Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Love Christmas
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Let Me Entertain You
When it's your turn to entertain, use it to your advantage calories. Just prepare meals and how low-fat snacks and stay with the same healthy eating rules that you follow for the rest of the year. And keep in mind that not only your waistline that benefit - your friends and family will also be thanking you come New Year!
Know your nibbles
1 Very often are the snacks between meals festive accumulate in pounds instead of meals are available. Gaining a pound of fat is as easy as eating about 70 chocolates in a check box - which may seem a lot, but a couple of handfuls every day grows fast. If you do not want to pile on the pounds, then follow these simple tips.
2 Do not be tempted to store many festive foods before Christmas - just starting before eating and then buy more. There is also the possibility of staying with a lot of things - and you know you'll only find a way to get rid of them!
3 Make your own dives fat cream using low-fat, low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese fat free. Add a variety of condiments such as lemon juice, black pepper, fresh herbs and spices. Meanwhile, they serve with vegetable crudités or breadsticks instead of chips or fries.
4 It may be tempting to nibble while you're preparing meals for family and friends. But it is very easy to work your way through nearly as many calories as the food itself. Avoid the temptation to keep your mouth busy with a piece of sugarless gum.
5 Buy low-fat versions of favorite snacks like chips and dips. Nobody will ever know the difference - remember to hide the packaging!
Have a go at making their own pies using phyllo dough instead of broken, puff or flaky. Is lower in calories and fat than other varieties - most are used less. Check out the table below.
Pastry per 100g (uncooked) | Calories | Fat g |
Filo | 304 | 2.7 |
Puff | 401 | 25.6 |
Flaky | 424 | 30.7 |
Shortcrust | 453 | 29.1 |
6 If you do not like to experiment with phyllo, simply chop bake cakes instead. Leaving aside the top of the dough save about 40 calories and fat 3G.
7 Cut the fat content of ready-made minced, mixed with a little apple baked before use to fill pastry boxes. It tastes good, too.
8 Locate low-fat versions of your favorite foods such as Christmas pudding, Christmas pudding and pies. Alternatively, simply reducing the size. Many supermarkets now sell the mini pies that contain only 100-150 calories each, instead of the usual 200-250 calories each. Okay, they're gone in just a few bits, but at least not lost.
9 Do not use leftovers to create, fatty foods high in calories, like bubble and squeak and turkey coronation. Instead, make delicious low-calorie foods like turkey soup, turkey curry with brown rice or simply served with a jacket potato and salad.
10 Where is the famous turkey sandwich, it healthier by using whole wheat bread feast with a little fat cranberry sauce instead of butter, choosing breast instead of dark meat and pile on the salad.
Sweets per 100g | Calories | Fat g |
Fruit gums | 172 | 0 |
Fruit pastilles | 253 | 0 |
Real Turkish delight | 295 | 0 |
Marshmallows | 327 | 0 |
Boiled sweets | 327 | 0 |
Jelly beans | 365 | 0.2 |
Peppermints | 392 | 0.7 |
Toffees | 430 | 17.2 |
Assorted filled chocolates | 460 | 18.8 |
Monday, December 22, 2014
Baby's First Christmas - Celebrity Edition
The year of 2014 brought big changes in the lives of some of our favorite celebrities. New records, new releases, and new awards are always exciting, but nothing can measure up to the beauty and amazement of the birth of a baby. Meet all the new mini-celebrities that will be celebrating their very first Christmas this year.
Parents: Rodger Berman and Rachel Zoe
Rodger Berman and Rachel Zoe (celebrity stylist) welcomed their very first baby this year, Schuyler Harris. Judging from his custom made shoes and his Missoni stroller, I think it's very safe to make the assumption that Schuyler's first Christmas will be filled with Gucci, Prada and Chanel.
Baby Flynn
Parents: Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr
Actor Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings) and model Miranda Kerr may have given birth to the cutest baby alive. With brown hair and big blue eyes, he has been making headlines since day one. This is an extra exciting time of year for Baby Flynn; he will be celebrating his first birthday on January 6th.
Baby Haven
Parents: Cash Warren and Jessica Alba
Producer Cash Warren and actress Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Sin City) welcomed their second daughter, baby Haven Garner in August, much to the delight of big sister Honor Marie. Jessica recently took both three year old Honor and four month old Haven to meet Santa Claus in their local mall. How sweet is that!
Baby Morocco and Baby Monroe
Parents: Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey
Nick Cannon (America's Got Talent) and singer/actress Mariah Carey welcomed their twins on April 30th of this year. This adorable duo made one of their first public appearances last Christmas when Mariah was visibly showing during her Christmas Special. Morocco was named after the Moroccan inspired room in which Nick proposed to Mariah, and Monroe was named after one of Mariah's longtime role models, Marilyn Monroe.
