Roasted Tomato Bisque

Last night we wanted grilled cheese and tomato soup. I have some Costco tomato soup in the freezer, but I decided I wanted to make some from scratch. Of course, I thought roasting fresh tomatoes would be superior to canned. I added some white wine and fresh aromatics. The secret to a creamy soup without a ton of calories is evaporated 2% milk. Somehow, evaporated 2% milk has the same amount of calories as evaporated skim milk, so that was my choice. It still has things added to it, but I thought maybe it would be less altered than the skim.

Roasted tomato bisque with grilled black forest ham & cheddar & chèvre on homemade bread

Roasted Tomato Bisque
2 1/2 lb vine tomatoes (choose organic if it's not too cost-prohibitive), halved with stem removed
oil spray
1 to 2 T butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 large celery stalks, chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1/2 t dried thyme
1 C white wine (I used pinot grigio)
4 C chicken stock
1 can (12 oz) evaporated 2% milk
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 450°F. Lay tomatoes on a baking sheet, spray with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes, until tomatoes are soft and caramelized.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until it starts to brown. Add the carrot, celery, garlic, and thyme and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the carrot starts to soften. Pour in the wine, deglaze the pot, and bring it to a boil.

Let the wine cook down a bit (just a few minutes), then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Carefully add the tomatoes to the soup.

Deglaze the baking sheet with some liquid from the pot and pour it into the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the soup simmer until the carrots are tender. Puree the soup either with an immersion blender or by ladling it into a blender.

After blending, strain it for a less rustic texture. I like it rustic, so I didn't strain it. Stir in the evaporated milk and bring it back up to temperature if you used a regular blender because it will have cooled.

Serve (preferably with grilled cheese)!

Serves 6 (that's 3 big ladle-fulls).

Marinated Tri-Tip, Zucchini Latkes, and Roasted Red Potatoes

I was having one of my weirder cravings today, and that was for HP Fruity sauce. I had already planned to cook the tri-tip I had in the fridge, so I decided to marinate it in the HP Fruity along with some soy sauce (of course) and malt vinegar. To go with it, I made zucchini latkes (trying everything to get my husband to like zucchini!) and roasted red potatoes. The potatoes take the longest (about 40 minutes), so I started those first.

There's one zucchini latke missing because I forgot to take a picture of my plate first!

Roasted Red Potatoes
1 1/2 lb baby red potatoes
oil spray
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425°F. Wash the potatoes and cut them into 2-inch chunks. Lay them out on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for a couple of minutes if they're not completely dry. Once dry, spray the potato chunks with oil (I used olive), and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for about 40 minutes. This makes 4 servings, so you'll either have leftovers or use fewer potatoes. I like leftover potatoes (I ate them for breakfast today with cheese, jalapeños, sour cream, and a fried egg).

Zucchini Latkes
1 large (about 8 oz or 225 g) zucchini, shredded
1 t salt
1 shallot, shredded
1 egg
1/4 C bread crumbs or crushed matzo
pepper

In a large bowl, sprinkle the salt on the shredded zucchini and let sit for 10-20 minutes, then squeeze out the excess liquid. You could do this in a fine mesh strainer, but I didn't feel like washing another dish. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon onto a warm skillet or griddle (sprayed with oil if not non-stick) and press flat. Cook on both sides until browned and tender. Serve with sour cream. Makes 6 5-inch latkes, which I decided were 2 servings.

Seared & Roasted Marinated Tri-Tip
1-ish lb tri-tip or other lean beef
HP Fruity (or just HP sauce or A-1, I suppose)
soy sauce
malt vinegar
garlic powder
black pepper

Pour all of the things over the steak and stir it around. Let it marinate for a few hours, flipping at least once. Sear in a hot pan and finish in the oven at 325°F.  Once the potatoes were finished, I pulled them out and turned the oven down, then put the steak in for about 8 minutes. The time in the oven depends on how you like your meat cooked. This was unintentionally medium-well, FYI. There were 3 pieces of meat in my 1.18-lb package, so this was 3 servings.

This is only the beginning of the sear, btw.

DINNER!!!

Baked Tonkatsu and Sesame Garlic Brussels Sprouts

Normally, tonkatsu is fried and super delicious. Now, I have nothing against frying or fat or oil or anything, but fat has more calories than carbohydrates or protein. So I decided to see if baking it works. And it does. Baked tonkatsu is not as good as fried, of course, but it's still quite delicious and has far fewer calories. Typically, it's served with steamed white rice and raw shredded green cabbage. I decided that the panko bread crumbs were enough carbohydrates that rice was unnecessary, and that raw shredded green cabbage is boring, so I cooked up some shredded Brussels spouts with garlic and sesame oil.

