Spring Glorious Spring!

I’ve been in a funk lately - not the kind that anyone should be worried about, the kind that has been keeping me from writing and blogging. I’ve been cooking but things get in the way of writing - aborted bathroom remodel, restarted bathroom remodel, work travel, husband travel and well you get the picture. 

This week I spent time with friends - the ones I see often and the ones I’ve known for years but haven’t connected with. In both occasions I loved the food, the conversation, and the laughter - priceless and precious. 

One of my favorite things to do with the veggies in my fridge is stir fry them together with a little garlic, ginger and tamari sauce. The fact that I had a block of tofu in the fridge was a bonus. For this particular dish I tossed whatever we had in the pan and Dan did the tofu honors (because no one does tofu better than he does IMHO).

Ingredients:

1 package extra firm tofu

1 onion - diced

2 carrots - peeled and chopped

2 small crowns broccoli - broken into florets

1 red pepper - sliced 

8 ounces mushrooms - I used 1/2 portabella and 1/2 button

3 cloves garlic

grated ginger

Tamari

Cornstarch

red pepper flakes

Instructions:

Cube tofu and set on paper towels to drain. Add olive oil to a skillet and fry tofu until lightly crisped on all sides. Remove to paper towel and drain. 

In the same skillet, add onions, garlic and ginger stir fry until no longer crunchy, add carrots, mushrooms and broccoli and cook until crisp tender and add red pepper slices. 

Mix tamari and cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk until mixed. Pour mixture into veggies and cook until thickened. Add tofu and sprinkle with pepper flakes. Serve with rice or simply on its own. 

I’ve been pondering my next phase of writing and I’m thinking about taking a year’s worth of recipes from the blog and creating a cookbook so stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by!

Healthcare, Hot Sun and Food

We returned from Mexico last Sunday to a 70+ temperature difference, a pile of snow at the end of the driveway and giant icicles hanging from the roof. There is always an adjustment period when we return from vacation.

The week before vacation I spent a couple days in Urgent Care and the Emergency room with what we thought at the time might be a heart attack - thankfully it was nothing more than severe indigestion and acid. Since my mom died of a heart attack at approximately the same age as I am today, the experience was stressful. At the end of the day I won’t be dying of a heart attack any time soon or in the distant future either,  according to my doctor I have an extremely healthy heart :-). 

After all that stress we flew off to Mexico and spent a wonderful relaxing week - we took a cooking class, read books, sat on the beach, swam in the pool, and spent quality time with friends - it was an amazing week. 

Back to reality where bathrooms need to be cleaned, snow needs to be shoveled and cooking needs to be done. The first two I don’t love, they are a necessary evil - cooking however, relaxes me, the chopping, stirring, sautéing and simmering is the perfect antidote to the winter blues. 

One of our favorite vegetables is eggplant, if you were following my blog last summer you’ll recall  we had an abundance of Japanese eggplant, we grilled it, sautéed it with onions, and roasted it. We made Ratatouille, eggplant parmesan, veggie sandwiches, spicy appetizers, baba ganoush as well as other dishes.  

Eggplant is very versatile and it soaks up spices so easily, it’s an easy addition to many dishes. One cup of eggplant is contains 20 calories, .16grams of fat, 4.6 g carbs, .83g of protein, and no carbs so what have you got to lose right?

I found the base recipe for the Braised Chili and Tomato Eggplant on Pinterest - of course I added my own spin especially with the chills - I have to say it was spicy from a flavorful perspective (not hot or burning) and the zucchini and roasted peppers added a nice depth to the dish. 

Braised Chili and Tomato Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 eggplant - medium slices

2 tsp sea salt flakes 

3 bell peppers - I used 2 orange and 1 red

2 zucchini - sliced 

¼ cup olive oil

2 onions - thinly sliced 

4 cloves of garlic

1 small bunch of thyme

1 red chili de arbor (dried)

salt and pepper to taste

1 small container of cherry tomatoes - leave whole

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 cups veggie stock

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

Instructions:

Slice the eggplant, place in colander and salt. Toss to combine and set aside for 1 hour. Preheat oven/broiler to 485°F. Place the bell peppers on a cookie sheet and cook, turning occasionally, for 12–15 minutes or until blistered and blackened on all sides. Place in a paper bag and set aside for 10 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 475°F. Peel the peppers, remove seeds and discard. Tear into large pieces and set aside. Brush any excess salt from the eggplant and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the eggplant and zucchini on a large oven tray and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil. Cook for 18–20 minutes, turning halfway thorough, until golden brown. Set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a large, shallow saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, chili, salt and pepper, and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 12–15 minutes or until soft. Add the cherry tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. Add the stock and diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook for 25–30 minutes or until reduced. Add the peppers, eggplant and zucchini. Mix to combine. Sprinkle with pepper and serve with your favorite whole grain bread.  Serves 4–6.

