What's For Dinner?

One of the exchange organizations that we used when we hosted students began just after World War II. Their hope was that the world would be brought together through exchange students. Since we have hosted students from many countries, my ears always perk up whenever I hear of a disaster in a country in which they live. But today, my eyes are upon Texas. The area that is being hit so badly is where I am from. I have friends there who are struggling. It breaks my heart, and I wish I could do more than pray. Hopefully the worst is over.

From time to time, I will cook chicken for my husband. He is always quite grateful :)

This past week, I made a dish that will work well if you have a vegetarian and non-vegetarian home. I'm calling it;

Ying and Yang Layered Pesto Dinner 

First, begin with the sauce.

Saute a large chopped onion, red bell pepper and garlic until translucent and tender.

Once the vegetables are tender, add a 28oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, crushed red pepper to taste, and a 1/2 cup of  nice chardonnay. Bring to a boil and allow the wine to reduce for approximately 15 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for about another 20 minutes. Puree with a hand held mixer, or place into a blender to puree. Return to pot to keep warm. 

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Drizzle a little olive oil over the breasts. Place on the grill and cook on each side until cooked through, approximately 3-5 minutes per side.

Turn off the fire on the grill if you have a gas grill. If not, remove breasts to a plate. Top with pesto. If you have removed the breasts to a plate, cover with foil to keep warm.
You can find my pesto recipe HERE. 

Cook quinoa according to package directions. I just happened to have black quinoa. 
Place a layer of quinoa on each plate.

Top the quinoa with the sauce.

Add a layer of spinach on top of the sauce. I like to use frozen spinach that I have cooked in the microwave. It's easy and takes no time at all to prepare.

If you are vegetarian, top the spinach with some pesto and roasted pine nuts. 

For the non-vegetarian, top it off with the grilled pesto chicken. 

Super easy, and super good!

Ying and Yang Layered Pesto Dinner
printable recipe

For Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 28oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chardonnay
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in pan. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add chopped red pepper. Saute until tender. Add garlic and saute an additional minute. Add tomatoes, wine, herbs de Provence, crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and allow wine to reduce for approximately 15 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer and cook an additional 20 minutes.

Using a hand held mixer or blender, puree sauce. Return to pot to keep warm.

Purchase desired number of chicken breasts to serve.

Sprinkle salt, black pepper, and garlic powder over chicken breasts. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Place on grill and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove from heat and top with pesto.

Meanwhile, cook quinoa according to package directions. Amount will depend upon how many you will be serving. Use package directions to determine serving size.

Cook a 10 oz bag of frozen spinach in a microwave safe covered dish for 3 minutes. Stir. Return to microwave and cook an additional 4 minutes.

Place a layer of quinoa on each plate. Add a layer of the sauce. Top the sauce with spinach. 

*For a vegetarian dish, top the spinach with pesto, and roasted pine nuts.

*For a non-vegetarian version, top the spinach with the pesto topped chicken.

Serve and enjoy!

This dish is not only great for a weekday dinner, guests would love it too! 

Sunday's Soup/Creamy Carrot and Cilantro Soup

Whether it's spring, summer, fall, or winter, I love to eat soup, and my refrigerator just isn't quite right if I don't have a soup that I can grab and warm up for my lunch.  

I tell lots of stories about my grandmother, but one of many sweet memories is the big pot of gumbo she would make up when we would visit. OMG!!!, was it ever good, filled with fresh okra! There was no air conditioning in her house. I didn't care, I would sit at her dining room table with my legs stuck to the seat of the chair(because it was so hot, I would be wearing shorts and the back of my legs would stick to the leather seat), and enjoy every bite :) 

This is the time of year when all the wonderful vegetables are coming to market, and I am like a kid in a candy store...well a vegetable candy store! The carrots, onions, multiple colors of bell peppers just make my heart sing and send me straight to the kitchen :)
   

The soup that I am sharing today has a bit of  a twist to it. You can tweak it if you're a little afraid of the spice. 

First, I began with these wonderful boiler onions. They are typically used in dishes like stews, or with other boiled vegetables, as they are small and mild. If you can't find boiler onions, a nice white onion will work just fine.

