Making Lemonade: recipes

Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

New Recipe : Souvlaki and Spanokopita Orzo

Posted on Sunday, May 29, 2011 by Julie | 2 comments
Labels: Epicure, recipes

So, my little sister introduced me to the new Rachael Ray cookbook "Look and Cook". I loved it so much, that I bought it....twice!

Ha, the first time I gave it to my mom for mother's day, since she seemed to be enjoying all the lovely pictures too ;)

So, anyway, as I try some of the recipes I will review them and post them here for you.

This, as usual is tweaked by Julie (and Epicure)

Souvlaki

4 or 5 chicken breasts
olive oil
lemon juice
VE Souvlaki seasoning
VE Greek seasoning
Sea Salt and Pepper

I mixed this all together - I never measure, just till it looks well coated ;)

I marinated it over night, which I recommend.

Then as my youngest son put the chicken on little skewers, I boiled up about two cups of orzo pasta, and made the spinach sauce.

To do this, I sauteed about 1/2 cup of onions in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, for about six minutes.

Then I added some fresh spinach I had pureed in my vitamix. I also added a few sprigs of fresh dill, just cuz that's how I roll ;) then I added about half a cup of chicken stock. (I would recommend using a low sodium one)

This part was not so appetizing ;)

After the orzo was done (oh and my souvlaki is at this point on the grill) I added it to the spinach sauce, and then melted in about 1/4 cup of fresh feta, and another cup of spinach leaves.

Then, served the souvlaki on top of the orzo concoction. It was VERY good. Even the boys ate it, minus the onions (they picked that out, fussy buggers ;))

For those of you who need a more detailed recipe (since this would be a pain to print) here is
Rachel's recipe.

Recipe- Italian Wedding Soup

Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 by Julie | 0 comments
Labels: Epicure, recipes

Have you ever had this soup at East Side Mario's? It is a long time favorite of mine, but as I don't get out to restaurants very often, I thought I would recreate it at home. I have been making this recipe for months now, and I LOVE it. It freezes well, so I always make a big batch and use smaller batches for lunches for myself and my husband.

Italian Wedding Soup - my recipe.

As Julie recipes go, this is very dependent on your own tastes. I don't measure my broth so this is just a "guestimate" add more or less depending on how you like your soup.

First thing I do is fill a LARGE stockpot 1/3 full with water. Here is what my stockpot looks like to give you an idea.

Then, I add my chicken stock. I use Epicure chicken stock because I think it has amazing flavour and very little sodium. In this case I used about 1/8 cup.

Then I added about 1 cup of chopped carrots, I use my vitamix for this and just whirl up my carrots, onions and some stock. Note: After I have used the epicure chicken stock, I also use No name liquid chicken stock to turn the remainder of my water into stock. I add this throughout the soup making process until I get the flavour I want. Add to the stock and bring to a rapid boil.

Then its time to make the meatballs! I put my pound of ground chicken into a bowl, and add about a cup of breadcrumbs. I always make my own, and in this case I had half a pita sitting around so that was what I used. I also use about 1 tbsp of Epicure Pesto seasoning for this. It flavours the meatballs amazingly! Add an egg, mix well, and that is your meatball mix :)

Then I use my handy dandy meatballer (from pampered chef, yes, I support a lot of home businesses ;)) to drop the mix into the boiling soup on the stove.