When family is in town it is always very important that we all get together.  And obviously for any Jewish family, it MUST revolve around food. Well instead of trying to make brunch reservations for 9 people on a Sunday at 11:00am in the city of Chicago that is just infiltrated with the summer tourists and hundreds of thousands of concert goers for Lollapolooza, I offered to cook.  Above are just a few of the pictures of my spread of food, but these were the two recipes I was most proud of. Here is the whole menu:

Bagels, Lox, Cream Cheese

Noodle Kugel

Eggs Cups (Egg White with Veggies, Eggs with turkey sausage and cheese)

Granola, Yogurt, Berries

Coffee Cake

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Fruit Platter

Egg Cups (Veggies with Eggs Whites)

1 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 small red bell pepper, diced

1 small zuchinni, diced

2 large handfuls fresh spinach

14 egg whites

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Salt and Pepper

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray. Heat pan over medium heat, add olive oil, onion, and pepper, cook stirring until soft and the onions are translucent. Add the zuchinni and continue to cook until soft. Add spinach and stir all until spinach is wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place egg white, ricotta, salt and pepper into blender until frothy, just about 30 seconds.  Place cooked veggies into the bottom of the muffin tin and then pour egg white mixture to fill the remainder of the space. Place in oven and bake until firm about 35 minutes. Let cool and enjoy at room temperature.

Almond, Cherry and Dark Chocolate Granola

The base of this recipe is from Power Foods, from the editors of whole living magazine.

3 cups of old fashioned oats

1/2 cup whole almonds, roughly chopped

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 large egg whites

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine oats, almonds, sunflower seeds and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together egg whites and salt until frothy. Add agave and oil, whisk to combine. Stir into oat mixture until combined. Spread mixture in an even layer on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, remove from oven and stir. Return to oven for 10 more minutes. Stir again. Turn oven off and leave pan inside for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely. Transfer to a bowl and stir in cherries and chocolate.

As you can tell by the picture, this turkey meatloaf was almost completely devoured before I even got to take a picture.  Which to me is a complement of this highest degree, since I think finally I got a delicious meatloaf using my favorite extra lean turkey. The extra lean turkey is 99% fat free which makes keeping it moist very difficult, but when I cook for just my husband and I its what I like to use.

Turkey Meatloaf

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, finely diced

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp BBQ sauce, divided (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup water

1 egg

1/2 cup  whole wheat bread crumbs

1 package of jennie-o extra lean ground turkey (or about 1 1/4lb ground turkey breast)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. In a small saute pan 0ver medium heat cook the onions and olive oil until translucent, stirring occasionally. Once cooked turn off heat and add Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp BBQ sauce, water, salt and pepper. Cool mixture. In a bowl combine egg, bread crumbs, turkey and cooled onion mixture. Place mixture into a loaf pan and smooth out. Bake for 60 minutes. Remove from oven and top with remainder of BBQ sauce and bake for 10 more minutes.

….you make BANANA BREAD!  When I was at my clients house yesterday they had 5 bananas that were screaming to become banana bread. So I brought them home and will deliver a beautiful banana bread to them on Wednesday when I go back. I used a “low-fat” recipe from a canyon ranch cookbook, but made a few alterations…adding chocolate was one of them!

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup cane sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup mashed banana

2 tablespoons applesauce

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine canola oil and cane sugar in a medium bowl. Mix until cane sugar begins to dissolve.  Add egg and beat for about 20 seconds. Add bananas and applesauce and mix just until combined.
3. Sift together dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into pan and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from pan. Cool completely and cut.

A little browsing on tastespotting lead me to chocolatecoveredkatie.com, somewhere I think I will be visiting more frequently. It sounds like her love for sweets and chocolate is very similar to mine! So here is not only a gluten free recipes, which I love, but it is also a healthy recipe.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup quick oats

3 tbp unsweetened apple sauce

1 tbp canola oil

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8×8 or 9×9 pan with non stick spray

Blend everything except chocolate chips in a food processor until very well blended. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.  Bake for 30 minutes. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting.

I am not sure where this idea came from, I may have seen it once on top chef, but I really can’t remember? But anyway whoever thought of it first had a great idea! I added a little honey to make it sweet and topped it with some toasted walnuts for a little protein.  Also unlike a traditional risotto you do not have to constantly stir this while it is cooking. In fact you don’t really stir at all or you might break up the sweet potato pieces.

Sweet Potato “Risotto”

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups, or one medium size sweet potato, finely diced

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 1/2 cups chicken stock, or vegetable stock

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp heavy cream

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat large pan over medium heat. Add olive oil. Once heated add onion and stir constantly till onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add sweet potatoes and stir to cover with olive oil. Add white wine and cook until liquid is almost completely absorbed. Add chicken stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Make sure all liquid is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup. This process will take about 45 minutes. Do not stir potatoes too much while cooking. Once the last 1/2 cup liquid is incorporated, gently stir in honey and nutmeg. Turn off heat and stir in heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve topped with walnuts.

Using a spring time vegetable on a day it seems spring is no where in sight. And if it were spring outside, this dish would be great topped with some parsley, that I hope to be growing on our patio when spring does arrive.

Artichoke chicken

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups Frozen artichoke hearts
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice of one lemon

Heat large pan with lid over medium high heat. Spay with non stick cooking spray. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to heated pan and sear on both sides, about 6 minutes total. Remove from pan. Add onion and cook until slightly browned, add garlic and stir. Add white wine and bring to a boil, reduce wine until there is almost no liquid left, about 5 minutes. Add chicken broth and chicken into pan, bring back to boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Remove chicken and cover with foil to keep warm. Raise heat to high. Add artichoke hearts and cook until liquid is reduced in half about 7 minutes. Add chicken back into pan, top with lemon juice and serve.