Wild Rice and Butternut Squash Dressing

Wow... it has been a busy couple of weeks.  In the past 2 weeks we've travelled to my  parents for Thanksgiving weekend, had two baby showers, 2 prenatal classes, one of my college roommate's was in town to visit, a Christmas party, and our everyday jobs.  That didn't leave a lot of time for blogging.  So I have a stack of recipes to share with you and just need to find some time to post them.  Now if only I could find some time to get my holiday baking started and Christmas shopping done, I might actually catch up a little bit but the next couple of weeks are looking like they will be just as busy. 

Going back to my Thanksgiving recap, I want to share a recipe for wild rice dressing.  My mom isn't really a fan of bread so traditional stuffing recipes don't really appeal to her.  When I saw this recipe in Cooking Light for a wild rice dressing, I thought it would be a great addition to our normal Thanksgiving menu.  I made a few modifications for our own tastes to come up with the recipe below.  I think it turned out great and the leftovers were good as well.

Wild Rice and Butternut Squash Dressing
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, November 2010

1 cup uncooked wild rice
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups low sodium chicken stock
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 T olive oil
1 cup dried cranberries
5-6 green onions, chopped
2 T fresh sage, minced
2 T flat leaf parsley, minced
1 T fresh thyme, stripped from stems
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large saucepan, combine rice, stock, water and 1/4 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer about 40 minutes until rice is tender.  Transfer cooked rice to a 9x13 or similar baking dish coated with cooking spray, do not drain. 

While the rice is cooking, toss butternut squash with olive oil and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp salt, spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast for approximately 20-25 minutes until tender.  Add to rice in baking dish.

Add cranberries, onions, herbs, and spices to mixture, adding additional salt and pepper as desired.  Stir everything together, cover with foil and bake about 15 minutes until everything is heated through.

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Risotto

I wasn't so sure what I would think about this dish when I first saw the recipe. I've only ever made risotto once before and last time I made it as a side dish rather than including meat. But once I saw the recipe, I couldn't get it out of my head. I figured it might be a little too much work for a weeknight dinner since risotto pretty much requires thirty minutes next to the stove and I generally like to multitask during weeknight cooking. Friday I was going to make it but then my husband suggested going out for Mexican food and I don't really ever turn down chips and salsa. Saturday we already had dinner plans too. By Sunday, I was still thinking about this risotto so I picked up what I needed when I did my grocery shopping and got to work.

So the verdict - turns out, risotto works great as a main dish. This was absolutely delicious. I halved the original recipe because it was just the two of us eating and I didn't want leftover risotto all week (there was enough leftover for a lunch the next day). I also increased the amount of sausage in the recipe, mostly because I'm bad at halving recipes because I sometimes forget to halve all the ingredients but I would make it the same way again. I think I would cut it back if I was serving it as a side dish but for a main course, its perfect. I used ground turkey sausage in this dish to cut down on the fat and it worked perfectly, but you could also use sausage links (remove the casings) or traditional pork sausage. The other changes I made were to cut out the mushrooms (I don't like them), add a clove of garlic and decrease the salt (even with low sodium chicken broth, I don't think it needed any extra).

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Risotto
Recipe adapted from Brown-Eyed Baker, who adapted it from Giada DeLaurentiis

8 oz Italian sausage
3 cups low sodium chicken stock
3/4 cup arborio rice
1 T butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 T white wine
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

Simmer chicken stock in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Add butter to a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add sausage and break up with a wooden spatula as it browns, cook about five minutes. Add garlic, red pepper and onion and cook about eight minutes until softened, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan as it cooks. Add black pepper and rice, stir to coat. Add wine and cook until liquid is almost all evaporated, about one minute.

Add chicken stock, one ladle at a time, to the rice mixture. Stir almost constantly. When the liquid is almost completely absorbed, add another ladle full. Repeat this process until you have added all the stock to the rice mixture. This process will take about twenty to thirty minutes. The rice mixture should be thick and creamy. The rice should still be al dente but not hard. Add 3/4 of the cheese and stir to combine. Transfer to serving dish and top with chopped parsley and remaining cheese. Serve immediately.

Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

Oh.My.God. Seriously, go make this risotto now. This was my favorite part of our Valentine's dinner. The crab cakes were good, the cake was good, but this risotto was fantastic. I have never made risotto, I'm not even sure I've ever ordered risotto... but I think its my new favorite side dish. This stuff is amazing. I'm already looking for other recipes and combinations to try so I can make more. I always thought this was a dish that was really finicky and took forever but it was actually extremely easy. Yes it takes a little while, but the wait is worth it. This probably took a little less than 30 minutes total.

This recipe is from Elly Says Opa and the only changes I made were using onion instead of shallot, slightly reducing the amount of sun-dried tomatoes and I left out the fresh basil since I didn't have any and used dried herbs. The recipe below reflects my changes. I also think that this serves 4 people as a side dish instead of 2 as we had leftovers for lunch the next day.



Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

1 T butter
1/2 small white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 oz smoked mozzarella cheese (chop into small pieces)
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste

In a sauce pan, heat the 3 cups of stock over medium heat.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. When melted, add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and stir until well coated distributed. Toast the rice, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced almost entirely.

Start adding broth, 1 ladle at a time, stirring the risotto frequently. Add another ladle of broth when the first addition is almost all absorbed. Continue this process until you've added all but the last of the broth. The rice should be creamy but still have a little bite to it. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with the last addition of broth and again cook until almost all absorbed.

Turn off the heat and add the cheese and all spices except the salt. Taste and add salt if necessary (I used low sodium chicken stock and between the stock and the cheese, didn't need anymore salt).

Spicy Lime Shrimp and Rice

Just like 80% of the U.S. did last week, we made a New Year's resolution to eat healthier, lose weight, and get back in shape. Just like last year, and the year before that... but this time we mean it! So you can expect lots of healthy recipes including lean meats, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. While we aren't going on a diet in a traditional fad diet type way, we are going to make an all-over effort to clean up our eating habits, cutting back on refined carbohydrates, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc. but without cutting out flavor and variety. We are also implementing a get fit plan by rejoining the gym and trying to work out before going to work in the morning since it seems to be the only consistent routine we can have.

Spicy Lime Shrimp and Rice

About 24 large shrimp, shelled and de-veined
1 T olive oil
2 T lime juice
1 tsp Garlic Salt (I use Lawry's)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup brown rice
1 small can Rotel Original tomatoes
1 cup water
1/2 cup corn (I used shoepeg corn because I already had it open but yellow corn works just fine)
1/2 cup black beans, rinsed and drained

Season shrimp with cayenne pepper and garlic salt, and 1 T lime juice over shrimp, lightly toss and refrigerate about 20 minutes.

Heat tomatoes and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, add rice and stir occasionally until boiling. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until rice softens and most of liquid is gone. (I used Uncle Ben's quick-cooking brown rice so it was about 15 minutes.) Stir in black beans and corn, cover and cook on low for about 3 more minutes.

When rice is almost done, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and when hot, add shrimp, cook about 1 minute and turn over, cook another minute or so until shrimp are opaque. Remove to a plate and toss with remaining lime juice. Serve with rice.

This recipe serves about 4 people serving 6 shrimp per person which is the suggested serving size, but we don't have any shrimp left over and there were only 2 of us eating but at least shrimp are low in calories and that's a pretty good indication that this meal didn't taste like diet food!