So apparently all those years I spent writing poetry on those cold Irish winters’ evenings are finally getting me noticed. Ireland has bred many famous authors and playwrights, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and now Gavan Murphy. I’ve been asked to write my own column for Dancing Spoon’s online magazine!

So what is Dancing Spoon all about? The Foodie’s Magazine is an online magazine devoted to all things food: culinary news, food and restaurant trends, cooking science, culinary travel. Find food and kitchen product reviews, recipes and recipe sharing and the most in-depth directory of online culinary shopping anywhere. Shop for hard-to-find gourmet ingredients, kitchen tools, culinary books and much more.
In addition to the magazine, Dancing Spoon is also a place where Foodies connect. Dubbed the Facebook for Foodies, it’s a community especially for people passionate about the culinary world, just like you and me.

Now you’ve got three different places to find me (Here, Dancing Spoon & Health Habits) so no excuses. Take a gander. How lucky can you be?!

There are a couple of staple ingredients that we all eat around the holidays. One of the most popular and versatile being Butternut Squash, though I bet most of you have probably only had it as soup. My sister loves roasting butternut squash (it’s the only way she knows how to make it) so I wanted to create a recipe that showed diversity for this delicious vegetable (technically a fruit). Of course I made it my usual healthy tasty way but I also made it with a twist and a kick (also known as my Riverdance).

Some of you may be still looking for some menu ideas or maybe you just need a side dish to bring to a potluck. Either way this is a great option.

4-6 servings:

RECIPE:

2 1/2 lbs. butternut squash – peeled, seeded, diced into 1″ cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp. fresh ginger – peeled & grated
1 jalapeno pepper – seeded & chopped
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp. agave/honey
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. lime zest

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat a large saute pan on medium heat for 3-4 mins. Add olive oil and ginger, saute for 30 seconds stirring continously. Add jalapeno, cumin seeds, cayenne pepper and stir for additional 30 seconds.
Add diced squash to spice mix and coat with spices. Drizzle in the agave and toss together. Add in broth. Cover and cook until squash is tender, 20 mins. approx.
Stir in lime juice and lime zest. Mix thoroughly. Taste and season with S&P. Don’t be afraid to make it your own–mash ‘em up a little or a lot or keep as is.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and your Thanksgiving Holiday!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

Compliments of The Today Show:
According to a study by Texas A&M International University, Americans will consume an extra 619 calories per day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. But, armed with helpful nutrition information, you’ll be able to successfully fight the battle of the bulge throughout the holiday season.

An extra 619 calories PER DAY? I took the quiz along with my buddy, Matt Lauer and was surprised that I missed a couple. I thought it was a good video to pass along to bring awareness to portion control. I know I know, it’s supposed to be a gorge day, right? Then you’d better plan to work out before the gorging starts!

Compliments of Joy Bauer:
Hard to swallow, but yes, the average Thanksgiving meal with the works (appetizers, alcoholic beverages, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole, roll with butter, cranberry sauce, and pie a la mode) contributes more than 4000 calories! That’s double the total number of calories most adults should be taking in for an entire day in just one meal. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the generous portions of leftovers we tend to consume in the days following the Thanksgiving holiday.

I don’t know about you but I’m off to the treadmill!

Healthy Twice Baked Yams

If you recall last year I had my first official Thanksgiving (i.e. I wasn’t working). Not only was it my first but it was my first experience tasting Southern Thanksgiving food. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. This year, we are combining efforts and spending the day at another friends house and ironically they’re from the south as well. (Remember the Missus is a Texan.) We’ve been asked to bring something special so we decided upon making twice baked yams. We have an ongoing debate where twice baked potatoes got it’s start: she thinks from the south and I think from across the pond (doesn’t everyone associate potatoes with the Irish?)  Regardless we put our origin differences aside and created an extremely simple, delicious and healthy Thanksgiving dish that’s sure to please everyone.

