Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Blue Cheese Crumbles June 9, 2013

Jamie says: My taste buds were doing cartwheels and back flips and cartwheels after one taste of my Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Blue Cheese Crumbles. (Yes, it was really that incredible.) It reminded me of a fancy side dish you’d pay $10 for at a classy bistro.

Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Blue Cheese Crumbles

It was so good I decided to make it for Mom and Dad when they came to visit for Mom’s birthday! We had a fun weekend together. In addition to dinner at my place, they visited my office at work and Mom came to an intense CX Worx class at the Y with me. Then my lovely sister (K) came and we went to a Rotary Crawfish Festival and had dinner at Macaroni Grill with her boyfriend’s family. The next day was filled with church, the awesome movie The Great Gatsby, and a birthday dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Columbia! What a celebration!

Cooking Mom and Dad a meal at my place

Oh, and reduced fat (blue cheese) doesn’t mean reduced flavor. Nothing in the flavor department is “reduced” here- except maybe the balsamic glaze (bad chef”s joke). Here’s the complete meal I made. Yummy! Want the recipe for the Roasted White Sweet Potatoes with Crushed Rosemary? Click the hyperlink to the left <–.

Bon appetit! Accompanied by chicken with red sauce and fresh basil over GF pasta and roasted white sweet potatoes.

Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Blue Cheese Crumbles

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh asparagus
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• dash coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 oz (1/4 cup) reduced fat crumbled blue cheese (Publix)
• 2 tsp balsamic glaze (Gia Russa)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 365°F. Wash asparagus. Pat dry with a paper towel and place on a cutting board. Cut about 2″ off the end of the stalks and discard end piece.
2. Place asparagus on a baking sheet. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss to coat and spread asparagus evenly across pan.
3. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and chop garlic. Spread chopped garlic over asparagus and continue to cook 28 more minutes or until asparagus and garlic is slightly crunchy.
4. Top with blue cheese and balsamic glaze. Enjoy!

Servings: 4

• Nutrition note: Folate is a vitamin that’s essential for health. Want to know one good source of it? Asparagus!

Roasted White Sweet Potatoes with Crushed Rosemary May 31, 2013

Jamie says: I took my own advice. I tried one a new fruit or vegetable. (In my case, it was a veggie.)

Roasted White Sweet Potatoes with Crushed Rosemary

Meet Mr. White Sweet Potato. He’s mildly sweet and has the texture of a sweet potato but looks a little more like your Idaho potato in color.

Meet Mr. White Sweet Potato!

I brought the ketchup to the table, but totally forgot it was there (meaning, it was so good on it’s own that ketchup would . I served it with the Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Crumbled Blue Cheese (blog post to come) and then it advanced from amazing to amazing times a million!

The only thing better? Serving it with Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Crumbled Blue Cheese.

Roasted White Sweet Potatoes with Crushed Rosemary

Ingredients:

• 1 medium organic white sweet potato
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• dash coarse sea salt
• dash freshly ground pepper
• dash crushed rosemary

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 365F. Cut potato into 1/4″ slices. Chop slices into pieces of equal size. Place in a baking dish.
2. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and rosemary on top. Toss to coat and evenly distribute on baking dish.
3. Bake for 35 minutes or until tender and lightly brown.

Servings: 2

Serving suggestion: Serve with Balsamic-Glazed Roasted Asparagus with Crumbled Blue Cheese

• Nutrition note: Can’t think of another source of vitamin C besides citrus? The potato is an excellent source of vitamin C, too!

Smokey Provolone Tofu with Leeks & Red Bell Pepper May 14, 2013

Jamie says: My prize for the Cigna recipe contest came in the mail last week! I used the Williams Sonoma rub for the first time on this recipe. It was absolutely fabulous! If you’ve never tried tofu before, now’s the time…

Smokey Provolone Tofu with Leeks & Red Bell Pepper

I loved the smokey flavor!

Tofu with big, bold smokey flavor

There’s nothing girly about this recipe either.

