dinner

Healthy Beef and Broccoli Rollups

March 1, 2017

What is your favorite Chinese take-out dish? Mine? It’s got to be beef and broccoli. Yummy beef drowning in an even yummier sauce (I would like to remain blissfully ignorant about what’s actually in that sauce, thanks)? The best part about it is that I can pretend it’s healthy since it contains broccoli.

I love making beef and broccoli at home. And after making my chicken fajita rolls ups, I immediately knew that recipe would be a good candidate to be “roll-up-ified”….you know what I mean.

I started with some lovely marbled beef. I then pounded them into nice thin pieces and let them soak in a the marinade.

In hindsight, I should have trimmed off the fat before marinated them, but we all make mistakes.

After the beef had soaked up all that flavor, I sliced them into strips just wide enough to fit one step of broccolini. Now broccolini is just a longer thinner version of broccoli (if you want to actually learn about broccolini, go to Wikipedia), but it works perfectly for these beef and broccoli roll ups.

I just rolled the thin slice of beef around the broccoli. Since the broccoli is so thin and sticky from the marinade, it just sticks to itself, so you don’t need a toothpick to hold it together. However, I you want to make sure that it stays together, by all means…use a toothpick.

To cook these bad boys, I just placed them all in one single layer in a hot skillet, turning every few minutes. Once all sides were browned and maybe a little charred, I covered the pan to make sure the beef cooked most of the way through. If you like your beef on the bloodier side, you can skip that step.

Then we just served it up with a side of brown rice instead of yummy fried rice. Have I mentioned this recipe is WAY healthier that the take out version? Have I also mentioned that it’s also just as good? No? Well, I thought both were implied, but incase you missed it, this recipe is both way healthier (like WAY healthier) and super tasty. So tasty I may never eat take out again.

Just kidding. A little MSG every once and a while never hurt anyone!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:135]

Yellow Curry Chicken Meatballs

February 20, 2017

Over the past year I have fallen head over heels in love with yellow curry. I really can’t explain it, but I love the stuff. Without fail, at every Thai restaurant we visit, I will try the yellow curry and compare it to the last yellow curry I had. Then I come home and tweak my yellow curry recipe or jut try something a little bit different.

Like these yellow curry chicken meatballs.

I started with some ground chicken and almond meal. These meatballs are unintentionally Paleo. I had every intention of making a typical meatball with breadcrumbs, but it turned out, we were out of breadcrumbs. Almond meal to the rescue!

To the chicken I added some of my curry seasoning and an egg, and I mixed it all together. Then I formed them into golf-ball sized meatballs. I placed them into a hot skillet to brown on all sides.

Once the meatballs had browned, I added in some sliced onion and let them sweat down until they were soft and slightly caramelized.

After about 7 minutes, I sprinkled in the rest of the curry seasoning. I like to sprinkle this in before I add the coconut milk so that the spices can get a little nice and toasty.

After that, I just added the meatballs back into the pan to cook the rest of the way through and to let them soak up all that nice curry flavor!

I served these up with some cauliflower rice, but jasmine rice would also be great if you aren’t Paleo.

We loved the different take on the classic yellow curry chicken! The meatballs were super flavorful and tender. I have a feeling these would be a really great appetizer or party snack. I would scrap the rice for toothpicks instead.

They would probably be a great introduction to the world of yellow curry! Then someone else could fall in love with it as much as I have!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:131]

Delicious Cauliflower Pizza Crust

February 17, 2017

Ok folks, I know what you are thinking, “cauliflower pizza crust….real original!”. Oh yeah, I can hear your sarcasm from here. But here me out, guys! This one is actually really good!

I have tried a lot of cauliflower crusts over the past couple years and they have always been a little lack-luster. Of course cauliflower crust will never be like pizza crust. It’s made of vegetables after all. But I knew it could taste better than bland old cauliflower.

My solution: roasting the cauliflower.

To me, roasting the cauliflower makes a HUGE difference. It not only gives the cauliflower a nice nutty flavor, but it helps to dry it out so it’s not so watery when it’s processed.

My other secret to this anything-but-bland cauliflower pizza crust is roasted garlic. I just threw a couple of cloves in the with cauliflower while it roasted. Then everything got thrown into the food processor to transform the cauliflower and garlic to something that resembled mashed potatoes.

