Janice's Chicago Style Soy Dog

This "recipe" is for the Chefery Football Futbol Challenge. The team - The Chicago Bears!

The sandwich can be made with a soy hotdog or a turkey hotdog, a regular hotdog, or better still a nice Polish sausage! The nutrition facts were done for the soy dog as so many at CC Palate will choose one of those to save calories and sodium (I hear they have improved the taste too!).

If you use any other hot dog, be sure to use Calorie Count to find the nutrition facts for your dog of choice!

A Soy Dog Done in the Traditional Drag it Through the Garden Chicago Way

Ingredients:

1 Soy Hotdog
1 poppy seed bun
1 t mustard (approx)
1 T onion, fine chopped
1 T sweet relish
1 dill pickle, sliced lengthwise
1/4 tomato, half the tomato and make some nice half moon slices
2 Sport Peppers
Dash of celery salt

Directions:

assemble and eat!

Janice's English Muffin Bread

This is an excellent recipe. The wonderful flavor and texture of English Muffins, but in a bread you can slice. Easy and fast to make - the recipe makes two loaves so you can enjoy one and give the other to a friend! The nutrition facts, which are based on a fairly nice thick slice, are at Calorie Count!

English Muffin Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C water
1/2 C Canola Oil
4 - 4 1/2 Cups of all purpose flour
1/4 Cup sugar
2 t salt
2 pkgs. active dry yeast
2 eggs
Cornmeal to dust the baking pans

Directions:

Heat water and oil in a small sauce pot until very warm but not hot (about 120 degrees is about right, a little warmer than body temperature).

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast to a large bowl and stir. Add the eggs and warm water/oil and beat at a low speed until moistened, then beat a couple more minutes at a medium speed. Then add the rest of the flour stirring by hand - this will make a stiff batter.

Cover and let it rise in a warm location until it's light and doubled in size. Should take about an hour.

Use shortening and grease two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle them with the cornmeal. Stir down the dough by beating vigorously by hand for about 30 seconds and spoon into the prepared pans.

Cover and let rise again until doubled in size. Doesn't take as long for the second rising, about 45 minutes or so.

Preheat the oven to 375 and bake the loaves for 15-20 minutes or until they sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the pans and cool.

Janice's Applesauce Brownies

These are fantastic, really more of a cakey brownie, so I suppose you could call it applesauce cake if you want. A bit better for you than traditional brownies and kids love them! The nutrition facts are at Calorie Count!

Applesauce Brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
1 T pure vanilla extract
1 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease and flour an 8x8 inch baking pan.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter. Remove from heat and add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and applesauce. Beat well by hand with a wooden spoon.

In a small bowl, mix the flour cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. 

Stir the dry mix into the liquid mix. Add the chopped pecans and stir again.

Pour into the prepped pan and bake for aboug 25 minutes or so. Stick a knife in the middle to test for donness. If it comes out clean, it's done. Another method to check is to lightly touch the center. If it sinks or feels liquidy, it's not done. If it springs back to the touch, it's done!

Janice's Cornbread

Super delicious and easy to make! The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 Cup all purpose flour
1 Cup cornmeal
3 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 egg
1 Cup milk, low fat
1/4 Cup Canola oil

Directions:

By hand, mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, mix all the liquid ingredients.

Add the liquid to the dry and stir just until the dry particles are moistened.

Pour into a well greased 8 inch square pan and bake at 400 F for about 25 minutes or until golden brown and the center is firm when lightly pressed.

Best served warm, but also great left over!

Janice's Cheese Popovers

Delicious, savory, and quick to make! The nutrition facts are at Calorie Count! I don't have a picture as it has been a long time since I've made these delicious things, but I'll do them soon and post a pic!

Cheese Popovers

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Ingredients:

1 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 Cup milk, low fat
1 T butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl combine the flour salt, milk, butter and eggs. Beat until smooth. Stir in the cheese.

Grease one of those small muffin cups (I've got one that does 6) or grease half of the cups in a regular sized muffin pan, and fill to 2/3 full.

Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 F and continue to bake 35 minutes longer - or until they are a pretty brown.

