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Archive for the ‘Healthy Cook’ Category

If you’ve wondered why you’re seeing mahi mahi on so many restaurant menus these days, one of the reasons is a little trick that’s being played on you. Mahi mahi (Hawaiian for “strong-strong”) is just another name for the fish called dolphin. The restaurants have switched to the name “mahi mahi” so you won’t get confused and think they’re trying to serve you a slice of that mammal that is called dolphin. You wouldn’t like the idea of chowing down on Flipper (would you?).

Sometimes mahi mahi is hyphenated (“mahi-mahi”), and sometimes it goes by the alternative name, dorado. Whatever you choose to call it, this is a fish that has both great flavor and the nice, firm texture that most seafood lovers prefer.

Mahi mahi swim in many waters, but are found most abundantly in the warm Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Next time you dine on mahi mahi—or buy some from the supermarket—you can be confident that it probably came from one of those two bodies.

Fresh mahi mahi is generally available throughout the year, but, in North America at least, you will find the best selection in mid-spring through mid- to late-summer. You can also find frozen mahi mahi fillets all year round.

When buying fresh mahi mahi, look for fish whose meat is pink or light beige. Darker meat is certainly safe to eat, but the taste might be too strong for some people.

Mahi mahi is a great all-around fish for just about any cooking method you want to use. Poach it, steam it, fry it, bake it, grill it—it’s all good. Just be careful not to overcook it.

Here’s a recipe I particularly like for broiled mahi mahi. The zesty orange-juice glaze adds extra interest.

Ingredients

2 pounds mahi mahi fillets (skinless)

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1 bay leaf

Directions

1. Cut the mahi mahi fillets into serving size portions and place side by side in a baking dish.

2. Thaw the juice concentrate. Crumble the bay leaf. Combine these with the other remaining ingredients and mix well to create a marinade.

3. Pour the marinade over the mahi mahi (make sure you turn the fish to coat both sides).

4. Cover baking dish with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 to 43 minutes.

5. Place pan on top rack of oven and broil 5 or 6 minutes on each side. Fish will be ready when you can easily flake it with a fork.

6. Serve!

In today’s fast paced world, cooking a family meal can be a challenge. Fast food seems to be the normal “quick fix” for supper. Although a good home cooked meal can never beat greasy hamburgers.

Making menus can help with the planning process to ensure you’ll always have something home cooked on the table, although time to make meals is still limited. The best way to solve this problem is to cook large amounts of food on your days off of work, and eat leftovers all week.

One of my favorite meals to make on the weekends is pot roast. While it takes awhile to cook, a roast can make several meals all week.

When cooking your roast, you’ll need to plan ahead. Make sure you have a good 4-5 hours where you can keep an eye on it and check it occasionally. Another option is cooking it all day in a crockpot, but my personal preference is cooked in the oven. When you use the oven you have room to put in different types of vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and more. Don’t forget to cook other foods in the oven at the same time. Like types of breads for example.

After the roast is cooked, you and your family can have a wonderful home cooked meal. For the rest of the week, you can have roast sandwiches, baked potatoes as a meal (with the “fixin’s”), quick casseroles, mashed potatoes (side dish), and much more.

Using just one day out of your week when you don’t have to be in a million places at once can make the rest of your week much more easy as far as good healthy meals go.

Eating healthily is a hot topic at the moment, with good reason obviously. There is no need to go through the benefits here because there is a wealth of information readily available on the internet. Suffice to say that eating well is good for the body and the conscience!

On a Budget or Short of Time?
The problem is, many people think that eating well is either time consuming, expensive – or both. If you don’t like cooking or you’re feeding a family on a budget, it is all too tempting to opt for ready meals or other processed food that is quick, easy and cheap. That’s understandable of course: in our busy lifestyles thinking about cooking can be seen as an unnecessary hassle. However, it doesn’t have to be like that and below is a list of ten quick, easy and healthy meals that will hopefully inspire and encourage!

