Bonnie's Baba Ghanouj (Smoky Eggplant Dip)

38.5 weeks pregnant & enjoying my nesting! Bonnie Stern is my new Ina Garten. From my experience so far, her recipes are always great. She does a delicious, velvety butternut squash soup (just froze enough for my whole maternity leave) and an outstanding rib roast. Haven't had a bomb yet. Her book, "Friday Night Dinners", has a lot of comfort recipes that piqued my interest that I have been meaning to make...The recipes aren't time intensive and the book is so well put together with great pics.

This one was simple and delicious. Great appetizer for a holiday meal or as a mezze with flatbread!

2 large eggplants
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup mayo
2 tbsp tahina (optional and I didn't use)
Dash hot pepper sauce, optional (and I am 39 weeks pregnant and am on enough Tums already!)
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (I skipped due to laziness, sure this or parsley would be delicious)

Roast eggplants on parchment at 400 for 40 to 50 minutes until tender or collapsed. You can also put on bbq for 15-20 and turn frequently. Cool.

Place eggplants in a sieve over a bowel and remove and discard skin. Cut eggplants and press out excess liquid.

Mix lemon juice, garlic, salt and mayo. Add tahina and hot sauce if using.

Add in eggplant and sprinkle with cilantro.

Enjoy!

Roasted Eggplant Spread

First Rosh Hashanah in our new house brought some new winners and to be honest, some flops.
Our world famous gefilte fish can not be discussed, it will upset my mother too much. It flopped for first time ever. And to make matters worse, we had scheduled a throwdown with the neighbors...lesson: overpromising and underdelivering is not a good feeling, don't do it!
Could it have been the New Jersey sourced fish? The new oven? The not enough time to chill? Let's just say we need to course correct in preparation for next year. Poor Geneve was over and might be scarred. We will fix that.

My chicken soup and matzo balls came out world class though! I am going to need to make more and freeze it! My mother also made a new apple cake from Bonnie Stern's HeartSmart that was a huge hit that I did again that week for break fast.

Onto the subject at hand...This roasted eggplant appetizer was enjoyed by everyone, event those who pretend they don't like eggplant (Lee). It is of course Ina Garten, so it is an obvious 5 star!
Here is the recipe:

Roasted Eggplant Spread
Barefoot Contessa Family Style

Enjoy with pita!

Bran Flax Muffins

Tasty, super healthy recipe from the side of the Bob Red Mill's Flaxseed Meal (sold at Whole Foods and almost everywhere). They don't photograph well, so I won't try. They're perfect snacks that are packed with 5 grams of fiber.

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat or Unbleached white Pastry Flour
3/4 cup Ground Flaxseed meal
3/4 cup Oat Bran
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Carrots
2 peeled and shredded Apples
1/2 cup Raisins
1 cup chopped Nuts (I use pecans or walnuts)
3/4 cup Milk
2 beaten Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:
Mix together flour, Bob's Red Mill Flaxseed Meal, oat bran, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in carrots, apples, raisins (if desired) and nuts. Combine milk, beaten eggs and vanilla. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.

Yield: 15 medium muffins

Notes:
You can also use 1 1/2 cups Unbleached White Flour in place of the Whole Wheat Pastry Flour.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:
One muffin contains Calories 220, Calories from Fat 80, Fat 9g, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 30mg, Sodium 310mg, Carbohydrates 34g, Dietary Fiber 5g, Sugar 21g, Protein 6g.

Deep Purple Smoothie

I've been making this smoothie for a couple of months. It's a quick, healthy snack made with ingredients that can stay in your fridge for a while...It's also the "recessionista" version of the $5 I used to blow at Jamba Juice...impressive, right?

All you need is a blender. Blend these ingredients together:

1/2 cup mixed frozen berries
1/2 cup orange juice (as you can imagine, I will recommend the orange juice of champions: Minute Maid or Simply Orange)
lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
1 Splenda or 1 tsp of sugar
2 ice cubes
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt (today I used Fage greek yogurt cause I like their magazine ads!)

You can throw in some flax seed, change the fruit used...ENJOY!

tangy edamame

I found a recipe to lemon edamame on a blog I really like called 101 cookbooks.

