Grilled Chocolate and Parmesan Sandwich

Yeah, really. And it’s good. Damn good. Pairing the not so sweet dark chocolate with the nutty, tangy Parmesan cheese is pure genius. Don’t forget about the buttery-crispy grilled bread.

Who, me? Genius? Why thanks! But no, it’s not my idea. I read about it on The Huffington Post a couple weeks ago, and haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. I’d have made it right away, too, if it weren’t for those pesky kids eating all of the chocolate and bread. Moving on…

It’s Sunday afternoon, and it’s a rainy one, at that. Husband is out with one of the kids at Comic Con, and it’s just me and the rest of the kids. Who are busy playing the Wii and generally goofing off, which is good. No cries of “Mom, I’m boooored!" Yet.

I decided, after doing some behind the scenes stuff on my blog, that I should hightail it to the kitchen and make this before all the Parm was gone again. Good thing, too, because as you can see, there’s just a small chunk left.

Now, before you start thinking this is gross, read this, from the article:

“Each ingredient's volatile compounds (aromas) are quantified using gas chromatography and/or a mass spectrometer. The concentrations are then compared with their respective flavor threshold and finally matched with other ingredients that have similar compounds.”

So there! I double dog dare you to give this a try. (I know, some of you are already in the kitchen making this!) For those of you that are skeptical, trust me. It’s not cheesy. The chocolate and Parmesan compliment each other--think salty/sweet.

Grilled Chocolate and Parmesan Sandwich

Makes one sandwich.

For the love of all things good and cheesy, don't use the grated stuff. Get a good little hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and use some thin slices here.

2 slices of your favorite bread
2 ounces dark (semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped-not too coarse, you need it to melt
Enough thinly shaved slices Parmesan cheese to cover one slice of bread
Butter

Heat a skillet to about medium--maybe a little higher. Butter one side of each slice of bread.

Put one slice, butter side down in the pan, and cover it with the cheese slices. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate over that, and place the second slice of bread, butter side up, on top of that.

Heat this until the cheese and chocolate get melty, and then carefully flip the sandwich over with a spatula. When both sides of the sandwich are golden brown to your liking, it's done.

Serve right away, with lots of napkins. If someone else wants one, tell them to make their own, you're eating.

• The next time I make this, I’m using sourdough, more cheese, and a little less chocolate.
• Even my nine year old loved this, and that’s saying a lot! He doesn’t like strong cheese or dark chocolate. He even asked for more! The sixteen year old swiped what I had left, too.
• Notice that I categorized this under main dish, lunch, and dessert. Because for some of you, chocolate or cheese could actually be a main dish. I know. It’s ok. Yes, I’ll hold you. What, breakfast? Hell, yes! With coffee.

Bowties with No-Cook Mascarpone Pesto Sauce

Yeah, I know. It’s hot, and you don’t want to cook. Totally get that. If you can stand the heat long enough to boil some pasta, then you can enjoy a fantastic dinner with this no-cook sauce. The sauce is a super easy blend of mascarpone, parmesan, pesto and a few other seasonings. It’s rich, creamy and packed with flavor. Plus, it's Meatless Monday!

No-cook sauces are such a great thing to have in your recipe arsenal in the summertime! You can quickly get the pasta made and while it’s cooking, you can throw a fabulous sauce together in no time at all. Use your favorites, and if you’ve got a garden, you’re ahead of the game! Tomatoes, herbs, peppers, cucumbers--you name it. Add some cheese and any seasonings you like, as well. Got leftovers in the fridge? Maybe some bacon, chicken, or shrimp? Add that in, too! Pick up a baguette to go with it and you’ve got a great meal.

Mascarpone. It’s easy and relatively inexpensive for me to find at Trader Joes. I’m positive that Whole Foods has it, but not sure of the price. I can’t always find it at my local regular grocery store. Not to worry of you can’t get it easily! Go ahead and use some ricotta instead. Check out these other ideas from one of my favorite sites, The Cooks Thesaurus:

Substitutes: Blend 8 ounces softened cream cheese with 1/4 cup whipping cream. OR Blend 8 ounces softened cream cheese with 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup cream OR Blend 8 ounces softened cream cheese with 1/8 cup whipping cream and 1/8 cup sour cream. OR Whip ricotta cheese in a blender until smooth (lower in fat)

I use the Paul Prudhomme Pizza and Pasta Magic seasoning in this recipe--well, I use it in a lot of recipes! I just happened to come across it at the store one day and threw it in the cart. It’s one of my new secret ingredients. If you can’t find it locally, you can pick some up at Amazon. It’s worth it! You’ll start wondering what else you can add it to.

