Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Spring rolls are a much lighter appetizer than the fried variety, and go together ever so much quicker! I made mine with a peanut sauce, because the chili-garlic sauce I tried to buy ended up way too spicy for me (and everyone else at the bridal shower I took these to). But chili-garlic sauce was one of the options that my recipe gave to eat spring rolls with, so go get yourself a jar of chili-garlic sauce if you like spice!

A quick overview of how spring rolls go together:

1. Cook your noodles and prep your fillings.

2. Soften each wrapper in warm water, then add your fillings. 

3. Fold the ends in, and roll each spring roll. Moistening them in warm water makes them sticky, so rolling them and squeezing them together to make them stick is all you need!

4. Prep your sauces. 

Where to find spring roll wrappers? That’s a good question! My neighborhood Walmart that delivers groceries to my porch each week is carrying them now. If you have an Oriental Market, they would have them too. [Actually, if you have an Oriental Market within driving distance, you need to go check it out for more than spring roll wrappers, especially if you’re gluten free. They have THE BEST rice out there, and the prices on their rice noodles can’t be BEAT.]

VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients

2oz vermicelli rice noodles (I used the noodles from a package of Thai Kitchen Instant Rice Noodle Soup)

16 rice wrappers

16 large shrimp, cooked and cut in half

Chopped lettuce

Chopped fresh mint leaves

Chopped fresh basil leaves, fresh Thai basil if you can find it

Chopped fresh cilantro, if you’re somebody who doesn’t think it tastes like soap (I am)

Gather all your ingredients. Make sure everything is prepped, chopped, and cut.

Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse WELL in cold water.

Fill a large bowl with warm water. You need a bowl with a flat bottom, large enough for the rice wrappers to fit in. Warm is fine, it doesn’t have to be boiling. Your hands are going in this!

Dip one wrapper in the warm water to soften for a few seconds.

Lay it flat on a cutting board. Place two shrimp halves in a row across the center. Add some cooled noodles, lettuce, and fresh herbs. You want this in a row down the center, leaving enough space on each end to roll it in.

Fold the uncovered ends down toward the middle, then roll tightly. I rolled them basically like a burrito, if that helps anyone. The moist rice wrapper should be sticky enough to stick to itself, so you should be able to have it hold once you roll it up. If it’s not, reach back into the warm water with a finger or two and moisten it a bit more. 

Repeat with remaining wrappers.

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1/2C smooth peanut butter

1/4C soy sauce (be careful of your soy sauce if you are GF! It’s usually made from wheat. Get something specially marked GF)

1/4C water

1T rice vinegar (not seasoned! Just straight rice vinegar)

1T sugar or maple syrup

1t minced garlic

(Optional) Crushed red pepper

Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, and water together until smooth. Add other ingredients, and stir until well mixed. 

 

Baked Florentine Pasta

 

This one was a GEM. Nice and easy, finished up under the broiler, and oh so good! Nice and cheesy just like a casserole should be, and that’s even using low fat dairy so it’s not a calorie splurge, can you believe it? I cut a whole huge 9x13 into 8 dinner servings and they were only 315 calories each!

A note on the spinach - how much?? Well. Lots! Fresh spinach really cooks down. I used two Sam’s Club bags of fresh spinach, and they were huge. Bulk bags. My original recipe called for 2 10oz bags. However much you like spinach. Get a lot. 

BAKED FLORENTINE PASTA

Ingredients

16 oz Tinkyada pasta (if you need GF) - I used the spirals to soak up the sauce

4oz Neufchâtel cheese (that’s the lower fat cream cheese, use regular if you can’t find it), softened

3/4C grated Parmesan cheese (3oz)

A bit of ground nutmeg (I didn’t measure)

2C fat free half and half

1T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

Fresh spinach - how much? See note above.

2T flour*

4oz part-skim shredded mozzarella 

Fresh parsley, for garnish

*NOTE ON THE FLOUR: if you’re GF, you want to use 1-to-1 GF baking flour or rice flour here. NUT FLOURS WILL NOT WORK.

Preheat your oven to 350. (I forgot this, as usual.)

Coat a 9x13 pan with pan spray. Coat it WELL. Cheese sticks.

Cook your pasta according to package directions, making sure not to cook it past al dente. You don’t want it getting mushy in the oven!

Drain your pasta in a colander and return the pot to the stove.

While the pasta is cooking, mix the cream cheese, Parmesan and nutmeg together as well as you can. I had to use the back of a spoon. Stir in the half and half.  Set aside.

Back to the pasta pot you returned to the stove. 

Add the oil and garlic, and heat until the garlic is fragrant. Add your spinach in batches, and stir until it’s all wilted. (I had to cover the pot and let some of it steam.) Add the two tablespoons flour, stirring it into the spinach until the spinach is coated and the flour pretty much disappears. 

Remove from heat.

I moved it over to the other side of my stove.

