Guilt Free Cookies

Most of you know that I am on Weight Watchers (WW).  There are a couple of reasons why I love Weight Watchers and the first is because it teaches us that loosing weight and maintaining a weight loss is a lifestyle change and NOT a diet.  The second reason that I love WW is because they encourage us not to deprive ourselves.  When we deprive ourselves, especially those who have struggled with weight issues, tend to go overboard and end up eating an entire bag of cookies.

In real life, there are cookies!  Lots of delicious, delicious cookies.  The trick is to say "yes" to the right kind of cookie because there is no cheating on WW.  WW is all about real life!  So, I present to you, two WW cookie recipes that I have baked, tested and tasted and give two thumbs up to:

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies 

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg WHITE
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Cream together butter, oil and brown sugar. Add vanilla, salt and egg white, and mix together thoroughly.

Mix together flour and baking soda. Add chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly.

Drop rounded half-teaspoons of dough onto a nonstick baking sheet. Bake cookies for 4 to 6 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. Yields 2 cookies per serving.  PointsPlus Value: 2.



Caramel Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Add remaining ingredients and beat thoroughly.

Scrape dough out of bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Roll dough into a log, about 2 1/2-inches wide; completely wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 20 minutes or up to overnight.

Cut dough into 1/8-inch-thick slices and arrange on several large ungreased cookies sheets about 1- to 1 1/2-inches apart. Bake until lightly browned around edges, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for about 1 minute and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Yields 1 cookie per serving.  PointsPlus value: 1.

Note:  Add some spice to these cookies by adding a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  It's super yummy and makes for a great Holiday cookie!

Perogi, Pierogy, Perogy, Pierógi or Pyrohy

However you spell it and whatever fillings you choose, I'm sure we can all agree that there is a common love amongst us for perogies!  They are a simple food yet delicate and some skill required to make them. 

I don't know too many people who could resist mashed potatoes mixed with bacon, onion and cheese that are wrapped inside of dough.  Then they are boiled and fried up with more onion and dipped in sour cream.  Commence drooling!  Let's not forget about blueberry dessert perogies either.  Yes, that is right!  Perogies are perfect for dinner, or any meal of the day in my opinion and they are also perfect for dessert too.

That is why four friends, one husband and one apprentice (a friend who stopped by after work to hang out and help a little bit) got together at my place a couple of Saturdays ago and made close to 450 of these delicious creations.   

I have nicknamed us "The New Generation of Baba's".  Barb is full Ukrainian, I'm half Ukrainian, Jessica is an Honorary Ukrainian by marriage (and perogy making skills) and Kristina is Croatian which is part of Eastern Europe.  I'm not sure what Jackie "the apprentices" background is but she is an Honorary Ukrainian for coming out and helping.  Darcy, my husband can be an Honorary Ukrainian too by marriage and for helping to make the day run smoothly.

The new generation of Babas

We each brought a different pre-made filling and since I was hosting, I supplied the ingredients for the dough.  The different fillings were: potato/bacon/onion, potato/cottage cheese, potato/marble cheese and blueberries.

We had not seen or had a perogie that was made with whole wheat flour before so we decided to give it a try. Remember, we are the new generation of Baba's! We used Barb's Moms' recipe and made one change to it, eliminating two cups of all-purpose flour and replacing it with two cups of whole wheat flour. We all agreed that it was the perfect amount and anything more or less would probably not have worked out as well.

We were hard at work from two o'clock in the afternoon until about 7:30 in the evening.  Making such a large batch of perogies is definitely an all day activity and should ideally be started in the late morning.  Due to every one's schedules, we had to start later but I think we all agreed that the next time we do this, we're going to try and start earlier.

I had a fantastic day with my friends and we all went home with enough perogies to stock our freezers with and to show off at Christmas dinners!  Making perogies with my friends feels like the start of a beautiful tradition that I would like to continue with.  I didn't hear any disagreeing from any of them so next year, we'll hopefully do this all again.

Here is the dough recipe that we used which makes about 150 perogies per batch.  The dough also freezes well.

16 cups flour (14 all-purpose and 2 whole wheat) 
1 tbsp salt 
2 eggs
1 cup oil
6 cups warm water

Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients, mixing and kneading well.  The dough will be quite sticky and will require lots of flour while rolling it out.  Roll dough out to 1/8" thickness. Cut circles out using biscuit cutters that are about 3" in diameter or a drinking glass or soup can works well too.

