Breakfast Smoothies: Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great

I've been cooking from The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great and have several great new additions to my repertoire. I picked this book up on the basis of a recommendation from one of the blog readers and want to say "Thanks!" It's as fantastic as her other books. The recipes are delicious, easy to follow and very flexible, with lots of ideas for adaptations and swapping out of ingredients.

First, for breakfast my kids have been enjoying her soy milk smoothies. I've been using fresh bananas rather than the frozen she recommended because the kids like them a bit more drinkable rather than thick. We tried once without the banana but even though neither of the girls are big banana fans they both found the smoothie too overpowering in the other fruit flavor.

1 cup vanilla soy milk
2 tsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
1 banana (frozen or not)
1 cup frozen fruit

Blend this up in the blender and drink.

I've been buying the shelf stable soy milk which is great to have around in a pinch. We've used frozen mangoes and raspberries so far. I also had some leftover frozen jello and fruit things that no one liked so a few times I used one of those instead of honey.

Anyway, I think it's a great breakfast for those that don't actually like to eat much in the mornings. For me, I'm sticking with my toast and fresh tomatoes from the garden until the tomatoes are gone! Or on the weekends, I might add a scrambled or fried egg.

A Bit Southern: Sausage Pie

I hardly even knew where to look to buy pork sausage without the casing, but I found it. I guess it's called ground sausage... but isn't all sausage ground? Anyway, this came from The Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah, which I bought on a whim.

Both my kids (14 and 17) liked this, although they initially expressed some doubts. I served with some sliced red peppers on the side for a vegetable. I would have done a salad had I had more time.

1 pound ground sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup milk
3 ounces cream cheese, cut in chunks
3 eggs
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1/2 tsp salt (or less, depending on your sausage)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 9" pie crust, partially baked

Make and bake the pie crust. Turn the oven to 375 afterwards.

Brown the sausage in a skillet over medium heat, stirring and crumbling it up as you go. Paula Deen said to drain the fat, remove the sausage, then add 1 Tbs butter.

I just removed the sausage and left about 1 Tbs of fat in the pan. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add the milk and heat through, stirring, but try not to let it simmer or boil. Add the cream cheese and stir a bit, lowering the heat way down. Turn the heat off as the cream cheese melts a bit.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Stir in the shredded cheese, then add the slightly cooled onion mix.

Pour this into the prebaked pie crust and add the cooked sausage on top. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or so, until the egg is set. I couldn't fit all the sausage in since I was using a smaller pie crust but you should be able to with a deep dish pie shell.

Leftovers will be gone by the time breakfast is done I predict!

Tacos without the Packet

Most people I know make tacos using those little packages of spices. Years ago I started using this recipe from Let's Eat In Quick and Delicious Weekday Meals. Often, I make Spanish Rice to go with the tacos, which conveniently uses 8 ounces of tomato sauce as well so you can just use half a can for each recipe. Otherwise, I find those 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce go on sale pretty frequently so I just buy half a dozen when they do as they are convenient to have around. Unless I 'm growing it, I rarely have fresh cilantro around so I just use 1-2 tsp dried parsley instead.

2 Tbs oil
1 small onion, peeled and diced (about 1 cup total)
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 tsp cumin
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (optional)

Hat the oil in a skillet and saute the onion and garlic a few minutes, then add the ground meat and continue cooking, stirring to break up the chunks. Cook, stirring, until no longer pink. Drain any excess fat. (Alternatively, if you have some boiled ground beef in the freezer or precooked ground beef add that and just heat through.)

Add the cumin and stir, cooking another minute. Add the tomato sauce and water and bring to a simmer. Partially cover the skillet and cook 10 minutes or so, stirring now and then. Uncover the skillet and cook another 5 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the cilantro or parsley.

Serve with crispy or soft taco shells, shredded lettuce, grated Cheddar cheese, refried beans, Spanish Rice, and salsa.

