Roasted Cauliflower with Saffron ♥ Recipe

Today's vegetable recipe: Cauliflower roasted with saffron and spices. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point.

So. I'm learning a lot about vegetables these days, though -- get this -- by eating, no tasting, no, positively hating oxtails. (Note to Vegetarians)

It all started before Christmas when my friend Sharon had a recipe calling for oxtails and wanted to know what they were. My answer -- and I was wrong, to be sure -- was that oxtails were actually not the tails from beef cattle, even if the words made you think so, sort of like a rump roast is actually a shoulder roast. (Go figure.)

But then last week, oxtail stew was on the tasting menu at a local restaurant and -- being an adventurous eater -- I placed my order, looking forward to a delicacy. But OH MY. YUCK.YUCK.YUCK. Now to be fair, the thinking is that the oxtails were no good, past their due date, shall we say. But with one bite, I was ready to gag and now, even nearly a week later, anything remotely close to unusual is creating the same reaction.

And what does this have to do with vegetables?

Let's say you have a bad experience with frozen Brussels sprouts (or canned asparagus or creamed-all-vegetables or ...). I GET IT. I get that you might not want to try Brussels sprouts again. It's almost reflexive, a defense mechanism of some sort. I get that it could take both time and conditioning to become open-minded again.

Those of us who love vegetables, we understand that 99% of the time, our vegetables are just delicious. If something's not to our taste, we've got enough experience to know that something was off, that the next batch of whatever will be good. But if 100% of your experience is that oxtails Brussels sprouts are rotten stinky things? Well, I get it. It's hard to work up the gumption to return.

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You will, I think, return again and again to roasted cauliflower, especially the roasted cauliflower made on this site's very first day, almost four years ago now. This treatment uses both a saffron-warmed olive oil and a splash of good vinegar. It's YUM not yuck.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER with SAFFRON

Hands-on time: 10 minutes up-front plus occasional stirring
Time to table: 45 minutes
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of saffron

1 head cauliflower, cored and cut into small florets
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (or another flavorful, gentle vinegar)
1 teaspoon dried spices (curry, ras el hanout, I used thyme)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the oil and saffron in a small bowl, place on top of the oven near the heat source so that the saffron will warm and its flavor will be transferred into the oil.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss the remaining ingredients. Just before the oven is preheated, add the warm olive oil and toss well with a spatula. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and let roast for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, or until the cauliflower reaches the desired doneness. Transfer to a serving dish, serve and enjoy!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving: 60Cal; 3g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 34mg Sodium; 6g Carb; 3g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini's Saffron Roasted Cauliflower

KITCHEN NOTES
It's easier to use less oil for roasting vegetables when they're tossed for the first time in a large bowl, rather than drizzled and then tossed on the baking sheet itself.
That said, for roasted cauliflower to be really good, darn it, more than a tablespoon of oil is needed, much as I wish otherwise, two or three or even four tablespoons.

FAVORITE CAULIFLOWER RECIPES
~ Cauliflower Cream ~
~ Cauliflower Tomato Medley ~
~ Curried Cauliflower ~
~ Lighter Mashed 'Potatoes', from Kitchen Parade ~

~ more cauliflower recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

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Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009

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Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

I've been hanging out a lot on Facebook lately. And so has Elle, from Elle's New England Kitchen. This past week she posted a picture (only on Facebook) of a rigatoni she made, and it looked really good. Shall we say that she inspired Inspired Bites? Yes!

So when we made plans for friends to come over for dinner and board games (and drinks!), I decided to make something similar.

I'll admit to you all that I didn't want to make dinner. It has been a really long, hard week, making midterms for 3 different levels of classes. I didn't stop working last night until 7:30 when the school musical began. I left school at 10:15 that night wondering what we'd do for dinner. But in talking to my friend about possibilities to order out, it became clear that I would need to cook. Living out in the boonies, we don't have too many choices, and I will not eat take out pizza with a bread crust and canned mushrooms.

I threw this together on Saturday afternoon and it made for a fabulous dinner. Joe made a garlic bread with naan, and we had a great bottle of dry red wine. Karen made a wonderful salad with toasted pine nuts, artichoke hearts, cucumber and tomatoes. We sprinkled balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil over the top.

I'm going to eat every bit of the leftovers. I'm pretty proud of myself since I didn't use a recipe, instead making this one as I went along.

