggies or salad.  A green salad with a vinaigrette is very nice - the acidity pairs well with the cassoulet.

Serve

Dad's "Rule of Thumb(s)" for Healthy Eating

1)  Limit processed carbohydrates - bread, pasta, rice.  To zero.  Use higher fiber alternatives - whole wheat/grain bread and pasta, brown rice, higher fiber alternatives like barley.

2) Protein is great - just limit the fat.  I don't worry about white or dark meat - it just has to have no skin and as much apparent fat trimmed as possible.  Eggs are great, Beans are awesome.  Tofu is ok, but hard to cook and really not that low in fat. Cheese - well, really hard to trim fat from cheese - plus most low/no fat cheese really tastes terrible and doesn't melt.

3) Fresh vegies and fruit are your friends - no limits.  This includes potatoes.  However, juice is terrible for you - it is not the same as fresh fruit/vegies.  Basically it's sugar water.

I try to construct meals with this formula - 1- 2 - 3.  For every one processed carb serving, the meal should have two proteins and four vegies/fruit.  Ok, so that is really more like 1 - 2 - 4.  And no meal should have more than 2 oz of processed carbs.

The final key item with this is sauces - it really does you no good if you eat a lot of vegetables but then serve it in a sauce that is high in fat or in sugar - or both!  But that is for another post....

Chicken Taco's with Black Beans

Taco's.  Wonderful taco's.  And again, they can be a super diet killer.  I love me some hard shell corn tortillas - wonderful little fat and sugar bombs.  Sorry - you don't get to eat them.  At least not very often.  Fortunately, there are plenty of high fiber tortilla options these days.  I don't worry two much about the fat content - I just look for what I like the taste of that has lots of fiber.  And then I don't eat more than 2.  One if they are really big.

Ingredient List

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced small

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, sliced thin (not a huge fan of ground chicken)

1 green or red pepper, sliced thin

1 onion sliced thin

8 oz fresh mushrooms quartered or smaller

Chicken/Veg stock

Whole wheat taco’s

1 tomato, diced

Cumin, taco seasoning, adobe seasoning

Low or no fat sour cream (8 oz container)

Lettuce, sliced thin

No fat cheese slices

Salsa

Cooking instructions

Three basic things are happening  - cooking beans, cooking chicken/veg, cook tortillas.  Start the beans first, then move on to chicken/veg once the beans are underway, then do the tortillas when everything is done and keeping warm.

1)  Beans - Mix beans, sweet potato and a little water or chicken/veg stock.  If you like, you can put in ½ teaspoon of cumin or adobe seasoning (available from Penzeys).  Cook at medium heat until sweet potatoes are soft (about 20 minutes).  Lower temp and keep warm.  If watery, you can take some out and mash, then stir back in to thicken, or serve with a slotted spoon to drain excess liquid.  Or feel free to mash all of them into more of a re-fried bean.  But please don't fry them.  And not in lard, no matter how good they taste that way.

2) Meat – brown chicken, onions, peppers and mushrooms.  Do them separately.  Use cooking spray.  When all browned, toss in pan together, along with Taco Seasoning (one packet or 4 tsp of Penzey’s seasoning)  After about a minute, mix in water according to the taco seasoning instructions.  Keep at low temp to keep warm.  Of course you can keep chicken separate if you have some vegetarians at dinner.

3) Tortillas – heat over medium heat one at a time.  Takes about 20 seconds a side.  After heated, put in foil or clean towel to keep warm

When all three are done, serve with lettuce, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, cheese.

Veg options are varied.  You can use zucchini, eggplants, potatoes, sweet corn.  You can mix sweet corn in with the beans also.

Sausage and Spaghetti - Healthy Style

There are a number of dishes that are difficult to make in a healthy manner.  Sausage and Spaghetti is one of them.  Combine high fat sausages with high carb spaghetti - the perfect one-two punch to ruin your diet.

Yet, I grew up with it, and I don't want to live without it.   So with that in mind...my version.  

Caveat - adjust amounts for  numbers your feeding.  Below is for 4 people.  Or 2 with leftovers.

