Tag Archives: tasty tuesday

Sauteed Swiss Chard with Stems Recipe

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As a woman in my child-bearing years, I try to be pretty alert to the nutrients I am taking in. Although I’m no nutritionist, from what I understand dark, leafy greens are some of the best foods for you to eat. Swiss chard ranks number two in the “world’s healthiest foods,” right next to spinach. Only a handful of fruits and vegetables contain folate, the all-important nutrient that prevents spina bifida in growing babies, and chard is one of those.

The risk for spina bifida is reduced by 75% if a woman takes in adequate amounts of folate or folic acid before she is pregnant. Even if I am not trying to get pregnant, I think it’s important to include folate in my diet just in case.

Some beautiful rainbow chard jumped into my cart at Earth Fare last week, and I found inspiration in (strangely) an episode of Chopped on the Food Network. The judges gave great accolade to one chef who used the stems of the Swiss chard in his basket as well as the leaves. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about … you need to watch an episode of Chopped. It’s wild.)

This chard recipe incorporates the stems, smoky and delicious bacon, and garlic. And you can’t go wrong with bacon and garlic, right? It’s necessary to boil the dish some to get out the bitterness of the chard and leave just the rich, tasty flavor.

I found one bunch of chard only made a side dish for two people. Like most greens, it cooks down quite a bit.

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Sauteed Swiss Chard with Stems

2 strips bacon
1 bunch chard (Swiss, rainbow, or other variety)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
salt and pepper

“Butcher” the chard: cut off long lengths of stem. If stems are very thick, you may want to cut them lengthwise in half. Discard woody end and then slice into 1-inch lengths. Cut the leaves away from the remainder of the stems. [This YouTube video shows what I mean when I say cut it away from the stem.]

Cut bacon into small pieces (I use kitchen shears for this) and saute on medium-high until crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel with a slotted spoon, leaving fat in pan.

Add the stem pieces and garlic cloves. Cook on medium heat about 8 minutes, until stems are soft. Add chard leaves and toss. Stir until wilted. Remove garlic cloves.

Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and let boil, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes. Taste to make sure chard is not too bitter.

Drain off any remaining chicken stock. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in bacon pieces and serve.

More chard recipes:
Quinoa with Chard and Mushrooms
Crustless Chard Quiche
Swiss Chard Tart

Submitted to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Sliced and Diced at Once a Month Mom, Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as MOM, and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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Tilapia with Honey-Tangerine Sauce

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Do you ever buy ingredients for a recipe … and then not make it, for weeks? Or is that just me? I kept putting off making Sauteed Tilapaia with Honey-Scallion Dressing because we did something else that night, or I didn’t feel like fish, or I didn’t feel like fighting with Libbie about it, etc, etc.

By the time I went to make it on this past Friday night, my scallions and lemon were far past usable (and either used for something else or thrown out). So I improvised and tweaked a little, creating a warm sauce instead of a cool salad dressing. I think it turned out wonderfully!

You could, of course, replace the tangerine juice with any other citrus for a different flavor. Tangerines are in season right now, so I grabbed one for twenty cents–cheaper than a lemon!

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Tilapia with Honey-Tangerine Sauce

3-4 fillets tilapia or other firm, mild-flavored white fish
salt and pepper
3 T olive oil, divided
1 shallot, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 tangerine, juiced
1 T honey
1.5 T soy sauce {Stephanie O’Dea says LaChoy is gluten-free and I trust her!}
.5 tsp sesame oil
.5 tsp powdered ginger

In a small saucepan, heat 1 T olive oil over medium-low heat. Add shallots and sweat them until they are soft. (Try not to brown them, although I was not too successful at that endeavor. The first time I burnt them. The second time they got brown because my heat was too high. I was not going to try a third time!)

When shallots are soft, add tangerine juice, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger. Whisk until well-combined and let cook over low heat.

In a large saute pan, heat remaining 2 T olive oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle fish fillets with salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook 3 minutes on each side or until fish is flaky. Remove from heat.

Bring sauce to a bubble over medium heat. Let cook until reduced by half, about 3-4 minutes. Sauce should be thicker but not goopy. Spoon sauce over fillets and serve.