Baked Tonkatsu
1 lb boneless pork cutlets
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 C panko bread crumbs
salt and pepper
coconut oil spray (or another high-heat oil)

Let me first say that you probably won't use all of the flour or bread crumbs, so you can adjust those accordingly after you've made it once. Every pork cutlet is different, though, so put more in your dishes to be safe so you don't have to wash your hands and refill mid-dredge. I ended up using about 1/6 C of flour and not quite 1 C of bread crumbs (I think... the package was not labeled correctly, so I went by weight when I input it in MFP's recipe builder).

Preheat your oven to 450°F. Set a wire rack on a cookie sheet and spray the rack with oil.

Pour the flour onto a plate, add salt and pepper, and mix together. Beat the egg in a small bowl (you may want to add a little water for consistency) with a touch of salt and pepper. Pour the bread crumbs into a bowl that is large enough to accommodate the cutlets.

Coat a cutlet in the seasoned flour, shake off the excess, then dunk it in the egg, let the excess egg drip off, then toss it in the bread crumbs until it's well-coated. Place it on the wire rack and repeat with the remaining cutlets. Put them in the oven for about 12 minutes, turning once. Oven temperatures can vary, so if they aren't browning, turn your oven all the way up for an additional few minutes. I think next time I'm going to spray them with oil just for that hint of fried flavor.

Before serving, cut the tonkatsu into strips. Serve with katsu sauce and sesame garlic Brussels sprouts.

Katsu Sauce
2 T ketchup
1 T molasses
2 T ponzu sauce (you could use soy sauce, but ponzu is better)
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t black pepper

Mix everything together! Usually I add 2 T unsweetened applesauce as well, but I'm out right now. You should add it if you have it.

Sesame Garlic Brussels Sprouts
1 T sesame oil
4 small cloves of garlic
1 10-oz bag shaved Brussels sprouts (I suppose you could get whole sprouts and shave them yourself)
salt and pepper
1 T soy sauce
Sesame seeds for garnish

Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over low heat. Smash and peel the garlic, then slice it thinly. Add the garlic and Brussels sprouts to the oil and season with a little salt (just a bit because of the soy sauce later) and pepper. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the soy sauce at the end. Spoon into bowls and garnish with sesame seeds (I did both black and white for fun).

Put it all together:

Serves 2.

Grilled Marinated Chicken and Stuff

This chicken was SOO good. I apologize for not having pictures of the meal once completed (though you do get bonus leftovers pics), but it actually wasn't terribly pretty. I was craving fajitas, but didn't want to cut up a bunch of chicken or cook indoors, so I decided to leave the chicken breasts intact, marinate them, and make my husband grill them!

Marinade:
orange juice
soy sauce
white vinegar
sunflower oil (just a touch)
garlic powder
ground cumin
ground coriander seed
cayenne pepper
black pepper

Place all ingredients in whatever proportion you want into a large zipper bag and mix it around a bit. Add in some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. You could use lime juice instead of orange, but I needed to use up some orange juice that I bought for my dad since we don't drink it.

Accompaniments:
bell pepper, cut into strips
jalapeño pepper, seeded and cut into strips
yellow onion, sliced
olive oil spray
salt & pepper
can of black beans
shredded Mexican cheese blend (I bought a light blend and can't tell any difference)
sliced avocado
tortillas

Place the veggies on a large sheet of aluminum foil that has been sprayed with olive oil, then spray the veggies. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them and toss. Seal up the foil to make a pouch for grillin'.

Grill the chicken and veggie pouch over high flame. We like our meat kind of charred and our veggies caramelized. Make sure you flip everything at some point. Cook the chicken until an instant-read thermometer registers at least 160° F, then let it rest for 5 minutes while you heat up the beans and tortillas. Note: I heat tortillas directly over the flame on my gas stove. Slice up the chicken and plate it with the grilled veggies, beans topped with shredded cheese, avocado, and tortilla.

Nutrition info:

Bonus: Leftovers!

Poor little (big, actually) blurry chicken breast

In a very large bowl, I have:
2 C butter lettuce
2 C baby spinach
1/4 C light shredded Mexican cheese blend
1/2 C shredded carrot
1/2 a red bell pepper, sliced
6 oz leftover chicken breast, cubed

Avocado ranch dressing:
1/2 an avocado, mashed
1 T Greek yogurt
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 t red wine vinegar
1/2 t Buttermilk Ranch Seasoning from Penzey's Spices.

Spaghetti with Good Stuff™

I don't know what happened, but it appears that Blogger has lost all the photos from my older posts. So I'll be steadily going back and replacing those in case anyone wants to see my old carefree recipes.

