"Oye Come Va" Chili-Burger Casserole

I call this a “freestyle” dish because I tossed aside the original recipe and began adding my own ingredients as I went along. I’ll credit listening to the dance version of Oye Come Va for helping me think of the Spanish influenced ingredients that ultimately turned this little number into a tasty Mexican style dish! Real easy to make...give it a try!

Cook-On!

Freestyle Chili-Burger Casserole

Instruments
3 to 4 potatoes
½ lb lean ground beef
½ cup diced onion
1 green bell pepper, diced
½ cup canned or thawed frozen kernel corn
1 clove garlic minced
¾ cup salsa
1 can (127 ml) chopped green chilies
Pinch or two salt and pepper
½ cup (packed) shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz / 57 g)

¼ cup chopped green onions

Lyrics

Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling water until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes. Using a potato masher, mash potatoes while gradually adding some milk. Beat until potatoes are light, fluffy and no lumps remain. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, cook beef, onions, green peppers and corn over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Remove skillet from heat and add, salsa, green chilies, salt and pepper.

Spoon mixture into a casserole dish and spread mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in a 350º F for 10 minutes. Sprinkle green onions on top and serve.

Volume: Makes 4 Servings

Cook-a-Palooza Weekly Menu

When I’m low on energy my motto in the kitchen is “don’t think, just focus on the music and cook”. Cooking becomes much more difficult when you over-think it. If you dwell on the prep, cooking and clean-up you are going to be worn out before you even get started. Instead just turn on the tunes and whip something up without hesitation. My guess is that it will take you less time to make that healthy homemade meal than you ever thought it would...so why think about it.

Here’s what’s on my menu this week:

Chili Burger Casserole
Butternut Squash Apple Soup (because it’s freezing outside)
Vegetable Fajitas
and
those Blueberry Bran Muffins I never got around to making last week.

Cook-On!

Motown Sweet and Sour Meatballs

If pizza is the number one comfort food in the world then my guess is meatballs are sitting in the number two position. Meatballs are like pizza in many ways. They can be found in different countries around the world and everyone puts a different spin on them…from Swedish meatballs to the classic Italian.

I was looking to make more of an Asian style meatball so I started with a basic meatball recipe and came up with this ginger infused rendition. My sometimes fussy eating kids gobbled them up so I’d say they turned out pretty good!

As for the cooking mood in my kitchen I was movin’ to some ‘70s Motown songs while making the meatballs. The tunes had the soul of the ‘50s and ‘60s but were infused with a disco beat. The Temptations “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and Eddie Kendricks’ “Keep on Truckin’” are a couple tunes that’ll definitely add some welcome Motown groove to any meatball cooking experience!

Want to make the perfect meatballs?

E-mail me and I’ll send you 5 essential meatball making tips for free.

Motown Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Instruments
1 cup tomato-based chili sauce
1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
½ cup grape jelly
1 lb (454 g) lean ground beef
¼ cup each dry unseasoned breadcrumbs and minced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 egg, beaten
¼ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

½ tbsp oil

Lyrics
In a small bowl, whisk together chili sauce, soy sauce and grape jelly. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using your finger tips, combine beef, breadcrumbs, onions, garlic, ginger, egg, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Form meat mixture into equal sized 1-inch meatballs.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add oil. Evenly space meatballs in the skillet. Cook until all sides of the meatballs are well browned. Remove meatballs and drain pan. Reduce heat to low and add chili sauce mixture to pan. Cook and stir until jelly is completely melted.
Return meatballs to pan. Cover and simmer until meatballs are cooked through. Serve over rice or noodles.

Volume: Makes 4 servings

Cook Your Way To Good Health - Weekly Plan

Here’s a trick I use to keep me on cooking track during the week. I have a small blackboard on my fridge where I write down the dishes I intend to make over the next 7 days…I got the idea after reading an article about Bob Blumer’s (The Surreal Gourmet) home kitchen.

It not only reminds me of my weekly cooking plan, but it also adds a hip restaurant feel to my kitchen…a great conversation piece for when people come over.

Here’s the plan.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Rice
Vegetable Chili
Spicy Beef Stir-Fry

And for a snack I’m going to whip up a dozen Blueberry Bran Muffins.

As for my meal prep musical play-list, I like to keep that open. However with all this cold weather I have a feeling I’ll be gravitating to music that make me feel nice and warm.
Cook-On!

The 2009 Cook Your Way To Good Health Plan

Based on my last blog posting I thought I should put my cooking where my mouth is.

I suggested we achieve our 2009 weight management goals by using home cooking instead of going on a depressing diet and depriving ourselves of food. I think cooking is the easiest way to manage weight because it’s not complicated and you get to eat food you actually like. So I’ve decided to make this the year I take it upon myself to lead us all on this flavorful calorie conscious cooking crusade. The goals are simple.