Add the pasta back in - run some hot water over it in the colander if it’s started sticking together. 

Add the sauce. Stir until everything is well mixed.

Now comes the tricky part: get all that into your 9x13 without spilling it everywhere.

Top with the mozzarella. Cover tightly with foil, and bake until heated through, 15-20 minutes. 

Take the foil off and turn the broiler on. 

Broil until browned on top - you can see my picture above! - about 4-5 minutes.

Take out of the oven and garnish with parsley to serve.

Servings: I got 8, but they were heaping dinner-size servings. It freezes well!

Calories: 315

Shrimp Scampi

 My grandmother's recipe! This is copied out in my mother's handwriting, so you can see her 'Mama's Recipe' at the bottom - this goes back a ways! Wonderful flavor --

SHRIMP SCAMPI

Ingredients

Finely chopped garlic - LOTS

1 small jar chopped pimento

2 sticks butter (or part olive oil)

3/4 C white wine

Rosemary leaves (crush) - sprinkle lightly

Lemon juice of 2 lemons

Simmer 2 hours (or as long as you can). 

This recipe says for 7, cook 80 shrimp (20-25 count). DO NOT OVERCOOK. Pull the pan off the heat and eat them as soon as they turn pink!

We eat ours over steamed rice. 

White Lasagna with Chicken, Spinach, and Artichokes

 This recipe, the way it was originally, was ONE COLOSSAL MESS. I ended up with a pan and a half of lasagna trying to straighten it out! We had enough for the family and the condo association, both. 

I will try to get the quantities right, but this one will probably still need edited!

WHITE LASAGNA WITH CHICKEN, SPINACH AND ARTICHOKES

Ingredients

14oz chicken broth (or broth base and water, Orrington Farms broth base is gluten free)

1 1/2 C milk (I use 2% for this)

2T cornstarch

Shredded Parmnesan - I used store-bought shredded fresh Parmesan for this, not Kraft grated

4oz cream cheese, softened

1 15oz container ricotta

1 1/2 to 2 C diced cooked chicken, rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken or whatever you've got

1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

Basil, fresh if you've got it (I didn't), plenty out of your spice cabinet if you don't have fresh

1 package gluten free lasagna noodles (good luck!)

Lots of shredded mozzarella. I have no idea how much I wound up using. It's lasagna, after all.

1 8oz package sliced Provolone

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cook your lasagna noodles according to package directions. Bonus points if you were able to find gluten-free lasagna noodles that are oven-ready, that don't need boiled first! But usually, we're just happy enough to find GF lasagna noodles, we'll take whatever we can get.

Make one recipe of Ashley's Italian Wedding Sauce with the chicken broth, milk, and cornstarch in a 4-cup measure. Stir in the Parmesan. I didn't measure. Maybe 3 or 4 ounces? 

In a large bowl, stir together your softened cream cheese, ricotta, chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, and basil. Add a bit of the cream sauce - I used maybe 1/2C? 

Cover your pan with pan spray. This didn't stick too bad, but it is lasagna, after all!

Layer a bit of the sauce, noodles, the chicken mixture, mozzarella, slices of the provolone, and more sauce until all are layered. Cover pan with foil.

Bake 45 minutes and remove the foil.

I baked it about another 15 after that. The recipe said another 25. Whatever looks right! You want it a little browned and bubbly. 

Creamy Lemon-Pepper Shrimp Pasta

Do me a favor, and keep in mind when you’re cooking: Nobody ever manages to keep it ‘all together’ in the kitchen, okay? I promise you, that’s only on TV. 

In truth, everything manages to get done at once - the pasta pot starts boiling - the shrimp need taken up - and you realize you managed to forget to set a timer for those baked potatoes you stuck in the overn for next week’s lunches - all at the same time! 

And THAT was a good night, tonight!

On a really chaotic night, I let my cast iron skillet get too hot, it starts smoking when I put something in it, the smoke alarm goes off - this is hooked into my professional alarm monitoring, you understand - so then I’ve got THEM calling, to see if I need the fire department! - and I’m trying to climb on a chair, to get the batteries out of the smoke alarm to shut IT up - and my beloved little dog Hamilton is wandering around in circles adding to the noise, because his ears can’t stand the smoke alarm.

In short? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. YOU ARE STILL A GOOD COOK. And dinner gets done beautifully anyhow!

