Not-So-Healthy But Super Tasty Nachos

As I'm sure you've guessed from my previous posts, Dan and I tend to eat pretty nutritious meals most of the time. But sometimes you just have to give in to those cravings for comfort food, and nachos are one of our favorite "guilty pleasures."

We've "perfected" our recipe enough that now when I order them in restaurants, I usually find I don't like them as much as the ones we make at home. That's gotta be a good thing, right? Besides, I tell myself that these have to be healthier than what I'd get in a restaurant, just by the sheer fact that we're making them ourselves!!!!

We decided to make them last night using a few of our remaining CSA ingredients from this week - we were able to include pearl onions and cilantro! Here's what else we used:

- Green and red peppers, chopped
- Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
- Wegman's* Garlic Lime Salsa
- Black beans
- Nacho chips
- Reduced-fat 4-Cheese Mexican Shredded Cheese


We use Morningstar Farms Grillers fairly often, but we've discovered that they taste A LOT better when you combine them with some sort of liquid. In this case, we mixed the salsa and the Grillers together, and then heated them briefly before adding them to the nachos.

We've also found that the best way to make this dish is to do it in layers - we started with a layer of chips, then a layer of the Grillers/salsa mixture and black beans.


Then we added another layer of chips, topped with the peppers, onion and cilantro (which we mixed together beforehand).


Cover with shredded cheese, and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Voila!


I do love how colorful the end result was... and if you don't want to eat so many nacho chips, we've also made this recipe by creating a "dip" of all of the ingredients and then putting it on top of just a few chips.

* PS - We LOVE Wegmans. The grocery store chain started in upstate NY, where we both went to college. There was a rumor that they were opening a few stores in the Boston area, but it has been on hold for a while because of liquor license issues. According to this article, they are still planning to come to our area next year or in 2012. I can't wait!

Whenever we're near a Wegmans, we always stock up on a few products, especially this particular salsa. It's great! NPR had a story about Wegmans a few months ago - you can read it here. Oh, and they were listed as the #3 company to work for in this year's 100 Best Companies from Fortune Magazine.

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R & J - Kohlrabi Ham Souffle

Here's the recipe. R said was "amazing."

I don't eat ham, but it looks really tasty for those of you who do - enjoy!

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Swiss Chard, Scallion and Garlic Frittata

Egg dishes are another staple in our household. Because of this, we often try to limit the number of whole eggs we use when cooking. We've discovered that if you replace some of the egg with just whites, you usually don't notice the difference. (I find that it's a lot easier to separate the whites from the yolks if you use a separator - they're really cheap and you can find them at most stores that carry housewares.) If you find that this dish is not flavorful enough, feel free to use all whole eggs. Just lower the amount accordingly...

Frittatas are really simple, and they're great because you can use any combination of ingredients you'd like. I'm a breakfast person, I would eat it for every meal if I could, so to me this is the perfect dinner-time dish. If you ask my sister though, she'd think you were crazy! She doesn't like eating breakfast in the morning, so she'd hate this meal as supper. To each his (or her!) own - you decide for yourself.

I didn't list the amounts of most of these ingredients because we were making it up as we went along, but it really doesn't matter... oh, and the first four ingredients below came from our CSA!

INGREDIENTS:

- Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and chopped
- Garlic scapes, chopped
- Scallions, chopped
- Parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 2 eggs plus 4 egg whites
- Skim milk
- Good quality Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease frying pan (we used cooking spray, but feel free to use your favorite kind of cooking oil or butter) and heat to medium or medium-high. Add scallions, garlic scapes and stems of Swiss chard (they take longer to cook than the leaves do). Cook until tender (about 5 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Combine eggs, egg whites and skim milk in a small bowl and whisk until mixed.

3. Add Swiss chard leaves and parsley and cook until the greens are starting to wilt. Add egg mixture to frying pan. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes or until egg begins to set.

4. Transfer to 9 in. pie plate (unless using oven-safe pan, in which case you can just place it directly in the oven). Cover with parmesan cheese and bake for 10 minutes.

5. Serve with English muffins or toast. Enjoy!

This dish had a bit of a "woodsy" flavor that would definitely have been enhanced with the addition of some mushrooms - the whole time we were eating it, I kept wishing I had some in the house!

