Pork Potstickers

These are a favorite of ours to make -- thanks to Ryan who served his mission in Japan. He calls them Gyoza. Since they are steamed dumplings, doesn't that make them healthier than say, an egg roll? I'll stop trying to justify. I'm pregnant and they're good.

Ingredients:

4 med dried shitake mushrooms (I use any mushroom I have)

1 lb lean ground pork

1/3 c finely chopped cabbage (I like Napa)

1/4 c green onions, chopped

1 T wine (or vinegar)

1 T water

1 t cornstarch

1 t salt

dash white pepper

1 t sesame oil

(we've also been playing around with adding garlic, no cabbage, but more onions, silken tofu, and hoisen sauce -- we're still perfecting to our taste but this is still a good combo) moral: don't be afraid to add and subtract whatever you want, sometimes I feel like putting shredded carrots in!

Mix and put a small spoonful in gyoza wrappers (we like the round ones but you can use the square ones too) Line egde of wrap with water, squish out the extra air and fold edges so they are pretty.

Traditionally: here's where you heat 2 T oil in wok, place dumplings in single layer (will probably have to do in batches) Fry 2 min. 'til bottoms are golden. Add 1/2 c. water and cover. Cook another 6-7 min 'til absorbed.

We saw something interesting on the food network -- a restaurant prepares their dumplings this way: Here are the dumplings all folded and ready to cook:

Then we boiled them in water, for just a few minutes -- until they float or look a little transparent

then we browned the bottoms in a tiny bit of oil -- to give them the potsticker look, feel, taste.

Such cute little bundles:

Even though this isn't the traditional way potstickers are done -- it went much faster and it seemed less tempermental. You can also do them in larger batches (hence the faster-ness)


Ingredients for dipping sauce:

1/4 c sugar

1/2 c water

2 T soy sauce

2 T rice wine vinegar

2 T ketchup

1 T lemon juice

1/8 t sesame oil

1-2 t garlic and red chile paste (can add more for more heat)

or you can just dip in soy if you'd rather, or a mixture of soy, brown sugar and vinegar. But we like this copy of PF Chang's the best

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

or should I call it "homemade noodle chicken soup" since that's the goodness of it. I will admit, this isn't the most low-carb-friendly dish, but it sure is comforting when you sure don't want to eat all the other garbage out there. (food aversion issues) AND i know what's in it 'cause i made it so I know it's all pure and simple ingredients that won't upset my system. of course the instructions from my mom include boiling a whole chicken all day, removing the meat from it and adding it back to the broth, putting it in the fridge overnight (to really get the flavors in there) and then doing what i did -- but i'm not one to deal with whole chickens and such -- so i am just putting the instructions that I always do:

Chicken Noodle Soup

Boil one chicken breast in as much water as you want soup (i maybe did 6 c.? you can do more chicken than that but i don't like TONS of chicken in mine)

add chopped onions, carrots, celery to the simmering pot

add spices: chicken broth or boullion, salt and pepper, parsley, garlic pwd, curry, whatever else sounds good

let simmer until veggies are tender, and sometime during all that, remove the chicken, shred it and return it to the pot

meanwhile: make noodles (recipe below) and add them. They only have to cook a few minutes and the soup's ON! *I wouldn't be faithful to my roots unless I mentioned that this is swell served over mashed potatoes -- but I like it alone too.

Homemade Noodles

2 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

1/3 c water

1 t oil

2 eggs

Mix together and knead 5 min, adding more flour if needed -- Roll out into noodles (this is where the pasta machine is handy, but I HAVE done it by hand before in desperation for some home cookin') All that's left is to add them to the soup -- yum yum!

*this serves around 6

Jello Parfait

When it's hot out, and you need a cool low-cal summer treat, or just a fun side dish/dessert for dinner when your 3 year old needs a project, make these -- they never disappoint:
For these I used sugar-free peach jello and sliced strawberries, with a dollop of light whipped cream. of course you can be creative with all kinds of flavors and fruit -- but I just forget sometimes that jello exists -- so I thought I'd remind everyone else too.

flax

I made this Pineapple Almost Heaven Cake (which is truly almost Heaven) -- actually Ryan made the cake part because I wasn't feeling well but as he gathered ingredients, found we were short an egg. So I tried the flax substitute -- which I've been wanting to try for a while now but have just been too lazy? Well, you put 1 T ground flaxseed in a small bowl -- whisk in 3 T water and let sit for a minute. This equals an egg in things like cakes, muffins, cookies etc. Worked great! Granted, there was so much goodness on top of the cake I doubt anyone would've noticed if we subbed sand in for the egg, but for all purposes -- I will do this again. Maybe even if I've still got eggs in the fridge. Gotta try to improve that health, you know.

Steamed Chicken

Maybe this is a common concept to a lot of people -- but it never has been for me so I thought I'd share. This is the problem -- lots of recipes call for cooked, shredded chicken, and as far as I know -- you boil it to get it cooked. I actually really don't like boiled chicken -- I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but it's always on the rubbery side and sort of stinky to me. If I've thought ahead -- my prefered method would be to slow-cook chicken breasts in the crock pot to have nice juicy tender chicken for my recipes. But I hardly ever think that ahead: so this is the solution: I've been steaming it in my veggie steamer -- and as long as you get it out in time, it's nice and juicy still, and easier to work with -- AND I LIKE IT!

I'm sure it would also work in one of these types: in fact a friend from Ohio is the one who planted the idea in my head and she always used this on all chicken she ever ate.

Chicken in a biscuit?

So for dinner tonight I was going to make Chicken Rolls (I've heard them called puffs or pillows too) and got everything ready only to look in the fridge and find out I was out of what has always been considered a staple in my mom's house: cream cheese. So I guess by default -- these turned out to be somewhat lower-fat than the normal recipe. But they were still tasty -- I'd make 'em again! Ingredients:
1 refrigerated tube of biscuits
some green onions
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
a spoonful of fat free sour cream - like 1/3 c?
1/3 can low-fat cream of chicken soup
sprinkle of craisens

Flatten out the biscuits with your hands and press into muffin tins -- then fill with chicken mixture (which is everything but the biscuits). Bake according to instructions on biscuits and you can choose to (or not to) top them with the rest of the cream of chicken -- heated through and thinned with milk to desired consistency.

(I had originally planned to make the normal stuffed balls but was having trouble with the type of biscuit I had -- so to make it easier and to include more filling -- I used the muffin method. It's all about improvising.)

Chicken Bean Dip

This is a stand-by that I make whenever I don't have a lot of time, haven't thought of anything, need food quick, you get the picture. But it's tasty too, and versatile! I got it out of a Taste of Home a long time ago but just have it in my head so it may not be exact.

small onion, chopped

1 can refried beans

1 cup (or so) salsa

1 can chicken breast (or cook and shred your own if you got the time...)

some shredded cheese

So, I think the recipe just called for the onions raw, but here's how I do it: saute them for just a minute and then add everything else to heat through. Dip tortilla chips, serve it in burritos, over a salad or rice -- it's very flavorful and depending on the kind of beans and amount of cheese you use -- can be fairly low-fat. I've even nixed the cheese altogether before and it's still good.