Sometimes we all need to indulge in unhealthy treats. Oftentimes this indulgence occurs while eating out, but lately I've been trying to replicate some of my favourite restaurant meals at home to have more control over the ingredients and to feel a little better about eating something more on the unhealthy side. My roommate in teacher's college is the one who introduced me to the idea of making nachos at home, and it became one of our staple meals that year. They're fun to create together and to eat together, and if you add lots of vegetables and use extra lean ground beef (or even ground turkey or chicken) then you can feel a little less guilty about the indulgence.
Homemade Nachos
2 cups whole grain tortilla chips
1 cup extra lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1/2 bell pepper, chopped in small chunks (or 1/4 of 2 different coloured bell peppers)
3 mushrooms, chopped in small chunks
1/2 cup grated cheese
sour cream and salsa for dipping
Heat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (this is a huge help for clean-up at the end). Spread the chips out on the baking sheet in an even layer with chips overlapping each other a bit. Place the baking sheet in the oven and pre-crisp the chips for 5 minutes. (This step ensures that you do not end up with soggy nachos).
While the chips are in the oven, heat a few drops of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the beef and sauté until no longer pink. If you want a spicier nacho, you could add some taco seasoning or other spices to the beef at this point. My old roommate and I are both not friends with spicy foods, so we keep our nachos pretty plain.
Remove the beef and vegetables from the heat and drain off some of the fat. (This again helps to stop soggy nachos). Take the chips out of the oven, and top with the beef and vegetables, and then sprinkle the grated cheese all over top. Use whatever cheese you like - Cheddar, Marble, Monterey Jack, etc. Put the pan of nachos back in the oven for about 5 minutes (just until the cheese melts). Serve with salsa and sour cream.
There's two views of my glorious nachos! This pan feeds two in my experience and the nachos are pretty fully loaded! It's easiest to just eat them right off the pan. Once you're done, just roll up the foil and toss in the garbage - no need to scrape melted cheese off of the pan.
Since this post has allowed me to reminisce about my teacher's college days, my beats are an homage to that year with our theme song at the time. I can't recall now all the details of how this song came to define our year, but I know we heard it all the time, and we even had a sweet dance move to go with the refrain in the chorus. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit my fondness for this song, but here you have Whatever You Like by T.I.
I love Alfredo sauce. I know it's really not the healthiest sauce, being full of fatty cream, butter, and cheese, but that trifecta of ingredients make magic together on pasta. I grew up with my Mom making it rather frequently with many different types of pasta. It was actually quite rare that we would have the traditional pairing of fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce. My Mom also likes to serve it buffet style - a whole mess of cooked pasta in a pot, and pot full of creamy white sauce, and then bowls with various toppings and add-ins, like cooked chicken, fried bacon, roasted garlic, and chopped vegetables such as red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. My nephews now really enjoy having that meal at Grandma's house, and I think it's a fun spin on a traditional dish. Obviously, at home with just myself to cook for, I don't serve myself buffet style. Borrowing a few of my Mom's tricks to make a sauce that's not too thick or overbearing, here's my version of Pasta Alfredo.
Pasta Alfredo
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, chopped finely
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup cremini mushrooms, quartered
(2 chicken breasts, cut into small chunks, 1 cup spinach/baby spinach - I didn't use these ingredients this time, so you won't see them in the picture, but I do like to add them in when I have them).
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream (I usually use 18% rather than 35%)
1 tsp white sugar
3/4 cup - 1 cup Parmesan cheese, depending on taste
1 tsp parsley
1 cup whole wheat penne pasta (or bowties, or fettuccine, or whatever kind you like!)
Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the wine to deglaze the pan, letting it boil for 2 minutes to get rid of the alcohol. (This is not a traditional ingredient in Alfredo sauce. My Mom has always added some wine and I continue with her recipe as it adds a little more liquid and volume to the sauce and helps cut some of the thickness and richness of the butter, cream, and cheese).
