Pasta with Sauteed Tomatoes, Olives, and Artichokes

Tonight was day 27 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I wanted to use some of the ingredients I have leftover on hand from some other dishes and found a pasta dish that would work. I made us Pasta with Sauteed Tomatoes, Olives and Artichokes.

PASTA WITH SAUTEED TOMATOES, OLIVES, AND ARTICHOKES, pretty good...

For a dish that doesn't have much to it, and is quick and simple to make, this was a decent dish that we both enjoyed.

It was really quick and easy to make, it only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. I got all my ingredients prepped while the pasta was cooking, and actually made the dish in 2 separate pans because my hubby hates olives, so I made his without olives, and mine with olives (kalamata olives, even better).

There are really very little ingredients to this dish... pasta (ziti), tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, basil, cheese (Asiago, but Parmesan would have been a fine substitute), salt and pepper. It went together so fast and easy, it was great to do after a busy day at the inn.

The flavors were simple, but enough. There's no sauce to this dish, just the flavors of the ingredients themselves. I think a little drizzle of olive oil would have been nice, but we skipped it, as this is cooking "light".

Overall, I'm not sure I'd make this dish again or not. If I happen to have these ingredients on hand and I need a quick meal to fill my tummy, I might make it again. For me, it was a good meal, but not really memorable or one of my favorites.

50 recipes down, 497 more to go.

Baked Flounder, Smoked Gouda Macaroni and Cheese

Today was day 25 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made 2 dishes for dinner tonight: Baked Flounder with Fresh Lemon Pepper, and Smoked Gouda Macaroni and Cheese. Here's our thoughts on these two dishes:

BAKED FLOUNDER WITH FRESH LEMON PEPPER, pretty good...

The flavors of the rub on the fish were really strong... garlic, cracked pepper, lemon zest, olive oil, and salt. Not much to it, but it sure packed a punch of flavors, and pretty spicy as well. But it was good. The fish was so thin I was concerned that the cooking time of 8 minutes at 425 degrees was going to be too much, so I checked it after 6 minutes and it did need to go a little longer. I ended up cooking it for 8 minutes and it was cooked perfectly. This was a good dish, and quick and easy to make. My hubby liked it as well, it's one I may consider making again.

SMOKED GOUDA MACARONI AND CHEESE, better than I thought it would be...

I've mentioned before that I'm not really a fan of baked macaroni and cheese, but this one was actually pretty good, we both liked it. There was a LOT of spinach, and I mean a LOT... 5 cups of chopped, fresh spinach, to be exact, for 4 servings (which is really more like 6-8 servings when you're serving it as a side dish). The photo in the cookbook doesn't look like it has as much spinach in it, so when I was mixing it all together and saw how much spinach there was compared to the macaroni, I was afraid it was not going to be good and the spinach would be too overpowering. My hubby thought it was ruined when he saw it.

However, it was very good, and you really couldn't taste the spinach flavor in it much at all. We were very pleasantly surprised and both of us liked it much better than we thought we would.

There are some issues with this cookbook that I think could be more clear or precise, or described better. The spinach in this recipe is a perfect example. It says "5 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach", which I take to mean chop the spinach first and measure out 5 cups of CHOPPED spinach. However, it probably would be been better (and look more like the picture in the cookbook) if it had been "5 cups of spinach, coarsely chopped", which would have meant measure out 5 cups of spinach, and then chop it. At any rate, it worked the way I made it, though I think it should have been the other way around.

The recipe says it will serve 4, and since I was just cooking for the 2 of us I considered cutting the recipe in half. But dear hubby loves pasta so much he said no way, he'd eat more than his allotted portion and would be happy with leftovers. We have 2/3 of the macaroni and cheese leftover so he'll have a lot to eat over the next couple of days, which he's happy about.

A good recipe that I would make again. Hubby really liked it a lot.

48 recipes down, 499 more to go (FINALLY below the 500 mark!).

