Kiy's Recipe Box

Tomato-and-White Bean Soup – Cooking Light, October 1997

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, crushed (Kiy Note: Or, if you are like me, the jarred stuff, chopped.)
2 (14.5-ounce) cans no-salt-added whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
(Kiy Note: I use the balsamic vinegar ones, when I can find, or the basil/oreg ones)
2 (16-ounce) cans cannellini or other white beans, drained
(Kiy Note: Great Northern Beans – I use only 1 can usually)
1 (14½ oz) can fat-free chicken broth (Kiy Note: I usually end up using 2 cans)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (Kiy Note: how about some handy dried stuff!)
¾ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Estimated Total Time: 30 minutes

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add tomatoes and next 5 ingredients (tomatoes through pepper), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls, and sprinkle with cheese.

**Kiy Note: I also add a large can of mushrooms at the beginning, I buy frozen chopped onions when I can find them (time saver).

**Kiy Note: I also add a can or two of zucchini, a small can of corn, a regular can of petite peas. Basically any canned vegetable that sounds good, but don’t add canned asparagus. When I tried them, they turned mushy very quickly and made the leftovers nasty!

As stated in the recipe:
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 cups soup and 1 tablespoon cheese)

NUTRITION PER SERVING: CALORIES 297(22% from fat); FAT 7.2g (sat 1.7g,mono 2.9g,poly 1.8g); PROTEIN 18.2g; CHOLESTEROL 4mg; CALCIUM 154mg; SODIUM 451mg; FIBER 5.7g; IRON 4.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 42g

Potato Pancakes
Emeril Lagasse, 1996

1 large, baking potatoes, like russets, about (8 ounces)
½ medium onion, (about 4 ounces)
1 egg
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon dry bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon dry thyme
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Oil for pan frying
1/3 cup applesauce, for garnish

Using a food processor or a box grater, grate the potato and onion on the large hole into a bowl. Using your hands, squeeze out the excess liquid and place the dry potato onion mixture in a bowl. Add the egg, parsley, flour, breadcrumbs, thyme, lemon juice and seasonings. Mix well. Heat 1/2 cup of oil in a heavy skillet. Add ½ cup mounds of potato mixture to the hot oil, and flatten down to a 3/4-inch thick pancake. Turn heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until crispy and golden. Serve with the applesauce.

Kiy Note: After reading the comments I am going to halve the amount of lemon and maybe the same with the onion (I am not a huge fan of onion). I am going to try this with frozen shredded potatoes to save time. Hopefully it will still work!

Crab Cakes
Special thanks to:Full Bellies, Happy Kids!

1 lb. lump crabmeat (canned is OK)
1/3 cup low-sodium saltines (about 7)
½ tsp. Tabasco or other hot sauce
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. minced shallot
2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
1 large egg white
1 rib celery, diced
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. reduced-fat mayonnaise
1/8 tsp. salt pepper, to taste
2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Pick over crabmeat and take out any pieces of shell. Break saltines into roughly 1-4-inch pieces and fold with crabmeat in a large bowl. Add Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, shallot, mustard, egg white, celery, lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Fold together gently until well blended. Be careful not to break up crabmeat too much.

Form into 8 cakes and chill. (This part can be done up to 12 hours in advance. Cover crab cakes and chill.)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Warm oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until it's almost smoking. Lower heat to medium-high and fry crab cakes for about 3 minutes, until brown. Transfer cakes to a baking sheet lined with foil and cook in the oven for another 9 to 10 minutes, until warmed through.

Ricotta Pancakes
Giada De Laurentiis

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (16 pancakes)

2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups pancake and waffle mix (recommended: Krusteaz)
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
2/3 cup frozen blueberries (Kiy Note: I don't add these into the batter, I just serve them on the side now ... less mess!)
Melted butter

Stir 1/3 cup of water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stir in the honey. Set aside and keep the honey syrup warm.

Using a rubber spatula, stir the remaining 1 2/3 cups of water and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the pancake mix and stir just until moistened but still lumpy. Stir in the ricotta into the pancake mixture, then stir gently to incorporate the ricotta but maintain a lumpy batter. Fold in the blueberries.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Brush with the melted butter. Working in batches, spoon 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Serve with the honey syrup.

Last week was a good week, cooking-wise. I made all the meals I had planned, although some were smashing successes and some, well, were not. The Pan Seared Scallops, whoa ... awesome. Probably the only change I would make is to use another pasta (linguini, most likely) as the cellophane noodles, while good, were hard for Emi to deal with. It was a pricey meal ($22 for 12) but had we gone out for this meal we would have more than doubled that so for a once-in-awhile splurge, well worth it.

The Spicy Chicken Lo Mein, don't bother. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a bah. I don't know if the recipe was posted wrong, but there was no way that chicken was going to stir-fry, too much marinade (or rather, it was too thick). I think he meant it to actually fry ... but I don't fry anything, much less chicken going into a 'healthy' meal. If I were to try this again (and the sauce was quite tasty, so I may play around with this recipe a bit) I'd probably change the marinade to delete the cornstarch and maybe add a bit of water depending on how thick it got. YMMV

For this week I have planned two new recipes and two tried-and-trues. Have a great week everyone!

For more MPM head on over to Laura's at Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan for Week of: May 4 - 10

• Sunday: Jules’ Homemade Tomato Soup, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches

• Monday: Baked Angel Hair with Eggplant (one-pot meal)

• Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Bake (one-pot meal)
  

• Wednesday: Asian-Style Grilled Tilapia, snow peas, rice

• Thursday: Leftover Buffet
• Seems we need a specific night for leftovers as some are going to waste and I am not making planned meals because of the leftovers. Going to take a page out of Laura’s book and set up a night like this.

• Friday: Fresh fish (whatever looks good at Yokes), usually grilled with some olive oil, a bit of ginger and soy sauce, served with udon or soba noodles, sugar snap peas or other vege. (BTW, this is now on my menu every week. We love fish, as does Emi!, and nice times out of ten I make it as above. Simple and delicious.)

• Saturday: Free Nite

Original Post: Menu Plan (May 4 - 10)

Chicken Tortilla Bake
Found @ Full Bellies, Happy Kids!

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
1 can (14½ ounces) diced tomatoes and mild green chilies, drained
8 flour tortillas (8 inches) cut into 1-inch strips
1 can (11 ounces) Mexicorn, drained
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, sauté the chicken, cumin and salt in 1 tablespoon oil until chicken is no longer pink.

Combine the refried beans and tomatoes; spread 1 cup into a greased 11-in. x 7-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Top with 24 tortilla strips; layer with half of the corn, bean mixture, chicken and cheese. Repeat layers.

Using remaining tortilla strips, make a lattice crust over filling; brush with remaining oil (or spray with cooking spray).

Bake, uncovered, at 350º for 25-20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Yield: 6 servings

I am finding more and more of these, so I have decided to add them to my side bar. Mainly so that I don't lose them, but also to share them with anyone looking for good (great) places to search for recipes.

Cheers!