Healthy Delicious

Shirred Eggs with Thyme

LK — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:47:20 +0000

I know I just posted a breakfast recipe a few days ago, but I've been loving weekend breakfasts lately! You may have noticed that in my post about waffles, I wrote that we've been having them almost every weekend. The rest of the time, we've been eating these baked eggs. We're pretty much obsessed with them - they're so good! And so easy to make! As much as i love breakfast, I never really feel like cooking in the morning. The great part about these is that there really isn't much "cooking" that needs to be done: no standing over the stove, no measuring. Just throw them in the oven, set the timer, and a few minutes later you have a delicious breakfast. (If you can conjure the energy to cook a few slices of bacon, you're really set!)

Plus there's something so beautiful about eggshells. They never fail to make me smile. Any day that starts with something so beautiful can never be bad. [....]

Spaghetti with Feta and Capers

LK — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:33:29 +0000

Back in December, I had the opportunity to watch a cooking demonstration by the chef from a local Italian restaurant. He made all sorts of wonderful dishes, but the one that impressed me the most was a briny, saucy pasta dish. Looking back I can't remember if his version actually had feta in it or not, but the idea of a soft, salty cheese with pasta has been in the back of my head ever since. If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that last week I just did not feel like cooking. At all. I didn't really feel like eating either. It was simple, delicious recipes like this one that got me through to week - this takes very little effort to make, but the result is impressive.(And don't worry, I made an awesome grocery list for this week and am back to my normal self!)

While you could use your favorite jarred sauce for this to make it even easier, I find that it's just as easy to make my own. Pasta sauce really is a snap to make and it taste so much better than store-bought! San Marzano tomatoes were on sale, so I used those and I recommend that you do too. I find them to be slightly sweeter and less acidic than other canned tomatoes, resulting in a sauce that tastes like you made it from ripe, summer tomatoes. If you can't find San Marzano's (they can be difficult to find and are pretty pricey if they aren't on sale), feel free to use your favorite brand of peeled plum tomatoes.

I served my sauce on top of spinach linguini. No real reason for that. I don't think it tastes any different than plain pasta and the nutritional differences are negligible. Honestly, I just like the way that it looks. Green pasta is so much more fun to eat than beige pasta! [....]

Buttermilk Waffles with Sauteed Bananas

LK — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:51:03 +0000

Buying Shawn a waffle iron for Christmas may have been one of the best things that I've ever done. We've wanted one for a while, but were hesitant because people kept telling us that we would never use it and it would ust take up precious cabinet space. Well, guess what? They were all wrong. We've been making waffles just about every weekend since we got it.

There's something about a homemade waffle that just doesn't compare to the frozen version. If you've ever ordered one at a diner you know what I'm talking about - they have that beautiful crispy exterior that gives way to a fluffy, light interior. These buttermilk waffles are perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast, or for a weeknight dinner. I like to make extras, which I reheat in the toaster for weekday breakfasts.

There are so many waffle recipes out there that it can be a little overwhelming. Cornmeal waffles, yeast waffles, chocolate waffles...the options are limitless. But my favorite are these buttermilk waffles, which call for whipped egg whites. They're the closest that I've found to the diner waffles that I love so much. I think the whipped eggs result in an extra light and fluffy center.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk toppings. Syrup is a classic, but I don't like to use too much since it can be so sweet. For these, I used just a drizzle of real maple syrup and some bananas that I sauteed with a little bit of grand marnier. The creaminess of the bananas was a really nice contrast to the tender-crisp texture of the waffle itself. As another alternative, I really like these waffles topped with a little bit of raspberry preserves. [....]

Coconut Chicken with Roasted Carrot-Ginger Puree

LK — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:00:26 +0000

Last week, I was walking to work and I noticed that some of the trees were getting little leaf buds on them! I was so excited... and then the next day, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. Three feet of snow later, I decided a meal with warm, tropical flavors might be just the thing I needed to cheer myself up.

A roasted carrot and ginger soup from an old issue of Food + Wine caught my eye recently, but Shawn wasn't buying the whole carrot soup idea. To be honest, I'm still a little tired of soup myself anyway. Since we both like mashed carrots, I decided to reinvent the soup as a roasted carrot and ginger puree. Coconut seemed like it would go well with those flavors and I was in the mood for something a little different, so I decided to make coconut chicken cutlets.

Although I could have used to roast the carrots a little longer (you can see that they're a little gritty in the photos - that's because they were undercooked), I was really happy with how these two dishes turned out. The sweetness of the carrot was great with the ginger and the coconut on the chicken got nice and toasty and made the perfect crispy coating. I used boneless chicken thighs, which have a lot more flavor and are a lot juicer than breast meat. Plus if you buy thighs with the skin on and just take it off yourself, it's so much cheaper than buying boneless, skinless breast! [....]

