Sometimes we get into a green bean and salad rut, unable to imagine 5 vegetables a day. Studies show that fruits and vegetables are an important part of our diet, with anti-aging properties as well as fighting cancer and heart disease. It is actually easy to find quick and easy vegetable recipes that are tasty and appealing with a little advance planning.
Though called summer squash, fresh yellow squash and zucchini are actually available year round. They are fat free, rich in Vitamin C and very low in calories. In the fight to get more fruits and vegetables on the table, this quick and healthy dinner vegetable recipe is a clear winner.
This Squash Medley is a mixture of zucchini and yellow summer squash. You can use either one alone if you must, but mixing them contributes to the flavors and visual appeal. You want to cook the squash only until barely fork tender, not mushy. Stir in the oregano as you take the squash off the heat. As a variation, my family also likes this with an onion added to the squash and some parmesan cheese thrown in with the oregano, but that's another meal.
Squash Medley
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 pound zucchini, cut into ½ by 2 inch sticks
1 pound yellow squash, cut into ½ by 2 inch sticks
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh oregano
1. Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the zucchini, summer squash and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Cook over medium high heat, stirring until brown and almost tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Stir in the oregano.
4. Serve.
Do you need more easy dinner recipe ideas? Sign up for our newsletter at Easy Dinner Recipes and get quick and healthy recipes delivered to your email regularly. Find more vegetable recipe ideas at Southern Style Vegetable Dishes.
Diane Watkins is a traditional southern style cook. She enjoys cooking, teaching, and writing about good food and family. For more information on southern cooking and recipes visit her website at Easy Southern Cooking.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
A Pasta Fagioli Recipe Mixes The Best Of Italy In One Pot
The pasta fagioli recipe is a Southern Italian, Old World style soup. This type of Italian cooking has been going on for over a thousand years, standing the test of time and palette and is still delicious to this day.
Southern Italy, like an Italian pasta soup recipe, is a blend of all things good. You can see it in the faces of the people and not just melted into the flavors of the food. It's a mixture of Greek, Arab and Spanish thrown together in a pot. The final outcome? Perfection in a bowl!
The name of this soup recipe, called 'Pasta e Fagioli' has evolved from dialect to dialect as Italians immigrated from Italy to America, mostly congregating in New York. Over time the name of the soup was added another flavor - the Italian American flavor. Slang for this Italian pasta recipe became pasta fazool, pasta fazoo, and pastavasu. Ultimately, it's a pasta and bean soup.
Fagioli (Pha-gee-oh-lee) is the Italian word for bean. The bones are what make the beans tender and add flavor to the soup. In fact, the meat traditionally used in pasta e fagioli soup was pork. Yes pork, those grunting, snorting muddy little creatures that find those delectable and expensive truffles that we foodies love so much! It's also the predominant meat in Italy and is food to be respected.
Much like the word, the soup recipe has evolved as well. It wouldn't be unusual for neighbors to pass along from door to door the same meat bones or even a prociutto bone to be used over and over again, adding flavor to the soups being made in the kitchens of friends and family within a small town. They took what ingredients were available to them to create something nutritious, healthy and good, and I mean really good. Using those ingredients to feed family, friends, and sometimes even neighborhoods.
It's the sense of family, tradition and a true respect for life and the good things in it that Italians are most known for, food being very high on that list. So when you find yourself sitting at an Italian table and you see this masterpiece being served along with a loaf of crusty bread, a chunk of parmigiano and a drizzle of Italian olive oil remember what goes into the makings of this time old traditional meal. Things you won't find on the list of ingredients but make this Italian pasta soup much, much more then just a meal.
About Author:
Kira Volpi is passionate about pasta and created http://jeffroggie.mdjf07069.hop.clickbank.net/ to share her family's secrets for making the best Italian pasta. You'll find her pasta fagioli recipe good to the last bite.
For more information click here
Southern Italy, like an Italian pasta soup recipe, is a blend of all things good. You can see it in the faces of the people and not just melted into the flavors of the food. It's a mixture of Greek, Arab and Spanish thrown together in a pot. The final outcome? Perfection in a bowl!
The name of this soup recipe, called 'Pasta e Fagioli' has evolved from dialect to dialect as Italians immigrated from Italy to America, mostly congregating in New York. Over time the name of the soup was added another flavor - the Italian American flavor. Slang for this Italian pasta recipe became pasta fazool, pasta fazoo, and pastavasu. Ultimately, it's a pasta and bean soup.
Fagioli (Pha-gee-oh-lee) is the Italian word for bean. The bones are what make the beans tender and add flavor to the soup. In fact, the meat traditionally used in pasta e fagioli soup was pork. Yes pork, those grunting, snorting muddy little creatures that find those delectable and expensive truffles that we foodies love so much! It's also the predominant meat in Italy and is food to be respected.
Much like the word, the soup recipe has evolved as well. It wouldn't be unusual for neighbors to pass along from door to door the same meat bones or even a prociutto bone to be used over and over again, adding flavor to the soups being made in the kitchens of friends and family within a small town. They took what ingredients were available to them to create something nutritious, healthy and good, and I mean really good. Using those ingredients to feed family, friends, and sometimes even neighborhoods.
It's the sense of family, tradition and a true respect for life and the good things in it that Italians are most known for, food being very high on that list. So when you find yourself sitting at an Italian table and you see this masterpiece being served along with a loaf of crusty bread, a chunk of parmigiano and a drizzle of Italian olive oil remember what goes into the makings of this time old traditional meal. Things you won't find on the list of ingredients but make this Italian pasta soup much, much more then just a meal.
About Author:
Kira Volpi is passionate about pasta and created http://jeffroggie.mdjf07069.hop.clickbank.net/ to share her family's secrets for making the best Italian pasta. You'll find her pasta fagioli recipe good to the last bite.
For more information click here
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