Holiday Healthy Series: Festive Pesto

The holidays are in full swing for some, but for those who do most of their entertaining around Christmas time (ahem, me), I know many that of you are watching your waistline (or trying to!). Trust me, it can be rather challenging to serve dishes that are healthy, yet satisfying to all types of palates and diets you might be catering to this season. It's very tempting when I see a recipes for homemade peppermint bark, fudge, cookies, cupcakes etc., ooey gooey this or that, stuffed x, y, z...it's all lovely until the holidays are over, leaving many of us feeling sluggish from excessive eating, bitter from the cold weather and participating in little exercise.

Let's change that.

I've decide to write a series of "holiday healthy" appetizers, main dishes, sides and desserts; believe me, your guests will thank you later for thinking of their health! Each week I'll feature a dish that celebrates the slightly cheesy, but cheery spirit of the holidays, while sneakily cutting calories where you don't need them!

So focus on eating and preparing amazing food this holiday. Start 2013 feeling sassy as ever, rather than feeling guilty about indulging this winter!

Let's talk about pesto; it is so universal, that I had to feature it again! It can be used in a number of ways: use it as a dip, perhaps on top of your favorite goat cheese or chevre (alongside some crostini or fancy crackers), get creative and spread it on sandwiches, wraps or homemade pizza, stir it into your favorite pasta (or spaghetti squash!), layer it in a lasagna, or serve it on top of some homemade polenta...as I've done below.

I added some sun dried tomatoes to make this pesto festively, red and green. Guests will be impressed with the fact this is homemade, healthy and unbelievably addictive....just don't tell them it took you less than 10 minutes! :)

Okay, so here's the awesome the thing about polenta: it's healthy (the sugar in corn is natural), it's gluten-free (as is the pesto); with a consistency similar to grits, it's a relatively, rich and filling main dish, so a little goes a long way.

Polenta does take some TLC to make it just right, so you might be at the stove, stirring, occasionally, for about 20-30 minutes.

Creamy Polenta Topped with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Spicy Andouille Sausage

Ingredients:

For Pesto (slightly, amended recipe below):

This pesto packs a lot of flavor without the calories

• 1 large bunch of fresh basil, washed and dried throughly 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3-4 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup dried, sun dried tomatoes (I found these at Trader Joe's) 
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

For Polenta:

• 1 cup loose polenta grains (can be found in the baking section of your local grocery store)
• 4 cups water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbl. butter
• Grated Parmesan to sprinkle on top

Directions:

For Pesto:

1. In a food processor, blend basil leaves, torn off the stems and about 2 Tbl. of extra virgin olive oil. Blend until basil looks like a paste.
2. Toast pine nuts in a skillet for a few minutes on medium heat to rid of its bitterness, when eaten raw. Once toasted, let pine nuts cool and then blend into basil paste.
3. Add garlic, blend; then add Parmesan cheese and blend again. I used the "puree" setting on my food processor to chop the ingredients as fine as possible. 
4. Add sun dried tomato, remaining olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Blend until mixed well. Color will be an slightly, unattractive, red/brown, but let me tell you...the taste is DIVINE!
5. This recipe makes about 1-1 1/2 cups of pesto. Store in air tight container for 5-7 days or freeze in ziploc bag for up 2 months. 

For Polenta:

1. In a non-stick saucepan, boil 4 cups of water with 1 tsp. of salt. 
2. Once water is boiling, add 1 cup polenta and whisk until thick (about 2-3 minutes). 
3. Reduce heat to medium-low, stirring polenta occasionally for about 25-30 minutes until thick. 
4. During last few minutes of cooking add in butter and pepper; continue to stir. Consistency should be thick and similar to cooked grits. 
5. Top with freshly grated Parmesan, sun dried tomato pesto (and spicy sausage, as I've done here!) Shredded chicken or slow cooked chicken, ground beef or turkey would be great on this dish as well. Try topping a runny or sunny side egg for a delicious, gluten-free brunch!
6. Store polenta in air tight container for up 3 or 4 days. 

Gobble Gobble on this post-Thanksgiving meal

Happy Thanksgiving friends! I considered doing the traditional post on, "my favorite dishes", celebrating this Turkey Day, but I decided to change things up a bit...going with something a little more practical, and figure-friendly (since that's what we are all thinking about now, our weight or staying in shape!) While I have no shame or guilt in pigging out on this beloved holiday (oh, and I so did!), I also feel like the day after Thanksgiving, also known as, Black Friday was titled it's ominous name, from regretful over indulgence, undoubtedly happening the day before... like really, I'm still hungry the day after Thanksgiving?! (surprise, surprise!) The first thing I did this morning was a eat a bowl of cereal, still no shame...

