Candy Cane Cookies

The other day I was doing a search on Tasty Kitchen for recipes to help me use up my extra candy canes from the holidays and came up with this lovely cookie recipe, originally called Candy Cane Crinkles, that is my new holiday addiction. I just might have to stock candy canes in my cupboard year-round so I can make these whenever I want. Compared to the original recipe, my alterations save you 14 calories and 1 g fat and add 1 g of fiber per cookie. And, trust me, you are not going to eat just one!

Candy Cane Cookies

Cream together:
5 T margarine (or butter)
3 T ground flax seed meal
1 c white sugar

Add:
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 T nonfat milk

In a separate bowl, sift together:
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine until just mixed. Then add:
1/4 c crushed peppermint candy (about 4 regular-sized candy canes)

Roll dough into balls and lightly coat in:
powdered sugar (I use about 1/4 c for the whole recipe)

Place coated balls of dough on a well-greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until just barely done (Do not over bake! I bake these on the top rack of my oven to prevent over baking). Leave on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes and then move cookies to cooling rack (you want them to be movable but still quite warm so they don't stick to the pan). Makes 2 dozen.

Much-Awaited Rosemary Peasant Bread

This is the best bread ever. Most of the time when I ask my husband what he wants for dinner he says, "Anything with Rosemary Bread." I'm pretty sure my friend Becca drew my attention to the recipe several years ago, and it was probably the first real bread I ever made on my own--before this the prospect always scared me to death! It's so easy because it's no-knead; you just mix and let it rise a few times and you're done. Usually I mix everything initially using the dough hook of my Kitchen Aid, but you can do it just as well by hand if you need to.

I've tried really hard to find out who came up with this recipe originally, but to no avail. It's been copied and pasted like wildfire across the internet. This is how I like to make it. Using just a quarter wheat flour doubles the fiber content of this bread. This recipe is vegan and has only trace amounts of fat. One recipe makes two bread rounds that can fit together on a cookie sheet. I've made the serving size a fourth of a round because it's so good you can't eat any less than that! If you wanted to get creative, you could use whatever herbs you wanted inside and on top.

Just a few more tips: Don't feel too bad about greasing your hands and the tops of the loaves as otherwise this bread has no fat in it. You want to grease your hands rather than flouring them so that the dough remains sticky and moist (it doesn't need more flour). You need to grease the tops of the loaves for the second rising so it doesn't stick to the plastic wrap and remains moist.

Rosemary Peasant Bread

Dissolve together until foamy (about ten minutes):
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 c. very warm water
1 T sugar

Add and stir until blended, but do not knead:
2 tsp salt
1 c whole wheat flour
3 c white flour
1 1/2 tsp rosemary

Dough will be sticky. Cover bowl with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hr. Grease your hands well and remove dough from bowl. Divide into two rounds and place on a prepared cookie sheet (grease the cookie sheet and sprinkle with corn meal). Spray the tops of the loaves with cooking spray (so they won't stick when covered) and sprinkle with coarse salt and more rosemary. Cover loaves lightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour.

After the second rising, bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees (without removing bread) and bake for 15 minutes more. Delicious served warm with fresh soup (like Golden Chowder--yum!) or dipped in olive oil and herbs.

HealthiFood Seven-Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna is my most favorite dinner dish, which I guess I have in common with Garfield, and it was meant to be when my birthday is National Lasagna Day! This recipe is the result of a lot of different tries to come up with my favorite lasagna. Stoffer's scoot over!

HealthiFood Seven-Vegetable Lasagna

2 ½ c HealthiFood basic red pasta sauce (divided)

¼ c cauliflower puree

¾ c cooked and drained ground sausage

2 c nonfat cottage cheese

3 c chopped fresh baby spinach (divided)

4 c grated mozzarella cheese (divided)

10 dry, uncooked lasagna noodles

Mix together 1 ½ cups of the sauce (reserving 1 cup), the cauliflower puree, the sausage, and the cottage cheese in a bowl.

