Baked Eggs in Ham Cups

This is one of my favorite dishes from the GI cookbook. Tonight I made it for the third time and it tasted as good as it did the first two times. The dish is essentially egg whites with a little seasoning cooked in a nest made of ham slices. I found some great organic ham (and turkey) slices from a local farm called Rowe Farms. The deli slices are sold at my local grocery store which makes it handy to buy. If your having people over for brunch and you want to impress them be sure to serve this. Everyone will think you put a lot of work into it.

SERVED WITH: I always serve this dish with a side salad. Tonight I was organized and added a side of asparagus as well.

COOKING TIPS: Instead of using muffin tins as the recipe suggests I used my ceramic ramekins. It looks prettier and I find a muffin tin that is not completely full starts to smoke. Because of this I had to add an additional 10 minutes to the cook time for a total of 25 minutes in the oven.

RATING: 10. This dish scores a perfect 1o with me because it tastes great, it looks impressive, and it is super easy to make.

Chocolate Pudding

I was desperate for something sweet tonight. Luckily there is absolutely nothing bad for me to eat in the house so I resorted to making a dessert from the GI cookbook instead.

COOKING TIPS: It was very quick to prepare but had to sit in the fridge for about an hour before it cooled down enough to eat. This was my first time making pudding and I was surprised at how easy it was to make but unfortunately I didn't find it to be very tasty. It was more the texture that I didn't enjoy, the flavor was fine. It is worth a try if you are having an uncontrollable chocolate craving. I would have been more satisfied with a small square of dark chocolate.

RATING: 3. It's doubtful I will try it again.

Strawberry Tea Bread

Little did I know that baking something in a silver cake pan is different from baking in a black cake pan. I discovered this the other night when trying out a new recipe from the GI diet cookbook. The recipe for "Strawberry Tea Bread" makes two loaves and I used the only two tins that I had on hand, a black one and a silver one. Both of the loaves appeared to be cooked and the tester came out clean after poking the middle of the bread. After letting the cakes cool down I went ahead and started to slice them up so that I could freeze them into single servings, an easy snack to grab out of the freezer for my mid morning coffee each day. When I cut into the cakes the one in the silver pan was cooked nicely but the one in the black pan was cooked on the outside and appeared a little undercooked in the middle. Check out the photos above. The second picture is from the silver pan and the third is from the black pan. The loaf in the silver tin cooked much more evenly and held together properly. The black tin produced a loaf that was crispy on the outside but feel apart in the middle.

COOKING TIPS: After this experience I did a google search to confirm my findings. It turns out you can simply set the temperature of the oven lower so that your baking cooks more evenly. For some tips on different bake ware and how to adapt your recipe check out this link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5621772_cook-different-cake-pans.html


RATING: 6. In the end they were both edible so my efforts did not go to waste and I had some delicious snacks to get me and my husband through two weeks. I only rated this treat a 6 because I didn't enjoy the texture of the strawberries in the bread and I found it a little lacking in flavour.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I have never liked pancakes before. I always found them way to sweet to eat first thing in the morning. This cookbook has changed me. It has two fabulous pancake recipes. They are both so good it is hard to pick a favorite.

This Sunday I tried out the cottage cheese pancakes. If you don't really like cottage cheese don't worry I am sure you will love these pancakes anyhow. I encourage you to try it out!

SERVED WITH: I served the pancakes with some cut up strawberries and a tall glass of water. I kept the leftover pancakes to reheat for breakfast tomorrow morning or to have as a snack in the afternoon. They are incredibly filling, I was stuffed full after only two.

COOKING TIPS: The only tricky thing about these pancakes is trying to figure out when they are done. Because they have cheese oozing and melting inside them when they cook it is hard to tell if it is the cheese or wet uncooked batter inside. Following the instructions of 2 minutes per side gave me the best results.

RATING: 10. This breakfast was delicious and I look forward to the next lazy Sunday so I can cook them again.

Citrus-Paoched Haddock

I managed to muster up the energy to cook dinner tonight instead of spending more time on the couch watching TV. The reason I chose this dish is because I had some leftover white wine from a few nights ago that I didn't want to pour down the drain (I don't like white wine and besides it is not on the list of acceptable foods according to the GI diet anyhow)

The recipe was pretty easy to following and was ready in a quick 20 minutes. With barely any prep work this makes for the perfect weekday meal.

