Microwave Skinny Cookies

I recently visited my niece, Gia, and her family, in Canada and she brought us to Kelly's Bake Shoppe. Their most popular cookies are the so called Skinny Cookies.  Our gracious and resourceful hostess Gia had to research the recipe since their cookbook did not feature this.  She came upon this recipe from the web. She was preparing a batch before we left and I was convincing her they can be baked in the microwave. Thus I was challenged to prove it to her and came up with my own adapted recipe.

Austin, Dion, Gia and Rayshawn at the Botanical Garden, Ontario, Canada

I did tweak the recipe with several substitutions among which is swapping flour and coconut flakes for the oatmeal since I am allergic to the latter if I ingest a large amount. (and who can resist cookies with chocolate chips!).  The cookies are called Skinny Cookies since no sugar or butter or eggs or dairy are added to the batter.  To make it gluten free, stay with the use of oatmeal or use gluten free flour.  BTW my picky taster, my husband, gave the cookies two thumbs up.  It was that good, he ate one of four while I could not resist finishing the rest. Tsk, tsk.

Microwave Skinny Cookies

4 large cookies

• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup flour (or 1/2 cup oatmeal or gluten free flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup coconut
• 2 tbsp non dairy milk
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips 
• 1 tbsp raisins 
• 1 tbsp nuts

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.  Place them in four round shapes into a microwave safe plate with space between them and the center of the plate empty.  Microwave for four minutes. (I used a 1100 W oven).

Here are the nutrition facts to prove that it is skinny and healthy.  Just use moderation and not eat all in one seating like I did.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 49 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 97 Calories from Fat 32

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 3.6g 6%

Saturated Fat 1.9g 10%

Cholesterol 1mg 0%

Sodium 19mg 1%

Potassium 264mg 8%

Total Carbohydrates 15.4g 5%

Dietary Fiber 2.1g 8%

Sugars 5.7g

Protein 2.2g

Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 4% Calcium 6% • Iron 7%

Nutrition Grade A-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• Very low in cholesterol
• Low in sodium
• High in manganese
• High in phosphorus
• High in vitamin B6

Bad points

• High in sugar

Thai Tofu Rice Bowl

This dish definitely has the Thai flavors that one craves for once in a while and maybe all the time.  When you have to have that fix, here is a simple recipe.  I made this pretty close to being plant based except for the fish sauce which you can easily substitute tamari or soy sauce with.  The secret to attaining the Thai flavors is the trio of fish sauce (or soy sauce), lime and sugar.

This recipe was inspired by the one on the awesome Closet Cooking website which utilized ground beef instead of tofu.  I wanted a plant based recipe so I dared to substitute silken tofu for the beef.   You can also use firm tofu instead.

I love the overall result which is pretty close to the Thai flavors of the Pad Thai that I love to devour.  I could have eaten the whole recipe.  So good.  You can serve this over brown rice or with rice noodles and come up with Pad Thai easily.

Thai Tofu Rice Bowl

• 1 block (8 - 12 oz) silken tofu (or firm tofu)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green or red pepper, diced
• 2 dry red chilies, crushed
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce or tamari to be plant based)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 lime, zest and juice
• 1/2 cup basil
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and julienned

Saute the onion and garlic. Add the tofu, green or red pepper, crushed red chilies, fish sauce, sugar. lime zest and juice and basil.  Mix till the mixture is heated through.  

Serve garnished with green onions and carrots. You can provide more fresh basil and whole dry red chilies for the strong hearted if desired.  You can also garnish with peanuts if you like.  

Microwave Korean Sweet Potato Pancakes (Gluten Free)

This was inspired by the recipe for Korean Savory Pancakes found in the wonderful food blog Spicy Perspective.  These savory pancakes are vegetable laden Korean delicacy. The list of ingredients in this particular online source called for flour and eggs.  I try to adhere to a plant based approach to eating in which eggs are not used.  I also wanted to lower my consumption of non complex carbohydrates so I wanted the flour out.  I also wanted a microwave version and adding flour sometimes make the cookie or any dish tough if over cooked.  I wanted a more forgiving low maintenance microwaveable recipe that is reliable.

I have been successful with using banana in microwaved cookies and I thought of using it as the binder to take the place of eggs and flour in this recipe. Combined with mashed sweet potatoes, I envisioned the resulting product to have body. The presence of the salt and pepper and other vegetables would help make the patties or pancake savory plus dipping them in them in the spicy soy dipping sauce would also make you forget it has banana in the ingredients.   With the banana in the recipe, I skipped adding sugar called for in the original recipe.

