Appetizer: Apples with Goat Cheese and Oregano

Want an elegant, healthy appetizer for the holidays, but don't know what to offer? I enjoy making these apple appetizers because they are light, healthy and unlike most appetizers, they are lower in calories. These also taste wonderful as an accompaniment to a nice sparkling cider or Riesling. Offering a nicely decorated platter of these baked apples along with some low fat candied pecans will really wow your guests and leave them munching on more. Cheers to no leftovers!

Apples with Goat Cheese and Oregano

Ingredients:

• 4 small Gala apples
• 1/2 cup goat cheese or reduced fat Swiss or Gouda cheese
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4c fresh oregano sprigs

Directions:

1. Slice apples in half, dig out seeds with a mellon baller, leaving deep round wells in the half apples. divide half-apples into halves again.
2. Add 1/2 tbsp goat cheese into apple wells.
3. Drizzle each apple quarter with around 1 tsp of honey.
4. Add a sprig of fresh oregano on top of each round of cheese, or a bundle of around 3-4 leaves of oregano.
5. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Apples will become soft and cheese will begin to melt and also brown slightly.

Nutrition Facts for 2 slices (1/2 apple):
98 total calories, 18g total carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 3 g protein, 1g fat
(1 Carbohydrate, 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Practice What You Preach

While I am counseling a patient, sometimes they ask me what I had today for lunch or breakfast. Honestly, I'd love to say I'm healthy ALL the time, but *gasp* I don't think anyone is perfect.  So I try to follow a similar diet that I give to my patients, encouraging them to combine healthy sweetness from fruits with their meals to reduce the craving for desserts afterwards. Also, I am a horrible liar, so if I've eaten an unhealthy meal, I'll never be able to keep it a secret if a patient asks.  Therefore, to keep myself and my clients healthy, I encourage people to follow these three simple rules:

1. Include carbs, protein and nonstarchy vegetables with every meal. Start with filling one 9 or 10-inch plate with around half vegetables, then after you've already set the boundaries of how much food you can put on your plate, fill the other half with food: protein and carbohydrate.
2. Eat the majority of your carbohydrates from whole grains-- high fiber bread, oats, whole wheat pasta and tortillas, bulghur, buckwheat, millet or brown rice. If you limit carbs to 1/4 of the plate, this turns out to be around 2/3 to 1 cup.
3. Eat your proteins from primarily vegetarian sources (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, or nut butters) or low fat animal meats (chicken, turkey, lean beef, bison, shrimp or fish). If you limit your proteins to 1/4 of the plate, this turns out to be around 3-4 oz, or around 24-32g protein. This is adequate for the majority of the population if it is done twice or three times daily (at lunch & dinner is most common).
4. Usually I snack on cheese and fruit or other dairy throuout the day, so adding it on the side of the meal becomes less necessary, and just added carbs.

So to help all those out there to have healthy diets, and to prove to myself and others that I actually try to follow my own advice, I provide you this account of my meals and snacks that I have been working on for a couple weeks now.  I've taken pictures of all my meals for the last week, no lies. Here, you'll see examples of healthy options, and less healthy ones, plus links to some of my recipes, showing how you can easily balance your meals with lean protein, high fiber, and plenty of vegetables, all in appropriate portions. Plus I'll give you some deliciously healthy snack options in further posts.

For breakfast, I usually eat a high fiber cereal around 4-6 days a week, or a toasted sandwich once a week.  The usual breakfast: 2/3 cup "Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal," with 80 calories, 9gm fiber, and 23gm total carbs, added to that some ground flax seeds that I bought in a huge bag from costco (for my heart health), and some 2% milk. Altogether, adding up to about 320 calories. Another nice option for cereal is Special K, the "protein plus" variety.

Day 4 Breakfast-- I'm out of cereal! So here goes option two: My favorite bread is by Orowheat, and it is the "Double Fiber" version.  My sandwich contains spinach, a couple slices of tomato and a lite swiss cheese from the brand Jarlsberg (I often use lowfat mozzarella instead, but the bread and cheese I get from Costco, so they are quite cheap!). I drizzled 1/4 cup of egg whites over the top slice of bread and let it slowly absorb. I baked my sandwich on a heat-safe plate in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
236 calories, 34g carbohydrate, with only 26g net carbs, as well as 16g protein, and 4 g fat.

And here are my lunches. I got my portioned lunch containers in a 4-pack of different colors for $14 from easylunchboxes.com.

(Left)Braised lamb shank cooked with vegetables and potato, and a side of roasted beets. As you can see, half of my dinner plate was assorted vegetables-- some are a little higher in carbohydrate, but that's what I had available. Despite my goal for lean meats, I could not pass up that lamb, and the potatoes also which were lower fiber than recommended. Again, I'm not perfect. But at least I achieved one rule out of three (vegetables).
(Right) For lunch the next day I placed leftover lamb and starchy veggies and potatoes from the previous night's dinner in one half of my box, and in the other half a spinach salad seasoned with balsamic vinegar and some diced beets.

Searching through the fridge for leftover meat or protein, I finally settled for chopped tofu for 1/4 plate my protein,  a little steamed brown rice for my 1/4 plate whole grains, and the other 1/2 plate from a mix between broccoletti (a variety of broccoli), some tomato, and a roasted beet. I felt the meal seemed quite boring, so I added chili paste and tried to make my lunch into a happy face. :-) Sometimes, we work with what we've got!

1/4 steamed brown rice, 1/4c shredded boiled chicken, and 1/2 of that lunch was from vegetables seasoned with a little blueberries, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and olive oil. 