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped green pepper
2 cups chopped sweet onion (I loves me some sauteed onion)
4 chopped cloves of garlic
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.25 lb ground beef (85% fat)
1 (1.5 ounce) rind of Parmesan cheese)
one 2/3 ounce package fresh basil, chopped, plus more for garnish
salt, again, to taste (my taste was 1/2 teaspoon)

Add the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes to a dutch oven. It should be good and deep - my sauce tended to splatter, even on a low heat. Begin heating it up on a medium-low heat.

Saute the onions and pepper in the olive oil on a medium-high flame. Add the garlic towards the end.


Place it in the pot with the tomato sauce.

Saute the mushrooms. Add it to the sauce pot.

Brown the beef. Pour it and the juices into the sauce pot.

Add the wine, basil, tomato paste, and the rind of cheese. Stir it, cover the pot, and cook on low for 2 hours. Remove whatever rind has remained. Much of it will disintegrate into the sauce and flavor it wonderfully. Here's what mine looked like:

You should taste the sauce as you go and season it with salt and pepper to your liking. Depending on which type of cheese you use, you may not even need salt! My cheese wasn't salty, I guess, and not all of it fell apart, so this is when I added another 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

I used linguine instead of spaghetti. It's a little bit wider and flatter, but not as much as fettuccine. I like it.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil on top.


Mmmm, that's good stuff!

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Seafood Quesadillas

When I was in my teens, my family lived in Evansville, Indiana. My mom and I would frequent a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants (they called themselves Mexican) call La Hacienda. My favorite dish there was their seafood enchiladas, which were basically fake crabmeat rolled up in a flour tortilla and covered with a cheesey dairy sauce and sour cream. They were really good!!!!

Last week I happened to see this recipe (which I slightly adjusted) in a magazine advertisement for TransOcean Crab Classic. I gave it a try and I was happy because these quesadillas are very similar to the flavor I remember of those seafood enchiladas I loved so much.

Seafood Quesadillas
Adapted from TransOcean

1 cup chopped onion

10 twists of the pepper mill

salt to taste
a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes

a good handful of chopped, fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

10 ounces chopped imitation crabmeat
Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese

Sautee the onions, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Add them to a bowl with the seafood, citrus, and cilantro. Mix to combine.

Heat up a pan. When it's good and hot, coat it with spray oil (I used olive oil spray), and place the cheese-covered tortilla on the bottom. Top it with the seafood mixture.


Then add more cheese on top and another tortilla. Spray the oil on the top of the tortilla.

When the bottom tortilla is golden brown, flip over and brown the other side.

Place on a cutting board and cut your quesadilla into triangles. I do a cut across the middle, and then two across the diagonal, making 6 triangles.

I bet these quesadillas would be awesome with a mango salsa. But I just ate them plain.

This recipe makes 4-6 quesadillas (depending on how much seafood you use).

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Finn Crisp with Laughing Cow & Radishes ♥

Today's recipe: A quick snack or light lunch. Low carb. Weight Watchers one point.

I may love to cook but I also love little-assembly-required quick lunches and snacks. They're not recipes, per se, more concepts. But I'm picky. Fast. Cheap. Quick. Easy. No dishes. Crunch. Fresh. Transportable. (And I think other readers must be hungry for such snacks and quick lunches too, as often as you check out my idea for a Satisfying Lunch in One Point.)

Enter my latest obsession that combines two products that have been right there under my radar fuh-EVAH. I just love these little sandwich snacks! They're crispy and creamy and crunchy all at the same time.



Finn Crisp Unlike most crackers, the ingredient list for Finn Crisp is short, just whole grain rye flour, water, yeast, salt and caraway. Wow! Whole grain and high fiber! No fat, no cholesterol, low sodium, with a little protein, too. Finn Crisp are easy to find in North America, I think, but prices vary widely. At the regular grocery store, they're expensive. At a place like World Market, they're only $1.79 for a 7 ounce box, very affordable!

Trivia: When I lived in Finland, my favorite breakfast was a Finn Crisp with a thin slice of a buttery cheese like Fontina, topped with marmalade. Yum.



Laughing Cow For years, I've avoided the little wedges of "processed cheese". They look like Velveeta! But if I'd just checked the label: again, a short list of ingredients and nothing that looks scary. At All. And if I'd only listened to everyone raving about them. (Thank you, Roni's Weigh)! I heard you!!)