Filling:
For the amount of perogies we made, we each used 5 pounds of potatoes and mixed it with various fillings:

• Potato/cottage cheese: I simply mixed one large container of cottage cheese with the mashed potatoes.  You could also just use dry cottage cheese instead of adding potato to the filling.
• Potato/bacon/onion: Fry one package of chopped bacon with one large chopped onion together and mix with mashed potatoes
• Potato/marble cheese: Add 2 cups of shredded marble cheese to warm, mashed potatoes and mix to combine and melt.
• Blueberry: We added about 6 blueberries to each perogie and once boiled and ready to serve we will sprinkle icing sugar over top.

Place about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough, fold dough over to form a semi-circle and pinch closed using the heat of your fingers to seal the edges. 


We lined cardboard boxes with tea towels (lesson learned, do not use cheap tea towels from the dollar store as you'll be picking fibers off of frozen perogies).  We placed the perogies on the tea towels and since it was cold outside, we placed them outside to freeze.

After freezing the perogies overnight, I divided the perogies up by fillings and labeled the freezer bags.  I placed one dozen into each bag and placed them in the freezer where they await consumption.  Since having our Perogy Making Party, I've tried all of the different perogies and I'm very happy with them and they are so much better then store bought!

My Beginners Guide to Sushi

When I talk with people who have not tried sushi and really don't have much interest in wanting to, it's often because of the "unknown".  Sushi looks intimidating and uses ingredients in a much different way then what most people are used to.  With some people who have tried sushi but didn't enjoy it, it usually has to do with what they were presented with to eat.  More than likely it wasn't a slow introduction to sushi and instead there was all this "weird" stuff placed in front of them. 
I recall the first time I tried sushi:  I went to Wasabi on Osborne Street with a friend who was also trying sushi for the first time.  We had no idea what we were ordering and the server wasn't overly attentive.  I recall it being busy so that probably had something to do with it.  My friend ended up ordering rolls that had raw fish on top.     

It was hilarious watching her eat it, "oh my god this is so weird...gag...gag."  I was laughing so hard and told her not to eat it anymore because she was gagging.  She said it tasted good but the texture was too much for her.  I ate sushi occasionally again afterwards but it wasn't until I met Darcy that I started eating more and more of it.  Go figure, the guy wouldn't eat tofu but ate raw fish.... 

Here, I present to you, is my beginners guide for eating sushi.  Mastering the chopsticks will come later on!

Get yourself in the door.  Did you know that most sushi restaurants serve more then just sushi?  Often, there are noodle and rice dishes on the menu as well.  When I was pregnant and we went out for sushi, Darcy usually ordered a vegetarian roll with his dinner that I had a few pieces of.  In addition to those few pieces, I also ordered myself either a chicken or beef noodle or rice dish.  A common sauce that restaurants offer is teriyaki; a sauce that most of us are familiar with.   

Assorted tempura: onion, zucchini, red pepper,
shrimp,broccoli, mushroom and yam

Order an appetizer.  Tempura is an excellent choice to go with when first getting into the sushi scene.  Stick to the vegetables and shrimp, although; other items are offered such as unagi (eel).  Basically, the food is deep fried and served with a dipping sauce normally consisting of soy sauce, rice vinegar and white sugar.  If you are feeling a tad more adventurous, try gyoza.  It's basically like a pan fried perogie that has pork inside and is usually served with a ginger soy dipping sauce.         

Your first few rolls, the first few times.  When looking at the menu, look for vegetarian rolls and rolls that are made with chicken and beef.  There is nothing raw, except for some of the vegetables in these rolls.  Some common ingredients used in the vegetarian rolls are cucumbers, yams, avocado and mushrooms.  Keep an eye out for daikon which is a Japanese radish that I personally find has a strong, overpowering taste.

Calista's dinner: yam tempura, avocado roll, ginger beef roll and pickled ginger (she likes to eat it straight up.)  She's still learning how to use a fork but I couldn't resist the photo op with Winnie the Pooh chopsticks that her Uncle Jeffrey sent her from Japan. 

On to the next few rolls.  California roll is an excellent choice if you're wanting to try fish.  It's made with crab (cooked), avocado and tobiko which are fish eggs.  A California roll is pictured in the top right hand corner of the picture below.  Another popular roll that would be great to start with is Dynamite.  It's made with tempura shrimp (cooked), avocado, cucumber, mayo and tobiko.  Another great choice is the Philadelphia roll which is made with smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese.

