When I meet new people and they learn about my blog (or at least my love for cooking), the first question is always “What’s your favorite thing to cook?” The answer is – I like cooking everything! Of course the focus is mostly on healthy meals, but I don’t limit myself to any particular ethnic angle. I feel like if I did that, I’d be missing out on so much deliciousness that’s out there. Variety is the spice of life, as they say!

So the second question is 9/10 is this (seriously, almost every time!): “Do you know how to cook Indian food?” And this is where I must confess my limitations. I love love love Indian food, especially the non-traditional dishes the likes of chicken tikka masala (I’m sorry, I know people in India don’t eat it but it still tastes like Indian food to me and that creamy/nutty tomato sauce it comes with just can’t be beat. It’s the best!!). But I haven’t been able to replicate the stuff to save my life. I follow recipes, often highly rated recipes claiming to have restaurant-quality taste, and they still fall flat every.single.time.

The other day, I was browsing through my blog archives and found this old post on pork vindaloo that got rave reviews from me and Adam. I thought, hey – maybe I can cook Indian food after all! This also happened to be a super quick dish so I was excited to give it a go again and hopefully also make it a little more appetizing to look at. The end result was this:

1. It was very easy to make.

2. This dish is hard to photograph but the pictures are definitely an improvement over my previous set.

3. It tasted just ok. I guess my standards have gotten higher. I will not be making this dish again. The search for a great Indian recipe continues!!

The bright spot of dinner were these DAHlicious Lassis sent to me by the company for review. Just in case you are unfamiliar with lassis – they are Indian yogurt based drinks. They are creamy and sweet – sort of like smoothies you enjoy with your dinner. Since a lot of Indian food is quite spicy, they add a nice cooling effect too. I enjoy them on occasion when out (although to be honest, they are typically quite indulgent and sweet and I usually don’t like to drink my calories).

DAHlicious Lassis are made with low fat Indian yogurt, made with milk from grass-fed cows (LOVE), are 100% natural and only lightly sweetened. When reading the labels, I also noticed that the banana flavor doesn’t even have any added sugar. Way to take advantage of banana’s natural sweetness. Very cool!

Here is what these pretties look like in a glass:

Again, love the color! The flavors offered are mango, vanilla, blueberry, strawberry and banana. Adam and I had a little taste test with dinner and honestly enjoyed every one. The creamy, slightly tangy taste of yogurt really comes through in every flavor. My favorites were vanilla (most yogurt-centric in flavor), banana – which had the perfect balance of yogurt and banana flavor (my favorite of the bunch, I think!! Also, this one gets bonus points for not having any added sugar), and blueberry – which has a much more berry forward flavor (most smoothie-like and Adam’s favorite too). The strawberry seemed to be just too mild at first but upon a second taste (since it was one of Adam’s favorites), I sort of enjoyed its subtlety. The mango seemed to the exact opposite – completely overpowering, ranking the least favorite of all.

So there you have it! I think these babies would make for a great on-the-go “snack” too, and they sure are tasty.

Would you like a chance to win some? One lucky Healthy and Sane reader will win 5 coupons for free DAHlicious lassis – so you can taste each flavor too and pick your own favorite (they are sold at Whole Foods and various independent retailers across the country)!

Here are the rules: there are plenty of ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment on this post – Tell me anything Indian related. And I will love you forever if you direct me to a great Indian recipe!

2) Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (a link to this post must be included to qualify)

3) Pin this post on Pinterest

4) Subscribe to Healthy and Sane by email

5) Like Healthy and Sane on Facebook.

6) Link to this post on your Facebook page.

7) Add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll.

8 ) Link to this post on your blog, if you have one. If you don’t, let someone else know about this giveaway and tell me so in the comments section after they’ve entered the giveaway.

Please leave a separate comment on this post for each qualifying entry. This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry!) and ends at midnight on Wed, February 8. I will randomly choose 1 winner using random.org and announce him/her the following day. Good luck!

No? Ok, then you should definitely make them. These babies were incredible!!

What, you’re still trying to keep cookies out of your house as part of your New Years resolution to lose a few pounds? I have 2 things to say about that.