Added to:
Mouthwatering Monday
Tasty Tuesday
Ultimate Recipe Swap (Fish on May 19, assuming I remember to link up!)
Parade of Gluten-Free Recipes at Heavenly Homemakers 
Share Your Sunday Best at Feels Like Home
Gluten-Free Recipe Link-up at Musings of a Housewife
Ingredient Spotlight at Eat at Home

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Tip Junkie handmade projects

Countdown to 2011 with Finding Joy in My Kitchen

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Healthier Chicken Nuggets

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I’m sure by now you know that my daughter is selective about what she will put in her mouth.  She has been since she was 9 months old. Some days I don’t think it’s gotten any better. But we do seem to have moved past the era when she would literally only eat bread, cheese, and bananas.

One of the only non-peanut-butter protein sources she will eat is chicken nuggets. (Breaded shrimp and fish are also usually winners.) I am none too keen on giving her McDonald’s three times a week, so when I saw this recipe in All You for pretzel-crusted nuggets I knew I had to give them a go. Here is my slightly altered version.

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Healthier Chicken Nuggets

1 pound white-meat chicken, cut into 2-inch nuggets
2 cups salted pretzel twists
.5 cup grated Parmesan cheese
.5 cup whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Pulse pretzels and Parmesan cheese in a food processor until coarsely ground. Transfer to a bowl.

Put flour in another bowl. Season the flour with pepper, if desired. In a third, whisk eggs with mustard. Dip chicken pieces in flour, then egg mixture, then pretzel/cheese crumbs.

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Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, until browned and cooked through.

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For some reason when I made these they did not freeze well. When I microwaved them from frozen, the chicken was too tough to eat. Did I just microwave them too long? Any help on that?

Added to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Delicious Dishes at It’s a Blog Party, and Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage.

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Recipe Redux: Ziti with Italian Sausage

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I posted one of our favorite dinners, Ziti with Italian Sausage, about a year and a half ago. But there were no pictures and it was basically a copied-from-AllRecipes recipe. No fun! And not me at all.

So the other night I was making the ziti and decided I needed to share its yummyness with you in pictures. Sadly, my pictures didn’t turn out that great. But here they are, anyway, to give you an idea of the process and the results.

Ziti with Italian Sausage

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage (or breakfast sausage)
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced onion
14.5 ounces canned diced tomatoes (Italian-flavored with garlic are great here)
15 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (omit if using tomatoes with garlic)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon salt
12-16 ounces dry pasta (preferably ziti or penne rigate)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the real stuff, if you can!)

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1. Brown sausage with celery and onions, breaking up the sausage into small pieces. Drain off fat. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine tomatoes (drained), tomato sauce, garlic powder, oregano, and salt. Bring to a simmer; reduce to low.

3. Boil pasta until very al dente – it will continue cooking when baked. Preheat oven to 350F. Drain pasta when done.

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My main issue with this recipe is it takes too many darn pots and pans!

4. In a deep dish, layer pasta, sausage mix, mozzarella, and sauce. Repeat layers once. (I just used the pot I boiled the pasta in, because that makes one fewer dish I have to wash!) Top with grated Parmesan.

5. Cook at 350F for 35-45 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

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Mmmm! Cheesy, sausagey, tomatoey, carb-loaded goodness!

For a variation, you could stir 4 ounces of cream cheese into your tomato sauce. It would make it a lovely tomato-cream sauce instead. If you’re in a pinch, you could also use jarred pasta sauce in place of the “semi-homemade” one here.

Added to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, $5 Dinner Challenge, Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom, and Delicious Dishes at It’s a Blog Party.

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Peachy Granola Muffins

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Tuesday morning I woke up with a yen for muffins. Muffins are not regular guests in our household, although I enjoy them. I don’t have great muffin pans and (as you will tell in the pictures) I am a messy muffin-maker. Also, a lot of times my muffins mold before they get eaten, because Mr. V is not a big Muffin Man.

I do enjoy muffins when we have them, though, and there was no way around it: Baby Boy was craving muffins.

I was inspired by Amy’s peaches-and-cream muffins but limited to what I had in our pantry and fridge. I started with a blueberry muffin recipe, subbed peaches, made my own more-whole-food adjustments, and then thought a sprinkle of granola on top might add some crunch and interest.

They turned out delicious. My granola had pecans, which did burn. If you’re worried about the granola burning, wait until halfway through the cook time to sprinkle it on top.

Peachy Granola Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar (or your choice of sugar alternative, such as maple syrup, sucanat, etc)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large fresh peach, diced (skin on is fine)
1/4 cup granola, any kind (I used Bear Naked maple pecan)

Cutting Up Peaches

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease muffin pans.

Mix first seven ingredients together until just combined (milk through salt). Fold in peaches.

