Living healthy in the real world.

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This week’s guest chef, Sagan, has been a member of the Bumbling Band from the very beginning.

She’s a role model for many of us with regards to the way she talks the talk and walks the walk.

Sagan doesnt merely write about living a healthy life—-she exits her domicile, leads one and *then* returns to the computer to tell the blogworld about it.

Please to enjoy—as I know I always do—Sagan.

Cooking and baking are two things that do not come naturally to me. When I first took Food Tech in junior high, I was so bad at following the recipes that my best friend would take pity on me and end up doing much of my work as well as her own. Because of this, somehow my end product would be a fantastic dish and hers would get neglected- yet somehow she never held a grudge! (or maybe that’s why it’s been a couple years since I heard from her…)

When I became interested in health, it followed that my interest extended to nutrition and transforming recipes into health-wonders. Most of my experimenting has been conducted with substituting natural, healthier ingredients for the sugars and fats added in recipes, and much of my experimenting has gone incredibly awry! Changing anything in a recipe requires a lot of time and patience, and the recognition that it’s likely going to take quite a few tries before you get the recipe right. I have learned to prepare for a failed product but still aim high with the hopes that it’ll turn out fantastic!

I have discovered that mucking around in the kitchen can be very dangerous. I have successfully set off the smoke alarm too many times to count (it happened so frequently when I cooked for my ex that when I cooked something without setting off the smoke alarm, we were rather concerned that perhaps the batteries had died), exploded just about everything in the microwave, splattered food from the blender and food processor all over the kitchen, managed to cover the cupboards/sink/fridge/counter completely in flour, caused soups to boil all over the stove, and more recently dropped a pumpkin on the floor and set my oven mitt on fire. Needless to say, my cleaning skills have been very finely tuned over the past year.

Most people will tell you that it’s best to follow the exact recipe the first time, and try making the healthy alterations later on. But that kind of logic just doesn’t match up with the fun of experimenting! It is, I must admit, nearly impossible for me to follow a recipe exactly. I will cut down the sugar by half or replace it with applesauce, bananas, dates, blueberries, or other fruits. Regular flour is neglected in my pantry as whole wheat flour is pretty much my go-to. I almost always completely replace the fats with applesauce. It results in a finished product that tastes a good deal different than the original, and often it looks a lot different too (the whole wheat flour leaves it far more dense). Sometimes the alterations just don’t cut it, but other times, I’m pleasantly surprised! This banana bread recipe is one of those foods that I have managed to perfect.

Another recipe which has received rave reviews from everyone who has tried it is my very easy, very healthy, and very deliciously creamy Split Pea Soup recipe. This was found in a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and it has never failed me! The only thing I’ve ever done to mess this soup up was to let it boil over when I got distracted and left it unattended (and if that’s the worst that has happened, you know you’ve got a winner).

Split Pea Soup

2 ¾ cups water

1 ½ cups dry split peas, rinsed and drained

1 14-oz can reduced sodium chicken broth

1 to 1 ½ lbs meaty smoked pork hocks or one 1 to 1 ½ lbs meaty ham bone*

¼ tsp dried marjoram, crushed**

Dash black pepper**

1 bay leaf

½ cup chopped carrot (1 medium)

½ cup chopped celery (1 stalk)

½ cup chopped onion (1 medium)

1. In a large saucepan combine water, split peas, chicken broth, pork hocks, marjoram, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. (Watch it while it’s boiling. This is the part where it boiled over and got under the stove element. It’s not fun to clean out). Simmer, covered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove pork hocks.

2. When cool enough to handle, cut meat off bones; coarsely chop meat. Discard bones. Return meat to saucepan. Stir in carrot, celery, and onion. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes more or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaf.

*If you can’t be bothered to deal with chopping the ham off the bone and all, you can either buy ham steaks (try to get one with less sodium!) and cut those into chunks, or just leave out the meat altogether. It tastes great even without the ham. When I don’t include ham, I like to add some extra carrots and celery.

**Be liberal with spices! They make everything taste great. If you don’t have the marjoram, just throw some extra pepper in there.

Nutrition Facts per 1 ½ cups:

320 calories

4 g total fat (1 g sat. fat)

19 mg chol

713 mg sodium

49 g carb

20 g fiber

25 g protein

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Comments

  1. Hey Sagan!
    “Mucking” around in the kitchen – is that a technical term for kitchen experimenting!! I’m loving that whole saying – “Mucking around in the kitchen”. And I love your concept of changing everything – it’s kind of like you’re a mad scientist in the kitchen (and I mean that in only the very best sense – I think it is way cool Sagan!!).

    Nice feature today, MizFit – Sagan rocks!

    (with all that kissing up, I’m hoping that when I hit “submit” a piece of the banana bread comes flying out of the screen at me!)

  2. she does rock.
    Im always amazed how she GETS IT at an age where I was still out drinking watching movies and eating snickers.

