Turkey Meatball Spinach Tortellini Soup

This easy, kid-friendly soup is a great way to warm up on a cold winter night. One large bowl is under 300 calories and is very satisfying.

I love turkey meatballs in my soup. Spaghetti and meatball soup is a regular in my home because my kids love it! I also love making tortellini soup – Spinach Tortellini en Brodo is a winter favorite of mine. This recipe combines the best of both soups and my family loved it. I hope yours does too!

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Spaghetti Squash Sausage Lasagna Boats

If you're craving something decadent and delicious without overdoing the calories, you'll love these delicious spaghetti squash boats filled with everything you love about lasagna – chicken sausage, tomato sauce, ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

I even used whole milk mozzarella cheese because I wanted it to melt nice, I just used it in moderation. The whole thing is way under 300 calories and 8 points plus if you're on Weight Watchers, and it's filling! It's also gluten free – if you prefer to use part-skim mozzarella, the WW Points would be 7 pp.

Spaghetti squash when cooked has a lot of liquid, so I find it helpful to place it in a colander over paper towels to help get red of the excess moisture and it works perfectly.

You can prep this ahead of time, then put it on the oven just before you're ready to bake. If you happen to only find large spaghetti squash, you can place the mixture in a 9x9 baking dish instead of the shells. Enjoy!!

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Best Skinny Eggplant Rollatini with Spinach

This decadent, cheesy Italian comfort dish is my favorite way to enjoy eggplant and now that the weather is getting cooler, a great excuse to turn on your oven. Thin slices of eggplant are baked, then stuffed with ricotta, parmesan and spinach and baked with my homemade marinara sauce and topped with melted mozzarella cheese. Folks, this dish is restaurant quality (without the frying and extra fat you'd get in a restaurant).

If you're thinking your not a fan of eggplant, I know this recipe will change your mind. The eggplant is sliced so thin (I used my mandolin for perfect even slices) that it literally melts in your mouth once it's baked. A serving is super generous, you'll be stuffed for under 250 calories. And it's meatless, so you can save this for meatless Mondays (but honestly I can eat this every day).

In the past I've sliced my eggplant a little thicker, but trust me, it's just not the same. I prefer to use two medium eggplants so my slices all come out even in size (can you say OCD?) and I save the odd-sized pieces for another recipe (chop it up and simmer it in marinara for a delicious Eggplant and Tomato Sauce). But if you prefer to use one large one and don't mind all your rolls coming out different sizes, go for it. This recipe is a little more time consuming, so save this for the weekend when you can play some music and sip some wine while you cook… Bon Appetit!

PS- for those who want to know what brand of Mandolin, it's available on Amazon, it's from OXO (click to see).

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Zoodles and Meatballs (zucchini noodles)

 

The weather is changing, and I kind of like it. I'm looking forward cooler weather, but I'm not quite ready for zucchini season to end – we've been eating "zoodles" all summer long!

This is sorta a two part recipe, I made a pot of my Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs at my toddler's request but rather than eating mine with pasta, I served it over zoodles (zucchini noodles) for a lighter low-carb alternative (perfect for using up zucchini from your garden).

A good rule of thumb is one medium zucchini per person, since you lose some when you cut them and the shrink a bit when they cook. To cut them I used my OXO mandolin with my julienne blade and I stop right about when I get to the seeds, then I rotate and slice. A word of advice, please be careful when using a mandolin, the blades are VERY sharp.

You can also use a spiralizer instead to make them more spaghetti-like. I'm going to be making these as much as I can as long as I can find zucchini at my local farmer's market!


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Savory Zucchini Asiago Tomato Scones

Light and biscuit-like savory scones made with a blend of whole wheat and white flour, shredded zucchini, sun dried tomato, Asiago cheese and fresh rosemary. Almost smells like pizza when it comes out of the oven!

