Dukan Curried Chicken, Eggplant and Squash Stew

It has been cold in Amsterdam and I was wanting to make a nice, warm, filling winter dish - a stew!
This recipe has pulled chicken, eggplant, tomatoes, and butternut squash with a curried kick.

It was a hit!

What You'll Need:

• Large, heavy-bottomed pot with lid 
• 2 Medium-sized pots
• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 plum tomatoes
• 1 peeled butternut squash, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 large red pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 large white onion
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 1 small firm eggplant, diced into bite-size pieces
• 2 tablespoons of your favourite curry powder - I love The Silk Road Spice Merchant's Madras Curry Powder. It has such a lovely and non-overpowering taste.
• 1 tablespoon chile powder 
• 1 cup chicken stock

What You'll Do: Pulled Chicken

• Fill one of your medium-sized pots half-way up with water to boil
• When the water is boiling add in your two chicken breasts
• Boil for 30 minutes
• Drain the water and let cool
• Shred the chicken and place in a bowl until you are ready to combine into your stew

What You'll Do: Stewed Tomatoes

• Cut an 'X' into the end of your tomato, so when the tomatoes are soft, you can easily peel the skin off
• Fill one of your medium-sized pots half-way with water to boil
• Add in your tomatoes and let boil gently for twenty minutes
• Immediately remove the boiled tomatoes and place into a bowl of ice water
• Let cool. Once cooled, the skins will easily peel away
• Peel the skins and dice

What You'll Do: Butternut Squash

• Pre-heat your oven to 200F (375C)
• Line a baking tray with tinfoil
• Peel, remove seeds and chop your squash into bite-sized pieces
• Bake for 15 minutes, you want the squash soft, but not mushy or it will fall apart in the stew

What You'll Do: Stew Assembly!

• Ideally as your chicken and tomatoes are boiling and your squash is in the oven, you will want to chop your onion and red peppers
• In your heavy-bottomed pot, add in your onions and peppers
• Crush your garlic and add into the pot
• Add in enough water to just cover
• Gently boil until soft

• When soft, dice your eggplant and add into the pan
• Pour in your chicken stock
• By now, your chicken and tomatoes should be ready to add into the pot
• Cover in your curry powder and shake in your chile pepper
• When the mix looks nice and thick and the stock has boiled down into the mix, add in your squash
• Gently stir until everything looks soft 
• That's it! Enjoy!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 1 (it is not a quick recipe - you will need a good couple of hours to make)

Dukan Chocolate Cake

This cake is an easy, tasty and quick to make, Dukan-friendly treat.

What You'll Need:

• Round cake pan, or two small ramekins (as shown in the above picture)
• Two medium-sized mixing bowls
• 8 Tbsp of oatbran
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar substitute, like Ideal - a xylitol-based sweetener
• 3 Tbsp of sugar-free chocolate powder (I use the Ghirardelli kind you can get in the Netherlands)
• 1 cup of non-fat Greek yogurt (you can also sub in non-fat quark, or vanilla-flavoured non-fat yogurt. I use non-fat Greek yogurt as it is usually thicker and makes the cake more moist...yes, I hate that word, too ;)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs 

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C (or 350F)
• Get two medium-sized bowls ready
• In one bowl, mix together your dry ingredients until fully combined - oatbran, baking powder, sweetener, chocolate powder
• In the other bowl, mix in your yogurt/quark, vanilla then your 4 eggs (I will usually crack them one by one in a separate little container, like the measuring cup I just used, to ensure each egg is good before I add them into the larger mixture)
• Mix the liquid mixture thoroughly until it is a consistent colour and texture
• Add the liquid mix into the dry mix and stir until smooth 
• Pour the combined mix into the chosen containers, filling to about 3/4 full
• Let bake for 12-18 minutes, or until cooked through - my oven runs hot, so 15 minutes works for me, but start checking in on them at the 12 minute mark
• I think these taste the nicest hot - as the middle is still a little gooey...yum!