How to Peel Fresh Tomatoes

In the past, I've mostly just passed on the whole idea of peeling tomatoes. I mean, I don't mind the skins and I'm sure, as my mother always said, that the skins hold lots of the vitamins and other good-for-you things. But sometimes you want the finer aspect of skinned tomatoes. I would put on a pot of water to boil, cut an x on the blossom end of the tomatoes, then immerse the whole tomatoes for half a minute or so then pull them out, let them cool a bit and the skin would peel off pretty easily. And that works if you don't mind the extra pan and wasted time and energy.

But tonight I'm making gazpacho and pulled out The Perfect Recipe and saw a new way to peel tomatoes buried in the gem of a recipe for gazpacho.

Cut out the stem core a bit with a sharp knife. Anderson says to run the edge of a spoon around on the skin, then simply pull the skin off. Sounded way too easy! But it works! I ended up getting frustrated with switching utensils and discovered the edge of a knife works just as well as a spoon so you can loosen the skin, then go right to the peeling the skin, then chopping the tomato.

Gazpacho recipe to be posted later. I'm not done yet but had to share this tip!

I'm looking forward to the gazpacho though. The tomatoes, cucumber, jalapeno, and garlic all came from my garden and were picked minutes before I started making it. I love that!

Crustless Quiche

Another hit from The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great, a crustless quiche with chicken apple sausage and apples and sage. I cheated a bit and used all whole eggs rather than half eggs and half egg whites. Mainly because I'm just in it for the good food and not the weight loss! ;) So I don't buy egg beaters.

2 tsp olive oil
1 tart apple, diced
2 chicken apple sausages, diced
pinch of dried sage

4 eggs (or 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of egg whites or egg substitute or egg beaters type thing)
1 15 ounce can evaporated milk
2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 and lightly spray or grease a 9" pie pan or quiche dish.

Heat the oil in and saute the apples for about 4 minutes, then add the sausage and cook another 2 minutes or so. Sprinkle with sage and remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, evaporated milk, and mustard. Stir in the cheese and the apple-sausage mix.

Pour this all into the pie pan and put it in the oven. Bake about 30 minutes. Let it sit about 5 minutes before serving.

Serves about 6 if you don't have big eaters or have a side dish. Salad or just sliced tomatoes go great! We're eating the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. Mmmm!

Chilled Cucumber Salad

Tonight we had my nephew join us for dinner so I did a die-hard vegetarian dinner. It's a nice challenge because otherwise it's too easy to slip into old habits.

The menu was:

Sweet and Sour Tofu
Bean Sprouts and Garlic
Steamed Rice
Chilled Cucumber Salad

All the other recipes are posted previously so I linked to them. Here's the Chilled Cucumber Salad.

5 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

Dressing:
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 Tbs diced ginger
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Scoop the seeds out of the cucumber and slice. Put the slices in a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar and salt, mix, then chill for 30 minutes.

Mix the dressing ingredients together.

Drain the cucumber slicees and squeeze any excess liquid. Pour the dressing over and serve.

Butterflied Roast Chicken

I love roast chicken but sometimes it's hard to get a whole chicken to cook evenly without paying a lot of attention. I've hard great luck if I bother to turn it partway through or take the time to baste it periodically, but sometimes I just want to pop it in the oven and forget about it. I'd heard about butterflying a whole chicken for more even (and faster) roasting and finally got around to trying it. It worked great! I had a 5 pound chicken so roasted it just under 2 hours. A smaller bird, about 3 pounds, should be done in about 45 minutes. Not only does it cook more evenly, but it's easier to rub some flavoring under the skin where it can really flavor the meat rather than just the skin.

First, cut the backbone off the chicken. You can use a nice sharp knife or kitchen sheers. Then flatten it with your palms a bit. If you don't want to make a pan sauce or gravy, line a shallow roasting pan with foil for easier cleanup. Put the chicken down on the foil. Put the back along with the neck and gizzards into a saucepan and cover with water to make broth. See below.