Bowties with No-Cook Mascarpone Pesto Sauce

Nicely coats one pound of cooked pasta. This can be used as a guideline-add what you like and make it to suit your tastes.

-No-cook sauce:
8 oz mascarpone
1/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup parmesan, grated
1 tsp Paul Prudhomme Pizza/Pasta Magic or other comparable seasoning
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
3 heaping tbsp prepared pesto, or more to taste
fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water (taken out of the pot while it's cooking)
_______________________________________________________

16 oz pasta
16 oz small heirloom tomatoes, or cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half 
1/2 cup sliced fresh basil
more parmesan for sprinkling over

-Optional:
pine nuts

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together with a whisk, being sure to add some of that hot pasta water to loosen it up. Set aside.

After pasta is cooked and drained, pour it into a large bowl. Pour the sauce over the pasta and gently mix, stirring in the tomatoes and basil.

Check for seasoning and serve. Sprinkle with more parmesan, if you like, and pine nuts, if you've got them.

A Buitoni Kind of Day.

Do you ever have one of these days? You get up early, maybe after a night of not-so-great sleep. You manage to get the kids and yourself out the door in the nick of time, and then when you finally get to start your day, it’s just one thing after another. And guess what? After work, you still have kids practices or some other errand to run, and THEN, you get the honor of making dinner. Yay. You want to give your family good food to eat, and fast food won’t cut it.

For days like this, you can have a few secret weapons in your fridge. Buitoni (warning if you’re at work: their home page has music that you can turn off--bottom right under Facebook logo) pastas and sauces can make a delicious ending to a busy day. Now, I’m all for making my own food in my kitchen. However, I haven’t yet tackled the art of making pasta. And after a day like the one I described above, who feels like starting that project at six (or later) in the evening? With a bag of frozen shrimp plus a couple other kitchen staples, a pack of Buitoni Mixed Cheese Tortellini, and a container of Buitoni Pesto with Basil, I had dinner on the table in minutes! Here’s my quick recipe for Pesto Cheese Tortellini with Shrimp and Peas. It’s got great tasting parmesan in it, which helps to thicken the sauce very nicely, as well as a nice hint of lemon. Feel free to change up the type of pasta, too.

Read through to see how you can try Buitoni pasta and sauce for free, and also enjoy a $25 Wine.com gift card, courtesy of Buitoni!

With my Wine.com gift card, I chose a light, crisp white wine to go with the tortellini pesto dish that I had in mind. It’s PRA Soave Classico from Veneto, Italy. We absolutely loved it! And with a 90 point rating (90-94 -- Outstanding; superior character and style) from The Wine Advocate, it’s well worth it’s very reasonable price of just over $15.00!

A funny side note: Renee from Flamingo Musings and I both ended up choosing the exact same wine! Out of all of the wines on Wine.com, we narrowed it down to white wine, from Italy, and chose the same one. Weird, right? Check out her recipe using Buitoni pasta and sauce, too.

Pesto Cheese Tortellini with Shrimp and Peas
serves 4

1 (20 oz) package of Buitoni Mixed Cheese Tortellini
1 bag frozen shrimp, thawed (41-60 count) or fresh if you've got them--tails removed
1/3 cup white wine
a bit of salt and fresh cracked black pepper
1 1/4 cup frozen peas (they can be thawed, but it's not necessary)
1 (7 oz) container of Buitoni Pesto with Basil
zest and juice of one smallish lemon
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan, plus more for sprinkling over finished plates

Set the water to boil for the tortellini.  A couple minutes before you start boiling the pasta, heat a bit of oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the tortellini to the pot of boiling water, and cook according to package directions. When it's done, drain and set aside.

Sauté the shrimp in the hot oil, sprinkling them with salt and pepper. Add the wine, and be careful not to overcook the shrimp! You want them tender, not rubbery. Just before they're done (they'll still be a bit translucent), remove them and and the wine from the pan. Set them both aside in a bowl.

In the same pan, heat a bit more oil, and turn the heat down to medium. Add the peas and the pesto. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, heat through. Remove from heat. Stir the 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese into the pan, and then add the shrimp and wine to the pesto mixture. Toss to coat evenly. The heat from the sauce will finish cooking the shrimp.

Toss the sauce with the tortellini, or spoon the sauce over, if you like. I prefer to toss it all together. Sprinkle individual servings with more parmesan cheese.

• I’ve been using pastas from Buitoni for a long time, so I could already speak for the quality of those. If you’ve never tried their Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, you should--it’s fantastic!
• This was my first time trying their sauces, and I chose the pesto, of course. It’s very fresh tasting! If you don’t have access to fresh basil, as I don’t yet, since it’s not garden season here, this makes a delicious substitute!
• I used the PRA Soave Classico in the pasta recipe, as well. You know the rule! If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it!

