Quick Nutrition

We found a new favorite side dish tonight. Wary of yet another veggie and rice/pasta combo, a tin of chickpeas caught my eye in the pantry. I threw a spoonful of ginger and garlic into a large bowl and whisked it with 3 tbs olive oil, the juice of a lemon, salt & pepper, 2 tbs curry powder and about 1/4 onion and 2 carrots - both grated. I then chopped up some cauliflower and broccoli we happened to have in our crisper - and BAM. Side Dish done. It was as delish as it was easy to make. Plus it's pretty decent for you.

I entered the values into Spark People and for 1/2 cup serving of this salad, there are approx. 235 calories, 40g carbs, 6g fat and 7g protein. Plus you're getting good fiber from the chickpeas and veggies. You can also change it up by adding whatever veggies or other ingredients you have on hand.

I think I'll add some canned tuna to the leftovers for a great lunch tomorrow!

So so so sweet potato crisp

It's holiday pot luck season and I've found a new go-to dish to cart along to parties. It's a crowd pleaser, gluten free, vegetarian (though not vegan) and easy to whip together. It's part dessert and part side-dish so it's perfect for any type of get-together. And there's seasonal ingredients so it'll put you and the guests in the right mood for some holiday cheer.

What you'll need:
8 oz cream cheese
1 can sweet potato (or about 2 medium cooked sweet potatoes)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 apple (I used Granny Smith), cut into small cubes
2/3 cups cranberries
1/2 cup flour (I used rice flour to make this gluten free)
1/2 cup oats (old fashioned, not cooked)
1/3 cup butter/margarine (softened)
1/4 cup pecans (optional)

What to do:
1) Heat oven to 350 F

2) Beat cream cheese, potato, 1/4 cup brown sugar and the cinnamon in a blender or food processor until combined and smooth. Pout into a casserole dish (1 1/2 qt) and top with cranberries and apple pieces.


3) Mix together the flour, oats and remaining sugar with the butter. Use your fingers to mix it all up until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in nuts and sprinkle the crumbs over the dish.

4) Bake, covered, for 30-35 mins until heated through and golden brown.

I would suggest experimenting with this too because pears or pomegranate seeds sound awfully good too! And I didn't have pecans so I used peanuts and it worked out well.

If you're making this ahead of time for a party, you can bake it and cool it down before refrigerating. When you're at the party, put the dish in the oven again to re-heat and away you go!

(not so) Basic pork tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is one of the easiest things to prepare...and it presents excellently for company. All you have to do is get a regular, boneless loin of pork. These are usually featured at grocery stores on special every few weeks. Or if you get your meat from a butcher just ask for a portion of loin (depending on how much you need) and ask that the fat cap be left on the meat. When you get the pork home, all you have to do rub with salt, pepper and whatever spices you like. This time around, I used Spice Barn For the Birds rub. Then put the meat on a baking sheet with the fat cap on top. While the meat cooks, the fat will melt and self-baste the meat. It sounds odd but trust me it works! To avoid overcooking your pork, cook until it's internal temperature reaches 160F (that's about 25 mins for 1lb). A cooking thermometer is an excellent cooking gadget. When the pork comes out of the oven you need to let it rest for 10 minutes to let the juices re-distribute and the muscle to relax. Then you're ready to carve and enjoy!

A great side to pork tenderloin is sweet potatoes and roasted peppers. They're just as easy to prepare as the meat and the grilled taste matches the pork so well. For the potatoes, slice them up and par-boil or microwave for a few minutes to lesson the oven time. Then put the potatoes and peppers (sliced in large chunks and de-seeded) on an oiled cooking sheet. It can all go in the oven at the same time. Roast the veggies for about 20 minutes, checking to make sure they're not blackening too much. You can do this roasting technique with lost of veggies or try the same thing on the BBQ.

In about 30 minutes you have prepared, cooked and served a healthy meal that is as tasty as it is presentable. If you want to go overboard, make a quick applesauce or a mustard-mayo.


Meat Thermometer

Out with the old...

