Healthier Holiday Sides

Thanksgiving has come and gone and this year I made some different side dishes that were much healthier than the really rich ones I made in years past.  I'm sure you know the ones--sweet potato casserole with tons of butter, sugar, and topped with marshmallows or mashed potatoes loaded with heavy cream and butter, and green bean casserole with cream sauce, cheese and topped with fried onions, just to name a few.  Then there were the "salads", which are not really salad at all--think "pink stuff" such as cool whip mixed with canned cherries and chopped nuts with jello, and other such fruity, sweet salads.  With four children...

Read more »

Roasted Eggplant and Mushroom Rice

I was inspired to create this dish by something I read about a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  The owner of the Fly Trap said her favorite dish was fried brown rice with roasted peppers and eggplant with mushrooms and other vegetables.  I saw several eggplant from the garden in my produce drawer along with a pile of Spanish Spice peppers and thought I would make my version of what she described.  It turned out really well, a very satisfying, almost "meaty" dish with the mushrooms and roasted eggplant.  I don't eat a lot of meat anymore so I'm always looking for main dishes that taste great without...

Read more »

Chimayo Red and Hatch Black Bean Chili

Coming home today after being on a business trip in Washington DC for the past five days I felt the need to cook something.  Eating out three meals a day gets old after awhile and I enjoy my own cooking a lot more than many restaurant meals.  I wanted to make a spicy soup but I ended up making more of a chili and it was really different and tasty.  I made half of it with no meat and half with organic chicken sausage.  Both were equally good.  It may not look all that great in the photo but it was wonderful.  My version is in the photo but my husband's had shredded cheese and chips. 3 cans Westbrae...

Read more »

Crispy Rice Chewies

I've been making rich desserts for special birthdays lately. I made a decadent turtle cheesecake and a banana rum filled cake with cream cheese frosting, as well as chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.  I have sampled a bite of each of the dessets but just a bite, (well except the Mexican chocolate cupcake that I succumbed to last night).  I had to make something a bit healthier so tomorrow at work when I'm serving the banana rum filled cake I would have something equally good to munch on.  I had seen a couple recipes for desserts using brown rice cereral in a couple of my whole foods, plant based diet books. ...

Read more »

Brown Rice Salad

I ordered my favorite brown rice from Massa Organics and it arrived in the mail a couple days ago. Massa Organics is a family owned farm in California which produces the nicest brown rice you could imagine.  You have to order it on-line but it is worth the shipping.  As I've written in previous posts, my method of cooking brown rice is different, but produces light, fluffy, and perfect grains of brown rice, not the gooey clumpy type you sometimes get in a rice cooker or on the stove. I use an 8 quart pot, fill it 2/3 of the way with water and bring the water to a boil. I rinse the brown rice, anywhere from 2 cups to a whole...

Read more »

Redfish on the halfshell with grilled corn and ginger herb dressing

I happened to walk in the room yesterday when my husband was watching John Besh on PBS. He was cooking grilled redfish with a corn salad.  It looked so good and happened to be from his New Orleans cookbook.  I pulled out my cookbook and saw the recipe.  I knew I would modify it by reducing the amount of oil from 1/2 cup to a couple tablespoons at the most.  I made some other minor changes such as browning the top of the fish.  The ginger herb corn salad is really delicious and would go with fish, beef, chicken, or just by itself. Grilled Redfish on the Half Shell with Grilled Corn and Ginger Herb Dressing Adapted...

Read more »

Kanpachi Nabe

My daughter Helen, her boyfriend Will, his son Atticus, and my granddaughter, Grace were in town a few days ago and we had a dinner together to celebrate my birthday.  One of my gifts was the Uchi cookbook.  Uchi is a very famous restaurant owned by Tyson Cole, an award winning chef, in Austin.  A second location opened recently in Houston.  Helen and Will went to the Austin location for Helen's birthday in May and told me all about it.  I had heard of it but never eaten there.  I am very anxious to try it now, especially after reading the cookbook from cover to cover.  What interesting dishes he has created. ...

