Spaghetti Squash Casserole (and how using what you have can turn into amazing!)

I've been playing a game lately that has really challenged me creatively. It's called use up all the food in your freezer and garage (I have squash hanging out in the garage from my farm share this fall. Thanks to the freezing winter we've had, it has all kept really well! And a ton of soup frozen in my freezer.) I don't want to wait until summer to try and get through this stuff. If we are being honest here, soup in the summer is kind of awful! And I want to make the most of what I have -- less clutter, less storage of stuff. I am adopting a use it up or donate it to someone who can use it mantra this year. And it starts with my freezer (and helps lower my grocery bill!)

Last nights dinner was made with spaghetti squash from the garage, spaghetti sauce from the pantry (yes I use jarred spaghetti sauce - total cheater and a little bit lazy) and some frozen ground beef from a half a cow my mom bought and had butchered this fall. (But you could totally leave out the meat and serve this as a side dish too!) Using-up-what-I-have success! Of course the cheese and other veggies I grabbed at the store. Here's what I did:

SERVINGS: 6

1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeds removed
1 Tbsp coconut oil (or olive oil)
1 lb ground meat (I used ground beef but turkey would work too!)
1 sm onion, chopped

1 tsp dried basil1 tomato, chopped1 pepper, diced1 carrot, shredded1 c feta cheese2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I also reserved a little bit for on top!) 16 ounces tomato sauce1/4 c chopped parsley (used dried)

Directions
1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Coat a 13" x 9" baking dish and a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Place the squash, cut side down, on the sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. With a fork, scrape the squash strands into a large bowl.



2. MEANWHILE, warm the oil in a medium skillet set over medium heat. Cook the ground meat until cooked through. Drain and place cooked meat in bowl. 

3.  Add the onion and basil. (Add a little more oil if necessary.) Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add remaining veggies. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the mixture is dry.

4. ADD the feta cheese, mozzarella, parsley, sauce and veggie mixture to the bowl with the squash. Stir to mix. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and bread crumbs.

5. BAKE for 30 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through.

You can also top it with some fresh grated parmesan cheese for a little zing! Yay dinner! 

A Bowl Full of Green (And this green bowl of pasta and veggies was awesome!)

If I told you I found a recipe that was super easy, yummy and healthy (also vegan and with the potential to be even gluten free -- if that's your jam--) who would call this girl a liar? Yeah, I would too. So I was super psyched when I tried a recipe buried in Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook. She is pretty much a kick a$$ vegan chef whose food is always amazing but not always clean.

I found this recipe and was shocked I never paid it much attention -- probably because it didn't have a picture, let's be honest here. I tend to cook things that have nice pictures. It's what I do (don't judge me.) Recipes sans picture tend to get overlooked and never cooked. But as I was flipping through Chloe's Kitchen looking something easy I could have prepped and ready to go for my dear friend who offered to stay at my house and watch my child and my dogs for a weekend, I stumbled upon this recipe.

So I bought a giant tub of baby spinach, busted out my food processor and made three goes of the sauce (and froze two of them for later.) All she had to do was boil noodles and add some veggies to the same pot for the last few minutes of cooking and add the pre-made spinach pesto. I also just had her use a whole bag of frozen green beans that were already cut into small pieces and the entire bag of frozen lima beans. I figured the more veggies the better. Bulking up a pasta dish with veggies is a super easy calorie saver.

And the entire thing takes maybe 20 minutes. Quicker if your pesto is pre-made. Easy-peasy.

So here is the actual recipe:

1 lb of whole wheat pasta*
4 oz frozen green beans, cut into bite size pieces (about 1 inch)
10 oz frozen lima beans

5 oz fresh baby spinach
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions but with 5-3 minutes left on cook time add green beans and lima beans to the water. (Vary based on how crunch you like your veggies. I lean toward less time in the water and crunch veggies.) Let cook until veggies are tender and pasta is ready. Drain.

For the sauce, combine spinach, garlic, olive oil, water, lemon juice, salt and pepper. (I skipped the salt and pepper in the sauce just because I tend to like to add it to taste. After having it once I would go ahead and add both right into the sauce.) Pulse until combined.

Put the cooked pasta and veggies into a bowl and toss with the sauce.

And you have your bowl of amazing green goodness.


*the original recipe called for oreccheitte pasta -- I used spirals because I like how they grip the pesto.

**If you aren't looking to make this vegan, a little bit of fresh grated parmesan on top is yummy! I have to watch my dairy intake so depending on how my week has been, I skip this or add it. 

Enjoy!

Possibly The Easiest Broccoli Soup Ever (or pureed soup heaven)

I used to think I hated soup. Not really my thing. The cooked carrots in soup made me gag and I just can't handle the texture most veggies have after swimming around in broth for such a long period of time. But now I have to renege because I have discovered that pureed soup is my jam. I am obsessed.  Give me a veggie, some stock and my immersion blender and I will make it happen.

I had some kohlrabi in my fridge. And I love kohlrabi (super weird I know) but my grandpa used to grow it. Every summer I looked forward to getting some from his garden (along with a ton of sweet corn). I would just cut and eat it raw. Yummy, awesome goodness.  

Kohlrabi is also a super nutrient dense food (meaning it has a ton of stuff that is great for you for not that many calories.) It is rich in vitamin C and some B vitamins too. According to fitday.com it contains "vitamin B6, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid and folate. B vitamins play a role in increasing metabolic rates and maintaining healthy skin and hair." Seriously, I didn't need an excuse to love the stuff but anything that helps my metabolism goes straight to the top of my favorite list. They are like the teachers' pets of all the veggies out there. Gold stars all the way.


