Grilled Peaches & Cream

With the 4th of July right around the corner; I wanted to share this easy recipe with you.  It's quick, delicious, and virtually impossible to mess up (always an important factor when I'm cooking)!  Peaches are one of my favorite fruits; but for some reason I am absolutely awful at picking out a decent one.  No matter how hard I try to pick a sweet, ripe and juicy peach; almost every time I slice it open it's either rotten inside or not even close to being ripe.  This is why I made the switch to cooking them...so far I've had a 100% success rate!
In this recipe I used vanilla extract; because I didn't have any bourbon at my house.  If you want bourbon glazed peaches; omit the nutmeg, add in about 1-ounce shot of bourbon (or ~2 Tbsp) and cut the vanilla to half.

GRILLED PEACHES & CREAM

• 2 peaches; cut in half with the seed removed
• 1 pat of butter melted (~1 teaspoon)
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

*Serve peaches with a scoop of low-fat vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or vanilla frozen yogurt; and garnish with a sprinkling of dry rolled oats & sliced almonds.
Directions:
Preheat your grill to medium heat.  Slice & remove seeds from peaches; arrange over a piece of non-stick foil with the edges of the foil raised up (picture above).  In a tiny bowl or ramekin mix together melted butter, sugar, vanilla & nutmeg.  Rub sugar mixture over peaches & place on the lower rack of your grill to cook.  Close the grill lid (you don't need to cover the peaches) & cook for about 5 or 6 minutes over medium heat; flipping each slice over about halfway through.  Remove from the grill, place two peach halves on a plate, and reserve the juices leftover in the foil.  Serve with a scoop of low fat vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or frozen yogurt and drizzle the reserved juices over the top.  Garnish with sliced almonds, and/or dried rolled oats.  You can also toast & lightly brown the dried oats and almonds in a skillet before garnishing.
Enjoy!

Spicy Southwestern Pozole...plus a history lesson!

This is one of my favorite soups.  If you love spicy food & tex-mex, it will surely satisfy your needs!  The original recipe came from an old cooking light article, and after many variations over a couple years I've finally made my own version I love.
Hominy is dried maize (whole white corn) kernels that are treated with lime or an alkaline solution.  A nutritional side note... This process of preparing the dried maize, called nixtamalization, involves treating the grain with lime and ash.  This treatment is responsible for converting unabsorbable niacin found naturally in corn to the 'free-form' of niacin (vitamin B3); allowing it to be absorbed in the body.  Niacin is an important B-vitamin, and a deficiency can lead to the disease Pellagra.  Symptoms include dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia and eventually death if left untreated; but it's reversible with nutritional therapy if caught in time.  Although this disease is rarely seen these days thanks to the fortification of foods; it used to be a larger problem until about 50 years ago.

In the early 1900s, a doctor & epidemiologist named Joseph Goldberger traveled to the Southern US to investigate the cause of pellagra in poor populations; especially in prisons & institutions.  He concluded the disease was related to eating a diet deficient in niacin and tryptophan.  The diet commonly given to prisoners was named The Three M's; meat (fatback), meal (cornmeal), and molasses. Because the cornmeal wasn't treated, their diet was deficient in the absorbable form of niacin causing the deficiency disease.  Few believed his conclusion & still thought pellagra was an infectious disease.  To prove them wrong, Dr Goldberger injected himself with blood, urine, and other bodily fluids from the prisoners with pellagra; never contracting it.  Although his conclusion was eventually believed; it wasn't until a few years after Goldberger's death that the link between niacin was found to be the official cause of the disease.  And now for some history on the actual dish..

After researching the origination of pozole, I learned something much more interesting than I bargained for.  Pozole is a traditional Mexican stew; originally served on special occasions.  It's main ingredients consist of hominy and a meat, usually pork and chicken or beef.  Ancient Mexicans believed the gods made humans out of masa (cornmeal dough); and since corn was a sacred plant for the Aztecs, it was only made for special occasions.  It is also said the Aztecs and other Mesoamericans would use human meat in the pozole. When prisoners were killed in ritual sacrifice, their bodies were chopped and cooked with corn as a sacrifice for the gods.  The pozole was shared around town as an act of religious communion.  After the Spanish colonization, cannibalism was banned and pork became the staple meat for pozole.  The dish was adapted by many other countries; but the main ingredients of hominy and meat are present in each one.
If you haven't completely lost your appetite yet; here's my version...

I first made this with only a couple vegetables; slowly trying new ones with each new batch. For less heat, I suggest omitting the habanero pepper.  Even though the ingredient list is long, most are things normally found in the kitchen; making it a pretty easy and cheap recipe.  This makes a big batch & I usually get a dinner for two plus & a few lunches for the week out of it.  Also, if you feel like experimenting and making it a truly gourmet soup; add in fresh roasted tomatillos (green tomatoes) or roasted hot peppers.  That'll really kick it up a notch!

