Curry in a Hurry

A few weeks ago my friend Morgen came over for some dinner and I saved a little time by using leftover roasted potatoes to make a curry- Success!  This dinner was super fast!  

I used the pressure cooker to cook the red lentil rasam, so that took all of about 5 minutes to make.  

The curry also included okra from the garden and plenty of coriander, cumin, turmeric and ginger.  I topped it with a mixture of shredded coconut, peanuts and jalapenos that I whizzed around in the mini-food processor for a minute.  I have lots of this leftover and need to think of more uses for this concoction.  Any ideas?

Ridiculously Easy

Last week I ate a whole eggplant for dinner.  No side dish, no accompaniment, no sharing.  That's how good this was.  I'm not even sure what made it so amazing!

It's really too easy and too good to be true.   I just sliced up the eggplant, preheated my griddle, brushed all the slices in a mixture of olive oil, sesame oil and tamari and then grilled them up.  

I'm sure these eggplant slices would be fantastic on a sandwich, in a stir-fry or with pasta.  But I was feeling lazy and can attest to them being delicious straight up.

Best Day Ever + Bok Choy Salad

Today was basically a perfect day.  I just started a 4-day weekend.  I woke up early with the itch to start gardening before breakfast.  Why not?  I can always take a nap later!  (And I did).

I spent about 6 hours in the yard: digging up weeds, planting new plants, spreading straw mulch and transplanting some stubborn columbine and ferns that keep sprouting up in our stone walkway.  I called and got estimates (all in one day!) from 2 tree services to remove the scrubby mugo pine that is dying in our front yard and a maple being destroyed by chestnut borer.  I took breaks to watch Jeopardy, take a nap and lounge on the deck.

Lunch was a crunchy, fresh bok choy-peanut salad and dinner was scrambled tofu on toast.   Even though it's technically work, I enjoyed reading a couple chapters of Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe while I ate.   What a fantastic day!  Sure, I did a lot of hard work.  But it was all relaxing and fun. I even got my new issue of Bon Appetit in the mail! The best part?  I have 3 more days like this coming right up.

Here's the recipe for this really easy bok choy salad.  We made this on Tuesday night and the kids loved it! I made it again today with a bit of leftover bok choy.

Bok Choy Peanut Salad
You could do a lot to fancy this dish up or give it more color.  But I love how easy it can be!  This makes enough for 4-6 people.

1 package thin rice noodles (I like the maifun brown rice variety by Annie Chun)
1/2 cup peanut butter
3-4 Tbsp. tamari or Bragg's aminos
1 cup hot water (reserved from cooking noodles)
1 head bok choy, thinly sliced
(if this is a giant head, use about 1/2)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Cook rice noodles according to package instructions.  Usually this involves simply soaking the noodles in boiling hot water for about 2 minutes.  Reserve 1 cup of the hot water.  Rinse noodles in cold water.

In a pint jar, combine peanut butter, tamari and 1/2 cup of the hot water.  I like to use an itty bitty wire whisk for this task.  At first it'll look like it won't dissolve, but the hot water will melt the peanut butter and this will become a thin, salty, creamy sauce.  Add more hot water if needed. Don't worry if it seems too salty, you're mixing this with a lot of noodles and bok choy.

Combine cooled noodles, sauce, bok choy, onions, carrot and cilantro in a large salad bowl.  Use tongs to toss until everything is coated in the peanut sauce.  If you want to serve this later in the week, just refrigerate the salad and dressing separately and mix it up just before serving.

Easy Weeknight Meal

Easy weeknight meal: steamed broccoli, made-ahead quinoa tabbouli, crockpot beans with sundried tomatoes

Quick and Simple

Meals have been pretty simple the past couple weeks.  And we have plans for more of that.  Mike has a great NY resolution to learn to make super yummy sauces to pair with staples like beans and rice.  I'm in favor of that!!!  

Tonight's dinner was bright green with this past summer's basil pesto.  I think I used an entire cup of this emerald sauce, plus 3 heads of broccoli.  I think I'll embrace a new philosophy that the quantity of vegetables should equal the quantity of pasta in a dish like this.  So simple, yet so delicious.  Pasta.  Pesto.  Broccoli.  

