By the Beard of Zeus! - Greek Stuffed Chicken

Three things I’d like to use this blog as a forum to selfishly brag about:

1 – I ran my first ever 5K race a few weeks ago. (Even though a few moms whizzed by me with their jogger strollers, I didn’t do half bad!)

Pre-race. This smile was later replaced with the look of utter exhaustion.

2 – I finally lost the 10 pounds I put on after college (The fact that college was almost 10 years ago, is not an important detail to note).

3 – Constant blabbering about healthy eating choices is starting to pay off. Friends and family are calling and texting with their healthy ideas and I love it!           

Let me introduce you to my friend Diana. You may remember her from the Last Horrah Greek Cookout. Although she’s getting much more adventurous in her old age of 30, she’s still not a huge vegetable eater (unless you consider ketchup to be a vegetable).

Di called me one day with a recipe she loves that also gets some greens into her diet. Was there a full moon? Had she gone completely mad? I like to think my healthy cooking antics are rubbing off on people!

This BAKED GREEK CHICKEN makes plain old chicken breast something much more special. The spinach and feta mixture creates a creamy, cheesy stuffing and the panko topping gives the chicken a crunchy crust. I’m not sure where her original recipe came from, but the references to “EVOO” and “two turns of the pan” scream Rachael Ray.

I adjusted the recipe to give each piece of chicken even more spinachy stuffing in each bite. Go big or go home I always say, unless we’re talking about tequila. Then go small, go very small.

Give this a try on your vegetable leery friends. They'll be spinach converts in no time. 

Come to the Dark (Leafy Greens) Side!

Three healthy eating challenges:

#1 = being bored to death with steamed vegetables.

#2 = finding a side dish that feels exciting enough to serve guests (or the guests I’d like to have over if I could fit more than four in my kitchen. Anyone who’d like to come over and eat from a “kids table” kind of setup in my living room is more than welcome).

#3 = having to eat my two foot Easter bunny at a rate of one nibble per day.

I’m solving number one and two with BAKED SPINACH. My normal preparation of baby spinach is wilted in olive oil and garlic. It’s getting a little stale. It feels boring. When I’m bored with a vegetable, I want French fries, or mashed potatoes, or forget the side dish and just give me a slice of cake, NOW!

If I can keep my veggie options varied and interesting, I don’t miss the bad stuff. This baked spinach is similar to a gratin except it’s cream-free and uses only a small amount of gruyere cheese (I guess what I’m saying is that it’s nothing like a gratin but comes in the same nifty baking dish).

The sautéed spinach is mixed with creamy gruyere and topped with crispy breadcrumbs. The cheese flavor is mild, so the spinach can taste like spinach and not be forced to drown in a river of cream. 

I served this alongside a roast beef and the plate could have easily been served for Easter dinner. It’s just as appropriate for a quick weeknight meal. It’s low in calories but high in specialness, far superior to (insert generic steamed vegetable here).

Don’t treat your greens with a lack of enthusiasm. Don’t toss them on the plate as an afterthought. You’ll look forward to this. Embrace the power of dark leafy greens. Welcome vitamin K and antioxidants into your life with open arms!

As for the Easter bunny, I guess I have no choice but to share it with my husband. Maybe he can resist the enticing stare of those sugary eyes!

Tater Impersonator?

I’m not sure if I ever mentioned that mashed potatoes are one of my top 3 favorite foods. When I’m out to dinner, I sometimes base my ordering tactic on what dish may or may not feature mashed potatoes on the side. Sometimes, I try to persuade my “unknowing” husband to order a steak (with a side of mashed) in hopes that I can swipe a bite while he’s in the men’s room.

Although white potatoes are full of nutritious vitamins and minerals, they are very high in carbs. If you follow a low-carb style diet like I do, potatoes should be enjoyed sparingly. Every commercial diet plan out there tries to pimp MASHED CAULIFLOWER as being a dead ringer for mashed potatoes. “If you close your eyes, you would never know you’re eating cauliflower!”

