Cincinnati chili dip

So with the holidays, I have many recipes to share with you...but first I thought I'd share the easiest one ever.  I made this for New Year's Eve.  It had been several years since I had it and it was every bit as delicious as what I remembered!  Of course, the version I made was lightened up and therefore slightly less bad for you than what I had in my youth.

So this brings me to - Skyline chili dip!  Skyline Chili is a very special kind of chili found in Cincinnati, Ohio.  It is in fact known as "Cincinnati style" chili.  Now, I grew up on this stuff so I think it's wonderful, but for those expecting a traditional chili....well it's definitely different.  It's thin and soupy, the meat is super tender, and you can taste cloves instead of the normal chili powder as a dominant flavor.  You can read more about it here.  I always tell people to not expect a regular chili when they try it as it is really quite distinct.  If you go in expecting a thick Texas chili I can imagine the surprise.

Now that I'm in North Carolina I can't get my beloved Skyline fresh, but they do sell it frozen and in cans at Kroger.  I also have a knock-off recipe that I've made which is pretty good - I'll post that here someday.  But today, the dip!

Ingredients

1 can of Skyline chili

12 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese (also called Neufchatel cheese), softened

1/4 cup finely diced onions

8 oz reduced fat finely shredded mild cheddar cheese

Procedure

Smear the cream cheese evenly across the bottom of an oven safe pan (I used an 8 x 8 glass baking dish).

Sprinkle the onions evenly over this.

Spread the chili evenly over the onions.

Sprinkle the cheese evenly over this.

Bake at 350 until the cheese has melted.  Serve with tortilla chips.  So good.
I didn't take a picture when I made it on New Year's but here's one from the internet:

Chickpea salad

Can I just say that I love chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans)?  They are great in hummus, in soups, and in a cold chickpea salad.  Now, I need to go on record to say that I hate macaroni salads, chicken salads, and 3/4 of potato salads.  I'm not sure why exactly but something about them just grosses me out.  Maybe it's the ice cold mayonnaise mixed with cold veggies. Chickpea salad, however, is delicious. And mayo free.

I found several recipes online, and finally decided upon this one, but then changed it up anyway. I'm wacky like that.

Ingredients

2 15-oz cans of chickpeas (usually found with the other beans but my local grocery had them with the canned vegetables...no idea why)

2 cups diced English cucumber (the English kind are usually wrapped in plastic wrap and have less seeds. If you can't find it, just use a regular cucumber and scoop out some of the seeds before chopping)

1 cup diced tomatoes, seeded (seeded means squeezing out all the juice and seeds)

1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely chopped

3/4 cup finely diced red onion

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced

2-3 tablespoons minced basil (I no longer have fresh, as my plant died from the frost. So I had to use dried basil. I used about 2 teaspoons)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

4 teaspoons rice vinegar

4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Rinse and drain chickpeas. In a medium bowl, stir together the cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, red onion, and herbs. Carefully stir in the chickpeas.

In a small bowl, mash together the garlic and salt. Whisk in the lemon juice, mustard, vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste with pepper. Toss the dressing into the chickpeas and vegetables. Let it sit for at least an hour in the refrigerator (mine sat overnight). Give it one final toss before serving.

Paneer cheese

My husband, Joe, has made mozzarella cheese a few times now.  It turns out that it's kind of a particular process with several steps, and you really have to be careful about measurement of ingredients and temperature.  It also can be more challenging to try to find citric acid powder and rennet tablets.

So imagine my delight when paneer was so easy to make in comparison!  Paneer is a white, hard cheese found in many Indian dishes. It kind of looks like tofu cubes in some of the curries it's made in, except, well, it tastes like cheese!  You can also pan fry paneer (similar to tofu) if you want it browned.

So here we are, to the easiest cheese recipe ever!

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon of milk (you can use whole milk, but I used 2%. Next time I may try 1%.  They say that skim milk is not recommended though)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (I think that fresh squeezed works best. If you choose to use the bottled stuff, you may have to play around with the recipe a bit)

Directions:

Heat the 1/2 gallon of milk in a saucepan over medium heat.  Be sure to stir it often, so you don't burn the milk on the bottom.  When it finally comes to a good boil, remove it from the heat and pour in the lemon juice.

Gently stir the lemon juice in.  It will start to curdle the milk immediately, and separate it into curds and whey.  Gently stir for a bit, and then let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

Gently stir once more.  You should have a lot of curds now!  Put a double layer of cheesecloth over a fine mesh strainer and place them both over a bowl large enough to hold all of the whey liquid.  Carefully pour the curds and whey from the saucepan into the cheesecloth.  Squeeze all of the liquid from the cheesecloth that you can.  Either toss the whey or use it another recipe (I used it the next day to make roti bread).

Take your curds in the cheesecloth and gently rinse over the sink with tap water.  Squeeze to get all the liquid out, and then put the cheesecloth and strainer back over the bowl and let it sit a few minutes.  I put a paper towel and a heavy can of beans over top to help force liquid through.

