Honey poached apricots with vanilla cardamom panna cotta

Fresh apricots are a gift and their season is short. I found beautiful apricots for $1 a pound, so of course I bought a lot. I ate most of the fruit plain, but I needed a way to savor the rest, so I made this light, creamy and virtually fat free recipe for late night desserts on a summer night. As you can see in the photo, the panna cotta is very tender and hardly holds up the weight of an apricot. It is just meltingly beautiful.

Ingredients:

For the poached apricots:

1½ cups water

½ cup honey

½ of a vanilla bean split and seeds scraped

A pinch of powdered cardamom

8 fresh apricots cut in half and seeds removed

For the panna cotta:

½ cup skim milk

1 (.25 ounce) packet of unflavored gelatin

2 cups fat free half and half

½ of a vanilla bean split and seeds scraped

½ teaspoon powdered cardamom

½ cup granulated sugar

Directions:

For the poached apricots: In a medium saucepan, heat the water, honey, the scraped seeds and pod of the ½ vanilla bean, and the pinch of cardamom to a boil. Drop in the apricot halves and cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

For the panna cotta:

In a small bowl, stir together the ½ cup skim milk and gelatin. Stir and let sit.

Spray 4 small (6 ounce) ramekins with vegetable oil spray and set aside.

In a large saucepan, stir together the half and half, sugar, vanilla seeds and pod, cardamom and sugar over medium heat. Bring to a full boil. Pour the gelatin mixture into the pan, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one more minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, remove the vanilla pod, and pour into your prepared ramekins.

Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To unmold, dip the bottoms of the ramekins in very warm water for a few seconds and run a thin knife around the edge. Place a plate on top of the ramekin, and shake up and down for a second or two. With the plate on the bottom and ramekin on top, remove the ramekin and the panna cotta should slide right out onto the plate.

Serve each portion of panna cotta with 2 or 3 apricot halves.

Stuffed Pepper Meatballs

I think this is what would happen if stuffed green peppers and porcupine meatballs had a bite sized love child. Stuffed green peppers are one of my favorite things, but I wanted a meatball option.  Sautéing the vegetables and pre-cooking the rice in their juices gives these porcupines so much more flavor than just combining all the uncooked ingredients together and hoping the rice gets tender.

Ingredients (makes about 30 meatballs, but I don’t really know because I kept eating them):

For the rice:

1 Tablespoon olive oil for the pan

½ cup finely diced white onion

½ cup finely diced green pepper

½ cup long grain rice

1 (8 ounce) can of tomato sauce

1 cup water

½ teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon salt

For the meatballs:

1 Tablespoon olive oil for the pan

1 pound lean ground beef

1 egg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1teaspoon salt

Freshly cracked black pepper to your taste

Rice mixture from above

Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Rice: Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add in the diced onions and green peppers and cook, stirring often, for about 4 minutes or until the veggies are soft but not browned.

Add the rice to the saucepan and stir. Cook for about two minute to make sure the rice is coated with the oil. Add in the tomato sauce, water, dried parsley and salt. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover and let cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Meatballs: Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium low to medium heat. While that is working, combine the ground beef, egg, Worcestershire, salt, black pepper and cooled rice mixture together.

Dampen your hands and pack about 2 Tablespoons of the meatball mixture into walnut sized balls and cook (in batches, so you don’t crowd the pan) until browned on both sides and cooked through. You really only want to turn these once, because they are tender. I use two teaspoons to turn them over.

Pile the meatballs onto a plate and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Orange-Sweet Chili Chicken Salad

How about a refreshing, healthy, no-cook dinner for warm summer nights? This sweet and tangy chicken salad really hits the spot and it goes together in less than 10 minutes. You can easily do a double batch of this salad the night before your next potluck and toss the greens (maybe sliced bok choy or Napa cabbage) into it right before you leave.  

