Scampi on Couscous

I fell back on a favorite for dinner tonight with this recipe from Giada. The couscous is cooked in a tomato enriched broth flavored with onions, carrots and garlic. The shrimp get a quick saute in garlic flavored olive oil with some crushed red pepper and sprinkled with fresh lemon juice at the end. The scampi go over the couscous and make a scrumptious combination.



Scampi on Couscous (serves 6)
Adapted from Everyday Italian

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed, plus 2 garlic cloves minced
2 (8 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes in their juice
1 (8 ounce) bottle clam juice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
2 cups plain couscous
2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

In a large pot, heat 1/4 cup olive oil. When almost smoking, add onion, carrot and 1 clove smashed garlic and saute until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes and their juice, clam juice and white wine. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes, uncovered. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Carefully pour tomato mixture in blender in batches and puree until smooth. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if needed - you want to end up with a broth Check for seasoning.

Return broth to the pot. Add 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add 2 cups couscous. Cover pot and remove from heat. Let rest for 10 minutes allowing the couscous to absorb all the liquid. Fluff with a fork and season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, add the remaining 1/4 cup oil and the 2 cloves of minced garlic. Heat the oil, making sure not to burn the garlic. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp and stirring occasionally, cook the shrimp until they start to turn pink, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the shrimp or they will become tough. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice, red pepper and chopped parsley. Check for seasoning.

To serve, mound the couscous in the center of a platter and top with the shrimp.

Butternut Squash Risotto

There was a butternut squash in my CSA basket and I had seen many recipes for Butternut Squash Risotto all over the Internet. I have been doing a lot of cooking lately from a website called skinnytaste.com. She indicates the Weight Watcher's point for each recipe and so I feel like most of these recipes can't be half bad for you.

Tonight's risotto was absolutely spectacular! I started by cooking some of the butternut squash and pureeing it to get a cup of squash puree. I then added the puree to vegetable stock and warmed the broth through for the risotto. The risotto itself was pretty much the standard with arborio rice cooked with diced shallots and garlic and chopped fresh sage, deglazed with white wine before having ladles of the warm broth added. It was finsihed with 1/4 cup grated Pecorino-Romano cheese. I did garnish the bowls with a little bit of cooked butternut squash and a sage leaf with a little more freshly grated cheese. YUM!



Butternut Squash Risotto (Serves 3 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish)
Adapted from Skinnytaste.com

1 cup butternut squash puree
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, minced
5 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino-Romano or Parmigaino-Reggiano cheese
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Take 2 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash, put in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook until squash is tender (approximately 20-30 minutes). Puree tender squash cubes in blender with a little bit of the cooking water to get a smooth puree.

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and saute until golden, add risotto and sage and stir well to coat each grain with the oil. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed. Add salt and pepper and the stock a ladleful at a time, until it is absorbed before adding another ladleful stirring gently and almost constantly. Stirring loosens the starch molecules from the outside of the rice grains into the surrounding liquid, creating a smooth creamy-textured liquid. The trick to a great risotto is to keep stirring each ladleful of stock until you can scrape the bottom of the pan with either a wooden spoon or a spatula and it leaves a completely dry streak. That is when you know you are ready for the next ladleful. Continue adding ladlefuls of stock and stirring until all the stock is used, about 30 minutes from the time you started. When all the liquid is absorbed, stir in the grated cheese and remove from heat. Serve immediately.


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Herb-Crusted Roast Beef

After all the turkey we ate the past few days, I was actually craving roast beef. I chose a boneless beef eye round roast which was rubbed with a mixture of sour cream and horseradish seasoned with salt and pepper. Then a mixture of whole wheat bread crumbs mixed with herbs de Provence, garlic, and some olive oil were pressed on to the sour cream mixture before being roasted in the oven.

I seared the roast on all sides before being covered with the sour cream mixture and coated with the bread crumbs and then it went in a 400 degree oven to roast for about an hour. I also roasted an assortment of vegetables to go with the roast beef which all turned out wonderfully.



Herb-Crusted Roast Beef (serves 8)
Adapted from Skinny Taste.com

3 lbs beef eye round roast, all fat trimmed off
3 tbsp fat free sour cream
4 1/2 tsp prepared horseradish
kosher salt and fresh pepper
2/3 cup whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
1 tbsp herbs de Provence (rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savory)
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°. In a small bowl combine sour cream, salt, pepper and horseradish. In another bowl combine breadcrumbs, herbs, garlic and oil.

Season meat with salt and pepper. Sear roast in a large skillet on high heat for about 10 minutes total on all sides. Place in roasting pan and cover with sour cream and breadcrumbs on top of roast. Place in the oven and cook until thermometer reads 140°, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

French Fries

After working out first thing this morning, I picked up my CSA bin which had all kinds of wonderful produce in it. I washed it all and put it all on a towel to dry while I got ready to go out with all my girls for lunch and then bridesmaid dress shopping.

