Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

This pasta came about after my daughter brought a bunch of vegetables home from the farmer’s market at their school. It is a great program to introduce kids to different fruits and vegetables. Kids are more likely to eat the vegetables when they make the choice themselves.

They will also be more interested in maybe helping at home to cook the veggies for dinner.

In my case I had a bunch of lovely swiss chard and some corn. I decided to make a pasta dish. I had a stuffed pasta in the freezer I purchased at Eataly in NYC.

I sauteed some pancetta and added shallots and garlic. I then added the fresh corn, some fresh tomato sauce and the swiss chard. It was super simple and very delicious. I cooked the tiny pasta and added some pasta water into the sauce. A few minutes later I had a delicious, healthy- farm to table food.
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I love the way this dish turned out- especially because of the way it looks. I love the vibrant green color of the snow peas against the golden yellow tofu.

One of the predominant flavors in this dish comes from lemon grass. I absolutely love the lemony flavor it provides to Thai and Vietnamese dishes. For a while now, I have been buying fresh lemon grass from Whole Foods but not until recently is when I realized how to get maximum flavor out of the herb.

The trick is to cut the green part out and peel the outside layers of the white part. The internal tender white part is the one to use. It can be smashed with the back of a knife and chopped. I used the white aromatic part to make this delicious stir fry.

I used cornstarch and salt to coat the firm tofu and sauteed it lightly in a non-stick pan. I then cooked it with the snow peas and added the flavorful sauce consisting of tamari, fish sauce, palm sugar, etc.

I loved the subtle flavors of the fish sauce, lemon and orange juice coming through loud and clear. I served it with some delicious brown rice and it was a yummy, healthy meal.
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Here it is- yet another recipe for our beloved duffins. My daughter has been asking me to make cider duffins since last year. She started talking about end of the winter once the apple cider was not to be seen any more. I didn’t want to make them with some not so fresh cider so I decided to wait until fall.. well, it is here. As soon as she started seeing the cider bottles in stores, she started to talk about the cider duffins I promised her.

Well, I finally made them- it is the same recipe as the others but this one has a healthy dose of delicious apple cider. I dusted the outside with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Since it is Halloween today- do make them. They are delicious and healthy. It will be nice for everyone to eat something healthy for a change on Halloween..
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Here is another version of our favorite healthy dessert- duffins. I wanted to make something for Halloween and the first thing I think of – is pumpkin. When I think of pumpkin, cream cheese frosting comes to mind- it really is a match made in heaven.

So, in order to make duffins, I decided to invert the two and use the cream cheese as a filling in the middle.

The result was delicious- well, eventually. I made one batch and had a few friends taste test for me and give me some critical analysis. My daughter is the most honest taste tester I have- she has no qualms about telling me when things are not right. She told me the duffins didn’t have enough pumpkin flavor and the filling tasted too much like cream cheese and not like a frosting. She was right- I had forgotten to add vanilla extract in the cream cheese mixture.

The second batch included more spiced including cinnamon, ginger and cloves. It also included the missing vanilla extract. The result was delicious.

Make these for halloween…

• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1½ cups white whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup extra light olive oil
• ¾ cup 1% milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

Filling

• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Keep aside.

Topping

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• ½ cup fine raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Lightly grease a 12 muffin tin with a bit of oil in each cup.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg till light and fluffy. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and pumpkin puree. Mix to combine.
In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Pour into the egg mixture and stir well.
Add a quarter cup batter in each cup. Add a teaspoon of cream cheese on top. Top each cup with the rest of the batter to cover the filling.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, melt butter in a small bowl. Pour ½ cup sugar into another small bowl.

Once the muffins are done, lightly brush the top with melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in the sugar, coating all parts of the duffin.

This is a very simple, weeknight meal one can whip up in no time. Keema is one of my favorite things to eat and make. Keema is essentially ground meat cooked in spices, onion, ginger and garlic- the rest is up to you. I love pairing the meat with different vegetables to make a great one pot meal. Brown rice or fresh make whole wheat rotis can be served to create and delicious and wholesome meal.

I made this one with peas but I also added a variety of different spices- which are not my usual. I used curry leaves and mustard seeds. The mix of spices gave this dish a fabulous flavor. My daughter loves keema- her favorite is the one I make with cauliflower. She devoured it with two big rotis and a glass of milk….
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