My rating: 9/10
Dan's rating: 8/10

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Steak Two Ways - R & J

Coffee-crusted ribeye and Rosemary ribeye, served alongside Swiss chard with bacon and salted baked potatoes...

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Penne with Pesto, Broccoli & Tomato

We used some of my pesto in tonight's dinner - YUM! The broccoli we used came from the CSA - it was quite tasty.

To finish off the pasta, we added some Parmesan cheese and black pepper...

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Basil Pesto

As promised, here is my pesto recipe and some photos...

Classic Pesto (from The All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts or pine nuts*
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled**
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 cups basil leaves (about 4 ounces)
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:

1. Drop nuts and garlic through food chute with food processor on; process until minced.

2. Add oil; pulse 3 times.

3. Add basil, cheese, and salt; process until finely minced, scraping sides of bowl once.

* I tried walnuts this time - I usually use pine nuts but I figured I'd see what it was like with something a little different - tastes just as good!

** Turns out that we were out of garlic (which I only discovered once I started making the pesto - I just used our garlic-infused olive oil instead, and it worked really well)

This pesto recipe is actually one of my favorites from this particular cookbook, and you can tell because the page is all wrinkled from where I've spilled on it. Oops. At least now the cookbook opens right to that page!

I just read an interesting technique on the Cooking Light website - it never occurred to me to blanch the basil before making this pesto, but it would help the pesto to stay greener. I'll have to try it next time!

The basil I used came from our herb garden - we had a much bigger garden last summer, but because of the move we've only been growing herbs this year. As you can see from the photo below, they're all doing really well (this was taken after I had already cut off the basil I needed for the pesto).

Chives, Sweet Basil, Purple Basil, Rosemary

We also have a separate pot with cilantro in it, but it didn't survive the move all that well. I think I need to re-pot it (or possibly just start with a new plant!). Eventually I plan to mount the window-box on the railing you see above it... (yes, K - this is the window-box you gave me when you guys moved, it's been great. THANK YOU!)

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Tilapia with Sesame Greens & Garlic Scapes

Our kitchen is finally unpacked enough that we could cook a real meal, and last night's dinner was great!

Sesame Broiled Tilapia (adapted from AboutSeafood.com)

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb. fresh tilapia fillets

- 2 tbs. butter, melted

- 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

- 3 tbs. sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp. of soy sauce (our addition to the recipe)

PREPARATION:

1. Combine melted butter, lemon juice and soy sauce in a shallow dish and dip the fillets in the mixture. Place on a lightly greased ovenproof pan.

2. Broil under high heat about 2 minutes each side, basting with the butter/lemon mixture several times during the cooking process.

3. After the final baste, top fillets with sesame seeds. Broil an additional 1-2 minutes until the seeds are golden brown.

Sesame Greens with Garlic Scapes (from Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 bunch turnip greens
- 2 turnips or kohlrabi
- 1 bunch swiss chard (we used kale instead)
- greens from 1 bunch of beets
- 4 garlic scapes 1/8 cup oil
- 2 tbs. sesame oil
- 2 tbs. sesame seeds
- 1 tbs. tamari (soy sauce)
- 1⁄4 tsp. cayenne (opt.)


PREPARATION:

1. Chop greens, removing stems and chopping finely (they need more time to cook so if you want to use them you just have to start them earlier). Thinly slice turnips and cut scapes into 1 inch pieces.


2. In a wok or similar skillet, heat oil until hot and toss in turnips, scapes, and any stem pieces. Cook for 5 minutes.


3. Add beet greens and tamari, cover and cook another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add cayenne, sesame seeds, swiss chard, and turnip greens and cook until greens are wilted.


My rating: 8.5/10
Dan's rating: 8/10

One final note about fish - please do your best to buy sustainable seafood whenever possible! Click here to download a great pocket-sized regional list that you can bring with you to the grocery store (from the Monterey Bay Aquarium). They also have an IPhone app, which you can access here.

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This Week's Share - 6/23/10

• Lettuce
• Pearl Onions
• Swiss Chard
• Hakurei or Scarlet Turnips
• Cilantro
• Kohlrabi
• Broccoli

There was actually less produce in the share this week than we've had the past 2 weeks. We took the onions, swiss chard, and broccoli, and R & J kept the kohlrabi and the lettuce. We split the rest. At least we still have a lot left from last week!

I'm making pesto tonight, I'll post the recipe and some photos in a little while!

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