Cannellini Tuna Bruschetta

Summer is slowly whisking in and Memorial weekend is not too far away. Time for some summery dishes that are refreshing for lunch or dinner. Today it was....

Bruschetta with Cannellini Bean Tuna

several slices of whole grain baguette (50 kcal)
1/2 cup of cannellini beans, rinsed (110 kcal)
1 can of albacore tuna, broken up (80kcal, 18 g protein) (e.g. Bumble Bee)
1/3 red onion, finely diced
1/2 ts olive oil (20kcal)
salt, pepper, Mrs Dash garlic and herb
1 garlic clove, peeled

Toast slices of baguette in a pan or panini maker. Spray with PAM for more crispness. Meanwhile, in a bowl mix the beans, tuna, onion, spices and olive oil. Once the bread is brown,
rub with garlic clove, and spoon bean tuna mix on the bruschetta.

Sundried Tomato Pesto Chicken Pasta

1 chicken cutlet
1 cup low-sodium, non-fat chicken broth
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled, whole
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/3 of a red onion, finely diced
5-6 kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 ts Mrs dash garlic and herbs
fresh crushed black pepper
1 TB sundried skinny tomato pesto
2 oz Fiber Gourmet penne

Cook pasta according to instructions.

Poach the fresh or frozen chicken cutlet in lowfat, low-sodium chicken broth with a bay leaf and 2 peeled, but whole garlic cloves for 10 min on medium-high. Remove chicken, and cut into dice.

In a PAM-sprayed skillet, sautee the onion until slightly browned. Add bell pepper, and sautee for 3-4 min on medium heat. Add diced chicken, the spices and tablespoons of the chicken broth (from poaching) to provide enough liquid. Add drained pasta once cooked al dente, and mix all ingredients in the skillet. In a separate cup, stir the sundried tomato pesto with 2 TB of hot chicken broth, and mix into the penne chicken in the skillet. Serve!

Tomato Basil Pizza Burger

This is a veggie burger that does not make you miss the real deal: The Morningstar Tomato Basil Pizza veggie burger. I made it with some sliced red onion, chopped olives, lowfat feta crumbles.... a perfect lunch.

Skinny (To Die For) Sundried Tomato Pesto

I love pesto. Basil pesto, the pine nuts, the garlic, the parmesan, and, yes, the olive oil. It does not come easily in a skinny version without sacrificing the flavor and character of it. Nevertheless, sundried tomato pesto lends itself to a skinny version, and this one, a spur of inspiration, came up, well, to die for!

15 large sundried tomatoes (not from a jar, but the dried variety)
3 large garlic cloves, or 5 smaller ones, peeled, coarsely chopped
0.5 oz pine nuts
3 TB Trader Joe's red pepper spread
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 TB Mrs Dash garlic and herbs
2 TB high quality extra-virgin olive oil
2-5 TB water (add when needed to achieve desired pesto consistency)

I used my magic bullet to make the pesto, so I cut up the sundried tomatoes into small slices using scissors, and coarsely chopped the garlic, since it is has not the strongest motor, but is so easy to clean up (what a plus). I added all the remaining ingredients to the food processor, and pulsed it to a smooth, slightly coarse consistency and added water tablespoon wise.

The entire sundried pesto is 450 kcals, but it is used tablespoon-wise (ca 5-7 TB). It is great with pasta, or as a sundried tomato pesto chicken sauce, or as a spread for paninis with roasted eggplant and zucchini. For pasta, it can be thinned out with low sodium chicken stock or just some pasta water.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake, plain and simple

Chocolate cake, plain, simple, chocolaty chocolate cake. With the whipped cream this one was the one.

1 NS pancake mix
1 TB brown splenda
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts baking powder
1 ts instant espresso powder
1 TB organic cocoa powder (e.g. Dagoba)
3 TB eggbeaters
2 TB ff cold milk
1/2 ts vanilla extract

1-2 TB ff coolwhip

Mix the dry ingredients first, and then add the wet ingredients. Pour into a PAM-spray small springform pan, and bake at 375F for 25 min. Let cool, remove from form, cut in half horizontally, and add the coolwhip on the bottom half. Add top half. Serve!

