Well folks....I have been away far too long. Vacation is over and time to get back to my writing. It's all about food.

It was announced recently that The Chew has been cancelled. This show has had an influence on my cooking for the past few years. A lot of the recipes provided by the cast are easy to follow and fun to make.

More so, the sad news last week of the loss of Anthony Bourdain. I was a fairly new follower of his show but have been enjoying it immensely. He got me interested in researching foods from different regions and trying some new recipes along the way.

So I'm back! I'm going to continue to research new recipes from the different regions and find ways to use healthy ingredients while keeping the integrity and flavour of the dish.

With shopping list in hand...I head out to restock....stay tuned!

Pizza Night!

Oh how I long for a medium (or large) pan pizza, with bacon, mushroom, and smothered in cheese...from...well you know where.  Where a serving size is one slice and as many calories in that one slice as I would have in a whole meal. What to do...

Make a pizza using a pita. We used to make pizzas with pitas years ago. It is so quick and easy. I used pizza sauce from a can, which I'm not especially fond of, and will now make up a batch of homemade sauce to have on hand...but that's another blog.

I had the larger size pitas on hand and added some sauce. On one pizza, (yes I made two...how could I not?) I added 1 slice of bacon cooked crisp in the microwave, fresh mushrooms and 15 grams of partly skim mozzarella cheese. On the other pizza I added fresh basil and 10 grams of freshly grated parmesan.

Cook the under the broiler until the cheese starts to melt and bubble. Watch closely since they can turn from done to well burnt in a matter of seconds.

A great alternative to satisfy the pizza craving, and the bonus is... if you have ever had pizza in Rome from the little cafes on street corners, you would almost think that's where you were...almost.

Food	Weight	Serving	Points	Calories
Pita	75 g	1 large	6	200
Pizza Sauce (Primo)	60 ml	1/4 cup	1	30
Bacon	8 g	1 strip	2	43
Mushrooms (fresh / sliced)	70	1 cup	0	16
Parmesan cheese	10 g	2 Tbsp	1	44
Mozzarella cheese (part skim)	15 g	2 Tbsp	1	38
Basil	2.5 g	5 leaves	0	0
Pizza with basil and parmesan			8	274
Pizza with bacon and mushroom			10	327

Snacks 101 - Part 2

Before I get into my ideas for snacks with pita, I thought I would get a few snacks together for our last meeting and organize them by weight, points and calories.

We meet once a week...kind of like a Stitch 'n Bitch...without the stitch. We discuss our week, our challenges, progress toward our goals, and anything else that comes up to fill a couple hours.

It was my turn to bring the snacks. I bought a few things and put serving sizes in plastic snack bags to give an idea of what you get for the points or calories.

It was a bit of an eye opener for sure. I guess until you see only nine pieces of something that makes a serving size you don't really think about it. Makes me want to really get the most healthy and filling snack for my points...that's for sure.

Below is a list of some of the snacks I brought to the meeting...and a few extra just to make it interesting. I must add a disclaimer...just in case my math is off!

Food	Weight	Serving	Points	Calories
Pretzels (small twists)	25g	14 pieces	3	98
Compliments Balance - Cranberries, Almonds & Seeds Granola Bar	30 g	1 bar	4	120
Compliments - Chocolate Chip - Chewy Granola Bar	26g	1bar	4	110
Compliments - Cheddar Cheese Rice Chips	28g	14 chips	4	120
Compliments Potato Chips - Plain	25g	15 chips	4	130
Corn Chips with Flax Seed	25g	30 pieces	4	125
Cheddar Cheese Whales	25g	29 pieces	4	115
Almonds - Dry Roasted with sea salt	28g	1/4 cup	5	170
Pop Chips - Veggie Chip & Sea Salt	40g	33 chips	5	170
Pringles Original - Reduced Fat	28g	17 chips	5	140
Gummie Bears	25g	9 pieces	5	83
Milk Chocolate Raisins	25g	19 pieces	6	110
Cadbury Mini Eggs	21g	9pieces	6	105
Cashews - Dry Roasted with sea salt	40g	1/3 cup / 30 nuts	7	230
Bits & Bites - Original	50g	3/4 cup	7	220
Yogurt Peanuts	25g	15 pieces	7	135

Snacks 101

I'm back! And I'm on a mission...to find healthy and filling snacks. 


