Category Archives: Recipes

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts Chicken Salad

Posted on September 4, 2018 | Comments Off on Recipe: Brussels Sprouts Chicken Salad

…with 4 oz sous vide chicken breast

Ingredients:

10 0z Brussels sprouts, raw, shredded

1/3 cup sweet onion, diced

1/4 cup (1.5 oz)  almond slivers or slices, toasted

2 and 1/4 Tbsp bacon bits (or 2 slices of bacon, fried, diced)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Salt and pepper to taste

8 oz cooked chicken breast (boneless, skinless), sliced

For the vinaigrette

4.5 Tbsp EVOO

1.5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1.5 tsp sugar

Instructions:

Toast the almonds in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant and slightly browned. this only takes a few minutes.Remove from heat and set aside.

Brussels sprouts: Slice off a small portion of the base or stalk and discard that along with any nasty leaves. I then like to rinse or briefly soak the sprouts in cold water to remove dust and unwanted particles. Then shred the sprouts with a knife, food processor, or mandolin. I used a knife. After this most of the work is done.

In a large bowl, dump the sprouts onion, almonds, bacon bits, and cranberries.

Combine the EVOO, vinegar, and sugar in bowl and whisk thoroughly, or put then in a jar and shake well. Pour over the sprouts and mix well.  Salt  and pepper to taste (may not need any). This is four cups of salad.

Servings size: 2 cups salad plus 4 oz chicken breast

Number of servings: 2

Rough nutrient analysis of one serving (Fitday.com):

775 calories

Carb calories 17%

Fat calories 60%

Protein calories 23%

Protein grams: 43

9 g fiber

Digestible carbs 25 g

Alternatives:

Substitute 4 oz of steak for the chicken. Mix 1.5 oz of parmesan cheese into the salad. Substitute dried cherries or raisins for the cranberries ounce for ounce. Substitute toasted crumbled walnuts for the almonds. Experiment with other vinegars.

 

 

 

 

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Remembering Oleo

Posted on June 14, 2018 | Comments Off on Remembering Oleo

Front cover of the cookbook. The “artist” was not given credit.

I ran across a 1973 cookbook put together by my senior year high school classmates, probably as a fundraiser. My mother had saved it for decades but unloaded it on me when she downsized her lifestyle a few years ago.

Food was different back then!

More often than not, recipes calling for vegetables specified frozen veggies like brocolli and cauliflower. Rice was popular, as it still is.

In the Salads category, four of the six recipes included gelatin or Jello. Those four also included whipped cream or whipped milnot. Many of you can’t imagine what I’m talking about. You had to be there. These “salads” were molded gelatin things, usually with added canned fruit. Nothing like what we call salad today in the U.S.

A modern gourmet salad

Casseroles were popular. Remember Green Bean Casserole? “Casserole” was also used to describe the type of pan required.

Karo syrup and Velveeta cheese got a few mentions.

Many of the pie and cakes required oleo or shortening, often with butter in the same recipe. I saw only two reference to liquid vegetable oil (Wesson). I bet Crisco was the leading shortening back then.

Cookies and sweets typically needed butter, margarine, oleo, or shortening. (If you clicked the earlier oleo link, you learned that oleo and margarine are usually the same thing.) We weren’t afraid of butter back then. Butter was probably more expensive than the other fats.

One sweet treat that definitely takes me back to my childhood, and I’ver rarely seen it since then, is…

Chocolate No-Bake Cookies (aka Boiled Cookies)

Ingredients:

  1. 2 cups sugar
  2. 1/2 cup milk
  3. 1/2 cup butter (one stick) (or margarine back in the day)
  4. 1/4 cup (or 4 Tbsp?) cocoa
  5. 1/2 cup peanut butter
  6. 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
  7. 1 tsp vanilla
  8. 2.5 or 3 cups of quick cook oatmeal (aka minute oats)
  9. Optional: 1/2 cup grated coconut or nuts

Mix the sugar, cocoa and salt in a one and half saucepan. Add butter and milk then bring to a boil. Boil for 60-90 seconds, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon (or similar). Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients; if you use the grated coconut or nuts, reduce the oatmeal from three to 2.3 cups. Mix for about a minute. Drop by the spoonful onto wax paper covering a baking sheet. Chill until firm. Yield is 36 cookies. (Thank you Debbie Drake, class of “73! I slightly modified her Rx based on another I’ve had on my desk for seven years.)