The snow seems to have stopped for a while and the temps are suppose to creep up to something reasonable (for MN of course) toward the end of the week - perhaps Spring is on its way. I’m heading to Texas this week for a work meeting, hoping the sun will shine and I can put my sweater and warm socks in my carry on and leave them there. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Not your mother’s meatloaf

Good grief almost a month has passed and I've not blogged - what’s up with that you ask - a lot but honestly nothing noteworthy. I have been cooking some wonderful new dishes - just not making it to the blogging part. 

For my Minnesota readers, if you are not sick of the daily snow dump by now, you must be vacationing somewhere warm. I finally embraced yesterdays snow (about 4 inches) and went snowshoeing. I haven’t been in a while and I gotta say it was a great workout but my legs were tired afterward. We have a great little trail behind our house that leads to the park it was fun. And I was not the only person embracing the snow, kids and adults alike were sledding down the hill at the park and everyone was laughing and having a great time. 

So to catch you up, we did no alcohol January as a reset. It seems the holidays are filled with parties and celebrations I needed a break form all of that and losing a couple pounds was a nice side benefit. We’re in the middle of a bathroom remodel - it’s a small one and it’s the basement bathroom so I don’t see the mess and the inconvenience isn’t like going through a 15 week kitchen remodel. 

I am also taking a knitting class - it’s the second one and I am almost done with my mittens, which just so happen to match the hat I made in the first class! Dan says it's a good thing since you know winter is almost over - obviously he hasn't looked out the window lately - although I have it on good authority it will get up to 26 today so perhaps some of the white fluffies will melt. 

Lately I’ve been trying to not buy more food than we will actually eat in a week - well fresh food that is - I always have staples in the pantry and the tomato sauce and apple pies we made last fall. My favorite dish lately was a chickpea “meatloaf” that I made at the last movie night. I’ve been shying away from making them because the last few I did make didn’t turn out - they were too mushy and I hate mushy. I got rave reviews from the moviegoers and there was enough left for one night of leftovers :-) 

Ingredients - 

For the meatloaf

3 1/3 cups cooked chickpeas

1 onion, diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 carrots, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup unflavored soy or almond milk

3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 egg

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp. liquid smoke

1/4 tsp ground pepper

For the glaze

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari

1 tsp. paprika

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly oil a 9 inch loaf pan and arrange a 2 strips of parchment paper width and length wise along the center, with just a bit hanging over the sides.

Working in batches if needed, place all meatloaf ingredients into food processor bowl and pulse until chickpeas are broken up and ingredients are well mixed, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Do not overblend. If working in batches, transfer each batch to a large mixing bowl when complete and then mix by hand. This is critical if you over mix it - it will become mushy and there is nothing worse than mushy meatloaf - believe me I know. 

Press mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake 30 minutes. While meatloaf bakes, stir glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Remove loaf from oven after 30 minutes and spoon glaze overtop of loaf. Bake another 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.

And just to prove we have been cooking I'll put photos of our Veggie Stir fry , Southwest Sweet Potatoes, and Veggie Taco Salad.

Wild Rice Mushroom Soup - Instant Pot Style

My Instant Pot shyness is gone - I’m loving it! Last weekend I was hungry for wild rice soup - not the kind with cream and milk, the kind that is tasty and won’t kill me. We were at a family function a few weeks ago and my sister in law made wild rice soup - vegetarian and regular. The vegetarian was good (she used almond milk) but the regular had that creamy look and feel that I love. I also wanted it to be a quick recipe, because I had other things to do.

Enter Instant Pot - put everything in, run through 1 yoga practice with Adrienne, add stovetop to pot and dinner is ready. This is yummy, earthy, middle-of-a-Minnesota-winter wild rice soup.

