Homecooked Meals

Here's an interesting article about eating at home in New York City. With so many great restaurants in this city it's very hard to avoid the temptation of eating out all the time. Eating out can add up and before you know it, you're overspending on meals. The article was written by Cathy Erway, writer of the blog, Not Eating Out in New York (which has now been added to my list of cool food blogs to the left). What I like about the article is that she plans out a menu for the week, all food bought and prepared by you. Hmmm, sounds somewhat similar to a menu plan.

Menu Plan Monday: Week of May 25, 2009

Back to planning my menus for the week. Today is Memorial Day (hug a vet), so I made a special All-American meal for dinner. Cheeseburger, Corn-on-the-Cob, Tater Tots, and Macaroni Salad. Ah, how patriotic of me. Anyhow, here's my menu.

Monday
Breakfast: French, nay, Freedom Toast (I've sunk to a new level. Americans are dumb...) and Bacon
Lunch: Brooklyn Pizza (at a restaurant in Manhattan)
Dinner: All-American Dinner and Berries & Cream
*Berries & Cream! Berries & Cream! I'm a little lad who loves berries & cream!* I always do the little song and dance as seen in the commercial below when there is berries & cream involved. Oh, how advertising has been embedded in my brain...



Tuesday
Breakfast: Luna Bar
Lunch: Lentil and Rice Casserole - expect a recipe soon
Dinner: BLT and Macaroni Salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Hot Cereal with Cranberries and Almonds
Lunch: BLT and Macaroni Salad
Dinner: Luna Bar (before evening meditation)

Thursday
Breakfast: Yogurt
Lunch: Salad with Tuna, Beets, Avocado, Garbanzo Beans
Dinner: Pasta

Friday
Breakfast: Breakfast Sandwich
Lunch: PB&J
Dinner: Veggie Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

Recipe of the Week: Vegetable Curry and Red Cabbage with Apples

I am not a fan of spicy food, but an aromatic curry that is not too hot makes my mouth water. I recently made a Curry Lentil Soup in my crock pot, but it was nothing to write home about. I decided that I needed to learn how to make a good curry, so I googled curry recipes and tried to create one of my own out of what I found. I must say I was quite impressed with the results. Unfortunately I did not use exact measurements, so these are an estimate.

Vegetable Curry

1 Can Coconut Milk

1/2 Red Onion, Sliced

3-4 tbsp Curry Powder

2 tbsp Cumin

1 tbsp fresh Ginger, grated

2 cloves Garlic, minced or pressed

Cooked Vegetables:

Peas

Zucchini, sliced

Broccoli, chopped

Brown Rice or Angel Hair Pasta, cooked

Heat oil in a saucepan, add red onion. Cook until onions are soft. Add ginger and garlic and cook on high for 30 seconds. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add coconut milk. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Add Curry and Cumin. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Toss in vegetables and put over rice or pasta.

The curry was slightly on the spicy side, but nothing I could not handle. So, if you like spicy, add more curry powder.

I decided to cook some red cabbage as well and found this recipe.

Red Cabbage with Apple

1 medium head Red Cabbage, washed and shredded

1 large Tart Apple, peeled, cored and sliced

2 Tbsp Butter

1 Bay Leaf

Salt & Pepper

1/4 cup Dry Wine

2 Tbsp Vinegar

1 tsp Sugar

Melt butter in a large deep skillet. Add cabbage and apples, mix well.

Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

Add wine, vinegar and sugar. Mix well, cover and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

I seasoned the cabbage with some Gomashio to finish it off.

Recipe of the Week: Couscous and Sausage

I've been on a Couscous kick lately. I'm not sure why, but I've just had the desire to eat it. One Friday evening I decided to buy a box of garlic flavored couscous on the way home from work. I needed a dish for my zen center potluck the next day and decided to take my leftovers, minus the Italian Sausage I made with it. Here is what I came up with.

Couscous with Sausage

1 box Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil Couscous (or similar)

1/2 Red Bell Pepper, Chopped

1/2 Green Bell Pepper, Chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 Egg

Italian Sausage (1 per serving)

Cook the couscous according to package directions (usually only takes 5 minutes or so)

Scramble the egg and add to couscous.

In a separate pan, cook the sausage and saute the peppers and onion. Mix the peppers and onions into the couscous. Cut the sausage into small pieces and lay on top.

The Italian Sausage and peppers add a spiciness that offsets the flavor of the couscous. I found it to be very tasty. The peppers also add a little color to the dish This can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the sausage.

They totally stole my idea!

I've been thinking lately that there are no good recipe searches on the internet, should you have a few ingredients and are looking for something to cook. Sure, you can search by category of meal or main ingredient. But what if you have several non-main ingredients? So, I thought maybe this was something that needed to be created.

I got an email from a friend whom I told about this, for a website already putting this great idea to use. Although I am a little bummed that someone beat me to it, I'm thrilled that it's available. And imagine my shock when I saw it on a website that I often visit. Turns out you can search recipes on the World's Healthiest Foods website in this manner.

It's great! You just click on the ingredients you want to use, as well as any you don't and specific nutrients you're looking for. Not too shabby, eh?

I'm pleased to see that this kind of recipe search exists. However, this is only on one website. Has anyone seen this on other websites?

Recipe of the Week: "Borrowed" from NY Times Stir Fry

Admittedly I have not been cooking much lately with the job starting and all. In the meantime, here is a recipe I found in the NY Times that looks pretty good. It's very healthy too. It looks like they're focusing on tofu for the entire week, so there are links to related recipes. Enjoy!

Food of the Week: Whole Wheat

If you remember anything about wheat, it should be this: Whole Wheat with germ and bran intact = good. Refined wheat = not so good. The refining process extracts the most nutrient rich parts of the wheat, the bran and germ, removing much of the vitamins, minerals and fiber. Many of the products we eat in the U.S. contain refined wheat, things like breads, pastas and baked goods. Diet propaganda like the Atkins Diet played on this truth to get people to lose weight by not eating carbohydrates like wheat. But the largest and scariest hole in no/low carb diet plans is the inclusion of all carbohydrates into the category of unhealthy. Let’s take a deeper look into the nutrition of whole wheat.

Photo courtesy of http://www.cspinet.org/nah/wwheat.html

Benefits:

• Women who eat whole wheat rather than refined tend to weigh less.
• Helps to lower risk for Type II Diabetes and lessens Chronic Inflammation.
• Helps prevent Gallstones, Heart Disease and Childhood Asthma.
• Good for cardiovascular health in postmenopausal women.
• The fiber found in wheat bran can act as a natural laxative. It helps you poo!
• Whole wheat helps to prevent certain types of cancers. It affects estrogen levels in a way that helps protect against some cancers. It also helps to protect against colon cancer.

Drawbacks:

• Allergies to wheat are very common.
• People with Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance cannot eat products containing wheat.
• Whole wheat contains substances called oxalates, which in high concentrations can exacerbate kidney and gallbladder problems.

Ways to eat whole wheat:

• To ensure that you get the benefits of whole wheat make sure you purchase foods that are not refined. Whole grains should be listed as the first ingredient and items should have at least 3 grams of fiber.
• Cereals high in fiber, such as raisin bran or shredded wheat.
• Eat whole wheat breads and pastas.
• Instead of using bread crumbs use rolled oats or bran cereal.
  

Little known fact:

A product marked multigrain does not necessarily contain whole grains. Make sure to read the nutrition information to make sure the whole grain is used.