Pumpkin Risotto

I haven’t made risotto for awhile, but figured it was perfect for pumpkin week! I wanted a savory pumpkin dish since the first thought with pumpkin is pie.

The Three Bite Rule - Pumpkin Risotto
One of my favorite risottos is tomato and zucchini risotto using tomato juice for even more flavor. Risotto gets bad wrap for being difficult. I think it is just a dish that requires some attention. This risotto gets pure pumpkin cooked in with the liquid. It makes it more like a flavor boost than an addition (like butternut squash chunks would be). I like to stir. I come from a family of folks who like to stir. This is the perfect dish for that!

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio rice
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat rice and 2 tbs olive oil in large pot, over medium heat to toast the rice a bit (about 3-5 minutes).
In another pot over low heat, warm the broth, pumpkin, and water.
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Stir the rice as it toasts and begins to get lightly tanned. Reduce heat to medium low.
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Add a cup of the pumpkin liquid to the rice and stir.
Continue adding liquid in 1 cup increments adding more once the last liquid gets absorbed.
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Continue cooking, stirring, and adding liquid until all the liquid gets absorbed. When the rice is cooked add in the nutmeg and Parmesan.
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I love the flavors in this. It is so easy and goes with anything. Sage would be good with this but I find it a bit intense and it is hard to justify a $4 herb that I only want one leaf from. The risotto takes about 20-25 minutes. It isn’t that much work with other easy-ish dishes going on. I think I grilled some chicken sausages and tossed a salad that night.

I used this as a side dish but it could serve as a whole meal. Spinach or arugula would be good for some color. Mushrooms would make it more meal-centric.

We even fried up some leftover risotto into cakes from the leftovers. Nothing else added, just risotto crisp-a-fied. So good, and wayyy easier than aranchini. I don’t have photos of that because it basically was a no-fuss dinner one night. I feel so productive, grown up, and accomplished when leftovers get created into something amazing.

Need more pumpkin dinner ideas? I’ve made a pumpkin pasta that is so easy and a great variation. I owe you a pumpkin black bean soup I repeatedly fall in love each fall.

What do you like for savory pumpkin dishes?

Pumpkin Bread French Toast

Happy Pumpkin Week! The next few days are going to be PUMPKIN filled featuring some of my pumpkin favs. I hope this pumpkin breakfast makes for a happier Monday. The first few days after daylight savings are always weird. I felt old when I realized that I used to like daylight savings to get more to Saturday night. Now it makes for a longer Sunday.

I’ve shared quickie pumpkin muffins last year. Spice Cake + pumpkin = easy muffins. I believe Weight Watchers suggests this because there’s no eggs, and no oil. I drop in cinnamon chips. I made that into bread using some leftovers into french toast. Craisins or walnuts would be so good in here.
The Three Bite Rule - Pumpkin Bread French Toast

Ingredients:

pumpkin bread (2 slices per person)
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Head griddle to medium heat.
Mix up eggs, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla into a shallow dish.
Dunk pumpkin bread into the liquid mix on both sides.
The Three Bite Rule - Pumpkin Bread French Toast
Cook on the griddle for 3 minutes on each side, flipping once.
The Three Bite Rule - Pumpkin Bread French Toast
Serve with butter and syrup.
The Three Bite Rule - Pumpkin Bread French Toast
I loved this. It was also a really seasonal bfast made of some pumpkin bread that was getting stale. This idea came to me at a local diner which uses banana bread for french toast. This would work with any sweet bread! How great would lemon poppyseed be? Or blueberry pound cake? Yum! It would be easy for a crowd all chopped up as french toast – bread pudding.

Make this for Thanksgiving breakfast. Stay tuned for more pumpkin recipes this week!

October in Review

Happy halloween eve! I’m hoping to get more trick or treaters than last year. We’ll see how that goes.

October was BIG in my life. I left the old job and started a new one! It was a pretttty big day on the blog when I announced it, probably thanks to facebook.