1. Are there really people out there that still remember their New Year’s resolutions on January 30? I’m serious. Are there? I can’t seem to remember mine. Sad truth.

2. If you make these cookies, you can taste 1 or 2… and then gift them. Trust me – the recipient will very happy. Very very happy. And making your friends even better friends this year is a really good thing to add to your resolutions.

See? Win-win

A few weeks ago it was my friend Katy’s birthday and I was trying to figure out the perfect gift for her. She’s a doctor so the girl is pretty much living in the hospital. I wanted to give her something that would relax her on some especially exhausting day. Since my mind always goes to food, I thought that maybe baking cookies would be a nice activity for such a day (truth be told, on days like that I prefer to mindlessly shove cookies into my mouth until I pass out. Slowing down and actually baking some is a way better approach. I think Katy agreed!). Katy rarely has time to go grocery shopping so I thought a cookie mix would be a good compromise – homemade cookies, homemade taste – a lot less measuring and planning necessary. Again, win-win.

So I researched and researched. And I found this guide to oatmeal peanut butter jar cookies. They looked perfect!

Of course I wanted to bake a test batch and also to give some to Katy together with the mix so she wouldn’t need to work for her cookies right away.

[Side note: I tried baking them on an ungreased cookie sheet and on a silpat. The results were identical!]

They came out even better than expected!! They were soft and a little gooey on the inside, yet hearty with the addition of oat). And of course the mini peanut butter cups (from Trade Joe’s) made these guys extra special. Everything is better with chocolate!

I made another batch of the mix for Katy…

… and completed the gift with a peanut butter jar (since you have to add pb to the mix), a cookie scoop, and some pretty tags. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of myself. The gift turned out SO CUTE!!

Don’t wait for the holidays to shower your friends with homemade gifts. Or to eat cookies.

Are you into DIY gifts? I’d love to hear some new ideas… I’m really digging them these days

Have you heard of miracle berries before? Wikipedia tells me it’s also called synsepalum dulcificum (way harder to pronounce!) which is a plant with a berry that makes sour things taste sweet. The tablets are basically ground up miracle berries – all natural

Last night we had our friends Jim and Liz over for dinner to experiment with this “mysterious fruit tab.” We started the dinner by dissolving a tablet on our tongues and then dove into lemons, limes and grapefruit. Not gonna lie, it was a little scary to take the first bite! Would it really work?

Action shots!

Wow, guys. This was crazy. Seriously insane. Everything was SO SWEET – I honestly had no idea how sweet they’d be (and started getting a little nervous that our whole dinner will taste like pure sugar). Biting into a lime and being overwhelmed by its sweetness was surreal (the limes were the sweetest – almost inedible at first because of how sweet they were).

We calmed our palettes for a minute with these clover rolls, which had nothing to do with our experiment but delicious nonetheless. Definitely a must-make again recipe!

Aside from the rolls which were a last minute decision (a brilliant last minute decision!), the rest of the dinner all centered around citrus. I looked for recipes that utilized oranges (already sweet) but used lemons and grapefruit instead, knowing they would be made sweeter because of the tablets.

Grapefruit and avocado salad with a citrus dressing (here is the base recipes, I subbed grapefruit for oranges in everything)

Jalapeno citrus salmon (based on this recipe, I used half grapefruit, half lemon juice for the glaze)

My plate:

My beverage of choice for the night – it had citrus notes which turned sweet. The beer tasted kind of like a beer cocktail as a result. I liked it

The effect lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours and over the course of dinner we definitely felt it fade. The citrus still tasted very sweet but we could start slowly also tasting mild sour notes. Luckily non-citrusy components made the meal a real dinner – salmon, avocado, jalapenos all stayed true to themselves

Of course we had to finish the meal with some lemon sherbet. This particular brand was super creamy – the perfect ending to a sweet citrus meal!