  3. Gold star for tenacity Sagan! I was terrible at home economics too. My jam tarts were disgraceful. You inspire me to get my sleeves rolled up and get into the kitchen (I WILL track down egg whites in the UK one day and do your awesome frittatta….).

    TA x

  4. Love split pea soup. This recipe sounds delish. Buried under a foot of snow, nothing smells better than a pot of soup warming the house.

  5. Sagan, Love your colorful description of your cooking mishaps! These are the exact reasons I can’t cook!! But I do like to try from time to time! Going to try this one out this weekend! Thanks!

  6. This is perfect timing! I was just thinking how great some split pea soup would be!!
    Thanks, Sagan. I always enjoy reading about your mishaps and haps. (is that a word? what’s the opposite of mishaps?)

    🙂

  7. Wow Sagan, I’m so impressed with your patience and your determination even after all of the messes. 🙂 When I bake you can bet I have flour all over me and the kitchen. The split pea soup sounds great. 🙂 Have to give that one a try.

  8. Haha, at least you’ve never made muffins that caused vomiting. Twice. In the hopes that the first time was “just a fluke”.

  11. Ahh, Sagan, how do we love thee? Can’t count the ways.

    With cooking, I’ve always said if you didn’t make a mess, you didn’t do it right. 🙂 Fire is probably bad though I guess. (Though I do regularly melt things by leaving them on or near the stove when I’m cooking.)

    I shall have to try the soup recipe – I love soup and am always on the lookout for good, healthy ones, and I know DH will adore it. He gets so tired of the same things all the time…

    But is it terrible that it’s the banana bread that I really, really want to make?

    V.

  12. Aw you’re all so sweet! I have a batch of pea soup cooking as we blogspeak. And it’s actually in the crockpot- you can easily slowcook this recipe if you just throw all the ingredients into the pot and let it sit at low heat for about 10 hours.

  14. DANGNUBBIT. Apologies Sagan as Ive been duly emailed that I screwed up your link (the first one in the post).

    Ill fix when Im back at computer.

    for now please to click SAGAN’S name above.

  18. I just found Sagan’s blog a few days (!?!?) ago. I’m glad to see her over here getting some MizFit time in. She’s got a crazy awesome attitude.

  19. I’m a kitchen mucker too! I rarely follow a recipe the way it was written. But I’m not much of a baker, so mucking doesn’t come as naturally there. Can’t wait to try the apple-banana bread already perfected by Sagan!

    I just discovered Sagan’s fantastic blog last week, and it’s obvious that I need to root through the archives and see what I’ve been missing!

  22. “It is, I must admit, nearly impossible for me to follow a recipe exactly.”

    Oh, yes, me too! I’m already de-porking/de-hamming that tantalizing soup recipe and trying to think up vegetarian subs to create a smokymeaty flavor. Any ideas?

  25. I used to experiment too, but – especially for baking – I found that the real, fatty version tastes best. So I make the original recipe, but eat a small quantity. To me, it’s better than eating a larger quantity of a lowfat version.

    Sometimes, though, it’s easy to tinker with a recipe just a little and reduce the fat. Not so much when baking, but in many cooking recipes you can easily cut the fat in half and the dish is still delicious.

  30. You don’t want to eat the cakes I’ve tried making, Cammy 😉

    Vered- I love how easy it is to cut back on the fat in cooking and have it still taste really great. Somehow it’s much harder to do that with baking, isn’t it?!

  32. My co-worker is a baker too and we often exchange recipes. She likes to follow the recipe exactly the first time, then change only one thing the second time, then another thing the 3rd time, etc until she gets it to the way she likes it. very methodical. I guess she does not leave the engineer in the office when she gets home.

    My attitude is towards cooking that if you don’t like it, change it. If you don’t have it, use something else. I always feel that most recipe call for too much sugar anyway. I haven’t yet gone to whole wheat when baking. I use a 50 wheat/50 white mix instead. I have too many years watching my mom cook by experimentation for me to cook like an engineer.

  33. Love split pea soup. I would make it all the time if I could get the rest of the family to eat it. So easy, so healthy, and so cheap.

    I’m still learning how to experiment in the kitchen, and I’ve had a few disasters. Caught my whole sweater on fire once, but thankfullyI had a t-shirt on underneath. It was my favorite sweater, too. 🙁

  35. Miz, I LOVE SPLIT PEA soup and one of my coworkers had it for lunch and was telling me the recipe and I forgot it thanks for sharing Sagan!

  36. I :heart: Sagan, she is just such an amazing person, genuine and truly caring.

    Thank you so much for sharing your recipes Sagan and to you MizFit for allowing her to take the stage!

  37. ooh, i need to try split pea soup. i avoided it as a kid b/c of it’s appearance. but it seems like i’ve changed. or at least my tastebuds 😉

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