Author: The Sunshine Inn Blog

Chef wanna be

White Sauce or Bechamel Sauce

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White Sauce or Bechamel Sauce

  • Servings: 1 1/4 Cups
  • Difficulty: Easy
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This is a very versatile sauce. It’s uses are endless. It can be used over eggs, over pasta, over fish by adding certain spices. Here is the basic with a hint of spice which is optional. It is also a light version.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1-1/4 cups of skim milk
  • 1-1/2 tsp of dyhydrated chicken broth
  • 1/2 tsp of cayenne (or to taste, optional)
  • Pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan.
  2. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, don’t let it brown. (about 2 minutes)
  3. Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring to a boil.
  4. Add dehydrated chicken broth, cayenne and pepper, lower the heat and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 340
  • Fat 20.4 g
  • Sugar 15.6 g
  • Carbohydrates 27.2 g
  • Protein 11.9 g
  • Fiber 0 g

This sauce is a staple. You can omit the cayenne if you don’t want the spiciness. Stir in 1/2 cup of grated cheddar and it becomes a cheese sauce. Add dill and this is great over salmon. You can serve it over chicken. Add mushrooms and it’s just great over pork chops. Remember to have fun and make it your own.

Protein Rice Salad

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Protein Rice Salad

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Who says salad needs to be boring? Not me. I used to say that a salad was a side not a meal, now I know better. Here is a version that I have done. It’s a great summer meal.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of spinach
  • 1 cup shredded carrot (I use the carrot peeler to get thin strips instead of shredded)
  • 1/2 cup of cooked white rice (brown rice would be better)
  • 1 can of tuna
  • 2 large hard boiled eggs
  • 1 large red bell pepper cut into thin strips
  • 2 tbsp of chopped green onion
  • 2 ounces of cheddar cheese cubed
  • 2 tbsp of apricot jam or jelly
  • 1 jalapeño (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Assembly is easy. Divide everything in two. Put spinach at bottom of large bowl.
  2. Cover with rice.
  3. Spread the carrot around the bowl.
  4. Spread the red pepper, green onion, and jalapeño if used.
  5. Put the sliced egg, the ball of tuna and cubed cheese dividing the plate into thirds.
  6. Add salt and pepper if desired.
  7. In the centre put the apricot jam or jelly.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 436
  • Fat 17.8 g
  • Sugar 11.9 g
  • Carbohydrates 38.9 g
  • Protein 32.4 g
  • Fiber 2.8 g

This salad is fun. It reminds me of summer. The ingredients are what I had on hand. I wanted to make sure that it was high in protein as I was having this after having done a workout on the treadmill. You don’t like cheddar but prefer mozzarella, use that. You want it spicy add that jalapeno. You have left over cooked chicken, use that instead of tuna. You don’t have cooked rice, you can cook some spaghettini or rice noodles. The possibilities are endless. Remember have fun and make it your own.

Seafood Chowder

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Seafood Chowder

  • Servings: 4 or 8
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Who doesn’t love a chowder? It can be a full meal or a tasty appetizer. It’s rich, it’s decadent, it’s sinful. It’s just good.

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp of oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 3 branches of celery chopped up small
  • shrimp tails about 30
  • 4 cups of water
  • 6 ounces of cooked cod
  • 1 can of corn niblets 341 ml or 12 oz
  • 1 can whole baby clams 142 g or 5 oz
  • 1 can of crab meat 120 g or 4 oz (doesn’t have to be high end)
  • 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper (or to taste)
  • 1 tbsp of dehydrated chicken broth
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp of old bay spice
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 cups of coffee cream
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. In one large pot put the 4 cups of water and shrimp tails and bring to boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
  2. In a stock pot, heat oil and cook onions until translucent and add celery and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes
  3. Skim your shrimp tail broth of the froth and remove tails with your skimmer.
  4. Add shrimp broth to the onions and celery.
  5. Add remaining ingredients except cream and simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. Add cream and stir.

Nutrition Per Serving

    First number is fully meal 4 plates,
    second number is appetizer size 8 servings
  • Calories 342 / 171
  • Fat 14 / 7 g
  • Sugar 10 / 5 g
  • Carbohydrates 22 / 11 g
  • Protein 27 / 13.5 g
  • Fibre 2.6 / 1.3 g

This chowder is hearty and it’s great on a cold rainy day. Or when you just want to indulge yourself a little. If you don’t like cod, change the fish. You can add shrimp. (I don’t as I find they get too rubbery) You can add extra veggies likes carrots and/or broccoli stems, chopped fine. If you would rather use fresh shellfish, just remember that it has to be cooked to go in this chowder.

