Pots & Plots

It is crock pot central in my kitchen today.  It’s Sunday, and I’m trying to get some batch cooking done so that I have something healthy to eat for lunch the next couple of weeks.  The name of the game is veggie type soups.  I’ve already got a batch of my Crock Pot Tomato Soup going in my 3 quart crock pot (which freezes beautifully, I’ll have you know).  Now I’m going to try an experiment to see if I can make good French Onion Soup in a crock pot, caramelized onions and all.  French Onion Soup is a big favorite of mine (though my onionphobic husband won’t touch it).  There’s nothing better on a chill winter day than a piping hot bowl of it with some nice crusty cheese toast floating on top.  Delish.  Now, this isn’t as Fix It And Forget It as most of my crock pot recipes, but the end results are worth it.  So without further ado…

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp butter (or in my case, Smart Balance Omega Light, extra virgin olive oil flavor)
• 6 medium onions, sliced thin
• 1 Tbsp granulated white sugar
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste (if you have it–you can make it without, but it’s better with)
• 3 cups of beef broth
• 1/2 cup wine (dry red or a white–I actually used Nick Faldo’s Sauvignon Blanc as it’s what I had on hand–it’s kind of a sweet wine)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme

Directions:

1. Go ahead and turn your slow cooker to high.  Add in the olive oil and butter and allow to melt while you’re slicing onions.  This process can be sped up by melting the butter ahead of time and pouring it in.
2. Are you weeping yet?  I’ve read tips about a zillion different ways to keep from crying over the smell of onions.  Stick a slice of bread up to the hilt of your knife.  Refrigerate the onions.  Wear swim goggles (I have actually done that).  So far, I haven’t come up with a way to stop the tears.   BUT for getting the onion smell off your hands when you’re finished, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water and then rub them all over stainless steel (in my house that’s the faucet or the sink…you could use a stainless spoon or something).  I have no idea why this works, but somehow it neutralizes the onion odor.
3. When fats are melted, add sliced onions and stir to coat.
4. Sprinkle the sugar over the onions and put the top back on.  Cook on high for 1-2 hours (until slightly brown), stirring occasionally.
5. Once the onions are caramelized, add in the remaining ingredients.
6. Allow to simmer on high for another three hours.

This freezes really well.  If you want to serve immediately, make up some crustini with gruyere or swiss melted on top.  Or you could make nice cheesy croutons to float in it.  It’s all good.  I usually freeze this in individual portions.  You can also take a portion and dump it in the crock pot over a roast.  Makes a fabulous gravy.

From a nutrition standpoint, the soup alone is only 96 calories and 4.75 grams of fat per serving (the batch makes 4 servings), so really not bad at all.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium squash, jullianed (cut into fries)
• 1 medium zucchini, jullianed(cut into fries)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup skim milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. If you have a baking rack that can go in the oven, place it on top of your cookie sheet.
3. Pour milk into a bowl.
4. Put breadcrumbs 1 thin layer at a time onto a plate.
5. Dip squash and zucchini into milk, then into breadcrumbs to coat.
6. Layer on baking rack.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. If you don’t have a baking rack, flip the fries at 10 minutes.

Can be served with Parmesan cheese.  I frequently eat the whole batch as a meal.  Total calories are 310, 3 grams of fat.  If serving as a side, this makes enough for 2-3 people.

At last!  I have been trying for SEVEN YEARS to duplicate the sauce my favorite Chinese place uses for their lo mien.  Finally, courtesy of The Crepes of Wrath , I have a base for a good lo mien sauce.  I adapted her original recipe for garlic noodles and wound up making this three days in a row!

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. whole wheat spaghetti noodles
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil based margarine (I used Smart Balance Light)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar Splenda
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh baby bella mushrooms
• 1/2 medium zucchini thinly sliced
• 1 cup sliced leftover steak, chicken, pork, or shrimp (optional–this dish is great with just veggies)
• 1 handful of chopped cashews

Directions

1. Boil your noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile melt your butter or margarine  over medium high heat, and add zucchini, meat, and mushrooms.  Saute for 3-5 minutes or until zucchini begins to get slightly limp.
3. Meanwhile, mix the brown sugar Splenda, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce in a small bowl.
4. Add cashews, green onions and garlic to the skillet.  Sautee for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add in your sauce and mix well.
6. Add noodles and mix thoroughly until well coated.
7. Serve immediately.

If you keep this vegetarian, it serves about 2.  If you add in meat, you can stretch it to feed 3.  Careful, these are REALLY addictive!

