Category Archives: Less is more

Posted in BBQ, Bread, Fridge Finds, Leftovers, Less is more, Lunch, Michigan, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegetarian

Tagged butter, cheese, CSA, grandma helen, Kitchen Window, Leftovers, Lunch, Manchester Chicken Broil, NPR, quick meal, radish sammich, red radish, Sandwich, Trillium Haven Farm, Village of Manchester

Rummaged Flatbread

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 1 comment

Some nights I just don’t feel like cooking. Really. Yes, even me. Which is why I’m thankful that I am competitive enough to make a game out of what I can scavenge from the fridge to pull dinner off. Mr. Wonderful loves anything in the family of pizza. So naan is a great quick pizza crust and Costco has the best deal on naan in the free world. Enter naan from freezer and let the creative juices flow. The most difficult part about this recipe is the patience it takes to caramelize the onions…chop them up and toss into a fry pan over very, very low, for a very long time. You can vacuum, do dishes, watch some YouTube videos in the mean time. Hell, get crazy and read a real book.

Here’s a quick flatbread recipe as rummaged from the fridge/freezer/pantry:

Grilled Asparagus, White Bean and Caramelized Onion Flatbread

1 very large onion, any type, chopped finely into half circles (approx 2 C raw)
1 bunch asparagus trimmed and washed
1 C Provolone cheese, grated (goat or gorgonzola cheese would be better here, but none in the fridge, alas)
4 C white beans, cooked or 2 cans, drained-reserve this liquid in case your hummus is too thick and you can drizzle some in (I pulled these from my freezer-reserve 3/4 C to sprinkle on TOP of flatbread, the rest will be used for “hummus” for the sauce on the flatbread)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 T Tahini (or just use a little of the juice from the beans if you don’t have this in your cupboard)
1/2 tsp dried oregano or a handful fresh
1/2 tsp dried cumin
1/2 tsp dried chipotle or red pepper flakes, omit if you are not pro-heat
2 T lemon juice, fresh squeezed preferred, but that little plastic lemon kind won’t kill you here
salt to taste, this will take more than you think…white beans have little flavor
EVOO
2 pieces commercial naan bread

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Cut up onion, toss in hot frying pan with a swig of EVOO, then turn way, way down to low. Here is where the patience comes in…now, wait. Stirring every 15 minutes or so. Caramelized onions take TIME. Like, an hour or so. Good news, you don’t have to do anything to them except poke around at them every quarter hour….seriously quit your complaining.

Take the following ingredients and zap them in the food processor until smooth:

tahini

white beans (minus 3/4 C for topping of flatbread)

lemon juice

garlic cloves

spices

pinch of salt

You just made white bean hummus which is the “sauce” for the flatbread.

Asparagus should be washed, trimmed and tossed with a splash of EVOO, then turned out onto a hot grill, or in a grill pan until just warm, they should be crispy, semi-raw still, they will be cooked again in a hot second.

Fire the naan for a few minutes in a 400 degree oven to crisp it up just a little.

Now assemble:

Apply “sauce” to naan bread, then onions, reserved white beans, asparagus and top with provolone cheese. Toss back into hot oven until cheese melts. Season with a bit of black pepper.

Devour.

Posted in Bread, Leftovers, Less is more, Quick Cooking, Recipes

Tagged caramelized onions, cheese, chipotle, cook, create, delish, EVOO, flatbread pizza, food processor, freezer, garlic, grilled asparagus, lemon juice, lemon zest, Mr. Wonderful, mr. wonderful approved, naan, oregano, Provolone, recipe, red epper flakes, salt, seasonal cooking, tahini, vegetarian, white beans, yum

My new guilty pleasure: Horrocks

Posted on March 30, 2011 | 3 comments

I’m sure this is old new to most of you, because I haven’t shut up about Horrocks for about 3 weeks now since my first visit to the grocer in Kentwood. My best find to date, besides their seed packets that are 40% “basically every day” according to the butcher in line behind me, is the Michigan grown lentils, peas and beans.

Horrocks carries Michigan grown and packaged dried items from Carlson-Arbogast Farm in Howard City (that’s 49329 for those of you keeping track). They even have a video on YouTube under the Michigan Farm Bureau Channel:

So what in the world do you do with dried beans? Well, you soak them on a Saturday night over night, then get up on Sunday and cook them about 70% done (while you are ironing or doing laundry) drain, dry, cool and freeze in bags to add during the work week to delicious stoups, soups, stews, tacos, casseroles, curries, etc. They will finish cooking in the pot of whatever delicious finished item you create. Why do this? Less sodium, a better quality, whole bean in your dish, AND they are CHEAP! From one bag of great northern beans, dried, I got 9 ziploc bags of cooked beans (2C per bag) to enjoy.

