Category Archives: Vegetables & Side Dishes

Vegetables and side dishes

Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Pasta

Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Pasta

     Fresh green beans from the garden are crisp, delicious seasoned with oil, lemon, pecorino romano cheese, and herbs. Many cook fresh green beans ‘all day’ with bacon or ham and maybe with potatoes.  The idea was canned and overcooked green beans were  best!  My thoughts of frozen green beans just didn’t have the right taste.

     Seasoned potatoes, steaming pasta and warm fresh bread are considered comfort foods in times of stress.  Foods higher in carbohydrates causes changes in the brain; serotonin, a brain chemical for giving feelings of well-being, is increased. Stress drains the serotonin in the brain giving rise to negative feelings.  Coffee, chocolate, and sweets are first thought for stress, however the sense of well-being is short-lived with a sugar-high, blood sugar level drops leaving frazzled. feelings.*  Green beans are rich in nutrients of folate, manganese and vitamins: C, K, A, B6.  Pasta is a complex carbohydrate as potatoes.  They are digested slowly providing energy over long period of time.³

Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Pasta

Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Pasta

Green Beans, Red Potatoes and Pasta

Julia Ann
A comfort food dish of pasta and fresh green beans and red potatoes and light sauce.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Vegetables and Pasta
Cuisine American
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 6 quarts of water

Instructions
 

  • Bring water to boil in large kettle.
  • Add green beans, bring back to boil 6 minutes.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon, drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.
  • Set beans aside.
  • Add potatoes to same water, cook until soft.
  • Remove potatoes with slotted spoon, drain and set aside.
  • Add pasta to vegetable water cook per package instructions.
  • When al dente, save 1 cup pasta water.
  • Drain pasta and rinse briefly with cold water
  • Heat olive oil and butter in 12-inch skillet.
  • Cook onion, garlic and celery until soft and onion translucent.
  • Add green beans, potatoes and pasts to skillet.
  • Sprinkle seasonings, except cheese, and pasta water over and stir to blend,
  • care not to mash potatoes.
  • Simmer to heat through.
  • Pour into serving dish or serve from the skillet.
  • Sprinkle the cheese over the vegetables and pasta.

Notes

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice®  bring you great recipes for your cooking experience.
©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com. All rights reserved.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

Serve a simple salad: spring lettuces, tomato, avocado, green onion and black olives with your favorite salad dressing.

Tomato Avocado Salad

                      Tomato Avocado Salad

Reference:
*Yeager, Selene and the Editors of Prevention®, 2007. The Doctors Book® of Food Remedies.  New York: Rodale, Inc. (Yeager 2007, p. 6

 

 

 

 

 

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Julia Ann and cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice® bring you great recipesfor your cooking experience.

 ©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com. All rights reserved.

 

 

(July 19, 2013)

 

Beets with Balsamic Vinegar

Serving roasted beets with balsamic vinegar.

Serving roasted beets with balsamic vinegar.

Beets with Balsamic Vinegar

Beets are available June to August at the farmer’s markets.  They are available year round in the grocery. Harvard and pickled beets are most common recipes used.  Beets with Balsamic Vinegar can be served hot or cold in a lettuce salad.

I trimmed the greens to about 4 inches top of beet and left root attached. It is recommended steaming for 15 minutes to prevent loss of vitamin B, manganese, potassium, vitamin C and benefits from the red or yellow pigments. After washing, I put them in a Presto Pressure Cooker with 1 1/2 cups  water and cooked under pressure for 15 minutes.  After briefly cooling in cold water, the skins easily slide off without peeling.  The beets were cut into 1-inch  pieces into an oven-proof dish.

I blended the canola oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. This was  poured over the cooked beets and stirred to coat the pieces.  They were baked at 425°F for 10 minutes and served hot.. Beets not eaten were refrigerated and later added to a lettuce salad.

Beets with Balsamic Vinegar

Julia Ann
A tangy taste to beets to eating hot or cold. Add to a lettuce salad for color and great taste.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Vegetables
Cuisine American
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 6-8 beets 2 inches in diameter

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425 F
  • Prepare oven-proof dish for baking.
  • Wash and trim beets, leaving 4 inches of stems on top and the root end.
  • Steam in pressure cooker or steamer for 15 minutes.
  • Briefly cool in water.
  • Slide the skin off the beets.(Use plastic glove to prevent staining hands.)
  • Cut beets into 1-inch cubes, lay in baking dish.
  • Whisk together canola oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
  • Pour over the beets turning to coat evenly.
  • Bake for 10 minutes.
  • Remove to serving dish.
  • Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley.

Notes

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice® bring you great recipes for your cooking experience. ©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com. All rights reserved.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 About Balsamic Vinegar

It is not made from wine, it is made from the grape pressings which have not been fermented into wine. The pressings are of the sweet white Trebbiano grape boiled down into a dark syrup and aged in a series of barrels. True Italian balsamic vinegar is controlled by strict laws – it must be aged no less than 12 years and some even longer. The best Italian vinegar is from Modena in Northern Italy.

(Original recipe from Harvard University Dining Services)

Netta Belle's Choice cookbookinabox

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice®  bring you great recipes for your cooking experience.

©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com.  All rights reserved.

