A "new" recipe

Basic recipes always have surprises for me because they are new each time. Take one of the classics - a fritatta. Every time you make it, it's new because you can add new ingredients each time. It's also easy, quick, healthy, and on the cheap side because all you have to do is scrounge your fridge for veggies and left-over cooked meat.

Tonight Matt and I came home utterly exhausted after a long and fun gaming session last night and counseling tonight. I really wanted to order in but since we had gone out Tuesday night, I had to be good. What to do? No pasta sauce for spaghetti, too tired to cook tuna casserole...hm, I have these eggs...ah ha! Fritatta!

Ok, I'm slightly cheating because I have made this before but each time I make it it's always new because I use different ingredients. Perfect for a quick dinner (served with salad and rolls) or hearty breakfast. Enjoy making your own original creations!

Frittata
from Six Ingredients or Less

6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (you can also use swiss or colby)

With wire whisk, beat first 5 ingredients until blended. Pour into a greased 1o-inch pie plate. Sprinkle cheese over top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Makes 4 servings.

TIP: For variety, sprinkle top with parsley, ham, bacon, or sausage and cheese. Sliced vegetables and mushrooms can also be added.

(Tonight I used parsley, spicy sausage, and mushrooms.)

Oops I made it again - by Broccoli Spears

I have definitely had my fill of broccoli this week. Last week I bought two bags of broccoli salad mix for Thanksgiving dinner and we ended up only using one. And since it was Thanksgiving, nobody wanted to waste their stomach space on boring green vegetables so Don and I ended up taking most of it home with us and have been munching away at it for the last week. We definitely are not up for polishing off another bag of broccoli salad by ourselves so I will serve the other one tonight for our gaming group and beg someone to take the leftovers home.

Also, I had forgotten about all the broccoli we already had in the fridge, so I didn't think to swap out this new recipe for Broccoli Spears that was queued up in my meal plan for something else when I did my grocery shopping over the weekend. But it worked out well anyway. The cooking method was so desperately easy, even easier than steaming broccoli as it uses up less dishes and is easier to clean up afterwards. Also, it has you peel the broccoli stems with a vegetable peeler so that the spears are not too tough and they soak up the flavor better. Despite the recent overdose on these little green bouquets, I still found this recipe quite enjoyable. In fact, it might be my favorite broccoli recipe to date. I'm guessing Don would disagree with me as he bit off all the broccoli heads and left all the spears behind on his plate like pitiful little decapitated corpses. Looks like my man is not a fan of Spears - neither of the Brittany or the Broccoli variety.

I give this recipe five out of five stars based on taste, ease of preparation, and economical ingredients.

Garlicky Lemon Broccoli

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds broccoli spears
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Peel broccoli stems using a vegetable peeler. Combine broccoli and water in a large nonstick skillet; cover and cook over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove broccoli from pan; wipe pan with a paper towel.

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add salt, pepper, and garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add broccoli, and toss to coat. Sprinkle broccoli mixture with rind; drizzle with lemon juice.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 67(34% from fat); FAT 2.5g (sat 1.3g,mono 0.6g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 5.2g; CHOLESTEROL 5mg; CALCIUM 85mg; SODIUM 212mg; FIBER 5.1g; IRON 1.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 9.6g

Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2003

The Joy of Squash

I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon, inspired by previous posts, and ready to strut my stuff in the kitchen alongside the rest of the Cooking Kama Sutras.

After making the most of all of my Thanksgiving leftovers, I made a quick run to Costco this past weekend to pick up a couple of things. Much to my delight I discovered a new item in stock: Fresh Butternut Squash Ravioli. The package describes it as "Ravioli stuffed with a rich blend of Butternut Squash, Sage and Fesh Cheeses." I definitely wanted to give this a try! Our Costco also carries a fresh Spinach and Cheese Ravioli that is delicious, and I was hoping this flavor would turn out to be an equal hit. Indeed it was!

My dilemna, however, was this: What kind of sauce should I pair it with? Truth be told, I am not much of a tomato sauce enthusiast. So, this did not sound like a match that would help accentuate the flavor of the squash. A cream sauce of some sort would probably have been good--the package itself provides a recipe for mushroom alfredo; however, I didn't have the ingredients for such an option. Instead, I scavenged around and came up with a homemade sauce of sundried tomatoes, garlic, basil and spinach, cooked in olive oil. It turned out to be quite tasty, as these are all some of my favorite ingredients!

Here is a picture of the sauce in its final stages of cooking:

The entire meal was relatively quick and easy to make. The pasta itself cooks in 4-5 minutes, and the sauce took about 10 minutes. All of the ingredients I used in the sauce were in "ready to use" form, so this minimized any preparation time. I used Julienne Sundried Tomatoes (the kind that come in an oil-packed jar), and fresh cubes of Crushed Garlic Cloves and Fresh Chopped Basil (available from Trader Joes in the frozen section--see photos at the bottom of this post), and fresh chopped spinach that I had stored in a ziplock bag in the freezer--and I simply mixed them all together in an Olive Oil base.

The butternut squash was deliciously sweet smooth, and I loved the particular combination of pairing it with the taste and texture of the sundried tomatoes. The leftovers today were equally tasty! Here is the finished product:

Sundried Tomato and Garlic Sauce with Spinach and Basil

(Measurements are approximate.)

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a skillet on Medium heat

Add the following ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic (I used 2 frozen cubes of crushed garlic from Trader Joes)
• 2 teaspoons of fresh chopped basil (I used 2 cubes of frozen chopped basil from Trader Joes)
• 1/4 cup of julienne sundried tomatoes (oil packed)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped spinach

Keep the heat turned down to a simmer in order to avoid oil splatter. Warm on stove until pasta is ready.

