Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Peel 6 sweet potatoes and cut them into french fry size wedges.

Preheat a cookie sheet in a 450 oven.

Combine juice of half a lemon,
2 tbs olive oil,
1/4 cup fresh marjoram or oregano,
salt and
pepper
in a ziploc bag.

Add sweet potatoes to the bag and shake.

Place on preheated cookie sheet and bake in a 450 oven 20 minutes.

These were lovely in our Easter dinner (which included herbed ham and also asparagus in a citrus balsamic sauce), but they'd be just as nice for an everyday lunch.

Five on Friday

This blog is quite new, but certainly looks promising. Check it out: oregonpencildust.blogspot.com

Here is a touching post on disabilities and learning difficulties.

This is a good post on Lent, from the author of 1,000 Gifts.

St. Patrick's Day is next week! You'll need a recipe for Irish brown bread.

And here's a comic for my Nascar-loving friends.

Avocado Bean Salad

This is a simple recipe that is very yummy! All measurements are approximate and can be tweaked to your own preferences.

3 TBS olive oil
1 large sprig each: sage, tarragon, marjoram, oregano (or any combination of herbs you love)
a bunch of chives (define "bunch" to your own taste)
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans or cannellini, drained and rinsed
1 or two green onions, diced (optional)
2 avocadoes, diced
salt and pepper

Chop herbs and place them with olive oil in a bowl or pitcher. Optional: process with a stick blender (chopping blade) for a few moments.

In a large bowl place the beans, green onion, and the avocado. Pour the herbed olive oil over the vegetables. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Mix vigorously. The avocado will mash up a bit, coating the beans.

The flavors are best if you prepare and chill the salad for an hour or two before serving.

For a more colorful salad, add fresh diced tomatoes.

I like to just eat this with a spoon, but it is lovely on a bed of greens, on whole wheat crackers, or on small slices of rustic bread.

Mango Lassi Recipe

We ordered mangoes through bountifulbaskets.org last week. Today we made Mango Lassi, an east Indian yogurt drink. It made a very yummy breakfast accompaniment, but it would be a refreshing afternoon snack too.

Here's the recipe, slightly adapted from Emeril's There's a Chef in My World cookbook.

1 1/2 cups vanilla or plain yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons rose water (available at international markets)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup ice cubes
3/4 cup orange juice (I used the juice of three oranges)
a sprinkle of cardamom or cinnamon
2 mangoes, peeled and diced

Blend all the ingredients in a blender for 2 or 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

This made about five cups. One cup has approximately 144 calories.
You could skip the rosewater if you can't find it, but it is worth seeking out.

Emeril suggests you try this with other soft fruits like strawberries, peaches or blueberries. I think my kids would enjoy this with a banana added. My husband took his yogurt drink to go, adding a scoop of vanilla protein powder.

Baked French Toast

This is so easy!

Preheat the oven to 400

Spray a cookie sheet (the kind with a bit of a lip around the edges) with pam.

Melt half a stick of butter, and whisk with 2 Tablespoons maple syrup and the juice of one orange.

Pour into baking pan--a cookie sheet with a lip around it.

Place 10 slices of bread on top--thicker crustier bread is best. If you can't fit all 10 slices on your cookie sheet, cut 2 slices into strips and fit them in around the other slices.

Whisk 5 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice or nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a bit of orange zest.

Pour over bread.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Turn the toast over when serving. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon.

We like it with crunchy peanut butter.

Adapted from Debra's Natural Gourmet Cookbook

Roasted Broccoli with Feta and Walnuts

My middle daughter has chosen broccoli as her favorite food. She likes it raw, steamed or roasted. She's not picky. This is my favorite way to eat broccoli. A cup of it prepared this way (before you add the cheese and walnuts) is about 75 calories.

