CHEESE OMELET WITH SCALLIONS




CHEESE OMELET WITH SCALLIONS
I made this omelet for weekend breakfast. It tasted great with toast. Whenever I make omelets, I used to do add some veggies like grated cabbage, carrots, green beans and sometimes spinach. This time I used just a bunch of scallions and some cheddar cheese. I have sautéed the scallions before whisking in the eggs. If needed, they can be chopped and added with sautéing.

INGREDIENTS:
Eggs-3 or 3 cups of Egg Beaters.
Scallions (green onion), 1 bunch.
Green chili (optional), 1.
Salt, as per taste.
Pepper as per taste.
Grated low-fat cheddar cheese, ½ cup.

PREPARATION:
Chop the scallions into small pieces with both the green and fleshy parts and cut the chilies into thin slices. Heat a pan with some oil. When the oil is hot enough add the chopped scallions along with the chili and sauté them for 5 minutes until everything is soft. Transfer the contents into a bowl and break 3 eggs into the mixture. Add salt and pepper according to taste and whisk everything together. Heat a flat-bottomed pan and when the pan is hot, pour the contents into the pan and spread them well. Some oil can be added around the corners. Add the grated cheese on top of the omelet and flip the omelet when one side is cooked. Remove the omelet from the pan when the other side is also cooked and serve hot with any whole grain toast.

SCONES WITH DILL AND SCALLIONS




SCONES WITH DILL AND SCALLIONS
This recipe is an adaptation from Ina Garten’s dill scones. This was my first attempt at making scones and they turned out pretty well. The only thing was that I rolled them a bit thinner than the regular scones but the taste was good. I combined these scones with French onion soup. The only difference from the original recipe is that I have used some scallions (green onions) and used very little dill leaves, omitted the eggs (she had used around 4 eggs for 2 cups of flour), and substituted whole milk for cream. Here goes the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
Whole wheat pastry flour, 2 cups.
Baking powder, 2 tablespoons.
Cheddar cheese, 1 cup.
Fresh dill leaves, 1 small bunch.
Scallions, 1 bunch.
One stick of unsalted butter.
Whole milk, around ½ cup.
Salt, 1 teaspoon.

PREPARATION:
Chop the dill and scallions finely. Put the whole wheat flour in a large bowl and add the baking powder and salt and mix well. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour and start kneading until the flour mixes with the butter and reaches the consistency of small peas. Add the dill, scallions, and cheddar cheese and mix everything well. Pour in the milk slowly and knead into dough. More milk can be added accordingly. Roll out the dough into a big circle of width around ¾ of an inch. Cut out small circles from the dough of around 10 cm diameter. A cookie cutter can be used for this. I just used a lid of a pickle jar. Arrange them on a cookie sheet greased with any nonstick spray and coat each scones with some oil or egg wash (I coated them with canola oil). Bake them for 20-25 minutes at 200 degrees, let them cool for 10 minutes and enjoy the scones with any soup or by itself.

CHINESE STYLE PASTA


CHINESE STYLE PASTA
This pasta is a version of the Chinese noodles I used to have at Pondicherry Engineering College canteen. My office was at this campus and almost every evening my friends and I used to take a walk to that canteen and have chili parotas or egg noodles or something yummy. Those were the days when you have almost anything without caring about the calories or carbs :) This is my attempt to recreate the same version of pasta and cutting some calories from the original version where the pasta used to be very oilyl. I used whole wheat spaghetti here and used just 1 tsp of oil for the overall recipe. The taste was really great. I make this every weekend now. The pasta which I have used here is Dreamfields pasta which has a relatively low carb value than the regular whole wheat pastas. There was no difference in taste, it tasted almost like white pastas and had a hearty texture. Another thing is that usually chili sauce is added to these types of spaghetti. I did not find them near my place, so I used only ground pepper here. The measurements used here serve for 2 persons. Here goes the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
Whole wheat spaghetti around ½ a packet.
Onion- 1.
Ground pepper according to taste.
Low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons.
Chili sauce, 1 teaspoon (optional).
MSG 1 pinch (optional).
Vegetables like beans, carrot, cabbage, green peppers, scallions all coming to 1-1.2 cups when cut into thin long strips.
Salt to taste.

PREPARATION
Cook the pasta to al-dente, drain the water, and let it cool. Meanwhile cut the onions, green peppers, cabbage, carrots, and scallions into long, thin strips. Add some oil to a wok and when the oil is hot enough, add the veggies and sauté them just for a minute. Take care not to overcook them. They should still be crisp. Then add the sauces and the MSG and mix everything well. Then add the cooked pasta and mix everything well with salt and pepper according to taste and enjoy.

VARIATIONS: Scrambled eggs can also be added to the pasta at the end.

