Toasted Sesame Balsamic Asparagus

I saw this ad for McCormick’s Toasted Sesame Seeds in a magazine (along with this recipe), so I thought I would give it a whirl. This is pretty easy, and really jazzes up your basic roasted asparagus. I roasted mine about 15 minutes. The sauce was very subtle but good! I left out the red pepper since I don’t do spicy, but this was still a really easy flavorful way to dress up your asparagus. We also enjoyed some Crash Hot Potatoes and Riblets. Mmmmm.

rating: 8.5

Toasted Sesame Balsamic Asparagus
(from an ad in a magazine)

2 tsp sesame oil
1 pound asparagus spears
2 tsp McCormick Gourmet Collection toasted Sesame Seed or Sesame Seed, toasted
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/8 tsp McCormick gourmet Collection Crushed red pepper (I omitted)

Spread sesame oil in foil-lined baking pan. Wash asparagus and break off stalks as far down as they snap easily, 1-2 inches from ends. Roll asparagus in sesame oil. Sprinkle with sesame seed. Arrange asparagus in single layer.

Roast in preheated 425 degree F oven 10 minutes or until crisp tender.

Mix vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and red pepper in small bowl. remove asparagus from oven; place on serving platter. Drizzle with soy sauce mixture.

Pumpkin- Sage Polenta

Have you ever had polenta? I love it. And I love pumpkin. So why not combine them?  This is a great side to throw together in a snap. Seriously, this was ready in about 7 minutes. I did use Silk soy milk instead of the low-fat milk. I thought this was good, but it needed something. I don’t know what. And it started out really creamy, like grits, but the longer it sat on the stove it got dry and chunky. I doubt I will make it again, but it was a good idea. With this we had some Quorn naked cutlets and a green salad.

rating: 6

Pumpkin-sage Polenta
(from www.myrecipes.com)

Ingredients

* 2 1/2  cups  1% low-fat milk
* 2  cups  water
* 3/4  cup  canned pumpkin
* 1 1/4  teaspoons  salt
* 1 1/4  cups  instant dry polenta
* 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
* 2  tablespoons  1/3-less-fat cream cheese
* 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh sage
* 1/4  cup  (1 ounce) shaved fresh Parmesan

Preparation

Bring milk and water to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add pumpkin and salt; stir with a whisk. Reduce heat to low, and gradually whisk in polenta; cook 1 minute or until thick. Remove from heat. Add 3/4 cup grated Parmesan, cream cheese, and sage; stir until cheeses melt. Top with shaved Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Zesty Broccoli Casserole

My grandmother makes the best broccoli casserole, and whenever we have family get-togethers, she makes it because she knows I love it so much. This broccoli casserole uses Panko, which are Japanese breadcrumbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panko). This was pretty simple to put together, and it smelled so good while it was baking! This was really good (although it was no Grandma’s casserole), but the important thing here: Liam loved it and asked for seconds and thirds. He’s almost 3. So- that says alot about this recipe, I think. I will quote him: “This tastes good!” I served this with some veggie meatball subs (I am trying to eat down the freezer and fridge).

rating: 8

Zesty Broccoli Casserole
(from www.myrecipes.com)

Ingredients

* 3  (10-ounce) packages frozen broccoli florets, thawed
* Cooking spray
* 1 1/2  cups  fat-free milk (I used Silk plain soy milk)
* 2 1/2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
* 1/2  teaspoon  salt
* 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
* 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
* 1/2  cup  (4 ounces) fat-free cream cheese, softened
* 1  cup  fat-free mayonnaise
* 3/4  cup  chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)
* 1  (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, rinsed, drained, and sliced
* 3/4  cup  panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
* 2  teaspoons  butter, melted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Arrange broccoli in an even layer in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; set aside.

Combine milk, flour, salt, and pepper in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add cheddar and cream cheeses; stir until smooth. Stir in mayonnaise, onion, and water chestnuts. Spoon cheese mixture evenly over broccoli.

Place panko in a small bowl. Drizzle with butter, and toss. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture evenly over cheese mixture. Lightly spray breadcrumb layer with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until mixture begins to bubble and breadcrumbs brown.