I then came across a beautiful orange bell pepper and my favorite, a habanero pepper. Both were seeded and chopped. Like I said, if you are a little afraid of the heat from the pepper, you can just omit it. While habaneros are hot, they also have a sweet taste. You could also use just half, or even a quarter.    

The peppers and onions were added to 4 heaping cups of sliced carrots, 3 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of chopped ginger, dried cilantro and ground coriander. The final little surprise ingredient is 1 chopped Granny Smith apple. The apple is both sweet and tart and the mixture of the flavors works beautifully with the habanero to reduce a little of the spice and yet allow for the flavor.

   

Once the vegetables are tender, the soup is pureed and a cup of coconut milk is added to the mixture resulting in a creamy, spicy, sweet soup. 

To enhance the flavor a little further, I added a dollop of fresh made cilantro pesto. If you are vegan, just eliminate the pesto, or make the pesto without the Parmesan cheese.

You can find the recipe for the Cilantro Pesto HERE. The recipe for the soup is below and you'll see that I have added a printable tab to the recipe.

Creamy Carrot and Cilantro Soup
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups sliced carrots
1 orange bell pepper seeded and chopped
1 habenero pepper seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 medium white onion chopped
1 Granny Smith apple skin removed and chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 heaping teaspoon dried cilantro
salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup coconut milk
4 cups vegetable stock

Directions:

Bring all ingredients except the coconut milk to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until vegetables are tender, approximately 20-30 minutes. 

Using a blender, or hand held blender, puree the soup until creamy. Add coconut milk. If the soup is a little too thick, add additional vegetable stock. Simmer the soup on a low flame until coconut milk and any additional stock has warmed. 

Serve the soup with a dollop of cilantro pesto.

Enjoy!   

What a week I have had! 

I was back out at the airport hoping to finish up the annual inspection. Once we had the new alternator, along with the new alternator bracket on the plane, the new throttle cable installed, the new nose wheel tire installed, we rolled it out to start it up, check the compression and make sure that there were no oil leaks. A turn of the key and we found that the battery didn't have enough power to turn the engine over. My mechanic explained that when the alternator fails, it really taxes the battery. He said that we could charge it over night and maybe get it back. I shook my head no and said, "look, winter isn't that far away and I don't want to end up getting stuck somewhere because I didn't put a new battery on the plane." He agreed, and we ordered a new battery. He could see that I was heart broken as I really wanted to get it back up and running. But all in good time. One thing being a pilot will teach you is patience, whether you like it or not. 

I had a glorious day at home on Friday, and I made up the new Fast and Fabulous jacket pattern from Islander Sewing. I was all set to post my pictures and share my jacket. Sat down to turn on my laptop, and I couldn't get the screen to come up for love of money. The computer was on, but no screen, total blackness. So a call to my nieces's husband begging for help. Actually, I really don't have to beg, he's so very generous about helping me out, thank goodness!!! He came by and it ended up being an easy fix. Again, thank goodness. 

We attended a glorious wedding yesterday. I'll share what I made to wear and more about the wedding in another post. It was truly a fairy-tale wedding. Perfect from start to finish. In fact, the father of the bride was the friend who shared with us the lovely letter that his uncle wrote about his evening with the king and queen of England. 

Now on to something delicious!

Earlier this week, I was thinking about what I might make for dinner. I had a big bunch of parsley in the refrigerator. As I looked at it, the thought came to me that it just might make up an interesting twist on a traditional pesto. So, I de-stemmed the parsley, and then went out to my garden and chopped off a hunk of fresh chives. I felt that Parmesan  cheese would work best as the flavor of the parsley is somewhat delicate. But rather than use pine nuts, I used walnuts as I like the meatier taste of a walnut. I used the pesto in a simple pasta dish and it was so, so good!

To make the pesto, begin with 2 packed cups of de-stemmed parsley and 1/2 cup of fresh chopped chives. 

Put the parsley and the chives in the bowl of a food processor. Add 2 large cloves of garlic, 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, 1 cup of good olive oil. Salt and black pepper to taste.

Process until smooth.

I like to store mine in a plastic container.