Prick each popover with a knife when there's five minutes of baking left to go - this allows the steam to escape and is what creates the popover texture and look.

Janice's Italian Beef Stew

The nutrition facts for this wonderful comforting stew can be found at Calorie Count!

Italian Beef Stew

Ingredients:

(Makes 8 servings)

3 pounds sirloin, cubed

5  tomatoes, squished

1 medium  onion, chopped

2 c  carrots, cubed

3 medium  potatoes, cubed

½ c  celery, sliced

2 t  basil

1 t  oregano

½ t  black pepper

1 T  olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Trim all visible fat from the sirloin and cube, place in oven suitable pot with an oven proof lid. You could brown the meat, but I usually don’t.

Squish and add the tomatoes. You can use 1 can of crushed tomatoes if you like, but Italians just squish those tomatoes up by hand! The number is an estimate; you want to have just enough liquid to almost cover – the beef will add its own liquid and you don’t want the stew thin.

Chop the onion, carrots, potatoes, and celery and stir into the pot. Another option here is to sauté first, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It’s delicious either way

Add the spices and stir.

Add the olive oil (this is replacing some of the fat you trimmed off and it’s much better for you) and stir gently.

Cover and cook in the preheated oven for at least 2 1/2 hours. Taste after 2 hours, test to see if the veggies are cooking well, and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Ok, I made this dish after first thinking, hmmmm, I really would love some Beef Bourguignon...then I realized, hey, that's a very heavy meat centric meal and I am not one that eats low carb high protein, so maybe I could bourguignon something else. I waffled and considered. Then I wrote the stew blog for Calorie Count and needed a picture to post with it. A search brought up the most delectable looking stew ever. Turned out, it was a mushroom stew. Win! Now, mushroom bourguignon is a much done before me dish, although I had never heard of it before. Never one to just follow a recipe, I took the idea and came up with my own version. The nutrition facts are here, the serving size in the nutrition facts is about 8 oz which is meant to be a single bowl served up as stew with a nice biscuit or two. If you use it as a garnish for steak or a topping for mashed potatoes your serving will be smaller and lower in calorie! On the other hand, just go ahead and eat a bowl cuz it's good.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Ingredients:

1 T grapeseed oil
3 pounds fresh mushrooms – assorted types
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 cup chopped onion
1 carrot, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
2 cups good Burgundy wine
1 1/2 t thyme
¼ t fresh cracked black pepper or to taste
2 generous teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions with some notes on what I did:

Clean, stem, and cut the mushrooms into large chunks.

Heat the grapeseed oil over medium high heat in a large pan. When the pan is very hot, add the mushrooms and sear quickly removing as they start to turn brown. Depending on the size of your pan, you will want to do this in a couple batches. When you crowd things they don't tend to brown, just steam. They will begin to reduce a bit in size, so watch them carefully as they should not release all their juices and finish reducing. Place the pretty brown things in a bowl.

In a large heavy saucepan, place the butter and pure olive oil and heat over medium. Saute the carrot and onion until the onion is soft and the carrot begins to soften, add the garlic and saute for another couple minutes. Add the flour and stir quickly to incorporate.

Add mushrooms and stir. Add wine, broth, onion mix, all seasonings, and the Worcestershire sauce, stir until well mixed, and bring to a simmer.

Cook over low heat until mushrooms are tender and sauce thickens and deepens in color, stirring occasionally for about 40 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasonings. I kept mine simple so the flavor of the mushrooms stayed prominent. You may prefer a more complex dish, if so, get creative with the flavors you love.

Stir in parsley and serve.

Notes on the great flexibility of this recipe:

Great over egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, on top of slices of baguette toasty with melted Swiss cheese, in a tortilla, or simply speared with each piece of a very good steak. Another wonderful idea for this is to add beef broth to thin it a bit and add seared chunks of lamb to make a lamb stew.

If you don't cook with wine, just use beef broth! If you are a vegetarian, use veggie broth.

If you don't cook with butter, use just the pure olive oil in the second saute.