So the real question is, what can I eat, the days after Thanksgiving, without feeling like a hefer? the answer is, spaghetti squash my dear friends. Trick yourself into a fake carb overload by tossing your favorite sauce (think pesto, marinara, bolognese etc.) with spaghetti squash. I know your stomaches have already been stretched by Thanksgiving, so this dish is perfect for getting it back into shape, without compromising big flavors and skimping on fullness!

My recipe below includes instructions on preparing spaghetti squash, as well as a hearty, yet healthy Turkey Bolognese sauce. What I love about making my own bolognese is that I can control the amount of ingredients that go into it and it can be frozen and saved for a lazy, rainy day or, perhaps, the days after Thanksgiving part deux, also known as Christmas!

So go ahead and indulge in a delicious dinner that's under 350 calories. You'll fool everyone with how meaty this dish is and how full everyone will feel!

Spaghetti Squash with Homemade Turkey Bolognese

Perfect for a rainy day or post-holiday meal that feeds a crowd!

Adapted from Personal Chef Appraoch

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise, with the seeds and pulp removed
• 1 28 oz. can season diced tomatoes ( or unseasoned, whichever you prefer)
• 1 1/4 lbs. lean ground turkey
• 2 Tbl. olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbl. red wine (optional)
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch of cayenne pepper (for ground turkey)

Directions:

Instructions for roasting spaghetti squash:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Rinse Squash and cut, lengthwise. Remove seeds and stringy pulp. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 
3. In a baking dish, fill dish with 1/2 inch of water. Place squash in water bed and bake for 30-35 minutes. 
4. Remove from oven and water bed and let it stand for 5 minutes until cool enough to touch. 
5. With a fork, begin scraping the inside of the squash. The squash will peel into strings, looking like long pieces of spaghetti. One squash makes about 2 1/2 cups of "spaghetti". Store unused spaghetti in air tight container for up to several days.

Squash disguised as spaghetti!

Instructions for turkey bolognese: 

1. Heat 1 Tbl. of olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add ground turkey and break up into pieces with a wooden spoon. Season with pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning, to taste.  Cook turkey until no longer pink, for about 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
2. Remove turkey from heat and place on plate. To keep turkey warm, place plate in the microwave to insulate heat. 
3. In the same pan, add 1 Tbl. olive oil, chopped onions and carrots. Cook  on medium-high heat, until soft, about 6-8 minutes. Add chopped garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. 
4. Add can of crushed tomatoes, red wine and season with Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Let this simmer for about 15 minutes. 
5. Remove from heat and add cooked ground turkey.
6. Plate spaghetti squash and top with bolognese. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and basil. 

Sometimes You've Got To Try S'more

Well Oreo and marshallow sounded like a dream pairing to me, heaven in a cupcake! I was eager to try baking these ooey, gooey, decadent, triple chocolate chip cupcakes, until I realized something terrible had gone wrong. And so I learned a quite a few things about baking with marshmallows (trust me, they are tricky buggers!):

1. Placing a marshmallow in the middle of a cupcake liner makes it pretty difficult to fill the rest of the cupcake with batter. If your batter is thin, consider yourself lucky; if it's on the thicker side, using your fingers is a must.

2. Leave these cupcakes (and perhaps other recipes containing marshmallow) in the over for a tad bit longer, and your marshmallow with evaporate completely! WOMP! (sorry for those few that won't be biting into a s'more surprise!) Luckily, there is a ton of chocolate so you'll get a nice sugar rush still.

3. Expect the marshmallow to overflow a bit, it's not you, it's the marshmallow. Better to undercook these guys than overcook them. Take a look at Batch #2, undercooking actually can lead to a caved in cupcake and some cracking.

Note to self: NEVER buy cupcake liners for Crate & Barrel! They are cheap, cake sticks to the them no matter what, so you must gnaw at your cupcake with your teeth like a barbarian!

I'd like to remake these cupcakes again someday, as they certainly did not turn out the way I expected them too, but the s'more you learn the s'more you know, right?! Yes, I took this s'more thing out of hand, apologies.

Moral of this mishap: Try making these again!

Below a recap, in photos, of the s'more catastrophe, recipe is linked above and here:

Evaporated marshmallow center

Batch #2, a little undercooked, but definitely on to something here!

