Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi

Every morning my roommate and I take the MBTA into work. Within the past 2 months we've had a train conductor that has these catch phrases that he uses, such as "Teamwork makes the dreamwork" or "Have a five-star Friday." Most people on the train roll their eyes after the fifth time he makes the comment, but I can't help but giggle and appreciate the positive commentary. In the spirit of our uber-positive train conductor, we decided we wanted a Six-star Saturday. On the menu, Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi and Garlic Shrimp. A few years ago, I found this recipe on Epicurious that I really liked. I liked using ricotta because I'm lazy and didn't want to go through the process of ricing potatoes. 

So my roommate and I went off on the mission to make Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi. Now, there are not many ingredients and it's not difficult to make; however, both times I've made it I've struggled with the texture. It's never doughy enough so I end up using a lot more flour when I roll out the dough and cut it out into pieces. 

After I feel like that they were not that sticky, I plopped them into a pot of boiling water. After they floated to the top i put them into a pan of browned butter.

It looks like a buttery mess there, but when it's all done, we sprinkled it with some Parmesan and voila!

 The final product is much prettier!! My roommate whipped up some shrimp cooked in a pan of butter, minced garlic, and red peppers. THIS was our six-star Saturday :)

Spicy Chicken Meat Loaf and Asparagus (adapted from Cooking Light)

Meat loaf was never a norm growing up, so I never had a desire to eat it. The idea of a slab of ground meat with ketchup sounds the same as just eating a burger with ketchup. My Indian mother tried it once, with the hopes of introducing us to some good ol' American food. However, I don't remember it being quite a success. A few years ago, I thought I would see what all the hoopla was about and came across the recipe in Cooking Light for a Spicy Turkey Meatloaf. The first time I tried it with the ground turkey, but it was a little dry for my taste. I decided to give it another go ahead and, like usual, a number of things went awry. I didn't have ground turkey, ground mustard, and far too little ketchup to make an accurate sauce. However, I was determined to make it regardless and with some modifications, I think it worked out better than the last time :)

Here is the recipe I ended up using:

Adapted from Cooking Light's Spicy Turkey Meat Loaf with Ketchup Topping

Ingredients:

•  1 tablespoon butter
•   2 cups chopped onion
•  1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
•  3 garlic cloves, chopped
•  3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
•  1/4 cup water
•  3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
•  1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
•  Cooking spray
•  1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup Maggi Sweet Chili Sauce
• 1 tsp Splenda
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
•  1 tablespoon brown sugar
•  1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

        Preparation:

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. 2. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic to pan; cook 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes.
3. 3. Combine mushroom mixture, panko, and next 8 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; stir well to combine. Shape turkey mixture into a 9 x 5–inch rectangle on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray.
4. 4. Combine ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and nutmeg in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Spread ketchup mixture evenly over top of meat loaf; bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Here is how it turned out....

    

      Yes, there is A LOT of meatloaf. But using ground chicken made it so moist and all the substitutions made it a bit more delish :) I sauteed some asparagus in butter and garlic and it was a perfect compliment to the dish!

"Scrambled" Paneer

Ahhh...day 2 of the Nor'easter. We just found out that the MBTA will be closed today and I'm not sure how  I'm going to make it through the day :) So, I woke up this morning and got cracking on a breakfast I had been dying to make. I get sick of eating eggs all the time for breakfast and felt that Paneer is a good protein and low carb substitute. Paneer is an Indian cheese. I had made some at home awhile back and froze it for a rainy (or snowy) day.

I started dethawing it and decided it would be great as a breakfast treat. Here is what is in it:

tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 green onions, chopped both white and greens
1/4 frozen peas and carrots
1/2 cup paneer
2 tsp Madras Curry Powder
Salt and pepper to taste

I heated the olive oil in a pan. Once hot, I added the garlic and green onions and let then get a little brown. Then I added the frozen peas and carrots. Since I had not dethawed them, I put them in frozen, which I put them in first so they could "dethaw" in the pan. Then I added the paneer and started to break it up in the pan. Add the curry powder and seasoning and mix everything together. Once everything was mixed I put in on a plate with Maggi Sweet Chili sauce. It's a little spicy, a little tangy, and a lot of yummy.

Roasted Cauliflower

Obviously, I have a lot of time today to try some recipes. One of my favorite things is roasted cauliflower. On Super Bowl Sunday my friend Tanya made an awesome roasted cauliflower dish with chipotle mayo and fava nuts. I didn't have all of those things, but I had a whole head of cauliflower that needed to be cooked, ASAP. I have to say, if I want to try this recipe again, I would cut out the feta, it was not as necessary as I thought.

I made sauce consisting of 1 tbsp mayo (I would use less of this next time as well), a tsp of lemon juice, a tsp of capers, 1 tsp course dijon mustard, and a sprinkle of feta (which I would cut out next time)

I then roasted 1 head of cauliflower (475 in the oven for about 15 minutes?) with some olive oil, smoked salt, and pepper. Once roasted, I mixed the cauliflower in the sauce and mixed it all together. Since I'm lazy, I just ate the entire bowl for dinner :)

Surviving the Nor'easter

I am actually excited about a blizzard. It means working from home and watching the storm from the comfort of my home. I know one should be very smart and stock up on food, water, batteries, etc. I, on the other hand, made sure I had brie, salami, hot cocoa, and wine on hand. Yes, this may come off as irresponsible, but  in my defense, I did bring my plants inside from the porch so they don't get swept away by the wind and crash into someones window. So I tried this new hot cocoa (well new to me) which was wonderful! Best part, you just add hot water and it is still wonderfully rich and delicious!

I then decided to make some tortilla crackers to go with the brie, salami, and raspberry jam we had at home.
I had leftover tortillas from last week. I don't own biscuit cutters, so I found an old jar, cleaned it and cut out circles from the tortillas:

After all the rounds had been cut out, I sprayed both sides of the rounds with oil and put in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes. Halfway through, I flipped the rounds over and rotated the sheet pan to get the rounds evenly browned.

Then I put brie and salami on some of them and brie and raspberry jam on the rest. Here they are...nom nom nom