Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:13 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz! If you haven’t tried one of Catherine’s recipes yet, today is the day! Every recipe she gives me is simply amazing. These Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies are to die for. And they are so easy.
Catherine (second from right in this photo of Gorgeous Katz’s) is married to NuVal visionary, Dr. David Katz. Together they have 5 (count ‘em!) children.
It’s hard to believe that Catherine and I have been collaborating on this blog/recipe project for almost 2 years now. Where does the time go? Anyway, she always seems to send me the perfect recipe. This time was no exception.
This cookie recipe has only 4 ingredients! Actually, Catherine informed me that the original recipe called for baking soda and salt, but that she eliminated them to make it more nutritious. She’s absolutely right. You don’t need those ingredients.
Ingredients
3 cups Almond Meal/Flour (NuVal score of 77)
6 Tablespoons canola oil (NuVal score of 24)
6 Tablespoons agave nectar (NuVal score of 1)
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (NuVal score of 8).
This was my first time buying almond meal/flour. To keep the product fresher longer, it is suggested that you store it in the refrigerator.
I’ve had this agave nectar for a while. I was glad to put it to some use!
Directions
Measure the 4 ingredients into a bowl and mix them together.
So easy!
Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes.
I found that 9 minutes was the magic number for my oven.
These were ooey, goeey and perfect! And they keep fresh for days. We made these on a Sunday and they still tasted just as good by Thursday. (It was kind of amazing that we still had some left!) They are soooooo good. You have to try this recipe!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Cooking with Catherine Katz
Tags: Almond Flour, Bob's Red Mill, Cookies
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 07:25 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries.
Just about every month, I road test one of Catherine’s recipes in my own kitchen. Catherine, for those of you who are new here, is married to NuVal visionary, Dr. David Katz. All of her recipes are nutritious and amazingly delicious too. Everything I’ve made has been dinner-party-worthy.
This time, I wanted to choose a great Thanksgiving recipe. And I wanted to continue with recipes featuring Autumn Vegetables. I found the perfect recipe in The Flavor Full Diet, Dr. Katz’s cookbook that he wrote with Catherine.
This Apple-Butternut Squash Soup can be served as a first course for the big meal. Last Thanksgiving, I actually served Catherine’s Pumpkin Soup on Thanksgiving Day. I love that soup recipe too!
I know that so many of you have plans for a pre-Thanksgiving-dinner workout. There are Turkey Trots and road races galore on Thanksgiving morning. So you might be looking for a light lunch to fill the void post-workout. But nothing so heavy as to ruin your appetite for the big meal later on. This soup is for you.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (NuVal score of 93)
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 pounds butternut squash, chopped (NuVal score of 100!!)
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks (NuVal score of 96)
3 cups fat-free chicken broth (College Inn Light and Fat Free Chicken Broth, NuVal score of 2)
3/4 cup apple cider (Most apple ciders score under a 10)
1 1/2 cups fat-free buttermilk (I could only find a lowfat buttermilk at my grocery store. Garelick Farms Lowfat Buttermilk, NuVal score of 44)
Directions
- Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, add the onion and curry, and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender.
- When the onion is tender, add the salt, squash, apples, and broth and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat, add the apple cider, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the squash and apples aver very tender. Remove from the heat and let stand for a few minutes.
- Pour the soup in batches into a blender or food processer and puree until smooth. Return to the pot, add the buttermilk, and simmer briefly to heat through.
Note: I used my Stickblender for this step. I added the buttermilk.
And blended everything together.
I ♥ my StickBlender. It’s one of those items I would want to have with me if stranded on a desert island. Even if there was no power.
Ahhhhh! Delicious!
As Catherine noted, this soup is so creamy, even though it’s very low in fat. She also recommends refrigerating before pureeing – to really intensify the sweet flavor of the apples. I found it to be a great make-ahead. I love to bring soup to work for lunch.
Thanks to Catherine for another amazingly easy, nutritious and delicious recipe!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Soup
Tags: butternut squash soup, Catherine Katz, David Katz
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 07:00 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz! For those who are new here, Catherine is wife of NuVal visionary, Dr. David Katz.