Fourth of July Lunch Menu with Apple Pie Recipe

Fourth of July Lunch Menu with Apple Pie Recipe

Menus do not have to be elaborate to be tasty or for it to be a party or picnic. Lemon Bar-B-Que Chicken Breasts  pieces, served with baked beans, Summer Time Cole Slaw and American Apple Pie tops off an easy holiday lunch or picnic.

Fourth of July Lunch

                               Fourth of July Lunch

The zesty Lemon-Bar-B-Que recipe is in the cookbookinabox® Menu 101.  The Netta Belle’s Choice® Summer Time Cole Slaw is given in previous post for the recipe in this blog.  Use your favorite baked beans recipe or purchase sweet and spicy flavored baked beans. style American Apple Pie recipe follows.

American Apple Pie

American Apple Pie

American Apple Pie

Julia Ann
Celebrate July 4th with a Golden Delicious Apple Pie.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • DOUBLE 9-INCH PIE CRUST

Instructions
 

  • PIE CRUST
  • Combine flour, cold butter and cold shortening in large bowl.
  • Use mixer to blend to corn meal texture.
  • Add water by tablespoons just until dough begins to stick together.
  • Gather into a large ball.
  • Divide into two, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap to refrigerate 30 to 60 minutes.
  • Roll out between wax paper or generously floured board.
  • Line the bottom of 9-inch pie plate.
  • Roll out second ball of dough for the top crust.
  • ------------
  • APPLE PIE FILLING
  • Preheat oven to 425 F.
  • Slice apples into lemon juice, stir to coat. (Prevents apples from browning.)
  • Mix sugars, tapioca and spices in large bowl.
  • Drain apples.
  • Pour apples into sugar mixture, blend to coat apples with sugar mixture.
  • Pour filling in prepared pie plate.
  • Dot top with butter,
  • Cover with second pie crust.
  • Make small holes to allow steam escape while baking.
  • Bake 15 minutes at 425 F.
  • Reduce heat to 350 F, bake 35 to 45 minutes more.
  • Cover with aluminum foil if top browns too fast.

Notes

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice® bring you great recipes for your cooking experience. 2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.”Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com. All rights reserved.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

                      Enjoy your American Apple Pie with your Fourth of July Lunch Menu.

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice® bring you great recipes for your cooking experience.

Netta Belle's Choice cookbookinabox©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com.  All rights reserved.

Braised Fennel and Carrots

 Netta Belle’s Choice® Braised Fennel and Carrots

Dish of fennel and braised carrots.

 

 Fennel

Fennel has a flavor of anise, a mild licorice taste.  In many of the grocery stores it is sold as anise. Fennel can be eaten raw in salads with vegetables or fruits, cooked by braising, sauteing, stir-frying, steaming, or roasting.  It is an excellent source of Vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium, manganese and folate.  The seeds are used in sausage, meat loaf, tomato sauces and bread. The seeds make a nice flavor to a fruit salad with the mild licorice taste.

Carrots

Carrots, a versatile vegetable, are good to snack raw or even in a cake for dessert. Carrots are in salads, side dishes, stews, soups and roasts.  They have a sweet taste, particularly when cooked in any variety of techniques as in Braised Fennel and Carrots.  Vitamin A is the highest nutrient in carrots, along with vitamin K, dietary fiber, vitamin C, potassium, manganese as well as smaller percentages of vitamin B6, B3, B1, B2 and E.

Braised Fennel and Carrots

Julia Ann
Enjoy the mild anise flavor and herbs of fennel with the sweetness of carrots for a vegetable side dish to serve with roast pork or a tofu entree.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Vegetable
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4
Calories 18 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 fennel bulb cut into quarters lengthwise
  • 1 ½ cup carrots cut into 3 inch pieces
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup chicken broth low fat
  • 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
  • 2 tbsp vinegar white wine
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon thyme leaves dried whole
  • salt and pepper to your taste

Instructions
 

  • Trim fennel bulb, cut off stems, leaves and the bottom.
  • Wash thoroughly, cut into quarters. Cut out the core or heart of the bulb.
  • Wash and scrape carrots, cut into 3-inches pieces then quarters.
  • Mince garlic cloves.
  • Combine broth, oil, garlic, fennel, carrots into a large saucepan.
  • Bring vegetables to a boil.
  • Reduce heat to simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
  • Remove vegetables to a warm bowl, cover and keep warm.
  • Increase heat on liquid, reduce to 1/3 cup, about 5 minutes.
  • Mix the wine vinegar, sugar, thyme and seasonings
  • Heat through.
  • Pour the seasoned syrup over the warm vegetables before serving.

Notes

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice®  bring you great recipes for your cooking experience. ©2007-2019 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.” Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com. All rights reserved.

Nutrition

Calories: 18kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSodium: 30mgPotassium: 242mgFiber: 2gVitamin A: 78IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

cookbookinabox® in partnership with Netta Belle’s Choice® bring you great recipes for your cooking experience.

Netta Belle's Choice cookbookinabox©2007-2018 Netta Belle’s Choice® cookbookinabox® “Reg. U.S. Pat. & Trdmk.Off.”  Reg. “Trade-marks Canadian Intellectual Property Office.” nettabelleschoice.com and cookbookinabox.com All rights reserved.