Recipe--Tomato Spinach Feta Pasta

I have a friend named Suzanne. Suzanne is my friend for many reasons: she's smart as a whip, we have the same tastes in clothes and music, and she utters phrases like "I'll cut a bitch," and "Bitch, be for real" with great frequency. But most of all, she's a great cook.

When she gave me this recipe, it cemented our friendship, and I vowed to never let her go. There's no good name for this, but it takes about 15 minutes to make, refrigerates well, is super healthy as long as you don't overdo it with the pasta (use whole grain, or at least whole wheat), and cleanup's a snap (only 2 pans, nothing sticky or burned).

You'll need (for 1 lunch or 2 sides):

• Olive Oil (enough to saute garlic)
• 1/2-1 tsp minced garlic (if you're too cool for the stuff in the jar, 1-2 cloves, minced)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 Roma tomato, chopped OR a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• ~1 cup baby spinach (more if you really, really like spinach)
  
• 4 oz. whole grain pasta
• a couple of ounces of feta cheese, crumbled (I use approx. 2 oz because I love the feta)
• Some upbeat jazz music; flamenco will work nicely, too.
  

1. Put your water on to boil. Don't wait to do this or the timing won't come out magically.
   
2. In olive oil, saute your garlic.
3. When garlic is golden brown, throw in tomatoes. Let sit just a minute or so.
4. Add in chicken broth. Let it cook down for a few minutes. Your water should be boiling now, so go ahead and throw in your pasta.
   
5. When the pasta is almost ready (your tomatoes should be soft, but not mushy); add in spinach, small handfuls at a time.
   
6. Stir constantly. The aim here is to let the spinach wilt, but just a little.
   
7. Drain pasta; toss with spinach/tomato mixture (you may also want to drain the broth).
8. Sprinkle with feta; serve. This is great both hot and cold, and it's totally good the next day (but not the third...not that it will make it to the third day).

See? Delicious.

This Recipe Will Change Your Life

Because it is my birthday (told you I'm a ham) and I'm feeling generous, I am going to share the world's greatest recipe with you. I'm not kidding. This is the best meal ever. In the history of the universe. When I eat this meal, I sigh and smile and thankthelordalmighty for every bite I'm taking as I take it.

You know how on your birthday, your Mom cooks you dinner, and you get to pick the meal that your entire family will have to eat? This is the meal I always pick Well, almost always. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for my Dad's homemade hamburgers and potato salad. But aside from the occasional hamburger, I've requested this meal for as long as I can remember. This is also the meal my Mom makes for me when I come home on school vacation, when I've had a crappy day, or when we're celebrating something. If for some reason, I go crazy and kill a bunch of people, this will be the meal I request as my last. If I find out that this meal will kill me, I'll write up my will today, and kiss my loved ones goodbye.

My mom got this recipe when she was in college in the late 70s, from her Persian friends (is it not politically correct to say "Persian" anymore? They were from Iran). She's been making this meal since then, and if you look for it, you'll see a variation of it in almost every Persian cookbook you look through.

We call it Persian Chicken and Rice. And it's the most wonderful thing in the world.


You'll need (for 6-8 people):

• 1 whole chicken, or 1 lb boned and skinned chicken pieces (this is good with a mix of light and dark meat)
  
• 3 cups uncooked long grain rice
• 1 pt. frozen butter beans (if you're not from around here, you might call them lima beans)
• Dill Weed (fresh or dried)
• salt to taste
• 2 tbs butter

This is what you'll do:

1. Put your butter beans on to boil. They'll take about 35-45 minutes to cook all the way through, so I usually start the beans and the chicken to boil at the same time (but in separate pots, of course).
   
2. Boil the chicken in water (what else would you boil it in?). Salt to taste. Bone and skin chicken. Shred into small bites. Set aside.
   
3. Cook rice in water (not broth) according to package directions. Salt to taste until done. Rinse with cool water and drain. Set aside.
4. In a dutch oven, layer several times the rice, chicken, butter beans, and a generous sprinkling of dill weed. You almost can't have too much dill weed. Dill weed will save your life. (I made that last one up.)
5. Dot the top of the rice with butter. Cover and steam on low heat until flavors blend, about 30 minutes. (My mom places a clean dish towel between the pot and the lid on this last step. I'm not sure how this works, but it does).
6. OPTIONAL: For a delicious, cool treat, shred a fresh cucumber into plain yogurt, and sprinkle generously with dill. This makes a great dip or salad dressing, and it's super delicious when you dip a forkful of Persian Chicken and Rice into the Cuke+Yogurt mixture.
   