Ingredients

1 Onion, diced medium

1 med zucchini, diced medium

8 oz fresh mushroom, quartered if large, halved if small

Archer Farms (Target brand) Chicken and Spinach cooked sausage - leave whole or slice

1 jar spaghetti sauce (Bertolli) - try for something with limited fat and sugar.  If using no sugar sauce, be prepared to add some sugar or other sweetener - it is often to acid without

1 box Rozoni Smart Taste Pasta - 2 oz per person - or less!

1 bag frozen green beans

Cooking instructions

At the same time….do the following three things

1) Saute with 1 tsp oil - onion, zucchini, mushroom, sausage.  You can cook separately if you pan is not large enough - that has the added benefit of cooking them to their preferred doneness.  If you have vegetarians in the house do the sausage separately and serve on the side.  

2) Nuke green beans

3) Cook pasta (don’t over cook), drain

When all are cooked, mix all together in the pasta pot (after you drained out the pasta) with the jar of pasta sauce.   Heat and serve.  Serve with salad if you like.

Wedding Beverage List - Wine, Beer, Water, Soda

This worked out pretty well for my daughters wedding - I know I searched the internet for advice and got conflicting information, so here goes what worked for us.

Setting - 200 guests - 180 adults, outdoors, on a hot summer night (no, not that hot summer night).  Wedding at 4, dinner at 6, dancing till 10.  We had an open bar - no charge.

20 cases of water - we ended with two cases left - did I say it was a hot day?  We put it out in galvinized wash tubs so guests could grab one as they arrived, and placed them around the tent also.  I had frozen 4 cases to help cool down the rest and save on ice.

2 half barrels of beer (actually 1 half and two quarters).  We went with PBR and two micro brews - PBR went first, so don't fret serving cheap beer.

4 cases of Champagne (12 to a case, Barefoot Extra Dry) - we ended up with one left.  This is the only area I think we could of gone with less - 3 cases for the toast would of been enough.

6 bottles non-alcoholic sparking cider - we should of gone more - at least 12.

7 mixed cases wine - I went overboard with the varieties - Menage et Trois red, Columbia Two Vines Merlot, Houge Chardonnay,  Barefoot Moscato, Columbia Crest Riesling, Lindemans sauvignon blanc Wolersheim's Prairie Fume.  The amount of wine was fine - ended up with a mixed case at the end.  But if I were to do it over - I would of gone with just the Merlot, the Chardonnay, the Sauvignon blanc and the Moscato.  Buy what people want - that's pretty much it - it doesn't have to be expensive - just worth drinking.  And I think all of those wines are pretty good on a hot summer night

3 cases mixed soda (half diet, half regular)  Interestingly enough, I should of gone another case of regular soda - we had diet left over at the end of the night, but none of the regular.

300 lbs ice - you need a lot to ice down all that, especially on a hot summer night.  (no, not that hot summer night either)

We used 4 galvanized wash tubs for water, and four coolers to keep the wine cool - I also dropped some ice in the red wine cases - no one really wants to drink red wine that is 85 degrees.

The venue provided the insurance, but we still had a licensed bar tender there.  Good way of making sure you are cutting off those that are getting a little too happy, and are good at dealing with people.

It was a great fun night.

Cuban Style Pork Shoulder - in the Crock Pot

First, go to the LATIMES for their recipe.

Great recipe - I only make a couple of changes (even simpler than theirs)

I use one whole bay leaf (not crushed or ground)
I zest an orange and then juice it, same with the lime - I don't bother measuring.
I use Penzey's Adobe seasoning instead of the ground chili pepper - and I still add all the other listed spices - pump up the volume, but not the heat.

Adjust the spices depending on how much pork shoulder you use - if it is a 2.5 lb piece, then half the spices.

Pork shoulder is a pain to defat - lots of fat, lots of stuff to trim.  But do not substitute - just be diligent in trimming if you are looking to limit your weight, and then be sure to eat lots of other things with just a reasonable portion of the pork.  Great dish with black beans and rice.