A Healthy Italian Dinner

Hello my Pretties,

I am just so excited for today’s post, he he!  I know your thinking what is she all crazy about?  Food I suppose, well of course silly, you know how I get all crazy and happy over food!  I have issues you know!  But my Sunday night dinner was amazing, especially the bread I made!  I am just so pleased with the outcome of it that I couldn’t wait to share it with you!  I know, I know, bread again.  Well you know I have to post a weekly bread recipe.  But you know what?  I got more, I also have the most easy wonderful pasta dinner.  It’s my top favorite pasta dish!  So simple, so flavorful, so mmmm, mmmm, good!  Ok, here is my dinner I just have to share!

I made Caprese Pasta, with a side of matching Caprese Quick Bread.  See the bread in the corner?  Oh baby!  Tender, cheesy and a pop of sundried tomatoes.  I am so happy with it!  I think I may like it better then my Jalapeno Quick Bread and you know how much I love that bread.

Just look at it!

All those speckles is dried basil.  The bread is super moist because I used 1 cup of milk and drizzled butter over the top before baking!

We went to Macy’s today and we saw the Kitchen Aid pasta attachment for the mixer and ever since we saw that, pasta was on the brain for the both of us.  Of course he’s thinking meatballs, sauce and cheese.  Me, I’m thinking vegetables, maybe spaghetti squash, then I thought hmmm, I want refreshing.  Needless to say he got what he wanted, and I got what I wanted.  I made him pasta sauce with his frozen meatballs that he bought and I made myself pasta with olive oil, basil, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.  With his left over sauce and meatballs, he will make himself a meatball sub and I will fend for myself, and you know how much I love to fend for myself.

This pasta dish is so unbelievably easy, I even measured out the servings so we both had 2oz of pasta, which amazingly was enough for the both of us.  That surprised me because I normally want more.  The spaghetti I used was Trader Joe’s High Fiber Pasta.  180 calories for 2 oz and 6 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein, and 35 carbs.  Not to bad for pasta and it tasted really good!  It was a plus because my Husband hates whole wheat pasta and he was planning on buying some regular pasta today when I convinced him I had regular pasta at home.  he he

Caprese Pasta

Ingredients:

2 oz spaghetti

1 tsp. olive oil

5 cherry tomatoes cut in half

3 basil leaves sliced

1/2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions on package.

Once pasta is done, add olive oil and toss till combined. Add tomatoes and basil and top with cheese.

Serves 1, but can easily be doubled or tripled.

Calories per serving:  243,  Fat:  6.2,  Cholesterol:  1.2,  Sodium:  39,  Potassium:  197,  Carbs:  39,  Fiber:  7,  Sugar:  2,  Protein:  8.3

Not bad stats at all for pasta.

My Caprese bread, oh how I love thee!  The basil and the sundried tomatoes really added all the flavor.   The smell of the bread baking, took me back to a bakery in Tuscany, ok, I never been to Italy, nor have I ever left the US, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

A little advice, when you add cheese to anything, weigh it!  For me, if I used 1 cup like I suggest in this recipe in comparison to 4 oz in weight (1 oz of cheese is approx. 1/4 cup, according to package), I would of only used half the cheese.  Sure less calories, but I didn’t know, I weighed my mozzarella and I had about 1/2 cup more on the scale!  I’ll take more cheese, please!  My kitchen scale is the most used appliance in my house.  I weigh my yogurt because I get more yogurt in weight then if I were to use a 1/2 cup measuring cup.  I also weigh my chicken and everything.  That way I know exactly how much I am consuming.  Of course that doesn’t stop me from stuffing my mouth every 10 minutes. Seriously, I do.  So next time I complain about my weight, which I will, remind me to stop stuffing my face every second of the day!

Caprese Quick Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup white whole-wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 Egg, lightly beaten or egg substitute

1 cup non-fat milk

1 Cup Light Mozzarella Cheese (4 oz of cheese) (I used Trader Joe’s)

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, sliced, (not oil packed) ( I used Trader Joe’s)

3/4 Tbsp. Butter, melted (I used Brumble & Brown)

1 Tbsp. dried basil or fresh, sliced

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°. Spray a 9x5x3 loaf pan or two mini bread pans with cooking spray.

Stir together flour, cheese, baking powder, basil and salt in medium bowl. Add olive oil, egg and milk, stir till combined. Fold in sundried tomatoes.

Pour into pan, drizzle melted butter over top of bread.  (Bread will be thick, flatten it out with your fingers)

Bake 30 minutes for mini loaf pans and 40 – 50 minutes for large loaf pan, or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan to wire rack. Cool 30 minutes before slicing, if you can control yourself!

Makes 12 slices

Calories per slice:  102,  Fat:  3.5,  Cholesterol:  19, Sodium:  208,  Potassium:  14, Carbs:  13.5,  Fiber:  1.3,  Sugar:  1.3,  Protein:  4.5

So have you noticed anything new?  I changed my format of my blog, I like it so much better then the format I had before.  The pictures seem more clear and it’s easier to read.  I was so afraid I would lose all my information when I activated this theme, but I didn’t!  yah!  I also added a new page, Fellow Bloggers.  I added this page to show you the blogs that I enjoy.  I’m not finished updating that page, but I’m slowly working on it.

I hope you had a great weekend and you’ll have a fantastic week!  I’m going to go finish watching the 49r’s game, therein overtime!  Hope they make it to the Super Bowl.  I guess by the time you read this, we’ll already know!  See you tomorrow!