2 1/2 pounds broccoli pieces
3 or 4 diced cloves garlic
1 or 2 tsp Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder
(if you've tried curry powder from the grocery store and didn't like it...this is quite different)
1 Tbsp and 1 tsp olive oil
salt

Feta, crumbled (about 40 calories per tablespoon if you're counting)
Walnuts, chopped (about 43 calories per tablespoon)

Preheat oven to 425.
Toss broccoli and garlic with curry powder, olive oil and salt.

Spread broccoli out in baking dishes. I use two 9 x 13s and one 8 x 8. Roasting vegetables need room, or they will steam rather than roast.
Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes.

Garnish individual bowls with feta and walnuts. The amount of feta and walnuts you use will depend on whether this is your main dish or a side dish. I like to give this to my kids as a main dish when they are wanting popcorn for dessert. This gives them veggies and protein and dairy and healthy monunsaturated fats (olive oil and walnuts) before they fill up on popcorn.

Variations:

Try crumbled blue cheese and pecans for the cheese and nuts.

Or serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing.

Skip the nuts and top with diced salami--maybe use some Italian herbs instead of curry powder. Shredded mozzarella cheese would work well with the salami.

Cauliflower is just as yummy.


This is the amount I make to serve the five of us as a side dish.

Flat Belly Afternoon Tea

Today I'm having a friend over for tea. I want to serve something that seems like a treat but includes some protein and a MUFA and stays under 400 calories. So here's our menu (with a little help from the EatingWell 500 Calorie Dinner cookbook, which does not include MUFAs with every meal but does use healthy ingredients):

Tea (I drink mine with agave nectar 20 cal. and milk-- 1/8 cup fat-free milk 20 cal.) 2 cups = 80 calories

Fruit and yogurt parfait
in each individual glass bowl or cup layer place
1/4 cup diced pineapple (30 cal), then add
1/2 cup low fat peach yogurt (115 cal), then top with
2 strawberries, quartered (8 cal)
at the last minute add 1 tablespoon pecans (43 cal. MUFA!)
Garnish with a mint leaf if you have fresh mint available
Total per serving 196 calories

Cookies
Dip 8 gingersnaps in 1/3 cup melted semisweet chocolate chips (MUFA!)
Before the chocolate hardens, add diced chopped ginger and dried cranberries to the top of each cookie. Each cookie is about 79 calories.

Total calories in this meal: 355

Note: a MUFA serving of pecans is actually 2 tablespoons. I kept this at 1 because the chocolate is also a MUFA.

If I only have one cup of tea, I can have two cookies, making this a 394 calorie meal.

Note: I have no connection with the authors of the Flat Belly Diet, nor do I have their opinion on how this fits with the guidelines.

Check the sidebar to the left to download a free chapter from my book: Sacred Signposts, Exploring the Prayer Paths of St. Paul and St. Patrick.

Flat Belly Diet Update--woo hoo!

Last August we came home from vacation and I stepped on the scales and gasped. My daughter was 3 1/2 and I hadn't lost the baby weight yet, but in August I realized I'd gained even more weight. A vacation spent in search of the best clam chowder in the Northwest didn't help. I found a wonderful cookbook at Borders a few days later: The Eating Well Diet Cookbook. I lost 5 pounds quickly, and another 2 pounds very slowly. The cookbook is full of yummy food, but it suits my husband's gourmet cooking style better than my own get-out-of-the-kitchen-quickly methods. My husband used to cook all our dinners, but his schedule this year keeps him too busy to do so.

By November I was ready to try something new. I wanted something I could stick to even if I was doing all the cooking myself. I'd looked at the Flat Belly Diet before, but there was something new: a Pocket Guide with four weeks of menus. The Pocket Guide promised to be a cheaper way of eating and a quicker way of cooking. And I could eat dark chocolate every day. I figured it was worth a try. I do not like to read all the whys and hows of a diet--just tell me what to eat and how to tweak it for my own likes and dislikes. The Pocket Guide is perfect for me. I looked at the menus and chose week 3 to start with, subsituting a few ingredients here and there. My husband agreed to eat the dinners in the menu plan. He grilled some chicken breast to add to a few pasta dishes. After that week I referred to the guide for calorie information and planned our meals, focusing on lean proteins and whole grains and those MUFAs.

