Noodle Bowls

I've been on a bowl kick lately. Maybe it's because it's easy cleanup or it looks great to serve, but I can't stop dreaming up ideas for food bowls. When we moved from our town house in the city to our home in the suburbs, we moved away from one of our favorite Japanese restaurants. They had the best lo mein. Garrett and I would go there once a week to fulfill our craving! 

While we were in Hawaii on our honeymoon, it seemed like everywhere we ate had some type of asian-fusion cuisine on their menu, which I happily ordered. 

While yes, you can go to your neighborhood Chinese restaurant and pick up a large order of lo mein for under ten bucks, I bet you two things. One, the satisfaction you'll feel from making your own will make you feel like a total all-star and two, you'll be saving yourself a TON of sodium intake.

Like most great meals, the ingredients you use are important. What's a good pasta if you don't use great olive oil? The secret to a great lo mein is really good soy sauce. I love liquid aminos by Bragg because it has less sodium that other soy sauces and it also contains 16 amino acids! Did I also mention it has no preservatives, artificial coloring or chemicals? Score!

Noodle Bowls

Preparation: 10 min

                  Cook Time: 20 min  Total Time: 30 min                       

Ingredients

        

          Noodle Topper

          1 crown of broccoli cut into florets

          3 tbsp olive oil

          1/4 cup chopped carrots

          2 tbsp stir fry oil or olive oil

          2 tbsp water

          1 pack of shredded cabbage

          1 tbsp chopped garlic

          1/4 cup chopped yellow onion

          2 chicken breasts - cut into cubes

          Cilantro for garnish

          Sesame seeds for garnish

         

         Lo Mein & Sauce:

         Lo mein noodles

         2 green onions, chopped - just the green part

         3 tbsp soy sauce or liquid aminos

         1 tsp sesame oil

         1 tsp sugar or honey

        

Instructions

        

         Preheat your oven to 350 and place your chicken breast in the oven. Set your timer for 20 minutes. 

         Using a large skillet or wok, begin by heating 2 tbsp of olive oil on medium heat. Add your broccoli 

         and onion. Begin cooking them until the onion is translucent. Add your cabbage and lower the heat to 

         low-medium and add your garlic, carrots, water and stir fry oil. Add additional water if the veggies look 

         dry. The point of this is to continue steaming the veggies so they are juicy and tender.

         Now begin boiling a pot of water for your lo mein noodles. Follow the instructions on their label. 

         Remove your vegetables from the heat once the cabbage is cooked down and soft. 

         Mix together the liquid ingredients and sugar in a separate bowl until well blended. Pour over your 

         noodles and stir until combined. Your chicken should now be ready. Cut into cubes and build your bowl!

         

         I like to lay the foundation with the lo mein, and then place my chicken on one side and the veggies on 

         the other. I then top my bowl with sesame seeds and cilantro. My husband likes to add a kick with some 

         sriracha! There's no wrong way to build your bowl, so have fun with it and enjoy!

          

Homemade Ravioli

Homemade Ravioli

Call me extravagant or a girl with too much time on her hands, but I love making homemade pasta! There is something so tranquil and special about creating an entire meal from scratch. 

My dream since I graduated from college was to go to Italy. I was saving up for months to take culinary classes in Tuscany. The program I wanted to use provided housing for their students in an old castle with english-speaking instructors. I still have day dreams of learning from cute elderly women, sharing their age-old techniques on making the best pastas, breads and sauces. 

I told my husband all about my dream of going to Italy to learn authentic Italian cooking and how I had to cancel my plans to take a job in Atlanta. The very next week an Amazon prime box was on our front porch, addressed to me. He surprised me with this amazing cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. (Best husband EVER!!!)

This book is amazing! I've made homemade sauces and pastas in the past, but they have never turned out as well as they did when I started using this book. She does a great job of explaining techniques thoroughly and keeps each recipe so simple.

You can buy your own copy by clicking the link:

Homemade Ravioli Recipe

The dough recipe is from Essentials of Italian Cooking, mentioned above.
Preparation: 40 min

                  Cook Time: 20 min  Total Time: 60 min                       

Ingredients

        

          2 cups flour

          1 egg

          1 container ricotta cheese

          1 can crushed tomatoes

          4 Italian sausages
          1/4 cup chopped red or yellow onion

          1 tbsp chopped garlic
          1 tbsp garlic powder
          1 tbsp thyme

           2 tbsp olive oil

          1/4 cup fresh chopped basil + additional for garnish

           Salt & Pepper to taste 

Instructions

          Begin by removing the meat from the sausage casing and cooking the sausages on medium heat in a
          frying pan with the chopped onion and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Cook until sausage is thoroughly cooked and
          onion is translucent. Remove from heat and set aside.

