Sabra Spa

We made another non-disastrous home-cooked meal this weekend! I think at this point I've made up for our New Year's Eve debacle, and I've brought enough kitchen supplies to my boyfriend's house that now I know we're well equipped to at least boil water and assemble a salad (he has a beautiful kitchen, but the last time we attempted to make dinner he warned me ahead of time that he "doesn't know how to cook." Who knew that meant that he didn't own measuring cups...or a ladle...) So although I was more confident about this attempt, I still took precautions to avoid another dinner catastrophe. This time I made a soup and dessert ahead of time, and emailed him a specific list of ingredients to pick up before I got there. Then we made the rest of the dinner together (I supervised, he followed directions well!) The result was a great, heart-healthy dinner, again using several Mediterranean ingredients.

I don't have any pictures this time, but hope you enjoy these recipes.

On the Menu:

Spinach salad with strawberries and a balsamic reduction

Red Pepper Puree Soup from Cook 1.0 by Heidi Swanson (my favorite cookbook -read her blog here, it's great!)
To a large pot over medium heat, add:
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions start to get soft. Add:
6 large red bell peppers, seeded and deveined, cut into 1-inch strips
4 c. water
Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the fresh peppers soften up. Remove from the heat. Puree in a blender in batches, return the soup to the pot. Whisk in:
1 c. low-fat sour cream
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Add salt and pepper to taste. I used 1/2T salt (half the recommended amount) and 20 cranks of pepper. Garnish with basil and feta cheese.

Roasted eggplant
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut 1 eggplant into 1-inch squares. Toss in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and two cloves of chopped garlic. Place on a roasting pan (with olive oil spray) and roast for about 25 minutes, tossing a few times while it roasts.

Whole wheat fettuccine with tomatoes, goat cheese and pine nuts (a take on another Cook 1.0 recipe)
Heat 1 T olive oil in pan. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, and saute in olive oil with a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook pasta, drain. Toast pine nuts in a toaster for 2-3 minutes. Top cooked pasta with pine nuts, tomatoes and goat cheese.

Angel food cake with berries (from Allrecipes.com)
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
12 egg whites
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Be sure that your 10 inch tube pan is clean and dry - any amount of oil or residue could deflate the egg whites. Sift together the flour, and 3/4 cups of the sugar, set aside.

In a large bowl, whip the egg whites along with the vanilla, cream of tartar and salt, to medium stiff peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar while continuing to whip to stiff peaks. When the egg white mixture has reached its maximum volume, fold in the sifted ingredients gradually, one third at a time. Do not overmix. Put the batter into the tube pan.

Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake springs back when touched. Balance the tube pan upside down on the top of the bottle, to prevent decompression while cooling. When cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto a plate.

Garnish with raspberries and blackberries.