Meringues with Fresh Berries
I have been seeing meringue cookies around lately, and decided Zach and I should try our hand at them. I have actually never tasted them, so in making these I wasn’t quite sure what to look for.
We used a similar recipe for the meringues as this one, except that we only used one egg white with the appropriate amount of powdered sugar.
The first batch we made came out a little brown, we baked them at 250F as per the book’s instructions. Thanks to our handy dandy Kitchen-Aid mixer, whipping up another batch was not a problem. After further research online, we decided to bake the meringues at 200F (with the door slightly open) rather than 250F. They burned just slightly on the edges, but we took them out as soon as we saw that to prevent further browning. Anyway, read the recipe for a full tutorial. It’s always helpful to read the reviews, also, before attempting the meringues.
After the meringues had cooled, we made a fresh berry drizzle-y syrup. The syrup was simply: water, sugar, strawberries and blackberries cooked over medium-low heat until the berries were soft. After pureeing and straining, this made a nice topping to drizzle over the meringues.
Serve the meringues with the syrup, berries, and a bit of fresh mint, you’ve got either a sweet breakfast or dessert.
Broccoli and Parsnip Soup
In one of my favorite cookbooks (The 100 Calorie Cookbook), Zach and I found a recipe for broccoli and parsnip soup. We are always looking for new lunch ideas since salad and sandwiches can get kind of boring. So, making this soup and paring it with another lunch item makes for a good lunch. What’s also great about it is that it has very little ingredients.
Broccoli and Parsnip Soup, 7 1-cup servings
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 300 g parsnips, peeled and chopped
- 3 1/2 c vegetable stock
- 300 g broccoli
- 1/3 c corn kernels
- 1 oz blue cheese or feta
- pepper
- Saute onion and parsnips in oil for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, trim the broccoli to florets. Add to pan and cook for an additional 5 to 8 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
- Let cool slightly and pass through a blender to form a puree and return to pan. Season with pepper and add corn and cheese. Cook about 5 more minutes, or until corn is tender.
Calories
We like to try to limit calories where we can in some meals, and in this one, we decided to saute the onions and parsnips with water instead of olive oil. We understand that olive oil is full of healthy fat, but it’s also full of calories. Each cup of soup is about 54 calories because of that change, and we also didn’t include the feta cheese in that estimate.
This soup was so flavorful and a perfect accompaniment for a light lunch.
Mexican Gumbo
Gina and I love Q’doba Mexican Grill, but we don’t usually go there because it’s about 20 minutes away. One of our favorite dishes is Mexican Gumbo. This dish is super delicious, and simple to make at home. It’s made with rice, beans, and tortilla soup spooned over the top. Of course we top it with corn salsa, sour cream, and cheese. Since we love the Gumbo so much, we decided to make it at home.
We decided to use brown rice and black beans which combined is very nutritious. We made the tortilla soup based on a Rick Bayless recipe from Mexican Everyday. He calls it Sopa Azteca, see the link for the recipe. It’s actually very simple to make and doesn’t take very long. The whole soup is based on broth, pasilla negra chili, garlic, onion, and canned tomatoes. We substituted the dried pasilla negra chili with 1 tbsp pasilla negra chili powder (which we got as a gift, see Pumpkins and Chili Powder).
We topped the beans, rice, and tortilla soup with some cooler additions. We made a corn salsa with lime, tomato, red onion, and cilantro. Then we grated mozzarella over the top as well as some chopped cilantro.
Overall, very tasty and very simple tortilla soup. We happily ate this for four days, a nice warm soup for a chilly week.
Calories
There are many things we did to decrease the calories of this gumbo. For the tortilla soup, we sauteed onions and garlic in vegetable broth instead of oil to save us about 200 calories. Also, we used part skim mozzarella and only a few tortilla chips.
- Tortilla soup: 54 calories per 1 cup
- Brown Rice: 130 calories per 2/3 cup
- Black Beans: 150 calories per 2/3 cup
- Corn Salsa: 40 calories per 2 tbsp
- Mozzarella: 25 calories per 1/3 ounce
- Tortilla chips: 54 calories per four chips
Total Calories: 453
We successfully made yummy, healthy, Q’doba-like Mexican gumbo at home. It’s a nice way to jazz up plain rice and beans!
