Asparagus Take 2

Last night was a repeat of Tuesday night, except I fixed the asparagus instead of Brad. It was still really good! Two fixes and it still gets an A+ in my book. My only concern is that blasted whipping cream. I checked the nutritional information on it today and it said for every tablespoon, it's 50 calories and 50 calories from fat. That's a little more than I like to see, but I guess the rest of the recipe is pretty healthy. I found this recipe for "substitute" whipping cream, but at 98 calories, it's still a little too fattening to justify a vegetable dish:

Substitute Whipping Cream
Ingredients

• 1 quart skim milk
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place milk in freezer for 1 hour. Remove and pour into a tall cylindrical container. Using an immersion blender, start at the bottom and slowly draw the blender up at a tilt. Gradually add confectioners' sugar while continuing to move blender up and down to build volume. When milk begins to form soft peaks, mix in vanilla extract. Serve immediately.

I also read that 1/3 cup butter plus 3/4 cup of milk can be substituted for 1 cup of cream. That sounds like the healthiest option so far. I'm not sure how much he used, but it was enough for asparagus for two nights (4-6 stalks per day) and two good sized pieces of salmon...and we still have quite a bit left over. So it might not be as bad as I think. Maybe it's just because it tastes so good I assume it can't be good for me :)

Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Last night hubby cooked a very yummy meal. He marinated some steak cubes in a bbq sauce that he invented himself (impressive) overnight. Then he grilled some salmon, grilled the steak, made some fettucini alfredo as a side dish and fixed me...some asparagus. It was DELICIOUS! And...as was my hope when I started this quest...he tried some himself...and LIKED it! He only had a bite, but it's a step in the right direction. He didn't give me the actual recipe, but it didn't take me long to search for it on the Food Network's website. I knew he got the recipe from there, knew it had whipping cream, lemon juice and Dijon mustard so it didn't take me long to find a recipe that matched pretty close:

Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds (I don't think these were used)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Pepper
• 2 pounds asparagus, trimmed

Directions

In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently until fragrant and golden brown, about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix together the cream, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

In a Dutch oven, bring 2 quarts water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the asparagus and cook until desired tenderness, or about 3 minutes. Drain well. Place the asparagus on a serving plate and top with the cream sauce and buttered almonds.

The only thing that doesn't ring right about this recipe is I know he blanched the asparagus. I don't know if he did that because that's what he wanted to do or what - but I really think that was part of what made it so good. So I'd add that part in. He also knows I don't love almonds (I can handle them in small portions) so those weren't used either.

All in all, I give it an A+, our first A+ of the blogging. However, I have no idea how fattening that sauce was. I've been trying to make veggie recipes that are low in fat and calories - I figure what's the point of learning to like veggies if they add more "crap" to my diet than I had to begin with? So make at your own risk, no nutritional information this time.

I do, however, have some pictures (and yes, that is my favorite glass of red wine!):

Dessert was a chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream. He also added some sea salt and cinnamon to the top of the cake. There's a candy shop in downtown Frederick that puts sea salt on my dark chocolate caramels - it's DELICIOUS!

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

I swear I'm going to try more than just asparagus. I still had half the bunch left from the night before though and have read that asparagus doesn't really keep well. I made a lot of changes on this recipe but I still thought it was better than the night before's.

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients

• 1 bunch thin asparagus spears, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional) - I used...
• 1 clove garlic, minced (optional) - I used...
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional) I used...

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). I preheated to 325 only because I was making cranberry chicken and that was the temperature it called for.
2. Place the asparagus into a mixing bowl, and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to coat the spears, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. Arrange the asparagus onto a baking sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until just tender, 12 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. Sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving.

These were pretty thick spears and I had the temperature lower than 425 so they ended up cooking for about 20 minutes. The texture was pretty much perfect. I love green beans and they had the same texture as perfectly cooked green beans. I think the garlic really added to the flavor. Monday night's aspargus was similar to this recipe but the garlic gave it an extra savoriness (is that even a word?).  I also took the suggestion of a commenter on this recipe and covered the cookie sheet with aluminum foil. I think it kept the excess oil from going everywhere and it made cleanup much quicker.

I'll definitely make this again. I give it an A!

Calories: 123 | Total Fat: 10.8g | Cholesterol: 2mg

Asparagus Parmesan

Last night was my first attempt, ever, at making asparagus. I've had it in restaurants a few times and liked it well enough that I thought I could try it. I wasn't expecting to like it since I figure the restaurants had cooked it in a hundred pounds of butter and other fattening things. But I was willing to try.

As I'm prone to do, I omitted a few things from the original recipe - and you'll learn that I add along the way too (usually omitting things that aren't as good for me). I got my first borderline high blood pressure report at the doctor Friday so salt is pretty much out (not that I eat that much of it to begin with). The doctor and I are pretty sure it was a fluke - stress from school, work, and two family members in the hospital. But it's a definite concern with my genetics so I'm taking it seriously.

Asparagus Parmesan

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon butter (I used margarine)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 pound fresh asparagus spears, trimmed (no idea what "trimmed" means, but I cut off the bottom because it looked funny?)
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I just used a handful)
- salt and pepper to taste (I completely omitted these)

Directions:
Melt margarine with olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add asparagus spears and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes, or to desired firmness. Drain off excess oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper.

Yeah, that's really it. Overall, it was good. I'd give it about a B overall. I think my asparagus was larger than normal and could have used a little longer cooking. Some of them were the perfect crispiness and some were just a little too hard. I think if I cut them up a little they would cook more evently. I still have half the bundle of asparagus left so I might try another recipe another day.

Calories: 199 | Total Fat: 17.5g | Cholesterol: 19mg