This next meal we enjoyed right after New Years Day (leftover black eyed peas) and then again the next night!  The black eyed peas, rice and spinach were super good, of course. I doused mine in plenty of tabasco vinegar that's still going from the bumper crop of tabasco chiles in 2009.  The waffle fries were the big star, though.  I got some of the frozen Alexia brand waffle fries that are seasoned up somethin' crazy.  I usually don't get these since they're not organic, but what the heck?  Live a little.  The kids used them to scoop up black eyed peas and greens and, I must say, that was a fabulous idea.  They then suggested that we have these for dinner every night.  Or every hour.  Or every minute.  

Bag 'o Veggies

I can't believe I've never done this before.  This weekend I washed and chopped a variety of vegetables and threw them into a bag to use in a stir fry on Monday night.  I also had leftover rice to incorporate.  But Monday's plans went awry because of more snow and I ended up cooking something else.

Yesterday I arrived home late and decided to cook the stir fry for myself.  About 3 minutes later I was eating- crazy fast dinner!!!

The best news is that I still had more prepped veggies leftover, so I recreated the same thing tonight.  I think I'm going to start prepping a bag full of mixed vegetables to use every week- for a quick stir fry or even to snack on.  This week's bag contained yellow onions, carrots, celery, broccoli and cabbage.

This is especially nice for the nights I eat by myself and think, "hmmm... I could have hot chocolate, baguette and avocado for dinner, right?"  I tend to skimp on the veggies sometimes when I'm by myself.

Here's all that I added to my stir fry tonight besides the bag of veggies and cooked rice: ginger powder, red pepper flakes, the juice of 1 orange and tamari.    And somehow it was totally amazing.

Now I'm sitting back to finish my library book.  I'm a serious binge reader, and I'll do nearly anything to read a mystery book cover to cover.   I'm going to try to finish it tonight so I don't have to call in sick tomorrow (just kidding, coworkers!)  (kind of!).

2 Quick Meals

On Wednesday and Thursday nights I cook for just myself, so sometimes I go extravagant and other times I go for convenience.  This week was all about convenience!

I picked up some of the Field Roast apple sage sausages and used them 2 ways for very different meals.

Wednesday I had a sausage on the side of an arugula, grapefruit, cilantro, mint and peanut salad. Fresh and light- just perfect for after a long day.

On Thursday I used the Rising Moon butternut squash ravioli with spinach, sausage and balsamic vinegar/Earth Balance sauce.  I'm pretty sure those packages are meant to serve more than one person...but they just served me :)

Simple Dinner

I'm pretty sure this is the perfect dinner.  At least for today.

Super-gingery squash and lentil soup with lots of cilantro and toast with Earth Balance and miso.

Inspired to eat even more vegetables after the Healthy Foods Summit conference today!

Copy Cat Stew

It's going to take me a long time to write this because I can't put down my peanut stew to type.  Tonight my besty Sarah casually mentioned that she was making peanut stew for dinner.  Immediately my taste buds started screaming, "We want that!  We want that!"  But I already invited myself to dinner last week and really wanted to enjoy a stew on my own couch in my jammies, watching the season premiere of The Office.  

So I set out to make a copycat stew.  My requirements were that I couldn't shop for any ingredients (already spent the grocery budget for this week!) and it had to be ready super quick.  

Mission accomplished!  Here's how I did it:

Super Quick Peanut Stew
One secret to always having coconut milk on hand is to freeze any leftovers in an ice cube tray.  I used 2 cubes of frozen milk in this stew.  It's also great for tossing into smoothies!

1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 yam/sweet potato, cut in bite-sized chunks
4 large kale leaves, stem removed and chopped
1 quart water
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut milk
a healthy squirt of Bragg's Aminos or tamari
a big pinch of crushed red chiles

Heat oil in a small soup pot.  Add the garlic, potatoes and kale.  Sauté for just a bit, until the garlic is starting to smell good.  Then add the water, peanut butter and coconut milk.  Simmer until the yams are tender and the peanut butter is melted- about 15 minutes.  Then add the Bragg's and chiles to taste.  Enjoy while watching season premieres.

Moroccan Seitan Sandwich

Oh, my.  Now this is a satisfying sandwich.  It's only kind of a sandwich because it's basically sourdough French bread with this highly seasoned simmered seitan over top.  I didn't know what else to call it besides an open-faced sandwich.  You could serve the simmered seitan over millet, couscous, quinoa or rice, though.  This is definitely NOT a gluten free recipe.  It's pretty much gluten over gluten.

