Posts tagged as:

brussels sprouts

Ice and Rice

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on January 25, 2010

It seems like every time my cousin Tricia comes over we have some sort of hazardous road condition. This time we had icy roads from melted snow, but thankfully she made it to her destination safely after dinner. I wasn’t sure if I was going to actually make it through dinner on only a few hours of sleep, but once I was up and showered, it was like I had a full night’s sleep. 8 hours is SO overrated. ;)

Sunday Dinner Menu:

  • Roasted chicken marinaded in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, white wine, red onion, salt, and black pepper.
  • Mushroom and green pea risotto
  • Roasted brussels sprouts !!
  • Tossed salad
  • Italian bread

The table:

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Salad (topped with a little leftover parmesan from the risotto and tossed in EVOO + red wine vinegar)

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My new favorite green gems! <3 I roasted them on 450F for about 15 minutes after coating them in EVOO, garlic salt and black pepper.

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Assorted chicken sections. We pan-seared them in EVOO and a little more white wine before popping them in the oven. When they were fully cooked, we brush Polaner apricot fruit spread over them and put them back in the hot oven for a few more minutes.

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The risotto that nobody loved except for me. :evil: lol Personally, I thought it was great, but the other fusspots aren’t risotto people I guess! :(

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Mushroom and green pea risotto

  • 2 cups Arborio rice
  • 1 quart low sodium chicken or veggie broth
  • 1 medium red onion, diced
  • 1 TBSP EVOO
  • ~1 cup frozen green peas
  • ~2 cups sliced mushrooms
  • ~1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • Water as needed
  • Salt, optional (I didn’t add any)

1. In a medium to large saucepan, add in EVOO, onions, and rice;sweat onions and toast rice for a few minutes before adding in any liquid
2. Slowly add in broth, stir continuously on low to medium heat
3. Add in more liquid as needed, keep stirring
4. When rice is almost cooked, add in peas, grated cheese and mushrooms, stir

Servings vary

Note: It’s very important to keep adding in liquid slowly and stirring to 1-) Prevent burning/sticking and 2-) To achieve the creaminess of risotto. Otherwise you’ll just end up with regular cooked rice. Cook time takes about an hour.

The bread bowl, strategically placed by me, as usual. :mrgreen:

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I poured a glass of white wine while I was cooking, which lasted all through dinner. I’m becoming a big fan of white wine (Pinot Grigio) I totally earned those calories stirring the risotto over a 450F oven for an hour straight. LOL

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My mom picked up Italian pastries from the bakery this morning. Unfortunately, they look better than they tasted. They were horrible! Very dry and poor quality. I had one of the mini cannolis, but it really wasn’t worth it. :(

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Everything was delicious, despite what the naysayers think of the risotto! :) This was the only full sized meal I ate today, plus some leftover risotto later on. I don’t have any reservations about having one big meal for the day and a few snacks or whatever combination the day brings. I also don’t see anything wrong with fasting for a day here and there. Millions of people all over the world fast for religious and spiritual reasons and they are perfectly fine. Like I always say, it’s not what you eat or don’t eat in one day that matters, it’s what you eat (or don’t eat) over several days, weeks and months that matters most.

Dustin just changed the sheets on our bed because I was too tired. He’s the best husband EVER!! hearts_smiley He is always willing to help with housework, BUT I prefer he doesn’t help cook. Like for instance tonight when we were preparing dinner, I asked him to grate the parmesan for me. Simple, right? Not for Dustin. :lol: He was taking WAY too long, so it ended up being one of those things that you have to do if you want it done right. lol We’d still be here waiting for dinner to get done if I let him finish. LOL Ah well, cooking is not his forte. No worries, he’s good at just about everything else. :D

Time to go feel those fresh, clean sheets! LOVE!

What did you guys have for Sunday dinner?