SERVED WITH: I served the fish with a side of brown rice and cauliflower. It would have made a nice presentation if I had used broccoli or green beans to add some colour to the plate but that was what I had left in the crisper at the end of the week.

COOKING TIPS: I found my poaching liquid evaporated before the fish was fully cooked and ended up adding in some extra stock to keep it going. This resulted in a complete lack of sauce to pour over the fish at the end. I think I went wrong when choosing a frying pan that was to large. Perhaps if it was in a smaller pan the liquid would have stuck around longer.

RATING: 7. Even with problem with the quickly disappearing liquid the meal was still pretty tasty and I would definitely try it again. Although, I might try it with a different type of fish as I found the haddock to have a slightly unpleasant "fishy" smell. (yes my fish was fresh)

Chicken Fingers with Apricot Dipping Sauce and Sweet Potatoe Fries

I will admit that I "hit the wall" this week and was not really in the mood to do much cooking. Last night I made the decision to give myself a break and eat dinner out with my husband. The meal was enjoyable but I did cheat and ate a dish with white pasta. The food tasted good on the way down but left me feeling completely bloated afterwards. After not eating any white pasta for over three weeks I really felt the difference. I did manage to fit in one new GI recipe though.

SERVED WITH: I tried out a recipe for chicken fingers with apricot dipping sauce and I paired it with another recipe for sweet potato fries. The dish was half decent and I would definitely make it again.

COOKING TIPS: It would have tasted much better if I had paid attention to the instructions ahead of time. I was not aware that the chicken has to marinate for one hour before cooking it. I was not willing to wait the hour and instead marinated the chicken for a mere 10 minutes. Because of this the dish was lacking a little bit of flavor. Instead of coating the chicken in breadcrumbs the recipe calls for toasted sesame seeds. The sesame seeds added a nice crunch and flavor. Since I couldn't find any toasted sesame seeds at the store (maybe they don't exist) I toasted them myself in the frying pan before using them. If you have never done it before, don't fear, it is quick and easy. Just pop them in a frying pan on medium and give them the occasional shake, you'll know they are done when they start to go brown. For detailed instructions click here.

The sweet potato fries were tasty but could have use some more seasoning in my opinion. They were coated in olive oil, chili powder and paprika. They had a slight kick but I enjoy sweet potato fries just as much when they are tossed with a little garlic, oregano and olive oil.

RATING: 6. But it only got a low rating because I didn't follow the instructions properly.

Tonight I am going to attempt to make a poached fish dish. Unless I am feeling completely exhausted and in need of another night off.

Blueberry Rock Cakes Again!

Here is another shot of a fresh batch of blueberry rock cakes I made this week. Yes! I really really love eating these. Last week I found that the colour and density of the cakes were off a little from normal. After some thinking I realized a few days later that I forgot to add in the baking powder. Opps! They still tasted good anyways but I thought I would pop up a picture of what they normally look like.

Runner's World Meatloaf

This is one of my old stand by recipes. It is not in the GI cookbook. I got it from Runner's World Magazine. It is a pretty healthy dish consisting of lean ground beef, a ton of veggies, and oatbran.
Get the recipe by clicking here.

My dish came out quite wet and didn't serve up in perfect slices but it tasted great anyways. Yes I know it looks ok in the picture but that is only because I squished it together so that it would look appetizing for the photo. What is even better is I have plenty of left overs for lunch for a few days.

SERVED WITH: I had to get a little creative with the veggies this week. I used what I had in the crisper. So we ended up with a side salad, green beans and fried mushrooms. Now that I have been on a healthy eating kick for the past two weeks I am even finding myself eating my veggies plain without any butter or salt. I am learning to enjoy the natural flavor of vegetables. Well I lie, the mushrooms were fried in some butter...that is what makes them taste so good! :)

COOKING TIPS: The trick with the dish is finely chopping the vegetables so that they cook all the way through. I don't have a food processor so I just spend a few extra minutes chopping, chopping and chopping.

RATING: 9. It tastes great and is full of healthy ingredients.

Meal Planning

Every Sunday morning I spend some time planning my meals for the week. It is a lot of work but it pays off when I get home from a long day at work. I don't have to think about what to do for dinner I simply check out my meal plan and get started. I know it can seem like a daunting task but once you get into the swing of it it's not so bad. I love being organized and I love planning but some Sundays are way harder then others. Having some funky paper to write on always helps me. After I have sorted it all out I hang a copy on my fridge. Make sure to always include the name of the recipe, the cookbook it is from and what page you can find it on. If my husband gets home before me he can consult the planner and get started on the prep work before I get home.

