Mini-Spanakopitas

I found this recipe on CookingLight.com and before you shrug it off because it came from a health food website, I would REALLY urge you to try it. I was more than a little surprised by how much flavor these little guys could pack, all the while not breaking the bank or your scale.

Ingredients

• FILLING:
• 1 (10-ounce) package fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green onions
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
• 
  REMAINING INGREDIENTS:
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg white
• 5 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare filling, place spinach in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Place over medium heat; cook until spinach wilts. Place the spinach mixture in a colander, pressing until barely moist. Combine the spinach and cheeses in a bowl; set aside.

Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the green onions; sauté for 2 minutes or until soft. Stir the green onions and the next 5 ingredients (green onions through 2 egg whites) into spinach mixture.

Combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 egg white in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Working with 1 phyllo sheet at a time, cut each sheet lengthwise into 4 (3 1/2-inch-wide) strips; lightly brush phyllo sheet with egg mixture (cover the remaining phyllo dough to keep it from drying). Spoon about 1 tablespoon spinach mixture onto one end of each strip. Fold one corner of the opposite end over mixture, forming a triangle; keep folding back and forth into a triangle to the end of strip.

Place triangles, seam sides down, on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden.

The prep work is a bit time consuming but when you are done it is so worth it. So worth it, in fact, that I plan on making them for a dinner party sometime- I want EVERYONE to get to try these little things. A few notes--- Puff Pastry and Phyllo dough are DIFFERENT THINGS. I made the mistake and came home with puff pastry, quickly realized that it wasn't what I needed and had to go back to the store (I DESPISE going back to the store!). Take your time wrapping them up and SERIOUSLY cover the phyllo dough like it says- they aren't BSing that it dries out pretty fast. I think that's about it --- but seriously try it. It is a bit more challenging than the other recipes I have posted thus far, but they are oh-so-delish.

See ya chefs!

Filet Mignon with Cabernet Balsamic Sauce

As the budget was tight this year for Valentine's Day, we decided to stay in and that I would make dinner at home. There are SO MANY great deals around the holiday and was pleasantly surprised to see Filet Mignon at a decent price (and lobster, but we'll get into that later). I remembered from the good old days at The Bay that I loved the cab-sauce, so I was eager to find a good recipe and give it a go. See below for a pretty simple recipe that uses mostly household ingredients.

Cabernet Balsamic Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup red onion, minced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, add extra-virgin olive oil and onions and lightly saute until onions are caramelized. Add garlic and cook until garlic begins to turn brown. Deglaze with wine and balsamic vinegar. Add sugar and let simmer and reduce for 20 to 30 minutes until mixture reduces to 3/4 cup. Strain wine mixture and return to heat to reduce for 5 more minutes or until thick syrup is created. Serve with the steaks.

Filet Mignon:

Heat a saute pan on medium-high and coat lightly with nonstick spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Rub both sides of the steaks with salt and pepper to your taste. Sear the steaks for about 2 minutes on each side, and then place in the oven (in an oven safe dish obviously). We left it in the oven for about 8 minutes which made it medium-rare.

We were very pleased with the way that the steaks and sauce came out. The sauce is very flavorful but does not overpower the taste of the good steak, and really blends the two nicely together. We also drank red wine with dinner so it was a delicious combo! I do realize that all my readers are not beef eaters, so I will tell you that I do not recommend this sauce to go on other meats. On fish it would be so gross, and you might be able to pull it off on a pork dish, but it is nothing that I would try. On a buffalo steak or something it would probably be ok, but like I said... probably best just to skip it if you aren't all that into beef.

I did make lobster, but I plan on at some point making a whole lobster and posting that experience on here, so I will save that for another date. Please try it and let me know what you think- I am eager to hear feed back.

Keep on cookin' cuppies!

Artichoke & Feta Quiche

Making crepes last week got me in the mood for breakfast so I chose a flavorful quiche recipe. It is also from the Cook This, Not That!, book.

INGREDIENTS:

3 extra large eggs

1 cup 2% milk

7 oz. artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2 links cooked turkey or chicken sausage

3/4 tsp kosher salt

Cracked pepper to taste

1 frozen pie crust

HOW TO MAKE IT:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the eggs until frothy, then add the rest of the ingredients and pour into the pie crust.

Bake the quiche for 45 minutes or until the eggs are completely set (a toothpick will come out clean) and the top is a light golden brown.

Let set for 5 minutes before serve... but then serve and EAT UP!

I was so impressed with this recipe and it was so good!! The flavors compliment each other so well. The feta cheese sorta dissolves thru the whole dish so there is a light feta zest with each bite... so if you LOVE feta cheese like I do then you are extremely pleased. It needs the full cooking time so don't try and rush it. But seriously make this dish- low in calories (makes six servings- approximately 250 calories a piece!) , pretty good for you, and doesn't taste like it should be! :)

Keep on cookin' cupcakes

Banana Crepes meets Bananas Foster...sort of

I almost blew my New Year's Resolution! This week was crazy busy and Saturday evening rolled around and I still hadn't made a new meal yet---AHHHH!! So after some thinking I decided to do something sweet and picked out a nice Banana Crepe recipe. After I picked it out I spotted the triple sec in our refrigerator and remembered when a friend made Bananas Foster but used triple sec in place of the rum. I decided that I would make the bananas in the modified Bananas Foster way.

INGREDIENTS:

Crepes
1 cup flour
3 eggs-lightly beaten
5 tblsp. butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt

Bananas
3 bananas-cut in half both ways
4 tblsp. butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 triple sec

Make the bananas first. Melt butter in a pan on medium heat. Add the brown sugar and triple sec and bring to a low simmer. Add the bananas and cook for a few minutes on each side, spooning mixture over the bananas. Remove bananas from pan and set aside.

Mix all the crepe ingredients together. Heat a pan on medium-high heat and apply anti-stick spray. Put a small amount of batter in the pan and coat the bottom of the pan evenly (the layer will be very thin). Let it cook until the bottom is a golden brown, then remove from the pan and place two banana halves in the center of the crepe and roll it up. Repeat process until you are out of crepe batter or bananas. Add some whip cream (or you can add ice cream) to the top and eat while still warm.

I like this recipe- it was sweet but not dessert sweet. The next day I did more traditional crepes with mixed berries on the inside and it was really good too. The crepe batter is the best that I have had; it has wonderful flavor and maintains the light, delicate taste that makes the crepe a great treat. I look forward to using the crepe batter with strawberries, and will also try it with ham and cheese blintz varieties.

Overall, I probably would not intermingle the two recipes again and would stick to more traditional crepe flavors. But if you like bananas, I do recommend looking up a good Bananas Foster recipe as it is SO DELISH!

Until next time, cuppies, keep cooking and definitely keep eating. :)