Roasted Portabella Pasta

This is a great side for a bbq chicken breast or a steak: pasta with roasted portabella mushroom and red bell pepper.

2 oz Fiber Gourmet rotini (dry weight), prepared to instructions
1 ts extra-virgin olive oil
1 large portabella mushroom, cleaned and sliced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, roasted over open flame on bbq, skinned, sliced (optional)
salt, pepper, Mrs Dash garlic herb blend to taste
1 ts balsamic vinegar
1 TB low-fat crated parmesan (e.g. Kraft)

Heat oil in large skillet, and add onion. Saute until soft (ca. 3-4 min) and stir, then add mushroom pieces. Saute both onion and portabella mushroom, until the mushroom is cooked and browned. Add spices, and balsamic vinegar. Stir gently, and add in drained pasta. Add parmesan cheese, stir and serve.

Helen's Greek Potato Salad

The summer, party and bbq-times are starting again. This is a great potato salad of my friend Helen, perfect as a potluck dish or also for picnics.

1 pound small waxy red potatoes
150g low-fat feta cheese
20 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
Juice of 1 lemon
some extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the potatoes and put them onto boil in salted water. Meanwhile finely chop the red onion and add to a bowl with the sun-dried tomatoes, crumbled feta and the chopped oregano. Make a dressing with the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. When the potatoes are cooked and cool enough to handle cut them into cubes and add to the bowl. Mix everything together with the dressing and serve at room temp.

Penne with Garlic Rosemary Tomato Sauce

Lots of pasta with a basic garlic rosemary tomato sauce and a sprinkle of reduced fat feta. I could eat this every day. The sauce has onions, garlic, chopped fresh rosemary, white wine, salt, pepper, Mrs Dash tomato basil, oregano and a cup of passata di pomodorri, simmer to the right consistency. Bon appetite!

Penne with Seafood in Garlic Tomato Sauce

2 oz Fiber Gourmet penne
1 cup frozen seafood medley (paella mix or shrimp, mussels, calamari and imitation crab)
1/4 cup water

1/4 cup passata di pomodorri (or stewed and strained tomatoes)
1/4 cup Lucini Tomato Sauce (or any tomato sauce of your choice)
1 TB Trader Joe's red pepper spread
1/4 cup nf, low-sodium chicken stock (college inn)
1/2 cup frozen or fresh wild mushroom
Garlic and Basil Mr Dash
salt, pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, microplaned

Cook pasta according to instructions (12 mins). In a saute pot, add frozen seafood and water, and heat so that the seafood thaws and heats up. Once thawed, discard the cooking liquid. Place saute pot back on stove, and add the remaining ingredients, and simmer on medium heat until pasta is al dente. Drain pasta, and add to the pot. Mix well and serve!

Home-made Greek Yogurt

This is an inexpensive way to make Greek yogurt (similar to the taste of Fage) at home. Fage yogurt is made using the active yogurt cultures L. Bulgaricus and S. Thermophilus. It gives the Greek yogurt its distinctive tangy taste, and on the positive side, a low milk sugar and high protein content. The Yogourmet product contains those cultures freeze-dried, and so it is the perfect basis to make Greek yogurt at home, and less expensive at that (6 packages for 1 quart of yogurt each is about $5). I use a Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker (about $21 on Amazon.com). Now, let's make 0% fat Greek yogurt.

1 quart skim milk (fat-free)
1 package yogourmet freeze-dried L. Bulgaricus and S. Thermophilus active yogurt cultures
1 thermometer
1 yogurt maker

Heat the skim milk to 180F on the stove, then it fill into the yogurt container inset, and let cool down to 108-112F. Turn on the yogurt maker, and let warm up. In a small container, stir the yogurt cultures into a bit of lukewarm milk and let rest until the milk cools down. Once the milk reaches the desired temperature, add the cultures to the milk, and stir gently and well until it is all mixed. Put lid on yogurt container, and pace into yogurt maker. It takes 4-5 hour to make firm yogurt. Remove from yogurt maker, and place in fridge to stop the process.