Protein is usually a problem for me to find something good, and now I need to go to the store, so my lunch consisted of mostly scraps I found in the refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard. So this morning I boiled some raw chicken tenders with a variety of my favorite spices, and cooked some quinoa with cranberries. The cooking process took around 20 minutes total for both items. and on the side, half of my plate was from chopped tomatoes and cucumber, and a strange-looking bell pepper; at lunch I sprinkled everything with chili en polvo (the tajin brand). 

Leftover steak from last night's dinner, basmati rice, and in the other half of the plate, a spinach salad with  roasted bell peppers and 2 TB guacamole. 

Seriously, I think you've got the picture: healthy vegetables to cover half the plate first. Add healthy proteins and healthy grains. Now the balanced meal is in place. Don't try low carb, the body needs carbs. Focus only on keeping control, and trying as hard as possible to keep these three items on the plate in similar proportions at least at lunch and dinner. Once you get yourself accustomed to thinking about vegetables, the rest comes easily, and soon you will have your meals under great control. Then we can move to focusing on snacking habits. :-) Happy eating!

Cravings and Addictions Begin Somewhere-- Healthy Snacks

Usually, I counsel patients on healthy eating and balancing their plate, eating enough vegetables, limiting sweet drinks, and daily physical activity. Oftentimes I counsel my patients on nutrition for specific disease states like Diabetes or cholesterol, but these days, I see a lot of obesity in adults, teens and children. The quality of the obesity is also getting scarier: I am seeing more patients with fatty liver issues(and a higher risk of non-alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis due to the fat content overpowering the liver), higher rates of diabetes in children, and higher rates of cholesterol and malnutrition. It is scary. I honestly believe the life expectancy of generations born in 1995 and beyond will have a much shorter life expectancy given the poorer average quality of diets and larger variety and availability of junk foods than previous generations.

So I'm hoping some healthy snack advice and great recipes might help.

If a sweet or creamy snack is desired, offer

• Smoothie made from blending 1 cup of low fat milk with 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruit
• Fresh apple slices dipped in peanut or almond butter
• Homemade souffle if you feel daring
• Fat free cottage cheese or yogurt with pieces of fresh or frozen fruit.
• Homemade sweet or savory baked sweet potato fries
• Homemade fruit chips you can dip in fat free vanilla yogurt
• Baked apple slices with cheese and honey
• Homemade candied nuts
• Homemade milk pudding, a family favorite for adults as well as the kids!

If a salty snack is desired, offer

• Pretzels with fat free cream cheese
• "Baked" potato chips with pico de gallo salsa
• Homemade popcorn with oil and spices instead of butter
• Slices of fresh fruit, jicama or cucumber with fresh spices (Hispanic around here use chile powder and/or lemon or lime, but Arab friends & family often feed kids the same veggies but with Arab-style spices-- zaatar (dried thyme & sesame), or cumin, sumac, salt and/or lemon)
• Homemade (savory version) baked sweet potato fries
• Whole wheat crackers with guacamole
• roasted peanuts or almonds
• Carrot, celery or broccoli sticks with light or fat free ranch dressing or guacamole 

*steps on little soap box, clears throat*
So, I find it scary that I've been seeing a 28 year-old mom regularly for 3 months now for diet management: her diet is weakened by her addiction to sweet and salty snack foods, and oftentimes replaces her meals with these. She has developed pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the beginnings of fatty liver that are giving her blurred vision, night sweats, urinary frequency, unusual amounts of fatigue, chest pains, and scarily vivid dreams. Meanwhile, she still doesn't mind feeding her 4-year-old child top Ramen for lunch, Doritos for a snack on the way to see the dietitian, and after finishing the bag of Doritos in my office the child was promised ice cream if she is a good girl. Wait what? A junky treat after eating junk for lunch and snack?
I don't care if the child is thin, nor do I care if she will "burn it off," it is a poor quality fuel, and will cause problems internally after a year or two before mom even sees that child start to gain weight.
I know children should be allowed to be children, have an ice cream for a treat, have a candy with friends... I agree they should enjoy life rather than worry about what they eat. This is true.
Please, parents, if your child asks for something unhealthy and you know that they've eaten nothing but junk, then tell them sorry, not today, you've already had a lot of special foods today. You can have some in a couple weeks. Save the special food for a special day. If you do, that special day will be so much more special! They will understand if you spend 20 seconds explaining to them. Offer them a variety of healthy choices, like grapes, apples and peanut butter, strawberries, carrots, wheat crackers, yogurt, low fat milk or a string cheese, and give them the freedom to choose one of these healthy options they like best. If they are truly hungry, they'll eat  what is offered. If they keep begging, chances are that they aren't really hungry, they just want to see how far they can push your authority. They have the right of freedom to choose, but its your job to provide them with guidance of what to choose from. Please don't feel bad, they will get over it.
Your body deserves more than unreal snack foods that exist just to get you addicted. You are too good for that. You deserve better. And so do your children.
*steps off soap box, somber, deflated*

I love Nuts

Many arabs like to offer guests that visit a cup of tea or coffee and oftentimes bowls of salted or raw nuts for  snack with fresh fruit or sweet pastries. I get bored offering my guests the same thing as all the neighbors, so I have a little twist to make my snacks memorable and unique.

Roasted nuts with a little attitude.

