Sugar free along zabaglione

My biggest fear about being diabetic (apart from losing a limb or going blind) was having to eat sugar substitutes. As someone who believes in healthy eating and not eating chemicals, that kind of bugged me to the core. It took about a week to get over that because I like sweets and I like my eyesight and my limbs. So Splenda it is!

I wouldn't recommend sugar substitutes for everything. Basically because a lot of desserts have so much flour in them that they end up being crazy high in carbs even with a sugar substitute. So that leaves things that don't require much flour. I've had massive success with pavlovas and now I've made a pretty kicking zabaglione.

For those of you know familiar with them, a zabaglione is the base for a tiramisu - egg yolks beaten with sugar until they are pale yellow and the consistency of cake batter. I think the traditional zabaglione is made with marsala wine but you can change up the liquor. The zabaglione is then given more structure with mascarpone and lightened with whipped cream. Splenda is a great substitute and the tang of the mascarpone really covers up the icky aftertaste. I will say though, with egg yolks and whipped cream, this is not diet food.

Sugar Free Almond Zabaglione

3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of almond liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup of baking Splenda (this is lightened to be a 1 to 1 substitute for sugar)

8 oz mascarpone (or cream cheese if you are in a pinch) at room temp
1 cup of heavy cream, whipped

With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer (or use your regular handheld), mix the first four ingredients until it's a pale yellow and looks like cake batter. Add the cheese and mix until perfectly blended. Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the cheese mixture to lighten and then fold in the rest. Serve with flaked almonds on top.

Light and Fresh

I've been on the hunt lately for some new recipes, and so every once in a while I do a Google search on some of my favorite ingredients. When I put in "zucchini" recently, I got this great recipe for Feta Chicken with Zucchini.

Yum! Chicken, lemon, feta, zucchini, parsley... can't go wrong with that! The recipe is very easy, and the result is very light and tasty. It would also be perfect as a fish dish, with tilapia or another light variety.

My only caution with the recipe is to be careful with the cooking time. I had some organic chicken breasts that were HUGE, so I ended up cooking it about 10 minutes more than what is stated. Enjoy!

Now we're cooking - Mustard Roasted fish

Oh Ina Garten, while I hate your new show, your recipes continue to rock. This weekend I had a hankering for fish but my fish knowledge is somewhat limited. I was leafing through the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics Cookbook and came across her Mustard Roasted Fish recipe and realized how easy it is to adapt to a low-salt/low-fat diet. The recipe requires no salt and you can easily replace the creme fraiche with low-fat sour cream. Easy.

Here's my version

1 8 oz white fish filet (like red snapper, mahi mahi, tilapia)
1/2 cup of lowfat sour cream
1 teaspoon drained capers
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon coarse grain mustard
pinch of pepper

Law the fish filet in a glass baking dish. Mix everything in a bowl. Spread on top of the fish so that hte fish is completely covered in the sour cream mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the fish and thickness. For a relatively thin, light fish like tilapia, it will be 10, for something thicker and "meatier" like mahi mahi, it will be 15.

Pretty Colors

I tried two, count 'em, two new recipes today, and they both turned out pretty well! These are both from the Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes cookbook. But, don't let the title fool you... even though it may be 20 minutes of cooking time, each of these took about an hour to make including all the prep. (Note, I'm not going to share the recipes here, but you can see the basic idea and probably find them online elsewhere.)

First up, a dish called "New Orleans-Style Chicken." This involved okra, corn, tomatoes, and cajun/creole seasoning. A nice combo that ultimately ended up with a little sweet taste to it.


You know how they say healthy dishes are the most colorful dishes? Pretty.

Here I've added some fat-free half & half and letting the chicken finish...

The recipe calls for 4 servings, but I made it into 3. I doubled the amount of corn and okra for added veggie goodness, and I put about 3/4 cup white rice into each dish. I had this as a very tasty lunch today, and will have it twice again this week. Overall, I give it 3 1/2 stars.


Tonight, I decided to make the "Easy Pepper Steak." Considering I've never really liked the taste of peppers, I really have come to appreciate them as a light way to add a lot of flavor. They do get better when they're cooked. Here's the starting point -- well, after a good 20 minutes of veggie prep:




The sauce is a combo of low-fat, low-sodium beef broth, low sodium soy sauce, and corn starch.

And here are my 4 servings - one for dinner, 3 for this week, also served over about 1 cup each of white rice. I know, I should use brown and I do most of the time, but I really wanted white rice today. This is really tasty - I give it 4 stars. Yay to cooking with veggies!

