Fiesta Rice

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. The time spent making this dish is well worth it. The rice is so versatile and can be used as a side dish, in a burrito, on top of nachos, and basically anywhere else you can think of! This recipe makes a nice big batch, so plan on lots of leftovers.

Fiesta Rice

Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped green onions
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of salt
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with chiles, undrained
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Directions...

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add corn to pan; cook 10 minutes or until corn starts to brown, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan. Set aside.

Melt butter in pan. Add onions; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in rice, cumin, and garlic; cook 1 minute. Add chicken broth, black pepper, salt, and diced tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in reserved corn and beans. Cover and let stand 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro and juice.

Yield...

8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Nutritional Information...

CALORIES 226(16% from fat); FAT 3.9g (sat 1.3g,mono 1.7g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 6.6g; CHOLESTEROL 4mg; CALCIUM 52mg; SODIUM 354mg; FIBER 4.9g; IRON 2.1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 43.5g

spinach and artichoke dip

For my sister's birthday party, I decided to make some spinach and artichoke dip to go with the sandwiches my mom was putting together. I looked at a few different recipes, but decided on this one because it didn't involve a ton of ingredients and seemed pretty simple to put together. Rather than using a food processor, as the directions call for, I just chopped up the garlic and artichokes and mixed everything in a bowl. It seemed to go over really well - even with people who generally don't like spinach and artichokes!

Sorry, no pictures this time! My changes are included (***).

Spinach Artichoke Dip
Recipe courtesy Juan-Carlos Cruz/Food Network

Ingredients...

1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened
4 cloves garlic, crushed **I chopped it
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, plus more as needed **I didn't have any, so I just left it out
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
Carrot sticks, celery sticks or baked tortilla strips, for serving**I served with pita chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Squeeze all excess liquid from spinach, place in a food processor with sour cream, Parmesan, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella, the cream cheese, garlic, pepper and hot sauce. **I just mixed in a bowl, making sure the garlic was finely chopped.

Process until just blended but still slightly lumpy. Add artichokes and pulse to form a chunky mixture. **Again - I just made sure the artichokes were chopped small and mixed them in. Place in a 1-quart baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella. Bake until bubbly, about 30 minutes. Serve with carrot sticks, celery sticks or baked tortilla strips.

Stuffed Zucchini

My mother-in-law made stuffed zucchini from Recipe Zaar last week and I got to have some leftovers. It was so delicious, I thought I'd give it a try! If you use larger zucchini than called for, make sure you scoop out most of the middle so that the zucchini cooks all the way through. Overall, I think this was a hit!

Portobello Alfredo Manicotti

This is a recipe I received from a college friend. As with many improvised recipes, the amounts he gave me for ingredients were not exact. I have listed what I used to make this particular batch. Sorry about the poor picture quality. Hopefully I'll be improving my technique as this blog continues!



Portobello Alfredo Manicotti
Recipe courtesy of Josh Thompson

Ingredients...

• Mushrooms **I used 2 portobello caps and a small package of button mushrooms
• 1 small container ricotta cheese
• 1-2 tablespoons grated asiago cheese
• 1 jar of alfredo sauce
• 1 package of Manicotti - cooked most of the way, then lightly covered in olive oil to prevent sticking
• 1-2 cups olive oil
  
• Italian herbs/seasonings **I used about a cup of chopped fresh basil, a handful of chopped fresh parsley, finely chopped garlic, a little salt, and black pepper

Directions...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the mushrooms, then sautée them in olive oil. After they are cooked, put them in the food processor until they are mushy. In a mixing bowl, combine mushrooms, ricotta cheese, asiago cheese, and seasonings. Using a gallon-size plastic freezer bag with a hole cut in the corner, squeeze the mixture into the manicotti shells and place in a baking dish, greased with a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Cover pasta with alfredo sauce and sprinkle on the remaining cheese and additional seasoning as desired. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the pasta is fully cooked and the sauce is bubbling. **I topped off each dish with some additional chopped basil.

I served this dish with a mixed garden salad and Bruschetta. It was a bit of a challenge to juggle all of the equipment involved with my limited counter space, but I was really pleased with how it came out!

Bruschetta

Welcome to my first post! Tonight we had a friend over for dinner and I decided that it would be a great time to try some new recipes.



Ali's Amazing Bruschetta
Recipe courtesy of: All Recipes

Ingredients...
2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread, cut into 1 inch slices
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions...
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, olive oil, oregano, basil, and parsley. Place bread on a baking sheet, scoop tomato mixture on and top with grated cheese. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until bread is browned. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

I changed a couple things about this recipe (as I typically do). I lightly toasted the sliced bread before putting on the tomato mixture. I think if your bread was stale, you wouldn't have to do this, but otherwise I was afraid it might not be as crunchy. Also, I didn't have any fresh oregano on hand, so I used dried and since I don't really like to measure, I guesstimated all of the amounts and added a lot more fresh basil than called for. Oh! I almost forgot! I really felt this needed garlic, so I went ahead and added some finely chopped garlic to the mixture.

Overall, the Bruschetta was a definite winner! Both my husband and my friend enjoyed it and I think it would be a great recipe to use for future company.