South Beach Diet Phase One Monthly Recipe Round-Ups

Starting in March 2008, this page has links to once-a-month recipe round-ups of phase one recipes posted on Kalyn's Kitchen, as well as phase one recipes I've found on other blogs.

How To Print Recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen:

You can print any recipe without the header, sidebars, or photos by clicking on the main title of the post, then printing.


Phase One Recipes Round-up from March 2008
Phase One Recipes Round-Up from April 2008

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Macaroni with Lemon, Garlic, Parmesan and Mustard Greens

The weekend is approaching and it's time to think about Weekend Herb Blogging, the food blog event that's not just about herbs, and not even just for the weekend. If you're a food blogger who might like to join in, read more about it in the Weekend Herb Blogging Archives.

I've been having fun exploring new plants with Weekend Herb Blogging, and this week I tried mustard greens. Their flavor is sharp, spicy, and just a tiny bit bitter. I think they might be an acquired taste, and while I didn't hate them, I didn't love them either. But I did see lots of interesting looking recipes for ways to prepare them when I was looking around.

Maybe I should work on letting mustard greens grow on me, after all, they are one of The World's Healthiest Foods, they're low in calories and carbs, and they're loaded with vitamins A, C, and K. Besides being generally nutritious, mustard greens offer a number of health benefits.

I've gotten very fond of dishes with pasta and greens over the last few months, cooking up things like Pasta with Sausage and Collard Greens, and Spagetti with Italian Sausage and Arugula. This recipe is a slightly different take on the pasta/greens combo, in particular because of the lemon zest. And while I didn't love the mustard greens, I loved this combination of a lot of lemon zest, garlic, and parmesan with the greens and pasta. The lemon complimented the flavor of the greens in a way that made the dish unique. If you're not sure how you'll feel about the sharp flavor of mustard greens, collard greens would be a bit sweeter and milder in this dish. I used Dreamfields low carb pasta in all these recipes, with only 5 net carbs per serving.

Macaroni with Mustard Greens,
Lemon, and Parmesan
(about 4 servings)

2 cups (dry) Dreamfield's macaroni
1 bunch mustard greens
1 tsp. minced garlic
zest from 2 lemons
(you can freeze the juice to use later)
3 T olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water 9-10 minutes, or until barely al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water before draining.

While pasta cooks, wash greens several times, then slice crosswise into 1 inch wide ribbons, discarding stems. Heat olive oil in large frying pan, add garlic and lemon zest and saute 1 minute. Add greens and saute about 5 minutes. Add drained pasta to greens/garlic/lemon mixture, mix in, and heat 1 minute. If mixture seems dry, add pasta cooking water. Stir in parmesan cheese and serve hot, with additional cheese to be added at the table if desired.

I would serve this as a side dish, to accompany something like Very Greek Grilled Chicken, Parmesan Chicken, Grilled Sea Bass with Lemon and Capers, or Greek Meatballs.

Don't forget to come back Sunday night to check out all the other great posts that always get submitted for Weekend Herb Blogging. And if you're a fan of cats or dogs, check out Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff, and Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnicks.

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Pasta and Noodles for Lower Carb Eaters!Two New Types of Pasta from Dreamfields,Plus, A Shiritaki Noodle Recipe Contest!

(Update added 5-22-06: I can now find Dreamfield's Lasagna in my store in Salt Lake City. I haven't found the rotini yet.)

Woo Hoo! More Dreamfields shapes!
For a while now I've been touting Dreamfields Pasta on my blog, since it allows me to eat the pasta I love without getting more carbs than I want. Since I've been eating the lower carb way and writing this blog, I've made some yummy pasta recipes using Dreamfields Pasta. Now there's some exciting news from Dreamfields: two new pasta shapes are joining their line. Dreamfields is introducing lasagna and rotini, both of which which should be available soon. With spagetti. linguini, penne, and macaroni previously available, this expands the Dreamfields line to six pasta types. Both these new shapes are going to be available sometime in the spring of 2006, but I have not found them yet in the stores near me. They both contain the same lower carb, lower glycemic advantage of other Dreamfields pasta, with only 5 net carbs per serving. Here is where to find a store near you that sells Dreamfields pasta. If you live outside the U.S. or you can't find it where you live, you can order Dreamfields online.

