Creamy Pasta with Shrimp

I've done a dozen different variations of shrimp with pasta but this one was really tasty tonight. I've been really trying to focus on "clean eating" lately. Before Umstead, I focused on "the good carbs"and have continued that as a part of my recovery from the 100. However, Once or twice a week, I gotta have me something cheesy and high in carbs. Maybe your weakness is deep fried food, or ribs, or cake and cookies...Mine is my desire for a lot of "bad"carbs such as pasta or french baguette, number one, and heavy on the cheese, number two.  Well, I have one more weakness-ANYTHING CHOCOLATE.

1 1/2 lbs of shrimp, peeled and tails removed
1 lb of spaghetti
1/2 cup of heavy cream
the juice of one lemon (I used a Meyer lemon because I had it on hand)
1/4 cup of crumbled goat cheese and more for garnish
3/4 cup of dry white wine
1 cup of ricotta cheese (I used part-skim)
3 tbs of olive oil, divided
1 full garlic bulb,peeled and thinly sliced (I like A LOT of garlic, feel free to use a little less)
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
a few tbs of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Get a large pot of water ready on the stove for the pasta. Try and time it where the pasta is finished when the sauce/shrimp is finished.

In a very large saute pan with 1 tbs of olive oil on high heat, saute the shrimp. Do not over cook. In fact, under cook in order to prevent dryness/rubberiness. Should take 2 minutes or less on each side. Remove the shrimp and place it on a plate. Cover the plate.

Turn the skillet down low, add 2 tbs olive oil, a few pepper flakes (to taste, I didn't use very much because of my son) and the garlic. Saute for about 4-5 minutes. Do not brown the garlic! Turn heat up and add the wine. The heat should be on medium or medium high in order to cook the alcohol out of it. After about 5 or so minutes, add the heavy cream, lemon juice, goat cheese, and ricotta cheese, Mix and lower the heat to low. Add back the shrimp.

When the pasta is al dente, add it in the pan and toss. Add the parsley and cover with tin foil for about 5 minutes with the heat on low.

Garnish with more goat cheese.

Feel free to use half and half or whole milk instead of heavy cream. I had heavy cream on hand because I was trying to make homemade ice cream this past week (disaster!). Also, whole wheat pasta would work just fine as well, although it may not look as pretty with a white sauce, LOL.

I used a little of the garlic and sauted some fresh spinach with some olive oil as a vegetable side dish. A salad was be a nice accompaniment as well.


***Message to my blog fans. Ha Ha. No seriously, I wanted to mention that my blog posts will be limited for awhile while I finish up my online real estate course. However,  if I make something absolutely delicious that I must share, I will certainly post it! Happy Cooking!

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sometimes I feel like I deprive my son and husband of beef and pork so I made the suggestion that Marty grill some steaks for dinner last night. He seemed pretty receptive to that idea-I wonder why- and so I went ahead with making a vegetarian cold dish in the afternoon to compliment the steak- 0r should I say, to give me something to eat since I will not eat steak. I've never understood the appeal-sorry meat eaters!

I've made something similar that I really love called Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad (scroll down) and decided to change up the ingredients just a little bit. It was quite tasty with a good bit of protein in the quinoa and the black beans. Lately, I've been keeping sweet potatoes on hand all the time. They are super cheap (I think I got some from Kroger for 37 cents a pound recently) and filled with so much goodness! Not to mention, the sweetness makes them extra special. Oh, and they are paleo friendly, right, Dena and Jason?

1 large sweet potato or 2 small potatoes, diced to about one inch with skin on

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

2 large tomatoes or 4 small tomatoes, diced

1 cucumber, peeled and diced (unless it's an English cucumber, than only dice it)

a handful of chives, chopped

a handful of  fresh citrus mint (or regular mint), chopped

3 tsp of balsamic vinegar

the juice of one lime

3 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 tbs of olive oil, divided

salt and pepper to taste

green leaf lettuce and more lime juice on the lettuce 

1cup dried quinoa (follow directions on box)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Meanwhile, follow directions to cook the quinoa (should be 1 cup to 2 cups of water). 

