Roasted Butternut and Parmesan

Squash is so plentiful this time of year, isn't it? I look at it on my counter and think "Squash again? Really Maureen--again!?" So I try and recreate this winter delight as much as I can when I make it for the family--as for my own self I can eat it the same way day after day.
I am a firm believer in nature providing our body with a lot of the nutrients we need during the times our body will be needing it. Squash is a seasonal vegetable rich with potassium, vitamin A, B vitamins omega fats--all crucial for helping us remain healthy during the cold and flu season. Native Americans values the winter squashes so much they buried them with their dead to provide them with sustenance in the journey to the afterlife.

As for the second ingredients in this dish--really who does not like cheese? If you have no dairy issues that is. (emails will float in now about the lactose intolerance people and my own intolerance to them)

So without further delay:

Roasted Butternut and Parmesan
serves all who arrive to the table in time

1 large butternut Squash
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil a 9x9 baking dish. Peel, cut open and seed the squash--the easiest way i do this is I seperate the stem from the belly (rounded bottom) , the top you can just peel and chop. The belly you can scoop out the seeds easily if you slice it in half then peel the bottom and dice it up--(I should have taken pictures of how I did this, sorry)

Cube the squash up into 1" cubes and toss them into the baking pan and cover with the cheese and bake on the middle shelf in the oven until the squash is tender--about 35 minutes. We served ours with pork roast but this would be great with any bird as well!

Simple and so different than the mashed or boiled squash you have been use to!

My Fridge is Full but there’s Nothing to Eat

Have you ever gone to make dinner, opened the fridge and just stared. I know I’m gonna cook tonight, sounds like a good idea, but where do I start? That was me last night…just staring blankly at the cold food. Nope, still nothing. Where is that spark of food creativity that I really enjoy? I know I’m cooking venison that has been marinating for a day but what else. Then it hit me. I have a pot of leftover cooked Kashi grains. Yeah-- I love this stuff but what to do with it. At that point I was on a roll and just started pulling veggies out. Here is the end result.

Spicy Kashi with Veggies

1 small tomato diced

½ onion diced

½ bell pepper (any color) diced

½ c no salt canned corn or frozen

2 c cooked Kashi grains

½ c broth – chicken or veggie

2 cloves garlic chopped

2 t cumin

6-8 shakes Cholula hot sauce or your favorite brand

¼ t smoked paprika

Sea salt and pepper to taste

1 T olive oil

In a med sauce pan sauté the garlic and onion in the oil for a few minutes, add the pepper and tomato and cook for 5 minutes. Now, add the corn and all of the seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Mix in the grains and cook until heated thru and serve hot.

Other ideas—any grain will work in this, barley, rice, quinoa

- Use your favorite veggies

- Want more heat, add a diced jalapeno

Cheese and Sweet Potato Crisp

Sweet Crisps--yummy! I found a version of these while surfing sweet potato recipes on Epicurious. These were chewy and crunchy and reminded me of the home-fried potato patties I would eat as a little girl. Only--these are better for you. Making these by hand proved to be more tedious than I would have expected--so if you have a hand grater--please note you will be adding some good muscular work to your dinner preparation. You will be finely grating 2 good sized sweet potatoes--which sounds easy--but I have 4 words that make it difficult for me A-D-H-D. While I was shredding them my mind wanted me to check my email, go fold laundry, look out the window, check the sale status of our books, water plants, reorganize closets--you get the picture, and if you do not--then you probably also have ADHD and are now checking your email because I suggested it to you! ;-)

So, I of course enlisted a bit more help with the grating of the tuber--in the form of my lovely assistant and 7 year old daughter. She was once again super excited to help out and to know she would be added to the Squeaky Gourmet blog--special thanks to her as she kept me more focused on the task at hand!

Next you have to squeeze out the juice of the potato, now I was thinking it would be pretty basic as they seem to be pretty dry root vegetables--wrong! I did use the screen I have for making Greek yogurt and it was an easy task as well as fascinating that it holds as much water as it does. No wonder these are so good for you! Side point, also interesting, when you poor out the liquid oyu are left with what looks like wet corn starch. OK, yes it is potato starch--I was fascinated. This picture shows the amount of liquid in one potato--just under 1/4 cup! Crazy--so now we have worked out arms and our grip strength in just making this appetizer/side dish. It is like chopping firewood since it warms you twice, good for the body to prepare and to consume!



After you squeeze out the juice they look like chewed up paper, lacking the life luster they held prior to the abuse they underwent to get to this state. Poor cousin to Mr. Potato!


Ok so let's assemble this mess into the glorious snack delight they are destined to become!


Sweet Potato Crisps
makes about a dozen
2 medium sized sweet potatoes--peeled shredded and water forced out
1 ounce Romano cheese --shredded
1 ounce Parmesan cheese--shredded
1 egg white
2 tsp fresh sage chopped finely

Heat oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix all the ingredients together and form them into 2" diameter circles onto the parchment paper. ( I had no parchment paper for making mine so I oiled the pan with 1tsp olive oil)

Cook until the edges are browned and they are a deep orange in colors--about 15 minutes. Serve Warm!

