Healthy Penne Vodka Sauce & Vegetables

Tonight's dinner was fairly easy and quick! I used this recipe for healthy penne with vodka sauce.

I enjoy trying new recipes and this one is pretty good and healthy.

Ingredients

16 ounce multigrain or whole wheat Penne
1 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch quarter-moons
1 cup frozen peas
8 cups baby spinach
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
6 ounces sliced Canadian bacon, chopped
1/2 cup vodka
1 15 ounce can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 8 ounce can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 - 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fat-free half-and-half
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add penne and cook following package directions, 11 minutes. Add zucchini and peas during last 3 minutes. Stir in spinach. Drain and place back into the pot.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally; add Canadian bacon and vodka and cook 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt and red pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

3. Stir half-and-half and 1/4 cup cheese into the sauce. Toss with pasta and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir and spoon into serving bowl and top with remaining cheese.

If you need more carbs you can add some bread on the side. For nutrition information you can visit the website

If you try it let me know! Do you have any healthy recipes you love, want to share?

Healthy Clam Chowder Recipe

Last week Big Daddy Diesel asked for my Healthy Clam Chowder Recipe. So here it is BDD, let me know if you try it. I am going to make it tonight!

I found this recipe here and adjusted it slightly:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups reduced-fat (1%) milk
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 6 ounce cans minced clams
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 teaspoon low-sodium Old Bay seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Tossed salad, crusty bread (optional)

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in wine and cook 1 minute; sprinkle in flour and cook 1 minute.
2. Gradually stir in milk and chicken broth. Drain liquid from clams into measuring cup. Add 1 cup of the clam juice to the pot and reserve the clams. Add potatoes, cover and simmer 30 minutes or until potatoes are fully cooked.
3. Add reserved clams, corn, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer to heat through. Turn off heat and stir in parsley.
4. Serve with tossed salad and crusty bread, if desired

There are approx. 4 servings with 350 calories in each

Mexican Chicken Soup

Now that the weather is cooling down, I am happy to add some cool weather favorites to normal rotation. Full disclosure that we did have a record high of 82 degrees today in Denver, but it still really cool at night. One recipe that I would love to share is mexican chicken soup, it's warm and full of flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 tbl olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 quart (32 oz) chicken broth
• 1-1/4 lb plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 4.5 oz can green chilies
• 1 15 oz can hominy, drained, or 2 c frozen corn
• 2 c shredded cooked chicken (two breasts)
• 1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 ripe, pitted and sliced avocado
• 1 lime, cut in wedges

Directions

1. In large pot cook onion, garlic and jalapeno in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent.
2. Add chili powder, oregano and cumin; cook for an additional minute.
3. Stir in broth, tomatoes, chiles, hominy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add chicken and simer for 10 minutes more.
5. Stir in cilantro and server; garnishing with the avocado slices and lime wedges.

Tonight I am off to bed early after working this morning. I hope to get a good 40-50 mile bike ride in tomorrow before a fun family fall fest (also known as dinner at my parents house). What are your plans for tomorrow?

Pumpkin Goodness!

Last night I was in the mood to bake so I looked up healthy pumpkin bread recipes and found this one from Good Housekeeping. I grabbed a few things on the way home from the store and put together all the ingredients I would need.











I used the recipe almost exactly except I added walnuts and made three mini instead of one big one.

I think they turned out great, easy to make and delicious. I added little spider rings for fun and gave one away to my PT Djimmer as a thank you as well.

At the store a couldn’t resist this pumpkin spice coffee as well, SO GOOD. Bailey and Winston like it too!

Track Tuesday

Yesterday when I got home there was a package waiting for me, I love getting packages! I ripped it open to find my Cooking Light Vegetarian Cookbook.
I can’t wait to go through it and try some new recipes. Some of you may remember that I set a resolution to learn how to cook healthy meals (instead of relying on my husband to do all the cooking) , I have really enjoyed it so far and have been cooking two to three times a week. I have also recently given up eating meat so I am excited to have a book full of light vegetarian meals to choose from. I will share any that are really good.

After getting my cook book Cory and I headed back out to track practice with the Rocky Mountain Tri Club. I LOVED this workout and I love the club, people are so welcoming and friendly. We ran in pace groups (I was in group 5) and it was really fun to cheer ourselves on and build team spirit. After practice was over our club president gave out team tech shirts, I think it’s really cute.

After a long day Cory made us taco salads before we packed our gym bags and headed to bed. It was a good day =)

Bloggy Recipes

Last week Aimee from I Tri To Be Me posted a yummy looking recipe for Vegetarian Korma. My hubby loves Indian food so I decided to give it a try, to see the recipe check out her post here. It turned out great, we both loved it and will definitively add it to our regular rotation. I made mine with sweet potatoes and quinoa, we both agreed it would be better with rice. Cory also made fresh naan, which was really good.To continue the trend I want to share Cory's recipe for whole wheat pizza with fig, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette reduction.
You can putt any topping you want on the crust but this is a fun new one for us. You do need a sourdough starter to make this crust

Crust Ingredients

• 230 g (1 Cup) sourdough starter
• 100 g (~1 Cup) whole wheat flour
• 12 g (1 tbls) vital wheat gluten
• 2 Tbls purified water
• 1 Tbls olive oil
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 1 Tbls dried oregano
• 5 Cloves or garlic minced coarsely
  

Crust Directions

1. Feed starter and set out on counter the night before.
2. Mix together all the ingredients and knead for about ten minutes.
3. Spray a medium sized bowl with oil and flour and allow dough to double in size, about two hours.
4. When dough has risen, preheat oven to its hottest temperature. While the oven is heating, roll out dough on floured counter. Place desired toppings on pizza.
5. Once oven is hot, use a pizza peel to place the pizza on hot stone and cook until crust is cooked completely and cheese is melted, about ten minutes.

Reduction Ingredients

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
  
• 1/4 cup dried figs

Reduction Directions

1. In heavy non-reactive (stainless steal or enameled cast iron) sauce pan over low heat cook figs and vinegar until liquid is halved. making sure to ventilate well. Stir frequently and make sure to not let the liquid boil.
   
2. Carefully puree figs and vinegar with immersion mixer.
3. Allow to cool.

** For toppings we used the Reduction as sauce and added about a 1/4 cup of blue cheese and walnuts.