Divide batter into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle each with a little granola.

Muffins

Bake about 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool on a wire rack.

Peachy Granola Muffin

Added to Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Sliced & Diced: Peaches, and Real Food Wednesdays.

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Creamy Salmon Mac-and-Cheese

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Libbie and I were going to have salmon patties and macaroni and cheese for lunch. (Yep, that’s what the menu plan said!)  And then I got a little lazy. I was trying to make tonight’s lasagna at the same time and got overwhelmed. So then I thought: Self, we like tuna mac-and-cheese. Why not salmon?

It was delicious.

Salmon Mac-and-Cheese

And no, I don’t usually eat lunch off my china. But I was feeling a need for something special–and a new dish to photograph that isn’t my same old everyday plates and bowls.

Creamy Salmon Mac & Cheese

1 lb. small pasta shapes, such as macaroni, corkscrews, or penne, cooked and drained
1 can red salmon, drained, with as much skin and bones removed as you can get out
3 T butter
3 T whole wheat flour
2-3 cups milk (preferably whole or 2%)
salt
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes or to taste
8 oz. block of white cheddar, shredded (or 2 c. shredded cheese)
Optional: crowns from one head broccoli

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and bring up to medium-high, whisking constantly. After a minute or so, add milk. Stir regularly as milk heats and bubbles. Let bubble, whisking, until sauce thickens (sauce should coat the back of a spoon, like this).

Remove sauce from heat. Stir in a sprinkle of salt, ground mustard, and red pepper flakes. Stir in shredded cheese. Add pasta and salmon and mix well.

If you want to have a vegetable in this dish, let broccoli boil with your pasta. Drain together and add them back in together as well.

Added to Tasty Tuesday.

And FYI, the winner of our Sisterchick Scavenger Hunt was Krystal from The Clever Mommy! Congratulations, Krystal!!

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Potato Cubes: Simple Side Dish

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This is less a recipe and more a technique, but I had to share because Libbie is crazy about these. I don’t know whether it’s the yummy roasted flavor or the ease she has picking them up with her little fingers, but she will gobble down a ton of sweet potato cubes! (She prefers sweet potatoes to the white potatoes, but she’ll try either.)

I’d never thought of doing anything like this until I was making Kate’s Loaded Baked Potato Salad and to bake the potatoes she had you make baked cubes. So really, you can thank Kate for this mini-tutorial.

If I just do regular potatoes, I might add some Ranch dressing mix or other seasoning to the potatoes before roasting; if just sweet potatoes, maybe cinnamon. But since I made a mixture the other night, I just stuck with salt and pepper for a classic but delicious taste!

I find these cubes to be perfect to pick up extra sloppy joe meat that falls off the bun!

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Potato Cubes

Any variety potato, cut into even cubes (I used sweet potatoes and Yukon golds here)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Place the cubes on a rimmed baking sheet or jelly-roll pan. Drizzle some olive oil on top and toss with fingers to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper or desired seasonings.

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Cook in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, stirring once halfway through the cooking time.

For more wonderful recipes, visit Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairytale and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

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De-luscious Lemon Cake

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I’m a sucker for lemon desserts. Tart and sweet is kind of like chocolate and salty–you can just keep eating its perfection forever. (OK, that’s not necessarily a good thing.)

I came across the recipe this morning on VocalPoint and something in it just screamed, “Make me, Jessie!” I knew all I would need was lemons, so I listened the voice. I am bringing dinner to my Bible-study group tomorrow night and thought it would make a perfect sweet ending. As a somewhat wise cook, however, I also knew I’d better test it before I took a new recipe to a bunch of people I’m just getting to know. Wouldn’t want to poison anyone.

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This dessert is like a sponge cake on top and a custard on the bottom. Mmmmm. It’d be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top to balance out the tart lemon. Maybe I’ll pick up a pint for tomorrow night. (If you’re interested, I’ll also be serving Jo-Lynne’s beef enchiladas and Mexican Corn Dip AKA Magically Delicious Dip according to Amanda.)

I modified the recipe to fit with my whole-foods-hopeful lifestyle. If you use white flour and white sugar, it will probably be a much lighter color.

De-Luscious Lemon Cake
3/4 cup sucanat or turbinado sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs, separated–let the whites warm to room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe
3 T  butter, very soft
1 tsp lemon zest (from about 1 lemon–zest before you juice)
3/4 cup lemon juice (from about 3 lemons. Meyer lemons are actually cheaper than regular ones right now, and very flavorful!)
1 1/2 cups milk

Heat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray (or butter it, if you’re anti-Pam).

