Currently Browsing: Side dish
Feb 8, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 8, 2011 in appetizer, salad, Side dish, vegetables | 7 comments
I decided to make a batch of these again since I’ve had a few cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans) in my pantry for a while.
They are so easy to make!
Ingredients:
2 cans chick peas, drained and rinsed and patted dry
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic salt
Stir together all the ingredients in a big bowl. Pour onto a cookie sheet with a rim.
Bake at 275 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I would stir them around every 15 minutes or so.
If you take them out and they are still soft in the middle, they aren’t done yet. When they are perfectly roasted they are crunchy like a peanut!
I’m bringing these to salad club today at my office. It should be a nice crunch factor instead of croutons! 
Have a great day – it’s f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g in Chicago today!
Nov 24, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Nov 24, 2010 in a day in the life of me!, holiday foods, party food!, potluck, Side dish | 6 comments
I still can’t believe the year is coming to an end soon. It always seems like its summer, then my kids are back in school and then the Holidays are upon us!
This week I have been especially busy. I once again overextended myself in offering to bake things for charity, collect items for a needy family and deliver them, project manager for the fall girl scout troop candy fundraiser, working full time and then taking care of my Mom’s cats while she is away on vacation. Phew!
Luckily I am off for a 4 day weekend and I am super excited about that. I love spending time at home with my family, cooking, baking, staying in my pajamas as long as possible. And my husband’s side of the family is gathering together on Saturday for what will be my Mother-in-Laws last Thanksgiving with us. She is very ill, her health failing, so people are coming in from all over to make probably the most special Thanksgiving we’ve had. She’s 86 years old, and I know there are a lot of people who have horrible mother-in-law stories, but I was blessed with an awesome one! She’s always loved me like her daughter and I am so lucky for that!
So this Thanksgiving, be thankful of the family you have, because you never know if that could be the last one with them. Enjoy the food, the conversation and great time!
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Are you still looking for Thanksgiving last minute recipes? I’ve recently begun reading Jennifer Iserloh’s blog. She is known as “The Skinny Chef” making foods that taste good, but are good for you. She has a post today with awesome Thanksgiving recipes. CLICK HERE to check those out.
Also, in case you were wondering how to make it through Thanksgiving without gaining weight, go on over to my brother Charlie’s blog. He’s figured out how to enjoy a FULL thanksgiving meal….for only 100 calories. How? CLICK HERE to read about that.
AND, if you are carving a turkey for the first time this year, FOOD TV has a great video clip giving you some tips so you look like a pro CLICK HERE to check it out.
And, my sister is experimenting with a gluten free diet, and I recently met Betsy who has a GREAT and informative blog called Gluten Free Betsy, so if that’s something you are considering, or know someone who is has a gluten sensitivity, it’s definitely a great starting point.
Enjoy your day before Thanksgiving prep!! Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy and relax a little too!
Nov 22, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Nov 22, 2010 in a day in the life of me!, party food!, Side dish | 5 comments
From the left, Christina, my twin sister Biz, me, Mara and Mel! Great to eat with you wonderful ladies!
It’s always great to meet people in person after following their blog, so it’s almost like you know them already even though you’ve never met face to face! Yesterday my twin sister and I met up with Christina (www.dinneratchristinas.com), Mara from (What’s for dinner) and Mel from Bites of Life
I want to give a special shout out to Christina who drove 40 minutes from her house to pick me up on the way! It was great to have that time to talk in the car on the way up. Christina also brought her boyfriend’s sister Di and her boyfriends brother’s wife as well, so we had a great group.
My food pictures didn’t turn out well, the lighting was too dark.
Then it was home, grocery shopping, and getting ready for the week!
I can’t believe it’s the week of Thanksgiving already! What dishes are you making for it?
I’m doing the turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, and I am going to try my hand at making these rolls I saw at www.saveur.com. They are called Gergenes Fluffy Rolls
Photo from Saveur.com
They are NOT the healthiest thing to make, but hey it’s Thanksgiving!
These light and buttery rolls are named after Georgene Hall, a cook near Memphis, who perfected them in the early 50′s. This is the perfect example of a recipe that still is delicious even with the test of time.
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 7-gram packet active dry yeast
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups flour
3/4 cup butter, melted
1. Combine milk, shortening, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; set aside to cool.
2. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water in a large bowl; set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour milk mixture into yeast. Stir in eggs and gradually add flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough gets stiff, then use your hands (dough will be sticky, so grease your hands with a little butter). Brush a small amount of butter on the inside of a large bowl and on one side of a sheet of waxed paper. Place dough in bowl, cover with buttered wax paper, and lay a damp dishcloth on top. Set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, at least 3 hours.
4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until elastic, then roll out to 1/2″ thickness. Cut dough with a 3″ biscuit cutter, dip each round into melted butter, and fold in half. Line up, round edges up, sides touching, on a cookie sheet. Cover as in step 3, and set aside to rise, at least 2 1/2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
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Can’t wait to hear what you are making….are you trying something new?
Oct 21, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Oct 21, 2010 in Dinner Idea, Side dish, vegetables | 4 comments
The picture doesn't do it justice, it was fantastic!
