GREG'S SIMPLE REDUCED FAT TURKEY CHILI

Hi all,

Things have been crazy with the book.  Photo shoots, editing etc.  I did though want to post something that would go with Super Ball Sunday.   I came up with an easy reduced fat chili.  I hope you like it. 

I will also keep you posted on the book.  Should be available to purchase by the end of May.  Again, thanks to everyone for all your support. 

Greg’s Simple Reduced Fat Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

Olive Oil Pam Spray

2 pounds of ground turkey

1½ cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped red pepper

3 cloves of chopped garlic

1-tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons oregano

1 28 oz can of crushed tomato

2 6 oz cans of Hunt’s tomato sauce

5 tablespoons tomato paste

2 19 oz cans of red kidney beans with juice

2 tablespoons of chili powder (double it for a more spicy chili)

Spray large pot with Olive Oil Pam.  Heat pot over medium-high heat.  Sauté onions, peppers, and garlic for 5 minutes.  Add turkey and sauté for another 5 minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 30 minutes over medium flame stirring occasionally.  Taste and if you want it spicier add additional chili powder as needed.  Serve over brown rice or with whole-wheat tortillas. 

Reduced Fat Shrimp Mold

Hi All,

Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, but things have been hectic with the Holidays and the Book.  I’m posting a brand new recipe today—a great appetizer you can use during the Holidays.  I hope you all enjoy it.  A quick note about the book:  all is going well, and it should be out for Mother’s Day.  I’ll keep you updated on the actual release date, and to everyone, thank you for your support.  Have a wonderful Holiday and a healthy New Year.

Greg

Reduced Fat Shrimp Mold

Ingredients

½ cup chopped celery

¼ cup chopped onions

½ cup reduced fat mayonnaise

8 oz reduced fat cream cheese

½ can tomato soup

2 teaspoons Knox gelatin

10 oz bag of frozen baby shrimp

Mix celery, onions, mayo, and cream cheese together.  Set aside.  Heat soup with 2 tablespoons of cold water.  Heat until lukewarm.  Add gelatin to soup and stir until dissolved.  Combine soup with cream cheese mixture and mix well.  Add shrimp and mix well again.  Pour into a mold greased with mayo.  Chill for 24 hours.  Serve with crackers or raw vegetables.

Reduced Fat Vegetarian Stuffing

My Mom and Me

Hi All,

A friend of mine asked me if I had a vegetarian reduced fat recipe for stuffing.  I revamped my family’s stuffing recipe and decided to use it for my next podcast.  Hope you like it.  It gave me a great idea.  If you have any dish you would like to see reduced, let me know; and I’ll try my best to do it.  Just e-mail me a note or send me a video.  You never know—you may be in my next podcast.

As for my book, it’s coming along great.  It should be finished and on the shelves by the spring. 

Happy Holidays.

Greg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x23cdkI-un0

Reduced Fat Vegetarian Stuffing

Ingredients

1 15-ounce bag of seasoned stuffing

Olive Oil Pam Spray

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 stalks of celery chopped

1 large onion chopped

2 cups chopped cooked chestnuts

½ cup of sherry (or brandy)

2 ½ cups of apple juice (no sugar added)

2 cups vegetable broth

1 egg

Spray a large pot with Olive Oil Pam Spray, add olive oil, and sauté celery, onion, and chestnuts for five minutes over medium heat.  Add the sherry (or brandy) and a 1/2 cup of apple juice.  Continue to sauté for an additional ten minutes.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, mix seasoned stuffing, vegetable mixture, 2 cups of vegetable broth, and egg.  Continue to mix, gradually adding 2 cups of apple juice.  Mix well.  Either stuff the bird or bake in a casserole dish.  If you are going to use a casserole, spray it with Pam and bake for twenty minutes at 350 degrees.

Notes:

If you prefer a non-vegetarian but reduced fat stuffing, you may substitute the vegetable broth with chicken broth and add turkey sausage.  Spray the pot with Olive Oil Pam and sauté turkey sausage in one tablespoon of olive oil.  We are using only one tablespoon of olive oil, because the turkey sausage will release fat.  After you have sautéed the sausage for ten minutes, add the celery, onion, and chestnuts and continue as above. 

If you prefer to use whole wheat bread for your stuffing, you can toast cubed whole wheat bread, sprayed with Olive Oil Pam and baked for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Reduced Fat Vegetarian Whole Wheat Lasagne

Hi All,

First, I want to let you know that I have lost 10 pounds since I started my diet.  It is coming off slowly, but at least it is coming off.  This week I decided to try my hand at making a podcast.  I demonstrate how to put a reduced fat lasagne together.  Don’t worry if you miss anything, because I am including everything you need in the actual blog. Just click on the youtube link below and watch.   Also, be kind.  It’s my first podcast, and they will get better each time—I hope. 