You have got to be kidding me. Obviously, healthy eaters are being treated like we have no functional taste buds left. I will dispel this silly myth right now. Yes, it tastes like cauliflower.

Healthy eating should be about smart substitutions and not evil trickery. Imagine going in for a scoop of luscious mashed potatoes and ending up with a mouthful of pureed veggies instead? I happen to love cauliflower, but that type of switcheroo will not be tolerated.

It’s hard to think of snazzy sides to serve with dinner. This one far surpasses a plain old steamed vegetable. If you’re looking for a creamy texture very similar to the experience of eating potatoes, this will absolutely do the trick. For you cauliflower lovers out there, it also happens to be delicious.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

Et Tu Tofu?

Poor tofu. It has such a bad rep for being a bland and boring animal protein alternative only eaten by the same tree-hugging hipster types that drive hybrid cars. I told someone I made a delicious Caesar salad from tofu and their reaction was “well, that sounds interesting.” That someone was my Mom. Thanks Mom, but “interesting” in this case can easily be translated to “what the hell were you thinking?”

I’m here to support poor neglected tofu on its mission to become a widely accepted source of healthy vegetable protein. What I like best about tofu is its chameleon-esque ability to transform into whatever you want it to be. It takes on the flavors of whatever sauce, spice or marinade you’re using in your dish.

I came across this recipe for a TOFU CAESAR SALAD in Food & Wine mag. I thought it was such a clever use of the ingredient. Silken tofu is used as the base for a creamy Caesar salad dressing instead of mayonnaise. Firm tofu is pan fried in vegetable oil to stand in for traditional bread croutons.

It may sound a little odd. But this dressing is genius. I love creamy dressings, but I almost always shy away from them because of the exorbitant fat content. Not only does this recipe eliminate a ton of the saturated fat, but it also adds a boost of protein that helps to keep you full longer. The addition of tofu turns a side salad into a main dish.

A few quick tips about frying tofu:

1 - Make sure the tofu is as dry as possible. Before I cut the block into cubes, I wrapped the tofu in paper towels and pressed it between two plates to drain out most of the moisture.

2 - Use a very shallow layer of vegetable oil in the frying pan and made sure to drain the “croutons” really well on paper towels after cooking. Salt them right after they come out of the oil so the salt sticks.

3 - This may seem like a great leftover-friendly meal, but it’s really best in a make-and-eat setting.

Give tofu a chance to play with the grown ups. It’s a great alternative to the tried and true chicken breast.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

BNS Soup: Big on Taste, Low in Cals

The holiday season has come crashing down on us. Not only are wallets getting emptier and emptier, but pants are getting tighter and tighter. I have three different food magazines sitting on my desk right now. Cakes and cookies and wine, oh my! A huge glossy photo of a chocolate torte is staring at me while I’m trying to brainstorm what to say about vegetables. I had to turn the magazine over. Problem solved.

Holiday eating is the best. It’s the only time of year I say to myself, it’s Christmas! One cookie won’t kill you! The reality is that one cookie is never one cookie. I’m lucky if I can stop at three. And those 2 pounds that creep on over Thanksgiving quickly turn into 6 by the New Year.

So, if you happen to be looking for a special occasion, veggie-based appetizer for your holiday meal, check out this BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP. I love squash soups for the simple fact that they give the illusion of a creamy, rich and indulgent meal starter. In reality, they’re basically just pureed vegetables.

I’m picky about my butternut squash soup. Some are too sweet. Some are too baby food-like. This one is thin enough to satisfy a “soupy” consistency and it isn’t terribly sweet. I like the addition of an Italian sausage link to give the final product a little more depth. If you’re serving a vegetarian, obviously just scratch the pork.

I think this soup would look fancy on a holiday table. It’s hearty and warming, but light in calories. I like to serve mine with a dollop of light sour cream. Please refer back to any post where I’ve mentioned my Hungarian roots and how sour cream should basically go on everything.

