Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen later for a round-up of Weekend Herb Blogging, a fun event where we learn new recipes for great herbs.

I made some yummy beets earlier this week, but it felt wasteful to just toss the beet greens. But I have never cooked them before and was nervous. After searching and searching, I came up with a recipe for bruschetta that uses these nutritious leafy greens. But I didn’t like the ingredient list, so I set to create my own bruschetta. The result: a very tasty dish, I am actually making again today for guests. And I never recook a recipe this quickly!

The herb in question this week is basil. The recipe is good with dried basil and spectacular with fresh basil. I always prefer fresh to dried when possible.

If I can offer one piece of advice: do all the prepwork before you begin cooking. This won’t take long to make so it’s key to be able to just go, go, go with the cooking.

3 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup onion, chopped
1 cup beet greens, chopped
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
½ tsp. dried basil or ½ tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
salt, to taste
2 oz asiago cheese
2 oz parmesan cheese
8 slices Italian bread

In a large skillet or frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until transparent and soft.

Stir in greens, tomato, garlic, salt and crushed red pepper. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until greens are wilted.

Remove from heat and set aside.

In toaster oven or oven, toast bread for 2-3 minutes until crispy but not brown. Remove from oven.

Spoon beet green mixture onto bread, top with asiago and parmesan cheeses and toast for an additional 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted.

Well, it’s Tuesday again (funny how it comes around every week, isn’t it?). And that means that it is time for Sweetnick’s ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out. Cate from Sweetnicks challenges us to up our fruit and veggie intake and get in those powerful antioxidant rich foods. The round up at the end of the day always has a myriad of yummy recipes too.

This week, I created a pair of veggie dishes that go great with rice. In fact, I ate the two together with rice the other night for dinner and it was great. And both broccoli and beets are rich in antioxidants, which makes them extra good.

I will be doing some fun stuff with the beet greens I have left over, so check back soon for that and my light dipping sauce for artichokes.

2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp strawberry jam
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp turmeric
3-4 medium beets, greens and skins removed, sliced and steamed

Combine vinegar, orange juice, jam, rind, and spices in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook until jam is dissolved.

Place the beets in a medium bowl and pour hot mixture over them. Let sit for 20-30 minutes until room temperature.

*NOTE* It’s easiest to remove beet skins once they’ve been cooked. Wait until cooled, or run under cold water, and then simply slip the sliced out of the peel.

2 tsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp lime juice
1.5 cups baby bella mushrooms, chopped
4 cups broccoli, washed and chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried savory

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Sauté for one minute and then add the lime juice and chopped baby bellas. Continue sautéing for an additional three minutes, stirring frequently.

Stir in broccoli, rosemary and savory and cover. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until broccoli is just tender.

Try these in Stacked Steak Asiago Sandwiches.

Homemade Crispy Onion Straws
serves 4

2 medium onions, sliced thinly and separated into rings
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
salt to taste
vegetable oil.

Place onions in a medium bowl and add flour chili powder and paprika. Stir until well combined.

Heat oil in a high sided skillet over medium-low heat.

Place a portion of the onions in the heated oil, being careful to shake off excess flour mixture. Cook in batches until golden. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel-covered plate.

Salt to taste.

This sandwich idea came to me when I had a few sandwich steaks laying around and I wasn’t sure what to do with them besides cook them. After a little poking around I decided that using some Asiago, tomatoes and some yummy crunchy homemade fried onion straws could be the start of a beautiful sandwich. Top it off with barbecue sauce – my favorite – and it’s a winner for sure.

Normally, I would have grilled the sandwich steaks for that yummy flavor, but since it’s raining like the dickens here I had to make do with pan frying. They were great nonetheless.

1 recipe yield Crispy Onion Straws
3/4 lb sandwich-cut steaks (thin sliced beef)
Fresh ground pepper
salt
chili powder
garlic powder
4 oz asiago cheese, sliced
barbecue sauce
1 tomato, sliced
4 hamburger buns or hard rolls, toasted

Spray a large skillet and heat over medium heat.

Sprinkle pepper, salt, chili powder and garlic powder evenly over the steaks and rub well.

Place the steaks in the pan in a single layer (you may need to do two or three batches) and brown each side. While the second side is browning, cover the top with the sliced asiago in a single layer. Cover and let cook 1-2 minutes until melted.

When steaks are done, place one on the bottom half of the roll. Layer tomato, onions and then barbecue sauce. Place a second steak on top and again layer tomato, onions and barbecue sauce.

Top with roll top and serve.

Several years ago, I began having dizzy spells almost everyday. The culprit? An iron deficiency, not quite severe enough to be anemia, but bad enough to effect my daily life. At the time I was vegetarian. Although I had a diet that included iron-rich foods like beans and green leafy veggies, my body wasn’t absorbing the iron fast enough from those foods. As a result, and at the advice of a doctor, I decided to include meat in my diet again. It was a necessary evil because the body absorbs animal iron faster than plant iron.

Today I had another one of those spells again. I haven’t been getting enough iron lately, and need to up my intake through both plant and animal sources.

Hence iron-rich week.

I am going to be stocking up on great foods from this list today to help me with this and expect to be creating some exciting new recipes from my stock.

I promised something unique. Something different. Something unusual. And now, I am delivering.

This was a brainstorm of mine one evening. You see, I set out to buy some puff pastry dough at the grocery store. In my madness, I bought Phyllo dough instead. Could we talk about more different? Phyllo is thin sheets of pastry that doesn’t puff. Ever.

So now I have this mass of Phyllo to work through.

My brainstorm? A savory ham napoleon…and boy did it turn out well.

