food

The Potato Soup Recipes that Your Taste Buds Have Been Waiting For. From Cream of Potato Soup recipes with Bacon to Baked Potato Soup. These are the kind of Potato Soups to add to your cookbook.

This is an easy and delicious recipe. The Pecorino Romano is the perfect cheese to use, as it pairs really well with the bread crumbs. You need not worry about bland stuffed mushrooms anymore, as these are very flavorful! If you live in a dry area you might want to add a little more olive oil or chop the mushroom stems and put them in the bread crumb mixture (this will add moisture).

Stuffed Mushrooms recipe - 175 calories

Ingredients:
28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Stir the Pecorino cheese, bread crumbs, garlic, mint, parsley, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.
3. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
4. Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat.
5. Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange them on the baking sheet (cavity side up).
6. Drizzle the remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes (until the filling is golden on top and heated through and the mushrooms are tender).
8. Serve.

Servings: 7 (4 mushrooms per serving)

Nutritional information for one serving:
Calories: 175
Total fat: 13 g
Sodium: 264 mg
Total carbs: 9.4 g
Fiber: 1.3 g
Protein: 6.8 g
Weight Watchers points: 4

[Photo credit]

You might also like these appetizer recipes:

• Garlic Tomatoes recipe - 79 calories
• Peach and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta recipe - 46 calories
• Parmesan and Red Onion Appetizer recipe - 117 calories
• Wild Mushroom Savory Saute recipe - 135 calories
• Red Lobster Crab Cakes recipe - 174 calories

This is an easy and delicious recipe. The Pecorino Romano is the perfect cheese to use, as it pairs really well with the bread crumbs. You need not worry about bland stuffed mushrooms anymore, as these are very flavorful! If you live in a dry area you might want to add a little more olive oil or chop the mushroom stems and put them in the bread crumb mixture (this will add moisture).

Stuffed Mushrooms recipe - 175 calories

Ingredients:
28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Stir the Pecorino cheese, bread crumbs, garlic, mint, parsley, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.
3. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
4. Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat.
5. Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange them on the baking sheet (cavity side up).
6. Drizzle the remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes (until the filling is golden on top and heated through and the mushrooms are tender).
8. Serve.

Servings: 7 (4 mushrooms per serving)

Nutritional information for one serving:
Calories: 175
Total fat: 13 g
Sodium: 264 mg
Total carbs: 9.4 g
Fiber: 1.3 g
Protein: 6.8 g
Weight Watchers points: 4

[Photo credit]

You might also like these appetizer recipes:

• Garlic Tomatoes recipe - 79 calories
• Peach and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta recipe - 46 calories
• Parmesan and Red Onion Appetizer recipe - 117 calories
• Wild Mushroom Savory Saute recipe - 135 calories
• Red Lobster Crab Cakes recipe - 174 calories

Happy Monday to you!  Let me first off say that I love Costco!  That was kind of random but I just needed to get that off my chest.  We were there yesterday and I was leaving I just said, the title of today’s post should be I LOVE COSTCO“.  It is such a great store and I had a great round of samples yesterday.

OK, the moment you have all been waiting for over the past couple of weeks.  I am about to announce the makeover winner but before I do  – I just wanted to go over some stats about the makeover.

Giveaway Stats

• Comments – 267
• Tweets – 99
• Trackbacks/Links – 41
• Blake Make Entries – 33

For a Grand Total of 440 Entries

And The Winner Is….

Kristen from IowaGirlEats.  Comment 177 and she wrote:

Here is a look at what her current blog looks like.

Kristin, contact me anytime and we can get started on your blog makeover.  I look forward to working with you.  For all of you that entered I want to thank you – it was a lot of fun.  If you still want a makeover feel free to check out Zesty Blog Consulting for more details.

Slice It Up

Ever spend a lot of time making a gorgeous dessert and then when you go to cut it… it looks like poo.  It has happened to me and if it happened to you, your not alone.  The key to rectifying this problem is using the proper style knife for the job.  Below I will go ahead and try to explain a few tips so that your desserts slice as good as they taste.

Slice cakes, tarts and pies like a pro.

1. For cheesecake and squares, keep a glass of hot water and a clean dish towel handy.  Before cutting each slice, dip the knife into the water and wipe clean.  The hot knife will slide right through the cake.
2. For pound or sponge cakes, use a serrated knife and a sawing motion to cut through without squishing or tearing the cake.
3. Use un-waxed dental floss to slice through the cake (great for the gooey or sticky cakes)
4. Lining your baking dish or spring form pan with parchment paper before baking squares and cheesecakes will help you pick up each slice cleanly.