Spray a square glass pan (8x8 or 9x9) and spread half a cup of the sauce you reserved (not mixed in the cottage cheese mixture) on the bottom of the pan. Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce.

Spread one-third of the cottage cheese mixture (about 1 ½ cups) over the noodles. Sprinkle on 1 cup of spinach followed by 1 cup of cheese. Add a layer of noodles on top of the cheese, then another third of the cottage cheese mixture (another 1 ½ cups), and another cup each of spinach and cheese. Start with noodles again for one more layer (noodles, cottage cheese sauce, spinach, and cheese), using the rest of the ingredients you have left except the last half cup of reserved red sauce, one cup of cheese, and enough noodles for the top layer. Place your final noodles and spread the reserved sauce on top. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour (until nice and bubbly), removing the aluminum foil for the last 20 minutes of baking. (Hint: this makes a nice and full casserole that will most likely drip. You will want to either bake it on a foil-lined cooking sheet or place foil on the bottom of your oven.)

Whole Wheat Breakfast Biscuit

My husband is a breakfast man. Personally, I'd rather not eat until ten or eleven, so finding enough recipes so I didn't get sick from having pancakes every morning has been a must in our family. This is a simple breakfast recipe that we like that seriously takes about ten minutes to prepare. The original recipe, "Bannock" (apparently it's Scottish), is from Marie Ricks, but my alterations increase the fiber per serving by 69%.

Whole Wheat Breakfast Biscuit

Mix together:
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1 1/2 T sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Add:
3/4 c water

Mix together and form into a sticky dough, spread onto a hot nonstick griddle until as flat as you can get it (about 1/2"). Fry like a pancake (a really thick one) until lightly brown. Flip and cook on the other side. Serve warm with butter or jam.

Fresh Strawberry Sorbet

This is one of my favorite treats. Love it! It tastes so fresh it will blow you away. This recipe works well with strawberries that are fully ripe, and may be a great way to finish off a box that is starting to get a little mushy. Make it today--please!

Fresh Strawberry Sorbet

Boil/dissolve together:
1/4 c white sugar
1/4 c water

Place in a blender:
1 lb strawberries (washed, de-stemmed, and halved)

Pour sugar syrup over strawberries and add:
1 T lime juice

Blend together until smooth. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Enjoy!

Buttery Squash Noodles

This is one of those rare recipes that I have not altered one bit. It's originally "'Buttered' Noodles" from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. When I first looked at the recipe I thought she was crazy. I didn't think I could ever get my family to eat it, but they did. This is one of our favorite quick meals--it's done in about the time it takes to cook the pasta! We like using short noodles like penne or shells best.

Buttery Squash Noodles

Cook and drain:
8 oz dry pasta (preferably whole grain)

Add and stir to melt:
2 T margarine

Add and mix:
1/2 c yellow squash puree
2 T grated Parmesan (fresh will make it like 20x as good, trust me)
1/4 c nonfat milk
1/4 tsp salt

Enjoy!

HealthiFood Cooking Tip; White Whole Wheat Flour

If you've taken a look at your local baking aisle in search of whole wheat flour, you may wonder what to think when you come across white whole wheat flour.

White whole wheat flour is a whole grain flour made of a lighter strain of wheat than your typical whole wheat flour. This lighter wheat looks "whiter" and has a sweeter flavor that makes it a lot more like white flour with all the benefits of whole wheat flour.

The only drawback to white whole wheat flour is it is more expensive than traditional whole wheat flours. If you are able to get it, you can easily replace all the all-purpose (or white) flour in a recipe with white whole wheat flour and your family will hardly tell the difference

HealthiFood Canned Soup Saver

Fact: I have bags of vegetable puree in my freezer. This is convenient in many ways, but especially when we're going to eat canned soup.

Ever since I learned how to make my own creamy, delicious soups from scratch, I don't really like canned soup. But when I'm too sick to cook, it's a better choice than fast food, so sometimes we do it.