7. Eat, enjoy, and be happy. The leftovers will keep for a few days, but they won't last that long.
   

*Substitutions: If you'd like to make this dish healthier (it's pretty healthy on its own already), you can substitute brown rice for white and string beans for the butter beans. If you're short on groceries and don't want to go to the store, you can substitute the chicken with ground beef or turkey (by the way, this is a GREAT way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers). I will warn you, though, any of these substituted versions will not be as good as the original. Just sayin'.

Treats for People Like Me

If you're like me, you don't last very long without a sugary, usually chocolately treat. If you're even more like me, you tend to take your treats too far, and turn them into binges. And if you're exactly like me, you allow your binges to completely throw you off your game, convince me you'll never succeed, so you gain 10 pounds (or more) until you decide to star over, this time swearing off treats all together until you (inevitably) binge again.

The solution. Treat yourself. But only make enough treats to last you a couple of servings. Yes, I said make. I find that if I buy treats (say a small bag of chocolates, or a trip through Sonic's drive through for some ice cream), I don't savor it, and it's only a few days before I feel like I need another "treat," (which of course leads me to said binge).

This is my current favorite treat:

These are double dipped strawberries. They're more expensive than a regular Reese's Sonic Blast, but they're healthier, and way tastier. Oh, and you have to make them. But they are super easy to make.

You need: strawberries, 1 1/2 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate, and 1 1/2 white chocolate baking squares. You'll also need a cookie pan, wax paper, two bowls, and a microwave.

Obviously, you're going to melt the chocolates (~45 seconds in the microwave) and then dip the strawberries. (Though it's helpful to let the first layer harden before your dip the second). And the pretty swirls? That happens when the semi-sweet shell melts into the white chocolately goodness.

I've estimated each strawberry to have right around 37 calories (I use Baker's Brand chocolates), so 3 of these is your 100-calorie snack 0' the day (minus the excess packaging and ridiculous ingredients).

So go ahead, treat yourself.

The Most Delicious Meal Ever.

I'm a meat and potatoes girl. Always have been. There's nothing I love more than potatoes, be they baked, mashed, creamed, fried, sliced, au gratin, or spiced. So when I chose to include a recipe for "Saffron Rice Shrimp Salad" on my weekly meal plan, I knew there was a good possibility I would hate it. But guess what? This is quite possibly my new favorite thing to eat.

I got this recipe from "Cooking for 2" magazine (Winter 2009), which is produced by the same folks that make my other favorite magazine ("Simple and Delicious"), Taste of Home.

This recipe will serve two, and is supposed to take only 15 minutes to make, but cooking the rice takes 20, and if you forget that you still have to cook shrimp, it'll be another 5.

For the dressing, you'll need (I didn't try this, but I'm pretty sure this dish would still be awesome without this dressing):

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbs cider vinegar (I used a little less of regular)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

For the meal proper, you'll need:

• 1 cup torn Bibb or Boston lettuce
• 1 cup torn Romaine (I just used a baby spring mix from the bag...)
• 1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup cooked saffron rice (because I am cheap and lazy, I just use single-serve packets that are 75 cents each. Be careful, because if you get saffron on your favorite scarf, it WILL NOT come out.)
• 1/2 lb COOKED large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro (totally forgot to add this, but still delish)

The Process:

1. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the first eight ingredients; shake well. If you'd like to use your Nalgene "Life Is Good" water bottle becase you don't have a salad dressing mixer, or even a cocktail shaker, feel completely free. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
   
2. Divide lettuce between two plates; top with avocado, rice, and shrimp. Sprinkle with cilantro; drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately, and with a big glass of Shiraz (because Michael Pollan told you to).

It will look like this:

And see how my plate is so ridiculously full? It's because I'm eating off a salad plate. My mind is so easily persuaded. Pretty good, no? Especially considering that three days ago, my fridge looked like this:

Inspired By...Gum?

I don't like fruit. Now, I know that, for us healthy eaters, that's like a kid passing over candy at Halloween. Fruit is one of our few chances to eat something sweet that's good for us, no? But I don't like it. Give me a plate of asparagus in lemon juice any day.

What I do like, though, is artificial fruit flavoring. Don't ask me why; it has always been so. Fresh bananas? I used to literally gag at the thought. Banana runts? I wish they sold them without the others. Blueberries? No thanks. Blueberry muffins from a mix? I'll eat them all. Sliced peaches to top my oatmeal? Can't make it through the first bite. But give me the overly dried out peach-esque stuff that fluffs up a bit when you add milk and microwave? I'm all over it.

So when I saw Trident's Splash gum, in Strawberry with Lime flavor, I almost died. It's like a really good daiquiri but with less than five calories and no annoying hangover when you've had 4 servings! But last night, when I grew tired of chewing gum that really only has a 7 second flavor life span, I wondered what I could make from actual food that would taste stunningly delicious. The result was a pseudo-smoothie that I gulped down in, alas, 7 seconds. It was, however, much tastier than gum.