It can be used on sandwiches, added to pasta for a quick and easy dinner. I'm going to roast some cauliflower with the pesto for tonight's dinner. Actually, any roasted vegetables would be nice with the pesto. So be inventive and have some fun!

One last thing that I thought I would share is fresh chive butter. Actually, this can be done with any leftover herbs. I'm sure that like me, you purchase herbs for a particular dish, use a few and then the rest goes bad as you don't use them quickly enough.

So whether you have chives, or another herb, allow a stick of butter to come to room temperature. Chop the herbs into the butter, and stir to combine.  

Plop the herbed butter onto some plastic wrap.

Wrap the plastic around the butter and roll into a log, and refrigerate.

If you aren't going to use the butter right away, put it in the freezer. Just be sure to label it so that you know which herb you used!

Try experimenting and mix several herbs together. 

I used my herbed butter on some grilled salmon. It was so good. Also great on a morning bagel :), baked potato or any other vegetable that you might like to grill.

Perfect Parsley and Chive Pesto

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups packed de-stemmed parsley

½ cup fresh chopped chives

1 cup good olive oil

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 large cloves garlic

1 cup chopped walnuts

Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process until smooth consistency.

Enjoy on grilled vegetables, with pasta, and on a sandwich.

Sunday's Soup/Carrot Top Pesto That Even a Vegan Would Love

When the farmers begin bringing the fresh produce into our local farmer's markets, I am in heaven. 
A few weeks ago, I stopped by a market and fell in love with a bunch of fresh carrots, well, if one can actually fall in love with carrots ;) They were so fresh and not only did the carrots look great, but the tops were so pretty and I just couldn't chop them off and toss them. I have heard of carrot top soup, but that didn't really strike my fancy, so I began to look around and I round a recipe for carrot top pesto. Score!!!

When purchasing fresh carrots with the stems in tact, just be sure that the greens are truly fresh and bright green. All you need to do is snip the greens from the stems, give them a bit of a chop, throw the greens along with some garlic, roasted walnuts, olive oil, salt and black pepper in your food processor and you have a truly delightful pesto. 

The soup is Velvety Carrot Soup with Carrot Top Pesto and you can find the recipe HERE.

The soup is so very simple to make, basically just onions and carrots. This is the second batch I've made. With the first, I followed the recipe exactly, this time around I added a clove of garlic to the soup. A nice addition.

Serve the soup with a dollop of the fresh carrot top pesto. Be sure to stir it around so you get a bit of the pesto with every spoon full! 

As I said, this is my second batch and it will not be my last. The soup will freeze well, so I plan to keep some in small containers for a quick lunch. If you like carrots, I think you'll truly love this soup.

And remember, not only does it taste great, it's good for your eyes too :)

Enjoy!

Rhonda 

Sunday's Soup/Cannellini Bean, Spinach and Orzo Soup with Pesto

The weather here in Chicago has no idea of what it wants to be. We have a 60 degree day, followed by a day of almost freezing temperatures. For me that means keeping a pot of soup on the stove, especially something that really feeds my soul.  

This is an easy to make soup, full of lots of good things. The next time around, I plan to add more spinach and less of the orzo pasta. The pasta really absorbed a lot of liquid. I'll give you the ingredient list that I used and if you make it, then you can also decide if in the future you too would like a little more spinach and a little less orzo.

Cannellini Bean, Spinach and Orzo Soup with Pesto

Ingredients;
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic minced
1 onion diced
1/2 lb. baby portabello mushrooms sliced
2 carrrots chopped 
1/2 teaspoon dried Thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Basil
7 cups vegetable stock
2 Bay Leaves
1 cup uncooked orzo
6 oz. spinach chopped
1 15oz. can of cannellinin beans rinsed and drained
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt, pepper to taste

For Pesto;
1 bunch of fresh basil, approximately 1/2 cup packed
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 clove of garlic
salt 

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is tender. Add sliced mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are tender. Add thyme and basil.

Add carrots, vegetable stock, orzo and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until pasta has cooked. 
Add spinach, beans and parsley and cook for 3 to 4 minutes to wither spinach and heat beans.
Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

For the pesto,
Place fresh basil in a small food processor, add olive oil and garlic, blend until it forms a smooth and somewhat liquidy paste. Add salt to taste.

