Tonight's dinner: Ragu with grilled asparagus

I figured I would use this blog app to try to do better with my blogging...tarting with tonight's dinner which I've been wanting to try to make for awhile...the thing about doing a ragu is it's slow cooked, simmered...the ragu I made I did in an hour; usually, it's several hours of slow cooking

I used sausage that the butcher around the corner made but store bought is just as good...using the butcher house made sausage gives the ragu a depth of flavour...also, some of the ingredients that make up a ragu (mushrooms specifically), I did not use since there are people I live with who don't like them...but I recommend using mushrooms, diced carrots and celery to develop that flavour depthness

If you are fortunate to get a butcher's house made sausage, there is not much seasoning, i.e., salt, pepper, garlic, needed to have flavour...since I'm making this ragu for dinner and I have hungry people waiting for this meal, I grill the asparagus...of course, I cooked the pasta beforehand...once cooked and using the same pot, I cook the pancetta for about 4 minutes...then I added the sausage out of its casing until its just done; I added ground chicken for a little lightness to the dish...once the ground chicken is no longer pink, I added San Marzano canned tomatoes and tomato paste...this simmers to allow it to thicken.

All of this cooking was just under an hour...I think I should change the name of this blog to cooking under an hour at dinner time...I hope someone will try this recipe to let know how it turns out.

 

 

I'm sorry, it's been awhile

I apologize for not having any postings but I've been trying many recipes with some success...why I started now is that I'm in America and troubled that I'm seeing too many people who are overweight, especially Black Americans...there is a chain in Chicago named au bon pain that really got me a little angry...they have on their menu a strawberry smoothie which I had and is good...I get it with frozen yogurt and strawberry concentrate...I find that as a healthy drink, it's not too healthy...410 calories, no indication of the fat content...my solution is to use fresh strawberries and Greek yogurt?..here is a link to a strawberry smoothie, just substitute the milk for Greek yogurt to make it more healthy.

What really got me back to the blog was this seemingly delicious recipe for stuffed pork chops...and it's nutritional value.

My goal is to make this dish healthier while keeping it delicious...the problem is the goat cheese, here is it's nutritional content and reducing the the sodium content...you can get a low sodium chicken stock made by PC to significantly reduce the sodium in the recipe by 30%...another way to reduce the sodium, as well as the fat, is to use lean pork...here is a link which shows the nutritional value of various cuts of pork...cheese is my greatest downfall as i love the stuff...however, using low fat/sodium cream cheese and sour cream will significantly reduce the calories, sodium and fat...the only obstacle left is the olive oil...even though olive oil has good fats, cooking with it causes it's composition to change...when you heat olive oil above it's smoking point (more than 250° F/121˚C) important phenols contained in olive oil break down...alternatively, using grape seed oil avocado oil with higher smoking points will be just as beneficial as well as favourful...read about it here or here.

Happy Eating.

The First BBQ of the Year

back in mid March, we had some great weather, at least for Toronto...been enjoying my walks to and from work without the nasty bitter cold wind from the lake...this weather was giving me the itch to grill...a good friend had been pushing me to create a BBQ sauce and, since i was not working at my part-time job on Sunday, i decided to try and create a sauce...so i grabbed my Weber cookbook looking for spice rubs and BBQ sauces...having found one, i went to the store looking for substitute items that contained less sodium and fat that was in the recipe...one item i found was a reduced sodium and no fat ketchup...the other item is liquid smoke; i love a smoky BBQ sauce and wanted to know the liquid smoke's nutritional  value; you can read about it here.

fear not, this sauce was wonderfully flavorful and not runny or too thick...it made for a beautiful sauce that covered the meat, in this case chicken, nicely...it's low in fat and sodium with wonderful flavour:

2 cups of the low sodium ketchup (see link above)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Tomato paste
1 shallot diced
4 garlic cloves minced (this may seem like a lot of garlic, but it adds wonderful flavour)
1/4 cup of liquid smoke
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Brown Sugar or 1/4 cup of Molasses
3 tbsp Smoked Paprika
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Allspice
1 tsp Thyme
1 tbsp Onion Powder

1.  in a 3 quart sauce pan, saute the shallots in the olive oil for appr. 5 minutes or until translucent...then add garlic cooking until fragrant.

2.  add all of the dry spices, sauteing for appr. 2 minutes...then add the tomato paste, stirring to incorporate the paste into the ingredients in the pan.

3.  stir in the ketchup, liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce, simmer for 1 minute...add in the brown sugar or if using, molasses.

4.  slowly simmer over a low heat, the longer the better as the ingredients will make a wonderful BBQ sauce the longer it simmers.

5.  after a few hours, use on ribs, chicken, steaks you are cooking on the grill.

if you make this sauce, please let me know how it comes out...i had to really think about quantities as i rarely do when creating a dish...thanks all.

Let's Get Low

We people, i feel like i have accomplished part of my goals: from my last several visits with the doctor, my blood pressure has remained at normal levels, yeah...and my last blood tests has revealed that my cholesterol level is 3.7 which is good according to the doctor...however, how much of this lowering is a direct result of changing my eating habits...

