Alfredo, Healthy-fied (is that a word?) :-)

Welcome! Here is another of my Foodie Friday entries just for my own records. I hope you are enjoying seeing some of these as much as I am enjoying sharing them with other people!

One of my favorite dishes of all time is Spaghetti with Alfredo sauce. I think of it as comfort food! The only problem is that Jason's body can't handle Alfredo sauces that I would get out of the store or in restaurants. So I was searching for another way to use spaghetti one day and I found this recipe. I knew that some of the original ingredients might not work for Jason, but that I could tweak it to meet our needs. I was thrilled!

This is my variation of Rocco's Alfredo Sauce:

Prep. Time:  3 minutes      Cook Time: 20 minutes    Serves: 4 meal-sized portions

Ingredients:
1/2 pkg. whole grain thin spaghetti
salt

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. corn starch (or 2 Tbsp. flour, if you don't have corn starch)
1/2 cup low-sodium fat-free chicken broth 
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
2 cloves fresh crushed garlic (more if needed. I also substitute 1/2 Tbsp of garlic powder, and it tastes just as good!)
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated; plus more for on top
6-oz. plain greek yogurt

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add the salt and the thin spaghetti. Boil until desired tenderness is reached, then drain the water off.
2. Meanwhile, put the oil and the corn starch in a pan over low heat. Stir continuously while adding the broth a little bit at a time, until a nice sauce consistency has been reached. (You can use more or less broth, as you need to.) Stir in the spices (add any others that you like! Sometimes I add diced onion. It just tastes great!) Add the cheese and mix until completely incorporated and melted. Remove sauce from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Fold in the yogurt until well incorporated. Dish up the spaghetti and spoon the alfredo sauce over top. Serve and enjoy!

What is your favorite pasta recipe?

According to the Spark People Recipe Calculator, this recipe has:

Calories		546.0
Total Fat		10.9 g
	Saturated Fat	5.2 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	4.7 g
Cholesterol		19.8 mg
Sodium		557.1 mg
Potassium		26.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate		6.5 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.0 g
	Sugars	1.9 g
Protein		15.3 g

Vitamin A	3.5 %
Vitamin B-12	5.8 %
Vitamin B-6	1.3 %
Vitamin C	0.0 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	3.1 %
Calcium	39.4 %
Copper	0.5 %
Folate	0.5 %
Iron	1.5 %
Magnesium	3.2 %
Manganese	0.3 %
Niacin	0.4 %
Pantothenic Acid	1.3 %
Phosphorus	20.2 %
Riboflavin	5.7 %
Selenium	9.4 %
Thiamin	0.8 %
Zinc	5.4 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

The tastiest recipe yet!

This recipe actually originated in Italy, but is made by Romanians, as well! It is soooo easy! It looks like you spent hours slaving, when, in less than 1 hour (first time ever trying it) it was ready to put in the oven! Awesome recipe!

It is called, "Pollo Italiano" (Italian chicken, I think is the way it translates)

You will need-
Chicken:
2 lbs. Chicken breast (de-boned and no skin)
1-1 1/2 c. mushrooms
1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c. soy sauce
pepper and any other spices you want to use (I used oregano, dill and parsley), all to taste
1 c. water

1. Cut the chicken in 1/4 - 1/2 inch slices, horizontally, across the largest part of the breast. You almost want to filet the chicken.
2. Put it in a container to marinate it in the soy sauce while you are preparing the filling.
3. Chop up the mushrooms.
4. Add the cheese and spices and mix well.
5. Spread out foil, and place the chicken pieces on it, one right after the other. This will look like you have one super long piece of chicken. (You might need to use two foot-long sections of foil... that's OK. It makes it easier to handle)
6. Spread the filling evenly down the center of the pieces of chicken.
7. Fold the edges of the chicken up over the filling.
8. Pull the edges of the foil up and fold them together over the chicken, snugly (you don't want the chicken flopping around, but neither do you want to break the foil).
9. Put the rolls of foil-wrapped chicken in a 9x13 pan.
10. Add about 1 cup of water to the pan.
11. Bake at about 350*F for 30 minutes.
12. Serve hot, with sauce (if you like it) spread over it.

Sauce:
1/4-1/2 c. sourcream
1/4-1/2 c. mayonaise
2 pieces of garlic, crushed
salt and pepper, to taste

1. mix everything together well.
2. When the chicken is ready, spread some over each piece of chicken.

