Salad Pizza... a new Superbowl tradition

This afternoon we were at my in-laws for lunch. I had offered to bring something as I always do. I was stumped on what to bring. What was planned quite casual. Sandwiches with fresh deli and fresh bread, deviled eggs and the like. It was delicious, by the way.

Earlier in the week, when the menu was discussed I decided to bring something healthy, something that didn't require forks and something that went with the casual theme yet still nice enough to impress the in-laws.

So, I put my thinking cap on and mentally went through some of the options and I flipped through a number of cookbooks. I'll try to explain the best I can the journey my brain takes me on during my "creative process".

My best idea at this point was a cold vegetable pizza. I have made them before, using a refrigerated crescent crust, baked off and spread with a mixture of cream cheese and ranch dressing, then sprinkled liberally with finely chopped vegetables. It is delicious, but hardly impressive and definitely could be healthlier. So, I recalled something I had at a meeting once - something I call bagel bites. A bagel, cut into 6 wedges and spread with cream cheese cand topped with different fruits and vegetables. But, what I really wanted to bring was a nice salad. A salad requires a fork - how can I make a salad you can eat with your hands? So after a few more rounds of mental ping-pong I came up with this salad pizza. Yes, a salad you eat with your hands!

Mediterranian Flatbread Salad

Ingredients:

1 12" multi-grain flatbread

1 8oz pkg cream cheese (light), room temperature

1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp dried oregano

salt & pepper

1/4 C red pepper, finely chopped

1/4 C green pepper, finely chopped

1/2 english cucumber, peeled & finely chopped

1 roma tomato, chopped

1/4 C red onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp black olives, drained, pitted and chopped

1/2 C feta crumbles

Directions:

Place flatbread on a pizza pan.

In a small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix well.

With a pastry brush, brush the flat bread with the olive oil mixture and bake according to package directions. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

In another bowl, place the cream cheese. Add 3 tbsp of the olive oil mixture. Mix well.

Spread the cream cheese mixture onto the flatbread. Sprinkle with peppers, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and olives. Top with feta and drizzle the remaining dressing.

I can made ahead and refrigerated at this point.

Prior to serving, slice into wedges.

This was a new way to serve salad, and will definitely do it again. I plan to make it for the Superbowl, for the Scout potluck dinner, and even at the cottage.

As an additional note: instead of mixing olive oil with the other ingredients, you can use bottle Greek salad dressing. It would taste (almost) as good. I had a co-worker once from Greece and have me his recipe for Greek salad dressing. I may never use store bought again.

I also wanted to mention, while testing this recipe I cut up WAY too many vegetables, so I plan to make a Greek Salad wrap. I'll use my vegetables with some cooked chicken, the feta and a little dressing; all wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla.

Just the Flax, Ma'am

It is a cold, blustery day out there. This morning it was -38 with the windchill. A good day to stay in bed and watch the Food Network. Unfortunately, that it's an option today. It is also a good day for a nice hot bowl of slow cooker comfort food! But, I would like to share a little secret ingredient... a nutrional powerhouse that can make any dish, even your favourite comfort food a little healthier. It is FLAX!

I add ground flax seeds to something almost everyday. From pancakes to cupcakes this veratile seed is a staple in my house. There are 3 major nutrional components to flax seeds. (1) OMEGA-3 (2) LIGNANS (3) FIBRE

Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid, which means it's a "good" fat that your body requires but cannot produce itself. It helps protect us from heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer as well as increase your HDL (good) cholesterol. It is also aids in retina and brain development in infants.

Lignans are compounds that help protect us against some cancers particularly colon and breast cancer. Lignans also help the body flight viruses and other infections.

Fibre is an important compontent of any diet to help regulate the digestive system and to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

So, to use flax seeds effectively, you need to know a couple things. (1) The flax seeds must be ground to be readily absorbed into the body. Whole flax seeds will pass right through. You can buy ground flax seeds in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or in health food or bulk stores. (2) Since it contains oil, it can go rancid so keep it in the fridge, in an air tight container.

So, now that you know my secret what's for dinner tonight?