And, of course, broccoli is pretty awesome too. So this recipe is a win, win. Easy, fast, healthy and yummy (I may or may not start salivating when I think about it.)

Since soup has become my dumping ground for random veggies, I decided to take some inspiration from a broccoli soup recipe I found online and just modify it a little bit. It may be the best soup I’ve ever made (either that or I am just getting better with practice.)

Here is what I did –

2 boxes of veggie stock

2 heads of broccoli

2 large kohlrabi

1 sweet onion

TBS (or so) olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

I cooked the onion and kohlrabi in the bottom of the pot with some olive oil until the onion started to become translucent. I added the stock and the chopped up broccoli and brought it to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Let it cool and blend.

So it turns out kind of like a cream of broccoli soup sans dairy. Of course it isn’t as creamy as the real thing without the help of some type of dairy. If you aren’t avoiding dairy completely (or need a little something to make you feel like you are cheating) you can grate some parmesan on top or even add a little goat cheese. 

On a side note the original recipe called for just using water, boiling the broccoli in it, putting the broccoli in a blender and slowly adding the water back in until the soup was the desired constancy (You can check out the recipe I used for inspiration here.) I like stock and the flavor it gives it so I used stock. And if you don't have kohlrabi, skip it. Add a potato. Whatever. Just another reason I love making soup! It is hard to mess up. A great way to use up veggies that are (rapidly) heading toward their expiration date. And it is super easy to double or triple the batch, freeze and pull out on a freezing night -- like tonight-- or a day where getting a cooked meal on the table will just not happen. Heat and eat. Whoot!

Pumpkin Granola Bars (and why going on vacation makes me want to bake!)

Vacation is in T minus 2 days. I don't have a thing packed or ready to go except for buying snacks. Typically, when we head south, we fly. This year my sweet little pumpkin is 2 and while that means some independence, fights and the dreaded potty training, it also means we no longer have to spend our hours on a plane fighting with a wiggly, upset child on our laps. Yes, at the age of 2, the airlines make you buy your child a ticket (which is both a blessing and a curse -- I mean now I have hands to read my kindle and possibly take advantage of the airline beverage service since I can 1. put my tray down and 2. the odds of her knocking it over are lessened slightly by the distance of the next seat. So there's that.) But ticket prices to fly to Orlando have been crazy high lately and are not dropping so that means gassing up my car and taking a road trip.

And a road trip inspires me to buy and make snacks. Lots of them. Because what else is there to do in the car besides drive, listen to music and eat?

I saw a recipe on Pinterest for pumpkin granola bars. I have made road trip granola bars before (Tosca Reno's sweet potato bars) and they didn't make it to this blog. They were mushy and wet and soggy. Good flavor but the texture made me gag. (My poor husband had to eat a gallon size bag of them by himself. My toddler and I both voted no.) So I was hesitant to try these. Pumpkin and sweet potato (and butternut squash!) are kind of similar and interchangeable in a lot of stuff. But I gave it a shot. Because it's fall and even the air should be pumpkin flavored. (Side note - I do not drink pumpkin spice latte's they gross me out. To compensate, I attempt to eat my way through the fall by way of the pumpkin and other various squash cousins - namely of the acorn and butternut squash variety. But to each their own.)

This recipe was amazing -- not only because it contains pumpkin and chocolate but a bunch of other awesome things as well. Flaxseed for omega-3's, ginger for some anti-inflammatory action, cinnamon for all sorts of reasons (read more about that here) and even honey which (raw honey) has been touted as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and an anti-viral substance (check out more on honey here.)

They baked up not sticky and messy but kind of cakey, not what I expect in a granola bar. I think they would make awesome cookies. They are really good. Not very sweet (I cut the original amount of honey in half) but I wasn't going for sweet. I have really cut back on sugar in general (even natural sugar) so I have become more sensitive to sweet (which for me is a mini-miracle. I used to eat frosting, out of a can.) I also think maple syrup in this recipe may be amazing.

The original recipe for the pumpkin granola bars is here. I (of course!) had to do a few things differently.

First - I doubled the recipe. An 8x8 pan was not going to cut it. (I have 16+ hours in a car with a toddler. Plus a week's worth of snacks I need to pack since she refuses to eat real meals and only snacks -- we call lunch and dinner "big" snacks and sometimes it works *wink wink*)

Second -- I added raisins because I love them and cut back on the chocolate.

Third -- I searched high and low and everywhere to find chocolate without soy lecithin. (Yes! it does exist.) I prefer my chocolate without a side of GMO soy. (I used Enjoy Life brand.)

Ingredients:

5 cups of old fashioned oats
1 cup flaxseed meal
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of pureed pumpkin
1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raw honey (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life brand)
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Grease a 9 x 13 pan (I used coconut oil to grease mine and it worked awesome!)

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (oats through cloves)

In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (save the chocolate chips and raisins)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well (it was gross but I mixed it with my hands to make sure it was all mushed together -- in a good way)

Fold in the chocolate and the raisins (again I used my hands)

Press into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top browns slightly. 

Let cool completely and cut. 

Amazing. 

Eggplant and Tomato Soup (more comfort food for fall....)

The theme with all of my recipe posts seems to be that I am trying to use up the veggies that come pouring in from my CSA. In this case it was eggplant --and one can only eat so much eggplant. I mean I love it fried and smothered in cheese and sauce but since my body no longer agrees with that dinner (my digestive system is all that was your gall bladders job girlfriend, if you try to make us do that we will make you pay!) I need to find another way to use eggplant. Much to my chagrin, I don't really like it minus the fried cheesy saucy goodness.