Baby Harper
Parents: David & Victoria Beckham
World renowned power couple David (English soccer star) & Victoria Beckham (designer) welcomed their very first daughter this year. Baby Harper Seven joined older brothers Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.
Baby Bingham
Parents: Matt Bellamy and Kate Hudson
Matt Bellamy (front-man of Muse) and actress Kate Hudson (Bride Wars, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) welcomed their first baby, Bingham Hawn in August. Baby Bingham joins Kate's older son Ryder, who affectionately calls him Bing.
Baby Arabella
Parents: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Jared Kushner and entrepreneur and daughter of Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, married in October 2009, welcomed their very first baby, Arabella Rose on July 17th of this year.
Baby Aleph
Parents: Benjamin Millepied and Natalie Portman
Producer Benjamin Millepied and actress Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta, Black Swan) welcomed their first baby, Aleph this year. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a sweet tribute to the Hebrew background of the couple.
And there, my friends, are the newest celebrities of 2011. Merry Christmas to all the baby celebs and their parents! I can't help but wonder which celebrities will make this list next year...
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Tuna Patties
Tuna patties! All you have to do is say these two words and I’m flooded with childhood memories. We kids are only a few feet high, have tiny feet, scabbed knees, and boundless energy. In between chasing each other around the dining room table we are squealing to our mother, “We’re having tuna patties!”
We were enthusiastic about food, to say the least. And always hungry. Back then, this was one of my mother’s go-to dishes. No idea what her recipe was, and it’s been so long since she’s made them, it’s long forgotten. This recipe is as close as I can come to what I remember, probably with a few added flourishes.
What I love about the recipe is that I almost always have the necessary ingredients in the pantry and fridge, the patties are incredibly easy and quick to make, and they’re budget friendly too. Oh yes, and they taste great! (At least to us. Big fans of canned tuna here.)
Tuna Patties Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 10 minutes
- Yield: Makes 4 patties.
Ingredients
- 2 6-ounce cans tuna
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup white bread torn into small pieces
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp water (or liquid from the cans of tuna)
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives, green onions, or shallots
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- A couple squirts of Crystal hot sauce or tabasco
- 1 raw egg
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon butter
Method
1 Drain the liquid from the tuna cans. If you are using tuna packed in water, reserve a tablespoon of the tuna water, and add a teaspoon of olive oil to the tuna mixture in the next step.
2 In a medium bowl, mix together the tuna, mustard, torn white bread, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, parsley, chives, and hot sauce. Sprinkle on salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste the mixture before adding the egg to see if it needs more seasoning to your taste. Mix in the egg.
3 Divide the mixture into 4 parts. With each part, form into a ball and then flatten into a patty. Place onto a wax paper lined tray and chill for an hour. (You can skip the chilling if you want, chilling just helps the patties stay together when you cook them.)
4 Heat the olive oil and a little butter (for taste) in a cast iron or stick-free skillet on medium high. Gently place the patties in the pan, and cook until nicely browned, 3-4 minutes on each side.
Serve with wedges of lemon. You can also serve with tartar sauce on slider buns for a tuna burger.
Shrimp Po Boy Sandwich
Recently returned from a Louisiana trip where he enjoyed many a po boy, Hank put these together for us for lunch. So good! ~Elise
What’s not to love about the classic Louisiana po boy sandwich? Most are dead simple, and rely heavily on high-quality ingredients: Super-fresh, local seafood, Creole tomatoes, homemade remoulade sauce, and surpassing bread.
Po boy sandwiches are typically either seafood or roast beef (although I had a roast duck po boy near Grand Isle, Louisiana recently), and the best ones use remoulade, a Cajun version of the classic French mayo-mustard sauce.
But the bread is the real star in a po boy. Do your utmost to find really good bread, with a crackling crust and soft interior. Ideally you would use a French sandwich loaf, like a baguette, but wider and about a foot long. Without good bread, a po boy is pretty po’.
Shrimp po boys are served everywhere in Louisiana, but you can also do the same things with crawfish tails, catfish fillets or oysters—all are common in the Sportsman’s Paradise. Most are fried, but I’ve seen grilled seafood occasionally.
A word on the peanut oil: It is a very common cooking oil in Louisiana, and adds a flavor that will make your shrimp taste more of the Bayou. Personally, if I could not get peanut oil, I’d use lard. But that’s just me. Any vegetable oil will work just fine.
Shrimp Po Boy Sandwich Recipe
- Prep time: 20 minutes
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Makes 4 large sandwiches.
