black pepper – Page 3 – Fervent Foodie

Zuppa Toscana

October 29, 2010 15 Comments

It’s hard to believe that I used to hate soup. Whaaaattt???? I hated them. And I mean all of them. I found soup unsatisfying and uncravable. I needed something with substance (and by substance I mean a big hunk of meat or a big hunk of bread).

How could I resist this beauty???

Nowadays the soup and salad combo is one of my favorites, especially this time of year. I love the contrast: a cool crunchy salad and hot comforting soup. I went to lunch with my coworkers last week and tried Zuppa Toscana for the first time. It was DELISH, and I knew I had to give it a shot.

So first off, what is Zuppa Toscana anyway? Tuscan soup… not exactly descriptive. Google tells me Zuppa Toscana is supposed to include sausage, bacon, greens, potatoes and cream. Sounds like a good starting point!

After some futher googlin I found a few recipes that looked pretty tasty and after some tweaking and Maryfications I ended up with some mighty tasty results!

First up, I took some help for my girl Jennie O’, and grabbed 3 hot turkey sausage links.

I ran a knife along the back of each sausage link to cut through the casing, then removed the sausage meat and discarded the casings

Once my skillet was nice and hot, I tossed the sausage in and used a spatula to break out the meat. When the sausage was no longer pink, I removed it from the skillet and set aside.

Next up, I heated up a soup pot, once hot I added one large diced yellow onion, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and and 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes. I like it hot!

Glory in a pot:

Cook the onions until soft and translucent, then add 2 boxes of low-sodium fat free chicken broth (64 ounces). While you are waiting for the soup to come to a boil, slice up one large potato:

Bring the the soup to a boil, then add the sliced potatoes. Reduce to medium heat, and cook for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Next toss in the sausage and one cup of half and half.

Let the soup simmer away until everything is warmed through, and just before you are ready to serve it toss in 3 cups of spinach.

VOILA! Soup is served!

This soup was AWESOME. Only problem was my poor potatoes practically disintegrated in the soup. Next time I think I’ll chunk the potatoes rather than thinly slicing them.

Despite that potato problem, the soup was so tasty and it had a little kick which I loved! If you aren’t big on spicy foods, cut the red pepper flakes and black pepper back.

Serve with a delicious salad, of course!

Zuppa Toscana Ingredients List (makes 6 Servings)

3 links Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage
1 large diced yellow onion
1 and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
64 ounces Chicken Broth Fat Free Reduced Sodium Chicken broth
1 large potato
1 cup half and half
3 cups fresh spinach

Stats on one serving Zuppa Toscana: 207 calories, 15g carbs, 10g fat, 14g protein, 2g fiber

Ramblings, Recipes

Mock mac and cheese

October 5, 2010 4 Comments

One of life’s true pleasures is a big ole plate of macaroni and cheese. I’m talking homemade oven-baked cheesy glory. Once fall rolls around, I start to get some serious cravings for comfort food. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Comfort foods. The foods that make you feel warm and cuddly from the inside out. The foods that make you want to hug your belly and sway side to side just because they taste so dang good. The foods that you’d like to pour into a giant tub so you could jump in and swaddle yourself in their heavenly gooey warmth…. What.. that’s just me?!

Anyway, tonight I decided to give healthified mac and cheese a go in an attempt to satisfy my comfort food craving. I remember seeing a recipe a while back on the Hungry Girl email blast, and that was the basis for my dinner (though I couldn’t find the email).

The main components of my mac and cheese were Carba Nada pasta and lightly sauced broccoli:

And 1 light French Onion laughing cow wedge:

Carba nada only takes 5 minutes to cook, so this meal was ready for chowing in no time! While the pasta cooked I also threw together a small salad with romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, and some Ken’s Lite Caesar dressing (LOVE that stuff).

All together:

The flavors were a little mild, so I added some red pepper flakes and black pepper on top:

Cheesy goodness:

Not too shabby! If you could get laughing cow in light cheddar that would take this dinner to a whole new level!

Stats on 1 serving mock mac and cheese: 235 calories, 32g carbs, 5g fat, 16g protein, 8g fiber

On a separate note, I’m debating on whether or not to join a gym for the winter. Twice in my life I had succumbed to signing up for a year-long gym membership, and BOTH times I stopped going after only a couple months… yet still had to pay for the entire year. I’m really not big on gyms… but without a gym, I see myself simply not exercising this winter. Any tips for making the gym FUN?

Recipes

Hummus + Spaghetti Squash

September 28, 2010 6 Comments

Sometimes I have foodie visions. This is my term for the moment when a random collaboration of ingredients convene in my brain and its seems as though there is nothing I can do to regain control of my thoughts… except of course, try out the random concoction … all the while hoping it doesn’t make me ralph.

My most recent foodie vision consisted of some of this:

plus

What’s that, you ask? Good question! This lovely dinner concoction consisted of:

2 tbsp Trader Joe’s Original Hummus
2 ounces chopped grilled chicken
1 diced roma tomato
1 baby spaghetti squash
Some red pepper flakes

Repulsed? Don’t go all eggplant on me yet!

First, I baked the spaghetti squash in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes (since this was just a lil guy). Then I used a fork to scrape out the squash noodles.

Meanwhile, I sprayed a skillet with some cooking spray and tossed in the hummus to get it heating up:

Then I added the tomatoes and chicken:

Once everything was warmed through, I added the spaghetti squash and some red pepper flakes.

Presto!

This was really tasty and simultaneously really weird 😯

Several times during the meal I got a faint reminder of macaroni and cheese which I found even weirder–but that gave me ANOTHER foodie vision I must try sometime soon…. Cheesy spaghetti squash! Stay tuned, folks!