For the simplest preparation, pull back the skin from each leg and thigh and sprinkle with salt and pepper and maybe an herb if you'd like. I made a paste of lemon zest, garlic, fresh rosemary, salt, and pepper and used that. Loosen the skin around the breast and do the same thing. Put the skin back, then rub with olive oil or butter.

1 tsp minced or grated lemon zest
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
juice from 1/2 a lemon
3-5 pound whole chicken

Roast at 450 F until mostly done (30 minutes for a 3 pound chicken, more for larger). Squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the skin, then put back into the oven and cook until done.

You can also easily roast vegetables in the same pan at the same time. Toss some halved red potatoes, halved onions, chunks of carrot or whole baby carrots, and/or chunks of cauliflower with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the potatoes cut side down in the pan and scatter the other vegetables around the chicken. They should be done after about 45 minutes so if you're cooking a larger bird, like I did, just add them halfway through.

Use any leftover cooked chicken for chicken salad or burritos or fried rice or soup.

Chicken Broth
Oh, the broth. Put the the chicken back, neck, and gizzards in a saucepan. Add half a carrot, half an onion, some peppercorns, and a stalk of celery or just the leaves for some extra flavor. (For more broth, just set aside the chicken parts in the refrigerator until you're done with dinner then add the bones from the rest of the chicken to the neck, back, and gizzards. )Cover with water and let it simmer an hour or so, let cool a bit then strain. Put in a wide mouth jar in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will rise to the surface and solidify. Scrape it off before making soup or freezing your broth for later.

Hobo Hamburgers with Country Bob's Sauce

I made these again tonight. I had been sent some samples of Country Bob's Sauce and I added it to the hobo hamburger recipe. Mmmmmm. The sauce is like A1, dare I say, but a bit sweeter perhaps. Quite good! And I always like finding alternatives to the big names. If you want to try it out yourself, you can get a coupon for a free bottle when you sign up for their newsletter. They've got some yummy sounding recipes on the site as well.

Stir Fried Beef, Bean Sprouts, and Spinach

What a disappointment. Very bland and boring. I don't normally post negative reviews but this was just blah.

Another Chicken Curry Recipe

This was a bit of a combo from a Rachel Ray and a Jacques Pepin, so what do you call that?! My earlier chicken curry recipes have all been great, but I always like to experiment. I wasn't sure I'd like the tomatoes but I think this was one of the best curry recipes I've made.

Rachel Ray contributed the curry powder and the mango chutney. Jacques Pepin contributed the coconut milk and curry paste. (Yep, I did both curry powder and curry paste.)

This served 2 adults with one huge lunch portion for leftovers, so call it 3-4 servings.

2 Tbs oil
4-6 chicken tenders (maybe a pound altogether)
1/2 an onion, cut in half and then sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp curry powder
1 12-14 ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
1-2 tsp curry paste
1 can diced tomatoes since I didn't have fresh ones handy
1 Tbs dried basil (would be better with 1/4 cup fresh)
Major Grey's mango chutney on the side

Start your rice cooking. For 3-4 people, I usually use 1 cup rice and 2 cups water, plus 1/2 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 20-25 minutes. If it gets done before the curry is done just turn the heat off and let it sit a bit.

Heat the oil in a pan at a medium heat.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Obviously you could use pretty much any boneless chicken parts. I'd just bought a bag of chicken tenders by mistake so that's what I used.

Add the onion and garlic to the heated oil and cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the curry powder and cook another minute.

Add the coconut milk and stir, then stir in the curry paste. (You can use red or green curry paste, depending on how hot you like it. Red works for me.) Cook another few minutes, stirring.

Add the chicken and cook at a simmer until the chicken is done, about 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook till heated through. Alternately, you could add peas or bamboo shoots or.... Stir in the basil.

Rachel Ray had you mix in the chutney. I prefer to serve it on the side. It adds a nice sweet counterpoint to the potentially spicy curry, but serving it on the side lets everyone control their own meal.