So I finally got a new range! The one that came with our house was a 24" apartment-sized model with coils and a tiny one-rack oven that frequently set off the smoke detectors. I'm not cooking with gas yet but the new model is just fine. Well, more than fine! It's a normal size, stainless steel, smooth top, heats up quickly and, best of all, it's nice and clean. So as a send-off to my faithful, yet small and old, stove, I made one last meal on it. I tried to think of a few small dishes that didn't take too much time, heat or effort from the ailing and aged appliance (plus I think I'd already given up on ever using the oven again). The answer came in the form of some of our easy favorites and required all the small burners so I could say a proper farewell to the appliance.

First up there was brussel sprouts in bacon and garlic. This is an adapted Nigella recipe but has worked well for me forever and takes little time or effort. Basically you cut up some bacon and fry it until crispy. Peel some brussel sprouts or finely chop them into slivers and add them to the bacon in the pan along with a clove of finely minced garlic. Let the sprouts wilt and get covered in bacon fat. Take the whole lot out and keep warm in a pan to the side. Don't wipe out or wash the pan because the risidual bacon fat will be put to good use soon. Admittedly this isn't as healthy as eating just brussel sprouts but then again its not as unhealthy as just eating bacon - and we were celebrating after all.

The second dish was even simpler. Take some mushrooms (I used cremini) and slice them up. Heat some butter, onion slivers and a sprig of rosemary in a pan. Fry the mushrooms in the butter mixture until tender and slightly shrunken.

The third dish is the main attraction and the easiest of all: scallops. Heat up the pan in which you fried the bacon and sprouts. Then gently salt and pepper the scallops and sear them on one side for one or two minutes. Turn them over and sear on the other side. Scallops are quick to cook and taste great with very little seasoning. Then plate all three dishes up and you've got a great meal. Easy peasy and worthy of a last meal for a dying stove.

Stay tuned for the new adventures from my newest toy!

Tangy pork chops (and a squash confession)

The finished product: Pork Chops with Tangy Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce and butternut squash puree with peas.

I had picked up some pork chops at the supermarket. They were a nice size but it was windy and I didn't feel like BBQing. So I dug around my cook books for a real recipe I could try. I often don't cook a recipe word for word but I don't cook chops that often either so I needed inspiration. I found a recipe for which I had the ingredients on hand: Pork Chops with Tangy Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce from Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book.

So here it is (note I only had two chops so I used less of every ingredient and only one can of tomatoes):

2 tb extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO to Rachel fans)
4 1 inch boneless pork loin chops
2 cloves garlic -- minced
4 scallions (white & green parts) -- in 1" pieces (I used 1/2 regular onion, minced)
2 tbs light brown sugar
2 14 oz cns fire-roasted tomatoes
3 stips of smokey bacon (I didn't use bacon for the chops...see side dish note below)


Place a large skillet over medium high heat with 1 tbsp EVOO. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and sear them in the hot pan until they're golden brown on both sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Once they are golden, remove the chops to a plate and cover with foil. To the same pan, add the garlic and scallions. Cook until the scallions begin to tenderize, about 4 minutes.

Add the vinegar, brown sugar and tomatoes. Bring the sauce to a bubble and return pork chops to pan. Finish cooking the chops in the sauce, this should take 3-4 minutes.

As a side dish, the Big Orange Book recommends polenta which I have found difficult to get, and to cook. I happened to have a butternut squash so I decided to make the same polenta recipe only with squash instead. And here's my confession: I have never cooked squash before. I've eaten it, seen it cooked on TV, but never attempted it myself. Before now.

I looked at the thing and figured (and remembered from cooking shows) the best approach was to cut it in half, season with salt, pepper and oil and roast in the oven until it was tender. Basically my technique was to cook it until it was done. Which didn't take as long as I thought it would: about 30 minutes. Then I scrapped out the flesh of the squash and put it in a pot with the crisped bacon (I used it here instead of in the pork chops), a couple tbs of milk, stock, about two handfuls of frozen peas and a bit of Parmesan cheese grated down into the whole mixture. As a side dish it was good but it would have been terribly bland if not for the bacon and cheese. Don't those two always lift a dish?!

Anyway, the pork chop recipe worked out well and the smooth squash was a nice balance to the tangy chops. The tomatoes kept the meat from drying out and becoming chewy (always a bonus) and I will be making this one again!

Early Mother's Day Sunday Roast

I was doing my regular Saturday afternoon cooking show-watching when a Jamie Oliver show about making a proper roast dinner inspired me. I thought: I want a roast dinner. No, I thought: I want to make a roast dinner. The only thing is I rarely make big meals because it's just the two of us to eat it. Then I had another idea: I'll make a big roast dinner and invite my mom and dad over. Then we decided to invite my boyfriend's parents over too. I had the perfect excuse to cook a big meal.