Calories Per Crisp
Calories: 48
Carbohydrates- 6 grams
Fat- 1 gram
Protein- 2 grams

Other good ideas:
--add different spices garlic, lemon you name it you try it!
-- use as an appetizer for a party

also, if you click any image in this blog you will explode--err I mean you can see a larger size of the images shared.

This post is now part of Real Food Wednesdays--check it out!

Savory Sweet Potatoes

I love me my orange vegetables--don't you? You can read tons of healthy food blogs and see "sweet potato" favored over regular white potatoes. These root vegetables are very high in beta-carotene (vitamin A anyone? yes please!), a great source of vitamin C and is rated very high in studies done for antioxidant powers. They are anti-inflammatory, inflammation is the leading cause of aging of the body ( you thought it was your birthday didn't you?)so perhaps these should be added to a fountain of soup recipe--I will work on that ASAP! Since this is a root vegetable it grows in the earth, where it can draw into it the minerals we need like maganese, copper, potassium and iron. Not to mention they are low in calorie and high in fiber.

Oh, I should add they are also delicious! No need to hide from the bright color or the health benefits of this one. Since they are coming into season right now, what a great time to offer you an alternative way to serve them aside from the traditional glop of butter and marshmallows.

From page 92 of our book, Squeaky Gourmet:

Savory Sweet Potatoes
serves 4
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 tbls Olive Oil
pinch cumin
pinch ground ginger
pinch salt
pinch pepper
pinch paprika
juice of one lemon*

Heat a non-stick skillet with the oil on medium heat, cook potato and spices for approximately 15 minutes, stirring to blend. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook until they are golden brown and crisp on the outside, stirring frequently now to prevent burning. Squirt with lemon juice just before serving.

Other Good Ideas:
--Great cooked in the oven as well. Be sure to add oil and spices to a bowl and stir the potatoes to coat them evenly before baking.






Calories Per Serving:
Fat-7 grams
Protein- 1 gram
Carbohydrates- 14 grams

*the book calls for lime juice but in my house lime is the official flavor of the devil. So I use lemon instead :)

Potato--Say Cheese!

OK--I cannot convey to you the delight of these potatoes and have you fully grasp the fantastic flavor these had. We have a restaurant I cannot venture into because they make the best dirty martinis on the planet as well as the best cheesy fries. Cheesy fries and dirty martinis are like magic--oh I mean are bad for you--yes that is what I meant, bad for you.

Well, recently we had a lot of potatoes from the farm stand and I wanted to use up a good portion of them before they went bad and started a gang or something in our pantry. So, I thought--who doesn't like potato and cheese mixtures? (Now I will get emails from all the people who do not.)

Potato Say Cheese
serves 12
10 large potatoes, washed well
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves of fresh garlic minced
1 cup your favorite hard cheese-shredded
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbls dried parsley flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thinly slice the potatoes and place in a large bowl. Mix the eggs and milk together fully and pour over the sliced tubers. Add in the onion and garlic and stir, let sit for about 10 minutes.
Next place this mixture into a glass baking dish and cover with the shredded cheese.

I made sure to really shred mine on the thinnest shredding to make sure it covers and blends with the potato--one cup can go a long way if you do this.

Bake the potatoes for about 45 minutes or until they are fork tender. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.


Other Good Ideas:
--add in various seasonings to change the experience -chili powder, cumin, paprika
--add to a crock pot and allow to cook all day while you salivate waiting for them

Another Garden Fresh Day

I love it when I walk out to the garden early in the morning and I get inspired to create something new in the kitchen. Today was one of those days. My heirloom beans (2 kinds shown) were going crazy and I really wanted to know what the tiger stripe ones were going to taste like. I intended to let those grow and dry on the stalk for dry soup beans but I tasted one of them fresh and thought they were great so I added a few for color.

Lemon Basil gives a wonderful extra flavor to the beans so try to find some or better yet, grow your own. Herbs are quite easy to grow and can usually take heat and low water conditions of the late summer. Enjoy!

Lemon Basil Green Beans

1 pound clean and trimmed fresh green beans
1 T olive oil
½ lemon – juice
Pinch lemon zest
2 T fresh Lemon Basil – minced- or any fresh basil you can get
Pinch sea salt
Pepper to taste

Boil beans for 5-10 minutes until fork tender. Different variety of green beans cook faster than others. When beans are cooked drain off water and place in a medium sized bowl. Add rest of the ingredients and toss well. Serve warm.

Another cooking option is mix everything together with the raw beans and throw on the grill. That’s what I did.

If you want a cold dish or salad, add about ¼ cup cider vinegar and more lemon juice then refrigerate until chilled tossing a few times before serving.

Today From Jamie's Garden!

Another good day in the Wilson’s garden. I picked scallions, broccoli, a pepperocini pepper, English peas, basil and curly parsley. I’ll use the herbs tonight for dinner.