Tofu with a twist

Smokey Provolone Tofu with Leeks & Red Bell Pepper

Ingredients:

• 1 package (12 oz drained wt) super firm sprouted tofu (Nasoya tofu plus)
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 3 leeks
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 3 slices provolone (Applegate Farms)
• 1/2 tsp smoke house rub (William Sonoma)

Directions:

1. Drain tofu. Wrap it in paper towels and place on a plate. Set heavy pots and pans on top to further drain tofu. Let sit for 30 minutes. Remove paper towels and slice tofu into thirds (sandwich-style). Stack pieces back together and slice into thirds to create 9 pieces of tofu.
2. Heat a large pan on medium heat. Pour canola oil in pan. Add tofu slices. Cook for about 4 minutes or until light golden brown.
3. Meanwhile, wash leeks well to remove dirt and slice the whites into rings (discarding the dark green thick leafy part). Chop bell pepper.
4. Flip tofu with a heat-resistant spatula and add leeks and bell pepper. Place a lid on top of the pan and cook for about 4 more minutes or until leeks and bell pepper are soft and lightly brown. Remove lid and add slices of cheese on top. Sprinkle with rub and serve.

Yield: 9 pieces of tofu with veggies

Serves: 3

Serving suggestion: Serve with little pieces of bread to make a few mini sandwiches.

• Nutrition note: Tofu is a non-meat source of protein and comes from soybeans.

Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon-Sugar Clementine Rings May 6, 2013

Jamie says: I hit the nail on the head with this one. The recipe is a combo between 1) a madeover throw-back to the Poppyseed Pancakes with Spiced Clementines (from the cookbook we gave my Mom years ago for Christmas) that my mom used to make us as kids and 2) the hearty pumpkin pancakes I made K when she spent the weekend here.

Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon-Sugar Clementine Rings

Sweet clementine, oh, oh, oh… I couldn’t help but think of the song.

Sweet clementine, oh, oh, oh…

I love the golden color and hearty flavor of whole wheat pancakes.

Brown beauty

The awesome sweet and hearty flavors will surely brighten your day.

Brighten your day, the awesome breakfast way

Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon-Sugar Clementine Rings

Ingredients:

• 6 clementines
• 3 tsp  brown sugar
• 1 tsp plus 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 cup just-add-water whole grain pancake mix (Kodiak Cakes 100% Whole Grains Frontier Flapjack and Waffle Mix)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup canned 100% pure pumpkin (Publix)
• 2 Tbsp milled chia seeds (Dole)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla powder, Madagascar Bourbon (Nielsen Massey)
• no stick cooking spray (PAM)
• 3 Tbsp trans fat free buttery spread, original (Smart Balance)

Directions:

1. Peel clementines. Slice. Gently toss with brown sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Refrigerate.
2. In a medium bowl, use a fork to combine pancake mix, water, pumpkin, 1 tsp cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla powder.
3. Pre-heat a large saute pan on medium heat.
4. Coat pan with no stick cooking spray and pour 1/2 of pancake batter onto pan to make three pancakes. Cook until bubbles stop forming and bottom of pancake is golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Flip to cook other side and cook until golden brown, about 1 minute. Place on a serving plate. Repeat once more using remaining batter.
5. Plate pancakes. Spread buttery spread on each pancake. Top with cinnamon-sugar clementine rings. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion: Serve with glasses of fat free milk.

Serves: 3

Nutrition note: Chia seeds pack in fiber (so does the pumpkin and pancake mix), and add omega-3s, vitamins, and minerals like calcium. Pumpkin also adds vitamin A. And the clementines are a vitamin C knock-out.

Orange Raspberry Burst Mini Ice Pops May 4, 2013

Jamie says: My goal: to find something to do with the last of the orange juice. The result? Awesome homemade ice pops that I want to make again ASAP!

Orange Raspberry Burst Mini Ice Pops

Bursting with color and flavor!

Beautiful bursts of berries!

Pop in your mouth for a naturally-sweet treat. I loved how they were easy to bite into- like a soft ice pop (not like a hard ice cube).

Perfect to pop in your mouth for a burst of natural sweetness

It’s getting hot out, take a pop out. (I tried.)

Perfect hot-weather treat!