It takes all of about 5 minutes to make this dish, provided you have already prepared and refrigerated or frozen some roasted cherry tomatoes and preserved some limes.  And, of course, you have.

Open-Faced Moroccan Seitan Sandwich

1 Tbsp. olive oil
One package Westsoy Seitan, in bitesized pieces
1/2 cup roasted cherry tomatoes
1 large fresh tomato, chopped
1 tsp. whole coriander, crushed
1 tsp. whole cumin seed
1 pinch cinnamon
Salt to taste
Crusty sourdough bread, sliced thickly
Earth Balance
Preserved limes or lemons, optional

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  Add the seitan and cook over medium high heat until browned on all sizes.  Add the roasted tomatoes, fresh tomato, coriander, cumin, cinnamon and salt.  Lower heat and simmer until the fresh tomatoes have melted into the roasted tomatoes.

Serve seitan over warmed sourdough slathered in Earth Balance.  The preserved limes or lemons go on the side.  Just a thin sliver of lime on eat bite is heavenly.  Serve with a knife and fork.

Tofu and Millet

This post wins the prize for least exciting title.  Even though I do like both millet and tofu a good deal, they sound totally boring together.  But this meal was ridiculously good and came together really quickly.  Millet can be used just like couscous or rice in a pilaf or stir fry and it has WAY more nutrition!

What to do ahead of time:  Cook up some millet and marinate tofu slabs in garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and lemon pepper.

On dinner night you just have to throw the tofu slabs on a hot griddle/grill/cast iron skillet to brown.  Also throw some sliced onions and mushrooms on the grill at the same time.  Then heat the used tofu marinade in another skillet and add the cooked millet so that it can warm up and absorb the marinade.  Add 1 roasted red pepper and the onions and mushrooms from the grill.  A little sprinkle of salt and pepper is all the millet will need before serving alongside the browned tofu.  This meal should probably have some greens on the side, but I skipped the side veg tonight.  

I think I'm going to start mixing up a tofu marinade every week for an easy dinner!

In a Blanket

This is admittedly not the most aesthetically pleasing meal.  It even looks kinda dirty.  But it was all I wanted for dinner on Thursday night and I've thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast.  

Pigs in a Blanket!!!

I just made a batch of my favorite biscuit dough and cut long triangles, a la Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Then I wrapped up some Smart Dogs.  I think I should have shaped them differently because they ended up with huge biscuits around a very small part of the dog.  I enjoyed mine dipped in Silver Spring horseradish mustard and homemade ketchup- Yum!!!

Also in blankets are my plants.  It's supposed to get down to freezing temperatures tonight and possibly (okay, probably.  Like 90% chance probably) snow.  So I have my strawberries, green beans, grapevine and lettuce under blankets, tarps, sheets and empty compost bags.  All of my newly purchased plants (from the Mississippi Market plant sale and Friends plant sale) are safely in the garage for the night.  I'm especially worried about my strawberries because they've already flowered and mostly fruited!  Please don't die!!!

I forgot to cover my baby apricot and pear trees.  Got to go...

Gardein Strips and Kale Chips

Sometimes I need food really fast (but not fast food).  Today I was famished after grocery shopping, so I headed home and popped some of these Gardein strips into the toaster oven.  I first heard about these strips in The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen.   These are pretty new at the co-op and so far I've only moderately enjoyed their products.  I thought the buffalo style nuggets were weird and the sauce was like overly spiced ketchup.  

These strips are really tasty, though!  While not organic, they do use non-GMO soy and I can recognize and pronounce every single ingredient listed on the package! These are great when you need some serious protein really quickly.

I served them with homemade ketchup and kale chips.  If you haven't made kale chips before, then go get a bunch of kale right now and preheat your oven to about 450.  Rip off the stem of the kale and lay it in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Spray with olive oil and drizzle with tamari, Bragg's or umeboshi plum vinegar.  Or sprinkle with salt.  Then bake for about 6-10 minutes or until the kale is crispy.  Then sit yourself down and eat an entire bunch of kale.  This is so quick and so easy.  I think even kale-haters would love these chips.

Loaded

About 4 days ago I was watching something on TV and saw some commercial for nachos. The commercial was pretty effective because I've been craving nachos since then.

