Tuscan Vegetable Soup

I wanted a Tuscan Bean Soup. Google that.  Go ahead.  I bet you come up with about 500 soup recipes.  I was baffled so I sat on the floor with my ever increasing collection of cookbooks surrounding me and began my quest the old fashioned way…
Thank you Ellie Kreiger for your cookbook The Food You Crave

Tuscan Vegetable Soup (adapted from Ellie Kreiger’s The Food You Crave)

Ingredients

• 2 (15-ounce) can low-sodium canellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 2 carrots, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 stalks celery, diced, (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 small zucchini, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no salt added diced tomatoes
• 2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Directions

In a small bowl mash half of the beans with a masher or the back of a spoon, and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic, thyme, sage, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and cook stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the broth and tomatoes with the juice and bring to a boil. Add the mashed and whole beans and the spinach leaves and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes more.
Serve topped with Parmesan, if desired.
**This was a quick and delicious week night meal  I had some whole wheat macaroni left over in the fridge that I also threw in the pot.  A quick and versatile meal?  You know I’ll be making this again and again…

So it’s been a while

I know, I know…I’ve been a very, very bad blogger but honestly I was totally immersed in a 3 month long project that I loved dearly and took up the majority of the very limited free time that I have.  But the project has been completed and the torch has been passed so “I’M BAAAAAAAAACKKKKK!”
I’ve missed my twitter friends, my Facebook friends and most importantly I’ve missed my blog.  So I am back nice and fresh with a recipe that is perfect for this up coming weekend (there is some sort of game or something going on right?) or really any time you get a craving for some chicken wings that will knock your socks off!!!

They are fast and easy but take a little bit of pre planning for the marinating time but other than that they are perfect for a busy weeknight meal…Thanks @aggieskitchen for a great recipe!
Ranch Chicken Wings (from Aggie’s Kitchen, with slight seasoning changes)
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken wings
1 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp dry lemon pepper seasoning salt
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 tsp dry dill seasoning (Or look for a seasoning called “It’s A Dilly” which has it all)
Dry Ranch Dressing Packet
Fresh Ground Pepper
Combine oil, lemon pepper seasoning, garlic and dill seasoning in bowl. Pour over chicken wings and let marinate for 4-6 hours.
Place wings in an oven pan covered w/foil and sprinkle liberally with Dry Ranch Dressing packet and fresh ground pepper….cook 425 degree for about 35-40 minutes. You may want to broil them for a few minutes to brown them right up…But watch them closely! Serve with Ranch dressing and cut celery.

Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage…

It’s finally feeling like fall here.  Our day time temps are only reaching into the mid 80’s right now and the night time temps are down in the low 60’s.  Life in Florida doesn’t get much better than this.  With the windows all open and the A/C off, life is so good.  Makes me want to cook again.  Nice pots of soup and stew, filling casserole dishes and comforting pastas.
This is a pasta dish that I have been wanting to try out.  Simple enough but just finding the time was the challenge.  So you know what I did?  I prepped everything for this in the afternoon before I picked the kiddos up from school.  I chopped the onion and garlic, uncased the chicken sausage, cleaned and cut up the escarole, made the chicken broth, and rinsed the beans.  This way all I had to do when I got home was to boil the water for the pasta.  Do you know that with all the prep work done I ended up having to wait for the pasta to finish cooking!!!  It came together in about 15 minutes.  Anyone can find time to make this one!

Pasta with Escarole, White Beans and Chicken Sausage (adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger)
Ingredients:
1 lb bowtie (or other shape) pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
½ medium red onion, chopped, about 1 cup
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb hot Italian-style chicken sausage, casings removed, crumbled
1 medium head escarole or endive, rinsed, drained and chopped, about 8 cups
1 14 oz can low-sodium great northern beans or other white beans, drained and rinsed
1½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp rubbed sage, or 1 Tbsp fresh sage leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
• Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large, deep saute pan or 8-quart stockpot.
• Saute the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Stir in the sausage and cook until heated through and browned, about 4 minutes.
• Add the escarole and cook until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the beans, 1 cup of chicken stock, sage and simmer until the mixture is heated through and liquid is slightly reduced.
• Add the sausage-bean mixture to pasta and toss well, loosening with the additional ½ cup chicken stock if necessary.
• Season with freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste.
• Divide among 4 pasta bowls and top with parmesan cheese.

***This one was a hit with the whole family.  Youngest even took it to school for her lunch in a thermos…

My favorite quick, one pot meal…

We all need a go to meal.  Something that we have all the ingredients on hand at all times and is fast and easy to prepare right? 
This is mine.  It take me about 28 minutes from start to finish but longer if I use brown rice and guess what?  Everyone in the house will eat it!!!  That’s what truly makes this one pot dish a winner to me!
Bean and Rice Stew
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground turkey or beef
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 cup of frozen corn
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked rice (brown rice will increase the cooking time)
1 tsp Better than Bouillon beef flavored
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat Olive oil in a large, deep skillet.  cook onion and garlic til apaque and softened.  Cook the ground meat over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain excess fat. Stir in water, rice, beans and corn.   Season with beef bouillon and salt and black pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked and water is absorbed.
***this recipe is super flexible.  Add to it what you want.  I have a friend who adds salsa to it to give it a different touch.  Use green peppers, add zucchini…really whatever you want to add.
****You can use brown rice with this.  It will increase your cooking time but what I have done before is to cook the rice in the morning and throw it in when everything else is cooked and just heat it through.

