Chinese Take Out- At Home

My family loves Asian food, but Chinese take out can be full of sodium and fat and low on the things that are good for you like whole grains and veggies.  These are a couple of our family's favorite Asian inspired dishes that I can feel good about serving.  The potstickers take a little time to prepare, but it makes and they freeze well so a little kitchen time one day turns into two more quick meals on busy days, and their easy enough to roll that my 10 year old now does that for me.  The edamame salad is even better the next day so my second grader frequently takes the leftovers in her lunch!

EDAMAME SALAD

10 oz. frozen Edamame

2 cups shredded carrots

1 cucumber, seeded and diced small

2 green onions, sliced thin

3 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp. unseasoned rice wine vinegar

Dash of hot sauce, optional

Prepare edamame according to package directions, let cool.  Combine all ingredients in bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Adjust soy sauce and hot sauce to taste.

 

CHICKEN POT STICKERS

Adapted from recipe from Everyday Food Oct 2009

1 lb. ground chicken breast

4 Tbsp. minced chives

3 Tbsp. soy sauce

3 Tbsp. dry sherry

4 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger

1 tsp. sesame oil

2 tsp. cornstarch

12 oz. package wonton wrappers

Non-stick cooking spray

Mix all ingredients except wonton wrappers in medium bowl.  
Lay wonton wrapper on dry, flat surface and place 1 rounded tsp. of chicken mixture in center of wrapper.  Dampen edges of wrapper with water and fold over at diagonal to make triangle.  Dampen three corners and fold inward as seen below:

 

Repeat for each of the wonton wrappers.  Place potstickers in boiling water and cook for 6-8 minutes.  Spray large skillet with cooking spray and place over med-high heat.  Remove potstickers from water with slotted spoon and place in skillet cooking until browned (approx. 1 minute on each side).  

If you wish to freeze some potstickers for later use place uncooked potstickers on baking sheet and freeze for at least 2 hours then wrap in wax paper and place in plastic freezer bag to store up to 3 months. 

Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce

Recipe from Everyday Food Oct. 2009

½ cup soy sauce

6 Tbsp. rice vinegar

2 Tbsp. minced, peeled, fresh ginger

4 tsp. sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

Whisk all ingredients together in small bowl.  Serve with wontons.  This sauce is also a great topping for lettuce wraps or as a dressing for Asian flavored salads. 

Chicken Enchilada Casserole- A Better Version of an Old Favorite

We live in Texas where Tex-Mex reigns, but so often it's just cheese, fried tortillas, and refried beans stuffed with extra fat.  I've made a lot of enchilada casseroles in my day, but this one is probably the healthiest, and one of the tastiest.  By using tangy tomatillos and green chiles you get a sauce full of flavor with little fat.  It also use very few processed ingredients.  I did use store bought tortillas, but you could easily use home made ones if you want.  I think there are two reasons I really like this recipe: the tomatillos and an excuse to use my favorite kitchen appliance: the emulsion blender!

First, let me introduce you to the tomatillo if you haven't already met :

 This staple of Mexican cooking looks a lot like a green tomato with a husk on the outside, but on the inside it has a mild, tangy, white flesh with tiny seeds and much less moisture than a tomato.  Tomatillos can give a dish a great fresh flavor and are the base for the sauce in this recipe.

Now, for the immersion blender-you don't have to have one to make the sauce, you can cool it and blend it in a traditional blender, but with this handy tool your sauce can go from this:

To This in the same pan.  I'm a big fan of minimizing clean-up so this is great.  You can get a decent one for around $40, and I use mine at least once a week to emulsify salad dressings, blend soups, make sauces such the one in this recipe, and much more! 

CHICKEN ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

 2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp. coarse salt

4 oz can green chiles, drained and diced

6 cups tomatillos diced

9 corn tortillas

3 cups  shredded chicken breast (for this dish I poached 2 large breasts then shredded)

3 oz. queso blanco, crumbled (this Mexican cheese that can be found in the specialty area of the grocery store or a local Mexican market)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro,chopped

Heat olive oil in medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until softened (about 5 minutes).

Add cumin, pepper, and salt and stir about 30 seconds.

