Inappropriate Breakfast: Anchovy, Caper and Egg Toast

I woke up craving something salty. It was bad news bears. I debated on having anchovies on my toast because they were staring me in the face when i opened my refrigerator. I decided against it and then on second thought, just went for it. This is great if you are open to having an adventurous breakfast. It could also be served cut into fours for an appetizer. It is a super simple toast consisting of a soft boiled egg, anchovies, capers, and thinly sliced onion. If you have it on hand some fresh parsley would be a nice addition as well.

Serves 1.
ww = 4 points

Basil, Tomato, Mozzarella Salad

I bought some beautiful tomatoes and purple basil from the farmer's market today.

I was really craving cheese so when I stumbled upon some grass fed mozzarella I bought that too. Keeping up with ww has made my relationship with cheese go through a rough patch...so it was time. But I decided to make a healthy salad for dinner. To make it more hearty I served it over some cooked spelt. This salad was delicious. The only thing I will change next time is that I will not mix all ingredients together at once, instead I will gently toss in the beans and cheese at the end. Because the beans were canned and the cheese was so fresh they started to fall apart with the mixing. I had wanted all the ingredients to marinate together while the spelt took its lovely time cooking (1 hour+!!). But I learned my lesson about this.

This spelt was leftover from my winter csa. Let me tell you, letting it do its' thing is worth it. This was a lesson I learned back in December. You don't want to eat crunchy spelt-- you will end up with a headache.

Serves 6 (1 cup servings)
ww points = salad alone (5 points); salad with arugula and 1/2 cup cooked spelt (7 points)

Low-Fat Pesto

 This is a low-fat version of pesto. It is pretty tasty considering there is no where even close to the normal amount of cheese, oil and pine nuts in it. I used Organic Better than Boullion vegetable base because it has no msg. Since this is not a low-sodium bouillion, I did not add any additional salt to the recipe. I used xanthan gum to thicken it up to produce the same consistency as regular pesto. Xanthan gum is a plant-based bacteria used as a thickener. My husband bought it from our favorite store Brooklyn Kitchen to see if he could make homemade ice cream lower in fat. So I am going to start experimenting with it as I continue on my cooking escapade. I will be serving this pesto tonight over halibut and broiled treviso.

Makes about 3/4 cup sauce.
ww points = 2 pts per 3 T

Anchovy-Caper Chicory Catalogna Puntarelle Salad

Well that is a long name! I got this Chicory Catalogna Puntarelle from our CSA this week. This veggie is a bitter, leafy green. You can see it in the picture below. Its' end starts right above the cherries. It is sandwiched between the sage (left) and swiss chard (right).

Needless to say, I had never heard of this veggie. Apparently it is pretty hard to come by in the US. Many people in Rome cook with this. Well, people in Rome and Mario Battali on occasion when he can get his hands on some. I had no idea what to do with this veggie but I was intrigued. There are not many recipes online for it either. But of the few that I could find, I saw a trend: caper, anchovy, garlic...you see where I am going here? So I decided to make up my own recipe.

WOW it has been months since I have posted anything to my site! I have a ton of old posts that were started that I have been meaning to upload. My body has been out of commission like this blog. Recovering from surgery is allowing me some quality time with my couch, computer and most importantly my husband. So here are some old posts...

I made this very flavorful, straightforward dish. It consists of chicken breast, dipped in egg and panko, sauteed until brown and then baked. It is served with orzo (stirred with parmesan and olive oil) and arugula salad (with salt, pepper, lemon, and parmesan). Usually I change recipes to fit my liking but I didn't change this one much. What I did change about this was that I added less capers, used thinly pounded chicken breasts, and left out the olive oil from the salad.

Check out the original recipe here from The Tasteful Life.

Limoncello! PART 2

Fennel Bacon Chiocciole

Goat Cheese Lamb Bolonese

I made this sauce tonight because I wanted something fast for dinner. This is definitely a good dish for the cold, wintery weather, even we aren't quite there yet! Can you tell I can't wait for the cold? The goat cheese is just enough to make the sauce creamy but not overpowering. As well as the lamb and the goat cheese complement each other nicely.

The sauce is inspired by Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbook's 5 minute tomato sauce but I kicked it up to a new level with the meat and the cheese.

I served my sauce over pasta with a side of sauteed rapini. For the rapini, I cooked in a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, and 4 cloves of minced garlic. This was the perfect side. The entire meal took 30 minutes to cook start to finish.