vegetable soup

Also known as "midnight soup" because Chris & I didn't start prepping until I got home at 9:45. It was worth it - a super versatile soup recipe that will handle pretty much whatever you throw at it. I'd recommend experimenting with the spices some, as the broth turned out a bit bland even though we upped the recommended spice levels. Also, the Parmesan really contributed to the dish, so don't leave it out!



Ingredients
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 large onions, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
2-3 carrots, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, thinly sliced (I also used some celery greens)
4 small potatoes, cubed
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. thyme
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1 can white beans
greens (Swiss chard, spinach, Napa cabbage, etc.)
1 1/2 cups soup pasta (any small pasta will do; I used shells)
1-2 cups barley, cooked
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
shaved Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until lightly golden. Stir in broth, carrots, celery, and any other hard vegetables such as potatoes. Add celery seed and thyme. Simmer for half an hour, or until vegetables are tender.

Stir in tomatoes, corn, beans, greens, and small pasta.

Note: If using quick-cooking barley, it can be added now. If using regular dry barley, cook it separately until tender. (Dry barley takes 35-45 minutes to cook, so you should start this when you first start cooking the soup.)

Simmer for another 15-20 minutes before serving.

Serve with Parmesan cheese; garnish with parsley. Add S&P as needed.

[Source: Cooks.com]

seashells

I decided to make some seashell pasta for lunch today. I tossed it with fresh pesto, walnuts, parmesan, spinach, and some leftover broccoli from last night.

I really like simple pasta dishes. They're so versatile and easy to throw together.

salmon burgers

For months, maybe even years, I keep passing the seafood section in the grocery store and noticing pre-pattied salmon burgers with spinach and feta. That looks really good, I always say to myself. I should try that sometime! So finally, I decided to make tonight that time. I bought them with delight, lovingly carried them home, put them in a hot pan for a few minutes, and then slid them onto toasted buns with pesto sauce and a few spinach leaves for a wonderful crispy-on-the-outside-moist-on-the-inside pescetarian-friendly meal. I served my lovely salmon burgers with midnight broccoli and oven roasted potatoes. For the midnight broccoli, I steamed some florets for 3 minutes, then added some aminos, garlic powder, spike, and fresh grated parmesan cheese.



The potatoes were also really good (I think they were Chris's favorite part of the meal). I chopped up some organic golden potatoes, seasoned them with olive oil, salt, garlic, and rosemary, and popped them in the oven for 30 minutes. I did stir them up with a metal spatula every 10 minutes so that they wouldn't stick to the pan. They turned out really soft and flavorful, just sort of a melt-in-your-mouth delicious potatoey treat.

This seems like a good time to mention 2 of my favorite ingredients/secret weapons in the kitchen:


Bragg's Liquid Aminos


Spike gourmet seasoning

Yes, the packaging does look like it's from the 70s on both products. But they don't need to change a thing! My family has used these seasonings for years (maybe since they first came out, even) and I am happy to carry on the tradition. They're kind of in that category of funky hippie eclectic seasonings that are actually really amazing. I put aminos on approximately 70% of the dishes I make. It's sort of a lighter, milder kind of soy sauce that adds a delightful flavor to stir-frys, pasta, tofu, and more. As for Spike, it's just a really good salt/general seasoning alternative that's particularly tasty on mashed potatoes.

valentine's dinner

Last night, Chris made us a lovely meal for Valentine's Day. The menu was a complete surprise to me and I was rather proud of what he came up with:



Double tomato bruschetta

Swordfish with citrus rosemary glaze & grilled asparagus

It was simply delightful! I love it when he cooks for me or does other homey stuff (gardening, making the bed...). It really warms my heart and makes me feel special in a way that no expensive fancy meal can. Maybe because I know he really makes an effort to do these things to make me happy. And that's a big part of what makes relationships work - showing the other person you're willing to go out of your way because you care.

tofurkey

I discovered tonight that I do not like tofurkey. How disappointing it is. How vastly inferior to Trader Joes' veggie sausage.