Now at this point the cauliflower still has quite a bit of moisture in it. So to get rid of some of the excess moisture, I laid out two big paper towels and dumped the cauliflower mixture on top. Then I wrapped the towels around the cauliflower and pressed out any remaining moisture.

Once my cauliflower was as dried out as it was going to get, I mixed in some spices, an egg, and cheese.

Then I dumped the mixture out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and pressed it into a rectangle (although, a circle will also work) that was about 1/4 inch thick. I wanted this crust to be pretty thin so that would get nice and crispy all the way through. Nothing is worse than a soggy crust that just falls apart.

To make sure it was nice and crispy, I baked it first before adding the toppings. Then I added my favorite pizza toppings: sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.

After another turn in the oven, the cheese got nice and melted and the crust crisped up even more around the edges.

While this cauliflower pizza crust will never fully take classic pizza crust’s place in my heart, it has found it’s own cozy corner. It is healthy without really tasting like it. Sure, you will know you are eating cauliflower. But it’s flavorful, roasted garlic cauliflower. Basically the best kind of cauliflower there is.

So if you want a healthier pizza option that still tastes delicious and that crispy crust that you love about pizza, you need to try out this crust. Especially if you have tried and been very disappointed by other cauliflower crusts. I think this one will win you over, and may even win your heart.

That was cheesy….just like this pizza.

Ok, I’m done.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:129]

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Zoodle Pad Thai

February 1, 2017

My husband and I are lucky enough to live within waking distance of some pretty great restaurants. We have everything from good old Southern fried chicken to a raw-vegan restaurant. While my husband refuses to go to the raw-vegan restaurant, it is definitely one of my faves when my body is just craving something healthy. It was there that I was first introduced to the zucchini noddle (zoodle) pad thai. Even without the meat and the noddles, it was amazing and I have been itching to try something like it at home!

But in order to make thing something that my husband would eat, I had to add some meat and lightly cook the veggies. While he’s pretty good at trying everything I make, I think he draws the line at a bowl of uncooked vegetables.

I started by sauteing thin slices of chicken breast in a bit of sesame oil until the were browned and completely cooked through. I created some space on the pan and cracked in one egg, scrambling it and letting it cook through. Then I added in the shredded carrots (pre-shredded from the store), julienned red bell pepper, and my zoodles and gave them a good toss in the remaining oil and chicken. After about a minute, I poured over a very simple (and light!) pad thai sauce.

It only took about another 5 minutes for the sauce to thicken and caramelize around the strands of zucchini noodle, and for the veggies to get nice and tender.

After that, I just plated it up with some crushed peanuts, sprouts, and cilantro! Now I had my very own zoodle pad thai!

It was so delicious, but not overly heavy like a traditional pad thai can be with it’s thick peanut butter sauce. It was the perfect light dinner that I bet even my husband would enjoy!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:122]

Lightened Up Chicken Pot Pie

December 30, 2016

I wasted absolutely no time putting two of my Christmas presents to good use. The first, as you can see, is this beautiful pie dish. One of my very thoughtful and perceptive friends got this for me after noticing that I never make any pies on the blog. Well, there was a good reason for that…I didn’t have a pie dish! Now I do, so let the pie baking begin!

The second is Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook. Another wonderful friend, who is also a big foodie, got this for me so that we try some of the recipes together. But I wasted no time and picked out his chicken pot pie recipe to try on my own first.

The trouble is that Thomas Keller, while a genius, doesn’t necessarily write the easiest recipes. Also, the chicken pot pie recipe was certainly not the healthiest. And after a food-filled holiday, my husband and I were craving something a bit healthier.

I started by sauteing the pearl onions in a bit of olive oil until they were slightly browned. I then added in the carrots, celery, and sweet potato, which is not only more flavorful, but much healthier than your average potato.

After a few minutes, I added in the chicken stock so that the veggies could soften up and become nice and flavorful. I also added some cooked chicken breast and frozen peas.

While all that was going on, I made a bit of a roux to thicken up the stock and make that creamy sauce around all the chicken and vegetables. Instead of a roux, Thomas Keller’s recipes calls for about a cup of bechamel sauce, which is rich, delicious, and very heavy. In other recipes, you will often see people add butter, flour, and heavy cream to get the same effect.

To lighten up my chicken pot pie, I made a roux/bechamel hybrid by mixing together butter and flour until I had a tight paste, then I whisked in some light milk and…..

Greek Yogurt!

My favorite healthy substitute!