What I have found that I love about making soup is that it is hard to screw up and you can pretty much just dump stuff in a pot (aka cleaning out my fridge). It also freezes well, so I am not stuck with all the freezer burned veggies in January that  I lovingly tried to freeze correctly during the summer. Plus it is something I can throw in the crock pot, let reheat all day and come home to dinner. A dinner my toddler likes because it allows her to dunk things. Boom. It makes me feel awesome all around.

I originally saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. (Which is a pretty awesome blog for really cool and
different recipes, although reader be warned most of them, while super delicious are not health recipes. Seriously the pictures alone will make your mouth water. So pin the super awesome dessert or grilled cheese ones for one of your cheat meals for sure!)  You can link to the original recipe here -- but this is what I did (my version involves much less measuring and more dumping and of course no dairy. Since I have found that processing diary was also part of my gall bladder's job description.)

Ingredients --

2 medium sized eggplants

tomatoes (in this case I used 2 large tomatoes and a handful of grape tomatoes I had on hand)

1 sweet onion

Garlic (in this case I used 2 heads of garlic but I love garlic so you can adujust this based on your personal relationship with garlic)

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

32 ounces of vegetable broth

Turmeric

Salt to taste


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Chop eggplants onion and tomatoes in half  and place them on a large cookie sheet or two. (Or if using grape tomatoes just toss them on the cookie sheet.) Also add the garlic.

Drizzle veggies with olive oil (I used a Misto to spray my veggies with olive oil) and I splashed them with balsamic vinegar.

Place in the oven and let roast 40 minutes to an hour (they should be slightly browned and tender.) I did add my garlic 20-30 minutes in so it wouldn't burn. With that said, I have also forgotten to roast the garlic and just add it to the pot later. Either way it turns out fine.

Allow the roasted veggies to cool enough to touch. Skin the eggplant -- the skin should peel right off.

Toss everything in a large soup pot.

Add the veggie broth and any spices you want to use. (I think the beauty of this soup is that you can add whatever spices you love. I have been obsessed with turmeric lately so I just dumped some in.)

Bring the soup to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Allow it to cool slightly and puree. (You can do this in batches in a food processor or use an immersion blender. Side note -- I love my immersion blender and use it daily.) This is where I usually taste test and add salt or any other spices I feel it needs.

Super easy and really yummy. It is one of those soups that is perfect for a fall or winter night with some really good bread. (I mean what is soup without good bread?)

I had a big bowl and packed the rest away in the freezer for later.

I have actually made this recipe twice and have varied the amount of tomatoes each time (based on what I had to use up. The only difference being it just tasted more like a yummy tomato soup the more tomatoes I put in -- makes sense. But you still get the benefits of the eggplant. (For more info on why eggplants rock check this out.)

Cucumber and Avocado Soup (and how green soup makes me feel super healthy)

I get a CSA every summer. And I love it. I get boxes of farm fresh just picked this morning veggies every week. Veggies and fruits that ripen on a plant and not in a warehouse. Super awesome deal.

But my husband travels for work all summer and I am a lazy cook when cooking for just myself (and a toddler who sometimes seems to survive on air and frozen peas.) Lots of the time these wonderful farm fresh veggies begin to fill up my fridge to the point where they are taking over. When I am dodging stray ears of corn when I open the door, I typically start googling for what I can make that will use up a lot of veggies and freeze well (until my husband gets home with his very large and uncomplaining appetite!) and this time it was soup to the rescue.

This time I decided to try cucumber soup. I found an awesome recipe from Eating Well (which you can check out here.) Having only ever really eaten cucumbers raw as snacks or in salads, I was a little hesitant to cook them (what if something weird happens when you cook them? If they were good cooked wouldn't more recipes called for sauteed cucumber? I mean how often do you ever see that?)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the only bizarre thing that happens when you cook cumbers into soup is that they are delishous. This soup was amazing -- I may actually buy extra cucumbers from my CSA this week so I can make more of this soup.

So here is what I did ---

What you will need:

1 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 TBS white vinegar (the recipe originally called for lemon juice which I didn't have)
4 cups peeled, seeded and sliced cucumbers
32 oz vegetable broth
1 1/2 avocados, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste*

The original recipe called for everything minced or diced. Since I knew the soup was going to be pureed, I just roughly chopped everything. (I told you I was lazy...)

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add garlic and onion and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.

Add vinegar and cook for 1 minute.

Add the cucumber, broth and avocado and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook until the cucumbers are soft (between 5-10 minutes)

Transfer the soup to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

*The original recipe also called for a dash of cayenne pepper. Since I don't do spicy I always omit this kind of thing. But for those of you who love the heat, it might be a nice option.


It was delicious (even if the color is a little strange.) Not what I expected at all but really good. I actually packed it up for lunch the next day since the recipe said it could be served chilled. But it wasn't great. Room temperature or warmish was the way to go with this one! (With some yummy bread of course!)

What To Do With All This Sweet Corn (you know you live in Western PA when this is a problem!)

So maybe it has to do with the fact that I am getting over some sinus and respiratory stuff but I have been craving soup like crazy. It is all I have wanted to eat (with some yummy bread to sop it up, of course! Who eats soup without bread?)

I have also been overloaded with corn from my CSA (community supported agriculture - you should
totally look one up and join. It's awesome.) My fridge is completely full of sweet corn and it is getting out of control. I have no where to put any other food and when I move something it all rolls around and it is getting silk everywhere (you know it's summer in Western PA when your floor is covered in corn silk ALL the time.)

In order to address my soup addiction and get this corn out of my fridge, I decided to goole some corn soup. I mean it has to exist, right? Somewhere people eat this? The idea of a creamy bowl of pureed sweet corn sounded amazing to my aching sinuses. (Maybe I will find something to fill the void that Panera's Broccoli and Cheese soup left in my life -- and yes with a bread bowl. Hello this girl, in love with bread. It's kind of an addiction.)