Medical will take some of the luster off this lowering as i believe the combination with controlling my diet has played with this lowing...however, i am not sure of the percentages can be attributed to each...i would like to think that changing the diet had more to do with it...i have limited my intake of sodium to less than the recommended amounts; as i mentioned previously, some sodium is needed for the body...also, i have drastically reduced my fat intake to well below 10 grams per day.

The part i have not been able to relinquish is the medication...i believe this will take an even more drastic endeavour such as, shall i dare mention, "exercise"...gasp, i uttered the "E" word...since the weather has been relatively been - come on summer - i have been walking more, that is to and from work...next month will see me dust off the bike which has not been used in 3 years, yikes!

I know i promised to provide recipes; however, when i do create them, i never remember to take a picture of the dishes...such as last night dinner, which had diced chicken, red pepper, diced shallot, minced garlic and in olive oil, with whole parsley leaves added at the end of cooking, along with Catelli Smart pasta...made for a nice presentation and colour in our pasta bowls...no salt was added and it was tasty...i also don't have the nutritional information to give you on the calories, grams of fat (however, this you can get from looking at a bottle of olive oil as this was the only fat used which is a good fat) or grams of sodium, which only came from the chicken (yes, chicken has salt water solution injected into them...read about it here and here)

Begone High Blood Pressure; Or Is It?

i went to my doctor the other day to get yet another status check up on my blood pressure...to our surprise, my blood pressure is down to "normal" levels (120/86, to be exact)...so, in approximately two months thru diet changes, the holidays and, yes, aggressive changes to medication, my blood pressure has come down significantly from it's high of 152/90...however, my doctor didn't take me off the medication and gave me a prescription for more...should i celebrate this news or get more concerned?

i decided to celebrate, but with caution...to celebrate, i cooked a celebratory dinner - i had baked trout with a side of sauted savouy cabbage and carmelized onions; for the boys, they had sirloin steak and hash browns - sigh...as i devoured my delicious (i keep telling myself ) trout seasoned with garlic, lemon, no salt seasoning and drizzled with avocado oil, i drooled over their medium rare steaks picked by me at the local butcher; oh and cooked by me too...the steaks were done beautifully with a crust seared onto it from a very hot cast iron skillet (really the only way to cook steak or fish or hash browns), the juices running out and onto the hash browns adding more flavour to them, i assume...i had to state the obvious even though i could see it in their faces - "that looks good"...their answer was obvious too; maybe they were pitying the longing look on my face indicating i wasn't gettin' any...and don't get me lamenting on the aroma coming off the steaks which were seasoned only with ground black pepper, garlic and pink (Himalayan) sea salt...should you want to read about this salt, click here or here...oh, the trout was tasty too, lol...trout or steak, hmmm; this is going to get difficult as i love my steaks.

since my blood pressure has reduced, there is still the concern of the high cholesterol...as much as i want to sing from the Alps just like Julie Andrews did that my condition has improved, i have to remain cautious because of the cholesterol...so, there will be no changes to my dietary/culinary plans.

this process so far has been a big learning one...the first thing i had to understand was learning about what items on the nutritional information on products meant...read, read and read some more...i have gotten so that anything over 120 mgs of sodium, i don't bother with...for recommended daily amounts of sodium as well as other things such as fats, click here (if in the U.S., click here)...i started out, once i learned of my high levels, of only eating vegetables during the week and limiting my intake of meat for the weekends...i have since changed this to moderate intake of meats, mainly chicken, turkey and pork; always trying to have more fish, more beans and continuation of vegetables...after researching my initial approach, i have found this latter approach more sustainable and recommended.

one ingredient i have totally given up on is stock, chicken, vegetable and beef, that is available off store shelves...their sodium content is way too high, even the so-called low-sodiun ones...in future post, i will write of my experiments with making stock so that it is not laden with salt and tasty.

Cheers and to your health

hello everyone and thank you for reading, commenting (this is always welcomed as i have never done this before and look for ideas) and, hopefully, enjoying this blog...i have started this blog for many reasons, but mainly to document my progress in the hope that i will get away from taking medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol through diet and still maintain the flavorful that got me into this predicament (think smoked ribs on the bbq with that smoky sauce covering them - mmmmmmmmm; a new and improved recipe will definitely get posted here).

once i found out these two were high (the cholesterol i can understand as i have been trying, unsuccessfully, to deal with through diet; it's the high blood pressure that has me flummoxed as it was always within normal ranges, when i was younger; did i have to mention that), i have been researching products to lower them and food substitutes to maintain flavour - this being the biggest issue as some of the products available (you know the ones, low this; low that; reduced; non-whatever) are tasteless...so my cause is to make these tasteless recipes taste as if no flavour was lost.

so i will endeavour to give useful tips, information on items and ideas around the kitchen and, most importantly, helpful ways to cook, eat and maintain a healthy lifestyle without sounding preachy...if i do, and i can, please let me know...i will eventually have the full recipe with pictures of the final dish including the nutritional value of the recipe and comments from the people who will be my lab rats...thank you for all who have/will join in.

i also have to thank everyone who has been very supportive in my quest; but the biggest thanks goes to who i have spent a lifetime with...he has been supportive in everything i have done and even tried to give me suggestions as to what to do in life...i have not said so to him directly, but a big special thank you goes to him.