To serve, dish up the soup and top with a teaspoon of the pesto, and enjoy!

This is a quick and easy soup to make. As long as you have the ingredients, no more than 30 minutes. Great for dinner and wonderful for lunch.
By the way, I did add some red pepper flakes. I just almost can't eat without some hot pepper :)
Enjoy!
Rhonda

Eating For Your Future/Rice Noodles with Sesame Pesto

I am a nut for pesto. It can be made pine nuts, walnuts, it doesn't matter, I love it. But since I am trying to stay away from dairy, and animal products in general, pesto hasn't been on the menu until I found this fabulous version. I came across the recipe while organizing some recipes I had just thrown into a pile. I guess I should have done some cleaning a little sooner ;) This version of pesto is made with toasted sesame seeds, basil, olive oil, chili oil, rice vinegar, and garlic, It comes from a company called A Taste of Thai. I have used a number of their products and have always enjoyed them. This recipe is easy to make, low fat, wheat free, and dairy free. A winning combination!  

You can find the original recipe HERE. Be sure to go to the website as you'll find a printer friendly version there. I did not include the teaspoon of sugar and I didn't miss it.

Rice Noodles with Sesame Pesto

YIELD

Serves 4

TIME

20 minutes from start to finish

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2-16 oz bag (8 oz) A Taste of Thai Rice Noodles
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 cup firmly packed basil leaves, stems removed
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons hot chili oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1.	Preheat oven to 300°F. Put a large pot of water on to boil, with one tablespoon salt.
2.	Spread sesame seeds on pan. Toast in oven for about 2 minutes or until golden. Watch them carefully so they don't burn. Remember brown means bitter!
3.	Put basil leaves, garlic, toasted sesame seeds, chili oil, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, and salt in blender. Blend until smooth.
4.	When water boils, add Rice Noodles. Stir to separate noodles.
5.	Boil noodles according to directions on box, until tender but firm (al dente).
6.	Drain noodles and very briefly rinse with lukewarm water. Return noodles to pot and toss with sauce. Enjoy!

I decided to turn the dish into a main dish, so while the noodles were boiling, I sauteed pea pods, bean sprouts, tofu and a shredded carrot in a little sesame oil until tender.

Before serving, I topped the dish with chopped green onions.It was absolutely delicious. If you like pesto, give this recipe a try. I think you'll be happy that you did.

Sunday's Soup

You have to make this soup!!!!

I came across this site, http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_soup_recipes, and the word healthy of course caught my attention, well, healthy and soup! I've been adding a little chicken to my diet lately as I have felt that I needed a little more protein than what I was getting in my normal diet. The recipe that jumped out at me was Chicken and Spinach Soup with Pesto. How could I go wrong??? I LOVE spinach and pesto so it had to be a winner and IT IS!!! We had it for supper last night and my husband and I both loved it. As usual, I made a couple of tweaks, but only a couple of very minor tweaks. Here's the original recipe, my changes will follow at the end.

Chicken and Spinach Soup with Pesto

INGREDIENTS

• 2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup carrot or diced red bell pepper
• 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 8 ounces), cut into quarters
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
• 6 ounces baby spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans or great northern beans, rinsed
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup plain or herbed multigrain croutons for garnish (optional)

• PREPARATION

1. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add carrot (or bell pepper) and chicken; cook, turning the chicken and stirring frequently, until the chicken begins to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Stir in broth and marjoram; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
2. With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken pieces to a clean cutting board to cool. Add spinach and beans to the pot and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 5 minutes to blend the flavors.
3. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, Parmesan and basil in a food processor (a mini processor works well). Process until a coarse paste forms, adding a little water and scraping down the sides as necessary.
4. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Stir the chicken and pesto into the pot. Season with pepper. Heat until hot. Garnish with croutons, if desired.
• My changes;
• 1. I did not use a chicken breast. The market where I shop makes a lovely chicken sausage. The only seasoning is red and green bell peppers. I simply cut away the casing and saute it. If you cannot get a sausage like this, I recommend adding a little red and green bell pepper to the soup.
• 2. I used 1 cup of diced carrots.
• That's it for my changes. Rather than top the soup with the croutons, I served the soup with the bread that you see in the picture.
• Try and make the pesto in the recipe, a store bought pesto will not be quite the same. When the pesto was added, the broth became the most beautiful shade of green.  
• Hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

