weekend eat-a-thon, again!

Recently, I described my weekend as an "eat-a-thon," as I tend to do most of my cooking over the weekends while John is around, and live off leftovers during the week.  This past weekend was no exception!

Our weekend started a little early this week, as I had some downtime between jobs.  I decided to plan a fun Thursday night dinner -- baked potato bar!  I ended up coming up with so many ideas for toppings, I had to split my potato in half and "theme" each one.

Potato #1 -- the "traditional"

Following a bit of butter and salt, I piled on sauteed mushrooms, steamed frozen broccoli, homemade sour cream, Coconut Bacon, and minced garden chives.  A note on the coconut bacon . . . I really liked it, John didn't.  He doesn't care for coconut, so that makes sense.  :)

Potato #2 -- the "southwestern"

Plenty of seasoned black beans, Cheddar Cheese Sauce, salsa, and garden green onions.  I was really happy with how this batch of beans turned out, and that cheese sauce?  Awesome.  I think this was the first time that I've made a cheese sauce that hasn't broken!  Woo!  The trick?  Let the sauce cool a LOT longer than you think it needs to before whisking in the cheese.  We both loved this sauce -- it was light, creamy, cheesy, totally easy to make, and a budget-friendly way to stretch a small amount of cheese out into several servings.  I think I'll make this sauce again soon, and add it to some hot cooked macaroni for a healthier version of stovetop mac and cheese!

John had a long day working outdoors in the cold on Friday, so I figured he needed a pretty hearty meal at the end of the day:

Nutloaf, homemade-buttermilk-garlic mashed potatoes, Quick Gravy, and oven-roasted green beans.  Nutloaf, while neither inexpensive nor terribly healthy, is terribly tasty.  :)  I recommend leftovers sliced, with ketchup, in-between two slices of good wholegrain bread.  We both really liked the gravy, too, (and it really was quick!) although I think I'd add an extra tsp of flour next time -- it was just a little too thin in my opinion.

Breakfast Saturday -- Carrot Cake Pancakes:

Who doesn't want to sneak in a serving of veggies at breakfast?  :)  I didn't have quite enough carrots this time 'round, so I ended up using about half shredded carrots and half shredded garden zucchini, with good results.  John was out of whole wheat flour, so I used all-purpose . . . and we both decided we preferred the hearty, nutty flavor of the whole-wheat flour in this recipe.  The AP pancakes were too sweet and too plain tasting, in our opinion!

A picnic lunch Saturday:

Homemade butternut squash soup, Kalamata Olive Bread with Oregano, sharp cheddar, and an apple.  The soup turned out really well, and I was excited to use some of the squash we grew in our garden this year!  I also really liked the olive bread -- it was dense without being heavy, savory but not too salty, and held up well during backpack transport.  (I also got to use some fresh oregano from our garden!)

Breakfast today:

Cheesy scrambled eggs, Buttermilk Waffles, orange juice, and coffee.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love buttermilk?  Yeah?  Well . . . these waffles were another excellent use of my new favorite ingredient.  Crispy, light, slightly tangy, offset by a sweet drizzle of syrup.  Waffle perfection!

Dinner tonight -- Festive Chickpea Tart:

This was quite tasty, and very easy to make in advance -- I prepped the filling on Friday afternoon, stuck it in the fridge, and spooned it into the pie shell tonight before baking.  Superfast dinner in the oven!  However, I did make a couple of changes to the original recipe, including adding more oil and a couple of well-beaten eggs to the base.  My filling looked so dry after I mixed everything together, I wasn't convinced it was going to set up at all, and didn't want a crumbly mess on my hands!  Adding the eggs and extra oil gave the tart a beautiful structure, although it was no longer vegan.  Thoughts?  I might try this again using hummus as the base, adding some whole chickpeas for texture, and keeping the other veggies and seasonings basically the same.  Flavor-wise, this was fantastic, and surprisingly filling!

Better get to bed -- big day at the new job tomorrow!

Bad pancake gene?

I used to think I had a "bad pancake gene" - like my Dad, my pancakes often used to be over-brown on the outside, while not quite fully cooked in the center. :( Lately, I have been working on overcoming my issues with pancakes, always setting the burner lower than I think I should, and exercising incredible patience before flipping. Seems to be working!

We had "Carrot Cake Pancakes" from Cooking Light for breakfast this morning. They were fantastic - hearty and filling, but not heavy. The only change I made to the original recipe was subbing whole-wheat pastry flour for the AP flour, which worked beautifully. Double-bonus? These pancakes used up several carrots that have been lingering in the produce drawer ... and incorporated some homemade buttermilk. Woo!

