Recipes – Page 19 – Fervent Foodie

Faux Chicken Parmesan

February 17, 2011 12 Comments

Do you guys every go through phases where you just don’t want anything to do with certain foods? Lately, that’s how I’ve been feeling about meat. I just have not been craving it!

While at Target over the weekend, I picked up a box of Morning Star Chick Patties. I think I’ve contemplated buying these dozens of times before, but never sealed the deal.

Over the weekend, I cooked one of these patties up in the oven and had it on a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat.

No sauce. No veggies. Just the faux meat and bun.

It was glorious. It seriously reminded me of the chicken pattie sandwiches from high school. I know that sounds disgusting, but in this instance it’s actually a very very good thing.

Then, the other night I had a VISION: Faux Chicken Parmesan… Healthified, no less:

Shut the front door!!!!

First up, grab a spaghetti squash and halve it…

I swear, every time I try and halve a squash I have flashes of severing a finger. I think to myself, “is this it?” Is this the day that I lose a finger in the name of squash??

Once it’s halved, scoop out the seeds, and pop this puppy onto a cookie sheet into a 415 degree over for 30 minutes. I ‘m no fan of mooshy squashoodles.

Next, I grabbed some leftover pasta sauce from the freezer. This was Nature’s Basket Roasted Garlic:

Why do I get such joy from stock piling individual servings of goods in the freezer? It’s uncanny really.

I defrosted the sauce a bit in the microwave, then tossed in a pan and added a hodge podge of seasonings including: red pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, parsley.

Once the squash was done, I pulled it out of the oven and used a fork to scrape out the innards. Then popped 1 chicken pattie and some broccoli into the oven to do their thang.

Once the pattie was cooked through, I combined all my delicious and oh-so-easy ingredients:

Faux-chicken-parmesan MASTERPIECE.

I am in love with these patties… seriously, if you haven’t tried them DO IT. Just make sure you cook them in the oven (and not the microwave) and you’ll get a crispy delicious bit of faux-meat-heaven.

Mmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm….

This WILL be making frequent appearance in my tax season dinner diet. For sure.

Stats on 1 serving faux chicken parmesan (1/2 squash, 1 pattie, 1/2 cup sauce): 274 calories, 44carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 8g fiber

Lest we not forget….. the winner of my Luna Bar giveaway is…….

Meagan! Yay!!! Email me with your mailing adddres and I’ll get the bars to you ASAP!

Recipes

Bananas Foster Bread

February 15, 2011 11 Comments

So what do these have in common? Yesterday’s guesses gave me quite a few chuckles.

Maker’s Mark and bananas happen to be two of the BF’s FAVORITE things. Since we didn’t get to spend VD together, I decided to whip up a batch of Marker’s Mark Banana Bread over the weekend. I had a Cooking Light Recipe for Bananas Foster bread that I’d been DYING to try out, and Makers Mark seemed like a terrific substitute for the Cognac called for in the recipe.

Who drinks Cognac anyway? Emeril Lagasse, that’s who.

Lucky for this banana bread recipe, I’m not dating Emeril Lagasse. I’m dating Mr. Maker’s Mark.

Seriously…

Edible.

Canoodling:

This looks quite natural, actually.

First up: get your hands on some mushy brown bananas. Hopefully you planned ahead for this, because the base of ANY good banana bread recipe is some seriously overripe bananas.

These guys are actually on the under-ripe side, but they got the job done.

Next: preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×5 inch bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the following in a nonstick skillet:

1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
5 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp Maker’s Mark

Can we say yum?

Heat over medium until it starts to bubble and thicken slightly

Then you’ll want to remove this banana goodness from the heat and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, combine the following in a separate bowl:

1.5 cups flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice

Flax!

Alltogethernah:

Once the bananas are cooled off, add in:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
2 large eggs

Beat everything together until combined, then add in your dries to wets and mix until just blended:

Yes, I licked them.

Next is the easy part — pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Then let the bread cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix up the icing:

1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp Maker’s Mark

And dr-dr-drizzzzleeee over the warm bread:

Notice that at this point I had ALREADY cut off a small piece for sampling… That’s a key step in successful baking. Frequent and continuous testing.

Mr. Maker’s Mark said this was the best banana bread he had ever tasted because it was “delightfully moist and not overly sweet”

I agreed, it was delicious… and addicting.

Must be the alcohol.

Maker’s Mark Banana Foster Bread Ingredients List (serves 12):

1.5 cups mashed up ripe bananas
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
6 tablespoons melted butter, divided
1/4 cup Maker’s Mark, divided
1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
2 large eggs
1.5 cups flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Recipes

My first attempt at Biscotti

February 9, 2011 8 Comments

I don’t recall when I made the life transition from thinking of biscotti as a dry and dull unappetizing biscuit to thinking of biscotti as one of life’s true pleasures that should be savored as frequently as possible.

Thank god for maturing palates.

Biscotti now holds a special special place in my heart, and I would eat it every day if it didn’t hurt my teeth so much.

