Cooking Light Pastitsio

Pastitsio

This is a new recipe that I tried this weekend from the October issue of Cooking Light.  I'd never heard of Pastitsio before but it looked yummy so I decided to give it a try.  It was very quick to prepare, not terribly complicated at all.  I made it before Zack and I went out and we both ate it with Joseph, who also loved it.  Then our babysitter came over and had some and she loved it too.  She asked for the recipe as soon as we got home.  So Emily, this one's for you.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces penne
• 1 pond ground beef
• cooking spray
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 5 garlic cloves minced
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 cups fat-free milk
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
• 3 oz fat free cream cheese
• 3/4 cup part-skim mozzerella

Directions:
Cook pasta and drain.  Heat a large skillet and coat with cooking spray.  Add beef to pan and and cook, stirring to crumble.  Remove meat from pan and drain .  Add oil to pan and saute onions for 5 minutes.  Add garlic stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Return beef to pan and season with salt.  Add flour and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in milk, cream cheese, and tomatoes and stir until cheese has melted.  Stir in pasta.  Place in coated baking dish and top with mozzarella.  Broil for 4 minutes until cheese is browned.

*Cooking Light October 2011

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

The weather is getting cooler and you know what that means...its time for comfort food!  One of my personal favorties is Chicken Pot Pie.  This is a great recipe.  The original is from Real Simple magazine and calls for a dry white wine but I've tried several different types and I have gotten the best results with Moscato.  I also prefer it with a bottom and top crust rather than just the top crust.  The bottom line howerver, is tha thtis is the best chicken pot pie I have ever eaten.  Enjoy!

Image compliments of real simple magazine

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, chopped

4 carrots, diced (or a bag of frozen carrots)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 cups 1 percent milk

1 10-ounce package frozen peas (or corn)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme (1-2 tsp to taste if you use dry)

Kosher salt and pepper

 9-inch store-bought piecrust, thawed if frozen ( I have a recipe for homemade pie crust but I haven't tried it yet in this recipe.  I will let you know.)

What to do:

• Heat oven to 400° F. Cook the chicken in a pot of simmering water until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes; let cool, then shred.  I shred the chicken by using two forks to pull it apart.  The chicken more or less falls apart.  Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, 6 to 8 minutes (do not let them darken). If you are in a hurry you can use a bag of frozen carrots.  Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Add the milk and simmer until the sauce thickens. Stir in the chicken, peas (sometimes I use frozen corn instead of peas because Zack has a pea allergy), thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place one pie crust into a shallow 1 1/2- to 2-quart baking dish.  Pour the filling and other ingredients into the pie crust.  Lay on the top crust, pressing to seal. Cut several vents in the crust. Place the pot pie on a baking sheet to avoid anything spilling and burning onthe bottom.  Bake until bubbling and the crust is golden, 30 to 35 minutes. 

Sara Quessenberry and Kate Merker, Real Simple

Eggplant Sandwich

If you are like my mom and had a hugely successful eggplant crop this year you are probably sick to death of eggplant parmesan.  If that is the case here is a really fantastic sandwich that can be made with this beautifully hued veggie.

  Eggplant Sandwich

• 1 lb eggplant pealed and sliced thin
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinaigrette
• 6 sun dried tomato halves diced
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• french bread

Set the oven to broil and use 1/4 cup of the dressing to coat each side of your eggplant slice.  Place the eggplant on a cookie sheet and broil them for about 12 minutes, flipping them halfway through.  In a bowl mix the feta with the sun dried tomatoes and set aside.  Slice your loaf of bread and spread remaining dressing inside.  Broil with the eggplant for for a few minutes until lightly toasted.  Remove the bread and eggplant from broiler and assemble you sandwich, spreading the eggplant and tomato mixture over the eggplant.  Enjoy!

Pizza Mexicali

When Zack and I first started living together and for at least a year after we got married I used to go to the grocery store with a calculator.  We were broke and there was a finite amount of money to be spent on food.  And also a very limited amount of time to cook it since I was commuting from Dighton to Worcester, sitting in class all day, then coming home to study.  One recipe we discovered during this period of our lives and still throw together periodically is Pizza Mexicali.  This is for all you broke college kids....

Pizza Mexicali

What you need:

• salsa
• black beans
• avacados
• onion
• sour cream
• flour tortillas
• monterey jack or other shredded cheese of your choosing

How to make it:

       Set the oven to broil.  Coat a cooking sheet with cooking spray and broil each tortilla for 1-2 minutes on each side until slightly toasted.  Remove from oven and set oven to 350.  Spread salsa onto the tortilla and top with onions, black beans, and cheese.  Back until cheese is melted, top with avacado and sour cream and enjoy! Sorry folks no photo for this one but I promise it is delicious!