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks about 1 minute. Stir in butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and milk. Add sugar mixture and stir together well.

Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks appear. Add contents of other bowl and mix on medium for a minute or until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into your prepared pan. Place that pan in a larger dish (like a lasagna pan or roaster) and fill with hot water to about 1 inch up the sides of your cake pan.

Cook for 40-50 minutes or until top is brown and starting to crackle. Serve warm or chilled, preferably with ice cream!

Linked up to Tasty Tuesday & Lemon Recipes at The Happy Housewife.

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Sweet Beet & Heat Salad

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For our first wedding anniversary, Mr. V and I had a little Nashville staycation. We spent one night at a bed and breakfast in Leiper’s Fork, saw a movie in the (now-closed) Franklin Theatre, used our season passes to see a show at the Boiler Room Theatre, and had a fancy dinner at Restaurant Zola (also closed now … are we bad luck?).

Perhaps other foodies can relate, but I remember pretty much every dish I’ve cooked and many that I’ve eaten out. Some sort of crazy Food Memory.

At Zola, I had a wonderful salad they called “Beet and Heat” (I think). While I’m not a huge beet eater, I love pickled beets on the salad bar. Last week, visions of this salad started floating in my head after I bought some lovely, organic beets at Green Life.

So I pretty much made it up as I went along. Forgive me lack of real measurements, and experiment to make it to your liking!



Sweet Beet and Heat Salad with Mustardy Vinaigrette

Serves two

1 beet, roasted (I used this as a tutorial)
1/4 cup pecan pieces, toasted in a skillet and then sprinkled with brown sugar and cayenne pepper (lots of sugar, a pinch of cayenne is my preference. Stir to let combine and cool.)
romaine or spring mix lettuce
crumbled goat cheese

Divide your lettuce among two salad plates. Slice your beet and put slices atop lettuce. Sprinkle with goat cheese and pecan pieces. Add vinaigrette just before serving.


Mustardy Vinaigrette
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 c. white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
olive oil, to taste

Whisk together mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Stream in olive oil until runny but not too oily–you want it to still be very tart. Taste as you go along until it is how you like it. Drizzle over salads.

Hopefully your husband will at least taste it. Ahem.

Linked to Mouthwatering Monday and Tasty Tuesday.

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Stewed Lentils and Tomatoes – $5 Dinner Challenge

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After hearing Jo-Lynne talk all the time about her love for Ina and reading somewhere that most of the Barefoot Contessa recipes are whole foods, I knew it was about time I tried an Ina Garten creation.

I’d snagged a copy of Barefoot Contessa at Home from Paperbackswap (after being on the wait list for about three years!) a few months ago. But with the hubbub of moving, I had yet to try a recipe.

I like lentils but I have had issues knowing how to prepare them. The one time I tried to make them like I had them in Brazil, my final product really fell flat.

These stewed lentils, though, did not disappoint. Aromatic, deeply flavored, and singing with thyme, I could eat them every week! We ate them as a side with a little bit of leftover London Broil, but they would be a fine main meal as well.

Stewed Lentils and Tomatoes
slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten

2 tsp olive oil
2 c. large-dice yellow onions (.40)
2 c. large-dice carrots (.44)
1 T minced garlic
28 oz. diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted with garlic, and omitted garlic above) (.40)
1 c. green lentils (.39)
2 c. homemade chicken stock
2 tsp. mild curry powder
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves (.24)
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 T white or red wine vinegar

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions and carrots and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions start to brown, stirring occasionally. Add garlic (if using) and cook for 1 more minute.

Rinse and pick over the lentils to make sure there are no stones in the package.

Add tomatoes, lentils, chicken broth, curry powder, thyme, salt, and pepper to the pan. Raise the heat to bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer covered for 40-50 minutes, until lentils are tender.

Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 more minutes. Stir in vinegar and season to taste.

Total Cost: $1.87 + trace amounts for items I always have on hand
Leftover London Broil: $2.67 (about 1/3 of the beef I bought)

Grand Total: $4.54 for a whole lot of deliciousness, and plenty of leftover lentils for lunches!

As a bonus, Libbie LOVED them! For a girl who only a week ago would eat just bread, cheese, bananas, and applesauce, that’s definitely saying something!

Linked up to the $5 Dinner Challenge and Tasty Tuesday.

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