Without a doubt the most eagerly awaited new type of pasta, Dreamfields lasagna is sure to be a hit. I know I will be using it to make low carb chicken lasagna as soon as I can get my hands on some.

Dreamfields rotini will be in stores in time for pasta salad season, where this new shape will be a wonderful addition to the Dreamfields line. I'll probably start using it to make Italian Sausage Pasta Salad, which I had previously made with Dreamfields penne.

If you're a skeptic about low carb pasta, one taste will convince you. Dreamfields tastes exactly like regular pasta, but contains more fiber and protein than other types of white flour pasta. Here are two statements taken from the Dreamfields website to help you understand why this type of pasta is perfect for people eating the lower carb, lower glycemic way:

"How does Dreamfields make its pasta lower in carbohydrates?

Dreamfields Pasta is lower in digestible carbohydrates. What that means is that while the total number of carbohydrates is the same as typical pasta, our unique blend of dietary fibers and proteins protects all but about 5 grams of these carbohydrates from being digested. These protected, or "controlled," carbohydrates pass to the colon where they provide the health benefits of dietary fiber "

"How is Dreamfields different from other "healthy" pastas?

Dreamfields Pasta has largely the same level of durum semolina as traditional pastas, with a low level of our unique blend of fibers and proteins and no soy fillers. The Dreamfields approach means fewer carbohydrates get digested that will increase blood glucose response. So you get the authentic taste and texture you expect from pasta, but with only 5 grams of digestible carbs. Dreamfields also contains twice the fiber of regular pasta, including a special fiber called Inulin that has been shown scientifically to promote digestive health and support a healthy immune system, while enhancing calcium absorption for strong bones and teeth. "

A Recipe Contest for Shirataki Noodles
Speaking of noodles, a few days ago I talked about the Shiritaki noodles I discovered on LivinLaVidaLoCarb. Now Jimmy is going to be having a Shiritaki Noodle Recipe Contest which was kicked off with my recipe. Here are details of the recipe contest which ends on April 22. (I've already seen a great soup recipe with these noodles on one of my favorite food blogs.)

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Rosemary Mustard Grilled ChickenVirtual Recipe Club

Alysha at The Savory Notebook has a blog event that I think is a great idea. She calls it Virtual Recipe Club, and every so often she requests recipes around a common theme, then she publishes the links to a bunch of great recipes. When I heard that the theme this time was *My Most Requested Recipe* there was no doubt that this dish was the recipe I had to send.

This is my *signature* dish, something I have been making for years. If there's a family party, bridal shower, or neighborhood party during grilling season, I'll probably be making this. It's the kind of thing you'll make over and over again, and the recipe is foolproof. When I have lots of lemons sometimes I increase the lemon juice a little and it gives a more lemony tasting chicken. If your family is lukewarm on Dijon, you could use regular mustard and it would still taste good. More good news, this same marinade is also fantastic on zucchini. In the summer when your garden is bursting with zucchini, grill up a bunch and you will be in heaven.

I don't remember where I first saw this recipe, but it was for chicken and zucchini kabobs, something that's a great variation. Through the years I've changed it a little, decreasing the oil, and adding the Spike Seasoning and celery seed. I also began using fresh rosemary whenever I could.

ROSEMARY MUSTARD GRILLED CHICKEN
(8 servings, can be cut in half, but the leftovers are good on salad)

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Marinade:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
2/3 cup olive oil (good quality extra virgin olive oil is best)
2 tsp. garlic powder or minced fresh garlic (fresh is best)
2 T dried rosemary, crumbled

1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper (or more)

1 T Spike seasoning (Optional, but recommended)
1 tsp. celery seed

(To "crumble" rosemary, put the desired amount into a small zip loc bag and crush with your meat mallet or anything heavy until it is broken up and partially powdered. You will still have plenty of woody bits, but the crushing releases that great rosemary flavory. If you're lucky enough to have fresh rosemary, by all means use it but increase to 3 T. and chop slightly.)

(Click for step-by-step photos of how to make grilled chicken breasts.)

Trim all fat and tendons from chicken, then make small slits going crosswise down the length of each chicken breast. This is to help the marinade penetrate the meat better. Be careful not to cut too far into the chicken. Put chicken and marinade into large zip loc bag and let marinate at least 6 hours or all day.