You can serve these with a dollop of fat-free cream cheese on top, or a fat free vanilla yogurt. Delicious!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Dukan Cruise-Phase Omelette

A quick, easy, tasty and healthy Dukan-friendly, gluten-free breakfast (or anytime!) omelette recipe. If you are on the Dukan diet - you can have this meal on your pure protein + vegetable Cruise phase days, Consolidation or Stabilization days.

What You'll Need (serves 2-3):

• Large, non-stick frying pan
• Large mixing bowl
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1/2 large red pepper 
• 1/4 head broccoli
• 3 reduced fat ham, pre-cooked ham (or chicken) slices
• 4 medium-sized eggs

What You'll Do:

• Dice your small onion (here is a link to how I do it)
• Water sautee your onion (Cover your diced onions in water, not all the way, but just enough so they have enough to gently boil in. Let them boil until almost transparent and soft. This technique is a very helpful trick on the Dukan diet. We are used to sauteing onions in butter or oils, but with water you get none of the fat and all of the taste! To be honest, heck yeah I miss the taste of butter sauteed onions...but my butt doesn't)
• Finely chop your red pepper, broccoli and ham slices
• In a large bowl toss in your chopped vegetables and ham
• Crack your eggs into the same bowl
• Mix thoroughly until frothy
• Turn your stove top onto its lowest setting and place your non-stick pan on top
• Gently pour your egg mixture into the pan
• Let cook until the edges of the egg start to look cooked
• Using your large spatula, gently lift half of your omelette, placing it downwards and onto the top half of the other side. Your omelette now looks like a half circle
• Cook until the centre is no longer runny
• Remove from your pan and enjoy!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 1.5 (this 'flipping' of the omelette can be tricky if you try to flip too soon. If your omelette breaks, don't worry - it will still taste the same!)

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

I love me my quick breads. Banana bread was a staple in my kitchen (before I started the Dukan diet...I am pretty sure the persistence of the bread and the start of the diet were directly correlated;).

Now that I am in the stabalization phase of the diet - life is fabulous. I am back to baking and enjoying the things I was temporarily off during the attack, cruise and consolidation phases. And now I am back on those things with new healthier cooking tricks up my apron sleeve!

As I recently bought some adorable little pumpkins from the market, I wanted to make something baked that was warm and comforting - and not just your standard pumpkin default dessert - the good 'ol pumpkin pie.

I pulled out my old banana bread recipe and thought about trying to swap the banana content with pumpkin puree and it turned out marvelously, if I do say so myself.

I just thought of a new term: 'Marthalously'. So - this recipe turned out Marthalously.

                                * I promise this is the last time I use my camera phone as a camera...

What You'll Need:

• 1 loaf pan
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (you can read the first part of this pumpkin risotto recipe to see how you make it, or use a can of un-sweetened puree)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup dark, brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp of Apple Pie Spice* (if you can't get this spice, use 1/2 tsp of ginger, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg)

What You'll Need to Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 (175F)
• Grease then flour your loaf pan
• In a large bowl, mix together your pumpkin puree, egg, oil, water and sugars until smooth
• In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, salt, and spices
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry, stirring slowly and allowing some 'lumps' to remain - you don't want this mixture too smooth
• Pour evenly into your prepared loaf pan
• Bake for about 45 -55 minutes
• The loaf is done when you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean
• Let cool then serve. Or just keep it your little secret and don't share a bite of it.

I think this bread is excellent on its own, but if you wanted to fancy it up - or plan on bringing this to a brunch/party - top each slice with a dollop of cinnamon-spiced vanilla whipped cream.

How do you make that, you ask...and now for today's bonus recipe:

Well, take your medium-sized carton of fresh whipping cream, add in 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla - beat until peaked and enjoy.

You could also turn this loaf into muffins - use tin liners and reduce cooking time to just 20 minutes. 

The STEWART SCORE: It is a 'good thing'
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Low-Fat Greek Balsamic Dressing

Summer is finally here in Amsterdam. When its hot out, I always feel like crunchy, crisp, cool foods - like salads!

On the Dukan diet, most dressings are off limits as they contain loads of oil, salts and fats.

Here is a deliciously simple low fat and high flavour recipe I hope you enjoy as much as I do!


What You'll Need (14 x 1Tbps servings):

• 1 medium-sized bowl
• hand blender
• jar with lid
• 2 Tbps low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1.5 Tbsp of your favourite Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbps honey or honey-substitute (I use a xylitol-based substitute)
• 3 Tbps of non-fat Greek yogurt (thicker and creamier the better)
• If you are not on the Dukan diet, you can also add in 1 tsp of grapeseed oil (or olive oil). This will just make the dressing a little smoother

What You'll Do:

• in your medium-sized bowl, add in all the ingredients
• blend with a hand-mixer until smooth
• store in a jar or some sort of sealed container
• keep in your fridge until ready to serve. This dressing keeps for about one week in the fridge.

This dressing also works as a nice dip for raw veggies. To make it thicker, double the amount of Greek yogurt.

I love this dressing with watermelon - there is something so delicious about balsamic and watermelon. One of my favourite, pre-Dukan diet salads recipes had the following ingredients:

Cubed watermelon
Spinach
Basil
Red onion
Candied walnuts
My Greek balsamic dressing

Let me know what you try with this dressing - would love new ideas and flavour combos!


The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5 (its kind of a unattractive shade of brown) 
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Easy Healthy Roast Dukan Vegetables

Today is Friday. That means my favourite day of the week is tomorrow.
The Saturday food and organic market in my neighbourhood.
I get all my fresh vegetables, bread, eggs, cheese and herbs here.
That also means I have a lot of semi-sad looking leftover vegetables in my fridge I need to use up as I hate wasting food.

A friend of mine calls this 'creme du fridge'. I love that. Using what you have in your fridge to make a meal, no recipes required.

That is the inspiration of this super easy and healthy side dish.

What You'll Need:

• 1 lemon
• 1 Tbps grapeseed oil (or olive oil. I like grapeseed oil as I just watched this news story on olive oil and found out the Italian mafia is notorious for olive oil trafficking. No, for real!)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper...or something like that. I don't measure.
• any Dukan friendly veggies you have kicking around
• some of my favourite veggies, roasted are: 
• cauliflower
• eggplant
• zucchini
• tomato (as I can't stand them raw...too unpredictable)
• carrots
• onions
• broccoli
• NEVER cucumber. Cooked cucumbers are super gross.

What You'll Do:

• pre-heat your oven to 180C
• cover your baking tray with tinfoil
• mix the oil, pressed garlic and pepper into a small container
• rough chop all your veggies and place them into a sealed bag. You may want to use a large ziplock bag...of which there are none here in The Netherlands

• pour in the oil mixture and shake the heck of of the bagged veggies
• pour, evenly on your foiled pan
• squeeze a little lemon juice over top for good measure
• twist on another sprinkle of pepper
• bake for 20-30 minutes (baking time will be dependent on the veggies you use. Heartier veggies, like cauliflower and broccoli take longer than say tomatoes)
• that's it!

These go great as a side with my Polenta, Oatbran Chicken Nuggets!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Dukan Polenta Oatbran Chicken Nuggets

The Dukan diet friendly polenta, oatbran chicken nugget is one of my favourite recipes. Its easy, healthy and for a nugget, pretty darn handsome.

Even Martha loves a handsome nugget.

                     I placed the sliced lemons on the plate to make them look real fancy.

What You'll Need (serves 2):

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup cornmeal, or 'polenta' as it is called in the Netherlands
• 1/2 cup of oatbran
• 1 Tbps Herbs de Provence (if you can find them in your neck of the woods. If you can't, dried rosemary and pepper is darn tasty, too). I like using Herbs de Provence, as it makes me sound so continental
• 1 medium-sized egg
• George Foreman lean, mean, fat-busting grill...or suitable alternative. You can also use a non-stick frying pan to cook these little buddies.

Unfortunately (for me), no-one knows who the heck George Foreman is in The Netherlands, so I had to buy a sorry excuse for the lean, mean grilling machine...but, as long as it grills and is none stick - it'll do me.

What You'll Do:

• dice your chicken into slightly-larger-than-bite-sized pieces, ensuring you remove all the skin and weird bits you want to forget about
• crack your egg into a small bowl
• mix your cornmeal, oatbran and spices into another, separate small bowl

• plug in George to get him nice and toasty...or heat up your pan
• dip each piece of chicken into the egg (this is called 'dredging', which I think sounds morbid and eery, so I shall day 'dip')
• make sure each chicken piece is not too drippy before you place it into the dry mixture

• fully cover the chicken piece with the dry mixture
• place into George or onto your pan

• cook until done (Martha likes chicken cooked, and so should you)
• that's it!

Crispy, tasty and a nice accompaniment to a Dukan-friendly side dish, like these easy, healthy, roast Dukan veggies.

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Low Fat Dukan Baba Ganoush Recipe

I love dips.
Salsa, guacamole, spicy black bean, tzatziki, 7-layer...so many dips!

On the Dukan diet there are not many dips you can make that are diet friendly so last night I found an eggplant in my fridge drawer I had to use up and thought about making a diet-friendly, low-fat, gluten-free baba ganoush!

Researching baba ganoush recipes, there is quite a bit of oil and tahini in most recipes - both ingredients not permitted on the Dukan diet. So, I improvised and what I came out with even impressed my husband (and if Martha could taste it, I am pretty sure she would approve).

Best things? It is super easy to make, eggplant is in season right now, eggplants are antioxidants.

What You'll Need:

• One eggplant
• Shake of your favourite chili pepper spice (optional)
• A couple twists of freshly ground pepper
• Small twist of freshly ground sea salt
• Squeeze of 1/2 a lemon
• 1tsp grapeseed oil
• 2 small or one large clove(s) of fresh garlic
• 1/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt
• 1/8 cup of water

What You'll Do:

• Wash your eggplant
• Heat your oven to 180C (375F)
• Cut your eggplant into halves
• Place cut eggplants, skin down, on a baking tray for 20 minutes or until soft
• In a blender, add in the chili, pepper, salt, lemon juice, oil, garlic, yogurt
• Remove your eggplant from the oven, let cool for 20 minutes
• Cut up the eggplant into smaller chunks
• Place the eggplant chunks into the blender
• Pour your water over top
• Start to pulse, then puree your mixture, scraping down the sides of the blender as you go
• If the mixture is too thick, add another 1 tsp of water at a time until desired consistency is reached
• Mix until thoroughly combined
• Pour into a cute serving dish
• Enjoy with your favourite dip-able veggie, or spread on your portion of bread slices (when on the stabilization or consolidation phase). What also may be nice is to use this as a topper or a spread. I love lean-ground beef stuffed peppers, having a dollop of this on the top would be lovely!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5 
Taste: 2 
Ease: 1.5

Grapeseed oil and lemon juice are not allowed, but "tolerated" (when in small quantities) on the Dukan diet. And, because you won't (or maybe you will;) eat all this dip in one day, you are good to go!

Dukan Sugar-Free Chocolate Fat-Free Yogurt Muffins

A key to success on the Dukan diet is always having Dukan friendly snacks at hand. A perfect little snack that soothes the sweet tooth is the muffin.

Easily transportable, not messy, simple to make.

This is a recipe for one of my favourite Dukan diet muffins - the sugar-free chocolate, fat-free yogurt muffin.

This recipe couldn't be any easier, take my word for it!

