real food wednesdays is a new blog carnival, now in it's 3rd week. It's a great place to share ideas and recipes for eating healthier and saving time and money on meals. Click on the real food wednesdays banner for links to this week's participants.
This week's topic is Healthy Fast Food, which is a bit misleading, since we're not talking about Mickey D's bananas and apples. We're looking for home-cooked meals made from real foods ... health-full dinners you can get on the table quickly on those nights when you don't have a lot of time.
Fast [and] Healthy Food might be a better title :o) Whatever you call it, just about everyone can use a few more ideas and recipes for fast meals that are both nutritious and delicious. When we're in a hurry -- or just plain looking for something good to eat -- we cook pasta.
My family loves pasta, and we eat it several times each week. It's super-fast, inexpensive, and turns into wonderful meals with just a few ingredients. Just choose your favorite pasta shape and type -- whole grain, gluten-free, veggie-based, etc. -- and make a fresh and simple sauce or topping while the pasta cooks. Pasta dinners are great for cleaning out the fridge!
The simplest sauces are butter and freshly grated cheese, or chopped garlic sauteed in olive oil (add tuna or anchovies, capers, diced tomatoes, and black olives, and it's Pasta Putanesca). We use olive oil in our sauces, but you can use butter, broth, or any healthy oil. Oils flavored with red chilis give your pasta some extra spice.
Want something fancier? Saute any mixture of veggies in olive oil, and add fresh herbs (dill, chives, oregano, etc.) if you have them. Stir fry a few ounces of diced meat, or add shredded leftover chicken, beef, or fish. Add minced fresh garlic when everything else has finished cooking. Toss with cooked pasta and serve. If you need to do a make-ahead pasta, follow the basics and then place your pasta-and-topping mixture in a casserole, top with cheddar, mozzarella, or jack cheese, bake till the cheese melts, then hold in a warm oven.
Like many families, we're often on different schedules. Last night, my pharmacist-husband was on-call, our 19 year old had come home from the first day of the new semester and gone to sleep early, and our 22 year old didn't finish his first day of classes until after 9 p.m. The end result was that three different dinners were prepared, and two of them were pasta. Ray and I had linguini champignons (the fancy French word for mushrooms, which sounds so much nicer than the Italian funghi): 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms, minced garlic (lots), and 2 large diced yellow onions, all sauteed in olive oil and topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Our oldest son had macaroni with homemade chili-and-beans and topped it with cheddar cheese, lowfat sour cream, and red onions. Plain yogurt makes a good topping if you don't want sour cream.
Everyone in our four adult household cooks, and we all believe in the taste-and-see method :o) It's hard to give precise measurements for pasta and sauces. We use about 1/4 to 1/3 pound dried pasta per person, and a bit more if we want to have leftovers. We use red or yellow onions, and we use tons of garlic because we all enjoy it. If your family loves garlic, use 2 to 4 cloves (or more) per half pound of dried pasta: if they're not big garlic fans, cut that amount in half or leave it out all together. I suggest adding minced garlic to your sauces and toppings after all other ingredients are cooked, so that the flavor doesn't cook out. A pinch of red pepper brings out other flavors, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper goes into most sauces and toppings. Ray adds a pinch of sea salt when he cooks, and I almost never do ... either way, our pastas are delicious.
Note on Parmesan Cheese: Never ever ever EVER buy the dried parmesan cheese that comes in a big red or green cardboard can. My kids called this "shake cheese" when they saw it at a friend's house. If you don't have real parmesan cheese, your pasta dishes will taste much better with no cheese at all. You can also substitute other real cheeses for parmesan ... try mozzarella, jack cheese, hard cheddar, or any other cheese your family likes. We like gorgonzola (blue cheese) in a light cream sauce, tossed with hot tortellini or penne. We like the same sauce on flat noodles (linguini or fettucine), with the addition of diced roasted beets (sounds weird, but it's fabulous!).
