Baby Steps Blog

September 6, 2010

Fresh Peach & Cherry Crisp

Filed under: Nutrition,recipes — Tags: cherry peach cobbler — laurafields @ 7:16 pm

I’m not a huge fruit-eater. I like it, but I never feel motivated to eat it. Thanks to my Farmer’s Market Basket, I find myself with an overabundance of it a lot. Last week, it was peaches. I love peach desserts, but I don’t really like to just eat peaches. I also had some cherries that miraculously had not been devoured by my kids and were just starting to get a little soft. I wondered what I could do with all this fruit. So I found various peach crisp recipes online, and thought, what’s always missing in these recipes is TOPPING. So I pulled this together, and doubled the topping in a standard crisp recipe, which made it twice as delicious.

I can’t claim that this recipe is healthy. But as far as desserts go, it’s only moderately sinful. Yeah, that’s a lot of butter. Peaches are high in vitamins A & C, dietary fiber, niacin, and potassium. I’m not really sure how much of that you strip out when you cook them, but it’s still better than a Krispy Kreme. Enjoy!

Fresh Peach & Cherry Crisp

Ingredients
1 C rolled oats (I used Quick Oats)
1/2 C brown sugar (I didn’t double this)
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
8 peaches, pits removed & sliced
1/2 pound cherries, pits removed & quartered

Directions
Combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, & cinnamon
Stir in melted butter and mix until it becomes crumbly and moist
Place peaches & cherries into a baking dish
Spread oat & brown sugar topping on top
Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes

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August 30, 2010

Munchy Monday: Sweet Potato “Fries”

Filed under: Nutrition,Parenting,Pregnancy and Birth,recipes — Tags: dinner, healthy snacks, prenatal nutrition — mcasserly @ 9:59 pm

I love the weeks that it’s my turn to post for Munchy Monday. It encourages me to branch out and try something new and healthy – usually something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. That is the case this week. Tonight for dinner I made sweet potato “fries” (they aren’t actually fried, but baked.) These things are as delicious (dare I say more delicious?) and as addictive as their less healthy cousin.

I used a Paula Deen recipe. YUMMY! If you want really crunchy fries, you’ll want to slice these pretty thin. That’s really the only thing I would change about this delicious recipe.

My family loves them!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/baked-sweet-potato-fries-recipe/index.html

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August 23, 2010

Portobello-Prosciutto Burgers

Filed under: Health,Nutrition,Pregnancy and Birth,recipes — Tags: portobello mushroom burger — laurafields @ 3:20 pm

I normally only post recipes I’ve tried myself, and I admit I haven’t made this recipe yet. It’s on my list, and it looks so delicious I can’t imagine not liking it. For a full pictorial version of the recipe, visit this link. Portobello mushrooms have 5 grams of protein per cup. They are low in fat and high in fiber, and also contain selenium, potassium, and B vitamins.

Ingredients

½ cups Mayonnaise
16 whole Basil Leaves
8 whole Large Portobello Mushrooms
1 cup Red Wine (optional)
Olive Oil For Brushing
Salt And Pepper, to taste
4 slices Provolone Cheese
4 slices Prosciutto
4 whole Kaiser Rolls, Split
Extra Basil Leaves

Preparation Instructions

Rinse mushrooms thoroughly. Soak in red wine for 20 to 30 minutes (this is totally optional!)

Combine mayonnaise and basil in a food processor or blender. Pulse until basil is totally mixed in with the mayonnaise. Set aside.

Grill mushrooms in a grill pan or on a charcoal grill, brushing lightly with olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper. Melt provolone cheese over the four largest mushrooms. Remove mushrooms from grill and stack the other four mushrooms on top of the cheese-topped mushrooms.

Drizzle griddle with olive oil. Toast kaiser rolls over medium-low heat until very crispy and toasted.

Spread basil mayonnaise generously on both the top and bottom halves of the kaiser roll. Place the double-decker mushroom on the bottom half, then place the prosciutto slice on top. Finally, top with basil leaves and the other half of the roll. Press lightly so some of the juices from the mushrooms will run into the bottom half of the roll.

Serve immediately.

Baby Steps offers natural and prepared childbirth classes, breastfeeding classes and support, and doula services in the metro Atlanta area. Current locations include East Point, Douglasville, Marietta, Kennesaw, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Lawrenceville, and Decatur. If these locations are not convenient for you we also offer private, in-home classes on your schedule. Contact us for more information. babysteps@babystepsonline.net

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April 26, 2010

Bok choy: healthy & delicious

Filed under: Health,Nutrition,Pregnancy and Birth,recipes — Tags: BOK CHOY, Nutrition — laurafields @ 8:57 am

Last week, my Farmers Market Basket included bok choy, otherwise known as white Chinese cabbage. Bok choy contains vitamin C, fiber, potassium, folate (B9), beta-carotene, and calcium as well as substances that are believed to prevent cancer called indoles.

