 Hi everyone and welcome for Recipe for the Cure. My name is Julie and this is my sous-chef Robin and we are both dietitians here at John Thorough Cancer Center, part of Hackensack Meridian Health Network. So today we are going to be doing the first part of our series. We're going to be making three delicious recipes. If you've ever joined us prior to COVID, we used to do in-person cooking studios live every single Friday. We would cook new recipes, we would taste test them, and of course we would talk all things nutrition. So today we are bringing that back and we're doing it in a live safe event. All right so we are going to get started first with this turkey meatloaf. So we're going to start with a veggie packed turkey meatloaf and then we are going to make a creamy corn polenta and we are going to finish off with some blistered green beans. So we've got three delicious and nutritious recipes for you. We're going to get lots of vegetables. We're going to be choosing a lean protein and then we're going to cook a delicious meal. If you do make any of these recipes at home or you are cooking alongside with us, make sure to post it on social media and use the hashtag recipe for the cure so that we can see. We love seeing everybody get involved in this. So starting with the turkey meatloaf, let's just talk about the ingredients that we're going to be using. So the vegetables that we're going to be using are zucchini, a carrot, and then an onion which is already graded right here. In terms of the protein so we're going to be using turkey instead of the traditional ground beef that most meatloafs would have because we're trying to include more lean proteins in our diet. And then we're going to use oatmeal and egg to bind it and then in terms of flavor we're going to use garlic, salt, pepper, we're going to throw in a little Worcestershire sauce and just a little bit of ketchup so it's a super simple but it's a super delicious recipe. So we're going to get started first with grading these veggies. Robin if you don't mind pass that over to you. Pass the baton. And I'm going to start with the zucchini. So one of the reasons that I like this recipe so much is because zucchini grows quite abundantly in the summer. If you go to any farmers markets or grocery stores you're probably going to see it everywhere that you go. And zucchini is actually an excellent source of potassium. So I know a lot of times we think that potassium banana but zucchini is just as good of a source of potassium. So in the summer months this is a staple in my house so we use zucchini all the time. Like I said it grows so abundantly it's easy to find. One of my favorite recipes is zucchini noodles aka zoodles or whatever else you want to call it but it's a great way to incorporate more vegetables into your meal. You can mix it with pasta or just eat it on its own. My favorite way to cook it is just with some olive oil a little garlic and then throwing in some chicken or shrimp on top. All right I don't want to chop my fingers off. I have a lot of injuries on my hands when cooking. Okay so that's about it. I'm going to get this turned on. So we're going to cook this on medium heat and I'm just going to add a little bit of olive oil. I know the recipe says about a teaspoon. Give or take a little bit. I'm going to pour that. And then of course we need to add some garlic. So you can absolutely use fresh cloves of garlic. I think one of the easiest kitchen shortcuts is to buy the pre-minced garlic. You can keep it in the fridge. It's super easy to use. About one teaspoon of this pre-minced garlic is going to be equivalent to one clove of garlic. So add that in there. There we go. Very strong smell to it. So we're going to get that going and then we are going to add in these vegetables. So you want to add that. So this is about maybe a cup? Yeah I would say it's about three quarters or so. We're going to add in zucchini. So all these veggies are going to cook down quite significantly. There's a lot of water in there so when you saute them it reduces quite a lot. So this is like I said pre-graded. It's not the easiest thing to grate onions. So if you do have a food processor at home you can absolutely just use a food processor to blend all of this. So Robin is going to get started off with a creamy polenta. We're going to combine milk and water and we're going to bring that to a low boil and then that's going to take about 15-20 minutes to cook once it's in. You can hear the sizzle here and you can smell the garlic. It's even more fragrant now. You can see with this you know there's a lot of different colors already and this is just in one dish. So the more colors we can add into our meals the better. Every different color fruit and vegetable is going to have different vitamins and minerals in it. So for only focusing on getting let's say the greens or the reds we're missing out on all the other nutrients that the other different fruits and vegetables contain. The bright orange color that you can see here so that is from the beta carotene and beta carotene is what's needed for our bodies to make vitamin A. I know vitamin A a lot of times we think iHealth but it also is really important for room healing and even immunity so a great way to get those veggies in. That looks pretty already. Doesn't it and it smells good. So meanwhile over here I know I had mentioned that we're going to be using oats so these are quick cooking oats and you have to use the quick cook. So we're going to add 1 fourth cup of broth to this. This is chicken broth you can use vegetable broth you can even use water if you want to it really won't make a huge difference but we're just going to mix this up and soften the oats and we're going to let it sit here until