Here are a few more pasta toppings we enjoy. All of these recipes can be made in 30 minutes or less:
Fresh Garden Tomatoes: You need fresh summer tomatoes for this, from your own garden or straight from the farmer's market. For each 1/2 pound dried pasta, use 2 or 3 medium fresh red tomatoes. While the pasta is cooking, remove the seeds from the tomatoes and chop them in approximately 1/2" cubes. Roughly chop or slice 1 bunch (approximately 1 cup) fresh basil leaves. Thinly slice (the white parts only) of 2 to 4 green onions. Mix the diced/sliced veggies in a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Drain pasta (vermicelli, spaghetti, or angel hair) and toss with a little olive oil. Pour pasta into wide flat serving bowl, pour tomato mixture on top , and serve with fresh parmesan. This is also good with a little balsamic vinegar, which brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Chicken Topping: Use either roughly chopped raw chicken or shredded cooked chicken. Saute 1 or 2 chopped onions in olive oil until soft. Add chicken meat and either stir fry or simply warm the meat if it's already cooked. Add minced fresh garlic to taste and remove from heat. Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of any of the following: prepared sun-dried tomatoes (the ones from Trader Joes, that come in a jar, are excellent), and/or fresh or frozen peas, and/or chopped Kalmata olives, OR prepared pesto (Trader Joes pesto is excellent if you don't make your own). Toss with cooked penne, mostacolli, or rigatoni. We eat this at least once a week, usually made with leftover roasted, smoked, or bbq'd chicken.
Fettucine Carbonara: This sounds fancy, but it's super fast and easy. Use either diced ham, crumbled bacon, or veggie bacon bits. While fettucine is cooking, saute 1/2 onion in olive oil or bacon grease (yeah, we all want bacon once in a while). Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked ham or several slice crumbled bacon. Add minced garlic to taste, and immediately remove from heat so garlic doesn't brown. Cover and keep warm. Drain pasta, saving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Toss cooked pasta with warm bacon-onions-garlic mixture. Add a couple pats of butter or margarine, or another 1 to 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, plus 1/4 cup of the cooking water. If pasta seems a little dry, add a little more cooking water. Divide pasta into individual portions in wide flat bowls. For each serving, fry one egg (sunnyside or over easy is best -- I've never met a person who's had salmonella from eggs). Place egg on top of pasta and serve with freshly grated parmesan. The runny yolk creates a wonderfully rich sauce.
Creamy Sauce -- Bechemal or Alfredo: Creamy sauces are very high in fat, so we don't use them very often or in very large quantities. Even so, they're delicious and super-fast-and-easy to make. This basic recipe will make 1 to 2 cups of sauce, and can be made with your choice of milk: non-fat, lowfat, whole, light cream, or heavy cream. We use 1% or 2% lowfat milk. Melt 2 tablespoons butter or margarine (not soft spread) in a saucepan over medium low heat. When butter bubbles, stir in 2 tablespoons flour with a wire whisk, until the flour and butter are well-mixed. Slowly add between 1 and 2 cups of milk, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until sauce thickens and/or begins to bubble. [You now have a basic white sauce that can be used for many things: add salmon, tuna, or chicken and you have the basics of Chicken a la King. Or toss with cooked macaroni and cheddar cheese and you have awesome homemade mac & cheese.] Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, still stirring with a whisk. Season with pepper. If your sauce seems too thick, stir in a little more milk. If it seems too thin, stir in a little more grated cheese. For Alfredo sauce, add fresh garlic.
Scampi: Lightly flour 1/2 to 1 pound raw shrimp (with or without shells ... I prefer mine without). Saute quickly in olive oil in a medium-hot pan, tossing or turning when the first side gets a little brown and the flesh turns pink. When shrimp are done (2 to 3 minutes, total), add fresh chopped garlic (to taste) and squeeze half a lime or lemon over it. Stir once, remove pan from heat, and add something green ... minced chives, parsley, or green onions. Adjust seasonings, then toss with 1/2 to 1 pound cooked linguini or fettucine. Served with grated parmesan.
Bon appetit!
