Not eating enough vegetables? Here’s one way to eat a little more. Besides adding a bit of nutrition to this easy cake, zucchini also makes it beautifully moist. This yummy cake is made without butter, only using vegetable oil or extra light olive oil instead. Most cakes tend to get overdone around the edges so I recommend using a cake strip. Click here to learn more.
Have some fun and serve this “chocolate cake” to your family and ask them to guess what’s in it. Nobody would guess zucchini. I’m always finding new ways to bake without butter so the only butter here is a little in the frosting if you choose to use it. As for this delicious cake, you can just call it what it is – a delicious, moist, and a little bit healthier chocolate cake. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Roasting vegetables is just about the easiest way to cook them. I love this dish so much, probably because roasting brings out the sugar in vegetables so they are sweeter, and in many cases, have more nutrients than they do raw. Today I used red potatoes, sweet potatoes, red & yellow peppers, green beans, Brussels sprouts, red onions, and carrots. I added some olive oil, salt & pepper and roasted them at 400 along with my pork tenderloin. Here they are after roasting…
This may look like a lot but between the two of us there was not one piece of vegetable left on this tray. We usually save some of the sweet potato slices for dessert because they are so sweet after roasting. With all these beautiful colors, the antioxidants here are enormous. I have two recipes you might like. One is just the roasted vegetables as a side dish. The other is what I made tonight, my fabulous pork loin dinner. (there’s no pork left either!)
Pork is one of the leanest meats you can find, and so delicious! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
If you know anyone recovering from an injury or surgery, make them soup using these vegetables: carrot, potato, sweet potato, red pepper, broccoli, spinach and add some lima beans. By researching, I learned that there are certain nutrients that can help heal the body from an injury, a wound, or surgery. The most essential are vitamins A, C, and E along with zinc, calcium, potassium, and protein. So I created this recipe using ingredients highest in these nutrients for a powerful healing soup. It’s also a delicious vegetable soup and any vegetable soup will have health benefits, but using these specific ingredients provide the best concentrate of what is needed by the body to heal.
I make this soup using my own homemade chicken broth. Chicken broth has its own health benefits and it’s the best liquid to use. Vegetable broth is also a good choice but even if you use plain water, all the wound healing benefits will still be there. If someone is not able to eat due to a closed jaw or dental surgery, this soup can be pureed to drink, or pureed and thinned to drink with a straw.
One more food with excellent healing enzymes is fresh pineapple (not canned – only fresh has enzymes). So the most beneficial meal to help recover would be a big bowl of wound healing soup with some fresh pineapple for dessert.
By the way, even if you’re not trying to heal, this is an incredibly healthy vegetable soup full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. If you want to use my chicken soup as a base, click here for the recipe. You can make the stock the day before and after it’s refrigerated, remove the fat from the top and proceed with this vegetable soup. Once you have the stock, my wound healing vegetable soup takes just 30 minutes to make. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Flour must be aerated before measuring because it often settles in the bag or container making it heavy and compact, resulting in too much flour being measured. Aerating basically means fluffing it up and is not the same as sifting. Flour should not be sifted before measuring unless the recipe states to do so. Otherwise sifting will result in too little flour being measured.
If you dip into flour without aerating, you will be getting too much flour and your dough will be too dry. To aerate flour you simply stir it around with a spoon before measuring. To measure, be sure to use a flat-topped dry measuring cup. You can see how I aerate flour in my Quick and Easy Chocolate Cake video at the one minute mark: Click here to see it.
After aerating, there are two ways to measure the flour: 1) Scoop & Level – Gently scoop the flour up with a spoon and sprinkle it into your measuring cup until it’s mounded above the rim. Do not tap the cup or the container of flour. Finally, level off the excess flour with the back of a knife. 2) Dip & Level – Gently dip your measuring cup into the flour until it’s mounded above the rim and level off the excess flour with the back of a knife. In my kitchen, a cup of flour weighs 4 1/2 ounces (130 grams).
They are low in sugar with as many diced apples as I could squeeze in. The top is the best part because I sprinkle it with a little cinnamon & sugar before baking. I used a mix of Granny Smith and gala apples and I was out of buttermilk so I used a mixture of milk and plain yogurt (about 1/2 & 1/2) and it worked great.
There’s no butter in these lightly sweet, delicious muffins, but they don’t need it. Anything baked with apples is always going to be good. It’s apples! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Blueberries were on sale yesterday so I made muffins. These are part whole wheat, part white, and I followed my lemon-blueberry muffin recipe but without the lemon. (I forgot to buy a lemon!) So no lemon peel and no lemon glaze and instead of the glaze I just sprinkled the tops with a little sugar for a nice, sweet, crispy top. Oh, and I was out of buttermilk so I mixed up some milk and yogurt, about 1/2 and 1/2 and it worked great. Imagine if I had some lemon yogurt!