If you want a little help getting organized check out this link from one of my favorite blogs called Design Sponge. This is a DIY project that will help you with your meal planning.

This week I am going to try out a few new recipes from the GI Diet Cookbook again. So on the agenda are Chicken Fingers with Sweet Potato Fries and Citrus Poached Haddock. I am also making a delicious meatloaf I got from Runners World magazine. Even though it is not in the GI Diet cookbook I am going to show you what it looks like because it is a super healthy meat loaf made using extra lean ground beef, oatbran, carrots and celery. Stay tuned for some more yummy looking (and tasting) food this week!

Thai Red Curry Shrimp Pasta

A good friend of mine came over for dinner with her husband on Saturday night. Since she is a vegetarian I decided to try out a new shrimp dish from the G.I. Diet Cookbook.

My mom would think I am nuts not to "take the recipe for a test run" and make sure it tastes good before serving it to guests but I figure if it tastes horrible we can always order pizza. (Although that would hardly be following the GI diet) Anyhow I had confidence that it would taste great, this cookbook has not let me down yet! After the initial prep work the meal came together in a snap and didn't interfere with socializing with my guests. It was quite fun to see how quickly the shrimp cook (just 3 -4 minutes) and watch them change colour as they did. The dish got an unanimous thumbs up from everybody.

SERVED WITH: This is a full meal on its own.

COOKING TIPS: This was my first time working with raw shrimp. The most time consuming part of this recipe was preparing the shrimp for cooking. Peeling and deveining the shrimp took me a good 45 minutes. If you have never done it before check out this video to see how its done. Peeling and deveining shrimp

RATING: 8. The leftovers tasted even better the next day.

Falafel with Yogurt-Mint Sauce

This was a yummy dish. I've never attempted making a meal like this before so it was a little something out of the ordinary for me. The chickpea patties would taste just as good on their own as a mid afternoon snack. I found you could not really taste the mint in the yogurt mint sauce but that may have been because I used fresh mint instead of dried.

SERVED WITH: A salad would have been nice but we ate them all on their own.

COOKING TIPS: Do not put all of the oil in the pan right away! When frying the patties they really did soak up the olive oil so I had to add more to the pan for the second batch. The first batch were delicious because they were dripping with oil but I would hardly consider that very healthy.

RATING: 7. Pretty tasty if your in the mood for falafels.

Hoisin Chicken Parcels

The end result of this recipe is a dish that resembles a stir fry but is cooked in a much different way. You assemble all of the ingredients, mix it together with the sauce, pop it into some tin foil and cook it in the oven for 15 minutes. Much easier then tending to a stir fry and kind of fun too.
The overall taste was a little spicy.

SERVED WITH: Everything you need is right in there. If you wanted to you could serve it on top of some rice or quinoa

COOKING TIPS: No suggestions here, it was so simple to make.

RATING: 6. While I did enjoy how easy it was to make I was not huge on the flavor. If I made it again I may try to adapt it a little.

Blueberry Rock Cakes Fresh from the Oven

Another batch of blueberry rock cakes fresh from the oven. I freeze them and take one out each day for a delicious mid morning snack.

Arugula and Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce

Hidden within this tomato sauce are some pretty healthy ingredients like shredded carrots and onions. To add flavor an entire bulb of garlic, roasted to perfection, and a bunch of arugula were mixed in towards the end. This dish was tasty but it didn't blow me away like last nights tilapia dish.

SERVED WITH: Of course we served the tomato sauce on whole wheat spaghetti noodles and served it with a side salad.

COOKING TIPS: I was not a fan of the diced tomatoes and would try using crushed tomatoes for a smoother consistency.

RATING: 6. Spaghetti is a comfort food for me so I am very picky about what it tastes like. This sauce didn't give me that warm feeling inside.

Grilled Tilapia with Black Bean Mango Salsa

I continued to be amazed at how good this cook book is. With the exception of one recipe so far everything has tasted great. I couldn't get over how delicious this meal was. The spicy tilapia paired with the refreshing mango salsa was absolutely delicious and would be the perfect light summer meal.

SERVED WITH: I served the fish with some brown rice and green beans.

COOKING TIPS: Since I didn't have a grill I simply popped the fish under the broiler. I cheated a little and used canned black beans to save some time - dried beans that you rehydrate yourself have a lower GI rating and less sodium.