I’ve been getting into the crock pot lately. That whole fix it and forget it quality is a wonderful thing. As fall is finally arriving, I’m starting to get in the mood for soup, so I devised this simple tomato soup.

Ingredients:

• 2 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes in juice
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 Tbsps granulated white sugar
• 4 Tbsp beef stock (or in my case, leftover drippings from the pot roast I made last night, also in the crock pot)
• 4 oz. fat free cream cheese, cut into 1/2 ” chunks

Directions:

1. Add both cans of tomatoes, the onion, stock, and sugar to crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours.
2. Using an immersion blender, carefully break up whatever is left of the tomatoes and blend until smooth.
3. Add the cream cheese and repeat blending process until creamy.
4. Garnish with fresh basil or thyme and a sprinkle of fresh grated parmesean cheese.
5. Fabulous with grilled cheese sandwiches or on it’s own.

The entire pot (which makes about 6 cups of soup, I think) is 705 calories and half a gram of fat. I think it works out to around 117.5 calories per 1 cup serving.

One of our good friends has his 30th birthday coming up (well actually, it was yesterday, but the party is tomorrow), and his wife has requested my 7 layer dip. I took this to the New Year’s party, where it disappeared in about fifteen minutes. I can’t claim it as my original recipe. My boss’s partner Cindy passed this recipe on to me after I begged for it following one of their parties (where it also disappeared with great rapidity).

Ingredients:

• 1 pt sour cream (I use light)
• 1/2 pack taco seasoning
• 1 can black beans
• black olives
• green onions
• shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 haas avocados
• your favorite salsa
• lemon juice
• cumin
• cilantro
• lettuce

Instructions:

1. Puree the black beans (drained) with cilantro and cumin to taste (1/2 tsp each?). Layer on bottom of dish.
2. For fresh guacamole pit and dice three avocados, add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa, a splash of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and cilantro. Mash well. Layer over bean puree.
3. Mix 1/2 pack of taco seasoning with the pint of sour cream. Layer over guacamole.
4. Layer shredded lettuce, then green onions, then 1 small can of drained, sliced black olives, and top off with a healthy layer of shredded cheddar (I find medium works best).

Serve with tortilla chips.

I know, I know…it’s been ages since I updated. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking–I just haven’t made anything new or interesting enough that I felt it merited posting about it!

But I made a happy discovery recently. Sometime last year, I got into the notion of buying corn tortillas (one of those packs of 100 for like $4) and making my own chips–because I could both control the level of fat and it’s a WHOLE LOT cheaper! I tried several methods and recipes with varying levels of success and then just stopped trying. I kept having chips come out either too hard, or a little chewy, or overdone. And I really just got annoyed at having to flip them halfway through so that they cooked evenly.

Then it occurred to me that if I applied the same method I use for my oven fries (and I should post those here too, as they are a family favorite), I probably wouldn’t have to turn them. So I took out my big baking sheet and layered the whole thing with my wire cooling racks, baking the chips so they were suspended. And voila! Perfect chips! They come out crispy and firm (think Tostitos Gold) and GREAT for dips.

Ingredients:

• 8″ corn tortillas
• cooking spray
• kosher salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray one side of each tortilla and stack up (I usually do 5 at a time, as that’s all that will fit on my baking sheet).
3. Take a knife or pizza cutter and slice the stack into quarters or sixths.
4. Lay out the chips, sprayed side down on the cooling racks on your baking sheet.
5. Spray the top with cooking spray.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes (will vary from oven to oven, but they should come out golden brown around the edges).
7. Layout on a kitchen towel or paper towels to cool and sprinkle with salt or other spices as preferred.

In the name of trying to cut back on our fat intake, yet still keep some of our favorite foods on the menu, I decided to try a mini version of pizza. It’s not the real deal (you can’t beat real, homemade crust), but it’s darn good considering. I did use my pizza sauce and some of the fresh basil growing outside. Served it up with a spinach salad, topped with slow roasted tomatoes and avocado–delish–and the appropriate serving size. If you load up your pizza with veggies as toppings you can go a long way toward getting your 5-9 servings of veggies and really keep down your fat content or even go meatless.

Ingredients:

• whole wheat pita bread rounds (not precut)
• pizza sauce
• shredded part-skim mozzarella
• fresh basil
• other toppings of your choice (turkey pepperoni; fresh, slow roasted, or sun-dried tomatoes; olives; mushrooms; grilled chicken; roasted red peppers; zucchini; whatever…)

Directions: Layer ingredients in order of your preference. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

I revisit these with another cooking method here.