So nuts, though they are high in fat, are also very healthy. You'll obtain from them alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acid, required by the human body. Many people take Omega-3 or Omega complex pills made from fish oils as a supplement for heart health. This type of fat aids in improving the HDL (good) cholesterol, and some studies suggest it helps the brain development of the fetus during pregnancy. Of the nuts, walnuts are particularly high in these fats, and are also high in antioxidants and provide a convenient source of protein and fiber. I prize walnuts as essentially the king of nuts for this reason, and I'd encourage using primarily these in recipes involving nuts. Also high in these healthy fats are almonds and cashews, which can also be used especially in families where a walnut allergy is an issue (like for my niece).

Sugar-and-Spice Candied Nuts

Makes approx 16 1/4-cup servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dark-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar (or splenda)
• 1 Tsblespoon paprika
• 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
• By replacing the first 4 ingredients with 2/3c white sugar and 1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder, you can create some chocolate-candied nuts that are also quite amazingly delicious.
• 1 pound walnuts, pecans, cashews, or raw almonds
• 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon water

Chocolate/sugar powder (left), and cinnamon/sugar powder after coating some pecans (right)!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Mix sugars and spices in a large bowl that has a lid; set aside. 
3. Beat egg white and water until frothy but not stiff. Add nuts, and stir to coat them evenly. 
4. Remove nuts from the egg white, strain them momentarily to make sure they are not too drippy. 
5. Place them in the bowl of sugar and spices, put the lid on, and shake or toss until evenly coated. 
6. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper or foil. Bake for 15 minutes, shaking the sheet occasionally to stir up the nuts. 
7. Remove from oven, and separate nuts as they cool. When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.
8. And now munch delightfully!

Nutrition Facts for 1/4-cup of candied walnuts:
202 total calories, 10g total carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 4 g protein, 16g fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate, 3 Fat, and 1 protein exchanges)

Sweet Potato Fries-- Just like the South, but not!

So I don't have a working heater in my house, and the space heaters are sold out. Thankfully, this gives me an excuse turn on the oven to warm myself up.

And there's nothing better on a cold winter weekend than warming up with some good, old fashioned comfort food like sweet potato fries. The difference? These fries are not fried, but baked. They also have a touch of added protein, and are nearly fat free. And they are absolutely delicious as a guilt-free comfort food!
For the savory option: I also make these with 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp dried oregano instead of the sugar and cinnamon.

Step 1: Cut the sweet potato into thin slices.

Step 2: Dip the sweet potato slices in egg white mixed with cinnamon and sugar. Then bake.
Now I only need to learn self-control. *wink* 

So... Now you want to know how to make it? Here's the recipe. Munch, munch, munch...

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Makes two servings per sweet potato.
Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato, sliced into sticks or wedges
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sugar (optional, but if sugar is wanted, splenda also works well as a calorie-free replacement)
• enough oil to coat the baking sheet

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil and spray lightly with oil.
2. Place sweet potato sticks on a microwave-safe plate and cook for 1-2 minutes or until they’re flexible.
3. In a shallow bowl or container, whisk egg whites cinnamon and sugar together. Toss sweet potato sticks in mixture but drain off drips before placing them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip pieces and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes more.

Nutrition Facts for 1/2-cup of sweet potato fries:
80 total calories, 15g total carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 1 g protein, 1g fat
(1 Carbohydrate, 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Apple Chips

When your parents go to a farming community known for its apple orchards, and they get awed and excited by wall-to-wall apples, the results might sometimes be overwhelming. In my case, the situation is alarming.

My parents returned from Apple Hill in Northern California with two cases (approximately 18 lbs) of apples mixed between Fuji and Granny Smith varieties. I've had two apples every day for the last 2 weeks, and I'm really getting sick of them. Meanwhile, I am bringing home persimmons from friends that want me to make them into persimmon chips for a healthy snack, so I decided last night to try making chips from a few of the apples I've got.
I use usually the mandoline attachment for my food processor to slice the apples horizontally. But you can also purchase a small mandoline slicer for cheap.

Here's my Cuisinart food processor, with the regular blade removed and the mandoline slicer blade attached.

The horizontal cross section of the apple makes a cute little star shape where the seeds would be, and the slicer can slice directly through the seeds, so you only need to shake off any seeds and bake the slices for a couple hours. These apple chips are a great treat for little kids because of the rewarding little star in the center. :-) One small apple makes approximately 15 chips.

Soon I'll post another nice snack with baked apples (and an elegant appetizer with white wine or sparkling cider) involves roasting them with honey, cheese and fresh sprig of spice.

So here's the recipe for apple chips

Ingredients:

• 4 small granny smith or fuji apples

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees, or 200 degrees on convection if your oven is capable.
2. Thinly slice off the top and bottom of the apple, and peel the skin off with a potato peeler.
3. Using a mandolin or food processor attachment, slice the apples into thin 1/16 inch thickness (you can use a knife for this process, but for me it takes some time, and I have trouble getting my slices a uniform thickness, so I prefer to use the machine)
4. Place them on trays with holes for adequate ventilation, my version looks like flimsy aluminum chicken wire, but it works. Dry them in the oven for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, rotating the trays after the first 45-60 minutes of drying so they all cook evenly(if you use a convection setting on the oven, rotating is unnecessary).

You can buy grilling trays/pans for drying food or making chips in the oven here (I waited until spring for grillling season and found some at the dollar store).

