Tri-Colore Orzo

Also, off the same Everyday Italian episode, I found this recipe. It was delicious! Very complex with the tangy lemon juice, salty feta (we used feta), bitter arugula, and sweet cherries. Only other change I made was to chop up the cherries. Smaller pieces made it distribute further.

Very light and fresh tasting. And, I think the arugula is holding up for this dish to be a leftover. I’ve been very impressed with Giada’s recipes that we’ve tried out.

Tri-Colore Orzo
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

1 pound orzo pasta
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1/4 cup
2 cups fresh arugula (about 3 ounces)
3/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese (or feta cheese)
1/2 cup dried cherries
12 fresh basil leaves, torn
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta and put the pasta on a large cookie sheet. Drizzle the pasta with 3 tablespoons olive oil, toss, spread out, and set aside to cool.

Once the orzo is cool, transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss gently to combine. Serve.

Chicken with Balsamic BBQ Sauce

Here’s a YUMMY-LICIOUS barbeque recipe that we used last night. Mapgeek grilled over charcoal, but no smoking. It was decided that smoking the chicken might make the flavors too much. We used chicken thighs because they grill great and are the perfect size. It’s been decided that this is a definite keeper in our barbeque collection. Go figure that it came off an Everyday Italian episode!


Chicken or Steak with Balsamic BBQ Sauce
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

For the Balsamic BBQ sauce:
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the chicken or steak: 4 pieces chicken (any combination of breast or leg-and-thigh pieces) or 4 pieces of New York strip or Club strip steak Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the BBQ sauce: Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by 1/3, about 15 to 20 minutes.

For the chicken or steak: Place a grill pan over medium heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Lightly coat with some of the BBQ sauce using a pastry brush. Place the meat on the grill. Place the remaining BBQ sauce, still in the small saucepan, over low heat or on the edge of a gas or charcoal grill and allow to gently simmer while the meat cooks.

Cook the chicken about 8 minutes per side. Cook the steaks starting at about 4 minutes per side until a meat thermometer reads the desired temperature, 120 degrees F for medium rare, 135 degrees F for medium (about 6 minutes per side), 155 degrees F for well done (about 9 minutes per side). Continually brush the meat with BBQ sauce every few minutes. Remove the meat from the grill and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve with the heated BBQ sauce alongside.

Alternately, the chicken can be baked in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the chicken skin side up in a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven and spoon the BBQ sauce all over the top of the chicken. Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie

Another winner from Apron’s. I’ve made a great Shepherd’s Pie from a Paula Deen recipe. The most time consuming part of making a pie is making the potatoes (if you do it from scratch). This recipe uses the refrigerated mashed potatoes. And you are putting everything together hot and then you broil it, so there’s time saved by not having to heat the whole pie through.

The other pie recipes I’ve seen also include a TON of butter. That Paula Deen recipe above included 6 tablespoons of butter in the potatoes, not to mention what you might use to make the gravy. This recipe uses no oil, except for a little cooking spray and uses ground turkey (7% fat) instead of beef (not a huge fat difference, but not red meat). The interesting thing was that it used a package of the dried mushroom gravy for seasoning. I’ve never tried that before and it worked great!

One comment I’ve noticed with different recipe collections. Each one seems to have its own stock ingredients…ingredients that seem to show up in lots of their recipes. The Apron’s site has been using a lot of garlic butter in various recipes. I bought one stick of Irish herbed butter and have been using it over and over with some of these recipes. As I mentioned, Apron’s also uses the frozen prepped veggies too. So, at least I’m not feeling like I’m wasting food.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
cooking spray
1 cup frozen seasoning blend (diced onions, bell peppers, celery)
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
1 (.75-ounce) packet mushroom gravy mix
1 (8-ounce) can mushroom pieces (undrained)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon quick-mixing flour
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (24-ounce) package refrigerated mashed potatoes
1 tablespoon garlic butter

Steps
1. Place oven rack 6 inches from broiler, then preheat oven on broil. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes.
2. Remove pan from burner; coat with cooking spray. Add seasoning blend to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until vegetables begin to brown.
3. Add turkey and dry gravy mix. Cook 5–7 minutes until meat is brown and no pink remains. Stir frequently and break meat up as it cooks.
4. Stir in mushrooms, pepper, flour, and tomato sauce. Cook 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until gravy thickens.
5. Meanwhile, place potatoes in microwave-safe bowl; microwave on HIGH 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated and softened.
6. Stir butter into potatoes until melted. Spoon turkey mixture into 2-quart baking dish. 7. Spread potatoes evenly over turkey mixture. Coat potatoes with cooking spray; broil 6–8 minutes or until golden. Serve. (Makes 6 servings.)

CALORIES (per 1/6 recipe) 370kcal; FAT 19g; CHOL 110mg; SODIUM 1120mg; CARB 22g; FIBER 2g; PROTEIN 23g; VIT A 10%; VIT C 6%; CALC 6%; IRON 15%

Baked Pa-sghetti

I made this last night on our Easy night – softball. I found it on the Apron’s site. I’m really encourage with this site because the recipes call for ingredients that are already prepped, like diced carrots, onions, etc. Some of these you can buy frozen, and some you can buy in the produce section. Costs a little more, but I definitely buy the frozen, cut up veggies since I’ll use them eventually. Sometimes, convenience is worth the cost!

This was an absolute fabulous mix of “easy” and tasty! Surprisingly, it required no pre-cooking of ingredients. Everything went into the pan as is and then into the oven. Loved it!!