Tagged as: brussels sprouts, chicken, risotto, sunday dinner

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Makeover Mania

by Jenn (j3nn.net) on January 24, 2010

There’s no turning back now; as you can see I started giving my blog a makeover. I was playing around with WordPress and decided to enable the Thesis theme that Dustin installed awhile ago. One thing led to another and I decided to just keep moving forward with it. What you see now is only the beginning, I’m still working on a new header, a zillion other pages, new features and other design changes. So far I love the new theme! It’s extremely easy to use and saves me (and Dustin) a lot of time — YAY! So you’ll notice a lot of cosmetic changes and new things popping up around here, which I am totally stoked about and hope that you will be, too. My reader base keeps growing and growing, so here is a little thank you to everyone that visits my blog, you guys rock my socks! :)

I’ve been concentrating on revamping the blog and reorganizing the kitchen in between everything else, so I haven’t spent too much time cooking. I’m trying to use up everything in the freezer/cabinets, but it’s sooo hard because I keep adding on to it and then I end up throwing a lot of things out. Ugh, horrible habit that I’ve been trying to kick for the longest. :oops: Ah well, I’m working on it… a little. :P

I defrosted boneless pork chops the other day, then baked them with apricot fruit and minced garlic:

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On the side: (over)steamed asparagus and a fresh baby spinach salad with 1/2 tsp EVOO (20 cal), red wine vinegar, 7g gorgonzola (leftover from New Year’s, hope it’s still good?) and 10g dried cranberries (30 cal)

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I didn’t measure any of it, but I baked the pork chops on 425F, then towards the end drizzled Polaner apricot fruit spread, black pepper and minced garlic, that I microwaved to melt, over them and baked for another 10 minutes. I didn’t eat the fat around the edge, so they were a little dry but we still liked them.

The next day I made a huge batch of meatless chik’n salad with Quorn chik’n tenders and a package of seitan that I bought at Mother Earth’s. I heard that the texture of seitan is most like regular chicken, so I gave it a try. I processed the seitan, Quorn, celery, carrots, and onions in the food processor:

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It needed more green, so I added 2 more stalks of celery and mixed it with 150g of Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (500 cal) — sounds like a lot, but the whole batch made at least 10-15 servings.

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It turned out AWESOME! Almost identical to real chicken, yum! It ended up being lunch and dinner after I made it, but not picture worthy. There’s lots leftover and that will be making an appearance tomorrow or the next day.

Today was a 2 meal, 3 snack day. I finally tried the Field Roast slices for lunch. I put 2 slices (70 cal) of the lentil sage flavor in a wrap with hummus, avocado and red onion:

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  • 1 Gourmet tortilla (120 cal)
  • 1 TBSP Cedar’s original hummus (30 cal)
  • 20g avocado (40 cal?)
  • Red onion (10 cal)
  • 2 slices Field Roast lentil sage meatless slices (70 cal)

Calories: 270

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On the side: 1 Chobani vanilla yogurt (120 cal) with 1oz Trader Joe’s 3 berry granola (100 cal) and 10g dried cranberries (30 cal). Calories: 250

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I don’t think I used the right flavor combination, the onion really overpowered the wrap so I didn’t really get to taste the Field Roast very much. Next time I’ll try it with milder components. Filling lunch for 520 calories, though.

Dinner was simple: Hamburgers, boiled potato and steamed brussels sprouts

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  • 5oz 96% lean ground beef burger (175 cal)
  • On a Martin’s 100% whole wheat potato roll (100 cal)
  • With red onion, 7g blue cheese crumbles (25 cal), dill pickle chips, Heinz no salt added ketchup and no salt added mustard (~30 cal)
  • 12 brussels sprouts (90 cal) with a splash of Fifty50 fructose maple syrup (10 cal)
  • Smallish boiled potato (~120 cal) with 2oz Fage Total 0% yogurt (35 cal)

Calories: ~585 calories

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The brussels weren’t as good as the roasted ones I made the other day :( but still yummy. I love them! These were a bag of frozen ones, that I may have overcooked a bit. Next time I’ll defrost them ahead of time and roast them. I was also surprised to see that they have a good amount of protein: 3g for 6 sprouts, so 6g for my serving. Not bad for a little green leafy thing, huh? ;)

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I’m up WAY too late right now. I actually have to be up in 6 hours to start on Sunday dinner. My cousin, Tricia, is coming over and I haven’t even shopped yet. Thankfully we have a live-in personal assistant, aka Rinks! :) Time to catch a few Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s!!!

Question of the day: What is your favorite green vegetable?

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Tagged as: brussels sprouts, chickn, hamburger

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