Eat, drink and be merry!

“Last Hoorah” Greek Cookout

Fall is quickly closing in on us in New York, but this past weekend we were graced with enough lingering warmth to squeeze in one final cookout. Sadly, I've been knocked out of the FoodBuzz competetion. Boo! But, I happen to think the challenges are pretty cool and I'm going to write about some of them anyway. Take that! The next round was to host a luxury dinner party that introduces guests to new and exciting culinary phenomenon.

My numero uno, most important entertaining tip is to host a party that fits the occasion. You certainly wouldn’t invite people over for a luxurious four course, wine-paired meal for your German Shepherd’s third birthday. My husband and I are big-time football fans (go Jets!) and our friends were joining us for the game. Why not officially close out summer with one last BBQ? It might be hard to attach the word “luxurious” to a laid back Sunday cookout, but tossing some meat on the grill seemed like the perfect game plan.

In order to understand this post, you need to understand my friends. Diana and Marc are absolute sweethearts and I love them both dearly, but this adventurous eating craze is brand new to them. Their top two favorite foods are still holding steady at ketchup and Cadbury Cream Eggs. You get the picture. I tried to come up with a menu that was adventurous enough for my company, but wouldn’t completely freak them out.

By the time September rolls around, I don’t want to see one more hamburger, hot dog or dish of potato salad, so I went with the following Greek-inspired menu:

The MARINATED LAMB KEBABS are killer. I use non-fat plain Greek yogurt for the base and mix in a whole bunch of lemon and thyme. The yogurt helps to tenderize the meat and gives the lamb a tangy zip. Definitely grill the kebabs to medium rare. That will help the little cubes of meat stay nice and juicy.

The yogurt that didn’t make it into the marinade went towards a quick tzatziki sauce. Some Greek yogurt sauces use mint, but I happen to love dill. Up until a few weeks ago, it never occurred to me that dill pickles get their taste from the dill herb. Super, major DUH moment on my part. I love pickles. Now I love dill too! The cucumber in the sauce adds the perfect little crunch on top of the tender meat.

Also joining the kebab party are mixed veggie skewers. Maybe I’m just a sucker for grilled things, but some simple olive oil, salt and pepper was all they needed. To finish it off, I went with one of my favorite go-to salad recipes, TABBOULEH. The dressing on the tabbouleh ties together the lemon in the marinade with the cucumber in the sauce. It was the perfect co-star.

In comparison to the hamburger and hotdog counterpart to this grill-fest, my Greek themed menu is extremely healthy. The marinade/grill combo is one of my favorite ways to add huge bursts of flavor without needing to cover something in a heavy traditional barbeque sauce or globs of ketchup (sorry Diana!).

After sitting through a quick photo shoot, I finally let my friends dig in. Even my lamb skeptics were impressed. I made some chicken skewers as a back-up plan, and to my surprise and excitement, didn’t need to resort to Plan B! Sweet! We ended the meal with Diana’s amazingly decadent Caramel Chunk Brownies. I’ll just tell you how good they were because photo evidence would be too damn tempting!

Hosts put a lot of stress into throwing the perfect dinner party. But really, what’s a party anyway? Spending time with some of my closest friends, enjoying delicious food and sipping a favorite wine? Sign me up. As the cook, a successful party means knowing that I served my pals an awesome plate of food with a side order of my awesome personality (sarcasm often included)!

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

The Story of Me, Featuring Tomato Soup!

I’ve been hosting this blog for almost a year now and I don’t think I’ve ever really shared why I started it in the first place. I came across the Project Food Blog competition hosted by Foodbuzz and thought I would enter. What the heck. If anything, it gives me a chance to share the story about who I am and why I’m so passionate about healthy cooking.

