A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Copycat Arris Pizza Spinach Salad with Bleu Cheese and Red Wine Vinaigrette

  One of our favorite places to eat, when I'm not cooking at home, is a locally owned restaurant, Arris Pizza on Republic Road.  Started in Jefferson City, MO in 1961 by Arris Pardalos, we're lucky to have one his few franchises here in Springfield, just a couple of miles from home.  The pizza is thin-crusted crunchiness that we love with generous toppings and the salads are to die for. They serve pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and salads, almost all of which are made from scratch in house but we are bad about sticking to our favorites:  Gene's is the Hercules with ground beef, Greek sausage, bacon, and Canadian bacon, while mine is the Veg Head (tomatoes, artichoke hearts, black olives, green peppers, spinach, and mushrooms) plus Greek sausage. Gene jokes that I shouldn't be allowed to ordered a vegetarian pizza and then add sausage to it, but hey, it's my party--and it's so yummy! 

Of course they have Greek Salad (duh!) and a Caesar, but my favorite is the Berry salad with spinach, romaine, berries in the summer or dried cranberries, bleu cheese, toasted walnuts, and their homemade red wine vinaigrette.  Even when I'm cooking at home I love to serve my version of this salad. The combination of fresh green, sweet berries, savory walnuts, with the bite of bleu cheese and the sweet fruity dressing is the essence of the perfect bite, in my mind and mouth. 

Disclaimer:  I don't claim that this dressing recipe is directly from Arris, and I have no connection to the restaurant or its owners, but this recipe is one of my go-to vinaigrettes as it  tops a delicious salad to serve at home that is similar to the one I always order there.

 

Copycat Arris Pizza Spinach Salad w/Dried Cranberries, Bleu Cheese, Walnuts

and Red Wine Vinaigrette

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

(No affiliation with Arris Pizza, just a fan)

Serves 2

Salad Ingredients:

2 large handfuls baby Spinach

2 large handfuls Romaine, chopped or torn

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 oz Bleu Cheese crumbles

1/4 cup Walnut pieces, toasted

Vinaigrette Ingredients:

3Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp spicy brown Mustard (or Dijon)

1 pinch dried Oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1) For Salad: Toast walnuts in a dry non-stick pan over medium heat until starting to give off aroma. Do not burn. Cool. 

2) Toss all salad ingredients together.

3) For Vinaigrette:  Whisk all ingredients together and toss with salad just prior to serving.

 

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Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs Mushrooms, all white or mix of species
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced into rounds or crescents
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (Can use Splenda brown sugar which reduces almost all of the sugar carbohydrates/calories)
• 1/4 cup  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce or Spicy All Purpose Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1)  Wash and dice (or quarter if smaller) mushrooms. 

2)  Saute onion in olive oil. When transparent, add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

3) Mix together vinegar, sugar, and Country Bob's in a small bowl.  Add to mushrooms, Lightly salt and pepper.

4) Simmer for approximately 20 minutes or  until sauce is thickened and syruppy.

Makes 2 cups.

Nutrition per 1/2 cup serving:  Calories: 95;     Protein:  3;   Carbs:  32;   Fat: 0.3;   Fiber:  1;   Weight Watchers Points:  1

2017 Glenna's Dose of Reality Diet Meal Plan (Week 7) Feb 17th-23rd)

Now that Valentine's Day is over, and it was lovely, and the candy has disappeared AND I even lost 2 lbs this week which is the real treat, it's time to get back on the straight and narrow.  Oatmeal for breakfast, crisp veggies and Greek yogurt for snacks, a cabbage salad for the week, fluffy angel biscuits for bread, hearty split pea soup as the soup of the week (still cold out there!), and some straight forward entrees: steaks, spice rubbed country ribs, chicken cacciatore, and a quick healthy pasta thrown into the mix.  Let's do this!