Orange Raspberry Burst Mini Ice Pops

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (Publix)
• 1 cup orange juice, pulp free (Simply Orange)

Directions:

1. Divide frozen raspberries among sections in ice cube tray. Pour orange juice on top. Freeze until solid, about least 1 1/2 hours. Enjoy now or later!

Servings: 2-4

• Nutrition note: Fruit is a perfect dessert. These pops are naturally sweet (no added sugar) and have vitamin C and fiber.

Creamy Curry Butternut Squash Soup with Shrimp May 2, 2013

Jamie says: My inspiration for this dish started with a recipe (Pumpkin Shrimp Curry- you can see I didn’t go the pumpkin route) and my desire to try foods from different cultures. I’ve been curious to experiment cooking with coconut milk- and here is my creation: Creamy Curry Butternut Squash Soup with Shrimp. The curry and squash made it quite colorful and very flavorful. The dish provides a fresh take on squash.

Creamy Curry Butternut Squash Soup with Shrimp

The butternut squash combined with the lite coconut milk gave the soup just the right amount of creaminess. Let’s just say I was looking forward to the leftovers the next day…

Creamy coconut curry

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 1 cup light brown rice, pearl couscous, brown flaxseed, and black lentils (Rice Select Royal Blend with Flaxseed)
• 2 cups water (plus water to fill squash pan with)
• 1/2 onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1 lemon (zest and juice)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 16 oz (1/2 carton) fat free, 33% less sodium chicken broth (Swanson)
• 13.66 oz can lite coconut milk (Thai Kitchen, organic)
• 1 Tbsp ground curry
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 12 oz sliced white mushrooms (Publix)
• 24 cooked frozen medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (Publix GreenWise Market)
• 2 Tbsp fresh basil (my little herb garden)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut butternut squash in half. Place cut-side down in a pan filled with about 1/2 inch of water. Roast until tender about 40 minutes. Allow to slightly cool. Use a spoon to scoop squash from skin. Mash in a bowl with a fork. (You can do this step ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze and defrost the squash.)
2. In a small/medium pot, add rice blend and 2 cups water. Bring water to a boil, stir, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover with a lid and cook for 18 minutes. Remove from heat. (Rice can also be cooked ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen and defrosted).
3. Chop onion. Mince garlic. Chop bell pepper. Chop tomato. Zest and juice lemon.
4. In a large pot on medium heat, add extra virgin olive oil and onions. Saute until lightly brown, about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic, and heat for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add bell pepper, then add butternut squash followed by broth, coconut milk, curry, ginger, tomato, mushrooms, and lemon juice. Add lid to pot.
5. Remove tails from shrimp and add shrimp to pot.
6. Chop basil. Divide rice among individual bowls. Pour soup on top. Sprinkle lemon zest on top and on the rims of the soup bowls along with fresh basil. Enjoy!

Servings: 4

• Nutrition note: Butternut squash makes the soup thick and creamy without adding extra fat. Choose a reduced fat coconut milk to cut back on the saturated fat.

Edamame & Raspberry Oatmeal April 30, 2013

Jamie says: I couldn’t help but think of Christmas when I sat down to eat this one morning. Only a few months ’till Christmas (in July), right?

Edamame & Raspberry Oatmeal

Red and green aren’t only for Christmas!

Red and green- complementary colors (and Christmas colors)

Think outside the [box] and try edamame with breakfast- on oatmeal!

Edamame for breakfast? Think outside the []

P.S. The frozen raspberries and milk are perfect for cooling down the hot oats.

Edamame & Raspberry Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats (Quaker)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup raspberries, frozen (Publix)
• 1/4 cup freeze dried salted edamame
• 1/3 cup fat free milk and omega 3s (Smart Balance)

Directions:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine oats and water. Stir. Microwave for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes.
2. Stir in raspberries. Top with edamame and milk. Enjoy!

Servings: 1

Nutrition note: This fiber-filled and protein-rich breakfast will help keep you full. The oats, raspberries, and edamame are the ingredients packed with fiber; and the edamame and milk are the source of protein.