After chilling the Greek yogurt over night, it can be served. An alternative is to strain the yogurt first using cheese cloth and a sieve to remove some of the liquid, or use a straining device. This makes the yogurt texture more creamy and similar to store-bought fage. It will reduce by half.

Four Cheese Pasta

Four Cheese Pasta
2 oz FG penne

Sauce:
2 TB ff cottage cheese
1 TB part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 TB shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cp low-sodium crushed tomatoes
1/4 cp low-sodium tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
salt, pepper
1 TB grated Parmesan

Preheat toaster oven to 400 degrees F. Cook the pasta according to instructions, but slightly undercook (ca. 10min). Drain. Combine the cottage cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella in a bowl and stir with a fork and set aside.

Heat the oil in a larger saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, rosemary, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. Return cheese mix and pasta to saute pan, and mix gently. Spray a small baking dish, and transfer pasta mixture to baking dish. Top with the parmesan, and bake until heated through and cheese is melted, 20 minutes.

Pasta with Saffron Lemon Lobster

Pasta with Saffron Lemon Lobster

2 oz Fiber Gourmet pasta

4oz cooked lobster meat
1/8 cup chicken stock
few strands of saffron
1 ts cognac
1/2 TB creme fraiche
salt, pepper
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 ts sugar or fiberfit (liquid artificial sweetener)

Prepare pasta according to instructions. In a skillet, heat the lobster meat in some water. Once heated, discard the water, and add the chicken stock, saffron, cognac and stir in the creme fraiche. Heat for 1-2 min, and reduce slightly. Add the lemon zest and the sugar as well as salt and pepper to taste. Add drained pasta to the skillet, mix and serve!

1 dinner entree



Also great with a seafood mix!

Past' e Broccoletti (Pasta with Broccoli Rabe)

A wonderful, flavorful, yet simple dish: pasta with broccoli rabe. Broccoli rabe looks like a bouquet of flowers, and the flowers look like broccoli flowers. Unlike broccoli, however, it has a pungent and slightly bitter taste, but it looses the bitterness during the cooking process. The pasta and broccoli rabe are simmered in the same pot, and served with a spicy garlic sauce and parmesan slices.

1/2 bunch of broccoli rabe (washed and sliced)
2 oz Fiber Gourmet rotini
1 garlic clove, grated
1 ts olive oil
1/2 ts red pepper flakes
1/4 cup low-sodium, ff chicken stock
parmesan cheese

In a large pot, bring sufficient water to a boil. Salt the water, and add the pasta and broccoli rabe. Saute until the pasta is al dente (ca. 12 min).

In a separate saute pan, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic until fragrant (1-2 min), and add the red pepper flakes. Add the chicken stock, and stir. Reduce for 2-3 mins, and take off the stove. Once the pasta is ready, drain the pasta and broccoli rabe, plate, and spoon sauce over the pasta. With a vegetable peeler, peel thin slices of a piece of parmesan or pecorino cheese. Serve!

Chocolate Muffin

Another Starbucks creation. This time I am just going to eat it.....

Pasta Arrabiata

A great dish with a savory sauce, a tad on the sweet side, with red bell pepper, black olives, tomatoes and pine nuts. A flavorful everyday dish.


Pasta arrabiata

2 oz fiber gourmet rotini

1/3 onion, finely dish
1/2 garlic clove, grated or microplaned
1 ts extra virgin olive oil
1-2 anchovy filets or 1/2 ts anchovy paste (from a tube)
1 ts red pepper flakes1
1 ts oregano
salt, pepper to taste
2 TB dry red wine
1/2 cup passata di pomodorri (basically, strained tomatoes)
1/2 red bell pepper, washed and sliced into thin stripes
8-10 kalamata olives, sliced
1 TB pine nuts

Cook pasta according to instructions. Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil and anchovies/anchovy paste. Once translucent and fragrant and anchovies fallen apart, add red pepper flakes, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir, and add remaining ingredients. Cook on low heat for 10 min. Serve over pasta.