Quinoa, Black-bean, Vegetable Salad with Lime Dressing

Hey everyone! Sorry for the slow posting, I am currently taking summer courses and their condensed nature seems to be occupying a lot of my time! Because I have been so busy lately, I've been focusing more and more on quick, easy meals and this week I decided to make a fabulous quinoa salad that is chock full of tasty things. I've only recently discovered quinoa and am enjoying how cheap and versatile it is. I am also very impressed by how good it is for you: 1 cup of uncooked quinoa has 41% of your daily intake of thiamine, 41% of your daily intake of vitamin B6, 78% of your daily intake of folate, 5061 mg of Omega-6 fatty acids, 84% of your daily intake of magnesium, and 43% of your daily intake of iron. I find that it reminds me of couscous in the way that you can pretty much add anything to it and it stretches your meals but I find the texture to be more interesting and enjoyable than couscous. I personally think that quinoa should be part of anyone's diet.

(with some adjustments, courtesy of serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/black-bean-tomato-quinoa-healthy-delicious-recipe.html )
Ingredients:

-2 teaspoons grated lime zest

-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

-1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

-1 tablespoon vegetable oil

-1 teaspoon sugar

-1/2 teaspon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1 cup quinoa

-1 vegetable stock cube

-1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

-2 medium tomatoes, diced

-2 avocadoes, diced

-4 scallions, chopped

Directions:

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

2. In a pot, bring 2 cups of water to a bowl. Add quinoa and vegetable stock cube and bring back to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 12 minutes and remove from heat. Fluff quinoa with a fork and let stand for 15 minutes, or until cool.

3.Transfer quinoa to a bowl and add dressing, stirring until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and serve.

Should yield at least 5-6 servings.

Nutritional information (per 1 serving, if there is 5 servings in total): 454.1 calories, 18.6 grams of fat, 3.2 grams of saturated fats, 661.2 mg of sodium, 6 mg of cholesterol, 57.7 grams of carbohydrates, 17.12 grams of fiber, 2.4 grams of sugar, 16.52 grams of protein

-1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Snacking, Post 2: Guacamole

Hello all my lovely readers!
With the advent of all this warm weather, I become extremely excited to grab a beer with friends on a patio, go to some barbeques, and most importantly of all, to be able to buy some decent avocados at most grocery stores. Avocados can be tricky when it's not their prime season, I find they're either way too far from being ripe or they are way past their due date. For those who are not very familiar with avocados, you want to make sure that their skin is at least somewhat dark and that they are slightly soft to the touch but not too soft. If you buy an avocado that isn't ripe yet, you can leave it out on a counter in a brown paper bag to help ripen it.

Now I know that avocados are notoriously high in fat, so you might be asking me why I'm including a recipe with avocados on a blog that's supposed to have low-fat recipes. Avocados are chalk full of the Omega-6 (3396 mg per avocado, in fact) and Omega-3 fatty acids (221 mg per avocado) and have a ton of fiber in them, which has been shown to help with weight loss. Avocados have also been shown to reduce cholesterol levels, they help you to feel full, the monounsaturated fats that they contain help boost metabolism, and they are a good source of Vitamin B6. It's for these reasons that I think avocados are a staple in anyone's diet. Here I'm going to share my recipe for guacamole, which I think is a great snack either after or before a light dinner.

Ingredients:

-3 avocados

-2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced (actually, you can just use however many cloves you want depending on your preference)

-1/3 cup chopped chives or green onions (I find it doesn't make much of a difference and I use either one depending on what I already have available)

-1/3 cup chopped cilantro

-a few shakes of any hot pepper/chili sauce that you have

-a pinch of salt to taste

Optional ingredients: chopped tomatoes, some low-fat sour cream if you want it to be creamier

Directions:

1. Peel and de-pit the avocados and place them in a bowl. Using the back of a fork or a potato masher, mash the avocados until smooth.

2. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Serve with tortilla chips or vegetables.