Read more »

Spicy Braised Tofu and Garden Vegetables

I found the best recipe for tofu!!  It is from the Vermont Zen Center of all places.  I was trying to search for a "braised tofu" dish like the one I had in San Diego at the Mission Cafe that was served with egg whites, grilled zucchini, and brown rice.I have adapted it more to my tastes and find it to be very versatile.  It goes really well with brown rice (or any rice) and vegetables, either cooked with the tofu or separately. A typical weeknight, after working out at the gym, I looked for something to cook in the refrigerator, grabbed a package of medium firm tofu (but the recipe works with any type of tofu), drained it, cut...

Read more »

Barney Butter, my new favorite spread

I subscribe to a monthly food box called "Love With Food" and received a couple packages of Barney Butter last month.  I didn't think too much of it since I am not that fond of almond butter, but when I tried this product I was surprised at how good it tasted.  It is also packaged in 1 tablespoon size servings which is the right amount for me, about 90 calories and 7 grams of fat.  For breakfast a piece of Artisan Baking Company multigrain bread spread with the Barney Butter is delicious! Try it.  I looked on their website and discovered their other products and recipes. I am interested in trying some Asian sauces with the...

Read more »

Progress on my weight loss journey

On January 1st, 2012, I wrote about using my culinary talents and skills to lose weight once and for all and pledged to post healthy recipes in this blog.  My original intent was to post daily but I didn't make that happen. I posted a lot of recipes in the beginning but then after a long business trip in March living in a hotel room for two weeks I stopped posting for a while.  During that time period I tried eating a plant based, fat free diet and managed to last for about a month.  I struggled to find recipes for beans, vegetables, and tofu that were interesting enough to post, but without any fat and no fish or meat I didn't...

Read more »

Private Sushi Classes in Fort Worth

 ...

Read more »

Sushi Class 2: Chirashi-zushi

Tokyo style with salmon and tuna sashimi, tamago yaki, unagi kabayaki, shiitake mushrooms, avocado, cucumber, salmon roe, shiso leaf on top of sushi rice with wasabi in a cucumber cup This was the second class in a series of three sushi classes I'm teaching for the Fort Worth Japanese Society.  The first class was on the basics--how to make sushi rice, inside out rolls and nigiri-zushi.This class highlighted three types of chirashi-zushi, or tossed sushi.  The first was gomoku chirashi zushi, a typical homestyle version using cooked carrots, simmered shiitake mushrooms, lotus root, shredded omelet and kampyo (simmered gourd), along...

Read more »

Noodle Salad with Fresh Vegetables and Ginger Peanut Dressing

I don't usually like peanut dressings, bottled or otherwise.  The noodle salads I've had with sesame peanut dressings are often so oily and over seasoned I've never like that type of dressing enough to make my own.  When I started eating more plant based dishes I decided to try my own version of Asian Peanut Dressing and use a really good peanut butter.  I had been Nut ' N Butter Organic Peanut  butter and it is really tasty.  I thought that could make a good base for the dressing.  I was right and the dressing was so good I could put it over anything.   Try it with the noodle salad here or use these...

Read more »

Sushi Basics class

Sushi made by one of the students, Harvey Yamagata My first sushi class for the Fort Worth Japanese Society was on Saturday, April 14.  I am teaching a series of three "hands-on" classes.  I am a board member of the society and my desire is to share my love of Japanese cooking with the community.  I do the Japanese Society classes on a voluntary basis and the profits go to the Japanese Society. Enrollment was higher than I expected, 22 but then 3 cancelled so there were 19 people. I had never prepared for such a large group before so it was a lot more work than I anticipated.  The list of dishes we were making included: ...