Turn the heat down to medium and add the cream. Stir to incorporate and allow to come to a gentle boil. You will notice the cream thickening as it boils. Add the sugar and stir. (This is also one of my mother's tricks. Again, the addition of a small amount of sugar helps to cut the richness, especially if you elect to use 35% cream, and it balances out the sharpness of the cheese). Turn the heat down again to medium-low and add the Parmesan cheese. Stir until it melts into the sauce. (Start with 3/4 cup, and do a quick taste test of the sauce. If you want it more cheesy, add the last 1/4 cup). Add the parsley and stir. Turn the heat down to low.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta RESERVING SOME OF THE PASTA WATER. (This step is crucial particularly if you are going to have leftovers. Sitting in the fridge Alfredo sauce tightens up quite a bit, and if you don't have pasta water to add, you'll end up with pasty leftovers). Add the pasta to the sauce and stir to coat. Serve immediately garnishing with extra grated Parmesan cheese, parsley, and freshly ground black pepper.
If there are leftovers, before putting them in the fridge, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pasta water and stir into the sauce. It might seem a bit runny, but 1 or 2 days later it will be perfect as leftovers.
Here's my pan full of creamy, dreamy pasta. This gave me three average-sized servings.
And my bowl with the garnishes. I enjoyed my bowl of pasta with a glass of white wine. Alfredo sauce pairs best with a glass of white or blush.
This dish for me is simple to make and an easy solution as a busy weeknight dinner since I've made it so many times. Like I say with most of my recipes, now I don't even measure the liquids anymore - I make the whole sauce by eyeballing. I find also that the quality of Parmesan cheese that you buy makes a big difference in the taste of the sauce, so if you're going to splurge on something, that would be the ingredient to choose.
My beat is a quiet and simple song that would act as a lovely background to this meal. It is understated but deep, much like this simple sauce gives a depth of flavour to the pasta. Here is Sparks by Coldplay.
With a snow day at school, I took some time to experiment in the kitchen and make myself a fun lunch. I already had a lunch packed in the fridge ready to go, but it made more sense to save that meal for tomorrow and have fun cooking today while I can. I bought an eggplant this week which I don't do very often, and did a quick Google search for eggplant recipes. Whenever I'm a little stuck and the creative juices just aren't flowing for the ingredients I have in front of me, Google always backs me up. This morning, I found a page with Crispy Eggplant Fries and they looked rather enticing. I made essentially the same recipe with very few tweaks.
Mini Eggplant Parmesan Sticks
1 eggplant cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp parsley
marinara sauce for dipping
Preheat the broiler in the oven. Lightly grease a flat baking sheet. Crack the egg into a small bowl, add the water, and beat. In a second small bowl combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, pepper, and parsley. Dip each piece of eggplant first into the egg, coating all sides. Then dredge each eggplant stick in the breadcrumb mixture, making sure to coat evenly and generously on all sides. Arrange the coated eggplant sticks on the baking sheet. Place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, depending on desired crispness. Serve with lightly warmed marinara sauce for dipping.
There they are just coming out of the oven. That's my first sheet with about half of the eggplant, so the whole recipe makes double what you see in the picture. These are like a little bite-sized version of eggplant parmesan, especially once you add some marinara for dipping:
These little eggplant sticks are surprisingly addictive. I ate almost a whole tray in one sitting. I've never had a huge love for eggplant, but I really enjoyed this recipe. These would be a perfect appetizer or finger food for a party. They'd also be great for kids because they look somewhat like French fries but are healthy, and a great way to get your servings of vegetables.
For the beats, I'm choosing Grace Kelly by Mika. These eggplant parmesan sticks are a fancy and elegant dish disguising themselves as something fun (French fries). This tune is the opposite - a goofy and fun song and band trying to disguise themselves as something classy.
I am by no means a vegetarian. Actually, I love meat. I don't think I could ever cut it out of my diet entirely. However, I have started making a point of eating vegetarian at least one night each week. Why? I enjoy vegetables just as much as I enjoy meat, and it gives me a chance to try out new recipes. Also, it makes my grocery bill cheaper. Buying meat each week for one can get a tad expensive when buying in bulk doesn't make sense. So tonight while fighting the all too common urge to pick something up on the way home, I opted to experiment in my kitchen and have my weekly vegetarian night with two hearty recipes.