If you serve this as a main course, just add a little salad and some Country Biscuits or Homemade White Bread to complete the meal. Remember have fun and make it your own.

Fresh Spring Rolls

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Fresh Spring Rolls

  • Servings: 15
  • Difficulty: Easy
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For those who love Fresh Spring Rolls in rice wrappers, here is an easy recipe to follow and just as good, if not better, than most restaurants, as they are your own design.

Ingredients

  • 1 package of spring roll rice wrappers, found in asian food section of most grocery stores, some are square some are round. Doesn’t matter which.
  • 1 package of vermicelli rice noodles, also found in the same section as spring roll wrappers
  • 2 mangos, peeled and sliced into thin strips
  • 1 large carrot peeled and cut into thin strips (I use the peeler to make very thin slices)
  • 1 large english cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 lb of small, cooked shrimp
  • 1 bunch of mint leaves (fresh)
  • 1 bunch of basil leaves (fresh)
  • 1 bunch of fresh cilantro

Directions

  1. Cook vermicelli noodles in boiling water, as per package instructions, usually 3-5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water.
  2. Gather all topping ingredients together, including veggies, herbs and cooked shrimp.
  3. Add about 1 inch of water to a large deep dish or pie pan. Place none rice wrapper into the water and let soaker just 10-15 seconds. It should still feel firm as you remove it and lay it on your counter or plate. (It will soften up as you add the filling ingredients, but if you let it soak for too long it will get too soft and start sticking together or rip when you roll it up.
  4. Layer 1-2 slices of each veggie, a few shrimp, a few leaves of each herb and a pinch of noodles on the 1/3 of the wrapper closest to you.
  5. Fold the sides of the spring roll in over the ingredients. Then roll from the closest to you out, sealing everything tightly together.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 80
  • Fat 0.5 g
  • Sugar 4 g
  • Carbohydrates 18 g
  • Protein 1 g
  • Fibre 1 g

When you place them on your serving platter, make sure they don’t touch. They will stick together. If that is the case, wet your fingers with a little water and gently rub at the two stuck rolls to separate them.

This is a nice cool light appetizer. You can serve with your favourite dipping sauce. A nice peanut butter sauce or a spicy chili sauce. The fun part of this is your filling. I have altered mine with spinach, cooked chicken, crushed peanuts. You can add bean sprouts, sliced avocado for a nice creamy texture, bell peppers, romaine lettuce. The possibilities are endless. They never have to be the same. Remember have fun and make it your own.

Homemade White Bread

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Homemade White Bread

  • Servings: 8-10 ( 8, 3 oz or 70 gr slices)
  • Difficulty: Easy
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I must confess that making bread has been a fear of mine. I never seem to make yeast work for me. I’ve made bread in my bread machine, successfully, I might add. Time to step up my game. I went looking for a simple recipe that a child can make. Found one and here it is.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of all purpose flour (I use unbleached) a little more for your counter
  • 2 tsp of salt
  • 1/4 tsp of instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp of warm water (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit or 50-55 Celsius)
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • vegetable oil spray

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and vinegar. Use rubber spatula to stir and press until dough comes together and no dry flour is visible, 2 to 3 minutes.
  2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise until bubbly and doubled in size, at least 8 hours or up to 18 hours.
  3. After rise time, spray an 18×12 inch sheet of parchment paper on counter with vegetable spray. Set aside.
  4. Sprinkle clean counter heavily with extra flour and coat your hands with extra flour. Transfer dough to counter and use your floured hands to knead until smooth about 1 minute. (see kneading instructions below)
  5. On clean counter use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.
  6. Transfer ball to centre of greased parchment sheet. Use parchment to lower dough into Dutch oven (let extra parchment hang over pot edges) Cover pot with lid and let dough rise until doubled in size (1-1/2 to 2 hours).
  7. Adjust oven rack to middle position. When dough is ready, place covered pot in preheated oven at 425 and back for 30 minutes.
  8. Remove lid and back until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
  9. Place on cooling rack to cool.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 171
  • Fat 0.45 g
  • Sugar 0.1 g
  • Carbohydrates 35.67 g
  • Protein 4.92 g
  • Fibre 1.8 g

Kneading (for those of us who don’t usually knead bread)
– Place heel of your hand in centre of dough ball & press down & away from you.
– Fold dough over.
– Rotate dough and repeat steps 1-2 until dough looks smooth about 1 minute.
– On clean counter, use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.