Now if you will excuse me, I’m off to make a lentil stew with white beans from a local grower, surely by this time, you know who I am referring to. Eat. More. Dried. Beans. Save a few bucks, help a local grower, and serve a higher quality product. Oh, and cross your fingers that Horrocks will hire me part-time this summer to feed my foodie addiction; I applied today.

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3 Comments

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegetarian

Tagged beans, black beans, black turtle beans, cook, cranberry beans, create, delish, Farm Bureau, freezer, green split peas, Horrocks, howard city, Howard City Michigan, local beans, local products, northern beans, northern-mid michigan, seasonal cooking, turtle beans, veg, vegan, vegetarian, white beans, yellow split peas, yum

I put that shit on everything…

Posted on February 7, 2011 | 2 comments

Dear Frank’s RedHot,

Thank you for choosing simple ingredients and powerful flavors to create your sauce. I eat that shit on everything, for real. Here’s my Super Bowl Sunday dinner: grilled sharp cheddar/swiss cheese on home baked bread with a side of Frank’s Red Hot. That is all.

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Posted in Less is more

Tagged cheese, Frank's Red Hot, fresh bread, grilled cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, Super Bowl Sunday, swiss cheese, veg, whole wheat bread, yum, Yummy

Simple Split Pea Soup

Posted on January 31, 2011 | 1 comment

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You know it has been too long since last you blogged, when you can’t remember the login or password to your WordPress account. Sorry friends. I have a few backlogged items to share with you in the next few days and then hopefully next week some new cooking (I have a few new cookbooks, shocker).

This easy and super cheap soup comes to use via my fave Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com. You can pre-order her newest and greatest cookbook on Amazon right now SuperNatural Every Day. If not for the recipes buy it for the food porn pics. She is as good a photog as she is a veggie chef.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (I used Fustini’s Meyer Lemon)

2 large onions, chopped

1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1 1/2 cups dried split green peas, AND 1/2 cup dried split yellow peas, picked over and rinsed.

5 cups water

juice of 1/2 lemon (reserve the zest)

a few pinches of smoked paprika

more Meyer Lemon olive oil to drizzle

Add olive oil to a big pot over med-high heat. Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two. Add the split peas and water. Bring to a boil, dial down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the peas are cooked through (but still a touch al dente). Using a large cup or mug ladle half of the soup into a bowl and set aside. Using a hand blender (or regular blender) puree the soup that is still remaining in the pot. Stir the reserved (still chunky) soup back into the puree – you should have a soup that is nicely textured. If you need to thin the soup out with more water (or stock) do so a bit at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and taste. If the soup needs more salt, add more a bit at a time until the flavor of the soup really pops.

Ladle into bowls or cups, and serve each drizzled with olive oil and topped with a good pinch of smoked paprika and a touch of lemon zest.

Serves 4 to 6.

This froze well, and all my work friends were jealous when it was beef on noodles day again in the cafe’ and I was eating a bowl of spring yum. Also pictured with the soup was home-baked (from a freezer loaf) bread topped with chili sea salt and Meyer Lemon EVOO.

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

Tagged 101 cookbooks, cook, create, delish, EVOO, freezer, heidi swanson, Soup, vegetarian, yum

Fancy Nancy Visits: Pad Thai Salad with Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing

Posted on January 12, 2011 | 1 comment

I used to live with a good friend of mine, JT or “Fancy Nancy” (it’s a long story). We shared living space, dog duties, a desire to cook dinners in nearly every night, good olive oil, and obsessive relationships with size 9 pumps, Glamour Magazine and beauty products. Yeah, I miss her a lot. I’ve lived in my new place for a while now and it was time for her to see the house, and for Walter the Wonderdog and her dog Max to have some play time.

What girl isn’t watching her weight? I mean, even the super skinny ones that I want to force-feed veggie burgers to, are watching their weight. I hate those girls, I have never and will never be what one might label as skinny (and I never want to be skinny-I, like Fergie, like my lovely lady lumps). I digress…my fave veg cookbook author Isa Chandra (Moskowitz) just released a “fast and filling, low fat” vegan cookbook called Appetite for Reduction (hat tip to Axl Rose) and it is totally FAB. There isn’t a single recipe that I don’t want to try, honestly. So, I randomly opened the book to the salad section and tried this one: Pad Thai Salad with Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. Ohhhhh, ahhhhh. I know, right?! I particularly LOVE this cookbook because, I sometimes am not really satisfied with 1 C of anything…so if you eat 2 C of something in this book, you aren’t really gonna pay the piper in terms of calories. It’s still lower than an entree eaten out. Isa does a great job with nutritional content and zippy tastes from common ingredients. I used a couple of recipes from the book to make this dish, Pad Thai Salad and Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. All fast, and easy. Enough talk, let’s eat.

