Pioneer Woman's Pasta Primavera

I have never been big on veggie dishes. What can I say, I like meat! But since starting Biggest Loser I have had to incorporate more veggies into my diet. It isn't easy trying to find recipes that are both healthy AND tasty! So I was happy to find this Pasta Primavera recipe on one of my favorite recipe sites! Click on the link to see step by step pictures...I didn't take any of my own this time.

What You Need:
1 cup Bite-sized Broccoli Pieces (up to 1 1/2 Cups)
½ whole Onion Diced Finely
3 cloves To 4 Cloves Garlic, Chopped Finely
2 whole Medium To Large Carrots, Sliced On The Bias (diagonally)
2 whole Medium Zucchini, Sliced On The Bias (diagonally)
1 whole Medium Yellow Squash (optional)
1 container (about 5 Oz.) White Button Or Baby Porcini Mushrooms, Roughly Sliced
1 whole Red Bell Pepper, Sliced Into Strips
4 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 pound Pasta (She used Penne, I used Faralle)

FOR THE SAUCE:
¼ cups Dry White Wine (up To 1/2 Cup), Optional (replace with additional broth if not using)
½ cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1 cup Whipping (heavy) Cream
1 cup Half-and-half
½ cups Grated Parmesan Cheese
5 leaves Basil (or More To Taste), Plus Extra For Garnish
½ cups Frozen Peas

The Steps:
First, prep the vegetables. Chop the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, about 1 to 1 ½ cups worth. Dice half a yellow onion. Chop 3 to 4 cloves of garlic. Slice carrots on the bias (diagonally), and do the same for the zucchini and yellow squash. Roughly slice the mushrooms and slice the red pepper (seeded) into strips.

Heat 2 tablespoons butter with 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic together and cook for a minute or two, until they start to turn translucent. Then throw in the broccoli. Stir, and add in the carrots.

Stir it around, cooking it for only a minute, tops. Transfer the mixture to a plate. Add in the red pepper strips to the skillet. Stir them around for a minute or so, then transfer them to the plate.

Add pasta to slightly salted boiling water and cook to al dente.

Add a tablespoon of butter to the skillet. Add squash and zucchini, cook for less than a minute, then transfer to plate. Cook mushrooms for a minute or two (add salt to taste), and again transfer to the plate.

FOR THE SAUCE
To make the sauce, pour ¼ to ½ cup dry white wine into the skillet (see note below). Add ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth, a tablespoon of butter and scrape the bottom of the skillet to pull up the flavor left behind by the veggie cooking. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the liquid starts to thicken.

Add 1 cup whipping cream and 1 cup half-and-half. Measure out ½ cup grated Parmesan; add to the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chiffonade 5 to 6 fresh basil leaves and add that to the sauce; stir.

Dump veggies and mushrooms into the sauce along with ½ cup frozen peas right out of the freezer. Add pasta al dente and stir. If the sauce seems a little thick, or if there doesn’t seem to be enough sauce, add a good splash of chicken broth and a little more half-and-half. Top with more Parmesan, salt, pepper, and basil to taste.

Note: if you’re averse to wine, add chicken broth instead. But watch the salt later.

The Verdict:
For a dish with no meat, this was surprisingly very filling, but more importantly very tasty! I made some healthier substitutions to the sauce by skipping the whipping cream and using whole milk instead, along with the half and half. The Doc was a BIG fan and even the boys enjoyed it. This is going to have to be a regular dish in our rotation!

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef & Garlic Noodles

As a gift, from my friend Susan, I received a cookbook called America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants. There were some really cook dishes in the book and I tried the Applebee's Crispy Orange Chicken Skillet. It was a huge hit, though not exactly figure friendly. I was out shopping last week and saw a copy of the second edition, More of America's Most Wanted Recipes: More Than 200 Simple and Delicious Secret Restaurant Recipes--All for $10 or Less! and bought it because it had a copycat recipe for one of our favorite dishes at the Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious, by the way! Tonight I decided to try the P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef and serve it with the recipe for Garlic Noodles. While I have eaten at P.F. Chang's before, I have never had either dish so I wasn't sure what to expect, but everything turned out delicious.

Mongolian Beef

What You Need:
For the Sauce:
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 Tb chopped garlic
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce

1 pound flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup vegetable oil
2 green onions sliced

The Steps:
1. To make the sauce, heat the 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a medium saucepan and saute the ginger and garlic, stirring continuously. Do not let the garlic burn. Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, and 1/2 cup of water. Dissolve the brown sugar by whisking vigorously. Bring the mixture to a boil and let the sauce thicken, then set it aside until read to use.

2. Slice the flank steak into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Be sure to cut against the grain of the meat so that it remains tender. Coat each piece lightly in the cornstarch and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet. Add the beef, working in batches, and fry until each piece is slightly golden brown. Remove to a paper towel and drain. Discard the oil.

4. Heat the wok over medium heat and return the meat to stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the sauce and simmer for 1 minute, then add the green onions. Stir fry for another minute, then transfer to a serving platter.



Garlic Noodles

What you Need:
Cantonese Stir-Fry Sauce
1/4 cup water
1 Tb chicken bouillon powder
1 Tb sugar
1 Tb Shao Hsing (or dry vermouth or the book recommends a medium dry Sherry)
1 Tb oyster sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch

Noodles
1 Tb minced garlic
2 Tb chopped chile pepper
2 Tb canola oil
1 Tb sugar
2 Tb white vinegar
1 lb fresh Chinese noodles or vermicelli (cooked according to package directions)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tb chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp Asian sesame oil

The Steps:
1. Make the Cantonese sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisking to blend well. Set aside.

2. Heat a wok or skillet and stir-fry the garlic and chile pepper in the canola oil, about 1 minute. do not let the garlic burn.

Add the sugar and vinegar and stir to blend. Add the cooked noodles with the red pepper flakes and cilantro, then add 1/2 cup of the Cantonese sauce.

Drizzle the sesame oil over everything in the wok and stir to mix, allowing the sauce to thicken.

The Verdict:
Not exactly the healthy dinner I should have made, but it was so very yummy! I was bad and even got seconds it was so good.


Next time I make this, I will use vermicelli or a thinner Chinese noodle. The noodles above are wide Chinese Lo Mien noodles and they worked but I prefer a thinner noodle. I also missed the part about adding a 1/2 cup of water to the Mongolian stir-fry sauce. So perhaps our sauce was more concentrated? I don't know or care for that matter because it didn't affect the taste, and that is really all that matters!

If you wanted to make this dish healthier, you could always grill the flank steak first, then slice it and stir-fry it. It wouldn't be as bad as frying the stead with the cornstarch. The downside is that you wouldn't get the same texture on the meat. Another way to save calories would be to serve it with brown rice, which was my intention, until I saw the recipe for the garlic noodles.

The best part is that this is super easy and fast to make. The sauces can be made ahead of time and refrigerated too. I really don't think this one will disappoint!

Homemade Granola Bars

A while back my friend Susan had mentioned that she had a recipe for homemade granola bars. Since I am not much of a baker, I never thought it would be something I would ever want to make, and so I never bothered to get the recipe. I had forgotten all about it until recently, when I was talking to her about the changes I wanted to make in our diets, and how I was looking at more ways to cut out processed foods. She mentioned the recipe again and the next time I brought the boys over to play she had made a batch! They were delicious. I told her that she needed to send me the recipe so that I could try them out myself.

What You Need:

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

The Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt.





Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla.



Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.


3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

The Verdict:
AMAZING! Really, they are so good. Per Susan's recommendations, I followed the tips in the first set of comments:

This recipe is really great, but I have some changes that can make it near perfect. I used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, canola oil in place of vegetable oil, and I reduce the brown sugar to 1/2 cup and they are still super sweet, and even down to 1/3 cup and they're still yummy. For flavor I always use 1 tsp. of cinnamon and a whole cup of raisins. To make them chewy still use a 9x13 pan but don't spread the mixture into the entire pan- leave about an inch and a half empty space on one end. (The batter will cook exactly as it sits so you don't have to worry about it spreading. Also, you must be careful not to overcook these. Thirty minutes is way too long, but since every oven is different I can only really tell you that you need to take them out right when you see the edges becoming brown (the middle may still appear undone.) For me that is 18 minutes. If you do that they will stay chewy forever--just store them in a ziploc bag. And my last bit of advice is that you can get really creative with this recipe. For example, instead of raisins add dried cranberries and slivered almonds. Or up the cinnamon and add chopped dried apples. Or you could add peanut butter and freeze dried banana bits (like you find in the toddler section). Or you could play around with some canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Just have fun!

I used the 1/3 cup of sugar, whole wheat flour, canola oil (with 1 tablespoon of Flax Oil added in), and the full tsp of cinnamon. I also substituted the raisins for chocolate chips. The first time I made them I also added some dried cranberries. Next time I am thinking about trying the peanut butter. They really are versatile and the best part is that since they are homemade, you control the ingredients.



As you can see from the picture above, I overcooked them the first time. The second time I took them out of my oven after 20 minutes and they were PERFECT! The boys can't get enough of them! Even the Doc is a fan!

Ready for the taste test!


All gone!