I was at the farmer's market in Long Beach this past weekend and bought lots of zucchini and tomatoes. I also came across a stand selling savory scones, a concept I fell in love with. Rather than my usual scones that I make with fruit, these are made with seasonal summer ingredients – perfect for brunch, lunch or with dinner. Today I had a scone for lunch with a beautiful heirloom tomato salad from the tomatoes I bought over the weekend. I'm thinking the leftovers would be perfect for dinner tonight with my homemade tomato bisque using the rest of the tomatoes I have.

Scones are usually made with double the amount of butter, to lighten them I have been having great success replacing butter with whipped butter in my baked recipes which is a lighter since it's whipped. I also use half the amount of butter used in traditional scones, and adding the zucchini really helps give the scones lots of moisture. The scones come out tender and soft with lots of wonderful flavor.

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Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Hope you all had a happy July 4th!! With zucchini season in full bloom, I thought I would revive this from the archives - one of my absolute favorites!! Enjoy!!

Summer zucchini hollowed out and stuffed with lean Italian sausage, then topped with marinara and cheese.

OMG! You guys are going to love these!

I've had this concept in my head for a while, but now that zucchini is in full season and my friend gave me some fresh from her garden, I put my idea to the test. The results were simply amazing, thumbs up all around, especially from my picky teen!

One boat fills me up, but you can enjoy two and still be in good shape. I love Polly-O part-skim mozzarella because it melts beautifully as you can see in the photo. I'm pretty picky about my Italian sausage, but I love al fresco's sweet Italian chicken sausage, you forget it's chicken while you eat it and it's 75% less fat that pork sausage, and it's gluten-free. Hope you enjoy.

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Grilled Pesto Chicken and Tomato Kebabs

These chicken kebobs just SCREAM summer, made with my skinny basil pesto and grape tomatoes. Serve this as an appetizer at your next backyard bash, or have them for dinner any night of the week with a great big salad or over pasta.

We grow sooo much basil in my garden all summer long, so I make a lot of pesto and use it so many ways. This is super easy and can be made a day ahead, in fact the longer it marinates the better! Doubling the skewers helps keep everything in place while grilling, and makes them easier to turn. I love how the tomatoes taste after they are grilled, and they smell just divine when they come off the grill. To make my pesto skinny, I use less oil and make it without the pine nuts – but it's still so flavorful you won't miss them! If you're having this for dinner, I would serve 2 skewers, rather than one with salad or grilled veggies on the side.

These are gluten free, inexpensive, low-carb, clean and simple. If you want to make them paleo, you can leave out the parmesan and swap it for pine nuts. If you love pesto as much as we do, you may also love Skinny Chicken Pesto Bake, Grilled Pesto Shrimp Skewers, or this delicious Eggplant Panini with Pesto – so good!!

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Summer Pasta Salad with Baby Greens

I love making this mayo-less pasta salad with arugula, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, capers, fresh shaved Parmesan cheese and a splash of balsamic and oil. It's great for lunch or dinner, and has a healthy serving of baby greens. In the summer, when tomatoes are at their sweetest, I replace the sun dried tomatoes with fresh tomatoes from my garden.

I usually have this for dinner on those warmer nights when I want a meatless meal or just something light, and because it has pasta in it, I feel full and satisfied after I eat it. The portions are pretty large for under 200 calories (only 5 WW points plus). This also makes a great side dish if you reduce the portions when you're grilling up some burgers or chicken.

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Chicken Francese - Lightened Up

Skinless chicken cutlets, lightly coated in flour and egg, cooked in a white wine lemon sauce. Move over Olive Garden, this one's lighter and easy to make!

Confession, I've never been to the Olive Garden, heck I live in New York, we have tons of great Italian restaurants here so there's really no need. This is my husband Tommy's specialty, on those random nights that he gives me a break from the kitchen, he usually makes his Chicken Francese.

My husband's version let's just say is a little bit heavier, so I learned how to make it myself, with a lot less butter. My family loves it, kids and all and I usually serve this with a simple salad on the side.