Be healthier - by eating tastier nutritious dishes
Be happier - by putting the excitement back in cooking and feeling great about what we eat.
And
Be wealthier both financially (by spending less on take-out and pre-packaged meals) and personally (since we’re sure to discover new recipes and cooking tricks along the way).

I don’t propose we completely remove take-out or pre-packaged meals from our diet, because that’s way too hard and not much fun. I propose we use them as treats for when we need a break from cooking or for back-up situations when our cooking intentions don’t go as planned.

Before we set out on this cooking adventure, there are a few things we need to do.

First…we have to kiss the notion of dieting good-bye - because under no circumstance will we consider our cooking quest a downer diet…because diets stink.

Second…if you’re going to put in this little bit of extra effort, you may as well have a personal goal. It could be you want to maintain your current weight, lose a few pounds, learn new recipes or save some money. Up to you.
Mine is to drop about 5 to 10 lbs. To put something at stake I signed up for two endurance races later in the year. If I don’t hit my goal that extra poundage will certainly make my races extra grueling as one of them is on a very hilly course.
What’s your personal goal? Write it down.

Third… we have to be ready to cook like the wind. Well not really. We'll just intend to cook guilt-free dishes more often than we rely on fatty ready-made products. To achieve this we’ll remind ourselves each week of our intent and then draw up a weekly meal plan to follow. It should only take about twenty minutes on the weekend to put it together.
I’ll share mine each week so you can see what I intend to cook.

Finally…we are going to need some motivation to overcome those days when we have the cooking blues and don’t feel like prepping a meal. There’s nothing better than a good tune to lift your spirits and de-stress your mind, so we'll use our favorite music as our “secret ingredient” when it comes to getting fired up in the kitchen.
Keep you’re your ipods, clock radios, mp3 players, stereos or even your own singing voices ready to go, because they’re going move, groove and inspire you!

To make this even easier I’m going to do my part by sharing recipes on my blog and website (both from my book and new ones I may use in my next book). It’ll give us a base of recipes to work from and it’s the least I can do to get us on the right cooking track. I’ll also provide as many tips as I can to save time and put us in the right cooking mood. In the next month I'll set something up so we can keep each other posted on our progress and share as many materials and tips as we can to make preparing meals easier. Stay tuned!

So, are you ready to be part of the experience! Send me an e-mail and let me know if you want to join in. We’ll do it together one dish (and song) at a time. Give it a spin and see what happens!

Cook-On!

Try Cooking Instead of Dieting in 2009

At some point or another just about everyone has tried the New Year’s resolution to go on a diet. Judging by the size of us all in North America, my guess is the diet technique isn’t working too well for any of us.

I wonder if we would be better served if we changed the diet resolution to an intention to cook healthy homemade meals more often. At first glance they may seem like the same thing but it’s really two entirely different approaches.

A diet essentially means you’re going to try and deprive yourself of food…which usually includes the foods you love. That approach doesn’t work for most of us because it requires way too much will power. By February most of us will have fallen off the diet wagon like so many before us.

An intention to cook more often is much easier to follow. You’re not depriving yourself of anything. You actually get to enjoy tastier meals more often (especially if you use the recipes in my book…sorry about the shameless book plug). The best part is an intention carries much less pressure. For example if you don’t cook for a few nights, you can still get back on track because it’s not like a resolution where breaking it implies you’ve failed …so you give it up until the next year. An intention means you intended to do it, but somehow couldn’t this time, which means you can try again tomorrow. How easy is that!

There are a couple things required to make this cooking intention thing actually work, in terms of shedding some pounds. The first is to remind yourself every week of your intention…only takes a few seconds. The second is to plan and buy the groceries for what you intend to cook…a little harder than step one but definitely not over the top. Here’s a prepared grocery list to make it easier.

Of course, you will have to cook the meals but the trick is to keep it simple. My intention was to make a meal last night, so I prepared the spaghetti with vegetable sauce recipe outlined below. Took me all of 20 minutes to make…I was jamming to “Soul Kitchen” by The Doors while prepping it. It tasted great and I didn’t starve myself. I may not cook tonight but my intention is to make another delicious and nutritious meal tomorrow evening. By using this approach I think I can cut my take-out orders and ready-made meals in half. I’ll save some calories and a few dollars to boot.

If I lay off the Ho-Ho’s and cookies a little more often I think this intention thing just might work…what do you think?

Fashionably Fast Spaghetti

Instruments
16 oz spaghetti
2 tsp olive oil
½ cup diced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp each dried basil leaves and dried oregano leaves
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 can (28 oz / 796 ml) stewed tomatoes, undrained
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tsp red wine vinegar
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Lyrics
In a large saucepan, cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions. Cook and stir until onions are softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir for 30 seconds more. Add tomatoes (use a wooden spoon to break them up). Stir in tomato paste, vinegar and pepper. Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in Parmesan cheese and parsley. Add cooked spaghetti and mix until coated with sauce. Serve hot.

Volume: Makes 6 servings