A while back, I decided to try and make biscotti on my own via this recipe for Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I headed to the local grocery store to buy up the necessary goods, and much to my dismay I found pistachios to be outrageously expensive. $10 a bag?!? Come ON! Then I noticed that the pistachios with the shells still on them were nearly half the price, so of course I scooped them up.

How hard could it be to crack a few shells?

About 45 minutes into my shell husking I was beginning to seriously doubt my frugal decision. …

Seriously…

How many freaking pistachios does it take to get 3/4 of a cup???

When I finally had my 3/4 cup pistachios and my fingers were aching from all the husking, I mixed the following together in a bowl:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon orange extract

Then I beat in 1 egg and combined the following in another bowl:

3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

I slowly incorporated the dries into the wets, and then mixed in:

1/2 cup craisins
3/4 pistachios (painstakingly deshelled by hand)

Looks like christmas!

Can’t wait to eat you!

Once combined, I rolled the dough out into a log on parchment paper:

Kind of surprising how perfect this looked, given that I couldn’t feel my fingers at this point.

I baked the biscotolog in a 300 degree oven for 35 minutes. Then I removed it from the oven and covered it with a dish towel to cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I reduced the oven heat to 275.

I transferred the biscotolog to a cutting board and cut into 18 slices:

PERFECTION!

Then popped the biscottis onto the cookie sheet again and put them back into the 275 degree oven for 8 minutes.

Once the biscotti was completely cooled,I drizzled the tops with some melted Bakers Chocolate

YES!

Overall, I really loved this biscotti. I think some of my friends and fam were a little thrown off by the orange extract though. I’m excited to play around with this recipe. I’m thinking almond and craisins next time!

Really any nut that doesn’t require deshelling would be superb….

Recipes

Shrimp & Mac & Cheese

February 8, 2011 15 Comments

WOW guys. WOW.

Drooling yet??

For the big game this past weekend, I was looking for a something a little different to take to the family party… Something a little healthified but that still packed a little somethin somethin. During my search, I stumbled upon the the Mac and Cheese Light recipe from the September 2010 Cooking Lite, and it looked like the perfect fit! You can never have too much cheese on super bowl Sunday, I always say.

What really drew me to this particular recipe was that it started off with the “secret weapon” – a puree consisting of one whole LARGE onion and 9 cloves of garlic.

Hello lover.

Clearly this was destiny.

First up, I put a big ole pot of water on the stove to boil, then tossed a large Vidalia onion and 9 cloves roughly chopped garlic into a bowl with 1/2 cup water.

I covered this guy with plastic wrap and nuked in the microwaved for 10 minutes. Prepare to smell like onions and garlic for the remainder of the day. Don’t worry. I won’t judge you.

After 10 minutes, you dump this onion garlic goodness out into a blender and pulse until smooth. It should look like grits, ya’ll:

By now the water should be boiling, so drop in 8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile season up you onion garlic puree with:

1 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste (I used A LOT)

Once the pasta is done, drain and set aside. Then heat your onion garlic puree up in a pot (large enough to hold the sauce and the pasta), and once hot and bubbly slowly whisk in 2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese.

It should be gloriously thick.

Once the cheese is all melted in, take it off the heat and whisk in 2/3 cup fat free plain greek yogurt, then add in the cooked pasta. Once everything is combined, pour the mac and cheese into a casserole dish greased with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the top with

1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Sprinkling of dried parsley

Baked at 425 for 15 minutes:

Cheesy deliciousness:

Just to balance things out, I also made a big arse salad for the game:

No joke. Big. Arse.

Of course I finangled one serving of the mac and cheese to take home with me after the game, and I decided to spice it up a bit for dinner tonight.

I LIBERALLY seasoned up 4 jumbo shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and sautéed them up on a pan:

I also roasted up some broccoli that I had liberally seasoned with S&P … and I also microwaved the mac and cheese. Don’t judge.

VOILA!

That is a seriously grown up healthified mac and cheese masterpiece!!!

I havent had roasted broccoli in months!! I practically lived off of roasted veggies last summer, and I had somehow forgotten how friggin delicious they are!

The mac and cheese by itself was a little too mild for my tastes – so, at the super bowl party I topped it off with some Frank’s Red hot. But for tonight’s dinner this spicy cayenne shrimp added plenty of kick:

Can’t get over how delicious!

Get in my beeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese (no shrimp): 275 calories, 30g carbs, 10g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese WITH shrimp: 322 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 26g protein, 3g fiber

Mac & Cheese Ingredients List (serves 8 )

1 large Vidalia onion
9 cloves roughly chopped garlic
1/2 cup water
8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni
1 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups reduced fat cheddar
2/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Sprinkling of dried parsley

Recipes

Seriously. Make this. Now.

February 6, 2011 6 Comments

Last weekend, I posted a super simple super quick recipe for the Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich.

Today, I made a repeat of that masterpiece with the addition of some Frank’s Red Hot:

I swear to you, this breakfast sandwich is eyes-roll-into-the-back-of-your-head delicious.

If you are a yolk lover like me (and a sausage lover for that matter) do yourself a favor and make this for breakfast. Immediately!

Stats on the life changer: 255 calories, 24g carbs, 10g fat, 20g protein, 3g fiber

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