Thanks to Lindsey at A Pinch of Yum for this delicious recipe. My version is a little different - I've veganized it -  but not too different. 

In the Instant Pot

5 medium carrots, chopped

5 stalks celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup uncooked wild rice - real wild rice not a blend

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced - I used a combination of portabella and white

4 cups vegetable broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning or a seasoning that contains sage, oregano 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

On the Stovetop

6 tablespoons vegan “butter”

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups almond milk 

Instructions

Instant Pot: Put all the ingredients in the first list into the Instant Pot. Cook for 45 minutes (manual, high pressure). Release steam using the valve on top.

Stovetop: When the soup is done, melt the vegan butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Let the mixture cook for a minute or two to remove the floury taste. Whisk the milk, a little bit at a time, until you have a smooth, thickened sauce. Throw a little salt in there for good measure.

Together: Mix the creamy sauce with the soup in the instant pot. It’s Mushroom Wild Rice Soup!

Southwest Sweet Potatoes - and the Instantpot helped!

The holidays are over, the tree is on the curb and the decorations are back in the closet - we’re ready for a new year! This year Santa brought me an Instantpot, which I’ve been slowly getting to know. I’ve done test drive with water and on Sunday I did sweet potatoes, which were the base of our southwest sweet potato dish. 

I have to say they were pretty easy and they turned out perfectly. For 2 medium sweet potatoes, I added 1.5 cups of water, put in the rack and cooked them for 18 minutes - done. My only complaint is that I can’t “see” what’s going on. I’ve been cooking for 40+ years and I rely on sight and smell - so this is new for me, and I’m not good at having faith :-).

Sweet potatoes are one of our favorite dishes and generally I substitute them for white potatoes when it makes sense. They are an excellent source of the plant form of vitamin A, an essential fat soluble vitamin that is critical in maintaining eye health and is essential for immune function.

I was looking for something different from a spice perspective and we had all of the ingredients in our pantry. It took about 35 minutes from start to finish to make dinner, which somedays is all the time I’m willing to spend on cooking. In theory this recipe is for 2 but I will say it depends on the size of the sweet potatoes. I cooked 2 medium sized potatoes and we had enough for 2 dinners.

Ingredients

1 avocado, roughly chopped

½ c cilantro leaves and stems, roughly chopped and packed

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 yellow onion - diced

1½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp salt (omit or reduce if your beans or corn are salted)

1 c cooked black beans

1 c cooked corn kernels

1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

Place 1.5 cups of water in Instant pot, place 2 sweet potatoes on rack. Cover and cook on high pressure for 18 minutes. 

While potatoes are cooking saute 1 medium onion until translucent. Add spices, corn, black beans cook until hot. Toss in sliced tomatoes, remove from heat, cover and set aside. 

When potatoes are done, remove from pot, slice in half lengthwise (Use oven mitts to keep from burning your hands!), and slightly mash. Add onion/bean/corn mixture, and top with cilantro and cheese. Bake 375 for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven, top with sliced avocado and eat!

We served it with a spinach, orange and beet salad topped with a curry fig dressing. 

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous new yearI! 

A Savory Scone

Christmas is over, the gifts are put away, and I’ve been binge watching New Girl and reading books - it’s been a successful vacation so far. I still have 3 books to read (plus a new one I got for Christmas) before I go back to work on Wednesday - looks like I’ll be busy the next few days; busy in the best way possible that is. 

Rumor has it that soup is new juicing - and well being a soup lover, I’m all over that. There is something comforting about a nice bowl of steaming soup and delicious bread on a cold MN winter day, which we have many of from January to April. 

I’ve been doing the Vegetarian thing for over 2 years now and I have to say I’m still liking it. I do fish from time to time and once a year (right after the holidays) I’ll do a bowl or two of Dan’s famous turkey soup. He boils the turkey carcass for an entire day, removes the meat, and then sets the pot outside to cool. When it’s cold he removes the fat from the top of the broth, chops carrots, celery and other veggies and boils them until they are done - the result is delicious. 

Soup needs a companion and bread seems to be one of its favorite companions (at least at our house). I found this scone recipe and liked the combination of veggies and we just happen to still have a few acorn squash from last years garden so it seemed like a good option. These scones are great for weekend brunch, or with your favorite soup.