So I went out to the stores and picked up a freshly-butchered top sirloin beef roast (boneless), potatoes, carrots, some rosemary and brussel sprouts. Then I called up the folks and invited them over. Done and done. I was all stalked up and ready for the next day's cooking and eating.

Then I went out. It was Saturday night after all. I stayed up late and by the time I awoke and got going on Sunday I was no longer inspired by Jamie's roast dinner tv special. The last thing I wanted to do was cook all day. I just wanted some cereal and coffee and maybe to go back to bed. But, I didn't and I now I realize a roast dinner is probably the easiest thing to cook to impress a crowd (of parents and in-laws even). Here's how it works:

Take the roast out of the fridge and let it un-chill for a bit while you peel and slice about three onions in half, peel a half dozen garlic cloves and cut up about six carrots (chunky slices, nothing fancy). Put the onions on the bottom of the roast pan and put the carrots and garlic cloves around them. Drizzle everything with olive oil.

Take some fresh rosemary off the stem and chop it up. Then take the meat and slather it with some mustard, Worcestershire sauce and the rosemary. You'll want to sear the meat in a frying pan first on all sides and then transfer the meat to the roasting pan and put it on top of the onions. This keeps the meat from burning to the bottom and lets the onions become all juicy from the meat drippings. Sounds a little squeamish but it's good!

Then you chuck it all into the oven at 350 for about an hour and a bit (this sentence was very inspired by Jamie). Just make sure you check it every so often. You can use a meat thermometer and take it out when the meat is at 160. Or you can take the meat out when it just barely springs back at the thickest part (the more spring-y it is the less done/cooked it is). This will give you medium-well done meat. Then let the meat rest covered for about 20 mins. Fire the veggies back in if the carrots aren't soft enough or let them rest covered too.

The meat will come up a couple degrees while it sits and resting it gives its juices a chance to redistribute so the roast will be nice and juicy.

I think I got the most compliments during dinner for the potatoes and they were the easiest part! I had multi-coloured fingerling potatoes. Dump the potatoes into another pan (unpeeled), drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and let roast alongside the meat until soft on the inside but crispy on the outside. Put the potatoes in about 40 minutes before the meat comes out and it should all be ready about the same time.

For the brussel sprouts I tired an idea I got from Jacques Pepin. First you take your handy-dandy food processor and feed the cleaned little brussel sprout balls through the slicer. Cut up a couple strips of bacon and fry that in a pan to render its fat and crisp the bacon. Then add the shaved brussel sprouts and cook the mixture until it's slightly softened. Easy and delish. This side dish comes together fast so you can start it after everything comes out of the oven and is resting.

As an added bonus you can whip up a jus sauce from meat drippings. What I did though was mix some mayo (or you can use Greek yogurt or sour cream), mustard and more chopped rosemary together for a sauce. Just a nice finishing touch to your table and meal.

All that's left is carve the roast and serve your impressive (but easy) meal. I speak from experience here: I did this meal in about two hours and it received rave reviews from not one, but two moms! Now that's a good Sunday.

Easy sweet potato side

We had a quick BBQ Saturday afternoon and did hamburgers on the grill. As a side, dish I dressed up some sweet potatoes and stuck them in the toaster oven. I cut them up small and by the time the burgers were done so were the potatoes. Easy breezy.

Many friends have told me variations of this side dish but here's my go-to favorite:
- 2 sweet potatoes (or more if there's company or you're hungry...or want leftovers)
- olive oil
- a couple dashes of garlic powder
- a couple dashes of paprika
- a couple dashes of Montreal steak spice

Cut the potatoes up into cubes and toss with the oil and spices. Lay them onto a baking sheet in one layer and bake on 400C for about 15-20 minutes until soft and slightly crispy on the edges. The smaller you cut the potatoes the faster they'll cook. You can also cut them into "fries" instead of cubes if you'd like but sweet potatoes won't crisp up the same as regular potatoes. You can also try this technique with other kinds of potatoes and they will crisp up just lovely!

Multitask tip: Adding some sliced onions on top of the potatoes will season them even further and cook the onions for an extra side dish or for on top of your burgers or steak.