Grill chicken over medium-high heat until well browned and very firm to the touch, about 25 minutes. You will need a spray bottle to squirt out the flames when you first put this on and the oil drips down. (Don't baste with the reserved marinade because it contains bacteria from the chicken.)

For zucchini you can shorten the marinating time, although I have marinated it all day when I was going to be out and it turned out great. Cut zucchini pieces into lengthwise slices about 3/8 inch thick. This is a great use for larger zucchini that has escaped you, as long as they are not too huge.

This chicken could also be cooked in a stove-top grill pan with ridges or a George Foreman Grill with good results.

A great variation of this recipe is to make kabobs with chunks of chicken and zucchini alternating on skewers after they have been marinated separately. You could add red pepper if you wanted to make it more colorful.

This would be a perfect phase one recipe for The South Beach Diet. It would be great with Roasted Broccoli with Garlic, Slow Roasted Asparagus, or Cauliflower with Garlic and Lemon. For phase two, add something like Lake Powell Spicy Rice or Brown Rice with Cashews and Herbs.

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Second Helpings:Leftover Grilled Chicken Stir Fry with CurryARF/5-A-Day

Notice anything new at the top of the page? It's a new look for my blog header, courtesy of Rand and Bradley, my brilliant and creative brother (Rand) and his equally brilliant and talented partner (Bradley). Anything food-related you see on this blog comes from me, but things that are especially creative or techie are probably done by them. Rand and Bradley have a cool online wireless store, so if you need anything wireless, go see them.

Now for the food. I've been talking lately about how I want to eat more veggies, and maybe I'm doing a little better than I realized on that goal. Over the weekend I examined my recipe archives, and decided I really was getting too long of a list in the category that I had previously called "Salads and Vegetables". So I divided those recipes into two lists, Salads and Vegetables, each with its own category now. I'm feeling fairly proud of myself (and a big stick-out-the-tongue to all those people who think that lower carb eating is all about meat, eggs and cheese anyway.)

Now I want to work on another one of my goals, not wasting food. I do manage to recycyle quite a few of my leftovers to my nephew Jake, but still I'm producing too much food on quite a regular basis. I need to get back to my idea of *second helpings*, where I would make up a new recipe from leftovers. This recipe is something I came up with to use some of the leftover grilled chicken and asparagus from the Food Blogger's Dinner I had on Saturday. I added some bright orange pepper into the stir-fry to bump up the ARF factor and decided this was suitable for ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday, the event where Cate at Sweetnicks tries to get us to eat more anti-oxidant rich foods.

I created this recipe using leftover Curried Chicken on the Grill and leftover asparagus, but any leftover chicken would work here, as long as the original flavor would blend with curry. You could use any leftover vegetable such as broccoli, carrots, or cauliflower in place of the asparagus.

Leftover Grilled Chicken Curried Stir-Fry
(1 serving, can be doubled)
1 leftover grilled chicken breast (boneless, skinless)
about 1 cup leftover asparagus, cut in small pieces
about 1 cup red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, cut in 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp. curry powder or paste (I used Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste)
1 tsp. cornstarch (or you can use arrowroot starch for less carbs)
1 - 1 1/2 T peanut oil (depending on your pan)
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
purchased cilantro chutney for serving (optional, but highly recommended)

Cut chicken breast into small pieces. Cut up bell pepper and asparagus. Mix chicken stock and curry paste. Heat in pan or microwave about 3 minutes. Let cool slightly, then wisk in cornstarch.

Heat wok or pan until very hot (about 2 minutes), add oil, heat 1 minute more, add garlic cloves and stir fry about 1 minute, then remove. (Be sure not to let the garlic brown or it will give the oil a bitter taste.) Add bell pepper and stir fry about 3 minutes, stirring constantly and cooking over very high heat, the wok should be almost smoking. Add asparagus (or other cooked vegetable of your choice) and cook 1-2 minutes. Add chicken and cook 1-2 minutes more.

Reduce heat to medium and add sauce mixture. Stir fry about 3 minutes, until sauce is slightly thickened and vegetables and chicken are well coated with sauce. Serve hot, with cilantro chutney if desired.

This tasted fabulous. I ate it with the cilantro chutney spooned over, but forgot to photograph it that way. The flavor of the curry blended with the flavor of the chicken and veggies making the sum greater than the parts. For sure I would cook this again, any time I had leftover grilled chickken and some veggies on hand.

