Question: How can I plan ahead for recipes that call for pre-cooked chicken or cooked mixed vegetables?
A few of the dishes in Keep the Beat™ Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Family Meals call for precooked ingredients. This is a great chance to use leftover ingredients or do some “batch” cooking. Here are two examples:
• The “Fried” Rice and Chicken recipe suggests using leftover chicken and sauce from the Hawaiian Huli Huli Chicken recipe. When cooking this dish, refrigerate or freeze immediately any leftover chicken and sauce or make extra specifically to reuse when you make “Fried” Rice and Chicken.
• The Garden Turkey Meatloaf recipe suggests a variety of cooked vegetables, such as mushrooms, zucchini, red peppers, or spinach. You can refrigerate or freeze extra vegetables from previous meals and toss them into the meatloaf, or you can cook vegetables just for this recipe.
The following recipes use cooked chicken or vegetables in the ingredients list, so plan ahead and enjoy them with your family:
• Garden Turkey Meatloaf
• Empañapita
• Shepherd’s Pie
• Baked Eggrolls
• “Fried” Rice and Chicken
• Pasta Primavera
• Pita Pizzas
• Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes
• Wiki (Fast) Rice
If you don’t have leftover ingredients to use in these recipes, see basic cooking instructions on the Keep the Beat™: Deliciously Healthy Eating Web site.
Food Preparation
Question: What are some simple and healthy meal ideas for using various ingredients in my refrigerator and pantry?
Knowing how to choose a few ingredients from your refrigerator, pantry, or freezer and toss them together for a quick and delicious meal in a hurry is a useful skill. Staple ingredients such as pasta, fresh or frozen vegetables, canned beans, chicken breast, frozen shrimp, and lean ground turkey can help you make a meal in minutes. It takes a bit of creativity, but you don’t need to be an experienced chef to do it.
See what you have on hand, and try using the basic cooking instructions and meal preparation tips provided in this book and on the Keep the Beat™: Deliciously Healthy Eating Web site. Have your kids join you in the kitchen and make it a family challenge—they may surprise you with some great suggestions!
Quick and healthy meal suggestions
• Toss whole-wheat pasta with broccoli, garlic, canned no-salt-added tomatoes, and white (cannellini) beans. Season with fresh or dried herbs to taste.
• Make an omelet with an assortment of vegetables (such as mushrooms, red peppers, onions, spinach, etc.), and serve with a side of black beans and a small amount of grated cheddar cheese.
• Grill chicken breasts marinated in balsamic vinegar with olive oil. Serve with a spinach salad and brown rice.
• Brown lean ground turkey and mix with low-sodium tomato sauce over whole-wheat pasta. Serve with a green salad and fruit.
• Sauté frozen shrimp with frozen vegetable stir-fry, minced garlic, ginger, and lite soy sauce. Serve with brown rice or soba (buckwheat noodles).
• Make a salad with tuna (use water-packed tuna and drain it first), sliced cucumber, black olives, crumbled feta cheese, and a small amount of reduced-calorie vinaigrette. Serve with a side of whole-wheat pita bread.
Cooking Techniques
Question: How do I take the skin off a freshly roasted red pepper?
First—to roast them—place red peppers on a nonstick baking sheet under a broiler for about 10 minutes or until the skin is blackened. Once the pepper is blackened, place it in a plastic bag or bowl wrapped with plastic, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Scrape off the burnt skin and rinse
the pepper under cool water. Slice according to recipe instructions.
Question: How do I “fold in” a whipped egg to batter?
“Folding” eggs into batter is a technique used to create extra fluffy cakes and waffles. This technique is used in Oatmeal Pecan Waffles (or Pancakes). See pictures at right for how to whip the eggs and “fold” them into the batter.
Question: How do I use phyllo dough to wrap eggrolls?
Phyllo dough sheets are very delicate, and it’s important to keep the dough moist with a clean damp towel while preparing it. Phyllo dough is used in Baked Eggrolls. See pictures below for how to keep phyllo dough moist and how to fold the eggroll.
Question: How do I choose and slice an avocado?
Avocados are used in both Tuna and Avocado Cobb Salad and Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes. Here are tips on choosing, ripening, and slicing an avocado.
Choosing an avocado
The best way to tell whether an avocado is ready for immediate use is to gently squeeze the fruit in the palm of your hand. Ripe, ready-to-eat avocados will be firm yet will yield to gentle pressure.
Ripening an avocado
To ripen an avocado, place the fruit in a plain brown paper bag and store at room temperature (65–75 °F) until ready to eat (usually 2–5 days). Adding an apple or banana in the bag speeds up the process, because these fruits give off a gas that helps ripen other fruit.
Peeling and slicing an avocado
1. Start with a ripe avocado that is rinsed and dried.
2. Cut it in half lengthwise around the pit. Twist the halves to separate.
3. Tap pit gently with a knife. Remove the pit by sliding the tip of a spoon gently underneath and lifting it out.
4. Peel the avocado by placing the cut side down and carefully removing the skin with a knife or your fingers, starting at the small end. Or simply scoop out the avocado meat with a spoon.
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