THE WAY IT WORKS:

The way I work my plans is the opposite of most meal plans. This is not a concrete day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack down to the minute food plan. What works for me is to prepare for the week a pot of soup, bread from scratch, a sweet of some kind, and have readily and easily available the ingredients for a specific salad, breakfast, snack foods, and six dinner menus for the week. I add the salad and/or soup to many meals each night to add veggies to our day.  I have shopped for the groceries and prepared any veggies I need to like washing and cutting up carrots and celery for snacks, greens washed for the salad and its components in baggies in the crisper so that grabbing and throwing these items together is a snap.  My meal plans for dinner can be made on any night of the upcoming week as we want them and have time to prepare them.   Having soup, salad, homemade bread, and a sweet made in advance round out nightly dinners, make great lunches, and don't leave me scratching my head wondering what to pull together each day and ordering a pizza instead of eating in. My goal is to have a variety of from scratch "clean" foods easily fixable so we don’t get bored, and also to make the most of nutrients, without specific calorie counts, but including good oils, quality protein, and plenty of fiber from complex carbs. 

Because of my job, I work 12 hour overnights and those are usually clustered around the weekend so I look at the grocery ads on Wednesday, shop Wednesday or Thursday, and prep Thursday or Friday.  But that's just because of the way my work days fall. Anyone else following this idea would want to shop/prep/cook more heavily around their days off, whether that's mid-week or the weekend.

(Recipes that are here on my blog that I will be using have links.)

Week :

 Weekly Prep:

Breakfasts:  Bananas Foster Oatmeal

Soup:  Split Pea Soup with Ham

            

Salad: Patchwork Slaw w/Curried Vinaigrette Dressing

Snacks: Carrot & celery sticks w/peanut butter, oranges, & apples, Greek Yogurt

Lunches: Leftovers, Cottage Cheese, Salad of the Week, Soup of the Week

Breads:  Butter and Honey Angel Biscuits

 

 

 

 

 

Sweets: No sweets after eating chocolate last week for Valentine's Day! :-)

Meal 1:

Gene's Country-style BBQ Ribs

w/Steven Raichlan Rub

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Snow Peas

Meal 2:

Tuna Patties w/Homemade Tartar Sauce

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Patchwork Slaw

Meal 3:

Traditional Pasta Carbonara  (Healthy--no Alfredo sauce!)

Bagged Dole Caesar Salad Mix w/light dressing

Meal 4:

Broiled Steaks

Baked Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli

Patchwork Slaw

Meal 5:

Slow Cooker Kielbasa Casserole

Angel Biscuits

Meal 6:

Chicken Cacciatore over Pasta

Steamed Green Beans

Angel Biscuits 

               

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Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs Mushrooms, all white or mix of species
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced into rounds or crescents
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (Can use Splenda brown sugar which reduces almost all of the sugar carbohydrates/calories)
• 1/4 cup  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce or Spicy All Purpose Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1)  Wash and dice (or quarter if smaller) mushrooms. 

2)  Saute onion in olive oil. When transparent, add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

3) Mix together vinegar, sugar, and Country Bob's in a small bowl.  Add to mushrooms, Lightly salt and pepper.

4) Simmer for approximately 20 minutes or  until sauce is thickened and syruppy.

Makes 2 cups.

Nutrition per 1/2 cup serving:  Calories: 95;     Protein:  3;   Carbs:  32;   Fat: 0.3;   Fiber:  1;   Weight Watchers Points:  1

Swedish Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce

What to do when you can't decide which of your husband's favorite dishes to make for Valentine's Day dinner?  Make both!  He worked only a short day yesterday so pulling it off sort of a Bridge Jones fiasco in that the meal came down to TWO meats, mashed potatoes...and brownies! But he said it was the perfect Valentine's meal and that's all that really counts, right? Right!

The two entrees were Swedish Meatballs with Mushroom sauce (recipe here) that is an adaptation from a Swedish Meatballs with Cranberry Sauce recipe that I made for my cousin James' birthday a couple of years ago.  The cranberry sauce is to die for, with its traditional Scandinavian spices, but since I had fresh mushrooms but no cranberries...you got it, mushrooms won the day.  I also made Gene's own Country-style Boneless Ribs, another of his faves, and served both over mashed potatoes which is a little piece of comfort food heaven. 

 

Swedish Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce

Meatball Recipe by Beatrice Ojakangas

Sauce Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Makes approximately 30  1.5 oz meatballs w/sauce

Ingredients:

(Meatballs):

1 1/2 cups soft breadcrumbs (or 1 cup commercial breadcrumbs)

1/2 cup half and half

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 lb extra lean ground beef

1/2 lb lean ground pork

1 egg

1/4 cup fresh choppoed parsley (or 1/8 cup dried parsley)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

(Sauce):

8 oz Fresh Mushrooms, diced

 1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp all cardamom

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 cups beef broth

1 cup half and half

 

 Directions:

1)  In large bowl of an electric mixer, soak bread crumbs in half and half for 10 minutes. 

