100 calorie Sweet Potato and Zuke Latkes

Posted by amanda in breakfast, budget, easy, healthy, recipe, sweet potato, vegetable, vegetarian, zucchini

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3 100-cal latkes with astro biobest plain yogurt!

I love love love latkes and regularly order them when I'm out for brunch, but I know they're not the healthiest way to eat a potato. Some experimenting with different grate-ables led me to this combo, which significantly improves the nutrition factor, and minimizes the caloric intake. Plus, this is a great way to use zucchini (I'm always wondering what the heck to do when I'm not making it into a risotto or my mom's curry-zucchini soup (coming soon!).

You'll need:

1 medium zucchini (funny ends sliced off)
1 big sweet potato (peeled)
1/4 cup onion (chopped as finely as possible, unless you really love onion and want longer strings in your latkes)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

optional: plain yogurt (instead of sour cream) or your favorite applesauce (if you're that kind of latke person...I've never understood the applesauce thing)

Do: (do these things in order - you want to prepare the batter RIGHT before cooking to keep things from getting soggy, and while cooking, pour off any excess liquid for the same reason)

Slice your zuke lengthwise and remove its seeds.
Grate your potato and zucchini (coarsely) either in a food processor (preferred) or by hand on a grater.
In a big bowl, mix your egg, onion, salt and pepper: stir in your grated veggies.
Heat half the oil in a large skillet (med-hi, but more med than high).
You're going to do this the same way you do pancakes: add a heaping tablespoon of the mixed ingredients to the skillet, flattening down a touch with your spoon (don't overdo this - let the latke be once it's frying).
When the edges start to lightly brown, flip the lakte, and cook the other side for about a minute or two - depending on your oven, the first side can take from 2-4 minutes (mine is slow).
Remove and rest on paper towels to absorb excess liquid.
Repeat until your batter is used up (if you need, use the remaining 1.5 tbsp of oil to refresh your skillet).

Should make about 24 latkes. If you want to reheat them later, bake them at 375 on a cookie sheet for about 5 minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy guilt-free.

Basic Marinara Sauce

Posted by CK in pasta, recipe, sauce, tomato paste, vegetarian

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In order to make the shrimp-stuffed shells, I had to quickly whip up a basic marinara sauce. This works with any kind of dish that would require marinara sauce. Also a great recipe to make and freeze to later use as a base to many recipes! The quantities below yield approximately 3 cups - maybe a little less. Nonetheless, it'll be enough for the shells recipe. Here we go:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 small cans of tomato paste
• 2 tomato paste cans of water
• 1 1/2 tbsp dry basil

Method:

1. In a small pot, sauté your onion in your olive oil for about 2-3 minutes
2. Add in your garlic and stir for about a minute or so
3. Add in your tomato paste and your water, and stir until combined into a thick sauce
4. Add your basil and stir.
5. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes or so

That's it! Easy peasy! :)

- CK

Shrimp-Stuffed Shells

Posted by CK in cottage cheese, easy, pasta, recipe, shrimp, vegetarian

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Stumble Upon is a great tool to find all kinds of fantastic recipes. Not usually being a full time vegetarian, yet choosing to be vegetarian for the next month and a half, I have to make sure to find filling, nutritious and delicious recipes to fill the void. This adapted shrimp-stuffed shell recipe from Cooking Light was easy and quick to make (minus the shrimp procedure, read on...), and definitely hit the spot!

Ingredients (yield 3 large servings)

• 20 uncooked jumbo pasta shells (about 8 ounces)
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup skim milk reduced-fat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 3 cups basic marinara sauce, divided
• Grated Mozarella and Parmesan cheese (as much as you want)

Method

1. Put your frozen shrimp in a bowl of warm water.
2. Preheat your oven to 400°.
3. Cook pasta 7 minutes or until almost al dente, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.
4. While your pasta is cooking, peel your shrimp and coarsely chop them.
5. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat.
6. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly
7. Add cottage cheese, milk, and pepper; cook for approximately 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 
8. Sprinkle your shrimp with with corn starch and toss well to coat. Add the cottage cheese mixture to the shrimp shrimp and toss well.
9. Divide shrimp mixture evenly among pasta shells.
10. Spread 1 cup marinara over bottom of dish. Arrange shells in prepared dish and top with the remaining 2 cups marinara. Sprinkle shells evenly with your cheese. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until shrimp is done. 

Enjoy!

- CK

Springy Grapefruit Salad

Posted by amanda in cheese, easy, grapefruit, healthy, lemon, salad, spinach

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free your fruit!!...into your belly

Spring is in the air (she said, as it snowed aggressively outside her window)! Or it was this past Family Day weekend anyhoo. A little wishful thinking never hurt, right?

Spring means salad season, and there's nothing I like better than a tasty combo of fruits and veggies, and of course, cheese. Cheese is pretty key.

If you're getting tired of our first spinach/parm salad (but how could you!) - here's a variation on a theme with a little more zing. Also, recent studies have indicated that eating citrus fruits lowers a woman's risk of blood-clot related stroke, so get peeling!

