Healthy Alfredo

I love carbs. And I would probably eat pasta every single day if I could; however I know that I should probably vary my diet a little bit more than only eating pasta. As far as foods go, pasta can only be so healthy, since its often processed, but you can make healthier pasta choices. Try whole wheat pasta instead of white pastas, try fresh made pasta, or make your own. The less processed, and the more natural ingredients the better. For this recipe any kind of pasta will do, whether its wheat flour or rice flour pasta, they're all delicious!

As for the Alfredo sauce, again it can only be so healthy. This recipe is toned down from traditional recipes, in that it doesn't use butter or cream, but the variety of spices I use really don't make you feel like you're missing anything. This recipe also has no added salt, and tons of vegetables, so its at least got some nutritional elements!

Alfredo Sauce:
1/3 c onion, minced
1/2 c red pepper, chopped
4-6 mushrooms, chopped
1/3 cup ham (or shrimp or any other kind of meat you want)
1/8 c flour or corn starch (for thickening)
1/2 - 3/4 c skim milk
2 tbsp low fat or fat free cream cheese
1/4 c white wine (optional)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
pepper to taste
1 tsp dried oregano or 2-3 fresh leaves chopped fine
1 c loosely packed spinach, chopped
4-5 basil leaves, minced
1 tbsp parmesean cheese (optional)
3-4 stalks green onion, diced
2/3 small tomato, diced


1) In a large saucepan, heat a small amount of olive oil. Add onions and red pepper. Cook on medium to high heat until onions begin to become translucent. Add ham and mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes until ham has started to brown.
2) Reduce heat to medium-low and add flour. Quickly mix to ensure vegetables and meat are thoroughly coated. Add garlic, nutmeg, paprika and pepper.
3) Add milk, wine, cream cheese & parmesean and cook until thickened. If it does not thicken up, you made need to add a bit more flour (do so tiny bits at a time)
4) Add basil, oregano and spinach, and cook until spinach is soft.
5) Cook pasta as per directions on package.
6) Serve pasta with raw green onions and raw tomatoes as garnish with pepper and additional parmesean.

No Bake Energy Bars

I love having easy food to snack on, and am a bit of a sucker for granola bars. So many commercial granola bars are full of sugar hard to pronounce ingredients, so I scoured the internet for recipes, and then expanded on many of them in order to make something delicious & nutritious for myself. Healthy doesn't have to mean bland and tasteless, and everyone (no matter what diet you are on!) deserves a bit of a treat sometimes, so this recipe does include chocolate, but it can easily be omitted if you feel the need (although there is tons of research out there suggesting a bit of chocolate is actually good for the heart) and I strongly believe that if nothing else, chocolate is good for the soul.

No Bake Energy Bars
1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup nut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 cup flax seed
1/3 cup bran flakes or wheat germ
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like almonds, macadamias and pecans)
2 tbsp chia seeds

1/4 cup hemp hearts

1/8 - 1/4 cup hemp protein powder 
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

2 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)


1) In large bowl mix  honey, nut butter and vanilla (I suggest using a silicone spatula)
2) Add in all dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a large baking dish and flatten.
3) Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
4) Cut into squares and enjoy!

The other option is to shape the batter into balls and roll in coconut or cocoa powder for bite sized energy to go! 

This recipe lasts well for upwards of two weeks if covered in the refrigerator. (That is if you don't eat them all right away!)

Caprese Zucchini Boats

Zucchini is a wonderful vegetable. The peel is high in dietary fiber, which is great for keeping you regular. Its also handy at helping to moderately lower cholesterol and since its very low in calories (only about 15 cals per 100g!!), its a great food to eat to help promote weight loss. Zucchini is also high in folate, which is great for pregnant women, since folate is very important for the brain and spine of growing babies. Its also contains lots of Vitamin A, and Vitamin C, which is an excellent anti-oxidant. Vitamin C is also great at helping to boost the immune system. Now you might say that zucchini is bland, and squishy and boring, but that'e one of the best parts about it! Since its so bland, it will take on the flavour of whatever you put on it! We love to make zucchini "boats" by hollowing out the middle, chopping it up, adding some other delicious elements and voila! You have a fancy-shmancy side dish to any meal! Between my husband and I we usually split one zucchini, but you can easily cut it in half once cooked! We do many variations, and you can certainly try adding different spice combinations or other vegetables, but our all time favourite is a 'Caprese Zucchini Boat', we call it that because its modeled after a Caprese salad.