Waffles and Berries, Linguine with Two Sauces

Today was day 24 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made two dishes. I made some Waffles and Berries (Waffles with Two-Berry Syrup) this morning, and some Linguine with Two Sauces for dinner tonight. Here's our critique of these two dishes...

WAFFLES WITH TWO-BERRY SYRUP, tough waffles, good sauce...

The waffles themselves had really good flavor (made with white flour, whole wheat flour, flax seed, and wheat germ), but they were a bit tough. We like our waffles a little lighter and fluffier. But, the flavors were very good and we liked the taste, just not the texture.

Also, the batter was really wet. I ended up letting the batter sit for a few minutes to allow the liquid to absorb into the flours and it helped quite a bit.

The syrup, however, was really good, and really easy to make. I thought it was really watery so I let it cook down a little bit and ended up cooking it down a bit too much. I may use this syrup at our Bed and Breakfast to top my own pancakes, waffles, blintzes and crepes. it was good, and really easy.

I probably will not make this particular waffle recipe again, however, and definitely would not serve it at our B&B since the texture was tough. But I did like the flavors. If it could be variated somehow so it wasn't so tough, I'd love to make this dish again, but it needs to be lightened up a bit.

LINGUINE WITH TWO SAUCES, one of my favorites so far!

I REALLY liked this dish a lot! My hubby liked it ok, but he's not a big time creamy sauce guy, so wasn't as in love with it as I was, but he still liked it well enough to make again in the future sometime.

It was a little on the sweet side, however. I'm not sure what caused it to be sweet since there was no sugar in it. Maybe the tomatoes, maybe the 1/4 of white wine (which was supposed to be a dry white wine) was not as dry as it should have been, which may have been the case as I'm not a wine connoisseur. But, I loved it.

The combination of the creamy white sauce that the pasta was mixed in with, and the red sauce that the pasta was topped with, blended really well together. I knew it was going to be good when I smelled the sauces cooking before it was put together and baked in the oven. And then when I pulled the foil off the top after baking it the aromas were delightful. I could not wait to try it. And once I did, I was so very pleasantly surprised.

I will be making this dish again and again I think.

46 recipes down, 501 more to go (close to breaking the 500 mark!)

Bell Pepper Feta Pasta Toss

Today was day 23 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made a Bell Pepper Feta Pasta Toss. Here's our thoughts on this dish...

BELL PEPPER FETA PASTA TOSS, very good, quick, and easy!

This recipe was extremely easy to make, and very quick. From the time I walked into the kitchen and time we were eating was less than 25 minutes, a great meal when you don't have much time. And it was super easy.

As for the dish itself, it was a simple dish but the flavors were really good. This pasta dish would also make a good summer dish as well. It was a light dish.

My hubby, who loves pasta just about any way, loved this dish. He thought it was a tad dry, however, since there's no sauce for this dish, so he drizzled his with a little olive oil just to moisten it up a bit; not much, just a little drizzle, and it was enough. I ate mine without the additional oil and it was fine.

He also hates olives so I just put the olives on my dish and not his.

This is a definite keeper dish, and great when you don't have much time but want to whip up something quick. And it's a good dish to serve year round. This was a winner.

44 recipes down, 503 more to go.

Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato Cream Sauce Recipe

As promised I would pick our favorite dish for each month and share that recipe. The Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato Cream Sauce recipe was Brian's favorite dish. Rachel liked the Baked Chicken with Lemon, Sean liked the Oven Fried Chicken Thighs with Mustard Buttermilk Sauce, and my favorite was the Blueberry Crisp a la Mode.

If you're enjoying these recipes, you can purchase the cookbook here.

And if you want to come and taste some of our cooking personally, we'd love to have you as our guest in our Colorado Springs Bed and Breakfast Inn, Rocky Mountain Lodge & Cabins where we'll serve you a gourmet 3-course breakfast each morning.

Enjoy our favorite recipe of the month from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT for January...