Five of us get together once a week and we have a common goal. Eat healthy and lose a few pounds.


The worst thing when you are trying to watch what you eat is to use up valuable points (Weight Watchers) or calories. A handful of nuts or dried fruit might be healthy, but they are worth a lot of valuable points  and high in calories. And to be honest, not really that filling.

So I'm back on the Weight Watchers program. But whether you are counting points or counting calories, they add up quick. There is no sense eating your points up (so to speak) if after 5 or 10 points you are still hungry.

So I have made it my mission to look for snacks, in addition to what we already know...carrot and celery sticks...you know the ones I'm talking about.

Stay tuned...I think I'll find some interesting things to make with pitas!

Broccoli Cole Slaw

(So I can't spell! Blame it on the spell check which very obviously wasn't working))

Eat your broccoli!

It's so good for you!


But what a waste...those big pieces of stalk.

We all cut the florets and bake, steam, or boil, and toss the rest. Well? We do...don't we...





I decided that I would make a slaw with them instead of adding them to the organics cart.
Rather than get the food processor out, I tempted fate and used the grater. Added a little grated carrot for colour, the same seasonings I would use in a traditional cabbage slaw...and wham!

Broccoli Slaw

2 broccoli stalks, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, grated
1 2 Tbsp mayo
1 tsp sugar
1 - 2 tsp white vinegar

Mix it all together and let stand 10 or 15 minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve.

Arugula Salad

I did not know that arugula and rocket were the same thing. All those cooking shows I used to watch (and still do), and they were always making salads or sandwiches with "rocket". I always wanted to try it. I mean seriously...who wouldn't want to eat rocket?

Kids tend to stick with what they know and like, so over the years the only lettuce I would buy would be iceberg and romaine, throwing in something different didn't fly, so its just now that I'm getting adventurous and trying all that I can find available.

Arugula sounds foreign...exotic even. And I have bought it from time to time over the past couple years. I've noticed more of a variety at the grocery store, so it is more readily available.
Arugula has a strong flavour on its own. Some chefs describe it as peppery.

Being a dark green leaf, you know it's good for you, containing high amounts of both Vitamin A and Vitamin C, with lots of Calcium and Iron.

The older leaves are cooked from what I've read, adding it to pastas seems to be common. Seems weird, but I will certainly give that a try. Maybe not so weird now that I think about it...I cook spinach.

But for now, I have a salad using baby arugula. Ingredients can be swapped out, especially the cheese. Any hard white cheese would work, and I've used Parmesan, Asiago, and white cheddar.

Baby Arugula Salad

4 cups baby arugula
2 Tbsp shredded Parmesan
2 Tbsp broken pecans
2 Tbsp red onion, chopped small
1/2 cup grape tomatoes (cut in half)
croutons

Dressing
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1 grated garlic clove (optional)

Add all the salad ingredients to a bowl. Whisk the dressing and pour over the salad. Toss to coat. Salad may be served adding a few whole pecan halves for garnish and croutons.

I made this with and without the garlic and like it both ways. There are a lot of flavours happening and the garlic is not really needed especially since the arugula has a distinct flavour all its own. The dressing is light enough using the rice wine vinegar, the flavour of the arugula is not overpowered.

Arugula is not crisp like iceberg lettuce or romaine, so adding the croutons gives it a little crunch...

Asparagus Sandwich

I'm just about "asparagussed" out. Time to move on to something else. I've eaten more asparagus in the last month or so than I have in my whole life. But it is tasty!

It's one of those veggies we didn't have growing up, so I don't think to put it in my shopping cart. It's not cheap...usually. The bag from Costco was reasonable, but the last bunch I bought at Sobeys was more than $8. Yikes!

But I couldn't go through that much asparagus and not make sandwiches...with cream cheese. One of my favourite treats when there's a party and sandwiches are called for. Or even good as an appetizer. Yum!

I use light cream cheese to cut down on the calories, and try to stick with whole wheat bread. I always cut the crusts off when making these and use minimal cream cheese. Since they are rolled you just need enough to make them stick when rolling them up.

There are a few sticks of asparagus left in the fridge which I will make into sandwiches tomorrow.

Then it's on to arugula! Stay tuned for a tasty salad I've been working on.