After adding my roux to the pot, the stock tightened up immediately and became this creamy sauce that coated ever thing. It looked and smelled just like the filling in some of my favorite chicken pot pies.

The last change I made to the recipe to make it a bit healthier was to swap out the pie crust for some puff pastry. The pie crust alone probably adds a quarter if not a half of the calories to your average chicken pot pie. But the flaky puff pastry cuts out some of the calories and fat, and is equally delicious!

The worst part about this recipe was the waiting! We waited almost an hour for this bad boy to bake. But it was certainly worth the wait!

The puff pastry crust on top turned golden brown and nice and crusty, like you would expect from your chicken pot pie.

Once it was out of the oven, we wasted no time digging right in. We each had three slices of this pie, which probably negated any of the calories I saved by making all those healthy swaps. But we couldn’t help it…it was so good! I definitely didn’t taste “healthy”. Even though I didn’t follow Thomas Keller’s recipe to the T, I still learned a lot of took used a lot of his tips, which is why I am sure this resulted in one delicious dinner!

And in case your wondering…I did the math.

Mr. Keller’s recipe would have come to a whopping 1,500 calories per serving.

My recipe, was only 400! We probably could have finished off the pie and still consumed fewer calories than one of servings of his. I will certainly take that any day!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:111]

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Pecan and Herb Crusted Pork

November 16, 2016

Every so often I get on these kicks where everything I seem to make has the same ingredients. Last month, it just about everything I made had pumpkin. This month, it seems like everything I’ve made has had pecans in it. Well, not just pecans, but maple syrup, too. First it was this cake. Now it’s this pecan and herb crusted pork tenderloin. And it’s not the last pecan recipe you will see this month, either.

I have been trying to come up with some Fall recipes that could also double as a Thanksgiving turkey substitute. I know…no turkey on Thanksgiving is practically un-American. But 1) not everyone likes turkey, and 2) not everyone wants to commit to to making a turkey if they aren’t serving a dozen or more people.

Since my husband and I rarely travel home for Thanksgiving, this pecan and herb crusted pork is something I would make for just the two of us and still feel like we are having a hearty Thanksgiving meal. In fact, the crust itself smells just like Thanksgiving. It has all your those delicious Thanksgiving flavors you’d probably find in your favorite stuffing recipe: sage, thyme, rosemary, pecans….yum, right?

To get the pork nice and flavorful, I first, marinated it in a puree of the herbs, olive oil, garlic, and maple syrup. After the pork had rested overnight, I rolled it in some crushed up pecans. Since the pork was covered in the sticky herb pesto (thank you maple syrup!), the pecans stuck right to it.

Now all that was left was to roast the pork.

I placed the pork loins on a baking sheet and covered them with tin foil so that the pork stayed moist and the pecan crust wouldn’t burn. Since the pork took an hour or so to roast, I decided to use that time to multi-task and roast up a nice side of maple coated brussels sprouts. Why not put maple syrup on everything?

This pork recipe lived up to every expectation. I didn’t even miss the turkey. Sorry, turkey…you’ve been replaced. What I love about the pork is that it stays so much more moist than turkey, and this particular recipe had so much flavor! Sometimes I am disappointed with my Thanksgiving turkey because not only is it dry, but it’s kind of bland. Which is why I make sure to have a bite of stuffing along with every bite of turkey. But this pork is practically coated in all the flavors in stuffing….and….it’s actually pretty healthy!

And if you are like me, that means you can have an extra helping of pie later.

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[amd-yrecipe-recipe:97]

Cook the Book: One Pan, Two Plates

July 8, 2016

It should go without saying that I like to cook. I love trying new recipes that I find on Pinterest or other blogs, but I rarely cook from a cookbook. I have gotten so accustomed to finding recipes (for free) on the Internet that I have forgotten how nice it is to have all my weeknight meals in one spot. Also, meal planning is so much easier!

With all of that in mind, I decided to start a new blog post series: Cook the Book. In this series, I will make 4-5 recipes out of a single cookbook, then share my thoughts. The first book for this series is one I picked up at a local gift shot called One Pan, Two Plates. This cookbook by Carla Snyder features dozens of dinner recipes perfect for just two people. That’s what appealed to me – the fact that these recipes were the perfect portion size for my husband and I.

