Post Holiday Cleanse

Whew! The holidays have come and gone in a frenzy and a blur.  I'm sure everyone has been crazed and busy, like myself. 

Although, the holidays are often our favorite time of year, they tend to leave us feeling less light on our toes.  The look of horror shows on my face as I take a moment to remember each and every cookie, chocolate covered pretzel, buttered roll, and cheese covered hors d' oeuvre that found its way into my mouth in the past few weeks!  Yikes!

Well, all the social gatherings have passed.  I am back to work and now its time to get back on track.  The perfect solution...vegetable soup!

A hearty dose of vegetable soup is the best way to initiate a cleanse, jump start some weight loss, incorporate extra fiber into your day, or just eat something plain delicious!! A big steaming bowl of vegetable soup is soul warming during these winter months.  The trick is to make it extra tasty so you are looking forward to consuming it and not giving it the stink eye like a big, daunting bowl of raw spinach. 

You can put absolutely any vegetables you desire into this soup.  This is also an excellent way to put all the produce in your fridge to good use.  For this particular batch, I used:

• tomatoes
• onion
• garlic
• radishes
• celery
• carrots
• green beans
• kale
• zucchini
• mushrooms

Other excellent choices would be peppers, squash, parsnips, cabbage, bok choy, snow peas or whatever your heart desires. 

It does take a fair amount of prep work to clean and chop everything up for soup.  Try to keep everything around the same size so it cooks evenly and fits nicely in a spoon. 

The important thing to remember here is to start with the veggies that need to cook longer, such as carrots, and add in the quick cooking ones last, such as kale.

The first step is to get a BIG soup or stock pot and heat up around 4 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil.  Stir in minced onion and garlic.  Next add in extra firm veggies like carrots and parsnips, then celery and radish, then green beans, then tomatoes and zucchini and so on, and lastly quick cooking leafy things like cabbage, or kale.  Saute everything for a minute or two in between additions. 

Stir in 1 small can of tomato sauce, and 1 small can of tomato paste. Add in one can of drained beans. (I used kidney)  Cover with chicken or vegetable broth (around 2 boxes).  Sprinkle in salt and pepper and 1 tsp. each of dried herbs such a coriander, basil, and oregano.  Bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer. 

In a separate pan, cook up some of your favorite mini soup pasta.  I chose ditalini, but orzo, mini shells, macaroni, or alphabet letters would work perfectly.

As an optional garnish, you can make some fresh croutons.  Dice up your bread of choice, and toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil, and dried basil and oregano.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until golden.

Allow the soup to simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes and stir in the cooked pasta.  Serve hot and garnish with a few croutons and a sprinkle of cheese such as feta or Parmesan.

Replace 1 - 2 meals a day with this veggie soup and you'll shed a few lbs. in a week!  The extra fiber will definitely get your GI tract moving as well so be prepared for the cleanse.  This soup will help you eat the rainbow with ease and the beans ensure protein. 

I love to whip this up 2 to 3 times a year to get things moving in the right direction!  It is delicoius, and, of course, nutritious!

Themed Brunch

Recently, we needed to share some pretty great news with our families.  We decided it was best to communicate through food!

The Menu

Baby Quiche

Baby Green Salad with Baby Cucumbers

Balsamic Glazed Baby Zuchinni, Baby Squash, 

and Baby Bella Mushrooms

Baby Carrots

Babybel Cheese

I'm sure, by now, you've figured out our plan.  Kevin took things to the table, one at a time, and tried to announce their title with a straight face.  Finally, my mother said, "Hey! Are you trying to tell us something?"

Of course, this started with a long brainstorm about all the baby themed brunch appropriate foods I could think of.  I had to eliminate a few ideas, such as baby back ribs.

Baby zucchini looks just like their big counterparts.  The mini yellow squash are also called patty pans.  First, I reduced some balsamic vinegar over low heat for a few hours to make a thicker sweet glaze.

I cut up all the veggies, tossed them with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper, and laid them out on a sheet pan to roast. Approx. 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Them should be slightly softened and golden.  

For the baby quiche, I purchased pie crust sheets. I cut them out with a circle cutter and pushed them into a cupcake pan.  

I sprinkled feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and sliced asparagus into the little cups.  

Next, I whisked up 1 pint of heavy cream, salt and pepper, and 5 eggs.  I poured it into each cup and baked the baby quiche until the center was set.  Approx 25 minutes.

They will puff up while baking, so leave some room for expansion. 

Next, I chopped up some mixed baby lettuce and thinly sliced the baby cucumbers into half moon shapes.  

I put Kevin in charge of salad dressing. He put shallots, parsley, parsley stems, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper, in to the blender and slowly drizzled in olive oil while blending to create an emulsified vinaigrette.

The key is to drizzle the oil in slowly.  The ratio for a vinaigrette is 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil. If you exceed this ratio, your vinaigrette will break and separate.

We tossed the dressing with the cucumbers and lettuce, drizzled the roasted veggies with the basalmic reduction, popped the quiche out of the pan, and brunch was served.   

The baby quiche could house any ingredients you like! Bacon and swiss, ham and brie, goat cheese and roasted red peppers, broccoli and cheddar - the sky is the limit!

Everyone was pleased with this delicious and nutritious brunch and even more pleased with our big news!!

Anything you can do, I can do better.

My mother has an extremely close-nit group of gal pals that refer to themselves as the ya yas.  She informed me that two of the ya yas, or as I like to call them, my aunts, were coming to town and, in turn, would like see my new house.  Of course, I had to whip up a fabulous luncheon in their honor.

I debated several menus.  The chilly fall weather has set in here in Vegas and the highs have been in the 50s.  I decided on a soup and panini combo.  What better than a revamp on America's favorite? - tomato and grilled cheese.