Then, put some paper towels on a dinner plate, put your cheesecloth and curds on top, and cover with some more paper towels.  Place another dinner plate on top, and then on top of that, some heavy canned goods (I used a big jar of spaghetti sauce and 4 cans of beans).  Leave it out like this for 1-2 hours, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.  

freshly made paneer!

You can then use the paneer in your favorite paneer recipes.  One of my faves is palak paneer!

Sopa de Mariscos (seafood soup)

Growing up I was always comfortable baking cookies from scratch but I relied on some supermarket helpers for most other things: cake and brownies from box mix, hamburger helper, Kraft Mac n Cheese.  I guess you could call it the Sandra Lee semi-homemade approach (though I should go on the record to say that woman terrifies me).  I wasn't comfortable branching out and making things from scratch until probably late in my undergrad years and then in grad school.  And then I had a lot of missteps along the way.  My early philosophy was that if I didn't have an ingredient, I'd be "creative" in substituting another ingredient in.  I found out the hard way that you should never, ever do this unless you really know what you are doing.  (I still remember the roast pork I made where I subbed white sugar for brown.  Man was that gross.)  Joe was always highly suspicious when I tried something from scratch, because I was notorious for my bad subs.

We went to Cancun in 2002 and while there I had the most amazing seafood soup, or sopa de mariscos.  Spicy, flavorful, and so delicious.  And it had baby octopus in it that I actually liked.  So a few years later, I stumbled upon this recipe on the Food Network.  It turned out amazing, and was the first thing I made from scratch that Joe said was actually wonderful.  Ironically, when I made the soup a second time I realized that I had actually messed up one of the steps - adding all of the sofrito to the soup when it says to add 1 cup.  But I really like the thickness it has by adding the whole thing so I make it this way on purpose now!   I find this recipe (making the sofrito, and then the soup) to be time consuming, so be prepared if you make it all in one night.  You can save some time by making the sofrito in advance.

So, first, the sofrito. A sofrito is a base for many dishes, including soup.

Ingredients:

1 ounce bacon (about 1 strip), torn into pieces (or you can leave this out to make the dish pescatarian)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup chopped red onion
4 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon minced habanero or Scotch bonnet (or other hot pepper)
1/4 teaspoon minced jalapeno
Pinch saffron (saffron can be really expensive so if you aren't willing to spring for it, leave it out or put in paprika for similar color - but not flavor)
6 to 8 ounces dry white wine
1/2 cup cream, if desired (or fat free half and half)

In a sauce pot set on medium, cook the bacon in the olive oil for 30 seconds. Add red and yellow peppers, onions, and garlic, and saute until soft. Add the habanero, jalapeno, and saffron, cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and cream if desired. Reduce by 1/4 and cool a bit.  If you have an immersion blender, it really comes in handy here.  I like to blend it so that there are still some veggie chunks in there.  If you don't have an immersion blender, feel free to use a food processor or blender but please be careful if the liquid is still really hot.  Don't need any sofrito explosions.

Then, you'll want to start making the soup itself.

Ingredients

all of the sofrito, recipe above
2-4 cups fish stock or clam juice (I really like the seafood bullion cubes for this but they are hard to find. Otherwise I just use some seafood stock and clam juice)  I say 2-4 cups because this will vary depending on how thick you want the soup, how much seafood you add, etc.
Seafood of your choice - sometimes you can find a frozen mix of seafood at the grocery - if so, great, use that. If your dining partners aren't as adventurous and don't like octopus and calamari, then you can just use all shrimp, or a white fish like cod.  Or you can be fancy and use mussels and clams.  It's really up to you.  One time I added lobster!
1 tomato, small diced
1/2 cup yellow pepper, small diced
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

In a deep saute pan or fry skillet combine sofrito with fish stock or clam juice on medium low heat whisking frequently until heated through. Add the tomatoes and yellow pepper. At this point I usually let it simmer around 30 minutes.

Then, add your seafood of choice (fish and seafood never take long to cook - only a few minutes.  If you are using shellfish, cook until they open  - and if any don't open, toss them). Just before serving, stir in lime juice, cilantro, and salt and pepper, to taste.

This soup is great with some crusty bread.  I do have a photo of the finished soup but the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Lemon sugar cookies

So I recently decided to try out a new, somewhat healthy version of a sugar cookie because I'm testing recipes for a Halloween cookie (more on that to come!).  I found a healthier sugar cookie on Eating Well and decided to give it a try.  The dough ended up puffier than what I had liked for my specialty shaped Halloween cookie idea, but was perfect just for making regular round cookies.  Here's my slightly modified version of their cookies.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 

1 large egg

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (I used two little packets of True Lemon instead)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

A few more tablespoons of granulated sugar

Directions

Whisk flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a small bowl.

Beat sugar and butter in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add egg, honey, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, and beat until blended. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating on low speed just until combined. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes or overnight. (Bolding because this is an important step to remember!)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

Roll the dough into 36 balls (about 2 level teaspoons each) with your hands. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.  Smash the balls down slightly and then lightly sprinkle each one with the remaining granulated sugar.