This is actually an adaptation of this recipe for cream of zucchini soup, but me being me, I had to try to lighten it up a bit and make it my own. The original recipe called for butter–I used extra virgin olive oil. It also called for 4 oz Monterey jack, which was delish, but I thought I might be able to obtain a creamier consistency (without using cream) by switching out to FF cream cheese and FF half an half in lieu of the milk. And as far as I’m concerned, garlic is onion’s right hand man, so I added that in.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini, finely grated
• 2 medium carrots, finely grated
• 1 medium to large onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 4 oz. fat free cream cheese
• 1/2-1 cup fat free half and half (depending on how thick or thin you like your chowder/soup)
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Finely grate the zucchini, sprinkle with salt, and let drain in a colander for approximately half an hour.
2. Meanwhile, grate the carrots, dice the onion, and mince the garlic.
3. In a medium to large skillet (approximately 12″), coat the bottom with extra virgin olive oil and heat to medium high.
4. Add onion, carrots, zucchini, and garlic.
5. Sautee until veggies are slightly limp.
6. Sprinkle flour over the top and reduce heat to medium, stirring and mashing (it forms a sort of paste) as you cook for approximately 4-5 minutes.
7. Slowly add chicken stock a little at a time and stir to incorporate.
8. Reduce heat to medium low and add cubes of cream cheese. Stir until melted.
9. Slowly add half and half until desired thickness is reached. I happen to like really thick consistencies, so this turned out more as a chowder than a cream of zucchini soup.
10. Salt and pepper to taste.

Great served with a good crusty bread for dipping or also good alone.

So earlier this week I made bruschetta with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and goat cheese for a small dinner party I was hosting. It was such a hit, I made a second batch for hubby and myself last night (and to save myself some work, I used a can of drained, diced tomatoes–I still think the fresh are better, FYI). I had the last of the bread with the bruschetta for lunch today, but I still had about half a cup of the topping remaining. So I decided to do some creative tinkering in the kitchen to see what else I could come up with to do with it.

Naturally, I wound up making pasta–because, let’s face it, almost everything is good on pasta in some form or another.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz. dried pasta of your choice (I used cavitapi)
• 1/2 cup leftover bruschetta topping
• 1 whole medium zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup baby portabella mushrooms
• 1 oz goat cheese
• 2 Tbsp light sour cream
• olive oil
• minced garlic

Instructions:

1. Drizzle olive oil in your skillet and heat over medium high.
2. Start your pasta water and salt.
3. Add garlic (your preference–I only used about a 1/2 tsp because there was loads of garlic in the bruschetta topping)
4. Add zucchini and mushrooms.
5. I also had some pre-grilled chicken (one of those rarely bought convenience foods that I don’t suggest–it’s never as good as when you make it yourself, but I bought it for my non-cooking spouse and then he didn’t like it–gotta use it SOMEWHERE) that I needed to use up that I tossed in, but this would be just as good without meat.
6. Dump your pasta in the boiling water.
7. Sautee veggies until zucchini softens.
8. Add bruschetta topping.
9. Turn down heat and add goat cheese and sour cream. Mix until cheese is melted.
10. Add drained pasta and stir well to coat.

It’s not really a pretty dish, but it was definitely tasty.

This was a recipe born of needing to use stuff up before we leave on vacation. I had 2 roma tomatoes and a going to stale baguette, which isn’t quite enough to make bruschetta for more than one. So I decided to toss in roasted red peppers (which hubby will eat) and some of my favorite goat cheese.

Ingredients:

• roma tomatoes (I used 2 but I was making a very small batch)
• roasted red peppers (approximately the same quantity as the tomatoes)
• 1 tsp oil from a jar of sun dried tomatoes
• goat cheese
• basil (5-6 leaves, finely chopped–fresh is best, but dried if that’s not available)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• splash of balsamic vinegar (or more if you prefer)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 baguette

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Slice baguette on the diagonal, approximately 1/2 inch thick slices
3. Parboil the tomatoes for 1 minute to loosen the skin.
4. Using a sharp knife, remove the skin, then seed the tomato, also removing the stem portion.
5. Finely dice the tomatoes.
6. Finely dice approximately the same amount of roasted red peppers (this will vary depending on how many tomatoes you use!)
7. Peel and finely mince the garlic
8. Add tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, olive oil, oil from the sun dried tomatoes, the basil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper to a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
9. Arrange baguette slices on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. You may have to do this in batches.
10. Bake slices 5-6 minutes or until they just start to turn golden brown
11. Arrange bread on serving platter olive oil side up and top with bruschetta and crumbled goat cheese.