Over the weekend, I made a huge stir fry and still had a fair amount of purple and white cauliflower, so my sister just so happened to make a great side dish which I decided to make. It’s a Cauliflower Gratin. She used a combo of blue cheese and mozzarella cheese and I used a combo of cheddar and mozzarella.
What you will need: (Based on my sister Biz’s recipe!)
1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces (I used purple and white)
1 cup skim milk
1 TB. butter
1 T. flour
3 ounces cheddar cheese
1 oz. mozzarella cheese
1 TB. bread crumbs
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper
squeeze of Chipotle mustard (which for Chicago people, you can buy this mustard at Jewel food stores)
Cut the cauliflower into bite size pieces. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Right before adding the cauliflower add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of white vinegar – the vinegar helps keep the color of the veggies. Cook for 7 minutes, then drain.
Meanwhile, melt the butter and add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the milk and mustard and cook until it starts to thicken.
Remove from heat, add the cheeses and stir. The cheese will melt pretty fast. Put the cooked cauliflower in a casserole dish and add the cheese sauce, stir until well blended. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.
It’s cheesy, the cauliflower is tender and my daughter asked for seconds!
Thanks for the recipe Biz!
So, yesterday, 3 people who left a comment would get a free coupon for Lee & Perrins. Using random.org, the winners are:
MARA
SHELLEY
STACIE
E-mail me your address at slim-shoppin@comcast.net and I’ll get those in the mail to you.
Come back tomorrow to see my roasted red pepper soup recipe. After I cooked the purple cauliflower the water was completely purple, and I thought that it may have a lot of vitamins left, so I used that as a base to my soup! It turned out great!
Jun 17, 2010
Posted by Jennifer on Jun 17, 2010 in dieting, Dinner Idea, Side dish, vegetables | 7 comments
As a Certified Nutrition Consultant, you would think that I’ve figured out how to lose weight AND do what I am supposed to do all the time. But how many times have you seen Dr.’s and Nurses who are obese and think “What’s up with that?” It’s one thing to KNOW what to do, it’s another thing to actually do it!
I read an article today talking about combining nutrition WITH exercise. You can read it’s entirety here:
Dr. Steven Garner who was interviewed for the article tries to dispel the myth that just by exercising you are going to lose weight, he states:
The public at large hasn’t gotten that memo. Dr. Steven Garner, the chairman of radiology at New York Methodist Hospital, would like to change that.
The idea that exercise is the key to weight loss “is a myth, and I don’t know how it got started,” he says. “Exercise makes you healthy in other ways, but people like to attach it to other things, like losing weight.”
If we turned the clock back 30 years, Garner says, “about 20 percent of the population worked out, and about 20 percent were overweight. Now, 70 percent say they do some type of exercise – and two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese. It seems to have gone up identically with exercise.”
In the article, they profiled a woman who joined a gym, worked out 6 days a week and after seeing no results, and getting frustrated, she asked a nutritionist for a meal plan. By incorporating small changes, less fried foods, less frequent junk food, watching what she ordered at dinner, she lost 37 pounds in no time at all!
It made me think about when I was training for my first Chicago marathon in 2005. I was at my heaviest weight at that time (199!) and I was like, “this is going to be awesome!” I am going to lose like 50 pounds….easy! After training for 8 months, running several times per week and doing the longer distances on Saturdays, 5 miles, then 7 miles, then 10 miles, then 14 miles, then 16 miles and getting up to 20 miles (which we ran twice!) guess how much weight I lost??? NOTHING!!
I know its hard to believe that someone can do that, but with I think a lot of people who work out a lot, sometimes you think, “well, I just ran 10 miles, so I can have an extra slice of pizza”, or this bag of M & M’s won’t matter, I ran 20 miles this week. I am living proof that if you don’t change WHAT you eat when you are exercising, your spinning your wheels! Shelley has learned to incorporate exercise AND watches what she eats and has seen awesome results! Roni has added exercise to her routine too! And of course Carla from Ms. Fit is a huge inspiration in the exercise department!
So, if you are working out all the time and aren’t seeing the results you like, it’s time to look at what you are putting into your body and see if making some small adjustments here and there will make the difference.
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Now on to something I made last night……Kale Chips!!!
Kale Chips
I’m pretty sure I can safely say I have not eaten Kale ever? If I have, it was when I was a kid and it probably was only once!
A few weeks ago I was reading Kath Eats and she was eating Kale Chips. She said it was like eating potato chips. I read all the comments, most people loved it, while other people (including one commenter’s husband said it was like eating leaves!) But I went in with an open mind. In fact when I went to the store, I had to ask someone who worked there where the kale was. Between the mustard greens, and other leafy vegetables, I didn’t know exactly what it looked like!
So, last night I decided to make it. Basically just wash the leaves and pat them dry. Tear off little pieces (you don’t need the middle stalk part) and place them in a bowl. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sea salt and bake at 325 for about 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on it, because it can go from perfect to burnt pretty fast.
When you take it out of the oven, sure enough they are crispy like chips. I tasted one. I liked it! My son Mark (my picky eater) tried one, he liked it! My daughter Claire tried one, and she liked it!
I put them in a bowl and sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top. We finished the whole bowl at dinner!
So, make your own opinion about that one, but I will be making these again!!
