Tomato Casserole

I got the idea for this dish on my recent trip to Italy…HA! I’m joking. I simply had some tomatoes I wanted to use and then thought about how cannelloni comes with a cream sauce and a tomato sauce-so, here I am. This is major comfort food, my friends.

Ingredients:

2 cups (tightly packed) cubed Italian bread
1 cup fat free half and half
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup grated parmesan

5 strips bacon

½ cup chopped onion
8 small tomatoes (I’m using the ‘vine ripe’ kind), cored and cut into quarters
2 cups (lightly packed) chopped Swiss chard
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the half and half, egg, salt and grated parmesan. Pour into the bottom of a 1.5 quart baking dish.

Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Add the onion, tomatoes, Swiss chard, garlic salt and Italian seasoning into the bacon drippings. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft and fragrant. Add in the bread cubes and bacon. Cook and stir for 3 minutes more. Spoon this mixture evenly into the cream mixture in the baking dish. Top with the shredded parmesan and bake for 35 minutes.

Banoffee Pie

I've posted several healthy recipes lately. Let's take a deep slide into sheer decadence! My friend Mark first introduced me to this dessert years ago and his is (and always will be) much better than mine. Still, I have to try. Trust me, this is one dessert every can agree on. Serve this and your guests will swoon. There are many ways to make the caramel toffee for this dish, including boiling unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk for hours. I’m too afraid of exploding toffee to do that, so I cook it in the oven (bonus: this cuts the time in half).

Ingredients:

Pie:
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Topping:

2 cups sweetened whipped cream
Chocolate shavings
Toasted almonds (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a shallow glass baking dish. Cover it with foil and place it in a larger metal pan (like a 13x9 cake pan). Pour water in the larger pan until it comes about halfway up the sides of the condensed milk pan. Cook for 1 ½ hours, making sure there is always enough water in the larger pan. Remove from oven and let cool.

Raise the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Mix the graham crumbs, sugar and melted butter together. Press into a 9 inch pie plate and bake for 12 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

Pour the condensed milk caramel into the cooled crust. Slice the bananas on top of the caramel. Place in the fridge until just before serving. Then, top with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and toasted almonds (if using).  

Nut, Fruit and Grain Clusters

This so doesn’t taste like a healthy snack, but it is. It has a deep, rich flavor.  I love granola type things, so I thought I’d play around with the concept. Note: The toasted barley is very crunchy, so if you plan to serve this to people with dental issues, you might want to skip the barley and add another cup of oat cereal.

Ingredients:

½ cup barley
4 cups O shaped oat cereal
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sliced (or slivered) almonds
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
2 Tablespoons wheat germ
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries

6 Tablespoons light stick butter

2 Tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup honey
¼ cup maple syrup (or agave)
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt

Directions: First, toast the barley by placing it in a dry skillet and cooking it on medium low for about 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until pale golden. You’ll know it is starting to toast when it smells nutty.  Remove from the stove and let cool. In a large bowl, mix the cereal, oats, toasted barley, nuts, flax seed, wheat germ and dried fruit.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats if you have them or spray the dickens out of the pans with cooking spray. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar on low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Add in the honey, maple syrup, vanilla and salt. Cook for three minutes and then pour over the cereal mixture. Stir to coat all of the cereal mixture. Spread the mixture between your baking sheets and pat down into an even layer. Bake for 16 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and break into clusters. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Shaved Fennel, Celery and Artichoke Heart Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette



I know, sounds pretentious, right? It’s actually a very simple, light little salad that brings a bit of brightness to a rich meal. This makes enough for 4 side salads and you will most likely have dressing leftover for other uses.

Ingredients:

Vinaigrette:
Juice of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 orange
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup olive oil

Salad:

1 small fennel bulb
3 stalks celery
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
4 Tablespoons shredded parmesan

Directions:

Vinaigrette: Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl and taste/adjust for seasoning. Set aside.

Salad: Shave the fennel and celery into wafer thin slices using a mandoline or a sharp knife and some patience. Slice the artichoke hearts thinly and add them to the fennel/celery mix. Toss with enough of the vinaigrette to coat and chill until needed. Place salad onto four plates and top with 1 tablespoon parmesan each.

Banana Pecan Snackin’ Cake

When I was a kid, snackin’ cakes were all the rage-so much so that you could even buy snackin’ cake mixes. This kind of cake is really moist, doesn’t need frosting, is inexpensive to make and goes together faster than you can preheat your oven!

Ingredients:

2 large, really ripe bananas
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional, but it adds a great depth of flavor-like a butter-pecan kind of thing)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 inch cake pan with cooking spray. In a mixing bowl, combine the bananas, eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and butter flavoring. Beat with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined.

In a mixing bowl stir the flour, baking soda and salt together. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a bit at a time. Once those ingredients are thoroughly combined, stir in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 35 minutes until the top and sides are golden and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Let cool and then cut into 9 big squares or 12 small ones.

Painted and Grilled Flank Steak

So, I found flank steak on sale and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I decided I just wanted to enhance the beefy flavor and not really change what the steak was, so I came up with this. I love the flavor bomb you get when you first bite into a piece-it's deep and rich. Also, the neighbors are saying it smells great as it grills!

Ingredients:

For the paint:
2 teaspoons ground espresso powder
1 teaspoon beef bouillon powder
½ teaspoon ground chipotle powder
½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 Tablespoon molasses (blackstrap if you have it)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons olive oil

For the steak:

1 (1 ½ to 2 pound) flank steak

Directions: Combine all ingredients for the paint in a small bowl. Paint both sides of the steak and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Preheat grill to medium high heat and grill the steak for 5-6 minutes on each side (until medium rare-longer if you want medium). Let the steak rest for a few minutes and then slice it against the grain. I’m serving mine with simple tomatoes and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Really Crunchy Fried Mushrooms

Sometimes you just need a fried mushroom. Here’s why I love this recipe: 1) the coating doesn’t fall off the mushrooms when you try to eat them, 2) they stay crispy when held in a warm oven, which means you don’t have to be frying at the last minute, and 3) the crunch—oh, my! I think my neighbors heard me eating one of these. Keep this fry batter recipe handy-it great to fry all sorts of things- onions, asparagus, shrimp, peppers, etc.

Ingredients:

To fry:
About 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Fry Batter:
½ cup cornstarch
1 cup flour
2 teaspoon powdered egg white (if you don’t have it, just skip it)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon herb seasoning (your choice: maybe Italian seasoning,  Greek seasoning, garlic salt, whatever. I like to use Fox Point from Penzeys®)
1 to 1 1/2 cups light beer

The rest:

8 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned
2 cups panko bread crumbs
Kosher salt to finish

Directions:
For the fry batter: Mix all the fry batter ingredients (cornstarch though beer) with electric beaters, adding the beer slowly until you have the consistency of a thick pancake batter.  

Heat the oil in a large, shallow skillet over medium heat.

Pour the panko into a shallow dish.

Dip the mushrooms into the fry batter and let the excess drip off. Some people like to use toothpicks or chopsticks stuck in the end of each mushroom, but I find it cumbersome—I just use my hands. Roll each mushroom in panko and place in the heated oil. Cook in batches for about 3 minutes or until the bottom is light golden brown. Turn them over using two forks and cook another few minutes until the other side is golden brown. Remove (again using the two forks) to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with a little kosher salt.

Looking for a dip to go with them? Try mixing mayonnaise with a little horseradish.