Stealth Cooking

Good Morning, Latte

2008-03-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

The first thing I do every morning is have a cup of coffee, well it's really a latte. For a while I was driving to my local barista and getting a "grande, low fat soy vanilla latte, with low foam". Now, not only is that a mouthful to remember, I wasn't feeling very green! So, with a little experimentation, I've learned how to make a luscious latte at home - an easy way to add some healthful soymilk to my diet first thing in the morning, and an easy way to save time and gas. Besides freshly made coffee and low fat vanilla soymilk, you'll need a small immersion blender. This one was a gift from one of my daughters, but I've seen them available everywhere from Williams-Sonoma to Ikea.

You can see how nice the latte looks! I enjoy my coffee in one of my favourite cups - it's from Prairie Fire Pottery . I haven't visited the pottery shop (yet ), but I've known the owners for years. They frequently have cups available on line, as well as many other beautiful pieces. Check them out!

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup coffee

Directions: Pour soy milk into cup. Whip up a nice froth with the immersion blender. Do this while the milk is still cold, then zap in the microwave for 1 minute. Watch out! The frothy milk will expand in the microwave. Pour soy milk into your coffee cup, add coffee to top off, and enjoy your home made latte!

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Replacing Whole Milk with Soy Milk cuts about 25 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per 1/2 cup. Replacing vanilla syrup with vanilla flavored soy milk cuts an additional 70 calories! In addition, soy has phytoestrogens, which may be helpful for women who no longer naturally produce estrogen. Look for soy milk with added calcium and vitamin D.

Squash Soup

2008-03-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

There's just something about soup that says "comfort food". I love a bowl of soup when the weather is cold. It was raining earlier this week, and you guessed it, soup made it's way to our table. I usually puree this soup in the blender, but this week I used a potato masher for a soup with more texture. The taste was nice, but I still enjoy the smooth version best. Whichever way you serve this soup, it gives comfort to the body, with lots of healthful veggies, cooked up in a flavorful broth, that will make all the soup eaters in your family very happy (and healthy, too). If your family doesn't like the sound of squash soup, call this by it's French name. It's a "bisque". That's the French name for soup that has been pureed in this manner. At our house, younger kids didn't like squash, but they loved this bisque soup!

Squash Soup
1/2 Cup minced onions
2 Tbs. Minced carrots
1 medium potato (yukon gold or sweet potato)
1 acorn squash
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup soy creamer
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne pepper or paprika for garnish (optional)
parsley for garnish (optional)

Directions: Sweat the onions in the microwave. Do this by putting them in a microwave safe dish, and cooking on high power for 1 minute. Onions should be translucent. If not, microwave for 30 additional seconds. Put onions and carrots into a large soup pot. Peel, cube, and add the potato and acorn squash to the soup pot. If it is difficult to peel and cube the squash, you can put it in the microwave for 1 minute to soften. Add the broth and simmer for 25 minutes. Put all ingredients through a food mill, blend in a blender until smooth, or mash with a potato masher. Return squash mixture to soup pot. Add creamer, and return to a simmer. Correct seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls, top with cayenne pepper or paprika, and serve. This recipe serves 2, but is easily doubled.

Stealthy Cooking Tip:

Sweating onions in the microwave means you don't need to use extra oil to saute them before cooking. Sauteeing can add calories, fat, and cholesterol. If you sauteed in just one tablespoon olive oil, you would have added 130 calories and 14 grams of fat. If you sauteed in one tablespoon of butter you would have added 100 calories, 11 grams of fat, plus 30 mg of cholesterol!

The Great Milk Mustache

2008-03-13T09:48:00.001-07:00

Milk - my husband and older kids loved it, lots of it, and it was whole milk! Whole milk is a wholesome product for younger kids, adding necessary calories for active bodies and lots of calcium and vitamin D for growth. However, older kids and adults may find that it also packs too much fat and too much cholesterol. Fat-free milk still has the calcium and vitamin D of whole milk, but it cuts fat and calories. The challenge is getting older milk drinkers to enjoy the taste of the lightened product.