Nutrition facts for a serving size of around 12 chips:
60 calories, 15gm net carbs, 4gm fiber, 0g fat, 0g protein (1 diabetic carbohydrate exchange, 0 fat and 0 protein exchanges)

Hosting Vegans: Roasted Kale and Lentils

Preparing dishes fit for a friend with preferences for vegan cuisine can be tricky-- no products from animals of any kind, oftentimes we forget about butter, chicken stock, and also milk and eggs. Literally, from start to finish, and regardless of the method of cooking, we are real carnivores! (And honestly, I like it!) But being so accustomed to cooking with animal products, it becomes a lot of fun and educational for me to make a completely vegan meal.

My vegan arsenal of ingredients couldn't get more colorful!

So the question becomes how to serve a hearty, soothing dish for the fall weather without adding all these hidden enhancements? Well let me show you and you'll see: I will fill your stomach with hearty legumes, satisfy your senses with an amalgam of complimentary spices, and hopefully make you love me with a little extra lemon!

Kale and Lentils cooked with Moroccan Preserved Lemons

Ingredients:

• 1c brown lentils, rinsed
• 2c vegetable stock
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2c kale, finely chopped
• sea salt
• 1/4 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp fresh winter savory leaves
• 1 tsp Seven Spice
• 2 TB tomato paste
• 1 tsp chile paste
• rind from 1/4 preserved lemon

Directions:

1. Boil lentils for 20 minutes in a vegetable stock on medium heat
2. Meanwhile, in a frying pan over medium heat cook the onions, stirring frequently for about 15 minutes or until browned. Add garlic, and continue to cook, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes more.
3. Add kale, spices, rind from 1/4 preserved lemon, and sea salt.
4. Reduce heat to low, cover frying pan and let kale cook until softened and wilted (about 7 minutes more).
5. When lentils are cooked , drain any excess water, and mix the lentils with the onions and kale. You'll know they are cooked when you can easily squash one when you pinch it between 2 fingers).
6. Garnish with fresh lemon wedges and mint to serve.

Nutrition Facts for 1 cup of this dish:
260 total calories, 28gm total carbohydrate, 10gm fiber, 16gm protein, 2gm fat
(2 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 0.5 Fat, and 2 protein exchanges)

Persimmon Overload?

I guess it's obvious what fruits are in season at the moment! We're starting to get colder, in need of some warming up, so I felt the need to make use of my persimmons in a healthful, non-traditional dessert format. I'm getting tired of pie, cake, cookies and pudding. So I started by pureeing persimmons, and eating some before the idea of a nice, hot baked treat popped up in my head-- in a 6oz ramekin, just the right size for my little belly. I hoped to enhance the flavor of my persimmons and cut their sweetness with a little spice, and imagined that the ginger would give it just the right kick! Cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla are all too common this time of year, so I'll pass on those for now! If you are looking for other non-traditional healthy uses for your fruit desserts this season, try Spiced Poached Pears, apple chips, apples baked with cheese and honey, or a sorbet using your fall and winter fruits.

Persimmon-Ginger Soufflé with homemade persimmon chips!!

• 1 1/2 cups low fat 2% milk
• 1 tablespoon minced, peeled fresh ginger
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 small persimmons, diced
• 8 large egg whites

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. In medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring milk to boiling.
• Place the ginger in a cheese cloth or a tea strainer. Add ginger to the milk, remove pan from heat, cover, and let steep 30 minutes.

• 

  Milk should become foamy while whisking over the heat.

• Discard the ginger from the milk, and set aside.
• To purée the persimmons, dice them into small cubes so they are small enough for the blender to handle. Add 2 tbsp water, and purée on high until they are smooth.
• In large nonreactive bowl, whisk together egg yolks and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
• Whisk in flour until well combined. Gradually add hot milk, whisking constantly to prevent it from curdling.
• Return yolk mixture to saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until custard boils and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, around 3 to 5 minutes.
• Transfer to large bowl, whisk in the puréed persimmon, and set aside.
• Beat egg whites until foamy and slightly opaque. With mixer running, add remaining 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat until stiff but not dry.

I buy egg whites, and they work perfectly well.

• Fold 1/3 of egg whites into persimmon mixture to lighten, then add mixture to remaining whites, folding in gently but thoroughly.
• Butter 8 6-ounce ramekins. 
• Spoon batter into ramekins, filling almost to the top, and lightly run finger around inside rim to create a "moat." Place ramekins in large baking pan, and arrange the baking pan on the middle oven rack and add hot water around ramekins as deep as you can make it.

Before cooking!

After cooking!

• Bake until soufflés have risen well above the rim and tops are golden brown, about 45 minutes.
• Garnish with sifted powdered sugar and a persimmon chip for a zazzy little dish to make you and your guests giggle with delight!

Happy Fall!
Serve immediately.

Nutrition Facts for one 6-oz ramekin:
137 total calories, 13gm total carbohydrate, 2gm fiber, 10gm protein, 5gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 01 Fat, and 1.5 protein exchanges)

Savoring the end of summer- Apricot Sorbet

When having a home with many trees and a handy gardener, I often find a surplus of fruits and vegetables that need to be consumed quickly or given away. In this case, our neighbor had been out of town and given us authority to harvest and distribute apricots from his tree.

I am always finding new things to create with my surplus that are fun and healthy. I'm getting tired of desserts, I want to stay healthy and reduce my carbohydrate intake, and I don't really find a challenge in making desserts like puddings, custards, pies, cakes and cookies anymore; plus, I have way more fruits than can fit into a cake.