Daring Bakers: Kahlua Tiramisu

LK — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:07:40 +0000

When it's done right, I love tiramisu. But when it's not done right, it can be pretty disappointing - too sweet and too sloppy. So it goes without saying that I had mixed feeling when I saw that the February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. As part of the challenge, Aparna and Deeba also required that we make our own mascarpone and lady fingers. It seemed like a lot of work for such an iffy outcome, and since I've been so exhausted lately I seriously considered not participating in the challenge. But some of my friends on twitter were encouraging, promising that despite the length of the recipe and the time involved, the dish wasn't complicated to make and that it was some of the best tiramisu they've ever had.

I'm glad I took their advice - this was hands down one of my favorite daring bakers challenges to date. The tiramisu was surprisingly easy to make and it tasted fabulous! Not too sweet (though I did cut down on the sugar slightly) with the perfect balance of cream to cake. It also freezes really well, which is great because keeping it readily accessible in the fridge would be way too dangerous! Keeping it in the freezer allows me to thaw just the amount that I want - and makes it difficult to go back for a second slice! I would definitely make this recipe again - it would be the perfect ending to a dinner party. [....]

Meat-Free Friday: Apple and Blue Cheese Galette

LK — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:59:46 +0000

You read it right, meat-free Friday is back!! And this time around I'm going to do my best to really keep it meat-free - including no seafood. Vegetarian recipes will, as always, continue to be tagged as bothvegetarian and as lent.

Have you ever wished that you could eat apple pie for dinner? This galette stuffed with sauteed apples and fennel, caramelized onions, and blue cheese is pretty close! Just like apple pie, this dish is great either warm or at room temperature; just be sure to store any leftovers in the fridge.

I don't know where the idea came from, but while I was doing my weekly menu-planning, I decided that I wanted to make an apple and blue cheese galette. Thinking about it more I decided that, while it sounded great, it needed more - both to add bulk and make it filling as well as to add some sharpness to the flavor. I decided that caramelized onions would be perfect. Then I saw fennel while I was shopping and decided to grab that too. Apples and fennel pair perfectly, and together, the onions and fennel moved this dish squarely from the dessert column to the dinner column. [....]

Southwestern Short Ribs

LK — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:46:07 +0000

One day last weekend, I was looking for an excuse to not leave the house so I decided to braise something. I feel like although I've been doing a lot of braising this winter (thanks to Julie and Julia, which has us all craving Boeuf Bourgignon in August!!), I hardly ever use my oven. I obviously use it when I bake, but it's so rare that I do something like roast a chicken and the oven just never gets used for cooking. I takes so long! You have to wait for it to preheat, then it takes forever to actually cook your food.... so it's the stovetop for me the majority of the time. Every once in a while if I'm snowed in (or want to pretend I'm snowed in!) I take advantage of the time at home to make a delicious braised dish. Like these short ribs, which simmer away all afternoon until the meat falls right off the bone and is tender as can be.

Instead of doing a traditional Italian braise, I decided to put a southwestern twist on my ribs, using beer and tequila as my liquids and adding a jalapeno and some chili powder to the pot. The flavor turned out great - it wasn't spicy or beer-y at all, but it had a nice little southwestern kick. In order to develop the recipe I used the "Create your own" feature on the Fine Cooking web site. The feature walks you through the recipe and lets you drag different combinations of ingredients into the "pot" - then at the end it gives you a recipe that you can follow to recreate the dish n a real kitchen. I always play around with the feature, but I had never actually cooked one of the recipes before. I was impressed! Although you ned to pay attention to what flavors will go well together and make sure you have a good balance of richness and acidity, it's a great way to put a fun, personal twist on a recipe that you aren't that familiar with.

For any of you that have never had short ribs before, it's similar to pot roast with a slightly firmer texture - fork-tender and succulent meat, with vegetables that cook down into a nice sauce. I served these with mashed potatoes (with sour cream instead of milk) to serve with my ribs. They were a great way to soak up the extra sauce! [....]

Risotto with Scallops and Grapefruit

LK — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:14:19 +0000

The other day I didn't have anything planned to make for dinner, so I asked Shawn to pick something up for me to cook. came home to find some beautiful scallops (look at the size of those babies!), arborio rice, pecorino romano, thyme, and peas. It really shouldn't have surprised me that he bought ingredients for risotto - I'm pretty sure he would be blissfully happy if I made it every day! Plain risotto with scallops seemed kind of boring to me though, so I looked around the kitchen for something else to add. I came across a grapefruit and figured "why not?" I knew that scallops and grapefruit went great together, and even though I was a little nervous about how the flavor would play out in a risotto I figured it was worth a shot.