Caprese Zucchini Boat
This recipe is good for 2-4 people

1 whole zucchini
1 small mushroom
1/2 small tomato, chopped into small pieces
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh basil leaves (or about 1/2 - 1 tsp dried basil)
pepper to taste

Cheese - grated (my favourite is goat cheese, but if you want to stay true to Caprese salads, you should use fresh mozzarella, my husband however prefers smoked Gouda, but whatever cheese you like will be wonderful)

1) Cut the ends off of the zucchini, then cut the zucchini in half lengthwise
2) Using a small spoon, hollow out the centre of the zucchini
3) Finely chop the insides of the zucchini, the mushroom, the tomato and the basil, mince garlic and mix all together, with pepper as desired.
4) Stuff mixed vegetables and spices into hollowed out zucchinis.
5) Top each zucchini boat with cheese as desired
6) Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or until zucchini is soft and cheese has fully melted. (NB: I sometimes nuke my zucchinis for about 2-3 minutes before stuffing them to cut down on my cook time if I`m in a rush, - which lets be honest happens to the best of us! I then bake for only about 10 minutes)

These are our zucchini boats, mine is inside the tinfoil only because my wonderful husband has an issue with goat cheese and doesn't want it anywhere near his dinner.

Swicky Ribs

"Swicky" is a term that one of my younger brothers coined many years ago. It stands for sweet and sticky, which is an adolescents way of saying delicious.

I had a question the other day if ribs could be considered "clean eating", and my answer was why not! When we get ribs we make sure to get back ribs instead of side ribs, since they tend to have a lower fat content. The other trick is to boil them before broiling them, this helps to break down any connective tissue, gets most of the fat out of them and most importantly makes them fall off the bone tender. The other part of keeping them "clean" is not dousing them with boat loads of fats, salts and sugars. We make a (delicious in my mind!!) Homemade BBQ Sauce to put on them, don't add any extra oils or salt, and serve it with vegetables (my faves the pair with ribs are steamed green beans, asparagus, broccoli and sweet potato, but you can do whatever you want. I mostly steam my veggies to keep as many nutrients in them as possible, and don't add butter or oil to them. I add a dash of nutmeg and cayenne pepper to my sweet potatoes instead of butter and brown sugar like I see in so many recipes).

Ribs
1 rack back ribs
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp dill seed
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp chili powder
pepper (to taste)

BBQ Sauce

1) Take the back ribs and trip of any large fat visible on the outside of the rack.
2) In a large, deep pot add the ribs, spices and enough water to cover the ribs completely. Cover with a lid.
3) Bring pot to a boil and turn down the heat to low (but maintaining a boil). Let the ribs boil for ~2-3 hours.
4) Preheat oven to 425 (when the ribs are almost done boiling)
5) Once the ribs are cooked, carefully take them out of the pot and lay them in casserole dish. Cover with BBQ sauce, starting with the bottom (less meaty side) first, flip and cover top with remaining sauce. Cover dish and bake for 15 minutes
6) Reduce heat to 350, uncover and broil for 5-10 minutes or until tops start to brown and crisp.
7) Serve with your favourite healthy veggies!

Homemade BBQ Sauce

This recipe tastes a lot like commercial barbecue sauce (better in my opinion) but without a long list of ingredients you can't pronounce. I know this recipe isn't perfect, and certainly there are better cleaner versions, but I'm pretty content to splurge a little bit on my sauce for the two times a month that I have it! 