Pad Thai Salad

8 C chopped romaine lettuce
4 C bean sprouts
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1 medium-sized carrot, peeled and grated
1 recipe Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing *
1/4 C roasted peanuts
1/2 C lightly packed fresh cilantro
lime wedges for serving

In a large mixing bowl, toss together the lettuce, sprouts, red onion, and carrot. Add the dressing and toss to coat. Distribute the salad among four bowls. There will most likely be dressing left over as it is fairly thin. Distribute the dressing among the bowls. Garnish with roasted peanuts, cilantro, and serve with lime wedges.

Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing

1/2 C roasted peanuts
2 T chopped shallot
1/4 C squeezed lime juice
1/2 C water
2 T agave nectar
2 T soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha

Pulse 2 T of the peanuts and all of the shallot in the food processor, just to chop everything up. Add the lime juice, water, agave, soy sauce, and Sriracha, and blend until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides a few times. Now add the remaining 2 T of peanuts and pulse for a bit. These shouldn’t be blended smooth, just chopped up small. The dressing will be thin. Adjust the seasonings to your liking. Keep refrigerated in a tightly sealed container until ready to use, up to 5 days.

In this photo you will see Red Thai Tofu as well, but we will save that recipe for another day.

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Posted in Less is more, Recipes

Tagged create, delish, dragon dressing, eating well, food network, green, isa chandra, recipe, salad, seasonal cooking, siracha, vegan, vegetarian, yum

Doing The RIGHT Thing!! Leading By Example: Cooking Day With Molly

Posted on January 2, 2011 | 1 comment

My friend Julie is crazy. Like in all the very BEST ways, crazy. I’m so proud of her latest post to Facebook it nearly brought me to tears, I was forced to drop everything and brag about her in this post. But first, a little health education, as if you actually thought I could write about this topic and not go all geek on you!!

In case you have been living in a cave for oh, say 50 years. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. In ancient historic times a person’s weight was the gauge of their social standing. A thin person often meant poverty and a plum family equated to the fact that they were doing well enough to have plenty to eat. This is not the case now. Our culture is producing the first generation of obese children with the highest risk factor of developing diabetes. The National Institutes of Health estimate that over sixty five percent of Americans are either overweight or obese and the number is climbing. With the rise of obesity, the diagnosis of type-2 diabetes has also been increasing.

We are a nation obsessed with all the wrong types of foods and are constantly being marketed to buy and consume copious amounts of junk and fast food. The American Diabetes Association has been expressing alarm at the fact that approximately twenty one million people have diabetes with a potential of around another fifty four million diagnosed with pre-diabetes (an increased elevation of the blood glucose levels but not at a level to be officially diagnosed as type-2 diabetes). The obesity and diabetes statistics are alarming.

Diabetes is a dangerous disease, however, type-2 diabetes has been related as a lifestyle disorder. This means it can start at an early age with a high fat and high sugar diet that lends to the disease progress. By the time of later adult hood, the body functions are set in place to have type-2 diabetes.

Here’s what all the fuss is about:

Over two thirds of the adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be overweight or obese-
All adults total: 68 percent; Women: 64.1 percent. Men: 72.3 percent

About one third of the adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be obese-
All adults total: 33.8 percent; Women: 35.5 percent. Men: 32.2 percent

5.7 percent of adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be extremely obese.

There has been a steady increase in obesity in all ethnicities, genders, ages and education levels. The prevalence of obesity in the United States has increase from 13.4 to 35.1 percent in adults age 20 to 74. Since 2004, while the prevalence of overweight is still high among men and women. There aren’t any significant differences in documented rates from 2003, to 2004; 2005 to 2006 and 2007 to 2008. There hasn’t been any change in obesity prevalence in women from 1999 to 2008; 2009-2010 official statistics have not yet been released, but I’m predicting an increase.

The increase in obesity in children in a 2003-2006 study showed 12.4 percent of children ages 2-5 and a 17 percent of children aged 6-11 were overweight. Most studies show that there is an increased mortality rate associated with obesity due to all sorts of preventable diseases and recently, even the National Cancer Institute links obesity to CANCER!!!!

