You are gonna like this a lot.

6-8 servings, will freeze in batches no problem

prep- 10 minutes, cooking- 30 minutes total

Serve with a grill cheese or garlic toast.  The easiest way to make garlic toast? Make toast. Rub it 3 times with a cut slice of garlic. Voila!  Garlic toast for dipping in soup.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil

2 onions (yellow or white), coarsely chopped

3 – 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes (no added sugar)

1/2 cup tomato paste (thats about one small can)

2 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 cup orange juice

4 cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped

8 slices of Pancetta

sour cream- you can get low fat or non-dairy if you like

fresh chives

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

 

Directions:

1. Heat a Tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Once the oil is warm, add the chopped onions and cook ( and stir occasionally) for about 4 minutes until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and cook and stir for about 1 more minute.  Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and orange juice. Add a little salt and pepper at this time. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to low/med and partially cover with a lid. Cook for 30 minutes.

2. While soup is cooking, Heat a tiny bit of olive oil in a non stick fry pan at medium heat and spread it around well with a flipper or wooden spoon.  Add the Pancetta slices and cook for a minute or so on each side until crisp.  Remove from heat, cut into slices and set aside.

3.  When the 30 minutes are up, remove your soup from the heat and transfer to a blender in batches (I like to use a ladle) .  Don’t fill your blender to the top with hot soup.  About half way.  Before you turn it on, you want to make sure you are wearing an oven mitt and that you have a t-towel over top of the lid.  Press down firmly on the lid before you start that blender. The lid will try to pop a bit when you are blending hot soup.  You really don’t want hot soup in your face.  Blend the batches just until the onion pieces are getting blended.  No need for a perfectly uniform texture.  It’s better with a little rustic texture.

4. Ladle the soup into bowls, arrange pancetta pieces over the soup and using clean kitchen scissors, cut some fresh chives on top.  Spoon a bit of sour cream or ricotta into the soup, give a swirl and season to taste again with salt and pepper.

5. Serve with garlic toast or a grilled cheese or salad from the leftover veggies from my last recipe!

tips- If you make this for any woman, she will think you are a culinary genius.  And, if it’s summer, and you use around 13 FRESH, chopped tomatoes instead of the canned variety, she will say yes.

If you want to use bacon instead of Pancetta, I really don’t have a problem with that.

 

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Today is day one of my cooking school for guys.  I keep hearing- “I don’t have time to cook” and “I don’t know how to cook”, from the fellas I know.  The emphasis on my cooking 101 school for guys will be either fast (under 20 minutes) and healthy or easy and very guy pleasing.  All of the recipes will be quite health conscious (well there will be plenty of bacon) and incorporate whole foods and plenty of protein that can be easily purchased.  Stay tuned this weekend for the best meatloaf sandwich in the world.  Today we start with quick and healthy.  Ricotta & Basil Battered Fish with Baby Carrots and Lemon Parmesan Broccoli.

Let’s begin-

serves 4 (you can half the recipe of course!)

Prep time- 10 minutes

Cooking time- 5 minutes

 

Ingredients-

2 large eggs

5 Tbsp low-fat ricotta

1/2 cup finely chopped basil

salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

1 pound Broccoli pieces washed

8 ounces baby carrots, washed

1 Tbsp olive oil mixed with 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp grated parmesan

Olive oil or vegetable oil for frying

1 1/2 pounds tilapia fillets, cut in half lengthwise

lemon wedges

 

Directions-

1. Whisk together the eggs, ricotta and basil to make a batter. season with salt and pepper, set aside

2. Steam your baby carrots and broccoli until just tender. Next, heat a non-stick pan on med heat, throw your broccoli in the pan when it is warm and toss with the olive oil/lemon mixture.  Cook for about a minute, add Parmesan and toss to finish, plate with steamed carrots

3. Heat a Tbsp or two of oil in a non stick pan over medium/high heat. Dunk your fish fillets in your batter and place in hot oil in pan.  Work in batches if your pan is small.  Cook about 2 minutes per side (or until golden). Flip, cook another minute or two until you get a nice browning and remove to drain on paper towel.

4. Serve it up with lemon wedges and enjoy.  Sorry, you will still need to tidy the dishes after.

 

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Store bought Jalapeño jellies are bland and artificially colored.  This one has kick.

Ingredients:

4 Green Peppers, washed, seeds removed

1- 12oz jar of sliced jalapeños, drained

1 washed jalapeño pepper

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

1/2 tsp. cayenne

6 1/2 cups sugar

4 boxes of certo

Directions:

1. Using a food processor, grind your green peppers and jalapeño pepper, next grind your drained sliced jalapeños. Not too runny, just lightly chunky.

2. Place all of the ground peppers in a heavy pot with the vinegar and cayenne and bring to boil, lower the heat and keep at a rolling boil for 10 minutes.

3. Add sugar (stirring in slowly) and return to boil. Boil for about 5 minutes.

4. Add certo and bring to boil again. Boil hard for 10 minutes.

5. Skim and jar in sterilized dry jars.

Serve with cream cheese and crackers or as a condiment on just about anything.

 

 

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