Sausage and Spaghetti - Healthy Style

There are a number of dishes that are difficult to make in a healthy manner.  Sausage and Spaghetti is one of them.  Combine high fat sausages with high carb spaghetti - the perfect one-two punch to ruin your diet.

Yet, I grew up with it, and I don't want to live without it.   So with that in mind...my version.  

Caveat - adjust amounts for  numbers your feeding.  Below is for 4 people.  Or 2 with leftovers.

Ingredients

1 Onion, diced medium

1 med zucchini, diced medium

8 oz fresh mushroom, quartered if large, halved if small

Archer Farms (Target brand) Chicken and Spinach cooked sausage - leave whole or slice

1 jar spaghetti sauce (Bertolli) - try for something with limited fat and sugar.  If using no sugar sauce, be prepared to add some sugar or other sweetener - it is often to acid without

1 box Rozoni Smart Taste Pasta - 2 oz per person - or less!

1 bag frozen green beans

Cooking instructions

At the same time….do the following three things

1) Saute with 1 tsp oil - onion, zucchini, mushroom, sausage.  You can cook separately if you pan is not large enough - that has the added benefit of cooking them to their preferred doneness.  If you have vegetarians in the house do the sausage separately and serve on the side.  

2) Nuke green beans

3) Cook pasta (don’t over cook), drain

When all are cooked, mix all together in the pasta pot (after you drained out the pasta) with the jar of pasta sauce.   Heat and serve.  Serve with salad if you like.

Wedding Beverage List - Wine, Beer, Water, Soda

This worked out pretty well for my daughters wedding - I know I searched the internet for advice and got conflicting information, so here goes what worked for us.

Setting - 200 guests - 180 adults, outdoors, on a hot summer night (no, not that hot summer night).  Wedding at 4, dinner at 6, dancing till 10.  We had an open bar - no charge.

20 cases of water - we ended with two cases left - did I say it was a hot day?  We put it out in galvinized wash tubs so guests could grab one as they arrived, and placed them around the tent also.  I had frozen 4 cases to help cool down the rest and save on ice.

2 half barrels of beer (actually 1 half and two quarters).  We went with PBR and two micro brews - PBR went first, so don't fret serving cheap beer.

4 cases of Champagne (12 to a case, Barefoot Extra Dry) - we ended up with one left.  This is the only area I think we could of gone with less - 3 cases for the toast would of been enough.

6 bottles non-alcoholic sparking cider - we should of gone more - at least 12.

7 mixed cases wine - I went overboard with the varieties - Menage et Trois red, Columbia Two Vines Merlot, Houge Chardonnay,  Barefoot Moscato, Columbia Crest Riesling, Lindemans sauvignon blanc Wolersheim's Prairie Fume.  The amount of wine was fine - ended up with a mixed case at the end.  But if I were to do it over - I would of gone with just the Merlot, the Chardonnay, the Sauvignon blanc and the Moscato.  Buy what people want - that's pretty much it - it doesn't have to be expensive - just worth drinking.  And I think all of those wines are pretty good on a hot summer night

3 cases mixed soda (half diet, half regular)  Interestingly enough, I should of gone another case of regular soda - we had diet left over at the end of the night, but none of the regular.

300 lbs ice - you need a lot to ice down all that, especially on a hot summer night.  (no, not that hot summer night either)

We used 4 galvanized wash tubs for water, and four coolers to keep the wine cool - I also dropped some ice in the red wine cases - no one really wants to drink red wine that is 85 degrees.

The venue provided the insurance, but we still had a licensed bar tender there.  Good way of making sure you are cutting off those that are getting a little too happy, and are good at dealing with people.

It was a great fun night.

Cuban Style Pork Shoulder - in the Crock Pot

First, go to the LATIMES for their recipe.

Great recipe - I only make a couple of changes (even simpler than theirs)

I use one whole bay leaf (not crushed or ground)
I zest an orange and then juice it, same with the lime - I don't bother measuring.
I use Penzey's Adobe seasoning instead of the ground chili pepper - and I still add all the other listed spices - pump up the volume, but not the heat.

Adjust the spices depending on how much pork shoulder you use - if it is a 2.5 lb piece, then half the spices.

Pork shoulder is a pain to defat - lots of fat, lots of stuff to trim.  But do not substitute - just be diligent in trimming if you are looking to limit your weight, and then be sure to eat lots of other things with just a reasonable portion of the pork.  Great dish with black beans and rice.

Easy Black Beans - Cuban (or is that Puerto Rican?) Style

Beans and Rice are a favorite food at our house. Black, Red, Navy, Pink, Pinto - we love them all.

This recipe is my version of Cuban Black Beans (no meat) with a little of the Puerto Rican influence from some south Milwaukee places that I remember. Is it authentic? Well, no.... But everyone loves them. I am happy to use dry beans but I never seem to plan well enough - so canned it is. Also, this is a great dish for your Le Creuset Pot, or other heavy enameled cast iron pot with tight fitting lid.

Rice I am not going to tell you how to cook - we are eating more brown rice as it is moderately healthy for you (compared to white rice), but make whatever you like. Follow the directions on the package.

Black Beans - Made of Love

3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 medium green pepper, chopped fine
4 cloves of garlic, minced (use fresh, and don't use a press)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced small. Feel free to substitute fresh pumpkin, or other squash)
1/2 can vegetarian broth
1/2 cup Alcaparrado drained(green olives, capers and red peppers (aka pimentos)- easy to find in your local mexican/puerto rican or other grocery.
1/2 cup sherry
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs cumin
1 tbs ground pepper
1 bay leaf olive oil 

Saute onion and green pepper until very soft (in about 1 tbs olive oil), but not browned. Add garlic, saute for another 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients. Bring to simmer. Put on lid, cook for about 1/2 an hour. Check and add more broth as needed. You need to cook the sweet potatoes, but you don't want soup here - you want it fairly thick. Taste and adjust seasoning. Some cooks add sugar at this point, but I find the sweet potato add enough, plus, way better for you. Many recipes call for vinegar, but the Alcaparrado adds that zing, plus extra.

