December Hiatus/Roasted Vegetable Medley

I've mostly taken a cooking hiatus during the month of December because the first half of the month I was focused on finishing up the semester and then the next 10 days I was busy getting ready for Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and, for the first time in three years, Ted and I got to host. It's the first time in four years (and only second Christmas ever) that we've had both sides of the family over. Prime rib was requested after the success of the first prime rib I made, and, being a perfectionist, the stakes were high for a repeat performance, at least to me. And we were hosting 12 or 16 to boot!

Since this blog is supposed to be about home cooking, healthy cooking, I wanted to prepare something healthy that I could also blog about, and I knew that wouldn't be the prime rib (but I used a Bobby Flay recipe). I wasn't too excited over how the green beans I made for Thanksgiving turned out, so I thought I'd try something new - an assorted root vegetable medley. I tested it out on Monday night and it seemed pretty simple. On Christmas, I ended up simplifying the recipe for time's sake and I had already cut too many veggies!

Roasted (Root) Vegetable Medley
Ingredients
3 carrots, peeled and cut into approximately 1" pieces
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into approximately 1" pieces
1 sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into chunky slices, a little larger than the carrots and parsnips
About 15 fingerling potatoes, cut into about 3/4" pieces

Olive oil

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Sprigs of fresh thyme, torn into small pieces, to taste
Sprigs of fresh rosemary, torn into small pieces, to taste
1 zucchini, cut into 1/2" thick slices (optional)

1/2 yellow squash, cut int' 1/2" thick slices (optional)

1/2 bell pepper (any color), cut into 1" pieces (optional)

Preparation
Prepare first four ingredients (root vegetables) as indicated. Place in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Add fresh ground pepper, thyme and rosemary. Toss well, adding more olive oil, pepper, thyme, and rosemary if needed.

Cover and roast at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. After about 25 minutes, add zucchini, squash, and bell pepper if desired. (Root veggies should be just starting to get tender.) Cook for an additional 10 minutes or until veggies are tender but not mushy. Remove from the oven immediately.

What's Ahead
I got Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian as a Christmas present, so hopefully I'll have lots of content to add in the coming year. I read the first three or so chapters this morning and I'm really excited about trying the recipes out, especially the cream-free soups and cheese-free gratins!

Spiced Cauliflower Soup

I found this spiced cauliflower soup from Prevention magazine a few years ago and started making it the first fall Ted and I were married. It's quick and easy when you've got frozen ingredients on hand.

I made this on another Meatless Monday. I was very tired from working more than a full day after staying up until 12:30 working on my final internship report. It's a great recipe for days when you just don't have much energy at the end of the day.

This time around I used fresh spinach from a recent Farm Fresh delivery instead of collard greens and I threw in some frozen corn for good measure. I forgot the garlic, so it balances. For the 2 tsp "mild curry" that the recipe calls for, I use this combination from another recipe for curried eggplant:

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Chevy's-style Chicken Soft Tacos

It was my great pleasure to learn earlier this week that Chevy's salsa is now available in a quart-sized two-pack at Costco. I had been thinking about trying to replicate their chicken soft tacos at home, but I haven't had the time and patience to make an extra trip to pick up a pint & a lb. (Chevy's-speak for a pint of salsa and a pound of chips.) So I grabbed the Chevy's salsa two-pack and planned a winning post-run meal for Thursday. (Our family celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday this year, leaving Thursday as a good day for a long run.)

Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
1 pint Chevy's fire roasted salsa, plus more for serving
1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
8" tortillas

Preparation
Place chicken breasts in a single layer on the bottom of a slow cooker. Cover liberally with about 1 pint salsa, letting salsa run between chicken pieces. Cook on low for 6 to 6.5 hours.

Warm tortillas. Serve chicken and lettuce in a tortilla with additional salsa to taste. Double tortillas if using corn.

We've gotten three meals for two people (about 6-8 tacos) so far, with about one meal left. One thing I'll try differently next time is to let the chicken marinate in the salsa for a few hours or even overnight.