RATING: 9. This dish was quick, easy and yummy

Berry Stuffed French Toast

I had some leftover berries from desert last night so I decided to give this recipe a try. It is a twist on traditional french toast. After simmering some berries with a touch of sugar (the recipe calls for Splenda) you sandwich them between two pieces of french toast and voila... a gourmet breakfast is complete. While I did enjoy the recipe I found it to be incredibly sweet. If you were having guests over for brunch this would be an impressive dish to serve.

SERVED WITH: Our morning coffee and nothing else.

COOKING TIPS: The next time I would eliminate the sugar/Splenda in the berries all together.

RATING: 7. My rating may go up if I try it again and eliminate the sugar/splenda.

Quinoa, Bean and Vegetable Chili

Last night the gang came over dinner after we went out for a long run. I wanted to have something all made up and ready to go since I knew we would be starving by the time we got home. I made up some vegetarian chili with quinoa on Friday night and simply reheated it on Saturday. This recipe is delicious! You could trick any meat lover with this vegetarian chili. It is so hearty and delicious you would swear there was meat in it. Above is a picture of the chili in the pan just before I dished it out. We were way to hungry to stop and take a picture of it on our plates.

SERVED WITH: I served it with cilantro and a dollop of sour cream. This chili is super easy to make and there is no need to simmer it for hours like a traditional chili, just 20 minutes. This is one of my favorite recipes from the GI diet cookbook so far

COOKING TIPS: The smaller cut up the veggies the quicker it's done!

RATING: 9. Definitely a comfort food.

Winter Vegetable Soup

My lunch today consists of left over soup from a couple of nights ago. This hearty soup is made up of ingredients such as sweet potato, celery root, carrots, spinach and small whole wheat noodles.

COOKING TIPS: Cutting up all of the hard vegetables was a challenge but the preparation was a cinch after that. Having never used celery root before I had a little trouble figuring out how to cut it up. Click on this link for a short video if you've never used it before either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVszyUkorgA

The spinach added towards the end of the recipe would have been easier to eat if it had been chopped up first.

SERVED WITH: I enjoyed this for dinner when I first prepared it. As leftover I found that the soup really thickened up over night and some water/stock needed to be added before reheating. I served up my soup with a small chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread.

RATING: 6. It was enjoyable and hearty but not my favorite.

Tonight I plan on making a vegetarian chili to serve to my running friends after we come back from a long training run. Stay tuned...

Blueberry Rock Cakes

I have made this delicious snack several times. I enjoy a blueberry rock cake every morning with my daily cup of decaf coffee. It's like eating the top of a muffin.

SERVED WITH: A cup of Joe.

COOKING TIPS: The recipe actually calls for Splenda which I am not a fan of. So even though the point of following these recipes is ultimately to reduce your sugar intake I choose to use natural sugar as a substitute for Splenda. I just use half the amount of sugar that is called for in the recipe and I find they still taste great. After all eating one of these blueberry snacks, even if I did use a little sugar, if far better then the pastries I can grab at my local coffee shop.

RATING: 10. They have quickly become a staple item in my diet.

Chicken Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper and Onion Confit

You really have to love onions to enjoy this dish. The dish is basically a slice of bread topped with sliced chicken, roasted red pepper, and swiss cheese. (and of course some other ingredients to make it flavorful) While it sounded delicious this was not one of my favorite recipes. My husband liked it and said that he would eat it again. I am not sure if I would. I felt that the flavor of the onions was a little overpowering and you really couldn't taste the chicken. Although I think I may have undercooked the onions as I was starving when I got home and very anxious to eat.

COOKING TIPS: Make sure to fully cook your onions!

SERVED WITH: I served the sandwich with a side salad to round out the meal.

RATING: 4. I really didn't enjoy this meal.

GI Diet Cookbook

After a very stressful period of time in my life my body was completely out of wack. I didn't feel good and I had gained a good twenty pounds. My doctor suggested I follow the GI Diet and recommended a book by Rick Gallop. Eager to feel better and shed a few pounds I bought his cookbook and have been incorporating the recipes into my diet for the last 3 months. I am enjoying the meals in this book so much that I thought it would be a great thing to let people know about - great tasting food that is good for you how can you go wrong. As I attempt one of the recipes I am going to let you know about how it went and post some photos of the delicious food. Click on the link below to go directly to the GI Diet website.

http://www.gidiet.com/