Healthy Choices Archives | Page 2 of 4

Peach, Ricotta and Basil Pizza

August 27, 2015 By Karen

Hello! I know you haven’t seen me here much these last few months, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been in my kitchen. I’ve said it before: it’s my happy place. My oasis. When there’s nonsense going on, I retreat to the place where nothing can go wrong, and where I can get a few minutes of solitude. Okay, maybe you are looking at that last sentence and thinking, “But everything can go wrong in the kitchen!” Sure, flour can be spilled, dough can be too sticky, crust can get burned, but really, is it the end of the world? No. Is it a disaster? Never. Unless you’re slicing a digit and bleeding all over the place, or burning yourself on a hot pan (all things I can proudly say I’ve done, more than once,) mistakes in the kitchen aren’t tragic. So just take a deep breath and embrace the fact that you can be creative, you can feed yourself and people you care about wholesome food, and it’s going to taste damn good in the end. Oh, and that solitude? Sometimes it happens, and pushing dough to the edges of a pan is meditative, and other times I’ve got whining kids cranking out saying they’re hungry, or that their brother was mean. But truthfully, just being in the kitchen calms me down, and my reactions are kinder there.

So what have I been cooking? I’ve made 9 pizzas in the last seven days. Yes, nine. Four had peach, basil and homemade ricotta, two were avocado, corn and basil, a pesto pepperoni and a standard pepperoni, and then one with garlic oil, figs, mozzarella, Maldon sea salt and a splash of balsamic. I just got on a kick, and I can’t seem to stop. Here’s the thing: pizza is really easy. It’s one of those tricks, that once you learn how to do it, you wonder why you never did it before. And you can throw anything you want on top, and most of the time it works. This week, they all worked. And they worked so well that I just kept repeating them.

I’ve been making my own dough for a few years now. I’ve tried tons of recipes, but my all time favorite is from the cookbook and blog, Dinner: A Love Story, by Jenny Rosenstrach. Her recipe is pretty much Jim Lahey’s no-knead dough recipe, and it’s a winner….

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sour and Hot Mushroom Tofu Soup

May 19, 2015 By Karen

It’s been a while since I updated you on the cooking club I participate in. I wrote a general “how-to” guide for cooking clubs, I told you about our inaugural Israeli night, I shared the Apple Cider Rum Punch from the Caribbean dinner, and I filled you in on Indonesia by way of an Avocado Shake with Kahlua and Godiva Liqueur. But there have been three others that I’ve kept you waiting on! While Mexico and Greece are on standby, I’d like to catch you up on our incredible Chinese meal and let you know about one of my new favorite cookbooks.

In order to expand my options in the kitchen lately, I keep ordering new cookbooks at the library and actually (shockingly!) cook out of them. But after years of collecting cookbooks for the sake of collecting, I have become much more selective. If I find one I really like, that I am willing to make a permanent space for on my bookshelf, I go ahead and buy it. This is one of those books. Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to study at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in central China, and while not a native Chinese cook, she has become a prominent cookbook author. Her latest book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking is easy to follow, filled with healthy recipes and beautiful photographs that show food you’ll want to cook on a regular weeknight basis. Experimenting with Chinese cooking was on my to-do list, but this book pushed me to finally do it. It’s a perfect introductory book, and I can’t recommend it enough. (Full disclosure, the link is an affiliate link. It doesn’t mean you’ll be charged any extra, it’s just that I’ll get a few pennies to buy an extra mushroom or two if you purchase anything after clicking through.)

The one thing to know is that you will need to pick up a few specialty ingredients for your pantry, but once you have them you’ll be prepared to throw together quick and easy meals that will beat Chinese take-out ten times over. It will be healthier, more flavorful, cheaper, and can be made in less time than it takes to place an order and get it. That’s definitely true of her Spicy Buckwheat Noodles, her Sweet and Spicy Cold Noodles (which I’ve already made at least half a dozen times!,) and her Spicy Sesame Noodles, which all can be made in the same amount of time it takes to make boxed mac and cheese. Seriously. They’re incredible. But admittedly, for a girl who’s definition of soy sauce was the low sodium bottle from Trader Joe’s, I had some shopping to do to stock my pantry. I was lucky though to have a Taiwanese friend take me on a tour of our local new Asian grocery store, and after 90 minutes of wandering the aisles, I was ready to go. If you don’t have the same resources near you, remember you can always find ingredients online. Don’t let your location stop you!

