Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I've tried this recipe a couple of times now and each time, I love the twist the corn gives to this classic  winter recipe. It's healthy, low fat and yummy!

Ingredients:
Butternut squash, cubed - 6 cups
Roasted corn - 2 cups
Spring Onions - 4 stalks, diced
Garlic - 2 cloves
Salt, pepper - to taste
Olive oil - per preference
Spices - cumin, coriander powders - to taste

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread out the butternut squash evenly. Sprinkle salt and lace with olive oil. Sprinkle the diced spring onions evenly. 
3. Wrap the cloves of garlic in aluminum foil and place in a corner of the cookie sheet. 
4. Roast the squash, garlic and onions for about 30-45 minutes until the squash is tender.
5. If you have regular corn, roast it on stovetop while the squash is in the oven. An alternative is to buy frozen roasted corn and just defrosting it so its ready to be added to the squash later.
6. Once the squash is taken out of the oven, let it cool. Allow the garlic to cool and mince. 
7. In batches, add the squash, onions, garlic and corn to the blender until smooth consistency is achieved. 
8. You can now return the mixture to the pan on stovetop and add your spices or just have the soup as is. 
9. Another optional step is to bake croutons and add to top of soup before serving. 

Yummy, creamless soup that's perfect for a cold fall/winter night. 

Pumpkin Nut Bread

It's that time of the year again! With spooky cobwebs and creepy crawlies about, how about warm, tasty pumpkin bread to brighten your day? Easy to make, takes less than an hour from start to finish and tastes great!

I made this bread in mini pans, so I used 1/2 of the original measurements. The measurements shown here would fit a 9x5 loaf pan.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

1½ cups Whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup brown sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup applesauce
1/2 Cup egg substitute
¼ cup water (optional)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Coat the inside of a 9"x5" inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
3. Mix together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda in a large pan and set aside.
4. Mix the pumpkin puree, oil (optional), egg substitute, water, and spices thoroughly. Combine your wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, mixing lightly. Fold in the nuts and pour the batter into your prepared pan.
5. Bake for about 40 -50 minutes. Check by inserting a toothpick or knife in the center of the loaf. It should come out clean.

Let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Who doesn't like pancakes? especially if they are whole grain/whole-wheat and heart healthy?? No excuses, there! Here's a quick and easy recipe for a yummy breakfast!

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - ¾ cup

Flaxseed meal - 2 tbsp

Rolled oats- 2 tbsp

Unsweetended apple sauce - ½ cup

Egg substitute - 1 cup

Baking soda - ½ tsp

Semi-sweet Chocolate chips – 2 tbsp

Brown sugar - 1 tbsp

Fat Free Milk - 1 cup

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in a big bowl and whisk until fully blended. Set aside for about 30 minutes

2. Heat a skillet on medium heat

3. Pour 1/4 cup of batter on to the skillet and cover with lid

4. After about 60-70 seconds, flip them and cook for another 30 seconds before taking them off the skillet.

5. Serve with maple syrup

Makes about 9 pancakes at 95 calories each!

I made my own syrup by heating about 5 tbsp of brown sugar with 1 cup water - simmer until thickened. Add vanilla extract or maple extract (as desired) and stir well. Be cautious while using the syrup as it can be pretty hefty in calories, depending on usage.

Grilled Vegetables

This is a really healthy lunch/dinner recipe. If you like veggies, but don't like them raw, this is a better way of cooking them instead of boiling (boiling loses nutrients in the process). You can use any vegetables in this recipe, I have used this combination of veggies to balance out the nutrients.

Ingredients:

Carrots: Vitamin A, K, Potassium, Niacin, Thiamin, Folate, fiber

Red Peppers: Vitamins A, B6, C, E, K, Folate, Niacin, Thiamin

Sweet Potatoes: Vitamins A, B6, C, Potassium, Fiber, Manganese

Potatoes: Carbs, Vitamins C, B6, Potassium

Zucchini: Vitamins C, A, protein and fiber

Olive Oil: 3 tbsp

Oregano: 1/4 tsp

Thyme: 1/4 tsp

Basil: 1/4 tsp

Rosemary: 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees
2. Cut all vegetables and put them in a large bowl.
3. Add the olive oil and spices and toss them well
4. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and scoop the veggies onto the sheet. Close the foil to form a pouch
5. Bake the veggies for about 20-30 minutes
6. After you remove the cookie sheet from the oven, cut a hole into the foil and let all the steam out. Be very careful as you can burn yourself with the steam.
7. Squeeze lemon juice on the veggies and serve.

Notes: I marinated the veggies for about 6 hours before I grilled them.

Hearty Vegetable Stew

Here's an all-weather recipe that's never boring!