I made 5 different recipes from each of the 4 sections of the book: grain, meat, fish, and chicken. I also chose some recipes that I were out of my comfort zone, and some that were right up my alley. I ended up making:

Jambalaya
Yellow Curry Chicken
Sweet and Sour Stir Fry
Thyme-Rubbed Salmon
Cornflaked Crusted Chicken Fingers

Overall, there was lots I liked about this cookbook. I loved the variety of the recipes and generally they were all pretty healthy. This cookbook encouraged me to try dishes that I otherwise wouldn’t make. For instance, I was convinced I wouldn’t like the Yellow Curry Chicken. But oh my gosh, it was wonderful! Maybe my most favorite dish of the 5.

However, there were also quite a few things I didn’t like about the cookbook. For one thing, I felt like the flavor was lacking in most of these recipes. There wasn’t any salt in the entire chicken finger recipe! What the heck? We ended up adding a ton of seasoning and really liked the result. But for all the dishes, I felt like I was constantly adjusting the spices (i.e. adding more) to try to bump up the flavor.

There was also one recipe that my husband and I just couldn’t finish – the thyme-rubbed salmon. Granted, I am not a huge fish eater, but this salmon was barely palatable. We ended up tossing out our plate and walking down to our local barbecue joint for dinner. It was really disappointing.

Ultimately, I give this cookbook a B-. The recipes were hit or miss, and without some major adjustments to the spices they may have all been misses. While I loved the concept of having recipes perfectly portioned for 2 people, in practice it doesn’t quite work. I ended up buying way more food than I needed because I just couldn’t find it in such small portions. As a reference, I spent over $100 on the food for these 5 dishes, and I probably have 1/3 of it left in my fridge or freezer.

But I did really like a couple of the recipes and will be trying some others. It did force me out of my comfort zone and I am all the better for it! You better believe I will be posting my very own yellow curry chicken recipe very soon. I am hooked!

Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja

April 11, 2016

Like so many of my cooking experiments, this dish was inspired by something I recently saw on Food Network. The chef on TV was slaving over a delicious looking piece of meat, then transformed it into this wonderful stew mixed with peppers, onions, peas, and other vegetables. It was mouthwatering. I had to make for myself!

So I turned to the Internet to find a similar looking Ropa Vieja recipe. As usual, Epicurious came through. Although, as sometimes Epicurious tends to do, the recipe seemed a little over complicated as did the list of ingredients. I knew I would have to simplify and cut a few corners if I were going to make this recipe. To simplify the braising part of the recipe, I turned to my trusty slow cooker.

I let the slow cooker “braise” the flank steak while I was at work. To the slow cooker I added the beef, stock, mirepoix, and some spices. And because I am extra lazy, I let Trader Joes chop up the mirepoix veggies for me. I told you I was going to cut some corners. I wasn’t lying.

Then, once I got home all I had to do was sauté the vegetables and add in the beef. First, I sautéed the peppers and onions until they were soft, then I added the corn and peas. I shredded the beef and added it to the veggies. To the meat and vegetables, I poured in some tomatoes, a little tomato sauce, and added a healthy dusting of spices. This was another departure from the Epicurious recipe that calls for the actual dried chili peppers that I supposed I am to then grind up into a powder. Well, someone has already done that for me. I will appreciate all their hard work and just use chili powder.

To go with the Ropa Vieja, I made a big batch of Mexican style rice. I have actually never made this style of rice before, and after making it (so easy!), I can’t imagine what took me so long.

I used this recipe as a reference, but I used tomato sauce instead of pureeing the tomatoes, and I left out the onion and pepper since I already has so much going on in the stew. Cutting corners can truly be the theme of this post.

The Ropa Vieja ended up being wonderful. It had so many layers of flavor, from the beef to the vegetables to the rice. And since the beef had been cooking all day, it basically melted in our mouths.

I knew when I saw this dish on Food Network it was going to be good, but this totally exceeded my expectations. And since I cut lots of corners and used my slow cooker and some pre-cut, pre-blended, and pre-ground veggies and spices, it was so much easier than I anticipated. This has been added to our list of regular week-night meals!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:17]

Margarita Chicken

April 8, 2016

When a drink after work isn’t enough, make this Margarita Chicken!

I make chicken for dinner a lot. It’s easy and requires almost no thought on my part, which is great for those long days. But plain ol’ chicken can get boring after a while. Which is why I try to mix things up every now and then.

One of our more recent chicken experiments is this Margarita Chicken. It is exactly what it sounds like. Imagine marinating chicken in a margarita and this is what you would get, more or less.

