Guest Blog: Move Over Martha.......

And Ina, and Sandra and dare I say Julia...?  Ok that last one may be a stretch.  Inspired by my 5-day holiday weekend for the fourth (don’t hate me because I’m well-rested), I decided I needed to get creative in the kitchen and cook something healthy to combat all of the Fourth of July temptations as well as keep the healthy streak going before I go on a little vacay.  We all know vacations are a license to splurge.  

 

I'm taking over...

 Thanks to RT, I have a subscription to Cooking Light.  Every month I peruse the pages, scanning for recipes that are 1) easy 2) quick and 3) will work for both my husband and me.  While he will eat pretty much anything, I have what we’ll call a discerning palate…who am I kidding, I’m picky.  I hate ketchup with a passion (blasphemous to some, I know), get skeeved out by texturally weird foods (ex. grapes, except in wine of course, duh), and could go without the existence of tuna in a salad form (I’m talking smelly, mayo based stuff—yuck).  So when something catches my eye, I usually tear it out and keep for my recipe collection.  What I love about Cooking Light is that they offer the “light” versions, but you can also make substitutions easily.  I am one of those “chefs” (I’m sure my husband is laughing his tail off at that one) that needs to follow a recipe.  I had an unfortunate incident during my childhood years that taught me this lesson, that's up next.  Back to Cooking Light.. I do not live and die by what it recommends, but I do think it is a good source for those trying to ease into healthier eating, or who need something good on the fly.  

 To understand how far I’ve come, let’s rewind.  Growing up, I don’t think anyone in my family would have guessed that the Susie home-maker gene was ever going to surface in me.  From a young age, I was never one to jump at the chance to help out in the kitchen.  I was perfectly content on enjoying the fruits of someone else’s labor.  There would be flashes of interest, but they would usually pass just a quickly as they came.  Until the infamous cookie incident.  When I was in middle school, I decided that I wanted to make my grandmother’s famous snickerdoodle cookies.  I’m sure everyone’s family has their own version, but these are cinnamon-sugar deliciousness.  So I shunned any help from my mom or sister and got to baking.  I was cracking eggs, mixing, scooping, and preheating the oven, all in the hopes that I was producing the best snickerdoodles anyone had ever tasted.  I couldn’t wait to try my culinary masterpiece.  I kept imaging that first bite and how blown away everyone would be.  Well they were, but not for the reason I thought they would be.  Apparently, I had forgotten a couple key ingredients, most importantly sugar.  Who the eff makes cookies without sugar?  That little incident kept me out of the kitchen until college, where I baby-stepped my way back in.  

Sugarless Snikerdoodle victim. News at 11.

 These days, while I do love cooking and trying new recipes, during the week I’m looking for quick and easy.  If it were up to me, I’d probably just eat a bag of steamed veggies with brown rice, but my husband is not really down with that.  This is where Cooking Light makes things a little easier.

 While I was doing my typical scan, I came across a zucchini and squash galette.  I am a huge fan of The Barefoot Contessa, aka Ina Garten on the Food Network, and seeing her effortlessly make tarts, gratins, chutneys, mousses, and anything Provencal, I am always amazed and envious that she makes it look so easy.  Of course, most of her dishes are not exactly on the healthy side, but for this French apple tart, I think I could spend some extra time in the gym.  So when I saw the picture of the galette, I immediately thought this could be my Barefoot Contessa moment without consuming 2 sticks of butter in the process.  

 The recipe was really easy to follow.  Besides making the dough ahead of time and letting it chill, there weren’t many steps.  The dough was really easy and actually tasted great, even without the addition of butter which is standard in any pie recipe I grew up with.  (The dough consisted of flour, salt, baking powder, olive oil and water.)

The filling consisted of skim ricotta cheese, fresh garlic, fresh thyme, Parmesan cheese (you can do regular, non-fat or low-fat here depending on what you like), and lemon zest and lemon juice.  I thought the lemon zest really brightened it up and made it very refreshing.  Once you roll out the dough and add the ricotta filling, the last step before baking is to cover with the squash and zucchini slices.  Next time, I will add more slices because I thought I was running out of room, but didn’t take into consideration that they will shrink a bit in the oven.

Here is a picture of my final product:  (I realize this looks a little crispy, but it’s just the camera.)

 The one thing I didn’t do that the recipe called for was add fresh basil leaves after it came out of the oven.  I forgot to pick those up from the grocery, but I still thought it tasted delicious.  So did my husband, who come to find out (after the fact of course) doesn’t even really like squash.  I couldn’t help but give myself a little pat on the back.

 Of course, no cooking experience with me would be complete without a cocktail (don’t judge, I usually only have a cocktail with dinner on the weekends, otherwise I’d be asleep before dinner is out of the oven).  As Sandra Lee would say, “It’s cocktail time!”  I have dipped my toes in the Skinnygirl pool of products a few times before with mixed reviews.  The margaritas are great, the sangria not so much, but I have not yet tried any of the wines or spirits.  Enter Skinnygirl Vodka with cucumber.  Vodka is definitely my go-to as of late, and this did not disappoint.  Mixed with soda (Seagram’s has a new line of flavored soda BTW), this was refreshing and delicious with half the calories of other mixed drinks.   

I definitely recommend having your own Barefoot Contessa moment by trying out the galette and the cucumber vodka, but if you just make it to the vodka, that is just fine with me.

Until the next time RT lets me hijack her blog…cheers!

-JJ