Adding vegetable purees makes canned soups a lot more healthy and delicious. I usually select something that will hide well or I know my family won't mind. For example, in a beef broth soup that's already brown, they probably won't notice some spinach puree that just makes the brown slightly darker and greener. They probably won't notice carrot puree added to a chicken broth or cauliflower puree added to a creamed soup.

The more vegetable puree you can add and the more variety, the better. This will bulk your canned soup with added vitamins and fiber and reduce the sodium content per serving. Grinding in a little black pepper is usually my final finishing touch, and then we've got a super quick meal that tastes just a little more homemade.

HealthiFood Applesauce Spice Cake

This cake is a winner. I dare you to use broccoli, and I promise that no one will ever know. Feel free to be generous with your spices and to use all whole wheat flour and replace all the oil with flax, if you want/can. This recipe has been adapted from Western Family using principles from Jessica Seinfeld, but my recipe has 68% less fat, 50% less sugar, and 2 more grams of fiber per serving.

HealthiFood Applesauce Spice Cake

Combine:
1 1/2 c white flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 c brown sugar
1/4 c ground flax seed meal
1 T baking soda
1 T cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

In a separate bowl, mix together:
1/4 c canola oil
2 eggs
3 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 c broccoli puree

Mix wet and dry thoroughly. Pour into a greased and floured bunt pan. Bake at 300 degrees for about 90 minutes. Turn out of pan and cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar.

Chewy Almond Cookie Cake

I ran into this recipe and decided to try it because of my husband's Swedish heritage, and I'm so glad I did! It is so delicious! The original is "Swedish Visiting Cake" from Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours, but it was shared with me by Dinner's on Me. However, my version saves you 60 calories and 6 grams of fat per serving and doubles the fiber.



Chewy Almond Cookie Cake

Blend together:
1 cup white sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1/4 tsp lemon juice


Cream with:
1/4 c butter or margarine

Add:
1/4 c ground flax seed meal
 2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (imitation is okay)


Then add:
1/2 c white flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour


Spread batter into a greased pie pan and sprinkle with a little extra sugar. Put the pie pan inside a cake pan or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes until the outside is golden and crisp. It's wonderful served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Choosing a Whole Wheat Bread

If you haven't already, I highly suggest changing to wheat bread. What's the difference? Up to two grams of fiber and/or protein per slice!

In contemplating the switch, it's important to choose a wheat bread that you and your family likes to eat. There are a lot of options out there. We found one that uses concentrated wheat flour and is light and chewy. Since we found a bread we like, we much prefer whole wheat bread! White bread feels flimsy and unsatisfying now. We love the hearty texture and nutty taste of whole wheat. Shop around and find a whole wheat bread that you love.

One way to start integrating into whole wheat bread is to make French toast with it--how can it be too bad under all that syrup? You could also integrate by making sandwiches half white and half whole wheat until everyone gets more used to it. And remember, once you make the switch you'll have all the benefits of whole grains!

Lack of Onions?

Have you noticed a lack of onions in my recipes? And what’s up with that?

Well, my husband won’t eat them. So I compensate with a combination of onion powder and chopped celery. The celery gives a similar texture as onion and the powder gives the flavor. If your family prefers fresh onions, feel free to use them and omit the onion powder in my recipes.

Golden Chowder

I don't know about you, but it's still snowing off and on here, so it's still soup season to me! Ever since I learned how to make my own delicious soups, I don't even like them from a can unless it's an emergency (like I'm too sick to cook or something). This is one of my favorites--colorful, creamy, and delicious. The original recipe, "Corn and Potato Chowder with Butternut Squash and Ham" from Lynda's Recipe Box, uses cubed butternut squash, but I keep puree on hand and I don't think my menfolk will eat cubed squash, so that's one of my main alterations. To be honest, other than the half and half, the original recipe is pretty healthy already. But here is how I like to make it, which also cuts each serving down by 50 calories and 4 grams of fat.