This was super fun!! Apparently hot sauce and radishes should have been part of our experiment too. I may just have to keep playing around with this stuff. It’s sort of trippy in a good way

Would you want to try this stuff? What would you make? I may use these for nights when my sweet tooth won’t stop nagging. A wedge of lemon would totally do the trick!

enjoyed in the past – but with better pictures

“Old” tomato goat cheese strata (yikes!). Visually improved tomato goat cheese strata:

Same delicious recipe from Cooking Light. Now hopefully you’d actually want to make it

How is your week going so far?? Mine is flying by and I’m not too happy about it. I have things to accomplish!! Although now that I think about it, this weekend I’m going to NY to go wedding dress shopping with my sister (and hopefully celebrating my best friend’s 30th birthday… if I can get a hold of her!) so it’s going to be a good one. So I guess it’s ok that it’s coming so soon.

As I mentioned in the my previous post, my sister’s wedding is definitely motivating me to get a little more serious about healthy eating. I’m not going on any crazy diets but I am being a little more mindful about what I’m eating. I put up a big calendar on the fridge reminding me of the “big day” (sort of funny saying that since it’s not my wedding) and a few pictures of myself at a lower weight for motivation. It’s only been 1 day, but I feel like I’m approaching this in the right way and feel good about weight loss results that are sure to follow!

The best part? I have a few old favorites to ensure I’m eating satisfying healthy meals. Like this strata. It comes together quite quickly, uses ingredients I always have on hand (well, I happened to have fresh sage on hand this time, but I’d just use dried if I didn’t) and it’s so warm and comforting. It has (whole wheat) sourdough bread and goat cheese. You can eat it for breakfast or dinner. And one quarter of the pan is a serving. Really, what’s not to love?!

Diets, shmiets. I’ll stick to this!

What are your favorite healthy and satisfying recipes? Please share with me in the comments!

I wonder how many people really wake up on January 1 and find themselves with a list of resolutions that require immediate action. Do they have a clear plan? Are they overwhelmed? Do they have a good support system to help them? I hope so!

I’m the kind of person that attacks goals with intensity. I research, I plan, I write out mile-long to-do lists and schedules and then I go at it. This is how I’m approaching my new business (I promise to share the details with you – very soon!) and it’s been exhilarating (so exhilarating in fact that I am having trouble falling asleep thinking of a million different things I could offer and cute little touches that would make me unique). The best part? I get to eat my “research.” [Ok some of it, unfortunately my extensive research in the logo design process has been inedible, and more expensive than originally anticipated. If only I could pay designers in cookies… or mussels. Ha!]

Coconut and basil steamed mussels is a Cooking Light recipe I’ve had bookmarked since June 2009. Mussels are such a fun protein to make and healthy to boot! It’s high in protein, low in fat and calories and when made right – so juicy, plump and delicious. I also love how these little guys absorb whatever broth you cook them in. They turn into little sponges of flavor. Yum!!

I doubled the amount of mussels the recipe called for (they normally come in 2lb bags – why not cook the whole thing?) and added a few good handfuls of fresh baby spinach (together with the basil) for good measure. Adding baby spinach to pretty much everything is one of my favorite ways to sneak extra veggies in! The spinach soaked up some of the yummy broth as well. Awesome!

This broth was creamy and slightly spicy and had a bit of Thai flare. We loved it with big hunks of bread to soak up more broth. A quick, restaurant-worthy, healthy meal right at home!

Those white dots, by the way, are salt. I guess I got really up close and personal with the mussels

Do you feel the effects of the new year? Are you overwhelmed, excited or just indifferent?

I know that January is a month of healthier resolutions. We’ve all used the excuse of the holidays to indulge in too many desserts, cheese and wine (You did, right? Don’t leave me here confessing to sins all on my own). The beginning of a new year is a good time to reassess what worked and didn’t the year before, to get a bit of a kick to recommit to old goals or start fresh with a “clean slate.” It’s like the ultimate “Monday.” I dig it.

And while I’m not really into New Year’s resolutions (at least not this year) in recent weeks my fire for healthy cooking and exercise has been reignited. And I’m hoping the newness of the year will keep it up. Even on days when “there is nothing in the fridge,” I keep at it. Last night the digging turned up a crazy delicious pasta dish, created from pantry staples and a few random bits in the fridge. I have an archive of recipes to share with you, but this one wins today. 