we're ready to mix everything together. So that's in place of traditional bread crumbs. Yep and this is a really good way too for us to increase the fiber. So oats are a great example of soluble fiber and that's what helps you to feel full and it helps to slow down digestion. So anyway we can get more fiber in our diets I think it's always good and in this recipe you're going to be getting it from the vegetables and you're going to be getting it from the oats. Okay do you cook with a lot of zucchini in the summer or is it just me? I do I do because I do grow it in my garden and you know when it comes it doesn't it doesn't stop coming no it's everywhere yeah. I grew up in a small town in Warwick a little bit away from here and I remember in the summer we'd go past all the local farms and they'd always have mounds and mounds of zucchini sitting on the side of the road that you could pick up so we always had it growing up and it's still to this day one of my favorites. I have been known to make midnight runs to people's homes and just dump them on different stacks. Yeah it's quite abundant. Okay so this is cooking down very nicely I'm just going to get this set up over here and we are going to start mixing together this meatloaf right here. So when we mix this together one thing that we want to know is that we don't want to over mix it we want to mix it just enough so that everything's combined but not so much that we're kind of creating a sticky paste. These are about to be done um Robin if you don't mind just stirring these while I mix everything we're going to start mixing together everything else. So like I said we're using lean ground turkey so this is 93% lean I believe I'm going to just slide that into the bowl. So next we are going to add the Worcestershire sauce. So Worcestershire sauce I'm glad I said that right it's about one and a half teaspoons of Worcestershire dump that in there and then right here we're going to be using ketchup so push that off. This again is about one and a half teaspoons of ketchup. So I grew up and we actually always used ketchup not just in the meatloaf but on top of the meatloaf. I know other people sometimes use barbecue sauce or other sauces on top but in this recipe we're going to do it just like how I used to make it and we are going to use ketchup on top of the meatloaf as well. So next we're going to add a little bit of salt and pepper. I pre-measured this again this is about a half a teaspoon of salt a half a teaspoon of pepper and you can adjust again of course to your own personal preference so we're going to mix that in all right and it's coming together so nicely now so we are going to crack this egg. This recipe calls for half of an egg I know Robin was talking to me earlier and she's saying that it would make a great recipe to double and keep in the freezer for a really easy weeknight meal. So if you are doubling it use a whole egg if not we're going to kind of guesstimate with this but crack this all right and I'm just going to really quickly beat this a little bit to combine it all right that looks good and we are going to add about half I say that's about half then we are going to add the oats that have been sitting here for a few minutes we want the oats to sit for about five minutes give or take pour that in there and then the last ingredient that we're going to be adding is the vegetables I think those look good yeah I do all right I'm going to steal this so now all we're going to do is we are going to start mixing this together you can absolutely use your hands as well just make sure you wash them first we're going to use this the veggies are kind of hot right now so we're going to just mix it with the spoon and this is the entire recipe so I told you it was super simple it makes for a really really easy weeknight dinner and as I had mentioned before meatloaf is something that freezes really well both as a whole meatloaf or if you want to take it a step further you can even cut it into slices individually and freeze it like that I know growing up we did that quite often you know busy nights you always want to have a healthy dinner to come home to so this is coming together very nicely there's so much color in this again like I said the more color we can add into our meals the better off we are I always consider that a gift from the freezer when I open it up and I find a frozen meatloaf in there it's like okay we can eat tonight it definitely is I'm all about freezer frozen dinners make it once or cook once eat twice okay so that looks about good you can see it there it's all nice and uh the right consistency all right now last step of this we are going to use a baking dish right here I'm going to spray this with a little bit of oil to make sure it doesn't stick it's good enough and all we are going to do is pour this right into it gosh in that glass pan you can see all the color it just looks healthy doesn't it it does it does this is a really great recipe too for families I've given it to quite a few friends who have kids and everyone says it's a huge crowd pleaser so we are going to shape this a little bit into a meatloaf doesn't need to be perfect and then we are going to throw it in the oven so we are going to cook this at about 375 degrees um and it's going to go in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes but we are going to check the temperature before it comes out to make sure that it's cooked through so this is what it's going to look like before it goes in the oven I'm going to take it over now throw it in and it's going to be ready in a little less than an hour so I'm going to be making the creamy polenta so what we have in our pot already is some water and uh and we are using whole milk in this recipe um