Author: Sarah
Parsley-Parmesan Whole Roasted Cauliflower
Stop. Everything. There is an awesome way to roast cauliflower that I need to make you aware of. Did you have any idea you could roast the WHOLE THING? Like the entire head of cauliflower? Well, I didn’t–or at least, I did, but then I forgot. Like many a shiftless Pinterest user, I pinned something about this concept awhile back and then proceeded to not look at it for several months. Then for some reason tonight as I was contemplating how to make cauliflower to accompany a pork roast, that lovely image of a whole cauliflower roasted in all its cerebral-looking glory sprang back into my mind. Was it secretly difficult, I wondered? Was there some secret to why Western civilization has not evolved to cook cauliflower this way? Nope and nope (or I don’t actually know about the second one. The Illuminati could have its reasons for keeping the general public away from whole roasted heads of cruciferous vegetables. They’re weird like that.)
Roasting the entire head takes somewhat longer than roasting florets, and of course you don’t get browning on as much surface area, but I’d say the interesting presentation makes up for those drawbacks. (Never thought you’d need a pie server to serve cauliflower, right?) Plus, even as a veggie caramelization devotee, I felt the flavor combination of parsley, parmesan, and mustard was a nice change from the near-blackened version I usually make. With Halloween right around the corner, the only way I can think to improve it is to find some way to make it look even more like a brain. How’s that for a healthy Halloween treat?
Parsley-Parmesan Whole Roasted Cauliflower
(Adapted from Food Network)
Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Position an oven rack in the bottom of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
2. Remove the leaves from the cauliflower, then trim the stem so the cauliflower can sit flat. Place the head in a 9″ round cake pan (or a roasting pan/cookie sheet–I just liked the way it fit so snugly in a round cake pan).
3. In a small bowl, mix olive oil and dijon mustard. Brush all around the outside of the cauliflower. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Roast in the preheated oven until tender and browned, about 50 minutes.
5. Let the cauliflower sit for a few minutes. Mix dried parsley and Parmesan, then sprinkle to cover. Cut into wedges and serve.
Serves 5-6 as a side dish.
Spinach Feta Quiche
Sometimes in this stage of life I feel like so many of my friends and family members are having babies that Target should just hand me a pack of diapers and onesies every time I pass through their automatic doors. (And take the 30 bucks right out of my wallet.) In the last month and a half, our extended family has welcomed one new niece and one new nephew. Then there’s also my cousin who’s pregnant, my good friend, my other good friend, and basically 80% of my Facebook friends, it seems. For me, it’s fun to visit friends and loved ones with itty bitty newborns….and then hand them back to mom or dad to deal with because that stage of life is DONE for me!!! *Insane cackle*
I jest. God only knows whether my husband and I will ever have any more children.* (*Official Catholic cover-your-butt statement.) But it is such a blessing to watch so many friends with growing families, and–maybe my favorite part–to bring them meals. This past week I was slated to take dinner to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, whose little girl had arrived a few days before. When taking a meal to new parents, I always try to stick to the following rules:
–Reasonably healthy (nursing moms need good nutrition)
–Travels well (as much as I love soup, it does not pass this test)
–No dishes need to be returned (because this is a hassle for everyone)
–Nothing too crazy (I’ll save my Jellied Boar Snout recipe for another time)
There are many dinners that meet these criteria, but one of my favorites is this spinach feta quiche. You may have noticed, if you are a human being who eats solid food, that spinach and feta are a Mediterranean Dream Team.
So it will probably come as no surprise to you that this spinach feta quiche is delicious. But I will tell you, having tried MANY such combinations in my many years as a quiche eater, that this one is far and away the best I’ve ever had. The addition of cheddar kicks it up a notch to cheesy, spinachy, herby bliss. And while it meets all the above standards for a great meal to take to new parents (baked in a disposable aluminum pan so no dishes need be washed or returned), it could also just as easily make a pretty brunch item or dinner for vegetarian guests. Any way you slice it–literally–this is one you don’t want to miss.
Spinach Feta Quiche
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 10-oz. package frozen spinach
1 6-oz. package herb and garlic crumbled feta cheese
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 c. milk
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion in the butter until lightly browned, 7-10 minutes. Stir in spinach, feta, and 1/2 c. cheddar and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into pie crust.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Pour over spinach mixture.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/2 c. cheddar and bake an additional 35-40 minutes until set in the center. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Serves about 5 as a main dish.
Cream Cheese Apple Tart
So it’s been two weeks since my last post, which is the longest I’ve ever gone without blogging since first starting this endeavor last June. I’m sure all three of my readers are seething with rage and anxiety. But it’s been a super busy few weeks, which tends to leave blogging in the dust. First my husband went out of town, meaning I was fending for myself with three little kids for a few days. Then I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine by going out of town myself for three days to my 10-year college reunion in Illinois. The fellowship was sweet, the fall colors were gorgeous, and my poor little tuckus was just about frozen right off of my body. I had signed up to do the Homecoming 5k, but when the morning dawned at about 35 degrees with snow flurries, I decided I’ll save my running in extreme weather conditions for the Zombie Apocalypse, thank you very much. All in all, it was a great trip, though.
