- remember when I said my dad would come here for President's Day weekend as long as it didn't snow and work didn't get in the way? Well he came! And it ended up snowing. Oops.
- Dad and I refinished a coffee table. Pictures and details to come!
- while NC has been enjoying 75 degree weather, we've been enjoying 32 degree weather. And in this case, enjoying also means loathing.
- I made a real dinner for the first time in months!
And that's what we're going to talk about. KK gave me a new cookbook for Christmas and my first impression is YUM. First though, let's talk about how hard it was to get the cookbook: she mailed it back in December, by mid-January I still didn't have it, I talked to the Post Office - nada, Kristen gave me the tracking number, I called UPS. A lady tells me that they didn't realize it was a PO box address until it was at the warehouse, and since they couldn't deliver it there they "did some research" and found my last known address - aka the place I moved out of at the beginning of November. So yes, I got to go back and visit the lovely family that now recognizes my name and saves my mail in the garage. I promised them it would be the last time I dropped in on them. Thumbs down UPS.
However, thumbs up for The Best of Clean Eating (which also happens to be the cookbook I gave Will's parents for Christmas!)
I decided my first recipe would be Quick White Bean and Spinach Ravioli. Reasons: I like recipes that say "quick," I like beans, I like spinach, and I like ravioli. Sold!
Quick White Bean and Spinach Ravioli
Serves: 4 Hands-on time: 15 minutes Total time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cup cannellini (white kidney) beans
1/2 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
2 tbsp shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp kosher salt
32 square wonton wrappers
1 cup unsalted or reduced-sodium tomato sauce
(the elephant is my salt - and yes, I did get the elephant salt and pepper shakers for my birthday!)
1) Fill a medium saucepan with hot water; cover and bring to a boil
2) While water is heating, defrost the spinach in a microwave. Once it's cooled a bit, squeeze as much water as possible out of it and place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the beans, cheeses, and salt. Process the mixture until smooth, approximately one minute.
3) Fill a small bowl with warm water. Lay out 16 wonton wrappers. Did your finger in the water and moisten edges of each wrapper. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in center of each square. From the leftover wrappers, take another wrapper, place it on top of the filling, and seal by pressing firmly along the edges of ravioli. Repeat until all wrappers are gone or all filling is used.
4) Gently place ravioli in boiling water and cook for approximately 2 minutes. The ravioli is ready when you can see the green of the filling through the wrappers. While pasta cooks, warm tomato sauce. Drain pasta, place 4 on a plate, and top with sauce.
Nutrition info (for 4 ravioli and 1/4 cup sauce): calories 343, total fat 3g, sat fat 1g, carbs 60g, fiber 6g, sugar 4g, protein 18g, sodium 621 mg, cholesterol 17mg
My changes:
- I didn't use kosher salt because my kosher salt was in my car (clearly where it should be) and I was too lazy to walk out and get it
- I couldn't find wonton wrappers but did find whole wheat dumpling wrappers (at Whole Foods in the frozen Asian section). Instead of using 2 per ravioli, I used just 1 and folded it over itself to make a semi-circle. Oh and I just looked it up and these are healthier than wonton wrappers (especially when it comes to sodium) so I'll probably use these every time for this recipe.
- I wet the edges of each wrapper as I went instead of in the beginning. I think they might dry out if you do it all at the beginning.
- So by the recipe you would think that you would end up with just 16 squares (or in my case semi-circles) right? I ended up with 30. I could have maybe scraped for 31. And I totally followed directions so um, be prepared?
- My actual cooking time was about 25 minutes instead of 15. Still not bad.
- I ate 7 dumplings instead of 4 so that makes it a little high in terms of calories and sodium (get whole wheat dumpling wrappers!), but I'll just take that into account tomorrow - when I eat leftovers for lunch.
Overall thoughts: So good! So good that I forgot to take a picture of the goodness. It was yummy, filling, super easy, and oddly pride-boosting. I mean I just made my own ravioli. I feel awesome. And full. And excited for lunch tomorrow! Make this recipe. Just do it.
Last random anecdote: Okay, so I went to my usual grocery store first before Whole Foods and accidentally left without paying for my deli turkey and cheese. I was doing self-checkout and those items were in the seat of the cart and I was on the other end emptying my cart and ringing myself up. Then a man in a wheelchair got in line behind me. And after I bagged everything and finally spotted by missed items, I felt bad asking him to back out of line so I could get back over there. But I did feel really bad. Here's the kicker though: after making dinner I looked at my Whole Foods receipt and realized the lady forgot to ring up my dumpling wrappers and my miniature burrito! This one is so not my fault because I only had 6 items total and I know I put all of them on the conveyor belt because I didn't have a basket. Good news is I did give $1 to charity so maybe my karma is back in order. Fingers crossed.
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