Double Cranberry Sauce

This is a nice Thanksgiving cranberry sauce recipe. Warning! It takes a while to hand-peel the apples and a while to cook. You need to have time to make this recipe, and it yields a lot!

It's also not a good idea to try to make this recipe shortly after running 12 miles. It took me a long time to (hand) peel the apples - I could only do two at a time before needing to sit down to rest.

Before

After

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Last night I made one of my favorite desserts: This is a super-easy, yummy chocolate chip pumpkin bread. It's easy to make ahead and freeze, and equally easy to eat warm, topped with leftover pudding from the ingredients. It's great for a Thanksgiving dessert, potlucks, gifts, or just because you have a hankerin'.

I use wheat flour and sometimes make it in four small (4") loaf pans instead of two 8" loaf pans.

So what's so yummy about this bread? Is it the pumpkin, the chocolate chips, the pudding and wheat flour giving it moistness? I say it's all of these factors. Yum yum.

P.S. Pictures to come soon. Mom requested it for Thanksgiving.

Cooking with Quinoa

I really do cook things other than soup. I just didn't have time to blog about them a couple of weeks ago. But I thought I'd catch up and share what I've been doing with quinoa.

First, you might be asking, "What is quinoa, and how do you pronounce it?" Quinoa (say KEEN-wah) is a grain-like plant-based food that provides all essential amino acids (essential amino acids = those that the body cannot produce on its own from other nutrients). After hearing about its health benefits for a couple of years, I finally decided to buy a bag of organic quinoa at Costco the summer before last. Not knowing what else to do with it, I followed package instructions and cooked it in roughly 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa. It tasted how I imagine styrofoam would. So the bag sat in the pantry for a few weeks.

When I was feeling brave enough to give it a second chance, I went to my other favorite cooking reference, myrecipes.com and searched for recipes by ingredient. I found this fun recipe. My modifications are:

• I usually cook the carrots and onion because I like them a little softer than raw.
• If I don't have a fresh lemon, I use lemon or lime juice from the plastic bottles sold in the produce section, and I omit the lemon rind.
• If I don't have fresh basil, I use 1 Tbsp of dried basil instead.
• I use honey dijon instead of plain dijon.
• I'll add other random veggies that I have on hand, such as chopped bell pepper or broccoli florets (fresh or frozen). 

So I learned that the trick is you have to cook the quinoa in something that it can take the flavor of, in this case, broth. I made this recipe for a Meatless Monday about two weeks ago, and the following Monday (last week) I had leftover broth that needed to be used. I wasn't ready for more of the same thing I ate most of the previous week, so I decided to experiment a little. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients
1/2 c quinoa
1 c broth
About 1 c frozen corn
About 1 c frozen lima beans
1 (15oz.) can lower sodium black beans
Marinated Greek olives

Preparation
Rinse quinoa. Add quinoa and broth to a small pot. Cook on medium-high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until quinoa absorbs the broth. Stir as needed to prevent quinoa from sticking to the bottom and burning. (I'm still not great at this!)

Meanwhile, warm frozen veggies on medium heat in a small bit of water until thawed. Drain most water. Turn up heat and add rinsed black beans (rinsing helps reduce sodium further). When quinoa is cooked, stir in veggies and beans. Pit and chop olives (pitting was time-consuming) and stir into mixture to give it a little flavor. Otherwise, add something else like onion, garlic, chopped hot pepper, or the dressing from the recipe cited above.

Wasn't my favorite, but it was quick and works in a pinch when you have random ingredients and don't feel like the old standby. I liked the olives but Ted's not a fan. He ate it anyway because 1) I made him dinner, less than a day after returning from Denver nonetheless, and 2) because he was too lazy to pick the olives out. He said they weren't "that bad." (Ted only likes olives that come out of a can, already pitted and extra salty.) Olive fan or not, just make sure you add something that will give it a little flare!

Potato Leek Soup

I had some potatoes and a giant leek, thanks to Farm Fresh to You. And I also have How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman's self-explanatory tome, which is an excellent basic kitchen reference. What I love about this book is that he provides simple, basic recipes and then lots of variants on the basics. He also provides great instructional pieces on everything from how to butterfly a piece of meat to how to boil an egg. Best of all, his emphasis is on making whatever your making to your liking.

