pasta shop

I’ve been wanting to eat at the pasta shop for ages now, because they supply a lot of the fresh pasta for the casinos and restaurants in Vegas.  Talk about going to the source!  If you are ever near Tropicana and Eastern in Vegas, you HAVE to give this restaurante a try.  It’s seating area is not very big, so it would be advisable to make reservations in advance.  Dishes are in the price range from 12.95-23.95, but are worth every penny.  Wow, the depth and dynamic flavors of their dishes are out of this world.  It’s your traditional pasta comfort food, but soooo much better and authentic.

For an appetizer we decided to try their artichoke special.  This is very traditional Italian food.  I usually wouldn’t order this, but the artichoke was sweet yet tangy and flavored the olive oil balsamic mixture that we dipped our garlic bread in. 

 

For the main course, I had the chicken davita, which was a mix of lightly breaded chicken, fried eggplant, mixed vegetables, pasta and fresh mozzarella.  What really amazed me about this dish was the pasta sauce that gently coated the fresh, spongy pasta.  There is just something about fresh pasta that is like no other.  It’s delicate and spongy, and very different from dried pasta.  The sauce had to be made with sweet bell peppers because it tasted like it was simmered and reduced down for hours.  So sweet and full of rich tomato flavor.  I couldn’t stop eating it! 

Chris had the baked rigatoni, which was your traditional pasta, sauce and cheese, but it was different, not generic and definitely not non-fat!  You could tell it was home-made, full of love.  Our friends, Mike and Melissa, had the chicken marsala, which we had a bite of.  I usually don’t ever get chicken marsala, but this is something I would want to get again.  It was rich, yet sweet with the marsala wine and caramelized onions. 

Paired along with all of these dishes, we brought a Fireblock Grenache ($15 corking fee), which worked perfectly.  It was fruity and mellow to blend with all  the different flavors, but still had a nice oaky bite to it, but not too powerful.  I would say this is a great beginner red wine, but very enjoyable.  If anyone can find this wine in Vegas, I’ll personally buy you and me a bottle because we can’t find it anywhere!  My mom has to truck it from North Carolina because we did find it there.  For dessert we had the traditional tiramisu.  And while it could have been stronger on the espresso flavor, it was creamy rich, yet light and satisfying all in one.  The Pasta Shop is definitely a place I would love to go back to.  The service was great, the waiter sarcastic and friendly, the ambience eclectic and the food . . . amazing.

     

Italian is my favorite food by far and I love supporting great local restaurants.  What’s your favorite local restaurant and why?

all the colors of the rainbow

A good way to gauge the nutrient density of what you eat is to see how many colors are on your plate.  The more colors the better!  Nutrient density is just a term used to figure out how much calorie bang for your buck your are getting in the foods you eat.  For example, a colorful salad has way more nutrients packed into it for not that many calories, while a candy bar is calorie dense, it doesn’t really have that many nutrients.  So the salad is more nutrient dense.  Pretty easy, right?  You want to make the calories you eat the most nutrient dense and give you the biggest bang for your buck.  A good way to start eating healthier, without focusing on calorie this, numbers of that, is to simply incorporate more colors into your diet. 

We don’t even know all the synergistic properties of fruits and vegetables yet, but eating whole foods is much better than taking a vitamin as an excuse to eat crappy.  Although I do take a regular multivitamin every so often to make sure I’m hitting all my bases.  All those phytonutrients work together somehow to keep us healthy and help prevent many chronic diseases like cancer.  It’s amazing to me how nature and the foods we eat can do this!

My salad I had for dinner tonight was like an explosion of flavors in my mouth!  I took romaine salad greens (the greener the better, so iceberg isn’t the best choice), topped it with some marinated vegetables I made from the Splendid Table Cookbook (you have to try this one!), mini heirloom tomatoes from Trader Joe’s (look at the purple one!), some dried fruit and creamy goat cheese.   I am a big fan of contrasting flavors and the tangy yet sweet marinated vegetables with a slight crisp, along the sweet and plump tomatoes and the creamy goat cheese just sang! 

