Still recovering & it’s still summer

January 20, 2008 at 7:24 am (Uncategorized)
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I’m still recovering from the gastritis associated with my GERD. Eating healthy, very low-fat, and in small, regular portions rather than a set 3 meals per day. It just takes time to get back to feeling “normal” and pain free.

We’re still eating the dhal and rice I cooked a few nights ago. Who would have thought that 3 small potatoes, 2 small carrots and 1 cup of lentils would have made so much food!! This will be our 4th night. Just as well it’s yummy. And it’s very soothing comfort food for an inflamed stomach (as long as you leave out any hot spices like chilli or curry powder).

Lunches have been delightful affairs. Take a small pita bread, warm or toast lightly. Spread with light Philly (cream cheese, 80% reduced fat version). Cover with a small handful of assorted lettuce & salad leaves (I use mignonette, baby spinach & cos). Throw some fresh, chopped basil and lots of parsley on top (I use continental or flat-leaf parsley for its stronger taste). Finally, a few halved kalamata olives. Eat. Enjoy! This tastes so fresh and green!

In spite of the heat (we’re back to days of 39 and higher temperatures again) I opted to do some baking yesterday. I followed the recipe in Nigella Lawson’s book Nigella Express, for Breakfast Bars.  It was incredibly easy to throw together and only made a few, slight alterations to the recipe.

Pre-heat the oven to 130C (a very slow oven). Mix together in a very large bowl:

  • 250g rolled oats (not the instant oats)
  • 75g shredded coconut (I used moist coconut flakes)
  • 50g dried cranberries (craisins – available in the dried fruit/baking aisle of Australian supermarkets)
  • 50g mixed dried fruit (I use Angas Park’s Dried Fruit Medley)
  • 125g mixed seeds (I used pumpkin seeds, sunflower kernels and pine nuts, conveniently packaged together by the “Lucky” brand in Australia.)
  • 100g chopped, unsalted macadamia nuts (Nigella’s recipe calls for 125g peanuts but I prefer macadamias and I only had 100g.)

Open a 395g can of condensed milk and pour into saucepan. Warm gently. (I used the “skinny” or reduced fat version of condensed milk. If you read the nutrition label on the cans you’ll see there’s an incredible difference in fat content!)

When the milk is warm, pour over the mixture and stir thoroughly. You want everything coated. Spread the mixture into an oiled rectangular baking tin or use a throw away foil one, 23 x 33 x 4 cm. Bake in slow oven for 1 hour.

I found the top was beginning to crisp a little too much after 45 minutes so covered the top with some foil. Next time I’ll bake covered for the first 20 mins, then uncovered to ensure it turns golden and slightly crisp.

Let the tray cool for 15 minutes, then cut into 16 chunky squares. Let cool completely. Store in airtight container.

I have to say, this recipe is definitely a winner. I have tried a number of differing recipes for muesli and breakfast bars, but this has been the best. And it’s healthy. Although do remember that because of the condensed milk and the dried fruit, the sugar content is high.

Rather than eating these for breakfast, I eat them as a hefty snack. Preferably in two sittings. Each of those 16 bars was a fair size.

I think you could also make “biscuits” (cookies) out of this recipe too if you didn’t want the bother of cutting up slices. I’ll experiment next time I make this. I think it would work out well if I rolled out small balls for biscuits and they’d make a lot more than 16. Cooking times would need to be adjusted.

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GERD is a pain in the gut

January 17, 2008 at 6:27 am (Uncategorized)
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I’ve been unwell over the past couple of days with GERD (well, I assume that’s what it is). Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. A wee bit of nocturnal reflux and a lot of upper right abdominal pain which pierced right through to my back. Into this mix we throw some nausea and feelings of feebleness. The pain was so severe the other night that I did consider asking to be taken to the emergency department at the local hospital, but I was so tired and all I wanted was to sleep. Which I did, off and on … eventually. I’m not yet fully convinced that my gall bladder isn’t involved with my (poor) health symptoms. (Previous tests, usually done when I’m symptom free, have shown no sign of gall stones or inflammation.)

