Savory Parmesan Oven Fries

It's been a long time since my last blog post! It's not easy blogging while working full time, but I always try to come back to my blog and add the recipes I'm most excited about. I recently completed a large project at work that kept me extremely busy, but I've had some time in the last few days to get things together. I have also decided to add some content to the blog in the coming weeks that I hope you enjoy. The new content will deal a lot with my recent experience getting fit with the help of P90X from Beachbody. I've been trying to come up with healthy meals and snacks that will help me meet my goals.

Today's recipe has been a long time in the making. My family loves french fries, but they just don't fit into a healthy lifestyle at all. As easy as it can be to pop some pre-packaged fries in the oven for the kids, I knew there had to be a better way. I've recently perfected this recipe so that it makes tasty, crispy fries that taste way better than the fried version. The secret is to coat the fries with spices that add to the flavor without needed a ton of fat. I am also working on a sweet potato version to pack even more nutrients into this side dish. 

Ingredients:

2-3 Baking Potatoes, washed and cut into strips

1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Cooking Spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

2. Soak potato slices in warm water for 10 minutes.  Drain and rinse clean. Place slices in a large bowl. *Do not skip this step, rinsing the potatoes removes starch from the surface of the potato and makes for a crispier fry*

3. Drizzle olive oil over potato slices and mix with your hands to coat every slice

4. Mix the Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika in a small bowl. Slowly mix in spice blend with your hands to coat the potato slices. 

5. Spray a baking pan very well with cooking spray (or use nonstick pan, but these do STICK! so be careful). Lay out potato slices in a single layer on the baking pan. 

6. Cook fries for 30 minutes in the oven, turning fries with a spatula about halfway through. 

Mike's Favorite Rice Pilaf

I first saw this method of cooking rice years ago on 30 Minute Meals with Rachel Ray. I really loved the simplicity of this recipe and I was surprised by the flavorful rice that results. This is my husband's favorite side dish, so I make it all the time.

Another great thing about this recipe is the flexibility in the ingredients. The basic recipe is great with grilled meats and veggies because it's yummy without overpowering a meal. You can also add veggies and spices to create a whole new dish, here are some of my suggestions:

- Add 1 tsp turmeric and frozen peas to go with Indian spiced meats and veggies
- Substitute one can of ro-tel tomatoes for 1/2 cup of the chicken stock and add 1 tsp ground cumin for mexican rice.
- Substitute jasmine scented water (steeped with Jasmine tea) with the chicken broth for Jasmine rice to go with grilled fish or Thai spiced foods.
- Add 1/4 cup of toasted, slivered almonds or pine nuts

This dish cooks up in 20-25 minutes from start to finish, most of which is the 16-minute covered cook time, so it's great for weeknight meals.

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp butter
¾ cup long grain white rice
1/3 cup dry vermicelli noodles, broken up into small pieces (1/4 - 1/2 inch)
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp Seasoned salt or other favorite seasoning

Directions

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

2. Add vermicelli and coat with butter.

3. Add rice and cook for 2-3 minutes to brown rice and pasta. Add seasonings and stir into rice mixture.

4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 16 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.


Adapted from 30 Minute Meals with Rachel Ray

Israeli Cous Cous

I became a fan of cous cous in college, before then I hadn’t had anything more exotic than white rice. Now, I love to experiment with different types of grains. I found these Israeli Cous Cous at Whole Foods and I am trying to figure out good ways to use them. This time, I used a rice pilaf recipe I had and adapted it to the cous cous.

It turned out good, I served it with grilled salmon and veggies. The texture was different, almost like a risotto or orzo. I will be trying out some different recipes with them in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups Cous Cous
1 ¾ cups chicken stock
¼ cup slivered almonds
1 tbsp olive oil
Seasoning salt
Black pepper

Directions

1.Toast almonds in a saucepan on medium-low heat until slightly browned and fragrant. Remove from pan.



2.Add olive oil to the saucepan on medium heat

3.Add cous cous and toast for 5-7 minutes until slightly browned.



4.Add seasoned salt and black pepper and quickly combine.

5.Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.

6.Reduce heat to low and simmer 12-15 minutes.

Yummy Parmesan Risotto

I don’t remember why I first tried to make risotto. I hadn’t heard of it before but it sounded like it could be good. I compared a bunch of recipes and came up with this one after a few questionable attempts. I make this a lot, usually on weeknights. It’s one of my son’s favorite foods, so it’s fun to make it for him. I made this for my parents last night and it turned out wonderful!

This amount will serve about 4 people as a side dish.

Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio rice
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup white wine
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 box chicken stock (4-5 cups)
1 handful grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a medium-sized skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat and add chopped onion, cook onion for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until garlic is slightly brown.



Add rice to pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.



Add wine to pan and stir until wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and reduce heat to medium. Stir rice frequently until stock is completely absorbed. Continue adding chicken stock in ½ to 1 cup increments and stir until absorbed by rice. Continue doing this until rice is soft but slightly al-dente (taste to check), this usually takes about 4 cups of chicken stock, more if you like a softer risotto.

Tip: Sometimes if I am late getting dinner started, I will cheat by covering the pan for a few minutes at a time to cook the rice faster. The risotto still tastes fine if you do this, it’s just not traditionally how you make risotto.



Turn off heat and sprinkle parmesan cheese over risotto. Serve warm.



If you have leftovers, risotto is really good the next day if you coat it with a little flour and fry it in olive oil to make a fried rice cake.