The Flat Belly Diet is based on a 1600 calorie per day (4 meals, 400 calories each) plan, with a monounsaturated fat (MUFA) at each meal (nuts, pesto, olive oil, hummus, olives, dark chocolate, avocado). I find it's far easier to stick with a calorie plan when I look at it per meal rather than aiming at a daily total.

I lost 7 pounds in November, the scale went up and down in December, and now in the first week of February I've lost 13 pounds on the Flat Belly Diet...which makes me 20 pounds lighter than I was August 1st. To put it another way, on November 1st I couldn't zip my size 10 jeans. Now size 6s are a bit loose, and I can squeeze into size 4s.

I discovered early on that the 1600 calorie a day plan is great for maintenance for me, but 1400 calories is where I lose weight. This is easy to do by either cutting my snack to 200 calories, or cutting 2 meals to 300 calories each. I didn't do the 4 day Jumpstart with it's very limited menu until I'd been eating Flat Belly meals for almost a month.

My husband is following the Flat Belly Diet too now, and he's seeing great results. The men's guidelines are 2000 calories a day--4 meals of 500 calories each.

This plan really does seem to shrink my tummy. I can wear pre-pregnancy pants now even though I still weigh 12 pounds more than I did pre-pregnancy.

Check the sidebar to the left to download a free chapter from my book: Sacred Signposts, Exploring the Prayer Paths of St. Paul and St. Patrick.

Crockpot Split Pea Soup

The Swedish Table cookbook has a delightful yellow split pea soup recipe. My grocery store doesn't carry yellow split peas, and I wanted to use my crockpot, so I adapted the recipe a bit. My husband and my kids all declared this "yummy" and my oldest daughter has been gobbling up the leftovers.

1 TBS olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 1/3 cups green split peas
4 cups vegetable broth
3 cups chicken stock
fresh dill
salt

1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 TBS olive oil
fresh dill

cooked bacon (1 slice per person, if desired)

Saute the onion and carrot in 1 TBS olive oil until the onion begins to turn golden. Add garlic and saute for another minute or two. Put cooked vegetables in the crockpot and add peas, broth, stock, and dill. Cook on low for 8 hours. Taste the soup to see if you'd like to add salt, keeping in mind the saltiness of the bacon you might use as a garnish.

Meanwhile, cut each cherry tomato in half and marinate them in 2 TBS olive oil with dill.

Serve soup garnished with tomatoes and bacon.

The soup made 9 cups. Each cup has about 216 calories. The garnishes have about 173 calories per person if divided between 5 people. I counted the olive oil as my MUFA for the Flat Belly Diet.

Holiday Heritage

We began a family tradition last year of celebrating our heritage during December. We focus on a different country each week. We read books about Christmas in each particular country and we eat foods from that country too.

The first week is German week--we celebrated St. Nicholas Day (December 6) by putting small gifts in the children's shoes and reading about the historical St. Nicholas. We eat bratwurst and sauerkraut and strudel.

The second week is Swedish week--we'll celebrate St. Lucia Day (December 13) with St. Lucia buns and coffee cake. We'll read Annika's Secret Wish and Hanna's Christmas. I'll make Janssen's Temptation, probably the yummiest thing I've ever made: salmon and capers and dill and potatoes and cream. I don't want to know how many calories it contains; I will just enjoy it and walk an extra five miles that day.

The third week will be Irish week, and my husband will make my favorite dinner ever: Irish Seafood Chowder. I'll make Irish brown bread, and I'm sure we'll have a Full Irish Breakfast at some point.

On Christmas Day we're English; we'll have a roast and yorkshire puddings and roasted brussel sprouts (forget everything you know about brussel sprouts--roast them--and be amazed). We'll buy crackers...the wrapped kind with paper hats and jokes inside.