If we as a community and a culture are going to encourage a healthy life for future generations, and change these alarming statistics, we have to stop buying prepackaged and premade products from manufacturers that really don’t care about us. Their job is to sell us product people! We need to pull the junk food from the schools and replace it with healthier choices (this I could talk about for hours-vending machines in schools still selling regular soda!!? It’s an outrage and a totally separate blog rant later). We also need to begin learning to eat right and less in volume, no matter where we are. Lastly, we need to cook at home with our kids!!!!! I applaud you Julie ( you too Molly! ) for taking steps in the positive direction for change. I love that you begin with a very humble and also misunderstood veggie, Brussels Sprouts. Listed below is Julie’s note from FB, keep up the good fight gals!

(Statistics not immediately sited in text were taken from the Centers for Disease Control website: cdc.gov).

Julie: So, I’ve been inspired by Cooking Light Magazine and their “12 Healthy Habits of 2011” program (check out their website…it’s a pretty cool thing they’re doing!) January is the month of adding more vegetables into your diet. Clearly this will only benefit my effort of weight loss (and my SparkPeople program) so I went to the store today with a mission to get some veggies, try a NEW veggie, and prepare some stuff that will get me through the week.

My new veggie: Brussels Sprouts. Yes, Erin, I’m trying Brussel Sprouts. (I know…you’re tearing up 🙂 I’m linking the recipe that I’m going to use. (I’m hoping that the link works.)

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000522381

And, Molly and I created a Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili. It has butternut squash in it. Which just happens to be one of my FAV veggies 🙂 Here’s that recipe.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001949760

It’s going to be a veggie filled month, I just know it 🙂

(If I tag you, it’s because you’re either a foodie or a diet buddy, or just b/c I adore you.)

Posted in Fall Food, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes

Tagged brussels sprouts, cook, cooking light, create, delish, eat your veggies, eating well, epidemic, facebook, julie, kids and cooking, molly, new year new you, obesity, recipe, school nutrition, seasonal cooking, snack, squash, type-2 diabetes, vegetarian, yum

Holiday Leftovers Take I

Posted on January 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

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I’m terrible when it comes to leftovers. They typically end up in the garbage. This dish however, began as stragglers, so not technically leftovers as in cooked and saved, this was mostly the stuff that didn’t get made and that would normally rot in my fridge. As there isn’t really a recipe, here is what I did:

1. Roasted the squash (in cubes) and brussels sprouts in a few teaspoons of EVOO at 400 until sprouts were caramelized and squash was done.

2. Warmed up some leftover Basmati (my fave) rice from a previous stir fry.

3. Stir fried extra firm tofu with lemon juice, orange juice and the zests of both until the tofu was caramelized and the juice made a little sauce. Then I tossed in a little soy for salt, it created a little glaze.

4. To assemble: tofu on rice, with side helping of veggies roasted and topped with pom seeds from the fridge. We enjoyed this with some leftover French bread and smoked cheddar cheese.

Nom nom. 🙂

Smokey Chili Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

Posted in Leftovers, Less is more, Seasonal Ingredients, Stir Fry

Tagged asian, cook, create, delish, eating well, EVOO, Mr. Wonderful, seasonal cooking, Stir Fry, vegetarian, yum

Christmas Day with The Wonderfuls

Posted on December 31, 2010 | 2 comments

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On the veggie menu:

Cranberry Crostini
Apricot Crostini
TLT Open Faced Baby Sammies
Sweet Potato Chipotle Gratin/Casserole
Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries
Chocolate Mallow Fondue with Dippers

Cranberry and Apricot crostini are this simple: toast a French baguette, slather a little goat cheese on it, top with dried fruit and honey if you so desire. For the cranberry crostini, I used cinnamon/cranberry goat cheese, topped with whole dried cranberries, and for the apricot crostini, I used honey goat cheese, topped with chopped apricots and lavender honey drizzle.

The TLT sammy recipe was adapted from Heidi over at 101cookbooks.com.

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados
2 pints tomatoes
2 packages fakin’ bacon tempeh
1 clamshell mixed baby lettuce leaves
1 small package regular plain goat cheese
1 French baguette, sliced and toasted
Juice of 2 limes
EVOO

The night before, preheat the oven to 400, toss the tomatoes with EVOO and roast until sweet and caramelized. Save these for the next day in the fridge. Day of, mash the avocado with the lime juice to make a make-shift-guac, this will go on the crostini at assembly. Prep the fakin’ bacon per the package instructions. To cook a bunch of it at a time, I cut the strips in half, put on a baking sheet and tossed into the oven for a few minutes until warm and crispy. Next, assembly is easy: take a crostini, top with a schmear of goat cheese, lettuce, avocado numminess, fakin’ bacon, and tomatoes. Or whatever order your OCD compells you to assemble this tasty bite.