The taste of whole milk is decidedly different from 2% or 1% and is not even close to the taste of skim milk, also known as fat-free milk. So, how to get milk drinkers to enjoy the lower fat version? This is where stealth comes in. Try adding just a little bit of lower fat milk to their whole milk. You may find that at first you can only add a tablespoon of lower fat milk to a glass. That's okay. This process may take some time! But, increasing the proportion of lower fat milk just a tablespoon at a time will soon have them sipping and enjoying the lower fat, less cholesterol version of a dairy product they enjoy.

Here's an example. Week one: add one tablespoon of 2% milk to each glass of whole milk. Week two: add two tablespoons of 2% milk to each glass. Week three: add three tablespoons to each glass.

If your family is present in the kitchen when you're pouring the milk, or if they regularly help themselves to milk straight from the refrigerator, you might consider adding some 2% milk to the container. If you buy a gallon of whole milk, pour out one cup and replace it with one cup of 2%. The following week, replace two cups, etc.

Soon, you'll have your family drinking 2% milk, and then you can follow the same technique to move them to 1% or skim milk. Soon, they'll be enjoying the vitamin benefits of milk without the extra calories and cholesterol!

Stealthy Cooking Tip:
Making changes slowly helps palates adjust!

Butter Plus

2008-03-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

If you're a fan of butter, but want less cholesterol and more healthy fats, try this! This butter is better for you because it's half butter and half olive oil. It's got the good taste of butter, the spreadability of whipped butter, and the health benefits of olive oil. It's butter plus! Here's how:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup olive oil

Bring the butter to room temperature. Blend with 1 cup olive oil. Pour into container and refrigerate.

While this butter has some of the benefits of using olive oil, it still has similar fat content as regular butter. Also, butter and oil are nearly equal in calorie count per serving. So, remember that this butter recipe may be more healthful than regular butter, but it won't save any calories! Even though I don't use butter very often, I use this spread when I'd normally use butter. I also find this mixture convenient for cooking. If I'd use a butter and olive oil mixture when sauteeing, I just need to reach for this in the fridge. So, it's a time saver, too!

Stealthy Cooking Tip
Make extra-virgin olive oil your oil of choice. Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fat, which may be helpful in lowering blood cholesterol levels. Butter, on the other hand, is high in saturated fat, which plays a role in raising blood cholesterol levels. For good health, it's important to eat less saturated fats and more monounsaturated fats

Pasta Salad with a Crunch (or Broccoli Pasta Salad)

2008-03-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

I could have set today's title as "hubby likes it"!! I've been trying to get my husband to eat broccoli for 20 years. This recipe marks the first time I've succeeded. I watched in disbelief as the guy headed back for thirds, yes thirds. It was only then I believed that he was eating broccoli, and liking it. The secret? Hide the florets.
Here's the recipe that finally made broccoli a hit for everyone in our family:
The pasta:
1/3 lb. whole wheat spaghetti

The crunch:
1 package (12 oz) broccoli slaw
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup snow peas, ends removed
1/4 cup chopped green onions

The dressing:
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic

The toppings:
2 tablespoons cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts

Directions:
Break pasta into smallish pieces, 3 to 4 inches in length. Cook until al dente, about 8 minutes or so. Drain and pour into a large bowl. Add all the crunchy ingredients to the pasta in the large bowl. Mix the dressing ingredients together, and pour over the crunchy pasta. Toss everything together. This pasta may be served immediately, when it's warm. Or, it may be chilled and served later. Either way, add the toppings after the last toss. It tastes amazing!

Stealthy Cooking Tip

Use whole wheat pasta in new recipes! Your family may be used to only white pasta under their spaghetti sauce or with their mac and cheese. But, you can introduce whole grain pasta in new dishes, like this one, and they won't notice the difference! Whole grain pastas can add up to 6 grams of fiber per serving (depending on type and brand name). Soluble fiber traps cholesterol in the stomach and helps the body excrete it. Insoluble fiber helps move things along "regularly" through the digestive system. A diet rich in fiber helps keep you healthy.