1. Roast Tomato & Garlic Pasta
This is well worth a try because it is absolutely delicious! Simply chuck a load of cherry tomatoes in a roasting pan together with as many peeled cloves of garlic as you fancy. Drizzle with oil, add some crushed chillies and a little bit of sugar and roast in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. If you’re feeling that way inclined, add some diced chorizo – but of course in moderation because it’s supposed to be healthy! Cook up some pasta, mix with the roasted tomatoes and garlic, and enjoy!

2. Chicken & Avocado Salad
This recipe can be found at the BBC Good Food site. It’s a great summer recipe and delicious. Add whatever you like to the salad – peppers, radishes and olives are always good!

3. Black Eyed Beans with Spinach
This is nicer than it sounds! It takes about an hour, but it’s not labour-intensive. Soak and cook the dried black eyed beans according to the instructions. When they’re cooked, take the pan off the heat and add loads of spinach for 3 or 4 minutes. Strain and serve with lots of tomatoes, red onion, olives, lemon and olive oil.

4. Spiced Chickpea, Avocado, Pepper & Tomato Salad
This recipe can be found at the Waitrose Web site. If you’re feeling particularly in the mood for cooking, you can follow the recipe and prepare the peppers and tomatoes according to the instructions. Otherwise just dice the peppers and halve the tomatoes without bothering to de-skin the peppers and de-seed the tomatoes.

5. Spiced Lentil Soup
As with the black eyed beans mentioned above, Spiced Lentil Soup is nicer than it sounds. In fact, if you’re not a great fan of veggies, make a soup out of them! Believe it or not, even cauliflower soup and broccoli soup tastes delicious!

6. Chicken Noodles with Black Bean Sauce
This has got quite a lot of salt so don’t have it too often. The list of ingredients is simple but for an even nicer, healthier dish add baby sweetcorn, broccoli florets, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. Just make sure you have a big wok!

7. Super Quick Fish Curry
If you’re not a great fan of fish, this meal is ideal. Cod is mild and is disguised anyway by the delicious sauce.

8. Pasta Salad
This is a great dish that can be rustled up in a flash. Cook up some pasta and add whatever ingredients you have in your kitchen – tomatoes, sweetcorn, artichokes, avocado, garlic, sun dried tomatoes and rosemary are all good in this dish. Add olive oil and a touch of wine vinegar if you like it tangy and serve with crusty brown bread.

9. Sticky Chicken with Mango Couscous
Delicous, quick and healthy – what more do you need! The recipe for this dish can be found at the BBC Good Food site.

10. Mixed Mushroom & Ham Salad
Another great summer meal, but perhaps give the butter a miss.

Any chef will tell you that we first eat with our eyes and then our mouths. If you cook mostly brown and white meals, you are not only sabotaging your meal but it is not healthy. Do away with fat when cooking, although some fats are good for you, use them sparingly. Olive oil is good but not to cook with, some will use it for sauteing and that is alright. Start using a non stick cooking spray, there are a lot of good ones out there. Most only have about six calories and they do work in coating the pan.

Using our eyes when cooking means to add color to any dish, adding colorful vegetables such as peppers, green, yellow and red will add flavor as well as looking good. Even when cooked they are quite colorful. When you dish is colorful it draws the taste glands up to the front of your mouth and you can hardly wait to taste it. The use of herbs adds many different flavors as well.

Get out of the habit of frying, try baking instead. You can even bake French fries if you have a craving for them. Foods absorb the grease or oil that you use and that is not good for your blood vessels and heart. Some will bake fish or French fries, take them out of the oven just before they are done and spray them with a non stick spray and pop them back in the oven; this gives the food a bit of crispiness.

Try and bake your goodies with honey or even olive oil instead of butter or oil. Believe it or not a cake I baked using olive oil tasted better than with all that butter. Do not be afraid to experiment with it, you can be pleasantly surprised. The cake was richer in flavor and it was healthier for you. Using artificial sweeteners are still up in the air about if they are good for you or not. I do not use them as I feel there are more chemicals added when they take out the ‘sugar’. I stick with honey, you only use a small amount and it is better for you.