I found this delicious recipe for a bok choy soup here. Everyone liked it, even the kids. I added some cooked diced chicken to make a meal out of it (it would also be tasty with tofu). I also couldn’t find chili oil at the local grocery store, so I used regular vegetable oil and added some crushed red pepper. I found that there was no need to add salt and pepper at all. This made a great meal, but would also be great to serve with an Asian main course. This soup was quick and easy to prepare, the most time consuming part being the chopping. It’s as good left over as it is fresh.

Ingredients:

8 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
6 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms (about 10 large), stemmed, caps sliced
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon chili oil
3 cups thinly sliced bok choy
4 teaspoons rice vinegar
2 green onions, sliced

Bring broth, mushrooms and ginger to boil in large pot. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Add fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili oil and simmer 2 minutes. Add bok choy and simmer until bok choy is tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in rice vinegar. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

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March 8, 2010

Easy homemade salsa

Filed under: recipes — Tags: recipe, salsa, simply, tastefully simple — laurafields @ 10:00 am

I had a Tastefully Simple party recently, and ended up ordering their Simply Salsa mix. It’s a mix of dehydrated veggies and spices, with no crazy ingredients you can’t pronounce. The recipe on the container is simply to mix 1/4 cup of the mix with a can of diced tomatoes, but that sounded way too tame for me. So here’s what I did, and if you like spicy foods, you’ll love this.

1 10 ounce can of Rotel, hot (the one with the habaneros – you can tone this down if you want to), slightly drained
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 diced jalapeno, membranes, seeds and all (to tone it down, discard the seeds & membranes)
1 clove (or 2!) of fresh garlic, minced or chopped small
Fresh cilantro, chopped, to taste
1/4 cup Simply Salsa (click here for more info on this)

Just mix all the ingredients together and chill for at least 2 hours. I left mine overnight. Very tasty, very spicy!

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February 15, 2010

Munchy Monday: homemade apple sauce

Filed under: Health,Nutrition,recipes — Tags: apple sauce, applesauce, crock pot, recipe — laurafields @ 12:00 pm

I recently started getting weekly fruit & veggie deliveries from www.farmersmarketbaskets.com. I love it, but have found myself overrun with apples! I looked at several online recipes for apple sauce, and ended up using a kind of hybrid, though I’m sure this exact recipe exists somewhere. It’s very easy! What you need:

10 apples, peeled, cored & chopped (use different varieties of apples for different flavors – I used half Fuji, half JonaGold)
1/4 cup of brown sugar (next time I’ll probably use only 1/8 cup – you don’t need the sweetness so much as the flavor)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup of water

Combine all the ingredients in the crock pot and stir them well. Cook on low for 8 hours. Use a stick blender to reach the desired consistency once it’s done. I left mine kind of chunky. You can also experiment with adding different fruits to the mix. Very easy and delicious!

Picture from one of the sites where I got recipe ideas, http://cookincanuck.blogspot.com.

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January 18, 2010

Munchy Monday: healthy eating with cooking substitutions

Filed under: Nutrition,recipes — Tags: cooking, healthy, substitution — laurafields @ 10:39 pm

I love to find new recipes online, but they aren’t always as healthy as they can be. It’s easy to substitute healthy ingredients for less than healthy ones. Here are some ideas:

Use whole wheat flour instead of white. If you’re worried that whole wheat is too heavy, try white whole wheat.
Substitute 3 TBS of ground flax for 1 TB of oil.
Substitute ground turkey for ground beef to reduce cholesterol and fat content.
Instead of regular bacon, use turkey bacon.
Use applesauce for half of the butter or oil.
Buy whole grain or whole wheat pasta instead of enriched pasta.
Instead of iceberg lettuce, use a darker green lettuce like romaine or green leaf. Spinach makes a great salad too!
When buying pre-made sauces (like soy sauce) get the low-sodium version.
Use brown rice instead of white rice.

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January 11, 2010

Munchy Monday: homemade pizza

Filed under: Health,Nutrition,Pregnancy and Birth,recipes — Tags: healthy pizza — laurafields @ 3:30 pm

Almost everyone loves pizza, including kids. But when you order pizza from Domino’s or Pizza Hut, what kind of additives and things are you ingesting? Making your own pizza may sound intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but it’s really not hard! For a healthy crust, use this recipe:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001506.html

It uses white whole wheat flour, giving you the health benefits of a whole wheat flour, without being as heavy as regular whole wheat pasta. I use my bread machine on the dough setting to do all the work, so I never have to mix or knead. It’s almost a labor-free process! If making a perfectly round pizza seems like too much of a hassle, press the dough into a 9 by 13 inch pan and make pan pizza instead.

I’m still searching for a perfect sauce from scratch, without using canned tomatoes. But in the meantime, this makes a really tasty sauce:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/pizzarecipes/r/bl40129i.htm

You can also use barbecue sauce, or white sauce. If possible, get a block of mozzarella cheese and grate it yourself. Often pre-grated cheeses have additives. As for toppings, go crazy! Kids will often eat veggies on pizza they won’t touch in other things. You can mix spinach in with the sauce to sneak veggies in that way. There are so many different things you can do when making pizza that it never gets boring, to make or to eat!

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