What I did: I threw maybe 6 or 7 smallish strawberries (these were the frozen kind that I'd mostly defrosted), along with the juice from 1 very overripe lime and 3 or 4 small ice cubes in a food processor (I don't have a blender, or this would have been easier). Then I hit the "High" button, and waited until it was mostly smooth. A taste test showed me that I used way too much lime juice, so I added a teaspoon or two (maybe 3?) of sugar and stirred it up. I put it in the freezer with the intention of making the texture like a sorbet or super awesome giant glass-shaped popsicle, but I am far too impatient so I drank it instead. And you know what? It was delicious. Amen.

Sister, Why are You Here? Pasta

**Update!** I forgot the most important part! How can a recipe survive without a soundtrack, right? The beauty of almost any pasta dish is that noodles and sauce cook remarkably well with jazz vocalists in the air. This recipe turns out beautifully with a Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan mix. So go forth, and procure the vocalists.

Work has been incredibly slow lately, and the boyfriend has worked every night until 10 for I don't know how long, so I've been going a bit stir-crazy being by myself all the time. So yesterday, I called my Mom and Dad, made sure they didn't have dinner plans, and told them I was going to cook dinner for them. The title comes from what my brother says to me every time I'm home. Ah, sibling love.

I pulled this recipe from my new favorite website, ThePioneerWoman.com, and it was a decided smash. It has a lot of steps, but it's super easy. Le promis.

You will need (for 6-8 servings):

• a box of penne or similarly small noodle (whole wheat, of course)
• a pound of jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined (and dethawed, as I would learn)
• EVOO and/or butter
• small onion, diced
• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (if heavy cream is too full of delicious, delicious calories for your liking, you could probably be all health-conscious and diet-smart and substitute half of the cream with half-and-half. You know, if you wanted to go there.)
• 5-6 basil leaves, parsley, salt, pepper, and basically any other spice you want
• veggies, optional. I added a zucchini to the mix and it was delicious

Connect the Numbers:

1. Put on a pot of water to boil for your noodles. It will begin boiling at just the right time.
2. In a saucepan (big enough for your sauce and noodles), heat olive oil. While your EVOO is heating up (but not too hot!), run cold water over the shrimp. Add the shrimp to the oil, and let them cook through until just pink. You want to avoid overcooking as they'll go back on the heat later. Remove shrimp prom pan and allow to cool on chopping board.
3. Add the onion and garlic to saucepan, cook until a pretty gold color.
4. While the onion and garlic is cooking, chop the cooled shrimp into tiny pieces.
5. Pour a glass of white wine into the onion and garlic (after savoring a sip or two or three for yourself, of course). If you don't like wine, 1/2 cup lo-sodium chicken broth will do fine, although wine is delicious. Really, really delicious.
6. Add 8 ounces tomato sauce, stir together.
7. Add 8 ounces heavy whipping cream, stir together.
8. Now add your spices. I used dried. Fresh herbs are tastier and prettier, but dried are lazier and from a bottle.
9. Add the chopped shrimp to the mix and let it heat through again.
10. By this time, your penne should be cooked al dente. Drain the pasta, and add to the saucepan, stirring it all around to coat each and every single last noodle with delicious sauce-y goodness. It's as simple as that!!

Snap Peas for Summer: A Recipe

I adapted this recipe from Jack Bishop's Vegetables Every Day. I'm pretty sure my version isn't as good, but I hadn't gone to the grocery store yet and certainly didn't have any plans to go any time soon. I'll post his original recipe, and make note of my alterations. 

His Title: Sugar Snap Peas with Pancetta and Onion (My Title: Snap Peas and Turkey Bacon), serves 4 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sugar snap peas, stems and strings removed (I used about a third of a pound from a local veggie stand...I removed the stems, but wasn't about to string anything, so I just snapped them into the size I remember my grandmother did before she canned them)
  
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons EVOO
• 2 ounces thin-sliced pancetta, minced (I used turkey bacon, because it's healthier, and I can correctly pronounce it)
• 1 medium onion, minced (I left this out because I didn't have an onion on hand, and even if I had, getting Dustin to eat snap peas was going to be a difficult enough challenge already...)
• 1 tbs minced fresh parsley leaves (I used about a teaspoon and a half of the dried)
• freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring 2 qts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Meanwhile, prepare a bowl of ice water. Add the peas and salt to taste to the boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, about 1.5 minutes. Drain and plunge the peas into the bowl of ice water. When cool, drain the peas and set aside (call me ridiculous, but this seemed like a lot of water to use and then pour out, so I retained all the excess water/ice and watered by non-blooming petunias. Georgia's suffering a drought, y'all). 
2. Heat the oil (I used too much, as you can see in the picture), pancetta, and onion in a large skillet. Saute until the pancetta is crisp and the onion is golden, about 6 minutes (I bet a tsp or so of minced garlic would be good, too). Stir in the peas and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. 

