Playing catch up: Classic Beef Pot Roast (for 300 calories!)

What month is it? Hmm.... April. Yeah.

What are you craving these days? Fresh produce like strawberries and asparagus that are finally in season?

Yeah, sorry - this recipe is out of season. But well worth noting, because back when I made it - it was above noteworthy!

I looked up pot roast recipes over the winter, simply because I was looking for a man-pleasin', stick-to-your-ribs kind of recipe for winter. This recipe really did the trick, and also reminded me that hearty doesn't always mean... fatty.

Put simply: this was awesome. I should have known by the ratings on myrecipes.com:


I was getting lots of compliments from all of the guys I was feeding that night, but more importantly, this was the kind of recipe where I said to myself: "This really is awesome! Go me!" I kind of couldn't get over myself... and shouldn't we all feel like this when we slave over a meal?

(And now you know why I felt it necessary to post about a meal I made 4 months ago...)

So, on with the recipe :)

Classic Beef Pot Roast

From Cooking Light, October 2006.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 (3-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 4 thyme sprigs
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• Fresh thyme leaves (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350º.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chuck roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan. Add onion to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until tender.

Return browned roast to pan. Add the red wine, thyme sprigs, chopped garlic, beef broth, and bay leaf to pan; bring to a simmer. Cover pan and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until the roast is almost tender.

Add carrots and potatoes to pan. Cover and bake an additional 1 hour or until vegetables are tender. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf from pan; discard. Shred meat with 2 forks. Serve roast with vegetable mixture and cooking liquid. Garnish with thyme leaves, if desired.

Lentil and Arugula Salad with Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese

Sorry that it's been a while, but I have a lot of catching up to do on what I've been making. First off, is one of my new favorite salads.

I'm always looking for a new way to enjoy salads, because truthfully I most often prefer vegetables in another form. I've found that I like lentils and onion on salads because they bring a lot of flavor and extra texture to the salad without packing on too much additional fat and calories. I tried this combo on a previous version but I'm still experimenting on what I like.

So what's been missing? The right dressing. I've recently discovered that I would prefer a homemade vinaigrette over a bottled dressing, any day. In particular, Ive been taking some white balsamic vinegar and whisking it with olive oil, salt and pepper. Making it myself allows me to get the right level of tangy sweetness without being overpowering. In particular, some of the low fat dressings seem to rely too much on sweeteners to compensate for flavor, and end up turning me off of the salad altogether.

So - here's what's in the salad I've been loving lately:

• Arugula
• Goat cheese (or feta)
• Toasted pine nuts (or sliced almonds)
• Sauteed red onion
• Steamed lentils (precooked from Trader Joe's)
• White balsamic dressing

The goat cheese here was a little melted from the onions and pine nuts, which I had just taken from their respective pans on the stove, but it was still good!

I've also added chicken occasionally to make it an entree salad. Ben really like this salad, too so we've recreated it several times. I've tried using a regular spring mix of greens or spinach but looking back I think it was best with the arugula.

Please share any other salad recipes you have; I'm always looking for more!

Chicken, Potato and Corn Chowder

This recipe is a slight variation from Cooking Light's Potato and Corn Chowder (January 2006 issue). Like many other cooks, I'm now in love with MyRecipes.com, which is where I found this archived Cooking Light recipe. By finding the recipe online, I was able to benefit from a ton of great ideas for tweaking the recipe based on the reader reviews. See below for the recipe and some tweaks of my own in red!


Chicken, Potato and Corn Chowder
Based off of Cooking Light's Potato and Corn Chowder (January 2006) I added calories with the olive oil, chicken and broth, but saved a few on the fat-free half and half.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray (I used olive oil - I have a cast-iron dutch oven and prefer using real oil rather than cooking spray with it)
  
• 1 1/2 cups prechopped green bell pepper (I took this out based on the reviews)
• 1 cup chopped green onions, divided (about 1 bunch)
• A hefty handful of pre-diced celery and onion mix (I added this in to replace the bell pepper)
  
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels
• 1 1/4 cups water
• About 1 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
  
• 1 teaspoon seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
• 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 pound baking potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I probably ended up using about 2 lbs. of potatoes.... oops?)
  
• 1 cup half-and-half (I used fat-free and it turned out reat, still. Less fat!)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley (nope.... I don't really care about parsley)
  
• 1 1/2 cups rotisserie chicken, chopped. (I got mine at publix.)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (I added more because te reviews said it was a little bland, and because I added more volume to the chowder with the potatoes and broth)
  
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray (or about 1-2 tbsp olive oil). Add bell pepper and 3/4 cup green onions (I added the celery / onion mix here) , and sauté 4 minutes or until lightly browned.

Increase heat to high; add corn, (I waited at this step and let the corn do a little bit of roasting with the veggies before adding the liquids - the reviews said roasting the corn gave it a little more flavor.) water, chicken broth, seafood seasoning, thyme, red pepper, and potatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender (it took about an additional 5-10 minutes since I had added more potatoes and broth). Remove from heat, mash the potatoes down using a potato masher or pastry fork so that the consistency thickens a little. Stir in half-and-half, chicken, and chopped parsley, and salt. Place about 1 1/2 cups soup in each of 4 bowls; sprinkle each with 2 tablespoons cheese and 1 tablespoon green onions.

Roasted Winter Veggies

When I'm being good, roasted veggies are what satisfy my cold-weather cravings for something warm, savory and filling. I posted about my favorite roasted veggies earlier last year, and truth be told, brussel sprouts onions and carrots remain my favorite. But this recipe is another alternative with butternut squash, turnips and yams.

I bought these root veggies already pre-cut from Trader Joe's, which was such a life saver! Truly, curring up a butternut squash is my version of a nightmare; it's harder than carving a pumkin!


I added some carrots to the medley and roasted the mixture at 425 with some olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and thyme. I think it took roughly 20-25 minutes to get the veggies to a roasted brown color.

Here was my finished product:

I was particularly happy that I could take this photo during the daytime, when lighting made it so much easier to take pictures. The veggies smelled delicioius, although I think I discovered that I like butternut squash and yams more when they are roasted with sweet flavors, like brown sugar. Personally, I'll probably stick to my original roasted vegetables. The bitterness of brussels sprouts is much more appealing to me with garlic and herb flavors.

The recipe itself is really not brain surgery, and I've seen lots of great foodies make these veggies with some variation. Here are a couple of good recipes to try as well:

• Roasted Winter Vegetables from Ina Garten
• Herbed Roasted Winter Vegetables from Bon Appetit via Epicurious (I really want to try this recipe because it roasts beets, acorn squash, and rutabegas among others - all of which I haven't worked wth much before!)
• Roasted Winter Vegetables from NYT's Bitten Blog