Ingredients:

Zucchi

ni - 1/2 cup, diced

Cabbage - 1/4 cup, shredded

Carrots - 1/4 cup, diced small

Red Peppers - 1/4 cup, diced small

Spring Onion - 1 stalk, diced

Celery - 1/2 cup, diced small

Roma Tomatoes - 2, diced

Kidney Beans - 1 can, washed

V8 vegetable juice (low sodium) - 8 oz can

Garlic (minced) - 1/2 tsp

Oregano - 1/3 tsp

Thyme - 1/3 tsp

Basil - 1/3 tsp

Celery Salt - to taste

Black Pepper - to taste

Ground Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Water or Vegetable Stock - 4 cups

Method:

1. Heat a large saucepan and add a tablespoon of Olive oil.
2. Add spring onions and garlic and sautee. Once the onions are translucent, add the tomatoes and V8 juice.
3. Add all spices, cover and simmer
4. After about 2 minutes, add the vegetables, stock or water and simmer for 20 minutes
5. Add kidney beans and more water, if necessary. Cover and cook for another 20-30 minutes.
6. Once vegetables are done, simmer on low heat for another 15 minutes.
7. Serve with bread or crostini

This is a fat-free stew, heart healthy and meant to be a meal by itself. This recipe should easily serve 2-3 people

Radiant Radish Juice

B & I recently turned to juicing to improve our overall health and lifestyle. It's going great, we are now up to 2 cups of juice every day now... We hope you will benefit from this wonderful lifestyle too!

Ingredients:

Radishes - 2 whole (include greens if you want)

Celery - 2 stalks

Apples - 2 (optional)

Grapes - 14 (optional)

Method:

1. Turn on juicer to high setting and add all vegetables until done.
2. You can either add apple juice or grape juice or cranberry juice, depending on your taste preference.

Juice is always best consumed fresh. This recipe serves 2 people

Healthy Cookies

As part of a recent celebration, I baked these cookies, with my usual substitutions, of course!

I used the same basic recipe, but changed the raisins and walnuts for chocolate chips to create some variety.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 3/4 cup

Rolled oats: 3/4 cup

Ground Flax meal: 2 tbsp

Baking soda: 1/2 tsp

Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

Egg substitute: 1/3 cup

Ground Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp

Applesauce (unsweetened): 1/4 cup

Brown Sugar: 1/2 cup

Olive Oil: 2 tbsp

Salt: A pinch

Raisins: 1/4 cup (for oatmeal raisin cookies)

Chopped walnuts: 1/4 cup (optional)

Semisweet Chocolate chips: 1/4 cup (for chocolate chip cookies)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line and spray a cookie sheet with oil
3. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, brown sugar and egg substitute and beat it till the sugar is dissolved
4. Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and combine.
5. Combine with wet ingredients while making sure they are mixed thoroughly. Once you have a sticky paste, add the raisins and nuts (for oatmeal raisin) or the chocolate chips (for chocolate chip cookies) and make sure they are incorporated well
6. Spoon the dough onto the cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes

I baked about 10-12 cookies of each type. It was delicious - not much to look at, mind you, but tasted heavenly! AND, it is much healthier and low-fat than the regular ones!!

Happy Baking!

Chickpea Salad

This is a healthy snack in between meals or can be taken as a light meal by itself. Full of good protein, this salad is a keeper!

Ingredients: (serves 2)

Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans): 1 can - rinsed and washed

Soy chunks: 1 cup

Oregano: 1 tsp

Basil: 1 tsp

Thyme: 1 tsp

Cumin: 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Make sure the can of chickpeas is washed thoroughly so all the preservatives are removed.

2. Boil water and add soy chunks. Once they are soft, remove and squeeze all the water out of the chunks

3. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well.

This recipe is worth approximately 225 calories per serving.

Linguine alla Marinara

A simple linguine recipe for a weekday night. It takes about 20 minutes including prep time!

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

Linguine Pasta: 8 oz

Fire roasted tomatoes: 1 can

Spinach: 1 cup

Garbanzo beans: 1 can (washed)

Basil

Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

Method:

1. Boil water in a stockpot and add salt. Once the water is boiling, add pasta until it is al dente

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a saute pan

3. Add the can of Fire roasted tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme and rosemary and simmer.

4. Add spinach and garbanzo beans to the pan

5. After about 5 minutes, you can add the pasta directly to the sauce.

6. Toss the pasta with tongs to make sure it is well coated.

Serve with grated cheese on top (optional)

Without cheese, this recipe is about 650 calories per serving.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Halloween was just here and what would it be without pumpkin??? So here's a recipe that I tried and that everyone loved! It's also healthier and low fat!

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Puree - 1 small can (15 oz) - make sure it has no sugar added

Fat free milk - 2.5 - 3 cups (depending on how many bread slices you are using)

Egg substitute - 3/4 cup

Dark Brown Sugar (with Molasses) - 1 cup

Ground Cinnamon - 3/4 tsp (you can add more depending on your love of cinnamon)

Ground Ginger - optional - 1/2 tsp

Whole Wheat Bread - 6-10 cups (10-15 slices)

Dried Cranberries - 1/4 CUP

Raisins - 1/4 cup

Walnuts - 1/4 cup

Dried Blueberries - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Kahlua French Vanilla - 3-5 tsp (depending on taste) - if you want to go alcohol free, use 2 tsp of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Empty the can of pumpkin puree into a large bowl. Add the milk, egg substitute, brown sugar, spices, salt, kahlua (or vanilla extract) and whisk until smooth.

