Category: Food & Cooking

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Almond Cake with berries

Just in time for summer berry season, this recipe has everything I love about cake. It is light, fluffy and moist,  making it a wonderful canvas for fresh, seasonal fruit. Better yet, it is relatively guilt-free. Having only 140 calories and 15 grams of carbohydrates per slice.

I was excited to try out my new Charlotte baking pan, which features a ladyfinger-style rim. And sure enough, the center indentation holds the fruit beautifully.

The addition of a baked in dusting of sugar in the center, gives this cake a light, crispy topping that is delicious. Love it!

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Almond Cake with berries

Tender, fluffy cake topped with fresh fruit. Gluten free and low carbohydrates.
Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 1/2 cup sugar, divided into 1/4 cups
  • 2 tbsps sugar, for dustiing bottom of baking pan
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups almond flour
  • 1 tbsp coconut flour You can replace coconut flour with 1/4 cup almond flour.
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2-2 cups berries, for topping

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 inch round pan with butter or coconut oil. Make sure to cover up the sides. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the sugar into the bottom of the pan.
  • Beat together eggs yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, and the vanilla, until smooth.
  • Using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Slowly beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Set aside.
  • Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder and salt), and add to the egg yolks. Stir to form a thick dough.
  • Fold in the egg whites, 1/2 cup at a time, incorporating them fully between each addition. The final addition should result in a smooth, fluffy batter.
  • Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake on the center rack for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a serving plate.
  • Allow cake to cool before topping with sliced berries, or fruit of your choice.
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Banana Sushi

We’ve been working with almond flour in muffins and cookies as a means of reducing carbohydrates. JQ landed on this recipe … OK, this might not be the “healthiest” snack… but not the worst either.

You can use any nut butter. We chose peanut butter as the underlayer. We microwaved chocolate chips to make melting the chocolate easier. Slowly heating the chocolate while stirring puts it into temper, giving it a shiny appearance. We used milk chocolate, but I think that a quality semi-sweet would be really good.

Frozen bites of chocolate enrobed banana pieces are a treat on a summer day and hopefully, a bit of a healthy one at that.

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Banana Sushi

A fun, healthy snack which is quick and easy to make.
Course: Snack
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas
  • 4 tbsp peanut butter or nut butter of your choice
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 handful wooden skewers
  • 3 tbsp topping of your choice (chopped nuts, toasted coconut, crushed cereal, seeds)

Instructions

  • Peel bananas. For easier handling, cut bananas into smaller chunks and thread with wooden skewers.
  • Coat with nut butter and chill in freezer for a couple of minutes.
  • Heat chocolate chips in microwave at 50% for 2 1/2 minutes. Check and stir every :30 seconds until melted.
  • Spread melted chocolate over the top of nut butter coating.
  • Sprinkle or roll coated bananas on all sides with topping of choice (i.e. toasted coconut, seeds, crushed granola, nuts. In this case we used pistacios.
  • Slice and enjoy.
  • This snack can be stored in the refrigerator or we love it frozen. Freeze for a quick, frozen snack.

 

 

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Another Cooking Tip

It is summertime and we are thinking about making potato salad.

But wait, don’t boil the eggs in with the potatoes. I’ve discovered a method for perfect hard cooked eggs that are also easy to peel. No more pock-marked whites.

Start with about an inch of water in a sauce pan, sized to hold a steamer basket with the lid on. Bring the water to a boil, add the steamer basket with half a dozen eggs (works best with 4 or more). Reduce the heat and cover the pan.

Cook (steam) for 12 to 15 minutes (longer for harder yolks). Have a bowl of ice water handy, and when the time is up, transfer the eggs to the water bath.

After five minutes or so, pull out, tap and roll on hard surface to pre-crack the shell. then peel. You are going to be amazed at how easy the shells come off. You’re welcome!

 

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Enchiladas with a difference

We’ve been attempting to reduce the amount of carbohydrates in meals and to this end have started working from meal plans. Most of these menus started with material pulled off “eatingwell.com.“ In the process a lot of great recipes are getting discovered. The most recent is a different kind of enchilada.

The key to a good pan of enchiladas is sauce and for this we don’t use EatingWell. Recipe is attached and it is best if you use Gebhardt’s Chile Powder which isn’t easy to find, but worth the search.

Now the part that is different is … these enchiladas are wrapped in thin strips of zucchini. A mandolin or even a nice sharp vegetable peeler works. The long slices need to be 0.5mm or an ⅛ of an inch thick. Test by wrapping a slice around a couple of fingers if it doesn’t break it will work.