The week of New Year's is Scottish week: we'll have kippers for breakfast, with perhaps some Scottish oatmeal too.

My oldest daughter has requested that we add a French week, but we may do this the easy way by taking a trip to the local French bakery.

How do you celebrate your heritage this month? Please leave me a comment.

Roasted Baby Carrots

My kids always want me to buy baby carrots, but they don't always welcome them on their lunch plates. Yesterday, however, I served roasted carrots, and they gobbled them up.

Preheat oven to 450.

Toss 1 pound baby carrots with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 diced garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon Fines Herbes (or your favorite herb blend). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread carrots in a single not-too-crowded layer on a cookie sheet (with a lip around it to prevent carrots landing on the floor when removing from oven). Bake for 20 minutes. If the carrots are too crowded, they will cook much more slowly, and they will steam themselves rather than roasting, giving a slightly different texture and not as much sweetness.

A 1/2 cup serving will have about 104 calories.

I added diced roast beef and a little mustard to my bowl of carrots to make a complete lunch. I counted the olive oil as my MUFA on the Flat Belly Diet.

(adapted from Eating Well magazine)

Flat Belly Diet: 7 pounds lost with the help of the Jumpstart Menu

I've been following the Flat Belly Diet for 25 days, and I love it! In the first 3 weeks, I lost 3 pounds. My youngest child is 3 1/2, and it's been a real struggle to lose the baby weight. I've lost a few pounds on various eating plans, but I haven't been able to stick with them. The Flat Belly Diet allows me to have chocolate chips with my breakfast cereal, so I'm pretty sure I can keep it up. The diet is based on eating 1600 calories a day, divided into 4 meals, with a monounsaturated fat (such as nuts, avocado, chocolate) at each of those meals. It's a good balance of healthy foods (without using any sugar substitutes) but I certainly don't feel deprived.

The Flat Belly Diet suggests you begin by following their Jumpstart plan for 4 days. These 4 days have very limited food selections, designed to "banish bloat" and I wasn't ready to do that when I started. This week I decided to give it a try. 3 days into this, I've lost 4 pounds! This brings my weight loss over the 25 days to a total of 7 pounds. I have 18 more to lose.

One of the things I like about the Jumpstart menu is the Sassy Water. This is an infusion I make in the evening: water and limes (the book recommends lemons) and ginger and cucumber. I put it in the fridge overnight and drink it the next day. I make 8 cups, and just the process of making it helps me remember to drink all of it. I like a strong infusion, and I think fresh mint is a little expensive, so I begin by making a pot of peppermint tea: 2 cups of boiling water, 2 teabags (herbal), an inch of fresh sliced ginger, and 2 small quartered limes. I let it steep for 15 minutes, then pour it into my 8 cup pyrex pitcher (it has to be a heat-safe pitcher!) and add the cucumber and water to make 8 cups. I like the way this tastes, and it's really helpful when I'm craving a snack. The first day I realized it was too cold to drink from the fridge (peppermint and cucumber are cooling in themselves), so I took it out in the morning and left it on the counter. I get cold on these late autumn afternoons, so I make another small pot of peppermint tea with ginger and lime, and drink it hot. I can't find any information in the book about drinking it hot, so I'm not sure I'm following the rules, but it keeps me from craving my usual cup of tea.

There are 2 lunch options, and I chose the pressed turkey/grape tomatoes/string cheese option the first day. The second day I repeated it, but I wanted a little more flavor. The Jumpstart menu forbids balsamic vinegar (my usual addition to tomatoes), but I am allowed to use herbs. I wanted a little liquid to make the herbs stick to the tomatoes, so I sliced them in half and put them in a glass bowl with the diced turkey and diced cheese. Then I sprinkled Fines Herbes from Penzeys over them, and stirred it. A little juice came out of the tomatoes, giving me a very light dressing and a lot of flavor.

