No Reservations-Venice

One of my favorite shows is No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain.  Have you ever watched it?  It’s on the travel channel and basically Bourdain travels all over the world, tasting wonderful food, and meeting with the locals.  One more thing, Anthony is a total smart ass.  He’s a New York chef who’s hard to impress, but for every sarcastic comment is a soft spot for real homemade delicious food.  So for this week’s episode, he went to Venice, Italy.

Clarification, I absolutely love Italy.  I’ve been there twice, though not to Venice.  My great grand parents on my dad’s side are from Rome and Naples.  Italian food is probably my favorite, the language is beautiful, the architecture, the art, the history…it’s an amazing place.

Okay, moving on…I was really excited about the Venice show, especially since I’ve never been there.  Now I really really want to go.  The food looks amazing; lots of seafood, fresh garden grown veggies, homemade pasta and creamy risotto.  So imagine eating a delicious Venetian meal on an outside patio overlooking a canal.  What gets better than that?  To eat awesome food while staring at beautiful architecture…that’s why I love Italy.  You can find beauty in everything there and Italians absolutely live for that stuff.

Just a word of advice if you do ever plan on going there.  Anthony asked a local Venetian there who the worst tourists are.  He said, it’s not a particular nationality (which is good to hear for us Americans), it’s the kind of tourist who rushes to see everything.  You can’t rush things in Venice.  In fact you’ll find you can’t rush things in any part of Italy or actually any part of Southern Europe.  You have to take Venice for what it is and become part of the city.  Take your time, eat, walk around, eat some more, take a ride on a gondola, have some dessert…yes, it seems everything revolves around food in Italy.

Here are some Venetian recipes:

Inside Venice & Veneto

Shrimp asparagus recipe This recipe has been kindly sent to us by Ristorante Alla Corona in Dolo, near Venice.

The ‘locale’ is located towards the end of the Brenta Riviera and was opened in 1830 to offer a meeting place for Venetian nobles and countrymen from the Veneto hinterland.

Today, the specialities of the period are still prepared such as ’saor’ or fried sardines in vinegar, onions, grapes and pine nuts. If you go there make sure to say hello to owners Elena and Massimo.

ingredients

8 giant shrimps, 8 white asparagus from Bassano del Grappa, a coffee cup of balsamic vinegar, 8 lemon slices, chopped parlsey, salt and pepper.

making it

Remove the heads and shells from the shrimps, but keep the tails completely intact and the final two ‘rings’.

Make a cut the length of each shrimp tail.

Wash, peel and chop the asparagus crossways but keep the tips intact.

Dip the top and tail of each shrimp and aspargus tip into hot, salty water until they become crispy.

Fry the shrimps and chopped asparagus pieces in a pan. When cooked add the asparagus tips and turn the heat up.

Add the balsamic vinegar and reduce the sauce.

Serve by placing each shrimp on a lemon slice alternating with an asparagus tip.

Place the asparagus pieces in the centre of the plate along with the shrimp heads.

Sprinkle the lot with parsley.

Source deliciousitaly.com

Polenta with Monte Veronese cheese and walnuts Matured Monte Veronese D.O.P. cheese is a single cream cheese made from semi cooked curd and produced exclusively from cow’s milk.

It can be aged from 3 months to 2 years and the cheese is white and/or light straw yellow usually with medium sized holes.

Ingredients

Matured Monte Veronese D.O.P. cheese, polenta, walnuts, grana padano cheese, milk

Directions

Prepare a polenta. This may be either the tradtional way or by using a ready made or ‘pronto polenta’.

Lay the polenta in layers in a ovenproof dish alternating with layers of sliced mature Monte Veronese D.O.P. cheese, and the walnuts which have been processed to a paste.

Sprinkle the final layer in the oven dish with grated cheese and a little milk.

Place in the oven at 180°c for 15 minutes.

Source deliciousitaly.com

6 servings

INGREDIENTS

Tags: Amazing Place, Anthony Bourdain, Asparagus Recipe, Delicious Food, Favorite Shows, Gondola, Grand Parents, Homemade Pasta, Italian Food, Italians, No Reservations, Recipes Shrimp, Risotto, Shrimp Recipe, Smart Ass, Soft Spot, Southern Europe, Travel Channel, Veneto, Venice Italy, Word Of Advice

Saucy New Drinks to Ring in the New Year

Okay, I know New Years day has officially passed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still ring in the New Year. With all the bad news on T.V. about the economy and what not, sometimes it’s better to just take a load off and relax. Here are some creative new drinks to help you do just that.