She and I connected up back in the Spring of 2010 and I’ve been making her recipes here on A Better Bag of Groceries ever since. Catherine is a fabulous chef and I have learned a lot from her recipes. She gives me a lot of behind the scenes coaching – from nutritious substitutions to new cooking techniques – and it has served me well. I really enjoy passing these great recipes on to all of you!
Last week, on a busy school night, we made this Apple Prune Chicken. It was amazing! I told Catherine that I rank this recipe up there in my top three favorite Catherine Katz recipes! You could serve this for a dinner party. (By the way – I did that with another of my top 3 Catherine Katz recipes: Pistachio Lemon Chicken. I should also invite some friends over when I next make Pan-Seared Tilapia with Lemon Chives and Capers.)
Since apples are in season, Catherine suggested that I try this favorite recipe of hers. In her words, “This is an absolute delight. The apples and prunes are a perfect combination.” She was 100% correct about that! Even my kids raved about this recipe. Unfortunately, my husband had a late meeting and missed eating this meal with us. So, the next morning, my daughter insisted that he take some leftovers for his lunch. “Dad, this chicken is so good and I made it!” My husband did take it for lunch (how could he refuse?) and he loved it too.
Apple Prune Chicken
4 servings
Ingredients
3 teaspoons olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
4 split chicken breasts, bone-in, skin removed (about 2 lbs) (NuVal score of 31)
¼ cup organic pastry or oat bran flour (NuVal score of 91 for Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, thickly sliced (NuVal score of 91)
1 medium apple, rinsed, not peeled, sliced (NuVal score of 96)
1 ½ cup 100% apple juice or cider (NuVal score of 7 or 8 for most refrigerated apple ciders, even if there is no sugar added)
½ cup pitted prunes (Sunsweet Pitted Prunes, NuVal score of 91)
- Preheat oven to 385º F.
- Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle with less than one-fourth teaspoon of the salt.
Place flour on a flat plate and dip each piece of chicken in the flour on both sides. 
Set aside. 
Discard extra flour.
- Drizzle two teaspoons of the olive oil in a large baking pan over medium to high heat and briefly sauté the floured chicken on both sides long enough (four to five minutes) to brown them slightly but leaving the chicken uncooked.
You’ll be tempted to add more oil here, but DON’T. This is all it needs, really. The golden top will come later in the oven.
- Remove the slightly browned chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Drizzle the remaining one teaspoon of olive oil in the same baking pan and sauté the sliced garlic and apples for one to two minutes.
- Add the apple juice or cider, prunes and remaining salt to the pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for five to eight minutes.
- Place the chicken back in the baking pan with the apple-prune-garlic mixture. Spoon some of the liquid over the chicken and place the baking pan in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, uncovered. Turn each piece once and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes until the chicken is tender and the sauce is thick and glistening.
- Crush the prunes in the pan, so they become part of the sauce. (Optional)
Per serving: 328 calories, 7 grams fat (1 gram saturated fat, 30 grams protein, 36 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 76 milligrams cholesterol, 654 milligrams sodium
Catherine’s little trick for this recipe:
“I used prunes in this recipe to create a luscious rich glaze. As long as they don’t have added sugar or high fructose corn syrup, you can use dried fruit to achieve a fat-free richness that is finger-licking delicious!”
Melissa’s Boneless Chicken version:
As you can see from my photos, I opted to use boneless chicken for this recipe. I wasn’t sure if it would come out as tender and juicy – but it did! They key is to follow Catherine’s steps precisely when it comes to browning. Also, I used a Schlemmertoph clay pot to bake the chicken (again, because it was boneless). I find that the clay pot keeps everything moist.
No matter how you choose to make this recipe, it’s perfect for fall. Thanks to Catherine for another wonderful recipe!
Twitter Party Today!
NuVal is hosting its first Twitter party today at 12 Noon Eastern time. It’s going to be quite the event and we’re giving away a whole bag of groceries with high NuVal scores. If you’d like to participate in the event, but you’ve never been on Twitter before, here are some tips for joining in:
- The easiest way to participate in this event is through a free software program such as TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com). Before the party, it is recommended that you download and install TweetDeck.