          We will now begin to make our pasta dough.
          Create a well with your flour on a clean surface and crack your egg in the center. Take a fork and whip
          the egg until the yolk and white are blended. Begin adding flour into the center of the well and mix with
          the egg until a dough begins to form. Cover your fingers with olive oil and begin pushing the dough away
          from you, fold in half, turn clockwise and repeat until the dough begins to feel soft like skin.

         Once your dough is ready, use a pasta machine or a rolling pin and begin thinning the dough.
         I started at the lowest setting of my pasta machine and ran the dough through until it was at a
         thinness of "3", about as thin as an envelope with a card inside.

         In a large bowl, combine ricotta cheese, chopped garlic, half of your fresh basil, and sausage and onion.
         Add salt and pepper to taste - about 1/2 tsp each. Cut your sheet of past in half. Wet one sheet of pasta
         with a small amount of water until it feels tacky. Add 1 tsp of your ricotta mixture to the sheet of wet
         pasta, leaving 2 inches on each side of the sheet. Once the sheet is full, take the other half and lay it on
         top of the ricotta dollops. Press the top sheet into the bottom and try and press out any air bubbles
         around each pocket. Take your ravioli stamp or a knife and begin cutting the sheets into raviolis. Repeat
         this process until you have enough raviolis for your meal.

          For the sauce - add the remaining onion and olive oil to a frying pan. Cook the onion until translucent.
          Pour the crushed tomatoes over the onions and add your remaining basil to the mixture.  Add salt &
          pepper to taste, and your spices. Cook until warm and then reduce heat to simmer.

           Fill  a pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove. Add your fresh ravioli and cook until the pasta
           is al dente (about 5-8 min). Top your ravioli with the sauce and add fresh parmesan and chopped basil
           to garnish.

Click here to buy the pasta machine and ravioli stamp I used!

               

Black Bean Soup

Ahhh summer. I love days by the pool, nights out on the town and how social everyone seems to become during this time of year. In Atlanta it's been a strange summer this year. Rather than grabbing my bikini and running to the nearest watering hole, I've been land-locked by all of the rain. It seems each day that I think we may just get a full day of sunshine, I step outside with hopes of a pool day and end up having to head home.

During the summer I always try and lighten up my recipes with low carb meals. The only problem is my favorite food is Mexican food and I find myself dying for queso a few days in to the healthy eating regime. With all this rain and my cravings for Mexican food, it suddenly dawned upon me...SOUP! There is something so satisfying about a bowl of hearty soup with a large dollop of greek yogurt (my substitute for sour cream), that helps all those naughty cravings go away.

The best thing about this soup is not the calorie content, but the price tag to make it. I came up with a Meals Under $10 Challenge to see how low I could get our grocery bill for the month. I'm a girl who likes the finer things in life, and our meals out on the town were cutting into that budget significantly. This soup is so simple it's a nice reminder that sometimes, less is more. 

(Rather than cook the beans from dry, I prefer to save time with canned black beans with low sodium.) 

Black Bean Soup Recipe

Preparation: 10 min

                  Cook Time: 35 min  Total Time: 45 min                       

Ingredients

        

          1 can black beans

          1/2 cup chicken stock

          1/2 red bell pepper

          1/2 green bell pepper

          1/4 cup chopped red onion

          1 tbsp cumin

          1 tsp garlic powder

          1/4 tsp chili powder

          Salt & Pepper to taste

          2 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro + extra for garnish

          Optional: top with Cilantro Lime Rice

Instructions

          Pour your beans into a sieve and give them a quick rinse. 

          Chop your onion and bell peppers and add them to a large pot with half of your chicken stock.     

          Cook the ingredients until tender on medium heat (about 5-8 min) stirring occasionally. 

          Once tender, add your black beans, remaining chicken stock, and spices. Cook until warm.

          Transfer 3/4 of the soup to a blender, food processor or use an immersion blender to blend 

          the soup. Add the blended soup back into the pot and mix. 

          Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain greek yogurt. Garnish with cilantro.

          Enjoy!