Healthy Cooking on a Budget: Week 4 Recipes!

Sorry for the delay on these! Our final cooking class was last week. Our menu included:

• Cajun Oven-fried Chicken
• Carolina Caviar
• Strawberries with dip

We actually ended up eating the dessert first! A regressive meal! I actually got the idea for dessert from my friend who works at Whole Foods here in Winston-Salem. They used sour cream, and I used plain yogurt. Similar tastes!

Strawberries with Dip

It’s simple!

Ingredients:

• Fresh strawberries
• Plain yogurt
• Brown sugar

Directions:

1. Wash and cut strawberries into bite size pieces
2. Spoon yogurt on your plate
3. Spoon brown sugar on your plate
4. You have two options. You can mix the brown sugar into the yogurt and then dip the strawberry. OR, you can dip the strawberry in yogurt and then dip in brown sugar.
5. EAT! It’s delicious.

Someone in the class had just purchased plain yogurt, ate it and thought it was disgusting (it tastes like sour cream!) and was planning to throw it away. Little did she know it just took a little bit of sugar to make it delicious!

Cajun Oven-Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2cups corn flakes cereal
• 1egg white
• 1teaspoon water
• 6boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lb)
• 1teaspoon Cajun seasoning (or other spicy, salt-free seasoning)

Recipe:

1. Heat oven to 450°F.
2. Line 13×9-inch pan with foil; spray with cooking spray.
3. Place cereal in plastic bag or between sheets of waxed paper; crush with rolling pin.
4. Place crushed cereal in small bowl.
5. In another small bowl, beat egg white and water with fork until frothy.
6. Dip chicken breasts into egg white mixture; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning.
7. Roll chicken in cereal to coat; place in foil-lined pan.
8. Bake 18 to 23 minutes, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut

Carolina Caviar

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15.5 oz.) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
• 3/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 3 green onions, chopped OR 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (optional)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Yve’s vinaigrette (to taste) – see recipe below!
• black pepper

Recipe:

1.    In a bowl, combine all ingredients
2.    Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Yve’s Flavorful Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

•     1/2 cup wine vinegar (i used red wine vinegar)
•     1 1/2 cups olive oil
•     1/4 cup lemon juice
•     1 1/2 t. dijon mustard
•     3 garlic cloves (you can use them whole or minced)
•     basil (fresh, if available)
•     salt and pepper to taste!

Instructions:

1.     Put all the ingredients in a jar and shake hard.
2.     Refrigerate! (I found it to taste even better after 1 day of refrigerating)

Why Cook at Home?

Remember that the benefits of cooking your own food make a long list! Not only is it CHEAPER (always important!), it is also so much healthier with fewer preservatives, lower sodium and MORE of the most important nutrients. When you eat at home you tend to eat more minimally processed plant foods, the basis of a cancer fighting diet!

Enjoy your food!
– Julie