So as not to lull you into submission or boredom with the length of this post here are the other recipes I made.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry Brown Butter

Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Fondue (use the creme so it’s veg friendly, sans gelatin)

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients

Tagged 101 cookbooks, apricots, baguette, bobby flay, brussels sprouts, casserole, chili, chipotle, chocolate, cook, cranberries, cranberry, create, crostini, delish, EVOO, fakin' bacon tempeh, fondue, food network, goat cheese, mallow creme, Mr. Wonderful, orange, recipe, sweet potato, sweet potatoes, veg, vegetarian, yum

Clean Out Your Cupboard Mexican Sopa

Posted on December 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I really, really wanted to go out and get half-off sushi at XO in downtown GR tonight, it’s just simply too cold to leave the house, really! Typically Mr. Wonderful and I eat at XO for lunch on Tuesdays, because can you really pass up a 9 dollar stuff your face with sushi lunch? No way. Today however, I had a lunch and learn speaker session to attend and could not go to half-off sushi day. I was crying on the inside, really. Instead, while listening to a charming and informative session put on by AMA West Michigan, I ate a crappy warm mixed greens salad without dressing (it looked gross), limp and flavorless “veggie pad Thai” (or my translation for the table was peanut butter spaghetti for white people-gag) and starchy, clumpy COLD rice, with a stale dinner roll. I pushed my plate forward and covered it with my napkin for a proper burial after I ate the greens and then waited to get home to eat my leftovers from last night’s Pineapple Tofu dish.

While I am known on occasion to exaggerate (I know you are surprised by this revelation), I have to get this out of my system as I work in a catering department of a very well-known west Michigan establishment and hotelier: food at other venues is shit compared to what we produce at my beloved place of employment. Yes, really, shit. I mean, I cannot emphasize enough, what an outstanding team of chefs and talented staff we have on our team. A luncheon on our turf, would NOT leave you wishing for your leftovers at home, this I assure you. I even passed on, are you ready for this…the Christmas sugar cookie. The Pillsbury cut and bakes I can buy in the refrigerated section are more desirable than the floury mess with butter frosting. Honestly people…and you call yourselves professionals?

Sorry about that distraction, I’m still mad that while my $40.00 paid to attend the session today was in my eyes a donation to the organization, approximately $0.00 went to the food bill. I feed my dogs better quality meals than I received at that country club, and not to the detriment of the host organization, this is all on the country club, 100% #epicfail.

On to the recipe.

As I wasn’t about to brave the cold, I took what I had and made “stone soup” or as I have dubbed it, “clean out your cupboard Mexican sopa”. Proof you can take normal stuff from your cupboards, toss it in a pan, add some broth and have a dinner in under 20 minutes. Mix it up people, your only limitations are what you currently have in your pantry or freezer. Good luck!

Ingredients:

3-15 ounce cans diced or whole tomatoes, zapped in the food processor to make your base
3-15 ounce cans black beans drained, or 4 cups cooked black beans, one cup zapped with tomatoes above for base
6 cloves garlic, zapped in food processor with first two ingredients
1 large sweet onion diced
1-15 ounce can whole corn kernels
1 can or 2 cups great northern beans drained
2T cumin, ground
1T ancho chili pepper, ground or your fave chili powder blend
3T chipotle en adobo, less if you don’t like spicy, play around with it beginning at 1T to taste
1tsp epazote, ground
4 C veggie broth or water
Juice of 4-5 limes

Really sophisticated directions here folks:

1. In a dutch oven, cook onion on medium high until translucent or browned whatever you like.

2. Dump into onion the base as described above with first 3 ingredients.

3. Next toss in whole black beans, whole northern beans, whole kernel corn, spices, veg broth, lime juice and chipotle en adobo.

4. Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, add salt and pepper to taste.

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Serve over baked tortilla chips or rice, sprinkle with cheese, top with avocado, sour cream, squeeze of lime, and chopped red onion. Freezes like a champ.

Posted in Fall Food, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Recipes, Soup

Tagged cook, create, cupboard, delish, eating well, kitchen sink, mexican, recipe, seasonal cooking, sopa, Soup, stone soup, yum

Meatless Any Day of the Week

Posted on December 13, 2010 | 2 comments

When I discuss being a vegetarian with people, usually they say things like “I could NEVER live without eating meat”. I would never be so bold as to say, everyone should be a vegetarian or vegan, but perhaps you could find it within you to give the “weeknight vegetarian” concept a try. Shoot for 2-3 nights in the regular week, to go meat-free. This might be a practice you observe currently and just don’t really recognize it. Why don’t you give it a shot? Start with this simple and fast weeknight recipe, Sesame-Honey Tempeh & Quinoa Bowl. You won’t miss the meat AND you can incorporate that “quinoa stuff” that you bought a while back after seeing it on Oprah, into this meal. Recipe courtesy of Eating Well Magazine. Mr. Wonderful says: “WOW, that red quinoa sure is nutty. Is that sesame?” Why yes it does, and yes it is. Mr. Wonderful approved.