Our take on the original EatingWell recipe is attached and it makes 16 enchiladas with 4 being a serving size. These are actually about half or two-thirds the size you’d get from regular tortillas so you can plan accordingly.

 

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Zucchini Enchiladas

Ingredients

  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 medium onion - chopped
  • 1 Poblano pepper seeded and chopped
  • ¼ t salt
  • 12 oz cooked chicken breast canned chicken works great
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • 1 ½ cups enchilada sauce *Southwest Enchilada Sauce"
  • 3 medium zucchini
  • 2 cups shredded romaine lettuce
  • ½ cup cilantro chopped (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and Poblano with a dash of salt. Cook until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to large bowl.
  • Mix in chicken, ¾ cup cheese, and ½ cup enchilada sauce.
  • With mandolin or peeler slice zucchini lengthwise into thin strips. You need 48 unbroken pieces.
  • Spread ½ cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Lay out groups of 3 strips on a clean work surface overlapping the edges by about ¼ inch. Place 2 tablespoons measure of filling on the end of a group of strips, roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat until you have 16 enchiladas. Top the zucchini rolls with the remaining 1 cup of sauce and sprinkle the remaining cheese.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.
  • Serve on a bed of lettuce and garnish with cilantro.

 

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Southwest Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped fine
  • 1 oz butter ¼ stick
  • 6 T Gebhardt's chile powder *note
  • 5 fresh ripe tomatoes or a can of diced plum tomatoes
  • 1 T tomato paste
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 cup water
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • In 2 quart sauce pan saute the garlic in butter over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce heat and stir in the chile powder. Cook, stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes to remove the raw chile taste. Watch carefully because chile burns easily. Pull off heat.
  • Stir tomatoes (diced), tomato paste, chicken stock, water, salt and pepper into the chile powder and return to medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.
  • Take off heat. Mix, with hand blender, to a smooth consistancy. Sauce is ready to be used, can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for longer storage.

Notes

Ground Chile powder can be subbed to increase or decrease "heat" of sauce. You can also add cumin and/or dried chile pods to alter the flavor.
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Roasted vegetables with vinegar

In attempting to eat better, we’ve made an effort to get more whole foods onto the plate. Busy schedules make cooking a challenge, which often means we just skip the vegetable serving. We’ve started doing “meal prep,” making multiples of the dish for a week’s worth of eating. To this scheme came oven roasted veggies and a nice solution to the “eating healthy” problem.

There is a bit more upfront work, cleaning, peeling, and chopping when cooking a sheet pan full of vegetables. The upside is that you do the work when you have time and eat better when you don’t.

These premeasured meal additions can be tossed into a morning scramble or microwaved while the evening’s entree is cooking. We even toss a ½ cup of veggies on a lunch salad. Keeping the seasoning simple makes it  possible to match any evening’s meal by just adding an herb or spice blend.

So start by lining a baking sheet with foil, spray it lightly with cooking oil and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Then gather up a mix of vegetables. Keep in mind its a multi-meal prep, so figure about 4 to 6 ounces a serving. The mix is your choice. For us it’s usually an onion, 3 or 4 carrots, 2 stems of broccoli, and a couple of ribs of celery. During wintertime I’ll add root veggies to that mix. In all, I’m chopping up about 3 lbs of veggies to get 5 meals.

Take your time chopping so that you get a consistent size on all the pieces. One inch cubes work well. The time spent getting even chunks will make it easier to get an even roast.

All that chopped up goodness gets put in a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle a bit of oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and then toss to combine. It works to add oil, salt and pepper in a couple of stages to get an even coating on all the pieces.

Spread the veg mix in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. If you have an extra large batch you can use two sheets and stagger the racks in your oven. Keeping it to a single layer makes all the vegetables cook at the same rate.

Roasting generally takes about 20 minutes, but check and turn at the ten minute mark.  The exception would be when you have a lot of hard root vegetables. Here you just keep turning at ten minute intervals, until done.  Done is a personal preference.  We like to have some browning, but not get too soft. Keep in mind that portions of the roasted mix will be reheated to serve later.

From the oven you return the mixture to that large mixing bowl in which you’ve put a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and one to two tablespoons of some finely chopped fresh herb.  Tarragon and thyme get used a lot in our house, but I’ve also minced garlic or ginger.  More complex flavoring, say a touch of harissa spice for some heat is usually done on smaller portions rather than the main batch. 

Toss the mix to get an even coating and then let it sit a bit. At this point we portion it out into 16 ounce deli cups and when cooled place in the fridge until needed.