Food Musings

A Winnipeg blog about the joy of preparing food for loved ones and the shared joy that travel & dining brings to life.

Warm Bacon Spinach Salad

February13

I do not believe in completely eliminating a food in one’s diet in order to achieve wellness.  For example our family loves bacon and yet we know that it should be consumed in moderation.  Because the aroma and taste of bacon is synonymous for us with cottage life, we generally only eat it for weekend brunches up at the beach house.  But occasionally in the winter we have it as a “treat” and include it in our evening meal when higher calorie and fat portions are consumed already.  Last night, I wanted a quick dinner before the start of the Jets Game and so  I broiled chicken wings seasoned with “Bone Dust”,  simmered some black rice and the hit of the dinner-an old school warm bacon spinach salad.


Warm Bacon Spinach Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 4 cups of loosely packed spinach leaves, prepared for safe consumption
  • 2 large eggs, hard boiled and chopped
  • 1 small red onion, sliced
  • ⅓ c dried cranberries
  • 8 strips of bacon, chopped
  • 4 T bacon fat
  • 4 T red wine vinegar
  • 1 T maple syrup
  • 1 T Dijon mustard
Instructions
  1. Prepare and place spinach, eggs, onions and cranberries in salad bowl.
  2. Cook bacon until crispy (fried or baked).
  3. Retain 4 T of bacon drippings as your remove the bacon from the pan.
  4. Blot with paper towel, after a quick spray at the sink with very hot water.
  5. Place bacon in salad bowl.
  6. Whisk together the dressing ingredients.
  7. Adjust with pepper (salt is likely redundant)
  8. Pour over top of salad just before serving.
  9. If time has passed and the dressing starts to solidify, simply place in the mic for a minute.
  10. The hot bacon fat with make the spinach wilt a wee bit-that is what you are going for.

Another trick to reduce fat from a dinner like ours on this evening, is to season the chicken drummettes under the skin and then completely remove the skin before eating.  This way you enjoy all the flavour provided by the skin without consuming the extra fat in the skin.

And if you have not tasted the treat of black rice yet-you must.   The taste is nutty and creamy at the same time and the health benefits will make it a new staple in our house.  Black rice is a soluble fibre that is packed with anti-oxidants, making it a super food on par with blueberries!

Kath’s quote:“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”-Doug Larson

Love-that is all.

posted under Entrees | 1 Comment »

Fruit Crisps

February12

Every once in a while I get a real hankering for wild blueberries which I am happy to say can now be purchased at one of the grocery stores that I frequent.  But even better, is the surprise of finding a container full of them in the bottom of your freezer.  I can’t even say if I picked these myself last summer but no one else in my immediately family is a picker so it must have been me.  Sometimes it is quite lovely to have a memory like a sieve…..

We were hosting our young families group on Friday night, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to whip up a berry crisp.  The recipe that I found (modified and posted below) suggests that you make extra batches of topping to freeze and you can have another batch bubbling in the oven in a snap. 


Fruit Crisps
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 
Tip: You can make extra batches of crisp topping and freeze it in individual freezer bags. So, at a moment's notice you can bake up a great dessert.
Ingredients
  • Crisp
  • 1 c rolled oats
  • ¾ c all purpose flour
  • ½ c brown sugar, lightly packed
  • ¾ t cinamon
  • ½ c butter or margarine cut into pieces
  • ⅓ c chopped pecans
  • Fruit Filling
  • ¼ c sugar
  • 1 T cornstarch (I had to use flour)
  • 2 c blueberries (wild which were frozen) with juice
  • 2 c mango pieces (I buy the frozen and always have it on hand)
Instructions
  1. Crisp
  2. Combine oats, sugar, cinamon and salt.
  3. Add butter and rub it with your fingers into the dry ingredients.
  4. Incorporate pecans with your hands.
  5. Filling
  6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F..
  7. In a large bowl, mix sugar and cornstarch.
  8. Add fruit and mix well.
  9. Pour into a shallow casserole dish.
  10. Sprinkle evenly with crisp topping.
  11. Bake until crisp is golden and fruit juices are bubbling, checking after 45 minutes.
  12. Let stand at least 15 minutes before serving.
  13. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

Kath’s quote: “I remember his burlesque pretense that morning of an inextinguishable grief when I wonder that I had never eaten blueberry cake before, and how he kept returning to the pathos of the fact that there should be a region of the earth where blueberry cake was unknown.”-William Dean Howells

Love-that is all.

posted under Desserts | 2 Comments »

Buildings on Isla Mujeres

February11

I have a met a person, whom, as a result of reading my blog, but particularily entries about Isla Mujeres, has decided to spend a month long vacation there.  I know why I love this little place, but will she? This has caused me to do some intense reflection.  What is it about Isla Mujeres?  Is it that I see beauty from a different perspective?  I start this pictoral series with the basics: the buildings.

 

Kath’s quote: “Colour is like cooking.  The cook puts in more or less salt, that’s the difference!”-Josef Albers

Love-that is all.

