Fresh Vegetable Salad

Fresh Vegetable Salad (from Kraft Recipes, Servings: 6, Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes)

Ingredients

·         1 cup chopped broccoli
·         1 cup chopped carrots
·         1 cup chopped red pepper
·         1 cup chopped zucchini
·         ½ cup Red Wine Vinaigrette

Directions

1.)    Mix all ingredients together.  Refrigerate for 3 hours.  Stir just prior to serving.

This is a simple and easier side dish – I made it a few years ago for a picnic and this time for a party.  The veggies really soak up the vinaigrette, so there is not a huge puddle at the bottom of your bowl (although, there is a small one).  The veggies stay crisp and fresh and the Red Wine Vinaigrette adds a sweet flavor to them.  I use shredded carrots in this recipe rather than chopped ones – it just makes this simple recipe a bit faster to put together. 

I used some leftovers to top salad greens – the ready-made marinated vegetables were almost enough to not have to add extra salad dressing.

Roasted Spring Vegetable Risotto

Roasted Spring Vegetable Risotto (from AllRecipes, Servings: 8, Total Time: 1 hour)

Ingredients

·         1 lb. asparagus, cut into 2-inch lengths

·         2 cups whole baby carrots cut in lengthwise quarters

·         6 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

·         3 medium assorted peppers (yellow, red, green), cut into 1-inch strips

·         2 medium zucchini or yellow squash, cut into diagonal slices (I used zucchini)

·         1 cup halved fresh medium mushrooms

·         2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary leaves

·         3 ½ cups vegetable broth

·         1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         1 1/3 cups uncooked Arborio rice

·         ½ cup shredded Italian Five Cheese

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 17x11-inch roasting pan with cooking spray.

2.       Mix asparagus, carrots, onions, peppers, squash, mushrooms, rosemary and ¼ cup broth in prepared pan.

3.       Roast 20 minutes or until done, stirring once. Prepare risotto while the vegetables are roasting.

4.       Heat oil in saucepot. Add rice. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.

5.       Add ½ cup broth and cook until broth is absorbed. Add remaining broth, ½ cup at a time, stirring until all broth is absorbed before adding more. (Total cooking time: 25 minutes)

6.       Add vegetables and cheese. Heat through. Serve immediately.

First off, I love this dish! Yum, yum, yum! My husband enjoyed it too.  With that said, I think that the recipe needs to be tweaked slightly.  If you use the size of veggies recommended, you need to roast for more than 20 minutes – maybe even up to 30 minutes.  The next time that I make it, I will probably chop all of the veggies smaller, more of a rough chop.  That is just the size that I would prepare in this risotto dish.  There are a lot of veggies, and I actually only put in about half because I knew that my husband would want more of the rice part.  I used the remainder as a “base” for my risotto!  More veggies for me!

Now, for the taste – even though there is only ½ cup of cheese, this was creamy and I could see the stringy cheese each time I brought a forkful to my mouth.  The rice was cooked through with only a slight crunch to it. The veggies were really crunchy (see above recommendation), a little too much for my husband, but I liked them that way.  Overall assessment – I cannot wait to make this again!

Nirvana Fine Indian Restaurant - Wilmington, DE

After a few stops on the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, my husband and I decided to order Takeout from Nirvana Fine Indian Restaurant (located in Independence Mall, Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE) and instead of going out to a restaurant.  We used Takeout Taxi – which is a great service when you are feeling too lazy to go out and get the food yourself.  Yes, it can be a little pricey, but we ended up with five meals out of our one order, so I don’t think that’s too bad.

I ordered the Bombay Potato side dish to serve as an appetizer and then ordered two curries, Mixed Vegetable and Bagare Baingan.  I specified Hot for both of them (there were four options, Mild, Medium, Hot or Very Hot).  Both of the curries tasted good, but they were not quite as hot as I expected – next time I will know to order Very Hot.  The Bombay Potato dish had potatoes cooked in a light gravy with peas and tomatoes.  There was also some herb on them, possibly cilantro.  The taste was a little sweet and the potatoes were nicely cooked.  I did not care for them, but my husband loved them.  Both curries had a lot of excess oil, so I would recommend being careful on the amount that you eat.  The naan was soft and pliable, but held its own next to the curry.  The Bagare Baingan curry was baby eggplants cooked in traditional gravy consisting of sesame seed, ground nut, cumin, tamarind and coconut.  This was definitely the more oily of the two curries that I ate, but it was still tasty.  The eggplant was a bit mushy.  The Mixed Vegetable Curry consisted of carrots, green beans, and a few other veggies cooked with herbs and spices in a thick sauce.  This was the spicier of the two curries – and I liked it!  It was slightly greasy, but not overly so.  The vegetables had a nice crunch to them.  For a self-made buffet, this wasn’t bad.  Just don’t put curry on a paper plate!

Peasant Pizza with Goat Cheese

Peasant Pizza with Goat Cheese (from Better Homes & Gardens, Servings: 6, Total Time: 25 minutes)

Ingredients

·         1 ready-made pizza crust

·         2 oz. fat-free cream cheese (block style), softened

·         2 oz. semisoft goat cheese or feta cheese, crumbled (about 1/4 cup)

·         1 tsp. dried basil, crushed

·         1 clove garlic, minced

·         1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

·         3 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

·         1 small yellow, orange, or green sweet pepper, cut into thin bite-size strips

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.      Place the pizza crust on a baking sheet.

3.      In a small mixing bowl stir together the cream cheese, goat or feta cheese, dried basil, garlic, and black pepper. Spread over the bread shell. Place the tomato slices and sweet pepper strips over the cheese mixture.

4.      Bake pizza about 12 minutes or until heated through.

This is so easy to make and very good.  I used goat cheese and yellow peppers, but may try the feta and red peppers next time I make it.  The peppers remained crisp after baking (and even upon re-heating for leftovers).  Both the peppers and the tomatoes taste very good with goat and cream cheese mixture.  My husband and I both enjoyed this pizza, finding it filling and scrumptious.  The crust had a little bit of a bite to it too, just a tad crispy.  This is a fairly healthy dish for pizza, and it is easy to reduce calories and fat by using reduced fat goat or feta cheese.  I am looking forward to trying different variations!