Ingredients

2 cups kale leaves, loosely packed

2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 cup vegan butter

1 egg

3/4 cup almond milk

1/4 cup cooked squash in small dice

3/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Set oven rack in the middle.

Steam kale for a minute or two, just to blanch. Chop kale finely, squeezing out as much liquid as you can. You should have less than 1 cup of chopped kale. If you have more, save it for soup or eat it. (Too much will make the scones sticky.)

Blend or sift the flour, salt, soda, baking powder and sugar together. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers.

In a small bowl, beat the egg, then add the milk, continuing to beat until well combined. Add egg/buttermilk mixture, along with squash, kale and cheese to dry ingredients, mixing with a fork just enough to combine.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment-paper-covered cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes until lightly browned. 

Note: These are dropped by the spoonful but if you'd rather use a cookie cutter or knife to make triangles or other shapes, knead in about 1/4 cup of extra flour at the end to make the dough easier to handle.

A Paella by Any Other Name

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! The gifts are purchased and wrapped, the groceries have been shopped for and are ready to be cooked. We’ve been cooking, wrapping, and partying - it’s Christmas! 

We’ve taken a break from hosting Dan’s family this year and it’s liberating - no planning, emailing, organizing, cleaning or excessive cooking. I’m enjoying being a guest for the first time in about 5 - 6 years. We’ll most likely host again - or not, maybe that next generation is ready to bring us all together for future events. 

We had some of Dan’s co-workers over last Sunday for a “welcome to the new kitchen we haven’t seen you in ages” get together. The group had a few food challenges; 2 vegetarians, 2 no cow, 1 lactose intolerant and no seafood - yikes!

I found a delicious vegan paella recipe that at first glanced looked easy to prepare, fairly normal ingredients and was delicious - I’d say we scored on all 3 counts. If you want the long version with many photos you can check out Pumpkin & Peanut Butter’s blog post. If you want the shorter version with a few changeups keep reading. 

This paella brings together many of my favorite foods; mushrooms, onion, delicata squash, basmati rice, and cauliflower. So many good flavors. The recipe below takes about 1 hour to prepare and servers 8 - 10 people as a main dish. We served it with a spinach, orange, date and pecan salad dressed with a fig and curry dressing, fresh bread and fresh fruit. 

Ingredients

2 - 3 Tbsp vegan butter 

8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

1 Medium yellow onion, sliced

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups brown basmati rice

4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 delicata squash, halved and sliced

1 1/2 cup cauliflower florets

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley, for topping

optional: pepitas or roasted butternut squash seeds, for topping

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sliced delicate squash in half and remove seeds with a spoon. Then, slice squash into 1/2'' slices. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then spread across a baking sheet. Do with same with the cauliflower florets and spread across the same baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, tossing once.

In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp of butter in a large skillet. Add in sliced mushrooms and 2 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley. Sauté until mushrooms are golden, then remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, add 1-2 more tbsp of butter and sliced yellow onions. Sauté onions until golden brown.

Add diced tomatoes into onions and stir to combine. Next, add in 2 cups of brown rice and stir once again to coat. Toast rice for 1-2 minutes, then add in vegetable broth, cinnamon, tumeric, and paprika. Stir to evenly disperse liquid and spices. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cover. Cook for 40-45 minutes over medium low heat.

After almost all of the liquid is absorbed, stir in frozen peas and cooked mushrooms. Cook for another few minutes until liquid is absorbed and rice develops a bit of a crusty the sides and bottom of the pan. Top with delicata squash around the edges in a circle, and place the roasted cauliflower in the center. Sprinkle with lots of freshly chopped parsley and pumpkin or squash seeds.

If you are spending time with loved ones this holiday season - enjoy. If you are missing loved ones, cherish the memories and if you just want to spend time alone - that’s good too. Do what makes you happy. 

Resolutions - I have none. I am going to continue my 18 for 2018 into 19 for 2019. My goal is to do 19 things (with the exception of a couple items, most of the 19 will be unplanned and spontaneous) that benefit me or someone else in a positive way. I’m planning to walk/run/bike 2019 miles in 2019. I did this back in 2017 and I really enjoyed it so, I’m giving it a go again this year. 

I am thinking there will be a few surprises for me in 2019 - no hints yet but keep reading, because you will hear it here first!

Wishing you and yours a holiday filled with love, laughter and good cheer. Thanks for stopping by!