I had a bell pepper in my fridge, so I decided to stuff it. Stuffing a pepper isn't difficult, and it generates several meals for me with the leftovers. Normally I opt for a rice-based stuffing, and when I'm not going vegetarian, I add ground beef/pork/turkey/chicken or some type of sausage meat. But tonight I remembered that I had some whole wheat couscous in my cupboard that I could use in place of rice for a change. I also had a sweet potato that needed to be used soon, so I chopped it up and decided to roast it, and then play off its delicate sweetness with the tang from a cheese. Here's how it all came together:
Couscous Stuffed Pepper
1 whole bell pepper, cut into its sections on it seams
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp onion, finely chopped
2 large cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry whole wheat couscous
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 cup grated marble cheese (or mozzarella, or cheddar, whatever your taste)
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a flat baking dish or sheet, and arrange the sections of the bell pepper on the dish, insides facing up. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter over medium-high heat and sauté the garlic, onion, and mushrooms, seasoning with salt and pepper, for 5 minutes or until soft.
While sautéing the vegetables, bring the water to a boil in a small pot. Once boiling, add the couscous, stir, cover, and let sit for 3 minutes.
Add the vegetables to the couscous along with the other 1 tbsp of butter and stir together over low heat. Add the tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Stir together so it forms a paste-like mixture. Remove from heat.
(*Side note: at this point I got worried about how the couscous turned into a paste with the addition of the tomato sauce. I always add tomato sauce when I use a rice stuffing, so I figured I'd do the same with the couscous. So don't be alarmed by the paste - it all tastes wonderful in the end!)
Spread the couscous mixture into the peppers. Mound any extra on top. Top each pepper with a sprinkling of the grated marble cheese.
Put the stuffed peppers in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
And there's my colourful, nutritious, and delicious stuffed pepper. The bonus is that I got three large servings out of this recipe because my yellow bell pepper had 3 sections. That's a couple of lunches or dinners taken care of!
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Herbed Goat's Cheese
1 sweet potato, chopped into bite-size chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to season
Goat's cheese to taste
Preheat the oven to 400F. Toss the chopped sweet potato, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in a bowl to fully coat each chunk of potato. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, turning once at 10 minutes.
Move the roasted potatoes into a bowl, and add crumbled Goat's cheese to taste.
Sorry that this one's a little blurry, but you get the idea. The recipe gave me two servings of this size. The Goat's cheese is totally to taste. I was going for a 1:1 ratio of cheese crumbles to potato pieces. If you really love Goat's cheese, then add more. If you would rather have the potatoes play the starring role and just have the cheese as an accent, add less.
It's a fabulous juxtaposition of flavours: the light sweetness of the potato with the browned bits from roasting and the tangy but smooth Goat's cheese. I bought an herb-covered log of the Goat's cheese which adds even more flavour. Together, these two dishes made for a stellar vegetarian night. I got a healthy, satisfying dinner (with lots of leftovers!), and I had fun experimenting in my kitchen.
I don't have much of an explanation of my beats for this post. The only reason I'm choosing this song is because it came on the radio while I was cooking. And, because I like it. And also, because I made stuffed peppers. Here's Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Last week was not a good week for cooking or baking. When life gets too busy and stressful it seems so much easier to pick something up on the way home, or pull a frozen meal out of the freezer and call it a night. How easily I forget that home cooking can be just as efficient if you pick the right recipe. On a Sunday night I do have plenty of time to cook something involved and fancy, but I opted for a fast and simple meal that would be ideal for a busy weeknight. Home-cooked meals are almost always cheaper and more nutritious than anything fast food or from the freezer. To silence that little defeatist voice in my head that tells me I don't have the time or energy to cook tonight, I need to counter it with solid offerings like this one that come together in less than 15 minutes.
Chicken/Turkey with Balsamic Wine Sauce
2 boneless skinless chicken or turkey breasts, cut in chunks and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 of an onion, chopped
1/4 of a red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 of a yellow bell pepper, chopped
4 cremini mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp flour
2 tbsp butter
Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium-high. Add the chicken/turkey breast pieces and sauté 3 minutes on each side. Add all the vegetables, season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so the garlic doesn't burn. Add the wine and balsamic vinegar, stir, and let boil. Turn down to medium. With flour in a small dish, spoon 3-4 tbsp of the sauce out of the pan and into the dish with the flour. Stir well until the flour is completely dissolved. Add the roux (flour and sauce mixture) to the pan and stir. Let come to a boil once more. Turn down to low heat, add the butter and let melt. Stir once more, and then serve immediately.
