Pork Lettuce Wrap

For the main dish, Michelle prepared a Pork Lettuce Wrap for the Chinese New Year celebration at the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.

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You can use ground turkey or chicken for this recipe.

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Michelle served the meat mixture, lettuce cups, cashew and cilantro separately.  The diners will help themselves with the assembly of the lettuce wrap by spooning the meat and vegetable mixture into the lettuce cup and garnish with cilantro and chopped cashews if desired.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons minced ginger
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 1 cup finely chopped button mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup water chestnuts, finely chopped
  •  1 lb ground pork or chicken or turkey
  • 8 to 10 iceberg lettuce leaves, washed and edges trimmed
  • handful of cilantro, chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped cashews

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Source: this recipe is adapted from Epicurious.com

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Creamy Corn Soup

Michelle prepared a very simple Creamy Corn Soup for the Chinese New Year celebration at the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.

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The Creamy Corn Soup can be made with ham, cooked chicken, cooked crabmeat, salmon or shrimp.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans 14oz cans creamed corn (about 3 cups)
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine or white wine
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • salt to taste
  • 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
  • 1/4 cup chopped cooked meat

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Source: from “Quick and Easy Chinese” by Nancie McDermott

Serves 4

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Cream Cheese and Lemon Muffins

It’s a double dessert day at the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors. Michelle also prepared a Cream Cheese and Lemon Muffins in her mission to use up the cream cheese in stock.

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I really enjoyed these Cream Cheese and Lemon Muffins. It is moist, lemony and there are chunks of cream cheese in it.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 package (4 oz/125 gram) cream cheese, cut into bits
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Glaze
  • 2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons lemon juice

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Source: via Michelle

Yield 8 muffins

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Cream Cheese and Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip

Michelle has a mission to use up some cream cheese in stock. She prepared this Cream Cheese and Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip as dessert for the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.

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This Cream Cheese and Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip is Michelle’s family favourite. Her kids will eat the double amount of fruit whenever this dip is served. The dip tastes like caramel and it’s very creamy.

Greek yogurt or strained yogurt is much higher in protein than regular yogurt. It adds nutrition to recipes that usually call for cream, sour cream or plain yogurt. If you usually use sour cream, try mixing together half sour cream and half low fat Greek yogurt for more protein and calcium.

Based on PC choice brand product; plain yogurt has 8 grams of protein per 175g serving while Greek yogurt can have 18 grams of protein per 175g serving.

More protein keeps you feeling fuller longer.

Ingredients

  • 1 package cream cheese (light or regular), softened
  • 1 cup Greek yogurt (low fat or regular)
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • assorted cut fruit

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Source: via Michelle

Serve: 10 to 12

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Green Greek Salad

Michelle prepared a Green Greek Salad for South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors as a side dish. Most Greek salads have heavy oil dressing. For this salad, it has a lighter dressing with lemon juice and vinegar.

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The use of romaine lettuce adds more nutrition to this Green Greek Salad. Michelle word of wisdom is to use lettuce in darker greens for more nutritional value.

Ingredients

  • 1 head of romaine lettuce, washed, thinly sliced and spin dry using a salad spinner or dry with paper towels
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 4 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 cup feta, crumbled
  • up to 1 cup olives, cut up
Dressing
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed

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Source: via Michelle

Serves: 8 to 10

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Smothered Chicken in Quinoa

The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors met again after the Christmas and New Year winter break. Michelle, the program facilitator prepared four recipes for the first meeting in 2012. By the way, Michelle has her own recipe blog by the name Mint Green Apron. Go check out her blog for healthy and delicious recipes.

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The main dish for this meeting is an easy, one pot meal with almost all the food groups covered. It’s called Smothered Chicken in Quinoa.

Quinoa is widely considered a “super food” that originated from South America. It is a grain-like crop grown for its edible seeds. It contains essential amino acids and good quantities of calcium, phosphorous and iron. It is also high in protein and is a “complete protein source”- unusual among plant foods. It’s nutritional value is similar to milk. The information above is taken from www.quinoa.net and wikipedia.

You can use quinoa in place of almost any other grain and it cooks in 15 minutes.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1″ chunks
  • 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1/2 cup sherry, cooking sherry or more broth
  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
  • 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste

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Source: via Michelle

Serve: 4 to 6

P/S: Michelle substituted shallots for the onion in this recipe

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