HASTY TASTY MEALS BLOG

December 29, 2013 · 7:44 pm

Start the New Year right!

Happy New Year! Here’s an encore post by request from readers. Enjoy!

If you’re southern, chances are you have some kind of greens cooking up with some cut of pork, along with a pot of black-eye peas and a skillet of cornbread. Maybe your black-eye peas are part of a Hoppin’ John dish, which is mixed with spices and rice. It’s a New Year’s Day tradition and believed to bring good luck.

There are other traditions, worldwide, but I grew up with the southern version. I resisted it, too, until my adult years when I discovered the food tasted good together. Legumes and leafy green vegetables are healthful, so eating them on New Year’s Day starts off the year on a positive note, at least nutritionally. But where did the ideas that such cuisine brought good luck originate?

Who knows for sure. There is a theory that because the pig digs with its snout in a forward motion, the pig symbolizes progress…

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Filed under Healthful Eating, Recipes

Tagged as black eye peas, Collard Greens, fiber

November 24, 2013 · 5:24 pm

Hasty Tasty Cranberry Sauce

It’s Thanksgiving week. Here by request is a repeat of my cranberry sauce recipe. It’s easy and so much better than canned, so give it a try. Happy Thanksgiving!

The tart cranberry is delicious and healthful. Unfortunately, the cranberry is overlooked except during the holidays yet is good any time of the year. But don’t open up a can of jellied cranberry sauce–make your own! In less than 30 minutes, you can have homemade cranberry sauce. You can store it in the refrigerator in a mold or in the serving bowl–your choice. Molds are impressive but not necessary. Here’s my Hasty Tasty version:

RECIPE

Hasty Tasty Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

12 ounce package fresh cranberries

3/4 cup brown sugar

dash salt

one orange, zested and juiced

1 tsp. grated fresh ginger

Directions:

Combine brown sugar and juice of an orange (reserve zest) in a 2-quart sauce pan. Add cranberries.

Gently heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for fifteen minutes or until berries burst.

Remove from heat. Stir in zest of orange and grated ginger.

Carefully tranfer contents to the Vitamix or a food processor. Cover.*

Beginning with the lowest speed (Vitamix variable speed 1), process cranberries to desired consistency. Just pulse a few times for a chunkier sauce.*

Carefully pour sauce into a mold or a serving dish, cover, and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour. Overnight is better.

*Processing the sauce is optional. Cranberries taste great either whole sauce or pureed.

Yield: 1 pint cranberry sauce

Variations: add your choice of seasonings in place of the grated ginger, such as cloves, cinnamon, or even jalapeño pepper!

Dinner Under Pressure

I love steamed vegetables. But if I’m rushed, I pull out the pressure cooker. I cook all the vegetables in one pot, three minutes under pressure (four minutes if you prefer extra tender veggies). Cleanup is easy because the liquid that steams while it cooks prevents sticking or scorching. If your cooker includes a steamer basket and trivet to hold the basket out of the water, use it.

Fresh vegetables prepped in steamer basket

Of course, stick with vegetables having similar cooking times. Don’t toss broccoli in with potatoes. 😉 Today I cooked peeled Idaho potatoes, which I later mashed, carrots, and fresh green beans. Yes, you cook them all together. Season with salt and pepper if you like, or season individually when you serve. Your choice.

My 3 Liter pressure cooker

Use your pressure cooker (I have three, but one six-quart cooker is plenty). In the time it takes you to set the table, pour beverages, and re-heat or slice your meat (or protein of your choice), your pressure cooker cooks all your sides. Quick-release according to the manufacturer’s instructions then carefully open the cooker. I pick out my potatoes first because I mash them.

Veggies served with slow cooked chicken.

Don’t let meal preparation raise your blood pressure–just your cooker’s. Enjoy!

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Filed under cooking, Green Beans, Vegetables, Zucchini

Tagged as pressure cooker, Pressure Cooking, vegetables

September 30, 2013 · 5:03 am

Hasty Tasty Mushroom Pasta Florentine

This recipe originated as part of my research for the romance novel I’m currently writing, Return to Drake Springs. The hero is on a tight budget but wants to impress the heroine by cooking her dinner. While shopping, I bought only sale items (the lengths we writers go in the name of research!) at my local supermarket, which included bags of fresh, ready-to-eat spinach and boxes of pasta (Both Buy-One-Get-One free), and a discount on fresh baby portabella mushrooms and red bell peppers. The result of my experiment is Mushroom Pasta Florentine.

This recipe is a hearty and delicious meal for meat free Monday or any day. Whole grain pasta bumps up the protein, and the spinach and mushrooms give two servings of vegetables per meal. It’s affordable, too. This has become one of our household’s favorite meals. A writer never knows where research will lead. ☺

Mushroom Pasta Florentine with Whole Wheat Pasta

RECIPE

Hasty Tasty Mushroom Pasta Florentine

Serves Two

Ingredients:

Pasta:

4 oz. dried thin spaghetti, whole grain or whole wheat

Water

Salt

Topping:

1 package fresh spinach leaves, washed and ready to eat

8 oz. crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, cleaned and quartered

2 Tbsp. olive oil

¼ red bell pepper, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

½ tsp. grated fresh nutmeg

Sauce:

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (i.e. Rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley)

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

In a large pot, bring 4 – 5 quarts water to a boil. Add salt and pasta. Cook to al dente (follow instructions on the package).

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add spinach.

Cook spinach until it wilts and leaves room to add mushrooms and red bell pepper.

Using tongs, toss cooked mushrooms, spinach, and pepper with nutmeg and garlic. Cook another two minutes and remove from heat.

In a large shallow bowl, pour extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and herbs.

Drain pasta and immediately add it to the bowl. Use tongs to toss hot pasta with the oil, garlic, and herbs until pasta is coated and fragrant.

Add the spinach-mushroom mixture. Toss with the pasta.

Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and serve.

Recipe can be doubled.

HASTY TASTY MEALS BLOG

Start the New Year right!

Hasty Tasty Cranberry Sauce

RECIPE

Dinner Under Pressure

Hasty Tasty Mushroom Pasta Florentine

RECIPE