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There are two components to the recipe a slaw and the tempeh:

Sesame-Honey Tempeh & Quinoa Bowl

Slaw

2 cups water
1 cup quinoa, rinsed (I prefer the red quinoa, but any will do)
2 cups grated carrots (about 3 large)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted (see Tip)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce

Tempeh

2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 8-ounce packages tempeh (see Note), crumbled into bite-size pieces
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 scallions, sliced

PREPARATION

To prepare quinoa: Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa and return to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer, cover and cook until the water is absorbed, 10 to 14 minutes. Uncover and let stand.
To prepare carrot slaw: Meanwhile, combine carrots, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon soy sauce in a medium bowl. Set aside.
To prepare tempeh: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add tempeh and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, 7 to 9 minutes.
Combine honey, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add to the pan and cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened and coats the tempeh, about 1 minute.
Divide the quinoa among 4 bowls and top each with 1/2 cup carrot slaw and 3/4 cup tempeh mixture. Sprinkle with scallions.

TIPS & NOTES

Tip: To toast sesame seeds, place in a small dry skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant and lightly browned, 2 to 4 minutes.
Ingredient Note: Look for tempeh near refrigerated tofu in natural-foods stores and many large supermarkets.

Per serving: 536 calories; 27 g fat (5 g sat, 9 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 53 g carbohydrates; 13 g added sugars; 28 g protein; 5 g fiber; 588 mg sodium; 899 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin A (182% daily value), Magnesium (46% dv), Iron (32% dv), Folate (27% dv), Potassium (26% dv), Calcium (21% dv), Zinc (19% dv).

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes

Tagged asian, carrots, cook, create, eating well, Mr. Wonderful, one bowl dinner, recipe, red quinoa, seasonal cooking, sesame oil, Stir Fry, tempeh, vegetarian, yum

I dream in ice cream.

Posted on November 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Really, I do. I could eat chocolate ice cream with crushed peanuts and bananas until I vomited. Then I would start all over again. I can’t explain ice cream’s hold on me. I have always, always loved ice cream.

I can remember when I was a kid, my Grandma Helen would take me to the deli on occasion and we would get ice cream. Every time Gram would get strawberry, but I would struggle making a choice, selecting very carefully a new flavor that I was sure was the best. We would walk around eating our cones and within minutes, I would be asked by Gram if I wanted a taste of hers, I of course, would share a taste of mine, and then as if it were scripted, I would end up with her strawberry ice cream cone. Meanwhile, she struggled to figure out what things like bubblegum, blue moon and superman tasted like as she was stuck holding the newest and greatest flavor I had rejected in lieu of the ever tasty tried and true strawberry. I have since, moved on to chocolate.

In the middle of grading papers, it hit me. Must. Have. Chocolate. Ice. Cream. Mr. Wonderful, because he is well, wonderful, perked up and offered to drop everything and make an ice cream run. I couldn’t let him do that (could I? no.)…so I went to the pantry and to Google. “Chocolate Pudding Recipe” entered and like magic the interwebs returned a number of recipes. I combined a few pudding and ice cream recipes (basically the same ingredients) to make this one, which satisfied my craving for chocolate goodness, sans bananas and peanuts, which I didn’t have on hand. I forget how delicious REAL pudding is just out of the fridge. It’s worth the 20 minutes of effort, with 5 minutes of stirring to get this velvety consistency. Another bonus, most of the items you probably have in your pantry and fridge right now. Go on, make your midnight snack before bed, you will thank me later.

Mexican Hot Chocolate “Pudding”

2 C half and half*
2C skim milk *
4 T cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
2 hot chili peppers dried, whole
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1/2 C Splenda or sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp espresso powder
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 whole eggs
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 tsp salt

*You could use 4 C of whole milk if you like also. To make vegan, omit both milk products and go with a soy replacement, just make sure it’s not labeled “light”. Coconut milk would be delicious in this too!

Directions:

Combine cocoa powder, espresso powder, Splenda, spices and peppers in a thick walled saute pan, slowly add the milk and half and half while whisking so as to avoid lumps. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, keep stirring for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla.

In heat resistant bowl, whisk eggs together with a small amount of the hot mixture, tempering the eggs, add the remainder of the chocolate mixture to the eggs, combine. Lastly, add the chocolate chips, whisk until melted.