We met at Elizabeth's apartment before going out for lunch and then to a special bridal shop in Lewisville which carried dresses by a certain designer that Elizabeth loved. The bridesmaids will be her two sisters and her two best friends from elementary through high school. Each of the women will wear the same color dresses, but in a style most flattering for them. It was a very fun and special afternoon.

Val and I split the produce from the CSA bin when we got back here and I then proceeded to make dinner which consisted of hot turkey sandwiches with some of the leftover turkey meat and hot turkey gravy over toasted bread. Our side dish was homemade French Fries made from a couple of the potatoes from the produce bin. This is the last meal we will have from the turkey for now, but I did freeze 2 packages of leftover meat that I will use for turkey pot pie in the future. I also froze two packets of homemade turkey stock which I will also use for the pot pies.

Homemade French Fries

2 large Russet potatoes, peeled
3 cups vegetable oil
Kosher salt

Cut the potatoes lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, then cut each slice lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick fries. Put the fries in a large bowl of cold water and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed medium stockpot over medium heat, or in a tabletop deep fryer, to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.

Drain the fries well and pat dry in batches with paper towels. Fry each batch, turning frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes or until the fries are a pale blond color and limp. Remove with a mesh skimmer to the baking sheet lined with paper towels.

Increase the heat of the oil to 375 degrees.

Fry the potatoes again, in batches, turning frequently, until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove with the skimmer and drain on clean paper towels. Season immediately with salt and serve hot.

Pumpkin Pie

On Friday, Gerry and I enjoyed a day of relaxation, after working out first thing in the morning of course. The fact that we work out every day is what allows us to eat all the wonderful food we consume. It's all a matter of checks and balances.

We did some errands, some housekeeping details and simply had leftovers for dinner. We put a little of everything on our plates and reheated everything in the microwave with the exception of the pumpkin pie.

This recipe has been a family favorite since we lived in Pennsylvania which means I have been making this particular recipe for at least 18 years.

Pumpkin Pie

3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Combine eggs, sugar, salt and spices. Gradually stir in milk and cream. Add pumpkin. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 30-35 minutes until a knife inserted near center comes out clean.


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Sweet Potato Casserole

Thanksgiving is a day of following traditions for the big meal of the day. My family does not like to change any of the foods they have grown up with on this particular day. I can totally change up other holidays, but not this one.

We always have an oven roasted turkey, stuffing, (sometimes a regular bread stuffing in addition to a cornbread stuffing depending on who is at the table), homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, green beans and a sweet potato casserole. One of our standard desserts is pumpkin pie and I usually try to add something a little different to the dessert offerings. This year I added pumpkin ice cream and Val made a Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart.

The sweet potato casserole is exactly what you imagine with mashed sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and just in case it isn't sweet enough, it gets topped with mini marshmallows. The guys all find this a little too sweet, but all the women love this addition on their Thanksgiving plate. This has been a standard on our table for the last 15 years.

Sweet Potato Casserole

5 sweet potatoes
1 stick butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
miniature marshmallows

Cut sweet potatoes in half. Boil until tender. Drain and peel potatoes, place in bowl. Mash potatoes with butter, brown sugar, syrup and salt. Put in casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Add marshmallows, bake for an additional 5 minutes.


Our rating:

Baked Potato Soup

I decided to keep dinner simple for Wednesday night since I knew the day would be busy. We started by making Buttermilk Pancakes for breakfast with Emma (our routine is either we make pancakes or we go to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast). Dunkin Donuts for breakfast is a tradition that started with my mother-in-law taking the girls out for breakfast whenever she had them and so we now find ourselves continuing the tradition with our grandchildren. It's funny how that works.

Stephanie and David had come in from Austin late the night before so they also got to enjoy pancakes. Gerry and David played golf while all us girls got together for a quick shopping trip and lunch out. We all enjoyed our various choices and Emma and Ethan got to have pizza which worked out great.

For dinner, we had a Baked Potato Soup which I thought was really good and as a bonus came in at a little over 200 calories per serving. We also had some homemade dinner rolls; both white and wheat.




Baked Potato Soup (serves 5)
Adapted from Skinnytaste.com

2 russet potatoes, washed and dried
1 small head cauliflower, stem removed and cut into florets
1 1/2 cups low-fat chicken broth
1 1/2 cups 1% reduced-fat milk
salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 cup light sour cream
10 tablespoons reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6 tablespoons chopped chives, divided
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (you can use turkey bacon)

Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes.

Meanwhile, steam cauliflower with water in a large covered pot until tender. Drain and return to pot. On medium, add chicken broth, milk, and potatoes and bring to a boil. Use an immersion blender or puree in batches in blender, until smooth. Add sour cream, cheese,half the chives, salt and pepper and cook on low another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Ladle 1 cup soup into each bowl. Top each serving with the remaining chives, and bacon crumbles.


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