So there you have it, a few cake slicing techniques and a fun makeover winner.  I hope you have a fabulous Monday where ever you may be today and I will talk to you on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Related posts:

1. Makeover Giveaway Winner Is…..
2. And the Winner is…
3. Reminder Zesty Blog Makeover Giveaway
4. Zesty Giveaway: Blog Makeover
5. Zesty Makeover: Thinspiredblog.com Complete

Ingredients Peeled sliced Potato 2 Kg Water And Milk two Cup each Chopped Onion 1 Ground Pepper and butter for garnishing Instructions Put the butter

Ingredients 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small yellow onion, chopped 1 pound sweet potatoes, cubed 2 large cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 tablespoons curry

Ingredients 6 to 8 large red potatoes peeled and cubed 2 stalks celery diced 8 strips low salt bacon cooked and crumbled Reserved bacon grease 2 cans

It seems like every culture with a coastline has their version of a seafood stew. The French have bouillabaise, the Portuguese bacalhoada, New England "chowdah" and San Francisco cioppino. In Brazil, they make moqueca (pronounced "mo-KEH-kah"), a stew made with fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, and in the northern state of Bahia, coconut milk. My first encounter with moqueca was a salmon version of the stew prepared by Brazilian blogger Fernanda of Chucrute com Salsicha. So good! We love making fish stew, but had never thought to use a base of coconut milk. Since then, every Brazilian I've met, when the conversation turns to food (as it invariably does), their eyes light up at the mention of moqueca.

Continue reading "Moqueca - Brazilian Fish Stew" »

Growing up in a relatively poor area we had to stretch our food dollars to feed 7 of us. Momma would make a big pot of her potato soup using old potatoes

Required Items: Potato, Pepper, Salt, Lemon, Ginger and Garlic paste, Red Chili powder, Corn powder and green pees. Procedure: 1) Cut each potato into

I cook like an Indian Auntie, so if some of the proportions seem off I tweak them while cooking. 4 Potatoes - peeled and diced 2 med. leeks - diced small

Ingredients: Pared potatoes(cut in bite size pieces) 6 nos. Chopped onions 2 nos. Chicken bouillon cubes 4 nos. Carrot, pared, sliced

Cold winter days, there is nothing better than potato soup. This is a very simple potato soup recipe that does not take long to make. You can prepare in

Read about my personal journey and how I made it work.

I thought I'd take some time to write about Super Natural Every Day. The manuscript and photography are due this summer so why not wipe the spelt flour off my cheek, let the quinoa simmer on its own for a bit, and share a bit about how I'm working toward that not-so-far-off date?

I'll start by telling you about my creative process, which, in a broad sense, starts by collecting things that inspire me. I keep all sorts of scraps, notebooks, photos and random text files around. They live in drawers, on desktops, some are paper, others are digital. Thoughts and inspirations set aside for later, someday, next year. Occasionally, I'll cluster a few of these things together if there is some sort of connection that strikes me as interesting. If I'm really excited about something, that particular cluster might end up in an envelope or folder.

Many of the ideas, images, and thoughts related to this new book lived in a simple paper folder for a time. I'd add a copy of a recipe from one of my notebooks occasionally, or a photo of a place that evoked a certain feeling or sense of place. I might pull the folder down every few months, spread all the notes and elements across a table and think about what I was looking at. What could I add? What should be taken away?

There was a point when I thought it was time to get more serious. If I wanted to turn this into a cookbook what might it look like? Feel like? What would the themes be? How would it be structured? Which recipes? I started answering some of those questions and began to work on an outline.

My outlines usually start by organizing the book into sections, and then breaking those sections down into more detail (and recipes). As the project matures the outline turns into a 4-5 page road map/blueprint for the book. This document changes and evolves constantly based on what I feel is working and what isn't. But having a strong outline in place helps to let me know (at a glance) where I'm at in the overall process and where I'm headed. It's surprisingly easy to get lost.

I color code and mark up one version of my outline based on where I'm at. A plus mark following a recipe name means it is tested and has a head note. Two pluses means a photo is completed. A plus before the name means I've converted the recipe into international weights and measures. Highlighting the recipe name in green? That means it's in good shape and ready for some time in a kitchen other than my own.

Sorry, let me back up a bit. Around the time I've fleshed out an outline, I also set up a binder (see the first image). At this point it's pretty much a dummy book. I fill it with sheet protectors and section dividers. It helps me imagine the actual object I'm working on. It keeps me organized and enables me to actually see any progress I'm making. My outline corresponds with the pages in the binder, page by page. I assign one recipe per sheet protector, the most current version of the recipe is visible. If there is a photo to go with a recipe I have it in the same pocket visible through the back side. It makes it easy to move pages and recipes around, and keep track of versions of recipes (and related notes).