Golden Chowder

Melt in a large pot:

1 T butter or margarine

Add and roast, stirring often:

2 c frozen corn 

Add and keep stirring frequently:

1/2 c diced ham (or any other cooked meat like bacon or I've even done bologne)

2 cups diced potatoes

1 rib celery, finely chopped

2 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp black pepper (freshly ground, if possible)

dash of paprika

Add and bring to a boil:

3 c vegetable or chicken bouillon or broth

Simmer until potatoes are very tender.

Turn heat to low and stir in:

1 c butternut squash puree

1 c frozen mixed vegetables

Mix in a separate bowl before adding to soup:

2 T whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c milk

Let soup thicken, salt it to taste, and you're done! Makes about 7 cups.

HealthiFood Hot Cocoa Bar

There's still snow on the ground where I live--April or not!

The HealthiFood hot cocoa tip is to add 2 T yam puree to 1 cup of hot cocoa (use your favorite mix or method). One trick I like to do is to buy two kinds of a really nice brand of hot chocolate: regular and fat-free. Then I mix the two for a reduced-fat hot chocolate--the best of both worlds! Using the Hot Cocoa Bar additions means you can buy your basic mix in bulk and still offer your family a variety of flavors.

You don't believe me about the yam puree, but trust me. Once you try it there's no going back! I was inspired to add the puree by Jessica Seinfeld, and 2 T per 1 cup is just how I like it. You won't believe how you can't taste the yam; it just makes your hot chocolate richer. 2 T also adds almost a gram of fiber.

At our house we like to have hot chocolate just the way we feel like it, which is where we came up with the Hot Cocoa Bar. Here are our favorite additions and variations. Keep in mind that all start with added yam puree!

Mexican Hot Chocolate: Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon

White Chocolate: Add 1 T white chocolate chips

Rich Chocolate: Add 1 T milk chocolate chips

Creamy Chocolate: Add 1 T non-dairy coffee creamer

Mint Chocolate: Add part of a candy cane or round mint hard candy. You could use any kind of hard candy for another flavor like cinnamon or butterscotch.

Vanilla Chocolate: Add 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Other ideas? Please add your favorite variation in a comment!

HealthiFood Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are everyone's favorite, right? Mine combine the basic recipe of Todd Wilbur's Mrs. Fields copycat recipe with the principles of the Sneaky Chef and Jessica Seinfeld to create a healthified perfection! Plus, my recipe saves you 82 calories and 5.6 grams of fat per cookie and adds almost a gram of fiber. And who eats just one? 

You'll notice that my recipe has a lot of ingredients, so here are a couple of notes about why. Usually I use margarine and butter interchangeably, but with these cookies I discovered that a blend yields the best texture and flavor. Why two sugars? Brown sugar adds a rich taste that helps off-set the whole wheat flour, but white sugar allows for that crispy cookie edge we all love. Where in the world do you get oat flour? Just blend up some old-fashioned oats in your blender or food processor until it's like flour. And don't skip that ingredient; that's the secret to making these whole grain cookies super delicious!

HealthiFood Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream together:
1/4 c softened butter
1/4 c softened margarine
1/4 c white bean puree
1/2 c white sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar

Add:
1/4 c ground flax seed meal
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift together, then add to wet ingredients:
2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c oat flour

Stir in:
1 c chocolate chips

Drop by tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes or until the edges are just barely brown. Makes about 4 dozen cookies

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Whole Grains

Why whole grains? And, more importantly, how?

Whole grains are a healthier choice in grains. Whole grains are usually brown--brown flour, brown rice, etc. Whole grains are encouraged in a healthy diet because they are a good source of fiber and are not refined, which is more natural. Refined grains and foods are too easy for your body to digest, which means your digestive system doesn't get the healthy workout it needs and you are able to imbibe more calories with less work.

Image from Microsoft clip art.

And how do you get your family to eat them? Start small. For example, start by using whole wheat bread for French toast. It's already coated with a yummy batter and doused in syrup, so your family will probably tolerate it. You can start making your own bread and using a small percentage of wheat flour--like half a cup--and move up to several cups or all whole wheat flour per recipe gradually. Use this same gradual system with all your recipes that use flour until you are using as much whole wheat flour as your family will eat.

