Green Bean & Mushroom Medley

This wasn't a shocker that I liked this dish :) The big deal about this recipe, though, was the carrots that were mixed in. Sure, I love green beans and mushrooms - but I hate carrots! You'll notice that I left out the onions - here's the thing about onions. I've learned to enjoy red onions occasionally - there's a salad I make with chopped red onion and I like that...and I've grown to crave bbq chicken pizzas with red onions - as long as they're cut thin. Regular onions, though...not only can I not stand the taste, but they tend to bother my stomach. So that's one veggie you won't see much of, for the sake of my poor tummy.

And here we go:

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
• 2 carrots, cut into thick strips
• 1/4 cup butter margarine
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper: I just used regular pepper - it was just fine!

Directions

1. Place green beans and carrots in 1 inch of boiling water. Cover, and cook until tender but still firm. Drain.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions and mushrooms until almost tender. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in green beans, carrots, salt, seasoned salt, garlic salt, and white pepper. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Granted, not the best picture ever - but I promise it was good. (And the pizza casserole was amazinggggg as usual!). I give it an A-!

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 103 | Total Fat: 7.9g | Cholesterol: 20mg

It's Working!

The whole point of me starting on this quest is to learn to like vegetables. I figured I would have to try a lot of recipes with a lot of ingredients to get to the point where I would enjoy the actual vegetable.

I've blogged already about a broccoli recipe that I really liked with brown sugar and parmesan cheese.

I blogged about sprinkling the brown sugar and parmesan cheese on frozen meal broccoli.

Today, I took another big step. I omitted the brown sugar.

It might not sound like much, but to me, that was a major victory. I'm getting to the point where I can start omitting the extra ingredients and still enjoy the vegetable itself. I'm not saying I'm going to be eating raw broccoli or plain steamed broccoli anytime soon - but it was a little reinforcement that maybe I'm doing this right!

This week's menu is getting mixed up a little bit but the vegetables should stay the same. Tonight's going to be pizza casserole but still with the green bean and mushroom medley. I'm expecting high marks on this one because although it contains carrots, I absolutely love green beans and mushrooms :)

Looking Ahead...

Looking ahead to next week, I’m going to be back to my veggie attempts. This week was pretty much shot due to me being sick all Easter weekend, but I’ll be back with a vengeance the next two weeks.

It’s pretty much a given that I will always cook on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The following week, however, hubby will be out of town a few days so I’m planning on going all-out in veggie goodness. I might also add that as of May 7, I’m on break from grad school until June 1 so I’ll have more time to really plan some meals!

Tentative meal plan for the next few weeks:

Monday (May 2):

3 Cheese Chicken Penne (using whole grain wheat pasta and low fat skim milk cheese)

Glazed Dijon Carrots (yes, this was already on the menu for this past week but like I said, being sick interfered)

Rolls

Mixed salad

Tuesday (May 3):

Pizza Casserole (as healthy as it can possibly be: ground turkey, turkey pepperoni, low fat skim milk cheese, whole wheat pasta)

Green Bean & Mushroom Medley

Bread

Mixed salad

Wednesday (May 4):

Tuna & Pasta Cheddar Melt (a new recipe, haven’t tried it yet)

Carrot Souffle

Bread

Mixed Salad

Monday (May 9):

Grilled Salmon

Sugar Snap Peas

Bread

Mixed Salad

Tuesday (May 10):

Grilled Steak

Mashed Potatoes

Rolls

Wednesday (May 11):

Stuffed Peppers (this is a biggie – I hate peppers, but I found a recipe I felt like I could tentatively live with. It sounds like it’s basically pizza in a pepper!)

Thursday (May 12):

Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar

Creamed Corn

Friday (May 13):

Spinach noodles – that’s right, I’m going to attempt to make my own noodles! We shall see how this turns out!

Homemade tomato sauce

Salad with homemade Garlic Croutons

It Applies to Real Life!

Today for lunch, I had my typical frozen "diet" meal. I go back and forth between Smart Ones and Healthy Choice (usually depending on which one has the best sale). Healthy Choice typically comes with a meat, a side dish, and some sort of dessert.

On the menu today was lemon pepper fish, broccoli and some caramel apple dessert.

Lemon pepper = yummy.
Rice = yummy.
Caramel apple dessert thing = interesting.

On a normal day, I would've tossed it after eating the fish and rice because I wouldn't have liked the broccoli. Today, however, is a new day. I applied what I have been learning about veggie recipes and added a sprinkle of brown sugar and Parmesan cheese to the top of the broccoli as soon as it came out of the microwave.

*Gasp*

I ate ALL my broccoli! I never knew it could be so easy to get me to eat veggies!

Brilliant Sauteed Broccoli / Pasta e Olio

I’ve been slacking a little, but I still found time to try a new dish over the weekend. Look out the windows for pigs flying because I actually found a way to fix broccoli that doesn’t make me gag. It’s decent, even!

Brilliant Sauteed Broccoli

Ingredients

• 1 pound broccoli florets
• 3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1.     Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Fill a large bowl or pot with half ice and half water. When the water comes to a boil, add the broccoli florets using a strainer with a handle if possible. Allow the broccoli to cook for 1 to 2 minutes until just tender. Immediately remove from the boiling water, using the strainer or draining, and transfer to bowl of ice to stop the cooking process. Immerse the broccoli completely in the ice water for a minute or two. Remove and place in a dish that has been lined with paper towels. This part can be done up to two days in advance.

2.     In a cup or small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese and brown sugar; set aside.

3.     Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Throw in the broccoli and season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir to coat the broccoli, then cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and dust with the Parmesan cheese mixture.

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 81 | Total Fat: 5.6g | Cholesterol: 2mg

As the norm with me, I didn’t use salt and pepper at all, but everything else I did as written. I was a little leery about some of the combinations – red pepper mixed with brown sugar? Heck, I wasn’t 100% sold on brown sugar and Parmesan cheese, but I’m a believer now.

I completed this no-meat meal by combining the broccoli with another somewhat healthy, yet easy and tasty recipe:

Pasta e Olio

Ingredients

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

1.     In a large pot with boiling salted water cook spaghetti pasta until al dente. Drain.

2.     Meanwhile, in a large skillet over low heat saute garlic, parsley, and red pepper flakes with olive oil . Cook until garlic turns golden in color, about 10 to 15 minutes.

3.     Toss pasta with garlic mixture and butter or margarine. Serve warm.

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 323 | Total Fat: 13.4g | Cholesterol: 15mg

This has become one of my go-to lunches when I’m not in the mood for a Healthy Choice or Smart Ones frozen meal. It’s filling, it’s easy, it refrigerates well and the calorie count is lower than most of my frozen meals. The fat count is a little high but I don’t use butter or margarine so I imagine it’s actually a little lower. With my running background I could never give up pasta, so I might as well find somewhat healthy ways to fix it (meaning my beloved pizza casserole has been altered to turkey pepperoni, ground turkey, low-fat skim cheese and whole grain pasta). I give the Broccoli an A- and the pasta an A+!

And voila!

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!