Monthly Archives: August 2010

Veal Scaloppine

The next time you see veal cutlets on sale buy some and try this recipe. You can also make this recipe using pork cutlets which are much cheaper or if you are weird about eating veal. My husband loves veal and is always upset when we eat at an Italian restaurant and they don’t offer it! The nerve! I guess you can also make this with chicken cutlets as well but veal or pork is best. This is a very simple recipe and isn’t loaded with fat. A taste treat for everyone! It is sort of like a veal Marsala really but you can call it whatever you want as long as you make it!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound veal or pork cutlets

flour

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

pepper to taste

½ cup sherry or dry white wine

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

8-12 mushrooms, sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1. If veal or pork is thick slice in half, carefully and place pieces between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap. Pound thin with a mallet or meat pounder to about ¼ inch. If you can get the cutlets that thin to begin with even better! Cover lightly with the flour.

2. Add oil to a large skillet and sauté the veal and garlic for 3-4 minutes on each side. Sprinkle with pepper. Add the sherry or wine, parsley and mushrooms. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Serve with any side you want. Potatoes, rice, pasta, broccoli, or any vegetable.

Serves 4

Back of the Fridge Chicken Soup

Ever have one of those days when you just want to clean everything out of your fridge but you can’t throw it away because it’s still ok to eat? I did that last week. I had a bunch of little containers with leftover veggies, leftover rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and a freezer full of turkey stock I made from the my Thanksgiving in July dinner. You can use whatever you have left in your fridge or freezer and it will be delicious! I had some frozen mushrooms also that I threw in. It was very tasty! We actually had it two nights in a row.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups chicken or turkey broth or stock

1 8oz. package Tofu Shirataki Noodles, prepared according to package

4 cups mixed veggies of your choice (I used a mix of frozen chopped spinach, broccoli rabe w/chicken sausage, mushrooms, peas, green beans, onion and garlic), chopped into bite sized pieces

1-2 cups chopped leftover chicken, whatever you have is good

1 15-16oz. can cannellini beans drained and rinsed.

½ cup chopped parsley

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil. When soft pour in broth and rest of the ingredients except for the beans, parsley and noodles.

2. Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until everything is heated through.

3. Add the beans and noodles and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so until the beans are heated through. Add the parsley and serve.

4. Serve with parmesan cheese if you like!

Makes 4-6 servings.

Lemon Grotto

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! I found this cocktail in the February 2010 issue of Coastal Living. (love that magazine!) We’ve made it a few times for us and friends. Needless to say it packs quite a punch. It looks so unassuming and innocent! The power in this cocktail is of course Limoncello, which if you remember has a whopping 26% alcohol in it. So along with the other ingredients it is over the top incredible! It does take some prep time so make sure you leave enough time to prepare it for yourselves or guests. You can serve this in tall glasses or champagne flutes or martini glasses. Whichever you have around. So before summer is gone, make a batch and sip and relax! We actually made these last on Valentine’s Day! Brought a batch over to our friends house and sipped them by the fire. Yes, in Florida! Lori and Mike have a beautiful house in Jensen Beach which has a great fireplace so we hung with them for a few hours and enjoyed the day. The drinks should have a slight frothy top if served immediately after blending. But since we had made these ‘to go’, they lost the head. (I hear you all laughing!) The 2nd picture is from the magazine.

INGREDIENTS:

6 ounces (¾ cup) limoncello

2 ounces (¼ cup) orange liqueur (Grand Mariner)

8 large strawberries, sliced

Prosecco or other sparkling wine

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the limoncello and orange liqueur in a small bowl. Stir in the strawberries and soak at least one hour. (We did this overnight!)

2. After the berries have soaked, purée the mixture in a blender. Strain if desired. (We tried both ways. Strained is a little better, no seeds etc)

3. Pour into 4  glasses. Top with Prosecco or sparkling wine. Serve immediately!

Makes 4 drinks!

See what happens when you drink a couple in front of a cozy fire!

Blueberry Flax Seed Muffins

Today I am being lazy. Hey it happens to all of us. I was looking at some food videos on SparkPeople site today and found many of them really cool and helpful! And since I am trying to lose weight (like always) I always look for the healthier recipes for stuff that can be not so healthy. These muffins may sound weird with the flax-seed but they are really good. Flax seed is very high in fiber and protein, both things that are great for eating healthier! I think I’m going to be posting a few other videos like this in the future so keep an eye open for them. I found out about SparkPeople Recipes from a friend at Weight Watchers many years ago and it is usually pretty good. People send in recipes for all kinds of stuff and it’s free to join. So for now, just sit back with a cup of coffee or tea and watch the video! It’s less than 5 minutes long and the muffins look so good!