Ingredients (serves 4):

Dressing:

½ cup Thai sweet chili sauce

2 Tablespoons orange juice

2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Salad:

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded

2 stalks of celery, sliced

½ cup carrots, sliced into matchsticks

½ cup sweet bell peppers, sliced into matchsticks

2 or 3 green onions, sliced

1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted (or not toasted-your call)

Leafy greens for serving

Directions: Whisk all dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients and pour the dressing over (note: you may have more dressing than you need). Stir to combine.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Serve over leafy greens.

Turkey Chips

For Father's Day, I present to you a 'man snack'. I first posted this 'recipe' many years ago and I find they are still one of my go-to snacks when I watch what I eat. These make such a good low fat, high protein snack. They taste a lot like bacon to me. Consider that each piece has about 15 calories, .75 grams of fat and 1.5 grams of protein-nice! Four of these and a hard boiled egg makes a great on-the-go breakfast that will keep you full and energized until lunch. Plus, these chips are much more economical than packaged beef jerky. Make sure you don't get the 'honey smoked' version of turkey--it will burn faster than anything. Lesson learned. 

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) of 95% fat free smoked white meat turkey (found in a tub, like bologna, in the lunch meat area of most grocery stores)—Not ‘honey smoked’

Vegetable oil cooking spray

Directions: Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with foil and spray liberally with spray. Cut the turkey slices in half and lay pieces in a single layer on the baking sheets. Bake for a total of 1 ½ hours, turning the pieces over with tongs and rotating the trays on the racks every 30 minutes. The pieces should be uniformly brown all over and will shrink by about half their size. Let cool for several minutes to crisp up.

Beef with broccoli, mushrooms and water chestnuts

I must need the vitamins that are in broccoli. When I checked my grocery list, I found that I had broccoli on it three different times. I use frozen broccoli a lot because I don’t have to pre-cook it like I would fresh and it keeps for a long time in the freezer.

Beef with broccoli is such an amazingly good meal.  This version adds a few more vegetables to give a bit of variety to each bite.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup oyster sauce

1/3 cup sherry

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

½ teaspoon white sugar

1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch

3/4 to 1 pound sirloin steak, cut into 1/8-inch thick strips across the grain

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 thin slice fresh ginger

1 clove of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

1 (16 ounce) bag frozen broccoli, thawed

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 (8 ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

3 green onions, sliced into ½ inch pieces

1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Cooked rice or quinoa for serving

Directions:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the oyster sauce, sesame oil, sherry, soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Place the steak pieces into the bowl. Stir to coat the steak pieces well, and marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours in the fridge.

Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat, and stir in the ginger and garlic. Let them sizzle in the hot oil for about 1 minute to flavor the oil, then remove and discard.

Stir in the broccoli, water chestnuts, green onions and mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes. Toss in the beef with all the marinade and cook about 5 minutes until the beef is no longer pink and the sauce because thick.

Top with toasted sesame seeds and serve over rice or quinoa.

Swiss Ham and Vegetable Bake

Vegetable casseroles used to be huge in the 1960s and this one does the genre proud. Creamy, flavorful and filling, this makes a great main dish or side dish. Vegetarians can certainly leave the ham out and maybe swap in some slivered almonds.

Ingredients:

For the cheese sauce:

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon flour

1½ cups milk

4 ounces (1/2 of an 8 ounce package) cream cheese

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon bouquet garni or herb blend of your choice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup shredded or grated Swiss cheese

For the ham and veggies:

1 cup diced ham

1 ½  cups frozen broccoli, thawed

1 cup frozen cauliflower, thawed

1 cup frozen leeks, thawed (or sub out ½ cup chopped onion)

1 cup sliced mushrooms

½ cup diced red pepper

1 cup sliced carrots

For the topping:

1 cup panko bread crumbs

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 2 ½ quart baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter. Whisk in the 1 Tablespoon of flour and cook, stirring for one minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and then cream cheese, salt, pepper, bouquet garni, mustard and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the Swiss cheese. Cook, stirring often until the cheese are melted. Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ham and all the veggies. Pour the cheese sauce over and mix thoroughly. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Make the topping by stirring together the bread crumbs and 2 Tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole.

Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until the top is golden and the sides are bubbling.

Let cool slightly before serving.