The same trick works with brown rice. Start with mixing a little brown rice with your white rice. Start with just a third brown and the rest white. Then gradually move up to half brown, three-quarters brown, and then all brown. Did you know that white rice has no fiber per serving? You want the benefits of brown rice in your meals! And don't forget to soak your brown rice before you cook it.

Whole grain pasta is also an option, but be sure to buy it on sale as it's more expensive. Again, start with mixing half whole-wheat spaghetti and half regular and gradually move up to as much whole grain content as your family will allow.

 In choosing whole grains to feed your family, keep in mind that oatmeal and yellow corn meal are also whole grains. If you make oatmeal or corn bread regularly, you may be doing better than you think!

You'll notice in my recipes that sometimes I use all whole wheat flour and sometimes I use just part. The proportions of whole wheat and white flour in my recipes are the amounts that my family will eat.

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Flax Seed

Flax seeds are a great source of omega-3 fatty acid, fiber, and protein. For my recipes, you will want to by ground flax seed meal, which looks like a golden, grainy, moist flour. If you're interested, the body can't digest whole flax seeds, and some studies say that it helps reduce cholesterol in women.

Why do I use ground flax seed meal so much? It is an awesome substitute for oil, butter, shortening, etc. Flax seed contains some fat, but replacing other fats with it reduces the overall fat content while adding a lot of fiber and protein. Your flax seed meal package my try to tell you a different ratio, but I have found that a 1:1 substitution of flax seed meal for other fats generally works pretty well. The measurements in my recipes are ones that I actually use and that my family actually eats!

I know purchasing a new ingredient makes me a little skeptical, but once I started using ground flax seed meal I have never gone back! I buy at 3 lb bag at Costco that lasts me about six months while the shelf life is over 18 months.

Does it change the taste of your food? Uncooked flax seed has kind of a funny taste that you'll notice in your doughs and batters a little, but it blends in pretty well when cooks and adds a mild, nutty taste and a slightly sticky texture.

I hope this answers your questions about flax seed meal and encourages you to give it a try so you can participate in the fat-reducing and fiber-adding benefits of my heathified recipes!

HealthiFood Whole Wheat Pancakes (or Waffles)

My husband is a breakfast man. He could eat waffles every day of his life if I didn't mind. Thanks to the principles in Deceptively Delicious, his pancakes or waffles have a richer flavor and are fortified with added fiber and vitamins from whole grains and vegetables. And compared to the basic recipe my husband grew up on, HealthiFood Whole Wheat Pancakes have 1.6 less grams of fat, 1.8 more grams of fiber, and 1 more gram of protein per serving.

HealthiFood Whole Wheat Pancakes (or Waffles)

Sift together:
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 T ground flax seed meal

Mix together in a separate bowl:
1 1/4 c nonfat milk soured with 1 T lemon juice
1 T canola oil (use 2 T for waffles)
1 egg
1/2 c sweet potato puree
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

Mix wet and dry ingredient until just combined. Drop 1/4 c of batter onto greased 350 degree griddle or frying pan or cook according to waffle iron directions. Makes about 10-12 pancakes or about 8 waffles.

HealthiFood Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Praise the heavens when frozen strawberries went on sale at the grocery store for 99 cents a bag (!) and I came up with this delicious dessert. FYI, a serving of HealthiFood Strawberry Frozen Yogurt (half this recipe) has 75% less fat and 50% more protein than a 1/2 c serving of strawberry ice cream.

HealthiFood Strawberry Frozen Yogurt


6 oz frozen unsweetened strawberries
6 oz lowfat vanilla yogurt

Blend together and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Image from Microsoft clip art.

The olive oil and honey in this dough make a really nice flavor. One recipe makes 2 lbs. of dough, which is enough for two 14" pizzas. I like to use one half of the dough and freeze the other for a quick pizza later. I've written the instructions below to make it by hand, but the recipe is also bread machine ready (just follow your manufacture's directions) or you could mix and knead in a stand mixer. This recipe originates from Breadman, but my alterations save you 50 calories and 1 gram of fat and add 5.5 grams of fiber and 1.5 grams of protein per serving (or quarter of a pizza).

