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Health and Fitness
By DearGaby, on July 1st, 2010
Healthy Recipes
By DearGaby, on November 2nd, 2009
Cooking for me is fun. So I always experiment with my old recipes and try to update them. This time I experimented with risotto. I have made risotto the traditional way using Italian aborio rice. I have also made risotto with other grains such as barley and brown rice. However, until yesterday, I never made it with Quinoa. I love Quinoa since it is a complete protein and its tastes wonderful. So I try to incorporate Quinoa in many of my meals. Quinoa is great for vegetarians looking to add some protein to their diet.
Making risotto using Quinoa is quite simple. Just take your favorite risotto recipe and substitute Quinoa for the aborio rice. It’s a wonderful twist to risotto and will be a welcomed addition to your meal.
If you do not have a basic risotto recipe, I have included one below using Quinoa instead of aborio rice.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 onion diced
- 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups Quinoa
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 4 1/2- 5 cups hot broth or water
- 1/3 cup parmigiano cheese
- 1/4 cup fresh parley chopped
- chopped 2-3 green onions (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a heavy pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in olive oil. Add the chopped onion to pan. Cook onion until soft, approximately 2-3 minutes. Add quinoa to pan, making sure to coat it with the olive oil-butter -onion mixture. Cook for 2 minutes. Add white wine. Stirring frequently. Add 1/2 cup of hot broth to pan. Continue to stir frequently. When the liquid is almost absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of broth. Continue to do this until all the broth has been added. When the last of the broth is almost completely absorbed. Turn off the heat and add remaining butter and cheese. Stir until the butter has melted. Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix everything together. Cover pan and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Serves 4-6 people
This recipe is your basic risotto recipe. Once you learn the technique of making risotto than you can virtually add anything you’d like to it. Try using dried porcini mushrooms along with other mushrooms to make a wild mushroom risotto. Add the mushrooms about 10 minutes into the cooking process. Soak about 1/4 ounce of dried porcini mushrooms in 1 cup of water. Add the 1 cup of the liquid you soaked the mushrooms to the hot broth. But reduce the broth from 5 cups to 4 cups.
I have made a variety of risottos including spinach, asparagus, seafood, meat, etc. Risotto is also an excellent way to use up your leftovers.
If you haven’t made risotto–give it a try. It is not very difficult and it can be prepared in 20 minutes.
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Diet Myths
By DearGaby, on November 2nd, 2009
I am so tired of everyone telling me that carbs are bad for you because they make you fat. Most people I know who are dieting are limiting their carbs or almost completely eliminating them. They’ve stopped eating pasta, grains, breads, etc. How can one be so cruel to oneself? Depriving yourself of these foods is not the way to go about losing weight and keeping it off.
Frankly, I can never stick to a diet that doesn’t allow me to eat what I want. Which is why I think many people “go on” different diets and can rarely stick to one. A diet is NOT something one goes on or off of. A diet is a way of eating; a way of life. You do not go on a diet. A diet is what you eat. A diet is how you eat– forever. Yes, forever.
I love pasta, breads and all carbs so I refuse to eliminate these wonderful foods from my diet. Guess what? I am NOT fat. So therefore, it is not the carbs that make us fat. What makes us fat is really very simple – Its how much we eat, the way we cook what we eat, and our level of activity which makes us fat and has an impact on our weight and health.
Not a very complex idea. If you consume more calories than you burn off, you will gain weight. If you burn off more calories than you consume you will lose weight. It is as simple as that. Pure mathematics. Approximately 3,000 calories equals one pound. So to lose 1 pound of weight one must consume 3,000 less calories than one burns off over some period of time. Ideally one should never try to lose more than 2-3 pounds per week.
The way one cooks has a big impact on diet. If you fry food all the time, you will get fat. Frying adds a lot of extra calories. Instead of frying the food, oven bake it. Spray a little olive oil on the food, place it in the oven and there you go– you are now oven baking. You will eliminate a lot of unnecessary calories from your diet without eliminating the flavor. None of my recipes call for frying. No need to fry anything. Even with my eggplant parmigiana recipe I do NOT fry the eggplant. Rather I oven bake it. I promise you, you will not miss frying food.
