So we asked you guys via our Facebook Page what were some of your guilty indulgences. For most humans at some point in our lives we have all had certain foods that we ate because they just taste so damn good even though we know they are unhealthy. Mac and cheese definitely falls into that category. There are two kinds of mac and cheese in my mind, the first being the kind that came out of the blue box with powdered cheese. I'm pretty sure that cheese sauce had crack in it because it tasted so good, especially the spirals....but seriously, this is about one of the most processed foods you will find on a store shelf. Frankly, looking back I don't even know if I would call it food. The second version is the homemade version which is loaded with butter, cream, and cheese, not to mention the vehicle to consume said fat mixture is an enriched white flour noodle. Just in case that wasn't enough fat, I would usually throw some bacon into my version too. So the feat of "healthifying" this dish was going to be a tough one. I knew that I wasn't going to try to make a powder that somehow magically turned into cheese. So the other option was to try to recreate the base bechamel sauce that traditional mac and cheese is made from. Your traditional bechamel is made from fat and flour and it usually incorporates onion. In the case of mac and cheese, you also add cheese to it. I had heard of someone else making a cream sauce out of cauliflower before so I figured this would be the perfect time to try that out. I've done a cauliflower puree before, so this was simply making that a little thinner to resemble a bechamel sauce instead of mashed potatoes. So I've now got a creamy sauce but then I had to somehow infuse that sauce with a cheese flavor. Let me just start by saying actually cheese flavor is next to impossible to recreate but I feel this got close. So a lot of cheeses have a nutty taste to them along with a an obvious saltiness. Salt is the easy part, so for the nutty factor I used cashews that I had soaked in water for about 4 hours to soften them. Another ingredient that our friend Lindsay over at The Paleo Paramedic told me about was Nutritional Yeast. Nutritional yeast has a natural cheese like flavor. It is also a great source for your essential B vitamins, which if you live in the vegetarian or vegan world can be the toughest vitamins to acquire through food sources. So I added all of that to get it tasting like a cheese sauce...but that last elusive thing was giving it that cheese color. Tumeric to the rescue. Not only is tumeric a superfood but is also turns anything it touches yellow. So we've got a blob of cheesey like goodness which is actually really healthy for you but do you just drench regular noodles or at best whole wheat noodles in this sauce and call it a day? You certainly could and you would have a tasty dish...so if you want to stop right there, feel free. But to ultra-healthify this dish, why not find another vegetable that would resemble elbow macaroni. My brain ran the gamut of veggies trying to think of something that would resemble the texture and size of elbow macaroni. If you are following us or in the healthy eating community you have probably heard of Zoodles or noodles made out of zucchini. Typically, most people use a spiralizer or mandolin to cut zucchini into either a spaghetti or egg noodle like shape. I wasn't able to get that little curve in the noodle or make them hollow by just using a knife, but I cut zucchini into a 1/4" x 1/4" by 1" pieces so that it would resemble macaroni. What would some homestyle mac and cheese be without a topping, right??? So to add that crunch to the top of this dish I just added some crushed almonds that I combined with some dried parsley and oregano. Some possible modifications if you aren't looking for an ultra healthified mac and cheese option or you don't need to follow a vegan diet.
0 Comments
This soup was something we just threw together the other night as an attempt to eat something spicy to get baby moving a bit. The soup was delicious but didn't do it's job to help move along labor. You could certainly modify this to include whatever veggies you have in your house. We happened to have some swiss chard that we picked up from the farmer's market this past weekend so it worked out great.
It's been a while since we have done a Weird Veg Wednesday. My inspiration kicked in tonight with some portabello mushrooms that we had in the fridge along with some other ingredients that we had in the house. I've done stuffed portabellos before, I've done portabello fries, but this was a new adventure for me. The attempt was to turn a portabello mushroom into a taco shell. I'm happy to say IT WORKED!!! The rest of the dish was pretty simple beef taco meat using the homemade taco seasoning mix that we made a few months ago. The salsa was a roasted corn, black bean salsa. We topped it with a little guacamole and some cilantro and it made for a delicious taco. On side we made some Spanish rice with a little sauteed red onion and chili powder.