FINN CRISP with LAUGHING COW & RADISHES

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 5 minutes
Serves 1

3 Finn Crisp crackers
1 wedge Laughing Cow Light
Radishes, sliced

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving: 95Cal; 2g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 10mg Cholesterol; 389mg Sodium; 16g Carb; 5g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 4g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point (note: roughly the same nutrition for 2 slices Finn Crisp and 1 wedge Laughing Cow regular wedge)

MORE VEGETABLE RECIPES
~ Easy Easy Radish Spread ~
~ Beet Pesto ~
~ Mann's Sugar Snap Peas ~

~ more radish recipes ~
~ more one-point recipes ~
~ more recipes for appetizers and snacks ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

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Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009

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Ugly But Delicious Tofu ♥ Slow Cooker Recipe

Today's recipe: Tofu braised in a slow cooker in soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and other Asian-style flavors. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point for a snack, 3 points for a meal.

Regular readers know that I'm prone to exclaiming, "Isn't it pretty?" (See?!) No chance of that happening here, with these mud-brown cubes of tofu. Ugh, how UNappealing. I couldn't bear for them to ugly-up a beautiful green salad. I wanted to leave them in the refrigerator to develop fridge-fur, justifying a fast trip to the rubbish bin. And then --

These ugly-ugly cubes called to me. Closing my eyes, I nabbed one cube, then another straight from the tupperware. They tasted great! And that's how Ugly But Delicious Tofu become my between-meal, protein-packed pick-me-up all this week -- now that's an eye opener.

For portion control, I put aside three cubes measuring an ounce, otherwise I might have eaten the whole dish, all at once.

Note the Escali kitchen scale which I pooh-poohed as an extravagant non-necessity for years, but now love-love-love and pull out at least once a day. And see the On/Off button on the left? It also sets the weight to zero, a very useful feature on food scales for two reasons.

To subtract the weight of the container -- Turn the scale on. Place an empty container on the scale. Press the On/Off button to zero the weight. Now add the food, which will be weighed all on its own.
To accumulate ingredients, especially for baking -- Turn the scale on. Place a mixing bowl (or something similar) on the scale. Press the On/Off button to zero the weight. Add the first ingredient, say 50 ounces (or grams, very useful for baking with European metric-measured ingredients) of sugar. Press the On/Off button again. Add the second ingredient, say 200 grams of flour. And so on -- very easy!

UGLY BUT DELICIOUS TOFU for the SLOW COOKER

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 4 - 7 hours
Makes 16 ounces (I doubled the recipe for a large slow cooker)

1 pound firm tofu
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (don't skip this)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper

DRAIN THE TOFU Place a layer of paper towels on a large plate, then the tofu block on top. Cover with another layer of paper towels. Place a heavy weight on top. Let drain for an hour. Peel off the paper and cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes.

SLOW COOKER Stir together remaining ingredients in the slow cooker. Add the tofu and gently toss until coated on all sides. Cover and cook on Low for 5 hours or on High for 3 hours.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Ounce (about 3 pieces): 33Cal; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 225mg Sodium; 2g Carb; 0g Fiber; 1g Sugar; 3g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point

Per 4 ounces (about 12 pieces): 134Cal; 7g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 903mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 4g Sugar; 11g Protein; Weight Watchers 3 points

TODAY'S RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson

KITCHEN NOTES
I notice just now that the recipe specifies mixing the tofu cubes with the soy mixture in a separate bowl first, then refrigerating for an hour. I accidentally skipped this step but do think that it would help the soy cubes to soak up the liquid more evenly. I would use a ziplock bag, however, to be able turn it to redistribute the liquid more evenly. What I did to encourage this was to stir the cubes every so often while they were in the slow cooker, so that's an option too.

MORE SLOW COOKER RECIPES
~ Slow Cooker Onion Soup ~
~ Creamy Slow Cooker Beans (no soaking) from Kitchen Parade ~

~ more slow cooker recipes from Kitchen Parade ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Sauteed Bok Choy

After making my Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce, I had a good amount of bok choy left over. Bok choy is a Chinese variety of cabbage. It has long stalks and dark green leaves. It's pretty common in Chinese food.

I wanted to make something yummy to use the bok choy before it went bad, and I found just the thing. I found a nice little sauté recipe on Recipezarr, originally posted by Aimchick. I had all the ingredients on hand (that's awesome!) and it was quick and easy to prepare. I only made a few little adjustments to suit my taste. The result is very tasty and flavorful. Especially since I used my own homemade chicken broth!