I look forward to the end of the Jumpstart menu, and a return to the rest of the diet, but I do like the difference the Jumpstart has made in the way my clothes fit! 2 years ago I bought a pair of cargo capri pants to wear on our trip to Ireland. They didn't fit, so I wore my comfortable yoga pants for most of the trip. I never have been able to wear these...until this week.

I must confess, I have not completely followed the No Caffeine rule of the Jumpstart. In the morning I make a small pot of tea with 1 peppermint teabag and 1 Irish Breakfast teabag, several slices of ginger, and 1 teaspoon of honey. My kids are sniffly and I'm waking up with a sore throat every morning--I need that raw local honey to soothe my throat and fight the allergies. And the caffeine in these two cups of half-caffeinated tea is equal to the caffeine in half a cup of coffee and so far has eliminated the lack-of-caffeine headache. I usually have at least 2 cups of coffee or 4 cups of tea every day, so this is a big change.

(I am not connected with the authors of the Flat Belly Diet in any way, nor do I have their thoughts on my adaptations to it.)

Crockpot Black Bean Taco Soup

I've been making this for years, in many variations. Here's the latest:

3 chorizo sausages (I recommend the chorizo sold by Costco)
2 onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 TBS chili seasoning (or to taste)
1 TBS powdered baking chocolate (yes, really)
6 cups vegetable broth
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14 oz. can black beans, undrained
2 TBS powdered buttermilk or one package powdered ranch dressing mix

Cook the sausages. I put them in a pan with water up to half the thickness of the sausage, and let it boil away, then let the sausages brown.

Remove sausages from pan and add the onions and garlic. If there isn't enough sausage grease in the pan, put one of the sausages (diced) back in the pan. When they've cooked for a few moments but aren't browned yet, add the seasoning and baking chocolate. When they're brown, add the vegetable broth and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Dice the sausages.

Place veggie mixture, sausages, tomatoes, black beans, and buttermilk in the crockpot. Cook on high for four hours on on low for eight hours.

This made 11 cups. By my calculations, each cup has 125 calories. I plan to eat a 2-cup serving, with avocado (1/8 cup=69 calories) and 1/2 TBS blue Cheese dressing (20 calories). This makes a 339 calorie dinner.

You could use sour cream instead of the blue cheese (I like a little more flavor and I rarely remember to buy sour cream). You could add shredded cheese and crumbled tortilla chips on top of your soup. If you are not concerned about carbs, you could add some frozen corn for the last two hours of cooking time.

Simply Breakfast Blog

This week I stumbled across a brilliantly simple blog: Simply Breakfast. The author takes beautiful pictures of her breakfast--often with a pottery mug--and posts them with a comment about what exactly she was eating that day. On Thursday she had pumpkin pie. Mmm.

In a pitiful attempt to echo this idea, here is a photo of my own breakfast, taken with my inadequate camera phone. I had coffee (with milk and raw local honey), a Naked Juice Green Machine drink (yes! vegetables for breakfast!), and Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal with pecans and chocolate chips and milk. And I stayed near my Flat Belly Diet 400 calorie guideline. My coffee was not really this pale!

Coffee= 0 calories

1/4 cup milk in coffee= 20

1 tsp honey in coffee= 30

1/4 cup milk in cereal= 20

3/4 cup cereal= 100

15 chocolate chips= 38

2 TBS pecans= 90

3/4 cup greens drink= 105

Total calories= 403

Avocado Bean Salad

This is so easy but so delicious.
2 cans of cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
2 avocadoes (or 1 large)
diced roma tomatoes (2 or 3)
diced green onions (1 or 2)
any italian herbs (basil, oregano, chives, etc)
salt & pepper

Toss these in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil.

Optional: serve with Italian herb croutons on top.

For a southwest variation, I use one can of black beans, and one can of cannellini. Sometimes I skip the green onions and use lots of chives instead.

Green Olive Wrap

Marinate these ingredients for a few hours:
10 sliced green olives
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
a pinch of your favorite dried herb blend (I used Fines Herbes from Penzeys)

Spread on a whole wheat wrap and add a slice of provolone cheese.

