Archive | January, 2012

Sunday Supper: Healthy & Hearty Borscht

29 Jan

Low Sodium Borscht

Borscht is a traditional Ukranian soup/stew and makes a great hearty winter meal.  My father is part Ukranian and would have my mom make this for us a few times every winter and always on Valentine’s Day (because of the soup’s deep red color).  My mother used a recipe from the Joy of Cooking that I adapted to include meat and make the borscht more of a soup-consistency.  The main ingredients are beets and cabbage, two of the NY Times 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating, so while this is another recipe that doesn’t necessarily photograph well, it is an easy, savory winter meal that is also very healthy.  And delicious!

Healthy & Hearty Borscht
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition)
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp. butter
2 cups very finely chopped beets (I used pre-packaged peeled beets so I didn’t have to worry about roasting/peeling beets)
1/2 cup very finely chopped carrots
1 cup very finely chopped yellow onion
1 pound beef chuck, 1/2″ cubes (optional)
Flour (optional)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups beef stock (low sodium) (Note: For a vegetarian option, use vegetable stock)
1 cup water
1 cup very finely shredded green cabbage
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper, to taste
Sour cream (or 0% Greek yogurt), for a garnish
Dill, for a garnish (optional)

Directions
1. Chop the beets, carrots, onion and cabbage in advance.  Set aside.
2. Lightly dredge the cubes of meat in a bowl of flour.
3. Heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a saute pan.  Add meat and cook until lightly browned.
4. Heat butter in soup pot over medium-low heat.  Once melted, add beets, carrots and onions.  Stirring continuously, cook until softened.  About 8 minutes.
5. Add beef stock, water, cabbage, red wine vinegar and meat to pot.  Bring to a bubbling simmer.  Once simmering, lower heat, partially cover soup with lid, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Serve hot.  Garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream (or 0% Greek yogurt) and dill.

Note: This soup also tastes great cold.  I like it even better reheated as leftovers the next day though because the flavor intensifies and the broth thickens.

Low Sodium Borscht

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Sweet Southern Comfort Goes on a Diet!

23 Jan

Healthy Veggie Snack Bag

OK…so the title of this post is a little deceiving; I’m not actually going on a diet, but my New Years resolution this year was to snack healthier.  That’s easier said than done when you work long hours and your office kitchen is always stocked with candy, chips and other unhealthy (and unfilling) snacks.  In order to help me implement this resolution, I turned to my friend Marc Perry, founder of Built Lean, an awesome fitness and weight loss website.  Marc also does personal training sessions in NYC, so I signed up for a couple to help get my butt into gear.  I got some great workout tips, but the most important thing I took away from our sessions was that in order to take my fitness to the “next level,” I would need to change my diet.  (Who knew an 8 oz. glass of orange juice can have upwards of 20 grams of sugar in it?  That is OVER five teaspoons of sugar in your morning drink!)  While I’m not going to stop cooking the Southern-style dishes I grew up with, in the past three weeks, my healthy snacking has already made a huge difference in how I feel. I find that the veggies in pre-packaged veggie snacks can be dry and old and you can’t order hard boiled eggs (Marc’s #1 breakfast selection), so I had to take matters into my own hands.  Every Sunday this January, I have hit up my local Whole Foods and picked up 1 dozen eggs, fresh veggies and some ingredients for a homemade veggie dip.  It takes about an hour to hard boil the eggs (useful tutorial here) and clean/prepare the veggies  and dill yogurt dip (recipe below).  I store the hard boiled eggs and have two egg whites and one egg yolk  every morning for breakfast along with a piece of fruit and a glass of skim milk.  Once the veggies are prepared, I divide them into 5 ziploc bags and take them to the office on Monday.  When an afternoon snack craving hits, I grab a bag of veggies and my homemade dip or hummus instead of the usual cookie or chips.  Not only do the veggies fill me up more than the “bad” snacks, but I also feel a LOT better, have lost a couple of pounds and I’m saving money not buying pre-packaged snacks too.  Let’s see how long I can keep this going in 2012 (and beyond)!

Healthy Veggie Snack Bags & Dill Yogurt Dip
Serves 1 person for 5 days of snacks

healthy veggie snack bags

One Week's Worth of Healthy Snacks!

Ingredients
1 bag baby carrots
1 head celery
5 assorted bell peppers
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 pound snow peas
1 cup 0% Fage Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 large lemon
1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

Directions
1. Clean all vegetables and cut celery and peppers into bite size pieces.
2. Separate vegetables into 5 sandwich-size ziploc bags.
3. Add dill and lemon juice to Greek yogurt and mix well.  Store in a tupperware container.
4. On Monday morning, bring all 5 veggie bags and yogurt mix to office.  You now have healthy snacks for a week and don’t have to think about it again until Sunday night!

Dill Yogurt Dip

Healthy Dill Yogurt Veggie Dip

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Christmas Dinner: Mom’s Standing Rib Roast

11 Jan

Mom's Standing Rib Roast

My mom rarely uses recipes.  If she does, it’s generally by Julia Child or the Joy of Cooking and then she opens up the cookbook but doesn’t really follow it.  For this recipe, she started with Julia Child’s Standing Rib Roast  recipe from her cookbook Julia Child & Company, which pretty much means she followed Julia’s instructions on when the meat was ready but little else.  Here is my mom’s adaptation.

Mom’s Standing Rib Roast
Adapted from Julia Child & Company
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 10-pound rib roast (2 ribs in our case, but it could be 3 or 4 if you are working with a smaller cow)
2 tbsp. butter, room temperature
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 cups water
Salt & pepper, for seasoning

Other Items Needed
Low-Sided Roasting Pan
Roasting Rack
Baster
Meat Thermometer

Directions
1. Take the meat out at least 1 hour before you plan to put it in the oven so it gets to room temperature.  Trim the rib roast to remove the excess fat.  Lightly season with salt & pepper – you don’t need much since the remaining fat will provide a lot of flavor for the meat.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Adjust rack position to lower level.
3. Smear the cut end of the beef with butter and place it fat side up (ribs down) on the rack in the roasting pan.  Place carrots, onions and 2 cups water at the bottom of the roasting pan.
4. Place roast in oven.  Every 30 minutes, baste the meat with the juices at the bottom of the pan and check the temperature of the meat in the thickest, middle section of the roast.  If you want medium rare meat, take the roast out of the oven when the temperature reaches 125.  This should take between 2 to 2.5 hours for the cut of meat.
5. When ready, remove roast from oven and cover with tinfoil to keep warm.  Let sit for 15 minutes then carve.
6. Combine fresh grated horseradish with sour cream for garnish/extra flavor.

Mom's Standing Rib Roast

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