This is also great over pasta with garlic since it makes a lemon sauce, I like to make it over whole wheat angel hair or orzo when I'm craving carbs. This is not a new recipe, I first posted this back in 2009, but I make this often and my husband thought it was time for a re-shoot. I also made a few modifications to it since I last posted, so if you have an old recipe printed out, you may want to print out a new one.

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Italian Antipasto Salad

Chopped romaine hearts, shredded mozzarella, olives, prosciutto, turkey pepperoni, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, pepperoncini and Giardiniera (colorful vegetables in vinegar) – this quick Italian salad requires no cooking, which makes it perfect to whip up or pack for lunch.

Cold antipasto is usually the first course of an Italian meal, which consists of a variety of cold meats, cheeses, olives, roasted peppers, and a variety of colorful vegetables that have been pickled in vinegar known as Giardiniera and pepperoncini. This adds so much flavor to the salad, without tons of calories and because it is so flavorful, you really don't need to add a lot of oil. I make the quick dressing by using some of the vinegar from the jar of the pepperoncini, and just add a touch of olive oil and fresh cracked pepper and finito!

This salad is so adaptable to anyone's taste, I love proscuitto but you can swap it for ham or turkey, or leave it out altogether and add more cheese and olives. Sometimes I also add shredded carrots and sliced mushrooms, whatever you like. The real trick to get the bold flavors is from the pepperoncini and Giardiniera, which are both sold jarred in Italian section of the supermarket and add a lot of flavor to the salad. If you can't find Giardiniera, it's fairly simple to make it yourself, here's a recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

I made this salad for one, but it can easily be multiplied for 2 or 4. One note, this is not low in sodium, because of the meats, olives and cheese, so if you're watching your sodium, opt for low sodium ham, cheese and make your own pickled vegetables.

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Spring Asparagus Risotto

Creamy risotto, cooked with Spring asparagus, fresh herbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano and a touch of lemon. Perfect as a meatless main dish if you use vegetable broth, or wonderful as a side with grilled shrimp.

This Italian rice dish is a labor of love, not the kind of dish you turn on and walk away from, but instead slowly cooked with ladlefuls of broth, adding more each time it's absorbed. Just before the last ladle, I added fresh asparagus to the last five minutes of cooking time and finished it with a touch of lemon juice and lemon zest.

Because risotto is so simple, I like to use the freshest ingredients when I make it such as seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs and good cheese.


Asparagus is perfect addition to risotto, and now in season. This spear-shaped veggie is an awesome weapon for your health. It’s packed with disease-fighting nutrients including fiber, folate, vitamins A, C, E and K and glutathione, a detoxifying compound that may protect against certain types of cancer. And it’s loaded with age-defying antioxidants that work to neutralize cell-damaging free radicals in your body. Look for spears with tight buds and firm stalks without wrinkles.


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Angel Hair Pasta with Scallops and Tomatoes

Sauteed bay scallops with tomatoes and a touch of white wine and lemon juice served over angel hair pasta.

If you're looking for a special dinner to make for your loved one this Valentine's Day, this is a perfect dish. For starters, it takes less than 15 minutes to make, so you'll have less time cooking, and more time together. Secondly, scallops date back to ancient Greece as an aphrodisiac. As legend has it, the goddess Aphrodite was carried to earth on the shell of a scallop.

Personally, I love scallops for their sweet, delicate flavor. Bay scallops are the smaller variety and are usually less expensive than sea scallops. They are wonderful tossed with pasta and take less than a minute to cook.

Because bay scallops retain so much water, it's really important that you dry them well before cooking, and you really want to cook them in a hot pan so you get a quick sear. I cook them in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of my pan. Don't skip this step because you don't want to overcrowd the pan, otherwise the scallops will become rubbery and won't sear.

If you're family doesn't like whole wheat pasta, a great trick I like to do is use both whole wheat and semolina. You don't really notice the taste of the whole wheat and your getting the added benefits of using a whole grain.