Broccoli Salad
Serves 2
3 c chopped fresh broccoli including stems
3 scallions finely chopped whites and some green
3 T toasted sunflower seeds
¼ c organic raisins
2 T organic Mayonnaise
3 T apple cider vinegar
1 t honey
Pinch sea salt

Chop up and combine the top 4 ingredients in a med sized bowl. In a small bowl mix the honey and the vinegar and put mixture in the microwave for 10 seconds to heat the honey. Now add the mayo and mix well. Toss together with the broccoli and salt if you like and now refrigerate for at least an hour before eating.

Paneer for the People!

Paneer adds an interesting element to a dish and has varied uses. All you have to do is google Paneer and you will find a plethora of recipes! For those of you who do not know what this even is: Paneer is a common Persian non melting famer's cheese. There, feel better knowing? Just like any fat added to0 a meal you will feel sated longer and it won't leave you wandering the kitchen looking for that "something" you may be left craving after a low fat meal. We can use avocado, nuts, butters, coconut cream all for the same affect in a low fat meat dish to balance the dish and feel full without adding in large amounts of calories. Since fat takes longer to digest the full feeling is left with us longer than the low fat meals we think we are suppose to eat--in fact this is where the success lies in diet plans like Atkins!

So--here is a very basic paneer--or farmer's cheese recipe for you!

Paneer
1/2 gallon Whole Milk ( I used raw milk)
2 TBLS Lemon Juice

Heat milk on the stove, stirring constantly so it won't burn to the bottom of the pan. ( I have memories of pudding burns when I was a little girl)You want to heat it till it boils--do not under heat it or you just wasted milk.


I used a flat bottom spatula to be sure I was scraping the pan while stirring. Once milk heats up it boils fast so you do not want to walk away from this. It will boil up and over and be everywhere!






Once the milk has boiled remove immediately from the heat and add in the lemon juice, still stirring. After about 3 minutes curds will form--you want to set this aside for 10 to 15 minutes to let the curds set up.



After the curds have fallen in love with one another and formed a tighter bond you want to pour them into a cheese cloth over a strainer to pour out the whey. Do not discard this whey as you can use it for chowders, gravy, baking, bathing--yes you can use it in soap making even. Oh and I use a muslin cloth instead of the cheese cloth you can buy in the stores because the curds tend to fall into the small holes. Some recipes suggest doubling up the cheese cloth but even then I felt I lost to many little curd babies.

Once the cheese has drained you can wrap it up in the cloth and press out more of the whey by hand. Just wrap it and squeeze--making sure it is cool enough to handle of course. Once that is done you can lay the ball of wrapped up cheese on a plate and press another plate on
top of it. I added several heavy books to make sure the cheese was going to give up the last bits of the whey to me.






After about 20 minutes you can unwrap the paneer and behold your creation--You, my friend, have created CHEESE! Isn't it beautiful?
Now, remember this is a fat to add to meals or something to create meals with on those low activity days where you are craving something but are not sure what it is.



Calories per 1 ounce Serving: 100
Fat: 8 grams
Carbohydrates: 1 grams
Protein: 7 grams

Other good ideas:
-serve diced with fruit
-pan fry to give a crispy texture
-drizzle with honey
-use as a salad topper
-CURRY!

Blueberry Salsa

Keeping with the theme of July and more ideas for that wonderful antioxidant rich fruit--try something savory and outside the box!

This salsa is tangy and savory and is excellent over grilled chicken or a sliced avocado. For something extra special, grill some fresh pineapple and top with this beautiful salsa. Spicy!

Blueberry Salsa

--serves 2

1/3 c fresh blueberries chopped
3 scallions- white part only- chopped finely
1/3 c diced tomato
2 dashes smoked paprika
Pinch salt
Dash cayenne pepper or more is you want heat
Juice from ½ lime
¼ t cumin

Mix all ingredients together well and let sit for 15 minutes to let the flavors mingle.

Other good ideas:
-Use as a topping for fish
-serve on cottage cheese

Sweet Potato Fries with Applesauce dip

Sick of hearing your kids say they want french fries and ONLY french fries when you ask them what it is they want to eat? I can relate to that since 4 of my 5 children have preferred potatoes over any other food source known to man thus far. However, I am sure you are aware of the toxic levels of garbage that is ingested with a fast food small fry. So, let us offer you this alternative!


Sweet Potato Fries (serves 4)
2 medium sweet potatoes- peeled and cut into thick fry size
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp salt

seasoning of choices for savory: garlic, cumin, paprika, curry, Chinese five spice
Seasoning choices for sweet: cinnamon, ginger, apple pie spice

You can really think outside the box here for seasonings!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place spices and oil in a large bowl and stir till completely blended. Add in uncooked fries and stir till the potato slices are evenly coated. Lay the fries out in an even layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Turn each fry over carefully and return to the oven for another 20 minutes or until the fries are fork tender.

Allow to cool slightly before placing on a plate with a small serving of unsweetened apple sauce.

Another fun idea is to have the kids help you with these by placing the oil, potatoes and seasoning in a zip locked bag and let the kids shake the fries to coat them.

Calories-90
Fat- 3.5 grams
Protein- 1 gram
Carbohydrates- 14 grams

*Calories without the Applesauce