Spicy Southwestern Pozole

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves; minced
• 1 yellow onion; chopped
• 1 cup celery; 1/2" dice (~2-3 stalks)
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & chopped*
• 1 habanero pepper; seeded & chopped*
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground chili powder
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp each; salt & pepper
• 1 whole bay leaf
• 1 large zucchini; quartered lengthwise & diced into large chunks
• 1 large yellow squash, quartered lengthwise & diced into large chunks
• 1 (14.5) oz can no salt added diced tomatoes; do not drain
• 1 (7 oz.) can salsa verde (green salsa)
• 1 (32 oz) container of low sodium/low fat chicken broth
• 1 (15 oz) can white hominy; drained & rinsed well**
• 1 rotisserie chicken meat; skin removed and meat shredded
• juice of one medium-large lime
• 1 cup fresh cilantro; coarsely chopped

~Garnish with:  sliced avocado, queso fresco (fresh mexican white crumbling cheese), a lime wedge & fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

Heat oil in large saucepan or dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add garlic, saute for 1-minute until it turns light golden.  Stir often & take caution not to burn the garlic.  Add to the pan onion, celery, and oregano through the bay leaf; continue cooking on med-high, stirring occcasionally until the onion & celery begin to soften (~4 min).  Stir in zucchini & yellow squash & saute for another couple minutes until the squash softens slightly.  Next, add in the canned diced tomatoes, salsa verde, chicken broth & hominy.  While uncovered, bring soup to a boil for a couple minutes then turn the heat down to low-simmer.  Stir in the shredded chicken and lime juice; cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes on low heat.  Right before you take the soup off the heat, stir in the 1-cup cilantro leaves.  This is added last, because cilantro's flavor and color cook out very easily.  Remove the bay leave before serving.  

When you are ready to serve; garnish each bowl with slices of avocado, crumbled queso fresco, a lime wedge & a few cilantro sprigs.

*Note for hot peppers:  If you dont like the heat but want flavor; choose a milder pepper like Anaheim or Cherry Peppers; and select jalapeno peppers with the least amount of wrinkles on the skin.  The more wrinkles, the hotter the pepper.  To protect your fingers from burning, run the peppers under hot water when seeding & wear tight gloves when chopping the peppers.  It makes a Big difference!

**Hominy can be found in the Latin-American section of the grocery store.  If you cannot find it there, check your local ethnic store.

Chocolate Hazelnut-Almond Butter

If you are a fan of Nutella, you will surely enjoy this recipe!  After many attempts of recreating it, I finally ended up with a recipe I can share with you.  It’s not as smooth as Nutella, but just as enjoyable.  My favorite benefit of this recipe…it has less sugar!  Also, the blend of almonds and hazelnuts in it gives this recipe a wider variety of healthy fats. If you don't have one, I would highly recommend investing in a food processor; it has been one of my best friends in the kitchen.  I use it all the time to make my own almond butter among many other things.  Purchasing nuts in bulk is a great money saving tip if you make your own nut butters like this one.

For this recipe, if you prefer the taste of dark chocolate as opposed to milk chocolate, I would still recommend using half milk & half dark chocolate.  When I tried it with all dark chocolate, the product got too hard at room temperature and was not very spreadable compared to a recipe using part milk chocolate. 

This chocolate spread goes great over a piece of toast, strawberries or any other favorite fruit!  Be careful…it’s easy to eat an entire jar of this if you don’t have very good self-control around chocolate; which I know from experience :)   Enjoy!

Chocolate Hazelnut-Almond Spread:
Ingredients:

• 3 cups dry roasted, unsalted hazelnuts
• 2 cups dry roasted, unsalted almonds
• 2 cups premium* milk chocolate chips (you may substitute 1 cup of dark chocolate if preferred)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

*I recommend using a higher-end brand chocolate, like Ghirardelli.  Once I made it with a generic brand chocolate chips and noticed a difference in the taste.

Directions:

For this recipe, you will need a double boiler, food processor, and jars/containers to store the spread in. 
To make the nut butter: Place almonds into a food processor and process until they are smooth and begin to resemble a butter-like texture (look at photos above).  This may take 1-3 minutes, depending on your processor.  Occasionally you may want to scrape & push down the nuts along the sides of the processor.  When the almonds have been processed to a butter-like texture, add the hazelnuts & continue to process until you have a smooth, butter like texture (~1 minute).  The reason you add the hazelnuts in after the almonds is because almonds take longer to process into butter than the hazelnuts do. [Note: hazelnuts are naturally higher in fat/oil than almonds, which is why they turn into 'butter' so quickly.  Also, when I attempted this recipe with only hazelnuts it was too runny; which is why I recommend using a blend of the two nuts.]  While the nut butter is processing, you can start melting the chocolate. 

