just the eats

No clever introduction today . . . just the eats!

Buttermilk Waffles, Field Roast sausage, and strawberries:

Curried Eggplant with Tomatoes and Basil:

(This was phenomenal, by the way.  Easy, speedy, healthy, and fantastically delicious!)

Pinto Bean Stew with Jalapeno-Corn Dumplings:

(Another Crock Pot success! The only change I made to the original recipe was to double the dumplings . . . because you never really can have too many dumplings, now can you?

Eggplant Lasagna:

(I think I could have doubled this recipe, and we would have been just as happy.  Homemade ricotta added something extra-special to this dish, and take-and-bake baguette made the perfect side.  Rich and cheesy, but not TOO heavy, a stellar supper that got even better in leftover form!)

Vanilla Ricotta Muffins:

(My version of this recipe is found in Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe; this online version is pretty close.  Skip the white chocolate chips, and you've got it.  I subbed in whole-wheat pastry flour for the AP flour; a great, tasty excuse to use up that leftover ricotta!)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:

(My favorite chocolate cake recipe just got better with the addition of coconut oil, instead of canola -- the cake turns out slightly more dense, and the improvement in structure just means there's more support for extra frosting.  :)  I ended up adding extra powdered sugar to the above frosting recipe, as it was a little too runny with just the amount called for.  We took these cupcakes to dinner on Saturday night, and the little girls belonging to the grown-ups we were hanging out with were very excited!  Sprinkle cupcakes for all!)

time for comfort food

I had been battling a migraine most of last week, and wasn't feeling very well when I sat down to do the weekend meal plan on Thursday night.  It was definitely time for some comfort food!

Breakfast burritos!

Even though a burrito might not seem like comfort food for a good little midwestern girl like myself, I can pretty much always eat beans and cheese.  Adding hash browns and eggs just gilds the comfort food lily, in my opinion.  :)

Chickpea Patties!

While the chickpea patty itself doesn't really fall into "comfort food" territory, at least for me, sweet potato tater tots sure do.  :)  (Side dish not pictured!)

Seitan and Dumplings:

I tried a new seitan recipe this time, which I was really happy with.  I find seitan can sometimes be too "strong" tasting for me . . . maybe too much nutritional yeast?  Anyhow, this recipe was quick and simple, offered lovely, light flavor, and worked beautifully in the Herbed Chicken and Dumplings recipe I frequently tweak for a vegetarian option.  (What do I do?  Sub cubed seitan for the chicken, adding it with the broth later in the recipe, and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.  I also double the soup base ingredients, and triple the dumplings.  One never can have too many dumplings, if  you ask me!)

Mushroom Potpie:

This was incredible.  Simple to prepare, smelled amazing when it was in the oven, and tasted fantastic.  (I subbed a pie crust for the puff pastry called for, as that was what I had on hand.)  Pot pies can sometimes be too heavy; not this one!  It was rich and satisfying without weighing me down.  (P.S. artichokes on the side!)

And cookies!

I made these Flourless Peanut-Chocolate Cookies to take to church choir rehearsal on Saturday morning, and it's a good thing there was plenty leftover!  John stated that these might be his new favorite cookie.  Rich and crumbly, with big peanut flavor and loads of melty chocolate chips . . . heaven.

How do you define comfort food?

UGH.

It's been a weekend of sickness.  I've been harboring a cold for a week or so now, (just as soon as my allergies wrapped up, I caught the cold the kids at work have had,) woke up with back pain on Friday, and also came down with a bit of a tummy bug on Saturday.  Boo!  While I'm on the mend today, John's getting worse, so we haven't been eating much this weekend.  Or doing much of anything, besides sitting on the couch.  (We went to the Redbox yesterday, and I had to take a nap afterwards, it's that kind of sick.)

Here are a couple of pictures from before the germs took hold . . .