I lost most of my appetite over the few days of illness. I was eating only because I knew I had to. Thankfully I’d managed to roast some potatoes, kumara (orange sweet potato) and red capsicum, which I then served over a bed of warm, lime-juice drenched couscous. My partner and daughter both loved it. I was able to eat it, but as I said earlier, I was only eating because I knew I had to keep up my nutrients.

Today I feel I’m back into the land of the living and my appetite is returning, albeit slowly. I watched Nigella Lawson’s Feast last night. It was the episode featuring exotic, bite-sized foods.  Whilst I didn’t feel the rush and urgent need to dive into my kitchen and start cooking as I usually do after watching Nigella, I did feel slightly inspired, with the thought “must file those recipes away for future use”. So I knew I was on the road to recovery.

This morning I opted to cook something that is warming to eat and look at, nourishing and extremely low-fat yet high in protein. I wanted something to fill me up, that would make me feel good inside, that would feel as though it was healing my inflamed stomach and intestines. (My intestines feel like they’ve had the rough end of a pineapple shoved through them, brutally, leaving me feeling very sore and bruised inside.)

So I prepared a form of dhal. I added chickpeas and vegetables to my lentils.

  • 1 onion, diced finely
  • spices: ground cumin, coriander, turmeric & garam masala (to taste)
  • 440g tin chopped tomatoes (no added salt)
  • 1 cup vegetable stock (plus extra water or stock)
  • 1 cup red lentils (dried)
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 3 small potatoes, chopped or diced into small cubes
  • 440g tin chickpeas
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • fresh parsley or other green herbs to taste, chopped roughly

Sauté the onion on low heat until onion is very soft, almost caramalized. (I cook in grape seed oil and use a large, heavy-based saucepan.) Stir in the cumin, coriander and turmeric whilst onion cooks. This will release the aromas and flavours of the spices. I used 1 large tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander and probably 1/4 tsp of turmeric (just a sprinkle). I added 1 tsp garam masala just as the onion was fully cooked.

Add the tin of chopped tomatoes (you could use 2 -3 fresh tomatoes, peel first) and then the cup of stock. At this stage I saw a cup of liquid stock was not going to be adequate so I added another half cup of water. I then added the carrots, potatoes, lentils and chickpeas. Stir. Add more stock or water to cover (you need enough liquid for the carrots and potatoes to boil and cook, and to allow for the lentils to swell during cooking.) Reduce heat and simmer, with the lid on for 20 – 30 mins until lentils and other vegetables are cooked through.  Stir occasionally. I found I needed to add a bit more water during the cooking.

When it’s cooked, the dhal should be thickened, all vegetables cooked through, the lentils softened and it should look and smell glorious. If you’re a fan of spicy or curry, you could add curry powder to the mix. I omitted this today as I know my stomach wouldn’t cope.

I added a big chunk of chopped fresh parsley at the end and transferred into a large casserole dish.

I’ll serve it tonight with wholemeal (brown) rice. I like the nutty flavour of the brown rice.

By the time the dhal and the rice were cooked it was almost lunchtime. I’d been flipping through a copy of Nigella Express and I was reminded of the scrumtiousness of  mushroom pizzas. Nigella uses naan bread, I used Greek Yiros bread. I spread a mix of hommus (reduced fat) and tomato paste over the base. Over this I scattered a very large helping of fresh, chopped basil and parsley. Some chopped Swiss Brown mushrooms and kalamata olives. Topped it off with a pile of grated reduced-fat tasty cheese. Cooked it in an 180C oven for 12 minutes until the cheese had turned golden but before the yiros bread had crisped too much. It was a delightfully aromatic experience to eat. Not to mention healthy. (I only ate half, my partner ate the other half.)

I only wish now that I was fit enough to go into town and do the shopping. But alas, I’m still recovering and I think the rest is doing me good. Maybe tomorrow.

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A cool change … well, sort of

January 14, 2008 at 3:48 am (Uncategorized)
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Yesterday we ended our run of 40 or greater temperatures. It only got up to 37 yesterday, and today we’re headed for 38. It may only be two or three degrees lower, but it’s oh so lovely! It’s a gorgeous, sunny day outdoors, not a cloud in sight, and the air is crystal clear with no dust blowing about, in spite of the breeze. Just beautiful.

