Veggie & Bean Soup

Veggie & Bean Soup!

Hey Everyone! I hope you are all doing well and being safe after the Hurricane Sandy craziness we have all experienced over the last 48 hours! As most of you probably know by now, cooking relaxes me, so I decided to make a hearty soup to ease the nerves from the recent events. I was also away for 3 days before the hurricane so when I returned home, I had some veggies that needed to be cooked or they'd go bad. I also had a slight case of cabin fever where I was eating pretty much everything in sight! :) Most of it was pretty healthy but this soup will fix me up! I loved using the Spaghetti Squash as noodles in this dish! Delicious and low in carbs!

Ingredients:
32oz low-sodium vegetable broth
2.5 cups chopped kale
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 box frozen lima beans (10oz)
4 carrots
1 spaghetti squash
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 medium onion
olive oil
3 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
Italian Seasoning
Black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 425F. Slice spaghetti squash in 2 and place face-down on a roasting sheet. Place in oven for 30 minutes.
2) In a large pot, pour in 4Tbsp olive oil and heat on medium high.
3) Chop onion and add to pot.
4) Mince garlic and add to pot.
5) Allow onion and garlic to sweat (about 4-5 minutes). Stirring every minute or so.
6) Add vegetable stock, bouillon and 2 cups of warm water. Allow to boil.
7) Slice carrots.
8) When liquid is boiling, add kale, carrots, spinach, frozen lima beans, rinsed kidney beans, 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning and 3 bay leaves.
9) Cook soup on high for 15 minutes, then turn down to medium-low.
10) When spaghetti squash is finished roasting, remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before handling.
11) Using a fork or pasta spoon (or my pastasaurus :), scrape inside of spaghetti squash. The insides will pull like spaghetti noodles. Add the noodles from 1 half of a squash to the soup.
12) Allow to cook for 10 more minutes on medium-low.

When "noodles" are al dente, turn off heat and enjoy!!!

Rawr!!!!!
My Pastasaurus! My brother's lovely girlfriend, Allie gave it to me for Christmas last year!!! Love it! 

Tips:
a) Remove the seeds from the squash before roasting, makes for easier removal of "noodles".
b) You can make this simple soup with anything you have around your kitchen. Feel free to add potatoes, celery or broccoli.
c) If you are not a "salty" person, you can also sub the stock for low-sodium stock or remove the bouillon cube.
d) If you want a Pastasaurus, here is the Amazon link.

Promises, promises!

Hey everyone!
I know the blogging has taken a slight backseat to my school semester but I promise to come back with a ton of recipes in hand! In the meantime, I am going to be posting links for helpful articles, motivational images and quotes and any other deliciously educational material I can find.

The article below is written for Yahoo! by David Zincenko. He is the author of the "Eat This, Not That!" series of which I have 2 books! I like his style because home cooking from scratch doesn't work in every scenario for every person. This article caught my eye because it is all about the way national food chains have polluted Italian pasta staples!

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/7-worst-pasta-dishes-america

Have a delicious day!

~Angel

Quick and Easy Italian

I was pretty hungry when I got home from work today so I whipped up a quick and easy Italian style veggie sandwich! I am definetely the kind of person that has to couple a sandwich with something so I chose some "Food Should Tasta Good" multi-grain chips. Here is what I put on the sandwich and how I made it.

1 Arnolds 100calorie roll

1 sliced plum tomato (from my dad's garden!)

1 slice romaine lettuce halved

thinly sliced red onion

shredded red cabbage

4 basil leaves (from my garden!)

olive oil

garlic powder

black pepper

sprinkle of salt

I have a fantastic little oil sprayer from The Pampered Chef. It allows you to use your own oil and convert it to a spray oil. This helps cut calories but mainain flavor. I sprayed the bun with oil and sprinkled my seasonings on it. I toasted it for about 5 minutes.

Slice the tomato and lay the slices onto the bread. Top with cabbage, onion and lettuce. Spray the vegetables again with a bit of oil.

Add a handful of chips. I coupled the chips with a Laughing Cow Tomato Basil Cheese wedge.

Enjoy!! Yum!

Nutella Oat Pancakes with peanut butter, banana and Nutella drizzle

Happy Sunday everyone! This recipe was inspired by my friend Matt! He went to a diner in Philadelphia that had a similar style pancake recipe on the menu. In the photo he posted on facebook there was more nutella and PB on the pancakes. I personally love the bready taste of pancakes so I didn't try to overwhelm them with the toppings, but add as much as you prefer based on your preferences. Here we go!