CREAMY LEMON-PEPPER SHRIMP PASTA

Ingredients

• 1 lb. pasta (I used Tinkyada spirals)
• Olive oil pan spray
• 1 lb. large

   shrimp, peeled and deveined (I took the tails off too, I don’t like shrimp tails in pasta)

• 3/4 tsp.

   salt (I used my sea salt grinder)

• 1/2 tsp. 

  black pepper (I used my pepper mill)

• 6 Tbsp. 

  lemon juice, divided, plus wedges for serving

• 2 Tbsp. 

  butter

• 3 

  cloves garlic, minced

• 1 

  (8-oz.) block cream cheese, cubed

• 1/4 cup 

  freshly chopped parsley leaves (I used dried, my fresh parsley isn’t large enough to cut this season yet - it’s only March!)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water, and return to pot. (If you’ve got a pasta pot, mine sat in the sink in the colander-pot until I was ready for it.)
2. Meanwhile, coat a large heavy bottomed skillet (cast iron is my preference) with pan spray. Over medium-high heat, add shrimp and season with ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until shrimp is pink and just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and toss to coat. Remove shrimp from skillet. (I put them in my large pasta serving bowl where I was going to be tossing all this together and covered them with foil to keep them warm.)
3. In the same skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add remaining ¼ cup lemon juice and cook, until reduced by half, 1 minute. Whisk in ¾ cup reserved pasta water and cream cheese. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, until cream cheese is completely melted into the sauce. (I had to get a spatula and kind of smash the cream cheese to get it smooth.)
4. Even though I’ve got an huge cast iron skillet, the pasta plus the shrimp were not going to fit in there to toss it all together. I added them pasta to my shrimp in my big pasta serving bowl to toss is all together, and added the sauce on top of that. If you can fit it all in your skillet, that’s actually where my directions told you to toss it! You can add more reserved pasta water if necessary to loosen sauce. I didn’t need to. 
5. Season to taste with more salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
6. Servings: 6
7. Calories: 460

Lemon Parmesan Pasta with Spinach

 I didn’t get a picture of this one… sorry! I’m working without a microwave in the kitchen at the moment, so I’m a bit distracted.

LEMON PARMESAN PASTA WITH SPINACH

Ingredients

1lb pasta

Get a lot of spinach. I used a Sam’s bag. Spinach cooks down.

4 large cloves garlic, minced

2C chicken broth (I use Orrington Farms Broth Base)

4T lemon juice

Lemon zest, if you like to zest lemons (I don’t)

1 1/2C sour cream (I used light)

1C Parmesan cheese (buy a block and grate your own, for this recipe)

Fresh Parsley, for garnish

You were supposed to toss in a tablespoon of butter, at the end. I forgot.

Cook your pasta according to package directions. I’d wilt your spinach in the microwave, myself, but since I don’t have a microwave at the moment, I waited until the pasta was done, pulled it off the heat, stirred the spinach in to wilt it, and then drained it all together. It worked.

Get out a large skillet and coat with pan spray. Heat your garlic until it’s fragrant, then add your broth and lemon juice. Simmer until reduced by about a third. Add the sour cream; whisk until blended. Add the Parmesan, a bit at a time, STIRRING CONSTANTLY or it will clump on you!

Toss pasta and spinach with the sauce. This is where you were supposed to add the butter, parsley, and lemon zest; all I remembered to add was parsley, but it still tasted marvelous!

Servings: 7

Calories per serving (with butter!): 400

Cheese Puffs (Gougères)

 These marvelous little treats are much simpler than they look, and would be equally at home on a party appetizer table or with a simple dinner of soup! 

They were originally a wheat-flour recipe, so that would work fine; I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour, and that worked just fine too.

One thing you are going to want to do is have everything measured out - grate your cheese, measure your flour - have everything measured out in little bowls before you start heating anything on the stove. Everything goes together QUICK, and you don’t want to lose too much water to evaporation, once you start.

My recipe said you could play around with this a bit - try other hard cheeses in place of the Gruyere, try other spices as add-in’s, that sort of thing - but I haven’t done any of that yet! Let me know if you do, and I’ll go back and edit them in, if they turn out well for you. 

COMING BACK FOR EDITS: I made a double batch with aged white cheddar, some garlic powder, and a few shakes of parsley. They were MARVELOUS! 

Cheese Puffs

• Ingredients

• 1/2 cup 

  water

• 4 Tbsp. 

  butter

• 1/2 tsp. 

  salt (I used regular table salt so I could measure exactly)

• 1/2 tsp. 

  granulated sugar 

• 1/2 cup 

  all-purpose flour

• 2 

  large eggs

• 1/2 cup 

  freshly grated Gruyère

• 
  

Preheat oven to 400° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• 1. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, salt, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Continue to cook until dough pulls away from the pan and forms a ball, and a film develops on the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes.
  2. Transfer dough to a bowl and continue to mix with a wooden spoon to cool slightly, 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing until smooth and fully incorporated after each addition. (You’re supposed to stop mixing once the dough is thick enough that it falls slowly when lifted with a spoon. That never happened for me.) Fold in Gruyere.
  3. Use a small (2 teaspoon capacity) cookie scoop to create small, inch-wide mounds on prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. (I needed some pan spray on my fingers and the cookie scoop for this.) Top with more gruyere and bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Yield: 15 cheese puffs, about 60 calories each