- Once TweetDeck is installed, you will be asked to put in your Twitter account information. If you don’t have an account, you can create one at www.twitter.com. You will need a Twitter account to participate in the Twitter Party.
- In TweetDeck, click on the “+” sign on the upper left portion of the screen. This will add a new column. A new window in TweetDeck should open. In the left column, make sure that “search” is selected.” In the search field on the right, type in “nuvalparty” (no quotes) and click on the “search” button.
- A new column should now open in TweetDeck, giving a full listing of all recent Twitter posts that all use the “nuvalparty” hashtag. You can now follow the entire party by reading through this column.
- To make a post in the party thread, simply create a tweet (either through the Twitter.com site or by using the “compose update” feature on TweetDeck). Always remember to end every tweet with #nuvalparty to ensure it is included in the party.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz
Tags: apple recipes, chicken recipes, prune recipes
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 07:17 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz! Catherine, creator of my favorite recipes that are both nutritious and incredibly scrumptious, happens to be married to NuVal visionary Dr. David Katz. Catherine first started contributing to this blog almost a year and a half ago! I’ve been featuring one of her recipes just about monthly ever since.
David and Catherine just returned from a family vacation with their five children in Hawaii.
I told her that she should open the Katz Modeling Agency!
Seriously!
Back in the states, the weather has been turning cooler, so I was looking for a good Fall recipe. All my friends, it seemed, were making roast chicken. It was all over everyone’s facebook wall posts. I found a fabulous recipe while flipping through the Flavor Full Diet, David and Catherine’s cookbook.
Yum! This looked perfect. Except, we could not find currants anywhere! So, we used dried blueberries instead.
Ingredients:
1 medium roasting chicken (NuVal score of 28)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced (NuVal score of 93)
1 cup red wine
1 cup fat-free chicken broth (College Inn, Light and Fat Free Chicken Broth, NuVal score of 2)
6 Tablespoons dried currants
2 Tablespoons rinsed and drained capers (Alessi capers, NuVal score of 11)
2 teaspoons crushed dried rosemary
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Remove all of the bottom skin and as much of the skin on the sides as you can with kitchen scissors, leaving only the skin on top. Lightly salt and pepper the cavity and place the chicken in a roasting pan.
- Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, or until soft. (Do not add more oil; the onions will “sweat” perfectly with this amount and don’t need to brown at this point. They will caramelize in the oven.
- Add the wine, broth, currants (or berries), capers, and rosemary, bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Pour the liquid over the chicken and bake for 1 hour, or until the sauce thickens and becomes a glaze. I opted to use my clay pot, because I love my clay pot!
The Verdict
My kids loved this dish! We all did! Of course, we made this on a Sunday, when we had the time to roast the chicken. And it made the whole house smell so good! Also, we then used the remaining chicken to make a homemade chicken matzoh ball soup. Yummy!
Alternative, More Nutritious Recipe
Whenever I embark on making a “Catherine” recipe, she and I always talk first. We decide what is seasonal or she makes a recommendation for me. So, this time, I emailed her to let her know that I would be making the roast chicken that I found in her cookbook. Well, Catherine tried to email me to suggest that I try her more nutritious update on this recipe. However, her email got stuck in my junk mail for almost a week! I thought that perhaps she was still in Hawaii! So, I went ahead and made the whole chicken. Well, anyway, here is Catherine’s alternative recipe, which I will try next. It also looks fantastic!
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! It always gets rave reviews! I have tweaked it a little since we published the book, both to make it a little more nutritious by using chicken breasts only, and easier to throw in the oven and “forget about it” which I am sure you can appreciate!!
So, what I do is get 4-5 chicken breast which I dredge in a little bit of whole wheat pastry flour and saute in canola oil until just golden but not cooked–it should still be raw–then I place them in a roasting pan and pour the cooked juices over them (wine, currants, caramelized onions chicken broth… exactly as directed in the original recipe) and bake for about 45 minutes.
Question of the Day
What are you craving to make, now that the weather is turning cooler?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Dinner Recipes, Dr. David Katz
Tags: fall recipes, roast chicken
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 07:11 AM
Welcome to Cooking with Catherine Katz, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries!
