A little late: New Year's Eve Dinner

Yes, homemade pizza, roasted green beans with parmesan cheese, baked sweet potato fries, sausage and veggie kebabs, incredible steak, and cupcakes seem to be sufficient for 4 people!  This year's NYE was low key and fun, just friends cooking dinner over wine.  All I need to be happy!

I was inspired by the following recipes:

Pear, goat cheese, pancetta pizza
Chicken apple sausage, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese pizza
Kebabs with sausage and veggies
Roasted green beans
Sweet potato fries

My style pasta primavera

Pasta Primavera my style

Sometimes when I'm feeling like eating healthy I go to the verduleria and pick out one of each colored vegetable.  The food looks great and makes you feel good.  This was a simple rice noodle pasta with sauteed veggies and grated parmesan cheese.  Simple and tasty.

Ingredients:
Rice pasta
Veggies of choice: carrots, corn, onion, bell pepper, etc
3 cloves garlic
Bunch of basil
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Bring salted water to a boil.  Add the noodles and boil for 5 min, lower heat and eventually turn off.  They cook fast and are easy to work with.  Just taste to make sure they are tender, and drain.

Saute veggies in a pan.  Add onion and garlic first, cook 5 minutes and then add the rest.  Add the pasta to the sauteed veggies and mix in chopped basil.

Serve with grated cheese on top and salt and pepper to taste.

Healthy Kale Pizza

Kale, Mushroom, Panceta, Goat Cheese, Cranberry Pizza

I probably make a pizza for lunch or dinner once a week.  There is no better surface than a pizza to try out different combinations of ingredients.  This was a good, healthy, but slightly rare combo that I liked: Kale, mushroom, pancetta, cranberry, and goat cheese.  I really love a hint of sweetness in my pizza.  My favorite combos are ham, pear, and cheese with a honey drizzle or fig, balsamic reduction, and cheese.  Squash, corn, and goat cheese is a good one too.  They are so easy to make especially with the premade crust from any bakery or market.  I also opt for Hausbrat's whole what pre-pizza chica.  The crust is delish! 

WARNING: This recipe is NOT for Argentine's.

Ingredients: 
Pizza Crust
1 bunch kale with stems cut off
10 button mushrooms sliced large
5 slices thinly sliced pancetta
Large handful or dried cranberry (raisins would work too)
Goat cheese
Garlic powder, salt, pepper, olive oil


Directions: Chop the kale, place on baking sheet, and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil.  Roast in oven for about 15-20 until it's wilted and reduced in size enough to fit on the pizza.  You can do this in a pan on the stove, but I find that it's so much you either need a big-ass pan or multiple.  The oven is just easier and gives a richer flavor I think.

Place the pancetta in a pan on the stove.  Let the fat render off and pancetta brown a bit.  Remove from pan and drain.  Chop into bite-size pieces.  With the bacon fat still in the pan, add the mushrooms and saute for 5-10 min.  This is the KEY to the pizza's deliciousness.

Add the kale, pancetta, mushrooms, cranberries, and cheese to the pizza crust and bake in oven until the cheese begins to melt or brown.  10-15 min and voila!

Roast beet, green bean, panceta, and corn salad

 So not the best photo for this one, but this salad was pretty delish in my opinion.  It's simple, colorful, and fresh.  I added a chipa on the side for a little treat!

Ingredients:
- Panceta, diced largely
- Beets, peeled and sliced thick
- Green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- Fresh corn
- Dressing of choice (I think I just did some lemon, honey, rice vinegar, and salt)

Directions: Place the beets on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt, pepper, some honey, and olive oil.  Roast until cooked through.  In the meantime, bring water to a boil and add green beans when ready.  Blanch the green beans for about 3 minutes and immediately strain into an ice bath.  This keeps them crunchy and bright green.  Add the panceta to a pan and let the fat render off until the pieces are crispy.  Drain excess fat and let cool on a pan.  Cut corn off the cob and set aside. 

Once the beets are ready add all the ingredients to a salad bowl.  If necessary, add a touch of dressing and salt.  I like to serve the salad warm, but any way is good. 

Whole wheat pesto pasta with veggies

Ingredients

 Homemade pesto is the easiest and best way to spice up and ordinary meal.  This week's meal was inspired by all the beautiful, fresh produce I found at the verduleria and my last remaining goat cheese from Tandil.  I loved all the different colors and textures of this one.  Super quick and tasty!

The outcome, not the best photo of all time!