The colors! And the friends! And the memories!
The day I returned from the Chicago area, my brother came to town for a few days, inspiring the following goofy faces like any good brother/uncle:
Since my kids were on fall break, we were able to have some quality time with Uncle Joel, visiting the pumpkin patch, going to parks, and arguing over whether it’s okay for him to teach my children how to belch on command.
Now that things are beginning to settle back down to normal and we’re almost halfway through October, I’m ready to share this lovely dessert to ring in the autumn spirit, if you haven’t already rung it in yourself with tall boots over jeans and pumpkin spice lattes to the point of credit card debt. It has two of my favorite flavors of fall–apples and cinnamon–with a unique twist, something different from the usual apple pie. (Not that there’s anything wrong with the usual apple pie.)
I’ve made this twice now and received several compliments on its taste and appearance. The fancy-looking apple pinwheel effect on top definitely gives it visual appeal, and the taste is just as good as the look. Plus, I love the unexpected cheesecakey layer hiding underneath the apples.
And doncha just want to grab that one gooey-looking cinnamon apple on top?
I’d be willing to bet you’ll make a lot of friends if you bring this in place of apple pie to your family’s Thanksgiving this year…but why wait until then? It’s October–let the autumn eating commence!
Cream Cheese Apple Tart
(Adapted from The Cooking Channel)
Ingredients:
For the crust:
1 homemade or purchased pie crust
For the cream filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
For the apple top:
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Directions:
1. Bake the pie crust according to package directions in a 10-inch tart pan (or 9-inch pie plate).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Pour into the baked pie crust.
4. In a large bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Add apple slices and toss to coat. Arrange individual apple slices in a pinwheel pattern on top of the cream cheese filling, starting at the outer edge of the tart and working inward.
5. Bake about 40 minutes, until apples are tender and golden.
Serves 8.
6 Things You Didn’t Know About Fat
There are various ways to look at the word “fat.” Most of us think of the word with pejorative overtones, something we don’t want applied to us. The adjectives aren’t pretty and evoke feelings of playground humiliation: chubby, flabby, plump, chunky, pudgy. Then of course you could think of “fat” like that fat check you got when you finally sold your Van Halen live-in-concert VHS collection on Craigslist. And don’t even get me started on “phat” (mostly because, even as a child of the ’90s, I still don’t think I get it.) But there’s another set of terms I want to talk about today. Terms like lipid, adipose, triglyceride, sterol, fatty acid. These describe the other kind of fat, the macronutrient every human being requires to sustain life. There are so many fascinating aspects to dietary fat and the way our bodies use it, and quite possibly a lot you didn’t know.
As I’ve progressed in my coursework toward becoming a Dietetic Technician, I’ve come to understand so much of what always seemed confusing about fat nomenclature. Since I’ve learned how to navigate the different kinds of fat (like that mental image?) I thought I’d share some of the information I’ve found interesting and helpful.
1. Let’s start with an cool trivia point: what’s the fattest organ in your body? Your brain! About 60% of your brain’s matter is fat. So if someone calls you a “fathead,” you can be proud to know you’re perfectly normal. (And they’re a fathead, too. Obviously.)
2. Fat provides 9 calories per gram (whereas carbs and protein provide 4). This is true across the board for any fat. That’s why, even though nutrition labels list number of calories from fat in a food, you can always calculate it yourself by multiplying the grams of fat by 9.
3. What’s the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats? You probably know they must be related because they have that word “saturated” in common. To understand the difference between these types of fat, you have to understand what “saturated” means. Fat is made up of carbon chains. In saturated fat, all of the available carbons in the chain are bonded with hydrogen…kind of like how I always felt at junior high dances when all the cute boys immediately paired up with the popular girls. All the carbons are taken, paired off, saturated. In unsaturated fats, however, there’s a break in the music, a chance for a different kind of bond. Instead of all the carbons being taken up by hydrogen, something called a double bond occurs, which, instead of bonding a carbon to hydrogen, bonds carbon to another carbon, leaving it not entirely saturated…in other words, unsaturated. And the only difference between a monounsaturated fat and a polyunsaturated fat is that a mono has only one of these breaks, whereas a poly has two or more.
4. Now that you know the difference between saturated and unsaturated fat, it probably makes sense why saturated fat is generally solid at room temperature. Everything is paired off and packed in, making it denser. On the other hand, unsaturated fats (like oils) are generally liquid at room temperature for the opposite reason.