Caving and cracking, baking is truly a science to be mastered!

Cheap cupcake liners do this.  

See the surprise...

And now you don't! Cupcakes should come out easily, like this one

I'll definitely need to try this recipe again, this time using different liners and adjusting the amount of time they bake in the over (perhaps, also the temperature?)

One day I'll find my baking sweet spot with this one...until then, I'll just have to keep trying!

Go Sassy or Go Home!

You may have noticed a few new changes to Kneading Sass. I'm finally getting around to using my logo, wherever I can, including as the header for this blog! I've also, kindly spammed many of you to like, share and follow my Facebook page found here. (See how I am shamelessly promoting it again!) An just in case you are curious, my Twitter handle is @KneadingSass.

Now that we've got business out of the way...it's time to talk about food... and chicken breast to be exact! Chicken is a very versatile meat and chicken breast can be made a million and one ways. And while that's all fine and dandy, I am notorious for overcooking my chicken. It's pretty awful and I am a bit ashamed to admit it but, frankly, I know many cooking enthusiasts  that are fearful of cooking, chicken (compared to other meats) simply because they are afraid of serving something a little too pink, a tad undercooked...  and well, chicken is one of few meats, that CANNOT be served raw! What a lose/lose, right? Except there is hope!

Breading your chicken is a tried and true way for locking in the natural moisture and juices that make chicken tender and delicious. Let's not forget it creates a wonderful texture and crunch that can really give a little umph to the everyday, boring piece of chicken breast. Now, I know people don't usually equate breading with healthy eating, but using Panko breadcrumbs is a more figure friendly way to bread a sub par piece of chicken.

Panko breadcrumbs are not only less fattening than regular breadcrumbs, but they are much larger than your normal breadcrumbs. You'll need a scant amount of Panko to cover the same amount of surface area as compared to the regular stuff (very scientific sounding I know!) You can also lightly toast your breadcrumbs in a skillet, to bring out its buttery flavor, sans using any butter, as well as add whatever spices to the Panko, to give your chicken even more flavor.

See how I turned that into a win/win?

Goat Cheese, Mozzarella, Olive Stuffed Panko Chicken Breast

So crispy, so delicious

Kneading Sass original 

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breasts partially halved
• 2 oz. favorite goat cheese, about half of a standard-sized log of goat cheese ( I used Cypress Lavender and Honey, it's my favorite herbed goat cheese)
• 2 pieces, sliced, then halved, mozzarella (or use 2 small, handfuls of shredded mozzarella) 
• 1 Tb. chopped olives
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs, seasoned with: dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder, pepper, Italian seasoning and fresh, grated Parmesan, to taste

Directions: 

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with Pam, any other cooking spray, to prevent chicken from sticking to the sheet. 
2. Half chicken breasts, make a deeps slit, but not cutting in half all the way through. Layer sliced mozzarella, crumble desired amount of goat cheese and sliced olives. This order prevents any of the filling from falling out. 
3. In a shallow dish lightly beat eggs whites. In another shallow dish, mix Panko breadcrumbs and herbs. 
4. Carefully coat chicken in egg white mixture. Using a pastry brush to egg wash the top of the chicken breast would be easiest, instead of turning over stuffed chicken (and possibly losing all the good stuff inside!) 
5. Place chicken breast in the dish with breadcrumbs, using your hands or a spoon to evenly coat the top of the chicken as well. 
6. Place in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 170 degrees or no longer pink. 
7. This recipe serves 2, but can easily be scaled up to serve more people. I served this dish with a side of garlicky, cooked spinach. 

Speaking of Pumpkin Pie...

Don't you hate when you get five tins of fudge during the holidays?! Somehow I receive three dozen cookies, each year and I am certain that I can barely get through a dozen of any baked goods, on my own, let alone sharing gifted, baked goods with family and friends. I feel a bit guilty, because whoever took the time, effort and love to make those delicious morsels of holiday goodness, was probably overwhelmed by the number of friends, family and neighbors he or she was expecting to give gifts too...now their homemade fudge that took 2 days to make, is now in the trash. It really is a shame.

But the reality of the matter is that you are embarrassed at the fact that you've doubled up (again!) on generic pumpkin pie from Costco, knowing that probably only half of one pie will be eaten? We've all made this blunder, it's the gesture that counts.

So, now, what's an alternative solution to making baked goods that reflect the warmth and kindness of the holiday seasons, without spending too much time, money and (unintentionally) unrecognized effort? 

