Lighter Twice-Baked Potatoes

Kids and adults all enjoy eating baked potatoes, and stuffed potatoes can make any meal a special treat. This recipe for stuffed potatoes with Parmesan cheese and milk reduces fat by omitting the cheddar cheese, butter and cream.


Stuffed Potatoes
You need:
2 baking potatoes
1 leek, white and pale green part only, rinsed well, patted dry. You can also choose half medium onion, finely chopped
One tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup milk, hot
3 Tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of chopped cilantro
Prick potatoes a few times with a knife and bake them at 425F for 1 hour or until tender. Let them cool. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the pulp into a bowl, leaving a one-fourth inch thick shell. Mash the pulp with fork.
Cook the leek in the oil in a skillet over medium heat for few minutes or until softened. Stir cooked leek or onion into the potatoes with milk, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

Mound one-quarter of the potato mixture back into the shells. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top of each mound and bake the stuffed potatoes in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are hot. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Two Spicy Healthy Recipes from Burma

People of Burma lay a great emphasis on contemplation and meditation, both in daily life and taken to their kitchens and eating tables. Burmese cuisine is sometimes taken as a fusion of Indian, Thai and Chinese cuisine, but it is not true. Burmese cuisine is influenced by its neighbors, but the dishes get their flavors from the thousand-year-old culture. Burmese spend time over each meal. No “fast food” is gulped here. The food is complex in a way so that each morsel is focused, and Burmese let the flavors reveal themselves slowly rather than expecting them to be immediately realized by the taste buds.

The meals are elaborated but small. The family gathers for lunch or dinner at a low table. Each dish is then passed around, followed by the bowl of rice. The appropriate accompaniments or condiments are then passed. The rice, mixed with all the items on the plate, is eaten with fingers. Although Burmese have begun using chopsticks as well. Burmese meals include an assortment of salads as well.

The common accompaniments are garlic, onions, ngapi (a shrimp-based paste), and balachaung which is a crispy combination of shrimp and several raw vegetables including cabbage, and mini-eggplants.

Two Burmese favorites are ta-yet-tea-tow which is a green mango onion salad, and khwauk swe, a chicken and noodle dish.

Ta-Yet-Tea-Tow
4 green mangoes
2 tablespoons shrimp powder
2 medium onions, sliced
4 green chiles
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons shrimp powder
2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds
3 cups fried onions
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Salt, as needed

Peel mangoes and soak in water. Cut or break lengthwise and sliver into small, thin pieces. Squeeze slivered mango dry. Cut green chillies finely, discarding seeds if you wish. In a small dish, mix baked shrimp paste with cooked oil till smooth.

Into a bowl put mangoes, sliced onions, shrimp paste in oil, shrimp powder, green chillies, sesame seeds, 1/2 of fried onion, and sauce, and mix well. Taste and add salt as needed. Serve garnished with remaining fried onion. Serves 4-5.

Khwauk Swe
Serves four to five people
Ingredients

2 pounds chicken, boiled and cut into strips
1 pound rice noodles
2-3 onions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and pepper to taste
1 sprig of coriander
1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed peanuts
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Cook noodles till tender. Remove from heat, drain and set aside. Combine garlic, ginger and salt in a large bowl. Add chicken strips, and coat each piece with the spice mixture.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and tomatoes, and cook, stirring and sprinkling with pepper, salt and turmeric. Cook until onions soften and mixture thickens, for about 5 minutes. Add chicken and a cup of water, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until mixture thickens. Serve chicken over noodles. Garnish with coriander and crushed peanuts.

A dash of lemon juice accentuates the flavour of the spices

Source-http://www.greendivamom.com/author/savneet/

Buckwheat: A Healthy Gluten-Free Grain Substitute

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is not wheat or even a grain, but a fruit seed. Whole buckwheat seeds are three-sided with a thick, hard outer hull that must be removed before eating. The inner seed, also called as groat, is light brown or light green colored, soft and easily chewable. The seed has a pleasant and rich flavor.