It would be disingenuous for me to tell you this process is all sunshine and flowers. Writing and photographing a book is hard for me. Aside from this (quite public) recipe journal, I'm a relatively private person. The book process takes me out of my comfort zone. Maybe because it's such a monumental effort to make it happen? So many people involved! It's just an entirely different world of expectations, with all hopes tied into a single grand gesture. I think to myself - I want this book to be good, I want it to find the slice of people who will find something special in it, I want it to find a home in welcoming kitchens. I want the recipes to work in your kitchens. And on and on and on. Just know, I spend a certain amount of time talking myself out of the trees.

So I'm here, chipping away at the book one word, one sentence, one head note, one photograph at a time. The binder is bulging, with only a few blank pages left to fill, but I suspect I'll be testing, tweaking, and revising down to the last minute...I know many of you would be amazing testers - I might need to enlist some of you for a bit of help, if you're game (more details on that in a future post)...

Continue reading SNE: The Manuscript...

Read about my personal journey and how I made it work.

Top secret Famous Restaurant Recipes from the popular chains that we all love. Outback restaurant recipes, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel, Macaroni Grill, Cheesecake Factory restaurant recipes and more.

PHEW what a week!  Happy Friday to you and thanks for stopping in again for another food filled post.  I was unsure as to what to have for dinner on Wednesday night as I was getting ready for work in the morning – when I remembered that I had some lean ground beef in the freezer.  Every time I would open the freezer it would make a little chirp to me that it was too cold and wanted to be cooked.  I could only take that for so long so finally I took it out to thaw and here we are today.

I was kind of in the mood for a cheeseburger but was unsure because we had no whole wheat buns to go with it and really any toppings outside of mustard and ketchup but I convinced myself…. GO FOR IT!

What a reward…. take a look at this.  I topped a few with cheese and left a few without for a leftover treat that you will see next week.  I may have even impressed Mrs. Zesty to a whole new level.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs Lean ground beef
• 2 Cloves garlic ( chopped)
• 1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Dried/frozen basil
• Cheddar/marble cheese
• 1 Tsp. Chili powder
• 1 Tsp. Dried Thyme
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tsp. Black pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, add ground beef and all the dry ingredients and mix well together.











Have you ever tried this frozen basil before. It is amazing. So fresh and so convenient especially in the off season.



3. Form patties and place on roasting rack.





4. Bake for 35-40 minutes until no longer pink inside the meat ( you can peek if you need to)





5. Remove from oven and top with cheese; place back in the oven until melted.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When baking ground beef, I like to use the roasting pan with slats in it to allow the grease to follow away from the meat.  This ensures you are getting the leanest most healthy form of that particular meat.

This little treat goes well with a side of salad or just on it’s own between your favorite whole grain bun.  Heck I just eat them by itself.  Sometimes you can’t just beat a homemade cheeseburger.  What is your little trick you put in your ground beef/turkey/chicken before cooking it to add that flavor you love?

Around the Blogsphere

Well as I have been wandering around the blogsphere this week…. I have bumped into a couple of wicked recipes that are must try’s in my books.  Take a look over here and let me know what you think.

• A recipe for stove-top granola by the Hungry Yogini.  This will knock your socks off for sure and I cannot wait to try it.
• A somewhat genius idea for salad dressings can be found over at Choosing Raw.  This I have to sink my gums into.
• And last but not least… I found two things I love wrapped into one over at Joy’s site – Can you believe an Avocado Pound Cake?  YUM!

That is all I have for this week.  I hope everyone has a decent fun filled friday and a great weekend.  Today is the last day you can tell all your friends about the Blog Makeover giveaway so “Let it out” and I will be announcing the poor soul that has to work with me for a makeover on MONDAY!

Take care

zesty

Related posts:

1. Zesty’s Ultimate Cheeseburger
2. What A Roasted Garlic Lemon Chicken
3. How About a Slice of this Garlic Bread?
4. Oh Yum… Basil Beef Pesto Fettucine
5. Beans, Basil and Balsamic!

One of the things I love about making soda bread is that it is just so darn easy. With yeast breads you have to proof the yeast, knead the dough, let the dough rise, etc. But with soda breads, there's no proofing, kneading, or waiting. In fact, because the leavening comes from mixing the base of the baking soda with the acid in the buttermilk (remember those fascinating-at-the-time childhood experiments of sprinkling vinegar onto baking soda?), you pretty much pop it in the oven as soon as you put the dough together. The trick is to use a light hand, just work the dough barely enough to bring it together. It looks like a sheep-doggy shaggy mess, but it bakes up beautifully—lightly browned and crusty on the outside, while soft and tender on the inside.

Continue reading "Caraway Soda Bread" »