Carrots & Couscous, Oh My!

I've been thinking a lot about my Dad lately, especially because tomorrow is his birthday. He was a really good cook, and was really happy that I was finally learning how and shared a lot of advice, recipes, and enthusiasm with me. So, this weekend I decided to pull one of the cookbooks he gave me off the shelf and give something new a try. I've been thumbing through this book of North African cooking for months, and it all looks amazing. Tonight, I made a variation of the Moroccan Carrot Salad. By adding couscous, it's become a really substantial side dish that I'll be eating all week.

The recipe starts with 1 lb of grated carrots... that was fun. Since trusty cat Cleo has an inexplicable addiction to carrots, she was very happy to get a few little pieces tossed her way.


That's a lotta carrots! You then mix the carrot with raisins, slivered or shaved almonds, olive oil, lemon juice, honey, and cinnamon. The recipe also called for rosewater, but even with Scotte's good advice I was thwarted at the grocery store - my Giant doesn't carry it. It seems fine without.

I made 1 1/2 cups of plain couscous to mix in with the finished salad. I always underestimate how much couscous really cooks up, and I ended up with a huge amount, so this will last me quite a while.

Here's the finished product, dished out in a lunch portion with a grilled pork chop. I'll look forward to that tomorrow!


This carrot salad is really tasty, sweet with rich flavors. I added in extra honey when I mixed in the couscous, which I think was a good move. This would make a great vegetarian dish and a good contribution to a pot luck sometime. I will definitely make it again. Thanks, Dad.

More Cooking with Veggies

I'm still experimenting with new ways to use veggies, and/or using new veggies in my usual ways.

I tried this great recipe for a creamy celery soup. I'm loving pureed soups lately, and this one is really yummy. It's the surprisingly great combo of celery and thyme, and I even used dried thyme. The potatoes give the soup the creamy consistency, so it tastes much richer than it is since it has no actual cream in it. Yum! Great frozen and reheated, too.





And here's just a variation on the usual, but I thought it looked pretty with all that green in the pan. It's chicken stir fry with baby bok choy, which I served over brown rice.

Sweet Heaven

Sorry co-blogger, this one's gonna be all about the sweetness....

I can always tell when I'm about 2-3 weeks into healthy eating, cuz that's when I start to crave things like cookies, cake, ice cream, etc. I don't normally have a huge sweet tooth, but if you put it in front of me I'll eat it. And when I'm focusing more on veggies, fruit, lean proteins, and fiber - well, my brain starts thinking "Dooooooooonnnnnnuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttt."

Anyway, I decided tonight to try and curb my craving with something I could whip up from the pantry. And although the result is not *totally* guilt-free, I have to say this is one of the awesomest things I've ever made.

Breakfast, it's what's for dinner. In the form of CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA PANCAKES.

Oh, dear Lord. I want to lick the plate. Reduced fat "Heart Smart" Bisquick. Non-fat organic milk. Egg beaters. Sugar Free Maple Syrup. Low-fat butter. One banana. About 20 semi-sweet chocolate chips. Two pancakes. One giant smile on my face.

Cravings begone!

Cheap and Easy in the Kitchen

I just got back from a great cooking demonstration class. (Thank you, Groupon!)

Personal chef Zan Dial of Nova Personal Chef taught us how to cook 3 of the recipes from his upcoming book Cheap and Easy in the Kitchen. His whole idea is to share tips on cooking meals for a family of 4 for a week for under $100. He gave us all 7 recipes from the book, so I've got lots of stuff to try. (I'm not going to reproduce the recipes here, out of respect for his upcoming book. I will post in the future if I make my own variations on them.)

In the demo, he made - and we sampled:

- Shrimp Creole - This was delicious and had great heat to it. I loved it with the shrimp, and he said it can be made with chicken, scallops, or white fish too. I asked about reheating, and he recommended that it would be better to make it with chicken for a meal to eat all week, since microwaving shrimp is NOT a good thing. I will definitely make this.

- Baked Ziti - A good simple recipe, with a great basic tomato sauce that I loved. It's got the usual, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, onion, and garlic plus a little sugar to cut the acidity. His recipe can be made with or without meat, and it also would be a great meal to make once and eat leftovers for a few days.

- Braised Beef with Root Vegetables - OMG this was delicious. What a great reminder of how awesome beef is when braised in red wine. :-) This is similar to my beef stew recipe, just slow cooked either in a crock pot or on a stove top. I need to start adding wine to my stew, cuz it just makes it out of this world.