*Google*

And yes, it does exist! There are actually a lot of recipes for sweet corn soup, much to my suprise. But I didn't anticipate how much of a pain it was going to be to make. In my head I was going to cut it off the cob. Cook it up. Add some broth and whatever else it called for and then use my fancy immersion blender to make it all smooth and awesome.

Generally, things don't seem to turn out the way I picture them in my head. Ever. (You would think I would have learned that by now.)

Almost all of the recipes I found wanted me to grate the corn off the cob to make a mushy mess of corn puree. Well I knew what kind of mess that would be. Corn juice all over my kitchen and a starchy mess all over my hands (plus the possibility of some scraped fingers.) I don't think so. This was the perfect instance to use my immersion blender for something other than my daily Shakeology. Look at me being versatile in the kitchen and making good use of my appliances. (And apparently so much smarter than the 400 people that have probably made this before.)

So I cut and sauteed and cooked and added broth and coconut milk. My house smelled awesome. And I blended, dodging flying hot lava soup when the blender got too close to the surface of the pot.

Then I tasted. And the taste was awesome. What was not awesome....the corn skin left in the pot even after I blended forever. So I blended more. Still corn skin. And I tried to convince myself it wasn't a problem. That it made it more authentic and corny to have the skins in there. That it gave it a more palatable texture. And it was all lies! All of it. I could not justify leaving the corn skins in the soup and I was not happy with what I knew had to happen next. (Why didn't I listen to all the people who grated their corn. Messy hands are so much easier to deal with than the straining of the corn skins.)

So I busted out a strainer and put it over a large pyrex measuring cup and ladled. Ladle-full by ladle-full I strained, using the back of a spoon to work the liquid through the strainer. Ugh. Talk about boring and time consuming but it was well worth the effort. The result was creamy and yummy corn goodness. If you are a corn on the cob lover (borderline obsessed) then this is a masterpiece in a bowl.

I froze two jars of my liquid corn gold and promptly enjoyed the rest for dinners (with some really good toasted sunflower whole wheat bread! yum!) while my sinus yuckyness cleared up.

The original recipe I found here and adapted it to meet my non-dairy preferences.

So this is what I did:

1 or 2 TBS of olive oil
10-12 ears of sweet corn - kernels removed*
1 medium sweet onion
3 small shallots
32 ounces veggie broth
2 cans coconut milk
3 TBS water
2 TBS arrowroot
Salt (to taste - I used Himalayan salt)
White pepper (to taste)

In a large pot saute the olive oil and onion and shallots.

When they are almost translucent, add the corn and cook for five more minutes or so.

Add the veggie broth and let it all come to a boil.

Turn down the heat and let simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes.

Add the coconut milk, stir and allow to simmer for 15 more minutes

Whisk the arrowroot with the water and add to the pot along with salt and pepper.

Strain *

Serve

* Many of the recipes I found called for grating the corn off the cob with a grater so it turns into a puree rather than starting with kernels cut off the cob. After the frustration I experienced with straining I recommend this method. Maybe 90% of the people posting recipes for this online knew what they were talking about or maybe I had a really sad strainer that kept getting clogged. Either way - totally your call.

Happy Eats!

Fourth of July - Cleaning up Grandma's Freezer Slaw

Happy Fourth! 

I love the Fourth.

I love that the good old colors of the USA can be represented in things with fresh berries. I love that John (typically) doesn't have to work and can come home from wherever he is. Plus we have fireworks, beer, playing outside, grilling and more beer. What isn't to love?

In an effort to bring something a little more healthy to the table this year, I am taking my very favorite coleslaw recipe and cleaning it up by replacing the sugar with honey. I am also mixing in some broccoli slaw with the cabbage so at least there are some extra veggies in there.

Now I am not a creamy dressing girl. On anything, coleslaw included. I love me a good vinegar based coleslaw dressing - just like my Grandma made it.

Now my Grandma's recipe calls for 4 cups of sugar! 4 cups! That is a ton of sugar. When I was google searching vinegar based coleslaw for some other options, I didn't really find anything that would be close to the same. I was torn. Do I chalk it up to a "treat" and just go with it the way it is or do I experiment? Since I have been playing around with recipes (while standing on my soap box preaching about healthy eating) I decided it was in everyone's best interest to clean it up.

And I cheated and bought pre cut cabbage. I hate the cutting part and with the travel this weekend

So here is what I did:

1 bag angel hair shredded cabbage
2 bags of broccoli slaw

And those get dumped in my big travel bowl

 1/2 cup honey*
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed

Combine all these ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add to the cabbage while hot.

Refrigerate or freeze and thaw before serving.

*I played with the honey and didn't really measure it. I mixed everything up in a large pyrex measuring cup to make sure I got all the honey whisked in with the vinegar. The lowest measuremtne was 1 cup. I I tried to eyeball half a cup, but I think it was a little less. I whisked, tasted and added another large squeeze of honey. This did leave my dressing with some bite.

I did consider not cooking the dressing to help keep the health benefits of the honey & apple cider vinegar in tact. However, my love for wilty lettuce won that battle. I love how the hot dressing "cooks" the cabbage a little bit. The slaw still has a lot of bite and crunch but that little bit of heat makes it just a little wilty. (I seriously have a wilty lettuce obsession, borderline problem.) Plus the apple cider vinegar I had was pasteurized so it was already heated anyway. Some say the heating process destroys the benefits, some say it doesn't. It's another one of those health arguments that makes my head spin.