Here's a link to the recipe:
http://m.myrecipes.com/details/searchR.rbml?id=10000001949746.xml&bcat=search&cat=Search%20Result&fl=recipe/carrot-cake-pancakes-10000001949746/

back in the kitchen again!

After a long hiatus from cooking much of anything, (thank you, 90+ degree heat and high humidity,) I decided I had had enough salads, and got back in my kitchen this weekend.  :)  It's still hot, but I managed to sweat my way through several meal's worth of stovetop cooking and/or baking/roasting in the oven, and boy, was it worth it!

Dinner Friday night:

A simple meal of whole-wheat pasta tossed with homemade marinara and parmesan, with roasted pattypan squash on the side.

Bunch Saturday:

Breakfast burritos!  A whole-wheat tortilla stuffed with homemade refried beans, cheese, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.  This is one of those meals that if eaten after 10 am, will keep you full until dinner.  :)  Mmm.

Dinner Saturday:

Sloppy lentils piled on a whole-wheat bun, dilly beans, cherries, and Spud Puppies.

Dinner Sunday:

 

Tofu Steak with Miso and Ginger, Steamed Baby Carrots with Orange-Dill Butter, cucumbers with sour cream and dill, and Zucchini Fritters.  This meal was a LOT of work, (and generated a lot of dishes -- shout out to John, who washed nearly all of them!), but it was so worth it!  I had a blast finding new ways to make some seasonal produce shine.

My life is incomplete without dessert:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake!  Between the cake and the fritters, I have managed to take down about 2/3 of the ginormous zucchini John brought home from volunteering last week.  I still have about a pound left . . . muffins?  Bread?  Cookies?  What's your vote?

not too shabby

Here's what happens when John and I wander aimlessly through the supermarket, trolling for dinner supplies at 6:30 on a Tuesday night, feeling both hungry and tired:

Not too shabby, if you ask me! Stir-fry of rice noodles, onion, mushroom, carrot, sugar snap pea, and almonds, drizzled with a store-bought stir-fry sauce, augmented by some garlic and cayenne. Spicy-noodley good, even though the noodles stuck together en masse, and had to be carefully teased apart with two forks. Gotta love starchy-gooey rice noodles, eh?

fried rice

Fried rice is one of those meals I tend to forget about -- probably because, when ordered from a restaurant, it is often greasy, overly-salty, and marginally healthy. However, when I make it at home, I have control over the amount of oil I use, (just a few teaspoons to keep everything from sticking to the pan,) the amount of soy sauce I use (usually only a couple of tablespoons of the low-sodium variety,) and most importantly, the variety of veggies I use!

Last night, I dug through my fridge, cupboard, and freezer, and found a whole host of veggies that were begging to be added to my fried rice!

After warming some garlic, ginger, and chile-garlic sauce in a couple teaspoons of canola oil, I went a little crazy! Cabbage, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, red bell peppers, corn, edamame, broccoli, green onions, and water chestnuts all made their way into my dinner, along with brown rice and a few beaten eggs. I finished the dish with two tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce, and a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Perfect! Healthy, high-fiber, high-protein, and packed full of vitamins, but still so delicious.

What are your favorite fried rice ingredients? Do you love that greasy, salty, take-out goodness, or do you prefer to make your own?

MUST BUY: "Simple Suppers"

I had planned pizza for dinner last night, before I knew we were going to a party instead. Soooooo . . . pizza's just as good for lunch!

Lately, I've been making two pizzas instead of one, and this seems to work well -- Dan doesn't feel like he has to "ration" the pizza while it's hot and fresh, and we still have plenty of leftovers cold for lunches. I experimented with using crusts made from all whole-wheat flour this time, and it worked well! (Victoria gave me her Artisan Bread 100% whole wheat version a while ago, and I'm just now getting around to trying it out!) The front slice features olive oil, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, heirloom tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. The rear slice is smothered with organic pizza sauce, mozzarella and feta cheeses, red onions, artichokes, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, chili flakes, and dried oregano. Both were deeeeeelicious, but Dan and I agreed that we both liked the heirloom tomato pie better. Why? Who knows! We usually prefer the stronger-tasting pizzas, but not today, I guess!

Here are a few pizza-making tips . . .

~ Use a baking stone. You will achieve a FAR superior crust quality!
~ Allow your pizzas to cool on a wire rack before slicing. You'll keep that crispy bottom crust!
~ If you are using really moist ingredients, (like fresh tomatoes or fresh mozzarella,) I've found placing them on a clean dish towel for fifteen minutes sucks enough moisture out of them that your finished pizza isn't all soggy.
~ No matter how many toppings I use, I find about a half-cup of each seems to be the right amount.
~ If you're going to use Parmesan and mozzarella on your pizza, put a layer of parm on top of your sauce, add your toppings, and top with the mozzarella. Parm has a tendency to burn and get dried out in the oven. If you bury it, it will be fantastic!