Chili Con Carne

You can make this in a slow cooker or large sauce pan. I prefer the slow cooker.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb extra lean ground beef
1/4 C ground flax seeds
1 28oz can diced tomatoes (no salt added)
3 C tomato sauce
1 5.5oz can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 C Mexican beer (like Corona) or beef broth
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp New Mexico chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp caynne pepper - or more to taste
2-3 poblano peppers, chopped
1 serrano pepper or 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
1 lime
shredded monteray jack or cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a skillet, heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic and allow them to sweat. Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a spatula while it cooks. Add flax seeds.

Transfer meat mixture to a slow cooker. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, beer and spices. Cover and turn on low 6 - 8 hours or on high 3 - 4 hours. PLEASE: DO NOT use pasta sauce, use tomato sauce. Pasta sauce contains extra sugars, salt and other ingredients.

One hour before serving at peppers, stir, cover and place on high it not already.

After an hour, zest and juice 1 lime and stir. Serve with shredded cheese on top.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients:

1 C oatmeal
2 tbsp flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C ground flax seeds
1/3 C butter
pinch of salt
3-4 apples
2 tbsp flour
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, salt, flax seeds and brown sugar. Cut in the butter until resembles coarse crumbs.

In a 8" round cake pan, or 8" sqaure pan place apples that have been peeled, cored and cut into wedges. Toss with flour. Sprinkle with sugar and nutmeg. Sprinkle topping over the apples and press slightly. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, until the apples are tender.

Now if that doesn't warm us up, nothing will.

Bon appetit!

Keeping New Year's Resolutions

Well, the kids are back at school and activities have started up again. Things are starting to feel "back to normal" after the hussle and bussel of Christmas. We had a nice holiday, fairly low key. My dad broke his ribs outside my son's school after the Christmas concert so we simplified things a fair bit this year. It definitly shifts your priorities... makes you remember what's important and what Christmas is really about.

So, we start a new year and as usually we make promises to ourselves to improve our lives. This year my New Years Resolution is a health related one. Like most of us, I would like to lose a few extra pounds. But instead of the big New Year's Resolution of "I'm going to lose weight this year", I'm making smaller ones that will propel me to my goal. So, here are my New Year's Resolutions...
1. I am going to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, therefore reducing the amount of diet soda consumed
2. I am going to eat 5-8 servings fruits and vegetables a day
3. I am going to go to the gym at least 3 times a week.

You may want to ask... how is a meal plan going to help me? Well, when you make your meal plan you make healthier decision. Plan your sensible meals and grocery shop according to your plan. You keep less junk in the house and fight the temptation in the grocery store. Secondly, when you know you have the chicken thawed when you get home, you are less likely to grab the fast food on the way home.

So, my advice to those making New Year's Resolutions is this...
1. Make small, measurable, obtainable goals
2. Make a plan to reach your goals.

So, what's for dinner tonight?

Well, tonight is swimming lessons and they happen to be right at dinner time. So, what works for us is, a small meal before swimming and a small snack afterwards. So, tonight we are having scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast and a tossed salad. After swimming will be yogurt and a piece of fruit. Not complicated at all, but happens to be one of my kids' favourite dinners. (We call it "Scrambies") My husband is working late and has taken leftovers from a previous night. He'll have that and a salad for dinner.

I should mention the importance of leftovers. I will usually make enough of any dinner so I can package them up as lunches or dinners. I place them in plastic containers, label them and place them in the freezer. I keep them as single servings. It's like a TV dinner but made with love, not to mention all your own ingredients. Much healthier than the store bought counterparts.

Good luck everyone with those New Year's Resolutions!

Meal Planning to Reduce Holiday Stress

Yes, yes, it's been a while; but I am here now. It's been busy around here with the holidays approaching and all that goes with it. Shopping, wrapping, Christmas cards, baking, cooking etc. There are 3 Christmas concerts this week. The first one was last night. The parent choir from my son's school sang; tonight is my oldest's concert which the parent choir will be singing again. Lastly, Friday morning is my little one's "concert". Should be cute.

