Tricolor Pasta and LOTS of Veggies!

I don’t mean to brag much …but woohoo did I create something delicious in the kitchen today!! My son asked for some pasta for lunch.  Immediately I felt inspired when I saw a bag of frozen roasted bell peppers and onions.

I threw them into a sauce pan with a little EVOO and basil. I boiled water for  tri-color rotini while I shredded a carrot and ½ of a zucchini. This was tossed into the sauce pan with the onions and peppers. I continued to cook it on low heat with a cover while the pasta boiled. I had some leftover three cheese spaghetti sauce from Trader Joe’s.  I tossed the pasta with the vegetables and spaghetti sauce. 

The end dish resulted in asking for seconds. It packed lots of flavor and my personal favorite is the addition of more vegetables. 

What are some ways you are incorporating more fruits or vegetables into your dishes?

Stuffed Peppers Recipe

In the last year, I’ve learned so much about myself since meeting Vlada (founder and owner of Cooking and Kids). I was introduced to her by a mutual friend of ours who owns Delaney’s who said we have a lot in common. That we do!! She has a heart to help solve the American obesity epidemic by sharing the value of good nutrition and understands true networking. She is an awesome chef! I’ve learned a few recipes from watching her live (see stuffed shells) and also on YouTube. You can subscribe here. The most recent video I watched was “How To Make Stuffed Peppers”. (Be sure to check her video out for the original recipe.)

Before I share my rendition, let me explain further what I’ve learned about myself. I’ve learned that it’s okay to experiment in the kitchen and go with your gut when substituting ingredients. Sometimes it’s just a trial and error kind of relationship you verses the recipe or simply needing more practice. I have a lot to learn – such as fine tuning my knife skills, understanding flavor combinations and seasoning. Below is my rendition.

15-20 minutes to prepare and 45 minutes to bake

3 large bell peppers (serves 6 – watch your portion sizes)

EVOO

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup of shredded carrots

½ cup of zucchini

2 tsp of garlic (I used minced garlic)

½ cup of fresh baby spinach

1 lb grass fed beef

¼ cup panko bread crumbs (free of controversial ingredients)

1 egg

Rinaldi tomato sauce

Water

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: brown rice, precooked

Heat oven to 360 degrees. Sauté onion with EVOO until translucent. Add carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add minced garlic. I added panko bread crumbs because I didn’t have any mushrooms that the original recipe called for to maintain moisture when roasting. (I know with breadcrumbs in meatloaves that this works great.) Add beef and brown tossing it with the veggies. Add spinach. (I added this to pack more nutritional power and give it more color.) Remove from heat and add 1 egg. Stir until evenly coated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cut stems out of the peppers. Remove seeds. STUFF the peppers with the meat mixture.

Water down your favorite tomato sauce and use this as a base in your dish (or substitute your favorite sauce). Place stuffed peppers in bake ware and make sure the sauce covers ¼ of the way up from the bottom of the dish. Bake for 45 minutes covered.

I made this dish at 8:30p and it was done an hour later. I forgot to add the precooked rice to the beef mixture but the peppers with the veggie laden beef was plenty (especially with such a late dinner!).

The next day for leftovers, I cooked some brown rice to boot and sprinkled feta cheese on top. Ah-mazing!  Thank you Vlada for inspiring novice chefs like me!!

Please stop by my new Facebook page: Conveying Awareness with Jessica David and click like and share with me how you found me. 

Lastly and as always, Choose, Eat, and Live Well. =)

Recipe: "Cake Bread" - Zucchini Bread

Recipe for Zucchini Bread

I use 3 mini loaf pans because the “cake-bread” cooks better and leaves the edges a little crisp and the middle nice and moist. I’ve tried the regular size and it didn’t cook evenly.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of flour (I use whole wheat)

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp nutmeg

1 cup shredded unpeeled zucchini (I typically add more)

1 cup sugar

¼ cup oil (I use canola oil)

1 egg

1 tsp lemon peel zest (my zest doesn’t work so I use 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice)

Pam – or other oil to grease the pans

Optional: ¼ cup of walnuts, almonds, etc of your liking

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grab two bowls – medium and large.

In the smaller of the two bowls, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In the other bowl, combine the shredded zucchini, egg, sugar, oil and lemon.

Pour the flour mixture into the bigger bowl and stir until moist. Divide into greased loaf pan(s).  Bake.  I let them cook for 30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out dry. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then on wire rack until cool to the touch. Wrap in foil and store in air tight container. It keeps up to 4 days (but it won't last that long!)

Buon Appetito!

New Zucchini Recipe

I made this recipe Tuesday night using organic ingredients. I served the zucchini with a side of whole wheat rotini (Sun Harvest) and tomato sauce (Newman's Own). I substituted the typical italian bread crumbs (Progresso) with Panko bread crumbs italian flavor because of the HFCS. It was a hit with my 2.5 year old son. =)

Enjoy the Oven-fried Zucchini.

The next time I make them I will try dipping them in water instead of milk to see if the breading sticks a little better. Though they weren't fully breaded upon completion, they still tasted great! But I'm a bit bias because I love zucchini!!!

Veggie Pizza

I stumbled upon a recipe for "Fresh Veggie Pizza" the other day and thought, what a great concept. The bread is cooked but all the veggies are fresh. I had heard of something similar before with Pampered Chef at one of their product presentations. The recipe that I had found initially asked for Pillsbury crescent rolls for the bread but these rolls have either HFCS and/or hydrogenated oils and sometimes artificial colors. Other recipes called for making your own pizza dough and I'm not that confident with breads yet so I requested some suggestions on my "The HFCS-FREE Challenge" fan page on Facebook. A few said to pick up the ready made pizza bread or to use English Muffins in place of the pizza bread and make miniature pizzas. Then ah ha!! A light bulb went off in my head and I remembered my favorite pita bread company of all time at the local Farmer's Market. They sell hummus too. I usually make a heirloom tomato salad to stuff the pitas with but this time I knew I could use them for my veggie pizzas.

So tonight it started out that I coated the pita bread with EVOO and baked it for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. It came out slightly crispy around the edges and soft in the middle - perfect! I cut up some yellow bell peppers, broccoli, squash and zucchini to be used as the toppings. I had a lot of squash and zucchini left over so I decided to roast the remaining with EVOO, minced garlic and thyme with rosemary mix for about 10 minutes. When the extra veggies were roasting the pita was cooling. When I smelled the veggies roasting and saw the raw veggies with no seasoning in the bowl, I decided to use the roasted veggies instead.

Once the pita was cooled, I spread some artichoke feta hummus over the top and then sprinkled the pita with all the roasted veggies. I added a pinch of sea salt and voila! It was complete. I put the extra fresh veggies in the fridge for use tomorrow.

It's a green and yellow theme but goodness the flavor was delish. Of course you may use any variant of veggies you prefer. My fridge is stocked full of many different veggies and I simply love zucchini and squash together that I thought I'd just do the two color combinations.

Buon Appetito!!

Recap of ingredients:
Baba's Foods Mediterranean (BFM) Pita Bread heated at 325 with EVOO;
BFM Artichoke Feta Hummus spread on bread once cooled;
Zucchini, Squash, Broccoli and Yellow Pepper roasted at 325 with EVOO, minced garlic and thyme & rosemary;
sprinkled with sea salt.