Chili and cornbread:

I made my plain/basic recipe, which is always a little bit different, but always contains onion, garlic, green peppers, minced mushrooms, beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, and a little hot sauce.  This time, I also added a few spoonfulls of leftover refried beans and a few spoonfulls of leftover homemade salsa, in an effort to clean out the fridge.  :)  Topped with shredded cheese, green onions from the garden, and sour cream, this was a great, filling lunch.  Side of Buttermilk Cornbread (I cut the sugar in the original recipe down to 1/3 cup, by the way,) rounded things out nicely.

Since it's been chillier, I've been wanting oatmeal for breakfast lately.  I decided to switch things up and make baked oatmeal!

This is a relatively simple breakfast to make, and doesn't take too much prep time, although it does require about a half hour in the oven.  I'd consider making this the night before and popping the oatmeal in the oven just as soon as I wake up, or save slices to be reheated in the microwave as needed.  :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup brown sugar (or much less . . . as prepared, this was too sweet for me -- I'd consider 1/3 cup next time)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
pinch or two of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Combine everything well and pour into a greased 9-inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 for about a half hour, or until the oatmeal is set and beginning to brown around the edges.  Serve with milk or a drizzle of cream!

OK . . . back to the couch.  I'll be back to work tomorrow, so I better rest up!

from scratch, more than ever

I have been enjoying the cooler temperatures we've had in MN these past few weeks!  I'm back in my kitchen, enjoying making things from scratch more than ever -- old favorites (bread, granola, marinara, piecrust, beans,) and new challenges (yogurt, butter, and sour cream) have all come out of my kitchen this week!

Here are a few finished products, incorporated into meals:

A simple casserole of eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, basil, and fresh mozzarella, smothered in homemade marinara:

Homemade triple-berry pie, with homemade vanilla ice cream:

French toast (made from homemade bread):

A (homemade refried) bean-and-cheese quesadilla, with salsa, guacamole, and homemade sour cream for dipping, with a side of roasted broccoli and bell peppers:

Delicious all around!  So far, this re-commitment to from-scratch cooking doesn't seem to be costing me too much extra time -- I have been spending one weekday evening doing kitchen prep and some baking, and that seems to serve me well through the week!

What are your favorite things to make from scratch?

back to it

I have fallen out of two very good habits in the past year or so, and I decided tonight would be the night I officially get "back to it" --

Good habit #1: using my reusable produce/bulk bags when buying groceries

Good habit #2: cooking dried beans and freezing in 2-cup portions

Good habit #2 seemed especially important to me, as money has been a little tighter than usual lately, and we all know how cheap beans are to start with, and how MUCH cheaper they are when you cook them from dried.  Also, I recently read an article in this month's issue of Whole Living that detailed a variety of environmental toxins that screw with female hormones.  I don't have any issues, but I figure it's good to be aware and possibly avoid issues in the future, right?  I'm not ready to give up canned tomatoes just yet, (and oh, how I wish the glass jars of tomatoes were cheaper!), but I figure, skipping the canned beans in favor of home-cooked is a win-win, right?  And I'm taking Michelle's advice this time 'round, and cooking 'em with a chunk of kombu each.

What are your feelings and/or opinions about BPAs?

Maybe we'll have a bumper crop of Roma tomatoes in the garden this year, I'll teach myself some basic canning, and I can actually say good-bye to canned tomatoes?  Fingers crossed!

Meals in bowls

Lunch today was chili, with a side of homemade corn bread, and dinner was whole-wheat rigatoni with olive oil, garlic, dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichokes, spinach, and goat cheese. One-bowl meals are awesome!

major kitchen action

I have eluded to the overly-busy schedule I have been keeping up with these past few weeks, and coupled with plenty of stress, let's just say I haven't been feeding myself as well as I could have been; too much eating out for me! I was long overdue for a weekend full of cooking, and boy, was it fun!

Here are the results of all that action in my kitchen . . .