We had these delicious whole wheat blueberry muffins as part of our breakfast and I’m planning another one for dessert after my beef stew. Blueberries are called “brain food” for all the antioxidant benefits they provide to help protect against Alzheimer’s and other diseases. So while they’re still affordable, I recommend eating blueberries any way you can… like my blueberry pancakes, coffee cake, or my fancy lemon-blueberry bundt cake. To make these easy whole wheat muffins or the lemon-blueberry muffins, click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I made one of my top ten favorite recipes today: Orange Sesame Chicken. It’s fast, healthy, and so much better than restaurant orange chicken, which is usually batter fried. My lean chicken is stir fried in 2 teaspoons of oil and made with freshly squeezed orange juice and toasted sesame oil. If you haven’t tasted (and smelled!) toasted sesame oil, it’s unbelievably fragrant. And bonus: this recipe takes 20 minutes. But that’s not even why I like it so much. It is deeeelicous!
If you’re wondering, here is the entire top ten list of my own personal favorite recipes, the ones I make the most:
Granola Bars
Tortillas
Chicken Pot Pie
Multigrain No Knead Bread
Giant Breakfast Cookies
Orange Sesame Chicken
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Cabbage Rolls
Pork Loin Dinner
Deviled Eggs
Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone and if you want to try my orange sesame chicken, click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I’m always excited when I see a photo come in. It feels good to see that my recipes are working for everyone, everywhere. And it’s always nice to see where everyone is from. Please send your photo to: YourPhotos@JennyCanCook.com
LISA MADE MY 20-MINUTE PIZZA DOUGH “Hi Jenny, Just thought you might like to see my pork and cranberry pasties which I made with the Pizza Dough. I also make calzone with them. It is a cracker of a recipe. Thank you for all the gorgeous recipes, Sue in Wales, UK.”
LISA MADE MY WOUND HEALING SOUP “I made this soup tonight. Thank you for the recipe, Jenny. SO GOOD! (btw, I made it with homemade chicken broth. yum)“
SABINE MADE MY NO KNEAD BREAD “Dear Mrs Jones. Today I made the “no knead bread” in the Dutch Oven. It smells so fine, it is so hard to wait till we can eat it. At the moment it is too warm. Thanks for an other yummy recipe. A lot of regards over the Atlantic, Sabine.”
LEIGH MADE MY NO KNEAD CRUSTY ROLLS “Hi Jenny ! Just found your site yesterday, and I love it ! I made your crusty rolls (subbed 1 cup of whole wheat and added 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten) – they turned out great ! Thank you ! Leigh”
*Leigh, look at my paczki, black forrest brownies, or creamy carrots photos. I have the same plate! – jenny
MARY MADE MY GRANOLA BARS “This is the second time that I made these delicious bars. I used unsweetened coconut and no chocolate. Wonderful. I added all the ingredients then divided by 16 cubes to arrive at a calorie count of 175 for each. Thank you Jenny!”
JANE MADE MY NO KNEAD ROLLS “Hi Jenny I made these two days ago. My wife has been trying to find Kaiser rolls from her childhood for so long we had given up. They were from Kazinof’s Bakery in New England. I think they sold the business and somehow the taste and texture of the bulky rolls changed. I bet we have bought a hundred different kinds of rolls trying to find one she likes for nearly 40 years. I found your recipe for no knead leave on the counter over night bread. I wish you could have seen her face when I offered her one of these. Honestly she was in heaven. I don’t think I have seen her smile so happily since Bush left the White House. Thanks. Life is good. 🙂 “
SABINE MADE MY MEAT SAUCE & POPPY SEED ROLL “Dear Mrs Jones. I bought the Dutch Oven. First cooking – meatsauce. I gave a rest of champignons and carrots and pepperoni into the sauce. It was delicious for our dinner today. Next time the ‘no knead bread’.” Kindly regards. Sabine from Germany.”
“I also made the Poppy Seed Roll. It tastes fantastic. This will be our breakfast tomorrow. Lots of greetings. Sabine from Germany.”
MURIEL MADE MY DUTCH BABY PANCAKE ” I made your dutch baby pancake for mothersday!! It was delicious, thank you! 🙂 “
DENNIS MADE MY NO KNEAD CRUSTY ROLLS “No knead crusty rolls, perfection with butter.”