Smothered Chicken

I feel like today is a Monday! The job hunting takes up most of my mornings these days, leaving the rest of the day to do my endless list of “house” chores. Today I was supposed to clean up the office buried underneath the rubble. I started this finally at 6pm! And now I just remembered I forgot to post a blog recipe! So here I am, 7:23pm, starting my blog, and watching an episode of Roswell on Hulu.com (I love Hulu by the way!) I have an iMac and the screen is 21.5″ so watching a show and working is easy! So here goes.

Today’s recipe is another recipe from Dom DeLuise’s book “Eat This Too!” Normally when I see a recipe that has the word “smothered” in it I try and avoid it. Though this recipe is low-calorie and high in protein. It’s actually a very easy recipe to make and it won’t take up all your night cooking! Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

2 teaspoons olive oil

pepper to taste

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 onion, minced

¼ teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons flour

1½ cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon soy sauce

18-20 mushrooms, sliced

4 cups cooked brown or white rice (I prefer jasmine brown rice)

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Set chicken in deep broiling pan. Season with olive oil, pepper, garlic, onion and paprika.

2. Set broiler about 5 inches from heat. Broil chicken 3 minutes on one side, turn and broil one minute on the other side. Remove and set aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, stir flour into broth and soy sauce until flour dissolves. Add mushrooms. Pour the broth mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium heat while stirring constantly until sauce thickens.

4. Slice and arrange the chicken breasts on the rice and “smother” everything with the mushroom sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Serves 4

Escarole and Beans

Such a delicious hearty peasant dish. Love it on a cold fall day or anytime for that matter. It’s a cross between a soup and a stew. You can even add some cooked ditalini macaroni to this if you want to stretch it. Any small pasta will do. If I wasn’t so lazy I’d run out to the store right now and buy some escarole and make this tonight. Maybe tomorrow night. This is such an easy dish to make and so good for you as well. Escarole is overlooked at times, people are afraid of it. It is actually part of the endive family but is less bitter. With the right spices and sauce it is just heavenly. Mangia!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 head escarole, washed very well and cut into pieces

1 carrot, sliced

1 cup chicken broth

1 15-16oz. can cannellini beans

grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil in a saucepan until translucent. Add the escarole, carrot and broth, bring to a boil. Once it boils simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Add the beans but do not stir them in. Cook for another 5 minutes. Stir gently to mix, then serve with grated cheese and if you like, a nice hot loaf of crusty Italian bread.

Serves 4

Blueberry Pancakes

Every so often we get that craving for pancakes on the weekend. But trying to watch the carb and calorie intake makes it tough. This recipe only has 4 grams of carbs per serving! No joke. And they are actually very good! I know many of us have tried the “Atkins” pancake mix, or other low-calorie low carb mix over the years and they were all just a little on the bland side. Not this recipe, which I got from “George Stella’s Livin’ Low Carb” book. I actually use this cookbook quite a lot. This coming from a true carb hound. The recipes are great! This recipe I actually had all the ingredients so we tried them out. It actually calls for heavy cream and I didn’t have any so we used half-and-half instead and it was great. The other minor ingredient I actually did not have on hand was baking powder! So I found my ‘substitution’ chart and made my own! Just combine ½ teaspoon cream of tartar and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. Voila, baking powder. And since I only needed ¼ teaspoon of baking powder it was perfect. Also, usually we have the sugar-free syrup in the house for the pancakes and waffles we sometimes have, but this time we used the amber agave nectar!

Delicious and so much better for you! We also have the light one as well. Found it cheap at Marshall’s! Go figure!

INGREDIENTS:

Cooking spray or butter (for pan)

2 large eggs

½ cup heavy cream (I used half-and-half and it was fine)

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup soy flour

2 tablespoons sugar substitute (Splenda recommended)

1 tablespoon wheat or oat bran (I used wheat)

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup fresh or frozen(thawed) blueberries

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grease a griddle or large skillet with cooking spray or butter and heat over medium heat for at least 5 minutes. The griddle should be very hot so that the pancakes don’t stick.

2. Mix all the ingredients except for the blueberries in a blender or food processor for about 15 seconds. Stop and scrape the sides and mix for another 15 seconds until well blended.

3. Pour about 12 little cakes onto the hot griddle (they should be about the size of the bottom of a soda can). Wait for the pancakes to bubble and then sprinkle with a few blueberries on each of them. Cook for a little longer, then flip with a spatula and cook for a few more minutes, until both sides are slightly browned. Serve hot with melted butter and syrup of your choice! You may have to do this in a couple batches.

