Saturday, April 16, 2011

Pumpkin Sage Pasta

Tonight I made a favorite comfort food dish. It is still a healthy one though!! We have both been feeling under the weather this week so I wanted something warm and comforting. Pumpkin Pasta with Sweet Sausage, and Sage fit the bill!!!

It is adapted from a Rachel Ray Recipe that can be found here. I changed a few things to lower fat and out of necessity as I simply didn't have any white wine on hand tonight. I have made this a few times with either cauliflower or sausage. This time, I made it with BOTH! It was a great way to bulk up the pasta. I make more sauce than the original recipe as I always felt like it needed more.

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound bulk sweet Italian Turkey sausage
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 6 or more sprigs sage leaves, cut into chiffonade
  • 1/4 cup vermouth
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup Fat Free Evaporated Milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • Coarse salt and black pepper
  • 1 small head Cauliflower, sectioned into "big-bite sized" florets
  • 12 oz. whole wheat penne rigate
  • Parmigiano, for grating

Directions

Sauteing onions
Break up cauliflower in florets.

Cook the pasta according to the directions BUT cook the cauliflower florets in the boiling water for the last 5 minutes. Hey, It's one less dish to clean! Drain and set aside. :) Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it. I used sausage in casing so I just removed the casing and broke up the sausage. Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Drain fat from skillet, leaving enough fat to saute the onions. Saute the garlic and onion 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.
Pasta cooked with Cauliflower
Such a great orange color!
Add sage, and vermouth to the pan. Reduce vermouth by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble. Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in evaporated milk. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce. Return drained pasta to the pot you cooked it in. Pour the sausage pumpkin sauce over pasta and cauliflower. Combine sauce and pasta and toss over low heat for 1 minute. Garnish the pasta with lots of shaved cheese and sage leaves.
Enjoy!!!!









Sunday, April 10, 2011

Oh New Mexican food. How I love thee...

let me count the ways...

I love the green chile chicken or veggie enchiladas made with your Hatch Roasted green chile.
I love your Posole, Tortillas, and Sweet Rolls from Frontier that Jeff brought to me this week.
I love your Red Chilie Powder that is cooking with a beef roast right now with tomatoes and beer in the crock pot for tacos.
I love much more but, these are my current food favs.

Here are my two recipes for enchiladas. One for chicken and one with veggies. Change up the ingredients as you see fit. I usually add more chile or cheese depending on heat levels. Almost every New Mexican Green Chile Chicken Enchilada casserole style dish is some sort of adaptation of this recipe.

Cooks Note: This time, I used fat free cream of mushroom soup and it tasted delicious. I did not have spinach so I used one extra zucchini. I was delicious!!!

Try to get the best green chile possible. If you cant bring it home by the bushel like we do yearly, then most grocery stores in the Southwest sell Bueno Green Chile. It is delicious. This recipe is actually an adaption of the one on the Bueno container.

Green Chilie Veggie Enchiladas

1 box frozen spinach
2 med zucchini, large diced
1 pkg white mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
3 Tbsp. Oil or Butter
2 10 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup (I use low-sodium)
1 ¾ (or more) cups frozen Chopped Green Chile
½-1 cups milk, water, or veggie stock
Salt and Pepper
12-20 Corn Tortillas
1-1½ lb. cheese, grated (Cheddar, Jack or mixture)

Preheat oven to 325º F.

1. Defrost spinach in microwave and drain using a clean kitchen towel. Get all of the water     
    out. Separate with fingers.
2. In a large sauce pan or stock pot, sauté mushrooms, zucchini, onion, and garlic in oil until slightly soft. (Optional: add 1 cup frozen or fresh corn sauté with veggies)
3. Combine veggies with soup, spinach, green chile, just enough water/milk/stock and stir. You want it soupy but not too runny. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with a layer of tortillas. Spread 1/3 of the sauce and
    veggie mixture over the tortilla pieces, and 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat layers.
    (At this stage, you can refrigerate the dish up to one night or freeze for up to one month)
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until very hot, bubbly and slightly browned.

Serve with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.
 