Sunday's Soup

Well, I'm very happy to say that the second Panera soup recipe I tried is a success. I gave my husband a small bowl for tasting and his first comment was, "Wow, this is good." I think it's a hit. The soup is
Tortellini in Pesto Broth

Look at that beautiful rich color!
I followed the recipe exactly as it is printed on the website with just a few exceptions, the recipe calls for 1 carrot, I used 3 because that was how many were left in the bag and I wanted to use them up. I also added about a cup of chopped spinach. Rather than using the refrigerated or frozen tortellini, I used a dried tortellini and as you can see, it is also spinach and ricotta rather than the meat. I wanted to use the dried as I think it is more readily available and I wanted to see how it would do in the soup. The bag I used is an 8.9 ounce bag or 250 grams. Here's a link to Panera's original recipe,  https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/recipes/tortellini-in-pesto-broth.html and I've also printed it below. At this point, I'm two for two with soup recipes!!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 rib celery, finely chopped
• 8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 20 ounces refrigerated or frozen meat tortellini or cheese tortellini
• 1/3 cup refrigerated basil pesto

Directions

Step 1.

Warm the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery, and cook until the vegetables are just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the broth and bring it to a boil over high heat.

Step 2.

Add the tortellini, and cook until they float, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the pesto, ladle the pasta into shallow soup bowls

*I added the chopped spinach after the tortellini had cooked. I also used a homemade pesto rather than the purchased. Here's a link to the recipe that I like to use, http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2010/07/pesto-pronto.html I like to make up a large batch from the basil that I grow and then store it in the freezer over the winter. To me there is nothing better than fresh pesto.

I've printed out 6 other Panera Bread soup recipes that I would like to try. Stay tuned and I'll let you know how they turn out!

Sunday's Soup

It's St. Patrick's Day! In honor of my Celtic heritage, and the color for the day, green, I'm doing a fun little soup with a twist. Some time ago, I watched a documentary about the Celtic nation. They talked about the Roman empire and how they had conquered most of Europe, really just about all of Europe except for the Celtic nation. An historian who was being interviewed was asked why the Romans never sought to try and conquer the Celts. He replied, "Because they thought the Celts were crazy." When I heard this I thought, "you mean that you went all through Europe conquering everything in sight and yet this little group of people scared you?" Were they really crazy or were they exceptionally smart? I think it may be the latter :-)
This is a creamy soup, but no cream was added. It has all the colors of the Irish flag, green, orange and white with a nod to the fact that the Romans never took over, pesto!!

    Cream of Broccoli Soup with Pesto

The ingredients;
2 pounds of broccoli
1 pound of carrots
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 stalks of celery
5 medium size Irish potatoes
1 cup of dried green split peas
2 large cubes of Knorr vegetable bouillon
1/2 cup of prepared pesto
2 tablespoons of olive oil
10 cups of water
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large pot. Chop onions, garlic and celery and saute in oil until tender. Add chopped broccoli and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and cook until broccoli is tender.

 Using an immersible hand held mixer, puree broccoli mixture. You can also puree mixture in a blender.

 Add split greens peas, sliced carrots,

 and chopped potatoes along with 6 cups of water and the 2 bouillon cubes.

Once again, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Cook until vegetables are tender.
Add pesto. I used 1/2 cup but you can use more or less depending upon your taste preferences.
Stir well. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Remember, the pesto can be rather salty, so add less salt initially and more if needed.
To serve, garnish with a teaspoon of pesto and chopped green onions.

My favorite pesto recipe comes from The Silver Palette Cookbook, a great cookbook to have in your library. I posted the recipe a few years ago. You can find it here,  http://www.rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2010/07/pesto-pronto.html.
Hope you have all been enjoying this day!
Rhonda