Sundried tomato, Spinach, and Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

Well hello again to my few faithful followers.  Sorry it has been awhile since I have shared any cullinary delights with you.  Life is busy, busy, busy!  And that is why I call this site "Cooking in Real Life" because sometimes it is hard to find the time to cook delicious meals from scratch while running around with work, errands, kids, etc.  In that spirit over the next week I will try to add in some super fast suppers.  Even a few things that sound complicated but go together fairly easily like this one!

Sundried Tomato, Spinach, and Cheese Stuffed Pork Chop

• Cooking spray

4 garlic cloves, minced and divided

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

5 sun-dried tomatoes, packed without oil, diced

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry

1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops, trimmed

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons mustard

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Preheat broiler.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 2 garlic cloves; sauté 1 minute. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, tomatoes, and spinach; sauté until moisture evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in cheeses and rind.

Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each pork chop to form a pocket. Stuff about 1/4 cup spinach mixture into each pocket. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper over pork. Arrange pork on the rack of a baking dish coated with cooking spray; place rack in pan. Combine remaining 2 garlic cloves, juice, mustard, and oregano in a bowl; stir well. Brush half of mustard mixture over pork. Broil 6 minutes; turn pork. Brush remaining mixture over pork; broil 2 minutes or until done.

I found this recipe compliments of, David Bonom, Cooking LightAPRIL 2007.  I have tweaked it a bit.  Its delicious.

Cheesy Sausage and Spinach Lasagna

Cheesy Sausage and Spinach Lasagna

Believe it or not this is actually a fairly low-calorie recipe.  At 344 calories per serving it is delicious!  This recipe makes 9 servings.  It is also very easy to prepare.  It can be made using no-bake lasagna noodles which cuts way down on mess and preparation time.

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella

16 oz fat free ricotta

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 links Italian sausage

1/2 small onion diced

cooking spray

4 cups marinara sauce

Directions:

Mix together 1 and 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese as well as the seasoning and spinach.  Coat a skillet with cooking spray.  Remove the casings from the sausage and break them up in the pan.  Add the diced onion and saute.  Once the sausage is cooked through add the contents of the skillet to the cheese mixture and stir. 

Coat the pan with cooking spray and spread 2/3 cups sauce on the bottom.  Place 3 noodles in the bottom of the pan.

Spread another 2/3 cups sauce over the noodles.  Top with 1/2 of the cheese mixture and an additional 2/3 cup sauce.

Repeat the layering process with the the remaining cheese mixture ending with the last 3 noodles and 2/3 cups sauce.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Top with the remaining cheese mixture and bake for an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted and Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Chicken/Pork

Sweet and Sour Chicken/Pork

 This is a great recipe that can be made using either boneless chicken breast or pork.  It is fast, delicious, and low-calorie too.  Even Joseph, my 18 month old son loves to eat it!

Ingredients:

1lb pork or chicken

1 egg white

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp cornstarch

20 oz. can pineapple chunks*

juice from pineapple chunks*

1/2 cup white vinegar*

1/2 cup ketchup*

4-5 tbsp brown sugar*

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 tbsp and 1 tsp olive oil

rice (I prefer brown rice but any rice you like is fine.  If you are using regular rice as opposed to the 10 minute type you should start the process of cooking the rice at the beginning of the recipe)

*I like to have extra sauce so I've doubled the sauce in this recipe. If you prefer you can make less sauce by decreasing the amount of pineapple, pineapple juice, vinegar, ketchup, and brown sugar by half.

Directions:

First cut the meat into bite sized chunks.  Whisk the egg white, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and the cornstarch together with a fork.  Toss in meat until it is thoroughly coated with this mixture and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.  While you are waiting, cut the peppers into 1/2 inch pieces and set aside.  In a separate bowl mix together the juice, vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt and set aside.  Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large skillet on high.  Once hot add the meat and cook until browned.  Remove and set aside.

Decrease temperature to medium and add the remaining 1 tsp oil into the skillet.  Add the peppers.  Allow the peppers to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.



At this point add the sauce and the pineapple into the skillet.  Increase the temperature to high and bring to a simmer.  I use 10 minute rice when I make this recipe, and this is the point at which I usually start making it. 

Once the sauce reaches a simmer return the meat to the skillet.  Continue to cook stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through.  Serve over rice.  Delicious!