Banana Split Cake

Banana Split Cake

2c. graham cracker crumbs
¾ lb. unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 c. icing sugar
4 bananas
1 can crushed pineapple well drained
1 ½ pint whipping cream or nutriwhip
Cherries, nuts and shaved chocolate

Combine 2c. crumbs with ¼ c. melted butter, press into lg. spring form pan. Beat well ½ lb. butter, 2 c. sugar & eggs. Spread this mixture on top of crumbs. Peel and slice bananas, lengthwise, place on butter mixture, top with well drained pineapple. Beat whipping cream until stiff, spread on pineapple mixture and refrigerate. Decorate with cherries, nuts and shaved chocolate just before serving.

Received from:
Bette Hamilton-McEwen
Nana McEwen, Janice’s mom

Polenta Cubes with Goat Cheese Veg. Sauce

Polenta Cubes

13 in by 9 inch cookie sheet with sides, sprayed with vegetable spray.
2cups. water
1 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic

In a deep saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add garlic. Reduce heat to low and gradually whisk in cormneal. Pay attention to this or you'll get lumps. Cook 5 minutes, stirring all the while. Stir in Parmesan. Pour out onto baking sheet, smooth out. Chill.

Sauce

2tsp. vegetable oil
2tsp. minced garlic
2cups chopped leeks
2 cups. red bell peppers
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
2/3 cups chopped softened sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 c. sliced black olives
2tsp. dried basil
4oz. goat cheese crumbled
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

In a large nonstick saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic, leeks, and red peppers: cook 5 to 8 minutes until soft and slightly browned. Stir in vegetable stock, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and basil. Reduce heat to medium, cove and cook 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut cooled polenta into 1/2 inch squares. Stir cheese and balsamic vinegar into sauce until cheese melts. Stir in polenta cubes, cook, stirring 4 minutes or until heated through. Serve immediately.

In a hurry! Pour your hot palenta into individual shallow pasta bowls and then just top with the sauce. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM. good.

I have reheated by frying the polenta cubes (without the sauce) and then topping with sauce. * I personally do not like balsamic vinegar and have left it out with acceptable results.

Tortellini Minestrone with Spinach

Tortellini Minestrone with Spinach

2tsp. vegetable oil 2tsp. minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion ½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped celery 4cups stock
1sp. Dried basil ¼ tsp. black pepper
1 1/2cups diced plum tomatoes(canned will do)
2cups freshly chopped spinach
2cups frozen cheese tortellini
3tbs. grated parmesan cheese.

In a non-stick saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, onions, carrots and celery : cook 4 minutes or until onions are softened.

Add stock, basil and pepper. Bring to a boil: reduce heat to medium and cook 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender crisp.

Stir in tomatoes, spinach. Cook uncovered for 5 minutes.

In another pot, bring 4cups water to boil. Add tortellini and cook until water returns to boil and tortellini rise to top. Drain, rinse. Spoon tortellini into bowls add soup, garnish with parmesan cheese.

* I sometimes buy the plum tomatoes with seasoning for a change of taste. Or the tri-colored tortellini just for fun. Store leftover soup separately from tortellini in refrigerator. Tortellini just suck up all the soup liquid.

Warm all over soup...

The gym group are sharing soup recipes. So I'll skip the gym and just give them a really great soup.
Red Onion and Grilled Red Pepper Soup

Preheat oven to Broil
Baking Sheet

3 large red bell peppers
2 tsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar *
5 red onions.
3 to 31/2 c. stock of your choice.

Arrange oven rack 6 inches under element.
Cut red peppers into quarters, and remove seeds, place cut side down on baking sheet. Peel and quarter onions also place on baking sheet. Peel garlic and also put on baking sheet. Roast until skin of peppers in chard and. I use a non-stick baking sheet and skip the oil. Let cool. Peel the chard skin off the red peppers, place in blender along with the onions and garlic. Put in pot and add stock until desired consistency. Red peppers and red onions make a naturally sweet-tasting soup, sugar may not be needed.* Heat through, whisk in sour cream or dollop on top for serving.Garnish with basil or parsley.

A great source of fibre. Freezes well without sour cream.

Soup de jour

O.k. today I used my stock to make Leek and Potatoe Soup, it was delicious. It's an old Milk Calender Recipe I believe 1986. I reduce the fat by using skim milk, and a Teflon pan to saute my leeks. I didn't add the mushrooms today, (just forgot to buy them). We gobbled it up. My family continued with a second course but I was good and just had the soup and my yogurt.

So you use the leeks white part only, chop it up and saute in a Teflon pan,
or in the microwave with a little stock. Until translucent.

Blend them up, add to stock.

Meanwhile, peel and cook 3 medium potatoes, mash and add to stock.

When thoroughly heated, whisk in 1/4c. skim milk.

I used about 4 leeks, 3 med. potatoes and 4cups stock. If you plan on adding mushrooms about 1/2 lb. will do they do need to be fried, so once you have finished with the saute of the leeks add the mushroom, you may need to add some butter/margarine to brown them well. I skipped this today as we are watching our fats. This is really good with some grainy bread and a large salad.

Saturday soup, that we eat on Sunday and again throughout the week.

