Spontaneous Cooking: Making Delicious, Healthy Foods on the Fly!

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Cooking, Food, health, healthy, Healthy Cooking, healthy eating, ingredients, low-fat, Spontaneous, vegetables

While I do have plenty of great recipes I use, more often then not I just wing it. I’ve been cooking for almost 40 years, so I think you get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. For me cooking without guidelines is the most fun, especially when it turns out well and everyone loves it!

I thought maybe I would blog about this and my thought process when I cook this way. I know it doesn’t come naturally to everyone, so maybe some of you will find it helpful. My wish is that everyone could find some freedom and joy in their cooking. We all have to eat, so we might as well enjoy ourselves in the process!

So here are a few thoughts on “spontaneous cooking” and how last night’s dinner (pictured above) came together…

• What ingredients do you have?
  • What do you have on hand and what goes together? Produce goes bad quickly, so maybe first take a look at what you have on hand in that area. I always try to use what I have. I heard once that in the U.S. 40% of food is thrown out. I do all I can to make sure my family is not wasteful in this way.
  • Last night, I knew I had zucchini, kale, mushrooms and red bell pepper from my organic produce shipment. I always have onion and garlic on hand for flavoring. So I used all of this produce!
  • I had thawed out ground turkey, so I browned this along with some onion. I added all the veggies toward the end of the browning process .
• What do the people you’re feeding like?
  • I also had some artichokes, three huge ones, but my younger daughter doesn’t like those and my other kids are coming over soon. I’ll save these for people that will really appreciate them.
  • Both of my daughters don’t like mushrooms, but I have found that if I cut them up into very small pieces they don’t mind them so much. I made sure to cut the kale up small too.
• What will make it taste yummy?
  • What little extras do you have on hand that can help with this? I knew I had the turkey and the veggies, but what kind of sauce should I use?
  • I had a big can of crushed tomatoes in puree, a jar of pesto sauce,  and red wine. This sounded like a yummy mix to me! I ran through other ideas in my head, such as a cream of mushroom based sauce or a curry sauce, but they just didn’t sound good last night with the types of veggies I had. In addition to the items I used to make my sauce, I also included some basic seasonings; salt, pepper and oregano. I once heard someone say “Salt is to food what breath is to life”. This is so true!!!

I hope my ramblings will be helpful to someone. I know some people don’t like to cook or are intimidated by the kitchen. My hope for you is that you’ll learn to play in the kitchen and find your joy there! Not every effort will be a success, but that’s OK. Laugh it off, learn from it and order a pizza!

When you do hit a homerun, go back and write down what you did. If you don’t keep track, you’ll never be able to recreate it! Have fun out there!

Huli Huli Sauce and POG: Aloha! We’re Going Hawaiian Today!

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Cooking, Drink, Food, hawaii, hawaiian, huli huli, ingredients, juice, mai tai, marinade, sauce

Yes, folks! This is a peek inside my house! I swear! Now our whole house doesn’t look like this, just the tiki bar tucked in the corner of our family room. Our family has been blessed with the opportunity to visit Hawaii a few times and we have fallen in love with the culture there! Not only is the landscape gorgeous and the food delicious, but the people are so warm and welcoming. They proudly share their culture with visitors and as they should! They have a lot to be proud of! So as you can see, our family has chosen to insert bits and pieces of that culture into our lives. The flavors of Hawaii are something we incorporate on a very regular basis!

The two products shown in the picture are staples in our house. We were originally introduced to both of these items in Hawaii. As I type this, there are two cartons of POG in our fridge and 5 bottles of Huli Huli sauce in my pantry (Overkill on the sauce, I know, but if you knew my husband’s shopping habits you would understand!).

So what are these tropical delights you ask and where can you get them???

POG

POG is actually an acronym for Passion Fruit, Orange, Guava, the three juices that combined make POG. Our whole family loves this juice, young and old alike! The adults have been known to sneak a little rum in theirs on occasion to make a wonderful mai tai. We live in Northern California and have found POG to be available at Fresh and Easy markets and at the Nob Hill/Raley’s chain stores with the other refrigerated juices. If you can’t find it in your store, ask and maybe they can order it.

Huli Huli

This is a soy sauce based sauce that is very versatile. It can be used with chicken (it’s most well known use!), beef, pork or fish. We use it frequently to marinate chicken prior to barbecuing. You can also use Huli Huli as a stir fry sauce, to make gravy sauce or on baked meats. There are various recipes on the bottle. We used to have to bring the sauce back with us from trips to Hawaii, but then I was in Cost Plus one day and low and behold, there it was!!! Score! Now we’ve had a regular, mainland source for one of our favorite ingredients! If you don’t have Cost Plus markets near you, check with other stores carrying international foods and you might find it there or again just ask at your local market.

I hope you’re able to find these items and give them a try. They are both really delicious and bring a refreshing, tropical spice to life! Aloha!

Fat Free Ingredients: Sour Cream and Shredded Cheddar Cheese

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Cooking, Food, health, Healthy Cooking, healthy eating, ingredients, low-fat, lowfat, non-fat, nonfat, weightloss

Fat free? Are you kidding me? I know the thought of fat-free ingredients or food brings to mind flavorless dishes, but I’m here to tell you there is a time and a place to use fat-free ingredients to make delicious foods! I have found certain non-fat and low-fat ingredients that work very well in contributing to wonderful dishes. Throughout my blog I hope to share some of these with you so you can begin to incorporate these into your cooking. 

#1 Fat Free Sour Cream

Other than vegetables, I think this ingredient has become my all time favorite fat free ingredient. This is one item that I have found I am willing to sacrifice the fat and I don’t notice a huge difference in the taste, but that could just be me. I challenge you to give it a try!

My family uses this ingredient in a variety of ways. We use it in our stroganoff dish, that we also use ground turkey in to keep it low-fat. I recently used this ingredient in my seven layer dip. I also used fat-free refried beans and a variety of fresh ingredients such as tomatoes, onions, guacamole, salsa, etc. I will tell you my secret ingredient is stirring taco seasoning mix into my fat-free sour cream before adding to my dip.

I think you’ll find this ingredient has a wide variety of uses from savory dishes to wonderful dips! And that brings me to my next ingredient…

#2 Fat Free Shredded Cheese

This ingredient also makes an appearance in my seven layer dip, but you may have guessed that already!

Now this ingredient is not quite as versatile as the sour cream. The food industry just has not perfected fat-free cheese yet. At times it can have a waxy texture to it, but I find it can work well when it’s mixed into a dish with several other components. You may also want to use it somewhat sparingly as in large quantities you will really experience that waxy texture. 

I often use it sprinkled on top of casseroles and in salads. Of course, it also works well as one of the layers in my seven layer dip.
I hope you’ll give these and some other fat-free or low-fat ingredients a try. They can really help lower the fat and calorie content of your dishes and help to keep them flavorful. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what you like and what you don’t. What are some fat-free or low-fat ingredients that you enjoy using  in your dishes?