Catherine is married to NuVal visionary, Dr. David Katz. Catherine and David just returned from a week-long river rafting trip in southern Utah with their extended family to celebrate David’s parents 50th wedding anniversary.
The Katz Family, including David's parents (center)
What a great way to celebrate 50 years of marriage!
David and Gabe
Catherine told me, “David’s parents are indeed such amazing people, so youthful in spirit and body so we had a fantastic time.”
Catherine and the girls
Back in Massachusetts, I had planned some family time on a much smaller scale. Our little family of four spends a lot of time at our Pool Club on the weekends. We choose it because it is only 15 minutes from our house, so we can get our errands done and still fit in lots of family fun without a lot of hassle. There is so much to do at the Pool Club: tennis, basketball, baseball, swimming (of course), diving – that we stay for hours. However, I wanted to avoid another “Snack Bar Dinner.” While our Pool Club does a good job of trying to provide some healthy alternatives to the typical hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken nuggets, we’ve sort of exhausted them already. This time, I wanted to bring dinner. So, I told the kids that we could stay at the Pool Club all the way until closing time as long as they let Mom serve dinner out of the cooler. And then I asked Catherine for help!
As always, Catherine had the perfect solution. Shrimp Pasta Primavera with Basil Pesto. This recipe rocks!! Mark this as a favorite now. Print it out. Bookmark this page. It was fabulous! We ate if for dinner Saturday night. We ate it for lunch on Sunday. I had it for lunch on Monday. So GOOD!
You can also find it on page 209 of Dr. Katz’s book, The Flavor-Full Diet.
It serves 4 (but we found that it made a lot!)
Ingredients
40 frozen medium easy-peel shrimp (NuVal score of 75)
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (NuVal score of 100)
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese (Nuval score of 23 for Belgioioso)
3 Tablespoons pine nuts (NuVal score of 46)
2 cloves garlic (NuVal score of 91)
1/4 teaspoon salt (NuVal score of 1)
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
10 ounces Hodgson Mill Organic Whole Wheat Spirals with Milled Flaxseed (NuVal score of 91)
1 bag (16 ounces) frozen chopped vegetables of your choice (Food Club Frozen Mixed Vegetables, NuVal score of 100)
- Quickly thaw the shrimp by rinsing in cold water. Peel, pat dry and set aside.
Note: I mistakenly purchased an “already cooked” shrimp for this recipe, and it still came out great.
- In a food processor, mince the basil, cheese, pine nuts, garlic and salt.
Note: I mistakenly thought I had pine nuts in my pantry. But I didn’t! So, I substituted with walnuts (NuVal score of 82). They worked! Also, I discovered that the basil that I purchased for this recipe did not quite yield the 2 cups that I needed. So I supplemented with some frozen basil that I had in my freezer.
This is one of my favorite products!
Basil ice cubes!
My daughter was a huge help with the making of the pesto.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and drizzle in 1/3 cup of the oil with the motor running. Set aside.
Basically, I poured the oil while my daughter pulsed the food processor. She thought this was soooo cool.
- Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water.
- Transfer the pasta to a big bowl
- Meanwhile, lightly coast a cast-iron grill pan with olive oil spray and place over high heat.
- When the pan is very hot, add the shrimp and grill for 2 – 3 minutes on each side (do not overcook).
Note: Because I was using an already-cooked shrimp, I just grilled for about one minute – just for flavor.
- Add the shrimp to the bowl.
- Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon of oil to the pan and saute the frozen vegetables for a few minutes.
- Add the vegetables and pesto to the pasta and shrimp.
- Stir to blend.
I chilled this fabulous dinner in my favorite salad carrying container until it was time to head to the Pool Club.
And we had a lovely poolside dinner that night: Shrimp Pasta Primavera with Basil Pesto, Green Salad with homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette, and red grapes for dessert.
I didn’t think it was possible, because Catherine’s recipes have all been amazing, but I think I now have a new favorite Cooking With Catherine recipe! Thanks, Catherine!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Pasta
Tags: Catherine Katz, Dr. David Katz, Pasta, shrimp, Summer
