I hope you all had a marvellous two weeks! I know my last post hit on Valentine's Day and I hope you all celebrated with your loved ones. In our home we do things a little differently for Valentine's Day. My husband usually gets me some chocolate covered strawberries and we get our daughter a nice little Valentine gift. I tend to find my husband something funny that tells him I love him. We never, ever, ever go out to a restaurant on Valentine's Day or even the nearest weekend to it. However, that makes it more special and seems to draw it out. I get to have my special day with our little traditions. Then we go out later on and celebrate all over again.
This year we went to Chili's Bar and Grill. A long time ago we used to frequent Chili's a lot. It was actually our favorite sit down restaurant chain at the local mall. If we didn't want the food court and we were already at the mall it was always Chili's. Our lives have changed a lot since that time. I'm in a different state, we don't usually hang out at the mall, this mall doens't have a Chili's anyway, and the calorie counts are just a bit more than I'm willing to indulge in on a regular basis these days. For a special day out though, it was a great nostagic lunch spot.
I also found a dish on the menu that I will highly recommend for all you other calorie counters. The Ancho Salmon plate is listed as "Seared chile-rubbed Atlantic salmon, cilantro pesto, cilantro, queso fresco. Served with Mexican rice & steamed broccoli." It comes out to 620 calories. I only ate about half the rice which brought that down to 540 calories and was pretty great. If you go to your local Chili's and order it, let me know what you think!
Today's recipe is for Farro Stuffed Tomatoes. I had an abundance of tomatoes and remembered that I also had a full bag of farro in my pantry. That is how this recipe came about. I literally looked at what I had on hand and made something fabulous. My super picky husband even went back for a third tomato when I served it and ate leftovers a few days later. It is a new healthy favorite. If you are vegetarian or vegan, changing the beef broth for vegetable broth will also make this friendly to your diet as well. Serve as a main dish or as a side.
I know some people will ask what Farro is and how it tastes. Let me get that out of the way so we can get to the recipe. Farro tastes a lot like brown rice. It is a bit nutty and really delicious.It is a high-protein, high-fiber whole grain. Often you can use it interchangably with barley in recipes. It is high in a lot of nutrients like zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B.
Farro Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp garlic
1 cup chopped kale
6 oz tomato paste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup farro
1 1/2 cup beef broth (use vegetable broth to make this vegetarian)
8 tomatoes, insides scooped out, diced and saved
Directions:
Heat oil in pot
Add onions, peppers and garlic.
Cook until fragrant and onions turn transparent.
Add in oregano, basil, chili powder, salt, kale, diced tomato and tomato paste
Stir until tomato paste is fully incorporated
Add farro and beef broth
Cook over medium-high heat for approximately 20 minutes, stirring often to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Do not cover pot. You want as much liquid to evaporate as possible.
Spray baking dish with cooking spray
Place hollowed out tomatoes in baking dish
Fill each tomato with mixture
Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 15 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.
**You will likely have about 2 extra servings of filling. Please note that the nutrition shows 10 servings but only 8 tomatoes. Feel free to eat in a bowl like stew or stuff peppers, squash or other veggies with the excess.
**Adding cheese on top of each tomato or adding a dash of red pepper flakes to the filling really brings this up a notch. Unfortunately, my husband isn't a fan of my adding the cheese and my daughter isn't a fan of red pepper flakes. I modify this recipe so everyone will eat at home. 😊
This was one of those really great dinners that everyone enjoys with nothing but vegetables and whole grains to fill you up. If the picky eaters in my house will eat this I hope the ones in your house will too.
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**Nutritional information generated by adding ingredients on www.myfitnesspal.com