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Dissolve together:
1 1/2 c warm water
2 tsp honey
2 tsp yeast

Add:
2 tsp salt
1 T ground flax seed meal
1 T olive oil

Add and knead until smooth and elastic:
4 c whole wheat flour

If you're in a hurry, you can use this dough for pizza right away. However, the more you let it rise (up to two times before rolling out), the softer it will be. When ready, roll out dough and top with tomato sauce, cheese, and whatever else you like. Bake on the top rack of your oven for about 20 minutes (until cheese is slightly golden) at 400 degrees.

HealthiFood Basic Brown Rice

Soaking brown rice is one of my biggest cooking secrets! I couldn't get my husband to touch the stuff before I came up with this. Feel free to add as much vegetable puree as your family will allow and to season your rice however you want. I even use this basic rice (purees and all) to make fried rice. Why go brown? Think whole grain and 3.5 g fiber per cup!

Combine in a rice cooker or pot:
 1 c brown rice
2 c water

Soak together, covered, all day, over night, or at least a few hours. When ready, cook rice according to package directions (on the stove or in a cooker) until excess water is boiled off.

Add and thoroughly combine:
2 T cauliflower puree
1 T butternut squash puree


Serve with your entree and enjoy!

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Vegetable Purees

Just how do you make those vegetable purees my tomato sauce calls for? It's easy!

The goal with vegetable purees is to retain as much of the vitamin content as possible, which is why you'll notice I don't suggest boiling vegetables. Roasting preserves the most vitamin content, seconded by steaming. Whether roasting or steaming, the vegetables should be soft when poked with a fork in order to be done cooking. With steaming, I save the water left over to use later in soups or sauces that need water added. You'll notice the coloring of your leftover water as evidence of the vitamins steamed off your vegetables, so don't let that healthy water go to waste!

After roasting or steaming, run your cooked vegetables through a hardy blender or food processor, only adding enough water to allow them to blend up smoothly (you want maximum vegetable per bite--not watery). I use my leftover water from steaming for this too to put some of those vitamin back in my puree.

I keep my purees in the freezer by freezing them first in ice-cube trays and then popping them out into a ziplock back later. Each cube is about 1/8 c or 2 T, which allows for easy measuring and defrost when I need them for a recipe.

You can use baby food or canned vegetables to make purees as well. Baby food is already pureed for you. Canned vegetables you'll just need to blend up. However, baby food is really expensive and canned adds a lot of unneeded salt to your purees, but if you're in a hurry they are an option.

Here are some basic instructions for cooking your vegetables before blending them up into purees:

Broccoli
Cut into florets/chunks (I use most of the stalk as well). Steam for 6-7 minutes (it should still be bright green and a little firm).

Butternut Squash
Cut off stem and cut in half lengthwise. Roast on a foil-lined cookie sheet flesh-side down at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Scoop out flesh and puree.

Carrots
Peel, trim ends, and cut into chunks. Steam for about 15 minutes.

Cauliflower
Steam florets for 8-10 minutes.

Baby Spinach
Steam for 30 seconds.

Image from Microsoft Clip Art.

Sweet Potato or Yams
Roast at 400 degrees for about 1 hour (Poke with a fork first so they don't explode). Peel before blending.

Yellow Summer Squash or Zucchini
Trim ends and cut into chunks. Steam 6-8 minutes.

White Bean Puree
No cooking required if using canned beans! Simply rinse and puree. If using dry beans, you will need to soak and fully cook before draining and pureeing.

HealthiFood Cooking Tip: Margarine or Butter?

We've all hashed through the argument, thousands of times. The fact is, less of both is better for you, which is part of the HealthiFood program. However, you will notice that some of my recipes use margarine or butter and that I don't care which. Here's why.

I was raised on butter. I feel better about because it is much more natural. However, margarine is a lot cheaper and has (a few) less calories so I use it sometimes. I don't use shortening much (as you can probably tell), and in most things I like to replace margarine and butter (after reducing the amount) with canola or olive oil.