Want the complete bourguignon experience? Skip the chopped onion and dump in some frozen or fresh pearl onions when you add the wine and seasonings.

Janice's Bulgur with Fresh Basil and Tomatoes

Loved this! If you've never tried bulgur, this is an tasty recipe to start with. The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count! Hint - this dish was super awesome the next day. When freshly prepared it was slightly juicy and tasty with more of a consistency you would find in grits (only with flavor). The next day the juice completed the absorbing but it was still moist and the texture was more like rice. Just wonderful!

Bulgur with Fresh Basil and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
4 small or two large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, rinsed and torn
1 cup bulgur
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 t honey (then to taste)
1 T tomato paste
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1/4 t cayenne
2 T fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

Heat oil in a medium pan until shimmering. Saute onion til it begins to caramelize (about 6-8 minutes), add the garlic and saute another minute or two. Stir in the chopped tomato and cook a few more minutes.

Stir the bulgur. Add the broth and remaining seasonings except the parsley, and cook on low covered for about a half hour or until all liquid is absorbed.

Remove from heat and leave covered for 10 minutes or so. Stir, plate, and sprinkle with parsley.

Notes:

If you prefer, use as many pearl onions as you want instead of chopped onion!

Experimental Ratatouille

This is one of my experimental recipes. I've found a bunch of ratatouille recipes on line and in cookery books. I kind of liked the layered idea in this one. It may be that I'll just pan saute the whole thing, but I'd like to see what you all think first!

not mine, but I thought it was pretty ratatouille!

Experimental Ratatouille

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 eggplant

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 t thyme

Crushed red pepper to taste

Black pepper to taste

1 t basil

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 zucchini, sliced thin

1 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced thin

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 large tomatoes, chopped

2 T Romano cheese - optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray Pam inside a 1 1/2 quart casserole.

Cut all vegetables except the eggplant and measure your spices to make assembly a snap.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium high skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until soft. While the onion is sautéing, quickly dice the eggplant and add the diced bits to the pan as they are chopped until the entire eggplant is in the pan. Exposure to air is not a friend of eggplants and one reason it is often bitter or soggy. Add the chopped garlic and stir until the eggplant is soft (10 minutes or so). Add parsley and other seasonings – stir well.

Spread eggplant mixture evenly across bottom of prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle with some of the cheese.

Add alternating layers of zucchini and cheese, mushrooms and cheese, bell pepper and cheese, and finally tomatoes and cheese on top of the eggplant.

Bake, covered, in preheated oven for 30 minutes, remove the lid and allow the cheese to brown and the juices to evaporate a bit.

Top with a sprinkle of Romano cheese and serve with couscous.

Janice's Louisiana Style Eggplant

Excellent low calorie and super healthy way to enjoy eggplant! The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

Louisiana Style Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 eggplant
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 (15 ounce) canned crushed tomatoes
8 oz water or veggie stock
2 bay leaves
1 red bell pepper, chopped 

1 stalk celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 t fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 cup grated white cheddar or Swiss cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs

optional - if the pre-baked mixture is too thin, add some prepared or instant roux

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut eggplant in cubes (no need to peel) and boil for eight minutes. Drain into a colander. 

In a large skillet, saute bay leaves, red bell pepper, celery and onion until softened. Put the sauteed mix in a bowl. Wipe the skillet with a paper towel so it can be used for the next step.

Melt the butter over medium heat in the wiped clean skillet, when bubbly, add the flour and stir well until incorporated. Add canned or fresh tomatoes and water or stock; stir to incorporate. Add the sauteed mix. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add roux if needed. I like to use Tony Chacheres Instant Roux. The roux also has some seasonings so taste the liquid after the roux incorporates. You may want to add some of your favorite Louisiana seasoning at this point too - it all depends on if you are a spice person or prefer to let the veggies shine.
 

After the sauce thickens, stir in the eggplant. Pour into a Pam sprayed or non-stick casserole and sprinkle with cheese and bread crumbs.

Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees

Serve with brown rice!