I did use apple cider vinegar because I like the taste it brings and just in case any of those enzymes that are so good for you aren't destroyed (it's like a bonus!) The orginal recipe did call for all white vinegar which is a little bit less acidic than apple cider vinegar. If you aren't hanging with people who are a fan of vinegar, you may want to stick to the white or do 1/2 and 1/2. I could eat vinegar on everything so we play it up in this house.

Happy eating (and drinking! Don't forget to toast to America and everyone who sacrifices to keep us safe.) Cheers!

The next best thing to salt and vinegar chips (and how I handle those crunchy, salty cravings)

I've never been a huge chip girl. I am more of a chocolate or artificial cheese flavored popcorn kind of girl. But every once in a while I get a hankering for some greasy, crunchy chips, preferably salt and vinegar flavored. The stronger, the better. I could eat them until it feels like there is a hole being burned in the center of my tongue from the vinegar-ness. They were the one snack food my mom would cave and buy if I was having friends over. (Typically we lived in a no junk food house.) So eating salt and vinegar chips not only gives me a party in my tummy but there is that deep seeded association that they are for super fun times. (Yay sleepovers!)

I am trying to avoid processed foods and really commit to clean eating, I knew I had to find another way. And since I don't really eat meat, I knew if I could get some more protein in my diet, it would be killing two birds with one stone. I turned to my friend the garbanzo bean. I knew they could be roasted and get super crunchy but I always found that I burnt them before I could get them good and crunchy. They were often burned on the outside and still soft on the inside.

So I channeled a much more patient person and tried to get them to take over my body to cook these
babies for me, because I knew what I had to do. Lower the temp and lengthen the time. (I am so not patient. At all.) I picked a time when I knew I would be home and I knew I would be preoccupied (like sitting at the dining room table and writing a blog post.)

I set the oven temp to 250 and let the oven preheat while I rinsed the garbanzo beans (Typically I use dried beans - it's super easy as long as you think ahead. I had some cans on hand for dinner emergencies and since we are moving across the country again I figured it would be smart to use them up.)

Make sure to dry the beans after they are rinsed. This really helps. I like to cook mine on parchment paper so if the paper gets wet from the beans it takes even longer for them to roast (and for this impatient chick right here, it takes long enough as it is. I don't need to add any extra time to this recipe.)

And I set the timer for 25 minutes. And I stirred them. And I set the timer for 25 minutes. And I stirred them. And I set the timer for 25 minutes and I stirred them (you get the idea.)

They roasted for probably 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This will vary based on your oven temp too. It is pretty easy to tell when they are done. They shrink up really small and sometimes crack in the middle. Once they aren't so hot they will burn a hole in your mouth, test one. If it is crunchy, they are done. If it crunches on the outside and is still soft in the middle, give 'em another stir and stick them back in the oven.

I have also had better luck getting them crunchy dry roasting them instead of tossing them in olive oil. I just rinse, dry and throw them in the oven. When they are done and it is flavor adding time, I can toss in olive oil and any seasoning I am feeling like. Plus I like the idea that I don't have to commit to making a whole batch one flavor. I can flavor them before I eat so I have lots of options depending on what I feel like (and anyone who has traveled with me knows I need lots of options, hence the entourage of suitcases I typically travel with.)

So for the salt and vinegar chip goodness, all I do is toss them with a little malt vinegar and some salt
and whala I have crunchy salty burn a hole in my tongue vinegary goodness. A really great, protein packed crunchy snack that is even good thrown on top of salads.

These babies, although they have lots of good for you nutrients, do have calories. All legumes pack a lot of calories (think along the lines of almonds and other nuts.) I like to have about a 1/4 or 1/3 of a cup of crunchy chickpeas with half an apple as a snack. The apple combined with the protein really helps fill me up.

Happy Eats!

Betty Goes Vegan Tacos (my adventures into the world of Tempeh)

After reading many recipes and blogs in the vegetarian and vegan world, I started to become familiar with the things that are used to substitute meat. And out here in the Pacific Northwest, many of these things are available in grocery stores. I can find things like bee pollen, veganaise, tofurky and soy yogurt and cheese (yet I cannot find whole wheat lasagna noodles. *shakes head*) I can also find plenty of substitutes for meat. One that I have heard a lot about is tempeh. I have seed many comments on recipes and blogs from people who aren't too crazy about tofu but love tempeh. So I grabbed some at the store. And it sat in my fridge.

Every time I opened the fridge, the tempeh and I kind of had a I know you are there but I am going to ignore you if you ignore me relationship. Then it got to the point where I had to acknowledge the tempeh by either cooking it or throwing it in the trash. Since I am not a big fan of throwing my money away, I chose to attempt to cook it. My default to attempt anything I know nothing about is to

*google*

*google*

*google*

And those searches brought me to ohmyveggies.com which is a delightful site I was happy to add into my rotation of sites to search for dinner ideas. On there I found a recipe for tempeh tacos and who doesn't love a taco (I actually didn't love tacos for a long time. They totally grossed me out. And then I met Moe's which lead to a love affair with Chipotle which has turned into me making vegan/vegetarian tacos in our home a lot and I am always looking for a variation on the black beans as protein.) So this was how I decided to cook up the tempeh in my fridge. It was starting to dare me, all I know you can't cook me. There is no way you can do this.

The recipe I found was from the cookbook Betty Goes Vegan. While I have read and tried things from many cookbooks, this was one I had yet to pick up (or borrow from the library. Libraries rock!) The blog put in lots of pretty pictures and even made me want to use crunchy shells (I am team soft taco.) My trip to the grocery store that carries weird but not basic things out here lead me to find that they do not in fact carry organic taco shells or hard taco shells. Seriously. So I went with wheat because at least the GMO chance there is lesser (as there isn't supposed to be any GMO wheat but the whole thing with the wheat in Oregon make me skeptical.) So soft tempeh tacos it is.