Pantry staples (and a few random bits) pasta

Adopted from the Eating Well cookbook, serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8oz dry whole wheat pasta
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups spinach
• 15-oz can of diced tomatoes with chiles
• Two 15-oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.
• 1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 2T finely shredded pecorino cheese

Directions:

• Boil pasta according to instructions on package
• Fry bacon and blot on paper towels (reserve bacon grease).
• Heat 1T of reserved bacon grease on medium heat, add garlic.
• When garlic is golden brown, add cannellini beans, basil, spinach, diced tomatoes, olives and grape tomatoes and stir.
• When the spinach has wilted, add cooked pasta, crumbled bacon and pecorino cheese.
• Taste for seasonings (a little more salt or pepper may be needed) and enjoy.

This was so quick and easy and the flavor blew us away. I love the smokiness of the bacon, the saltiness of the olives and the slight heat from the chiles in the tomatoes (if you just have diced tomatoes and want a bit of heat, add a sprinkle of hot pepper flakes). I’m adding the recipe to my favorites list!

Here is to keeping at it. Always. And eating delicious and healthy meals!

What do you make on nearly bare-fridge days? You can say make a phone call for delivery

Christmas day was definitely lazy (the kids got up at 5am so once the Christmas morning excitement wore off, we were pretty much like zombies for the rest of the day). And I even took Monday “off” together with Adam (aka my computer was pretty much closed all day and my kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it so there was no cleaning). I did find a few peppers and carrots in the fridge, a few sausages in the freezer and decided to make spaetzle for dinner (it was time to get another thing crossed off my 30 by 30 list!).

Have you ever had spaetzle? In case you haven’t, spaetzle is basically little German egg noodles which are boiled then pan fried in butter (mmm). I’ve only had them once before last night but recall my first time vividly. It was from a restaurant in New York called Little Giant. It was served as a side to a dish that intrigued me and I was so surprised to bite into these buttery plump little noodles. They totally stole the show! Of course I assumed they would be a huge challenge so I added to them to my list. Little did I know they were a cinch to make! A spaetzle makerwill come in very handy here but it’s less than $10 on Amazon.

I started with this recipe for spaetzle but decided to use half whole wheat flour/half all purpose. Making the dough was pretty much like making pancakes but with less ingredients! Mix the dry ingredients, then combine with wet. And you’re done!

The dough was so much runnier than I was expecting. I added another 1/2 cup of flour to it hoping it would firm up (I think I had pasta dough in mind)… and then decided to just try it out as is. See how it’s pourable? If pourable is a word…

While this was happening I brought salted water to a simmer… and we were off! The dough drips through the spaetzle maker holes and forms little noodles that set in the water.

OMG, it’s working!

We’ve got spaetzle!

A quick stir-fry of peppers, carrots and sausage in a bit of EVOO, then the spaetzle in 1 tablespoon of butter (which was plenty!), parsley and garlic…

… and we have one fantastic meal! [serves 4]

This was so incredibly satisfying. The spaetzle was seriously SO EASY to make and Adam and I loved the buttery noodles with lots of veggies and sausage (I was going for a German theme here). Now that I know how fast the whole thing comes together, I will definitely be adding spaetzle to our usual rotation of carbs.

Have you made anything fun lately? Do share!

Now that I know how easy it is, there will be lots and lots of toffee in my future. And the future of my family and friends. Prepare yourself peeps. If you know me, there will be toffee coming your way at some point in your life. Nothing to complain about, that’s for sure.

So the toffee making process was born from the desire to make the chocolate almond saltine toffee recipe from Food & Wine. I’ve had saltine bark before (a.k.a crack) but this was my first time making my own. Toffee is basically butter (lots of it), sugar (yup, lots of it too), and corn syrup boiled together until it reaches 300* (a candy thermometer is very key here!!). Once these 3 simple ingredients turn into a golden brown syrupy goodness, you poor it into a container (in this case, over saltine crackers actually) and then cool it. After 15 minutes in the freezer, you have a sweet crunchy candy. Man, it’s good!

Fun fact: Our wedding favors were sweet sloops which are little sailboat shaped toffee candies dipped in i2 kinds of chocolate and pecan crumbs. Awesomeness in a pretty package. So are these:

Salty saltines + sweet crunchy toffee + creamy dreamy chocolate + nuts = happiness all around. Life changing.