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjBRzMHA8Jg 

            Reduced Fat Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

4 cloves of garlic

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Olive oil Pam

3 cans (28 oz size) whole tomatoes, crushed by hand

1 can tomato paste

½ cup chopped fresh basil

Salt

2 teaspoons of baking soda

Spray pot with Pam.  Sauté whole garlic cloves slowly in olive oil over medium heat until golden brown.  Remove from heat and let cool.  In a bowl crush the whole tomatoes with your hands.  Put pot back on medium heat and add tomatoes slowly to the oil.  Cook for 10 minutes or until bubbling.  Add basil, salt, and baking soda.  The baking soda is used to blunt the acidity of the tomatoes.  Add paste and 3 cups of water.  Simmer for about an hour. 

Reduced Fat Vegetarian Whole Wheat Lasagne

Ingredients

8 cups of Marinara Sauce

1 large bag of frozen chopped spinach (thawed with all water squeezed out)

1 pound of whole wheat lasagne

1 pound of skim ricotta

1 medium skim mozzarella, grated

1 egg

1 cup grated Reduced Fat Parmigiano Cheese

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

Olive Oil Pam

salt and pepper to taste

Sauté garlic in olive oil in an Olive Oil Pam sprayed pan until slightly browned.  Add spinach and continue to sauté until spinach is cooked, about ten minutes.  Remove the two cloves of garlic and discard.    

Have Marinara Sauce already prepared and warm.  Mix ricotta with ½ cup of sauce, salt, pepper, ½ cup of the grated Parmigiano, and egg.  Cook lasagne in salted boiling water for 15 minutes or until tender.  (Spray Olive Oil Pam in water to prevent sticking.)  Drain and spread lasagne on a serving platter, spraying with Pam.  Pour ½ cup of sauce on the bottom of a lasagne pan or dish sprayed with Olive Oil Pam.  Put in a layer of lasagne, spread ricotta mixture over lasagne, add a thin layer of the sautéed spinach and a layer of mozzarella.  Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano.  Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ending with a layer of lasagne covered with sauce.  Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) for 10 minutes or until lasagne is thoroughly heated.  Serves 6.

 

Giambotta

Hi All,

Quick update:  I have lost ten pounds since I started my new way of living—small portions, exercise, and, let’s not forget, “Reducing the Fat-Never the Flavor.”  Plug, plug, plug.  The book is also going well.  Most of the touching and funny stories in the book deal with my weight problem, being gay, and, of course, my family here in Jersey.  I don’t talk about it much in the book, but there was a time when I lived in LA.  I used to spend six months out of the year there for pilot season.  It was a blast.  I loved it and made some great friends.  The only time I really got homesick was on Sundays.  I knew my whole family would be at my mom’s having these wonderful Sunday dinners that my grandmother would prepare, so I decided to have my own Sunday dinners.  It started with just having a couple of friends over for dinner.   Well, it turned out that a lot of people were missing their family dinners at home; so from a couple of people, we ended up being twelve or more.  Everyone would take turns cooking a Sunday dinner.  On my Sunday I usually made everyone’s favorite, my grandmother’s Giambotta.  It’s great.  She made it with chicken, sausage, peppers, potatoes, etc.  I retooled it by using turkey sausage, sweet potatoes, and, of course, less fat.  Oh, please excuse the picture of it.  Christine, who takes all those wonderful pictures of the food, had to shoot a wedding the day I made the Giambotta; so the picture was taken by me with a little pocket camera—but  have no fear, she will be back for the next shoot.

Enjoy

Giambotta

Ingredients

2 pounds of boneless chicken breasts cut in 2 inch pieces

1 ½ pounds of turkey (or veal) sausage cut in 1 inch pieces

4 bell peppers cut in 2 inch pieces (I use different colors—green, red, yellow, orange)

3 peeled sweet potatoes, parboiled then cut in 2 inch pieces

10 medium size mushrooms, quartered

1 onion sliced

1 large clove of elephant garlic chopped

Olive Oil Pam spray

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 package of Good Seasons Salad Dressing

½ cup of white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Spray a large (6 quarts) pot with the Olive Oil Pam Spray, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the garlic and onions for about five minutes over a low heat or until translucent (not browned).  Turn the heat up to medium and add the chicken pieces to brown, stirring constantly to avoid sticking.  Add the sausage and continue to sauté for an additional 6 to 8 minutes, again stirring constantly to avoid sticking.  Add the colored peppers, the mushrooms, the sweet potatoes, the white wine, and the Good Seasons Salad Dressing, stirring to mix all the ingredients well.  Cover and simmer over low heat until chicken and sausage are cooked and the vegetables are tender.  This should take about 15 or 20 minutes.

Shrimp and Mushrooms Fra Diavolo Over Whole Wheat Penne

Hi Everyone,

First, I want to thank everyone for your e-mails and encouragement.  I am very happy so many of you are enjoying the recipes.  One of the first e-mails I received was from a friend who described my posts as “the culinary talents of Julia Childs meeting the witty humor of Nathan Lane—a great idea for a cookbook.”   I couldn’t agree more.  In fact, that’s what I have been doing for months—writing a cookbook. 

