Strawberry Applesauce

This picture courtesy of Foodnetwork.com

The only applesauce I ever loved was from the cafeteria of South Junior High School, which is now South Middle School. I know most people prefer the homemade stuff, but I loved that applesauce and only that applesauce.

I'm looking for ways to incorporate more fresh vegetables and fruits into my diet. I'm not dieting, I just want to eat healthier. So a few years ago, I fell in love with another applesauce, this time it was Mott's Applesauce Strawberry. I'm trying to purge high fructose syrup from diet and all other artificial ingredients, when I noticed that this brand of applesauce contains the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.

So I decided to make my own without the fructose corn syrup and artificial flavoring and stabilizers. I wanted to make a strawberry applesauce that used all of the nutrients of the apples and strawberries. You can use honey instead of sugar, but I ran out of honey. Use as much or as little sugar as you need. I used about 1/4 cup. Some people may want to double that amount.

I love this as a snack. However... it tastes really good when mixed in with a fresh cup of oatmeal. You make any kind of variety of applesauce. You can use blueberries, raspberries, or even cranberries instead of strawberries. Instead of using cinnamon, you can use Cardamom.

An easier way to make this is to use your crockpot. Just double the ingredients, lesson the water, and put into your crockpot on low for about 8 hours.

This is a pretty cheap snack to make. If strawberries aren't in season grab a bag of frozen whole strawberries. You can buy them organic or if you're on a budget like me, Aldi's has a big bag for two or three dollars.

This makes about two cups. It will keep in the fridge for about two weeks.

Ingredients

5 apples (semisweet. I like Honey Crisp Apples)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup of water
10 strawberries
Sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Instructions

1. Do not peel the apples. Core and cut into small chunks.
2. In a large saucepan, bring apples, cinnamon stick, sugar, and water to a boil and then simmer.
3. Cook until apples are tender when poked with a fork, which is about 15 minutes
4. Add strawberries and cook for about five minutes more.
5. Remove the fruit from the heat and pour into a blender or food processor and blend until desired thickness.
6. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours. Or you can serve right away.

Jamaican Rice and Peas

This is a staple in Jamaica. I love this dish a lot. Instead of white rice, I use brown rice because it's a lot healthier and has more nutrients than white rice. In fact, most of the nutrients are stripped from brown rice when it's polished down to make white rice. Studies have shown that eating two servings of brown rice a week can reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, compared with white rice that actually increases your risk.

This is a perfect dish for a vegetarian because there is no meat, and the peas (kidney beans) are a great source of protein and iron.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of rice
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 uncut scotch bonnet pepper or habanero
• 3 scallions, crushed, not chopped
• 1 can of coconut milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 sprigs of thyme

Instructions

1. Boil seven cups of water
2. Add rice, beans, garlic, pepper, scallions, and coconut milk, salt and pepper to the boiling water. Let boil for a minute and reduce heat to low
3. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid
4. Remove the scallions, thyme twigs, and scotch bonnet or habanero

Buttermilk Pancakes

Breakfast food is my favorite and I absolutely love pancakes. There are dozens of ways to make pancakes. Some are super easy with very few ingredients. However, this recipe is not necessarily complicated, but it does use more ingredients.


Instead of using the typical blueberries or chocolate, try frozen berries like raspberries or blackberries. You can use stewed apples with cinnamon as well or maybe stewed carrots with ginger and brown sugar, if you want to be experimental.


In the picture above, I used frozen raspberries and frozen peaches. 


Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), melted and slightly cooled
• Vegetable oil
• 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries or any other fruit. 
• Butter and maple syrup, for serving

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 200°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place a baking sheet on the rack.
• Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk until evenly combined.
• Place the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter in a medium bowl and whisk until evenly combined.
• Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spoon or rubber spatula until the flour is just incorporated and no streaks remain, about 20 strokes. (The batter will be lumpy.) Let rest for 5 minutes.
• Heat a large frying pan, seasoned cast iron skillet, or griddle over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling a few drops of water in it: If the water bounces and sputters, the pan is ready to use; if it evaporates instantly, the pan is too hot. When the pan is ready, use a paper towel to coat it with a thin film of vegetable oil.
• Ladle the batter into the pan: 1/2 cup for large (6-inch) pancakes or 1/4 cup for smaller (4-inch) pancakes, leaving at least 1 inch in between. Evenly sprinkle each pancake with 1/4 cup (for 6-inch pancakes) or 2 tablespoons (for 4-inch ones) of the blueberries. Cook until little bubbles appear on the pancakes’ surface and the bottoms are golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook the second side until the bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Transfer the pancakes to the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter, oiling the pan as necessary. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Easy Oatmeal with fruit