Pasta Sauce Made With Water

yup, from water...ok, there are other things. Using pasta water allows you to cut the amount of fat you would otherwise use in an olive oil or butter tossed pasta dish which will save you a lot of calories! You may want to add more spices, the amounts listed below are "starter" amounts. Be creative with the other ingredients. If you are not vegetarian or have room for the calories, a bit of meaty bacon or prosciutto is fantastic in this sauce.

The nutrition facts are at Calorie Count!

Ingredients:

1/2 onion diced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 T pure olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 t Rosemary
1/2 t fresh cracked black pepper
2 cups water taken from the boiling pot of pasta after about 4-5 minutes of boiling.

Directions:

shrooms starting to caramelize!

Heat a tablespoon or so of fat in a pan (butter or pure olive oil works well), saute onions until they start to brown, then  add slices of mushrooms and saute until they start to brown and caramelize. Stir in chopped garlic and saute another couple of minutes. Add a teaspoon or so of Rosemary and some fresh cracked pepper. Add about 1 1/2 cups of the reserved pasta water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a strong simmer until the liquid reduces a bit and the flavors blend. Toss with pasta and if you have room for the calories, some fresh grated Pecorino Romano cheese. If the mixture seems dry, add some of the remaining pasta water.

Janice's Broccoli and Carrot Alfredo

This light version of Alfredo is great on anything, but I particularly love it on pasta or baked potato!

The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

whenever possible, use organic vegetables

Broccoli and Carrot Alfredo

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 Cups fresh broccoli florets
2 Cups carrots, slice thinly
2 T butter
1/2 Cup onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 T flour
2 tsp low sodium instant bouillon
pinch pepper
2 Cups fat free milk
6-8 oz 0% fat Plain Greek Yogurt (calories based on 8 oz)
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan

Directions:

Steam, microwave, or boil broccoli and carrots until crisp tender (about 6 minutes), drain and set aside to keep warm.

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat and add onion. Saute til soft (several minutes). Add garlic and saute 2 minutes.

Stir in flour, bouillon, salt and pepper til there are no lumps. then gradually stir in milk.

Cook on medium until the mix boils and thickens - stir constantly.

Stir in the cooked broccoli and carrots, yogurt and Parmesan

Toss with pasta or serve over baked potato.

Notes:

Get creative with vegetables and add whatever is seasonal to the sauce. Pearl onions rock. Peas too.  Mushrooms are superb.

Jam it full of veggies and treat it as a saucy veggie side dish!

Janice's Avocado Three Way Soup, V. 1 with Tomatillo & Roasted Hatch Chile

There are tons of recipes in the interwebz with minor variations on the basic idea of chilled avocado soup. Some sounded good, some did not. Taking ideas from several, I put together what would likely stand as a basic "starter" recipe (see below), set the goal of creating better versions of the soup, and asked some chef friends to join me. My concoction is below. Hollie and Sharpshootinstar have also agreed to create a new chilled avocado soup, so watch for their recipes!

I would like to invite all of you to come up with your own soup - the starter recipe can be found at the end of this post and on the Chefery Challenge Page (located on the left hand side of the blog). The new recipes will be listed there as well as in the category of Chefery Challenge (located on the right hand side of the blog). Join in the fun and Chef it up with us!

Avocado Tomatillo & Roasted Hatch Chile Soup

The nutrition facts can be found as always at the best place on the interwebz to count your calories, Calorie Count!

Ingredients:

2 medium or one large ripe avocados
2 tomatillos, roasted
2 fresh roasted Hatch Chiles, either mild or spicy as you prefer (you could in a pinch sub in canned chiles but they are not as tasty)
1/4 cup onion
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 lemon, juiced
pepper and salt to taste
finely chopped tomato and/or jalapeno for garnish

tomatillos are sold in husks

Directions:

Remove the husks and chop the tomatillos and place in a pan sprayed with pam or olive oil, spray olive oil over the top and roast in toaster oven at 375 til charred a bit (approximately 10 minutes), set aside to cool. Peel and de-seed the avocado, cut into chunks. Finely chop the onion and cilantro. Place all in a large bowl with the evaporated milk and use an immersion blender to blend til smooth. Add juiced lemon and enough stock to get the consistency you prefer. Add pepper and taste. Adjust flavors with salt and pepper as needed.

