Sunday Suppers: Homemade tortellini with tomato sauce from scratch

Posted by Bethany in cooking, Fitness, food, Nutrition, recipes, vegetarianism | Leave a comment
21February2012

Making your own sauce from scratch has two primary benefits: you can make it healthier, and it is so much yummier! A third possible benefit comes from the amazing smell it gives off all day as it simmers. I threw together the following recipe yesterday, and the house smelled incredible for 10 hours:

Tomato sauce from scratch

  • 1 can whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 small onion
  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • To taste: fresh basil, cinnamon, salt + pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, thyme
  • about 1/4 cup EVOO

Heat a few tablespoons EVOO in a large pot. Turn down the heat to simmer (best if you have a simmer burner, or this could be done in a slow cooker). Add spices first to bloom them, 1-3 minutes. Add onions and garlic and cook down 1-3 minutes. Add tomatoes. Cover the pot and simmer 6-15 hours. Stir lightly every 30 minutes to an hour. Add EVOO and spices as you go, tasting along the way. After 6-10 hours, blend your sauce. I like my sauce a little chunky, so I only blended about half the sauce in the Magic Bullet. You could also use a blender, immersion blender or food processor. I then combined the blended sauce with the chunky sauce. Pour over any pasta you choose. I used spinach tortellini.

For my meat-eating husband, I prepared some fried pork medallions.

Pork medallions (not recommended if you’re keeping this meal healthy!)

  • 3-4 boneless pork chops or medallions
  • 2 cups Panko crumbs
  • 1 cup Flour
  • Garlic powder or garlic salt to taste
  • Pepper and other spices of your choosing
  • 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325F. Place the pork in a large plastic bag or in between two pieces of plastic wrap. Pound to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Prepare breading by combining dry ingredients in a bowl. Prepare egg wash by beating eggs, leaving out some of the white from each egg so the wash leans a little more toward the yolk-y side. Heat a few tablespoons EVOO in a stainless steel pan (non-stick pans will not brown the meat, but a French oven or cast-iron pot could be used). Dip the medallions in bread mixture first to coat. Then, dip medallion in egg wash. Let extra egg drain off. Dip back in bread mixture to thoroughly coat, then add immediately to the hot pan. Repeat with each medallion, and fry for about 2-3 minutes a side. Grease a baking dish, and add pork to the dish. Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes, depending on thickness of the pork. Check regularly with a meat thermometer (I usually just stab the pork with my finger to check doneness) regularly to prevent over-cooking. About 10 minutes before the pork will be finished, surround the pork with your tomato sauce in the baking dish.

The result? A delicious, spicy dish easily made vegetarian for one and with meat for another! Top with fresh basil if that’s your thing :)

Practice Journal: Shoulder strength-softness

Posted by Bethany in Anatomy, Fitness, yoga | Comments Off
27January2012

Today’s class with Alma at Yoga Cove focused on what I’ll call “strength-softness” in the shoulders and neck. Alma focused on externally rotating the arms, lengthening the cervical spine and plugging the shoulders into the sockets (though she used different words) to create this effect.

I made a little video to explain:

External Rotation

While I am very familiar with this motion and credit it for single handedly strengthening my arms, I did feel very strong after today’s class due to the constant focus on this motion. I felt I could hold my down dogs, planks and bakasana longer because I was really tapped in.

Overall, I enjoyed today’s class. I was a little disappointed when there was a sequence moving from ardha chandrasana (balancing) to ardha chopasana – both with long holds – to standing splits. I wonder if this was an oversight or if it was an intentional movement from external to internal rotation in a closed chain.