I haven't had much dessert on hand at home or at work, and I was craving something warm, homey, and tart-sweet. Enter, rhubarb-peach crumble:

Although peach is a nontraditional partner for rhubarb, this is quite good! I should have added a little more extra sugar to the fruit, since it is still VERY tart, but I love the contrast with the sweet-crispy-toasty topping. It's always a bonus when I can clear TWO bags of frozen fruit out of my freezer, and get a dessert out of the deal, too!

At the time of purchase, I had no plan for the parsnips I picked up at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. The more I thought about those parsnips, the more Shredded Parsnip and Beet Salad in Pineapple Vinaigrette, from VCON, stuck in my mind -- and I figured, I better oblige!

The first time I made this recipe, I found it called for WAY too much dressing. I cut the dressing recipe in half this time, and am much happier with my salad. It's less soup-like, more slaw-like!

I should try this recipe with orange juice instead of the pineapple juice sometime. I always seem to have OJ on hand, but have to slap down four bucks to purchase the pineapple juice for this recipe. Anyone out there ever subbed OJ with good results? Do tell!

Lately, I have been mildly obsessed with the blog Anja's Food 4 Thought. Her writing is clear and concise, her photos are breathtaking, and her style of cooking seems perfectly aligned with my own. (Plus, she seems to be as obsessed with baked goods as I!) Even though I'm super anxious to try her Almond Butter Granola Bars, I found myself whipping up Herbed Chickpea Pancakes for dinner last night:

OK, someone please help me figure out WHY I have never made savory chickpea pancakes before? They are dead easy, super-cheap, and SOOOOOOO good -- I especially love the herbed yogurt recipe she includes. It took me a couple of tries to find my mojo with this recipe, learning that I needed to use a little more oil and a little higher heat than I thought, and I just couldn't help but flip them, even though she calls for them to be cooked on only one side. Since I destroyed most of my first batch on the learning curve, I sort of HAD to make a second batch for dinner tonight, right? At least now I have leftovers for lunches this week! MMMMMMMMMMMMM.

To continue on my quest to return to eating a more colorful, produce-rich diet, I tossed together a simple roasted red pepper soup for lunch today:

I really should have written down at least the measurements for ingredients, because I may never be able to replicate this one! (Lunch was a long time ago, you see.) Hmm . . . here's what I think I did:

1. Saute about 3/4 cup finely chopped onion in olive oil
2. Add 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped roasted red bell peppers, (I bought the hugest jar at Costco not too long ago, so I didn't feel bad about blowing through an expensive ingredient on this soup,) 3 cups vegetable broth, 1 tsp agave nectar, and salt (about 1/2 tsp?) and pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and simmer the soup for 10 minutes, or longer, if you are busy doing something else.
4. Add 1 cup Greek yogurt to the pan, and puree. Garnish with any fresh herb you like -- I'm on a chive kick this week, so that's what I used. Simple and delicious!

Alongside my soup, I had a couple of tiny quesadillas:

I slathered homemade corn tortillas (!) with homemade refried beans (!) and queso fresco, and fried 'em up in my cast iron until crispy. It's been ages since I've made tortillas, and I forgot how EASY they are to whip up -- and how vastly superior their flavor and texture is to storebought corn tortillas! Homemade tortillas actually taste like CORN, not like dry paste. :) I used four for my quesadillas this afternoon, and stuck the other four in the freezer, to be enjoyed at a later date.

And last but not least, after a long, cold walk around the neighborhood I want to move to this summer, I felt like baking again! So, now I have a lovely batch of Tuscan Lemon Muffins for breakfasts and snacks this week:

I haven't tried these guys yet, but if the baked version is as good as the dollop of batter I licked off the spatula earlier, they will be a HIT! I made a few changes to the original recipe, as ever: I subbed Greek yogurt for the ricotta, omitted the lemon juice (figured the yogurt would provide enough acidity,) added 1 tsp lemon extract (to make up for the missing lemon juice,) and used 1 cup AP flour plus 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour, instead of all AP flour. I really wanted to use all whole-wheat flour, but lemon is such a delicate flavor, I was afraid it would get lost in the whole grainy goodness . . . this split seems to work well. I ended up with 8 standard-sized muffins and a dozen minis for the kids, too! (I thought I'd shower them with treats this week, since it's my last as their teacher.)