The high fiber content makes buckwheat a good substitute for grains. The Chinese have been growing Buckwheat as a grain crop for over 1000 years. It is used by Japanese to make soba noodles. Buckwheat flour can be used to make delicious pancakes, biscuits, muffins or breads. In some parts of Eastern Europe, the toasted groats are known as kasha. Europeans use buckwheat groats as whole in hot cereals and soups. Buckwheat can also be boiled until it become soft and fluffy and then eaten like rice.
Buckwheat is a low-maintenance crop which can flourish even in poor soil. It has a growing season of only 11-12 weeks. It smothers weeds and adds nitrogen, phosphorus, organic matter and other nutrients to the soil. In addition, buckwheat crops attract beneficial insects.

Benefits of buckwheat

•Buckwheat is gluten free, making it an excellent substitute for grains for people who are sensitive to protein gluten present in wheat and rice.
•Regular intake of buckwheat lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides.
•Buckwheat contains essential minerals like iron, copper, phosphorous, selenium, zinc, manganese and magnesium.
•Buckwheat is a good source of alpha-linolenic acid.
•One half cup of buckwheat provides 8.5 grams of dietary fiber. That is 1/3 of the recommended daily fiber intake. Harvard researchers have found that people having a daily morning bowl of whole grain cereal with groats had a lower risk of heart attack.
•Including buckwheat in your daily diet can be helpful in reducing weight.
•It reduces risk of diabetes. Magnesium in buckwheat acts as a co-factor for more than 300 enzymes those are involved in the use of glucose and insulin secretion in the body.
•Buckwheat releases carbohydrate slowly, so that blood sugar levels don’t spike.
•It reduces the secretion of bile acids which contribute to gallstone formation.
•Buckwheat prevents breast cancer and heart disease because it is rich in lignans.
Delicious Buckwheat Recipe: Khuree

Here is a delicious and easy recipe buckwheat pancakes eaten with spinach and a spicy tomato chutney. This is very common dish eaten in Eastern India known as khuree.

Ingredients
For pancake:
1 cup buckwheat flour
Warm water - as required

For filling
1 pound spinach leaves
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

For chutney:
2 red tomatoes
1-2 fresh green chiles
Salt to taste.

Place the buckwheat flour in a large bowl and add warm water slowly, stirring constantly until you have a runny batter.

Heat a flat non-stick pan. Spread a little oil evenly in the pan.

Spread a large serving spoonful of batter on to the pan into a large round. Quickly spread the batter so that it does not accumulate in one place. In less than a minute the pancake will turn color. Turn it over.

In a separate pan, saute the chopped tomatoes and onions in a little oil. When these soften, add the chopped leaves. Season with salt. Cover and simmer until cooked. Cool before using as pancake filling.

For the chutney, simply grind all the ingredients together.

The khurees can be served hot with the tomato chutney and spinach. It can also be rolled up with the spinach filling with the chutney on the side.

Source-http://www.greendivamom.com/author/savneet/

Make This Weekend Sweeter with Coconut-Chocolate Balls

Make this Weekend Sweeter with Coconut- Chocolate balls
Two easy and sweet recipes which will make your weekend special.

You need
16 ounces or 2 packages of confectioner's sugar
14 ounces or or 1 cup can sweetened condensed milk
Half cut butter, softened
2 cups chopped pecans
Half block paraffin
2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Method
Line baking sheets with wax paper.
Take sugar, butter and milk together and beat. Add coconut and pecans in it. Mix well.
Shape this mixture into 1 inch ball. Place these balls on baking sheets and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Take a double boiler. Place chocolate morsels and paraffin on the top of the boiler over simmering water.
Take the balls you have refrigerated and insert one toothpick in each ball.
Dip these balls one by one into the molten chocolate.
Place them on the lined baking sheet and let them set.
Store in air tight containers and keep refrigerated.

The Chunky oat bars

These bars are the chunky, chewy and a little icky. But they are as nutritious as a bowl of granola. These are good for children as well as for adults. So go ahead.

You need
One and a half cup of old fashioned rolled oats
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Three-fourth cup chopped nuts. You can have almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, pecan etc
Half cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

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