The light and flaky crust was a fantastic complement to the sweet, creamy and salty interior contents. This surely isn’t a dish for everyone, but it is worth trying if you are in an adventurous mood.

2 sheets Phyllo dough
5 spears white asparagus (steamed for 5 minutes, drained and chopped)
½ cup chopped baby bella mushrooms
½ cup chopped ham (cooked)
¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup shredded asiago cheese
Cooking oil spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spray one sheet of Phyllo with cooking spray. Fold into quarters and place on parchment covered baking sheet. Spread 1/2 of the mushrooms followed by 1/2 asparagus and 1/2 ham. Top with 1/3 cheddar and 1/3 asiago.

Cut the second sheet of Phyllo in half. Spray both halves with cooking spray. Fold each half in half.

Place one folded sheet of Phyllo on top of the stack you’ve already made. Cover with the rest of the mushrooms, followed by the asparagus and the ham. Top with 1/3 cheddar and 1/3 asiago. Place the last folded sheet of Phyllo on top and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

Well here I am. Cucina Bella is up and running again. Hopefully there won’t be any further delays either. I’ve just been so busy lately.

But now I am back and there will be quite a few new recipes this week for some different types of dishes sure to get your taste buds moving.

In the meantime, I tried Panino Sportivo in New York, NY. I had a wonderful sandwich there that literally melted in my mouth. It would worth every calorie.

There I was, with my detailed list in hand, walking with a purpose through Super Stop and Shop. I just needed to grab one tomato and some fruit and I would be through with the produce section. But as I rounded the corner near the tomatoes it caught my eye.

In all it’s purple magnificence, how could I just walk right by? And even better, hanging right above it was a thing of wonder. A sale sign. The purple cauliflower at $2.99 practically leaped into my arms.

So what is this interesting specimen? According to Delicious Organics, it contains anthocyanins – an antioxidant – and that is what causes the beautiful purple color.

Learning about the anthocyanins, which is also found in red cabbage and red wine, made me instantly think about Sweetnicks‘ ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to post this Tuesday. Nonetheless I ended up with this deliciously flavored, low calorie stir fry. There are about 225 calories per serving. Be sure to check Sweetnicks for a round-up from yesterday of some great recipes.

1 yellow pepper, chopped and seeded
1/2 red pepper, chopped and seeded
1/2 small head cabbage, chopped and steamed
1 small head purple cauliflower, chopped and steamed
1 small onion, diced
1 cup water
1/2 lb chuck stew beef
2 tbsp olive oil
1 orange, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1 scallion, chopped
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

In a deep and wide pan, combine peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, onion and water. Cook on medium-high until the veggies are tender.

Use a mallet to beat the meat until about ½ inch thick. Cut each piece into quarters.

Place meat in a large skillet and cook, turning frequently, until browned on all sides.

Drizzle olive oil in to the skillet, and stir in the orange, rind, and scallion. Cook over medium heat 2-3 minutes.

Combine vegetables and meat mixture in large skillet and toss until well mixed.

Stir in teriyaki and oyster sauce. Continue cooking, stirring constantly for an additional minute.

Serve over rice.

Chocolate Chip Pie
serves 6-8

1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell (I used a graham cracker premade one)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract
10 oz chocolate chips (I used Hershey’s Mini Kisses)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy – about 3 minutes.

Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar.

Cut the butter into chunks and then beat butter and vanilla into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the pie shell and even out.

Bake in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack before serving.

———
Sorry no photos. There was some technical difficulties and I was unable to shoot the pie before it was devoured.

Well, it’s Sunday again. Palm Sunday, in fact. So it’s time for Kalyn’s Kitchen’s Weekend Herb Blogging, Sweetnicks’ Weekend Dog Blogging and Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff. Check in later tonight for round ups of each event.

I’ve been on a big pasta kick for a while with my Weekend Herb Blogging entries. So I am going to be doing my best to get away from that over the next few weeks. As some of you may know, I have been working towards being healthier and shedding my baby weight. So far, I have lost about 23 lbs. With summer approaching I am ready to kick my loss into turbo and really look great. The program that has been working wonders for me is SparkPeople. Check it out. It’s comprehensive and has tons of great tools. And better yet, it’s now free.

Back to WHB, I picked up a champagne mango at the grocery store the other day as well as a few kiwis. The mango is very smooth and has a sweet taste with a kick. I LOVED it. The kiwis were originally for my stepson, but since he kindly informed my husband that since he (daddy) was working this weekend he didn’t want to see us. Don’t you just LOVE kids? C’est la vie, though.

So anyway, I wanted to do something cool and different with these fruits – like a sweet and spicy salsa. I searched my fridge and found a lone hot pepper and a tomato. Now I was ready to go.

Here’s the recipe:

1 champagne mango, peeled and diced
1 kiwi, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium tomato, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 hot red pepper, seeded and minced (I used a Serrano)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Place in an airtight container and let chill for at least 30 minutes to marinate.

* * * * * *

See how easy that was?

Now, onto what I did with it.

This is a two egg turkey chili and cheddar omelet. It was FANTASTIC together. The omelet was very simple. Here’s the recipe:

Turkey Chili and Cheddar Omelet

Serves 1

2 large eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 tsp chili powder

2 tbsp turkey chili

.75 oz cheddar (I used a Kraft 2% cheddar single)

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the salt, pepper and chili powder until foamy on top.

Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat and spray with cooking oil.

Pour egg mixture in.

When egg is set (the bottom slides easily around the pan) spread the chili across the center of the omelet and top with the cheddar. Fold the two sides of the omelet around the center and press down to set.

Cover and let cook for 1-2 minutes, until cheese is melted.