Hope your weekend was filled with good food, too!

ode to the taco salad

Meal-sized salads will become a staple at our house this summer, for a variety of reasons: speed of preparation, little to no cooking required, summer produce bounty, etc. I do love a well-planned meal-sized salad, and taco salad might be my absolute favorite of them all:



I sort of destroyed the healthy aspects of this Vegetarian Taco Salad by adding large dollops of both sour cream and guacamole, (but hell, at least the guac is healthy, right?), but really, who cares? This was an AWESOME dinner on Thursday night, and there are still a few leftovers in the fridge! I sense a repeat at lunch today . . . ! :)

What's your favorite salad?

(P.S. I'm in love with Whole Grain Milling Co.'s organic tortilla chips . . . and they are LOCAL, too! Woo!)

"toe-FOOD"

Have I ever told the story of "toe-FOOD?" Well, it's a short one, but funny.

The kids at my old job didn't quite hear me the first time I said, "tofu," and they heard it, "toe-FOOD." So, forever from that point, they'd ask me, "do you have toe-FOOD for lunch today?" :)

(The other mispronunciation that was hilarious was "shush-ee." You know, seaweed wrapped around rice and veggies?")

Anyhow, I must have been hungry for "toe-FOOD" this past week, because we ate a TON of it:

"Brooklyn Pad Thai," from Vegan with a Vengeance:


Tofu coconut curry, over brown rice:


Asian noodley soup, with tofu and too many veggies:


I did also manage to throw a little variety in there, mostly this past weekend . . .

PIZZA:


Beans and Rice:

Tucked safely away in the fridge for lunches this week. We never seem to get sick of beans and rice prepared in my super-secret way! (Super-secret? Nah. Pretty much everything you see in that picture, plus a jar of prepared salsa. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell!)

CAKE:

We had our annual "girls night in" last night, and we simplified this month by just doing dessert and tea. I made the "Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake," from Veganomicon, and topped the slices with vanilla ice cream (not pictured) and sliced strawberries tossed with a drizzle of agave. YUM!

Sigh. Must go find my kitchen under a mountain of dirty dishes! I leave you with a cat-in-a-box:

one chill evening

After a very busy weekend, (errands, mountains of laundry, mega cooking extravaganza, friends' housewarming party, plans with other friends, etc.), Dan and I were due for a chill evening. We started with these seemingly indulgent, but really truly healthy taco salads:

The June 2010 issue of Eating Well has a GREAT article titled "Elements of a Power Salad," containing several tempting recipes, most easily vegetized, and this taco salad caught my eye right away. Now, I think that Eating Well does an excellent job of printing outstanding recipes and nutrition information, but they've really outdone themselves this time . . . this salad was AMAZING! Looking at that picture makes me want to yank the leftovers out of the fridge and have a second dinner! (Although I probably won't, since I'm not all that hungry right now. But you get the idea!)

We followed the salads with . . .

Yesssssss . . . strawberry cream puffs! Organic strawberries have been on deep sale lately, and I just couldn't resist. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM.

After dessert, we hopped on our bikes for about an hour. Next on the agenda? Couch!

soup success!

I love bean soups, but Dan usually feels sort of "meh" about them. He eats them because I've lovingly prepared them, but I don't think it's something he'd eat on his own.

Tonight's soup, however, was a major success! I loved this one, and Dan scarfed down two huge bowlfulls -- must have been at least a little bit tasty, right?