On a cookie sheet, spread sweet potatoes out and toss in 1 tbs of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Toss and flip them, and continue cooking for 5 or so more minutes. Watch carefully. Because they are diced small and have natural sugar in them, they could burn. Make sure they are cooked all the way through and taste really yummy before removing them from the oven. Let cool.

Once quinoa is finished, spread it out on a platter or some tin foil in order to allow it too cool before adding it to the salad. Don't use parchment paper (I've done that before-big mistake).

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and toss. Then, add the quinoa and sweet potatoes once they are fairly cool. Cover and place in the fridge for about an hour. Serve on a platter of green leaf lettuce, arugula, or any other lettuce of your choice. I added some lime juice to the lettuce as well.

***One more comment about sweet potatoes. Roasting sweet potatoes this way, with some chopped fresh rosemary, is delicious. They can be eaten cold this way as well and easy to transport to work. A great little treat to snack on any time of the day!

Enjoy!

Orechiette and Citrus Mint Salad with Asparagus Melts

It's been too long. Way too long. And I really have no excuse other than the fact that I jump from one interest to the next on a whim. Not a great trait but it's who I am and my son's the same way. Running and cooking are always going on in my life but the blogging...well...the blogging  definitely fell by the waist side.

I would love to say that this is my excuse:

A 100 mile race I have coming up this weekend (EEK!). But, truth be told, I just get bored with blogging sometimes. And, if I don't feel like doing something, a lot of times I won't do it. I guess I'm sounding pretty spoiled. Since blogging is a choice and I don't get paid to do it, I have to be in the mood or I simply won't do it.

I'm still cooking away though, and cooking extra-healthy since Marty and I got back from Costa Rica. I ate lighter carbs than usual in Costa Rica-lots of fruit, veggies, and fish. Oh, and the best guacamole at lunch and dinner time. Since then, I've been really trying to focus on lower carbs or eating the good carbs. Now that Umstead is almost here (EEK! again), I'm definitely incorporating more carbs back into the mix. Also, lots of eggs. I just hard boiled a dozen of them and my son takes a few with him to lunch everyday as well. I figure if Ami Roach eats eggs everyday, then I need to do the same.

So, here's a light vegetarian dish that I made last night. Pretty simple but tasty. And if you're wondering, I did have plenty of protein sources earlier in the day. Protein is a very important component as an extreme endurance freak. 

Orechiette and Citrus Mint Salad

juice of one lemon
a pound of orechiette or any short pasta
15-20 kalamata olives, chopped
one container of cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
a small handful of citrus mint or feel free to use mint or even basil. Just as long as it's fresh, chopped
a small handful of chives, chopped
2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
a dash of red wine vinegar (a tbs)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
one small container of reduced fat feta cheese (about a cup or so)

Boil the water for the pasta. Follow the directions on the package and cook al dente. Drain and spread out on tin foil on a cookie sheet to cool.

Add all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss and chill for at least an hour.

Asparagus Melts


Sliced whole wheat bread (I used whole wheat Tuscan Pane from Trader Joe's)
asparagus, chopped in half and ends trimmed
thinly sliced red onion (sweet onion is okay)
mayo
dijon mustard
havarti cheese (I used dill havarti)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat Broiler

Steam asparagus for 3 minutes in a steamer. Remove immediately and place in a bath of ice water to stop the cooking and keep the asparagus bright green.

On tin foil on a cookie sheet (or two, depending on how many you are making) Toast the bread on each side in the broiler. Remove the pan and thinly spread mayo and mustard. Then, add the asparagus, thinly sliced onion, and cheese. Place back in the oven for a few minutes. The cheese should be melted and the bread should be toasted.

I used very little cheese but use more if you'd like. And, feel free to use other types of cheese such as cheddar, swiss, gruyere...

Enjoy!

Fast and Healthy Mahi Mahi dish

On this night, I had good intentions. I was going to create a pretty fancy dinner with the fresh mahi mahi fish that I bought from Whole Foods. I must admit, it was a little pricey-more than what I normally like to spend. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the time to execute my fancy dinner. That happens.

This meal couldn’t have been easier and was tasty. The whole thing took no time at all. 

I preheated the oven to 450. Tossed the asparagus and baby yukon gold potatoes in a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Placed them in the oven and turned them once. They took about 15 minutes. On one side of the sheet pan, I had the asparagus. On the other side, I had the potatoes. It worked out nicely. I was worried the asparagus would get mushy but it didn’t. I think it’s very important for the potatoes to be really small or cut in half or quartered.

I preheated the grill pan and rubbed the mahi mahi with minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little bit of lemon juice. Grilled each side, about 5 minutes, and then covered with tin foil until ready to eat.

Then, I tossed some arugula with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Served the meal with lemon wedges for the mahi mahi. 

Easy and quick. And definitely healthy. Feel free to add tartar sauce, sour cream, or any other condiment that you'd like. But, for me, simple sometimes is just what I need. 

Mushroom Strogabeth

I had a lot of fun making this healthy and easy dish.  Sorry for the silly name. Couldn't help myself.  I looked at a lot of different recipes and decided on this combination. Definitely excited to use some of my dried shittake mushrooms. 

1 small package of portabello mushrooms, sliced

2 cups of dried shittake mushrooms 

reserved water from dried mushrooms

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 sweet onion, diced

1 package of wide egg noodles

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1 cup of low fat sour cream

2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

a pinch of dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs of Worcestershire sauce

1 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

In a bowl, add dried mushrooms, fill to the top with hot water. Let sit for at least 10 minutes. 

Start boiling the water for the egg noodles.

In a large deep skillet, saute onion, garlic, and thyme on low/medium heat with oil until soft. Add the shittake and portabello mushrooms. Continue to saute for about 10 minutes. Add wine, water from the shittake mushrooms, Add Worcestershire sauce and sour cream. Mix and lower heat to low. Salt and pepper to taste. Be careful to not add too much salt. Worcestershire sauce is salty.

Add the noodles and parsley and toss. Cover with tin foil on the stove with the heat on low or off.

Serve with a side dish of sauted spinach or a salad. Feel free to use organic egg noodles. 

Michelle's Popcorn Cauliflower

When I was on Facebook recently, I saw the most lovely looking cauliflower dish made by Michelle Frank. Michelle is like me. She loves to cook. She loves to share her recipes with others. And more than anything, she loves really good healthy food. She’s a marathon runner and a busy working mom of two young girls. If she can make the time to cook wonderful meals for her family, than no one has any excuses. Well, I don’t mean to sound like such a hard a$$, but, you get my drift.

Now, the photo of her popcorn cauliflower dish was what drew me in. Cauliflower is wonderful for you but can be oh so boring. This didn’t look boring at all. In fact it looked just darn right delicious. The shocker was that it WAS absolutely delicious. I have never seen my husband get so excited about cauliflower and even go back for a second helping. He said, “This is a keeper!”  and “I can’t believe I’m going back for seconds of cauliflower!”. 

And, I do want to mention how easy it is to prepare this side dish. It takes two seconds to mix a few spices together, cut up some cauliflower, mix it together and toss it in the oven. Fast, delicious, healthy....what more could you want?

1 head cauliflower, cut head into medium sized florets, discard stems;

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

4 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat Oven to 450

2. Line a jelly roll pan or baking sheet with parchment paper (DO NOT try to just spray aluminum foil with Pam or the like). 

3. In a large bowl, combine all of the above ingredients except the cauliflower and shake vigorously until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cauliflower florets to evenly coat.

3. Place in a single layer on the prepared sheet.

4. Roast uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes, until the largest pieces can be pierced with a fork.

Michelle’s notes: I roast this for a lot longer than 30 to 35 minutes because we like it really browned. You can see the difference between the picture in the recipe book in the picture and what mine looks like when it's roasted for a longer period of time. I also set a timer for 20 minutes when it first goes in, and then I move it around every so often so that it roasts (eh, burns) evenly. 