 I did a little extra touch with "lattice"
 style tortilla strips across the top.

I top it with a ton
 of lettuce. Then,
 it fills you up!!!



Here is there recipe for the chicken version. Same steps, different ingredients. Eihter one is always a hit at a pot luck or party!!!

Green Chilie Chicken Enchiladas
4-5 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
3 Tbsp. Oil or Butter
2 10 oz. cans cream of chicken soup (I use low-sodium or fat free)
1 ¾ (or more) cups frozen Chopped Green Chile, drained
½-¾ cups milk, water, or chicken stock
Salt and Pepper
12-20 Corn Tortillas
1-1½ lb. cheese, grated (Cheddar, Jack or mixture)
 
1. Season chicken with salt and pepper and broil, grill, or saute chicken, cool and shred.
2. Preheat oven to 350º F.
3. Saute onion and garlic in oil until slightly soft. Combine onion with soups, chile,
    water and stir. You want it soupy but not too runny. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with a layer of tortillas.
    Spread ½ the chicken over the tortilla pieces, then ½ the sauce, and ½
    the cheese. Repeat layers. Sometimes you will have 3 layers.
    (At this stage, you can refrigerate the dish up to one night or freeze for up to one month)
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until very hot, bubbly and slightly browned.

Serve with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Two Breakfast Cups

I just made these again! I wanted to have breakfast made for the week as I have to be at work early every day. Jeff is driving to New Mexcio tomorrow and I wanted to have some snacks for him.

Here is the recipe for these. I got tired of searching the web for it each time. I figured I'd save it with my few changes.

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Cups (Adapted from Little Green Bites cookbook.)

  • 3 mashed bananas (the more ripe the better!)
  • 1 cup vanilla Almond milk
  •  1/2 cup egg beaters
  • 1 tbsp Baking powder
  • 3 cups (240g) Old Fashion or Rolled Oats
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  •  4 tbsp  mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips together, and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans.
 2. Spray a muffin pan and/or liners with with non-stick spray.
3. Stir the chocolate chips into the oatmeal batter.
4. Divide batter into 15 muffin cups. They should be just about filled.
5. Bake 20-30 minutes, you’ll see the edges just starting to brown and they will be firm to the touch. The muffins may stick when hot but are removed easily when cooled for a bit.






The other muffin cups that I will be making tomorrow morning are an adaptation of the Biggest Loser Jennie O Taco Muffin Cups. These are Jeff's absolute favorite. I am going to use Morning Star link sausage to make them instead of the turkey sausage links. The veggie links are cholesterol free. :) Here is what I did:

Ingredients
3 (6-inch) stone-ground corn tortillas
12 Jennie-O Turkey Store® Turkey Breakfast Sausage Links, cooked according to package instructions and cut in half widthwise
1/2 cup tomato salsa
2-1/4 cups liquid egg white or egg substitute
1/4 cup (1 ounce) finely shredded low-fat Cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Stack tortillas and cut into quarters. Cut quarters in half so you will have
8 wedges for each tortilla (and a total of 24 wedges). Spray each muffin
cup with olive oil cooking spray.
3. To assemble: place one tortilla wedge in each muffin cup, with the widest side at the bottom of the cup. Place a second tortilla wedge on the opposite side of the muffin cup so that the wide edges will be overlapping in the bottom of the cup, by about 1/2 inch. The tortilla wedge points will extend outside of the cup, about 1/2 inch straight up. Repeat for the other muffin cups.
4. Place two sausage halves (from one whole link) in each muffin cup, on top of the tortilla wedges.
5. Place a tablespoon of salsa on top of the sausage.
6. Measure 3 tablespoons of egg substitute into each muffin cup.
7. Bake 10 minutes or until eggs are just set and no longer wiggle. They will be slightly puffed. .
8. Working quickly, sprinkle each "muffin" with one teaspoon of cheese.



These saved well and are perfect when you reheat them in the microwave for one minute. I made them in paper cups the first time. Tomorrow, I am going to make them directly into the muffin tin pan as they stuck to the paper.

Sweet dreams!