Bruschetta

I have been a lifelong tomato hater. Unless they are mashed up and made into some sort of sauce or salsa I was not touching them. Then this week we ordered bruschetta at a cafe for dinner and I loved it. I tried to replicate it at home. I had pretty good results but I think I can do better next time.

Ingredients:
Sourdough bread
1 tablespoon Oregano
2 tablespoons Basil
2 tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup balsamic vinegar
pepper to taste
mozzarella  cheese

Step 1: Chop up your tomatoes. I chopped them like shown below. Jon thought they were too chunky so he chopped them up some more. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Bring balsamic vinegar to a boil and then turn down the heat. You want it to reduce quite a bit. I reduced mine to about half a cup but I was hungry and impatient.

While that is reducing chop your garlic. Or make your husband do it like I did.

Then combine the garlic and olive oil together in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.

Toss the tomatoes with the basil, oregano, and oil mixture. Crack some pepper over the top.

I was so hungry that I got into a big hurry and didn't even try to make this look great. I just sliced a couple of bread slices in half. I was suppose to toast it but was just like "I'm hungry!  Forget the toaster!"

Then I topped the bread with the tomatoes.

Then I poured the balsamic vinegar over the top and topped off with slices of mozzarella.

It doesn't look that pretty. It tasted really good. We scarfed it all down. Like I said, so hungry!

Jon says next time we should toast the bread, pour the balsamic vinegar over it, top with tomatoes and mozzarella and pop it in the oven for a few minutes and then top with more balsamic vinegar. Since we have everything we need to make it again I will update after we try that method.

Guest Blog: Zucchini Soup

I've been really lazy this week and ate the lemony orzo salad and chocolate orange muffins all week long. I didn't make a single new thing. Fortunately for me, my friend Emilie, the author of Teaching Ain't For Heroes, made some soup which looks delicious. Emilie is a public school teacher in Kentucky and her blog always has an interesting and insightful perspective on the rewards and challenges of teaching.


_________________________________________________________________________________
I got the recipe from here and decided to tweak it. It's hot outside, so I thought a nice chilled soup would be delicious.

Our ingredients are:

6 Zucchini (I really like Zucchini and I wanted it to be thicker)

1 1/2 tablespoons of Minced Garlic (I don't think I like shallots, but I like garlic!)

3 tablespoons of Curry Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Cumin

1/4 teaspoon of Turmeric

1 1/2 teaspoon of Salt

1/2 teaspoon of Black Pepper

3 cups Chicken Broth (I had no stock, but I had broth!)

1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

2 tablespoons Lite Cream Cheese

Wash your zucchini and get to cutting.




Roughly cut the zucchini into quartered slices. After you have finished cutting, you can start your cooking. This is the only real prep you have to do.

I combined all of my spices into a single bowl as I needed my measuring spoons for the olive oil and didn't want olive oil in any of my spices.



Put your olive oil in the pan along with the minced garlic and turn on your stove to low medium (I have gas, so I just watch the flame).



Pour in your zucchini.



Cover and let them sweat a bit. After they have gotten a bit soft, you can add your spices.



It starts looking really delicious.



Your kitchen should start smelling deliciously spicy. This is when you add your chicken broth.





Let me tell you my secret. I didn't take the soup out and blend it. I use an immersion blender. I can blend while it cooks by using this handy thing.



The secret is the spinning blade at the bottom. It blends and stirs the food without having to worry about a mess.



And blend!




After a few minutes, it looks like this.





The original recipe called for creme fraiche. I did not care for the amount of calories in this. I cheated and instead used lite cream cheese to get that delicious creaminess.




I used the immersion blender to get that mixed in well. When everything was finished, I chilled it for several hours in the fridge. I garnished my first bowl with some extra curry.




It was delicious. It's not very filling, but at 112 calories, I don't expect it to be. You read that right. 112 calories. As I prepared it, this is the nutritional breakdown. Yes, Weight Watchers (Points Plus) people. This soup is just 3 points per serving. You can eat the entire pot for 18 points. Enjoy.