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Weekend Herb Blogging #25 RecapHoping for Spring!

Another weekend, and another great group of herb blogging posts to report on. This weekend I was hoping for spring, and the forsythia buds I saw in my yard were an encouraging sight. But alas, by Sunday it was starting to snow. I figured it would snow again, because Saturday I got all excited and cleaned off my porch, moved the barbecue grill back to its summer location, and even washed off some porch chairs and sat outside enjoying the weather for a while. As I was sitting there, I said to myself, "This can't last. I have to prepare myself, because it will snow again at least one more time." At least I got a little taste of summer, and I know the end is in sight.

Kronshagen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Starting off the herb blogging this week was Ulrike from Kuchenlatein who was preparing Parsley Potatoes to improve the appetite of her son was has been feeling ill. Ulrike says that parsley is the most important herb in Germany, where it is used in a wide variety of dishes.

Toronto, Canada

At Once Upon a Feast, Ruth and her husband are going on The South Beach Diet. (Allow me to abandon herb blogging for a moment and say that if you're a South Beach Reader, visit Ruth's blog to see the great South Beach food she's been cooking.) For Weekend Herb Blogging, Ruth made a wonderful sounding Balsamic Chicken and Pan Roasted Broccoli with shallots, garlic, and thyme.

New York City, New York, U.S.A.

In New York, the Chocolate Lady from In Mol Araan tries her hand at making homemade Zata'ar. If you're not familiar with this middle eastern spice blend, it's traditionally made with thyme, sesame seeds and sumac, but TCL did not have sumac and substituted amchoor, which is made from dried, powdered unripe mangoes. Sounds great.

New Jersey, U.S.A.

Herbed Carrots with Marjoram was the Weekend Herb Blogging recipe for Ramya from Cooking Within My Grasp. Besides the marjoram, the carrots were flavored with ginger, garlic, and paprika, in a recipe that sounded very tasty.

New Delhi, India

Sury from the interestingly titled blog (Lima) Beans and Delhi Cha(a)t returned to WHB this weekend with a fascinating post about a Bengali dish called beet chops, which is eaten as a snack. If Sury will forgive me for what I'm sure is a very Americanized description, these are mashed potato balls stuffed with a mixure of beets and carrots and then deep fried, and they do look delicious.

Davis, California, U.S.A.
Arugula and Meatball Soup with Pesto is the dish cooking this weekend in the kitchen of Sher from What Did You Eat. The idea of putting a dollop of pesto on top of a soup that contains chicken stock, meatballs, arugula, beans, and pasta sounds just wonderful to me.

Brussels, Belgium
Andreea from Glorious Food and Wine is home from her travels and has been exploring Italian cooking, particularly The Silver Spoon and the recipes of Genarro Contaldo. She uses fresh thyme and sage in her great sounding version of Lemon and Thyme Chicken with Chilli Beans.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
The dilemma of what's for breakfast has been solved by Fiber of 28 Cooks with her recipe for Ginger Carrot Morning Cookies. Loaded with healthy ingredients like whole wheat flour, flax seed, rolled oats, sunflower seeds, and carrots, these sound like a delicious and healthy way to start the day.

California, U.S.A.
Dal Panak, or Spinach Dal with Rice is on the menu for the family of Spicehut from Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. I love the way she clarifies what some of the Indian ingredients are for those of us who are just starting to learn about Indian cooking.

South of France near the Spanish Border
My money is on the mint in the garden of Riana from Garlic Breath, where she reports that she is letting her mint, lemon thyme and parsley battle it out. Meanwhile, Riana is inside whipping up a batch of Chocolate Mint Peppermint Cookies. (South Beach Dieters, cover your eyes.)

New Jersey, U.S.A.
Cate from Sweetnicks and Weekend Dog Blogging fame has found a wonderful and easy recipe for Chicken Chilaquiles. Since her version of this dish contains lots of fresh cilantro, which I once declared to be my very favorite herb, I know I would love it. (Cate, hope you're feeling better.)

St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
Alanna, the Veggie Evangelist from A Veggie Venture, is growing tired of winter veggies and thinking of spring with her Zucchini, Lemon-Honey Salad. The addition of chopped fresh tarragon (which could be replaced with mint if you prefer) makes this salad sound particularly interesting.