So the results involve me trying to rearrange and enhance the properties of the fruit, meanwhile concentrating on withstanding the temptation to overpower the essence and beauty of my fresh organically obtained fruits by adding creams and batters. This focus seems so daunting for me, and it would be so much easier to make an apricot pie than think of more creative things to do!  So to help me think out of the box, I've resulted in making spiced poached pears from the pear tree, persimmon chips and souffle from my coworker's persimmons, roasted apples with cheese and rosemary, and a slurry of a few other different desserts for fall.

I think one of the easiest options is to simply puree my fruit and grab my cheap little ice cream maker that I treasure so dearly. Combining flavors can be a trick, but with fruits, rose and orange essence, vanilla, and ground spices can transform and enhance the flavor of nearly any fruit!

What I'm showing here is a Apricot-Vanilla Sorbet, accompanied with a vanilla custard ice cream and fresh strawberries. I find that apricots and vanilla enhance each others' qualities of tart and semi-sweet, and the mild tartness of the strawberries combined with the warmness of the vanilla custard provide a contrast of tastes that help the brain isolate the individual and unique flavors in the custard for an awesome dessert experience.

Apricot Sorbet and Vanilla Custard Ice Cream with fresh Strawberries

Apricot Sorbet
Ingredients:

• 4 cups frozen apricots, slightly thawed
• 2/3 cup simple syrup recipe (here)
• 2 tb ground gum mastic (also known as gum arabic)
• Purée apricots with simple syrup until the mixture is smooth and no apricot pieces remain.
• 1/8 tsp seeds of a vanilla bean (cut the bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds out with a spoon)
• Add the gum arabic powder and mix until combined.

Put this mixture in your ice cream maker and turn it on. Since the apricots were partially frozen, the mixture shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to freeze in the machine. If you are not using frozen apricots, refrigerate your puree for 4 hours before putting it in your machine. It will require around an hour of churning if you use refrigerated apricot puree.

Serve this little scoop of summer with strawberries. To warm up this summery fruit flavor, I paired it with a homemade custard-based vanilla bean ice cream.

Nutrition Facts for 1/2c apricot sorbet:

Calories: 90, total carbohydrates: 17g, total fiber 2g, total fat: 0g, total protein 0g.

Make your own yogurt

Like most things homemade, yogurt you make yourself is better for so many reasons:

• It's better for you (no preservatives, sugar or chemicals added) 
• The bacteria are active, so you can be sure that your yogurt has active probiotics 
• It's less expensive 
• It tastes amazing 
• There's no packaging to waste (or to try to find ways to save and reuse) 

Plus, you only need a cooking thermometer and a container with a tightly fitting lid. There's no need to buy any special equipment.

Ingredients:

• 1 Half gallon of milk 
• 2-3 Tbs of plain yogurt (as a starter) 
• 1 8-10 Qt stock pot 
• 1 4-5 Qt pot with lid 
• 1 Metal or plastic spoon (so you can sterilize it) 
• 1 Dial thermometer (it should have a range of at least 100°-185°F, and ideally, a clip for your pot's rim) 

Notes:
However much milk you use, is how much yogurt you will get in return: using 1/2 gal milk gives you 1/2 gal yogurt. You can use regular, reduced or non fat milk, but with nonfat milk, your yogurt will likeky turn out too watery. My sister adds whey protein powder to thicken the fat free milk during cooking and add extra protein.
For your first batch, you will need to purchase plain yogurt with active cultures, like Dannon, Pavels, or Stoneyfield (all future batches you will use your own). Alternatively, you may use freeze-dried yogurt starter cultures.

Step 1-- Make a Double Boiler:
You can skip this step and boil the milk directly in a pot-- but if you do, you have much higher chances to burn the milk on the bottom before it has the chance to heat fully.

1. Create a double boiler by putting the smaller 4-Qt pot inside the larger 8-qt one, and fill the larger one about halfway with water to create a water-jacket effect. 
2. Put a lid on the smaller pot, and heat the water in the big pot (surrounding the smaller pot) until boiling. 
3. Sterilize your thermometer and a tablespoon by putting them in the boiling water for about 15 seconds and removing them. 

Step 2-- Sterilize Your Milk:

• Fill the small pot with milk. Make sure the level of water is at about the same line as the level of milk in the smaller pot. This will ensure the milk is heated evenly. 
• Clip your thermometer to the inside of the milk pot, stir frequently, and wait until the temperature reaches 185F. 
• Once the temperature reaches 185F, remove it from the double boiler and let it cool. 
• Note: The milk will naturally create a type of skin on the top of the milk as its heating and cooling. Try to leave the skin as intact as possible (this skin is like a natural barrier against airborne bacteria from getting inside the milk, so if you don't have a lid on the pot as its heating or while it cools, this layer becomes super helpful)

Step 3-- Cool Your Milk:

• While the milk is heating, you can prepare a cold water bath in your sink using another 8-qt pot or extra large bowl. You may want to add ice to help the cooling process. 
• After the milk has reached 185F, remove it from the boiling water, turn off the heat, and transfer the hot milk to the ice water bath. 
• Keep the thermometer inside, and continue stirring the milk until the temperature reduces to 110F. At this temperature, the bacterial cultures will be able to consume the lactose and grow. 
• Remove the sterile milk from the ice water bath. 

Step 4: Prepare and Add Your Yogurt Culture:

• Prepare your yogurt culture by removing some of your warm, sterile milk and adding it to your yogurt starter to dilute it. This makes the yogurt more watery so it disperses better in the milk. 
• Add your diluted yogurt culture to the pot of 110-degree milk. 
• Stir the yogurt culture and warm milk with your sanitized spoon. 