First of all, this isn’t a sob story. I’m not going to sit here and write about how I used to be a chubby, picked-on ugly ducking who transformed into a swan. Truth be told, I wasn’t picked on. I always had plenty of friends and family who didn’t really care if I was a little fluffier than your average kid. They wanted to be around me anyway. But the chubby part, that happens to be true. You’ll never catch me using the “F” word. As “fat” as I might feel on my worst day, I don’t support using adjectives that are designed to make the recipient feel bad about themselves, even If that recipient is yours truly. That’s not how I roll.

I don’t think my extra bit of “meat” really started bothering me until high school. Even then, it didn’t stop me from much. I had an adoring boyfriend (who I later married) and I excelled in school. But, I did start to feel the pressure of looking like your typical Barbie Doll high school kid and gradually became more and more unhappy and withdrawn. A vicious cycle of bruised self esteem and indulgent overeating had begun. *See extreme grumpy face below.

It wasn’t until college that I decided to change my life; new school, fresh start. I signed up for Weight Watchers with Mom as my sidekick and we were down right religious about following the program. We must have driven the rest of the family bonkers with our compulsive food measuring and journal writing. It took an entire year, but I managed to lose almost 75 pounds; all on my own with sheer willpower to thank. I could finally go shopping with my friends at the mall. I could finally fit in regular clothes. I cut my hair and changed my attitude. I walked a little taller and smiled a little brighter. People definitely took notice. *Please note a much happier face follows.
I attribute my entire personality to who I became that year. I was finally uninhibited by self hate and could be who I wanted to be. I will argue with ANYONE who thinks that people can’t change. Every day is a new opportunity to reinvent yourself. I’ve managed to keep the weight off for almost ten years, but not without a struggle. I recently found out that I suffer from a blood sugar condition that requires taking medication twice a day. It felt like another huge life setback.

So, I’ve abandoned the confines of a “diet” and adapted my entire lifestyle. I love food! I’m not about to eat those wretched frozen diet meals or munch on carrot sticks 24/7! That’s just not living! Above all, I love to cook. I found myself saying “I can diet this up!” ALL the time. That’s where the Diet It Up concept began. By subbing out a few ingredients or changing a cooking method you can really slim down a meal. “Dieters” can still cook and eat delicious food. It may sound simple, but it works.

This past weekend I made a huge pot of TOMATO SOUP WITH ASIAGO CHEESE CROUTONS. The air was breezy and cool and I wanted a little comfort food to warm up to. Tomato soup is a classic. But old fashioned Campbell’s canned tomato contains high fructose corn syrup (my blood sugar enemy) along with a hefty serving of salt. By making the soup at home, you can swap out a bit of brown sugar for the corn syrup. I add just enough to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. You can also control how much salt to add.

I use canned tomatoes for this recipe. I finally broke down and bought the San Marzano crushed tomatoes from Whole Foods for almost $4 per can. I was skeptical, but they were well worth it. They actually tasted richer and more “tomato-y” than supermarket brands. By adding a handful of fresh basil and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper (I like it spicy), you gain back the freshness factor that may have been lost in the can. There’s no butter or cream in this recipe, just simmered down vegetables pureed to a silky smooth texture.

The most logical pairing for tomato soup is grilled cheese. Oozy, melted cheese nestled between two slices of white bread. I was certainly tempted. But, I opted for croutons instead. I baked-up some day-old whole wheat ciabatta and gave the croutons a light dusting of grated asiago cheese. The crunchiness of the croutons and subtle saltiness of the cheese was just what I was looking for without the overwhelming calorie investment.

I think I deserve a shot at this Project Food Blog Contest. To me, cooking is an art. It’s much easier for an artist to work with a full fat palette. It’s a cinch to create a delicious dish using the richest, most flavorful ingredients. Healthy cooking is like painting with only half the color wheel. It’s infinitely more challenging to take fewer, simpler ingredients and still make them shine. My food shines. I’m proud of my work. People enjoy what I create and I can only hope they like hearing what I have to say too. I want to inspire people to change how they feel about “diet food.” Cooking a great meal or two along the way is simply icing on the cake (or at least the cupcake).