In addition, we got recipes for:
- Penne with Vodka Tomato Sauce
- Pasta Primavera with Chicken
- Grilled Flank Steak and Red Peppers
- Beef or Chicken Kabobs with Cucumber Salad

I will most likely be buying the book when it comes out, cuz these recipes are all pretty easy for a beginning cook. Zan also has a weekly email list where he shares new recipes - you could probably email him (at the address in the comments) to be added yourself.

Since we're comfort cooking...

Friday night I really wanted a comfort meal. I already had a cauliflower mash on hand and J defrosted some turkey cutlets to sear but I needed another vegetable. With a bag of frozen spinach, I decided to make creamed spinach but low carb and low fat. It was SOOOOOO good. I mean warm and delicious and gooey. Perfect for a cold night. The key with creamy stuff is to use sharp cheeses instead of mild cheeses. That lowers the fat content but keeps the flavor. Also this recipe has no cream or even flour for a roux.

Here's my recipe.

1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of EVOO
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 12 oz package of frozen spinach
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons lowfat or nonfat sour cream
salt to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in the evoo with the nutmeg and pepper (it's good to add the spices early to bring out their flavor) for about five minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the frozen spinach and cook until the spinach is unfrozen. Obviously, you can defrost earlier but it's just as easy to just dump it in and then break it up as it cooks in the pan. When all of the spinach is unfrozen, ass the cheese and sour cream. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and more pepper to taste.

Comfort Cooking

Oh, the weather outside is frightful... but spending the weekends in the kitchen has been a good way for me to stay warm! I've made a couple of low-fat comfort food recipes the last 2 weekends that have been great as dinners and lunches all week.

Tonight I made a good old chicken pot pie. YUM. This low-fat recipe was pretty easy. (Laura, this one is perfect for you!) I used a bigger pan and doubled the veggies, so I did 1.5x the topping mixture, too. The cooking time was off, I ended up going another 20 min in 5 minute intervals just to get this good golden crust. It's mighty tasty!

If you're a fan of those frozen, sodium/fat/preservative-laden pot pies you can get at the store, trust me. This is WAY better.



Last week, I made this cheesy rice and broccoli casserole. Again,it was a very simple recipe, though it required a few pots to cook the rice, steam the broccoli, etc. I prefer one-pot dishes, but that's okay.

I think I ended up using too much rice, cuz I did 2 cups UNcooked... it probably meant 2 cups cooked. This did dry out a little bit, so I should've used more of the soup or chicken broth. But it still tasted good for lunch 5 days later, so that's a winner too!

Who Needs Takeout?

Seriously, who needs it? With just a little bit of work in the kitchen, that I've really grown to enjoy, I can make my own Asian-style dinners that are way tastier and much healthier than anything I can get from the Chinese delivery place. You can control what goes into the dish (ie less sodium and fat) and tweak it to your particular tastes. It's so much better!

For example, I make a pretty darn good beef stir fry at this point. I buy top round steaks and trim them myself into small strips. Then, in a frying pan... some olive oil, some thin-sliced green onions (scallions), some low sodium soy sauce... sautee the beef strips, add in some ginger (I use dried from the spice rack), and then add in a veggie. I love sugar snap peas, just from the frozen food section. In about 10 minutes, it's all done and it's delicious. I don't even serve a carb with it.

Tonight, I wanted to use some of the Annie Chun's stuff I bought at the cooking show with Onyah a few months back. So I did a similar routine -- this time with regular diced onion and olive oil, trimmed pork strips, broccoli, and the Annie Chun's Korean Barbecue sauce. Then I served it over one of their rice express dishes of microwaveable sticky rice (no fat, no sodium). It's delicious! Tangy, flavorful, and none of that oily aftertaste that always makes me regret ordering from a delivery place.

Now.... I will still get Indian takeout, cuz I'm not quite up to cooking chicken tikka masala or vindaloo at home yet. But I might as well throw away all those Chinese food delivery menus. :-)

Cooking for One

I love this article from NPR...

Cooking for One: A Privilege, Not a Chore

And the recipes look divine. I'm going to have to try that tomato-zucchini bake sometime.

My New Year's Experiment

Since I'm spending this NYE on my own at home, after just getting home from my holiday travels last night, I wanted to make myself a fun dinner to celebrate. Well, the Giant had a terrible selection of steaks, so I headed over to the seafood counter. On an impulse, I decided to pick up 2 catfish fillets. I don't know if I've ever had catfish before, but I thought this would be a fun night to try.