So, I hear a lot of time about how people don’t have the time to eat healthy and make the meals that I post. I know things change with kids involved and days get busy but honestly it just comes down to planning and your priorities. I would rather spend an hour in the kitchen making a nice meal that is good for me than an hour in front of the television. I’m probably a little strange because my days begin and end with food, that is all I can think about. I know that isn’t the case for everyone but it can be, you can change your habits, you can do things to make healthy cooking easier. I would love to help you if you are interested. So in full disclosure, I need to come clean on this recipe. I am guilty of concocting this in my head while in the middle of church last night instead of focusing wholeheartedly on the message. I would like to think I have a healthy obsession with food, but I’ll try to get my priorities straightened out. The good news is that I didn’t spend that time brainstorming this recipe and to have it be a dud. The steak was delicious but the quinoa risotto was the best I’ve ever made, no lie. It had a sweet and creamy factor to it that made it seem like there was a ton of butter and cream in it. Steak Roulade with Balsamic Mushroom Sauce
Acorn Squash Quinoa Risotto
#weirdvegwednesday was a pretty tasty creation this week. I’ll admit that we don’t love every new vegetable that we try…but when we started this, our goal was to step outside what we were comfortable with when it came to trying to new food. This week we made Stuffed Leeks. It was a play on manicotti but without the pasta and it was DELICIOUS. I took the tubes from the leeks and stuffed it with a chicken sausage. The sauce is lemon, caper, tomato, leek sauce. Garnished it with some parmesan and parsley. “You can learn a lot about a person by the food that they eat. Are they willing to take chances? Will you try new things and step outside of your comfort zone?” ~ An excerpt from Dan’s ebook that he hasn’t written yet ~ Chicken Sausage
Tomato, Leek, Lemon, Caper Sauce
Assembling Stuffed Leeks So when you get your leeks you will want to cut the a 4 inch section from the bottom. In order to get the leek “tubes” push in the middle of the leek. Make sure you push towards the green side of the leek as it is the wider side and it will come apart easier. You should be able to get 8-10 tubes from 3 large leeks. Once you have separated, clean the tubes by rinsing. Make sure you set aside the interior of the leek, as you will use that with the sauce. Make sure you clean this part of the leek also as leeks tend to be very sandy. Once you have your leek tubes, fill each with your sausage mixture. You should have enough sausage for 8 or so stuffed leeks. Arrange all of your stuffed leeks into a baking dish and top with your sauce. Bake for 35-45 minutes until sausage is cooked through. Garnish with some paremesan and chopped parsley.
I wish I could say that everything in this recipe was scratch made but in a pinch we opted for pre-made ravioli. If you choose to make your own ravioli please comment on how that version turns out. The sauce we made however was rich and delicious and paired perfectly with the ravioli. Hope you enjoy this wonderful fall dish!
So this is one of Laura’s favorites soups that she loves to buy in a can from time to time. This recipe was our version of the soup, not an exact representation but I tried to make it a little bit healthier using turkey sausage instead of pork and added kale instead of spinach. Also Laura loves hearty thick soups so she convinced me to add some quinoa to it to thicken it up. This was a great quick soup and made for great leftovers.
Laura and I love entertaining, so we recently had another couple come over and tried out a new recipe. One of the hardest things that we encounter when we entertain is being able to hang out with our guests and not spend the whole time in the kitchen over the stove. So with these dishes I tried to pick something that I could prep ahead of time or throw in the oven and forget about it.
Pork Tenderloin I prepped the two tenderloins by trimming off the fat and the silver skin. It is very important to remove the silver skin, otherwise it will be super chewy and ruin the piece of meat. Here is a link to show how to remove the silver skin, http://www.weber.com/weber-nation/prep-school/food-prep/pork__1/preparing-pork-tenderloins. Knowing that we were going to just roasting the tenderloin and not searing it I wanted make sure to brine it. To create the brine I dissolved 1 cup of salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. cracked peppercorns, 1 tsp garlic powder in roughly 4 cups of water. To dissolve you will need to bring the mixture to a boil briefly. Remove from heat, I had to cool it down fast so I added some ice to the mixture, otherwise you could let it stand for an hour or so. You don’t want to add a hot brine on top of your meat. I brined the tenderloin for 4 hours but you could do this the night ahead. To cook, place in a 425 degree oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing. Bacon, Fig, & Balsamic Sauce
Mushroom Risotto
Just in case you pick up on the different writing style I will just be up front…this is Laura’s husband, Dan. I thought about trying to trick you all and write this as if I’m Laura but I’m not good at being that cute and bubbly. Love you Laura! Last night we tried making a Roulade, which is just a piece of meat flattened out, stuffed with something and then rolled up. Pretty simple, right? So often people call us out for eating fancy food. I appreciate the compliments that come along with making "fancy" food but let me tell you now, I don’t have any formal training, I just like to experiment and have a general knowledge of what flavors tend to go together. A book that I refer to quite often is "The Flavor Bible", it has great info on how certain ingredients go together.
These were amazing, incredible, delicious….and so easy. They have a couple of my absolute favorite things: quinoa and sweet potatoes. I’ve made these before, but never with quinoa added and I loved the extra texture it gave…plus the sweetness of the sweet potato was pretty great! When I prep food at the beginning of the week it makes everything just go more smoothly and I feel so much more prepared. I guess “fail to plan, plan to fail” is actually true.
Last night while I was finishing up my workout my dear chef of a husband whipped up some flax/corn meal crusted walleye with a dill sauce, roasted brussel sprouts and corn on the cob. Recipe for the walleye is below!
This super easy salmon recipe was one of the first meals my hubby made for me when we first started dating….so it holds a special place in my heart We usually buy our salmon in bulk from Costco…I know, I know…it’s probably not wild caught. Get over it. Basically it’s store bought pesto spread over a piece of salmon and baked at 425 for about 20-25 minutes. The brussel sprouts are roasted at 425 for about 25 minutes as well. So the timing of it all works perfectly! With about 5 minutes left, throw a huge handful of spinach into a shallow sauce pan with some water to steam and put some pine nuts into a small pan to toast. Be careful with these…they’ll burn quickly! Our absolute favorite way to cook pretty much any veggie is by roasting it. Just drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, roast as above and BAM….even the person that hates every type of veggie will like them. Promise! |
The Cook & The CoachHealthy is a LIFESTYLE. Categories
All
Archives
November 2019
|