Read more »

Slowly getting there

Japanese Power Breakfast, Miso and vegetable soup with tofu and brown rice It's been a while since my last post.  I spent a couple weeks away from home, then came back to a very busy work schedule.  In the meantime, while I was gone I attempted to stay on a very restrictive fat free plant based diet after watching a video entitled, "Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof" by Dr. Esselstyn from the Cleveland Clinic.  I believe almost everything he says but I cannot stand that diet!!!!  I lasted for two weeks and lost a couple pounds but it seemed like I thought about food way too much.  I felt like the critics who say,...

Read more »

Sushi Classes

I'm looking forward to teaching a series on sushi making for the Fort Worth Japanese Society.  If you are interested or know someone who is please follow the instructions below.  Thanks! For more information, contact Harvey Yamagata at (work) 817-332-3681 or (home) 817-737-9166 or email hyamagata@buxtonco.com Hands-On Sushi Classes presented by the Fort Worth Japanese Society.  Chef Julia Dunaway, will be sharing her love of sushi making learned over many years, including from her Japanese mother.  There will be three classes: Sat. April 14 on Sushi Basics including the all important sushi rice, nigiri-zushi, temaki and...

Read more »

Returning Home Soon

In two days I will be returning home.  I have been very busy with my work here as well as trying to continue with my healthy eating that I have not been posting much at all.  I am managing to continue my no excuses eating plan and exercising.  With the Fresh Market near the hotel I have been able to stock up on fresh fruits and breakfast foods as well as salads for lunch.  For dinner I have been eating light meals at the nearby Japanese and other restaurants  Tuesday night I ventured out on the metro to Bethesda and had a very good Asian salad from a food truck near Bethesda Row.  I noticed a farmer's...

Read more »

Eating in my hotel room

I'm on a very long business trip staying is a fairly nice hotel.  I have to spend 9 or 10 hours in meetings so there is not much time for fun.  My challenge is how to eat healthy during this trip.  I usually just eat all my meals out but that typically means buffet breakfasts, heavy lunches ordered in so we can continue working, and dinners out with colleagues or alone.  Since I am determined to stick with my healthy eating routine I don't want to passively accept that traveling is an excuse to indulge in excessive eating (like I did in the past when I was 20+ pounds heavier). It's not like I'm in Italy (where I was at...

Read more »

I understand the Fat Chef show

I mentioned the birthday party in my last post.  A woman asked me to come to her home and prepare the food for her daughter's 21st birthday party for her and 15 friends.  My good friend, Lisa Wright, agreed to help.  Between my "real" job, and preparing for my trip to Washington D.C., I was wondering how I would get everything done.  The menu selected by the mom was pretty simple, however I discovered that wrapping dozens of things in bacon is pretty time consuming.  The party went very well and the guests loved the stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped jalapenos, bacon wrapped chicken, Thai cucumber cups, Beef tenderloin...

Read more »

Party Time

I have been working on a party menu for a 21st birthday event for this Friday.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to try something different.  It's a small event, 15 girls, all of whom will be out on a wine tasting adventure prior to the party, and tasting wine with the food we prepare.  My friend, Chef Lisa Wright, is helping me with this event since it's during the work week and a busy time for me at work. The client is a person a met during the Taste Tour of Azle activities.  She was on the planning committee and attended the various events, including the VIP party which was caterered by Wild Mushroom Steakhouse. ...

Read more »

Mongolian BBQ at Home

Before there were chain restaurants like Genghis Grill mass producing "all you can eat" bowls of oversauced and weirdly seasoned Mongolian Barbeque I was making my own at home.  I first had Mongolian Barbeque in the 70's when I lived in Japan.  The Yokota Air Base Officers' Club had it on the menu once or twice a month.  There was a buffet set up with all the raw ingredients, the assorted meats and sauces. You gave your piled up bowl to the chef outside who cooked it on a very hot, huge, flat top griddle.  I always tried to pack as much into my bowl as possible without it spilling out.  It was so delicious! A...

Read more »