I should mention these ladies are seasoned diners and drinkers. Everything must be fabulous and most importantly delicious!

I got some little red baja tomatoes.  I used about 36 of them.  Romas would have worked just as well.  I sliced them in half.

I laid them out on a sheet pan and drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and chili flakes.

I roasted them on high, 475 and brown and crackly.

I laid out some bacon on a sheet pan and baked until crispy.  Baking bacon is an easy way to cut down on the mess, and cook a large amount at one time. Around 350 should do the trick.

In the meantime, I diced up some garlic and onion and sauteed it in the bacon fat left on the pan.

When the garlic and red onion started to brown, I deglazed the pot with 1/2 cup of vodka.  I let the vodka reduce and them added 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock.

Next, I placed the garlic and onion mixture, and the roasted tomatoes in the blender and pureed until smooth. I returned the soup to the pan and finished it with 4 cups of heavy cream.  I let the soup simmer to reduce and keep warm.

For a lovely garnish, I fried some whole basil leaves in olive oil.  Be careful! They tend to pop and spit hot oil.

I got some yummy cheese, apple smoked gruyere, and sharp white cheddar.  I sliced it up and layered between buttered sourdough slices with the cooked bacon.  I placed the sandwiches on the george foreman to grill them like a panini.

For a scrumptious cocktail, I served bocce ball martinis.  I shook 1/2 shot butterscotch schnapps, 1 shot of amaretto, and orange juice in the martini shaker and strained into a martini glass.  Of course, you can serve this tasty cocktail on the rocks, but girls love to socialize with a martini glass.

Although grilled cheese and tomato soup may not sound elegant, you can make it into something decadent and spectacular.  The creamy tomato vodka soup with fried basil was delicious.  The chili flakes added a bit of zing and the vodka added complex flavor.  As for the grilled cheese, we all know, everything is better with bacon!

So, take that campbell's.  Like I said, anything you can do, I can do better!  Kick the can - this version is way better.  Now, off for a jog....bacon and heavy cream comes at a price!

Squash your pasta guilt!

I've really put the fall harvest in action this week!  I'm sure you've noticed pumpkins and squash are everywhere.  These are great ways to put them to use while they are in season...

I was invited to be the guest chef at the Las Vegas Farmers Market with the Southern Nevada Health District and showcase healthy eating with some of the fresh produce available.

http://www.lasvegasfarmersmarket.com/Las%20Vegas%20Farmers.htm

Van Dyke farms provided us with some awesome goods to cook up and allow the public to sample.  We got kale, yellow squash, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes.  I simply cooked up some whole wheat pasta ahead of time.  On site, we sauteed some minced garlic and shallots.  We added in all the chopped veggies, along with some lemon zest and lemon juice.  I deglazed with white wine and stirred in canned cannelinni beans and the pasta to warm through.  We served with a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan for garnish.  It was excellent!  Everyone was loving our lemon veggie pasta.  Yellow squash, zucchini, and kale are all in season right now and are perfect to mix into your favorite dishes.

It got a little windy on day two but we survived!!  As I told everyone at the farmer's market, if we can whip this up at a table, in a tent, in that wind, you could easily do it at home!

At home, I decided to whip up some spaghetti squash.  Spaghetti squash is one of my absolute favorites and it is abundant right now!  A spaghetti squash looks like this:

First thing, place the entire squash in the microwave for 4 minutes to slightly soften.  Next, carefully, cut it in half lengthwise.  Place the halves face down on a cookie sheet in 1/2 inch of water and place in the oven at 375 degrees.

While the squash is baking, you make the sauce.  On this day, I used ground turkey and mushrooms.  Ground turkey is a great substitute for ground beef.  It is much leaner.  Try substituting ground turkey wherever you would normally use ground beef: tacos, lasagna, spaghetti and more!

I minced up some red onion and garlic and threw them in a saute pan with a few tbsp. of olive oil.

Next, I crumbled in the ground turkey, to brown.

I seasoned the ground turkey with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Note: Whenever I refer to "season with salt and pepper," I am using kosher salt, and grinding pepper from a pepper mill.   You can buy kosher salt in a box at any grocery store.  It just tastes better.  Once you start cooking with it, you'll never go back!  The only time you should use iodized salt when cooking is to season deep fried foods.  The small granules of iodized salt stick to a hot fried food better and more evenly than the kosher crystals.  Also, you may want to keep ground white pepper on hand as well.  In some dishes, the mild flavor and lighter color of white pepper is better.  Often, you have a pretty, light colored sauce, and you don't want to dirty up the aesthetic by adding big black pepper speckles.

I sliced up the shitake and button mushrooms.  You can use the entire button mushroom, but the shitake stems are too woody; you have to remove them first, then slice up the cap.

When the turkey and mushrooms were cooked, I added in canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and dried basil and oregano.  I turned the heat to low and allowed the sauce to simmer until the squash was ready.

After approximately 40 minutes, remove the squash from the oven.  Drain the water and flip over the squash halves.  Carefully scoop out the seeds from the middle.

Next, take a fork, and loosen the flesh of the squash from the walls of the squash by shredding.

The flesh will pull away from the sides in strings and look just like spaghetti noodles!  Keep shredding until all the flesh is loosened and removed.

You can use the squash shell as a bowl to serve in, or you can scoop out the filling.  Top with the tomato sauce mixture and garnish with some shredded Parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Isn't that fun?!?! You get all the joy of a bowl of spaghetti with none of the guilt.  The squash has added vitamins, minerals, and fiber that the pasta wouldn't! Take advantage of the seasonal offerings at your store or farmer's market!