Chill well. Garnish with the jalapeno and tomato.

Notes:

For a bit of a kick, add a few shakes of Tabasco sauce.

Depending on where you live, you may be lucky enough to just head on down to the store and pick up a bag of freshly roasted Hatch chiles. They are the most awesome thing in the world, so get several bags but freeze them individually between wax paper as they do go bad in a few days.

This soup is awesome as a dip for chips! Just eliminate the stock.

The following is the list of ingredients the Avocado Soup Challenge Chefs began with - why not join in the fun and come up with your own! Make one that rocks your socks and submit it for consideration as a formal entry in the Many Incarnations of Avocado Soup! See the Chefery Challenge Page for directions.

2 ripe avocados
1 cucumber
3/4 cup low fat soy milk
2 T cilantro
2 green onions
2 cups veggie broth
salt & pepper to taste
1 T lemon juice

Janice's Potato Carrot Soup

The following soup is one of my favorites – soothing, delicious, is very low cal, and nicely high in vitamins. I think I'll pair it tonight with a toasted tomato, basil, provolone cheese sandwich made with wheat berry bread.

Potato Carrot Soup

For those that are interested in such things as nutrition facts, they have been analyzed at Calorie Count!

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 c red potato, diced (peeling is optional)
1 c onion, diced
1 c celery, sliced (include some of the leaves)
1 ½ c carrot, sliced
3 teaspoons garlic, chopped
1 ½ teaspoon thyme
1 t paprika
4 c Vegetable Stock
2 tablespoon parsley, chopped, or 1 tsp dried
½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

Directions:

In a large pot, saute the onion, celery and carrot in olive oil til veggies are softened a bit. Add garlic, thyme, and paprika and saute a minute or two.

Add potato, veggie stock (enough to cover the veggies) - preferably low sodium, and the rest of the seasonings.

 Bring to a boil and then simmer covered (tilt the lid to vent a bit) til veggies are cooked (approx 30-45 minutes), stir every now and then. You can add more stock if it reduces too much or if it does not look like the veggies are covered.

Adjust seasonings to your taste. Let aroma and your own taste buds be the judge of what is right for you.

Before serving, mash a few of the potatoes with a fork as this gives the soup a nice thickness yet still retains its rustic chunky character.

If you really want it really thick, either increase the amount of potatoes and mash up more of them, or make a roux and add some of that during the last five minutes of the simmer.

Notes:

Chop and saute 1 sweet red bell pepper with the other veggies - adds pretty color and awesome vitamins!
Add 12 oz can of evaporated milk near the end of cooking time for extra creaminess, but count the calories.
Top with shredded cheese (count calories).

Janice's Gnocchi in Cacciatori Sauce

these filling delicious puffy little bundles of potato and flour are wonderfully versatile and an excellent candidate for one of my favorite "comfort foods" so it's a good thing each serving is so low in calorie. Look for white or wheat gnocchi in boxes or tightly sealed plastic containers in the dried pasta section of your store.

The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

gnocchi

Gnocchi in Cacciatori Sauce

Serves 4 for dinner or 6-8 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 T pure olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
30 oz tomatoes, if canned, drain into a bowl and crush them with your fingers
1/4 C parsley, fresh, torn or chopped
1/4 C basil, fresh, torn
1/8 cup red wine, only use a good drinkable wine, the type doesn't matter. Do not ever use cooking wine or I will disown you all.
4 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
1/2 t oregano
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 T pure olive oil
16 oz gnocchi, white or wheat
Directions:

Heat 1 T pure olive oil in a medium pan. When it is hot and shimmering and add the onions, saute til soft. Add all the ingredients except the gnocchi and 1 T olive oil.

Heat to a simmer, partially cover, and stir every now and then. Taste after 10 minutes or so and adjust seasonings. You will notice that I do not add salt. I'm used to that. But you may not be, so add salt if you need to. Also, depending on the tomatoes you use, you may need to add a tablespoon or so of brown sugar to counter the acidity. Once you have the flavors as you prefer, just keep it going on low heat until the gnocchi are done.