PAN SEARED SCALLOPS ON LINGUINE WITH TOMATO CREAM SAUCE

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1 Tbsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 Tbsp. whipping cream
• 1 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup chopped seeded plum tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• Chopped fresh cilantro, optional

1. Combine wine, shallots, lime juice, and ginger in a medium skillet; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Drain mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, reserving liquid, discard solids.
2. Return wine mixture to skillet. Add cream, and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add butter, stirring until butter melts. Stir in chopped tomato, 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Add linguine, and toss well. Cover and keep warm.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Arrange scallops in pan, cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Add scallops to pasta mixture; toss gently to combine. Garnish with chopped cilantro, if desired.

Yield: 2 servings (about 3/4 cup pasta mixture and about 5 ounces scallops)

Calories 426 (29% from fat)
Fat 13.5 g (sat 7.3g, mono 3.5g, poly 1.2g)
Protein 34.8 g
Carb 40.6 g
Fiber 2.6 g
Chol 92 mg
Iron 2.8 mg
Sodium 794 mg

Calc 75 mg

Spinach and Chicken Lasagna; Lasagna Chicken Florentine

Today was day 16 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. Since I'm cooking dinners for my daughter and her hubby as well as for us, I'm trying to keep the dishes simple in flavor this week, without much spice or acids, since she just had a baby and doesn't need that for her or the baby.

Tonight we made Lasagna Chicken Florentine (or Spinach and Chicken Lasagna as we called it). Here's our take on this dinner...

LASAGNA-CHICKEN FLORENTINE, not so good...

None of us really liked this recipe. The sauce was the culprit we're pretty sure, which was made from fat-free evaporated milk. No cheese was in the actual lasagna either, except for a small amount sprinkled on the top during the last 5 minutes of baking. Maybe a little cheese in the layers would have helped the flavor a bit.

One thing I've noticed about some of the recipes in this cookbook, they're not always accurate in their amounts. I had a hard time getting the sauce to thicken. The recipe said it would take about 3 minutes. After 15 minutes and it not getting thick, I added more flour to the sauce mixture, almost double what it called for (which isn't much, called for 3 Tbsp. and we had to use about 5 Tbsp.) to get it to thicken. In reality, it should have been a little thicker than it ended up being, but it was ok.

On a positive note, however, it was an easy recipe to make. Using oven-ready lasagna noodles was a treat and made it easy. And they weren't any more expensive than regular lasagna noodles since they were on sale.

Overall, we didn't care for this recipe and won't make it again :(

And if you're wondering about the brown spots on the salad, it's the balsamic vinaigrette dressing, not bad spinach ;)

31 recipes down, 516 more to go.

Seafood Fettuccine

Today was day 11 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. My oldest daughter saw my post when I made Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce and said she wanted me to make it for her. I said I'd make it for her the next time she came to visit. She and her family are visiting this weekend, and since there are other scallop with pasta recipes in this cookbook I thought I'd try out one of the others on the family tonight, so made the Seafood Fettuccine recipe tonight. Here's our thoughts on this recipe...

SEAFOOD FETTUCCINE, pros and cons...

This recipe called for shrimp, sea scallops, and lump crabmeat. The shrimp and scallops were great in the recipe, but the crab meat was not, it was really fishy. That could have been just the crab meat we bought, who knows, but we are not fans of our fish and seafood being "fishy", which often comes from it not being fresh. It also came out very "soupy". The recipe calls for 2 cups of half and half, but it was way too much and made the dish more soup like than sauce or cream like. I think 1 cup of half and half would have been sufficient. 

And the portion sizes were just right. The recipe said it serves 8, which at first we thought was not going to be enough for 6 of us, especially since my hubby likes to eat at least 4 portions of pasta, minimum, just for himself. But we all had our fill, and then some, and there was still some leftover. So it truly would have served 8 people with just the right size portions.

With the exception of the crab meat being fishy, the dish was good. Not sure I'd make it again. We liked the Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce better than this dish.