Step 5: Incubate it and Give it Time:

• Place the lid on the pot, making sure it fits tightly so heat will not escape. 
• Wrap the pot in warm towels to help ensure that the mixture stays a more constant temperature or decreases in temperature more slowly. 
• Place your newly cultured milk in a warm, consistant-temperature area (I use the oven when off and barely warm as the incubator in my house). 
• Hold the pot in this situation for 6-8 hours, or overnight. Refrigerate your finished yogurt for use! 

* to make a second batch, just reserve a small amount of yogurt from this successful batch so you don't need to buy yogurt cultures again from the store.

Persimmon Chips

So persimmon season is upon us, and as a result, a friend gave me bucketfuls of Fuyu persimmons from their tree. Having not tried persimmons before, I was gleefully filling bags of persimmons to take home. Because you can't go wrong with free food, am I right? 
Wrong! My family protested strongly when my heavy sack of persimmons was brought in-- apparently, not one of my family members enjoys the flavor of persimmons.  I was feeling helpless at that point-- the sudden fright of knowing that I selfishly hoarded pounds of persimmons without having a plan of what I'd do with them, brought on my guilty thoughts: I have struck a beautiful fruit useless. Given my scale-able sadness, I decided to try to eat one myself. Disappointingly, there is no fruit that I adore less than persimmons. 

I paced about the house for a couple days, wondering what I'd do with them, given that nobody really likes them. I pondered the idea of pureeing them and making a persimmon custard or pie, or even a persimmon souffle as I've done with yams in previous years. All, however seemed trite, and in addition, my family protested. After making apple chips a week before with apples that we bought in bulk and found going bad, it struck me to try Fuyu persimmon chips! To the dismay and outcries from the naysayers in my family, I replied, 'Yes, darn it! Chips!' 
Using the mandolin attachment that came with our food processor, the beauty of the persimmon chip was born. The novelty I discovered was that when the persimmon is sliced vertically, it appears to have a lightly colored line down the center. But when cut laterally, however, the light line transforms into the shape of a star/sand dollar! 
I placed the slices in the oven on a wire mesh grilling tray my parents had found at the dollar store many months before. This tray I've found very valuable in drying many of my excess fruits in the oven, and also in making chips of other types. 

I left them in the oven for around 1 hour and 15 minutes. The result was a crisp, sweet sand dollar chip! 
My friends liked them so much, one of my very good friends brought her own persimmons over to make more chips. 

Before last year, I had not known that there are two kinds of persimmons: the Fuyu, the kind you can eat right away, and the Hachiya, the horribly bitter kind you can't eat until they are very mushy. To tell the difference between them without being traumatized by the astringency, its easiest to note that the Fuyu are flatter, more pancake shaped, and the Hachiya are more oblong, similar in shape to a Roma tomato.  In any case, to make these persimmon chips, I found it easiest to use the Fuyu persimmons, because they are more firm when ripe, and they ripen sooner. I tried slicing the Hachiya persimmons when ripe and it became just a mushy mess! 



By the way, I believe I've found the only way my family will eat persimmons (aside from the souffle)!


The recipe is as follows:

Persimmon Chips
Ingredients: 

5 fuyu persimmons, washed with leafy tops removed


Directions: 

1. Slice persimmons laterally (across the fattest width of the persimmon) to 1/8 inch thickness
2. Place chips on a wire mesh tray, like a grilling tray or metal cooling rack that breathes. 
3. Bake in the oven at 200F for 2 hours and 15 minutes, or to the firmness that you desire.  

Some notes: 

• Thinner persimmon slices should be separated and baked on a separate tray because they require less cooking time (say 45 minutes for 1/16 inch thickness)
• There may be no need to oil the baking tray. The trays I used were aluminum, not nonstick, but the chips were easy to remove from the trays.
• After arranging my persimmons on the tray, I also tried sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar, and a variant with cinnamon and Splenda (sucralose), both with wonderful results after baking. 
• These chips I've found taste wonderful with desserts containing nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon, but also pair well with other flavors like orange, ginger, and anise. 

For now I've exhausted my supply of persimmons, but I have great plans of a persimmon chip comeback, maybe using them as a garnish over pudding with a orange zest and ginger, or with a spice cake! For more unique ways to use persimmons, see my persimmon ginger souffle!


Meanwhile, you can take home the recipe, here!

Poached D'Anjou Pears with Spice Glaze

A quick dessert that I often fall back on uses simply pears and whole spices that I usually have on hand and rarely use. The preparation takes around 10 minutes to cut the pears, cooking requires around 20 minutes of simply ignoring it, and to serve, arrange these on a platter and garnish. Instead of using D'Anjou pears, you can use a smaller, skinnier, more brown-skinned pear called the Bosc pear. I like to use the bosc pear because of its darker color and better contrast for a fancier dessert presentation. But in a more laid-back setting, D'Anjou pears are great, and also easy to find!

Sometimes I get myself confused with the type of pear to use in cooking, but of the more common types, the Bosc and the d'Anjou pears are easier to cook. Here is a fabulous article describing some of the more common types of pears and their uses.

Poached D'Anjou Pears with Spice Glaze
Serves 8 (where one serving is 1/2 pear)

Ingredients:

• 1/2c sugar
• 4c water
• 4 pieces Star anise
• 1 TB peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, opened, with seeds scraped out
• vanilla bean seeds (approx 1/2tsp)
• 2 TB fresh ginger root, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2c honey
• 1 tsp whole green cardamom pods
• 4 d'anjou pears
• 1 TB corn starch
• Vanilla ice cream, or berry sorbet, and ground nutmeg for garnish

Directions

1. Wash and slice pears in half vertically down the length of the stem.  
2. Using a melon baller, grapefruit spoon or shrimp fork, scoop out seeds.