Trick for yeast
Make sure your water is hot enough but not too hot. Yeast is a living organism. Also got to find out that one of my issues with yeast was that I stored it in the cupboard next to the stove. Guess what, big mistake. I was killing it with the heat. Lessons learned.

After I made this bread, I found out that its even lower in calorie than the bread machine one. The only down side is the waiting 18 hours. I have to admit that this one tastes better, looks better and I walked around like a proud peacock that I got a bread to rise. I sure had fun and made it my own, your turn.

Money Saving Tip – Economical Pork Chops

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Boneless pork chops are great. We love them. Versatile. The other white meat. Low Fat. You can bake them, grill them, pan fry them, the possibilities are endless.

The price of a boneless pork chop is not always affordable. This week, the boneless pork loin was on a sale for $4.14 a kilo or approximately $1.89 a pound. The chops were on sale for almost twice the price. The only difference was that the same roast was cut for you.

All you need is a sharp knife, about 5 minutes of time and be ready to package them.

I have a food saver machine as I’ve lost some food in the past to freezer burn or was surprised to what is in the package. (I did a post recently on shredded coconut pork)

As you see in the picture, my roasts costs 6.88 and 7.07. Totalling 13.95.  We serve 3 to 4 ounce pork chops in our house. This is usually sufficient for most people. I was able to make 24 chops out of the two roasts. This turned out to be $0.58 per chop. Where can you get 4 ounces of any meat for $0.58? I packaged mine 4 per package. I calculated that with the “sale” price on the chops, I saved approximately $7.00. On regular price I saved about $14.00. If serving a large group, or a large family or you just want to save a little money, this is the way to go. You can cut them to the thickness you need, larger if your diet demands more protein due to a very physical job or training. 

Saving money doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. You don’t need insane knife skills for this little hack. Hope you found this little tip helpful.

Coconut Shredded Pork

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Coconut Shredded Pork

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Oops, that is not a package of pork chops. Every four months or so, we thaw out our freezer. We rotate the meat and such and make sure to use the older stuff. In the last few months, I’ve been using a vacuum seal method which helps prevents ice formation in the packages. Well this week, when we did our freezer, I came across an older package that looked like pork chops. Upon thawing, I realized, oops, that’s not pork chops but a chunk of pork. Now what do I do with it? This is what I came up with. Coconut Shredded Pork.

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 lbs of pork chunk or shoulder
  • 1 cup of light coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 4 tbsp of blacked cajun sauce (I use Cool Runnings)
  • 2 tbsp of flour

Directions

  1. Cut pork into small pieces.
  2. Place in airtight container with the coconut milk and cajun sauce.
  3. Put in fridge for a minimum of 3 hours.
  4. Place everything in a dutch oven or thick pan. Add shredded coconut and flour and mix well.
  5. Cover with foil.
  6. Place in preheated oven at 275 for 4 hours.
  7. When you remove from heat, shred pork with two forks.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 280
  • Fat 12.55 g
  • Sugar 3 g
  • Carbohydrates 7.5 g
  • Protein 32.6 g
  • Fibre 1.6 g

You can serve this over pasta, rice, couscous. That is all up to you. The veggies are up to you. I did mine over jasmine rice and canned peas. The choices are limitless. Have fun and make it your own.

Greek Yogourt Chocolate Cake

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Greek Yogourt Chocolate Cake

  • Servings: 24
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Dessert is the perfect way to wrap up a good meal. The final touch. It doesn’t have to be much. For those of us with a sweet tooth, a small piece of sweetness ends the meal perfectly. We could always use more but because I indulged in the past on seconds in the dessert section, I now have to watch my portions. This cake is moist, flavourful and even gives that little extra in protein. With this portion size, even my diabetic friends can indulge in a serving.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup of cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp of instant coffee
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 cups of all purpose flour, a little more for the pan
  • 1-3/4 cups of sugar
  • 1-1/2 tsp of baking soda
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup of plain Greek Yogourt (I use 0% fat)
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • Cooking spray

