dianaschnuth

So far, I’ve posted exactly five recipes to my blog in the past nine years. That’s a testament to a.) how often I concoct recipes of my own, and b.) how often they turn out good enough to share.

I had a hankering for avocados this week, so I asked Aaron to pick some up when he went grocery shopping yesterday. This evening, after Connor went to bed, I laid eyes on them unexpectedly and knew exactly what I wanted to make.

I’d found a recipe on Pinterest some time ago — a couple of recipes, actually — for pasta with an avocado sauce. I made one on Mother’s Day last year and loved it, and had filed the other one away for future reference, as I never have gouda cheese on hand. Tonight, though, I came up with the idea to add an avocado into my standard quick-and-easy microwave alfredo recipe (which may deserve a post of its own, now that I think about it).

Keep in mind that I made this with the intention of eating it for my lunch tomorrow, so this is either a main course for one person or a side dish for two. Also keep in mind that I totally eyeball all my measurements — except for the linguine, which I weighed on my digital scale. Yeah, I’m consistent.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz linguine
• ½ avocado, mashed or pureed
• 1 oz fat-free cream cheese
• 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup milk, 2%
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Cook linguine to desired firmness; drain, reserving a small amount of pasta water.

In a microwaveable bowl, combine cream cheese, Parmesan, and milk. Microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring after each interval until the cheese is thoroughly melted. Combine with avocado and lemon juice, then toss with cooked linguine. Add pasta water a tablespoon at a time if needed, to bring the sauce to the desired consistency.

Calories: 675
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 18

Yeah, the PPVs really shocked me, since I calculated the whole thing after the fact. It was the 11 Points of linguine that killed it. Whole wheat linguine would bring it down a Point, but what would really make it interesting would be to serve the sauce over shirataki noodles or spaghetti squash…

Even though I’m eating it for lunch tomorrow, of course I had to taste it tonight. It’s dang good. That’s why I posted it here.

As I was sitting at my desk at work this afternoon, distracting myself by trying to come up with something to make for dinner, I realized that I probably had the ingredients at home for spinach lasagna. Lasagna noodles, frozen spinach, ricotta cheese, spaghetti sauce… So, I scoured the internet for a recipe that fit the bill, to no avail. I found a couple that sounded delicious, but with a few too many calories from a Béchamel sauce (white sauce), or with ingredients I didn’t have handy.

Finally, I figured: Fuck it. I’ll make my own.

I assembled the ingredients and wrote them down as I added them:

1 pkg frozen spinach
1 cup lowfat ricotta cheese
½ cup lowfat cottage cheese
1 egg
2 cups parmesan cheese, shredded
2 cups nonfat mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 can mushrooms
2 cups spaghetti sauce (e.g. Prego Chunky Garden Style)
6 lasagna noodles, cooked

Combine ricotta, cottage cheese, and egg in a bowl. Stir until smooth. Add thawed and dried spinach to the cheese mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.

In the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish, spread ½ cup spaghetti sauce, then layer noodles, spinach mixture, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, and mushrooms. Repeat. As the top layer, use the remaining noodles, then cover with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle on mozzarella and parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes; remove foil and bake uncovered for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and the sides of the lasagna are bubbly. Allow to set before serving.

Keep in mind that I intentionally didn’t make a full 9×13 pan worth of lasagna because, hey, it’s just the two of us, and we’re on a diet. If there’s a whole pan of possibly delicious lasagna in the fridge, it’s going DOWN. So, best to keep the leftovers to a minimum.

I was pretty much winging it — really, how hard is it to make lasagna? — and was hoping the end result would be tasty. I’d calculated the calories and Weight Watchers Points while the lasagna was baking, and discovered that it really wasn’t so bad: 340 calories (7 Points) for a small piece.

When I opened the oven door to remove the foil, I knew I’d done it right. The smell of lasagna was… wow. I haven’t had lasagna in quite a while. I literally paced the kitchen floor, just waiting for it to be done so I could a.) take pictures of my lasagna for posterity, then b.) eat it.

Yeah, that first piece always comes out all messed up, but it still tastes delicious. This time was no exception.

When I make this again, I might go a little easier on the parmesan, since that’s where a good part of the calories and fat came from (we didn’t have any low fat or fat-free parmesan, and I’m not sure if it even exists). Other than that, I thought it turned out fantastic — much better than most of my winging-it recipe-free kitchen experiments.

Oh, and despite trying to distract myself with some fruit after my lasagna, I still went back for a second piece. It was just that good.

I mentioned earlier on Twitter:

It’s rare that one of my concoctions is blog-worthy, but I may have to share my new Orange-Ginger Shrimp For One recipe later tonight.

So, here we are. It’s nothing spectacular — I’m no gourmet — but it’s quick and easy and pretty tasty. Oh, and fairly low-cal, too.

Ingredients:
4 oz. frozen cocktail shrimp, thawed
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. ground ginger (approximate)
½ tsp candied ginger, diced fine
½ cup Tropicana Trop50 orange juice drink
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. canola oil

Directions:
Heat canola oil in small pan over medium-high heat. In a small bowl, toss shrimp with cornstarch and ground ginger. Add coated shrimp to pan; cook, moving constantly, until shrimp is heated through and slightly browned.

In a small measuring cup, combine the orange juice and honey. Add the OJ mixture to the pan — the liquid should quickly come to a boil. Add the diced ginger and simmer until the sauce thickens.

Serve over brown rice.

Weight Watchers Points®: 5 (not including rice)

From a scrap of paper brought home from my previous job: a basic recipe for monkey bread:

Monkey bread –
    cut biscuit dough into pieces
    cover w/ sugar & cinnamon
    place in bundt pan
    melt butter (1 stick) & brown sugar
    pour over biscuits & bake

Can’t say this sounds too healthy… but I can say that it was quite delicious at the time.

This is a very interesting recipe. Especially with my substitutions.

The recipe called for:
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch cubes
* 1 medium onion, sliced
* 7 fresh mushrooms, sliced
* 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
* 3/4 cup chicken stock
* 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
* salt and pepper to taste

I had no onion, so I just did without. I substituted canned mushrooms for fresh. I substituted chunky salsa (medium) for diced tomatoes. I substituted chunky PB for smooth.

I could tell that the salsa added some heat to the dish that was probably never intended, and the person who created this would probably smack me or something if they saw how I massacred their original recipe. Still, it was pretty good. I’ll have to get the real ingredients and try it again sometime to share with Aaron. (I don’t like to inflict my cooking attempts on him the first time I ever make a given dish.)

Does anybody know if peanut oil (particularly Chinese peanut oil) is expensive? I’d like to try cooking the chicken in peanut oil next time, to get the peanut flavor going on even more.

Yep… I think I like it.