The back side

Dig in!!

This little tin has someone’s name on it…

Have you ever made toffee? Other things that got me as giddy (“life changing” was also possibly mentioned in relevant posts): making marshmallows, making challah bread, making pretzel sandwich buns, Italian bread, and making ricotta. I think it’s something about demystifying some of my favorite foods, as well as the pride that comes from turning a handful of ingredients into a completely different form of deliciousness. Yup, that’s it.

PS – Other baked goods created during this baking extravaganza (thanks, Tiffany, for hosting!)…

Chocolate peppermint roll

… and peanut butter blossoms

What have you been baking lately?

So let me give you a super quick background on what they are (you can read more on their website!). Cooking Matters is part of Share Our Strength which has a mission that no kid goes hungry (this is an issue in the U.S. too!). The mission of the Cooking Matters program is to teach underprivileged families (at risk of hunger) how to cook healthy meals on a budget (all meals are under $10 for 4 people). The program consists of 6 weekly classes, which are arranged at different communities all over the country. Aside from a Cooking Matters coordinator, there is also a volunteer culinary instructor, volunteer nutritionist and volunteer assistant at each class (and a volunteer translator where applicable) who teach the Cooking Matters curriculum to the group of attendants. This is a national program so you can be one of these volunteers!!!

You may remember that volunteering was one of my 30 by 30 goals. I was really excited when I learned about this program because it combined my passion for healthy food with my desire to give back. With a pretty unreliable work schedule (with last minute meetings and often late nights) I had a hard time committing to a 6-week program, but signing up as an assistant volunteer was literally the first thing I did after giving my notice!!

Ok, so let me give you a behind the scenes look into how the magic happens

Each class is 2 hours in length. The team gets there about 30 minutes prior to prep and strategize. The very first picture above is of the bags assembled to give to each participant at the end of the class. Typically, they get a bag full of groceries that can be used to make the recipes learned that day in class. Today was the last class, so they got a bag with some “graduation gifts” which consisted of the class textbook with all of the nutrition information that was taught to them over 6 weeks (plus over 60 healthy recipes… some of which they’ve already made and loved!), a cutting board and a knife. We also organized all the ingredients that we needed for today’s recipes (as per above).

Cooking Matters coordinator, Mimi, culinary instructor, Robin, and nutritionist, Jenny – going over today’s class timeline prior to class:

Once the class starts, we normally ask the participants whether they cooked last week’s recipes at home, how their kids/family liked it, etc, and then talk about what we’re going to cook this week. We have a very high rate of happy “customers” at home.

Today we made turkey meatballs, veggie-full tomato sauce and since it was graduation after all – a chocolate cake!

The classes are very hands-on. We want all participants to be able to replicate the recipes at home so with the culinary instructor’s lead – together they make the recipes in class which we all taste at the end.

Robin giving a tip about using cheese rind in soups:

As an assistant, I was responsible for well – assisting the culinary instructor. Since the participants do most of the chopping and measuring, I was just there to make sure that the chef had whatever tools she needed, then I did the actual cooking part (watching what’s going on in the oven, stir-frying and cooking things on the stove-top as needed) and doing all the dishes. There a LOT of dishes but eventually you figure out a way to still be involved in the class and get those babies done on time!

Tomato sauce full of veggies – onions, garlic, peppers, carrots:

The toughest part for me was dealing with all the onions. There are onions in pretty much every Cooking Matters recipe!!

Robin talking about using lean meats – like ground turkey breast which is 99% lean.

Making meatballs (these guys are full of veggies too – carrots, onions, garlic and fresh herbs)

While the food is cooking, the class nutritionist typically has the floor to discuss the day’s topic. Today we actually had a fun Cooking Matters trivia game, quizzing the participants on everything they’ve learned over the past 5 weeks. They did really well!!

Meatballs post baking:

Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce (and meatballs in the back)

This cake turned out so moist and fluffy (and it was actually vegan!). The frosting was super simple and very delicious – a package of silken tofu blended with 12-oz of melted chocolate chips. It was smooth, creamy and everyone loved it!