1. Mix water, sugar and spices together in a 8qt pot. Cook over medium-high heat until boiling.
2. Once the water begins to boil, add the pear halves. Cover the pot and let simmer for 3 minutes.
3. Gently scoop the pears out of the boiling water. Place them on a serving tray, cut-side up.
4. For your spiced glaze, reduce heat to medium and continue simmering.  Remove 1/2c of the boiling sauce and cool to the touch by placing it in a freezer for 5 minutes. 
5. Add the cornstarch to this reserved spice mixture, and mix well until no cornstarch lumps remain. 
6. Add this to your simmering spice sauce, and stir constantly until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
7. Garnish pears by placing a teaspoonful of goat cheese in each pear and topping it with first the hot spice sauce and then some freshly ground nutmeg.

Nutrition Facts for one half pear with 1 TB glaze:
89 total calories, 22 gm total carbohydrate, 2gm fiber, 0 gm protein, 1gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Beets with a Beat

When you know beets are delicious because you've had them in a salad, but you bought them and they look so horrid that you lose all hope, don't fear! Growing beets is very methodical, and rhythmic, the harvesting and cooking are as well. So keep up with the beat of the beets, and follow my song!

My friend has bee growing beets in her yard because she thought they would be cool and fun to grow. The problem is, after forgetting about them for 6 months in the ground, we've realized that the leaves were tough and inedible, and the beets themselves were small, and hard.  Hard beets? But they were soft and in much larger chunks in the salad I ate! I guess they were cooked? how? Roasted? boiled? baked? fried? :-/  Darn.

I love growing beets because they actually don't need much space. You can grow them on a patio in a pot that is about 5 inches deep. I love the leaves because they are glossy and green often with beautiful red stems. A great decorative outdoor plant!

So first of all, growing beets is quite easy. You seed them in the ground, pushing the seed about an inch into soft ground. Our soil is very much clay soil, so to prepare the ground, we first need to dig it up and mix our clay soil with some potting soil and fertilizer. After planting your seeds and covering them lightly with dirt, sprinkle them lightly with water every 2 days for the next 4 weeks, and then you'll see some plants coming up. If each plant is closer than 2 inches to the next, you'll want to move them carefully to give each beet root room to thrive.

As the plants grow and you continue to water them every 2 days, the leaves will also start to grow.
The growing follows a 2/4 pattern (every 2 days watering, 4 weeks to get seedlings, 2 inches apart, 2 months total for leaves, and 4 months total for beets)
When they are 2-4 inches long, you can cut them, leaving about 1/2 inch of leaves at the base of your beet so the leaves will regrow. After about 3 months, you are ready to harvest your beets. Dig them out of the ground, brush off the dirt, and lovingly carry your new achievements inside. There they'll be gleefully slaughtered and roasted. :-D

Beets can be cooked in a variety of ways. The easiest for me is roasting them in the oven. Hold this for final note for 2 counts (about 2 hours between cleaning and cooking) and you're done with the song of beets!
To prepare your beets, slice off each end of the beet, and scrub the skin with the rough end of a sponge, or a tooth brush you reserve especially for scrubbing vegetables.  Next, move your shining beets to a casserole dish, toss with a little olive oil, and cover with a lid or aluminum foil. Cook them in the oven covered for an hour to hour and a half depending on their size. Beets also go well with a variety of spices and can be roasted with rosemary, garlic, oregano, sage or thyme, or can be roasted with vegetables like sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots or artichoke.

You can ignore them during roasting, tuning your house with a fine sweet mood like background music,  while you watch a movie, do some exercise, drink some sangria, blow bubbles with the kids, plant more beet seeds in the ground...

Once you're finished, remove your beets from the oven, peel them, slice them or quarter them. Use them for garnish, flavor in salads, a delicious side-dish, or add them to your carrots and make a lovely juice in the juicer.

The songs involving beets, like songs of love, may be endless... Enjoy the music!

Roasted Beets with Olive oil:
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 4 medium beets, scrubbed, with both top and bottom trimmed off 
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place your beets and olive oil in a casserole with a well-fitting lid.
3. Toss your beets to coat them in oil. Sprinkle lightly with black pepper 
4. Cover tightly with casserole lid or aluminum foil. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and a half. 
5. Remove from oven and cut beets as you prefer. 

Nutrition Facts for one medium-size roasted beet
60 total calories, 9gm total carbohydrate, 4gm fiber, 0gm protein, 0.5gm fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate (0 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks

When I get the itch to pamper myself, and a sincere itch to cook, I'll do something with lamb.  Its not easy to find fresh lamb meat, usually its frozen, and not often halal. But when an opportunity arises to get good, grass-fed fresh lamb meat, I definitely suggest you do it quickly. Lamb has a slight game-like flavor, similar to goat and deer meat, but it is a few degrees milder, but also lamb that is farm-raised is degrees less gamey than its grass-fed counterpart. I prefer to use lamb over beef in most dishes, including those with ground meat.

I love lamb because it has a heavy, warm flavor, that even after a bite I feel pampered when I need it most. It is rich and delicious.  But be forewarned, lamb is a very fatty type of meat. 

Lamb shanks as they begin to boil with water, browned onions, garlic, and spices. 