RECIPE: Serves 6-8

4 Large Yams
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup broth (vegetable or chicken)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Individually wrap potatoes in foil, pop in the oven and forget about ‘em for about an hour. After an hour, check to see if they’re cooked by piercing with a toothpick–the potatoes will be soft so the toothpick will easily go in. I cooked mine for about an hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand until cool enough to handle.
Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Scoop out the yam pulp leaving about a 1/4″ shell to support the peel. Transfer the pulp to a large mixing bowl, add the broth and S&P. Mash together until the mixture is fairly smooth. Use a spoon to fill the shells with pulp mixture. TIP: If you’d like your potatoes to be fuller, only use the shells of 6 halves with the mixture of all 8 halves.

Transfer yams to a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until heated through, about 30 minutes. These can be made ahead of time and frozen in a covered air-tight freezer container. Just be sure to thaw potatoes overnight before baking.
Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and tuck in! Easy peasy and absolutely delicious!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

Just a little reminder to check out my new recipe post on Health Habits today.

Also, I wanted to take a moment to thank Giddy Gastronome for giving The Healthy Irishman it’s first blog awards! Here they are:

Hard Working Food Blogger Award

Premio Arte Pico Award

Can anybody tell me what Premio Arte Pico means?

Though I’m not really sure what to do with them since I can’t put them on top of the telly but it sure is nice to be recognized. Is this what it feels like to receive an Emmy? Could that be in my future?

I suppose it’s good fortune to pass along the awards so I’ll start by sending the Hard Working Food Blogger Award to my buddy Dave across the pond, aka bookthecook.
Have a great weekend!

Compliments of Bon Appetite

Those of you over here Stateside are well aware that turkey season is just about here (Thanksgiving is next Thursday). I always associate turkey with Christmas but now since I’m over here I get a double dose with both holidays which for me equals lots of naps. By the time Santa comes I’ll have had turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, turkey stew, well you get the point.
There have been many articles about how best to cook turkey so it doesn’t dry out, wrapping it in bacon, basting with butter, wrapping it in soaked muslin and most recently brining. I’ve been brining my birds (too many to mention!) for a few years now and have always had great results. To see me in action click here. However there’s a new kid on the block: SALTING.
This is all over the mags and papers right now so here’s the scoop: All you do is salt the turkey a few days in advance, say 3 days ahead of cooking. Rub the salt into the flesh, a massage if you will, and pop it in the fridge in a sealable plastic bag. Then everyday prior to cooking give her a ruba dub dub to make sure the salt is spread evenly. How it works: The salt draws the moisture out of the meat but then re-absorbs it so in effect you’re actually brining it in it’s own juices. Apparently the bird is not salty when cooked. Sounds pretty good right? Check out the recipe from the LA Times.
Let me just say that I haven’t tried this yet but will be. I’d love to hear some feedback from those of you who’ve tried this out.

After I wrote the article, “Phone for Fish” we got inspired to make catfish tacos for Sunday lunch. Perhaps it also had something to do with our 80 degree weather in mid-Nov (what’s the story with that?) We headed over to our local Whole Foods in Venice (it’s the business by the way) and ended up getting the pre-seasoned cajun catfish filets. If you’re wondering if we did our homework and if catfish is one of the good eco fish to eat, be sure to read this whole post because I was indeed a good boy and did my research before purchasing (which means yes, it’s ok). First, the scrumptious recipe:

RECIPE (2 servings):
SALSA:
1 ripe red tomato
2 tsp onion
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
S&P to taste

1 pound catfish filets, cajun seasoned
corn tortillas
1 avocado

SLAW:
2 cups shredded cabbage or prepackaged slaw mix
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp cilantro
4 tbsp olive oil, drizzled
1 tsp. Agave
S&P

DIRECTIONS:
Start by making the cabbage slaw. A lot of fish tacos have a mayo based sauce but as you’ll see here I made more of a vinaigrette which has a much cleaner taste and of course is healthier. In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Taste and season accordingly. Add slaw mix, toss and refrigerate until needed. The flavors will marry while you make the rest of the meal. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t know if you caught the Parade Magazine in Sunday’s LA Times (obviously those of you not in LA didn’t) but it had some good articles about health and food. One in particular caught my eye, “Phone For Fish” which was about using your cell phone to find eco-safe fish. How does it work? Easy. All you do is send a text to 30644 with the message “fish” followed by the name of the fish you are inquiring about. For example, “fish salmon.” I just tried this myself and got a response within one minute. Brilliant.