So I consulted the Internets and found some pointers on how to cook it. I used this recipe for a low-fat oven-fry as my base, but since I didn't have any of the specific spice mixes mentioned here or recommended by friends I made my own blend based on Google's advice.

I used:
- about 1 cup of flour
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt


I had all these spices in my pantry, since Dad was always good at supplying me with any spice you might imagine. I really like making my own little blends and using some of those up, and the bonus was that as the fish was cooking in the oven, these spices smelled FANTASTIC.

Important tip: I skipped the no-stick spray step since I was using foil. Bad move. Definitely spray the pan/foil cuz the breading sticks.


The result? Pretty good! It's very messy, because of the sticking problem, and I think I would use less flour in the future to get a better balance in the breading. But the seasoning is tasty and the fish is substantial and yummy. I'm eating it with a side of a Green Giant lowfat broccoli and cheese thing, and it's a pretty darn successful dinner!

Another Great Thing About Cooking

Here's another great thing I've learned in the last year or so of cooking more... Cooking is social. Sure, I am cooking by myself in my apartment most of the time, but I'm finding there are many ways to build community around cooking.

This new hobby of mine is a great new topic of conversation and yet another way to bond with people. It was a perfect subject for me and Dad to bond over in those last few months, and I'll treasure that forever.

Friends are a wealth of information, with cooking tips, recipes, and lessons learned to share. I myself have handed out several of my favorite recipes to friends of mine in the last few weeks, and it feels great to be able to be a resource on something that's still fairly new to my life, too. Facebook and its instant community have been great for that, as now I'm trading recipes and ideas with people I've known in every stage of my life.

And, cooking can add to your social life. I'm taking 2 more new classes in the New Year, and having a shared interest is an immediate ice breaker in a room full of strangers gathered to learn together.

There's so much more to cooking than just tasty things on a plate... but that's nice too!

Easy and Elegant weeknight dinner

So B, our favorite restaurant serves these awesome California style pizzas. V, our favorite server always makes a recommendation to add arugula and a fried egg on top of their mushroom pizza and truly it's sheer heaven. Being diabetic, I can only have one slice, although I totally poach more than my share of yolky arugula.

Color be delighted when J found an Alsatian tart with bacon and caramelized onions at Trader Joes. For some magical happenstance, there's only 11 grams of carbs for 1/4 of a decent size tart (bigger than a personal pan pizza). That means I can eat the whole damn things and only ingest 44 grams of carbs. Now with bacon and cheese and onions the fat content is off the charts but that's why I run 18 miles a week.

As an experiment this weekend, I decided to top the tart with arugula and a fried egg. My twist was to toss the arugula in a meyer lemon vinaigrette. And OH MY GOD. Arugula salad and Alsatian tart is a better flavor combination of chocolate and peanut butter. The sharp pepperiness of the arugula and the tang of the vinaigrette are in perfect harmony with the salty sweetness of the tart. I've had this twice this week and could have it every night if I had my druthers. This is a total cheap eat because the tart is like $3.99 and the arugula is like $2.99.

And the Meyer lemons come from my tree.

crossposted at: bayareafoodblog.wordpress.com

Sunday Squash

Another rainy pj's Sunday.... another good day to explore my new veggie options courtesy of my friends at Washington's Green Grocer.

Today, it was time for a new butternut squash adventure. My friend Jane Austen had sent me this awesome recipe for Butternut Squash Sage Orzo, and it looked so divine online I had to have it for myself.

This stuff is delicious! I agree with the blogger that it would make a great Thanksgiving side, or a side to any good turkey dinner, though it tastes just fine as a dish on its own. Try it!

Here's my diced squash. It came from a squash a little shorter and much squatter than the one remaining. I guessed it's about 4 cups or a little more... that bowl holds 4 cups of liquid. Close enough.

The squash making nice in the pan with onions and garlic. This is before I added the wine and the broth. Note, I used lowfat/low sodium chicken broth rather than veggie, cuz I have a ton of it. Worked great.

Mmmm sage.

Here it is! This is the whole bowl, that I spooned out into 3 large servings for lunches. It was delicious! Warm, comforting, with a little tang from the parmesan. I didn't use salt and I forgot to add pepper, but it was seasoned enough for me with the sage, parmesan, and onions/garlic/wine. So tasty.