When I took the tempeh out of the package it was slimy and chunky. It has whole and halved soybeans in it and at that point I was missing the smooth texture of tofu. (And trying not to gag - visually the texture- I just can't.) I started breaking it up into pieces and then all urges to be sick disappeared. I mixed it up with the seasonings and the lime juice added some onion and was done. Super easy. (These are the kinds of recipes that make me all I love cooking. Especially when they turn out awesome and it is something that sounds kind of scary -- like tempeh sounds super intimdating. It makes me feel very victorious inside. It's the little things kids. Sometimes they are what you need to get through the day.)

So I threw it all in a pan until it is heated through (another one of the bonuses of meat free cooking. I don't have to worry about if things are cooked all the way through because someone could die. I just have to heat and serve. Whoop!) Then I threw it all in a warmed taco shell with some avocado and olives (for me and B anyway. John is an olive hater.) Balance out with a green salad with a cilantro lime vinigerette and whala dinner is served.

The link to the original recipe is here. I skipped all the liquid smoke and other things that sounded strange and just used what I had in my pantry. Maybe they would have been better had I included these ingredients, maybe not? I also skip the spicy and rely on John to use his own special blend of 85 million hot sauces that live in my cupboard.

Here is what I did:

For the Filling:

1 8oz package of tempeh
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2  red onion minced
3 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried oregano
Juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs water

You will also need:

Taco shells and toppings (I used avocado, pico de gallo and olives)

Instructions:

Crumble your tempeh into a large mixing bowl.

Then mix in the garlic, cumin, onion powder, oregano and lime juice.

Once the spices are well mixed, add the onion.

Drizzle the water in 1 TBS at a time into your mix while stirring.

Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Spray a skillet with olive oil  and heat to medium heat.

Add the tempeh mix and stir a few times so it browns evenly.  (About 10 minutes)

While the tempeh is cooking you can warm your taco shells and prep any toppings you may need to prep.

Fill, top and serve.


Once cooked up I really enjoyed the tempeh. It gave the tacos more of a ground meat texture than bean or another meat substitute does. The spices are true to what a traditional taco spice mix would be. All in all it was tasty and I count my trip into tempeh land as a success. (And it might be a place I come back to visit every once in a while. Especially when I am bored with my regular dinner rotation.) I was also so excited to eat my creation that I forgot to take pictures. Luckily, John came home late that night so I was able to play food photographer with his taco creations and I took photos of my leftover tempeh mixture (which was also yummy on a "taco" salad the next day for lunch.)

Happy Grilling Weekend (a recipe for those of us who might be grill-less, want to go meat-less or both)

Tis the season to fire up the grill! But seeing as we are in the land of it is June and I wake up and still have to put a hoodie on to go outside (and I still might be cold) chilling grill-side isn't really something we look forward to doing. That combined with an upstairs apartment makes you get a little creative around here if you want to grill.

My other major problem when it comes to grilling is finding a meatless patty concoction that holds it's
shape and won't fall apart while cooking (resulting in huge mess on a grill, not that much of a mess in a pan.)

Now I found this recipe on Skinnytaste.com. I dig this website. (When I was eating meat I found a recipe on there for herbed pork chops. They were O-M-geee amazing. Every once in a while the thought of eating that recipe makes me want to cook up Wilbur again. My apologies buddy.) This time I found spinach and quinoa patties. I am always trying to find more ways to get greens into my dinner and into my toddler's mouth. So in burger form with sweet potato fries this was a win-win twinkle in this mama's eye.

A word about quinoa. If you haven't heard about this rockstar grain yet you need to get it into your pantry! It is a complete protein source (which is a huge deal for those of us that don't eat creatures for whatever reason) and super easy to cook. As easy to cook as rice. It make a great rice substitute too (my hubby likes to make quinoa and shove it in his burritos.) Technically, this superstar is a seed and super easy to flavor. Think being able to douse it with cinnamon for breakfast but cooking it in veggie stock for dinner. It is one of my favorite things to eat. And we tell B that they are seeds like birdies eat. So many a times we sit around the table tweeting as we eat (and not the kind you do from your smartphone. Welcome to the crazy house.)

So as my quinoa spinach patties cooked up they got all crispy crunchy on the outside and were still pretty gooey on the inside (a combo that makes my taste receptors go all it's a party.) These babies were great but I don't know how they would fare on a grill. They stayed together pretty well in a pan and once all crunchy on both sides. I was also thinking how it would work if you made them ahead of time and refrigerated so they were a little more chilled together (and if you wouldn't be all quinoa sticky hands in the middle of your grill-fest party.) It was just me cooking for our little family out here so I wasn't too concerned about the sticky hands mess but since I like to have hoards of people around me when I am home (ask John how many time I thwarted his chance to propose because I had to invite everyone I knew to go with us everywhere. The more the merrier - unless you want to get engaged.) I always try to come up with way to make it work in a party or small get together or anywhere I would rather be drinking a beer and hanging out with friends than locked in the kitchen making a mess.

While the texture of the patties was great, the flavor was kind of underwhelming. Since I was tasting as I was mushing my quinoa and spinach and (flax) eggs together I just started dumping in spices. I added (in addition to the traditional salt and pepper) some cumin and extra garlic as well as some basil. I think in making these again I would cook the quinoa in veggie stock instead of water to give it some more flavor. So I highly recommend flavoring these to your liking.

I would also like to try it with more spinach. The spinach was more of an accent in this burger. I wanted it to be the main event. I know there would be a risk that the patties wouldn't stick together as well but I intend to play with adding more spinach next time. You can view the original recipe here.

This is how I cooked them up:

1 cup uncooked quinoa (I used Bob's Red Mill brand.)