To make the gnocchi, heat 1 T pure olive oil in a large skillet until shimmering. Add the gnocchi and toss or stir every now and then allowing the little puffy pillows of deliciousness to soften and turn a beautiful brown. Should take about 10 minutes or so depending on your stove. Let them sit every now and then for a minute or two as this encourages browning. Constant stirring prevents browning.

Either serve in separate bowls for people to fix on their plates, or arrange the gnocchi on a serving platter and top with sauce. Fresh grated parmigiana is perfect on this.

Notes:

To turn this into a casserole dish, combine the sauce and gnocchi, place in a pam sprayed casserole, top with a bit of parmigiana and heat in the oven til the cheese browns.

Janice's Guacamole

Guacamole should be pure and simple and mostly just mooshed up avocados. It should never contain mayo or sour cream or any ingredient such as that. If it does, you can't call it guacamole. You could call it "avocado dip" or something like that, but not guacamole. In the Notes section is a list of extras that you can add to your guac and not embarrass your friends in Texas or New Mexico!

The nutrition facts for basic guacamole are at Calorie Count!

Basic Guacamole

Ingredients:

3 Hass Avocados
1 lime (even this is optional)
a pinch of garlic powder
a pinch of salt (a great sub here is celery salt)

Directions:

Get a sharp knife and a spoon and a paper towel. Slice the avocados in half and pull apart so that the seed is on one side. Use the spoon to scoop out the seed and discard. Use the same spoon to scoop the avocado out of the shells and into a medium sized bowl.

Slice the lime in half and juice. Add the juice to the avocado pulp and mash about with the tines of a fork. Do not mash it til it is smooth as paste. Leave it a tad lumpy.

Sprinkle with the garlic and salt (or celery salt) and mix.

That's all that's necessary, but there are some great traditional ingredients as well!

Notes:

Once the basic guacamole is made, you can add finely chopped jalapenos or Serrano peppers, finely diced tomatoes, or a small bit of chopped onion.

Mrs. Hass uses lemon juice instead of lime in her guacamole, so try that sometime and see if you like it better!

If you just gotta have avocado dip instead of guacamole, check out this recipe for Avocado Roasted Tomatillo Soup. All you have to do is eliminate the veggie stock and you have awesome green dip!

Janice's Pan Sauteed Ravioli

This makes a fun side dish at a meal or a much talked about treat at a party. According to my son, they are  "Awesome! Like a warm stuffed chip!"

The nutrition facts are set for a decent sized party serving (assuming you are also filling up on all the wonderful fruits and veggies at the party this is more than enough to satisfy) and are at Calorie Count!

Pan Sauteed Ravioli

Serves 6

Ingredients:

12 oz fresh Four Cheese Ravioli (your favorite brand - you can use the big size or the small raviolis and stretch out your serving size!)
2 t olive oil (the calorie count is set at 1 t because only that much was absorbed)
1 cup your favorite thick marinara

Directions:

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil shimmers or the pan feels hot when you hold you hand over it, add the ravioli in a single layer. Do two batches rather than crowd. Each ravioli must remain flat. Saute a few minutes checking for browning. When one side is brown, flip each over and brown the other.

Remove to a plate with a paper towel and pat down to remove as much oil as was not absorbed.

Arrange on a pretty plate with a bowl of warmed marinara. Treat the ravioli as you would chips and dip!

Or serve as the pasta part of your meal and top with marinara. Fast, easy, and delicious!

Janice's Potato Leek Soup

I make this ala Julia Child, only with minor variations! It's very elegant yet quick to make. The nutrition facts are at Calorie Count!

with creme fraiche and chives

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:

5 c potatoes, peel and chopped

3 c leeks, slice thinly

8 c water

1 T salt (I start with about half and add if needed, but I eat reduced sodium)

½ c cream (or butter)

watercress, chopped a bit

Optional Garnishes:

4 T creme fraiche

4 T chives, snipped

Directions:

Peel, rinse and dice the potatoes.