Southwestern Tomato and Pinto Bean Soup, from Eating Well:



I know it doesn't look like much, (and reading the ingredient list, it honestly didn't sound like much, either,) but I'm so glad I took a chance on this recipe! I think the combination of roasted poblano and ground cumin make this soup something special. Even though the ingredients are short and sweet, it's a near-perfect combination of smoky, savory, and delicious! Cornbread muffins seemed like the perfect accompaniment, and even though I accidentally left the oil out of the muffins, they still turned out well enough to be enjoyed for dinner tonight.

NOTE: the linked recipe calls for 1 can of diced green chiles; I used one roasted poblano instead of the chiles, which is suggested in the cookbook.

I think I'm going to have to renew this cookbook . . . once or three times!

our week in food

Sunday night's dinner:

Grilled cheese and (homemade, vegan) cream of tomato-basil soup! YUM. This is, oddly, a frequent meal request of Dan's. Who knew?

Monday night's dinner:

Dan's Awesome Stir-Fry -- a little too spicy for me this time, but still great! I think he hasn't figured out yet that four dried Thai chillis kick my butt a little too much. :)

Tuesday night's dinner:

Here is a time where I veered significantly from a printed recipe, and it went really, really well. Soup is awesome, and soup containing a whole head of roasted garlic is even awesome-er. Ingredients: olive oil, celery, carrot, shallot, chard (stems and leaves,) navy beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, roasted garlic, vegetable broth, crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, Italian seasoning, sage, salt, pepper, and a parmesan cheese rind. Conveniently, this soup ALSO helped me clean out my veggie drawer and counter produce bowl! Sweet!

Soup requires bread, wouldn't you agree?

More Vermont Cheddar rolls, just 'cause that's the quickest thing to get in and out of the oven on a weeknight. Equally as tasty as last time! Yay bake-a-long!

last week's meals, this week's shopping

In no particular order, some eats and treats from last week . . .

A delicious coconut curry, using some of Dan's brother's CSA veg:


Brownie sundae:


Beans and rice:

We've been going through a huge batch of this every week. I'm still not sick of it, but I've decided we're going to take a break from beans and rice this week. You know, for the sake of variety and everything.

Enchilada casserole:

This is what you make when you find out you've purchased brittle corn tortillas that will not roll up, no matter how delicately you treat them. :)

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I hit up two stores plus the Farmer's Market this morning, in hopes of picking up our weekly haul under budget. Sadly, we're over by $40 this month, which I'm thinking we might just "borrow" out of next month's budget, since we did so much stocking up on sale items and in-season produce this month.

The glorous Farmer's Market loot:

Clockwise from bottom row: red peppers (already roasted and frozen,) mini heirloom tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, a red onion, apples, lettuce, a mountain of grape tomatoes (currently being oven-dried,) and broccoli!

From the Asian grocery store:

Rice vinegar, tamarind concentrate, bean sprouts, limes, rice noodles, tofu, and brown rice.

And last, from the co-op:

Seventh Generation TP, organic bananas, organic fair-trade coffee, organic peanuts, Goddess dressing, unrefined peanut oil, organic mayo, coconut juice w/pulp, and three ProBars.

(No, the cat was not purchased at the co-op, just in case you were wondering.)

:)

I picked up the ProBars since I'd heard good things about them, and knew I wasn't going to have time to eat lunch today. Another Clif bar will never enter my house! ProBars are delicious and nutritious and just plain awesome! Yum.

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I have a few cooking/baking projects planned for tomorrow, so stay tuned! Happy Saturday to all!

really healthy meals

We have had a plethora of produce around here lately -- between strawberry-picking, a trip to the Farmer's Market, and Dan's brother sharing half of his CSA for the week with us, the fridge has been at capacity with fresh fruits and veggies!

Result? Some really healthy meals.


A strawberry-mango-blueberry-banana-orange smoothie.


Sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt, a couple of slices of baguette smeared with herbed goat cheese, and steamed beets and greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette.


Beans and rice and steamed broccoli!

I've also had cinnamon-peach oatmeal for breakfast the last two days in a row, which has been yummy and filling. Hooray for healthy food!