Lastly, your level of activity does impact your weight. So the more activity you incorporate into your daily life, the more calories you will burn off.
So how can you incorporate the foods you love into your diet and still lose and/or maintain your weight is the real question. Stop frying foods, increase your level of activity and pay attention to the quantity of food you eat to help assure your calorie intake is not greater than the calories you burn off. If you do these three simple things you will lose and/or maintain your weight. So forget all these crazy diets – just use your common sense.
If you look at many of the recipes I have included in my blog, it has all kinds of foods in it – YES even carbs. Try some of my recipes out and let me know what you think about them. Most of all please remember – CARBS DO NOT MAKE YOU FAT.
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Business Etiquette
By DearGaby, on August 18th, 2009
I just cannot believe in this time and age people still don’t use proper cell phone etiquette. I was at a memorial service a few weeks ago. During the service, someone’s cell phone starts to ring, with one of those loud ring tones. I couldn’t believe it. Hey it’s 2009. This wasn’t a one time deal either. I am at exercise class someone’s cell phone starts to ring, or in the movie theatre and sure enough someone’s phone goes off. I can go on and on. The most unbelievable is when I am driving and I look at the car next to me and the person is texting. What is that about? When will that become illegal in the state of Florida and in every state in the US?
Some rules to remember:
Turn off your cell phone in Restaurants, Libraries, Meetings, Places of Worship,Movie theatres, Live performances, and the Gym. If you must have it on, put it in vibrate mode. If you need to answer a call, then step out since I and the others around you do not want to hear your conversation.
When driving, if you must use your cell phone, please use it hands free. Many states require this. Frankly this should be a law in every state.
Do NOT text when driving. It is extrmely dangerous. You can cause a serious accident.
Do NOT talk on the phone when riding your bycicle unless you are using the phone hands free.
Do NOT speak loudly. When you must answer the phone in public places, nobody wants to hear your conversation. Remember, do not hold inappropriate conversations either when speaking on your cell in a public place.
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Appetizers
By DearGaby, on August 2nd, 2009
I love eggplant parmigiana. It is one of my favorite things to eat. However, as you know it can be packed with calories: the eggplant is fried with breadcrumbs and packed with lots of cheeses. I have taken the classic eggplant parmigiana recipe and got rid of many of the calories. My version is not fried and breadcrumbs are used only on top. Although my version has less calories than the original, the flavor is wonderful. You won’t miss a thing except of course, the calories.
Ingredients
- 4 eggplants*cleaned, sliced and drained (see note below)
- 3/4 lbs fresh mozarella (thinly sliced)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano cheese
- a large bunch of fresh basil (washed and ready to use)
- 3-4 cups freshly prepared tomato sauce (or store bought)
- 2 tbs italian style bread crumbs
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 425° with oven racks placed in center of oven. Meanwhile, Pat the eggplant slices dry. Then on lightly oiled non stick baking pans, put the eggplant slices in a single layer in the pans. Light spray olive oil on the eggplant slices and place in oven for 6-8 minutes. Take the pans out, flip over the eggplant slices and lightly spray the eggplant with olive oil. Return to oven for another 6-7 minutes. Remove from oven then cool.
Once cool, take out a medium baking dish (I use pyrex) and lightly spoon some tomato sauce all over bottom of pan to prevent eggplant from sticking when cooking. Than layer as follows: eggplant slices slightly overlapping , than basil leaves (Make sure there is a leaf on each slice of eggplant) , than mozarella and parmigiana cheeses than a little tomato sauce just enough to cover. Repeat until baking dish is full. You should finish the top with a final layer of eggplant. On top, put more sauce, sprinkle some parmigiana cheese, add a few basil leaves and sprinkle some italian style bread crumbs on top. Salt and pepper to taste. (this can be done ahead of time. Cover and place in refrigerator if not cooking right away).
Preheat oven to 350°. Bake eggplant parmigiana in oven for 30-45 minutes or until sauce is hot and bubbly. Remove from oven and let it coolk for 15-20 minutes and serve with extra tomato sauce and cheese on the side. If you serve it right away, it could be liquidy. If it is, no worries, simply drain it before slicing it. Mangia!