It's not Braude's Bites, the woman is out of San Francisco and has a zillion readers and is actually a photographer (needless to say her food looks more appealing than mine on the canon elph). She is always in the epicurean magazines.

I've made it twice already and Lee & I both love it. The salmon next to it was phenomenal as well...I will blog it next time, it's from Nigella Express, the cookbook I bought last week and had Nigella sign.

It is so easy and quick to make, you can make it last minute and the ingredients don't go bad in the fridge, this edamame is made with stuff you already have in your fridge. It tastes better the day after you make it and is a great protein filled snack for work.

Funny enough, this week, Harley Pasternak, a Canadian nutritionist & trainer who trains celebs in LA, was our guest speaker at a Coca-Cola women's conference. He was a great speaker and has a very sensible approach to eating well and exercising.

He did a cooking demo of healthy recipes like apple smoothies & whole wheat pizza & oatmeal frtittata that you can make quickly with 5 or less ingredients. This recipe is fabulous and is the same deal as the recipes he made: it is quick, uses easy ingredients and is super healthy. I edited a bit, she calls for shiso leaf that's only in asian grocery stores- who has time for that mid week?

Edamame with Lemon Vinaigrette
Serves 4
adapted from 101cookbooks.com

3 cups shelled edamame (about 12 ounces)
2 Meyer lemons or regular lemons
2 tablespoons fruity extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup (i left it out this time cause i can't find it and it tasted the same!)
Kosher salt & pepper

Buy a bag of frozen shelled edamame in the freezer section. Cook the edamame according to the package's instructions. Drain, place in a serving bowl, and let cool to room temperature.
Zest one lemon and set aside. Squeeze the juice from the lemon (about 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon). In a blender, add the lemon juice and zest, the olive oil, vinegar, and maple syrup. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Blend well and gently mix the dressing with the edamame.

If you want, zest the other lemon and sprinkle the zest on top.
Enjoy! I gotta go, Barefoot Contessa is premiering now! Woohoo!

Chickpea Salad with Ginger

The New York Times published this recipe in their "recipes for health" section in early September. It has a simple ingredient list, an easy cook process, it's quick and it stays in the fridge as a great snack.

Chickpea Salad with Ginger
4 Servings

1Tbsp ground cumin or cumin seeds
3 cups canned chickpeas (I used low sodium), rinsed and drained
2 red, orange or yellow peppers (cored, seeded and diced)
1 red onion, diced
1 inch pc ginger, peeled & minced (I got a trusty tube of ginger I have been using!)
1 Tbsp sugar, optional
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
s&p to taste
chopped fresh cilantro
*1 Tbsp of Olive oil to moisten it up a bit (A Sherri addition to moisten it up and make it more "restaurant" tasting

Toss all ingredients together except cilantro and refrigerate.
Taste and add salt, pepper and lemon juice if needed. Add cilantro when ready to serve.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Loaf A-peel

Canada’s official July 1rst moving day has come and gone, with the cardboard boxes, duct tape and the moving trucks finally in the clear, my apartment building has officially gotten that much cooler with the arrival of my new neighbors Eric Choueke and Naomi Rabinovitch.

Having been in the big apple the weekend that Eric and Naomi moved in, we bumped into each other only a few days later on the street. No standard small talk here, Eric told me straight up that he was already disappointed in me as his neighbor – he said that he expected more from me (picture me in shock) then he went on to list numerous varieties of baked goods that he was expecting to have received as a welcoming gift and that I clearly had not delivered. (now picture me laughing – The chutzpah! Although the little ballubusta in me wanted to plutz)

I told Eric not to worry and promised him that I would deliver, this dessert became top priority and knew right away that my Signature Chocolate Chip Banana Bread would be just the thing to mend this neighborship.


Ingredients:

2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
¾ cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs Beaten
3-4 over ripe Bananas
½ -1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350

2. In large bowl combine Flour, Baking Soda.

3. In another bowl cream together the Butter, Sugar and Eggs. Stir in the mashed bananas to the Butter/Sugar/Egg mixture.

4. Combine both mixtures together and add the chocolate chips.


5. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans and bake for 60-65 minutes. Stick toothpick in center until clean to see if the loafs are ready. Once the loafs are out of the oven, leave them to cool on the counter for 10 minutes.