Nutritional Information:

(per 1 serving, or 1/4 of the recipe): 244.75 calories, 21.75 grams of fat, 10.5 mg of sodium, 13.5 grams of carbohydrates, 9.75 grams of fiber, 0.75 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein

Enjoy!:)

Splurge Recipe #1: Lemon Bars with Coconut Crust

Hi everyone! This week was my 22nd birthday and I decided this would be a perfect time to give myself a treat and bake something delicious. Subsequently, this became a perfect opportunity to share my first splurge recipe. Since it's spring, I thought it would be perfect to make a lemony dessert and chose to make lemon bars with a coconut crust (a perfect pairing).

(recipe courtesy of Epicurious, at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Coconut-Bars-109406)

Ingredients:

For the crust:

-1 cup all purpose flour

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted, cooled

-6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

 

For the filling:

-1 1/2 cups sugar

-4 large eggs

-1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

-2 tablespoons (packed) finely grated lemon peel

-2 teaspoons all purpose flour

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-pinch of salt

 

-1/4 powdered sugar (for dusting)

 

Directions:
1. To make the crust: preheat oven to 350°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang. Butter the paper. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in processor; blend 5 seconds. Add coconut and butter; process until mixture resembles fine meal and begins to clump together. Gather dough into ball. Press dough evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until golden at edges, about 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, to make the filling: combine sugar, eggs, lemon juice, lemon peel, flour, baking powder, and salt in processor. Blend filling until smooth. Remove crust from oven. Pour filling evenly over hot crust. Return to oven and bake until filling begins to brown at edges and is just set and springy to touch in center, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to rack; cool lemon bars completely. Using paper as aid, transfer lemon bars to work surface. Flatten foil edges. Cut into 16 bars. Sift powdered sugar over. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight in single layer in refrigerator.)

Nutritional Information: (not going to provide it because what you don't know, won't hurt you :) )

Pesto Pasta with Chevre and Cherry Tomatoes

Hey wonderful readers! I'm sharing with you my all-time favourite quick, mid-week meal. It takes about 20 minutes or less to prepare and it's extremely tasty. First of all, I suggest you purchase one of these small little chopper gizmos at the dollar store for around $10 because they really help with making your own pesto (trust me, once you try home made pesto you will never want to eat store-bought pesto again)

The beauty of the pesto recipe that I'll be sharing is that there are no measuring cups or spoons used, which makes this dinner very quick to make and less dishes for you as well :)

Ingredients:
-1 bunch of basil
-1 handful of pine nuts (you can toast them if you wish)
-1 handful of parmesan
-half a clove of garlic
-a drizzle of olive oil
Directions:
Place all the ingredients into the chopper. Put on high until mixed. You can add a bit of lemon juice or salt and pepper if you wish.

This is a handy little visual reference for the pesto.

Now onto the pasta recipe

Ingredients:

-2 batches of pesto

-half a 900 gram bag of pasta

-1 package of cherry tomatoes, quartered

-113 gram of package of chevre

Directions:

Put on a large pot of water on high heat until it boils, add pasta and cook until done. Meanwhile, prepare pesto with chopper and cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters. When pasta is finished, drain it and put it back into the pot. Add pesto and cherry tomatoes. If you want, you can add another sprinkling of parmesan to the pasta. Crumble the chevre with a fork into the pasta and serve. Should yield 4 servings.

Nutritional Information:
(per serving): 518.75 calories, 13.55 grams of fat, 66.9 grams of carbohydrates, 3.9 grams of fiber, 171 mg of sodium, 4.25 grams of sugar,  19 grams of protein

Low-fat Moussaka

Hi everyone! This week I decided to attempt to make the infamous Middle-Eastern dish, Moussaka. It makes a great weekend meal but be forewarned, do plan ahead when making this dish because it doesn't take quite some time. I'm a bit proud of myself because Moussaka generally averages 820 calories per serving but thanks to a few adjustments, my version totals to 394 calories per serving.

(recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10610/the-ultimate-makeover-moussaka, with some adjustments)

Ingredients:

-2½ tbsp olive oil
-1 onion , chopped
-2 plump garlic cloves , finely chopped
-2 large carrots, diced
-1 package of 5% fat minced beef
-1/2 cup white wine
-1 tsp ground cinnamon , plus extra
-¼ tsp ground allspice
-1 large can plum tomatoes
-2 tbsp tomato purée
-1 heaped tbsp chopped oregano leaves
-2 good handfuls chopped flat-leaf parsley , plus extra to garnish
-2 medium eggplants (about 750g/1lb 10oz total weight), ends trimmed
-1 tbsp lemon juice

For topping:

-1 tbsp cornflour
-1 cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt
-1/4 cup Parmesan , grated

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large, wide sauté pan. Tip in the onion and garlic, then fry for 6-8 mins until turning golden. Add the carrots and fry for 2 mins more. Stir the meat into the pan, breaking it up as you stir. Cook and stir over a high heat until the meat is no longer pink. Pour in the wine and briefly cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the cinnamon and allspice. Tip in the tomatoes, tomato purée and 1 tbsp water (mixed with any juices left in the can), then stir to break up the tomatoes. Season with some pepper, add all the oregano and half the parsley, cover, then simmer on a low heat for 50 mins, stirring occasionally. Season to taste. Mix in the remaining parsley. Can be done a day ahead and refrigerated overnight.
2. While the meat cooks (unless you are doing this a day ahead) prepare the eggplants. Heat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Brush a little of the remaining oil onto 2 large baking sheets. Mix the rest of the oil with the lemon juice. Slice the eggplants into 1/2 cm thick slices and then lay them on the oiled baking sheets. Brush with the oil and lemon mix, then season with pepper. Bake for 20-25 mins until soft, then set aside. Lower oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
3. Spread 2 big spoonfuls of the meat mixture on the bottom of an ovenproof dish (about 28 x 20 x 6cm deep). Spoon the meat mixture into the dish and lay the eggplant slices on top. . Beat the eggs in a bowl. Slacken the cornflour with a little of the yogurt, stir in the rest of the yogurt, then mix this into the eggs with half the cheese. Season with pepper. Pour and spread this over the eggplant to cover it. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese, a little cinnamon and a grating of pepper. Bake for 50 mins-1 hr until bubbling and golden.
4. Leave moussaka to settle for 8-10 mins, then scatter over some chopped parsley and cut into squares.

Nutritional Information:
(per 1 serving): 394 calories, 10 grams of fat, 19.6 grams of carbohydrates, 141.4 mg of cholesterol, 7.25 grams of fiber, 7.83 grams of sugar, 28.78 grams of protein, 366.9 mg of sodium

Cajun Chicken with Pomegranate Quinoa Salad

Hi everyone! Spring is finally here, though wet and rainy at least where I am. I decided to celebrate the onset of this fabulously warm weather with a delicious, light spring dinner. The great thing about this dinner is that it's extremely quick to make, which makes it a wonderful weekday meal wiith some tasty left overs

Cajun Chicken (recipe courtesy of All Recipes http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cajun-Chicken/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients:
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
-1/2 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
-1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
-1 tablespoon of lemon juice
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1/4 cup of olive oil

Directions:
1. Use a meat hammer to hammer the chicken breasts until they are 1/2 inch thick.
2. Mix spices, lemon juice, garlic, and oil in a bowl. Add chicken and coat it with the mixture. Cover and put in the fridge for an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a cooking tray and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until the chicken breasts reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

Nutritional Information:
(per 1 serving): 242 calories, 16.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 23.5 grams of protein, 173 mg of sodium

Pomegranate Quinoa Salad (recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4545/quinoa-herb-and-pomegranate-salad)

Ingredients:
-1 cup of quinoa
-2 cups of water
-1 vegetable stock cube
-1/4 cup of pine nuts
-1 pomegranate, seeds removed
-a handful of mint, chopped
-a handful of cilantro, chopped
-1 lime, juiced
-1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

yields 4 servings, or 2 sides and 3 lunch servings

Directions:

1. Bring water in a small pot to a boil. Add quinoa and vegetable stock cube. Bring back to a boil, cover, and turn down the heat so that it simmers for 12 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all the water. remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and cover for 15 minutes. Let cool
2. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until golden brown. Mix the pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, mint, cilantro, lime juice, and olive oil with the quinoa. Serve.

