#9: Corn Bread, Some Good Grub

This Corn Bread with Scallions recipe is probably one of the easiest recipes every published in Food & Wine Magazine. It was featured as an example of #9 Updated Chuckwagon Recipes on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try. This recipe was created by Paula Disbrowe and will be published in her Cowgirl Cuisine cookbook due out in March, 2007.

The ingredients are simple so the only special thing I needed to get for this recipe was the green onions. I did not have any corn oil so I bought a small bottle of organic corn oil as well. The only problem was that I do not own a cast-iron skillet. Instead of trying to improvise, I decided to call in the help of a friend.


My friend Julie invited me over and we made this recipe together. It is a perfect thing to make as a team not because it is complicated, but because it is so easy we didn't mess anything up with our gabbing. Julie picked up a roast chicken from the grocery store and she also made sweet potatoes which her husband mashed for us. It was a perfect meal. Before we ate we finished up the bottle of 2003 Tandem Porter-Bass Vineyards Chardonnay which I had brought over.

I am kind of picky when it comes to cornbread. I like it sweet and can't stand it when it turns out bland. There is only a little bit of honey in this recipe so I was a bit concerned. It did not turn out to be sweet corn bread, but it did turn out to be good corn bread. I was surprised how well the green onions added amazing flavor. They were not over powering but they contributed a homey quality and we all liked it. I had some the next day for breakfast and it did not dry out.

Corn Bread with Scallions 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup coarse, stone-ground yellow cornmeal 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Pinch of freshly ground pepper 1 1/4 cups low-fat milk 2 tablespoons honey 2 large eggs, beaten 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon corn oil 8 scallions, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°. Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, whisk the milk, honey, eggs and 1/3 cup of the oil. Add the wet ingredients to the cornmeal mixture and whisk just until combined. Stir in the scallions.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the hot skillet and swirl to coat. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly, then turn the corn bread out onto a plate. Invert it onto a rack to cool. Alternatively, serve the corn bread hot from the skillet.


note* with nine servings (a big slice), each piece of corn bread is 6 Weight Watchers points.

#76: Crispy Pineapples, Apples and Apricots

"real fruit, real taste, nothing else!"
I went digging for a midnight snack last night. I wanted something somewhat light so I tried the Crispy Apricots I received earlier that day from Crispy Green. My package from them included the 6-pack of Crispy Apricots and 6-pack of Crispy Pineapples that I ordered. It also included one package of the Crispy Apples that they provided as a free sample (unlike Kate at Kate in the Kitchen who received 2 free samples!). These Fruit Chips are really dehydrated fruit. I found them because they were listed as #76 on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try.

My first taste of the Crispy Apricots was a bit disappointing. The natural apricot flavor is there for sure, but I felt a bit tricked when eating these. They are crispy and LOVE crunchy snacks but there is no follow through. The fruit disintegrates on your tongue and I finished them feeling unsatisfied.

This morning I tried the Crispy Pineapples and I like them 10x better. They are somehow more fulfilling than the apricot. And pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. I became more excited about this product because the Crispy Pineapples are definitely something I would bring to work as a snack when I'm in a "healthy eating" mood. And since I am attempting to taste everything on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try, I tried the Crispy Apples next.

I really enjoyed the Crispy Apples. I think they are my favorite of the three I tried. They somehow keep the apple consistency after you chew them and they do not disintegrate as easily as the apricots. It may be that I am more familiar with apple being "crispy" because there are so many other apple flavored products out there.

Overall, I think these would be really good for someone who likes to bike or hike or camp alot. They are very tasty and would be a really great snack to throw in your backpack. They are as healthy as fresh fruit because all the nutritional value is retained in the freeze-drying process. I suppose anyone on the go alot would appreciate these, I however would rather have a granola bar or something else as a snack.

note* Each package of crispy fruit is 1 Weight Watchers point. Actually, you can have two packages and it still counts as only 1 point.

Indian Noodles (the cheating way)

Some nights I just can't make dinner. I either don't feel like it or don't have time. Or am just busy wanting to do other things like tonight when I was busy waiting for my Vosges Exotic Ice Creams to soften up so I could try them. So I made one of my favorite throw-togethers.

I discovered the combination quite by accident one day at work. I brought regular old spaghetti with some type of tomato sauce I had made the night before as leftovers for my lunch. But the sauce had kind of disintegrated somehow and had no taste. One of the gals I was working with had whipped up some amazing potato curry the night before which she was heating up for her rice. She offered me some so I dumped it on top of my bland pasta. I was looking for some spice but I got so much more. The heat of the curry and the texture of the noodles introduced me to a new meal! And the soft Indian potatoes were so tasty in there as well. I never in a million years would have thought to mix potatoes in with my pasta. Two starches!