If you’d like to try this recipe, or experiment and come up with your own, Buitoni has generously offered to give one of you the same goodies they sent me!

One lucky reader (US only) will win two VIP full-value product coupons, PLUS a $25 gift card to Wine.com.

To enter:

1) Like Buitoni on Facebook. This one’s a must! Let me know in a comment here that you did.

Additional Entries, if you like:

2) Leave a comment on this post telling me which Buitoni pasta or sauce you’d most love to try.

3) If you’d like to Tweet about this giveaway or Share it on Facebook, leave another comment here telling me that you did.

That’s it! Easy! I’ll choose a winner randomly on Thursday, May 5th. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I was given the two Buitoni coupons and the Wine.com gift card free of charge. I wasn’t compensated for my opinions, which are my own.

Italian Un-Meatballs

I know, right? But I didn't know what else to call these. They're "meatballs," but technically--not meat. So there you go, hehe.

Most of you know that lately, we've been trying to eat healthier. It's not a diet, but a lifestyle change. We originally planned on 6 days a week of raw and vegetarian (and if we were really feeling wild, vegan!), and one cheat day a week with some type of meat involved.

It's a few weeks later, and where are we now? Seven days a week of raw and vegetarian, and no meat! And even though I think of it fondly occasionally (and how weird is that?! hehe!), I don't miss it. I'm 100% serious when I tell you that. I'm not missing the meat. If I'm really jonesing for a burger, there are some great meat-free ones in the stores. Seriously--they do taste great!

We've been doing some reading, and here's the tricky part. My husband now wants to, and has pretty much gone vegan. I KNOW! I was more surprised than anyone. I'm almost there, really, except for eggs and cheese. I'm attached to them more than I was to meat, which blows my mind--I thought it would be the other way around. I can live with out milk, too--and have been since we started this journey. But eggs, on sunday morning? With cheese? Sigh. That's the tough part.

So if any of you vegans out there have good alternatives to breakfast (or favorite cookbooks!), please let me know! Because vegetarian books are full of egg recipes, hehe.

These un-meatballs were a result of a craving I'd had for weeks for spaghetti and meatballs. I was able to track down a recipe and method here at VeganDad. He has a a ton of great recipes, and this one was my answer. I used his genius method, but changed the seasonings to match my standby meatball recipe. Then after a simmer in the same sauce recipe that I always use, these were ready. They held up great to simmering for a couple of hours. A couple of them broke up, but I can live with that. This was a great way to satisfy my craving!

My other craving? Chicken noodle soup. Anyone have a killer magical vegan recipe that'll make me feel like I'm eating real chicken soup? I'll love you forever!

These are vegetarian, and not vegan--because there's parmesan cheese in them, and in the sauce.

Un-Meatballs
adapted from VeganDad

2 (8 oz) pkgs of Tempeh, simmered for 10 minutes, cooled and grated
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tsp dried oregano
4 TB Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 smallish onion, grated
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients. Form into balls--about the size of a walnut.
Heat a pan over medium heat, and add some oil to heat.
Sauté them until brown all over, then simmer in your favorite sauce for an hour or so.
Put them in the sauce to simmer, but don't go wildly stirring right away--just take a spoon and dunk them under the sauce.
Let them set up for at least 1/2 hour before you stir.
Serve over pasta, or in a bun with provolone for a great un-meatball sandwich.

Grated Tempeh...

An army of un-meatballs...

Brown them all over before you simmer in sauce...

Done. Now go eat!

Random ThursdayThoughts...Parm Crusted Chicken, One (the song), and that Chimichurri Sauce is begging to be poured on everything.

Where to start today? I guess with the food, since that's what we're here for. :) Two nights ago, we had Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Greens and Lemon Vinaigrette. It's one of our favorites, another tried and true. The recipe is from Ina Garten. I love her recipes! I've never had one fail, and her stuff ranges from "pull out all the stops for guests" to "let's have a bowl of soup, salad and bread for dinner." You can look at the books of hers that I have in my Amazon shop.

It's really simple, too! And you can feel good serving it to guests--it's special enough for company. The chicken is dipped in flour, then egg, then a combination of bread crumbs and fresh grated parm. Try to grate the parm finely, because you want it to stick to the chicken, and mix well with the bread crumbs. The vinaigrette takes maybe two minutes to whip up, and is tossed with the greens at the last second. Then the cool, tangy greens are piled over the warm chicken. The tastes and textures all come together for a delicious dinner.