For all you spaghetti squash lovers out there, I'm sure this would be wonderful over roasted spaghetti squash as a gluten-free, lower-carb alternative.

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Butternut Squash Risotto

A rich and creamy Italian rice dish made with butternut squash puree, white wine, Parmigiano-Reggiano and topped with a little fresh arugula.

Happy Monday! Today I'm in chilly Minneapolis attending an event for Target. They put together a fun agenda for members of the Target Inner Circle which I'll be sharing this week, you can follow my Instagram to see what I'm up to today.

This weekend I remade one of my older recipes with meatless Monday in mind, and updated the photos because this is such a great dish, but the photos didn't do it justice.

Making risotto is a labor of love, because you have to be patient, stirring the rice and adding more broth a little at a time, but in the end you get a delicious restaurant quality dish that you can proudly say you made yourself, without all the added butter you would get if you ate this dish out. It's also really filling, one serving will fill you up. If you wish serve it with a salad on the side and call it a meal.

This also makes a great side dish to fish or chicken, I would make the serving size 1/2 cup as a side dish.

I started with some homemade squash puree which I simply made by boiling the butternut squash in broth or water, then pureeing in the blender. You can use the rest for some Spaghetti with Creamy Butternut Leek Pasta later in the week.

I like to keep a good cheese such as Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano on hand and grate it myself when I need it. A good cheese has an intense flavor you just can't get from the grated parmesan cheese sold on the shelves of the supermarket. 

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Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joe

Turkey sausage, peppers and onions slow cooked in the crock pot with crushed tomatoes and spices for an easy weeknight meal. Serve this on a roll with baby spinach and melted cheese if desired for a sloppy yet delicious sandwich.

This is good stuff! We all gave it a thumbs up, and I will surely be making this again. Next time I may even serve this over spaghetti squash or pasta.

For those of you on Weight Watchers, the filling alone is 4 points plus, with the bun and cheese it comes to 8 for a filling complete meal; perfect for lunch or dinner. This is easy, inexpensive and perfect for football; you can double the recipe for more servings. If you want to do this on the stove top, simply simmer in a heavy pot for 30 minutes.

For a more traditional Sloppy Joe, made on the stove, try my Skinny Sloppy Joe Recipe! And for those of you who don't have access to turkey or chicken sausage, you can easily make your own with this recipe, homemade turkey sausage.

I've been getting so many emails asking me what slow cooker I use, I've had many bad experiences with crock pots cooking to hot and turning out strange tasting food... but my current Slow Cooker, the Hamilton Beach Set and Forget 6 Quart Slow Cooker is great and I've had good results each time. I'm sure there may be others that are just as good, but I can only vouch for this one.

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Cheesy Baked Spaghetti Squash Boats with Grilled Chicken

Roasted spaghetti squashed topped with marinara sauce, grilled chicken, melted mozzarella and some fresh basil. I had a hard time naming this one, but I think you get the point.

I was craving something cheesy for dinner last night, and I had spaghetti squash sitting in my counter without a plan, so I came up with this tasty dish. When my husband heard what I was making, he didn't sound too excited, but after he ate he thought it was pretty good.

If you've never had spaghetti squash before, it's a winter squash that has spaghetti-like strands when you cook it and fluff it with a fork. Does it taste like spaghetti? Well no, it's kind of neutral in flavor, so it takes on the flavor from whatever you season it with. I always have homemade marinara sauce on hand, either in the refrigerator or freezer, which makes quick weeknight meals a snap.

If you want to speed this up, you can microwave the spaghetti squash instead, I provided both instructions below.

For those of you on Weight Watchers, each boat is only 6 points plus and it filled me up. In fact, because it's so light, I may use fresh mozzarella next time I make this so it's even cheesier, this recipe can afford it!