So margarine or butter? In all honesty, if my recipe calls for it I most often use margarine to save money, unless I really want a wonderful taste (and am willing to pay for it) with butter. There are just a few recipes that I always make with 100% butter only: my mom's recipes for cornbread, sugar cookies, and snicker-doodles.

HealthiFood Basic Red Pasta Sauce

I've been developing this pasta sauce for many years. The added vegetable purees, based on the Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious programs, add richness, texture, and a lot of vitamins to your ordinary tomato sauce. The three tomato products (soup, sauce, and paste) are easily to substitute one for another if you happen to be out of one, but all three together create a fabulous creamy blend that is just right in flavor and consistency. The vegetables could be substituted one for another as well if you don't have them available, but the full blend gives you a good, healthy variety. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to your taste as well. I like to add cooked and drained ground sausage for a quick spaghetti sauce. I compared my nutrition facts to Prego spaghetti sauce with these results: HealthiFood sauce has half the calories, 11% of the fat, 3 grams less sugar, and .3 grams more protein per half-cup serving compared to Prego. That's a success to me!



HealthiFood Basic Red Pasta Sauce
Makes a little more than 4 cups.

1/4 c butternut squash puree
1/4 c yam puree
1/4 c carrot puree
1/4 c zucchini puree (or cubes, if desired)
2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce (no salt added, if possible)
1 - 10.75 oz can tomato soup (lowfat, if possible)
1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper (freshly cracked, if possible)

Blend ingredients together. Store in the fridge for up to a week. Freezes well. Warm on stove and add water to desired final thickness before serving. Serve on pasta, pizza, lasagna, with bread sticks, etc.

Chocohotopots

Warning: This is an addictive substance! And it's all Frieda's fault for sharing! This however is probably one of my best healthified chocolate recipes. It works so well and you won't believe that you can add that much flax and not tell a difference, but you can! It's amazing! The original recipe is from Nigella Lawson on Food Network (fancy, huh?), but I got it from Frieda Loves Bread. My alterations cut out 250 calories, 20 g fat, and 20 g sugar, and add 3 g fiber and 2 g protein per serving--not too shabby!

Chocohotopots

3 T butter or margarine
2/3 c semisweet chocolate chips
5 T ground flax seed meal
1/3 c white sugar
2 eggs
3 T whole wheat flour

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave until just melted (cook for 30 seconds at a time, stirring a lot between each 30 seconds). In a separate bowl, mix sugar, flax, and eggs. Add melted chocolate mixture. Add flour. Pour into four greased 3-4" ramekins or custard dishes. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees until pots are shiny and crispy on top (they will still be gooey in the middle, that's part of the beauty of it all).

Chewy Brownie Cookies

Oh, Joy, oh, Joy. These cookies were just what I was looking for: a chewy cookie that tastes like a chewy brownie. And, golden heaven, they worked so well healthified! Confession: sometimes my husband and I keep a bowl of dough in the fridge for several weeks so we can cook a dozen cookies any time we want. Original recipe "Chocolate Brownie Cookies" by King Arthur Flour but shared by Joy the Baker. My alterations chop the calories in more than half, fat content by two-thirds, sugar by half, and add .8 g fiber per serving/cookie.

Chewy Brownie Cookies

yields about 26 cookies

4/3 c semi sweet chocolate chips

2 T butter or margarine
1 T ground flax seed meal

2/3 c white sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c white flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave until just melted (only put in for 30 seconds at a time and stir a lot between each 30 seconds).

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs. Add the hot melted chocolate, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour to make it easier to handle (or put the bowl in the freezer for 20 minutes, if you're impatient like me; sometimes I even scoop the cookies and then pop the baking sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes to let the balls of dough firm up; this dough also keeps well in the fridge for several weeks).

Back tablespoon-sized drops of dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 11-12 minutes. You want the bottoms to be just barely browned (don't over bake!) and a little shinyness and cracking on top. Best served warm.