Usually on Saturday I make a giant pot of "Rosol" Chicken soup. I then clean it up removing the chicken bits and vegetable (I don't serve these other than the carrots, because I think they tasted used). I serve it once with noodles and the remainder gets used as a good strong stock in other soups. It seems like a lot of work, but trust me once you get it going you can go watch a movie, turn it off when the movie is over and watch Saturday night live (while you're waiting for your kids to come home from "their social life") and then stick it into the fridge before you go to bed. Or train your kids, like I did, to stick it in when they come home. A large post-it note, the exhaust fan and light over your stove top going is a great reminder.

Mature hen for stock (gizzards remove and don't use)
1 piece of beef shank, not too fatty, with bone in. (do not cut up)
3 or 4 stalks of celery
2 onions
the green part of the leek (reserve white part for leek and mushroom soup)
2 carrots
parsley and/or dill.*
2 tbsps. Vegeta if desired.(available in the spice section of your grocers)

Wash the meat and put in a 3quart pot to boil, or a size big enough to acomodate you meat covered with water and a little room at the top for boiling. Fill another large stock pot, as big as you have, with water and bring to a boil. When your pot with the meat boils there will be some impurities from the meat. Drain, wash the meat again and then put it into the larger pot. I have a cast iron frying pan that I use for this next step, but any thick bottom pan will do. I blacken the onions (peeled) No oil or grease of any kind, just put the onion cut into quarters into the pan at a high temperature and blacken it on all sides. Then into the stock pot. Add the remainder of ingredients except Vegeta, and cook on med/low for about 3hrs. (covering the pot will reduce the evaporation) Add salt and pepper to taste. If your chicken was a truly mature one, your soup will be good and strong flavored and you may not need to add the Vegeta, otherwise add that at the end it tends to be quite salty so taste in between tablespoons. Cook noodles of choice separately serve strained soup with noodles. Strain remainder and freeze in appropriate portions for use later in the week. I usually do this on Saturday night (I have no life) and the house smells great while the soup is cooking. Makes a great Sunday lunch. Why do I serve this on Sunday? Well I always find that Sunday lunch has to be a rushed, (boys running off to work and all) So the soup has cooled overnight in the refrigerator and I have an opportunity to remove any fat from the top (it's all about reducing fat isn't it. I just heat up what we are going to use that day and then the rest gets divided into use able portion size. I'm usually too tired to do this late on Saturday. It's just me, you can eat it anytime you like.

smacznego or enjoy.


*One spring my mother fixated on "PARSLEY".Her mobility was already somewhat compromised and the dementia obviously was in it's beginning stages. All 5 of us, her children, and her two friends were sent on these missions to find just the right parsley plant for her garden. And then of course we had to plant them. She ended up with about 1,000 different varieties of parsley, still not the right ones. I was so ticked off that I boycotted parsley, and didn't use it in my soup for a very long time. Then when her diet became just soups I tried to use everything I could think of to make her meals tasty and parsley was reintroduced. I had forgotten how much flavour it truly adds. But the soups were more than o.k. without it so...

What's on the menu today?

Today being Friday, it must be fish. Salmon it is.

Honey and Curry Glazed Salmon

1/4c. honey 1tsp curry paste
Salmon filet enough for 3 people.

Combine the honey and curry paste and brush on the filet. Bake at 500 degree, yes 500 for 10 min. or until fork flakey. Serve with veg. or salad.

I use the filet with the skin and place in pan skin side down, then lift and the skin stays on the pan, eliminating any need for grease on the pan.
P.s. my husband hates curry but still loves this dish, it isn't as curry as you think it might be. curry paste is available in the spice section of most stores, lasts a long time in the refrigerator.
Enjoy.

Not an ounce off those hips today.

Even though I moved all day, i didn't watch my food intake. I made pierogi tonight. It's my mom's birthday on Sunday so I thought I do pierogi for the buffet and today was my prep day. So Sasha and I sampled. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The ten pound challenge

Since I've taken on the ten pound challenge, with no promises, I feel like I need to share the recipes that I will be making, not all of them low cal. Here's a favorite of mine from the " Our Favorite Recipes" printed and compiled by the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimbsby Ontario. My friend Janice is a health care provider at this hospital and I received this cookbook from her as a gift. I have used it to death. I figure I can adjust the portion for myself without cheating my family of a tasty dish. It's a big recipe, but I make as many chicken pieces as I like and adjust the cheese slice to each piece, or to my diet, and then just use the can of soup and one box of stuffing mix. If you make it bigger do the same adjustment, more soup if necessary and another box of stuffing mix. A good potluck dish.

Janet's Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken 1 can (10oz.) cream of chicken soup
6 slices cheese (Swiss, mozzarella or cheddar) 1 box Stove Top stuffing mix


Preheat oven to 350F. Arrange chicken in pan. Place a slice of cheese on each piece. Spread undiluted soup over cheese and chicken. Prepare stuffing mix according to package. You may need to add 1/4c. extra water so stuffing is moist. Top casserole with stuffing. Bake uncovered for 1 hr. Chicken should be white without any trace of pink when pierced. *I cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes, this reduces the cooking time to about 45 min. and then I don't have to eat the whole breast. (just reducing some calories) Serve with a large green salad. I've also used mushroom soup, broccoli or asparagus soup in place of the cream of chicken. You can use the sodium reduced one successfully as well and as low a calorie cheese as you can find works too. Enjoy