Pour into bowls, coffee mugs, ramekins, whatever you have lying around the house that you can fit a spoon into, wrap in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. If you want to avoid the “skin” which I happen to think is gross, but Mr. Wonderful loves, press the plastic wrap down to the pudding until it touches and wrap up. I tossed a few in the freezer in ziploc containers so as to mimic the frozen delish that is ice-cream.

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Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead

Tagged cook, create, delish, freezer, ice cream, mexican hot chocolate, Mr. Wonderful, pudding, recipe, snack, vegan mo fo, vegetarian, yum

Vegan MoFo Readers Inspire

Posted on November 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

This is an infant blog. I post willy-nilly when I feel like I have righted some food wrong in the universe with a really delicious recipe. Mostly I blog about food because when I tell people I’m vegetarian or semi-vegan, people give me that blank “deer in the headlights” sort of stare; however, in reality, vegetarianism and veganism is not so uncommon. According to a recent study by my friends at Vegetarian Times, 7.3 Million people are vegetarian, of those 1 Million are vegan, consuming NO animal protein at all and a pretty incredible 10% of US adults, say that they are “vegetarian inclined”.

Good work friends. Keep up your enthusiasm and fierce dedication to a meat free lifestyle and I will keep sharing simple, fun and fresh meat-free recipes to assist your quest for a veg life. If I can do it, so can you. I even have Mr. Wonderful requesting and eating TOFU when we go out to restaurants. It’s a great contagion. Happy Vegan MoFo-ing. Be sure to check out other blogs linked to this site: Vegan MoFo Headquarters. Cheers to your next meat free masterpiece.

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients

Tagged cook, create, delish, Mr. Wonderful, recipe, seasonal cooking, vegan, vegan mo fo, veganmofo, vegetarian, yum

Fresh bread, 45 minutes, no yeast. Really. It’s yummy too!

Posted on November 8, 2010 | 122 comments

Turns out you can make bread that tastes good, without much time, yeast or overloading your very busy napping, I mean working, schedule on a Sunday afternoon. I forget that I own this cookbook until I see that someone else has dug out a keeper of a recipe from it. I made more potato soup this afternoon in the crock pot from basically what we had in the fridge, 6 baking potatoes, 2 small yellow onions, a handful of baby carrots, 4 dried chiles, fresh thyme, a little half and half, and some skim milk while we were busy with grading, laundry, cleaning, etc and this quick savory bread was the perfect compliment to that delish dish.

Olive Oil and Salt Quick Bread
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt, preferably sea salt

1 cup of warm water

To Do:

Heat the oven to 375 and grease an oven proof dish or skillet – 8-9″ is probably best.

Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Turn on the machine and slowly add the olive oil and most of the water.

Process for 30 seconds. The dough should roll into a ball and barely sticky. If it hasn’t come together yet, add remaining water a tablespoon at a time, processing for 5 seconds each time. If you want to add herbs, cheese, whatever, to the dough, do it now.

Put the dough into the pan and flatten it until the dough fits to the edges. Flip and press again. Cover tightly with foil and bake.

After 20 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle the top with coarse seat salt and herbs (if you like). Bake for another 20 minutes. The top will be golden and it will spring back when touched.

122 Comments

Posted in Fall Food, Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

Tagged baking, bread, cook, create, delish, EVOO, mark bittman, ny times, olive oil, recipe, salt, seasonal cooking, snack, Soup, vegan mo fo, veganmofo, vegetarian, yum

Adzuki!!

Posted on November 3, 2010 | 2 comments

Sometimes I look at recipes on veg websites, scan the list of ingredients and then set off to stump my local health food grocer. West Michigan lacks a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s which typically has all of these little bulk dried treasure bins and so, after I looked for a way to get rid of a butternut squash that was going to go bad this week, I found a recipe by Heidi Swanson adapted from a vegan cookbook that uses adzuki beans as a source of protein.

Adzuki beans? Yeah, until last year I hadn’t heard of them either. In popular Japanese and Chinese culture, they typically sweeten them and turn them into delicious desserts. Turns out they are a substantial little bean that hold up well in chili, soups, and stews. They take little time to cook from a dry state and store beautifully in your freezer in Ziploc bags, so you can make a bunch at a time. Additionally, they make a great non-refridge salad to pass at potlucks or picnics in the summer in this zesty Adzuki Bean Salad recipe from Whole Foods.