Bake, one batch at a time, until puffed and beginning to crack, 6 to 8 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

Per cookie: 59 calories; 1 g fat ( 1 g sat , 0 g mono ); 9 mg cholesterol; 11 g carbohydrates; 6 g added sugars; 1 g protein; 0 g fiber; 36 mg sodium; 15 mg potassium.

This was from my first batch. Note that I made my dough balls a bit too big on this one so I ended up with far fewer than 36 cookies!  I'll know what to do next time...

Somewhat Healthier Tator Tot Casserole

Given that it's not very fun to eat steamed chicken breast and broccoli each and every day, I'm all about variety in the food I make and in recipe makeovers for things that starting out aren't very healthy but can be lightened up with just a few tweaks.  I was browsing recipe sites as I tend to do, when I came across this recipe makeover for tator tot casserole. I had never heard of such a thing, but it sounded obnoxious and delicious all at the same time.  I kind of think of it as Americanized shepherd's pie.  

I made some further modifications to the recipe, including going back to actual tator tots versus the "smiles" things that they used. I discovered that, for some reason, the extra crispy tator tots are actually lower in calories than regular tator tots, so I used them in the recipe (extra crispy: 12 tots for 170 calories versus 160 calories for just 9 regular tots). I also added more veggies.  Overall, it's a pretty easy recipe.  And so tasty!

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon canola oil
frozen tator tots (I used extra crunchy)
8 ounces mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 pound lean ground beef or turkey (90% or higher)
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded (about 1 cup) (I just bought pre-shredded carrot and chopped it up some more)
One onion, chopped
Handful of peas (I used frozen)
A few garlic cloves, minced (I used 4, but I like garlic a lot!)
½ teaspoon black pepper
Kosher salt
One 10¾-ounce can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
One 10¾-ounce can filled with 1% lowfat milk (basically once you dump the soup into the pan, fill the soup can with an equivalent amount of milk and dump it in)
2 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, divided (I used Cabot's 75% light sharp cheddar cheese - it comes in a block, so I grated it extra fine) [Alternatively, you can use the pre-shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese.  When I did this, I just ended up using about 1 and 1/2 cups of cheese instead of 2.]

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the turkey or beef and cook until no longer pink.  Remove the meat from the pan and reserve it.  Turn the heat down to medium.

3. If there is a ton of oil there, drain most of it away.  If only a little oil, leave it.  Then add the mushrooms, onion, carrots, and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5-10 minutes.  You especially want to make sure that the carrot isn't still crunchy.  At this point, dump the meat back into the pan.

4. Season with salt and additional pepper to taste.

4. Stir in the soup, milk, and, 1 cup of the cheese (the mixture will seem very thin at this point, but don’t worry). Heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Remove from the heat.  Add the peas at this point.

5. Pour the meat mixture into a 13-inch baking pan or dish.  Of the remaining cheese, sprinkle all but about 1/4 cup of it across the top and then arrange the frozen tator tots over this into neat rows. Bake casserole in a 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes.

6. Then, raise the heat to 420 degrees.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the tots and cook another 10 minutes, or until all cheese is melted and the tots are crunchy to your liking. 

The last time I made this recipe, I had pre-cooked shredded chicken left over so I used that instead of ground meat.  I have to say that I like the ground turkey better than the shredded chicken.  Because I used less meat, I had less filling so made this in an 8x8 pan.  It was still good though!

Banana Bread

As part of my effort to eat in a more healthy way, I've been trying to get more fruit in my diet. So, some weeks I'll buy a bunch of bananas and have a banana as part of my breakfast each day.  For some reason though, bananas ripen in my kitchen at an alarming rate (the AC is set to 72/73 so I am not sure why).  Sometimes by the end of the week, they inevitably get brown and nasty and not fit for consumption in their current form.  Enter...banana bread!  Banana bread is at its most awesome when it has really ripe bananas in it.  In fact, if you try to use unriped bananas it's bad news all around (trust me, I tried making muffins once with decidedly unripe bananas.  Not a good idea).

So without further delay, here is my recipe for banana bread, slightly adapted from this recipe from Cooking Light.  I adapted it to be even healthier than the Cooking Light people and I think it still tastes great.  (And my friend Joe agrees since he always eats it immediately when I make a batch!)

Ingredients 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1 cup whole wheat flour (the last time I made it, I used 1/2 cup all purpose and 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat and it tasted great.  So feel free to vary this.  I would hesitate to go all whole wheat in case it turns out too chewy though).

3/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 cup sugar 

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (if you buy the little cups, they are 4 oz each and therefore 1/2 cup)

2 large eggs or the equivalent in Egg Beaters

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas) 

1/3 cup plain non or low-fat Greek yogurt (like Fage)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Cooking spray

Place sugar, canola oil, and applesauce in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add the salt and baking soda and mix well.  Add flour a little bit at a time; beat at low speed just until moist. 

Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Or evenly distribute into a pan that makes several miniature loaves (I have one, and it's great for meatloaf too!).

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

My mini loaf pan.  This is after I removed some loaves. 

Delicious mini loaf.  Good at breakfast or for a snack!