The Korean pancakes are usually shallow deep fried but I decided to stick to microwaving to lower the fat content and just pan fry the microwaved patties using cooking spray to give more color to the surface of the pancake.  They are still soft not crisp but you would not mind that when you dip them in the Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce.  They are close to the fried version and healthier.

Microwave Korean Sweet Potato Pancakes  (Gluten Free)

Makes 5 small patties

Pancakes 

• 1 banana
• 2 medium sweet potatoes cooked (about 2 cups)
• 2 tbsp zucchini, julienned
• 2 tbsp red pepper, julienned
• 2 tbsp green onions, chopped coarsely
• salt and pepper to taste

Sauce

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• pinch of red pepper flakes

Pancakes

• Mix in a bowl the banana and sweet potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the vegetables. 
• Microwave the mixture in the bowl for two minutes.  Shape into 5 large patties.  Arrange in a circle on a plate.  
• Microwave for 5 more minutes.  You can pan fry using cooking spray to crisp the cooked patties if you like.  Serve with the spicy soy dipping sauce.

Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce

• Mix all the ingredients in a small container.  

Simple Easy Braised Fish Fillet

In case you are wracking your brain as to what to do with the frozen fish fillets you have, here is a simple recipe with four ingredients.  Though salt is not usually counted I did in this case since I used seasoned salt.

The seasoned salt removes the guesswork as to what flavoring to use to enhance the taste of the fish. The garlic and onion flakes give that extra zing to this dish without any tedious peeling and chopping involved. This combo of seasoning flakes upon being cooked also serves as an attractive and delicious topping to the dish.

A quick and easy dinner. A potential reliable crowd pleaser.  How do I know that? My picky taster, my husband, gave it two thumbs up.  If he likes something then a crowd would.

This was what I served my husband for our anniversary dinner last night with mac and cheese and steamed mixed vegetables. I figured after having steak at Applebees the day before he would want something lighter but good.  This dinner did not fail. Sssh. This is also a healthy dinner. No deep frying. No pan frying either. Yes just embrace braising. No pun intended.

Simple Easy Braised Fish Fillet

• 2 pieces fish fillet (used frozen swai)
• water
• seasoned salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp dry onion flakes
• 1/2 tbsp dry garlic flakes

In a saute pan, place the fish and add just enough water to reach below the surface of the fish. Sprinkle the seasoned salt and pepper to the surface of the fish.

Allow to boil and then add the dry onions and garlic. Let it simmer till fish is half done, then flip the fish and season this other side with seasoned salt and black pepper.

Continue to cook the fish, allowing most of the liquid to evaporate leaving a bit on the pan as sauce. Delicious!

Indian Baingan Bharta Rice Salad Bowl

I want flavor in my rice bowl.  Sometimes I am in the mood for Italian and I reach for pesto. Sometimes I crave something Asian and I go for Hoisin sauce.  Lately I have been satisfying my yearning for spicy Indian flavors. Luckily. I found some packaged microwaveable vegetarian food at Patel Brothers Grocery Store.

One is Baingan Bharta, a spicy eggplant dish. I place a tablespoon of it in my rice salad bowl like you would pesto and that gives that punch into an ordinary bowl of same oh same rice veggie bowl.

Below are photos of the package giving this dish' ingredients and nutritional breakdown.

I resort to this packaged food to give my plant based eating some variety and excuse the pun, spice. Give it a try. It cost about two dollars but a package lasts for several servings and meals.

Indian Baingan Bharta 

• Brown rice, cooked
• Spinach leaves, fresh
• Grape tomatoes, sliced
• Cucumber, sliced
• Radishes, sliced
• Baingan Bharta, microwaved

Arrange the ingredients in a large serving bowl. The amounts and types of vegetable is flexible.  You need only a tablespoon of the Baingan Bharta so start with that amount. It is spicy and so good no need for a dressing in your salad.

Healthy Green Ice Cream

It is good and delicious being green  

 



 



I heard from my daughter, Wendy, and her husband, Matt, that their child, Maddie, loves eating fruit but not green vegetables.  So I decided to take the challenge of incorporating vegetables into a healthy but appetizing ice cream which even grown ups like me will eat. I do not want to end up with baby food in other words.  I also wanted to make a grown up food that she can eat unlike the last time I made healthy ice cream with honey in it.  Babies cannot eat honey since being unprocessed it has spores that can cause botulism in babies.

