A Practical Guide To Healthy Living

We’re officially in December, folks!  Can you believe it?  Here at our house we have a kinda-crazy-mini-United-Nations-thing going on and yes, we celebrate Christmas.  I know, I know, throws some of your for a loop – just keeping on your toes . . . .

So I don’t know about you, but my joy of the season always comes with a side of pure panic.  Especially this year – our schedule is very hectic leading up to Christmas, and frankly, I’m not sure how I’m going to pull it all off.  I know it’ll happen, somehow, but I’m also anticipating some late nights and close calls.  I’m going to re-frame it as EXCITING!

I know for sure that this is the time of year when I start to feel run-down and over-fed.  There are so many lovely parties, fun get-togethers with friends, etc. and with those comes rich, special holiday food.  And then there is my penchant for baking (stay tuned for cookie-palooza ’09).  So where I can, I economize – I strive to eat uber-healthy in the off-time, and when I can, I contribute healthy, but delicious foods to the mix.  There are lots of people in my life who are NOT excited to eat the way I do, and I’m not looking to alienate anyone . . . .

This dip is a good compromise.  It looks pretty, tastes great, is easy to prepare, and SURPRISE! It’s not awful for you.  It’s in my regular rotation of items to bring to parties, and I’ve found that all but the staunchest I-like-cheese-on-top-of-my-meat-and-potatoes people likes it.  Seriously. 

Edamame Dip With Feta Cheese

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.  Add edamame and garlic and return to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the edamame is tender, about 5 minutes.  Drain, reserving 1/2 c. cooking liquid.

Place edamame, garlic, 1/4 c. cooking liquid, feta, lemon juice, oil, a pinch or two of salt and a few cranks of pepper in the bowl of a food processor.  Puree, scraping down the sides as needed, until the mixture is completely smooth.  Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary – remember, feta is salty, so don’t add too much salt before you whirl it up and give it a taste.

Transfer to a serving bowl or storage container and let stand for 30 minutes at room temperature to allow the flavors to marry.  Thin with additional coking liquid if desired.  Serve at room temperature.

This makes 1 3/4 c. of dip.  It’s great with store-bought pita chips and/or crudites.

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I dunno about you, but I’m always on the hunt for easy, fun munchies to put out for the holidays.  Or to wrap up and take as a hostess gift.  This mix is Chex Mix for the new millennium.  It’s got an Asian twist, is sweet, salty, crunchy and a just a little bit spicy.  Perfect with a nice glass of wine or a beer. 

FYI, Trader Joe’s is a great place to find the components for this recipe.  And when you’re done, find some gifty little glass containers or tins (for those of you around Boston, China Fair is a great spot to find these), fill ‘em up, wrap ‘em with a bow, and off you go!

Sarah’s Sweet & Spicy Snack Mix

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.  In a large bowl (needs to be huge! or else use 2 large bowls), combine the cereal with the nuts, rice cracker mix, sesame sticks and pretzels. 

Combine the butter, maple syrup, soy sauce and curry paste in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer, whisking to dissolve the curry paste.  Pour the mixture over the snack mix and toss to coat.  Season generously (do not be timid – it’s snack mix, it’s supposed to be salty!) with salt and pepper and spread on 2 large rimmed baking sheets.  Bake for approximately 1 hour, stirring frequently (every 10-15 minutes), until nearly dry and toasted.  Let cool completely, stirring occasionally.

This makes 27 cups!  Enough for a big party or several gifts/get-togethers.  If you want to make this ahead of time, store in airtight containers – it’ll keep at least a couple of weeks.  If you need to recrisp the mix, throw it on a baking sheet and bake at 275 for a bit, stirring occasionally.

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I came across a recipe for Greek Stuffed Peppers in Ellie Krieger’s book, The Food You Crave.  I got this out of the library for inspiration and these caught my eye.  I, of course, tweaked the original recipe.  They’re beautiful – red and green and sprinkled with bright white feta.  My iPhone snap above doesn’t do them justice. 

Know up front that these need to bake for a while, but the prep time is very short – so at least you can get stuff done while they’re in the oven.  Try these for a touch of comfort food, healthied up!

Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine the beef, spinach, onion, bulgur, egg, oregano, salt and pepper.  Mix thoroughly until combined (hands are best for this!).  Arrange the pepper halves cut-side-up in a 9×13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture.  Pour the tomatoes with their juice over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake until the filling is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 45 minutes longer.

These serve 4, generously.  Serve them with some orzo (which for L., is a main course) and some steamed broccoli on the side.