In case you aren’t sure what goes into a margarita, its a lot of lime juice, a hint of Triple Sec (orange liquor), some simple syrup, and a shot of Tequila. Since this is a chicken recipe, I decided to forgo the sweetness. But just about everything else in the marinade is just like the drink – lime juice, orange juice (instead of triple sec), tequila, and a generous amount of sea salt! Because I like my margaritas with salt. There may also be a hint of garlic and cumin in there, too. I definitely wouldn’t recommend putting either of those in your drink.

To make sure that the lime flavor was coming through loud in clear, I also topped off the chicken with some lime zest along with some salt and pepper.

After the chicken is done getting drunk on it’s very own margarita, all it needs is a good sear on a hot grill or in a pan and it is done! And don’t worry about overcooking this chicken. The lime juice and tequila makes the chicken breasts nice and moist and tender, so you won’t dry it out if you tend to overcook chicken like me.

I hope this recipe will inspire you to mix up your chicken routine. It would be perfect with a side of rice, on a nice salad, or in a taco. The options are endless!

Enjoy!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:16]

Paleo Beef Stroganoff

February 19, 2016

Beef-Stroganoff-7title

I grew up with a working mom who rarely had anytime to make big fancy dinners. In fact, one of my favorite meals as a kid was something we liked to call “meat pie”, which is essentially Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough pressed out in a pie pan, ground turkey mixed with tomato paste and spices, then baked under a layer of cheese. Sounds kinda good, doesn’t it? Maybe I will make it for the blog sometime.

This blog post isn’t about meat pie, unfortunately. It’s about Beef Stroganoff. When my mom did have some time to cook up something other than meat pie (she actually cooks a lot of other things, don’t get the wrong idea), she would make up her version of a healthy Beef Stroganoff. Healthy is sort of relative. It was loaded with butter, sour cream, and noodles. It can definitely get healthier.

Which is exactly what I attempted to do during my Whole 30 challenge. It did seem a little daunting when the key ingredients are sour cream and noodles. But I have become so accustomed to substituting in coconut milk and spaghetti squash, it was a no-brainer.

I started this off by roasting the spaghetti squash since that was going to take the longest. While the spaghetti squash was in the oven, I seared the beef then cooked the onions and mushrooms. Since I wasn’t using a heavy cream or thick sour cream for my sauce, I wanted to thicken up my coconut milk a bit. Fortunately, coconut milk is already pretty thick, so I just used a bit of agar agar powder to get it a bit thicker. I then poured the sauce over the beef, onions, and mushrooms, and let the flavors marry and sauce thicken.

Beef-Stroganoff-4b

To serve, I just spooned a healthy portion of the beef stroganoff right on top of the spaghetti squash, which I had already pulled apart with a fork.

Beef Stroganoff-6

It may not look it, but the resulting Stroganoff is rich, creamy, and has a hint of heat from the red pepper which my husband and I both liked (our personal twist to the recipe). It was definitely one of his favorite recipes during my Whole 30 and I have even made it since completing the diet because it was that good.

If you are not on a Paleo diet, but are looking for a healthy alternative to Beef Stroganoff feel free to use Greek yogurt instead of coconut milk and agar agar. You can also serve over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice.

[yumprint-recipe id=’105′]

Mexican Turkey Lettuce Wraps

September 21, 2015

What I find rather ironic is that the girl who loves to bake cookies and cakes and other carb-loaded sweets, actually tries to eat a low-carb diet on most days. Sure, I may be a hypocrite, but I guess if I’m going to eat a carb, I would prefer it to be in the form of a cookie.

Lettuce wraps are one of my favorite ways to eat low-carb (or Paleo, if that’s your thing). They don’t make me feel like I am depriving myself. Instead I just make sure I pack the filling with lots of great flavors and spices to make that the star of the show. This Mexican turkey filling is packed with bell peppers, onion, roasted corn, jimica, garlic, cilantro and pretty much all of the major Mexican spices.

To keep the whole dish low-carb, I paired it with cilantro-lime cauliflower rice (actually not that low carb, but at least its a veggie!). To make my life easy, I used frozen riced cauliflower that I find in the freezer section of my local Trader Joes. But you can easily make your own.

I promise, you won’t miss the carbs!