The book is all about growing up as an overweight gay kid.  I mean food was my best friend.  It attended all of my most important, crazy, and funny occasions in life; and my grandmother was always there, giving her great advice and her incredible support, and cooking those mouth-watering dishes. Wait until you read the chapter I just finished:  “No Need to Panic.  Just Don’t Button It.”  It’s one of my favorite memories of how my grandmother’s great advice, and, of course, her homemade spinach and meat ravioli, turned a humiliating but humourous First Communion experience into a wonderful family dinner. 

My cookbook will include my grandmother’s delicious old-world recipes, but don’t worry.  For us poor folks who have to lose a few pounds, there will be my reduced-fat versions.  Now I’m sure you’re asking yourselves, “Why is he telling us this?”  Good question.  Instead of posting a recipe every Monday, I'm going to start posting every other Monday.  This will give me time to finish the book and to work on something new.  Next month I’m going to try to do a podcast of a cooking demonstrating of one of my recipes—the key word here being “try.” 

Now, for this week’s recipe:  Whole Wheat Penne with Shrimp and Mushrooms.  Enjoy.  

Shrimp and Mushrooms Fra Diavolo Over Whole Wheat Penne

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds of shrimp peeled and deveined

½ cup of sliced Oyster Mushrooms

1 cup of sliced Crimini Mushrooms

1 cup of sliced Portabella Mushrooms

1 cup of sliced White Mushroom

Olive Oil Pam

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 clove of elephant garlic coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

2 cups of canned crushed tomatoes

1 small jar (no more than 8 ounces) of sundried tomatoes drained and rinsed

½ cup of clam juice

Salt to taste

1 pound of cooked Whole Wheat Penne

Spray a medium pot with Olive Oil Pam.  Add olive oil and heat over medium flame for one or two minutes.  Sauté the garlic and the crushed red pepper in the olive oil until garlic is lightly browned.   Add the crushed tomatoes, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and clam juice.  Salt to taste.  Cook for fifteen minutes on medium  heat.  Add the shrimp.  Cook for an additional ten minutes.   Serve over whole wheat penne.

Note:  If the variety of mushrooms are unavailable, you may use all White Mushrooms.

Turkey Swedish Meatballs

First, let me tell you that I joined a gym.  All I can say is:  “OH MY GOD!”  The elliptical is a torture devise.  All right, so I’m over-exaggerating; but it’s not fun.  Everyone tells me it will get better.  I say:  “LIARS.”  I’ll keep you updated.

As for the recipe of the week, I have decided to reduce the fat in one of my own original recipes that I created years ago.  I have given many parties—from Halloween to Christmas—and everyone’s favorite dish has always been my Turkey Swedish Meatballs.   Originally, I made them with ground beef.  A few years ago, I decided to use turkey instead; because many of my friends were cutting down on their intake of beef.  Now, the trick is to reduce the fat in the sauce.  After a few tries, I think I got it right; but you be the judge.  Try them and tell me what you think.  Oh, and there is an added bonus:  any leftover turkey mixture can be made into a meatloaf, topped with the reduced fat sauce.  Let me tell you, it tastes great.  Try the meatballs for a party or the meatloaf version for dinner.  Either way, enjoy and let me know what you think.  I so want to hear your feedback—so post-post-post.

Until next Monday, have a great one.

Greg

Ingredients

2 ½ pounds of chopped turkey

4 cans of regular Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup

1 can of Campbell’s Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom Soup

2 cups of Fat Free Half and Half

1 egg beaten

3 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs

Olive Oil Pam

Salt to taste

Spray a baking pan with Olive Oil Pam.  In a large bowl, mix the ground turkey, 1 can of Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup, one beaten egg, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce, and 2 cups of seasoned bread crumb.  Salt to taste.  Shape into small meatballs—about one-inch in diameter.  Place the meatballs on the Pam-sprayed baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes or until browned.  Check occasionally to prevent over-browning. 

Make the sauce while the meatballs are baking.  In a medium pot combine 1 can of Campbell’s Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom Soup, 3 cans of Campbell’s regular Golden Mushroom Soup, 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce, and 2 cups of Fat Free Half and Half.  Heat to boiling then simmer for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drop the baked meatballs into the sauce and continue to simmer for ten additional minutes.  Stir often to prevent sticking.  If you feel the sauce is getting too thick, add a little more of the Fat Free Half and Half.  Serve hot in a chafing dish or in a large bowl.

To make a meatloaf:

Mix the meatball ingredients as above and shape into a loaf or two smaller loaves if you so desire.  Bake at 350 degrees for forty minutes or until cooked.  Make the sauce as above and pour over the meat loaf when serving.