Baking powder and baking soda are NOT THE SAME. They can not be substituted for one another. They are both leaveners but they are chemically different.

Baking soda is used in recipes that contain acidic ingredients like buttermilk, brown sugar, yogurt, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, or chocolate (except Dutch process). The acid in the recipe reacts with the baking soda, allowing your baked goods to rise. Baking powder is generally used when there is no acidic ingredient in the recipe. Bottom line: baking soda needs an acid; baking powder does not. – Jenny Jones

There’s almost no cleanup with my easy chicken parmesan recipe. The prep is all done on wax paper and if you line your baking sheet with foil like I do,  you won’t have to wash it. This recipe will convince you that frying is not necessary to make a fabulous chicken parmesan. First I pound the chicken to an even thickness of 1/2-inch. That’s to make sure it cooks evenly. Then I dip each piece in flour, beaten egg, and finally coat it with (homemade) bread crumbs that I season myself.

I start with plain breadcrumbs and season them with a store-bought Italian seasoning mix. Then I add parmesan cheese and it makes an delicious breading for these chicken cutlets. They bake for 20 minutes… oh hey… that’s just how long it takes to make my quick and easy marinara sauce, start-to-finish. After 20 minutes, top it with some sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese, bake a few more minutes and… yummm!  I always shred my own cheese because  packaged pre-shredded cheese does not melt as well.

The last time I made this I baked it at 425 for 17 minutes and it was a bit more crispy but it’s not much of a difference. This photo above was baked at 425. Let me know if you try the higher temperature.

Who doesn’t like chicken parmesan? Now you can make a healthier chicken parm topped with part skim mozarella to keep it low fat and light. This is truly Italian comfort food. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Make it overnight. I finally figured out the best way to make whole wheat no knead bread. Start the dough the night before using cold water instead of using the faster method with hot water. The faster method works well with regular bread made with bread flour or all-purpose flour but the faster method using 100% whole wheat flour makes a loaf that was too dense for a lot of people. I happen to love a dense, heavy bread, even those thin-sliced pumpernickel breads that they sell but I think most people will be more satisfied with the overnight method.

But know this: any bread that’s 100% whole wheat, no matter how it’s made, will never be as soft and light as a white bread version. But if you want a healthy, high fiber, nutritious bread, this one takes more time but there’s still nothing to do but wait. There’s no kneading and no shaping. Just start your dough the night before, let it stand at room temperature for 12 hours or more, then continue in the morning.

Here’s the truth about no knead 100% whole wheat bread. It won’t rise as much as the white version. I even took a picture of one I made this morning (started the dough last night) and used a tape measure. The middle of the loaf is no more than 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall but you can see the inside has lots of holes and it has a wonderful crust and soft interior. For anyone trying to avoid white flour, this is still the easiest and best 100% whole wheat bread you can make. You just need a little more time but it’s so worth it. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

A recipe for a simple sandwich? Yes, and I’ll tell you why. This salmon sandwich is healthy enough to have for dinner! Think about it. You have an excellent protein in the fish, whole grains in the bread, and a vegetable in the lettuce. Then there’s the long list of red salmon health benefits from benefiting your heart to your bones. I grew up in Canada. We do salmon sandwiches. I never had a tuna sandwich until I was 25. I always have canned salmon at home so I  often have a salmon sandwich for lunch and when time was short I’ve had one for dinner.

I never expected to be posting a sandwich recipe but I think I have to. I had some friends over recently and wanted to offer something different so I made salmon sandwiches… really simple salmon sandwiches. Salmon & mayo. I wondered if anyone would even want them but was shocked at the reaction. They devoured all my sandwiches (I should have made more) but not only that, they asked for the recipe. I had no recipe. I just mashed the salmon with my light mayo and that was it. I couldn’t even tell them how much mayo – I just eyeballed it.