Vinegar and Soy Sauces: Fuchsia Dunlop's Sour and Hot Mushroom Tofu Soup is a healthy, lighter version of a Chinese take-out favorite. With four types of mushrooms, it's hearty enough as its own meal, or the perfect compliment to a feast. It's comforting and impressive, and this large batch will leave you with plenty to freeze for future bowls. | www.tastyoasis.net

If you can’t find ingredients locally, Amazon carries them! Just click on the photo.

Which brings me back to the recipe that I chose for cooking club: Fuchsia Dunlop’s Hot and Sour Mushroom Tofu Soup….

Quick Tip: Roasting Green Beans

April 13, 2015 By Karen

I just wanted to pop in with another quick tip that might be obvious to some, but a revelation to others. Roast your green beans! I know, everything on this site seems to be about roasting: Roasted Broccoli, Roasted Honeynut Squash with Za’atar and Pomegranate Molasses, Roasted Peaches with Basil and Ricotta, Spice-Crusted Roasted Salmon.) But it’s only because roasting is one of the easiest ways to cook delicious food, and it’s healthy. So it’s time for roasting green beans!

It seems ridiculous to even write a recipe for this, because as with all vegetables you’re pretty safe if you just spread them out on a baking sheet, with lots of space between them, and toss with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and stick them in a hot oven, tossing occasionally. 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, and you are good to go.

*Oh, and the bear up top? My big kid got to take Paddington home over the weekend and document his adventures. He helped with these green beans, so he got to have his own photo shoot with the results….

Cardamom Almond Matzoh Brei

April 6, 2015 By Karen

On Friday night, the first night of Passover, I sat at the kitchen table reading two children’s books to my little guys about the holiday. The stories tell of traditions that have been passed down from one generation to the next, and reflect what my world looked like growing up, but not what it is now. I’m very aware that the families in these books don’t look like my family, and I wonder about the message my own kids take from these illustrations. It’s a conversation I could probably have with my 8 year old at some level, but I haven’t yet. It makes me think about writing a new book.

This is what the cardamom seeds look like from the pod, before they are ground.

Instead, while they nibbled on crumbling pieces of matzoh slathered in salted butter, I read them the story of …

Quick Tip: Freezing Ginger

March 26, 2015 By Karen

Just a quick tip for you all today, because my brain and time has been otherwise occupied, and lately my kitchen has been the scene of studying more than anything else. Which means I have been all about easy meals and shortcuts, and I thought some of my tricks might be worth sharing. And I realized that while this might seem obvious to some, maybe it hasn’t crossed your radar yet: You can freeze ginger!

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to buy fresh ginger for a recipe, or to throw into a stir-fry, and I tend to have more than I need. And it ends up shriveling in my crisper drawer into a freakish looking fuzzy mess, and I have to toss all the extra that I wasted. And of course, I then need it for something else, and I’m mad. So the solution is simple: when you buy your ginger, simply peel it all at once, chop it into different size pieces (some big, some small) and toss it in a Ziploc freezer bag and store it in the freezer. Obvious, right? (Except that for years it wasn’t obvious to me at all.)And you can then use that frozen ginger straight from the freezer. Just grate it using a microplane, or let it thaw for a bit in some room temperature water, or throw it in your Green Smoothie as is. (Which is what I did this morning in the picture below. My smoothie turned a bit darker because I added some blackberries and carrots to it, but the shining star was the cube of frozen ginger that got blended up with the spinach, banana and yogurt. It was ridiculously good. Trust me: add ginger to your smoothies.)

And when I take a break from studying, I’ll put together a post on how else to use your ginger. I’ve got a hot and sour mushroom soup recipe that I made for our cooking club a couple of weeks ago that is going to make you look at what you get from Chinese take-out in a whole new way. In the meantime, back to the books…..

Korean Chili Honey Sauce and Grilled Chicken ( 3 Ingredients in Under 20 Minutes!)

March 20, 2015 By Karen

I get so tired of my own cooking. I know I’ve said this before, so forgive me, but how many times can I feed my family turkey burgers or pasta? But normally, when I’m in a rush, I know I can knock those out with no thinking in 20 minutes, and it will be good enough. Will it be wild and exciting? No. Will it satisfy everyone at the table? Yes. But I am so BORED of it. And truthfully, so are they.