Utah, U.S.A.
A first time herb blogger this week is Erin from Erin Eats, the talented cook who made the berry dessert that made Vanessa and I go weak in the knees at the Utah Food Bloggers dinner. Erin reports she is passionate about vanilla beans, which she uses to make vanilla extract, and I'd say this is worth making even if the only thing you used it for was those berries, they were that good!

Melbourne, Australia
The Weekend Grape Glut is weighing on the mind of Ed from Tomato, and he reports sadly that in Australia there are so many grapes that it is cheaper for farmers to leave them on the vines. Ed produces some amazing shots of back-lit grapes, and wonders if he is in a photographic rut, to which I say, absolutely not!

Melbourne, Australia
This is the second time two Melbourne bloggers have managed to synchronize their watches and send their posts right in a row, but maybe it's just the time difference from Australia to Utah! Plum from My Favorite Plum is finding that it's suddenly sage at her place, as she cooks with sage twice in a week. She promises she'll be blogging soon about Italian Porchetta, and includes a great sounding recipe for One Pan Sage-and-Onion Chicken and Sausage.

Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Marianne, The Unemployed Cook, is having fun planning her kitchen garden and experimenting with new herbs. This week she is focusing on lemon balm, a member of the mint family, which she uses as one of her ingredients in herbed new potatoes.

Sandy Hook, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Sarah from Cucina Bella admits that she only recently started learning about herbs, and when she picked up some "thyme" for a mussel chowder, she later learned it was rosemary. Not to worry though, because the rosemary was perfect for her recipe of Herby Cheese Mini Foccacia, which she reports was a hit.

Singapore
Migraine headaches have been plaguing Stephanie from Mana Makan - The Feast Crusade, and when she ventured out to look for something healing she noticed an interesting plant called zhen zhu ye or pearl leaf. Stephenie used this to make an interesting sounding Pork Balls with Pearl Leaf Soup, which we hope will help her to make a speedy recovery.

Farmgirl's Farm, Missouri, U.S.A.
On the farm, Susan is busy starting seeds and putting most of us amateur gardeners to shame with her well organized greenhouse and garden plans. This week she is talking about planting by the moon signs, and has decided it's time to plant onions, but too early for many other plants.

Texas, U.S.A.
Heather from Heather's Space is lucky enough to be in a part of the U.S. where she can think about planting things, and this week she has some salad burnett and stevia which are going to be planted soon. Heather, I want a full report on both of these plants once you get them going, since I've never grown either and I'm curious about them both.

Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.
My own post this week was (finally!) about broccoli rabe, rapini, or rappini, depending on what you prefer to call it. I used it to make Penne with Sausage, Garbanzo Beans and Broccoli Rabe, which was one of the best tasting things I've ever eaten.

Now that you've seen all the interesting herb posts, don't forget to check out the kitties who are doing Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff or the doggies who are doing Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnicks.

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Utah Food Bloggers Come to Dinner!

What would you cook if you had two food bloggers coming for dinner? That was the decision I had to make for Saturday night, when Vanessa from She Craves and Erin from Erin Eats came to dinner at my house. As far as we know, the three of us are the only food bloggers in the Salt Lake area, and possibly the entire state of Utah. Any other Utah food bloggers lurking out there?

Vanessa brought some gorgeous flowers and a lovely Chardonnay.

I made Curried Chicken on the Grill with cilantro chutney. The chutney was from California courtesy of my stepsister Karyn, who recenty sent me this fabulous black and white plate making its first appearance on Kalyn's Kitchen. In the background you can see asparagus prepared The Perfect Way to Cook Asparagus from Simply Recipes. (I also have a link to that asparagus recipe from Elise in my veggie archives. It's such a simple and wonderful recipe.)

We also had Brown and Wild Rice with Pine Nuts. This was something I first made for the dinner for my stepmother a few weeks back. I know I keep promising this recipe, and truly, it's coming this week!

For a salad, I chose Arugula and Sweet Mini-Pepper Salad, a combination I first came up with for one of Sweetnicks ARF Tuesdays. This is another super-easy but amazing tasting recipe.

Erin brought Mascerated Berries with Vanilla Marscapone for dessert, and it was fabulous. Head over to Erin Eats to get Erin's recipe for Mascerated Berries with Vanilla Marscapone. I don't think it's overstating it to say that Vanessa and I were completely blown away by this dessert.