Feel free to take a cup of the beans out, mash them fine and add it back in to thicken it up. After you have adjusted seasonings, keep at low for 10 minutes and serve.

Great thing about this dish is once it is cooked, you can turn it to low and it will be great for an hour or more - so it is easy to fit with the rest of the meal. Serve with a salad, roast pork or even better, crock pot cuban style pork shoulder My only change to that recipie is drop the chili pepper, use Penzey's Adobe seasoning in its place.

Cupcake Red Velvet 2011 - aka Fruit Bomb Red

Was Apothic Red or Cupcake Red Velvet First? Either way, they are clearly blended to achieve the same flavor profile.

BIG FRUIT
low tannin
sweet
Chocolate up front, in the middle and the end.

Apothic has a weird maple syrup component that Cupcake does not have (this is good) but otherwise very similar. Red Velvet is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah

Drinkable. Sweet. Easy to drink. Good with a steak. I like it better than the Apothic Red (which I find undrinkable). Under $10.

But like apothic, the wine becomes undrinkable after two or three glases. It is just to much. To sweet, to fruity it just becomes unpleasant. I want to like it, but cant

Red Tree Pinot Noir, 2010

In Summary - A fine light red wine, with some fruit, decent with food.

Red Tree makes cheap wine - $5.99 at Festival Foods (plus a $2 a bottle rebate). However cheap in this case means a pretty decent wine that you can buy a ton of for an event and not be embarrassed by serving it nor draining your checking account.

Red Tree pitches it's wines this way - Redtree offers consumers fresh, fruit forward, distinctive varietals of consistent quality and exceptional value that are ready for immediate consumption. These wines are ideal as an aperitif and complement everyday meals as well as special occasions

Not sure how distinctive they are, but sure - it is on the list for consideration of wine's at the upcoming wedding.

NEW - IMPROVED - EVEN MORE AWESOME -Creamy Tomato Soup - no dairy, vegan

ALL CAPS so it must be true....

This recipe uses canned tomatoes.  The issue with canned tomatoes is that often they are a little acidic.  Well, the typical way of dealing with that is adding a little sugar.  Which kind of makes this a little less low calorie.

So - what to do?

Well, I had a rogue sweet potato on the counter, and I thought, why not?  Sweet potatoes, in addition to be slightly sweet, have a fair bit of fiber and vitamens.  And if it did not work, there was always sugar.

So, the same recipe, plus one sweet potate peeled, diced small.  It makes the soup a little more orange, cures the acidity issue, and makes the recipe all the more healthy.

Cream of Tomato Soup - what a great dish.

 Warm, comforting, and full of fat and not vegetarian. Whats a person a to do when they want one of the worlds great comfort foods but either can't live with the fat or are vegetarian?

For the life of me I cannot remember where I got this idea of a recipe, although clearly it is somewhat based on Tomato Bread Soup - a traditional italian soup that has stale bread in it.

My version pumps up the vegetables, as well as blenderizes the soup to make it creamy without the dairy (fake or real) product.

Ingredients (serves 4)


1 Onion, diced (44 calories
4 Carrots, diced (100 c)
2 Celery stalks, diced (18)
1 Sweet potato, peeled, diced small (114 calories)
4 cloves of garlic, minced (?)
2 cans tomatoes (diced, crushed or whole)with juice, no sugar added(don't drain) (180)
2 cups water or vegetable stock (20)
3 slices whole wheat bread, stale works great, diced (270)
1 tbl spoon olive oil (don't have to use, but some fat is good for you) (120)
Basil (fresh or dried)
Salt and Pepper to taste (if using regular canned stock you won't need additional salt)
Couple of dashes hot sauce (tabasco, sriracha, whatever)

So, call that 850 calories or so, making 8 cups of soup - so about 108 calories per cup of soup.

Now, is this precise calorie counting?  Of course not.  Calories on labels are a sham and inaccurate.  What type of wheat bread?  How thick is one slice versus the other?  However, it is close enough to know that this is a very low calorie soup, and it tastes great.  Personally, I call this a 100 calorie per cup soup.  Prove me wrong!

Plus, really super cheap to make

Possible additions -
1/2 cup dried red lentils (rinsed and drained)
1 can white beans (rinsed and drained)

Cooking Directions
Dice (finely) the onion, carrots, sweet potato, celery and garlic
Heat Le Crueset (type) pot over medium heat
Add 1 tbsp olive oil to hot pot
Add diced vegetables, saute till soft
Add Basil (or italian seasoning)
Add tomatoes, bread and vegetable stock, stir together
Add Hot Sauce
reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes (stir as the bread has a tendency to stick to the bottom)
Pour soup into blender, blenderize (or use a stick blender in pot). Be careful with this - the soup is hot, so pour carefully, make sure you have the top on firmly, and I usually put a dish towel over the top too!  Don't fill the blender more than half way.  I star on the slowest speed, then ramp it up to bassomatic speed.
Pour back into pot
Adjust seasonings
Keep warm till serving.

Interesting adds include red lentils or white beans. Put them in when adding the tomatoes and stock (or water). Red lentils cook very fast, so it does not add to the cooking time (much).