Category: Pictures

This past Saturday’s splurge meal was Portobello Penne Pasta Casserole.  It wasn’t new to us.  It wasn’t difficult.  It is a splurge meal simply by virtue of the fact that it’s awesome.  Also, there’s butter involved.

I made the following changes:

• I used an entire 16 oz. package of penne and it was whole wheat
• I used 12 oz. of portobellos
• I used butter instead of margarine
• I never know what kind of milk to which they’re referring in things like this so I used one cup of whole and one cup of skim to make up the two cups it calls for
• I used 8 oz. (which is about 2 shredded cups of most cheeses) of monterrey jack cheese in the sauce and sprinkled just enough mozzarella to cover on top after everything was mixed together (maybe a 1/2 cup, shredded?)
• I used 16 oz. of spinach and squeezed it out thoroughly
• I used light soy sauce

This dish became an instant family favorite when I first made it in early September.  It’s definite comfort food, but is meatless (fitting the qualifications of the dinner guests we had at the time).  It’s perfect served with a spinach salad and a glass of wine.  Plus, it’s relatively easy, which is very important on a weekend when we’re trying to finish projects around the house.

Here’s a picture:

The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but I promise it’s fantastic!

Tonight we went for a trio of Cooking Light dishes.  Our starter was Pears with Goat Cheese and Preserves (pretty self explanatory).  It was super-tasty and would serve very well as a visually appealing appetizer at a party, in addition to being fairly easy and not too hard on the waistline, either.  Here’s a picture:

Next up was Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce.  I’m really struggling for words on this one.  I’m (almost) not kidding when I say I could eat this every night and be happy.  It was relatively easy and I only made a few alterations.  I used 12 oz. of farfalle instead of the 16 oz. it called for (this was suggested by other reviewers and was a great tip — especially since I could only find the stuff in 12 oz. packages at the store).  I also used a full cup of cream (instead of 2/3 of a cup).  I did this mainly because I bought a container that had 1 cup in it and I don’t use heavy cream very frequently so I decided to go ahead and go for it.  I ended up using 16 oz. of baby bellas instead of the wild mushroom mix because there was only one package left at the Publix and it didn’t look particularly fresh.  Lastly, I couldn’t find shallots at our Publix, so I used 3 green onions (chopped finely) and about 1/2 TBS extra minced garlic.

Without a solid comparison (at this point) I’m giving full credit for the deliciousness to the (extremely) expensive cheese I used.  I looked all over the specialty cheese section at the grocery store to find the Parmigiano-Reggiano in brick form.  I found one option.  The grated versions were going for around $4 for a 12 oz. container.  I figured that the per ounce price would be cheaper on the brick form.  Boy, was I wrong.  I never located the price tag (sneakily placed on the BACK of the package) until I pulled out the wedge tonight to grate it.  I paid $12.53 for this particular brick of cheese (no wonder our bill was so high this week).  The per pound price?  Wait for it…$21.99!  Is that even legal?  Seriously?  I guess I’ll find out if this cheese was the reason for the deliciousness, because I guarantee I’ll be buying the grated kind for $4 next time around.

The real proof?  Liam ate two full servings, mushrooms included.  He was shoveling it in with both hands.  It was the first splurge meal that we had ready in time for him to eat the night we made it and it was a rousing success.  This picture does not do it justice:

We finished the meal off with Blue-Ribbon Apple Pie made by my wonderful husband (our resident pastry chef).  He’s officially a pie-making fool.  We topped it off with some 1/2 fat vanilla bean ice cream and we’re both stuffed and happy.

Here he is finishing off the pie construction:

Finished product:

A la mode:

I’d go so far as to say that this might have been the best splurge meal yet!

Let me start this post by making an admission:  I know absolutely nothing about cooking red meat.  If it’s not ground up for use in chili or tacos I’m at a complete loss.  It scares me because it’s expensive and there are about 1,001 ways in which to screw it up.  I married a man who loves meat and potatoes.  He never complains about what I make for dinner.  If it’s hot, he’s happy.  He even eats the leftovers that I can’t stomach (except for that eggplant pasta recipe from a few weeks back, but no one could have eaten that).  Because of this, I found myself putting pot roast on the menu for this week despite the fact that meat scares me and I don’t really like pot roast.  (I figured I’d start in slow with the meat preparation by making something in the crock pot where everything magically comes out moist.)

I started out with this recipe.  I figured that over 4,000 reviews was enough for me to trust the rating.  Also, anything with cream of mushroom soup and an onion soup packet sounds good to me.  I made the following changes/substitutions:

• I used 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
• I used a sirloin tip roast instead of the specified “pot roast” (and to be honest I’m not even sure that this is a substitution, since I don’t know what a pot roast really is…I just knew that sirloin tends to mean less fatty and it looked like a big hunk of meat in the package, which is what I envision when I hear the term “roast”…plus it wasn’t completely exorbitantly priced, so I just bought it…)
• The roast was around 3 pounds instead of the 4-5 the recipe indicated.  It would take us a week to eat a 4-5 pound roast…
• I cooked it for a shorter period of time on high (I did about 6 hours instead of what the recipe says–which I think was 4 hours)
• I added a bunch of baby carrots since as I mentioned before, I don’t really like pot roast in general, but I do like the baby carrots that go with it, so I made sure to hedge my bets on this one

Here it is, in process:

Here’s a very happy Matt, carving up the roast:

The second recipe is called “Cowboy Mashed Potatoes.”  I followed the recipe on this one for the most part as well.  Here are the changes:

• I used minced garlic (since that’s what I had)
• I used canned diced jalapenos (I made the mistake once of using a fresh one and despite using gloves there was a lot of residual burning in the eye and face area despite the fact that I tried really hard not to touch anything, so I decided it wasn’t worth it…I used what looked like the equivalent of one diced pepper)
• I added fat free sour cream at the end (about a cup) to make it creamier

Here’s the finished product:

The pot roast was okay.  I asked Matt how he’d rate it and his answer was “average” although he followed it up with this caveat: “run-of-the-mill pot roast is high on the scale of things to eat.”  In short, he was thrilled with his dinner.  The gravy that it makes is really good, and the carrots were perfection.  I think it’s the texture of pot roast that doesn’t thrill me, and this would have been dry without the gravy, but I’d definitely eat it again (which is good because we’ll have it for several nights).
The potatoes were very tasty and although I had to boil the mixture for around 35 minutes (instead of the 15-20 that the recipe indicates) they were very easy and came together quickly after the boiling was finished.

Here’s a picture of the completed stick-to-your-ribs dinner:

I do feel a little like a stuffed pig (there’s a reason that “meat and potatoes” is synonymous with a hearty meal), but everything was good and I made my husband happy, so that’s a win in my book.