Various sushi rolls that we ordered for dinner and brought home.  Pictured at the very bottom is Rainbow roll which is a California roll topped with salmon, tuna, squid, unagi, shrimp, and surf clam.

Slowly try new rolls and new menu items.  Get some friends together or convince your partner to have a sushi night out or in (take out is usually available).  Order the menu items that you are comfortable with and enjoy plus try one that you have never tried before.  Sushi is wonderful for sharing too!  Everyone can order a couple of rolls and eat it family style, placing it in the middle of the table and choosing what they want.  It's like a mini buffet!

I hope that for those of you who were nervous about sushi feel a little better now about experiencing it.  By far, it has become one of my favourite foods and to be quite frank, if I had to choose a last meal to eat, it would more than likely be sushi!  Liking sushi as much as I do certainly didn't happen over night.  Like many foods, it can be an acquired taste and that is why I encourage you to start off slow and as time goes on, try new menu items.  Before you know it, you'll be attempting to make sushi at home like I do (a future blog post to come). Here is a list of my top 5 favorite sushi restaurants in Winnipeg that I encourage you to check out:

My Top 5 Favorite Sushi Restaurants in Winnipeg
1) Blufish @ 179 Bannatyne Avenue
2) Utage @ 1599 Regent Avenue West
3) Tokyo Sushi @ 3140 Portage Avenue
4) Umi @ 1659 Kenaston Boulevard 
5) Kenko Sushi @ 788 Corydon Avenue   

What are some of your favorite rolls and favorite sushi restaurants?  Who is up for a sushi night out?!?   

The Four Year Journey Towards Tofu

Darcy and I are opposites in many ways including in the beginning of our relationship, the type of food that we ate.  I swear that he was thisclose to being a carnivore when we met.  Then along comes me who preaches that you really can make friends with salad.  The first meal that we cooked together was a tofu stir fry (my suggestion obviously).  I know that he only said that he liked it to impress me because as things became more serious between us, he started to take more of a stand towards not wanting to eat tofu.  As time went on, I started to eat more meat dishes and he eventually started to warm up towards meatless dishes.

After four years, guess who asked me to make a tofu stir fry again after eating it one evening for dinner and guess who suggested that we add it to our list of go-to dinner staples?  Yup, Darcy.

Tofu is one of those things that people are a little nervous about and won't try because it is "different."  I always get a kick out of people who say they don't like something even though they've never tried it or maybe they've only tried it once.  I can understand that maybe the first time wasn't a positive experience but I like to encourage people to have an open mind with food.  Try a particular ingredient at least 3 times, prepared 3 different ways before you completely write it off as something you don't like.

Tofu is also budget friendly at around $1.78 for enough to feed 3-4 people!  Meatless Mondays is looking even more appetizing now, isn't it... 

Here are two of my favorite tofu stir frys that I encourage you to try.  The Tofu Vegetable Stir fry is the one that we eat most often:

Tofu Vegetable Stir Fry

Ingredients

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tsp cornstarch

1 package extra-firm tofu

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp ginger

1 pinch hot pepper flakes

2 carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1 cup snow peas, cut diagonally in half

2 green onions, thiny sliced

2 tsp sesame oil

Preparation

In small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, cornstarch and 3 tbsp water; set aside.

Pat tofu dry; cut into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes. In large wok, heat half of the oil over medium-high heat; stir-fry tofu until golden, about 6 minutes. Transfer to plate.

Heat remaining oil in wok over medium-high heat; stir-fry garlic, ginger and hot pepper flakes for 30 seconds.

Add carrots and mushrooms; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add 1 tbsp water; cover and steam until carrots are tender, about 3 minutes.

Add snow peas, tofu and soy sauce mixture; bring to boil and boil, stirring, until thickened and vegetables are tender, about 1 minute. Stir in green onions and sesame oil.

Spicy Tofu with Red Bell Peppers and Peanuts

Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil

2 large red bell peppers, seeded, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger  

3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 14-to 16-ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained well, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 green onions, thinly sliced on diagonal

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 6-ounce bag baby spinach leaves

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts

Preparation

Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add bell peppers, ginger, and garlic; saute until peppers just begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add tofu and green onions; toss 2 minutes.

