By popular demand

Happy New Year everyone; we made it to 2007! The Holidays were fun, exhausting, filled with relatives, friends, presents, pasts ;-) And of course FOOD. Don't worry, I'm probably not just going to yack about grub in this Blog. Well.. maybe I shall. I guess I'd better start posting art on the Kunstpike Flog if I'm going to convince myself once and for all that I'm not a Junior Statistical Clerk! :-)

First, I must post a recipe that I made for New Year's Eve lunch. I thought I'd made enough.. I mean really, who is going to devour anything with parsnips and sweet potatoes in it? But devoured it was.. and now my buddies are clamouring for the recipe! This baby is from the December 2006 iss. of Weight Watcher's Magazine (pg. 126) and is Core friendly. Enjoy!


You will need:

1 (1 1/2 pound) butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1 inch cubes.
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (or 2.5 cm cubes for Keith)
3/4 pound parnsips, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large Vidalia, Spanish or Red onion, coarsely chopped.
2 Tablespoons canola or olive oil
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 Tablespoons apple-cider vinegar (or half Umoboshi and red wine vinegar)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a large broiling pan with non-stick spray or olive oil.

2. Combine the squash, sweet potatoes, parnsips, onion, 1 Tbsp. of oil, 1/2 tsp of salt and a 1/8 tsp. of black pepper in a large bowl. Spread vegetable mixture in a single layer on the broiling pan (or baking sheet) and roast, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and starting to brown (22 - 25 minutes.) If you need to, roast the veggies in two batches. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Add the black-eyed peas, bell pepper, celery, vinegar and the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. of pepper to the roasted vegetables; toss well to combine. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature.

Per serving: 1 cup= 168 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat, 0 mg. chol, 332 mg. sod, 31 g carb, 6 g fib, 5 g prot, 69 mg calc. (For Flex plan folks, points = 3)

Good luck!

Ed. note: try not to do this recipe at midnight Dec. 30th after attending your niece's baptism and apres baptismal party. Try not to get snippy while you are peeling squash at 1am and your partner is helping to wrap presents. Rightly decide to roast ALL the veggies at once even though they don't really fit in a single layer so you can crawl into bed around 2am.
Do be sure to get at least a sample taste before it all gets eaten up!

Or make a double batch!

And now, for Leah, Lianne, Michelle, Vicki.. everyone who has always said to me: "Will you send me that hot rice dish Sue??"


"PATAK'S" BIRIYANI

You can make this vegetarian or not depending on if you decide to use chicken, a beef/pork tenderloin or large chunk TVP. I find that any of these work well; I've even used straight tofu and it tasted great. Whatever protein source you choose will soak up the curry flavour and taste delightful.

This is one of those weird recipes where you can add as many vegetables as you want. Keep adding them; the recipe sort've swells to accept it. Remember if you really go hog-wild on the ingredients, that you'll have to add more of the curry paste or you'll have a WIMPY Biriyani and that would be sad.

You can use brown rice instead of the basmati, but you will need to increase your cooking time. I found that my veggies got pretty flacid after awhile; so you may want to partially cook the brown rice in advance, or add the veggies later. Just a thought. Ok, now on with the recipe!

You will need:
1 chicken breast (boneless, skinless) or tenderloin (beef/pork) or chunky TVP or tofu.
6 - 8 cups (or more!) assorted chopped vegetables (green/red pepper, zuchinni, celery, carrot etc.)
2 cups rice (basmati)
2 onions (chopped)
1/2 jar Patak's Biriyani sauce/ paste (approx. 8 Tbsp.)
28 oz. tin whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 cups boiling water.

Wash 2 cups rice and soak in water for 20 minutes. While this is going on, saute pork/beef tenderloin or poach chicken breast (or rehydrate 1 cup TVP, or chop up 1 pkg. firm tofu) and slice into strips.

Saute 1 onion with rice in a frying pan. In a separate pan (dutch oven, large pot) saute veggies with the other onion. Add the biriyani paste and tomatoes to vegetables.

Combine the rice/ onion mixture with the veggies and add 2 cups (or more) boiling water.

Bake 375 degrees F. covered for 40-50 minutes (This recipe is doubled and makes LOTS of food. You can try halving in to make less if you like.)

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