Calories		112.6
Total Fat		5.6 g
	Saturated Fat	1.2 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.7 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	3.3 g
	Trans Fat	0.0 g
Cholesterol		5.0 mg
Sodium		514.1 mg
Potassium		928.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		16.0 g
	Dietary Fiber	5.0 g
	Sugars	6.5 g
Protein		3.1 g

Lemony Orzo Veggie Salad

This is a recipe I modified from one I found at cookinglight.com. It was so delicious that I went ahead and made a second batch with even better results. This is great for summer.

Ingredients:

 

3/4 cup uncooked orzo

1/4 teaspoon Spice Island’s lemon peel

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon honey

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups shredded chicken

1/2 cup diced English cucumber

1/2 cup prechopped pepper

1/3 cup chopped red onion- optional

1 tablespoon dillweed

1/2 cup (2 ounces) feta cheese

Cook the orzo according to the package. 

 While it cooks, shred the chicken and set aside. Then mix together lemon peel, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and honey.  Recipes generally call for fresh squeezed lemon juice. I use Kroger's concentrated lemon juice because I'm too lazy to squeeze lemons.

 Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water.

 Chop the vegetables. Really you can chop as much as you want. The second time I made it I left out the onion and added more pepper since Jon hates onion. Cherry tomatoes might be nice in this if you like tomatoes. I certainly don't.

 Toss the pasta in the lemon juice mixture. It won't seem like enough to coat but it is, I swear.

 Add the chicken and veggies and sprinkle with dillweed. Toss lightly.

 I divided mine up in containers to store in the fridge and sprinkled the feta on top.

Honey Dijon Salmon and Stuffed Mushrooms

So I made these awesome banana chocolate muffins and put chocolate ganache over the top. They were freaking delicious. I was going to post about them and then I lost the recipe. I've looked everywhere and can't find it. It threw me off my groove! Here's a picture of them and I swear if I ever find the recipe I'll post about them because I will immediately make them again. Until then, I'll just be sad about it.

In the meantime, last week I made honey dijon salmon and stuffed mushrooms. The salmon got an A plus plus plus plus except my salmon portions were too big. I got a couple of fillets from Indigo Farms Seafood and was in a hurry and just asked for whatever they had. Next time I'll get smaller portions for sure. The mushrooms need tweaking but were okay.

The salmon:

 

8 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons dijon mustard

4 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine the above and whisk together. Easy peasy.

Grill the fillets skin side up first and then when you flip brush them with the sauce. Grill for 5 minutes on each side or until reaches 140-145 degrees.. This makes enough for 2-4 fillets. You will have extra sauce. Keep it for drizzling over the top when it's done.

Then I made the mushrooms:

 1 cup spinach leaves, chopped with stems removed
8 mushrooms
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped very fine
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Wash the mushrooms well and set out to dry.

 Then wash spinach and chop pretty fine. Shake any excess water off but don't dry.

 Cook the spinach in a pot for a few minutes, just until wilted down. I then took a paper towel and got some of the excess water off the top.

 Cut the center stem out of the mushrooms. My mushrooms weren't the greatest looking mushrooms in the world and then they got mangled when I cut out the center. Cutting skills, I don't have them.

 Then chop the stems really fine. Take the garlic cloves and chop them fine as well. I didn't chop mine fine enough and that was a big mistake.

 Saute the garlic and mushrooms in a pan with a little olive oil for a 1-2 minutes.

 Then add the spinach and cook another minute.

 Add half the parmesan cheese and the ricotta cheese.

 Mix it all up.

 I also forgot the salt and pepper. Please add the salt and pepper because they needed it. I have a serious problem forgetting to salt stuff. Stuff the mushrooms.

 I baked at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. In the meantime I was grilling the salmon and made a box of couscous to go along with it. Couscous is seriously easy to make but my Fooducate App gave it a C-. Apparently I shouldn't be eating it but it's so yummy.

 Went to check on the salmon and on my way back in found two cats extremely interested in the fish smell wafting into the house.

 Pull the mushrooms out. They released a lot of their water but were still watery. They were best eaten with a fork.

 I put down the couscous and put some of the honey dijon sauce on the top.

 Then added the salmon and more sauce. Again, you can see how  big the salmon portions were. I couldn't eat it all but it was really good. The mushrooms needed to have the garlic chopped finer and salt and pepper.