That began me on my quest for curry. I really would like to make curry but I have not mastered that yet. Maybe because I have some over-complicated Indian cookbooks, but I am still intimidated by the curry. Not the spice, the recipe. But lucky for me the American grocery stores now carry several ready made curry-like sauces. All you have to do is heat and serve.


Tonight I used lentils in cream sauce. The cream added some thickness that sometimes gets thinned out when combining ready-made curry with noodles. For the pasta, I used the other half of the elbow macaroni box leftover from when I made "Healthy" Four Cheese Macaroni last week. I usually make this with angel hair because i like the lightness of the noodle, but the elbows worked well too. They kept the lightness because the noodle itself is small and yet its shape allows some of the sauce to stick to it.

To make it, all you have to do is heat up the lentils in the microwave for two minutes and mix together! The only hard part to the recipe is to make sure you don't have too much pasta and not enough sauce. So instead of mixing the sauce into the pasta, I mix the pasta into the sauce a few ladels at a time. Then I give the leftover pasta to the dogs.


note* one cup of pasta plus one serving of the lentils in tomato cream sauce is 7 Weight Watchers points.

Trini's Curried Pumpkin and Rice

Coffer over at My Khazana of Recipes has started a new blogging event. January's theme for the first Monthly Blogging Patrol is Around the World.

Earlier this week I found the recipe for Curried Pumpkin and Rice on TriniGourmet.com. Her photo of the finished dish looked so amazing. When I read the ingredients I was hooked. Curry and Pumpkin. Two things I have wanted to start cooking more with. As a matter of fact, I have never cooked anything with a fresh pumpkin before so I got excited and immediately added the ingredients needed to my grocery list.


I will admit that I had a bit of an adventure trying to find a pumpkin in January. I know they are really popular in October and November, but I assumed I could get them year round. Not true, at least at the supermarkets near me here in Florida. My backup plan was to use a butternut squash or something like that. But I couldn't find any of those either. Finally I spotted some type of squash thing near the cut up cantaloupe and fresh papaya. It was called Squash Calabaza. I asked the guy at the counter if it was similar to a pumpkin. He said it's Spanish pumpkin. So I was set.

There so many reasons I can recommend trying this recipe. Here are my top 5 (except for the obvious that it tastes great):

1. This meal for 6 costs less than $10
2. You get to cook with fun ingredients like pumpkin and curry
3. It is very filling and very healthy. You can even use brown rice if you want.
4. Leftovers! This will make great lunches throughout the week.
5. Your house will smell great while it's cooking.


The final dish comes out more like and Italian Risotto than what I consider to be a traditional, saucy curry. And while it is filling, unlike Risotto, it is not overly heavy. It is almost refreshingly fulfilling if that makes sense. There must be something about the pumpkin. I did prefer it when I left my pumpkin in cubes rather than smashing the bits up as the recipe suggests. And I added a lot of Cilantro because that added an element of freshness.

Be hungry when you make this because the recipe makes yields quite a bit of food. I already have two Tupperware containers filled with my lunches for Monday and Tuesday. And tomorrow night the dogs are going to be getting some with dinner.

This is definitely a recipe that I will make again . . . and I rarely make anything twice.

note* based on six servings, a serving of this made with white rice is 7 Weight Watchers points.

Banana Cream Pie for Breakfast

Health magazine's January/February 2007 issue features several healthy recipes that look really good (and easy to make). The recipe for Banana Cream Pie caught my eye when they featured it for breakfast. It's kind of like yogurt with granona and fruit, but calling it Banana Cream Pie makes is sound so much better.

The key to this is a good tasting vanilla yogurt, so make sure you get one you like. Their recipe calls for whole-grain graham crackers so I used regular low-fat honey graham crackers and it still tasted yummy.

note* this meal has 5.5 Weight Watchers points

Banana Cream Pie (serves 1) 1 (6-ounce) vanilla low-fat yogurt 1 sliced medium banana 2 sheets whole-grain graham crackers, crumbled. Instructions Mix yogurt, banana and graham crackers.

"Healthy" Four-Cheese Macaroni

Seriously Good is hosting a Mac-n-Cheese Off blogging event. This Friday night everyone is making Macaroni & Cheese for dinner. I really wanted to make a Paula Dean recipe I saw on Paula's Party. She made Deep Fried Mac & Cheese. Yup, it was cut up and submerged in a deep fryer. And it looked so amazing and interesting to make.