Add green chiles and tomatillos.  Cover pan and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes until tomatillos softened.

Remove from heat and blend with immersion blender or cool and blend in traditional blender.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray bottom of  8x11 baking dish with cooking spray or olive oil.

Layer bottom of pan with 3 tortillas.  (I cut tortillas in half  or quartersto allow them to cover most of the base of the pan without leaving large gaps.  

Layer 1/2 of chicken over tortillas and cover with tomatillo sauce.

Repeat layers of tortilla, chicken, sauce, tortilla, sauce.

Sprinkle crumbled queso blanco over casserole.

Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove foil, cook for 5 additional minutes.
Let sit 5 minutes, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: More veggies please!

If you have picky eaters at home who turn their noses up at vegetables soups can be a great way to get them to eat more or try new ones. My family loves this tortilla soup-it has great flavor without being too spicy, and I love it because it gives me a way to use up vegetables that are sitting in my fridge from previous recipes.  Of course you can buy veggies just for this soup, but I love this as an end of the week "kitchen sink" meal to use up what is left before it goes bad.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from Everyday Food (Jan/Feb 2012 pg. 84) but mine varies significantly.  About the only part still directly taken from the original is the crispy tortilla strips you serve on top of the soup.  They fulfill that salty/crunchy need without the fat of fried chips- how awesome is that!  I actually think the only reason my five-year-old eats the soup is for the tortilla strips.  This soup is also lower in fat than many tortilla soup recipes because it doesn't have a large amount of goopy cheese in it.  You can use a bit of queso fresco or cojita cheese to garnish if you like, but it's not necessary. 

For this version I used onion, green bell pepper, carrots, celery, and corn for my 5 cups of vegetables, but I've also used yellow squash, zucchini,  and spinach with great results (if you are going to use spinach or another green I'd put some extra in because it decreases in volume so much when it cooks.  Also, if you are using corn, squash, zucchini, or spinach I'd wait to put them in until the step when you add the broth since they take less time to cook.

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

4 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

5 cups diced vegetables (see above)

2 Tbsp. tomato paste*
15 oz. can of diced tomatoes with liquid
 4 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

4 cups homemade chicken stock plus 4 cups water OR 8 cups canned chicken broth
2-3 cups diced chicken (I've used 2 poached chicken breasts, 1/2 chicken from slow cooker chicken, or even a rotisserie chicken in a pinch)
Salt and pepper
6 corn tortillas, cut into thin strips

Optional garnishes
     Lime wedges
     Cojito cheese or queso fresco
     Cilantro
     Scallions
     Sliced avocado

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large pot heat 3 tsp olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add vegetables and saute for until starting to soften, 5-8 minutes.
Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes with liquid, chili powder, and cumin and cook 2-3 minutes.
Add stock/water or broth and bring to boil and season with salt and pepper
Add chicken and lower heat.  Simmer for 5-10 min.

While soup is vegetables are cooking toss tortilla strips on a cooking sheet with remaining tsp. of oil (You can also spray with oil mister instead) and lightly sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake until crisp and golden, 8-10 min.  Tossing once during baking.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish as desired.  This is one of those recipes that makes a ton-enough to feed my family of 5 plus about 6 cups left over for the kids to take in their lunches later in the week!

*I love the tomato paste you can buy in a tube as it's easy to store, and you don't  have any waste.

Let me know if you try any other vegetables in this soup, I'm always looking for new options!
 

 

Learning to waste less and the wonderful results- SMOOTHIES!

Americans waste a tremendous amount of food each year, and I'm embarrassed to admit that in the past I have contributed my fair share.  When I had to buy a whole stalk of celery for a recipe that called for 3 ribs frequently the rest would end up wilted and limp in the fridge and eventually in the trash.  As I have improved our family's diet over the past several years and the quality of ingredients I buy one of the ways to make this economical has been to figure out ways to waste less.  There are several recipes that have become the basis of my "kitchen sink" meals that allow me to use veggies and proteins that might previously gone to waste including soups, pastas, frittata, and tortilla cups that I will share in later postS, but to continue the week of healthy snacks today I want to talk about my family's favorite way to save and use fruit that might previously gone uneaten and ended up in the trash:  smoothies.