[yumprint-recipe id=’61’]

Lite and Healthy Pad Thai

September 23, 2014

At the end of a long week, there is nothing that I want more than some take-out food and a large glass of wine. But the last time my husband and I got take out from our local Chinese food place, we felt pretty disgusting afterwards. Everything was fried and greasy (albeit…delicious). So this past Friday I set out to make a more healthy version of one of out take-out favorites: pad thai!

I started by making some zucchini noodles with a mandolin to supplement the rice noodles that are traditional in pad thai.

I also added lots of julienned carrots and bell peppers to boost up the veggie factor. I tossed all the veggies and thinly sliced chicken breast in a hot pan and sauteed them in a bit of vegetable and sesame oil and seasoned with garlic, red pepper flakes, and ginger. In the meantime, I cooked about half the normal amount of rice noodles in a pot of boiling water.

Once the chicken was cooked, I added in the rice noodles and poured the sauce over the top and tossed it all together.

I served up a healthy portion of the noodles into bowls, and topped them with some bean sprouts, peanuts, and a squeeze of lime. Our craving for take-out was totally satisfied and we didn’t feel like we had just ingested a cup of grease. And just like your favorite take-out, this pad thai is almost better eaten cold the next day. Oh you don’t do that?? Well, try it…it’s awesome!

Whats your favorite take out food?

[Sorry – Yum Prints wasn’t working…will try adding the recipe again later. For now, it’s included below]

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, julienned
1 bell pepper, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced or grated
1 tsp red pepper flakes
5 oz rice noodles
2 tbsp light soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup bean sprouts
2 tbsp peanuts, chopped

Directions:

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and coat with 1 tsp with vegetable oil. Toss in chicken and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add in vegetables, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Stir every couple minutes to cook evenly. Cook another 5-7 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions.
In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, and honey. Pour over vegetable and chicken mixture. Add in noodles and toss to coat.
Spoon pad thai into bowls, and top with bean sprouts and peanuts. Serve and enjoy.

Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps

September 10, 2014

I have recently gotten back on the diet wagon which means that we have been doing lots of chicken and vegetables for dinner. Needless to say, that can get old quickly. Especially for my husband. So for the sake of the my marriage as well as my figure, I wanted to try something that was tasty and healthy.Inspired by the trendy Asian-fusion taco trend, Korean beef tacos, I decided to ditch the tortillas for lettuce, resulting in Korean beef lettuce wraps. I found a recipe for Bulgogi, traditional Korean beef, and altered it to fit what I had in our pantry.

I marinaded a thin cut sirloin steak over night then cut into strips and sauteed the beef in a smoking hot pan with chopped up scallions.

From there, we just put a couple strips of beef in a lettuce cup and topped it with kimchi. Since both my husband and I are wusses when it comes to spicy foods, we opted for mild kimchi, which doesn’t have as much chili paste in it like traditional kimchi.

Both my husband and I were happy with our food-truck inspired healthy meal. We both were satisfied and neither of us (especially me) felt guilty about it.

[yumprint-recipe id=’48’]

Caprese Mac and Cheese

September 8, 2014

You know whats funny? Prior to this year, I probably hadn’t eaten a full portion of mac and cheese since college (I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but it was more than a few years). But maybe now that I am married and don’t have to worry about fitting in a wedding dress, I have been trying out a few different mac and cheese recipes (including a vegan one!). Even though mac and cheese isn’t super healthy, I try to balance out my guilt by packing it with lots of other vegetables. In the case of this caprese mac and cheese, I have loaded it with sun dried tomatoes and a basil-spinach pesto.

Since this is a caprese mac and cheese, I used mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar. I also tried to lighten it up by using low-fat milk and Greek yogurt instead of cream and lots of butter. Don’t worry, there is still a bit of butter in there, but not much.

I prefer whole wheat pasta normally, so that is what I used here. Sometimes whole wheat macaroni can be hard to find, so if you have trouble finding it you can use any other short and squat noddle, like penne, fusilli, or bow tie. If you are gluten-free, you can even use brown rice pasta noodles.

Once the pasta is cooked up, I mix in the drained sun dried tomatoes. I then pour the creamy cheese sauce over top and mix thoroughly until all the pasta is covered. Then I spoon in the pesto and fold in so it is sort of marbled through out the pasta.

I dump the pasta into a glass baking dish then top with bread crumbs, spices, and Parmesan cheese and bake until golden brown.

The resulting mac and cheese is extremely creamy and definitely takes on that pesto flavor. The pieces of tomato are nice to balance out the flavor of the herbs and the creaminess of the cheese.