2 cups of water (or veggie stock)

4 flax eggs (or regular eggs)

1 onion minced

1 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)

1 cup steamed spinach

minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

basil to taste

cumin to taste

olive oil (I used my Mistoto spray olive oil in the pan)

Directions:

Rinse the quinoa and bring the 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the quinoa and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until the quinoa is tender and has absorbed the liquid -- about 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the quinoa (you may want to let it cool a bit first) the spinach, the onion, eggs, salt, pepper and any other spices you want to throw in there. Mix it all up and let it sit a few minutes to absorb the liquid and get gooey. Make into patties.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Cook each patty about 8-10 minutes on each side or until they are golden crunchy and delicious looking.

Serve with or without buns.

Gooey, Yummy Orange Sauce (the way Chinese food is supposed to be sauced)

I love Chinese food. So much. But since being exiled to to the Pacific Northwest, I have found that there aren't any crazy good places to get Chinese food out here. So I started googling and Pinterest-ing (is that a verb yet?) and have tried scads of stir fry and other supposed "takeout fakeout" recipes. Nothing has come close to even touching my Chinese food want. The sauces are too runny and thin or they have a blah flavor or they call for way too much spice (probably to mask the fact that there is no real flavor in there in the first place.)

Well I have a huge announcement because I have found a sauce that makes me jump up in down in happy circles (or maybe hum to my food while I eat it and chair dance.) And it was toddler approved, which is a big deal in this house these days.

What I like about this recipe is that it is for a sauce. It is super quick and easy and I can throw in there anything I want. This time it was with a bag of frozen veggie stir fry plus some extra peas for B and whatever veggies I had in the fridge that needed eating (or tossing soon!) I was due for some seafood so I cooked up some shrimp for in there too (easily swapped with chicken, beef or tofu.) Then I threw it all over some brown rice. Done. Dinner in 20 minutes or less. My kind of cooking.

So the origin of this recipe was an article on Yahoo Voice by Natalie Ivette. I made some changes to clean it up and it was awesome. It got thick and yummy and made everything kind of goo together in the best possible way. For the juices, I squeezed my own. There wasn't a ton of juice called for an it only took a few minutes. The recipe called for brown sugar and I subbed honey.  I also used the soy sauce. I have read conflicting things about soy sauce. Some say it's not clean. Some say it is okay in small amounts. Again I use it probably less than once a week so I'm not going to sweat it. If it was something I used all the time, I would be more concerned. I did read the labels and try to find one without scary ingredients. (The one I found had six ingredients and they were all things I could recognize - like soybeans and vinegar.) I have also read conflicting views on cornstarch. Again, I barely use it so I wasn't worried (and that was what I had in my pantry.) In the future, I will probably switch to arrowroot as a thickening agent.

Orange Sauce for Chinese Stir-fry 

- 2/3 cup orange juice (I squeezed some oranges)

- 1 teaspoon lime juice (again from a lime not a bottle)

- 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

- 1 teaspoon honey

- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

- 3/4 teaspoon grated ginger

- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (or arrowroot)

- 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1) In a small bowl, combine orange juice, lime juice, soy sauce, vinegar and honey. In another, combine cornstarch and water - stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.

2) In a skillet, heat sesame oil over medium-high heat. When really hot, sautee garlic and ginger for 1 to 2 minutes- do not let stick. (I might have skipped this step and it all turned out fine.)

3) Give orange juice mixture a stir and pour it into skillet. Bring to a boil for a minute or so.

4) Reduce heat to low and add dissolved cornstarch, while stirring. (You want to be sure to stir constantly, until completely combined, or the cornstarch could clump while adding to hot liquid!)

5) Turn the heat back up to medium and stir continuously until sauce thickens considerably. It should thickly coat the back of the spoon. 

At this point I set the sauce aside and cooked my veggies, shrimp and rice. I wanted the sauce to get extra thick (I was paranoid it wouldn't thicken as I haven't had much luck in the past.)

Crunchy Tilapia (so good it makes me do my happy dance)

So I used to love chicken nuggets and I knew the greasy (yummy) fried ones were really bad for me. That being pretty much common knowledge for everyone on the planet, I started buying chicken and breading it (in Panko! OMG I love panko so much.) and making some awesomely tasty chicken nuggets in the oven free of all the grease, chemicals and stuff that generally falls in the bad for you category. I seriously ate this multiple times a week when I was pregnant and John was traveling for work. It was like my inner child was doing a happy dance since Mom finally let us go to McDonald's and get a happy meal (with a really good toy! And I wasn't allowed McD's as a kid. Or sugar cereal. or anything that might have been tasty in the 80's and early 90's. I literally had a t-shirt that said "if you love me don't feed me junk" Then I was all Mom you suck. Now I am thanking my Mom all the time. And blaming my food crazy obsessions on her.)

For the first half of my pregnancy I pretty much rocked some crispy crunchy panko breaded chicken on a regular basis. Then, towards the middle/end of said pregnancy chicken started to make me gag. Two years later it still makes me gag. I can't touch it, see it, think about it without getting a little gag-y. (All the books and documentaries don't help this situation.) I have pretty much sworn off chicken.

What in the world does all this chicken talk have to do with Tilapia? Well just because the thought of eating chicken makes my stomach cry doesn't mean I don't crave that crunchy nugget-ness that chicken has all the real estate in. What about fish? Fish sticks usually conjure up the image of lumpy soggy gross cafeteria food but there is no reason that fish can't deliver that happy dance to my tummy the way chicken used to.

I told you the pic was totally lickable!