When almost any fruit hits that day where it's not bad yet, but give it a day and it's likely to be trash worthy.  Now when that happens I'll wash it, peel if necessary, cut it into chunks, place it on a wax paper lined cookie sheet, and place it in the freezer until it is completely frozen, usually 4-6 hours.  Now, you can buy frozen fruit and it can be helpful to have some packaged fruit in the freezer, but there are many fruits that work well that I've not seen in the frozen foods section of the store-canteloupe, watermelon, kiwi, etc. Two standouts are bananas and apples.  Soft slightly overripe banannas can be a great addition to baked goods, but you can also freeze them to give texture and tast to a smoothie.  Apples freeze great if you dip the diced chunks into lemon juice before you freeze them so they don't brown. 

I know that making smoothies is nothing new, and there are a million recipes out there, but we like to chnage things up almost every time based on what the kids are in the mood for so here is our basic recipe that you can swap any fruits for.  Adding the yougurt helps get protein in so that you truly have a complete snack. 

BASIC SMOOTHIE RECIPE

 

1 cup frozen fruit
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup 100% fruit juice
1-2 Tbsp. berry sauce

For my kids, the key ingredient is the berry sauce that we make from 100 Days of Real Food.  It allows each child to adjust the sweetness of their smoothie and avoids the sugar or high fructose corn syrup found in flavored yogurts.  I make a double batch on Sundays and we use it for smoothies and to flavor plain yogurt with cut up fresh fruit throughout the week.

Mindful Eating

Today, I wanted to take a break from snacks (more recipes will be coming soon) and introduce a concept that I think is not emphasized enough.  Sometimes we need to think not just about WHAT we eat, but HOW we eat.  Mindful eating was introduced to me by Jackie Erlandson, registered dietitian, super-mom, and all around amazing woman, a few years ago, and many of my patients have found it crucial to changing their eating habits.

Our culture has lost the connection between food and why we eat in many ways.  Teaching children mindful eating can help restore the way we were supposed to be eating all along.  There are four basic principles:

1.  Before you eat anything ask yourself  "AM I REALLY HUNGRY?"  We eat for so many reasons-because we're sad, because it's on the schedule, because we feel nostalgic, because we're bored...  I think this last one is especially true for kids.  I can't tell you the number of times that my son has said he is hungry, and if I respond with "would you like to play a game with Mommy" he enthusiastically says yes and forgets that the conversation started with him stating he is hungry. When children learn at an early age to eat for reasons besides their own hunger it changes their relationship with food and distorts how their body was intended to function.  If your kids are older consider having them make a list of 10-20 activities that they enjoy and placing it on the fridge.  Then teach them to ask themselves if they are really hungry any time they find themselves foraging the fridge or pantry for something to eat.  If the answer is actually no they have a handy list of other things to occupy their time.  If the answer is yes make sure the pantry and fridge are stocked with healthy choices.

2.  EAT AT THE TABLE WITH THE TV OFF.  This may seem like an obvious one, but today many families eat in the car or on the couch in front of the TV.  Our society encourages multitasking, but eating is something that should be done with focus. It allows us to listen to internal cues of fullness that might be ignored with distractions. It also facilitates family communication and relationships.  Children from families that share regular meals together have a lower risk of obesity, but they also have lower incidence of drug use, teen pregnancy, and school failure.  This simple step will improve not only your relationship with food, but your relationship with others.

3.  TAKE 2O MINUTES TO EAT.    It seems like we are always rushing somewhere.  I hate that I frequently feel like I'm hurrying my kids to school, gym, or piano, and having a type-A mom with a job who's involved in multiple community projects probably doesn't help matters.  Even with hectic schedules we make a concerted effort not to rush through meals.  When we eat too fast several things happen.  First, we miss the opportunities for the meaningful family time I mentioned previously.  In addition thought we don't give our bodies time to register feeling full and stop our selves from over eating.  If we want to learn to listen to our body we have to take the time to hear what its saying.