While it is definitely not health food, its nice to still get a decent portion of veggies in this mac and cheese!

[yumprint-recipe id=’47’]

Pulled Pork Pizza

August 25, 2014

I have only lived in the (true) South (Texas doesn’t really count) for about a year and a half. But its fair to say I have fully embraced the cuisine here, despite it’s tendency to be fried, covered in cheese, full of butter, and generally not-so-healthy. One of the things I love most here is the barbeque (I am my father’s daughter). In North Carolina, it’s all about pulled pork that has been slow cooked in a smoker and requires little to no accoutrements. Which is probably why I love to add pulled pork to just about anything. Like pizza!

My husband and I have actually been wanting to make a pulled pork pizza for some time, but hadn’t quite settled on the right recipe until recently. For some reason, I am a firm believer in adding veggies to pizza (or anything, really), but what veggies would you put on this pizza? Then my husband threw out the idea of putting cole slaw on top. And it was settled! We had our pulled pork pizza recipe!

I started with the pizza dough. I think the most important ingredient for bubbly, chewy, but a bit crispy pizza dough is the yeast. I start with a cup of warm water, stir in honey (or sugar), then sprinkle on the yeast. The yeast will start to foam, which is how you know it is good yeast. If there is no foam, your yeast is old and your dough won’t rise (keep it in the freezer to keep it fresh).

I used my basic pizza dough recipe, however I substituted corn meal in for the whole wheat flour to make it a bit more like corn bread. To me, that seems a bit more Southern, and it worked perfectly..

I let the dough rise until it doubled in size, then punched it down and let it rise once more. That second rise is not necessary. But I find that the dough is a bit more light and airy if it rises twice. Sometimes you just don’t have that kind of time, so one rise will do.

For this pizza, we decided to use our cast iron skillet instead of a pizza stone. The cast iron is great for pizzas because it gets really hot and helps to crisp up the bottom of the pizza. Plus, it seemed appropriate for the theme of the pizza.

I like to par bake my crust, so I pressed the dough into the skillet and baked it for about 5 minutes until it started to bubble and puff up. Then I covered the dough in our favorite “Carolina-Style” barbeque sauce, Carolina Gold from Trade Joes. You could use any barbeque sauce, but I would recommend a vinegar or mustard based one to go with the pork.

Then we just topped it off with the pork and cheese and let it bake until the cheese was melted and started to bubble.

You could of course stop here. But we took the pizza a step further and added “veggies” in the form of cole slaw.

For the cole slaw, I just used a bag mix from the grocery store. But if you have a great cole slaw recipe, by all means, use it. One recommendation I would make is to use less dressing than normal. You don’t want your cole slaw to be overly wet. Also, if you are serving more people or you think you may have left overs, put the cole slaw on once you have sliced and served the pizza. It may leave your slices a bit soggy.

But boy oh boy was this pizza wonderful! The crust was light and fluffy, the pork was smokey and tangy thanks to the sauce, and the cole slaw was creamy and crisp! It was like full meal in one

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Lasagna Cups

August 13, 2014

My husband and I love lasagna but we rarely make it because it is so time consuming. The assembly is only one part of it, but the baking seems to take forever, especially when you are hungry. Even a store bought frozen lasagna takes time to thaw and then cook.

But not these little lasagna cups. Sure, they still need to be assembled, but they take half (or less) time to cook. Which to me is important when I am making dinner after work and I don’t have a lot of time or patience.

I start with wonton wrappers, forming two of them into a cupcake tin. Then I spoon in some marinara sauce (I just made up a quick sauce, but store bought would work perfectly), top with cooked ground turkey, then some ricotta, more marinara, and finish them off with mozzarella cheese.

The beauty is that you can really make any kind of lasagna recipe using this method. Instead of turkey, you could use beef. Or if you prefer an all veggie lasagna, you could substitute in zucchini, cauliflower, or the vegetable of your choice. It can be as basic or as complicated as you like!

After baking for only 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the wontons are golden brown, I let them cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing just in case they feel the need to fall apart.

Then we just served them along side some veggies and dug right in. My husband didn’t even feel the need to use a fork. He kept referring to them as “meat cupcakes”, and since you don’t need a fork for a regular cupcake, you don’t need a fork for a meat cupcake (obviously).

What is your favorite lasagna recipe?

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