Thursday, September 27, 2007

10 Italian Classics under 300 Calories

GREAT ideas from MyRecipes.com, including Garden Minestrone, Tomato Basil Lasagna with Proscuitto, Linguine with Clam Sauce and Tiramisu!

Easy Chinese Corn Soup

Easy Chinese Corn Soup

This soup was very good, but it needs some salt added to the recipe. Maybe a teaspoon for the whole recipe.

Easy Chinese Corn Soup
Submitted by: Liz
Rated: 4 out of 5 by 26 members Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 15 Minutes
Yields: 4 servings

"This quick and easy soup is so good that I never bother ordering it from Chinese restaurants anymore!"
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 ounce) can cream style
corn
1 (14.5 ounce) can low-sodium
chicken broth 1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a saucepan, combine the cream style corn and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. In a small bowl or cup, mix together the cornstarch and water; pour into the boiling corn soup, and continue cooking for about 2 minutes, or until thickened. Gradually add the beaten egg while stirring the soup. Remove from heat and serve.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Chicken 'n Spinach Pasta Bake (Southern Living)

  • 8 ounces uncooked rigatoni
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
  • 1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
  • 1 (14.5-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
  • 1 (8-oz.) container chive-and-onion cream cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Prepare rigatoni according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; add onion in a single layer.

3. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to a large bowl, and set aside.

4. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.

5. Stir rigatoni, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese.

6. Bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Sausage 'n' Spinach Pasta Bake: Substitute 3 cups cooked, crumbled hot Italian sausage for 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts. Reduce salt to 1/4 tsp., and omit 1/2 tsp. pepper. Proceed with recipe as directed.

from MyRecipes.com

Makes 4 to 6 servings

A new site with some good recipes

I stumbled across this lovely collection of recipes...
Called simply The Recipes. Good stuff! (you can look up Bulgogi, too, and she's got the most delicious picture of it.)

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Weight Watchers Chocolate Muffins

  • 1 box devils food cake mix (or white, spice, yellow..)
  • 1 can (15 oz) solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Mix together. Do not add anything else that is mentioned on the box. It only takes these 2 ingredients. That's all. Mixture will be very thick (and you will be tempted to add something, but don't.) Place in muffin tins, sprayed with non stick spray. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

1 Muffin is 180 calories, 2.5 G fat, 37 carbs, 2.5 G fiber, 2.5 G protein = 3 WW points

Sweet Potato Muffins

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups mashed baked sweet potato (from 1 large potato)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Spray oil or butter for greasing muffin cups
  • 7 tablespoons cinnamon sugar (one tablespoon cinnamon mixed with 6 tablespoons granulated sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon until creamy. Beat in sugars until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in milk, vanilla, and sweet potatoes (batter might look curdled). In a separate bowl, your child can whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Beat together wet and dry mixtures until just combined.

Grease muffn tin and fill each cup about halfway with batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake about 18 minutes (14 for mini-muffns), until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 12 standard or 36 mini-muffins

Golden Chocolate Chip Muffins (King Arthur Flour)

King Arthur 100% Organic White Whole Wheat Flour is the best flour on the planet! And it’s a star performer in these luscious chocolate chip muffins.
  • 1/2 cup (4 ounces) butter
  • 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon extra-strong flavor, optional*
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk
  • 2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur 100% Organic White Whole Wheat Flour*
  • 2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips
  • coarse sparkling sugar, for topping
  • Add a little extra zing to your muffins with a complementary flavor: cinnamon and coconut extra-strong flavors are both good choices. Start with 1/8 teaspoon, adding more to taste.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with muffin cups, and grease the muffin cups) a standard-size muffin pan.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and flavor (if you're using it) until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time; then stir in the milk. Mix in the flour, then the chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups; they’ll be quite full. Sprinkle each muffin with a little coarse sugar. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out without crumbs clinging to it (a little chocolate is OK!).
Yield: 12 muffins.

Pepperoni Pizza Twist

(I think this is a Pampered Chef recipe)
  • 1 package pepperoni slices
  • 1 can pitted ripe olives
  • ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 packages of refrigerated French bread dough
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
  • 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
  • 1 can pizza sauce (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In bowl, combine pepperoni, olives, cheese, flour and garlic. Mix well.

2. Place bread dough, seams up, on cutting board. Slice each loaf lengthwise, end to end, cutting halfway through to center of loaf; spread open flat. Lightly sprinkle dough with flour. With a roller, roll dough open, creating a well down center of each loaf.

3.Spoon half of the pepperoni mixture down center of each loaf. Gather up edges over filling, pinching firmly to seal. Place loaves seam side down on a pizza stone into an “X” pattern. Crisscross ends of dough into a large figure “8”.

4. Separate egg with egg separator. Beat egg white and seasoning mix; lightly brush over dough with a pastry brush. Cut 3 inch slits in each of the top sections of the twist to reveal the filling.

5. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over loaf. Bake 30-32 min or until deep golden brown. Remove to cooling rack; cool 10 min. Cut into 16 slices. Serve with warm pizza sauce, if desired.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Baked Ziti(Southern Living)

Prep: 20 min., Cook: 25 min., Bake: 25 min., Stand: 10 min.
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 (26-ounce) jar tomato-and-basil pasta sauce
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1 (16-ounce) box ziti pasta
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 (8-ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese
Sauté chopped onion in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Add beef, and cook, stirring until beef crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain beef mixture, and return to pan. Stir in pasta sauce and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

Cook pasta in a large Dutch oven according to package directions. Drain and return to Dutch oven.

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Stir in Parmesan cheese, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Pour sauce over pasta in Dutch oven, stirring until pasta is evenly coated.

Transfer pasta mixture to a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Top evenly with beef mixture; sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

Bowties with Peas and Prosciutto

(quoted from My Tiny Kingdom-week of recipes)
  • 1/4 C olive oil (or less) (or add a little butter)
  • 1/2 C finely chopped onion (more or less)
  • 12 oz frozen peas
  • 6 oz prosciutto cut into strips (more or less)
  • 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • 1 LB bowtie pasta
  • 1 T olive oil or butter
  • fresh grated Parmesan (the real thing)
Saute the onion (in a skillet big enough to hold everything including the pasta at the end) in the oil or butter until lightly browned. Add the prosciutto and basil and saute until the prosciutto changes color. Add 2 cups of water to the pan to deglaze it (pour water in and stir everything around, scraping up the browned bits of stuff from the bottom of the pan so they’ll melt into the liquid). Add peas, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until peas are tender.

Meanwhile, boil a whole lot of water and cook your pasta. Drain it and add it to the prosciutto mixture and stir everything gently so the pasta soaks up some liquid. Put it on plates and top with FRESHLY GRATED REAL PARMESAN and pepper and enjoy.

Serve with bread and a salad or do like I do and serve alone and say, “Here’s dinner. Put your napkins in your laps and quit grabbing bowties with your fingers before we’ve said the blessing. After we’ve said the blessing I expect you to use a fork.”

Don’t go buying any fancy-schmancy prosciutto for this; the packaged brand is perfectly fine. The trick to this is cooking the onions slowly until they are barely browning, but if someone’s going to be late for soccer, by all means just crank up the heat and sear the hell out of the onions. It’ll still eat.

We're cooking now!

Let's try this out... I'd love a place to keep all our recipes. I'm going to try to cut/paste my recipes (and even pics) here so even after a thread is over, we've still got a place to go to find all the good stuff we've been making.