Artillery Punch

The funniest thing about this trip down the memory hole was the recipe I submitted for Artillery Punch. Remember, we were 17 or 18 years old, but there must have been faculty supervising the cookbook committee. A few teachers contributed their own recipes. Mine was the only one of 50 or 60 recipes that included any alcohol. The legal drinking age back then was 18. A recipe like Artillery Punch would never fly in today’s PC world! I don’t remember, but I probably got the recipe from my parents. Did I submit it just for laughs or shock value? Who knows? One of the other kids submitted a recipe for Barbecued Bear, which I think was a joke (fess up, Kip Martin). The Dove Casserole recipe was fer reel.

What the kids these days call Jungle Juice

One classmate provided a recipe for Jew Chicken. Whaaaa….?

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: It was fun to run across old buddies’ names, like Charles Enos, Howard Sheets, and Jeff Johnson.

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Recipe: Rosemary Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Onion

Posted on July 4, 2017 | Comments Off on Recipe: Rosemary Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Onion
Final product without Parmesan sprinkles. That's sous vide chicken in the foreground.

Final product without Parmesan sprinkles. That’s sous vide chicken in the foreground.

At my request, my wife bought me a mess o’ Brussels sprouts, and I’ve been experimenting with recipes.

Sprouts sliced in half

Sprouts sliced in half

Ingredients this time are the sprouts, dried rosemary (i.e., not fresh although it grows where I live), salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, and diced onion.

FYI, rosemary is used as an ornamental landscaping plant in southern Arizona.

To promote release of flavor, I sautéed three garlic cloves and the rosemary in EVOO.

Releasing the flavors of garlic and rosemary over medium heat for perhaps 3 minutes

Releasing the flavors of garlic and rosemary over medium heat for perhaps 3 minutes

Then I sliced the sprouts in half along their long axis, to reduce cooking time. (Cut them so the leaves stay attached to the internal stalk.) You’d have to cut them in half before you eat ’em anyway.

I dumped all ingredients into a bowel and mixed thoroughly to ensure the sprouts were coated with oil.

Ready for the oven

Ready for the oven. I used about 3/4 cup of diced onion.

Everything except the bowl was transferred to a cooking sheet covered with aluminum foil (easy clean-up!), which I then popped into an oven pre-heated to 425°F. I cooked for 25 minutes. At around the 10 and 17-minute marks, I pulled the concoction out of the oven and stirred/flipped the ingredients to promote even cooking and browning. Your cooking time will vary from 17 to 25 minutes depending on your preferences. If you want some browning of the sprouts, you likely need to cook longer than 17 minutes. Unless your oven runs hotter than mine.

This is my favorite roasted Brussels sprouts recipe thus far. For an extra flavor zing, sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese just before eating. In the future, I may  top the ingredients with some other type of cheese a minute before the cooking is completed. Bacon bits are another tasty option.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Not "real" Parmesan from Italy. For example, this one contains cellulose "to prevent caking."

Not “real” Parmesan from the Parma region of Italy. For example, this one contains cellulose “to prevent caking.”

 

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Roasted Radishes and Brussels Sprouts

Posted on June 17, 2017 | Comments Off on Roasted Radishes and Brussels Sprouts
Roasted Radishes and Brussels Sprouts. Copyright Steve Parker MD

Roasted Radishes and Brussels Sprouts

A year ago I ran across online praise for roasted radishes. I’m not a big fan of radishes, perhaps because they weren’t part of Parker cuisine when I was growing up, but finally gave them a try.

