Pasta a'Plenty

First, watch the Calories.

Pick 4-6 ingredients from the list and mix.

Pasta - spaghetti, linguine, fusilli, macaroni, rotelle, orzo, orechiette, farfalle, rochetti, any other

Oil (go easy) - olive, nut, herb flavored

Dairy (try low- or no- fat) - Gorgonzola, Parmesan, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, yogurt

Herbs/leafy greens - basil, mint, arugula, watercress

Crunch - walnuts, garbanzos, kidney beans, pistachios

Veggies - tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sprouts

Spices/seasoning - crushed red pepper, black pepper, salt (go easy), garlic, onion

Added protein - flavored tofu, tempeh, soybeans, meat

Acid - lemon, lime, orange, pineapple, vinegar

Eat.

Mmmmm...

Acids

Acids add an "edge" to foods.

They can be found in fruits, wines, even cheeses.

When a recipe calls for vinegars, there are many type you can use.

Each imparts a different flavor to your meal, making the experience new.

Here are some to consider:

Balsamic Vinegar
Basil-Garlic Vinegar
Berry Vinegars – e.g., Blackberry, Raspberry
Black Currant Vinegar
Cherry Vinegar
Chile Pepper Vinegar
Chive Blossom Vinegar
Cranberry Vinegar
Dill Vinegar
Dill, Garlic and dried red peppers Vinegars
Fig Vinegar
Fruit-Flavored Vinegars, e.g., Orange, Raspberry
Herb Vinegars – e.g., Mint
Hot Pepper Vinegar
Jalapeno-Garlic Vinegar
Lemon Vinegar
Mint Vinegar
Mixed Herb Vinegars – e.g., Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Orange Vinegar
Peach Vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
Rosemary Vinegar
Strawberry Vinegar
Tarragon and Garlic Vinegar
Tarragon Vinegar
Wine Vinegars, e.g., Pinot Grigio

You can even make flavored vinegars yourself.

Recipes for flavored vinegars can be found here.

Sandwiches?

Yep.

After all, Thanksgiving Day just passed and many of you "had" to make sandwiches to deal with the leftovers.

So here is The Gourmet-O-Matic way to approach the 6-layer sandwich - a year round good eatin':

1. Bread/topper - white, wheat, whole grain, baguette, French, pumpernickel, waffle, pancake, tortilla, more. Toasted, grilled or not.
2. Sauce - mayo with or without spices or chiles or tabasco or herbs; mustard with or without honey or herbs; dijon mustard, stone ground mustard, spicy mustard, more.
3. Veggies - pickled carrots or cabbage (add vinegar and sweetener, let sit) with or without daikon radish, watercress, sprouts (bean, radish, alfalfa, more), lettuce.
4. Protein - turkey, chicken, beef, pork, seitan, tempeh, tofu (hot or cold).
5. Herbs - basil, mint, cilantro, more.
6. Bread/bottomer - See 1 above. Mix or match.

Eat. Enjoy.

Easy Thanksgiving!

Without a doubt, the one kitchen appliance that is set and forget, versatile and a real time-saver, is the crockpot.

A slow cooker can do just about anything.

For Thanksgiving, using the slow cooker can make life simpler.

You can cook it all:

Appetizers
Turkey
Stuffing - traditional, cornbread
Potatoes - sweet potatoes (with or without marshmallows)
Sides - rice, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce
Dessert - cake, pudding, cheescake

Make life less hectic.

Give the crockpot a shot.

And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Maybe even a happier one from using the slow cooker.

Soup vs. Stew

Colder weather is acomin'.

And with cold weather come the comfort foods known as soups and stews.

These two forms of food are together because they are so closely related. One person’s stew is another’s soup. One person’s soup is another’s stew.

If you visit en.wikipedia.org and look up the definition of “stew” this is what you will find:

A stew is a common food made of vegetables and meat in some sort of broth or sauce. The line between stew and soup is a fine one, but generally a stew's ingredients are cut in larger pieces, and a stew is more likely to be eaten as a main course than as a starter. But there are many exceptions - an oyster stew is more like a soup, for example. Stewing has a long tradition in cookery.

