Fondue date-night

In general, I try to eat healthy during the week and on the weekends I let myself indulge a little. This past weekend hubby and I decided to break out the fondue set and enjoy a nice relaxing night by the fire place. Our fondue of choice? A home-made rendition of the Melting Pot's Mexican Fiesta Cheese Fondue. Health? No. Delicious? Yes. We ate this pot of bubbling cheesy goodness with fresh baked tortilla chips, cubed ciabatta bread, and red and green pepper slices.

Mexican Fiesta Cheese Fondue
6oz beer
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3oz shredded Swiss cheese
2 tbs flour
1/4 cup fresh pico de gallo (recipe to follow)

This recipe calls for use of a double boiler. For those who are not familiar with this cooking method, you basically use hot water to gently melt your ingredients together. This is easily done by putting about 2 cups of water into one of your smaller pots and placing a glass or Pyrex bowl directly on top, as if it was a lid. The ingredients cook in the bowl as it is heated by the steaming water in the pot.

So, to start, heat your double boiler on the stove over medium-high heat.
Add the beer and pico de gallo and let simmer for a good 5-7 minutes so that the beer absorbs the flavor.
Mix your cheese together with the flour. This will prevent clumping.
When you feel your beer is hot enough, slowly add your cheese in (I did it in three parts).
Stir constantly, making sure the cheese and the beer become one.
You should end up with a chocolate syrup like texture.
Transfer fondue to a fondue pot and serve.

Pico de gallo
1 tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
juice from 1/2 lime
1 tbs cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
Pico actually IS healthy--there are no point in it. You can serve it with quesadillas, grilled chicken, baked tortilla chips or anything else you can think up.

Therefore I can end with...

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Mama give me more meatballs

After watching my 11 month old son and his best friend devour two tennis-ball sizes meatballs last night at dinner, I decided that I should make some meatballs to have in the house for a quick-fix dinner. I love making meatballs because you can make so many in one batch and freeze them individually for an easy dinner.

In discussion with my friends, I know their are three schools of thought when it comes to meatballs: those who fry, those who bake and those who cook in sauce. I am from the "cook in sauce" school, possibly because I am a half-Swedish Jewish girl from Massachusetts with no ties to Italy and no official culinary training. However, cooking in sauce is easy, and it leaves you with an amazing tomato sauce that you can use for a variety of other dishes.

Sauce
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 14oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes (crush the tomato pieces in your hand as you pour them into the pot)
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt/pepper

Dump all ingredients in a very large pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Remember you are going to cook your meatballs in this sauce, so make sure your pot is very big!

Meatballs
2.5 pounds 85% lean ground beef
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
salt/pepper

Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese. Stir in eggs and water. You should have a really mushy mixture. If it clumps together, add a little more water.
Add garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Add in the ground beef. Mix until just blended (you should not have any clumps of bread mixture, but you do not want to over-mix). This is best done with your hands.
Wet your hands and roll small balls of the meat into golf-ball sized meatballs. You should get between 30-35 meatballs, depending on how big you made them.
Drop meatballs into simmering sauce. DO NOT COVER. Make sure the heat is on low.
Stir every 10-15 minutes, scooping up from the bottom to make sure that the meatballs are not sticking.
Let meatballs cook for 1 hour.

To freeze meatballs, scoop them out of the sauce with a spoon and drain them on the side of the pot so they are pretty much sauce-free.
Lay them out on a cookie sheet sprayed with PAM.
Place entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 2 hours. Remove and transfer meatballs into a ziplock back. Return to freezer and use meatballs as needed for subs, spaghetti or, in my case, dinner for your hungry 11 month old :-) You can also freeze the sauce in ziplock freezer bags for delicious pasta sauce. Lay them flat in the freezer to save space.

Each meatball has 2 points.

Health meals to nourish your mind.

A quick fix for the uninspired--meatsauce

Meatsauce is one of those go-to meals that I always make when I feel uninspired. It is quick, easy and delicious. I adapted this recipe from my mom's, which features ground beef rather than turkey. It is good with either one, and tastes great served over pasta or in dishes such as lasagna or baked ziti. The recipe below makes about 7 cups, at 2 points per 1/2 cup serving.

Ingredients
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 14oz cans Italian-style stewed tomatoes, pureed smooth (you can either use an immersion blender or throw them into a food processor. For those who like a chunkier sauce, just run your knife through the whole tomato pieces)
2 tbs tomato paste
1 onion, chopped
20 oz 93% lean ground turkey
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs dried basil
salt/pepper to taste

Spray the bottom of a big pot with PAM. Over medium-high heat, saute onion until they begin to appear translucent.
Add turkey and saute until all the pink is gone. Drain any excess fat from the pan (I usually push all of the turkey to one side and then tip the pot the opposite way so all the fat pools to the side. With a paper towel, I soak up the excess liquid).
Stir in tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients. Simmer over low heat for up to 1 hour, stiring occasionally.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

This is how we rollatini

Eggplant is another one of those foods that I was truly petrified of. Those big purple odd-shaped vegetables would stare me down as I walked through the produce aisle, taunting me as if to say "Hey lady, you can't handle me!" OK, maybe that is a little extreme, but that was how I felt! I finally gave in and decided to tackle the beast, and I was surprised by how with a little effort, eggplant can be transformed in a variety of delicious and healthy dishes. Below is my recent creation of healthy Eggplant Rollatini, filled with a delicious ricotta/spinach mixture that leaves you very satisfied. This recipe takes a little longer than my other ones to prep, since you need to sweat the eggplant prior to starting. But believe me, it is well worth the effort.


Eggplant Rollatini
28 points in whole dish

1 20oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 egg plant, peeled and sliced vertically into long flat strips (between 12-14 strips)
¾ cup seasoned breadcrumbs
2 egg whites
2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1 tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
2 cups Francesco Rinaldi Marinara sauce

Sweat the eggplant for 1 hr with salt. Pat dry and wipe off excess salt.
Dip eggplant in egg white and then in breadcrumbs.
Spray large skillet pan with PAM.
Over medium-high heat, brown each side of the eggplant, spraying each piece with PAM before you begin to cook.
Mix together spinach, ricotta and spices. Divide filling evenly between your breaded eggplant and roll up.
Place 1 cup sauce at the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish that has been sprayed with PAM. Place eggplant, seam side down into dish and top with remaining tomato sauce.
Bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Wine and steak--what could be bad?

I wasn't introduced to flank steak until a few years ago, but now it is one of my favorites! You can get two 2-pound steaks at Costco for about $12. 1 steak is enough to feed both hubby and I and have plenty of leftovers for cold steak sandwiches or Swedish Steak Hash (YUM)! I came across this recipe last year while combing through some old issues of Cooking Light.

Rosemary Merlot Flank Steak

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped onion

3/4 cup low-salt beef broth

3/4 cup Merlot or other dry red wine

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1 tsp minced garlic

1 (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add steak; seal bag. Marinate in refrigerator 1 day, turning once.

Remove steak from bag, reserving marinade.

Spray grill-pan with cooking spray and pre-heat over high heat.

Place steak on hot grill pan. Cook 6 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.

While steak cooks, strain the reserved marinade and combine with tomato paste and mustard in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring well with a whisk.

Bring sauce to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes.

Serve the sauce with steak.

Steak is 2 points per ounce. Sauce has 3 points in entire recipe, so I don't even bother counting it since I use so little.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.