The dinner was a lot of fun. We had a great time together, eating, dishing about all the blogs we read, comparing notes on the trials and tribulations of writing a food blog, talking about politics in Utah, and making plans for a monthly get-together. We're thinking dinner at The Red Iguana next time, since Erin hasn't been there and Vanessa and I both love the place. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of the Utah food bloggers!

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Signs of Spring - Forsythia Buds

The forsythia bushes by my porch are getting quite a few buds, so I know soon they'll have lovely yellow flowers. Some of my neighbors south-facing bushes have flowers already. All this makes me feel very happy because before long I'll be able to start planting things in the garden and nurturing the perennial herbs, a few of which are already perking up. Stay tuned.

Weekend Herb Blogging

Penne with Sausage, Beans and Broccoli Rabe.

If you've been paying even a tiny bit of attention to my Weekend Herb Blogging mumblings over the last few weeks you know I've been on a quest to get my Salt Lake City markets to stock Broccoli Rabe (pronounced raab). I live in the center of Salt Lake and within blocks of my house I have Costco, Smith's Food King, Albertson's, and Wild Oats, and I couldn't find it at any of them. The produce manager at Smith's promised to get it for me, but when I went to pick up my Broccoli Rabe, it turned out to be broccolini, quite tasty, but not what I was after. This week Smith's called again to say they had Broccoli Rabe for me (also called Rapini.) But when I went to pick it up, the produce label said Rappini, and I also didn't see the small buds that were supposed to resemble broccoli. I did some googling, and some sites seemed to use the spellings *rappini* and *rapini* to indicate the same vegetable. The shape of the leaves seemed to be the same, but the leaves in what I had were much larger than photos I had seen on other food blogs. It was only when I decided to cook my Rappini and found a few very small "broccoli" buds that I was convinced that this was really Broccoli Rabe.

Alanna at A Veggie Venture has been doing Broccoli Rabe recipes all this month, and after tasting this (finally!) I'm sure I will cook it over and over.

According to Gourmet Sleuth, broccoli rabe is low in calories and carbs. It's commonly called Rapini, or simply Rabe, but here's a list of other names for Broccoli Rabe from around the world. A quick survey of online recipes for Broccoli Rabe showed that it's commonly paired with pasta, sausage, beans, garlic, balsamic vinegar, or parmesan. The recipe I came up with is certainly not unique, but it was completely a keeper for me. This is something I know I will make again and again.

Penne with Sausage, Garbanzo Beans,
and Broccoli Rabe
(6 full-meal servings or 8 small servings)

5 links hot turkey Italian Sausage (19.5 oz.)
1 large bunch Broccoli Rabe (next time I might double it, which would lower the carbs)
1 can Garbanzo beans, rinsed very well and drained
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
3 cups (dry) Dreamfield's Penne
(reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water)
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat a 12 inch frying pan and squeeze sausage out of casing into pan. Saute until very well browned, breaking up into smaller pieces with turner. While sausage browns, rinse beans very well (until all foam is gone) and let drain. Wash Broccoli Rabe very well (I used a salad spinner) and then cut crosswise into ribbons. I also chopped some of the stems, but discarded the bottom portion of the stem.

In large deep frying pan, heat olive oil, add Broccoli Rabe, and saute until it has shrunk by half. Add sausage and beans to Broccoli Rabe. Deglaze sausage pan with 1/4 cup chicken stock, and add that and balsamic vinegar to pan with Broccoli Rabe, sausage and beans.

Let sausage/veggie mixture braise while you bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook penne 9-10 minutes, or until barely al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water, then drain pasta well and put back into pot you cooked pasta in. Add sausage/veggie mixture and pasta cooking water and stir to combine. Cook 2 minutes, then add parmesan cheese, stir once more, and serve hot.

I made this with Dreamfield's Pasta, with only 5 net carbs per serving, and beans are considered a *good* carb on The South Beach Diet. Still, if you eat this as a full-meal serving it's probably best for phase three. If you're on phase two, I would recommend a small serving of this, with a big green salad on the side.

Weekend Herb Blogging is a weekly blog event designed to encourage us to learn more about interesting herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers. If you're a food blogger who would like to participate, check out the Weekend Herb Blogging Archives for more information.

For other fun food blogging events over the weekend, Check out Weekend Dog Blogging at the newly re-designed Sweetnicks, and Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff.

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