Thinly slice the white and very light green part of the leeks. Soak in water, refreshing the water a few times to remove grit - and leeks just love to contain grit, so don't skip this part.

Simmer veggies with water and salt for about an hour or til very tender.

If you want it smooth like Julia makes it, use a blender stick to puree (Julia does not approve of food processors). If you don't have a blender stick or just want it a bit chunkier (my preference), plunge an old style potato masher in it a few times to smash some of the potatoes a bit. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Add the watercress to make it beautiful and more peppery and simmer a minute - add as much as you like, it's good for you as well as tasty!

The soup can be refrigerated at this point if not serving immediately.

If you are serving the soup right away, after it is pureed stir in either the cream or butter – this is your choice as you need to decide if you want creamy or buttery soup.

For an exquisite presentation more like Julia Child's famous soup, skip the watercress and add a dollop of creme fraiche and an artistic sprinkle of chives for each bowl.

Janice's Brioche

Easy single rise rolls. Kids love them because of the little "hats" you eat first! The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count.

Brioche

Ingredients:

5 ¾ c  flour

1/3 c  sugar

1 t  salt

2 packages  active dry yeast

1 ¼ c  milk

½ c  butter

2 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In large mixer bowl, combine 3 C flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. In saucepan, heat milk and butter until milk is warm (butter doesn't need to melt). Add eggs and warm milk to the flour mixture. Blend at lowest speed til moistened. Then beat at medium speed 3 minutes. By hand stir in remaining flour to form stiff dough. Knead on floured surface til smooth - approx 2-3 minutes or so.

Divide dough in to 24 equal parts. Remove about 1/5 of each ball of dough. Shape all 48 pieces into smooth rounds (24 big ones and 24 little ones). 

Grease or spray muffin tins with Pam and place the large balls in the bottom. Using your thumb, make a deep indentation in the large balls and place the smaller balls in the indents.

Cover, let rise til doubled in size in a warm place - approx 45 minutes to an hour. Brush tops with milk. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or til golden brown.
Serve hot.

This recipe is from my stained pages stuck together 1968 Pillsbury Bake-Off Breads Cookbook. If you can find this cookery book at a garage sale or ebay or amazon or wherever, it is worth every single penny you pay.

Janice's Buttermilk Pull-Apart Rolls

We have this every Thanksgiving. Perfect rolls that can be made to brown and serve the day before and then just "finished" on the busy day! The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

Buttermilk Pull-Apart Rolls

Ingredients:

5 c or more all purpose  flour

1/3 c  sugar

2 t  salt

½ t  baking soda

2 packages  dry yeast

1 ½ c  buttermilk

½ c  butter

4 T  butter

Directions:

In a large mixer bowl, combine 2 C flour, sugar, salt, soda, and dry yeast. In saucepan, heat buttermilk and 1/2 C butter til buttermilk is warm not hot (butter does not need to melt). Add to flour mixture and blend at lowest speed til moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Cover; let rise in warm place til light and doubled in size - about an hour.

Punch down dough. Roll out on floured surface to a 15" square. Melt the 4 plus T of butter and brush the square til it is well covered in butter. Cut into 10 strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and stack five together to make two stacks. Cut into pieces approx 1 1/2 inches long so that you have 18 pieces (20 if you want smaller rolls).

Place in greased muffin tins cut side down. Cover, let rise til light and doubled in size - about 30 minutes.

Bake at 400 for 15 -20 minutes til golden brown and serve warm.

Alternatively, make them ready to be brown and serve and bake in a 275-300 oven (depends on how hot your oven runs) til they are puffy and set and not yet brown, then cool. They can be stored in the fridge a couple days or in the freezer. Then thaw and bake at 375 to heat and brown them.


One of the most awesome things you can do with these rolls is to make little tiny sandwiches with the left-over meat from your meal. I am required by family and friends to make three times the necessary number of rolls at Thanksgiving so that there is enough for dozens of tiny turkey sandwiches!

This recipe is from my stained pages stuck together 1968 Pillsbury Bake-Off Breads Cookbook. If you can find this cookery book at a garage sale or ebay or amazon or wherever, it is worth every single penny you pay.