The great thing about the recipe is that it makes two loafs – one can be kept in the freezer for any unexpected company. Since the gifting of the Chocolate Banana Bread, the Chouekes have given me a second chance at allowing me to be the best neighbor that I can be and they even invited my roommate and I over for a BBQ this past week. Turns out that I’m not the only ballubusta in the building, Naomi makes a mean guacamole and Eric is working on his BBQ skills (he was a bit distraught that he lost three out of six salami slices in the BBQ).

Ellie Krieger's Apple Muffins

After seeing Ellie Krieger, the new Food TV hostess and nutritionist, bake these low fat muffins on "Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger" a couple of weeks ago, I put them on my "to blog" list. They are moist and taste like a light version of apple pie. Enjoy this recipe as a breakfast or mid day snack. Keep them in ziplocs in the freezer for a "go to" snack.

Let them eat muffins

About two years ago, my friend, Kara, gave me a recipe for Weight Watchers bran muffins that were, as her husband, Willy, stated, "guaranteed to make me go to the bathroom". Yum !
After eating one,I started thinking to myself..."maybe I can find a great low fat recipe that I will really enjoy" and I did! If you're a real novice in the kitchen, this is a perfect start, it only requires 3 mixing bowls & a microplane zester & a 12 cup muffin tin. I found this recipe online at Shape Magazine's www.shape.com.

These muffins make a great summer muffin when blueberries are fresh and a great winter muffin when the blueberries are frozen :) I got my blueberries at the Farmer's Market in Union Square and they were the juiciest ever.

I am taking the muffins to some of my favorite people tomorrow for our journey to Atlanta. Delta seems to forget that people get hungry on a 2.5 hr ride.

The healthy muffin is hard to find & this one is only 180 calories and 5 grams fat with 0.5 grams of saturated fat with 1 gram of fiber. They are full of antioxidants as well- ENJOY!

Very Berry Orange Oat Muffins (Shape Magazine)
Serves: 12, Prep: 15 min, Cook: 15 minutes

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 medium orange
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 whole egg
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I left them put this time !)
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly coat muffin cups with Pam.
In the small bowl: Stir together oats and buttermilk and set aside for 5 minutes.
In the medium bowl: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In the large bowl: Grate orange rind (with your zester) and squeeze 1/2 cup oj in. Whisk in sugar, canola oil and egg until mixture is smooth. Blend in oatmeal mixture and then the flour mixture. Stir until ingredienrs are just combined and then gently fold in blueberries.
You don't want the batter to look like cookie monster, so don't overmix.

Spoon batter into muffin tin and bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Note: You can buy rolled oats and whole wheat flour at Whole Foods, but I am sure they are readily available.

These make a great breakfast or snack on the go.

The Quest for Parfaitction

Getting out of bed in the morning has always been a challenge for me...I do it, but I don't like it.
About 2 years ago, I discovered a breakfast that made waking up a little less hellish.
When we lived in Murray Hill, Lee and I used to frequent "Penelope", on 30th and Lexington, quite a lot. They had the best Mabel's granola! We used to crave it every weekend. At $10 a bowl, it was no cheap habit! I got smart and asked our usual waiter, Steve, what kind of yogurt they used. The secret lay in the Axelrod Vanilla low fat yogurt. From then on, we have spent much time perfecting the yogurt parfaits. The best granola came when we least expected it. My friend, Corryn, bought me some great jam and granola from "Au Pain Quotidien". Wow ! That is granola! So, now we are addicted to granola that is geographically desirable (only a 3 block walk to get it when I need it !) and UNREAL. If you do not live near a Pain Quotidien, Whole Foods makes good Vanilla crunch granola as well.

Sherri & Lee's Yogurt Parfaits

1/2 cup Axelrod Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt (you can get this at Gristedes and Associated...Fresh Direct & Whole Foods don't have it...SUCKS. This yogurt is available in Canada.)
1/2 cup assorted berries (blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)
1/2 cup Organic granola from Pain Quotidien

This may not be rocket science, but it is one of our faves !
It is also a great healthy breakfast for those who are trying to watch it.
Throwing these parfaits in beautiful milkshake glasses in layers would be beautiful for a weekend brunch.

Bon Appetit !