* Check out FoodBuzz to vote for me (because I like winning things)! Voting starts Sept. 20th.

No Woman, No Fry

I know I’ve been writing a lot lately about the concept of baking instead of frying. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I have one more point to make on the subject. Let’s discuss the ultimate classic Italian comfort food, parmigiana. In this case, eggplant parmigiana.

I never quite understood why the eggplant in eggplant parm needs to be fried at all. The purpose of frying anything is to develop a nice crispy crust so the food crunches when you bite into it. You take the time to bread all of these little rounds of eggplant, fry them in hot oil, only to turn around and kill the crisp coating with soggy tomato sauce and globs of melted mozzarella cheese? What gives?

There’s certainly a time and a place for frying. This isn’t it. It just isn’t necessary. I’ve tried those diet cookbook attempts to make a parmigiana without the breading at all. That’s taking it a bit too far. Just cut one large eggplant into rounds. Coat them lightly in egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs and bake the slices at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes on a cookie sheet. Flip them half way through cooking so both sides brown.

I’m sure everyone’s Italian grandma has their own take on this dish. Here’s my spin. For the sauce, I mix an 8 oz. can of plain tomato sauce with 2 cups of my favorite pasta sauce. My favorite pasta sauce happens to be my own. Humble, I know. It’s the typical “Sunday gravy” type of red sauce cooked for hours with meatballs, sausage…the works. The little can of plain tomato helps thin it out a bit and disperse some of the meaty flavors.

I layer the eggplant slices with the sauce mixture in a 1-1/2 quart CorningWare baking dish and top with 1 cup of reduced fat mozzarella and 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until the cheese is bubbling.

You’ll end up with a delicious Italian feast with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. Serve the meal with a side salad instead of greasy garlic bread and you’ll have a stick-to-your-ribs dinner people will want you to make again and again.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

Holla for Jalapeños!

Are you ever in one of those moods where you just need to have the ooey, gooey, cheesy richness that can only mean Mexican food? I was having some fabulous friends of mine over for dinner a few weeks ago and I was in one of those moods. They were being fed Mexican food whether they liked it or not!

I was looking to put out a little picky snack while the steak for steak fajitas was grilling outside, so I found this recipe for Emeril’s BAKED JALAPEÑO POPPERS. I thought stuffed jalapeños would be a cool change of pace from the expected chips and salsa. Plus, I kind of wanted to test this recipe out because I thought it would be equally as great for an app during football season (which I’m super psyched is coming up quickly).

I’m pretty impressed by celeb chefs that opt to bake instead of fry. Let’s face it, a jalapeno pepper that’s filled with creamy cheese, crusted with breadcrumb and fried to a deep golden brown is basically irresistible. The fact that my buddy Emeril decided to bake these instead made me happy. It’s an easy little substitution that can save a whole lot of calories.

Emeril even opts for panko breadcrumb that he spikes with his own seasoning blend instead of the typical Italian stuff that comes pre-seasoned. Panko is definitely lighter and after making these, much crispier. I was even able to dig up the appropriate spices from the depths of my spice cabinet to make the blend. I basically followed the original recipe to a tee except for using reduced fat cream cheese instead of the full-fat version.

This was a great little Mexican themed snack. The peppers were a little spicy and I didn’t cook them to complete mush. I like when peppers have a little bite to them. The filling was rich and cheesy without the “I need to put on sweat pants and vegetate in front of the TV” effect that Mexican often has. The baked crust was nice and crispy but didn’t leave a yucky oily residue on your cocktail plate. I’m definitely going to be making these again when the Jets hit the field in the fall!

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

Bye Bye Beef, Hello Portobello

For those of us who proudly call ourselves meat-eaters, we can indulge in the occasional juicy beef burger. The ground beef used in a typical burger patty is 80/20 chuck; 80% lean to 20% fat. This is one of the fattier cuts of beef out there. It absolutely produces a flavorful, tender burger patty, but you certainly don’t need me to tell you that it’s not a wise choice for a diet staple.