Adzuki & Butternut Squash Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon (dried) coriander
2 teaspoons finely chopped chipotle pepper (from can, or rehydrated from dried chile)
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
2 medium-large onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
5 – 6 cups water
5 whole canned tomatoes, chopped
4 cups cooked or canned adzuki beans
cilantro drizzle (optional)*

To make adzuki beans from a dry state. Rinse, rinse, rinse. Pick through for any duds, toss those. For 4 cups of cooked beans, try for 2-3 cups of dry beans. I had 4 1/2 cups of dried beans on the shelf, so I decided, if I’m gonna cook 4 cups I may as well cook what’s in my jar; thus, came out with 13 cups of cooked beans, of which I froze the extras not needed in the recipe. Put beans in a large pot with cold water covering over the beans about 2 inches, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for about 30 minutes. They don’t take too long. The bean is perfect when it takes a little pressure to smash it against the roof of your mouth when you are testing and burning yourself 🙂 This is obviously a VERY scientific method here.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the cinnamon, coriander, chipotle, cumin and salt and saute for a minute or two – until aromatic. Add the onions and saute another 5 minutes or so, until they start to go translucent. Add the garlic and butternut squash, stir well, and then add 5-6 cups of water. Increase the heat to bring to a boil, and once boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for a few minutes, until the squash begins to soften – 5 – 10 minutes.

Once the squash has softened, use a potato masher and break up the squash pieces a bit. Add the tomatoes, and cook a couple more minutes before adding the beans. Serve drizzled with the cilantro.

Serves about 8.

* I made a cilantro drizzle by putting one bunch of cilantro leaves into my mini-chop food processor with about a tablespoon of EVOO and a pinch of salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes for good measure.

Adapted from 101cookbooks.com

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Posted in Fall Food, Less is more, Make Ahead, Michigan, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Soup

Tagged adzuki, adzuki beans, asian, cook, create, delish, freezer, heidi swanson, Mr. Wonderful, recipe, seasonal cooking, squash, vegan, vegan mo fo, vegetarian, yum

Spicy Lentil Soup

Posted on November 2, 2010 | 2 comments

Lentils are wildly simple to use, satisfying and filling, cheap and quick to cook. Now why is it that you haven’t tried them? Yeah, I’m not sure either. Give this recipe a try. It’s pretty tame as far as curry flavors go, so you can ease your friends/family into the whole lentil idea. 🙂

Spicy Red Lentil Soup

1 cup yellow split peas
1 cup red split lentils (masoor dal)
7 cups liters water or veggie broth
1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2-3 tablespoons fresh peeled and minced ginger
2 tablespoons HOT curry powder (which if you purchase from Penzeys turns out to not be very hot, more spicy than hot)
2 tablespoons coconut oil (butter for non-vegans or ghee)
2 cups or 1 can rinsed chickpeas
8 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup dried currants
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can low fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
one small handful cilantro, chopped
cooked brown rice or farro, for serving (optional)

Give the split peas and lentils a good rinse – until they no longer put off murky water. This takes quite a while but believe me it is totally worth it. The first time I made this, I rinsed just so-so and it was a no-go. Ick. Place them in an extra-large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the split peas are soft.

In the meantime, in a small dry skillet or saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful so as not to burn the curry, this is a huge #fail. Set aside. Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half of the green onions, the remaining ginger, currants, and raisins. Saute for two minutes stirring constantly, then add the tomato paste and saute for another minute or two more.

Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the simmering soup along with the coconut milk and salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so. Add the cooked chickpeas just at the end so they don’t turn to mush. The texture should thicken up, but you can play around with the consistency if you like by adding more water, a bit at a time, if you like. Or simmer longer for a thicker consistency. The thicker this soup got, the more I liked it. Sprinkle each bowl generously with cilantro and the remaining green onions.

As Heidi Swanson so frequently does, I served this concoction over leftover brown rice that I would have tossed the next day. It’s like upcycling for food.

Turns out this freezes beautifully for single-servings throughout the week. It thickens up a bit, but just thin it out with water if you don’t like the consistency upon reheat. I’ve found a container of this in the back of my freezer and enjoyed with delight up to four weeks later. 🙂

recipe adapted from 101cookbooks.com

Posted in Less is more, Make Ahead, Seasonal Ingredients, Uncategorized

Tagged coconut oil, cook, create, curry, lentils, recipe, seasonal cooking, vegan, vegetarian, yum

Sometimes Less Really IS More

Posted on September 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’m an overachiever, there, I said it. It’s annoying. It makes me think bigger, better, faster, stronger…etc. At home, Mr. Wonderful and I make, order out and eat a lot of pizza, it’s his fave thing. So, the night I made this pizza (below) I should have just stopped at like, ingredient number 8 (#fail). Ridiculous. Lesson learned: sometimes less is more. My next post will be on the very much less, and very tasty Pineapple Brie Pizza.

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