Basic Salad

2008-03-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

I could eat salad every day ... and I frequently do. Lucky for me, my whole family likes salad, too. They never get bored with a salad. The reason for that? Vary the ingredients!

Here's my basic salad recipe:

1 cup lettuce

1/2 cup fresh fruit

2 Tbs. cheese

2 Tbs. nuts or seeds

The secret to the basic salad? Mix it up! For the lettuce, try mixed mesclun, cut up romaine, red or green leaf lettuce, or spinach. For the fruit, try pear slices, apple slices, oranges, or dried fruit like cranberries or cherries. For the cheese, try parmesan, asiago, or stronger flavors like goat, feta, bleu, or gorgonzola. For the nuts, try slivered almonds, pecan or walnut pieces, or use sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Then, mix up the salad dressings, too!

Here's how to make the salad pictured above:

2 cups mixed baby greens
1/2 cup sliced pear
2 Tbs. feta cheese
2 Tbs. sunflower seeds

Mix all ingredients together. Use your favorite salad dressing.

Stealthy Cooking Tip:

Don't have time to make a salad? The pre-bagged, pre-washed salads in stores are a real time saver! In general, the darker the color of the lettuce, the greater the nutrients. Whichever kind you buy, lettuce is one of the foods that's it's best to buy organic.

Snack Time

2008-03-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

When the kids come home from school, the first thing they want is a snack. It's the same thing with adults. When I come into the house, the first place I head for is the kitchen. So, what's the snack going to be? The pantry could be my first go-to place. Chips are easy to grab, as are cookies, but they're not very healthy. So, what kind of strategy will make snack time a healthy food time? The easy thing to do is to have only healthy snacks in the pantry. However, if you're like me, that's a lot easier said than done. Both kids and husbands have a way of adding snacks to the grocery cart.

One thing I've found that works every time is to have some pre-prepared snacks ready for whoever gets to the kitchen and wants a snack. A basket of fruit on the counter makes grabbing an apple or a pear easy. I've recently taken that one step further by cutting up the fruit into slices, arranging them on a snack plate and setting it in the refrigerator. Yep, I set it right up front, where it's the first thing anyone will see. I include mostly fruit, then might add a few healthy nuts, and a dipping sauce or some crackers. This strategy works for both kids and adults.

Last summer, I set a bowl of apples on the counter at a summer cabin. When the kids (and adults) got back from a hike, the apples were the first thing everyone saw ... and it was moments until that bowl full of apples was an empty bowl! More recently, we were visiting some health-conscious friends. They set out a large, beautiful platter brimming with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple. Off to the side, was a small, plain plate of crackers. You guessed it - we all dove into the fruit, enjoying the vibrant colors of springtime bounty. Most all of the crackers remained on the plate throughout the afternoon. Snack time is meant to be enjoyed! So, enjoy your healthy fruit snacks!

Stealthy Cooking Tip
Keep the healthy stuff where you can see it!

Orangey Jicama Salad

2008-03-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

I sometimes use this great trick for getting my kids (and whole family) to eat their veggies. Just mix an old favourite with something new and exciting! This salad combines the sweet taste of orange with the crunchy taste of jicama.

Ingredients:
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained
(or 2 fresh mandarin oranges, peeled, and sectioned)
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 jicama, peeled, and cut into strips
1 tsp. cilantro

Directions:
Cut the red pepper and jicama so that they're approximately the same length as the orange slices. Mix everything together and serve.
Sweet orange flavors the whole salad, so you won't need to add any dressing. If your family doesn't like the taste of cilantro, it can be omitted.

Stealthy Cooking Tip
Mix an old favorite, like oranges, with a new vegetable, like jicama! When picking out jicama at the store, look for one that is hard and doesn't have any dark or soft spots.