There are hundreds of cook books for healthy cooking, you can go online or to a book store and take your pick. They are all full of wonderful recipes and information to start your healthy cooking adventure. Your family and your heart will thank you.

There are several oils for healthy cooking. One of the best is olive oil. It has a high smoke point and does not break down quickly as some other types of oils do. When cooking with olive oil it will not lose its health benefits so it is a good oil to use in salad dressings and for cooking with. Extra virgin olive is the best in terms of nutritional value and health benefits. It is good for your heart too.

There are different types of olive oil extra virgin is the best and the least processed from the first pressing of olives. The next type is virgin olive oil which is from the second pressing of olives. Pure olive oil goes through processing and refining and extra light undergoes the most processing of all of the kinds.

When looking for a healthy oil to cook with look at the type of fats it has. Mono saturated fats reduce the level of what is known as bad cholesterol. The oils that have a high level of this fat are olive oil, canola oil and peanut oil. Poly unsaturated fats with omega 3 and 6 are considered healthy fats too. These oils are corn, soybean, safflower, and grape seed. Other good choices for cooking are walnut and flax seed oil. If you are going to do cooking that requires high heat choose peanut or sunflower oil for searing and frying. Oils that are good for baking, saut

Most mothers of school-age children know that a healthy serving of fruits and vegetables each day will do wonders for their children’s health. However, getting them to eat the vegetables is an entirely different story.

Since it will be almost impossible to serve a hefty plate of steamed vegetables to a seven-year-old, moms need to find creative and delicious ways to encourage children into having their vegetables. Here are a few ideas that might help.

Hide Those Veggies in a Little Italian Dish

Thank goodness for pizza and pasta. No child will pass up having them for lunch or dinner any day. They will even agree to have them all day, every day — no questions asked. So this is a good opportunity for you to sneak in a vegetable or two.

Having eggplant in lasagna is a good trick. Eggplant when cooked right actually tastes like meat, especially when drowned in marinara sauce and a generous helping of cheese. You can also throw basil and spinach in there and they wouldn’t really know the difference.

Vegetables are also great pizza toppings, especially if cooked and chopped just right. If you do not want your kids to see the vegetables, buy frozen dough that has been shaped and half-baked as pizza rounds. You can roll out the dough onto a floured surface, pile your sauce, toppings and cheese in the middle and seal it to make a calzone.

Ravioli is also a good way to put in vegetables. You can use frozen wanton wrappers from any Asian grocery store to make quick homemade ravioli. Place chopped spinach or blanched chopped carrots in between wrappers, seal and then boil. Make sure that you have an extra-special sauce with all the yummy beef and cheese. You can even place cheese and meat inside the ravioli to further mask the vegetables.

Bake Them into Dessert

Vegetables such as carrots and squash can be baked into a cake or made into a pie. Even when taken at face value, most kids still love pumpkin pie for thanksgiving, especially when served with a generous topping of whipped cream, chocolate syrup and nuts. Since they are kids, they can still have all these add-ons guilt-free.

Another good way to serve vegetables would be as cakes, bars, cookies and cupcakes. Carrots are a favorite vegetable ingredient for cupcakes and cookies though you can still find delicious cupcake recipes available for desserts that have ingredients such as zucchini, broccoli and bell peppers. Carrot cake is normally baked with cinnamon and frosted with cream cheese frosting. Despite its delicious taste, it actually has more carrots than it does flour, making it really healthy.

Cupcakes are great for ‘hiding’ vegetables, since they can be easily given to kids. With the right frosting, vegetable cupcakes are certainly a tasty treat, great as dessert or as an after-school snack. The carrot cake recipe can also be used for cupcakes, and topped with the same cream cheese frosting.

Now, your kids will always have their vegetables and it will be as easy as handing them a yummy cupcake.