I shouldn't have doubted myself. I had forgotten how great lemon zest is in risotto, and the grapefruit acted in the same way. The sharp citrus cuts through the creamy rice and lifts the flavor of the whole dish. I was also nervous about the fruit being to bitter, but the natural sweetness of the scallops - and the little bit of brown butter that I decided to use - provided just the right amount of balance.

Risotto with Scallops and Grapefruit

1Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, mined
1.5 cups arborio rice
4 oz white wine
5 cups chicken stock, warmed
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano
2 Tbs grapefruit zest
1/2 pound scallops
Juice from 1/2 grapefruit
1 Tbs butter
1/2 grapefruit, supremed (cut into wedges, white parts removed)

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add rice and cook 2 minutes or until heated trhough and nearly translucent. Add the wine and cook until fully absorbed by the rice. Add the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing nearly all of the broth to absord before adding more. Continue this process until rice is soft and creamy – it should take about 20 minutes, but you may not need all of the broth. Stir in the pecorno romano and the peas. Allow the cheese to melt and the peas to warm. Stir in the grapefruit zest. Cover and keep warm.

Dry the scallops as much as you can with a paper towel. Heat a frying pan over high heat. Add half the scallops and cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through. Remove from the pan and repeat with remaining scallops. Add butter to the pan - allow it to melt, then continue cooking until it is a golden brown color. Whisk in the grapefruit juice. Bring to a simmer and reduce by half. Add the scallops back into the pan, and toss with the grapefruit glaze. Add the grapefruit wedges and cook until just warmed through.

Spoon the risotto into 4 bowls. Top with the scallops and grapefruit.

Serves 4.
Approx. 560 calories, 14 grams fat, 1.5 grams fiber, 23 grams protein

Spinach, Poblano and Cheese Enchiladas

LK — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:17:25 +0000

For almost the entire time that I was away, I had a horrible craving for Mexican food. So I wasted no time when I got home and made these enchiladas right away! I was kind of tired of beef and pork, and I don't care for chicken enchiladas, so I decided to go with a vegetarian option. Shawn recently ordered spinach and cheese enchiladas at a restaurant, so I used those as my inspiration. They don't taste overly spinach-y, but the vegetables add bulk to the filling so that you can use less cheese and keep the calorie and fat count down (don't worry, there's still plenty of ooey, gooey cheese!).

I attempted to find a recipe for spinach and cheese enchiladas online, but none of them looked very good - they all had weird ingredients like ricotta cheese! Nothing that I found was even close to what i was looking for, so I made my recipe up as I went along. I shredded the cheese for my filling and mixed it with the spinach so that you wouldn't end up with big clumps of either. I also added a poblano pepper and a chili pepper to add a little bit of heat. The poblano gave the whole dish a nice, authentic Mexican flavor and I'll definitely use them again the next time I make these.

I used Good Food Mexican red sauce, which I liked a lot, on these enchiladas. It caught my eye at the store because it had fewer ingredients than the enchilada sauces an the ingredients were recognizable. It also had significantly less calories and sodium than the other sauce options. The fact the the sauce was made by Good Housekeeping had me a little worried, but I shouldn't have been. It was great! I liked that it had a little bit of a kick to it, and the smell was incredible. I can't wait to try the other flavors. [....]

Daring Cooks: Mezze with Homemade Pitas and Hummus

LK — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:00:17 +0000

I'm baaaaack!! I apologize for the severe lack of posts over the past few weeks. I was on an extended business trip and even though I had photos and recipes ready to go, I was just too tired to actually write up posts while I was away. But I'm home and rested now and life is slowly getting back to normal - which means I'm ready to resume my regular posting schedule! And what better way to jump right back in than with a Daring Cooks challenge?

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford, and Naomi Dugid. Mezze is a bunch of small dishes that are all served at once - sort of like a Middle Eastern tapas. The required parts of the challenge were to make pita bread and hummus. I also chose to make kafta (spiced meatballs) and taboule salad.

I've made pitas before, but I really loved this recipe and will definitely be making it again. Homemade pitas are so much better than what you can buy in the store - they're soft, fluffy pillows of goodness. I found this recipe to be really easy to follow and the result was pure perfection. They tasted just like the pitas that I get at my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants! They were really cheap to make too, and I loved how they puffed up in the oven. Since I was planning to use them as a wrap, I flattened them while they were still warm. But if you want a pocket that you can fill, Leave them in the balloon shape to cool. The inside will be hollow, so you can cut them in half and fill just like a store bought pita pocket. As written, the recipe will yield 16 breads. I halved it and had no problems. [....]