Lentils are an excellent source of protein, fiber and folate. Combined with tomatoes, which are a great source of vitamin C and lycopene, this soup makes a wonderful, low fat, nutritious lunch or first course for an evening meal.

Ingredients:

* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 1 garlic clove, crushed
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/2 tsp ground coriander
* 1 lb chopped tomatoes (15 ounce can is fine).
* 3/4 cup red lentils.
* 5 cups of vegetable broth or homemade chicken broth.
* pinch of salt and pepper
* 4 tbsp of low fat sour cream or plain cream. (optional).
* 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro.

Preparation:
Heat oil in a large pan or Dutch oven. Add chopped onion and garlic, and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in cumin, coriander, chopped tomatoes and lentils. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add vegetable or chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a medium heat and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes or until lentils are soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Pour into a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth. Return to pan and reheat gently. If you have an immersion blender, just blend away in the pot. We like it without blending.

Ladle soup into 4 bowls and garnish with a spoonful of sour cream, if using, and some fresh cilantro.

I serve it with toast. The kids and the husband like it, and I feel very smug, knowing they are having something healthy that took me so little time and effort!

The recipe is from About.com Low-fat cooking.

Unpaid chefs have to cook inedible things from time to time. Like play dough for the kids to fight over play with.
This recipe is great. It works beautifully and you don’t have that pan full of stuck-on dough to clean afterwards.

Your will need:

* 1/2 cup of salt
* 1 cup of flour
* 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar (Cream of Tartar is a natural powdered raising agent for use in scones, drop scones, soda bread and a wide range of other recipes)
* 1 tablespoon of oil
* I cup of boiling water (from the kettle) mixed with
some food colouring (OR a the contents of three blackcurrant dazzler fruit tea bags for lovely fruity rich purple)

What to do:

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix vigourously with the hot water.

Makes wonderful playdough which lasts for ages in little plastic sandwich bags.

Hat tip to Cathie in the UK.

These muffins are thrown together in the time it takes your oven to heat to the right temperature. I played with this recipe , adding some whole-wheat flour, cutting down on the sugar, and substituting sunflower oil for the melted butter or margarine.

I made them with my six-year-old’s class yesterday morning, and each child got to decorate a muffin (before they were baked) with sprinkles and mini chocolate chips. They loved them!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 3/4 cup wholemeal flour (wheat or spelt work very well)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup oats
- 1/3-1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup low-fat milk
- 1/3 cup sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
- chocolate chips or sprinkles to decorate.

Preheat oven to 200C-400F

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, oats, salt and baking powder.
In another bowl, beat eggs, add milk, oil and vanilla, and whisk until well combined.

Grease a 12 muffin tin or line with muffin papers.

Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture. Fold in nuts, if using.
Scoop the batter with a measuring cup into the muffin tins. If you have lined them with paper, be careful that the batter doesn’t spill out of the paper cup and into the muffin cup. It will stick.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until done.

This recipe is from my Grandma’s Presbyterian church cookbook. I used to know whose recipe it was. Hat tip to whichever lovely lady shared this recipe!
These turn out best if you use the combination of half butter, half shortening that the recipe calls for. We tried using margarine and butter, just butter, and just margarine. When we used lard and butter, the cookies turned out amazingly light, fluffy and crumbly. They literally melt on your tongue. Yes, that’s what lard does.

Ingredients:

1/4 C butter
1/4 C shortening
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 C flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 190 C/375 F
Cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat in well.
Mix dry ingredients except the tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a separate bowl, and add to the creamed mixture, mixing to form a stiff dough.
Mix reserved sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

With your hands, roll into 1 inch balls, roll balls in mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place on ungreased cookie sheet or oven tray, flatten slightly with two fingers, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets or tray, and transfer carefully, with a knife or spatula, to a rack to cool completely.

Very yummy…

This is a recipe from the Mennonite cookbook “More with less”. If you like peanut butter in your cookies, try it. It’s the recipe I used every year at Christmas, when my sisters and I would busy ourselves in the kitchen baking dozen after dozen of cookies, and scarfing down dough with a spoon some say even the dough tastes good . This recipe yields loads of cookies! (If you actually bake the dough, that is!)

Ingredients:

- 1C shortening (margarine, lard or butter)
- 1/4 C peanut butter
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 C flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 C rolled oats
- 1-2 C chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. I use two cups.
- 1 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 190 C/ 375 F
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light. Add peanut butter and blend well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add vanilla and stir.

In another bowl, combine flour, soda and salt, mixing well. Add to the creamed mixture and mix until well blended.

Add rolled oats and stir, making sure all oats are well moistened and mixed into the dough.

Add chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and fold in.

Using two teaspoons, form mounds and place on a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet or oven tray, about 2 inches apart from each other.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

When cookies are done, let them cool on the tray for a few minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with a mug of coffee or tea, or with a glass of milk. They are still my favorite cookies! ( with a few others…)

Halloween came and went. This time we carved a very large pumpkin. My six-year-old drew the smile on it and I carved it, after scraping out enough pumpkin for this delicious soup. If you have any fresh pumpkin left, try it. I served it last Saturday evening to a friend who was visiting for the weekend, and he requested more of it for breakfast!
I wouldn’t have it for breakfast, but it makes a wonderful lunch or supper.

Ingredients

- A knob of butter (about 2 T)
- 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 small potato, peeled and chopped
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- large pinch of cayenne (or hot paprika)
- large pinch of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 8-10 cups pumpkin, seeded, peeled and chopped
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- splash of milk

In a soup pot, melt butter slowly. Add onion, garlic, potato and carrot and cook until softened,4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add pumpkin, spices, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Pumpkin and other vegetables should be very soft.
Discard bay leaf

Puree in a blender in small batches, or if you own an inmersion blender, puree it straight in the pot.