The answer is tassies and they are fabulous! At first, I thought tassie was a typo or some made up cutes-y name, but it's a real name to describe a miniature sized pie. It seems to have come from the word "taza", or cup, in Spanish, because that is exactly what it is...a mini pastry cup that holds all of the flavor and decadence of a pie, in one small bite. DEFYING SCIENCE (or so I'd like to think!)

Below is recipe for Pumpkin Almond Tassies; it's buttery, full of vibrant pumpkin spice, a touch of sweet maple and a nice crunch of almonds to finish; it aspires to quell the desire to overindulge, especially alongside other tempting desserts lingering around the Thanksgiving table. 

Behind, a whole slice of pie, in one bite! Pinch yourself, THIS IS REAL.

Pumpkin Almond Tassies

Feel like you can never have too much pumpkin pie!

Adapted from Lauren's Latest

Ingredients:

• 15 oz packaged rolled refrigerated pie crust (2 crusts) (or you can make your own pie crust as well!)
• 3/4 can of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/3 cup of sliced almonds (or any other nut you have on hand would work nicely with this dessert)
• 2 Tb brown sugar
• 1 Tb melted butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• pinch of salt
• maple syrup (optional, for drizzling over cooked tassies)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare mini cupcake tins by unrolling pie crust. Using 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter.  I used a small leaf-shaped cookie cutter and used 4 leaves to fill the bottoms, ensuring that there were no gaps for the filling to seep through. 
2. To make the filling: combine pumpkin, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Add in egg and stir until combined. Gradually add in milk, until just combined. 
3. For almond topping: stir together almond slices, brown sugar and melted butter.
4. Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling into each pastry-lined cup. Top each with a sprinkling of almond topping.
5. Bake for about 35 minutes, until filling is set and crust has a golden brown coloring. Removing tassies might be difficult when the tin is hot out of the oven; try waiting about five minutes and use a spoon to aid in removing finicky tassies. If desired, when tassies are still warm, top with a drizzle of maple syrup, it should soak up quickly into the filling. 
6. Serve warm or at room temperature. These bad boys would go amazingly with a small dollop of whipped cream. Serving size for this recipe is 24 (or two dozen)

To store: Place tassies in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months; thaw about 1 hour at room temperature before serving.

Poppers perfect for any potluck party

See the alliteration going on here? Yes, I went there. So I am very excited to be ramping up Kneading Sass into a catering service, of sorts! It's all very new, exciting and a bit daunting, but I just have to take it with stride and LOTS of sass. 

So I've been cooking up a storm (ah! Sorry no pun intended, especially with Sandy going on), but I have been in the kitchen a good amount, trying new recipes, perfecting old ones and catering to parties more than 6. (Yikes! I can so do this!)

While I've been pinning to my Kneading Sass Pinterest, yes I am shamelessly plugging myself in my own blog, I stumbled upon this great recipe for jalepenos poppers. Now don't get me wrong, I love the deep fried version of these bad boys, but let's be realistic, with the holidays approaching and numerous parties to help us consume deliciously, decadent finger foods, we are in real danger. I wanted to keep the crisp and bite that makes jalepeno poppers so awesome, without compromising on flavor or texture, BUT skipping out on the grease and fat. 

The trick, wonton papers people! Anything wrapped in wonton paper is instantly presentable and gourmet. So let's take this sloppy popper and turn into delicate appetizer, with all the flavor, heat and gooey goodness of the real thing. 

Baked Wonton Jalepeno Poppers

Prior to baking, wrapped and ready to go!

Used my handy Silpat here, baked these bad boys. Next try, I want to try pan frying them!

Adapted from Heart Mind & Seoul

Ingredients:

• 1 can (4 oz.) diced jalepenos 
• 1 package (8 oz.) light cream cheese
• a few handfuls of Mexican blend shredded cheese
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• olive oil or cooking spray, such as Pam
• cookie sheet, lightly greased
• 1/2 package (about 28) wonton wrappers

Directions

1. Combine cream cheese, jalapeno peppers, and spices in a small bowl and mix well. 
2. Place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of wonton wrapper. Wet all edges of the wrapper using fingertips. (Wet your fingertips with water.) Roll gently and seal.
3. Spray the prepared wontons with cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until the wrappers are golden brown.
4. Serve with sweet chili sauce. This recipe can be easily doubled, using all of the wonton wrappers. I plan on trying this recipe again, this time pan frying the second batch.