Happy New Year!

May 2010 be the best year ever for you and your family!

January 1, 2010 Posted in: General Comments Closed

Christmas Breakfast

Abracadabra Danish, Magically Quick!

Serving Size: 8 Preparation Time: 15 minutes

8 reduced fat crescent rolls — (1 refrigerated pkg.)
1/3 cup raspberry jam — or favorite flavor
powdered sugar — for sprinkling Preheat oven to 375 degrees (350 convection) Toaster Oven not recommended.

Unroll dough and separate into 8 triangles. Spoon approximately 2 teaspoons of jam or preserves on the wide end of the triangle about 1/2 inch from the end. roll up and squeeze ends lightly. Place on an UNGREASED baking sheet – preferable nonstick. Bake about 10 – 11 minutes (8- 9 minutes convection). Remove from baking sheet and dust with powdered sugar.

Note: Do not microwave. To reheat, wrap loosely in foil and place in a preheated 325-350 oven for about 8-10 minutes. Redust with sugar if necessary.

Per Serving 122 Calories; 5g Fat 21g Carbohydrate; 225mg Sodium.

Make Ahead Crustless Quiche

Serving Size: 6 Preparation Time: minutes

3        cups frozen Country Style hash brown potatoes — thawed
1/4    cup chopped green onions
1/4    cup bacon bits — real, not artificial
1       cup reduced fat cheddar cheese — grated
1 1/4 cups egg substitute, liquid — or 5 LG eggs,beaten
1/2    cup 2% low-fat milk
1       tablespoon dry sherry
1/4    teaspoon chipotle sauce — optional
pan spray
6 Cup Jumbo Muffin Tin* Or 9" pie plate

Optional Topping:
2 Tablespoons Fat Free Sour Cream — or prepared alfredo sauce
1/4 Cup Crushed Wheat Crackers — such as triscuits, or use crushed croutons

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 convection).

Put the potatoes, green onions, bacon bits and cheese in a large mixing bowl. Mix the egg substitute (or 5 large beaten eggs with the milk, sherry and chipotle sauce (if used). Pour into the bowl with the potatoes. Stir to mix well. Spray pie tin, jumbo muffin tin orr 6 individual tart pans with pan spray. Evenly fill the cups or the pie plate with the quiche mixture. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes (22 minutes convection) or just until a tooth pick or piece of spaghetti inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over cook.

Immediately set on a rack. If baked in tart pans or muffin tins, run a knife around the quiches, pushing in at the bottom to loosen. Cool for 5-10 minutes. Turn out onto waxed paper and cool completely. When cool,wrap each quiche with plastic wrap. Set on baking sheet and freeze.

If baked in the pie plate, cool on rack, cut into slices and wrap individually. Freeze. When ready to serve, unwrap, place on plate and loosely cover with was paper or plastic wrap. Cook on defrost until hot.

About 2-3 minutes per mini quiche or slice of quiche. If desired, quickly spread with a small amount of fat-free sour cream, or prepared alfredo sauce (1 teaspoon per serving) and sprinkle with crushed croutons or crackers and serve.

Hint – take a package of Alfredo sauce mix, and prepare it with skim milk and no transfat buttery spread – can be made ahead and reheated on 70% power in the microwave .Per Serving 114 Calories; 5g Fat 3g Carbohydrate; 365mg Sodium. .

Gingered Pineapple

Serving Size: 6 Preparation Time: 5 minutes

2 1/2 Cups Canned Pineapple — 1 lb. 4 oz can chunks
1        Cup Fat Free Sour Cream — (or regular)
1        Tablespoon Honey
1        Tablespoon Candied Ginger Root — chopped
1        Cup Seedless Grapes — red, green or combination, washed well

Drain pineapple and reserve syrup or juice. Refrigerate pineapple, covered. Mix the sour dream with the honey, chopped ginger and enough pineapple liquid to make the sauce pourable. Mix well and refrigerate. When ready to serve, spoon the pineapple and grapes into serving dishes; stir sauce and drizzle over fruit. Sauce can be prepared a day or two ahead of time. Serve as a holiday side dish; or as a light dessert anytime.

Per Serving 93 Calories; trace Fat 21g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber 50mg Sodium.

December 18, 2009 Posted in: Fruits, Pastry, Quiche Comments Closed

Julia Lite

We hosted a dinner party recently, and one of the guests said to me "Jude, you are Julia – low fat"!

I was delighted with the reference. But, I could see the connection. With my Cordon Bleu background and the turn toward healthy (but good!) about 10 years ago, I have created many recipes based upon those classic "French Chef" days.

I Think Julia would be pleased.

December 18, 2009 Posted in: Beef Comments Closed

Converting your vices to cold, hard cash

Gorgonzola Potato Pizza & Nutty Curried Tuna Salad

A long, long time ago, when the earth was still cooling and I was a fledging ingénue, I went into a store to buy a pack of cigarettes. Yes, I did smoke then – because it was “way cool”.

I reached for a pack, and to my horror noticed that the price had gone up about 25%. That did it for me. I calculated in a nanosecond how much I could save by not smoking and when I realized how many pairs of shoes I could buy with the money I would save…I’ve never smoked since!

By no longer smoking I accumulated about 42 pairs of really adorable shoes and, of course, improved my health. That simple but effective way I stopped smoking could be applied to other things, like diet and nutrition.

If you want to cut back on fattening foods or limit your beer intake, total up the cost and figure out how much you can save by, if not giving them up entirely, cutting back a little. Then, determine out how much of your favorite stuff you can buy with the money you save – it may surprise you!

Let’s say you go out for a fast food lunch 3 times a week, and it costs $5 per visit. Limit the visit to once a week, eat some leftovers. You can exercise both your brain, and body by calculating what to eat instead; and then making it with food in the fridge. Now you’ve saved $10 per week. That’s over $500 a year – that buys a lot of shoes!

Or, let’s say you like to sit down at night after work and consume a couple of brewskies while you watch TV. Open just one can and, instead of gulping, savor each sip. This will save you at least $1.25 per can. That’s $456 a year – think how many tools that would buy!

Here are two easy recipes for really, really cheap, but healthy and good tasting lunches. Now, get out there and go shopping!

Show me the recipes! »

October 24, 2009 Posted in: Cheese, Fish, Gorgonzola, Nuts, Pizzas & Calzones, Tuna, Vegetables Comments Closed

Food by Jude on your iPhone!

I’ve installed the WPtouch iPhone Theme (well, my tech gurus did it!) so now it’s easy to view Food by Jude on your iPhone or iPod Touch! Just open up Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch and go to http://foodbyjude.com and voila!

My categories are actually a recipe index so just choose the category you want and you will get a list of all my posts that contain recipes in that category.

(click the images for a full-size view)