Then the following week two people told me they couldn’t find the salmon sandwich recipe on my website. If they liked it that much, then I need to share it with everybody. So I measured the amount of mayo and now I have a recipe. It’s the easiest recipe I have ever posted, but one you will probably love just like my friends did. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

With visitors from all over the world (over 170 countries) there was some confusion about the spices in my marinade so I have added a simpler combination of orange & lemon juice, garlic and salt. I made another change too by reducing the cooking time and increasing the oven temperature.

Like most cooks, my recipes evolve over time  because I’m always trying to make things better. That’s why I created a special category in my blog called “Recipe Changes/Fixes” so if anyone is confused, thinking something is different than they remember, they can check on any changes I made in that blog posting.

I’m still working on avoiding the messy job of cleaning the rack. I tried roasting the drumsticks on greased foil but they stick to the foil even when it’s greased. I did find one thing, however, that is a disposable foil pan that allowed me to eliminate the rack.

It’s called EZ Foil by Hefty and these cookie sheets are textured on the bottom and there was no sticking whatsoever, and no greasing necessary. The drumsticks turned over beautifully with no effort at all. I’m guessing not all stores will carry these sheets but wow, I love the textured feature. And oh… good news: I wash and re-use them.

I almost always make these skinless chicken drumsticks on Fridays because they make great weekend snacks, even served cold. Click here for the recipe.   – Jenny Jones

Here are some snack ideas for anyone planning to watch the game on Sunday. Because for me, Super Bowl is really about the snacks, and the commercials… in that order. (I do laundry while they’re playing!) Just click on the photos for the recipes.

Chocolate-Covered Football Strawberries

Deviled Eggs

Nachos from Scratch

Caramelized Onion & Roasted Red Pepper Dip

Good luck to whoever’s playing!!

I just posted the updated recipe for my marble loaf cake that I love so much. I went back to the original way that I was making it, which involved beating egg whites and folding them into the batter at the end. I had eliminated that step to make the recipe easier and less work but after making it a few times, I realized I should have left it alone.

So… good news / bad news. The good news is the loaf is light and fluffy again and the bad news is it takes a little more work – well just the one extra step of beating the egg whites.

If you hate washing pans (who doesn’t?) you will like this. If you do what I do and line the loaf pan completely with foil, you won’t have to wash the pan. And I don’t even grease the foil but you can if you want to. I just peel away the foil from the loaf, after about 15 minutes of cooling. But be careful when putting in the foil and use your knuckles in the corners so it doesn’t tear.

You’ll notice that I beat the egg whites first. When beating egg whites there must be no fat whatsoever in the bowl, not from the yolk or from beaters not are not completely clean. So use your clean beaters on the whites first. Now you can continue using the beaters on the second mixture without having to clean them first. My first recipe had fresh orange zest added and that is still an option. You can add the zest of an orange along with the flour but I like it both ways, with and without the orange zest.

This marble loaf is the first thing I make for company because it makes a beautiful presentation and goes really well with coffee or tea. And people will be amazed when you say, “There’s no butter at all in this cake.” I hope you’ll try my new, updated marble loaf cake. Click here for the new recipe. (Still want the old recipe? Click here) – Jenny Jones

Wait until you experience the taste of fresh apple sauce. You won’t want to buy it any more. Fresh homemade applesauce is so good, I sometimes eat it with a spoon as my dessert. I see lots of recipes with added sugar and stuff, but here’s the thing.  Apples are sweet. They don’t need added sugar so this is the easiest, and healthiest, thing to make. You just cook some apples. Just peel, core, and chop them up and add a little water in the pan to get the cooking started.