One of the commenters, a lady from Italy, mentioned that where she lives, the searing heat of an Italian summer (just as hot as an Australian summer, something many Aussies tend to forget) rarely penetrates into her kitchen because her house is built to withstand the environmental conditions. That means very thick stone walls. Great insulation and it negates the need for air-conditioning. Oh how I wish Australian builders had followed the Italian tradition of house building rather than the English tradition. Even these days, with the benefit of greater knowledge and technology, we still don’t build our houses to truly cope with the hot summers. Would you believe, but even here in very hot Alice Springs there are some houses and apartment blocks built without overhanging eaves??? Wonderful way to let in loads of hot, summery sunshine and cook the occupants. The vast majority of my neighbours run their airconditioners 24/7. The conscientious ones turn them off for a few hours in the early morning, but by 9am you can hear the hum of the machines churning all around you. I’m lucky. My house is made of brick and even has internal brick walls. It’s also surrounded by very deep verandahs front and back which means most of the rooms don’t bear the full brunt of the sun. My bedroom gets a couple of hours of sun on one corner only, so it’s not too bad. The kitchen also gets a wee bit of sun on one corner in the middle of the day, but again it’s not too bad. All this means we don’t need to use our airconditioner until lunchtime on the very hot days (if we’re at home) and it’s turned off by 8 or 9 pm (our nights are very warm, around 23 – 25 with warm breezes).

I thought with the cooler change in weather here I’d be keen to head back into the kitchen for some baking forays, but no, I’m content to just sit here and enjoy the cooler temperature, look out at the beautiful clear blue sky above the mountains in my back yard and do anything but cook. We all need a day off now and then. Apart from making the pizza for tonight, which I will do with great glee because I adore pumpkin and pizza both, I’m not cooking.

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What to do with left over pasta and sauce

January 10, 2008 at 3:56 am (Uncategorized)
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We had plenty of sauce left over, and the taste had mellowed and improved over the days since it was first cooked. I’d picked up a packet of Latina’s new variety of fresh pasta – the wholemeal spinach and ricotta ravioli. My partner and I were curious to see how well the wholemeal version would taste. It was scrumptious. And we had some of that left over too, to which I added some cooked wholemeal spiral pasta. Mixed it in with the sauce, made a nice, thick cheese sauce which was poured over the top. Topped with grated cheese and slid it into an oven to bake for half an hour until the topping was all golden brown.

Utterly delightful!

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About the pasta sauce

January 7, 2008 at 2:23 am (cooking)
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Well I cooked my pasta sauce as detailed below. I sautéed the onions and mushies in a frypan on the stove top, but then finished the sauce off in the microwave as it was so hot and I didn’t want to heat the kitchen up any further.

Unfortunately, I didn’t notice at the time of cooking, but the onions didn’t soften as much as I’d have liked, so they’re a little crunchy. Nice, but well, just not soft and sweet.

And I possibly didn’t microwave the sauce for long enough. There was enough to fill a large round casserole dish and so I should have zapped it for around 8 to 10 minutes. Instead I only zapped it for 6, so it ended up having a very fresh, slightly raw taste. Raw is the wrong word because it was all cooked, it’s just that the onions and the zucchini (courgettes) were firm to the bite.

Still very edible though. Even if my partner said it was too runny (if I’d simmered it on the stove top it would have evaporated down and thickened a lot more).

We’re having the left-overs for tea tonight. And quite happily too.

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What I ate for lunch today

January 6, 2008 at 4:14 am (cooking)
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I had a little salad left over from last night. I lightly toasted one side of a slice of sour dough bread. Spread hommus on the untoasted side. Plonked some salad on top, a twist of the pepper grinder, added a small handful of grated, low-fat tasty cheese and placed it under the griller to melt the cheese. Sort of a cheese on toast meeting bruschetta.

Healthy. Tasty. Yummy.

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Come into my kitchen!

January 6, 2008 at 2:21 am (cooking)
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Hello!

Don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here it’s 39 degrees outside. That’s Celsius. For the non-metricated, 39 is very hot! Well over 100F. Obviously it’s summer. Most of Australia just has hot to very hot summers. But here in the desert we get very hot to extremely hot days, for days on end usually. However, I shouldn’t complain. The 2007/2008 summer has, so far, been very mild.