it's just a little bit richer and a little bit more satisfying that way um the turkey meatloaf is a low fat so you know we're talking about some balance so in making polenta I think the key here and I make it as often as I can um I love the creaminess I love corn um and it's just a nice way to bring corn into your diet in uh the winter months so but the key to it is lump control is how I call it so you want to make sure that the uh that the liquid is boiling and then use your whisk okay so you want to make sure that as you're sprinkling the polenta into your boiling liquid that you're keeping everything moving you want the the grains to dance on the surface now this recipe is a little bit of a cheat I think in terms of lumps because we're actually adding corn and I do want to say that in the summertime uh you absolutely should use fresh corn on this you don't even have to cook it get a cob cut the kernels off and toss them in here and you have something that you just cannot believe how delicious it is the yeah so we just want to get that so it's just hydrated and then I think we'll be a little bit safe from from our lumps um so we're going to be cooking this for about five minutes and then in the meantime I'm going to grab some fresh thyme from our little um herb garden here and oh my gosh there's nothing like fresh herbs so let me turn this down it's got such a good strong smell already oh my gosh it does it and as soon as you start breaking those leaves that's when you smell the essential oils in the herb so the easiest way of removing the leaves from thyme is to just kind of pull back on them away from the way they naturally grow and I'm not even going to chop these you know the smaller stems I don't care if they get in there it's a little tedious but I don't know I always find this part of the uh of cooking I don't know the spiritual part for me it's uh you know it's just relaxing I love touching you know my fresh produce especially if I've grown it in my own garden and you know so just pulling those leaves off and then it does smell fabulous this is coming to get her nicely already it is it is and it is quick cooking I mean if you think about it I use it as a substitute for potatoes I use it as a substitute for rice uh I love shrimp and grits um do you know the difference between polenta and grits to be honest I think I've always used them interchangeably and yeah actually you can use them interchangeably but don't tell southerners that and don't tell a good northern Italian that they're actually a little bit more different than just the geography of them polenta is usually made from yellow corn it is a different variety of corn and and grits are usually made from white corn or hominy and they're usually a little bit finer of a grain so polenta has a little bit more toothiness okay it's a coarser grain um and the yellow in here is there for a reason it's uh it contains antioxidants it does have those carotid and fiber another source of fiber absolutely and um so it definitely makes for a more nutritious meal and if you think about you know we boiled the milk and the water we didn't have to peel potatoes you know it didn't take any effort that way so less than 15 minute side and you're good to go exactly and it's just as creamy as mashed potatoes and um you know just something a little bit different okay so I have my time here I'm gonna try and get rid of any remnant stems and I think a lot of times too with with new ingredients like you know polenta it can be sometimes intimidating to use them if you don't know how to cook them so hopefully by showing you guys this day you're inspired to go out and try something new that maybe you never tried before all right so that is nice and cooked and what is your side today what are you making so we're gonna be doing a blistered green bean recipe and we're gonna get started with that momentarily so the term blistered all it really means is that we're gonna cook it at a high heat we're gonna get it so it almost blisters it's gonna turn dark almost black we're gonna flip it and do the exact same thing to add some flavor to this dish we're gonna be using um capers which I absolutely love using in dishes we're gonna add a little bit of heat with some red pepper flakes you can absolutely admit these if you don't like spicy foods um and then of course the key ingredient to everything is garlic um so in this case we're going to use four large cloves I know the recipe says six small you can use either of them for this recipe though you don't want to use the minced garlic because you want to slice these we're going to slice these pretty thin um and that's going to help enhance that flavor a little bit more so this is almost ready perfect so let me grab the olive oil and then also we're going to bring this cutting board back for a moment okay so I'm going to start heating again just a little bit of olive oil on this heating it up so in this case since we are blistering we are going to use more olive oil than we did with me or sauteing the veggies so we're going to use about a third of a cup of olive oil and olive oil is a very heart healthy fat so it's going to be full of those omega threes and omega threes are very anti-inflammatory no other sources of omega threes if you like walnuts that's an excellent source or chia seeds flax seeds there's a lot of easy ways that we can get in those omega threes in our diet so we've got that oil in here it's just coating the bottom oh that looks so good it is good I think I'm going to add my other ingredients here you think that's all right okay so we're going to add corn today we are using frozen corn which there's no nothing wrong in using frozen corn it's available it's usually picked and frozen very quickly so