Citrus Champagne Punch by Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients

* 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
* 2/3 cup superfine sugar
* 1 cup vodka
* 1/2 cup limoncello
* 2 teaspoons vermouth
* 1 (750 ml) bottle chilled dry Champagne or sparkling wine
* Ice
* Lemon twists, for garnish

Directions

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, vodka, Limoncello, and vermouth in a large nonreactive bowl and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, 1 to 2 hours. Add the Champagne and stir to combine.

Serve over ice in highball glasses, garnished with lemon twists.

Sgroppino (Italian Cocktail) by Giada De Laurentis

1 cup chilled Prosecco (Italian sparkling white wine)

2 tablespoons chilled vodka

1/3 cup frozen lemon sorbet

1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh mint leaves

Directions

Pour the Prosecco and vodka into 2 Champagne flutes, diving equally. Spoon a scoop of sorbet into each flute. Sprinkle with mint and serve immediately

Mango Peach Sangira by Sandra Lee

Tags: Champagne Flutes, Champagne Punch, Emeril Lagasse, Flavors, Food Network, Frozen Peach Slices, Highball Glasses, Hot Chocolate, Lemon Sorbet, Ml Bottle, New Years Day, Nonreactive, Ounce Cans, Peach Schnapps, Sandra Lee, Sangira, Semisweet Chocolate, Sparkling Wine, White Wine, Wine Glasses

Healthy Lunch Ideas

Here’s some healthy lunch ideas I came up with in the last week.  They’re quick and easy to make.

Mini Nan Pizzas

Have you ever had the Indian naan bread?  If you go to an Indian restaurant, they usually serve naan bread before a meal and it is so delicious.  It’s a flat skinny bread, little on the sweet side and when it’s warmed up it’s so soft and melts in your mouth.  I think usually they only put butter and some herbs on it, but I decided to make a healthy pizza with whole wheat naan. First I preheated the oven to 325.  I started the naan pizzas by putting marina sauce on the bread and then some canned artichokes that I chopped up.  I sauteed some mushrooms and spinach with some olive oil and placed it on top of the artichokes.  Then to finish it off I put Gorgonzola crumbles on the top.  I put the naan pizzas in a glass baking dish and put it in the oven for about 5 to 7 minutes.  You have to keep a close eye while they’re cooking because they heat up really fast so unless you want them crispy, I think 7 minutes is enough.

When they’re done the bread should be very soft and hot.  Soooo good.  The great thing about these naan pizzas are like any pizza, you can put whatever toppings you want.  I just happened to have those ingredients around so that’s what I used.  But I imagine they would be delicious just brushed with olive oil topped sauteed shallots, garlic and olives.  Mmmmm, I’m going to have to try that.  If you come up with any good combos, let me know, I’d love to try them out.

Creamy Tuna Mushroom Whole Wheat Pasta

This week for some reason, I was really craving a creamy pasta.  I don’t normally make pastas with cream sauce because of their high saturated fat content but I figured out a way to get around it.  Usually creamy pastas are made with cream, butter and may some sort of cheese.  So I figured, if I don’t use cream, what’s a creamy healthy alternative?

Soy milk!!  I tried it and yes, it works.  I recommend using unsweetened soy milk.  The one I used is from Trader Joes and the ingredients are literally filtered water and soy beans.  All I did was saute the mushrooms and tuna in soy milk and olive oil on a low heat.  Add some powdered garlic and herbs to spice up the taste or else it will end up pretty bland.  Saute it for awhile and be sure to scratch the cooked soy milk and oil from the bottom of the pan because there’s so much flavor in those brown bits.  You might have to add some more soy milk during the sauteing process because it can evaporate rather quickly.

Add the cooked pasta to the pan and cook the pasta with mushrooms and tuna for just a couple more minutes.  Once your done, you’ll have a semi creamy pasta that tastes a lot like tuna casserole, but without all the bad saturated fat.

What’s funny is while I was making this last night my boyfriend and his buddy were like “You’re making pasta with soy milk?  Gross!”  And then guess who kept trying to eat pasta off my plate?  Both of them and they kept saying how good it was   So, yes, it’s a little strange to use soy milk instead of cream, but it works.