Baked Spaghetti
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef, 7% fat
1 cup frozen diced onions
1/4 cup frozen diced bell peppers
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
8 ounces spaghetti
2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend, divided
1 (26-ounce) jar tomato and basil pasta sauce

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Fill large saucepan 1/2 full of water. Cover and bring to a boil on high for pasta.
2. Meanwhile, mix beef, onions, peppers, 1 egg, garlic powder, oregano, and seasoned salt in large bowl. Mix by hand (or in food processor) until thoroughly blended. Spread mixture evenly in 9- x 13-inch baking dish. Wash hands.
3. Stir pasta into boiling water. Boil 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
4. Drain pasta thoroughly (do not rinse). Whisk remaining 2 eggs, in medium bowl, until well blended; stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese. Add pasta and toss to coat until eggs and cheese are well blended into pasta. Spread pasta evenly over meat mixture.
5. Spoon pasta sauce over top. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese. Bake 30–35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165°F and meat is fully cooked. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. (Makes 8 servings.)

CALORIES (per 1/8 recipe) 360kcal; FAT 14g; CHOL 130mg; SODIUM 660mg; CARB 32g; FIBER 3g; PROTEIN 27g; VIT A 15%; VIT C 10%; CALC 25%; IRON 20%

Pepperoni Bread Roll

Here's another easy and yummy one I found on the Apron's site. The meal set was for ravioli and pepperoni bread. However, I won't even comment on the pasta recipe since what we ended up making was NOTHING like the recipe.

The reason I'm posting, is that the pepperoni bread was a great new find, especially for kids! It was very easy and could probably be modified to add other flavors, though I'm not sure how uncooked veggies would fare. But maybe saute some onions, mushrooms, and garlic and roll it up. We used turkey pepperoni in ours. Kind of calzone-like. Mapgeek cut a hunk and served it up with pasta sauce for lunch.

Verdict - great easy snacky thing

Pepperoni Bread Roll
Ingredients1
tablespoon garlic butter
1 (13.8-ounce) container refrigerated pizza crust dough
24 pepperoni slices
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place garlic butter in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until butter melts.
2. Lay pizza dough flat on work surface. Spread butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle evenly with remaining ingredients.
3. Fold over one side of dough (about 2 inches wide) and gently pat down folded side. Continue to fold over until seam is on bottom. Cut 1/2-inch slits in top of dough about 2 inches apart; place on baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until golden. Serve.

CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 440kcal; FAT 15g; CHOL 60mg; SODIUM 880mg; CARB 61g; FIBER 4g; PROTEIN 17g; VIT A 20%; VIT C 10%; CALC 20%; IRON 15%

Osso Buco in the crock

We made this on Sunday (great crock pot day!). I was wandering around Publix’s website looking for party trays and found a recipe area (Apron's) on their site. It’s actually a really, really good site! If you’ve ever been in the store and seen someone demo-ing quick meals where you buy stuff already cooked or cut, these are the recipes that go along with it. They give you an entire meal, complete with sides and then the grocery list, equipment needed, etc.

The meal called for Osso Buco with saffron risotto. I couldn’t find risotto in the store and was in too much of a hurry to blindly wander around for 10 minutes looking. So, I made saffron rice instead. Just as good and probably easier.

My only recommendation would be to cut up the shanks at the end, when it says to discard the bones and herbs. We used 2 shanks and one was significantly more fatty than the other, so one of us got a bunch of meat, and the other a bunch of fat. If you cut up the meat, discard the fatty parts, and stir it back in, you’ll get a better distribution of meat and avoid the fat.

Verdict – AWESOME! We will definitely be making this again. Neither one of us had ever cooked Osso Buco and it was wonderful!

Osso Buco
Ingredients
1/4 cup flourlarge zip-top bag
2 pounds veal shanks (about 4 shanks)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (10-ounce) bag frozen seasoning blend (contains diced onions, green/red peppers and celery)
1 (8-ounce) bag shredded carrots
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
1 (12-ounce) jar chicken gravy
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon Maggi seasoning sauce
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 sprig fresh rosemary
4 bay leaves

Steps
1. Preheat large saucepan on high 1–2 minutes. Preheat slow cooker on low. Place flour in zip-top bag. Season veal shanks with salt and pepper; add to bag, seal tightly and shake to coat.
2. Place olive oil in saucepan. Add veal; cook 3 minutes, turning occasionally, to brown. Add seasoning blendand cook 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to boil. Place veal shanks into bottom of slow cooker and top with remaining mixture, covering veal completely. Cover and cook 8 to 10 hours.
4. Skim any excess fat from top. Remove and discard bones, rosemary sprig and bay leaves. Serve. (Makes 6 servings.)

CALORIES (per 1/6 recipe) 317kcal; FAT 10g; CHOL 118mg; SODIUM 736mg; CARB 17g; FIBER 2g; PROTEIN 34g; VIT A 165%; VIT C 21%; CALC 3%; IRON 10%

Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina

Found a winner tonight! Semi-healthy, though it has mozzarella in it and a small amount of margarine. It was easy to prep and super easy to cook. And it surprisingly, didn’t taste as “Italian” as I thought it might. Probably because it didn’t have any oregano in it. In fact, besides onions, garlic, salt, and pepper, the only flavorings was the fresh flat-leaf parsley. Anyways, we enjoyed how light it tasted and will definitely be making this again.

Verdict – a keeper!

Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

1 cup pastina pasta (or any small pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)
1/2 cup diced onion (about 1/2 a small onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl. Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish. In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.