(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Perking up your cooking is easy, fast - and fun. Including a mystery ingredient can be responsible for all three of those desirable results. Currently, a major sugar-free gum company even has joined the escapades and has a mystery flavor on the market. The scent and flavor is tropical and it's keeping samplers guessing. You can do the same with family meals. Decide on a secret ingredient to weave through the courses of a meal (like the appetizer skewers, poultry stuffing and ice cream sauce prepared from tropical passion fruit in the menu below) and award a small prize or privilege to the first satisfied eater to get it right.
Food preparation can be delicious, yet simple, nutritious and inexpensive, too, as the following split-second sensations prove. They take just
10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The dishes are tasty proof that everyone has time for good home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it! Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since
there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from both family and guests, from "kidlets" to seasoned seniors.
MYSTERY INGREDIENT MENU 1: Passion fruit
Available fresh in Latin markets and some supermarkets from March through September (and in canned nectar in many such spots year-round), the fruit has a tropical scent and the flavor is like a semi-tart tropical fruit. When ripe, its skin is dimpled and its flesh is a deep purple color.
Appetizer
Skewered with Flavor
On skewers, thread large chunks of passion fruit, grape tomatoes, pineapple, cooked cold small shrimp and chunks of coconut flesh. For dipping sauce, combine a small amount of sweetened coconut milk or coconut cream with bottled shrimp cocktail sauce.
Entree
Stuffing that's Anything but Stuffy
Mash passion fruit flesh with cooked sweet potatoes (can be from a frozen convenience package), freshly ground black pepper and curry powder. Stuff into Cornish game hens before grilling.
Healthy Dessert
Stir up One Stunning Sauce
Place passion fruit flesh, fresh or frozen raspberries, no-calorie natural sweetener, like stevia, and a small amount of sugar-free chocolate syrup into saucepan on low heat and stir until fruit reduces by half and is sauce-like. Let cool until only slightly warm and spoon over sugar-free vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt and sprinkle with packaged tropical trail mix.
MYSTERY INGREDIENT MENU 2: Chinese Five-Spice Powder
A staple of Chinese cooking, the seasoning blend, that's available at most supermarkets and Asian markets, usually is made of equal ratios of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns.
Appetizer
Time for Terrific Tomato Soup
Puree fresh grape tomatoes, add to canned cream of tomato soup, sprinkle with five-spice powder and heat. Serve topped with store-bought Chinese crispy noodles.
Entree
Fish that's Frisky with Flavor
Slit fresh fish and place a cinnamon stick and a few whole cloves inside. Glaze fish with teriyaki sauce and sprinkle on five-spice powder before grilling. Carefully remove cinnamon stick and whole cloves before serving.
Healthy Dessert
Spiced Fruit is Berry Good
Sprinkle fresh sliced strawberries with five-spice powder and top with store-bought whipped cream that you've accented with shavings of dark chocolate and the dust of almonds that you've pulverized in the blender or food processor.
MYSTERY INGREDIENT MENU 3: Pistachio Ice Cream
The nut with the highest amount of protein also stars in a popular ice cream that, when it's natural and/or organic, is usually closer to white in color, and, when artificial colorings are used, may be a much less desirable dark green color.
Appetizer
Smoothie Cocktails are Soothers
In a blender, combine pistachio ice cream, chunks of fresh cantaloupe, fresh mint and shelled pistachio nuts and ice until smooth.
Entree
Pistachios Pep Up Poultry Sauce
Heat pistachio ice cream in saucepan over low heat, with a small amount of cornstarch and freshly ground black pepper. Top cooked turkey breast slices with dried cranberries and spoon the sauce over top.
Healthy Dessert
Frosted Ice Cream Sandwiches Equal Fun
Pulverize shelled pistachio nuts in a blender or food processor until a fine powder. Stir into store-bought chocolate frosting and spread over gingersnap. Top with small dollop of pistachio ice cream and a plain gingersnap as the top of the mini frosted ice cream sandwich.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: When baking cookies, such as favorites like the chocolate chip variety, don't take extra time to melt butter or margarine for inclusion in the batter. Softened butter or margarine is the easier option (and you don't have to lift a finger to make that occur!) that's called for in such recipes. The texture and consistency matters and melted butter would have a negative difference on your finished product.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