And another comment made by my husband after he went shopping yesterday for groceries and took note of the cost of everything... this book is called "Cooking Light", not "Cooking Cheap". It's expensive for many of these recipes! The dish tonight cost about $40 to make. Since it served 8 people it works out to $5 per person, but still, it's expensive to cook like this every day. Most of the time I'm just cooking for 2 so I cut the recipes down to appropriate sizes. But still, these dishes are not cheap!

22 recipes down, 525 more to go.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Italian Meatloaf

Today was day 10 cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. We are babysitting our 2 grandsons for the weekend, ages 3 and almost 2, and since they're kids, I needed to do kid friendly recipes. I made a classic baked macaroni and cheese, and an Italian meat loaf, knowing the boys like both of these dishes. Here's how they turned out...

ITALIAN MEAT LOAF WITH FRESH BASIL AND PROVOLONE, excellent!

I wasn't sure how this was going to over over with the boys, since it did have some fancy ingredients in it... sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil, but both boys ate it, which I was happy about. Everyone else that was here tried it as well, including our two daughters and their husbands. Everyone absolutely loved it. The fresh basil in the recipe really made the Italian flavor stand out. I really do love cooking with fresh herbs and ingredients, they make a big difference in recipes. And my husband is a huge sun dried tomato fan, and he liked it quite a bit as well. Everyone said this is a definite keeper recipe, and there is no tweaking that needs to be done with it. An easy recipe that everyone liked.

CLASSIC TWO CHEESE MACARONI (Baked Macaroni and Cheese), how can you go wrong with macaroni and cheese?! There are three macaroni and cheese recipes in this cookbook, and I went with this one as it's the simplest of all three recipes, and I figured simple for the kids would be better. The flavors were excellent. Ok, I have to admit I'm one of those people that grew up eating the box mix macaroni and cheese, and I'm used to the super creamy mac & cheese. I've only had baked macaroni and cheese a couple other times before this, and both times I thought the dishes were dry. I thought maybe they just needed a little more milk or cheese or something. But this recipe was pretty much like that as well, not as creamy and wet as the boxed macaroni and cheese is. If I could get this a little wetter it would have been perfect. For a simple classic dish, it was good, especially the flavors. One thing I could find, however, was "light" Velveeta cheese, which the recipe calls for. We could only find regular Velveeta, so I'm not sure this really was a "light" version. However, everyone liked it. I'm looking forward to trying the other two macaroni and cheese dishes in this cookbook in the future.

21 recipes down, 526 more to go.

Gingersnap Scones, Scallops with Linguine, Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze

Day 3 of Cooking from "THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT" and I made Gingersnap Scones with Espresso Glaze for breakfast this morning, Pan-Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce for dinner, and Warm Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze.

GINGERSNAP SCONES WITH ESPRESSO GLAZE, good but needs a tiny bit of tweaking...
I changed the recipe just a little. The recipe called for the dough to be rolled out to a 10-inch circle and cut into 10 scones. I thought they would be a bit on the thin side if I did that, so I rolled the dough into an 8-inch circle and cut it into 8 scones. I liked the size of the scones. The texture of the scones was good, not as dry as scones normally are, and we liked that about these scones. The glaze was much too thick and not of a "drizzle" consistency, so I needed to add additional water to it to thin it enough to drizzle on the scones. We liked the flavor of the icing. The scones themselves were not sweet and the icing helped with that. I didn't really care for the walnut on top, so I only put the walnut (for garnish, really) on half the scones. We served these to our guests in our Bed and Breakfast Inn, Rocky Mountain Lodge & Cabins, this morning, and they were a hit. I'd make this recipe again, the same way I made them this time, but without the walnuts.

PAN-SEARED SCALLOPS ON LINGUINE WITH TOMATO-CREAM SAUCE, Brian said a 10 on a scale of 1-10 (obviously one of our favorites)...