In a hurry? Homemade Baked Chicken Fingers

So you all know by now that we are a pretty busy household right?  Between ice skating lessons, karate classes and BMX races and practices you must wonder how we do all of that stuff and still eat home cooked, real food meals, right? 

This recipe for baked chicken fingers is one of my favorite go to recipes for a busy weeknight.  From start to finish it takes just 15 minutes for me to bread them and bake them and have them on the table for the kids.  Almost as fast as going to McDonald’s and getting the chicken nuggets and bringing them home for dinner…

Baked Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup AP Flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Cut chicken breasts into thin strips, about one inch wide.
• Longer sections can be cut in half to have uniform pieces.
• Mix flour and seasonings (garlic, salt, and pepper) well in a bowl.
• Dip chicken pieces into flour mixture. then egg mixture, and then finally in the Italian breadcrumbs.
• Place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. 6
• Bake at for 9-11 minutes, until crispy on outside and lightly browned.

***The girls like these dipped in Ranch Dressing, ketchup, BBQ Sauce or even Honey Mustard.

****To have these ready in 15 minutes I have to cut the chicken into thin strips earlier in the day.  Another time saver is to bread them and refrigerate them until ready to use and then just plop them in a preheated oven.  See you can eat well even when as busy as we are!!!

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

My goal each and every day is to feed my family a healthy lunch and dinner.  Oh how I have been lax at meeting that daily goal!  Turning a new page and starting off on the right foot and all here is my attempt to get it all back together.  The meals that I cook have to either be crock pot, slow cooked or else pre cooked that we can heat up after, between or before whatever extra curricular event we have happening on that night.  I don’t use packaged or prepared foods at all so everything that I do is from scratch, just to make it more challenging huh?

Between karate 2 days, skating 2 or 3 days and BMX 2 or 3 days you can just imagine that it is a little hectic around here.  One thing though that we ALWAYS make sure that we do it to eat together.  There is none of this grabbing and eating on your own here.  We sit down to a family meal each and every single night.  Is it easy?  No way, but we do it.

One of my big problems though is that we get pretty bored with all of the fast things that I can make and it has been way too hot for a slow cooked or crock pot meal.  So this is what I came up with yesterday and it is going to be added into the rotation.

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

I was able to make the black bean mixture, cut up all of the cilantro, jalapenos and crumble the goat cheese ahead of time.  When we got home I heated the bean mixture and got the griddle going.  These were assembled, cooked and on the table in 10 minutes.  I served sautéed zucchini along side and it was really the perfect meal!

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadilla (inspired by Fine Cooking)

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 lg yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
24-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno, chopped
4 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled
6 flour tortillas, Burrito size (we used 2 whole ones for T and I and 1 each for the girls)

In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until hot. Add the onion and garlic and sauté, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, cumin, chili powder, oregano and 1/2 cup water and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all the water has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Take the pan off the heat. With the back of a fork, break up the beans to make a chunky mash. Stir in half of the cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Spread the black bean mixture over the tortilla and crumble the goat cheese, sprinkle with jalapeno and some cilantro top with another tortilla.  Cook on a heated and oiled griddle until nice and golden brown.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients and slice up and serve.

**We served these with chopped up avocado, salsa and sour cream.  This was a delicious and quick week night meal!

This would also be a great idea for an appetizer for your next party or pot luck.  Cut into smaller wedges these would be perfect!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Tilapia with Cilantro and Lime

Loved this fish dish and yes I do eat my peas raw…

Cilantro and lime has proven to be one of my favorite flavor combinations. Something about the crispness and freshness of the two flavors together and how they bring something new out in each of them. This quick and easy recipe highlights all of the things I love and just shines on the tilapia!

I stumbled across this recipe but it was used on salmon and seeing as I didn't have any salmon on hand I rummaged through my freezer and came up with 4 tilapia filets. I try to always keep some on hand for a quick and easy week night meal. It worked out perfect for us this time and the tilapia went perfect with the herb and citrus and was on the table in less than 30 minutes. Now that’s my kind of meal!!!

Tilapia with Cilantro and Lime...adapted from One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
4 (6 to 8-oz.) Tilapia fillets (thawed if frozen)
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions:
1) Combine cilantro, oil, garlic and salt(do not add the lime juice. It will toughen up the fish). Set 2 tablespoons aside.

2) Pour remainder over fish in bowl. Let stand, covered, 10 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, preheat broiler. Spray broiler rack with nonstick cooking spray. Place fish on rack. Brush with 1 tablespoon of marinade. Then broil 4 inches from heat for 7 to 8 minutes, or until fish is no longer translucent and flakes when touched with fork. Brush with remaining tablespoon marinade and top with the lime. Transfer to a serving platter.