2 tbsp liquid honey 

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

2 tbsp tomato paste or tomato ketchup

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tbsp onion, chopped very fine

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp dill seed

1/4 tsp dill weed

1/2 tsp paprika

pepper (to taste)

1 dash cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy)

1/4 tsp red chili flakes (less if you don't like it spicy)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the cayenne pepper and chili flakes last unless you know you like spice. This recipe covers a full rack of ribs, but if you want to make more and store it in the fridge, it stores very well. Omit the garlic and onion until serving if you want to store it for longer than a couple of days, or try garlic powder and onion powder. It won't taste quite as good, but it will store for much longer. 

Chicken Caesar Salad

Firstly, to all those that follow my blog, I apologize for the hiatus! This semester at school has been incredibly busy and hectic and I sometimes find that I have barely enough time to cook and feed myself let alone experiment with recipes and come up with new healthy ideas. We've been eating a lot of the same old recipes in my house lately!

If you love delicious Cesar salad, and crispy chicken tenders, then this is the recipe for you! I love Cesar salad, but hate what it does to my waistline, and also happen to think chicken fingers are delightful, but the pre-packaged ones are full of chemicals and preservatives that I don't want to put in my body. This recipe is delicious, tastes like the real thing, and yet has very little of the real guilt associated with Cesar salads. The chicken/turkey is baked, and the salad dressing does contain some bad things (like Parmesan cheese), but in pretty minimal doses, and you can't take everything delicious out without completely losing the flavour! My husband is currently obsessed with this meal, and we have made it several times in the last couple of weeks. We often make it with spinach, since there is more protein there than in plain lettuce, but this recipe works well with any salad greens. Feel free to add in whatever salad veggies you love, we often mix it up just to keep it interesting!

Chicken*
*This recipe has enough for 2-4 servings.

300g boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 c flour
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1-2 dried basil leaves, crushed
3/4 c bread crumbs (if making your own, let them dry out for a day or so first so you get extra crispy chicken. You can also use crackers, cornflakes, rice cakes or whatever else you have on hand, we often make out own with stale bread or crusts, just let the bread dry out, and pop it in the food processor)
2 eggs whites + 1 egg yolk (reserve remaining egg yolks for dressing)
pepper to taste

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Trim chicken of fat and slice into strips.
3) In one container mix flour and all spices, in another contain put breadcrumbs and pepper. In a third container whisk egg & egg whites, adding a tiny bit of milk if necessary to thin out.
4) One piece at a time, dredge chicken strips in egg --> flour --> egg --> breadcrumbs.
5) Place chicken on a non-stick cookie sheet & bake for 12-14 mins or until tops are golden brow,, flipping halfway through.


Cesar Dressing

1-2 egg yolks
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp red wine vingear
1 tbsp white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp fish sauce (optional)

3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground pepper (freshly ground is best!)
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese


1) Whisk eggs yolks with oil, vinegar & wine until creamy**.
2) Add lemon juice, Worcestershire & mustard and whisk vigorously for 1-2 minutes**
3) Add remaining ingredients and mix.
4) Store in fridge and eat within about 7 days.

Conversely, you can skip the egg yolks, oil and half the vinegar and use mayonnaise instead. I recommend the Olive Oil Mayonnaise that Hellman's makes.

** I make my dressing in a glass jar with a lid that seals well. After gently whisking all ingredients I put on the lid and shake it like crazy for a couple of minutes. I find this is just as effective as whisking, and it seems a lot easier to me!


Salad

Like I said we usually use spinach, but have done it with lettuce and mixed greens as well. Although normal Cesar salad is just veggies and dressing, we usually get bored with that so always include several other veggies. Our favourites for this salad are mushrooms, red pepper and avocado, although grated carrot and diced celery are nice as well.

Sometimes we put bacon on our salads as well, to cook bacon we put two strips between paper towel and microwave it for 1-2 minutes on high or until its very crispy. We then roll the bacon between more paper towel to get as much of the grease off as possible. This way you get the deliciously salty-smokey flavour of bacon without your salad dropping with grease!