Peanut Butter Crunchies Revisited

February8

When our kids were little, we used to read them a story called “A Difficult Day” by Eugenie Fernandes about a little girl who endures a bad day at school, has a little temper tantrum and hides from her Mom.  The Mom makes a batch of Melinda’s favourite cookies, finds her daughter and they eat them together under Melinda’s bed.  Daughter #2 recently had a frustrating day at university and plunked herself in a wicker chair in the kitchen to tell me her woes.  I happened to be making a batch of Peanut Butter Crunchies (that she had just mentioned missing the taste of).  We both remembered the story book and she exclaimed how some things had never really changed.  Except that I try very hard not to have sugary treats in the house like Peanut Butter Crunchies.

This is how I tried to adjust the recipe:

  • where it calls for peanut butter-I used a 100% natural crunchy variety where the ingredients are just peanuts and salt with no sugar or fat.
  • I cut back the brown sugar by 25% but there is both sugar and corn syrup.
  • I did not add any additional salt as the original recipes calls for.
  • I used bran flakes instead of corn flakes.
  • I used a brown rice variety of Kellogg’s rice crispies instead of the regular ones.
  • I sprayed the pan with a bit of canola oil.

Peanut Butter Crunchies Revisited
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Modified from The Best of Bridge original
Ingredients
  • 2 c natural "crunchy" variety peanut butter
  • 1 c corn syrup
  • ¾ c brown sugar
  • 4 c bran flakes
  • 2 c brown rice crispies
Instructions
  1. Place sugar and syrup in double boiler, melt.
  2. Add peanut butter, bran flakes and crispies.
  3. Pat into a 9 x 13, sprayed cookie sheet.
  4. Refrigerate.

Daughter #2 declared that they tasted EXACTLY as she remembered them and they contributed to the turning around of her day.  Are they healthy?  Well, all I know is that I feel better about serving them to my little girl (even if she is almost 22 years old).

Kath’s quote: “I’ll love you forever.  I’ll like for always.  As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”.  –Robert Munsch

Love-that is all.

Fit Fiesta Soup-Working with Liz Pearson

February7

When you meet Liz Pearson you want to be just like her: petite and fit, with beautiful skin and twinkly blues eyes.  You might even say to yourself, how could I look like that?  Well here’s how: Liz is a leading Canadian dietician who contends that belly fat, (not the scale) is the best measure of health.  She co-authored Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health and has another book due out this year entitled Broccoli, Love and Dark Chocolate.  We were destined to meet, she is a soul (aka heart) sister.

If you know me, you know that I carry my excess baggage in an area other than my waistline, but I heartily support having a good health barometer other than the bathroom scale, so I got out my tape measure.  According to Heath Canada a red flag should be raised when women have a waist circumference of 35 inches or more, so I guess that it is time for me to be less concerned about my trunk and more about my engine.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of working alongside Liz, taking care of the food styling for the Winnipeg leg of a promotional tour.  I learned first hand, what foods to focus and consume more of for my intended long life (I am newly motivated by the just announced summer arrival of our first Grandchild!).  The soup that I prepped for her appearances contain each of these five fat burning foods:

100% whole grains,

high fibre,

healthy fats,

flavonoids

and pepper-based plant compounds.  But most important (for me at least), it tastes like Mexico (17 sleeps until my upcoming departure)!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Fit Fiesta Soup
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
This delicious soup, is a one pot meal containing ingredients that are linked to reducing belly-fat, including whole-grains, fibre, healthy fats, peppers and favonoid-rich fruits and vegetables. What's more, it's easy to make, taking only 25 minutes from stove-top to table.
Ingredients
  • 2 c (500 ml) Whole grain bows, such as Catelli Healthy Harvest brand
  • 2 t (10 ml) extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • ¼ c (50 ml) dried cranberries
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 T (15 ml) mild chili powder
  • 1 t (15 ml) cumin
  • ¾ t (4 ml) each salt and pepper
  • 8 c (2 l) low sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 can (14 ox./398 ml) no salt added diced tomatoes
  • 2 cans (14 oz./398 ml) no salt added black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 c corn, if using frozen, does not have to be defrosted
  • 4 c (1 l) lightly packed baby spinach
  • 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1 lime, zested and juiced
  • chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven set over medium-high heat.
  2. Add the onion and red pepper; saute for 2 to 3 minutes or until softened.
  3. Add the cranberries, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
  4. Stir in 6 c broth and the tomatoes; bring to a boil.
  5. Stir in the beans, bows and corn.
  6. Boil gently, partially covered and stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes or until pasta is tender.
  7. Stir in the remaining broth, the spinach, jalapeno peppers, lime zest and juice; remove from the heat.
  8. Add extra lime and broth to adjust consistency and acidity to taste if desired.
  9. Garnish with fresh coriander.

The emphasis of focusing on foods that promote good health are reinforced for me, since they were first introduced by my friend Mairlyn Smith.  Coincidence?  No, Mairlyn is co-author of Liz’s books.  I love my circle of life.

Kath’s quote: “Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.”-Samuel Johnson

Love-that is all.

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