the nutrients are preserved there's still some crispiness to it but I'm telling you in the summertime you absolutely want to use fresh born here so I'm going nothing's better than fresh corn nothing's better than fresh corn okay so we're going to get that in there we're going to add uh two tablespoons of butter yep two tablespoons of butter and it's just again for a little bit of of richness and it just gives it such a nice mouthfeel and then I'm going to add a half a cup of Parmesan cheese and it definitely does thicken up once you're adding all these oh absolutely this is going to mound nicely and then we can't forget the best corn which is the thyme and then I did chop this a little bit just in case I had a couple of stems in there and we're going to add that all right there we go it's a nice and herby one nice thing about this meal too so you know I know a lot of times you talk about my plate and my plate is just a visual of what an ideal plate would look like and the idea is that we want about half of our plate to be filled with the vegetables we want about a fourth of the plate to contain a lean protein and then about a fourth of the plate to contain that carbohydrate or that starch so we're getting veggies both from the green beans and the veggies that we put in the meatloaf and then our protein is going to be our meatloaf and then our starch is going to be this delicious planta dish works for me all right so this oil is getting nice and hot I'm actually going to turn it down a little bit when the oil starts to kind of simmer and it almost gets like a glossier look to it you know it's ready so while Robin was finishing off this dish I just thinly sliced some garlic so you can see here it's not necessarily that we're mincing it we're thinly slicing it so there is a lot of garlic in this recipe I don't think there's such a thing as too much garlic maybe there is not if you're Italian though okay so grab this is simmering in here nicely very strong garlic smell already so we are going to add the blistered green beans we're gonna add the green beans to the oil so this is about one pound of green beans all I did to prepare these was I cut off the ends and of course I wash them so it's super important to wash all of your vegetables whether they're organic or non-organic before you use them so we are going to add these in this just reminds me of so much of summer because that's like that is something that I really enjoy growing in my garden what else do you grow in your garden oh my goodness I grow so many things um I actually start my green beans from seeds and I grow uh green green beans and I happen to like bush beans you know you they grow in vines which make them very easy to pick and then there are bush beans that grow low and I just like I think bush beans are more tender okay and so I don't want to work in bending down because you could get a handful of green beans and you have a serving of green beans in one hand I'm so envious of your garden I have the opposite of a green thumb every single plant I try to grow dies um so one of these days I've got to commit to a garden in the summer but I always hear about everything that you're you're making and producing and it's it's always nice to be able to grow your own food like you said you're kind of a different connection to it when you're growing it yourself well I usually can't eat everything I grow anyway so you know I'll bring it oh I know it's always nice in the summer she'll come in with her abundance of produce that she can't finish and we're all excited to have it I actually grow purple green beans as well they come in you know yellow isn't a really long time but they're a little deceptive because they when you cook them they kind of turn green but they are purple so the color that comes from them is from that antioxidant yeah the um the same one that's found in the the grapes is it yeah okay and the red one yeah both of those so real quick I'm just gonna add in the spices to this so as I said we're gonna be using capers so we're gonna put one tablespoon of the capers in here got a lot of water in that so we're gonna add a little bit more all right and then we're gonna add in the red pepper flakes so I am not a spice girl I don't handle heat very well but we're gonna add just a little bit um a little under a teaspoon of this if you do like heat feel free to add more so as you can see here they're cooking quite nicely they're boiling mix it up a little bit yeah everything does okay we are going to mix it up a little bit I'm gonna turn the heat up a bit be careful the oil sometimes uh splatters a little bit a lot of cooking injuries here okay you can hear this sizzle so we are gonna let this cook for a couple more minutes at the end all we're going to do is just season with a little bit of salt and pepper um and that's all we have to do for this recipe and then we are gonna plate it and enjoy this absolutely delicious meal I don't think I've seen you cook these these no I tried this recipe for the first time actually over the summer because you had suggested it um and I made it for me and my fiancee and we both were really big fans of it and again it's a super easy recipe with minimal ingredients and you could never go wrong with that but the ingredients that are in it are so flavorful the capers you know adding that little bit of saltiness um the garlic is you know speaks to itself and then the little bit of heat and I absolutely love capers but the only recipe I've ever actually used them in not even a recipe but I've only put them over locks and cream cheese um so one of my favorites um but it's nice to have other recipes that we can incorporate these flavors into okay so while these are cooking too I also want to take a moment