Tex-Mex Stuffed Sweet Potato

I don't love cooking meat in the summer unless I BBQ. Living in Amsterdam makes it tough to BBQ, so we have been going 'meat-free' for much of this month.

I loved this fun, tasty and fresh Tex-Mex inspired stuffed sweet potato recipe that is meat-free, sugar-free and gluten-free.

What You'll Need (serves four):

• 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes. I know these can come large in North America, so if they are monstrous, just use two (1/2 per person)
• 1 baking tray lined in tinfoil
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 white onion
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Green onion
• 1 cup black beans
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/2 package of your favourite, gluten-free taco seasoning
• Shredded cheese (I used a spicy hard cheese that I grated very thinly using a Parmesan grater - this way it looks like you have more cheese when you actually eat less!)

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 210C (375F)
• Poke your sweet potatoes so steam can be released when cooking
• Bake for 45 minutes or until really tender (You can also microwave your potatoes for around 10 minutes, ensuring you puncture them before cooking to release steam. I prefer baking as they come out with a much nicer texture)
• While the potatoes are baking, prep your veggies!
• Dice your red pepper and 1/2 your onion and saute using your olive oil until lightly browned
• Mix your taco seasoning into your fat-free Greek yogurt and set aside in the fridge
• Dice your avocado and set aside 
• Dice your green onion and set aside
• Shred your cheese and set aside (keep cool so your cheese doesn't stick together)
• Dice your tomato, other half of your onion, cilantro and add together with some salt and pepper to make a salsa fresca (dry salsa)
• Rinse your black beans and set aside
• Once your potatoes are nice and soft, cut them in half (watch your hands as they are hot!) and load on the toppings!

 
This is a fairly quick, super tasty alternative to tacos or baked potatoes. I hope you like them as much as we do!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2 (so colourful!)
Taste: 2
Ease: 1.5 (if you microwave your taters, this would also be a 2)

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 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

A Dukan Orange Cake...Attempt

It is pouring in Amsterdam today so what better time to bake?
I pulled out my shiny new French Dukan cookbook to see what caught my eye (and had few instructions that I had to then translate).

I love citrus, it cheers me up, and a dreary day like today could use a little pick-me-up.

The gluten and sugar-free Dukan recipe called 'Far a l'Orange' appeared delicious...and easy.
Two things I value.
I am not sure what 'Far a l'Orange' means...when I translate it, it says 'Far Has Orange'.
Thanks for nothing, Google Translate.

I would like to think it means 'Exotic Orange Cake Tasting of Faraway Lands'.

Look how fluffy, neat and unburned it looks! I am sure I can recreate this tasty 'lil guy (she says optimistically before attempting...).

What You'll Need:

• one mixing bowl
• cute little baking containers as shown in the recipe (of which I have none, so I used muffin tins...don't tell Martha)
• one large orange so you can zest the heck out of it
• 8 Tbps of fat-free quark (or low-fat Greek yogurt)
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tbps of your powdered sweetener of choice
• 6 Tbps of cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp orange flavouring
• 4 Tbsp of low-fat milk powder

What (the recipe says) You'll Do:

• pre-heat your oven to 160C
• mix all the ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl (I like to mix my wet and dry ingredients separately, as Martha would do that, but when and how you introduce your wet and dry is totally up to you)
• pour your batter into your cute little cake pan, or muffin tins (for me it made 8 muffins)
• according to the recipe, bake for 30 minutes...if you like things burned!! Its a good thing I kept an eye on these little babies as they cooked super fast. I left them in for 15 minutes and the tops were already turning an unsavoury shade of charcoal

• on a positive note, they smelled like a little piece of heaven whilst cooking
• on a negative note, they semi-exploded, glooping out angry looking batter projectiles which, thank goodness, did not drip into my oven. Burny, drippy ovens are the worst!
• that's it

Admittedly, they are not that handsome of a cake. Martha would shake her well-coiffed head and send me packing.
They look like they are sticking their batter tongues out at you, mocking your failed culinary attempts.

They taste delish though.
Really and surprisingly so. They also have a nice, light texture, which surprised me with so much heavy quark.

I am not easily defeated. A Munro hates to loose. I will try this recipe again!


The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 0
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Dukan Cauliflower Mashed 'Potatoes'

Potatoes are not a part of the Dukan diet until you reach the stablization phase and can start incorporating 'celebration meals' and once-per-week starches.

I am from the Canadian Prairies and therefore a meat and potatoes kinda gal. I am really trying to break that habit though by incorporating other vegetables that offer me a lot more in terms of health benefits.

I started reading up on the wonders of cauliflower (or, 'bloemkool' in Dutch:) and thought I would try to create the perfect cauliflower mashed 'potato'.

Did you know cauliflowers are:

• an excellent source of vitamin C - a great anti-oxidant (I know, and they're not even orange;)
• very high in vitamin K - which helps aid in decreasing inflammation
• high in fiber
• a good source of protein
• a super tasty alternative to potato...so here is the recipe!

What You'll Need (serves four):

• a blender
• one medium-sized cauliflower
• one 1/2 cube of low-sodium chicken stock
• 1.5 cups of water (to be boiled)
• generous twist of freshly ground pepper
• large dollop of fat-free plain Greek yogurt (my favourite kind is the Total 0% brand - super thick and creamy)

                                I know what you are thinking...I should be a hand model.

What You'll Do:
I have a steaming oven (and so does Martha, I'm sure), so I use that to steam my vegetables, but, if you don't, never fear - you can steam your cauliflower the conventional way on your stove top by covering it in seasoned water and letting it simmer, covered, until soft.

• prep your cauliflower by removing all the green leaves and stem
• chop your cauliflower into smaller chunks 
• place the pieces in your pan, cut side down
• boil 1.5 cups of water
• place your 1/2 cube of low-sodium chicken stock in the boiled water
• stir until dissolved

• Pour the chicken stock mixture over your cauliflower
• Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until very tender

• Using a slotted spoon, take the softened cauliflower from your steaming pan and place inside your blender
• Plop in your dollop of fat-free Greek yogurt

• Twist in your pepper
• Add a whisper of the remaining, seasoned water (I usually use about 1/4 cup but this depends on the freshness of your cauliflower. If it is older and drier, you may find you need a little more water. Easy does it though as you don't want your mixture to be too watery)
• Mix through using a spatula
• Blend until semi-smooth (I like leaving a few little lumps as it makes the cauliflower mixture much more believable in it's potato disguise)
• Remove from blender and serve with another twist of ground pepper on top
• That's it!

I just love this recipe as you can eat this as it is, as a side of mash, or you can use it as a topper. For example, I love to make Dukan-friendly 'Sheppard's Pie' where you add this on the top. Or, when I make zucchini boats, I add this onto the top.

Other additions you can try with this recipe:

• If you fancy garlic, add in a clove of this either in the seasoned water mixture while steaming for a milder taste, or into the blender for a stronger taste
• Not on the Dukan diet? Add in some shredded cheese while blending
• Don't have low-fat yogurt on hand? Use low-fat quark or even low-fat cream cheese.

Play around with it. I would love to know what other recipes you use this on!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5 (Its hard to make them magazine-spread worthy looking)
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Dukan Spicy Chicken Stir 'Fry' Recipe

On the Stabilization phase of the Dukan diet, you can eat the approved meats and vegetables everyday. After the alternating Cruise phase, it is the good life!

One of my most favourite dishes is a spicy stir fry. The best part is you can make something this tasty and it still be healthy, sugar-free, gluten-free and Dukan friendly!

What You'll Need (for two people):

• Two chicken breasts
• One sweet red pepper (or, zoete rood paprika...I am learning Dutch!)
• Whatever Dukan vegetables you think are delicious when spiced-up and hot (I like anything like leeks, bean sprouts, carrots, broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, cabbage, onion...anything I have in the fridge that doesn't go soggy when cooked)
• For this recipe I usually super cheat and get a bag of pre-cut veggies (Martha would not approve but it saves me loads of time chopping when I have had a busy day and don't have much time to cook)
• Ingredients for my Dukan spicy marinade
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cucumber (or komkommer;) to use as a garnish

What You'll Do:
Its all about timing with a stir fry, you don't want your veggies overcooked as you are still waiting for your chicken to cook. This is how I do it:

• Make your Dukan spicy marinade
• Prep your veggies, cut them all to a nice, chewable sizes
• Dice your onion. I was taught a trick from my friend Keith years ago on how to dice an onion easily. I have tried to show you in this picture, but, basically cut the onion in strips in one direction, then rotate around and slice in strips, so you have a hatched pattern. Then, when you slice your onion, all of your pieces will be perfect little squares. I love this trick!

• Get your wok (or large, non-stick frying pan) out and sprinkle your diced onions into it
• Cover your onions in water, not all the way, but just enough so they have enough to gently boil in. This is called water sauteing.  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!

• Now, prep your chicken
• Wash the breasts (that made me feel dirty typing that) in cool water
• Pat dry with paper towel. I have zero idea why you do this but it was something my Mom told me to do and I have done it ever since. So, you have now been told. Choose your choice
• Cut off any remaining skin or weird, wiggly bits
• Chop into similar-sized pieces
• Heat up your non-stick medium sized frying pan
• Once hot, toss in your chicken pieces
• I like to season them with a little freshly ground pepper (so Martha of me)
• Brown them on each side
• Pour the Dukan spicy marinade over top 
• Toss the chicken to ensure each piece is covered in sauce
• In your wok, put in any vegetable that takes longer to cook - for example, this is a great time to put in your broccoli or cauliflower
• Keep stirring your saucy chicken for another few minutes
• Add in the rest of the vegetables into your wok
• Pour in 1/4 (or less) water into the wok and stir
• Once your chicken is done (you can tell as the sauce will be nice and sticky like shown below), pour it over top of your vegetables

• Stir
• I find you don't need any extra sauce for your vegetables if you stir in your chicken - it is the perfect sauce, veggie, meat ratio

• To serve, I use a slotted spoon to drain off any excess liquid, then once in the serving bowl, I sprinkle my chopped cucumber on top. You don't want to cook these as hot cucumbers are super gross. Trust me.

That's it. A stir-without-the-fry.
No oil, gluten-free, sugar-free, and Dukan friendly.
Plus it's easy, tasty, healthy and filling. You don't need rice or anything.


The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 2 (maybe a little less easy if you choose to chop all your veggies...you keener;)

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