Nutritional information:
(per 1 serving): 360 calories, 17 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein, 10.25 grams of sugars

Snacking, Post 1: Roasted Chickpeas

Hi everyone! Diet experts will say that snacking can sabbotage any dieters weight loss attempts. Now while this is certainly true, avoiding snacking on foods in those in-between meal hours can be very difficult. I study quite a lot for school and there is nothing more distracting than a rumbling tummy just before meal time. I believe that when dieting it's still important to snack so as to avoid over-eating during meals but just like meals need healthy adjustments, so do snacks. Personally, I make sure that none of the following even makes it into my grocery cart: ice cream, cookies, chips, pretzels, popcorn, candy, etc. What do I snack on then, you might be asking. I thought it was important to look at healthy, low-calorie food items that would be possible to snack on and that I already enjoy. That is the most important thing when snacking. You can try to get low-calorie versions of the not-so-healthy snacks that you're already eating but they will never be as tasty as their higher-calorie counterparts and in my experience I found myself craving those ones instead. Now I  know to have snacks that incorporate things I already like, and my grocery cart is generally filled with lots of fruits (my favourite snack is a bowl of fresh strawberries), vegetables, hummus, baba ganouj (make sure to check the ingredients to see if there's mayonnaise in it or not), chickpeas, granola bars, avocados for guacamole, and nuts.

So today I'm going to share one of my favourite new snacking recipes, courtesy of my delightful friend Sydney and her equally delightful vegan parents. I was at their house recently and while we were watching the hockey game, her parents made a batch of roasted chickpeas. Ever since I have been making this snack at least once a week and it feels like a healthy alternative to popcorn; it's light, crunchy, delicious, and full of fiber and iron.  The recipe follows the picture

Ingredients:
-1 can of chickpeas
-a drizzle of olive oil
-a few shakes of cayenne pepper
-a few shakes of garlic powder
-a pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the chickpeas and pat dry on paper towel. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together and then put in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Place in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out the chickpeas and give them a bit of a shake. Increase the heat to 450 degrees and put the chickpeas back for another 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven). Take them out of the oven, put them in a bowl, and if you want add a bit more cayenne pepper and garlic powder.

Enjoy :)!

Nutritional Information:
per 1 serving (about 1/4 of the recipe): 160 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 6.5 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, 7.5 grams of protein

Dhal Makhani

Okay so this is my first recipe post(be gentle)!
Tonight I decided to make one of my favourite dishes of all time, Dhal Makhani, with a recipe courtesy of the awesome BBC food magazine website: bbcgoodfood.com. However, I made some tweaks to make it lower in fat and just to make it tastier in general. It was absolutely delicious, however the Greek Yogurt I used curdled slightly, I didn't mind and I didn't notice, but some of you might mind so one commenter recommended Low-Fat Balkan-Style yogurt to avoid the curdling. The recipe follows:

Yields 5 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup black lentils

2 onions , finely chopped

2 green chillies , deseeded and sliced

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp grated fresh root ginger

3 garlic cloves , thinly sliced

1 tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp hot chilli powder (optional)

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 medium tomato, chopped

2 bay leaves

2 x 400g cans red kidney beans , rinsed

1/2 cup Greek Yogurt

2 tbsp. garam masala

handful chopped cilantro

3 cups of cooked long-grain brown rice

Instructions:

1. Boil the lentils in 4 cups of water for 15 mins until almost tender. Meanwhile, fry the onions and chillies in the olive oil for about 7 mins until starting to soften. Stir in the ginger, garlic and spices and cook over a low heat for 1 min more.
2. Pour in 4 cups boiling water followed by the cooked lentils and any liquid. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, and beans, then simmer for 20 mins more until thickened. This can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, or frozen for up to 1 month.
3. To serve, return to the heat if necessary and stir in the yogurt and the garam masala. Season well. Pour into a bowl over the rice, dust with extra garam masala if desired and scatter with cilantro.

Nutritional Information per serving:
 Calories:458.8; fat:4.64 grams; carbohydrates: 86.6 grams; fibre: 15.92 grams; protein:19.08 grams; sodium:212.6 mg

About Me

How to start this blog on the right foot…well, my name is Katie. I’m a 22-year-old psychology student and I believe in eating tasty, healthy food.