Torta in a jar

One of the great things about co-blogging is that you get inspiration from your co-blogger. I've been long making Stef's muffin tin fritattas because they are easy and good. This past Saturday, J and I went to our local Italian deli for one of their overstuffed sandwiches and saw their artichoke torta. Given that the lowfat fritatta is a consistent hit, could I make a torta version? The answer is hells yeah! On the plus side, it's ridiculously easy. Like cake from a mix easy. Here's how I did it:

1 16oz can of artichoke hearts
1 16 oz jar of roasted peppers
1 8 oz jar of sliced olives
8 beaten eggs (or the egg beater equivalent thereof)
1 cup of lowfat shredded cheese (really it can be anything but cheddar or feta work great)
1/2 cup of milk or milk substitute (I used almond milk and it turned out excellent)
1/4 cup of flour
Pepper to taste (no need for salt)

Stick the artichokes, peppers and olives in a mixing bowl and use kitchen shears or scissors you don't care about to chop them up into bite sized pieces. Dump in the remaining ingredients and mix well. We made it like a crustless quiche and baked it in a pie plate at 350 degrees for an hour. If you want to do it in mini muffin tins it would probably take about 20 minutes.

Kitchen Updates

I have been cooking a lot lately, blogging not so much... but here's some fun stuff for this weekend.

I signed up for home delivery of organic produce from Washington's Green Grocer. I'm very excited about this! Here's my first week's haul... romaine lettuce, apples, bananas, oranges, pears, yellow squash, russet potatoes, parsnips, green beans and butternut squash. I plan to have a good time experimenting with things... like trying a roasted parsnip and pear soup tomorrow, hopefully. Plus I plan to make my first beef stew, hooray!

This afternoon I tried another new recipe - Arroz Con Pollo.

This was originally for a crock pot, and used chicken pieces, but I made it with cubed chicken tenders and cooked it in a big soup pot on the stove instead.

1 lb chicken, cubed
1 can Italian-style stewed tomatoes (or no salt added)
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained (slice into strips if you want, but I left them whole)
1 cup chicken broth (low sodium, low fat preferably)
1 bag frozen peas
1 package Spanish-style yellow rice with seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder or garlic salt

First I browned the chicken in a little olive oil in the soup pot. I added about 1/2 onion, diced, as well, and 1 tsp black pepper.

Then add all ingredients, bring to a boil, and let simmer. Stir often. It took about an hour for the rice to cook and plump up and absorb most of the liquid. Tasty.

Here it is cooking:

And here it is dished up for lunches:

Pretty Bird

I roasted a chicken today for the first time ever. It felt like a rite of passage, like now I'm really a grown-up, cuz I've cooked a bird.

Here she is:

This was one of Dad's very typical dishes, and I asked Mom for the quick rundown of how he did it. He would always roast a chicken (or a pot roast, or a pork roast, etc.) in a little water and builloin with carrots and celery, hence the little veggie bath my bird is in. I used one of Giant's organic / antibiotic free, etc. fresh chickens. I stuffed in a few sprigs of rosemary fresh from my balcony and a bay leaf, and sprinkled some dried thyme around. I cooked it for an hour at 350 degrees.

The end result?

It probably could've used more cooking time, because some of the dark meat wasn't cooked through. The white meat in the breast was delicious, though, so that made me happy. :-)

The sad part of it? I have *terrible* knife skills, so my attempts at carving were pretty horrifying. At a few points I just switched to using my fingers -- all final vestiges of my former vegetarian self are now gone, with what I put that bird through... I still only ended up getting about 2/3 of the meat off.

I used the veggies as a side and then cooked up some white rice. Also using a Dad trick, I used the pan juice / drippings and mixed it with cornstarch to make a nice light gravy. *That* tasted like Dad used to make it.

So, I had one good meal out of this today and 2 more servings waiting in the fridge for later in the week. This was an interesting experiment... but until I get better with a knife I think I'll go back to buying my chicken in pieces.

Awesome low fat salad dressing recipe

Hey stef! Here's another use for your mini-prep food processor.

South of the border salad dressing

1/2 cup of salsa (I like Trader Joe's 3 pepper salsa)
1/2 cup of nonfat sour cream (or even nonfat yogurt)
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon lowfat mayo (you can use nonfat mayo but I think that stuff tastes vile)
Juice of 1 lime

Additional add ins: chopped cilantro, chopped scallions, finely chopped jalapeno, chili powder, cumin

Throw everything into a small food processor and whirl until smooth. A great dip for julienned bell peppers or sugar snap peas or cherry tomatoes. Make an awesome salad with chopped chicken or shrimp, shredded cheddar, and baked tortilla chips.