A couple of notes.  One, rice was always the filler in the stuffed peppers of my youth – so why the switch to bulgur here?  Did you know that bulgur has twice the fiber of brown rice?  ’Nuf said.  Next, I know that the pre-crumbled feta is a draw . . . so convenient, right?  Really, though, the flavor is sub-par and let’s be real, how hard is it to crumble cheese?  You could even get your kids to do it – L. clamors to crumble!

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I love Thanksgiving ’cause it’s all about food and friends and family.  None of the gift pressure, less of the scrambling to get ready.  I look forward to the special foods we eat once a year . . . and then I know that afterwards, I need to rein it in again.

Friday night, we were all back on the sick train.  This reinforced my theory that we’ve had H1N1-lite – classic feeling better/thinking we’re out of the woods then wham-o back down for the count.  In any case, D. and I wanted something clean, healthful and tasty for dinner, and this salad fit the bill.  It’s adapted from a Ken Oringer recipe in the December Food & Wine. 

I used dried beans for this, so it’s a more time-consuming process.  You could easily sub a couple of cans of beans for this – just rinse and drain them before you add them to the mix.   If you do want to use dry beans (they are cheap and far tastier than canned, and then you avoid the BPA headache), you could do as I did and prep the beans in the morning.  After they cooled, I put them in the fridge for later.  I let them come up to room temperature while I prepared the quinoa and chopped the veggies, then combined them all at the last minute. 

Whichever way you make it, this salad is colorful, warm, crunchy and smoky and a 180-degree difference from the rich, starchy, sweet deliciously-fattening goodness most of us enjoyed on Thursday . . . .

Warm Bean & Quinoa Salad

 In a large saucepan, cover the beans with cold water and bring to a boil.  Remove from the heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.  Drain the beans.  Return them to the pot and cover with 3 inches of water.  Bring them to a boil and simmer over low heat until tender, about an hour.  Drain.

In a medium saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer over low heat until the water is absorbed (about 15 minutes).

Place 2 T. of extra-virgin olive oil in a medium skillet.  Add the onions and saute over low heat until translucent.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk the vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice and chipotle.  Add the olive oil, whisking until blended.  Add the beans, quinoa, scallions, red onion, yellow pepper and cilantro.  Toss to combine, then season with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, tossing to combine again.

Serves 4 as a main-dish, generously.

This is one of those recipes that’s even better day 2, after the flavors have blended.  It serves up nicely chilled from the fridge, making it a strong contender for next day lunches.

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So my SIL clued me in last night that in order to vote for Semi-Sweet on the Divine Caroline site, you need to register.  So it’s more than “2 secs” to vote. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize this.  But!  Registration is free, and the good karma with which you’ll be endowed for doing it is limitless . . . .

Here’s the link if you have a minute or two?  I would SO appreciate it!

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I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, thanks to D.’s sister and our BIL’s hospitality.  Always a lovely time over there.  And my MIL made this luscious pumpkin chiffon pie thingy . . . maybe if we give her some love here, she’ll give up the recipe for next year?  I have to admit, although I love putting on the holiday at our place, it’s incredibly relaxing to have someone else host. 

The only downside to guesting and not hosting is no leftovers (or very few, we drove home packing a large drumstick and some sides!).  That might be an upside in terms of getting back on track with healthy eating . . . but then there’s no turkey sandwich w/stuffing and cranberry sauce, pie for breakfast (my niece is probably happily gobbling up the apple pie I made as you read this), etc. etc.

But maybe you want to mix it up with your leftovers?  Here’s a fantastic article from Food & Wine – David Chang (of Momofuku fame) takes leftover turkey, green beans and mashed potatoes, among others, and whips them into inspired recipes like mashed potato spring rolls, turkey breast with ginger-scallion sauce, and OMG!  Brown Butter Custard Pie with Cranberry Glaze and Cinnamon Toast Crumb Crust.  Be still, my heart.

Or, if that’s a little too fancy-pants for you, here’re some more down-to-earth ideas from Chowhound . . . .

and a whole list of inspired recipes from an old Chow article.

And last, here’s a slide show of 16 different recipes, from the ever-reliable Better Homes & Gardens.  The Tex-Mex things look best to me, but I always have good luck with BH&G recipes . . . even if I have to zing ‘em up a bit.

Let me know what you whip up – and if you’re making any of those Chang things, let me know what time I need to be over . . . .

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I hope you have a wonderful day.  I’m so thankful that you’re reading Semi-Sweet!  Enjoy your food, enjoy your company, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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Semi-Sweet’s up for a Divine Caroline “Love! This Site” award – would you vote for me? I’d love it if you would . . . . follow this link – takes 2 secs.

TIA!

SAOI

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