However, I decided to forgo the heart attack and take a healthier route. Tonight I made Four-Cheese Macaroni, a recipe I found in Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook. The recipe looked reasonable, just exchanging regular cheese and milk for low fat versions. However, I have never made Macaroni and Cheese before (except out of a box) so I have nothing to compare it to.

The cheeses never seemed to melt together very well for me. It ended up alot stringier than I thought it should be. Not too bad, but not like Boston Market's version. It tasted good though. It's pretty light. If on a diet, you can get your fix off of this version however I'm sure it won't stand up to some butter and cheese filled recipe.

My taste-testers approved. Of course they are of the canine and avian descent and they are happy with almost everything I make for them.

note* each serving has 7 weight watchers points

Four-Cheese Macaroni (6 servings) 2 1/4 cups elbow macaroni 1 cup fat-free milk 3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese 3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp Monterey Jack cheese 1/3 cup shredded American cheese 1/3 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper Instructions Cook the macaroni according to package directions; drain and return to the pot. Add the milk, cheddar, Monterey Jack, American cheese, mozzarella and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the cheese melt, about 5 minutes.

Lean Cuisine's Butternut Squash Ravioli

Let's face it. We all prefer to eat fresh food. But when working a full time job, you sometimes need to just grab something quick in the morning to take to work with you so you have lunch for that day. Lean Cuisine's Spa Cuisine is consistently my favorite frozen food brand and I always try to keep a few in the freezer just for such lunch emergencies. I appreciate that they use whole grains in all their pastas and rices. But most importantly, I love the elegant meals they come up with.

Today I tried the Butternut Squash Ravioli and thought it was absolutely fabulous. The pasta has a light taste but also a richness from the butternut squash filling. The white cream sauce on top looks like it is watery, but actually it is adds just the right amount of creamy taste. Walnuts, snap peas and carrots add crunch and freshness. AND it is all low-calorie and "good" for me. Overall, it's a very satisfying lunch considering it only takes five minutes to make in the microwave!

note* this meal has 7 weight watchers points

Emeril tries to cook healthy on the Food Network

Thank God the holidays are over. I can finally have my Food Network back. Ever since Halloween, they have been airing a month's worth of cooking turkey in preparation for Thanksgiving and then another month of all sorts of holiday food geared toward Christmas. It was definitely overkill for me.

This week the Food Network seems to be focusing on healthy eating and dieting. It makes sense since so many people start diets at the beginning of each year. I get a kick out of watching Emeril Lagasse try to make diet food. He's the king of pork fat! While his recipes featured on the Fit for Life episode of Emeril Live may have healthier titles than his normal recipes, they should not be considered diet food!

Jorge Cruise, author of The 3-Hour Diet, was a guest on the show as the diet and health expert. The two of them played off of each other. Emeril made his version of a "healthy" pizza with sliced potatoes, pepperoni and truffle oil while Jorge made chicken on pita bread mini-pizzas. They both looked good but of course Emeril's looked better. However he never claimed that both recipes were comparable calorie-wise.

It got comical as they each made a lasagna recipe. Jorge made a traditionally healthy turkey and spinach lasagne and Emeril's had lobster and crabmeat. They both sound healthy, but Emeril's contained 6 Tbsp of butter as the first ingredient!

To check and see if my suspicions were correct, I ran each of the recipes through the Weight Watchers recipe builder. I know many people don't understand the Weight Watchers points thing, but I like it. It's way easier than figuring out calories and all that. You usually get 24 points a day. Based on this, you can understand that if one serving of a recipe has 12 points, that portion of food is half the food you are supposed to eat for the entire day. A typical meal is 5 to 7 points. (You get to eat more food than that but to explain that would to be to explain the entire Weight Watchers plan.) I adapted Emeril's recipe to use fat-free milk and cheeses.

Emeril's Fresh Crabmeat and Lobster Lasagna
11 Points

Jorge's Turkey and Spinach Lasagna
9 points

I was surprised that both recipes were close, but I'm sure there would have been a much bigger difference if I didn't change everything to fat-free in Emeril's recipe. And let's be honest, fat-cheeses usually change the consistency of things. And I can't image how a bechamel sauce made with skim milk would work out.

Even though I didn't get any diet-friendly Emeril recipes (he couldn't stop with the butter!), the discussion between Emeril and Jorge was very informative. Jorge made suggestions on how to lighten up the recipes and provided information about why certain food are good for our bodies.