You can have fun trying it with different varieties of apples. Not all apples taste the same. Granny Smith are good for baking but to me, not sweet enough for apple sauce. My favorite for sauce is gala but do you have any idea the number of different apple varieties that exist in the world? Seven thousand! You heard me. That’s 7,000!  Here are just a few that I’ve actually seen: Rome, Braeburn, Cortland, Crispin, McIntosh, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Gravenstein, Liberty, Jonamac, Ida Red, Criterion, Winesap, Pippin, Elstar, Cameo, Pink Lady, Spartan, Newton, Sunrise, Empire, Ginger Gold, Red Cort, Northern Spy, Almata, Gold Russet, Maiden’s Blush, Crimson Gold, Dorsett, Honey Crisp, Honey Gold, Winesap, and Anna (I grow my own Anna apples). I get to keep the ones the squirrels don’t eat! 

The point is, you can  come up with a lot of different flavors of apple sauce depending on the type of apple, or use a combination of different varieties. Have fun with this simple, easy healthy snack. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

I always wondered if cabbage rolls made with red cabbage would turn out and now I can report on my experiment. I already knew from eating lots of cabbage salads that red cabbage is a little tougher than the green one. That turned out to be true even when the leaves are softened for cabbage rolls. I boiled the whole head of red cabbage for ten minutes, just like I do the green one for my cabbage rolls. The leaves didn’t seem soft enough so I put them back in for another few minutes and they seemed a little softer. I then proceeded as usual, cutting off the thick spine to make them easy to roll.

The main difference occured when rolling. I made both green and red ones so I could really compare and the green leaves rolled up beautifully and didn’t tear or break. But some of the red ones tended to break and crack so I had to patch the crack and then roll up my golabki. So the red leaves were a little harder to work with but I must say they do look good.

And the taste? Wonderful, just like the green ones. So my summary is… if you are making cabbage rolls for the first time, stick with the green cabbage. The soft leaves will be easier to roll and you will be confident in making them again. If you make them in red, just be prepared for a little extra work if they tear but that can happen with green leaves too. When it happens, you remove the filling, lay an extra piece of a cabbage leaf over the tear, fully covering and overlapping the tear, then add your filling and roll it up.

Cabbage rolls made with red cabbage make a beautiful presentation and once they are cooked, the red rolls are just as tender as the green ones. So there is my report. I will definitely make red cabbage rolls again if only for the reaction I’m sure to get when I put them on the table.

My Polish cabbage rolls recipe has been very popular and I’m thrilled with the number of people who have made and love them. Over 1/4 million people (update February 2021 –  over 15 million!) If you haven’t made stuffed cabbage yet, click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Are you getting enough fiber? Well now you can! Just make my super high fiber breakfast brownies made with every kind of fiber I could think of. I make them with oats, high fiber bran cereal, whole wheat flour, prunes and even olive oil, so there’s no white flour and no butter. Did I mention the chocolate chips?? You do know that dark chocolate is good for the heart so use the darkest chocolate chips you can find. Now let’s talk about the ingredients you will need:

Oats – I use regular Quaker Rolled Oats in the round carton.

Flour – I use whole wheat pastry flour, any brand I can find.

Cereal – I use Kellog’s All Bran Original cereal, which has 10 grams of fiber in 1/2 cup. If you can’t find it, look for an equally high-fiber cereal.

Oil – I use extra light olive oil but you can use a different oil if you like.

Chocolate Chips – I use either semi-sweet chocolate chips or I chop up some of a 62% Scharffen Berger chocolate bar.

Prunes – This is important. I use Sunsweet Premium Prunes in a can and they are very soft and moist. I even took a picture to show you how moist they are and their moisture is key to keeping these chewy bars moist. If you chop up regular dried prunes, the bars will be dry.

If you can’t find these prunes in a can, you can pour boiling water over regular dried prunes, cover, and let them stand for 15 minutes. Then drain and chop. I experimented with it and they come out softer for sure, but not quite as soft as the canned ones. But it’s the best I can come up with for my international cooks who can’t find these American products.

This recipe is similar to my giant breakfast cookies with a few changes. I call them breakfast brownies but you can call them prune bars or high fiber bars. Fiber is beneficial for many reasons.  Besides preventing constipation, fiber can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease. But to eat fiber it has to taste good and that’s where I come in. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones