Celebration Meal: Baked Whole Wheat Rigatoni

Baked Whole Wheat Rigatoni

Happy (few weeks after his) Birthday to the male half of this couple!

One of his favorite foods when he lived on the mainland was Baked Ziti...there was a woman who ran a restaurant near his work and once a week he would go in for her Baked Ziti.  He claims it was inexpensive and the best Baked Ziti ever...he had it so often when she saw him walking towards the restaurant she would start making his plate!

I am still in Cruise, but the male half doesn't care for the Shirataki pasta noodles, so I made him a whole wheat rigatoni for his birthday (because I just made him whole wheat penne and he likes variety).  We used the Pioneer Woman's recipe for Baked Ziti as our base but altered it a bit.  We didn't use as much mozzarella to cut down on the amount of cheese we used -- I still have mixed feelings on whether I should have used the full amount.  It definitely wasn't as cheesy as we would have liked it, but it wasn't terrible either!  We baked ours for 30 minutes (Pioneer Woman's recipe says 20 minutes or until bubbly) but 30 still wasn't enough.

RECIPE:
Serves: 6 to 8
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling

1 - 40 oz jar of Victoria All Natural Marinara Sauce
16 oz. whole wheat rigatoni, cooked until not quite al dente
1 - 15 oz. tub of low fat ricotta cheese
up to 1 1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 c. romano cheese, grated (we used the one that looks like powder -- you can use parmesan, but we prefer the taste of romano and there's less fat)
1 whole egg
salt and pepper

Start cooking your pasta.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prepare your baking pan, we used a 9x13 pan lined with foil because I don't like scrubbing pans.   In a large bowl, mix ricotta cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella, romano cheese, egg, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir together a couple of times (do not mix completely).  When draining your pasta, rinse under cool water to stop the cooking process.  Drain completely.  Pour pasta into your cheese mixture and toss to slightly combine (there should still be large lumps).

Add your marinara sauce to the cheese/pasta mixture.  Toss to combine.  Add half the coated pasta to your pan.  Top with half the remaining mozzarella cheese.  Add the rest of your coated pasta to the pan and cover with the rest of the mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbling.  Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.  (if you have fresh parsley, you can sprinkle that on your finished pasta)

Enjoy...we sure did!

Celebration Side Dish: Ranch Mashed Potatoes

Ranch Mashed Potatoes

We loved this recipe!

Wow, was it good and it was a hit at the holiday party we attended this weekend.   It is definitely not Dukan or Paleo so I only tasted the mashed potatoes to be sure it had enough seasoning but the male half who loves mashed potatoes said it's one of the best he's had...and he doesn't usually get excited about food.

This recipes feeds a lot.  I didn't measure it since I started it too late and rushed getting it prettied up for the holiday gathering.  If you're making this for a gathering, it's perfect, but for a family of 4 or 6, cut the recipe in half and you'll still have lots of leftovers.

Here's the original recipe from Cooking Light...we ended up doubling the seasonings to make it more flavorful and we prefer our mashed potatoes creamier.  The original recipe makes a dryer mashed potato.  If you prefer a milder tasting, dryer mashed potato, start with the original recipe, then add more seasonings.   The recipe below is our doubled seasoning recipe.

The dryer mashed potatoes are easier to work with when making the little scoops, but the recipe below did hold together.  We used a mini scooper.

RECIPE:
Prep Time: Seems like it took me over 1/2 an hour to clean the potatoes (removing eyes and other unattractive markings) and chop the green onions.  Plus another 10-15 minutes to mash and mix.
Cook Time: 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender

13 cups (approx 4 lbs) of red potatoes, cleaned and cubed
3/4 c. sour cream
1/4 c. green onions, chopped (only the green part)
1/2 c. reduced fat buttermilk (start with 1/4 c. until you find a consistency you like)
3 T. butter, softened
1 1/2 t. kosher salt or sea salt
1 T. fresh basil (because we had it on hand, you can use dried too, if using dried, try 1 1/2 t.)
1 1/2 t. oregano
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. dried dill

Place cubed potatoes in a pot or dutch oven, cover with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Drain potatoes then put potatoes into a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mash with a masher or a couple of forks.  Mash to your desired consistency.  We like ours with little chunks of potato still in it.

Enjoy...everyone here did!

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are not Dukan friendly...but they were interesting.  They were a bit too sweet for us and had we made them smaller, it might have been easier to finish a cookie.  We actually found many variations of this cookie...so we combined a few recipes.

There are some recipes with and some without chocolate chips...we had some chocolate chips leftover from our holiday baking and didn't want to keep them in our pantry so we added them to the recipe.  We haven't tried this with splenda brown sugar and a natural sweetener yet, but maybe when we get to Consolidation we'll try this recipe with less sweetener and no chocolate chips and have it as dessert for our Celebration meal.

Sorry for the lack of photos...we hadn't planned on posting this recipe!

RECIPE:
Makes 15 large cookies or 30 small cookies
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Bake Time: 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. organic cane sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. chocolate chips (try 3/4 c., 1 c. was too much)

Mix peanut butter until smooth.  Add the rest of your ingredients except the chocolate chips and mix well.  Add a little over 3/4s chocolate chips and fold in to your dough.  If necessary, put your dough into the fridge for 10 - 15 minutes for easier handling.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, line cookie sheets with parchment paper (if you wish).

We made our dough into balls and placed them on the cookie sheet.  Gently push the remaining chocolate chips on the top of each cookie.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool completely and enjoy!

Chai's Corn Chowder

Ugh...a bit of bad news...the male half of this couple's gums are infected.  The junk thing is we went in last week and told the dentist we thought it was infected and he said it wasn't.  Less than a week later, the dentist says it's infected which means the male half of this couple will need to have his healing gums cut open again this week!  Poor guy.  This will most likely mean soup and smoothies for the entire weekend (at least).

This recipe is NOT a Dukan recipe, it's a comfort food recipe - decided to share it in case you need some comfort food and because it was sooo easy.  You can make it less fatty by replacing the heavy whipping cream with non-fat half and half and cornstarch and not using corn, maybe use green beans or even clam.  You can also have this as a celebration meal!

Right after the first gum surgery a few weeks ago, the male half of this couple requested Corn Chowder, one of his favorite soups.  The female half never made corn chowder.  After a quick google search we came across Chai's Corn Chowder recipe.  We've had his corn chowder at his restaurant and it's always been yummy.   Chai is a popular chef in Hawaii with two restaurants, one Thai restaurant and one Thai Fusion restaurant.  Both are pricey, but the food is always good...we usually only go on BOGO nights.

The female half warned the male half that corn chowder in Hawaii is almost always a thin soup, not thick like New England Clam Chowder.  After taking a few sips of the corn chowder, the person who never gets excited about food said "this is really good, keep this recipe close by".  The female half almost fainted hee hee.

We forgot to take a photo of our chowder, but since the male half will have his gums cut open again, we will probably have corn chowder this weekend!  NOTE:  We used canned corn for ours and sauteed them in a pan since corn on the cob wasn't on sale and it is pretty expensive when not on sale.

The female half had a few spoonfuls to taste the chowder, the male half made two meals out of the rest.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4, depends if you're having this as a side or your meal
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes, it wasn't long

1 can corn (or 2 sweet corn on the cob)
1 can creamy style corn
1 T. celery, chopped
1 T. green onions, chopped
1/2 c. chopped chicken (we used the rotisserie chicken from Costo)
1 c. chicken broth
1 c. heavy whipping cream
pinch of salt, pepper and natural sweetener to taste

Chai adds 1 whole egg beaten to thicken the soup, but the male half liked it without the egg.  He also does the puff pastry thing, but we didn't do that.

Grill corn.   If using corn on the cob, remove corn from cob after grilling.  In a pot, saute celery and green onions over medium heat using a little bit of non-stick spray.  Saute for a minute.  Then add chicken.  If you're using raw chicken, cook until chicken is done.  Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Add creamy corn and bring to a boil.  Add cream, salt, pepper and natural sweetener.  Simmer a couple minutes.  If you are adding the egg to thicken the soup, add this now.

Enjoy...we sure did!