Since Brian can never get enough pasta, and loves scallops, I thought I'd make this recipe for him. He loved it and said I could make this recipe as much as I wanted and he'd eat it over and over again. The only variation I made on this recipe was that I used whole wheat linguine instead of regular linguine. Part of the recipe was a little unclear; it called for 1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine, but it did not tell you how many ounces of dry pasta to cook. I cooked about 6 1/2 ounces of dry pasta, which I think was more than 1 1/2 cups, but Brian says you can never have too much pasta. The recipe said to cook the scallops for 2 minutes on each side, but the scallops did not look done on the sides so I cooked them for 3 minutes on each side, and they were done perfectly. Chef Gordon Ramsey would not have reason to throw these scallops out for being raw or overcooked (in my humble opinion). The portions seemed to be large, but that could be because I had a little more pasta than the recipe called for, but there were a lot of scallops too. So far, this has been Brian's absolute favorite recipe.

WARM GINGERBREAD WITH LEMON GLAZE, good, but needed more glaze...
I have another gingerbread with lemon sauce recipe that I make every year for Christmas, it's Brian's favorite Christmas dessert. I didn't make it this year because I wanted to make plum pudding instead (which took a month to prep and make) for a novelty. We'll be going back to gingerbread next year. Anyway, this recipe was up against my gingerbread recipe, and although this recipe was good, we still prefer my standby recipe. We liked the bites with the lemon glaze through the cake, but thought the gingerbread itself lacked a little flavor and the bites that didn't have the glaze throughout it was a little dry. The flavor of the lemon glaze was delicious, however, there was a lot of fresh squeezed lemon juice in it. We like my other recipe where you serve warm lemon sauce over the cake. And the frozen reduced-fat whipped topping does not stand a chance against home made real whipped cream.

Man, you'd think I was a food critic the way I talk about these recipes, sheesh! We ARE enjoying eating them. I don't think Brian likes the clean up afterwards though ;)

8 recipes down, 539 more to go.

Until tomorrow...

Champagne Feta Risotto, Artichoke Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Today was day two of cooking from my "THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT" cookbook. Today I made two recipes, a Champagne Feta Risotto, and Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Artichokes, Lemon and Goat Cheese.

The picture is not very flattering, and the white risotto, and white chicken on the white plate doesn't do a whole lot for contrast either. I actually added parsley and lemon just for a little color on the plate. Here's the synopsis of these dishes...

CHAMPAGNE-FETA RISOTTO, we loved it...

This was my first time cooking risotto. I've seen this cooked on cooking shows a lot and have wanted to try it, so this was a great opportunity. We're not big on champagne around here and don't drink it, but I used it in the recipe as directed and we loved the flavor it added to the risotto. You boil it down until the liquid is absorbed, so all you end up with is the flavor. I needed to add more liquid though because when the rice was still crunchy a bit when the liquid was absorbed. We live at 7,500 feet and altitude can wreak havoc on recipes sometimes, and I usually do have to add extra liquid to rice when I cook it, and it was the same in this case. I tasted the risotto while it was cooking and throughout the process and found that I liked it a little better without the feta in it. Overall, it was delicious and we both decided we love risotto! This recipe is a keeper, I may skip the feta next time, however.

CHICKEN BREASTS STUFFED WITH ARTICHOKES, LEMON, AND GOAT CHEESE, good flavor, but they were overcooked and a little dry...

I've never been good at the whole pounding the chicken out, stuffing it and rolling it up thing. They usually turn out to be a mess and I have a hard time getting them to look pretty once they're rolled up, and tucking in the edges so nothing comes out... forget it! I think I used too much stuffing, but I did the amount according to the directions. Maybe a little less stuffing next time. Also, according to the directions you're supposed to cook the chicken in a hot pan on the stove for 3 minutes on each side, then put the whole pan in the oven and bake them for an additional 15 minutes. I think that 10-12 minutes would have been better, and turning them over halfway through is highly advisable as the side of the chicken that was down was very over cooked on the edge and tough to cut through the edge. The flavors, however, were good. Brian liked them and I thought they were just "ok". Not sure I'd make this one again.

I was going to make a dessert tonight as well, but it's been a long, busy day and I'm pooped. After this I'm off to bed, and it's only 8:35 pm! Will make a dessert tomorrow (I hope)...

Au Revoir!