Tags: Artichokes, Baking Dish, Cheese, Cream Butter, Creamy Pasta, eating healthy, Fat Content, Garlic, Healthy Lunch Ideas, Herbs, Indian Naan Bread, Mushroom, Mushrooms, Nan, nutrition, Olive Oil, olives, Pizza, Recipes, spinach, Sweet Side, Tuna, whole wheat pasta

10 Reasons to add Brown Rice to your Diet

I’m going to start documenting all the brown rice combos I come up with. Brown rice is like the best staple you can eat. And it’s extremely versatile. So I’m officially promoting brown rice!! It’s awesome, eat some! Eat it once a day or maybe every other day.

So you might be thinking, “what is so great about brown rice? It actually sounds really bland and boring…” Well, brown rice by itself is pretty boring…but when you add all sorts of great veggies and olive oil it can be one of the best tasting things ever!

For instance today, I heated brown rice and kidney beans together, then added raw chopped cabbage, artichokes, kalamata olives, Gorgonzola cheese, and olive oil. So good! So satisfying!

I could go on and on about brown rice, but I’m going to keep it short and sweet. Here we go, 10 reasons to add brown rice to your diet.

1. It is extremely high in both insoluble and soluble fiber which helps rid your digestive track of toxins.

2. It contains selenium, a trace mineral that has been proven to help prevent colon cancer.

3. Brown rice helps you lose weight because it is a unrefined whole grain full of fiber. Unrefined grains go through our systems much easier than refined grains, like white rice, which are much harder to digest. I lost 12 within about a month of a half of consistently eating brown rice and other whole grains.

4.The oil in brown rice helps lower LDL (bad cholesterol).

5. Brown rice contains magnesium which lowers blood pressure reducing risks of heart attacks and strokes.

6. Brown rice is a gluten free food.

7. Brown rice when combined with beans or lentils contains all eight essential amino acids. These proteins are essential for life but we cannot make them in our bodies, therefore we need to consume foods containing these eight amino acids. These are the same proteins found in meat, but without all the bad saturated fats that come along with eating red meat.

8. The effects of asthma can be reduced with brown rice because the anti inflammatory compounds it contains.

9. Because of it’s high mineral and vitamin content, it keeps our hair, teeth and nails all nice and pretty.

10. It’s easy to make!! I don’t care what you say, this is one of the easiest meals to make. Why? Because now they have frozen organic brown rice! So I just pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes and it turns out perfect. Look, I don’t know how to cook rice and I eat it almost everyday, so no excuses!

Tags: Bad Cholesterol, brown rice, Chopped Cabbage, Colon Cancer, Digestive Track, Effects Of Asthma, Essential Amino Acids, Gluten Free Food, healthy eating, Heart Attacks, Kalamata Olives, Kidney Beans, Lentils, organic, Red Meat, Refined Grains, Saturated Fats, Soluble Fiber, Trace Mineral, vegetarian, White Rice, whole grain, Whole Grains

What I had for lunch today…

I was starving by the time I got home for lunch today and now I feel so satisfied   I made my typical beans and rice bowl that I probably eat more often than anything else.  The great thing about beans and rice is that they go with anything so you can make a different combo everytime.

I recommend always eating brown rice, definitely not white rice.  Brown rice has both insoluble and soluble fiber that cleans your digestive track of toxins, it’s gluten free, and served with beans provides our bodies with all eight essential amino acids.  I eat brown rice almost everyday with beans to get part of my protein since I don’t eat animal meat.  Also, if you don’t want to spend the time cooking rice, you can buy frozen organic brown rice at Trader Joes.  I haven’t looked, but I’m sure you can find it at one of the large grocery chains and definitely at any health food stores.  Just make sure that the only ingredient is brown rice and that it isn’t loaded with preservatives like a lot of the instant rice brands have.

Today my rice bowl consisted of:

Organic brown rice, lentil beans, cabbage, avocado, olive, sardines, salsa and olive oil…yummy!

I also had an open face sandwich of whole grain bread, avocado, sardines, olives and olive oil.

I am such a sucker for olives.  I love them!  I probably eat too many of them, but I’m sure there’s worse things I can eat too much of.  Everything in my lunch today was non processed with the exception of the bread.  Still, the bread is about the healthiest, grainiest bread you can get.  My body feels so much better when I eat this way.  If you have any good rice bowl combos, let me know, I’d love to try them.

Tags: avocado, brown rice, healthy food, non processed food, olives, Recipes, sardines, whole grain