Rachael Ray's kick start kiwi smoothie

This morning I made a Kick Start Kiwi Smoothie. I found the recipe in the December/January 2007 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.

What a exhilarating drink! The little bit of lime juice and the tart sweetness of the kiwi fruit yields a very refreshing taste. It is quite light but also fulfilling. Drinking this is a great way to start the day.

note* each serving is only 2 Weight Watchers points.

Kick Start Kiwi Smoothie 4 kiwi, peeled and thinly sliced 1 tsp fresh lime juice 1 banana 1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt 2 Tbsp honey 10 cubes ice cube(s)

Instructions
In a blender, combine all ingredients except for 2 kiwi slices. Server in tall glasses and garnish each with a kiwi slice.

tula's country-style greek salad

i made tula's country-style greek salad from i like you: hospitality under the influence by amy sedaris. when i received two joy of cooking cookbooks for christmas, i exchanged one for this "unique" cookbook. i read most of it on the plane ride home from chicago. she is a comedian, but the book itself is just strange (more on that later). i think because it's so random. the recipes look great though. amy sedaris mentions that she knows greek cooking very well so i was attracted to a few of her greek recipes. i love cucumbers, tomatoes and feta cheese so this salad seemed like a great place to start.

And it was . . . this salad is super refreshing. the kalmata and feta give it some substance and the salad by itself is quite filling. it is very simple to just chop up some veggies and whisk together a quick dressing. i like it with lots of fresh ground sea salt sprinkled on top. And to my surprise, the salad lasted. i actually made it last night but forgot to add the olives and pine nuts. it is a very large salad so i barely finished half of it. i just left it in the bowl and covered it with tinfoil. there was some extra juice tonight, probably due to the tomatoes, but nothing got soggy. the feta is firm enough not to soak everything up. so i just added in the olives and pine nuts and was good to go. there was so much left that i ate it as the majority of my meal with a little bit of leftover soup.

Tula's Country Style Greek Salad 3 medium tomatoes 1 large cucumber 1 small red onion 5 oz crumbled feta a handful of kalamata olives a handful of pine nuts salt, fresh ground pepper and oregano to taste 1/4 cup olive oil 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar (i used balsamic)

Instructions (serves 6)
slice tomatoes and onion. peel and slice cucumber. arrange tomato, cucumber and onions in bowl. top with feta and olives and sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano to taste. toss in pine nuts.

mix olive oil and red wine vinegar. add salt and pepper to taste. beat olive oil and vinegar mixture and pour over vegetables.

note* if you make this with fat-free feta it will only be 4 weight watchers points.

roasted garlic soup

i received the joy of cooking as a gift for christmas. i asked for it. it is the ultimate staple cookbook. as i'm back to cooking again, i've been realizing that i make a lot of fancy stuff and none of the basics. so that is why i asked for this one. while i was flipping through the book on christmas morning, the first recipe that caught my eye was roasted garlic soup. it sounded simple and tasty.

i made it tonight. my favorite part was roasting the heads of garlic. i love the way it makes my house smell. i used to roast up garlic and just spread it right on some hot bread that i'd get from the italian bakery down the street back when i lived in chicago.

the recipe calls for the joy of cooking number 2 way of roasting the garlic. i used to just wrap it up in tinfoil but their method was different. chop off the top third of 6 heads of garlic, place them in an 8x8 dish, add chicken stock into the pan until it covers the bottom third of the garlic heads, and then drizzle 2 Tbsp. olive oil over the garlic. cover with tin foil and roast the garlic in a 325 degree oven for an hour.

the rest is quick after the garlic is finished. you squeeze out the garlic into three cans of chicken stock which you poured into a pan on the stove and whisk it all together. this purees most of the garlic but also leaves some nice chunks. i suppose this would be a good time to use one of those emulsion blenders if you have one. i don't and the roasted garlic is very mild so i like the chunks. you tear up three pieces of white bread without the crust into small pieces and add that in there, add some salt, pepper, paprika and the juices left from the rosted garlic and then let it all simmer for about 5 minutes.

after i laddeled the soup into my bowl, i freshly shredded some manchego cheese over the top so it melted right in. this soup is so awesome. and it was perfect tonight because it's cool outside and it's the perfect cold-weather soup. it doesn't seem like it would be filling, but even with that little bit of bread, it adds alot of body into the soup and makes it quite hearty.  i also made a greek cucumber and tomato salad which i ate as well.

note* 1 cup of this soup is only 4 weight watchers points.