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing MFP and came across a really cool recipe for Creamy Avocado Pasta (it was in the recipes forum with a link to someone's Pinterest site, but I found the original). It was way too intriguing not to try, so I promptly picked up some avocados and mini heirloom tomatoes. I'm not a huge tomato fan, but let me tell you how much I now love roasted mini heirloom tomatoes! They are tart, sweet, juicy, and their texture is very pleasing.

Well, I had planned to make avocado pasta again when my father was here last weekend, but that... didn't happen... and I ended up with mini heirloom tomatoes I needed to use (aka roast). The shrimp I had defrosting to go on top had gone bad, so I decided to try something different. Pasta still seemed like a good choice, and then my brain said to me "bacon goes really well with tomatoes." Sometimes my brain is really smart. Then, I remembered the fresh chèvre I had in the fridge. YUM. But I didn't feel like the dish was complete until after reading yet another "what's for dinner" thread on MFP in which someone posted about caramelized onions. Perfect! The final step was getting a bit more protein into the dish... and I remembered how this one time, I poached some eggs in white wine. OMG exciting! I must warn you, though, that this is not exactly low-calorie, but things can be adjusted.

Spaghetti with Good Stuff™
1 lb mini heirloom tomatoes (or any small tomato)
Olive or coconut oil spray
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 T butter
4 strips of delicious bacon (I use black forest bacon from Trader Joe's)
1/3 package (about 5.3 oz dry) spaghetti
White wine for poaching
1 T white vinegar
2 eggs
1 T olive oil
4 T fresh chèvre, crumbled
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Quarter the tomatoes and lay them out on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Spray the quarters lightly with oil spray and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes in the oven for one hour.

Meanwhile, thinly slice the onion. Melt the butter on low heat and then add the onions and a little salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn brown and sweet. They will take around 30 minutes, so time them accordingly.

When the onions have cooked for 10 minutes, start the bacon on low heat and leave it, turning occasionally, until its fully cooked. You can either crumble it after it's cooked or cut it up and then cook it. Either way is fine. Alternatively, you could bake the bacon ahead of time, which is what I do. I bake a whole package of bacon on a rack on a cookie sheet at 400°F for 20-ish minutes and then keep it in the fridge until I'm ready to use it.

When there are 20 minutes left on the tomatoes, start boiling a heavily salted pot of water (it should taste like sea water - that's the Italian secret!). Once the water is boiling, drop in the spaghetti and let it boil for about 10 minutes, according to package instructions, until it is "al dente."

The thing you want to do last is poach the eggs. If you've never poached eggs, I recommend doing a google search just to see some techniques. I use a very small saucepan for this so that I don't have to use a lot of wine. Fill the saucepan with enough wine that it will cover the eggs when you put them in; it will need to be about 2 inches. If you run out of wine, you can supplement with water. Add 1 T of white vinegar and bring the liquid to a low boil over medium heat. Crack one egg at a time into a small dish (like a little ramekin), and then drop it into the hot liquid. Repeat with the other egg and let them poach until they reach a consistency you like. You can poke them with a spoon to check the jiggle.

While the eggs finish poaching, everything else should have finished, so drain the pasta and toss it in the olive oil. Portion it onto two plates and then top with the onions, crumbled bacon, tomatoes, and chèvre. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place on top of each dish. Enjoy with a nice salad.

Serves 2.

Ch ch ch ch changes (and granola!)

This blog is turning over a new leaf. The recipes contained hereafter in this blog will be delicious and also healthy. Let me clarify that by healthy, I mean good for the body and good for the soul... I mean real food for real people. I don't mean "this week eggs are bad," or "fat-free cream cheese," or "gluten-free," or "paleo/primal/caveman/throwawayyourflourAAAAH!"

Let me start with something simple. I've been making my own granola, loosely based on Alton Brown's recipe. Store-bought granola is expensive and can be full of sugar and calories (and cinnamon GROSS). My coconut & black sesame granola is none of those things.

Coconut & Black Sesame Granola
3 C (240 g) old fashioned rolled oats 
50 g black sesame seeds* 
45 g unsweetened coconut shreds 
1/2 C date puree** 
1/4 C coconut milk*** 
big pinch of salt 

Mix everything together in a big bowl (use your hands to make sure everything is well-incorporated), then spread it out on a cookie sheet and bake at 250°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turning occasionally. It's not very sweet, but it's delicious, especially with some Greek yogurt and fruit (banana, pineapple, and/or mango in particular!).

Makes 10 servings. 

* You can find black sesame seeds for a great price at international markets!
** Date puree from http://healthykitchenguide.com/using-medjool-dates-instead-of-sugar-in-recipes/ (I made about 2 cups and keep what's left in the fridge). 
*** I used light coconut milk this time because it's what I happened to have on hand... because for some reason, Trader Joe's only carries light. /grumblegrumble