Makes about 12 small pancakes. You can use other berries also just make sure you cut them up small enough to about the size of the blueberries.

Baked Shrimp Balls

Ok I can hear the comments now, even from my husband. “I didn’t know Shrimp had balls! And why would we want to eat them?” Funny! Ha ha! This recipe does not have bread crumbs or other heavy filler in it either. Baking them also cuts down on the calories but not the taste. The picture I put in is not of my own, yet. But if anyone makes them, take a picture and send me a copy and I will post it! Send to my website email at agenua@cucinadiandrea.com. These are also very easy to make so give it a try and let me know how they come out! I will do the same!

Ok, the picture has been updated to my own photo. I made these over the weekend. I cut the recipe in half as it was too much for just two of us. Has anyone made them? Ok, all I have to say is maybe they left out something in the recipe. They were easy to make, smelled good, looked good but taste? Hmmm not so much. They fell apart for the most part.  I made a quick honey mustard sauce to go with it. (¼ cup light mayo, ¼ cup Dijon mustard and 1 tablespoon agave nectar) Sauce was great! Shrimp balls needed something for sure. So I made them into a crustless Quiche the next night for dinner! Broke them all up and added egg beaters, half and half, spinach, cheese, dill and some hot sauce.  I will post the outcome tomorrow!

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds shelled, deveined shrimp, minced

6 canned water chestnuts, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon cornstarch

3 teaspoons olive oil

Pepper to taste

lemon wedges

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place everything but the lemon wedges into a bowl and mix together.

2. Shape mixture into small balls (about 1 teaspoon). Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Spray balls with olive oil and bake at 350º for 20 minutes. Serve hot with lemon wedges.

They reheat well also!

Makes about 50-60 shrimp balls depending on how large you make them. Mangia!

Side Car Martini

It’s Friday! Woo hoo! And it is after  5 o’clock so let’s get the weekend started! I just found this recipe on the Cooking Channel site. It is courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis so you know it’ll be a good one! And it has one of my favorite liqueurs in it, Limoncello. Love it! (maybe I should marry it!) Anyway, here it is and enjoy your weekend everyone! This recipe makes 4 martinis so invite a few friends over to get the party started! Just be careful as these martinis will definitely pack quite a punch! So nosh on some snacks with them and be careful!

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup sugar

1 lime, zested

1 lime wedge

10 ounces cognac (Hennessy is recommended)

4 ounces Cointreau (or Triple Sec)

4 ounces sweet and sour mix

4 ounces Limoncello

2 ounces lime juice

ice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Chill 4 martini glasses. In a small shallow dish combine the sugar and the lime zest. Run the lime wedge around the rim of each glass. Dip in the sugar and zest mixture.

2. In a cocktail shaker mix the cognac, Cointreau, sweet and sour mix, Limoncello, and lime juice over ice. Shake to chill.

3. Pour the Side Car Martinis into the glasses and serve immediately.

Chocolate Mousse Bars

All you chocolate hounds out there this one is for you! Chocolate Mousse is always seen as such a decadent dessert and it usually is but my recipe will use the sugar substitute sucralose (Splenda). Sucralose is one of the few substitutes that you can use exactly as you would sugar. It may even be sweeter! I can only use sucralose because aspartame gives me migraines. So no “Blue” in my house! Only “yellow”!  Aspartame can’t stand up to the heat of baking either so that is another reason to use sucralose. If you are really weird about using ‘fake’ sugar by all means use the real stuff. I will never know! And I won’t think any less of you! But if you use the sucralose and are counting points for  Weight Watchers for any reason, the bars are only 4 points each and regular sugar makes them 5 points each. Not much of a difference so it’s up to you!

Photo is for illustrative purposes only!

INGREDIENTS:

6 extra-large egg whites

1¼ cup sugar or sugar substitute

1 tablespoon canola oil

1½ cups unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1½ cups nonfat plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oven to 350º. Spray an 8″ square baking pan with cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl whip the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the sugar and beat until fluffy.  Meanwhile, stir the oil into the melted chocolate. Add this mixture to the egg whites and blend.

3. With a mixer on low, sift in the flour and cocoa powder and fold together. Beat until fluffy. Add the yogurt and vanilla; beat until uniformly combined.

4. Scrape the batter into the pan; smooth the top. Bake until the batter feels firm to the touch in the center, but a toothpick comes out coated with the batter, about 30-35 minutes.

5. Remove the pan to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Makes 16 bars

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