Beautiful, huh?

Beautiful, huh?

This won’t be as detailed as most of my recipes because I ran out of time.

Raw Brussels Sprouts

Raw Brussels Sprouts

My basic ingredients were raw radishes and Brussels sprouts, diced onions, a bit of parsley (probably not needed), extra virgin olive oil, dried rosemary (i.e., not fresh), coarse salt, and pepper.

With the radishes, I cut off the little rootlet and green top, then cut them in half unless they were tiny radishes. Brussel sprouts take longer to cook, so I cut them in half, too. I put all the veggies  into a bowl, added just enough olive oil to coat them, sprinkled in some salt and pepper, then mixed with a spoon. Then I spread all that on a cooking sheet and popped it into an oven pre-heated to 425°F. (I covered my cooking sheet with aluminum foil to ease cleanup.)

All ingredients mixed in a bowl

All ingredients mixed in a bowl

I cooked in the oven for 17 minutes (15-20), using a turner to flip the veggies once or twice while cooking.

Ready for roasting

Ready for roasting

They were a little bland, so I topped off with Weber Roasted Garlic and Herb Seasoning. I enjoyed them and will do it again. Next time I may try coating with melted butter rather than olive oil. I felt very virtuous for eating my vegetables.

Steve Parker, M.D. 

PS: I ate half of this in one sitting. I refrigerated the rest and ate it about six hours later. It was much more flavorful. If you’re one of those people who never eats leftovers…

…reconsider.

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Recipe: Sous Vide Chicken with Sautéed Sugar Snap Peas

Posted on March 28, 2017 | Comments Off on Recipe: Sous Vide Chicken with Sautéed Sugar Snap Peas

Sous vide chicken and sautéed sugar snap peas

Click the pic for our YouTube demonstration.

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 8-9 oz each (225-255 g each) (raw weight)

2.5 tbsp (37 ml) extra virgin olive oil

few sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)

2 cloves garlic, diced

lemon-pepper seasoning

Montreal Steak Seasoning to taste

garlic salt to taste

Morton sea salt (coarse)

black pepper to taste

9 oz (255 g) fresh sugar snap peas

Instructions:

Choose one of two seasonings: 1) Montreal Steak or 2)  Rosemary lemon-pepper.

Brush one side of the breasts with about 1/2 tbsp olive oil. For Rosemary-style chicken, sprinkle the breasts with lemon-pepper seasoning, sea salt, and pepper to taste. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.

For Montreal-style, that seasoning is all you need; it already contains salt and pepper. Rosemary sprigs are optional.

Then cook the breasts in a sous vide device (see video) at 142°F for two hours.

When that’s done, my wife likes to sear the breasts in a frying pan (with a little olive oil) over medium-high heat, 1–2 minutes on each side. The chicken is fully cooked after two hours in the sous vide device, but the searing may enhance the flavor and appearance. It’s optional.

When the chicken is close to being done, sauté the garlic in two oz of olive oil over medium high heat for a minute or two, then add the sugar snap peas and a little garlic salt and pepper to taste, and cook for two to four minutes, stirring frequently.

Number of servings: 2

AMD boxes: 1 veggie, 2 fat, 1 protein

Nutritional analysis per serving:

Calories: 500

Calorie breakdown: 42% fat, 8% carbohydrate, 50% protein

Carb grams: 10

Fiber grams: 4

Digestible carb grams: 6

Prominent nutrients: protein, B6, iron, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, selenium

 

 

 

 

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Is It Time You Got a Pressure Cooker?

Posted on December 22, 2016 | Comments Off on Is It Time You Got a Pressure Cooker?
Vegetarian Fried Rice with bits of cabbage, carrot, celery, and (?) cilantro.

Vegetarian Fried Rice with bits of cabbage, carrot, celery, and (?) cilantro.