With my family's history of a lemon surplus, I even had to preserve a lot of my extra lemons. I adapted a method that I got from the whole foods store, and made my own recipe for preserved lemons here.
Combining my love of lamb with an overabundance of and passion for lemons, I made a beautiful braised lamb shank. This dish involves a lot of time and nursing. You can be passively revisiting your pot every 30 minutes or so, but you should be nearby. After starting my dish, I ran a few errands at the post office, came back to turn my lamb, responded to a couple emails, returned to turn the lamb, cut my vegetables, returned to turn the lamb, etc. If you start at 3pm, you'll have dinner by around 7-7:30. Do this on your days off from work! Otherwise, you'll eat dinner at 10pm and die from exhaustion! I paired the lamb with sauteed fingerling potatoes and my recipe for roasted beets.

This dish pairs well with rice flavored with saffron and turmeric(not pictured) or some pan-fried potatoes seasoned with allspice and roasted beets. 

Hang in there, if you don't like lamb but love lemon, I'll give you other recipes to make with the preserved lemons, like one with chicken & olives, or I'll have more on my post about preserved lemons.

Moroccan Lamb shank with Vegetables and Preserved Lemons
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp saffron threads
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3 lamb shanks
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Preserved Lemon, thinly sliced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coin shape.
• 2 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced into half-circles

Directions:

1. Use a wide, ideally shallow pot for this dish. Lamb shanks are large and they should ideally sit flat on the bottom of the pot. For this dish I use a wok or large, 4"deep pot or skillet that has a lid.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly, until they become soft and slightly clear, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 2 minutes longer until garlic has browned slightly.
3. Stir in the four spices and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
4. Add lamb shanks, arranging in a layer on top of the onions. 
5. Add enough water to cover the lamb about halfway, then season with salt and pepper (alternatively, I use beef or lamb stock with black pepper and leave out the salt for a boost of flavor).
6. Bring to a boil, uncovered over high heat. Reduce heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 3 hours, turning your shanks about every 30 minutes to keep them moist. 
7. Scatter preserved lemon slices over meat and top with vegetables. Cover pot and cook until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
8. Arrange meat and vegetables on a large serving platter. Skim and discard fat from sauce, pour a little sauce over meat and vegetables, and serve remaining sauce on the side. 

Nutrition Facts for 1/2 lamb shank and 1c carrots and zucchini:
460 total calories, 7gm total carbohydrate, 5gm fiber, 27gm protein, 16gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 3 Fat, and 4 protein exchanges

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

A wonderful use of a lemon surplus is to preserve them with salt and spices. This is commonly done in Morocco, and lemons are usually preserved until winter time when their use in flavoring food continues when lemon season does not.

Our Orange-X juicer. It has a long arm that crashes down over the lemons. Great if you have bucketfuls of citrus  to squeeze!

First slice the top and bottom off the lemon, then cut a cross into the lemon vertically, being careful to not go completely through the bottom of the lemon. Stuff the cross with rock salt.

This recipe is amazingly easy, the lemons being preserved in just salt and their own juices. The beauty of preserved lemons is their acidity is reduced with preservation, and the lemony flavor is amazingly strong. They also add a bit of salt to cooked food, minimizing your need to add salt in cooking, and preserved lemons can be cooked without becoming bitter (fresh lemons are much more bitter when cooked).

Push your salt-stuffed lemons into a jar, packing them tightly. Don't be afraid if you squeeze out some juice. After each layer of lemons, add a layer of whole spices. When you can no longer add more lemons, add the lemon juice until it completely covers the tops of the lemons. Then add a final layer of rock salt, cover, shake, and store it in a cool, dark place, caring for your lemons as directed in the recipe below.


To use your lemons after they had been preserved, simply wash off the excess salt, and take out the seeds. You can use the lemons in stews, also using the sliced rind in salads or even drinks.

I'll provide you with recipes for chicken, and lamb and salad using these preserved lemons.
So try these, you'll love them!


Moroccan Preserved Lemons
Ingredients:

• 2  1-Quart canning jars with lids
• 1c kosher salt
• 16-18 organic eureka lemons, scrubbed clean
• 2 tsp whole cloves
• 2 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 1c lemon juice

Directions:

1. To prepare your canning jars, first wash them in hot, soapy water. You may boil them or use a high-temperature dishwasher to ensure their cleanliness. Any time you are preparing jars to preserve things in, you must clean the lids and jars as above. This will make sure there is no bacteria in the jars before they are filled and sealed.
2. Next, add 3 TBSP salt to your jars.
3. First slice off the top and bottom tips of your lemons. 
4. Cut a cross in each lemon, making sure your cuts do not go completely through and the bottom of your lemon is still intact.
5. Stuff the insides of your lemon generously with salt.
6. Place the lemons in the jar, and press each layer down, squeezing juice out of them and packing them tightly. 
7. Sprinkle the spices over each layer of lemons. Once the jar is filled with lemons, add more lemon juice, enough to completely cover the lemons.
8. Add 4 tablespoons more salt to the tops of the jars, seal them well, and shake to mix. (Due to the salt, the tops of most canning jars will rust. To prevent this, I put a thin sheet of paraffin or plastic wrap over the mouth of the jar, then put the lid over this to fully seal.)
9. Store your preserved lemons in a cool, dark place. 
10. Make sure to flip the jars of lemons upside down every 2 days for 1 week. Then continue to store them in the refrigerator until use, also turning every 2 days for 2 more weeks. After 3 weeks of waiting and turning, your lemons are now ready to use!