Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Yummy yum yum! These muffins are my new favorite! Astonishingly they taste good even though they have shredded zucchini in them.

SERVED WITH: My morning coffee. They taste the best the day they're made but I usually freeze them and take one to work each day. When defrosted they dry out slightly but I still enjoy them.

COOKING TIPS: If you want to completely disguise the fact that you are serving vegetables with chocolate be sure to peel the zucchini before shredding it, if not you will see bits of green in your chocolate muffin.

RATING: 9. I will definitely be making these on a weekly basis.

Drunken Salmon

The salmon in this dish is marinated in a combination of ingredients which includes Whiskey and is then cooked on a cedar plank on the barbecue. I have actually made this meal twice. The first time for my husband and I on a Saturday evening. That's when I discovered how big a two pound fillet of salmon really was...enough to feed eight. That taught me to pay closer attention to the number of servings at the bottom of recipes! Needless to say we had lots of leftovers. I enjoy the moist flavorful salmon so I served it again a short time later when we had guests visiting from out of town. Instead of buying a large fillet I bought individual serving sizes for a nicer presentation. Everyone enjoyed the meal.

SERVED WITH: Raita Salad and asparagus the first time. A lemony mushroom and arugula salad and asparagus the second time.

COOKING TIPS: Make sure to fully marinate the salmon. If you don't let it sit for long enough the fish will not fully take on the flavors of the marinade. Don't forget to soak your cedar plank for at least 20 minutes before popping it on the BBQ.

RATING: 8. Cooking the fish on a cedar plank was a new experience and it gave the fish a nice flavour. (the yard smelled like a sauna while we were cooking it)

Raita Salad

A lot of the recipes in the GI Diet cookbook are inspired by Indian dishes and this salad is one of them. Lately I have learnt how to use yogurt in interesting ways. I am going to add using yogurt as a salad dressing to that list. Plain yogurt with a touch of cumin is all it takes to dress this salad of spinach greens, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes.

SERVED WITH: The book suggested serving this salad with Coffee and Spice Rubbed Chicken breasts and that is exactly what I did. It was a nice combination. A very enjoyable meal.

COOKING TIPS: Toss the salad in a large bowl with the dressing so the greens are evenly coated otherwise it just won't taste quite right.

RATING: 8. It may not be something I would eat often but it was still very enjoyable.

Mediterranean Summer Salad

I am not really sure what inspired me to make this dish yesterday. Considering the fact that I don't like raw peppers you would think I would steer clear of this salad. But... I did make it and I did eat it. Most of it anyways. A few peppers were left on my plate. This summer salad is easy to throw together. Just chop it all up, mix it with the marinade and serve. I made mine in the evening and took it in for lunch the next day.

SERVED WITH: A slice of wholewheat bread would have been nice, or on top of some lettuce, but I ate it all on its own.

COOKING TIPS: To be honest I took a lot of liberties with this recipe. I bought grape tomatoes instead of chopping up large tomatoes, I used dried herbs instead of fresh, and I roughly cut everything up instead of paying attention to the size called for.

RATING: 4. Not just because it had peppers in it but I was not overly impressed with the marinade on it.

Teriyaki Salmon Fillets with Chinese Noodles

Ok, I admit that this recipe is not from the GI diet cookbook but I simply cannot resist making it from time to time because it's so good. So what I thought I would do is list all of the ingredients and look up what category each one falls into according to the GI diet. Then try to determine if this dish is ok to eat according to the diet or not.

So here it goes...fingers crossed its good because I love it!

Salmon - It's ok

Teriyaki marinade - Yes its good

Ginger - I can't find on the list but I know I have used it in a recipe somewhere

Vegetable stock- It's ok to use as long as its low fat, low sodium

Dried egg noodles - No! because it is not a whole wheat pasta

Peas - They're ok

Napa cabbage - It's good too

Mushrooms - Yes thank goodness

Carrots - Yes again

Green onions - Yes for sure

So overall this recipe has one item that is not a green light food. I am not the professional when it comes to rating a recipe but in my opinion this most likely falls into the yellow light category because of the one yellow light item, egg noodles. If it were made with a whole wheat pasta it would most likely be a green light recipe. Perhaps I will try it out that way the next time.

Chicken Shnitzel

Breaded and pan fried chicken is a comfort food to me, it reminds me of my childhood. So when I read what was used as breading I was a little bit skeptical that it would taste any good. To my pleasant surprise it did. The breading consists of whole wheat flour, wheat germ and wheat bran. If you need to bread something but you don't have any bread crumbs handy then I would suggest giving the above mixture a try. (dip your meat in whisked up egg whites, then the whole wheat flour and then a mixture of wheat bran and wheat germ) I am sure you will be surprised too. The apricot sauce served on top of the schnitzel was a nice accompaniment to the chicken. I even poured a little sauce over my mashed red potatoes instead of using butter.

SERVED WITH: Mashed red potatoes (with the skins on) and green beans.

COOKING TIPS: If you're in a rush and want to skip a step buy chicken breast that have already been pounded flat for you. It will cost you more but it saves a bit of time in the kitchen.

RATING: 8. I will be making this dish again for sure.

Pasta Puttanesca

This is not your typical Pasta Puttanesca. The main difference being it has chick peas in it. While the flavors turned out to be pretty tasty I found the meal to be a little on the dry side and would have preferred a little more sauce. I might try doubling the amount of tomatoes called for the next time.

SERVED WITH: Nothing. This was a full meal on its own.

COOKING TIPS: Definitely don't skip roasting the tomatoes in the oven first as it adds a lot of flavor.

RATING: 6. I did enjoy the meal but would prefer a traditional pasta puttanesca instead.

Strawberry Oatmeal Shortcakes

So very yummy! This stacked up dessert certainly looks impressive. You won't feel guilty eating it either. That creamy looking filling looks like whipped cream but it's not, it's yogurt cheese. Never heard of it? Well me neither. Simply place some yogurt in a sieve lined with a coffee filter or cheese cloth and let it sit anywhere between 1 and 4 hours, covered in the fridge. What your left with is a thick yogurt which you then sweeten with a touch of sugar, only about two tablespoons was needed. I had company over for dessert and this is what I served. They all liked it and I don't think they were just being polite! :)

SERVED WITH: A hot cup of tea or coffee

COOKING TIPS: I substituted the Splenda that the recipe calls for with half the amount of sugar. For 6 servings I used 1/8 cup of sugar. (I am talking about the cookie part of the recipe here, not the yogurt cheese)

RATING: 8. I wouldn't hesitate to serve this again, in fact I plan on doing just that in two weeks when our company from New York arrives.

Blueberry Beef Burger served at my annual Canada Day party

I should have taken a picture of everyone enjoying the blueberry beef burgers I served at our annual Canada Day party this year but as hostess I was far to busy running around to think of such things. I didn't even get a shot of the my husband at the barbecue grilling up all 25 burgers I made to serve to our guests.

The good news is everybody seemed to like them, in fact I received several favorable comments and requests for the recipe. So just in case you think my taste buds are off and I am making up stuff about how delicious all of these GI Diet recipes are you now have another opinion. That of the 25 guests who ate them. I actually liked them better the second time around and am upgrading my rating from 7 to 8.5.

To see my original post on the burgers click here.