Judging from the bloggers I follow, pressure cookers started making a comeback within the last couple years. I remember my mother decades ago occasionally using one, for what, I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about a pressure cooker myself recently as I learn more about Indian cooking.

As you may know, many Indians are vegetarians. The eat lots of legumes, as do non-veg Indians, as an important source of protein. If you cook dried beans, it normally takes hours unless you get them from a can, pre-cooked. A pressure cooker reduces cooking time to 40 minutes.

Dr. Travis Saunders recently wrote about his pressure cooker, which was inspired by Dr. Stephan Guyenet. Travis wrote:

For those who are unfamiliar with pressure cookers, they’re a bit like slow cookers. The difference is that they seal in pressure (this is why the old fashioned ones sometimes exploded when left unattended), so they can cook food much faster than a regular stove or slow cooker. So things that would normally cook all day, can be cooked in under an hour.

Travis uses his to make yogurt and soup. It also cooks rice. 

I’m gonna get one.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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DietDoctor’s Low-Carb Recipes: Now Much More User-Friendly

Posted on October 21, 2016 | Comments Off on DietDoctor’s Low-Carb Recipes: Now Much More User-Friendly
That's a guacamole deviled egg

That’s a guacamole deviled egg

They’ve always been good recipes—including the all-important nutrient analysis—but they’re even better now.

From DietDoctor:

“Our low-carb recipe site is probably already the most popular one in the world, with over 100,000 daily pageviews, several hundred recipes and gorgeous images. Now we’re adding even more great functions.You can now change the number of servings for recipes – the ingredient amount will correspond to the number of servings – and you can now also choose between the US or the metric measurement systems for ingredients. All to make it simpler to use our recipes.

We’ve also added a function for members so that it is now possible to save your personal favorite recipes. To activate the latter feature you need to be logged in, so that your selections can be saved for later.”

Source: The World’s Best Low-Carb Recipes Just Got Better – Diet Doctor

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I Finally Tried Quinoa

Posted on August 17, 2016 | Comments Off on I Finally Tried Quinoa
Not my cup o' tea

Not my cup o’ tea

Quinoa has been trendy for several years. Proponents tout its relatively high protein and fiber content. My daughter wanted to try it, so we cooked some together. She chose Giada De Laurentiis’ Herbed Quinoa recipe.

It was just OK. I doubt quinoa will ever be in my top 20 favorite recipes. If I run across it in a restaurant, I’ll try it one more time.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Even if you don’t know how to pronounce quinoa, you’ll have no trouble with 99.9% of the words in my books.

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Recipe: Bacon Bit Brussels Sprouts

Posted on August 26, 2015 | Comments Off on Recipe: Bacon Bit Brussels Sprouts
Bacon Bit Brussels Sprouts

Bacon Bit Brussels Sprouts

You can incorporate this meal into the Advanced Mediterranean Diet, Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet, or Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet since I provide the nutritional analysis below.

A while back I posted a meal recipe for Bacon Brussels Sprouts to accompany Brian Burgers. To make it a little more convenient, I’ve substituted off-the-shelf real bacon bits instead of frying my own bacon. I traded olive oil for the bacon grease. The two versions taste very similar.

diabetic diet, paleobetic diet, low-carb diet

It took 10 minutes of chopping to shred the sprouts

Ingredients:

1 lb (454 g) Brussels sprouts, raw, shredded (slice off and discard the bases first)

4 tbsp (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil

5 tbsp (75 ml or 35 g real bacon bits or crumbles (e.g., by Hormel or Oscar Mayer)

2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)

1/8 (0.6 ml) tsp salt

1/4 tsp (1.2 ml) ground black pepper

3 tbsp (45 ml) water

Instructions:

diabetic diet, paleobetic diet, low-carb diet

Steaming in progress

You’ll be steaming this in a pan with a lid. Put the garlic and olive oil in a pan and cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes to release the flavor of the garlic. Add the water to the pan and let it warm up for a half a minute or so on medium-high heat. Then add the shredded sprouts and cover with the lid. After a minute on this medium-high heat, turn it down to medium. The sprouts will have to cook for only 4–6 minutes. Every minute, shake the pan to keep contents from sticking. You might need to remove the lid and stir with a spoon once, but that lets ourtyour steam and may prolong cooking time. The sprouts are soft when done. Then remove from heat, add the bacon bits, salt, and pepper, then mix thoroughly.