Did you get a chance to read about Paris here, here, or here
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and Prague here or here

The Three Bite Rule - Prague Dinner
I made a really good pizza with grilled chicken and veggies. It was topped with fontina, grilled chicken, asparagus, tomatoes, and drizzled with a balsamic reduction.
The Three Bite Rule - Balsamic Chicken Pizza
This pizza and then this salad were both last ditch effort to make the best of still fresh local produce. I had a cuke from the ‘rents so I shipped up a Chopped Greek Salad
The Three Bite Rule - Chopped Greek Salad
I made a really amazing grilled cheese with balsamic onions. I realize you don’t need a recipe for it, but it was sooo good and perfectly fall.
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November will be busy at my new job. I’m getting ready for PUMPKIN week next week. Get ready for 3 posts of pumpkin foods! I have a post to feature a really cool fall program I want to share.

Loaded Potato Pizza

I’m redoing an old post for you. This potato pizza is so good and deserved a face lift from some old tiny pictures I took a few years ago. The potato slices are really thin and cook quickly.

Potatoes, cheese, bacon, and some buttery garlic spread is EXACTLY what you need tonight for dinner.
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This pizza is so good. The simplicity is just spot on. Use any pizza dough you like for this easy pizza.

Ingredients:

pizza dough
2 tbs butter
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 medium potatoes
8 oz shredded cheddar
2 slices of bacon
chives or green onions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (also preheat pizza stone if using one)
Spread dough onto a pizza stone or pan poking a few holes with a fork.
Bake for 10 minutes until somewhat cooked.
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While dough precooks, cook butter and garlic over low heat until melted and warmed through. Slice potatoes into thin slices using a mandolin or a sharp knife.
Remove crust from the oven and spread garlic butter over the top.
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Spread cheese onto pizza dough and gently lay potato slices slightly overlapping.
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Continue laying slices in circles around the pizza.
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Top with salt & pepper.
Return to the oven for another 10 minutes (turn down to 350 if the potato slices aren’t cooking enough.
While the pizza cooks, pan fry the bacon and top the pizza with the bacon and chives.
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Slice & serve!

We drizzled some ranch if you want a bit more moisture. My crust got a bit dark while the potato cooked. I should have turned it down a bit to 350 or 375 degrees.

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A Day In The Life of My Food

I realized there are so many food moments I really care about don’t normally document. Now’s the time! Today’s post shares a bit about my daily food that isn’t blog-worthy but I’m sharing “the normal”. This line-up is before I got my new job but I was just too excited to post vacay posts so this post was just hanging out. Maybe today’s post won’t be life-altering, but here ya go. I’ll do another with my new job-life.

Let’s start out with some cuties, just so this post can be worth it, and I just haven’t posted them in a while. I’m basically making them cuddle though that’s not really how they roll. The little one is in charge and the big one is just very sweet and accommodating.
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I love that Windsor (lab) is getting wise under his chin. He’s much more mature than the puppy I met 5 years ago. I also always smile at Bailee’s (cocker spaniel) brown eyebrows. Aren’t they so cute? Anywho, onward to the food.

Bfast is always at home. Regardless of the fact that I would walk through an intersection with Dunks, Brueggers, and S-bucks. This day it was banana, warmed peanut butter, and some granola. Often it revolves around Greek yogurt.
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My day would start, like really start, once I had breezed through Bruegger’s with my bottomless coffee card. It felt like such a splurge to buy the card for the year, but I LOOOVED starting my day this way. Sadly, I no longer am near any Bruegger’s so I’ve gifted my card to a friend who is office-less, so I gave her coffee and a place to work. Win!

This is my fav park of the city. It used to be a parking lot which is now below ground. So now it is the opposite of paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Isn’t the fountain picturesque?
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Before I left the job I had to be sure to get my fav lunch. I was pretty good about packing lunch, but Boston Kebab House is soooo good. And cheap, though the mezze bar is by weight so it can get away from you.
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The falafel is really good, I love marinated mushrooms and the couscous with tomato, onion, and cranberries is unbelievable. I went with baba ganoush and free wheat or white pita comes with it. This is about $6….can’t beat it.

Dinner was his & hers meatloaf cups, cauliflower mashed potatoes, and some roasted broccoli. Nothing crazy or super exciting. His = beef, hers = ground chicken. The sauce was ketchup, sriracha, and some brown sugar.
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That’s it. That’s what a blogless day of food looked like just a few weeks ago. Now I have a new job, which provides lunch, so everything is different! Plus, I get out at 5pM which is unbelievably life changing!

I’m getting into a new routine. I’ll post my new-normal one of these days.

Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Onions

I try to plan a few easy/easier/not-always-blogworthy/leftover dinners each week. Every night is not photo worthy here at casa-the three bite rule, especially since my new job us suuuuper busy. Tonight is my first event there! Wish me luck!

Since it is feeling like fall with lovely 60-degree days, I wanted something seasonal. Grilled cheese and tomato soup seemed appropriate since I kept seeing interesting grilled cheese passing right under my eyes.

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A Cup of Jo posted a grown up grilled cheese from Just a Taste that looked so good. It was packed with cheddar, kale, and caramelized onions. That was my inspiration for the balsamic onions I added to my sandwich.

I also saw From Away posting an amazing canned tomato soup with a BLT twist with grilled cheese croutons.

My dinner was a souped-up grilled cheese (haha, get it?) and a can of creamy tomato soup. Done and done. I liked the little touch to make it more exciting but really the beauty of this meal was how simple and perfectly paired this meal was.

I didn’t really caramelize the onions. I cheated.
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I cooked the onions through, just past becoming translucent. Then I drizzled some balsamic vinegar and cooked them for another minute or two.
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This is onions done in 10 minutes, tops. No 40 minutes of onion-caramelizing for me that night.

The soup was just a heated can of tomato bisque from Campbell’s. I mean, I know there’s a lot of sodium in there, but it isn’t crazy-bad-for-you if the rest of the meal is reasonable. I don’t use any butter for the grilled cheese either – just some nonstick spray and a little olive oil.

The grilled cheese had some sharp cheddar and some swiss on sourdough. The onions were sweetly tangy. Mr. J doesn’t really do soup, but he was a good sport about it.

Mr. A bookmarked these note-worthy grilled cheeses until he can get his life back from work. I also recommend my bacon, cheddar, and peach compote panini, or my Italian grilled cheese with breaded eggplant, or the Pioneer Woman’s hot ham & cheese with poppyseed sauce, or it is perfect season for a grilled turkey, cranberry, and brie panini.

What grilled cheese ideas do YOU have? 

Quick Spinach and Artichoke Pasta

I was craving spinach and artichoke dip and remembered thinking it could pretty easily be a pasta dish. Last year I made a 1-dish pasta that cooked in it’s own liquid. This time I tweaked the original thought and went with creamed spinach which is totally decadent and such a perfect secret ingredient . Shhh! I once used it in deep dish pizza and it was the best I ever made! I figured the beauty of this dinner is the speed!

Ingredients:

8 oz frozen artichokes
8 oz frozen creamed spinach
8 oz dried pasta
2 chicken sausage links, sliced
1 tsp garlic, minced
6 oz swiss cheese

Directions:

Boil water for pasta.
Defrost creamed spinach and artichokes in a large pan over medium-low heat.
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Cook pasta until aldante.
Drain and reserve some of the cooking water (about a cup).
Add the pasta, sausage, garlic, salt, and pepper to the spinach and artichoke.
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Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, adding a splash of cooking water and stir well. Add more cooking water to loosen depending on your preference. Sprinkle with a little cheese and toss before serving.

I liked this one. It was so fast and really easy.
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This could be tweaked. Add cream cheese to make it thicker. Add fresh spinach for more texture. Add mushrooms, chicken, or onions. Add a roux and some cream for a truly thick sauce. Swap out the creamed spinach and make your own if the prepared part isn’t your thing.

I was going for speed and ease, but you get to make that call. I also avoid oily artichoke hearts but again, go for what you like!

Other spinach and artichoke hankerings? I made spinach and artichoke pockets in puff pastry. I made spinach and artchoke nachos. I made spinach and artichoke calzones.

Cost Breakdown: 
8 oz frozen creamed spinach: $2.19
frozen artichokes: $1.45
2 chicken sausage links: $2.00
1/2 box pasta: $0.75
Total = $6.39 or about $2.13 per person for 3 servings

Anniversary Dinner in Prague

Our last night in Prague was our 2nd wedding anniversary and the dinner couldn’t have been more perfect. We went to School Restaurant on a recommendation from a friend who raved about it. It was so great and exactly the right way to celebrate and end the trip.