So even though I have been distracted with all the baking and sweets lately, I’ve been pushing myself to incorporate new flavors into our standard repertoire. The easiest way I’ve been doing that is by stocking my fridge and pantry with a selection of random ingredients from different cuisines. Za’atar from the spice markets of Israel improves all roasted vegetables, dried pasilla chilies from the mexican grocery story make for an amazing tortilla soup, and light and dark soy sauces and Chinkiang vinegar have brought chinese cooking into my home this week. And when I went to a new Korean store that opened up near a job I was on a couple of weeks ago, I brought home this Gochujang (Korean chili paste) that just makes everything taste sweet and spicy and fantastic.

A few years ago I bought a container of Gochujang for a specific recipe I was making, and that container sat in the door of my refrigerator for an embarrassingly long time. I would toss a spoonful into chilies and soups, or use it as part of a sauce on a stir-fry. It always reminded me of going to my favorite Korean restaurant in Manhattan on 32nd Street and ordering Bibimbap in a Hot Stone Pot. (Isn’t that fun to say? It’s almost as fun as eating this mixed rice dish with ground meat, vegetables and a freshly cracked egg on top that sizzles from the heat of the pot that it is served in, all tossed with Gochujang.) But even I am leery of cooking with something that has been opened for YEARS, and so I hit the new store on my lunch break with a plan in mind. I wondered the aisles and finally found the one with this prime ingredient. But of course, as luck would have it, there had to have been at least 15 different varieties of this red pepper and soybean paste that is so fundamental to Korean cooking. So being resourceful, I tracked down a little old woman who was also shopping and through a comical series of gestures (seeing we didn’t speak a common language,) she selected the brand I photographed above and made it clear that this was the best of the bunch. Honestly, I am not sure if I would have known the difference between the many options, but I can tell you that I love it.

I got home that night and I threw together this Korean Chili Honey Sauce and tossed it on a big bowl of vegetables, and immediately knew that it was going to be a game changer. I played around with proportions, and what I came up with is my happy place where sweet and spicy meet. The sauce alone takes all of 3 minutes, and you can put it on ANYTHING. Just hot water, Gochujang, and honey, it is packed with flavor and will brighten up whatever quick and healthy dish you have going on. Equally fitting for carnivores or vegans, your options are endless. …

Healthy Green Smoothie with Spinach, Kale and Banana

March 13, 2015 By Karen

My family loves a good ritual, and I find comfort in traditions that remind me to take time out of my everyday nonsense and reflect on where I am, how I’ve gotten here, and who has filled my heart along the way.

My brother Brian’s birthday was St. Patrick’s Day, and when we were little we always celebrated with Shamrock shakes. They were a special green treat, and I always looked forward to the trip to McDonald’s for that cold and creamy drink that went so perfectly with hot and salty fries.

Tuesday will be the 30th anniversary of a different birthday tradition though. Every March 17th since I was 9 years old, I have celebrated my brother’s birthday with six green helium-filled balloons: one for him, one for my mom, one for my dad, one for my brother Andrew, one for my abuelita Julita, and one for me. The people who loved my brother the most. But these balloons aren’t headed for a party; they’re headed for the sky….

Three Bean Turkey Chili

March 7, 2015 By Karen

I was pretty happy when the phone rang Wednesday night declaring a snow day. We’d already decided that if the call came, it was my turn to stay home with the kids, and I was pretty psyched about it. Granted, as a freelance interpreter that means I would lose 8 hours of income, but staying in my pajamas all day cuddling, cooking and baking seemed like the perfect bright spot for my week. Sure enough, the kids climbed in the bed Thursday morning, and under the fluffy white comforter we finished the graphic novel we had been reading together, El Deafo, by Cece Bell. It’s a memoir about a little girl losing her hearing at 4 years old, what it was like going to school with a giant hearing aid, feeling like an outsider, imagining herself as a superhero, and finally finding her way. It just won the Newberry Honor Award (that should tell you how good it is!), and we absolutely loved it. It appealed to the 8 year old and the 39 year old equally, and even the 4 year old got something out of it. If you don’t have experience with graphic novels, please pick this up. The words written are touching, but the drawings bring the story to life. I am in awe of such talent.

Once our little book club ended, we headed down to the couch and watched the ever colorful Jungles episode of Planet Earth, escaping the snow that was turning everything white outside our windows. Of course, that lead to the a request for Frozen….because, you know, it’s Thursday. So with TV as a babysitter (way to go, Mom!), I got my chance to finally make and photograph this Three Bean Turkey Chili for you all….