I was not surprised to find a recipe for potato leek soup in How to Cook Everything. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to learn that the recipe doesn't call for cream or milk. He even gives the option to use a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. (I'll admit, I went for the butter. But next time I'll try the EVOO.) I went for the puree option, as that is how I imagined potato leek soup to be, even though I've never eaten it for fear of it containing cream.

I'm eating the result for lunch today. Not bad. I think I'll add a little more pepper and maybe a tinge more salt next time. The recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste.

Another soup recipe to add to my repertoire! Here's my adaptation of Mark Bittman's recipe.

Ingredients
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large leek, chopped (the recipe calls for two, but I figured the giant one I had was enough)
1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 celery heart, outer stalks sliced (I added this)
4 c broth

Preparation
Melt butter or warm oil in stockpot. Add potatoes, leek, salt, and pepper, cooking for about three minutes. Add broth and celery and cook on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Remove the unchopped celery heart and puree remaining soup.

Soup's On!

It's soup season. I love making up a batch of butternut squash soup to start out the week. That's what I've got planned for the week to come. I found a great recipe in Prevention a few years ago and started making it the first fall Ted and I were married, so it always evokes feelings of happiness and warmth.

I can't find the source online so here it is:

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 large leeks, trimmed, green and white parts chopped
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 lb butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)
2 large carrots, grated
3 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

Preparation Instructions
Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add leeks (/onion) and saute until soft, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and cook 1 minute longer or until fragrant.

Add squash, carrots, and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 20 to 25 minutes longer, until vegetables are tender.

Puree soup in a food processor (/blender/with a hand-held blender). Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Nutritional info per serving
193 Cal, 4 g Fat, 0.5 g Sat Fat, 0 mg Chol, 459 mg Sodium, 39 g Carbs, 7 g Fiber, 6 g Protein

Source: Prevention, May 2007

Modifications:

• I've substituted one bunch green onions or a yellow onion and chopped greens for the leeks, depending on what I've got on hand.
• I usually use 1/4 tsp of cinnamon because Ted likes cinnamon. :)
• I usually use 1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg because who keeps fresh nutmeg around the house?
• I just chop the carrots because you stick the soup in the blender or a hand blender in the soup anyway. No need to spend extra energy shredding.
• I omit salt and pepper because it doesn't seem to need it with the leeks/onions, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Serving suggestion: I usually serve with brown rice and almonds for a hearty vegetarian meal.

Now we'll see if I actually get around to making this on Sunday or Monday night.

Tomato Soup

I'm a big soup fan, but I had yet to try a tomato soup recipe. I came across Eating Well's roasted tomato bread soup recipe a few weeks ago, so I gave it a try on Monday. It's not what I would consider a classic tomato soup, as it contains more onions that tomatoes. But roasting the onions, tomatoes, and garlic makes a really rich flavor that is complemented well served atop toasted bread and topped with basil.

Start to finish, it took me about 50 minutes. Prep was pretty straight-forward. You can chop up the tomatoes while the onions are roasting, and start the broth simmering a little early (see below) to cut preparation time.

My modifications:

• I used four medium tomatoes (yielding about 4 cups chopped into smallish chunks) rather than cherry tomatoes
• I started simmering the broth during the last ten minutes of roasting the onions, tomatoes, and garlic
• I did not serve topped with cheese (for obvious reasons, due to my allergy)
• Topped with dried basil because I didn't have any fresh on hand
• Served with sourdough rather than whole wheat (I'm a big sourdough fan)

One thing Ted and I really liked about this recipe it that, served with the bread, it is somewhat reminiscent of riboletta, a vegetable-based soup served with bread in Italy, particularly in the Tuscan region.

Would I make this again? Yes.

What I might try next time:

• Adding cannellini beans (white kidney beans) and chopped celery to the broth to make it a little more like riboletta

Other comments: Due to the high onion content, my emptied lunch containers smelled nasty. The soup tastes much better than the smell it leaves behind in the container...