A popular alternative to beef is the veggie burger. A lot of the supermarket variety veggie patties in the freezer case are trying too desperately hard to taste like meat. The veggies are pureed within an inch of their life and combined with a variety of grains and fillers to mimic the taste and texture of beef. I don’t get it. I like veggie burgers. But I like them to taste like veggies. Broccoli should be proud to be broccoli and not have to wear a disguise to be accepted!

The easiest way for a veggie burger to taste like a veggie is to use the vegetable in its truest form. Hence, the Portobello mushroom. It’s burger shaped and easily absorbs whatever flavor you choose to add to it. Perfect!

I got the idea for this CHEESY PORTOBELLO BURGER WITH LEMON MAYO from watching an episode of Emeril Green on the Planet Green channel. That’s such a great show. Viewers write in with a cooking dilemma and Chef Emeril saves the day by inviting them to cook with him right in the middle of a Whole Foods market using fresh, local produce. Right up my alley.

The Portobello caps soak in a balsamic-based marinade. I would strongly recommend patting the mushrooms dry when you pull them out of their marinating bath. A soggy mushroom leads to a soggy bun and a soggy bun is NOT good eats.

The “burgers” are topped with creamy blue cheese. I know you probably want to get on my case for using full-fat blue cheese in a healthy recipe. I consider the mushroom to be a blank canvas. They’re free. You can eat as many mushrooms as you want on any diet, so the addition of blue cheese isn’t adding an obscene amount of calories to the overall dish. I will admit, I’m false advertising in the photo a bit. I tried the recipe with feta cheese for the close-up since I had it in the fridge. Go for the blue cheese, it’s totally worth it.

Emeril whips up his own fancy lemon aioli to go along with this burger. The first time I made this recipe, I tried the aioli and failed miserably. Rather than risking the loss of a ton of olive oil on round two, I doctored up some plain old mayo to make it simpler. The tangy lemon mayo sauce balances the richness of the blue cheese. Grilled red onion adds just enough sweetness and crunch.

This Portobello really gives the almighty beef burger a run for its money. Meat eater or vegetarian, give it a go.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

Beat the Heat Summer Salad

For those of you that live on the east coast, it’s certainly no surprise that temps are blowing way past 90 and reaching into the 100 degree territory. It’s a face-melter out there! I happen to love the heat if I’m sitting poolside in a bathing suit sipping lemonade. I don’t have the same appreciation for the scorching sun while riding public transportation to and from the big city.

I came up with this salad recipe last night after making the trek home from work. The heat made it a chore just to breathe, let alone cook a 4 course meal. Actually, I’ve been trying to eat larger portions during the day when I feel the hungriest and scale down my dinners at night since I don’t get around to eating until at least 7 o’clock.

I wanted something refreshing; the dinner equivalent of a dip in the pool. My go-to for a light dinner is always salad, but I was looking to punch up the hum drum lettuce and make it a little more interesting. The resulting creation is a SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH GRAPEFRUIT VINAIGRETTE.

These flavors worked out really well. The combination of tart grapefruit with buttery avocado and crunchy almonds balances nicely. The avocado adds some necessary creaminess. Toasting the almonds makes all the difference in the world here. Invest the extra 5 minutes in toasting them. As a rule, I top my salads with chopped nuts in lieu of croutons. Almonds are at the top of the “power foods” list. They’re the most nutrient-dense nut you can choose from so I opted for almonds.

The shrimp adds enough protein for this to be considered a meal. Since it’s summer, I tossed the shrimp on the grill for added smoky flavor. “I” obviously means I sent my husband out to battle the blazing temperatures to grill these shrimp. Don’t feel too bad for him. He was fully armed with a cold beer in hand (not even a light beer! For shame!).

