The Bachelor Pad Dinner, Part 1

First off, I will admit that the title of this post is misleading. While the train wreck known as Bachelor Pad is currently airing, this recipe (and those to follow) are actually from LAST summer. Yes, I'm a recipe hoarder. The good news is that if the items were in season last summer, they certainly are in season THIS summer! I've got a few great meals that you're not going to want to miss! They make even the worst reality tv delish.

Smoked Sea Salt Salmon
1 large piece of salmon
Trader Joe's Smoked Sea Salt
black pepper, finely ground
3 slices of lemon
3 cloves of garlic

1. Top salmon with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Bake to desired temperature. (I wasn't the one doing the baking so hopefully the salmon chef will weigh in on oven temperature. Otherwise I would just use your favorite salmon recipe for guidance.

Mediterranean Green Beans
2 cups French style green beans
1 cup mini heirloom tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup fat free feta cheese, crumbled
4 basil leaves, chiffonade
olive oil
sea salt, finely ground
black pepper, finely ground

1. Cook green beans according to directions (this will vary depending on whether the green beans are fresh or frozen. Fresh is preferred).

2. Top with tomatoes, feta, and basil.

3. Drizzle with olive oil and finish with salt and pepper to taste.

Sweet & Spicy Summer Salad
4 cups butter lettuce
1/2 medium orange, cut into small pieces
1/2 avocado, chopped
1/4 cup wasabi almonds, finely chopped
lemon olive oil
sea salt, finely ground

1. Toss lettuce, orange, avocado and wasabi almonds with lemon olive oil. Salt to taste.


A super easy and light summer dinner is served!

The Bachelorette Dinner, Part 2

A couple of weeks ago, dinner for our weekly viewing of The Bachelorette had a theme that many of you are probably familiar with - leftovers! Amie and I both surveyed our kitchens and ended up with an amazing meal that required only the purchase of crackers.

Stuffed Yellow Squash

1 large yellow squash

1/4 tomato, diced

1/4 red onion

8 oz ground beef (we used the frozen Kobe burger from Trader Joe's but you can use any you like)

1/4 cup feta cheese (light or fat free is fine)

butter

1. Cut yellow squash in half and hollow out each side. Discard inside of squash or save for another recipe.

2. Cook ground beef as desired. We were using a burger patty that had been cooked the day before so the only prep was to crumble.

3. Caramelize the onion using butter in a skillet.

4. Combine ground beef, tomato, and caramelized onion.

5. Stuff squash with beef and vegetable mixture.

6. Sprinkle with feta cheese.

7. Warm through in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Serves 2

The stuffed squash could easily be made vegetarian by substituting a vegetable protein or even just additional vegetables.

Orzo and Vegetable Salad with Lemon Yogurt Vinaigrette

Please Note: Measurements are approximate.

1 cup orzo

1/3 cup carrots, diced

1/3 cup asparagus, chopped

1/3 cup green beans, chopped

1/3 cup English peas

1/8 cup pistachios, shelled

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

herbs de provence

1/2 lemon, juice only

2 tablespoons non-fat Greek yogurt

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1. Prepare orzo according to package instructions.

2. Blanch carrots, asparagus, green beans & peas.

3. To make vinaigrette, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt, and herbs de provence. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Combine orzo, vegetables, pistachios, and vinaigrette.

Serves A LOT. Can be kept refrigerated for several days.

We enjoyed our meal with an appetizer plate of leftover salami, sausage and cheese from Trader Joe's. This was accompanied by gherkins and Rosemary Raisin crackers also from Trader Joe's.

The Bachelor Dinner, Part 5

So as you can see, I'm not really one for recipes. I like to think of them as jumping off points. Well this week I made on of the dishes from an actual recipe! Ok, I made a few small adjustments but more or less followed the recipe. This week we enjoyed Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Arugula, Lemon Chicken, and Green Beans with Red Onion and Creamy Feta Dressing.

Lemon Ricotta Pasta

I didn't follow a recipe when I made this particular dish. I looked at a number of similar recipes online and they all included extra oil, butter or cream. I wanted to keep it light and healthy. This is the closest recipe I could find online after the fact - Lemon Ricotta Pasta for those of you that would prefer a standard recipe. Here is the Gretchen version:

1/2 lb Whole Wheat Rotelle Pasta (Penne, Fusilli, or other similar pasta would be a good substitute)

15 oz Fat Free Ricotta Cheese (I used slightly less because I already ate part of it. :) )

1 Lemon - Zest & Juice (I only used juice from 1/2 the lemon but it could have used a bit more. Adjust to your taste.)

1 Bag of Arugula - rinsed and chopped

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

1. Cook the pasta until it is al dente.

2. While the pasta is cooking, combine the ricotta cheese, lemon zest (do yourself a favor and buy a microplane instead of a standard zester. So much easier!), lemon juice (squeeze through your fingers to catch seeds), garlic (to taste), salt (to taste) and pepper (to taste).

3. When the pasta is done, first scoop out 1/3 cup of the pasta water.

4. Place desired amount of arugula into pasta strainer. The heat of the pasta will wilt the arugula. You may not choose to use the entire bag but I would recommend at least half a bag because it shrinks up a lot.

5. Dump pasta into strainer.

6. Mix reserved pasta water into ricotta mixture until desired consistency is reached. The recipe I linked to above says to use the entire 1/3 cup but I didn't even use half that much. It is up to you how thin you want your sauce to be.

7. Throw pasta and arugula back into pot and top with ricotta mixture.

8. Stir all items together and serve!

Servings - 4 to 6 healthy sides

Lemon Chicken

This was not made from scratch but purchased from Trader Joe's. If you choose to make your own lemon chicken, I recommend using real lemons and not lemon juice from a bottle no matter what the recipe says. I have horrible memories of that flavor from when I was a kid. (Sorry Mom. I know you were just trying to expand our menu options. I will share your amazing Blueberry Muffins in a future entry!) When enjoying pasta leftovers, I made some turkey meatballs and they were also pretty good with the pasta. I nice chicken sausage would probably also be quite good.

Green Beans with Red Onion and Creamy Feta Dressing

As I mentioned, I basically followed the recipe on this on. This recipe is from the I Heart Trader Joe's Cookbook but it is easy to make even if you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby. I'll note my substitutions in parenthesis. Also, I only made about 1/2 the dressing as I wasn't sure how long it would keep and there were only two of us for dinner. It still turned out great!

1 16 oz Package Fresh Green Beans, trimmed & steamed (12 oz Haricot Vert Steam in Bag)

1/2 Red Onion, thinly sliced

Dressing

1/2 cup Plain Yogurt (Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt)

3/4 cup Feta Cheese, crumbled (Fat Free Feta Cheese)

1 tablespoon Lemon Juice or Red Wine Vinegar (I used the vinegar)

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

2 tablespoons Chopped Basil, for garnish

1. Arrange green beans on a serving plate and scatter most of the red onion slices over the surface, reserving a few.

2. Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Note: The dressing will be thick with pieces of feta throughout.

3. Dollop the dressing over the salad and garnish with reserved red onion slices and basil.

I mixed the onion into the dressing as I was plating up individual portions and it worked just fine.

Servings - 4 to 6

We enjoyed a rose wine with our meal though I think I crisp white would also be good.

This meal was SO easy and pretty healthy. I hope you'll try it out soon. Please let me know what you think!