There are 2 ways to make these pancakes, the short-cut route or the from scratch way. I went a little half and half. I really like the pancake mixes from the New Hope Mills and I used the Oat Bran mix for this recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups Oat Bran pancake mix
1 3/4 cups cold water
1/4 cup egg beaters (or 1 egg)
4 tbsp Nutella
1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp skim milk
1/2 banana

Add pancake mix, water and egg in a large bowl. Mix in 2 tbsp nutella and mix until batter turns a light brown.

Cook pancakes on medium heat until both sides are browned.

In a small saucepan add the remaining nutella with 1 tbsp milk. Warm on very low heat and stir continuously to remove lumps and prevent from burning.

Cut the banana into slices and layer on top of pancakes.

Using a large spoon, drizzle the warmed nutella over the pancakes.

Top with peanut butter and enjoy!


Tips
- When making pancakes, cover cooked pancakes with a pot lid to keep pancakes moist and warm.
- You can top this recipe with maple syrup, but taste it first because it is already deliciously sweet!
- If you want to make your pancakes from scratch, here is a good recipe . Just add in the Nutella.

- You can use any pancake mix and add in the additional ingredients.

Eggplant Parm

Big mama eggplant!

I made eggplant parm tonight that I adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook. I thought I had some breadcrumbs but was out. What to do?? Improvise! I always have some kind of carby, crunchy stuff in my cabinets. I used Wasa crackers, whole wheat saltines, ground flaxseed and bran meal. I tossed all of it in a food processor with onion powder, dried oregano and 1 large minced onion. I then sliced up my huge eggplant and dipped the slices into the egg, then into the "breadcrumb" mixture. I made sure I patted down both sides so the crumbs would stick well. 

Like my official "chinese takeout" mixing bowl?

I baked the eggplant for 25 minutes ate 350 degrees. I utilized some sauce I made last week and froze. Pour a little on the bottom of a glass baking pan and place the baked eggplant slices on top. I then poured a heavenly amount sauce over top of the eggplant and topped it with low-fat mozzarella cheese.
Put the eggplant back into the oven for about 20 minutes. The cheese will become bubbly and begin to brown on the edges. I made some fettuccine as a side dish to complete the meal.


While my eggplant was cooking I decided to try make beignets from the show "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" on the food network. The recipe was super easy to make As you can see by the pictures, I had some trouble maintaining the oil temperature and the little beignets came out somewhat well done :)  . I sprinkled them with powdered sugar for good measure.
I also hate to waste food so I cooked the egg that remained from my eggplant. I made it into a little omelette for breakfast tomorrow.

My eggs are in the shape of a steak!

My Review
The eggplant came out great! The breadcrumb mixture added more depth of flavor than I expected. The eggplant was nice and tender and cut easily. The dinner was a success! I brought some to my parents for a quick taste and they loved it as well.

I need to work on my plating. I was so hungry!

A bit crispy, huh?

The beignets were pretty good but as I said; a little well done. The flavor was nice and they were surprisingly filling. I would like to try them with a nice cappucino or latte. Mmmmm!

Authentic Italian Baking Day

I spent the majority of my day today in the company of my wonderful Nonna (grandmother) and my lovely mom. I have been wanting to learn some of our family recipes so I am able to pass down our traditions. My mom's side of the family is from a tiny town in the region of Abruzzo in Italy. Abruzzo is famous for bocconotti, chocolate cream tartlets. Whenever our family goes or comes to visit from that side of the family, they always bring bocconotti and my immediate family goes nuts for them! Nonna makes them around the holidays each year (not because they are a Christmas treat, but because they are so much work!).

I learned the recipe and translated our handwritten Italian recipe to English.

I can't completely describe what they taste like. The exterior is a dense, lemon cookie-like crust that isn't overly crunchy and is still somewhat soft at the same time. The interior is a chocolate mixture that is so satisfyingly delicious that you cannot help but want more.

The Final Products! Yum!

While we baked the bocconotti, we whipped up some pizzelle. I've made these before from recipes I've pulled from the internet but they are no comparison to Nonna's recipe. It was so simple, yet so different. We kept some plain and rolled some into little cannoli-like rolls filled with extra creme from the bocconotti. The way Nonna makes them actually keeps the pizzelle much softer than your run of the mill variety from a bakery or supermarket. The typical version are crunchy, sweet crackers while these are more like super thin waffles or crepes.

I have been running a variety of changes to make like using the pizzelle rolls to make cannolis (which I make often). I also have been thinking about a way to make reversed bocconotti (chocolate crust with a lemon/vanilla cream).
Anyway, I had to blog about this fun experience today because I had a ball!

Have a delicious evening!!
TheHealthyAngel