And please don’t think we have some fancy grill setup that Bobby Flay would be jealous of. We grill up everything on a funky little camping stove on the side of our apartment. No frills works just fine. If you prefer, shrimp sautéed in a little olive oil on the stove would be just as delicious.

The dressing is very light and just enough to tie the whole salad together. It’s intended to be thin; just enough to lightly coat the spinach leaves. My grapefruit was fairly sweet, but if yours are too tart, you can always add a little honey to the dressing to balance it out.

It’s fresh, it’s quick, and it’s easy; an instant cool-down on a hot summer day.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

The Farmers' Market: A Foodie Field Trip

My goal for this week is to encourage people to visit local farms and farmers’ markets. I know farmers’ markets are pretty easy to find in the city, with rows and rows of fresh artisanal products to choose from. For some reason, they’re a little harder to locate out in the suburbs. I find this puzzling. Don’t I live closer to the farms than the city folks? I guess the country bumpkins are expected to drive right out to the farm’s front door. This isn’t terribly practical.

Northport Village does host a farmers’ market on Saturdays, so I took a field trip this weekend to scope out the scene. Although it was a small group of vendors, the produce was straight-from-the-ground fresh. In a perfect world, we’d skip the supermarket all together and buy meat from local butchers and veggies from local farms. But, our world is far from perfect and life is far too fast-paced to be spending all day food shopping. It was over 90 degrees in New York this weekend and the beach was calling me!

If you do have the time, I highly encourage going the extra mile on occasion to find local produce. Not only are you supporting the local farmers instead of giant supermarket chains, but you’re getting the best possible product. I picked up some carrots that were literally the tastiest carrots I’ve ever had. They actually tasted like carrots instead of some orange-colored carrot impersonators. The farmer said they were just harvested the day before. You can’t beat it.

If you don’t have access to local farm stands, have no fear. Maybe plant a little veggie or herb garden at home. I live in a one bedroom apartment with a tiny railing outside that gets sun. I squeezed a planter box on the ledge with some cilantro, basil, thyme and chives. It’s neat to be able to snip off a little sprig when you need it. You don’t have to buy a whole bunch of herbs at the supermarket to use 3 basil leaves.

After the market trip I needed to come up with dinner. The carrots were so sweet on their own; I didn’t want to mask the flavor. I just tossed them in some olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Simple. While the carrots were cooking, I grilled up a MARINATED SKIRT STEAK.

I came up with this marinade from ingredients I already had in the house. Marinating meat is a great way to pack in a lot of flavor without adding too many additional calories. Be sure to cut skirt steak against the grain for tender slices. Since it’s a fairly fatty cut, serving this with the simple roasted carrots kept the meal light and summery. So, hit the farmers’ market, turn your grill on and cook up some local deliciousness!

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.

Cast Iron Cuisine: Drunken Scallops

All of my cookware is non-stick coated. I know this certainly isn’t a pro chef’s first choice. Good thing I’m not a pro chef, because I love my Analon. Non-stick is perfect for cooks who shy away from using a lot of fat in their cooking and clearly, I’m that cook.

I used to coat my non-stick pans with a light spritz of Pam cooking spray. Not any more! That stuff is horrible. When heated to high temperatures, it can fuse to the cooking surface and ruin the coating on your very expensive pans. Eventually your non-stick cookware will end up sticking. Sticky non-stick frying pans are not only an oxymoron, but completely useless! A warranty on non-stick gear is actually void if you’re using cooking spray at all.

The benefit of using a cooking spray is that the product claims to be fat-free. Upon further investigation, the first ingredient on Pam’s ingredient list is canola oil. I don’t know how the FDA can list a canola oil product as “fat-free” on their labels, but they do. If it’s going to “add a trivial amount of fat” to my meal anyway, why not just stick to no-frills olive oil? I have a pump-action spray bottle that leaves a fine mist on the cooking surface. It’s certainly not a significant source of fat in your diet and my pans stay in pristine condition. Problem solved!