You can also see it on Canarygirl's blog. Her photos are awesome! And her food, omg, her food is the best! Want to torture yourself with some good food porn? Go check out her site--you won't be sorry!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Lemon Vinaigrette with Fresh Greens
Ina uses arugula, but this is good with any mixed greens or even spinach, as we usually have it.
This serves 6, but usually boneless chicken comes in packs with 3 half breasts (it's like the hot dog/hot dog bun ratio--wtf!),
and I fillet them rather than pounding them out, and I still end up with 6 pieces--good for
leftovers. Less work, faster cooking time, and it doesn't dry out.
Side note on filleting:
I always fillet chicken breasts. They cook faster, so they don't have time to dry out.
Well, I suppose they could, if you really try to overcook them, but
they only need a few minutes per side. If they're thin, 2-3 minutes per
side is good, and if they're thicker, like the kind you get from "new
and improved" mutant-sized chickens, they take about 5-6 minutes per
side. And it's so easy to fillet them, too! Just put your chicken on a
cutting board, get a good sharp fillet knife, and place your palm over
the chicken breast, like the way you're supposed to cut a bagel but no
one ever does? "Hello? 911? Bagel emergency! But please stop off first
and get me a new bagel...I seem to have ruined this one..." So you've
put your palm over the top, and then you slice the breast horizontally
from the thick end of the breast, to the thin one. See? Easy, and
injury free!
Back to the recipe!
1/2 lb    fresh arugula (3 large bunches) OR greens of your choice
1/4 cup    fresh squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/2 cup     olive oil
1/2 tsp    kosher salt
1/4 tsp    fresh ground black pepper
1/4 lb    chunk of parmesan
6    boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup    flour
1 tsp    kosher salt
1/2 tsp    fresh ground pepper
2    extra large eggs
1 1/4 cup    seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup    freshly grated parm cheese
1 Tbs    butter
2-3 Tbs    olive oil
Wash and dry your greens.
In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper.
Set aside to toss with greens right before serving.
That couldn't be any easier, right?  Now on to the chicken...
_____________________________________________
Parmesan Crusted Chicken
Pound the chicken, or fillet it like I mentioned above. (this is really
important for fast cooking and juicy chicken.)
Combine flour, salt and pepper on a plate.
In a bowl, beat the eggs with 1 tbsp water.
On a second plate, combine the bread crumbs and parm.

Dredge the chicken in the flour, dip in the egg, and then dredge in the
crumb/parm mixture, pressing lightly.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet. Cook the chicken for 3-4
minutes on one side, depending on thickness, then turn and do the same (3-4
minutes) on second side until no longer pink and nicely golden brown.
Toss the salad greens with enough vinaigrette to coat them, add more if you
like.
Place chicken on dinner plate, then place a mound of salad over each chicken
breast. Shave some parm with a vegetable peeler over the greens and serve immediately.

Up Next--One, the song...

I'm a kid of the 80's. Yep, the big hair, the funky colors, the music, the movies...I loved it all. I still love U2! They've been around almost forever, haven't they? They have great lyrics, amazing songs...they are just timeless. Anyway, their song "One." Great song, right? Did you ever hear Mary J. Blige cover it? I saw her do it live on some show. Gave me goosebumps. Really! It's on her album The Breakthrough. I didn't even know they did a version of it together! And where did I first hear it? Are you ready?

In the grocery store! hahaha!! My grocery store plays the best music! Except when they try to sneak an Ashlee Simpson song in to cause my ears to bleed. ugh.

I urge you, no--I'm telling all of you to go to whatever music service you use and download the song. Right now. You won't regret it. The Amazon clip is so short. I'm listening to it right now and getting goosebumps again, hehe. SO good. And how gorgeous is Mary?

And finally, Zen's Freaking Chimichurri Sauce...

I posted about it here.

And you can see it on his site, too. Check out his blog! Great food, and funny stories. He's very entertaining!

The sauce...it's addictive. Two nights ago, we had the parm crusted chicken, right? Delicious as is, but I happened to have some more chimichurri in the fridge, because we've been having it on pork chops, too, which we have at least once a week (use the same rub that you use on the steak). I was thinking I'd put some it on my chicken, and my husband comes in and says "HEY! Let's put some chimichurri on the chicken!" We are of one mind, I'm telling you. Except when it comes to 70's cop movies. Blech. He can have them. I'll read instead., hehe.

The chicken went from delicious to sublime! This is one recipe I'll have in rotation all the time. The rub and chimichurri sauce are made from simple, everyday ingredients that you can easily get, at any time. I can't wait to start grilling so we can put it on more stuff! Thanks, Zen! muac!

Hey, I just checked! It's 62° (about 16 C, i think?) --we're having a heatwave, hehe!

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