If you cant get peanut oil, use any other vegetable oil or lard. And if you don't feel like making remoulade, smear the top of the bread with mayo and the bottom with mustard.
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and with tails removed
- 3/4 cup fine cornmeal
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Peanut oil for frying
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
- 2-3 tomatoes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
- 4 small French sandwich rolls
Remoulade
- 1/4 cup mustard, preferably Creole mustard
- 1 1/4 cups mayo
- 1 teaspoon pickle juice or vinegar
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (Crystal, Tabasco, etc)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced and smashed
- 1 Tbsp sweet paprika
- 1-2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
Method
1 If you are making your own remoulade, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside for 30 minutes or so; you don't have to wait that long, but the sauce will be better over time.
2 Pour enough peanut oil in a large frying pan to come up about 1/4 inch, and set the pan over medium-high heat until a small amount of flour sizzles immediately when you drop some in.
3 Mix the cornmeal, flour, Cajun seasoning and salt in a large bowl. Working with a few at a time, dredge the shrimp in the egg, then in the cornmeal-flour mixture. Shake off any excess and fry until golden on both sides, about 2 minutes total. Set the fried shrimp aside on paper towels to drain.
4 To assemble the sandwich, slice the sandwich loaves almost all the way through and smear remoulade on both the top and bottom. Lay down a layer of shredded lettuce on the bottom of the sandwich, then arrange the shrimp on top. Lay 3-4 slices of tomato on the shrimp and press the top of the bread down on the bottom, compressing the sandwich a little. Serve at once with hot sauce and a beer.
Tilapia with Pimiento Sauce
Tilapia, a tasty farm-raised fish originally from Africa, has become more and more popular here in the states. I recently brought home a whole tilapia from our local Asian fish market and made quite a mess of trying to fillet it myself. Dad pitched in, with no more luck than I, and we ended up throwing the pieces (you couldn’t quite call them fillets anymore) into a fish stew. Now we know better. Just buy the straight fillets. Tilapia are mild tasting, and relatively inexpensive compared to other fish. Here is a quick and easy, one-pan way of preparing this versatile fish.
Tilapia with Pimiento Sauce Recipe
- Yield: Serves 4.
Feel free to use any tender white fish fillet with this recipe, for example cod or red snapper.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, cut into thin wedges
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 cup sliced cremini or button mushrooms
- 3/4 cup pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 4 6-8 ounce tilapia fillets
Method
1 In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until tender, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute more. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, oregano, salt, and pepper. Bring sauce to boiling.
2 Gently place the fish fillets in the pan and scoop some of the sauce over the fillets. Return to boiling. Reduce the heat and cover. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. With a wide spatula, lift fish from skillet to a serving dish. Spoon sauce over fish. Serve with rice, and/or crusty bread.
Shrimp Ceviche
With the warm days of summer upon us, a great way to cool off is with ceviche. Ceviche is typically made with red snapper that is “cooked” by the acidity of lime and lemon juice (see this ceviche recipe.) This version is prepared with shrimp, which is first lightly cooked, and then marinated in the citrus juice. My father, who generally doesn’t really like shrimp that much, loved this ceviche. (Gotta love it when they eat it up and ask for more.)
Why pre-cook the shrimp? While the acidic marinade “cooks” the proteins, it doesn’t kill the bacteria. Whereas this isn’t as much of an issue with raw fish (think sushi, sashimi), it is with shellfish like shrimp and scallops which can go bad much more easily. Unless you are getting your shrimp straight off the boat, for food safety reasons it’s best to lightly pre-cook the shrimp.
Shrimp Ceviche Recipe
- Yield: Serves 4-6.
If you find the ceviche a little too acidic, drain out some of the juices after the marinating, add a little more avocado (or some olive oil) and/or a little more salt.
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium-small shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 Tbsp salt
- 3/4 cup lime juice (juice from 4-6 limes)
- 3/4 cup lemon juice (juice from 2-3 lemons)
- 1 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1 serrano chile, ribs and seeds removed, minced
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 cucumber, peeled diced into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 avocado, peeled, seed removed, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
Method
1 In a large pot, bring to a boil 4 quarts of water, salted with 2 Tbsp salt. Add the shrimp and cook for 1 minute to 2 minutes max, depending on size of shrimp. (Over-cooking the shrimp will turn it rubbery.) Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
2 Drain the shrimp. Cut each piece of shrimp in half, or into inch-long pieces. Place shrimp in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix in the lime and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate for a half hour.
3 Mix in the chopped red onion and serrano chile. Refrigerate an additional half hour.
4 Right before serving, add the cilantro, cucumber, and avocado.