Simple and flavourful. It's a wonderful dish full of lean protein and veggies, and it's low in fat with no starch and no cream in the sauce. This recipe made two servings with a light amount of sauce. You can always adjust the amounts if you're in more of a saucy mood!
My beats for tonight is a song that is bright and bursting, similar to this dish having bright colours and bursting with delicious flavours: Dreams by the Cranberries.
Being a teacher, I am very aware that not everyone is at the same level with every skill. The key to my effectiveness in the classroom is creating and providing options to meet the needs of each of my students that still allow them to work towards success of the skill or concept. In the education world we call it Differentiated Instruction, Tiered Interventions, or Scaffolding.
Likewise, with baking, I realize that not all my readers will be as comfortable as me in the kitchen. Many of you may find the idea of baking a cake from scratch daunting and intimidating, and prefer to stick to the out of a box version. So I'm using this post as a scaffolding tool to move those of you who are hesitant closer to baking mastery. This recipe shows you a way that you can stay within your comfort zone (using a box cake mix and a tub of store-bought icing), but still add your own special touch to make your dessert seem homemade. It only takes a few small additions to turn a boring cake mix into: Butter Pecan Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Butter Pecan Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- one box butter pecan cake mix and ingredients according to package directions
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 450g tub of vanilla buttercream frosting
- 1/3 cup light cream cheese
- 1 tsp honey
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Prepare the cake mix according to package directions. Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined. Spoon cake batter evenly into greased cupcake tins. Bake according to package directions. Remove from oven and let cool in pans for 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
While the cupcakes are cooling, put all ingredients for the frosting in a mixer bowl and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add more cream cheese or more honey to taste if desired (more cream cheese for a tangier frosting, more honey for a sweeter frosting).
Once the cupcakes have fully cooled, ice using a spreading knife or piping bag.
And the result is delicious! The cake is moist, buttery, and a tad spicy with the addition of the cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter. The icing has a wonderful tang with the cream cheese, and the cinnamon is visible in the white of the icing giving it that homemade look. Preparing cupcakes or a cake in this way is a great first step towards fully home-baked goods. Just add in the flavours you personally enjoy to enhance the cake mix and icing. Good starting ingredients are vanilla extract, cinnamon and nutmeg, honey, or any other extract or liqueur, such as adding Grand Marnier to a basic vanilla cake mix, and then grating some orange rind into the icing to tie it together. You have the freedom to be creative here because of the "safety" factor of using a cake mix - it's pretty much impossible to screw up a cake from a box.
These were fun and easy to make and took very little time to throw together, owing to the convenience of using store bought cake mix and frosting as a base for my recipe. My beat is also a quick song but one that is a pleasure to listen to, and at the end, the listener is satisfied with the experience, but still hungry for more. I was sampling the icing as I frosted the cupcakes and I already ate one from the batch, but my taste buds are telling me to have just one more...Here's Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine.
I like having a diverse arsenal of vegetable side dishes that are quick and easy so I can round out any meal. This one I make frequently because it is simple and goes with just about any type of meat.
Glazed Carrots
12 baby carrots, cut in half lengthwise, and then cut in half crosswise
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dill
(These measurements make one serving).
Heat a small pan on medium-high. Melt the butter, and then add the carrots and garlic. Sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently so the garlic doesn't burn. Add lemon juice and wine, stir, and let come to a boil. Add the mustard, stir, and then turn heat down to low and let simmer for 3 minutes. Add the dill, stir to coat carrots, and let simmer for another 2 minutes. Serve immediately.
The carrots are tender-crisp with a great flavour. They rounded out my dinner tonight so I had a fabulous little elegant feast:
I wish I could take credit for the rest of the meal, but I really can't. The other side dish was a McCain frozen potato and vegetable medley, and the meat was a London broil prepared by the good folks at the grocery store. I can make both, but they were both on sale, and sometimes even those of us who love cooking need a little break and take the easy way out.
This meal needed an elegant song with a slow beat you can savour. I chose a beautiful tune by Norah Jones called Come Away With Me. I think if I cooked a meal like this for any man, he's want to come away with me!
