Coconut Red Lentil Soup

I was so excited to make this recipe the other day! I thought it was going to turn out to be a beautiful and delicious soup, with yellow split peas, red lentils, bright green scallions, carrots, and more. Most of the recipes I’ve tried from 101 Cookbooks have turned out well.

But it was such a disappointment – certainly an edible meal, but not great. To be fair, I am not sure I toasted the curry powder correctly. I swished it around in a frying pan for a bit, but perhaps not long enough. The soup had a lot of great ingredients, but nothing really stood out. I even let it simmer longer until it was quite thick, as suggested. I won’t try this one again myself, but I wanted to post about it anyway because you do have to keep trying new recipes to find the truly great ones.

Savoy Cabbage and Pasta

Jamie Oliver is a popular topic these days, with his Food Revolution campaign and television show. Feeding schoolchildren healthy meals is really important, and so is cooking healthy meals for people of all ages….

I saw Jamie’s recipe for Farfalle with Savoy Cabbage, Pancetta, and Mozzarella, and decided to make it for myself. The original recipe is probably excellent, but I did make several changes. First, I used regular ham which I had leftover from another recipe instead of buying pancetta. I also used whole wheat penne, because I couldn’t find whole wheat farfalle. And I left out the pine nuts, because they were going to require a separate trip to the store. It was very exciting though to use savoy cabbage for the first time!

Be warned, this recipe makes a lot; the cabbage bulks up the dish. But I really like it; the flavors go together well, and it’s a one dish meal. I’d consider this next time you are cooking for a crowd!

Amore Tomato Paste

Where has this product been all my life!? I was complaining one day about how I hated opening up a can of tomato paste when I needed just a tablespoon or two for a recipe, and you guys told me to look for it in a tube. About a month ago, I found it at the grocery store when I needed just a bit of tomato paste for the Mushroom Bourguignon. And it came in really handy last week when I was whipping up the dressing for the Pepperoni Pizza Salad. There are no added ingredients, just tomato paste and salt. You can easily squeeze it right from the tube into a measuring spoon and there’s no mess. I highly recommend this product – there will always be a tube in my refrigerator from now on.

Note: I purchased this product at retail value, and was not compensated in any way to try this product or write a review.

Easy Shrimp Bisque

I was flipping through my most recent issue of Real Simple magazine, and came across this recipe for Easy Shrimp Bisque. I had some shrimp in the freezer and it sounded like a nice meal, but it calls for one cup of heavy cream, which didn’t seem necessary. So I revamped it quite a bit using ingredients I had in the house, and it was really good! It’s still a simple recipe, just a lot healthier. I don’t normally have fat free sour cream in the house, but I think Greek yogurt will work so I’ll try that next time.

2 t olive oil
1 t minced garlic
1/2 lb. raw shrimp, thawed, peeled, and chopped
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1/3 c. skim milk
1/3 c. fat free sour cream

Heat olive oil in a pot on medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add shrimp, and cook for 3-4 minutes, just until shrimp turns pink. Turn heat to medium-low, and add tomatoes, milk, and sour cream. Cook until heated through, but be careful not to let it boil.

Pepperoni Pizza Salad

I can’t remember the last time I purchased pepperoni; I wasn’t even sure where to look for it in the store. And no, sliced turkey pepperoni isn’t exactly a natural food, but it was a tasty treat in this salad! The original recipe is from Green Lite Bites, although I changed up the vegetables, and used green leaf lettuce and Parmesan cheese. It’s the dressing that I think is really unique, it tastes just like pizza sauce with a mix of olive oil, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, and water.

I brought it to work as a salad with the dressing on the side, shown here, and also threw it into a wrap which was pretty good too. Maybe you can satisfy your next pizza craving with a salad?

Mushroom Casserole

It might be spring, but it still feels like winter out there, and casseroles such as this one are warm and cozy. The recipe is really simple, and you could probably change it many different ways. I used whole wheat couscous in place of the rice, and thyme in place of the tarragon, plus fat free cottage cheese. I couldn’t wait to dive into this dish when it came out of the oven after smelling the mushrooms and Parmesan, and it was just as good as I expected.

Hawaiian Mini Calzones

My supper club theme this month was “30 Minute Meals” and while we had a number of great dishes, a few of them went over 30 minutes, including mine! I have posted many times about making pizza, etc. with Trader Joe’s whole wheat dough, and this is one more variation. It’s a generally quick recipe, but by the time you roll out the dough, assemble the calzones, and bake them, it’s closer to 40-45 minutes.

1 lb. Trader Joe’s whole wheat dough, divided into 8 small balls
8 thin slices ham
8 thin slices mozzarella cheese
4 pineapple rings
Tomato sauce, for dipping

Roll out each portion of dough into an oval. Fold the cheese slice around the ham, and place on one half of the dough. Top with half of a pineapple ring, and fold over dough, pinching the edges. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce.

NuWave Dinner II

Since her first NuWave dinner party was such a success, my friend Paula invited a bunch of us over for a second one. If you didn’t catch the first post, the NuWave cooks food using a combination of conduction, convection, and infrared heat. It cooks much more quickly than a regular oven, and sits right on the counter top.

But before we got to any cooking at all, we sat outside on her deck (yes, in Boston, in March, without coats) enjoying some appetizers and wine.

From start to finish, the NuWave cooked chicken breasts, potatoes, and vegetables in 45 minutes. The oven comes with a laminated card which indicates exactly how many minutes it will take for each type of food to cook, and it was perfectly accurate. The potatoes went in first, for 25 minutes on High.

Then, we added sliced vegetables which had been tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and placed the marinated chicken on the rack. The oven was set for 10 minutes on High, we turned the chicken and tossed the vegetables, and then cooked it for a final 10 minutes.


The chicken stayed very moist; it did not dry out at all like it does sometimes in the oven. The potatoes were baked perfectly, and the vegetables were nicely roasted. The flavor of each food was distinct, even though they were in close proximity in the oven.

If you’ve ever tried to cook 3 different things in the regular oven at the same time, you know what’s it like to be juggling baking dishes and trying to be sure that everything is done just right. But perhaps the biggest advantage to the NuWave is when you’re cooking for a large group, and your regular oven just isn’t big enough. Of course, it is another appliance which needs to be stored somewhere, which is always a problem for me….
Thanks to Paula for hosting a fun night, group cooking projects are so much fun and the final product was delicious! And I didn’t even document the chocolate cake and ice cream….

Spaghetti Squash Gratin

Spaghetti squash is fairly versatile vegetable. Last year, I featured it in a casserole with tomato sauce and made pancakes. This recipe though is my new favorite, and it’s very simple with only 4 ingredients. It does take some time to bake the squash initially, and while you can’t really leave the house with the oven on, you don’t have to pay much attention either. If you’re completely bored with your usual vegetable rotation, give this a try.

I’d like to remake this recipe into a main dish casserole, and maybe give it some color. Any ideas?