My goal was to make nachos loaded with everything I ever want on nachos- No wimpy little chips with cheese that leave me wishing for more.

These were loaded with:

Whole Grain Milling Company organic corn tortilla chips

Taco style TVP

Melted nacho Teese

Green onions

Guacamole

Tofutti sour cream

Homemade salsa

Pickled jalapenos

I never imagined that leftover nachos were possible...But I made WAY too many for 2 people. I'm actually eating the leftovers right now, at 9am, for breakfast. Yum!

Make Ahead Meals- Baked Penne

Baked pasta dishes are so easy to make in advance. I'm sure it'd be just as easy to just have pasta and sauce for a quick weeknight meal, but there's something extra rich and comforting about baked pasta.

Tonight we're having gluten-free baked penne with tofu ricotta. Here it is before baking:

It's super easy! First, cook up your gluten free pasta. I used Tinkyada brand GF pasta in a penne shape, but any type would work.

Then prepare a batch of tofu ricotta. You can use the recipe from Veganomicon or just wing it. I just threw a few cloves of garlic, a block of firm tofu, lemon juice, salt and parsley in the food processor.

Before you strain the pasta, pack a bunch of baby spinach in the strainer. Then it'll partially cook while you strain your hot pasta through it.

Then mix everything together (ricotta, spinach, pasta) in a big glass baking dish.

Top with 2-3 cups of tomato sauce (I used some home-canned sauce) and some fresh tomatoes if you have them around still. My green ones from the garden are slowly ripening and I had enough to top this dish. I think I'll add some grated cashew cheese just before baking it tonight. Anyways, put this in the fridge until you're ready to bake it.

Bake at 350F, covered in foil, for about 20-30 minutes or until warmed through. If topping with cheeze, just finish in the broiler for a minute or two to melt it.

Make Ahead Meals- Crockpot Dal

Without making meals ahead of time (or at least making the major components of meals), we'd either order pizza or eat what the kids have started calling "leftovers thrown together in a pan" on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm trying to get better at really planning meals for these 2 nights. I was doing really good for a while and then fell off the meal-planning wagon.

Here's what we ate tonight:

Basmati rice with crockpot dal and raita

(My spell-check only recognizes the words "rice", "with" and "and" in that meal)

Here's how I put together the dal...approximately! It was super flavorful and packed with veggies.

The night before, combine the following in your crockpot:

2 cups of split peas

6 or so cups of water

Let soak, with the crockpot off, until the next morning. Then, before work, add:

1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped

4 small tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

Then in a small cast iron skillet, heat 4 Tbsp. (1/4 cup) of canola oil (you could do less, but this is for a LOT of dal!). Add:

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. mustard seeds

1 Tbsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. turmeric

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. salt

When seeds start to pop and garlic is fragrant (not burned!), pour the oil into the crockpot with other ingredients. Cook on high for about 8 hours.

Then, all you have to do when you get home from work is cook some basmati rice (super quick) and stir together chopped cucumber, minced cilantro, plain yogurt, lime juice and salt. It makes a really tasty raita to serve on top.

Look for another make-ahead dinner tomorrow!

The Best Dinner I Could Imagine Eating Right Now

I'm not sure I could love my dinner any more than I'm loving it now.

Thankfully, I seem to have recovered from the flu. Tonight I got my appetite back!

This dinner took all of about 10 minutes to make and includes some of my favorite things! I mean, olives with cherries with sausages with squash with balsamic vinegar with pasta with spinach? How could that not be good?

I should note that the olives I prefer are the cured black olives with Herbs de Provence from the Mississippi Market deli. But I suppose you could use any olives you like. And I used my homemade chunky cherry jam, but I'm sure other cherry jam would work just fine. And if you feel like making the ravioli or sausage from scratch, more power to you. Tonight I needed a ridiculously easy dinner or I was going to stray from my usual chipper self. And you wouldn't want that, would you?

Cherry Glazed Butternut Ravioli with Sausage

serves 2

1 package Rising Moon Organic Butternut Squash Ravioli

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tofurky Italian Sausage, sliced

1/3 cup dry cured black olives

2-3 oz. fresh spinach, chopped (2 big handfuls)

2 Tbsp. cherry jam

1 Tbsp. Earth Balance margarine

Drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Boil water and cook frozen ravioli according to package directions. In a heavy skillet, heat the olive oil and add the sliced sausage. When the sausage has browned on both sides, add the olives and chopped spinach. Cook just until spinach is wilted, then remove from heat and add in the cherry jam, Earth Balance and balsamic vinegar. Stir until the jam and margarine have fully melted and formed a sauce. Then add the cooked and strained ravioli and stir to coat the pasta. Enjoy!