TOMATO BASIL SOUP WITH OVEN-ROASTED WALNUTS AND AN AWARD













TOMATO BASIL SOUP WITH OVEN-ROASTED WALNUTS AND AN AWARD
The weather was pretty chilly for the past few days for us in Virginia. Yesterday we had some snow. It was such a glorious sight and I was in a lazy mood the whole day watching the snow. It was not a day for hitting the gym, rather I was in the mood for something piping hot and crunchy. Tomato basil soup sounded so wonderful but I did not have any fresh basil in the fridge yet brave me went right ahead to make the soup with dried basil. I know people won’t agree with dried basil in tomato basil soup where basil is the main ingredient still this soup tasted good for a quicker version. It was almost as tasty as the ones with fresh basil. I combined it with some oven-roasted walnuts. These were real good too perfect for the cold. The nuts were still warm from the oven when I had it. They were so yummy that I finished almost a half a cup of nuts. I clicked a view of the lawn from our window while having this.

TOMATO BASIL SOUP

INGREDIENTS:
Canned tomatoes, 1 can.
Red onion, medium-sized, 1.
Garlic, 2 cloves.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper as per taste.
Chili powder (optional), ¼ teaspoon.
Basil leaves (1 bunch if fresh ones are used, 2 teaspoons if dried basil is used).
Grated parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons.
Any broth like chicken or vegetable broth, 2 cups.

PREPARATION:
Dice the onions and crush the garlic cloves coarsely. Heat a pot with some olive oil and when the oil is hot enough, add the diced onions and garlic and sauté for a few minutes until the onion is well caramelized. Switch off the stove and let it cool. Pour the contents of the canned tomatoes to a blender and add the sautéed onions to this mixture and blend everything to a smooth paste. If fresh basil is used, half of it can be added while blending and the remaining half can be torn and added to the soup while serving. Pour the blended mixture to the pot and add salt, pepper chili powder, dried basil leaves if they are used along with 2 cups of broth and 2 cups of water. Let it simmer for 15 minutes and stir in the parmesan cheese. Ladle the soups into serving bowls and serve hot with any crusty bread.

OVEN-ROASTED WALNUTS
INGREDIENTS:
Walnuts, 2 cups.
Paprika, 1 tablespoon.
Salt, ½ teaspoon.
Canola oil, ½ teaspoon.
Garlic powder (optional), ¼ teaspoon.

PREPARATION:
Put the walnuts in a bowl. Add in the spices along with salt and oil and mix everything well until each of the walnut is well coated with the spices. Transfer the nuts to a baking dish and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes and let it cool and enjoy.

16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP AND ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER SOUP







16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP AND ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER SOUP
Here I go again with another bean and pasta soup. I found this 16-bean soup mix at Wegmans’ recently. It had a combination of beans like red bean, fava bean, black beans, and even some lentils. There were many beans in that mixture that I did not know the name of. I brought this one and soaked the beans overnight the very same dat, I think my obsession with beans is getting crazy :( The soup though came out pretty good. I added some whole wheat pasta at the end and my husband liked this one very much. I was surprised since he is not a great fan of bean soups. The lentils dissolved well and gave the soup some thickness. The recipe I am posting here is the same one which I have posted for most of my bean soups where I add canned tomatoes and some chili powder for some heat. They can be modified according to individual taste. If needed, the chili powder can be substituted for black pepper.

Coming to the roasted red bell pepper soup, I was wondering whether is it really necessary to roast the red peppers, let them cool, peel the skin, and then make soup, why not just sauté the peppers and grind them? Trust me on this one friends, the roasting and the extra work is worth all the trouble. This soup was simply the best I ever made. I made a whole pot full of this soup and we finished it off the same day itself, it tasted soo good :) The picture of the red pepper soup is not that good since I had used flash when the photo was taken.

I will be posting more soup recipes in my next posts since most of my friends are on a diet now and they keep asking me for soup recipes. Here are the recipes of the 2 soups I made this week:

16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP

INGREDIENTS:
Any bean soup mix, 1 cup, soaked overnight.
Red onion, 1.
Garlic, 2 cloves.
Canned tomatoes, about ½ can.
Tomato paste, 1 tablespoon.
Chili powder, ½ teaspoon.
Any whole wheat pasta, 1 cup.
Se salt as per taste.
Olive oil, 1 tablespoon.

PREPARATION:
Soak the beans overnight and cook them for 1-1/12 hours until they are tender. Chop the onion, into small pieces and keep aside. Crush the garlic coarsely. Heat a pot with some olive oil. Add the chopped onions along with the crushed garlic and sauté them for a minute. When the onion turns brown, add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, cooked beans, chili powder, and salt along with 5 cups of water. Cook the soup closed for 10 minutes. Then add the pasta and let it cook until it is al-dente. Take care not to overcook the pasta. If the pasta is overcooked, they start to fall apart and don’t taste good. Switch off the stove and serve the soup garnished with a teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil on top.

ROASTED RED BELL PEPPERS SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
Red bell peppers, 6.
Onion, large, 1.
Garlic, 2 cloves.
Chili powder, ¼ teaspoon.
Any seasonings mixture, ¼
Sea salt as per taste.
Broth or water, 5 cups.