While we settled into the menus and tried to decide on a wine that would be good for both entrees, we got some herbed butter and bread. I neglected to take any photos of the outside or interior, but the purple and lime decor on the table is my only example of how fresh and current this place looked!
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I got the duck breast with polenta and red cabbage. I know, it seems like when I’m in Europe, I only eat duck. I just couldn’t pass on it since it is not as prevalent in the US. The duck was tender with crispy skin. The polenta was addicting and I actually loved the cabbage…never thought I’d even glimpse at cabbage with everything else on the plate but I liked the crunch. I did however, ignore the pan jus. To me, it didn’t add anything.
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There was a salmon dish that looked amazing and a pork dish I would have liked, but I just wanted to do it up! Mr. J was on the fence too. We kind of decided that everything on the menu would be amazing.

Mr. J went with the veal cheeks. They were tender, doused in a red wine thyme sauce, and held within a mashed potato cup. He loved it.
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Our adorable server led us away from a wine he thought would be too sweet. The one we ended up with was per-fect. He compared it to pinot noir and now Mr. J is seriously hooked. He has seen the light!

We figured dessert was totally necessary on our anniversary. Then as we tried to decide, the wine + Mr. J convinced me that maybe 2 desserts were in order; it was our last night and our anniversary, after all. I do always say ‘you can do whatever you want when you’re on vacation!’

We got strawberry dumplings. The Czech have dumplings for appetizers, side dishes, and desserts. Ours had whipped cream, strawberries, and strawberry creme fraiche.
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The other was an apple strudel that came with pumpkin ice cream.
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Ohh my goodness. I can’t believe we got 2 desserts that were fruit based. It was such an amazing night. We meandered back to the metro with stars in our eyes and smiles on our faces.

Chopped Greek Salad

I have one more (possibly the best meal) from vacay to share, but I wanted to space ’em out with some regular posts too. Coming back from vacation and work travel, I wanted greens! I needed more veggies! I had one last cucumber from the rents’ garden so I thought, let’s go Greek!

This is suuuuper easy and nothing out of the ordinary, but I think chopped salads are a great way to make salad feel more special for dinner.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups lettuce or greens of your choosing
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 cup chickpeas
1/2 cup feta crumbled
1/4 cup Greek, caesar, or creamy Caesar dressing
3 chicken tenders, marinated & grilled, then chopped
1 cup croutons

Directions:

Wash & chop lettuce putting into a big bowl. (I didn’t chop the lettuce all that much, but chop to your preference)
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Add tomatoes, cucumbers, chickpeas, and feta.
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Toss with dressing & top with chicken and croutons.
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I loooove Greek salad and think this was a good one for dinner. The chicken and chickpeas make it filling. The garden cucumber and garden tomato are good reminders how good these veggies are when they’re local and in season. We’re nearing the end but I’ll enjoy them while they last.

Lunching in Prague

Happy Columbus day! I’m happy for good ‘ole Chris, whether or not he actually discovered America. It means a holiday at my new job. It isn’t like I’m overwhelmed or overworked, but I won’t be getting any time off for the initial hire time period anyway so a long weekend is always fun.

Ok, last city of my trip, and 2nd to last vacay food post. You still with me from Paris here & here? Prague felt seriously different from Paris. Paris in one word is majestic. Prague in one word is charming…or Russian-esque…or old-world. That’s more than one word. It totally felt like what I imagine Germany, or Poland or Russia to be like. It was grittier and less perfect than Paris, but it has serious charm. It was Hitler-occupied early on in WWII so there was very little destruction.

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The food and drink is suuuper affordable. Affordable as in, beer is cheaper than a glass of water at restaurants. The food feels really German or Austrian influenced. There is a lot of schnitzels in pork, veal, chicken. There are lots of potatoes, dumplings, and beer.

One of our favorite lunches was at a cute restaurant near the Lennon Wall and Charles Bridge. It is a popular tourist area but nothing was all that crowded. There was some patio seating (complete with blankets!) but inside seemed appealing to escape the chilly day.

Mr. J got a grilled bratwurst with horseradish.
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It looked amazing!

I got one of their apps. It was a deep fried cheese they compare to French camembert. I saw it on menus daily so I figured it would be a good lunch. It was served with a sweet & tart cranberry sauce.
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I loved it. The cranberry sauce was perfect. I needed the tart flavor to balance the decadent cheese.

Just you wait for the best meal of all. Our anniversary dinner was possibly the best meal of the whole trip!