It is hard to make bok choy look pretty (at least it is for me), but bok choy is a beautiful thing. It's has a great texture when sauteed - just a little crunch to it. And it makes for a healthy side dish, offering lots of vitamin C, calcium, and vitamin A. According to About.com, it "contains glucosinolates, which may prevent cancer." I like that!

Sauteed Bok Choy
Adjusted from Recipezarr poster Aimchick

Serves 4

1 head bok choy, sliced, both white and green parts
1/3 cup onion, diced
1 tablespoon grated ginger root
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
crushed red pepper flakes (I like heat, so I did 5 little shakes of the container)

Before I rinsed my bok choy, I cut it into manageable sized pieces. It was about a foot long before I did that. I cut it into 4" sections. Then I put it in a deep bowl of water. I drained it and filled it up 2 more times, to make sure all the grit came off the stalks and the leaves.

You could use a salad spinner to remove the excess water. But I had time, so I let it dry by putting the stalks vertically in a colander.

Heat up a sauté pan or a wok on a fairly high flame. Add the olive oil, swirl it around, and then add the onion and ginger. Sauté the onion until it's tender (about a minute).

Then add remaining ingredients and sauté for about 8 minutes.

Garnish with sesame seeds.

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Italian Wedding Soup

Every winter it seems I buy can after can of Progresso Chickarina and Italian Wedding Soup. I love the stuff - they both taste so good and have a respectful amount of protein, and a nice low calorie count.

My quest this past week was to make a delicious soup - similar to Chickarina and Italian Wedding. I kept thinking that if I liked them so much canned, how heavenly would they be if they were home made? Ooh, and an added bonus is that I can lower the sodium count. FYI: one can of Progresso Chickarina has a whopping 2,000 grams of sodium! Ouch!

It took two soup-making attempts, but I ended up with the most awesome soup. I dare say it is perfection in a bowl, and the perfect food for a cold, snowy day .

My first try was good, not great. I decided that I would use a beef-pork mixture. I used 16 oz. beef and 4 oz. pork.

While the soup was good, I couldn't understand, why my fingers swelled like little sausages every time I ate it. One morning I couldn't even put on my wedding rings!

It turns out that I just wasn't thinking. I had used canned chicken broth, and I'm guessing it was loaded with sodium. Also, even though I went with more beef than pork, I could feel a light film of fat on my lips after eating it. And hey, it's the new year, and it's time to make up for that holiday eating. But if you don't have a problem with the beef/pork mixture, then that is the more traditional way to do it and it does have great flavor as well.

But I need to watch my fat intake, so I went back to the drawing board today and decided to lighten it up with turkey meatballs. And I would improve the flavor and have better control over the sodium if I made my own broth this time.

While rolling out the little meatballs, I was worried that I had over-done it with the egg plus the egg white. The consistency of the raw meatballs was so different when made with ground turkey as opposed to beef and pork. They were sort of sticky as I was rolling them in the palms of my hands. I added some extra panko bread crumbs, but I stopped at 2/3 cup and hoped for the best. And the best I did have!

I love this soup! I know that I will make it every winter from this day forward.


Italian Wedding Soup

One recipe of Home Made Chicken Broth
4 large diced carrots (I prefer a small dice for this recipe)
1 small head of escarole (only the tender leafy parts - I removed the tougher parts for this recipe)

For The Meatballs:
1 (20.8 ounce) package of ground turkey
1 small onion, grated
1 egg + 1 egg white
2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all of the meatball ingredients with your hands! Don't be afraid, just delve right in. Once all the ingredients are spread evenly throughout the mixture. Put a little splash of water on your palms and take very small amounts in the palm of your hand and make many little meatballs. The water will keep the mixture from sticking to your palms. I found it much easier to work that way. Here's mine:


Once all the meatballs are rolled, put them into the soup raw. As you add the meatballs, add 4 chopped carrots.

Crumble about half the chicken meat from when you made the broth into the soup. I felt that adding all of it was too much. I saved the other half and hope that it's good for chicken salad!

Cook the pasta half way separately in a different pot. Add it to the soup pot.

At the end, add the leafy parts of the escarole. Cook two minutes more so that the escarole wilts.


Serve with Parmesan cheese and perhaps a nice hunk of crusty bread!

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