just to thank our sponsors over at azai so we would not have been able to put on this presentation and this cooking series without them so we really do appreciate their support in all of this this has been a long time coming and it's really nice to be back in the cooking studio we took about a year off and I think we all missed it quite significantly we do we do we would run our cooking studio programs every Friday and you know it's it's the kind of thing that you know we we it's the audience is mostly our patients and it's just so nice the relationships that we established with our patients over food where so much of food in cancer treatment can seem like a negative thing and but bringing them into this lovely space and um sharing a meal with them in a relaxed format is um like I think it's it's a true joy for me and I think one thing too that I really enjoy is that you know we can say eat your veggies eat more fiber you know eat more lean proteins but when we're in the kitchen we can actually show you how to do these things and it can be overwhelming to think you have to change your diet and make all these changes all at once but you know it's a lot easier when we're able to show you just how easy it is to eat delicious and nutritious food and it's also a good opportunity I find for people to maybe try something that they would not have thought about trying and they don't have to make a full commitment to it but then being able to take it home and introducing it to somebody else so it's like you know they told a friend and they told two friends and four friends so it you know it's spreading the message yeah and I think so many times we've had people come up to us and say that they would never have tried this dish at home and now they're going to go make it so I think that's a really good feeling on our end too to be able to know that the food that we're making is making a difference all right I think these look like they're about done I am going to go grab the meatloaf out of the oven and we're going to do a quick temperature check again like I said before we want to make sure the internal temperature is at about 165 degrees do you mind just stirring this while I go over it's nice I think when there's still some green green beans you know in here we're going to put that look at this meatloaf oh that looks good I like the little bit of caramelization on this I know it's absolutely delicious so could I steal that cutting board yes okay so we are going to let this sit for a minute let me get my thermometer so when you're checking the temperature of a food you want to make sure that you're checking one of the thicker areas in it so for example if you just stick it in the corner the temperature is going to be hotter than that internal temperature so we want to stick it right in the center to get a true read okay and we are good so this is ready to eat so this is especially important for our patients who may be immunosuppressed from some of their treatment that we're always talking about food safety making sure that we're cooking foods to a proper temperature so that you won't get sick from food I mean the rest of us have pretty good immune systems but that's not always the case with our patients okay so we're gonna take this out of here oh I think you can do that that's safe that works oh this smells so good it's so juicy too we're gonna lay that right there I can't wait to dig into this okay I think these are about done so I'm gonna slice this like I said before if you are meal prepping in advance you can absolutely cut it and freeze it individually just make sure it's in a freezer safe container or bag so it doesn't get freezer burnt we're gonna slice this now if you look at the inside of this you see all the little pieces you see all the colors from the carrots and the zucchini and the onions all of those fruits and vegetables add such a delicious flavor to this dish and then I think it's just highlighted even more by the sides that we're choosing so we are gonna get this plated and then we are going to dig in I just tasted the corn is it good it's delicious I just added a little bit of salt it's creamy and crunchy from the corn I think this is a winner and the time is is just enough you know but not overwhelming it's lovely and using those spices too is a great way to reduce the amount of salt you're using in the recipe because you're getting those flavors from so many other things like all of these wonderful spices especially during those summer months it's actual flavor exactly I mean salt is just meant to bring out the flavors in foods not to be the predominant flavor and I think that we don't realize that until you actually don't eat salt for a while and then you taste your food that's well seasoned and I think it kind of goes for a lot of things you know even with sugar when we're eating a lot of sugary foods we tend to crave more sugar you know when you start decreasing the amount of sugar you're you're having your body stops craving it as much and you're able to get satisfied with a smaller amount so that looks like a my plate portion delicious I would say so you can never go wrong with too many of these and then a nice dollop so this is my kind of meal this is 100 something that I would eat on my own so take a look at that how delicious does that look and this entire meal was prepared in what was it 30 minutes or less the 30 to 40 minutes that it takes to cook the meatloaf and that's it so I hope you enjoy this delicious meal if you are looking for the recipe it can be found in the confirmation email or in the link below and make sure to stay tuned and sign up for our next event later next month we're so excited you were able to join us today and we hope to see you again soon