I was looking for a somewhat light version of creamed spinach that I could serve over a baked potato. I used this recipe, with fat free cottage cheese and Smart Balance Light. It served it’s purpose over the baked potato, but the consistency was fairly thick. It also would have been better with some cheese. I may tweak this recipe again, and also try baking it in the oven. Still, I’ve been on the hunt for new potato toppings, and am glad I tried this one. It did make a warm and filling lunch!

I made a very simplified version of this Red Wine Braised Chicken recipe, but it was still an excellent meal! The original recipe does look good, but I am not a fan of olives, capers, or opening a can of tomato paste for just one tablespoon. As you can see, the chicken does end up tinted red. The chicken was very tender though, and there was plenty of sauce so this would be great served over couscous or barley. This looks quite fancy, but has minimal ingredients and yes, there are even a couple of glasses of wine leftover.

Many times I walk in the door fairly late and hungry for dinner. If I don’t have something already prepared that I can heat up, I look for a quick and simple option. This dish was perfect for that situation.

I took out two pots, one medium and one small. The larger one got filled with water, and put on high heat to boil. I put a can of diced tomatoes in the smaller pot, along with half a cup of pumpkin. (The rest of that can of pumpkin got saved for pumpkin oats, of course!) I added a dash of garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the sauce, and set it on medium-low heat to simmer. When the water boiled, I tossed in some whole wheat pasta and cooked it for 8 minutes. By the time I drained the pasta, the sauce was heated through, and I topped the pasta with the sauce and some grated Parmesan. Within about 20 minutes, a healthy dinner was served!

So that’s my third goal of 2010 – to come up with meals that are healthy, simple, and quick. Maybe next time I’ll set a timer and see just how long it did take me to throw this meal together!

It was a great plan to nestle a pasta course between the antipasto salad and the Christmas roast. But not just any pasta, we wanted to try homemade gnocchi. I made this ricotta version earlier in the year, but on Christmas we tried potato gnocchi from 101 Cookbooks. The writer admits that making this pasta can be difficult, and indeed there were eight hands involved in rolling, cutting, and marking the gnocchi with the tines of the fork. But we had high hopes as the gnocchi flew into the pot of boiling water.

More cookie recipes coming later, I promise. In the meantime, this super easy chicken recipe was a hit with my family! I even cheated on a few steps. First, I used chicken broth instead of wine because funny enough, there wasn’t actually a bottle open. Second, I browned the chicken breasts the night before, but mixed the chicken and all of the other ingredients directly in the crockpot the next day. Keep in mind this recipe only needs to cook for 4 hours, so unless you’re up late, this isn’t a good candidate for overnight crockpot cooking.

Prior to serving, I shredded the chicken, and snapped the photo below. There was quite a bit of sauce, so you could easily serve this over noodles or rice. I will definitely make this one again!

I’ve actually had a bag of dried pinto beans in my cupboard for a while, waiting for the opportunity to make my very own refried beans. Although technically, these beans weren’t fried at all! I followed this easy recipe, but left out the cumin and added some red pepper for just a slight kick. Yes, you need to soak the beans the night before, and yes, they do need to sit on the stove for a while, but they require very little hands on time. One pound of beans makes quite a lot, so I stashed some in the freezer for later. I really liked both the texture and flavor of these, and used them the first night to make a bean quesadilla!

This was by far the best tofu I’ve made. I’ve had a few stir-fry disasters where the tofu either burned at the bottom, or turned to mush, but this method prevents all that. Two other bloggers have done a fantastic job of capturing the whole process both here and here. I cut the tofu block into slices, and pat them dry with a paper towel. Then, I marinated the slices in soy sauce for about a half hour, and baked them on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray for about 40 minutes at 400F, turning them halfway through. That’s it!

The pieces of baked tofu are firm and flavorful, and I know that not everyone is into tofu in the first place, but if it’s just a little fear that’s holding you back, give this a try!

I can’t take any credit for this amazing braciole, but it was so good that I had to share it here. This is my Mom’s recipe, and she doesn’t make it very often so it’s a special dinner. It’s a little intimidating to me to tie up the rolls with butcher string, but I’ll have to try it myself one of these days. If you have a homemade tomato sauce you love, like this one, feel free to use that instead of making a sauce with the crushed tomatoes at the end.

This dish is peasant food, nutrition on a budget. And while it won’t win any beauty pageants, it was quite good! Here is the recipe, which I followed pretty closely until I could not locate the parsley that I was sure was in my freezer. This dish really can stand on it’s own, but it was even better when I mixed in some leftover vegetables from another meal.

I was walking through the local produce market, and spotted a squash that was new to me. I had never heard of abobora, but I decided to give it a try. I was also in the mood to use fresh cranberries, and had some barley on hand.

The barley cranberry mixture could actually stand on it’s own as a side dish, but it did complement the squash. I forgot just how tart fresh cranberries are though, and added a touch more brown sugar at the end. The squash itself was similar to butternut squash, with a mild flavor. Overall, a fun experiment, and I’ll pick up another abobora soon.

1 abobora squash, sliced in half and seeds removed
1/2 c. barley
1/2 c. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 c. water
1 T Parmesan
1 T walnuts
1 t brown sugar
Salt
Pepper

In a medium saucepan, mix barley, cranberries, and water. Cover pot, and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, or until water is almost absorbed. Stir in Parmesan, walnuts, and brown sugar. Press stuffing into squash halves, and place in a baking dish covered with foil. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and bake 15 more minutes or until squash is soft.