Every class we also make fun fizzy drinks by combining seltzer water with a bit of juice. This is a great substitute for the typically very sugary carbonated drinks. [We actually did the math this morning and each can of soda has 1/4 cup of sugar!! No bueno.]

Cheers to an awesome class and cooking healthy meals with love!

Since today was the last class, all the participants also took a survey. The class reviews were glowing. Everyone was so appreciative of learning how to make meals healthier, incorporating more fruits and veggies into their (and their kids’!) diets and learning how to shop smart for better-for-you ingredients (last week’s class was in a grocery store where we put all of those skills to use!). It was amazing reading all of this and I was so happy to be a part of this group’s healthier future!  

The next round of classes starts in January and I hope to get a spot as a culinary instructor. Whee!!

Do you volunteer? Where, how? I want details! If you’d like to get involved with Cooking Matters, click here.

PS – I was not compensated for my time with Cooking Matters or for writing this post. I LOVED being a part of the program so I wanted to share it with you! Ok, time to squeeze in a P90X workout before a fun blogger event. I love my life!

I’ve been slowly but surely making our condo feel like home. Most of the furniture we had from our previous apartment fit right in and we bought the remaining large items within months of moving in… but it’s the little touches (like curtains, area rugs and ART) that I think really pull it all together. These also happen to be the things that I’m most indecisive about… which is why we’ve lived here for over two years and I’m still not done with decorating the place. I’m going to call myself thorough

Take this electrical panel right outside of our kitchen. Not exactly a looker. I’ve been searching for the perfect piece of art to cover this beast for well, 2+ years… until eventually I decided to take matters into my own hands and just make something myself!!

I thought making a collage of some of my favorite food pictures would be a fun project (and I was right). It’s very personal (I cooked and photographed every dish!) and it brings up memories of delicious meals often enjoyed with friends. Dishes that came right from the kitchen around the corner! Appropriate, no?

So I hit up Michael’s for a cheap 24×30” picture frame (custom frames to exactly cover the panel were upwards of $100 so this $30 one was a bit larger than “needed” but actually ended up being perfect since it allowed for more pictures!), a blue matboard and a Fashionably Chic paper pad (<—sort of an impulse purchase that I was very happy I got!)

[Use the insert in the picture frame to cut your matboard to the right size.]

Then I printed some of my favorite food pics in 4×6” and 5×7” (I asked Adam to pick his absolute favorites and those were enlarged). CVS did an amazing job – these came out so bright and made me super proud of my “work.”

I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with them but after shuffling the pictures around I noticed this pattern was symmetrical and covered the whole board nicely. Sweet!

Next up I ripped out my favorite patterns from the paper pad and started cutting out rectangles around the pictures to see what worked and what didn’t. The border was pretty thin so I actually think that anything would look pretty nice since the pattern wouldn’t really overwhelm the photos. At the end I went with a “bolder” blue pattern and two lighter yellow ones. Blue and yellow look pretty, don’t you think?

There was a lot of math and a lot of measuring. I also didn’t have a proper ruler (please do yourself a favor and get one if you ever try attempting something like that!) so I used a kitchen measuring tape and a 5×7 photo most of the time for measuring and drawing lines. Not ideal but I got the hang of it after a while.

Once all the background rectangles were cut and glued to the pictures (I measured some more to make sure they were centered!), additional math and measuring was required to ensure my pictures were glued symmetrically within the frame. This was quite meticulous and almost meditative. It took a few hours for several days but I loved every minute of it. Apparently I have a crafts-bone in me after all!

The end result:

Not the best picture since the glass in the frame is reflective but hopefully you get the idea. I’m really happy with how it came out!

If you’re looking to add a little spice to your kitchen (or hallway!), I highly recommend snapping some photos of your favorite meals and bringing them to life in a photo collage (obviously if you’re a food blogger, you are part of the way there!).

Are you crafty? What other artsy DIY projects have you done?

PS – In case you’re curious, here are links to the recipes in the collage.

… and if you want them all (and more!) in one place, they are saved on Pinterest.

PPS – The winner of the Nasoya giveaway is #52 - Audrey. Thanks for mentioning the giveaway on your blog, Audrey – this helped you win!  Congrats! Please email your address to elina@healthyandsane.com.