Here's an easy, healthy, tasty salad for 4:

You're going to need:

8oz (250g) of baby salad. Wash it.
Half a cup of Parmesan flakes (shredded or flaked, not ground or whatever...if you have a block of it, use a veggie peeler for speed's sake. You can also buy it flaked, as per the petals in the earlier recipe).
1 grapefruit (I prefer red) peeled and segmented.

Toss (more like mix) these ingredients with you hands in a large bowl for ideal distribution onto 4 plates or into bowls.

Dressing: In a small bowl mix....

Juice of half a lemon (or roughly 1.5-2 tbsp)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
chopped chives to taste (you're going to sprinkle this over the salad, so a large tbsp or two would do, unless you really want to up the chivey-ness)
fresh ground pepper

For a little protein consider toasting some slivered almonds and tossing them in there. Raisins might also be yummy. Flax seeds if you're feeling ambitious, though they would probably be best mixed into your dressing, or else they'll sink to the bottom.

Dress your salad and enjoy!!

DIY Cheese Tortellini

Posted by CK in budget, cheese, easy, parsley, pasta, vegetarian

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How would you feel if I told you you could make your own cheese tortellini with 4 simple ingredients? With lent season starting today, and my choice on cutting on meat, I have no choice but to start looking for great vegetarian recipes again. This cheese tortellini is definitely going up on my list! The original recipe was for a lobster tortellini, which - you know - I'll HAVE to try out. But in the meantime, let's start small shall we? ;)

Now, I must warn you that this does take a while (i.e. approximately 2 hours) if you don't have a pasta maker (that's definitely on my next wish list!!). In the meantime, get ready to use those muscles, because you're in for a delicious ride! :)

Note: This is a great recipe if you're just starting with pasta making. It definitely put me in the mood to start making all my pasta from scratch!

Step 1. Make the pasta dough

All you need for this pasta dough recipe is flour and water. Yes. That's it. Trust me on this one. So, for about 5 good portions of tortellini, use:

•  3 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour (feel free to play around with those, I would suggest keeping the ratio at max a half and half, but that's for you to experiment). To this, add 1/2 a cup of warm water and mix.
• Add warm water to this mix - one tbsp at a time - until all the dry flour has been absorbed. Knead this ball of dough for about 10 minutes (it should be stiff for you to knead), or until you get a nice smooth ball that's not too sticky, but not too dry either. You'll see what I mean as you do it. Don't be shy and give it a try :)
• Once that's done, wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least 1 hour. That'll give time for the glutens to rest so you get a nice elastic dough.

Step 2. Make your cheese filling

• For the amount of dough you made, you'll need about half a box of ricotta cheese (I picked the traditional kind because I wanted to be on the safe side - I'm not a ricotta expert) and about a tablespoon of fresh cut parsley. C and I are not big fans of parsley's strong taste, but still wanted to add a little something to the cheese. Feel free to add more if you like :)
• Mix well in a bowl and let it rest in the fridge until your dough is ready.

Step 3. Make the tortellini - yay!

Oook. Now comes the fun part! First tip I'll give you: work with small portions of your dough - it'll be long, but it'll be much less work on your arms. Make sure you leave the rest of your dough wrapped in plastic so it doesn't dry out while you're working your dough.

Honestly, This is a faster - and funner - process if there's two of you: 1 person rolls the dough and 1 person rolls the tortellini, but that's up to you and how much time you have. 

A. Take a piece of your dough and roll it out on a flouered surface. Make sure it's as thin as possible so your pasta doesn't turn out too thick once cooked, making you miss out on the amazing filling.

B. Using a circular cookie cutter (not too big, not too small, depending on the size you want to make your tortellini), cut circles in your rolled out dough. Apologies for not having a picture for this step, but I think you get the gist of it. Make sure to use the scraps with new dough so that it doesn't crumble the next time you use it!

C. Lay out your cut circles and a little over a quarter of a teaspoon of your cheese-parsley mix to the center.

D. Dab the borders of your circle with water and fold in half. Make sure you press close to the cheese to remove the air in there.

E. Press the cheese up toward the border using your thumb.

F. Twist the two corners towards each other and secure. Place your finished product on a cookie sheet. Play around with the twist and see what they look like! Twisting in different directions will make them look different, but they all have the same delicious taste! :)

From this point on, you have two options:

1. Freeze them for later. If you're going to do that, make sure they're not touching each other on your cookie sheet and freeze them flat for about half an hour, then transfer them into a freezer bag and save for later. Once you're ready to eat, take them out of the freezer and boil for approximately 3-5 minutes, or until they float to the top - about a dozen at a time, depending on the size of your pot.
2. Make them fresh! How can you resist?? In this case, boil for approximately 2-3 minutes, or until they float to the top - about a dozen at a time, depending on the size of your pot.

We couldn't resist and had to try it out for supper! So we cooked them and made a simple rosé sauce! :) Quite impressed with ourselves I must say. Now, I have to spend a full day making those for the days we just won't feel like cooking!

Not only are they delicous, but they're also cheap to make! Enjoy it to the last bit and have fun with different fillings. Next stop, LOBSTER! :)

- CK