Eat this.

I try not to buy too many packaged convenience foods, but it's really hard to resist frozen vegan ravioli when it goes on sale. Tonight I picked up the Rising Moon creamy artichoke and olive flavor. It made a super awesome dinner for me with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

The sauce on the ravioli is just onions sauteed in Earth Balance with cremini mushrooms, olives marinated in hot chiles, and garlic.

The salad is local red leaf with toasted walnuts and the pickled beets from the Fourth of July and a lemon-flax oil vinaigrette.

For real, this dinner took about 20 minutes to make and tasted all fancy schmancy. Perfect for a lazy night of watching The Office and It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia. Everyone should make this.

Spring!

I love springtime vegetables!  Asparagus, baby green onions, garlic scapes, ramps, radishes, yum!  This dish just screams "SPRING" to me:

This meal came together really quickly and the whole family loved it! 

Springy-Vegetables over Rice

olive oil

6 stalks of asparagus, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces

2 carrots, diced

1 zucchini, sliced

4 green onions, sliced

1 bunch chard, sliced thinly

1 can artichokes, drained

a handful flatleaf parsley, chopped

a Tbsp or 2 of fresh basil, torn

lemon zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

Cooked brown rice to serve it over

Just heat the olive oil in a skillet and toss in the carrots and asparagus first.  Cook until asparagus is starting to turn bright, but still crunchy.  Then add the zucchini and green onions.  Cook 1-2 minutes or until zucchini is starting to wilt down. Then add the chard, artichokes, and parsley.  Cook just until the chard has wilted.  Remove from heat and stir in the basil, lemon, and salt/pepper.  Serve over brown rice or pasta.  

I'll Have the Vegetable Plate...

I had a really nice day today (so far).  

I went to a yoga class this morning and then went to work to teach a class about eating less meat and transitioning to vegetarianism.  It was a fun class with lots of samples- my favorite kind!

Then I picked up some fresh produce and headed home.  I was a little frustrated for a while because our house has been pretty messy lately.  But I sucked it up and just started cleaning.  I don't want to say how long it has been since I've mopped, so let's just say that it's a seasonal activity and winter was not the mopping season.  

As a reward for mopping (why not?), I made myself a super awesome vegetable-centric dinner right before I mopped the kitchen.  Then I took my food out on the deck when I was done and ate while watching the blue jays gather all the food the squirrels knocked out of the bird feeder.  The lilacs and the apple tree have buds on them!

Now I'm relaxing with some Late July Vanilla Bean and Green Tea sandwich cookies, some almond milk, and season 1 of House, MD from the library- I can't think of much that is more fun than that!

My dinner was inspired by some rockin' good food I tasted from the Mississippi Market deli today.  When you work at the same co-op for a long time, the deli food can get kind of boring sometimes.  But I ALWAYS look forward to the spicy cucumber and peanut salad. 

 And now I'm also in love with the Green Beans Pomodoro.  So I tried to replicate them at home.  Sure, I could probably ask our deli manager for the recipe...but that'd be cheating!  It's much more fun this way!

Green Beans Pomodoro

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 pound fresh green beans, tipped and tailed

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4 cup drained canned tomatoes (I had fire roasted ones open)

sprinkle of salt and fresh ground black pepper

2 Tbsp. minced fresh basil

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add the olive oil and swirl around bottom of pan.  Add the green beans and cook, stirring a few times, until bright green with some browned sides.  Then turn off the flame and add  the garlic and tomatoes.  Let the residual heat from the pan lightly cook the green beans for a minute or two more.  Then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and top with the fresh basil.  Serve hot or cold.  

I didn't really write down measurements for the Spicy Cucumber Salad, but here are my approximations:

Spicy Cucumber Salad

1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup roasted and salted peanuts

1/2 jalapeno, with seeds!

3 Tbsp. cilantro, minced

2 green onions, minced

Sprinkling of seasoned rice vinegar

Salt to taste

Combine everything and refrigerate until ready to eat.  Tastes best after marinating a bit.