Overall, I like this idea and I’m definitely going to play with it some more. I think wilted spinach would be a really nice addition and maybe a different flavor of hummus….. we shall see… we shall see.

Stats on the spaghetti squash/hummus concoction: 199 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 14g protein, 5g fiber

CALL TO ACTION! Now that the weather is changing, I’ve been craving WARM lunches…. I am bored & I need inspiration for yummy/healthy WARM lunches to bring to work….. Any ideas?

Recipes

Stuffed Cabbage (hold the red sauce)

September 20, 2010 No Comments

When you think of stuffed cabbage, what comes to mind? I’m guessing you think of ground beef and rice rolled up in cabbage and smothered in red sauce, right? You probably also think of excessive gas. Let’s try and relieve ourselves of that thought for now 😉

I’m not entirely sure why, but my mom has always made stuffed cabbage without red sauce. I can remember going to friend’s houses as a child and getting super excited when I heard we were having stuffed cabbage for dinner. This ALWAYS ended in disappointment because everyone (other than my mom… and my sister) makes stuffed cabbage with red sauce… and I’m not really a fan. In my family, we like our stuffed cabbage with a side of cabbage. And some cabbage broth. And excessive amounts of sour cream and salt and pepper.

Stuffed cabbages has been one of my all-time favorite home cooked meals for as far back as I can remember, yet I’ve never tried to make them myself. So what the heck, I decided to give it a shot. My mom uses ground beef in her stuffed cabbages, but I decided to further health-it-up with 99% fat-free ground turkey and brown rice.

First up, the cabbage:

I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever purchased cabbage. I have a feeling we are going to be GREAT friends 🙂

(Guess who left her camera at work??? Yes, all photos were taken with the lovely iPhone tonight)

I cut the core out of the cabbage:

And dropped it hole-side down in a big ole pot of bowling water.

While the leaves softened in the boiling water, I combined the following in a bowl:

8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
1/2 a chopped white onion
1 glove garlic, minced
1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

As the leaves began to soften, I pulled off the outer cabbage leaves with a pair of tongs and laid them out while the remaining cabbage kept softening in the pot:

I used an ice cream scooper to evenly distribute the meat and rice mix among 9 cabbage leaves:

Then gave them a roll and lined them up in a baking dish.

Then I gave the remaining cabbage a rough chop and tucked it in between the rolls and threw the rest on top. I used a ladle to spoon some of the hot cabbage broth onto the rolls until the water level was about half way up the dish. Then I covered with foil and baked in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

When the rolls were done, I topped two of them off with a dollop of sour cream and some black pepper:

Andd……. whelp… it’s wasn’t mom’s. And it wasn’t my sister’s either. Have you ever tried to recreate one of your mom’s famous dishes? If you’re like me, it probably didn’t go so well. That’s ok, nothing a little hot sauce can’t cure!

All-in-all these were OK– but I think using the ground turkey instead of the ground beef made a HUGE difference (and not for the better). I think ground beef is the way to go. That’s what I’ll use next time for sure!

Stuffed Cabbage Ingredients List (serves 4)

8 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey
1/2 a chopped white onion
1 glove garlic, minced
1 cup brown rice, rinsed and drained
1 head cabbage (about 2 lbs)
Salt and pepper
Fat-free Sour cream (optional in your book, NOT optional in mine)

Stats on 1 serving: 237 calories, 39g carbs, 2g fat, 19g protein, 7g fiber

What I ate

Hallelujah it’s Friday!

September 3, 2010 3 Comments

With September here already (where the heck did August go, by the way?), I’ve already got my head in “fall mode”. My favorite time of the year is BY FAR the last quarter – October, November, and December. I love the weather, the excessive parties and family activities, and I also love how things just seem to slow down from the fast pace of summer. Speaking of fast-paced summers, it saddens me that I haven’t been doing much cooking lately. The good news is I’ll have plenty of time to cook… in two more weeks!

Breakfast #1

Ever since last weekend’s awesome breakfast fit for vacation, I’ve been craving the spinach and tomato breakfast burrito. (Let’s be honest, I’ve been craving the potatoes and pancakes too) … So last night instead of doing my usual batch-scrambled eggs, I made a double serving of the spinach and tomato scrambled eggs.

First up, I chopped up:

2 tbsp red onion (I used white onion last time, but didn’t have any on hand)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chiffonade spinach
1/2 a roma tomato, diced

I sprayed a skillet down with some cooking spray, and once it was hot I tossed in the garlic and onions.

While these guys were cooking I whisked together the following in a bowl:

2 whole eggs
6 egg whites
Splash of water

Once the onions were soft, I poured the egg mixture on top and seasoned everything up with S&P and red pepper flakes. I let the eggs start to cook up, and when they were about 1/2 way done I added the tomato and spinach:

Look how delicious:

While the eggs were getting their groove on, I also roasted up some broccoli that was seasoned with black pepper and garlic salt:

Is it just me, or does that broccoli look really happy to be here?

2 happy campers:

One of which I brought to work with me today to introduce to my friend Heinz:

Stats on B#1: 205 calories, 15g carbs, 5g fat, 23g protein, 2g fiber

B#2 = OO 😀

OVERNIGHT OATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! What a great way to end the workweek!

Doesn’t that just bring a smile to your face??? 😀

YUM.

Stats on B#2: 233 calories, 44g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

What better way to end the Bruegger’s Bagels giveaway, then to have Bruegger’s for lunch, of course!

Today I went with the Spinach & Lentil soup, and a half sandwich with turkey and lots and lots of veggies. I can’t believe this is the HALF sandwich. It was HUGE!

The Bruegger’s Giveaway ends tonight at midnight (eastern time), so get your posts in!

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