That is all I have to say.

black bean burrito bake

I made baked black bean burritos for dinner. They were fine, if a little American-tasting. They came out looking pretty American, too: picture five little rolled tortillas in a dish with red sauce and cheese on top. On the plus side, I could probably make this recipe in my sleep (or at least heavily sedated).

Ingredients
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
5 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 cup bottled salsa
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Remove one chile from can. Chop chile. Reserve remaining adobo sauce and chiles for another use. Combine sour cream and chile in a medium bowl; let stand 10 minutes.

Place half of beans in a food processor; process until finely chopped. The blade for my food processor mysteriously disappeared last fall, but mashing the beans works just as well. The point of this step is to thicken the mixture. Mash half the beans, then add the mashed beans, remaining beans, and corn to sour cream mixture.

Spoon ~1/2 cup bean mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas; place, seam side down, in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Spread salsa over tortillas; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

I do like the combination of black beans, corn, and sour cream. Creamy & hearty.

veggie curry

Two nights ago, Chris and I made vegetarian curry for dinner. I've been inspired lately by the red curry sauce at Trader Joe's.



We tossed onions, tofu, zucchini, bell pepper, and mushrooms (in that order) into a wok for a few minutes, then added the sauce and some plain Greek yogurt and simmered until it looked ready. Served over rice with a little hot sauce, it was fantastic! I can imagine many things would be good with this versatile and flavorful sauce - maybe I'll try chickpeas and eggplant next time for a different taste. Of course I can imagine it'd be good with many other veggies as well as chicken, beef, duck, or lamb (you know... if you're into that sort of thing).

My food intake these days is basically pescetarian, meaning mostly veggies, dairy, and grains with the occasional seafood. Chris and I decided to try it a few months ago and it's sort of stuck. It's so easy not to eat meat, especially these days with all of the readily available and easily substitutable alternatives. Not too long ago I tried a soy Italian sausage from Trader Joe's and it was nearly identical to the real thing. I think I was also able to accept a no-meat diet pretty easily because of the healthy way I grew up and the traditions that have stuck with me over the years. For example, I've always loved Morningstar Farms breakfast patties and Fantastic Foods tofu scrambler. My parents kept to a really healthy diet when we were younger: my sister and I always fondly remember frozen strawberry kefir popsicles or blueberries & vanilla yogurt being special dessert options. I'm lucky to have had that sort of childhood because giving up meat isn't really giving up a lot at all when you know about all of the other delicious options.

quick & easy gnocchi

I made Trader Giotto's gnocchi al gorgonzola tonight.



It's super easy to make - I just tossed the frozen gnocchi in a pan, added zucchini, baby bella mushrooms, spinach, and walnuts, and let it cook. The whole thing took 7 minutes and turned out really well.

san antonio, texas

I just got back from an amazing trip to San Antonio, TX for an academic conference. Along the way, I had some delicious food! San Antonio is not just about Tex Mex. Of course, we were delayed in Nashville en route by bad weather on the east coast and ended up with a mimosa buzz on the final leg of our trip. This was a pleasant way to start off the weekend.

By the time we arrived, we were starving and craving sushi. Ingrid, Vanessa, and I met up with my friend Jon and we checked out Sushi Zushi. You can always tell the quality of a sushi restaurant by whether or not their name includes a rhyme. ;) Kidding, but the food was really good. They have a GIANT (7 page) menu and we were daunted by our options, but finally ordered four rolls. The spicy tuna roll was kind of weird and mayonnaise-y, so we weren't much impressed by it, but the other food was good. The highlight was the valentine's roll: avocado and soft shell crab, rolled uramaki style, and wrapped with salmon and tuna. It was so good that we ordered a second one!