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Use cooking spray on 10-12 cup Bundt pan and flour. Set aside
  2. In a small saucepan, combine butter, cocoa powder, instant coffee, salt and water and put over medium heat. Cook until just melted and combined, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. Combine flour, sugar and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Add half of the cocoa mixture and whisk until completely combined (this will be very thick). Add remaining cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add one egg at a time, whisking at each step. Then whisk in yogourt and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Pour into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Until toothpick comes out clean.
  5. Let cool in the pan on rack for 15 minutes and then invert onto rack and let cool to room temperature.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 141
  • Fat 4.5 g
  • Sugar 15 g
  • Carbohydrates 23.5 g
  • Protein 2.5 g
  • Fibre 0.7 g

As you can see, I did not frost this cake. You can make a glaze for it. I chose to simply sprinkle 1/16 of a tsp of icing sugar for the look. You could decorate with bright berries like raspberries or strawberries. It may not seem like much but it is enough to satisfy your sweet craving. Have fun and make it your own.

Carbohydrates

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Carbohydrates are always a hot subject. How much should I have, how much shouldn’t I have? Which foods are high in carbs, which aren’t? Some diets tell you no carbs, some say high carbs. I don’t claim to be a doctor nor am I a nutritionist or dietician. I won’t tell you how many carbs you should or should not be eating. I’ve personally never believed that any food should be omitted from one’s diet unless there is an allergy or you are told to by a physician. Everything in moderation. 

Here a few functions of carbs and the primary one is to provide your body with energy. Most of the carbs in foods you eat are digested and broken down into glucose. Glucose goes through your blood stream to produce fuel for your body. 

Glucose in your muscles is vital for long periods of high intensity exercise. In circumstances where your body has all the glucose it needs, it will convert it and store it as fat.

If you lack glucose in your body, muscle can be broken down into amino acids and converted into glucose to generate energy. Obviously this is not an ideal scenario. 

In carbs, fibre is also included. Fibre promotes good digestive health and reduces the risk of digestive track diseases. Eating plenty of dietary fibre can benefit your heart and blood sugar levels thus reducing your risk of diabetes.

Bottom line, carbohydrates serve several key functions in the body. They provide energy for daily tasks and are the primary fuel source for your brain’s high energy demands. The fibre in carbs help promote good digestion and reduce your risk of heart diseases and diabetes.

I’ve included a list I found on the internet that lists all sorts of products and their carb content. This is just a quick reference guide when you are making choices like, do I have a bagel or a 2 inch cube of corn bread. This guide has helped me plan some of the meals to make sure that I have a controlled amount of carbs to my diet. This can also be helpful to all you diabetics out there. 

Carbohydrate Content of Foods

So, the above is just my opinion. I believe we need to have a little of everything in our diets. It helps keep it interesting, less cravings, and I believe, healthier. We’ve all done diets that remove a food from the lineup and guess what, first day, most of us crave that food. Tell me I can’t have chocolate and guess what I crave it. Even if I haven’t had chocolate in weeks, all of in a sudden, I just have to have it. But that is just me. 

Above all make sensible choices, stay healthy and if you need help, seek advise from a nutritionist or dietician. 

Honey Mustard Pork Chops

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Honey Mustard Pork Chops

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Pork chops are very versatile. Even this recipe, I’ve cooked in the oven and cooked on the barbecue. This takes a little extra time for the marinade. My suggestion, put the chops in the marinade before you leave for work and they will be ready to cook when you come home. Your side dishes might take you more time than the chops.

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless 4 ounce pork loin chops
  • 4 teaspoons of honey
  • 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon of white vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 1 pinch of cayenne (or to taste)

Directions

  1. Heat honey in micro for 30 seconds. Stir in mustard, vinegar, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cool to room temperature.
  2. Place the pork chops in a large plastic ziplock bag. Add the marinade and seal the bag, squeezing out the air, turn to coat the chops. Refrigerate for 8 hours or more.
  3. Removing the chops from the fridge 30 minutes before grilling.
  4. Preheat broiler. Discard the marinade. Place the chops on the broiler rack and broil 3-4 inches from the heat until cooked through, 6-7 minutes per side.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 178
  • Sugar 2 g
  • Carbohydrates 2 g
  • Protein 26 g
  • Fiber 0 g
  • Fat 7 g

I sometimes cook these on the barbecue. Clean up is easier and that little char flavour adds a little something. I prepare my sides while I let the chops climatize to room temperature. As you see in the picture, I made biscuits and zucchini. Cayenne of course, is to your taste, it is completely optional. Have fun everyone and make it your own.