Then for the main I decided to make the Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers I featured on my Happy New Year post.  Wow, these were good.  If you haven’t tried fontina cheese, I would HIGHLY recommend it.  It’s a semi-soft cheese that tastes like buttery toast and melts in your mouth.  I also topped them with an aged Parmesan from Trader Joe’s.  This is the real stuff.  It has such quality flavor that you don’t even need to use that  much, which is good because it is 12.99/lb!  I only get this stuff every once in awhile, but it is so worth it.  And the walnuts!  Every few mouthfuls you get a nice toasty crunch inside.  I only baked it for 30 minutes covered at 450 this time and the peppers came out nice and soft.  Then I added the cheese on top and baked for another 10 minutes.  So delicious I ate the whole darn pepper!

 

Here are some more pics!

 

     Ahhh . . . that glorious rind says it all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flavor Explosion! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oooeeeyyy  Gooooeeeyy Fontina!

Yum in my tum!

 

What’s your favorite vegetable, and what’s your favorite way to use it in recipes?

New take on a old favorite

Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts.  It’s full of whole grain goodness, protein, fiber and keeps me feeling full till lunch time.  It’s also very versatile as you can see here from katheats.  It’s viscous soluble fiber (-glucan) has been clinically proven in numerous studies to help lower and manage LDL cholesterol (this is the bad kind), and reduce heart disease risk.  It essentially acts like a sponge and soaks up water and bile acids to be excreted by the body.  This then signals the liver to convert circulating LDL cholesterol to new bile acids, and ultimately lowers serum cholesterol. 

So how much should we be eating?  It is recommended to consume 5-10 grams/daily.  You can aim for 3 grams/day of glucan soluble fiber in oats or barley, and aim up to 10.2 grams of psyllium husk to meet your daily requirement.  In 1/2 cup of oatmeal there is 2g of soluble fiber, or you can have a nice bowl of barley soup.  Psyllium husk is usually found as a dietary fiber supplement (2 tbsp of psyllium powder), and can be mixed in your favorite recipes without adding a weird taste.

What are some other functional foods out there to help reduce heart disease when combined with an overall healthy diet?

• Plant sterols/stanols – get up to 2 grams daily divided over 3 meals (many products have these added now, like OJ, spreads, etc)
• Soy protein – up to 25 grams daily of this nutritious, cholesterol free protein source.
• Tree nuts and peanuts – great source of polyunsaturated fat, get 1.5 ounces or a large handful

Here’s a recipe to try to get your daily oatmeal quota.  It’s not the traditional way to make oatmeal, but it is darn good!

 

Baked Oatmeal Triangles

 

Ingredients

• 2  cups  water
• 2  cups  fat-free milk
• 1/4  cup packed brown sugar, or a nice dark honey
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (I like mine warm and spicy so I add more)
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1tsp freshly grated nutmeg 
• 1/4  teaspoon salt
• 1.5 cups steel-cut oats (sometimes I sub 1/2 cup quinoa for some of the oats)
• 1 cup roasted sweet potato/yam (or you can add mashed ripe banana)
• Cooking spray
• Favorite condiments:  low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, scoop of peanut butter, any kind of nuts, any kind of fruit, cinnamon, drizzle of honey, the possibilities are endless  You could also make an egg sammy with the oatmeal layers?

Preparation

To prepare oatmeal, combine 2 cups water, 2 cups milk, 1/4 cup brown sugar/honey, spices to your liking, raisins and salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat; stir in oats and quinoa (if using). Reduce heat, and simmer low 45 minutes or until very thick.  Make sure to watch it carefully, because it likes to burn.  Once it is nice and thick, add the sweet potato and mix well.  Spoon oatmeal into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; cool to room temperature. Cover and chill overnight until set.

In the morning, preheat oven to 450.

Using a sharp knife, cut oatmeal into 8 equal rectangles; cut each rectangle in half diagonally to form 16 triangles.  Or you can cut them into any shape!  They won’t be too firm, so be careful getting them out.

Place triangles on a silpat-lined or sprayed baking sheet and sprinkle with additional cinnamon (optional) and bake at 450 until nice and crispy, about 15-20 minutes.  Let set up for 5 minutes out of the oven.   

Serve on top of cottage cheese and yogurt, alongside your favorite fruit.  I like to top mine with some crumbled walnuts as well for some good fats!

Yum!  These are also great to heat up for a quick breakfast during the week.

 

What are some ways you get your daily fiber intake?  What obstacles are keeping you from your best heart health?