As far as holiday prep goes, my shopping is done, baking is done, wrapping is started and Christmas cards are almost done. Not bad for December 14.

Thank goodness I had my meal plan to make it through! Knowing in advance when your holiday parties are can help determine what meals to make which nights. Do as much prep the night before or in the morning. Make it as easy as you can for yourself. Is there anything worse than looking in the fridge after a long day of being at the mall & dealing with winter traffic, and trying to decide "What's for dinner"? Chances are we'll make a poor choice: Fast Food or convenience foods. Make the dinner decision long before heading to the mall. Ordering a pizza is great, don't get me wrong. I love a good pie. But, it's when we rely on these types of meals on a regular basis that we need some help, or at least a plan.

So, the question remains...

What's for Dinner tonight?

As I mentioned earlier, tonight is my son, Danny's Holiday concert. It starts at 7:00, but the school opens at 6:15. I'm planning to be there early to get a good seat, and save a couple for grandparents - not to mention, parking becomes an issue quite quickly. So we have to have homework done, shower, dinner, concert clothes on etc long before the concert starts. So, we are having quite a simple meal...

(1) Baked chicken thighs (because they cook faster)
(2) Left over rice (I cooked extra a couple nights ago)
(3) Tossed salad, which I made this morning

Easy Baked Chicken Thighs
Serves 4

Ingredients:
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 C ground flaxseeds (optional)
2-3 tbsp favourite spice blend (I like Montreal Chicken Spice)
salt a pepper to taste
olive oil


Directions:
If you want you can cut the thighs into pieces to make chicken fingers, but not necessary.

Place breadcrunbs, flaxseeds and spices onto a plate. Coat each piece of chicken with the coating and place on a baking sheet lined with foil (for easy clean up) Drizzle with olive oil to help make them crispy.

Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or so (depends on the size of the chicken), until the chicken is cooked through. Serve with a dipping sauce is desired.

This meal is healthy, easy, quick and is kid and parent approved.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Is there anything more comforting than homemade chicken soup? I think not. Whether you are under the weather, or coming in from the weather, nothing warms and soothes you like chicken soup. It really is "for the Soul".

Chicken soup can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. All you need is some basics. So, put down that can opener and pick up your knife; because soup's on!

You can do this in either a slow cooker (my preference) or large stock pot.

First you want to start with you aromatic vegetables: onion, celery and carrot. You want roughly the same amount of each, but I tend to be light on the onion and heavy on the celery. You want to cook them slightly in a little oil. Once the onions have softened, add a clove or two of minced garlic. Cook the garlic a little and stir to keep from burning.

Next you add your chicken stock, about 1 litre (4 cups). Stock in a box is fine. I use the low sodium so I can control the amount of salt I put in. And add some herbs, whatever you like, really. Bay leaf is traditional, but parlsey, basil, oregano, marjorum, sage will all work too. You also want to check for salt and pepper. Now would be the time to add some other harder vegetables, like parsnips or even cabbage. Don't forget the chicken! About 2 cups cooked chicken should do. Dice it, shred it - whatever you want.

Bring the soup to a boil and let it simmer. In a slow cooker, turn on low and let it go.

Once the carrots and other hard vegetables are cooked you can add the rest, that is; softer vegetables: bell peppers, zucchini etc and your grain or noodle. You can use a short cut pasta, egg noodles, rice or barley. Don't add too much, especially with rice or barley. You'll end up with stew. 1/2 cup should be plenty. Noodles you can add a bit more.

Now that the grain or noodles are cooked, you are ready to serve. Finish off with some fresh herbs and a squeeze of lemon juice and voila. A healthly bowl of chicken soup that feeds you, body and soul.

Experiment with chicken soup - you may never open a can again.

Creative Lunch Ideas

I had a friend ask me if I had any creative lunch ideas. Lunch is usually not my thing. I don't know why, but I usually don't venture far from the sandwich-yogourt-fruit combo.