For “soup”:

Soup is a savoury liquid food that is made by boiling ingredients, such as meat, vegetables and beans in stock or hot water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth...

Over the centuries, the terms gruel— a thin porridge— and potage have become separated from broth, and stock and their refinement, consommé, have all been used to describe this pot-boiling cooking method. The terms have shifted over time, but the modern definition of soup and stew were established in the eighteenth century. Soups usually are more liquid, while stews are thicker; contain more solid ingredients. Stews are cooked in covered containers for longer periods of time, at a gentle boil with less water and at a lower heat.

Traditionally, soup is classified into two broad groups: clear soups and thick soups. The established French classification of clear soups are bouillon and consommé. Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used...

Bottom line: each method cooks solids in liquid and then both the solids and liquid are eaten.

These ways of preparing food have a decided advantage for those among you interested in consuming fewer Calories.

The liquid in them, almost always water, helps fill you up, obviating the need to consume more calorie-containing substances for satiation.

There is no need to present any specific recipes here, only direction.

The promise is quick, easy, healthful meals.

When it comes to soups and stews, go directly to the crock pot, do not pass “Go,” do not collect $200. Follow the directions for cooking in the slow cooker that appear in the “Kitchen Basics-Cooking” chapter in The FitnessMed (tm) Guide To Healthy Eating and that is all.

As a rule of thumb, add approximately 50% more water for soup than you would for making a stew.

Textures

Experiment with mouth feel.

The three food textures at The Gourmet-O-Matic tm are:

Crunchy
Chewy
Creamy

Crunchy:

To add crunch to a food, try the following:

Almonds
Banana Chips
Bean Sprouts
Brittles - e.g., peanut, cashew, macadamia
Cashews
Cereals - e.g., flakes, granola
Chips - e.g., potato, other veggie chips
Crackers
Croutons
Hazelnuts
Macadamias
Other Nuts
Peanuts
Pepitas
Pine Nuts
Pistachios
Pomegranate Seeds
Pretzels
Pumpkin Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Taco Shells
Toffees
Walnuts

Chewy:

To add chewiness to a food, try the following:

Candied Ginger
Chewy Grain/Fruit Bars
Dried Apples
Dried Apricots
Dried Cherries
Dried Cranberries
Dried Dates – especially pieces which tend to be even drier than whole/pitted
Dried Figs
Dried Hibiscus Flowers
Dried Kiwi
Dried Mango
Dried Nectarines
Dried Papaya
Dried Peaches
Dried Pineapple
Dried Pears
Dried Goji Berries - aka Wolfberries
Fruit Leathers - e.g., apricot, strawberry, raspberry, grape
Other Dried Fruits
Prunes
Raisins

Crunchy - Chewy

As a group, legumes offer a crunchy resistance when first bitten and then add chewiness.

To add crunch and chewiness to a food, try the following:

Black-eyed Peas
Chickpeas
Corn Kernels
Fava Beans
Granola with dried fruit
Green Lentils
Green Peas
Lupini Beans
Other Beans - e.g., azuki, black, kidney, lima, mung, pinto
Other Lentils - e.g., black, brown, red, tan
Other Peas - e.g., snap, snow, split, sugar, yellow
Pigeon Peas
Soybeans (edamame)
Tempeh
Yellow Lentils

Creamy:

Creamy dressings and relishes are made by adding and then blending or stirring:

fat-free yogurt
fat-free cottage cheese or
fat-free tofu

Fat-free products are recommended to cut fat and Calories.

Grain Game

Here is a grain dish the Gourmet-O-Matic (tm) way.

Let us make tabouleh and do some variations on it.

Tabouleh, a salad popular in the Middle East, classically contains:

bulghur wheat, tomato, cucumber, onion, garlic, parsley, mint, salt, lemon juice and olive oil.

Note, that you can change the acid from lemon to lime to orange to pineapple to...

Grain substitutions:

Kasha (buckwheat groats), wheatberries, amaranth, barley, quinoa, oat groats, couscous.

Heck, you can even use corn instead of the others and then, if you want, add black or pinto beans, hot peppers, cilantro, cumin and voila! you have traveled from the Middle East to south of the USA border.

Did I hear lentils?