Stir in maple syrup, brown sugar and milk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reheat if necessary before serving.

I served it with a dollop of sour cream the first time, and the second time with single cream. I like mine best without cream.

My first batch was amazing. The soup was creamy, spicy and satisfying, not heavy at all, and almost addictive!
My immersion blender stopped working properly after my four year old son used it to make peanut butter, so my second batch didn’t blend as nicely. The chunkier soup was still just as delicious.

The soup freezes very well.

Enjoy!

Credit where credit is due.
Do visit the blog. Her pictures are breathtaking!

In my last post, I told you about a not-so-satisfying low-fat pumpkin bread recipe I had just tried. I knew what was missing in that bread was some flavor and some oil. You need a little fat in a sweet quick bread!
All other recipes for pumpkin bread or muffins that I had found called for a good 1/2 cup of oil for a bread, if not more. Most of them called for well over a cup for each loaf. A lot of oil and a lot of sugar. I can halve it, and that’s what I did. And, of course, I added some salt and a few more spices.

Here’s my recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups roasted Hokaido pumpkin (or any other source of mashed pumpkin)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sunflower oil
3 eggs (or two eggs, and two egg whites)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
( I know, I spiced it within an inch of it’s life!)

Preheat oven to 200 C
Line two 9×5 inch loaf pans with parchment paper (for very easy removal of the breads)

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, applesauce, eggs, oil and sugar. Add spices and blend well. ( It tastes like pumpkin pie….)

In a smaller bowl, combine flours, soda and salt. Stir into the liquid mixture.

Pour batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans and place in the middle rack of the oven.
Bake on high for the first 45 minutes, then lower the temperature to around 180. If the tops start browning to quickly, cover losely with foil.
Mine took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to bake.

The smell of the bread is irresistible. I could barely wait until it cooled down enough to have a slice! Let’s see how well the breads ripen.

It’s pumpkin season and I love it.
I’ve been wanting to try pumpkin bread, but I also wanted it to be fairly low fat and sugar.
A search for “low fat pumpkin bread” on Google came up with many recipes, one of which called for applesauce and would make two loaves from two cups of pumpkin.
Hokaido pumpkins are very tasty and I didn’t want my bread to have a too overwhelming flavor.
Anyway, I made the bread. It took forever to bake through, and the result was not what I had expected. It’s too heavy, and doesn’t have enough flavor.
Next time I’ll add salt and replace the 2/3 cups of water with 1/2 cup oil. Still low fat, but hopefully more flavorful!

The bread made a yummy bread pudding….

Ingredients:
- 5 slices low-fat pumpkin bread
- 1 1/2 cups milk ( or half milk and half evaporated milk)
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- handfull of raisins
- butter to grease the dish.

Preheat oven to 200c
Grease baking dish and arrange bread slices in it. Sprinkle raisins over the bread.
Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Pour over the bread and raisins.
Bake in the oven until set, about 25 minutes.

It was delicious! Spicy, juicy, and very satisfying!

Did you know that sweet potatoes are lower on the glycaemic index than regular potatoes?
I found out while perusing Denise Austin’s diet and fitness site, where I got the original recipe for this satisfying soup. I made some variations to make it suit my family’s taste.

Ingredients:
- One large sweet potato
- one large onion
- 1 10 oz package of frozen corn
- two celery stalks
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salsa
- sour cream
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 small ripe avocado or 1/2 of a large one

Peel and chop onion. Wash and cut celery stalks. Peel and cut the potato in 1/2 inch cubes.
Heat the oil in a medium soup pot or dutch oven. Add the chopped onion and celery and saute on medium heat until soft.
Add salt, pepper, oregano and cumin.
Add sweet potato cubes and stir in the oil.
Add corn and stock, and let the soup cook, covered, for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Add 1/4 cup salsa and let the soup cook for another couple of minutes.
(I omitted this step, adding the salsa to the individual bowls)

While the soup cooks, cut the chicken breasts into small strips or bite sized pieces and fry in a small amount of olive oil until it’s browned and cooked through.

Peel, stone and cut the avocado in small cubes.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls, add a dollop of sour cream, extra salsa (if you like), some chicken breast pieces and some avocado.

I like to serve it like this because salsa, avocado and sour cream are optional ingredients. The chicken breast tastes nicer if it is fried on it’s own and added to the individual bowls rather than added to the soup in the pot.

The original recipe didn’t call for chicken or sour cream.

Yes, sweet scrambled eggs taste good!
I got the original recipe in an email from “fat-loss guru” Craig Ballantyne.
His version didn’t include milk or vanilla, and used extra virgin coconut oil. It was an improvisation, using the food he had in the house. I must say, the improvisation (with my tweaks) went down very well in my house.

You will need:

- 5 eggs
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 2 very large or 4 small apples
- 3-4 Tablespoons raisins
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar (if you are using sour apples)
- Dash of cinnamon (to taste)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Peel, core and chop apples.
Heat butter in a non-stick pan, add apples and fry in the butter for a few minutes.
Add raisins, sugar (if using) and cinnamon, stir, and let cook for 5 minutes or until apples are soft.
While apples are cooking, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla in a bowl.
Pour egg mixture over the apples, and scramble.

Serve hot, with toast, for a yummy breakfast or snack.
My children loved it and it was done in under 15 minutes!