2) In large heavy bottomed skillet, melt 1 Tbsp butter and sauté onion until translucent.  Add onion into bread crumb mixture in mixer.  Add beef, pork, egg, parsley, and spices (but not sauce ingredients: flour, butter, or broth) to mixer bowl and mix on medium until mixture is well-combined and fluffy. 

3) Form meatballs by rolling in hands, approximately 1.5 oz size.

4) Melt another Tbsp of butter in large skillet (can be same skillet used to sauté onions) over medium heat. Cook meatballs, turning until done. Drain on paper towels.

OR:  place meatballs on foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approx 30 minutes or until cooked through.

5) In heavy bottomed skillet (can be same one used to cook onion and/or meatballs with fat wiped out), melt butter and sauté mushrooms until soft.  Whisk in flour. Stir in beef broth a bit at a time, whisking constantly until smooth. Add half and half.  Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce has thickened. 

6) Place meatballs back into pan with sauce and stir/turn to coat with sauce.  Turn heat to very low and simmer for 10-15 minutes to allow flavors to meld. 

Nutrition per 5 meatballs plus sauce:  Calories:  475;  Protein:  35;  Carbs:  32;  Fat:  32: Fiber:  2.

 

 

               

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Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs Mushrooms, all white or mix of species
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced into rounds or crescents
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (Can use Splenda brown sugar which reduces almost all of the sugar carbohydrates/calories)
• 1/4 cup  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce or Spicy All Purpose Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1)  Wash and dice (or quarter if smaller) mushrooms. 

2)  Saute onion in olive oil. When transparent, add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

3) Mix together vinegar, sugar, and Country Bob's in a small bowl.  Add to mushrooms, Lightly salt and pepper.

4) Simmer for approximately 20 minutes or  until sauce is thickened and syruppy.

Makes 2 cups.

Nutrition per 1/2 cup serving:  Calories: 95;     Protein:  3;   Carbs:  32;   Fat: 0.3;   Fiber:  1;   Weight Watchers Points:  1

Happy Valentine's Day 2017

Happy Valentine's Day to all but most especially to my patient, loving, patient, funny, tolerant, fun, patient hubby, Gene aka Generino! 

After 24 (25 in 2 weeks!) years, I still you very much.  Thank you for being the Mark Darcy to my Bridget Jones (I know you won't get that but the chicas will.)

 

This breakfast was eggs-pecial.  Not only did I make a couple of friend eggs (Gene's fave!), I also made a couple of his 2nd fave eggs:  Scrambled eggs with Mushrooms and Onion.

To make the sausage hearts, cut the links on a very shallow angle, put the two cuts together, and fasten with a toothpick.  Cook as usual

To make the heart shaped fried eggs.  No pics, sorry, didn't have enough hands to run the camera and the pan...but they weren't difficult.  Simply heat up a small pan with a few tbsp of oil over medium heat.  For this you really want to use a neutral oil and be generous.  Spray a heart-shaped cookie cutter generously with cooking spray (so it will release your egg!), lay it into the heated pan, and crack open an egg into the middle.  Cook until white is mostly solidified, gently remove the cookie cutter and finish cooking the white through.  If the cookie cutter gives you grief, run a very thin-bladed knife around the inside (outside of the egg) to release from cookie cutter.

Serve to hubs (or other) with a big grin.

 

               

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Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs Mushrooms, all white or mix of species
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced into rounds or crescents
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (Can use Splenda brown sugar which reduces almost all of the sugar carbohydrates/calories)
• 1/4 cup  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce or Spicy All Purpose Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1)  Wash and dice (or quarter if smaller) mushrooms. 

2)  Saute onion in olive oil. When transparent, add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

3) Mix together vinegar, sugar, and Country Bob's in a small bowl.  Add to mushrooms, Lightly salt and pepper.

4) Simmer for approximately 20 minutes or  until sauce is thickened and syruppy.

Makes 2 cups.

Nutrition per 1/2 cup serving:  Calories: 95;     Protein:  3;   Carbs:  32;   Fat: 0.3;   Fiber:  1;   Weight Watchers Points:  1