4.  STOP WHEN YOU FEEL SATISFIED.  I think this is the hardest concept to teach children, but adults get it almost immediately.  We've all eaten so much at some point that we feel like we are going to burst if we eat one more bite.  This is not healthy, and food was never intended to make us feel this way.  Not only have we overeaten, but then we feel so poorly that we are inactive the rest of the day.  Mostly this is a problem of portion size overload in American culture and restaurant sales tactics, but if children experience this and think it is how they are supposed to feel at the end of a meal it sets them up for a life of over eating.  Jackie uses an analogy when she talks with children to help them get a mental picture of how you should feel after a meal:  when you fill a glass with water to take to the table you don't fill it to the very top because if you did it would slosh over the sides and spill while you're moving it.  Instead you fill it until it is full but not overflowing.  This is how you should feel at the end of a meal-satisfied but not over full.

These are simple principles, but if you put them into action personally and with your kids they can change the way you think about food and your family will be healthier for it!  How else do you help teach your children to listen to their bodies instead of external cues about how they eat?

Fall in a slow cooker

Honestly, now that my youngest child is 5 I thought the days of applesauce as a snack were pretty much  over in our house, but my son loves the cinnamon apples at a chain restaurant. They pretty much taste like the inside of an apple pie, and I'm sure that they are loaded with sugar and butter.  They got me thinking that there must be a healthier way to get that delicious apple cinnamon flavor.

After seeing a recipe for homemade applesauce in a slow cooker I started playing around with the recipe and the result is this delicious chunky applesauce that makes the whole house smell like fall.  It's so good that when my second grader takes it to school for lunch the teacher makes her save it for last because she assumes that it's dessert, but the truth is I don't mind her eating it for a snack almost any time.

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apples

 Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apples

12 Apples, peeled cored and sliced

2 tsp. cinamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbsp. maple syrup

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cover.  Cook on low for 6 hours stirring 1-2 times during cooking.  

If you prefer smoother applesauce blend with immersion blender or cool and blend in traditional blender.  Store in airtight container, can serve cold or warm.  Makes 6 cups.

Mom, I'm hungry!

It seems like every time I turn around one or more of my kids is saying they are hungry, and I don't think I'm alone.  As active as my kids are they frequently need snacks between meals so I'm always looking for healthy options.

Let's face it, there's not much worth eating in goldfish or animal crackers.  My basic rule of thumb is that a snack needs to include some form of protein and a fruit or vegetable.  This week I'm going to highlight some of my kids favorite snacks starting with homemade granola bars.

For a "health food"  many store bought granola bars are filled with high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors.  These homemade bars are full of whole grains and sweetened with nothing but honey.  They are based on a recipe from Everyday Food (March 2011, pg 36) which is one of my favorite magazines-most of the recipes are what I consider real food or require few modifications to make them so.  I've been making granola for a long time, but was so excited to find a recipe for bars that would transport easily and have that satisfying chewiness of store-bought granola bars.

One of the great things about granola and granola bars is that once you get the ratio of liquids to solids down you can adjust the recipe by swapping in whatever nuts, seeds, or dried fruits you like.  I used almonds and dried cherries for these, but they are delicious with walnuts, pecans, raisins,  or chopped dried apricots!

Chewy Granola Bars

3/4 cup honey,  divided

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more for dish

3 cups thick cut rolled oats

1 1/3 cup nuts

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

2 cups dried fruit

1/3 cup creamy nut butter (I used almond)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line large baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Grease bottom and sides of 8.5" x 11" glass pan with butter.

In large bowl combine oats, nuts, and salt.  

In small sauce pan melt butter and stir in 1/4 cup honey until dissolved.

Pour honey/butter mixture over oats and stir until well combined.

Spread mixture evenly on baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brow, stirring occasionally.

Cool completely.

Return oat mixture to large bowl and stir in dried fruit.

In small saucepan combine 1/3 cup honey and 1/2 cup nut butter over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until mixture boils. 

Pour honey mixture over granola and stir to combine well.

Transfer to  baking dish and press firmly into pan with spatula.

Refrigerate for at least one hour or until firm. 

Cut into squares and store at room temperature in airtight container for up to one week.

You may have some "crumbs" when you cut the bars.  Save them to sprinkle over yogurt or use as cereal with milk.