*Note: Eggplants contain alot of liquid so you should extract as much of the liquid you can before using them in a recipe.First take sliced eggplant, sprinkle salt on the slices and put the slices on a platter with a heavy pot on top in order to extract the liquid. Let it sit for at least 2 hours. You will be amazed on how much liquid actually is removed from the eggplant. Do not skip this step or your eggplant parmigiana will be watery.
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Appetizers
By DearGaby, on July 9th, 2009
I love meatballs made with ground beef, pork, and veal. I usually make my meatballs with very lean (95% fat free) sirloin and ground turkey breast meat. However, I have friends who are vegetarian. So I needed to come up with a vegetarian version. I ultimately decided on using eggplant since it has such a meaty texture and I substituted that in my recipe for the meat. Everything else is the same. However, the meatballs made with eggplant are more fragile, so I cook them separately in a little tomato sauce and serve over pasta- These are soooo good, you may even opt to make these even if you are not a vegetarian.
Ingredients
- 3 eggplants, sliced, oven baked with a little olive oil at 450°F for 7 minutes on each side. Then put into a food processor for 1 minute or so to resemble the consistency of a ground meat.
- Egg Whites (equivalent of 1 egg)
- 1/3 cup Freshly Grated Parmigiano Cheese
- 2 cloves of fresh garlic finely minced
- 2 tbs of Fresh Flat Leaf Italian Parsley chopped
- 2 tbs of Pignoli Nuts (Pine Nuts)
- Day Old Bread (about 1/2 baguette per pound of ground meat), crusts removed, dried, and soaked in warm water; Squeeze the bread to remove the water and leave bread moist.
- Sea Salt to taste
- Ground pepper to taste
- Olive Oil
In a large bowl, combine the ingredients, 1 through 9, together, using your hands. Form into little meatballs about 2 inches in diameter. Heat up the olive oil in pan over medium heat. When the olive oil is hot, add the meatballs, turning occasionally in order to brown on all sides. Than lower heat, and cook meatballs for about 4 minutes more or until cooked all the way through. Freeze or serve with your favorite tomato sauce.
Note: You may also consider putting a small cube of mozarella cheese in the middle of the eggplant meatball before putting into the pan to cook. Follow instructions above for cooking. Serve with tomato sauce. Great as an appetizer.
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Healthy Recipes
By DearGaby, on July 9th, 2009
Beverages
By DearGaby, on July 9th, 2009
Healthy Recipes
By DearGaby, on June 18th, 2009
Quinoa is an amazing food. It is a whole grain that is also a complete protein: meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids. Quinoa is the seed of the plant (Chenopodium quinoa) which is related to spinach, chard and beets. Quinoa is great staple for vegetarians who need to increse their protein intake. Quinoa has the amino acid lysine, which is essential for tissue growth and repair. Cooked quinoa seeds are fluffy and creamy, yet slightly crunchy with a nutty flavor. In appearance it resembles couscous but is much more nuitritious. I use the light yellow color quinoa in my recipes. However, it comes in a variety of colors such as orange, pink, red, purple or black. Quinoa is cooked very much like long grain rice. You will need to add two parts liquid to one part quinoa. It takes only about 15 minutes or so to cook.
What I like most about this particular recipe is that it can all be made in one pot. That’s right- this recipe is a complete meal in one pot, making cleanup a breeze. I usually serve this during the week when I don’t have as much time to prepare a nuitritious meal.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups broth or water
- 2-3 cloves fresh minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 8-10 chopped sundried tomatoes
- Shrimp (24) cleaned and deveined
- 12 asparagus tips
- 1/4 cup fresh pesto
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
- toasted pignoli nuts (pine nuts)
- 2 green oinions cleand and finley chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Put the olive oil in the pot and heat up over medium heat. Add the garlic and sundried tomatoes. cook for 2 minutes. Add the broth or water and quinoa and cover pot. When liquid comes to a boil reduce the heat to low. Meanwhile, take the pesto and mix in the shrimp and put aside. After about 10 minutes or so of cooking open up the pot and add the shrimp and asparagus tips on top. Add more liquid if needed. Cover. Once the shrimp is done cooking (about 5-8 minutes). Turn off the heat. Add salt, pepper, fresh basil, green onions and pignoli nuts. Mix together and serve immediately. Serves 3-4 people.