Ingredients: 
- 1 package whole wheat pasta (I choose a tricolor one)
- Fresh basil
- Handful of chopped walnuts or other nut of choice (pine nuts are the traditional, but super expensive here so I usually use almonds, but had walnuts this time.
- Sharp cheese (I use goat, but usually use parmesan)
- 1 eggplant - cut into bite size pieces
- 2 carrots - sliced
- 1 bell pepper - chopped
- 1 onion
- garlic (1 bulb for pesto and 1 for veggies)
- 15+ cherry tomatoes
- olive oil, salt, and pepper

Directions: First make the pesto by adding the basil, 1 garlic bulb, 1/4 cup shaved cheese, a handful of nuts, salt and pepper to a blender or food processor.  Then add about a 1/5 of a cup of olive oil.  Most recipes call for more oil until the pesto become paste like, but I find that you have to add so much oil that it's greasy and unhealthy.  So I just add a bit of water until it starts becoming a paste.  I also usually add about half a container of queso finlandia if I'm going to use it on sandwiches etc.  In this case, I didn't because it seemed like overkill.

Add chopped onion and garlic to a pan and saute until golden and clear.  Add eggplant and peppers and cook for about 5-7 min. When eggplant is nearly done, add carrots.  I hate overcooked carrots, so I add them last.  Cook until eggplant is done.

In the meantime, bring salted water to a boil and add pasta cooking until done.  Drain pasta, add veggies, cherry tomatoes, and pesto to your liking.  Voila!

Beet, green bean, panceta, and walnut salad

 

This salad is my favorite salad of all time.  Well that's a lie, but it's damn good.  So good in fact, that I even convinced a die-hard non beet eater to convert to eating beets.  Honey roasted beets, crispy blanched green beans,  crunchy panceta pieces, and candied walnuts with a citrus mustard dressing.  Yes please!  Add it to the arsenal folks, it's a keeper.

Ingredients:

- 6 large beets, peeled and cut into large bite-size pieces

- 1/2 kilo of green beans, cut in half

- 100 grams of walnuts

- 150 grams panceta en un solo trozo, cubed

- dijon mustard

- juice of a lemon, orange, or grapefruit

- honey

- olive oil

- salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions: Lay beets on a baking sheet, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, large tbsp of honey and olive oil to coat each beet.  Roast in oven on high for 20-40 minutes until they are done.  Take them out, sprinkle with more salt to taste and let cool.

On a separate baking sheet, place the walnuts in the oven.  Roasted for about 10 minutes, constantly checking that they don't burn.  Take them out and drizzle over a teaspoon of honey and mix for about a minute or two to coat each walnut.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt and let cool and harden.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  While it's heating, get another large bowl ready with ice water.  You want it really cold.  Once the water is boiling, add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes max.  Strain them into the ice water to shock them and stop the cooking process.  This also keeps them bright green.  Let them hang out until you're ready to combine.

Add panceta to a pan on the stove top.  Cook until the bacon begins to crisp and get nice and brown.  Remove from heat and place panceta on a towel to drain the excess fat.  Save the bacon grease for soups, breads, or something tasty!

Now make the dressing with a tbsp on mustard, tsp of honey, the juice of a lemon etc, olive oil and salt to taste.  Mix to combine and add more of whatever ingredient to get the flavor you like.  Add all the elements of the salad together minus the walnuts.  Drizzle some the dressing over the salad and add the nuts to the top.  Delicious!

Mediterranean Roasted Veggie Salad

I like vegetables, what can I say?  I might even go so far as to get kicked out of Argentina for saying that I'm nearly a vegetarian by choice because I think that veggies taste better than meat.  Please don't stop reading my blog for that statement!  I just find that veggies and grains absorb flavor so much better than meat (especially beef - now I'm really going to get kicked out).  Here's a easy dish that can be a quick lunch, dinner, or side.  I had it as a salad with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Check it out!

Ingredients: 
1 Package Squash/Calabaza
1 Eggplant
1 Red Pepper
Large handful of golden raisins
Basil - chopped
Spices - cumin, curry, cinnamon, salt, pepper
Olive oil
Honey

Directions: Chopped all veggies and lay onto a roasting pan.  Sprinkle with spices, drizzle with oil and honey.  Mix around so each pieces has flavor on it.  Place in oven on high and roast until cooked through (20-30 min).  Remove from oven and let cool.  Add chopped basil and raisins.  I sometimes add cheese and almonds for a more hearty meal.  Mix salad and add extra salt if needed.