2. Tear the bread slices into small cubes and add to bowl.

3. Add dried fruits and nuts

4. Fold ingredients gently and set aside for 10-15 minutes.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F while waiting for the mixture to soak

6. Transfer ingredients to a 9 x 13 baking dish and bake in the oven for about an hour to 90 minutes.

7. Take the dish out and let cool.

8. Serve with fat-free vanilla ice cream and cinnamon on top.

This recipe serves about 10-15 people

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Healthy version of the popular all-time favorite soup!! Broccoli is rich in Vitamins A, K and C and is said to prevent cancer. So, eat up!!!

This recipes serves 2

Ingredients:

Broccoli florets : 3-4 cups

Milk : 2 cups

Water or Vegetable broth : 2 cups

Other vegetables (optional) : 1 cup

Cheese : 1 cup

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Boil broccoli and other vegetables of your choice in water until tender.

2. Transfer them to the food processor and whisk for about 2 minutes, until you have a smooth paste. Add water or vegetable broth (from boiling the veggies earlier) to loosen up the consistency.

3. Transfer the paste back to the soup pot and stir in rest of the vegetable broth.

4. Add milk to the soup pot, while constantly stirring the broccoli mixture. Make sure the setting is turned to low heat (to prevent curdling).

5. Add cheese (any cheese is ok, as long as it melts) to the mixture and keep stirring.

6. Simmer on low for about 5-7 minutes, stirring at equal intervals.

7. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve

Note:

I used 1% milk while making this soup. You can use 2% milk or skim - but if you use skim, lessen the amount of water or vegetable broth to maintain the thick consistency of the soup.

As for cheese, you can use any cheese that melts easy - Velveeta, mozzarella or in my case, I used Laughing Cow Low fat Swiss cheese wedges - I used 3 wedges.

Cold Pasta Salad

How many times have you gotten stuck with this question? - "what do I make for lunch or dinner?" Several times, I should think! 

I was wondering about the same thing, yet again, today. And then, I stumbled upon some left over boiled pasta in the fridge. That's how this recipe came about - with left overs from the fridge!

Note: Please feel free to substitute the vegetables in this recipe with any left over veggies or any frozen ones that you may have!

Ingredients:

Boiled pasta (any kind - I used Rotini) 2 cups

Garbanzo beans (canned) 1 can = 2 cups

Frozen Broccoli 1 cup

Frozen Pepper strips 1 cup

Tomatoes 2 (diced)

Onions 1/2 (thinly sliced - long)

Salt To taste

Pepper To taste

Olive Oil 1 tbsp

Lemon/Lime juice 1 tbsp

Moroccan Seasoning 1/2 tsp

Dried Thyme 1/2 tsp

Dried Basil 1/2 tsp

Dried Oregano 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Thaw all frozen veggies and set them aside

2. Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl and toss them until all of them are evenly coated.

3. Refrigerate the salad until the time of meal.

You can prepare the pasta salad up to a day in advance. 

 

Achiote Vegetables

This was a recipe that was shown on PBS

1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 cloves
garlic
salt
achiote paste

Blend all these ingredients in a food processor and pour over vegetables/tofu to marinate.

In the meantime, make red onion relish in a separate bowl using the following ingredients and set aside

Thinly sliced red onion - 1
Habanero peppers - deseeded and sliced thinly
fresh lime juice - 1 lime
salt


Pour the marinated veggies into a pan and sautee.
Add cooking rum to the pan (very little, optional) and cook till the flames die down.

Serve on a plate with a side of onion relish

Pesto Pizza (healthy)

The reason this home made variety of the popular dish is healthy is because of the low salt pizza sauce/spread, you control the amount of cheese that goes on the pizza and this is an excellent way to get your daily portion of veggies as well!

Ingredients:

Basil Pesto or Sun Dried Tomato Pesto 1/2 cup
Whole wheat pizza crust Store Bought
Part Skim Low Moisture Mozzarella 1 cup
Frozen Veggies 1 cup
Spinach- shredded 1 cup
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) 3 tsp
Salt, red pepper flakes to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Baste the top and bottom of the pizza crust with EVOO.
3. Use the basting brush to spread the pesto sauce evenly on to the top side of the pizza crust.
4. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of part skim mozzarella onto the pizza crust.
5. Spread out the veggies and shredded spinach on top of the cheese
6. Sprinkle some salt, red pepper flakes (optional) and the rest of the mozzarella cheese on top of the veggies
7. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, while constantly keeping an eye to make sure it does not overcook or burn.
8. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 2-3 minutes. Use a pizza cutter and cut it into 6-8 pieces and serve.

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients:

Sun Dried Tomatoes (store bought) 5 oz
Mint leaves (fresh) 5-7 sprigs
Garlic - minced 1/2 tsp
red pepper flakes/paprika as required
salt and pepper to taste
Almonds 10

Method:

1. Soak the sun dried tomatoes in hot water for 10 minutes to soften them.
2. In the food processor, add all ingredients and chop them into fine pieces.
3. Add some of the soaking water and grind them to a paste.
4. The paste should be thick for spreads and of medium consistency for dips.

I use this as a pizza spread and the pizza tastes really yummy :)