To melt chocolate: Fill the bottom of double boiler & place on medium-low heat.  Place chocolate chips in to the top pan of a double boiler over the hot water to melt the chocolate.  Make sure to continually stir the chips once they begin to melt (they will look shiny) to ensure even melting.  When the chocolate is fully melted, add it to the food processor with the vanilla extract and process until the mixture is evenly blended.  Remove the chocolate nut butter & pour into clean, dry jars or containers.  

You may can this into jars using a sterile canning procedure if you’d like; but if you plan on eating it in the next couple weeks I would recommend pouring it into a clean, airtight jar or Tupperware container.  This can be stored at room temperature for a couple weeks; or refrigerated if you prefer. Take note that it will harden if it's refrigerated.  This recipe yields about 4 cups of nut butter.

The Scoop on High-Intensity Interval Training

So I have to admit that about one week ago I started an intense 60-day workout called Insanity.  Recently I've felt as though I have been plateauing in my workouts and wanted to try something new.  I have to admit that the changes in my body are a little bit freaky for just one week of an exercise program.  My muscles feel more flexible, abs are visibly tighter, and my arm muscles and thighs are slimming and toning up faster than I've ever seen!  What's strange is that the workouts aren't that long & it seems like half the time is devoted to warm-ups and stretching.  Since I've seen such a difference, I had to do a little research on the science behind it.  Why is this new style of exercise so popular & what makes it different than other more traditional forms of exercise?  After reviewing a few journal articles & seeing what the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) said about it, I can honestly say that I would recommend this style of exercise.
**Of course, if you are starting a new exercise routine for the first time always consult with your physician to make sure you're in good health. :)

What is HIIT?  It's a type of exercise with alternating bursts of short, intense anaerobic (sprinting) exercise where you get close to your maximum heart rate; coupled with low-intensity recovery periods.  Your heart rate is the number of beats per minute; you can figure it out by subtracting your age from 220.  A typical HIIT workout would involve a warm up, then a routine that alternates between 1 minute of a sprint (roughly 90% to 100% of the maximum heart rate), then one minute of a low to moderate intensity recovery.  There are usually 6-10 bursts of sprints (depending on how hard you push yourself & heart), making the total workout  lasting only about 20 minutes.

What are the researched benefits?  Most studies I found were tested using a stationary bicycle, mainly because that is one of the easiest ways to measure how fast/hard a person is working.  The results showed  positive results in many aspects.  Besides being a shorter form of exercise, there is this thing called an "after-burn" that happens on a metabolic level.  During HIIT, muscles are pushed harder & after an intense workout they need to be repaired. It takes more energy to repair/rebuild muscle tissue, therefore burning more calories.  Studies also showed an increase in resting metabolic rate (RMR) related to the afterburn for 24 hours after a workout.  This increase in RMR is higher than what would normally be seen with longer aerobic exercise.  HIIT was also shown to benefit endurance and heart health.  Since the heart is pushed harder during sprinting (anaerobic) sessions than it would be during regular aerobic sessions; it helps make the heart muscle stronger.  A stronger heart helps the body go farther than it would normally, thus increasing endurance.  Personally, I noticed that it was easier for me to run a couple days ago and I didn't get quite as winded while trekking up the steep hills around my neighborhood.  I guess it makes a little more sense to me when I think of how HIIT is strengthening my heart.  This form of exercise has also been shown to burn fat more effectively than traditional aerobic workouts; which could be contributed to the after-burn effect mentioned earlier.  A few other studies showed improvements in insulin sensitivity in healthy overweight people.  Because the stress of the workouts are a bit more demanding on the heart, there have not been many studies on severely obese populations with more complicated metabolic conditions.  Right now, scientists are modifying the HIIT routine to hopefully be able to adapt & translate it to that population.

So what do I think about it?  For those of us who are pressed for time (well, that would probably all of us) I would recommend incorporating this type of workout to your routine.  Am I going to do only this?  No way.  I consider running to be my personal therapy and hope to continue it as long as my limbs allow me to... But I do love the workouts as well as the cardiovascular and metabolic benefits of HIIT.  I am a firm believer that it is important to balance cardiovascular training, muscle strengthening, and flexibility into workout routines.

If you want more information on this type of exercise or any others, check out the ACSM website.  It will take you to helpful articles and research on exercise.