What You'll Need:

• 8 Tbsp of oatbran
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar substitute, like Ideal
• 3 Tbsp of sugar-free chocolate powder (I use the Ghirardelli kind you can get in the Netherlands)
• 1 cup of non-fat Greek yogurt (you can also sub in non-fat quark, or vanilla-flavoured non-fat yogurt. I use non-fat Greek yogurt as it is usually thicker and makes the muffins a little firmer)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs 

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C (or 350F)
• Get two medium-sized bowls ready
• Line 12 muffin tins with muffin cups (make sure they're cute so Martha would approve)
• In one bowl, mix together your dry ingredients until fully combined - oatbran, baking powder, sweetener, chocolate powder
• In the other bowl, mix in your yogurt/quark, vanilla then your 4 eggs (I will usually crack them one by one in a separate little container, like the measuring cup I just used, to ensure each egg is good before I add them into the larger mixture)
• Mix the liquid mixture thoroughly until it is a consistent colour and texture
• Add the liquid mix into the dry mix and stir until smooth 
• Pour the combined mix into the lined muffin tins, filling to about 3/4
• Let bake for 12-18 minutes, or until cooked through - my oven runs hot, so 15 minutes works for me, but start checking in on them at the 12 minute mark
• Let cool
• Devour 

These little babies are great snacks and will keep for one week if you keep them refrigerated. They also freeze like little stars.

I like to heat mine up and add a dollop of fat-free plain cream cheese on top (then I imagine I am eating a fancy cupcake).

You can also make these more interesting by:

• Add in cinnamon, or nutmeg, or both!
• Use orange extract instead of vanilla and toss in some orange zest
• Top them with Dukan whip cream (which I will post for your shortly)
• Add in red food colouring and top them off with non-fat cream cheese (kinda just like a Red Velvet Cupcake!)

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2 
Ease: 2

French Food Pictures

While in France last week, I took a photo of some of my most favourite dishes I think I can recreate, Dukan style along with some there is no way I can make healthy and will just look at these pictures and remember how super tasty they were.

A cucumber, tomato and goat cheese salad.

This will be easy to recreate and be Dukan friendly. They used a vinegar and oil dressing and thinly sliced cucumbers, marinated white onion and sliced tomatoes. All Dukan friendly items, except the oil. I would cut this out as it really isn't need to enhance the taste.

The wheel of goat cheese was incredible, easily the best goat cheese I have ever had (in Canada, I find it so salty). For this to be Dukan friendly, I would try to find a lower fat version, or weigh the amount to ensure only a 40g portion is served.

They sprinkled the dish with peppers and parsley.
Simple and delicious!

This cheese cake was the sweetest thing. This was at the Honfleur Saturday market and called St Amour (St Love) Cheese Cake. You can see the cake mold is in the shape of hearts when you cut individual slices!

I know there are many Dukan cheese cake recipes out there, but it is really hard to find non-fat or even low fat cream cheese in the Netherlands, so I am not sure I can try to attempt this one...so let's just enjoy the picture.

This was a half roast chicken, marinaded in Calvados and served with steamed green beans on a bed of lettuce. The little round, deep fried accompaniments were of undetermined origin. But, incredibly delicious. They tasted like little corn breads, deep friend but less corny...

This can easily be made Dukan friendly. Roast the chicken in the skin, but remove it before you tuck in. Calvados is an apple brandy, which I picked up (as the Dutch Apple Pie also called for this ingredient, which just happens to be local to Normandy). I think I will try this recipe for sure, perhaps for our next dinner party as roast chicken is an easy way to look like you slaved away all day in the kitchen and totally didn't (that is true Martha style).

 Pepper steak is on almost all restaurant menus and is super tasty.
The cut of steak they use is quite lean and this dish was served with steamed green beans and those mystery balls. The sauce was incredible, so smooth and creamy with a peppery kick to finish. I have zero idea how they made this sauce, but will do some investigation into pepper sauces and see how we can make it Dukan friendly, or at least lower fat (because I am sure there is loads of cream in there).

Thank you, France for your amazing food!

If Martha were to rank food in Paris and Normandy, the STEWART SCORE would be as follows:

Appearance: 2 (The French take such pride in the appearance of their food)
Taste: 2 (Eating well is not hard to do in this country where they take food very seriously)
Ease: 1 (All their rich sauces and precise presentations are not easy, but totally appreciated!)