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Main Dishes
By DearGaby, on June 18th, 2009
Yes- I love making timballos. They are simple and elegant. Great to serve for company. On Sundays, we have a traditional family dinner – Italian Style: we have plenty to eat, lots of wine to drink and enjoy sitting around the dining room table gossiping about anything and everything. Last Sunday, I was planning on grilling chicken breast with a pesto sauce. It was just my husband and I, so I didn’t need to do anything special. However, the night before, we received a phone call from family saying thet were flying into Miami and would love to visit with us. I realized after we hung up that I didnt have enough chicken to feed everyone for Sunday dinner. So I decided to make a timballo– Why not? I have made timballos before using Tuna – why not substitiute the tuna for the chicken with pesto and add sundried tomatoes . I already had the eggplant which I was going to use to make eggplant parmigiano. Sunday morning, I prepared the filling and baked the sliced eggplant. I then assembled my timballo and cooked it before my visitors arrived. This way I could serve it at room temperature. It was a hit. My visitors couldnt believe that I whipped up such an elegant meal with very little notice. The one thing I learned is making a timballo is a technique. One can stuff it with whatever ingredients they have on hand including leftovers. People love the timballo, it can be prepared and assembled ahead of time making entertaining easy.
For the shell you will need:
- 2 medium eggplants
- Olive Oil
- Sea Salt
For the filling you will need:
- 1 lb chicken breast (diced)
- 1 1lb calamari steaks (cut in 1 inch strips )
- 6 garlic cloves crushed (You can never have too much garlic)
- ¼ cup fresh basil pesto
- Toasted pignoli nuts (Pine nuts)
- Fresh basil enough to line pan
- Chopped sundried tomaotes enough to line pan
- 1/2 lb mozarella cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano cheese
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 eggs or substitute egg whites
You will also need freshly made tomato sauce (or store bought if you must) and some chopped fresh basil to serve on top.
Directions
First slice the eggplant, length wise in slices of ¼ inch.Sprinkle salt on them, weight down the eggplant and let sit for several hours to extract the liquid from the eggplant. Preheat oven to 375°F. Drain. Wipe off the salt, Spray eggplant with a little olive oil and bake on a non stick sheet in the oven @ 375°F for approximately 5 minutes on each side. Remove from oven. Let cool.
Let’s prepare the filling: Heat olive oil in sauté pan using medium heat. Add the garlic. Cook 1 minutes. Add chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes then add calamari, salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook about 15-20 minutes until cooked thru. then stir in fresh basil pesto. Set aside to cool in a glass bowl along with its juices. Once cool, add about half the mozarella cheese (diced), the parmigiano cheese, eggs or egg whites, pignoli nuts and mix with wooden spoon.
While chicken mixture is cooling take a non stick spring form pan lightly coated with live oil, and line eggplant slices along the bottom and let pieces hang over sides. Preheat the oven to 375ºF if you are going to cook right away. Now add a layer of fresh basil leaves on top of the eggplant. Than add the layer of chopped sundried tomatoes, and than a layer of mozarella cheese sliced thinly. Than put the chicken filling into spring form pan. Fold over the tops of the eggplant slices. You will need to add additional eggplant slices to cover the top completely. At this point you can cover and refrigerate if you are making this ahead.
Place into a preheated over (375ºF ) and bake for 30-40 minutes until completely heated through. Remove from oven. Let rest 30 minutes. While the timballo is resting, heat up the tomato sauce. Place a flat serving platter over the spring form pan and invert it onto the platter on it so now the timballo is upside down on the platter. Gently remove the spring form pan and you should have a nicely looking timballo. Sprinkle fresh chopped basil and serve with the tomato sauce. Serve with a nice Chianti. Mangia.
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