Pioneer Woman’s Creamed Spinach

I love creamed spinach, and Toby has finally come around to loving it too. He doesn’t normally care too much for spinach, but creamed spinach he loves. BUT- he is very particular about his creamed spinach. The spinach can’t be too crunchy or “lumpy”. I decided to make some Morningstar Farms Riblets (before they discontinue them! Grrrrr), and needed a couple of side dishes, so I picked Crash Hot Potatoes (I think my favorite side of all time), and I needed something green, so I picked this recipe. I used Silk soy milk instead of regular milk, and they tasted fine. One thing- I only used two plastic tubs of the baby spinach (Wegmans was out of the bags). I felt silly buying four tubs, and as a result, I ended up with too much sauce. But there are worse things in life! This is a very quick dish to pull together, and it’s fab. We will keep this one.

rating: 9

Pioneer Woman’s Creamed Spinach

(from www.thepioneerwoman.com)

serves 6 to 8

1 stick butter
8 tablespoons flour
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 cups milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
Pinch of ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter
24 ounces baby spinach

Melt 1 stick of butter in a pot. Sprinkle in flour and whisk together. Cook over medium heat for five minutes or until light golden brown. Throw in onion and garlic and stir together, cooking for another minute. Pour in milk, whisking constantly, and cook for five minutes while you cook the spinach.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a separate pot. Add spinach in increments until all incorporated, and cook until wilted but not soggy, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Season the cream sauce with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add spinach to the cream sauce, stirring gently to combine.

Serve immediately.

Oven Fries with Garlic Aioli

I am seriously bummed that Morningstar Farms discontinued their veggie hot dogs. We searched high and low for a good dog, and that one was just excellent. So it’s back to the ol’ drawing board I guess. When we were at Wegmans last weekend, we saw that Tofurky now has veggie dogs, so we tried their plain version (they also had something spicy, and then one other, I think). So I needed a nice little side dish for these dogs. And it couldn’t be TOO much, because Toby had a soccer game at 7:30, so he couldn’t eat a whole lot. So I tried these fries. The recipe calls for 4 potatoes, but once I got 2 sliced up, I decided that would be enough for us. I might have used a little too much olive oil, but these were really good! And the aioli, well, it kind of just tasted like mayo to me, but that’s ok. Mayo is good, too.

rating: 8.5

Oven Fries with Garlic Aioli
(from the Dec. 08 issue of Real Simple magazine)

2 pounds russet potatoes (about 4), scrubbed and cut lengthwise into 1/2″-thick wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp paprika (preferably smoked)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes, oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Roast until golden and crisp, 45-50 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, and /4 tsp salt. Serve the potatoes with the aioli for dipping.

Party Potatoes

This is NOT the recipe I had planned on making last night. I was going to try another Pioneer Woman recipe (she hasn’t failed me yet!) that called for new potatoes, and you cook them, then scoop them out, leaving the shell, and then you make mashed potatoes and put them BACK in the shell, blah blah. You know how it goes. Well, I got my potatoes out and they had EYES all over them! I started trimming those off, and I thought, I am not going to have enough potato “shell” left over! So, I googled for a recipe and found this one. And I mean, really, can you wrong with a stick of butter, sour cream, and cream cheese? Me thinks not. This turned out really well! It’s like mashed potatoes, but…better! With these wonderful potatoes we enjoyed some Quorn roast, jazzed-up green beans, and some rolls. **I added some chopped chives to the top right before I baked them.

rating: 8.5

PARTY POTATOES

Printed from COOKS.COM

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8 med. potatoes
Milk (enough to moisten) (I used Silk plain lite soy milk)
1 stick butter
Salt
Pepper
8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (I used 4 ounces)
1/4 c. sour cream

Cook potatoes until soft. Mash potatoes, add heated milk, 3/4 stick butter, salt and pepper. Add cream cheese and sour cream. Pour into greased baking dish. Dot with remaining butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Do not cover when baking.Hints: Use butter not butter. Party potatoes can be made 2 or 3 days and refrigerated before baking.