Anybody else have tips to share? I'm always looking to improve my pies!

Here is something fantastic that I have been meaning to make ALL SUMMER LONG, and never got around to making until today!

WATERMELON AGUA FRESCA!!!! Yum yum yum yum, this is like dessert in a glass. What did I do? I juiced one lime, added a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 cup of water, and half a seedless watermelon, diced, and pureed the heck out of it. Strain your "juice" using a mesh strainer, and chill. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I would use even more lime juice next time, but alas, I only found one lime in my fridge today.

Dinner tonight was exceptional, if I do say so myself!

I made "Roasted Ratatouille," from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. I MUST BUY THIS COOKBOOK! If the other recipes, (and I have at least 20 marked) are anything like this, we will eat well into eternity! Unfortunately, someone has requested this cookbook from the library, so I won't be able to renew it three times. :( Wah. Ok, back to dinner -- I did add a couple of things to the ratatouille, (chickpeas and some chopped carrot, since I have so many on hand,) and served it over polenta, as the cookbook suggested. Oven-roasted sweet corn made a lovely accompaniment! Dan and I both exclaimed continuously during dinner about how fantastic this dish is! We also both agreed that we don't eat enough polenta.

I think I'll have to head over to the used bookstore next weekend and see if they can find me a copy.

What cookbooks are on your "to buy" list?

baking with vegetables

True to tradition, we have gone from summer, (90 and humid) to fall (65 and windy) in one week! Oh, Minnesota.

Since baking weather has returned, and the farmer's market is still full of gorgeous produce, I decided to incorporate some of my haul this week into a couple of baking projects!

First, Carrot Muffins:

I loosely based my recipe on one I found while internet searching, but I have to say, my version is so fabulous, I may never try the "real" version! Recipe:

Combine dry ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup chickpea flour
1 1/4 cups sugar (I was afraid this was going to be too sweet, but it's quite nice, actually -- you could cut down to a cup safely, though.)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped finely

Combine wet ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated carrot
1 large apple, grated (you can peel this if you like; I didn't)

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined. Bake in lined muffin tins at 350 for about 24 minutes. Cool in the pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Makes about 20 muffins.

These are FANTASTIC! They are sweet, but not overly so, and chock-full of tasty ingredients. I especially love the nuttiness from the finely-chopped, toasted walnuts. Yum! The chickpea flour will help pack a protein punch, too, so these guys will have some staying power for breakfasts this week. P.S. I love coconut!

Project #2 -- Zucchini Cookies!

My version is also loosely based on an internet recipe, but I HAD to add a little whole-wheat flour, a little more zucchini than originally called for, and of course, chocolate chips. :) Here's my recipe:

Combine:
1/2 cup raisins
enough hot water to cover

Combine dry ingredients:
3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cups regular rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Cream together:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup natural granulated sugar

Stir into butter mixture:
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 medium zucchini, grated and obvious water squeezed out (1 1/2 to 2 cups)
drained raisins

Stir dry ingredients into wet until combined. Drop by 2-tablespoon fulls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about four-dozen cookies, give or take.

These cookies are glorious! They have a lot going on, but I love cookies like this. You can't really taste the zucchini, (but you can see beautiful flecks of green -- you'll want to peel your zucchini before grating if you're trying to sneak veg into green-phobic people,) which is fine, because the warm spices, nuts, chocolate, raisins, and oats combine to make a great, loaded cookie! Mmmmm! The zucchini will keep these babies nice and soft, too, which will please soft-cookie lovers (like Dan.)

We are SET for treats! Yum.

Sunday in the kitchen

What's new?

Lunch:

"Carrot Bisque" from Vegan with a Vengeance. Coming from somebody who doesn't really like carrots, this soup was GOOD. And bright orange. Made me feel all healthy. (I made some rolls from Artisan Bread to go with.)

Ashley did come over and made a fantastic batch of granola all by herself, and I was so wrapped up in chatting, I forgot to take pictures! Well, you know what granola looks like, right?

I do have a shot of the army of beans, however:

Add these black and pinto beans to the nine cups of chickpeas I cooked yesterday, and I think I'd call my freezer well-stocked, at least in the bean department!

Dinner:

Vegan spanikopita! Amazingly delicious, and Dan told me he didn't think he'd guess it was made with tofu if I hadn't told him. (Double bonus!) Recipe here. (I used mostly dried herbs this time, since I have to wait a LONG time still for fresh herbs in giant bunches from the Farmer's Market!)

Dessert:

I felt compelled to use the rest of the package of filo. :)

Hope you all had wonderful weekends!