The first night, around nine of us went to Rosario's Mexican Cafe Y Cantina, where I had two lovely fish tacos. Rosario's is just south of downtown and is in kind of a weird neighborhood but it's a cute and colorful cafe with pink glowing lights and turquoise chairs. The one thing I found strange about them was that the server repeatedly emphasized the non-spicyness of the food, as if that were a selling point. What if I wanted my food hotter than mild? No way at Rosarios would they let this happen.

The next night our lab went to dinner at Iron Cactus on the Riverwalk. I tried a hibiscus champagne cocktail, which sounds as though it would be delicious, but it turned out to be horrible. Just really sour and non-tasty. I guess hibiscus was not meant to be consumed, lol. However, the salmon salad I had (with goat cheese, candied pecans, and other tasty tidbits) was really good.

Ingrid and I stumbled upon Las Canarias the next day for lunch. Their menu changes seasonally and is full of fresh and organic food. I had blackened crimini mushroom pasta with spinach, sundried tomatoes, and manchego cheese. It was one of the best meals of the entire trip.



That night a few friends and I discovered Las Ramblas, a lovely Spanish restaurant on the Riverwalk. We spent 3 hours and many dollars there enjoying tapas, rioja wine, and vegetarian paella. Dessert was Irish coffee.



The last food adventure I'll document was at Azuca Nuevo Latino. A South American place, it was full and busy when the four of us arrived a few minutes late for our 8:00 reservation. Azuca is comprised of a bar and a restaurant (two separate buildings) with a patio out back. As the weather was balmy, we opted for a table on the patio rather than in the noisy restaurant. The service was maddeningly slow (our appetizers took over an hour) but our food was incredibly delicious when it arrived at long last. I tried a caipirinha - a cocktail made from cachaça (a sugarcane-based alcohol), sugar, and lime. It was a bit too sour/bitter for me, but I can see how it'd appeal to some people since I like gin & tonics a lot.



We had plantains as an appetizer and they also brought us some lovely warm cranberry cornbread while we waited. For dinner I had a seared tuna steak over mashed potatoes and a balsamic mustard drizzle. It disappeared in less than five minutes. Could have been my hunger, but I thought it was extremely tasty. I love seared ahi when I get Japanese food, and this was similar since it was blackened on the outside and rare on the inside. Mmm, tuna.

And that concludes my San Antonio food adventures! Hope you enjoyed the tour.

black bean & sweet potato chili

The girls and I went shopping at Easton yesterday, and while we were there we went to Northstar Café where I had the most delicious burrito with eggs, organic black beans, roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed peppers & onions, melted white cheddar, and housemade salsa. The combination of black beans and sweet potatoes was unexpectedly delicious and it got me thinking that I should experiment with this flavor combination more often.

So tonight I made some black bean & sweet potato chili for dinner.



Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
3 large garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 bay leaf
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes
28 ounces organic free range chicken broth
2 (15-ounce) cans organic black beans, rinsed and drained
sweet yellow corn (a handful or two)
juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)

Preparation
Heat oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat; add onion. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Add bell peppers, jalapeño, and sweet potato; cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook about 1 minute. Add chili powder and the rest of the spices; stir and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and broth. Simmer, uncovered, about 30 minutes. Stir in beans and corn; continue to cook 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf and stir in lime juice.

I served it over cilantro'd rice and (cheddar, jack, and mozz blend) cheese with a sprinkle of green onions on top.

Alongside the chili I tried a lovely (and cheap) Trader Joes red wine with a feisty lil kick:



I really enjoyed making this dish - especially because Chris helped out with a lot of the prep work! The end result: hearty and flavorful. The sweet potatoes were just melt-in-your mouth, there was a tang of lime and a bit of heat, and the cheese sort of melded everything together and rounded out the flavors nicely. I'm really looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

spicy ramen

Chris bought me some fancy packaged ramen a few weeks ago so I decided to make it for lunch today.



I added some tofu, baby bella mushrooms, and chopped green onions to the mix. It was tasty. The broth is rather spicy, though, so be forewarned - you'll need some water on hand!