Cheese Quesadillas

These are no ordinary cheese quesadillas. They have a secret ingredient: cream cheese! Have you ever had a quesadilla with cream cheese? I hadn’t. I thought they might be too rich, but they weren’t. They were really good, and VERY CHEESY! They were the perfect thing to go with the black bean soup I also made (see previous recipe). These are worth a try.

rating: 8.5

Cheese Quesadillas
(from the Sept./Oct. 09 issue of Cooking with Paula Deen)

1 8-ounce package shredded colby-Jack cheese blend
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup prepared salsa
8 8-inch flour tortillas
1/4 cup butter, softened
garnish: chopped onion, chopped tomato, chopped fresh jalapeno

In a medium bowl, combine cheese, cream cheese, and salsa. Spread mixture evenly over 4 tortillas. Cover each with remaining tortillas. Spread softened butter evenly over both sides of quesadillas.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 quesadilla, and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn quesadilla, and cook for 1-2 minutes longer, or until golden brown. Repeat procedure with remaining quesadillas. Cut into wedges  to serve. Garnish with onion, tomato, and jalapeno, if desired.

Light and Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

I saw this recipe in Paula Deen’s magazine, and I thought, how light and creamy can this be?! Well…Pretty dang light and creamy! This did not taste like you were skimping on anything whatsoever. When Toby started eating it, he said “so tell me how many pounds of butter does this have?” When I told him two tablespoons, he couldn’t believe it. He went back for seconds, and had to stop himself from getting more. He mentioned several times what a good dinner I had made (we also had Riblets, green beans, and rolls). I will be eating this for lunch for the next couple of days (this recipe makes a ton). SO good.

rating: 9

Light and Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
(from the Sept./Oct. 09 issue of Cooking with Paula Deen magazine)

2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I used vegetarian chicken broth)
1 1/4 cups low-fat cottage cheese, pureed
1 8-ounce package shredded 2% sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 16-ounce package elbow boodles, cooked according to package directions and kept warm
garnish: ground paprika (I omitted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour, dry mustard, and red pepper; cook, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Gradually add chicken broth, whisking until mixture is smooth. Cook for 5-6 minutes, whisking occasionally, until mixture is slightly thickened. Add pureed cottage cheese, whisking until smooth. Add Cheddar and Parmesan, whisking until mixture is smooth.

Place noodles in prepared baking dish; add cheese sauce, tossing gently to combine. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Garnish with paprika, if desired. Serve immediately.

makes 8-10 servings

Marian’s Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding

This recipe was on the same page as the Buttermilk- Garlic dressing, so I actually served them together. This recipe was pretty straight-forward, no surprises. Toby really liked it, as did I. There’s just something about bread pudding that I love. I think it’s the bread. This recipe is good for when you’ve got some bread you need to use up, and you can also switch the veggies around to use up what you have in your fridge.

rating: 8.5

Marian’s Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding
(from the Sept. 2009 issue of Southern Living magazine)

1 bunch Swiss chard (about 1 pound)
6 large eggs
1 cup milk (I used Silk lite plain)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
3 cups cubed Ciabatta bread (about 1″ cubes)
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 8-ounce package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove and discard ribs from Swiss chard. Rinse with cold water; drain and coarsely chop.
2. Whisk together eggs and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in bread and half of cheese.
3. Saute mushrooms and next 3 ingredients in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 8 minutes. Stir in Swiss chard, and saute 2 minutes. Fold vegetable mixture into egg mixture. Pour into a lightly greased 11 x 7″ baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
4. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 5 minutes.

Cheesy Potatoes

This recipe is SUPER easy and it’s pretty good. It makes ALOT of potatoes (Toby likes to say “Who all are you expecting for dinner?”). I used Low-sodium Cream of Mushroom soup instead of the Cream of Chicken, and I really missed that salt. I had to add some at the end. With this we enjoyed some Quorn cutlets, a salad, and some rolls. How can you go wrong with cheese and potatoes?

rating: 8.5

Cheesy Potatoes
(from the March/April issue of Weight Watchers magazine)

1 16-ounce container fat-free sour cream
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can low-fat condensed cream of chicken soup (I used cream of mushroom)
1 8-ounce pkg low-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup light stick butter
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 32-ounce pkg frozen hash browns

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13″ baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. Mix all ingredients (except for the hash browns) together in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add the hash browns, sitting until well blended.
3. Spread the mixture in the prepared baking dish. Bake until hot and bubbling, 55 minutes- 1 hour.

serves 10
points per serving – 4