Quick Pasta Fagioli

Ingredients:
Pancetta (about 1.5 cups diced)**
2 Celery diced
2 Carrots diced
1 medium onion diced
1 clove garlic diced
1.5 32 oz containers of organic low sodium chicken broth (low sodium is important because pancetta is salty). You could also use 1 32 oz of chicken broth and a 16 oz chicken broth.
1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes or canned peeled tomatoes
1 can rinsed canellini beans
3/4 cup of small pasta (tiny elbow or ditalini)
1 sprig Rosemary
1 spring Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
Black Pepper to taste

Instructions:
In a soup pot...Turn the heat on to medium and allow the pot to start to heat.  After the pan is warm, add the pancetta.  Allow the pancetta to sautee for at least 4 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  Add the diced onion, celery, carrots and garlic, and stir.  Allow the vegetables to cook for at least 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  While the vegetables are cooking, take a for and roughly mash about 1/2 of the cannellini beans - this adds a nice thickness to the soup.  Add the beans (mashed and not mashed) and stir. Add the tomatoes and stir.  Add the broth and stir.  Drop in the seasonings (if you have a sachet then put in sachet, otherwise, just drop in). Cover the soup and lower the temperature so the soup is simmering, stirring occasionally   Allow the soup to cook for about 10 minutes, until the flavors are combined and the vegetables are cooked through.  Stir and then increase the heat to medium and cover so the soup comes to a boil.  Add the pasta to the pot and cover.  Keep the heat at medium and simmering.  The pasta should be entirely cooked in about 8 minutes.  Turn the heat off and stir the soup.  Remove the sachet or bay leaf and herb sprigs.  Serve with cheese sprinkled on top or fresh bread with melted cheese.

**If you prefer, you could use diced ham or a fresh ham bone.  You would still allow this to cook first with the vegetables and follow the same recipe.

Award Winning Dip

I made this tip for a super bowl party in the Fall and went home with 1st prize - I beat out buffalo chicken dip! It's a refreshing dip and will over well at summer parties.

Tips: I used an extra avocado and a little more spicy pepper when making this dip on my own. Additional salt may be added to taste.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001141983

Easy App! Asparagus & Gruyere Tart

Jim has made this twice, the second time better than the first. It's a simple recipe from Martha Stewart that makes a great lunch side or an appetizer for guests.

Tips:

• You can definitely use a little bit less cheese than indicated in the recipe.
• We bought the Pillsbury pizza dough in the tube and it has worked fabulously.
• Lastly, we added turkey bacon crumbles to our latest tart and well…bacon makes everything better!

http://www.marthastewart.com/318340/asparagus-gruyere-tart

Scones - First Attempt

My first attempt at scones turned out well! I took Alton Brown's recipe and added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the recipe. I love a chocolate chip scone with some dark coffee in the morning! I was informed that buttermilk helps the scones get puffy and this recipe uses cream. I plan to try another scone recipe with buttermilk next time.

Tips:

- I used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of cream and it worked just as well.

- Cut the butter into cubes (make sure it's cold, but soft).

- Mix the butter and shortening in with your fingers unless you have a dough setting on a food processor.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/scones-recipe/reviews/index.html

Kale & Bacon!

Everything is better with bacon!

This recipe is delish. If you don't like red pepper flakes then I'd cut the measurement to 1/2 of what this recipe requests. If you aren't trying to count your calories, then I'd also add another strip of bacon! We topped with a spoon of sour cream because that is what we had in our fridge.

Check it out, it's easy to make:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=50400000109639

Banana Nut Muffins

I altered a recipe from Joy of Cooking for the reduced fat Banana muffins. So these probably fall between reduced fat and full fat :). If you want the truly reduced fat, check out the Joy of Cooking cookbook, Banana Muffins II.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (i used whole wheat because it adds more flavor)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch nutmeg

1/8 tsp cinnamon - few pinches

1/4 tsp vanilla

3 ripe bananas - mashed

2 tablespns vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup applesauce (all natural/no added sugar)

1/3 cup crushed walnuts - optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together wet ingredients into large bowl:

Egg, banana, oil, vanilla, applesauce

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add 1/2 the dry ingredients at a time and mix together. Batter will be lumpy and sticky. Add walnuts and mix in. Don't try to make the batter smooth - it's expected to be lumpy. Just work all the dry ingredients through.

Spray your muffin pan with non-stick spray, or grease with vegetable oil/butter to keep your muffin from sticking to the pan. I prefer to use the muffin pan that makes extra large muffins, so it makes 6 instead of 12 muffins. Either is fine. Bake the muffins for approximately 30 minutes - your toothpick will come out clean if you stick it through the muffin. I found the large muffin sizes took exactly 30 minutes to bake and they came out great.

Enjoy!

Instructions:

Ginger Spice Cookies - Delish

I decided to finally try something other than chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin this year for my holiday cookie exchange - ginger spice cookies! These were delicious. I found the recipe in epicurious.com, but I altered it as mentioned below: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ginger-Spice-Cookies-103156. The alterations were by default of what I had in my cabinet, but it worked out!

Changes:

- I tripled the recipe and only used 2.5 tablespoons of ginger. I recommend trying 1 tablespoon per batch.

- I had regular organic molasses and used it - it turned out just fine and delicious.

- I ran my candied ginger through the food processor for an easy chop. It totaled 1 cup for 3 batches. I recommend 1/2 cup per batch.

I think pairing down the strong ginger flavors actually worked out well for a more universal cookie that still definitely qualifies as a ginger chew cookie.

Tips:

* If you prefer "snaps" over chews, just make the cookies a little smaller and they will make the perfect bite size snap!