Cooking has never been my strong point, healthy cooking especially. But that has started to change. Thank you Pinterest! My new found enjoyment and interest in cooking has resulting in 116 pins on my Food board vs. 115 on my Crafty Goodness board. My world has been turned upside down! (Not a fair comparison as I have separate boards for Sewing, Embroidery, and Zentangles.)
But sometimes I can’t find the exact recipe for either the ingredients I have on hand or for what I have in mind. Take this dinner I made recently as an example. I had the bag of frozen spinach tortellini and wanted to make a light, healthy meal with it. I had a jar of alfredo sauce but I wanted something fresh and not as chemically laden and heavy as that. I also had some nice fresh mushrooms and a bottle of Chardonnay.
Here’s what I did: (recipe amounts are approximate as I didn’t measure or write anything down.)
- 1 bag frozen spinach tortellini (I think mine were Butolli)
- 2T butter or olive oil
- 1 T. minced garlic
- 2 cups white wine
- 2 cups stock (I used chicken because that’s what I had but I would prefer vegetable or mushroom)
- 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/2 cup artichoke hearts (I forgot to add these but I tossed them in the next day when we had this for leftovers)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- grated fresh parmesan cheese
Boil water and cook pasta gently. Strain and rinse.
Heat oil or butter in sauce pan. Add garlic and cook until tender. Add wine and stock simmer until liquids cook down about half. Add mushrooms, tomatoes and artichokes and cook until tender. Season to taste.
Toss wine sauce and pasta. Sprinkle with fresh parmesan.
Other options would be asparagus, spinach, roasted peppers.
This was a quick, easy, tasty meal that didn’t take much time or money and sure beats my old-fashioned tuna noodle casserole for healthy eating.
Sunday I made this fabulous and very impressive bread. (Click on the photo to be taken to the website with the recipe and instructions.) It was so easy and delicious. The only hitch is that you have to plan ahead. I made the dough Saturday evening and let it slow rise for almost 18 hours. But patience and planning paid off. We ate it with bowls of hearty vegetable beef stew. No recipe for the stew, Steve made it and in his usual style he kind of winged it and it was delicious.
We capped dinner off with dessert (Sunday is our “cheat” day). Steve had found fresh rhubarb at the grocery store and brought a big bunch home. I was going to make my famous (in my own mind) rhubarb pie but then decided to try something different.
I tried a Rhubarb Buckle I found on Pinterest.(Click on photo to go to recipe) I made a few modifications to the recipe. The original was made in a 10×10 pan and I had this glass cake dish instead. The recipe says that it makes enough dough for a 9×13 pan and will have leftover crumble so I just decided to use it all in a bigger pan. I also didn’t have much luck rolling my dough out between parchment paper and transferring to the pan. I just put it in the pan and used my hands and a rubber spatula to press it into the bottom. I did line my pan with parchment and it did aid in clean up but I don’t think it was really necessary.
We ate this with a scoop of ice cream and it was very good. Next time I might add some cinnamon and chopped almonds or walnuts to the crumb topping.
I’ve also been throwing together some yummy smoothies and juices but I never take the time to get photos of them before I drink them. Usually because I make them first thing in the morning on my way out the door. I’ll share my tips and tricks for smoothies and juices in a later post. In the meantime, I have artichokes to go steam in the crockpot. I think they may become artichoke-spinach pasta sauce later today.
