A St. Patrick's Day Sandwich

A "green" sandwich for St. Patrick's Day.

I know it's not quite St. Patrick's Day, but I've been baking "green" desserts with a St. Patrick's Day theme and for supper I decided to make a "green" sandwich for Dan and me. 

I spread pesto on each side of the bread, followed by slices of yogurt cheese. 

Spread pesto on each slice of bread.

Add yogurt cheese to each slice of bread.

I added fresh spinach to each side of the bread.

Add spinach.

On one side I put slices of a ripe avocado.

Add sliced avocado to one side of bread.

Then I put the two slices together to make the sandwiches.  

Put the two slices together to make the sandwich.

I grilled the sandwiches in butter.

Grill in butter.

Ready to eat.  Delish!

This is a new twist on grilled cheese sandwiches that will be good not just on St. Patrick's Day but any day of the year. 

A Sandwich With Some of My Favorite Ingredients

Green Goddess grilled cheese sandwich. (Photo from tastespotting).

Recently I ran across a recipe for a sandwich that includes some of my favorite ingredients: cheese, avocado, spinach, and pesto.  I finally got around to making it for supper last night.  The recipe is from the blog Tastespotting.  I didn't make my own pesto and I substituted yogurt cheese for the mozzarella, but boy was this a good sandwich.

Adding pesto to bread.

Spread pesto on two slices of whole grain bread.

Add cheese.

Add a slice of cheese to one slice of the bread.

Add avocado.

Add spinach.

Add the avocado and the spinach to one side of the sandwich.

Add remaining slice of cheese.

Add the remaining slice of cheese.  Top with the other slice of bread.  And grill in a bit of olive oil until brown on each side.

Grill until browned.

After toasting, cut in half.  Dan and I each had half of the sandwich with a bowl of soup for a delicious supper.

Enjoy!

For the recipe go to the tastespotting blog.  Also check out her great photos of this sandwich.  I'm going to follow her blog.  She has amazing suggestions for healthy sandwiches.

Spinach Crabmeat Manicotti

At the Covered Dish Supper the other week at the Marble Mountain Hall I sampled the most delicious manicotti. After we left the supper, I wished that I had learned who had prepared it  I described the dish to Linda at the post office, and she found that it was Lynn who had made this delicious casserole. She got the recipe for me.  I made it the other day.  It's great---Dan says this recipe is a keeper. Here's the recipe.

Spinach Manicotti (from Lynn)

10 uncooked manicotti (Or use cooked lasagna noodles cut in half)
2 tbs butter
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp flour
1 ½ cup 2% milk
1 can diced tomatoes unsalted
1 cup packed Swiss cheese
1 tbs minced fresh dill
½ tsp red pepper flakes
1/4  tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh pepper
10 oz crab meat or fake crabs
1 cup 1% cottage cheese
½ pkg chopped spinach (thaw, squeeze dry)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Cook noodles, drain well, rinse w/ cold water, drain well.  Tip: I've learned that you can’t follow the directions on the box for cooking manicotti which instructs to cook for 10 minutes.  If you want the noodles to remain intact for stuffing, cook 8 or no more than 9 minutes. They will still be tender yet will hold together for stuffing.  Set noodles aside on waxed paper.

Manicotti noodles ready to stuff.

Sauce: Melt butter in pot over medium heat.  Add garlic, cook 1 minute.  Whisk flour and milk until smooth.  Add to garlic, cook, stir until thick, stir in tomatoes, ½ cup Swiss cheese, dill, red pepper, salt/pepper, When cheese melts remove from heat.

Tomato and cheese sauce.

Filling: Combine crab meat, minced, cottage cheese, spinach, Swiss cheese, Parmesan cheese, and egg and mix well.

Cheese, crab meat, and spinach filling.

Spray 9 x 13 pan with oil, with teaspoon carefully fill manicotti shells or roll filling up into lasagna.  Place in pan, pour sauce over, cover with foil, Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes, remove from heat uncover, let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Ready for the oven.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Out of the oven and ready to eat.

Lynn tells me that the recipe is from The Looneyspoons Collection.  I've already ordered the book from Amazon, and it will be waiting on me when we return to NC.

Savory Strudel with a Tuscan Influence

While thumbing through the latest Taste of Home magazine the other day to find something different to prepare for dinner, I ran across this recipe for Tuscan Artichoke & Spinach Strudel.  Having fallen in love with anything Tuscan while in Italy last year and liking artichoke a lot, I decided to try this.  I was also intrigued by this savory take on a strudel that ordinarily I think of as something sweet.

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups chopped baby portobello mushrooms
• 1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 4 teaspoons oil from the sun-dried tomatoes, divided
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2 tablespoons prepared pesto
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional (I omitted this).
• 1 cup coarsely chopped thawed frozen artichoke hearts
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts

Directions

Saute mushrooms & sun-dried tomatoes.

• In a nonstick skillet, saute mushrooms and tomatoes in 2 teaspoons oil from sun-dried tomatoes until mushrooms are tender. Cool to room temperature. 
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the spinach, pesto, pepper and, if desired, pepper flakes. Add the artichokes, mozzarella cheese, 5 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and mushroom mixture; mix well.
• Unroll crescent dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet into one long rectangle; seal seams and perforations. Roll out into a 14-in. x 9-in. rectangle.
• Spread filling in a 3-in.-wide strip down center of rectangle. On each long side, cut 1-in.-wide strips to within 1/2 in. of filling. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling. Whisk egg and remaining oil; brush over dough. Sprinkle with walnuts.
• Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese; bake 10 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before cutting into 12 slices. Yield: 12 servings.

Spread filling down center of pastry.

Sprinkled with chopped walnuts ready to bake.

Baked and ready to eat.

Ready to eat.

Patrick happened to stop by just as this was about to come out of the oven so he stayed long enough to sample it and he declared it "tasty".  Dan and I enjoyed it as something just a little bit different for dinner.  I think I'll add this to my digital recipe box.

A Green Smoothie

 

Unlike this song sung by Kermit, it actually IS easy being green and here's how.  We like smoothies, particularly in the summer when I make a lot of fruit smoothies-usually with a bit of ice cream or frozen yogurt included.  I just pitch a few different fruits into the blender with a bit of ice cream and we have a smoothie.  Recently I ran across a reference to "green smoothies" and decided to look up recipes for them.  The recipe that I tried first is the following:

Banana-Pineapple Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup fresh pineapple
2 cups fresh baby spinach (or other leafy green)
1/2 cup of water

One banana and 1 cup of fresh pineapple in blender.

Add two cups of fresh spinach.

 In addition to these three ingredients, add 1/2 cup of water.  Blend.  I like to add an ice cube to smoothie.

Yummy, green smoothie.

I was skeptical about this, but it is very good.  And I figure I had  four (2 cups of spinach count as two.)  of my fruit/vegetable servings for the day in this one smoothie,  It makes about a 12 oz serving. This is good and it is healthy.  Check out the following website for recipes for green smoothies: So it is easy being green.
Incredible Smoothie Recipes