It's On

Well, I've finally returned from my holiday hiatus from blogging.  A major roadtrip, some quality family time, and a snowstorm later, I am refreshed and ready for 2011, armed with my holiday loot for the kitchen.

It's ON!

Yes, that's a serious food processor, a muffin pan, bread pan, and cookbooks.  The blog will inevitably benefit.

In other news, I came back from my trip to find, of course, fairly slim pickin's in the fridge.  I did, however, remember that I had this little fellow in the cupboard.

I googled this "satay" business and found that this sauce is traditionally used on cubed, grilled meat, but it sounded good for a stir-fry to me.

Here's what I used:

Satay peanut sauce
Extra firm tofu, cubed
Frozen stir-fry vegetables (mine had carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, and sugar snap peas)
Vegetable oil
Brown rice

Heat the vegetables in the microwave until thawed.  Cook the tofu in the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat until golden.  Add the vegetables.  Stir in desired amount of satay sauce and cook for a few minutes longer so the tofu absorbs the sauce.  (Another option is to marinate the tofu in the sauce beforehand... I just didn't plan ahead enough for that step).  Serve over rice.

Souped Up and Souped Out

If you can't read it, the woman's saying, "Joe, this time if you sell the cow, don't settle for less than 17 beans." Cute, Trader Joe's.

I've recently been on a soup kick for lunches at work.  Since I've been feeling bored with the same old canned varieties from the grocery store, I figured I'd give this 17 Bean & Barley mix a try when I saw it at Trader Joe's the other week.  It really has 17 different types of beans in it, which I thought was enticing.  Here's the list of ingredients for the soup (you can also get a peek at the mix here too):

 

Here's what you do:

Soak the bean mix in a pot of water overnight.

Drain and rinse the beans, then put them back in the pot with 4 cups of the broth. 

In another pot, cook the celery, carrots, onion, basil, pepper, and garlic with the olive oil.  When tender, add them into the pot with the beans and stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Add more broth if desired.  Let the soup simmer for approximately 1 hour. 

Serve with some grated parmesan cheese.

 

I know this isn't the most photogenic meal (also, I later realized the settings for my camera weren't right) but it's a nice, hearty, satisfying soup with tons a of fiber and protein.  And it was easy!

For those bean fanatics out there, just in case you'd like to know, I typed up the list of beans in the soup:  baby lima beans, black turtle beans, blackeye peas, dark red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, great northern beans, green lentils, green split peas, large lima beans, light red kidney beans, navy beans, pink beans, pinto beans, red lentils, small red beans, small white beans, and yellow split peas.

I'm hoping it freezes well, because I have enough of this soup to last for a long while.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Since I'm just cooking for one, I have the luxury of indulging in all of my own food cravings and favorite ingredients.  There's a long list of foods/spices that I'm moderately obsessed with (salsa, ginger, black beans, and water chestnuts, to name a few), some of which you can probably figure out from reading my blog.  Two of my favorite foods - sweet potatoes and garlicky, sauteed, dark, leafy greens - I'd never thought to combine.  Well, I used Whole Living's Sweet Potato with Kale and Ricotta recipe to bring them together, and it was an unexpected treat.

This recipe serves 4, so I only made approximately 1/4 of it.

4 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 bunch kale, rinsed and cut from the stems
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup low fat ricotta cheese

Cook the potatoes in the microwave.  Meanwhile, saute the garlic with the olive oil in a skillet for about a minute.  Set garlic aside.

Begin cooking the kale in the skillet, adding more as it cooks down.  Add salt and pepper if desired.  After all the kale has cooked down, add the balsamic vinegar and the pepper flakes.  Stir.

Cut open the sweet potatoes, and stuff them with the kale and ricotta cheese. Sprinkle the garlic on top.

I've never used balsamic vinegar before, but it was absolutely delicious with the kale.  I highly recommend trying the kale and balsamic vinegar portion of the recipe, even without the rest of the meal.  Also: yes, the kale and potato were great, but the ricotta lacked flavor, so perhaps a different type of cheese would be better.

A Semi-Sweet Short Stack: In Search of a Healthy Pancake

As I may have mentioned before, I've always been a huge fan of breakfast food.  However, I tend to lean towards the saltier eggs 'n' toast options instead of the sweeter waffles and pancakes.  I do love a good pancake every once in a while, so this morning I wanted to find a whole wheat recipe and steer clear of the refined carb trap.  Grouprecipes.com came to my rescue with their flaxseed pancakes (and yes, this is a thinly-veiled attempt to use up my ground flaxseed - I've been keeping it in the fridge but fear rancidness every time I open the bag).

The original recipe calls for water or rice milk but no one's trying to be vegan over here, so I used skim milk.

Grease and preheat a griddle on the stove at medium heat.

Mix the following together in a large bowl:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Mix the following wet ingredients in another bowl:

1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Combine the wet and dry mixtures. 

Optional: Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the hot griddle.  Flip after the edges get dry and bubbles pop on the tops of the pancakes.

Overall,  I thought these pancakes were pretty satisfactory.  They were by no means "fluffy," but the texture wasn't as dense as I was afraid it might be.  The chocolate chips also added some excitement to the experience (not to mention the butter that kept sliding off the pancakes as I was trying to take pictures).  Bonus: there's leftover batter for tomorrow's breakfast!

Sold On Salad

Remember when I made those quinoa-stuffed peppers a while ago?  Well, I still had some uncooked quinoa sitting around in the cupboard and I finally used it up tonight.  Apparently, it's popular to enjoy quinoa in "salad" form, so  I made quinoa and apple salad from marthastewart.com (it was much less labor-intensive than the stuffed peppers). 

1/4 cup almonds
1 cup quinoa
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp shallot, chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp currants
1 McIntosh apple, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 375.  Toast almonds on a baking sheet for about 7 minutes, then chop them.

Boil 2 cups water.  Stir in quinoa, cover, and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. 

Mix the lemon juice, honey, shallot, curry powder, salt, and a sprinkling of pepper in a bowl.  Whisk in olive oil until dispersed, then stir in the currants, nuts, apple, mint, and quinoa.

I couldn't find currants at my grocery store, so I used raisins instead.