Here is the recipe of the Healthy Green Ice Cream I made for Maddie.  First thing my daughter asked me when she learned of the name of the ice cream was what made it green.  I texted her that it was actually good old spinach.  Knowing that, she did not believe Maddie would eat it but I was not discouraged since I know I can make a believer out of her. The other vegetable I incorporated was peeled and seeded cucumbers.  I also added orange juice, fresh pear and bananas.  For improving the texture and taste,  I added coconut milk and peanut butter.  I added maple syrup as a sweetener since the mixture despite the presence of the fruit was not sweet enough for me especially after being frozen. 

I based the recipe on two online recipes,  3-Ingredient Healthy Ice Cream and Peanut Butter Coconut Ice Cream.  The challenge for me is how to make the preparation low maintenance in terms of making its texture like ice cream.  The second online source, Peanut Butter Coconut Ice Cream, suggested re-blending the frozen mixture if using an ordinary blender, but I still came up with a hard brick of an ice cream when I did this.  I did not want to buy a powerful blender or an ice cream maker as yet so I had to find way around doing this. 

The one that best worked for me was to just microwave the whole container of ice cream once it was frozen for around 20 seconds or so at high then scoop what was needed.  In fact at one party recently, the ice cream stayed in a soft enough stage for everybody to scoop their share.  By the way, I thought at first only one person in this party would be brave enough to eat the ice cream but I was shocked to see practically everyone having a scoop.  I know it is for curiousity sake but it was encouraging. 

In fact at this party, everybody who was wary about this ice cream because of the name (Matt announced it to everyone as Spinach Ice Cream) and the ingredient was pleasantly surprized by its yummy taste.  While Carl, Matt's dad, was feeding this to Maddie, I heard him say to his wife, Carol,  "It is not as bad as its name make it sounds".  Carl did not have a hard time at all feeding this ice cream with spinach in disguise to Maddie cuz she loved it. 

I am so happy we now found a way for Maddie to eat her green veggies finally.  Maddie's family especially her picky eater of a dad Matt loved the coconut flavor and my once sceptical Wendy became a believer that green and healthy can be good and tasty and you will too.

Healthy Green Ice Cream

(based on 3-Ingredient Healthy Ice Cream and Peanut Butter Coconut Ice Cream)

1 1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp peanut butter
4-6 oz fresh spinach (or frozen spinach)
1 whole cucumber peeled, seeded and sliced (or zucchini)
1 pear (or 1/2 cup applesauce)
2 bananas

You can mix all the ingredients  together if you have a powderful blender.  If not add the orange juice, coconut milk, maple syrup and peanut butter first and blend using an ordinary blender.  Then add the fresh spinach (or frozen ones) till it turns mushy, and then add the cucumber, pears and bananas till the whole mixture is thoroughly blended.

Place the mixture in a microwave proof container and freeze it.  The mixture will turn hard like brick.  Just microwave it for 20

seconds or so and scoop out what you need.  You can also place the mixture in ice cube trays and freeze it and take out what you need or place the cubes in an ice cream maker.  It can also be placed in popsicle molds if you have one.  I unfortunately got rid of mine or misplaced them. 

Makes around 1 pint.

Notes: 

At one year old, Maddie can eat maple syrup, peanut butter and coconut milk but still no honey for her.

There is another way to make the mixture like ice cream in texture.  It is commonly used in science classes to demonstrate the use of salt to lower temperature.  You place the ice cream mixture in a ziploc bag and you place a mixture of ice and rock salt (or just table salt) into another ziploc bag.  You then place the ziploc bag with the ice cream mixture into the bag with the ice and rock salt.  Mash the bags until the ice cream mixture turns to the desired consistency.  You can make this fun by passing the whole set up from one person to another in your family or party and make a game out of it to see which of the two or so groups will come up with the ice cream of the best consistency the quickest.  Another method is placing both bags of ice cream mixture and that of salt and ice in a large coffee can and you roll it back and forth using your foot and another person's like that of your boyfriend or husband who will think you are crazy.  Never mind what they think they will love the ice cream. 

Another way, which however is inappropriate for babies like Maddie, is to place booze in the ice cream mixture before freezing it.  It lowers the freezing point of the liquids so it will not harden as much when frozen.  This will be reminiscent of jello shots you had in college parties.