Add next 3 ingredients. Toss to blend, about 1 minute. Add spinach in 3 additions, tossing until beginning to wilt, about 1 minute for each addition. Mix in basil. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle peanuts over top.

The Official Turning Stones

For my first official post on Gemini Food Diaries, I've decided to write about the challenges and successes that have come with changing my eating habits and lifestyle.  For many years, I said that I wanted to loose weight and become healthier but the steps that I took to achieve those goals were very far and few between.  As an example, I've had multiple gym memberships over the years that went unused and even though I knew what was healthy in terms of food, my portion control was way off and I struggled with binge and emotional eating AKA chowing down on an entire bag of cookies. 

The first official turning stone with changing my lifestyle came for me when I was pregnant with my daughter, Calista.  During those 9 months, I ate a very well balanced diet and went to water aerobics 2-3 times a week plus I started walking more.  My gym membership was finally being put to good use!  My Obstetrician was very pleased that I had decided to start doing water aerobics and encouraged me to continue with it right up until I was almost due.  I had a very healthy pregnancy with no complications, I felt great towards the end of my pregnancy, had very little swelling and I was full of energy.  I owe it all to the lifestyle changes that I made.

After Calista was born, I put on some weight.  I often didn't make the best food choices when it came to what I ate but I made it a point to feed Calista nutritious food.  I know what is healthy and what is not and for various reasons, I didn't choose healthy foods for myself.  There were days where I grazed and did not actually eat a full meal at any point during the day and I also became less active. 

Calista was about 6 months old when winter hit.  I had recently got my drivers license and I was still not comfortable driving with her so we stayed inside for most of the winter unless Darcy, my husband was home and could drive us places.  A friend of mine picked Calista and I up to go to a baby play group, which I am very thankful for.

Across the street from me, there was a stroller fitness class being offered so I signed up for 6 weeks of that.  I remember attempting to go one week but the sidewalks had not been plowed and Calista's stroller nearly tipped over in the snow drift.  A sled would have been perfect to get there but the class was called 'stroller fitness' and not 'sled fitness'.  It was suggested to me a number of times that I put Calista in her carrier and walk the hallways and stairs in my apartment building but I think I only did that a few times.  As much as I thought about my health, I had other things on my mind.

That brings us to my second official turning stone, Calista's 1st Birthday.  When I saw pictures of myself, I couldn't help but feel disappointed in how I had allowed myself to gain the weight I had.  I've gone up and down on the scales a handful of times (not as many times as Oprah but enough to know that I know I have it in me to look and feel a certain way).  For most of my adulthood, I've had high self-esteem and high self-confidence and I learned to embrace and love my curves.

But the pictures of me taken at the end of June 2011 was an eye opener.  Regardless of how high my self-esteem was and how much I had learned to embrace my body for what it looked it, I needed to make changes for my health.  I needed to be a positive role model for Calista in all areas of life.  I needed to improve my health so that I could be around to see as many of her birthdays as possible.

I started going to the gym on a more regular basis and after a couple of months, I told Darcy that I was joining Weight Watchers and have been attending meetings on a weekly basis.  I started going to different classes offered at the gym so that I would not get bored and that I would continue to surround myself with people who are together for a common purpose. 

I still struggle some days with sticking to the Weight Watchers plan and trying to change my habits and I know that it will take a lot of work to change 28 years of bad habits.  One of the things I really like about WW is that it is a lifestyle and not a diet.  Once I reach my target weight, I will hopefully be able to continue living a healthy lifestyle because WW has taught me how to.      

A lot of the recipes and foods that I will write about will be healthy and some of them won't be.  Weight Watchers teaches us not to deprive ourselves because when we do deprive ourselves, we'll end up going overboard and feel really crappy about it.  My journey towards a healthy lifestyle consists of continuous learning and being aware of the changes that I need to make.  I love food and flavour and going forward, it's a matter of choosing the best foods to fuel my body 98% of the time because seriously, who doesn't love a cupcake every now and then! 

This is it!

Thank you for visiting my blog and for "following" it.  *Wink, wink!  This blog will be a work in progress from the layout and design of it to the content of what is published on it.  I love to write and I love food so this blog will be the perfect combination.

My goal is to post at least once a week, maybe more depending on the content.  My posts are going to be all about food, ranging from recipes to restaurant reviews to personal and funny stories involving food as well as tips and tricks that I pick up along the way.

Please feel free to leave comments below the posts, as that is one of the ways that I will grow as a writer and a food blogger.  This is it!