So I have experimented with breading fish and it is really hard to get it crunchy! I don't know if fish just naturally makes things a bit soggier or what but I always ended up with one side kind of crunchy and the other side--well I just scrape all the soggy crumbs into the sink and eat that side naked. But looking at the picture of this recipe in the cookbook, Clean Eating for Busy Families, it made me want to lick the page. (I still want to lick the page, especially now that I have made it and found it to be fantastic.) Since I hadn't been to the store (I was doing a 3 day cleanse - read about that here - and I didn't trust myself not to open a giant bag of Smartfood white cheddar popcorn and eat it in the middle of the isle. That stuff is like crack. I have to avoid walking past it in the store or multiple bags of it seem to leap into my cart on by their own will.) I was working off of what I could find in the house. Frozen tilapia, check. Pistachios umm...no but I did have cashews. Zero eggs but I had flax (which really is an awesome egg substitute.) Whole grain totilla chips--absolutely not (we would have had the popcorn scenerio in the kitchen every day of this cleanse around 3 p.m.) But I had some Panko. Let's do this!

So I did it and it rocked.

This book rocks. Quick & easy recipes. You should get one (or two and give it away as an awesome present!)

Here is the recipe I followed. (Based on Michelle Dudash's recipe in Clean Eating for Busy Families)

Ingredients:

1 flaxseed "egg"

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (I used dried cilantro so I cut this in half)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I used Annie's brand horseradish mustard)

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/4 ground up cashews (I threw them in the food processor and they made an awesome finely ground powder)

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder (which I skipped cause I don't do spicy)

1 lb tilapia fillets

Directions:

The "egg," cilantro and mustard get combined to make kind of a paste.

So all of rest of the ingredients (minus the tilapia) get combined in a bowl (or a long shallow tupperware as I find it easier to coat the pieces of fish.)

First schmear the fish with the cilantro and mustard goo (this could be super fun & messy job for kids of the appropriate age) then into the breading bowl the tilapia go. Coat well on both sides. (I found it to be easier to goo one side then place it in the breading and then goo the other side and flip it. But however you can get it to work.)

Bake for 14 minutes at 425. I baked them for 8 minutes on one side and then flipped them for the remaining 7. This allowed both sides to get crunchy (which made this heaven for me.)

I would love to try this recipe with the pistachios.  My cookbook tells me they are chock full of protein (1 oz has as much protein as 1 oz of red meat) and since my diet is generally meat-less I am always looking for plant based protein sources.

There is also a simple sauce that goes with it. Since I don't do dairy I would have to come up with a sub for the mayo but I will include it for all of you diary eating folk.

1/4 cup mayo

1 teaspoon lime juice
1 pinch chili powder
1 pinch salt

Blend all ingredients and viola sauce!

So easy. So quick. So great.

(and awesome on top of a big old yummy salad!)

Let's talk about Tofu...my favorite crave-worthy to-feta

I thought tofu was weird stuff but when I dove face first into trying the vegan thing last summer, I needed to figure it out. And most of the time it was a disaster. I didn't know the difference between Silken and non silken or why it had to be firm or extra firm. Poor John had to choke down many a dinners (with plenty of hot sauce!) I knew there had to be a way to do it right. After about 8 months of trial and error I found an amazing crave-worthy tofu recipe.

I was searching for a feta cheese substitute. Now the consistency is different. The flavor is a bit different. The key is not to expect feta. The flavors marry well with anything feta would go with but it isn't a feta replacement. But it is easy and yummy and I am in love with it. (And if I can get my meat craving husband to eat it and really like it, I am convinced that anyone can.)

This stuff is good on tossed salads, on pasta salads, in hot pasta dishes, and I am even going to try stuffing it into a portobello cap tonight. I have yet to find a way I don't like this tofu.

I found the recipe on food.com which is a recipe site I tend to have a lot of luck finding yummy food stuff on. I did lessen the oil quite a bit and up the vinegar (I like stuff to have a lot of bite.) I felt like the 1/4 of olive oil made it very greasy the first time I made it. Start with less, you can always add more is a pretty successful mantra I have found in the kitchen (especially for a girl who can sometimes be too lazy to get out the measuring cups and measure things.) I have also subbed out the herbs in the recipe when I was out of basil or oregano and it still turned out great, just with a little different flavor. I think this marinade is awesome, adaptable and quite frankly when I buried it in pasta salad over the holidays this past year, I found it to be as success (and something I could eat--which can be really hard at holiday get togethers and parties. I usually end up starving or eating bread.)

The other super important part is to press the tofu. Drain the package and set the tofu on a giant wad of paper towels on top of a plate or cutting board. Add another giant wad of paper towels on top of the tofu. Stack some big heavy books on top. Check back in about 15-20 minutes. Change the paper towel (or kitchen towel if you are a better person than I am) and press it again. The more water you get out, the more flavor the tofu can absorb. This was a huge, giant, aha lightbulb in my adventures of trying to cook tofu. It is worth the time and the (minimal) effort needed to allow the tofu to absorb all of your marinade awesomeness.

My favorite way to use the to-feta....

Take whole wheat noodles boiled drained and hot. Drizzle with olive oil.

Mix them over a bunch of fresh baby spinach (this makes the spinach kind of wilty and warm. Ah-mazing!)

Add some chopped up sundried tomatoes, chickpeas, yellow raisins, the to-feta and some garlic.

Toss and eat.

Love it. Super easy. It is yummy warm or cold. My favorite though is room temperature.


And here is the recipe for the to-feta as it appears on food.com:

My to-feta on a big old yummy salad. *tummy growls* 

Ingredients:

Serves: 16
Yield:1 pound 
Units: US | Metric


1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 lb firm tofu, herb flavored, cubed or crumbled


Directions:

1. Place everything but the tofu in the bowl and whisk together.
2. Add tofu, stir, and let sit for at least an hour.