Basil and Garlic cubes (each packaged separately; cilantro is also available):

The Heat is On!

When our friends Jeremy and Katy dropped off their dog Max at our house on Thursday morning, they were going pretty much nonstop until they picked him up again at our house last night. Given their hectic schedules and the fact that we missed them while they were away, I decided to invite them to stay for dinner with us rather than just grabbing the dog and heading home. I figured a hot prepared meal would be a nice way to finish a long weekend since they were probably tired and wouldn't have much time or energy for grocery shopping and cooking. I warned them that the meal I was preparing was not going to be anything fancy but would hit the spot nonetheless.

I ended up serving Spicy Chicken Soup with Monterey Jack and Roasted Red Pepper Quesadillas which is the perfect accompaniment for this meal. Now, the best thing about this meal is that the entire thing can be prepared start to finish in about 15 minutes. Now that's what I call quick and easy. You can adjust the spice by adding more or less adobo chiles. Truthfully, I wish I had added a couple more chiles last night because it was not as spicy as usual. I admit that I have made this before, but since they seemed to be such big fans, I told Jeremy and Katy I would post it on the blog nonetheless.

Spicy Chicken Soup

Serve with quesadillas - suggested fillings are monterey jack cheese and slices of roasted red peppers.

Ingredients

1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast strips (such as Louis Rich; about 12 ounces)
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained (such as Del Monte)
1 (11-ounce) can whole-kernel corn with sweet peppers, drained

Preparation

Remove 1 chile from can; reserve the remaining chiles and sauce for another use. Mince chile.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onions, garlic, and cumin; saute 4 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Stir in minced chile, chicken, broth, tomatoes, and corn. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 cups)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 358(30% from fat); FAT 11.8g (sat 2.8g,mono 4.4g,poly 2g); PROTEIN 40.6g; CHOLESTEROL 95mg; CALCIUM 65mg; SODIUM 1536mg; FIBER 4.9g; IRON 2.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 23.3g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2001

From my heart straight to my thighs

But totally worth it and a big hit at potlucks! The title says it all. These are heaven. Easily made up to a day ahead, best with freshly made whipped cream. An excellent subsitute for pumpkin pie (but doesn't replace it).

CKS note: If making the banana version, I reccomend cutting the sugar in half as the natural sugar from the bananas makes it quite sweet already.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes
from Paula Deen at The Food Network

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg 8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Variations:

For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

Sunday Stew

By Sunday afternoon the Thanksgiving leftovers were gone and it was time to start thinking about what to make for dinner. As always, I spent a good portion of my "vacation" doing household chores and errands in my lifelong quest to getting organized. Part of that included some fun time spent hunting for new and interesting recipes and making a meal plan for the week. Actually I got a little ambitious and sketched out a rough plan for the rest of the month! But we'll see how closely I stick to it.

The recipe I decided to try last night was this Autumn Cranberry Beef Stew from Cooking Light. The recipe was really tasty but I think the title is a little misleading. I don't know if maybe I simmered it too high but all the broth cooked out of mine and in the end it was more like a shredded beef served over noodles than a stew. But that's o.k. since as the broth evaporated it left behind all of it's intense flavoring which the meat soaked right up. It made for a nice hearty Sunday evening meal and will be nice leftovers for lunch the next couple of days. Though it is super easy to make, it does have a long cooking time so this is best made on a weekend. I give the recipe four out of five stars and it's going in my make again cookbook. This recipe stands well on it's own but if you want to round it out a little, it would be really good served with steamed broccoli on the side.

Autumn Cranberry Beef Stew

Ingredients

1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (3-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 (12-ounce) Guinness Stout
1 (10-ounce) package frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 (8-ounce) package button mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
8 cups cooked egg noodles (about 1 pound)
Chopped fresh thyme (optional)

Preparation

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; sprinkle over beef. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; cook 6 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Add chopped onion, broth, bay leaves, and stout; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in pearl onions and mushrooms; cook, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine 1/4 cup water and flour in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and cranberry sauce to pan. Cook 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Serve with noodles. Garnish with fresh thyme, if desired.

Yield

10 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup stew and 3/4 cup noodles)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 479(27% from fat); FAT 14.6g (sat 4.8g,mono 6.3g,poly 1.1g); PROTEIN 39.5g; CHOLESTEROL 138mg; CALCIUM 35mg; SODIUM 239mg; FIBER 2.6g; IRON 6.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 43.7g

Christina Wilson, Lansdowne, Pennsylvania , Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2007

Cranberry Jello Salad

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Feasts. We were invited to spend the day with friends and the hostess covered the gammet of traditional Turkey Day treats from the 20 pound organic free range turkey to loaded mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, relish tray, green bean casserole, steamed broccoli, fresh rolls and a lovely selection of appetizers including a made from scratch homemade cheese ball. Delicious! I will have to get the recipe from her and see if she minds me posting it on the blog.

My contribution to the meal was embarassingly simple but a favorite nonetheless - my mother's Cranberry Jello Salad. It is the ultimate potluck dish as it does not have to be kept warm, can be made ahead of time, and preserves and travels well.

Cranberry Jello Salad
From my mother's Recipe Box

6 ounce package Raspberry Jello
2 Cups Hot Water
1 Cup Cold Water
1 small can mandarin oranges drained
1 small can crushed pineapple drained
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup chopped walnuts

Dissolve Jello in 2 cups hot water. Once dissolved, add Cold water and stir. Add remaining four ingredients and stir thoroughly. It's easier if you stir the cranberry sauce before adding it so that it doesn't clump together. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate until set.