Also, as a major side note, don't ever make just one serving at a time. If you only make 1 head there will not be any left by the time your family is ready to sit down and eat because you will have eaten all yourself to the point of scraping every last burned morsel off the tray.

If you have Pampered Chef Stoneware, this does wonderfully on a very seasoned tray, but if not DO NOT forget the parchment paper!

Michelle and her family after finishing the Atlanta Marathon 2011

Michele's Crock-Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

The other day while on Facebook, I saw the most wonderful looking soup made by Michele Hartwig, an awesome ultra runner. I noticed that she not only used her crock-pot, which I haven’t used in years, but she also used a whole chicken. I’ve made a quick stove top version of chicken noodle soup using chicken breasts on the rib and store bought stock, but never completely homemade stock. 

I was a little nervous pulling out the crock-pot. In fact, I had to get Marty to reach up high, way in the back of the cabinet, to pull it out. I wasn’t sure it even still worked. I figured that if it didn’t work, I could run out to Bed Bath & Beyond or somewhere like that and buy a new one really quick. I got lucky and it seemed to work but it just wasn’t getting very hot. I understand it’s a “slow” cooker but even still, it just didn’t seem to be getting as warm as it should- even on the high setting.

After a little over four hours, I pulled the chicken out, strained the stock, cut up the chicken and continued to keep it on high. My next concern was to get the egg noodles cooked soon enough- it was almost time to eat! 

Another problem was that the stock just wasn’t flavorful and rich enough. No matter how much salt I added, it still didn’t have enough richness. The cause may very well be the crock-pot not getting hot enough. So I had to add some ingredients to give the stock some more richness.

If your crock-pot is working well, unlike mine, feel free to omit the carton of chicken stock. It was actually a little painful to add the store bought stock. I really didn’t want to do this. But, the truth is: THIS WAS THE BEST CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP I HAVE EVER HAD!

Okay, here is the recipe:

1 whole chicken (I used a free range organic chicken)

7-10 garlic cloves

bunch of fresh thyme

5 carrots, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

3 stalks of celery, roughly chopped

generous amount of salt

freshly ground pepper

water

1 carton of organic chicken broth

1/2 cup of regular cream

1 tablespoon of flour

a dash of hot sauce

1 bag of dried egg noodles (Michele uses noodles made with free range eggs)

1 handful of chopped flat leaf parsley or to taste

Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Stuff the cavity with garlic and thyme and place in the crock-pot. Add carrots, celery, onion and salt and pepper to the pot. Add water to the pot so that it's the chicken and veggies by at least an inch or two. Keep on high for 4 hours. You don’t need to check it unless you are obsessive-compulsive like me! 

After 4 hours, remove the chicken from the crock-pot, let slightly cool, and debone. Then, cut into bite size pieces. Remove contents from the crock-pot and use a strainer to separate the liquid. Pour liquid back into the pot. Add back the chicken. 

Michele adds more sliced carrots (not the original carrots from the stock) but I forgot to do this. 

Even with added salt and some hot sauce, I still couldn’t get enough flavor in the stock so I added a carton of chicken stock. I also added flour and regular cream to make it a little creamy. Feel free to omit this, depending on how you prefer your chicken noodle soup.

Michele says to add the noodles to the stock pot and let cook for 12 to 15 minutes. Again, because of the time, a crock-pot not getting warm enough, and adding room temperature store bought stock, I ended up throwing everything in a large pot and bringing it all to a boil on the stove. Then, I turned it on low for about 5 minutes until the noodles were cooked and added the chopped parsley.

So, a crock-pot chicken soup that was supposed to be easy, ended up being a lot of work including another pot to wash. But, I must say that after all, the soup was absolutely delicious. I guess it’s time to shop for a new crock-pot because I’m determined to make the next recipe EASY and delicious. Thank you Michele for the recipe!