With that rant out of the way, some foods just don’t play nice with non-stick surfaces. At the top of the list would have to be scallops. Any time you want a crusty sear on something, cast iron is the way to go. I was poking around an antique store a few weeks back and bought a cast iron skillet circa 1922, but still in perfect shape. Cast iron needs to be seasoned (heated to high temperatures with fat rubbed into the surface) to develop a non-stick coating. This pan already had almost 90 years of someone’s Granny cooking on it, so I just needed to come home, clean off the antique store dust, add a little of my own fresh oil to the surface and get cooking.

I tried this recipe for SEA SCALLOPS IN WHITE WINE SAUCE. Apparently I’m becoming addicted to lemon juice, because I gravitate towards any recipe that includes it. The white wine sauce was very bright and fresh tasting. It was more of a “broth” consistency than a sauce, which was fine with me. Scallops are so sweet and delicate on their own. You don’t want some gloppy sauce to spoil the taste. This was just a nice little accompaniment. Be sure to pat the scallops dry and get the oil smoking hot to achieve the perfect sear. I also learned that you can’t crowd the pan. If the scallops release too much liquid, they’ll steam instead of searing.

I served 4 large sea scallops per person along with a side of PASTA WITH CREAMY ASPARAGUS SAUCE. I thought this was a pretty genius idea that unfortunately I can’t take credit for. I did make a few changes to the recipe, so I’m posting my own recipe card. A creamy pasta sauce is made from the pureed asparagus stems and parm cheese. It feels like a rich side dish without actually being very rich at all. I’m such a carb freak, I never think of pasta as anything but a main course. But here, you have a small amount on the side to satisfy the need for all things macaroni.

To sum up this rather long post, I think you’ll really enjoy this. The hum drum fish and veggie dinner has been kicked up just enough to make it special occasion worthy. It looks beautiful on the plate and the two dishes really compliment each other. Oh yeah, and Pam is awful.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions..

Behold, The Power of Steam!

En Papillote (French: "in parchment") is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked.

I know this isn’t a new or innovative cooking style, but it’s new to me and I wanted to share the results. I thought a flaky, white fish would work best, so I picked up a filet of cod. It’s a sturdy fish that doesn’t disintegrate or turn to smoosh when it’s cooked. A relatively low fat content makes it a healthy choice. To top it off, it was on sale. Bingo!

The French might use parchment for their pouch, but I opted for good old-fashioned aluminum foil. I tore off a huge sheet and started building my dish. I seasoned the fish with salt and pepper, topped it with dill and parsley leaves, then a few thin slices of lemon. After drizzling with olive oil, the meal was ready for its wrap treatment. Seal the foil pouch tightly on all edges leaving a little cushion of air for steam to develop. Place your neatly wrapped pouch on a baking sheet with a little water in the pan. Cook on 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes; easy squeasy.

I thought this was going to be bland. How can something that cooks so quickly have time to develop any real flavor? I was wrong. The fish steams in the pouch and stays super moist. The lemon and herb flavors really came through. I loved it. Plus, no butter, no breading, no complicated preparation, just a really tasty piece of fish. You can easily swap out the ingredients and try different combinations to keep it interesting.

I borrowed a grilling cookbook from the library (I know this is insufferably nerdy, but whatever!) and found a recipe for marinated and grilled zucchini. Well, it sounded delicious. I spend half an hour putting together a marinade that called for a dozen different ingredients, let it sit in the fridge for an hour as instructed, but after cooking, I didn’t taste ANY of those complicated steps.

The grilled flavor was great and I topped the zucchini with some parmesan cheese and chopped scallions. Those two ingredients really added something. Skip the complicated marinade. Cut the zucchini in half, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill about 5 minutes on each side or until tender. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and chopped scallions. An easy side dish for an easy dinner.

* Get cooking. Let me know what you think. Love it? Hate it? I’m interested in hearing your feedback and suggestions.