Now, I was on holidays for the last little bit, and I don't want to go grocery shopping until tomorrow when the boys are in school, especially since we now have a blanket of snow on the ground. So using up what I had on hand, I came up with a creative solution that could also pass as a light dinner when paired with a salad. In fact, this dish is so versatile, you can make it as an appetizer for the big game.

Answer: Quesadillas

A couple years ago, I came up with pizza quesadilla (tortillas, pizza sauce, mozza and pepperoni) but today I came up with a couple more combinations.

Ham and Cheese Quesadillas:
tortilla, diced ham, diced green peppers, shredded cheese, honey mustard sauce

On one half of the tortilla, place ham, peppers and cheese. On the other half spread the honey mustard sauce. Fold in half and place in a hot pan. Turn when tortilla starts to brown.

Texas Chicken Quesadillas:
tortilla, bbq sauce, diced cooked chicken, diced cooked bacon, diced red peppers, diced green peppers, diced jalapeno peppers, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese.

Spread bbq sauce over the whole tortilla. On half place the remaining ingredients. Fold and place in a pan. Turn when tortilla starts to brown.

This week my oldest son, Danny is staying of lunch for his choir practice, which also happens to be the day his class has access to a microwave. Place the cooked quesadilla in a microwave safe container and at lunch heat it for about 30 seconds.

Cook Once, Eat Twice

There can be more to leftovers than reheating last night's fare in the microwave. Being efficient in the kitchen is more than heating up a frozen pizza. Learning to cook once and eat twice is not about leftovers, it's about planning ahead.

When planning your weekly menu, think of some ways to prepare a step or two ahead of the day you need it. When baking or preparing for a dinner party, I call this "cooking in stages". I found this particularly useful when there are small kids running around. Who has time to make a whole batch of cookies? When baking something like cookies, one day I would make the batter. It would probably end up in the fridge while cleaned up, I picked up the kids from school, and did a couple loads of laundry. When I had another 8-10 minutes, I could scoop up enough cookie dough for what I wanted at the time, maybe a dozen. The rest goes in the freezer until the next cookie craving. To freeze the cookie dough, there are several options. You can scoop them into balls, freeze them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and place the frozen cookie dough balls into a freezer bag. You can put all the cookie dough into a tub or freezer bag, or lastly, roll into a roll and slice off what you need when you need it.

You can apply this "cooking in stages" method to everyday cooking as well. You can prepare a step or two in advance to make dinner a piece of cake... or cookie.

For example, today is pasta Thursday. (Not all pasta is on Thursdays and not all Thursdays have pasta, it just worked out that way this week) The package of ground beef I used was almost 2 pounds. That is more than my family needs in one meal. I could have cooked half and frozen the rest, or wrapped it tightly for the next day, but I opted to cook the whole thing. Once the ground beef was cooked, I removed half of it and placed it in a container in the fridge, labelled "Taco Friday". So, tomorrow's dinner starts with the ground beef already cooked.

So, what's for dinner tonight?

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

This is pretty standard I think. Everyone has their own version; but before I give you mine let me say this... all tomato sauce is NOT created equal. Read your labels, people!! Pick up a jar labelled "Pasta Sauce" verses one that sauce "Tomato Sauce". The one labelled "Pasta Sauce" has sugar and salt and who knows what else. "Tomato Sauce" is just that. Tomatoes.. maybe some water. So, if you are watching sodium and/or sugar make sure you are getting the real thing.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

1 onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef (I use lean or extra lean)
1 large jar tomato sauce
1 small jar tomato paste
1/4 - 1/2 C wine (I use marsala, but any will do)
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried basil
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried marjorum
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

1 package spaghetti - whole wheat

Directions:
Heat the oil in a large pot, add onions and garlic. When they have softened, add the beef. Ass it cooks, break it into small pieces with a spoon or spatula. Once the beef is cooked, add everything else. Give it a stir. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for as long as you can. (This can also be done in a slow cooker)

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Drain pasta and serve with sauce.

By the way, if you have any extra sauce put it in the (you guessed it) freezer. Place it in a resealable freezer bag, remove the air and lay it flat in the freezer. Next week, your sauce is already done. (Don't forget to label it)