The company behind this, Blue Ocean Institute, is a non-profit organization dedicated to marine conservation. For those of you who love fish as I do, this will not only help us become more environmentally aware but also more proactive in seafood sustainability. 
Not sure if this number works outside of the States so will one of you across the pond try it out and let me know?

By coincidence one of our culinary networks, Dancing Spoon, also featured an article called “Save the Sushi” last month, which is basically the same idea but geared more towards your sushi grade fish. There’s even a link on this site which you can use to download a sushi guide directly to your cell phone. This is a big thing for us sushi lovers.

It seems there we have no more excuses to be unaware of what’s going on with our seafood. Who knew your cell phone would become a part of food and knowing the quality of what we’re eating?

Finally my hours spent on the various blogging sites are starting to pay off. My latest blogging community, Iowa Avenue, has been a great experience. It’s a healthy living community focused on health, fitness, and weight loss. As I was checking out other members’ profiles I came across a trainer, Douglas Robb aka DR, who’s website was chockablock full of brilliant health and fitness information so I contacted him. Turns out my timing was spot on. He had been thinking of adding a cooking section but had one problem: “My culinary skills are almost non-existant.”

The fact that he liked my work was exciting so of course I jumped at the chance to work with him as a contributor to his blog. Kicking off the weekend, every Friday (starting today!) I will be posting a recipe on Health Habits so be sure to bookmark it! Along with my goodies, you’ll read great info from Doug.

Here’s a little bit about DR and Health Habits:

My name is Douglas Robb, and for a long time now, I have helped others bring health and fitness into their lives. I live in Toronto, Canada. I am married to a fantastic woman. I love to push the limits of my physical fitness and I own and operate an in-home personal training service. Health habits is about: bringing the best information and advice about health & fitness to you. To that end, we will go beyond nutrition and exercise to include motivation, mental health, emotional health, structural balance, athletic performance, health in society, scientific breakthroughs, family health,etc. More than that, Health habits is about using all of this great information to enact a change in your daily habits to bring order to your mind and body.

Sounds like it’s a win-win for all you guys! Health, fitness and food all in one spot!

I decided to treat the missus last week when I got a night off and surprised her with dinner. There was a time when I was the dinner lady but nowadays she’s on dinner duty so I figured I’d get some brownie points by making this simple delicious meal for us.
I love all-in-one pot dishes and this is no exception.

RECIPE:
2 servings

15 medium shrimp – peeled and de-veined (preferably wild caught shrimp)
1 lb. mussels
5 fresh tomatoes (I used romas)-medium diced
small bunch asparagus (10 spears) – cut in 1/3
sprinkle chili flakes
1 cup white wine
handful fresh basil
handful fresh thyme
olive oil
Spaghetti : 2 portions as per directions on box.
S&P

Let me talk about Spaghetti for a sec. I usually use a Quinoa pasta, which is a gluten free pasta. Basically that means unlike regular pasta which can be heavy after eating, this one is much lighter so it doesn’t weigh you down and make you want to take a nap. Plus, they are much lower in carbs/higher in protein than regular pastas.

DIRECTIONS:
Whichever pasta you’re using go ahead and make at any time. For the Quinoa pasta, make per directions on box. Note that Quinoa pasta takes less time than regular pasta and don’t overcook it because without the gluten it will fall apart if overcooked.

Pre-heat medium saute pan on high heat. Wash and clean mussels. Once pan is ready add mussels and carefully add white wine and thyme. Cover and steam for 3-4 mins. or until all the mussels have opened.
Once ready set aside and keep steaming liquid. Reduce heat in pan to medium and drizzle with olive oil. Add chopped tomatoes and saute for 3-4 mins. or until breaking down along with chopped asparagus. Add back remaining steaming liquid along with shrimp. Cover and simmer for 2 -3 mins. Add in enough spaghetti for 2 and mix together. Remove mussels from the shells and add to tomato pasta mixture. Sprinkle in chili flakes for a little kick.
Once ready season to taste and add chopped basil. Serve with grilled french bread (drizzle with olive oil and crisp it up on a grill pan) and a lovely glass of wine. Brilliant. You’ll be king/queen of your castle (for that night at least!)

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.