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Road Trip and Pepperoni Rolls!!!

As most of you know we spent last week, the girls spring break, in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania. T’s Dad has colorectal cancer, and has been in treatment for about a year now. Please go and get checked. It’s really a simple procedure and could save your life! A colonoscopy is recommended (by the American Cancer Society) for men and women after the age of 50 unless there is a history in your family. I simple screening could have saved this tragedy! BTW...T's Dad is only 60! Anyway off my soap box…

We went up to help lighten the load a little bit and just spend a bit of time with the family. It was a great trip. We got to see and pet some cows, build a bonfire and roast marshmallows, eat at Primanti Bros. (not once but twice!!!), play outside on a beautiful spring day, watch a blizzard come through and then build snowmen and have a snow ball fight, go for a walk through the woods that T. grew up hunting in looking for morel mushrooms (finding nothing but ticks, egad!), and sharing a bunch of wonderful meals with family that we very rarely get to see. How can that not be good?

Fudge the Cow. Last year the girls bottle fed him. This year he followed us through the field like a puppy!

Grandma and the Grandkids watching the bonfire. This was a beautiful day. The next day it snowed!!!

Roasting Marshmallows!!!

Snow Angels for Peter of Kalofagas

Blizzard!!!

Snowman, this was the small one. The big one was the next day after it had snowed a lot more!

A man and his girl…These are the same woods that T. grew up hunting in. It was a real joy for him to show them to the girls!

And the dogs came along!!!

Lunch from Primanti Bros. The perfect meal of efficiency! A pastrami sandwich with French Fries and coleslaw on white bread! Why mess with sides when you can have it all together!

So this is really what this post is about…Pepperoni Rolls. One of the things that we always do when we are faced with a long drive is to plan food for the trip. We do not eat fast food so it makes us feel really bad when we have nothing to eat on a road trip but burgers and fries. We always pack sandwiches but this time T. wanted to try something different and was it ever good! I had never really heard of these before and I guess they are a regional thing from West Virginia and Pennsylvania are. He made them with a great dough recipe using the bread machine and then stuffed them with mozzarella cheese and ground up pepperoni. These are shelf stable and left us full and satisfied during a very, very long drive to PA!!!

Pepperoni Rolls

1 recipe for your favorite baguettes or the recipe we used for the bread machine follows!

From The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook

1 1/2 cups water
3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp gluten with vitamin C
1 3/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp SAF yeast or 1 Tbsp bread machine yeast

Directions:

• Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the manufacturer’s instructions (mine has the liquid first, then all dry with yeast last in a well)
• Program for the dough cycle and press start.
• The dough ball will be sticky. Do not add more flour at this point.

Pepperoni Rolls

Dough – see above
mozzarella cheese, grated
pepperoni, shredded using a food processor or sliced

• When the dough is done it’s cycle, remove from pan and separate into 8 individual dough balls.
• Punch down the dough and shape into 8 rectangles.
• Fill the dough with cheese and pepperoni
• Roll up the dough rectangles tucking in the ends as you go.
• Place seem side down on a greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned.

Serve immediately or these can seriously be left a room temperature and eaten as is. They are also great served with a plate of spaghetti and sauce!!!


I am submitting this to BYOB (Bake Your Own Bread) hosted by Sandy of At the Baker's Bench. This is a great challenge to get you baking more of your own baked goods. Better for you and cheaper in the process!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Garbage Nachos

At least that’s what we call them. Sounds funny huh? We pretty much call fully loaded anything “garbage”. We have garbage pizza…when you put everything on it that you can think of that would go with your dough and then we have garbage nachos. These are the best!

To top these nachos I used:

Taco seasoned beef (I make my own-recipe here)
refried beans
sharp cheddar
fresh jalapenos
onions
black olives
sour cream
cilantro (added once cooked)

Directions:

• Heat the refried beans and make your taco meat.
• Start chopping your jalapenos, onions, black olives and cilantro. Also grate your cheese.
• Arrange the chips on parchment paper and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. On top of the chips layer the beans and taco meat. Add the cheese, jalapenos and olives.
• Bake until hot and bubbly.
• Top with cilantro and sour cream.

This is a delicious, casual weekend meal for us. Usually on Saturday when I don’t want to cook or clean up too much. It also works out well for us because everyone can have their favorite toppings on their own!

Please try making your own taco seasoning! Not only will you save money but there is less sodium and unpronounceable additives!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

My new favorite way to cook whole chicken legs!

A couple of weeks ago I spatchcocked my first chicken. Since then I have definitely revisited the procedure. I also found that I love the method of cooking that I have been using and thought I needed to try it out on some chicken legs. I have been getting whole legs (thighs and drums attached) for $1.65 a lb at, get this, Whole Foods!!!

I ended up using the exact same method using my cast iron skillet as I did for the spatchcocked chicken. Clementine’s, fresh ginger, head of garlic all thrown into the cast iron skillet in the oven. To read more about the method I use read it here. If you have a cast iron skillet and want to try something different. Please give this a try.

We served it with some roasted herbed potatoes and a salad. I swear to you that I had dinner on the table within 45 minutes of getting home!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com