There are so many delicious types of winter squash, including acorn, butternut and spaghetti. Whichever gourd you go for, you can be assured you’re making a healthy choice. Winter squash is loaded with vitamins A and C, potassium and fiber. They also contain some folate and thiamin, a B vitamin that helps the body turn carbs into energy. Look for squash with a think, hard skin that’s free of blemishes. Make sure it feels heavy for its size—that’s a sign of freshness. You can keep squash for up to a month in a cool, dry place.
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Autumn Penne Pasta with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts In A Light Ragu

I'm busy working on my cookbook, so I thought since I'm making this tonight, I would revive it from the archives. Trust me it's good, and if you don't believe me read the comments!

A hearty pasta dish for a crisp Autumn day. Pasta is tossed with sauteed brussels sprouts and a quick meat ragu made light by using lean ground turkey and just enough hot Italian pork sausage to enhance the flavor of the sauce.

I know what some of you are thinking, brussels sprouts???

Trust me on this, prepared right, they are delicious!

My husband almost didn't allow me to add them to his portion claiming how much he dislikes them. He put his fork in my bowl of sauteed brussels sprouts and quickly changed his mind. He claimed I cheated by adding all that garlic to them. Well whatever works : )

In fact, all throughout the meal, he raved about what a great dish this turned out to be. Serve this with Pecorino Romano sprinkled on top and spoonful of part-skim ricotta on top, yum!!

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Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage and Baby Spinach

Spicy chicken sausage is the perfect compliment to this creamy pasta dish made with butternut squash, baby spinach, parmesan and a touch of sage. It's filling and comforting on a chilly winter night.

Since making Spaghetti with Creamy Butternut Leek Sauce a few weeks back, I am officially hooked. I love how the butternut squash feels like a decadent creamy sauce without the need for heavy cream. And with the addition of parmesan and hot sausage, the end result is savory and delicious.

I am also loving Giada's new line of organic pastas sold at Target. I'm picky with my pasta and love the taste and texture of this pasta when cooked al dente. I always go for unusual pasta shapes, here I used a shape called casarecce... love!

As part of the Target Inner Circle, I got to meet Giada in person a few weeks ago at Fun and Fit in the City. Isn't she beautiful!

L-R, My daughter Karina, Me, Giada, My girlfriend Raquel

She was so sweet in person, I also got an autographed cookbook and a goody bag full of her new food products sold at Target. My favorites were of course the organic pastas. I tried a few shapes, but plan on going back to Target to try the whole wheat.

A few more things: This week I teemed up with 11 other bloggers to host a HUGE HOLIDAY giveaway... Two winners, one will win an iMac Computer! A second winner will win a $500 gift card. Hey, you never know! You gotta be in it to win it... click here for a chance to win!

And most importantly: Starting today I am making a commitment to run at least 1 mile a day until New Years. You in? It's part of the 2012 Holiday Running Streak from Runner's World. The way I see it, why wait till New Years? Let's start now, with all the baking and indulging that goes on during the Holidays, this is the perfect way to find a balance. I ran a mile this morning, I'll be running again tomorrow... if you prefer to walk, that's fine too, I would love it if you joined me. It could be inside, outside, morning, lunch time, evening... whenever you can squeeze it in. Tell me you're in, it will help keep me motivated!

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Spaghetti with Creamy Butternut Leek Parmesan Sauce

Something magical happens to pasta when you combine it with a creamy butternut squash puree, a little Parmigiano Reggiano, leeks, garlic and sage.

I found this out by accident.

This started from a mistake, a butternut squash puree that was far too thin and liquidy.  A very HAPPY mistake!

This is an awesome blender!!

Sauteed leeks and a good quality cheese make this simple savory pasta dish a HUGE success, even if you're not a fan of butternut squash. You'll swear this is full of cream and butter... but it's not. This is perfect for Meatless Mondays, or any night of the week.

It's super easy to make with only a few ingredients, and is very filling. To speed this up, you can buy pre-cut butternut squash. I was craving a thick spaghetti, but any pasta shape would work. Whole wheat of gluten-free pasta would also be great! My family isn't a fan of whole wheat, so I use Ronzoni Smart Taste or Dreamfield's low carb pasta.

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