I guess I should start at the very beginning. I moved out into my own place with my awesome common-law partner, Adam, two years ago. The biggest change that happened was that I got seriously interested in cooking and baking now that I could control my own meals and not have to eat what my parents were eating. The deliciousness of butter, cream, and cheese were discovered and needless to say, I gained a bit of weight. 10 pounds in a year, in fact. Now this wouldn’t normally be an issue since my new BMI is 21.5 which is still on the lower side of normal, but unfortunately coinciding with the weight gain, I developed very high blood pressure and sleep apnea which indicates that my body does not function as well with this added bit of weight. At the recommendation of my family doctor and my sleep doctor, I decided that I needed to lose weight.

My current goal is to lose 10-15 pounds which has proven to be difficult since I was exposed to the wonderful world of highly-caloric eating and you could say that I don’t have an appetite for bland, tasteless, low-fat, low-calorie dishes. Unfortunately, these are exactly the type of dishes that I see in any exercise or dieting magazine and there is just nothing appetizing about them; usually they tote pictures of a pan-fried chicken breast with no herbs, no sauce, on a bed of plain orzo with a sprig of parsley (how inspiring!). I think that one of the problems with losing weight and keeping weight off is exactly these types of dishes. First of all, it’s impossible to keep eating these foods on a daily basis for months. It’s masochistic. Secondly, they are going to keep you in a diet mentality, they will be foods that you only eat when you’re on a “diet”. Studies have shown that it’s life style changes that lead to long term weight loss and I think the best way to do that is by making dishes that don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet and that they are tasty enough that you would eat them regardless of being on a diet or not. I feel that I have collected quite a repertoire of dishes like this and believe that it has helped me in being successful with my weight loss (and possibly having the metabolism of a 22-year-old as well too….). And thus I was motivated to share my words of wisdom and help others with their attempts at weight loss.
A few things that I should point out:

1. None of the recipes here are extreme in a dieting sense. There is a current diet trend that I think is just unmanageable; it’s expensive and it’s way too restrictive. On an income of $6,000 a year and while living on my own, this is something that is very important to consider. I am talking about the diets where everything is organic (there’s nothing wrong with this but you should be able to cope with foods that aren’t organic), there is not one grain of sugar in it, the only oil used is flaxseed oil, and they make you feel bad for even having most of your grains be whole-wheat (“if it’s not semolina then you’re not being as healthy as you could be!”). You will not find recipes here with millet, wheatgerm, wheatberry, almond butter, rolled oats, or spelt. I have bought ingredients like this and used them once in a dish and never touched them again. With my limited income, I can’t endorse using these if I don’t use them myself. However, you will find recipes with quinoa, barley, and bulgur because I do find these things to be delicious, affordable, and available at most grocery stores. If you have a special diet due to a condition or lifestyle (vegan or vegetarian) and would like me to test out/find some recipes that use any of the aforementioned ingredients, I would be more than happy to.

2. I was a vegetarian for 7 years and due to this, there are some meats that I still have hang ups about and avoid eating. I don’t eat fish, shellfish, veal, rabbit, bison, lamb, or duck. Other non-meat foods that I don’t eat out of preference are sweet potatoes/yams, zuchinni, blue cheese, olives, and melons. I am cognisant of this and if any readers have any great recipes that they would like to give me that incorporate any of these foods, please let me know!! I want to make sure that I’m not offering dishes that are specific to only my preferences.

3. Once a month I’m going to have a splurge recipe, because I believe that if these are going to be permanent life style changes, you have to be realistic. It would be awesome to be able to switch into that person that can eat 300 calories per dish (generally consisting of salad) and only snack on nuts or dried fruit and never eat a muffin/cookie/piece of cake/pie/cheese/butter/cream ever again. I know myself well enough to contend that I wouldn’t be happy if that was me, I don’t want people to think twice before inviting me over to their house for dinner because I most likely won’t eat what they will offer me or criticise them for the lack of any of the ingredients mentioned in point 1.

4. Sometimes I might post things that aren't recipes, but they will almost always have to do with health or weight loss in general.

5. Lastly, I need to point out that not all the recipes are mine. I would like to thank epicurious.com, bbcgoodfood.com, the Whole Foods online recipe section, allrecipes.com, “The Joy of Cooking” Cook Book, and probably my favourite-cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com

Enjoy!