5. What about trans fats? What are they and why are they so scary? Somewhere along the line, scientists realized that they could mess with the chemical structure of unsaturated fats (i.e. oils) by plopping in some extra hydrogen where it didn’t really belong to create what are called trans fats. The process of unnaturally adding hydrogen is known as hydrogenation. So when you see the word “hydrogenated” on an ingredient list, you know the food contains some amount of trans fat, even if the label says 0 grams trans fat. (The FDA allows foods with .5 grams or less per serving to round down to zero.) Research has yet to show exactly why trans fats have a negative effect on health, but they have definitively been linked to coronary heart disease and several other conditions you don’t want to get.
6. One last kind of fat you hear a lot about is Omega 3s. The reason these unsaturated fats have this name is simply due to the spot where they have their carbon-to-carbon bond: on the third carbon from the end. Bet you can guess where Omega-6 and Omega-9 have theirs now, too.
Okay, that was kind of a lot of chemistry. I should probably stop now. But I have so many more things I want to tell you about fat! I’ll be hoarding up my fat facts for another post soon, focusing on fat’s effects in your body. And if you’re still hungry for macronutrient info, you can head over to my carbohydrate facts page!
Tofu Parmesan
Allow me to introduce you to my good friend tofu parmesan–or, as I like to think of it, the ultimate tofu dish for people who think they don’t like tofu. I want to tell you all about its cheesiness, its crispiness, its sauciness, and its nearly magical ability to turn a tofu hater’s head. But first, a word about tofu itself. Tofu (and soy in general) seems to be one of the latest in a line of polarizing foods–you have your soy cheerleaders and your soy disparagers, your soy zealots and your soy-phobics. One group’s research says soy reduces the recurrence of cancer; another group’s says it increases incidence. The science is vague but the fears are real. As for me, I try to keep a clear head and practice moderation in all things food-related. I eat soy as a small part of my regular diet (though I probably get more of it than I realize from whatever processed foods I might eat…isn’t soy in everything these days?) and haven’t seen any real convincing evidence that it’s either extremely beneficial or terrifyingly dangerous. So my two cents is that it’s a perfectly reasonable food to include sometimes, especially in an effort to reduce meat consumption. With that in mind, this tofu parmesan has been part of my ongoing effort to shimmy our family’s meat intake down to 50% of our meals. Someday I’ll write a separate post on all the reasons that propel that effort, but for now, let’s talk about I’m such a fan of this particular vegetarian meal.
In the reviews of the original recipe this version stems from, one made me laugh out loud. The reviewer said when she made it for her tofu-suspicious husband, he said he “knew there was tofu in the recipe, but was unable to find it between the ‘chicken’ pieces.” Which is pretty much a perfect summation of tofu’s greatest asset, one that stands out in this recipe: its ability to slip into whatever flavor we dress it with. It is the consummate food chameleon. To the reviewer’s husband, it tasted like chicken. To me, tofu breaded and surrounded by cheese and tomato sauce just tastes comforting and Italian-y, like lasagna…which is the main reason it succeeds so well with tofu skeptics.
The process of taking this:
to this:
does take some effort, but the payoff is worth it! You’re gonna feel like a tofu pro by the end.
Here’s how it works. First, you slice extra-firm tofu into 1/4 inch thick slices, starting at the long end of the tofu rectangle:
Next (and this is crucial to the level of crispiness you’ll get in the end), squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the slices by pressing them into paper towels:
Then, if you have time, it helps to freeze the tofu pieces for about 30 minutes. More time probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
Last, once the tofu emerges from the freezer nicely firmed, bread with a mix of herbed Panko bread crumbs and Parmesan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes per side.
From here, you’re ready to assemble and bake it into a gooey, savory meatless casserole nobody has to know isn’t chicken!
Tofu Parmesan
(Inspired by Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
For the tofu:
12 oz. extra-firm tofu
3/4 c. Panko bread crumbs
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. dried basil
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg
For the sauce:
16 oz. tomato sauce
1 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
1. Cut tofu into 16 1/4 inch thick slices, starting on the long end of the rectangle of tofu. Squeeze as much moisture as possible from slices by pressing the slices into paper towels. If time allows, freeze tofu slices for about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. In another shallow bowl, beat egg slightly. Remove tofu slices from freezer. Dip individual pieces first into the beaten egg, then into bread crumb mixture. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake 15 minutes on each side.
3. Meanwhile, prepare sauce. In a small bowl, mix tomato sauce, basil, oregano, garlic powder, and salt.
4. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Spread a layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish. Place 8 tofu slices in a single layer on top of sauce. Cover tofu with sauce, then a layer of mozzarella. Repeat once more: 8 tofu slices, sauce, and mozzarella. You may end up with extra sauce.
5. Bake about 20 minutes or until heated through with melty cheese on top.
Serves 4.