It’s not mild any more though. And it’s hard to be inspired to cook, let alone plan healthy nutritionally balanced meals for yourself and or the family. Especially if you’ve come home to a hot house after a long, hard day at work. A lot of people will simply eat salads, day after hot day. Generally served with barbecued meat if they’re not vegetarians. I like salads. But not every day. A lot of people will order take away, but that’s costly and can blow out most people’s budgets if done too often.

So how do you stay inspired?

First, you have to recognize that summer is hard work. It is okay, I believe, to resort to using frozen vegetables or jars of ready made sauces (but try to choose sauces that are not overly processed). Keep your meals simple. And no, you don’t need to serve more than one course. Dessert can be passed over to become a late supper, and is probably best to serve chilled fresh fruit, sliced thinly and presented decoratively on a small plate. Looks divine, looks artistic and appetizing, but it’s healthier than a pudding.

Secondly, look to cook books or DVDs of your favourite cooking shows for sources of new recipes and motivation to get into the kitchen. This summer I bought Rosemary Stanton’s new book, healthy eating for Australian families. What a wonderful and truly inspiring book! Thank you Rosemary! For those who are unaware, Rosemary Stanton is one of Australia’s best known and respected nutritionists. You can trust her nutritional information to be scientifically accurate. Very important for those of you looking to adopt healthier eating patterns and lose weight. This book is not vegetarian, but there are a number of vegetarian recipes in it.

My other source of inspiration has been Nigella Lawson. My daughter gave me a copy of Nigella Express for Christmas, and I had already borrowed from the library a copy of Forever Summer. Nigella? Yes, I know many of us associate Nigella with decadently rich and choclately recipes BUT do not be so quick to judge. The vast majority of her recipes are very healthy, and those that aren’t can usually be easily rendered healthier with simple substitution of ingredients.

I don’t always need to religiously adhere to the recipes. I’m happy to experiment and change ingredients here and there, especially if the end result is healthier and vegetarian.

Does your supermarket publish free food magazines? Woolworths and Coles in Australia both do, and their magazines can be great sources for new ideas and recipes for the jaded cook.

So, armed with cookbooks and magazines, you now need to to allot yourself some leisurely time to read through and enjoy fantasizing about cooking. For those who work full time, you’re going to have to do this one weekend, just give yourself a couple of hours. Make yourself a coffee or cold drink, a snack and take books and a notepad and pencil into your favourite sitting area. Relax, read and enjoy.

In summer I also try to ensure I cook meals that will have left-overs so I don’t have to cook every night. I love to cook but I don’t like having to cook. There is a subtle difference.

I do up a meal plan each Saturday. It will cover a couple of weeks, and on it I’ll note if anyone is going to be away and not need feeding. I won’t always stick to the menu plan, but it’ll be there as a guide, primarily for shopping purposes.

I buy fresh fruit and vegetables twice a week. But when I was working full time I had to scale back this to just one big shop, on a Saturday morning with the crowds. I by far prefer shopping at a more leisurely pace, doing the main groceries once a fortnight or every three weeks, and fruit and veg twice a week.

Clean out and organise your pantry cupboards. In my current kitchen I don’t have a proper walk-in pantry. It’s appalling! I’m back to the old-fashioned kitchen cupboards which aren’t at eye height. The top cupboards are too high for me, so everything goes into the bottom cupboards. Which makes it very important to keep it organised and tidy so I can see at a glance what I’m short of when I’m writing out my shopping list, or looking in for inspiration.

How hot’s your kitchen at dinner time? Does it cop the fierce setting sun? My kitchen’s lovely in the mornings, gets a bit of sun around lunchtime and then stays constantly warm for the remainder of the day. My preference, in summer, is to pre-prepare my evening meals so they’re cooked, covered, in the fridge, ready to pop into a microwave later in the evening. The exception for me is when I am preparing salads. I much prefer to do those at the last minute, or no earlier than an hour or two ahead.

If your kitchen is dreadfully stifling in summer, is there somewhere else you can chop the vegies and cook? Those outdoor kitchens so popular in Australia these days are a wonderful invention.

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