PREPARATION:
Wash the peppers and pat them dry. Place them on a cookie sheet and spray some cooking oil to each of them. Bake the peppers at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until the skin of the bell peppers becomes black. Put them in a bowl and cover the bowl tightly with a plastic sheet and let it cool for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the onion and heat a pot with some olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the diced onions and sauté for a minute. Then add the 2 cloves of garlic and keep sautéing until everything is well caramelized. Switch off the stove and let it cool. When the red bell peppers have cooled, take them out of the bowl and peel the outer skin of the peppers. Discard the seeds from the flesh and put the roasted peppers into a blender. Add the sautéed onion and garlic to this mixture and blend everything into a smooth paste. Pour the contents onto the pot with 5 cups of broth or water, along with the chili powder, seasonings, salt as per taste and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Ladle the soup onto serving bowls, garnish the soup with some grated cheddar cheese and serve hot with any crusty bread.

EGG DROP AND EGG NOODLE SOUP AND AN AWARD




EGG DROP AND EGG NOODLE SOUP AND AN AWARD
If you like egg noodle soup, you’re sure to like this soup. This is not exactly a “diet” soup but it is simply delicious. The only thing is that care should be taken not to overcook the egg noodles. If needed, the egg noodles can be cooked separately and added to the soup while serving. I have used Egg Beaters instead of whole egg in this soup and even plain egg whites can also be used here.

Devasena Hariharan http://mirra-macherie.blogspot.com/ has passed on the Certified Honest Blogger Award. She is my younger sister who keeps posting many horrible comments about my dishes. Some of you may even have read those comments :(

Her blog is a good one about the day-to-day activities of her life. It’s a good read though we keep nipping at each other regarding the posts. I am passing this award to all my blogger friends who have been passing on their valuable comments and encouraging me.

INGREDIENTS:
Egg noodles, 1 cup.
Onion, medium-sized, 1.
Diced tomatoes, 1 can,(optional).
Garlic, 1 clove.
Dried parsley, basil, and mint leaves, ¼ teaspoon of each.
Egg beaters or egg whites, 1 cup.
Chicken broth or vegetable broth, 5 cups.
Salt as per taste.
Any seasonings mixture, ½ teaspoon.
Pepper as per taste.

PREPARATION:
Whisk the Egg Beaters with a fork until it is frothy and keep aside. Some salt and pepper can be added while whisking. Chop the onion into small pieces and crush the garlic into two. Heat a pot with some olive oil and when the oil turns hot, add the chopped onions and crushed garlic and sauté for a few minutes until the onions turn brown. Now add the broth along with the herbs, salt, seasonings, diced tomatoes, and peppers and cook closed for 5-7 minutes until the soup starts bubbling. Add the egg noodles and mix everything well. After 1 minute, spoon in the Egg Beaters. Add a spoonful and when the egg is cooked and starts floating on the top, add another spoonful. This should happen in 10-15 seconds. Remove from stove as soon as the noodles are cooked and ladle the soup into serving bowls.

ROASTED GARLIC AND PIMENTOS HUMMUS WITH WHOLE WHEAT TORTILLAS CHIPS




ROASTED GARLIC AND PIMENTOS HUMMUS WITH WHOLE WHEAT TORTILLAS CHIPS
Back to basics after the long holidays. The year 2008 was a pretty good one for me. I started my blog in June 2008. It has been six months and I am still sticking on to it. My husband and I have also lost a few pounds (actually I lost around 16 pounds, yay!). The year ended on a good note with a trip to New York and entertaining some of our friends. I am starting another year of blogging with a healthy snack. The inspiration for this hummus was the varieties of hummus sold at the supermarkets today. I made my own hummus with a slight twist by adding sweet pimentos and roasted garlic along with some cilantro and served it with herb and garlic whole wheat tortilla chip. I like the subtle flavor of garlic in the hummus and chip. More garlic can be added according to taste. I have also used a jar of pimentos here. Even any other roasted peppers can be used. Here goes the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE HUMMUS:
Chick peas, 1 cup, soaked overnight.
Roasted pimentos, 1 small jar.
Garlic, 1 small head.
Cilantro, 1 small bunch.
Green chilies, small, 2.
Lemon juice, 2 tablespoons.
Salt as per taste.
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons.

FOR THE TORTILLA CHIPS:
Whole wheat tortillas, any flavor, 5-6.
Nonstick cooking spray.

PREPARATION:
Cook the soaked chick peas until they are tender. I cooked the chick peas in pressure cooker for up to 2 whistles and let it cool. To roast the garlic, cut the garlic head into two halves and apply olive oil to the halves. Wrap them in aluminum foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Squeeze out the garlic from the heads and keep aside. Add the cooked chickpeas, the pimentos, garlic, and the sprigs of cilantro in a blender and blend everything into a smooth paste. Pour in extra virgin olive oil while blending. Add lemon juice and salt according to taste. Transfer the hummus into a serving dish.

Meanwhile cut the whole wheat tortilla into wedges and place them on a cookie sheet leaving sufficient space between each piece. Spray any nonstick cooking spray on top of the wedges and bake for 5 minutes at 300 degrees. Serve alongside with hummus.