When time allows, I’d like to experiment with this by leaving out the bacon and using various spices instead. Do you know what goes well with Brussels sprouts?

Number of Servings: 3 (1 cup or 240 ml each)

Nutritional Analysis per Serving:

Advanced Mediterranean Diet boxes: 2 veggie, 1.5 fat

71% fat

19% carbohydrate

10% protein

270 calories

14 g carbohydrate

6 g fiber

8 g digestible carbohydrate

328 mg sodium

646 mg potassium

Prominent feature: High in vitamin C (over 10o% of your RDA)

diabetic diet, low-carb diet, paleobetic diet

Brian burger and bacon Brussels sprouts

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Recipe: Chicken Avocado Soup

Posted on July 7, 2015 | Comments Off on Recipe: Chicken Avocado Soup

FullSizeRender

Avocados in soup? Yeah, I was skeptical, too. But it works amazingly well. Since I provide the nutritional analysis below, you can easily work this into the Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet, Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet, Paleobetic Diet, or Advanced Mediterranean Diet.

Ingredients

1.5 lb (680 g) boneless skinless chicken breast

1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil

1 cup (240 ml) chopped green onions

1/2 jalapeno pepper (or 1 or 2 peppers if you wish), seeded and minced (use the seeds, too, if you want it very spicy hot)

2 roma tomatoes (5 oz or 140 g), seeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

60 oz (1,700 g) low-sodium chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste (nutritional analysis below assumes no salt added)

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) ground cumin

1/3 cup (80 ml) chopped cilantro

3 tbsp (45 ml) fresh lime juice (2 limes should be enough)

3 medium California avocados, peeled, seeded, and cubed

Instructions

Heat up the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, then add the green onions and jalapeño; sauté until tender (1–2 minutes) then add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds or so. Next into the pot goes the chicken broth, cumin, tomatoes, chicken breasts, and optional salt and pepper. If adding salt, I’d wait until just before serving: taste it and then decide if it needs salt. Bring to a boil with high heat, then reduce heat but keep it boiling, covering with a lid while the chicken cooks through-out. Cooking time depends on thickness of the breasts and may be 15 to 45 minutes. When done, it should be easy to shred with a fork. Turn the heat down to low or warm then remove the chicken breasts and allow them to cool for 5–10 minutes. When cool enough, shred the chicken with your fingers and return it to the pot. Add the cilantro. Ladle 1.5 cups (355 ml) into a bowl, add one fifth or sixth of the avocado cubes (half of an avocado) and the juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lime. Enjoy!

IMG_2233

Serving size: 1.5 cup of soup plus 1/2 of an avocado

Servings per Batch: 5

Advanced Mediterranean Diet boxes: 1 veggie, 1 fat, 1 protein

Nutritional Analysis per Serving:

43 % fat

13 % carbohydrate

44 % protein

350 calories

12 g carbohydrate

8 g fiber

4 g digestible carb

638 mg sodium

1,180 mg potassium

Prominent features: Rich in protein, vitamin B6, vitamin C, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, selenium; plus a fair amount of fiber

PS: You can fancy this up just before serving by adding a couple large triangular corn tortilla chips (broken into a few bits) or half of a 6-inch (15 cm) corn tortilla (first, microwave for 20 seconds, then break into a bits). Both items each add 5 g of digestible carbohydrate; the tortilla chip option adds 60 calories and the corn tortilla adds 25 calories. Shredded cheese might be a nice topper, too.

 

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