If you're not familiar with snap peas, they should be crisp, but the seeds shouldn't be swollen out of the pod. They're best super fresh, because the longer they sit in the crisper, the more starchy and bland they become. This is a really fresh tasting dish that I paired with lemon chicken and wild rice. 

Man-Meat: A Recipe

Usually I cook (not because my boyfriend won't, or can't, but because I like to so much), but I wasn't feeling it last night. Alas, we still needed to eat, so I asked (politely commanded) that the boyfriend take over the dinner plans. Despite my not wanting to cook, I found myself drawn to the kitchen every four seconds. You know, just to check in. What he made, Quick and Easy Chicken Spaghetti, was delicious. He and I both loved it, and that's a hard combination to come by (unless its pizza and cold beer, which we both love to an outrageous extreme). What's great about this recipe is that it's super easy to modify, and a *fabulous* way to use left-over chicken or turkey.

The Recipe:
1 12-oz package whole wheat pasta (we used the loose squiggly kind, yes, that one)
1 10-oz can diced tomatoes with green chili peppers (we didn't have the tom+chil, so he added a tablespoon or so of medium-heat salsa)
1 10-oz can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
8 ounces cheese, cubed or grated (we used grated mozarella, only because we buy it in the biggest bag they sell and we're trying to use it before the expiration date...)
2 cups chopped/ground cooked chicken/turkey
4 oz sliced mushrooms (we didn't use these, neither of us like fungus)

The Operation:
-If your meat isn't cooked, go ahead and cook it through while the water for the pasta is boiling.
-Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; add pasta and cook till al dente. Drain and return to pot.
-Add to the pasta the diced tomatoes, cream of chicken soup, cheese, chicken, mushroom, and salt/pepper to taste. Cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted and mixture is heated through.

The Music:
Truth be told, I was too tired to pick out a soundtrack for this recipe. Looking over it, some up-tempo Johnny Cash would work well, even the Walk the Line soundtrack would be okay. Let's go with "Walk the Line," "Jackson," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Cocaine Blues," "Orange Blossom Special," and of course, "Ring of Fire."

Snack Time: A Recipe

Today, I am craving nothing but french fries and chocolate. I tried the whole "give yourself a taste of your craving so you won't binge" thing and it didn't work. 4 Hershey's kisses later, and I'm still desperate for Biggie Fries and a Frostie (don't ask me why, I don't know). Despite not even losing a pound this week, I'm THIS close to getting in my car.

In an effort to feed myself (because not only am I craving disgusting food, I'm actually hungry, and even though I had breakfast, lunch, AND those hershey's kisses, I'm still hungry a full 3 hours earlier than I usually get hungry) I decided to make a snack. A healthy snack, one that won't throw me into the "holy shit, I've no points left for supper" range.

The result? Easy Zucchini Parmesan.

Okay, the recipe wasn't mine originally, but from this point out, I'm claiming it.

Here's what you need:
1 you-sized zucchini (by you-sized, I mean the size you want to eat)
~ 1 Tbs grated Parmesan (I used the kind you shake out of a can, as I am not fancy enough to own a block of Parmesan and a grater)
~ 1/2 Tbs butter, light
Non-stick cooking spray (opt.)
This is for a mine-only, no-you-can't-have-any, I'm-not-sharing snack. If you'd like to make some for the other hairy house-apes running around, just multiply this recipe by however many zukes you're chopping up.

Here's what you do:
Line a cookie sheet with tin foil (see? Now you don't have to do any dishes...), then lightly coat with cooking spray (I didn't do this, and had no problems, especially since I don't plan on reusing this tin-foil like my mother used to make us do). Slice your zucchini - I made round slices, but it doesn't matter. You want them to be thin, but not too thin, maybe a quarter of an inch or so? Melt your butter, and drizzle it on your zuke slices (doesn't have to be a lot of butter, so if you want even less, or none, feel free). Sprinkle your Parmesan and broil it in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese starts to get bubbly and brown. Enjoy whilst warm--the zuke, not you. I figured this to be just around 2 points. If you cut out the butter, 1, but keep in mind that today, I am grumpy, and can't do math even when I'm in a good mood (double check it for yourselves).

Here's what you should be listening to:
a zippy pop song with an upbeat chorus and 4-bar bridge. Perhaps "Hard Days Night" by the Beatles. (Yes, all recipes should have a soundtrack. If you have a better suggestion for this snack, please let me know.)