I used to buy those pre-packaged packets of oatmeal and eat that every morning for breakfast. However, I find that it's really a waste of money. For the same amount of money, you can buy a big can of quick cooking oatmeal. All you have to do is add your milk or water and a pinch of salt. I like to add a half cup of frozen fruit and brown sugar. The oatmeal will fill you up for a few hours.

Ingredients

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup of fat free milk

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 cup of frozen fruit. I love raspberries.

A pinch of salt

Mix everything in a microwave safe bowl and cook in the microwave until desired doneness.

In the end you will have a rich tasting breakfast that incorporates a serving of fruit, milk, and whole grains. 

Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken with Rice and Peas

This is one of my favorite Jamaican meals. Normally, this is made in a stew pot and the chicken cut up and browned in a frying pan. I thought it would be easier if I made this in my crockpot. I love throwing a whole chicken minus the gibblets into the crockpot with some aromatic vegetables like celery, onions and carrots and some seasoning. The chicken becomes so tender this way that you won't need a knife to carve the chicken because the meat falls off the bones.


Another staple in Jamaican cuisine is Rice and Peas, which is really rice with kidney beans. I like to use brown rice in all of my rice dishes. This particular dish uses coconut milk, which is simply, fresh coconut steeped in hot water. I have never made my own coconut milk because it's more cost effective to buy it out of a can. Plenty of Caribbean dishes use coconut milk as well as cilantro. A quick observation, Thai food also utilizes the same ingredients.


Ingredients

•  1 whole chicken (about 3lb)
•  A splash of lime juice
•  1 teaspoon of salt
•  1 teaspoon of pepper
•  1 onion, chopped
•  3 stalks of scallion, chopped
•  1 hot pepper (ideally scotch bonnet), seeded and chopped
•  1 sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
•  3 cloves of garlic, minced
•  1/2 inch of ginger, minced
•  3 tomatoes, chopped
•  Oil for frying
•  3 sprigs of fresh thyme (or 3 teaspoons of dried thyme)
•  2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken with lime juice and rinse.
2. Chop the chicken into small pieces or you can leave whole
3. In a bowl, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the onion, scallion, hot pepper, sweet pepper, garlic, and ginger. Marinate for at least an hour to overnight.
4. Scrape off the onions, scallions, hot pepper, sweet pepper, garlic and ginger from the chicken and save the vegetables. In a large pan, working in batches, brown the chicken on all sides. 
5. Once the chicken is browned, add the chicken to your crock pot along with the reserved marinade. Pour in the soy sauce and set the crock pot for low heat.
6. I like to cook this slowly for about 6-8 hours. Which is why it's best to do right before you head out to work.
7. The chicken will release a lot of juice because it's cooking so slow. If you're home, it's good to spoon some of those juices on top of the chicken so the top doesn't get dry. 
8. When done, you should be able to scoop out a spoonful of the chicken. Plate it over the rice and peas. Serve with a simple side salad of lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. I like to mix up my salad dressing by using lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Easy Kielbasa Dish

What I love about this meal is it's simplicity and how budget friendly it is. The recipe cost approximately $4. So it's really $1 a serving. It's also a comfort food to me and another easy way for me to eat more vegetables. The kielbasa flavors the vegetables, so you need to be a bit stingy with the salt and pepper.

This is a quick meal. Perfect for those nights when you don't feel like cooking but don't have the money to order take out.

                                                                                                          Ingredients

• 1 package of kielbasa. (I normally like to use all beef, if you want to lower the calories and fat this works great with turkey kielbasa.
• 1 package of frozen mixed vegetables (Use whatever frozen vegetables you have on hand. No matter what vegetable this dish will turn out right. 

Slice up the kielbasa and add to a pot or frying pan of any kind. Add the frozen vegetables along with a little salt and pepper. Turn the burner on to medium-high heat and cook until the vegetables are warmed through.

This should take less than 15 minutes.