Adapted from The Flat Belly Diet Pocket Guide.

Finer Things Friday: Almond Butter Soup

Trying a new recipe--and liking the result--is always a Finer Thing! This week I'm following the Flat Belly Diet guidelines (and I lost two pounds in the first four days!) and trying a few new recipes. Yesterday I made almond butter soup, and we all enjoyed it.

Almond Butter Soup

Saute 1 chopped onion, 3 diced garlic cloves, and 4 stalks of celery in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

After they've cooked a few minutes, sprinkle with garam masala (or your favorite spice blend). When the edges of the veggies are beginning to brown, add 4 cups vegetable broth,

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and the juice of 2 limes. Cook til bubbly.

Blend in batches til the soup is your desired consistency. Return to pan and add

8 tablespoons almond butter (or peanut butter).

I served this with diced tomatoes and Kashi Fire Roasted Vegetable Crackers on top.

One cup of soup (not counting the tomatoes and crackers) is about 182 calories.

Finer Things Friday is hosted here.

Irish Brown Soda Bread

adapted from goodgiver.com

BROWN SODA BREAD
Makes one loaf
(I like to triple this, and freeze 2 loaves)

You'll need a piece of foil approx 12 in x 8 in
Preheat the oven to 425.
Spray your bread loaf pan with the Pam that has flour in it,
and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper.

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup oat bran flour or oat flour (if you don't have the spelt and oat flour,
use the equivalent amounts of whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 oz Butter, melted
1 Egg
12 ounces buttermilk
Sesame Seeds (optional)

Place flour in bowl and sift in Soda, Salt and Sugar. Mix to combine. (Don't want to sift? Put it in your stand mixer and swirl it around with the whisk attachment)

Beat egg with half of the buttermilk. Pour egg/milk and melted butter into flour. Mix thoroughly with stand mixer, then add the rest of the buttermilk.

Pour mixture into the lined baking pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Make a domed lid for the pan with the foil and press securely around the rim (Mine never "domes" very well but it still works) Bake 1 Hour.

Allow to cool completely before cutting or wrapping. This bread doesn't keep very long...if you won't eat it in 2 days, freeze it. It is a moist bread that will mildew if don't eat it within a couple days.

Serve slices toasted with butter and marmalade, or with chutney and cheese (brie is nice). This is especially nice with a cup of tea. Also lovely with bacon and a softly fried egg.

When I triple this recipe, it calls for 36 ounces of buttermilk. I buy buttermilk in 32 ounce containers. I just use the 32 ounces and add 4 ounces of milk.

Caloric information: if you cut each loaf into 15 pieces, each will be about 85 calories.

Crockpot Apple Oatmeal

(adapted from Fix It and Forget It Cookbook)
2 cups milk
2 tbsp honey (or brown sugar to your taste, or agave nectar, or maple syrup or ....)
1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup old fashioned oats (don't use the quick cooking oats -- they get mushy)
1 diced apple
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit; a tropical mix with mango is interesting)
chopped walnuts or pecans (optional, but they really add a lot in texture)

Spray slowcooker with pam(That's very important!)
Mix all ingredients together in slow cooker. Don't worry about getting everything evenly distributed; you'll stir it up in the morning. Cover. Cook on low 5-6 hours.

You do not need to get up at 1 a.m. to turn this on. Go buy one of those little gadgets that can be used to turn a lamp on and off while you're on vacation (they're popular for turning holiday lights on and off too). Turn on your crockpot and plug it into the gadget. You'll wake up to a lovely fragrance!

You can do this with steel cut oats too. (Notice this uses a bit more liquid) Somewhere I have a recipe that uses dried apples--you make a mix of the dry ingredients and just add milk. Sooooo easy.

Time to buy an Eggplant

This recipe has my mouth watering: Baked Eggplant (aubergine) with Cinnamon and Pinenuts