This goes great with:
potatoes-mashed, boiled, baked, etc.
salad
corn, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, cooked spinach, etc!

Try it! And Pofta Buna! :D

Romanian Gulash

Hey everyone!

Here is the newest recipe that I have tried out! It is super easy! It would probably also work well in a crock-pot. Since we don't have one, we use the stove-top and that works just fine.

This dish is very similar to beef tips, just Romanian style! :D

Ingredients:

2-3 onions, diced

2 pieces of garlic, crushed

4-5 Tbsp. oil

1 lb. beef (not ground)
1 med. sized can of tomatoes (I used diced, but you can use whichever kind you have already, or prefer)
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground chili peppers
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. flour (I used plain flour, not self-rising)
2 Tbsp. sourcream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut the beef in 1 inch cubes, approximately
2. In a 3 liter pot, pour in the oil and slightly sautee the onion and garlic.
3. Add the meat to the pot and cook for 5 minutes.
4. After 5 minutes, add the paprika, salt, vinegar and tomatoes (in their juice).
5. Cover the meat with water. Stir.
6. Put a lid on the pot and let this simmer over low heat for about 2 hours.
7. When the meatis well boiled, mix the flour and sourcream together.
8. Add this mix to the pot. Stir well.
9. Let it simmer just a few more minutes, to let the sauce thicken.
10. Add a bit more salt and pepper to taste.
** This dish traditionally has a pleasantly spicy taste to it. But you can spice it to fit your personal tastes**

This is served over polenta (I'll find a recipe for that and post it sometime), noodles (bowtie, twisty-looking ones, etc.), and even rice. Pofta buna! :D

Stuffed Roast

Well, here is another recipe I just tried out this week! This one is a bit more complicated, but not very. It is actually called a meat roll, but in English, it makes more sense to call it stuffed roast. This is a super flavorful dish! Enjoy! :D

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Roast Beef, uncooked
2 c. mushrooms (you can use a can of mushrooms, cuts out a step :D)
2 c. lunch meat, ham, cut in squares
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
2 c. mozzarella, grated
1 sm-md onion, chopped
salt
pepper
parsley
soy sauce
bag for baking (like sometimes is used for turkeys)
several toothpicks

1. Cut the roast through the middle horizontally, but don't cut it all the way through. You want to make a type of pocket that will be folded over when the stuffing is put into it.
2. Pour the soy sauce over that and let it marinate several hours in the fridge.
3.Just before you're ready to stuff the meat and put it in the oven, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Add salt, pepper and parsley to taste.
4. Spread out the meat. Spread the stuffing mix on one half of the meat and pull the other half of the meat over on top of it. Secure with the toothpicks.
5. Place the meat in the baking bag. Pour just a tad of olive oil over the meat. Seal up the bag.
6. Bake for 1 hour at 350* (depending on your oven)
7. You can serve it with sour crout, pickles, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, etc.

Taste of Romania, Stuffed Peppers

We thought we would give those interested a chance to try some new things. Get a bit of a taste of Romania without ever leaving home. Every once in a while we'll add some recipes to our blog. They will be things that we've cooked and tried. The new dish that we tried just today was stuffed bell peppers. Try it! You just might like it! :D And, as we say here, "Pofta buna!" (Enjoy!)



Ingredients:

6-8 med. bell peppers, any color
1 sm. onion, diced
oil, for frying the onion
1 lb. ground meat (I used chicken, but you can use pork, beef, deer, whatever you have on hand)
1/2 cup rice
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
parsley, to taste
dill, to taste
1 sm. can tomato paste
water, to make the paste thinner
salt to taste for the sauce

1. Wash and clean the peppers of their seeds by cutting a hole in the top and scraping out the seeds and insides..
2. Saute the onion in the oil until the color becomes almost transparent.
3. Mix the meat, onion, rice, salt, pepper, parsley, dill and water well.
4. Fill the peppers with the meat mix.
5. Place the filled peppers in a 9x13 pan.
6. Mix the water and tomato paste together.
7. Pour over the stuffed peppers until the peppers have about 1/2 - 1 inch sticking out above the water.
8. Cover well with aluminum foil.
9. Bake 40-50 minutes at 300-350* F. (Or until meat is cooked through)
10. Serve hot with sour cream, bread, as a tomato soup with the peppers as a side, etc.

Serves: 3-4