From the monthly archives:
July 2008
Food You Crave
I am immensely enjoying Food Network Healthy Appetite host Ellie Krieger’s cookbook, The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life
Just like her show, The Food You Crave, is devoted to helping you make luscious recipes that are healthier. I love her approach to cooking –real ingredients prepared simply enough for everyday, yet interesting enough for entertaining. She proves that healthy food can be delicious–bursting with flavor, color, and aroma — and deeply satisfying.
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Easy Recipes Cinnamon Rolls
Always on the lookout for quick easy tasty recipes I was intrigued when I discovered this cinnamon rolls recipe that called for frozen bread dough, instead of homemade.
Last winter while living in northern Wisconsin I did a side-by-side comparison of homemade cinnamon rolls. Since skiing, snow-shoeing, and ice fishing aren’t my thing, I spent a lot of time cooking and baking. It was the perfect way to stay warm and lift my spirits with the powerful scents of sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
In my side-to-side comparison I made two different cinnamon rolls recipes - one using frozen bread dough and the other homemade dough from scratch. While the homemade dough created slightly more tender cinnamon rolls my husband and I agreed that the difference wasn’t great enough to justify the additional time and energy, especially for busy cooks on the lookout for easy cinnamon rolls recipes.
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Pasta Salad Recipe
This is a tasty pasta salad recipe perfect for hot summer evenings or toting to picnics and potlucks. It makes a big batch of pasta salad that keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.
I love it because it is full of tasty, colorful vegetables - red and green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives - and dressed with a tangy vinaigrette.
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Quick & Easy Crumb Coffee Cake Recipe
I made this luscious quick and easy crumb coffee cake for breakfast. I’m usually not so industrious first thing in the morning, but I wanted something special since we have house guests.
It’s easy to make, quick to bake, and so satisfying served warm with coffee, fresh berries, and yogurt. One friend commented that he hadn’t had homemade coffee cake for decades.
Simple homemade coffee cake may be old-fashioned but I think it’s worth bringing back, don’t you?
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Carrot Zucchini Bars Recipe
Are you looking for healthy dessert recipes you can serve your family without guilt?
These carrot zucchini bars are a great way to entice your family into eating their veggies. They are packed with nutritional goodness from carrots, zucchini, raisins, walnuts and whole wheat pastry flour, and low in fat - using only 1/4 cup of canola oil - so you can serve them without guilt.
Including some zucchini makes them lighter than using carrots alone, and carrot puree keeps them moist with minimal fat. In addition to being healthy, these carrot-zucchini bars are are quick and easy too. Just stir together the ingredients and spread the batter in a pan. They are my entry in the healthy recipe contest being hosted by Fun & Food. Wish me luck.
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Greek Potato Salad Recipe
I love potato salad and always seem to be experimenting with variations.
Growing up Mom only ever made potato salad one way - with lots of mayonnaise.
We liked it.
While I still love creamy potato salads, these days I prefer French style potato salads dressed with vinaigrette instead of mayonnaise.
The first potato salad sans mayo I ever made was called Greek Potato Salad. I think it came from one of Susan Branch’s beautifully illustrated cookbooks, possibly Heart of the Home, but I can’t be sure since many of my cookbooks, including that one, are in Wisconsin while I’m here in Phoenix. Is there such a thing as cookbook separation anxiety? If there is, I’ve got it.
Be forewarned, this potato salad recipe will only work for people who like feta cheese. If you don’t, you will probably have a similar reaction to the one my husband had when he tasted it - yuck!
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Simple Mango Salsa Recipe
We’ve been trying to eat more salmon these days since all of its healthy omega 3 fats are so good for us. To prevent boredom from sneaking in I’m always on the lookout for new ways to season or sauce our salmon.
Recently this quick and easy mango salsa recipe caught my eye so I decided to give it a try. It was the perfect tasty topping for grilled salmon, with its beautiful peach and green hues. I think it would be great on grilled chicken and any grilled or roasted white fish like halibut or tilapia too. Fish tacos, anyone?
This salsa can be stirred together right before dinner or made a few hours ahead and stored in the fridge. It will last a day or two in the fridge but really tastes best the day it is made.
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Banana Nut Muffins Recipe
The three over-ripe bananas on the counter needed to be tossed into the freezer for future use or turned into banana bread or banana muffins.
This morning I opted for banana nut muffins since they bake in about a third of the time of banana bread.
This is one of the best basic banana nut muffin recipes I’ve tried. It’s a classic, enhanced with a little healthy whole-wheat flour for its texture and nutty flavor. If you don’t like nuts in your banana muffins skip them. I’ve included a couple of our favorite variations for your consideration at the end of the recipe too.
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Quick Lunch Box Cake Recipe
This is a favorite recipe from my childhood. Quick lunch box cake routinely showed up in our lunch boxes growing up.
It’s one of those easy cake recipes that can be assembled in less time than it takes to stir up a cake mix or run to the store for something commercially prepared but not nearly as good.
This simple cake is made moist with fruit cocktail and topped with chocolate chips and nuts instead of frosting. The lack of frosting makes it a great traveler, perfect for pot lucks and lunch boxes.
Mom thinks this Quick Lunch Box Cake recipe came from a bag of Pillsbury flour back in the 1970s. I have her much cherished, spotted, tattered hand-written recipe card in my files. Both my sister and I are keeping the quick lunch box cake tradition alive - we often make it for our family and friends who seem to enjoy it as much as we did way back when.
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Recipe For Simple Tuna Casserole
Trying to come up with an idea for dinner that wouldn’t require a trip to the market, tuna casserole suddenly popped into my head.
With a quick check of the fridge and pantry, I realized, that I did indeed have the ingredients for tuna casserole - tuna, small pasta shells, an onion, broccoli, peas, cream of mushroom soup, milk, cheese, and potato chips.
This is a great easy recipe for those times you want to keep things quick and simple. I love a casserole’s make now, bake later versatility. You can mix it together when you have a few minutes to spare, place it in the fridge, and just pop it into a preheated oven at dinner time. While the casserole bakes you can prepare a quick salad, enjoy a glass of wine, or sneak in a few minutes of exercise.
After checking with several cookbooks this is the version of easy tuna casserole we’ll be having for dinner tonight.
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